“Uh huh.” She pulled something from her bag that looked like a large pistol of some sort. Then she walked to her edge of the bridge and in one quick motion, she aimed the pistol right at me and fired. There was a puff of dust from its muzzle and a CNT line snaked out. Something embedded itself into the stone edge of the bridge, and lo and behold there was a carbon nanotube line strung across the broken gap.
“How are you at tightrope walking?” the woman said as she secured her end of the line around a stone outcropping.
“Not my strongest skill.”
“Then you’ll want this.” She unbuckled her belt and refastened it around the line, then slid it over to me.
“Thanks.” I double-checked that the bolt she had fired into the stone was secure, and then wrapped my hands around the belt.
“Here goes nothing.” I slid off the bridge onto the line. It gave a little from my weight, but seemed secure enough. Still, I didn’t want to hang on it all day.
The angle wasn’t nearly enough for me to slide, zip line style, across the nine meters. I ended up holding myself up by the belt with one hand and using the other to push myself across. It was slow going and by the time I made it over my arms were on fire.
The woman reached down a hand and helped me up over the edge, then smirked at me while I flopped on my back and tried to catch my breath.
“Looks like they winged your arm,” she said. “Let me take a look at that.”
As she leaned over me, I saw that she was about my own age and had a stunningly beautiful face that she had either the good fortune to be born with or had reshaped with some world-class cosme. Her light emerald-colored eyes sparkled with intelligence. I wondered if she was checking me out as well. Probably. I gave it less than ten seconds before she recognized me—as Sean Beck.
But she didn’t. Not yet, at least.
“Arm looks good. They just grazed you. Tore up the skin a bit. I’ll put some foam on it and you’ll be as good as new.”
“Thank you. Again. For everything.”
“Uh huh.”
She led me over to her pack, where she produced a medpak with some curant foam. After she cleaned my wound and applied the curant, she gave me a hit of fortissa to bring my heart rate down and deal with the adrenaline spike in my body, among other things.
But even before my head started to clear, the woman began to pepper me with questions.
“So who are you with?” she asked, pushing her hair away from her face. “Marlington? You guys pulled out last week, didn’t you? You get left behind or something? Have you been, like, wandering around naked for a week?”
“Hang on,” I said, trying to process her rapid-fire questions. “Marlington? As in the university?”
“Yeah, I know you’re not from Kashimoga.”
“You don’t recognize me?” I asked.
She wrinkled her nose. “Should I?” She handed me a water bottle.
“Beck,” I flashed her my father’s famous smile.
“What’s Beck?”
I couldn’t tell if she was serious or just jerking me around.
“Um, Beck Salvage. Sean Beck…”
Still no reaction. This was very weird.
“My name is Jannigan Beck. I’m Sean Beck’s son.”
“Good for you. I’m Kira Lark and I’m the daughter of Thastus and Biella Lark. Now that we’re acquainted, why don’t you indulge my curiosity and tell me what the hell you were doing on the Bondril’s side of the Basin?”
I took a drink of water. “Wait, you don’t know who Sean Beck is?”
“Someone with delusions of grandeur?” She started digging in her pack.
“C’mon, Sean Beck? The explorer? He’s been on GT more times than anyone else. He’s got 750 billion followers.”
“It sounds like I should know him, but sorry.”
This Kira Lark chick must be messing with me, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. “Okay, well. He’s kind of a big deal.”
“And you’re his son,” Kira said matter-of-factly.
“Yeah.”
“Is that supposed to make you kind of a big deal too?”
Before I could answer, she handed me a crumpled ball of plastic fabric. “Put this on.”
I wasn’t sure what she meant, but then I opened the crumpled ball and saw that it was a rain poncho.
“Uh, thanks.” I pulled it over my head.
“Not that I’m complaining,” Kira said. “You’ve got a great bod and all. I bet you work out a lot. It’s just that my parents are a little old-fashioned.”
“You’re here with your parents?” I asked.
“Yeah, we all work for Oeri-USV.”
I barely recognized the name. “Pharmaceuticals?”
“Among other things. Oeri’s a multi-system corporation. Kind of a big deal around here.” She smirked at me.
“And where exactly is here?”
“You don’t know where you are?”
I nodded.
“Seriously?”
“Completely.”
“Okay, well. I need to hear much more about that, but to answer your question, you are in the Rhinobo Basin.”
“That’s the name of the planet?”
“No, that’s the name of this jungle. And besides, we’re not on a planet. We’re on a moon. Safadin.”
“Safadin?” I had never heard of it.
“We’re orbiting Hango. Fourth planet from the sun.”
I had heard of Hango. It was in a backwater system called Tantonia. “And you live here?”
“For the last fifteen months,” Kira said. “But not permanently. Home is Devariin.”
Devariin was one of the Gold Mantle worlds. Old. Staid. “So what are you doing here?” I asked.
“Not so fast, gēgē. It’s my turn to get some answers.”
“Yeah, sure. I’ll do my best, but it’s kind of complicated.”
“No worries. It’s a long way back to camp.”
3
As Kira Lark led me through the jungle of the Rhinobo Basin, I told her my story—carefully edited. After all, I had just known her for five minutes, and even though she had saved my life, I wasn’t ready to trust her with the raw truth.
I told her that I worked for Beck Salvage and I was part of an expedition through the Fountain.
“Wait? That old
