It was still raining the next morning as we waited to meet with Breccan to decide who would be going.
We stood outside the tents, in the pouring rain that hadn't subsided since yesterday. Though I hated being wet—being from a planet where it simply never rained—I didn't say a thing. I guess the others didn't mind having a constant stream of water pouring in their eyes and I decided to just put up with the slight stinging sensation of water blurring my vision. I didn't want to be the only one wiping their eyes like a crying child.
The proximate stone locator pointed east, so we stared into the dense jungle in the vague direction we knew we would be heading.
"He's here," said Cashel. "Looks like he picked his crew."
We all turned, and true enough, Breccan was approaching. Lux and Pippa, their hair already soaked through, flanked him on both sides, and more followed behind.
"Morning," he said, following it up with a wink at Akiko, who rolled her eyes. "Have you decided who's going?"
Cashel nodded and answered: "Akiko, Rei, and Sarth. Tammy and I will stay behind to fix the ships."
"Are you sure, Cashel? I'd already figured it in that you would be going with them. I assumed I'd be staying behind to oversee the repairs. Someone's got to do it," he said glumly.
"Really, Breccan? I didn't think you'd hesitate," Cashel responded.
I didn't either. A chance for glory, more time to be with Kiko? I never thought there was a chance Breccan wouldn't go.
"I vote Cashel comes," Kiko interjected.
But he just shook his head.
Breccan visibly cheered. "Are you sure, Cashel?"
"Once upon a time, perhaps, but you have more recent experience. Plus, I'll come in handy fixing the ships."
"Well … if you're sure." Breccan grinned.
"No," Rei and Akiko moaned at the same time.
Cashel smiled. "Certain."
"Ok, I've got a bag just waiting in the tent. Lux, you do the introductions." He turned and ran off.
It looked like my role as peacekeeper would be needed after all.
Lux smiled at us. "Okay, then. This is Shihon and Tobiah; they're a few of our best hunters."
Staring across at each other, each crew sized the other up. Shihon reminded me of the scavys that thrived on Sola. His skin was green and bumpy, and he had a short reptilian snout and a long tail, just like those lizards. His skin was green and bumpy like them, and he had a short reptilian snout and a long tail. His body structure made him wobble side-to-side when he walked. He acknowledged us with a nod when Lux gestured to him, unlike his companion.
Tobiah's reaction was unknown, half hidden behind a large metal mask that covered his nostrils and mouth. I caught a glimpse past his hood: he had very rough and tan hide from what I could see, but his eyes were the most dangerous part about him. He glared at me in disgust with narrow red pupils and yellow eyes.
"What's his problem?" Kiko demanded, taking notice of Tobiah's death stare.
"He won't be one," Breccan shouted just as he appeared from behind a tent and began approaching us. "I swear it, on my love for you."
I guessed that was pretty reassuring.
He stopped in front of his crew and looked at Cashel. "Are you sure about this?"
"Positive. Keep them safe Breccan. I'm entrusting my family to you."
"We're all one big family now."
Kiko rolled her eyes.
"Jago crew," Cashel called, and we circled around to face him. "Breccan is leading this expedition, and I want you to treat him the same as you'd treat me. You are all now one big crew."
"Now, Sarth," he said as he turned to me, clapping his hands on my shoulder. "Look after them." He left me with a smile before walking away. "Good luck, Breccan. Lead them well."
Breccan nodded at him, and then it was time.
"Well! Let's go!" Pippa exclaimed happily while bouncing from foot to foot.
Kiko turned, and before another word could be said, she faced the depths of the wild green jungle and strode ahead of us.
We carried large travel packs on our backs that held everything we'd need for an eleven-day excursion. The only exception was Kiko, who was carrying a smaller travel pack and the PSL on her back. The extra weight didn't seem to hinder her at all though.
Rei and I jogged to catch up, and the three of us kept a few paces ahead, with the others behind, just how we liked it. We'd hadn't even made it to the edge of the jungle before we heard it. Kiko stopped suddenly, and I almost walked into her back. When I turned to look towards the sky, in the same direction of Kiko, I noticed Lux peering up too. She must have heard it as well. Then the noise reached us all, and we looked over the jungle to see a ship falling in the distance and go speeding out of sight.
"It looks like we're not alone," Rei said.
"C'mon, team," Breccan said, marching forward. "No time for dillydallying. So, we're not alone; that just makes it a bit more interesting. What's that, Jago?" He had caught up and was overtaking us now. "Don't you like a challenge?"
He smiled and continued forward, the rest of his crew filtering through the three of us. Shihon with a wide grin and Lux with an apologetic smile she seemed to allow only me to see. Kiko shut her eyes and exhaled heavily.
"Remember what Cashel said," Rei grumbled.
"Yeah," I added. "It wouldn't be a good idea to kill Breccan before we even got out of sight of the crew."
"Let's go," she spat and followed Breccan.
#
I'd never thought about where all the water went when it rained, but I got to experience it first-hand. We'd traveled half the day toward a white mountain in the distance when we were cut off by a raging river flowing through the trees and brush.
"We have to pass somehow!" Breccan yelled over the sound of gushing water.
Pippa took off her pack and shoved an arm inside. "I have just the thing!"
Then she pulled out a canister and handed it to Rei. "Here, try this out! It'll shoot out a super strong twine and stick to whatever the end hits."
"Really?" Rei analyzed the canister. "It's super light."
"It'll work, trust me!"
"Her stuff never fails!" Breccan guaranteed with a smile.
Rei put a hand on her hip. "I'll take Pip's word for it, not yours." She attached the canister to her blaster and took aim at a sturdy-looking tree across the river.
Pew! She fired, and twine shot out and stuck to the tree.
"That was pretty cool!" she said, lowering her blaster with the twine still attached. "Now what?"
We all looked at Pippa who looked like she was concentrating pretty hard.
"Didn't think that far," she said matter-of-factly and then laughed. "Actually, why don't you try shooting a tree on this side? That will work."
"All right."
Rei lifted the blaster again and fired at a tree nearby us. It stuck there, creating a taut line between the trees. A second line ran back into the end of the blaster.
Pippa reached over and put her finger on a button on the canister. "To cut the twine, just push this button." She pushed it, and the twine detached from the blaster and trailed to the ground. "To use your blaster while the canister's attached, turn the twineulator to the right or flick it like this." She took the blaster and flicked her wrist toward the right to demonstrate before giving it back to Rei. "The best thing about it is that it'll never run out of twine because the nanowave charm injector—"
Lux let out a fake cough that made Pippa stop and turn to her. Lux raised her eyebrows, and Pippa chuckled and scratched the back of her head.
"Wow! This is awesome!" Rei was too absorbed with her new gadget to notice the exchange. She flicked between her blaster and the twineulator a couple times before settling back on the twineulator and took aim at the far tree again. She shot it with the twine and then connected it to the opposite tree so that there were two lines, one above the other. The lines were high enough above the water and far enough apart that we could scoot across the bottom one and hold on to the top.
Rei was in love with the new attachment, and she and Pippa were in such a fixated discussion that they didn't notice us prepare to cross.
"A-hem," Kiko interrupted. "We'll be on the other side if you need anything."
"Oh yeah!"
"Right!"
We made a line to cross along the twine. The bottom line hung about six feet above the water, so at least, we weren't going to get any wetter.
Breccan crossed first, followed by Lux, Pippa, Shihon, Tobiah, Rei, me, and then Kiko. It wasn't hard to cross, just tedious. We were a little more than halfway through when Pippa started yelling.
"Strong as in tension! Not its physical properties! Don't let them bite the twine!"
What was she talking about? Bite the twine?
I saw Rei looking around too, trying to figure out what was happening. Our eyes went to the same spot, below us. A school of ugly fish with large sharp teeth were swimming and jumping upstream toward us—and they could jump high.
"Sarth!" Kiko shouted, reminding me where my attention should be. Rei was already a few feet ahead of me, moving fast with only one arm on the twine, the other one holding on to her newly upgraded blaster.
Suddenly the bottom twine shuddered, and I nearly slipped off. The others were held up ahead of us for some reason; I couldn't tell why. Blaster shots flew in every direction, trying to take down the fish that could jump nearly as high as our heads. I dodged the ones that lunged at me, and Kiko shot or kicked off any of them attacking the twine. When the line finally started moving again, I saw what had held us up: the twine had broken, and Breccan was now serving as a bridge between the gaps with a piece of the twine in each hand. I paused, momentarily stunned at the sight, but Rei crossed over him without hesitating. Luckily the line was still high enough so that his body wasn't dangling in the water, and he held together the severed line while kicking away any fish that came flying at him with their gaping mouths open.
"Hurry up and cross, kid!" he grunted as he kicked another fish away.
With no time to argue, I stepped over his head and onto his arm before reaching the twine again and continuing forward. Jolts of energy flashed past me as the people on the shore supported me, Kiko, and Breccan by shooting the attacking fish.
Once my feet touched solid ground, I turned to see Kiko attach her hip cable to the upper twine and grab Breccan by his backpack just as Tobiah shot his twine blaster at Kiko's back and started reeling them in.
They both arrived safely with us on the riverbank, Breccan looking pleased as ever.
"You saved me, my darling Akiko!" he said in a love-struck high.
"And I regret it already," Kiko said as she got up and marched onward.
#
Soon we reached the base of the large white mountain and began our journey to the top. As it grew darker, the rain finally let up, going from a downpour to a drizzle.
"We'll camp here for the night," Breccan declared.
No one argued or said anything; they simply set down their packs and prepared for the night. Shihon, who had been traveling on all fours like a scavy to let Pippa ride on his back, kneeled, allowing her to slide off.
I had been afraid we were going to hike through the night, so I happily plopped myself down on the nearest rock but almost immediately regretted it. I was afraid I wouldn't have enough energy to get back up. My feet were pounding against my boots, and I sighed at the droplets trickling from the sky. Everything was soggy, and I lifted a boot from the sludge of mud with a sucking pop.
Is this what it's going to be like the entire journey?
Somehow I got my tent set up. The girls shared tents in pairs of two, and all the men had their own smaller tents.
By a stroke of good luck the rain finally stopped, and we set up a fire in the middle of our camp.
"What's to eaaaaat?" Rei complained, lying against her pack.
Shihon held up three fuzzy dead creatures. "There are only small animals since everything else is trying to flee from the black hole."
"We'll have to eat our nourishing capsules with them," Lux said.
She pulled out a bottle from her pack and poured a few small capsules in her hand.
"What's that?" I asked, taking a closer look.
"They contain everything the body needs in capsule form," she enlightened me while handing me a pill.
I examined it in my hand. It looked like a tiny oblong rock and was the color of mud. Not the most pleasing to the eye. "You eat this?"
Rei sighed when she was handed hers. "It's better to just swallow it."
Everyone popped theirs in their mouth, and I followed their example. The taste was so strongly bitter that I spit it out, but the flavor was still killing my taste buds.
Lux frowned. "I was hoping you wouldn't be affected, but to some humans the taste can be unbearably bitter."
We both watched Pippa pop in a capsule and go back to work on the PSL as if she were eating candy. Clearly she was one who couldn't taste it. I shuddered, imagining trying to swallow it again.
"I don't think I can eat this," I said.
"The humans who can taste it usually can't." She took the capsule from my hand and put it in her mouth. "You can have my portion of food tonight."
I watched her put the pill—that had just been in my mouth—into hers while trying to hide my bewildered eyes and gaping mouth.
A loud crack came from where Kiko was helping move large boulders that were blocking our path. She looked extremely agitated as she turned away from us. "You wanted these destroyed, right?" As she pounded and cracked through the large boulders, and I knew it didn't matter what Breccan would say; she was going to destroy them completely.
"Yes! Excellent job!" Breccan cheered her on.
Oh great, I hoped she wasn't going to be mad at me again. If Lux kept trying to keep me alive, Kiko might just kill me.
#
The only one who didn't join us as we munched on the prey Shihon had killed was Tobiah. He leaned against some boulders away from camp.
I watched him stare at the moons and wondered why he preferred to be alone.
Lux leaned close to me. "He hates humans. Where he's from, humans were the predominant creatures and ruled over all other species."
I whispered back, "What about Breccan and Pippa and the other human crewmembers?"
She let out a quiet chuckle. "Pippa and Breccan aren't human."
They both weren't human? I knew there were thousands of different species, but I wasn't prepared for the fact that so many of them might look human but not be. Actually, Lux looked like one too, but her yellow glowing hands gave her away, so I wondered if Breccan was the same species as her.
Breccan clapped his hands. "All right, everyone should get to bed. We're getting up bright and early tomorrow."
Like concise clockwork, his crewmembers instantly complied; even Tobiah walked back to his tent. Eventually Kiko and Rei gave in with a grumble, and I followed them to our neighboring tents.
The burst of warm air inside my small tent was welcoming as I snuggled inside my fluffy sleeping bag and closed my eyes, wondering what the next day would bring.