Crystal Rain

by Tobias S. Buckell

  Lionel’s almost headless body had frozen solid. Pepper hefted it like a massive log and walked over to a pit in the snow he’d dug.

  He dropped the man in and pushed snow over.

  Oaxyctl had done him a favor. But Pepper would have prefered taking care of Lionel so that he could get some more information.

  And he wondered where the Teotl was. He’d have expected another attack, but the alien seemed reluctant to leave the perimeter of La Revanche. Was it waiting for something?

  Maybe it hadn’t realized that its prey was not on the boat.

  “Come on,” Pepper said, returning to the igloo. “Get inside.”

  Oaxyctl obeyed.

  Inside, Pepper started a fire. The warmth creeped over him, welcome. Pepper removed his clothes, and Oaxyctl gasped.

  “What happened?”

  The claw marks across Pepper’s chest were deep, and still oozing.

  “I met one of your gods,” Pepper grunted.

  “Is it … did you … ?”

  “A draw. We both live.” Pepper grimaced as he pulled out spare clothes from the tightly packed sled. They’d built the igloo around it rather than leave it outside. “Shame.”

  Oaxyctl swallowed. “Are you a … Loa?”

  Pepper laughed. “I might seem inhuman.” He grinned. “But Loa, no.” He spat the words. “Nor Teotl. None of those bastards.” He turned to Oaxyctl. “Strip.”

  “What?”

  “Take your clothes off and give them to me.” Oaxyctl hesitated, and Pepper grabbed the shotgun leaning against the wall behind him.

  Oaxyctl stripped. His ribs showed against gray skin, abused from the cold. Inside the igloo a half-blue light dappled around them, reflecting the fire. Smoke swirled up toward the small exhaust hole. Pepper doubted that it was visible in the storm, but just in case …

  He picked up Oaxyctl’s clothes, glanced at the tips of Oaxyctl’s frostbitten toes. “Get in with John. You’ll keep him warm.” Oaxyctl obeyed. Pepper tossed the man’s clothes behind him, with the shotgun. He continued to dress himself with the new set of clothes.

  He’d lost fat, he noted, and some muscle. Body cannibalizing itself for fuel.

  “Will you sleep?” Oaxyctl asked.

  Pepper smiled, rooted through their supplies for jerky, or anything to fill up on, then stamped out the fire over Oaxyctl’s objection.

  “No more fire, we don’t want to get spotted.” Once Pepper had enough to eat, he warmed up with a simple stretch. Reached his toes. Touched the ceiling. All night long he moved, keeping limber and warm.

  The movements calmed him.

  Eventually Pepper slipped down into sleep and left only the right half of his brain awake to perform the movements. After several hours, he switched, and by morning, before Oaxyctl stirred awake, and John began coughing and hacking blood, Pepper was rested, awake, and ready.

  The storm, thankfully, had subsided in the early-morning hours.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

  John struggled up and looked out around him at the endless white. Two men in front pulled the sled over a small hill, and the sled sped up. Oaxyctl ran back and grabbed the front to slow it. The impact shook John.

  “You’re awake?” Oaxyctl gasped.

  John’s eyebrows crinkled when he blinked. “How long have I slept?” The pain came in waves from all over his body.

  “All day today at least. How do you feel?”

  “Not so good.” John shivered. “Did Pepper kill Lionel?”

  Oaxyctl tucked the edge of John’s hood in. “I did. Once I saw what he was doing.”

  “He was a spy.” John tried to scratch his nose, but he realized he was strapped into the sled, and he didn’t have the strength to pull his arms out from beneath the ropes. “For the Azteca.”

  “Yes.”

  And John still couldn’t decide what he thought about Oaxyctl.

  Pepper yelled. Oaxyctl turned around. “I must go. This madman is making me pull you through the storm.”

  John wriggled. “Be careful.” The talking exhausted him. He closed his eyes. “Pepper is dangerous.”

  “I know.” Oaxyctl walked back behind the sled and pushed.

  The slow trek continued. As John faded out again.

  He still couldn’t help. But the fever had broken. The pain ebbed, somewhat. John watched the broken ice around them pass, and Pepper bearing them on. The man was a horse. He pulled without a grunt and ate enough food during their breaks to raise Oaxyctl’s eyebrows.

  They untied John’s arms and had him try to sip a bit of warm broth, but he threw it back up.

  “We just need to get there.” Pepper saw Oaxyctl’s worried look. “I won’t eat your food. No worry.” He stamped out the fire, lay John back down carefully, and leaned close. “Keep strong,” he told John. “I know you’re in bad shape, but you can handle that kind of pain. It’s the infection that’s most dangerous.”

  He stood up, walked away, and soon the sled was on its way.

  “We’re close, aren’t we?” John asked Pepper during another break.

  Pepper nodded. “I think so. I saw the coordinates you tried to hide.”

  “I can feel her.” John felt unease at the pit of his stomach. A prickling in the back of his neck. A shape under the snow nearby. He remained focused, alert through the haze of continuous pain. He must hang on to life. There was Capitol City, and his family, later, but right now his sole focus was survival.

  He thought about Shanta. Often. He wondered if she was hanging to a thread, somewhere far south of him.

  At least Jerome lived, he consoled himself. Pepper had seen this.

  They were close. Every image in John’s head told him they were right where they needed to be.

  “Look.” Pepper pointed to a glazed mound of snow three miles away. “Something is under there. The snow is piled around it, but it looks like it was warm, and then refroze.”

  “Ma Wi Jung?” John whispered.

  “Maybe. It could be the top.”

  Pepper found more energy. He bounced toward the rope and picked it up. The sled jerked forward, and Pepper forced through the snow with determination.

  John felt the movement before he saw anything. The sled rocked and a hunched shape leapt toward Pepper. John caught the blur of a muscled humanoid shape with white, shaggy fur and long blades on each finger.

  He shouted a warning, but it came out as a croak.

  Pepper spun, kicked up snow with the back of his boots, and squatted.

  He fired twice before the mass of muscle and hair struck him dead-on. Without a sound they both rolled, locked together, deeper into the snow. Chunks of ice flew with them.

  Oaxyctl pushed the sled on.

  “We have to help,” John said.

  “Do what? You have a gun? You can’t even stand,” Oaxyctl huffed. John leaned back with a groan. His head upside down, he looked at Oaxyctl’s wide eyes behind him.

  “You’re scared.”

  “God of gods, yes!” Oaxyctl, snapped. He battled for footing and slipped when he pushed the sled too far in front of him.

  John mustered his energy and leaned to his side. Snow kicked up into the air as Pepper and the Teotl wrestled. One of them started snarling, an eerie sound that floated toward the sled.

  Another pair of shots ended the struggle.

  Pepper loped back over the snow. John saw blood dripping from his elbows, staining the snow as he caught up. Pepper’s forearms flapped ribbons of loose flesh.

  The air around the man steamed.

  “Move!” Pepper growled. He spat a tooth out. It bounced off the edge of the sled.

  “Is it dead?” Oaxyctl demanded. “Is it really dead?”

  Pepper scowled at him. “Dead? No. Slowed down. Best I can do right now. I blew off its head. It’ll take a while for the eyes to grow back.”

  What the hell? John coughed as he tried to form the words.

  “Here.” Pepper shoved the shotgun in under the straps holding Jo
hn in and took over pushing the sled. His clothes dripped sweat, water, and ice.

  They moved closer to the mound of ice.

  Over the whip of the winds a steady wailing from the Teotl began. Oaxyctl swore something in his language.

  The ground transitioned abruptly from snow to ice and the sled got free, skittering forward and turning in a lazy circle.

  Several hundred feet behind them the Teotl, shaggy and covered in snow, trotted in circles. It’s large, padded feet kept it on top of the ice; it moved quickly, patting the ground in front of it with its clawed hands until it found their tracks, and it paused.

  Then it turned straight toward them and sprinted.

  Pepper skidded up to the sled and pushed it out toward the mound with another good shove. Oaxyctl stumbled behind, alternating a half-run with an all-fours crawl to get across the ice.

  “Where is it?” John asked, his throat on fire. “How do we get to the Ma Wi Jung?”

  Pepper ripped the shredded remains of his overcoat off and threw it aside. “Keep moving,” he yelled at Oaxyctl, and guided the sled while Oaxyctl slipped and pushed. The Teotl’s wailing warbled as it hit the ice and skittered out at them. Oaxyctl muttered to himself.

  “I don’t know what to do,” Oaxyctl said at last.

  “What?” John asked.

  Oaxyctl sat down. Pepper looked back at him. “Get back up!”

  The Teotl stopped wailing.

  Pepper got down on his hands and knees and peered through the sheet of ice. He smiled. “Here it is, gentlemen.”

  He punched the ice with a fist. The thin sheet collapsed, taking Pepper with it. He landed on his feet five feet down in a large hole, next to what looked like the beginning of a tunnel.

  He grabbed the sled and pulled it down with him, grunting, and John looked into the tunnel. Beams of light lit up the smooth, translucent walls that ran for a few feet. A large metallic, oval door waited for them.

  “This it?” John asked.

  Pepper walked forward. “Yes. Looks like the ship is operational and has been keeping this area warm and the outer air lock accessible. Now relax and let me help you sit up.” Pepper walked around, helped John up, and pushed the sled forward toward the door.

  John struggled to remain up as a blue beam of light appeared and moved toward him. He tensed, but when it touched him, it felt warm. The light flicked off. A small console, the size of John’s hand, pushed forward out of the metal and lit up.

  “Here’s the hard part, John, for you.” Pepper pushed the sled right up to it. “I’m going to have to hold you up, and you’re going to place your palm on that pad and tell it you are coming in, and you would like us to come in with you. It’s going to hurt when I pick you up. You ready?”

  “I think so.” John bit his lip and steeled himself.

  Pepper nodded. “Just make sure you really want to go aboard, and that you want us with you. If you don’t give the ship assent, if you don’t trust us, the door remains closed.” He unlashed John’s legs from the sled and grabbed his chest. “Here we go.”

  Pain exploded as Pepper carefully pulled John up out of the sled, holding him under the arms. Pepper held John’s legs an inch off the ground so he wouldn’t have to put any pressure on them, but just the weight pulling at his kneecaps made him want to scream.

  John leaned forward and put his good hand on the section of metal jutting out by the door. It felt warm, despite the cold.

  “These men are coming in with me,” he hissed. “Now what …” John coughed and fought dizziness. Something wriggled under his fingers. He pulled his hand up. Long strings of gooey black stuff came with it. “Oh, shit.”

  “Keep cool,” Pepper said. “Just security.”

  The black stuff writhed, then hardened. It turned to dust and wafted away. With a low whine the door rolled aside. Pepper walked inside, still carrying John, but with only one arm. Oaxyctl followed with the sled.

  “Okay,” Pepper breathed. He tapped a sequence on the panel next to the door and it rolled back closed. Pepper leaned against the wall, still holding John, and chuckled. “Nice job, old friend. We made it after all.”

  John cracked a faint smile through the haze of pain, catching the enthusiasm. The Teotl couldn’t make it through the door. They were safe.

  It was warm.

  Oaxyctl pulled the shotgun out of the sled. He chambered two rounds and cocked the hammer. “Don’t move. Either of you.” His hands shook. He blinked at them.

  “Oaxyctl?” John bit his lip. Not Oaxyctl.

  “You must press that thing to open the door again,” Oaxyctl said. “It’s coming. We must let it in before you escape. I have no choice.”

  John felt Pepper’s arms tense. Then Pepper threw John at Oaxyctl’s feet. John screamed as his legs erupted in waves of pain. He passed out for a second, opened his eyes again, silent tears leaking to the floor. Several of his wounds opened, blood trickled down his stomach and arms. He started shaking. His lip bled from where his face had hit the grated floor.

  “I don’t think so,” Pepper said. The two men squared off, Oaxyctl pointing the gun, Pepper leaning against the wall with arms crossed.

  “Open the door.” Oaxyctl shifted from foot to foot.

  John used his hands to pull himself slowly, painfully, a little closer to Oaxyctl’s feet. Oaxyctl continued trying to stare Pepper down.

  “You’re not thinking clearly,” Pepper growled. “Letting that thing in is a death sentence for you, just as surely as it is for us.”

  “That … that isn’t the point,” Oaxyctl rasped. “I have to. I can still let it in, deliver it the Ma Wi Jung, and then it will be over.”

  John freed his hook, poking it through the edges of his sewn-up sleeves, and slammed it down into Oaxyctl’s foot. Oaxyctl screamed, and Pepper launched himself off the wall and threw Oaxyctl onto the sled.

  Oaxyctl hung on to the shotgun with both hands as Pepper grabbed it with one hand and yanked the struggling Oaxyctl back up. He tapped out the open sequence with his free hand, overriding the air-lock protections.

  John wrapped his arms around himself, shaking in pain, unable to stop.

  The door whooshed open, and Pepper threw Oaxyctl out still clinging to the shotgun. Pepper picked up the sled, supplies and all, and threw it at the man. Oaxyctl screamed, trying to stop the blow with his arms.

  Pepper tapped the panel and shut the door again.

  “He’ll die.” John mustered the words against chattering teeth, wondering if, despite Pepper’s promises, he would die aboard the Ma Wi Jung anyway.

  “That would never have bothered you before this mess,” Pepper said. “Let’s get to business. If you want to recover, you need to tell the ship that I have authorization to control all other functions so I can save you.”

  “Speak it out loud?” John whispered. Pepper nodded. “Ship.” John swallowed, blinked, felt himself passing out again. “This man has full authorization.”

  “Confirm this,” Pepper said.

  “This is confirmed,” came a voice from inside the walls. John looked around, dazed.

  It was starting to feel okay, as weird as it was.

  Pepper leaned over. “Neither of us are in good shape, but you need this first.” He picked John up.

  John gritted his teeth, unable to find the energy to scream, and they hobbled down the corridor to the next door. It opened onto a small circular room filled with ghostly lines of light that hovered over the floor.

  Pepper paused, turned around, then found what he was looking for. A clear glass pod recessed against the wall.

  The glass cracked and opened with Pepper’s palm print. “Get in.”

  “What is this?”

  “It will heal you.” Pepper laid John in. “Relax. Don’t fight.” He smiled. “We made it, John. You’ll be back. I’m giving you everything you wanted.”

  John dropped his hook between the glass container and the lip to stop it from being closed. “I can’t fight you, Pepper
, but please, don’t.”

  Pepper shook his head. “I need you back, John.” John saw for the first time that some of the dreadlocks on Pepper’s left had been sliced off in the fighting.

  “Please don’t take my memories. Of Shanta. Of Jerome.”

  Pepper pushed John’s hook back in and folded his hand over his chest. “Trust me on this, John. You’ll be okay. You’ll have all those memories still, and more. It’s this or death. You can’t hang on much longer like this. We all need you.”

  John saw the open need on Pepper’s face.

  “I don’t think,” he said, thinking of all the times the feelings had drained out of him, that he’d iced out when things got tense, “I don’t think I might like the old me.”

  Pepper didn’t reply. He shut the pod door and knocked the top twice.

  A thick goop trickled down around John’s back.

  The air in the pod tasted sweet, erased the pain, and lulled him to sleep. He stopped fighting the darkness.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

  Pepper let go of the medical pod and stood up. He checked the diagnostics, tapped in a sequence, then walked forward into the tiny cockpit. The soft seats embraced him. It felt disconcertingly comfortable to do that. Sleep threatened to overwhelm him.

  “Ma Wi Jung?” Pepper called out.

  From the left of his shoulders came the ship’s soft voice. “Yes.”

  “I’m in slight danger of hypothermia and your cabin is cold. Adjust this cabin’s internal temperature to eighty degrees. Do this in slow stages.”

  “Adjusting,” the ship confirmed.

  “Do you have anything to drink?”

  “There is water aboard, and tea. The holds are not fully stocked.”

  “Good. I’ll have some tea.” Pepper stood up again. A good cup of tea, then he would make a tour of the ship to see if it was ready to fly. No sleep yet.

  That would take a few hours.

  He needed to power the ship up fully, bring everything online. Things John could do better than he could, but John was in the medpod until at least much later in the day.