Salvaged Destiny (8 page)

Del felt uncomfortable with the question and hesitated too
long. Lazlo looked over at her. “What, did you not finish your degree?”

“No. I don’t have one. I never went.” There, she’d admitted
an embarrassing fact. Lazlo was too easy to talk with. No wonder people
confessed all their crimes to him.

Lazlo looked confused, or she assumed he was confused since
she could only see a small swath of his face not covered by hat, shades and a
wrapped scarf. There was enough exposed to show off his dimple however. “Why
didn’t you go?”

“Because my family needed me here, to work.” Del certainly
wasn’t going to tell him that she had stopped her schooling at the small port
school as soon as she was legally allowed, to work full time in the cycling
business. It was embarrassing to be as uneducated as she was, especially
whenever she encountered someone from off-planet who was so obviously
well-rounded and sophisticated like Lazlo Casta. Her family had never had, and
never would have, excess funds to send her or any of her siblings to the
Academy. Del already felt like a rube any time she dealt with a portie. That
was why she preferred to stay outside the gates at the family home, or go even farther
afield into the Outlands where it didn’t matter.

“You mean you learned all of this on your own, with no
classes or instructors?”

Del nodded and decided not to say anything else. She certainly
wasn’t going to tell him of her ambition to take some actual classes, invest in
more equipment and perhaps even travel to a conference in the future. Those
were her big plans, easily mocked by anyone who took those privileges as
natural entitlements.

“That’s impressive,” Lazlo rumbled as he gave her a long
look before turning his attention back to his driving.

“Not really.”

“Yes it is. I bet you could show some of those emeriti a few
things they don’t know.” Del shook her head, embarrassed in a different way at
his praise. At least he wouldn’t be able to see her blushing under her wrapped
scarf.

Lazlo kept driving, slowing his pace a bit as they reached
the ground rising toward the towering outcrops they needed to search that day. Pinkish-gray
rocks and boulders began to litter the area. Del mentioned they were quartzite
and Lazlo nodded again, struggling a bit to maneuver the cart around a
particularly large boulder thrusting out of the ground like a striking fist.

This section of the Outlands was gorgeous—enormous eroded
cliff faces and canyons, brightly colored contrasting layers of sediment, lots
of wind and movement. There were fewer algae and fungi here. Del guessed it was
due to the dryness of the higher elevation but she’d never made a study of it.

“Help me find a nice big piece of quartzite that we can use
to hide this cart,” Lazlo asked and Del nodded, immediately scanning for
something to suit their needs. They parked between two specimens the size of
houses and unloaded their equipment. As Del pulled on her pack and adjusted her
tools, Lazlo spread a speckled and textured sheet over the cart to conceal it
even further. Then he reached back in and pulled out a longish battered case
and strapped it on his back over his own pack.

“What’s that?”

“Rifle. Twinshot 850, old but very reliable.”

Del took a breath and looked at Lazlo’s face, his eyes
concealed by his shades. He looked big and imposing and entirely ready to shoot
something. Del swallowed back a flutter of nervousness.

Lazlo read the tension in her when she noticed the weapon. Del
probably didn’t realize that he’d already been carrying a stunner in a holster
at his hip and there was also a ceramic knife in his boot. But the rifle was
obvious and intimidating and accurate at long distances, which was the whole
point of carrying it. Time to bring up a sensitive subject. At the major’s
insistence and his own inclinations, Lazlo brought along an extra stunner
today, a simple model that was easy for a beginner to use.

“Del, I was wondering if you wanted to carry something, in
case we run into trouble.”

Del tightened up even more and put her little hands on her
hips. “You mean some sort of weapon.”

“Right.” Lazlo stayed quiet at that point, letting her
decide what she wanted to do. She had joked before that she was a pacifist, so
he didn’t want to push her into anything. But both he and Major Sekar agreed it
would be better to give Del the option of arming herself.

“And the trouble we might run into would be a person I would
have to injure in some way?”

“Yes, to protect yourself.”

“Or protect you,” she replied with a quirk of her curvy
lips. Del Browen was a spicy one.

“Or you could protect me.” Lazlo waited again.

“That would sort of be part of my job, since the Outlands is
my area of expertise. But I was expecting to protect you from thermals, sand
shifts, falling rocks or fungal outbreaks. Not a person.” She frowned and took
a deep breath. “Someone with a weapon of their own that they would know how to
use.”

“Right. If someone is coming after us, they’re going to be
prepared to gain control over us.” Lazlo didn’t mention that if Sheriff Harata
was after them, he’d likely injure them to get information, or worse. Out here,
anything could happen and no one would be able to find the bodies. “And they
would use whatever force they wanted.”

“I don’t know how to use a stunner, or a rifle either.”
Admitting her inexperience was a good sign. Lazlo was glad she hadn’t said no
outright. She just might agree to carry the stunner. Del took a step closer to
him and peered at the rifle case. “That looks pretty big to me.”

“I brought a simple stunner, if you want to try it.” Lazlo
pulled out the Melgonic and showed it to her, pointing out the trigger and
charge buttons. Del touched it with the tip of a finger and hunched her
shoulders as if she expected it to explode with the contact.

“Here, take a shot with it. It recharges in less than a
tenth of a second. This is the dangerous end, this is the trigger.” Lazlo
handed over the weapon and pointed at a nearby rock. “Shoot at that.”

Del lifted the stunner in her hands, curled a thin finger
around the trigger and took a decent stance, which he did not try to improve.
Let
her give it a try first
. Del took a deep breath and sighted on the rock. But
she did not pull.

“That looks like a nice piece of basalt. Unusual.” Glancing
his way, Del quirked an eyebrow. Was she not going to shoot a rock?

“If you hit it, you’ll just knock it over. You won’t hurt
it. It’s just an electromagnetic pulse.” Lazlo tried to reassure her and she
twisted back to contemplate the rock. He tried not to be amused that she
apparently didn’t want to damage a geological specimen.

“I don’t know.”

“Stun bolts don’t even permanently injure people, just knock
them out. How would it hurt some chunk of rock?”

“Not just some rock. It’s basalt, from the core of this
planet. It’s probably at least three billion—” Del was winding up to another
information dump about geology and Lazlo wanted to see her fire the stunner in
the next few hours.

“Del, shoot the rock.” Lazlo allowed a bit of edge to harden
his voice, just as he did whenever he wanted one of the new recruits to pay
attention.

With a start, she pressed the trigger. The stunner whirred
and the rock tipped over, neat and clean.

“Great!” It was a decent first shot. “You do that with
someone threatening you and you’ll be fine.” Del looked unconvinced as she
shrugged and tried to hand back the stunner.

“No, no. Try it again but first, you’ll do better if you
shift your feet like this.” Using little bumps and nudges on her thin and
uncooperative body, Lazlo soon had Del positioned in a regulation posture and
she agreed to try a few more shots. He gave her some praise to boost her
confidence while trying to ignore how nice she smelled. Del again tried to hand
the stunner back to him.

“That one is yours. I have my own. Put it on your belt. Here’s
the holster.” In his enthusiasm, Lazlo started to unfasten her belt to thread
on the stunner holster, but Del’s hands gripped his and she caught his eye. “Sorry.
You can do that yourself.”

Lazlo stepped back, feeling abashed that he’d handled her so
casually. He’d gotten too familiar when he’d adjusted her stance. Del eased a
step away and got the equipment lined up on her belt. With a careful touch,
Lazlo adjusted the placement along her hip so nothing rubbed or interfered with
the draw.

“I don’t know if I can use that thing on someone,” Del said
in a low voice. “I’m not comfortable with it.”

“What would you be comfortable with?” he asked, quickly
cataloging the other weapons he had stashed on his person—two extra blades in
his pack, sonic stars at his belt next to plenty of ties. Certainly enough to
share.

“Maybe I already have something. Let me show you what I have
that might work,” Del offered after watching him for a moment. She sounded
enthusiastic again.

His guide began to pull bladed instruments from various
pockets and loops. “Here is my rock pick. It has a pointed tip and the other
end is a square hammer. This is my chisel head. It’s more of a blade and it
weighs less but it’s still over six hundred grams. Here’s my basic knife.” She
pulled a dull-purple blade out of her boot, holstered in the exact same
location as his own. It was an old, hard titanite blade, well-sharpened with a
tight hide handle. Del handed it over to him and he admired it for a moment
before handing it back. The rock hammers were rugged pieces of equipment. They
looked more than capable of smashing any sort of body part she cared to swing
at. Lazlo was a little excited by her arsenal.

“It’s a good knife. I like it. And I have some other stuff
in my pack, but I can’t get at that very quickly, so I guess it doesn’t count.”
Del frowned a bit and Lazlo wanted to give her a hug of congratulations for her
unconventional armory.

“And you feel as though you could use these things?”

“Yes, if I had to. I know how to handle all of them better
than a stunner like yours.”

“Then I don’t think you need to borrow any more of my
weapons.” Lazlo smiled at her again, enjoying this moment very much. She was a
self-reliant person, which only made sense when he considered that she came out
here alone so often. And she was refreshingly honest and direct, which was such
a change from Serra’s wild moods and deceptions. His former lover had been
excitingly unpredictable at first, but that devolved into outright mania at the
end. Not that he should be comparing the two.

“But I want you to keep the stunner. Just in case. Until we’re
finished with the job.” Lazlo encouraged her, trying to look wise. He was
relieved when she nodded.

“So we’re set?” Del asked, bouncing a little on her feet,
looking energetic enough to hike for several hours without a break.

“One more thing. Let’s keep our datpads off, just on the
chance someone is scanning for activity out here.”

“Who would have a scanner that powerful?”

“Sheriff Harata.”

“Of course.” Del powered down her electronic and then took
off her pack and rummaged inside, finally pulling out some rolled-up pieces of
paper. “Old-style maps,” she explained. “So we can note our search grid. I drew
them up last night.”

Laughing now, Lazlo wanted to pat her on the back for being
so prepared but that seemed too personal, so instead he just nodded and let her
take the lead, up into the light-red cliffs and hopefully to the hidden weapons
they needed to find.

“Stars, I’m grimy,” Lazlo grumbled, smacking at his clothing
as billows of pink dust swirled around him. Del nodded and rinsed her mouth
with water. She was too dry to speak. They’d spent more than four hours
searching a depressingly small section and had nothing to show for it, other
than a coating of powdery debris and some bruises on shins and fingers. She
hadn’t seen anything man-made since they’d left the cart behind.

Peachy-pink stone cliffs rose around them in frozen waves,
the wind whistling along their surfaces with a hiss. They stopped for a break
in a more open area covered with green sand. Del settled herself to the ground
slowly, sighing with relief as she got her weight off her feet for the first
time in hours. Lazlo sank down next to her and started to drink and she couldn’t
help but watch his throat as he swallowed. Even his neck looked strong. Tendons
stood out on his big hands as he gripped the bottle, shifting as he—

Giving herself a tired shake, Del looked around them for
something to distract herself. She spied an interesting-looking aggregate about
a meter away but she was too relaxed to reach for it at the moment.

“What did we accomplish this morning?” Del asked. It wasn’t
the smartest question but she wasn’t feeling so bright at the moment.

“We certainly discovered what we’re looking for is not
anywhere we’ve been,” Lazlo joked as he settled back on his elbows and
stretched out his long legs.

Del huffed out a laugh. How could he be so lighthearted
after such a frustrating morning? “Let’s eat something. I’m very hungry.”

Del rummaged in her pack and found some packs of soyjerk,
coconut milk and spicy dried peas. Lazlo had brought along a large assortment
of freezecheese, crackers, flaked fruits, milkfoam bars, three fresh apples and
a bag of cookies, slightly crushed. She was impressed by the assortment and
when he suggested that they share, Del was happy to oblige. His food was much
better than hers. They ate and drank in silence. Once he finished the last
apple, Casta settled back, took his shades off and looked at her.

“What? Do I have something on my face?” She daubed at her
chin with a grimy napkin.

“Just some dust.”

“So why are you looking?”

“I’ve already looked at all the rocks around here.”

“These igneous formations are much more interesting than me,
I can assure you,” Del declared. “These happen to be fairly new ones. Sayre has
a lot of geothermal activity and the tectonic plates often separate and push up
interesting things.”

“I’m sure.” Casta nodded, still watching her. “Have you been
to the hot springs?”

Del shrugged noncommittally. The hot springs were near the port
and well-used by the residents. It was usually the farthest place most porties
ventured outside the settlement walls and agricultural fields. Del preferred
places less popular and more remote, with better chances of finding something
worth salvaging.

“A few times. Too many people go there and it’s sort of a couples’
thing. Romantic, or so some people say.”

Casta nodded and glanced away from her, taking a swallow of
coconut milk. “That was the only place I’d been out here, until yesterday with
you.”

Del shrugged again. ”That’s perfectly normal. Most porties
stay inside.” She didn’t want to know any details of his trip to the hot
springs or who he’d escorted there. Just the thought of Casta half-naked and
wet in steaming-hot water was enough to make her sweat even more than she
already was.

“‘Porties’. You use that term?”

“Sure. What else am I supposed to say?”

“Sayrian works. We’re all Sayrians.”

“No we aren’t. You aren’t a Sayrian.”

“Sure I am. I live here, on Sayre. Here I am, on Sayre. A
Sayrian.” He patted the sand next to his thigh and looked at her, his whiskey-colored
eyes twinkling.

“Yes, for now. But you won’t stay here. Nobody stays here
unless they were born here.”
Or can’t afford to leave
. Del wondered if
she would stay if she had the means to actually leave this planet. Would she
feel free or would she miss home and return? How many people who came here
briefly had she said farewell to over the years? Ten? Twenty? In her early
twenties, she’d stopped making friends with porties. They always left.

“So you have to be born here to be a Sayrian, in your opinion?”

“Yes. Everyone else is transient. How long have you been
here, six months or so?” Lazlo nodded and kept looking at her with those
bright-brown eyes. “And you’ll probably be transferred in another year or so?”

Lazlo nodded again and ate a handful of peas, crunching on
them and making his smooth jaw bulge and clench. She really had to stop looking
at him.
Look at that aggregate, it’s very interesting.
“So you aren’t
really here, are you? You work at this port, as at any other port, and then you
move to another one, just as any other assignment.”

“That’s the system for us. Does it make you angry?” Lazlo
wondered out loud. Del seemed a little agitated for such a minor issue. She
blinked and hurriedly shifted her scratched shades to cover her eyes as she
shook her head.

“Maybe a little. People come and go and I’m just here.” She
sounded more wistful than angry and he wondered who had left her. Or where she
wished she was instead.

“Haven’t you been off-planet?”

“No.”

This surprised him, but he’d been traveling to different
worlds since he’d left for the Academy at sixteen, moving along every few
years, going to extreme environments for training, taking nice shore leaves on
gorgeous planets. He couldn’t imagine living on one planet for his whole life. Of
course, people always used to, but he hadn’t met anyone in her situation
before. No wonder her sister was fascinated by where other people came from. Or
perhaps Dee Dee merely used that as a convenient pick-up line. But he didn’t
want Del to feel badly about it. Or the lack of education she’d revealed to him
before. She was one of the smartest people he’d met.

“Let me assure you that most ports look exactly like Sayre’s
and all stations are grim and cramped places, so you aren’t missing much there.
And they all have the same funky smell, like sweat, old food and hydraulics. No
scenery like this, no fresh air.” She shrugged under her oversized shirt and
wiped her hands on her trousers. “Is there someplace you’d like to go?” Lazlo
asked.

“Not a station, if they’re as you described. I’d need mental
intervention in a few hours,” Del scoffed and leaned back on her hands. “But I’ve
always wanted to see Batana.” She smiled a little then, probably contemplating
all of the angry volcanoes spewing on that unstable planet. He’d never met
anyone who actually wanted to go there. It was an awful place.

“I’ve never been to Batana,” Lazlo admitted. “But I can
recommend Freton. It’s beautiful there.”

Del looked at him and snorted. “You would say that. But I
would say if it was so beautiful, why did you leave?”

That was a good question, one his family and friends still
asked years after the fact and years after it was obvious he wasn’t going to
reconsider his choices.

“I wanted to help people, and on Freton, people need help
with their baggage and getting their next drink while lying on the beach.” Lazlo
stretched his hamstrings a bit then rolled his shoulders. It was strange to be
having this conversation with someone he’d just met in some narrow rocky canyon
while eating dried food. But he didn’t mind talking about it with Del Browen. “I
had a big enough ego that I thought I was capable of something a bit more
challenging.”

“And have you been capable?”

“For the most part. Maybe you should ask my commanding
officer for his evaluation of my abilities.” Then again, maybe not. The major wasn’t
generous with his praise.

Lazlo contemplated what his life would have been if he’d
stayed and worked in the family business of entertaining tourists and taking perhaps
a few more marks out of their pockets than they’d budgeted for their dream
vacation.

Del grinned at him and rolled to her feet, stomping her
boots into the sand a bit before swinging her pack onto her back. “Maybe I will
ask him about you, Lieutenant Casta. Come on, we’ve a lot more ground to cover.
And I think we’re going to have to be careful of some thermals in there.” She
pointed at a shaded slot in the rock. “Smell that sulfur? It means there’s
something hot going on in there.”

“Hot, like magma?”

“Hot, like steam from a superheated aquifer venting to the
surface.” Del looked as if she were excited to see something new. “Come on, it’ll
be interesting.”

“Hot steam from the center of the planet isn’t interesting,
it’s frightening.” Lazlo was half teasing but half serious—the idea of
unregulated geothermal activity was intimidating. What if something exploded?
Or there was an earthquake?

“Come on, you aren’t scared. You just want to rest some
more.” Del reached out and grabbed his arm, tugging at him until he slowly and
complainingly got to his feet. Lazlo wanted to wrap an arm around her and give
her a squeeze, but instead patted her on the back as an acknowledgement of her
help. Del was a good companion—alert, knowledgeable and nice to look at. And she
carried a knife.

* * * * *

“Should I go up there?” Lazlo gazed at the cliff face with a
dubious expression. It rose at least thirty meters above them—thirty meters of
crumbly, overhanging pinkish stone. Likely quartzite.

Facing the reality of a climb had finally distracted Del
from the delightful steam vents they’d passed earlier. The crust of yellowish
crystals surrounding the jagged openings belched great gusts of foul hot air
and prompted her to take numerous samples. She’d even reached far too close to
one to collect some gas in a collapsible beaker and then waved it under Lazlo’s
nose. It had smelled rancid and he’d gagged. After coughing theatrically, Lazlo
compared the thermals to Sayre’s burps, or worse—and won a loud laugh from her.
This impossible-to-scale cliff looming overhead destroyed the last of her
humor.

Del shook her head slowly, wiping her face with a damp
cloth. “Are you a climber, by any chance?”

“No. Nothing steep like this, not since training, and that
was years ago. I’ve rappelled down them, but not climbed up them without ropes
and gear.” Lazlo squinted up with the resigned expression of a man who had
something difficult to do.

“We don’t have that equipment and I wouldn’t know how to use
it anyway.” Del frowned. She was irritated with the cliff face that was
resisting their scanner’s efforts. She guessed that there were some strange
minerals acting as dampeners or that the planet’s poles had reversed again as
they tended to do. Which meant they would need to recalibrate their equipment
back at the port.

“I don’t like the idea of you climbing up there.” Del turned
and peered at him.

“I can do it.”

“But I don’t want you to do it.” Del shook her head.

“Why not?”

“You’re too big. You’ll fall too hard.” She was the guide. It
was her responsibility to explore and to keep her client safe.

“That doesn’t make sense. Everything falls at the same rate.
Sayre’s gravity is close to standard, just under ten meters per second.” Lazlo’s
attempt to use basic science to convince her didn’t work. The thought of
watching him haul himself up there and perhaps fall right down was making her
very nervous.

“I know that. But it will be a lot easier for you to get me
to the cart if I fall and get hurt than it would be for me to drag your big
self out of this canyon if you fall and get hurt,” Del shot back as if she were
explaining something terribly obvious. Because she
was
explaining
something terribly obvious.

“Maybe we can do something else. You can sit on my shoulders
and hold the scanner.”

Del winced at Lazlo’s suggestion, which would put her legs
around him. Climbing the cliff face was a much safer option. “No, I’m not doing
that.”

“I won’t drop you,” he assured her.

Of course you won’t.
Lazlo looked as if he could
deadlift any one of the massive boulders that crowded around them.

Lazlo must have realized she was averse to that idea and
tried another approach. “Do we have to check up there? It seems pretty unlikely
that they would have stored anything in such an inaccessible place.”

“Yes, we have to check. Look there,” Del pointed to a
horizontal ridge of stone about ten meters above them. “See those marks in the
rock? Those look like the right size and shape for temporary ramping.”

She followed the angle of an imaginary ramp to a logical
terminus on the floor of the canyon and crouched down to brush away some sand. There
were deep gouges in the bedrock, right where they should be if there had indeed
been a ramp. “See these marks? Just right for the bottom of the ramp. And I
know there’s a pretty large ledge up there, based on the curve of the rock and
the shadows.”

“You’re right, we have to check it out. Why couldn’t it be
about five meters lower?” Lazlo sounded resigned to climbing. He folded his big
arms across his broad chest and took a deep breath. Stars, he was impressive.
Del took her own deep breath and turned back to observing the cliff face. It
was much less worrisome than her strange impulses.

“I could order you to stay down here while I go up,” Lazlo
grumbled.

“You can’t order me to do anything out here. This isn’t your
jurisdiction. I’ll tell Harata,” Del teased.

Lazlo sighed, apparently accepting that his last rather
tenuous attempt to stop her was heading toward failure. Anyone could see that.
”Technically, the sheriff and his deputies are subordinate to port security.”

“Right, you try telling him that. Hold my pack. I’m going
up.” Reaching that decision, Del started to strip off her equipment. “I just
want to check along that middle section. That’s the only likely place anything
could be anyway.”