Primal Dawn

by Ryan Kirk

  Kindra spoke. “Tev, I’m going to bring you back. You may not feel right for a few moments. Remember the rest of your body is numb.”

  Tev didn’t want to leave, but before he could say no, his entire world went black. A few moments later the device came off his head. After the immersion in the dream world, the real world seemed to swim around his head. Kindra had been right. Not being able to feel his limbs was very disorienting, and he felt sick, his mind unable to keep up with the different sensations his body was going through. Kindra saw it and helped him lay down.

  “I’m going to put you to sleep, Tev, so your body can reset. You’ll wake up in about three hours.”

  She didn’t wait for permission, and Tev was too disoriented to protest. She issued some commands to the table he was on and Tev’s world faded to black.

  The last three members of the expedition sat around a table, the decision hanging between them, smothering conversation like a heavy blanket. It had been Kindra’s idea, but she didn’t feel comfortable making the choice alone. She wouldn’t make it alone.

  It was Alston who spoke up, logical and calm. “You’re sure there’s no other way?”

  Kindra let out a sigh. It was the very question she’d been asking herself over and over. “No, I’m not. Perhaps there is another way. But if there is, I’ve got no idea what it is. I’ve been thinking and thinking, and as crazy as it seems, I still can’t come up with anything better. I wish I could.”

  Eleta put aside Tev’s brain scans, the images that had captured her attention for the past ten minutes. “Is it even our responsibility to make things right?”

  “You know that I believe it is. What if Kenan continues to kill more people? Those are lives we might have had a chance to save.”

  Eleta glanced again at the brain scans. She had been right there, and even she still had trouble believing it. “You’re absolutely sure about the compatibility? If you aren’t, the suit will likely kill him.”

  Kindra looked at the various scans and data the table was displaying before her. “I can’t believe it either, but I am certain. Tev is perfectly human, just like we are. Not only that, his body and mind seem better wired for movement than ours. It gives him an advantage. There’s no reason he can’t pilot the suit.”

  Alston repeated the same question they’d already asked a dozen times. “How is that even possible? Derreck said he looked through the archives. There’s never been an expedition out here. We’re the first humans who have ever been here. Plus, they’re primitives. They aren’t even close to space travel.”

  Kindra shrugged. “I don’t know. I have far more questions than answers. Where did the electromagnetic radiation we first detected even come from? We still haven’t found any evidence there either. And yet the translator indicates that our languages have a root similarity. Tev uses the same units of time we do, even if they aren’t measured as precisely.”

  Alston looked like his mind was ready to explode, and Kindra knew exactly how he felt. The data had been indicative at first, but as Kindra studied Tev more closely, she had no doubt about what she was saying. She didn’t know how, but the facts were there. It didn’t make any sense at all, but it was true.

  Eleta still doubted. “Even if what you say is accurate, and I’m sure it is, piloting a suit seems insane.”

  That one Kindra had less worry about. “You watched the tests same as I did. After less than an hour in the simulation, he was running one of the suits as well as any of our top pilots, and he was using neural connections only. Imagine what he would be capable of with physical feedback as well.”

  Eleta couldn’t argue with that. She had been right there with Kindra, and both of them vividly remembered their own first simulation training. They had spent far more time on the ground staring into the dirt. What Tev had accomplished was beyond amazing. Kindra had theories about why it was true, but that wasn’t up for debate right now. The fact was, she was convinced Tev could pilot one of their suits, and that was all that mattered.

  Kindra glanced from Alston to Eleta, wondering if there were going to be any more questions. The jumper would be arriving in a few days, and she wanted everything put right by the time it arrived. “I don’t want to do this without your support. Eleta, what do you think?”

  Eleta leaned back in her seat and rubbed her eyes. “I don’t like it at all, but every other option is even less palatable. I’ll support you.”

  They both looked at Alston. Silence hung in the room as he considered his answer. When he spoke, he didn’t justify himself. His reasons were his own, and Kindra knew he felt like they didn’t need to be shared. “Yes.”

  The decision made, Kindra pushed them forward. “Okay. Eleta, I’ll talk to Tev. Assuming he agrees, I’ll want a test run within six hours. Make sure the kill switch is ready. Alston, I want you to double-check communications. I know it’s not your field, but learn. After that, we’re all taking a long break. If everything goes well, we’ll send Tev out tomorrow at daybreak.”

  They both nodded and went about their tasks. They were going to send Tev to hunt one of their own.

  Kindra sat next to Tev’s bedside. He was restrained again, but not as tightly as before. She still didn’t trust him completely, but their situation made them partners, whether they liked it or not. She hoped she could convince him of that as well.

  “Tev, I’d like you to hunt one of my crew.”

  Tev’s eyes lit up, a mixture of anticipation and wariness. She knew he would expect a trap. In his place, she would too.

  Kindra decided how to break the news.

  “When we came here, we didn’t come to hurt you. We came to explore. We didn’t even know you were here.”

  She let her words sink in before continuing.

  “One of our crew, he isn’t well. His mind is sick, and it broke when he fought against you. He wasn’t supposed to attack you. But he’s made it worse. He has hurt your people.”

  Tev tried to surge upright, fire and hate in his eyes. The restraints pulled tight on him. He looked like he wanted to shout, but he didn’t allow himself to. Whatever his upbringing, Kindra thought, he was controlled.

  “I know. I’m sorry. But I need to stop him. We’re not here to hurt your people, but we can’t stop him. We aren’t warriors. Maybe you can.”

  Tev spoke, his voice a harsh growl. “I will.”

  Kindra pulled up a hologram of the general purpose exosuit. “You know that we have armor. We want to give you the suit to hunt Kenan. Kenan’s suit is stronger and designed for fighting. Yours isn’t. But it is the best we can do.”

  “Let me go. I will hunt Kenan for you.”

  “Tev, stop and breathe, just for a moment.”

  His nostrils flared, but her words must have sparked something in him, because he did. After a few moments, she saw he was calmer, more rational than he had been earlier.

  “There are some things I must know. First, do you trust me?”

  Tev looked like he was about to tell her no, but stopped and fixed her with a stare. Kindra wanted to look away, but she forced herself to meet his eyes without flinching.

  Finally, he spoke. “I want to, but I do not. Your people have hurt mine, and there is too much I don’t know and don’t understand.”

  Kindra recoiled. She had hoped he would trust her. If he didn’t, she wasn’t sure she could trust him. But she put herself in his place and tried to understand. They hadn’t given him a lot of good reasons to trust them. She had healed him, but that paled in comparison to the numbers they had hurt.

  “I understand. I want you to trust me too, so I will tell you the truth. First, we are going to let you try the actual suit, but it is only going to be a test. There won’t be any weapons on it, and I can shut it down and trap you inside at any time.”

  She saw the anger in his eyes, but met it calmly.

  “I want you to trust me, so I’m being honest. We shouldn’t be letting you do this. We should just leave, but this is what is right
. We need to test the suit first and make sure it is right for you. Today we test. Then you come back here and sleep. Tomorrow at first light we’ll let you go hunting. That’s the deal, and nothing will change that. Do you understand and agree?”

  Tev was angry, but from where she sat, he didn’t really have any other options, and he figured it out quickly enough. “Yes.”

  “Good. I’m going to let you go now.”

  Tev looked around the room. “No weapons?”

  Kindra shook her head. “I trust you not to hurt me.”

  Tev seemed to take the statement seriously. “I will not hurt you, Kindra.”

  Kindra didn’t know nearly enough about Tev’s culture to understand him, but she got the sense that when he spoke, it was as good as a promise to him. Kindra released his restraints and allowed him to stand up. The bed stimulated his muscles, so there hadn’t been any atrophy in the past few days. Even so, he stood and stretched out, and for the first time, Kindra got to watch him move as he normally would.

  Tev was a lean man, not an ounce of fat on him. He wasn’t large, but his muscles held a wiry strength, and Kindra knew if she had the time, she would find he was incredibly strong. But even watching him move was something else. He was grace personified in every movement.

  In an act of trust, Kindra went over to the wall and opened up the bin that held all of Tev’s possessions. She handed them all to him, including his weapons. His relief was palpable.

  Their eyes met, and Kindra decided it was time to go past the point of no return. “Come on, Tev. Let’s get you into your new suit.”

  Tev watched Kindra as she came over to put his helmet on. He watched the way her hands moved, learning the way to put it on correctly. Kindra’s people called it an exosuit, but Tev just thought of it as armor, and it was the most powerful weapon he had ever possessed.

  Kindra was fond of reminding him that this armor was not as strong as the one the other one had. Tev accepted her statement, even if it seemed hard to believe. He had felt the metal on his suit, and although there were still traces of the hole that had almost killed Derreck, Tev still had a hard time believing there was anything that could harm him. The suit made him so much stronger than any hunter who had ever come before.

  Tev’s thoughts wandered to the dream he had, back in the caves. More and more, he was convinced it had been less a dream and more a vision. These experiences with Kindra and her clan were so far out of the ordinary, it was a journey he never could have anticipated. He wondered where this path would end.

  The tests yesterday had gone pretty well. Tev had started out too eager, buoyed by the success he had felt in the dream world Kindra had put him in. But here in the real world, actions had consequences, as Tev discovered soon enough. Even in armor a fall could hurt, and he had fallen a lot. Kindra had asked him to come in a few times, but he had refused, driven to figure out how this armor worked. By the time night fell, Tev was running and leaping naturally through the woods. He still stumbled occasionally, but it was a small price to pay for the skill he gained.

  More than once, Tev considered trying to run away with the armor, but it didn’t make sense to do so. Kindra had told him they could shut it down at any time, and he didn’t have any clue how to stop that from happening. And if Kindra was telling the truth about what her clan member was doing, it was Tev’s responsibility to stay with them and stop him. Even if he didn’t like it, his course was set for him.

  He had fired the weapon for the first time yesterday. Kindra hadn’t liked that, but Tev was coming to understand that though she was a leader, Kindra wasn’t a hunter. She had an inner strength Tev respected, but out in the wild, she wouldn’t live long. They had explained to him how the weapon worked. It was a weapon that threw small pieces of metal very fast. As usual, Kindra told Tev his armor wasn’t as strong as Kenan’s, but Tev barely heard, he was so fascinated by the new power he wielded.

  They had him fire the weapon at a tree, and he watched in amazement as the tree exploded in front of him. His blood boiled, and he was excited about hunting once again.

  Kindra finished attaching his helmet, and Tev watched as the pictures started appearing in front of him. They had told him what the pictures meant, but it was still new to him. Kindra’s people didn’t seem to trust their senses as much as Tev did his own. The suit told him what was around him, but Tev felt like despite it all, he was blind. He pushed the hesitation away as the suit started up.

  Kindra gave him one last look. “Please, if you can, don’t kill him. He has done horrible things, but he is also broken.”

  Tev looked at her. He did not want to lie to her. When he found Kenan, he was going to kill him. But he also needed Kindra to let him leave. “I will see what I can do.”

  He saw her expression clearly, and he knew she knew how he felt, but she wasn’t going to call him out. She hated sending him out, but it was the only way to stop Kenan.

  Without another word, Kindra stood away, and Tev walked towards the two doors that separated the ship he was in from the outside. He passed through the doors and was back out in his world, a free man once again. He took a deep breath, disappointed he couldn’t smell the air yet.

  Kindra’s voice came in through his helmet, translated by the device in his ear. “I’m putting up a picture of where we knew Kenan was last. From there, you’re going to need to find him.”

  Tev didn’t bother replying. In front of him, an arrow appeared, pointing in the direction he was supposed to go. It was almost too easy.

  Tev started running. Kindra protested, but Tev ignored her. He was so fast, and running used very little of his strength. It was a feeling he had a hard time describing. It was as though he had an unlimited supply of energy to draw on, a well that remained deep, no matter how much he drew from it. Tev never wanted to let the feeling go.

  The ground flew under Tev’s feet, and he found his mind reached a new soft focus. Every step was carefully placed. Although he felt light, he knew he was much heavier in the armor. As he had learned during the tests yesterday, a mistake could be painful, and more importantly, could damage the suit. But he was confident, and as he launched off of each foot, he was already planning his next step. Over and over, he fell into a trance that sped him across the land, his focus relaxed but complete.

  And then it all stopped in a moment. Tev had a rough idea where he was, but he was in a clan’s territory he hadn’t been in since he was a child. He hadn’t worried much about it, but his old life came rushing back to him when he came upon a camp in utter chaos. Homes were destroyed and bodies were everywhere. Tev had taken part in raids before, but he had never seen anything like this.

  Tev didn’t have to stop and examine what happened, but he did anyway. There were no arrows or spears, no sign any other clan had done this. This was Kenan’s work. This is what Kindra wanted Tev to stop. Tev knelt to the ground, breathing deeply, trying to control his reaction. He heard Kindra breathing through the helmet, and knew she wanted to say something, but then there was only silence. There was nothing she could say to make this any better.

  Tev was furious, his breath coming out in long, ragged bursts. There was a profound sense of wrongness here. Everything about Kindra and her people was wrong. Tev wanted to take the armor he was wearing and rip it off, to distance himself from anything that represented Kindra’s clan. There was no way he would allow Kenan to live.

  After a few minutes he got his breath under control. Once he did, it was only a few minutes before his rage cooled. He stood back up, a cold detachment settling over his mind. He examined the scene around him as though it were a hunting scene. These suits were easy to track, and all he had to do was figure out which way Kenan went.

  He searched the ground, and after a few minutes found the track Kenan had left. As Tev expected, once found, it was easy to follow. Although the armor was very impressive, it didn’t allow one the same freedom of movement, and even if it did, Tev was starting to understand his prey more clearl
y. His prey believed it was invincible. It didn’t need to cover its tracks. That confidence would be part of what allowed Tev to kill it.

  He was no longer running. Every step he took was deliberate and considered.

  Kindra’s voice was a whisper in his ear, and it sounded as though she had been crying. “I’m sorry, Tev.”

  He ignored her. She wasn’t directly responsible, but her clan was, and he wasn’t sure he could forgive them for what they had done. But none of that mattered now. All that mattered was revenge. He followed the tracks, his weapon ready for anything.

  Tev continued his hunt, unconcerned about the diminishing daylight. He figured he still had two hours of light left, easily. He kept following the trail, trusting his skill. Kenan could move, but he couldn’t hide, and Tev would find him and kill him.

  An hour later, Tev came upon a campground, the place where Kenan had rested. Tev halted his pursuit to scan the area more thoroughly. Tracks to and from the site led him to believe Kenan had spent more than one night here, and might have even left recently. He crouched down and examined the signs, wishing his helmet would stop flashing information across his vision.

  The camp was crude and had several markings of someone who wasn’t quite sure what they were doing. Nearby, a deer had been shot. Parts of it had been torn off and cooked. The more he tracked Kenan, the more he learned. The campsite reinforced what Kindra had told him. They didn’t come from here. Everything about Kindra and her clan indicated they didn’t know how to live in nature. They overcame nature.

  Tev imagined what Kenan would be thinking, what weaknesses he would possess. Kindra told him Kenan was an excellent warrior, but he came from a people who believed they were the top of the food chain. Tev knew hunters who thought the same, and they were the ones who always met an untimely death. Even if humans were one of the most powerful creatures, the world was full of danger; and to lose focus was to welcome your end. It could be a poisonous insect you didn’t pay enough attention to avoid, or a misplaced step that breaks a bone that then becomes infected.