Kumadai Run

by Jaleta Clegg

  Air screamed over the hull. The temperature in the ship rose. Clark feathered the thrusters, trying to push us sideways. Each pulse of power yanked us farther towards the unknown planet. The hull creaked. I smelled burning fluid from the engine.

  Jasyn paused long enough to strap herself in before working on the scan equipment again.

  “How thick was the atmosphere?” Clark asked.

  “Barely breathable,” Jasyn answered.

  Clark cocked his head. Another burst of power dragged us lower. My stomach lurched. Clark hit the throttles. The ship tumbled sideways. I fell out of my chair, smacking my face against the edge of the control board. Clark pulled the ship around, goosing the engines. He counted as he pushed the controls. I scrambled back into my seat and belted in.

  “Got it!” A single glowing screen lit Jasyn's face. “You’ve got two seconds."

  Another pulse grabbed us. Clark shoved the throttles wide open. The ship dropped and slammed into the ground. We bounced into the air. I fought the stabilizer controls, trying to keep us right side up. Clark goosed the throttles. We scraped along something hard, the ship slewing to the right. I hit the reverse thrusters. The ship slid to a bumpy stop. Clark slammed the controls for an emergency shutdown. The whole ship filled with greasy smoke.

  I pulled the release on my belt. It jammed. I yanked until it finally popped open. By then the smoke had started to clear. The ship was on emergency power, only a few lights glowed, mostly the ones in the cockpit. All of the boards that weren’t dead blinked with red lights.

  “Not my best landing,” Clark said. “But we’re still in one piece.”

  “The ship isn’t,” I said. “Just once I’d like to actually fly a working ship for more than two weeks before something goes wrong.”

  “Most of the damage should be superficial,” Clark said. “I’m doing a complete shutdown.”

  All of the lights, except one irritatingly dim red one, turned off. The ship sat silent except for the tick of cooling metal. Even the life support systems shut off. The silence grated on my nerves.

  “Now what?” Jasyn asked.

  “We let everything cool down and then start it back up again and hope it works.” I’d had classes at the Academy that dealt with this kind of situation. I’d also thought at the time that I would never have to use the knowledge. Flying a trader wasn’t supposed to involve crashing onto unsettled worlds. Or any of half a dozen other things I’d found myself doing over the last year.

  I reached under my board, fumbling for the emergency stash. My hand closed over the comforting bulk of an emergency light. I pulled it out and hoped the batteries still worked.

  The light stabbed out when I pushed the button. I stood and took one step past Jasyn. The whole ship tilted to the side with an awful grinding noise. I dropped the light as I grabbed for the empty chair. It rolled under the boards, its beam of light bouncing and flickering as the whole ship slid sideways.

  The ship ground to a halt, tilted to one side. We all froze, waiting. We could be sitting on the top of a cliff, ready to slide over at any second.

  Nothing more happened for a long moment. I slowly let out my breath.

  “What did you say the planet looked like?” Clark asked.

  “Pretty flat,” Jasyn answered. She didn’t bother to add that at the distance she’d done the scanning, flat meant less than a thousand feet difference. A thousand feet on the ground was an awfully long way to fall.

  “And the air?”

  “It looked thin but breathable,” Jasyn said. Which was also an estimate. There hadn’t been time to do decent studies.

  “Do we take our chances?” Clark asked.

  “Do we have a choice?” I pried my fingers from the back of the empty chair.

  The ship settled with another loud groan, the tilt leveling out. Almost. The light bumped against my foot. I picked it up.

  “Now or never,” Jasyn said. She walked into the main lounge of the ship.

  The ship was a small one but well designed. The cockpit was far forward. Most of the living area was a large lounge area with the galley tucked in the back corner. Four cabins opened off it on the other side. Access to the engine and the cargo bays lay at the back of the lounge, opposite the cockpit. The airlock was to the side, across from the cabins.

  Jasyn walked up to it and palmed the controls. Nothing happened.

  “You need power to work it,” Clark said.

  Her hands balled into fists.

  “Then let’s get the power back on,” I said.

  I ducked down the short stairway to the engine hatch. I pushed the manual overrides. The door opened slowly, with me pushing and swearing under my breath.

  A cloud of smoke billowed out, smelling of scorched insulation and tubing. I coughed and waved the smoke away from my face as I took a step into the room. The engine still radiated a lot of heat. I ran the light over it, checking the critical hoses and wiring.

  The damage wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared. A handful of pipes that needed replaced, along with some wiring and a few minor components. We had the parts and the tools to do all of it.

  I wormed my way out of the engine compartment, careful to avoid the hot parts. Clark waited in the lounge, leaning against the storage compartments just outside the cockpit. Jasyn still faced the airlock.

  “Well?” Clark asked.

  I walked right up to him. “If I were you, I’d apologize to her,” I said quietly. “You and I have had the training to deal with this. She hasn’t.” I’d been to the Academy and he’d flown for the Patrol for several years before joining us. Jasyn had learned it all on her own.

  “She’ll hit me."

  “And you deserve it.” I pushed past him into the cockpit.

  I heard him cross the room. He said something quiet to Jasyn. She answered him sharply. I rolled my eyes as I sat in front of the controls. Being in space while they fought was bearable because I knew I’d have a chance to escape as soon as we reached our destination. Being stranded in the middle of nowhere with them promised to be miserable. For all of us.

  I hit the reset buttons on the boards and brought up the power.

  The ventilation system rattled then settled into its normal purr. The lights came on, low and yellowish. We would have to watch how much power we used. Reserve power should last a week, if we were careful.

  I turned to the scanners. From what I could see, most of them were hopelessly burned out by the energy pulse that had hit us. Only the sturdiest ones with the best shielding even pretended to work. I set up a few scans to run as calibration tests.

  I went back to the lounge. Jasyn and Clark still argued, quietly but fiercely, in front of the airlock. I butted between them. They glared at each other, but they shut up. I hit the door controls. The airlock hissed and complained as it slowly opened.

  I glanced at both of them. “Are you coming?”

  “I’ll stay here,” Jasyn said, looking down at her bare feet. Her toenails were painted an eye-burning orange.

  “Let’s go,” Clark said.

  “Only for a few minutes,” I said.

  The two of us crowded into the airlock. The door closed behind us. The stale ship air filtered out, replaced by a thin, cold air that carried the astrigent smell of crushed plants. The outer door slid open.

  Chapter 3

  Mats of vegetation covered the low swells of ground. A long gash plowed through it where the ship had come down. The crushed plants gave off a pungent, acrid smell. The plants to my right grew taller, rising to the height of small trees. Where we had landed the plants were knee high. Off to the left they dwindled, hugging the ground. A thin breeze blew from our right, rustling the plants. The sun was a swollen orange ball on the horizon.

  “Sunrise or sunset?” I asked.

  “Judging by the angle we came in, I’d guess sunset.”

  “Then let’s not go very far.”

  The boarding ramp refused to extend, jammed by the crash. I dropped the thre
e feet to the ground. The bushes crunched under my feet, snapping with sharp brittle pops. The smell grew stronger.

  Clark pulled out his com. “Jasyn?”

  The com buzzed with static. He frowned as he twiddled the controls. The static wouldn't clear. He shrugged and tucked it back away.

  Gravity was only about half normal. I walked a few steps away from the ship. We were in a shallow hollow of ground. I walked a little farther, until I could see beyond the ship. Clark crunched behind me.

  I stopped at the top of the low rise and slowly turned, taking in the whole view. The land fell away in rippled sheets, the plants growing lower and sparser in the distance. To the west, the direction we’d slid when we landed, the plants grew taller and more diverse. The breeze that had been blowing steadily faded as the sun set. A thin purple glow rose beyond the trees. Stars began to show in the dusky sky overhead.

  “What do you think that is?” Clark asked, pointing to the west and the glow drifting through the trees.

  “I don’t want to look in the dark."

  “Scared?”

  “Trying to be smart about this. Something isn't right on this planet.” I headed back to the ship. Each breath came harder. The cool air dropped quickly beyond freezing.

  “I don’t think I like it either,” Clark said as we reached the ship, his breath coming in thin puffs.

  I jumped into the airlock, easy to do under the lower gravity. Clark followed me in.

  I still had the creeps even after we’d gone through the airlock and locked it behind us. Jasyn had managed to bring the power back up, at least to normal planetside levels. She was busy in the galley, the smell of cooking made my stomach growl.

  “What’s it like out there?” she asked, without turning around.

  “Weird,” Clark said.

  “Livable, if we need to,” I answered.

  “We lost most of the scanning equipment,” she said. “The memory circuits are scrambled. We do have the basic equipment still running, though. The scans didn’t make sense.” She turned around to put a pot on the table.

  “What did you pick up?” Clark asked her.

  She ignored him, making it very clear that she was still upset with him. She looked at me instead.

  “I’ll run the scans myself,” I said. “You finish your fight so we can move on and find a way out of here.” I went into the cockpit and shut the door.

  I turned on the scanning equipment and set it for diagnostic runs, hoping that might clear some of the systems. The only functional unit was the basic one that had come with the ship. I set it for a full sweep.

  I leaned back in the chair while I waited for the results. In the vids and the books I’d read, marriage was supposed to make you happy. The vids always ended with the hero and the heroine riding off into a blissful sunset. Or something to that effect. In real life, I’d never had any close friends, until Jasyn. I’d never been on a date. I’d watched my roommates in the Academy dress up and go out, but I’d never been asked.

  Clark was asking my advice. As if I knew what he should do. Watching them fight tore me apart inside. It hurt to see Jasyn unhappy. It hurt even more to know that Clark was causing it. I liked him, in spite of everything. I wanted them to be happy, like in the vids. They’d both seemed so happy at their wedding. Was marriage only supposed to make you happy for a week or two? Was it supposed to make people miserable? Love was supposed to make everything better. It only seemed to cause pain.

  My own life wasn’t much better. Tayvis had told me he loved me. I admitted, at least to myself, that I loved him. He made me feel safe.

  The scanner beeped, finished with the first set of parameters. I pulled up the data and scrolled through it. It didn’t match what Jasyn had seen earlier. I found her data, what wasn’t scrambled, and compared the two. The air had grown much thinner since sunset. The temperature had taken a nose dive. I searched through the scans for the terrain map we'd grabbed on our way in.

  A huge gash marred the planet, running south to north for over three hundred miles, quite a span considering the planet was on the small side. When I matched that up with the scans for temperature and atmosphere, the areas of higher pressure and temperature matched exactly with the canyon.

  I typed in another instruction set for the scanners and set them to work again. My stomach growled, reminding me that I’d left dinner behind. I didn’t hear any sounds from behind the closed door but didn’t want to interrupt Jasyn and Clark. I dug through the emergency bin and found a ration bar. They’re supposed to be nutritious, packing in everything necessary for most species to survive. They tasted like dry cardboard with crunchy bits.

  I chewed my way through it while I waited for the new data. My thoughts drifted back to the topic of marriage. Had it been a mistake to let Clark stay on the ship? At the time, I didn’t think so. Jasyn would have left with him if I’d refused. So why were they fighting? I circled back to the idea that marriage was supposed to make you happy.

  The door slid open. I glanced back.

  Clark leaned in the doorway. He looked upset. “She locked me out of the cabin again. What have you found out?”

  “What did you do this time?”

  “Nothing.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t understand her. Talk to her for me, Dace.” His eyes pleaded with me.

  I shook my head.

  “You know her, Dace.”

  “Clark, don't ask.”

  “Please, Dace. I’ve tried everything I can think of. She won’t talk to me.”

  I let my shoulders sag. “You figure out how damaged the engines are. And find out what is going on out there, the scans are really strange.”

  “Thanks, Dace,” he said as he took my chair.

  I went into the lounge and knocked at Jasyn’s door.

  “Go away, Clark,” she said, her voice muffled.

  “It’s Dace.”

  The door slid open. Jasyn’s eyes were red from crying. “He sent you, didn’t he.”

  “Yes.”

  She hit the button to close the door.

  I jammed my foot in it. “He asked me to come talk to you. Jasyn, please. Let me in.”

  “Has he told you how awful I am?” She stepped away from the door, turning her back.

  “He told me he didn’t understand you.”

  Her cabin hadn’t changed much. I noticed a few things of Clark’s but mostly it was Jasyn’s room. It felt like he was just a visitor.

  “He doesn’t understand anything,” she said. “He thinks all he has to do is kiss me and I’ll do whatever he wants. That I’ll forget whatever he did.” She threw herself onto the bunk. “I made a mistake, Dace.”

  “I think you’re making one now. You love him, Jasyn. Why do you have to fight with him?”

  “You wouldn’t understand.” She draped her arm over her face.

  “Because you shut me out. You told me before that I was being stupid about Tayvis, when I told him to go away. You’re the one being stupid now, Jasyn. Clark loves you and he’s here.”

  “And that’s supposed to make everything better?” She raised her arm to glare at me.

  “I don’t know what’s supposed to make anything better. I hate seeing you unhappy. I hate what you and Clark are doing to each other.”

  “He doesn’t listen to me.”

  “Have you tried listening to him?”

  “Who’s side are you on, Dace?”

  “Mine.”

  She dropped her arm back over her face. “You don’t understand.”

  “No, I don’t. Because you’ve spent the last two weeks throwing tantrums. You won’t talk to me, you won’t talk to Clark. Should I call up Lady Rina and tell her she was right about you marrying outside the Family? She gave me an earful after the wedding. She didn't approve because Clark isn’t Gypsy.” Jasyn was Gypsy, although her family had been disowned when she was small because of something her parents had done. Lady Rina had kept track of her over the years, helping when she could. />
  Jasyn dropped her arms to her sides.

  “She read your cards, after you and Clark left,” I continued. “She said it would be a disaster.” It wasn’t true but it caught Jasyn’s attention.

  “She did not.”

  “No, she didn’t read the cards. But she did think that you were making a mistake. She said you’d let your heart blind your mind. She didn’t think Clark was good enough. And now you’re saying she was right. You made a terrible mistake marrying him. Shall I throw him out the airlock?”

  “She said that?” Jasyn’s face paled. “Do you think I made a mistake?”

  “I think you’re making one now, Jasyn. Clark is at least trying.”

  “And I’m not?”

  “Look at your cabin. It’s still yours. I thought marriage was supposed to be both ways, Jasyn. I don’t know much about it, though, so maybe I’m all wrong. Maybe it’s better to spend your life miserable and lonely.”

  “But you’ve got Tayvis, Dace.”

  “He isn’t here and he isn't perfect. I’m not either. Neither is Clark. Or you. Is love really worth it, Jasyn? All I can see is pain.”

  She sat on her bunk, pulling her feet up and tucking her knees under her chin. “I don’t know anymore, Dace. I used to think it would be wonderful, to be married, to be in love.”

  “Is it?”

  “It’s scary.” Her eyes were huge and vulnerable. “To trust someone that much. To want someone that much.”

  I looked away, turning my back. Her doubts echoed my own.

  “Does he love me, Dace?” she asked.

  “Ask him, Jasyn.” I opened the door. I didn’t know if I’d helped her any. I’d only made myself more miserable. I walked back out.

  Clark waited for me, leaning in the door of the cockpit. I couldn’t look at him. I went into my own cabin and shut the door.

  My cabin looked impersonal, as if I were afraid to show anything of myself. There were no personal items on display, no photos on the walls. I didn’t have any. Even the blanket on my bunk had been put there by Jasyn. Nothing in the room spoke of who I was. Was I as bad as Jasyn, locking myself away from others? Because I was afraid of being hurt? Or because I never learned how to reach out?