Starship Amrita

Chapter XV - The Wolf and the Falcon

Chapter XV – The Wolf and the Falcon

The moment Mu stepped off the Amrita's lander a perfectly timed wind blasted across the exposed landing pad with an icy ferocity. She hugged herself as she walked, wrapping the long, Aixin-style winter cloak around her. Apollo had warned them it would be cold, but hearing about it and experiencing it were very different things.

The landing pad at the private spaceport was largely deserted, a flat expanse stretching away in every direction with little sign of infrastructure. Several hundred metres away stood a small terminal. From here the natural setting loomed large – snow-capped mountains lined two sides of a broad, flat river valley, fed by an enormous glacier that gleamed in the sunlight. Nowhere could she see any sign of a tree. The sky above was devoid of a single cloud.

Blinking in the bright glare, Mu rummaged around for her sunglasses, her fingers not nimble in the thick gloves she wore. Eventually she managed to find them and put them on. Behind her Ostara and Nova were supervising the unloading of their luggage onto a robotic cart that had met them upon landing. Nova was wearing a puffer jacket, scarf, thick pants and boots with a beanie. Ostara wore an elegant winter coat. For once she had foregone her usual dresses and wore long pants, a pear of knee-high, wedge-heeled boots replacing her customary sandals. Kal, wearing a heavy trench coat, soon joined them and hauled the heavier items onto the cart.

"Why is it so cold!?" complained Mingxia, as she emerged behind Mu, similarly hugging herself. Like Mingxia she had opted for a more traditional Imperial-style outfit, a cloak over thick, fur-lined robes.

"It's far too cold," agreed Mu. "Are we ready to get going yet?"

"We're ready said," called back Kal.

"Let's go," said Mu, her hand ushering Mingxia forward from the small of her back.

They made their way to the terminal. Mu felt the warm air flow over her the moment they stepped inside and let out an audible sigh of relief, though she could feel her teeth still chattering. They presented their documentation to Customs. Mu had flashbacks to the last time this happened and felt her heart quicken as she approached the Customs Bureau agent. She had a vision of them flagging her passport and those two Resonance Bureau agents emerging.

Instead, everything proceeded normally, and she was ushered through with a cheerful greeting in what Mu presumed was the Jaril language of Yarkan.

"Here we are..." said Tavian, as he stepped out into the main terminal concourse behind Mu and Mingxia. "Yet another new world."

"It's certainly not Shangxia," murmured Mu, glancing around. The terminal had many ordinary modern features, but there had also been a concerted effort to incorporate what she took to be traditional touches, such as the intricate patterns in the carpets and the decorative lanterns that hung from the ceiling, or the brightly coloured tiles on the walls.

"It sure isn't," said Mingxia. "It never got that cold on Shangxia."

"So, what's the plan now?" asked Harry, as he also emerged. As ever he was dressed with a refined elegance only rivalled by Ostara, his dandy-aesthetic on full display with the slender cut of his long coat and the carefully draped scarf with a muted colour scheme.

"I have arranged for a guide to meet us and take us to our accommodation," said Ostara. "Apollo thought it would be a good opportunity for everyone to familiarise themselves with Yarkan."

Tavian cleared his throat. "Just to be clear... we are just waiting for something to happen... that Apollo has predicted. There's no... mission... or...?"