?? CHAPTER 16 ??
Macie
When the captain finds out that I know where our missing engine is, she threatens to have me hurled into the sea. “Why didn’t you come to me immediately?!” Faith demands. No “welcome back, glad you’re safe, what else did you see?” She summoned me here to the hall outside the bridge just for a scolding.
“I was pretty exhausted,” I tell her. “Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about it. I was just so relieved to be back.”
She runs a hand through her light brown hair, dark now with grease. I’m trying to be sympathetic - she seems like she hasn’t been sleeping at all - but seriously, I just woke up, I’ve only been back for one night. She’s got to chill.
“Show me where,” she says. I pull up the map I’ve made on my tablet and hold it out to her. She squints.
“It’s really big,” I say. “I had no idea it was so huge.” I can’t imagine how we’re going to move it.
“Heaviest part of the damn ship,” she says, “Go figure. Okay.” She waves my tablet away. “You’re going to lead a team back out there. We’ll collect more details about the path from there to here. Dammit. I knew we needed less big brains and more laborers on this trip.” She sighs. “Well. We’ll figure it out. I want Stella and Team C and anyone from Team E who wants to go. And bring some of those aliens. Well?”
I’m staring. I didn’t mean to stare. “Me?”
“Yes, you.” She claps at me. “Gather who and what you need and go! As many details as you can!”
Sparks fly behind her. Someone’s working on something on the bridge. Likely Arjun.
“Okay. You can count on me.” I hope.
?????
The first thing I do is send Ryle a message. Obviously because he knows the route too. Not because I miss him. I mean, I do, but that’s not the reason he’s invited. Not the only reason.
It takes a day to make a plan and gather supplies, but even that’s too long for Faith. I can feel her scowling at my back whenever she emerges from the ship. Thankfully, it’s rare for her to poke her head out. We don’t see Arjun at all. It isn’t good for morale - the astronauts are leading this mission, for them to disappear so thoroughly into their immediate work is leaving a lot of the crew stressed and aimless. A bad combination. I’m actually grateful that I’ve got a mission.
Ryle brings along two of his crewmates when we meet up - a gold camouflaged one introduced as Amcyth, and a gray and green called Zoxsym. They all wear similar kilts with pouches for their travel supplies and wear the small tablet-like devices strapped to their forearms. Ryle shows me his. “For translate help,” he says. He’s already learning our language scarily fast. I doubt he’ll need it for very long. These aliens, these Rurim, are they really that much smarter than us? Not just advanced in tech, but, like, I wonder if their brains are just better? Or are they just especially good at languages? I suppose I’ll be able to ask all the questions I want now.
My team, Team C, joins me with actual supplies in their packs. This will be a much easier journey. Two more from Team E join us - the two hunters - and finally Stella. Our engineer. She’s got a tripod in her pack and a second long bag containing two more transmitters. Amcyth takes both bags from her. “I carry,” he says. “Humans puny.” Zoxsym grunts in agreement and takes the two tent packs from the hunters.
Stella scowls and looks away.
“Okay,” I tell the team. They’re all looking at me, waiting, like I’m in charge. I guess Faith kind of asked me to lead this thing. “It shouldn’t take us too long to reach it. Maybe two days? We didn’t encounter any dangerous animals, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. We came across a bog. And some monkeys. But they were out of the way. We won’t need to stop there. And did you know the ocean is freshwater?” They all nod. “Okay. Of course. Great.” I take a deep breath. “Then let’s go.”
And I, Macie, just a hapless anthropologist slash historian, lead the team of experts and aliens out into the wilderness.
?????
The Rurim insist on a swim break when the suns reach their highest points in the sky. At least that’s what they say. Ryle was side-eyeing us as our feet began to drag, and our pace began to slow.
I seat myself on a fallen rock near the wall while the aliens splash in the waves, the planet’s rings cutting through the sky high above their heads. I truly am very, very far from home, aren’t I.
I wish I had time to study my photos of the charts on those ancient alien stones. I load them up now while I wait and rest my feet. There’s more than one that looks like some sort of calendar. A sun chart. A moon chart. A cloud chart? There’s so much here. Step one is going to be adjusting the contrast to make them easier to read. I set about doing that while the hunters start a small fire pit in the sand.
I’m so in the zone of the repetitive photo editing process that when Ryle approaches, I don’t even rouse when his shadow falls over me. “Maysee.”
I startle and nearly drop my tablet. “Hi!” I laugh up at him.
“Very sorry,” he says with a grin that’s anything but apologetic. He drops into a crouch before me. “What do?”
“From the cave.” I show him. “Charts and maps. Time. This one might be for weather? This drawing looks like a hunt.”
“We hunt,” he says, pointing to his crewmates. “Good hunt. Food for all.”
Good to know. Fixing our ship is a huge undertaking, and part of me wonders if it’s possible at all. Can we receive more supplies from earth? It would take years for them to arrive.