Dawn of Procyon by Mark R. Healy Page B

inclines and drops all over the place, and Landry had no choice but to backtrack and go around them or risk the load rolling over.
    He tried not to think of the distance, just simply kept placing one foot after the other, dislodging every obstacle in his path. He took regular sips from his IDB, but some part of him kept thinking that, any moment now, he was going to suck and find nothing coming through but air. The bag carried a decent amount of water, but the way he was going through it, there was no way it was going to last.
    Not for three hundred whole clicks, he thought.
    He was also feeling decidedly weak from lack of food, but in the big scheme of things, that didn’t even seem like an issue. Still, his tummy rumbled at the thought of it.
    “Sure could go for a batch of chocolate rolls right now,” he muttered. “In fact, I could eat a whole crate.”
    “Chocolate rolls? Please clarify.”
    “The cafeteria down on Minus Four at the outpost makes them. They’re like a chocolate cake smeared with icing, rolled into a tube. Nothing special, to be honest, but they remind me a bit of the ones Grandma used to make when I was a kid.”
    “Those sound high in sugar content,” HAIRI said. “In your current situation, I would suggest something with more nutritional value. A protein bar perhaps.”
    “Sure. Go ahead and magic me up a protein bar. Make it appear on the rock over there and I’ll eat it.”
    “I’m sorry, Landry, but the expansion card that facilitates my use of magic is not currently installed.”
    “Okay, smart-mouth,” Landry said with a grin. “Thanks for nothing.”
    He kept going, and the next thing he knew, he was back at the ridge where he had seen the Argoni the evening before. Down the slope lay the rear section of the scout, which had stopped smoldering. He stood there watching it for a moment, deciding what to do.
    “We have found the other piece of your vehicle,” HAIRI said, obviously watching through his helmet cam.
    “Yeah. That’s it.”
    “Do you believe you can salvage parts from it?”
    “Nope. Not really.” Landry started down the incline. “But I’m going to run an eye over it anyway.”
    “I should point out that this is not the direction in which you need to travel. There is no pathway out of this area. This will result in a delay in reaching the outpost.”
    “Yeah. Just call me curious.”
    When Landry got closer, he could see a multitude of tracks around the wreckage, and they clearly weren’t human. Looking over the cracked fuselage, he could also see that more panels had been removed, more parts of the ship taken.
    “That piece of dirt,” he muttered. “It’s been back here.”
    “Please elaborate.”
    “The Toad.” He pointed to the gaps in the scout. “It’s stripping the Seagull piece by piece.”
    “Curious behavior.”
    “I didn’t understand it before, and I don’t understand it now. These parts won’t help to fix the Argoni ship it crashed in.” A thought occurred to him, and he held up a hand in mock excitement. “HAIRI, that’s it! I know how to get out of here!”
    “You do?”
    “Yeah. We just sit on that boulder over there and wait for the Toad to strip every part of the Seagull and then put it all back together again. Then we just fly right outta here.”
    HAIRI paused for a moment. “This is a joke.”
    “No, man. I’m deadly serious.”
    “I was not born yesterday, Landry.”
    “There! Now that’s the correct cliché to use. We’re making progress here.”
    “I am pleased.”
    Landry glanced back up the slope. “But, seriously. What does it want? I don’t get what it’s up to.”
    “I have a comprehensive repository of knowledge pertaining to the Argoni, if that helps.”
    “Why didn’t you say that already? Let’s hear it.”
    “Where would you like to begin?”
    “Just start throwing things at me and I’ll tell you if I want to know more.”
    “Very well. The aliens were first discovered in the star system