The woewe waited a few minutes and then once more fixed its eyes on the spot where I lay. It started to crouch like it was going to leap, and then it paused and once again began moving forward but now in a crouched and crawling attack position. I was sure that it either heard my heart beat, or it smelled me, but it definitely knew I was somewhere very near. Finally in what seemed like an hour of waiting, it reached the area I had sighted in on, and I hoped and prayed I had not let the rifle drift in my waiting. I started to press the firing button just as the beast began to leap. I expected to see the body fly off the ground at me, but instead it collapsed backwards and began thrashing around as blood sprayed about. I had planned to shoot it in the head, but in its sudden attempt to leap, I had ended up hitting it in its throat instead. In a matter of seconds the beast bled to death.
I had faced and killed men in battle, and while that had been frightening it was nothing compared to the fear I felt going up against this beast. I wanted a sip of water, but my hands were trembling so badly that I couldn’t get the backpack open. I had killed two woewe in just a few days, and I hoped and prayed I would never see another one so long as I lived. About two hours after it was day light I got up enough strength and courage to be able to stand and walk down to its body. I felt so small and weak next to this beast. I saw clearly where I had wounded it days ago and could see that the wound was slowly starting to heal, but that it still was giving the creature a lot of agony. I wondered if perhaps this one and the one up on the plateau might have been mates. I guessed I would never know. I sat there another hour, just staring at the beast. I was so absorbed in what had just happened that I didn’t even notice the rise in the wind and the dust thickening in the air. It wasn’t until I started coughing and choking on the dust that I realized what was taking place, and I climbed the rest of the way up to the desert floor and made my way to the ruins where I found my sheltered hole in the rubble and crawled in. I was almost asleep when my com link activated, and I heard Kala’s voice.
“Tib? Did you make it out of the canyon? The dust storm is started, and the rain is right behind it.”
“Kala,” I said as I started to dig into my backpack for the air filtering mask, “Yes I made it, but I was nearly ambushed by that woewe that I wounded back at the ship. The thing apparently has been tracking me for days. I ran into it in the canyon, and it stalked me all the way down through the canyon. I set an ambush for it when I got out of the canyon. By the stars, Kala, that is one crafty animal. I have never been so terrified in my life.”
“Oh my,” Kala exclaimed, “did you kill it? Are you all right?”
“Yes, I got it. It’s a beast. It’s quite dead. I hope I never see one of those animals ever again in my life. It’s been several hours since I killed it, but my heart is still beating faster than it should.”
“Thank the stars you got it, Tibby. Have you made it to shelter?”
“Yes I’m in the same place I was when I spent my first day on the trek. If the rains aren’t too bad today, I should make it back to the ship tomorrow morning.” I answered.
“The computer is predicting it will only be a light rain, but it still could flood the canyon.” Kala said.
“Well, I won’t be needing to enter the canyon though I will need to cross a couple of small washes. I hope by tonight that they will be dry, and I can get across them with no difficulty.”
“Please be careful, Tib. I love you, and your kids and I need you.”
“I love you too, Kala. The last thing I want is to make you a widow and our children fatherless. I’ll be home tomorrow. I need to cut this conversation short. The dust is really getting bad now, and I need to put the mask on so I can breathe.”
The dust storm turned out to be worse than I expected, but the mask made it possible for me to keep breathing, though several times I woke up and had to clean the dust accumulations off the filters so I could breathe easier. Finally somewhere about mid-day it started to rain; it rained hard at first but then after an hour it started to slow down, and by midafternoon it stopped. By the time the sun set hours later most of the rain had sunk into the sand, and the ground was firm enough to walk on.
I wanted to take one last look at the woewe, and I walked down to the canyon just before the sunset, but the carcass was gone and the water was half-way up to the desert side of the canyon and had carried the body away. I began trekking back toward the ALI at a good pace, but then found I was confused as to the actual direction of the ship. When I had left, I had the mountains to use as a destination but returning I had no idea just where the ALI was out there in the desert. I couldn’t walk in a straight line to get to the ship, and I needed to snake around washes and small gorges. I found myself repeatedly calling Kala on the com to fire a laser shot up into the air, so I could orient myself. I decided I would have to make rock pile markers I could use in the future to find my way back. Another thing that was disorientating was that the Sisoma trees kept relocating themselves. There might be a small forest of them at one location one day and the next the same spot was a bare desert. Finally, after several hours, I was close enough to the ALI that I could see the ship, even though I still couldn’t walk a straight path to get to it. I eventually made it back, later than I had thought, as it was closer to noon than dawn when I reached the hatch and entered the ship.
Kala threw herself into my arms and kissed me. “I missed you terribly,” she said and then drew back and looked at me. “Tib, you need a shave! And a shower,” as she wrinkled her nose and stepped back.
“I missed you, too,” as I tried to kiss her again, but she laughed and pushed me away telling me I needed the shower first. I had barely finished the shower when I heard Lunnie crying. I walked into our cabin and went to her. As soon as she saw me, she stopped crying and smiled a huge grin and started to wiggle her arms.
“See, Tibby, I told you she was upset you were gone.” Kala said. I looked over to see her sitting on the other side the cabin nursing Reidecor.
I picked up Lunnie and immediately she started cooing and looking at me intently.
“She’s cooing! “ I exclaimed.
“Yes she started doing that the day you left.”
“You didn’t tell me that!” I exclaimed
“I thought it would be a nice surprise when you got back.”
By now, Lunnie had gotten a grip on my thumb and was pulling it into her mouth.
“What is it with babies wanting to put everything in their mouths?” I asked.
“It’s just natural for them.” Kala said. That’s how they start learning.
“Is Reidecor cooing too?”
“Him? No he’s too busy wanting to eat, sleep or poop, to coo.”
Lunnie had now started chewing on my thumb aggressively. “You want me to feed her?” I said as I started toward the food synthesizer.
“Good grief, no!” Kala responded, “She just finished eating before you got back.”
“Well I would never know that from the way she is chewing on my thumb.”
“I think that’s her way of venting her frustration about you being gone so long.”
“I’m afraid she is going to have to get used to it. I’ll need to make a lot of trips back and forth taking supplies up there. It's going to take some time to get all the things there we will need, and I don’t see any easier way to get the stuff up to the plateau. I’ll have to try to time my treks between dust and rain storms and when the water in the canyon is low enough to permit travel through the mountain canyon. All in all, I am going to be very busy over the next few months.”
“Well at least you are rid of that woewe thing,” Kala said as she carried the full, and finished eating, Reidecor back over to the bed.
The next two months went by quickly; I would spend two days transporting preserved foods and other supplies in a backpack up to the plateau and then two days back, followed by two days spending time with Kala and the babies before turning around and making the trip again. Three times the trip
s were delayed for several days because of rain, dust or solar flares, and on one occasion, I was required to spend three days on the plateau because of heavy rains and a flooded canyon.
During that time, I had an opportunity to explore more of the underground building but there wasn’t much to see as floors under the top one were flooded, and cave-ins blocked off most of the other sections of the building. There were a few places where I could see bits and pieces of old painting, but it would be difficult to imagine what they would have looked like if complete. On my second day there it had stopped raining, but the stream was still too swollen and prevented me from going down the canyon.
One of the items I had transported to the site with me was a solar stove, and I decided to give it a try. The item was a standard piece of survival gear on most ships. It was small and interesting, consisting of two plates attached to each other by a hinge. One plate was blue in color, and the other was black. It worked by opening the plates like a book and placing them in the sun so the blue plate was exposed to direct sunlight. The second plate would then heat up enough to boil water or cook foods in a special two part pan that also served as a carrying case for the stove. I was curious to discover how the device worked and found it used a similar technology as the thermocouples in the sleeping bag, but then I didn’t really understand that either, so my knowledge was limited.
I felt it was about time that I try some of the local resources for food, and I collected several dozens of the boilatee creatures from along the stream bed shortly before sunrise. I didn’t have any idea how they were supposed to be prepared, so I boiled them and ate them much like one would crab or lobster back on Earth. I was expecting them to taste something like Earth shell fish, but they were nothing like that; the flesh was sort of like that of a crab, but it had more of a nutty flavor that reminded me of roasted chestnuts, another treat from back on Earth. They also had a salty flavor, and I wondered if it actually was from sodium chloride or if it just tasted that way.
I was afraid that I might have some problems digesting these alien foods, but my stomach seemed to take them quite well, and my body gave me no complaints. One other thing the ship had was an emergency radio. I had transported the radio to the plateau on one of my earliest trips and would listen, hoping to hear some ship passing locally that I might contact, but I never heard any. With the radio on the ship still functioning, there was no need for this one there. It was small and portable and could be powered by multiple sources. One way was to solar charge it; another was it could be plugged and recharged from outlets on the ship, and another was by an internal battery that could be activated by adding water into a special port, but the water method only provided power for about two weeks and after that you would not be able to use that method again.
Finally, the day came when the fusion reactor simply died, and we needed to make the exodus to the plateau with the children. Kala had managed to get the synthesizer to manufacture backpack like harnesses that we could carry Lunnie and Reidecor in, since they still were not able to walk.
I had found a flat rock weeks earlier, and using a laser pistol, burned a message on the surface of the rock. I wrote that we had relocated to the plateau and tried to give a description where we were with a crude map. Other than for Lunnie and Reidecor and some water, we only carried laser rifles. I had stationed supplies along the route on my last few trips so that when we made the final trek, we would not be burdened with too much to carry; this turned out to be a very wise decision.
This was a big adventure for Lunnie and Reidecor, as neither of them had ever been outside the ship before. It was sunset when we left the ship, and Lunnie was all wide eyed, looking about, and she was squealing and cooing at all the things she was seeing for the first time. Reidecor didn’t seem to know how to react, and while he didn’t show any fear, his overall reaction to everything was far more sedate as he looked about in wonder. Kala thought it best that I carry Lunnie because she always wanted me to hold her if I was around, whereas Reidecor didn’t seem to show any preference as to who held him. I think Kala was getting the better of the deal because Lunnie was constantly squirming and kicking as she would turn and stretch in one direction and then another, trying to see everything that was going on.
As the Sisoma began to light up, Lunnie squealed with laughter, while Reidecor looked on slack-jawed. While it was still light enough to see at a distance fairly well, we saw a muralam chasing after one of the small shelled creatures that scurried across the desert floor. That really captured Lunnie’s attention, and by her reactions, I think she wanted us to follow it, and she jabbered in baby gibberish and kept waving her arms in the direction it had gone long after it was out of sight. I was glad the weather was holding out and there were no signs of a dust storm or rain. It had been almost two weeks since the last rain, so the dry washes were easier for us to cross.
We stopped twice that night to rest. It was Kala’s first trek out, and while she was in good shape physically, she hadn’t had the level of exercise that I had been getting traveling back and forth between the ship and the plateau. We rested about 20 minutes on both occasions, fed the babies with rations from the ship, gave them something to drink and saw to their sanitary needs. On the ship, we had the advantage of disposable diapers that would be recycled, we still had a small supply of those, but now we had to leave them to nature to recycle into something else. I had managed to pack a small supply of them up to the plateau, but we both knew they would not last long, and once we were out the babies would be running around relatively naked until they became potty trained.
Even with the two stops we still managed to make it to the way point I had been using for shelter on time. On my last trek, I had needed to enlarge the space a bit so all of us would be able to fit in it. I had dug out sand by hand and discovered as I did that as I got deeper, the space widened a bit. I also uncovered some more alien writing on one of the rock faces, but they still were unfathomable to me. By the time we arrived, both Lunnie and Reidecor had fallen asleep and they were just dead weight on our backs. It’s strange how a baby actually seems to be lighter when they are awake than when they are asleep.
At one point Kala turned toward me and said, “Tibby, you know, seeing how things are out here I realize what you have been seeing every trip you make. I think if we need to stay here it won’t be so bad after all.”
“I’m glad you see it that way, but it's not going to be easy and there are lots of dangers out here. We have some food stockpiled and preserved, but it won’t last long, and we will need to rely on food we catch and gather on our own, and only use our supplies when we can’t get out to collect more. I’ve tried some of the local items, and while they do not taste bad, I fear we will grow quite tired of them in a short period of time.”
“Do you think we will run into any woewe?” she asked with some concern.
“I’ve not seen any signs of more since I killed that one on my way back, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more out here. I think they are territorial and until another one discovers the ones that were here before are gone, we won’t see any more.”
“I certainly hope you are right, Tibby, from what you told me of that last one, I don’t want to encounter any.”
I thought we would have a good sleep until evening, but I forgot about Lunnie and Reidecor. They both woke intermittently wanting to be fed, changed or simply to play. Kala and I took turns caring for them during the day, but when night finally rolled around again, and it was time for us to head out, I was still exhausted and wanting to sleep more. Nevertheless, we packed things up, got the kids strapped on our backs and started off to the valley of death, as I had begun to call the canyon through the mountain after my ordeal with the woewe. Along the journey, I pointed out to Kala the spot where I had encountered the friendly muralam, and the place where I discovered its body on my return, as well as the ledge the woewe had climbed up to and hidden on.
When we came to the stair like rapids, I was pleas
ed to see that the flow of water was greatly reduced, and most of the rocks on the upward climb were less slippery. Even with this new advantage, it was a precarious assent with the babies on our backs. When we had started out that evening, both Reidecor and Lunnie had been awake but Reidecor had nodded off about halfway into the trek, and Lunnie fell asleep just as we reached the rapids. It took Kala and me twice as long to make the assent with the babies as it normally did for me alone. After all the trips I had made, I had pretty much figured out the safest route for the climb, but it was complicated this time by the shifting weight of the babies. When we got to the top, it was already starting to get light, and at Kala’s first sight on standing up and looking about she exclaimed. “Grass? Tibby you didn’t’ tell me there was grass up here?”
“Ah, I guess I never thought it was important.” I replied.
“Tibby, I can weave grass into cords that I can then use to make baskets and mats and all sorts of other things.”
“You know how to do those things?” I questioned in astonishment.
“Yes, I can… When I was growing up on Gosney my mother taught both Lunnie and me how to weave grass into cords and to make baskets. I told you she was a botanist; she was always telling us all the ways various plants had been used throughout history and showing us examples. Lunnie and I used to spend hours making grass cords and then weaving them into baskets and mats.
Solbidyum Wars Saga 5: Desolation Page 13