Reckless Rescue (3 page)

He hummed softly, a sound that usually made her smile. “Six eggs today, Marlee,” he called out. “Looks like the lanterns in the barn are making a difference. We just might eat eggs this winter after all.” They clinked together as he placed them in the basket on the table.

“That would be a nice change.” Marlee hoped her voice was steady. How could she break the news to Nelor? She took another shaky breath and focused on the bed. She tugged at the corners of the quilt, pulling out the wrinkles. The familiarity of the task comforted her a little.

Nelor’s footsteps crossed the room, and his hands touched her shoulders turning her around. “Marlee, what’s wrong?”

When he pulled her into his arms, she couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. “I’m not p-p-pregnant,” she managed to say.

Nelor held her while she sobbed uncontrollably. “Oh, Marlee…” His voice broke. “Are you sure?”

Marlee nodded, not trusting her voice. She’d tried to convince herself when she’d felt the first hint of cramps in the early hours of the morning that they might be a sign of pregnancy. They weren’t.

Nelor remained silent. What could he say? Their best efforts had failed.

They had been together for the allotted eighteen months. The time had seemed so short. Marlee cursed the silent, invisible gas that covered the planet. It wasn’t even any use to them, since the ship they had arrived in couldn’t use it. Her stepfather had always said it would save them. That someone would come looking for it and rescue them at the same time. But that had never happened.

The council told them they were lucky that the only side effect of the anysogen was reduced fertility. They were lucky that Zerris was so close—close enough for them to be able to make it here when the meteor had hit Semala. Maybe they were right. It was better than being dead, like everyone who had been left behind.

Right now, that was a small comfort.

Right now, she had to accept that her time with Nelor was over. No matter how much she wanted them to stay together, the council wouldn’t allow it, not if they couldn’t have children.

“They don’t know yet.” Nelor’s hands slipped down her arms to clasp her fingers. “If we can just stay low for another week, maybe we can have one more chance? You could tell them you’re late? Buy us some time?”

Marlee bit her lip. She wanted to. Wanted that extra time so much. One more chance could change everything.

Who was she kidding? After eighteen months, how could one more month make any difference? It would just be putting off the inevitable. The last week had been bad enough, waiting and hoping, constantly on edge. She couldn’t face it again.

When they first moved in together, she’d been optimistic, parroting words about the time it took to conceive, ignoring the fact that Nelor wasn’t her first partner and this wasn’t her first attempt. But she couldn’t fool herself any longer.

Someone knocked at the door and they both froze. Marlee’s heart skipped a beat, and Nelor’s fingers tightened on hers.

“I’ll get it,” Nelor said, his voice heavy. He walked to the door, his shoulders slumped.

When he opened it, Marlee wasn’t at all surprised to see Yasmyn, her mother, and Nerris, Nelor’s father, standing in the doorway.

“Can we come in?” Nerris asked.

Nelor nodded and stepped aside to let them in.

An awkward silence hung in the room. Nerris cleared his throat, but Marlee’s mother spoke first. “Do you have an answer yet? Is there any chance you could be pregnant?”

Marlee hesitated for only a moment. Lying would only prolong the misery. “No, I’m not.” She reached blindly for a seat, collapsed into it, and dropped her head into her hands to hide her tears.

“I’m sorry, lass,” Nerris said, and he spared a look at his son as well.

Numbness seeped into her bones. She was tired. So tired.

“Just one more month,” Nelor pleaded.

His father shook his head. “I’m sorry, son,” he repeated. He put his arm around Nelor.

Her mother reached out to hug her, but Marlee pushed her away. Even as she did it, she knew she wasn’t being fair. Her mother hadn’t made the rules. She simply helped to enforce them. But right now, the difference seemed inconsequential.

“Now Marlee,” Yasmyn said. “You know this is the only option. It’s time to move on.”

“Move on to what?” Marlee glared at her mother, her vision blurred. “There’s nothing to move on to. Find another partner, another chance of having a baby, right? Who with, Mother? Everyone here has either proved infertile, or is too young or too old. Or they already have a family.”

“Calm down, Marlee. Don’t be dramatic. You know as well as I do that we need more children. Everyone is in the same situation, and we all need to work together if we are to survive.”

As a child, her mother’s no nonsense way of dealing with problems had helped pick her back up. No matter how bad things seemed, her mother found something positive to say, even if it was just to remind Marlee that it could have been worse. It had always helped her to keep her chin up.

Today, it wasn’t working.

“You’ve made your point. Can’t you just leave me alone now?” Her voice wavered, and her throat ached.

“Come on, son,” Nerris said. “A clean break is best. Get your things and come home.”

Marlee’s head jerked around. “Can’t you at least give us a minute to say goodbye?”

“Of course,” her mother said quickly, when Nerris opened his mouth to object. “We’ll be waiting outside.

The door closed behind them, and Nelor heaved a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry, Marlee. I wish I’d been able to give you a baby.”

“It’s not your fault,” Marlee squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. “It could just as easily be me.” She reached out to take his hands, not caring if he saw her tears. She didn’t need to pretend in front of Nelor. Of all the people in the village, he was one of the few she could be herself around. And now he had to leave.

Tears glistened in his eyes too. “I hope things work out for you next time.” It was a standard response. Expected.

She didn’t want to hear it. “I don’t want to do this again,” she said quietly. “I can’t.”

Nelor brushed her hair out of her eyes. “Yes you can. You’re one of the strongest people I know. And I know you’ll make a wonderful mother someday. Don’t let what we’ve shared stop you from achieving that.”

She didn’t feel strong. She wasn’t like her mother. She couldn’t live the way her mother had. “It’s not just about having a baby. I don’t want to be with someone else, live a life with them that should have been with you.”

She didn’t want to spend her days with someone she couldn’t be open with, couldn’t cry in front of, or, worst of all, someone she was afraid of.

“We don’t have any choice, Marlee. The council’s rules apply equally to everyone. And if they didn’t, where would we be? Our population would drop even more quickly. We might not like the idea of changing partners so often, but it’s the only way to make sure there even is a next generation.” He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

Marlee shook her head. She didn’t want to hear it even though she knew it was true. She and Nelor could have been happy together. They had been.

“I can’t keep trying anymore,” she said, her voice dull. “I won’t go through this again.”

T
YRIS TOSSED AND TURNED ON
the Hylista’s firm mattress, sheets tangling around his legs, gripped by the same dream that had haunted him every night since leaving Urslat. Some corner of his mind was aware that it wasn’t real, but that didn’t stop him reliving the embarrassment of showing Milandra the letter and having her walk out yet again.

He sat up in bed in a cold sweat, almost bumping his head on the steel bunk above him. Staring around the room, he tried to reorient himself. That’s right. He was onboard the Hylista, searching for the mysterious anysogen planet.

The sooner he found it, the sooner these recurrent dreams would stop.

 A persistent beeping echoed around the cabin, and Tyris shook his head. What was that noise?

The planet detection alarm! He threw back the covers in a sudden rush of adrenalin. He had set it to sweep as he entered another empty area of space, one that might be big enough to house a solar system.

He tried not to get his hopes up. This wouldn’t be the first false alarm. Despite the Hylista’s advanced features, the planetary detection system could still be tripped by a large asteroid or comet. There was no reason to assume that he’d found the planet he was searching for.

If it even existed.

A week into the search, having checked at least half of the sites he’d marked as being big enough to contain a solar system, he was beginning to doubt he’d ever find it. Perhaps it had been removed from the star maps because it wasn’t here anymore. If it contained enough anysogen, there was every possibility it had been hit by a meteor and exploded. Hadn’t he heard that explanation before? Probably on some conspiracy forum. But he couldn’t shake the idea.

He ducked his head automatically and stepped through the doorway, leaving behind the living quarters which seemed warm and comfortable compared to the cockpit. Out here, nearly every corner of the bare metal surface was covered with the many instruments needed to control the ship and the sensitive scanning equipment it contained.

Tyris’s attention was drawn to the large monitor taking up most of the space on the right wall. His breath hitched. A single planet filled the screen. Brown mists swirled over the surface, hiding it from view.

As the radar images slowly built up on the screen, Tyris’s eyes widened. A huge crater tore a hole in the large southern continent, a chilling indication that some tragedy had happened here. Battered and broken, it was hard to believe this planet had ever supported life.

Yet around one edge of the crater, the radar simulation built up little cubes and blocks, neatly divided by straight lines. At some point, there had been a settlement on this planet. Not a big one, perhaps only twenty thousand people, but a settlement nonetheless. As the scanner continued its replication of the surface, he spotted two other areas of buildings, both smaller than the main one. He shivered a little. Surely the people who’d once lived here left the planet years ago?

He shook his head, and focused back on the task at hand. He couldn’t perform a mineral scan with the shields up. His hands shook, and he begrudged the moments it took to switch between each of the external cameras and check the surrounding space for debris. Nothing he could see would pose a risk to the ship, so he lowered the shield and started the scan.

Could this be the planet he was looking for? His heart rate accelerated. What other reason could there be for its absence from the star maps? This area had been explored long ago and the surrounding star systems mapped. Why not this one? For the first time since he started this journey, he started to believe he might just do this.

The computer spewed out a lump of data onto the screen, superimposed over the image of the devastated planet. Tyris’s eyes went straight past the environmental data indicating that the planet was uninhabitable, to the information he sought.

Nothing! Only negligible usable minerals. No sign of anysogen.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to think. This couldn’t be a coincidence. A settlement didn’t just exist on an unmapped planet. He stared at the picture until it blurred, then the name at the top of the readout drew his focus.
Semala.

How could it have a name if it wasn’t on the star maps?

There was only one explanation. Somewhere, in the depths of the database, a reference to this planet remained.

Of course the gas he searched for wouldn’t be here. Only the desperate lived on planets where anysogen had been mined. He’d read reports about the effects on the first mining crews. It had taken years for them to realise that the gas, which had seemed so harmless at first, severely lowered fertility. Those miners had received huge payouts, and after that, machines had been brought in to do the mining. Those machines hadn’t been invented when this settlement was abandoned, but they would still have done all they could to separate the mining from the research facility. The anysogen would have been shipped here to be studied. He was close.

He set his scans to a wider range, searching for the tell-tale signature. Seconds later, data readouts scrolled up beside a small picture of the next planet in the system, currently on the opposite side of the sun. A habitable atmosphere and the presence of water. Mineral analysis couldn’t be performed at this distance, but it was promising enough for him to set course immediately.

Tyris leaned back in the chair, staring at the screen. It would take at least fifteen minutes to arrive at the next planet, but he couldn’t stop his heart racing. This could be it. His ticket back to the life he knew. The life he wanted. Waiting was agonising.

Finally, the planet appeared in the front window. Barely any greener than the last, a white blanket spreading down from the pole indicated winter was on its way.

Excitement building, Tyris checked the scans as they scrolled up the screen. Under the planet’s deceptively habitable skin, large pockets of anysogen gas lurked, close enough to the surface to make mining quick and easy.