Exodus: Tales of The Empire: Book 2: Beasts of the Frontier.

by Doug Dandridge

  There was still daylight left, so Dang decided to make the best use of it and head out. His implant could give him a general direction, he knew which way he needed to go to get to the lowlands, so that was the course he took. It seemed no use to keep looking for the site of the ancients, not in his present condition. In fact, there didn’t seem any use to coming back and look for it later. It was probably just a tall tale in the first place, he thought as he trudged on.

  That night he found a small cave. It was inhabited by a small dog like predator, and he made his first kill with his spear. A fire at the entrance warmed him, and allowed him to cook the animal, which, while it tasted awful, was filling. And the cave was warm, and as secure as he could make it with the fire built in the entrance.

  The next day dawned bright with the orange globe of the sun rising over the mountains. The spear doubled as a walking stick as Dang forged through the deep snow, heading toward the end of the valley he was in. Hopefully there would be a pass into the next valley, stair stepping down until he reached the lowlands and civilization.

  Looking over at the mountains to the north, he stopped in his tracks. It’s the image on the map, he thought, staring at the three peaks, running like rising steps from west to east. Just like in the drawings. This is it.

  He shook his head. Coincidence? That was all it was. There were probably dozens of vantage points lie this in the damned mountains. Any of them would present a display like this. He looked over the valley, which had to be six kilometers from side to side, and fifteen kilometers long. There was forest along both sides, and a wide, open area with deep snow through the center. The forest looked like the better path, since it would not have as deep a snow as the open.

  With that thought in mind, he started walking toward the north side of the valley, his eyes darting every which way, looking for trouble. But trouble stepped out of the woods from straight ahead, in the form of a large walking death.

  Dang stopped in his tracks, pulling his spear up and gripping it in both hands, knife pointed toward the predator. The carnivore stopped as well, its head questing from side to side for a moment before locking onto the human. Dang knew it was picking up his body heat against the cold field of snow. In a moment it would charge, and there was no where he could go to escape it.

  The creature stepped forward, then took another, before launching into a run, its wide feet splaying out and keeping it from going deep into the snow. Unfortunately, the human’s feet could not do the same, and Dang stumbled through the snow, his legs going almost to his knees in the frozen water.

  After a dozen steps he realized he wasn’t going to be able to get away from the creature, so he turned and readied the spear, aiming it at the belly of the charging creature. He saw immediately that the tactic wouldn’t work. The death would be biting through his torso before the spear impacted the belly. So at the last second he shifted the point upward, pushing it into the lower jaw of the predator as it started to bite down.

  The predator recoiled, pulling the spear from his hand. The leg of the raptor struck him hard in the chest, sending him flying through the air to land on his back in the snow forty meters away. Dang forced himself up despite having the breath knocked from his body. He had to move, fast, if he wanted to live.

  The predator was roaring in pain, clawing with its foreclaws at the spear haft, trying to get it out of its jaw. The monomolecular blade had penetrated straight through the bone of the jaw, and the beast was having a hard time dislodging it. With a last swipe the spear haft broke, leaving the knife in place. With another roar and blood in its eyes, the creature looked straight at the man who had wounded it. When it did Dang recognized it. The mate of the one he had killed, and now it had nothing to stop it from killing him.

  Dang turned and stumbled away, adrenaline lending him strength. He knew he didn’t have a chance, but he was unwilling to give up. There had to be a way out. He refused to believe that he was doomed. He tried speed up, but the snow would not let him. He started to pray for something, anything to happen to get him out of this mess, when he stumbled forward, hit the snow, and fell through.

  Next thing Dang knew he was in the air, clumps of snow falling with him through the darkness. Then the darkness vanished into bright light, and he could see a hard floor below. It was mostly empty, but there were some strange objects down there that could have been machines of some type, possibly vehicles. And the floor was not coming toward him as fast as he would have expected. In fact, it felt like he was falling in slow motion.

  As he moved closer to the floor he could see doors in the walls fronting the open chamber. This is it, he thought as he turned in the air so that his feet were facing the floor. Moments later he touched down, still scarcely able to believe he was still alive.

  The things on the floor were machines, a couple of them vehicles. He thought of the wealth that would be his when he made it back to civilization with the location of this horde of tech. He yelled at the top of his lungs, jumping in the air and waving his fists above his head. We made it, Dallas, he thought, turning around to take in the entire complex.

  A grunting sound raised the hackles on his neck, and he slowly turned again, to see the raptor standing ten meters behind him. It had followed him down, protected by the same arresting field that had allowed him to land without injury. He just had time to register the shock when the great head thrust down and the jaws closed on his body. A couple of chomps and the creature raised its head, letting the meat slide down its throat.

  The predator stood there for a moment, ignoring the pain of the knife that was stuck in its lower jaw. It was satisfied. It had avenged its mate and filled its belly. Afterwards it walked around the open area, trying to find a way out, the wonders of the ancients of no interest to it. All it wanted was to find a way back to its own world.

  * * *

  A ship in orbit picked up the energy signature in the mountains where none had existed before. Within an hour search and rescue craft were on the scene, and the ancient base was found. There was some confusion about how the large predator they shot down had gotten into the base, but it seemed to have triggered whatever systems were there that woke it up the lights and environmental systems. The other mystery was the knife that was wedged into the jaw. The consensus was that the beast had attacked a human, and the person had injured it before being killed. After that all thought was for the technology found at the base, much of it in perfect operating condition. Enough to make every member of the two teams wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.

  The Hunted

  Some worlds have riches of their own, represented by the plants and animals that dwell there. Even in an energy and resource rich society, there are two ways to get ahead if one is not born to wealth. One either works hard for it, taking the time and effort, and the risks, to gain. Or one turns to a life of crime, catering to the baser natures of human beings. And on the frontier, these human predators can be just as dangerous as the kind that evolved on that world.

  “Are you stupid, son?” asked Tobias Kelvin, staring down at the younger man who stood before him. The young man was in his late twenties, still a child among a people who commonly lived to almost three hundred years. The youth stood his ground, and Kelvin felt some pride in the lad underneath his rage.

  The face that looked back at him was the same shade of ebony, the same nose, same lips, same eyes. He had hoped the boy would make something of himself other than the hardscrabble existence of a Swamper. Would go into a technical field, science, even medicine, like his old man. Oh, the rest of his family made good money harvesting the resources of the almost continent spanning swamp that was the dominant land feature of the Mississippi landmass of the planet Congo. But it was not an easy life, or a safe one.

  “It seemed like easy money, Dad,” said Matthew Kelvin, shrugging his shoulders. “After all, the damned flower grows all over the place, and I knew how to get it.”

  Tobias shook his head again. Violet lotus did grow all
over the swamp, and in its unprocessed form was deadly to humans, to eat or even to breath too much of the scent. Processed it became a powerful analgesic, and a powerfully addictive drug that was in much demand on some of the core worlds, where large segments of the population languished in the boredom of the dole. And I thought that nonsense would be over and done with now that the war has employed most of those on the rolls, he thought.

  Obviously that had not happened, and the demand was just as great for the illicit drug that was made from the flower, even as demand for the medicinal had also increased. Only the crime lords were not about to give up the profits they were making on the drug.

  “And how did you run afoul of the Mob, son?” asked Tobias. “Why are they after you?”

  “I thought better of giving them the last shipment.”

  Tobias shook his head and spit on the ground. “So you had an attack of conscience at the last moment. Why couldn’t you have had that attack after you gave them what they wanted, or before you had made the agreement to get them those damned flowers.”

  He thought it would have been so much easier if the violet lotus could be grown off planet. But Congo had a unique ecology, and any attempt to grow many of the valuable plants off planet resulted in failure. Just like many of the singular molecules of those plants and animals could not be synthesized in any potency.

  “I know I was stupid,” agreed Matthew. “And I’m sorry. But the Mob put out a hit on me, and I have nowhere else to go.” The young man looked down at his feet for a moment, then started to turn away. “I shouldn’t be putting you and the rest of the family at risk like this. I’ll try and see if I can get off planet, where they won’t be able to find me.”

  “Don’t make another stupid mistake, boy,” said Tobias, stepping forward, grabbing his son by the arm and turning him around to embrace him. “The best place for you is where you were raised. You are coming home.”

  A Giant carnotropus grunted in the distance, a dominance call that was repeated by scores more of the large predators across the swamp. “Let’s see if they can get past that army.”

  * * *

  “I want this little fuck, and I want him now,” growled Centari Numbra, the native born crime boss of Africanus. A holo globe of the planet rotated beside her, showing her fiefdom. The Mississippi continent, named for the enormous river system that arose from its west most mountains to flow across the landmass, was three quarters swamp, arising from the flood plains of those waterways. Fifteen million square kilometers of land, though over eleven million of that was the swampland which was about one half water.

  There were four other continents on the world, two larger than the Mississippi landmass, and none contained a single dominant feature like the swamp. There were large tracts of rainforest, and taiga, and some large plains dominated by huge beasts. And none were as rich in biological resources as that swamp. They were what made this territory so valuable to her, even though less than forty thousand people lived in that area among the fifteen million inhabitants of the planet.

  Africanus was the epitome of a frontier world, but some frontier was wilder than others, and wild was the perfect descriptor for the swamp. Without the aid of Swampers who knew the territory, they would get nothing of the riches of that land.

  “It looks like he fled into the Swamp, Boss,” said her Lieutenant in charge of drug distribution. “I had my men out looking for him, but he’s nowhere to be found in any of the cities. And he hasn’t left the planet.”

  “So he’s in the Swamp. Go in there and get him. He’s from there, right. So he has family there. He’s either got to be with them, or they’ll know where he is. Put some pressure on them and find out where he is, then kill him.”

  The Lieutenant gave a short bow and turned away to walk out of the room. Numbra turned her eyes on her Chief Enforcer, Claude Deveroix, who stood over against one of the walls.

  “Do you have a strike team to go in after Kelvin if Putin finds him?”

  “I have some people, but I really don’t think they’re right for this job,” answered the Enforcer. “I would send them after anyone in the urban areas, and even most of the wilderness, but not out into that wasteland.”

  “What do you suggest?”

  “We could ask for some help from off planet.”

  “And admit that I can’t control my own territory? I don’t think so. Now get your people ready to go get this boy. And I don’t care if you have to make an example of anyone that gets in your way. I want an example made of him. No one fucks with me in my own territory.”

  * * *

  “I think we should go to the planetary police,” said Fara, looking from her son to her husband. “Let them deal with these people.”

  Tobias shook his head. There were less than a hundred police patrolling the Swamp. And he didn’t think they could spare enough people to actually protect his son. He would rather depend on himself, and his family and friends, to do that.

  “The Mob has their people within all of the police forces on the planet,” protested Matthew. “Not that many, I’m sure. But enough for any information they develop to get the Mob as well.”

  “You don’t think that Farrell is connected to the Mob, do you?” asked Fara, her eyes wide.

  “Oh, I doubt Officer Farrell is on the take,” said Tobias, shaking his head. Edgewater the village only had a little over a hundred people, and it really wouldn’t have made much sense to pay the local cop to keep tabs on that small a population. “But he still has to report to someone up the chain of command, and someone along the way might sell Matthew out.”

  Tobias stood and walked over to the window that looked out on the solid ground of the community park. There were some people out there, under the protection of the sonic field that repelled all native life forms, especially the insectoids that could be such a nuisance through most of the year. He looked at those people closely. He knew all of them, just as he knew everyone in the service area of Edgewater. He not only ran his medical practice in the town, but most of his patients lived out there in the Swamp. They were good people, the kind who would be loyal to their friends and neighbors, and loyalty meant everything to them.

  Beyond the park, in the deep water of the stream that ran by the village to join with a river twelve kilometers further on, the ridged head and eyes of a Giant Carnotropus protruded from the surface. Tobias estimated the creature to be in the five meter range, a baby for that species, but old enough to know that intruding upon the villages of the humans was a bad idea. The hexapodal amphibians were not the smartest of creatures, but they were smart enough to remember the carcasses of their own that had hung around the village at times.

  “Maybe Matthew should go out to one of his uncles’ houses,” suggested Fara.

  “That might be a good idea, son,” said Tobias, thinking about the five brothers and brothers in law that lived out in the wilderness, making their living on harvesting the Swamp. There were also a dozen cousins out there. “Maybe Timothy.”

  Fara nodded at that suggestion. Timothy was her older brother, and a former Army Ranger. He had served in the Lasharan wars, tracking insurgents in the wilderness of several worlds through multiple tours, but was now back home with his family. Tobias couldn’t think of a more protected place for his son.

  Matthew’s older brother and sister were both off planet studying, Frederick at the Imperial University on Jewel, and Mara at the Peale Island Naval Academy. They wouldn’t have to worry about those two, but they also weren’t here to help.

  “And what about you two?” asked Matthew, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “It won’t take much to find out that you are my parents, and that you live here. Maybe you should both go out to Uncle Timothy’s as well. Or at least out to our cabin.”

  “I can’t close down my practice,” replied Tobias, looking over at his wife. “There are too many people depending on me.”

  In some ways that was not really true. Every colonist had a full spectrum
of internal nanites protecting them against biological and chemical infestations. All had full service med kits on hand. But in an environment like this that still might not be enough. And the presence of a trained physician could still be the difference between surviving and not. He turned to his wife and took her hands.

  “But I want you to go, dear. I would feel much better if you were in a safe place, and you can still do your job through the com net.”

  “But, then you will be here by yourself,” protested Fara.

  “I could ask some of our nieces and nephews to come for a stay,” said Tobias, calling up some contacts on his implant. “I won’t be alone. Now, let’s make the contacts we need and get moving.”

  “And I’ll have to stay in hiding for how long?” asked Matthew. “I can’t hide forever.”

  “Just until this thing blows over, son. Then we’ll get you off the planet.” He looked in Matthew’s eyes, seeing the misery that lived there. “You brought this on yourself, and you need to accept the consequences. I’m just hoping those consequences don’t include the end of your life.”

  * * *

  “I think I’ve found him,” said the voice of the snitch over the com. “I saw him in a village called Edgewater.”

  “So he’s there in the village?” asked Deveroix, waving for one of his people to get on the com with them.

  “Actually, he got in a aircar and headed out over the swamp about fifteen minutes ago, with a man who looked like a close relative. But his dad’s still here. He’s the local physician, while his mom works from home as a government administrator. I figure they would have to know where he went.”

  “Good work,” said Deveroix, checking a holo globe of the planet and locating the village, about two hours flight from the city of St. Martin, the continental capital. “Keep an eye on the father. Don’t let him out of your sight. I‘ll have a team there in about three hours to take charge of him, and the mom. Then we’ll find out where the little fuck has gotten to.”