boots
once more.
She located the world and guided the darkship into orbit,
released the massive stores pod after Grauel and Barlog and the
extra bath had removed what might be needed below, then
descended.
It was a hot, humid world with an atmospheric pressure much
higher than that at home. Having descended to the level of
discomfort, Marika cast about till she found a tall mountain. There
she made her landing.
She had gone to the very bounds.
Soon the hunt would begin.
----
Chapter Thirty-Four
I
“Marika!”
Grauel’s tone startled Marika. She threw a hasty touch
toward the huntress, fearing she had encountered something deadly.
But it was not danger, just something she had found. Something that
had her excited. Marika hastened to join her.
This was at least the hundredth habitable world and thousandth
star they had visited since leaving home. The number of stars
inside the radius Marika considered logically limiting, worth
investigating, seemed infinite. She had lost track of time.
Time had little meaning when all worlds were different and each
begged to be explored. She had thought the film Bagnel had given
her, in rolls upon hundreds of rolls, was a ridiculous oversupply.
But now most of it was gone, exposed, sealed, ready to be returned
to those who would be avid to search it for the new, the weird, the
terrible. The universe seemed capable of producing an infinitude of
wonders.
More than three years had passed. None of Marika’s
original bath were with her anymore, having one by one proved out
the value of her experiment or simply having grown homesick and
opted to return on the Redoriad voidship
High Night
Rider
, which resupplied Marika’s base every few
months.
Marika scrambled across a decomposed rock face where striations
glistened unsettlingly alien blues, perched a hundred feet above a
patch of tableland where Grauel crouched, studying something.
“What have you got, Grauel?”
“A campfire site,” the huntress called back.
“Come down and see. Your talent might find something I
cannot.”
Marika’s heartbeat picked up. Campfire site! There was no
intelligent life on this world. And it had not been visited by any
meth before, unless by the Serke. Maybe after all this time, chance
had brought her to a warm trail.
She had discarded the world as a possible Serke hiding place
only seconds after making orbit. The presence of silth would not
have been hard to detect. These years among the stars, reaching out
to find an enemy never there, had stretched her far-touching talent
till it would have shamed the most talented of fartouchers back
home. She did not believe anyone with the talent could hide from
her long.
Aliens of the sort she sought should not have been hard to
detect either, if only by the talent vacuum the brethren suspected
should exist around them. She had grounded only because they all
needed to rest, needed to feel a planet beneath their feet.
She was very strong now, able to make venture after venture
without pause. She was not the least uncomfortable with the void or
the Up-and-Over. It was as if she had been born to stalk the stars.
But her bath reached their limits after six or seven passages and
needed several days to recuperate. Grauel and Barlog never became
comfortable with star-faring. She had taken them all to their
limits this time. This site she had chosen only because it looked
safe and comfortable.
Talus bounded around her boots as she slipped and slid down the
slope, thanking Grauel’s increased propensity for wandering
while they were down, thanking the All for interesting the huntress
in the oddities produced by the worlds they visited. It had paid a
dividend.
Maybe.
Grauel remained crouched over a circle of stones blackened on
one side. The circle lay away from the foot of the cliff, but was
still sheltered from the prevailing winds. A glance told Marika it
was an old site, barely recognizable for what it was.
Grauel glanced up. “It was not like this
once more.
She located the world and guided the darkship into orbit,
released the massive stores pod after Grauel and Barlog and the
extra bath had removed what might be needed below, then
descended.
It was a hot, humid world with an atmospheric pressure much
higher than that at home. Having descended to the level of
discomfort, Marika cast about till she found a tall mountain. There
she made her landing.
She had gone to the very bounds.
Soon the hunt would begin.
----
Chapter Thirty-Four
I
“Marika!”
Grauel’s tone startled Marika. She threw a hasty touch
toward the huntress, fearing she had encountered something deadly.
But it was not danger, just something she had found. Something that
had her excited. Marika hastened to join her.
This was at least the hundredth habitable world and thousandth
star they had visited since leaving home. The number of stars
inside the radius Marika considered logically limiting, worth
investigating, seemed infinite. She had lost track of time.
Time had little meaning when all worlds were different and each
begged to be explored. She had thought the film Bagnel had given
her, in rolls upon hundreds of rolls, was a ridiculous oversupply.
But now most of it was gone, exposed, sealed, ready to be returned
to those who would be avid to search it for the new, the weird, the
terrible. The universe seemed capable of producing an infinitude of
wonders.
More than three years had passed. None of Marika’s
original bath were with her anymore, having one by one proved out
the value of her experiment or simply having grown homesick and
opted to return on the Redoriad voidship
High Night
Rider
, which resupplied Marika’s base every few
months.
Marika scrambled across a decomposed rock face where striations
glistened unsettlingly alien blues, perched a hundred feet above a
patch of tableland where Grauel crouched, studying something.
“What have you got, Grauel?”
“A campfire site,” the huntress called back.
“Come down and see. Your talent might find something I
cannot.”
Marika’s heartbeat picked up. Campfire site! There was no
intelligent life on this world. And it had not been visited by any
meth before, unless by the Serke. Maybe after all this time, chance
had brought her to a warm trail.
She had discarded the world as a possible Serke hiding place
only seconds after making orbit. The presence of silth would not
have been hard to detect. These years among the stars, reaching out
to find an enemy never there, had stretched her far-touching talent
till it would have shamed the most talented of fartouchers back
home. She did not believe anyone with the talent could hide from
her long.
Aliens of the sort she sought should not have been hard to
detect either, if only by the talent vacuum the brethren suspected
should exist around them. She had grounded only because they all
needed to rest, needed to feel a planet beneath their feet.
She was very strong now, able to make venture after venture
without pause. She was not the least uncomfortable with the void or
the Up-and-Over. It was as if she had been born to stalk the stars.
But her bath reached their limits after six or seven passages and
needed several days to recuperate. Grauel and Barlog never became
comfortable with star-faring. She had taken them all to their
limits this time. This site she had chosen only because it looked
safe and comfortable.
Talus bounded around her boots as she slipped and slid down the
slope, thanking Grauel’s increased propensity for wandering
while they were down, thanking the All for interesting the huntress
in the oddities produced by the worlds they visited. It had paid a
dividend.
Maybe.
Grauel remained crouched over a circle of stones blackened on
one side. The circle lay away from the foot of the cliff, but was
still sheltered from the prevailing winds. A glance told Marika it
was an old site, barely recognizable for what it was.
Grauel glanced up. “It was not like this
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