by Lori Beery
The left side of my table was filling up as well. The first to arrive were Pascale Willow and Emilie Gum. They made an odd couple. Emilie was short of stature while Pascale loomed above her almost fifty-six centimeters. Pascale gallantly pulled out the chair so that Emilie could easily set her dishes on the table and settle her petite frame onto the seat. Once she was comfortably seated, he bent himself to sit in the chair nearest me. He, like Ross, had well-laden food plates which he had deposited on the table before helping Emilie with her chair. Both Emilie and Pascale turned to me with warm, welcoming smiles and dancing grey-blue and twinkling grey eyes. I felt glad of their presence but, also, left out of the loop on something imminent. I let out a sigh and watched as Jerad Pine and Marc Shadbush took the last two places on the left side. Jerad sat opposite Marta. He flashed me a grin and nodded to me over Marc’s light brown head. I smiled and nodded at him. When he sat down, Marc turned his hazel eyes to me and smiled his greeting. I returned his smile. With the welcoming over, they eagerly dug into their food.
These were the people I worked with as hunter/guard or in caring for our commons. They were the folks I knew best. On our new world, they were my closest friends. These were the ones who had taken the time to visit me in my alcove in the Medical Bay and the rehab apartment. I was glad they now shared my table.
I was mildly surprised when X-tee Ash claimed the seat opposite me. The big, muscular, guard captain ducked his close-cropped dark brown head in a slight bow to me before he sat down. Like Ross, he had heaped his plates with food. I noticed he had cookies and cake on one dish and sandwiches and fruit on the other. He smiled. The warmth and pleasure of it filled his chocolate brown eyes. Then, he began to dig into the loaded plates before him, alternating between the plates. I slid my eyes to Carl, who kept his eyes on his plate and made no comment. I smiled and selected another sandwich to nibble on.
Presently, another of my friends arrived at my table. He was bearing a tray of cups filled with a hot beverage that we called drahl. It was made from the ground roasted bean of a tree we had discovered in the jungle. It had been thoroughly studied and deemed safe for human consumption. I am told it is reminiscent of a brew called coffee.
“Care for a cup?” asked Lloyd Madrone with a smile that easily invaded his sea blue eyes.
“Sure,” I told him with a grateful smile. I liked the rich aroma of the stuff. Its strong, slightly bitter taste served to jolt me into wakefulness in the mornings. With sweetening, it was a pleasant drink with treats – and there were treats.
He placed a cup on the table before me. He circled the table, passing out cups to those who wanted it. When he got to my other side, he looked at my plate.
“Can I get you something more to eat?” he inquired.
“That would be nice,” I told him. “I’d like three more sandwiches and a few more cookies.”
“Any particular types?” he asked.
“No, they are all so tasty,” I said cheerfully. “Surprise me.”
He grinned and headed back to the serving counter. It wasn’t long before he was at my elbow again. He set a loaded plate with six or seven of the sandwiches and five cookies. I stared at my plate, my surprise evident on my face. He shrugged.
“I couldn’t decide what to get you, so I increased the number,” he confessed, allowing his dark curls to hide his eyes.
“Ah,” I murmured. “I see. I will have to be specific in the future.”
“That would help,” he agreed cheerfully as he casually pushed his curls out of his eyes.
I shared the bounty with my table mates. The food tasted better than I remembered. I found myself listening to my friends’ banter while I savored a cookie and sipped my drahl.
Abruptly, X-tee rose from his seat. He clapped his huge hands together, and silence reigned in the commons.
“My fellow residents, today is about gratitude,” he called in his booming voice. “Let the creators of our feast rise.” All of my dorm mates got to their feet. “Let’s thank them with a round of applause.” The room erupted in thunderous clapping. I did my best to let them hear my pleased support.
After X-tee gestured for quiet, he continued, “Today, Ky has returned home. Hopefully, very soon, she’ll be returning to duty. In any case, many of us in this room owe her a life debt.” He paused as he held my eyes with his. “If she had not done her duty, many of us on that hunting expedition might have lost our lives. As it was, she dropped a huge predator and got injured in the process. Ky, thank you for your protection.”
The crowd cheered loudly. I pushed myself to my feet. As I did, I kept my gaze locked on X-tee’s face.
“Had you and Dr. Locus not come to inspect the beast,” I remarked, “I would not be here. As I understand it, I almost didn’t make it anyway. So, I thank you.” I clapped my hands vigorously and bowed toward him.
Instantly, a middle-aged black-haired woman jumped to her feet from her seat beyond X-tee’s shoulder. “We are grateful for the care you have received and that you will soon be returning to guard duty!” she called loudly. “I was one of the processors, and I am very thankful that I didn’t have to face that predator!” Affirming shouts rang about the room as deafening applause returned. We all knew that any one of us could have been injured or killed. We relied on each other to render aid.
X-tee smiled, motioning for quiet, he turned to regard the assembly. “Who would like to hear the tale from our huntress?” he asked.
It seemed the entire gathering rose to their feet and applauded their reply. My mouth fell open. It hadn’t occurred to me that they would all want to hear the events from my perspective.
Derrick and Lloyd appeared at each of my elbows. Derrick gestured for me to step to the left of my place. After I complied, Lloyd swooped in and cleared my end of the table while Derrick lifted my chair upon it. Then, Derrick drew another chair up to the table and offered his hand to me. Their intent was clear. They wanted me to sit on the chair upon the table.
I swallowed hard and took his hand. In no time, I was perched on the raised seat. As I sat down, the room fell silent again.
“So, you wish to hear the tale from me?” I wondered aloud.
“We do,” the crowd thundered.
“Then let me start from the point I learned the invisible creature was coming,” I responded.
The room remained quiet, allowing me to spin my story. I told it as accurately as I could. Even though my tale was unembellished, my listeners seem to hang on every word. – I did omit X-tee’s humming, which I felt he would appreciate. Such a sweet gesture might endanger his stern macho image. I didn’t miss him mouth the words ‘thank you’ when I skipped over that detail.
When I finished, Derrick’s hand shot into the air. I pointed to him.
“So, you fell out of the tree when the beast dropped to the ground?” he asked in disbelief.
“Yes, sad but true and very painful,” I answered.
“What would you have done if the creature hadn’t dropped with your multi-arrow shot?” asked a woman who I knew had been among those processing the kills.
“I would have continued to fire as many arrows as I could into it,” I replied. “Assuming my first volley hit the creature, I would have had a visual and sonic target.”
“Do you think the invisible predator knew you were up in the tree?” inquired an anonymous male voice.
“Yes, I do,” I responded. “It just didn’t know I was a threat. It may have thought I was a strange smelling, stupid, tree-dweller. After all, the brighter ones had fled.”
“Why do you say that?” probed another unknown male voice.
“Judging by the absolute silence it triggered in the jungle by its presence, the other creatures have learned to fear this animal,” I conjectured. “It is an apex hunter meaning it doesn’t have any enemies. That is until we arrived.”
“Are you saying it will start hunting us?” a frightened woman’s voice asked.
“I’m saying that the creatur
e will learn we are dangerous like we have learned to be wary of the little tree-jumpers,” I said. “I won’t lie. Our new world is proving to have hidden dangers. Until our latest hunting expedition, we didn’t even know this cat existed. Now we do. When we go out, we need to keep alert, so we don’t miss any of the warning signs.”
“What warning signs are you talking about?” questioned Marc from my table.
“For this cat, there aren’t many,” I told him honestly. “There are, however, the raucous fleeing of the hominoid tree-dwellers and the absolute silence that falls within the usually noisy jungle. There are quiet footsteps without being able to see the creature. And, there are blurred edges of quick-moving body parts – like the twitching of ears.”
“That’s not a lot to go on,” remarked Marta, slightly agitated.
“True,” I agreed. “The tree-dwellers are the ones that alerted me. Once they were gone, I noticed the total silence. I was already on alert, trying to notice anything out of the ordinary. I confess that I don’t know what or if I would have noticed anything had I been patrolling on foot.” I stopped talking. I knew I had gotten extremely lucky that day. “I understand Dr. Locus has been studying the creature. X-tee, what has he been able to learn about it?”
He rose to his feet and turned to look at the assembly. “Dr. Locus has learned that the cat is not fit for human consumption. He is still testing to see why this is so. His preliminary results point to the pigment cells within the tissue. – Other than that, I haven’t heard.”
While he spoke, I made good my escape from the elevated chair. I was seated, once again, at my table. I felt relieved to be just another person in the crowd. I hoped X-tee wouldn’t call me out for it.
Instead, he said, “Perhaps we all need to be more aware of the tree-dwellers’ reactions, especially their fear responses. Are there any other questions?”
No one raised their hand. So, I did.
“Who did the artwork on the cake?” I inquired again.
My dorm mates who were sitting at my table all raised their hands.
“It was a group effort,” said Jerad. “Ross and I baked the cake.”
“Kristine drew the image,” revealed Ross. “Emilie and Pascale did the icing.”
“Nice job!” I lauded them. “How did you know chocolate is my favorite kind of cake?”
“Ky, it’s the only kind you eat!” replied Ross.
I laughed. He was right. If the choice included chocolate cake, that’s the one I selected. Still smiling, I turned to Kristine.
“You do fine work!” I told her.
“I’m glad you liked it,” she murmured. “I was afraid you would be upset by all the exposed skin.”
“There was a bit more than I thought I let show,” I confided to her. “But I liked how the focus was the arrow tip and my eye. That was so cool!”
“That was my favorite part to do!” she responded, smiling. “I’m glad you liked it.”
“I sure did!” I told her enthusiastically.
The gathering broke up soon after X-tee’s report on what Dr. Locus had learned about the cat. As before, people passing by me patted my shoulder and thanked me for my protection. This included the frightened woman whom I knew was a member of a processing group. She wanted to assure me that she knew I’d do everything in my power to keep them safe. – I hoped ‘the everything in my power’ always meant the attacking creature died. I didn’t like the scenario in which the creature survived.
My dorm mates walked me to my door. Right before I entered, Derrick presented me with the piece of cake adorned with the focal point.
“Thank you so much!” I managed with emotions threatening to close my throat. “Goodnight everyone! You all did a fine job.”
I stepped quickly over the threshold and closed the door. Alone, I sank onto my bed. Tears blurring my vision, I stared at the artwork on my cake. My gold brown eye returned my regard. I hoped, at least, one person had sent me an image of the cake before it was cut. This piece would soon be consumed. After all, how could I possibly let a piece of chocolate cake go stale?
Chapter 4
I awoke with a start. My body was drenched in sweat and shivering in the cool air. I held myself still, listening intently. Nothing but my panting breaths and the racing of my heart filled my ears. I drew deep breaths to calm myself. What had awakened me?
I sighed, realizing it was my old, recurrent nightmare and snuggled down under my covers. It was the night our colony ship, the Venture, crashed upon this world. I remembered it well, even though nine months had passed. It had been nighttime then too. The memory began to replay in my mind.
Alarms split the air, jolting us awake. The ship groaned and shuddered constantly. An officer yelled for us to get to our assigned life pods. I staggered through the smoke and confusion in my effort to comply. I struggled through the hatch and discovered I was the last to arrive. An older man shouted for me to activate the door’s closing system. I pushed the button and, instantly, we were sealed in. Lurching across to the vacant seat, I climbed in and strapped myself down. The light for launch went green, and someone punched the release button.
Our pod launched away from the ship, and the automated systems came online. As the distance between the Venture and us increased, we helped each other into the self-contained environmental suits just in case the pod lost its space-worthiness for whatever reason. I was grateful for the disaster drills the captain had forced upon us. The protocols kept us busy for a while. By the time we completed them, we could see the entire vessel through our pod’s viewport.
The Venture was too short! I realized with a shock that the engine section was missing. There were three gaping holes spaced along the rest of the ship’s hull. Atmosphere vented out into space. Our vessel was, without a doubt, heading towards the planet behind it. The world’s gravity had the Venture in its grip.
Time passed slowly. We sat all strapped into our seats again, waiting. Our little pod was programmed to take us to the same planet our ship headed for, but hopefully in a more controlled manner. We knew we could live on this world. It had liquid water, an oxygen-rich atmosphere with gases in quantities we could breathe, and indigenous life, some of which were similar to our records of life forms on ancient Earth. It had not been our originally intended destination, but since we had no choice, it would have to suffice.
Our eyes were glued to the horrific drama of the planet’s gravity plunging our ship into its atmosphere. We saw orange and red flames spread out beneath the vessel as it fell. I hoped enough of the ship’s shields were left intact to let the vessel reach the surface. Maybe, just maybe, whoever was left aboard would survive the trip.
Our life pod entered the atmosphere at a better angle. It still got hot. We could see an intense orange and red glow wrapping halfway around the pod, but there were no flames.
Once inside the atmosphere, an alarm blasted a warning. The older man who had shouted to me to seal the door, let us know that the exterior antigravity shield had malfunctioned with a yell. We would have to deploy the back-up in ten minutes. We all knew that the backup was a parachute. Those ten minutes were some of the most nerve-wracking of my life.
I shouldn’t have been so nervous. The parachute deployed without issue. It drew the pod upward in a sharp jerk.
Then, the ride after was much calmer. I found myself feeling very grateful not to be thrown against the straps on my seat anymore. After what seemed like hours, our pod came to a sudden stop. It was a far worse jolt than when the chute opened or any of those during the ride into the atmosphere.
I felt relieved, thankful to be alive. Aside from the damage, my shoulders and hips had taken from being thrown against the chair’s straps; I was unhurt. I, like my other seven pod mates, was wide-eyed and panting. It took us several moments to recover and realize we had survived.
Within the pod, our chairs were arranged in a circle. The only space in the curve was taken up by the hatch. Storage compartments lined the area betw
een the deck and the base of the chairs. There was a single row of cabinets right above the seats. Above them were the viewports. The top of the pod was composed of metal plates.
I looked around at my pod mates. There were four men and four women, including myself. (I can’t recall all their names. Besides Bernard, Derrick and myself, none of the others survived. We learned the hard way about the predators and the need for a defensible camp on our new world.)
The first person to recover from our decent was the older gentleman. He was in his late fifties with greying black hair that thinned into baldness on the top. He was a kind man and knew a lot about the pod. He was more acquainted with the inventory and the location of things onboard than the rest of us, so he ended up provided some much-needed guidance. He began this role by having each of us check our neighbor to our left.
Mine was Derrick Popular. Like me, he was fine. His only complaint was the probable bruising from the restraint straps. That turned out to be everyone’s complaint.
