The only noise was the rushing of the water as Colonel Herzic walked down the line of his away party, who stood ramrod straight in a line near the edge of the cliff. He came to a stop in front of his immediate subordinate, Major Olhn, who was nearest the precipice. Olhn just hoped that his UV protective helmet effectively hid the terror behind his bobbing Adam's apple.

"What do you mean they escaped?" Herzic growled from behind his own face shield.

Olhn gulped again, half-expecting to be plummeting to his own demise as soon as he got a single syllable wrong.

"Forgive me, Colonel. We forced them off this cliff. No human could survive that; they're too weak."

Herzic's helmet tilted slightly to the side. "Is that so? I didn't know we had an expert on human physiology in our midst."

"Yes, Colonel. I mean, no, Colonel. I'm not. But-"

Olhn froze when Herzic's face shield was suddenly less than an inch from his own. "You think humans are weak? I've hunted them for years. Heathens? Yes. Parasites? Of course. They are also survivors. That means that those two are not dead until I see bodies."

"Yes, Colonel," Olhn squeaked. "But how?"

Herzic seemed about to speak, then hesitated and went down to one knee, where he touched a small, glistening puddle on the rocky ground. He stood again and examined his gloved fingers: red, sticky, and still warm.

"Do you know how to track a wounded animal, Major?"

Olhn nodded.

"Good." Herzic wiped his fingers on the front of Olhn's black jacket. "Then show me, or don't bother coming back. You have twelve hours."

With that, he turned and headed back toward their shuttle, leaving Olhn and the rest of the team to silently swear.

Kelly and Gordon weren't sure how they managed to stay together during the twenty or so minutes that the river tossed them about like a giant laundry dryer. Somehow, after being thrown around a hundred bends, nearly smashed into a thousand rapids, and inhaling what felt like half the volume of the cascade, they were deposited on a muddy bank just off of a small glen. There, they both crawled a few feet from the water line, where Kelly dropped to her side on the ground and Gordon stayed on his hands and knees to vomit large amounts of water before doing the same.

When she'd caught her breath enough to speak, Kelly pushed her sopping hair out of her face and asked, "You okay?"

"Sure," Gordon coughed. "Why? All we did was plummet a few stories into a river of unknown depth, possibly full of predatory alien fish, and almost drown. By the way, how did you know that was my favorite pastime? Remind me to have you plan my next birthday party. How are you?"

Kelly pushed herself up with a grimace. "Excuse me, what is your problem? They were about to kill us!"

Gordon shrugged. "Nothing. I guess I just like to be asked before someone shoves me off a cliff to my probable doom is all."

"Oh, really? And when was I going to do that? Between getting shot in the ass and getting shot in the head, or after both of those?"

"Whoa, okay, your commanderness." Gordon sat up and raised his hands. "Don't mean to overstep when we're discussing my mortality."

"I saved your life, you idiot. Twice. And if it weren't for you showboating up there, maybe we wouldn't have lost the engine and gotten stuck here in the first place!"

"Oh, yeah? How do you know?"

"Because I've studied Krill attack patterns for the better part of my career. Because anyone who tries to negotiate with them gets killed, skinned, and sometimes eaten, and only in that order if you're lucky. Literally every officer in the fleet knows those things except for you, Gordon Malloy."

Gordon opened his mouth, closed it, and then folded his arms. "I'm not an idiot."

"No? The capital of the United States was not Nabisco. The identity of Abraham Lincoln's assassin is not in question. Penicillin does not have an 'S' in it. And Mickey Mouse is not a famous mafia hit man! Those are all mistakes."

"Wait," said Gordon. "Mickey the Mouse wasn't in the business? Then what the hell was he?"

"A fucking cartoon mouse!"

"Yeah, well… says the woman who cheated on the best guy in the galaxy!"

The look she gave him could have frozen the water in his beard. It was probably by the grace of her rank alone that she was the one to finally break their glaring contest.

"We have to find a place to hide," she said in an eerily quiet tone. "The suns are going down, and the Krill are going to take advantage of the darkness."

"Fine." Gordon got to his feet. "I suppose you're going to make me carry the emergency pack too, but I am not giving you my jacket if you get cold."

"Good, because I'd rather be naked – Ow!"

As soon as Kelly stood up as well, her face twisted in pain and she stumbled, managing to throw her arms around Gordon's neck before she could fall. Just as instinctively, Gordon caught her around the waist, and his right hand met with something warm and sticky. He glanced at his palm, and found it covered in blood.

"You're hurt!" he said, a little obviously.

Kelly shook her head, as much to clear it as to deny his statement. "It's just a graze. Jerk-offs hit me during the chase."

"Aw, man! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I was afraid you'd try to play doctor."

"You better let me take a look," Gordon said, not believing his own ears. He hated blood, and would rather have eaten a cactus than mess around with anything medical.

"I said I'm fine, Lieutenant."

"And you'll be just as fine if I slap a Bandaide on you. Come on."

With little recourse, Kelly let him help her a little distance from the riverbank, where he eased her to the ground at the base of a thick tree. Kneeling behind her, he found a singed hole in her uniform jacket at the small of her back, just to the left of her spine. Kelly stiffened as he gingerly lifted the back of the jacket and the black shirt underneath. Then, he was quiet for so long that she let out a nervous laugh.

"What's the matter? Never seen a woman's bare midriff before?"

"That's, um, more than a graze."

The wound was deep, and still oozing blood to mix with the river water that saturated her clothes. Before he could lose resolve, he ripped open the emergency pack, tore through the contents until he found the first aid kit, and clapped a bandage over the wound. Kelly gasped, nails digging into the dirt.

"We don't have time for this," she said through gritted teeth. "Those Krill will be down here to sweep the valley any second."

"Yeah, well, you don't have time for this to wait. Just give me a minute."

Kelly sighed. "All right, fine. Just don't get fresh, or you can say good-bye to your two best friends. And I don't mean Ed and John."

Gordon snorted as he wound a roll of gauze around her middle. "I'd rather have a three-way with Bortus and Yaphit. There. Can you stand?"

"I think so." Kelly let him help her up, biting her lip to hold back a groan of pain. "Let's head down river. I think I saw some bluffs. If we're lucky, maybe we'll find a cave before dark."

With that, she shouldered the emergency pack and limped off, leaving Gordon to catch up with a sinking feeling. "Lucky" was not how he would describe how this day was going.

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