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possibly both.
    Her com link chirped and announced the arrival of her ride. “Take what you can; we are heading out now.”
    Dr. Kliask looked up. “We can leave here without you. It might take some time to work through the maze, but we will return to base camp without any issue. I promise.”
    She quickly drew up a waiver. “Sign this. It absolves me of responsibility in case you get lost down here.”
    He quickly pressed his thumb to her wrist, and it accepted his signature. Contract law was the first thing she had gotten when she took courses with the Citadel. They wanted their people to know that their services were valuable, and that meant teaching them to protect their work in the field.
    She confirmed his thumbprint and got one of the assistants to verify the signature.
    “Have a nice time. I will see you all when I get back.”
    It felt weird to be leaving the team she had been working with for just over two weeks, but she had the opportunity to do something more than babysit a gathering of academics. She had a high tolerance for those who pursued active lives in academia. All four of her older siblings had obtained high degrees in their area of interest, and as the youngest, Yllin had been their study partner for every exam and proofreader for each essay. In a weird way, she found being surrounded by academics safe and familiar.
    When she made it up the steps and into the light, she heard the arrival of the shuttle and gathered her travel bag to prepare herself for whatever she was getting into.
    She slipped her bag over her shoulder and went to meet her ride.
     

Chapter Six
     
     
    Nearing smiled as she came onboard. “You appear to be thriving, Yllin.”
    She stowed her bag and settled into the second seat as he sealed the ship. “It has been an interesting two weeks.”
    “Well, we are about to go from interesting to terrifying, at least for the family. A child is lost in the hills of Vicorran, the primitive holiday world. You can bring your knives and will have to leave your com unit behind. Outside of the landing area, you are restricted to primitive technology. Well, we are restricted to technology. I will find the child and you will get us there.”
    “If it is an emergency, why can’t we just go in and fly over?”
    He sighed. “It is complicated, but Vicorran is a beautiful and lush world with a mind of its own. It will not suffer the face of its brothers and watch the crawling and destruction of so-called civilised societies on its surface. Folk can come and live in nature in a very restrictive manner and most consider time on Vicorran to be restorative. If you follow the rules, the world blesses you. If you break the rules, Vicorran seeks you out and you burn. Leave the blaster and the com unit here.”
    She nodded. “Right. Are there really living worlds?”
    He smiled. “There are more sentient worlds than we know. They just have no way of speaking to us under normal circumstances.”
    He took off, and they rose up and out of the atmosphere of the dead and abandoned world of Webar and all its hidden wonders.
    Yllin waited until they were out of the gravitational pull before she unbelted and headed for the galley. She summoned two cups of tea, and when she had them both, she brought them back to the cockpit.
    “Here. I have been dying for a decent up of tea, and if I can settle for dispenser tea, it shows you the depths of my desperation.”
    Nearing laughed and took the cup. “We have thirty minutes before the jump. Thanks for the tea.”
    The jump site was close to Webar, and it was due, mainly, to the fact that the world was dead. No harm could be done by the energy output because there was no working eco system in action.
    In retrospect, she couldn’t fault Vicorran for wanting to protect itself. Webar had a sad aura, and its people were all long gone. She didn’t wish that on any other world.
    “How are you enjoying your time on Webar, aside from the tea?”
    “It is a little