Free Misfits by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Page A

unsteady and swollen under her, like it was thinking about
splitting open or folding over, or--…
    The second stage passed, too, and she sighed
into the scorched ground before pushing upright. Liz was still at
the Stubbs; she swept her hand out toward the scattered
Lunatics--
    "Injury check!"
    Redhead rose unsteadily and hinted at a
salute with her right hand while grabbing up the staff she'd picked
up from down-wood. Her speed and size conspired, giving her a
chance to get through tree-fall and such in a hurry. The circuit
here was familiar, and this time there were no new casualties among
the troops.
    The civilians--… there were still a few out
there, and as long as they didn't actively shoot or throw rocks it
didn't matter if they came along. They'd already been on short
rations and shorter morale when they'd stumbled on the Lunatics and
their grasp of Trade and common Terran was less than good. Some of
them still grabbed for their amulets and lucky pieces instead of
hightailing to open land--… and there were a couple more among them
injured.
    She got back to the Stubbs in time to hear
an exasperated Liz snap, "Tidal? We're a good three days' march
from anything approaching shore side, assuming I can still read a
map. Unless things have changed--…"
    "The tsunami made some new dents, but
nothing that extreme," the Scout offered. "The under-plates
themselves are doing something we can't quantify yet. The
planetologist and the weatherman are working to define--to predict.
Moment--… Ah. Tech Brunner shows me that your location gained
altitude in the last upheaval. Higher by about the height of your
redhead, I think."
    "That's interesting," Liz grated. "But it
doesn't get us out of here."
    The line buzzed empty, then the Scout was
back. "It does not," he admitted quietly. "Give me the headcount at
your next check-in--your people and the civilians. I do not wish to
commit insufficient transport--and I would prefer a better landing
zone."
    That, thought Redhead, sounded like he was
going to get them transport--and apparently it sounded like that to
Liz, too.
    "Will do," she said, sounding easier.
"Here's your connection!"
    Liz waved her over. Redhead muttered a quick
report: "Lost three of the locals overnight but everybody else came
through fine. Might've been a sprained ankle there--… but that's
livable."
    Liz nodded and moved away, hand up to grab
somebody else's attention.
    Redhead sat down and punched the "talk"
button.
    "Redhead here."
    "Here's Tech," she heard, followed by his
calm, unflappable voice. It was like easing in for a swim after a
hot, horrible day, his voice; the water so cool it felt like
silk--…
    "Redhead, you are untroubled by the
earthquakes?"
    She laughed, hand to face.
    "That's not true, Brunner. I hate 'em. I
feel like the whole damn world's trying to shake me off it! And
that's when the locals aren't praying for me one minute and
shooting at me the next."
    "You have a good commander, Redhead," he
murmured. "I think you will not have those problems much longer. If
you have a portable, or paper to hand to record this--… we think
you can expect waves of about the same strength as you recently
experienced at approximately every nine standard hours. I stress
that this is approximate. Recent events are--unprecedented, which
makes prediction--… difficult. So, there will be a resonance, if we
are right, a larger kick-in-the-pants, as Jack calls it, perhaps
every fourth or fifth. Also, there will likely be random sharp
waves."
    "Got it," she said, memorizing what he told
her; she'd lost her portable, with her books and games and
all--gods, it seemed like years ago, at that firefight at--
    "And so," Brunner was continuing, "the rest
of the information is that in the short term we see no major
precipitation. This is good; it keeps some of the fallout radiation
above you. You are not under the jet currents carrying the worse
loads yet. The long-term is much harder."
    "Snow?" she offered.
    Brunner