"Lovely day for a stroll," Kellie commented.

A line of trees appeared ahead. They plunged in. Something in the shrubbery went into a series of frenzied clicks. Hutch, in no mood for problems, and not wanting to give anything a clear shot at them at short range, cleared out the section with her laser. There were screeches, crashing around, animals charging off into the bush. They never got a good look at anything.

Marcel came back. "Bad weather?"

"Electrical storms."

"We see them. But you're doing fine. You should be there by early evening."

"I hope so."

"Hutch, I have another message for you from the Academy."

"What's it say?"

He hesitated. "It says they want you to take all precautions to avoid any further loss of life."

"Good. Tell them I'd never have thought of it myself."

"Hutch."

"Tell them whatever you like. I don't really care, Marcel."

The sun broke through. The sky cleared, and they hurried on. Something they couldn't quite make out tracked them for a while from the tops of a series of ridges. It ambled in the manner of an ape, but it apparently thought better of attempting an attack and eventually dropped out of sight.

"Scares me a little," said Kellie.

"Why's that?"

"At home, a cougar or a tiger or a gator, if it was hungry, would go for you. Most of these critters keep their distance."

"You're suggesting…"

"They're bright enough to know we're more dangerous than we look."

By late afternoon, when the light began to change, they were out in open country again. "Almost there," Marcel said. "Five klicks."

The ground was uneven and covered with thick grass. Hutch was spent. Kellie, with her longer legs, was managing a bit better. But she, too, looked weary.

Periodically they talked to Mac and Nightingale. They were, they said, enjoying the view. There'd been a high tide at about midday, and the water had come well up the cliff face. But they believed they had a substantial safety margin. MacAllister commented that he was more comfortable than he'd been since leaving the Star and didn't know whether he'd ever get up on his feet again.

The sky turned purple and threatening.

"Three klicks."

It was impossible to miss the worry in Marcel's voice.

"If you can move a little quicker, it would be a good idea."

The splotch of light that represented the sun sank toward a line of hills. Rain began to fall.

The lander, cold and silent, stood on the banks of a river so narrow it scarcely deserved the name. It was, in fact, an idyllic scene: a line of trees, a few rocks, the river, and the dying light. The trees marked the edge of the forest into which Tess's crew had disappeared on that long-ago morning.

It seemed almost to be waiting for them. Hutch was pleased to see the old logo, the scroll within the orbiting star still defiantly crisp on the hatch. The lander was green and white, the colors all the Academy's vehicles had worn in the early days. And the legend academy of science and technology shone proudly on its hull.

They jogged across the remaining ground, not all-out because they couldn't see the holes and furrows. But Hutch remembered the voracious redbirds and glanced uneasily at the woods. "We've got Tess," she told Marcel.

Marcel acknowledged, and she heard applause in the background.

Fortunately the hatch was closed. The ladder was still in place. Hutch climbed it, opened the manual control panel beside the airlock, pulled out the handle, and twisted it. The hatch clicked, and she pulled it open.

So far, so good.

They wasted no time getting through the inner door into the cabin. A layer of film and dirt covered the ports and windscreen, darkening the interior. Hutch sat down in the pilot's seat and scanned the console. Everything appeared to have been properly shut down.

In back, Kellie opened the engine panel in the deck and exposed the reactor. "Do we know what we're doing?" she asked.

"Find the boron. I'll be right there."

"Where are you going?"

She held up the collapsible container she'd taken from the Star lander. "Down to the river to get some water. You look for the boron."

Hutch wished that the pilot twenty years ago had had the foresight to land at the water's edge. The river was fifty meters away. She hurried down to it, filled the container, and dragged it back. When she got to the lander, Kellie showed her a canister.

"White powder?" she asked.

"That's it."

"So what now?"

"We start the reactor." A metal cylinder about the size of her arm was attached to the side of the device. The cylinder was equipped with a small crank.

"How do we do that? Is there a switch?"

"We'll have to jump-start it," Hutch said. She shut down her e-suit and removed the Flickinger generator. "I'll need yours, too."

Kellie complied, turned off the power, and handed it over.

Hutch dug into her pack. "I have a connector cable here somewhere."

Kellie disappeared in back for a moment and returned with one. She held it up for inspection. "Two inputs?" she asked.

"Perfect." Hutch tied it to both generators and attached the other end to a post on the reactor. Then she detached the cylinder and poured a half cup of water into it. She turned the crank several times and reconnected the cylinder to the reactor. Then she added a spoonful of boron. "Okay," she said at last. "I think we're ready to go."

"Glad to hear it."

"The system has a built-in Ligon roaster. All we have to do is start it." She pressed her thumbs against the ignition switches for the Flickinger generators and pushed.

A yellow lamp on the reactor began to glow. Hutch's spirits went up a notch.

"Now what?" asked Kellie.

"Be patient. It's going to roast off a few impurities and give us enough hydrogen to run the reactor." She closed her eyes and added, to the god within, I hope.

Kellie poked her. "Hate to wake you, Hutch. But we've got a green light."

The reactor was running on its own.

Hutch squeezed Kellie's arm, went back into the washroom, poured some river water into her hands, and washed her face. "It has to charge," she said. "That's going to take a while. And there's nothing we can do to speed things up. But so far we're doing pretty well."

She went outside, and Kellie boosted her up onto the hull. Hutch knelt beside the comm pod. The laser cut was clean, but she was able to replace damaged parts with the pieces she'd recovered from the Star lander. She rewired everything and, when she was satisfied it would work, climbed back down and returned to the pilot's seat.

She waited a few more minutes. Kellie paced the cabin nervously. "We don't have a lot of time, Hutch," she said. It was getting dark.

"I know." Hutch propped her chin on her palm and scanned her instruments. "All right, Collier, if you're feeling lucky, let's see if we've got some power." She put the vehicle into a test mode. Indicators and gauges jumped. "That's my baby. Internal systems look good."

"What's next?"

"Fuel."

The rain had stopped, but the sky was still thick with clouds.

Hutch emptied the rest of the water into the fuel tank. They found a pump and hose for the tank, but the hose was only twenty meters long. "A bit short to reach the river," said Kellie.

Hutch handed her the collapsible container. "File a complaint when we get home." She removed the lander's drinking water tank, which was not collapsible, and cradled it in her arms. "We need a lot," she said.

"What's the reactor actually do to the water?" Kellie asked as they hurried toward the river.

"It electrolyzes it. Separates the hydrogen and oxygen and gets rid of the oxygen." And of course the lander would then run on the hydrogen.

They hauled water through the dark for the better part of three hours. They emptied each container into the fuel tank, hurried back to the river, refilled, and unloaded again.