The High Country by John Jackson Miller

Author:John Jackson Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek
Published: 2023-02-21T00:00:00+00:00

“Gin.” She looked behind her. Steam gin. Is that like a cotton gin?

She knelt on the floor of the erstwhile shed and fought back tears. This had been someone’s life—and it had been dashed to bits, along with the machine.

The wind swept through where walls had been. She remembered the barn—intact. For all the destruction, it was shelter, and it was a farm. She couldn’t eat cotton—or chaltaka, if that was what it was—but she had to imagine there was something edible out there somewhere. She’d felt on the verge of getting sick for days. Even lying in hay would be an improvement as long as there was a roof over her.

She exited the wreckage and walked slowly to the barn, almost worried she might upset some ghosts. Empy lingered nearby, motionless. “Just let me take a look,” she said as she forced up the bar that held the door fast.

Uhura pulled the door open—and gasped.

Carcasses of animals, all around. Large and small, but all familiar in shape.

Horses!

There was little smell, so long ago had it happened. But she knew what had transpired. Wei and his family had died, fled, or worse—and the animals here had starved to death. Locked away and abandoned.

“No!” Uhura fell to her knees and threw up. A place of death—inhabiting the only hope she’d seen. She cried with abandon. “No! No! No!”

Gasping for breath, she opened her wet eyes and saw her shadow, long and stark in the terrible place. She wrenched her head around and saw the empatherm behind her blazing bright, rising in height as if in response to her anguish.

“Empy, no!”

The fire elemental shot over her, a zephyr seeking the thing that caused her emotional pain. It lanced from one carcass to the next, touching off independent fires—nonliving, but still destructive. Uhura stood, shouting—but to no effect. She scrambled back and away, withdrawing as the entire barn went up.

Cold rain pelted her. The sky had finally opened up, but it could do nothing for the barn. With a sickening creak, the roof collapsed. “Empy!”

She fell to her hands and knees, weeping.

The rain was pouring when she looked up and saw tendrils of plasma emerging from the embers. Unhindered by the water, the empatherm collected itself and wobbled toward her location.

Uhura wiped her nose. “Are you okay?”

There was no response. It remained still as she spoke.

“Empy, that place hurt me to see. But I didn’t want it destroyed. Can’t you understand?”

Again, no response. But then, what was she expecting? There was no way she could ever expect a fireball to comprehend anything on a planet where she’d understood nothing at all.

Uhura realized she still had the papers in one hand—their ink now running. She shoved them into her tunic and stood. The sun was setting, and the rain felt as if it might turn over to snow at any moment. It didn’t matter.

“I can’t stay here.” She found what she supposed was north and began walking. And whether or not the empatherm was capable of understanding her decision, it followed her.

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