CHAPTER 65: SHARING THE JOURNEY

Tatehan looked at the rifle in her hands, examining it more closely.

It was a strange combination of old and new, a bolt-action frame retrofitted with what looked like energy coils running along the barrel. The stock was wrapped in worn leather, and the scope had a faint digital glow. Definitely Martian-made, cobbled together from scavenged parts like most things on this planet.

He wondered what something like that could actually do. Rifles had been starting to become outdated back on Earth when he was still there, and now, a century later, here was this attractive stranger holding one like it was standard equipment.

Could it shoot normal bullets, or would whatever came out of it be strange and extraordinary? Energy rounds? Plasma bursts?

Tatehan was tempted to ask, but he decided he’d do so later, maybe casually, in the middle of a conversation or something.

Now, as for what she’d said...

Tatehan stood speechless for a moment, analyzing the situation.

He currently had five cores. Each core could power one of the motorcycles, but only to an extent.

For example, if he powered one motorcycle, the duration it could run before dying would probably be around two hours, maybe less depending on the bike’s condition. If the motorcycle stopped in the middle of nowhere, he could just swap in another core and continue the journey.

But helping the woman in front of him would complicate that. Helping her would limit his speed and might even affect him greatly.

The journey to Kael’s clan on a motorcycle powered by the cores would probably take eight to ten hours if he pushed it. If he gave Riven cores because he wanted to help, and his bike died in the middle of a journey, he wouldn’t be able to power it back up if he’d already used them. That would force him to continue on foot.

But Riven was human. Leaving her stranded here wouldn’t be right. This wasn’t exactly the safest place on Mars.

"Where have you been taking shelter?" Tatehan asked her.

She shrugged.

"I haven’t been doing much sleeping. I just rest beside boulders when I get too tired."

Tatehan furrowed his brow behind the helmet.

"Beside a boulder? Out in the open?" he asked incredulously. "That’s impossible. You’d be dead by now."

"Well, it should be impossible, but in my case it’s actually worked out," she said, reaching into a pouch on her belt and pulling out a small device. It was about the size of a lighter, with a cracked screen and blinking red lights. "I have a proximity alarm. Old tech, salvaged from a crashed shuttle. It picks up vibrations in the ground, footsteps, movement, that kind of thing. Alerts me when something’s coming within fifty meters. Gives me just enough time to wake up and move."

Tatehan nodded slowly. Smart. Risky, but... smart.

Still, three days out here with limited supplies, sleeping in the open, trying and failing to kill Shadow Goblins for their cores... she’d been desperate. That much was clear.

He looked at her again, weighing his options.

He could just leave her here. Take a bike, use his cores, and be gone in minutes. She wasn’t his responsibility.

But then again, Kael had helped him when he didn’t have to. Saved his life and trained him. If Tatehan had been left alone back then, he’d be dead.

Maybe that’s what separated him from the monsters on this planet, choosing to help even when it was inconvenient.

"Alright," Tatehan said finally. "I’ll help you. But on one condition."

Riven’s eyes lit up. "Name it."

"We take the same bike."

She blinked. "Why?"

"I have five cores," Tatehan explained. "If I give you cores for your own bike, I’m cutting my safety margin in half. If my bike dies in the middle of a journey and I’ve already used cores on yours, I’m stuck on foot. So we share one bike. That way I only use one core at a time, and I have backups if we need them."

Riven considered this for a moment, then nodded. "Fair enough. I can live with that."

"Good."

"But," she added with a slight grin, "if we’re going to be that close, you should at least show me your face. I mean, I told you my name. Seems only fair."

Tatehan shook his head. "Not happening."

"Why not? You hiding something under there? Scars? Are you ugly?"

"None of your business."

"Come on, just a peek—"

"No."

Riven sighed dramatically. "Fine. Keep your secrets, mysterious armored guy."

Tatehan ignored her and pulled up the map overlay in his vision, checking the route. "Where are you headed, anyway?"

"There’s a settlement about a day’s ride from here. That is, taking the motorcycle," Riven said, pointing vaguely northwest. "Waython Hollow. It’s a small trading post, but they’ve got supplies, water, and a clan that runs the place. I was trying to get there when I got stranded."

Waython Hollow. Strange name for a place, Tatehan noted. What was Waython? And Hollow was just... like adding salt to sugar and using it to fry an egg.

Bizarre combination. Like something kids huddled together and decided to name.

Waython Hollow...

His system flashed the name across his vision, cross-referencing it with the map data. A marker appeared, almost exactly along his route to Kael’s clan.

He scanned the map more carefully and realized something.

"Wait," he said slowly. "Waython Hollow... that’s near the Red Crest Clan territory, isn’t it?"

Riven raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, actually. Red Crest controls most of the area around Hollow. You know them?"

She must think Tatehan was someone who knew Mars well, like most Martian humans. But she didn’t know the map was covering his vision and he was just checking it while replying to her.

Tatehan pulled up Kael’s map data in his vision, comparing routes. Red Crest Clan. That was the name written at the end of Kael’s map, the clan he was heading to. The place where Kael’s daughter was dying.

"I’m heading there too," Tatehan said.

Riven blinked in surprise. "Seriously? To Red Crest?"

"Yeah."

"Huh. Small world." She tilted her head, studying him with renewed curiosity. Her curiosity had dimmed before, but now it was rekindled. "What business do you have with them? They’re not exactly friendly to outsiders."