Russian Amerika by Stoney Compton

"But call me Grisha, I haven't been a major for quite some time."

    Moses shook his hand and smiled. "You're here in Toklat. Are you joining us?"

    "Yes, yes I am."

    "Then you'll probably be a major again, real soon."

    15
    On the Toklat River, October 1987

    Grisha panted to a stop. Hiking in snowshoes proved as pleasant as whipsawing planks and reminded him of running through the desert in heavy boots. However, his speed and endurance showed improvement.

    Nik stood on the crest of the small ridge ahead of him. The man's long legs made snowshoeing an easy exercise. Grisha tried to feel envious but couldn't; he'd always been comfortable with his compact size.

    Nik was having a hard time of it. Not that he couldn't keep up with the physical training. In fact he'd started out in much better form than Grisha and was at least a decade younger.

    Grisha knew the man's tight-lipped boorishness of the past few days was due to his frustration with Cora's continued evasiveness.

    "I'm a deserted deserter!" he'd wailed in their cabin the night before.
    "First Wing told me how wonderful it was that I was going to be part of the movement and what an asset I would be with all the knowledge I had. Then she starts talking about Cora, her deep mind and her big heart.

    "She even told me that Cora had commented on my preoccupation with books, that she liked intelligent men. Since then Cora has all but shunned me and Wing told me to shut up after one day on the trail."

    "My God, you whine a lot. What, you need the help of one woman to win another?" Grisha laughed. "Maybe Cora is waiting to see if you can complete this little training course, maybe she wants to make sure you're all you're supposed to be."

    Suddenly Nik fixed him with a hard stare. "What do you mean by that?"

    Grisha frowned, shrugged. "What part of that didn't you understand? She probably just wants to see you become a fully accepted member of the DA before she loosens her heart to you.

    "Hell, I don't know. I used to think I knew women and what they wanted, but over the past year I've been brutally disabused of that notion. Maybe you should follow my example and concentrate on what they're teaching us, forget about women."

    "That'll be the day," Nik said with a grunt.

    In the five weeks since their arrival in Toklat they and twelve other trainees met and conquered every challenge thrown at them by the DA. Most of them related to physical fitness and arctic survival skills. Grisha's body filled out and the convict pallor faded. He had regained his old Troika Guard physique.

    "Think of this as a refresher course, Captain-Major Grigorievich," Chan had said, then laughed. "I'm sure it won't be long before you're in command."

    Grisha had laughed with him.

    But there was no way to lengthen legs. Finally, breathing heavily, he trudged up next to Nik, his training partner.

    "There has to . . ." he gasped, ". . . be a better way to move around."

    "They're quite functional," Nik said with exaggerated pomposity.
    "There's approximately a meter-point-five to two meters of snow beneath us. Think how far you'd sink if not for those fat webs hooked to your feet."

    "True, they've kept me from sinking completely out of sight every time I fall over."

    Nik sobered and gazed out over the flood plain. "Nice view from up here."

    The frozen Toklat River wound between snowy, tree-covered banks. Grisha constantly compared the land and vegetation with Southeast Alaska. The variety of trees and shrubs were as varied as those of his childhood home, and almost completely different.

    Tamarack, white and black spruce, birch, and a wider variety of willows had all been new to him. The best part was the lack of devil's club, the needle-spined broadleaf plants that grew in thickets in the Southeast. Grabbing the stalk of the plant would leave you with a handful of tearinducing spines nearly impossible to extract.

    Surrounded by mountains, the small valley before them appeared piebald where