“That’s not an option.”
“What do you mean? It’s my ship. I can stay there anytime I want.”
“If only it were that easy.”
***
The fate of the Earth might rest on her shoulders, but at the moment, all Lauren wanted was to find a place to get warm and sleep. It seemed they’d been walking for hours but she knew it had only been two or three. When they’d passed the Kalevala, she’d asked, “Why can’t we just stay in my ship?”
“It’s too close to Egakik.”
Pukak still hadn’t explained the Unknown but the farther they got from what passed for civilization, the meaning became clearer
“Who’s going to tell them?” Lauren asked.
“It’s too risky.”
“Why?”
“If we don’t honor the orders of The Highest Priest, they will kill us with Cold Fire.”
She’d seriously considered telling Pukak he was on his own but then she realized two things. One: she was the reason he was in so much trouble and two: she couldn’t survive out here without help. Even with the spacecraft for shelter. She had no idea how to use Cold Fire, and while she had enough rations for the return trip, the Space Consortium had assumed she’d eat on-planet foods for the year she lived among The Siku.
I’m so screwed. Talk about hell in a handbasket.
After leaving the ship behind, they hadn’t talked much. Every time she tried to ask questions, he shut her down.
At least the wool sweater is keeping me warm and the language lessons were dead on the money.
Her legs burned with the effort of pulling them out of the snow drifts and more than anything she wanted to be home, on her shabby sofa, with a glass of white wine in her hand. Instead she was exiled to the Unknown, wherever that was, with a guy she barely knew on a planet that was shaping up to be way less than advertised.
“How much farther until we can stop?”
“I’m looking for a place to make camp now.”
The snow-covered forest seemed to be never-ending. “It all looks the same to me.”
“I’ll have to figure out a way to build a traditional fire. I’ve never started one but I’ve read about them. I know we’ll need wood.”
“No Cold Fire?” Pukak was no better equipped to deal with the punishing cold than she was.
“It’s forbidden in the Unknown.”
What isn’t fucking forbidden in the Unknown?
“I can build a fire,” Lauren said. “Just show me where.”
He gestured for her to follow him down an embankment to the edge of a wide river. The waterway was frozen. “We can move more easily if we use the river. Tomorrow we’ll finish our journey and set up something more permanent.”
“Permanent? You mean this is forever?”
“I thought you understood.”
“I might have understood if you’d talked to me and explained whatever the hell that was back there in Egakik. You’ve barely spoken to me all day. I’m alone on a strange planet that’s turning out to be a huge pain in the ass.” For the first time since she’d arrived on Utuquq, Lauren was really afraid. “I came to learn, collect data, and I don’t even understand what’s happened to me.” Tears welled in the corners of her eyes and quickly froze as they ran down her cheek. She wiped her face with her mitt. “I’m scared, Pukak. Really scared.”
He placed his hands on her upper arms and looked into her eyes. “I know you are.” His dark eyes, so black it was impossible to decipher where the iris stopped and the pupil began, were filled with worry. “But we’ll figure something out.” He pulled her into his arms and she breathed in the smell of him. While it didn’t make her fears disappear, it did soothe her.
She pulled back and looked into his eyes. “We have to.”
They gathered some wood from some fallen trees just on the edge of the river bank and Lauren stacked it carefully so that it would draw. Underneath the logs, she stuffed dry leaves and small sticks, hoping the kindling would catch. It was getting darker by the minute and she wanted a good fire before dark. “I’ve got some matches in my backpack. I’ll get the fire started.”
“Matches?”
At first, she thought maybe she’d used the wrong word or pronounced it wrong but after pulling the waterproof box out of her pack and showing him one, it still didn’t seem to register. “It’s an easy way to start a fire.”
He took the match between his thumb and forefinger and examined it closely. Then he sniffed it and handed it back to her. “I don’t understand.”
How in the hell had The Siku lived in this climate for hundreds and thousands of years without matches?
“When was Cold Fire discovered?”
“Centuries ago, before we came to Utuquq. It is how we power our lights, our ZipperSleds, everything.”
It was just that simple. They’d never used combustion. Instead, they’d used a different chemical reaction to create heat. Without fire, they would’ve dramatically cut down on greenhouse gas emissions making climate change highly unlikely.
She had no idea, at this point, if there was any way to create Cold Fire on Earth. She needed more time on Utuquq
“Watch this,” she said, striking the match. It sizzled to life and in the orange-yellow glow, Lauren saw the wonder in Pukak’s eyes.
“It’s beautiful.” His voice was barely above a whisper and was child-like in its amazement.
She bent at the waist and lit the fire. The kindling caught immediately and Lauren breathed a sigh of relief. “I think we’ve got it.”
After selecting a relatively flat spot near the fire and tamping down the snow by walking on it, Pukak said, “We can sleep here.”
“No tent?”
“It is forbidden,” they said in unison.
Even though the situation was dire, both of them laughed. “At least we have each other,” Lauren said, grabbing one of the ration packs and handing the other one to Pukak.
“And the fire,” Pukak said.
“Tomorrow we’ll figure something out.” Lauren didn’t know if she was trying to convince Pukak or herself.
***
Lauren went to sleep quickly, worn out by the events of the day. Her breathing was slow and even and he hoped he was warm enough. He tucked her scarf more tightly around her neck and closed his eyes. Sleep didn’t come. He had too much on his mind. Out here in the Unknown, with no food stores, no shelter and no supplies, it was only a matter of time.
He knew that. He’d always known that. Being banished to the Unknown was a death sentence, albeit a slow and painful one.
Pukak lay awake, watching the Twin Orbs as they made their way across the night sky. He had no idea how they’d survive out here. As an academic, he’d read plenty but he didn’t have much in the way of practical experience. Without Lauren’s match, he might have frozen to death on the first night of his exile.
He didn’t even doze until the first rays of The White Star reflected off the snow.
***
Lauren knew she had to figure out a way to get the hell out of the Unknown and back to Earth. While she realized that Cold Fire might be the answer to reversing climate change back at home, she wasn’t going to learn anything about the science of it here in the Unknown.
There had to be a solution. With her background in science and engineering and Pukak’s knowledge of history and culture, surely they could figure out a way to live.
Her only link to Earth was her TalkBack and it hadn’t worked since she’d landed. She looked around and saw only snow, trees and a frozen river. There was nothing nearby that could possibly help her repair her communication system.
She wondered if the Space Consortium had written her off as a lost cause, a casualty in the quest to learn more about the universe. Or, did they hold out hope that she hadn’t established communication purely because of a small, fixable technical glitch.
Lauren didn’t know which bet she’d take, given the chance.
When Pukak w
oke, she said, “Let’s stay here for today.”
“It’s not wise. We’re still too close to Egakik.”
She unclipped the TalkBack from the tab on her pants and held it up. “This isn’t working but if we could make it work, I could talk to the scientists on my planet.”
“How would that help? They’re four light years away.”
“I don’t know that they could but a slim chance is better than none.”
He nodded his agreement. “It might be worth a shot.” He took the TalkBack into his left hand and pressed each button. Nothing happened. “Any idea what might be wrong with it?”
“Probably a battery issue.”
He tilted his head to the side and repeated the word. “Battery, I always wondered how it was pronounced.”
“You’ve read the word before?” While she knew the basics of batteries, she wasn’t sure she could build one. Any tidbit of information, no matter how small, might be helpful.
“In one of my books, an obscure one, there’s a whole chapter on how to construct batteries. It was written by one of the scientists who worked before The Age of Change.”
“Did you bring it?” She pointed to the backpacks propped up against the trunk of a tree.
“I can check.” He rose and walked over to his pack. After opening it, he stacked them one by one beside the tree. Finally, almost to the bottom, he held up a loosely bound book with a brown leather cover. “I think this is the right one.”
He sat down beside her and began to flip the pages. It appeared to be a journal filled with scrawled writing and detailed drawings. “How old is that?”
“Centuries.”
“I guess.”
Pukak stopped on a page and scooted closer to Lauren. “Will this help?”
She peered closely at the drawing. It looked like something she’d expect to see in one of da Vinci’s notebooks from the Renaissance. “It just might.” She rose to her feet and dusted off the snow. “I need to go back to the Kalevala.”
“That’s not safe.”
“Neither is being out here in the fucking cold.”
Pukak repeated “fucking” while they walked. “What does it mean?”
Her face went hot. “Well, technically it’s what we did in the Kalevala that got us banished but we use it as sort of an all-purpose swear word.”
As they walked, Lauren tried to put the pieces of the last few days together in her head, but it still didn’t make any sense. “Why would someone bring me all the way to another planet, four years away, to pretend I wasn’t invited?”
“It’s me. It’s always been me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I just figured it out. The Highest Priest hates me. He knows that I doubt him and he’d been trying to get rid of me as The Keeper for many spans.”
“Why the elaborate ruse? Why not just kill you? After all, his word is law.”
“That’s not how he works.”
It sounded little bit like a cracked alien conspiracy of some sort but there was so much she didn’t understand.
There were no new footprints around the ship. “Maybe they haven’t been here yet,” Lauren said,
“It’s only a matter of time.”
Lauren pressed her finger to the biometric panel and the door slid open. “Then let’s work fast.”
Inside the Kalevala, she closed the door behind them and locked it using her fingerprint. Even if The Siku did come for them, it would be nearly impossible for them to get inside the ship. If the Kalevala could survive asteroid belts and comets, it could survive spears and rocks. Using what tools she had on hand, she took the plastic housing off the TalkBack and found the battery.
She breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s just a typical anode battery. It’s not ionic.”
“What does that mean?”
“That we might be able to fix it.”
After scouring the ship for things she could use, Lauren sat at the console and fiddled with the connections. She should’ve tried harder to fix the TalkBack last night. If she hadn’t been so busy hooking up with Pukak, she might have had the sense to fix her equipment and establish communication. When she finished, she put the radio back together, crossed her fingers and powered it on.
The TalkBack crackled to life and relief washed over her. She'd only jiggled a couple of wires, poked around. Even though she wasn't sure what she'd done, she was glad to have working communication.
“Hascamp to Space Consortium.”
“Space Consortium copies. Colonel Richards. Are you on planet?"
“Yes, sir, I am but there’s been an unexpected issue.”
The voice on the other end chuckled and chills ran down her spine. "Unexpected you say?"
"Sir, can you patch in General Worthington?"
"She retired yesterday."
"But—" Her stomach dropped as if she were on a roller coaster. She'd only met Colonel Richards a few times but she didn't like him. Lauren was too much of scientist to believe in vibes, but he gave her the creeps. If there was one officer she never wanted to report to, it was Colonel Richards.
"It's my mission now, Hascamp. Have they tossed you out of Egakik yet? I figured it would be best if you couldn't communicate with us until they did."
Her heart sank. The radio had been rigged. On some sort of timer. "How did you know about that, sir?"
"As the Commanding Officer, it's my job to know everything."
"But, there's no way you could've known I would do something to get banished so quickly."
"The Siku have a lot of rules. You were destined to break at least one of them. The good news is that you have enough power to get back to Earth. Bring the man with you. We need him."
"For what?"
"He's going to teach us all about the culture and history of Utuquq."
Not on my watch.
"I won't force him to leave his home," Lauren said.
The colonel laughed but it was the kind of laugh that made Lauren even colder. "He can come with you or die in the cold of that forsaken planet."
"I thought it would take a year to charge the power panels."
"If you'd known the truth, you never would've gone on the mission."
Son of a bitch. This wasn't an expedition. This was a well-plotted kidnapping.
"What was real?"
"The language."
"That's it?" She clenched her fist. "You sent me here knowing what I was facing?"
"You serve at the pleasure of the Consortium. It's your job to follow orders."
"All that shit was made up. The logs, the radio transmission. I wasn't talking to anyone on Utuquq."
"No," the colonel said. "But we were."
"You were working with the Highest Priest, weren't you?"
"The rest is classified. Power up and head home. I'll be waiting to debrief you."
Lauren threw the TalkBack against the wall and it shattered into a million pieces.
Pukak's eyes were huge. "I couldn't understand the words," he said.
"That was English and total bullshit."
***
Pukak had no idea what had just happened but he knew that something was very wrong. Judging by the Lauren's body language and tone of voice, she was angry.
"What did your priest say?"
Her white skin was pink, flushed with anger. "He's not my priest. He's an asshole who's trying to control the fate of the goddam universe."
"What does that mean for us?'
"It means we have two choices: we can go back to Earth, my home planet, where they'll pick your brain for knowledge they will likely use against The Siku or, we can power up the Kalevala and take our chances on another planet."
"But how do we know there's anything else out there?"
"How do we know there isn't?"
Pukak leaned against the metal walls of the spacecraft and crossed his arms. If they stayed here, they'd either die of exposure or The Siku would kill them with Cold Fire. If they went back to Earth, he'd
be nothing more than an academic slave. Lauren had found this planet. Could she find another one?
"How much food do we have?" he asked.
"With two of us, we have enough for a couple of years. Maybe more."
"Fuel?"
"Enough to outlast the food probably."
When he boiled down the choices, the right one became crystal clear. "Let's blaze our own trail."
Lauren smiled. "Damn right."
About the Author
Blaire Edens lives in the mountains of North Carolina. She grew up on a farm that’s been in her family since 1790. Of Scottish descent, her most famous ancestor, John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch and Guardian of Scotland, was murdered by Robert the Bruce on the altar of the Greyfriars Church at Dumfries.
She has a degree in Horticulture from Clemson University. She’s held a myriad of jobs including television reporter, GPS map creator, and personal assistant to a fellow who was rich enough to pay someone to pick up the dry cleaning. When she’s not plotting, she’s busy knitting, running, or listening to the Blues.
Blaire loves iced tea with mint, hand-stitched quilts, and yarn stores. She refuses to eat anything that mixes chocolate and peanut butter or apple and cinnamon. She’s generally nice to her mother, tries to remember not to smack her bubble gum, and only speeds when no one’s looking. She’s the award-winning author of Wild About Rachel, The Witch of Roan Mountain, and The Fairy Bargain.
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Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Blaire-Edens/e/B00NO99LJU/
Also by Blaire Edens:
The Witch of Roan Mountain
The Fairy Bargain
An Officer and a Mermaid
A Ghostly Wager
Carolina Crypto: The Lizard Man Affair
Baby, it's Cold in Space: Eight Science Fiction Romances Page 46
