by Eric Flint
Sakura could not remember feeling more proud of her mother.
“Damn straight, Ma’am,” Campbell said. “Ain’t none of us giving up.”
“The universe punched us when Outward Initiative came apart,” Laura went on, “and we punched back. And when we knew we couldn’t get Whips safely to Orado, we found Lincoln. When we landed, Lincoln punched us again, and dumped LS-5. So we got up and punched back.”
“You did that,” Xander said. “We got punched more than once on the way here, and we found a way to make LS-88 work. Lincoln tried to eat us but you guys gave us just enough warning to duck that punch. Tried to kill me, and the sergeant punched it in the face.”
“Tried to kill us all, more ways than we can count,” Pearce said. “But we kept standing, ready for the next one.”
“Exactly,” Akira said, and Sakura felt not frightened, but uplifted. “We survive. We have survived our own despair. As long as life can survive on this world, we will survive.”
Everyone looked brighter, even Melody rising out of her shock, and the sergeant was simply nodding.
“So what do we do?” Sakura asked.
“Well, by that timeline we’ve got a bit more than a week,” Sergeant Campbell said. “This o’ course takes priority over everything else. What we do is we start stocking up Emerald Maui, and get her set up to carry every last one of us in as much style as we can. Might be we’ll be living on her for a bit before we find a place to land.”
Caroline gave a quick nod, glancing at her mother. “We’ll know more about what we have to do once we get a better prediction of impact. Worst-case it’s targeted right on us—then we’ve got to get in Emerald Maui as soon as we’re sure and start running as fast as she’ll go. Best-case, impact’s on the other side of the planet and then we’ll probably just want to stay here and hunker down. We’ll still want all the supplies we can get now, because there’s no telling how hard it’s going to be to get anything to eat afterward.”
“All right. So we assume worst-case; we’re going to have to run as fast and far as we can, and it will take a while to find a safe place to land afterward,” Laura said. She made a map of Lincoln appear. “Caroline, can you and Mel work on which direction we should flee, and how far in advance we should depart, depending on where it hits? I presume we have to go a different direction if it lands out there,” she pointed to the nearby ocean, “than if it hits just on the other side of our little continent, or more north or south.”
“Probably. I’m sure we can get that kind of modeling done.”
“Let Maddox help Mel,” Xander said. “Caroline, you’re one of our best hunters, and we’ll need you doing that to stock up. I know, you’re also the planetographer, but I think my brother and Mel can do something like that, what with the models we already have. Yes?”
“Good point,” Campbell said. “Unless anyone has an objection, I say do it that way.”
“No, he’s right,” Laura said. “Caroline, you will lead the hunting; we’ll need to split efforts between hunting and preserving, as fast as we can.” She glanced at the medical shelter. “Whips should be mobile a few days before impact. He’s healing pretty well.”
“I could move now—”
“You will not move until I say. You’ll be taking your first attempts at a pull-and-drag tomorrow, if all indicators stay stable.”
“…Yes, Mom.”
“That’s Doctor Mom right now.” A little laughter ran through the clearing. “But on the bright side you’re out of danger. In fact, I think you should work with Mel and the rest of us in any modeling. You can’t move, but there’s nothing wrong with your brain.”
“I can do that!”
“What about me, Mom?” Sakura asked.
“You’ll probably be doing something of everything, Saki. Work with Tavana on proper stocking and balancing of Emerald Maui. Hunt with Caroline, or do some fishing—Maddox seems to have a touch for it, but so do you. Gather as many edible plants as you can find. We’ll need it all.”
People were starting to rise, then Francisco said “Oy! Wait!”
Everyone turned to stare. He looked a little taken aback, then straightened. “My mama said you never start a new job hungry. We have time to finish dinner, ¿si?”
This was a wave of laughter that brought tears to Sakura’s eyes. Her mother did laugh until she cried, and then went and hugged Francisco so tightly he went oof!
“Yes, Francisco,” Laura said, still crying with a smile on her face. “Your mother is a wise, wise woman, and there is always time to finish dinner.”
Chapter 42
“I make it fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred kilometers, depending on just how it hits, how massive it is, and so on,” Caroline said.
Campbell nodded, studying the projection of the section of Lincoln they currently occupied. “Assuming Emerald Maui doesn’t have any hiccups, we can do that pretty easy in about ninety hours. Add ten for loading, minor glitches, that’ll leave us about a hundred, hundred fifteen hours before we have to leave. Call it about four, four and a half days, if we’re going to be near the center of the strike zone. If it’s more’n that away from us, we probably want to just sit tight; in between we’ll have a few more hours to work in.”
“Mel, have you been able to refine the orbit any? Get an idea of strike location?”
Melody had insisted she was too upset to go to bed at her usual time, so she was still working away, a projected keyboard in front of her. “Not yet, aside from verifying that it is going to hit Lincoln. I’ve got all the other satellites focusing on it, though, so by next morning I’m pretty sure we’ll have enough data to refine the track.” She looked over at Whips in her display.
“Right,” Whips said. “Multiple observations, and some of them separated by up to seventy thousand kilometers? That’ll give us some real data on its approach. As it gets closer we might get some detail on the impactor itself which will tell us a bit more about its mass and composition.”
“Right,” Campbell said. “So for now we have to go with worst-case: assume we’re standing on the bullseye. How’s it going, Captain?”
Xander’s voice had the hint of amusement that it always carried when the more-experienced Sergeant addressed him as Captain. “Finished hosing off the excavator while it sat on the ramp. It’s drying now. Then I’ll bring it in and get it locked down.”
“We’ve got more room in there since we lost the one, right?”
“Right. We can use that whole area for food or whatever else, as long as we can pack it tight and strap it down.” A pause. “You know, if we reshuffle storage space, we can probably make more interior living space. It’s not like we have to maintain a secure lock between cargo and personnel.”
“I think that’s a good idea, Captain,” Campbell said. “There’s gonna be thirteen of us in Emerald Maui, twelve humans and one Bemmie. We’ve got enough crash couches, but at least two or three’ve got to be removed or reconfigured for Whips. Check the data from Doc Kimei, she has the info on that design and reconfig from LS-5.”
“Will do.”
“I’m off to do some harvesting myself,” Campbell said, standing and grabbing a couple collection baskets. “Hitomi, where was that patch of hedrals you said you found?”
“Right here, Sergeant!” The smallest Kimei called up the map and put a pink dot on a semi-clearing visible on the satellite images. “Hedrals all over the place, though they’re mixed with what Mommy called false hedrals, so make sure you look careful!”
“I sure will.”
The brilliant sunshine of Lincoln hit him right in the eyes as he stepped out of the shelter. Based on sleep cycles this was late night, but Lincoln’s slower rotation didn’t cooperate with human preferences. Still, it sure helped wake a guy up when he had work to do.
He set off at an easy stride, observing the route to the target. Almost a kilometer off, through jungle. Even that little girl’s got endurance and stick-toitiveness that some of my recru
its never got.
He still noted every sound and motion; they hadn’t been on this part of the continent long, and there was still no telling what might be thinking that these funny bipeds would be good snacks, or might be threatening their territory.
He noted a pair of holes on what seemed to be a natural path ahead of him. Looks like minimaw burrows. He had no fond memories or feelings for the wormlike ambush predators; his leg still twinged some days from the damage one of them had done. Campbell gave the holes a wide berth.
Nothing else appeared to impede his progress, so it wasn’t long before he pushed his way—using a walking stick—through a patch of land hydroids, avoiding their stinging tendrils, and found himself in a sunnier and more open area.
Glitters like gemstones reflected from beneath the deep blue-green, almost globular bushes. The hedrals were faceted fruits—why they grew that way Akira hadn’t figured out yet—which were brightly colored and almost transparent as glass, the seeds showing as little dots inside the flesh of the fruit.
Hitomi’s warning had been appropriate; there were a lot of false hedrals growing here and there. They could be distinguished from the real ones by the fact that they were slightly oval in overall shape, rather than being faceted spheres, their color tended to shade from top to bottom rather than being even, and the bushes were greener and looser in structure. He checked all three indicators before he picked from any bush.
An hour and a half passed as he quietly, systematically picked the hedrals from their bushes. Occasionally a quadbird would dart down, snatch one of the fruits from a bush, and flap up; fluffpigs—tiny relatives of the capy—scuttled around in the brush, probably scavenging whichever berries fell to the ground. Campbell occasionally popped one of the gemlike berries into his mouth; they were tangy, sweet, and filled with juice, which helped him to keep going.
He’d worked his way across a fair amount of the clearing when his omni pinged. “How’s it going, Sergeant?” asked Laura.
“Pretty good, Lau—”
He cut off instantly. Something had moved, shifted as he spoke, when his words broke the sleepy afternoon silence of the clearing, and that “something” wasn’t three meters from him.
“Sergeant?”
He used his hand to touch the omni, send a “Wait” ping. Otherwise he did not move.
Slowly the massive, streamlined form became clear, and Campbell had to focus all his discipline to keep his pulse from skyrocketing. It was a tree kraken, lurking amid the bushes, and well within striking distance.
So why didn’t it strike?
There was a tiny sound, rustling leaves, and a motion that vibrated one of the bushes nearby. Slowly, one of the kraken’s head-arms became visible, holding a number of berries and pressing them into the multipartite mouth.
Well, I’ll be darned. We’re here for the same thing. Guess it’s not an obligate predator. Or maybe there’s some kind of medicinal value in the berries for it, like how cats will sometimes eat grass.
The problem was how to disengage. The creature had jerked, shown nervousness or confusion, when he’d spoken. On the other hand, he had managed to get this close to it without being struck. Maybe the kraken just wasn’t terribly interested in attacking anything right now.
Well, I’ve got a big bucket and a half of hedrals. Good enough and no need to push anything. He slowly began edging back the way he had come.
He saw a gleam in the lower brush; the kraken’s eye was now focused on him. He could also see one of the attack tentacles quiver, rise slightly in readiness. Don’t hurry. Don’t show fear. Just keep backing away slowly. Movement of a predator that would prefer not to fight today. The thing had a reach of at least three or four meters, and with a lunge and grab it was probably a striking-snake fast menace within seven meters or more, and Campbell didn’t like his odds against the thing in close quarters. As he eased backwards another short distance, his one hand drifted down and unsnapped the machete. If it came to a fight, he was going to have to be as fast as it was.
Another half meter. A meter. The eye was still tracking him, but the striking tentacle hadn’t yet lifted up. Now the outline of the creature was starting to be obscured as he put a bush between himself and the kraken. Still no strike. Three more meters and maybe I’ll be out of quick strike range. Still have to be careful.
One meter. Two. Three, and he couldn’t see the animal at all now. Most dangerous point. It can’t see me now and it might get nervous, and I won’t be sure where it’s coming from.
There was a faint sound of a heavy body shifting, and rustling of leaves…but quiet, slow. He thought he heard the squishing sounds of the kraken chewing berries.
Another two meters, and now he decided to risk taking longer steps. Three more, eight, ten more. Think I’m in the clear—let’s get home!
Still with an ear cocked for sudden movement, and scanning the jungle around him, Sergeant Campbell continued on. But he didn’t really breathe easy until he’d gone at least a hundred meters clear. “Okay, Ma’am, sorry about that. Had a little close encounter of the nervous-making kind.” He described his meeting with the tree kraken.
It was, not surprisingly, Akira who broke in. “Really? That’s fascinating! There are stories on Earth of people encountering bears in similar circumstances. And that does fit with my dissection of the kraken; they have digestive systems more extensive than generally seen with obligate predators, so they probably do consume some significant percentage of vegetable matter. And sweet berries would naturally be a strong attractant for any creature that wants highly concentrated energy.”
“Well, he’s welcome to all he wants right now, so long as he doesn’t chase me. Got us enough for a while anyway.”
“Xander finished securing the excavator,” Laura said. “Mel finally went to bed. We’re the only ones up right now.”
“Well, I’ll be ready for some shut-eye when I get back,” Campbell said. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us—you should probably get rest too. Perimeter sensors will warn us if there’s any problems.”
“I’ll feel better waiting until you’re safely back,” Akira said. “Just in case.”
“Okay,” he said, grinning to himself. “I guess I’d feel the same way. Now that I’m clear, shouldn’t be more’n a few minutes.”
He evaded the minimaw burrows again and picked up the pace. He was finally tired enough to sleep and tomorrow was going to be a new day.
The countdown had already started.
Chapter 43
Sakura held her breath as Whips reached out, gripped the shelter supports, and dragged himself forward. She could see his mouth contracting, as it usually did when he was focused or when he was in pain. Which is it?
“Well?” Laura asked.
“It…hurts a little,” Whips admitted, “but I don’t feel anything coming apart. No tearing or burning feelings.”
“Telemetry agrees with you. Your body’s mostly healed. I pushed the nanosupport as hard as I could on this—given the circumstances, it made sense.”
“So can I move around now?”
“I’d rather you not do too much…” Laura began, then she sighed. “Yes. Just be very careful, and pay attention to your body. Remember all the other times I warned you? This time it’s really important you remember. Don’t tell us it doesn’t hurt when it does, don’t try to ‘push past’ the pain. It’ll be a while before you’re back to your old self, and what none of us need is you having a relapse because you refused to take it easy when you should have.”
“Yes, Mom.”
“All right, everyone,” Melody’s voice came, sounding somehow cheerfully grim. “Do we want the good news or the bad news first?”
“Well, that sounds encouraging,” Campbell’s voice answered. “What’s the good news?”
“Between the satellites and the processing, we’ve nailed down our meteor’s track,” Melody said.
“Merde,” Tavana said dryly. “Then the bad news, it is about
where that track leads, yes?”
“It’s not quite on our heads, but best guesses have it coming down about fifty or sixty kilometers west of us.”
“Damnation,” Campbell said. “That thing’s coming right down onto our continent, then. Fifty kilometers west puts it right in the middle of the big forest we marked out on the satellite survey.”
Sakura felt a chill in her gut. She’d seen the simulations; at fifty kilometers they’d be blown to bits, if they didn’t get caught inside the fireball and vaporized. Also means there’ll be more debris involved.
“Then we’ve got about three and a half days to get everything ready. Saki, Tav, you two, plus me, are our pilots. Plot us the best-time course out of here to get us at least eighteen hundred kilometers away from the blast.”
“On it, Sergeant!” Saki said, and immediately hooked in Tavana. “We want to run east, right? If it’s west of us?”
“Oui, that would make the most sense. We are on the southern edge and near the eastern edge, so we can go reasonably due east, like this,” he projected a line across the map. It passed fairly close to two other islands.
“Seems simple—wait.” Sakura narrowed her eyes. “What’s the drift speed and course of those two? Project position forward, um…seven days, more or less.”
“Ah, good catch! Even after all this time, we assume things like islands stay put!” A pause. “The first one would cross the optimal path. The second…probably won’t.”
“What speed are we assuming?”
“Twenty kilometers per hour.”
“I thought you were cruising at fifty before, when you came to our continent!”
“We were, yes,” Tavana said, “But we didn’t push her at all bringing the kids back, and after everything she went through, I do not know how well she will do at higher speeds.”
