by Erica Rue
“I’m too sleepy to argue.” Bel yawned.
“Good,” he said, but Bel was snoring before he finished speaking.
Now it was time to tackle the planetary scans.
17. DIONE
Dione white-knuckled her restraints as their craft scraped the canopy and skidded through the clearing. Metal crunched as their momentum lodged them in between two majestic trees.
“We’re alive,” Lithia said as the dust settled.
Dione hoped so. Her head was burning where she had banged it during their fall. A few fingers to her forehead confirmed what she already suspected. She was bleeding. This head injury couldn’t be good for her brain, which was her best asset after all. In a moment of panic she began to recite the digits of pi to herself. It always calmed her down. Dione had gotten to the twenty-third decimal when Lithia interrupted her.
“Did you hear me?”
“Sorry, what?” Dione wiped away the blood that was gathering in her eyebrow. She needed to keep it together. It was just a cut. Head wounds bled more because the capillaries were closer to the surface. Focus on the facts. They’ll keep you grounded.
“Are you all right?” Lithia handed her a piece of cloth bandage from the first aid kit before wrapping her own headband around Dione’s head to hold it in place. “Here, use this,” she said. Dione wiped away the blood and was relieved to find only a small cut underneath.
“What in the void just happened?” she asked.
“I can’t reach Zane. Something must be interfering with the signal. I think we were hit. I can’t find any evidence of a natural source for that much energy.”
“But who would attack us? There’s no one here.”
“Maybe the researchers left behind some automated defense system.”
“I guess so,” Dione said. This planet made absolutely no sense.
“Check the maps. We need to know how far we are from the Forest Base. I’m going to figure out what happened.”
A horrible thought occurred to Dione. “If it’s a weapon, won’t we trigger it on the way out, too?”
“Now that I know what to look for, I might be able to outmaneuver it,” Lithia said.
By her tone, Dione could tell she didn’t even believe herself. Lithia was always so reckless. “And if you don’t, what happens the next time we get shot down?” She was raising her voice again, knowing full well that Lithia would shout right back. Deescalation was not her strong suit.
“Oh hell, Di, just stop. This isn’t about the shuttle, you’re just mad at me.”
She crossed her arms. “Why can’t it be both?”
Lithia sighed. “Just figure out how far we are from the Forest Base. We don’t have time for this right now.”
“I can check the maps from my manumed. At least we can access the stored data and apps.” Dione couldn’t turn off her feelings of betrayal. Her anger bled into every word.
“Fine. But I’m going outside. I need to perform a visual inspection, just to make sure that the diagnostics weren’t damaged and are feeding me accurate data.”
“What do the readouts say?” Dione asked.
“Could be worse. I think I can get him flying again.”
“Even with the hull damage? What about the energy weapon that hit us?” This was not Dione’s area of expertise.
“I have no control over that. I have no clue what hit us. All I can do is get this shuttle flying again.”
That was at least one thing they could agree on. Now was not the time for this argument. Dione would let Lithia worry about fixing the shuttle while she planned their next move. Someone had to worry about what had hit them, and apparently it was her burden to bear.
Dione led the way off the shuttle. After the sterile solitude of space, life surrounded her. The bright warmth of the sun blinded her. A deafening humming overwhelmed her, but she knew that in just a few minutes it would fade to the background as she acclimated, just like she had gotten used to the low buzz of the life support system on their ship. The hum of the bugs was so much richer than the hum of machines, and she wished Bel were here to experience it. Birds were chirping, squawking, and even screeching. She smiled as she inhaled the fresh air. After a week of stale, recycled air, she could taste the pollen with each breath. The day had just dawned, and a light layer of dew coated the grass at her feet.
Lithia had the stun rifle strapped to her body just in case something found them. Dione was absentmindedly strapping her machete across her body and mentally cataloging the plants around them, from large leafy growth to smooth-barked trees covered in coarse spikes. There were both familiar and unfamiliar species around her, but something about the unfamiliar ones seemed strange, even for engineered species. She couldn’t quite place it. An impatient sigh from Lithia snapped her back to the task at hand.
Refreshed, Dione got to work, sitting on the edge of the shuttle door as Lithia walked around it. Right before they had been hit, they had lost all contact with their ship and the station. She couldn’t be completely sure where they had landed, because the shuttle didn’t know, but she used what she knew about their trajectory and velocity to extrapolate their position. Biology might be her favorite subject, but with the right equations, physics was no problem. Even with some of the data missing thanks to the shuttle’s power outage, she was still able to get a pretty good idea of where they were. After she established their location, it didn’t take long to map out a path that she plotted into her manumed.
“The base is a few hours away on foot, but we’ll have enough daylight to get there and back,” Dione said, loud enough for Lithia to hear up at the front of the shuttle. “I don’t want to get caught in the dark with whatever is out there.” She hoped that the maximute was the scariest thing they might find.
After the dull black and gray of space, the green of the forest, unfiltered through a viewing glass, was brilliant. And beautiful. But it was more than the color and the smells. So many living creatures energized the air around them. The gravity was lighter, like the gravity on the station, and the oxygen-rich air made her feel calmer and more alert, even though her head still throbbed. The bleeding had stopped, at least, though she didn’t dare remove her bandage. It might tear away the scab with it and leave her bleeding again. Coagulation was a beautiful thing.
“Dione, you need to see this,” Lithia called. She was staring at the front of the shuttle. The composite was scorched. Dione knew exactly what that meant.
“Something shot us down,” Dione said. “That’s an energy weapon scar.”
The sun disappeared behind a cloud, casting all the bright greens into pale darkness and sending a chill through Dione. Her tiny hope that it had been an accident, some natural electric discharge, died.
“We need to leave as soon as possible,” she said.
“Divide and conquer?” Lithia looked lost in another time.
“I don’t think we should split up. We don’t know what’s out there,” Dione said. She would certainly appreciate some alone time in this strange forest, but now that she knew they’d been attacked, it was not the time to divvy up tasks.
Dione heard something. The thump of footsteps? Most animals would run from a scene like this. What would return? Certain predators. Territorial creatures. Curious ones. Humans.
But there were no humans here.
Dione moved close to Lithia and whispered a warning.
All confrontation gone from her voice, Lithia agreed softly, “I feel like we’re being watched. Draw your machete.”
Dione nodded, ears straining to single out any useful sounds. Lithia raised her rifle, alert. Dione drew her weapon, ready to kill if necessary. She had learned that lesson. Lithia was scanning the clearing. They put their backs to the shuttle, then listened. Mosquitoes or some new type of itch-inducing pest bit the nape of her neck. Dione kept seeing movement and shapes where there were none. It reminded her of nights spent in a dark room, searching the shadows for monsters, listening for the telltale creak of an intru
der.
Dione and Lithia snapped their heads at the same time, in the same direction, to the edge of the clearing at the shuttle’s stern. Dione didn’t flinch, but she did see something move in the undergrowth. While they were facing one side of the clearing, something charged in from the opposite direction.
Every biology class Dione had taken still didn’t prepare her for the surprise that greeted her when she turned around.
18. DIONE
“Lower your weapons. You’ve trespassed into Aratian territory.”
A human being, speaking the common galactic tongue, was yelling at her. He held up a gun in his hand. Sweat was his most prominent feature, followed by some nervous foot shuffling. Dione had never been held at gun point, at least not in real life. She had played quite a few holo games with Lithia, but that experience didn’t prepare her for this, having a real gun pointed at her. She was pretty sure this one contained bullets.
“Lithia, are you seeing this?”
“I do have eyes, yes,” her friend replied.
“He’s pointing a gun at us.”
“Put your weapons down,” the man said.
Dione placed her machete on the ground. Lithia stood defiant, rifle raised.
“Put it down, child.”
“I will, as soon as you tell me who you are.” Though she was trying to hide it, Dione heard the uncertainty in Lithia’s voice.
“You don’t ask the questions here, demon.” Dione saw something move out of the corner of her eye and turned back to the man. Weapon still pointed, he took a horn from his belt and put it to his lips. Its sound echoed through the trees, scattering birds. That could not be good.
“I’ll say it again, child, put the gun down, or —” but the man never finished his sentence. A rock came flying from the opposite end of the clearing, hitting him square in the head. In his moment of confusion, Lithia didn’t hesitate. She shot him, and didn’t flinch like Dione when he hit the ground with a thud. She aimed in the direction the rock had come from.
“Who’s there?” she said.
Out of the foliage stepped a young man, about their age, hands in the air as a show of submission. He wore a gray sleeveless shirt and loose fitting pants. His eyes were dark brown, but bright, and his tan skin was taut over strong arms. His black hair was long, tied back in a short ponytail. He was smiling.
Despite the danger of the situation, Dione thought he seemed trustworthy, or at least not dangerous. He had created a distraction for them. She tried to tell herself that it wasn’t just because he was one of the most attractive guys she had ever seen, but even she didn’t buy that.
“I’m Brian,” he said. “I know you have little reason to trust me, but that tracker scout just called the rest of his party here. I don’t know how they got here so quickly, but we need to go. I can help you.”
“And why would you do that?” Lithia asked. She still aimed the rifle at him.
“Because if you came down in that Flyer,” he said, nodding to their shuttle, “then I could really use your help. I’ve been looking for a pilot.”
“The shuttle, or Flyer, or whatever, is badly damaged. It needs repairs before it will fly again,” Lithia said.
“I know where we can find another Flyer,” he said. “We have several.”
“Then why do you need our help?” Dione asked.
“We don’t know the spell, the key, to unlock them,” he said. “You do.”
Dione nodded to Lithia, who lowered the rifle. He had said ‘we.’ Clearly there was more than one group of people on this planet. After all, this Brian guy did not seem to be working with the man who had pointed a gun at them. Had the weapons that crashed their shuttle taken down a few other ships? Were the survivors of those crashes here?
“Did your ship crash here?” Dione asked.
Brian raised one eyebrow. “Um. I was born here.”
The theory budding in Dione’s brain was crushed. Luckily, Lithia changed the subject with her own, more pressing question.
“Who are these trackers, and what do they want with us?”
“There’s no time to explain now. Just know that if they catch us, they will kill us, or worse.”
“Why are they after us?”
“Because only demons fall from the sky, or so the saying goes.”
“Then why are they after you?” Dione said.
“They are Aratians, and I am not,” he said. “Please, we have to leave now.”
“What’s an Aratian?” Lithia said.
“I’ll answer all of your questions later, but there’s no time now.” A horn bellowed in the distance. Dione had no doubt it was in answer to the unconscious man in front of them.
“Di, he knows more about this planet than we do. He saved us. We should go with him, at least for now,” Lithia said. Before she could argue, Lithia turned to Brian. “I’m Lithia, and this is Dione.” He nodded to Lithia, and when his eyes settled on Dione, warm with welcome, they widened in surprise. He called out a warning, but it was too late.
Dione felt tiny sharp claws scurry up her leg, spiraling around her body, leaving a warm, wet trail. The cuts on her back tingled as the foul-smelling liquid soaked through her jacket. She tore off the jacket, but her tank top was already damp with something awful. The bandage Bel had applied to her wound had thankfully protected it. The furry creature ended up on her head before jumping onto the shuttle and disappearing into the branches of a tree. The effect was immediate. A putrid scent rose from her like heat off of pavement.
After that first whiff, Dione didn’t know how she was going to breathe. Lithia took a few more steps back, her nose wrinkled in disgust.
“Tracking squirrel,” Brian explained, his lip curled. “Now we really need to go. We’ll be easy to follow until we reach the river. Leave that jacket here, though. It may throw them off for a little bit.”
Dione didn’t move. She could feel the spray soaking into her clothes and her hair. She thought she might vomit, in front of the incredibly attractive Brian, no less. But nothing, not even vomit, could do more damage to her appeal than the tracking squirrel already had. Those terraformers were messed up, that’s for sure.
Lithia grabbed both packs and a few other supplies from the shuttle while Brian took everything of use, including their assailant’s gun. A horn sounded again, closer than before.
“What’s with the horn? Don’t you have communicators?” Lithia said.
“The communicators were taken away decades ago. Follow me,” he said, leading them out of the clearing.
Who had taken them away? Where were they? Dione and Lithia crashed inelegantly behind him. She imagined, uneasily, that their trail would be easy to follow, soul-crushing stench or not.
Dione was in the back, running along with surprising ease, grateful that her speed allowed her to breathe in fresh air. The combination of the lighter gravity and the slightly higher oxygen gave both her and Lithia an edge that allowed them to keep up with the much fitter Brian.
Lithia stopped so suddenly that Dione, who had been staring at the ground, watching for things to trip over, nearly ran into her. As soon as Dione looked up, she saw it. A maximute. Even with the scaled drawing and detailed notes, she had been completely unprepared for how large they would really be. All three of them could have climbed comfortably on its back, and considering it had a harness, it looked like the giant dog was expecting it.
“Dione, it’s one of those dogs that you showed us,” Lithia said.
Dione simply nodded, because now that she had stopped moving, the pungent cloud had settled back around her, making her reluctant to open her mouth.
Brian approached his maximute and gave it a loving scratch on the neck.
“This is Canto.” Even Brian, tall as he was, had to look up to meet its gaze.
“Can I?” Dione asked, reaching out her arm.
“Sure,” Brian said.
She stepped forward and gently touched the golden fur on his neck. Canto pulled his ears bac
k and stuck his tongue out.
“He likes you,” Brian said, smiling. Lithia also stepped forward to pet Canto.
A creature like this couldn’t easily maneuver in the forest, but she imagined it could reach remarkable speeds on an open plain. She heard Brian speaking to the dog, but she couldn't make out what he was saying. Then, it almost sounded like he was singing to him, and as if he understood, the maximute cantered off into the woods.
“Canto will create a secondary trail to confuse the trackers, then double back and meet us at the river. We’re close to the river now, but we can’t stop moving,” he said.
Lithia handed Dione one of the self-filtering water bottles from her pack, and said, “After we get to the river, you get to carry both packs.”
After they all had some water, they continued at a slow jog toward the river. The undergrowth was thick here, and Dione realized that they were no longer on any sort of trail. As soon as Dione heard the rushing of water, she raced past the others, and jumped in the river before anyone could tell her otherwise. The cold water washed away the power of the stench, but all of the scrubbing couldn't completely eliminate the odor. Dione whimpered as she scrubbed her beautiful brown hair in vain. She could almost feel it seeping into her split ends. She knew what she had to do.
She splashed out of the water toward the bank, cool in the shade of the trees, and dug around in her pack until she found it. A knife. Without an ounce of hesitation, she sawed off her contaminated pony tail, one chunk at a time, and tossed it in the river, to be washed downstream. She breathed deeply and smiled. She would be sporting the longer-in-the-front look, but it was nothing a well-placed headband couldn’t handle.
Lithia stared at her, shocked probably, that she had done something so impulsive. Brian looked at her and chuckled.
“I like it,” he said, “but there is one final touch we need to add that you might not like.” And with that, he scooped up a handful of mud and smeared it down her arm. She would’ve been angry if his touch weren’t completely electrifying. If she was going to get covered in mud, then she certainly didn’t mind that he was the one doing it. He smeared mud down her arms and legs while Lithia burst out laughing.
