Koban

by Stephen W Bennett

  “Nan,” Mirikami replied, “I have our two haulers with headlights working two ships on the other side of the dome from you. They’re using pallets like we did the first day, and the headlights help spot skeeters. I don’t have any other portable lighting besides flashlights. Does the Nebula have cargo haulers they could deploy?”

  “Captain Johnfem says she can’t get to them because they are behind heavy cargo. They were expecting to dock in orbit at Thor, and use the station’s equipment and zero gravity to offload.”

  Mirikami thought a moment. “We need to keep the trucks working in pairs so one can wait and light the other while it loads. Alternating them has been faster, but we don’t want casualties.”

  Willfem brought up another issue, “Several people have said that they have seen winking green lights out in the darkness. Has our friend seen any further sign of the two animals he reported moving down from the woods to the north?”

  “No,” he answered. “They were among the trees and low to the ground. They would have to move fast to be this close in the twenty minutes since he first reported their heat signatures. They were moving south however, towards you and the north entrance.

  “OK. Thanks Tet. I’ve asked him to notify me if he spots them close to us.”

  “Did Captain Johnfem put someone on watch to aid their old FT-1 model computer in filtering out false positives? Our friend has tried to teach it, but a ‘Fat-one’s’ a bit too old a model of AI to handle that task without human help. We don’t need any more false alarms to scare us into buttoning the hatches again, slowing us down.”

  “Captain, I think it’s that earlier scare than has folks seeing green eyes in the darkness. Wolfbats don’t hunt at night, and skeeter eyes don’t reflect green light. Speaking of pairing trucks, an empty halftrack just arrived before our nearly full truck left. I’ll follow your suggestion and hold the truck to give them better lights for loading the halftrack. I think more light will be reassuring.”

  ****

  The bright lights disturbed Telror, interfering with her night vision. However, the light and noise had first drawn her and her hunting companion to walk the side of the cliff that protected the red prey’s territory.

  When they scented a scorched smell of burned grass, they carefully approached a place where the deadly thin gray vines grew. These odd vines protected the red prey’s normally closed opening into their small territory, and the top of the stone-like cliff that surrounded their private hunting ground. The red prey rarely came out by making a hole in the cliff, preferring to ride inside the flying not-live thing that served them, and passing over the strange cliff and dangerous vines.

  The pride knew the killer vines were actually not-live, but here the thin straight strands that could kill with a touch were broken and torn, lying on the ground. Some were still hanging from the bare skinny gray trees that held them up and pulled them straight, guarding the place where the cliff could open.

  Sometimes hunters from her pride found dead prey animals near the vines, the animals having carelessly touched the vines and died in a violent death spasm that came with the smallest of touches. If the prey was fresh killed, and careful inspection showed the dead animal did not still touch the vines, hunters from her pride had learned it was safe to drag the prey away to eat.

  However, the vines somehow could hurt or kill even through the body of dead prey, if the animal died while still touching any part of a vine.

  With a thrill of excitement, they saw that even the opening through the cliff of the red prey’s territory was torn apart. The grey vines on the ground were all that kept them from passing into the unexplored virgin territory.

  Rasha, Telror’s cousin, pressed her neck frill to her sibling’s haunches, and sent the pictogram image of pushing a small prey onto the vines to see if they remained deadly, or not.

  Telror sent back the answering image of them hunting, and they swiftly split up to backtrack to a scent they had passed of a trail of small fast prey they normally would not waste the energy to hunt.

  Working together, Telror quickly chased a half dozen of the fast little bounding and darting creatures towards where her cousin waited in ambush. Rasha swiftly leaped up and caught one in midair with her fierce jaws as it tried to jump over the bushes where she had lain in wait. She was careful to be gentle.

  The pitiful squeals of the struggling animal nearly pushed Rasha into the ecstasy of the kill, but she withheld that pleasure in order to test the vines, as she had proposed.

  As they glided swiftly back to the cliff opening, Telror grazed her cousin with her own frill. When Rasha held out the beating and kicking animal in her powerful jaws, Telror broke the small gazelle-like animal’s two back legs with a little nip to the lower part of each.

  Like her cousin, as the animal screamed in pain it sharply increased her urge to sense the delight of the kill. The desire was powerful but their test of the vines came first, so she settled for a gentle stroke of her frill to sense the prey’s delectable pain and terror.

  Walking close to the gray strands, using a casual toss of her head Rasha opened her jaws to let the squalling animal fall in the center of a tangle of the deadly vines.

  The two watched with interest as the pitiful crippled creature bleated and struggled to flee, flopping across the vines, touching multiple strands without effect. Desperately pulling itself by its front legs, it managed to stumble into one of the odd thin grey trees that held the vines above the ground, and it still did not spasm and die.

  Briefly brushing frills first, Telror watched with envy as Rasha pounced on the little mouthful, her jaws and fangs crushing and tearing its life out instantly. She savored the pleasure that was all the greater for the delay and anticipation of its death, the warmth of the life fluids sweet on her tongue. As agreed when they had touched frills, she offered none of the small morsel to her cousin because it was Rasha’s idea to prove the not-live vines were dead.

  Now they had the excitement of hunting on new territory, anticipated for longer than the age of the oldest living pride member. Boltar was the elder male of the pride, and even his memories of frill images from past elders held no knowledge of what was inside the red prey’s territory.

  They knew the red prey had partly abandoned their territory, because their scent and sounds had diminished over time. They sometimes returned in the flying not-life thing and came out to hunt on the pride’s territory. It was difficult to sneak up on them, and they had a dangerous stinging stick that made noise that could hurt or cripple. Nevertheless, they were thrilling to hunt, even if not very meaty.

  The red ones respected the skill and strength of the pride’s hunters because they avoided them, and ran to their not-live flying thing to escape when the pride came for them. If they caught one before it could escape, it fought wildly with desperation. In truth, they were hard to kill, and used not-live things like long shiny fangs to bite and cut, as well as their own small sharp teeth and short talons.

  The red prey were dangerous when they used their stinging sticks that hurt at a distance, but the hunters had learned to anticipate and avoid the sting when they saw a flash on a stick pointed at them. There were small and long sticks, not-live things they always carried with them. Without those to help, they could not stop even a lone female from tearing out their living organs. With the sticks, they sometimes killed a pride member, but they had never been allowed to keep the kill.

  The frill touch at a kill of any red one invariably revealed its mind to be full of rage and hatred of the pride. However, there was also admiration mixed with a fear of their attackers. This sensation from their mind was far more delicious than the actual eating of their flesh. After such a kill, the lucky hunter shared the experience through frill contacts with the rest of the pride.

  The frills also told the pride that the red prey wanted to be the greatest of all predators, the ultimate killers. Each one that had died under the pride’s fangs and claws had wanted to experience the joy of k
illing a member of the pride without the stinging sticks to help. It had never happened.

  Now the pride could hunt them in their own territory. The two cousins crept into the enclosure with the greatest stealth possible of their kind. It was near the end of the day, not their favorite time to hunt, but the red ones did not see quite as well as rippers did in darkness. They carefully prowled towards where they heard the sounds come down from the sky, watching large not-life things land. They soon picked up the scent of another prey. A lot of them.

  A touch for coordination and Rasha, the faster cousin, departed swiftly to seek more members of the spread out pride scouts. This prey was rare but known to them, because it sometimes came out with the red ones. It was smaller and slower than the red prey, easy to catch and kill even when they had stinging sticks. There were so many here that the pride would bring home much meat for the cubs tonight.

  46. Rippers

  In the dusk and long shadows, Telror crept close to the huge den carefully and slowly, keeping a burned dead flying thing between her and the den. She hid under its broken body and watched as activity appeared around a larger flying thing. It radiated heat and had a strange smell like the dead flyer did, but stronger and fresh. She decided it was a flyer she and Rasha had seen and heard come down from the sky.

  New limbs descended from the not-live thing, and moving not-live things that the red ones sometimes used outside their territory came from their den. However, the riders were not red ones, and the prey that came out of the large flying thing was not either. With a sense of elation, she recognized them from thought pictures shared by her pride. These were the smaller prey that the red ones sometimes brought with them to hunt the giant horned ones.

  Rasha should be returning with others of the pride soon, and because of their careful scouting as they arrived they wouldn’t need to proceed slow now that it was certain all of the prey were close to the big den. These were only the slow and less dangerous small animals, easily killed without great risk.

  ****

  “Sir, I am detecting at least six heat signatures of animals of the size of the two I previously detected. These are also leaving the woods to the north and approaching the edges of the marsh, where I lost view of the other two.”

  “Tell this to Ms. Willfem and the Pink Nebula.”

  “In progress, Sir.”

  “Of course, silly of me.” Jake could simultaneously hold multiple conversations.

  “Are these moving with the same slow caution?” He asked.

  “No Sir. Like the one I reported leaving just at sunset, they are moving at about thirty-three miles per hour south towards the north side of the dome, and are just over twelve miles away. If they skirt the marsh they could reach the dome in twenty five minutes, less time if they can move even faster or they pass through parts of the marsh.”

  “Damn, that’s pretty fast and seems threatening. Put the Infrared and night vision images overlaid on the big screen. Do you have a better size estimate now, or a guess as to what they are?”

  The main screen lit with the ghostly images of trees rocks and shrubs using amplified night vision and moon light. Then the infrared images were overlaid. Scale was hard to estimate, but yellow and red blobs could be seen moving past tree shapes as the two synchronized cameras tracked the movement of six heat sources moving right at them.

  “The size of five of the animals, based on their average speed and the time it takes the image to move past fixed trees indicates an average body length of seven to eight feet. The slightly larger heat source is over nine feet in body length, and. I have compared them to the images of the antelope Ms. Jorl’sn named blue streakers, and these animals are lower to the ground, with thicker legs and less body length. Based on the mass of the antelope, these would probably weigh six hundred to eight hundred pounds on Earth and fifty percent more here on Koban.”

  “Can you zoom the infrared image on the larger animal? We might see more detail.”

  The single red and yellow image filled the screen, a bit jumpy as the camera tried to keep it centered. It was coming almost head on most of the time, making it possible only to see there were four legs below a massive body, low to the ground. Suddenly the image went off screen to the left as it turned away from a low line of cooler rocks. The camera locked on again, presenting a side view.

  The motion was graceful and sinuous, with a large head on a short neck connected to a longer body on legs clearly shorter and heavier than an antelope. It was loping in a ground-covering gait. A wavering yellow line behind the compact body revealed a long thin tail twitching as it dodged around trees and rocks in darkness.

  Maggi studied their agility and fast smooth movements. “They have to have excellent night vision to keep up that speed.”

  Noreen voiced what Mirikami and Maggi were thinking. “That’s a predator. All of the grazing animals of that size have longer slender legs for high-speed running, and I don’t see any horns. Thad says all of the herbivores anyone has seen here had various types of horns for defense.”

  “I think you’re right,” Mirikami agreed. “And we were told that rippers hunt in prides of that size or larger. The image Jake reported leaving at the same speed an hour ago may have gone to bring back the pride. We need to close hatches and bring in all of the trucks. We can’t continue the transfers in the dark with those closing in on us.”

  “Jake, Link to all, use our external speakers and the frequencies for the eight ships on the ground.”

  “Ready, Sir.”

  “This is Captain Mirikami. We have detected what we think are six predators coming in from the north, running towards the dome at approximately thirty miles an hour. These may be what are called rippers, which are the equivalent of large earth cats such as lions or tigers, but larger, stronger and faster. Get back inside the ships or into the dome as soon as possible. You have only about fifteen minutes on the north side but don’t delay; they can run even faster that they are now. Not even the Krall willingly face these killers, even when heavily armed. Mirikami Out.”

  The two trucks at the base of the Pink Nebulae, fully loaded, started for the dome’s north entrance. Everyone gathered at the base of the boarding ramp had heard the speaker warning to get back aboard. They were now crowding to get onto the up escalator side of the personnel ramp. No one thought to stop and reverse the down side escalator, so at least twenty people were still descending.

  Willfem was standing out on the tarmac with the Nebula’s Captain Johnfem. She had relayed the message to get everyone back into the ship, even though the echoing speaker announcement had been understandable. They would easily have everyone back inside in less than ten minutes, and the just departed trucks would be able to drive right into the dome in far less time than that. She watched as several outbound trucks turned back.

  She and the ship’s Captain would be the last ones up the ramp, and the twenty people still coming down had to switch sides at the bottom. Therefore, she drew both pistols, swapped out the two buckshot clips with heavier rounds and handed one to Johnfem. A brief explanation of the safety and the simple firing mechanism was all that was needed. The Captain pocketed her own Jazzer she had carried outside for skeeter protection.

  They walked closer to the bottom of the ramp, and urged everyone to hurry, and even try to take additional steps up despite the gravity, to get back inside faster.

  Willfem was wishing she also had brought some explosive rounds, but who would have used those for wolfbats or skeeters? Then for some unexplained reason she had also felt an urge to bring soft nose slugs and armor piercing rounds, useless for skeeters. There was no explaining the irrational side of fear.

  ****

  Telror, watching from the concealment of a dead flying thing saw more prey coming out of the large flying thing than the whole pride could carry home tonight. She didn’t know how many pride mates Rasha could quickly gather by calling them to a hunt. She would have to wait for the pride members at the opening, to explain
that the killing vines were dead.

  Then she heard loud calls from around the side of the dome, and recognized it as similar to the lower sounding calls she could hear between the prey animals she was watching.

  Then the prey abruptly changed their pattern of movement. The two not-life things carried some of the prey away towards the large den, as they had done before while she watched. However, the prey below the flying thing began to crowd close together, much like a threatened herd on the savanna.

  Some were climbing back up to the flying thing, not in a panic but they were clearly wary now, frequently looking out into the dark. She was undecided what to do for a moment, because other prey was still descending to the ground in that odd smooth motion where their back legs did not move.

  One of the two creatures Telror recognized as sentinels or heard leaders, raised two of the small stinging sticks it had hanging at its sides. It handed one to the second sentinel, making small calls, and looked to the north. Several of the not-life things leaving the den turned away, going back to their den empty. Combined with the loud call from the den and the change in direction of movement, the raising of stinger sticks signified a readiness to defend the herd.

  Her eyes and ears told her that none of the small bloodsucker insects was near. The prey did not normally hide when the insects flew close. This time she knew her prey was alert to a threat they considered more serious.

  It couldn’t be her presence causing the alarm; she was downwind and had not moved for a long time. None of the prey even looked directly in her direction. The two with stingers faced north, the direction from which her pride mates were coming. They should be here soon. These clever animals must have sentinels on the top of their den watching for threats. Her pride mates would be coming with haste, using Rasha’s images of the trail. They must have been seen from the higher ground, despite the darkness. The prey would soon escape into their den or flying things.