“It’s not all that easy for everyone up there.”
“Life’s better than being down here,” Keira said. When he did not reply to that, she continued. “Have you not considered that the majority of construction efforts are focused up there, in orbit, and not down here on the surface? They’re building farms in orbit, not shelters or habs. Eventually, they will be able to produce all they need without coming planetside. You know at that point they will no longer need those on the surface. What happens then?”
Their eyes met briefly. Lee returned his gaze back to the road as the APC drove up and over a smaller mound of sand.
“And you are correct,” Keira said. “I do the job to help, to do my part. But in the long run, I don’t think it will be enough. Even with the shelters, humanity may not make it here, and if we do, it will only be a few thousand living off the bones of a dead civilization, especially if the UPG turns their back on those planetside.”
From the look Lee gave her, he agreed and had had similar thoughts.
“I’d prefer to believe they would do otherwise,” Lee said before he suddenly returned his attention to the road. There was a vehicle, another transport truck, stopped ahead, along the left side. Their escort moved slightly over to the right, driving around a crew hard at work before the truck.
There was no heavy equipment in evidence, only the wheeled truck parked along the roadside. The work crew consisted of a dozen men and women bundled up and swathed in an assortment of tattered clothing. No portion of their skin was exposed. What they were wearing was simply the best they could manage for protection against the elements.
For many, work, if it could be found, meant rations beyond the subsistence level the UPG doled out for their families. Frequently that work was menial and dangerous. Few were educated or skilled enough to perform the better, more complex jobs.
Keira’s eyes ran over the work crew. They were using shovels and wheelbarrows to move the sand and ash off the roadway. It was miserable, hard, backbreaking work. But still there were people lining up to do it, even with the knowledge that the air was slowly poisoning them, shortening their lives.
“Poor bastards,” Lee said with feeling as they passed by. “They don’t even have hazard suits or breathers.”
A few of the laborers stopped their work to watch the small convoy pass. Though Keira could not see their faces, she could well imagine their deadened expressions. Swathed in their heavy clothes, the workers looked almost alien to her.
And, in a way, they were alien. Most were uneducated, superstitious, along with being crude and unsophisticated. It came with the way of life they had been forced to live. Heck, most living in orbit would consider her crude and unsophisticated.
Lee and Keira fell silent for a time. Everywhere you looked, anywhere you went on Asherho, there was suffering, misery, hunger, and intense poverty. Keira found it utterly heartbreaking. It tore at her and made her feel terribly guilty. She hated it.
Prior to the Fall, the rebellion that had brought down the empire, humanity had lived with what today would be considered an unimaginable level of technology. It had made life easy and comfortable. Hunger had been unknown; so too had disease, or so she’d been told. It had seen the average lifespan increase to nearly two hundred and fifty years. These days, people living out amongst the ruins in the city were lucky if they made it to fifty. Mortality amongst children born under such conditions was high.
“If only,” she breathed to herself as they passed a line of buildings that were nothing more than burned-out and sand-blasted shells of their former selves, “if only …”
“If only, what?” Lee asked.
“If only they had known how good they had it?” Keira said. “Was life really so bad that they had to destroy themselves?”
He didn’t reply to that.
“They left us with the mess, the cleanup,” Keira said. “We’ve lost so very much.”
Lee nodded and they fell silent again, this time for several minutes.
“What do you think of the ship that arrived in-system?” Lee asked, breaking the silence. He rushed forward before she could speak. “The governor is planning a formal reception for the captain and ship’s officers. I think that would be something to see. Don’t you?”
Keira agreed with a nod of her own.
“Imagine the food they’ll serve,” Lee said. “There might be real meat, maybe even beef and pork, not the fake, lab-grown stuff we get. Sandy says she’s been invited to go … lucky, just lucky.”
“That girl likes you,” Keira said, and was pleased she got Lee to blush. She felt a lightening of her mood, a tickle of amusement. “And, if I don’t miss my mark, you’re keen on her too.”
Again, Lee did not answer. He shifted his position, as if uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had taken. After a moment, he opened his mouth to speak, then closed it.
“Why don’t you ask her out next time we’re stationside? Take her out on a date.”
Lee glanced over at her again before returning his attention to the road. He remained silent. His discomfort was beginning to really amuse Keira.
“Well?” Keira demanded. “Spill it. Why not? You would make a great couple.”
Lee hesitated. He was literally squirming in his seat. “I don’t think it would be fair.”
“What do you mean, fair? She likes you and you like her. I don’t understand the problem. How would it not be fair to you?”
“It wouldn’t be fair to her,” Lee said, firmly. “I’ve thought about asking her out. But I won’t. You and I, we’re stuck down here on this rock. Day after day, month after month, we’re out in the field working.” He jerked a thumb at the ceiling of the vehicle. “She’s up there all the time.”
“So what?” Keira still could not understand the problem. “You both can talk to each other over the comms and we rotate up at least twice a year for leave and debriefings. At any rate, we’re supposed to.”
“That’s not the point,” Lee said. “I’ve given this a lot of thought. It’s not exactly safe down here. If the environment doesn’t get you, the locals might. Like you, she and I are friends, have been since childhood. Were we to become attached, every time we get assigned a mission, she’d be worried sick about me. Hell, it wasn’t all that long ago Crew Seventy-Two was ambushed and killed over in HongFoi. That’s little more than a hundred kilometers from here. I don’t want to put her through that. It would be a continual torment.”
Keira had not considered that. Her mood soured once again at the mention of the ambush. Though they were here to help, the people frequently saw them as part of the problem, representatives of the UPG.
“Attacks on crews don’t happen that often,” Keira countered, after a moment’s reflection. “I think you should take a chance and enjoy a little happiness, get what you can.” She turned her gaze back out the window again, feeling sour. Though she was arguing for him to start a relationship with Sandy, Keira knew he was more than right in his thinking. It made her terribly unhappy, for she avoided relationships for the very same reason. “There’s little enough of it to go around down here, as is.”
“Did you wake up on the wrong side of the cot?” Lee asked. “You’re a little dark today.”
Keira’s mood had started to darken with Crecee and continued when they had left the base. How could it not? For the next few days, they would be surrounded by the worst suffering imaginable. Though they would both throw themselves into their work, it would still be hard to ignore.
“I guess I am,” Keira said and stretched, feeling a terrible weariness. “We shouldn’t be going out into the field again so soon. I’m tired, is all, tired of all this.” They passed by another work crew, busy at removing sand from the roadway. This crew had an earthmover with them. “The suffering—it makes me angry.”
“They’ve been working us hard lately,” Lee said. “There’s no doubt we need a little downtime, some rest.”
She looked back over at him but
said nothing.
“I could go with a little stationside leave,” Lee added. “There’s not much to do back at the base other than watch you spar with Chris or perform maintenance on this big old monster.” He patted the dash. “What say we put in another request for leave, eh? When we get back to the FOB, we could ask to speak to the director. After all we’ve done this tour, Command owes us some time.”
“We certainly can try,” Keira said, though she wasn’t hopeful, not at all. Command had not been the most responsive of late to requests.
“We will give it another shot,” Lee said.
“You could join us, you know, sparring and working out? It helps me take my mind off things. That might help break the tedium for you too.”
“And get my ass beat by an old Imperial Marine?” Lee laughed. “No thank you. I tried that once and ended up hurting for a week. Nope, I’ll leave that dubious pleasure to you and instead settle for my normal workouts in the FOB’s gym.”
Keira leaned forward. Up ahead was a check point, along with a heavily reinforced forward operating base set off the right side of the road. The base had thick walls, like the ones that surrounded Sterris. It dominated the landscape, as sand dunes spread out to either side for as far as the eye could see. The dunes gave the FOB an isolated and lonely feel.
Overhead an armed vertical takeoff and landing vehicle, a VTOL, hovered. There were more militia in evidence too, walking the wall’s barricade and out before the base. A group of them, perhaps fifty strong, had formed up next to the gate that barred the road. They carried shields and batons.
“Lannis Base,” Lee said as they drew closer. Part of the FOB’s wall had been blackened by fire. Lee pointed at it. “That wasn’t there the last time we came through.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Keira said. “And that was just yesterday.”
“I am so glad we’re stationed farther out,” Lee said. “Lannis is not the safest of places to be.”
“Chris,” Keira called back into the crew compartment, “we’re about to leave the Secure Zone.”
“Right,” Chris said, without stirring. “Thanks for the heads-up. Wake me when we’re at the city’s edge.”
Keira turned back to face front. The lead truck had slowed slightly but showed no evidence of preparing to stop.
Several vehicles sat alongside the road as they neared the gate. Amongst them, was an APC, like theirs, only this one had a heavy machine gun mounted. There were six dune buggies for desert patrols and a tank with regulator markings on its side. The machine was huge and menacing. It had been painted a desert brown. Part of the rear left fender had been bent inward. One of the crew stood atop the vehicle. Leaning casually against the long barrel, he waved at Lee as they approached.
Lee waved back, and then they were past. Just ahead, two militia had opened the gate and still following the truck, they drove through. On the other side of the gate was a mob of several hundred civilians who were gathered tightly around two trucks. Both vehicles were parked off the right side of the road. So loud were the people screaming and shouting that it could be heard over the Beast’s engine.
Sacks of what could only be food were being tossed out of the back of both trucks and to the crowd. People were fighting each other desperately for possession of the sacks. The sight tore at Keira’s heart.
The group of militia she’d spotted earlier charged forward and with their batons, began beating at the crowd, forcing them back and away from the trucks. Behind them, an officer casually pulled out a pistol and fired several shots into the air, clearly to get the mob’s attention.
A heartbeat later, they were beyond the scene and bouncing along the road that led to the city. Feeling sick to her stomach, Keira leaned back in her seat.
“Rough stuff,” Lee said in a near whisper.
“Yeah,” Keira agreed.
They passed a group of people swathed in heavy clothing, who were walking along the roadside toward the city. They were carrying sacks of food. Walking was being generous. It was more like shambling through the sand. Several were clearly children.
Keira watched them as the APC passed. She could not understand how someone would want to bring a child into this world, not here on Asherho. It nearly broke her heart that she could do nothing help them, other than repair broken-down equipment within the city’s residential blocks and arcologies. There was no doubt in her mind it was meaningful work, but it just didn’t seem to be enough. The people needed more, a lot more, especially those living on the fringes of society, like the people they were now passing. Those poor souls had even less than most.
“Oh,” Lee said, suddenly brightening, “I forgot to tell you. Next week, we’re receiving a trainee. I got notice from assignments before we left.”
“That’s something,” Keira said. It was good news to be sure. It had been six months since they’d last been assigned someone to train. Not only did that mean Command was preparing to put another team into the field, which would help with the workload, but there would soon be an additional pair of hands in getting the job done. On the flipside, it also guaranteed that any leave request would once again be denied. They would expect Keira and Lee to train, which would likely take more than a month. Perhaps, when the training was done, then they’d be granted a rest. “Do we know who it is?”
“Nope,” Lee said, “Sandy doesn’t know either. One of the other crews is getting a trainee as well.”
Keira felt a lifting of her spirits. “Either way, it’s good news, really good news. We need more teams out in the field.”
The radio crackled to life. “Work Crew Three-Two, do you read? This is your escort. Captain Pikreet speaking.”
Lee leaned forward and pressed a button on the panel, activating the cockpit’s microphone. “Go ahead, Captain.”
“We have—take a detour”—static and crackling filled the air—“ahead, as we come”—more static—“the city.” The rest of whatever Pikreet said became thoroughly garbled and no more than gibberish.
Lee muted the microphone as he checked the readouts on the dash. “The particulate matter and the radiation in the atmosphere has increased. We’ve already lost satellite coverage with the station. No more bird’s-eye view for us today and no one providing overwatch. Command won’t be able to see us, at least until after the storm’s passed and the levels have dropped.”
Keira leaned over and looked at the screens that showed their connection with the station and satellite network. The top-down navigation view that operated in real-time was gone. She inputted a series of commands, double-checking the communication uplinks for signal strength to the station and satellite network. Not satisfied with what she was seeing, she sent out an active ping and tried for a reset of the signal. It did no good for visual coverage.
“Well,” Keira said, after a moment, “we’ve had this happen before. At least, if need be, we can still contact the station via a high-powered direct link. The ping I sent was returned.”
“About all we can do with the station is talk,” Lee said. He leaned forward and depressed the microphone button. “Say again, Captain, we lost you.”
“There’s a ration riot along our current route,” the voice over the radio said. Some of the static had vanished. “We’re going to avoid it and take the secondary road outlined in the brief. The detour should add only twenty minutes’ travel time.”
Lee shared a look with Keira and removed his finger from the button. He glanced out the window, as the wind gusted again, picking up loose sand.
“Nothing takes twenty minutes,” Lee said.
“Rations have been cut for the general population twice already this year,” Keira said. “People are hungry.”
Lee let out an unhappy breath and gave a nod. Within the last six months, they had been forced to detour around several riots and protests. Those had been over a variety of issues, but more often than not, the root issue had been food-related.
“Got it, Captain. You keep driving, we’ll keep fo
llowing.”
“Escort, out,” the radio crackled back.
“If it takes longer than that,” Lee said to Keira, “the storm may roll in on us.”
“I’ll keep my fingers and toes crossed that it doesn’t,” Keira said. “I want to get this job over with. There is just something about Hakagi that rubs me wrong.”
“I know what you mean. It’s not the safest place, that’s for sure. At least we will be working in the bowels of the block where there’s likely to be few people.” Lee shifted in his seat. “I heard they opened a new algae factory in the city last week. If we’re lucky, we may get some with our rations in the coming weeks. Strawberry is my favorite flavor.”
Keira made a face at him. “You know algae bars are not my food of choice.”
“They’re no one’s favorite.” Lee chuckled, then sobered slightly. “But when you’re hungry, food is food. They should be able to feed a lot of people from that facility. Maybe, just maybe, it’ll bring some of the rioting in these parts to an end.”
“We can only hope,” Keira said, though she wasn’t so certain. Every time they went out, she could see it, almost sense the desperation on the air, and it seemed to be growing by the day. The UPG made a good show of the work being done, but Keira suspected it was all window dressing.
Her gaze tracked back to the truck ahead of them. She could even see the desperation in the militia and police forces they worked with, the growing willingness to bend the rules and overlook things. That worried her. Who knew what could happen or really what they would do if it all suddenly fell apart.
Once again, she grew silent. Lee seemed to understand her mood and refrained from further talking. Keira settled for staring out the window as the APC continued to rumble forward, dutifully following the militia truck.
On the outskirts of the city, their escort turned onto a side street lined with rundown and partially destroyed buildings. Many had been burned out long ago, leaving only hollow shells filled with ash and sand. Those that had somehow survived the apocalypse frequently had people living within them, or at least sheltering in the buildings during the day as they moved from place to place in search of food and work or just plain survival.
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