Chapter 2
Chapter Two
The close, familiar confines of Silver Team’s box-like airsled gave Rylando the illusion of a cozy nest, if he discounted the smell of raw fuel and being surrounded by erratically blinking controls.
The wide, wraparound windows of the control cab showed nothing but the shadowed and scarred shuttle wall.
At least the fold-down jumpseat he’d strapped himself into gave his stiffening thighs and back a rest. He should have asked Taz to help get the animal crates into the airsled instead of doing it all himself.
He closed his eyes and took several deep, measured breaths and imagined he was breathing in the scents of summer on the dock in his favorite countryside lake.
Those memories reminded him why he put up with crappy GSAR equipment and an even crappier GSAR boss.
Three more standard years and he’d be free to settle there permanently instead of mostly seeing it on holos.
Like most rescuers, he had a hefty amount of paid leave stacked up, but rarely got approval to use it.
He’d had enough of constricting space stations and urban disaster zones to last a lifetime.
The airsled’s insulation blocked the sounds but not the vibrations of atmosphere entry. Hatya’s skill made the entry smoother than GSAR’s regular pilots would have, but the oft-rebuilt, much-customized shuttle shook like a hellhound after a swim.
He raised his talent to connect with his animal team.
Fortunately, they’d been through similar rides many times and considered them just part of their job.
They’d been shaped by experience and his mental influence, but they were all unabashedly emotional creatures who operated on instinct.
Part of his job was to manage his adrenaline and lead with calm.
Ordinarily, he wouldn’t have brought the whole team without knowing more about the ground conditions.
But he refused to leave his animals with clueless space station military staffers who couldn’t tell a weasel from a wyvern.
And the thought of Bhayrip finding them unguarded froze the air in his chest.
Hauling all the crates into the back made the airsled look like an overstuffed supply closet.
However, it left more room in the shuttle’s hold for Taz’s GSAR mech suit and everything else of Silver Team’s they’d crammed in.
With only two human rescuers, they’d need all the extra tech they could carry to make up for their lack of staff.
Too bad they’d been no room for their skimmer.
Now that it was finally running right, thanks to hours of work by Taz and Hatya, Bhayrip would probably “borrow” it and Silver Team would never see it again.
“Ready for a sitrep, sir?” He didn’t need the preceding identifying tone to recognize Taz’s distinctive voice through the earwire. Even when she subvocalized, the low-register, sultry quality came through.
Though he and Taz held the same rank, he had seniority, making him Silver Team’s nominal field commander.
All that meant was his name went on reports.
Taz didn’t need orders from him to do her job.
And not even Bhayrip was boneheaded enough to bark out orders to an active, cybernetic-enhanced Jumper who could throw him out the nearest airlock without bothering to open it.
He touched his earwire. “Green go.”
“Salamaray—accent on the ‘mar’ part, by the way—is at the edge of a big mountain range. Southern hemisphere, early hot season. The town has maybe twenty-five thousand residents, tops, but it’s the hub for the whole region of micro industries and original family compounds.
The earthquake was a Geo-K 19. A strike-slip fault ripped the town in half around dawn, local time. ”
Hatya chimed in. “Wait till you see the nav-sat images. The fault line tracks across twelve-hundred kilometers.” Geology was one of her hobbies.
“We’ll be the first outsiders on scene,” continued Taz. “The planetary government’s only emergency-response office is twenty thousand kilometers away, and they already used up their annual budget.”
“Funny, that,” Hatya replied acerbically. “Governments never want to spend funds on disaster prep. Then it costs ’em ten times as much when disasters actually happen.”
“All too true,” said Taz. “But to be fair, Perlarossa was settled and scammed by those RSI assholes. The High Court judgment canceled the debt, so now the planetary government has to reconstruct all the records just to know what they have. RSI sure as hell won’t tell them.”
Hatya growled. “All settlement companies are lying, cheating manogi leaga. RSI was just greedy enough to get caught.” Her tone made it clear that whatever she’d called them in her native language wasn’t flattering.
“Back to Salamaray,” said Taz quickly, probably to avoid Hatya’s favorite rabbit hole. “Near as I can tell, we’re being deployed because it’s the hometown of High Council Leader Tsoh Yazhi Shua.”
“Betcha it’s a twist,” Hatya muttered darkly.
Realization dawned on Rylando. “Hatya is right. It’s a twist. Bhayrip’s been lying to GSAR about the unit’s staffing so they don’t cut his budget allocation.
GSAR thinks Silver Team has a full staff of nine because he counts my animals.
High Command probably ordered the deployment to impress Leader Tsoh.
Bhayrip had to comply or he’d get caught. ”
“So that’s why his orders kept harping on our advisory mission.” Taz’s disgust was plain in her tone. He could imagine the look on her expressive face.
“Yep,” he replied. “And why he avoided giving us details about the rescue part.” He snorted. “Couldn’t very well officially tell us to just pretend like we’re helping.”
Taz made a rude wet noise.
“You two can’t say it, but I can,” said Hatya. “My rock collection is smarter than your captain.”
Rylando laughed. “Thank you.”
A minute later, Hatya’s tone sounded. “Sitrep update. Yanoshi, the ERC, gave us coordinates. You pet your sweet doggos while we ask the ERC where they want us to deploy. We’re fifteen minutes from the landing zone.”
Hatya’s bluff good humor always made him smile. “Acknowledged and confirmed.”
With luck, the Emergency Response Commander had some background in actual emergencies. Not all did, especially in small towns.
Fortunately for Silver Team, Taz had a way with words that deflected grandstanding politicians and guided flailing leaders who were in over their heads. Diplomacy wasn’t his ace.
The more he got to know Taz, the more he wondered whose tender tail she’d stepped on to land in their sorry unit.
Silver Team’s previous rescuers had been no loss when they’d moved on.
Especially the violent asshole who’d hurt Moyo.
Rylando had been doubly careful when Taz first arrived, afraid she’d be even worse.
Instead, she was everything he could hope for in a teammate. She did little things for him and the animals all the time without needing to be asked or expecting praise for it. Hatya liked her. Most importantly, his team liked her.
He used to think animals were all he’d ever need.
He wasn’t a top-level talent, but he could connect with just about any land animal in existence, though he preferred mammals and birds.
In the last few years, however, he’d found himself longing for human companionship, too.
Not just joyhouse visits for physical relief, but people he could talk to and laugh with.
People he trusted to have his back. People he cared about and who cared about him.
Hatya’s ready friendship had already broadened his horizons. Taz’s engaging personality and easy acceptance of his animals—not to mention her sexy everything—had him dreaming of more.
But even if he miraculously dreamed up the right words to tell her, he would never speak them.
A relationship would ruin both their careers.
Taz took her military oath more seriously than he ever had.
Besides, he had no idea if she returned his interest. Probably not, since she was a professional, unlike the rest of Unit 1051.
He selfishly wanted her to stay, but her minder talent and skills were too valuable.
Whatever her previous sins, GSAR would soon forgive her.
Which was why he hadn’t told her that Shen had an implanted controller that—if he reactivated it—Taz could connect to using her own.
He’d disabled Shen’s to save her from being ordered around by the other team members, who too often treat their dogs like fur-covered animated toys.
He’d guiltily come to realize Taz wouldn’t do that, but told himself it was better that way.
Shen would be devastated when Taz left her behind for a better post.
“Hang on,” said Hatya. “Landing zone looks like a stacker fell off the building and dumped flitters everywhere. We’ll have to improvise.”
The slim white woman in a dusty russet tunic and shiny gold boots finished entering data on her tablet.
“Eli! GSAR 1051 is here!” Her piercing voice made Moyo, who stood next to Rylando on the muddy, sodden grass, duck her head and rub an ear with her paw.
He wished he could get away with doing the same.
The hearing protection implant in his left ear was malfing, and he hadn’t had time to get it fixed.
The structure behind the woman was an upside-down recycling container with a crudely cut doorway.
They’d placed it on what looked like a softcrete children’s playground area, which itself was surrounded by a two-meter-wide ring of permeable hardscape.
Rylando gave the town extra points for a creative solution to the problem of no pop-up emergency-shelter domes.