Borderlands: The Fallen by John Shirley Read Free Book Online Page B

into a corner of the lifeboat, the strap broken. She looked through the bag—it contained only a holo ID, some brochures for Xanthus, a smartcard explaining about the
Homeworld Bound
, a few tampons, and the uni. Would it transmit far enough from here?
    She flicked the uni on and tried
Local Emergency
Services
. The signal roamed—and found nothing. Working transmission towers were few and far between on Pandora.
    She tried calling Zac, in case he was near enough for direct transmission. She watched the screen, and chewed a knuckle as she waited.
    Call failed
. But that didn’t mean he was dead.
    Cal.
Was her son alive? The bandits hadn’t mentioned another lifeboat. In the explosion of the
Homeworld Bound,
they must both have been blown way off course. They could be thousands of kilometers from each other.
    And if these bandits sold her into slavery, she might never know what had happened to her family… .

C al was afraid he was going to burn to death right here in his lifeboat.
    Through the transparent hatch he could see a furrow of stony dirt to his right; to his left, flames curled up over the lifeboat. Its pulsers had probably burned up with the friction of the long skid after impact. He’d seen the energy parachute flicker out not long before he’d crashed. The parachute had gotten the space capsule tilted to hit the ground at a shallow angle. He must’ve skidded at least a hundred meters before sliding to a stop.
    But the hatch didn’t seem to want to open. And it was getting hot in here.
    Trying not to panic, Cal fumbled around the inside of the capsule, looking for an emergency hatch release. Nothing.
    “Dammit!” he yelled. “Mom! Are you out there? Is anyone out there? I’m stuck in here!”
    “Could you state your needs more specifically?”
said a calm voice at his ear.
    “What?” After a moment he realized it was the lifeboat’s computer. “I need to get out! Hatch release!”
    “Hatch release initiated.”
    The hatch whined, shivered—then hummed open. Cooler air, and smoke, wafted in.
    Cal scrambled up, and out, away from the lifeboat … just as flames closed over it.
    But
now
what?
    He looked around, feeling numb. It looked to be near sunset. The lifeboat had come down in a surprisingly pleasant little canyon. Water from some recent rain puddled in the outcroppings, reflecting a blue sky streaked with orange. Bushes growing from stony crevices were bright with violet and blue blossoms. A thin stream ran through the middle of the gulch. Behind him, flames burnt up his lifeboat, with any resources it contained. Ahead, a little stream chuckled.
    The big question was, where was his mom? He couldn’t see the other lifeboat. Shouldn’t they have come down together?
    And his dad might be anywhere on Pandora. Might have crashed into an ocean. Might be drowned and dead; might have burned alive. And his mom …
    He couldn’t think about what might have happened to his mom.
    Still, there was a chance she had come down somewhere around here. A chance she was alive.
    “Mom!” he called. His voice echoed mockingly back to him. He opened his mouth to call her again, but thoughtthat the sound might attract someone or something unsavory.
    He decided to go in search of her. Shouldn’t stray far from the crash site. The lifeboat might have sent out a mayday. Someone could come down from the Study Station to rescue him. Or maybe they’d fly over from one of the settlements.
    Cal climbed an incline to a low ridge, and scanned the sky, seeing nothing but clouds and a few distant flying creatures. He saw no sign of his mother’s lifeboat; no other smoke, no human habitation. The lowering sun cast long shadows, from plants that were something like barrel cactus, across the desert landscape. He walked over to one of the plants and stared at it. It wasn’t a cactus—there were what looked like big, crude gemstones set in the side. For all he knew, it might be an animal that only looked like a plant. He