Doctor Who_ Last Man Running - Chris Boucher [4]
‘This is so stupid,’ Rinandor complained. ‘The homers are obviously crap. Malfunctioning pieces of reconditioned crap.’
She slapped the wrist unit against the thick stem of a tropical vine and checked the result. ‘Crap!’ she repeated.
Pertanor used his sidearm and burned down some more foliage to make the path they were following clear and obvious. They were going to have to walk back the same way to link up with the rest of the party again and their guns’
depleted power packs could be recharged when they got to the grounded ship. ‘What a nightmare if they’re not,’ he said, and then, as though he was bothered that this might upset her, added with a slightly forced grin: ‘If she has to call in a rescue mission guess who’ll be carrying water and digging latrines while we wait for them to pick us up.’
It was little more than a token gesture because they both knew that if there really had been some catastrophic failure in the ship’s automatics the survival training they had been given on joining the Out-system Investigation Group would be barely adequate. Camping routines would be the least of their worries.
‘You shouldn’t keep volunteering,’ Rinandor said, checking her own weapon to confirm that she had used up most of the charge.
‘That’s what my grandad always said. If you must join the chasers, he said, you need to remember three things. Keep your bowels open, keep your mouth shut and never volunteer. And don’t hide in the washroom when it’s your turn to buy the drinks.’
‘That’s four things.’
Pertanor nodded gravely. ‘Grandad never made it beyond Investigator grade. Why was that, do you suppose?’
But Rinandor was feeling exploited and her dark mood was not to be lightened so easily. ‘Being a toody wouldn’t have helped,’ she remarked. ‘Second planet second class, foster class or no class.’
Pertanor frowned. ‘I don’t know,’ he said, serious for a moment. ‘Maybe it’s time we stopped making that excuse to ourselves. Maybe if we stop believing it then it’ll stop being true.’
‘Well you’ve certainly convinced me,’ Rinandor said. ‘Why couldn’t I see that? How could I have been so wrong for so long?’
Pertanor giggled. ‘When I’m in charge you’ll change your mind. Or else I’ll be forced to abuse my position and take advantage of you. I’m happy either way.’
Despite the irritating giggle Rinandor could not help liking him. He wasn’t bad-looking in a skinny sort of way and he made no secret of the fact that he found her attractive, which helped, but as well as all that... You got the feeling there was nothing hidden about him. He was open and pleasant. The sort you trusted. And of course, in some ways that could be pretty dull.
‘Don’t you resent this at all?’ she demanded. ‘Here we are backtracking because they equipped this mission with lowest-cost junk. And it’s you and me that are slogging our way to the ship to kick it back into life. Not them. It’s never them, is it?’
‘Depends who “them” is.’ He burned another smaller patch through the undergrowth, partly as a marker and partly because he thought for a moment that something moved. But there was nothing there.
‘Kley and Monly have my nomination,’ Rinandor said. ‘I think being in charge sort of makes them responsible. Or am I being disingenuous?’
Pertanor giggled again. ‘If I knew what it meant I’d give you my opinion.’
‘They didn’t even know this jungle was here. I mean how efficient is that?’
‘Yeah, that was weird,’ Pertanor agreed. ‘The nav data were supposed to be front-line. The latest available.’
Rinandor snorted. ‘Like the rest of the kit they put together?’
‘We should be nearly there by now,’ Pertanor said. ‘We’ve about covered the distance according to my baseline readings. What do you think? Can you see anything?’
They paused and peered around them.
‘One patch of jungle looks pretty much like another to me,’
Rinandor said, ‘but a large OIG recon ship would