Among Enemies by Evan Currie

Author:Evan Currie [Currie, Evan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-05T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Hayden’s World, Subcontinent

Cassius found that a lot of the color had gone out of this new world he had moved to, the joy he’d felt the first few weeks now almost a faded memory.

He still got up and did his routine, exploring Sorilla’s land grant and cataloging the animals there. That was more a favor to Jerry, though, and his students. They were still a long way from knowing every animal that lived on this world, even after decades of inhabitation, and those on the subcontinent were almost entirely unknown to most of the Colony.

He enjoyed the work, he really did, but since word had come back that Sorilla had opted to go native… as one military asshole had the nerve to tell him to his face, once. Just the once, mind you… well, since then he found that it was becoming something he did just because rather than something he looked forward to.

The sunrise was still lovely, though the deep red as the stellar orb rose over the horizon had him checking with the weather constellation and finding that, yes, of course there was a bad storm coming.

Storms on Hayden were serious business, more so than on Earth, especially after the climate modification constellation had been brought online.

Here, the storms were natural, and they were powerful.

Nothing insane, like one might find on some extreme worlds, but still significantly more so than Earth got up to.

Storms were essentially heat engines, taking the heat energy that was distributed unevenly through the planet and, in areas where there was enough of it, turning that energy into a raging beast that could uproot almost anything that wasn’t affixed to the bedrock.

“Looks like I’ll be tightening everything down for the next few days,” He said to himself as he stepped out of the home he’d picked for himself from those Sorilla’s mobile fabrication units had completed.

There were others in residence now, so he made his way over to the closest of the inhabited buildings, finding that the inhabitants were already up and getting ready to tackle the day.

“Morning,” He called, waving casually as he approached.

“Good morning, Mr. Aida,” the military engineer in charge of making required alterations to the SOLCOM facilities said genially. “It’s a lovely one.”

“It is,” Cassius said. “But we’ve got a storm moving in, so I’m going to make the rounds and ensure everything is battened down. Figured I’d give you a head’s up in case you hadn’t checked yet.”

“I hadn’t actually,” The engineer said. “Thanks. I’ll make sure I seal everything up before I call it a day.”

“Good man,” Cassius smiled. “Carry on then. Potluck tonight?”

“In the community hall, yep. Stew again?” The engineer laughed.

“I was thinking barbeque, actually. I’ve got some steaks from the assembler,” Cassius shrugged. “They’re not off the hoof, but…”

“We’re not in Texas, I’ll take what I can get,” the Engineer chuckled.

“Exactly. Make sure your kit is all battened down,” Cassius advised. “I’ll swing back around in a few hours to check up on you. Storm is about eight hours out according to the constellation.

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