Squalls

            “Oh, this one’s lovely. So is this one. There are so many to choose from.”

            “How soon do you need it?”

            “Today,” Riaan said reluctantly. “I’m leaving town tonight. I may not be back for a long time.” The woman’s face changed to disappointment and concern.

            “I don’t have my craftsman here today. Wait, what kind of gems did you want?”

            “Verdanas and white zircons.”

            “Oh, verdanas, I don’t have any of those here anyway. But my craftsman may have them at his home, and I’m sure if you took the clip to him he could set them for you right away.”

            Riaan gave her some gold nodules that she asked Jamison to fabricate for her in engineering. Gold wasn’t hard to come by on Earth, but it would have been in the wrong shape to use as currency. She took the map the Famkee had given them and tucked the hair piece in the pocket of her cloak. As they left the jewelry shop, Hoshi’s communicator chirped.

            “There’s a supercell squall making its way towards your position, Commander.  I’m sending Mr. French; you need to return to the landing site in 30 minutes.” Riaan snagged Hoshi’s communicator from her.

            “Captain, I’m not ready to return. I still have business here. And Brannigaan’s out in the countryside. I’m sure I could reach him but he may not be there in 30 minutes.”

            “When can you be there?”

            “A couple of hours, at least. And he isn’t planning on being there until sundown.” Silence on the com. “Captain?”

            “Riaan, this isn’t a rainy day in San Francisco.”  Jonathan’s voice was stern. “It’s a fast moving thunderstorm with a lot of wind, rain and lightning.”

            “We’ll stay indoors until it passes,” she assured him, and handed the communicator back to Hoshi. There was another long pause.

            “You contact us as soon as you’re done,” was his reluctant response. “Archer out.” The two women looked at each other, then up at the sky. A breeze had picked up, and there were plenty of clouds, but perhaps the admiral had been overly concerned. Riaan didn’t put it past him. She shook her head.

            The women only had two kilometers to walk, maybe 30 minutes. Telephones didn’t exist, so they hoped to find the jeweler at home. Ariannaa started to drag her feet. Hoshi signaled to Brannigaan but he didn’t answer his communicator.

            “What’s so important about this hair piece?” Hoshi finally asked.

            “Oh, I guess that I didn’t tell you,” Riaan said.  “It’s a wedding tiara. It has to be made of bronze, but the gems are whatever you like.” Hoshi stopped in the middle of the street.

            “When did Admiral Archer ask you to marry him?”

            “He hasn’t. But there’s nothing that says I can’t ask him.” Hoshi smothered her laughter with her hand and gave Riaan the best hug she could without squeezing her middle. “You think he’ll agree?” she asked her friend.

            “Of course!” Hoshi said. “I don’t know why he hasn’t asked you already.”

            “Well, that’s why I’m getting the hairpiece. I don’t think I’ll have a chance to come by here any time soon, and I want to get some verdanas for it. They are like emeralds on earth. But so far from home, I’d like to have something Akalli, something that will last.”

            “Do you get something for Jonathan?” Suddenly, Hoshi realized that was the first time she’d ever referred to that man as Jonathan, even in her own mind. He’d called her Hoshi for years, but she’d never called him anything but captain or admiral.

            “He gets me, what else does he need?” They both laughed, starting and stopping and starting up again until they reached the craftsman’s home up the street. The wind sustained a steady speed of 30 kph which the women were happy to leave outdoors.

            With her hair ornament in hand, the three women left the dwelling and decided to head to the landing site. Hoshi tried to raise Brannigaan again. This time he answered.

            “Meet us at the landing sit as soon as you can,” Riaan told him. There’s a storm coming in off the ocean,” she said. The wind blew in many directions at once making it hard for the women to walk, especially Riaan. Hoshi took her Riaan’s arm and Ariannaa’s hand to steady the both of them. Walking through the city the lights remained on. People, however, were closing up and going inside. Hoshi snapped open her communicator again when they ducked into an alcove to rest.

            “Discovery, this is Sato.”

            “Go ahead,” was Captain Mitchell’s reply.

            “We’re on our way to the landing site. About 30 minutes, I’m thinking.”

            “Understood. What’s the storm like down there?”

            “It’s windy, getting cooler, looks like rain any minute.”

            “He’ll be waiting for you.” 

            “We need to find a place to wait this out, Hoshi; it’s getting worse.” A mist of rain began to shroud the city.

            “Mama, it cold.”

            The three of them dashed towards the library to take cover. By the time they’d gone the half a kilometer the squall line hit with no sympathy. Winds whipped the rain into projectiles and small balls of hail joined the action.

            “We’re going to have to wait it out in here,” Hoshi insisted. They shook some of the rain off themselves; Hoshi pulled out her communicator and called Discovery.

   “French is about to leave, he’ll be down there in twenty minutes. If you don’t come now I don’t know when you’ll be able. It looks like the line is almost on top of Tammalynnia.”

            “It is, but we are in the library and we can wait it out.”

            “No, get to the landing site. You have time. Archer will kill me if I let you stay down there with Riaan and Ariannaa. Did you get a hold of Brannigaan?”

            “He’s on his way to the landing site,” Hoshi said, realizing that he’d be there and they wouldn’t be there. “I guess we can’t stay here and leave him alone.”

            “In another hour that thunderstorm will be a depression and you’re all too close to the coastline. It could become a cyclone. Maybe I can just transport you up?”

            “Phlox said no transporters.”  The com fell silent.

            “Stand by,” Mitchell told them.

            “I’m sorry, ladies.”  An Akalli woman approached them from the bookshelves. “But we’re closing, everyone needs to get home now before the storm hits.” They all looked at each other. Ariannaa sat down on the floor, tired of all the walking and standing.

            “Riaan,” said Archer over the communicator. “Just stay in the library, we’ll down in a few hours once the line passes.”

            “Oh, Jon, they’re closing so people can go home. We have to go the landing site after all. And Brannigaan’s communicator just beeps; last thing I told him was to get to the landing site.”

            “Stay there, I’ll have some rain gear transported down, and I’ll pick you up in an hour. Be careful, stay away from trees and tall buildings. Damn it, Riaan, this is the last away mission you go on alone.”

            “Alone? Who are Ariannaa, Brannigaan and Hoshi? I asked you to come.”

            “Never mind that. I’ll see you at the shuttle site.” 

            “Admiral, I can’t condone you going down there in that storm front,” Captain Mitchell told him in the shuttle bay. “You’ve been through a lot in the last couple months, the weather is dangerous. Let French go.”

            “You ever flown a shuttle pod in a squall line storm with 60 kph winds, Ensign? I have.”

            “Admiral, I’d be remiss in letting you take the craft alone, not to mention it’s against regulations. At least take a co-pilot.” Archer nodded.

            “Come on, French,” he ordered.

Through the Vale

            The trek back to the landing site had its difficulties, despite the rain coats and galoshes to help keep them dry. Of course Ariannaa delighted in jumping in each puddle and Riaan let her enjoy the nature of Akal before they returned to the ship for the final journey home. She thought it odd that Earth seemed more like home than Akal did, but she was glad she felt that way.

            The squalls whipped leaves on the trees and most anything lighter than a kilo was no longer on the ground. The three held tight to each other. Thunderclouds obscured most of the light from the star, such as it was, but dusk was still a few hours away. Hoshi tried to contact Brannigaan again without success. It seemed as if the line was stuck, not moving out of Tammalynnia nearly as fast as it had moved in.

            “We can take a short cut through that canyon,” Riaan indicated. “Maybe we’ll get a little protection from the wind coming off the plain.”

            The party moved towards the valley, following a lightly traveled road. They hoped to meet up with Brannigaan before the shuttle arrived. The cobblestone streets were wet; street lamps, now electric, cast their light beyond the center of the town and out to the very edges. Beyond the town to the right green grasses stretched as far as the eye could see; on the left the terrain rolled and dropped in and among the widely scattered homes and farms, growing into foothills. A grove of trees on the plain marked their landing site in the distance. They followed a stony path alongside a creek that led towards the trees. At the start of the canyon the electricity came to a halt with the streetlights.

           Commander Sato carried Ariannaa to hasten their pace. Riaan had enough trouble alone balancing her ephemeral weight distribution in the gusty wind and irregular road. Rainwater spilled from smaller shallow waterways into the larger tributary that followed the road. The rocky cliff along the other side of the road started to support small waterfalls making the stony road even more difficult to navigate. Sato’s communicator chirped.