Carpathians by Paul Dixon

Author:Paul Dixon [Dixon, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-27T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-NINE

Nya lived in single-faculty housing, a studio apartment whose biometric monitoring saw her coming, unlocked the door, and swung it open, momentarily creating the illusion that someone was waiting for her inside. But not tonight. Johanna had gotten her message and said she would meet her in the morning.

It was just as well; Nya needed to pack.

The hundred and fifty square meters of her living space were crammed floor to ceiling with field gear. The modest furniture she owned had long since been overrun by an avalanche of backpacks, tents, and stoves; fluorometers and calorimeters and pDNA sequencers; and an assemblage of gill nets, circular throw nets, autonomous robotic traps, even barbless hooks rigged with monofilament to old-fashion poles.

She stepped inside, shaking her head sadly at the mess. She had always intended to do something about it. Now she only had three days left on Paradise. A tidy apartment was one more thing that would be left undone.

She packed, cleaning half-heartedly as she went. She wondered what the University would do with this place when she was gone. Send a team to rummage through her belongings, and put anything left behind into storage for a decade or two?

Or maybe they’d just recycle everything, and there’d be no memory of her at all.

It took an hour to assemble a worthy field kit, with enough clothing and food for two nights. When she was finished she hefted her bag experimentally. Not too heavy; probably eighteen kilos. It would do.

Then she carved out a space on her bed large enough to lay down and fell into an exhausted sleep.

At four o’clock in the morning, there was a knock on her door. Nya groaned, got to her feet, and slouched across the floor in the crumpled shorts in which she’d slept.

Johanna was waiting for her outside.

“Morning, sunshine,” Johanna said, chipper as ever. “Ready for another beautiful day of fieldwork?”

Nya blinked, bleary-eyed. “Coffee first,” she said.

Johanna gave her a kiss. “There’s a mug waiting for you in the flier.”

“I love you.”

“Course you do. Let’s go.”

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