To return home victorious and be acclaimed as adults, they each needed to kill a predatory animal larger than themselves and bring the head back as proof. Given the relatively small stature of humans, the size requirement would present little challenge. Killing one of this world’s fearsome beasts would prove far more difficult.
Over the centuries, the once-dominant predators that ruled this land came to realize their chances for survival improved greatly when they avoided Bearcat settlements. This behavior meant the hike to good hunting grounds would take at least a full day. They could’ve jogged, but not knowing the environment, they took it slow.
In the warm light of the setting yellow sun, Amanda stood atop a hill outside the tree line, gazing at the wondrous sight of untouched forest and rolling peaks.
“Lovely, isn’t it?” she said. “I can’t believe how much like Earth it is. This could be the foothills to the Rockies in summer, all we need are some aspens. My dad used to take me camping up there when I was a kid.”
Trent nodded in agreement. “Their sun is a lot like ours, just a little bigger and hotter. And the planet’s orbit is about the same as Earth’s. I guess if you put those two things together, there’s a good chance for two worlds to come out pretty much alike.”
“Seeing this really makes me regret all of the needless death we’ve caused each other. Decades of war and propaganda to paint each other like monsters when we have so much in common. Even our history really isn’t that different from theirs.”‘
“That’s why we’re here.” He swung the bag he’d carried draped over a shoulder around to his front. Reaching in, he pulled out a light yellow, egg-shaped fruit they’d found earlier and handed it to her. “Here, have a moist melon.”
Her face twisted.
“I know they taste like piss, but they’re food and water all in one. I haven’t seen any of the other things Hido recommended we eat. So have your dinner and then we’ll find a place to bed down for the night.”
She took the fruit and sliced it open. He pulled out another and bit into it.
“Where are we sleeping?” she asked.
“Somewhere we won’t end up as a late night snack.”
“And just where would that be?”
He hooked his thumb at a tree limb. “Up there. We’ll climb up the branches. They’re pretty thick, more than enough to lay down on. I’ll take first watch.”
“Hmm.” She locked eyes with him. “So I guess sex is out of the question?”
He smiled. “That depends.”
“On what?” She looked skeptical.
“On your level of concern regarding splinters in sensitive areas.”
“Oh. Oh! Good point.”
***
In the morning, Amanda awoke hungry and sexually frustrated.
“Toss me a piss melon,” she demanded of Trent, who was squatting on his branch, surveying the ground below.
He turned to her, holding his finger to his lips to shush her before pointing down.
“I think we have a live one down there,” he thought-spoke to her.
She clambered over to his side. “What kind?”
“The one that looks like a big, hairless wolf. I’ve only gotten a glimpse of its head, so I’m not a hundred percent sure.”
“Is it big enough?”
“It should do. I think you should take this one.”
“Why me?”
“Ladies first.” He tried to add a disarming grin.
She wasn’t having any of it. “Bullshit! You want me to take it because it’s one of the easier ones.” She glared at him for his suggestion. She was an accomplished soldier and didn’t like the idea that he thought she needed protecting.
“Look, Sergeant...” She hated when he pulled rank when it was just the two of them, but she understood. “...that down there is your mission objective. Go get it.”
She slowly gave him a limp ‘fuck you’ salute before creeping down a level without making a sound.
Crawling on her belly, she made for the end of the branch in search of a better striking position.
The unsuspecting creature strolled right under her.
She slowly reached behind her, taking hold of the knife’s white bone handle sticking out of her pants. The blade, similar in size to a Bowie knife, glistened in the light.
Quietly she rose into a crouch, never taking her eyes off the target. Gripping the blade in her hand, she waited.
Let’s show him what you can do. I’m taking this thing out with one blow.
She leapt.
Her target sprung forward.
She drove the edge harmlessly into the ground.
Shit!
The naked wolf turned and lunged forward, jaws wide. She frantically jumped backward, brandishing her knife. Its jaws slammed shut, empty. Her flashing blade scored a slash across its snout.
The animal bellowed in pain, tossing its head back.
Recovering quickly, both combatants assumed a battle pose, circling one another. Dried leaves and sticks crackled under their feet.
The beast roared, its battle cry echoing off the surrounding hills. Warm, putrid breath, stinking of rotten flesh, blew past her. She didn’t react to the stench. Focused like a laser, she waited patiently for an opening.
The poor animal really didn’t have a chance. Never in its natural life could it have met an opponent like Amanda. Even with the extra gravity, her nano enhancements made her stronger and quicker than anything of her size that nature prepared him to face.
The predatory instinct to attack proved irresistible. The smooth-skinned creature launched a frontal assault, leaping forward to quickly close the gap. This usually-effective tactic sealed its doom.
While the beast was in mid-flight, unable to change course, she ducked and rushed forward between its legs. Holding her blade high, she drove the razor-sharp edge into its chest, dragging the cold steel along the entire length of the animal, gutting it like a fish.
Escaping out from under, she retook her defensive stance. Her eyes darted from side to side with murderous rage, watching for any threatening movement from any quarter. There was no need.
The mortally-wounded predator twisted and landed on its side with a flop. Blue blood poured out of the gaping gash along with a variety of unidentifiable gore.
Relaxing, the victor walked up to the whimpering beast.
Placing a comforting hand upon its brow, she frowned as she petted the dying creature. Their eyes met, one warrior to another. Taking pity, she raised her knife and struck down into its brain, ending the suffering.
***
“How much longer do we have to lug this damn head around?” Amanda complained, leaning against a tree trunk to take a break. Her ratty blonde hair brushed against her dirt-spotted cheeks.
“Until I find my prize.”
“Well hurry the hell up!” she barked. “I’m tired of shitting in holes and this thing is getting ripe. And don’t even get me started on the moist melons.”
“I told you we needed to go further into the woods. I don’t think the big game ventures over here much. But you said you wanted to stay a day’s walk out - so here we are, still walking.”
“Yeah, yeah. No one likes a know-it-all. What’s the plan now?”
He joined her at the tree. “I’m going to eat a moist melon,” he said, producing the yellow fruit.
She took the proffered melon and sliced it in two. Taking one piece, she smashed it squarely on his face.
Their laughter released a mountain of built-up tension.
Playfully knocking the fruit aside, he grabbed Amanda by her shapely hips and tugged her close. He closed in for a kiss, and she protested, trying to avoid being smeared with the vile fruit juices. As soon as he came within a millimeter of her lips, all resistance collapsed as the two passionately kissed.
Things rapidly heated up as the two love-starved hunters sank ever deeper into their embrace. Hungry lips devoured one another as hands explored neglected re
gions. She pulled away to remove her leather top when a loud snort captured both their attention.
Seconds later, a predator charged through a pocket of thick brush. Its red eyes burned with the thrill of the chase. They darted around the tree. The large animal failed to match their maneuverability.
“What the hell was that?” she silently asked.
“I have no idea. I only saw its eyes and that was enough. Hurry into that undergrowth.”
Swiftly and quietly, they made for cover. Crouching low with knives ready, they waited. It didn’t make them wait long.
First, its head slowly came around the massive tree. It looked like a small T-Rex, its huge jaws lined with deadly teeth. Instead of tiny forearms, the beast employed mighty limbs equipped with multiple claws several centimeters long. Behind them came the thick, scale-covered core, followed by a set of hind legs that looked oddly undersized to minds thinking of dinosaurs. The backside set a meter lower than the chest. That did little to limit its intimidating design, since it stood eight meters tall when it stood on its hind legs.
“Holy shit,” she whispered.
“Let’s talk via the nanos, hon,” he thought-spoke
“Sorry. I think you’re going to need my help to take this one down.”
“No. I have to do it myself. If someone demands proof they know they could check our internal databases. Then our honor, and word, would be shot to hell.”
“Ummm. I hope you have a plan, cause I think he knows where we are.”
“Hang tight.”
Sprinting from cover, he surprised the lizard. With a slash of the blade, he inflicted a minor flesh wound on a long arm before bolting around the tree. The creature turned to follow its prey. Trent completed his circumference of the trunk to launch another surprise attack. Coming around from behind, he ran by the bleeding arm to score another gash.
This time, perhaps out of more frustration than pain, it let loose a terrible shriek. The hair on Trent’s neck stood straight.
He encouraged the lizard to give chase by running away slower.
Splitting the gap between two smaller trees, Trent evaded his pursuer. With its good arm, the creature reached through the barrier to take several vigorous swipes. It only stirred air as Trent turned from prey to predator. He attacked the beast’s flank with heavy thrusts into the elbow of the wounded arm. The lighting fast strikes destroyed the joint, causing the arm to flop to one side.
He darted off before it could counterattack.
Limping away from the trees, it didn’t see Trent’s charge against its hind leg on the same side as the wrecked arm, but it did feel the painful slash. This time, Trent was the one surprised as the seemingly-slow appendage kicked back, sending him flying. He tumbled to a stop.
Paralyzed by the sheer power of the blow, he lay motionless. Bent on its prey, the animal completed a slow turn, its ivory-white teeth glistening. The injured monster limped forward. It snorted, inhaling a deep breath.
Trent’s eyes opened at the sound.
“Get up!” Amanda yelled. She readied her knife to intervene.
Forcing himself to respond through a full body ache, he raised onto one knee.
Hungry jaws opened five meters from his head. The predator stretched its neck, lunging forward.
Trent rolled to the attacker’s bleeding side.
A tenth of a second later, the jaws slammed closed where he’d been.
Trapped by the forward momentum of the attempted death blow, the creature was exposed. Adrenalin enabled Trent to take advantage.
Springing forward, he drove his knife again and again deep into the hind leg.
It cried out and bucked, but Trent was ready this time. He avoided the blows as he kept launching his merciless attacks upon the leg.
He lost count of the number of times his blade found its mark. Finally, the limb gave out.
The beast collapsed with a thud, kicking up leaves.
With the animal unable to walk, the fight quickly ended. Trent plunged the knife into the brain stem, and gripping the bone handle with both hands, he jerked the knife about until the lizard stopped moving.
It took both of them half an hour to cut the head free, but in the end, he had his prize.
Chapter Eleven
New Order
Nathan York lit another cigarette, staring at fresh progress reports from the desk in his quarters. Holding the smoke for a moment, he let out a long plume with a heavy sigh. Like too many of the ones before it, these reports detailed a frightening lack of actual progress.
Returning the white stick to his lips, he sucked in a long drag. Nicotine-infused blood flowed into his brain. The gentle buzz settled in and he focused on the lit tip. The casual habit had become a full-fledged addiction lately. A manifestation of the mounting stress, it multiplied like compound interest. He knew he’d lost control of his habit and that ate at him.
A soft moan caused him to glance back at a naked Natalie Woods. She rustled around in her sleep, further wrapping the sheets around her. Their sexual liaisons were a welcome recreational release. Recently, though, he’d noticed that their encounters grew less and less effective at restoring his positive disposition, just like the decreasing return of each smoke. The weight of pending failure pressed down upon him so heavily at times that he thought he could feel the Director’s hot breath on his neck.
In the months since taking over command of operations on P-1425X, he’d managed to produce much the same lack of results as his predecessor. The same predecessor the Director sent him to this ass-end of the universe to execute and replace.
He took another long, slow drag from the burning stick of high quality tobacco. He admired the lofting haze of smoke.
Progress. At least if these things give me cancer, I won’t have to worry about it. That’s progress for you. He smirked. Of course, it was unintentional progress that cured cancer.
No one had ever really found a cure for cancer. Even after trillions of dollars had been dumped into that research black hole for over a century, a cancer-specific cure never came about. Cancer was finally conquered, along with a host of other diseases, thanks to robotic microsurgery and nanotech, two advances developed in spite of the money wasted on purely cancer-specific research.
I could use some unintentional progress myself, right about now.
He lit a fresh cigarette. More sweet nicotine flooded his system. He took stock of where he stood.
Since taking over the research teams, they’d learned a great deal about the new alien chamber. However, as before him, none of the breakthroughs would likely lead to a technological leap forward.
The Director needed a big advantage in tech if his plan was to succeed. Forcing the nations of Earth and the colonies to fall in line under the rule of a real government, not just some loosely aligned confederation doomed to fall apart once the external threat was eliminated, would require Internal Security to wield awe-inspiring capabilities.
Decades of pouring massive amounts of resources into private research had given IS a lead in a number of areas, but the lead was not great enough. The pace of progress through traditional means proved too slow. IS had hoped the discovery of the alien facility on P-1425X would prove to be the game changer they needed. To date, it hadn’t, and the Director was growing increasingly impatient.
A sharp pain cut through his fingers. “Shit,” he softly exclaimed, dropping the spent smoke. Lost in thought, he didn’t notice the ember had burned its way to his flesh.
Shaking his hand to dull the pain, he was already reaching for another cigarette when his com-link sounded. “Science Team One Leader to Dr. Stone, please come in.” The researcher addressed him by his alias. The educated sheep believed they were looking for tech to simply expand man’s understanding of the universe and bring new weapons to bear against the Bearcats.
He grinned at the thought. They think they’re so smart, but they don’t know a thing. They’re powerless. Naive bastards have no idea that none of them are
leaving this planet alive.
“Dr. Stone here.”
“Sorry if I woke you, sir.”
“I was already up, Doctor. What do you have for me?”
“I think you’re going to want to see this, sir. We’ve got something big.”
“I’m on my way.” He set the unspoiled cigarette down. Suddenly he didn’t need it.
Jumping out of his chair, he rushed to get dressed. The sound stirred Woods awake. “What’s happening?” she asked.
“Nothing. Go back to sleep,” he coldly shot back. He suddenly didn’t feel like he needed her, either.
***
“What do you have for me, Doctor?” York asked, standing at the lower entrance to the smaller chamber. The oval room had ancient alien computers lining the walls. A central display, possibly holo in nature, sat in the middle.
Dr. Becky Smut picked up a stack of e-paper from the central display and walked toward him. He examined her chinless face, dominated by a long pointed nose.
Thank God she’s ugly. Sleeping with her might have caused issues with her work.
She proudly stood tall, thrusting the stack forward. “We’ve gained access to a portion of the database.”
“That’s excellent news!” he said, open-mouthed. A rare betrayal of genuine emotion. He cleared his throat and relaxed his face. “What kind of data have you been able to recover?”
She smiled. “As you know, the linguist team is still working on the alien language, so it is hard to say exactly what we’ve found from the text.” She let that simmer to savor the moment. “However...” York’s eyes widened, “...this particular piece of the database has artwork. A design schematic, to be more precise. It’s on the final page.”
He thumbed through the sheets of unreadable symbols to find the picture, the picture that just might save his life. Hungry eyes devoured it. The design was so alien, no human mind would consider such a configuration. Enough universal engineering concepts, forced by necessity and function, allowed him to deduce what he was looking at. His eyes flared with energy and excitement.
“I thought you’d like that,” she said. “It’s not of any practical use until we can translate their language and mathematical symbols, but that is only a matter of time.”
The Last Revenge (The Last Hero Trilogy Book 2) Page 9
