Chapter Text
“Kylee, I’m cold. Let’s go home. It’s so dark in here.”
“My head hurts. Liza and Lindy said their cave was tall enough for them to stand up.”
“You two are such babies. Catherine said her cave had all these neat passages.”
“This cave is wet. My feet are muddy and it’s hard to walk. We didn’t have mud on Mars.”
“I’m thirsty. I’m going to drink out of the next stream we find. Maybe it’ll make my head feel better.”
“Maryse said never to drink water you find out in the wild until you test it. It might have germs in it.”
“Your Maryse isn’t here. If Peter wants to drink, the water is okay. Nobody has lived here before.”
“I still wanna go home and get dinner and dry shoes.”
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Maryse slowed her jog as she approached Cooper’s house. They were still sitting outside by the grill, cooking their dinner. All three looked up startled as Maryse appeared out of the beginning twilight.
“Is Elias still not home?” Maundie Cooper asked, worry creasing his forehead at seeing Maryse again this evening. Liza and Lindy looked scared, glancing at each other.
Maryse knew her suspicions were right. The twins did know something!
“No, Elias isn’t home. Neither are Peter or Kylee. Liza, Lindy, what can you tell me to help us find these three? They’re your classmates and friends.” Maryse knelt down before the two young kids, hoping she had forged enough of a bond with them last Rest Day hike for them to talk with her about Elias’s plans. Liza chewed on her lips, screwing her face up in confusion. Lindy put his hands over his face, starting to cry.
“Kids, you need to tell us whatever you know about why these three are gone. What were they planning to do after school?” Maundie faced his kids, putting a hand on each of their shoulders to direct their attention to him.
Liza glanced down at the ground then up at her dad. “Elias was upset cuz we went hiking and found a cave on Rest Day and he wasn’t there. And he’s mad cuz his dad went back above to work on the ships.”
Lindy rubbed his face, smearing tears and snot. “Peter wanted to go hiking too, but he went to the beach on Rest Day with his dads, so he said they could go walking up the mountain after school. They’d get back in time for dinner before anybody missed them. I’m sorry Daddy.”
“What’s Kylee’s role in all this?” Maryse asked, trying to put the pieces together. She had a feeling that the map the kids had been looking at earlier today had a role in this.
“Her sister, Catherine, found a big cave with lots of secret passages. Kylee wants to find a cave too, so it’ll be named after her, just like Catherine’s.” Liza said, scuffing her feet on the ground. Her dad pulled at his hair.
A sled came racing up and swooshed to a stop in front of their house. Rondo, in his PFRF shirt, leaned out. “Dr. Cooper, Maryse, are you looking for the three kids?”
Maryse stood up, calling back. “Yes, we may have ideas. These kids had good intel. We need a map of this area around Landing.”
Rondo pulled his tattooed, bald head back into the sled, then jumped out, trotting up to join them. The neighbors in nearby houses were gathered together, watching the drama, whispering amongst themselves.
“This is a map from the sled. Will it work?” Rondo held out a large plas map.
Maundie turned to his kids. “Can you show us anything on this map that might show us where Peter and Elias and Kylee were talking about going?”
Maryse looked at the kids, her heart thudding in her chest with worry. Night was coming on too fast. “Kids, were they going to the area where we went hiking together? Rondo, where are Catherine’s Caves located?”
Rondo squinted at the map and pointed to an area towards south of the colony. “I think they’re over in this area. I haven’t been there myself.”
Maryse glanced at the map, her heart thumping with worry as the light faded. Their Rest Day hike had been northeast of Landing. “We went to this area for our hike. So, Liza, Lindy, where were the kids planning to go?”
Lindy wiped his eyes again and looked carefully at the map and pointed towards the south end of the colony in the hills. “I think they were going up near Catherine’s Caves, but different so they would find a new cave.”
Liza gripped her twin’s hand, adding, “We told them to wait until the next Rest Day cuz we thought you both would want to go hiking again and we could find a cave. But Kylee really wanted to find a cave now without any adults with here since Catherine didn’t have adults along.”
Dr. Cooper gripped his hair with both hands. “Catherine is a teen AND she broke her wrist falling into the cave! And it was daytime.”
“Will Elias and Peter and Kylee be okay?” Liza asked, looking more scared. “We’re sorry we didn’t try harder to make them wait for us all to go along.”
“Rondo, do we have any more recent maps of this area?” Studying the map, Maryse felt the need for updated info that might show known cave openings.
“I don’t think so. We don’t know much about the area in the mountains right above the colony. They don’t look too appealing for stakes, so people haven’t concentrated on them other than the geologists to monitor for ground quakes.” Rondo responded. He pulled out a comm unit, keying it to a connection to admin. “Zi, we’ve got a lead on those three missing kids. They may have gone to the south, southeast of the colony, up the mountain looking for caves. They’re pretty little, about eight or nine years old, two boys and one girl. Do we have any recent maps of that area from geology? We need to call out the full PFRF for a search and rescue operation.”
He listened a minute to instructions from Zi Ongola, the head of the Pern Fire and Rescue Force, repeating the salient points back. “Right, we’ll set up an op base at Building 3 in the sled area. Have the PFRF meet there. No volunteers since it’s night and we don’t want other people getting lost or hurt, needing a rescue, too. I’ll let the parents know.”
Maryse frowned fiercely overhearing this. No way was anyone going to keep her from looking for Elias. She had promised him that she had his back and she certainly was not going to give up on him now. She waited until Rondo signed off. “Rondo, I’m going to help search for the kids. Elias is my neighbor, and so is Peter. I know SAR procedures and I’m trained in spelunking. You know that.”
Maundie looked intrigued at this news, with Liza and Lindy appearing wide-eyed at the information.
“Maryse, you heard what Zi said. We have a good force to do the searching. Let’s go talk to the boys’ parents. If they’re your neighbors, you can help them understand what’s happening, then I need to go see the girl’s parents.” Rondo said, motioning towards the sled. Maryse nodded jerkily to him, then thanked the twins for sharing what they knew, and gave Maundie a sharp nod. She reassured them that they would find their friends. Maundie looked very troubled watching them go, putting his hands protectively on his children’s heads.
The sled skewed to a stop outside Peter’s house. Maryse noticed Vera was sitting outside with Caleb and Sylvester, chatting quietly as they waited for news. They looked up hopefully at the sound of the sled, their expectation changing to dismay at no sign of the boys.
Rondo spoke up first. “We have solid insights that the kids went up into the hills looking for a new cave. What have you talked with them about hiking and hunting for caves?”
“Oh no, my poor Elias. What was he thinking, doing something like this?” Vera cried, clutching Gus to her body, her face crumpling. “We’ve never talked about cave hunting. He wanted to go with Maryse last Rest Day on a hike, but Henry and I wanted to relax at the beach. He seemed to have fun with us in the water. Why would he run off like this?”
Maryse knelt down beside her chair. “Vera, it’s not your fault. We know Elias was mad about his dad going back up to the ships again, and I guess he was more upset than we realized about not being able to do both the hike with me and the beach with you. He’s a little kid. I don’t think they think about consequences.”
“Peter was the same. He wanted to do both hiking and the beach, but we opted to relax in the sun. We thought he was okay since we said we would go hiking next Rest Day.” Sylvester said, holding tightly to Caleb’s hand. “But he’s been hanging out with this Kylee Radelin after school who seems to have free rein to go wherever she wants.”
“So, the PFRF is going to start searching the hills above the colony around the caves that Kylee’s older sister found. We’ll start there and spread out. I’m sure we’ll find the children up there, probably sitting there waiting for rescue since it’s gotten dark.” Rondo explained. Maryse knew he was trying to be reassuring but the plan seemed vague and based on hope instead of having a solid understanding of the kids.
He continued. “I’d like all of you to stay at your homes in case the children come back or comm in from somewhere else in the colony. We’ll put out an alert on everyone’s comms asking anyone to notify Admin if the kids are at their house or they’ve seen the kids this afternoon.”
Rondo nodded towards Maryse. “Maryse, if you’d go with Vera and the little boy to their home, we’ll bring your boy back as soon as we pick them up.”
Maryse bit back a reply, just nodding and scooping up Gus and her dinner sack. “Thanks Rondo.”
Vera opened the door to her house, pausing as the lights came on as she sagged with exhaustion and worry. But she hurried over to the sofa and picked up a comp pad. “That’s Elias’s digi-book from school! He was back here after school.”
Maryse set Gus down on the floor, after pulling the door firmly shut. He toddled off to his toy corner. She turned slowly, looking around at the living area that was almost as familiar as her own home. “These are the shoes Elias wore this morning to school, too. He came back here, left his book, and changed his shoes. Vera, I’m going out searching for the kids. I’ve had search and rescue training, and practice navigating in the dark in my former life. Plus, I know Elias more than these random searchers.”
“Oh, thank you Maryse! I was hoping you could go out with the searchers. I agree, you understand how Elias thinks. Just please be careful. Are your legs okay for this?” Vera glanced down towards Maryse’s lower legs diffidently. “I don’t want you to get hurt searching for my son. You already were hurt a couple of weeks ago when he fell into the sea and you went in after him.”
“I’ll be okay. This is dry land. As a soldier, I had lots of training in working in the dark. But Rondo didn’t want any volunteer searchers, so he doesn’t know I’m going out. If he calls or comes over, just say I went over to my house to clean up, which is true for the moment. You have some dinner and rest with Gus, here. We WILL find the kids and bring them back.” Maryse looked at Vera carefully, trying to instill confidence in the kids’ rescue. She hugged Vera quickly and waved bye-bye to Gus.
Maryse hurried over to her own house. She dropped her dinner off in the kitchen area, then paused at the comm unit, considering a moment. She put a call through Admin to the Duff home, hoping that Ameril or her husband, Martin, would be home. Maryse had learned that Toby Duff, the dolphineer, was her son. No one answered so Maryse left a message explaining the situation to them and asked if they could ask Toby to have the dolphins watch around the shore for the three kids, just in case the kids had decided to go visit the ships or go to the beach instead.
Then, Maryse headed to her bedroom. She stripped out of her food-tainted clothes from working at Dining all day and sat on her bed. She stared at her lower legs and feet, sending the mental signal to her prosthetic limbs to flex her ankles and toes. She ran her hands around the seals at knee level, finding them intact. Then, she donned a pair of sturdy pants with several pockets, warm socks and shirt, her military jacket, and strong boots. Slow is fast in preparation for a mission, she reminded herself, the ancient adage coming from Earth’s early space flight days.
She took a deep breath to steady herself and bring her focus to this mission. She might not have to go into any caves. The kids might be outside on the mountainside.
Next, Maryse opened her battered footlocker on the closet floor, pulling out her drill instructor’s cap, her boot knife and multi-tool, a hand light, her weathered canteen, and an ammo block. Distributing these items about her clothing, Maryse took her heavy coat off the top shelf of the closet. Her handgun was still wrapped in the coat where she had hidden it after arriving on Pern. She slipped the ammo block into her gun, checking the charge level, and flipped the setting to stun before fastening the gun into an inside jacket pocket.
Protection only, she thought, since we don’t know what new critters might be in the caves. Plus, there were bound to be tunnelsnakes in the caves and they tended to be more aggressive at night.
Then Maryse opened the large crate holding her horse gear and pulled out several long ropes with sturdy snaps in case climbing was in store. She stopped in the bathroom for the first aid kit, checking its contents. Finally, Maryse paused in the kitchen to fill the canteen, grabbing several Readi-Barrs--nutrient-filled, compressed food. They weren’t very tasty, but to hungry kids, they might be a treat. She opened one and nibbled several bites while leaving her house. Outside, Maryse stuffed the bar back into a pocket and took off at a steady run for the north end of the colony. She was sure getting her run in tonight.