We didn’t leave for another two hours. Apparently the samples needed to be packed a certain way. And Kira didn’t want to just abandon the camp. She went from building to building, shutting down systems, and locking everything down.
“You think you’ll ever come back here?” I asked her.
“Me? Probably not. But my parents will.” Her face was red from crying.
I nodded, moved at her positivity. “Well, then it’s good that you are closing it up properly.”
It was tough going with the sled. The jungle was difficult enough for people to travel through. A sled that was nearly three meters long was an altogether different challenge.
At several points, Kira pulled out an energy scythe from the storage compartment on the sled and used it to clear brush and vines so we were able to squeeze the floating platform through the dense vegetation. The shimmering blade of the scythe was effective at burning through the jungle thicket, but it generated billows of smoke that burned my eyes. That coupled with the thick humid air made it tough to breathe.
“I thought Ganga Kos was due south of here,” I said.
“It is.”
“Then why are we going southwest?”
“We need to hook up with the river. It will go a lot faster if we travel along the river bank. Less of a mess to pull the sled through.”
That made sense. And the river route turned out to be marginally faster, but all in all, the journey was slow and arduous. I doubted that we made five kilometers an hour.
Kira didn’t feel much like talking. She was concentrating too much on steering the sled and navigating away from hazards like quick mud and oversized brambles.
TenSix was content to sit on the back of the sled and use his scanners to announce anything that was either of interest or a possible threat. At one point we had to stop for a half hour to allow a herd of bloodfin wallowers to cross the river.
“You do not want to mess with those, p.s. and by the way,” Kira said.
“Really? They look like fat slugs and they don’t even move that quick.”
“Yeah, those fat slugs weigh five thousand kilograms but can move twice as fast as you. You piss them off, you find yourself on the bottom of the river in a bloodfin sandwich.”
“No thanks.”
Once the herd had passed, we gave them another fifteen minutes for safety, then continued on our way.
The sun was sinking low in the sky and the temperature was definitely dropping. Maybe it was because we were hiking by the river, but I was feeling the chill.
“How much further?” I asked.
“We won’t make it to the Wastes today,” Kira said. “We’ve got a good six more hours until we get out of the jungle. But that will have to wait until tomorrow. We’ll need to make camp within an hour.”
Kira explained that typically she and her parents would start the journey back to Ganga Kos early in the morning so they could make it to the temporary campsite on the edge of the Basin by the end of the day.
“Unfortunately we got a late start, so we’re going to need to camp by the river.”
“Is that smart with those bloodfins around?”
“We don’t really have a choice.”
Kira ended up finding us a fairly safe-looking area up on a small cliff overlooking the river. With the sun setting, it was actually very scenic. And under different circumstances, I’d think it would be a very romantic spot to spend the night with a beautiful woman.
But Kira was all business. After shutting down the sled and securing it, she marked the perimeter of our little camping area with peri-guard spikes and sonic mines, and TenSix helped her calibrate everything and link it to a cyander field box and the sled’s genny. Then we set up a lightweight tent, a string of lights, and Kira broke out the rations. We crawled into the tent to get away from the bugs.
I noticed that there were two sleeping bags, arranged a chaste distance apart, so I guessed conservation of body heat was not on the docket for tonight.
Oh well.
Kira handed me some teinsticks, a bag of trail mix, and a package of wheat crackers.
“Sorry there’s nothing fancier,” she said,
“Calories are calories,” I said. “It’s fine.”
“I did manage to snag this.”
She pulled an unopened bottle of SLB whisky from her bag, along with two cups.
“Nice.” I checked the label. It reminded me of something, but I wasn’t sure what. Just a weird tickling feeling in the back of my mind.
“I grabbed it from my father’s quarters,” she said, taking the bottle back. “It was supposed to be for our family celebration to mark the end of another research trip.”
“Well, don’t open it now, for Dynark’s sake. Save it to celebrate when we get your parents back safe and sound.”
“Too late!” She opened the bottle and poured us each a generous splash. “Besides, I’d rather drink it now. I’ve had a rough couple of days.”
“You sure?”
“Positive. I can always get my dad another one. Drink up.”
She touched her cup to mine, then drained it in a single swallow.
“That’s good stuff,” she said, pouring herself another.
I sipped my own carefully. “So what’s the plan once we get to Ganga Kos?”
“I don’t know. I have to somehow get a message back to Oeri. Let them know what’s happening. It’s got to be connected. That weirdness at the Marlington camp and the attack on our camp.”
She knocked back another cup of whisky.
“You’re probably right,” I said. “But why?”
“Obviously, it’s something to do with what we’re all researching.”
“So you know what the Marlington folks were studying?”
“Not specifically, but I can make an educated guess.”
“You mind sharing?”
“Maybe later. Right now, what I could use is a massage. My back is a mess from slinging that energy scythe.”
Kira pulled off her shirt and bra and took another big gulp of whisky. When she looked up from her cup she caught me
