Scattered Suns - Kevin J. Anderson [53]
Under the purplish twilight, Orli sat in the old hermit’s camp and drew her scabbed knees up to her chest. She watched as Steinman puttered around, talking to himself and building their campfire.
“When I first found Corribus, I knew it would be a great settlement world. I just wanted a little peace for myself, but I didn’t begrudge those other people their chance to make a new life here. I never wanted them to be wiped out.” He had been going on like that for more than an hour.
“You certainly talk a lot for a man who wanted to be alone,” Orli muttered. She looked down as the flames grew brighter, consuming the dry grass, tinder, and the soft polewood that Steinman had cut and stacked.
“Nothing wrong with a little conversation.” The older man picked up a rock and tossed it out into the waving grasses. “Git!” She heard the scuttling motion of a long-legged creature crashing away through the underbrush.
When the fire was blazing, Steinman hauled out lumps of meat, the carcasses vaguely recognizable as furry crickets. “Tastes a little rancid, but I’ve eaten dozens of them—it sure beats Hansa mealpax.”
Orli’s stomach felt queasy as she watched him roast the meat, dangling it on a small stick over the flames.
“The flavor improves if I skin them a day ahead of time and stick them out to dry on the poletree thorns. I lose about half of them that way—something keeps snatching the meat—but at least there’s plenty of crickets.”
Even though the thought of eating the cricket still made her uncomfortable, the smell of the cooking food made Orli’s mouth water. “I had a furry cricket for a pet once, but it didn’t survive the massacre.” She didn’t touch the meat.
“Sorry about that, kid.” Steinman didn’t seem to know how else to respond. “If I had other supplies to offer, I would...”
Now she dug into her pockets and removed the flimsy sealed packets of dried mushrooms from Dremen. “These don’t taste very good either, but maybe they’ll balance out the taste.”
Steinman’s eyes widened with delight, and then he frowned. “Where did you get those?”
“My father and I grew them on Dremen, before we came here. I...found them buried under the wreckage of my house.”
He tore open the film, sniffing skeptically. “Never was much of a mushroom eater. Something about the texture of fungus.” He forced a smile. “But, as I was just saying, we can’t be too choosy these days.”
Between the mushrooms and the roast furry cricket, they had the closest thing to a feast Orli could remember in a long time.
After her first few bites, she realized how truly hungry she had become since finding herself alone on Corribus. She took seconds of the meat, tearing it with her hands, chewing and swallowing before she could taste the juices. The mushrooms seemed to absorb the strong-tasting oil in the cricket flesh...
As darkness fell on the fourth night, she stared across the landscape toward the tall spindles of poletrees rising up like the masts of a ghost ship. Flying creatures circled in the dusk.
Before the two of them went to sleep, Orli played her music synthesizer strips for a long time, mournful melodies that wandered as her thoughts and memories did. She let her fingers direct themselves, finding solace in her creation.
At one point she looked up to see Steinman sitting there, his eyes closed. Tears streamed down his face, but he said nothing, and Orli continued to play.
Chapter 23—DD
Even after the robots dragged him away from the massacre of helpless humans on Corribus, DD’s nightmare didn’t end. The little compy did not have the vocabulary or the emotional library to express the extent of his horror.
When the Klikiss robots and the traitorous Soldier compies flew their five stolen EDF battleships away from the smoldering wreckage of what had been a fledgling settlement of ambitious pioneers, Sirix seemed pleased with how well the operation had gone. The black insectile robot focused crimson optical sensors