Chapter 3

"Crenshaw? Crenshaw!" Verses! Another pointless mission. He is really starting to get on my nerves. Vin sighed and this time thought seriously about filing a report to the Captain about Crenshaw. Ordering her to go investigate "phantom" anomalies is one thing, but sending her into a zone that they are not supposed to be in without support is another. That would border on dereliction of duty. She hated writing reports and felt that if anything needed to be sorted out it should be sorted out between the parties. At least that is the way that they would have done it back home.

She had tried a few times to sort things out with Crenshaw, no hard feelings after all, but so far had been unsuccessful. Well, at least not in the way that Crenshaw wanted things to be sorted out. There was something off about him and she trusted those feelings. She gave herself a mental shake. She would think about that later. Right now she needed to concentrate on getting to where she was going in this blizzard. Cursing herself for not refusing and the possibility of getting fined was no longer a choice left to her.

Curse my sense of duty! She checked her bearings on her compass and map. Even though the hover jeep was fitted with a tracker linked to a satellite, it was not working well in the storm. Besides she trusted a compass and map over trackers any day. She placed the compass on the dash, calculated the time of travel at her given speed and then set off.

Vin had to admit to a bit of curiosity about the forbidden area, or the "Place where the Spirits dwell", as the natives of this place called it. It appeared to have a weather all of its own, often in conflict with that of the whole planet. She had read that the scientists had put it down to being in an isolated valley and that the contours of the mountains, elevation and possibly the presence of an underground volcano contributed to the differences in the environment.

So why hadn't they settled there instead? Apparently they had tried and lost a few people, quite probably to volcanic vents suddenly appearing and disappearing. Hence, it would be too dangerous and expensive to try again, at least until they proved it to be worthwhile. Vin didn't buy the vent explanation, she read through the reports and somehow it just didn't seem to ring true. Her thoughts went back to the natives of the planet.

They had velvety fur, that covered most of their bodies and walked around on two legs, although for fast movement like running, they went about on all fours. According to The CORE they were a primitive tribal community, barely civilized, but they had the intelligence to be able to master CORE technology though currently at a basic level. She had gotten to know some of them. The scientists called them Homocryos. Most of the mercenaries called them Ice Apes. They called themselves Inuku (In-oo-koo).

The Inuku primarily stayed away from this place, the only exceptions being for the coming of age trials or the huraku or when they died. In the Inuku tradition, those that were sensing death upon them went into the valley to die, those that had already died, were left just inside the border for the spirits to take. For the huraku those seeking to become warriors went into the valley for at least one to two days. If they did not come back within a thirty days they were mourned as dead. So this is where I am to investigate, a place for proving yourself and for dying. I supposed either way for the Inuku it would be the start of a new life.

Vin checked her watched and stopped. Right. Now I should turn, this way a few notches and onwards for another half an hour. She tried occasionally to raise someone on the comms, but to no avail. I wonder if Jenna is with Crenshaw in the radio room, laughing their butts off. Poor Jenna. She felt sorry for the woman, she just couldn't see that Crenshaw despised and hated her. She believed that most of the Lightening Bolts knew about her and Crenshaw. She didn't know how many knew how desperately Jenna worshipped Crenshaw. Jenna was good at hiding it. Idly she wondered what could have happened in her life to make her want such a man or more importantly be blind to what he really was.

The humming of the hover jeep started to fluctuate. Oh great, what now? The engine sounded like it was out of power or something. She checked the power gauge. Nope. Still plenty of power. Come on baby! You can make it. She tried slowing down, but that just make the fluctuations more severe, so instead she accelerated. That appeared to work at least for a while. Vin frowned and checked all the gauges this time. Oh Verses! The temperature is going down, I am really going to have to gun this baby to keep it from freezing over.

Vin moved the map onto the dash just below the compass and accelerated. She was navigating blind, estimating distances, calculating travel time with the accelerated speeds and occasionally getting her course corrected by a few stray boulders and snow dunes. She was starting to sweat as her speed picked up and the number of forced corrections increased. Glancing at her map she guessed she was close the mouth of the valley, not long now. Verses!

Suddenly she was no longer in a blizzard, but in a blinding white snow scape. She decelerated on reflex and skidded. The world was a bright white light shining her eyes, little twinkles of diamonds, until she wrestled the jeep to a stop. Slowly she release her grip on the controls, concentrating on flexing them and her breathing to remain calm. I guess this must be the valley. It is a valley. Now to figure out which valley where. She squinted out at the window. It appeared safe. She put her goggles on and face mask. Any warm air that might have been in the vehicle was instantly extinguished as she cracked open the door. Well, no point in closing it now to keep in the warmth.

Vin shoved the door open completely and got out. Looking around it appeared deathly still. Her feet started to ache already, with the cold so fierce it was seeping in through the soles of her shoes. She walked a bit from the jeep to find some land markings. With dread she heard the engine of her jeep choking again and rushed to it. She dove inside and shut the door just as it died with a few loud cracking sounds and dropped heavily onto the now. Vin banged her head against the controls in exasperation. The fading sounds of the broken engine suddenly interrupted by a deeper reply.

That sound along with a muted rumbling got her attention. Out the window she saw a tide of snow coming down off the top of one of the mountains. A tide that was getting bigger and heading directly towards her. She scrabbled back out of the jeep, managing to grab the survival pack from the back seat and ran for her life. The rumbling was getting louder, and the ground starting to shake made her keep her head down and legs pumping as fast as she could. She didn't want to look at the avalanche lest the sheer power of it overwhelm her sense of preservation.

Her legs were as sore as if she had spent an hour in the workout room, her lungs were burning with the cold air that she sucked in. The world shook in her vision, she didn't know where she was running she just knew that she had to get away as fast as she could. Her footing slipped as the hard packed snow cracked under her feet. She felt a feeling of weightlessness, a lightness that was quickly relieved as she crashed into something cold and wet. As Vin tumbled over and over she tried to scrunch herself into a ball, this wasn't helped by the fact that she also tried to hang onto the survival pack. She kept landing on it painfully as her world kept spinning, until finally she landed flat on her back the breath knocked out of her.

She blinked still seeing sky. The rumble of the avalanche appeared to have settled and fallen silent. Gingerly she wiggled her toes, then her fingers. Nothing appeared to be broken. She got up groaning painfully, dizzy she sat down hard. Verses! It's just like spinning on a vine. She sat for a few moments letting her sense of balance come back to level. In doing so she looked around and saw te large mound of fresh powdered snow not a couple of hundred yarns away. I must have been thrown clear. Quite a fair way I guess. She got up slower than before. At least it is better than being buried under a literal mountain of snow.

Vin adjusted her goggles and face mask, looking around and trying to get her bearings. She mentally cursed herself for leaving the map and compass in the jeep when she fled. She spotted a small out cropping which she could use to go through the suvival pack. The rocks would absorb some of the sun and would be warmer than doing it on the snow. Getting to the outcrop was not as easy as she thought, the avalanche had broken up the hard packed snow and it made it difficult to balance. The cold air, bruising and exertion making her breathe hard.

On getting to the outcrop she kicked away some of the snow and sat down with the survival pack between her legs. It was a small pathetic pack, made of canvas and was quite ragged. It had obviously not been checked in a while. In it was a basic medical kit, there were no needles, just some strips of fabric, gloves, some drugs for pain, a knife and thankfully a vial of phara powder. Other items in the kit included: a very thin blanket, five ration tubes, a one person pop up tent, some fire starters, a mess kit, a water bottle, a small laser cutter with a half charged battery, one Glo stick and an old six chamber slug thrower in a holster with a small box of ammo.

Opening the box of ammo she found that only about a half dozen or so were in a good enough condition to be able to use, so she loaded the slug thrower with those bullets that were in the best condition and slid the holster onto her belt. Checking the rating on the tent she found that it was old and of no use in this extreme environment, at least not out in the open. She tied the blanket like a cloak around her shoulders just for a little more warmth. Vin managed to fill the water bottle with some snow that didn't look dirty. She placed the bottle back in the pack, where it would lay near her back, where it would gradually defrost and put the items back in.

Now, should I continue on or go back? The question posed itself in her mind as she weighed up the pros and cons. Well, it is definitely a long way to go back, plus having to contend with the blizzard. The weather is not so bad here at the moment and if memory serves me I am not that far away from the anomaly. About a couple of Kilas away, probably just past that obscuring bend over there. Besides it will be about a day before I will be reported missing, so I may as well find some place to camp out.

Vin looked around at the sparse snow covered valley. So much for setting up a fire beacon. There wasn't even a sad sorry bramble. She got up stiff from the cold and tumbling, put on the pack and started off deeper into the valley.

The going was slow and arduous, sinking up to her knees at times in the broken snow. At times she got a little dizzy, from the exertion and others, well she just plain fell over. Vin eventually reached the bend of the valley. The snow here was not as broken from the avalanche, so the going was easier. As she rounded the bend she just saw another valley that went on for a long time. Verses! There is nothing here. So much for an anomaly. I should ... ah! There! That looks promising.

Vin spotted what looked like a cave which would be ideal for her to camp out in until a rescue party came along. It was situated fairly high up one of the sides of the valley. From there she would be able to see most the valley if anyone should come by vehicle or foot and she would also be able to keep an eye on the sky for any of the LAMs.

It's a long way up. Almost a kila. So, I had better get started now. Climbing up there would be no fun once the sun goes down and when that happens the chances of me surviving will drop just as dramatically as the temperature. Vin grabbed a handful of snow and put it in her mouth, letting it melt a little before swallowing it. She contemplated the steep side and planned a way up as she continued to eat the snow. Finally after discarding a few routes she settled on one that seemed to be the most direct and easiest and started off.

The first part was more difficult and she to stop several times to replot her way up to the cave. Closer to the cave there appeared to be a natural trail which she thanked the Verses for when she reached it and stopped to eat some from some of the food tubes and take a drink from her water bottle. She sat on a sun warmed rock and looked out over the valley. Its beauty made her almost forget the bad taste of the tube food. As the sun warmed her back the valley sparkled. A pristine white sheet with millions of little stars and diamonds. Thank the Verses that I am wearing tinted goggles It is so bright even looking through these. Odd.

The diamonds ceased to sparkle and the stars faded. Vin looked up behind her and saw ominous clouds coming over the top of the mountain ridge. She shivered then as the wind picked up a little. She saw the clouds moving rather rapidly and would soon cover the valley. Calculating in her head she guessed at most half an hour. Shouldering the pack she made haste to the cave. They way made easier now that she was on the natural path. As the wind became biting and the sky started to darken she ended up running.

Vin made it to the entrance of the cave out of breathe and in time to see the last of the blue sky obscured by clouds. Lightning streaked across the skies and Vin retreated further into the cave out of the wind, breaking a Glo stick as she went. She didn't know how deep it went, from here it seemed rather shallow. I had best get in as deep as I can and set up. Brrrr! Hmmm I wonder what ... GREAT! Just what I need.

Vin reached slowly for the slug thrower as a large wolf like creature came slowly towards her from some where in the back of the cave, growling and slavering. Well at least now I know that the cave is larger than it seems. The wolf was almost 2 metres at the shoulders, teeth visciously sharp. It had at least one eye, the other scarred and milky, that was at least one thing in her favour.

Before she could fully clear the slug thrower from its holster, the beast leapt, knocking her down and both the slug thrower and Glo stick out of her hands. She screamed as the beast bit into her right thigh, she reflexively started to beat it around the head as it shook her and then flung her against the side of the entrance. She had barely gained her breathe when it was on her again, nipping at her stomach, she gritted her teeth and kicked as hard as she could. She heard a yelp and the wolf leapt away, more wary now that its food was fighting back hard.

By the light of the Glo stick the wolf looked demonic with her blood smeared all over its muzzle, its eyes reflecting the light with no mercy. Out of the corner of her eye she spied the slug thrower. Slowly she tried to drag herself towards it, all the while the wolf growled and stalked her. she was almost there when it leapt again, straight for her throat. She raised her left arm to block it, which it grabbed with glee just as she grasped the slug thrower, placed it under the wolf's jaw and unloaded all the ammo. Its dying yelps lost in the explosive sounds of the slug thrower as it collapsed on top of her.

Oh Verses! My day just keeps getting better. Bloody pack digging into my back, bleeding all over the place and this big galoot on top of me. Vin grumbled as she pulled her arm from the beasts mouth and with the aid of her good leg managed to lift the wolf's body enough to drag herself out. She then used the quick release buckles on the pack to take it off and started to patch herself up. Luckily, Vin had managed to not shoot her arm whilst it was being mauled and despite the cold being able to coagulate her blood fast, she felt she had better tend to her wound sooner rather than later.

She tore off her mask and goggles, using the light of Glo stick she assessed her injuries carefully cutting away parts of her clothing that were basically shredded. First the stomach. Looks like it only slashed at the skin, it is not bleeding too badly. Urgh the leg is not looking too bright. Vin trickled some phara powder onto the open bleeding wound on her leg. She didn't want to look at it too closely as she thought she saw a glimpse of bone. She then bandaged it up firmly after she saw the phara powder had stopped the bleeding. Her leg used up over half the vial of phara powder.

Ah! Now for the awkward one, the arm. It was bleeding but not as profusely as the leg and nothing appeared broken. So she applied the powder and managed to bandage it up. There was a little bit of phara powder left and she used it on the deeper wounds on her stomach. That would be right ... I run out of bandages. Herm ... okay this will do.

Vin tore up the blanket and managed to use it as a makeshift bandage and used the guy ropes from the pop tent to secure it. Now for the most important part ... the drugs. She fished out her water bottle and downed a few pills. They should start to work in a few minutes. Vin contemplated her situation as she waited for the drugs to work. Without her blanket it would be cold, especially now with having to cut away large parts of her clothes. Then a thought began to form as she looked at carcass of the wolf. Well, I had better get started before the body completely stiffens. She retrieved that dropped Glo stick and gun, withdrew her knife and approached the fallen beast.

The drugs hadn't taken effect yet, but she managed to get up and limp over to the wolf, knife in hand. It didn't seem as big now that it was dead and on closer inspection, she saw that it was in fact a male. Thank the Verses! At least I won't have to worry about cubs. Herm ... it looks kind of scrawny, looking at its muzzle, she noticed that it appeared to be a fairly old beast. Now how do I start this again? That's right...

Vin moved to the rear of the beast and made a few cuts. She had a dilemma when it came to the tail, she decided that it would be too awkward to keep the bones in the tail. First she would use the tail as leverage to pull the rest of the skin off, then she would skin it later when it was easier. Using the knife cut cleanly though two vertabrae, being careful not to nick the skin.

Most people think skinning is very difficult, but provided you make the right cuts, it really just pulls off. Of course hanging it would have made it easier, but I guess that is cancelled out by the fact that he hasn't had much to eat so the skin is loose anyway. Plus doing it this way is a lot less messy.

The carcass was starting to get a bit stiff, so she grasped two good handfuls of the pelt, planted her feet against the beasts shoulders and used her whole body to pull the skin off. She skin coming off made a weird sound, like breaking through cobwebs, only a little louder and more wet. It stuck in some bits like around its private area and paws, where she would have no choice but to cut the pelt. It was difficult work with her being so wounded and she felt some of her wounds seeping a little. Finally she managed to get the whole pelt off with just the cutting around the mouth and ears for it to be separated completely.

When that was done she checked her wounds and found that they were not seeping to badly and well the drugs had started to take effect. Vin the turned the pelt inside out again so that the fur was on the outside and then quickly took the bones out of the tail. It was actually quite large enough to throw over her shoulders and secure it with what was left of the guy ropes, to which she also tied the Glo stick. She reloaded the slug thrower with 3 rounds of ammunition that appeared to be in good order and just left the rest of it on the ground. She carried the pack now in her hand with the slug thrower in the other and set out to investigate the back of the cave from whence this thing had materialised from.

The cave still didn't look all that deep and if she had not seen the paw prints in the dirt she might have thought that the beast had indeed materialised from thin air. It looked to be a clever optical illusion. There was more to the cave as she followed the paw prints around a sharp dogleg into what seemed an unnaturally straight and circular tunnel. The wind had died down significantly here. I guess I have just infiltrated the wolf's lair if this mass of bones is anything to go by ... Now what could that be? Metal here?

There was a large bit of metal in the back of the tunnel almost the size of a door, seemingly imbedded in the rock. Vin felt around hoping to find some sort of secret button to open it, but to no avail. Investigating the metal further she tapped it and it seemed rather thin and hollow, like a tube. Curiosity got the better of her and she dug out the laser cutter and set to work. Well, at least it's making this tunnel a little warmer. oh well I guess that is it. Her laser cutter had started to splutter and she turned it off wanting to conserve what little power she had left in it. Besides she had managed to cut enough away that she could bend the thin metal out of the way.

She stuck her head in a vertical shaft about 1.5 yarn square. She tried to see what was above and below her, but they were both to far out of the light of the Glo stick. Curious to have a metal shaft in a place like this, especially when the tech level of the natives is so low. I might as well see if it leads anywhere, there looks to be seems that I can hold onto.

Vin slowly climbed into the vertical shaft and decided to go down, because if she fell it would be that much less to fall down rather than up. Shimmying down she unfortunately managed to lose her Glo stick and it tumbled down, it hit something and then stopped. At least I know there is a bottom. Uh oh ... STARS!! The heat from her body made rough edges of ice melt enough so that Vin couldn't maintain her grip and she fell. Oh Verses! Vin saw that there was a really large fan at the bottom of the shaft, with her Glo stick on the floor a little further down. The fan spun lazily, panic set in and Vin fired at the fan, bright sparks flew as the turbines failed and Vin slammed so hard into the fan that the housing gave way and they both tumbled in disarray. The sudden stop at the bottom causing Vin to black out.

Giving herself a mental shake Aliya gathered her things to have a shower in the communal. She was going to do some more maintenance on Wysp, but she could wait until Vin returned and it would be much easier. Not to mention the fact that she would now be able to get more sleep. She liked going to the communals a bit after shift change as there was not many people there. Aliya still felt a little funny going to a communal shower, not that she had anything to be ashamed of.

Her body was slim and athletic the ideal for a LAM pilot, with the right amount of fat and tone. It was just ... The CORE ... especially those of rank frowned upon public displays of flesh. Not frowned on really, Aliya mused. Just you were not thought of in a good way if you showed too much in the wrong way. I can see why my father liked being out in the Verse, all those people watching you, waiting for you to make a mistake so that they could gossip about you. Though there is some of that here... Her mind wandered to Jenna, Crenshaw and Vin... At least there is some relief.

There were only a few people in the communal and she chose a shower far from the others. She noticed that one was of the Tribe, though not Crenshaw's. The Tribe bathed like they did on the asian planets. Rinse, lather and scrub and then rinse. She wondered why, but had usually been too busy to ask and now she was too tired. Turning on the shower she let the warm spray wash over her, thinking back to her family and all that she had left behind.

They had all thought that she was crazy, chasing after some dream. Being born to station she didn't have anything to prove. Still she felt that she owed it to her father to do this. She needed to know what it was like, really like out in the Verse. Already she had learnt so much. There was more information on the NetVerse than she knew of and as Vin would say If you didn't get the answer you were hoping for, maybe you asked the wrong questions.

Aliya held up her wrist to look at the Charima. The Ekstases are so ... curious and mysterious. Even Vin, I was surprised that she offered some much information about the Blood Bonds and the Kteri. They usually hold to the belief that if you have to ask you will never know ... at least I thought that they did.

As she lathered up some soap, the other occupants of the communal finished and left her to her own devices. She barely noticed them as she was contemplating what sort of symbol she could use for her charima. Her mind automatically went to the family crest and then discarded it. Vin said that the individual pick their own design. By using the family crest she would not be on her own out in the Verse, besides it would be nice to have something of her own out there with no other person having any input into it what so ever.

She quickly finished off and decided to first get some rest and think more about it when she woke next. In her bunk she was so excited about designing her own motif that she found that she had to meditate a little to get to sleep and in her sleep she dreamed.

A week of nothing ... less than nothing! Katrina thought. All my knowledge and talents gone to waste on this dead end contract. It's a start but not much of one. Katrina stared moodly at her food in the mess. Stars! I can't even help with the maintenance anymore!

This last point was not entirely untrue being a small company of only about 50 personnel keeping all their equipment working in an extreme environment meant that any help was welcome. What was not welcome were the constant complaints of the lack of quality of tools, parts, the age of the HAMrs, the intelligence of the other maintenance crew and the suggestions of how to do things better, more efficient and that Katrina could modify the HAMrs to be more so.

Eventually Katrina got called in to a discussion with Captain Luminae. He suggested that perhaps it would be best if she did not do the maintenance or help with the maintenance. Given that she is a company commander it would perhaps lower her status with his company if she did so. The Captain pointed out that she would be of immense help at the Command Center and helping with compiling information from all the squads when they came in. After all it is very important that he obtain a unique point of view on the terrain and reports.

"But if I pitch in with the menial tasks, my men will feel that they have a good commander and be more loyal."

"That is true, Miss Walker. However, when a company gets to a certain size, it is no longer feasible for a commander to help out as much as they might want to." Katrina opened her mouth to say more, but Captain Luminae quickly interjected. "It could also be misinterpreted as not trusting your people to do their jobs."

Katrina closed her mouth and thought this through. She did notice some disgruntled looks flashed her way on occasion. She just thought it was because she had found out that they had made a mistake or were really just jealous of her vast knowledge of all things relating to HAMrs. After all she was a more than qualified HAMr technician, though just a passable pilot. A fact which she blamed on her instructors' jealousy of her technical knowledge.

"Just think about it for today okay, Miss Walker?" the Captain said as he stood up, signalling that the meeting was closing as far as he was concerned. "Let me know tomorrow if you would like to help me."

Katrina nodded absently as she left his quarters, she had a lot of thinking to do. She decided to walk through the maintenance bay and she noticed more hostile glances from the crew. Perhaps the Captain is right. I am not really instilling trust in me and loyalty by doing menial tasks in a company this size. Besides if I help in Command I will have access to greater information and this will help me find better contracts so that I will eventually be able to realise my own dream faster.

The next day she approached the Captain to agree to help in the running of the company. He promptly handed her an armload of reports to go through for any unusual information or anomalies as well as summarising their current position. She was to liaise with Bowman, Smithy and Gunner. Basically to get their reports and pass any relevant information to him.

I can't believe that was only a couple of days ago. Katrina's head ached from all the reading and reports swam in her head. She had finally gone through all the reports. Aside from a few encounters with the local wildlife, some frostbite and general cabin fever. Nothing interesting. And they still haven't really found a reason for this stupid weather.