Inadvertent Adventures (38 page)

"But, Ma'am, what about-"

"I don't give a damn. I need something to get that taste out of my mouth."

CM took a deep breath, then gathered a few leaves and gave them to Ann. Ann immediately took a large bite, nearly half of a leaf, chewed for about thirty seconds, then spat it out. She munched the rest of that leaf and stood up, looking at CM as she chewed.

"You're right, this is delicious. Tastes kind of like a honeydew melon that's had a bottle of vodka soaked into it overnight." She grinned as Sterling chuckled. "Ah, the good old days at university." She looked around and shook her head slowly. "I guess it'd be asking too much for it all to taste good. Let's look around some more, but keep together. We've already seen one carnivore. There's got to be more."

The group walked around the area in a slow spiral out from the shuttle. Several different plants were catalogued, but after Ann's experience, no one was interested in tasting them. They finally reached a small stream and Elrika pointed. "Fish, or maybe eels, but damned funny looking."

Everyone agreed. The fish looked like large millipedes with membranes between their legs. They moved by undulating their legs, creating a ripple-effect that pushed them through the water at high speeds.

Ann watched in fascination for a moment, and then sighed. "And me without a pole. Some researcher is going to make a name for him or herself by cataloguing and studying these critters." She looked at her chrono and shook her head. "It's just about time to go back. Last circle, and we end at the ship." She led, and they made it back to the ship without any significant finds.

It was a different story at the ship. "Where'd that carcass go?" Ann demanded.

Elrika shook her head as she pointed with the rifle. "It was dragged off into the bushes."

"So we know there are other scavengers here," Sterling said as he drew his pistol.

"No, not necessarily," Elrika answered. "It may have been one of its own kind. The Land-Crocs of Beloofte eat their dead or wounded brethren. And young. Except for mating, they'll eat any other croc that strays into their territory."

"Lovely," Ann muttered, then led the way into the ship. "Sterling, take us up slowly for the first couple of hundred meters. Let's look around a bit."

"Aye, Ma'am," Sterling answered automatically. Everyone suited up, then strapped in. Once everyone was settled, Sterling started the engines and executed a slow vertical takeoff, pirouetting the shuttle around its center of lift as they went.

"There!" CM exclaimed, pointing out of her port. "It looks like another of the same species, and it is dragging the body through the next clearing. Looks like it was taking it somewhere."

"Perhaps back to its young," Elrika suggested.

"Whoever researches the animals of Frisland is going to have plenty to do," Ann said as she tried to spot the creature. "How much meat did you take from it, Sterling?"

"About ten kilos," he replied without taking his eyes off his instruments. "I wanted to give Di and Kat plenty to work with." He shrugged, then added, “It was only about a tenth of the animal. Just the muscles a front shoulder.”

Ann nodded without looking away from the window. “I guess something else will eat well tonight.”

T
HE SHUTTLE'S RETURN WAS GREETED
with a lot of excitement, especially on the part of Mandy, Bart, Kat, Thom, and Rauld. "We're ready to go as soon as the shuttle's refueled, Ma'am," Mandy said as soon as Ann and the rest were back aboard.

Ann laughed, but she was nodding. "Very well, Miss Carter. Where are you headed? Or do I really need to ask?"

Mandy grinned. "The terminator is just reaching Carter now. I've been studying the scans, and there is a large rift valley that I'd like to look at first."

"Very well, Miss Carter. Rauld's warning was right on the dot on Stevenson, so keep his hands full of that rifle." Ann looked Rauld in the eye and continued. "We saw one carnivore. It attacked us as soon as it came out of the bushes. It was fairly fast, and its teeth looked nasty as hell. At this point I'd prefer to shoot first, then investigate. If you do kill something, collect all the data you can on it. I also want someone armed with a shotgun as a backup in case something gets close." She glanced over her shoulder. "Sterling collected some meat from the animal Elrika killed. We'll let Dihandri see what she can do with it while you're gone."

She turned her attention to Katrina. "Kat, take a sample of each plant you encounter. No taste-tests until you finish in the lab. We collected two dozen different plants, and one of the three we tried tasted horrible, though the database didn't list it as toxic. If you encounter anything that is not already in the data base, be cautious and wear rubber gloves until you determine its characteristics. The
Duyfken
didn't find anything that is toxic to humans, but they didn't test every plant on the planet. They stayed primarily on Stevenson. Carter is halfway around the planet, and in a different climactic zone."

"Yes, Ma'am," Katrina answered as she snapped to attention.

"Very well. Have a good time, and be back before dark." She grinned as Bart immediately started to reply, then thought better of it. The five members of this excursion left for the shuttle while Sterling delivered their sample of meat to Dihandri.

"We know it can be eaten, but we have no idea what it'll taste like," Sterling said as he hefted the container up onto the counter.

"Not there," Dihandri said as soon as the container landed. "The refrigeration unit until I'm ready." She pointed to the small refrigerator that was actually in the galley. "I'll try preparing a few small samples in different manners, and then let you taste them. I'll call when they are ready." She took a knife and carved off half a kilo of meat and walked over to her cutting board, completely ignoring everyone while Sterling put the meat away.

Ann smiled and shook her head. "Let's leave her to it, shall we?"

Everyone answered, "Yes, Ma'am," and followed her out of the wardroom.

* * *

The shuttle launched moments later, with Mandy at the controls and Bart in the right seat. Kat, Thom, and Rauld were arrayed behind them. Mandy handled the shuttle expertly, though she complained about it the whole way down. "You'd think they'd have bought something that was designed in this century," she muttered.

"Gotta have something as old as the
Revenge
to match the umbilicals," Bart replied as his fingers danced across his keyboard. "Inertial Nav is on line. With the
Revenge
as our only GPS beacon, it's the best we're going to be able to do."

Mandy nodded. "Should be enough. The valley I picked out is visible from space. I should be able to find it from ten kilometers up."

Mandy's prediction was accurate. The valley, a long rift in the center of the Carter Continent, was nineteen kilometers wide and over three thousand long. It predicted a complete division of the continent sometime in the distant future. For now, it provided a low, nearly flat basin filled with bushes and scrub trees of various kinds.

Mandy guided the shuttle in a long, low pass over the valley, looking for some distinctive feature. That feature reached up and almost grabbed them as they passed, and it was only Mandy's quick reflexes that saved them from a gruesome death.

"Whoa!
What was that?" Bart almost shouted as the shuttle soared high into the air.

"Geo-thermal vent," Mandy replied as she brought the shuttle around. "On Earth they called them geysers."

Bart looked out his view port as the shuttle swung around. "What causes them?"

Mandy spared him a puzzled glance as she brought them around a short distance from the geyser. "Don't you have geysers on your home planet?"

"No. Not that I ever heard of at any rate."

"Hot springs?" she asked.

"Yes, we have hot springs, but the water just kind of bubbles up. It doesn't shoot fifty meters into the air."

Mandy smiled and shook her head. "They are caused by the same things, Bart. Geysers just go deeper and have narrow channels that let the bottom boil; the steam pushes the rest of the hot water way up into the air."

"Like that pot of farina," Kat whispered.

Mandy cringed a little at having reminded her of that incident. She said, "Sorry, Kat," without looking around.

Bart turned around and reached out to Katrina, and she held his hand for a moment, seemingly oblivious to the looks they were receiving.

Mandy broke their moment of reverie by announcing, "Prepare to land." She brought the shuttle in nearly a kilometer from the geyser, and landed with hardly a thump.

Once the shuttle was secure, everyone unbelted and shimmied out of their environment suits. Mandy and Thom headed for the hatch, but Rauld stopped them.

"Cautiously, friends. This is totally unknown territory. I'll lead with the rifle, and Thom will follow with the shotgun. Don't fixate on anything, Thom. Keep your head up and your eyes moving. And watch behind us as well. The creature Rika killed can't be the only predator."

Everyone nodded as Mandy cycled the personnel hatch. By silent accord, the rest stepped back to let Mandy be the first person to set foot on the continent that bore her name.

Mandy stopped and covered her nose and mouth with one hand, then looked back at the others as she blinked to clear her eyes. "They weren't kidding about the smell, were they?"

"Nope," Thom said, "but it's not unbearable. After you, Miss Carter," he continued with a half-bow, and Mandy walked forward.

Mandy stopped just off the access ramp. "This is a different plant from the ground cover on Stevenson. Kat," she said as she turned, but stopped because Katrina was already collecting a sample for analysis. "Good. I hope you've got plenty of containers."

"I brought a hundred," Katrina said as she stowed the sample. "That should be enough for one trip."

Rauld was looking around, scanning the area, and saw a geyser erupt not too far away. He said, "Looks like there's more than one of those geysers," as he gestured toward the column of steam.

Mandy followed his gaze, and then nodded. "Very well. Everyone be careful. The lower atmospheric pressure lowers the boiling point of water, but not significantly. We don't want anyone scalded." She nodded to Rauld, and he led off into the bush.

Bart let Katrina follow Mandy, then fell in at her heels. He was carrying her sample bags, and handed her an empty container every time she picked a leaf or twig, then stowed the samples in the opposite bag. It was fortunate for all concerned that they didn't turn and see the expression of mirth on Thom's face.

The area around the geysers was obvious to everyone. Mineral deposits coated the ground in a white casing that shimmered as the hot water ran across it. Mandy led them to the left as soon as they got there.

"It's best to be up-wind of a geyser," she commented. "That way the wind blows the steam and hot spray away from you."

Rauld was watching the area around them and said, "There, in those bushes," as he brought the rifle up to his shoulder. Everyone turned and drew their automatics, except Katrina. She was the only member of the crew who had never fired a weapon. She did, however, have a camera, and raised it to her eye.

What emerged from the bushes were small, fuzzy, eight-legged pigs. That was the impression they gave at any rate. They were the size of a small, fat dog and moved quickly toward the edge of the geyser deposits. They stopped and drank from the cooler water at the edge of the area, and several of them were seen to lick the white crust for a moment, then the whole group of thirteen turned and vanished back into the bushes.

"They drank the water," Katrina said as she stepped forward, stowing the camera. She'd snapped over fifty pictures of the creatures.

"Wait, Kat," Thom said, stopping her in her tracks. "I recommend that none of us go any closer until after the next eruption. As I remember, they can go off at any time, but there's usually a significant interval between eruptions."

"Absolutely correct, Thom," Mandy agreed. "Let's get our samples from farther away for a while."

The group circled the area, always staying up wind, and it wasn't long before the ground began to rumble. They turned and watched as the geyser began to bubble and boil, then erupted with a column of steam and hot water about thirty meters high. True to Mandy's prediction, the wind blew most of the water away from them, though they did get showered with a warm mist.

"At least the water doesn't stink," Thom commented as he sniffed his fingers.

"Not compared to the air, at least," Mandy agreed. "Okay, Kat, you and Bart collect some water and mineral samples."

"Yes, Ma'am," Kat replied. She walked forward with Bart right on her heels.

When they were safely out of earshot, Thom said, "They make a cute couple."

Mandy grinned up at him. "Yes, they do."

Rauld left off scanning the area long enough to look at both of them. "When do you think they'll stop dancing around the subject?"

Mandy sighed and shook her head. "You never know.” She pointed off to the left and said, “I want to look at that small tree. It looks like it has some kind of berry on it."

A
S ORDERED, THE SHUTTLE RETURNED BEFORE
dark, but not by much. The terminator was rapidly approaching the landing area when Mandy finally lifted off. "That was a good day's work," she commented as soon as they made orbit.

"A long day's work, you mean," Thom replied. "What was the day? Thirty-one and a half hours?"

"About," Mandy agreed.

"That's going to take some getting used to. I prefer planets that have a less-than twenty-four hour day." Thom stretched his back muscles and yawned. "My body thinks it's past bedtime."

"After we unload the samples." Mandy guided the shuttle carefully to its docking cradle and verified the umbilicals were attached before shutting down. "Samples to the lab, then good night," she commanded, and no one argued.

Bart and Katrina carried the bulk of her samples to her lab while Thom carried several large pieces of dead wood to the wardroom. Mandy brought the camera, and downloaded over a thousand pictures of the Carter Continent, both from the ground and the air.