Ximon said, “Yeah, but we’ve got to try to get him to talk to us.”
Then he yelled in, “Jaylan, can you tell me what happened to Carla, Carla Dowling? How did she die?”
Jaylan, “You know better than me. I was here and she was out there with you buggers. One of you tripped her, she hit her head, and she died.”
Ximon, “Sorry to hear that Jaylan. When did that happen?”
Jaylan, “I don’t know. A couple of weeks ago maybe? Don’t you guys tell time?”
Ximon, “Thanks Jaylan. Now what about Fauod, Fauod Al-Mufti. What happened to him?”
Jaylan, “Dang it. You know this one too. He came back here after Carla died and you guys shot him somehow, a few days after Carla.”
Ximon, “I’m terribly sorry to hear that Jaylan. Do you have their bodies, or did you bury them Jaylan?”
Another shot rang out and Jaylan yelled, “I’m sick of answer these dang questions. You’re just trying to trick me.”
Ximon, “Sorry, Jaylan, we’re trying to figure out what happened. Do you have enough food and water?”
Jaylan, “Sure I do. You know this place has a healthy supply.”
Ximon, “Sure, Jaylan, but sometimes they go fast. Just wanted to make sure you have enough water. I know how thirsty it can get.”
Iday whispered to Ximon, “You’re trying to make him thirsty, aren’t you?”
Ximon, “I figured it was worth a try.” Then he tossed a water bottle in through the door. However, he tossed it straight through the opening, so it rolled over by the galley. That put it where they could see it while still protected by the door.
Ximon yelled, “Ok, Jaylan, can you tell me about Lu, Humaira Lu. You said she was run off. What happened?”
Jaylan, “You know that too. Somehow you ran her off. She took the shuttle and left me here all alone so you and your buddies could get me and if you don’t, I’ll just rot.”
They heard some rustling in the room and saw Jaylan come over to get the water. He aimed his gun in the general direction of the door but didn’t seem to even be looking. They could have shot him through the gap in the door but had no interest in that. Jaylan was a moderately heavy-set man in filthy coveralls who looked quite haggard. He got the water and then went back and sat down.
Ximon, “Jaylan, what we’d like to do is take you back to a KSF base. You know that Moda is nearby. We’d take you back to our ship and then take you to the base on Moda. Would you like to go to Moda?”
Jaylan, “Moda would be great, but all you’re going to do is take me to my grave.”
Ximon, “Ok, well, they’re going to miss you on Moda. They were asking about you. One question before we go … what happened to your radio? We’ve been trying to call you.”
Jaylan, “You know dang well what happened to my radio. Your lot broke off the antennas and who knows what else.”
Ximon said, “Ok, thanks. Well, we’ll be out of your hair. We’ll let them know on Moda that you’ve decided to stay here permanently. Good luck with that.”
Ximon and the crew then slowly walked back down the tunnel, keeping their guns on the door.
Elsbeth asked quietly, “You’re not going to just leave him, are you?”
Ximon, “No, of course not. But I think there’s a chance he might come after us. If not, we’ll try to sneak back and get in some other way.”
They walked until they got to the intersection and this time, they took the turn off.
They had just turned when they heard Jaylan yell, “Hey, you lot can’t leave me here.”
They were around the corner and he had no cameras or viewing here, so they just waited.
They heard him again, “Hey, get back here! “ Then, he repeated things like, “I can’t believe you’d abandon me,” “This is no way to treat a shipmate,” etc. as he got closer.
Just before they reached the corner, Iday and Ximon came around the corner with their guns out. Jaylan held his gun but was clearly somewhat shocked and quickly dropped the gun in dismay or, perhaps, confusion.
Iday quickly picked up the gun while Ximon kept his trained on Jaylan.
Ximon said, “Ok, Jaylan, we’re going to go back to your room to talk and look around a bit.”
Jaylan, “But, you said you were going to Moda. What about that?”
Ximon, “We’ll go there, but we’ve got to do some looking around here first.”
Jaylan, “You’re going to regret it. They’ll kill you.”
Ximon, “We’ll be careful.”
They took him back to his room and sat him at the table. One of them kept an eye on him while he quickly downed an entire bottle of something that Elsbeth “just happened” to have in her pack “for medicinal purposes.”
Then they looked around and took turns watching him until he passed out. Then they tied his hands and tied him to a bed in a nearby room. Then they looked around.
The place was a mess, with empty food boxes around and furniture out of place. There were several small crew quarters, the common room they’d seen, a pantry room, another storage room, and then the observation room. There were remnants of crewmate belongings around and Elsbeth started digging through those while they looked at the observation room. It had a 270-degree picture window that overlooked the plain, multiple telescopes, and big cameras. There were several chairs, a couch, a couple end tables, and a little fridge. It WAS a great view. They could see quite a few of the cybexapods, including clumps of several dozen gathering stuff from the tree-like brush. There was also a door leading to a trail along the hill top.
Ximon called Elsbeth, “Are you OK down there? We’re going to step outside for a minute.”
Elsbeth, “Sure, our boy is still sleeping and tied up and I locked the front door. When you get back in, let’s compare notes.”
Ximon and Iday went out the door and along the trail a way, it went over to another hill top with a different view. On top was basically a crude observation post inside a few bushes. Within the post were a few chairs and some binoculars and not much else. Next to the post, the trail also led down some rough steps down to a small cleft and then out onto the plain. It appeared they could climb down here to get to the plain without being seen. Then they went back inside and sat down at the table with Elsbeth.
Ximon said, “Ok, what do we got?”
Elsbeth said, “I found some actual paper research notebooks apparently belonging to Dowling. Most of it looks like gibberish, but the last couple pages talk about she and Al-Mufti hiking down to the plain and then sneaking through the brush for closer observation of some groups of local animals. She mentions that they found fire circles where someone/something was consciously lighting camp fires. But they can’t figure out who/what is doing this. The cybexapods show signs of intelligence and crude ‘tool use’ but nothing like this has been seen among them.”
She continues, “I also found the station log, apparently maintained by our Sleeping Beauty in there. It starts getting weird about 1 week before Dowling dies. Jaylan seems convinced that something is intentionally harassing them. Their main antennas were disconnected, they fixed them, and then some of the antennas disappeared! He goes downhill into paranoia fast after Dowling dies and Al-Mufti comes back. He says the little guys got in and shot Al-Mufti, but it seems possible it was an internal conflict borne of paranoia and fear.”
“Then it appears that Lu ran off with the shuttle, which this guy blames on the ‘little guys’ scaring her off. If he did, indeed, kill Al-Mufti, I can well imagine her running for her life, but that doesn’t explain what happened to her. Then it sounds like this guy has been locked up in here with no company and no contact, just his fears, for a few weeks – no recipe for sanity.”
Ximon dove in, “We just scouted the main observation deck and then found a secondary observation post and a path that Dowling and Al-Mufti apparently used to get a closer look at the natives. What we DIDN’T see was any bodies – Dowling or Al-Mufti. He may have dropped them off the cliff, but it sure w
ould be nice to find one or both.”
Then Iday interjected, “And I think our strongest evidence of what happened is Jaylan. He’ll probably wake up soon. When he does, I’d like to try and sit in there with him and see if I can get any more insight or confirmation from him.”
Ximon said, “That sounds like a plan and I think I hear him rustling now. Why don’t you go in there and maybe take him some food and drink? We’ll look around these rooms in more detail while you do so. Everyone, remember to keep your cameras on.”
Iday nodded, grabbed some food, headed in, and closed the door behind him. Ximon and Elsbeth wandered around, took a lot of images, and did a more complete search in all the rooms. They gathered a few items from each team members – comm units, tablets, uniforms, etc. as evidence. However, when Ximon was raiding the large pantry he made a disturbing discovery, “Elsbeth, get in here.”
She ducked in and Ximon pointed to a frozen body propped up in the corner behind some boxes in the freezer – this was clearly Al-Mufti and it was clear he was shot at least twice.
Ximon, “We’re going to have to haul him back to the ship”
Elsbeth acted surprised, “You mean we have to haul a dead guy around for the next month or so?”
Ximon, “You know we do, though it won’t be that long. We’ll drop him off at Moda in a week or so.”
They searched around more while Iday tried to get Jaylan to talk.
After a while Elsbeth grabbed Ximon’s arm and said, “I think I found something you should see.”
Elsbeth had run all the video footage that the team, especially Dowling, had taken through her tablet. Now she showed Ximon something.
“OK, there’s hundreds of hours of this stuff. I’m sure someone ELSE will find it interesting. But I focused on the footage that was NOT shot here. This clip here is from down that staircase outside.”
She played a clip where Al-Mufti is leading Dowling down the trail while the latter films. Something small and hard, like a rock, flew down from the brush and hit Dowling on the shoulder. This was followed by many more such projectiles striking near her and Al-Mufti. They both started to run, Dowling fell, and the camera was covered with blood splatter as Al-Mufti ran away. So, this looked like it might be the death scene for Dowling.
Ximon said, “Interesting and useful, but we still don’t know what’s going on.”
Elsbeth held up a finger as she moved and manipulated the video, “Ah, but look closely right HERE” and she stopped the image. It was during the rock attack and for just a moment the image captured one of the attackers. In one of the shrubs was one of the planet’s smaller life forms – about a meter tall, furry, and upright with powerful legs, agile little arms, and a substantial tail, it looked to Ximon a bit like a kangaroo, but somewhat taller and with more substantial arms. It was standing in the brush. holding some kind of stick (like an ancient spear thrower), and using it to throw small rocks at the pair. Then Elsbeth played the video and it showed a couple seconds of it throwing a rock at Dowling.
Ximon was shocked, “Are you telling me they were attacked by some kind of tool-using kangaroos?”
Elsbeth said, “It looks that way, but I don’t think those rocks would have been fatal unless they got real lucky – they’d have hurt, but not likely kill. It certainly caused the team to run off. Now look at this one.”
She manipulated the video and showed a clip a few seconds long. In this one, the camera looked up from ground level from Dowling’s body (through a bit of blood) and they saw a couple of these creatures huddled around her caressing her and chattering amongst themselves solemnly.
Elsbeth, “If I’m not mistaken, this is after they’ve run from the rocks. Here, Al-Mufti is gone, and Dowling has fallen (perhaps hitting her head as Jaylan said). It likes like these critters are trying to sooth Dowling and it sounds like THEY’RE DISCUSSING IT.”
Ximon, “Well, it looks like we know what the ‘little things’ that Jaylan was referring to are, though this doesn’t explain everything. We’ll have to look at their external sites for that.”
Elsbeth, “One more thing, I found a short, broken audio log between the outpost and the shuttle they used to have. It sounds like Lu is leaving in the shuttle they had stowed nearby, and Jaylan is frantically trying to get her to come back or take him. Both are terrified. Listen to Lu’s response.”
Elsbeth played a short clip from Lu, “Jaylan, I’m sorry, but I’m getting out of here. Those Krichin appear to be tearing our stuff apart, they attacked Dowling, and you’ve lost it. I KNOW you killed Al-Mufti and you’re crazier every day. I’m not sticking around until you decide I’m in league with them and need to be killed. I’m sorry. I’ll send help. “
Ximon sent a short message to Iday summarizing all this so he could have it as he talks to Jaylan. Then he and Elsbeth just gathered up what they needed to take until Iday came out a short while later.
Ximon, “Well, anything else out of him?”
Iday replies a bit sadly, “Not too much, but he confirmed most of it in a vague sort of way. Based on what you told me and what he said, here’s what I think happened …”
“These guys were mainly studying those cybexapods but started seeing things that they didn’t do and troublesome stuff started happening around the station. Then Dowling and Al-Mufti were attacked by this little guys and Dowling died, apparently from hitting her head. They were all getting a bit paranoid by then, so it wasn’t too much of stretch for Jaylan to believe that Al-Mufti was involved in the killing and Jaylan eventually shot him. Then Jaylan and Lu tried to fix things and call for help for a few days, but Jaylan was getting worse. Eventually Lu left, fearing both Jaylan and what those little things were doing to the outpost. Then Jaylan just sat and stewed until we showed up.”
Elsbeth, “OK, so what do we do now?”
Ximon, “Well, we’ve got to take him, Mufti’s body, and some of this stuff back to the ship, but before we go, we need to go look down that side passage and see if we can find anything else there. I hate to split up, but Elsbeth why don’t you stay here while Iday and I go check that side passage out. Then we can figure out the best way to haul everything. Oh, but let me go upstairs here and try to reach Mantis to check in.”
He came back a couple minutes later shaking his head and showed them a video. In it, several Krichin approached the air raft and were messing with it. The air raft AI then set off an alarm that scared them off. Then some time later, some of the Krichin came back, broke off the air raft’s antenna, and were trying to get in it.
Ximon said, “The air raft AI tried to send us this but couldn’t reach us. Mantis was in that link, so she had it capture all this and is having it trigger alarms any time they try to get close. We’d better hurry or we may have air raft problems. Mantis and Raiza were quite worried about us and were relieved we’re OK.”
So, then Ximon and Iday quickly checked out that side passage. It went about a ½ km to a flat area where the outpost had had their shuttle and air raft stored and then had a shorter path up to where their comm equipment was. The shuttle was, of course, gone but the air raft remained. Or rather, most of an air raft remained. It looked a bit like it had been parked in a bad part of town. Ximon examined it while Iday ran up to where the outpost communication equipment was located.
Ximon noted that the air raft’s antennas were gone, as were a whole bunch of instruments, knobs, or other things that would have been easy to break off. A couple storage panels had been pried open so little things like the survival kit, med kit, etc. were taken. They’d also taken a bunch of the loose wiring under the dash.
Iday came back and reported similar for the outpost comms.
“I can see where several smaller antennas or dishes were, but they’re gone. The bigger dish is still there, but it’s not working – some of its components and cabling, as well as some of the power couplers are gone. There is no doubt it was those creatures – there are charred bodies of two of them nearby. I assume they go
t shocked trying to deal with the power.”
They then got back with Elsbeth and gathered stuff up. Besides the 3 of them, they had to deal with Jaylan and Mufti’s body, so they took turns hauling the latter. Jaylan slipped in and out of lucidity and sometimes mourned and carried Mufti like a lost friend. Other times he would weep uncontrollably at seeing Mufti and almost had to be dragged himself. It took a while to get back to the air raft in this way. As they approached, they noticed several of the Krichin observing it from nearby. Most of them scurried off when they got close, but one sat there observing from 5 meters up a rocky ledge overlooking the area nearby. Ximon told the others, “Get the stuff stowed. I’m going to try something.” And he walked slowly toward the ledge.
As Ximon approached, he spoke softly as if the creature could understand. Finally, he looked up at the creature from below and told it they had come in peace and would likely return and hoped to talk to them. The creature then launched into a long bit of chattering that Ximon thought sounded like it could be a solemn speech. Then Ximon solemnly laid down some ‘gifts’ – a headlamp, some food packets, and his hat. He made sure to catch this whole exchange on video and audio.
Then, they got in the air raft and headed back to Mantis. When they got back inside, Raiza greeted them, “It is good to have you safely back. Mantis and I were most concerned when we lost contact with you and then we saw those creatures near the air raft.”
Ximon said, “Well, sorry to keep you in suspense, but I think we’re OK.”
He had Elsbeth and Iday set up Jaylan in one of the cabins.
As soon as they left, Raiza came up and hugged Ximon, “Ximon, I was very scared for you. Had we not heard from you in a few hours I was considering coming after you.”
Ximon hugged her tightly as well, “Now, Raiza. We were OK, but I’ll try to be better at watching for lost communication. Now, I’d better get ready for takeoff.” So, he broke the embrace, kissed her on the forehead, and headed for the bridge.
Iday and Elsbeth joined him a couple minutes later. They had put Jaylan in the room, but first they made sure to take out anything dangerous and Elsbeth jury-rigged the door so he couldn’t get out.
Jaunts of the Mantis Page 9
