She fastened her multi-tool to her left wrist and placed her sharpest blade between her teeth. The large leaf with it's load of stems full of adhesive sap she placed on her belly as she began to creep, face up and naked, through the small crevices between the vine roots.
As she crept through she examined the BranchCritter's underbelly. When she found a BranchTick embedded in it. She would carefully nip at it with the knife. She didn't want to kill it while it was still deeply embedded. Because then the BranchCritter's wound would fester.
Instead, she simply made it uncomfortable enough to back out. Though considering that her own tender flesh was just below it. She needed to be ready to stick it good. Just as soon as the back of it's head became visible and before it fell onto her skin. Then she'd cast the body aside to land were it may.
She'd quickly slice off a piece of the SpongeFruit stem. Next she would hold the stem carefully until the glue like sap formed a large droplet. Then before it could drip on her she'd shove it, droplet end first, into the hole the BranchTick had made. Finally, just before the sap began to drip from the other end, she'd tear off a small piece of the leaf and use it to smear the sap around the opening.
Thus she turned the bits of stem and leaf into an effective bandage. She also looked for the scars where a BranchTick had previously feasted. These she would scrape clean with her knife. Then plug them with a piece of stem.
Every now and then she would skip plugging a hole. Because the BranchCritter needed some of these pocket like openings for FlingAts to stash seeds, nuts and other foodstuffs into. Invariably they would forget where they hid a few of the seeds, long enough for some of them to germinate.
This was a vital process for the BranchCritters life-cycle but under normal circumstances there would have been so many hungry FlingAts snacking on the BranchTicks. That there wouldn't be so many wounds that the BranchCritter was weakened to the point of sickness. As it was she plugged nearly two hundred holes. For each one she left unplugged.
When her supply of SpongeFruit stems was depleted she would crawl out and head for the TreeWell with one of the SpongeFruit. When she felt clean again she would harvest some more SpongeFruit stalk and begin again where she'd left off.
She kept this up until the light began to fade. Then she returned to the nest and slept the night away. The affected area was so large that it took her 17 days to complete the job to her satisfaction. By then there were a few FlingAts, beginning to help but it had been a near thing. The BranchCritter was greatly weakened and in fact, had started to lose some of it's foliage, as one root stalk after another slipped from it's grip and crashed to the forest floor below.
Her prompt action however, had given it a chance to begin to heal. Soon it's health began to improve and it stopped dropping vines. She was pleased to notice that the stalks on which their nest was suspended remained firmly embedded in the BranchCritters underbelly. She resolved to stay at this nest for at least another 17 days. Just to keep an eye on the BranchCritters health.
Chapter 16 To A Backwater World We Go.
The three of them had spent a couple of hours enjoying a hearty breakfast in the bar while they discussed Jess's plan for Jake to fly an actual training mission. Which would update their database on the status of a backwater planet. Which had last been visited half a century ago. Sam had asked if he could tag along. He was still a bit bewildered by all the new information that he'd been learning since Jake had upgraded his security clearance just over a week ago. He felt he needed to actually see some of this interstellar traveling for himself in order to make sense of it all. He'd actually known that Steve was from another planet for most of the past two years but he was still having trouble realizing just how many of his friends had actually been off planet. Besides which, some of the nanotech toys Sandra had set him up with, didn't seem to have much practical use here on Earth.
“Actually Sam, the portal isn't guild technology,” Jess was explaining. “It's ours. Don't get me wrong, the guild has a thorough understanding of sidereal travel. Heck they knew about it before the reformation. It's just that they have always used a side effect of their stardrive to open a deep space rift to travel between one alternate universe and another. Steve on the other hand figured out a more efficient way to do it. There are a few caveats of course but once we have the relative resonance value of a particular universe, we can generally open a direct portal to it.
Even if it's a universe that a guild ship would need to make half a dozen sidereal jumps to reach. On the other hand, the portals physical range is limited by the distance and any relative velocities involved. It's not exactly a speed of light issue. But the farther away the destination is physically, the longer it takes to establish a link to it. And the more power it takes to maintain the link as well.
That's why we will be taking a short range star shuttle through a portal aperture and then use the shuttle to cover the physical distance.”
“I thought you said it was because I needed some hands on practice with the fringe effect drive system?” Jake interrupted with a grin.
“That too Jake,” Jess replied, without missing a beat. “You've learned all I can teach you with the simulators.” Then for Sam's benefit, Jess explained a little more. “Using a subspatial fringe effect is a lot safer than actually entering subspace. But it's tricky. Not only do you have to hit the barrier at the right angle to get were your going, but you have to hit it with just the right amount of power. Too little power and we won't anchor ourselves into the fringe barrier well enough to get much distance. Too much power and we risk passing through it into true subspace.”
“Which would of course be very bad,” Jess continued after a slight pause. “Because we wouldn't have the means to protect ourselves from it. Even with high grade medical nanites we probably wouldn't last long before we went ‘totally spacey’. Which in the absence of a highly specialized defense screen, would happen very quickly.”
“Speaking of the slight risk of actually passing through the barrier Jess,” Jake interrupted. “Didn't I read that the Free Spacer Alliance was trying to develop a new design fringe effect drive. Which would be safer because it never quite touches the actual barrier?”
“Yes I've heard of that,” Jess replied. “It's a great idea if they can actually get it working. They're not actively sharing their research on it with the guild of course but I don't think they've found a way to stay in the fringe effect zone that way yet. At least not long enough to get very far with it.
But getting back to the medical nanites I mentioned. I was about to say that the subject reminds me of something I wanted to ask Sam. So Sam, have you decided what to do about Sandra's offer of some Micronic Enterprises enhancements yet?”
“Well sort of,” Sam replied. “She convinced me that having some of her nanites wouldn't be that bad an idea. But I'm still a little nervous about such things messing with my mind. I mean she already set me up with some nice nano-gadgets. And you guys aren't planning on going anywhere dangerous, right?”
“Well that's the plan anyway Sam,” Jake answered. “But they tell me you never know when something, we didn't plan on running into, will surprise us out there.”
Sam thought about that for a minute before he replied.
“Well I suppose I could stock up on some of those body boosting nano-meds she said she could give me before we go,” Sam eventually said. “Sandra said she can give me some packets that will give me a short term strength enhancement. Which would also serve as emergency anti-trauma medical nanites. She also said that if they don't need to use themselves up doing that, any remaining nanites would slowly expend themselves protecting most of my body functions.
I can deal with all that I guess. I just don't want any of those mind linking nanites, that she talked about, trying to hook my brain up to one of those control helmets.”
“OK Sam, I guess that's all we can expect of you,” Jake said. Then after a slight pause he added, “I do have one other concern about you
going on this particular trip though Sam.”
Sam looked puzzled for a moment.
“OK, I'll bite,” he said. “What are you getting at?”
“Well you see Sam,” Jake gently explained. “You still seem a bit nervous about nanites messing with your mind.” Jake paused for a moment to let the subject sink in but he quickly continued before Sam could voice any objections to it. “It's just that we're going to be cooped up aboard the shuttle for three to four days each way. And on this trip we won't have any girls with us...”
Sam saw where this was going and was fairly trembling when he interrupted Jake.
“And your worried about your promise not to mess with my mind right?” Sam asked.
Jake's nonverbal response was two conflicting gestures. He nodded to indicate Sam understood the problem and he shrugged to indicate he didn't know the answer. Sam thought about it for nearly a minute.
“Well the way I figure it,” Sam reasoned. “Without any girls along, neither of you really want to be, err, ‘excited’ any more than you want me to be. So since nobody will be trying to go there, I think I can mostly control myself.
I mean I can't promise I won't get a woody now and then. But if I do I promise to think about using it on your girl, Cindy. And I'll even try not to so much as think of one of my boyfriends. Aside from that, if I manage to make you, um, ‘uncomfortable’ Then I suppose I could deal with it if you have to suppress my mood. That is if you'll try really hard not to twist my feelings...” Then after a brief pause Sam added, “Will that do?”
“Fair enough,” Jake said with a smile. “It pleases me that your willing to trust my judgment on that Sam. But rest assured. I'll be just as careful about only applying a general wet blanket as Steve would have.
That is I won't even try to stop you from finding our butts attractive Sam. But don't be surprised if for some reason they just don't seem all that attractive at the moment. And no Sam, I wouldn't expect you to stop having erections. But please also try not to overdo the bit of thinking about my Cindy. If I think about that too much I'll get heated up over the idea of watching your snake sliding into her again. And that would be frustrating.
I won't do anything unless we start getting uncomfortable with each other. But if any one of us starts to have an issue, I will suppress our sex drives as much as I have to. Deal?”
“Deal! And thank you!” Sam said cheerfully. “You said, suppress ‘our’ sex drives, rather than just mine. That means a lot to me.”
“That's it then Sam,” Jess spoke up. “If your going, you better go see Sandra. Then meet us in the launch bay. We'll be leaving in two hours. Don't be late.”
“Which launch bay is that?” Sam inquired.
“Just be alone in the elevator,” Jake answered. “Then punch in ‘star, triple zero, pound, double three, star’ and palm the identi-screen. You'll get there.”
Sam was wearing a one piece leather jumpsuit that accented his curvaceous body and he was carrying a small duffel bag. When he stepped out of the elevator into a large circular room. He noticed that the room appeared to have four doors, counting the elevator. Which was considerably smaller than other three doors. The four doors were evenly spaced around the circle. Near the elevator there was a computerized control console of some kind. Next to which Jake and Jess were both standing. Jake was wearing A Blue set of house duds, and Jess was wearing a red set. Or at least they looked like house duds. Except that the embossed logo on the pockets had a muted metallic looking color contrasting with the shirts color making the image stand out. Jess's logo had a dull gold sheen to it. Jake's looked more like silver.
There was a large mechanical arm assembly mounted on the ceiling. Which, as Sam watched, began to move. Suddenly Sam had to revise his opinion. There were 5 doors if you count the very large hole that had just opened in the floor. From which the mechanical arm was lifting something that looked a little like a flying saucer but it's shape fell short of being a full disk. It was like two sides had been slightly flattened and a pair of cylinders had been strapped onto the flattened sides and if those were indeed the sides, then there was a curved indention in the rear. In which he could see a door of some kind. As Sam watched, the hole appeared to shrink until the floor was completely closed once more.
Jess watched Jake punch in the correct command sequence to silently prep the fringe-shuttle for extended use. He smiled with amused approval when Jake added instructions for a selection of additional provisions to be requested from the kitchen.
“You got hopes,” Jess commented. “You might do better to be a little less specific when you request leftovers of anything Mike cooked up. It all tends to disappear ya know.”
“Aye, that it does,” Jake said with a chuckle. “And I've already become one of the chief culprits on that.” He rubbed and patted his belly for emphasis and continued without pause. “But as it happens, Mike does as good a job keeping up with his inventory as he does anything else he bothers with. It doesn't matter what time of day or night I've raided the kitchen. By the time I get back upstairs, the inventory always reflects what I just took. So since I checked the inventory this morning, I'm pretty sure we can get a half dozen servings each of the ravioli, catfish and beef stew.
I'd order more, but you told me the onboard nutrition system can actually make a few edible dishes. So I figure we should at least try one or two of them.”
Jess looked a bit skeptical of the plan but he held his tongue. Instead he turned to Sam and pointed at his armband.
“By the way Sam,” he said. “Anytime your assigned to a mission that's supposed to take you off world, your temporarily exempt from the ‘staff’ dress code.”
That was when Sam noticed that if you didn't count the logo on his shirt pocket Jess wasn't wearing his staff logo. Then Jake, made a point of looking Sam up and down.
“I must say you have an impressive wardrobe Sam,” Jake said with a grin. “And the way that fit's, well lets just say Cindy would be jealous.”
“You guys didn't tell me what to wear,” Sam said. “So I picked out this outfit. Is it OK for the mission?”
“Oh I suppose it will do just fine Sam,” Jake replied. “We don't exactly have any strict uniform requirements. Though anything you get from ship's stores will look a lot like house duds.”
“Excepting of course,” Jess interjected. “When and if we go somewhere that local custom requires a modification to it. But then, the ship would provide an outfit that conformed to the local requirements.”
“While on board the ship itself however, there isn't any dress code whatsoever,” Jake resumed explaining. “Based on what I understand of where we are going, your leather will be OK there. But if you don't mind, I'd like to add a Hillside decal Like the images on our pockets. It would reinforce the visual perception that we are all part of the same team.”
It took a moment for Sam to realize that Jake was waiting for an answer.
“I guess that's OK, it won't damage the leather will it?” Sam inquired.
“Not to worry,” Jake said as he touched Sam just below the left shoulder with the tip of his finger. “Just ask me when the mission's over and I'll have my nanites undo that.”
Sam looked down at the spot Jake had touched. He saw a faint scar like image of the Hillside logo develop in the surface of the leather. Then the lines of the image began to glow for second. When the glow faded, the lines took on a metallic look, as if some translucent gold colored metallic ink had been used to tattoo the leather.
“Yes that looks more appropriate,” Jess said. “I'm not sure if we explained to you Sam. But thanks to Steve's many travels, a large percentage of the governments out there think of the place he simply called ‘Hillside’ as a virtual kingdom. Most of them would not care that it's not recognized as such by our local government. But it would be best not to explain that to any authorities who might have misconceptions of Hillside's legal status.”
“Besides according to Steve's private historical
records,” Jake interjected with a chuckle. “Several old world kings actually did bestow upon Steve, the rights and privileges of a lord or barren. Including, if you can believe it, the fabled king Arthur of English lore.
Also even though the outer buildings at Hillside are less than a century old. Steve had most of this underground base hidden here, before Europe even knew there was a North American continent. Aside from all that, if some alien fleet were to attack the Earth, Hillside would muster a stronger military defense than all the official world superpowers combined.”
“That part I knew,” Sam said. “I'm beginning to think that our history would have been a significantly different, if Steve hadn't been trying so hard not to meddle with our development all these years.”
“You got that right Sam,” Jess agreed.
Just then the glow of the shuttle prep systems began to fade and the elevator disgorged an automated provision cart. At which moment the identi-screen on the control console flashed on with an image of Mike's cheerful face.
“Well now, it seems you boys are off on a jaunt,” Mike's image said. “I hope you have a fine trip. But I'm afraid there was a shortage on one of the items you requested Jake. There's been a bit of a run on lunch orders for the beef stew. So I only had four servings left. I sent them along of course. But as it happens I was putting together a surprise for this evening's menu. From which I slipped you a half dozen advanced servings of a nice Scottish style lamb stew. I hope that'll do.”
Jake was still shaking his head over the shortage when he responded.
“Well that'll be a lesson to me I guess Mike,” Jake said. “Yes, the lamb stew will do nicely. That is it will, if we can stay out of it long enough to launch this puppy. Thank you for rescuing us from my mistake. I guess that when it comes to your cooking, I shouldn't expect 52 servings of stew to be enough to wait four hours on ordering a half dozen.”
Mike's image smiled at what he rightly considered high praise for his cooking.
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