Analog SFF, November 2009

by Dell Magazine Authors

  "It's getting dark,” Leo said. “Let's say a prayer for him tonight and discuss what we're going to do. We can send a search party at first light tomorrow.” He stared right at Jacques.

  Do I challenge him? Jacques asked himself. Not over something that he's right about. “Okay, let's talk."

  "Tell him, Gabe,” Leo said.

  "Yes, tell him,” Dominic said.

  "We need to think about what kind of life we're going to make here,” Gabe said. “Now, I'm no New Reformationist myself; I'd been a real Christian for seventy years before I joined this expedition. But if you take away all that nonsense about the face on Mars, they have some ideas about how to organize a colonial agricultural society that really work."

  "Like keeping women in their place?” Collette asked.

  "There's a natural division of labor; it's in our genetic makeup. Child-rearing, making clothes, domestic stuff and all that. Most women want it that way."

  "Well, I don't,” Collette said.

  "Okay, well, so maybe we make a few exceptions to start with. Now there needs to be some firm secular authority. We can't be forever debating on what to do. And there needs to be some spiritual authority, too, someone to remind us that we're human beings made in God's image."

  Doc cleared his throat and said very softly and mildly, “I'm not going to practice or pay lip service to your religion."

  Gabe waved his hands, “And I wouldn't want to make you do so. But now just think downstream a little. We get ourselves all sorts of kids, and kids can be unruly if they aren't afraid they're going to get caught. Even adults; God knows what we'd do if we didn't know someone was watching us and judging us!"

  "The golden rule gives me a sufficient standard,” Helen said. “The laws of the physical universe show us the consequences of our actions to others, and to ourselves."

  "But we don't all have Ph.D.s in physics. What's going to keep everyone else in line? We need, I say we need, some kind of religion, something to scare people to do the right thing that can't think it through themselves all the time. I mean, what's it going to be like when we have a thousand, ten thousand people here? What's going to keep them all in line?"

  Jacques’ patience was wearing thing. “We are not going to stay here and found a colony. We are going to recover our technology, build a starship, and go home."

  "But how are we going to do that?” Dominic asked. “It's not possible. We've got one wristcomp and solar array that's just barely working. There are only a dozen of us. We have to spend most of our time just finding enough to eat and keep from being dragonoid meat. Be realistic. Maybe in a few years, some of us will have some spare time to work on the problem. Meantime, we need to accept reality. I think Gabe can give us some real common sense leadership, and we're going to need that to get through this."

  This was the same man who, just days ago, had so emotionally stated his commitment to finishing their mission! Jacques wanted to tell him about the shuttle, but realized that would reveal his knowledge to the saboteur.

  "I think someone who doesn't have a religious agenda would be more appropriate,” Doc Yu said. “Helen, for instance."

  Gabe shot him a look of pure contempt. “An atheist nudist! You expect me to follow that!"

  Helen laughed. “No, I don't suppose you would. Perhaps we can compromise. Gabe has the energy and desire to organize things. So he can be our CEO. But we can be the board and vote on policy matters, and I would think Jacques should be our chairman. Can we make that work?"

  "It seems a lot more complicated than we have time for,” Dominic said.

  "Do you want to split the community already?” Doc said.

  "Do you?” Dominic retorted.

  Leo touched Gabe's arm. Gabe nodded and opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, a new voice echoed off the rocks.

  "Hello, everyone, someone give me a hand!” It was Soob, from somewhere in the dark.

  Jacques ran into the shadows toward the voice and found the missing hunter dragging the better part of a kangasaur carcass on a travois of blackwood branches.

  "It seemed confused, running toward the fire,” he shrugged. “It was going to die anyway. So I speared it and dragged it across the river before the flames got to me."

  "What fire?” Maria asked.

  "Don't you see it? It's huge! Look at the sky glow over the caldera rim. The whole north slope is going up!"

  * * * *

  Chapter 10

  Out of the Frying Pan

  Jacques stared at the flames and tried to calculate how long it would take them to spread around the rim of the caldera. If his guess about the ecology was right, the large trees themselves had evolved to tolerate the fire; it would be mainly the smaller brush that was burning. Flames would be less likely to jump gullies and creeks than similar fire back on Earth.

  "Oh my God!” Gabe said and stared at the glowing sky. “Well, that settles it. We have to stay here where we're safe. It's a sign, I believe."

  "I don't recommend that,” Doc said. “We'd be trapped without an adequate food supply."

  "At the risk of repeating myself, we should get out of this caldera,” Helen said.

  "That, apparently is what the rest of the animal life in these parts has done,” Soob added.

  "We aren't animals and if Gabe says we stay, we stay,” Leo said. “He's our leader."

  There was a moment of silence, broken by Edith Lu. “I don't think that has been decided,” she said, very hesitantly. Leo shot a look at her.

  It was then that the slow drift of air brought the first smell of fire. Jacques looked around. “Deliverance Creek hasn't gone dry yet. We should be able to follow that down to the coast; there are a number of kangasaur trails paralleling it."

  "You shut up!” Leo said, raising his staff. The smaller man's eyes bored into him.

  "What?” Jacques said, dumbfounded at the threat of violence.

  "Now just hold on a minute here, both of you!” Gabe said. “We can't go anywhere tonight. Let me sleep on it. Maybe it'll look different in the morning, after you two cool off."

  "Jacques doesn't need to cool off,” Doc said quietly. “He didn't do anything. Leo staged that to give you an opportunity to look like a leader."

  Everyone looked at Leo, who just stood there with his hands tight around his staff. Jacques spoke into the awkward pause. “We have plenty of light to see the trail,” he said, waving a hand at the sky glow. “Let's gather things up and get going. We can spend the night at Rim Cave."

  "Too risky,” Gabe said. “Dragons up there."

  Dominic Oporto shook his head. “I'm with Gabe. I'm not going out there to get fried just on the chance the volcano might burp. We can eat fish until the fire's over."

  There was another long silence, with people staring at each other. Leo brought his staff down slowly and Jacques took a deep breath. His own hands, he noted, had clenched into fists with such force that his fingernails had dug into his palms. Low gravity beside the point, weeks of unremitting physical labor had hardened his body. Staff or not, he probably would have little trouble in a physical confrontation with Leo. Perhaps what was in the other man's eyes was as much fear as anger.

  "You need more than fish,” Doc said.

  "Perhaps splitting up is not such a bad idea,” Helen said. “If there is risk in both directions, our overall odds of survival are better if we try both. Assuming even odds, that would give an overall probability of success of 75 percent. The successful group can rescue the other, if need be."

  "The question is who's in charge,” Leo said. “I say it's Gabe, and if you walk out on him, you're gone and don't look for any rescue."

  "I really believe we're better off staying together here,” Oporto said. “I just know it."

  Gabe nodded and waved an arm. “Okay. My decision is to stay."

  Jacques looked around. Collette and Soob had already gone back into the cave to gather things. Helen turned and walked in that direction as well. That left
him, Gabe, Leo, Dominic, Maria, Arroya, Doc, and Edith. Maria looked down, not meeting his eyes. Edith looked to be on the verge of tears, but stayed where she was. Gabe and Leo, Jacques thought, had chosen their own fate, but he felt responsible in some way for the rest.

  "Arroya?"

  She was looking at Collette, almost in fear. She shook her head sharply.

  Evgenie attempted to dissuade her, but she wouldn't move. “I need to stay with her,” he said.

  "Edith?” he asked.

  She glanced at Collette, then looked down at the ground. She'd had her heart set on him, and he, in her mind, had deserted her for Collette. Jacques felt awful, but was unable to give Edith what she wanted.

  Doc walked over to Jacques, put a hand on his back, and nodded to the cave. Jacques followed him. The sooner gone the better, he decided.

  When they emerged, set for their journey, the remaining group made no quarrel with the division of the few common resources and pretty much ignored them. Except Gabe, who walked with them to the trailhead.

  "Are you sure you won't reconsider?” he said, motioning to the glowing red sky. “Looks pretty hot out there."

  Jacques hesitated. Was Gabe a saboteur and a murderer? Somehow Jacques didn't think so; the man seemed too sure of himself and his beliefs to stoop to such tactics. Should he warn Gabe that among those remaining was probably the author of their entire situation?

  Yet Gabe might still be that person himself. Or Leo, hiding behind Gabe. Or someone hiding from the group. Or anyone, Jacques thought. With a surreptitious power source, even the people they'd pulled from the CSUs could have gone out and in again, he thought. His next thought was that he was getting paranoid.

  He shook his head and without another word turned and headed for the ridge. He did not look back, even when he heard Edith sob.

  * * * *

  The scene when they reached the rim, about local midnight, was surrealistic; the inferno from the North side of the caldera had extended fangs of fire into the area between the rim and the sea—a vast glowing upper jaw. Underlit red and gold clouds laced with black and gray roiled into the sky above. The air smelled of soot and a dull crackling roar, still distant, banished silence.

  "We shouldn't stop to sleep,” Helen said, clearly appalled at the scene to the north. “The coast could be a day or two away, even at a downhill lope."

  "I think Jacques has something else in mind,” Collette said.

  Jacques shook his head. “Not unless we're very lucky. There's a river valley to our south that we can follow down. It hasn't gone dry; I think it's fed by the lake in the caldera through an underground passage. There are pools along the way. If the fire catches us, we duck. The slope flattens out toward the coast. I'm hoping for better foraging there."

  "And what if we get lucky?” Soob asked.

  Should he tell them? What if one of them decided to go back to Gabe?

  You can't avoid all risk, he decided. “We get a megabat to give us a lift.” Jacques recounted the flight he and Collette had taken. “We're a lot quicker than they are; they're basically carrion eaters, not hunters. I'm hoping the misfortune of some kangasaurs along the way will prove our fortune. It takes some nerve but once you get on, you can steer them by pulling on their ears."

  "You're serious?” Doc said.

  "He certainly is!” Collette said.

  "Okay, okay.” He shook his head. “We should take at least a couple of hours rest here; we'll get the time back by being more alert and making better decisions on the trail below."

  There was general assent to that and people headed for the cave. Inside, Jacques went to where he had hidden his electronics. Did he want to lug Ascendant's CSU control module along with everything else? He decided not to; he knew what was on it. But he did pull its memory chip. The shuttle computer might be able to get more out of it than he could. With that done, he turned in, about an hour later than everyone else.

  * * * *

  Morning was like waking up in an oven. The smell of smoke was everywhere now, and the sky was a red blanket, lit from beneath by the fires in the north and only somewhat lighter in the direction of the sun. Jacques assembled the small group for the dash to the sea. It was 48 C at 3600 plus millibars. Fortunately, there was plenty of water, even if it was warm. Everyone was quiet and apprehensive; the next two days would likely test them physically and mentally as nothing in their life had ever done.

  But before they left, Collette wanted to have a word with everyone.

  "As some of you know, or have figured out, Ascendant Chryse was murdered."

  "What?!” Helen exclaimed.

  Doc simply nodded, and Jacques had already told Soob.

  "She was camping in her CSU. Someone came by at night and cut the power from outside, locking her in and suffocating her. Whoever it was left fingerprints on the control module and the sides of the CSU.” Collette held up a small thick rectangular card, about half the size of the palm of her hand. “My micro crime lab. It does fingerprints, voice recognition, DNA matching, and a number of other things."

  Jacques stared at her. He knew she was a policewoman, but had just assumed that circumstances had left that far behind. But if he looked back, there were clues. The long time she'd spent on the hunt before they'd taken the ride on the megabat. The careful attention she'd paid to everything. He gulped, suddenly realizing his own prints were all over Ascendant's campsite.

  "It's not an AI, Jacques. I wouldn't have held back on something useful. Anyway, the same person may have been responsible for the sabotage of our mission and our present predicament. I'm 90 percent certain it was nobody in this group."

  "We were all under water!” Soob said.

  "One can swim up and down from a submerged CSU, as long as it has enough power. And our perpetrator would have been able to plan in advance. What I'd like everyone to do now is to come up and touch the mini-lab. We all need to trust each other, and be sure. Then I'll explain everything. Jacques?"

  "But my prints are all over her CSU!"

  "Two days after she expired, and during the day."

  "That can tell the difference?” Soob asked, in wonderment.

  "It can date fresh prints within about 12 percent. I already have Jacques’ prints,” she smiled at him. “Soob?"

  He shrugged, walked up, and touched the device where Collette indicated. Helen and Doc followed. There were no matches.

  "Now I hope we get to hear what this is all about,” Helen said.

  Collette nodded to Jacques.

  "Okay. There's an intact starship shuttle on this planet,” he said and pointed west. “That way. We think we can take control of it, if we can reach it physically."

  "Then we'd best get going,” Doc said.

  * * * *

  They jogged, rested at a walking pace, and jogged again. The high oxygen content and the downhill slope helped; however, their lack of calories made them tire easily. As the day wore on they spent less time jogging and more time walking. The kangasaur path that roughly paralleled Deliverance Creek grew wider as they descended.

  "It's almost like a river itself,” Soob remarked during a water break at the creeks edge. “Other paths join it."

  "A migration path, maybe,” Jacques noted. He wanted to sleep. More than anything else, he wanted to sleep. The sun had probably set, but with the fire glow lighting the sky, it was hard to tell.

  "Dry down here,” Helen said, snapping a desiccated flute plant stem. “Hot.” She ducked out of her bag, pulled her boots off, and picked her way into the creek. It still ran vigorously, but it was easy for Jacques to see where its normal boundaries were.

  "I'd join you, but I'm too tired,” Collette said.

  "Listen,” Doc said. “That crackling noise. The fire must be getting near."

  Three hundred meters upstream, a stand of flute plant burst into flames, without any spark that anyone cold see. Quickly, its neighbors caught fire.

  "Let's get in the creek.” Soob said.

&
nbsp; But Helen, who was already in, did the opposite. “It will be filled with burning logs in minutes. I think we have to run for it."

  For the moment, fear banished fatigue, and soon they were jogging down the trail again.

  But in a few minutes, the adrenaline rush ran out. Fantasies of heroic leadership dying, it was Jacques, himself, who hit the wall first. Perhaps because he was a bit larger, or because he'd been subsisting on a native diet longer, or perhaps because he'd had less sleep. Or all of that.

  "I can't go on,” he said as he collapsed. “Muscles won't move."

  Doc came back for him and pressed a small patch on his arm. “Only a few of these,” he said. “I've saved them for emergencies. It should give you another couple hours, then you're out."

  Jacques felt a sort of coolness flow through his body. He shivered, then found he could stand. Doc looked at him and nodded. Two hours would not be enough, and they both knew it.

  An hour and half later, Jacques started to slow down again. The world reeled around him. “Collette,” he tried to call out, but it was only a whisper.

  Soob saw him stumble and came back to aid him and called for Doc to help.

  "Eureka!” Helen yelled from somewhere in front of them. “It's a lake!"

  "Come on, guy,” Doc said. “Just another hundred yards or so."

  Later, Jacques would swear that Doc said that at least five times before he fell into the water.

  Wall of flame rose around him as he was towed to a hillock of pahoehoe lava in the lake. It was free of vegetation—probably underwater most of the year. The smooth rock felt cool on his back as he lost consciousness.

  * * * *

  Chapter 11

  Flight

  Jacques woke to devastation. In place of trees, skeletons of white ash stood like ghostly Ents beyond the shores of their refuge. The forest floor was as white as if covered by snow. The sky above was gray now, though red-tinged toward the west horizon. The air smelled and even tasted burnt.

  "Good morning,” Soob said, from somewhere behind him. “Doc caught something!"

  It looked vaguely like a catfish with three sets of lobed fins and a horizontal tail.

  "I hope you like sashimi,” Collette added.