The Galactic Circle Veterinary Service

by Stephen Benjamin

  “What..?”

  His yellow eyes bored into mine. “You are Leader?”

  “Yeah, but that does not—”

  “Then you undertake proof. Not the inferior one.” He looked at Fur. I fought to hide a smile as a frown creased the big man’s brow.

  Fur turned his palm upward toward me. “Your call.”

  It was hard to back down now, so I concurred. “What do I do?”

  Leader looked at Fur. “You return to your ship.” He looked at me. “Follow.”

  “Go ahead. I’ll be fine,” I said. Fur continued to frown as he turned and walked toward the ship. I followed Leader toward the edge of the forest.

  When he stopped, Leader ordered, “Unclothe.”

  “What?” I cried.

  Fur turned back, but a cordon of Lupans surrounded him and urged him toward the ship.

  “You go as the People go,” Leader said.

  Shit. I didn’t expect that. “Wait a minute—”

  “Unclothe.”

  I shrugged and stripped to shorts and a T-shirt. The temperature was comfortable, but I wondered how long that would last. Nighttime would be chillier.

  “All clothes.”

  This was ridiculous, but backing down now would blow the whole deal. I reluctantly complied. Somehow, with my privates uncovered, I felt far more vulnerable, though undershorts were no real protection from anything but cold.

  Leader stared at the hydra scars on my arm and leg but said nothing. I did get a mental wave of something akin to approval. Respect for battle scars?

  Leader made a motion toward the woods, and three Lupans stepped out and approached us. Leader voiced a series of growls to the newcomers.

  Ruthie said, “I can’t translate, Cy. There were tones that were outside the range of my audio pickups. I must say, you look fetching that way.”

  Leader turned back to me and pointed to my ear. “Remove.”

  My earbud? How in hell could he have heard that? “No, I need that to maintain contact with my ship. It’s policy. I can’t leave it behind.”

  A chorus of growls accompanied a visible erection of the manes of all four Lupans. I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise in response. What was I getting into? Was it too late to back out?

  Leader took a step closer to me, followed by his companions, and held out his hand. “Remove!”

  I could refuse, head back to the ship, and be off this planet within an hour. Something made me demur, possibly anticipation of Levi’s inevitable smirk when he won. I reached up, removed the earpiece, and handed it to Leader.

  He showed his teeth and stepped back. He turned to the three other Lupans and growled. Without Ruthie’s translation, I felt far more naked than I had from removing my clothes. Now I couldn’t even communicate with the Lupans, much less the GCVS. How would I understand the trial?

  It shocked me when Leader spoke to me in rudimentary Common. It was too easy to think of the Lupans as naked savages, but their intelligence surpassed their outward appearance.

  “You follow.” He pointed to the three newcomers. “Three days, nights.”

  Three days and nights?

  “Kill, eat. Face danger. Then accepted.”

  Kill? Eat? Danger? There seemed to be an echo in my head.

  Before I could do more, Leader waved at his cohort. I stood mesmerized as the three Lupans started to melt. This raised a crop of goose bumps all over my body. The figures transformed before my eyes from humanoid to brutes that more than matched their human-given moniker. They were longer and leaner than Terran wolves. The domes of their skulls were larger; the size and shape of the brain did not seem to change. I assumed that their intelligence did not desert them in their lupine forms. I hoped so.

  The muzzles were long and narrow, more like a crocodile than a wolf, and the teeth were even much more prominent than they had been in their bipedal form. The legs were long and they looked as if they could cover ground like a Terran cheetah. The claws were canine-like rather than lizard-like. The eyes had not changed at all, piercing yellow stares that scared the shit out of me.

  Now, thick fur the color of their humanoid manes covered their bodies. One was black, one a grizzled grey-brown, and one a rusty red. Their manes were even more prominent in the lupine form, and resembled the Terran male lion. Tails were very wolf-like. Altogether impressive beasts, although I might have appreciated the display more if I didn’t stand bare-assed in front of them.

  At a motion from Leader, the pack bounded off for the woods. If I had thought they were graceful in their humanoid forms, I was now astonished. They seemed to flow across the ground, almost without contact. They were gone in an eye blink, and I was alone with Leader.

  I looked at him. “Exactly what am I supposed to do?”

  “You learn. Part of test. Go.” He pointed to the forest, then turned and walked back toward the village.

  I stood with my mouth hanging open for a moment, before I shut it with a snap. “Idiot,” I muttered, “what have you gotten yourself into now?”

  An eerie howl floated back to me from the direction the beasts had flown.

  ***

  Thankfully, the dim forest was not like the Ulmian jungle, whose psychedelic, toxin-spewing inhabitants still haunted my nightmares. Here, boles of great evergreen trees blended into the mist, with sparse undergrowth due to the shade. I heard or saw no birds and wondered if they had not evolved on this planet.

  At least it was open enough to preclude an ambush. My eyes lit on a dead tree branch that might serve as a weapon. I picked it up and hefted it. It was twice my height and as thick as my wrist. I broke it in half over my knee and hopped about for a minute or two as the pain subsided. I discarded the thinner portion. That would do for now, but I needed something more lethal if I was to follow Leader’s instruction to “kill,” presumably to “eat.” I hoped I could find plenty of nuts and berries before I got to that point.

  I walked until the sun reached its zenith. Soft pine-like needles covered the forest floor. My bare feet were sore, but not cut. I hoped they would toughen with use, but knew that one false step on a sharp object might cripple me. I moved slowly. Fortunately, the hydra wounds had healed and did not hamper me. Although the trees shrouded me from the sun, the air was warm. I avoided bushes as much as possible to minimize scratches and possible contact with anything poisonous. Ulm’s floral monstrosities taught me caution.

  My breakfast had been meager and my stomach rumbled. I had not seen anything that resembled food, other than seeds that looked like an aborted acorn with a red fan sticking out of the top. I was not about to test those. Previous reports said humans could eat Lupan flora and fauna, but there were plenty of toxic Terran plants. Nothing to do but keep going. They didn’t send me out here to sit on my bare ass.

  Leaves soughed in the breeze. Maybe I was supposed to smell out something. No doubt the Lupines had great olfactory senses. As if this thought was a trigger, I heard a crash in the underbrush and a rank smell assaulted my nose. I hid behind the trunk of the nearest tree.

  The noise moved closer. The thing emanated hunger and curiosity, but no fear or aggression. Certainly nothing sentient. I gagged at the thing’s odor, somewhere between a skunk and marsh gas. It stopped on the other side of the trunk. The tree was wider than I was tall, so we remained hidden from one another, but I could tell that it sensed me. Maybe it could hear my heart pounding like a kettledrum. The only emotion I could perceive now was curiosity. The standoff lasted moments, but it seemed like hours.

  My curiosity got the better of me. I moved to the edge of the bole and stuck my head out. I’m not sure who was more surprised, but both of us jumped backward. I stepped on a broken limb and fell on my ass. My heart rate rose as I went down.

  The beast looked like a cross between a hippopotamus and an elephant, other than the color. Irregular red, vertical stripes slashed the bright yellow body from the back to the abdomen. It swung its broad head from side to side. Its arm-long nose
swung like an elephant’s trunk. No tusks, thank God. It snorted and pawed with its sizable hoofs. Still no fear or aggression. It stood no taller than my shoulder, but outweighed me at least several-fold. My branch felt like a toothpick as I levered myself to my feet.

  “Hello there.” I kept my voice low and sent out a thought of calmness. “You’re a strange one. I wonder what they call you.”

  The thing stood immobile, curiosity still its primary emotional scent.

  What in blazes did I do now? Back away?

  I did. The beast obliged and mirrored my move. Okay, another step. Same result.

  Strange. I took a step forward. Hippophant did the same. I stopped. He/she stopped. I bent over to look and confirmed this was a she, or at least lacked obvious he-ness. She sort of bent her stubby legs and cocked her head in response.

  Come on. Was this some sort of joke? I lifted one leg. So did she. I lifted both arms and stood like a crane, then hopped on one foot. Her eyes widened and she snorted. My heart fluttered.

  She jumped, lifting her bulk perhaps a few centimeters off the ground. The earth juddered when she landed. It was a bizarre game of Simon Says.

  Then I felt more judders. Bigger ones. Something else approached. I backed off, but now Hippophant followed me. Not what I wanted. I stopped short as huge bulks materialized between the big trees.

  Oh, shit. She was a baby! That explained the curious behavior and lack of fear. The rest of the family was not similarly inclined. When the lead hippophant saw me, it let out an elephantine bellow and pawed the ground, gouging up clods of dirt the size of my torso. Its anger swamped the curiosity I had received from Baby. Baby turned and ambled back to Momma. In turn, Momma nuzzled Baby with her snout, before she returned her attention to me. Now flanked by a dozen other adult hippophants, none of which looked or felt friendly, she lifted her short, flexible snout in the air, as if questing for my scent. A large male—maleness was obvious on this planet—opened its mouth. Typical herbivore dentition reassured me I was not on the dinner menu, though they could make quick work of me with their broad hooves if they so desired.

  I backed away again. Momma then started toward me, so I picked up my pace. She did, too. I got a tree between us, turned, and sprinted for all I was worth. I came up short when I reached a cliff edge and could go no farther. The hippophants were no longer in sight, and I felt no emanations of hatred. I gasped as the stitch in my side receded. The bruised ball of my right foot where I had stepped on the limb hurt like hell.

  I had been lucky. Undoubtedly, those things could have outrun me, but they probably saw no need since Baby was unharmed. I wondered, was I supposed to kill one of them as my trial? Good luck. No way could I do that, short of digging a stake-lined pit with a stick for a tool. I was pitted against the three Lupans, though I could not fathom how. Probably not a physical conflict, but I could have been wrong. I did not see how I could win something like that.

  I stood perhaps three or four hundred meters above a broad grassland that extended to the east as far as I could see. Copses of trees dotted the landscape, and a serpentine, tree-lined river ran from east to west, paralleling the cliff, but several kilometers away. A herd of animals grazed near the river, and I saw movement within the trees, as well.

  I limped along the cliff face, looking for a way to get down. I heard chittering in the trees, but whatever they were, they would move off when I got too close.

  As the sun was halfway through its decline to the west, I came upon an outcrop of rock that resembled flint. Pieces had flaked off and I examined one. I smacked it against a tree bole and it shattered. Probably useless as an axe head. I picked up one of the shards and tested its edge against my fingernail. It left a slight groove. Maybe a knife?

  I took several more flakes of rock and beat them against one another. After a dozen pieces shattered in my hands, I got the hang of it and fashioned something long and thin enough to be a serviceable dagger. I made a couple of spares and used one to whittle the end of my staff to a point. After admiring my new spear, I threw away the blade that now resembled a butter knife. I felt better with weapons, prehistoric though they were.

  How would I carry my tools? I could manage the knife or the spear; I wanted to have one hand free. A tough vine twined its way up a tree, and I cut a length with my second knife. One segment made a belt. Thinner vine strips made handles for the knives. Then I wove a crude sheath and attached that to the belt at my side. The two knives fit in it. Just what the well-equipped caveman would carry.

  As the sun sank into the trees, the temperature dropped with it. I shivered. A hide tunic and some sandals to match would have been nice. As I hobbled along, I watched for a place I could hole up for the night. Predators liked the dark hours. I shivered again, but not from the cold.

  I found a dead tree that formed a hollow within its massive roots. After making sure that nothing lived there already, I scraped out the accumulated decayed wood and rotted vegetation to make a cozy little cave. I collected branches with needles for a bed and to cover myself for warmth. My hunger and thirst would have to wait until tomorrow. The opening was small enough that if anything did desire to investigate, only one thing could get to me at a time. Big mistake, thinking only of large animals as a threat.

  ***

  A sharp pain on the rear of my left thigh woke me. I sat up, groggy, and ran my hand down my thigh to where it hurt. My hand encountered a squiggly and I bolted out of my hole with a scream.

  Shit. Something bit me.

  Creepy crawlies were okay, so long as they didn’t sneak up on me. I wasn’t sure what had bitten or stung me, and I danced around the tree, hopping from one bad leg to the other, in case there were more of the things. There were. I felt one more bite on the left ankle, swiped at it, and dislodged the deliverer.

  In the blackness, I could not see what form my adversaries took or how many there were, so I moved away into the forest. No way was I going back to the tree for my spear. I stayed within the trees so I would not stumble over the cliff in the dark.

  The wounds were a fiery torment. Both my legs were now lame. Despite the cold air, sweat poured off my body. My arms and legs trembled. I kept a steady pace until the dawn light filtered through the trees, then I sat to examine my wounds.

  Bites, for sure. A small chunk of flesh had been gouged out at each site. The wounds were not large, but they burned, and I worried about infection. I used saliva to clean them up a bit. I had to find some water soon, to drink and to clean the bites better.

  I checked the bottom of my right foot. The painful area was blue-black, but at least there was no open wound. My arms and legs trembled even worse now. Even my eyelids twitched.

  Did those things have some sort of neurotoxin? Venomous creatures seemed to have a thing for me lately. I was lucky I only had two bites. A pack of those things might have brought me down permanently.

  The sun had reached the level of the treetops when I found a small stream that dropped over the cliff edge in a waterfall. I moved to the edge of the water and peered at it. What I expected to see, I’m not sure, but my two experiences so far had engaged my paranoia reflexes. There was no way to test or purify the water, so I scooped some up with cupped hands and drank my fill. Then I washed the bite wounds. Fortunately, they showed no signs of festering. I scrubbed them and let them dry before I moved. The pain that had started to subside renewed itself. Thank God my trembling was no worse.

  When the pain had lessened some, I found another branch that would make a decent spear as well as a walking stick. When I tried to sharpen it, my shakiness threatened more injury to me than to the stick, but I persevered then threw away the dulled second knife.

  I rested for a bit, then moved to the edge of the waterfall. The cliff was not as sheer here. Rock falls and scree sloped outward toward the base, as good a place to climb down as any. I had no doubt I needed to do so. Other than the hippophants, the only animals I had seen were down there. Aside from the creepy-crawlies, but
I had not seen them. Maybe there was some sort of fruit on those trees. There certainly wasn’t anything up here.

  It took about half an hour to make my way down. Again, I checked the area out from the bottom of the cliff before I moved. The herdbeasts did not seem as large as the hippophants, but I did not want to take chances. Any animals can be dangerous if they felt they or their offspring were threatened.

  As I stepped out from behind a rock, a small, furry creature bolted from beneath my feet. I caught a hint of the animal’s fear as it scampered. That it was potential food came to mind only after it ran up on a rock pile a dozen meters away. I had half a mind to chase it, but I could not have caught it even on good legs. It disappeared into the rocks, in any case.

  Okay, patience. My stomach rumbled so loud it would probably scare off anything that got close. I squatted down and stayed as motionless as I could. All the stories about how hunters remained motionless for hours at a time had to be exaggerated. Besides the pain of the bites and my tremors, I must have itched in a thousand places within fifteen minutes. My reward came when the animal, or its brother, stuck its head out and peered around. The size of the ubiquitous rabbits of my world, the plump brown little guy sat up on two stubby hind legs. The short forepaws held what looked like a tuber of some sort. His large front teeth munched contentedly as my mouth watered. I wondered if the salivation was for the little beast or the tuber it fed on.

  What to do next? He was too far to throw my spear. Well, an arm’s length was too far to throw my spear, even if I didn’t shake like a belly dancer. I’d have to get closer, maybe try to brain him with a rock. But even the thought of that caused my empathic circuits to twinge. I had learned to euthanize animals for whom the act was a kindness, but that still left me a nauseated, pain-wracked wreck. Could I kill a cute little animal like this? I couldn’t see that I had a choice. “Kill and eat” Leader had said.

  I started up from my crouch and he was gone in a blink. So much for the great stalker. I moved over to where I had seen the creature, and found a burrow within the rock pile. I positioned myself above the burrow where he would not see me when he first stuck his head out. Then I waited, knife in hand, motionless like the books said.