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Lisa

Day 4

T he wind is brisk. My miner’s suit is well suited for most climates. Designed from a synthetic fabric created by the Gragon people specifically for mining, it’s meant to keep me warm in the cold and cool in the heat. It was smart for Evie to swap suits with Katie. She would have frozen otherwise.

The cold still bites at my exposed cheeks as I climb up onto the roof of the shuttle. Conserving the ship’s energy is crucial. Forget trying to get a signal out for rescue, it’s a matter of survival. The food is rationed, and we have a small cache of fresh water. Neither is dependent on the ship’s energy, but our heat is. We’ve kept it low, just warming it enough to be comfortable. If it goes, we’ll need to find another source for heat.

As I climb onto the top of the ship, I take in my surroundings. Evie was right. It’s nothing but endless rocky terrain and snow. We’re walled in on all sides by mountains and cliffs, and I see little in the way of trees for firewood. Heat will be a dream of the past if there’s nothing to build a fire with and the ship’s energy fails.

The snow shimmers in the sunlight as I trudge through it on the roof, careful of where I’m stepping. We’re lucky the bridge didn’t flip or crash onto its side on impact. It’s positioned upward, though it leans a bit to the right. I don’t think about what kind of condition the cargo hold is in, or how it would have landed. Evie steered us down to the ground, but they had an unexpected free fall. My stomach plummets at the memory.

A shiver races through me, and I try to push out the other thoughts that accompany it—the dark ones on whether they’ve survived. They’re fine , the stubborn optimism in me whispers. My girls are tough. I know they are. As mean as it sounds, I have the weakest Gragian with me here. Katie is smart—no doubt about that—but she doesn’t handle dangerous situations well. We had one close call with a cave-in about a year ago, and though nobody got hurt, there was always a level of worry in her eye on the job ever since. I can’t imagine the anxiety coursing through her veins now, desperate to find her twin, but I imagine it’s parallel to the determination I have about finding the others. It’s priority number one.

According to the schematic and blueprints Katie pulled from the ship, there should be three solar panels somewhere to my right. I’m careful not to trip over any of the metal fixings and grips that jut up through the snow or lay hidden underneath. The last thing I need is to break something, either on the ship or my own bones, and put us in an even direr situation.

With my foot, I start to push the snow out of the way as I get to the spot. Once the bulk of it is cleared, I kneel down and start to brush the rest of it out of the way with my gloved hands.

The sunlight is bright as it glints off the glass panels. The shine nearly blinds me as the brush of my gloves reveal the energy banks. To my dismay, once all three are clear it looks like only one is functional.

“Katie was right,” I murmur to myself as I stare down at them. She worried only one was working based on the readings she got from the ship. Two have large cracks on the surface, and the power indicators next to them are dead. But the third one’s light flickers orange once all the snow is cleared and the sunlight hits it in full force. It’s charging.

“One is better than none, I suppose,” I continue aloud with a sigh.

I climb back down and head toward the door into the ship. The blue light around the open doorway is solid, the shield nearly invisible but obvious to those who know what to look for. It wavers for a moment, a flicker of energy, but then returns to solid. This flimsy Skulcher technology is what keeps us safe at night and from freezing to death.

As I bang my gloves together to clear off the sticky snow, Katie pops her head out of the bridge and comes to stand just on the other side of the door. I’m still not used to seeing her in Evie’s blue jumpsuit instead of her black miner’s gear.

“I just got off the comm with Evie.”

My brow arches as I continue to shake the snow off my gloves. “And? Is she on her way?”

“She’s headed north off track a bit, but I’m sure she’ll find her way,” Katie answers. A groan escapes me before I can stop it. Shit . “She’s trying her best, Lisa.”

I sigh. My eyes close and I take a deep breath. It’s only been two days since she’s left. Give it more time. Something snaps in the distance, and Chunhua’s lolling head flashes in my mind. My eyes snap open, desperate to find the danger. But it’s only Melanie opening the already emptied closet, searching for something.

The glum woman mutters something before the closet snaps shut again, and she sulks off into the single sleeping quarters where she’s been holed up most of the time.

“I know,” I say once the door closes behind Melanie. Gloves cleared off, I step through the force-field into the ship. I tap on the panel next to the wall and the shield turns from blue to red, indicating it’s locked. It’ll burn anything that dares try to step through it. “I just want to find the others.”

“I do too,” Katie says, that soft tone in her voice again. “I’m trying my best to see if we can communicate with the cargo hold. It would be odd for there to be no comm system within the ship, but maybe when it ripped apart it became damaged.”

“I’m sure they’re fine. Allison is tough, and Vivianna is resourceful. There’s also that fighter-woman with them who knows about the Skulchers more than we do. I’m sure she’s working on repairs on their end, too. I worry about Gabby’s leg—”

“They’ll take care of her,” Katie echoes. “And from the trajectory of the signal, before we lost it, Briley is heading towards them. The fighter pod is meant to eject, it was probably the best equipped.”

A quiet sense of remorse falls between us. Maybe it’s part grief. Whatever it is, it’s too quiet, and the vacuum of silence becomes too much.

“Did Evie say anything else?” I ask. The cargo hold was nothing but a metal box. Like a tin can under a giant’s foot, it’s probably nothing but rubble now. I need to change the subject from the missing women I’m responsible for and their uncertainty before the guilt consumes me.

Katie nods, and there’s an excited shine in her eyes. “Yes! She ran into a local. Her translator broke, so they didn’t get to exchange much information, but she says he’s intelligent. And didn’t seem hostile. But that was her first night, and she hasn’t seen him since. She’s been traveling with a wolf though...”