First Contact Fallout by Aer-ki Jyr (novels for teenagers .TXT) 📗

Sol’an pulled out 22 more containers, each of small size and carryable by Zen’zat. Most were food and two were water. The rest were survival equipment, including a tent, but setting up one here was not a good idea.

“Does that tent have camouflage capabilities?” Tu’vac asked.

“I don’t know,” the healer said, well outside her area of expertise. She activated and read through the holographic instructions, which included a feature list. “Thermal masking and minimal sensor absorption.”

“That is where we will sleep, unless we are to move on. What is our…options?” he said, struggling to find the word.

“We can try to find other Era’tran, or I guess we can hide out here, or we can keep running and not look back. I’m sorry. Tactics is not my specialty.”

“Is it mine?”

“I’m told it was.”

“We cannot live on these supplies forever. We must gain more. Either from allies, enemies, or from scavenging. Are there any other abandoned facilities within range that we could use?”

“I haven’t updated in a while,” Sol’an said, using her halo to bring up an active status map. “I didn’t want to register to the enemy.”

“Have they compromised our communications?”

“I don’t know.”

“You should be able to receive position data for all our units.”

“Won’t the enemy be able to use that?” she asked, then cringed as she saw his brow crunch up in thought.

“Maybe they could. I am sorry. I do not know why I didn’t think of that.”

“Old data then,” she deferred, triggering a visible hologram for them both to look at that hovered just above the short plants that covered the jungle floor around the grove of large trees. “That’s where we were…and this is where we are now.”

“I thought we had traveled farther than this,” he said with shame.

“You are tired?”

“I am.”

“Your strength will recover with time. You have not been able to train in two centuries. That is why your body is weak.”

He looked away from the map in shock. “Why did you not have me use my body?”

“Most of that time you could not control your body enough to train. Since you regained some ability we have been waiting until more memories were recovered. That is what is holding you back. Your body will be easy to retain afterwards.”

“Stagnation kills, healer,” Tu’vac criticized. “Even you must know that.”

“Priorities, my friend. Priorities. There is much you do not remember, and that is a far greater weakness we were trying to cure.”

“How was I injured?”

“In battle. Your heart was damaged. By the time it was repaired your brain went into a coma from the blood loss. Had you woke from it the Kich’a’kat would have replaced your damaged memory cells with blank new ones. It was a fortuitous accident that did not happen. It has allowed us this opportunity to recover most of your memories in time.”

“But not all?”

“Some cells were so badly damaged the data they contained was permanently lost,” she said, gesturing back to the map. “Do you see anywhere we can go?”

“There is nothing here.”

“What about this?” she asked, highlighting a small dot.

“Comm tower. If we want to stay hidden sending a message would be unwise. Or can we call for pickup?”

“I was told no. We would have had a ship at the Zor’do, but the Era’tran no longer control the airspace here. It would be intercepted and shot down.”

“Then we cannot reveal our presence. Even an…secret message could be used to locate us.”

“I see nothing else.”

“Nor do I. Expand the map.”

Sol’an did as instructed, then a few more dots popped up. “That is too far to travel.”

“Are we in a hurry?” Tu’vac asked seriously.

“I don’t know. If they are following us then we are. If we escaped cleanly then no we are not.”

“Ask questions.”

“About what?”

“If I am not to think about what I do not know, you must direct my thoughts. Ask questions.”

“If there is nowhere to go, how do we survive?”

“We can harvest water using the equipment here. For food we can harvest leaves from the trees and the converter will provide most of the food cubes we need, but some special nutrients we will lack. We can live here for an extended period of time if we are not detected.”

“How can we avoid detection?”

“If they come close we cannot. Our hope is remoteness. Where is the most remote place in proximity?”

“The Zor’do was located in a remote region. There is nothing else out here. We are already remote.”

Tu’vac twitched his head, and for moment Sol’an thought he was about to seize up again, but he did not. Rather, he had an insightful thought.

“What will the enemy do with the Zor’do? Do they want it, or wish to deny it to us?”

“There is nothing there of combat value.”

“Could they use it to heal their wounded?”

“They have Kich’a’kat, as far as I know. They have no need of it. The Zor’do is for emotional and non-physical wounds.”

“Why was I brought here then? Is not my cell damage physical?”

“Healing your wound is software related more than physical. The information from each memory cell has to be analyzed, uncorrupted, and if recoverable rewritten onto a new cell. A Kich’a’kat cannot do that. It could only replace memories on file, which there are none for you.”

“Why are there none?”

“We do not keep memory files unless specifically requested by the individual.”

“Why not?”

“Privacy. And what would be the need? Your condition is improbable. It has only occurred a few times in V’kit’no’sat history.”

“Why am I different?”

“You are lucky. I cannot explain further than that.”

“Is it possible that they will search then abandon the facility?”

“I do not know what they will do with it.”

“If they abandon it, we can return