Taylor Anderson - Into the Storm

“Now, we can sit around and mope and whine ‘woe is me’ or we can get ourselves in gear, make the tough decisions, and figure out how to win!” He saw Adar’s predatory grin and knew he’d finally won him over. The Sky Priest probably had more swing with the other Homes than Keje did anyway.

But Keje wasn’t out. He leaned forward. “Were you not overwhelmed when first you learned the odds?” Matt was guiltily aware that he’d been “overwhelmed” for the last six months. But this time it was different. The steamroller was coming and his tricycle had a flat, but he’d thrown the blindfold off. Keje huffed. “You’ll hear no whining from me!”

Matt stood with Sandra on Big Sal’s battlement, leaning on the rail and watching the setting sun. Below, the victory celebration was still under way. Time enough later for the full extent of the challenge to make itself known. For now, let them enjoy themselves. They’d earned it. Adar swore the weather would remain fine for several days at least, so Matt hadn’t ordered the PBY back to Baalkpan. It floated now, bouncing a little on the choppy sea but safe and snug in the sheltering lee of the massive sides of Home. Bradford cut short his safari. For such large creatures, super lizards were surprisingly difficult to find-particularly since his guides had been instructed by Nakja-Mur not to lead him anywhere near one. He’d arrived with the plane and was, even now, examining the “prize” with Spanky, Chief Gray, and a group of Naga’s and Adar’s acolytes. In the middle distance steamed Walker, festively alight from stem to stern but still screening the revelers against any approaching threat. As it should be. As she’d always done.

Matt blinked and looked around. It struck him odd that he and Sandra would have the vast expanse of Big Sal’s battlement all to themselves. Others had been there-Keje, Garrett, Pete, Jarrik-but he hadn’t noticed when they left. Weird. Neither had spoken for quite some time, enjoying the companionable solitude.

“It’s so sad about Chack,” Sandra said, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, Keje’s daughter too. I think she was expecting wedding bells when she saw Chack come aboard.”

“Her name’s Selass,” Sandra reminded him. “We spoke before we left Baalkpan, and she told me her hopes and the understanding she had with Chack. She wondered what I thought he’d decide.” She shrugged. “I had no idea. Now… she’s in for a rough road. She loves him, but they can’t mate, no matter what he had decided.”

“Why not? I thought ’cats got married and unmarried whenever they felt like it.”

“Sometimes, but they seem to take ‘sickness and health’ pretty seriously. Selass can’t ‘divorce’ Saak-Fas until he’s well-which I doubt he’ll ever be-or until he dies, of course.”

It had been a heart-wrenching moment. Selass greeted Chack with a joyful embrace, but then they hoisted Saak-Fas aboard. She had her answer-the only one possible-and Chack limped into the crowd while Selass desperately called his name.

They were quiet for a long moment, and then Sandra suddenly giggled. “That Silva and Risa sure carried on-right in front of everybody- when he came aboard! They’ll have everybody thinking they are married if they don’t cool it!” She looked thoughtful. “That’s probably gone far enough. They’ll run it into the ground. Besides, I never figured Silva for the type to ride a joke down in flames. He’s already got Chack’s goat. They’re just doing if for attention now.”

Matt groaned, remembering the embarrassing spectacle. “I don’t want to hear that man’s name! As far as I’m concerned, he’s restricted to the ship for the rest of his life! We’ll see how married he thinks he is then!”

There was another long silence between them, and when Sandra spoke again, her voice was softer, hesitant.

“I wonder what Chack was going to say? To Selass. I wonder if he’d made up his mind. Would he”-she looked at him, eyes questioning- “have said the same thing you told me yesterday?” Matt looked confused.

“What, that you’re an idiot?”

She snorted with laughter, but tears filled her eyes. Without even looking to see if anyone was watching, he took her in his arms.

“I don’t know what he would have said. None of my business. But I do love you, Sandra Tucker.” He kissed her on the forehead. She shuddered against him.

“I love you too,” she whispered into his chest. Her breath was warm through the tear-soaked cloth. “What will we do now?”

“What do you mean?” His voice was husky. “Will we win? Will we ever find other people? Will we even survive?” He raised her chin to look into her shimmering eyes. “Will this be all we ever have?” He kissed her lightly on the lips and she returned it-hard enough to electrify every nerve in his body. For a long while they just clung to one another, each drawing strength and courage to replenish the wells they’d gone to so often. Then he brushed the hair away from her face and wiped the tears from her cheek.

“Well,” he sighed sadly, “that’s a whole other story, isn’t it?”

Far across the water, nearly a dozen men leaned against the safety chain beside the number three gun on the amidships deckhouse. There were only two pairs of binoculars among them and they were making the rounds.

“It’s about damn time,” Silva grumped.

“Yeah,” agreed Felts. “Way to go, Skipper!”

Silva looked at Laney. “Fork ’em over, snipe.” Grumbling, Laney handed him two wrinkled cigarettes-careful to keep his distance so close to the rail. Cigarettes were the closest thing to money anybody had, and nobody ever smoked them anymore. Till now. Silva handed one to Felts and lit them both with his Zippo. They took long drags and exhaled contentedly.

“What are you so damn happy about?” Laney snarled, watching his wager go up in smoke. “There’s only two dames in the whole goddamn world, far’s we know, and they’re both took!”

Silva looked at Felts and rolled his eyes. “Snipes’ brains are like weeds. Not enough sunlight belowdecks for ’em to grow.” He looked at the machinist’s mate. “And some are stupider than others. It’s like this, see? The Skipper and Lieutenant Tucker are nuts about each other-which everybody knows, but nobody’s supposed to. But they ain’t gonna do anything about it until they find dames for the rest of us.” He shook his head. “Couple’a dopes. Anyway, that’s a mighty incentive for ’em to find us some, don’t you think?” After a moment, Laney grinned and lit a smoke of his own.

Eventually, the binoculars found their way to the Mice. No one knew why they were there. It was actually kind of cool on deck and they’d likely catch their deaths. Regardless, they waited and took their turn peering through the binoculars, one after the other. Then they shuffled off.

“I wonder,” Gilbert said at last. “Maybe we could marry us one of them monkey-cat gals like Silva did.”

Isak shook his head. “Won’t work. Silva said the Skipper had his weddin’ annealed, ’er somethin’.” Gilbert looked perplexed.

“I thought ‘annealed’ means to heat somethin’ red-hot an’ let it cool off on its own so you can bend it.”

“Yep.”

Gilbert looked at Silva and cocked his head. “Didn’t work.”