by Aer-ki Jyr
Esna couldn’t help yelling, but fortunately her external mic was still off so no one other than her two companions heard it. On the way down their fall slowed, letting the Scionate land only moderately hard, though that still bounced her heavily with her butt punching into his pack a touch. She rebounded off it and was left startled and hurting from the sudden movement on her sore body, watching from below as Rammak finished his descent and took off running back the way they’d come.
Without a word Nor’far ran after him, bouncing Esna around in a rhythm that she soon got used to, though it was a very odd feeling. Both riding on the Scionate and seeing Rammak moving so fast ahead of her…not to mention looking down on the top of his head, which had never happened before aside from when he was sleeping.
It became quickly apparent how much Rammak had been holding back on their own runs cross country, for now he was all but sprinting back through the canyon and as promised Nor’far kept pace with him all the way to a break in the terrain several miles back where they turned and ran up a shallow part of the canyon wall. They eventually came up to the peak as Esna saw the golden aura of the first sun rising starting to eclipse the stars to the east…then they were on the descent again, crossing into an adjacent canyon and moving the hard way across them in order to head south towards the plains where their distant rendezvous point was marked on her battlemap.
21
It was 21 hours later when Rammak finally stopped running. They’d made three quick breaks to grab some food and water, but this time they were stopping in the shallow foothills southwest of the canyons they had put far behind them. They’d traveled 394 miles according to Esna’s battlemap since they’d left and she didn’t know how either one of them was still moving, especially Nor’far who had been carrying her and a lot of gear on his back the entire way.
They stopped alongside a hill that was partially washed out, giving it a bit of a wall and a depression at the bottom that should make sensor or visual spotting of them more difficult. Nor’far lifted her off him with his telekinesis again and deposited her on the ground…where her legs were so stiff and sore she could barely move.
Following her came some water and foodstuffs out of the Scionate’s pack that drifted up to his helmet as it peeled back as well as over to Rammak, who lifted up his helmet but did not take it completely off his head.
“From now on,” he said in between bites, “do not fully remove your armor. Keep as much of it on at all times as you can to diminish the possibility of getting spotted.”
“And my full bladder?” she asked, taking tiny wobbling steps and wincing with each one.
“Find some cover and remove as few pieces as you can. Remember that the most likely detection will come from straight above.”
“What about our foodstuffs and water canisters?”
“They do not give off body heat,” Nor’far added before he walked off around the hill to find some privacy.
“How are you doing?” she asked Rammak once he was gone.
“I will manage. In a few minutes I will be deep asleep, but I have a task for you before you do.”
“What?”
“Take a short run.”
Esna half choked taking in her next breath. “I can barely walk.”
“Exactly. Loosen yourself up before you rest.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“How far?”
“10 minutes will do, but stay close and run in loops. When you finish, eat and drink what you need then get to sleep. We won’t be here for more than 4 hours.”
“How can you keep going on four hours?”
“Tapping into reserves. We have a goal to reach, so I am stretching out my strength to cover it and nothing more. If they find us before then, how much strength I have to fight will not matter.”
“What about Nor’far? Can he fight?”
“Of course he can.”
“With your help, can you beat a Zen’zat?”
“Maybe, but there are at least 3 on this planet. If they locate us more will come. Our best hope is to move undetected, and to do that we need to get away from their focused sensors. Our armor will protect us from widespread detection.”
“Until we take it off,” she said, understanding.
“Go. I will be asleep by the time you finish. Leave your pack and weapons here.”
“Ugh,” she said, disconnecting them from her armor and feeling a bit lighter, but that didn’t help her soreness. She walked away from Rammak a few steps, but when she tried to run all she could manage was a bit of a hobble. It took her more than 2 minutes before she felt she was moving enough to count as running then started her helmet clock, wincing against the pain all the way up until the end.
When she stopped back at their impromptu camp her legs quit complaining and her walk was now almost normal. Apparently Rammak was right, but he wasn’t awake for her to tell him that. He was laying down along the base of the hill in his full armor about a meter behind Nor’far, who was curled up in a ball with his armored tail nearly touching his helmet. It looked like an oddly restful pose, which only made her more sleepy at seeing it. She hadn’t done anything all day but ride, but she was exhausted and the run had pulled it out of her even more.
Esna rounded a nearby hill and relieved herself as cautiously as possible, keeping her torso and helmet on as well as her leg pieces, removing only the pelvic section and learning how to maneuver in such a state on the spot. She didn’t take too much time, wanting to limit her expose to any potential sensors, then when she got back to camp she tipped her helmet up a bit like Rammak had done so she could eat and drink. When she was finished she secured it again and found a spot against the same hill beside the Calavari with her head half a meter from his.
When she laid down her muscles complained again, but not nearly as much as before. The painful run had indeed helped, but she forgot it and everything else within a couple minutes as sleep dragged her into its blissful embrace.
Rammak made another 16 hours before the next stop, at which point they were on the edge of the plains. Gone were the hills and deeper canyons beyond that had provided them with their anonymity. Nor’far was confident that so long as the Viks didn’t think they were here they wouldn’t be focusing any close scans on them that could defeat their sensor resistance, citing that the further they got out onto the plains the better chance they’d have of avoiding detection…for who would look out in the middle of nowhere for people trying to hide?
That made some sense, but as Esna rode for the third day on top of the Scionate she felt so exposed on the flatlands, for there was literally nothing to see. Aside from a little dip here and there everything was a repetitive mess of scrub brush, sand, and small rocks that you could see over for miles. The horizon was a flat line now everywhere but behind them, though soon even those distant hills would disappear over the curve of the planet leaving them in a sea of visual emptiness…with Rammak and Nor’far suddenly stopping after only 7 hours into their run.
Esna would have thought they were taking an early rest, save for the fact that the quadruped literally skidded to a halt.
“What’s wrong?”
“Vehicles crossing out path. Get off and stay beside me,” Nor’far said as he knelt down and pressed his belly to the ground. “Motion will make us show.”
Esna slid off his back and dropped her sore and battered legs to the ground with them buckling, but she was going to sit down anyway so it didn’t matter. She painfully scrambled around until she was lying next to Nor’far’s armor and inside a bit of the shade he produced as Rammak moved off a few meters and laid down flat on the ground.
“Where are they?”
“18 miles northeast. They will pass within 7 ahead of our current position. We will wait here, unmoving, until they are gone. Catch a brief nap if you wish.”
“Who are they?”
“Highlanders taking the pervia trail,” Rammak said, citing denizens of the planet s
he wasn’t even familiar with. “They’re probably heading for Acatia.”
“Did they see us?”
“Unlikely,” Nor’far stated. “My passive sensors picked them up only moments ago, and they’re not emitting any active signals. They have not seen us, and if we stay here they should not come close enough to notice. We will continue once they are sufficiently past.”
“What if more are following them?”
“Then we wait until we get a sufficient gap,” he said as a swirl of dust kicked up nearby Rammak. “Both of you stay still, your armor needs camouflaging.”
Esna watched as the dust kept accumulating, being swept up from around them until it covered Rammak in a thin layer that hid most of his orange armor, then the little whirlwind came her way.
“How are you doing that?”
“Lachka,” Nor’far said, using the proper word for telekinesis. “Lie still or it will be disturbed.”
“Alright,” Esna said, wondering about the wind. “What if it blows off on its own?”
“There is no wind and it is unlikely that they will see you regardless, but I do not want to take chances,” he said as her helmet became covered and she had to shift to an auxiliary view to see the ground in front of her.
“Go make sure,” Rammak insisted.
Esna heard Nor’far huff, apparently not too keen on leaving them alone, but he didn’t voice any opposition.
“Very well. Do not move until I return.”
The outline of the Scionate on Esna’s tracking schematic vanished, leaving only the flat ground her head was laying on visible ahead of her, though with the dust covering her faceplate she couldn’t actually see it.
“Get some sleep if you can,” Rammak suggested. “We will not know how long the delay will be until it’s over.”
“How vulnerable are we?”
“At this range, not much. We’re just not taking chances. Nor’far will get within mental range and check to make sure that we are not spotted, then scout the area ahead for more traffic. When it is clear he will return.”
“How are you doing?”
“I was in a rhythm that will be difficult to resume, especially if I sleep now, but I can’t waste the minutes. I’ll get what rest I can then work through the sluggishness until I get back up to speed.”
“That’s not quite what I meant.”
“I will make it, Esna. Do not worry about that.”
“We still have a long way to go.”
“Compared to the time I’ve spent trapped on this world, it is a very short distance to me. My strength and speed will hold.”
“If we make it, what happens to you and me?”
“Do not worry about that. We will be among friends and allies, and you will discover a home you have been long denied.”
“Will we be split up?”
“I do not know what the state of the empire is, but eventually our training will take us different ways. You will not need me to look after you, and there are trainers far more skilled in instruction than me.”
“I like the one I’ve got now.”
“Because you’ve known no other. Here you need me to survive. In Star Force things will be drastically different even if all that is left is one planet, and from what the Mavericks have said there are many left.”
“I want to stay with you if possible.”
“To do that you will have to become a Commando. Do that, and I will welcome you as a sister into any unit I serve in.”
Esna frowned. “Why is it always the hard way with you…yet you leave a glimmer of hope as motivation?”
“There are things you need to learn that I cannot teach you. Things in isolation. And this conversation is premature. We are not safe yet.”
“But when we are…if we are?”
“Then I will stay with you long enough for you to get acclimated unless battle calls me away, though I imagine I will need considerable training myself before I am suitable for deployment. I have lost too much of my strength here.”
“It’d be scary to see how fast you run normally. You’re doing the impossible already.”
“You are just ignorant of the ways of the galaxy. Nor’far’s speed surpasses all Calavari and most Humans. If you saw him run at full speed you would not think me fast.”
“You need to sleep, don’t you?”
“It will take me a few minutes to transition, so if you have questions now is a good time to ask.”
“Do you think we’ll make it to the ship?”
“There is a good chance.”
“And after?”
“I do not know enough about current designs to answer that. Once we get into space we will be hard to catch, though we might be followed. Leaving this planet may not mean we’re free of the Viks, but you can trust the Mavericks. They have been operating in this region for some time, so they know how to move about without getting caught.”
“Have they found others?”
“I had a long conversation with Javvin that you were not privy to. He said there are many leads but few finds. Many that surface are killed before they can be retrieved, which was why they came straight here as soon as there was rumor of our existence on this world.”
“How did they hear about us if they were not on Mace?”
“They said they’ve put devices on passing ships that carry information for them without knowing. They carried word of us out to other star systems.”
“But where did those devices get the news? Someone had to upload to them, right?”
Rammak all but growled. “They have been on the surface before looking for survivors. Not Javvin and Nor’far, but others. They did not find me and I did not find them because I was hiding too well.”
The pit of Esna’ stomach sank, knowing how bad that must have made him feel.
“But if they had found me I would not have found you, so I have no regrets,” he said soothingly. “They have found us now and we are about to be free of this world. That is what matters.”
“Thank you.”
“It is I who should be thanking you. News of Humans is what drew them here. One more Calavari on a planet full of them doesn’t attract attention.”
“Still, I owe you.”
“Star Force is a team. We don’t keep debts to one another.”
“I’m not Star Force.”
“No? Then why did they come for you?”
“Because I’m Human.”
“Same thing at this point. At least as far as the Viks are concerned. But you’ve already proven yourself enough to earn that title. You are Star Force. Just a youngling at this point, but a Star Force youngling, and that challenge you completed proved it. You’re part of the team, so just say thank you and move on. We live in the present, not the past.”
“Thank you, then. Now get your sleep. I still don’t know how you can keep going like this.”
“I’d be going ever farther and faster with ambrosia…but that is something for you to learn later. How are your legs doing?”
“They hurt, but I’ve got it easy compared to you.”
“Pain isn’t relative and you holding still now will help, but only if you can relax your body. If you stay stiff it will make it worse.”
“There are no bumps right now, so I’m good. Get to sleep, Rammak. You need it.”
“As do you,” he said, with both of them not uttering another word as they tried to calm their bodies and minds enough to slip back into that blissful rest while remembering not to so much as twitch a muscle and move the dust blanket covering them.
22
When Nor’far returned they got underway again, never coming in sight of the convoy or anyone else for the remaining days as they crossed the plains with remarkable speed. On the flat Rammak was able to move even faster than before, but each segment that he ran got shorter by a few hours. He managed to hold approximately the same speed, but Esna could tell he was getting really tired. Like her challenge before, he was digging in deep to complete
the task and was moving faster with each step than Esna could sprint at max speed.
And Nor’far kept pace with him the entire way, running slightly behind and giving Esna a good view of the emptiness around them. The terrain was flatter than flat now that they were out in the center of the plains without even a single mount visible on the horizon. Esna could spin her head all the way around if she wanted and see nothing but a single, perfect line separating ground from sky. It was disconcerting, and aside from the sporadic ankle-sized rocks they were passing it would have been hard to sense how fast they were going if not for the measurements on her HUD.
Right now they were holding at a steady 23 miles per hour, and Rammak would dip no lower than 21 up until they made camp again. It was full daylight when they did and with no cover available they gave each other some space to take care of bodily issues with Esna trying to reveal as little skin as possible as she did so. Her body was moist from sweat and having lived in her armor for 4 straight days, but the fresh air on her was more alarming than refreshing. With nothing out here to hide behind every square inch of her body was a potential reflector for orbital sensors, so she relieved herself as quickly and efficiently as possible using an energy cleanser that she wished she’d had back on Yammar’s farm, then reconnected her armor and buttoned it up tight, resisting the urge to hunch down.
So long as there was no one nearby it was actually better for her to stand straight up, for it created smaller profile from straight above, but when she got back to the others and tipped her helmet up a few inches to eat and drink a decent amount of water, trying to save as much as possible for Rammak, they talked for a few minutes to wind down then both of her companions laid out flat on the ground and fell asleep within seconds.
Esna stayed awake a little bit longer, looking up at the bright sky and hoping no one was up there watching. If they were they hadn’t found them yet, for no ship or vehicle had come flying at them, but being out in the open like this still unnerved her so she crawled over next to Nor’far and laid down in a bit of the shade his larger body provided. She tried to put all concerns aside and clear her mind so she could rest her continually sore body for the few hours available, for after that the two juggernauts would be back running again and Esna would have to stay awake to balance on the Scionate’s back…otherwise she’d be thrown around so much she’d end up hurting herself even more.