Opalina Outpost

Chapter 12: The Slot Canyons

It took Ravi three tries before his mother finally answered, her face smeared with flour. She waved at him through the imager, and then popped out of the frame, leaving it trained on the mess she'd made in his kitchen. "I'm still here!" she called. "Just checking the cake!"

He leaned back in the squeaky chair he'd reclaimed from beneath the paper and debris finally cleared out of the office. "Really? You're baking?" Let the Little protect whoever had to eat one of his mother's experiments.

"I'm getting good at it! I've been working on cakes all day. And before you ask, only one caught fire and it was a very small fire."

"Just a small fire? That's not like you, Mamina."

"Yes, I thought you'd be proud." She sidled back into view and hunched closer to the imager. The sight of her face looming large through the holograph put a lump in his throat. He was used to missing her, but that never seemed to make it hurt less.

"How are you, my dear son?"

Ravi coughed and dragged on a smile for her. "Well enough." He didn't want to talk about Opalina until he had something good to say. "Who's the cake for?"

She traced floury fingers across her eyebrow, a nervous tic he recognized. "Just a friend." She let loose her burbling laugh. "Oh, fine! It's for a gentleman friend, if you must know." And then she was off, telling him all about some wonderful man she'd met on her travels, and how his hair was just the right shade of silver, his aura was very "elevated," and he appreciated cake, no matter how burnt. She was midway through the story of meeting him at the sepulcher of the Little, when her image sputtered with static.

Ravi fiddled with the holowatch, but a distant rumble told him it was probably useless. If he could hear the storm from in here, it was one of the bad ones.

"Mamina, I'm probably about to lose the call—"

"What? I can't quite hear—"

"The call—there's a storm, and it gets in the way—I—"

The imager failed, and his mother vanished. Ravi took a deep breath. "Love you," he said, and let his head fall back against the edge of the chair. At least she seemed to be happy and alright. More than he could say for himself, at the moment.

Time spent feeling lonely was time wasted. There was so much work to be done. The lights flickered but stayed on as the storm pummeled the mountains, thunder growling. He took it as a good sign that the bad weather had finally arrived. With any luck, it'd blow itself out overnight. With the Archcom's tip, he'd been able to get Opalina named to the task, but they'd spent days waiting for the right conditions. Everything he read and watched told him that in rough weather, the slot canyons were deadly.

He tried to pull up the weather reports he'd been checking obsessively, but the storm interference made it impossible. A little more waiting, it seemed. The unfortunate mantra of his life.

Ravi awoke early for a morning run and stepped out to dusty blue skies. The six different forecasts he checked all promised a beautiful day, and by the time he returned from his run, he'd made his decision. Opalina was headed for its first commendation.

He intercepted Jossen on his way to breakfast and instructed him to bring the crew to the muster room. All the materials were stationed around the table where he'd set them up days ago. Ravi paced around the table, rubbing his hands and running through the plans one more time. The task wasn't the perfect fit for this unit. Very physical, and probably meant for a larger crew, but they could do it. They had to.