EarthFall

Chap 6 A familiar face.

Carson sat by the lakes edge. He washed his face off with the water. He knew he should test it for parasites, radiation, e.t.c. He knew that he was breaking protocol. But at least he wasn't drinking it.

He looked up, and could see the fiery inferno of the USFS across the lake in the reflection of the water before him. They were trapped. The Phoenix didn't have long range space faring capabilities. It didn't even have long range communication abilities. And it probably didn't have enough fuel on it's own right now to properly survey the whole valley.

They were alone. Just the four of them in a world where savages roamed by the hundreds on the backs of wicked, hooved beasts. The Smoke cloud began to drift with the wind and blot out the sun.

What had the cloaked figure used to cause the explosion on the leg of that ship? Why had the Comm's gone down? How could Command's reports have been so wrong?

There were so many things he didn't know. That he needed to know.

Carson picked at a small flower from grass and held it up. He wasn't familiar with this particular Genus. That thought puzzled him. It made him want to break down and start crying.

How could he not know?

But he held it together. He thought about it. It was Yellow, the petals small and numerous. The stem, structurally weak, but the leaves... they reminded him of the Eruca Vesicaria... A Taraxacum! That was it. He remembered.

This was an interesting plant. It would transform, chrysalyzing it's petals into delicate, airborn filaments that carried it's seed off into the wind. Little flying messengers, using the thick, lush atmosphere to propel it's DNA off, sometimes hundreds of miles into the unknown. Apparently the old world humans would make wishes, proclamations or prayers before blowing the filaments off the bud when it came time. "Dandelions" they used to call them.

He wondered if the one he held now was the result of some such union. Had some savage made a wish on this planet sometime last year during the plants maturation cycle, and blown it into the ether? Just for it to fly and land and grow here, for him to pick? Or was it just the atmosphere, the shifting wind that blew it away? Did it matter?

And suddenly he felt as if he himself were one of those filaments. A small representative for a larger goal that was not his own, blown from Mars across the cosmos, only to land among fire.

"Hey Car..." Brianna's voice chimed into Carson's headset. "Umm.. Chief's getting pretty pissed right now. He says we should move location while it's still light. He's threatening to mark you as a deserter and leave soon."

Carson sighed.

"I'll be there in a minute. Tell him to adapt."

On the line he could hear her snort despite herself and try to make it sound like a cough. Then she pivoted again and turned it into a fake-sneezing fit. He could hear Chief growl in the background before she cut the Comm's.

That woman was fearless.

He eyed the flower again. Maybe he should give it to her. Apparently that's what they did in the old world. But In the Caves beneath mars... they were far too rare to use so frivolously. Reserved for labs underground, attempting to clone replicas for food, seed, material or otherwise. It wasn't that you couldn't acquire one with enough money, it was more that it simply wasn't on the list of priorities. And it would take a whole lot of money.

He was only really allowed to have plants in his Cot back on mars as part of his Botany studies.

That was probably the biggest saving grace of his whole extracurricular, is that he got to take home plants to study. He found that women were thrilled by them when he brought them back to his cot and showed them. They probably thought of it as a sign of status or wealth, and he wasn't inclined to correct them. Plus the plants really did add a nice touch to his room.