Trapped on Predator Planet, page 25
At the cliff’s edge, we looked down into the ravine where the Night River overflowed its banks.
Searching the rocks below the fall, I saw a mad tangle of brush and logs jammed there from every storm-caused flood of the past weeks. Using my sight-capture to magnify the scene, I zoomed in. Was that it? A twisted band of dull black material that was not a tree.
“Behold,” I said, my voice low. “See you there?” I said and pointed. “Lodged between the stripped tan trunk and the gray stone shaped like Pattee’s spearhead.”
“I see it,” Esra said with a gasp. “But that didn’t come off an EEP. Oh my God.”
She said nothing else for a rotik, then turned and ran toward the pod, shouting.
Amity, Joan, and Pattee emerged from it and grabbed Esra’s frantic, gesturing hands. They looked up at me and approached, their expressions wan and stark in the waning light of day. I moved aside when they neared and waited to hear their assessment. When I saw them nodding and gesturing, I realized they consulted privately with VELMA. Footsteps behind me alerted me that my brethren approached as well.
Backing away from the edge, they turned and faced us.
“VELMA confirmed it for us,” Pattee said with a frown. “That metal did not come from an EEP X215.” She took a deep breath and exchanged a look with her fellows. “It’s from an IGMC Planet Mass Insertion Vehicle.”
Scrutinizing their faces, I noted ashy skin and drawn expressions.
“What does this mean?” I asked.
Of the four of them, Esra looked the worst, as if her legs would collapse at the slightest breeze. Naraxthel noticed and reached her in two strides, holding her before she could fall.
“Planet Mass Insertion Vehicles are used when IGMC has claimed a planet to mine its resources,” Pattee said, her voice tight. “We knew nothing about this, I swear on the spirits of my ancestors.”
Natheka broke through the women and looked down into the ravine.
“Judging by that piece, I would like to suggest that the vehicle was unable to fulfill its purpose,” he said. “Come, dear humans. We know you did not orchestrate this. We have given our lives to one another.”
Amity’s face crinkled in that awful expression I had come to dread, and she turned into Natheka’s embrace, her shoulders shaking with her cries.
Shifting my feet, I avoided Pattee’s gaze until she strode in front of me and grabbed my helmet. Meeting my eyes through the visor, she stared. “Do you believe me?”
“With all of my heart,” I said, placing my hand on my chest armor.
“Okay,” she said. “We need to figure out what this means.”
Fire in her eyes, my nether regions swelled at her fierce determination. Pattee’s indomitable soul attracted me like no other female had ever done, and I secretly hoped we might take the pod for our private sleeping arrangements at nightfall.
We trudged back to the spot with the flattest ground and sat in a haphazard circle. I was not too concerned about a vehicle that hadn’t survived entry into Ikthe’s atmosphere, but the humans took this development seriously, so I would listen until such time as we could bed down for the night.
Pattee caught me staring at her, and shook her head with an embarrassed half-smile, and I grinned. We had only been heart mates for a short time, but already we knew each other’s moods and thoughts. I would have it no other way.
Chapter 66
Joan
“VELMA, are there IGMC fleet ships in orbit?” Pattee asked.
“Negative, Pattee,” she said. “I’ve detected no signatures indicative of IGMC fleet ships, nor any suggesting executive science class, vanguard, or unmanned probes.”
I closed my eyes and sagged against Raxkarax in relief. I had to give myself an eye roll. The thought of a fleet ship full of humans held no appeal to me now? I was well and truly in love with this hulking male beside me.
Opening my eyes, I scanned the faces of my fellow miners. Missing CeCe with a sharp pang in my heart, I was growing to love these women, as well. CeCe would have fit in with us. I remembered her earnest face, eyes peering into mine. “Go. I’ll meet you on the Other Side.” She’d shoved me inside my pod and raced off. To my left. I was in the farthest pod from the women’s bunks. The bunks and all the pods were to my right.
To the left were docking bays for IGMC auxiliary ships—like the P-MIV and the mech drills. But why would CeCe take an insertion vehicle? Especially when it was the only one. While they were outfitted with cryo-tech and life-support, they weren’t nearly as comfortable for temporary living conditions. Of course, with the Under Attack klaxons blaring, maybe she wasn’t thinking. Except she’d had the presence of mind to get me to my pod when I was frozen in fear.
CeCe didn’t make mistakes.
The twisted black metal—twisted—what had happened to it? Was CeCe gone?
Pattee had been explaining how the P-MIV worked when I sat up and interrupted.
“CeCe Pain took the P-MIV!”
“What?” Pattee said with a frown.
“I mean, I guess I don’t know for sure,” I said. “But after she shoved me in my pod, she didn’t go in the direction of the rest of the pod access doors. She went the other way.”
Watching the girls’ expressions, I saw them mapping the ship in their heads. I could see the light dawn in their eyes when they figured it out.
“The mech drills, rovers, Single Occupant Orbiters and the P-MIV were adjacent to the pod bays,” Esra said. “It’s possible.”
“It’s not just possible,” I said and pounded my knee. “It’s likely. What else is that direction on the Lucidity? The cargo bay? The elevator to the executive suites?”
“But Joan,” Amity said. “If CeCe took it, then ….” Her eyes searched mine. “She may not have made it.”
Biting my lip, tears sprang to my eyes, and I nodded. “I know.”
Raxkarax held me and rubbed my back. “Pattee,” he said. “Please explain this vehicle once more.”
“The P-MIV is piloted by one of IGMC’s certified planet insertion specialists,” she said. “After an ARA team determines a planet is eligible, then the P-MIV is deployed. Usually, the planet’s atmosphere and surface has been analyzed and cross-sectioned by Raman spectrography among other things. The pilot uses this information to decide where to land.”
“Was CeCe certified?” Esra asked me.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “I don’t know. Why would she take it?”
“The P-MIVs are outfitted with tech that preps a planet for the Mining Ship,” Pattee continued. “The Mining Ship was in the same convoy as the Lucidity. It shouldn’t have been deployed until we reached Kerberos 90.”
“None of this adds up,” Esra said. “VELMA, can’t you find anything in your memory banks about the attack on the Lucidity?”
“According to data filed in my memory banks, my programs initiated on IGMC’s standard calendar year 2576, June 7th, at 13:08 at which time each of you were logged into your cryosleep regimens except for Pattee, who made slight alterations to hers.”
“I’m a bit of a control freak,” Pattee mumbled when she caught me watching her.
“What was everyone doing?” Esra asked. “As much as you can remember. The day the klaxons went off.”
“I was coming back from a therapy session,” I said. “In a daze. Hadn’t had lunch yet. Thinking about—things. I was in Communal Area 14, literally steps away from the pod bay. CeCe told me we could meet up there when she finished her meeting.”
“I was in Communal 14, too,” Amity said. “Sipping a coffee. I had a few minutes before my mech-drill recertification test and was planning on drawing some animals in my sketch book. Before that I had lunch in my quarters. Enjoyed a short video call with my brother and his kids,” she said, her voice catching.
“Running diagnostics on the mech-drills and the SOOs,” Pattee said. “Now that I’m thinking about it, I almost ran into somebody coming from the elevator. I didn’t think anything of it. With the klaxons blaring, there were lots of people rushing around. But she was full-on sprinting.”
My throat dried up. “What did she look like?” I said.
“Black natural hair, taller than I, darker skin than Amity’s, same flight suit as us,” Pattee listed.
“Doesn’t the corridor end at the elevator to the executive suites?” Esra said. “I mean, on the other levels it wraps all the way round to make a complete circuit.”
“Right,” Amity said. “I usually do laps on Level 13 for that reason.”
Pattee was looking at me.
“Yeah, that sounds like CeCe,” I said, my voice quiet. “She didn’t say who she was meeting. Just that they were shuttling in from the Admin ship.”
“Esra, what were you doing?” Pattee asked.
“In transit from Kerberos 90 atmosphere orientation down in level 10,” she said. “I was actually on my way to 14, but to access the elevators. I was told to report to the executive suites at 1400 hours. Obviously, I never made it.”
“Does anyone else think—”
“That the whole thing sounds suspicious, Amity? Yes,” I said. “CeCe is the smartest person I know, and I know highly intelligent people.” I gestured to everyone. “She’s also methodical and strategic,” I said. “I can’t picture her running from or to anything or anyone.”
“But she ran to you,” Pattee pointed out.
“How do you mean?” I asked, cocking my head.
“She had to run past the P-MIV to get to you and get you in your pod,” Pattee said. “She was right by the other pods. She could have gotten in any of those.”
“Right,” I said. “That’s why it doesn’t make sense that she chose the P-MIV.”
“Unless she had a reason,” Pattee said. “If she intended to take it the whole time, then she was sprinting to make sure she had time to get you safely aboard the EEP. And then she ran back the way she came to take the insertion vehicle.”
Mouth gaping, I considered Pattee’s words.
“But how could she know there would be an attack?” I said. Memories of CeCe’s ebullient face flashed across my mind. Her big smile. Her concern when I was struggling. The conversation when we planned to meet for lunch.
Look, I’ve got this thing I have to do on the 7th. They’re shuttling somebody in from Admin. It’s related to the neural network. Anyway, let’s meet for lunch. Wait for me in Communal 14, by the pods, okay? We can walk down to the cafeteria together.
“There wasn’t really a good reason to meet at Communal 14,” I murmured. “It would have made more sense to meet in the cafeteria.”
Raxkarax never stopped rubbing my back throughout the conversation, but I’d almost forgotten he was there, so wrapped up in my memories.
“Without knowing this human woman,” Raxthezana said. “It sounds as though she knew her meeting would not end on amicable terms.”
Tension building in my neck and shoulders, I nodded. “Not only that,” I said. “It sounds like she planned an actual escape route.”
“She’s the one that sounded the klaxons,” Pattee said in a low voice.
“Oh no,” Esra said.
“What?” Amity asked, reaching for her hand. Esra looked washed out.
“What if—what if Chris was on the Admin ship?”
I tasted blood; I’d bitten my tongue. Chris was Esra’s abusive ex. She’d been called to a meeting in the executive suites after a shuttle brought someone from the Admin ship to the Lucidity.
“Chris worked for Admin for IGMC?” I asked.
“He didn’t work for Admin,” she rasped. “He was Admin. I never heard from him after I left. I assumed I would hear something once I got called up. I was prepared to fight for my right to be there, but I didn’t hear a peep from him. I thought I was home free.”
“Did CeCe know you or your situation?” I asked. While CeCe and I were close, I also knew she could be discreet. If she knew Esra’s situation, she wouldn’t have discussed it.
“No,” Esra said, troubled. She shook herself. “But anyway. This isn’t about me. Whether CeCe intended to launch the pods and the P-MIV or not, we need to find her. She has to be here.”
“VELMA, show everyone my pod,” Amity said. A photo popped up in my IntraVisor. I’d seen it before but gasps from some of the hunters revealed they hadn’t.
“I know I expressed doubt before,” Amity said. “But damn if I didn’t crawl out of this one. Maybe CeCe’s safe.”
“If love is enough to keep her safe, then I guarantee she is,” I said.
Chapter 67
Esra
“VELMA, you know the chemical makeup of Galvanite,” I said. “Pattee gave you the specs for the P-MIV. Use the nanosatellites, the SLO nosecones, whatever you can manage, and see if you can find anymore traces of the P-MIV ship metal.”
“Complying,” she said. “Please standby.”
“Parts of the P-MIV were designed to come off in entry,” Pattee said. “But that mess at the bottom of the rocks didn’t look right. I wonder if we could rappel down and grab it. Maybe we could analyze it and digitally recreate the circumstances that twisted it into the shape it’s now in.”
“Let’s do it,” I said. “Anymore, it feels weird to sit around. I feel like I should always be moving here.”
“I know the feeling,” Pattee said. “It’s like, if you’re not moving, you’re being hunted.”
I laughed and stood, brushing off my pants. Pattee joined me, and we walked to the pod.
“What are you guys doing?” Amity said. “Should I get up?”
“Do you want to rappel down the waterfall?” Pattee asked.
“It’s like you don’t know me at all,” Amity said with a laugh. She stayed where she was, snuggled next to Natheka.
Hivelt joined us while Naraxthel walked off into the woods following Raxthezana’s trail.
Pattee gathered up the rope and carabiners and after a solid thirty minutes, I was pushing off the rock behind the waterfall and swinging out toward the spot where the metal wrapped partially around the spearhead boulder. Even when I pushed off as hard as I could, I couldn’t quite reach the metal.
“I can’t get it,” I said between breaths. I climbed back up and Pattee asked Hivelt to do it. She’d watched my attempts and determined her height advantage wouldn’t be enough to do any better.
As the second sun approached sunset, Hivelt managed to snag the metal and secure it behind his back. He climbed back up through the waterfall, its deluge sluicing over him, and reached the top with the ease of a spider climbing its own thread.
He loosened the metal from his back and plunked it down on the ground, and we squatted around it for a better look.
Helmet lights on now that it was dusk, we shone them over every surface. The piece had its serial number stenciled in construction yellow, so at least we knew it was from the exterior.
“Too big for the EDL heat dissipators,” Pattee said. “Look at the point up here,” she said, pointing with the pliers of her multi-tool. “Does that look like it could have been the point of a fin?”
I leaned in and examined it, paying special attention to the long edge, even as it rolled and folded inward. “Looks like entry sheared it off at the fuselage.”
“The P-MIVs have a generous trim angle of attack,” Pattee said, rotating the piece that resembled a large sheet of black aluminum foil someone had bent into a twist. “Even if her entry wasn’t perfect, she could have rolled the vehicle longitudinally to gain control. But that could have caused her to lose this fin.”
“VELMA showed me a photo of an intact P-MIV,” I said. “The serial number goes on one of the tail fins.”
“Hivelt, what feeds this stream?” Pattee asked.
“The Pool of the Lonely Sister,” he said. “Snowmelt from the Black Heart Mountains feeds the pool.”
“The fin sheared off somewhere over the Black Heart Mountains,” I said.
Pattee sat back on her haunches and blew a raspberry. “We’re going to need to do more math.”
“Pattee,” I said. “Either she landed somewhere in the magnetic burst field after we searched it, or she landed on Predator Planet—first.”
Pattee’s brows drew together. “Hivelt spotted the metal about the same time we met.”
“Then she’s been here the longest,” I whispered. My throat thickened, and my eyes stung. I couldn’t voice my fear. Was she even alive after all this time?
Chapter 68
Joan
“VELMA, any luck finding evidence of a crashed P-MIV?” I asked. Raxkarax laid his pallet in the rokhura bone bower along with Natheka’s and Naraxthel’s. Pattee and Hivelt would take the pod. Raxthezana found a spot nearby.
“I’m concentrating my efforts over the Black Heart Mountain range, assuming an atmospheric entry of negative thirty degrees,” she said. “EDL heat dissipator panels disintegrate upon entry, so I’m accessing carbon particulate numbers from when Esra’s pod deployed transospheric nanosatellites.”
“If I might suggest something,” I said.
“Of course, Joan,” she said.
“Check your scans in that same time period for high concentrations of methyl jasmonate wherever there is plant growth in the regions you’re checking.”
“Complying,” VELMA said. “Scanning for concentrations of methyl jasmonate, the stress hormone released by plants when they detect threats.”
Placing the deadwood I’d gathered from around the glade near Pattee’s original firepit, I brushed off my gloves and surveyed what I could see of the area in the moonlight. Traces of Pattee’s work, before the earthquakes, could be seen in the lines of stacked stones and the giant bowl carved from the top of a boulder. It was a beautiful spot, with the view over the ravine and the sound of rushing water. A tall, regal tree grew almost dead center, and it occurred to me to wonder if anywhere on the planet ever had a change of seasons. Maybe if things ever calmed down …
Shaking my head, I squatted and arranged the kindling and larger pieces, then pulled my Firestarter out of a calf pocket. With the fire licking the edges of dry wood, it should flare soon and be big enough to deter curious snouts.
Searching the rocks below the fall, I saw a mad tangle of brush and logs jammed there from every storm-caused flood of the past weeks. Using my sight-capture to magnify the scene, I zoomed in. Was that it? A twisted band of dull black material that was not a tree.
“Behold,” I said, my voice low. “See you there?” I said and pointed. “Lodged between the stripped tan trunk and the gray stone shaped like Pattee’s spearhead.”
“I see it,” Esra said with a gasp. “But that didn’t come off an EEP. Oh my God.”
She said nothing else for a rotik, then turned and ran toward the pod, shouting.
Amity, Joan, and Pattee emerged from it and grabbed Esra’s frantic, gesturing hands. They looked up at me and approached, their expressions wan and stark in the waning light of day. I moved aside when they neared and waited to hear their assessment. When I saw them nodding and gesturing, I realized they consulted privately with VELMA. Footsteps behind me alerted me that my brethren approached as well.
Backing away from the edge, they turned and faced us.
“VELMA confirmed it for us,” Pattee said with a frown. “That metal did not come from an EEP X215.” She took a deep breath and exchanged a look with her fellows. “It’s from an IGMC Planet Mass Insertion Vehicle.”
Scrutinizing their faces, I noted ashy skin and drawn expressions.
“What does this mean?” I asked.
Of the four of them, Esra looked the worst, as if her legs would collapse at the slightest breeze. Naraxthel noticed and reached her in two strides, holding her before she could fall.
“Planet Mass Insertion Vehicles are used when IGMC has claimed a planet to mine its resources,” Pattee said, her voice tight. “We knew nothing about this, I swear on the spirits of my ancestors.”
Natheka broke through the women and looked down into the ravine.
“Judging by that piece, I would like to suggest that the vehicle was unable to fulfill its purpose,” he said. “Come, dear humans. We know you did not orchestrate this. We have given our lives to one another.”
Amity’s face crinkled in that awful expression I had come to dread, and she turned into Natheka’s embrace, her shoulders shaking with her cries.
Shifting my feet, I avoided Pattee’s gaze until she strode in front of me and grabbed my helmet. Meeting my eyes through the visor, she stared. “Do you believe me?”
“With all of my heart,” I said, placing my hand on my chest armor.
“Okay,” she said. “We need to figure out what this means.”
Fire in her eyes, my nether regions swelled at her fierce determination. Pattee’s indomitable soul attracted me like no other female had ever done, and I secretly hoped we might take the pod for our private sleeping arrangements at nightfall.
We trudged back to the spot with the flattest ground and sat in a haphazard circle. I was not too concerned about a vehicle that hadn’t survived entry into Ikthe’s atmosphere, but the humans took this development seriously, so I would listen until such time as we could bed down for the night.
Pattee caught me staring at her, and shook her head with an embarrassed half-smile, and I grinned. We had only been heart mates for a short time, but already we knew each other’s moods and thoughts. I would have it no other way.
Chapter 66
Joan
“VELMA, are there IGMC fleet ships in orbit?” Pattee asked.
“Negative, Pattee,” she said. “I’ve detected no signatures indicative of IGMC fleet ships, nor any suggesting executive science class, vanguard, or unmanned probes.”
I closed my eyes and sagged against Raxkarax in relief. I had to give myself an eye roll. The thought of a fleet ship full of humans held no appeal to me now? I was well and truly in love with this hulking male beside me.
Opening my eyes, I scanned the faces of my fellow miners. Missing CeCe with a sharp pang in my heart, I was growing to love these women, as well. CeCe would have fit in with us. I remembered her earnest face, eyes peering into mine. “Go. I’ll meet you on the Other Side.” She’d shoved me inside my pod and raced off. To my left. I was in the farthest pod from the women’s bunks. The bunks and all the pods were to my right.
To the left were docking bays for IGMC auxiliary ships—like the P-MIV and the mech drills. But why would CeCe take an insertion vehicle? Especially when it was the only one. While they were outfitted with cryo-tech and life-support, they weren’t nearly as comfortable for temporary living conditions. Of course, with the Under Attack klaxons blaring, maybe she wasn’t thinking. Except she’d had the presence of mind to get me to my pod when I was frozen in fear.
CeCe didn’t make mistakes.
The twisted black metal—twisted—what had happened to it? Was CeCe gone?
Pattee had been explaining how the P-MIV worked when I sat up and interrupted.
“CeCe Pain took the P-MIV!”
“What?” Pattee said with a frown.
“I mean, I guess I don’t know for sure,” I said. “But after she shoved me in my pod, she didn’t go in the direction of the rest of the pod access doors. She went the other way.”
Watching the girls’ expressions, I saw them mapping the ship in their heads. I could see the light dawn in their eyes when they figured it out.
“The mech drills, rovers, Single Occupant Orbiters and the P-MIV were adjacent to the pod bays,” Esra said. “It’s possible.”
“It’s not just possible,” I said and pounded my knee. “It’s likely. What else is that direction on the Lucidity? The cargo bay? The elevator to the executive suites?”
“But Joan,” Amity said. “If CeCe took it, then ….” Her eyes searched mine. “She may not have made it.”
Biting my lip, tears sprang to my eyes, and I nodded. “I know.”
Raxkarax held me and rubbed my back. “Pattee,” he said. “Please explain this vehicle once more.”
“The P-MIV is piloted by one of IGMC’s certified planet insertion specialists,” she said. “After an ARA team determines a planet is eligible, then the P-MIV is deployed. Usually, the planet’s atmosphere and surface has been analyzed and cross-sectioned by Raman spectrography among other things. The pilot uses this information to decide where to land.”
“Was CeCe certified?” Esra asked me.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “I don’t know. Why would she take it?”
“The P-MIVs are outfitted with tech that preps a planet for the Mining Ship,” Pattee continued. “The Mining Ship was in the same convoy as the Lucidity. It shouldn’t have been deployed until we reached Kerberos 90.”
“None of this adds up,” Esra said. “VELMA, can’t you find anything in your memory banks about the attack on the Lucidity?”
“According to data filed in my memory banks, my programs initiated on IGMC’s standard calendar year 2576, June 7th, at 13:08 at which time each of you were logged into your cryosleep regimens except for Pattee, who made slight alterations to hers.”
“I’m a bit of a control freak,” Pattee mumbled when she caught me watching her.
“What was everyone doing?” Esra asked. “As much as you can remember. The day the klaxons went off.”
“I was coming back from a therapy session,” I said. “In a daze. Hadn’t had lunch yet. Thinking about—things. I was in Communal Area 14, literally steps away from the pod bay. CeCe told me we could meet up there when she finished her meeting.”
“I was in Communal 14, too,” Amity said. “Sipping a coffee. I had a few minutes before my mech-drill recertification test and was planning on drawing some animals in my sketch book. Before that I had lunch in my quarters. Enjoyed a short video call with my brother and his kids,” she said, her voice catching.
“Running diagnostics on the mech-drills and the SOOs,” Pattee said. “Now that I’m thinking about it, I almost ran into somebody coming from the elevator. I didn’t think anything of it. With the klaxons blaring, there were lots of people rushing around. But she was full-on sprinting.”
My throat dried up. “What did she look like?” I said.
“Black natural hair, taller than I, darker skin than Amity’s, same flight suit as us,” Pattee listed.
“Doesn’t the corridor end at the elevator to the executive suites?” Esra said. “I mean, on the other levels it wraps all the way round to make a complete circuit.”
“Right,” Amity said. “I usually do laps on Level 13 for that reason.”
Pattee was looking at me.
“Yeah, that sounds like CeCe,” I said, my voice quiet. “She didn’t say who she was meeting. Just that they were shuttling in from the Admin ship.”
“Esra, what were you doing?” Pattee asked.
“In transit from Kerberos 90 atmosphere orientation down in level 10,” she said. “I was actually on my way to 14, but to access the elevators. I was told to report to the executive suites at 1400 hours. Obviously, I never made it.”
“Does anyone else think—”
“That the whole thing sounds suspicious, Amity? Yes,” I said. “CeCe is the smartest person I know, and I know highly intelligent people.” I gestured to everyone. “She’s also methodical and strategic,” I said. “I can’t picture her running from or to anything or anyone.”
“But she ran to you,” Pattee pointed out.
“How do you mean?” I asked, cocking my head.
“She had to run past the P-MIV to get to you and get you in your pod,” Pattee said. “She was right by the other pods. She could have gotten in any of those.”
“Right,” I said. “That’s why it doesn’t make sense that she chose the P-MIV.”
“Unless she had a reason,” Pattee said. “If she intended to take it the whole time, then she was sprinting to make sure she had time to get you safely aboard the EEP. And then she ran back the way she came to take the insertion vehicle.”
Mouth gaping, I considered Pattee’s words.
“But how could she know there would be an attack?” I said. Memories of CeCe’s ebullient face flashed across my mind. Her big smile. Her concern when I was struggling. The conversation when we planned to meet for lunch.
Look, I’ve got this thing I have to do on the 7th. They’re shuttling somebody in from Admin. It’s related to the neural network. Anyway, let’s meet for lunch. Wait for me in Communal 14, by the pods, okay? We can walk down to the cafeteria together.
“There wasn’t really a good reason to meet at Communal 14,” I murmured. “It would have made more sense to meet in the cafeteria.”
Raxkarax never stopped rubbing my back throughout the conversation, but I’d almost forgotten he was there, so wrapped up in my memories.
“Without knowing this human woman,” Raxthezana said. “It sounds as though she knew her meeting would not end on amicable terms.”
Tension building in my neck and shoulders, I nodded. “Not only that,” I said. “It sounds like she planned an actual escape route.”
“She’s the one that sounded the klaxons,” Pattee said in a low voice.
“Oh no,” Esra said.
“What?” Amity asked, reaching for her hand. Esra looked washed out.
“What if—what if Chris was on the Admin ship?”
I tasted blood; I’d bitten my tongue. Chris was Esra’s abusive ex. She’d been called to a meeting in the executive suites after a shuttle brought someone from the Admin ship to the Lucidity.
“Chris worked for Admin for IGMC?” I asked.
“He didn’t work for Admin,” she rasped. “He was Admin. I never heard from him after I left. I assumed I would hear something once I got called up. I was prepared to fight for my right to be there, but I didn’t hear a peep from him. I thought I was home free.”
“Did CeCe know you or your situation?” I asked. While CeCe and I were close, I also knew she could be discreet. If she knew Esra’s situation, she wouldn’t have discussed it.
“No,” Esra said, troubled. She shook herself. “But anyway. This isn’t about me. Whether CeCe intended to launch the pods and the P-MIV or not, we need to find her. She has to be here.”
“VELMA, show everyone my pod,” Amity said. A photo popped up in my IntraVisor. I’d seen it before but gasps from some of the hunters revealed they hadn’t.
“I know I expressed doubt before,” Amity said. “But damn if I didn’t crawl out of this one. Maybe CeCe’s safe.”
“If love is enough to keep her safe, then I guarantee she is,” I said.
Chapter 67
Esra
“VELMA, you know the chemical makeup of Galvanite,” I said. “Pattee gave you the specs for the P-MIV. Use the nanosatellites, the SLO nosecones, whatever you can manage, and see if you can find anymore traces of the P-MIV ship metal.”
“Complying,” she said. “Please standby.”
“Parts of the P-MIV were designed to come off in entry,” Pattee said. “But that mess at the bottom of the rocks didn’t look right. I wonder if we could rappel down and grab it. Maybe we could analyze it and digitally recreate the circumstances that twisted it into the shape it’s now in.”
“Let’s do it,” I said. “Anymore, it feels weird to sit around. I feel like I should always be moving here.”
“I know the feeling,” Pattee said. “It’s like, if you’re not moving, you’re being hunted.”
I laughed and stood, brushing off my pants. Pattee joined me, and we walked to the pod.
“What are you guys doing?” Amity said. “Should I get up?”
“Do you want to rappel down the waterfall?” Pattee asked.
“It’s like you don’t know me at all,” Amity said with a laugh. She stayed where she was, snuggled next to Natheka.
Hivelt joined us while Naraxthel walked off into the woods following Raxthezana’s trail.
Pattee gathered up the rope and carabiners and after a solid thirty minutes, I was pushing off the rock behind the waterfall and swinging out toward the spot where the metal wrapped partially around the spearhead boulder. Even when I pushed off as hard as I could, I couldn’t quite reach the metal.
“I can’t get it,” I said between breaths. I climbed back up and Pattee asked Hivelt to do it. She’d watched my attempts and determined her height advantage wouldn’t be enough to do any better.
As the second sun approached sunset, Hivelt managed to snag the metal and secure it behind his back. He climbed back up through the waterfall, its deluge sluicing over him, and reached the top with the ease of a spider climbing its own thread.
He loosened the metal from his back and plunked it down on the ground, and we squatted around it for a better look.
Helmet lights on now that it was dusk, we shone them over every surface. The piece had its serial number stenciled in construction yellow, so at least we knew it was from the exterior.
“Too big for the EDL heat dissipators,” Pattee said. “Look at the point up here,” she said, pointing with the pliers of her multi-tool. “Does that look like it could have been the point of a fin?”
I leaned in and examined it, paying special attention to the long edge, even as it rolled and folded inward. “Looks like entry sheared it off at the fuselage.”
“The P-MIVs have a generous trim angle of attack,” Pattee said, rotating the piece that resembled a large sheet of black aluminum foil someone had bent into a twist. “Even if her entry wasn’t perfect, she could have rolled the vehicle longitudinally to gain control. But that could have caused her to lose this fin.”
“VELMA showed me a photo of an intact P-MIV,” I said. “The serial number goes on one of the tail fins.”
“Hivelt, what feeds this stream?” Pattee asked.
“The Pool of the Lonely Sister,” he said. “Snowmelt from the Black Heart Mountains feeds the pool.”
“The fin sheared off somewhere over the Black Heart Mountains,” I said.
Pattee sat back on her haunches and blew a raspberry. “We’re going to need to do more math.”
“Pattee,” I said. “Either she landed somewhere in the magnetic burst field after we searched it, or she landed on Predator Planet—first.”
Pattee’s brows drew together. “Hivelt spotted the metal about the same time we met.”
“Then she’s been here the longest,” I whispered. My throat thickened, and my eyes stung. I couldn’t voice my fear. Was she even alive after all this time?
Chapter 68
Joan
“VELMA, any luck finding evidence of a crashed P-MIV?” I asked. Raxkarax laid his pallet in the rokhura bone bower along with Natheka’s and Naraxthel’s. Pattee and Hivelt would take the pod. Raxthezana found a spot nearby.
“I’m concentrating my efforts over the Black Heart Mountain range, assuming an atmospheric entry of negative thirty degrees,” she said. “EDL heat dissipator panels disintegrate upon entry, so I’m accessing carbon particulate numbers from when Esra’s pod deployed transospheric nanosatellites.”
“If I might suggest something,” I said.
“Of course, Joan,” she said.
“Check your scans in that same time period for high concentrations of methyl jasmonate wherever there is plant growth in the regions you’re checking.”
“Complying,” VELMA said. “Scanning for concentrations of methyl jasmonate, the stress hormone released by plants when they detect threats.”
Placing the deadwood I’d gathered from around the glade near Pattee’s original firepit, I brushed off my gloves and surveyed what I could see of the area in the moonlight. Traces of Pattee’s work, before the earthquakes, could be seen in the lines of stacked stones and the giant bowl carved from the top of a boulder. It was a beautiful spot, with the view over the ravine and the sound of rushing water. A tall, regal tree grew almost dead center, and it occurred to me to wonder if anywhere on the planet ever had a change of seasons. Maybe if things ever calmed down …
Shaking my head, I squatted and arranged the kindling and larger pieces, then pulled my Firestarter out of a calf pocket. With the fire licking the edges of dry wood, it should flare soon and be big enough to deter curious snouts.
