Star Splitter by Matthew J. Kirby

Author:Matthew J. Kirby [Kirby, Matthew J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

16—Hades

AFTER

The next morning, I woke up feeling a little better than the day before. My muscles weren’t as sore, probably because I hadn’t walked as far, and the waterproof tent had kept me dry. The sun shone, and I wondered what I would see when I went outside. So much rain had fallen during the night that I almost expected to find everything around me washed away. But Hades didn’t look very different than it had before I closed my tent. The purple ferns still swayed in a clean-smelling breeze, though the water had carved deep tracks through the soil in some places and piled up low, smooth dunes in others. But everything was much drier than I thought it should be. I saw no puddles, and very little mud, and I wondered where all the water had gone.

I looked for Duncan but couldn’t see him anywhere, and I hoped he was okay. Then I saw the reclaimer, and I gasped.

It lay on its side, half buried in the dirt. At some point during the night, the wind had tipped it over, emptying its reservoir onto the ground with the rain. But I wasn’t worried about the lost water.

“Shit,” I said out loud. “Shit, shit, shit.”

I rushed over and tried to lift the reclaimer onto its feet, but the rain had submerged it so tightly in sediment that I had to dig it out first, clawing at the soil with my hands. I didn’t know much about reclaimers, but I knew they were very sensitive and should not be buried in mud.

When I finally got it unearthed and standing upright, my dread rose to panic. Silt and grit choked the reclaimer’s gills and membranes, and I could tell it was broken. Useless.

I checked the reservoir and found a little less than a hundred milliliters inside, barely an afterthought of all the water I had lost. I drank it down in a couple of gulps. Then I turned away from the reclaimer, resisting the urge to kick it over out of anger at myself for being stupid enough to leave it out in the storm, and I stomped back to the tent to sulk and re-evaluate my plan.

Without clean water, the mountain and the habitat lay an impossible distance away. I was already thirsty, and I briefly considered drinking the Hades water, but that came with huge risks I wasn’t willing to take, which made my choice a simple one. I had to go back to the lander for a new reclaimer. I was furious with myself for that, because in her eyes it would confirm everything she’d said about me.

I still had a few hydrated rations, so I ate a packet of cold spaghetti for breakfast before I packed up, thinking my body would get a bit more water from it. Duncan returned as I knelt on the ground to roll up the tent, on time for his breakfast.

“And where were you?” I asked. “Somewhere dry?”

His head did the bobbing thing up and down, like he was nodding yes.

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