by Lori Beery
He sat, and we started eating our food in silence. Neither of us was in any particular hurry. We actually had time to savor our meal for once.
“Ross told me you are interested in the tree-dwellers,” he said when only his drahl remained.
“I am,” I confirmed.
“Why?” he asked. “I thought you were only interested in hunting animals.”
“It is true I am a hunter and a guard,” I told him. “As such, I will kill to put meat on the table for the settlement, and I will kill to keep our people safe. That does not mean I want to kill every animal I see.” I managed to keep my rising anger out of my voice. I thought Lloyd knew me better than that. “I think it is important for us to learn about plants and animals of this world and their impact on the ecology of the planet. I don’t want us to disrupt the existing balance. Also, those tree dwellers saved our lives during that hunting expedition!”
“I hoped that was what you would say,” he said with a smile his blue-green eyes twinkling.
“Were you testing me?” I asked my suspicion of him growing.
“Sort of,” he admitted with a slight dip of his head. His black curls fell over his face.
“Why?” I pressed.
“Well, we have started noticing something odd about the tree-dwellers,” he said.
“Oh? Do tell,” I replied intrigued.
“They are leaving the trees near the settlement,” he answered.
“Are they fleeing something?” I asked.
“They are not going quickly,” he disagreed. “It appears they are migrating. They seem to be abandoning this mountain because they are dispersing from here in all directions.”
“That seems odd. Can you tell how far the creatures are going?” I inquired.
“Not yet, it looks like they are still on the move,” he said. “Oddly, they are picking food and carrying it with them. They may be away for a while.”
“Or the place they are going doesn’t have an abundant food or much of their favorite leaves,” I suggested.
“That’s possible,” he allowed. “The only vastly different habitats that we know about are the bowl and the mountain ridges. We don’t know where they are headed.”
“True,” I said. “How far out do you have imaging devices?”
“We are only covering a radial distance of eight kilometers around our mountain,” he replied.
“That’s less than a quarter of the way to the eastern ridge and down to the bowl to the south. I don’t know what the landmarks would be that distance north or west of us,” I commented. “Are they already beyond the devices?”
“Not yet,” he told me. “They have departed the radial center for three kilometers.”
“Next week I have my archery practical,” I told him. “Hopefully I will pass. If I do, I will be officially back on guard and hunter duty. Perhaps I can help find out where they’re going at that point.”
He smiled and suggested, “Maybe you and a few others can guard an expedition.”
“Perhaps,” I said conspiratorially.
“Good talking with you, Ky,” he responded. “I need to get back to Dr. Locus. See you later.”
“See you,” I told him as he gathered his dishes and departed.
After a few moments, I picked up my mess and went to the dirty dish depository. When I asked the crew on clean up if they wanted help, they requested that I clean the tables and put the chairs up. I gathered the necessary supplies and went to work. By the time I finished the scrubbing and rinsing, the first tables were dry. So, I put the chairs on the tables so that the seats rested on the tabletop. When I was done, I took care of my cleaning aids and put them away. Then I stopped in my room to pick up my archery gear and headed down to the range or gym, whichever place was available.
Chapter 8
The day of my archery practical arrived. I felt as prepared as I could make myself. During the past week, I had continued to exercise in the gym and run laps around the main cavern. My runs now included ten-minute fast-as-you-can sprints. And, of course, I spent every one of the open range times practicing my archery.
I practiced every possible type of shooting that I could dream up. I started by shooting bullseyes at four different distances. I tried to randomize the order and heights of the targets. I attempted releasing arrows to stick in a geometric figure, like a spiral or circle, with even spacing, and with random spacing. I loosed at stationary targets and moving ones. I even tried multi-arrow releases. – I hoped the multi-arrow shooting was not on the test. Over ten meters, I was having trouble hitting more than two of the marks, that is, with three or four arrows shots.
I met X-tee outside the practice range at 0600. He stood in front of the door to the range with a strip of cloth in his hands.
“Good morning, Ky.” He had an unreadable expression. “Are you ready?”
“I am,” I replied, working hard to keep the nervousness out of my voice.
He smiled with stern brown eyes. “Let me tell you what’s going to happen,” he said. “I’m going to blindfold you. I’ll lead you into the range. When I whistle like this,” he put the first and second fingers of his left hand to his lips and blew to create a sound that was both shrill and very loud, “you will remove your blindfold. Then it will be your task to put an arrow into every bullseye you see. Keep in mind a bullseye is a solid circle with crosshairs on it. Understand?”
“Yes,” I replied.
I turned my back to him so he could blindfold me. He did so. He led me into the range to, perhaps, the middle of the room. Then, he left me. His steps headed back the way we had come. Presumably, he opened the door, whistled and closed the door.
I tore off the blindfold sticking it into my waistband. I started looking for the bullseyes. They were hard to find. There were targets all over the place, but they were not all bullseyes. Several lacked a quarter of the crosshairs. Others lacked more. Some did not have solid circles.
It took me twenty minutes before I found seven bullseyes. I transfixed each one with an arrow as I found them. I made another quick, complete circuit of the range to make sure I had not missed any. When I was reasonably sure I hadn’t overlooked any, I shouldered my bow and opened the door to the range.
In the hall stood X-tee. He glanced at his watch and then at me. His expression was, still, unreadable.
“How many arrows do you have left?” he asked.
“Of the twenty, I have thirteen,” I answered.
“I see,” he said. “Come and show me your hits.”
I followed him back into the range. I pointed out the hits I had made. He took his time looking at them. Then he turned to me, his expression still indecipherable. After a moment, a grin spread across his face and lit up his eyes.
“Congratulations, you have found every target,” he told me. “Your arrows are all dead center. You are back on the duty roster.”
“When and where do I report?” I asked excitedly.
“You report at 2400 on the roof,” he informed me. “Check with John Elm, the lead guard during your shift, for the post you’ll have.”
“Yes, Sir,” I replied. “I will, Sir. Umm, shall I collect the practice arrows?”
“No,” he told me. “I have some people I want to see them firsthand. But do be sure you turn in your practice quiver and take however many hunting arrows you need to make ten in your hunting quiver. I believe you have a hunting quiver?”
“I do,” I informed him. “I’ll need five hunting arrows.”
He nodded and extended his hand to me. When I took it, we shook hands once. “Welcome back, Ky.”
“Thanks,” I responded happily. “It’s good to be back.
With that, I turned and made my way to the armory. I put the practice quiver away and selected five of the hunting arrows. I made sure the fletching feathers were secure and the arrow shafts unbent. Then, I carefully carried them to my room, where I placed them in my quiver. I removed my arm guard and finger tab and put them and my bow
away.
It was still pretty early. I decided to head down to the middle-aged commons. Perhaps, I would be able to find John Elm and discover which roof post I had for tonight’s duty.
I entered my commons and made a sharp turn to the left. When I did, I was faced with a choice. On the right was a flight of metal stairs rising to the next level. On the left was a flight of steps cut into the stone descending to the lower levels. I took the stone ones down.
I am always amazed by what a stone laser can accomplish. The stairs were nice and even with smooth walls and ceiling. Niches in the walls spaced every meter or so contained an electric light bulb which bathed the steps in light. When these bulbs burned out, we could place a candle in each niche until we learned how to make or program our replicator to make replacement light bulbs.
The stairs descended in a rectangular manner around a solid center. The first flight sloped down to a landing which let a person walk a short, level distance to a second descending flight. This second flight ended in another landing parallel to the upper one. From here, a person could either walk forward along a short hallway into this level’s commons or turn right and descend another flight of steps. I continued down. At the bottom, I walked forward through the hallway into the lowest level commons. It was dubbed the middle-aged commons because the parents in the families who lived here were all, roughly, middle-aged.
The commons was full of people eating breakfast. Almost all the tables were occupied. There were a lot of children and young people here. I couldn’t help but smile. After ten minutes of looking around, I saw John Elm with his family. I walked toward them. John looked up. His face split into a smile when he saw me.
“Hey, Ky,” he called. “I guess you passed your practical.”
“Yes, Sir, I did,” I told him.
“That means you get to join me up on the roof tonight,” he said.
“So, I have been told,” I agreed, smiling. “Which post do I get?”
“Northeast,” he told me.
I nodded and grinned before saying, “I’ll be there.”
He and I caught a movement from his children. Their gesture was more hidden from me because they both sat with their backs to me. He shared a quiet conversation with them. Then, he turned back to me.
“Have you had breakfast?” he asked. When I shook my head, he added, “Go get some food and join us. My family wants to meet you.”
“OK, I’ll be right back,” I told him.
I went over to the access counter and selected my food. I carried my tasty finds over to the Elm’s table. John pulled out a chair from the end nearest him. Accepting his invitation, I put my laden dishes upon the table and sat down.
“Thank you,” I said, including them all.
“We’re glad you joined us,” responded John’s wife. The woman was tiny with long auburn hair which she wore in a ponytail. It draped over her shoulder and fell past the table’s edge.
Before I could make any response, John interrupted.
“Allow me to make introductions,” he said to me. “This is my wife, Amanda.” He gestured to the woman at his side. Her blue eyes seemed to twinkle with pleasure. I smiled and nodded at her. “This is my son, David,” he continued as he indicated the young boy across from his mother. I grinned and inclined my head to him. “And this is my daughter, Lisa,” he added gesturing toward the teenager on my other side. Again, I smiled and nodded in her direction. “Family, this is Kyrah Oaks,” he said while indicating me.
They greeted me warmly. I couldn’t help smiling.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all,” I told them honestly.
Before anyone could start speaking, John interjected, “Please allow Ky to eat most of her breakfast before you bombard her with questions.”
I dug into my food. Since I didn’t have to be anywhere right away, I tried to eat slower than would be my normal pace. But, I realized that the Elm family had already finished their meals. Thinking that they probably had places to be, I gave up trying to slow my eating speed.
When I had only a few bites left on my plate and my full cup of drahl, I inquired, “What did you want to ask me?”
“How do you eat so fast?” asked David in an awed tone.
Swallowing a giggle, I told him, “It’s a thing you learn when you don’t have much time to eat.”
“What?” he questioned with his forehead all bunched in a frown.
“Frequently, by the time I get into the commons, I have ten minutes to get through the access line, find a table, and eat,” I explained. “If I want to talk to people, I have to eat faster.”
“It’s a guard and hunter thing,” added John. “A leisurely meal is, quite often, a luxury.”
While David thought about that, Lisa asked, “Would you please tell us about the invisocat and how you managed to kill it?”
“I was very lucky,” I told her.
“Please tell us the story!” begged David.
I glanced at John and Amanda. They both nodded their heads. Glad to have their permission, I told the kids about that day three months ago. I still didn’t embellish the story. I just told them what had happened.
“Do you think there are any more of them out there?” asked David with his blue eyes as big as saucers.
“Yes,” I told him. “I can’t imagine it was the only one on the whole planet.”
“Would you have killed it if our people were not in danger?” inquired Lisa.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “I have wondered about that during the last three months.”
“Why?” asked David frowning again. “It’s a killer, isn’t it?” He added the question in a very unsure voice.
“That day was the first day we learned that such a cat existed,” I answered. “Other than what we have gleaned from its corpse, we know nothing about it. Is it a solitary animal? Is it territorial? Was it part of a pride? Are we within its territory? We have a lot of unanswered questions concerning it. As for it being a killer, any big cat kills to eat. We don’t want to be its meal.”
I caught John nodding his head out of the corner of my eye. When I turned to look at him, he was smiling.
“What?” I asked him curiously.
“I’m a military man,” he announced. “I often come across newbies who want to go murder everything they see. I’m pleased to see you are not one of them.”
“Thanks,” I responded with a smile.
He glanced at his wife. She gave him a little nod. He turned back to me.
“We need to get our day going,” he said, rising from the table. “Get a big lunch today and then take a nap for as long as you can. That will make it easier to shift your hours to the midnight shift.”
“Thanks,” I told him.
“You’re welcome,” he said. Turning to his family, he said: “Alright everyone, we need to get a move on.” They all rose from their seats, bid me goodbye, and moved off together to deposit their tableware at the appropriate place.
I waved at them when they made their farewells. Then, I sipped at my drahl. I grimaced with distaste because I’d let it get cold. I hated cold drahl. Sighing, I stacked up my dishes, dropped them off at the depository, and headed back to my room.
I spent a few moments checking my gear to be sure it was ready for duty tonight. Happily, it was all in peak condition. I still had a lot of the morning left. So, I decided to go to Dr. Locus’s lab. I wanted to let him know that I was back on duty and I thought he would be willing to download some lessons on how to study animals. Perhaps, real-time observations would be helpful.
Arriving at the lab, I found Dr. Locus and seven of his team members in the middle of a debate. I stood, waiting for an opening. Not more than five minutes had passed when Derrick noticed me. He came over and escorted me into the hall.
“What are you doing here?” he asked a little testily.
“I came to tell Dr. Locus that I was back on duty and to ask if there was a download suitable for me to learn how to make meaningful o
bservations,” I told him, disturbed by his conduct.
“When is your first duty?” he inquired, back to his normal, easy demeanor.
“2400,” I replied, noticing the change.
“If you don’t mind, I’ll tell him when our discussion is over,” he suggested.
“Sure,” I said, “but, um, Derrick, that ‘discussion’ sounds more like a heated debate. You better get back to it.”
With that, I turned on my heel and walked away. I forced myself not to glance over my shoulder to see if he still stood in the hallway. I continued to retrace my steps back to my room.
While I walked, I wondered why he had reacted the way he had. I thought he would be glad to hear my news. Perhaps, it was the subject of the debate. What had they been discussing? I recalled hearing them mentioning the tree-dweller migration. Had something new happened?
No sense speculating, I thought to myself. Maybe he, Lloyd, or Ross would be willing to tell me what was going on at lunchtime.
I entered my room and dropped onto my bed. Not wanting my thoughts to puzzle over Derrick’s odd behavior, I pulled my tablet out from under my cot. I enjoyed having access to it again. Solving the settlement’s power needs had made life here much more convenient and familiar.
I browsed through the various department contents until I found the astronomy section. I spent time familiarizing myself with the star charts. Of course, I concentrated my study on the constellations I would most likely see while I was on duty tonight. I expected a brilliant display since there would be no light pollution to interfere.
Several hours later, my stomach told me it was time for lunch. I stowed my tablet and joined my dorm mates heading into the commons. While waiting in line to get to the access counter, I decided to follow John Elm’s instructions. I would turn lunch into a big meal.
Since I didn’t have anywhere to be for a while, I tried to make this meal a leisurely one. It was difficult, but I did manage to stretch it out. Talking with my table mates, Emilie and Kristine, really helped. Our discussion was lighthearted and fun.
When I had finished my meal, I looked for Derrick, Lloyd, or Ross. I didn’t see any of them. Sighing, I returned to my room and turned in.
