“Yes, sir,” Jessica answered. She began to step away slowly, passing in front of Vladimir. “Keep an eye on him,” she whispered.
“Do not worry,” Vladimir promised. He moved closer to his friend. “Nathan, what is wrong?”
“We’re fucked, Vlad,” Nathan admitted under his breath.
“What do you mean? Why?”
“If what Tug says is true, then every Tom, Dick and Ta’Akar in this sector is going to be hunting for us. And we’re too busted up to fight them all off, Vlad.”
“Then we will simply jump away again,” he told him. “And we will keep jumping. All the way back to Sol if we have to, ten light years at a time.” Vladimir put his right hand on Nathan’s shoulder. “And they will never catch up to us,” he promised, patting Nathan’s cheek with his other hand. “You worry too much, Nathan. We will be fine, you will see.”
Nathan looked his friend in the eyes. Nathan envied Vladimir his strength, his confidence. No matter what fate threw at him, Vladimir took it head on without hesitation. “I don’t know what to do,” Nathan admitted quietly to his friend.
“You will figure it out, Nathan.”
“What if I’m wrong?”
“Then you will figure out another way,” Vladimir told him. “Now straighten up, hold your chin high, and stop whining,” he joked. “It’s embarrassing.”
Nathan looked at Vladimir as a smile formed across the Russian’s face. He made a face at Nathan, like he was pouting, mocking him. “Right,” Nathan laughed. Nathan tapped his comm-set to open the mic. “Jess? Tell the ship we’re spending the night here. Have them locate Tobin and tell him to be ready to run cargo and passengers from this location to the ship tomorrow around…” Nathan looked at Tug for an approximate time.
“Around midday?” Tug suggested.
“…Midday,” Nathan continued. “And tell them we’ll check back with them later before we turn in.” Nathan keyed off his mic, turning to Tug. “Mister Tugwell, we’ll be taking you up on your kind offer to stay the night. But we will be departing tomorrow.”
“You’re still buying my molo, aren’t you?”
Nathan smiled. “Of course.”
“I do have one request, Captain,” Tug added.
“And what might that be?”
“Would you tell me more about your world?”
“Of course,” Nathan said, as he started back for the house.
— 6 -
Nathan stepped back out onto the front porch of Tug’s house. He had spent the last two hours telling Tug all about the Earth-from how they had first colonized the core systems, to the bio-digital plague that nearly destroyed all of humanity. He had told him about the centuries of despair that had followed the great plague, and about how the Earth had gone through a rapid development spurt since the Data Ark had been discovered a century ago.
Tug had hung on his every word, like a child being told a magical story of a faraway land. The entire time, Nathan couldn’t help but feel like he was solving a mystery in Tug’s mind, like it was the piece to a puzzle that he had been missing all his life, preventing him from finding true satisfaction. It had been an unexpected experience, for the both of them. By the time they had finished, Tug surely knew more about Earth than any native in the entire quadrant.
Nathan wondered if he had told Tug too much. Had Jessica been there, he was sure she would’ve thought so. But Tug had wanted the information and more. Nathan couldn’t quite figure out why the knowledge of Earth had been so important to the farmer. He wondered how many more people Tug would eventually share his knowledge of Earth with. These people had no understanding of their true origins. They had myths. They had stories. They had legends. But no truths. In some small measure, Nathan felt he had done this world a bit of justice.
Nathan stretched and took in a deep breath. The air was different out here in the country night. It was still thick and humid, and it still smelled of molo. But the smell of machine oils and thrust exhausts and all the other aromas one usually found amongst civilization were absent, as were the sounds. It was quiet out here, almost too quiet. On Earth, there were always sounds. Even in the wilderness, there were always the sounds of hundreds of creatures big and small, as they went about the business of life. On this reformed moon, however, those creatures were almost non-existent, as were their sounds. The silence was… peaceful.
He looked about the compound, spotting Jessica a short distance away, squatting on the ground as she assembled the tight-beam comm-array dish used to communicate privately with the Aurora.
“Jess,” he called, walking out to meet her. “Contact the ship yet?”
“Just getting ready to.”
Nathan walked the last few steps over to her. “You get a good look around?”
“What makes you think I was looking around?”
“Why do you think I made you my security chief?”
“Cuz I was one of the few people on board that you actually knew by name?”
“What did you find out?”
Jessica stood up, having finished assembling the array. “There’s something not right about this place,” she said.
“What do you mean, not right? It looks pretty normal to me.”
“Yeah, it does. But I found a few things that don’t add up.”
“Such as?”
“Such as why is there only one vehicle? You’d think with this many greenhouses there would be more than one vehicle to haul his harvest to market.”
“He can only drive one vehicle at a time, Jess.”
“He must have help from time to time. Otherwise, why would he have a bunkhouse out back? Even if he was the only driver, you’d think there would at least be a trailer.”
Nathan thought about it for a moment. Jessica had a naturally suspicious mind, which is why she was perfect for the job. “Maybe it gets picked up?”
“Maybe. But there’s more. Considering the amount of harvest he should be producing, you’d think he’d be a little wealthier. Either he’s stashing his money away, or he’s giving his crops away on the cheap.”
“That just makes him either a smart businessman, or a really bad one.”
“Okay, then how about all the emitters?”
“Emitters?” That got Nathan’s attention.
“They’re implanted into the sides of the sinkhole walls all the way around the compound, nearly up to ground level.”
“What kind of emitters?”
“Couldn’t tell. But they’ve got to be either shield emitters or some kind of sensor scattering field.”
“Maybe they’re just to repel insects?” Nathan chuckled.
“Yeah, right. Laugh it up. But, you know that damaged fighter of his? The one he supposedly scavenged over the years? Well it’s not as damaged as he led us to believe. It looks old and beaten up all right. And it’s obviously been in one hell of a fire fight. But Vlad thinks the battle damage is recent. And get this-he also thinks it’s still space-worthy.”
“I thought he said he sold the reactor to buy this farm?”
“Maybe he did? Maybe he replaced it later? Maybe that’s what he spent all his money on? But the ship’s got two, now, and they’re both still good. Vlad thinks you could light them up and take off in minutes.” Jessica waited for Nathan to poke holes in her final report.
“Okay, that is odd.”
“And one other thing, Nathan. The markings on the ship. I’m pretty sure they’re the same ones I saw on the uniforms of that boarding party we fought off down on C deck.”
“Are you sure?”
“Five-point star inside a circle. Kind of hard to mistake. I think that’s a Ta’Akar fighter in there.”
“He did say that there were mass defections amongst the troops. Maybe he was one of them?”
“Or maybe he’s a spy?” Jessica suggested.
“Okay, that’s a scary thought,” Nathan admitted.
“To be honest,” Jessica admitted, “it doesn’t add up.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean using this farming gig as a cover. For a spy, it’s a lousy choice. You spend far more time on the farm than in town. And when you are in town, you’re stuck in a street market? Not gonna gather much intel that way. But then again, maybe he’s not supposed to. Maybe he’s just here in case they need an operative.”