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“I’m not sure thermophilic cyanobacteria count as alive for our purposes.” Garin crouched beside Sazahk, avoiding stepping on the thick sludge of the bacterial filaments. Sazahk paused with his swab in hand and raised his eyebrows at Garin. Garin scowled. “Yes, I’m familiar with big words, too. I went to college, you know.”
Sazahk shrugged and swabbed up a dollop of burnt-orange bacteria. “I didn’t know. The vast majority of Human citizens don’t obtain an education beyond basic literacy and numeracy, and I didn’t think an occupation largely consisting of shooting guns and not getting shot by them required a great deal of academic study.”
“I was an officer,” Garin retorted as he followed Sazahk over to the edge of a green pool. “Strategy, tactics, psychology, ecology, weather patterns, technology. It did actually require an education.”
“I didn’t know you were an officer.” Or what sort of knowledge being an officer required. Sazahk had never been much interested in the military. He bent low over a beautiful flow of yellow bacteria.
“Watch your hair.” Garin caught Sazahk’s braid before it slid into the thick cluster of microorganisms.
Sazahk sucked in a breath at the sudden nearness. His heart seized in his chest. But the terrified red quickly faded from the back of his hands and Sazahk shoved the rest of the color that he knew flooded his neck back below his collar. He grabbed his long braid and tugged it free of Garin’s rough hands. “It’s fine.”
“It wasn’t about to be.” Garin eyed Sazahk’s hair as Sazahk threw it over his shoulder and away from the hot water trickling across the ground. “It was about to be covered in slime.”
“And that would still be fine.” Sazahk leaned back onto his haunches and took a swab of the yellow bacteria. “A little slime on my hair isn’t going to hurt it or me or be anything even remotely considered a big deal.”
Garin looked horrified for a second before quickly shaking the expression away. “Sure, it’ll be fine right up until you die from some horrible infection through your scalp.”
Sazahk tsked and picked his way over the chemically burnt white ground to a different pool. “Most bacteria don’t pose any harm. In fact, this sort of bacteria helps more than it hurts. The sort of bacteria found in other hot springs resembling these have been the kind that make oxygen, which every complex life form in the sector requires.”
“Sazahk—”
“There’s even evidence that some thermophilic bacteria can process arsenic into a less toxic compound.” Sazahk skirted a cone-shaped buildup of siliceous sinter.
“Sazahk, wait?—”
Sazahk caught the motion out of the corner of his eye and swerved to avoid it, his chest tightening, and Garin yanked his hand back before it made contact. Thank the goddess. Sazahk couldn’t take being grabbed again. His scar itched so badly he wanted to crawl out of his own skin.
“Just hold on.” Garin raised his hands. “You can’t go walking across ground like this.”
Sazahk crossed his arms and gripped his biceps to hide the tremble in his fingers. “Walking is exactly how bipedal creatures cross solid terrain.”
“Solid, sure, but I wouldn’t bet your life that this ground is solid.” Garin pointed at the crumbling, crisp white silica. “Any step could give out from under you.”
Sazahk shifted his weight as he surveyed the surrounding ground. The places where he’d already stepped spider-webbed with cracks. The wind changed and blew a warm blanket of sulfur-scented air around them.
“Come on, Sazahk, I’m the one with the wilderness experience. Trust me on this.” Garin held out a beseeching hand. His earnest green eyes under his well-shaped dark brows set in his symmetrical face made Sazahk’s heart skip, and he scowled and stepped back.
“I’m not inclined to trust someone who didn’t want me to be here at all. You sacrificed your opinion privileges when you refused to prioritize our entire reason for being here above your own mission performance.” Sazahk knew Garin didn’t care about the science or Sazahk. All he cared about was returning Sazahk back to Dom in one piece, so Dom would give him a nice bonus.
Garin’s jaw ticked. “We’re here now, Sazahk. The least you can do is not get yourself killed.”
Sazahk bristled. “I will not get myself killed. Does no one think I have any survival instinct?”
Garin spread his arms wide to encompass their steaming surroundings. “You have demonstrated that instinct exactly zero times since I met you, so probably not, no.”
Purple raced up Sazahk’s forearms. He clenched his fists and opened his mouth to snarl back when the white cone beside him exploded into a column of boiling water.
“Shit!” Garin lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Sazahk.
Pain bloomed across Sazahk’s face and hands as drops of scalding water hit his skin.
“Get down.” Garin grabbed the back of Sazahk’s head and tucked him in against his chest, shielding him from the screeching torrent of steam and water spewing into the sky beside them.
The roar of the geyser faded behind the thundering of Sazahk’s pulse in his ears. Behind the beeps of medical equipment. The cold orders of a surgeon.
“Get off.” Sazahk couldn’t hear himself. He didn’t even know if he’d said the words. Garin’s hand clamped down around his scar, around his neck, pinned him, immobilized him.
“Come on.” Garin curled his body around Sazahk’s, blocking him from the geyser, and dragged him away, the blistering water raining down on them. “Keep your head down. You’re okay.”
