The day dawned hot and humid. Salmon pink colored the thin layer of high cirrus. Dek Taglioni roused himself, surprised that he’d slept straight through on the bare stone. But by damn and hell, he hurt. Every muscle felt like it had been torn from its mooring on his bones. His hips, knees, and shoulders were sore from the hard rock.
And he was thirsty. Hungry. His coveralls emitted the ripe odors of sweat and stink.
If any solace could be found, it was that where she lay beside him, Kalico Aguila looked worse. Her thick midnight hair was a filthy tangle, her clothes smudged and stained. Something black—looked like grease—smeared her right cheek, the side of her perfect nose, and left a streak across her forehead.
Even as he watched, she blinked awake. Looked around with almost tortured eyes. The woman’s face was drawn tighter than old rope. Her left cheek was lined and wrinkled from where it had pressed into the fabric of her sleeve.
She sat up, smacking her lips, tongue sounding dry as she struggled to make enough saliva to swallow. Dek read the sudden distress as she placed a hand to her stomach.
“Here,” Dek told her, reaching into his web gear for the energy bar Chaco had given him. “This will help.”
She shot him an uncertain look, glanced at the bar, thick as it was with roasted grain, dried blueberries, and desiccated crest meat.
“How long since you’ve eaten?” Dek asked.
“Since we left PA,” she said, closing her eyes. “God, I swear, I can smell that bar you’re holding.”
She took it with a hesitant hand, shot him a wary look, and carefully bit down.
He couldn’t help but grin at the expression on her face. Worked his own mouth in an attempt to conjure saliva. Finally managed a swallow.
“Where’s yours?” Kalico indicated the pocket in his web gear.
“In a bit,” he told her.
Quick as she was, her eyes flashed that laser-blue intensity. “You don’t have another, do you?”
“I ate yesterday,” he told her. “If what I hear is correct, you were lost in a cave. Already hungry.”
She handed what was left back. “Here. You’re going to need it.”
He declined to take it. Waved absently toward the rising bulk of the Tyson escarpment. “Once we get to the top, there’ll be food. I’m fine. Ate an energy bar last night before I went to sleep.”
That sharpness had faded into a thoughtful appraisal. “Liar,” she said softly.
To avoid any additional complications, Dek staggered to his feet. Wobbled. Wondered if every cell in his body was being tortured. Then tried not to make a face as he took in the small camp.
Talina and Muldare, rifles across their laps, were seated on basalt boulders, talking softly. Even as Dek watched, Muldare uttered a stifled gasp, made a face as she shifted her wounded arm. The thing looked horrible. Had swollen to fill her sleeve. The hand was puffy and red. How the woman managed was a miracle.
Kylee and the quetzal were gone. Around him the aquajade and dwarf chabacho trees were turning their branches and leaves toward the morning, all focused on the top of the high basalt cliff where Capella’s light would appear. The chime was involved in its just-slightly-off symphony.
As he walked carefully across the uneven stone, he could feel his calves, his thighs and glutes, not to mention his back and shoulders. How long had it been since he’d hurt like this? University? When he was playing sports?
“Dek?” Talina called. “Where you going?”
“Behind these trees,” he retorted over his shoulder. “And what I’m going to do is none of your business.”
Looking back, here came Talina, stopping only long enough to scoop up his rifle from where he’d left it lying on the basalt.
She handed him the gun, a look of wry amusement glowing behind her alien eyes. “First, never leave your rifle out of hand while you’re in the bush. Second, never step out of sight. Third, modesty has its place. But not here. Not now.”
He glanced self-consciously to where Kalico Aguila was finishing the last of the energy bar and looking all the better for it. She was chuckling as she watched him squirm.
“Got it,” he muttered. “So, how do I do this?”
“How about we both step around behind the trees. I’ll glance around, make sure there’re no slugs, no sidewinder, no gotcha vine or skewer, and that everything’s copacetic. Then, while you attend to the realities of biology, I’ll stand a couple of feet away and admire the surroundings. Take in a little bit of nature.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Not even slightly.”
He took a deep breath. Laughed at himself. “Yes, ma’am.”
As he squatted and attended to business, he glanced uncertainly at Talina. True to her word, she stood, rifle at port arms, her attention fixed on the surrounding forest.
After he’d finished, he stepped over, told her, “Thank you. Guess I’ve still got a whole lot to learn.”
“Different world here.” She gave him a wink. “Kylee’s right. You’ve got the makings.”
As he followed Talina back to the others he asked, “The makings? Of a disaster? Of a meal for a sidewinder?”
“Of a survivor,” she told him. Then leaned close. “Thanks for giving that bar to Kalico. That might just get her through the day.”
“Yeah. She’s looking about all in.”
“What about you?”
He made a face as he shifted his rifle on his sore shoulder. “Telling it straight? I feel like I’ve been pulled sideways through a singularity. Everything hurts.”
“We can’t take the easy trail up north. It’ll be guarded. Too easy for them to roll rocks down on top of us, if nothing else. Assuming Kylee and Flute can find a way, we’ve got a hell of climb ahead of us.”
“I know.”
Talina stopped in front of Kalico, looked down. “You need to use the facilities?”
“No. I’m okay. Not enough water in me to run through.”
Talina reached down, pulled Kalico to her feet. “You and Dek, you’re the weak links. I need you two to keep an eye on each other. Help each other. Once we’re up to the top, we’ll get food and water one way or another. But we have to make it. All of us. Working together.”
Kalico gave the woman a crooked grin. “You know, once upon a time, I was going to put you against a wall and shoot you.”
Talina grinned back. “And if you had, where would you be today?”
Kalico reached out to slap palms with Talina as the security officer started toward the slope.
“Just got to get to the top,” Dek told himself. “There’ll be food and water up there.”
“Yeah, that’s the goal. Won’t be too tough, just a little climb.”
Kylee appeared from between the trees, trotting on her long legs. The girl’s blonde hair was tied in a ponytail that bounced with each stride.
“Found a way up,” she called to Talina. “Your instincts were good. Flute’s up at the top, hunkered down and guarding the trail. There’s some biteya and tooth flower to keep clear of, and I saw a sidewinder.”
“All right, people,” Talina called. “Let’s get a little exercise. Muldare? You’ve got the six.”
Dek tried to reshoulder his Holland & Holland, only to find the bruise was just as bad on his other shoulder.
Gut it out.
Three little words that he was really coming to hate.
Nevertheless he took his place, following Talina as she led the way through the scrubby aquajade and chabacho. Compared to what he’d seen back in the deep forest, these were really scrawny specimens. And he was just as happy to be able to look up and see patches of open sky on occasion.
Then they began the climb in earnest. In the beginning it meant scrambling from one toppled boulder to the next. Reaching back, giving a hand to the person following.
Within minutes, Dek was panting, a faint sheen of perspiration slicking his cheeks, neck, and chest. Water he couldn’t afford to lose. The temperature had to be in the midthirties, and the humidity left his sweat to pool.
“You were going to shoot Talina Perez?” Dek asked Kalico as Talina extended her lead on the cracked rock, climbing hot on Kylee’s heels.
Kalico was already panting as she made her way around a toppled boulder and stared anxiously at the heights above. “You gotta remember, we didn’t have a clue about Donovan. During those two years in transition on Turalon I had convinced myself the colony was in rebellion, that they’d seized the missing ships. Turned themselves into a bunch of pirates.”
“I see.” Dek reached down. Took Kalico’s hand, and pulled her up, every muscle in his body complaining.
“No, you don’t. Pirates are easy. You just shoot them. We ran into something worse: libertarians. I mean how do you deal with a bunch of lunatics who take it as an article of faith that they can govern themselves?”
“So what happened?” Dek shifted the rifle, anxious lest it might slip off his shoulder, hit the rocks, and mar the lustrous finish on the expensive wood with its beautiful inlay.
Kalico scrambled up next to him, anxiety in her eyes as she realized the magnitude of the climb she was about to attempt. “I put Talina, Shig, and Yvette on trial. When the locals figured out where it was going, Talina stopped the riot just before the Donovanians murdered us. I gave them Port Authority. Figured it was the easiest way to cut my losses.”
He found toe-holds, got a grip, and forced himself to climb the next little bit. Turned, and again helped Kalico. Below them, Muldare—looking thirsty and hot herself—kept staring back the way they’d come, ensuring that nothing was following behind. She had her rifle slung, was somehow managing to climb in spite of her inflamed arm.
“So how’d you end up at Corporate Mine?”
Kalico staggered, almost lost her balance. Dek pulled her close. Kept her from falling.
“Thanks. Missed my step there.” She wiped a sleeve over her forehead, smeared the smear more. “Freelander showed up. You’ve heard the story about that. What you haven’t heard is that I saw myself in the temple of bones. Heard myself say, ‘If you go back, you will die.’”
She chuckled, voice rasping with thirst. “Strange shit happens on that ship. Thing is: I said that, all right. More than a year in the future. Used those exact words with that pus fucker Benteen.”
“Why didn’t you space back on Turalon? From what I hear, they had a fortune on board. You’d have been a hero.”
She blinked, wavered. “Freelander scared the shit out of me. All those lost ships. Vanished. I couldn’t . . . couldn’t . . .”
“Yeah, I guess I’d have done the same.” He made sure she wouldn’t fall, tackled the next climb, and reached back. Fought a slight dizzy spell. Had he ever been this thirsty before?
Come on, Dek. You can do this.
Somehow, he got Kalico up the next steep section.
“Why the hell am I telling you this?” she wondered under her breath. “You called me ‘Miko’s cerulean cunt’ the last time I saw you. Asked Miko if I moaned while I was sucking his cock.”
“It was outside the Boardroom, wasn’t it?” He snorted derisively. “Wasn’t even drunk that time. Just full of hatred.”
“Of me?”
“God, no. Well . . . maybe a little. There you were, the most beautiful and capable woman in Solar System, with your perfect body pressed up against Miko’s. I was so damn jealous.” He blinked. Looked up at the next section. Saw the tooth flower off to the side that Talina pointed to.
“Mostly,” he told her, “I was full of hatred for myself. For all of my failures, for all the frustrations that I blamed on everyone else.”
He pointed. “Now, watch out for that toothy thing. We’ve got to climb wide.”
She squinted, fixed on the tooth flower. “So, what are you now?”
“I don’t have the first flipping clue. As a Taglioni, I should have hated myself the most while I was cleaning toilets on Ashanti. That’s about as far as anyone in my family could fall. And yet, there I was, in the dark, scrubbing up other people’s piss and excrement. Fixing the plumbing when the shit of menials plugged it up and stirring the septic in the hydroponics. And I was proud of myself for the first time in my life.”
She was giving him that half-glazed look of disbelief. Her once-perfect lips were cracked, her smudged face fatigued and drawn. Nevertheless, she let him cup his hands for her foot, boost her up onto the next ledge. The effort took all of his energy, and he came close to dropping her.
“You ever get back to Transluna,” she told him, “I wouldn’t confide that to Miko. He’ll rub your nose in it. Figure some way of humiliating you to the point that you’d rather be dead.”
Dek licked dry lips. Tried to conjure spit . . . and failed. He could feel the building headache. Thirst, he decided, was the most agonizing of suffering. “Supervisor, there’s nothing for me back in that hive of serpents and spiders.”
The trembling in his muscles was evident as he levered himself up onto the narrow flat beside Kalico.
“Just going to farm? Maybe go live with Chaco Briggs?” she asked.
“Both good choices. But I think I want more. Shig says I’m more of a rajasic by nature. Means I’m predisposed to the hedonistic and active, the spice of life. According to Shig, while I was on Ashanti I managed to find harmony with the tamas in my soul. Sattva, he said, would probably elude me in this lifetime.” A beat. “Sometimes I wonder if Shig delights in screwing with my head.”
She laughed dryly as she tackled the next cracked section of rock. “I think the universe put Shig here because it’s the only place left that he fits.”
“What about you? If you could be guaranteed of getting back?”
She reached down, took his hand. Not that she had a lot left to pull with. Actually made it harder for Dek to clamber his way up.
She was panting, flipped her filth-matted hair out of her face as she told him, “Success on Donovan was supposed to be my catapult. Was going to shoot me right into a seat on the Board. Sure, I’d already won the golden plum: I’d fought my way into the position of Supervisor in charge of Transluna. That’s always been a springboard. Only one place to go after that. And once I was on the Board, it would have been a matter of time before I was in the Chairman’s seat.”
“You still could, you know,” Dek told her softly, seeing the longing in her eyes.
As quickly it was gone. “All I want at this moment is a tall glass of water and a meal. Not to mention anything that would kill this damned headache. Starting to feel like my skull is split.” She paused, blinked. “Like I want to be sick. Slightly dizzy.”
“Yeah.” His entire body was hot. He’d have given anything for a canteen. Cool, wonderful, water.
The skepticism was back. As if it had finally occurred to her just who she’d been talking to. “So, really, why’d you give me that energy bar this morning? What was your goal in all that?”
“You needed it.”
“Uh huh.” She coughed hoarsely. “How about you stick to climbing, all right?”
“Sure,” he agreed, wondering how he’d managed to pick a scab off such an unhealed wound. It hit him, of course, that he’d just reminded her of how badly she’d wanted that seat on the Board. What it must have cost her to make it so high up the echelon that it was dangling within her reach.
He took a deep breath, would have killed for a gulp of water.
And then the world began to whirl. A sick feeling tickled his gut with the urge to vomit.
“Whoa,” he whispered. Blinked.
And started to topple . . .