by Jim Rudnick
“If you have any trouble standing your ground if an oved charges, Captain, remember that Merkel will punch a hole right through him if you shoot him in the chest, though it will spoil the meat we hope to take back ...” He grinned and as they closed out the lights in the cargo hold where their gear was assembled, he led the way back up to the Officers’ Mess and signed for a round for all found therein. Tomorrow we hunt, Tanner thought, and he had only one glass of Jovian ale and then turned in to await the morning.
# # # # #
Anulet was a world like few others. A small planet of only about 5000 miles in diameter meant that all humans would be working against much less gravity than on Juno. This would allow them to feel much stronger, have more endurance, and of course, be able to take long bounding strides of almost twelve feet at a full run. But it wasn’t that that was so different. It was the planet’s double suns that made it such an oddball. Anulet was the fourth planet of one of the binary stars, a red giant named Oz by earlier colonists on Anulet. Being a red giant, the light that fell on Anulet for the most part was reddish light, which deepened the shadows and made contrasting shades that could hurt your eyes to some degree after exposure for a few days. Of course, the colonists had become inured to that a few generations back, and all Anuletians paid the problem no attention.
But that was not the only sun that shone down on the planet, for eons ago Oz had also captured a smaller main sequence star called the Wizard, and with its yellowish light, the shadows it was said on Anulet were often muddy, deep in brown tones. Every four years the paths of the suns lined up to shine on Anulet, and right now, only Oz shone down on the planet as the Wizard was eclipsed. All shadows would be a deep red color and the contrasts would be bright for months to come.
It was also a planet that had grown little life in its infancy and one where evolution happened so slowly that its oceans were barely populated and its land masses mostly empty. However, at the top of the food chain were the Jaels, those bear-like creatures that hunted oveds and smaller animals called owphi that resembled six-legged mountain goats that lined the heavily eroded mid-latitudes on the largest land mass, where the colonists had settled centuries ago. Now used by the Duke as a major raw material planet, the colonists now were farmers, forestry workers, and small open pit miners for the most part. The planet went far in feeding much of the rest of the Duchy’s realm, and its inhabitants, while not rich by any means, all enjoyed many comforts that other planets did not offer under the crimson skies above them.
As well as the colonists under the Duke’s banner, there was also a small tourism group that ran hunting tours for hunters from all over the Rim. Beautiful lodges had been built with the huge beams of the planet’s forest kings, the tossprho tree with its red grains and buff tones. The huge halls and resort rooms were well worth the hunt it was said by all who came to enjoy Anulet. Each resort was backed up by able staff, and guides meant that many a Rim citizen had come to Anulet to hunt for oved or Jael and had left with a trophy mount to follow them some months later, to be hung on walls all across the Rim. One of those hunting lodges was owned by the Duke’s family, and it was down to that lodge that the whole hunting party and gear were taken by the Achilles tender upon their arrival. The gear was quickly stowed away and the guests were taken up to the lodge dining room for breakfast. After finishing far too many oved sausages and cups of coffee, they all moved over to the commons room to discuss the day's upcoming events.
“Right, if everyone’s got their coffees, please may I have your attention to run through the drill for today,” the senior guide, Koenig, announced as he stood up near the large display panel opposite the fireplace that even now roared with a log fire.
“Right, teams, you all know and I know that you all know to stay with your teammate at all times. This is Wizard eclipse month so you may well be using goggles and remember that shadows under Oz light don’t look so deep—but they truly are. No leaving your teammate, no investigating any caves or slide areas, no leaving the assigned areas for your team. If everyone follows that, we’ll all do just fine. Known you were coming now for about a week, Sir, and have closed off lodge boundaries to all via the subsonic fencing, to take some pressure off your bodyguards,” Koenig said, grinning at the two of them on team B who shrugged as if to say that didn’t impress them. The Duke nodded, and the hunting guide continued.
“Right, so here’s the areas that we’ve seen oved trail in the past week,” he said as he turned on the display and a 3D map of the hunting area appeared behind him. Tanner could see that the terrain was traversed with deep gullies, eroded water channels from ages ago that now were fully grown over with trees and short ground cover. Each of the almost parallel five gullies emptied into a larger canyon to the far right side of the display, a distance of almost a mile Tanner figured. Down the middle or so of that canyon was what appeared to be a river that twisted and scoured the canyon on its way somewhere else.
“As you can see, the tops of the mesas here are pretty flat and only hold grasslands mostly. Much thicker vegetation is located in the gullies themselves, and they all end up in the canyon. While we won’t be down that far that way, know that the river is much swollen with the rains we’ve had in the past few days; don’t even think about swimming in it, lads, as it’s treacherous and full of rapids, short waterfalls, and eddies that will kill you before you go 100 yards.” He went on as he zoomed in on one of the mesas between two gullies.
“Here’s what we’re working with today. The mesa is the oveds’ preferred foraging area. They do love their grasses. But the Jaels know that and haunt the tops of the gullies, charging out to snare the weaker or disabled oveds whenever they can. Course, we’ve put out sub-sonics to bar the Jaels from even getting into this area, and we’ve monitored those mesas for the past week or so,” he said, turning toward the Duke who now had a scowl on his face.
“Guide Master Koenig, I do hope that you realize that the last thing that any good hunter wants is to be so coddled that there is no risk to anything one attempts at all. This is a hunt, man, not a kindergarten party,” he said, with less force than Tanner expected.
“Granted, Sir. But we are looking at oved only on this hunt, and as you and I both know, Sir, they too can do quite a bit of damage if cornered. We kept the Jaels out only as a precaution; who knows, Sir, maybe some of them still snuck in around the subsonic fences,” he offered, a small smile on his face.
The Duke waved him on, Tanner noted, as he realized that sub-sonics would keep the devil himself from your door; Jaels could not withstand them he was sure.
“Right, Sir. Then we leave in twenty-five minutes, lads. Please get your gear, unloaded arms only in the heli, and we’ll meet out at the pad then. Off you go,” he said and watched as the six hunters left to get their gear.
Tanner was upstairs in one of the prettiest bedrooms he’d ever been in. Rustic red tossprho wood beams were supported by half-round log walls with forest green curtains around a bay window that pointed out to the great red outdoors. His bed was big enough to hold a platoon, he figured, and his desk had a comm up-link he saw as he got on his camouflage clothing and grabbed his boots from the bottom of his duffel bag. Once his boots were on, he took his rifle from its tote as he grabbed the ammunition bandolier, his goggles, and a toque in case the day was cool and made his way out to the lodge pad.
There, tucked well away from the Achilles tender, was the lodge helicopter, big enough for a dozen or so at least and in good repair. The red light threw him for a moment as he thought there was trash or debris below the craft on the tarmac pad, but as he got closer, he realized that it was just the red light shadows that had fooled him, and he hoped the goggles would help some out in the field.
He climbed aboard and took a window seat beside one of the bodyguards and waited as the pilots warmed up the engines, and they lifted off for the days hunt. At about fifteen knots or so, Tanner felt the shuddering as they left the cushion of ground effect and made it into
clean air, and the pilot surged forward and upward toward the hunting grounds.
As they sped along, above first the heavily treed lodge grounds, up and over a ridge a mile away, Tanner saw that the red-lighted shadows below him would aid the oved no matter if he was wearing goggles or not. The shadows between the tossprho trees below were dark, deeply red in color, and there was almost no contrast at all. Yet the trees themselves, some kind of strange conifers, were almost like shiny tinsel trees, all gracefully blowing in the mild winds below. He struggled to get on his goggles for a better look at what he’d actually see and was happy that at least the tinsel below was now much muted. Those shadows, he thought and watched as a mesa loomed ahead, and the pilot took them up almost at that instant to gracefully turn and arc down to land on a cleared landing spot that awaited them
“Right, lads, out we go,” the Guide Master said and led the way beneath the still turning rotor blades and off to one side. As they all gathered, Tanner noticed that most weren’t wearing their goggles yet, so he pulled his down to his neck and stood while the heli lifted off and curled back and toward the lodge.
“Right, so everyone okay from the ride, first?” Koenig said and looked at each for a nod.
“Okay, next, maps to each team, here ... here you go,” he said as he handed out a map to each team leader. The Duke took Tanner’s team map, and Tanner glanced down at it at the same time, noting that their team A had been assigned the farthest over mesa and the gully just before it as their own grounds, which meant a traverse of three other gullies to get to where they were assigned. A long walk but farthest away meant less impact of the heli on the game at least.
“Right, lads. First mesa and gully are buffers for the heli; next gully and mesa, team C and guide Williams; next gully and mesa, team B and guide Brown; and last gully and mesa, team A and myself. Off we go, please a reminder to walk the gullies quietly as that’s where the oved will be lingering before coming out to dine on the grasses for the day. Off we go.” He led off at a brisk pace across the heli-pad mesa and toward the buffer gully beyond it. As the hike settled in, Tanner noted that the grasses were not too bad on the eyes if you slightly turned your head a few degrees to one side of the spot you were looking at and let that red light creep in from the side. As they walked, they fell quiet, and after a few hundred yards, they were at the edge of the buffer gully where Tanner noticed a subsonic beacon planted right at the edge of the gully stuck into the muddy edge of the mesa. As they slowly moved down on the muddy path, he spotted a couple more of the beacons when they skirted the bottom of the gully and began to climb the far side. Narrow one and I’m not out of breath either, he thought as he climbed the lower gravity far side and eased up on top of the next mesa, another buffer he remembered.
Crossing mesa after gully after mesa, the hunting party peeled off by teams until only Tanner, the Duke, and the Guide Master slowly moved through the top of the mesa beside their own gully and suddenly, they stopped cold.
The Guide Master at the head motioned them to come up to see what only he could so far see over the gully’s edge. Rains from the previous few days had poured into their gully right where the path lay, and the heavy torrent had eroded the ground around the path. Lying on its side, its grid of speaker holes clogged now with mud, a subsonic beacon lay. Peering ahead, Tanner could see that the small landslide had taken out much of the path, and ahead he could see only the bottom of another beacon poking out of the mud below.
Shaking his head, the Guide Master turned to the Duke.
“Sir,” he whispered,” looks like we’ve lost some sub-sonics here at the edge and down a bit. I don’t like that at all, Sir, and would recommend turning back; we can’t count on the area being empty of Jaels.” He wasn’t wringing his hands, Tanner thought, but it was obvious that he was somewhat cautious. Most likely as he’s really in charge of the Duke’s safety, and now he didn’t have a lock on that at all.
The Duke shook his head.
“Not at all, Guide Master. We push on, and if there are any Jaels, I wager I’ll get him before he gets me,” the Duke said as he smiled and slowly began working his way by the guide and down into the gully.
Tanner looked at Koenig, who just grimaced and motioned him to go ahead, he’d bring up the rear, and Tanner moved down the slippery mud-covered side of the gully. Ahead, a wall of trees loomed up in the reddish light, and the Duke moved slowly between the trunks as he tried to still move down parallel to the path but to its right. At a small clearing ahead, he motioned them to come closer as he began to load his rifle.
“Scott, you take my right flank. Guide Master, you get the left. I think we’ll angle down slowly, through the trees towards the bottom of the gully, but also towards the canyon too. That way, we can stay away from the mud slide and try to drive whatever might be ahead lower towards the gully floor. Clean shots, fellows,” he grinned.
Tanner reached for his goggles and held them up questioningly to the Duke.
“Not me, don’t like ‘em,” the Duke said, “but if you want to wear them, go ahead. Now let’s hunt,” he said as he smiled once more and moved off slowly with his gun at the ready.
Tanner loaded both barrels of his carbine, thumbed on the safety, moved slightly up and to the right of the Duke’s path, and worked his way away from the other two, angling right and down eventually. Ahead, those tinsel conifer trees were clumped together while low bushes tended to be alone in between. The ground for the most part was dead leaves and those conifer tinsel needles if he could believe his eyes with the goggles. But the shadows ahead between the trees were just too dark red for him to make out anything lurking there. He tried to move around the tree clumps at first, figuring that if there was a Jael there, it would be too much of a surprise as he wouldn’t see it. But after a few minutes went by, he found himself almost able to make out tree trunks within the shadows, so the next clump, he entered slowly as he moved downhill. Trunk after trunk went by, mostly tinsel conifers though there were some broadleaf trees that grew from very twisted trunks of twice a man’s breadth. As he made his way around big rocks and over roots that had pushed up from the earth, he took care not to slip on any and left that first clump feeling a little better and trusted his eyesight a whole lot more.
Swishing through the long grasses and crossing the next little bush-littered clearing, he paused just inside the edge of the next big clump of trees to listen for a moment. He judged that the Duke was no more than hundred yards to his left and the Guide Master a farther hundred. He could hear little, except the slight blowing of broad leaf leaves within the clump ahead. No wildlife sang that he could tell nor moved with noise either. The shadows of the clump of trees around him was thicker than the last one, but still he could see the broad leaf trunk almost dead ahead. Beside it low bushes had grown to almost hide a big rock that lay there. As he began to make his way around the rock and the broad leaf trunk, an arm like a railway tie, with claws extended, swung at him from above the rock, and he was knocked down onto his back. The realization that he was in deadly trouble was on him in an instant, and he rolled and rolled until he hit outstretched roots and only then looked back up at the blood red Jael who had clambered down off the rock and was charging him head on.
Even on the ground, and on his back, he knew that the animal would pounce on him, teeth searching for his throat, trying to kill him with one bite. And as he raised the Merkel, he thumbed off the safety and let go with both barrels directly at the charging animal.
The double explosion of the gun when it fired, coupled with the tight confines of the clump of trees made the sound of the weapon seem thunderous, as Tanner watched the Jael take both shells in the chest. But the momentum of that charge meant that it only slowed the Jael, and it fell half on top of Tanner, its right paw striking him still hard enough to almost break his leg. As Tanner scrabbled backward to get away from the Jael, he realized that the animal was nowhere near done as it dragged itself after him using only it’s front legs, claw
s digging at the ground and roots to find purchase. Its jaws gnashed as the big canines cut the air, searching for flesh as its eyes bored in on its prey. As it clawed feverishly after him, Tanner was now backed up right against a tinsel conifer, its scaly bark jammed up against his spine, the knots and twigs that low on the trunk piercing his shirt and even his skin. The Jael was still not dead, he realized as he leaned forward to grab the carbine out of the dirt, ejected the spent shells, and rolled to his knees, jamming the new shells into the breech, knowing he had only moments to re-load.
The sound of the Duke’s Fabarm barked once, and the top of the Jael’s skull exploded. Its head flopped down onto its forearms, as black blood under the red light flowed from its crown; it was finished. Tanner took his first breath of relief in what must have been a minute or so and looked to the Duke who grinned at him as he slowly stood up.
“Sorry, Scott, but that’s my kill, agreed?”
Tanner nodded vigorously.
“Absolutely, Sir. Your kill without question. And soon I’ll have my heart slowed down which will be ample reward enough,” he said as he rose shaking from the adrenaline rush he’d just gone through.
As the Duke moved closer to inspect the carcass, Tanner moved away, and thumbing the safety, he put down the carbine that had saved his life. He shook for a few seconds then drew a few deep breaths, and suddenly spying over the top of the Duke, he saw the Jael’s mate coming around the other side of that same rock just before she charged. As he dropped to his knees, he swooped up the carbine and again let both barrels go into the right side of the bear-like animal just before she knocked the Duke down.
