The sky had been dark since before the scouter had departed for the Honshu. Sitting in the tree, sweat pouring down her face, Emily Faust mistook the first drop of rain for perspiration. It hit her expedition trousers and left a big dark spot. Unlike Service uniforms which were waterproof expedition gear was merely designed to be comfortable in a variety of climates and cheap to replace when it became too worn.

The pilot looked up at the sky once she realized what it was and almost instantly was greeted with a pelting of more drops, all large and heavy. The downpour began so suddenly that it roused the doctor and nearly made him lose his grip on the tree. The ferocity with which it came down was completely unexpected. It poured with such force that it felt as if any minute they would be knocked from their safe perch.

“This is really not good Faust!” Doctor Ramus screamed over the roar of the rain.

“Just wait until that damned lightning gets here! That’s what I’m worried about.”

“I’m starting to think we should climb down!”

“What??”

Despite being less than a half-meter apart the two could hardly even understand each other’s words over the deafening roar of the downpour.

“I said....” the doctor trailed off as he caught sight of something behind her. It was floating through the near white-out conditions emanating a small orange light. “Look!”

She couldn’t understand his words but his pointing gesture came across loud and clear. The little robo had returned and had a small parcel attached to it via what looked to be of all things, heavy duty TAPE! It floated over to Faust and let her take hold of it before powering down. The doctor leaned in as close as he could.

“I guess they didn’t have time to come up with anything more sophisticated!” he laughed hard and Faust couldn’t help but do the same.

It seemed as if the little package had instantly brought some life back into the man. Quickly they pulled at the tape and tore at the package despite being pummeled by rain the likes of which they had never seen before. The downpour washed perspiration down into Faust’s injured eye, making it sting terribly, but she paid it little attention.

“What the hell is that?” was the doctor’s first words upon getting the package open. Faust knew exactly what it was but continued to feel around until her hands found something more solid. There was the vial of medicine! She tucked it into one of the cargo pockets on her trousers and continued to unfold the survival tent. There was so much rain in both of their eyes that everything had to be done more by feel than by sight. After a moment the doctor caught on to what it was she was fumbling with and began helping.

Without warning there was a bright flash and the entire tree shook. Faust yelled out over the roar, “That was too close for comfort! Let’s get this thing open!”

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity but in fact was probably only a further 15 or 20 seconds they found the flap and managed to get it open. Quickly they huddled together and pulled the skin of the tent over their two bodies. Instantly the roar of rain went from being one that was pelting their faces, ears and bodies and overwhelming all of their senses to one that was simply a loud roar. The sound was still incredible but with the torrent at least not directly hitting them in the face they could finally open their eyes. Yatin fumbled with his pack for a moment before pulling free a torch. It was every bit as waterlogged as the two officers were but like most Service gear it was completely waterproof. Emily couldn’t hear the click it made when he activated it but she most certainly noticed its beam.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” the doctor yelled over the sound of the rather profound downpour hitting the side of the tent. He’d accidentally activated the torch at full intensity pointing right at the pilot’s face.

“It’s okay...can’t see a thing though.” she reported back.

“Well when you get your vision back my dear I’m going to need some help with that medicine. Please tell me you put it somewhere safe.”

She groped around until she felt the vial still secure in the right side cargo pocket of her expedition trousers. “Got it doc. Just give me a minute here.”

“Of course.”

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“Captain, I just noticed...” Herschel was cut off in mid-sentence.

“You just noticed exactly what I just did.” the captain interjected, “Tent or not they’re still touching that damned tree. If that thing gets struck they’ll fry just as easily as if they’d been out in the open.” Tarsik leaned in and pressed the button that allowed him to speak through the scouter. “Faust, it’s no good. You’re still touching the tree. The tent’s skin won’t do a bit of good to protect you against lightning strike.”

The robo’s screen was black, it took a moment before the image it was sending back began to shake around and apparently the pilot brought it up to face level from wherever it was sitting before. “Captain I know, but this is a one-person tent and the only way we can both fit into here and stay in the tree is if we just pull it over ourselves like a sleeping bag.”

“And you’re sure there’s no way you two could tough it out on the ground?”

“Captain this is the doctor,” came Ramus’ voice over the speaker followed by his image on the screen as Emily rotated the scouter to face him, “I don’t know how likely, or unlikely, it is but there is the possibility that some predators in this time period have actually evolved to hunt during these storms. As much as I despise the notion of being incinerated by an electrical discharge the idea of being eaten while I huddle on the ground is equally displeasing. Then of course there is also the likelihood of all manner of possibly poisonous small creatures trying to crawl into the bag with us for shelter.”

“Damn.” Tarsik slammed his fist on the console.

“Well...” Herschel started.

“Well what?” Tarsik looked at him questioningly.

“Just an idea sir...”

This time it was Ansul to cut off the junior pilot. “We could use the robo as a shield!” the first officer exclaimed. The captain turned his full attention to the Martian. Had he not he would have noticed the look of irritation on Herschel’s face. “The scouter has a grapple. It’s typically used to anchor the robo in place during severe weather or pick up small objects and return them to the ship. It’s a thin metal filament about 12 meters long.”

“And you propose we hover the scouter directly above the doctor and Faust?” Tarsik smiled.

“With its metal casing and tether it should be a much more attractive target for a strike than the tree itself.” Herschel stepped in. Normally he was one to keep quiet when the big boys were talking but having his ideas co-opted twice in as many minutes had made him rather antsy.

“Precisely!” Ansul declared.

Finally gaining just a bit of acknowledgement Herschel grinned. “Of course there is a catch...”

“We only get one shot.” Tarsik agreed, “The robo will protect them from one good bolt of lightning, but if it gets hit once it’s gonna fry and fall out of the sky. Then they’ll be right back where they started. Still, it’s something.”

“Captain?” came Emily’s voice over the ship’s speakers. She no doubt was curious as to why her crew-mates back on the ship had been silent for several moments.

“Sorry Faust. We were just working on something over here. We think we’ve got a solution, at least something that’s better than nothing at all. We’re going to put the scouter robo into hover over that tree you’re stuck in and fire its grapple at the ground...”

“And create a lightning rod!” Faust exclaimed. This time it was the captain’s turn to have the words stolen directly from his mouth. Herschel couldn’t help but grin ever so slightly, well out of sight of the captain and Ansul of course.

“That’s the plan Faust. Of course that means we’ll have no means of contact once the scouter is outside of the tent. We just might be able to speak to you, its speaker is pretty loud, but there’s no way we’re going to be able to hear you.”

There was a moment when the crew in the cockpit could hear Faust and the doctor conversing but couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying to each other then the image of the pilot reappeared in front of the robo’s camera and she spoke, “We both agree that it’s the best course of action. If this little scouter can just keep us from getting turned into toast until this storm passes we’ll be fine.”

The captain felt like making a comment about how his ship was not run as a democracy, he’d already made the decision to hover the scouter, but his better judgment kicked in. They were his crewmen, crewmen who would be getting a hell of a talking to at that, but at the moment they felt mostly like friends who were in trouble. No point in getting cocky and reinforcing rank at a time like this.

“What about in the morning?” Faust questioned.

“What about it?” Tarsik couldn’t help but poke at least a little fun at them.

“A rescue party sir?” the pilot asked as she tossed her head to the side in a vain attempt to get some waterlogged strands of hair out of her face.

Tarsik glanced over at Ansul and smiled, then straightened his expression before turning back to the camera. “You two got yourselves up that tree just fine. Are you saying you need an escort to get back?”

Faust did not look amused. “Very funny sir. You’ll forgive me if I don’t laugh right now. I’ve got to spend the night drenched and stuck up a tree hoping that nothing large enough comes tramping by and decides to rip this tent open like a snack packet.”

This time Tarsik let himself emit a little chuckle, it was a nervous one. He hadn’t even thought about a large dinosaur coming along and plucking his friends out of the tree during the night. “First light, assuming this storm lets up, we’ll be on our way Faust. We’ll keep the scouter’s camera trained on your tent, if for some reason you really need to get our attention stick that torch you’ve got out of it and flash it three times. Okay?”

“Roger sir. I’ll go ahead and turn the scouter loose.” the screen went black for a moment as she moved the little robo around then suddenly it was on her face again, “Sir...I’m sorry for disobeying orders. There, I said it...just in case...”

“None of that Pilot!” Tarsik interjected, “For what it’s worth I’m sorry for being a jerk myself. It doesn’t excuse your actions in any fashion and you will be disciplined for them, but no other pilot in the universe could have gotten us down in one piece like you did Faust. You stay safe tonight.” he knew that his expression betrayed the worry he was feeling despite how much he was trying to mask it.

“Thank you sir.” with a quick smile Faust’s face disappeared from the screen and a moment later the forest was visible again. Ansul kicked in the NG repulsors and the scouter took flight.

“Got her hovering directly above the tree. Firing the grapple.” several kilometers away the robo’s tether lodged itself into the soggy Earth below.

“Okay Pilot,” the doctor groaned as he tried to move his leg into a position that they could work on it, “get that vial out and let’s do this.”

Emily grabbed the torch from the doctor to allow him to move around more freely. With her free hand she unsnapped the pocket that held the medicine. She couldn’t help but notice how thoroughly her pants were soaked as she slid her hand in to retrieve the vial.

“Shine the light right here.” Yatin commanded as he pointed to his leg. With light to work under he began to tear his pant leg around the site of the wound. The two had inspected it earlier in the day and it hadn’t looked good, it looked even worse under such close scrutiny.

“Doctor that looks really bad!”

“It’s very likely infected Ms. Faust but I had nothing to sterilize the wound with and the scouter didn’t have the weight capacity to carry both a coagulant and an antibiotic. To stop the bleeding is paramount, I can deal with the infection once we return to the ship. Now hand me the vial please.”

Faust did as she was instructed. She did her best to hold up the skin of the tent and keep the torch pointed where the doctor needed it so that he could work on himself. She watched as he used the butt of the dart-tracker to smash off the top of the vial. Apparently it took a special tool to open that they currently did not possess. He then began to pour its contents into the wound slowly. He grimaced as it made contact, apparently it burned.

“Ahh!” he let slip an expression of agony.

“That bad?”

“No....at least it shouldn’t be. I’ve never used it on such a deep wound, at least not on myself nor on a conscious patient. It should pass in just a moment.”

It wasn’t long before everyone on the ship was well aware of the situation with Faust and Doctor Ramus. Coupled with another evening of torrential downpour spirits seemed to be lower on that second night. Dinner was simple, chili with fresh bread. A few crewmen sat around and played cards by light of hand-cranked or solar charged torches, full power saving measures were in effect and after 8pm Tarsik had ordered all lights off.

He’d also sought out Crewman Jones and specifically ordered him to lay off of the spirits, he wanted him to tag along when they went to retrieve their treed comrades in the morning. Jones’ fine aim would be very handy should they run into a pack of smaller blood-thirsty creatures like Ramus and Faust had. Larger and slower ones Tarsik felt he was perfectly capable of handling himself.

Ansul just so happened to be in Medbay when Tsankov’s regen chamber opened. He’d gone to retrieve a sleeping aid. He knew that the captain likely wouldn’t have approved and that the doctor most certainly would not have but his nerves were on edge and he knew that he needed to be rested for the next morning’s trek.

Sitting in a tree some ways away the doctor felt like a fool when his alarm went off, reminding him to see to Tsankov. He could do nothing, only hope that the crewman had no complications. Luckily for him First Officer Ansul had been trespassing and was there to see about Tsankov who suffered from no complications at all. The Martian stashed his pills and guided the crewman back to his quarters. The R.S. Honshu settled down for the night.