by Tammy Salyer
That’s all I need to see. Leaping back into the Rover, I yank the hatch shut, slam on the ignition, and jump it out of the culvert at top speed. I don’t want whoever is on that ship to get aboard a land trans and head for Agate Beach. It’s easier to hold them here than chase them down. Of course, they may be harmless. Maybe lost citizens with broken communication equipment, who knows? Better to find out now, while they’re locked down, than after they’ve reached the settlement.
Pushing the Rover hard, I cover the distance in a few seconds and skid to a stop behind the engines. The smell of super-heated metal and burnt dust fills my nostrils as I run from the Rover to the front of the ship and take a firing position next to the lowered ramp. Raising my carbine barrel, I line up the sight with the center of the opening, ready for anything. Sounds of movement come from inside.
With a raised but steady voice, I order, “Come out slowly. You’re covered in every direction.”
The movement stops cold and, after a second, a voice carries down the open hatchway. “We’re not armed. Coming out. Just keep cool.”
That voice…
The first thing to emerge from the sloping ramp is a pair of military-issue boots, old and scuffed, made of a dingy pseudo-leather material that’s at least five years past a military polish. Their owner jumps to the deck, kicking up wisps of desert dirt. He’s about midthirties, close-cropped brown hair, hands exactly where they should be—shoulder height and empty. He’s followed by a woman and two more men, all dressed in similar civilian clothing. The last one exits and takes a few short steps forward. Still a couple of meters from the opening, I keep my barrel trained at chest level, but when the man moves forward, I’m dazzled by the sunlight slanting through the ramp struts. My eyes squeeze shut involuntarily at the sudden brightness, and a tiny warning dose of adrenaline shoots into my veins at the realization that I’ve momentarily given up the advantage.
“I’ll be goddamned! Aly Erikson!”
It can’t be. The silhouette moves closer, blocking the piercing light, and I’m finally able to focus on him.
“Sergeant Cross?”
“Oh, come on, Aly. You know me better than that! I don’t believe what I’m seeing!”
There are hundreds of rocks in this solar system, and the likelihood of running into someone from my past on this one had, until now, seemed like a complete impossibility. It would be like finding a bullet from your own gun tumbling through the floating debris of a long-since-concluded interstellar battle.
Impossible or not, I’m staring at proof that it can happen. Rob Cross. Munitions team platoon leader from the 808th Ground Division. I last saw him a year before the Soldier’s Rebellion, when David’s and my flight patrol unit stopped dropping troops into hot zones. His detachment was reassigned to another ship. We hadn’t kept in touch.
Nearly stuttering with surprise, I ask, “Wh-what are you doing out here?”
“Is that happiness to see me? It’s hard to tell.” He’s standing less than a meter in front of me, smiling in a cavalier way I remember too well. But his eyebrows are raised in a hint of concern—a natural response to the fact that my carbine is still leveled at his heart.
Regardless, it’s been eight years since I’ve seen him, and I’m not that trusting. “I don’t believe this is a coincidence.”
Before he can respond, the ground around us begins to gyrate as the Sphynx’s shuttle descends. No one speaks, the craft’s engines too loud to be heard over. I cover my eyes with one hand and let the carbine sag. Vitruzzi’s coming in close, not showing the kind of concern she would for someone she doesn’t know. Could Cross be the person she’s expecting?
When they hit the dirt, the shuttle’s door slides open and she steps out, Karl and David following behind. “Cross, it’s good to see you. Why didn’t you signal us when you got in our orbit? You’re three days early.”
He turns toward them with a renewed smile, and I finally lower my weapon. “Good to see you again, Eleanor. Her reversals went haywire and caused a wiring issue that sucked all the power from my com system and my engine backups. We were hoping to get a little closer to Agate Beach before we had to set her down, but…” He shrugs.
“No backup power? I’m glad you didn’t get any closer.” Vitruzzi steps aside, letting me get a better look at David, who stares at Cross with a gape-mouthed mixture of shock and disbelief. I can’t help but grin at his incredulity, though my own expression moments ago must not have been so different.
“Rob Cross?” David takes a step forward and peers at Rob, as if questioning his own eyesight.
“I don’t believe this. This day just gets better and better!”
The two men embrace in a hearty man-hug like brothers, slapping each other on the back. David asks, “What the hell are you doing out here on the fringes? And with your own transport ship? I didn’t think the Corps would ever trust you among civilians.” I haven’t seen him so pleased in quite a while. The three of us had some good times together, back when we all still belonged to the Corps.
“I take it you know each other,” Vitruzzi comments, surprised.
“Know each other? Eagle Eye Erikson’s the only man in the system who could keep up with me back in the old days.” A huge smile spreads across Cross’s face, causing a fan of crow’s feet to sweep out in a winning arc. He has the kind of smile that makes a person feel like they’ve just been reunited with a twin brother or best friend after years of being apart. There’s no sign of sarcasm or irony in his face; his expression is complete and genuine openness and enthusiasm. All of a sudden, I feel like I did a few years ago when I woke up to that same smile nearly every off-duty morning. My mind summons the mildly sharp smell of his skin, and I remember too clearly how his body felt next to mine. It throws me off balance for a minute, and I realize I’m blushing.
I pull my eyes away from his face and catch Karl looking at me strangely. Blushing twice as hard, I turn back to the ship, which at this moment is the only safe thing to look at.
“Let’s get you guys back to Agate Beach. When was the last time you ate anything fresh? We can talk over some lunch,” Vitruzzi says.
“Sounds terrific. And can you spare any viridian heat rods? If we can get those in, we’ll be able to get the Red Horizon to your mine. I hate leaving her out in the open. You never know what kind of scavengers may find their way out here.”
Vitruzzi gets on her com and locates Bodie. A moment later she says, “Bodie and Venus will be here in a few minutes to get you squared away. Were you able to get everything we talked about?”
“Have I ever let you down, Eleanor? Yeah, come on in and check things out. There’s at least ninety kilos of scrap steel and enough wire to build yourself a new ship.”
“What about the comlink switches? And the seeds?”
“And those.”
“Thanks, Rob. It’s good to have someone we can rely on.”
He smiles again, not quite gloating but close, and focuses his attention back on me. “So what do you say, Aly? You’re too quiet. That’s nothing like I remember.”
I have to clear my throat before I can speak. I woke up this morning thinking I’d be helping Bodie collect specimens from the local plants. Nothing prepared me to be standing face-to-face with an ex-lover, the first man in my life that ever meant more to me than just a pleasant way to kill a couple of hours. “I’m just really surprised. I never expected to see you again.” I’m at such a loss for words that I’m nearly mumbling.
“I know! It’s amazing, isn’t it? You’re as beautiful as I remember.” One of his crewmen, a tough-looking hatchet of a man, walks between us to get back on the ship, finally breaking through my paralysis.
Time to escape this awkward situation. “Vitruzzi, I’ll take the Rover back to the Beach. It looks like you have things handled here.”
She shrugs and I turn to climb aboard. Before I can pull the clamshell cover closed, Karl steps over and motions toward the seat. “Mind if I drive?”
I shrug and push over to the passenger side. Before the hatch closes, I hear Rob ask, presumably speaking to David, “So what’s that about? She’s not angry with me is she?”
“It’s a little…uh…complicated.”
TWO
Karl accelerates back to the settlement, and I lean back in the seat, feeling a strange sense of time-vertigo, as if I’m stuck in a black hole’s event horizon. My life up to now is in redshift, simultaneously standing still and blurring away at the edges. What the hell had just happened? For a second, it had seemed as if my real life was back in the Corps—fresh out of the Academy and aboard my first duty ship with my older brother and the charming squad leader, Tech 1 Sergeant Cross, who’d caught my full attention the first time I’d seen him.
My swirling thoughts turn sour as they mix with guilt and I glance sideways at Karl. We’re a team now, lovers, friends, together as much as we can be—partners. If you had told me six months ago that I’d find someone, besides my brother, that I cared about more than myself, I would have thought you were sadly sentimental and possibly delusional. What Karl and I had been through—the Fortress, the rescue mission to save David, Zeta, Mason, and Jade, and the fact that Karl had risked his life more than once to save mine—had affected me, changed me to my core. His selflessness and perseverance brought me back to life when I should have been dead, and resuscitated the part of me that understood that there was more to being alive than just breathing and making it to the next day. With all that’s passed, Karl and the settlers at Agate Beach have become more than friends; they’re all my family now.
He drives as if he’d seen me doing more than blushing over Rob, in some kind of fury that I only half register as I silently struggle with the realization that things that had only recently begun to grow stable and steady—both life in the Beach and between Karl and I—may have just become complicated again. When Cross’s unit had been reassigned, it was hard on me. The dread I had about the Corps and its master puppeteer the Admin was already rooted deep in my psyche. The loathing I felt for the way they wore out lives—the same way machines wear out gears—for their convenience and greed was taking its toll on me, and my allies were getting fewer and fewer. Even David was telling me I sounded paranoid and needed to keep my mouth shut before the Corps put me on the mentally incapacitated chit and locked me up. Cross’s departure left me with no more distractions and no one else to lean on. By that point, I had lost both my lover and my convictions, and my life changed completely.
Karl hits a sandbar going too fast and I jolt back into the present. “Careful, kamikaze, or we’re going to have to replace the rear axle again.” He remains sullenly silent without even a glance in my direction. “Hey, you okay?”
“Yeah, just didn’t see that.” He reaches into his vest and pulls out his pack of homemade cigarettes, clamps one between his teeth, and lights it with one hand. He takes a deep pull from the smoke, squinting until the color of his eyes is hidden, and keeps his gaze locked on the baked earth outside the Rover’s cockpit.
Yeah, something is bothering him, but I know him well enough by now to know that he won’t breathe a word about what it might be until he’s either ready to hash it out at full volume or decides to let it go forever. There is no in between with him, and he never hesitates to point out that I’m exactly the same way. He’ll tell me what’s on his mind when he’s ready for me to know.
We’re still ten kilometers from the settlement when a shadow quickly overtakes us from behind. I raise my head to see what’s going on just as the Red Horizon buzzes past in a low bank no more than fifty meters above our heads on its way to Agate Beach. Vitruzzi transmits to Karl’s wrist VDU. “We’re all getting together at Pat’s and my place at 1900 hours for dinner. Can you two make it?”
Karl glances at me before answering, and I don’t miss the reluctance stretching the skin around his mouth too tight. “Want to go?”
“Why not?” I try to sound neutral, but the pitch of my voice raises a notch, completely betraying me.
He depresses the transmit button and replies, “See you tonight, V.”
THREE
Unable to find Bodie to explain why I hadn’t gathered any of his samples earlier, I ditch the mine early and walk to Vitruzzi’s. As I enter, I find her and Bodie side by side, hunched over the main room’s central table and raptly focused on the fleximesh monitor covering it. They both nod a quick hello and return their attention to the meshmo, as Bodie calls it. Like an overprotective librarian, he has assumed control over the variety of scientific and monitoring equipment stored within the mine’s control room and this delicate readout device rarely leaves it. Most of the equipment has been painstakingly “acquired” from Admin ships or cities and now makes up the Beach’s technical hub. Besides the Sphynx, this equipment is the only thing that differentiates the Beach from the kind of anachronistic settlement people must have lived in on old Earth before such “high-tech” advancements as electricity and indoor plumbing.
All right, maybe a slight embellishment, but no one can deny that the Beach is just about as primitive as colonies come in the Spectras—which, surprisingly, suits me fine.
“You see the numbers, V. It can’t work,” Bodie says as he taps a stream of text and images slowly descending the screen’s surface. “It’s the same exact problem they documented in the reports we took from the Fortress. If we’d only had fifteen more minutes, I could have taken a complete copy of the data. It was right in my damn hands.”
“I know, I know. But fifteen more minutes and we would have been vaporized right along with it. Either way, we don’t know what their final developments were. We don’t even know if they were successful,” Vitruzzi answers.
Brady and Vitruzzi’s residence serves as the crew’s de facto meeting center during the cooler evenings. Few people bother to knock when they know they’re expected, and I’m no exception. Glancing around, it doesn’t look like Brady is here, causing me an involuntary twitch of relief. The amount of time we can tolerate each other is inversely proportional with the amount of time we share oxygen molecules, and our fragile truce is strongest when we’re miles apart. With him out of the picture for now, I can relax and pay attention to Vitruzzi and Bodie’s conversation.
Bodie sighs, and then seeing something on the screen, taps the command to stop its flow. “But look here. This is the thing that really grabs my interest.” He points.
The data Bodie has is a by-product of our mission to the Fortress. While the crew waited for Karl and Desto to bring in my brother and I, Bodie had the time to retrieve files from the laboratory computers that had been left unguarded after the prisoners we’d set loose went on attack. I considered it morbid curiosity at first—not realizing those so-called scientists had been working on projects outside of whatever evil shit they could invent to inflict suffering on people—but Bodie had mentioned that most of the information had something to do with soil alteration experiments. “Growing better food, Aly,” he’d tried to explain, which naturally reduced my interest from marginal to extinct. I’ve lived on ship and field rations for more than half my life, having long since given up the ambitious expectation of actually enjoying my meals. So when it comes to food production, it’s not an exaggeration to say I know more about the workings of a pulse carbine or interstellar system map and can’t be bothered to care much about where my food comes from as long as I have some when I need it.
Still, Vitruzzi’s next question yanks my attention to front and center. “Now what the hell would they have been doing on Keum Libre?”
As I step up to the table to get a look at whatever Bodie’s pointing at, they move closer together to allow me to see it better.
The advanced developmental formula being tested on Keum Libre has shown favorable results. Potential increased production is anticipated to be approved and commence within 30-60 days. Director T’Kai has reiterated that no commercialization foci will be pursued.
“Do you think that means what I thi
nk it means?” I ask in a voice gritty with anger and disgust. The penal colony is inhabited by only the worst of the worst criminals, the ones the Admin has deemed incapable of rehabilitation and readmission into society. After what we’d heard from the twisted Admin doctor Kellen Vilbrandt and then seen them doing to people on the Fortress, it’s no stretch to imagine they’d be doing the same to the inmates of Keum Libre.
“Yeah, it seems like the logical conclusion to assume they’re testing stuff on KL’s population, but I don’t think that’s what it is, Aly,” Bodie answers. “I think they had a more complete version of this soil application that was working, and they were maybe testing it there. It’s a natural environment that no one cares about, so it would make sense to do field tests where results would be more reliable than they would in lab research.”
“Sure.”
He arches one bushy eyebrow in annoyance at my scorn. “I guess the only way to know would be to make a trip to KL. But that statement about a commercialization focus makes it pretty clear, at least to me, that it wasn’t something that would be considered a hazard.”
He has a point, and this time I keep my mouth shut.
“What did you say about going to Keum Libre?” Brady steps inside carrying a box full of food, presumably for dinner. He lays it on the counter at the far side of the room, then walks to Vitruzzi and kisses her cheek. With the barest glance at me in greeting, he leans over the table to examine the meshmo.
“I was saying that I think they may have completed the research they needed to do to make this soil enhancement formula work and were probably testing it on KL. If I had even just a sample of the ground from there—”
