I'm glad I'm here with Alice, but she concerns me. Normally I'd charge headlong into whatever, hoping for adventure. Right now, though, I want someplace safe for my mate more than I want any sort of excitement. That's not like me at all. Absently, I check the screen on my data pad. All readings normal. I grab the water container we've been using as a canteen, slip my makeshift pack onto the ground near where Alice is loving on Sterre, and jog off toward the stream.
"Be back before you notice," I call out, just so she knows I'm gone.
"Miss you already," she bellows back.
I grin to myself.
The sun filters through the trees, casting the forest in early morning sunlight. It's pretty, this place. I just wish it was crawling with wildlife and berries so I could feed Alice. I do like the trees, though, and the greenery. The air is fresh and clean, and there's absolutely no hint of station-funk in the scents around us. Before long, I hear the trickling of water and pick up the pace, heading to the stream. There's no footprints in the mud by the banks of the water, either, which is a good sign as far as I'm concerned. If our “friend” that left the footprint by the tree came in this direction, he didn't leave a mark here. Given his careless footprints at the last location, something tells me that we're safe here.
It's when I bend over to fill the canteen that I see it.
A ship.
My heart stops at the sight of it, of the shiny silver hull dulled with dirt and half-hidden with leaves. It's high in one of the trees, and it takes a moment for me to realize that the ship is an old, old model with a rounded body instead of the triangular design that's popular right now. There's a tree branch growing through one side of the ship and it looks like the trunk and thick branches have grown around the thing, to the point that it looks as if it's cradled in the tree's hands. A hatch is open on one side, and what looks like an old military harness of belts hangs and twists in the breeze.
This ship's been here longer than I've been alive.
The urge to race toward it and explore hits me. I jump to my feet, excited, and then pause.
What if the occupants are still around? What if they've heard us moving through?
What if they've seen Alice?
I stare at the ship a moment longer, then turn and bolt back toward my mate as fast as I can.
41
ALICE
"I found a ship," Kaspar announces when he returns, the full canteen in hand.
My heart skips a beat and I rush up to him. "Your brothers? They're here?"
He holds the canteen out to me. "Drink this. You look dehydrated. And no, it's not my brothers." He waits, watching me, and I take an obedient sip. Bossy man. Once I do, he looks satisfied and continues. "I found a crashed ship. It's stuck in a tree and the tree has grown around it. Abandoned."
I take another sip, grimacing. "That's not exactly filling me with encouragement. Were there people on it? Are they dead?"
"Don't know. I was going to explore it but I wanted to come get you first." His eyes are bright with excitement and his tail swishes eagerly. "Should we go check it out?"
"I mean, we kind of have to?" I hold the canteen out to him. "You drink, too." As he guzzles some water, I consider. "If it's occupied with a castaway, we need to know about it. If it's NOT, maybe we can salvage some stuff?"
"My thoughts exactly." He holds the canteen out to me again. "You drink more."
I take it from him, sipping. A ship. Part of me is worried about that, but I'm trying to think positively. "Did it look occupied?"
"No." He pauses for a moment, thinking. "No. It looks like an older class ship. A cruiser style that isn't popular anymore. Like I said, the tree's grown around it." He holds out a hand, fingers spread, as if he's gripping a softball. "It's cradled perfectly in the tree limbs, and if it's not occupied, it might not be a bad idea for us to claim it for ourselves while we're stranded here."
It's not a bad idea. We've been walking for hours and we haven't seen anything shelter-like. The trees here are beautiful and fantastically enormous, but without saws or even a good hand-axe, we'd be forced to look for broken limbs to make shelter, and the ground is nothing but mud. It doesn't make for an ideal living situation, and we haven't found anything that resembles shelter otherwise.
An abandoned ship might be a good thing. I study Kaspar, who's practically twitching with excitement. He doesn't look worried that someone else crash-landed here and their ship was never rescued. To him, the only thing that matters is that they might have a ship for us to use. "Let's check it out, then."