Colony

by Lori Beery

  I reported for duty on the roof at 2350. John Elm was already on site. He stood gazing up at the stars while he leaned against a waist-high slab of rock. He nodded to me as I joined him. Together, in companionable silence, we took in the display. It didn’t disappoint. I even recognized a handful of the constellations.

  At 2400, we exchanged places with the guards getting off duty. I made my way to the northeast corner. I was glad the starlight was strong enough to illuminate the roof. It made maneuvering around the terrain and the solar collectors much easier.

  When I got to the corner, I looked over the edge. Like most of our mountain, the rock fell away in a sheer cliff for about twenty meters. At that point, rock outcroppings jutted from the less steep slope that disappeared into the greenery of the forest’s edge.

  As I stared down the cliff, I saw no movement. I shifted my gaze to the canopy nearest the cliff. Again, I saw nothing. I tried to hear the nocturnal calls of the creatures living in the forest, but, from way up here, I couldn’t. Upon the roof, there was no sound except the occasional shuffling or coughing of my fellow guards. Tonight, even the air was still and silent.

  Suddenly a piercing cry ripped the silence. It seemed to originate from the east. I strained to pinpoint the source. I couldn’t. The scream seemed to spread out like it was reverberating off the cliffs.

  I tapped my comm badge. “Does anyone see anything?” I asked.

  “I don’t see anything, but it sure seems to be coming from the east,” replied one of the other guards.

  All my fellow guards agreed. John chimed in with, “We all heard it. Keep your eyes peeled. Let’s see if we can get a look at it.”

  I kept my eyes on the eastern ridge but saw nothing. Around the time my shift was almost over, I spied a shadow. It blocked out the stars near the horizon as it moved northward. It was moving fast and resembled an atmospheric flyer – until the wings moved.

  Chapter 9

  Amerzan had followed the strange smell and the sky-fire that was not. The scents led him to his homeland.

  He flew from the sea, westward into the lowering sun. It was still high enough to illuminate the world below him. Soon it would sink too far to shine its light on the ground this side of the first mountain ridges. But for a little while yet, it was quite bright.

  Below him, the land rose out of the water until it reached a plateau. After three beats of his strong wings, the table tilted steeply downward into a wide valley dominated by a deep clear lake. On the western shore, the land began a gentle rise. It continued until rock thrust into the air, bringing the gentle slope to an abrupt end where the mountains reached skyward.

  Near the highlands, he picked up the unknown smell to his left, just before the ridge. He altered course to investigate. The taint became stronger. His keen eyes detected an odd object dangling from a large, solitary, tree that grew almost horizontally out of the mountainside. It was like nothing he had ever seen before.

  He passed over it. Circling, he landed on the tree’s trunk above the object. He bent his head toward the hanging thing. It reminded him of the cocoons the tiny, colorful, winged insects made to transform themselves. Of course, a very large insect would emerge from this one – if it were a cocoon. He did not think it was. This object was not soft, nor did it have the same type of smell. No, the unknown perfume clung to this structure as well as a hint of the sky-fire that was not.

  He launched himself back into the sky. His spread wings caught the air. Gliding in a rising spiral, he beat his wings to climb above the mountains.

  The almost sunken sun’s light struck him. The white feathers of his lower wings caught the light and gleamed. The reddish-brown fur that covered most of his body took on a fiery tinge. His inner eyelid darkened to protect his golden-yellow eyes from the sun’s glare.

  The air over the heights smelled of that strange scent. It was strong and getting stronger as Amerzan continued his westward flight over the mountains.

  Below him, he saw a great tear in the forest canopy of the next valley. He changed course to inspect this new oddity. When he got near, he could see that the forest was working to reclaim the damaged place. Some of the faster-growing trees had already gained a foothold there. Other vegetation sprouted there as well. Some of the plants grew around strange shapes that seemed to be the source of the odd sky-fire smell.

  Skimming the region, his low flight put him in dimness which caused his inner eyelid to clear. He picked up the new scent again. It lingered around the larger unknown objects. What was it? Where was its source? Was it a threat to him?

  He pulled up, beating his wings to skim above the undamaged canopy. His new flight path would take him in a growing spiral around the valley. Just as he began his search, the sun left the sky. He continued his course. He could still see by the bright night lights in the sky. Even so, he could not find where the unknown scent had gone. It seemed to have faded away. He screamed his frustration to the valley.

  By the time he had finished flying over the valley, he was famished and tired. Recalling the existence of a large lake not far away to the north, he pushed himself higher into the night sky out of the valley.

  ***

  I was shocked by the shadow I had seen. It had looked like a bird, an enormous one. If true, this would be another creature we just learned existed.

  After being relieved of duty, I caught up to John Elm.

  “Sir,” I called out to him. “Could I speak with you for a moment?”

  “Sure kid,” he replied, slowing down to let the others walk past him and for me to come alongside him.

  “Just before our shift ended, I saw something,” I told him as we descended the steps into the settlement.

  “What?” he asked curiously.

  “I’m not sure,” I said. “It was a large shadow. Big enough to blot out the stars as it moved northward along the horizon.”

  He stopped moving. “So, I’m not going nuts,” he responded, shaking his head.

  “You saw it too?” I asked.

  “I did,” he confirmed. “What do you think it was?”

  “I thought it was an atmospheric flyer,” I answered. “That is until the wings moved.”

  “Which would imply an enormous bird,” he said, echoing my thoughts. “I don’t suppose such a creature would be an herbivore.”

  “Probably not, Sir,” I agreed.

  “Let’s go log a sighting report,” he suggested with a sigh. “I guess this will give engineering the green light to start building their catapult.”

  “Sir, a big crossbow would be more effective if it ever attacked us,” I murmured.

  “True enough,” he responded as he began walking again.

  I followed him the rest of the way into the settlement and to the duty office across from the armory. He handed me a datapad while he took one for himself. Staring at the pad, I began to write a description of what I had seen and heard during my shift. I tried to stay as objective as I could. I did mention that the shadow resembled the shape of a flyer and that the wings moved, but I didn’t carry the implication out to suggest the shadow belonged to a huge bird. I would let the reader draw their conclusions.

  When I finished, John traded his pad for mine. I read his report over and noted that he had made the same decisions I had. We shared a chuckled.

  “Go ahead and upload it,” he told me. I complied. Then, I handed the pad over to him when he held out his hand for it. As he put the data pads away, he said, “Go back to bed. There’s a few more hours before today’s training.”

  “Yes, Sir,” I responded.

  I made my way back to my room. I tried to sleep, but I couldn’t. Instead, I pulled my tablet from its place under my bed. After browsing for a few moments, I found Dr. Locus’s uploads. He had compiled the notes he and his team had made from the imaging recorders about the tree-dwellers. The creatures had moved beyond the eight-kilometer mark from our settlement. The big question was: why?

  According to the observations,
their food supply had not diminished. It didn’t appear that the snakes, the tree-dwellers’ only observed predator, were any more numerous than previously noted. Water still seemed plentiful. What were we missing?

  Something had changed – or was going to change. The creatures didn’t start this migration three months ago when we learned about the invisocat. They were moving now. The only change was the probable addition of the bird. Did they know about it? What if this mountain was its aerie? If true, we were in real trouble.

  The thought rolled around my head, freezing me in place. My slack fingers lost their grip on my tablet. It dropped into my lap, thawing my paralysis but not my new-found urgency. I stowed my tablet with trembling fingers. Flinging myself up out of bed, I quickly dressed for training. Then, I hurried from my room, bound for Lloyd’s. He was the one member of Dr. Locus’ team who lived closest to me.

  Pounding on his door brought an irate, bleary-eyed Lloyd to his door.

  “Ky, what the…” he growled.

  “I need information,” I interrupted him, pushing his door further open as I walked into his room.

  “What?” he asked. “Do you know what time it is?”

  “I do,” I admitted. “Tell me what you know about eagles.”

  “Eagles?” he responded confused. “Why, eagles?”

  “Please, Lloyd, just answer the question,” I begged.

  “Well, they are powerful flyers,” he gave in. “They have keen eyesight and fly long distances while hunting prey. They tend to be territorial, although their ranges are quite large. Some species migrate during cold weather. They nest in high places, either very tall trees or mountain tops. They mate for life.”

  “What do they eat?” I asked.

  “Creatures smaller than themselves, usually,” he told me. “Examples would include rabbits, marmots, ground squirrels. They do upon occasion eat carrion, as well as reptiles, birds, fish, and even large insects. It’s been reported that they have taken down full-grown deer –although on ancient Earth those were maybe a third the size of the herbivores here.”

  “Did any of them ever eat monkeys?” I pressed.

  “I think there was one,” he said as he frowned in thought. He walked over to a shelf and grabbed a vid player. After rummaging through some vid disks, he selected one and inserted it. The vid player displayed an eagle. “Yeah, here it is,” he continued. “It’s called a Harpy Eagle, and it lived in South America – at least before its habitat was destroyed some fifty thousand years ago.”

  “Suppose there is such an eagle here,” I proposed. “Wouldn’t that cause the tree-dwellers to abandon this mountain?”

  “Come on, Ky,” he said exasperated. “Such a bird would have to be huge and dine primarily on the tree-dwellers.” His words came to an abrupt halt. His blue-green eyes widened as he stared slack-jawed at me. “What do you know?”

  “I know that there are huge invisible cats,” I told him. “Why couldn’t there be an enormous eagle that eats the tree-dwellers?”

  “I think that we might be in trouble,” he gasped out. “If such a creature exists and is the reason the tree-dwellers are dispersing, then that implies this mountain is its aerie.”

  “I’m guessing it wouldn’t want us around its nest, would it?” I asked.

  “Not bloody likely,” he replied, shaking his head.

  “So, how do we keep both our people and this bird safe?” I wondered aloud.

  “No idea,” he told me. “If this bird is real, the engineers will be all too happy to build a weapon to destroy it.”

  “That is very likely,” I agreed. “Look, thanks for the information. I’m sorry I disturbed your sleep. Please get Dr. Locus and your team to investigate options that permit the bird and us to live side by side. Maybe that means we have to create a new front door and balcony. It’s probably a good thing to have a second point of egress anyway.”

  Hearing people in the hall heading to the commons, I realized my time was gone. I turned back to Lloyd and added, “Hey, I’ve got to go to training. See you later.”

  I tossed him a fleeting wave and went back to my room to grab my archery gear before heading to the gym.

  There I meet up with my fellow guard and hunter mates. They all greeted me and congratulated me on my return to duty. I was pleased to be back among them.

  “Ky,” said X-tee. “Here is the regiment I want you to work on.” He pushed a clipboard into my hands with the various exercises listed as well as his recommended weight load, number of repetitions per set, and the number of sets.

  I stared at the sheet, my eyes widening. This list was going to be very challenging to meet. Even though X-tee had kept the weight load at twenty-five kilograms for the upper body workouts, he specified eight sets of twenty repetitions each. I had been doing six sets with fifteen reps. This regiment would include seventy additional lifts.

  “OK?” he asked me with a frown of concern.

  “This looks like a lot more lifts than I have been doing,” I told him with worry tinging my voice.

  “Split the sets in half and rotate through the exercises twice,” he suggested.

  “I can do that?” I asked, amazed.

  “This week only,” he informed me with a wink.

  I nodded to him and started to the first machine on the list. I never made it because Marta grabbed my arm and pulled me over to her group, which also included Carl and Marc. The four of us were dorm mates as well.

  “Ky,” she said. “You look a little dazed. What’s wrong?”

  “Well, I haven’t been working quite this hard yet,” I admitted, indicating the sheet on the clipboard.

  “Did X-tee say you couldn’t split the sets?” she asked.

  “No,” I replied. “He suggested it I should.”

  “Good,” she remarked. “You go first and fifth.”

  I nodded and went to the machine the group had gravitated to, making sure the weight was set correctly. Then, I proceeded to perform the upper body exercise. When I finished my four sets, I yielded my place to Marta.

  Marta pounded out her sets one after the other. It looked like she was tired by the seventh set, but she kept going. A similar thing happened with Carl and Marc. When they finished, I continued my sets. I got through the first two sets, OK, but the last two sets were a struggle. I got them done. But they wore me out.

  At the next machine, one for the lower body, I did better. I guess running helped with the lower body strength. My upper body was relieved by the change.

  I lost track of time as I fought through the different movements. By the time we had completed the circuit, I was exhausted, covered in sweat, and so relieved. My friends stayed with me until I got myself rested enough to stretch out.

  When I finished, I joined the others at the archery range. Putting myself in the last group to shoot, I hoped I would be sufficiently rested to make a good showing.

  Since the practice was hitting stationary targets at different heights and distances, I did very well. That is until the very end when my arms started shaking. I had to stop and stretch again. It helped more than when I first got my new bow, but I still declined to fire my last three practice arrows. Surprisingly, X-tee was not displeased. I found myself wondering who had wanted to see my practical’s hits for some reason.

  Chapter 10

  Amerzan had not been idle. He had flown to his aerie during the early morning hours. As soon as he had entered his valley, the strange smell assaulted him. It was strong and grew stronger as he winged toward his mountain.

  He beat his wings, climbing high into the night sky. He knew from this height the cautious tree-dwellers would not see him. He hoped that would be true of the new creatures who had moved into his territory.

  As he drew nearer, he could see changes had been made to the entryway of his aerie. A mountain ledge jutted from below the yawning cavern’s mouth. He knew it was not made of stone, but he didn’t know what else it could be.

  A slight movement drew his a
ttention to the ledge near the cliff face. Two furless tree-dwellers stood near the opening into the mountain. Their bodies were covered in something he could not identify. On their backs, they carried straight twigs and something that was topped with tiny feathers. His eyes could not name these creatures, but his nose identified them as the source of the unknown scent.

  A motion drew his gaze to the top of his mountain. More of the furless tree-dwellers stirred upon the heights. They were facing outward, looking into the surrounding valleys of his mountain. They too carried the oddities on their backs.

  He shifted his tail so that he glided around his home. During his circling flight path, he saw that the height had undergone changes as well. Whole areas were leveled with large sections that reflected the night lights above – just like the surface of a still lake. It would be unwise for him to fly over them. His shadow would alert these creatures to his presence.

  He continued to circle his home. These new creatures had not just moved into his territory. They had invaded his home! He would have to evict them. But before he did that, he would need to study them and develop a plan.

  He changed course. There was an adequate height to the northwest that he would use while he studied these new creatures. It was not as large nor as sheltered as his aerie. But he would make due until he executed his plan.

  ***

  During my lunch- dinner - meal later that day (working the night shift as a guard was throwing off my internal clock), I had an unexpected guest. Dr. Locus, accompanied by Lloyd, joined me at my table. I didn’t often see the zoologist in my commons. I figured he took lunch in his lab, so his presence was quite a surprise.

  “Dr. Locus, it’s good to see you,” I told him, coming to my feet when he and Lloyd arrived at my table. “I never got to thank you for your assistance after you came to inspect the invisocat. Thank you for helping me.”

  “You’re quite welcome,” he said with a smile that lit his blue eyes. “I’m glad to hear you are back on duty.”

  “Thank you,” I commented with a smile. “Although my first work out with my fellow guards and hunters was pretty rough.” My smile faded as I admitted my thoughts about my performance.