Second

by M. C. A. Hogarth

  Alysha's footfalls stopped just behind her and to one side. In silence there they watched the river, perfectly content. Taylitha noticed with fine humor that once again they'd fallen into a position where Alysha's shadow laid soft and cool over one of Tayl's shoulders.

  "Ready for the day?" Alysha asked her.

  "Ready," Tayl said firmly.

  They put back into the river after a breakfast of dense honey-nut bars. A cool breeze tickled them on its way upstream, and the sun sparkling on the rippling water enchanted them both. For several hours, their conversation consisted of discussion of the trees with their new leaves, the birds and animals sighted on the banks and the lovely weather.

  "Strange," Taylitha said after a while.

  "What?"

  "Well, the brochure said that the rivers have markers every few miles to tell you which river you're on, warn you about water hazards, that sort of thing. I haven't seen a single one."

  "An oversight?" Alysha offered. "Or perhaps this way down is easier than we thought."

  "It's certainly seemed that way," Taylitha said. "Well, maybe we'll see a sign in a while. I wonder how the rest of the group is doing?"

  "I'd be surprised if they weren't some distance behind us. We started down too late in the day."

  "I wonder if Beringwaite kept going after nightfall," Taylitha said.

  Alysha shook her head.

  "Whatever the case, we should be down the mountain today, if I remember right," Taylitha said.

  "Small blessings," Alysha said. "I'm almost looking forward to helping with refits when we get back."

  Taylitha laughed. "Have you been through refits before?"

  "None this extensive."

  Taylitha grinned. "You might change your mind once you—"

  "Taylitha." A command for attention, a warning, tense and controlled, it set all of the fur on Taylitha's neck on end. She glanced past Alysha's body and stared in horror at the vista revealed by their last turn. A series of drops led to chaotic groups of rocks as sharp and treacherous as an alligator's mouth. The waves churning around them smashed against one another and the stone teeth of the river, tangled and white with froth. Trains of waves extended between groups of rocks, and these rapids continued for as far as Taylitha could see, connected by vicious waterfalls that looked more like launch pads than spouts.

  "Oh gods," Taylitha said, unable to suppress a whimper. "We're going to die."

  And then they were flying over the first of the falls, soaring like birds into treacherous waters. They plunged bow-first into the water, kicking up a tremendous splash, and skidded sideways over a rock and into a confusion of currents so severe they rotated in place. The waves swept them backwards into the stream.

  Paddle, Taylitha thought, just paddle, paddle, keep paddling, everything will be okay if I just keep paddling—

  Their canoe dove between two leaning rocks, jerked up and down over the rough water between them, and fell down another spout. Taylitha's mouth filled with water, but she didn't realize until she heaved a breath that she'd actually been underwater and rolled upright again. They crashed through a curtain of water and into deep waves, and after their second roll Taylitha thought they'd had the worst of it.

  The canoe stopped moving. Taylitha didn't. The sharp edge of a rock splintered their canoe in half, and only luck catapulted Taylitha out of her restraints far enough to grab the rock and pull herself above the water's sucking grasp. Both halves of the canoe tumbled into the spray and vanished.

  "ALYSHA!" Taylitha screamed. She scanned the waves, heart pounding so hard her hands shook. The detached voice that always seemed to pop up when she was falling apart wondered why Alysha had to be gray with dark hair, the same color as the rocks. "ALYSHA!"

  No response. No yell over the roar of the angry water. Taylitha pulled herself further up and squinted into the spume.

  There—against a stone, further downstream. A web of dark hair plastered to the surface, and the glint of an earring. But Taylitha couldn't see anything else, including whether Alysha was moving, conscious . . . alive.

  Between her and that rock the water roiled and tumbled, hissing, snarling, splashing. Her swimming skills were adequate to the task of removing her from still pools, not to this sucking monster. She wasn't even sure she could get herself to safety, much less tow a body. But she had no intention of leaving Alysha behind. Even had they been issued telegems with sufficient range to contact someone for help, she wouldn't have been able to let Alysha hang there, possibly sliding into the grip of the currents.

  "Right," Taylitha said. "We'll drown together. Curse it all."

  She studied the distance between herself and her goal. One rock was close enough for her to leap to, if she pushed herself to the very tip of her current perch.

  She didn't allow herself to think about it. I have to make it, and so I can. She pushed herself to the edge of her rock and jumped.

  The jagged edge of the stone ripped at her life-vest, but she landed without incident. Her heart raced, shaking her whole body, but she was closer now.

  Except there were no easy perches between here and there. Petrified, Taylitha scanned the currents. There: a pattern. They suggested something under the water, and when she followed the turbulence to its seeming source she was rewarded by the very tip of a gray rock poking above the water. If she could aim for that and cling to it, she might be able to catch her breath between efforts. Her biggest problem would be avoiding the currents trying to drag her under . . . and the larger line that seemed to lead into the middle of the river and a staggered line of toothy rocks that looked capable of tearing her body to shreds.

  Her life-vest. She had a rescue kit in her life-vest. Clinging to the stone with her thighs, she dug it from the inside pocket and scanned its contents. The gun with its line of thread . . . if she could just get the grabber end on that rock-tip, she could reel herself to it.

  Except that in addition to being a poor swimmer, she wasn't a great shot either. She suddenly regretted making excuses to get out of target practice. Still, she was better at shooting than she was at swimming, so she seated the spool in the base of the gun, aimed with trembling hands, and fired.

  The grabber end zoomed into the current. She reeled it back in and tried again. And again.

  Taylitha glanced at Alysha, whose body seemed to have slipped a few inches. She whimpered, aimed again.

  This time she hit.

  "Okay," Taylitha whispered. She took a deep, shuddery breath, wrapped the strand around her waist and focused on the tiny tip of the stone.

  She leaped off her perch.

  The waves snatched her, choked her with foam and then dragged her beneath the surface. She fought her way to the top with the help of her life-vest and struggled against currents so strong they seemed to bruise her with their force. There was no swimming against them. Taylitha concentrated on keeping her head above the water and pulling herself up the strand. Not much further—

  A wave smashed her body into something below the surface. With a howl, she clawed her way forward and discovered her legs had reached the rock tip before she did. Gasping, she hung onto the spire just below the surface and shook, unnerved by the roar of the waves and the speed of the flow.

  She could see Alysha's face now, only just above the waterline. Perhaps her body's shaking made her mistake the rise and fall of Alysha's ribcage, but Taylitha hoped not. Alive, she prayed. Just let us both live through this.

  With the spool reeled back in, Taylitha took aim at the furthest edge of Alysha's rock and hit it on the first try. She tied herself in, scrabbling at the rock beneath the water until she could stabilize herself on part of its bulk while crouching. With a deep breath, she flung herself back into the water, which grabbed her and threw her downstream. She clung to the strand with desperate fingers, but couldn't find the strength to begin the climb again.

  I can't do it. I can't fight this.

  Alysha slid another inch further down her stone. Tayli
tha cried out, but the other woman didn't move.

  Oh Gods. I don't want to die like this. I don't want her to die like this.

  The strand around her waist lurched and she screamed. Was it—it was coming undone! She quickly wrapped her wrists into the rope, just in time for it to fly out from around her body. The strands were digging cruelly. She wondered if she could chop her hands off this way.

  Incongruously, in a flash, she thought of Alysha's hand resting on her stomach, that bead of blood on her thumb. In service to others, Alysha regularly ignored things that hurt far worse.

  In service to others.

  Taylitha grabbed the length of strand and pulled herself upstream. Another armlength. The river buffeted her, tried to pull her under, succeeded. She popped to the surface and dragged herself another length.

  One hand over the other. Over and over again. And again. And again. Her hands were bleeding. She kept going.

  The rock ground against her body and suddenly she was climbing onto it. Sobbing with relief, Taylitha pulled the other woman up, checking for a pulse, for injuries. Her bloody fingers complicated matters, but she didn't see any signs of obvious injuries, and the pulse she located with trembling hands beat strong and hot under her fingers.

  Her own heart fluttered when she observed the shoreline. It was farther than she thought, and looked as treacherous as the river's middle. She couldn't conceive of being able to pull Alysha's body through it to safety.

  Can't panic, she thought. Can't afford to panic. We could still die. Have to think of something. Is there enough rope to get us to shore? She scanned it looking for anything she could use to get to dry land. Was that a tree branch overhanging?

  "Taylitha . . . ?"

  "Alysha!" Startled, Taylitha looked at the other woman and found her eyes open. "Are you—do you—are you okay? Can you swim?"

  Alysha set a careful hand on the rock and pulled herself a little further from the water. She winced. "I can swim if I have to."

  "You have to," Taylitha said. "The shore . . . well, we're going to have a hard time."

  Alysha studied their exit points for several minutes, then said, "I'm not up to that kind of swimming. You're going to have to go for help."

  "Me?" Taylitha squeaked. "You're a better swimmer than I am, even if you're still wobbly from being plastered to a rock!"

  "Not with a broken rib I'm not," Alysha said.

  "A broken rib!" Taylitha exclaimed.

  Alysha closed her eyes and let out a long, halting breath. "Or two. Unfortunately, I know what it feels like."

  "Can . . . are you . . . can you die from that?" Taylitha asked, horrified.

  "No," Alysha said. "At least, I don't think so. I'm not a healer."

  "Oh, gods," Taylitha said, shaking. She pressed her forehead to the stone and realized she was crying. "I can't do it. I just can't."

  "How'd you end up here, then?" Alysha asked.

  "The canoe broke."

  "Yes, but you didn't land here," Alysha said. "You must have gotten to this rock somehow."

  "Luck," Taylitha said. "I was lucky. And I had the rescue kit."

  "Taylitha," and her voice again had that tone, the one that commanded attention, that instilled confidence with its calm. "Anyone else might have fallen apart, but you didn't. You've done this once. You can do it again."

  "I can't," Taylitha said, but her fear was drowning in the steadiness of Alysha's gaze.

  "You can," Alysha said. "I know you can. And you have to . . . because I can't."

  Taylitha opened her mouth to say something, though she didn't know what.

  "Taylitha," Alysha said. "I have faith in you. You're not going to die."

  "Promise?" Taylitha said in a tiny voice.

  "I'll come after you myself before I let you die," Alysha said, and there was no questioning the conviction in her eyes.

  Taylitha surveyed the mess of the shore. The tree branch looked unsteady, but it was the best chance she had. She re-spooled her gun, now somewhat worse for the wear, aimed and fired.

  And missed. She glanced at Alysha, embarrassed, but the other woman only watched her steadily, with such confidence that she turned back to the task and this time made the mark. She wrapped the end around her body more securely this time and stowed the gun . . . but before she leaped, she thought of the blanket in the rescue kit and took the time to withdraw it and drape it over Alysha. The bright yellow fabric handily distinguished her companion from the rocks.

  Alysha's eyes twinkled. Laughter? No, pride? Both? Taylitha blushed, turned back to the river and launched herself into the waves with a deep breath. Her mouth filled with water. The life-vest yanked at her arms as it popped her back to the surface. Her hips bashed into a submerged rock, saving her head from the same treatment.

  No time to whimper. No time to scream. Her head and heart wanted to explode from the fear as the current tried to draw her back into the middle of the river. Taylitha thrashed her way into an accidental eddy and floundered shorewards, clinging to the strand with all her strength. It was even harder on her hands this time than it was last time, and she thought to herself that someone should notify Supply. Why couldn't they have shaped the rope like a ribbon, instead of this sharp cord?

  Wearily, Taylitha dragged herself foot by foot toward the shore. It became less about fear and more about exhaustion. Could she fight her body for another few feet? She could. How about another few feet? Success.

  For a moment, Taylitha hung in the current, feeling its drag against her body as she hung half in the water and half out of it. She wondered if she would be here forever, torn between water and land.

  The strand in her hand jerked. She glanced at her waist: still secure. She looked up and blanched from the tip of her nose to her ears. The branch had cracked. It leaned so far it was sinking toward the river's grasping waves. Another few heart-beats and now the tip of the branch was skimming the water.

  Now the water had it. The strand jerked again as the river seized the branch and sucked on its end. Frantically, Taylitha began to pull herself along the rope, ignoring the slicing pain in her fingers, along her back. Her arms had never hurt so badly. Her head had never throbbed so hard . . . panic, or had she hit it too hard?

  The rope in her hand jerked her almost out of the water, then went slack. Taylitha leaped for the branch, missed it, and fell into the water. In horror, she struggled to swim, only to realize she wasn't being carried back into the river's middle. She was in an eddy, and there were rocks at her feet. Then her claws sank into mud. She was crawling. She was lying on the bank. She let out another sob. It was over, it was over.

  Almost.

  Taylitha pushed herself to her feet and scanned the river for Alysha, found her still clinging to the rock. She waved and received a wave in return. Then she ran into the brush to look for the nearest comm station. Desperation made her search feel too lingering, and once she finally found the pedestal she whacked it with a fist. "Wake up, wake up!"

  It lit and connected her automatically, and even its near instantaneous response seemed to take too long. "Canoe Station, Herville Candesse speaking."

  "I need help now!" Taylitha said.

  "Got that, Station D19." The voice paused, then hurried on, "D19! What are you doing there? Who's this?"

  "I'm Ensign Taylitha Basil. Our group is on this river. We just hit a horrible spot—"

  "You're not supposed to be on route D! We specifically told all groups to choose between routes A through C! We haven't cleaned D or put the signs back up yet . . . it's—"

  "—I know it's dangerous, curse it!" Taylitha yelled, "My partner's stuck on a rock mid-stream and I'm lucky I made it out at all! Send someone down here now, before all the rest of us end up dead!"

  "On our way. Stay where you are."

  "Thank you," Taylitha said, and slumped against the base station. Her eyes wouldn't stop watering and her fingers wouldn't stop bleeding, and wiping her nose only dirtied it further. After all she'd
done, the fact that she couldn't get the snot and blood off her face undid her completely. She gave in and sobbed until she shook, until the place her tears were coming from dried up and left her restless. She stood and paced, still trembling. Should she stay at the comm station or go to the river? Would they know to look for her there or would they come here first? How was Alysha? What to do? Just as she decided to stay, a Fleet-issue craft crested the line of evergreens and set down upstream of her. A few minutes later, a harried-looking man pushed through the brush, followed by several others, outfitted in life-vests and carrying medical and rescue kits.

  Taylitha said, "This way!" and led them to the river. The bright yellow blanket distinguished Alysha from the rocks, just as she'd hoped, and Taylitha stepped back to allow them to do their work. Their equipment was far more impressive than the tiny air gun in her little kit, and she couldn't help her own fascination.

  One of them drew her aside. She belatedly identified his voice as the one she'd heard on the comm station. "You said the rest of your group is coming down this route?"

  Taylitha nodded. "We were the first ones down, but we weren't that far ahead." Her ears flattened. "Is there . . . can you stop them?"

  The man nodded. "We'll handle it. Thank God you called us when you did, though." He waved one of his fellows over and jogged up the trail. Taylitha watched them go, wondering if they would make it in time.

  The rescue team was depositing Alysha gently on a warmed stretcher, a narcotic patch already on her arm, when Taylitha returned to the river side.

  "Not too bad," a woman wearing a DNA caduceus patch on her arm. "You are the proud owner of three fractured ribs, ensign, thankfully none of them piercing anything vital. Congratulations! You win a free ride to our station for an hour under a halo-arch."

  "Perfect way to end the retreat," Alysha said drowsily.

  Taylitha presented herself at the woman's elbow. "I'm coming along."

  "I wouldn't imagine otherwise," the healer said, then squinted at her. "What happened to you, anyway? You're bleeding."