Diurnal

Dry, dry. Half-smothered, the two figures staggered through scuffed-up clouds of sand, against the jelly-wall of heat. Glaring sunlight, hurting the eyes. Vila licked his lips and winced as they dried instantly and cracked, painfully.

"How much further is it, Cally?"

//A long way.//

Gingerly he felt the blisters forming on his forehead, pulled the sweat-stiffened shirt away from his skin. The woman beside him strode heavily on, alien eyes lidded.

"Why us, anyway?"

//What?//

"Why should it be us that this happens to? I didn't ask to be sent down to make contact, and I sure didn't ask to be bombed half to death. Blake should have come down. He likes that sort of thing."

//Blake could not come. You know that.//

Vila touched his wrist, missing the reassuring weight of the teleport bracelet. The bracelet that lay four miles behind them, with Cally's. Crushed to anonymity with fifty-two corpses.

It was hard to breathe in the heat, the heat that sucked the moisture from their eyes and mouths. Vila narrowed his nostrils and felt his lips with a roughened fingertip. Cally neither slowed nor turned, her gaze flat on the horizon. Her feet thumped heavily in the sand, one after the other.

"Don't you get blisters?"

//Yes.//

"Well, I do too. And I don't like them!"

//Don't speak, Vila. You will only tire yourself, and lose water.//

"In other words, shut up, Vila. And why are you telepathing all of a sudden? You don't usually, you know."

//To save my throat.//

"Well, that's just fine. And stay out of my head, then!"

Through the heat, through the loud harsh sunlight, through the sand. Vila's breathing was hoarse. Cally began to limp slightly. Neither spoke.

Then Cally's ankle turned on the pale sand and she fell, a cry choking in her throat. Vila caught up to her as she sat up and ran her hands over the joint, wincing as she bent her foot.

"Are you all right?"

Her voice was sore and harsh. Like the desert around them. "Just twisted, I think... Help me up."

"Shouldn't you get your boot off, have a look?"

"No. The boot will keep the swelling down." She took her weight on it and gasped, weaving, then gritted her teeth and took a step, and another.

"You can't walk fifteen miles on that, Cally!"

"I will have to. And it is less, now."

"Ten, then! Ten miles to the other base, at least. And what if whoever called in that bombing strike realizes we got out of it?"

"Then we will be found, and killed. Is that really what you want to hear? Come on, Vila." She started off, her hobbling steps firming, heading again toward the blank horizon. Vila kept pace with her. Silent for a while. Scuffing the sand.

"Cally..."

"Yes?"

"You can telepath to me. I don't mind."

Two figures, side by side, through the glare.

#   #   #  

Frost rimed the rocks, curling under Cally's fingernails when she drew them along the rough stone of the wall. The small trickle of water deep within the cave was frosting over, ice crystals sharp and surprising along its edges. Vila broke one off and rubbed it over his forehead, sighing.

"I never thought I'd be grateful for cold, eh, Cally?"

She turned, silhouetted against the fading twilight in the cave opening, and came back to where he sat against an outcropping.

"We are at the edge of this plateau, Vila. Tomorrow we get down into the forest, and with luck we can make the other base by nightfall."

"No more desert?"

"No more desert, Vila." He shifted to let her reach past him and cup her hands full of the cold, clear water.

"So we find this other base, tell the rebels there what's happened, and get them to call Blake and get us home. Simple enough, right? What could go wrong?" And quickly, with a smile, "Don't answer that."

Cally settled next to him, tucking her wet fingers under her arms for warmth. The temperature was dropping fast.

"Cally, how did the Federation know about that base? They said they'd taken every precaution, but those bombers didn't even hesitate. They knew right where we were."

"A security leak. Or a traitor, perhaps."

He started, turning to look at her face, blurred in the dimness. "A traitor? But then they might have hit the other base too! We could be heading for a pile of rubble!" His voice rose.

"I know. But if it is still secure, they must be told what has happened. And we must contact the Liberator. Where else can we go?"

Vila hunched, pulling his hands into his sleeves. "I suppose they think we're dead, up there."

"Probably. When we failed to call in."

"Well, I never knew being dead was this cold... I still think we should have stayed by the base. Blake would have come looking for us. Him and Gan."

"Federation troops were searching the area, Vila. We couldn't wait. You know that. Why argue about it now?"

Silence, in the twilight. The faint clouds of their breath bloomed and faded, and finally were lost in darkness. The two rebels slid from the wall to settle, uncomfortably, on the cold rock floor. Vila's teeth began to chatter.

"If this is still the desert, why is it so cold? And I'm hungry!"

//Deserts are cold at night. And there is no food. Sleep now.// An arm came over him from behind, a warmth pressed against his back. He rolled into Cally's embrace, and they lay, sharing the little heat they had. Breath warmed their faces.

"Cally?" Muffled, hesitant.

//Yes?//

"Thanks for getting me out. When the roof fell."

//You're welcome, Vila.// A smile, warm in his mind. //Sleep, now.//

They slept.

#   #   #  

Lightning ripped and splintered the sky, sending shredded leaves flying. Branches lashed the wind and water poured down their hair, into their eyes, warm and invading. Breathing rain, spitting rain, they pushed through the thick green foliage. Mud squelched and sucked angrily at their feet.

Thunder roared and Cally flinched and stumbled against her companion. Steadying her by the elbow, Vila watched her worriedly. Shouting to be heard over the screaming wind and rain.

"Are you all right?"

She covered her ears, trying to keep the running water out of them. "The noise... It never rains on Auron. Not like this!" Spitting, trying to brush the water out of her eyes, she twisted away from each invasive runnel. Insistent fingers of water in her clothes, her face, her mouth. Touching her. The wind blinded her with her own hair.

"It's just rain, Cally!" Vila took her hand and pulled her under an arching canopy of tree, a partial, filtered-green umbrella. By its wet brown trunk the wind was lessened, and spreading branches broke the rain's force until it pattered lightly on the fallen leaves, all viciousness lost. "Just a storm. I always liked weather, and you don't see much of it in the domes."

She smiled shakily. "You like this, Vila? That seems unlike you." Thunder cracked resoundingly and Vila flinched with her, clinging hands.

"Well, I can do without this much weather, that's true!"

Cally sank down into the puddles, leaning against the solid bark of the tree. Pressed against it, she felt safer. Vila squatted beside her as she rubbed her ankle gingerly through the leather.

"How is it?"

"It will do. It's not much farther now."

"To warm, dry beds, and food! All the comforts of home." He grimaced. "If it's still there."

The storm roved frustrated around the tree while they sat in silence, shoulders lightly touching. After a time the wind began to lessen, though occasional clouds of rain still blew into their green refuge. Cally stared out through the curtaining leaves, shivering a little. Vila watched her a moment, then swept his hands quickly over the ground and stood up, nudging her with his foot.

"Hey, Cally! Look!"

And stones and sticks and nutshells fountained from his hands, darting in weaving juggling paths among his flying fingers. Over his head, behind his back, past Cally's laughing astonished eyes, in great curving sweeps he juggled, higher and higher. Weaving and staggering in exaggerated effort to support the tower of motion, clowning his difficulty, until thunder cracked sullenly once more and a stone slipped from his hands to bounce away into the last of the rain. Panting a little, he caught the rest of the flying debris and let it fall at his feet, smiling sheepishly.

Cally laughed. "Never mind, Vila, you'll get it some day!" She stood, sliding up along the rough bark. "The storm has almost stopped. We should go on."

He nodded and ran to where the escaped stone lay, half-hidden under a ragged bush. Bending, he picked it up and brought it to place neatly atop its fellows, with a joking salute. Cally brushed the tangled hair from her face and turned to go.

Vila touched her shoulder. Smiling. "Cally, what's this?" And reaching out, plucked a brilliant flower, rain-wet, from her ear.

#   #   #  

Bruised, exhausted, Vila and Cally shimmered to solidity in the teleport bay under Blake's anxious eyes. "Are you all right? Both of you?"

Vila stepped down thankfully, rubbing his teleport bracelet. "Oh, fine, fine. And next time you want something done, don't ask me!"

Cally followed him out of the bay, handing her bracelet to Blake, who put a welcoming, helplessly apologetic hand on her shoulder. "We will be fine, Blake, when we've had some rest. Gan is helping to mobilize the base; he'll stay down for a while."

"Personally, I never want to see that planet again," said Vila, and was caught in the tight clasp of Blake's other hand.

"I thought you were dead," the big man said, hoarsely. "I thought I'd lost you both..."

"Yeah, well, remember that the next time. It wasn't any fun on my side either!" And Vila slipped out of his grip, embarrassed but pleased. Avon looked up from the console where he still sat.

"I imagine it 'wasn't any fun' for Cally either. Two days crossing primitive wilderness with Vila for company... I sympathize with you, Cally."

And astonishingly, it was Cally who lifted her chin and retorted, smugly, "That shows how much you know." And left the room with Vila, walking side by side through the faint hum of the ship.