6. Karnac
6
KARNAC
L ooking down at the beautiful sleeping human nestled against me, I sighed. Molly was all I’d dreamed of and more, things that I’d never have thought to want. But my conscience niggled. She’d worked so hard to maintain distance, and then I’d wrecked that for her. Above, the metal framework of the antenna tower shifted in the wind.
I knew my capabilities. I could have landed safely away from her. Without making a conscious choice, I’d landed next to Molly. Frightened her into falling, giving me the chance to catch her. Everything after that wasn’t hard to predict. Neither one of us could resist the other, not in close quarters like that.
“She is my khara,” I said, speaking to the uncaring sky. “We would be here eventually.”
A few flakes of snow drifted down. The clouds held no other answers for me.
I should talk to her about this, I thought, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to work out what she wanted on my own. But she looked too peaceful to disturb, and I wanted to savor this moment.
Fate had other plans for the two of us. Glitch fizzed into existence beside us, opening his mouth and beeping. I didn’t know much about Earth animals, but it didn’t sound right for an organic being.
On my chest, Molly squirmed and muttered something, waving vaguely in Glitch’s direction. The hologram took no notice. I considered trying to mute the thing, but it was too late. Wrapping my coat around herself and sitting up, Molly looked flustered, embarrassed and entirely sated. Pride brought a smile to my face, happy to have pleased my khara so.
Molly shook her head, swallowing and blushing. “Who is it, Glitch?”
An image appeared above the hologram, and both Molly and I groaned. It was Allison, presumably looking for an update. Molly made a quick check of her messages and swore.
“Why didn’t you tell me that there were messages, Glitch? God, she’ll be raging, thinking I’ve ignored her.”
Glitch somehow looked both contrite and smug, meowing and looking at me. I nodded my thanks to the little creature, wondering just how smart he was. Ignoring his mistress’s calls so we had our time together didn’t sound like behavior that the programmers would encourage.
Grabbing Molly’s jacket, I passed it to her — as fetching as she looked with my coat wrapped around her, I doubted she’d want Allison to see her like that. Her face bright red, she traded the coat for the jacket, pulled her pants on, pulled fingers through her hair to tidy it. She took a deep breath and turned to face the hologram from an angle where I wouldn’t be visible.
“Okay, Glitch, put me through.”
It’s odd to look at a hologram from behind. With no effort made to fill in the back of her head, it was like looking at a mask of Allison’s face from the inside. Fascinated, I watched as she spoke.
“What in god’s name have you been up to, Molly? You went out hours ago and haven’t answered a single call since then. I worried about you, and I don’t like that.”
“We’re perfectly safe, we’ve just been busy looking for whatever chewed through the cables. It looks like we won’t be able to fix the damage, though.”
“Motherf— I mean, that’s bad news. I suppose we’ll have to wait for the supply run to request the cable.”
Molly tipped her head to one side, her face a delightful picture of concentration. “They might send someone up sooner, once they realize we’ve lost contact?”
“Or they might not,” Allison said. “I can’t afford to plan on that. In the meantime, we don’t have communication, which is not good, but it’s not a disaster either. We can still send out the programming we’ve got or what we record ourselves. If it comes to the worst, we can put out a call for help over the general broadcast.”
She talked to herself as much as Molly, I thought. Trying to convince herself it was nothing to worry about. Which was probably true; whatever threat had chewed through that cable hadn’t attacked people yet.
“Right,” Molly agreed. “I’ll keep a close eye on the other cables out here, in case there’s more trouble, but there’s not much we can do with the problem here. Fortunately, our ‘cable rat’ doesn’t seem to like what it ate — it chewed through in one place and then left it alone. No sign of a charred corpse, though, so it might be back.”
“Or it might have friends,” Allison said, then shook her head. “No point borrowing trouble. Unless you or Karnac can find a trail to follow and hunt that thing down, we’ll just have to keep an eye out for trouble.”
The image vanished without ceremony and Molly sat back down, hard. Glitch moved in two directions at once and vanished as I rushed to her side.
“My feet are freezing,” she complained, grabbing for her boots. I helped her put them on, regretting that I hadn’t thought of that before. Humans — a strange combination of tough and fragile. More than anything else, I wanted to protect this one from any harm. She could take care of herself, yes, but she shouldn’t have to.
“Let me get you inside,” I said, lifting her in my arms and kissing her on the cheek. Lip-to-lip contact would be a bad idea if we wanted to get inside. Molly clung to me, letting out a little shriek as I jumped down from the roof. Enjoying the way she held me tight, I wondered how else I’d get that reaction.
Molly glowered at me and pinched my ear. “OW. What was that for?”
“You were thinking of more ways to scare me,” she said. “I won’t have it. Not unless we’re watching horror vids.”
“I was doing no such thing,” I started, only to feel Molly’s fingers tighten on my ear again. “Okay, fine, I promise. Now I will have to seek out these ‘horror vids’ of yours.”
At that we reached the maintenance bay entrance, which slid open to reveal Glitch waiting smugly on the far side. I put Molly down as soon as we were in the heated room, Glitch shutting the door behind us.
“There. Now we’re safely in the warm we can—” I cut off mid-sentence, watching Molly back away, chewing on her lower lip. What had looked delightful before now looked ominous, like an omen of bad things to come.
“Karnac,” she started, then fell silent again. I took a step back, giving her time to consider. It wasn’t easy but crowding her would only make things harder for us both.
“Karnac, I don’t know how to describe what you do to me,” she said, carefully looking at a point above my right shoulder. No danger of accidental eye contact to distract us. “You take away my good judgement, you make me want to like you, but you’re still a pirate. Still one of the killers who stranded us here, who kept me from my new home.”
I grimaced, feeling as though a hook had lodged in my heart. A misstep now could tear it in two. “I cannot lie to you, Molly. You are right, I did those things. Misled by evil leaders, but I do not hide behind that excuse. I allowed them to mislead me where others did not. I fought for an honorable goal, but Zaren took the Silver Band on a dishonorable route to reach it. He is dead now, and good riddance. If the Silver Band ever reaches space again, we’ll not repeat our error. Anyone who tries will face me first.”
I risked a step toward her, and Molly flinched but did not withdraw. I took that as a good sign but did not push my luck by advancing further. My khara would come to me if I did things right, and I would not risk doing things wrong.
“Your hesitation is natural,” I told her. “I and my kind caused you and yours grave harm. Allow me to make it up to you as best I can, and I swear to you on the planet-grave of my people I will not attack any target you disapprove of.”
Molly snorted a laugh, taken by surprise. “You won’t promise not to be a pirate, but you’ll let me be your conscience?”
“If I need one, perhaps. Or perhaps not, and you’ll never object to a target I set again. But you will always have the option.”
Molly risked looking at me, smiling, and that was almost enough to make me pounce. Will alone is all I had to hold myself still and motionless, not wanting to seem threatening.
Her pale cheeks heated red, and she looked away. Silence filled the room until Glitch meowed at the two of us.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said severely. “Is this spoiling your fun?”
Unrepentant, Glitch nodded and meowed again. I couldn’t help smiling.
“You see, Molly? Glitch knows I’d be good for you.”
She put her hands on her hips and glared. “Don’t you bring him into this, pirate. He doesn’t get a say in this decision, and neither do you.”
I nodded, melting her stern expression slightly, and sighed. “If you are like me, you cannot think while we’re together. Or rather, you can think of only one thing.”
Her delightful blush deepened, and she nodded quickly, as though trying to get the admission out and in the past as swiftly as possible. I didn’t dwell on it, as much as I’d have liked to find out just how red I could get her face. That would be a project for later when we had our leisure to explore such things.
“Then here is what we will do,” I said. “You have work to do and need time to think. I will leave you in peace to consider what you want to do. And yes, when I return, I will try to convince you we belong together, that you are my khara. You have the final say, though. Infuriating, but here we are.”
Molly managed another small laugh at that. “Oh, is that what you’ve decided we’ll do? Do I get a say in that plan?”
“No,” I told her, smiling. Watching for the little gulp of need I expected to see. “No, this is the plan and we are doing it.”
“You think I’m infuriating, and then you try to boss me around like that?”
“No.” She blinked at my flat refusal, and I continued before she could object. “No, Molly, I don’t try to boss you around.”
The glare she shot me wasn’t real, her eyes and her scent gave away how much she enjoyed it. Counting that as a victory, I stalked from the room.
Away from Molly, my thoughts cleared, and I cursed myself for taking things so far. What if she said no? Yes, she was my khara, the soul that completed mine. But humans hadn’t grown up knowing what that meant, and I had given her reason to refuse me.
I will not let that happen. I will woo her, win her heart in the old way — by hunting something magnificent and preparing the greatest meal she’s ever tasted.
That would be easier on a planet where I knew more about the wildlife, admittedly, but that would not stop me from doing my best. Full of restless energy and desire, I could not stay around the station. Molly’s presence was a constant call to me, one my willpower had already proved too weak to resist.
I fetched my bow, checked my quiver — twenty arrows, more than enough for a good hunt. Made of monofiber, I didn’t need to worry about them breaking. About to leave, I remembered to check the weather. Most of my hunts had been on planets where we controlled orbit, making it hard to miss storms. Crashland was an exception. We didn’t even have satellites yet.
But every room had a vidbox, and if there was one thing we could rely on, it was that Allison would do her job. Flicking through the channels until I found her, I watched as she narrated the weather around the planet as best she could. Even the map was crude, pieced together from the reports of the scattered human colonists and Prytheen warriors. Most of the planet was blank, and I wondered what it would be like to explore those vast spaces.
I shook off that feeling when Allison turned to the local map around the Joint Colony.
“… continuing signs of a gathering storm to the east, but not to worry, our pressure sensors would spot it coming our way,” she said brightly. “If it turns this way, it’ll probably be a big one, so do make sure you’re prepared and take supplies with you. That won’t happen for at least two, more likely three days, if it happens at all. To repeat, there is no reason to believe it’ll move in our direction.”
She smiled a warm, reassuring grin, and my lip quirked. Perhaps, Allison, it would do you better to practice that smile, that attitude, with your colleagues as well as your audience?
I shook my head. She wouldn’t listen if I tried to tell her, which was a shame.
At least the report was good. I’d only need a few hours to catch something. Pulling my coat around my shoulders, settling the quiver on my back, I made my way through maintenance and set off for the woods.
The almost pristine snow crunched under my booted feet as I made my way down toward the strange, purple trees. That promised to be the best hunting ground — undisturbed by humans or Prytheen, the animals would not know to fear me. The fence posts halfway down the slope stood like silent sentinels, broadcasting an ultrasonic field that kept out all Crashland animals.
I wasn’t the first to come this way, though. The light snowfall we’d recently had covered most of the tracks, but not all. Deep marks, going parallel to the fence before curving up toward the station. I looked back and frowned. Someone’s morning exercise, maybe? Or someone who liked animal spotting from the safe side of the fence?
A tiny mystery, one that would keep.
As I crossed the fence line, I heard the sound myself, like twin daggers plunged through my ears and into my brain. It lasted only a fraction of a second before I was through and clear of the noise. Humans didn’t hear it at all, but some Prytheen did when we were right in the middle of it. I shuddered at the thought of being held in that fence.
On the far side, nothing changed, and everything felt different. The snow still crunched underfoot, the wind still blew, but on this side of the fence, danger lurked. A grin spread across my face as I unslung my bow and advanced, keeping my eyes open for any sign of predator or prey.
I didn’t have to go far before I saw tracks in the snow. Almost covered by fresh snowfall, they would have been easy to miss, and I only spotted them after I’d been walking beside them for a while. Once I saw them, though, I crouched to examine them closer. My heart thumped and an uneasy prickling feeling climbed my spine.
Sure enough, they weren’t animal tracks in the snow. They were boot prints. Prytheen boots, like my own. I looked up, scanned the tree line. No sign of any watchers, though that meant nothing. It wouldn’t take much skill to hide from me in the dark beneath the trees.
Why were you here? Spying on us, or afraid to attract our attention? Not all my comrades accepted Auric’s leadership or the peace with the humans. Many of those who did not turned to raiding and violence, so I had to assume they were a threat.
But I couldn’t discount the possibility that they were lost. The energy field around Crashland drained Prytheen technology of power so quickly that we’d had no way to communicate; if this was the first sign of civilization the Prytheen warrior had found, then a wary approach made sense. He’d only have one chance to get contact right. Coming in too hard or too soft could be disastrous.
“At least he’s turned up while I’m here,” I muttered, straightening and following the tracks down toward the woods. “Doesn’t matter if he’s friend or foe, I’m a better match for a Prytheen than any of the humans are.”
Under the trees, the tracks became easier to follow. Sheltered from the snowfall, the imprints were clearer, and I picked up speed. Crashland was home to many dangerous predators so I had to pay close attention to the shadows under the purple boughs, check behind the larger trunks, watch above for predators ready to drop.
It was a relief when the tracks left the woods again. My prey crossed the covered area and emerged into another snowfield — perhaps he, too, worried about the wildlife? A chill had settled in while I was under the trees, enough to make me shiver as I pressed on. The bright light from Crashland’s harsh sun had been cut off by clouds blowing in fast and hard, and snowflakes drifted down around me.
If I turn back now, these tracks will be gone. I looked up at the clouds, heavy and dark, and wondered just how much to trust Allison’s predictions. Left to myself, I’d say a heavy storm was about to hit — but Allison had more experience than anyone else on the planet, and her predictions had been accurate so far.
“What do I know about weather?” I said to myself as the clouds scudded by. “I grew up in spaceships. Allison trained to do this for a long time; trust the expert.”
Taking those words to heart, I continued on before the snow buried the trail. It fell heavier and heavier around me as I went.