The formal part of the evening was now over. The rest of the night would belong to pleasure.
Nuku and Isla left their chitons where they had fallen. Satiated they joined the others making their way outside. She caught sight of Prax and Ana, also naked, Prax still gloriously erect (no doubt aided by stimulants), and joined them. Ana reached for Nuku and kissed her, her passion yet to be exhausted. Rather than be affronted, Isla in turn kissed Ana and then turned her attentions to Prax, signalling her intention that they join as a foursome, playfully and shamelessly admiring his erection by touching and stroking it. Prax did not object. They all held hands as they walked out onto the vast courtyard of the Common and the sky burst into a glorious fireworks display. The finale was a brilliant flash of light followed by the ground-shaking roar of a massive sonic boom. Nuku couldn’t believe what happened next. It was a masterstroke. A drukh class jumper had returned in the upper atmosphere sending out a massive quantum shock wave with the power of a nuclear explosion and the brilliance of the midday sun. It was an impressive display of Eden’s power and the crowd loved it.
Biyu cuddled Zoe from behind as they looked out from a balcony. From their vantage point they could see the fireworks reflected in the waters of the bay. When the final explosion shook the building Zoe trembled with fear and Biyu, unaware of Zoe’s reaction, laughed hysterically from the thrill and audacity of the display. She imagined a fleet of drukh exploding into the upper atmosphere of Earth. The poor Terrans would shit themselves and think it was the end of the world.
73
Akoi and David
Akoi was amazed at how calm David appeared. She was a nervous wreck. There had been much discussion about the psychological impact of exploring a new planet, but nothing could prepare a person for the actual event. Everyone reacted differently. It wasn’t that she expected to be attacked. It was more a combination of awe, excitement and a primal fear. On the one hand everything seemed familiar. They were walking along a creek bed. The water was behaving just like Earth water. There were rocks, river sediment and sand. The geology seemed the same. Even the plants seemed relatively normal: grasses, shrubs, bushes, trees. Yet they were still strange, unfamiliar. The colour palette could account for some of the disorientation, not that there weren’t purple grasses on Earth and trees with red or yellow leaves. It was the general absence of green. On Earth colour variation generally occurred within a predominantly green palette. Here green was more the exception. On Earth leaves were green and flowers were coloured, here leaves were coloured and flowers might be green.
She was glad of his presence. The pairing had been deliberate. She was good at spotting a large predator attack and responding quickly, instinctively. If something large came lumbering out of the bush like a rogue elephant she would know how to respond. David was good at spotting small dangers: snakes, spiders, poisonous and poisonous plants. He watched the water a lot. In northern Australia the top order predator was the saltwater crocodile. The only way it could be detected was by watching the surface of the water for small currents caused by the swish of its tail or by spotting its eyes protruding above the surface before it saw you. He was convinced that any top order predator would come from the water - from rivers or the sea. She had to agree. There were almost no signs of large grazing herds and therefore no sign of the types of predators that might evolve to feed off them.
He saw the creatures before she did. He merely stopped, held up his hand in the universal signal and pointed into the undergrowth. She didn’t know what to look for. He hadn’t raised his gun, so she was unconcerned. Then she saw it, a slow movement of twigs. She looked down to see if something was pushing through to cause the movement, then she realised it was actually the twigs themselves.
“What is it?” she whispered.
“Biggest fucking stick insect I ever saw,” he said in his characteristic blunt manner.
“You worried?”
“Nuh,” he said moving forward slowly and gently like the tracker he was. “There’s more than one,” he said gesturing for her to join him. She walked as carefully as she could. She had none of the close-quarter stealth of the jungle hunter. She killed from a distance.
The creatures were hard to understand. Some of its extensions seemed solely for camouflage and others were articulated, either for moving or reaching. They seemed to be feeding off a cluster of small, orange berries. David reached gingerly forward to grab one of the berries. “Careful,” she warned reaching for her knife.
“I’m not sure they can see us. I can’t really see eyes. They may use smell.”
“Then they must be able to smell you?”
“Maybe, and maybe they don’t recognise it. Remember, we are the aliens here. Perhaps we are invisible to them.”
He crushed the berries between his fingers and smelled the juice.
“David, are you sure?” Akoi cautioned.
“No, but when my ancestors first walked on the strange new land of Australia they had to find food. There are clear signs that foods are toxic: a bitter or rancid smell. But if one creature eats it, it’s at least an indication it might be okay for others.”
She deferred to his greater knowledge. He was expert at finding what he called bush tucker and could live off the land for weeks.
“It has a high sugar content,” he said handing her a berry.
She crushed one and smelled. She gasped as he put a drop on his tongue. “David, the protocol.”
He laughed. “I was hired for a reason. It is my professional opinion that this is worth noting as a potential food source. A bit bitter, like a cross between lime and gooseberry. I’ll bag some, but I’d guess it has a high ascorbic acid content.” He took a mouthful of water and swished it around his mouth before spitting it out.
They continued on their way carefully until they came out onto a small beach framed by rocky outcrops on either side.
“Which direction?” she asked.
He shrugged his shoulders. “Dunno, anything that comes out of the water will either choose a beach or rocks. If they are cannibal penguins they’ll use the beach.”
“Cannibal penguins?” she asked with a small laugh.
“Yeah man, or vampire seals, and seals prefer rocks,” he said smiling broadly.
“Rocks it is then,” she said.
They turned left and clambered up on dark, volcanic rocks. When they came over a small rise they were confronted by a broad rocky plateau dotted with multiple tidal rock pools, and beyond that, a long, pale pink beach stretching kilometres into the distance.
“Pink sand – beautiful,” said Akoi.
David ignored her comment.
“I wonder if all of this planet’s beaches are pink?”
“Unlikely. Earth beaches come in a variety of colours and shades, even pink. I’m sure there’s a good reason.”
Akoi sighed. It wasn’t the point.
“The rock pools should tell us a lot, but be careful. In my country the deadliest things are found in rock pools.”
“Yeah, I remember something about a jellyfish…”
“The Irukandji: named after the tribe who lived where it was first officially recorded by whitefellas, even though we’d known about for thousands of years. But there’s also the cone shellfish, a marine snail – people pick them up because they often have pretty shells. Then there’s the blue ringed octopus and the stonefish. Step on any of those fuckers and you are history.”
“So, you’re not really concerned about cannibal penguins?”
He laughed. “Maybe. As I said I reckon our main threat is out there,” he said pointing to the sea. “I mean, it may not be deadly, but it may be a nuisance. Every year Christmas Island is overrun by red crabs, millions of them heading to the sea to breed. That’s another threat, something like soldier ants in the Amazon.”
“Herd behaviour, eating everything in its path?”
They picked their way across the rocks, stopping to inspect rock pools filled with weeds, small fish
, worms and unidentified oddities.
“The sea will hopefully be a good source of protein. I can’t wait to go under and have a good look.”
“Under?”
He nodded and sniffed the breeze, then bent down and wet his hand, licking the drops of water. “Not as salty as Earth oceans… You’ve never been diving have you?”
“I’m an inland creature,” she said. “Swimming is not my strong point.”
“We’ll have to change that. I reckon we’ll need to rely on the sea until we get some form of agriculture going, like all island people.”
“Fishermen?”
“Or fisherwomen, like the pearl divers of Japan… very skilled. They could hold their breath for a long time and dive quite deep. Maybe we should speak to Li about genetic enhancements – turn us into dolphins.”
“We’ll see,” she said giving a small shudder.
They walked onto the beach and continued silently for ten minutes, David’s eyes carefully scanning the sand for signs of tracks and Akoi scanning the sky and the tree line. After a while David turned and pointed back down the beach.
“Notice anything?” he asked.
She turned and looked. In the distance a flock of flyers headed out to sea. “I guess that means they feed off fish.”
“No, not them. Look, the first human footprints. I haven’t noticed a thing otherwise, no snake trails, no bird footprints, no croc tracks, no strange markings of any kind.”
“You think the New Zealand hypothesis stands?”
He sat down and started to remove his boots. “Yep, I see no threat. I need to look closer at the water line.”
She sighed. She was nervous but had to agree. “I’ll stand guard then.”
He started to roll up his trousers. “Don’t worry about that,” she said. “I won’t mind and there are no police to arrest you.”
“True,” he acknowledged. He stripped completely and waded out to the water carrying only his knife. She couldn’t help but admire his lean and muscular form and realised that if he ever wanted to fuck her, she wouldn’t mind, except for the fact that Li Li seemed to have caught his eye – for the moment. At the water’s edge he squatted, dug the knife into the sand and turned it over. He looked closely, reached down and pulled out a small worm, put it back and then waded out to waist height. He yelled back, “it’s warm, typical tropical temperature. Come on in.”
She looked about nervously. It was a broad and empty beach. The skies were empty. Reason suggested she stay as lookout, but instinct told her it was perfectly safe. If anything were going to attack them it would have done so by now. She had the authority to decide and it was decision time. It certainly looked inviting and she was sweating in the heat. She relented, stripped and joined David in the water.
“What were you looking at before?” she asked as she drew close.
He looked at her and she thought he might comment on her tribal scarification but he said nothing. Perhaps he was used to such things. Didn’t Australian Aborigines practice ritual scarification?
“I saw a small air bubble in the sand. Back home we dig up pippies on the beach. They’re like small mussels. But it was just a type of sand worm feeding off small particles of food washed up in the waves. I’m going under. Don’t worry, not far.” He pointed to a dark patch of colour on the ocean bed. “Looks like sea grass.”
He went under and she watched his dark body head toward the grass under the pale azure water. She kept her eyes peeled for signs of anything swimming toward him, but there was nothing. He poked his head up further out. “It’s fine. Pretty ordinary: sandy bottom, a few swimmers of various kinds. Seems safe to me on an initial survey. Why don’t you get your head wet and cool down?”
She was still nervous but it looked too inviting. She dove under and relished the cooling sensation. She opened her eyes briefly and all she could see was sand and patches of purple sea grass. It was a typical beach, nothing special at all. When she surfaced David was already walking out. She took the opportunity to piss and then waded out. A weight seemed to have lifted from her shoulders and memories of her early childhood flooded back. She felt strangely free.
“We’ll walk up to the tree line for a little bit, until we dry off, then I suggest we head back, take a look on the other side. You okay with that?” he asked as he reached down for his rifle. “I don’t think anyone is going to steal our clothes.”
She had to agree he was right. To dress now would be uncomfortable. She grabbed her rifle and slung it over her shoulder. It was a relief to be naked, the gentle onshore breeze doing its job of cooling the skin, the way it had been designed. There was certainly no danger of them being interrupted.
The walked along the tree line looking for signs of rookeries and nests; there was nothing.
“You okay to go in a little way?”
“What, barefoot?” she asked.
“The forest floor is very sandy and dry. Just walk carefully.”
“Just a little way.”
They walked in until the sand gave way to the mud and detritus of a rainforest floor.
“That’s far enough,” he said. “Nothing much to see, rather typical of a beach front forest.”
“We should head back,” she said.
They were completely dry by the time they reached their clothes. They only partially dressed, preferring to walk barefoot through the sand and leave their shirts open. They dressed completely when they reached the rocks.
The other side was much the same. Akoi agreed that they could declare the beach safe from immediate threat. Of course, they had no way of knowing if it would always be safe. It still might be the case that something might come out of the sea at night, but it certainly seemed that it was no more dangerous than any Earth beach.
74
The First
When Akoi and David returned a meeting was called. It was hot and humid so they chose the shade of a large tree with a dense canopy of red leaves and purple flowers. Despite the need for caution, many people had undone shirt buttons and rolled up their sleeves.
Akoi chaired the meeting and began by reporting on their discoveries at the beach. There were looks of shock and envy as she described entering the water. Archimedes objected immediately. “But the protocol. You have been the most insistent.”
“True,” she said, “and the ultimate decision rests with me. It was perfectly safe. Besides, clothes do not afford protection against large predators, just small ones.”
“It is a rather ordinary sand beach, and they are the deserts of coastal ecosystems. Not much life and therefore nothing to eat,” added David. “However, I would urge caution in regard to the rock pools. Don’t pick up anything with your bare hands until we have tested everything.”
“I’d have to agree with that,” said Junji. “Earth’s tropical beaches look perfect but the waters have hidden dangers.”
“You went for a swim?” asked Anne.
“I explored the sea bed,” David corrected.
“And it is safe?” asked Constance.
“It seems safe enough to lower the hazard rating,” Akoi replied.
“So we could go swimming?” asked Li Li. “Because that would be a blessed relief.”
“Only on the beach section and not too far out, and always, always accompanied,” David added.
“Well, I’m not sure about that,” said Archimedes. “How many people are taken by sharks annually.”
“Actually not that many,” said David. “More people die from stupidity - drowning mostly. Let’s face it. This planet will never be entirely safe. Earth oceans are full of dangers, it still doesn’t stop people swimming and surfing.”
“It’s always a calculated risk,” Akoi added.
“And you calculate the risk is low?” asked Li Li.
Akoi and David nodded in unison.
“Shunji, Archi and Anne, you went upstream. What did you find?” Akoi asked.
“Our task was to look at the water quality,” Archimedes r
eplied rather formally. “Initial investigations suggest it is relatively pure…”
“Early chemical analysis suggests the expected mineral content, PH is within normal range, the levels of hazardous metals are within range, no pollutants…” Junji added.
“Of course there are micro-organisms, simple cellular structures, minute flora and fauna, small swimmers, slugs, weeds…”
“Like a typical Earth river really…”
“I subjected the water to a purification regime – filtration, chemical treatment and heat. It seems safe,” he concluded.
“Seems?” asked Akoi.
“Well, I didn’t drink it…”
“We put a sample in a Petri dish. If nothing grows then we’ll see. We may have missed something, after all, this is an alien world.”
“Anne, what was the security situation like?” asked Akoi.
“Well, nothing came rushing out of the bush and there was nothing slithering underfoot. We were cautious about handling specimens. I think the major threat will be from stings, bites and bacteria. It seems benign to me.”
“So we can lower the hazard rating?” asked Akoi.
“Yes.”
“So we have a water source?” asked David.
“The signs are very promising,” Archimedes answered.
“I doubt there would be any Earth rivers and streams as pure. Not surprising,” said Junji. “I’d say it’s largely fed by rains and is flushed quite regularly. I’d be interested in finding more stagnant sources: ponds and pools.”
“And Li Li, Constance and Prosperous?”
Prosperous answered first. “Same. Boring really. I heard some interesting noises from the forest and thought I saw movement high in the canopy. I scouted around for burrows and lifted a few rocks: plenty of worms and millipede things, but nothing with fangs, sharp pincers or poisonous tails, at least not within the immediate camp area. I’d say it’s safe.”
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