Therefore, the girl, as she’d wanted, looked down. The predators still sat under the tree and didn’t take their trembling eyes from her, patiently waiting for their prey. Fof realized that it was too early to fake a descent and fuel their interest. These observers weren’t going to go anywhere.
She looked at the road. Nothing had changed there; her saviors hadn’t yet arrived. Then she scanned the forest, but her eyes couldn’t catch onto anything there. Fof turned her head back toward the river. Here her gaze again came across that dark point.
She assumed it was probably a piece of log. Since it was visible at such a great distance, it could be quite large; maybe it was a bush. Fof decided to bring it closer.
Until now, the girl had been standing on the base of one large branch and holding on to the another, approximately at the level of her neck. Now she coiled her left hand around this branch, and with her right one she first pulled the camera out of her UD and then turned it on. First, orange leaves and a blue sky between them appeared on the screen. The girl began to move the lens, mounted on a flexible composite stem, and managed to catch in the frame first the river, and then that dark spot.
As the image of this splotch grew larger, her curiosity gave way first to confusion and then to amazement. Very soon Fof wondered if her device was working correctly!
It could not be real because it was against common sense, but she was looking at a raft and two people on it. The crystal seekers had returned, but not from the side from which they should have.
There are only two of them, the first thought pierced her heart like a needle.
In the next instant, realizing that this was a very important moment, requiring extremely precise action, she ordered herself to calm down. As soon as she’d curbed her nerves, Fof immediately remembered the predators waiting for her.
She broadcast the signal of a general call via satellite. In response, the universal device reported that twenty-four colonists were listening to her.
She didn’t receive an answer from the raft. Something scratched the girl’s heart again. A terrifying comprehension followed this—nothing was moving over there at all!
Fof suppressed her emotions again. Among those waiting for the contact, she chose the name Nim and marked it green on her own and the other screens with a touch of her finger.
“Did the predators escape?” he’d gotten ahead of her and asked first. His image was jumping on Fof’s screen, showing that Nim was running. However, the next moment, when the youth saw the girl’s stunned expression, he instantly tensed: “Fof, what happened?”
“The beasts are waiting for me as before… or rather, you should hurry up because they are still here,” the girl blurted out.
“Do you think they are about to leave?”Nim clarified.
“A raft-tent is nearing by the river and it is already close. There are two people on it, but they did not answer my call,” Fof announced in a strained voice.
Obviously, her interlocutor had stopped because the image on her display ceased to jerk. The girl saw Nim with his mouth opened in bewilderment. In the next second he turned his head to the one of his companions and said, “Let us accelerate!” After these words, the image on Fof’s screen turned into a meaningless flickering.
The girl turned the UD into camera mode again and when she pointed the lens at the raft, she was immediately relieved. The two figures were already rowing, and this meant that the gloomy assumption that had pierced her mind due to their radio silence had turned out to be erroneous.
The girl was pressing her left index finger against the touch-button of the zoom until she realized that the optic of the device had already reached its limit. Finally the raft came close enough for Fof to recognize Mafkona and Ama. Someone’s sharp teeth gripped her heart again when she finally made sure that there was no third member of the expedition—Omis.
Within minutes, the inflatable ship had gotten so close that they could hear her scream. Instead of actually shouting, the girl had gotten lost suddenly. Fof couldn’t figure out where to start the conversation. What it should be said at the beginning of an unexpected meeting? But in a second, when she remembered the predators under the tree, she instantly got rid of her indecision and exclaimed, “Hey!”
The rowers flinched and Mafkona even dropped he oar. Then they directed the raft towards the shore and diligently looked for the one who’d called out. Their gazes glided along on the water-level.
“I am here!” Fof screamed again and began waving her free hand. “Here on the plant! Beasts lie in wait for me, do you have a weapon?”
Mafkona saw her first and held out her hand to the tree. Ama took the maser, lifted it, and showed Fof so she could see that they had heard the warning and that they had a weapon.
Pamo, Nim, Nef, Memi and Ifi, as they approached the quarry, increased their attentiveness and asked Fof to indicate the whereabouts of her guards. The girl once again examined the situation from above and informed her comrades through the radio that nothing had changed so far and now she would attract the attention of the predators.
To do this, she descended to the lower branches. Seeing this, the animals got even closer to the plant and surrounded it on three sides, not taking their eyes off of Fof. This helped her comrades to quietly take advantageous positions.
The five young people parted into two groups. Nef, Memi and Ifi went to the river. Nim and Pamo set up an ambush by hiding in the shrubs. When they’d all taken their places and Fof had confirmed it, she herself announced the beginning of the attack. First, those who were hiding by the river jumped out of the ambush and began to pelt the animals with clots of electromagnetic energy.
The leader of the predators, who was under fire from Memi and Ifi, lost its life in the first few seconds of the hunt. Its skull splashed blood and small pieces of flesh from all of its natural openings. Nef attacked the animal closest to the river and injured its front left leg. The creature ran towards the bushes, leaning on its three limbs. The third one, unharmed, left its wounded comrade behind just to be shot down by the colonists hiding in the bushes. They also destroyed the lame beast, too.
Fof, already on the lowest branch, waited for the end of the hunt and jumped down simultaneously with the death of the last animal. They all just went to the river without talking.
Once at the shore, they saw that the raft, moving on the brightly illuminated river, had almost reached land; no more than ten meters separated it from the coastline. Mafkona and Ama with their petrified faces were rowing apparently at the expense of the utmost exertion of their will.
Soon Nim and Fof had entered the water, dragged the inflatable mattress toward the shore and stopped it. Ama left it on his own and Mafkona tried to but appeared unable to do so. Pamo and Memi helped her to get onto dry land. Then they took the scouts’ belongings and finally their raft.
“Are we very late? Did Omis come?” Ama barely uttered the words and then immediately collapsed onto the wet clay.
In response, Memi first glanced at his wrist and then said in an even voice, “The delivery time has passed an hour and a half ago. Omis did not come.”
The greeters often exchanged their perplexed glances. Mafkona’s and Ama’s greatly changed faces really surprised them. In addition, they saw that while it seemed impossible, the scouts’ faces became even more haggard as they heard Memi’s responses.
After a short silence, Ama, still breathing heavily, said in a hoarse voice, “Inside the backpack.”
Memi guessed first what Ama meant. He opened the backpack and took out a crystal ellipsoid. It shone dazzlingly in the rays of the luminary. Gradually, as he examined the billet, Memi’s expression changed more and more. If before that he’d slowly lifted the bag, bleakly opened it and thrust his hand into it with a businesslike look, now his face shone no less than the natural glass in the rays of Ro.
“I did not expect this,” he said excitedly. “I anticipated seeing a shapeless lump, but instead I have a half finished magnifier
in my hands. How did you manage to do this?”
“This is not by our merit, we did not form it. This piece chipped off in this shape after I destroyed half of the crystal deposit,” Ama said with a worn out smile on his face. Then he asked with hope in his voice, “But you think this might be useful?”
“Yes, I am sure,” Memi replied with complete confidence, glancing once more at the countdown on his screen. At the same time he continued to carefully examine the piece of natural glass. “The chance did no less than half of the work for us!”
“As soon as we learn where and why you parted with Omis, we will definitely find him,” Ifi entered the conversation.
“It is true,” Nef agreed with her. “Now we should hurry up. Memi and I will run to the colony. You wait for the cart, I have already called up for it,” the girl told her comrades.
Then she and Memi jogged along toward the settlement. In his armpit, the young man carried a backpack with the crystal billet inside it.
Soon after, two bulls appeared from around the turn and then the cart itself—still the only transport on the planet Neia. With the help of this apparatus, they transported clay to the colony from the quarry, and the yield from the fields.
The comrades put Mafkona on the cart. Ama climbed on it himself and sprawled next to the girl. On the way to the settlement, Ifi told them what had happened during their absence.
“It is a strange journey, especially since there are only two of them,” Ama said, wondering about Bame’s and Em’’s behavior.
Chapter 91
On the one hand, the young people remaining in the living zone already seemed know that the expedition sent for the crystal had completed its task, albeit with a delay. However, they still didn’t feel complete confidence, as if they were missing some major proof. After all, they had only learned about it on the radio.
On the other hand, since their three comrades had left for the mineral, people had only left the settlement, but no one had made it back yet. This they even applied to Fof, in spite that the radio communication with her hadn’t stopped for a second.
Meanwhile, Nef and Memi came to the center of the settlement and informed their comrades that it seemed that Mafkona and Ama had experienced many torments. Actually, it was Nef who, panting, said this after she sat down on the stool in the refectory. As for Memi, he speechlessly headed straight into the structure that had once served as a spacecraft. Dme followed him.
Memi looked at his screen before placing the crystal on the processing machine equipped with a laser chisel. The countdown showed the remaining time: eight hours and fourteen minutes.
“We are one hour and forty-six minutes late,” he noted.
Outside, in the dining area, his companions were still keeping calm, and patiently awaiting the arrival of the carriage. However, this equanimity lasted only until the transport appeared on the road. As soon as they saw the oxen, the young people rushed to them.
Running up to the wagon, they surrounded it and walked beside it, pensively examining Ama and Mafkona, who had turned almost into strangers. The first was Arfina, who approached the guy and the girl lying on the floor of this four-wheeled cart. She first put her hand on Ama’s shoulder, then ran her fingers over Mafkona’s cheek and stepped back. It was an unconscious action, instinctive, unplanned; she just didn’t know how to behave in this situation.
The rest of the colonists simply repeated her action for the same reason. The changes that had come over Mafkona and Ama were truly amazing. Now the colonists understood the true meaning of Nef’s words about the torments that the travelers had experienced.
Prior to the raid, Mafkona had been a slender girl with a thin waist, round body, and white skin, unable to tan. As for Ama, two days before he’d been a youth of athletic build, with an elongated face and a determined yet calm look in his black eyes.
Now the two of them looked alike: grayish skin, sunken cheeks, and red eyes. In addition, the man had a three-day beard and a fresh red scar on his right cheekbone, which made him look aged and even more exhausted. The girl’s frozen face reflected her inner tension. The colonists, knowing about her damage, understood that this was the result of severe pain, which she’d resisted for a very long time. Their original white cotton clothes were now dirty, gray, and covered in brown spots. Because of their utter emaciation the travelers’ shirts looked like a mop hanging from a stick. One more thing made Mafkona and Ama alike: distrust, the expectation of some kind of danger having settled in their eyes.
At first Mafkona found herself placed into the chamber in which all the earthly animals and plants were created and would be created. The girl wanted to start with this, although she felt a strong hunger. A scan of her wound revealed that she had a fracture in her femoral bone. Kuf, with her penchant for healing and the proper education, after bathing, immobilized Mafkona’s leg with two thin boards and a cotton bandage.
Then Arfina and Hemu put her on Gimi’s back and he carried the girl to the bedroom in her house. Simultaneously with her transfer, Nef and Ifi, using wooden trays, brought corn cakes, large steaks, herbs, cheese, and apple juice from the kitchen to her room.
Ama ate while sitting at the table, and the girl killed her hunger, leaning her back against the head of her bed. Together with them, only Nef and Ifi remained, sitting on the girl’s bed. In spite that the window and door were completely open, the weak and warm wind could not have ventilated this place if the rest of the colonists had gathered there.
Once full, Ama took his chair out onto the veranda, sat down on it, and told in detail how they’d gotten the crystal and how they’d come back. His comrades settled down on the floor in a semicircle in front of him and listened to him attentively, not forgetting to broadcast his words to Memi and Dme through the screen.
In addition, he narrated the story of Mafkona, which the girl had told him in times of their rest. She herself quickly fell asleep in her soft bed, finally safe.
From Ama’s speech it became clear that Omis should be sought south of the river Warm; there was no need to go to the crystal deposit. From the CPC, Jum uploaded to the UDs photographs of the territories bordering the colony in the west and north.
Looking at these pictures, the young people unconditionally agreed that their comrade couldn’t go further than the mountain range called the "Distant". During his wandering, Omis would undoubtedly climb a plant, to see these mountains and, focusing on them, in order to avoid another loss of direction, would go to the ocean. Thus, now it turned out that only one rescue team was needed, which would depart toward the ocean, because their three comrades are likely to be in that direction.
Chapter 92
The GPC-5, like the other two computers, contained information in its memory on the manufacture of various mechanisms, parts or assemblies in two ways: in an industrial one based on advanced technologies, and in a simpler one, making it possible to produce the necessary items in a primitive colony.
Memi and Dme used a technique that couldn’t be called completely primitive. They cut off unnecessary parts from the crystal billet using a neodymium laser beam. After that, the same beam melted the surface of the future optical device and prepared it for final polishing. The expeditions hadn’t taken3D printing with them because it didn’t work with all types of raw materials.
Noon had departed to the past. Another hour joined it, but still three hours remained until the deadline. Ama had long gone to bed. The colonists went about their business again. Four people returned to the HPP to eliminate the last imperfections there. Others still worked on a device that would allow their little telescope to see stars in day light. The rescue team was helping them, the dispatching of which was postponed for several hours—after all, contact remained the highest priority. Arfina and Kam were editing the report to be sent to Earth. They added to it a description of the trip for the crystal.
Nim remembered his current duty and, having stopped working on the telescope, went to the kitchen. He lit a fire, closed th
e oven door, and stood up. At that moment, his gaze automatically flew out of the kitchen, rushing into the expanse, like a flashlight beam that had gotten rid of an opaque barrier in its path. Without wasting time, it reached the edge of the pasture.
Nim saw a man there, and at first thought that someone had decided to look at the cattle. A moment later, Nim discovered an error in his reasoning: all the colonists were here, in the residential area, and so who did he see there? In the next instant, he remembered his UD.
From his device, he pulled out a lens mounted at the tip of a thin rod, malleable as clay, and aimed it at the southern border of the colony. After the lens had focused on the desired point, Nim whispered, “They made it back but this is not Omis, there are two of them—of course, it’s Bame and Em.”
Meanwhile, Lif, who had already joined her work-mate, noticed his strange behavior. The girl also glanced to where he was looking and noticed the blurry silhouette of a man in the pasture. Momentarily becoming interested in this unexpected development, she activated the lens of her UD and aimed it to that point. As soon as Lif realized what she saw, the girl turned on the general alert and said, “Bame and Em are back!”
Although after she pressed the button and enlarged the image on her screen to the maximum, the girl asked in a low voice, “Is it really Bame and Em?”
Her words reached all the colonists over the radio. In response, they all connected their devices to the girl’s.
The closer the two approached, the more the colonists were amazed. But in the end, when there was no doubt about what exactly they were seeing, they still found themselves unable to comprehend the essence of the picture displayed on their screens: Omis was aiming at Bame’s back with a maser!
Space for Evolution Page 44
