Stray (33 page)

Today's Assignment

The gate was dull.  You can't properly see it from real-space, and once you're in deep-space there's just whiteness.

It took maybe twenty-five minutes to reach the exit to Muina, and once we were through Grif – Grif Regan, the Second Squad captain – briefed us for the first part of the mission.  Unsurprisingly this involves going back to my town, and the Setari taking me down to visit the communication platform.  They're going to see whether anyone but me can give people security clearance (I am hoping so hard) and then, whatever the case, they're going to clear everyone on board, offload a heap of equipment and set up a camp just outside town, keeping anything explodable separate.  Then the
Litara
is going to leave us here.  After that the Setari are going to explore more, including in the near-space, while the greensuits guard the greysuits as they analyse everything they can get their hands on.  There's also a few non-KOTIS scientists of an archaeological extraction, brought in to begin the enormous task of recovering Muina's history.

Of first importance is the Ddura, of course, and whether it can be made to not blow up equipment, or if equipment can be given security clearance.

I think I'll need earplugs for the inside of my brain.

Saturday, March 22

Reprieve

The Ena manipulation talents can give people security clearance!  I'm so happy.  I didn't even hide my relief when we were on mission, and Taarel gave me the same sort of smile she gives Eeli, which was both nice and a little annoying, since she treats Eeli like an over-eager kid.

The Ddura didn't show up immediately, and we had finished clearing the ship's crew and were working on all the people who were going to be left here for the mission, before my ear-drums were blasted.  It was all hhhaaa and hhhhiiiii at the same time, because there were lots of people it recognised as Muinans and lots that it thought were Ionoth, and it came charging up in this huge hurry to kill all the evil non-Muinans threatening its precious people.

The Ddura is really kind of stupid.

I had to keep telling it to stop ('sit!') over and over until everyone was given clearance.  Then I had another shot at telling it not to make the things belonging to the Muinans explode, since all the drones from the last expedition had been exploded.  Just picturing the drones and the ship didn't seem to mean anything to it, even when I could get it to pay any attention to me, so we tried putting a new drone right on the platform and tried giving it 'security clearance' and that may perhaps have worked, they're not really sure.  The Ddura stopped treating it as a threat, anyway, so we did that for all the drones and any other largish bits of equipment we could get into the room.  Then it was time for me to go visit medical on the ship just before it left, since the best equipment was there, and then back to shore, all drugged up to rest on a cot in the temporary medical tent while they started the business of setting up camp.  I waited to watch the ship leave before lying down.

And now it's the middle of the night.  Fortunately Grif had sent me a summary of the camp arrangements, or I would have had to go stumbling about looking for the portaloo tents.  One of the greensuits on guard took pity on me and showed me how to get to the food which had been stored.

I'm going to try and go back to sleep now that I've written this.  At least the Ddura shut up eventually.  I don't much like spending all my time in uniform, either. 

Dawn

When I gave up on sleep this morning there was a mist rising off the lake in the pre-dawn dark.  The camp has been set up south of town and it's really impressive how much they've established in such a short time: mess hall, infirmary, sleeping tents, a central command, research and working areas.  Lots of canvas, but they'd brought a vat of their nanite building materials along and some 'real' buildings were starting to take shape.  When the Tarens make camp, they don't do things by halves.

There were lights on in the command tent.  The person in charge of the expedition is someone called Tsaile Staben, who I may or may not have been introduced to during the extreme-headache phase of yesterday, and one of the research tents was bustling with people who were obviously used to a different shift.

There's nearly a hundred people here.  I had no idea the mission was that large.  Now that everyone has been cleared by the platform, the Setari are support on this mission, not the main focus.  The greensuits are taking care of camp security, with the Setari acting as a kind of advanced warning system thanks to Combat Sight.  My role's been reduced to trying to communicate with the Ddura, which is no problem right now since it seems that the Ddura has recovered from its excitement and gone away.  Now that everyone has the same reaction to aether, I don't even have to worry about tomorrow's moonfall.

I was feeling oppressed and restless – I'd had way too much sleep – and decided to go down to the lake.  There was a greensuit posted on the lakeside edge of the camp, but I got past her just by nodding as I walked by, like no-one would think of objecting to me going anywhere by myself.  It's not as if the lake was very far away: the guard would have been within sight.  It was incredibly quiet, just a few birds starting to think about it maybe being dawn, and so long as I kept facing the lake it felt like I was alone.

Before too long a tiny clatter of rock warned me that wasn't true and I turned my head to see the leg of a person standing on the rock behind me, and a hand in fingerless Setari gloves.  And that was enough to know it was Ruuel.  It amazes me that I can recognise him from his hands.  Since Ruuel moves like a cat, I guess he must have made the noise deliberately, to prevent me from shrieking and leaping in the lake out of shock.  Heh – I can't help thinking what an epic fuss that would have made in the camp, though.

"Is there something further along the lake?" Ruuel asked, which was less of a lecture than I'd expected, but also warning that I'd been looking south a bit too speculatively.  But then, who am I to overlook an opportunity when it walks up and presents itself to me?

"Show you if want," I said, looking up at him.  "One of things I miss about here."

His eyes went that abstract way people get talking over the interface, and then he nodded.  I was pretty surprised, and then doubtful since it didn't seem likely I was going to be able to walk along the lake with Ruuel without obsessing over the fact that I was walking along the lake with Ruuel.  But it didn't really work out that way.  I was super aware of him, of course, but it was a beautiful morning, cold and crisp, and barely light enough to see, so I had to concentrate on not breaking my ankle.

It was a twenty minute walk, and was just getting on for proper dawn by the time we arrived at a small, deep stream draining into the lake, about a third of the way to the river that I'd walked along originally.  When we were in sight of it I murmured: "Have to be more quiet now," which was a fairly redundant thing to say to Ruuel.

I stopped at the cluster of rocks I'd used last time I was there, notable for the cairn of rocks I'd constructed on the tallest one, and made a sit down gesture at Ruuel.  My goal was there, fortunately: I spotted them straight away and pointed and then just watched.

That's going to be a memory I'll keep forever, even without my log.  Dawn, the water glinting ever brighter, the sky mixing pastels.  Birds starting to call and sing as the mist dissipated.  And the otters which live in that stream dancing in the water as they dug little crayfish out of the rocky bed.  I only snuck a single look at Ruuel, and while I have no idea if he enjoyed any of that outing, he at least was watching the otters attentively.  Maybe he was thinking of the best and most efficient ways to kill them.

And then the
Litara
showed up, which most effectively destroyed the mood.  As spaceships go, I expect it's relatively quiet, but it sure can freak out the wildlife.

"Are called otters, on Earth," I said, standing up.  "What is range interface transmission, when not on Tare?"

"About five times further than this, when there's a relay."  He was watching the
Litara
rotating for a landing position out above the lake.  "Without a relay, not quite this far."

We started walking back, not hurriedly, though the
Litara
was well ahead of what I'd thought was its scheduled return.  I thought of quite a few things I felt like saying, but kept them to myself, and Ruuel disappeared with a nod when we got back to camp.

Spaceships are an even better wake-up call than shrieking Earthlings, so there were a ton of people up and about.  I'm sitting in the mess hall writing this and eating an extended breakfast while I wait to find out what's going on. 

Construction Project

The
Litara
had returned early because the research techs wanted to try out a simulated security pass.  So back to the platform.  The Ddura turns up reliably once someone starts fooling with the platform, but must have been at a fair distance this time because it took a while.  The techs got impatient with me for that, like I have any control over what the thing does.

What does the Ddura think I am?  I can hear it and I guess it can 'hear' me when I'm touching the platform, but it knows I'm not Muinan and when the Taren Muinans are around it's just not that interested in what I'm 'saying'.  When it finally showed up this time, it reacted to the drone with the simulated security pass in a confused sort of way – anxious and uncertain but not hostile.  It can tell there's something not right about it, but the fake pass makes it familiar enough that it doesn't at
tack.  That made everyone happy, including me in a "I'd smile if my head stopped hurting" way.  They're still cautious, but they think this means that the Ddura probably won't go exploding all the equipment, and they'll be able to get new visitors to the platform without having to worry about the Ddura killing them on the way.  They brought with them two small 'shuttle' type aircraft and they've staked them out as bait.  One has the fake pass and one doesn't.  They're on the east side of town on the crests of two different hills, so everyone can enjoy the show if they explode.

I wish it meant I could go back to Tare (I nearly wrote 'home', and felt awful), but I'm stuck here at least until the end of the original mission, even though they're probably not going to involve me in the moonfall.  I wouldn't mind so much, except they swapped out Second Squad for Fifth Squad.

I guess Kajal must be stable and not completely stupid if they made him a squad captain.  Just because he's a prick and treats Zan and me as if we shouldn't exist doesn't mean he's not good at his job.  He's still doing the completely not acknowledging my presence thing, which suits me well enough, and it's not really obvious since there's so many people here.

Third and Fourth have been off most of the day exploring the near-space and surrounding spaces; a task made easy by the Ddura's hunting.  Fifth and Eighth are assigned to guard duty, split up in pairs around the entire camp, in case something shows up to attack.  Fifth is on now and Eighth has night duty.  Having Setari squads guarding in shifts seems a real waste of their abilities.  You can sure as hell tell that's what Kajal thinks, anyway.

Tomorrow night is moonfall, and they're in a huge rush to set up before then.  There's nowhere good to hide away from all the activity.  Before Third headed out Taarel mentioned that I shouldn't leave the area of camp, so it doesn't look like I'll get away with another excursion.  I spent the bulk of the day in the infirmary recovering from my Ddura headache and the afternoon sitting on a rock down at the shore wishing that if I'm not allowed to leave, everyone would be quieter.  I'm not even allowed into the 'old town'.

Cloudy today, but then windy.  It'll probably be clear for the moonfall tomorrow. 

Sunday, March 23

Boom

One of the shuttles exploded last night.

The right one, fortunately, and I could hear the Ddura being all happy about it afterwards.  Funny that people could be pleased that a perfectly good piece of equipment was destroyed.  I was in the infirmary, having carefully hung around the medic's tent in the evening looking tired and headachy until Ista Leema, the settlement's main medical person, started running tests on me and kept me in for observation.  I have an assigned 'bunk' in with the Setari, which I didn't mind when my neighbours were Second and Third Squad, but found less amusing when it involved Fifth Squad one row over.  Even the prospect of perhaps seeing Ruuel asleep wasn't enough to outweigh my dislike of Kajal.

I was reading when the shuttle went boom, and in a bit of a mood, so pretended to be asleep when I heard the noise in case they wanted me to go talk to the Ddura.  Headaches are making me less than cooperative.  I was thinking that it was useful to be able to read books with my eyes closed when I remembered that the interface would also show them I was awake, if they looked.

Oh well.  Now that they've confirmed that the fake security clearance will work for their machines, I'm pretty sure that I'll be sent back to Tare tomorrow.  Less important again, thank everything.  I can start thinking about cautious 'going home' experiments without feeling guilty.

Male Posturing

Late afternoon, and everyone's keyed up about the moonfall.  It's been a good day for me, since it didn't involve a headache, just a couple of private attempts to see if I have a path-finding ability by trying to locate Ista Leema.  Otherwise, I found a great spot where I could sit on the lakeshore and read: snugged down between two rocks, out of the wind and almost out of sight.