Colligation
'Boom...'
Jake Sully's head swivelled towards the sky, seeking what had to be a high speed aircraft breaking the sound barrier. Nothing else sounded quite like it. His eyes caught the glint of something metallic reflecting the sun high in the sky, leaving a contrail behind it to mark its passage.
"Look!" said Ney'tiri, pointing up into the sky. "Is it another Val'kyr'ie? I thought you said the ship between stars only carried two."
"No," said Jake. The missile teams had destroyed one, and the other was on the ground, only a few hundred metres away. "It's climbing, and climbing damn fast, so it can't be a shuttle. It is something else."
They watched it climb until it could be seen no more, dwindling into the distance.
"I wonder who pilots it," marvelled Ney'tiri. "It would be very fine to fly so high, higher than an ikran."
Jake said nothing. He had his suspicions.
It was after sunset when Norm trudged back into the mining camp at Swotulu, an assault rifle slung loosely from one shoulder, the lines of exhaustion and worry graven deep on his face.
"Did you find Trudy?" asked Jake.
"Yes," said his friend, turning his head towards the stars. "Yes, I did."
Somehow Jake knew not to ask any more questions. Norm was not going to give him any answers.