“ Sounds too good to be true.”
Kira nodded. “But it beats the alternative.”
Eric sighed. “Okay, guess it’s this or nothing. I’ll see about rigging up the necessary overrides so I can run them remotely, rather than being stuck in the engine control room.”
Kira shook her head. “We need the opposite.”
“The opposite?”
“ Well, I assume. We need to all be in the safest place in the ship in case something happens in spite of all our plans.”
Eric snapped his fingers. “Brilliant!” He hissed. “If I reduce the coverage area of the inertial suppression field I can increase the power of it far more effectively than covering the entire ship!”
Kira grinned and kissed his hand. “I think I can handle being stuck on a remote tropical world with you.”
“ It’s tropical?”
Kira grinned. “Heat and moisture readings show tropical climates for most of it, with temperate zones near the poles. Just think of it as a vacation.”
Chapter 16
A herd of six creatures large enough to rout an elephant was startled into a stampede by a crackling thunder overhead. A flash lit the sky brighter even than the sun, beginning with red and yellow flames until a darker shape emerged from it, streaking towards the ground below. Smaller fires burst free from it, giving proof to the unstable nature of the alien object.
The largest piece slammed just off a recently abandoned shore, flash vaporizing the first water that came in direct contact with the superheated metal and sending a the rest away in a surge that spread in all directions with the force of a tidal wave. Beating the tidal wave to the shore was the tremor as the Rented Mule slammed into the bedrock of the ocean.
Creatures throughout the nearby forest howled and screeched, unprepared for the sudden tremors that threatened their footing and trembled the trees. A moment later an unnatural quiet returned to the jungle. Birds had taken flight, but the animals that remained stared around in confusion. Some even dared to emerge from the edge of the jungle to the sandy beach and study the smoky trail through the sky that led to a growing wall of water. When the wave crested and broke against the beach the uncomprehending creatures were swept away with the sand, water, and trees of the forest.
The water slowly returned to the ocean or remained trapped in puddles and ponds. Small waves lapped at the shore, another unnatural stillness. Cleared of any indigenous life forms, the machine that broke through the surface of the water several minutes later was greeted by nothing but silence. Water crested around it until it began to climb out of the water and onto the beach on wheels covered in metal treads. With less than a dozen feet to go the treads bogged down in the soft sand and jammed up.
After a few minutes of attempting to rock the vehicle back and forth to free it, the wheels proved too jammed with sand and mud to move. A hatch opened on the side, hissing as internal and external pressures equalized. Tarn stepped out, plasma rifle in hand and a bandage across his head and leg. He climbed across the hull of the tracked mining vehicle and lowered himself carefully into the water. It was waist high on him, allowing him to wade forward slowly, his rifle held at the ready.
Captain Sharp followed, bandages around his midsection and bloodstains covering much of his clothing. Kira and Jeff came next, supporting Eric between them. The extensive bandages on the engineer gave proof to where much of the blood on Sharp’s clothing had come from.
They waded ashore, on their own or with the support of others, and all but collapsed on the beach. Eric glanced over, gasping for breath as he did so. Kira followed his gaze, tears running down her cheeks as she did so. A large serpentine fish flopped in a shallow puddle of water. As it gasped and extending its mouth they saw the sharp row of teeth lining its jaw.
“ Tropical paradise,” Eric wheezed.
Kira tried, and failed, to bite back a sob. “Sorry,” he whispered.
She shook her head and fought back the tightness in her throat. “No, it’s all right. Just try to rest. We’ll get you in the shade.”
“ What shade?” Tarn called out from ahead. “Wave took out most of the threes and them that’s left got no leaves on ‘em.”
“ Then we’ve got building materials,” Kira snapped at him. She looked around and gestured with the arm not holding on to Eric. “Gather up the broken ligs and limbs and we can make a lean-to.”
Tarn stared at her, open mouthed. He turned to Sharp, ready to sputter a protest when the Captain nodded. “Do it, there’s nothing around us for a ways, let’s make shelter and rest up. Grab some of those fish and we can have a real dinner too.”
“ Can we eat them?” Kevin asked, staring at the sharp teeth in the mouth of the nearby fish.
“ If we can’t eat what’s here, we won’t last long. Might as well find out sooner rather than later.”
Kira grunted, signaling to Jeff and they moved forward up the beach until they neared the first of the uprooted and broken trees that had been at the edge of the jungle. They gently lowered Eric to the ground. “Go help with the shelter,” Kira bade Eric’s assistant. He nodded and hurried off, limping at his own twisted knee.
None of them had escaped the crash unscathed. Kira had a nasty scrape across her back that had torn her shirt and skin, but it was minor in comparison to the slivers of metal that had speared through Eric’s side when the inertial suppressor overloaded and exploded in front of him. His leg had been broken by a large piece of metal paneling and his head gashed when he’d crashed to the floor.
Kira pulled back his bandages at his side and stared at the torn flesh. The edges were raw and pink. She shook her head, terrified at what the lack of real medical attention would mean. A new world with new strains of bacteria and an open wound — Eric’s time was limited, at best.
“ How is it?” He asked her.
“ The bleeding has stopped,” she said. That was the only positive thing she could think to say of it. The water from the ocean had cleaned it some. “Now rest will determine what happens next. The metal pieces were through and through, at least, and so hot from the explosion they were self-cauterizing.”
“ Lucky me,” Eric groaned.
Kira faked a smile to keep herself from crying. After all she’d been through, discovering both herself and Eric, it wasn’t fair that she should lose him now. Of all the people that had to be hurt, why couldn’t it have been Tarn or Jeff or the Captain? She glanced away, suddenly ashamed at herself for thinking that way. The Captain and Jeff didn’t deserve to be hurt any more than Eric did. Tarn — well…
Jeff supervised the construction of the shelter, which quickly came to resemble a simple but spacious lean-to. Using the laser rifles they started a fire and cooked up the fish. They found a few drowned or crushed animals amongst the fallen timbers as well, creatures that went unidentified. They left them alone, content to dine on the fish instead.
The meal was simple but satisfying. They had no water to wash it down with, a problem that they only now realized. The ocean was far too salty to drink, another reminder of the human home world hundreds of light years away.
The sun fell quickly, proving they’d crashed in the afternoon. With the setting sun came a sudden and surprising downpour from above. “All that water we kicked up when we crashed,” Tarn muttered. “Temperature dropped.”
“ Gather it up!” Kira snapped. “Use whatever we’ve got!”
They looked around, scrambling to find anything they could to capture the rainwater. A loud crash from the darkness drew them up short. “What was that?” Jeff asked.
His answer came in the form of a loud roar that made their ears ring. They scrambled again, this time grabbing weapons and raising them to point into the waterlogged darkness. “Put the fire out!” Sharp hissed.