Page 20 of Reformation
Garrett shook his head. “Try not to worry about them. They’re all right.”For now, the subtext screamed. Garrett ended the connection before Darrel could ask any more questions.
He looked at Grennson, who seemed calmer now. “I still don’t understand.”
“It’s okay.” Grennson reached out and patted his head, the same way Darrel would stroke Grennson’s quills when he needed to be soothed. “I don’t think anyone does.”
Five minutes later, a knock sounded at their door. Darrel dashed over to answer it, Grennson at his heels. He opened the door—
And immediately brought his hand up into a salute. “General, sir!” Holy shit, what wasGeneral Caractacusdoing outside their quad? What was he doing in active uniform at all? Darrel didn’tknow him well, but the man was Cody’s grandfather and a war hero. He’d retired years ago, though.
“Gentlemen.” The general looked between Darrel and Grennson, who had crept up beside him. “At ease. You two are under my personal command until further notice.” Sure enough, Darrel’s notification icon had stopped blinking. “I was here anyway, and I thought I would escort you to my ship.”
“We … um … we should be escortingyou, not the other way around,” Darrel insisted. “You’re the general.”
“Call it whatever you like, but we’re on a schedule. Are your kits ready to go?”
“Yes,” Grennson said. They’d made sure they had their emergency kits prepped after getting off the holo with Garrett.
“Grab them and fall in. I’ll explain more once we’re on board theMasterful.”
Grennson looked around curiously. “Where is the rest of your entourage, sir?”
“They’d better be busting their asses getting our ship ready,” the general replied with a hint of humor. Darrel hoisted up their duffel bags and returned to the door. The air still smelled a little acrid with the scent of Ten’s last failed experiment. Darrel had never thought he’d miss something like that, but the prospect of leaving it behind had him suddenly nervous. What were they walking into? What had happened to their friends?
Grennson placed a steadying hand on Darrel’s elbow. “We’re ready, sir.”
And they were still together. Darrel’s unease steadied a bit. They were together, and wherever they were going, so were Cody and Ten. He was grateful for that.
He just hoped things stayed this way.
Chapter ten
Jonah
The ship still moved.
Jonah wasn’t surprised. He’d only managed to sink the one tether, and the shuttle was perched on her back—it would be stranger if she didn’t move, the way the storm was raging out there. He’d been expecting a few shimmies, a little slip and slide here and there.
What he hadn’t been expecting was the consistency of their movement, a constant grinding back and forth across the stony precipice, making the ship shudder and pitch against the hold of the harpoon. If he hadn’t landed a solid hit in the rock, they would have already been in the sea. As it was, Jonah didn’t feel too optimistic about their chances of staying where they were for long. They needed to move. They needed a rescue.
“Need a fuckin’ miracle,” he muttered to himself, one hand pressed to his forehead, the other lying gently on Lacey’sshoulder. She was easy, at least, none of her vitals giving him any cause for alarm. Not again, not yet.
It wouldn’t last, though. Easy never lasted.
He went through his options yet again. They never changed, but at least it gave his mind something to do now that his hands were idle.
“Stay here and wait for rescue.” Well, that wasn’t gonna be an option for much longer. Not that heknewthat for sure, because he didn’t, but it was safer to hedge that bet than bluff with nothing in his hand. The longer they sat still, the likelier it was that they wouldn’t get out of this.
“Try to send out a better signal.” Yeah, they had the emergency beacon, but who knew who was listening for that? What if there wasnoone to listen? Jonah shook his head; he couldn’t operate under the assumption that Pandora City was lost. If that was true … Anyway, it didn’t matter, because he’d used up almost all of the spare power.
“Try and get to the underground.” He knew the location of the big shelters, like all residents of the Box did. He had no idea how to get to them from here, though. There were back doors, but those were hidden, and anyway, those shelters were a long way off if they were even still viable. Nope. Not happening.
“Try and find another shelter.” Except there was nothing out here. Nobody had ever homesteaded out this far—why would they, when most of the population was made up of naturals who needed the nearness of the infirmary to give them a regular boost, and when the landscape was so desolate and brutal? What was there out here to entice a person? According to Garrett, this area was one of his personal hells. And he would know; he’d spent over a day holed up in a concrete bunker when his shuttle had been washed away while he was trying to set up a climate-modelling experime—
“Holy shit.” The bunkers. Jonah hadn’t thought about those in close to a decade. They were leftovers from the original colony mindset, one that had included pushing out of the canyon the Box was located in and making a go of it in other places. The bunkers had been installed along the edge of the cliff, about ten of them, way stations between what would have been villages before folks gave them up as bad ideas because the weather was simply too violent.
The bunkers … as far as Jonah knew, those hadn’t been touched in a long time, but after Garrett had gotten back from his ill-fated little expedition, as miserable and bedraggled as a wet catterpet, he’d insisted on upgrading their capacities. “So that no one else who has to weather a storm out there does it knee-deep in freezing water without a fucking light to see by,” he’d said.
There would be a generator. There would be basic facilities. There would inevitably be a Regen unit because Garrett always, always planned for the worst outcomes, and the last time he’d been out there, his natural pilot had almost succumbed to hypothermia. It had scared the shit out of him. Jonah hadn’t paid much attention to that story, more interested in the marriage proposal that had come right after the tale of woe. Now, though …
