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It's always midnight somewhere.
Averas snorted. Of course it is. The Terrans of old must've had one hell of a sense of a humour when they brought that saying to Obsidian. He stretched out too-tight shoulders. The nag shifted under him, restless. Like him, she knew what was coming. He tightened his thighs, dug in a toe. Easy girl. She swayed her long neck from side to side, but quietened under his touch.
In the blackness, Averas saw Jessup veer away after an errant hogget, barking like a mad thing. The noise echoed through the rocky spires of the basin, cutting over the lower pitched mauw-ing of the agitated beasts. The rest of the drove kept going, plodding obediently towards the station, sparks of light flitting along their hides.
He was doing well for time. He knew this was so, otherwise Bennie would've been screeching at him. She was a right worrier that one, but they balanced each other out just fine. That was more important than beauty or brains; if you couldn't work as a team, may as well save yourself the misery and cut your losses early. He made a note to pass that tidbit of wisdom on to the young'un when he got to an age where he'd be looking for a missus.
The drove slowed and began to mill around aimlessly as the beasts realised their leading light was gone. Averas hissed in annoyance, checking his chrono again. Where was Jessup? He looked around, peering into the shadows and inky darkness for Jessup. With only one frightened hogget to turn back, the mutt should've been back by now. He pursed his lips, changing the transmissibility of the membrane over his mouth with unthinking ease. He whistled, longer and higher-pitched than even Jessup could manage. Silence fell.
There was no answering noise from the mutt. Averas's anxiety inched slowly upwards. He didn't care for problems. Not with the Flood due in the next hour. He needed to get this backcountry drove tucked away safely in the underground sheds. He'd corralled the rest of the stock with no trouble, but this last drove had proven difficult to find in the maze of stony spires and sucking ammonia marshes of the backcountry paddocks. Rounding them up had taken time he didn't have.
The beasts were getting edgy, less controllable as time flew by. Deep underground was the best place for them now, but he couldn't shift 'em by himself. He needed Jessup and the mutt's luminescent skin for that. Averas whistled again, listening intently. Then he heard it. A faint yelping echoing through the spires. Averas slid off the nag's neck, bringing her head around to face him.
"Guard them," he ordered.
She blew clouds of methyl chloride at him in return, eye facets glinting in his night vision. A long, sinuous tail snaked between his legs, twining around his calf muscles affectionately.
"I mean it," Averas said, matching her stare for stare.
The tail withdrew and she loped off to stand in front of the anxious drove. Pale blues and greens began pulsing in her hide as she lulled the hoggets into a peaceful daze.
Reassured that she could hold them, Averas slipped into the velvet shadows of the spires. Jessup yelped in the distance and he put on speed. He stole a glance at the chrono. Gorramit! Right on cue, Bennie crackled to life in his ear.
"Averas, what are you doing still out there? You should've been back forty minutes ago."
He grunted, vaulting over a huge spire that had toppled who knows how long ago. "Not far off. Last drove."
"Leave them. It's not safe to be out there." Her voice took on a worried tone.
He ignored her, calling again for Jessup. The answering yips were coming from an outcropping of rocks.
"Averas Albany, are you listening to me?" Bennie snapped.
"Don't have much of a choice," he said. Ten meters to go. "You disabled my earpiece cut-off."
"Get back here now."
"I will. But not without those beasts."
She said more. That Averas was sure of—Bennie always had the final word—but he turned the volume down so that she was nothing more than white noise. He'd pay for it later.
Jessup was lying on the rough ground, one leg pinned under a fallen spire and the lights in her side flashing in a pitiful fashion. Averas went to one knee, gently probing her injuries. Jessup snapped at him reflexively, but he yanked back in time. He growled at her and she ducked her head and let him continue.
The leg was most likely broken, but she seemed fine otherwise. Of the hogget that had caused this, there was no sign. Averas mentally wrote it off. Jessup was worth a whole drove of 'em anyway. Good mutts were hard to come by. He extended his baton and wedged it under the column of stone, eliciting a whine from Jessup.
"Wheesht, girl," he soothed. "Wheesht."
One powerful thrust later and Jessup was free. Averas slung her over his shoulders, taking care not to jar her leg. He set off for the waiting drove.
The Flood came, right on schedule. Averas watched its progress from behind the safety of his shields, deep in his underground shelter. In the corner, Bennie and the lad were fussing over Jessup.
He turned his attention back to the spectacle at hand. The wave of light spread across the surface of the planet, blinding and deadly hot. Lakes of ammonia hissed and boiled as the daylight spread over the normally dark plains. Stone spires shattered in the heat, sending out a hail of lethal splinters. The surface was no place to be. Not today.
The light would go almost as quickly as it had come. Obsidian's sister planet would resume its place as shield and darkness would fall again for another thirty years. Life would go back to normal.
It's always midnight somewhere, Averas Albany thought. Just not today.