“If that pack gets too heavy for you, let us know. We can always divide up what's inside between us.”
Rose looked up at her, bemused. They always thought she was weaker, because she was shorter, but they forgot that she was stronger than they were for her size. She could have said something, but she realized she had gotten used to it. “Thanks, Dara. I'm fine for now.”
“Everyone ready? Let's go.” Kila sounded the happiest Rose had heard her in a while.
She tagged onto the back of Kila's group and four of Jia's team waited until she had passed them, and then got into line.
It looked like Jia was bracketing them with guards on either end for security.
Dav would be happy.
She smiled, and hoped that everything was all right on the Barrist. It wasn't a battleship, it was an explorer, but it had defensive shields and weapons.
The distress call they were answering was from a small asteroid mining station, which was located firmly in Grihan airspace, so the chances were the call was for help because of an accident of some kind, not that the station was under attack.
Hopefully, those days were gone now that the Tecran were under Council rule for the next five years, and the Garmman were being closely watched. The other three members of the council—the Grih, the Bukari, and the Fitali—had formed a tight-knit alliance within the alliance, and neither the Tecran nor the Garmman were strong enough to take them on.
She would talk to Jia later, when they took a break, and make sure Dav hadn't minimized the risks of going to give aid to the mining station, although if he had, there wasn't anything she could do about it down here on Vuyn.
She grinned suddenly at the reality of being here, really walking on the surface of a planet again, and then turned her face upward at the annoyed bak bak bak of a bird in the branch above her.
The trees were immense, stretching high into the sky, and she couldn't see anything through the thick foliage on the lower branches.
“It's like a road system up there,” Dara said. She was just in front of Rose, and she'd stopped and turned to look up as well.
“Sounds fun.” Rose eyed the lowest branch, but it was too high for her to reach. “You ever been up there?”
Dara shook her head. “All our information on Vuyn has so far been observations from probes we've sent down. This is the first time any of us have set foot down here.”
No wonder Kila looked like all her Christmases had come at once. Rose looked around at the delicate curl of the ferns at the base of the trees and the width of the tree trunks, and hugged herself, she was so happy. It was like her Christmases had come at once, too.
She angled her face to feel the soft whisper of wind, and caught a beam of sunlight that had managed to poke a finger through the foliage.
The scrape of a boot on stone reminded her of the four soldiers behind her, waiting for her to keep moving, and she sent them an apologetic smile and sped up a little to close the gap between Dara and herself.
She missed Jay Xaltro and Vree Halim, the guards she'd had when she first arrived on the Barrist. They'd been attacked and injured while they were guarding her four months ago, and both had ended up being assigned to lighter duties on other ships for a while. Dav said they wanted to come back, though, and she was looking forward to seeing them again.
The soldiers in Jia's team were familiar faces, but she didn't know any of them personally. She would probably know them all quite well by the time they were finished here.
She hoped so.
She could stand to make a few more friends.
They were scheduled to be here for a week, which was the longest she would have spent with a small group of Grih since she'd been dropped into this strange new reality. Sazo had agreed to allow the group to return to his Class 5 if the Barrist wasn't back by the time they were done, but Dav had been adamant the Barrist would be five days at most.
She didn't know if she and Dav had been apart for five days since they'd met.
She suddenly missed him with a sharp, throat-catching intensity, and tears swam in her eyes for the second time that day.
Wow. She really needed to pull herself together. Being on an actual planet again was obviously something she needed more badly than she realized.
She blinked back the moisture, annoyed with herself but still feeling weepy. Her breath hitched a little, and she rubbed her face with both hands, and then, because she wasn't looking where she was going, stumbled and almost tripped over a root as she walked.
“You all right?” The soldier behind her called out.
She waved a hand at him, refusing to turn around in case she looked like she had been blinking back tears, and felt a wave of embarrassed heat wash through her cheeks.
Ugh! She really needed to get it together.
She breathed in deeply, and let the constant rustle of leaves and the calls of the invisible birds overhead relax her. This was food for her soul.
They walked for nearly two hours over mostly flat ground, although they had to find ways around some clumps of extra thick foliage. They'd parked the explorer shuttle they'd come down in as close to the forest as they could, but Kila wanted to find a spot that was deep enough in the massive woods that they would be able to find the widest variety of species.
As she followed Dara into a sun-filled clearing, Rose saw Kila looking carefully around with hands on hips, and realized she was tired enough that she hoped the explorations officer would decide this was the place to set up camp.
She shouldn't be tired. She exercised daily in the gym, but the fresh air might be causing the sudden exhaustion that dragged at her.
She yawned.
Suddenly everyone put their packs down and started pulling out tents, and she realized she must have zoned out while the decision was made that this was the spot.
She didn't care, she was just glad she could sit down in a bit.
She pulled her own tent out. “How does the tent work again?” she asked Sazo.
She didn't speak to him a lot when she was with the crew of the Barrist—it seemed to freak them out and she had the sense it was a little bit rude on her part to carry on a conversation they could only hear one side of—but no one was paying her any attention now, they were busy doing their own thing.
“You hold the blue tabs and flick it,” he answered. “I can't see you, the forest is too dense. Are you setting up camp?”
“Yes, we had to make a few course adjustments because there were tangles we had to go around, but I can hear a stream nearby, and we have a really nice clearing. You might be able to see us if you zoom in because there's quite a lot of blue sky overhead.”
“Got you.” Sazo sounded pleased. “You're not as far in as I would have expected, but obviously the going wasn't as easy as Lieutenant Kila anticipated.”
“Nor me.” Rose's tone was wry. “I'm more out of shape than I thought. I've always known gym fitness isn't the same as outdoor fitness, but damn, I'm wiped out.” She held the slim package that was apparently her tent by the blue tabs and flicked, and then let it go in surprise as it popped into a very decent sized sleeping quarters. Ha. She wasn't even going to have to rough it that much here. Not that she minded roughing it for the pleasure of being outdoors, but this was even better.
Around her, a little tent city had sprung up, and Jia caught her eye and walked over to her. “I'd prefer you to be in the middle of the camp, not on the edge here, if you don't mind.”