Wayward Galaxy by Jason Anspach & J.N. Chaney

Author:Jason Anspach & J.N. Chaney [Anspach, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Variant Publications
Published: 2020-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

22

Just as Reach closed the connection with Captain Bosa, Liana returned, arms full of supplies and woven bags hanging over her shoulders. She shrugged away Reach’s offer of help.

“You sure?” he asked.

He received a playful swat in return. “I’m fine.”

“Okay,” he said, smiling as he sat down. “I’ll just… watch you work.”

Most of what she carried was firewood, a mix of kindling and split logs. The bark of the logs was white, as he’d seen, but he was surprised to find that the interior of the wood was a deep purple.

Liana expertly struck a piece of flint to a bundle of rolled dried black leaves and some fluffy seed that reminded Reach of cottonwood. It caught the spark, smoldered, and set the kindling teepee ablaze. She squatted before it and made a show of warming her hands, then pulled what looked like a loaf of bread from a tattered satchel and raised it to her nose, inhaling deeply.

She offered it to Reach. “Smell.”

Reach took it warily; in his life, when someone asked you to smell something, it usually stank. But he was a guest, so he inhaled deeply. It smelled sweet—almost like a donut. His stomach growled, loud enough for Liana to hear.

She looked at his belly, laughed, and put the bread back in the bag.

From another bag, she removed several oiled leather pouches. She opened them, then took a sharpened stick and stabbed it into one of the pouches. She pulled out a pale, wriggling glob of slime that looked like it was full of bath beads. Using another stick, she slid the stuff further up the stick and stabbed a new glob. Reach realized she was constructing a globulus shish-kabob to roast over the open flame.

It wasn’t exactly appetizing, but Reach just sat back and watched as the flickering tongues of fire licked at the… whatever it was. After a time, Liana moved the food away from the flames and left it in the indirect heat at the edge of the fire. Then she took Reach’s hand and pulled him closer to the fire, gesturing at the air around her. Bugs were swarming now, thick as gnats, but the drifting smoke parted their flight patterns.

“Better close,” Liana said with a nod. “They don’t come close to the fire.”

“The bugs?”

She nodded.

She waited a bit more, then pulled the kabob completely away from the heat and gingerly poked the mass at the end. After blowing on it to help it cool, she offered it to Reach, nodding eagerly.

Reach tried not to make a face. Once upon a time, back when he was a marine winning hearts and minds, there would occasionally be some local… delicacy to eat. And if your number came up to take a bite, you could guarantee that you’d be sitting in the hundred-twenty-degree port-a-john for at least a day straight. But you had to do it all the same.

Before he could take a bite, Liana motioned for him to pinch the stuff. “Like this.”

He obeyed, and

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