Overload Flux

by Carol Van Natta

  There was a distinct lack of diversity at the canopy level, where she would have expected the greatest variety. It was like an unfinished interactive exhibit meant to look like a rainforest.

  To the northwest, toward the installation, she saw several hillocks of trees, but nothing that suggested an insurmountable obstacle. They’d have to deal with any rivers as they came to them. The greyish clouds to the north looked billowy and dense, and considering the surprisingly strong wind was southward, the clouds were probably bringing rain. She thought Luka would have liked the view, then realized she didn’t know if he liked heights. There was still a lot she didn’t know about him.

  Enough sight-seeing, she told herself, and climbed back down the tree. She used some damp moss to wipe the sap off the climbing spurs before putting them in her pack. She was grateful that the canopy protected the ground level from the wind, although she would have liked more sunlight. Her muscles were sore from exertion and her bruises hurt, and she felt itchy under the clothes and armor, light as they were.

  She made herself drink several swallows of water, then slipped back into half-tracker mode and ran northwest as far as she figured they’d be able to get that day and looked for places to rest for the night. She’d only had to backtrack a couple of times to find the easiest routes. Sleeping off the ground was best, if they could rig the tarps into hammocks and none of them were restless sleepers. She used her wrist knife to test a tree with rougher bark and discovered it didn’t leak sap when pierced, which was good to know.

  On her way back, following her own scent to retrace her route, she made a point to note the locations of high ground, in case the rains were sufficiently intense to flood the swales.

  About twenty trees before she got to the clearing where she’d left Luka and the others, she shifted herself into realtime. She could feel the burn from her metabolism and knew she’d have to eat soon and sleep that evening, or risk collapse later. She made shuffling noises with her feet so they’d know she was coming, and hopefully not shoot her.

  Luka appeared almost immediately to meet her halfway and hand her a protein drink, which she gratefully accepted. His smile at seeing her made her heart skip. She was still feeling profound relief that he’d survived. She busied her hands with the drink pouch to keep herself from reaching for him. If she started, she’d never stop.

  “Did you have a nice walk in the park?” he asked with a teasing smile. His hands were balled in his pockets as he walked, as if he had to fight the same temptation she did.

  “Yes.” She smiled because he was there and smelled so nice, so familiar. “We can make good progress until dark, if Haberville remains mobile.”

  “She will. She wants to get to the base as much as any of us.” He companionably nudged her shoulder with his as they walked. “Jerzi plans to ask you all about exploration marathons.”

  She gave him an exasperated look. Luka laughed and put a companionable arm around her shoulders for a quick squeeze. “Just tell him you were young and frisky, and you didn’t compete.”

  “Frisky?” Her dubious tone made him laugh even louder.

  There was a disconcerting sameness to the terrain, reinforcing the impression it was like traveling through an unfinished exhibit. They made good progress, stopping when it looked like Haberville was in need of a rest. Each time, Jerzi determinedly collected samples of the plants using the xeno kit’s equipment, and enlisted the others to help. Haberville cooperated grudgingly, complaining it was a waste of time.

  “Could be,” said Jerzi, as he sealed a packet filled with a sample of reddish moss and stored it in the kit. “But if we make it out of here, I want something to show for it besides a ‘lived to tell the tale’ story for my great grandchildren. Whoever killed our ship, whoever thought letting a freaking hybrid planet live was a good idea, needs to pay.”

  Mairwen hadn’t given much thought to the politics or ethics of human galactic expansion. As she walked, she considered Jerzi’s underlying premise that safety could only be found on Earth-like worlds, even if it required finding viable alien worlds and either remaking or killing them. She wasn’t so sure it was right. It felt too much like what the CPS had done to her.

  The threatened rains finally came late in the afternoon, but they weren’t heavy enough to require stopping and waiting them out. The tree canopy filtered the rain into fine mist, making it like walking in a wet sauna. Their clothes were sopped with sweat and steam.

  When they at last got to the hill Mairwen had found earlier, she called a halt and explained her notion of rigging the tarps they carried to the trees so they and their supplies would be high enough off the ground to avoid floods and any possible predators. None of them had seen recognizable signs of any large mammals or reptiles, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any.

  She let Jerzi and Luka plan where tarps and ropes would go, and she and Jerzi did the climbing to secure them. Even though she tried to be slower than Jerzi and made a few deliberate mistakes, Jerzi was enthusiastic in his praise of her skill, and even Haberville looked grudgingly impressed. Mairwen would have much preferred to be ignored, although she admitted to herself that she enjoyed seeing the admiration on Luka’s face.

  Her joints were starting to ache, meaning she needed food and rest soon, or she’d be no use to anyone. She was increasingly stiff and sore from her earlier exertions with the pod doors and getting out of the ruined ship. She must have let it show, because Luka made her sit on a high tree root and eat a self-heating meal pack while he and Jerzi finished the setup. Jerzi handed out meal packs to himself, Luka, and Haberville, and Mairwen accepted a second one.

  Too soon, the comfortable, companionable silence was interrupted.

  “This reminds me of my first cohab, Moswin,” said Haberville. “He loved to hike, the farther from the comforts of civilization, the better. Which was still better than my second cohab, who never saw a mountain he didn’t want to climb. A few years after we terminated our agreement, he got himself killed on one.”

  “Sorry to hear that,” murmured Jerzi.

  “Don’t be. He was mostly a jerk.” She smiled wistfully. “But nova-hot in bed.”

  She smoothed a stray lock of hair off her face. Her perfect fire-opal fingernails and the woven strands of bright blue and shiny gold in her hair looked incongruous with the dirt and grime on the rest of her.

  “Now Heike, my third, was a city boy, through and through. Intergalactic banker, liked the finer things, and spoke about twenty languages. I’d still be with him, except he wanted me home all the time. It’s kind of hard to pilot a ship from your living room.” She rolled her eyes. “Plus, he wanted to get married.”

  Jerzi sighed. “I’d like to be married, but it’s… complicated.”

  “Marriages are always complicated. It’s an outdated concept. Cohab agreements are much easier to get in and out of.”

  He shrugged. “I prefer marriage, but my kid’s mother’s family hates me. The feeling is mutual. Dhorya and I are saving all we can so she and Pico can move to Rekoria. If we married now, the family would throw them out immediately.”

  “Family can bleed the life out of you, that’s for sure,” Haberville said sympathetically. “What do you say, Luka? Marriage or cohab?”

  For once, Mairwen wanted to hear the answer to Haberville’s overly personal inquiries. Luka’s past was his own, but Mairwen couldn’t help being curious.

  “I’ve never been in either.” He used his fork to scrape up the last of the green goo that the package claimed was creamed spinach.

  Haberville was amused. “What, no near-misses? No prospects?”

  “Nope.” His tone was bland, but Mairwen sensed the irritation in his voice.

  “You know what they say,” Haberville said, waving a dismissive hand. “There are plenty of fish in the sea if the local minnows aren’t biting.”

  She turned to Mairwen and smiled. “Your turn, Morganthur. Marriage? Cohab? String of broken hearts?”

  Mai
rwen affected deafness and ignored the question. She would tell Luka if he wanted to know, but it was no one else’s business.

  “Come on, Morganthur. You know about all of us.” Haberville’s wheedling tone had an edge to it.

  Mairwen was too tired to listen any more. She folded her empty food container and sealed it, then slid it into the bottom of her pack. No sense attracting hungry local critters unnecessarily.

  In an unlooked-for bonus, Haberville’s evident irritation caused her not to speak for a full seven minutes. If Mairwen had known that was all it took to silence the social interrogation, she’d have tried the tactic days ago.

  There were only three tarps and nets big enough for sleeping humans, meaning two of them would have to share. Mairwen rigged slings for watchers above each tarp. At least there was enough clear plastic sheeting to protect each of them if it rained again.

  Haberville was not a climber, and needed both Luka and Jerzi to help her into her tarp. She was lucky they were along, because Mairwen had no patience with intentional helplessness and would have left her to fend for herself. Particularly since she had continued her habit of leaving the cleanup for others. Mairwen flattened the empty meal pack container Haberville had left on the ground and put it in the bottom of her own pack.

  Mairwen estimated they had one more day of travel until they got to the installation, and wished they could go faster. When the Berjalan’s saboteurs eventually came looking to confirm their kill and didn’t find orbiting wreckage, the first place to look would be the planet. Their only slim hope was to find safety in the more defensible building on the base.

  She climbed the tree, then flipped up and over into the rope sling she had rigged just above Luka’s tarp. She’d slept in worse conditions, but not since she’d left her former life. Civilization had made her soft, her brain said sourly. She ignored it. Being civilized, being human, was a price worth paying if it kept her with Luka.

  He was stretched out below, hands behind his head. Even in shadow, he was dangerously handsome, and her memory filled in what her eyes couldn’t see in the rapidly failing light. The scent of him made her feel warmer than the noonday sun.

  “Come be with me,” he murmured quietly, and reached out a hand to her.

  His smile and rumbling voice were so enticing that she melted inside, and her chest and arms ached with a hollowness that only his touch could relieve. They’d been amazingly lucky thus far, surviving a crash on a hybrid planet that hadn’t killed them yet. Suddenly, she didn’t want to spend another second apart from him.

  She piked and kept her knees bent, then slid down and straightened so she was only supported by her flexed feet in the sling. She reached down to the connector line that supported the tarp and released her feet. She balanced on her hands long enough to drop her legs one at a time onto the tarp, then lifted the net and slid her body down along Luka’s, into the circle of his arms.

  “Show off,” he said, so quietly he was almost whispering.

  It had been showing off, because he openly delighted in her abilities. “You’re a bad influence,” she breathed. “You make me want to.”

  She snuggled closer to him and let more of her body drape over his because he felt so wonderfully good, and it soothed her sore muscles. She didn’t mind the heat of the night, and thought Luka must be happy to be warm. He had to have been miserable on the cold planet where he grew up.

  She wanted to talk to him about arranging watch shifts, but a yawn surprised her.

  “Hey, Jerzi,” Luka said loudly. “Could you take first watch? Four hours, then wake me?”

  “You bet, sir,” came the good-natured response. “I’ll set a timer.”

  He turned his head toward Haberville’s tarp. “Eve, we’ll give you a pass for tonight. Mairwen will take third watch.”

  Haberville coughed and mumbled something that sounded like assent.

  Mairwen nestled her head on Luka’s chest just under his shoulder. She felt his fingers stroking her hair, and she couldn’t resist sliding her thigh over his and splaying her hand on his chest, feeling the power and sound of his breathing, like a soothing metronome. It felt right, and comforting. Her hormones stirred at the feel of him, but fatigue won. She sighed and settled into the bliss of his buttery, pearwood-scented warmth.

  “Relax, sæta,” he whispered, the air from his breath ruffling her hair. “Let me watch over you for just this once. You can be our dedicated sentinel again in the morning.”

  She drifted into a deep sleep punctuated with dreams of running with Luka by her side.

  CHAPTER 17

  * Planet: Insche 255C * GDAT 3237.043 *

  Because Luka had taken second watch, she’d gotten a full eight hours of sleep, which she’d needed to compensate for her use of tracker mode. That she’d only stirred when Luka had gently awakened her for her turn at third watch was a testament to how much she’d come to trust him.

  As soon as it was light enough, she downed a bland protein bar, then went scouting while the others ate, broke camp, and repacked their supplies. Her foray confirmed her worry that today would be a rougher trip. Already, they’d begun seeing denser vegetation as they’d traveled farther away from the lake. Today it got worse as she went on. They’d have to detour around large, dense thickets, adding unwelcome distance between them and the installation.

  The intermittent low humming she’d been hearing was more noticeable, though she still couldn’t determine its source. An increasing sense of urgency drove her to stay in half-tracker mode all the way back to camp, even though it meant she’d need more food and water immediately and more rest later.

  When she arrived back at the hill, sweat pouring down her face and neck, Luka and the others were ready to go. Without asking, he handed Mairwen a hot meal pack. Fortunately, they had more than enough to get them to the installation. After that, it was anyone’s guess as to what they’d find.

  It was hard and hot travel, but at least Haberville seemed to have more stamina after a good night’s rest, although she’d developed a cough. She complained more, too, but Jerzi was well able to handle her, and his attentive care kept her mollified. During a break later in the day, when Luka and Jerzi had gone off to relieve themselves, Mairwen’s sensitive hearing picked up part of a conversation between them.

  “...piloting skills saved our asses, so I’m willing to cut her some slack.” said Jerzi. “She reminds me of my mother.”

  “I advise you,” replied Luka with mock seriousness, “to never, ever tell her that.”

  “Don’t worry,” Jerzi said with a snort. “I only look that stupid.”

  In the afternoon, they lucked into a freshwater stream and filled all their containers, though it added to the weight they had to carry. Fortunately, their medical kit had plenty of chemelec water filters, more than was usual. Luka’s forethought, she imagined.

  The inland thickets were home to a new kind of fly, larger and slower than the sap-loving version that congregated under low-lying leaves. When a passing boot or knee disturbed them, they puffed up in swarming clouds before settling down again a few minutes later. Jerzi caught a few of them in stasis vials and stored them with the other samples.

  At sundown, they were still a good two kilometers from the installation. The waning moonlight wouldn’t make it past the tree canopy. Moving in the unrelenting darkness wasn’t an option. It made Mairwen edgy to be so close to the installation and potential danger.

  As they finished eating, Luka proved to have been harboring the same concerns as Mairwen.

  “Considering that ship and how well lit the base was when we came in, we have to assume it’s staffed and protected on some level. If whoever tried to kill us at Horvax finds our ship in the lake, they’ll likely be using the base to organize their search operations. We didn’t try to hide our trail.”

  Mairwen frowned. It was something she should have considered. Another mistake she hoped wouldn’t cost them.

  Luka continued. “This forest is ama
zingly quiet, which means we’ll hear anyone on foot a lot sooner than usual, but they can hear us, too. We’ll need to travel clean and quiet from here on out.” He scooped up a discarded wrapper that Haberville had left on a high tree root. “Eve, how good are you with projectiles or beamers?”

  She made an equivocal gesture with her hand. “I can hit stationary targets with either, but firefights aren’t my ace, and I don’t think I can run here. The air feels heavy when I breathe. I’m usually at the flight controls.” She pointed at Jerzi and smiled indulgently. “There’s your marksman, or so he says.”

  Jerzi confirmed it with a nod that wasn’t cocky, just confident. “That’s why I saved my railgun.” He pointed to the shoulder bag that hadn’t left his side. “It’s part of why La Plata hired me.”

  “Good.” Luka turned back to Haberville. “We’ll give you the projectile rifle and its magazines. Mairwen and I will pick from what’s left.”

  After helping Jerzi settle Haberville on her sleeping tarp, Luka led Mairwen to the pitifully small pile of other weapons they’d salvaged from the ship. Not counting the few knives and one machete, or the projectile rifle already reserved for Haberville, the selection included two tiny low-res beamers, two handled beamers and various powerpacks, a solar-charged cutting laser, and one wide-array plasma gun, which would have stopped a rampaging rhinoceros, but for which they had no extra chargers.

  “Pick your poison, milady.” He gave her a courtly bow.

  She shook her head. “You should choose a weapon you’re comfortable with.”

  “I’m a decent shot with any of them. I’ve learned to shoot practically every personal weapon on the market in the last twenty years. Fringe benefit of my job.” He gave her an impish grin. “Keeps me entertained.”