Chapter 17 #2
“She threatened my father’s commendation.
” Nissa heaved in a breath. “It’s coming up in a couple of months.
Even though he doesn’t mention it much, I know he’s so damned excited about it.
It’s the final shining moment of the career he worked so hard for.
And it secures his pension to the day he dies.
” Her voice grew softer. “I couldn’t let her take that away from him. ”
Dammit. Damn all the meddling GSS bastards to hell. “You should have told me!”
“It doesn’t matter now.” Her voice was quiet and far too calm. “I just wanted you to know I was sorry.”
“I know.” He stepped on a half-rotted log to bring his face level with hers. “I’m still not leaving you here.”
She gave him a small smile. “Tell me how you got that scar? The truth this time.”
“No. I’ll tell you after we get out of here.” He stepped back and withdrew his blaster.
He shot at the vines. He was hoping to get a few off her, but the result was unexpected.
They clearly did not like ion fire.
The vines writhed and wriggled like they were being poisoned. In one simultaneous movement, the vines all released Nissa, pulling back from her so fast she hit the ground in an ungainly sprawl.
“You okay?” He knelt beside her, one arm under her elbow.
“Tailbone hit the ground.” She winced. “Hard. But I’m good.”
“Come on. Run as fast as you can.”
They moved at a swift pace, once again hacking at the plants and vines. It wasn’t long before he felt the ground start to rise.
“We’re at the hill.” He couldn’t see past the vegetation, but they were close. He hacked at the wall of green, clearing a hole through the vines.
Beyond the gap was nothing but bare rock.
They jumped through and pounded up the rocky slope.
“I’ve never been so happy to see no plants,” she said.
Justyn looked over his shoulder. Their tiny hill of rock was one of a small group in the area, each like a little island dotting the surface of thick, green sea.
At the top of the hill, he swung his backpack off and set the beacon down.
He pressed the correct sequence of buttons and waited as the lights flashed. Beside him, Nissa held her blaster and kept watch on the vegetation line.
After a minute, the beacon beeped, the lights settling into a steady on-off blink.
He sat back on his heels. “Done. It’s transmitting.”
She looked up at the sky and the red-gold sun overhead. Behind it were two smaller, bright stars that formed the rest of the triple star system. “I hope your brothers aren’t too far away.”
“And I hope whoever attacked us isn’t still jamming transmissions.”
“They think we’re dead, so they shouldn’t be.” She kept scanning the vegetation line. “What now?”
“It’s not safe enough to return to the ship. I say we stay here.”
She nodded and wandered around the rocky outcrop. He stretched his neck, trying to ease the tension. He didn’t think this jungle planet’s deadly plants had given up on eating them just yet.
“Justyn!”
He spun, blaster aimed.
But she wasn’t in trouble, just waving at him to join her where she crouched, studying something nestled amongst the rocks.
He hurried over and knelt beside her. “What is it?”
She poked at a piece of metal. “Looks like it’s off a ship.”
He scanned the ground around them. “Look! Another piece.”
“Is it off the Mercury?”
He studied the silver metal plate. It was heavily corroded. “Don’t think so. This has been here a long time.” It certainly looked like metal that formed part of a ship’s hull or something similar.
“Look at this.” She picked up a hunk of what could only be synth-glass.
“It’s old.” He turned her wrist over so he could see the other side of the fragment. “See the striations in the glass? This was made before they perfected the technique of making the stuff stronger and lighter.”
“Maybe there’s more.” She turned, stepping across the broken, rocky ground.
“Don’t get distracted. You don’t want to end up plant chow.”
She took a few more steps away, staring over a ledge that dropped away on the other side of the hill. “Goddess!”
In three strides he was beside her. He stared in disbelief. “Holy space dust.”
It was a crashed escape pod.
It had been there a long time, and was heavily rusted by the planet’s high humidity. But the vaguely round shape was visible even with the damage and the amount of wreckage strewn around it.
Nissa carefully made her way down. “It’s a really old style of escape pod.”
He followed her. “Yeah.” He circled the wreck and spotted some lettering on the damaged hull.
She picked something up. “Look. Tripton insulation. No one’s used these for over a thousand years.”
Justyn crouched, swiping a hand at the vague lettering.
She gave a shocked cry. “Unbelievable.”
He looked up and saw her holding a rectangular object. “What is it?”
“A book! An honest-to-Goddess, old-fashioned book.”
He frowned. “How would a book have survived?”
“It’s got some sort of leather cover. It’s sealed tight.” Excitement glimmered in her eyes. “Maybe the pages are even intact.”
“Maybe,” he said, dubiously. “Don’t open it, they’ll disintegrate on contact with the air.”
“Imagine…it might record the journey of some long-ago adventurer, or convoy member.”
He grinned. Looked like Nissa was catching the treasure-hunting bug. He turned his attention back to the metal under his hand. His smile dissolved. “Holy stars, Nissa! That book doesn’t belong to an adventurer or a convoy member.”
This was too unreal to be true. He stared at the letters etched into the metal, his heart racing in his chest.
She made her way over to him, the book clutched in her hand. “What are you talking about?”
He smoothed his hand over the hull of the ruined escape pod. Even though the lettering was badly faded, the word Nero was visible.