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Hear the Signs
(Prompt: Pack)

The sound of the water dripping was almost enough to drive him mad. Hadn't Yale said that this was supposed to be an unusually cold and snowy winter? If that were true, they shouldn't be having so many nights where the temperature stayed above freezing.

With a harsh sigh, Mazatl turned over in his cot and pulled the pillow over his head. He'd never really quite understood how Yale was so sure about the Leap Winter idea anyway. After all, it was Uly and Alonzo who had the direct line to the Terrians, and even they had never wintered over on G889 before. This was new territory for all of them.

But you can see the signs if you pay attention, whispered a voice in the back of his mind. You don't have to see the wolf pack to know its size. You need only see its tracks.

The whispering voice sounded more like his great-grandfather than he cared to admit.

His family had been among the first emigrants to the stations, as they'd been both workers and foremen on the construction crews. It had meant less debt than many other families, but it also meant that many of their traditions pre-dated the amalgamated, homogenous culture that had developed once the majority of humanity had left its world behind.

Our people were different, Grandfather had insisted. We never lived in competition with the world to begin with. And even now, it speaks to us. As a young man, he'd spent hours in the remote sensing labs with his ancestor, listening to the Earth-based lore the older man had been determined to pass down.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Mazatl grimaced into the pillow. Trying to lose himself in memory wasn't going to work, especially given that the memories weren't all good. Being different wasn't always an advantage on the stations, especially when it came to esoteric topics.

Even if our knowledge of the world that created us is academic now, Grandfather once said, it still needs to be preserved. Learn to read the signs. The world will speak if you but listen. Are you listening, young one?

Yes, he thought sourly in response now. But all I can hear is the water dripping outside despite it supposedly being a harsh winter. It should be ice. Why doesn't it freeze?

Abruptly, he sat up and pushed the covers back. Why wasn't the water frozen? Yale had explicitly said that tonight was supposed to be the beginning of another cold snap, and had cautioned Walman about wearing extra layers when he went out for his late patrol.

So there shouldn't be any water dripping. He switched on a lumalight, but that proved unnecessary when his feet hit the ground and discovered that it was soaked with something that didn't smell like water at all.

"Damn it!" he yelled as realization finally hit. "Danziger! Baines! Wake up! The generators are leaking coolant!"

They raced around to the other side of the bio-dome and, sure enough, all three generators were in the first stages of overheating. Baines swore a blue streak as he threw switches and scrambled underneath. "Shankin' insulation's been chewed off! What the hell got hold of —" he broke off, shaking his head. "We're going to need to patch 'em and then pack something around them until I can re-insulate them properly."

Mazatl thought quickly. "I have some polyfill in my supplies."

"Perfect. Find me a couple hoses, too, will you? We can cut them apart to make the patches." Then he straightened up. "How'd you know the coolant lines had ruptured?"

"I heard dripping, and smelled the coolant."

"Nice job, Maz," said Danziger. "This would've been a lot worse if we hadn't discovered this until morning. It was good that you were paying such close attention."

"I…" he trailed off. "The signs were clear, once I noticed them."

You don't have to see the wolf pack to know its size.

Apparently, you didn't need to see generator leaks to know they were there, either.

Somewhere, he knew, his great-grandfather was laughing.