Not alone.
Those two words brought a smile to her lips. No matter what happened, she’d cling to that. And she had to remember that nothing was cast in stone just yet. The star-jumper had yet to emerge. That gave her a quiet thrill.
The ghost orchid Fadhil sent was possibly the prettiest thing she’d ever seen. Her AR helpfully supplied information on its origin and care, and once she’d had it installed in her dorm room, she found a spot where it would only receive filtered sunlight. It was a special plant, the information flashes explained, able to photosynthesise using even the dimmest artificial light – a choice plant for spacefarers due to its minimal requirements.
Fadhil’s message was obvious, which made her smile.
The plant was still small, merely a clump of strap-like leaves, and was yet to flower, but judging from the images online, its bloom was worth waiting for – soft layers of diaphanous petals. It wasn’t a true orchid either, but a modified selection of vegetation from several solar systems – a hybrid. Space trash too then, since it had been developed on a station by a team of scientists who’d evidently had too much time on their hands.
Time was one thing Nuri and her fellow Chosen didn’t have the next two weeks, as the demands on their attention intensified. Nuri was too tired to care that she always had a guard – Byron or one of his Military-caste friends, like Stefan. If the others thought it unfair that she was receiving this apparently preferential treatment, they didn’t let on. Or maybe they were working to stay on schedule just as hard as Nuri was. She couldn’t bring herself to care, she was so focused on studying and training. She thought her head would burst as she learnt things she never thought she’d ever need – how to assemble and disassemble everything from small blasters to heavy-duty laser rifles; how to tie an assortment of knots, and which suited what sort of ropes; basic protocol when dealing with AI; diplomatic etiquette; basic chemistry; basic to advanced first aid; basic mechanical engineering … No matter how she scrubbed, she couldn’t get rid of the thin rime of dirt crusted under her fingernails. Every night when she fell onto her bed, she slipped instantly into a dreamless sleep.
* * *
Raphel looked all too smug, the reason being that he had an umbrella while the rest of them stood dejectedly in the insistent drizzle on the larger of the two training fields.
“Good morning, Chosen, and welcome to your early-morning wide games, which begin this week.”
“He’s too ancestors-damned cheerful,” Byron grumbled next to Nuri.
Nuri hid her smile. It took a lot for Byron to grouse, and the awful weather was most likely the greatest contributing factor to his foul mood.
The only positive in this morning’s exercise was that it was becoming noticeably lighter earlier, so waking at arse crack didn’t hurt as much. Except it was still bleeding cold, and Nuri shoved her fingers under her armpits to keep warm.
“Right, those of you who’re seeing a red dot flashing in your AR, go stand to my left. The rest of you, to the right. No, your other right, Fritha,” Raphel said to a human youth who’d gone the wrong way.
A few chuckles broke out as they shuffled into two groups. Neither Nuri nor Byron had a flashing light, but Mei peered at them forlornly from the other group.
“Congratulations – we’re nearly ready to do a stalking exercise. Patrol A” – Raphel gestured at the red-dot group – “your patrol leader, say hello to B’Ren, has a route to a secret destination. You’ll have a ten-minute head start.”
Raphel turned to Nuri’s group. “And Patrol B, your task is to shadow Patrol A without them figuring out that you’re on their tail. There will be no internal comms with each other – we’ve disabled your IMs. You’re doing this the old-fashioned way. If Patrol A see your scouts, they’re allowed to give chase. If they tap you anywhere on your arms, legs, back or shoulders, consider yourself captured – you have to join their patrol and switch sides. No using sticks. No forceful choke holds. A light tap.” He cast a meaningful glance at Patrol A. “The object of the game is for Patrol B to follow Patrol A without being discovered. Patrol A needs to reach their destination in time to release the drone. If Patrol B manages to capture the drone before Patrol A gets there … well.” Raphel grinned.
“Not too shabby,” Byron murmured.
“Who’s our patrol leader?” someone from Patrol B called.
“Let’s leave that up to a vote, shall we?” Raphel replied. “You’ve got ten minutes, starting now. Patrol A, you’d better get yourself organised. Clock’s ticking.”
Nuri hung back while the more assertive Chosen in her patrol sorted out the pecking order. She may as well be Byron’s shadow, she reckoned, and was grateful that she was mostly ignored while the four main instigators had a brief but heated argument. A J’Veth female by the name L’uul took charge.
“Right,” L’uul barked, and pointed at two others – a Heran and a J’Veth with whom Nuri hadn’t connected much. “You two start tracking them as soon as we’ve got the signal. The rest of you, fall in line. And for the love of rockets, be quiet.”
Byron rolled his eyes at Nuri. “She thinks she’s the pandor’s stones, that one. But you’ll see – she’s all roar and no kick.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Nuri mumbled.
The ten minutes were up faster than she anticipated, and the two scouts went ahead. It felt strange to be in a large group, taking orders and not being the one to make the decisions, and she followed Byron’s lead – it was easier that way. She was pleased she didn’t have to think too hard, because the morning was growing more miserable by the moment, the soft, insistent drizzle mutating into a sifting curtain of cold rain. Nuri was soon soaked through and her teeth were chattering so much she feared she’d bite through her tongue.
Things would have been fine if they’d been trotting along, but since this was an exercise in stealth, they crept from hiding place to hiding place, L’uul designating scouts to run ahead and return with news of their quarry. In theory, they should have been making progress, but whether it was sheer bad luck or the fact that the Chosen in their group weren’t good at staying out of Patrol A’s clutches, they were bleeding members.
Within half an hour, their fifty was reduced to eighteen. L’uul was so angry she started swearing in dialects Nuri had never heard of, using words she was certain she didn’t want to know the actual meaning of.
“This isn’t good,” Byron said to Nuri as they crouched next to a ridge. “We’ve made little progress. They should send you.”
“Um, no,” Nuri said.
“You’re better at sneaking than all the rest of us put together. L’uul’s being an idiot.”
“They don’t like me,” Nuri said. “Something’s bound to go wrong, and then they’ll have even less reason to like me.”
“Don’t you start running yourself down now,” he shot back.
“Oi! You two, shut up,” the youth next to them hissed.
Byron grumbled and wiped rain from his face as they crouched in tense silence for a few more minutes.
Ahead of them, L’uul was pacing. She kept walking to the edge of their hiding place and peering around. Then she’d swear softly and return.
Byron nudged Nuri and inclined his head in L’uul’s direction. “Volunteer,” he mouthed. “C’mon.”
Nuri was tempted to shake her head, but when she considered that they could either spend the rest of the morning crouching in the miserable wet bushes or she could be running, keeping warm and possibly even salvaging the situation …
“Ah, scum it,” she murmured, getting up.
“Yesss,” Byron whispered as Nuri went over to L’uul.
Close up, the J’Veth was shorter than Nuri, which boosted her confidence a smidgen.
“What?” L’uul snapped.
“Um, patrol leader, I’m volunteering to go ahead.”
L’uul narrowed her eyes and her facial tentacles quivered as if she was about to spit ink. Then she sighed, and her sh
oulders slumped. “I don’t expect you can make this any worse than it already is.”
Nuri bared her teeth at L’uul in a way that was clearly not meant to be a smile. “Thank you, patrol leader.”
With one backward glance at Byron, who offered a thumbs up, Nuri was off. Immediately the lethargy that had been dragging at her limbs evaporated, and her senses came alive as she plunged into the forest. The steady drip-drip of water from the canopy was in counterpoint to the rilling of amphibians in the streams and pools. Her own footfalls were soft, like leaves drifting to the ground, as she kept moving.
It was difficult for Patrol A to completely hide their passage. She found several spots where they’d cleverly set up ambushes for Patrol B’s scouts. Sneaky – the scuff marks in the leaf litter told her everything she needed to know. And Raphel might’ve insisted on an interpersonal comms blackout, but no one had said anything about using AR to tap into the network. After a moment’s stutter Nuri received an aerial view of the grounds, with a little blinking dot, which she realised was her position.
She swallowed back a small whoop of joy, then queried the position of any other Chosen. Yes, so she was being cheeky with that request, but there was no harm in trying, right? As requested, all the positions flared up.
Probable destination for larger group on the move?
Not exactly a standard query, but she blessed the AI that was now helping her.
An X blinked on the map, a rocky outcropping in the north-north-east, near the perimeter.
Estimated time of arrival?
Fifteen minutes.
Plot shortest route for me to reach destination.
The AI obliged, along with an ETA. Twelve minutes and thirty-six seconds if she maintained an average speed of twenty kilometres an hour. Doable, she reckoned.
Why waste time stalking the other team when they’d already neared their objective? If Nuri took that detour and shaved off some time, she could capture the drone and return to her patrol before the others even realised what was happening. Grinning, she deviated from her path and started running.
It was like flying – well, almost. Not quite weightless, and none of the leaps through empty space she was accustomed to in urban areas, but she revelled in pushing her body to its limit. This was different from the life-and-death pursuit from a few weeks back – now Nuri raced against her own limitations, with the clock ticking at the edge of her vision, and the little blinking arrow keeping her on target.
AR, if used properly, turned the entire world into a giant game. She wove between stately pilaars, then skirted the outlet of the lake where she’d taken a recent dunking. This time she went around the reed bed and reached the scrublands where tough, heath-like shrubs grew on sandy soil that muffled her footsteps.
Patrol A was three hundred metres away, moving along a gulley. They reckoned they could use it for cover, no doubt, in case Patrol B was sending scouts. Only now it worked to Nuri’s advantage as they wouldn’t see her streak across the open ground.
The outcropping was made up of giant shards of smooth grey rock that looked as if they had been shoved out of the soil. Almost like a pimple, with smaller, broken boulders flaking off the flanks of the main tor over the years. The formation was split down the centre, with a large crack where trees thrived in the shelter offered by the two halves of rock. The exact location of the drone, she was certain.
A last burst of speed brought her to the slope, and she picked her way between the boulders, low-growing bushes dragging on her legs. Her coveralls were damp, and she breathed heavily, but the thrill kept her going. No one would expect the crazy stunt she was pulling – absolutely no one, which is why it was so exhilarating.
But though the drone pulsed on her AR visuals, finding it proved tricky, and the longer she took, the itchier the back of her neck became. Here in the crack she was boxed in. She could climb up and over the back, but that might give others an opportunity to circle around and cut off her escape. Everything depended on her being as quick and as silent as possible. Alert to discovery, she felt around until, eventually, she had to suppress a whoop of joy as her hand closed around the device. The drone was about the size of a baseball, and she tucked it into the top of her coveralls. That’s when she heard the voices. Damn it. Sound carried strangely here. With no time to sneak out, she continued with plan B, which was hardly ideal as she sought the first handholds in the rock.
Climbing, as always, came second nature to her, even if this wasn’t a particularly easy ascent. The rock flaked along the vertical cracks, and when she was already about three metres above the ground, a chunk came away from her feet, and she only just managed to wedge her fingers into a crevice in time to prevent herself from falling.
Yet the old urgency to escape detection was there, pressing her on, and even as she made it onto a shelf near the top, the first of Patrol A’s scouts entered the crack.
Huffing for breath and a bead of perspiration tickling down her temple, Nuri watched. Thing was, if she had access to the intranet to search for the drone via her AR, others might too.
“You find it?” a J’Veth drone asked his Heran companion.
“No, you?”
Why weren’t they trying to scan? Did they even have access?
More Chosen came to the spot, the patrol leader B’Ren among them. For a J’Veth, he was quite tall, nearly adult, and considerably bulkier than even the bigger humans. He barked orders, told a few of the smaller ones to start climbing, and looked higher up, which was Nuri’s cue to slip over the edge and go down the other side. She prayed there was no one there, and that she would find sufficient handholds. Admittedly, she’d taken a considerable gamble considering she was unfamiliar with the terrain.
Her suspicions proved correct. She slithered and nearly fell her way down the other side, making a bad landing that twisted her left ankle. Still better than braining herself – the way she’d landed, her forehead was a mere hair’s breadth from a jagged rock.
For a few heart-stopping moments all Nuri could do was hunch over her foot, sucking in great breaths of air and trying to pretend the pain didn’t exist, that she was more than the searing brightness shorting out her synapses. Gingerly she lifted her pants leg. The skin was still whole, but the area around the affected joint already looked puffy.
“Crap, crap, crap,” she murmured as she reluctantly rose into a half-crouch and tested her weight on the afflicted limb.
Agony blazed up her leg, making her eyes water. Not broken, but severely sprained, an old injury that she’d now aggravated.
“Come, Nuri, you’ve got this,” she said to herself.
She pulled herself upright. No crying uncle now.
She sucked in a deep breath as she took the first tentative step. It hurt, but it was manageable. Whether it was the trauma from the near fall or just her overloaded senses, Nuri wasn’t certain, but a sudden presence filled her mind with a wash of concern.
You are in pain, came the knowing.
She froze. The taste of the awareness hinted at a vast alien intelligence just beyond her grasp, which was focused on her. On her everything.
Tears sprang up in the corners of Nuri’s eyes. “You?” she whimpered.
Fierce joy filled her, an exaltation.
You are in pain.
I can manage. Nuri gritted her teeth and bent so she could massage the affected limb.
Let me help.
It was as if a cool hand pressed on the back of her head, cold fingers travelling down her spine so that she shivered at the instant relief.
I can’t heal the hurt, but I can take away the pain long enough for you to seek help. Go now.
As quickly as the awareness had brushed up against her, it faded, and even as Nuri stretch after it, it was as if she was trying to grasp handfuls of smoke.
“Guys, around here – there’s a scout!” someone yelled.
Nuri started running. No pain when she put down her full weight on her left leg, but she wasn’t as su
refooted as she’d have liked. Small pebbles and rocks cascaded along with her as she scrambled down the hill, painfully aware of her pursuers. Her AR visuals flashed – three of the enemy patrol behind her.
Enemy?
She laughed. Funny how a stressful situation could subvert her opinion of her peers. Still energised from her close encounter with the star-jumper nymph, she scarpered across the flat bit of land, towards the pilaar forest and the swamps.
“Get her!” someone screamed.
A shadow hove up on her right side, and Nuri dodged as a hand came close to swiping at her. Just in time, she noticed a critter’s burrow and stepped over it, but her immediate pursuer wasn’t so lucky.
A sharp shriek and the thump as a body hit the ground. She hoped he was all right. She wasn’t sure who it was, but she wasn’t going to stop to find out.
Two more were closing in on her left, trying to flank her and push her back. Nuri allowed them to draw closer, then feinted as though she would try to slip between them, but instead used her forward momentum to jump up, press onto the shoulder of the shorter one, and vault over both of them. She assumed that they’d crashed into each other because they didn’t follow after that.
Soon enough she was on familiar turf – the reedy swamp bed. She’d shaken off the most ardent of her hunters, so here she had a chance to slow down and catch her breath. That wasn’t to say there weren’t others in pursuit, but she was pretty sure they’d have a good idea where the rest of Patrol B was lurking, so they’d no doubt try to cut her off. For whatever reason, her AR had gone blank. Damn it. Of all the times for it to go on the blink – she was effectively blind now. Maybe the AI assisting her had been discovered and the connection turned off.
Her ankle started giving her hassles the moment she rested. If she stopped too long, she’d stiffen up and not be able to move at all. Despite how shaky she felt, Nuri patted the drone tucked into her overalls and began to limp back to the base.
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