by Ryan Kirk
But he was an explorer too, and just as curious as any of them. He wasn’t always a straight shooter, and Kindra was betting this was going to be one of those times.
Derreck called for a vote. He didn’t say anything else. “Who wants to stay?”
One by one, the crew raised their hands. Kindra had been least sure about Eleta, but she raised her hand with the rest of them.
They all put their hands down and looked at Derreck expectantly. They all knew his was the only vote that mattered.
Kindra’s bet paid off. “Fine, we’ll stay. This will probably be the last tour for all of us, anyway. Might as well make the most of it.”
Kindra let out a small whoop of joy before she was silenced by Derreck’s glare.
“Here are the rules. First, every scientist is confined to the dropship. I’m not risking any of you on what could potentially be a hostile environment. Kindra, that means you, too. Second, any outside walks are going to be both of us, Kenan. I’ll modify the second suit to be more combat worthy and take it out with you. We always go out together. Third, if there are any more encounters, we leave the planet immediately. I don’t want us fucking this up more than we already have. Are we agreed?”
The tone of Derreck’s voice made it clear they didn’t have any choice but to agree. They all nodded, and the decision was made. The mission continued.
When Tev woke up, it was hard to decide what was real and what was imagined. Memories of his dream, if it could even be called that, floated on repeat through his mind. He felt the rocky ground beneath his fingers, and it seemed real, but what did he know for sure? Everything he remembered was as real to him as the soft snores he heard from the hunters still sleeping around the dying embers of the fire. He had felt the wind and heard the voice of Lys.
When he was a young boy, Tev had once gotten lost on a hunt. He had been too sure of his own abilities and had wandered too far. After four days the clan had given him up for dead.
But he hadn’t died. Thirst wasn’t a problem with all the streams that ran through the area, but hunger was a real issue. He hadn’t been a very skilled hunter at that age, and he’d paid no attention to the women when they had tried to teach him about edible plants. He only remembered there were far more warnings than encouragements, and he was so afraid to eat anything dangerous that he had avoided eating any plants. Looking back, he understood his foolishness, but the decision had made sense to him at the time.
After four days Tev had forgotten what normal hunger felt like. The hunger he had experienced was all-consuming. It occupied every waking thought, and even in sleep he couldn’t find relief. He had been certain he would die, and no trap he made seemed to work.
On the seventh day of his isolation he had come to the end of his will to survive. He found just enough food to keep him alive, but it wasn’t enough. It was easier just to lie down and never move again, so that was what he did.
As he lied there, it was Lys who appeared to him. She beckoned to him, and in his delusion he crawled toward her. She was unspeakably beautiful, her radiance shining even in the darkness of the deep forest he had lost himself in. When he saw her, all he wanted was to be near her. He had never felt such a strong attraction to anyone. His desire overrode every instinct in his body, and he moved forward despite himself.
For every faltering step he took, she seemed to be one further away from him. He never actually saw her move, but he couldn’t reach her. He became desperate, and he ran after her, completely unaware of his surroundings. He never saw the cliff, and even as an adult, he swore he took one step on air before losing the battle against the pull of their planet. Lys disappeared and Tev fell, plummeting almost ten meters down to the icy river below.
He was either guided by fate or incredibly lucky, as he landed in a deep pool carved out by countless years of falling water. He struggled to the surface, summoning a last bit of energy. When he broke the surface, a large branch was floating by. Without thought he grabbed on, and that was the last he remembered of his adventure.
When he woke up, he was surrounded by the concerned faces of the clan he had feared he would never see again. His birth-mother was closest, tears streaking her beautiful face. Tev didn’t understand what had happened, and the story only came to him in bits and pieces as he recovered his strength. The clan had searched long and hard for him, but there came a point when they had given up hope. He was too young to survive on his own in the woods, and the hunters had found no trace of him. It was as though the forest had swallowed him whole.
The clan had packed up and moved, as was their way. Several days later they camped near a stream, and it was a little girl fetching water, Neera, who saw him drifting down the stream. Her shout had brought hunters immediately, and he had been rescued.
Tev didn’t say much about what had happened to him. On one hand, he was embarrassed by his failure as a hunter. He was young and had thought himself capable of everything, but reality had made itself abundantly clear to him. On the other hand, there was an instinct that told him not to say too much about the vision he had. He couldn’t explain it, but even at that young age, he had felt there was something sacred about what had happened to him. There was no way it could have been chance.
It was that incident that drove him to become the hunter he was today. It drove through his skull, more than any lecture from an elder could, how vital the skills of hunting and gathering were. Hunting wasn’t just entertainment for the clan. It was survival. He threw himself into his studies with a vigor none of his peers could match, and soon he was the best hunter in the clan. Today he could survive out in the wild indefinitely.
He had thought long and hard about the vision he had seen that day. As a hunter, he focused every day on what could be observed. Smells, sights, sounds, feelings, and tastes were what allowed a person to survive. To trust in a greater power was foolish, a certain recipe for death.
But he also believed there was more to the world than what could be explained. He couldn’t say why he felt so peaceful when he was alone in the woods, and if he could keep his mind quiet enough, there were times when he felt connected to all the life around him. He couldn’t explain it, but he didn’t feel the need to. It simply was, and that was enough for him. Perhaps it was a guiding principle, perhaps it was the gods of legends. Ultimately, it didn’t matter much to him. He accepted there was more to the world than he understood.
So Tev didn’t dismiss the experience he had gone through last night. It was the second time Lys had appeared to him, and the first time she had saved his life. If nothing else, he owed it to her to pay attention to what she had to say to him. But no matter how often he considered her words, they made no more sense to him.
Tev continued to turn the words over and over in his mind until the rest of the hunters came out of their stupor. As the camp prepared to leave on their hunt, Tev engraved the words on his heart and checked his own weapons, preparing to face a creature more dangerous than any he had hunted before.
Tev and the other hunters were each on a knee in a circle, accepting the blessings of the elders of the tribe. They were ready to go, and this was the last formality they needed to observe before beginning their journey.
Tev focused on the words of the blessing. There would be time later to think about the hunt, but his mind was swirling with memories of his dream. The elders were asking for Lys to give the hunters strength of leg and arm, and clarity of mind. The words were slightly different than those his own clan used, but the intent behind them was the same. Even a routine hunt could be dangerous for the hunter. Tev counted Lys as one of his greatest allies, and he had never been more certain she would guide him on the hunt. All his skills were for her service.
The hunters left the caves with little fanfare. Life was a daily battle, and although a tremendous burden had been laid on the hunters, there was work to be done while the sun was up. Tev, Neera, and the other hunters of his tribe fell into place near the middle of the column.
Tev’s attention was half on the treacherous path leading away from the caves and half on the other hunters surrounding them. There was sometimes conflict between the clans, but it was rare. They didn’t interact often, and were wary of one another, but there was little to drive them to combat. There was more than enough planet to go around.
Still, Shet had trained him to be aware of everything happening around him. Tev knew the difference between a successful hunter and a dead hunter was the hunter’s mind and instincts. Prey was clever, and humans were not the apex predators in the ecosystem. But their minds set them apart. They could step into the thoughts of another creature, predict the creature’s movements. Now Tev tried to step into the thoughts of the strangers around him.
Tev saw the party flush with excitement from the celebration before. There were a handful of hunters who were quiet, composed, and alert, but they were in the minority. As Tev’s eyes roamed over the group, his eyes met with a few others doing the same and a look of understanding passed between them. The hunters who were focused would be the ones to stay close to. They would do the best work of protecting each other.
While a few were wary, most were egotistical. Tev had no problem with the idea of pride. He was proud of his skills, but they were hard earned, and he knew his limits. There was a difference between pride and conceit, and too many of these hunters were the latter. True, they were a powerful hunting party, without doubt one of the strongest groups that had hunted together in the past several years, but their perceived strength could become a weakness. Tev developed a knot of worry in his gut.
He wanted to speak to Neera about his concerns, but she was too interested in Xan to pay much attention. Tev brushed aside his irritation. He was jealous, and angry that he was. He should be beyond such pettiness. Neera was a woman who was attracted to strength and skill, and even Tev couldn’t fault Xan on either of those counts. The man was impressive.
So Tev bided his time, waiting to get a moment alone with Neera. But when the moment came, he hesitated. His concerns seemed so real, but when he tried to put them into words, they seemed silly. How was he supposed to tell her about the vision he had experienced?
Tev charged ahead, regardless of the consequences.
“Neera, I don’t feel comfortable about this hunt.”
She gave him an inquisitive look. “What do you mean?”
He gestured with his hand, indicating the entire party. “These hunters may all be very skilled, but they’ve never hunted together before. Instead of one strong group, we are several smaller groups. There is no order, and if the prey we face is as dangerous as Xan says, we’re not going to have a chance.”
Neera shook her head. “Maybe, but Xan himself is with us, and he seems confident. Maybe your fears are overblown.”
Her respect for Xan was obvious, and it took Tev a supreme effort to push aside his jealousy. “There is something else, too, but I’m not sure how you are going to feel about it.”
Her look made it clear she was running out of patience.
“Last night I was visited by Lys. It was as real as anything I’d ever experienced. I did not understand much of what she had to say, but I can’t help feeling that this hunt is doomed.”
Neera absorbed his thoughts in silence, and for a while they walked together without speaking. When she did speak, Tev had the feeling that every word she used was carefully considered, rehearsed.
“I don’t know what was in the drink we had last night, but it was a powerful medicine. I’m not going to tell you that what you experienced wasn’t real. I know you, and I know you wouldn’t say anything unless you really believed it. But I don’t think you should jump to conclusions. Maybe there’s some truth in what you experienced, but maybe it was just a result of the drink we had. I had a strange experience, too, but I don’t believe it was real.”
Tev wanted to ask her what she had experienced, but she gave him a look that told him she knew what he wanted and he wasn’t going to get it. Tev knew that look all too well.
Though he burned with curiosity, he contained himself. Neera nodded and moved up the line, back towards Xan.
Tev cursed silently. If there was anyone here who would take his words under consideration, it would be her. Her disbelief cut him deeper than he wanted to admit, but he had no choice but to keep moving forward towards their inevitable confrontation with the mysterious creature.
Time was a fickle concept, Kindra decided. While science had made some incredible advances in understanding it from an objective standpoint, from a human perspective, it was anything but dependable.
They had been on the planet for twelve days, and at times Kindra couldn’t convince herself they’d been here more than a day. Other times it felt as though she had done enough science to fill a lifetime. Even though they were limited without the probe, Kindra had enough data to study for several careers. Her lab was packed with samples, and if she chose, she could spend the rest of her years studying what she had already collected.
The planet was alive. It was a tremendous oversimplification, but Kindra was amazed by the constant interdependencies she was discovering. Everything from the dirt to the trees was connected, a web of relationships Kindra could spend the rest of her life untangling. Ecosystems weren’t new to her, but almost every one she’d ever studied was artificially created and lacked the complexity of the systems she was uncovering.
There had been no further sightings of the creatures Kenan had attacked on his first excursion. At first, Derreck had kept the walks close to the dropship, but it appeared Kenan had predicted the creatures’ behavior correctly. He had scared them away. Kindra couldn’t decide how she felt about it. At times, she was glad they could continue their studies without complications. Derreck was on the fence about his decision, and she feared that if they made contact again, Derreck would pull them from the planet for good. But at the same time, the mystery surrounding the creatures was more than she could stand. Despite discovery after discovery, the one organism she wanted to study more than anything else wasn’t coming back.
As the days had passed, Derreck had bent to the pressure from his crew to explore further and further from the dropship. They were on their own out here. Just as they always were.
Kindra focused her thoughts on the monitors in front of her. She had Derreck’s view on one monitor and Kenan’s on the other. They were over two kilometers away from the dropship, their furthest excursion yet. Despite the distance, no one was particularly worried. There had been no other contacts, and the planet didn’t seem to have any other creatures capable of posing a threat to the exosuits.
Kindra was supposed to be supervising Derreck and Kenan, but their work was monotonous, and she kept sneaking a peek at the chemical analysis she was running on some soil samples. Derreck and Kenan were collecting rock samples for Alston, and Kindra couldn’t think of anything more boring than drilling holes into the ground.
Both men were focused on the task at hand. As boring as Kindra found it, drilling with the laser they were using wasn’t easy, and even a small mistake could be potentially dangerous. Kindra studied the carbon content of the soil for a moment before turning back to the monitors. Her eye was drawn to a faint signal on the motion detectors.
She didn’t say anything immediately. Since Kenan’s incident, Derreck had ordered the detectors boosted to full gain, and that led to false signals. Sometimes it seemed like even a leaf blowing in the wind could set them off.
Instead, Kindra pulled up more monitors, giving herself a wrap-around view from both of their suits. If something was out there, she should be able to spot it and warn them. She summoned a composite image, overlaying thermal imaging over the visual spectrum. Her eyes wandered over the monitors, looking for anything out of place.
She was just about to call it a false alarm when the motion detector faintly pinged again. With all the monitors pulled up, she quickly located the direction the signal was coming from. But as much as she studied the area, from
both Derreck’s and Kenan’s rear cameras, she couldn’t find anything. Two parts of her mind warred with each other, but there was no question it was much better to play it safe.
She keyed in the comms. “Hey, you guys, are you catching the blips on the motion detector?”
On the viewscreens, she saw the two of them stand up straight and stop drilling. Kenan turned around to face the woods they had their backs to. The movement threatened to make Kindra nauseous, so she averted her eyes.
Derreck’s voice replied. “No. What are you seeing?”
“It’s been faint, but I’ve gotten two hits from behind you. I’ve been studying the full spectrum images coming from your suits, but I can’t make anything out. Just wanted to give you a heads-up, though.”
“Appreciate it. Would you overlay the location on our visors please? Kenan, check it out, but keep your weapons cold.”
Kindra could imagine Kenan grumbling. Kenan always went about with his weapons hot and ready to fire, but ever since the incident, Derreck had been firm. He wasn’t even allowed to boot up his weapons systems. If something happened, it would take Kenan at least ten seconds to bring his weapons online. Derreck figured it would give him enough time to think through what he was doing.
Still, Kenan went towards where Kindra had overlaid the detection. He scanned the area carefully, but there didn’t seem to be anything there. “Nothing here, sir.”
Derreck’s voice was cautious. “False alarm?”
Kindra knew it was her call. She was the only one who had seen anything. “I think so. Sorry, sir.”
“It’s not a problem. Better safe than not.”
