Page 15 of Stellar Drift
To be fair, thought Sairy, he wasn’t entirely wrong.
Houyen pinched the bridge of his nose.“Because plant samples won’t obligingly collect themselves.According to Ranger records, Jalkapanga Mountain’s cloud forest has never been ground-surveyed.Not once.Not even by the original settlement company when they turned the Nature Reserve over to the planetary government one hundred and eighty years ago.”
“Hey, Ranger,” yelled Phen, as if she wasn’t less than three meters away from Houyen’s percomp.“Tell my asshole father we’re going after the treasure, just like he thought, and there’s nothing he can do about it!”
“Treasure?You mean it’s real?I thought Pazhkeli was just mad about what the villagers said.”
“No, it’s not real.”Houyen’s exasperation was plain on his face, though he kept it out of his tone.
“Yes, it is!”shouted Phen.“Real as rain!And it’ll all be ours!”
Koda tried to pull her away.“Not helping, Phen.”
Houyen turned his back on the struggling pair and caught Sairy’s eye as he tapped his gauntlet.“I just sent you the coords for this spot and the geo-locator relay, but I’m not the leader here, I’m just tagging along to do my survey.If our cooperating partners want to start up the mountain while the weather holds, I’m going with them.”
“Who is the leader?”Brannezzo’s tone seemed sharper.
“Me and the Ghost of Jalkapanga!”shouted Phen as Koda half-dragged her toward the biggest airsled.“We’re gonna be rich!We’ll buy our own starship!Tell my father to suck flux!”
“Who’s making all that racket?”
“The leader.”His mouth twitched in a momentary smile.“I think she’s miffed.”
Sairy snorted.Easy-going Phen was usually slow to anger, but once she blew, she rivaled a volcanic eruption.Her meddling parent was probably in for a rough few ten-days after they got back.
“She sounds like she’s gliding high on the local exotic chems.Better wait until I get there.”
“Like I said, not my decision.Ping me when you’re in the area and I’ll send you an updated location and route advisory.”
Houyen tapped the percomp controls and dropped his arm.He started to speak, then seemed to think better of it.With tightened lips and jerky movements, he set about guiding his airsled under the stand of trees.
Kyala, who now wore enough mud that it was dripping off her, sidled up to Sairy.She didn’t need the mental connection to know that the gargoyle wanted to be off having adventures, not perplexed by human conversations.
“You and me, both.Come on, let’s get the sled stowed and covered.”
She’d managed three and a half years of waiting and wondering.Now she just needed to survive five more days.
Chapter 6
Jalkapanga Mountain, Qal Corona • GDAT 3235.020
Houyenthoughthe’dbeenin pretty good physical shape until this expedition.He had the feeling that Phen and Koda were finding it as challenging as he did, though so far, they hadn’t complained.Still, he was glad to see they were experienced hikers who knew when to call a brief rest.
Sairy, on the other hand, seemed indefatigable.Well, maybe determined was a better word.She shared her experience and her maps and deftly avoided Koda’s attempts to draw her into revealing conversations.Mostly, she climbed and talked to Kyala.
He’d had reservations about Kyala’s presence, but the gargoyle had turned out to have an uncanny knack for discovering usable paths and avoiding the shallow thickets that hid wickedly sharp thorns.Sairy’s and Kyala’s partnership reminded him of when his younger brother’s animal affinity talent had blossomed, and he’d made friends with every stray cat in the neighborhood.He didn’t know why it surprised him that Sairy was good with systems and animals, but it did.She continued to intrigue him.
He also had to admit that Sairy’s description of the cloud forest as being eerie was on target.Mosses covered everything.Unexpected mists wafted in between the dense stands of trees.Unleashing his minder talent gave him the sense that the plants lived a more precarious existence than he’d imagined.A lot less diversity than he’d imagined, too.No parasitic figs, no nano-needle shrubs, and too few epiphytes on the stunted-looking trees.Just a couple of species of birch and skinny firs.
The topsoil was rich with organics, but the volcanic soils below were acidic and friable.And sharp, where they jutted out of the steep slope, waiting to tear any thin fabric that brushed by too close.
At least the bare-branched shrubs proved they were on the right track as far as tracking the wuzzy-bug trail.Houyen’s talent said the plants weren’t as dead as they looked, which suggested they’d adapted to periodic insect swarms.Once again, the serious lack of environmental records made him shake his head in disgust.How had the rangers missed that for well over a century?
By tacit agreement, as dusk approached, they selected and set up their sleeping spot for the night, then sat in a circle to eat from self-heating mealpacks.Houyen was glad that Phen and Koda had left the amateur camper’s cold box on the big airsled.Sairy unfolded a collapsible stool and joined the group with her own mealpack after she’d put down food and water for Kyala.
Phen seemed to have gotten past her towering anger at her overprotective, meddling father’s actions.“Thank the universe I didn’t have to eat many of these tasteless things in Ground Div, or I’d have termed out after my first tour.”
“At least these are fresh,” said Koda.“I think Axolotl Bend’s emergency stores were old when the Central League was still ruling the galaxy.That’s no way to run a town.”
