by John Bluck
Raven eased the heavy truck-like rover to a stop ten feet before he got to the rock and the dip in the terrain that blocked the vehicle's way.
"Let's go," said Yarnell. He unlatched his seatbelt, opened the heavy front passenger's door, and stepped out. The yellowish grass and dusty dirt were very dry. Particles floated in the air, lingering in a shaft of sunlight as Yarnell took a step and stopped. He pulled his ray pistol from his holster and turned on the weapon, making sure the safety was set.
Wilson got out of the rover. "Should we activate our weapons?" he asked.
"It would be a good idea," said Raven. "You never know what'll happen."
Wilson powered on his sidearm and made sure that the safety was on. As he opened the other rear door for Rachel, he asked, "Where's the squad?" He hadn't seen them drive from the ship, and he had forgotten them until he had turned on his pistol.
"I've stationed them behind a thick bunch of trees near the middle of the scan area," Raven said. He pointed to a dense cluster of pines, bushes, and boulders about a block away. Wilson squinted, trying to find the soldiers' hiding place, but the squad was so well concealed, he had had no clue that they were there.
Yarnell opened the rover's hatchback and took out the fancy metal detectors. Each had a long handle, like a rake, with the scanner where the rake tongs would be. Wilson gripped the nearest detector.
"These are light," Wilson commented. He turned his detector on, and its color screen showed a scene below his feet.
Yarnell and Rachel also activated their detectors. "I suggest we split up the job," said Yarnell. "Rachel, search beneath the bushes and around the rock."
"Yes, sir," Rachel said. She strolled to the bushes and began to scan, moving the machine from side to side like she was mopping.
"I'll cover the lower area of the depression," Wilson said. He clambered down into the fifteen-foot gorge, while he held the metal detector up so it wouldn't drag on the ground and rocks that littered the slope.
"I can scan what's left," said Yarnell. He pointed to the far edge of the slope and a small boulder area beyond. He lifted his metal detector and carried it on his shoulder like a rifle.
As Wilson began to scan, he found a rodent tunnel entry. His metal detector screen showed a burrow that went into the ground about twenty feet. His curiosity spurred him to follow the animal's passage, so he walked above it, and then climbed the slope of the depression.
A loud buzz from his detector startled him, and a colored gold icon popped on its screen. A rodent had dug around a huge nugget of gold. Wilson's machine sounded an even higher pitched tone as he stepped above the chunk of gold, and then the screen began to rapidly flash "gold" in Sunevian letters.
"Hey, I've found it," Wilson yelled. Yarnell and Rachel scrambled down the sides of the depression to where Wilson stood. His detector still screamed.
"That's massive," said Yarnell as he stared at the image of a simulated gold nugget on the machine's screen.
"I wonder how big it is," Wilson said out of breath, his heart beating rapidly.
Raven slid into the hole, and his boots shifted rocks and soil, which set off a miniature avalanche. "The computer in the rover tells me the nugget weighs 106 pounds," he said. He was hyper.
"That sounds too big," Wilson said.
"It's almost as large as the heaviest nugget found in the Sierras on Earth," said Raven. "I believe you've found its twin."
"How far down is it?" asked Yarnell.
"About five feet," said Raven. "If we use the power diggers, we should be able to get it out pretty fast."
"The rodents that dug the tunnel made our job easier, because we can follow their path," Wilson suggested.
"I noticed that, too," said Raven. "Let's get the diggers out."
"If the nugget is 106 pounds and bulky, won't it be hard to pull out of the hole?" asked Rachel.
"It would be a tough job, except we have a power winch with straps," said Yarnell.
The group scrambled up the steep slope, dislodging more soil, rocks, and dried grass. Raven opened the hatchback, and he and Yarnell took out two power diggers. Each had a flat, short spade. They looked like the small electric spade that Wilson's plumber had used to dig up a broken pipe near his parent's house about a year ago. But these power spades had no electric cords because mini-fusion engines powered the tools.
Rachel grabbed a regular shovel, and the four slid back down into the hole. Wilson switched on a power digger and held it against the firm soil. The spade chugged up and down with thrusts of several inches. Raven used his power spade just above Wilson's position while Rachel scooped away the loose soil and rocks that Raven and Wilson had dug free.
In fifteen minutes they exposed the giant gold nugget. Raven's eyes seemed to pop out, and Yarnell's grin was wider than Wilson had ever seen it. The gold sparkled alluringly in the sunshine.
"Wow," said Yarnell. "It looks clean, even though it was buried in dirt." Every member of the team was giddy as Yarnell threw webbing and straps down into the hole next to the nugget.
"Bill, let's drape the net around the nugget," said Raven in a jolly voice.
Wilson helped him put the web-like net around the metal chunk as close to the ground as he could.
Raven snapped the straps onto three metal rings on the net and attached a stranded steel winch cable to the straps. Raven, Wilson, and Rachel then trudged up the steep embankment.
"Pull it up," commanded Raven. Yarnell started the winch, and the net moved, tightened around the gold, and then pulled the nugget. Suddenly, the bottom of the net slipped under the lump of pure gold, trapping it. In less than a minute, the nugget was next to the rover's front end.
Raven and Wilson took off the net and straps. "Yarnell, can you turn the rover around so we can load the nugget on the power tail gate?"
"Your wish is my command," he replied. He was so happy that he almost hopped into the driver's seat, and then he backed up the rover.
"Be careful when we lift it," Wilson said to Raven. "Squat, and lift with your legs."
"You're the doctor," said Raven.
The men rolled and hefted the bulky nugget onto the vehicle's power tail gate. Raven pushed the up button. After the nugget was level with the rear floor, the men pushed the massive piece of gold into the cargo area.
It was then that Wilson first saw half a dozen big deer in his side vision. He turned to see them gracefully leap over small bushes and run towards the rover. "It's strange to see deer in mid-afternoon, and they're in a big group," he said.
"That is weird," said Yarnell. "Deer don't act like that."
The first death ray flashed from the lead stag and grazed the rover's tailgate. The kill ray burned off some of the rover's camouflage paint, producing the smell of smoke combined with the odor of scorched paint. More ray fire from the rest of the small herd hit around the team.
"Get in!" yelled Raven, as he fired his ray pistol. A deer staggered and crashed to the ground, wounded or dead.
Wilson fired a couple of wild shots as the team dove into the vehicle. It was shielded from most kinds of small arms ray fire.
Even at a distance, Wilson saw that the deer wore harnesses with ray rifles attached to them. Bits in their mouths might control the weapons, he thought. Had Triodian scientists changed deer genes to make the animals killers? Or maybe warriors half way around the planet controlled the shots.
"Let's get the hell out of here," said Raven, and he floored the accelerator. At once, the ship's squad of soldiers began to fire from their hidden positions among the rocks, trees, and their camouflaged vehicles. About half of the deer fell, and the rest ran away.
"It's hard to believe that the rebels would use deer that way," Wilson said.
"It's not farfetched," said Raven. "Remember that your U.S. Navy trained dolphins to help in war."
"Good thing you posted the squad in the grove," said Yarnell. "Our pistols were no match for enemy rifles."
Yarnell unhooked the two-wa
y radio microphone from the dash and pressed the transmit button. "Rover to squad," he said briskly.
"This is squad. Go ahead," the radio's speaker blared, with some static mixed in.
"What's your situation, squad leader? Over."
"Rover, we're in pursuit of the enemy with two armored units. But the deer ran into dense forest and outpaced us. Over," said the squad leader.
"Break off pursuit. Go back to the ambush site to check the animal corpses. Approach with caution. They could be booby-trapped. Stay at least a hundred yards away from them. Over," said Yarnell.
"Copy," said the squad leader.
Raven motioned to Yarnell, took the microphone from him, and pushed the transmit button. "Raven to squad leader, tell your people we'll meet them by the dead deer to take a look at the corpses," Raven commanded. "I'd like to see what kind of weapons they have. We need to send in a mini robot to take a flesh sample for genetic analysis. Over."
"Ten-four. Over and out."
"Why did they go to the trouble to send deer after us when they could have used regular soldiers?" asked Rachel.
"Because our scanners would have identified their men. Deer would not seem to be a threat," said Yarnell.
"Oh," said Rachel.
"I wonder what other kinds of animals they have changed," Wilson said.
"You can be sure they have more species in development, even if they only have combat deer now," Raven said.
Yarnell drove the rover slowly towards the nearest deer corpse.
"If handlers control the deer from a remote place, could those controllers also set off a bomb?" Wilson asked.
"They might," said Raven. "Yarnell, you were right to order the squad to approach the deer carcasses with caution. We'll do the same."
"What if the cyborgs have equipped the deer with cameras?" Wilson asked. "Couldn't they see us when we get close?"
"Good thinking, Bill," said Raven. "We'll use our telescopic video camera and scanner from a distance."
Raven's group moved to a position about a hundred yards from the first fallen deer. The squad leader and another soldier also stopped a safe distance from a second animal's corpse.
"They'll use their battle camera to scan that deer, too," said Yarnell, who nodded towards the squad leader.
Wilson saw that a mini robot was already rolling towards the dead deer.
Meanwhile, Raven attached a camera-scanner to the rover's dashboard. Just then a loud explosion destroyed the deer near the squad leader. He and his companion retreated as more explosions rocked the ground and blew up two more deer. The mini robot was destroyed.
"Don't pull back yet!" Raven shouted to Yarnell. "I need a picture and a scan before this one explodes." Yarnell aimed the camera at the last dead deer. At a count of three, that corpse blew up, too. A piece of deer meat hit the windshield.
"That's lucky," said Yarnell. He put on latex gloves and got a plastic bag. "Give me a few seconds while I snag that meat." He reached through the open driver's side window and put the meat in the bag. "I took a picture and scanned the carcass just before the detonation," he added.
"Good work," Raven said.
"Rachel, put this in the cooler in the back," Yarnell ordered. "Put on some latex gloves before I give this to you."
Rachel opened a cardboard box that contained hundreds of gloves and put on a pair. "Okay, hand it over," she said, reaching over Yarnell's seatback and taking the bag of venison from him. She turned around, leaned into the cargo area, opened a small cooler, and tossed the bag in it.
"We need to get in the ship and leave right away," Raven said.
"The cyborgs could set off a bigger explosion, for all we know," Yarnell said. He eased the accelerator down and drove at a safe, but quick speed back to the ship. He guided the vehicle up the steel ramp. The squad of soldiers in three armored vehicles followed Raven's rover into the ship.
Raven quickly walked to the radio control panel. "All personnel, prepare to jump in thirty seconds," he said via the intercom. Just as the ship began its jump, there was a large explosion near the dead deer. The Ghost Liner left Triod undamaged and later reappeared in Sunev's depleted Gold Country. From there Raven flew the ship back to First City and landed at the spaceport.
After the crew members unbuckled from their seats, Raven looked at Wilson and said, "Bill, we need to back-up your memories to computer cube. That way if you're blown to bits, we can clone you and restore your brain. This job we have is unsafe. I should have suggested this to you before."
"Okay, but will I remember myself, or will I be someone else, if I'm cloned?"
"It will seem as if you are reborn into a stronger, new body. At least that's what some soldiers who have been cloned and restored have told me," said Raven.
"I hope it doesn't come to that," Wilson said. But he worried, if they can record my memories, can they read my thoughts? Probably they can't do it because they would've analyzed my memories by now, if they could.
Within the hour Raven had taken Wilson to the ship's infirmary. Wilson slipped on a helmet wired to a control panel, and then he listened to music as a powerful computer archived his recollections. His memories, maybe even his soul, were now preserved in computer memory. He considered, will scientists soon learn how to read memories?
Chapter 22 – Rachel 214993
After the ship's computer recorded the information from Wilson's brain, he was tired. It was dinner time, and he wanted a meal and beer. So far, nobody had said that they could decipher his memories and recorded thoughts.
"Rachel, let's go to a restaurant," he said. She was still shaken from the attack by the deer soldiers on planet Triod.
"I could use a drink, something stronger than beer," she said. "I know a place that's perfect."
"Lead the way," he said. They walked out of the ship and through the big hangar along one wall to a door that exited to the parking lot.
"Did I tell you I have a small car assigned to me?" she asked.
"That's more than they've given me," Wilson said. He was surprised she had not talked about her auto before.
"It's in the lot," she said. The two walked to her red compact, a fusion-powered vehicle.
"This little car reminds me of a small British auto of yesteryear," he said as he got in the passenger seat. "What was it called?" he puzzled.
She drove to a bistro called the Charred Steak, and they strolled into the dim eatery. Many soldiers in uniform gobbled food and drank shots of whiskey and goblets of beer. A few beautiful women were there, and Wilson recognized them from the clone catalog that Raven had tossed his way after Lena's arrest. Patrons played pool, darts, and Sunevian table games he had not seen before.
"Let's sit in a quiet corner," said Rachel. "This day was a thrill, but I'm tired and on edge."
The two walked to a dark recess where there was a two-person table. Wilson pulled out a chair for Rachel. "You can unwind now," he said.
"I feel relaxed with you," she said. "I know you think that I'm here just to please you and spy on you, but it's more than that." She shifted in her chair to a relaxed position.
"You seem normal to me," said Wilson. "I mean you're not just like a perfect doll. You're a regular person."
"Thanks," she said. "I never understood what the big deal was. There are so many others who look just like me."
"I get what you're saying," he said. "There's a lot more to you than looks." The more Wilson interacted with her, the more he liked her. But he wondered, can I trust her to say what she really thinks?
As Wilson sat down, a waitress came.
"I'll order for you," Rachel said. She knew that Wilson was self-conscious about his accent and limited vocabulary.
"Thank you," he whispered. "I'd like a steak, with potatoes, vegetables, and coffee."
Rachel ordered their food so fast in Sunevian that Wilson couldn't understand everything that she said.
"What do you think of rebels who use innocent animals to carry arms, and worse yet, b
low up the poor creatures?" she asked.
"It's barbaric," he said. Wilson was now allied with the rebels and yet, he could see that they, too, were guilty of inhumane acts.
"Did you say that because you know I feel that way, as well?" she asked as she stared at him. She put her elbows on the table and her chin in her cupped hands.
"No, I see fault on both sides," he said. He asked himself, is she probing me?
"You mean that there are things about our society that don't please you?" she asked.
"On both sides people and other intelligent beings are imperfect," Wilson said. "No one is faultless. Countries get into conflicts, disputes, and even wars. They fight to the death when there should be better ways to decide differences."
"You're a man of peace, yet you handled a ray gun well and killed enemies of Sunev," she said.
"Yes, and I'm a physician, too. I regret that I've taken lives," Wilson said. "Now, I'm helping Sunev, and I'm committed to its government," he lied and blinked as he did so. He hoped she did not sense his anxiety.
"I see your dilemma," she said.
"Thank you for understanding."
The waitress brought their food. "Smells good," said Rachel. She did not seem to notice his lie, and she began to eat.
Wilson didn't enjoy his meal, and his stomach burned as he wondered if she would report doubts about him. He tried to predict what she would say, if she were to give details of their talks to the authorities.
Someone turned on a jukebox, and people stood and waltzed to beautiful instrumental music. "What's that?" Wilson asked.
"It's what you'd call slow dance music," Rachel said, and she took his hand. "Let's dance."
He stood and drew her to him. "Let's hold each other and move with the music," Wilson said, and she nodded.
No longer tense, he felt a wave of relief as they lost themselves in a sea of dancers. They made their way around the dark dance floor once. Then Rachel closed her eyes and put her soft cheek against his chest.
"Let's go to your place and talk," she said. "I’m told it’s a very nice suite of rooms in a hotel."
He took her hand, and they walked into the coolness of the night. He gazed upward at the stars that sparkled across the sky. The air was fresh and crisp, yet he felt inner warmth and ease. He pretended that he held Lena’s hand. In ten minutes they were at his hotel apartment.
