"Dace?"
Hands touched me. Pressure held me so I couldn't breathe.
"Dace?" A voice I should know.
The smell of smoke filled my mouth and nose. I tried to cough and couldn't draw breath. I hung partly upside down.
Hands fumbled at the webbing that held me in my seat. I blinked, trying to clear my vision. All I could see were smears of red light. The webbing gave and I fell.
Vance caught me, holding me on a floor that tilted at a sharp angle. "We have to go. The engine's going to blow."
He let go of me. My leg collapsed in a wave of sharp pain. I toppled sideways into the controls that were almost the floor.
"Can you walk?" he asked, glancing back from where he pawed through spilled belongings. Half of the lockers had popped open in the crash. Clothes dangled from a wall that was now the ceiling.
I shook my head. That was a big mistake. A wave of dizziness and pain sent me clutching the wall. Blood trickled down the collar of my shipsuit from my head.
"You're going to have to," Vance said as he shoved emergency rations into a pack. "I don't think I can carry you far."
I reached up gingerly and felt the side of my head. My hair was wet, sticky with blood. Pain lanced through my head at the merest touch. I lowered my hand, swallowing hard to try to keep from barfing. I would have bent down to check my leg, but I was having a hard time keeping up and down straight. I was so dizzy I could barely see.
"Come on," Vance called as he went farther back in the ship.
I limped after him, holding onto the wall like a lifeline in a raging storm. Sharp pain, almost as bad as my head, shot up from my ankle and knee at every tottering step.
Vance stopped at the back of the cabin and reached up to work the emergency hatch. He stepped back, kicking viciously at the hatch. I clung to the wall and watched. He wedged his back against what had been the floor and kicked again, using both legs.
The hatch finally gave, letting in a gust of dry desert air. He wriggled his way up and through. I staggered to stand beneath the opening. I looked up helplessly. It was two feet over my head, easy enough except my leg wouldn't hold me anymore and my head spun so badly I was going to throw up. If I didn't pass out first.
Vance looked down through the hatch. The nebula I remembered glowed dim in the sky. Vance's face was in shadow, his hair highlighted an eerie blue-green.
He reached down. "Take my hand."
I took a deep breath and swallowed my nausea. I reached up with both hands and grabbed his. He pulled hard. I tried to help with my good leg. I bumped my head on the rim of the hatch and almost passed out again. Vance grabbed me under my armpits and hauled me out the rest of the way. I sprawled on the side of the ship, breathing hard. The metal was still too hot to be comfortable. I tried to push myself up, away from the ship. My legs came free of the hatch. I rolled helplessly off the ship and landed hard on a drift of sand.
Vance slid down beside me. I lay where I landed, squeezing my eyes shut in an effort to block out the urge to vomit. The pain was unbelievable. Vance shifted my head. His fingers touched the side of my head. I curled up, a reflex action that caused even more pain from my leg, and threw up. Vance waited until I was through gagging.
"Feel better?" he asked.
I couldn't answer. I was trying not to pass out.
He lifted my chin, turning my face into the faint light from the nebula.
"Look at me," he said gently. I tried. I couldn't focus on his face. "I don't suppose there are any medical facilities on this planet. You could use one."
I wanted to agree. I didn't have the energy or the coordination to even attempt talking.
A ship screamed overhead, flashing across the sky. Vance grabbed my shoulder and hauled me to my feet.
"We have to move." He pulled my arm around his shoulder, supporting me. He started across the desert, stumbling over the low shrubs that dotted the coarse sand. I did my best to walk. My right leg screamed at any movement. My head throbbed. My eyes wouldn't focus. I only stayed on my feet because Vance was holding me there.
An eternity of pain passed, one agonizing step at a time. Vance was breathing hard when he finally pulled me to a stop near a tongue of stone sticking up out of the sand.
"Down," he gasped. "Stay low," he added as he lowered me to sit against the stone. I couldn't have moved on my own if I'd wanted to.
He held a packet of water out to me. I managed to move my arm enough to take it and sip.
"I've only got six," he informed me. "You don't know where we are, do you?"
"Serrimonia," I said.
"That narrows it down."
I took another sip. "There's only one city on the entire world." I leaned my head back against the cool stone. The colors of the nebula swirling dimly overhead made my head spin. I closed my eyes.
"What about ships? Communications?"
"A few ships, maybe, near the city. I don't know about communications. Where are we going?"
"Now? We're headed for those cliffs to try to find somewhere to hide," he answered. "They're going to start searching for us in earnest soon."
I took another sip of water then handed him the packet. I'd drunk half. He drank the rest and tucked the wrapper away. He stood, swinging the pack over his shoulder.
There was a bright flash of light and a loud crumpling sound. He ducked back down, crouching behind the stone with me. A hot wind blew past, flinging sand and bushes and bits of metal past. Our ship had just exploded.
"Maybe that will delay them," I said.
"I'm not going to count on it." Vance pulled me to my feet. I groaned when my right foot hit the ground. "What hurts?"
"My ankle, mostly. And my head."
"I didn't get the med kit."
"I'll survive," I said. I'd been through worse.
He took that as my answer. We headed into the desert again, lit now by the column of flame from our ship.
I leaned on his shoulder, limping as best I could. I let myself slip into a waking doze, trying to put as much distance between me and the pain as I could. I was losing the battle when Vance stopped again. He'd found a dry streambed. He climbed down first, it was cut into the sand waist deep. I held myself up by clutching a stunted tree barely shoulder high. He reached up and lifted me down. I bit my lip against the pain when my foot hit the ground again. I sank down to sit on the soft sand of the stream bed.
"I can't go any farther." My ankle throbbed. My boot was so tight my foot was numb. My head wasn't any better. I wanted to just lie down and sleep and hope the pain was better when I woke up. If I woke up.
"It's not far," Vance said. "We can't stay here. First light, they'll spot us from a mile away."
"And you think the cliff is going to be any better?" I was in pain, a lot of pain. I didn't want to move.
"Come on," he said, not letting me argue. He pulled me to my feet. He wasn't going to take no for an answer. I leaned on his shoulder as we struggled through the loose sand.
We came to a spot where the sides were low, the stream bed wide and shallow. He turned off, dragging me up the slope. We traipsed into a maze of widely spaced bushes and drifts of sand.
Rocks crept out of the sand, small boulders at first. Larger fingers of rock grew around us as we walked towards the forbidding wall of stone that made the cliffs. I stumbled beside him, trying to ignore my numb foot and throbbing ankle.
The light of the nebula slowly faded, giving way to the burning light of stars. We stopped frequently to rest. Vance was slowing. He had to have been banged up in the crash. He wasn't going to admit it though.
The blood from the gash on my head dried. It itched as it flaked off my neck. My hair was thick with it. The dizziness came and went, along with the throbbing pain. My ankle had gone numb, the boot so tight against the swelling that it cut off circulation. My knee was worse, cracking with each step. I hobbled, hanging onto Vance's shoulder to keep from falling.
Ships streaked overhead, bright flashes of light and screaming engines. They circled the spot where our ship had exploded, flying fast and high. We ducked under bushes and rocks when they passed, using what cover we could find.
We finally reached the cliff as the sky turned pale with coming sunrise. I leaned against the rock, keeping on my feet because I knew that if I let go, I wasn't going to get up again. Vance left me while he scouted the cliff base.
He came rushing back, scrambling through the leaning slabs of stone that lined the base of the cliff. "We have to hurry. I saw three flitters near the crash site. I found a cave for us to hide in."
He grabbed my arm and dragged me through the maze of rocks. I did my best to climb over them. My best wasn't very good. I was barely crawling when Vance pushed me under a slab of rock. I slid down a slight slope of sand, landing in a heap at the bottom. I groaned and rolled onto my back. Vance slid down beside me. The cave was barely big enough for both of us. The ceiling of stone, visible in the growing dawn, was only a couple of feet over my head.
"How long are you planning on staying here?" I asked.
"Today at least. The rest depends on how bad your ankle is."
I yelped when he touched it. He lifted my foot and propped it on his knee. His hands felt along my foot, working up to my ankle. I stifled the urge to scream. The pain was incredible. His fingers circled my ankle, twisting it gently.
"I'm not sure we can get your boot off," he said as his hands worked their way up to my knee. "It's probably a good idea to leave it on for now. Your knee's swollen, too. I don't think anything's broken, just twisted and sprained."
"A week or two and I'll be good as new," I muttered. My head was starting to spin again.
He put my foot back on the sand. He moved to my head. He took my chin in his hand and turned my head to the side. I hissed as he prodded at my head with his other hand.
"I should wash it off," he said. "I can't see anything through the blood."
I grabbed his hand and held it away. "Then just leave it. You can't do anything about it. And it hurts when you try. Just leave me alone."
He sat back on his heels. "You're probably right. We should sleep while we can."
He moved away from me, as far as he could get in the small hollow under the rock. I turned my head to keep the sore side out of the sand and closed my eyes.
I dreamed of being a Sessimoniss priestess. My claws clicked on the cool stone of the temple floors, the weight of the ceremonial robe dragged on my shoulders. The Eggstone whispered in my mind.
I woke feeling disoriented and groggy. The Eggstone was still in the front of my shipsuit, a lump of stone resting on my belly. My hands were curved around it, holding it as I slept.
Vance snored softly not far away. I had to go to the bathroom. I shifted, waiting for the pain. It was a lot less. I crawled out of the cave.
It was daylight outside, a hot searing day that sucked the moisture from me. I found a spot between a finger of rock and a bush and took care of my body's urges. I leaned back against the rock when I finished, looking into the burnished sky of Serrimonia. The hiss of shifting sand carried on the gusts of hot wind that barely stirred the leaves of the bush next to the cliff. I heard a distant call, the sound of one of the animals that lived here. Without the Eggstone's store of memories, I had no idea what it might be.
The peace was shattered by the sound of an engine overhead. I scrambled into the cave in a panic. Whoever had shot us down was still hunting us. I caught a single glimpse of a strangely curved flitter body with stubby wings drifting down the cliff face as I slid into the cave.
Vance woke, instantly alert.
"They're still looking for us," I said.
"Your ankle's doing better?" he asked, as if we were in a hospital somewhere and not stranded on one of the least hospitable planets I knew.
"That doesn't matter."
The sound of the flitter's engine grew louder, more distinct. It echoed in the pocket where we were hiding.
"We have to get out of here," I said.
"And go where?"
I looked up, where sunlight leaked around the slab of stone. "They're going to find us."
I crawled towards the back of the space, where the shadows were deeper.
"Who are they?" Vance asked.
I looked back, startled by his question.
"You know, or you wouldn't be so panicked," he said in his reasonable voice.
I stopped crawling. Why was I so panicked? Why was I running from them? They'd shot us down, without warning. Why shouldn't I be so afraid of them finding us? There was that brief transmission I'd picked up, in a language vaguely familiar. If I stopped to think about it, I was sure I could figure out who was hunting us. If my head would stop hurting.
"I don't know who they are," I said. "I just know I don't want them finding us."
The throbbing of the engine outside grew louder. It sounded as if it was hovering right over the slab of stone. Vance looked up, at the stone, as if he could see through it to find the answers.
I turned away, pushing into the shadows. I wedged myself against the very back. The slab of stone overhead vibrated. Sand sifted through the cracks, trickling into the cave. Vance crowded back with me, pushing me farther into the shadows.
The slab shifted, the rock cracking and groaning. The rock behind me gave way. I slid headfirst into a hole and tumbled down a slope of smooth rock. I rolled over and over. I lost count of how many times. I hit my head on something and blacked out.