“Alright,” Aela answered, as D.D. returned to examining a large stone in his hand. “Took us a few weeks in orbit to figure out where to look. Still haven’t nailed it down, but we think the artifact is around here.” She gestured broadly to the northeast. “Is that unsatisfactory?” she asked, eyebrow arched, catching the look of disbelief on Hara’s face.
“Sorry, a few weeks and that’s all you got?”
“We had to find an ancient artifact on a continent of an uninhabited world with barely any textual support. Yeah, that’s all we got,” she fired back. “I’m sure you were more productive on your little, ‘vacation,’ huh?”
“Vacation? I nearly-”
“Enough.” D.D.’s voice was stern. “Grow up. We have a job to do here.”
“Enough.” D.D.’s voice was stern. “Grow up. We have a job to do here.”
“She started it,” Hara mumbled.
“Did you say something, O’Ans?”
“No, sir.” Hara glowered at a smirking Aela.
“Good," D.D. replied, glancing upwards. "Sun will be setting soon. Yokan, take O’Ans to the lander and give him a full debrief. Log today’s finds and get Arturi to speed. I will join you shortly.”
Nodding at the dismissal, Aela grabbed a nearby container and launched herself into the air, Hara in pursuit. They flew westward at a leisurely pace. Aela broke the silence first, her voice soft over the com.
“Listen. I’m sorry I snapped back there, it’s just been a bit frustrating here,” she said. “How’s...you know, it going?”
Hara sighed. He hadn’t really wanted to get into it, had hoped, prayed even, that nobody would bring it up. Sofia had known better than to ask. Arturi and the rest probably would have asked, but Hara had a sneaking suspicion that Sofia had gotten to them ahead of time. But Aela and D.D. had been planetside for 2 weeks and probably hadn’t gotten the memo to leave it be. And even if she had, Hara thought wryly, Aela wasn’t the type to stifle her curiosity, especially when she was genuinely concerned.
“It’s...a process,” he answered slowly. What could he say, really? “They had me conscious in about a week, and at that point they’d put the, err, my leg on.” That still took getting used to, he thought. “Month or so of therapy to get my head straight and to get everything adjusted. Seems to work fine now.”
“Perfectly integrated?”
“Yeah...feels like the real thing. Hell, I’ve forgotten it exists sometimes before I look down and realize. Anyway, I don’t really feel like...Wait, did you catch that?”
“Catch what?” she asked, turning back as she realized he was several yards behind her, pointing northward.
“I swore I just saw...something. Peripherally. I…” Hara was running any assisted scan that he could of the vast expanse before him. “I don’t know. The computer isn’t picking anything up.”
“Hara, the place is deserted,” came the reply.
“Clever.”
“I try. Listen, it was probably the dying light playing tricks on you. Let’s get back to camp, get out of the suits, and I’ll fill you in until D.D. gets back,” she said, turning westward once more. Hara reluctantly followed. “You were saying something?”
“Huh?” he asked, absentmindedly. “No, nothing...are you guys sure this planet is devoid of life?”
“Not devoid, not entirely. Some vegetation has clearly endured. But, no animals or more evolved life, humanoid or otherwise,” stated Aela. “I wouldn’t think too much about it, Hara. The light and the atmosphere here screws with your head sometimes and the helmet fails to help sometimes. Just something we’ve noticed of late. And...here we are.”
They crested a rather large sand dune and Hara saw below him, in a dusty valley, the biosphere that held their camp. The lander was the largest fixture, generating the bioshield and atmosphere necessary for their survival. Two individual pods had been deployed for their personal quarters. They landed outside the transitional airlock, stepped through, and waited for the atmosphere to equalize. As they stepped into camp and walked towards the lander, they removed their helmets. Hara closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It was refreshing, relaxing. But one thing was bothering him.
“So, where’s my pod?”
Aela laughed, pausing at the door to the lander. “We didn’t know you were coming, so we only loaded two on the lander. Looks like you’ve got my floor for the duration of your stay.”
“Wonderful.”
“Don’t act like you aren’t thrilled,” she teased. “There’s a slot in the charging field for the suit. You go ahead and hit the shower, I’ll catalog the few finds we made and make my report in the meantime. Arturi’s probably dying with anticipation up there.”
“Yeah, like the Author doesn’t have enough on his plate,” Hara replied, leaving Aela behind and walking to the deployment bay. He stepped into the charging field and initiated the removal procedure. The armor disassociated with a small hiss. Leaving it behind, Hara made his way out of the lander in his skintight jumpsuit, walking across the sands to the pod furthest away. Entering into Aela’s living space, he found everything tidy and clean, arranged with a purpose and an exactness that he lacked. He walked into the bedroom, disrobing, and placing his one legged jumpsuit in the cleaner. Starting the flash cleaning, he walked into the bathroom, pausing to look in the mirror. His metal-plated onyx leg started where his scarred olive skin ended, a stark reminder of the price of failure. Wondering if he would ever get used to the feeling of seeing it, he stepped into the shower. The water was surprisingly cool, and helped calm his troubled mind. He was back in the field, doing what he loved to do. The past was in the past, and there wasn’t anything he could do to change what had happened at Krypia.
But even so, he thought, it hadn’t left him completely. The leg wasn’t the only thing lost to him. Sure, more scar tissue here and there didn’t bother him, but it was the mental agony of defeat that he couldn’t shake, a spectre on the fringe of his consciousness. He had objected to a psychiatric evaluation at the Institute, electing to be discharged as soon as possible. They warned him that there could have been lasting scars on his psyche, but he hadn’t cared. He was Hara O’Ans, 7th member of the Outsiders, and not without good reason. He led a life that most would be shy away from, one that took courage and boldness, and one that he had to return to, for the sake of his sanity. He would be fine, he thought. But when he was alone, when his thoughts ran rampant, he found that he was in a constant state of borderline anxiety. A panic threatened to explode from his chest, building up like a volcano, a sinking feeling in his gut, his heartbeat racing, breathing fast, clenched jaw, thoughts a mile a minute, memories flashing before his eyes, a torrent of images, the screams in his ears, the explosions, the wicked smile, eyes of pure hatred, exultation, the blood, the ruined leg -
Hara slammed the shower shut, panting, a hand on the wall to steady himself. He gathered himself, waiting for the panic to ebb. He dried himself off, tossed the towel on the counter and walked out. Reaching into the cleaner, Hara grabbed and donned his refreshed jumpsuit. Stepping out, he saw that D.D. had returned, evidenced by the lights on in the captain’s pod. Aela was marching across the sand towards him and looked him over approvingly.
“Not bad. Anyway, Arturi is demanding as ever,” she grumbled. “Gimme 10; We’ll get some food going and recap. D.D. wants us up and out there by sunrise,” she added, pushing past him into the pod. Outside the biosphere, the sun was setting, illuminating the crest of another gargantuan dune in the west. Hara was looking eastward, up at the few bright stars that shone through the dusk. Soon, he knew, there would be others. He grew eager at the thought - this would have been the sky that the Pioneers would have seen, that their ancestors would have looked to, not knowing that one day they would make their homes in the heavens above. He felt small, as he often did when he considered the universe in its grand design, but the feeling was compounded by where he was. This was Prime, the original home of the Corangean Empire, or so Arturi claimed. I guess I’ll have to see what Aela knows, he mused.
The light was dying when he turned to enter the pod. On a whim he looked to the westward dune. There it was again. What he had thought he had seen in the corner of his visor. What he had been meaning to press Aela on. On the crest, an emaciated lioness stood, staring. As the sunlight disappeared, it turned, and vanished into the night.
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