by Vicky L Holt
They gasped. Hivelt stood to his full height. “Natheka. You said this son of a kathe was noble.”
I growled. “You would have done differently?” I challenged them all. “You would have done the ritual of raxfathe instead? On a female no bigger than one of our children?”
Hivelt backed off, his frown a deep groove, and turned his head away. He spat on the ground and then spoke to me. “You impugn my honor? We abide by the same beliefs. Even the spies of Makathel earn the privilege of fighting to the death before receiving raxfathe.”
“Perhaps I should have told you earlier,” I said. “However, I will allow no one to touch her.”
Raxkarax gaped at me with horror. “You are not going to mate with her?”
My eyes widened. “What nonsense do you speak? I have a ship and a piece of prime land on Ikshe!” I shook my hair fronds. How could I make them understand what this soft traveler was to me, when I didn’t understand it myself? “She bested the younger sister agothe-fax.”
Raxthezana cocked his head, surprised.
“I wish to make peace with her,” I said. “She may never leave Ikthe now. But she will become a mighty hunter. I will teach her.”
Hivelt snickered.
I ignored him.
“Well then,” Natheka said. “Where is this legendary female?”
I felt my skin darken with warmth. “I have to find her.”
Their laughs rumbled the ground beneath my feet. Hivelt doubled over and guffawed. “The Mighty Hunter has lost his prey!”
I growled and stalked off into the ikfal. Let them be eaten by a rokhura.
27
I was lying to myself if I said I didn’t want to meet him. I wondered about his face without the terrifying helmet. He had two arms and two legs, so I couldn’t imagine his face would be that different. I saw two eyes. Maybe he had like, six nostrils or something. Or a mouthful of shark teeth. Musing about the way death planet evolved had me thinking about the creatures I’d met so far. The spiders hunted in twos. So did the snakes. I never counted the wasps. When they swarmed, it was somewhat pointless. Maybe with the two suns, Mother Nature decided to pair stuff up. Eh, I wasn’t a biologist.
Now, the rocks? That was a different story. An antibacterial cave pretty much meant high salt deposits, as well as the presence of halite and sodium. In fact, I bet that pool was mostly salt, too. A water wash must run through the cave every so often. Maybe every fifty revolutions around the sun. That explained the rimstone dam, a formation that looked like rippling rock, but was, in fact, outgassed water leaving mineral precipitate behind to crystallize. The water carved out the walls and shot through the tunnels. There was high probability the source was not that far away.
I had seen the black mountain range in the distance. There could be obsidian in those mountains. If I could find more basalt, then that meant there was a huge tunnel system underneath. I’d have to sic VELMA on some seismic readings closer to the mountains. If any of those were active volcanoes, then using the cave systems could end up a deadly exercise. I was almost itching to study the rocks here. Now the beacon was up, I didn’t have much time. Two weeks, tops. I knew the computer told me we hurtled through space for five light-years. But I didn’t believe someplace like this wasn’t charted by somebody. There had to be someone out there. Maybe not the Lucidity, but what about other Interplanetary Unification ships? I hoped.
I scraped my lip with my teeth as I walked through chest-high grass. I’d come out of another tunnel, still thinking and staring at the distant mountain range. I mean, I didn’t have time to do an all-out geological dig, but I could at least gather some samples. I could put together a little prospectus, too. Some kind of a, I don’t know, likelihood of profitable rocks present. Something Intergalactic Mining Conglomerate could use. They needed me. Enough to come find me. Keep telling yourself that, Esra. Speaking of rocks, it felt like I swallowed one. I blinked away a tear.
I stepped in something super smooshy.
“Aw VELMA!” I yelled. “You could have used your poop scanner to warn me about this!”
“I was told the excrement scanner was itself a piece of excrement.”
“I was mad, okay? Oh my gosh, seriously! Yuck.” I tried wiping my boot off in the grasses. It was a sticky mess. “That’s it. Where’s that lake you told me about?”
By now, both suns were up and judging by their angle, it was about eleven-ish in the morning.
“After compiling thousands of data hits from charted planetary systems and their supported life, I insist it is inadvisable for you to visit the lake, as it is eighty-nine percent probable it is a gathering place for several different creatures, many of which could be fatal to you.”
“I know, but I just stepped in this stupid pile of crap you could have told me about.” I grimaced, inspecting my boot.
The lake appeared in my visor map. It was a good two hundred feet away.
“Thank you.”
I changed course, dragging my foot to try and rub more residue off. Thank goodness I couldn’t smell anything. I shuddered.
“VELMA, activate the infrasound scan.”
The lake came into view. I stopped short, just gazing at the teal water. It was so clear I could see the smooth rocks beneath the surface. The variety of colors hinted at a flourishing geological history. I detected unakite and granite just at a glance. Many water-tumbled rocks were orange, suggesting either rust-corroded iron, or perhaps a member of the garnet family. A wide sandy beach stretched for a half mile. The rusty sand shifted to the multi-colored pebbles of wave-crashed stone. The lake stretched as far as the eye could see with the tufts of trees or brush showing on the horizon, forming either an island or promontory from the other side. My brain fired with the possibilities. Beneath the sky that changed from blue to orange on a whim, the lake was striking in its beauty.
“At the moment, there are no vertebrates nearby. It is advisable you complete your task post-haste.”
“Gah! VELMA, give me a minute,” I said. “That’s why AI never took over the world, you know. You’re not curious enough.” I took in one more panoramic view, then activated the ballast mode of my suit. I walked straight out into the water, filling my auto-filter canister as I went.
The water sloughed off the dirt and residue and grime from the last few days. I walked deeper and deeper, enjoying the gentle slope downward. With the clear water, I could see where the drop-off was, and I stopped. The fish were disappointingly similar to Earth fish. I guessed when an evolutionary edge worked, Mother Nature used it. They had dorsal fins and eyes on either side of their heads. They darted in schools and shimmered in the dappled sunlight underwater right in front of my helmet.
I stared out into the darker part of the lake. I was curious to the point of hoping nothing waited for me in ambush. I didn’t know if my suit could withstand stomach acids, after all. I turned around and walked back up to the shore, breaking the surface of the water with my helmet.
“I sense the presence of several reptiles of enormous size.”
Schist and Galvanite.
The dinos were back. They scuffled. I grabbed the telescopic monocle at my helmet’s left and zoomed in to see a huge herd of grass-eating animals. It was the first I had seen them. They were monstrous and so numerous the reptiles weren’t even making a dent. The dinosaurs were harassing one edge of the herd, driving the herbivores into a panic. They stampeded. Straight for the water.
“Oh crap!” I turned and dove back in, toggling the boots’ ballast switch so I could swim underwater instead of sinking to the lake floor. I needed to go a bit over the drop-off. I hoped some nightmarish version of the megalodon was not in the lake. I swam fast and turned around to see the hairy beasts churn up the rocks and sand, muddying the water. They were so thick; I could no longer see the shore. How long was I stuck here? I searched behind me, fearing any moment some death planet form of crocodile or shark or Portuguese Man O’ War was going to bite me in the butt. Or swallow me whole
. I treaded water and gulped air a little irresponsibly.
“Please remain calm to avoid hypoxemia. Deep, even breaths,” VELMA said in my ear. I took a deep breath.
I could get trampled underwater ahead of me or face an unknown death behind. I didn’t like my choices. I couldn’t see into the abyss. If the spiders here were as big as our personal electric cars, how big were the whales? “VELMA, what does the subsonic scan say?”
“A large mammal is swimming toward the herd from the drop-off.”
“I don’t see anything,” I said, looking in all directions, but hindered by the parts of my helmet that weren’t clear.
“A large mammal is approaching at a rapid rate of speed.”
“I’m not seeing it, VELMA,” my voice rose in panic. My eyes flashed everywhere, still nothing. “VELMA, help a girl out.”
“Sinus tachycardia detected,” VELMA announced. “Remain calm to prevent neurogenic shock.”
“Tell me something I don’t know! Like where in the hell is this so-called …”
There! A blur so big it created a huge shadow in the water. I couldn’t make out a color. There was no color. It was every color. What the hell was it? I gasped for air, even though there was plenty in my suit. It was mammoth. It was silvery one minute, clear the next. The camouflage on this thing was incredible. A huge maw gaped open and grappled with one of the shaggy animals.
“Oh. Mica. Galvanite.”
Flashes of dappled sunlight revealed a torpedo-shaped snout the size of my pod’s nose cone. Yeah. And then white sabers snagged the back legs of an unfortunate land animal. I watched with gaping mouth and wide eyes as the legs snapped and blood clouded the water. Then the animal was gone, and the lake creature disappeared before my eyes.
“Oh, hell no,” I muttered. “That was devilry. I’m leaving.”
I had to take my chances with the stampeding herd. I was not getting sawed in half by that shark demon from hell.
I swam toward the fumbling legs of the beasts.
“It is inadvisable you approach the nervous herd. Given time, all will disperse, opening a safe passage to the emergency egress pod.”
“Patience is not my strong suit,” I argued, and pressed my way between huge limbs.
“I have witnessed this to be true,” VELMA responded.
No time for talking. I needed to be farther away from the drop-off. The animals were as large as elephants. The pristine water was a muddy mess now. There was no room to navigate between the huge bodies. I puzzled it out. What if …?
I made my way to one of the submerged beasts and grabbed hold of the long hair. I pulled myself up and up until I was balancing on its back like a surfboard. I could see across several backs, all the way to shore. The muddied water swirled around the mammoths as they jockeyed back and forth, trying to avoid being eaten. I didn’t blame them.
The screams of the prey summoned even more of the dino-beasts. They tore into their victims with relish, feasting without prejudice.
I sat with both hands grasping clumps of animal hair and both legs straddling the beast. I could sense its muscles bunching beneath me. She was jostled on either side by her frantic neighbors. The dinosaurs were lost in their frenzied eating. I counted around fifteen dinosaurs and estimated four mammoths down. It was hard to see them through the tearing claws and teeth of the reptiles.
If I used these hairy elephants like stepping stones, I could make my way to the north side of the meadow, right by the cave entrances. I could go back to the cave and wait out the buffet.
“Heart rate stabilized,” VELMA said. “I have learned this indicates you have a plan.”
“You could say that,” I said between breaths. “Thanks for noticing.”
A big beast rammed into the side of my ride, smashing my leg between their two bodies. I shouted and yanked my leg out. I had to stand on the broad back if I was going to do this. But I needed help. The IGMC Galvanite Mech-Drill was outfitted with some amazing tech. I wondered if my suit had anything like it.
“VELMA, does my suit have a gyroscope?”
“Engaged. I hope your plan works.”
I found my balance and tried to stand. A little green indicator light showed my orientation on the upper right side of my visor. So far, so good. I would have to let go of the animal’s fur now. With an eye out for the reptiles, I let go and held my arms straight out to shift my center of mass. The furry beasts were restless but starting to calm. My weight didn’t seem to register with the beast I was perched on. I would have to jump about four feet to reach the back of the next one. And so on.
“VELMA, tell me when to jump so I land on the back of the next animal.” I didn’t give her time to argue with me; I took a couple small steps.
“Now.” I landed with a whoosh, almost overcompensating but windmilling my arms. I took a couple more steps. “Now.” Yes! Landed it. I kept going, jumping closer and closer to the side of the meadow. Behind me, the dinosaurs were still occupied. “Now.”
Three more jumps. “Now. Now.”
I looked back. And the biggest, meanest dinosaur of them all was looking straight at me. “Aw shit.”
“I take your reference to excrement to mean your plan has failed.”
“Nope. It means Plan A just morphed into Plan Haul Ass.”
28
We entered the agothe-faxl cave one by one, our armor shaving the inside of the cave walls. Hivelt did not fit. He dug the floor deeper using his raxtheza. The rest of us said nothing, valuing our appendages.
We came to the cavern where the dead agothe-fax lay, not far from her sister’s ashes.
“Idiots,” Hivelt said once he joined us in the larger room. “You have tramped about all over the tracks. We will be lucky to find one print of the female now.”
I frowned. In my haste to see her again … “We will wait for you, Hivelt.”
He shoved between us without ceremony and scoured the ground. We were silent, as if noise would also disturb the tracks left by the female.
“She knelt by your boot print and placed her hand next to it. She would do well to be frightened of Theraxl.”
My heart trembled against its cage once more. I willed it to stop. With little success.
“This way.”
Hivelt bid us walk as close to the wall as allowed, that we might not disturb her tracks further. I noticed where she scraped mineral off the wall, yet there was little dust upon the floor. Why would she collect it? The passage led down into the darkest part of the cave. But when we turned the corner, we saw a pool of water with the johohishe Shegoshel, little water suns.
“She bathed,” Hivelt announced.
Raxthezana snorted. “The Mighty Tracker pronounces a bath near a pool of water!” Hivelt took a step toward Raxthezana who bowed deeply. In mockery or apology, I couldn’t discern.
I neared the water’s edge and crouched. “She has strange feet.”
The others joined me, careful not to step on the tracks.
“She is no bigger than a child,” Raxkarex noted. “I can see why you would refuse the flaying and disemboweling ritual.”
I swallowed bile but said nothing.
“Very small,” agreed Hivelt. “Perhaps she is a child of her race.”
“I thought so at first,” I said. “But there was maturity in her eyes. She is adult.”
“Let’s find her then,” Natheka announced. “We will discover her business on Ikthe.”
“Indeed,” said Hivelt. He turned to go.
My cagey little traveler left by a different tunnel. No one voiced their curiosity. How was she not lost in the maze of tunnels?
We came to the exit, marking the path she took through the grasses. She was headed to her vehicle. I was about to say as much when Hivelt howled with laughter.
Our eyes shot to him.
“She stepped in a pile of kathe and immediately changed direction!”
“She must be from an intelligent race, then,” I said. “She is headed for the wat
er.” The others chuckled, but I had an uneasy feeling in my gut once more. “Let us make haste,” I said. “The lake is a gathering place for the grass-eaters and the rokhura.”
Hivelt scowled at me but said nothing. My brethren owed no allegiance to the female. “I would see her alive again,” I explained to them and ran toward the lake.
We felt the rumble in our boots as we drew near a hill. We crested the hill to a magnificent sight. Hundreds of grass-eaters huddled in a giant mass, more than half of them milling in the water while a frantic few brayed at the loss of their younglings. No less than fourteen rokhura snapped their jaws through the meat and bones of the fallen grass-eaters. But one.
He was charging a running grass-eater.
And standing on its back was my little traveler, a bunch of fur clutched in one hand while the other aimed forward. I used my sight-capture to zoom in on her expression. Her eyes were wide, her brow raised. I zoomed in one more veltik. Her mouth resembled a laugh, a smiling shout. My heart gave a single, powerful thud. She bore the face of terror and exhilaration. She was magnificent to behold.
“Raxkarax, take point!” I said as Hivelt and I took the rearward. “Natheka and Raxthezana, flank us!” We would funnel the galloping grass-eater into our group to protect the female, and then we would kill the rokhura. I trusted them to leave any punishment to me. She was mine. “Do not send the sight-capture of this fight!” I yelled to my brethren. Whether or not they agreed with me, they obeyed.
The charging grass-eater would spook upon seeing us rise from the grass, but the traveler had a tight hold upon its long ears. With surprising skill, she guided it into our funnel, then we closed ranks behind it, facing the lone rokhura.
With a primeval rumble we felt through our armor, it faced us as all rokhura do: with malice and war. Hivelt attacked first, sending a flying blade into the swollen orange sac at its throat. Natheka darted behind the crazed beast and severed the hamstrings of its back leg. Raxthezana and Raxkarax fought against its thrashing tail and clawing arms. Hivelt and I stabbed at its abdomen as it fell, ensuring it would never rise again. I threw a leery eye toward the hungry pack, but the rest were still devouring their prizes. We watched its black blood soak into the trampled ground.