Riverboat Fudo-Maru, Iztacatl River

Krandermore, Survivor’s Refuge

4453.2.20 Interstellar

Janus woke up swaying in the dark, almost cocooned by the hammock he’d passed out in. The ship’s small hold, which wasn’t tall enough to stand in, was quiet except for the sounds of the river and the creak of the Fudo-Maru’s old timbers. A quick check of his display told him Lira and Ryler were still asleep while Koni and Mick were above. He yawned and shifted his weight, trying to get comfortable again, but he had evidently slept as much as even his weary body would allow, and it was time to get to work.

Janus got one leg over the side of the fabric, and then the other. Then, he managed to swing around and sit up without spilling out onto the floor somehow.

There was much to do. He needed to perform maintenance on the vehicles, check on the team’s health, and check on their mental state. They’d been through a lot in the past days, including Copecki’s death, almost getting ambushed on the road, Fury’s rampage, and the fight against the maddened emberthorn. The team had risked their lives more than once, and they’d seen people die around them. Janus knew all too well what the cost of those brushes with the void could be.

The boat dipped to the right, facing forward, and the hammock swung, dragging his bare feet across the floor. Janus used the impetus to get out of the hammock. He was grateful to have gotten the chance to catch up on missing sleep, and he hoped to catch up on more before they reached Veraz, but he also didn’t take a smooth journey for granted. If what Koni had said about the flows of the Iztacatl was true, they could be in for a very rough ride. He’d adjusted to the gentle—and sometimes not so gentle—rocking of the riverboat, but he doubted anyone would be getting rest if the white waters lived up to their name.

His hazard indicators were green-green-yellow. The hold was warm and stuffy, but the captain kept a clean ship. He quickly dressed, stooping in the dark, and climbed up to the main deck.

The sky looked lighter. As the Fudo-Maru carried them farther west and north, bringing them closer to the sun-side terminator, the particulate glow should continue increasing until it could be seen without implants, like sunrise after sunrise stitched together as the weather changed and brought out different conditions.

Janus was looking forward to it. It had been a long time since he’d seen natural light.

Koni was in the pilothouse with Captain Tanaka. The ship’s captain was recognizable by the orange glow of her cigar, and her small crew—only four sailors, one cook, and one mechanic—was endlessly working on operating, cleaning, repairing, and providing for the ship. Stretching and finding his footing on the moving vessel, Janus made his way from the cargo hatch toward the buggies, but he stopped when he saw Mick leaning on the handrail and looking out into the jungle.

“Morning, sunshine,” Mick greeted him with an oversized smile. “Get caught up on your beauty sleep?”

Janus nudged his way next to Mick and followed his gaze out into the thickening jungle. The river was far wider than he had expected, and while they were only a few dozen meters from the shore here, he could barely make out the shore on the other side of the boat. “Yeah. When you look this good, you need more than most,” Janus said jokingly. “Anything interesting out there?”

“Oh, yeah, mate. Whole pack of bushwolves, a pair of three-toed wolverats, and there’s definitely a Djahl lynx out there.”

“Where’d you see the Djahl?” Janus asked, surprised. Sightings of those were almost as rare as… well, until Fury, there hadn’t been anything rarer.

Mick leaned forward and pointed. “Crawled into those roots near the water’s edge just a second ago, and I lost it.”

Janus turned up the gain on his implants, but the boat kept moving, and they were soon out of sight.

“Better luck next time, cobber,” Mick said, punching Janus’s shoulder.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Janus nodded. The Djahl was made for these longitudes. They weren’t as uncommon as jungle dragons. They were just hard to find. At these temperatures and light levels, a Djahl blended into the jungle so well that even a thermal scan would miss it. “I can’t believe you saw one.”

Mick tapped his ear. “I didn’t.”

Janus’s eyes widened. As a Cofan researcher, he had access to all sorts of data on the local wildlife, so he pulled up a pattern-matching program and tuned it to the sounds made by an adult Djahl. Then, he leaned against the railing and closed his eyes. Freed from having to process visual data, his implant was able to focus on processing local sounds, and the program he’d loaded turned those sounds into visuals. Janus smiled as he saw a trail of glowing paw prints moving along the river bank in short sprints, sometimes across the forest floor, other times in the trees. “They’re following the boat, or maybe they’re chasing something.”

“They?” Mick said.

Janus grinned. “Oh, yeah. There’s at least three of them.” His closed eyes and the wrist implant’s amplification let him take in other sounds he’d heard but tuned out, like the ship parting the water, the trickling of rain off the leaves, and the four-beat chug of the engine. Suddenly, the anguished scream of a primate pierced the air, and the Djahls fell behind to feed on their prey.

“Circle of life, mate,” Mick said, slapping his hand on the railing.

Janus chuckled.

They continued to stare out at the jungle in silence for a while, Mick doing whatever Mick did, and Janus appreciating the company.

After some time, Janus took a deep breath and said. “I guess I have a kid now. A son.”

Mick looked at him. “I didn’t think you’d been with anyone in Cofan.”

“Keeping tabs on my love life?”

Mick snorted. “Nah, mate. I mean, I’d’ve been happy for you, but I saw the place you were living.”

“My place was fine!” Janus protested.

Mick shrugged, his eyes amused, and his smile pulled to one side. “Yeah, but that place never saw a woman’s touch.”

Janus sighed and crossed his arms on the railing. “It was the first place that was really mine, you know? Always lived with family before this.”

“That’s pretty normal for a Hunter, mate. We spend enough time alone on the road to want solitude in the ’van.” Mick’s eyes widened. “Wait a minute. You don’t mean Lee’s the mother, from that one time near Haven? Was that why you asked me about Hunter women?”

“Yeah,” Janus said quietly.

Mick guffawed and slapped him on the back. “That’s great news, mate! Oh, man, Lee must have been chuffed to have one-shotted you like that, especially after we won the Trials.”

“I take it that’s a good thing,” Janus said.

“She’ll spin a great story out of it,” Mick said. “The last mother of a Haven-son, fathered by a champion. The other women will be buying her drinks for a long time.”

“I didn’t realize being a mother meant so much to Hunters.”

Mick shook his head. “It’s not about motherhood, although I’m sure Lee will make a great mom, just like Trace did right by me. It’s about the gene pool.”

Janus’s head whipped toward Mick.

“Yeah,” Mick said. “Thought that might make sense to you, being as you’ve become a mad scientist and all.”

It made perfect sense to Janus. The Hunters were an insular community with a small population, and yet Mick and most of the Hunters Janus had met were on average tall, strong, and attractive, with none of the signs Janus would have associated with inbreeding if he’d been looking for them. “I’m breeding stock.”

Mick smirked at him. “Not just breeding stock. I mean, Lee must have liked you. We try not to breed too many assholes into the family lines—got enough character as it is!” Mick laughed at his own joke. “But yeah, Janus. I mean, male Hunters get around, too, but not too many Dome women choose to take on the Hunter life. It’s our women who bring in new material.”

“I can’t believe I’ve been bred like a stud.”

Mick frowned, and Janus was worried he’d finally stumbled across a topic Hunters found sensitive, like a landmine in the open jungle.

“I’m sorry. That was insensitive. I’m sure it was very meaningful within the context of Hunter culture.”

Mick’s frown turned into a wide grin in a blink. “Just pulling your leg, Stud. But it is meaningful. Sure, a male Hunter could go to a dome and grow a kid in a vat like the rest of you—no offense meant.”

“None taken,” Janus said, not for the first time finding the concept of live birth by a human woman uncomfortably primitive. “What’s your point?”

“There’s no Hunter culture without Hunter children, born on the road and raised in the ways of the Ancient Stars. Our freedom depends on it, and you’re part of that now.”

Janus stared at Mick, trying to see if the Hunter was once again making fun of him, and Mick stared right back.

“Fine,” Janus said, looking back over the water. “I get it. Mostly. I just hadn’t realized how much of your culture revolved around eugenics. But it makes sense, now—the casual relationships, the long trips, the live births on the road…”

“Nah, mate, Hunter women are just wild and magical,” Mick said. “And Lee bagged herself a trophy. We’re Hunters, Janus. It’s in the name.”

Mick looked at Janus, deadpan, and then the two of them burst out laughing.

Mick retrieved a flask from his belt, taking a swig before passing it to Janus. “To Lee,” he toasted.

“To Lee,” Janus echoed, raising the flask in salute before returning it to Mick.

Their revels were interrupted as Fury came bounding over from the back end of the ship, her colorful neck scales raised and a glow building in her throat.

“Let’s get our weapons!” Mick said, all traces of mirth gone as the jungle around them fell into an eerie silence.

“What’s going on?” Janus said, jogging after him toward the buggies while Fury grew increasingly frantic.

“Something’s coming down the river, mate! Something big!”