Through the Singularity

by L. Frank Wadsworth

  Now that he is almost upon it, the scene is stranger than he'd imagined. The hole is immense, and deep. It is easily several hundred paces across. It looks like some thing had pushed its hands into the Earth and thrown back the dirt and rocks in all directions. It is almost perfectly symmetrical, with debris strewn for as far as he can see. Many of the trees near the edge have been knocked down, covered in dirt and rocks of all sizes—some as large as the jumble he now hides behind. He is torn between fear and the need to assuage his curiosity. What could have done this? As he ponders, relaxing instinctively into an unfocused gaze, he detects movement. There, near the edge of the hole about a third of the way around to his left, something is moving.

  It appears to be a man. Or at least something man-sized. It moves awkwardly on two legs as it climbs out of the hole, often slipping back down, and once it tumbled backward a bit before hitting a rock. Whatever it is seemed a bit shaken after that, having to rest for several minutes before moving back up the hill with a limp. The creature appears to be wearing some kind of light-colored covering that seems very close fitting and too thin for the climate. Or is that its pelt? It is very hard to tell at this distance. It is unlike anything he's seen before; yet it appears much like a man. He isn't exactly sure what a god would look like, but this odd, laboring figure doesn't appear to be it. Curiosity wins out, and he decides to slip around to the left to position himself for a better look.

  ∞∞∞

  Zaleria is quickly tiring. It's been a long time since she's exerted herself to this degree, and this planet's gravity is a little higher than what she is used to. She will quickly adapt to it, but until then, she will have to be mindful of her limitations. She is still struggling with the fact that, for some reason yet to be explained, she is having to rely solely on her own resources. She'd never put any thought to it before, but she now realizes the galanen must have anticipated or experienced this need at some point, because her on-board storage includes a lot of information she can use to ensure her unitary survives in this austere locale. This gives her some comfort, along with some purpose.

  She decided after she awoke to abandon the crippled waverider. If she is to explore this area, she needs to move to better ground; she certainly doesn't want to make this climb again. She doesn't want to get too far from the crash site, so her cohort can easily find her when they come, but she needs to be closer to water, and ideally, food. She really hopes she won't be forced to subsist on the local fare. She is confident in her ability to process it; her symbiots enable her to eat just about anything, but there is a vast difference between eating and dining. She has no idea what, if anything, might be palatable on this planet.

  She'd picked out what she thought would be the easiest route out of the crater this morning, but it has proven to be very steep, and in her current physical—and to be honest with herself—emotional condition, it is far more difficult than she'd anticipated. It didn't help when she'd rolled back down the scree and hit that boulder, twisting her knee to such a degree that it'll take a few days for her symbiots to repair the damage. She is finally nearing the crater's lip, where she'll be able to rest and figure out where to go next.

  The surrounding environment seems temperate enough, so there is probably plenty of precipitation with numerous water catchments she can choose from. She will also need to make some shelter. While her suit will largely protect her from the elements, it would still be good to be out of the weather and in a better position to guard against any of the local wildlife that might want to investigate the new denizen. She is certain she can protect herself from anything this planet has to offer, but she would prefer to not have to harm the local wildlife. It is her intent and duty to not interfere in any way. Except, she thinks as she glances back, for leaving a large impact crater.

  She was only sent to survey and appraise. If nothing else, she'll be able to provide good insight into at least this tiny spot on the planet. There are of course the locals, the real reason she was sent to this world. How developed are they? They seem to have made rapid progress since the last thorough survey was conducted, perhaps spurred on by having to adapt to the rapid climate fluctuations this planet seems to experience? She is to avoid direct contact at all costs, and she wonders if there are even any primitives in the local area. She didn't really have an opportunity to do a survey during her rapid, ballistic descent.

  She finally reaches the crater lip and feels the need to bend over with hands on knees and take several deep breaths. At least this is an oxygen rich world. She will not need to adapt to the atmosphere, and fire will be easy to make if she feels the need for additional heat. Primitive, but again, enough of a necessity that her on-board storage contains detailed references to at least a dozen different ways to make fire in almost any environment. It makes her wonder how many times galanen find themselves cut-off from the collective? She'll have to explore that once she gets back. She continues to be frustrated by the lack of information on how she might have lost contact. Was this subject too broad to put into unitary storage? Too rare? She knows the galanen are not the only race that fare the stars, but she is unaware of incidents where other races have interfered with the evolved sentients. It would not be tolerated. She sighs. She will have to wait for the answer to that mystery.

  Now feeling a small sense of accomplishment, she looks around to gain a better sense of the local terrain. Water and shelter. She easily picks out the location of several likely drainage areas, and at least one wrinkle in the landscape that probably contains a constantly flowing stream. She spots a place where this stream appears to join a larger creek, behind a small, rocky prominence that should offer both shelter and an unobstructed view of the crash site. Even in her current condition, she figures she can make it with plenty of time to erect a primitive shelter before nightfall. It'll have to do. Now her only task is to move clear the debris field she created without further injuring herself.

  It is amazing how quiet it is and how small her existence has become, she ponders as she walks. Solitude has done strange things to her senses. In some ways, she feels completely deaf and mute, an aching emptiness the collective used to occupy. Yet, she is also able to hear all the noises in her surroundings in much greater detail. Strange, without all the constant interfacing and processing of a continuous stream of virtual information, she finds herself paying more attention to her natural senses. This must be what it was like as a primitive, when their proto-ancestors began the long journey of ascent. Interesting. She hears the subdued calls of small birds and wonders what kind they are, but doesn't know. She sees the tracks of different animals in the wet snow and ground and doesn't know what kind of animal they belong to. Every little thing holds a certain mystery as she takes in information but can't further process it beyond her own limited knowledge.

  She finds a creek trickling with snow melt where she anticipated it would be, located right in the dip in the terrain, and begins to follow it downhill. She sees what appears to be a path alongside the creek, probably an animal trail, and decides to follow it. It certainly makes the going a lot easier. Lacking mobility and access to the other information flows her remotes could have provided, she considers how best to further her survey mission. She can still examine her local surroundings and gather as much information into her local storage as possible, even if she can't make more sense of it now.

  She makes note of the different plants and animals she encounters, quickly recording details of morphology, tracks, calls, leaf patterns—whatever else she can easily gather to aid the rest in cataloging diversity and overall ecosystem complexity when she gets back. Life on this planet appears to have taken several different evolutionary pathways, with at least one major schism separating sessile plants that convert sunlight into energy and animals that consume plants or other organisms. Further, some plants lose their leaves in the winter, probably because of reduced sunlight. Others maintain their leaves, which seem to be very narrow and waxy. There are other green things that seem sca
ly and filamentous, which may represent even a third evolutionary pathway. As far as the animals, there are bipeds with wings that appear to come in many different varieties, and quadrupeds with tails, although these appear to exist in a smaller variety. Some of these appear to eat plants, and a couple she spots eyeing her warily appear designed to eat other animals. There are also numerous tiny creatures with exoskeletons that are nearly everywhere—some crawling, some flying, and some wriggling. They appear to be the most plentiful and diverse, so probably the oldest. She is sure there will also be creatures in the water, but the creek is so small and probably seasonal that she doesn't expect to find much macro-fauna within it. Though it is hard to be certain, she thinks the quadruped lineage is probably the most advanced from an evolutionary perspective and, therefore, probably the one most closely related to the primitive sentients known to inhabit this planet. She has her symbiots sample DNA from subsets of each, which they can compare to previous surveys to estimate the rate of evolution for many of the lineages.

  A little further down the trail, she stops to examine a creature that ceased climbing a tree to bark a squeaky warning at her. Let's see, lose the tail, stand up on the hind legs, use the front paws to manipulate your surroundings… Yes, definitely an advanced creature. She smiles at the little animal and comments, “Perhaps one day your off-spring will become proto-sentient and start the journey to become an evolved race that can join the galanen in tending such garden worlds as this.” Of course, the creature cannot hear her thoughts; it is too primitive. She doesn't even think to speak, a skill she has rarely ever felt the need to use. The animal stares back at her as if striving to understand her before barking one final warning and scurrying up the tree.

  The further down the trail she travels, the larger the creek becomes, until it reaches a point where it is probably a permanent feature. She looks at the terrain and figures she must be getting close to the larger stream she surmised earlier. She picks up her pace, focused now on reaching her destination so she'll have plenty of daylight to build a camp and get a fire going.

  ∞∞∞

  Achi swings around the hill low and to the left to gain a better vantage point to observe the strange man, and when Achi emerges again to see where he is at, he has to quickly duck back behind a tree. Whoever it is has reached the top of the large hole and is now moving down a creek heading in the general direction of the stream Achi had followed earlier in the day. He decides to follow the man from a distance. He still can't figure out what manner of creature this is. His clothes, if that is what they are, appear like nothing Achi's ever seen. They look extremely thin and lustrous and don't come from any animal he is familiar with. Could they be giant skins? From what he recalls hearing of giants, the pale color might be right. If this is a god, perhaps he wears them to keep warm. The being stops, squatting to examine something on the ground.

  She?! He is now close enough to tell with certainty, the person he has been following is definitely female, albeit bald. Outside of that, she is probably the most healthy-looking woman he's ever seen. She is tall—at least a head taller than Achi—muscular, and pleasantly endowed. Perhaps she isn't wearing clothes at all but is naked. Is she a giantess? He'd always expected they would be larger and, well, horrible looking. She doesn't seem too dissimilar from most women he's known, for the most part.

  He can't get a good look at her face because she keeps facing away from him, seemingly fascinated by everything around her. Weird. She acts like she's never seen a squirrel before. Is she chatting with it? He can't hear anything and doesn't want to risk getting any closer. She is the most bizarre person he's ever encountered, and he doesn't want to chance a confrontation until he better understands what type of being she is.

  She straightens up and starts heading downstream again, now moving quickly. She appears to have made up her mind to get somewhere and is focused on that task. It makes it easier for him to follow from a distance, especially since he can cut through a bend in the trail she is following, unobserved, and catch her on the far side. He figures there is little risk he'll lose his quarry since she appears to be making no attempts to hide her tracks or her destination. It disturbs him a bit that she seems so confident, like she isn't even remotely worried that she can't handle whatever she runs into. He will have to be very cautious.

  He veers left off the trail and goes over a small hillock. People, like most animals, rarely make a habit of looking up. Hunters make use of this all the time, and he is glad for the extra safety. If she does spot him and decides for whatever reason to come after him, she'll have to go uphill, while if he has to, he can shoot arrows with a greater stand-off range downhill. He certainly hopes she isn't actually a malevolent creature like he's heard about in tales, but up until now, he's never believed any of them. He knows on some level that he is grasping for explanations, because he has no other way to explain her. He finds a rocky jumble to hide behind as he waits for her to come into view. He sees movement across the stream to his front left. Surely, she would have stayed on this side of the stream. She did, just now coming into view around the bend further to his right. He finally sees her face, which is a different color from the rest of her skin. It looks relatively normal, but dark. A brownish oval in the midst of an otherwise silvery blue-white body.

  Suddenly, bushes explode on the other side of the stream! Some thing bursts into view; it is nearly indescribable. It looks like a huge cat, or a bear, but its face is like nothing he's ever seen—wide and flat with three? eyes and nostrils flaring as though it wants to draw in every scent around it. It is covered in long, white hair—and… does it have six legs? It writhes side-to-side as it moves towards the woman, making rapid progress. She visibly starts when it splashes through the water and seems momentarily too stunned to move. Reacting without even thinking, he has already nocked an arrow into his bow and begins to move to get a clear line of fire. He has no idea what he'll do if it doesn't scare the creature off, because this thing is so big he's certain the arrow will do little more than hurt it. What if all it does is make it mad?

  The creature is incredibly fast; it lunges at the woman just as she seems to regain some sense. She ducks into a roll to the right, but it's too late! Its huge gaping jaws—filled with large spiky teeth—snap on air, just missing her head, but then it lashes out with one of its enormous paws and rakes her hard across the head and chest. She flies across the trail and into a tree, where she crumbles into a heap.

  He yells to get the creature's attention, which causes it to pause and look at the new threat. Achi lets loose his arrow, hoping for a miracle, but it barely penetrates its hide. The creature winces, whips its head around, and pulls it out. Well, so much for that. Achi fires another arrow, but the beast simply swipes it out of the air with a paw—seemingly mocking him. He drops his bow to grab his ax, really wishing he'd brought a spear. He doesn't think he'll last long if the creature gets close enough that he must use his ax.

  Achi decides that it would be best to head into the thickest set of trees to try to prevent it from charging him. The creature moves forward deliberately, and remarkably restrained. It is a smart hunter. It glances at the woman, apparently figures she isn't going anywhere, so focuses its attention on Achi and begins to move purposefully in his direction.

  “Don't follow the trickster…” He'd been warned. This is what happens to young ones who don't listen to their elders; they go out into the woods and are never seen again. He glares at his enemy, hating that it has come here to defile his world. He doubts he can best it, but if he must end, then he intends to die as a man, at the throat of his enemy. He has never put much thought into the gods because they never seemed to really care about how much his tribe suffered. They certainly never helped. But if the gods are watching now, he hopes they are entertained.

  The beast begins picking its way through the trees. It is incredibly flexible for such a large creature, although Achi's strategy appears to be working to slow it down. The beast seems unable to c
harge him, but he isn't sure how much of an advantage that will give him. He studies its head, looking for possible weak points. The eyes are the obvious ones. He'd shot his arrow at the center one, an act of desperate hope, but it was nearly impossible to hit. It seems its eyes move independently, but all three are fixed on him now. What a monster. It takes every ounce of will to keep from running. He's sure it'd easily chase him down if he loses his nerve. If he is to have any chance, he'll have to try striking at the eyes with his ax, while avoiding the jaws and using the trees as a screen to block its paws. One miscalculation, and he is done for. He isn't hopeful. He finds a copse of trees that seems to offer the densest protection and turns to stand his ground.

  The creature appears very confident. It has its prey cornered, and it is clear it doesn't consider Achi much of a threat. Perhaps it is a bit overconfident? It makes a direct assault between two larch trees, picking the widest set pair as Achi has planned. He anticipates its lunge and darts to the left while striking at where he thinks its head will go. A solid hit—his ax catches the beast's right eye squarely, and though the impact jars his whole arm, he doesn't lose the ax, which is now pleasantly wet with goo from the beast's now ruined eye. It lets out a tremendous noise, snapping its head back and to the left and shearing off two saplings with the force of its convulsion.

  Again, he'd hoped the beast would retreat, but he is sadly disappointed. If anything, it seems to grow even more determined and deliberate. Now it is personal; he's hurt it twice. It is unlikely he'll get another attempt. The beast circles around him to the left, keeping its remaining good eyes on him. Suddenly, it explodes through a screen of trees that are too thin to stop its fury. The trees snap and fall, trapping Achi beneath their boughs. His ax is knocked out of his hand when he hits the ground, so he pulls out his knife. Futile, he knows, but what else can he do other than fight this thing until the end. The beast snaps at his head and barely misses because of the intervening branches. It spits the splinters out then swipes Achi viciously with its left paw, slashing him in half a dozen places from its claws. The last thing he sees as blackness descends is the beast rearing up to crush him with its front legs, while aiming a bite at his head. He frantically tries to free his arm, so he can at least get one thrust of his dagger up into the roof of its mouth. Hopefully, the gods are pleased with their sport.