Intrepid

by Nate Johnson

  She’d place the device against a tree limb then move it to a flower or piece of grass. She’d nod her head and mumble under breath, then move on. Nora would stand a couple of feet back and busily enter information into her device. What had been scanned, when, where. Typical data points.

  She looked like a little girl in a princess factory who wanted to play with each item as it came off the line. Tanner, on the other hand, looked like a tribesman, as he constantly scanned the area for any kind of threat. The white knuckled grip on his spear spoke of his anxiety and nervousness. But, Jonathan had to admit, he did a good job at hiding it. If you didn’t know better, you’d think he was taking a leisurely stroll through Tanu’s Imperial Courtyard.

  It didn’t take Jonathan long to fall out of the frightened kitten phase and into the curious valiant scientist mode. It was as if his head was on a swivel, shifting back and forth to look at new and wondrous things. Both the insects and the flowers looked bigger than normal, nothing monstrous, just unusual.

  Lady bug type creatures the size of his thumbnail. A crawling, twelve-legged creature the size of a mouse. A beautiful blue multi-petal flower on a short green stem that was as big as his hand. It reminded him of the first time he had visited Tanu from his home planet of Kensington.

  Everything was just a little off. The air tasted different, sound traveled a little differently; the smells were sharper and more pungent. But, really, they were just different, and his senses registered them as pungent. He wondered if they were doing the same here. He would have to keep that in mind during his observations.

  Nora and the Professor had moved on, with Tanner always staying about ten feet out in front. He dropped the flower he had picked and scurried to catch up.

  They came to the initial break in the forest created by the shuttle’s crash landing.

  He stepped out onto a dirt path next to the river. The water slowly flowed past at a very sedate pace. It curved a little, creating a quiet, peaceful tempting eddy. He had the urge to roll up his pants and go wading.

  “No flooding,” Jonathan said, waving at the other side, “no debris.”

  The river was about forty feet across. The other side was a vast grassland spotted here and there, with wide trees covered in dull purple leaves. He could see where the shuttle’s sleds had carved a path through the grass.

  The long parallel lines, evidence of their alien intrusion into this pristine world. The faintly green color of the grass, reminding him of a lime juice he had drunk on his courtyard at home. A sharp pang of misery raced through his body as he thought about where he had spent most of his short life. The high secure walls, the state of the art info system. Even his parents and their controlling attitude seemed like heaven right now.

  Taking a deep breath, he stepped to the edge of the water. God, you idiot, he thought. A giant crocodile, twenty-three feet long, could be resting just under the water and waiting for some space alien to show up. Maybe one of Niven’s Grendalls.

  Jonathan didn’t step back, that valiant scientist mode kept him glued in place, as he scanned the bottom of the river for life. The water at the edge was clear before dropping off into darkness a few feet from shore.

  It looked good enough to drink. He’d wait for the analysis, though. A movement caught his eyes, and he watched a slug like creature walking on four legs inch along the bottom, over the sand.

  Every so often it would plop down onto the sand, scrunch itself into half its size, then stand up and continue on. It was fascinating. It appeared to be eating something under the sand. It was only about four in….

  A long pink rope shot out from the dark water and captured the slug, pulling it into the depths. Jonathan jumped back and squeaked.

  There had been no warning, no sign the slug thing had ever existed, only a small indentation in the sand at the last spot it had plopped down.

  “Okay then, the rule of the jungle applies,” he said to himself. Shaking his head, he told them what he had seen, and they all took a step back.

  Tanner stuck his spear into the water and pulled it out, offering the end to Professor Creshington to analyze.

  She studied the results for a moment, then smiled.

  “It looks good, fresh, no obvious toxins or bio-hazards that the Nanos can’t handle. A little heavy on the iron content, but safe. We won’t even have to boil it.”

  “Good, because we don’t even have a pot to piss in,” Tanner said.

  The four of them stood there by the river’s edge and looked out over the vast prairie on the other side. By silent mutual agreement, no one wanted to move out of sight of the shuttle. Not yet.

  They watched as a breath of wind ruffled the field and then felt a warm puff of air before it disappeared into the forest behind them.

  “It could be a lot worse,” Nora said.

  “Much, much worse,” Professor Creshington said, as she continued to stare into the distance.

  “This is almost like a Garden of Eden,” Nora said. “Or, will be, if we can find food, and from what I’ve seen so far, there shouldn’t be any problem. Carbon based life forms are almost always pretty much similar.”

  “I think it’s beautiful,” Jonathan said.

  “The way I remember it,” Tanner said, “the Garden of Eden was filled with snakes that seduced young women. In fact, it got so bad everybody left. We’re not going to have that option.” Turning, he headed back towards the shuttle.

  None of them saw the half dozen pair of eyes watching them from inside the lovely green grass.

  Chapter Seven

  That night had to be the longest in Erik’s life. The damn pilot seat wasn’t designed for sleeping, and he refused to sit in a passenger seat. There are some things in life that were just not doable.

  Sighing for the thousandth time, he tried to twist on his side. He had spent the last few hours thinking about all of the things they needed to do. Food, water, shelter, protection, medicine, and he was sure he had forgotten a dozen more.

  They needed to make sure that they didn’t do something now that made it harder to survive later. There was so much they didn’t know. Were they coming out of or into winter? Was there even winter around here, and if so, how bad?

  Who could he rely on to get things done? That Jonathan kid had stepped up today and seemed like he got it. Young, but smart. Professor Breat was useless. If he didn’t know better, he’d think the old man had a stroke, but the Nano’s were supposed to stop that kind of thing.

  Creshington seemed okay, surly, but all right. It was Combs and his cohorts that he worried about. The idiot was going to do something to piss him off, and there would be hell to pay. If not now, then when they were rescued.

  His stomach turned over every time he thought about rescue. There had been that ninth jump. The Captain had chosen the farthest worm hole, it was only a couple of hours out of his way, but he’d said he had a feeling. A rescue party would normally follow the closest hole.

  They could follow the wrong path for months before they realized their mistake, or the victim’s stupidity. Either way, the rescuers could spend a life time going down the wrong path, and they might never be found. Their names added to the wall outside HQ. Written off as so much lost baggage.

  A small rustling sound came from the back. Please, not another bathroom call. He’d have to escort them outside, and he had enough for tonight.

  “Are you awake?” Nora Johnson asked. She had come forward and was leaning against his dashboard.

  Erik opened an eye. He was going to say, ‘no,’ and send her away. But, this was Nora, and suddenly he wasn’t tired anymore. Opening his other eye, he looked her over.

  Her eyes were red, she’d been rubbing them. Her brow was creased, and she didn’t seem to know what to do with her hands. First, they supported her on the equipment, then were folded in front, and finally crossed over her stomach.

  “Yea, I’m awake,” he whispered, sitting up. “Do you need to go outside?”

  “No,
no,” she said, shaking her head. “I just wanted to talk, I can’t sit there anymore. I don’t think anybody is really asleep. Except for maybe Billy Turner, he’d sleep through the apocalypse. I swear that guy has the emotional range of a tea cup.

  Erik chuckled and looked again at the young woman. She doesn’t deserve this, none of them do. They didn’t sign up for this.

  He at least had been looking for adventure. These people had been planning on classes and a nice safe trip. Not this. To top it off, they all probably came from nice homes, parents that loved them. A future full of meaningful contributions. Nothing like what they were facing now. It was amazing that more of them hadn’t broken down so far.

  Nodding his head, he smiled at the young woman.

  “You’re probably right, but let’s keep it down so they can at least try. So what’s new? Anything interesting going on in your life?”

  .o0o.

  Nora chuckled, what was it about this man that could make her feel so much better with just a few words.

  “Oh, not much, what’s new with you?” She tried to laugh, but she remembered what was going on and a black cloud settled over her again. They were in so much trouble. And, daddy wasn’t going to save her this time, she thought.

  “Where are you from, Miss Johnson?” he asked. She could tell he had seen her mood and was trying to divert her attention. She had to give him points for trying.

  “Tullow,” she answered. Her stomach turned over a little when she almost gave away more information. Time to change the subject. “I bet you never thought you’d end up babysitting a bunch of civilians in a situation like this.”

  He flinched back at the accuracy. “No, not really,” he said looking off into the distance.

  “I’m sorry about the Intrepid and your friends,” she said, looking down at her hands folded in her lap. It seemed so not enough. He looked at her for a moment then nodded his head, accepting her condolences. They were quiet for a moment, both of them lost in thought. “What are we going to do, tomorrow I mean?”

  He laughed. “Hell if I know, you got any ideas?”

  Her mouth dropped open. Didn’t he have a plan? Her father would have mapped out every step each individual should take for the next three weeks.

  He laughed. His face lights up like a Christmas tree when he laughs, she thought.

  “I wouldn’t worry too much Miss Johnson. Captain Freeborn told me to take care of you guys, and I haven’t disobeyed an order in a long time. At least not one related to carrying out the mission.”

  She stood up, squaring her shoulders and looking down her nose. She didn’t like being shifted aside like a little girl. People did not patronize her, not without feeling a little bit of wrath.

  “I’m sure you will do your best, Petty Officer Tanner. But, really, you should think about your resources. We’re not exactly idiots you know.”

  He smiled up at her. “Have a lot experience living in a strange wilderness have you, Miss Johnson?” he asked. His eyes mocking her, waiting for an answer.

  “My family went camping every summer. We hiked all over the mountain range close to home. I assure you, I will be perfectly okay.”

  “Let me guess, you packed your supplies and made sure to carry out your trash. I can see you in your short hiking shorts, hair in a ponytail, maybe wearing a headband. Am I right?”

  She didn’t answer, her blood beginning to boil at the arrogance.

  “If you want the truth,” he continued, “none of us are going to be okay Miss Johnson,” nodding to the sleeping crowd behind him. “My job is to keep all of you people alive until we get rescued, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to fail. At least with some of you.”

  She continued to look down at him, her head slightly cocked to one side.

  “Why don’t you like us? What did we ever do to you to make you so angry?”

  He didn’t even hesitate, “We’re alive, and twenty-three of the best men in the universe aren’t.”

  She was shocked by his answer. He hadn’t shown any emotion when the ship had exploded. He hadn’t even blinked, just turned and started with the controls.

  “Would you rather we were dead and your shipmates alive?”

  “In a heartbeat, Miss Johnson,” he said, then turned over, pulling his suit over his shoulders like a blanket. Nora could take a hint and walked back to her chair. Back amongst the idiot civilians.

  .o0o.

  Erik woke having to piss like a race horse. Cracking the door, he peaked outside to make sure that a wild flesh eating plant, or something, hadn’t covered the shuttle in the night. It wouldn’t have mattered. He was going outside anyway.

  He grabbed his weak ass spear from besides the door and jumped down. The morning felt cool and moist like a storm might be on the way. He wondered what kind of storms they had around here.

  His stomach rumbled as he made his way to the stern. He continuously looked around while he relieved himself. A thousand thoughts flew through his mind, most of them dealing with him being found dead with his dick in his hand. Shuddering to himself. He couldn’t think of anything more humiliating.

  When he stepped back around the ship, he saw that most of the others had come outside. Nora Johnson looked at him like he was a slug caught on the bottom of her shoe.

  He’d been a little hard on her last night, the girl had wanted someone to tell her that everything was going to be all right. These people needed to get a grip on reality, at least their new reality.

  Well, his father always said that nothing ever got accomplished by putting it off.

  Pulling at an imaginary belt like his dad used to, he stepped up to the group and used his quiet voice. A trick he’d learned from his first Chief, a person couldn’t ignore it, they had to listen carefully to hear what he said.

  “We need to get organized,” a simple, flat statement. They looked back at him like Turian moppets, all big eyed and waiting to be led. As if he had the answers. The weight and enormity of it all felt like a mountain, pushing him into the ground.

  Combs wasn’t going to let it go. God, why couldn’t things be easy? The young Professor stepped out in front of the group. He had tied his long blond hair back and looked like he’d shaved this morning, an impossibility as far as Erik was concerned.

  “I still say you’re not in charge,” Combs said, his face slightly red and a vein pulsed in his forehead. “You can’t tell us what to do.”

  Erik sighed in frustration, but chose to ignore the comment. He grounded the butt end of the spear and looked the crowd over. We are so screwed, he thought. Nine men/boys and seven women/girls on an unknown planet with no chance of rescue for quite some time.

  They looked back at him with expectant faces. Waiting for him to tell them what to do. He remembered his father’s farm on New Kansas, the old man hated being told what to do. Said the government didn’t have any business being in his business.

  That was why they were off the grid and out of touch. No replicators, no access to the net. Everything done on their own, ‘builds character’ he’d say, all the time Erik would be mumbling under his breath about how stupid his father was.

  They could have gotten a part for pennies in town. Instead, they would spend days tearing it apart and putting it back together. What would the old man have thought of the group in front of him? They were so innocent that they didn’t even know what they didn’t know. Sighing, he turned and looked towards the river and the plain beyond.

  “In this universe, the leading cause of death is being eaten alive. I do not plan on being digested in some alien’s gut. Neither should you. This is not your home, it hasn’t been terra-formed, scanned, cleared, or prepped in any way. We don’t know what’s out there, what strange new beast, unknown toxin, or weird weather event is going to try and kill you, but it will.”

  He could see he had their rapt attention now.

  “The only way we are going to survive until we are rescued is to get organized, stay organized, and watch out for
each other.” Several of them were nodding now.

  “Billy, Gene, I want you guys to build a couple of latrines, back behind the shuttle. Hygiene is going to be critical to our well-being. From now on, everyone must use the latrines when inside the tree line. Understood?”

  Both, Bill and Gene, looked like he’d smacked them upside the head.

  “Why us?”

  “What do we use to dig with?” they both asked at the same time.

  “You’re in college, you figure it out,” Erik sighed, and looked down for a moment, then lifted his head and scanned every set of eyes, making sure they understood how serious he was.

  “Listen, people, I am only going to say this once. Do not worry about who gets what crappy job. Believe me. Before this is over, you’ll all get a chance at doing some really despicable things.”

  Then, laughingly said to the two boys, “If you guys had any kind of brains you’d realize it was better to be assigned the job of digging a new latrine instead of being told to empty an old one.”

  The boys laughed and started to move towards the back of the shuttle, “And guys, put up some kind of screens, and make them portable. We’re going to have to move the screens every week or so.”

  The rest of the group had started to get together. He could sense a faint hesitancy on their part, nervous about what they would be assigned to do.

  “Jonathan, I need you to figure out some way of moving water from the river to the camp. And, some way of storing it up here when you do. Pick someone to help. You can use anything in the shuttle except the seat rails, I’ve got plans for those.”

  The young boy’s face lit up. It was probably the first time in his life when he had been told to pick a team instead of being the last one sitting to the side watching others get picked.

  Jonathan tapped another boy, James Townsend, Erik thought his name was. Another of those quiet boys that didn’t leave much of an impression. Both of them headed off to explore the shuttle.