💾 Archived View for lantashifiles.com › writing › hybridShadows › theNonHybrid.gmi captured on 2023-04-19 at 22:25:35. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2022-03-01)
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The young woman glanced over her shoulder, staring up to the sky. The dark reddish light of night was slowly turning to the blue-green of dawn. She saw it there, a darkness, a void in the dawn light. One thousand kilometers above the world was the starship Celestial Guard, in stationary orbit over where the Spirit Dawn colony was now under construction.
The world upon which she stood, this land she now called home, was Shendar. Named after one of the ancient legends of her own world, a god of war, of power, Shendar and its leaders too were overbearing, powerful, and to Kendra's eyes, oppressive.
This land was similar to their home world, a world of dark green lands and soft red oceans. Called KshDonar, it was a dying world that Kendra had never known. KshDonar too was named after an ancient god, the god of hope. It was hope now that brought her people forth across the stars, as the old world was now a land with a dying sun, and blackening, dying vegetation.
Kendra was born aboard ship, sixteen Sols ago. The Celestial Guard, along with many other transport vessels and supply ships, left the dying KshDonar 70 Sols before. To Kendra, to her parents, to her grandparents, Celestial Guard was home.
"And now, Shendar is," Kendra thought to herself. She turned again, fleeing from the sight of the colony ship, toward the protective forest in the distance.
Celestial Guard was about a quarter of the size of the smaller of Shendar's two moons, Fraliksh, which was now fading toward the horizon as this world's sun started to rise at her back. Celestial Guard was huge. It was a set of nine gigantic cylinders rotating around a central point, a tube that worked as both an transport elevator and supply transporter. The colony ship carried thousands of crew and inhabitants across many dozens of light years in search of a new home. It was dark grey, and, to Kendra, menacing. It was an eye hovering over this world, watching her.
The glance at the ship was only for a second, as the girl turned and ran onward toward the forest ahead of her. She knew she was being tracked. Someone aboard that spacecraft was watching her right now, wondering what she was up to. They could see her, and due to the tracking technology implanted into her body they also knew exactly who she was. The device was planted in her, in her back close to her spine, as it was in all the colonists from the world KshDonar.
Kendra didn't care. Let the overlords watch. That is how she thought of them - the overlords. The command crew of Celestial Guard was also the government of the people, and had been for generations, as it had been determined that the populace could not be counted on to run business of the colony ship, or the many accompanying military and supply vessels. Like everyone on the surface of this new world, she had been spied on her entire life. Unlike most of her fellow colonists, Kendra had been found wanting, inferior. Kendra could not hear the Song. She did not have access to the Grid. For any access to the network, Kendra had to use slow and clunky hand-held devices in a way that humans had to do hundreds of years in the past. She was laughed at. She was also a mystery.
There were many people on board that had been technologically inferior, due to insufficient genetics for Grid integration. These people were the Non-Hybrids. But unlike the others, Kendra's genetics were not inferior. They were, instead, unusual, advanced, complex in a way that none of the doctors could understand. In another world this might have made her special. But in this age where all that mattered was integration of the human body and mind into technology, Kendra, who could access nothing, was considered next to useless.
Kendra ran, closing her mind and thoughts to the painful reality of her situation, of how people viewed her. Her forearms bear, she ran through shoulder-high ferns, through this field, one yet to be cleared. The ferns were a pale red, with a thick sheen of moisture left from the pre-dawn rains. Kendra ran faster than most. This was one of her gifts. Her breathing fast, her lungs ached as she ran faster. As the newly constructed colony town faded in the morning mists behind her, she felt a sense of freedom that she had never felt aboard ship. The ferns slapped at her as she ran, some leaving a residue on her that caused her to itch. She didn't care.
Finally after several minutes she burst out of the field and into the depths of the forest.
The trees of the forest rose hundreds of feet into the air, the branches thick with vegetation. It was dark within the trees, difficult to see in the predawn light. Kendra slowed down only a bit though. She had been here, in these woods the day before as part of a scouting mission. And as she had then, Kendra could somehow sense the objects around her, the trees, the animals, the plants. What her eyes could not see in this light, another skill, undefined, seemed to take over. Yesterday it had been daylight. Her scouting party had been sent to find plants and herbs that could prove edible, or medicinal. She had been along for only the simplest of tasks, of course. They didn't trust her with more.
In this predawn, there was no pursuit of Kendra from the colony, none as yet anyway. Perhaps there wouldn't be. After all, she was not considered that important. Also, where would she go? Where would a failed hybrid hide anyway. "Useless," they thought she was. Oh, they wouldn't say it aloud, where she could hear. But she could see it in their expression, in their glances toward one another. And she knew they were talking, communicating in a way she could neither sense nor understand.
The bark of the trees in this forest was a very deep brown, almost black. They stretched up into the sky, huge, larger than anything she had ever seen or imagined. And the scents, the smells of this world were so strange, exotic. They filled her with such a sense of wonder. The smells were sweet, Kendra could almost taste the life of the trees, the animals in the woods about. It was so different than anything aboard ship, even in the garden rings, where the food for the colonists had been grown.
Kendra's eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness around her, as this world's sun began to rise. The thick trees still cast the land about her in shadow, but it allowed her to run all out again. Kendra took off, laughing, running away from her life into the new world.
Captain Leonard McKnight paused as he entered the bridge of the Celestial Guard. McKnight was one of the taller men on the ship, standing at 6 foot 3. He was in his mid-forties, with dark hair and grey eyes. His shoulders were wide, his chest broad. Leondard's physical appearance commanded respect, even as mankind thought it had moved beyond such shallow appraisals. But it was not through his height or strength that his respect was earned, but rather his well-demonstrated mind and judgement. He also was considered unique among the Hybrids, often preferring the outdated, physical modes of communication.
For several minutes Captain McKnight watched the men and women on his bridge, those under his command as they worked. He looked momentarily at each of the main stations - navigation, geological, tactical, communications. As he did so, several displays in his mind's eye came alive, and he assigned processes to each to monitor for relevant activity.
"Lieutenant Goya, what is our current position?" Leonard asked aloud.
Goya had answered over the Grid, officially known as the Song. The captain looked at her. She had dark skin and sharp facial features. Like many of the crew, she had circuitry running just underneathe the skin, and pulsing blue and red light could be seen pulsing in her neck and along her jaw. She was extremely capable, and interfaced better with the Song than most aboard.
"And how about the surrounding terrain, that outside the valley. How much data have we collected."
The captain pondered this. He feared intelligent beings on Shendar that had sufficient techology to block their scans. But it could just as well be the inherent characteristics of the planet itself. It would be fascinating to explore it, to uncover its secrets. Their technology was advanced, and he did not fear being outclassed by the natives, whoever they may be.
In the periphery of his vision, Captain McKnight saw an icon, showing that Lieutenant Andre Nickels was requiring his attention. A video icon also showed in the corner of his mind's eye that Nickels had something from his terminal that he thought Captain McKnight would be interested in. Neither were marked as urgent. With a thought McKnight declined the video, and replied to Nickels that he would come over to see what was needed in a moment. He quickly sensed that Nickels was annoyed, that the movement of the captain through the bridge was unnecessary, and then the feeling was gone. Nickels had suppressed it, not wanting the captain to notice.
McKnight walked over to the view screen by Lieutenant Nickels. Nickels was sitting there, leaning back in his chair, eyes closed. Nickels was a good-looking young man, short but thick dark hair, a strong face, in excellent shape. He kept his physical body well-trained. The captain knew that Nickels could see him through the visual equipment on the bridge, that he saw the video screen in his own mind, and did not require and manual communication with the captain. Nevertheless, the captain signaled him silently to open his eyes and to speak aloud. A moment later, Lieutenant Nickels sat upright, swiveled his chair around, and looked at Captain McKnight.
The captained sensed an inward sigh from the lieutenant, which was again quickly suppressed, before the young man opened his mouth and gestured at the view screen in front of his chair. He then spoke with a clear, deep, perfect voice.
"Captain, one of our colonists is outside of Spirit Dawn without permission. She has entered the forests to the west, and is heading toward to foot of the Delind Mountains."
"Who is it?"
"It is Kendra Furnandiz. She is a manual laborer, Tech Level 1," the lieutenant replied.
"Tech Level 1, Lieutenant? That means she is not even equipped with a Introspection interface."
"Correct, sir. We have no access to her thoughts or motivations."
Captain Leonard McKnight stood momentarily, reflecting on the situation. He was well aware of the name Kendra Furnandiz, though he doubted many other people on the bridge were. They knew her through her public record. McKnight locked away into his private memory files the additional information that he knew. Few officers or crew were allowed a private repository for thoughts and memories. Out of the entire crew, including the colonists, only the highest level officers were allowed such a luxury. This allowed frank discussions between those officers, as well as between high-ranking officers and crew members that came to them with problems that needed to be discussed. In those latter situations, the memories of the lower-level crew members could be locked as private as well.
"According to her files, Captain McKnight, she has been a trouble-maker throughout her life," Nickels stated.
"Yes, Lieutenant. I am reviewing the files as well. She seems like an intelligent student, especially for a non-hybrid."
"Intelligent, but that makes her more dangerous. Should I have a search party sent out for her."
Leonard thought on that, and decided against it. He wanted to know what she was doing. Was this just a youthful rebellion against the rules of the colony, a sense of adventure that had gripped her, or something else?
"No, we can deal with her when she gets back to the colony."
"Should we arrest her then?"
"No. We cannot access her through the Song. Let us observe her for a few days, and see what she is up to."
"Yes Captain."
There was a split in the path the girl was following. Kendra slowed, wondering what she should do. She glanced up over her shoulder, toward where the colony ship should be, but instead just saw the roof of the forest.
"They cannot see me," Kendra said to herself. "Please tell me they aren’t following me."
Turning back to the fork in the path, Kendra approached it slowly. There was a deep rumbling filling the air, something that Kendra had never heard before. It was not the wind, the trees, the birds, or small animals. It was constant, and fascinating. She could feel the rumbling in the land about her. The path on the left seemed to angle downward, while the path on the right climbed upward into the hills by the mountain.
As she stood there undecided, it was as though the choice was made for her. Ahead of her, from the path on the left, came a deep, rhythmic thudding. A large, four-legged animal walked into view on the downward path. It was huge, its shoulder standing taller than Kendra herself, and the head of the animal ending in a magnificent set of antlers. It was furry, scruffy even, a deep purple hue to its fur. Including its head and antlers, the animal stood a full ten feet tall, and it nearly fifteen feet in length. It was an amazing, majestic beast.
The animal stopped in the path about a dozen feet from the young lady. It swiveled its massive head around to look directly at her. A huge hoof gently pawed at the dirt of the path.
Kendra hardly dared to breathe. This animal was awesome, in every meaning of the word. It was the most beautiful thing that she had ever seen. But it was more than its physical appearance that held her attention.
The animal glowed. There was a shining white aura all around it. And a soft whispering, a beautiful, friendly whispering, accompanied the glow. It came from the aura itself.
"What are you?" Kendra asked aloud. Feelings were flooding the girl now. It wasn't just something she could see, something she could hear. Kendra felt the animals presence. It was here with her now, watching her, seeing what she would do. And wave after wave of emotion, of feeling, came out of the beast and toward her. The emotion ran through her, and continued onward beyond.
"You are trying to communicate with me," Kendra said in realization. This was no mere beast. This majestic animal was intelligent, and it was trying to talk with her.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I cannot understand you. We don’t talk that way!"
The animal moved its ears forward, listening to her. It pawed at the ground several times with its hoof, kicking up a bit of dust. Another series of emotions ran through the girl. It was weird, Kendra could make out a pattern for the emotions, and her mind desperately tried to turn those patterns into sound. But she could not do it.
The beast then turned away, surprisingly fast for its size. It called out with a loud bark, and walked away from Kendra, down the path from which it had come.
Kendra stood for several moments, thinking. Was the animal telling her to stay away? Or was it saying to follow? Was there any real meaning at all, or was her mind was trying to construct something out of whole cloth?
Kendra kept a respectful distance from the animal ahead of her. The path narrowed, and the thickness of the underbrush made it almost impossible for to see it as it went around corners.
The rumbling ahead of her continued. It was not the beast, but whatever it was that the beast was walking toward.
She emerged from the path and the heavy underbrush into a clearing. Kendra’s breath was taken away, as she was suddenly bathed in the morning light. Before her was a lake at the base of a large waterfall. Here the rumbling was no longer deep and distant, but deafening! Water was streaming down from somewhere high overhead, falling hundreds of feet into the pool of water, maybe forty feet away. The rays of the rising sun were reflecting off of a huge mist where waterfall met lake, and Kendra was bathed in a many colored rainbow, the colors swirling around her on the path. She was suddenly aware of how drab she must have looked here, in her gray coveralls, amid the waterfall, the flashing colors of the sunlight, the lake, all of this amazing place. She felt out of place here, a plain human girl, an alien in a land of magic. There was the song of many birds, and the natural sounds of birds and water were so different than all of her experience on the colony ship, the experience of it dizzied her.
After a full minute of taking the sight in, Kendra looked around for the beast that had led her here. It was heading off to her left on the path, and was now about 30 feet away. She stood there, watching, and it turned to look at her. Again she was assaulted with the overwhelming sense of emotion, of feelings.
It made no sense, but... No, there was something in this, in the feelings washing over her. There was a pattern to them, something just beyond her, something just beyond reach. But she got the distinct feeling that it wanted her to follow.
It stood there, watching Kendra with strangely intelligent eyes. The feelings kept coming, rushing through her, over her, past her. She closed her eyes, and it felt like she was being carried on away, like she was going to be taken out of her body. She wanted to let herself go, to be taken away on the wind of those emotions. To be swept away.
The emotional assault stopped.
Opening her eyes, Kendra saw that the beast had turned again, and was moving along the path, tall ferns separating it from the water on one side, trees on the other. She started forward again, following it around the edge of the lake. They were heading up a gentle hill, a hill that started to ascend the cliff face, straight toward the waterfall.
Even with the massive size of the creature, the high ferns made it hard to keep it in view. *It doesn’t help that I am so short,* Kendra thought. But the path was clear, and the creature left a trail of trampled grass and ferns in its wake. It was not hard to follow. On she went, and started the rise up the hill along the side of the cliff. Here the size and the beauty of the falling water was amazing. As she got closer her clothes got soaked from the spray.
Up she went. She could no longer see the beast, and assumed it must have gone through, or behind, the waterfall to descend the path on the other side. This close to the water, it was hard for her to see through the mist. She put a hand to the cliff on her left to make sure she didn’t accidentally walk off the edge and tumble into the water below. As fun as that sounded, it was not her desire at this particular moment.
Closer, and now under the falls themselves, Kendra suddenly found that the cliff-face just fell away. She stumbled but caught herself, taking a few steps toward where the cliff should be. She found herself not on a narrow ledge, but in a large cave, a cave completely hidden by the falls raging just a few feet from where she was.
"Captain, something is happening with the signal. I am losing it," Lieutenant Nickels stated.
"Bring up the information you have on the overhead monitor," the captain commanded.
"Sir, I can just relay it through..."
Captain McKnight cut him off... "The monitor, Lieutenant. I want to see it with my eyes."
"Yes Sir," the lieutenant growled. The captain again sensed the the lieutenant's irritation, but he accepted it. Few of the crew understood his preference for old-fashioned, real-world communication, when the Song was so much more convienent. And some of the crew of the ship also thought it was more vivid, more real. But the captain disagreed.
With a couple of mental commands, the lieutenant projected the situation unfolding on the ground onto the screen.
"Okay. This is what we are seeing, Captain," Lieutenant Nickels said. A map came up on the overhead screen. Several of the crew, aware of the unfolding situation, turned to watch. It showed the location of the colony on the southern side of a large valley. It was ringed by a high set of mountains.
"The girl took off to the north. She started moving at 0500, well before many people in the colony were away. But 0630, she reached the northern edge of the valley, almost 20 kilometers away. From her speed and vital signs in looks like she was running at a pretty good clip. While she is not a member of the Grid, we do have good readings on the most basic of the sensors that still work within her."
The overhead display zoomed in on the area near the northern part of the valley.
"There is a reason we landed the shuttles in Parimyr Valley. Many of our probes win the there parts of the planet failed when they set down, but this valley was clear," Lieutenant Nickels said.
"How is that possible?" the captain inquired. "Even with the electronic readings failing, we should still have a visual feed on that part of the valley."
"It looks like something is blocking us, actually distorting the images that our cameras are collecting, even the analog ones."
"That shouldn't be physically possible."
"I agree sir."
"Should we send someone up there after her sir?" Lieutenant Goya asked, speaking up.
"No, she will be back," Captain McKnight answered.
"How do you know, Captain? She might get hurt."
"No, I believe she will be back in the colony before noon."
In his mind's eye, Captain McKnight was alerted to the network activity, as many curious crew members began to explore the ship's databases on Kendra Furnandiz, as well as information on the captain that could be related back to her. Unlike the others, the captain was very aware of the network searches, and had ways to counteract them. McKnight launched a series of programs to cancel all of the search activity related to him, and to restrict what could be found regarding Kendra to her academic and medical information, which was known by several members of the crew.
But other information must be kept private.
It would be so.
Kendra moved slowly into the cave. She did not have anything to light her say, but it didn't seem to matter. A luminescent moss was growing on the cave walls, and a very dull glow provided enough light for her to navigate by. This was a small cavern, and she could other caverns opened on her left and right. There was a tunnel directly ahead, flickering light coming from the tunnel. Here by the waterfall, the stone was slick, and the girl slipped as she moved away from the entrance and fell on her butt.
"Ouch!" she said out load, and her voice echoed around the caverns. She gingerly picked herself up off the stone, and moved to a drier part of the cave.
The beast she was following was here. It was walking into the tunnel, and moved around a bend. Kendra, watching her footing now, followed. She continued to keep a respectful distance from the creature. The tunnel was short, maybe 20 meters long, and soon she was at another cave portal.
Kendra stepped from the cave, into a valley filled with light. But it was not the light of the sun, but of some other source. The valley was about no more than two kilometers to a side, and surrounded on all sides by high cliffs. The morning was still young, and Kendra doubted that this valley saw much sunlight throughout the day, what with those mountains all about.
This valley has its own light, a glow that was rising from the land itself. It was filled with vegetation, ferns and flowers and here and there trees. The flowers were tall against Kendra, rising almost to her chest. They were beautiful, of many different colors, of red, blue, yellow, purple, orange. There were flowers that looked like roses, lilacs, hot pokers, sunflowers, foxglove, and even bluebells. But these flowers were bigger than anything she had seen from pictures of her homeworld, or the limited specimens that were kept aboard ship.
The glow rose from the flowers themselves.
The glow that lit up this valley seemed to come from the flowers and the trees about. It was still, with very little wind in this sheltered place. Here and there was the song of birds, hidden somewhere among the flowers and trees, and there were a lot of what looked like honey bees flying about among the flowers.
As she walked among the flowers, Kendra’s breath was taken away by the beauty of this place, this hidden valley. She ran her fingers over the top of the flowers, feeling their texture. Closing her eyes she took in the smell, all of the sweet fragrances that surrounded her. The fragrance of the flowers flowed through her, enveloped her.
She felt a bit dizzy, and her perception started to change. As she watched, the land about her seemed to shimmer, her vision blurred, and Kendra found herself suddenly off-balance. Kendra shook her head, trying to clear it, but found she could not. She turned and looked back to the entrance of the cave. She could see it, but it was fifty meters away now. Kendra's legs were becoming weak, and she knew she could not make it.
After what seemed like hours, even though it was probably just a few minutes, Kendra was back to the mouth of the cave. Slipping back inside, she turned back to look at the field again. It looked the same, gentle, serene, but Kendra knew better now. Something was wrong with it, poisonous, a trap. The shimmering, the blur, was still there, stronger than ever, but there was movement in the blur, somewhere near the moss bed she had sat upon. Kendra concentrated on the movement, and there, in the distance, she saw the large, incredible, majestic beast that she had followed down to the waterfall, and up to the cave. It was standing there, looking at her, and she again felt the emotional assault that it had hit her with earlier.
She stumbled around the corner, back into the cave. The feeling swarming over her stopped, but Kendra felt exhausted. Going into the first small cavern on this side of the cave complex, she looked for a small cliff-ledge, just about three meters up off the ground. Running her fingers along the rock, she found nooks to dig her fingers into, and pulled herself up, onto and over the small ledge. She rolled onto it, and looked back to the cavern. She could rest here for a few minutes, regain her strength.
Kendra closed her eyes. She felt darkness coming for her, but she could no longer resist. In a few more moment Kendra was asleep.
A long time later, just how long Kendra didn’t know, she opened her eyes again. Much more light was pouring into this cavern from the cave entrance. Kendra had a splitting headache, one not caused by her lying on the hard rock shelf, though she was certain that had not helped. But there was something more, a painful ache running through her body, her chest, limbs, and torso.
Something was broken. Something was broken not in her body, but in her mind, in her spirit. Kendra did not feel right. Rolling over onto her hands and knees, her vision seemed to lag behind the movements of her body, of her mind. A wave of nausea roiled through her, causing her to stop. She closed her eyes tight, and gritted her teeth, willing it to go away. After a few more moments, it was gone.
Kendra moved to the side of the ledge, and dropped heavily to the floor. Upon impact, she dropped to one knee, the experience of her lagging vision continuing. But there was nothing to it, Kendra had to force herself up, and to head back to the colony. Something was wrong, and it was time for her to find people she knew, to find a warm bed, and to lie down again.
She pushed herself back to her feet, and began the long trek back to the colony, this time walking, stumbling slowly, rather than the fast run that she had performed on the way out here.
"Kendra's signal is live again," Lieutenant Goya said, swiveling her chair to face the captain.
"Condition?" Leonard McKnight queried.
"She's... not good. Her vital signs are all over the map. Kendra's heart is racing one moment, and then running at 60 beats a minute the next. Her temperature is down, 34.4 degrees. She might have been injured."
"On screen," the captain ordered.
A moment later one of the bridge's main view screens lit up with view of the valley. It was zoomed out, but a small figure could be seen walking unevenly among the trees. The picture was blurry, and within a few seconds static covered the screen.
"I'm sorry," Goya said. "She is too close the the rim. The atmosphere is interfering with the picture."
The bridge crew had all turned to view the shaky image on the view screen. It was becoming increasingly difficult to analyze data from orbit, or by drone, or by any automated means. There was an unease in the Song about the lack of technical capability planet-side. This was one more instance of what the Celestial Dawn was facing in orbit, and the danger that the interference could pose to the colony below.
"If we lose Kendra Furnandiz, she will be the first colonist to die, though we had some close calls with beasts in the valley." Lieutenant Nickels stated. "Do you want me to send out a drone to pick her up?"
"Will a drone work that close to the valley wall?" the captain asked.
Lieutenant Nickels frowned. Electronics failed more the farther you got away from the center of Parimyr Valley.
"No, hold on that," Captain McKnight said. "She is part of a non-hybrid unit, correct?"
"Yes, captain," Nickels replied.
Leonard's sight faded as he accessed the roster of the non-Hybrid crew. In his mind's eye, he looked at the command structure, those she had worked with aboard ship, and those that were new to her experience working on the planet.
"Kendra seems to have a good working relationship with Matthew Utrasti. They worked together on a larger maintenance ship, a Rozhdenie Zvezd'i. Send Matthew out to get her. Have him take a rover as far as he can, still at a safe distance from the valley wall, and then proceed the rest of the way by foot."
"How do you want this order relayed?" Lieutenant Nickels asked.
"Quitely," the captain answered. "Have it come down through the ranks, quickly, so we get to her, but let's not alert everyone that we are sending out someone to rescure her."
"With all due respect, why are we treating her with kid gloves?" asked Goya. "For her insubordination, shouldn't she been arrest and detained in the brig."
"It may come to that," McKnight answered. "But sometimes we find what we need to know from non-hybrids by letting events play out. We cannot just interface with their thoughts on the Song."
Lieutenants Goya and Nickels exchanged a look, one of the methods of communication that could still be private, not tracked, indexed, and stored on the Song. Goya could tell that Nickels also disapproved.
"I will issue the order," Andre Nickels replied. "We'll get her back inside quickly." He turned his sight inward again, onto the song, and quietly issued the order. He suppressed his feelings.
The captain was being irrational. This would bring trouble.
By the time Matthew got the orders to go rescue his teammate, Kendra had already been reported missing. An iniital search of the compound had been launched for her. The non-hybrids, of which Matthew was one, were considered a huge inconvenience. Kendra could be right around a corner, just out of sight, and no one would know where she was.
Matthew was running cables down under the floor of the new buildings under construction. It was a small complex known as DshKere Outpost, was a kilometer outside of the main colony. A forward base, the Outpost was to provide iniital defenses against attackers, to extend the range of the Song, and to provide equipment for farming. It was not yet operational, and probably wouldn't be for a few more weeks.
"Matthew Utrasti!"
Matthew heard Amy Kylis call his name as he was running wiring under the floor. He moved the the panel he had removed to get down there, reached up, and lifted himself out of the hole.
"Yes, Lieutenant!" he called as he stood on the floor. She saw him and walked over.
"Mr. Utrasti," the lieutenant said. "We've found Kendra Furnandiz. For whatever reason, she is in the valley, up against the Pardash Rim. She may be hurt. You are to go and retrieve her. Bring her to the main colony.
"Me, Ma'am?" Matthew asked. "Am I to take anyone with me?"
"No, just you. Work doesn't need to slow down any more than it already has for that troublemaker. Take a rover as far as you can. We've had trouble with our machinery at the rim. Get Kendra. Come back. Take her to medical. Those are your orders."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Matthew didn't ask any more questions. He was worried about his friend, and the idea that she might be hurt drove him into action.
*
An hour later Matthew stopped the rover, a small two-manned vehicle with oversized tired used for exploration. The young man looked at the ominous rim ahead of him, and worried that if he got any closer the rover would lose power, or strangely malfunction. He picked up the radio receiver.
"This is Matthew Utrasti. I am exiting the Rover 2. I may be out of communication for awhile."
"Understood, Mr. Utrasti. Continue on foot," said the comms officer back at the colony.
Matthew grapped a medkit and a small rations pack, and a water flask from the back of the vehicle, and exited. He held up a small electronic mapper that indicated the last known position of Kendra Furnandiz. But the sensors, both from orbit and the colony, were acting up again, and no one knew for sure where Kendra might be now. Also, he knew the mapper would cease to work soon, as he approached the edge of the valley.
"Alright, Kendra. I'm on my way," Matthew said to himself. "I'm bringing you back, you troublesome, inpetuous girl."
He set off deeper into the woods, now without the protection of the rover. If the mapper was right, he was now within three kilometers of Kendra. He memorized all of the details he could from the device, the forest and the landmarks, large rocks, a small stream.
The mapper indicated that she was fairly close to the stream, so Matthew veered to his left, the "north" of this world, to find it. He watched the device as it indicated he was getting closerr. After ten minutes of walking, her heard the trickling of water. He moved to the stream, fairly large, almost a river, and bent down to taste it. The water tasted fine, good. Most of the streams in the valley had been tested, and all had shown to have good drinking water. Matthew wasn't worried, and indeed hoped that Kendra herself had made it to the stream.
The man pulled back from the stream, about a quarter of a kilometer, which is about how far the mapper said she was from it. He began walking to the east at a quick pace. The young lady had already been out here for several hours. Matthew called out Kendra's name, but received no response. He didn't expect one, but decided he would call out fairly often so that if she was on the move, there would be less chance that he would miss her.
The underbrush was growing heavier, the trees closer. She pushed through tall ferms and over fallen logs. There was no real path to follow. He stopped often to check that he could still hear the stream. It was a weak sound, but the wind carried the sound of moving water to him.
About 20 minutes in, the mapper device sparked and shocked Matthew, and the screen went blank.
"Well, there goes that," Matthew muttered to himself, and stashed the mapper into his pack
"Kendra!" Matthew called again. It occurred to him that dangerous animals had been found in the valley, and on occasion had attacked the colonists. He hoped that he was not luring any of them to himself, or to Kendra.
The man continued. He began to notice more noise around him, animals moving just out of sight. It felt ominous to him, but he did his best to ignore it. It was late morning, and humid, and Matthew was sweating. He held the images from the mapper in his head, concentrated on them.
After what seemed like an eternity, though in reality it was probably about 45 minutes since he left the rover, a sound, a human sound, caught Matthew's attention. It was a moan. Matthew stopped. He had just been rounding a large boulder when he heard it.
"Kendra?" Matthew said quietly. "Is that you?"
He heard the moan again, off to his left. He moved around the boulder, and saw a couple of large, fallen trees. He walked slowly that way, keeping a close eye on his footing through the ferns.
He stopped suddenly, almost having tripped over the form of the young woman. She was lying on her side, breathing quickly. Matthew dropped down to her side, and lifted her up to a sitting position. Her long black hair was matted with leaves and dirt. Her dark tan skin was wet, covered with sweat. Matthew brought the water flask to her mouth, and lifted it up, wetting her lips.
Kendra licked her lips, tasting the water. Matthew lifted the flask further, and the young woman drank from the flask. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes, and looked up.
"Hey," Matthew said. "How are you feeling?"
"I feel strange," the woman answered. "The valley is speaking, but I cannot understand it."
"They valley is speaking?" Matthew asked, thinking he had not heard his friend correctly.
"It is speaking. Matthew, you came for me. Why did you come for me?" Kendra gave a weak smile.
Matthew felt Kendra's forehead. Her skin felt hot to the touch. He concluded she may not know she was saying. From the medkit he took out a bottle of pills used to treat fever, and helped her take it, washing it down with some more water.
"Come on," he said. "We have to get you back to base." He lifted her up, a light weight in his strong arms. Kendra murmured something about saying by the rim, but he paid no attention.
Matthew turned back toward the rover, fear gripping his heart for his friend.