Orphans - Kevin Killiany [21]
She did not share the Holder’s optimism about her pregnancy. She did not relish the thought of being alone when the last remnants of Dosar died within her, as every infant had died in childbirth in the last four seasons.
Her certainty of their children’s deaths had placed Ahrhi on this trail this morning. She had come not seeking thieves, but the smoky pink quartz stone that caught the source light along the ridge above. Dosar had admired those rocks and had often come out of his way to watch the display of prism light they splayed across the cliff face.
As she stooped to retrieve her satchel and the memorial stones she had cut, she paused, struck by another thought. If, in the heat of combat, she had remembered the sorrow that lay before her, would she have dodged the mounted raider’s charge?
CHAPTER
11
His breath plumed, condensing almost to ice before the wind whipped it away. Stevens shivered. Four airlocks and a tunnel had brought them to a rocky ledge that appeared to be high on a mountain. However, it had an atmosphere, so they were no longer reliant on environmental suits that were losing power at a distressing rate.
Before them a steep landscape of heather and copses of twisted trees fell away to a rolling landscape. Stevens could make out tilled fields and cleared pastures among the rocky dales and forests.
Pretty much answers the colonist question.
Behind him a tricorder warbled. To reduce the loss of power to their tricorders, only one was being used at a time. Right now Abramowitz was taking a comprehensive scan as quickly as possible. She’d analyze the data after cutting off the energy-hungry sensors.
From this height Stevens could make out the curvature of the world inside the cylinder. Though the natural setting strove to emulate a wide valley, the slight inward tilt of trees at either extreme ruined the illusion.
Above there was nothing. No clouds, no blue sky, only white haze that looked close enough to touch. He said as much.
“We are near the upper edge of the atmosphere.” Kairn spoke as though that explained it. He shook his head. “The stench of carbon dioxide will only grow worse as we descend.”
Stevens made a mental note that Klingons could smell carbon dioxide. Why being near the edge of an atmosphere would cause haze instead of, say, asphyxiation remained a mystery.
Abramowitz confirmed Kairn’s assessment. “Carbon dioxide two point four percent, oxygen only eighteen percent—don’t try any heavy exertions—and various trace elements, some radioactive, but nothing immediately dangerous.”
“That merely confirms our external readings,” Tev said.
“Always a good idea,” Abramowitz answered with a smirk.
Kairn grunted with apparent amusement, and Tev chose not to answer.
“Ambient radiation is high but manageable.” Abramowitz continued to read off the tricroder’s display. “However, heavy metal levels in the vegetation are lethal to Tellarites and humans, toxic for everyone else. And the water…” She made a sour face and snapped the tricorder shut. “Drink only in an emergency and only from a swift-flowing source. It won’t kill quickly, but the uranium and plutonium content is cumulative. Looks like we’ll have to carry those ration packs after all.”
“The math is beautiful,” Soloman said suddenly.
“Oh, yes,” Pattie agreed.
The two were standing at the edge of the ledge, looking out over the forest and farmland.
“What math?” Stevens asked.
“Don’t you see it?” Soloman asked. “There. And there.”
He pointed to a rocky ridge that ran perpendicular to their apparent mountain range, then a densely wooded bowl-like valley. Both looked completely unremarkable to Stevens.
“He is speaking of the geometric balance,” Tev said.
“The distribution of materials.”
“The use of apparently random natural features to create the illusion of a real world while maintaining symmetry,” Pattie agreed. “It’s really quite elegant.”
“Hmmm,” said Stevens, still not sure what they were seeing. He guessed he wasn’t seeing past the “apparent” randomness of the design.