It didn’t look like we’d gain faster than light travel from their technology in the very near future; if indeed it was such a craft. It could be from a planet in the system we were in; one of the outlying giants only a billion miles away. Someday we might know more; but that would probably mean they came and told us how it worked. I had to laugh a little at the very thought. To think that we couldn’t even tell if it was a faster than light ship; guess we just sort of wasted our time, though it was good to be aware that they might be our actual neighbors. I really didn’t like the thought but, there I was judging the book by its cover again; you’d think I’d have learned by now; you know, like, “Dragons?” I really need to work on that!
I shared the information with Meeza who hadn’t seen these creatures’ corpses; she thought they sounded frightening. Oddly, she recalled a myth about flying saucers in her own culture; in fact, very similar to the stories in our own concerning such craft; you know; abductions and all that; I began to wonder if these were the very same creatures from our own tales. Perhaps they couldn’t survive in a thin atmosphere like ours so never really bothered with our kind for that very reason. Well; it could be!
Having talked with the Captain, I decided to take a hike into the nearby forest in the foothills. Meeza and I packed some food for the day and I grabbed a Laze pistol, just to be on the safe side. I didn’t want to meet anything out there that wasn’t of a friendly nature without it. As a matter of fact I didn’t want to run into a hungry cat either; I thought our survival chances would be rather slim. I also put a headset in my pack, since the Captain wanted me to stay where he could reach me.
As we headed out the door we ran headlong into Hero, who was hurrying along on some personal errand with his young ones. I’d not seen them up till now; they were absolutely adorable little miniatures of himself. Unlike human children, they could already walk and talk a little; as a matter of fact, they spoke our language better than their father. Hero jumped up into my arms in his excitement. “Erwik!” He exclaimed. “When you back? We missed you; gone a long time.”
I was tempted to ask if he wanted the long or short version; but knew he wouldn’t get it, so instead I told him; “Been to your old world and brought back some of the people from the village we went to.”
He looked at Meeza and then said. “It’s a she like Mogi?” He seemed proud to have seen the difference as he was confused by it the last time I had talked with him. “She’s very pretty with you,” he said. “You bring all of those back?” he asked, gesturing toward the new complex. “You bring any like me yet?”
I hadn’t realized he wanted more of his people. “You have friends you want here?” I asked him.
“Ten from my pack, if Vortlebeasts not eat them all.” I was surprised at his having made a term of his own for the barbarians. “Miss them sometimes; they would like my {a word I couldn’t understand or say but obviously meant children} Neuaches; they would offer gifts for them, like food and clothing and help teach them to hide in trees.”
“They won’t have to hide here.” I told him. “I will talk to the Captain and see if you can go on one of the ships to try and find them.” I promised. I would make that trip myself if I could get permission, because I knew we would not be very welcomed by the Togii; I hoped they were too busy restoring their village to have taken their anger out on Hero’s people.
“Go soon I hope,” he said to me. I couldn’t believe how much of our language he now spoke and told him so. “Roger and Nettie spent a lot of time teaching me and my Neuaches.”
“We talk better,” said one. “I’m Click and he’s Clack; Angie named us cause we were cute,” he said proudly. I had to laugh; they were in fact very cute.
“I’ll talk to the Captain when we come back from a trip in the forest.” I promised.
“You be very careful in forest; nobody knows what’s there yet,” said Clack; who’d apparently been warned sternly about wandering there himself.
“I promise to be very careful and to take you there sometime when we know it’s safe.” I offered. They were overjoyed at the prospect. “I will appreciate to go with you then,” said Hero mournfully. “I miss living with the trees, even if I can’t drink from them,” he said a little sadly.
“Perhaps we can bring some of your trees here to see if they’ll grow,” I said, hoping that it wouldn’t be a problem. Actually I thought we had some at the lab but thought it best not to mention it until I knew if there was a problem with bringing them here for fear that they would take over the forests or something like that. One has to be careful introducing a new species to any world. That seemed to please them at any rate; the future would take care of itself in that regard.
I was still hanging on the statement about Nettie and Roger teaching them to talk but didn’t want to ask about it.
We started out across the fields toward the forest just north of town; it was an absolutely gorgeous day and I was as happy as was it possible to be. Meeza held my hand as we walked briskly for a time until we reached the edge of the fields. After that we strolled a little more leisurely though still alertly. We walked for about half an hour more until we came to a stream; at least we knew there was water that was safe to drink, so we wouldn’t have to carry water other than one canteen full at a time.
We followed the stream for a couple of miles until we came to a small water fall; there we set out a bit of food for ourselves and ate it leisurely. It’s a strange thing; how much better food tastes when you’re in the woods and everything is peaceful. It was as nice as the places we use to walk to near her old village.
“I think I could grow to love it here.” Meeza said out of the blue. “This is just like home except it’s a lot warmer. If we got stranded here we wouldn’t freeze to death before morning.” She laughed.
“I was just thinking the same general thing.” I confessed. “I was also thinking how lucky I was to have you with me. I think I could be happy in a desert as long as I was with you.”
“You’d better get use to feeling that way,” she warned me jokingly. “I’m not too likely to let you go, you know.” She was looking at me in an extremely provocative way and I realized that we were going to make love right there, right then. I laughed a little to myself as I thought; and the camera cuts to the curtains blowing gently in the window like an old time movie.
“What were you giggling about?” She asked almost knowingly. So I gave her the short version of the story though she’d only recently seen her first movie; and then she giggled, too. It was the perfect setting for that sort of thing, and I enjoyed her more every minute of every day.
Later that day we followed the stream a little further until we came to another little waterfall. It was warm and we stripped down and went for a swim; then lay in the sun until we were dry. It was mid afternoon when we started back. It was so quiet you could literally hear your heart beat. The breeze seemed to have died completely; there were a few dark clouds suddenly rolling across the sky. The distant rumble of thunder sounded and rapidly became louder and closer.
“We’d better find some place to take cover,” Meeza said, looking at the sky. Having seen a few storms now I tended to agree with her. We’d passed a cave a little way back on the way upstream; “We’ll duck in there,” I said. “I wanted to check it out anyway.”
As we approached it the rain started; big splashy drops and then the wind picked up and it was falling sideways. We ducked into the cave and I dug a light out of my pack. The nook was damp and musty with moss growing everywhere; and the floor sloped down and in so that in no time at all the floor was getting soggy. The water rose around our feet and we had to move back to the entrance where the ground was higher.
“Not the greatest place to stay out of the rain,” I complained.
“There’s something in here with us,” said Meeza very quietly, voice shaking a little.
I flashed my light around the cave and there to the rear on a ledge sat a very large cat creature just staring at
us.
“A real Tersine!” Gasped Meeza as I drew my pistol from my holster. “No!” She put her hand on my arm and pushed the pistol down. “It’s bad luck to kill a Tersine; they’re supposed to be our friends, at least according to our legends. That was what Nippa use to say, but none of us had ever seen one.” She was gazing at the creature with awe; the cat just looked languidly at us with wide yellow eyes. In the darkness of the cave it was hard to see how big he was, but from his front paws I had the feeling he was enormous.
“I hope he knows he’s a friend,” I said, holding my fire, but not putting my Laze pistol away. “If he leaves us alone; I’ll leave him alone.” I told Meeza.
I couldn’t believe that the Tersine was content to sit and watch us; maybe the myths weren’t altogether wrong. At least, perhaps they weren’t as aggressive as I had first feared. Or maybe he just didn’t want to get his feet wet; I know that’s true of our pet cats. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness in the cave I could see that he was indeed a spectacularly big and beautiful creature, and almost coal black; so black that in my light he shone like blue, purple and red rainbow hues. He must have been three or four hundred pounds, with muscles that rippled under the skin when he stretched and lowered his head to his paws.
Meeza was talking softly to him; he seemed to be paying attention to her; then he yawned and settled down and closed his eyes. I was in shock. This thing could easily tear us to shreds and yet he really did give the impression that he wouldn’t hurt us. I didn’t, however feel inclined to put my weapon away, but I would really hate to kill it. I remembered the one we shot at the coast that got up a few minutes later and walked away. I wondered now if it was anything other than curious about us then. By appearance it could easily be the same Tersine; though probably not.
The rain continued to pour down until it began to get dark. “I’m tired.” yawned Meeza. “Maybe we’ll be stuck here all night.”
“I could keep watch on our friend while you catch a nap.” I offered. “When the rain stops, I’ll wake you and we’ll go somewhere to set up the tent; or I could call someone to come and get us if you don’t want to stay here.”
“I could just lay on the moss on that ledge over there on the left side; it looks dry enough. She said. “I have a thin blanket in my pack.”
“I’ll sit next to you and keep you safe,” I said as I helped her pull the blanket out and spread it on the moss.
“Wow, it’s really comfortable; the moss is as soft as a mattress.” She sighed as she snuggled down. All I wanted to do was lay down with her, but I was too concerned about what the Tersine would do if I weren’t awake; so I sat there with the light on dim to save power, in case we were stuck there all night. The sound of the rain was soothing and soon Meeza’s breathing got regular and just as soothing as the rain. You know how it is when you’ve just eaten and made love and then had all those soothing sounds.
I woke up to the sun rising and casting light into the cave entrance. I felt something warm and furry against my cheek and suddenly realized that the Tersine was curled up around us and was the reason I wasn’t cold. his tail was curled over me and touching my cheek; Meeza seemed to be snuggled right up against the big cat.
I moved very slowly, realizing that I had dropped my Laze pistol and couldn’t reach it without disturbing the Tersine; I wasn’t sure what to do. Damn, some guard I made. I’ll protect you; yeah, right! I was thoroughly disgusted with myself and that still didn’t solve my problem. Finally I decided I just had to get up and get my gun; if I survived then I probably didn’t need it anyway. As it happened, I slid off the ledge and grabbed up the gun. As I did, the Tersine lifted his head and looked at me. Then he just yawned and snuggled right back down to sleep. Meeza hadn’t budged; she was breathing softly and looked quite content.
I holstered my Laze pistol, perplexed by this strange turn of events, and went outside and built a small camp fire. By the time I’d done that Meeza came out and joined me.
“He kept us warm all night,” she said. “Who’d have believed they were so friendly?”
“Well, at least this one is,” I mumbled, still uncertain.
The Tersine came out and curled up near the fire. “I think we’ve got a new friend.” Meeza commented, and I had to agree, as strange as it was. We ate a little breakfast of dried meat, cheese and biscuits; we shared some of the Yak meat with the Tersine. When we’d finished we started back toward town. Problem was that our Tersine was coming with us. We paused, and he paused. We began walking again and he trotted along beside Meeza.
“Good heavens; we can’t possibly take him into the village. We have no idea how he’ll be if he gets hungry there. And he’ll scare everyone to death.” I truly had no idea how to turn him away.
“I think he is a she,” said Meeza observantly. “And she needs a name at least. We’ll call her Sasha, it means dark one in my language; I think it fits, don’t you?”
“Of course it fits, she couldn’t be darker; but that doesn’t solve the problem of what to do with her,” I said in a bit of a quandary.
“Maybe she won’t follow us in all the way; you know, like she might not want to be in that much activity. Of course, if she stays with us, we’ll have to build a place at the edge of town.” Meeza said logically, and looking rather fondly at Sasha. Actually, I thought it was a really great idea.
I thought I’d best call the Captain and tell him of the situation so that he could discuss with Mayor Jordan, Nettie’s father; he might not, in light of recent events, be inclined to help us. Arthur was generally a fairly reasonable man but I wasn’t sure how he’d taken the recent events that had affected his daughter’s life. Then I thought about it and considered, perhaps, he might have been glad I wouldn’t be his son in law!
It was about an hour later that Capt. Pierce called me back. “We’re having a small prefab thrown together for you and your pet, with a back yard that faces toward the forest so that the beast can leave if it wants to. Art agreed with me that this creature really needs to be observed and studied, since there are more of them likely to turn up over a period of time. We need to know that their behavior is predictable enough for the public; that is that we really needn’t fear them.”
“I’ll have to go into an area where there are more of them in order to find out how others of her kind react to our presence,” I told him. Then I proceeded to tell him of our previous run in with the one on the coast. “We didn’t wait to see what it would do because it looked so threatening we thought it had to be dangerous. Now we don’t know if it was going to attack or not,” I confessed.
“Well; no real harm done since it lived; and I think this is a really excellent chance to find out what we need to know. I’m going to have a land vehicle put at your disposal so that you can make a land trip into the hills and be able to take the cat with you. I suspect it would be risky to try to take it in a ship, but I hope it’ll take to an open land vehicle.”
I thought the Captain’s logic was sound and agreed to stay in the forest with the Tersine until evening, by which time the temporary structure would be in place. Also, Capt Pierce was going to have my mother and a couple of my friends move our few belongings to the new house. Actually, I was very excited about the new turn of events and I could tell that Meeza was feeling the same. Oddly, it was exactly what we’d both been talking about—a slightly more rustic and natural existence.
We spent the next six hours exploring and wandering slowly back toward the town so as to be there by dusk. There were a lot of other observations we made during our excursion that would come in handy later, like where there were other caves that could be potential stop over places for other Tersine, and where there were good fresh water springs, and animal trails that looked to be frequently used, not to mention minerals that were available without having to synthesize them. All of these things could be beneficial for the future of the colony. As a point of interest; there was a stream in which there were abundant amounts of real gold; wouldn’
t that have made early explorers happy in the days before synthetics! Even still, natural was heavily favored just because it was natural.
I had to remember to talk with the Captain about Hero’s request; in all the excitement I had forgotten my promise. Meeza promised to remind me; she felt it important also. All the while, Sasha continued to not only travel with us, but even to lead us on better paths than we’d have otherwise chosen for ourselves, sometimes by leading the way and others times by less subtly nudging us gently with the top of her head. She even tried to stop us from taking a path that turned out to be a blind alley, into a box canyon. (We realized after that we should probably listen to her.) She displayed an amazing amount of intelligence; you’d almost think she was telepathic; people often think the same of dogs and cats and who knows for sure?
As we were meandering through the forest we saw the Tersine grab a meal out of the lower branches of a tree. It was one of the rodents we called Ratbits that was unfortunate enough to choose a low branch to take a nap on. Sasha bent the front of her body back in a way that allowed her to keep four feet on the ground while the two front feet and her front third of her body went parallel with the tree trunk. It was a very un-cat like move; she apparently had a special joint in her spine. She used two paws almost like hands to grab the ratbit and stuff it in her mouth. It was very efficient and was over for the ratbit in a few seconds. Sasha walked along the length of the branch looking for any more snacks and it was the first time we saw her walk on just the rear four legs while her front end remained vertical. She gave the appearance of a feline centaur. She was about as tall as I was in that position, standing almost five feet tall; her overall length was more than six feet, but her legs were only about two feet long; not quite the proportions on any of the cat family from Earth. I knew that the main diet of these creatures were the Yak, from the bones we saw around the cave where we had seen several of these Tersine on our earlier expedition; so I knew that feeding Sasha wouldn’t be a problem; except possibly getting enough.
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