The Galactic Culinary Society: Smoke Signals by D.R. Schoel

Author:D.R. Schoel [Schoel, D.R.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: 3RD Wheel Press / 9051-6766 Quebec inc.
Published: 2023-09-30T00:00:00+00:00

-22-

The ice sheet floated out of the mouth of the river into the open ocean. There were no more ice floes for it to reconnect to, far from shore.

Water lapped at the sides of the ice and bit by bit the edges crumbled, leaving Jeane on a smaller and smaller sheet.

Soon, it would break apart.

Worn out and freezing, she sat staring at the dead Nanu.

The robots were never able to master use of the Spear, she figured. They lacked… something. Still, following their own logic, they had reprogrammed themselves to be hunters, long ago. And they had used her, just as the Nanu had used her.

She watched. The ice beneath the Nanu thinned, becoming transparent, cracks spreading. Slowly, it collapsed and the body of the Nanu sank beneath the black waves.

Jeane took the tusk out. She removed her mitts and held it in both hands. Felt the hard roughness on her bare skin.

Who would it speak to now?

She sat like that for a long time. The ice sheet shrank. She held the tusk over the dark water.

And let it go.

She watched it float, gleaming in the sunlight, the current slowly separating them.

Jeane sat under the cold sun, her mind numb. This time, it really is the end, she thought.

When a shadow passed overhead. She raised her hand to look.

A ship.

Engines whining, the Yellowstar descended from the blue sky with its boarding ramp extended.

“Jeane? Jeane—” Captain Roster held out his hand.

Shakily, her legs stiff, and every muscle aching, she stood. He pulled her in and as they rose, she saw the ice sheet disintegrate.

“You look terrible, but I’m glad we found you,” he said, leading her to the sleeping racks at the back of the ship. It felt good to have someone support her. Leaning on his shoulder, they passed a window where she glimpsed the white planet receding beneath them.

“You know, it was the strangest thing. When I was at the factory,” while he spoke, for reasons he couldn’t understand, Dack pictured himself under the great amber-ivory tusk suspended on gold chains, beneath the sign Nanu Delicacies, “I had a flash—like I knew where you were.”

He gently helped her onto a bunk. She lay her head down, shivering and overcome with exhaustion, finally able to rest.

He covered her with a blanket. “So, did you find what you were looking for?” he asked.

But Jeane didn’t answer, closing her eyes.

-fin-

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