“Mark my words, Nolan, you’ll live to regret this!” said Kate. “Because it was right for you thirty years ago doesn’t mean it is for us younger ones! Let him kill them…”
“Come with me, Kate,” said Mary firmly, grasping the younger woman by the arm and forcefully escorting her from the hangar.
Nelson turned back to Jensen and Avana. “Is there anything else you need? There’s comm units and face masks as well as ropes and other rescue gear on board.”
“A med kit, please,” Avana said. “And sensible winter gear for Jensen. I had some for him in the other shuttle.”
Jensen watched the sudden activity, aware of a dull ache beginning behind his eyes. Doggedly he kept focused on the one fact that currently posed the most danger.
“You’re serious, aren’t you? There really are indigenous natives on Kogarashi.”
Nolan looked questioningly at Avana.
“He’s forgotten, like the others did,” she confirmed. “We call it Danu, Jensen.”
“We don’t rightly know what they are, Jensen, but they do belong here,” said Nolan.
“Why didn’t you tell the Company? These are the first aliens we’ve ever come across! We made laws against colonizing a world that’s already inhabited by intelligent life!”
“We didn’t know at first, and by the time we did, it was too late. The Company had sunk too much into setting up our colony. Besides, what do we tell them? I told you, we don’t know what manner of beings they are.” Nolan glanced obliquely at Avana. “You’ll understand when you see them.”
“How do you know these are the first aliens mankind has met?” said Avana. “None of us trusted the Company enough to tell them.”
“Colonization is a ruthless business, Jensen, you should know that.”
He did, but to think that any company would commit genocide just to remain on a colony world…
“I’ll need weapons,” he said tiredly, rubbing his aching temples. “For Avana too. Weis isn’t going to be easily stopped.”
“We aren’t aiming to stop him directly,” Avana said. “We need to warn them first. Our advantage is he doesn’t know where they live, and I do. Nolan, I’m going to wait inside the shuttle. Don’t let him do any lifting. That leg of his may be healed but it’s still weak.”
The half-hour it took to get them fueled and provisioned was revealing for Jensen-what the colonists refused to say about Avana and the aliens told him as much as what they did. He taxied out into the moonlight, then began to accelerate away from the village.
“What’s that?” he asked as they flew over a ring of small boulders just to the west of the village. “A Zen garden?”
“You could say that. It’s the ring.”
“Any painkillers in your medicine kit? I’ve got the mother and father of all headaches,” he asked as a stab of pain made him wince.
Avana stirred. “There should be. I’ll go look.”
“See if you can find something I can eat now,” he added, checking his bearings on the small nav screen and heading out toward the mountains. “I don’t think they fed me much over the last three days. You should have something too-you’re looking pale.”
Cramped though the bridge section was, there was a reasonable-sized cargo area behind them. As he listened to Avana rifling through the various bags that had been stowed there, he began to relax a little for the first time that night. On the Doppler screen, it showed exactly what Nolan had predicted-clear weather across the plains and into the lower foothills; then they’d hit a storm worse than the one that had caused him and Weis to crash. He planned to land and weather it out, just as Weis would be forced to do.
She came back, sitting down in her seat and stowing the drinks in the armrest console before handing him a couple of pills. When he’d taken them, she held out a regulation non-spill mug.
He was surprised to find it was hot coffee.
“We have a small coffee plantation on the foothills,” she said, handing him a sandwich, then buckling herself in.
“I think it’s time you told me our exact destination,” he said before taking a bite.
“It’s close to where you were before-the small valley just off the plateau. There are some caves there. You must have seen them on your scans.”
“Yeah, Weis wanted a good look at them. Is that where your aliens live?”
“It’s the entrance, yes. I know about the blizzard, but get us as close as you can before stopping.”
“What are they like?” he asked, glancing over at her as she nibbled on a granola bar.
“You know what they’re like. You saw them.”
“If I did, I don’t remember, so humor me and tell me.”
“Do you know what the Sidhe are?”
“Stop answering me with a question every time I ask you something! You promised me answers, Avana.”
“I am answering you,” she said, taking a mouthful of her drink. “Do you know what the Sidhe are?”
“Mary told me something of them.”
“They’re supposed to be one of the original inhabitants of Eire, or Ireland. It was said they were angels, fallen ones, too good to go to hell and too mischievous to go to heaven. A few besides me have seen them, but all they see is a ghost of what they truly are-a flicker that is hardly there.”
“And you can communicate with them?”
She gave him a long look. “They communicate with me, but I am learning.”
“Doesn’t sound very friendly.”
She smiled. “You’ll see.”
“Is it because of them that you all refused to map the Splitback and scan it for minerals?”
“Who said we refused? We lost the scanning equipment when we lost the shuttle.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“Yes. I’m tired, Jensen. Let me rest a while,” she said, folding her arms across her lap and shutting her eyes.
“You were on that shuttle, weren’t you?”
“What makes you think that? Do you really think I am that old?”
“It’s the only way you could have met these Snow Angels.”
She said nothing for a minute or two then murmured, “Jensen, don’t ask me a question unless you really want to know the answer.”
He glanced over at her again, seeing the high cheek-bones, the slightly upturned nose, and the pale braid lying against the dark fur of the jacket, comparing her to Mary. There was no comparison-how could he have thought they were the same age?
“Who rescued us, Avana? Was it them or your people?” he asked suddenly.
“Later, when we land, I’ll tell you,” she said.
“It was them, wasn’t it?” he demanded, feeling his blood run cold, but Avana said nothing, just lay there, her breathing slowing as she slept.
Her sleep was not restful. Jensen watched as she moved fretfully, muttering words that even his good hearing couldn’t identify. They were deep in the storm now, almost at the caves when she suddenly sat bolt upright.
“Hoshi! The mountain! Watch out!”
“What the hell?” he muttered, adrenaline rushing through his system as he pulled the scouter back on course. He glanced at her, seeing her staring out the windshield, eyes wide open in terror.
“Avana.” Attention still on the nav screen and looking ahead of them, he reached across for her shoulder, shaking her gently. “Wake up, Avana.”
She shuddered, blinked, then looked around her, hand reaching up to grasp his as her gaze came to rest on him. “I’m sorry, I had a bad dream.”
“You sure did. It aged me ten years at least,” he said, trying to make light of it as he squeezed her hand comfortingly before returning his to the controls.
He risked a glance at her, seeing how gray her complexion had become as she began to shiver uncontrollably. With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, he realized she was in shock.