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THE PLANET AND THE PIG

BRENDA COOPER


Silence shocked Mia’s ears as the lander’s automatic systems cut off communication with the ship orbiting above them. The quiet underscored the shaking deep in her bones. It felt strange but not frightening; she had been told to expect it as they entered atmosphere. Deep, steadying breaths helped. It would be okay. She and Zack and Pori would be okay. They wouldn’t die here, or on the planet below them. They wouldn’t.

The crash couch kept her from turning her head, so she settled for repeating words silently while staring at the blank screen above her. We will arrive safely. We will be okay. We will find our prey. We will arrive safely.…

Silence remained as the lander lost the slight jitter and yawed first right and then left. Targeting them, sending them to the right clearing in the right forest. She—they—could handle this. They had Mia’s stubborn determination, Zack’s independence and strength, and Pori’s excellent memory and reflexes. Zack was seventeen, Pori fourteen. If they succeeded, they’d earn a spot on the crew of the Knight’s Orbit. So what if the station didn’t have a great reputation? They’d have a home. They’d eat. The four hours after they landed would matter more than almost any other four hours of her life, but she had taken risks before. She’d sold everything she had for this trip, bet everything. Their broken ship, their time, their options. But she hadn’t seen any other choice. They’d have a successful hunt or die trying.

Better than dying slowly, starved and jobless. Or worse, to die drifting through space in a broken ship.

The lander pitched forward. Mia’s stomach rolled slightly. The lander bounced hard, bobbed, then settled into a slow, floaty flight. A slight popping sound preceded Zack’s triumphant shout. She grinned and joined him in a delirious, defiant scream. When he stopped to take a breath, she stopped, too, and cleared her throat. Then she asked the ship, “Are we on course?”

The ship spoke in its silkiest voice, full of annoyingly calm undertones. “We are within fifty meters of the desired landing location.”

“Show me.”

Screens filled every wall of the windowless lander with real-time pictures of Lym racing past below them. Dark green, light green, golden green, slashes of blue and sepia. The treasure planet that no one was supposed to land on without a permit, the place forbidden to all but a handful of humans.

As they slowed even more, the picture steadied and focused. Trees lined a meadow. A pale blue stream ran beside three shaggy beasts grazing in the center of the meadow. Her stomach raced for her backbone, and she clenched her hands as tightly as her gloves allowed. This would be the first half of her test. Being on a planet at all. Some people couldn’t take it.

They would have to. She had no doubts about Zack; he could do anything. But she hadn’t heard her daughter’s voice since they passed through the atmosphere. “Pori?”

Silence.

“Pori? Are you okay?”

Nothing. She listened closely, detected a slight, ragged breath. They couldn’t touch one another, not in the crash couches. She whispered, “Pori? Say something?”

The ship spoke: “Pori’s heart rate is 104. High, but not dangerous. Lie back and prepare for landing.”

They’d been warned. Some people became sick inside when confronted with the sheer space of a planet. Stations were crowded. Small ships were crowded. Planets were not crowded.

But Pori? Pori wasn’t usually a fearful child. Curious, sometimes shy, bookish. But not fearful.

The picture popped out of view, and the cabin lights dimmed. Mia lay back, panting, desperate to check on Pori. But the AIs for ships and stations were to be listened to. Always. So she settled her spine into the couch and braced.

The landing felt so soft she wasn’t sure they’d set down until her restraints and helmet clicked open. She struggled to stand, her knees and back stiff.

Zack stood and turned directly to Pori. Mia made it to his side in time to see her daughter’s white face as Zack tugged her helmet off. Pori’s dark hair lay flat against her head, her eyes closed, her lips a thin line. Mia slid her daughter’s right glove off while Zack took off her left. Pori’s hand felt clammy as she curled her fingers tight against Mia’s palm.

“We’re here,” Mia whispered. “Safe and sound.”

When Pori didn’t move, Mia tugged on her, nodding to Zack who did the same. Together, they levered Pori to a shaky stand.

Behind them, the door opened. Scents poured in on a hot breeze, dirt and plants and new smells, some sweet, some bitter. The richness overwhelmed her, forced her to inhale over and over. Below her, Pori’s nostrils flared. Her eyes fluttered open and then shut again. Zack stripped the rest of her suit, picked her up, and headed through the door. Mia also stripped to casual walking clothes she’d worn under her outer suit, and pulled her go-belt on. She shrugged Pori’s kit over her shoulder, the water in the canteen sloshing, and followed her children onto the surface of Lym.

In training, Jogden had demanded that they look down first, so she did, watching her feet carefully as she stepped over the lip of the floor and started down the ramp. She grasped the flexible railing, shuffling more than she would if this were just a ramp on a station. We have arrived safely. We will be okay. We will find our prey. We have arrived safely.…

Her feet encountered grass. Rough grass, tall enough to cover her toes. Stations sometimes had grass and lawns and parks, but not…unkempt. Not scraggly, mixed-up yellow and red and dark green, with tiny white flowers here and there. Something the length of her toenail hopped over her boot. Something with a lot of legs.

She bit back a scream and glanced at Zack. He held Pori close, but he wasn’t looking at her. He stared up. A wide grin split his face.

“Put her down,” Mia suggested.

As soon as Zack complied, he returned to staring up, fixated. Mia knelt beside Pori, clutching her hand. Pori’s face hadn’t gained any color. “Roll over onto your side,” Mia whispered.

Pori did.

“Open your eyes and look at the grass.”

Pori did.

“Tell me what you see.”

Pori’s voice came out high and thin. “Grass blades and a rock and a…fungus?”

“And?”

“Trees.” Pori closed her eyes, opened them again. “Firs and Blue Twists and Not-Oak.”

Mia joined her. “Red Firs. Roughbarks. Just like in the sims. Smell the planet. Smell Lym. Smell the dust and the grass and the water and…all the things.”

“I don’t smell ship.”

Mia laughed. “Neither do I.”

Pori pushed herself up into a seated position.

Mia exhaled and braced herself. After all, she needed to show Pori what was possible. She looked up. The sheer brightness stunned her. She swept her gaze around the clearing. Colors blended and softened. Even the lander’s skin looked softer here.

She stood and opened her arms, looking up again. She couldn’t tell whether she liked the sky or loved it, or maybe even feared it. She often saw great distances, stations and ships moving through a background studded with suns. But there had been a window between her and every expanse she had ever seen. She took in a deep breath. They needed to work. “Zack?”

“Are you okay, Mom?”

“I’m…I’m good. There’s no one else here? No Rangers?”

“No, Mom. They’ll come. I’ve started the four-hour countdown. Jogden promised to plant other distractions, so we might have even more time.”

Good. If a Ranger caught them, they’d be thrown in jail, maybe separated, maybe sent to work on a water barge or worse. Jogden had been very specific. Avoid the Rangers.

Zack stood loosely, apparently completely comfortable with the strangeness of a planet. “Can Pori go on? Or shall I leave you two here?” He stepped back into the lander.

Mia turned to Pori just in time to see her retch into the grass.

Just like him to want to scream off on his own. He ditched them in stations whenever he could. “No separating.” Mia held out a hand to her daughter. “Stand up. You can look down from here. You don’t have to look up yet. But you must stand. We need to hunt.”

Pori nearly screamed. “Fuck you.”

Well, good. Mia hid her grin.

Zack handed Mia two weapons, hers and Pori’s. “They’re both on stun. You carry hers until she’s okay.”

Mia tucked them both into pouches on her belt, snugging them next to her emergency bars. She glared at Pori until Pori stood. She grasped her daughter’s hand and started walking, tugging on Pori, who still hadn’t been brave enough to look up. Pori shuffled behind her.

Game would be in the trees, especially after the lander frightened the animals. They just had to find something living, a mammal, and get it off-planet. Not only did Lym beasts have value, but they—she and her children—would thus demonstrate competence to Knight’s Orbit. She forced herself away from the idea that the competence was in smuggling. It was a common way to survive, or even get rich, inside the Glittering’s many stations. Not her first choice. Not her fifth choice. But she had to feed her children, get some more schooling into Pori. We will find our prey.

Zack jogged ahead of her, halfway to the trees. He moved so easily under all this sky and over the weirdly uneven ground. As if in counterpoint to Zack, Pori tripped, fell to her knees. Mia almost went with her, twisted, barely kept her balance. She spoke as calmly and clearly as she could. “We have to do this.”

“Fuck you, I know.” Pori’s dark eyes were wide and angry. “I know.” She forced her face to turn up and meet Mia’s.

The fear written there made Mia yearn to just stop. But they couldn’t. “Look up.”

“No.”

“Now.”

Pori tilted her head back, eyes closed.

Mia breathed, gave her daughter a second.

“Come on,” Zack called.

Pori opened her eyes and froze in place.

Mia kept her voice soft, coaxing. “It’s pretty, isn’t it? The blue is a color you like.”

Pori moaned.

Mia tugged on her. “Good. It didn’t kill you. Thank you. Look down, now. Look down, stand up, and keep walking.”

Pori stared up at the sky, unmoving. Mia glanced up again, slantwise. Thin white clouds drifted above her. It reminded her of the art in one of the virtual sim games Jogden had made them win before they could get into the lander. “Pretend it’s a sim. And get up! Pretend it’s all graphics.”

Pori took a deep trembling breath, unfolded upward, and took a step. “Okay.” Another step. “Okay. I can do that. It’s not real. It just smells real.”

“I know. Maybe the programmers have gotten better. We need to find an animal.”

Mia started to jog, and Pori kept up and then passed her.

Well.

They stopped at the edge of the forest. Thick, bumpy tree trunks branched above their heads, with feathery tops that rolled and sighed in a slight wind. A meter above her head, something leapt from branch to branch, chittering.

“We can’t catch that,” Zack said.

Pori whispered, “Shhhhh…”

Mia smiled. They had needed to be quiet in the sims. Of course, the sims were algorithms, and always produced prey.

Mia led them along the outer edge of the trees until she spotted an opening that looked like a trail. She started down it, brushing at sticky lines of spider silk so thin she could barely see them. Her feet jerked and twisted when she tripped over a root. She stopped, tested. Her ankle throbbed a little but moved in all the right directions. How was she supposed to watch her footing, stay quiet, keep track of both kids, and watch for animals all at the same time?

Behind her, Pori and then Zack sounded as loud as she felt, the ground full of pops and snaps as they broke dry things under their feet.

They walked for ten minutes, lost the trail in a thicket, backtracked, took a different one.

Zack looked like a trapped animal as he reminded her, “We landed an hour ago.”

Rangers. Mia tugged on her hair, forcing herself to calm down. “We have to find a place to watch for game.”

Zack gave her his no kidding look.

She picked up her pace, hitching a little as she tested the ground briefly with each step. How did anyone live here? Jogden’s voice sounded in her head. Hunting isn’t moving. Hunting is sitting still and watching. It took half an hour to find a spot that looked like some of the highly scored places on the sim. Rocks tumbled down a forested hillside beside a thin, placid stream. They each picked a rock, settling deep in the cool shade about five meters away from the trail. “Drink,” she whispered to her children.

They obediently pulled at their water bottles, then sat still, barely breathing. Waiting.

What if nothing came by? What if they were in the wrong spot? The stream smelled different from how it had on virtual Lym. It bit at Mia’s nose, green and rich and living. Treetops rustled less regularly than the sim, more in fits and starts, with an occasional big gust that reached fingers down to tickle her cheeks. Insects flew by—alone, in groups, big, small, bright, dark. Each had its own sound, and together they made a symphony. Her stunner felt heavier than it had on the ship. Nonsense. There was slightly less gravity than ship norm here. A small fish splashed up, catching light on bright scales. She almost cried out, bit her tongue. They couldn’t bring back fish.

Pori shifted uneasily. At least she had started looking around. Her curiosity had come back.

They needed a mammal bigger than their fists and small enough to carry. Bonus if they got two. Double bonus if they got two different sexes. But one would buy them a job. Just one. It wasn’t a real need for the stations. She knew that. It was counting coup, nailing a steal. But Jogden did want the animal alive and promised he wouldn’t kill it. Pori had made him promise. Mia had no spat with Lym’s animals, and only slightly resented the idea of Lym as a planet-sized park. But she did need to protect her family. The whole win-lose setup bothered her, but the other choice Jogden had offered was scut work in the cargo holds. That was no place for a girl Pori’s age.

In spite of the wind and rustling leaves, the birdsong, there was quiet. No people. No honks or shouts or electronic music. It kept her off-balance, filled her with surprise, wonder, and apprehension. They were so alone here, so small.

Twigs snapped. Bushes rustled. A shaggy beast with slender legs as tall as Mia emerged from two trees. Big. Bigger than them, by far. Close enough to hear its breath. Mia’s heart thudded in her throat. Two dark horns spiraled up from its brown head. She tried to name the beast, but its proximity drove any hope of clear thoughts from her head.

Zack aimed.

No! she thought. No! Too big. But her tongue wouldn’t move, had in fact thickened in her throat.

The beast stopped and raised its head. A long beard hung below its wide mouth. Its sharp ears were slightly pink inside, furry outside. In spite of the fear that swelled in her, or maybe just alongside it, admiration caught her up. The creature looked so…real. And not. Beautiful, in its own, alien way. It swiveled its long neck and tilted its head, looking directly at Zack through wide, dark eyes with a sliver of white around pupils the size of her palm.

A laser light shone on the animal’s forehead.

Zack’s stunner hissed.

The animal whirled and crashed off. She couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like others joined it, maybe even bigger ones. Louder, anyway.

“Why’d you do that?” Pori screamed at her brother.

He’d already fled down the path, chasing the beast.

Pori stumbled after him. Mia drew in a deep, strangled breath and followed her children. What were they thinking? What if the beast stopped and turned around? What if it had friends? What if they got trampled? She tripped and levered back up as fast as she could, her breath heaving through her, the air tasting like dirt and wild plants, like planet. Sweat beaded on her forehead, ran down the back of her neck.

She raced, leaping and hopping as carefully as she could, scratching her arms as she slammed through branches. Three bright green birds flashed through a clear spot in front of her, bringing her to a halt. She couldn’t hear Pori or Zack, or even the animals. “Pori!” she called.

Nothing.

She had to be close. “Pori!”

A soft, broken sob sounded in front of her. Mia crossed the tiny clearing and ducked beneath two large branches, found Pori sitting, breathing hard, head on her knees, slender arms wrapped around her.

Mia knelt.

“I lost him,” Pori muttered into her knees. “He’s so much faster.”

Mia stroked her daughter’s back. “I know. We’ll find him again. Can you keep going?”

“He shouldn’t have shot the gorlat.”

“Is that what it was?”

Tears dripped down Pori’s cheeks. “I think so. It wouldn’t have hurt us.”

Mia hadn’t even considered that Zack had shot to protect them. Not that she could ask him now. “Your fearless brother will have to find us.”

“He always runs away.”

“He always comes back.”

Pori looked decidedly unhappy. “Can you call him?”

She considered. “Jogden told us not to use comms here. Remember? It could lead Rangers right to us.”

“But isn’t it an emergency if we’re separated?”

“No. He’s strong and fast, and if he needs help there isn’t much we can do.” Of course, now he couldn’t help them. Damn him, anyway. She sighed and held a hand out to Pori.

Pori took Mia’s outstretched hand, stood up, but kept her grip. “Stay with me.”

“I will.” She led them back to the little clearing where the birds had startled her. Wind still rustled the treetops. A single bird called. Nothing else. How could the creature or creatures—gorlat—and Zack gotten so far away she couldn’t see or hear them? “Let’s go back toward the lander.”

“Which way?”

Mia turned around, studying the nearby trees. Three or four thin paths wove through the small open spot. It must be the one opposite the path she and Pori had just come from. “This way.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” She wasn’t, but she gritted her teeth, leaned in, and remembered to watch her footing. She stepped across a gray rock with a black streak in it that looked familiar, and felt a little better. Maybe they’d been here before. Her watch pinged to remind her they’d been on Lym two hours, burned half their time. Her thighs hurt from lifting her feet so high over and over. She took out one of the energy bars, broke it into two, and handed half to Pori. “We’ll stop a moment. Eat this and drink some water.” The bar tasted like chocolate, and the water like heaven. “Keep going. We must be almost there. Remember to watch for animals.”

They walked until Mia felt sure they had gone too far. Maybe this was the stupidest thing she’d ever done. Maybe she and Pori would be lost here for days. Maybe she shouldn’t have reached so high. They’d never been on a planet, but then who had? Well, on Lym, anyway. Hundreds of people at most? Maybe a few thousand if you counted the pilots and occasional tourist or official. But Lym could hold millions of people, just like the biggest stations. Far bigger. Of course, if the stories were true, it had held millions of people. Generations ago. Stories said people had almost killed the planet, but right now, it felt like the planet meant to kill her. Her feet hurt.

A small furry thing flushed out from under a bush in front of them, gone before she could take aim at it.

“Can you let go?” she asked Pori. “So I can have two hands and shoot the next one?”

“What if I don’t want to shoot anything?”

“It’s just a stunner. I think I hear water. I hope it’s the stream.” Maybe there’d be an animal near the water. And Zack. Where was Zack? If any one of them could survive alone here for a few hours it would be Zack, but she fretted anyway. In addition to the running water, she heard a louder, steady crashing, and headed toward it, curious. Ten minutes later, she stepped through two trees and hissed, “Stop.” They stood near the edge of a short but direct fall, the stream two times her height directly below them. Well, not the same one. This ran wider and faster. A long, frustrated sigh escaped her.

“Are we lost?”

“Maybe.” She glanced around, and awe replaced her dismay at being in the wrong place. “Look to your right.”

“Oh.”

Maybe thirty feet from them, the stream fell straight down off a rock into a pool, explaining the crashing she’d been hearing: water falling hard into water. Sunlight drove rainbows to dance in the spray. She had seen pictures, but hadn’t imagined the beauty of a wild waterfall.

“It’s lovely,” Pori whispered, letting go of Mia’s hand and standing up straight, utterly transfixed by the falling water.

Mia looked down. Two slender animals cavorted in the water directly below them. Not fish, but something furred and wet, clearly playing. Why hadn’t she imagined that animals played? Across the stream, a small, four-footed mammal with a scrunched-up snout and two small but wickedly sharp black horns bent its head to drink. A pig? She aimed at it, squinted until the tiny red dot found the animal’s shoulder, and squeezed the handle.

Obediently, the animal fell over sideways. Mia winced.

The two in the water headed toward it, and she gritted her teeth, forced herself to aim, but missed. They didn’t seem to notice, and she couldn’t bring herself to fire again. They were so pretty, and they looked so happy.

She hadn’t thought of prey that way. As happy. If they brought their animal back alive, it would live on a station preserve, have babies, be fine. But the difference between that and being here hit her like a fist in the stomach, followed by stabbing guilt and utter bewilderment.

Four hours here weren’t going to be enough. Four years wouldn’t be enough, a lifetime. No wonder people protested being kept off of Lym. They’d started the whole thing here—the vast Glittering with its hundreds of stations had come from a colony right here on Lym. Then the weight and cost of so many people had almost destroyed the planet, and it had been turned to this…what was the word? Rewilded? Rewilded place.

And here they were, shooting the natives.

She jostled Pori. “Let’s go get it. I don’t want to stun it again.”

Pori hadn’t stopped staring at the waterfall. “Get what?”

“Follow me.”

Pori looked down and saw the fallen beast. “Awww.” She drew in a sharp breath. “It’s completely unprotected!”

Tangled roots and branches competed to offer uncertain footing and handholds. Mia chose the roots and started down, hand over hand, slowly. One foot slipped once, but she managed. Pori bolted past her and stared down at the animal. “Poor thing.” She looked sick as she whispered, “It’s a pig. There are thirty-one different pigs. I didn’t memorize all the names.” She stood over it as if there was a hoard of opportunistic predators right around the corner.

From a distance, it had looked smooth and all one color, but now that Mia was closer she could make out fine hairs, and see that it blended three or four browns that contrasted with the ebony black of its small horns. Its sides rose and fell with steady, slow breaths. It smelled like dirt and salt. Pori picked it up with a soft grunt and settled it in Mia’s arms, balanced across her forearms, leaning into her chest, its head and horns lolling against her left shoulder. Even though it fit nicely against Mia’s chest, she almost staggered with its weight. They were going to have to take turns, and they didn’t know where they were going. Her plan had been to find the lander and wait there for Zack.

Maybe she should call him.

He hadn’t tried to call her.

They weren’t allowed to use electronics. Not unless it was an emergency. Lym didn’t expose its GPS or other nav tools to strangers. She took a deep breath. They would be okay. They were always okay. If they had been going the right direction—basically the right direction—and she was sure they had been—then they must have just missed the clearing. The sun set in the west, and it looked surprisingly low in the sky. She could assume the shadows of the tall trees pointed east. That was the best bet. Go east, assume they’d skirted the edge of the clearing. Find the lander. She glanced at Pori. “Let’s walk.”

She took off, leading as much east as she could manage by analyzing shadows while following trails that doubled back on themselves and refused to go in straight directions. One of the pig’s horns snagged her shirt over and over. After fifteen minutes, she transferred the pig to Pori, who carried it carefully, her eyes wide and soft, and bent her head from time to time to brush her lips on its chest.

It wouldn’t be good to fall in love with the pig. Or this place. But kissing the pig was better than being afraid to move.

She took another turn with the pig, letting Pori lead while she focused on the animal. Theoretically, it would be stunned for an hour or so. It felt like a baby, like an innocent thing. In spite of the horns. Probably, she surmised, because she had done this to it, and made it helpless. Surely nothing wild wanted to be helpless.

In front of her, Pori stopped. She gasped. “This is not good.” She turned and took the pig, letting Mia shoulder past her to the edge of the clearing.

The lander squatted across the clearing from them, far enough away to look small. Two slightly smaller ships sat beside and in front of it. Men and a few robots moved purposefully around the lander. Mia squinted. “They’re loading something into our ship.”

Pori came up beside her, pig and all. “Do you see Zack? Is he there?”

Mia looked, whispered, “No” and then, “Are those Rangers? Why would Rangers put things into the lander?”

Pori whispered back, “I can’t tell what they’re loading. It’s been three hours. We have an hour.” Her brow furrowed. “I don’t…” She looked down at the pig. “I don’t think this pig belongs on that station. And I don’t think we do, either.”

Mia bit her tongue. She agreed, but Pori had no idea how narrow their choices had become. “I want to see better. Can you take the pig?”

“Put it down,” Mia said. “It’s not going anywhere. Just touch it, or something, so you’ll know if it moves. Slide your toes under it. We have an hour?”

Pori set the pig down, very carefully. Her voice had switched from afraid to long-suffering. “I checked. Fifty-two minutes, now. We need to find Zack.”

Timelines and tasks weren’t adding up. What were Rangers doing with the lander? Her throat felt think. “Maybe Jogdan lied to us.” Mia let her thoughts run out loud. “Jogdan sent us away from the lander. And they’re filling it with more stuff than we’re bringing back. We would have just brought him”—she gestured toward the limp animal—“back with us. I…I didn’t even know the lander had cargo bays. Zack would have. He probably knows everything about the lander.”

Pori glanced down at the still pig. “Whatever they’re smuggling off-world is worth more than a pig. Jogden kept telling us what a great chance he was giving us. But they didn’t send a lander here so we could hunt a pig!”

The first time Pori had met Jogden she’d declared him a loser and a liar. Mia hadn’t let herself believe her. “Out of the mouths of babes.”

“What?”

“Never mind. I thought Zack would beat us back. This must be enough of an emergency to use the comm.” Something swooped over their heads, a skimmer with a man standing on it, one hand on a steering device, the other loose at his side. She could only see his back, but he looked comfortable at that speed, and very intent. He had things on his belt, but she couldn’t tell if they were water bottles, or stunners and knives.

A cry went up from the crowd around their lander. The crowd thinned, melting into the forest or into their ships.

Two more of the sleek ships buzzed quietly over them, fast and light and lithe and apparently quite scary given that nothing except robots moved near the lander now. One skimmer pilot had the curves of a woman, and the other skimmer carried two people who could have been any gender. “Are they Rangers?” Pori asked.

“I don’t know.”

The ship that parked in front of the lander coughed and thrummed and then went silent again.

“I think we…I think we should get closer. Maybe circle around the clearing? We need to find out what’s happening.”

Pori put a hand on Mia’s arm. “It might not be safe.”

More skimmers. Some yelling, although she couldn’t make out individual words from this distance.

“They’re fighting,” Pori whispered.

Indecision stuck Mia’s feet in place. She pulled out her comm device and thumbed it on. “Zack? Zack, can you hear me?”

No answer.

She changed channels. “Jogden. Jogden, this is Mia. We need help. Over.”

No answer there either. Just the interminable soft buzz of half a connection. She shook the device and thumbed the button that was supposed to reach Jogden again. Then again. Damn it. He had said he would be there no matter what happened. In the orbiter. Damn it. Damn it. Anger and fear started to build in her, the two words wanting to come out in a full-throated wail. She kept her voice at a whisper. “Damn it.”

“Mom?”

“Yes?”

“The pig is moving.”

Jogden didn’t care about them. Pori had pegged him right. “Let the damn pig go. I think we’re screwed, but there’s no need to hurt the pig.”

“Jogden doesn’t deserve the pig. Maybe we should go find a Ranger.” Pori knelt down by the pig, watching it stretch cloven hooves. “We can’t stay here. Not out in the wild.”

“Are you looking for a Ranger?”

Mia jerked toward the voice, barely biting back a scream. Until the man spoke, she had thought they were alone. Yet she could—almost—reach out and touch him without stretching. He wore a simple camouflage shirt, a belt that ran from shoulder to hip, festooned with things she didn’t recognize, brown pants, and dark brown boots. She had to look up to see his sun-darkened face. His blond hair lay in two braids, as if he were a girl. Gray-green eyes stared back at her, cold. Lined with wrinkles. She had heard people on the planet did that—let themselves age. But she hadn’t expected it of the Rangers. They had power, so why wouldn’t they be heavily health-modded?

Pori stood rooted, staring at the Ranger.

Mia had no idea how to answer his question. Were they looking for a Ranger? “We were told to avoid you at all costs,” she blurted.

The pig grunted and shook itself, standing unsteadily.

“Good choice about the pig. You should step away from it.”

They did.

“They can hurt you. See those horns?”

“Thanks,” Mia said.

Pori’s face had gone white.

The pig wandered away, and the man watched it for a moment. “You’re lucky that animal is unharmed.”

“We would never hurt it!” Pori protested.

He almost smiled. Just a short flash of upturn before his expression returned to cool control. “I’m Ranger Charlie Windar. There are fifteen more Rangers nearby. We’re spread all around the clearing. And twenty”—he nodded toward the lander—“near that ship. I presume you came here on that.”

She nodded, her belly cold with worry. Jogden had told her that talking with a Ranger was the one thing they must not do. She swallowed. Jogden. Damn him. “Have you seen my son?”

Charlie blinked. “No one but you. How old is he?”

“Seventeen. We lost him. Chasing something.”

Charlie’s eyes narrowed.

Pori’s voice came out very small. “He was chasing a gorlat. It got away. I got scared and I stopped and we lost him. But he’s strong. Zack is always okay.”

Charlie’s arms had crossed over his wide chest. “Has he ever been here before?”

“No,” Mia said. Why did the question make her suddenly feel like an idiot? Her face heated. “No.”

“And neither have you. Which explains why you aren’t sufficiently worried about him. Damned spacers.”

She bridled, but before she could speak, Charlie grabbed her arm, propelled her into the clearing and along the edge. Pori followed.

He led them to a skimmer tucked just inside the trees and facing the clearing. It was longer and wider than she had expected but not tall at all, basically a flat surface with four seats and an engine in the back. The silvery material seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it.

A nearly black creature with a wide head, dark, slightly slanted eyes, and a long tail filled one seat. Mia froze, her feet suddenly glued to the earth. The animal looked intelligent, calm, and muscular. She knew instinctively it could kill her. Looking at it terrified her, made her heart slow, her attention fixed on its face. Even though she didn’t know as much about the inhabitants of Lym as Pori did, she could name this animal. “A tongat.”

A smile touched the Ranger’s voice. “This is Cricket. She will obey me. Don’t touch her unless I say so. Don’t move too fast.”

Mia swallowed.

“Get in.”

Mia hesitated.

“She won’t hurt you. Just…she’s wild. She’s not a house pet.”

Mia’s feet wouldn’t move. The animal’s steady, calculated gaze made her certain she was prey, that if she moved at all…

“We need to find your boy.”

“Zack,” she managed, not taking her eyes from the tongat. “I’m Mia. And this is Pori.”

“Pleased to meet you. Get in.

Pori climbed up, gingerly, and took the seat behind Cricket. When the animal merely regarded her quietly, Mia forced herself to take a step. Charlie’s hands circled her waist, and he popped her up unceremoniously into her seat. Charlie spoke to the skimmer and a bar rose in front of both of them. “Hold onto that. Don’t scream.”

Don’t scream?

The Ranger jumped easily up into the driver’s seat and with a few mumbled commands the machine shot out of the forest and up over the trees.

Mia screamed. Pori put her hands over her face.

He spoke loudly to them, the wind thinning his words. “What’s your boy’s name again?”

“Zack.”

“Where did you see him last?”

Mia leaned over, oriented herself to the lander, reached forward to touch Charlie’s arm, and pointed. “That way.”

Pori corrected her. “No—to the right. Find the stream. A little stream.”

Charlie didn’t turn around. “Seven streams run through this valley.”

Mia closed her eyes. “It was a smaller one. And we were on some rocks.”

He said nothing. Good thing. Mia could imagine the number of rocks in the valley.

The craft turned smoothly. The utter strangeness of riding through the sky without being in a tunnel or a closed ship settled over her, and she sat speechless at first as he drove, turned, drove, and spoke to someone else from time to time via a slender headset. After a few minutes, she shook herself and peered below them. She spotted a variety of animals. No Zack. From time to time she glanced back toward Pori. She had opened her eyes but clasped the bar in front of her as if it was her only friend in the world.

The tongat sat in utter, calm quiet.

Two other skimmers joined them, widening the net of the search.

How could Zack have gotten this far? Worry crawled up her spine. The planet stretched in every direction, as far as she could see. Trees and plants and animals and water forever and ever and ever. But still, Zack only had two feet. And none of the paths looked easy. They were twisty and full of branches and bushes. She reached over and put a hand over Pori’s, feeling the sting of her own stupidity like a hole in her middle. She had done so much—kept their old ship running for years, found work, stretched their credit. She had only done this when there weren’t any other choices.…

Zack had to be okay. She loved him in spite of his independence, loved him to her bones. She pulled out her comm device and called him again.

No answer.

Charlie turned around at the sound. “Does he have one of those?”

She nodded.

He held out his hand, and she put the small, round device into his palm. He did a few things to slow the skimmer, then squinted at the markings on the device and spoke to someone else, his voice clipped.

Hope and, once again, the feeling that she had been completely undone by the planet washed over her. The skimmer slowed. Pori pulled her hand out from under Mia’s and smoothed tendrils of hair away from her face.

Charlie looked down at them. Mia expected judgment but he appeared relieved. “They found him. Sal will go pick him up. I’m taking you back to our station.”

Maybe he had a heart after all. Maybe all the things Jogden had told her about Rangers were exaggerated. Or even lies. Some of Mia’s fear cracked away, leaving her lighter. Zack was okay. When she could speak, she looked up at him, yelled, “Thank you!”

He nodded, brusque, his attention focused on conversations she couldn’t really hear. She tried to pick out words while they flew, hoping to get an idea of what might wait for them. Between the wind of their passage and the strangeness of so many of his words, she gave up. He wasn’t even looking at them, anyway. Like they didn’t really matter, and maybe they didn’t. Not when she started thinking about the idea that Rangers had been loading something into their ship. She settled back to watch, one hand holding her hair from her face.

It took hours. Even though Mia still had enough water to sip at her bottle from time to time, her throat felt dry and scratchy with the constant wind. She desperately needed a restroom. In spite of both things, she felt utterly enchanted as they flew over the edge of tall white cliffs with a stomach-dropping descent and then turned and ran beside them for a long time. Bright yellow flowers and red-trunked trees lined the crevices and crawled up vertical rifts. Waterfalls spilled, rushed, roared, and plunged from the sheer rock faces. A herd of off-white animals with brown horns balanced on slim ledges, watching them go by. Charlie had stopped whatever conversation he was in a few minutes before. He spoke to them for the first time since they’d started toward the station. “Mia? Can you count the cloud goats?”

“Twenty-four.”

“Pori? How many babies?”

Pori squinted. “Three.”

They left the cliff behind and then the forest behind, and Charlie slowed while they floated over fields and down to a squat white building with corrals full of herd beasts on one side. Or maybe riding animals. More than one species, anyway. After the skimmer glided to a stop, he climbed out and helped Mia and then Pori out. His face had closed. He slapped his right leg, and Cricket leapt out of the copilot seat as smoothly as if she were made of water instead of flesh and bone. As she followed Charlie into the building with a hopping gait, Mia realized the beast was missing a foreleg.

Charlie led them to a bathroom and then a small room with no windows. Just a white table, four black chairs, and a soft light that fell uniformly from the whole ceiling. A slender woman brought them water, but no food. Mia took her last energy bar out and gave Pori half. On the way here, she had felt curious and happy, interested. Maybe even a tiny bit hopeful, although there was no reason for that. But now, she felt small again, and stupid, and like she had been duped. It didn’t help that Charlie seemed changed, all business here in his headquarters, more policeman than cowboy. He stood looking down at them, handsome and unreadable and utterly intimidating, waiting until they swallowed their mouthfuls. “So tell me your story.”

Pori asked, “Where’s Zack?”

“He’ll be here in about an hour. He twisted an ankle, and we’re fixing it. He’s lucky he’s alive.”

Jogden had warned her the Rangers might try to separate them. Were they keeping her from Zack? Mia swallowed into her fluttery, tight stomach. “What happened?”

Charlie shrugged. “I haven’t talked to him. Tell me your story.”

What should she say? If she betrayed Jogden, she lost every chance of being part of the Knight’s Orbit. But then, maybe she had never had one. That left them exactly nowhere to go. Which could mean menial work on some space barge-ship if they were lucky. “What will happen to us?”

“That might depend on your story.” Charlie smiled. “You let the pig go. That’s a good beginning.”

She glanced at Pori. He daughter nodded slightly, encouraging her to trust this strange man. Mia dropped her eyes for a moment. But what choice did they have? Jogden had given them zero reason to be loyal to him. She nodded back. “We’ll tell you what we can.”

Charlie’s “Good choice” sounded so gruff she winced.

Together, they told him how they’d been unable to keep their little cargo ship together, and how good it had felt when Jogden offered a chance at a crew spot on a station if they captured a mammal and brought it back. Mia described it the way it had been described to her. “He told us if we could do this, we’d demonstrate we were good enough to be part of his crew.”

Charlie shook his head quietly at that, and asked, “Did you expect to be safe here?”

Mia didn’t have a reply, but Pori did. “I think Jogden expected us to die.”

Mia stilled at that. Was it true? “Has this happened before?” she asked.

Charlie’s face didn’t look exactly sympathetic. “I’m asking the questions.”

After he had repeated most of his questions three times, Mia decided he might believe that they really were as stupid as she was beginning to think they were. The Ranger seemed to approve slightly more of Pori than he did of Mia. Or maybe he just liked younger people, or was giving her a break since bad decisions had all been Mia’s. To her slight relief, he seemed neither angry nor condescending. Just mildly curious. He paced a bit, and then left abruptly, closing the door behind him.

Mia tried to open it and couldn’t. She turned to Pori. “I’m so sorry.”

Pori laughed and shrugged. “I got to see a planet. I didn’t even know I wanted to.”

Mia started pacing just like Charlie had, wishing for windows. She crossed her arms, her footsteps echoing on the hollow floor. What next?

Pori watched her for a while and then asked, “Will they lock us up?”

“They just did, right?”

“Surely they won’t leave us here, Mom. There’s no bathroom.”

They were also out of water. Mia made three more circuits of the small room before Charlie came back. He sounded grave. “Your stories are similar. None of you should be alive, but somehow you all are. Do you realize we have real predators here? A rakul could slice you in half with its front legs. Tongats like Cricket hunt in packs.” He leaned forward. “Humans are easy prey. Tongats kill by snapping necks. They just leap on your back and…” His voice trailed off a little, and when he picked back up there was less anger in him. “There are a hundred ways in which you might have died here.” He focused his look at Mia. “And I’m pretty sure that even if you had stunned the pig again and gotten it to the ship before it took off”—his tone of voice indicated he didn’t think that was at all likely—“you might have joined the crew as some form of indentured grunt. You might have been able to eat.”

Mia heard the probably not in his voice, and to her chagrin, agreed.

Pori raised a hand for attention.

“Yes?”

“So why did they send us here?”

Charlie shook his head, and his voice edged again, tight and full of barely controlled anger. “The lander came so that some of our people could get rich sending smuggled goods up to your station.” He sounded deeply angry for the first time. “They’ll be exiled now, a few to prison stations. It won’t be pretty. But you? You might have been sent on a bet, or for entertainment.”

Pori’s lips thinned.

Mia looked into his eyes, hating that she felt dependent—yet again—on some man in power. She took a deep breath and straightened. “We’re sorry. But we…we didn’t understand…anything. My husband died years ago, when Pori was a babe, and we’ve made it this far. We’re hard workers, and we can learn! Zack is strong. Pori is brilliant and strong.”

His face softened, and he glanced at Pori. “I guess you didn’t have a lot of choices.”

Mia stood and looked him in the eye. “We can work here.”

A very long pause. Charlie ran one hand along his jaw over and over, a sort of unconscious gesture.

Pori asked, “Where’s Cricket?”

Charlie’s lips curved—very briefly—into a smile. “She’s eating. We’re stationed here for another week.” He shifted on his feet. “I’ll get you some food. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

He had just come back. Now he was leaving again? Why hadn’t he brought food to start with? As the door closed behind him, Mia sighed and flopped onto the chair. She wanted to see Zack, but she did want to eat and maybe sleep. She felt too tired to think clearly.

When Charlie came back, he offered a small smile to Mia. “Are you willing to clean animal stalls in trade for a chance for Pori to go to school?”

She blinked, replayed his words until they sank in. “But…I thought Lym is off-limits. To everyone.”

“We decide who comes.”

“What about Zack?”

“He can have the same choice.”

She crossed her arms. Damned if that would happen offstage. “Bring him here and then we can talk. I want my son.”

Charlie nodded, and for the first time since she’d turned, startled, to see him near the clearing, there was a spark of respect in his eyes. “Okay. I’ll get him.”

She touched his shoulder. “And if we don’t take it? If we don’t stay here?”

He shrugged. “Probably a prison ship.”

She stared at him, letting the words sink in. “We’ll stay free.”

Charlie left, and moments later he returned with Zack. Zack wore unfamiliar clothes and limped in an oversized boot, but he had his usual sheepish smile, the one he wore when he wanted her forgiveness.

She held him close. “Damned fool.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Do you want to stay here?” she asked him.

“Of course.”

When she looked at Charlie, the widest smile she’d yet seen graced his face. It made him look—almost—gentle.

He said, “That’s good. We have to replace about twenty people we just arrested. Thousands will apply, but you’re already here, and we can use help now. Besides, I suspect you can’t afford to leave.”

Mia swallowed. Maybe they needed help now. “We have…nothing. And no permission for anywhere.”

“We’ll give all three of you jobs for six months. If you do well, maybe you can stay. Maybe.”

She sank into the chair, tears coming unbidden to her eyes. Here she was, looking small and weak again. But grateful. She managed to choke out two words. “Thank you.”

“It’s not a promise,” Charlie told her softly. “You’ll have to follow all of our rules. There will be a lot to learn. You might fail.”

She looked up at him. “I won’t.” She took each of her children’s hands. “We won’t.”

“I’ll be right back.” He left them.

A slight smile crept across Pori’s face and then took over her whole body.

Mia whispered, “We…We’ll be okay.”

Pori smiled back at her. “I really did like that pig.”

“What pig?” Zack asked.

Mia listened quietly as Pori snuggled against Zack and began to recall their adventures.


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Framed