We continued trekking for another three hours, seeing all kinds of different landscapes on the way. Ellie had picked a route through a rather diverse biotope it seemed, so we didn’t only see forests for our entire trip. Making us trek through a tree-less savanna type area for a couple of kilometers and a rougher terrain with rocks and hills as well before diving back into the forest. Definitely more fun than I had expected before setting off this morning.

  At the edge of another biome switch, Gunny and I decided to halt for a bit to get some well-deserved calories into our stomachs. I sat down on top of a large-ish rock while Gunny chose a patch of soft grass next to it.

  “Have you found a good spot for your holiday hut already, Gunny?” I joked after which I took a big bite of my nutrition bar.

  Gunny took a bite of his first before replying with a half-full mouth. “Multiple.” Taking another big bite afterwards. “This sure is a beautiful planet.”

  “It is.” I agreed, taking a drink from my waterpack afterwards. “And what do you think about the soles that our scientists gave us to test?”

  “Not really sure yet, to be honest.” He replied, looking at the sole of his combat boots. “I’m not feeling anything yet so I guess that’s not bad.” Gunny then looked up at me, sitting on top of my rock. “Did they even tell you what to look for when we were testing this?”

  “Errr… No, not really.” I shook my head.

  “...” Gunny squinted at me. “Aren’t you supposed to know that?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know… but I think I once read in one of Luna’s books that a test subject shouldn’t really know what is being tested. Knowing what is being tested could influence the test results.”

  Gunny sighed. “So it’s possible that we didn’t even get something different then? Or that one of us is wearing the test sole while the other has a plain normal sole?”

  I put the last piece of my nutrition bar into my mouth and showed the palms of my hands with another shrug accompanying that gesture. “I don’t know what you want from me. I just did as the scientists asked. Don’t blame me.”

  Yet another sigh came across Gunny’s lips. “Well… I suppose everything is fine unless we get prodded by measuring instruments after we return…”

  “....”

  “Lauren?”

  I averted my gaze from Gunny. “What?”

  “... Are we going to get prodded?”

  “They didn’t tell me we were.”

  “But did they tell you we weren’t?”

  “No…”

  “Oh, for fucks sake. I’m rushing straight to my cabin after we return, that’s for sure. I’m going to blast anyone who is going to try to stop me.”

  “I would very much like you to refrain from shooting any of our scientists. They are in relatively short supply.”

  “That will depend entirely on them.”

  The conversation then fell quiet as Gunny also finished his nutrition bar. It forced us to think about the conversation we just had and it didn’t take long before both of us started laughing out loud.

  “Eva would be so pissed at us right now if she had heard this little conversation.”

  “I definitely wouldn’t want to be in the same room as her, that’s true. She would probably throw a pan at me or something.” Gunny laughed.

  “Rather a pan than her syringes.”

  “Very true.”

  We chuckled at each other and then dusted off our hands from the crumbs of our nutrition bars. I then jumped off the rock I had been sitting on and pulled Gunny up from his seat on the ground and prepared to walk the next four to five hours to our final destination. However, about two hours later, Gunny started complaining a little. Not about the hike, really, more about his love life that we had talked about the day before. He was being rather open about it and with a lot less alcohol in his blood too, so that was definitely an improvement.

  “Lauren, I don’t get why you get to have all the luck and I can’t seem to get any. Like, at all.” He complained, picking up a rock and throwing it against a tree to our side. Some kind of strange nut fell down in return. At least Gunny’s little bout of aggression would sprout new life in the future.

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  “Maybe it’s the universe’s way of paying me back after it blew half of me up?”

  “That wasn’t the universe, that was the enemy.”

  “Not so sure about that. Maybe it was an assassination attempt by the Empire who sent back an assassin back in time to kill me before we could spell the end of them in the future.”

  “Why are you quoting ancient movies at me?”

  “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I just felt like it.”

  I could feel Gunny’s eyes roll on my back.

  “Seriously though.” I said right before I heaved myself up some elevated terrain. “I know I got bloody lucky, but I also know that this setback for you is only temporary. You’ll find a new woman once we get back on earth, no question about it. Especially with the new air of having explored the galaxy and, hopefully, having saved the planet as well.” I looked back and offered my hand for Gunny to pull himself up.

  Instead, Gunny chose to just lift himself up as I had done before. “That’s what got me into this mess in the first place.” He sighed. “I think I’m done with women.”

  “There’ll be plenty of guys too. And of course non-binary folk, and other people.”

  “Not what I meant, Lauren.”

  “Done with romance in its entirety?” I stood still for a moment while Gunny just passed me by, climbing on yet another piece of elevation, It seemed we had reached somewhat of a rougher area.

  “Yeah. Only thing that comes out of that is misery.”

  “Hmm.” Gunny offered his hand and I did take him up on that. “Whatever you decide, know that Eva, Luna and I are completely behind you. If you don’t want to have a relationship, you’ll have to do with just us anyway.”

  “Hmph.” He hummed. “Well, as much as I sometimes complain to or about y’all. You are pretty much all I need. Truly honored to have you all as friends of mine.”

  “Wow. The feeling is mutual, Gunny.”

  “I’m grateful it is.” He smiled and then continued trucking on.

  From the looks of it, the rest of the trek was going to be an uphill struggle. But Gunny and I weren’t going to lay down our heads so easily. It was actually rather refreshing as we were used to flat terrain for the most part.

  Trekking uphill brought along its own kind of challenges but almost an hour and a half after we had started going up, it was clear that our end-goal started to get nearer and nearer.

  “Do you think Ellie put the finish line on top of this hill?”

  “Must be.” I nodded and looked at my watch for a second. My heart rate was definitely elevated but well within manageable ranges. “We’ve been climbing for a while and I would assume that if we had to finish on flat ground in a valley, we’d already have had to start to descend.”

  “Okay. I take it we won’t have to walk too much anymore. It’s already getting pretty late.”

  “Don’t tell me you are tired already.” I grinned.

  Gunny looked back at me and stared me down. “Like you are going to tell me you aren’t starting to get tired yourself.”

  “Maybe a little.” I admitted.

  “Right.” Gunny turned back around and took a couple of big steps on top of some rocks onto yet another piece of elevated terrain. “But I have to say. I do think these soles are now showing what they are worth.”

  “Ah, so I was not alone in noticing that.” I smiled. While obviously we had gotten more tired since our midday break, I had started to notice that my legs and feet were being spared a lot of discomfort that normally would come with trekking through this kind of rough terrain. Especially in the later hours of a trek, this would have started to really show by now. “They definitely worked some magic into these. Will be really valuable for longer infantry operations.”

  “Yeah, exactly.” Gunny nodded and went on. “We will be able to keep up a way higher pace with these. Tired troops are slow troops.”

  “Very true.”

  Just as I said that, Gunny and I broke through the treeline, opening up into a wide open space. In front of us the top of the hill we had been climbing and beyond that a sea of green and blue. Forrest, big stretches of grassland and an ocean in the distance as well. The sun that had slowly been setting, reflecting on the waves, gave us a beautiful spectacle of light.

  “You have reached your destination.” Ellie spoke up from my holo stick.

  “Great spot to end the trek on, Ellie.” I replied with a smile.

  “Thank you, Commander. You two are ahead of schedule, do you want me to call the shuttle over already?”

  I looked over at Gunny who had dropped his bag and had sat down on a rock, overlooking the oceanside part of the hill.

  “No, I think we’ll stay here for just a little longer. I’ll call you when we want to get a pick-up.”

  “Alright, Commander.” Ellie’s voice disappeared from the radio, leaving us in the quiet again. Only the rustling of leaves and the sound of the distant ocean very silently reached us.

  I put down my bag and fished out four cans of chilled beer that I had hidden in a coolbox all the way at the bottom and approached my pal. I touched one of the cold cans against his shoulder to which he looked back, smiling as he saw what I was holding.

  “Where the hell did you keep those?”

  “My bag. Didn’t want to tell you I had them before or you would have drunk them four hours ago.” I replied and sat down next to him, handing him one of the cans. “They are low alcohol ones.”

  “I figured.” He popped it open. “But beer is beer, and this is one hell of a nice reward at the end of a long hike.”

  “I got some hotdogs as well that we can cook up.”

  Gunny looked at me as if I just invented sliced bread. “This is only getting better.”

  “I’ll grab them after this beer is done.” I cracked open my own can too. “To be honest, the hotdogs were Luna’s idea.”

  “How can anyone dislike her? Even if she’s a spy...” Gunny leant back happily. “Thank you, Lauren. This hike was a great idea.”

  “Any time.” I tipped the beer back and looked across the amazing sight in front of us. Something told me that the times ahead weren’t going to be as peaceful as this, at all. But that just convinced me more that we should grab the opportunity to have these moments when we could get them. Especially when you can help a friend with them.