Ben
sat quietly, thinking along lines he had never ventured down before.
It was a little like doing recon in a dark swamp, in the fog, but he
was slogging through. He had latched onto a comment made in passing
and he was working on that idea slowly, deliberately, like Marc
playing a game of What If.
"You're
awfully quiet," Matilda sounded concerned.
"I
was just thinking about what you said about the string and getting
back to Becky."
"It
was a story, Ben, written thousands of years ago."
"I
know that, but it's given me an idea. Remember how your dad did that
thing with the Trimagnite finders, to locate Iyundo when the High
Elder disappeared it? He said he got the idea when Patsy was talking
about playing with mirrors, right?"
They
waited to see where he was going with this.
"Well,
the thread and Becky is what gave me the idea. We can't follow a
string back, exactly, but maybe a string could come to us?"
"I
still don't get your direction on this," Wil muttered.
"We
know that Marc and Becky have their rings, linked by their AI's,"
Ben said.
"Yes,
so do we. It didn't help us find Matilda."
Ben
shook his head. "I don't know, maybe it did. Think about it,
would we have pressed the balloon idea if Grandma hadn't nagged the
ever loving shit out of you for twenty-four hours?"
Wil
chuckled. "No, we would have trashed it after about five
minutes. It seemed too ridiculous."
"But
it worked. Also, you didn't have two telepaths, the Maker and a whole
butt load of raw Trimagnite to boost your signal. Marc, you have
Matilda and me to work with you. We do something similar like we did
to reach Ysilvalov, and we try like hell to contact Becky or the
Elders. Worth a try, right?"
Wil
stared at his son, amazed and proud. "Damn, Ben, you have a good
idea there!"
Matilda
looked around at the three men whom she loved the most in her entire
life. "That's what I like about this family, creative thinkers."
Giggling, she stood with difficulty.
"You
okay, babe?" Wil supported her.
"I
need to go the the bathroom, Wil. I'm fine."
"Again?
You just went five minutes ago."
"And
I'll probably go again in five more minutes. Try having an eight
pound weight on your bladder and see how you feel!" Playfully
smacking his hand away, she walked to the bathroom.
Wil
followed her with his eyes, worry all over his face. "I don't
know how we're going to get her out of here safely. She can't walk
all that way, it could take months. Based on what we saw of the
indigenous life around here, it's dangerous as hell. We have no
weapons, no food and no water. The suits are good for a week, but we
could be a lot longer than that. Hell, we could walk for years and
never get back. I think we can find our way out of here all right. I
have my doubts about finding our way home."
"We
might find a teleporter," Marc suggested.
"And
risk that with a pregnant woman?" Wil shook his head adamantly.
"If it were just the three of us, I'd say fuck it and run for
the roses. We can't do that with Matilda, not with the baby—"
His voice trailed off as she came out of the bathroom.
"You've
been talking about me, I can see it all over your faces."
Smiling, she sat heavily by Wil. "You don't look happy. I
thought we had a plan. We do have a plan, don't we?"
"Yes,
of sorts. But, Matilda, think about it for a moment. This is a big
planet, who knows how deep we are. Maybe the shaft is our best
approach. We could be wandering around for days, weeks or years with
no way out! I can't risk that."
"You
mean you can't do it with a fat lady in tow." Her eyes sparked
dangerously.
"No,
Matilda, that isn't what I mean and you know it."
"I'd
slow you down, I get that. Do you think I don't realize what a
liability I am right now? If I weren't pregnant, we could run out of
here and never look back."
Wil
took both her hands in his, their rings gliding over one another.
Lowering his voice, he spoke calmly.
"What
I'm saying is that you and Mariah are too precious to risk in this
place. Even without the baby, I wouldn't risk you in this
environment. The shaft is really our best bet."
"I
won't go back in that shaft, Wil. I'm sorry. No, I'm not sorry! I'm
being irrational, I know, but we nearly died in there! I won't go
back!"
©
2017 Dellani Oakes
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