Ventus by Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder / Ventus / Page 403
was no urgency to the journey now.
Axel was mostly recovered now, though you wouldn’t
know it from the way he slept most of the day away. Without
action to sustain him, he folded in on himself and became a
dead weight. Calandria didn’t have the fight left herself to try
to bring him out of his lethargy.
Consequently, when on a completely typical evening of
jolting over rutted tracks, her skull computer said without
warning Incoming transmission, Calandria May sat up straight
and said, "Thank the gods!"
The passengers seated opposite them in the carriage
didn’t look up; all three of them were nodding drowsily. They
would have found it hard to hear Calandria over the noise of
the wheels anyway.
She turned to find Axel staring back at her. She was just
opening her mouth to ask him to please tell her he’d heard it to,
when a different voice spoke in her mind.
"This is Marya Mounce of the research vessel Pan-
Hellenia. Can anyone hear me?"
Axel’s face split in a wide grin. "A ride!" he said.
The other passenger on their side of the carriage
mumbled something, and butted Axel with his shoulder.
The voice continued. "I’m on a reentry trajectory. The
Winds are after me. The Diadem Swans went berserk a couple
of days ago and they’ve either captured or driven away all
ships in the system. I tried to ride it out but they’re on to me
now. I’m going to try to land at the coordinates of the last
transmission we received from our agent on the surface."
"Agent?" whispered Calandria. "So there really are some
researchers down here right now?"
Axel looked uncomfortable. "Well, yes, but maybe not
like you think," he said.