Page 18 of Stellar Drift
“Sync that.”Sairy’s response was very military.He again wondered about her background.
Phen and Koda both turned and headed toward the rock where they’d set up their sleep area.
Houyen picked up his empty mealpack and scooped up his collapsible camp stool.He still felt guilty that he’d dragged them along on a chaos bender of his own making, but they were all competent adults.He’d been as honest as he could with them.For the first time in years, he felt like part of a team.He wanted to do right by them.He worried that he wasn’t.
Unexpectedly, Sairy stood and stepped close enough that her scent tickled his nose.“They’ll be fine.So will we.”She gave him a soft, teasing smile that bypassed his defenses like they weren’t even there.“After all, I’m the Ghost of Jalkapanga.”
He fought the sudden need to fold her into an embrace.She already had a partner.The best he could do was gamely smile back.“They’ll never see us coming.”
Chapter 7
Jalkapanga Mountain, Qal Corona • GDAT 3235.021
Sairysentoneofher cameras up, trying to get a better look at their destination.They were close to the top of Jalkapanga.They still kept finding insect body parts and chewed-up shrubs, but no flightless nymphs.She kept a close eye on the camera’s status feedback.At this altitude, winds were capricious and dangerous for little flying cameras.She didn’t have very many to begin with, and none of the specialized parts needed to repair them.A serious oversight on the part of whatever supplymaster had selected stock for experimental exploration starships.
Houyen sat on a moss-covered outcrop.The formerly pristine white bug net on his face had plant bits and several smears of mud.She envied the thin, durable, and undoubtedly expensive gloves he wore as he deftly sealed a sample collector and quietly added verbal notes with his observations.From what she could tell, he liked that part of his job.
Kyala sat next to his feet, looking up hopefully at him.When he noticed her, he burst out laughing.“Share one bit of cheese… I’m doomed, aren’t I?”
Sairy couldn’t help but smile.“Probably.She’s very persistent.”
His relaxed ease around the fearsome-looking Kyala was another point in the “yes” column for the handsome ranger.So far, she hadn’t found anything to add to the “no” column, other than his sometimes ruthless tactics and his employer.Which disturbed her, because it meant she was losing her objectivity about him.
True, they’d crossed paths fairly often in past three years, but she’d avoided spending more than an hour or two with him, and never alone.At first because he worked for the CPS.Then, when he proved no more impressed by his own agency than the locals were, she avoided him because he was too damn easy on the eyes and even easier to talk to.His lively curiosity and sense of humor were already in the “yes” column.The day in Axolotl Bend had been stressful, but put more marks in the “yes” column than the “no.”
She called the camera back and stored it in the bellows pocket on her thigh, copying its images to her controller as she did so.“If we vector left from here, there’s a ring of trees with a shallow spot in the middle.It looks sort of like a big bowl with mucky water in the bottom.Going right will take us to a wide ridge above it with a lot of jungle growth.”
“The bowl might be a pseudocrater.”He opened the sling bag on his shoulder and stowed his sample.At her questioning look, he added, “Hot lava hits a wetland and makes a splat.”
It was interesting to learn the names of geologic features, but that wasn’t what she wanted to know.“Do the wuzzy-bug nymph things swim?”
“Not that we know of.”He frowned.“Unless it’s a new species.”
“I ask because we’re running out of mountain.”She crouched to make sure the water pouches for her and Kyala were sealed tight before closing her backpack.“We’ll make better time if we skip the lake and head straight for the ridge.”
“Yeah.”His frown deepened.“I don’t like that it’s past noon and I still haven’t heard from Brannezzo.Or that Phen and Koda haven’t seen anyone.”
Their companions had gotten down the slope and moved all their airsleds a kilometer to the east.They’d even had time to set up what Phen would only describe as an “anti-theft measure” at the geomarker, which they’d left where it was.The couple was now settled into a makeshift blind while they waited for their friends with the dogs.
Sairy wondered if Houyen was still feeling guilty about exposing them to danger.He’d seemed so alone the night before that she’d felt a strong urge to comfort him.She at least had Kyala and Elkano, and he didn’t appear to have anyone.
“You don’t have to tell me anything, but you seem to be taking it pretty well that your coworker might want to hurt you.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”He lifted his bug net enough so he could rub his eyes.“Mysteries are my catnip.I just can’t let them alone, which means I find out things people don’t want me to know.I also believe in the purpose of the reserves and preserves.We need to nurture nature because we need it like we need air and water.Hell, we even take it with us in starship hydroponics sections instead of just using atmosphere exchangers.”He made a frustrated sound.“I’m too idealistic for my own good.”
“Considering what the CPS does with inconvenient employees, I’ll bet you’ve had more than your fair share of new duty-station assignments.And not many friends.”
He gave her a wry smile.“I did get smarter about protecting myself after a coworker stunned me unconscious and left me in the middle of a swamp.”He glanced away, then toward her again.“You don’t have to tell me, but did you ever work for the CPS?”
Her knee-jerk reaction was to lie as usual, but frelling hell, she was tired of so many secrets.“Yes.My home life tanked.I had no prospects other than a systems aptitude and a fondness for engines, so I joined the regular military the day I turned seventeen.They put me in Joint Div Maintenance as a mech tech, but we all did a bit of everything — space, air, water, ground, comms, you name it.A random minder test discovered I have a patterner talent they didn’t have a name for, which was my immediate one-way transfer to the CPS.My contract still had a lot of years and I couldn’t afford to buy it out.The CPS sent me to a space station, but at least they kept me working in systems.”
He nodded.“That explains the skulljack.”
“Sure,” she agreed, glad that Koda, with her sifter talent, wasn’t around to notice the half-truth of that answer.The interface and controller had come years later, in the last blacker-than-black secret project.
She stood and pulled her backpack onto her shoulders.“Speaking of which, I’m going to check in with Elkano.”At least she didn’t have to hide his existence anymore.She tapped her earwire and subvocalized into it.
“Hello, Sairy.Are you well?”Elkano sounded more formal than usual.
