Landscape

A Thursday Prompt story
© 2019 by Walter Reimer


Prompt: today

Thumbnail art by  technicolorpie


“How much further?” Meredith panted. “It feels like we’ve been walking for hours.” She paused on the trail to readjust the straps on her backpack for what felt like the fiftieth time. A few meters ahead of her, the Komodo monitor turned and walked back to her.

Fuji checked the straps, adjusted one. “We’re only an hour out of town,” he said, “and if you keep moving that pack around, you’ll hurt your back.” He glanced back the way they’d come, where This Far’s primary arcology sat.

“Then I’ll ask you for a backrub,” the palomino mare said with a weary grin.

The monitor smirked. “Maybe I will, and maybe I won’t.”

“You’re being mean.” The mare huffed a breath through her nostrils. “Why did I let you persuade me to do this?”

“Because you said we were friends, and I wanted to share this with a friend,” Fuji replied. He stepped around her, opened the backpack, and took out a bottle of water. “Here, you need this.” At her questioning look he added, “You need water, or you’ll start getting dizzy and nauseous. I can’t believe you never come out here.”

“When I do – apart from that time I went looking for you – it’s usually in a jumpcar.” She uncapped the bottle and took a swallow, then capped it again and passed it back to him. “I never had much opportunity to get out into the countryside – school, friends, the Navy, and now work.”

The monitor nodded. “We’re not very far away from it now, and we still have a few days before the ship leaves again.” He fished into a pocket in his vest and glanced at his folded padd, where a time display appeared in one corner. “In fact, I have to get back in two days to help load the cargo.” He put the padd back. “You’ll be able to spend more time with your parents.”

Meredith nodded, then straightened up and swung her head around to ease a crick in her neck. “What do you think of them? My parents, I mean.”

“They’re wonderful people,” he replied as they started walking again. “I’m glad that you talked me into meeting them.” The freighter and its crew had been at This Far for the past four days.

“Do you have any family?”

Fuji swished his tail and he grinned at her. “Too damned many, if I’m honest. Like you, I have a father and two mothers, but I guess they decided they liked having children.” His tongue flicked. “I’m number six of ten.”

“Deus,” Meredith said, and they both chuckled. “Number six, huh.”

“Yeah.”

“Did your parents have you all wear number tags or something?” she teased, and he shook his head as he laughed. “Come on, let’s get to this place you want to show me.”

After more walking, most of it uphill, Meredith’s hooves felt like lead weights and she was panting as if she’d been exercising in heavy gravity. Her ears perked at the sound of running water and she pushed herself to keep going. Fuji stood waiting for her on the crest of the hill and when she caught up to him he gestured and said, “We’re here.”

The ground fell away into a hollow, where a small nearby stream fed a pool that drained further down the mountainside. Taking advantage of the sheltered area, plants – grass and small trees - had taken root. “That’s pretty,” Meredith said.

“I thought so,” Fuji said. “I guess the terraformers just let things go wild in spots. I’ve met a few of them, and they’re a very creative bunch.” He held out a paw to the palomino mare. “Come on, we’ll relax and have lunch.”


***


The leopardess had a sour expression on her muzzle as she sat in her office and watched the projection. The hologram displayed a series of three-dimensional red blotches suspended within a pervasive amber haze. It was a representation of the hyperspace terrain, and it was maddeningly incomplete at the best of times.

Even more frustrating was the fact that the galactographers’ knowledge of the hazards within hyperspace ended just inside Imperial space. The Kashlani had never allowed a survey ship to enter their sphere of influence, and repeated attempts by the Terran intelligence agencies to insert survey equipment aboard cross-border freighters invariably failed to get past customs inspectors.

Do they know? The question had been nagging at the Admiral-General, and she glanced at the folder again.

Yes, it was actual hardcopy; some operational plans were too secret to be trusted to a computer or even the Defense AIs. The folder bore a fingerprint lock and the two-word codename Lan se saeiqa.

Blue Thunderbolt was one of a series of very special plans of last resort, to be used only if Terra itself was in danger of invasion or destruction. It assumed that every Terran planet, colony or station had been wiped out, but unlike plans such as Red Mist it was unconcerned with finding a safe place for a remnant population.

Sarafina al-Sakai had plans for Blue Thunderbolt, but like many planners she had been balked by not knowing the shape of the prospective battlefield.