Excelsior (25 page)

“Both. When every day is a struggle just to survive, you have to focus on the living, not the dead.”

Caty felt a hot flash of anger toward him. She glared and pursed her lips.

“I know it’s tough, but you have to be fuerte.”

“I’m tired of being strong!” Fresh tears sprang to Caty’s eyes. She swiped them away, flinging them against the sides of the tent. “It’s not fair! He served his time! They should have sent someone else.”

“Catalina…”

“He should be here!”

“But he is not.”

Caty shook her head. Her lower lip trembled with fury.

“Ven aqui,” David said, and pulled her into a hug. “Esta bien. Esta bien. Shhh. I’m here.”

Caty’s entire body trembled as she sobbed and gritted her teeth. She wanted to push David away, to lash out at him and tell him to leave her alone!

But she didn’t.

“Tengo una buena noticia,” he said.

“There’s no such thing as good news anymore.”

“No? We’re leaving.”

Caty pulled away sharply. “Leaving? Where to?”

David grinned and shrugged. “We haven’t found more survivors for a while now, so they’re disbanding the camp.”

“But…” She’d been raging against life in the camp for so long, but now that she was finally going somewhere else, she wasn’t sure she wanted to go. “Where? How?” They were all still refugees in need of water, food, and shelter.

“The government’s building new communities for us all over the country. We just have to pick one and go there.”

“We?”

“You thought I was going to leave you alone? No, mi chiquita. Ni loco. Not a chance.”

In spite of the ulterior motive Caty felt sure was lurking somewhere behind David’s Santa beard, she smiled and relief coursed through her.

“So what are the options?”

“The warden posted them on the news board. Come see.” David led her out by the hand, all but dragging her to the bulletin board where memos had been posted to keep them all in the loop with important news. The evening air was chilly for California, but the birds were out and chirping, and the sky was a cheerful shade of blue. It was tempting to believe that this really was good news and things were about to get better.

They reached the news board, but they had to push through a crowd to get close enough to read. David was a big guy, so no trouble there. Most people were scared of him. Only Caty knew that he was a big teddy bear.

Standing on the muddy ground in front of the cork board, under the eaves of a tin roof, Caty read the latest memo. It summarized exactly what David had said about the government building new communities for the refugees. Below that was a list of ten cities where those communities were being built.

Caty scanned the list briefly before spying one city that appealed due to the weather and the familiar mix of Northern and Southern culture. “What about Sacramento?” she asked, turning to David with a smile. She was so unused to smiling that it hurt her face.

David grinned back at her, his brown eyes dancing. “I was thinking that same thing, mi chiquita.”

Chapter 22

May 23rd, 2790

(Wonderland’s Frame of Reference)

Alexander covered a yawn with one hand and shook his head, trying to shake off his exhaustion the way he might shake off a bug. Last night he’d spent hours scanning the raging black water for bobbing heads, but all he’d managed to do was to waste precious fuel. This morning, after only two hours of rest in his newly-erected hab module, and a handful of caffeine pills for breakfast, Alexander was back at it. He couldn’t sleep while he knew that two of his crew were missing—well, one crew member and one plenipo-pain-in-the-ass politician.

“How’s it look?” he asked Lieutenant Stone.

“Water seems to be back out where it should be. Lots of debris on the beach. The jungle’s a mess. No sign of Shuttle Two.”

“Maybe they were dragged out to sea?” Commander Korbin suggested.

Alexander frowned. “Maybe.”

All three shuttles were up and searching. They’d left Petty Officer Suarez back at the hab complex in a Cheetah to watch the perimeter while Dr. Crespin and McAdams checked air samples for airborne pathogens. Everyone else was in the shuttles. They’d brought one of the Cheetahs and a rover, but looking at the ruined state of the jungle, they weren’t likely to get very far anyway. Thick black mushroom stalks and splintered tree trunks lay glistening wet on the beach, overturned caps the size of boulders lay gills up and drying in the sun. Severed fronds and branches covered in red and purple leaves were scattered everywhere like seaweed.

“That’s our original landing site, there,” Stone said. “I’m going to take us down for a closer look,”

Alexander stared at the ground. What had once been a wide beach was now a thin, dirty strip of land strewn with vegetation. Alexander scanned the area, looking for the missing shuttle or the trademark white of a pressure suit. He imagined Max or Ryder waving their arms and doing jumping jacks to get his attention.

Nothing moved. In the distance Alexander saw black tree trunks rising like obelisks against the dusty blue-gray horizon. All the branches and leaves had been stripped from the bottoms of the trees, but up higher they were still alive with vibrant reds and purples.

Stone circled the landing site, all the while shaking his head. “We’re looking for a pair of needles in a tree stack.”

“I doubt they would have made their way back here,” Cardinal put in from the back of the cockpit. “Their shuttle was probably rolled along the beach until it fetched up against the trees. Assuming they managed to get out, they wouldn’t even know how to find our landing site without the Shuttle’s nav system to guide them, and if I were them, I’d stick as close to the shuttle as possible, because it will be easier for us to detect—not to mention it’s the only place that’s sure to be safe.”

“You’re assuming the shuttle survived,” Korbin replied.

Alexander considered that. “Even if it didn’t, Cardinal’s right, it would have been rolled toward the jungle. If they were forced to abandon it, we might find them clinging to one of those trees. Stone—”

“Already on it,” he said, banking and flying inland.

Alexander watched the ground sweep by in a blur of red foliage, black dirt, and lavender sand.

“I’ve got a ping on sensors!”

“Where?” Alexander scanned the shuttle’s sensor display, his heart pounding with anticipation.

Stone pointed to the blip on sensors. “It’s faint, but stands out from the jungle. I’m going to circle it.”

Alexander squinted out the canopy as they approached. Then he caught a glint of something shiny. “There!” he pointed.

“On it,” Stone replied.

A tiny white speck appeared standing on top of a pile of vegetation and waving a shiny square of metal at them.

“We got one!” Stone said. The comms crackled with similar exclamations from the other shuttle pilots.

“Just one?” Korbin asked. “Where’s the other?”

“Maybe he’s inside?” Cardinal suggested.

“Why isn’t he contacting us on the comms?” Alexander asked.

Stone shrugged. “Don’t know. Maybe his suit’s damaged. How are we going to get him up here? There’s nowhere to land.”

Alexander was already rising from his chair. “That’s what what we have EVA tethers for. Hover over him and I’ll throw down a line.”

“I’ll help,” Cardinal said.

“Likewise,” Korbin added.

A minute later the three of them were standing in the airlock with the outer doors open and a tether dangling over the side of the shuttle.

Korbin was down on her hands and knees, peering over the edge. “He’s got it!” she called out as the tether pulled taut. “Had to jump for it, but he’s got it.”

Alexander activated the winch and began reeling him in. The motor groaned and turned with agonizing slowness. It wasn’t designed to fight against gravity. “Help me reel him in!” Alexander said, grabbing the line with both hands. Korbin and Cardinal took up positions in front of him and added their strength to his. After a few seconds they were all gasping for air, and Alexander’s arms were shaking, but they were making progress.

“It has… to be… Ryder,” Cardinal said between gasps for air. “Someone needs to tell him to lay off the ‘roids.”

Alexander grunted his agreement.

After a minute of grueling work, Stone’s voice came to them over the comms. “You get him yet?”

A pair of white-gloved hands appeared and grabbed the edge of the airlock. Before anyone could help, Ryder’s face appeared as he pulled himself up.

All three of them rushed forward to lend a hand. Alexander waved the outer doors shut and cycled the airlock while Korbin toggled her helmet speakers to ask Seth if he was okay.

Alexander turned to see him bobbing his head and tapping the side of his helmet to indicate his comms weren’t working. “Helmet got wet!” he said, his voice muffled.

As soon as the inner airlock doors slid open, he removed his helmet and took a deep breath.

“Never thought I’d be so happy to see such an ugly face,” Cardinal said, removing his own helmet and pulling Seth into a backslapping hug.

“Where’s Max?” Korbin asked.

Seth shook his head. “I don’t know. We sprang a leak and he left. I tried to stop him…”

Alexander scowled. Typical. Just like a bureaucrat to go making more work for everyone. He sighed and pressed his lips into a grim line. “We’ll find him.”

*

After an hour of aerial searching they still hadn’t found Max, and they were running low on discretionary fuel.

“We’ll have to land and continue searching on foot,” Stone said.

Alexander nodded. “Do it.” He bit into a ration bar and took a swig of water from his flask to wash it down.

“What if there’s another tremor?” Korbin asked. “We could all get caught this time.”

“Odds of that are slim,” Cardinal said. “The jungle was overgrown when we first saw it. How long do you think it took to bounce back after the last tsunami hit? This is probably the worst disaster the area has seen in a hundred years.”

“And we arrived just in time to see it. That’s some kind of luck,” Stone said.

“The worst,” Ryder croaked from the back of the shuttle.

Alexander glanced back to see how he was doing. He looked pale despite the half a dozen ration bars he’d eaten, and his eyes were red from sleep deprivation, but otherwise he was no worse for the wear. “We need to get Ryder back to Doc Crespin for examination.”

Stone nodded as he landed on the beach. “We’ll send him back with one of the other shuttles.”

Their shuttle touched down with a subtle jolt. Buckles clacked and clattered as everyone rose from their seats and filed out the hatch to the rear airlock. A minute later they were standing on a dirty beach amidst a field of shredded plants. A black tree branch with drooping red leaves was coiling and uncoiling like a snake.

Lieutenant Cardinal walked over to it and went down on his haunches to examine the severed limb. Alexander turned to see Stone speaking with Lieutenant Fernandez from Shuttle Three. Fernandez looked as exhausted as Alexander felt. They’d both stayed up late last night searching for Ryder and Max.

Stone indicated Ryder and Fernandez nodded. He would take Ryder back for a check up—probably also so that he could get some sleep.

“Captain, you need take a look at this,” Korbin said over the comms.

Alexander turned to see her standing further down the beach, beside a giant black boulder. He jogged to catch up with her.

“What is it?” Alexander asked.

Korbin pointed to the boulder. That was when Alexander noticed it rising and falling.

It was breathing.

He flinched and jumped back. “What the hell is that?”

“I think it’s some kind of whale.”

Alexander walked around it, noting the creature’s collection of fins, and its smooth, shiny skin. The whale was at least a fifty feet long. “Stone,” he said over the comms. “Need you here. Bring your rifle.”

Korbin shot him an acid look. “You’re going to shoot it?”

Alexander stopped in front of the creature’s vast, gaping mouth. Its teeth were like daggers, six inches long, and there were hundreds of them. So you’re a predator, Alexander thought. Just like us. The whale’s fat pink tongue lolled from its mouth.

To find a creature this big on an alien world was an amazing discovery. It looked remarkably similar to whales on Earth, but Alexander was fairly sure that was only because he didn’t know enough to tell the difference.

“Where’s McAdams when you need her…” he muttered.

“You called me, Captain?” Stone said, jogging up beside him. “Whoa! Hello there,” he said, aiming his rifle at one massive red eye.

“Leave her alone,” Korbin hissed. “Can’t you see she’s hurt?”

“How do you know it’s a she?” Stone asked, frowning.

“How do you know it isn’t?” Korbin replied.