Readyworld

fiction by michael werneburg

Mead didn't bother with a reply.

Hu asked me, "You file anything from there this morning?" He sounded surprisingly detached. Doubtless to prevent our military escort from getting too interested.

"Not an hour ago," I responded in an equally conversational tone.

Hu nodded. If one scientist filed from the same site as another, there tended to be attribution issues. Nothing Hu filed from here today would be unencumbered. The law effectively made me his partner in whatever claims were to come. "I was thinking half of something was better than all of nothing."

The office glanced at me at that, but looked away after a moment. I glanced at Hu. He was nodding and smiling appreciatively and staring at his shoes. He was fairly bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"How's your day coming?"

"I've never filed from my OHUD before," he said. "This is going to be a damn good day."

I closed my eyes. Yes! Yes!

We marched up the ramp at about the same pace we'd treated the descent and the climb up the surface from the military ship. It was exhausting, and I was breathing hard by the time we got to the top.

And there, much to my surprise, a shuttle met us. It was a vehicle capable of reaching orbit and even subspace travel, if you had to. I'd been up to the Inas Dorge on similar shuttles once or twice since I'd arrived, to deliver samples.

This model was somewhat different. It had clearly come from the military detachment's headquarters ship; the kind of thing you climbed into when a ship was being evacuated in deep space. Finding it hovering there above the reddish dirt and lichen was quite a shock. It was a big barrel shape with a ramp leading down from its only hatch.

"Get in," commanded Mead, and to my amazement, the two kids actually did as they were told and climbed the ramp.

Hu breathed a sigh and followed.

"What about Lena?" I asked.

"She'll be collected with the other non-essential staff when the shuttles return," he said, impatiently.