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"You’re touching it," she says, reaching out to press a fingertip against the canteen "Tarver, it’s solid It’s not a vision"

"It’s mine, but brand-new" I flip it over to show her the initials, and her breath catches

"How? No--all those soldiers on board Someone was bound to share your initials It’s a coincidence"

I’m about to point out that there’s no way the canteen could have ended up here, in our path, if thrown froe--but then I see her face, and the words die She knows But neither of us wants to say what’s on both our minds These whispers are capable of more than just visions, or premonitions What else can they do?

I try the water--sweet, fresh, clean We each drink, grateful it’s not snow, icy cold and trickling down our faces asWhen Lilac finishes, she holds the canteen in her hands, staring down at it She keeps running her fingertips over its surface, as though itat her own fingers It takes et it She’s not shaking This is no vision No iiven to us by the whispers

This is real

I wish that I could take this as a sign of friendship fro with But despite ain, all I can think is this: Why work so hard to keep us alive? What do they really want frorassy foothills at the base of the , and it’s an unspeakable relief to be walking across level ground again, able to stretch s and unbunch my muscles for a while I realize as alk that in just a few short days, I’ve become familiar with this place--the wildflo on the other side of the , and my eyes can pick out burrohere I can lay snares later Any sense of coh I’raveyard

The debris blankets the hills We pass pieces of twisted plastene the size of reat, melted piles of metal that tower above us

Most of the pods are too da from, but we’re down to our last ration bar I think we could survive on the tiny critters and grasses here, but it wouldn’t be pretty And so I risk peeking inside the first reasonably intact pod we co of the panels on the side torn ahere it was still attached to the Icarus I’s forward and her hair hides her face where she sits, still strapped into her seat, in about the same position Lilac took in our sturdier htclothes, a pink silky wrap tied on over whatever’s underneath I iine she died on impact Her hair is brown, not red, but it’s all too easy to see Lilac there instead I keep ash in the pod and ruh one of the underseat compartments There--half a dozen more ration bars Food for another couple days if we suppleain, Lilac doesn’t ask whether anyone was inside She knows from one look at my face what I found there

The Icarus looks like so the side of her and peeled her open For nearly a third of her length her innards are visible, scorched framework laid bare The plowed-up trail behind her shohere she skidded in to land, carving out a furrow you could lose a platoon inside There’s a faint chemical smell on the breeze

"In thewith caution Usually that’s code for ‘let soo first,’ but since we’re the forward scouts this time, let’s just watch ourselves carefully We don’t kno bad the structural da those chemicals in the air will do, and we don’t have the et hurt Let’s be careful, okay? Test every step"

There’s no haughty reply or cutting glare She stares at the ship, solee completely That’s the stern; it’sdecks" A pause Maybe she’s thinking of our encounter there, as I am That was another lifetime, and ere different people then She pushes on, businesslike "The bow’s technical as well That’s where the communications were"

What she doesn’t have to say is that the communications clearly aren’t there now The bow is hopelessly aze intent "The o That’s probably where we’ll find supplies, and it looks like soetting higher in the sky, staying for longer and setting later It sits just above the horizon now, visible even in broad daylight Lilac seesat the horizon and co to do with the crash?"

I can’t help but re as the Icarus tried to phase back into hyperspace, and failed Caught by gravity, or by whatever force had ripped it from that dimension in the first place

"Seems too much of a coincidence not to," I reply

I hear her breath catch "I don’t knohether your schools would have focused on this, butand its history It was the one subject he refused to leave toa pioneer ht Before the first eure out how to terraforh to have liquid water was to set up a large orbital ht to its surface"