It took longer than she had hoped to get everything ashore, the improvised groundsheets laid down, and the rafts securely held down with piles of stones serving instead of stakes. But Marek and the two staff sergeants kept things moving, and before dark the makeshift camp was complete.
Everyone gathered into one raft-shelter out of the rising wind. Even sitting down, Ky felt that the land was moving like the sea, rising and falling. Underneath, the stones were unyielding lumps instead of smooth, resilient water. And the ration bar, last of the day’s ration, did not satisfy her hunger. She looked around at those who’d been in the other raft, whose stories she didn’t yet know, but she was too tired to ask for them now. And here, on land, they would have more time to get to know one another.
“At least I’m not seasick,” Hazarika said. “And we’re not going to drown.” He patted the floor of the raft.
“Not sure I think freezing or starving is any improvement,” Lanca said. Staff Sergeant Gossin glared at him and he subsided.
“Should be more things to eat in this bay,” Kurin said.
“Did you recognize anything as we came in?” Ky asked.
“A few things, yes, Admiral. Some of the seaweed looks like an edible type, and the shellfish certainly should be.”
“Then you’ll teach the rest of us.” If only they had a small boat, something other than the rafts, so they could use the rafts for shelter and have access to the bay’s water for fishing. It was far too cold to dive into, even if they’d had the right gear for it.
But here, at least, they could have a real latrine, far enough away from the rafts they were to live in. Here, at least, someone flying over might see their bright-colored rafts. If anyone flew over. If the search hadn’t been called off. In any case, everyone was still alive and they were on land, not adrift at sea.
“Bad news.” Grace looked at Helen’s face on the vidscreen, Stella behind her. “The last flight we can make, they found nothing more. No more debris, no more bodies. We’ve notified surface shipping to the north to be on the lookout for anything, but the search has been called off. Given the weather conditions down there, the danger to their own crews, it was the only reasonable decision.”
“You let them?” Helen said, a little breathlessly.
“Yes. Admiral Hicks is convinced they could not have survived this long even if they’d survived the crash. If there is anything found, it will be next spring, when—” She stopped, trying to find a way to edit what she’d been told. “If anything does come up, it might be found when the ice melts.”
“I can’t believe—” Helen’s eyes glistened with fresh tears. Her shoulders shook. Stella put an arm around her.
“I still hope they’re wrong,” Grace said. “I believe Ky is a lot more capable than they think, but it’s true she never had cold survival training or experience.”
The tide turned. The ebb was gentler, the waves lapping more quietly, slowly leaving behind rock pools. Staff Sergeant Gossin assigned work parties: one to forage for food in the rock pools, one to find a location for a latrine, one to locate fuel for a fire and any materials for building a better shelter. Two worked the desalinators, until all the containers they had were full, then joined the food foraging party. Ky moved from one to another; Jen said she would work on cleaning and organizing the shelters.
Despite the biting wind, Ky was glad to be out of the confines of the raft, eager to find better shelter, more food supplies. Inland, at the head of the shingle, a tumble of boulders looked at first like a natural fall of rocks from the cliffs on either side. She clambered up the slope to the first, a head-high block of rough rock, about a meter from the next to the right, and a half meter from the one to the left. Ky glanced down the line of them. Except for being different sizes and shapes, they looked like a row of bollards blocking traffic from a pedestrian-only square, closing off the beach from higher ground. One of them was low enough for her to climb; she was hauling herself up the side when she heard Marek calling her.
Sighing, she let herself down. He was toiling up the slope, brow furrowed. “Admiral, what were you doing? You could fall, break your leg or something.”
“I thought if I could climb it, maybe I could find a way up.”
“Up—where? And why?”
“Not much to live on down here, Master Sergeant. We’ve got a long cold winter ahead of us; we need better shelter, a source of heat, and more food.”
“You won’t find anything up there but rock and ice.” He looked worried. She wondered if he might argue again for continuing north in the rafts, but he didn’t. “Commander Bentik asked me to find you.”
“Of course,” Ky said.
She started back to the camp, but detoured to speak to the latrine detail when they waved her over. Neither the location nor the hole itself was really adequate, but it would do for a short time. When she got to camp, she found that Jen had done another inventory of supplies, a chore that had kept her in one or the other raft all day.
“And I really think, Admiral, that we should both be here, available to each other and anyone else. We could use one raft for a sort of office.”
“I appreciate your work on the inventory,” Ky said, “but I need to check on each working party while they’re at their tasks. It’s good for morale, besides ensuring that the work is going well.”
“As you wish, Admiral,” Jen said. “Though I should think you could leave that to their own NCOs.” Ky reminded herself that Jen had always been staff, never in a command position.
The foraging party brought in some seaweed and shellfish scraped off the rocks at low tide. That night they had the first hot food since the crash, boiled in a pot from the raft over one of the SafStov cans. Everyone had a taste of the shellfish along with a regular ration bar; the seaweed, Ky thought, was a taste she hadn’t acquired yet, but she chewed through a portion to encourage the others. Eventually it was all gone.
Cloud hung over them the next morning, ominous, the color promising more snow. Ky elected not to explore the trail to the top of the plateau, and when the snow began falling, she declared a holiday once morning chores were done. She designated one raft for resting quietly or sleeping and the other for conversation. Some started with a nap, and then came out to chat and eat. Others moved over to sleep after looking over the stores in the conversation raft. Snow fell steadily, covering the stones outside. The canopies began to sag; Ky told the staff sergeants to make sure they didn’t sag too far. She took this opportunity to chat with those she hadn’t met yet, starting with Staff Sergeant Gossin.
“My family’s military back as far as the civil war, at least,” Gossin said. “My second cousin was stationed at headquarters when you were in the Academy—” She gave Ky a wary look then went on. “But I don’t tell people what he said about that situation you had.” An invitation, or a test.
“I was a young idiot,” Ky said. She had expected someone to bring up her expulsion from the Academy. Only one way to handle it, frankly and without excuses. “I didn’t think it through.”
Gossin didn’t smile, but Ky saw a slight relaxation in her face. Something had worried her, and now didn’t. “He said right away it was a setup and they’d be sorry to lose you.”
“I created a mess,” Ky said. “They had no choice.”
Gossin nodded, meeting Ky’s gaze. “Well—I told my cousin I might get to meet you, and he asked me to give you his regards. Staff Sergeant Antak Birgirs, Joint Services Command at Ordnay.”