Chapter 7: Fraternization

The weather was fair enough that the wind didn’t carry away their voices, and they didn’t have to fight against the elements with each step. Even the freezing temperature was easy for Boyd to ignore with enough battery charge to keep his suit humming. Lorza tried to make small talk to pass the time, and for once, he didn’t spurn her. Maybe it was the weather that had him in a good mood, or perhaps their conversation that morning had helped ease some of the tension between them, but he felt inclined to indulge her.

“So, are you ever going to tell me who you really are?” she asked as she mounted a snowdrift beside him. “I know that you are no miner. I am asking honestly,” she added, sliding a little on the powder as they descended the other side. “This is no attempt to push your buttons, as you put it. After all that we have suffered through, have I not earned the right to know?”

“I wish it were up to me,” he said, his cryptic reply only intriguing her more.

“So,” she continued, scrutinizing him for any tells with those icy eyes. “Your identity is either a cover or a lie intended to gain my sympathy. You flee from powerful men who are willing to kill to stop you. Only criminals would bring down a civilian vessel, so perhaps that part of your story was truth. You answer to someone else – someone who can forbid you from speaking, someone who values secrecy. My guess is that you work for the Navy – an undercover policeman or a detective.”

Boyd considered for a moment. Lorza was sharp, and she had been quick to figure out that his cover story wasn’t the truth. She had even managed to get his real name out of him. He couldn’t reveal his true vocation – that was classified – nor could he tell her the true nature of his mission on Hades. That said, she was already neck-deep in the shit right alongside him. From the moment that they had crashed here, their fates had been intertwined, and her life as she had known it had ended. If the Syndicate saw them together – if they somehow found out that they had survived the crash – it wouldn’t matter what secrets he kept from her. They would kill her all the same, or torture her for information that she didn’t possess. She was his responsibility now, she was in his custody, and she wouldn’t be safe until she reached a UNN base. It was time to come clean – he owed her that much.

“What I’m about to tell you is classified,” he began, Lorza’s ears tracking him intently. “I’m only permitted to share it on a strictly need-to-know basis, and at this point, I think you need to know. You won’t be safe now, not until I can get you to a secure location. You need to promise me that you won’t breathe a word of this to anyone that we might encounter between then and now, or I might lose a lot more than my job.”

“I promise,” she replied, her eyes wide.

“I work for the Navy’s intelligence branch. What I told you about the criminal organizations on Hades was true – I came to gather intelligence on their activities. Before I could get off-world to send my report, my cover was blown, and I had to make a quick getaway. When I told you that I needed your help to escape, I was being truthful, even if I had to use a cover story to protect my identity. I didn’t know who was friend and who was foe,” he added, glancing up at her. “If I had told the wrong pilot that I was trying to escape, they might have just turned me in. Same goes for the corp – they wouldn’t want the UNN knowing about the situation any more than the mobsters.”

He waited for some scathing remark, but none came.

“Then, you did not lie about the reason the Zemchug was brought down,” she mused. “You carry information that these criminals do not want leaving the system – information that they did not hesitate to kill for.”

“That’s about the long and short of it,” he replied, pulling his sled up the next incline. “We’re in the same boat now, if you’ll pardon the expression. If they see you with me, well,” he muttered with a shrug of his shoulders. “They already shot down a civilian ship – I don’t expect they’ll want to leave any loose ends.”

“Wonderful,” she sighed. “So, these criminals – who are they?”

“They call themselves the Syndicate,” he replied, Lorza cocking an eyebrow. “Yeah, not the most creative name, I know. They’re a loose alliance of mobsters, pirates, and petty criminals who are hell-bent on wresting control of the colony from the mining corp.”

“Does this mean that we will not be parting ways once we leave this moon?” she asked.

“You won’t be safe until the Syndicate is dealt with,” he replied. “Until that happens, you’re in my custody.”

“So, I am like your deputy?” Lorza asked with a grin. “Do I get a badge?”

He laughed at that. Why hadn’t they just relaxed and had normal conversations sooner? Lorza could be pretty fun when she wasn’t stealing his food or threatening to eat him.

“I’d call it witness protection more than being a deputy,” he replied with a chuckle. “You don’t sound too bothered by the idea of me squirreling you away to some UNNI black site.”

“My crew is dead, and the ship that was both my home and my workplace is gone,” she sighed. “The only place I can go now is Siberia, and that is many light-years away. You are probably my best ticket home.”

“Considering that it’s my fault you’re in this mess, I can probably swing that,” he said.

They continued to walk in silence for a few minutes, then Lorza slowed her long strides to match pace with him, walking beside him in the snow.

“So, what do you have to do to become a secret agent?” she asked.

“Well, there are lots of things that go into making a good agent,” he began. “You need to know how to handle yourself in a fight, for a start. A lot of us are ex-military, usually UNN Marines. You need to have a natural talent for subterfuge and manipulation. It requires steady nerves and an unwavering commitment to your role. If you so much as give someone the wrong look, it could put your life and the success of the mission in jeopardy. You could be operating in hostile environments with no hope of backup or extraction, so a familiarity with survival techniques and outdoorsmanship is a must, along with physical fitness.”

He realized that he was basically describing Lorza. She was all of those things and more, along with being a wildcard due to her lack of a military background. She might have made a good Ninnie herself if the stars had aligned for her. Lord knows she had been grilling him for information like a seasoned interrogator from the moment they had been stranded on the moon.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, cocking her head at him.

“Just daydreaming,” he replied. “Don’t worry about it.”

“That must be why I cannot read you, then,” Lorza continued.

“What do you mean?” Boyd asked, looking up at her as she loped along beside him.

“Do not take this the wrong way, but humans are easy to read and easily manipulated,” she said as they descended another drift. “We Polars are tempered by our pack system – it teaches us to always be on guard, to always be aware that others seek to sway us. Every social interaction is a game of feints and misdirection, one that we partake in willingly, as these things do not have negative connotations in our culture. It ensures that those who rise through the ranks are the most adept and intelligent members of the community.”

“Still sounds like a civilization of used car salesmen to me,” he muttered, giving his sled a tug to get it over a rough patch.

“You are not like other humans,” she continued, glancing down at him with an expression that might be appreciation. “You are opaque to me – very hard to read. I have never met a human who can out-maneuver me like that before, and I find it ... refreshing. I cannot always tell what you are thinking, and you are very difficult to persuade, along with being a very convincing liar. In many ways, it is like losing a sense that I have always relied on.”

“And, that’s a good thing?”

“At first, I was just frustrated that I could not get you to behave the way I wanted you to,” she conceded with an annoyed flick of her tail. “Polars are not usually so ... belligerent. But, there is something to be said for it. Everything that comes out of your mouth is a surprise to me, and I am not accustomed to that. Nor am I accustomed to having to fight so hard to get what I want.”

“Well, humans usually interpret lying and manipulation as hostility,” he replied. “That said ... I think I’m starting to get where you’re coming from. If you had been successful, we would have avoided our fight, and I wouldn’t be walking around with a busted arm right now.”

They walked in silence for a while, some of the tension that had been building up over the last few days dissolving. It felt good to just talk to someone, even Lorza. As much as they had fought and argued, they had gotten to know each other intimately. They had been through a lot of shit, roughed it together, survived together. Maybe he should give her more credit and tone down the jibes and teasing. It wasn’t helping him blow off steam anymore – it just made him feel bad.

“What about you?” Boyd asked, making small talk. “What’s the life of a surveyor like?”

“Oh, nothing so exciting,” she chuckled. “I am just a cartographer. I make maps, usually of unexplored stellar bodies like this one. I help find minerals and useful resources for exploitation. The corporation that controls Hades would have contracted a survey ship like the Zemchug to determine its viability as a colony.”

“I don’t think that’s uninteresting,” he insisted. “You told me that leaving Borealis is what made you want to get out on your own and see the Galaxy, right? That sounds like a good way to do it. You’ve probably seen more planets than I have – more than most humans alive.”

She seemed taken aback, stooping down to his level to give him another appreciative look.

“You really were listening? I thought ... never mind,” she said with a shake of her head. “Yes, I have been all over the local sphere, though few of the planets that I visited were habitable. Ninety percent of worlds are just gas giants or barren terrestrial planets, but sometimes, we find one that can support life and has exploitable resources. There is joy in discovery – there is beauty even in the lava flows and craters of lifeless worlds – but to discover new life is something profound. Even though I never set foot on the surface, observing from space is still wonderful.”

“How many planets have you discovered that have life?” Boyd asked, genuinely intrigued now.

“One,” she replied, raising a clawed finger.

“Out of how many?”

“Perhaps forty,” she said. “They are rare, which is what makes them so valuable. All stellar bodies have resources – the question is merely whether they are profitable to exploit. Habitable words, however, are like seeds from which civilization can sprout. The bonuses for locating one are considerable.”

“That’s cool,” Boyd mused. “One day, there might be cities on a planet that you discovered.”

“Not likely,” she chuckled. “It was a tidally locked planet ravaged by hellish storms, but it had microbial blooms that could be seen from space. Beautiful in its own way.”

“Hang on,” Boyd added. “You’re telling me that just a few years ago, you were living a hunter-gatherer’s lifestyle, but now you’re qualified for planetary surveying? How did that happen?”

“We were given grants to attend universities in the nearest cities – near being a relative term,” she explained. “Lessons on language and culture were common, but we were also permitted to pursue higher education if we so chose. I wanted so badly to explore the Galaxy, and becoming a cartographer was my best chance.”

“I’m impressed that you were able to adapt so quickly. Going from living in wooden shacks to working on a spaceship can’t have been a smooth transition.”

“We had a writing system before you humans arrived,” she replied, turning her nose up at the suggestion. “We had a culture that valued learning, and a rich social system. I was drawing maps and studying the land long before I ever set foot on a spaceship. Those skills were easier to translate to work on a survey vessel than you might imagine.”

They emerged onto ice again, the snow giving way to a vast, blue expanse. Boyd glanced at the floor beneath his feet apprehensively, but they were safe now, and he suppressed the instinctive fear that rose up within him. The only place he was going to see those spinning lights again was in his dreams.

“So,” Lorza continued, her sharp claws giving her good purchase on the ice. “Do you have any good stories about your assignments? We have a lot of time to pass, and it would be fun to hear about the exciting life of a spy.”

“Most of the interesting stories are classified,” he replied. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”

He had intended it as a joke, but it must have been an expression that she hadn’t heard before, her eyes widening.

“I didn’t mean it,” he chuckled as he gestured for the alarmed Polar to calm down. “It’s a joke – it’s from an old movie or something. I wouldn’t really kill you.”

“Oh, fair enough,” she replied with a relieved smile. “You humans like your movies. Sometimes, you have conversations that are nothing but references to them – it is impossible for me to follow.”

“You must have seen some movies, though,” Boyd insisted. “I don’t know how anyone could study human language and culture but never come across one, even in passing. I expect they made you watch them in your classes, right?”

“Well ... a few,” she admitted, shrugging her shoulders. “I had a human friend in Russia who would watch them endlessly. We shared a room while I was studying cartography and she was getting her doctorate. She pored over those things, and I had the misfortune of overhearing much of it. She went on to become a doctor in the UNN, I believe.”

“And, you never wanted to join the Navy yourself?” Boyd asked. His boots slipped on the ice, and he almost fell, but Lorza reached out to steady him with surprising speed. “Thanks,” he muttered, regaining his footing. “That’s usually the go-to route for people who have their head in the clouds, anyway. They put see the Galaxy on their recruitment posters for a reason – there’s no better way for some muddy nineteen-year-old to go on a space adventure.”

“No,” she replied with an adamant shake of her head. “I wanted to explore planets, not fight on them.”

“It’s not all fighting, you know. There are plenty of humanitarian career paths in the UNN that don’t involve shooting an XMR or flying a Penguin on bombing runs.”

“It is not for me.”

They chatted on and off for the rest of their walk, their mutual animosity fading as they shared stories of the places they had been and the exotic planets they had explored. The sun eventually began to dip below the flat horizon, and they were forced to locate another cave where they could spend the night, climbing down into a shimmering cavern of blue ice. This one was spacious, carved out by water that had melted its way through a glacier, the translucent walls refracting the beam from Boyd’s flashlight to create an azure glow. Lorza’s eyes reflected it, too, making them shine in the dark like those of a cat.

She wasted no time laying out her massive sleeping bag while Boyd began to set up his cooking implements. Once more, he retrieved a suitable cut of meat, then unfolded his portable stove. He ignited another hexamine tablet with one of the precious storm matches, then set the frozen meat on top, waiting for it to thaw. It soon began to cook, Boyd prodding it and turning it over with a fork, the cave starting to fill with its scent.

Lorza was sitting on her sleeping bag beside him, her arms crossed over her knees, watching the cooking flesh with longing glances. Boyd knew from experience that when you were starving, everything tasted good. Hunger was nature’s own seasoning. Even this rubbery, fatty meat with its unappetizing appearance gave off a smell that made his mouth water in anticipation. Now that his alien companion had finished digesting the monstrous meal that she had eaten the day before, the hunger was starting to get to her again, and her sensitive nose must make the smell all the more tormenting. To her credit, she had made no requests of him, and she had made no more attempts to steal food in spite of the temptation that she was no doubt enduring.

Boyd flipped the meat over, exposing the browned skin on the other side, the hot metal imprinting on it like a grill. It sizzled, leaking juices, just about ready to eat. He took the piece off the stove and skewered it on his knife, suspending it for a minute or two to let it cool in the cold air.

“Hey, Lorza,” he said. “Catch.”

Startled, she snatched the cut of meat out of the air as he tossed it to her, her claws hooking into its tender flesh. She looked to him for confirmation, surprised by his sudden act of generosity, her ears pricking up attentively.

“Go on,” he added with a nod. “It’s yours. I brought way too much meat to eat on my own anyway, and we’ll be out of here in a couple of days. Might as well share it, or it’ll just go to waste.”

“You really are full of surprises, Boyd,” she chuckled. She dug in, a smile brightening her face as she bit into the succulent meat, taking her time now rather than wolfing down pounds of it without even pausing to chew. Boyd rose to his feet, then headed out of the cave to fetch another portion from his pack, brushing the snow off his suit as he returned to set it down on the stove.

“How is it?” Boyd asked as he sat down beside her, tending to his meal. “Does it meet the high standards of a ship’s cook?”

“It is not bad,” she replied over a mouthful. She paused to swallow, then licked the juice from her lips, inspecting the cut as she held it in her claws. “It is certainly more palatable cooked, I can tell you this for sure. If we had some seasonings, I might even be able to make a meal of this. I could stew it with some vegetables – that might help dull its salty flavor.”

She finished off her portion with a few more large bites as Boyd cooked his share, removing his hood and blowing on the steaming meat before taking a bite. It was indeed salty – and chewy – but there was something to be said for eating an animal that you had brought down yourself. Cooking game meat over a naked flame out in the wilds was a primal experience that was oddly satisfying.

“You can have more if you like,” he said, noting that the hungry Polar was watching him again. “I know that wasn’t enough to satisfy you. There’s plenty to go around, but don’t go crazy, alright? We don’t want a repeat of the MRE incident.”

She hesitated for a moment, then rose from the sleeping bag, lumbering over to the mouth of the cave. When she returned, she was carrying another portion from the meat sled, and she set it down on the ice beside the stove.

“Is this okay?”

He nodded, so she sat back down on the sleeping bag beside him, waiting patiently for him to finish cooking his helping.