The night passes without incident. Despite Cleve’s concerns, Louisa doesn’t betray us or stab us in the back with his knife. Cleve wakes me up with news. “There’s a craw nest over there,” he tells me. “Just letting you know if you wanted to go look at it.” Once again, he has surprised me. What I had expected to be a warning to be on alert is in fact a considerate offer of information he knows interests me. He really does have more insight into people than he lets on. While he gets breakfast ready, I go sketch the entryway decorations of the craw nest. Now I know what they do with the shiny material they collect.
Breakfast is rations, which Cleve counts out carefully. If something costs us an extra day getting back to Data Haven, we’ll be in trouble there. We’ve found food in the wilderness before though, so I’m not too worried. There will be several opportunities to forage today while the solar panels recharge the batteries. With the rover so overloaded, our range is less than it was on the trip out here, so we’ll need to stop several times. That should also give me a chance to look for those acorn star mushrooms that Marina needs.
Some of the ration packs have coffee included with them, but Cleve consumes stronger stuff. Bella has shown up again with a filthy, ancient-looking packet of freeze-dried Coffee Type II. “Thanks, sweet girl,” Cleve coos at the shimmerfly as she lazily flutters at him. Hopefully that potent brew will keep him alert on what passes for a road around here.
It’s going to be a crowded ride; everyone except Cleve will have either a wolf beetle or an Arx on their lap. “Once we get past where our cryopods are, it might make more sense for me to take the wolf beetles out of the rover. You’d have to drive slower for us to keep pace, but it would be safer that way,” I suggest to Cleve. “I don’t mind being outside. Honestly, I feel better out here. The rover is not as uncomfortable as Morgan’s dome, but it is a little bit. The atmosphere, I mean, the filtered air. But for the start of our trip, while we’re still near Morgan operations, I think squishing everybody into the vehicle makes the most sense.” Cleve nods his agreement.
When it comes time to load up, I kneel down next to Mr. and Mrs. Fuzzy and place a hand on each one. Then I concentrate on establishing a connection between us, like I did with the other wolf beetles in the dome. They settle down, but I cringe. Whatever I just did was loud to miasma-vision. Ripples of influence went out from me in all directions, not just straight at the wolf beetles. If we were in the dome, I’m sure miasma alarms would be going off again. Out here in the wilderness, though, it just leaves me feeling uneasy. How far do these signals go? What else might be able to sense them? If someone were to be out here using a detector, sweeping the area, they might find me. All the more reason to ride in the rover. Fortunately, the wolf beetles are docile now. Mrs. Fuzzy obediently hops up into Louisa’s lap once she’s in the back seat next to Arx and Takuto. Mr. Fuzzy climbs up on me after I settle in the front passenger seat. I reach out and pull my door closed.
Cleve does one last walk through our campsite, then joins us inside the crowded vehicle. It smells strongly of wolf beetles and active humans in here. Yeah, this is much more than the air filters can handle. “Everybody buckle up,” Cleve orders. “We’re overloading this vehicle, so in the event of an emergency, be prepared to brace yourselves with the nearest grip bar. I will try my best not to kill us all.”
“Thanks, Mr. Cleve!” Takuto calls out over the clicks of seatbelts snapping into place. The only one not belted in is Arx, who’s curled up sleepily against Takuto’s chest. They’re not a morning person, it seems.
It’s not comfortable, but we trundle along, first following the partially cleared routes left by repo vans and Shu-Fen’s mining equipment. When it comes time to pause for a charge, Cleve drives us off the beaten path. We haven’t gotten as far as the cryopods, since the systems are being taxed by the extra load. I haven’t been paying too much attention to the scenery, preoccupied as I’ve been by the wolf beetle on my lap and the one on Louisa’s. I’m all too happy to get out of the vehicle and free them to nose around on their own for a while. With Cleve’s approval, I let them off leash, both literally and figuratively.
Naturally, the first thing I notice outside is litter. It’s another flyer for the Earth Corridor. “Is this just a litter corridor?” I mutter.
Cleve points out tread marks in the ground. They’re somewhat recent, only partially concealed by vegetation. “That’s from a heavy vehicle,” he says. “Maybe a week old.” They do not match the armored personnel carriers that the Planetary Security Force was recently showing off. Rather, they’re similar to what Shu-Fen’s excavator would make. Her equipment was already in place when these tracks were left, though.
We poke around the area a bit more, and Cleve finds other bits of trash, including torn up pieces of tarp. They’re ground into the dirt, partially buried by the excavator that came through. I collect all the flyers I see. Some are ads we’ve already encountered, and the ones that aren’t follow the same formula. It’s all, “Come work here to improve your debt repayment ratio!” There are a few for gambling joints, as well. Everything here is weather worn.
With the mention of excavators, Cleve starts mulling over ideas for trapping Miasma Pass. We’re traveling with our own backhoe, after all, so we might be able to dig something out to slow them down. I imagine all sorts of scenarios based on what little he says aloud, like a pit trap or just torn up terrain. “Explosions might be better,” he finally concludes.
That’s when Takuto screams.