Halley
Igrab Rin by the scruff of her tunic, mercilessly yanking her upright. Tears and mud stain her face, and when she sees her guardians in danger, she tries to pull herself free of me and rush to their aid.
I don’t let go, panic giving me strength.
“No, no,” she sobs, struggling. And there’s a part of me that wants to sob too. That wants to rush at Eot and Keelo and pull them out of danger. But that wouldn’t achieve anything useful, so I redouble my attempt to get Rin out of harm’s way.
“You’ll distract them,” I pant, trying to haul her up and over a rock half the size of a car and barely getting anywhere. Her tunic tears along a seam, and she slips from my hold.
She falls back, clearly intent on going to them.
“You’ll get them killed,” I yell.
That, finally, makes Rin pause, and when I grab her arm, my fingers bite into her flesh. I’m holding on so tightly, she doesn’t pull back.
I’ve probably just caused her untold amounts of trauma. I’ll absolutely be paying a therapist’s bill to deal with her future guilt, but I don’t take back my words as I guide her over another rock and then another.
I barely have the energy or the strength to glance at Tornado. Blood splatters the ground around them—theirs or the trikon’s? Impossible to tell. And I clamp my mouth shut on a gasp of horror as the beast smashes its two tails into Tornado, sending them flying.
The sound of them colliding with the ravine wall echoes along the valley. I swear the ground shakes.
Rin is hysterical, but at least she isn’t trying to break free of me.
Her cries fill my ears, my throat, my head, like a thick dust intent on suffocating me.
“Come on, sweetheart,” I say, praying I sound encouraging and not fucking terrified. “We’ve got to get away. The sooner we’re safe, the sooner Keelo and Eot can come back to us.”
Please, please let them come back to us.
Stumbling on scratched and bruised legs, we half run, half stumble to the bend in the ravine, trampling through fresh mud.
The instant we round the bend, the sounds of fighting fade. It’s surreal, like someone got hold of the remote control and turned down the TV volume until the silence is nearly louder than my thoughts.
I drag in a mouthful of air, debating what to do.
Leave Rin here and hope she’s safe, while I return to Tornado and…
what? Fight a predator taller than any Earth bull?
It wouldn’t have to bite me; it could just trample me—probably without exerting any effort.
And by returning, wouldn’t I be doing exactly what I’d scolded Rin against—distracting Tornado, possibly to their detriment?
Akh! “We have to keep going.” The words tear at my heart, however much I’m certain leaving is the right thing to do.
It’s several hours walk back to the ship, and until I get Rin inside, I can’t be a hundred percent positive she’s safe.
I won’t let anything happen to her—not now, not ever.
Eot and Keelo are trusting me to protect her, and the best way I can do that is by getting back to their ship.
I already know she can break into the control panel and force the door open, whether or not we’ve got the key.
Gritting my teeth, I feign a confidence I don’t feel and motion for Rin to continue walking.
Her clothes are torn, and bronze bruises color her legs, but she doesn’t appear too badly hurt after our mad rush over the rocks.
Now, at least, the valley floor is fairly flat, decorated only by the usual scattering of sun-bleached bones.
Bones whose presence makes my heart thump in my chest when I remember they’re from trikons’ past prey.
We overtake the thin trickle of water still working its way along the dry riverbed. It’s moving sluggishly compared to our brutal pace.
My ankle aches, a dull thumping pain, and I’m missing a shoe.
That was manageable back when we were running on adrenaline and splashing through mud.
Now I’m going into shock and we’re traipsing over flaking shale, the sharp edges of the ground biting into the fleshy sole of my foot until I’m limping, despite how hard I’m trying to pretend that everything’s okay.
“What will happen if Keelo and Eot die?” Rin asks so softly I almost miss the question.
“They’re not going to die,” I say with false bravado, remembering last second to keep from forcing a smile. In this state, it’ll look more like a grimace, and that’ll do nothing to help with Rin’s fear of my teeth. “They’ll be following along behind us in no time.”
We both glance back, but there’s nothing there aside from the growing shadows. It’ll be dark soon, and neither of us has a torch.
I force myself to speed up, practically jogging. Out of the two of us, I’m the slowest, and I’m not about to let a little sore ankle and a tender foot hold Rin back from safety.
“But—” She swallows her fear. “But what if they do die?”
“Sweetheart—” My instinct is to keep denying that possibility. If we ignore it, then it can’t possibly come true. But Rin’s sounding too much like me insisting on an answer, back when I asked Keelo what would happen if the map broke.
A good scientist would have a contingency plan for every possible problem. And despite the fact this is the last conversation I want to be having, I force myself to concentrate.
Maybe knowing we’re prepared will help Rin feel a fraction better.
“Well…I guess, er…” Worry for Eot and Keelo fogs my thoughts. “You and I would have to take care of each other.”
“You…wouldn’t leave? If your mates weren’t here anymore.”
“Leave?” I frown, my comprehension temporarily deserting me. “Leave you? Oh hell, baby girl, never!” I catch her hand in mine, pressing it to my chest.
“I’m never ever leaving you.” I laugh, half hysterical, half crying.
“I’m going to stick so close to you that you’ll be sick of my company in no time.
You’ll slam your bedroom door shut in my face just to get away from me.
But I’ll still be there, hovering in the corridor, waiting.
” I can imagine Teenage Rin in all her glorious hormonal mood swings.
She’ll have a growth spurt and end up so much taller than me.
There’s no way I’m going to miss a second of it!
"We don’t know how to fly the spaceship. Eot was going to teach me.”
“We’ll learn. We’ll teach ourselves.” I give her hand one last squeeze before releasing it. “We’re both smart women. We’re not going to let a little astronavigation get in our way, right? Right?”
Instead of answering, she’s worrying at her top lip with one of her tusks.
“Besides,” I hurriedly add, heart thumping and back pricking with a chilly sweat that’s got nothing to do with the desert heat. “Your dads will be alright. I’m sure they will be.”
Rin can barely keep her eyes open by the time we reach the ship. Darkness has fallen, and sand coats my bare legs from me slipping and sliding up and down half-invisible sand dunes. I force us both to drink water, but when I try to persuade Rin to eat, she refuses all food.
I put her to bed then, gently stroking her hair back from her face. Still, she doesn’t fall asleep until after I’ve promised to wake her the moment Keelo and Eot return. And even then she tries to fight against the heaviness of her eyelids.
It’s not until her breathing evens out and she’s got her knees curled up near her chest that I slowly back out of her room. The hammock rocks gently now I’m not leaning against it, and Rin mutters in her sleep but doesn’t wake.
Her bedroom door slides closed behind me, and I rush to the entrance of the ship.
Rin did have to force the lock. As a result, the ramp hasn’t unfolded, and there’s a four-foot drop between the threshold and the sandy ground.
I consider jumping, but I’m not sure I’d be able to climb back inside, so I sit on the edge, feet dangling.
I kick off my one remaining shoe.
A dreadful sort of exhaustion settles over my shoulders as I scan the horizon.
I’m more scared now than ever before—and that includes when I woke up to find myself locked in the cell of a spaceship, abducted from home and traveling faster than the speed of light.
More scared than when I first realized I might never see Mom again.
More scared than when I accepted that returning to Earth was an impossibility.
In fact, thoughts of my old life feel…distant. Muted. When compared to my feelings for Eot, Keelo, and Rin.
It’s exactly like what I told Tornado, about there being a straight line cutting through my life. There was me before them. And there’s me now, with them.
My nail snaps at the base of the quick, my teeth biting through keratin.
I spit it out and immediately start gnawing at the next one.
I haven’t chewed my nails since my final uni exams, but I can’t seem to stop.
Dread is turning my stomach. I can feel the water I drank roiling around inside of me and—
I straighten, heart leaping into my throat.
Was that movement I just saw? On the horizon. I squint, willing my blurry vision to clear. Willing my eyes to see through the darkness.
Surely I couldn’t have imagined it. Surely there was something moving. Maybe… Possibly….
Fuck it. I slide off my perch, stumbling as my bare feet land on slippery sand, and my bad ankle threatens to give way under me. I manage to catch myself with a hand pressed to the ship, and still because at four feet lower the horizon looks different from this angle. And where had I seen movement?
I tear through another nail.
There! A dark, hulking mass silhouetted by shadows.
I rush forward.
“You’re back! You’re back!” I want to throw my arms around Tornado’s shoulders. I want to glue myself to their skin. But…what if they’re injured. “Come into the light.”
I take hold of their hand with the intention of pulling them closer to the ship, but as soon as I touch them, Tornado wraps me in their arms, folding me against their chest.