"You don't have to tell me," Tabby said. "Without her and Nick, I'm not sure we'd have survived. Just between us, she can be bossy."
I chuckled. I could easily see how Tabby might feel that way after the last four ten-days of having my life completely arranged by the energetic woman.
"What are you gossiping about?" Marny asked, as we approached the fire she was kindling back to life. I suspected she'd caught our conspiratorial looks in her direction.
Little Pete exited the barn, no longer carrying his pack. "Hey Cap, you want to learn how to butcher a deer? We need to make some steaks."
It felt weird to have a man who'd never been one of my crew refer to me as Cap, but his friendly nature was infectious so I didn't hold it against him. "Sure. Steaks it is."
"Normally, we'd let a deer hang overnight, and we will," he said. "We'll just pull enough for tonight and let the rest drain."
"Aren't you worried about the maracats?" I asked.
"We'll have to bring her inside tonight. She'll be good and bled by then," he said. "I was hoping we could clear the air between you and me."
It was a phrase Nick used periodically. When Pete spoke the words, I saw again the strong resemblance to his father.
"We're good, Peter," I said. "Tabby makes up her own mind about things and there was no way either of you could have known I was alive."
"I tried to tell her that," he said, almost exasperated. "It's pebbles in the river."
"Sorry? Pebbles?"
"Oh, sorry, it's something we say around here. If you ever throw a pebble in the river, you'll never find it again because they all look alike."
I wasn't about to tell him that his explanation did nothing to clear up his statement. I felt a little guilty as I pushed for more information. "Did you guys talk much about our situation while you were gone?"
"She wouldn't hardly talk to me for the first few days," he said. "It was like I'd done something wrong. But I hadn't. It's a real pebbles situation."
"I hear you, but we're going to need to work on your analogies," I said.
"You don't like the pebbles in the river thing?" he asked, working on the blood deer.
I chuckled. "It'll grow on me. Tabby doesn't always trust the people around her with her feelings," I said. "When she's worried or thinking on something, she just gets quiet. I'm sure she wasn't mad at you." The fact that I was consoling the man who was sleeping with my fiancée wasn't lost on me.
"She said we needed to put a hold on things until she figured it all out," he said. My heart might have stopped at that moment and I was careful not to look into his face.
"How did that make you feel?" I asked, packing the steaks he cut into the broad leaves we used for packing fish.
"It makes me sad," he said. "And please take my sorrys that I'm talking to you about this, but Dad said we needed to work this out."
"I understand," I said. Intellectually, I did understand, but at an emotional level, I was pretty sure I was the wrong guy to talk to.
"Well, you know, being with a woman … that's pretty great," he said.
The lunch I'd had a few hours back bubbled up in my stomach. I didn't want to think about him being with Tabby. "Yeah?"
"Oh, yeah," he said. "At first, that's all it was."
I could taste acid on the back of my tongue. I was pretty sure I needed to end the conversation. There would be no getting through this unless I understood where I stood.
"So you guys are close?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah," he answered without hesitation.
"Hey, let's go guys," Marny said, startling me as she approached. "We need to hear this news about Ada."
"Just a minute," I said. I needed the punch line to his story.
"Everyone's waiting," she pushed. "Nick already has the fish fillets frying next to the orange tubers."
"We'll talk later," Peter said, grabbing the steaks and following Marny back to the fire pit.
I blew out an exasperated breath. The world was filled with frakking sadists.
After a few moments, I'd cleared my head enough to think and rejoined the group.
"Everything okay?" Nick asked, handing me a cup of fermented bonda juice. It was the closest thing we had to beer or wine and it didn't completely suck. He'd explained that the drink was a mead, not unlike the mash some spacers brewed when running short of decent alcohol.
"Just trying to find level ground," I said, sitting on a stump close to the roaring fire.
"Tell us about your trip already," Marny said.
"You were right, Dad," Little Pete started. "There was snow in the Juba Valley, but it wasn't very deep. When we made it to the Bluetops, we were mostly out of it."
"How long did that take?" Nick asked.
"Twelve days?" he said, looking to Tabby for confirmation.
"That's right," she agreed.
"And the Scatters didn't stop you?"
"They were around," Little Pete said. "But we were moving way fast. Tabitha had to carry my pack for a while."
"They didn't bother you when you camped?"
"No," Tabby said. "Like he said. They saw us and there was a group that stayed with us for the entire trip, but they didn't stop us until we were on the other side of the southern Bluetop."
"Give me some reference," I said. My AI overheard the question and presented a loose topographical map, showing the closest mountain range, Juba, followed by the Juba Valley and then another mountain range, called the Bluetop range. To the extreme north of the Bluetop range was a broad mountain that was bigger by twenty percent than the other mountains in the range. My AI identified this larger mountain as Bluetop Mountain. To the southeast, the mountain range continued but became fuzzy as my AI had no further information to fill in. It was enough, though. "Oh, I've got it."
"You said you think you know where Ada is," Marny said. "But you got stopped."
"The Scatters aren't all tribal," Tabby said. "Nick said he thought there was an ocean past the Bluetop range. There is. It's maybe eighty kilometers past the Bluetop southern mountain. What's more significant is that there's a large Scatter city next to the ocean. Maybe fifty thousand people? It's hard to judge.
"How'd you get stopped?" Nick asked.
"We were met by an armed guard of twenty. They wore uniforms and carried crystal shields and swords," Tabby said. "They looked like regular Scatters, except these guys didn't run off when I tried to get past them."
"Crystal swords and shields? That's interesting technology," I said.
"Metals are rare on this planet, specifically iron," Nick said. "It's held back their technological advancement. At some point, it's hard to advance much further without steel."
"You think Ada's in the city?" I asked.
"The city is exactly where you described Ada's location," Tabby said.
"Ada's suspension chamber," Nick corrected.
"I got Liam back. Now we're getting Ada back." As she spoke, she stared at me, her eyes burning with an intensity I hadn't seen since I woke up on Fraxus. I pitied the nation that stood between her and Ada.
Chapter 7
Begins with One Step
"What did the city look like?" Marny asked. "Did you see radio masts, flying cars, trains? Were the guards carrying guns?"
Tabby smiled warmly. I felt a pang of jealousy at the exchange. The universe had twisted at Anino's command. My relationship with the woman I’d loved for as long as I could remember was ruined. While she and Peter had been away, I'd gained perspective, but in that moment, I realized I was not okay with where we were.
"It was a very long distance," Little Pete said. "I do not know of radio masts, but there were beasts that flew above the city."
"Those were golden gigantus," Tabby added, "and they had riders." One of Tabby's eyes had been replaced in a previous surgery and her distance vision was superior to Peter's.
"Golden gigantus?" I asked.
"Hundred-fifty-kilogram birds that resemble Earth's golden eagles in shape, if not
size," Nick said. "We'll see them in the spring shortly after the snow leaves. Along with the maracats, they're a top predator. We've never seen one mounted and no city would allow wild goldens free rein. We've seen them pick up two-hundred-kilo, full-grown frigs."
"They don't attack humans?" I asked.
Nick pulled at his leather vest, exposing a patch of weathered skin just below his shoulder. Four, eight-centimeter-long furrows about the width of my thumb had been cut into his chest. "Caught me in an open field," he said. "If I hadn't been carrying a spear, I'd have been bird food."
"Frak, are there other predators I should be aware of?" I asked.
"There's a weasel-polar bear mix that we'll see if we go too far north," Marny chortled. "They don't usually come this far south. We call them abominables."
"Everything needs to eat," Little Pete said, knitting his eyebrows together in confusion. "An animal either eats other animals or it eats plants. There are many predators. It is the way of nature."
"Right," I said, annoyed that I'd prompted the lesson on ecosystems. "About the city? Did you observe any other technology beyond the crystal weapons?"
"They might have communications," Tabby said. "The squad leader was wearing a large earring adorned with gold or bronze."
"How exactly did they let you know you needed to leave?" Nick asked. "And why would they let you get that far only to turn you around?"
"Like Peter said, we moved fast during the day," Tabby said. "The group following us had to be tired and I imagine they sent a scout to the city to get reinforcements. A group stopped us at the pass leading down into the valley where the city lay. We could have gotten past them, but when I tried going around, they reformed and got in my way again. There might have been a small scuffle."
"You fought with them?" I asked.
"No," Tabby said, looking at my chest, not meeting my eyes. "Two younger female guards got pushy. There was some yelling. They might have jammed their shields into me."
I winced. "And then?"
"I relieved them of their shields," Tabby said.
"It was amazing," Little Pete said. "Tabitha threw their shields over the top of the trees. You should have heard the other Scatters when she did that."
"They've always been peaceful," Marny said. "And we've respected their demands."
"I pushed it too far," Tabby said. "Something about their high voices and how they were bumping their shields into me put me over the edge. I caught myself and when I backed down, so did they."
"Frak, Tabby," Nick said. "We can't afford a war with the Scatters."
This drew Tabby's ire. "You can't let people walk on you," she said. "I made my point and we're okay."
"Tell them the rest," Little Pete said, grinning ear to ear, his short, scruffy beard making him look just a little crazy.
We all turned our attention back to Tabby as she drew a big breath. "I think I saw Hotspur," she said.
"You think?" I asked.
"It was a long way away," Tabby said. "On the edge of the city. I can't be sure, but I got a reflection off glass. You know how armor glass has that blue-green halo?"
Nick shook his head. "This is a society that makes crystal weapons. There would be a million glittery things in that city."
She nodded her head encouragingly. "I know it's a long shot."
"We need to go back," I said. "And I need to go this time."
"The guard was pretty clear," Tabby said. "They weren't letting us past."
"Did you talk to them? Negotiate?" I asked.
"No." She shook her head, growing more agitated. Tabby had grown up in a home where her family criticized her every action. I wasn't surprised that in the last eighteen years, she hadn't been able to soften the ingrained negative reaction to being questioned. "We know maybe ten Scatter words."
"It's more like a hundred," Nick said. "But it's not enough for negotiation."
I tapped the side of my head where my earwig rested. "I still have Jonathan's upgraded translator programs. I'll do the negotiating."
"You don't know these people like we do," Tabby said. "You're in no position to negotiate." The us-versus-them reference hurt. I didn't like being considered an outsider by my own team. Especially not by Tabby.
"Tabby, I don't think Liam meant to suggest you failed," Marny said.
"I don't care what he meant," she answered. "I'm just saying he doesn't know the Scatters like we do and won't know how to negotiate with them."
"I can speak for myself," I said, standing, my eyes bright with anger. "Let me see if I have this right. In eighteen years, the sum of your interactions with the Scatters have been largely to avoid each other? They're not overtly hostile, but if you stay in the territory they've allowed you to exist in too long, they escalate contact? So, where does that leave us? Hanging out in this valley for twenty years, playing house? When you finally do make contact, you throw down with the first group you run into. Bang up job, Tabby. I'll definitely leave all negotiations to you from here on out."
"Liam," Marny started, disappointment thick in her voice.
"You're a pompous ass!" Tabby stood and tossed the contents of her cup into the fire. The alcohol flared as she spun and stalked toward her cabin.
"At least I'm not sleeping with my best friend's kid," I called after her retreating form.
"Frak off, Hoffen," she said, raising her middle finger and walking off.
"Shite," I breathed, shaking my head in anger. My heart was beating a million kilometers a second. I was as surprised as everyone else at my escalated outburst.
"Tabitha," Little Pete called, trailing after her. The move made me even more angry as jealousy fueled my internal rage.
"Shite, Cap. That was a bit harsh, don't you think?" Marny asked.
I tore my gaze away from Tabby and Little Pete. At some point in the future, I'd agree with her, but in this moment, not so much.
"I'm headed out in the morning," I said. "I'll take my grav-suit but go on foot to conserve energy."
"It's a long trip," Nick said. "Are you sure you're up for it?"
"I'm stronger than I was."
Nick shook his head. "You get tired too fast. Walking through snow is harder than you think. The snow on Fraxus can be heavy and the mountain passes are dangerous. Plus, you don't know how to forage for food in the winter. There are a million reasons why this is a bad idea."
"I don't even know why we sent Tabby and Peter," I said. "They're not negotiators. We just wasted four ten-days."
"Cap, I get that you're mad, but go easy on the criticism. We're all doing the best we can with a tough situation," Marny said. "Until they went out, we didn't even know there was a city on the other side of the Bluetop range. The signal for Ada's suspension chamber could just as easily have been lying on the side of a mountain. The intel they gathered is useful."
I shook my head and stared at the ground. My vision blurred as I worked through the issues and tried to push Tabby's angry remarks from my head. Nick was right. Even with the grav-suit, I wasn't in good enough shape to travel four-hundred kilometers, especially across two mountain ranges covered in snow. The fact was, I was going. That's all I needed to know.
"I'm leaving tomorrow," I said. "It's up to all of you how much you want to help."
"You'll need this." Nick pulled a narrow belt from around his waist. He handed me the belt and the iron knife he'd forged. "I spent a few hours last night instructing your AI on the various plants that can be found on the mountain in winter. I wanted to come with you, but Marny talked me out of it. If I leave for as long as the trip will take, our homestead will probably fail."
"I understand," I said, not understanding at all. It felt like Little Pete or Marny could easily take over in Nick's absence.
"I don't think you do," he said, handing me my folded grav-suit. "But that's only because you haven't heard the rest of it."
I slid my clothing off and wriggled into the grav-suit which I was pleased to discover had to expand to allow m
e back in.
"What am I missing?" I asked.
I'd cooled off significantly from the blowup the night before, but I still wasn’t thinking clearly. The sight of Peter trailing behind an angry Tabby kept replaying in my mind. Is that what Tabby needed? Someone to chase after her? Would the time we’d been separated, when Tabby had been forced to go on alone, prove too much for our relationship to survive?
"Me," Marny said, joining us at the front of the barn, carrying an armful of supplies. "Last night, Nick and I talked. I'm coming with you."
"You don't have to," I said.
Marny smiled, raising an eyebrow. "Your heart's in a good place, Cap. We know you're going after Ada, no matter the cost," she said. "Understand that in the same way, we're not letting you kill yourself in the attempt. Twenty years is a long time but finding you on the side of the mountain rekindled something I didn't even know we'd lost."
I chuckled mirthlessly. "You mean besides Ada, Jonathan and me?"
"Hope, Cap," she said. "We've spent so much effort just to survive. Somewhere along the way, I think we gave up ever getting off this planet."
"Is getting off this planet what you really want? I get the feeling not everyone is excited to see me."
"Change is painful. As a mother, I see the pain your presence brings Peter. I also see the conflict your presence brings Tabby. She feels she's betrayed you." Marny placed her hand on my arm. "That doesn't mean I'd trade the life of one of my closest friends to ease that pain."
"I feel so off balance," I said. "I know it's unfair that I'm angry with her, but that doesn't change how I feel. And intellectually, I know I can't blame Little Pete, but, well, he's your kid and I'm not even allowed to hate him. This is messed up beyond belief."
"If you're going to hate someone, I think Anino is deserving," Nick said. "He used us as pawns and allowed us to be pushed off his chessboard. Whatever end he was after, Anino obviously believed it was worth more than our lives. Go get Ada. Let the trip refocus you. I have a feeling that things are about to change around here."
"Yeah, like I'm going to end up as a popsicle on the side of a mountain?" I asked. I was going for light humor, but the pained look in Nick's face told me I'd missed the mark.
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