"Do you believe in this god?" he asked Stanton.
"No," came the flat reply. "But if he does exist, I'd like to give him a CTD suppository."
Their exchange of greetings had been brief, and the other three seemed intent on staying at the cave mouth. Eldene crouched alone by the fire, which issued from blocks of some brownish organic matter. It was nevertheless welcome. Slowly the chill began to leave her, and before she knew it she had dozed off then woken again. After a time Lellan entered the cave, crouched beside Eldene, and poked at the embers with a length of flute grass.
"Did he get the ajectant?" the rebel woman asked.
Eldene peered at her. "What's that?"
Lellan looked up. "Did he get a sample of the pills you must take to prevent your scoles from dying?"
Eldene nodded.
Lellan went on, "Then let's hope he gets back in one piece. But then, if anyone could survive a hooder attack it would be him. I haven't yet witnessed anything he can't survive."
"He told me he's part machine and part human."
Lellan grimaced. "Yeah, you could say that, though I'd challenge him to point out which part is human."
"You don't believe him?" Eldene asked.
"It doesn't matter. I'm glad to have him on my side." Lellan stood up and, from amongst the packs, found another rifle like the one she was carrying, and handed it to Eldene. "In there" — Lellan pointed to another of the packs — "you'll find spare oxygen and food, if you need them. I suspect we'll be facing a long night here."
"You suspect wrong," said a voice out of the darkness.
"Fethan!" said Eldene, shooting up.
The old man walked into the middle of the cave followed by the other two. They were called Beckle and Carl — the latter being the one who had run alongside her.
Fethan glanced around. "Very cosy."
"So what happened out there?" Lellan asked.
"Don't think I smelt right, so it stopped chasing me. I tracked it for a while, but it seemed intent on going after a herd of grazers up at the other end of the valley." He shook his head and grinned. "That was some experience. I've always wanted to actually see one of them."
Everyone in the cave stared at him as if he was quite mad.
"You get to my age," he explained, "and you come to relish experiences like that. It's what makes life worth living."
"It's also the kind of thing that can make life shorter," opined Beckle.
Fethan shrugged, then winked at Eldene.
"We all been introduced?" he asked.
"Yeah," said Lellan. "But we can save the getting-to-know-you routine until we've got some decent stone overhead. Let's move out now. I don't fancy hanging around here in case our friend comes back, having worked up an appetite chasing grazers. That is not an experience I'd relish."
Quickly the three began gathering their equipment and hoisting bulky packs onto their backs. After passing his own pack to Eldene, Fethan took up one of the bulky ones as well. Carl, who was now the one without a pack, exchanged his heavy rifle for an even more lethal ugly-looking weapon.
"You still got the ajectant?" Lellan asked when they were nearly ready to go.
Fethan pretended to search his pockets in panic before finding the tube of pills and tossing it to her. She studied them for a moment then carefully buttoned them into her top pocket.
"A more important question to ask is, 'Have the manufactories arrived yet? " he said.
"Not yet," Lellan replied. "But they're on their way — along with some arms, more ballots, and a U-space transmitter."
"A lot," said Fethan, puzzled.
"There, old man: you don't know everything. We've got a ship coming in soon, with enough maybe for us to tilt the balance down here."
"How the hell will you get something that big past the arrays?" Fethan asked.
Lellan turned to Eldene and grinned at her. "Wouldn't he like to know?"
Eldene smiled back uncertainly — she just did not know her own position here. These people behaved as if she was one of them, yet they discussed things that were beyond her. She realized she had a great deal to learn.
They all headed to the cave mouth, Lellan and her two comrades moving some sort of apparently opaque visors across their eyes. Fethan took the lead out into the night, followed by Lellan and Beckle. Before waving her ahead, Carl passed Eldene a pair of glasses of a similar material to the visor he himself wore. She at least understood enough to know that these must provide night vision, but she let out a sound of startlement when she discovered just how effectively — it was as if day had descended instantly. Carl moved in behind her, his head moving from side to side with almost robotic vigilance — his heavy gun hanging from a strap over his shoulder.
It gave her a weird sense of dislocation, this sudden daylight, and walking out into it while realizing that if she raised these glasses she wore it would be night again was weirder still. Trudging along with her new companions, Eldene wondered just how much her life was about to change. She felt trepidation at this, but also a growing excitement at the feeling that she might be taking part in major events. With a sense of irony she realized that just about anything might appear 'major' to someone who had spent a dull five seasons managing squerm ponds. However, a grinding weariness — with which she was all too familiar — soon extinguished excitement. One of the few benefits of her previous employment had been that you got to go to bed at night.
As the trek went on and on, Eldene found herself slipping into a state of fugue. Even seeing three grazers — of the type she had seen earlier — close by on a slope, worming their snouts between the rocks, did not arouse in her any curiosity this time, and later, when something flew overhead making a strange whickering, she didn't even look up at it.
"Watch your footing," warned Carl from behind her, and she gazed down at her boots as if they were somehow disconnected from her. Nevertheless, the boots trudged on, without any intercession from her brain.
How long this continued she had no idea, until Beckle glanced back towards her, his visor raised, and informed her, "Calypse is up."
Eldene removed her night glasses and blinked in the twilight of early morning. Placing the glasses in her pocket, she felt herself coming out of her stupor, as if they had disconnected her from reality. The gas giant had breached the horizon and, in this stage of the cycle, the sun would not be far behind it.
"Not much further," said Carl in a more affable tone, slapping her on the shoulder as he moved past her.
"Well, that'll be one to tell the kiddies," said Beckle.
From all of them there now seemed a relaxing of tension. When Fethan slipped back to walk at her side, Eldene asked him, "The hooder?"
"From what I gather they only hunt in the full dark. Best stay alert, though — they might be wrong about that," Fethan replied. "Be a bit of a bastard to get hit when we're this close."