Thanks to CajunBear73 for his reviews and commentary.
=O=
Chapter 14
Hiccup huffed and puffed as he jogged up the tree-covered slope, feeling every gram of his survival vest as the polyester straps cut into his shoulders. The late afternoon sun beat down on them, shining through the many gaps in the hardy conifers that covered this part of Tibet.
Ahead of him, Astrid dashed forward, gracefully bounding over boulders and shrubs in her bulky, green-grey pressure suit, her golden hair and smiling visage concealed under a beanie hat and layers of muddy improvised facepaint.
Astrid turned to look at him, and Hiccup, slightly distracted, tripped over a large rock. On the ground, he stopped to catch his breath, wheezing and panting. The pressure suit was much worse – so much worse! - than the flight suit he had trained in previously. But he hadn't been allowed to pack a proper parka, and if he took off the pressure suit, he would go from stewing in his own sweat to freezing in it. And the Himalayas were much different from Nevada, home to the Air Force's standardized Survival, Escape, Rescue, and Evasion (SERE) training course. The higher altitude, in particular, was murder on his chest.
This was the Indians' fault. If there wasn't a crisis in progress, the idiot bureaucrats wouldn't have organized this impromptu mountain survival course, and he wouldn't be clambering over rocks in the middle of nowhere.
Hiccup didn't see the point. Exceptions notwithstanding, Blackbird pilots at Mach 3 were unlikely to survive an ejection, and landings on the plentiful slopes and crags of the Himalayas would likely break a leg or two. Also, Berk AFB was "just" 3,000 meters above sea level. If they landed on terrain higher than 3,500 meters, vomiting from altitude sickness would dehydrate them in under a day – acetazolomide or no. And a lot of the disputed area was terrain over 5,000 meters.
Not to mention that he and Astrid would probably land miles apart in any reasonable ejection scenario.
A hundred meters behind them were a pair of mountain rangers, tasked with ensuring the expensively-trained pilots didn't get themselves killed while trying to complete the course. And about a few hundred meters behind them, hot on their trail, was an entire company of crack Airborne troops, fresh from the big bases out East, on a little training mission of their own.
"Hiccup, get a move on! We need to finish this by nightfall!" Astrid hissed.
Hiccup coughed twice, and spat. They had spent most of the day winding their way up and down the hillside, trying their best to be unpredictable, under the watchful gaze of their minders.
"Sorry… Astrid… can't… go… faster…" Hiccup panted.
Astrid cursed. Getting caught by the Airborne meant having to walk back to base camp, without the benefit of a helicopter ride – wasting another precious day.
She extended an arm. "Give me your survival vest."
Hiccup shook his head.
"I can carry it for you. It'll make it easier for you."
Hiccup shook his head again.
Astrid, exasperated, grabbed Hiccup's vest and draped it over her own like a poncho. "Done. Now on your feet! Pilots are expensive, and take years to train. We're a limited asset, and we're getting back home to fight another day."
Hiccup nodded, and got to his feet.
=O=
Astrid was right. This was somewhat easier without the bulky survival vest weighing him down. He wasn't in the lead, but he had finally closed the gap with Astrid.
He stole concerned glances at Astrid as she marched under the weight of both their vests. She was tired – Hiccup could tell by the subtle change in her stride, the way she walked around obstacles instead of barreling across them – but she hid it well. "Astrid, I can carry my vest now."
Astrid shook her head. "We're nearly there. I can carry this. You just focus on keeping up the pace."
"I can do it!" Hiccup insisted.
"No, Hiccup. You can't." and you still don't have enough fight in you. Astrid huffed.
"Carrying the vest is my job. I can't let you do my job for me!" Hiccup whined.
"Just… stop trying, Hiccup. Let me do the heavy lifting, and keep doing what you're good at."
Hiccup grumbled as he made his way across a small mountain stream. He could do it. He knew he could.
At least, he could try.
He heard a splash behind him.
=O=
Astrid lost her footing, teetered, and plunged into the stream.
She gasped uncontrollably as the icy water burned her skin, chilling her to the bone as she lost all feeling in her body. Water filled her lungs as she hit the bottom of the stream. She hit something hard, and her head ached.
Astrid tried to get up, but her limbs weren't cooperating.
She was sinking? Why was she sinking? This stream couldn't have been more than two feet deep!
Oh right. The pressure suit. No, no, no, clothing floats. The survival vests. Ditch the vest…
Astrid kicked as hard as she could, and took a deep breath as she broke the surface. She tried to stand, but her lungs hurt too much, and she went under the surface once more.
She felt a pair of noodly arms grab her shoulders, and grabbed them right back as they hauled her out of the cold water. She sputtered and choked, coughing up water onto the muddy bank of the stream, even as she gasped for air. Her teeth chattered as she tried to get up, and her waterlogged suit felt like it was made of lead. Cold, cold lead.
How cold was it? Eight degrees Celsisus? It could still kill her, if she couldn't get warm.
They could still do this. Her teeth were still chattering, and the cold, dry mountain air chilled her to the bone. Hiccup was looking towards someone – probably the Rangers.
"Hiccup – don't… we'll…" She sneezed… "have… do it… ag... gain." Saying that she did not want to go through this whole rigmarole again would be quite the understatement.
She sat down, and, still shaking, emptied water from her boots. More water dripped from the interior of the pressure suit. Still shivering, she undid the zipper on the pressure suit, and peeled it off. "Hiccup, gi… help! Hands… aren't… working…"
In cold water immersion, it is imperative to remove wet clothing. Water is a much better conductor of heat than air; absorbs heat, and carries away heat when it evaporates. A naked dry person is less likely to get hypothermia than a person in soaking wet clothing.
Hiccup looked away as her soaked trousers and layered shirts followed the pressure suit, leaving her in her underwear. He tossed her a green/white camouflage tarp (the polyester was rainproof, but it would have to do) and grabbed the wet space blanket in the survival pack, shook it dry, unfurled it, and wrapped it around her.
"Hic…" Astrid blurted.
Hiccup was looking at the treeline with trepidation. "Astrid, the Airborne is right behind us. Do you trust me?"
Astrid nodded fervently.
=O=
Hiccup grunted uncomfortably as, lying prone, he wriggled under the green tarp (hastily camouflaged with mud, some leaves, a branch from the nearest tree, and random shrubbery). Astrid, still wrapped in her space blanket, was already under the tarp, and Hiccup could feel her shivering as he squeezed himself next to her.
They lay together in the darkness.
With some luck, the Airbone would walk right past their improvised hide, allowing them to get back into the game – this time staying behind the Airborne sweep line – while Astrid kept herself out of the wind and got herself warmed back up.
The second-rate camouflage would not fool a determined, well-equipped enemy (especially one with tracker dogs) in wartime, but Hiccup was betting that the Airborne was as bored and exhausted as they were.
A pair of shivering arms wrapped themselves around him, and Hiccup froze.
Astrid's voice was a whisper. "You… idiot. Ground's… fr… freezing."
And aluminium space blankets are good conductors of heat. Hiccup planted his face into the dirt as he pondered his stupidity.
A substantial weight suddenly draped itself over his back.
"You'll ruin the camouflage!" Hiccup hissed.
Astrid said nothing, and stuck her hands into Hiccup's trouser pockets as she desperately sought warmth.
Well… this is uncomfortable. "Uhh… I won't tell anyone about this. Don't worry." Hiccup insisted. He paused as he contemplated whether or not full disclosure would help or hurt his case. "And I swear, I totally did not plan this."
"Shut… up… and do… do your job."
Hiccup resigned himself to the role of space heater, and did as he was told.
=O=
Astrid shivered even as she wrapped herself around her weapons systems officer. She moved her arm a little, tucking it neatly under Hiccup's armpit.
Stupid Hiccup. I'm freezing my socks off, and he's worried about propriety?
The thought that Hiccup might take undue advantage of the situation had barely crossed her mind before he'd mentioned it. Astrid rolled her eyes under closed eyelids and clutched Hiccup even tighter, her need for warmth drowning out both the smell and the newfound embarrassment nagging at the back of her mind.
Great job, genius. Now I have to think about it.
She tried to think through the haze of cold that stung every square centimeter of her skin. Did she really trust Hiccup?
She blinked twice. Of course she did. They were a team in the risky businesses of thermonuclear war. Mutual dependence was a given.
Perhaps she was asking the wrong question. Was Hiccup comfortable with being used as a space heater?
Did Hiccup trust her? He obviously respected her professionally, and he was as aware of their mutual dependence as she did.
Was it his old crush on her? Was that why he was uncomfortable?
She'd guessed, of course. Between the forced conversations, new gear, and Stormfly's impossibly high readiness, his interest had been more than probable. But he'd been a thoroughly professional backseater, and Astrid liked to think that she had gotten the worst of his old habits under control.
Questions led to more answers, and answers to more questions as Astrid hovered on the edge of consciousness before slowly, steadily drifting off to sleep.
=O=
A helicopter whirred overhead, and another, and another.
Hiccup shook his sleeping pilot awake. "Yeah, I think it's been long enough. The Airborne is long gone."
The weight on his back lifted, and Hiccup blinked as he saw broad daylight again. As his eyes adjusted, Hiccup made out the outlines of a dozen twin-rotor Chinook helicopters, accompanied by a quartet much larger CH-62 Heavy Lift Helicopters (HLHs).
They were all streaming south.
"Hiccup! Look higher! Hogs!"
Hiccup squinted as a straight-winged ground attack jet zipped past the formation of helicopters. An A-10 Thunderbolt, an escort for the troop-laden helicopters.
Astrid was already working the survival radio, and pressed it to her ear. Her eyes widened with alarm, and she pressed it to his ear.
"Buster 3, Buster 4, this is Buster 1. You heard control. Teepee is off the air. Break off escort and make best speed to Teepee. Things are pretty hairy down there."
Hiccup frowned. "What's Teepee? And how did you guess their frequencies?"
Astrid shook her head. "Teepee is one of our navigation beacons. The bastards have been trying to take that TACAN beacon out of commission for weeks. I intercepted a pair of Sukhois gunning for Teepee once. Drove 'em off, but didn't get to shoot 'em down."
Hiccup did a double take. In addition to helping planes navigate, navigation beacons were also very useful for "blind" precision bombing. Guided by a Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN) beacon, fighter-bombers could put bombs within two hundred meters of a target without ever seeing the ground.
"So…"
"They finally got it. The Indians took it down. They're sending the Airborne because the place is being overrun." Astrid sighed. "Okay. Nothing we can do about it. I'll dry out my clothes, you get your survival pack dry."
=O=
Hiccup scrabbled for his map – which had finally dried out enough to handle.
They were on the right track.
He stopped. Before him, golden beams of sunlight shone through the thin canopy, bathing the hillside – and Astrid - in a soft, warm glow.
He turned towards the source of the glow.
Beyond the trees, beyond the shadowed, tree-covered valley, and just over the crest of the next bare-topped hill shone a glorious setting sun. The gargantuan thermonuclear orb bathed layers of purple cloud in golds and yellows, even as the Earth slowly turned its face away from its glare.
Hiccup turned back to Astrid, who too, had stopped to stare at the sunset. The expression on her face – Determination? Irritiation? - was unreadable, even as Hiccup strained to memorize her stance, her hair, her bulky pressure suit, her… smile?
Astrid was smiling at him.
"Uhh… that's west. We're going the right way." Hiccup scratched his head.
"We most certainly are, Hiccup." Astrid gestured to the forest. "After you."
=O=
Author's note: Shipping!