Page 29 of 20% Stud 80% Muffin
I closed my eyes and prayed to the goddess Sola to let me get through this night.
11
“Jesus!” I jumped asa fountain of hot water heavy with sulfur doused me from head to toe, then I wiped the stream of water from under my eyes as it pooled in my steel-toed work boots. “What next?” I muttered, then turned toward the small backhoe digging out Makir’s pool. “Stop digging. We need to cap it!”
My crew stood buried to their ankles in Pepto Bismol-colored muck, and the geyser continued to jet into the air like an artesian spring. Bright moonlight glinted off a length of copper in my periphery. The long, wide tube I’d cleared out of Makir’s hovery lay beside a pile of excavated dirt. I raced through the courtyard, shouting, “Tino, Sully,with me.”
By the time we’d augured the tube deep into the hot water and capped the top with a temporary faucet, MacGyvered from parts Makir had salvaged from the wastelands, my arms were trembling with exhaustion.
JayJay, knee-deep in the milky slurry, rolled his eyes. “Still think it was a good idea to work through the full moon to get ahead?”
Maybe I’d been a little too ambitious in wanting to have everything perfect before Makir returned from his hunting trip. I pulled a bandana from my overalls and mopped the sweat from my brow. “Nice work. The orzfoam is on me this week.”
The Rock Dwellers bumped fists and cheered. Dang, my credits would take a hit this week. Those boys could throw down some beer. Totally worth it, though.
As my crew worked their way out of the thick goop, I burst into exhausted laughter.
“Boss man, you good?” JayJay asked, slogging toward dry ground.
Nearly bent over with laughter, I choked out a few words. “You look like you’ve been dipped in pink chocolate.” Mud dripped down their legs and speckled their bodies.
“You think that’s funny, huh, boss man.” Tino’s teeth flashed, and he scooped a handful of mud from his bald head.
“Chocolate?” JayJay’s brow rose, and a rivulet of grime tracked down his smooth gray cheek like a clown’s tear.
“Hey!” I called out, my breath stolen from me as Tino and Sully, huge hands slippery with mud, picked me up and threw me into the pool. I sat there for a moment, admiring the horizon where a soft yellow line separated earth from sky as the sun prepared to rise. All the while, globs of cotton-candy-colored silt dripped from my beard and oozed between the seams of my coveralls.
If Ginger were here, she would capture the moment on her phone to revisit and torture me for eternity. Complete with narration. ‘Here lies Geo, a man in search of his identity. Will he find it at the bottom of this idyllic watering hole alongside the mystical unicorns that drink here or…’
More like a pig in a sty than anything remotely magical, I slid to the edge, where the same giant hands pulled me out. Their lawnmower-like laughter nearly deafened me.
“Very funny.” I flicked mud at Tino, then turned to JayJay. “Chocolate’s one of the greatest creations of humankind.” I wiped the mud from my arms and legs. “Creamy, sweet, delicious—”
I jerked to a stop. The hairs on my arm stood on end. Something was wrong. Makir was in danger and the need to get to him rattled through my bones.
The strange pull that connected me to Makir vibrated with tension. Alarm bells rang in my mind. I bit down on the inside of my cheek, drawing blood. Who the hell hunted in uncharted territory on a planet that hadn’t been studied since the Fires That Cleanse had been deployed? As soon as I saw him, I would shake some sense into Makir’s perfect blue head.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” I pressed the heel of my hand over my heart to relieve the pressure.
JayJay lifted one of his pronounced brow ridges. “Boss man?”
Already jogging toward the sono, I shakily replied, “Something’s wrong with Makir.”
Sully hauled me back and hosed us all off in no time, washing away the mess but not the urgency.
“Com Sisip,” JayJay told Tino.
I clenched my fists. “Damn it, I couldn’t get to Makir even if I knew where he was.” Without a hoverbike, I was useless.
“I think you know how to find him, boss man,” JayJay said in a low voice. “Use your tether.”
Something poked at the recesses of my mind. Like a sixth sense, long dormant, newly awakened. “Tether?”
“Can you not sense your connection to Makir?” JayJay’s brows nearly sank into his forehead. “Human courtship must be very difficult if you can’t identify your mate.”
A spike of fear jolted me back into action, and I ran toward JayJay’s hoverbike. “Let’s go. I can’t let anything happen to him.”
Tino bumped my shoulder. “We’re a team, boss man. We’ve got your back.”
