Michael Siemsen - Exigency

While a stubborn whisper strove to dissuade Aether, even since before leaving Threck Country (they’ll never make it across Hynka Country) , there persisted in her a strange faith—confident perhaps to a foolish degree—affording her a decisive calm as far as John and Minnie were concerned. Even as locusts of doubt plagued her own journey, those two would do what they set out to do. She wavered around 50/50 on Ish.

But here they were! This was truly the last mile. Soon, they might even pick up an emergency beacon.

No more than three minutes after the word beacon floated through her head, a tone sounded in Aether’s ear module, and a little red exclamation point flashed at the top of her HUD. In her peripheral, Aether caught Pablo’s head spin toward her.

“You see that?” he shouted, searching the coastline. Aether nodded absently as the alert opened mapping. “They’re here!”

“What do you see?” Heshper said, stepping onto the platform and gazing toward shore. “You see your people?”

Aether ignored her, focusing on the signal source. Mapping was all screwed up, attempting to locate mountains in the area. The signal wasn’t ground based.

Up?

Aether squinted at the sky, then felt dumb. It was a bounce. They’d aimed a transponder at the atmosphere to extend its range. A very John scheme. A grin spread across her face. She knew he’d pull through.

Heshper was still talking. “… don’t see what you see. Is it this way? There? Will you fly now? Go get people and return.”

Aether faced Heshper. “Not yet. We don’t see them yet, but we know they’re close. We will prepare for flying and go when we have better idea where they are.”

Thirty minutes later, a second alert activated. This one was direct—a skimmer—EV5’s B skimmer. Ish’s. Had they ever found her?

Now they had precise coordinates. Mapping put the skimmer on a nearby beach.

Finally able to give Heshper something to do, Aether pointed. “Please head toward shore. That way.”

Surprisingly absent of grievance, Heshper went to the afvrik’s trailing side and dipped her arms into the two reproductive slits, cilia tickling the tender membranes within, signaling the order to turn. As always, the afvrik complied, gradually shifting course to the precise direction. Behind them, Tunhkset steered the other afvrik to follow.

With everything moved off and away from the skimmer and resecured directly to the holds, Aether was ready to take to the sky. Pablo, on the other hand, kept thinking of more supplies he wanted to bring. What if someone had hypothermia, or frostbite, or gangrene? What if he needed to board someone for a spinal? Once his backpack had filled, he consolidated food into a single bin, and began filling the empty.

“It’s probably a two-minute flight,” Aether pleaded. “If we can’t just bring them back here, I’ll come back for anything you need!”

Obstinate, Pablo shook his head as he inventoried the additional gear. “Nope. Level eight injury. No such thing as overprep.”

“Agreed,” Aether said. “And I’ll refrain from mentioning you’ve had twelve days to prepare for this moment.”

“That sounded like the opposite of refrain. That was frain if I’ve ever heard it.”

Even with talk of serious injuries, a giddiness had charged the air. 27 days had passed since station evac. They were mere minutes from reunifying with family. Aether’s heart thumped like she’d done 20 minutes on a legger. She watched as Pablo went to seal the bin, thought of something, peeked in, slid the lid back on, and pulled it away again.

She powered on the skimmer. “I’m leaving without you.”

He was unmoved. “No, you’re not. Let me just grab some calorie bars. We don’t know how their food intake’s been.”

The fresh rush of launching stalled, Aether’s mind drifted into the reeds of superstition, as though relief and excitement would cue a trapdoor to open beneath her. And then a clamor arose around her. Threck crewmembers scurried from all sides of the afvrik, hurdling over bins and the skimmer to amass at the front.

Translations streamed into her fone.

“Do you see them?”

“What are these?”

“Hynka!”

“Real ones, Hynka, alive!”

“Can’t see! Move!”

Her head well above the wall of Threck cloaks, Aether scanned the shoreline in a panic, spotting the small group of enormous creatures walking south. She closed her eye and zoomed to max magnification. A band of three individuals, one with a pronounced hunch and arthritic gait. All three wore thick, silvery furs.

“What do we do?” Pablo said. He’d joined her on the skimmer at some point. “She doesn’t look worried.”

Aether looked at him. “She who? Which? What are you talking about?”

He gawked. “Minnie! You didn’t see her?”

She blinked, choked and coughed, and shot her gaze back to shore.

“Behind them,” Pablo urged. “Maybe five meters.”

And there she was, full suit and helmet, eyes on her footing, hands free. Aether could even see the spritely outline of her face behind the visor’s glare. The delicate, if boyish, saunter. Pablo was talking. The Threck were talking. But it was all a distant drone. What was happening there on shore? She panned right, back to the Hynka. Still lumbering forward, one gestured down the beach, glanced back to Minnie, saying something. Minnie’s head rose, a second’s delay—maybe reading a Livetrans—and then she pointed the same way. The Hynka carried on.

More furor around Aether. Streaks of tentacles and rope.

“Can you please tell them it’s a terrible idea?” Pablo implored. “You heard what happened when they tried before!”

Aether surveyed the scene, watched Heshper doling out orders, Threck diving into the water with lengths of rope and stretching out one of the fishing nets. She scrolled through the stacks of unread Livetrans.

“Capture one… bring back alive… we’ll be celebrated… ready the nets… tighten the holds…”

Aether spotted Heshper, arms in the afvrik slits, shouting commands. Aether stabbed a finger to Pablo, shouted “Watch Minnie!” and marched straight to Heshper. “You’re going to try to catch one?”

“Yes,” Heshper said without looking up. “The journey will now have true purpose.”

“The journey didn’t need any more purpose than what was already ordered by Massoss Pakte. You’re going to get everyone here killed. Have you not heard the story of the bones in the Thinkers Hall?”

“All know this story,” Heshper replied. “These were not Fishers. Fishers capture afvrik bigger than six of those.”

“Afvrik don’t pull Fishers to shore and rip them to pieces! You think you’re just going to send some Threck to shore with rope, tie up one Hynka, and escort it back out here?”

Heshper’s eyes finally rolled up to Aether. “No. You will fly net over top, drop on head, and we will all pull.”

“So you wish to drown another one? Drag another big dead thing into the harbor? Is that what the city needs? Another set of bones to face the first?”

“We will bring it alive, as others could not” Heshper said coolly. “You will drop net, fly other rope to Tunhkset, both afvrik swim out, keep Hynka in net in middle.”

“That isn’t happening,” Aether said.

“We will see.”

“We will not see. We will not be flying any net or rope or anything other than our people.”

Heshper pulled her hands from the slits and stood up. “You will do as I order.”

“I will not.”

Flustered, Heshper eyed the crew, all now standing around to see how this exchange played out. Aether suspected they weren’t rooting for their boss.