by Terry Frost
They started walking into the forest when Jak made an observation. Every gigantic tree’s foliage didn’t start until twenty or so feet up the trunk. But the trunks had round pegs extruding from their trunks and were spaced so he could easily climb up to where the foliage began. If he didn’t know better he would say the pegs were manufactured by something or someone.
Another observation was there wasn’t any scrub brush, fallen leaves, or saplings about. The floor of the forest was covered with what looked to be a moss of some kind. Jak concluded that the thick canopy provided by the monstrous trees prevented anything but the moss from growing at ground level.
Walking through the alien forest was like a fantasy world. Even though the canopy was so thick, rays of sunlight still filtered through intermittently, and the sight was one of fantastic beauty. When the threesome had walked nearly a quarter of a mile into the forest the terrain started gradually rising.
By the time they had walked another quarter of a mile, the ground had risen nearly fifty feet, and it was at that point, a small portion of the forest opened up and a large circle came into view. The circle had a brilliant blue lake in the middle of it, and it was crystal clear.
A narrow waterfall was pouring from the first mountain they had seen into the lake, across the body of water from where they were standing. Jak was really feeling energized as was the other two. He knew it had to be because of the almost pure oxygen they had been breathing.
The sight was breathtaking, and the sound of the waterfall hitting the water made it very peaceful. After standing and admiring the beauty for a while Junal said, “I think you might have just found a new home for your kind. Isn’t it wonderful?”
“Yes, it is beautiful. But we hardly seem any of it yet, to be considering it to be our new home. Let’s see if we can make our way down to the water, shall we?”
The morning was starting to heat up and Jak took off his battle vest as he was walking and attached it to his backside by two clips on his belt. Because of the giant star Calphor, the day seemed to be exceptionally bright. Brighter than either star in the Potmus or Burres Systems.
They had walked less than halfway down the gradual slope on the side they were on when they became startled by a loud sound that came from near the top of the mountain the waterfall was spilling out of.
Jak held out his arm as to stop Gorvik and Junal from stepping out into the open at a point devoid of forest, and where a large flat rock had rested. Until he knew what was making the noise he thought it wise to stay hidden.
They watched from the seclusion of the forest for about thirty seconds, listening to the crashing sound that seemed to be coming down the mountain towards the body of water at the bottom. Then, on the right side of the waterfall, and at about the same height the water began its fall into the lake, several hair-covered creatures the size of small compact cars rolled up in a ball like pill bugs came flying from the forest one after another and fell down into the lake.
When the creatures bobbed up they had unballed and were standing. Each one had a huge eel-like animal in their mouths. They grabbed the eels with their two hairy hands and began munching on them.
Blood was pouring from the eels as they were being consumed. The hairy creatures were at least twenty feet tall with enormous mouths full of serrated teeth like those of great white sharks.
Jak thought I’ll be damned, there really is such a thing as the ancient Sasquatch.
They watched them for a few minutes eating their meal and then Jak said, “We sure as hell aren’t going down there.”
“I agree, Jak Hammer,” said Prince Gorvik.
“Let’s keep moving. We will continue on the way we were going.”
“I’m becoming alarmed, Jak. I fear for our lives in this world. When do you think your kind will come to rescue us,?” asked Junal.
“To guess, I would say as soon as they see that the Hive has left the area.”
“Are you important enough to your people that they will take the time to look for you?” Gorvik asked.
“Only time will tell my good, Prince. Only time will tell.”
****
Speaking to Rear Admiral Petrov, Jeeves asked, “Colonel Hammer has been gone eighteen hours, nine minutes, and seventeen seconds. Is it not the time for us to set a course for the blue planet to search for him?”
“I’ve already taken that same question to the admiral, Commodore. We are all concerned with the whereabouts of Colonel Hammer. But he said, and I agreed, that we are still trying to lick our wounds from the fight with the Hive and can’t go back to look for him until our engineers complete their work.”
“By lick our wounds I assume you are talking about the damage to Colossus and Perseus, and not making any reference to any of our crew or people on board this ship?”
“Oh, I forgot, Commodore. You are still trying to learn our use of metaphors. Yes, I mean repairing the ships.”
“I have taken the liberty to conduct my own analysis of the Striker, and I believe it is space worthy enough to go back and hunt for Colonel Hammer. I’m asking for permission to have Captain Slain jump the Striker back to the blue planet long enough to let me board a shuttle to go down to the planet and look for him.
“As soon as I depart from the Striker, Captain Slain can immediately jump back to this location, sir.”
“I’m very aware of how much Jak means to you, Commodore, but I have to deny your request for now. I was informed that the Striker will be repaired within twelve to twenty-four hours. That is only one more day and that will have to do.”
“But, Admiral.”
“You are dismissed, Commodore.”
If an AI knew how to stomp off as they began to walk it sure looked as if Jeeves did just that.
Just as Jeeves had left the area, Admiral Allen came from who knows where and said, “I thought I was told that Commodore Jeeves could not show Human emotions, Anatoly.”
“That is what I thought too, Alias. But it sure looked as if he stormed out of here, didn’t it?”
“Sure seems that way. I can’t say I blame him. I need you to go down and talk to the engineers in person to find out exactly how long it will take before the Striker will be made ready. I don’t see any reason the Hive would still be there, but if they are it will be a dangerous mission for Captain Slain.”
Chapter 30
Colonel Hammer, Prince Gorvik, and Junal had made it two miles heading north of the waterfall area and the Sasquatch aliens. The group didn’t have much food, but what they did have, they needed to consume to keep up their strength.
Hammer spotted a group of large boulders sitting near a small clearing and decided it would be a good place to sit, eat, and rest for a spell.
While eating, Prince Gorvik said, “I think I hear a river up ahead. Do you hear it, Jak Hammer?”
If that young man doesn’t start addressing me as Jak or Hammer I’m going to throw him off the next cliff we come across Jak thought.
“Yes, I think you're correct. Sounds like a river, should be a river, and I hope it is a river. It might have some kind of edible fish it. We could use a good source of protein before this day is over.”
“But how can we catch fish, Colonel Hammer? We don’t have any fishing utensils,” Junal asked.
Hammer thought fishing utensils, ha, ain’t she sweet?
“My Junal, we do have a fish utensil,” Gorvik said then patted the cho-ka (lasso).
“You can use the cho-ka to catch fish?” Jak asked.
“The cho-ka has been used for many periods in my world. It stuns the fish and they float up to be harvested.”
“Sure would have liked to have had one of those back home,” Jak stated.
They finished their meager meal and began walking towards the sound of running water. Jak figured the river to be no more than a thousand yards away. They had walked another two hundred yards and the sound of the river started becoming louder with every few steps.
Jak noticed the c
loser they were to the river, the forest began thinning. It was the first time the forest wasn’t as dense as it had been the whole time during their exploration. Another fifty yards closer to the edge of the forest, Jak could see medium sized forested hilltops not too far from where the sound of running water was coming from. But the forest covering the hilltops had delicate blue and green foliage, and they were about half as tall as the forest they were in.
By the time they made it to the edge of the forest they had a good view of the river, and it was running fast. Across the river was a huge entrance to a gigantic cave at the base of the forested hill. It looked to be about one-hundred yards from the bank of the river. Jak told them to stay just inside the forest and look around before walking out, which they did.
They had steadily descended as they walked from the waterfall area. They only had a small grass-covered hill about one-hundred yards from the edge of the river to walk over. Just before stepping out in the open, all three of them felt the ground rumble, and within a few seconds, the rumbling seemed to be coming their way.
Jak turned and said, “Something big is coming our way. Hurry, climb a tree.”
Each one picked out a tree and started grabbing the pegs as they began climbing as fast as they could. As Jak climbed, he looked over his shoulder and what he saw took his breath away. He couldn’t believe his eyes.
A hoard of twenty-foot-tall, ugly, naked, hairless creatures, or aliens, were walking straight for them. The only thing he could compare them to was something made up in centuries-old fairy tales. The giants looked like ogres.
They had big bulbous heads, small ears, huge noses, broad shoulders, big arms, hands, feet, and bodies wider than two men standing shoulder to shoulder. Their tough skin was a light gray color. Each one was carrying a large club with metal spikes on the head, and nearly all had a strange looking animal strapped to their backs.
The dead animals had two very short arms and legs, but it had a long wide tail nearly the same length of its body. Jak realized whatever these aliens were they had been hunting, and the things on their backs were probably going to be the day's dinner.
The ogres walked hunched over as their height was so that they had to in order to keep from banging their heads at the point where the limbs began. The biggest one of them all stopped just under Junal’s tree and began to sniff the air. He was one of only a handful that didn’t have a dead, stinking animal on his back.
Jak saw the ogre sniffing and thought son-of-a-bitch, that fucker has gotten a whiff of Junal. Please don’t move a muscle, young lady.
Junal had climbed further up the tree when she got her first glimpse of the creatures. She did not want to be just barely above them when they passed. The big ogre looked around as did the others, but none of them could make out where the smell was coming from. Lucky for Junal the foliage was dense enough to keep her hidden.
Jak looked over at the tree he saw the prince climb, but couldn’t see him. He probably did the same thing as Jak and Junal did, and had climbed further up the tree. Jak started to look away when he saw part of the quassrifle barrel protrude from the leaves.
Talking in a whisper Jak said, “Gorvik, you better be smart enough to not even try to shoot one of them. You will get us all yanked out of the trees and probably get our heads bashed in before they cook us.”
An extremely long two minutes passed before the leader waved them to follow him. They started walking, but two or three of them were looking up into the trees as they walked. One of them suddenly stopped just under Prince Gorvik’s tree and sniffed a few times as he moved his head around trying to see up the tree.
Jak counted each ogre and they totaled thirty. They all passed the ogre looking up the tree and after another tense moment, they heard a loud call coming from the front of the horde. The ogre stopped looking and walked quickly out of the forest leaving Jak with the impression the leader ordered him to follow the rest of the horde.
Prince Gorvik’s heart was about to jump out of his chest. He had come close to shooting the ogre and was extremely glad he didn’t have to. He was a young Daakie Prince, but showing he had the ability to remain absolutely still was quite impressive for the future Daakie king.
Once the ogres were what he thought was out of hearing range, Jak said, not too loudly, “Stay where you're at for a little longer. We need to make sure there aren’t any more of those ugly beasts coming this way.
After another ten minutes, Jak told the other two to climb down and come to him. He put his finger in front of his mouth, signaling them to be quiet as they walked over.
“We’re going to hide behind that knoll right there and see where those things are going. Stay low, and follow me.”
When they got to the knoll, Jak crawled up the knoll and stopped just short of the top, Gorvik and Junal also crawled up next to Jak, one on either side of him.
“Now ever so slowly, crawl just high enough to the point where you can see the river. Whatever you do, don’t raise up so they can spot you.”
In position, they had a good view of the area and what they saw was alarming. As soon as the ogres were close enough to the entrance of the huge cave, forty to fifty more ogres came out to greet the group of hunters.
They were excited and talking loudly with grunts, and other unintelligible sounds that had to be their language. The ogres that greeted them were small females, a few young males, and a handful of very small ones, the females put down to let crawl around.
“Will you look at that? I think we have just found a city of ogres,” Jak said.
“I do not understand this word ogres. What is an ogre?” Prince Gorvik asked.
“Those things over there are what my people call ogres, but in my world, they are just something writers of stories dream up.”
“Ah, I see. We have wordsmiths on Obon that tell make-believe stories to our young ones. Many times they are stories to scare the young ones,” Junal said.
“You are right, young lady. We call those stories fairy tales.”
As they watched the family of ogres, one of the animals hanging from one of the hunter’s back sprang to life and leaped off the ogres back. The second it hit the ground it leaned back over its long tail and shot out nearly fifty feet. The creature did it a second time and almost made it across the river, but hadn’t jumped far enough, and was carried downstream and out of sight.
“Man, that sucker could really jump. Either of you ever seen anything like that animal?” Jak asked.
“My world has something like them, but much smaller. Their name is jungees. Our young males hunt them in our fields. I’ve been told they have a good taste, but I’m not allowed to eat one. Everything I eat is selected by my uncle’s nourishment handlers.”
I imagine it is a bitch being a Royal Daakie at times. The young man doesn’t even get to choose his own food, Jak thought.
The hunters took their prey over to a large smoldering pit and began the process of gutting the creatures and throwing their intestines into a pile. Once they finished cleaning the intestines out they took the animal's carcass to a large flat stone.
An Ogre with a stone ax began cutting their feet, hands, and heads off, then threw the body parts onto the pile of intestines. When the prepping was complete, an ogre came pushing a metal cart with four wheels up to where the carcasses were piled.
“No fucking way. Oh, sorry, Junal. There is no way those boneheads could have the brains to manufacture a metal cart with wheels.”
“It does seem improbable, Jak.”
I don’t fricking believe it, he called me, Jak.
“This could only mean one thing. There has to be something living on this planet with a higher degree of intelligence. But searching for them on the ground could get us killed. I can report seeing the metal table on wheels to my superiors when they come to pick us up.
“But for now my two young friends, we need to try and get back to the hornet. Not quite sure what I was thinking of for leaving the downed ship in t
he first place. If and when the Colossus and her crew come back to search for us it will be easier for them to locate us if they don’t have to hunt for our butts all over this disturbing place. Let’s head back the way we came and hope we don’t run into any of those damn Sasquatches.”
The three marooned visitors to Planet Ogre ( the name given to the blue-green world by Jak) slowly slid back down the grassy knoll and stepped back into the forest. Jak didn’t say it but was thinking God, I promise to stop hustling women, drinking, cursing, disobeying General Dubois at times, and flying like a maniac during combat if you could see to allow myself and these two young people to make it safely back to my ship. One more thing, Lord. Please bless us with a rescue by my people.
Chapter 31
Colossus’s engineers had worked tirelessly while repairing the few Hive projectiles that made it to the lowest central area of Colossus. The Perseus was taking a little longer, as it had taken a fairly good amount of damage, but the Striker was repaired and cleared for flying. Commodore Jeeves had spent the last fifteen hours in the hangar bay offering his help to Chief Engineer Gavin McManus.
Jeeves was exceptional when it came to repairing electronic circuitry and guidance software, and Chief McManus was very grateful to have the commodore’s expertise. Without Jeeves, it could have easily taken a minimum of another twenty-four hours to fix the Battlecruiser.
When the Striker was given a clean bill of health by the chief, Commodore Jeeves walked briskly to the elevator and gave a voice command to the computerized elevator saying, “Bridge.”
While Jeeves was on his way to the bridge, Admiral Allen had just finished speaking to his Chief Engineer McManus, when the door to the elevator opened and Jeeves stepped out. He walked over to his admiral and said, “Sir, I’m informing you that the Striker has been repaired and is waiting for your command to take her to the blue planet to rescue Colonel Hammer.”
Allen thought about not giving the order so he could mess with his science officer, but realized the need to find General Dubois’s top man was on top of his to-do list as Alias had asked him to make it so when a team could be sent on the rescue mission.
