Chapter 47 - Net Energy Loss

"In war, the moral is to the physical as three is to one."

—Napoleon

The Peregrine's oversized tires chewed through alien soil with a growl that Luca felt in his teeth. Three hours behind the wheel. His hands ached from gripping it, and his shoulders had locked into a shape that probably qualified as a medical condition. The grasslands had given way to sparse forest, black-barked trees sliding past in the narrow cone of headlights. Everything beyond the light was nothing, and that nothing went on forever.

"She's handling it better than I thought she would," Chris said from the passenger seat. "I half expected a suspension coil to shoot through the floor by now."

Luca grunted because, honestly, Chris wasn't wrong. He rolled his shoulders, trying to work out the knots, his grip on the wheel loosening and tightening on its own. His hands had a tremor now, which was new and not great. Every few minutes he checked the rearview display, expecting to see lights, engines, something chasing them. Nothing ever came, but the image of the Percival's violet engines tearing a hole in the sky wouldn't leave him alone.

"Alright, my turn," Chris said, already unbuckling. "You look like you're about to start steering with your forehead."

Luca managed a weak smile and brought the Peregrine to a squeaking stop. The silence that rushed in when the engine idled hit him like a wall. He stretched until his back popped in short, sharp cracks. "She's all yours. Keep her steady."

Chris slid into the driver's seat and Luca squeezed past him, moving toward the back of the cabin. The main compartment was dim, lit only by faint starlight filtering through the side ports.

Danny was propped up on the back bench with a blanket draped over his legs. His breathing was even, his face relaxed in sleep, but Luca could still see the faint wince carved into his brow. His body hadn't fully let go of the pain yet. Zoe was leaning against Danny's shoulder, her head on a bundled jacket.

They were both out and both safe, and right then Luca wasn't asking the universe for anything more.

Joey gave Luca a quiet nod and moved to the front, murmuring something to Chris that Luca couldn't hear. Company for the driver. No one should be alone with their thoughts for too long out here.

That left an empty space on the bench. Emily was sitting there, watching him, her eyes catching the faint light. She hadn't been asleep. She shifted over, making room.

He sank onto the cushion beside her and let his head fall back. His whole body weighed twice what it should. He must have drifted, because he startled when a weight settled on his shoulder. He opened his eyes enough to see the top of Emily's head, her hair against his jaw. She'd fallen asleep, her body slumping against his.

Something in his chest went quiet.

He tilted his head until it rested against hers, his arm settling around her. The Peregrine rumbled on through the alien night, and Luca let the dark take him.

---

A change in momentum pulled Luca out of a dreamless sleep. The engine died. The Peregrine settled with a final sigh of its hydraulics. His neck was wrecked, and the arm Emily had been using as a pillow was pure static from the elbow down. He flexed his fingers and pins and needles stabbed through every one of them.

That was worth it.

Pale light filtered through the viewport.

"Morning, Captain," Danny said from across the cabin. He was already checking his tablet, bodysuit back on and zipped up. "Local time is oh-seven-hundred, give or take. And I'm picking up… nothing. No large biosignatures within a five-kilometer radius."

No large biosignatures on a planet they knew was crawling with things that wanted to eat them was the kind of report Luca filed under "too good to be true" and moved on from immediately.

"Too quiet?" Zoe said, disentangling herself from the blanket.

"Let's find out," Luca said, and hit the control for the rear ramp.

The ramp lowered and the world changed. Cool, crisp air washed into the cabin, nothing like the heavy heat they'd been slogging through. Luca stepped out onto a soft bed of fallen needles and sucked in a breath that tasted like pine and cold stone.

Massive coniferous trees pressed in on all sides, bark the color of rust and dried blood, their canopies so dense they blocked most of the sky and threw shadows everywhere. Luca's hand drifted to the sidearm on his thigh without him telling it to, and his eyes swept the gaps between trunks. Plenty of places for something to watch them.

Emily appeared at his side, and the first thing she did was look up. "This is perfect." She was already stepping forward, turning slowly, taking it all in. "Completely different ecosystem, temperate and coniferous. The System will definitely classify this as a new biome." She turned to him and the smile on her face was genuine, the kind that made her whole expression open up. "We should start collecting samples."

He watched her for a beat longer than he needed to, caught by the enthusiasm and by the way her brain had already switched into cataloging mode before she'd finished walking down the ramp.

"First, we've got to find water," he said, turning back to the Peregrine before she caught him staring.

Inside, Ryan, Chris, and Luca huddled over the orbital maps projected from the console. "There," Chris said, pointing at a thin blue line snaking through the topography. "Stream, maybe half a kilometer from here. Looks like our best bet."

It took ten minutes, but soon the Peregrine was parked in a small clearing beside the stream. The water ran clear and fast over smooth stone. With a series of clunks and whirs, Luca deployed the vehicle into outpost mode, stabilizing arms sinking into the soil and the sensor mast extending to its full height.

"Turret online and set to auto," Ryan announced from the tactical station. The energy turret atop the Peregrine swiveled silently, scanning arcs that Luca tracked with his eyes. "Be aware, Captain," he added, his tone serious, "we're in the shade here. The solar arrays are only pulling in about fifteen percent of their optimal charge. Running the turret and other systems, we're operating at a net energy loss."

Spending more power than they made, with no guarantee of when they'd get to recharge, was the sort of number that kept captains up at night.

"Noted," Luca said, his eyes still on the dark woods. "For now, the security is worth the power drain. Let's get to work."

The team fanned out. Chris and Joey hauled the deep-core drill a short distance away and got it humming. Danny and Zoe headed straight for the stream with kits full of vials and sensors.

"Come on," Emily said to Luca. "Let's see if this planet has anything remotely edible."

They pushed through a thick curtain of ferns and stopped. An entire grove of gnarled trees, twisted trunks reaching skyward, every branch loaded with bizarre fruit that hung in heavy clusters. The planet was showing off.

The fruit was oval-shaped, glossy and deep purple, the skin shimmering like it was sweating. Thin, veiny tendrils curled from the stems, twitching faintly, pulsing in sync with the dim glow of the moss below. The whole grove breathed in a slow wave that made the hair on Luca's arms stand up.

Emily stopped dead beside him, her hand brushing his arm. "Whoa." She tilted her head up at the canopy. "It's… kind of beautiful."

"I was going to go with creepy," he said, plucking one of the fruits from a low-hanging branch. The skin was smooth and warm to the touch, with enough give when he pressed it to suggest it was ripe. "But sure. Let's call it beautiful."

"My expert analysis," she said, leaning in close enough that he caught the scent of her hair, "is that we shouldn't eat anything until we analyze them. But," her voice dropped low and conspiratorial, "they do look delicious."

"We'll need a lot of samples for a full analysis," he said. His gaze dropped to her lips for half a second before he pulled it back up.

"Then we'd better get picking," she replied, and her eyes held his long enough to make his pulse do something stupid.

He cleared his throat and reached for another branch. They were supposed to be collecting samples.

---

By late afternoon, the eerie silence of the morning had been replaced by chirps and rustles from things Luca couldn't see, which he'd decided to take as a good sign. Silence meant everything was hiding from something.

Chris wiped his hands on his pants and grinned at the neatly labeled core samples. Danny had claimed a folding chair and was cataloging specimens with the focus of a guy who'd been waiting all week to do exactly this. Even Ryan was whistling as he secured the drill.

A creature that looked like someone had crossed a squirrel with a spider sat tranquilized in a cage, six legs and red fur, its bushy tail twitching in whatever aliens dreamed about. Beside it sat a canid-like predator with powerful hind legs, sleek rust-colored fur, and intelligent eyes that blinked slowly as the sedative wore off.

"Their biology is surprisingly analogous to terran mammals," Danny said as Luca knelt to inspect the predator. The thing watched him back, which was unsettling. "Carbon-based, oxygen-breathing. I managed to synthesize a fast-acting tranquilizer from a blood sample. We're officially back in the fauna-collecting business."

"Incredible work, Danny," Luca said, meaning it. His eyes swept the dark treeline on reflex. The perimeter hadn't changed, but the shadows had deepened as the canopy shifted.

The air had turned warm and humid, the kind that stuck to skin and made clothes feel twice as heavy. Zoe wiped a smear of mud from her cheek and held up the water analyzer. "The water's been tested clean down to the microscopic level," she announced.

Chris looked at the screen. "So, safe to drink?"

"Yep," Joey confirmed. "This source looks good. If I had to guess, I'd say there's a natural filtration process happening upstream. Probably explains why the water's so clear." He capped another vial and packed up the rest of his equipment. "We could drink straight from it, but we'll run it through the filters to be safe."

"I, for one," Zoe said, "am going to wash three days of meadow-stink off me."

Emily grinned, pushing a strand of hair from her forehead. "I'm with Zoe."

Luca liked the sound of that more than he was going to say out loud.

"Hold on," he said instead. "Has anyone actually checked the stream bed? Poked it with a stick or something?"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Captain, we've been running the core drill for the past six hours. The bottom is solid rock and silt for two meters down. Unless there are phase-shifting land-sharks, it's safe."

He couldn't argue with that.

"Alright, everyone! Time to take a breather!" Luca called. The insect buzz of late afternoon swallowed his voice almost immediately. "Gear off. Let's cool down."

The crew started shedding bodysuits, revealing sweat-soaked T-shirts and shorts underneath. It didn't take long before they stripped down further, underwear and base layers, because the heat had passed the point where anyone gave a damn about modesty.

With whoops and laughter, the crew raced to the edge. Some dove headfirst, others waded in. Zoe and Ryan took flying leaps that sent loud, messy splashes echoing off the trees.

Danny, the adhesive bandage across his back still holding, tiptoed in with a grimace as the cool water hit his skin. He rubbed at his back and muttered, "Better than another med scan, I guess."

Luca and Emily ended up in the shallows, splashing each other, and he kept trying to dunk her, but she was quick. Quicker than she had any right to be. "Come on, Captain, is that the best you've got?" she said.

"Not even close." He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into a tackle. They both went under and came up gasping, water streaming down their faces. Her eyes were bright and her grin was wide and he was so far gone for this woman it was almost embarrassing.

Danny waded nearby and spotted something in the water. "Look at this little guy," he said, pointing at a small fish-like thing darting around.

Ryan had to try and catch it, splashing Danny in the process. Those two were something else.

"Missed it, bro," Ryan said, grinning. "You've got to be quicker than that."

Joey swam closer. "Alright, listen up!" he shouted. "How about we make this a little more interesting? First one to grab one of those little critters wins!"

The crew cheered, because when had any of them ever turned down a stupid competition? Everyone scattered across the stream, diving and splashing, determined to catch one of those slippery little things. Shouts echoed off the trees.

Zoe emerged victorious, holding up a small, iridescent creature she'd snagged bare-handed. "I got it!" Her voice carried across the water.

Somehow that felt inevitable.

Emily had wandered into the reeds, completely locked in on one of the glowing critters. She held her breath and stuck her head underwater, trying to grab the thing as it darted between roots. She was so determined it made his chest ache in the good way.

Luca was right next to her. He went for the obvious move and tickled her waist. She shot out of the water with a splash.

She sputtered and coughed. "Not fair," she said, splashing him back.

"You were so focused on catching that thing, you didn't even notice me."

"Well, I definitely noticed now." A determined glint crossed her eye and she dove back underwater.

He followed her, but instead of chasing the critter, he swam up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"You're such a cheater!" she said between giggles.

"Hey." He pulled her closer and kissed the side of her neck. "Be careful," he said softly.

She turned in his arms and kissed him, and everything else stopped mattering. The water swirled around them, cool against his skin, and her hands ran over his back, and her lips were warm on his, and for a few seconds the mission and the power drain and the dark treeline all went quiet. He slid his hands down to her hips and lifted her out of the water, and she wrapped her legs around him and kissed him like they had all the time in the world.

A loud splash and a wave of laughter broke through. Emily pulled back, her forehead against his, both of them breathing hard. Zoe was doing cannonballs into the stream while Ryan cheered her on.

Emily laughed, soft and close to his ear, and Luca set her down with his hands lingering on her hips a few seconds longer than was strictly necessary.

Later, dripping and cooled down, they gathered around a bonfire pit that Ryan had built from stream rocks. The fire crackled against the encroaching twilight. The day-sounds of the forest had faded, replaced by lower calls from things that moved in the dark. Luca kept his back to the fire and his eyes on the treeline out of habit.

Nobody talked while they ate. Ryan poked the fire with a stick, sending red sparks into the air.

"You know," he said, looking over at the tranquilized predator sleeping in its cage. "Danny said its biology is compatible. The analyzer shows no prions, no parasites, no complex toxins we can't process." He looked around at the faces lit by firelight. "These MREs are getting real old. I bet that thing tastes like venison."