Page 55 of Alliance
“There.” Fás pointed towards the ice sea, where one of the dunes appeared to be a perfect white half-sphere at the base of the relay’s cliff. “I smell char from a fire. Cleaning supplies. It’s not a home, but someone’s been there recently. I’d bet it’s a hunter’s blind.”
“You think it’s safe?” I asked, licking my lip, still staring at the heavenly tower of data disappearing into the relay. “We could go straight up to the station and look for storage instead.”
Fásach grinned, obviously excited about an actual shelter. “No one in their right mind would hunt during a blizzard. It’ll have basic supplies, and it’s far enough below the station to lay low for a night. Come on.”
[Warning] “Right.” I lowered my face from the massive antenna and followed.
?
It was indeed a hunter’s blind. A narrow window set on the downwind side of the gusts looked out over the sea, its glassthick and dark. No one was inside, the scent of coals faded and cold according to Fás. He scrambled on top of the structure, looking for a vent panel, his thick fur and ears buffeted in the frigid wind. He’d unclasped his coverall neck and doffed his gloves and hood.
Compared to the day before, he looked much thicker. And his tresses sprayed down the center of his crown like a zebra’s mane. He’d changed so much in the last couple days that the legs of his coveralls strained over his thighs and his silvery stripes were turning black.
“Found it,” he grunted into the wind. I held the vital pods by the reins as a draft threatened to bowl me over. Fásach leaned into the tempest, his hackles rising as he dug his claws into the vent panel.
“If you see a control panel, I can try to open the door,” I said, waiting near the entrance. I ushered my parumauxi into my fingers again, and this time, rather than fighting and damaging my skin, they were excited. They understood what I needed.
Fásach pried up a panel and reached down a clawed hand. I took it and he hoisted me up with a graceful heave, holding me in place. When the wind crashed into us again, his hackles stood up stiff across his shoulders. He sank his claws into the roof and crouched over me, curling over my head to shelter me from the wind.
“What are you doing?” he asked, his nose brushing my silk as I bit my glove and pulled it off by the fingers.
“My parumauxi. They can interface with other machines and relay the information to me. I think I can…” I trailed off as my fingertips met the circuitry. There was an AI managing the station and all its satellite buildings. SVAPAN. The door slid open, curving into the spherical dome, and we slid back to the snow with a crunch.
I took my visor off the moment we were inside. Fás guided the girls into the relative warmth as the lights kicked on and the ventilation system started circulating warm, clean air.
Inside wasn’t nearly as exhilarating as outside. The invigorating roar of data streaming to and from the relay was muted, but as systems kicked on and the hunter’s blind started whirring to life, a sense of calm and comfort overcame me. It was a relief to be able to breathe and just... Take a moment.
[Analysis] This was a good place.
“Welcome to the Buoy, my name isSavapan,”SVAPAN intoned. It was a regal female voice, crusty in an Old World way. “Shall I report the weather, submarine infrastructure health, or fishing conditions?”
“No,” Fás said, setting down his much heavier pack with a thunk. Our eyes caught and he smiled, licking one side of his mouth. “Neat trick up there.”
I grinned back with a little shrug, my heart flipping at the look on his face. Carefree, relieved,happy.“It’s a new trick.”
“Yeah?”
“Mm! Parumauxi swarms evolve over time, you know.”
He took my pack and set it against the wall by the door along with his, then stepped down into the bowl of the Buoy. It was spherical inside and out, with three circular terraces and a thick hatch in the center of the lowest part of the floor. The walls were littered with maps, diagrams, and shelves of supplies. A quilted hammock was strung along one curved wall above a charging bank with several different adaptors and wattages. I pushed Safia and Misila in that direction to hook their vital pods up to the power.
“Equalizing trunk pressure,” SVAPAN announced. Fásach waited with a twitch of his ear, his hand on the floor hatch. A meter beside slowly filled with light, and the hatch rotated opento reveal a well of briny sea water. He stared at it with a crease in his brow.
“I knew we were walking on the sea, but…”
I crouched next to him, our elbows rubbing as the salty air rose to our noses. “You’ve never seen this much water before, right?”
He grunted, touching his finger to the surface reverently. He dipped his fingers in, then shook the droplets off. “Not since before Huajile.”
“Rosy’s from an island. I have lots of memories of saltwater.”
“That’s why it smells like this?” Fásach asked, his ears swiveling with curiosity. I nodded, then we both watched the water ripple as the heat returned to our ears and noses. When my knees started to ache, I stood and stretched, leaving him to watch the water lap the edges of the hatch while I dug around on the shelves and in the AI’s database.
The Buoy’s walls were separated into four sections: the blind, shelving, cabinets, and a redundant control center for SVAPAN that included plas printouts of command lines, digital and physical meters, buttons and levers and switches... Instantly drawn there, I checked it for an antenna, scouring the few little wisps of data I could see for anything resembling the echo I’d been chasing. Maybe something would jump out at me.
But there was nothing.
So, with a sigh, I circled the highest terrace and brushed my fingers against a shelf full of bulk rations, then slid my hip down the wall and looked out the very corner of the window. The antenna disk was just visible, its black silhouette huge and looming over the Buoy.
