On Ice

ON ICE

  by A. L. Strezze

  Copyright © 2012 A. L. Strezze

  Cover created by A. L. Strezze using art licensed from "Siloto" via Dreamstime.com.

  The following is a work of fiction, and all names, places, characters and events are products of the author's imagination or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real locales, events, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ~~*~~

  For Brian, and Triel, the original purrer.

  ~~*~~

  On Ice

  Jade woke to the sound of purring.

  If you could call it waking... It felt more like clawing her way up out of some deep pit of unconsciousness. She had never had so much trouble simply waking up and opening her eyes - not after the most grueling survey or the wildest party. The lure of ease, of giving up and letting sleep take her again, beckoned, but something about the purring seemed urgent.

  Had she forgotten to feed the cat?

  But no, even as the thought crossed her mind, she recognized that the sound was deeper, coarser, and far louder than Boomer's purr. Was she in someone else's compartment? Maybe her mother's, with all five cats purring? No... not when she had never seen all of Mom's cats in one room at the same time, let alone relaxed enough to purr together.

  She had the uneasy feeling that there was something else she was missing. Some other noise that had penetrated the thick fog immobilizing her mind, and then disappeared before she could wake enough to identify it.

  The steady thrum of the anonymous purr was so soothing. Surely someone would come along soon to explain what had happened. In the meantime, it couldn't hurt to catch just a little more shut-eye, could it?

  Jade was right on the edge between waking and dream when she startled awake again, this time with the guilty realization of neglected duty. She wasn't in the Hub, she was on survey. She should be working! She opened her eyes to look around, except…

  Her eyes wouldn't open.

  A thread of panic wormed through her mind, and she pushed it back, doing her best to ignore the cold bloom of fear in her core.

  My eyes are just dry, she observed after a moment.

  Her mouth and throat were dry too, even when she worked her mouth and swallowed. She squeezed her face and released it, squeeze and release, trying to coax her tear ducts into generating enough moisture to release the lids without hurting her eyes. Why was she so dehydrated?

  The only way to answer that question was to figure out where she was, and how she had gotten there. She controlled her breathing, visualizing the beginning of the survey the way she would when summarizing a report, and the familiar exercise brought her at least a semblance of calm.

  *

  She and her teammates had ridden the hover through the portal into one of those beautiful, perfect days that some planets enjoyed in the fall. The sun was high in a clear blue sky, and the air was crisp and fresh with just a hint of scent from the forest of tall pines nearby.

  The portal site itself was on an expanse of bare rock overlooking a sizable river, though the water ran lower now than it had during their last visit.

  A quick scan of the surrounding area revealed nothing significantly different, and no obvious threats. She met Donly's eyes as he finished his own scan and they exchanged nods, though the newbie, Alenn, was still staring at the sky and breathing heavily. Donly shut down the hover and tossed the signal ball back through the portal.

  Jade shivered with a familiar sense of anticipation when the ball disappeared. Though there was never any visible sign of a portal, open or closed, she knew that it was gone now - the Agency would shut it down as soon as the signal ball appeared with its all-clear confirmation.

  They were on their own, until the Agency reopened the portal for their return in five days.

  This was her third visit to this world, counting the first aborted transit that had given the planet its unofficial name. Ice, for the vicious winter storm that left all three of the survey team with contusions in spite of their hasty retreat back through the portal.

  The second survey attempt went more smoothly, in the midst of a hot summer with no worse weather than the occasional moderate rain storm. In the allotted two weeks, they completed 100% of their essential mission targets, in spite of Tad nearly losing a leg to an Ice badger.

  The rocks in the northern territory matched the animals' fur so perfectly that it was nigh impossible to spot a sunning Ice badger before you stepped on it, as he did.

  Rescuing him was complicated by the fact that the animal completely ignored six rounds of a tranquilizer that could have taken down an elephant. It was less complacent about being pelted with rocks, fortunately, and backed off long enough for them to grab Tad and get to the hover.

  They managed to save his leg, and for the rest of the survey she and Donly handled the fieldwork while Tad ran the remotes from the comfort of his shelter. The No Hazard regulation meant that they couldn't do any more in-person observation of the Ice badgers' territory, but Tad did a thorough job of recording their behavior and taking what samples the remotes could manage without the assistance of human hands.

  He had deemed the creatures dangerous, but unlikely to hunt prey as large as humans. Of course, it would be up to whoever colonized the planet to decide whether they were dangerous enough to kill off.

  Now, their team was back, minus Tad and with a newbie straight out of boot camp in his place. Jade wasn't too worried, though. This time they were just here to analyze the already surveyed flora and fauna's preparations for the coming winter, and it was unlikely that they would run into anything truly new.

  The Agency had to have a bid on the colonization contract, to invest the extra survey time, but she thought it must also be a low bid, considering they were only here for a five-day snapshot rather than a full term follow-up.

  Even the standard two-week survey term was ridiculously short in Jade's opinion, but no one was asking her. The Talinn Agency didn't want to spend the money or resources on more, and the Survey Authority rationalized that most portal-accessible planets shared enough common ground with Earth that colonists would be able to manage. Most colonists seemed happy enough to make the same assumption, since it saved them money too.

  Jade shook her head, wondering what kind of idiot would jeopardize their chances of survival just to save a few credits, especially when it meant dealing with a lifetime of Ice winters.

  On the other hand, it was just as well to have a short mission when they had a newbie to break in, especially when the girl was obviously still caught up in one of the calming exercises the Hub-born used to cope with being outside.

  "Come on, newbie!" Jade snapped, shouldering one of their packs. "Time to set up, before the sun sets."

  The girl startled out of her trance, grabbed another bag, and trotted to catch up.