ABANDON

Chapter 42 -- The Anders Nest

The temperature on Kata'aohpi always rose to a constant twenty-six degrees Celsius during the day. And it lulled you, like a warm bath; it made complacency appealing and the desire to close one's eyes more important than anything else. But although the temperature was constant, Jane's thoughts were not.

The dune buggies were packed full, fifteen in total, carrying thirty seven people. The only people left in the entire world. They drove for days, Jane lost count. Drove past gray upon gray upon gray. To pass the time and to keep her mind sane, Jane read on her PD file upon file upon file. The food in the glass jars dwindled.

Here she was again, ebbing and flowing, facing the dance and trying to keep up. She kept her arm around Evan, and often he looked up at her, just to make sure she was still there. The driving was shared between Miriam, Miriam's daughter Miien, and Jane. When Jane was driving, Evan sat up beside her, leaning forward excitedly. Living is a funny thing, Jane thought, you can have so much time and not want any of it, then something can happen and you suddenly feel like there is not enough time. Like life has somehow cheated you, and did not make you aware of how very short a time you actually had.

Jane saw the white cloud of steam long before she saw anything else. It wasn't really white, more of a lighter shade of gray. But it was different, and it loomed on the horizon getting bigger and bigger. The horizon took on a new form, eight cone shaped towers seeming to materialize out of the air, hovering above the ground.

"Nuclear." Jane sighed, "I should have known."

Beside the cooling towers Jane could see the finger like shape of the Saturn rockets. The dune buggies came over a sharp ridge and the launch pad came into full view—twelve rockets, just as John had suspected. A metal framework rose parallel to each rocket, creating a cage, but they were so dwarfed by the sheer size of the rocket, they looked like a joke. Jane stared, she knew the Saturns were big, but she had forgotten how big; it is hard for the human brain to keep proportions in mind when the discrepancy is so massive.

Behind the Saturns was the Anders nest. Comprised of many different buildings grouped together, Jane's eyes focused on the two that were familiar. The first was a crossbow shaped building: a hangar attached to a rectangular brick building with a glass roof.  The second was long and silver, like a bullet. Yet unlike those Jane had seen before, these buildings had life in them: lights, vents with giant moving fans, and exhaust lazily floating away. What it must have cost to build this place, Jane mused, this manufacturing world. The amount of goods this place had produced was astounding. They had made so much, and it had all remained here. The planet had shone, and then went dark.

The dune buggies stopped behind an escarpment, next to the dip, the gentle slope of the other side a distance away from the Anders nest. Miriam left quickly and while she was gone Jane watched Kill and John milling about, using a boxy device while staring at the ground. Their shoulders sagged beneath the full armour and heavy packs they wore, betraying the extreme tiredness they felt. Jane wore the same armour as the others, but in a modified way. Evan had absolutely refused to let Jane cover her head and hands. There had been some discussion on this subject when they left, but Kill had settled the issue by saying Jane would be fine as she was. There were enough people to keep an eye on her, although when he had said this, Jane got the distinct impression that what he believed was really the other way around. Evan wore no armour of any kind.

Michael was working with Sama, releasing some kind of drone he had made with Will the mechanic, back when Will was alive. "As annoying as the woodpeckers back home. They'll land on the chimneys and cause a racket. By the time the Anders figure it out they'll fly away. But they'll come back. Our little distraction."