Page 37 of Fall
“Maybe. Maybe they went primitive in order to survive. I’m not sure howlong it would take to develop a culture and language like this. Or maybe therewere already humans here, and they joined them to survive.”
“An anthropologist would have a field day with this planet, if that’s thecase.” Desh was blinking and staring around as they entered what was obviouslythe bridge. “I don’t suppose you can get this thing to fly and get us off thisplanet, can you?”
Lenna’s stomach churned uncomfortably, but she knew the answer withoutany doubt. She gestured toward a tree that was growing into the bridge. “Evenif there was enough power, the hull is breached in too many places. There’sabsolutely no way.”
Desh sighed. “Damn. For a moment, I had a little hope.”
She saw the disappointment in his face and wondered why she didn’t feelcrushed in the same way. Her chest had actually relaxed at the knowledge.
She tried the controls and was surprised when an archaic screen actuallypowered on. “There’s a tiny bit of power left! Can you believe it?”
“Enough to do us any good? Can you contact someone?”
“The comms look totally fried,” she said, trying out several instrumentpanels and attempting to figure out how the very old controls worked. “AssumingI’m reading this in the right way. Oh, but there might be enough power for meto rig some sort of distress signal.”
“Sure. Send out a distress call to the Coalition. They’ll pick us up anddump us criminals onto another planet.” Desh sounded depressed, lower than she’dever heard him.
The surge of hope and immediate disappointment must have hit him hard.
Much harder than it had hit her.
“I can use a frequency they don’t follow.” She played around with theinstrument panel, connecting a few wires until she’d rigged up a signal shethought would work. “There’s an old smugglers’ frequency. I’ll send out thedistress call there. Hall knows it—my old partner. A lot of other smugglersfollow it too. Maybe someone will be in the area and stop to look.”
“Seriously?”
“It’s worth a try.” She closed the panel and then turned off all of thesystems, except those used for the signal. “I’m not sure how long the powerwill last, but it will send it out for a while anyway. I wouldn’t count onanything, but who knows?”
“We better leave a note or something in case someone comes to the shiplooking.”
“Good idea.”
They searched the common areas until they found an old tablet, on whichthey composed a brief explanation about who they were, what had happened, andwhere they could be found.
As she did so, Lenna felt again that clench in her chest.
She thought about Rone, about how he would feel if she were to besuddenly rescued off this planet.
He would never understand.
She pushed the thought away. There was virtually no chance of anyonehearing the signal and responding to it. If Hall was still a smuggler, he mightfeel enough loyalty to come and help her, but he wasn’t a smuggler anymore. Hewas living on an undeveloped planet now with the love of his life, making wineand generally enjoying himself for the first time.
He wasn’t going to still be tuning in to an old smugglers’ frequency.
Help wasn’t going to be arriving for her and Desh.
She wouldn’t have to worry about leaving Rone.
They left the ship and started back toward the cave, walking quicklybecause it was later than they’d realized. Lenna hoped they’d arrive beforedinner time.
Both of them were quiet as they walked, caught up in their own thoughts.And because Lenna was thinking about Rone and how she would feel if she evergot the chance to leave this planet, she wasn’t paying attention to what wasaround her.
Desh was obviously distracted too because neither one of them realizedanyone else was approaching.
When two hunters stepped out of the trees near them, Lenna was utterlyshocked.
They weren’t from their tribe. They looked rougher, meaner, with markingson their skin like that very first Neanderthal who had attacked her after she’dlanded.
These were hunters from another tribe.