Page 57 of Crash Landing
“It always smells like rain here.”
“Smells more strongly of rain. It will probably drizzle for most of the trek.”
“I’m going to be so happy to finally dry off completely. My fingers and toes have been pruney for days.”
“There,” Saleuk pointed toward a mountain in the distance with a flat peak. “That’s where we need to get.”
“Seems doable.”
I glanced down at the cuff he’d given me and skimmed over a layout of the land. The mountain was pretty clearly indicated on the moveable image and with a tap of my fingers, I markedthe peak where we were headed. I blinked at the way the cuff calculated the fastest root through what it knew of the terrain.
“Whoa,” I said.
“Keep it. You can program it to wherever you are.”
“So I could take this to Earth and program it?”
“Sure,” he shrugged, seeming unenthused by the concept.
He walked forward, starting the journey before I could inquire anymore about the cuff.
We walked on flat ground for a bit before entering the dark shadows of the woods where the giant tree canopies blocked out most of the light. But Saleuk walked as if it had no effect on his sight. I followed closely, watching when he stepped over things in our path so I could step over them, too. Every move he made telegraphed what I had to do next, which actually made the hike quite easy. But then the terrain slowly started to slant upwards.
The sound of water had faded into a breezy silence. It was the first time the water wasn’t within audible range since I’d arrived on the moon. I kept my eyes peeled, despite not being able to see as much detail as Saleuk could, and found myself fantasizing about hot food, a real bath, and a damn bed that didn’t dig into my hip bones. When I nearly tripped over a root, I snapped out of it, quickly catching myself. Saleuk turned, holding out a hand with concern, but I wasn’t ready to resign myself to his help. So far, I’d surprised myself with my own resilience and I wanted to keep going.
When we finally emerged from the woods, I was so pleased to see the light again so I could navigate my own path, but that light faded quickly behind thick storm clouds. The thick smell of rain filled the air, almost stifling. Saleuk and I started walking side by side on black, rocky ground that still slowly inclined upward the further we hiked. I pulled my canteen from my bag and took abig gulp. Before I could get carried away, I put it back, aware that I should conserve it.
“Are you feeling alright?” Saleuk asked.
I nodded. I was breathing hard, but I wasn’t dead.
“Just a little winded in this humidity, but I’m ok.”
“If you want to stop for a moment—”
“No. I want a shower. I want a bed. I want real food, as great as the moon potatoes were to look at.”
A low chuckle rumbled through Saleuk’s chest. “I think I will definitely bathe first.”
“I knew you were the clean type. You guys seem so prim and proper.”
“Cleanliness is a form of respect for yourself and people around you. Of course, we are clean.”
“What else do you miss?”
“Nothing really. It’s only been a few days. Training cycles on primitive planets used to last much longer than a few days.”
“Is that what you call your wilderness training?”
“The military where I’m from must train in a variety of environments that represent different worlds in our territory and outside of it. And yes, we call it primitive training.”
“So, you’ve been in the military your whole life, right?”
“Since I was young, yes. I knew I wanted to pilot. But you cannot pilot without extended training. I enlisted on Sylos first. Then I trained on Syferion for a while. And then…”
He trailed off, but I knew what he meant to say. Syferion was the planet from which the valerians mined syfer crystals as an energy source. I knew the stories. It had been attacked by the gek during one of the peak moments of their war.
“When they started sending people into stasis, I wasn’t going to volunteer. I wanted to fight. I wanted revenge. Most of our military led an attack on two of the biggest gek’tal bases. A lot of people died on both sides. When our people truly began tounderstand what the virus had done to us, we ceased fighting. The gek, for some reason, stopped attacking our military bases. There were rumors that there was infighting, but no one really knows why they stopped attacking us. We couldn’t afford to lose more men and women to find out for ourselves. So, they started asking people to go into stasis.”
