by Mark Wandrey
“It happens that way,” Gregg replied. He had traveled further than anyone in the group, even Cherise. “You go from desert to mountains, and from mountains to plains, in the blink of an eye.” The others nodded, and Minu found herself realizing, yet again, what a sheltered life she’d lead on Plateau, especially in Tranquility.
As they continued, desert quickly took over as the dominant terrain. Trees became smaller and less common, replaced by intermittent clumps of grass. Dotting the landscape were occasional stands of stunted trees with tenuous holds on the ground, their roots often exposed to the savagery of erosion. The area was once barren, but even here, the Earth transplants moved into new niches. Hundreds of varieties of flora, brought to the world by survivors, were thriving and pushing boundaries. As the sun dropped behind the mountains, they got a respite from the gathering heat of the afternoon.
Cherise cautioned them. “With the darkness comes another kind of cold.”
“Cold would be preferable to heat,” Pip said. He was the most challenged by the growing heat. He was so sweaty, he looked as though he’d just climbed from a lake.
“There’s a stark contrast,” Cherise added. In an hour, the temperature went from hot, to pleasant, to cool, to cold. “There’s nothing to hold the heat,” she explained as they trudged onward. “The sand releases its heat in minutes, leaving everything exposed to the cold of night.” Pip pulled out a poncho and slipped it over his head with shivering fingers. The sweat his body had used to cool him earlier now betrayed him and threatened hypothermia.
Their first night in the desert fell hard and fast. The sun, long below the tops of the mountains behind them, gave up the last of its glow and threw them into darkness. Remus was further to the East than Minu had ever seen, so far that the tips of the mountains just touched its lower edge. The pale light it cast was barely enough for them to see the ground in front of their feet.
“How long until Romulus rises?” Gregg asked after painfully stubbing his toe on a root hidden in shadow. The shoes they wore were nothing more than foot coverings; they offered no protection and allowed them to feel every pebble and rock under their feet.
“About three hours,” Minu said, consulting her memorized orbit table. It wasn’t hard; Romulus’s orbital rotation deviated from one and a half orbits per day by a few minutes. If you knew the day of the month, the rest was easy. “We can’t stumble along like this, one of us is going to break an ankle.”
Gregg woofed, then grumbled. “Too late,” he said. Minu wasn’t worried; she’d learned enough first aid to know that Gregg wouldn’t be joking if he’d broken his ankle.
Using the remaining light, the group found a tiny stand of stunted trees to huddle under. It wasn’t as cold as it had been in the mountains, so they kept their clothes on when they grouped together to stay warm. Minu was glad. While she ‘understood’ what had happened between Cherise and Gregg wasn’t wrong, she didn’t want to think about a repeat performance. The last few mornings, she’d watched them carefully for any hint of late night shenanigans. Confused emotions swirled in her stomach when she thought about it, so she was glad they stayed in separate bed rolls.
In the middle of the night a wind blew across the desert as Romulus rose, it’s slightly green-hued light casting an eerie glow on the sand. The wind was not bitterly cold and seemed to carry some remnant of the day’s heat with it. Minu realized everyone was awake and decided to get up and look around.
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to continue on,” Cherise suggested.
“At night? Isn’t that dangerous?” Minu asked. While she hadn’t said anything about the Kloth after entering their territory, she found it impossible not to think about the huge reptilian monsters.
“Slightly, but we’re hundreds of miles from the common range of the Kloth. We’ll have a good six hours of light from Romulus, and it’s cooler than walking during the day. In the morning, we can build a shelter to protect us from the sun and get some sleep,” Cherise said.
Moving at night and sleeping during the day made sense to Minu, who was worried about the trek across the desert. She hoped they’d find a clue to where they were going before they died of thirst. Her canteen was half empty already.
“Sounds like a plan,” she agreed, and the others quickly rose to their feet. Even Pip looked better after the short rest. He was still physically the weakest of the five, but the constant physical exertion was beginning to harden his body. Minu was glad.
“Where are we going?” he asked as he finished securing his pack.
“We need to keep going in the direction on the computer map,” she told them. “There’ll probably be some clues, or another hut, sooner or later.”
To the surprise of those unaccustomed to the desert, the going got easier. They left behind the last of the serious vegetation. The terrain was now rolling sand dunes and occasional rock shelves or outcroppings. With very little to trip them up, they made good time, until they reached their first obstacle.
“That’s quite a canyon,” Pip said as they looked down into the yawning rock chasm that suddenly sprang from the dark. In the greenish light of Romulus, they could see the canyon winding away in both directions like the jagged maw of some monster.
Good thing we waited for Romulus to rise, Minu said to herself. We’d have walked right into this abyss. She shuddered, wondering how deep the canyon was. The walls looked sheer, as if carved from the planet’s living rock with a huge knife. Cutting from north to south, it perfectly bisected their path.
“What now? Aaron asked. Being the leader no longer bothered Minu; it was just how things had worked out.
“We need to find a way around,” she said.
“It would be faster to split up,” Gregg suggested.
“Good idea,” she agreed, “but we shouldn’t get too far apart. Cherise and I will go north, you three go south. We’ll walk for an hour, then retrace our steps and meet in the middle to share our findings.” The boys didn’t like it.
“Not by yourself,” Gregg said.
“It’s not safe,” Aaron said, shaking his head.
“You’re girls,” Pip added. The other boys cringed, and Minu saw Cherise inflate like an angry cat, ready to pounce.
“Any of you want to see what it’s like to mess with this girl?” The three boys took a step back. “Shit, I can probably beat all three of you in a stand-up fight.” Minu could see the subtle change on Aaron’s face and decided Cherise had made her point.
“We’re armed,” Minu told them, “and there’s more than enough light to see anything coming. We go as I said.” That was the end of the discussion. She could see the boys weren’t happy, but Cherise put her hands on her hips and glared at them with steely eyes. None of them said anything, and Gregg looked around, whistling. Cherise turned and marched north along the canyon. Minu trotted after her. “I don’t understand you,” she said when she caught up.
“What is there to understand after a sexist slur like that? Pip should have known better.”
“How can you lie with a boy and give in to his sexual advances, then practically start a fight over being his equal?” When Cherise started to yell at her, Minu held up a hand. “Don’t start with me; I’m on your side. If they insist on my being the leader, they have to forget I’m a girl.”
“Aaron will find that difficult,” Cherise said. It was too dark to be sure, but Minu thought her friend had a peculiar little smile on her face.
They continued north by the dim moonlight. Minu was careful to stay away from the canyon wall to avoid falling into the occasional gouges caused by seasonal rains. Some were steep and wide enough to send them on a fatal ride to the valley floor.
“How much longer do you think the Trials will go?” Cherise asked after a few minutes.
“My father never gave a lot of details, probably because he didn’t want me to take them.” Cherise grunted in acknowledgment. “I do remember him saying that when he thought the Trials were over, one last challenge rem
ained, and that surprised him more than anything.”
“I wonder what he meant.”
“I tried several times to get more out of him, but he can be difficult when he wants to.”
“The First Among the Chosen has to be strong,” Cherise said as they worked their way around another runoff. “I can’t imagine being our planet’s representative to the rest of the galaxy.” Put that way, neither could Minu.
They walked on in near silence, only speaking when one of them noticed an obstacle in their path. Then Minu spotted something. “I think there’s a tree growing on the edge of the canyon over there.” They were intrigued, as they hadn’t seen a tree in more than a day. They sped up and quickly reached it. Only it wasn’t a tree.
“A bridge!” Cherise said excitedly. A series of dualloy posts driven into the rocky ground braced three heavy ropes that stretched over the canyon. It was too dark to see the other side, so the ropes seemed to simply disappear into space.
Minu couldn’t think of the contraption as a bridge, as it consisted of nothing more than a rope to stand on and two at chest level to balance with. It seemed more like an obstacle course challenge than a way across the gorge. She moved closer to examine it and concluded the bridge was new, placed for the Trials. That struck her as wrong.
“It’s too easy,” she said.
“How hard can it be?” Cherise asked. She grabbed one of the ropes and pulled it sideways. It quivered tautly, obviously under intense stress.
“You ever used one of these?” Minu asked.
“No, not like this. But I’ve heard of them, and I climbed a lot of ropes as a little girl. Let’s get the boys.”
Even though they’d only been gone twenty minutes, continuing seemed futile. It didn’t seem likely that a two-lane vehicle bridge would be just a little farther on. That area of Bellatrix was essentially uninhabited, so it seemed likely they’d found the only way across. “Okay, let’s go back.”
The walk back was quick because they didn’t have to stay close to the canyon rim to avoid missing anything. To their surprise, the boys were already back.
“We found a bridge,” Cherise told them. They looked stunned.
“We found a way down to the bottom of the canyon,” Gregg said.
“What kind of way down?” Minu asked. The boys described three ropes dangling from poles planted in the ground. When they finished, Minu and Cherise told the boys they’d described a bridge like the one they found, only this one seemed disconnected from the other side.
“Why would someone cut the bridge?” Pip asked.
“To slow another group down,” Aaron said. They nodded in agreement. It made sense.
“Ivan,” Minu hissed. They all looked at her.
“The Rusk bastard doesn’t know there’s another bridge,” Cherise said.
“Unless they sabotaged the other bridge,” Minu said. The looks of smug satisfaction turned to shock.
“He wouldn’t dare,” Gregg spat.
“Wanna bet?” Cherise asked.
“Wanna bet your life?” Minu added. They all looked at her again. It was her decision. Should they take a chance on the seemingly intact bridge or take the sure way and climb down the broken bridge?
“We could cut this side of the other bridge,” Pip suggested. “That way, we could be sure of having a way up the other side!”
“Any sabotage of the bridge would be an issue,” Minu reminded him. Pip nodded his head dejectedly and waited for her to decide. Considering her distrust of the bridge, the decision wasn’t hard. “We climb down.”
* * *
The trip down hadn’t proved too difficult, even for Pip. The only challenge was the rope. It was at least three times thicker than a regular rope, and so long and heavy you couldn’t wrap it around your waist or arm. You had to slide down it like you would a fire pole, using your thighs to keep from racing out of control. Two hours later, Pip was the last to touch down at the bottom of the canyon, eliciting cheers from all.
The canyon floor was completely unlike the rim. The river canyon was a small oasis out of the harsh desert sun. Cherise said the fruit from the short bushes lining the river banks was good to eat, and Aaron produced a pair of fat, lazy rabbits for dinner. The lop-eared rodents lived in a perfect paradise, and he’d been able to walk up and take them. With day approaching, Minu pronounced it a perfect place to camp, so they quickly built a small fire and pitched their tents. The smell of roasting rabbit made their mouths water.
By the time they devoured the rabbits and some of their carefully hoarded freeze-dried rations, the sun was high in the desert above. The little river and the depth of the canyon kept them cool, and before long, the sounds of the gently bubbling stream lulled them to into a sound sleep.
Sometime later, Minu woke with a start. She’d been having a strange dream. As she lay there trying to recall it, the images faded from her mind. With a half shrug, she yawned and looked around. The sun had climbed high enough to cast its rays into the canyon, warming the air considerably. Even though it wasn’t as hot as it had been on the desert floor, she was sweating.
One sniff of her clothes reminded Minu how long it had been a since she’d bathed, so she quietly got up and walked the short distance to the river. Her sense of modesty long gone, she took off her clothes and dipped a toe in the river. It was much colder than she’d expected, likely due to the ice melt from the mountains behind them. Her need to be clean outweighed the river’s chill, so she gently stepped into the flow.
Under the water were the darting shapes and quick glints of silver of numerous types of fish. Earth-native trout coexisted with Bellatrix-native rock fish in the desert oasis. Minu wondered who’d taken the time to introduce the trout to such a remote area, and she swam in pursuit of the fish. A breakfast of trout sounded tasty.
Underwater, a rock raced by, and she marveled at how fast she was swimming. Another passed by just as quickly, so she stopped kicking her legs. The next rock grazed off her shoulder and spun her around.
Minu spun and kicked for the surface. Above her, the water swirled and foamed around the rocks. Somehow, she’d gotten swept into rapids. She swam as hard as she could and finally broke the surface as she slammed headfirst into a rock.
“—g-elp!” she yelled as she saw stars. The current pulled her around the rock, and she desperately grabbed for a handhold. The impact had stunned her, and the rough rock slowly slid through her fingers. The current began to tug her under the water.
Something grabbed her left arm and yanked so hard, she was afraid her shoulder would separate. She felt herself pulled from the water. In no time, she lay panting on the rocky shore, staring up into Aaron’s deep, brown eyes.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he panted. “Didn’t you notice how swiftly the water was moving?”
“N-no.” She coughed up water. Aaron lifted her head and placed it in his lap. Breathing became easier, and the coughing fit passed.
“You saved my life.” she said, looking up into his solid face. He wasn’t tall and thin like Gregg. He was slightly taller than Minu, thick and solid with muscle and just a touch of leftover boyhood fat. She felt emotions stirring for him that she’d never felt before.
“Don’t be melodramatic,” he whispered, looking down at her with equal intensity.
“My big, brave savior deserves a reward.” Before she could rethink her decision, she lifted her head and pressed her lips against his. When she laid back down, she felt something warm and growing press against the side of her head. She considered turning her head to get a better look, when she heard voices.
“What’s going on?” Minu silently cursed Pip and his terrible timing.
“Our boss took a swim and got a little too adventurous.”
“I’m fine,” Minu said, the disappointment in her voice hard to disguise as she rose to her still shaky feet.
“More like almost drowned,” Aaron said, strategically placing his hands in his lap to hide his arousal.
“Who almost drowned?” Cherise asked as she came closer. She was just in time to see Minu with her head in Aaron’s lap. Cherise saw the guilty expressions on their faces and, coupled with Aaron’s state of arousal, came to the correct conclusion.
Minu’s eyes widened, and she gave her friend an imploring look. Please, don’t say anything, she silently plead. Cherise smiled mischievously and kept her mouth shut, but the look on her face spoke volumes—I know what you were doing, you bad girl!
Hearing more voices, they turned and looked. The intact rope bridge was only a few hundred meters down the canyon, and a group of candidates was making its way across it.
Minu counted six of them, all laughing and talking loudly, no doubt very pleased with themselves for finding the intact bridge. Halfway across, their pleasure turned to horror as the ropes on the far side separated and sent them plunging and screaming toward the river.
“Oh God,” Cherise sucked in her breath, “you were right!”
Minu tried to look away but found it impossible. It took an eternity for them to fall. In fact, it took far too long.
“Something’s not right,” Gregg said and pointed at the slowing, spinning boys.
“Hoverfields,” Pip said, pointing at the canyon wall. Minu looked to where he pointed and saw glowing blue lights in the canyon wall. The Concordian anti-gravity device, a relative of the gravitic impellers that drove flyers, intercepted the boys and slowed their fall dramatically. Instead of neck-breaking, one hundred kilometers per hour impacts, they hit the water at closer to twenty, as though taking nice, easy dives from a five-meter board. Not all of them made clean entries. From more than a hundred meters away, the sound of a body smacking the water face first made them cringe.
“We’d better help them,” Minu said, turning toward the water. That was when she heard the whine of several turbines approaching.
The three Broomsticks swooped over the canyon rim, their riders searching the water below though shiny helmet visors. A very simple craft, the Broomstick resembled a wheeless motorcycle with two saddles and flared handlebars. In moments the first one swept down, and the pilot snatched a floundering boy from the water. He draped the boy across the second saddle of the Broomstick, arms and legs dangling over opposite sides, and raced away. The second pilot rescued another boy, just as his four compatriots came ashore not far from where Minu and her team stood. Minu realized she was still naked. As if reading her mind, Cherise handed over her backpack, and Minu quickly fished out her extra set of clothes and dressed. Aaron did the same.
