“Essentially same course,” Qin said. “Looks like it’s navigating around a little island just off the coast. Want to see?”
“Sure,” Aether said, and Qin M’d her a map of their position.
“I put a blue dot at the center of Threck City.”
They’d apparently traveled several kilometers west—farther and farther from the others—surely out of comms range by now. There was probably a way to improve surface comms, maybe use the supply pod network somehow. Qin or Zisa could possibly figure it out, given the opportunity, but when would that kind of time and focus present itself? After their current communication needs concluded, no doubt.
Aether noted EV4’s beacon on Qin’s map, but there was no indicator for Zisa and Pablo’s pod. “Where’s EV2?”
“Just outside the upper right corner. Not too far from Tom and Angela. The map is active. You can pull back and see them.”
Aether zoomed out one level and EV2 appeared. “And the rally point?”
“Southeast. Actually not too far from EV4… let me see… about two-K?”
Aether slid the map over to see the blinking orange dot. An abrupt pain stabbed sideways through her guts and an audible wince escaped.
Qin touched her arm. “You okay?”
“Reinitation pain. I think I need another bar. When was your last?”
“Yeah, I’ll eat. The idea is sickening, what with all this.” He flailed a hand around him as the pod once again lurched softly forward. “But it’s definitely been a while. Well before reentry.” They both tore into their calorie bar wrappers. “What happens when we run out? As in, we can’t eat their crops or meat or anything, right?”
Aether’s first bite slid abrasively down her throat. She envisioned a pile of gravel poured into an empty sack. “Not exactly. The arsenic and chlorine levels are high in pretty much every living thing here, but there are exceptions and there’s a plan.”
“Pablo and Angela.”
“Yes.”
“They just need time to make us some new meds. In the meantime, it won’t kill us to consume meat or most of their fruit crops. The effects would be longer term.”
“Yeah, I think I remember that report. Rashes, lesions, diabetes, cancer. At least the water’s safe.” He shook his SSK’s included filter-top bottle. “I just don’t get it. Everyone read the reports, so how could she think this was a good idea?”
Qin had spent a fair amount of time in orbit crabbing on Ish. He’d seen her hands on the supply pod’s controls in the seconds leading up to impact. Supposedly, her face displayed no alarm whatsoever, even once the pod reached final approach at double speed. Ish may have been responsible, but Qin’s harping was less than helpful.
Aether’s gaze remained on her food. “We can’t say as fact that it was intentional.”
“Oh, I can! Happy to! It was intentional. Crazy bitch. Sure, right, the walls are closing in on you, you’ve got to escape, games aren’t enough anymore! Well, it’s not an escape if everything down here kills you.” His tone stung.
Aether scowled. “That’s enough.”
Qin looked at her, confused. He didn’t get it.
If Ish was the cause, didn’t that mean Aether was equally responsible? And blame aside, she loved Ish like a daughter. She loved each of them, faults and all. Ish, Zisa, Angela, Pablo, Tom, Qin… John…
Minnie.
Aether had been selected for her maternal nature. Father figures hadn’t been in short supply (not exclusively due to the inherent abundance of male egos in the program), but every mission required a mom. The role carried as much priority as any scientific discipline and, like every other station position, mandated a back-up. In the case of the Epsilon C mission, Zisa had been designated maternal secondary. As laughable as this notion was to the rest of the crew now, Aether knew that Zisa certainly had the emotional depth, if not maturity.
Ironically, if asked one week ago who she thought would best serve as mission mom in her stead, Aether would have said Ish. This only highlighted how out of touch she’d been with her troubled Hynka lead. Months ago, during a regular private session, Aether had brought up Ish’s lack of recreational gaming (a strictly quota’d activity for all crew members), and Ish responded calmly, and even with good humor.
“I’ve developed my own game in the Epsy surface sim. It serves all of the same spatial relief requirements, and…” Ish smiled and tilted her head in that girlish manner that widened her eyes and instantly wiped 20 years from her face. “… it was the cleverest way I could find to overlap work and downtime.”
Aether had melted and let it go, hugging Ish tight and kissing her forehead. “I love you, beti.”
Ish patted Aether’s back. “You too.” She’d always been a little timid about physical affection, but especially so after Aether left John for Minnie.
Aether had well understood the awkwardness and scaled back accordingly. It’d take time for everyone to adjust. People would have their thoughts. Mom leaving Dad was one thing, but Mom leaving Dad for the hot young neighbor girl? It was why Aether held off disclosing for so long. Looking back, perhaps it was the reason she missed Ish’s warning signs—months spent preoccupied with her own situation and how best to handle the crew. Taking her guilt a painful step further, what if Aether’s relationship decision alone had set Ish on her fateful course?
Qin’s voice broke into Aether’s head. “We’re surfacing… approaching shore.”
Indeed, a second later, the EV popped atop the ocean surface and rode a series of large swells. Gone was the smooth motion of the deep, replaced now by momentary peaks and sudden drops. Aether and Qin watched below as the sea people disconnected the EV from their towing animal. A moment later, three of them could be seen swimming toward the beach, dragging the slack vines behind them.
“They’re about to go taut,” Qin said.
“I see.”
“You think they’re going to be able to pull us up onto the shore?”
Aether looked up toward the island and spotted a new horde of Threck-like people, all converging and walking toward the bobbing EV. “They won’t be alone in that effort.”
“Whoa, yes, I see! And we’re about to hit the waves.”
The EV lurched and thrashed for several minutes as the people on shore dragged the pod, little by little, through a series of cresting and crashing waves. Finally, the EV touched land and the people swarmed, pushing it up the sloped sand as one of them—Aether guessed Skinny—directed them. Aether and Qin remained strapped tight to their seats, waiting out the slow, careful rolling and spinning. And then everything stopped just a few degrees from proper orientation.
The slightly-angled hatch clacked and squeaked.
“Visors?” Qin whispered.
“I say closed.” They both reached up and secured their visors. Aether activated audio. “Hear me?”
“Yes.”
Beeping and a final tell-tale click, and the hatch popped open once more. As it slid up and away, one of the sea people ducked under and entered. Outside, curious eyes competed for a view into the EV.
Aether reactivated Livetrans. Though her audio feed contained only a garbled mess of murmurs and shouts, she had her Livetrans fixed on the one in front of her.
“Welcome to… Aether and Qin. It is safe to depart white egg. Here is for food, for learning, for resist Threck. Skinny will teach Orange People of Threck and… . Come. Come out. Can Orange People walk?” On the right side of Aether’s fone, the two unknown words floated in a pink box, awaiting cataloguing or deletion: Eekareth, which context implied was the name of this place, and Seekapock, evidently something they were to learn about along with their unrequested Threck lesson.