“It was nothing.” She was so angry she could
not hear properly, and of course the thin air played tricks with
sound. Commander Tarik could not possibly know how to laugh, though
the noise she thought he made was suspiciously like one.
“Nothing to you, perhaps,” he said, “but I do
value my life. I also value loyalty. I know you dislike me. Thank
you for what you did.” He paused, and she heard a sound halfway
between a chuckle and a groan. “Will you help me again? I need
medical aid, and I can’t do it myself.”
“What is it you want?” Narisa turned to face
him, and met his purple-blue eyes fixed full upon her. His face was
serious, but his eyes were filled with a soft light.
“We need to find shelter,” Tarik said. “Also
water and more food than we have here. To do that, we will have to
walk, and I know I won’t be able to move very far. It hurts every
time I take a deep breath.”
“I don’t know what to do.” Narisa spread her
hands in a helpless gesture. “I’ve had only the basic medical
training for emergencies, and we don’t have any supplies.”
“Long ago,” Tarik said, “injured people were
bound tightly until their injuries healed.”
“Do you mean,” Narisa interrupted,
unbelieving, “that a broken bone will heal itself without sonic
instrument treatment? That can’t be true. And even if it were, how
do you know about it?”
“I just know.” Tarik sounded weary. “Use the
safety harness. Cut it out of the pod and wrap it around my
chest.”
There was a simple knife in the tool kit she
had found. She used it to cut out the harness, then knelt beside
him.
“Put it under my clothes, next to the skin,”
he told her. “You will have to help me take my jacket off.”
The closures were pressure-sensitive, so it
was easy enough to release them and peel the heavy dark blue fabric
off his chest. It was harder to get his arms out of the sleeves.
Narisa realized he was in a great deal more pain than he had
revealed to her. She tried to be gentle, but he winced more than
once, and finally he groaned.
“I’m sorry, Commander Tarik.” She laid the
jacket on the ground and picked up the harness.
“Can’t be helped. Now wrap it. Do it tightly.
It’s elastic; I’ll be able to breathe. I need the support.”
She could guess by the short, clipped
sentences how much it must hurt him to breathe and talk. She could
also see the large blue bruises over the broken bones on his left
side. Dislike him or not, she had to admire the courage it took for
him to cry out in pain yet not give up.
She held one end of the harness against his
chest with her hand flat on his warm skin, and reached her other
arm around his back to catch the loose end and draw it forward.
Except for their ride in the pod, she had never been this close to
Commander Tarik before. She had avoided him as much as
possible.
Now here she was on her knees next to him,
and her arms were around him in an awkward embrace while she
fumbled with the harness. She kept her head down so she would not
have to look at him, but that meant her face was pressed against
his chest when she reached behind him.
He smelled so nice. The scent of his skin
reminded her of gentle sunlight and cool breezes, and the tangy
fragrance of moist green leaves.
“Pull the strap tighter,” he said, his lips
almost touching her ear. She could feel his warm breath on her
neck, and she suddenly recalled how he had felt in the pod, pressed
closely against her back during all that dangerous ride. “Tighter,
lieutenant. Ah, that’s good. Now wind it around again, and then
another time if it’s long enough.”
She had to put her arms around him once more
to do as he ordered, and this time she made the mistake of raising
her head. They were cheek to cheek, so near she could almost feel
the faint stubble on his chin. Poor Tarik, he had no more pills to
take to keep his beard from growing. His hair was so dark he would
probably look like a Cetan before long, with an untidy beard and
sweeping mustache. She almost smiled at that nasty thought. It took
her mind away from Tarik’s firm mouth, too close to her own, the
corners pulled down hard in a grimace of pain. For one lunatic
moment she wanted to kiss the pain away and smooth the deep lines
that ran from nose to mouth, run her fingers along them and watch
them disappear into laughter.
She must be going mad. It must be the hot sun
and the unfamiliar air. This was the despicable Commander Tarik,
not a friend. She finished wrapping the harness about his rib cage,
fastened the end with one of the clips from the neck of her own
uniform, and sat back on her heels, looking anywhere but into his
eyes, or at his mouth, or at the chest and shoulders and upper arms
that had proven to be remarkably hard-muscled in spite of his
slenderness.
“Thank you,” he said softly. “Now, if you
would help me with my jacket again.”
It was easier to get it on than it had been
to take it off. He did not seem to be in as much pain now, thanks
to the support provided by the harness. By the time he was covered
and the closures fastened, Narisa had herself under complete
control once more.
“Drink some water,” she told him, handing
over the largest of the three packages that made up the total of
all their supplies.
He took a mouthful, swallowed, and then
inhaled deeply. She could tell it hurt because he doubled over and
nearly dropped the water container.
“Be careful.” She snatched it away from him,
hastily reclosing it. “If you spill this, there isn’t any
more.”
“Exactly. We must find more. Help me up,
lieutenant.”
She looked down at him doubtfully. He had a
long, narrow face, the cheekbones high, the chin pointed. His nose
was long and straight, his mouth a thinned line of pain. His eyes
were large, their purple-blue depths fringed by thick black lashes,
and above them his heavy brows were two dark lines across his pale
skin. His hair was blue-black, straight, and cut a little shorter
than her own. He had the stern look of an ascetic priest of some
ancient religion, yet Narisa thought if he would only smile, his
cold, sharp face would soften into warm humanity and he would be
quite attractive.
“You should not stand up yet. You should lie
here and rest until you are stronger, Commander Tarik.” Strange how
the formal address lingered, even here on this forsaken planet.
Narisa wondered if they would die here, still calling each other
commander
and
lieutenant.
She shivered at the
thought. If they were the only two humans on this world, then she
would have to try to make a friend of him. “You may have been more
badly injured than you realize. Have you pain anywhere else,
besides your ribs?”
“My head aches.” The blue eyes were fierce.
“And elsewhere, but I’m not going to tell you where.”
“Then you must stay where you are until you
recover.” She bit her lower lip, trying hard not to laugh at him.
She could guess where else he hurt. She had seen him thrown against
the guardrail and then the bulkhead on the
Reliance.
Did he
think she didn’t know how the male body was constructed? Didn’t he
know that on Belta boys and girls were schooled together, played
all sports together, and swam naked and unembarrassed in the warm,
silvery Beltan rivers?
Narisa was familiar with the male body,
though she had seldom gone into quiet corners or leafy glades with
boys, as many of her friends had done, and she had never yet found
the courage to do the thing the other girls giggled and whispered
about, the thing that hurt at first and then felt so wonderful that
boys and girls alike wanted to do it over and over again. Narisa
had seen how her parents dealt with each other, and watching them,
sensing their deep love, the thing that happened between male and
female had seemed to her too solemn and mysterious, too important
to be indulged in casually. Someday she would love a man as her
mother loved her father, and they would come together in mutual joy
that would last all their lives. Until then, she was content to
wait. Meanwhile, she had to deal with an irate Commander Tarik, who
was determined to disregard her very sensible advice.
“Rest here?” he snarled at her. “Lie broiling
in this merciless sun until all the food and water is gone? That
would be insanity, lieutenant. If you won’t help me, I’ll get up by
myself.”
He pushed himself to his knees, got one leg
under him and nearly made it to his feet before he crumpled. Narisa
caught him, breaking his fall, but she was driven to her knees by
his weight.
“You see, commander? You are too weak.”
That angered him. He put a hand on each of
her shoulders with such pressure that she thought he would break
both her shoulders and her spine, bearing down hard until he was
completely upright. He stood by himself at last, swaying a little,
his legs planted wide apart for balance.
“If you fall,” Narisa said, brushing off her
uniform as she, too, rose, “I won’t pick you up again. You are not
a very sensible person,
sir.
You are plainly too injured to
travel.”
“Better injured and trying to walk than dead
of dehydration. Is there anything in there I could possibly use for
a crutch or cane?” He gestured toward the pod.
“Nothing.” Except for the broken and useless
navigational instruments and the artificial air system, the pod was
molded of one piece of flexible metal with a single movable unit,
the entrance hatch, which had been blown off at landing and was
nowhere to be seen. “There isn’t a thing there we could possibly
take with us.”
“Then if it becomes necessary, I shall have
to lean on you.”
They ought to have had a head covering of
some kind, but at least their uniforms would protect the rest of
their bodies from the heat and the sun. They both wore the standard
Service uniform of dark blue jacket and trousers made of a
specially formulated material that would keep them warm or cool,
whichever was necessary. The only color on the uniforms was the red
and silver braid stripes on the high collars and sleeve cuffs. The
four-pointed star of a lieutenant gleamed gold on Narisa’s upper
left arm, the eight-pointed star of a full commander on Tarik’s.
Both were shod in low-heeled black boots. The additional elements
of the uniform, used only for formal occasions -ornamented belt,
wide, red-lined cape, and silver helmet - were lost with the
Reliance.
Narisa regretted only the cape. It would have made
a useful blanket when night came.
She noticed Tarik was staring at the horizon,
much as she had done earlier, shading his eyes with one hand.
“Do you see that?” He pointed, but Narisa
could see nothing save the deep blue sky where it met the desert at
the edge of the world. “I see some green in that direction. And I
thought I saw something moving.”
“A bird?” She told him about the one she had
seen earlier, and he nodded, looking excited.
“If there is something that big living here,
there must be open water. We go that way.” He started walking
slowly and none too steadily. Narisa picked up the food packet, the
water container and the tool kit, and followed him.
Tarik had started walking slowly, one arm
held tightly across his chest as though to stabilize his rib cage
and thus lessen the discomfort he must feel with every movement.
But as he continued, he seemed to draw strength from some interior
reserve. His steps became longer, firmer, and after the first half
hour he was marching steadily along, both arms swinging
rhythmically, aiming directly toward the green spot he had claimed
to see on the distant horizon. He did not speak at all.
Narisa suspected he was conserving every bit
of his energy for the act of walking, and she wondered how long he
could keep it up without dropping. She was almost certain he had
sustained other injuries besides his broken ribs. She silently
cursed whoever had removed the medical packet that ought to have
been in the pod. In it there would have been a diagnostic rod to
tell her exactly what Tarik’s injuries were, and how to treat
them.
Narisa trudged onward, exactly three paces
behind Tarik, just as Service regulations required for formal
occasions. Commander first, then Lieutenant Commander, Lieutenant
last, that was the order. She stifled a giggle.
Never giggle on duty, Lieutenant,
she
told herself. It was the sun. She was terribly hot, and so thirsty
she wanted to drain every drop from the water container slung over
her left shoulder. She yearned to throw herself into a lake of
clear water and float there, her face shaded by gently arching
branches that dipped silver-green leaves into the water and gave
off a soft fragrance when touched, like Tarik’s body when she had
pressed her face against it. She could almost feel the water on her
parched skin.
So entranced was she by this inner vision
that she did not notice Tarik had stopped until she bumped into his
back. He did not react to her. He was looking at the sky. Narisa
followed his line of sight. High above them was a bird, the same
one she had seen before, or one remarkably like it. As they
watched, the bird began a dizzying spiral, flinging itself downward
so fast Narisa thought it would land on top of them. It pulled out
of the spiral a good thirty feet above them, hovering just long
enough for her to notice that the deep blue feathers of back and
wings faded to a slightly paler shade on throat and breast before
it was gone again, heading in a direction some forty-five degrees
off the course Tarik had set for himself and Narisa.
“It’s so huge,” Narisa whispered, awestruck.
She had seen many kinds of birds before. They, or similar species,
were fairly common on the inhabited planets, but never had she been
so impressed by feathered grace and beauty. The wings were large
and obviously very strong, yet delicately scalloped on their lower
edges. The body was sleek and graceful, and the head was proud,
with a bright, soft eye and an elongated deep blue beak, which was
marred by a jagged scratch or scar on one side. “When it stands on
the ground, it must be nearly as tall as you or I. Look, here it
comes again.”