[Location: The Jungle Interior] [Time: Day 1. 14:00 Hours.]
The jungle was dense. Vines as thick as my arm blocked the path. The air smelled of rotting fruit and ozone.
Vesper stumbled over a root for the third time.
"Careful," I caught her by the arm.
"This is inefficient," Vesper grumbled, adjusting her glasses. Her pristine white uniform was already stained with mud. She was sweating profusely, her shirt clinging to her skin in the humidity. "We should have stayed at the crash site. The probability of finding a spring in this topography is less than 12%."
"Stop thinking like a computer," I said, hacking through a vine with my makeshift knife. "Look at the birds."
"The avian lifeforms? Irrelevant."
"They're flying low," I pointed. "And they're heading toward that ridge. Birds need to drink too, Vesper."
We walked in silence for a few minutes.
"Caelum," she asked quietly. "Back on the ship... you called me 'Commander.' You said we had done this before."
I froze. I hadn't meant to slip up.
"Just a figure of speech," I lied.
"You are a terrible liar," Vesper analyzed. "Your heart rate elevates when you deceive me. Tell me the truth. How do you know how to survive this? You're a mechanic."
I looked at her. In this light, with the sun filtering through the leaves, she looked less like the Ice Queen of Science Division and more like a normal woman. A beautiful, terrified woman.
"I grew up on a farm," I said. It was a half-truth. "Before the war."
We pushed through the final brush.
A waterfall. Small, clear, and cascading into a rock pool.
"Water," Vesper breathed. She dropped to her knees and scooped it up in her hands, splashing her face. She laughed—a rare, genuine sound.
She looked up at me, water dripping from her chin, her glasses fogged up. She unbuttoned the top of her collar to let the heat escape.
"Logic dictates," she smiled, "that I should thank you."
"Don't thank me yet," I said, looking at the mud around the pool. "Look at the tracks."
They weren't bird tracks. They were massive, three-toed claw marks. Something big drank here.
"Fill the canteens," I whispered. "We leave. Now."