Rocks and Shoals Pt. 03 of 04

Among the wreckage of the dirz fighter, Shan found a shard of metal that tapered to a nice point. She attached the wide end to the eaves of their roof and let the shadow cast down over the wall. Each day she scratched a mark when the sun reached its peak.

Time passed.

One day she noticed the mark was higher than the day before. The sun had reached its solstice. From here on the days would get shorter. She had no idea how long it would be until autumn, but it was still summer and it was already cool enough at nights. She was afraid to think how cold it would get.

Also during this time she ventured out onto the plain and scouted for the herd of yaks. She didn't see them, but she saw signs of their passing. There was spoor that she collected for fuel, there were hoofprints in the dry soil and there were swaths of cropped grass.

Once she found a carcass by the river. She inspected it and found it was mostly rotten, but not completely. She removed a section of intestines. Back at camp, she scraped it clean and tied each end of it to a scrap of iron and stretched it and let it cure a long time. Each day she moved the section of the fighter, stretching her strand of intestines tighter and tighter, each time rubbing it with a piece of metal, running it into a fine rope. Finally, when it seemed as tough and leathery as she could make it, she measured a length and tied off the ends to loop around the tips of the carbon fiber rod to replace the bow string.

More time passed.

Towards the end of summer, she found the herd again. This time they were in the hills far to the south, in a gully, along the bank of a small feeder river.

She had her bow and a couple of arrows with her. She wasn't going to get a better chance.

She crouched low so as not to alarm them, and she advanced as close as she dared. There was a row of hedges. She stood behind them and strung the bow and inspected the arrow and when she was confident that all was in order, she knocked the arrow on her new string and readied her grip.

She scanned the herd. There were less than two dozen. Half by the river drinking or eating and half with their heads up, ears twitching for signs of danger. As she watched, some moved away from the river and others moved in to take their place.

One of the animals was somewhat separated from the rest. It walked along the bank, head down as if searching for something specific to eat. Its horns were longer than the rest, and its fur was lighter and shaggier.

Shan moved along a row of hedges to get closer to her target. Then she drew, took aim, and fired. The arrow cut right. Hit the animal in the shoulder. It brayed, dropped to its knees and cried out some more.

The other animals stampeded, running away quickly. Leaving only dust and one injured member behind.

Shan drew the knife and approached. The animal was terrified. Her own nerves hummed. She had never killed anything this way before. She was used to shooting dirz fighters, not facing a screaming animal and looking it in the face when she killed it. But that's what she had to do.

She cautiously closed the distance and when she was near, the animal quieted. It knew its time had come. Animals could sense that sometimes. Close as she was she saw details: its horns were segmented as if grown in stages, its fur was nearly white and surprisingly clean, and its eyes were black and she saw herself reflected in them. And then she touched its neck. She felt the animal tremble. And she drew her blade across the flesh, opening a vein.

Soon it was over and she draped the carcass over her shoulders and carried it the long distance back to camp.

*

Between the two of them they were able to figure how out to gut and skin the animal and slice the meat.

That night they ate yak steaks, dry and tough and gamey, but it was real meat and Shan was in a delightful mood.

After they ate their fill, they cooked the rest of the meat so it would last longer. Then they set to work stretching and drying the hide.

Exhausted they sat side by side and watched the few firefly crickets that were still hoping about this late in the season.

"I don't know about you, but that steak hit the spot."

Jadhar grunted his agreement.

"My vegetarian friend once told me that being a vegetarian gives people more energy. But I think that's a load of crap. I have more energy with some meat in me."

Jadhar looked at her, his expression was one of patience.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You want to say something."

"Is it that obvious?"

He nodded.

Shan scowled. This was not how she wanted to do this. She said nothing for a time, just watched the night. Then, abruptly she said, "I want to go to the mountains." She didn't wait for his objection, she simply went ahead with her thoughts. "I think there might be caves there, something we can keep heated better than this aluminum shed. Plus there will be better sources of water. Maybe better plants. Different plants, at any rate, maybe a better food source."

He said nothing.

"What do you think?"

"It's a good plan."

"But..."

"But nothing. Let's do it."

Shan looked at him, decided how to broch her next thought. "I want to scout it first by myself. You stay here, pack our supplies, maybe make a sled to carry our stuff if we decide to make the move. I think that will be better."

"Why?"

How could she answer that? She wasn't really sure herself. "We might not move there. It's just a possibility. I just want to check it out first." What she didn't say was that she needed some space. His passion and their close proximity were suffocating. She needed air.

There was silence between them, a stillness that threatened to become a distance if not bridged. Then Jadhar did the best thing he could, he touched her thigh and said, "I support your decision."

She let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

That night there was no sex, there was too much to worry about, but there was some kissing. And for Shan that was enough.

*

On the plain under the dark sky and the small red sun, Shan marched. Days passed. Eventually there were clouds that blew in from the west and she thought it was going to rain, but there was nothing she could do about that now. There was no place to shelter.

As she marched her thoughts kept turning to her girlfriend back on Earth. She couldn't help but think about what Li Cong would say if she were here now.

"They abandoned you, you know that, don't you?" That's probably how it would start.

"They had no reason to think I survived."

"I know you, Shan, you tell yourself that so you won't be pissed at them for leaving you here."

Shan wasn't about to argue with a figment of her imagination.

But that figment wasn't finished yet, not by a long shot. "They abandoned you, like you abandoned me."

Yeah, she knew that was coming.

"Face it, your parents think you're dead, I think you're dead, I'm trying to get over you, all the while you're here fucking the man who got you into this mess."

Shan didn't want to face that - too painful - it made her feel ashamed.

"What does he have that I don't? A penis? Is that it?"

Shan flinched. She didn't believe that. She had loved Li Cong, as much as she could. It had been a good relationship, a great relationship even. But it was over now. It had to be. She had to move on. If she didn't, she was as good as dead. Trapped here on this rock with no way off and no one to turn to, she had to make the most of her situation.

Painful, but there you have it.

And if that involved finding comfort with a good man, a man who supported her and cared for her, then what harm was there in that?

She just hoped the real Li Cong would understand.

Eventually Shan came to a gully with steep banks. It had once been a river, now it was a brackish trickled like all the water she found on this world. But there was a granite butte that provided a small overhang.

No chance she was going to find a better place. So she stopped here and made camp. She started a small fire with dried yak dung and ate some jerky.

She huddled under her fur cloak as she sat under the rock overhang and watched the fire.

She reached between her legs and found that soft bit of hooded flesh and she rubbed it.

She thought about Li Cong's thighs. So soft and smooth. She loved those legs. And her neck, so slim, and her delicate collar bone. She had loved kissing that supple skin, enjoying the taste of that other woman.

"Oh God." That's what Li Cong usually moaned during their lovemaking.

Shan imagined working her way down, kissing her chest, then her breasts, small, perky, lovely, then taking her large nipples into her mouth and sucking them.

"Oh, you're such a bitch." Another favorite saying of hers, especially when breasts were involved.

Shan loved hearing that.

Shan rubbed that little bundle faster and harder. She imagined Li Cong's fingers doing the work, her own fingers were on her girlfriend bringing the other woman to the edge. "Oh that's it," she said to her imaginary girlfriend.

An orgasm bloomed inside her. She imagined her girlfriend climaxing at the same time.

She melted on the rocky floor.

Past the edge of the rock overhang, rain fell in cold sheets.

*

After the storm passed and the clouds cleared, Shan was able to see her destination. The mountains filled the horizon, squatted like a hulking animal, dark slopes of granite rising to the red sky.

She walked some more and came to a grove of trees growing around a small pond that formed in a basin that had once been a riverbed. She stopped and took a drink of water then refilled her canteen.

"If I was really here, I could watch your back. This place is dangerous, you know."

"I doubt that. I haven't seen-"

Her words broke off, she froze.

A hulking black shape sat atop a butte of rock looking down at her. The creature was large, with a tapered snout and a lean sinewy body and dark malevolent eyes. It had a tail and long legs and structurally it was like a wolf or a panther, but much bigger.

Was this real? Couldn't be. She was hallucinating. Li Cong had just been talking about the dangers here, it was on her mind.

God, she was messed up.

She stared to back away.

Two recurved arms reached up from the creature's shoulders. They unfolded like praying mantis arms. Then some weird flower shaped flesh opened. The radar dish petals focused on her.

Holy crap. She hadn't imagined anything this weird even when high.

She took a few deep breaths, calmed her racing heart. Maybe those things were some kind of sensor organs, she didn't want it smelling the fear on her.

"You're the apex predator here, I bet. If this is your turf, I can respect that."

The petals twitched, the rest of the panther seemed oddly relaxed.

"I'll just be on my way." And she continued backing her way out of the grove. When she reached the edge, she climbed out of the basin and continued her march west.

"Well, that was pretty exciting," Li Cong said.

"Shut up."

*

It took a few days for her to actually reach the first of the outlying foothills. When she did the terrain there turned from hard dirt to solid granite. The grass thinned and she found frequent trickles of water cutting tracks through the stone and pooling in the defiles.

She stood atop the first of the hills and looked back the way she had come. The ridge with her camp and her companion seemed very far away, only a slice of rock at the edge of the plain. She had the sudden thought that she might not ever see him again. Then she dismissed that random thought and turned toward the mountains.

Slopes rose and fell in broken rhythms from the loose scree below. There was a wide river running through the valley between her and the first of the slopes. The grass here appeared be fuller and taller and greener than anywhere else on this world.

And this valley was filled with yaks. Several herds appeared to have congregated here for the grazing and the water.

Then she scanned the slope. To the west there was a gash in the mountainside that appeared to have been formed by some earthquake ages ago.

"Reminds you of home, doesn't it?" Her imaginary girlfriend was still with her. Now she was wearing her tiny denim shorts with the frayed edges and a purple tee shirt and a camouflage baseball cap. That's what she wore one day on their vacation in Shanghai. That had been a perfect day. It seemed another lifetime.

Shan tried ignoring her.

She descended the hill and crossed the valley. The herds were keeping a leery distance from each other giving her room to cross without getting too close to them and setting off a stampede. Then she came to the river and followed the bank until she reached a rocky bed that she could ford easily. She rolled her pants up the knees and that was enough.

On the other side she continued up the slope. At its base it was not very steep and she hiked along the lower edge, heading west toward the fissure.

As the altitude rose, the temperature dropped.

Shan shivered.

"If I was really here I could warm you up. I'm sure you would enjoy that."

God, she didn't need this. "What are you doing?"

"You need some company."

"What do you want me to say?"

"That you love me. That you miss me. That you didn't abandon me to fall in love with your mortal enemy."

"All of that is true," Shan said. "I do love you. I do miss you. And I didn't abandon you. I was taken from you. It's not like I had any choice in this."

"You had a choice to fall in love with him."

She had nothing to say to that. If Li Cong said it, then a part of her must have thought so.

"I wish Dayna was here. She wouldn't give me shit. She'd encourage me." Then she thought some more and remembered one of her boyfriends. "Or Brandon. Now there was a man of few words."

*

The next day she came to a crust of rock that protruded from a shallow basin of soil and grass. Atop the knoll she saw a dark shape silhouetted against the red sky. She blinked. She moved closer. It was a ship. Larger than a fighter, it had stubby wings and tail fins, it had a blocky fuselage and a cockpit for more than just a pilot and gunner.

Was she hallucinating again?

God, she hoped not.

She walked around, inspecting the outside. Not human. Not dirz. Not a race she had ever encountered before. Truly alien. There were a couple of hatches. One at the rear and one beside the cockpit. Both had writing in some unintelligible scrawl.

There was no sign of life, no sign of survivors. It must have crashed here a long time ago, it had been here longer than she had. The surface was scoured from wind and sand. But it appeared to be intact, more so than her fighter, or Jadhar's.

At the door beside the cockpit, she found a manual release. It was corroded. She tried it, but it was rusted tight. She hit it with a rock to try to knock it loose. No such luck.

Then she checked the rear hatch. The doors were rusted and stuck partially open. Enough to squeeze though.

Inside the air was cool and dust swirled at her passing. There were instrument panels everywhere, chairs and several work stations. It appeared to be a long range survey craft.

There were no bodies.

She passed through an open bulkhead and into the cockpit.

Again there were instrument panels and dust, but no bodies.

She looked at the controls, imagined what race built this, where were they from, what they were like. She would never know. The mystery of it intrigued her.

She touched a panel. Screens lit up. There was still power. Unbelievable.

She tapped what she thought was the engine controls. Another panel switched on. She saw a display of the craft. There were red and yellow indicators trying to tell her something about the state of the hull or the power or something.

Then she noticed a flashing green light on another screen. There was a scrawl of alien writing. She saw a string of dots and hashes that might have been numbers. She watched the scroll for a time trying to make sense of it. She was no expert, but they looked like wavelength frequencies for sub space communications.

Her breath caught in her throat. Her heart beat faster.

If this was an emergency broadcast, something to alert friendly ships and call for help, then maybe there was a chance of getting off this rock.

Then a reality check.

What were the odds that it would broadcast on a frequency any human ship was listening on? Or that the range was far enough? It was astronomical.

Then again, hope had a way of taking root in even the harshest of environments.

She paused, collected her thoughts, she needed to be smart about this.

First she hit a button beside the screen, and tapped it a few times until the numbers on the screen started flashing. Second, she hit the control panel with the dots and hashes, setting the frequencies to something that she remembered from flight school. Finally she hit the main control again to set her new numbers. A moment later a new set of dots and dashes scrolled across the screen. It was the numbers she had entered.

There was no way to know if it worked, or if it even this was in fact communication frequencies, or if the communications hardware still broadcast, or if the range was sufficient, or if anyone was listing. So many things, and each one had to be correct or there was no chance of rescue.

But if every variable broke in her favor, then there was a chance someone would come along and find her. Unbelievable as that sounded to her at that moment.

She left the craft and sat on the ground, leaning against the body and thought. The ship probably ran on nuclear power. With just the broadcast it might run for a thousand years. The hardware would break before the power ran out.

What about the crew?

It was possible that the SOS she had just activated had brought a rescue ship. There were no bodies because they were already gone. That thought heartened her. Although it was just as likely that they abandoned their craft, just like she had abandoned hers, and they were elsewhere on this world. Perhaps in the mountains she was set to explore.

If that were the case, she'd probably find their skeletons in a cave somewhere.

And then she suddenly noticed that her imaginary girlfriend (ex-girlfriend) was no longer with her. Not now that she had some thing real to occupy her thoughts.

*

Later she resumed her trek west, down the valley toward the fissure.

When she arrived at the base, she saw it was a gouge in the side of the mountain, rubble filled at the bottom and impossible to climb. The crevice was deep and irregular and it ran most of the height of the mountain. But along the slope of the mountain it was climbable.

So she stayed near the rim of the crack and began to climb. Eventually, after many hours, she reached a level shelf of rock and rested. There she saw that the fissure had exposed a hidden cave. It had probably formed when the mountain was young and magma ran through it in veins. Later an earthquake had brought down this section of the mountain. Now that hollowed out cavity opened onto a protrusion of rock that was bracketed by the steep walls of the crevice. It was a perfect shelter.

She thought of the panther she met earlier.

Shan went to the lip of the cave and peered in. Total darkness.

She found a branch from a nearby tree and she wrapped it with a strip of fabric she had measured out earlier for just this purpose, then she lit it with her flint and steel and entered the cave.

She cast the light around but didn't see any movement. Nothing attacked her.

Her chest unclenched. Her heart rate returned to normal.

Inside there were several rough chambers running in sequence deeper into the rock. This far back they would be free from the biting wind when a storm came and the small confines would be easy to heat with a fire. Plus, with more yak pelts, they could insulate the rooms to keep the heat from bleeding out into the granite. The final point in its favor was that being high on the rock face with an easy to identify land mark, it would be easy to find again when they had to venture out.