The Silence of Alium [On Hiatus]

Chapter 14 - Dusk

"Wake up," Rachel said, gently shaking Jiya's shoulder. Jiya groaned a little but didn't stir.

Rachel sat up, running one hand through Jiya's hair. Her fingers played at those dark tendrils, so soft and delicate. A comfort warmed through her as she scritched Jiya's head, that wonderful hair playing against her fingers and sending a thrill up her spine.

She had known for a long time that Jiya didn't love her back, and yet she couldn't say goodbye. Rachel had worked two other station posts prior to Alium, and she knew the temporal nature of the relationships that formed among the researchers and the outpost crews. She even understood the logic of it; yet with Jiya it was different. One look at her, at her smooth, golden almond skin, at those silken locks of hair, at the way she bit at one side of her lip when she was deep in thought, at all the determination and potential roiling beneath that demure facade and Rachel could feel her entire being quiver, as if experiencing first love all over again.

She just wanted to hold her, to cuddle up beside her and never let her go. Yet the chiefs had rung and the search party would soon be gathered at the east gate.

"Wake up," she said, giving Jiya another light shake.

"Is it time?" Jiya asked, yawing as she did and rolling unconsciously into Rachel's lap.

Rachel felt her heartbeat quickening at the thrill of Jiya's touch, yet did her best not to show it.

"Yes," she said. "Chief Alexander put out a call a few minutes ago."

Jiya stirred, stretching out her arms with one last yawn. "Okay, then." Jiya picked up one of the two field shirts that she had chosen a few hours earlier, stripping off her other shirt as she did.

Rachel remained on the cot, watching as Jiya dressed, so madly in love, and aching to reach out and to touch her and to pull her close. Instead, she remained silent.

At last, Jiya shuffled on her daypack and patted herself down, one final check.

"You're good, Jiya," Rachel said.

"I just need to be sure I didn't forget anything."

"When have you ever?" Rachel smiled, trying to maintain the light mood.

"It could happen."

"Not a chance." Rachel walked from the cot and wrapped her arms around Jiya's waist. "Never happen."

Jiya wiggled free, scanning the room as she spoke.. "I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I have to be certain."

"I am."

As Jiya began patting herself down again, Rachel reached over and grabbed her hands, pulling her close. "You're good." With that she leaned down, pulling Jiya up on her toes and kissed her, delighting as Jiya relaxed and kissed her back. They held that embrace for a moment more, then Jiya shrank away.

"I have to go."

"I'll walk you down," Rachel said, even though she knew Jiya would refuse the offer.

"There's no need, really. I'll be back in a few days. You can hold down the fort until then."

"Yes, ma'am." Rachel smiled even as she could feel her insides ripping to shreds. They both knew that there was something amiss on Alium. Pinwheels were flocking in numbers that had no precedent in the station's research. Meanwhile bentari and bentai migrations were off, and even the larger Alium-based fauna had broken their natural patterns. The world outside had become unpredictable, and Rachel could not stand the thought of Jiya out there beyond the safety of the station, without her.

They embraced one last time, and then Jiya left.

***

A light wind stirred, ruffling Rachel's hair. She could feel it caressing her dirt-stained cheeks, and normally she would have taken some pleasure in that gentle touch. This evening, however, that wind also carried Jiya away from her. She leaned against the railing on the top perch of The Wall - a brown, cement-like construction printed using regolith and epoxy resins, along with other local materials fed through their ISRU Printer or In Situ Resource Utilization Printer. Such printers had become standard practice for colonized planets, allowing for ease of construction with available building materials. Still, Rachel doubted the Coalition had anticipated its use here on Alium, taking a research colony and not so much enclosing it as fortifying it against the very subject of the station's research.

Rachel stared out through the violets of sunset and the dusk falling over the day, out to a small speck in the distance: a band of volunteers marching into the barren soils of the abandoned savannah, off towards the distant plumes of smoke where death waited.

As she watched, Rachel slid a flask from her pocket, unscrewing the lid and slamming back a shot of home-brewed, LaCroix station malt whiskey; yet another offshoot of the current unpredictability of the station. There should've been no barley for whiskey or anything else growing on the planet's surface, nor wood for aging barrels; and yet, here Rachel was sipping a piss poor home-brewed whiskey on Alium. It would take another two and a half years before a properly aged barrel, but that was fine by her right now. The fake oak the lab had grown for the barrels didn't do the whiskey any favors in the flavor department anyway.

The drink fought its way down, and as much as it offended her palette, it was far more affordable than anything imported from one of the other colonies. No, homegrown was always the way to go when it came to interplanetary commerce, even if your options were often limited between crap and absolute shit. This whisky held a fine middle ground between the two, but still served its purpose, which tonight meant drowning out her anxieties in a drunken stupor.

Yes, she could afford one night of denial. Then morning would come, and with it would come her new mission. Jiya had said that Meng wasn't going to lift a finger to help the crashed Coalition crews. She had made it clear that she needed to be on the rescue party so that someone was there that wanted to bring the survivors home. Moreover she believed that without her any survivors would have been left for dead.

Rachel intended to find out if there were any truth in those suspicions.