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 attack. 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.
Eighth Squad, who had been asleep all morning, came down to the water’s edge with Fourth Squad and practiced the martial art which is the basis of their close-combat. That was a lot of eye-candy for me, heh. In terms of fire power, Ruuel’s one of the weakest of the Setari, but knowing his talent set I wasn’t the least surprised that he seemed able to avoid the blows of anyone matching with him. Eighth’s captain, Kanato, had him breathing hard though, which I greatly appreciated.