"Remember," Beringwaite said, "We all wait at the Chapel Grove checkpoint for everyone to arrive so I can lead us up the last leg. It should only take most of you two days to get there, so don't stop just because you're a little tired. We're going to win this thing!"
"It's not a competition," Taylitha muttered.
Alysha shouldered her backpack. "It is to Mister Beringwaite," she said as Beringwaite called out their trail assignments. "So it is to us."
"You two cats . . . you're on trail A-33."
"That's us," Alysha said.
With a sigh, Taylitha picked up her pack and followed Alysha through the slowly parting group. She'd rubbed cream into her paw pads earlier, but the moment she set foot on the dusty path she winced. Getting used to the pebbles and scratchy grass and broken nut shells would take some time. She'd also spent a few minutes in the shower stretching her back and arms, but even so it didn't take long for the weight on her back to become burdensome. Nor, she thought as she followed Alysha, was she as in perfect shape as she had been in the Academe.
But oh, the air was the perfect temperature, the crisp cool of spring. The breeze offered the perfume of new flowers. Fresh leaves on the trees rustled as their branches swayed. Taylitha forgot her tender feet and aching back.
They wound up the path in companionable silence. It led them over a thin stream, its murmurs barely audible as it trickled over its leaf-choked channel. They stopped in a hall of intertwined trees.
Taylitha wasn't sure which of them paused first. "It's beautiful," she said after a moment.
"It's a pleasant change," Alysha said, touching the flaking bark of one of the trees. "We're used to the manicured walkways created by most landscapers. This is how it should be."
Taylitha looked up and down the hall. Several kinds of trees of varying ages were unevenly staggered along the path. The leaves that leaned on one another overhead were tri-peaked, or oveate, or serrated. The branches were gray and brown and pale green. She could smell the mingled sap of a dozen types, spicy and sweet and green and sharp.
Alysha stepped up behind her and smiled. "What do you like best about it?"
"Is this a test?" Taylitha asked with a laugh.
"A question. Just a question." Alysha's eyes sparkled with a warmth that dispelled the effect of their light hue.
"The variety," Taylitha said finally. "The diversity of colors, of kinds. It's invigorating."
Alysha's brows rose. "Interesting," she said, and headed back up the path.
Taylitha blinked, then hurried after her. She drew abreast of the other woman, noted the quirk of her smile. "Well? What about you?"
"I like that the path came after the trees, not the other way around."
Taylitha frowned. "Does that mean you prefer nature over the works of people? That you like us to respect nature and are glad we're capable of it? Or that you're proud that we're resourceful in making our way around obstacles?"
"You are reading a lot into this," Alysha said with such a straight face Taylitha almost mistook the tiny smile.
"And you're not?" Taylitha asked. "So which is it? And no, don't ask me which one I think you think is true."
Alysha stopped, both hands tightly gripping the straps of her pack. For a moment Taylitha thought she'd upset her until she noticed the tiny quivers running through Alysha's shoulders.
"Oh, go ahead and laugh," Taylitha said, grinning. "That way you can catch your breath faster and we can concentrate on meeting that fool Beringwaite."
Alysha leaned against one of the trees and laughed until she couldn't stop. Taylitha watched her, still wearing a broad grin. She liked putting people at ease, and making them laugh was even nicer, particularly when they laughed with such candor.
"I'm done," Alysha said after a moment, wiping her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm not used to people reacting to me the way you are."
"Which is how? Noticing that you're doing what you're doing, turning it back on you, both?"
"Add 'not being offended when you notice' and I think you'll have covered the list," Alysha said. She resumed trekking up the path. "And for your honesty and good humor I tell you what my answers are, without prompting. But I won't explain what they mean, any more than you do. What they say about me I'll leave you to puzzle over."
"I guess that's fair," Taylitha said. "Though if this is the way you normally do things, I probably haven't had the experience you have in interpreting people's answers."
"You don't study people?" Alysha asked.
Taylitha resettled her pack. "I don't think so. At least, not consciously. I don't test them, anyway."
"I don't test people either," Alysha said. "I just want to know what they think. It was only an accident when I discovered that most people aren't used to being asked for their opinions."
"And that most people like to talk about their opinions?" Taylitha said with a chuckle. "You must make a lot of friends."
"I learn a great deal, anyway," Alysha said.
Taylitha wrinkled her nose. "You make me feel young."
Alysha glanced at her, amused. "Do you always say what you feel?"
"Only around you," Taylitha said with a grin.
Alysha laughed. "So you've tested me already, and decided you know everything you need to."
"I guess so," Taylitha said, and though she'd never thought of it that way she liked the idea. She straightened. "So, how old are you, anyway?"
"I've been an ensign almost a year," Alysha said. "If that answers the question."
"It doesn't!" Taylitha exclaimed, then laughed. "But I guess it's a rude question. At least I know which of us has seniority. I've only been star-and-pierced for three months."
"Does that matter?" Alysha asked.
"It does to some people," Taylitha answered.
Alysha glanced at her. "But not to you."
Taylitha hooked her fingers beneath the straps of her pack and looked up at the interwoven boughs. "You'll have to work harder than that."
Alysha laughed in delight.
They climbed together, sometimes talking, sometimes in a silence Taylitha could hardly believe, it was so comfortable. The soil beneath her feet cooled her toes, and the sun on her shoulders warmed her, and the taste of the water in the canteen was certainly fresher than anything she'd had since she'd left Burbage Township. They crossed broad meadows dotted with lavender and pearl-poppies; stands of pines redolent with the sharp resin scent of evergreens and strewn with sienna-brown cones; wind-ruffled glades encircled in brush and washed with sunlight. Mountains framed the bits of sky Taylitha could see through the eaves of the trees, and the pellucid blue seemed more breathtaking because of it.
"This isn't so bad after all," Taylitha said, hushed.
Alysha smiled at her.
An hour before sunset, their path reached a plateau. The trees remained dense on their left, but to their right they petered out completely to a cliff. As Alysha began to set up their camp, Taylitha edged out to it and peeked over its edge, resting her hands on a boulder that formed a hump along part of its edge. Fifty feet down a beautiful meadow collected purple evening's shadows, and she gasped at the sight of a family of deer grazing. "Oh, wow!"
Alysha joined her. "Ah! That's lovely."
"Real deer," Taylitha said. "I've never seen any." She watched, holding her breath, as they wandered back into the brush and out of sight. "This is wonderful. We're stopping?"
"It seems a good place," Alysha said. "The checkpoint's not too long a walk from here, but we should probably take it while we're fresh. Some of these trails skirt long drops. Once we get there, we can rest while we wait."
"Wait?" Taylitha asked.
Alysha nodded. "We're one of the lucky ones to have company most of the way up."
Taylitha glanced at her. "Ah! And you're not happy about that, are you?"
Alysha smiled, brows lifting. "And what makes you say that?"
"I don't know," Taylitha said. "Your word choice, I think. Am I right?" She followed the other woman back to the trail crossing, where she started to dig a pit for the fire.
"When you see who our company is, you'll know the answer," Alysha said. "Should we have rations for dinner? Or be brave and attempt to forage?"
Taylitha pulled out her data tablet. "No bravery required . . . just patience and attention to detail. Let's go look!"
"Okay," Alysha said, taking out her own. "But let's stay within earshot. The brief didn't mention anything about wildlife, but I can't imagine these mountains don't have their share."
"Things more dangerous than deer," Taylitha mused aloud.
"Things more dangerous than deer," Alysha agreed.
Taylitha found several handfuls of edible mushrooms, a stand of tan onion shoots, and a selection of old nuts that hadn't already been scavenged by birds. She returned with her booty to find Alysha coaxing a fire from the kindling it was just beginning to crisp. Their tent had already been pitched.
"I hope you had better luck than I did," Alysha said.
"Probably," Taylitha said. She unrolled one of her blankets and spread the bounty. Alysha added a few shriveled clusters of greens and sweet-birch sticks, enough for tea and dessert. Grinding the nut meat with the roasted onions and mushrooms made for a generous meal. Taylitha was gnawing on the moist, fibrous center of one of the peeled sweet-birch branches when her companion spoke.
"So what brought you to Fleet? You must have attended one of the satellite campuses . . . I don't remember seeing you at Terracentrus."
Taylitha nodded. "I'm from the colonies. Terracentrus would been a very long ride." She wiped birch-juice from her chin and said, "And I joined Fleet because I like to meet people."
"There are definitely easier ways to meet people," Alysha said, brows lifting.
"As many people? As varied?" Taylitha asked. Her ears drooped. "I don't tell people this often because they make fun of it, but I'm hoping we'll discover a major new alien species in my lifetime. Maybe even during my tour of duty."
"It could happen," Alysha said, stirring her tea with a birch twig. "There were the Flitzbe, and the Chatcaava, and of course, humans."
"Humans don't count," Taylitha said. "That's like saying one of your aunts is an alien just because she's strange and you haven't seen her in twenty years."
Alysha laughed. "Point taken. Still, I think wanting to explore the unknown is a good reason for joining. In fact, it may be the best reason." Her eyes lost their focus. "I thought it was mine."
"It's not?" Taylitha asked. "Then what is?"
"I'm not sure," Alysha said. "Not anymore. I used to feel very strongly about the stars for the sake of exploration. Now that desire seems to have waned. And yet, I still feel strongly about being here."
"Maybe that's why you go around asking everyone's opinions on the Fleet," Taylitha joked. "You're hoping you'll turn up yours."
"Actually, you're right," Alysha said, and grinned at Taylitha's start. "Or maybe I just like meeting people too."
"No fair stealing my reason," Taylitha said, stretching her aching legs. "I worked hard on it!"
Alysha held up her hands, smiling. And then continued, “So, command track?”
“Yeah,” Taylitha said, warming her hands on the tin cup. “It seemed the best choice.” She grinned. “Not that I like telling other people what to do or anything. Just when it’s obvious they’re not paying attention to the little things.”
“You’re good with that,” Alysha observed.
“I try,” Taylitha said. “You’re command, of course. You already talk like an admiral.”
“I had a good example,” Alysha murmured.
“Really?” Taylitha asked, glancing at her. “I haven’t known any working captains. Well, I didn’t until I got to the Nightslip, but it’s not like I know her very well. I just had the teachers at the Academe, and I don’t think it’s the same. You don’t get to really see how they work. You have?”
“A little, yes,” Alysha said.
“And?” Taylitha asked, when her companion didn’t seem minded to go on. “What’s it like?”
“It’s a lot of big-picture thinking,” Alysha said after a moment.
“Like that bit with Kairell,” Taylitha said.
“Exactly,” Alysha replied.
“Great,” Taylitha said. “Just the opposite of what I’m good at, and here I am…!”
They laughed, but the observation stuck with Taylitha. When the conversation began to suffer from the exertion of the day's hike, she did not revive it. Settling in her sleeping bag for the night, Taylitha wondered. Here I am, she thought. But should I be?