property,” he said into it.
It took us four trips to get everything up, and then we still had the ponies, which were all lying in a waterlogged pile and wouldn’t get up. We had to push them up through the rocks, protesting all the way. It was dark before we got them to the Wall.
“We aren’t going to put them in the same chamber with us, are we?” Ev said hopefully, but Bult was already lifting them over the door, paw by paw.
“Maybe we could knock out a door between this passage and the next one,” Ev said.
“Destruction of Boohteri property,” Bult said, and got out his log.
“At least with the ponies we’ll have something to eat,” I said.
“Destruction of alien life-form,” Bult said into his log.
Destruction of alien life-form. I should get busy on those reports.
“Where was Carson going?” Ev said, as if he’d just remembered he was missing.
“I don’t know,” I said, looking out at the rain.
“Carson would’ve waded right in when he saw that thing and killed it,” Ev said.
Yeah, I thought, he would have. And then yelled at me for not running an f-and-f check.
“They would have done a pop-up about it,” he said, and I thought, Yeah, and I know what that would have looked like. Old Tight Pants without her pants yelling, “Help, help!” and a fish with false teeth lunging up out of the water, and Carson splashing in with a laser and blasting it to hell.
“I told you to get out of the water, and you did,” I said. “I would’ve jumped out myself if I hadn’t been so far out.”
“Carson wouldn’t have,” he said. “He would have come to get you.”
I looked out at the darkness and the rain. “Yeah,” I said. He would have. If he’d known where I was.
Expedition 184: Day 5
It took me all the next day to fill out the reports on the
And it kept me from thinking about Stewart, and how he’d drowned in a flash flood, and about his partner Annie Segura, who’d gone off looking for him and never been found. It kept me from thinking about Carson, washed up somewhere along the Tongue. Or sitting at the bottom of a cliff.
The chamber wasn’t much of an improvement on the overhang. The ponies got the runs, and the shuttlewren flew frantically back and forth around our heads. With the rounded floor, there was no place to sit, and the wind kept blowing rain in. Ev and I could’ve used one of Bult’s shower curtains.
Bult didn’t need one. He sat under his umbrella watching pop-ups all day. Carson had left it behind, too. I tried to take it away from him, which got me a fine, and then made Ev show him how to make it not take up the whole chamber, but as soon as Ev went back to watching out the door, Bult put it back to full size.
“He’s been gone too long,” Tight Pants said, swinging up onto her horse, which was in the middle of the ponies. “I’m going to find him.”
“It’s been nearly twenty hours,” the accordion said. “We must report in to Home Base.”
“It’s been more than twenty-four hours,” Ev said, coming back in from the door. “Aren’t we supposed to call C.J.?”
“Yeah,” I said, and started filling in Form R-28-X, Proper Disposal of Indigenous Fauna Remains. In all those trips up the ridge in the pouring rain, I hadn’t thought to bring the
“Are you going to call her?” Ev said.
I kept filling out the report.
Toward evening C.J. called. “The scans have been showing the same thing all day,” she said.
“It’s raining. We’re waiting it out in a cave.”
“But you’re all all right?”
“We’re fine,” I said.
“Do you want me to come pull you out?”
“No.”
“Can I talk to Ev?”
“No,” I said, looking at him. “He’s out with Carson seeing how bad the flooding is.” I signed off.
“I wouldn’t have told her,” Ev said.
“I know,” I said, looking at Bult.
Carson and Fin were standing in front of him. “It’ll be uncharted territory,” Carson said, holding out his hand.
“I’m not afraid,” Fin said, “as long as I’m with you.”
“What are you going to do?” Ev said.
“Wait,” I said.
Expedition 184: Day 6
The next morning the rain let up a little and then started again. The roof of the chamber developed a leak, right over where we had the equipment piled, and we had to move it over next to the ponies.
It was getting a little crowded. During the night four roadkill had dragged themselves over the door, and the shuttlewren went crazy, wheeling and circling at the top of the chamber, making passes at Ev and me, and at Tight Pants climbing down the cliff.
Bult wasn’t watching. He’d gotten up for the hundredth time and gone outside to stand on the ridge.
“What’s he doing?” Ev said, watching the shuttlewrens.
“Looking for Carson,” I said. “Or a way out of here.”
There wasn’t any way out. Water was flowing off of every mound, carrying what looked like half the Ponypiles with it, and a raging stream cut across the end of the ridge.
“Where do you think Carson is?” Ev said.
“I don’t know,” I said. During the night it had occurred to me that Wulfmeier might have gotten his gate fixed and come back to get even. And Carson was alone, no pony, no mike, nothing.
I couldn’t tell Ev that, and while I was trying to think of something I could, Ev said, “Fin, come look at this.”
He was peering up at the leak in the ceiling. The shuttlewren was making little dives at it.
“It’s trying to repair it,” Ev said thoughtfully. “Fin, do you still have those parts of the one Bult ate?”
“There wasn’t much left,” I said, but I dug in my pack and got them out.
“Oh, good,” he said, examining the fragments. “I was afraid he’d eaten the beak.” He settled down against the wall with them.
The pop-up was still on. Fin was binding up the stub of Carson’s foot and bawling. “It’s all right,” Carson was saying. “Don’t cry.”
The pop-up went dark and words appeared in the middle of the chamber. The credits. “Written by Captain Jake Trailblazer.”
“Look at this,” Ev said, bringing over one of the shuttlewren pieces. “See how the beak is flat, like a trowel? Can I run an analysis?”
“Sure.” I went over to the door and looked out. Bult was standing on the ridge, where the stream cut across, in the rain.
“I should have figured it out before,” Ev said, looking at the screen. “Look at how high the door is. And why would the Boohteri make a curved floor like that?” He stood up and looked at the leak again. “You said you’ve
