Blighted Star (9 page)

He
wondered where she would go, then forced back the thought, reaching for his uniform.
She would probably go to
him
. Well, good luck to her there,
he’d
already got a woman, one much better than Christel. He would like to be a fly
on the wall when that conversation took place - Grad would soon tell her to
fuck off. She’d see then what it felt like to have someone grind you down. She
couldn’t take that, no way. It would destroy her. She was far too used to
getting her own way in everything, but there was no way Grad would get rid of
Lana for the sake of her. He suddenly realised what he had done. He had kicked
her out! He had stood up to her and thrown her out! At last, he had put himself
forward, and whether he was right or wrong about her cheating, (and he still
thought he was right), he had won, had broken free. Now was the time to bask in
the power he felt. The pain was, he knew, due any time soon. He lifted his
uniform trousers off the back of the chair and sat on the bed. He had to face
his squad now, and he knew that they would soon be all too aware of the break
up. He wondered if there was any way of making it known to them that it was he
who had dumped her, and not the other way round…

<><><> 

The
initial assembly was complete, and Athena and the two techs were attaching
lifting A/G pads to the four corners. Athena looked at her creation, ruefully
remembering the lovely brushed steel machine which they had brought with them.
Oh well. if this monstrosity actually worked then, no doubt, it would become
beautiful in her eyes. They lifted it and attached the lines. The marines took up
the strain and began the long drag through the evening’s shadows to where they
would start the new quarry. This time it would have to be a lot closer, only
about five klicks away from Cassini, rather than the original quarry’s fifteen.
Well there was nothing she could do about that, even if it did go against the
plan, creating heavy industry so close to the planet’s future capitol.

Tomorrow,
with Jim’s guidance over the link established by the drones, she would switch
on the machine and, she hoped, begin the shaft boring phase. She had now been
working without a significant break for two days, and she should have felt
washed out. But in fact she felt more alive than ever. Strange the resources
you can find within yourself she thought.

She
looked at Jackson directing his men in the delicate task of manoeuvring the
machine past some low bushes. Jackson was keeping up the pressure and they were
moving well. He looked tired, and Athena reflected that it had been a long
couple of days for him too. He looked across to her and she gave him a
reassuring smile. He looked away. That, she thought, is the first time I’ve
ever smiled at Jackson. No wonder the poor guy’s embarrassed. Some of her old
guilt about the Jackson situation returned and she resolved to cultivate him a
little from now on. The men sweated and heaved on the lines and the heavy
burden glided through the still evening a short way above the ground. On the
horizon the first of the stars began to shine as the glowing sun left the sky.

Lana
took a break and looked out at the crowd of people who had gathered, as they
seemed to do on every fine evening, out in the landing compound. Farmbots had
transformed the area into a superb field of cut grass on which impromptu games
were endlessly starting. Baseball and Soccer mostly, Technicians vs. Miners,
Settlers vs. Marines, and Cooks vs. Support Staff… Sometimes, someone would
think of a joke and you would see its progress from group to group, jumping the
gaps between the knots gathered round the heaters brought out to cheer the
evening. Lana missed Grad. The conversations they had had via the probe were
too stilted. It was hard to talk to someone without using the internal comms.
Comms gave you so much more than just their voice in your ear and extra
privacy. They could show you things they had seen, and more importantly, you
got a vague sense of whatever emotion they were feeling. These old fashioned
telecoms could show you someone was alive, but that was about all. Grad seemed
strange to her, guarded, distant. She didn’t like it.

Amy
Chan ran past, waving. They had spent quite a lot of time together, Both
feeling an initial connection at having a loved one in peril. This had quickly
grown into an enjoyment of each other’s company, and Lana had to admit she was
aware of the hero worship she had inspired in the child; she found it
flattering and secretly something of an ego boost. Any associated guilt was
lessened by the fact that she liked Amy right back. The kid was incredibly
nice, with a kind side to her nature and a good word for almost everyone,
except Sergeant Raoul, who she disliked for some reason which in the end turned
out to be because he reminded her of an illustration of the troll from “Three
Billy Goats Gruff”. Irrational dislikes aside, Amy was a seriously nice child,
Lana reflected. Five was a charming age, and she thought about her own child,
and how she or he would be at that age. She must make a point of talking to Jim
Chan, she thought; whatever it was that he knew about parenting, she wanted to
know herself.

If
only Grad were here. It was torture to have such a major secret to keep from
him, and she had ached to tell him when she had talked to him through the clumsy
medium of the probe earlier, but it just wasn’t the moment. Nor would she be
able to talk to him about this through one of the wrist communicators which
they were sending out. It was going to have to be done properly, and that meant
on their own and face to face. Preferably in their own quarters with subdued
lighting and their favourite meal set out before them…

Before
she went back in to work some more on the canoe, she decided to take a wander
through the nearer elements of the crowd. She kept her ears open, curious to
gauge the mood of the people. She was surprised at how up – beat they were.
There was a little tenseness which had not been present before the crisis, but
considering the loss of their prime industry they all seemed positive about the
future. A common topic was the passing, about an hour before, of the column of
marines hauling the new mining machine which everyone knew Athena had made.
Having such a hands – on leader was something of a revelation, but was
definitely a great morale booster. Reassured herself, Lana headed back to the
hanger as the sun began to set.

Inside
the skyak was taking shape. She had vatted a few pounds of an organic compound
which was basically a form of cellulose resin. Unfortunately she had not got
the mixture exactly right, and it had a tendency to harden too quickly, so she
had to work quickly, scooping it out and using a roller to spread it evenly
over the surface of the mould. As it cured it changed colour from pale yellow
to orangey red, and because some areas were thicker than others, the colour
effect was different in different parts of the craft, making it mottled like
the skin on of fabulous lizard or exotic fish. When she stood back, remembering
just in time not to scratch her itching scalp with her sticky hand, she had to
acknowledge that the effect might have been unintentional, but it was
damn
fine! She would make another one, with slightly different pigmentation for
Grad’s approaching birthday, and she would transmit the accidental discovery
about the resin to her brother with the next data burst.

<><><> 

In
the blackness at the bottom of the lake, a patch of mud began to move. As the
cadaver of Gunnar Olafson sat up, the silt streamed away from its face to
reveal the ravages of the organism. The flesh had almost entirely gone and now
even the bone was beginning to crumble away. With no jawbone, and with the neck
vertebrae exposed through the wasted muscles of the throat, the head hung
backward and a little to one side. As the corpse shuffled slowly out of the
shallows, the strong starlight showed up the destruction wrought on the rest of
the body. The entity had devoured almost all of its host, saving only those
muscles and ligaments needed for movement to the next prey. Gunnar’s clothes
too had suffered in the accelerated rotting process, and now hung in tatters
from a frame that was little more than an ambulatory skeleton. The abdomen was
entirely gone, and the ribcage utterly exposed, dripping with lake water. Feet,
like bony claws, scraped across the ground. The corpse lurched across the grass
to where, a short distance away, the warm glow from a lantern cast shadows on
the canvas of a wagon-cover.

<><><> 

Athena
stood back and straightened up. Now that the end of the task was in sight she allowed
the weariness she had kept at bay for so long to wash over her. Craning her
neck to relieve the sore muscles she looked up at the stars which cast as much
light into the dark sky as the moon still shed on the abandoned Earth. They
were shining clearly now as the last dregs of the sunset drained away to the
west. Above her, the whirl of the Skagorack Nebula dominated the eastern half
of the sky, the centre stars fading as their light struggled to escape the pull
of the black hole at the centre. A soft noise in the grass brought her back to
the present moment as Jackson joined her. He too looked up to see what had
caught her interest, then he looked into her face with the same sadness she had
been sensing all evening. She smiled.

“Alright
Lieutenant. I think we’re ready. Get everyone to retire to a safe distance just
in case I’ve wired this up wrongly. About three hundred metres should do I
think.”

As
Jackson nodded and went back to where the small troop were resting, Athena
reflected once again on where her knowledge had come from. She and Jim had
spent a great deal of time together over the course of the voyage, they had hit
it off right from the beginning, and they had had thousands of conversations on
nearly as many topics. But none of the hours they had spent together had
covered the kind of advanced engineering she had employed to put together the
rig that stood before her now. She wondered whether what she had experienced
was some kind of telepathy. When Jim got back she and he would have to discuss
the matter thoroughly. She reached out her hand to activate the machine, and
again the gentle noise of footfalls in the grass made her pause. Jackson
returned to her side.

“They’ve
gone back Ma’am.”

“You
should go back too Jackson. I have to be here to monitor the start-up but
there’s no point in both of us taking a risk.”

Jackson
paused, torn between his wish to stay and his need to follow the procedure
which stated unambiguously that executive officers were not to be exposed to
danger without overriding reasons. 

“I’d
rather stay.” he said in the end, a little apologetically.

Athena
reached out again and the control panel glowed. The whole contraption gave a
very slight shudder and began to hum softly. She knew that far beneath their
feet the borer was now focussing energy forces which would melt and reshape the
rock until a smooth sided shaft, two metres wide, sank down through the crust
into the slow moving magma far below. When that stage was complete the machine
would cap off the mine by creating a large magma chamber from which the metals
they sought could be drawn. The colony would be back in business.

Athena
turned and caught Jackson’s eye. “That should do, or at least, if the readings
are true we
should
be O.K. Shall we sit a while?” Sitting down on the
grass, they leaned their backs against the warming metal sides of the mining
machine. Athena felt her eyelids weighed down by an impossible weight. She let
them shut and in a moment her head drooped to one side and came to rest on
Jackson’s shoulder. He looked down in some surprise and adjusted his arm so
that she would be more comfortable. His men had orders to keep back for half an
hour, and then to come up if there had been no plasma breach. He would let her
sleep until he heard them coming. God knew she had earned it.

<><><> 

 Grad
turned over once more on the camping mattress the probe had brought. Beside him
in the energy tent Jim snored softly but it wasn’t that which was keeping the
pilot awake. Neither was it the ridiculous earliness of the hour, the sun
having only just set. It was the turmoil he felt in his heart and in his mind
over the two women he was in love with. He felt divided. cut in half down the
middle. One half of him yearned for Lana, the other for Christel. The divide
was so exactly even that even from moment to moment he didn’t know what he
should do. And it wasn’t as if he wanted both, he wanted to be with one woman,
it was just that the one woman might be Christel or it might be Lana. He was
being stupid. Christel had made it pretty clear that what they had was not a
relationship, was just a
thing
, but did that mean that if she changed
her mind on that score would he go running to her? Grad didn’t think so, and
the thought of losing Lana, of not being with her, was physically painful. He
should really tell Christel that they couldn’t be together anymore. But then
the thought of having taken away from him the source of the best pleasure he
had ever had. .. The woman was a sorceress, he had always had a healthy sexual
appetite, and it wasn’t as if the sex with Lana wasn’t good, but Christel was
in another league entirely, she was the best he had ever had by a long, long
way. He couldn’t contemplate having to give that up. Anyway, he suspected that
all Christel would have to do was smile and he would be in pieces again. He was
like an addict. He was rock hard now just thinking of her. He felt like
groaning, it was like being seventeen again. He turned over again, as quietly
as he could so as not to disturb the engineer. To his surprise a tear formed
and rolled down his cheek.