Blue Defender
Page 18
She was grateful for the helmet. Esgee had really known what it was doing. Protecting her.
Protecting her the whole time.
This was really important. When Matti-Jay and the others sent their rescue call, they would have to include a lot of data about the mechanicals here. That some were dangerous, but some were good. Very good.
VERY UNDERSTANDING.
She felt so sad. Esgee had died protecting her. Dub too. Though maybe they might be able to talk to Dub later. Charlie and Delle were smart with stuff like that. Maybe they would figure out what the microbots had been up to with the display and the words.
Matti-Jay flew on across the world. There were high mountains, with big glaciers, and wide open plains with big browsing animals.
She didn’t fly high. Without a pressurized cockpit, she had to stay low enough that she could still breath. No higher than the tops of those mountains.
The helmet kept out the wind–kept her eyeballs from popping out, but didn’t feed her air. Makeshift protection.
She crossed an ocean dotted with islands. Atolls and volcanoes. One part with a long, narrow island.
Despite the wind, she was able to navigate. To head for Charlie’s location. The Blue Defender had it all in the navigation system.
Esgee had rebuilt the vessel really well.
Matti-Jay came in lower and lower. Flying over green leafy forests. A big burn to the north of her, probably from a lightning strike.
Or maybe from debris from the wreck of the Donner.
Soon she saw patches of burn. Small and larger.
AND THERE, AT A CLEARING on the banks of a wide river, a tendril of smoke rising. And shelters. Lean-tos and teepees. Even some kind of boat on the shore.
And wreckage too. Of another runabout.
That had to be the ExR7. Charlie’s runabout.
It was in even worse shape than the Blue Defender.
Matti-Jay circled. Came around, slowing, using the retros to stay aloft.
People came out, waving. Lots of people. Ten. Fifteen.
More than she’d expected. Many more.
Again she had to blink back tears. She’d been so alone.
Working carefully, she brought the Blue Defender in to a careful landing right at the edge of the clearing. Near the wreckage of the ExR7.
Blue Defender settled with a gentle thump. Matti-Jay shut off the engines. The roar in her ears subsided. The wonderful smells of the forest rolled over her.
She shivered. Adrenalin again. Hours in the air and finally on the ground.
Wow.
Matti-Jay stood, the harness released. She took off the helmet.
Her ears rang.
The group of people were running over toward her.
She recognized Charlie. Matti-Jay waved. Charlie was grinning.
Turning, Matti-Jay opened up the locker and picked up Dub’s head.
The little extra display had two clear words on it now.
Made it?
“Yeah,” Matti-Jay said, feeling overwhelmed. “Yeah, Dub, we made it.”
Sean Monaghan
About the Author
Award-winning author, Sean Monaghan has published more than one hundred stories published in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and in New Zealand, where he makes his home. A regular contributor to Asimov’s, his story “Crimson Birds of Small Miracles”, set in the art world of Shilinka Switalla, won both the Sir Julius Vogel Award, and the Asimov’s Readers Poll Award, for best short story.
He is a past winner of the Jim Baen Memorial Award, and the Amazing Stories Award.
Sean writes from a nook in a corner of his 110 year old home, usually listening to eighties music.
Also by Sean Monaghan
SCI FI FOR YOUNG ADULTS
Habitat
KARNISH RIVER NAVIGATIONS SERIES
Arlchip Burnout
Night Operations
Guest House Izarra
Canal Days
Persephone Quest
Tombs Under Vaile
CAPTAIN ARLON STODDARD ADVENTURES
Asteroid Jumpers
Ice Hunters
Ship Tracers
STANDALONE SCIENCE FICTION
Raven Rising
The City Builders
Athena Setting
The Cly
Gretel
Links
www.seanmonaghan.com
www.triplevpublishing.com