Raul looked at her, a wry smile on his face.
“Scared of the dark, eh?”
The small jab irked her.
“Don’t let me stop you if you’re so anxious.”
His smile faded.
“I guess it won’t hurt to spend a few hours collecting sensor data first.”
“That’s what I thought.”
With a grin of her own, Jennifer sat down on the floor, crossed her legs, and dropped into the meditation that she hoped would prepare her for whatever awaited. By morning she’d be as ready as she was going to be.
Dawn brought with it a beauty that left Jennifer speechless. Slightly larger than Earth’s sun, Scion’s had a bit more orange to it. Morning rays painted the mist on the lake’s surface. Higher in the sky, two of Scion’s three moons hung above the scene, the white one twice as large as its redheaded sister.
A sudden need to get outside the Rho Ship and directly experience this glorious morning overwhelmed her.
“Lower the ramp,” she told Raul and headed for the door into the central bay.
Her long strides carried her form rapidly along the hallway that led to the exit ramp, as the SRT headset assured her that Raul hadn’t hesitated to act on her request. The smell of air welcomed her to the exit hatch, that and the sharp morning chill. It wasn’t an Earth scent but it was wonderful nonetheless, the pungent smell of vegetation carried on oxygen-enriched, pure mountain air.
Jennifer paused at the top of the ramp, in awe at the sight that spread out before her, the unfiltered view even more beautiful than what she’d observed through the ship’s sensors. The high-altitude dawn spread a soft peach glow across the landscape, a glow that even tinged the snow-covered peaks. Off to her right, a few puffy clouds hung low in the west, but she saw nothing that threatened to mar this beautiful day.
A new day on a new world. The enormity of that realization stunned her. She filled her lungs with a deep breath. When she exhaled, the cold air turned it into a misty plume that confirmed the near-freezing temperature.
Jennifer walked to the bottom of the ramp and knelt to examine the vegetation covering the meadow. Up close, it wasn’t grasslike at all. She removed the glove from her right hand and plucked a green, waxy stem that sprouted small elliptical leaves. They reminded her of California ice plants in texture and appearance, although these leaves were rounder.
“What’s the matter?” Raul’s concerned thoughts touched hers.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Yeah. So is a Venus flytrap.”
Jennifer straightened. Raul was a major buzz kill, but he had a point.
Her hand went involuntarily to the hilt of her carbon-fiber belt knife and lingered as she scanned the surrounding forest. The birds were gone and from this vantage point she couldn’t see any sign of the animals she’d glimpsed through the ship’s sensors. She would have liked to do a short-range active sensor scan but didn’t dare, lest she give their location away.
Then she saw them, a group of midsized animals gathered at the edge of the lake in another clearing a half mile from where she now stood, their heads dipped down to the water. Accessing the neural net, Jennifer focused an optical sensor on that spot and zoomed in.
If she discounted the wings, the brown and white creatures bore a pronounced resemblance to small antelope.
“At least they’re antelope and not pigs,” Raul said. “Not sure I could deal with that.”
Jennifer laughed. There it was again, that razor-sharp wit that had begun to emerge from the darkness inside Raul.
A sudden splash turned her head toward the center of the lake. About twenty yards off shore, ripples rolled outward from a central point. Closer to the shoreline, a two-foot-long, eel-like creature leaped above the surface, caught a large insect, and splashed back into the water.
Jennifer walked rapidly to the shoreline nearest the spot where the eel-fish had jumped into the air. She knelt down, dipped her right hand into the icy water, and scooped some to her lips, swishing it around in her mouth without swallowing. Cold and good. But the thought that it might be loaded with microscopic amoeba or other harmful parasites caused her to spit it out. They’d have to run some tests to be sure.
Looking out into the deeper water, she saw the shadows of moving fish, or maybe it was more of the eels. She wondered if there might be meat-eaters lurking beneath the surface of that placid lake, or bloodsucking leeches.
Rising to her feet, she slipped her glove back on her hand, wiggling her fingers as she worked the warmth back into them, the pins-and-needles feeling reminding her just how cold the water was.
A new idea came to her. If the eel-fish were edible, she and Raul could gather all the food they needed right here. And she wouldn’t even have to make a fishing pole. They already had the best virtual net imaginable.
Turning away from the shore, she walked back to the ramp.
Fishing. Raul hated fishing. From what he remembered of it as a child, it involved lots of boring waiting and biting flies. A successful day rewarded you with the glorious task of scaling and gutting the slimy things, followed by a meal that featured his least favorite food. This latest endeavor had only reinforced that view.
It wasn’t that they weren’t successful—far from it. Raul had generated a stasis field sieve consisting of a hollow hemispherical scoop that dipped into the lake and then allowed the water to drain out through thousands of quarter-sized holes. Their first dipper-full had netted dozens of fish, some of which were the eel-like species Jennifer had seen that morning. But there were others, some with disturbingly large and toothy maws, creatures that ruled out a Polar Bear Club plunge into the icy water.
Jennifer had selected a half dozen candidates for testing and had released the rest back into the lake. Now she knelt outside the ship, knife in hand, elbow deep in alien fish guts. Since his SRT headset gave Raul the ability to control the stasis field from outside the ship, he had floated out to observe.
Again she surprised him, not showing the slightest hint of squeamishness. The way she used the knife showed a military familiarity, almost a fondness for the weapon. And Raul had no doubt that in Jennifer’s hands, it was much more of a weapon than a tool.
The breeze changed direction, carrying the smell to Raul, making him wrinkle his nose.
“God, those things stink.”
She didn’t look up from her work. “You get used to it.”
“And you want me to put that in my mouth?”
“Not raw. As soon as I finish filleting these, I’m going to build a fire out here and cook them.”
Raul felt the gag reflex begin in the back of his throat and barely managed to suppress it.
“You don’t even have a pan.”
“I’ll use a metal sheet. But you’re right. We’re going to need to make some pots, pans, and eating utensils. We’ll also need to start thinking about how we’ll store and cook food on board the ship when we have to leave.”
Even though he knew she was right, the thought of how these things would smell while cooking didn’t make him look forward to doing it inside the ship.
Jennifer finished her work and returned to the ship to gather her cooking supplies. Raul floated in for a closer look at the fillets. Just as he’d expected, the meat had that unhealthy gray coloring characteristic of most Earth fish. The smell had attracted a growing cloud of insects and he shooed them away before creating a virtual bowl over the catch.
A rapidly moving shadow caused him to look up. High overhead, several large black birds circled like buzzards. Disconcerting, but it made sense that there would be carrion feeders on this world too.
Jennifer reappeared, followed by a floating collection of supplies that she lowered to the ground just beyond the ramp. He watched as she manipulated the stasis field, clearing away the ice plants to reveal the rocky soil beneath. Unfortunately there was nothing close at hand that looked like it would burn, and the edge of the woods lay just beyond the stasis field�
�s maximum range. That meant Jennifer would have to gather firewood by hand, assuming those trees were actually made of wood, and carry them back within range.
She stood, checked the disrupter pistol in her utility vest’s holster, and turned to Raul, those intense brown eyes studying him. He got the strong impression that she was wondering if she could trust him at her back.
“If something chases me out of those woods, be ready to raise the stasis field as soon as I’m back within range.”
“I was planning on it.”
“Just making sure.”
It wasn’t his intention to get into an argument, but he had to fight back a verbal response to her blatant lack of trust. When he nodded, she turned and strode rapidly toward the eastern woods. Something about how she moved robbed him of his anger. The way the black military garments conformed to her body augmented her air of confidence. Jennifer Smythe moved like a predator.
She was the sexiest damn thing he’d ever seen.
Reaching the edge of the woods, Jennifer stopped. The contrast between the bright sunshine in the meadow and the oppressive darkness of the woods made her feel that she’d just stepped into a different world. Dark but not silent. High up in the multilayered canopy above her, things rustled and hooted. A low, guttural sound raised the small hairs on the back of her neck.
Thousands of thick roots hung from above like dangling vines, digging into the ground to support and nourish the thick horizontal branches that formed a great canopy. But as mutually supporting as this mighty wood was, there were deadfalls. Jennifer spotted several of these along the boundary where the trees met the meadow. The reason for the destruction was readily apparent.
Some of the mighty trees had been ripped out by the roots, leaving the branches that had connected them to their brethren splintered and broken. She didn’t even want to think about the power of the storms that had done that.
Jennifer stilled herself to listen. The activity far above continued unabated, but nothing approached her. Shaking off her wariness, she moved to the nearest deadfall. The pile was huge, its dried-out branches forming an impenetrable barrier of heavy logs and sharp spikes. Grabbing the nearest, wrist-thick limb, she tugged hard, relieved that it snapped exactly like any dried-out stick on Earth would have.
She put her back into it and soon had a respectable pile ready to be carried into the meadow. That’s when she heard a slight disturbance.
A large paw pressed into the spongy forest floor. Twenty feet to her left a creature the size of a black bear crouched on its belly in the undergrowth, its shoulders and haunches rippling with muscle beneath a dappled, greenish-gray coat. All resemblance to a bear ended at its head. Twin tusks jutted up on either side of a toothy maw built for rending. The beast’s eyes were cold and black like a shark’s, spearing her with deadly intent.
Jennifer moved faster than she’d ever moved before, as fast as Mark moved when he got angry. And right now she was pissed. She didn’t need Jack’s voice in her head yelling his mantra, but it was there.
If you’re ambushed, get violent and kill the bastards.
As she whirled into motion, the beast launched itself at her. There was no time for drawing and firing the untested disrupter weapon. Whatever was about to happen, it would be by tooth and claw. And as her black blade filled her hand, she heard her rage-filled scream rip the cold, dank air.
Then time slowed to a crawl.
Raul watched in horror as the monster launched itself at Jennifer. But as fast as that thing moved, Jennifer was faster, and she was in full-on attack mode. As the beast opened its unnaturally hinged jaws, Jennifer flung herself beneath it, driving her black blade up into the exposed throat, ripping a great gaping wound that drenched her in a fountain of black blood.
Mortally wounded, the creature bellowed and whipped its right paw at her. Again it missed. In a marvelous feat of strength and dexterity, she swung her body up the beast’s left side, landing on the back of its neck. And as she did, the blade rose and fell, each blow targeting the area where the neck connected to the misshapen head.
The battle ended suddenly, leaving Raul breathless. As if its strings had been cut, the beast dropped straight down on its stomach, legs splayed limply on each side. Still she worked the black blade until the head itself came free. Only then did she climb off to stand over her kill.
Raul manipulated the neural net, zooming in for a tight view of her. She looked like an oilfield worker who had just struck a gusher. Except for one bare spot on the left side of her throat, she was covered in blood the color of tar.
In the distance a new sound rose up, very much like the bellow of the creature that lay at Jennifer’s feet. This time it was the chorus of a pack in full cry.
Jennifer broke from the woods at a dead run as five of the animals closed in on her. Fast as she was, Raul saw at a glance that she wouldn’t make it. Without hesitation, Raul drew his Kasari disrupter pistol, aimed, and fired, sending a blue-green beam crackling through the air over Jennifer’s head and into the center of her densely packed pursuers.
One second the closest beast was a dozen feet behind her and the next it detonated, its spinning remnants hurling through the air along with the torn bodies of its two nearest running mates. The shock wave knocked Jennifer forward and she hit the ground and rolled, coming to rest on her back just inside the maximum range of the stasis field. Raul raised a shield just as the two surviving members of the pack leaped for her, bouncing off the invisible barrier with howls of rage and frustration. Wielding the stasis field like a multibladed scythe, he diced the animals into chunks of quivering meat that vented steam into the cold morning air.
Raul dropped Jennifer’s shield-bubble and propelled himself to her side, expecting to find her unconscious or worse. However, as he got close, she rolled onto her stomach and crawled to her knees, although the effort pulled a gasp from her lips. She sank back into a seated position, raised her head, and looked at him.
“What the hell was that?”
“The disrupter pistol.”
A slow grin spread across her face, white teeth appearing in a face covered in black goo.
“Successful test, then.”
It was weak. Nevertheless, her attempt at humor sent a rush of relief through his body.
“You hurt?”
“Nothing the nanites can’t fix. Just give me a couple of minutes and I’ll be good as new.”
Raul turned to look at the spot that had been the center of the disrupter blast. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected when he’d squeezed the trigger, but this wasn’t it. Christ, if those bear things had been a little closer to Jennifer, he might have killed her.
He looked down at the pistol he still held in his hand. It sure wasn’t a close-quarters weapon. And they could rule out using it for hunting.
Oh well, he thought, returning the disrupter to its holster. Looks like we just added more stuff to our to-build list.
That list was getting longer by the minute.
Although he would never allow his warriors to see it, General Dgarra was tired. Weeks of fending off probing attacks that grew ever more forceful had taken a toll on his forces, though not as much of a toll as he’d inflicted on his enemies. Still, the Eadric army continued to be reinforced with fresh troops whereas the Koranthian high command refused to send more warriors to the northern front. Despite all evidence to the contrary, the emperor was convinced that this ongoing combat was an Eadric feint and that the primary threat would come in the form of a pincer attack at the center of the Koranthian claw.
That narrow portion of the Koranthian Empire was an obvious target and therefore of great concern, exposed as it was to attack from the lands that lay to the east and west of the mountains. If the Eadric people and their Kasari masters could split the empire there, the entire southern portion would fall. But in this matter, Emperor Goltat and his top generals were wrong.
Accompanied by the distant booms of heavy weapons and the continuous howl of th
e wind, General Dgarra strode through the open tent flaps into his mobile command post. He shook his head. His failure to make a strong-enough case had brought them to the brink of disaster.
The approaching female captain drew his attention.
“Sir. Our long-range sensors have detected the signature of a Kasari disrupter weapon being fired.”
“Where?” Dgarra asked, moving to the tripod-mounted display panel that showed the battle maps.
She pointed to a location that surprised Dgarra, a point to the southeast well behind his lines, near Thune Lake. The area was remote and of little strategic importance. So what the hell were the Kasari doing there?
“You’re certain of this?”
The captain nodded. “It was a single discharge picked up by multiple sensors. The triangulation is precise.” Dgarra felt his scowl deepen. Although the Kasari had thus far only accompanied the Eadric soldiers as advisors, they had occasionally used their weapons in self-defense. That had allowed Dgarra’s forces to identify the unique electromagnetic signature the disrupter weapons produced. He had no choice but to check it out, even though he hated to pull assets away from the battlefront. Perhaps that was the point of this incursion. Something bothered him, though. Why would the Kasari directly involve themselves now? If revealed, this action could detract from their propaganda campaign that this was a war between native factions and not a Kasari invasion.
“What do we have that can give me a visual of Thune Lake?”
“There’s an airborne combat reconnaissance aircraft just northeast of there, but it’s got a high-priority tasking in support of Third Brigade.”
“Re-task one of its visual sensors to give me a look at the spot where the disrupter blast was detected. Transfer sensor control to this headquarters. When that’s done, stream the video to my display.”
“Yes, sir.”
It didn’t take long. When the video appeared, General Dgarra stepped closer to the display, studying the unusual scene carefully. Two individuals occupied an empty clearing. One was a legless abomination, with a stalklike artificial eye and a clear skull that exposed his brain. And he was floating more than a body’s length above the ground, suspended by some unseen force. A female sat on the ground nearby, covered in black filth.
The Kasari Nexus (Rho Agenda Assimilation Book 1) Page 13