Koban: Rise of the Kobani (31 page)

Kobalt stopped suddenly as he
noticed Kit had reversed, and she was sniffing at something on the ground. Even before reaching her, he knew she had found the droppings of some larger animal. There were many prints in the soil between tufts of the weirdly colored grass. Something had nibbled at the tops of the tallest stems, where seed clusters grew on those that had been bypassed. The prints looked like a sort of hoof made them, and the depth showed they were large, although obviously smaller than a rhinolo by far.

Their scent was different from grass eaters at home, but there was a sort of musty similarity, and the partly digested grasses and leaves in the scat seemed fresh, proving they had passed this way this morning. Like Kit, who had raised her head to look around, he pressed the tip of his sensitive nose on one of the rounded droppings, and felt it was still warm. They were very close to the slow moving herd, since this was probably less than a half hour old.

Marlyn, as pride leader today, had told them not to eat anything, but they could bring something back for the human pride friends to study. If it was safe food, they could eat it after that. Eager for the hunt, he frilled his sister, and they shared strategies for pouncing on a careless trailing herd member of whatever sort of prey this was.

Kit imaged him that they were able to leap farther here and cover ground faster. Instead of the normal stalk to grow close, to sneak past them a bit to set up an ambush, she pictured them both chasing some vaguely antelope-like prey from behind, using raw speed and power to isolate one and catch it, keeping the terrified animal alive long enough for them both to “taste” its new flavor of fear. A quick merciful kill would go to the one that brought it down, so there was a competition to the chase to come. Kobalt thought of the tree he had just cleared in his long leap. He expected to win.

There was never a thought of killing two of the prey. Ripper morality held even in this special case on a new world. No kills for the pleasure of the act, even then only if the meat provided was necessary. There was uncertainty here if even the meat of the one kill would be consumable. It created an uncomfortable mental gray area.

Kit’s proposal of a headlong chase from the herd’s rear was quickly agreed to by Kobalt, but he wasn’t paying attention to her body positioning as they frilled. Exactly like their human siblings, she “cheated” her bigger brother by placing herself in the direction they would have to run. Then she suddenly placed both of her big front paws on her brother’s right shoulder and pushed hard, knocking him over by the unexpected action, while she used the shove to gain momentum to start her run, to gain at least a six body length advantage. She had extended her claws just enough to prick her brother’s shoulder, simply to show him who was still boss. She was perfectly aware from her mom and Aunt Noreen’s memories, that she was the older of the two twins by five or ten seconds. That gave her seniority in the pride over him. She kept reminding her physically larger brother of that at every opportunity.

With a roar of indignation, Kobalt was after her in two seconds, her tail deliberately twitching impudently fifty feet ahead of him. She had extended her rear claws, which unless she was turning or twisting to follow prey were not required for grip, and they tore tufts of turf up to fly back in her brother’s face. She had to grant that Kobalt had the edge on endurance and power, but speed and agility was her edge, and she was planning to hold her lead all the way to the take down.

Her ears picked up the sounds of hooves starting to pound up ahead, where the outraged roar of her brother had apparently alerted the herd animals that something unpleasant was tearing through bushy grassland towards them. She knew Kobalt had endurance, so if his roar made the chase last longer, she might have outwitted herself as he gradually overtook her lead. He would naturally try to put a shoulder into her as he passed, to knock her off stride. It’s exactly what she intended to try to do to him if he passed her close enough to gloat.

She picked up a new scent that seemed to come in from her left, and now surrounded her as she ran through the strong body odors from multiple animals. If her brother were not so close on her rear, she would slow to check this out, but winning was more important to her. It now had an odd sharp scent added to it, which she thought might be from the breath of the creatures, rather than the general body odor all animals had. That meant they were close for that scent not to have spread thinner in the air. The sharp smell suddenly matched a memory she had of hunting on Jura, when she sniffed the fetid breath of a pack of small raptors, the smell of their carnivore’s breath.

Suddenly, from both sides, there were multiple loud growls and savage sounding snarls, noisily pushing through the bushes on either side, moving parallel to her but still unseen. There was a powerful howl, and she could hear them turn towards her. A growl from Kobalt proved he was aware of the ambush as well. Something gray and hairy leaped at her from the left.

****

The self-erecting tents were activated, just as soon as a tough plastic barrier was placed below them as protection against whatever dug the burrows. The science teams moved into them as soon as they snapped to rigidity, to set up the automated test labs for samples already being collected. The Koban born TGs all thought the “strange” green plants and grasses were most likely to be dangerous or allergenic. The colors were relatively rare on Koban, and sometimes marked plants that were unhealthy for grazing animals there to eat.

A five hundred-foot radius sensor perimeter was set up, which would detect incoming animals from rat-sized and up, out to an additional two hundred feet, and provide a warning of size, direction, and speed for the TGs that were on watch. The first few nights would be spent in the ship, until the local area was deemed safe enough for overnight camping. The TGs chaffed at this restriction, and believed it should only apply to the SGs with them (such as the captain), who did not have the speed and strength to fend off a possible animal attack. Nevertheless, the captain had her way.

That caution proved justified when Kobalt and Kit returned, only forty-five minutes after they ran off for adventure. Kobalt was carrying a large but dead wolf analogue in his massive jaws. Prompt frilling revealed that a pack of twelve of the two hundred fifty pound, thickly furred animals had attacked the rippers from both sides. The cats were racing along, after the tail end of a herd of several hundred long legged, five-foot high, brown and white spotted antelope-like animals, having long white horns. The wolf pack animals were apparently also stalking the same herd, and the rippers speed had put them in their midst before the unknown scent became meaningful to them.

Frill contacts showed that both cats were deeply embarrassed by their mistake in ignoring the new scent. It was just another new one among hundreds, all from unknown animals to them. The pack animals, although individually much smaller than either cat, outnumbered and out massed them collectively, and hadn’t hesitated to go after the unknown new competition.

This particular pack would do more than hesitate the next time they saw or smelled a ripper. Five of the members were bloodied and injured before breaking and running, without ever laying a fang or claw on either cat, despite the surprise rush from two sides. Big dogs against bigger and extremely fast and strong heavy gravity cats? It was “put their tails between their legs and run for their lives” time. The cats could have killed half of them had they chosen to be so wasteful.

The largest one, the alpha male, refused to yield or back down, and tried to leap on Kit’s back as she mauled one of its pack mates. Kobalt leaped twenty feet to intercept him in midair, his jaws closing on the throat, crushing the windpipe and puncturing an artery. The leader was fatally injured, and it screamed a terrified death cry. The remainder of the pack turned and fled.

Mindful of the warning not to eat any prey from here, Kobalt could taste its blood in his jaws. A ripper social injunction against wasting a kill also came into play. He had dropped the dying pack leader and spat as much blood out as he could. Next, he and Kit frilled the animal as it expired, “tasting” only that which they had been permitted to have. They had expected to bring one of the dead herd animals back for testing, and possible consumption, but instead they had the wolf. They had never even seen what they chased, but the dying wolf had images of what they had missed. They would know them the next time.

While the lab techs took samples of blood and tissue, the humans looked over the big animal, noting its long legs, suited for running down prey over long distances. It had an elongated mouth full of teeth, the viciously long top and bottom front fangs interlocking.

Its eyes were closed, but pulling an eyelid back, a large amber eye with black pupil was revealed. The ears were wide at the base, as well as long and pointed at the tips, rather like giant wolfbat ears. It didn’t look like anything you ever wanted to meet in the dark, particularly a dozen of them in a cooperative pack.

When the TGs frilled with the cats farther, they learned that this particular wolf-like predator seemed smarter than a wolfbat, and very cunning. In the grass and scrub brush territory around here, there were smaller fleet creatures that moved similar to a cat, hunting alone or in pairs, and the pack had taken some of them down before. The two larger examples today simply meant more meat to the leader when he howled to signal the pack to turn and attack the interlopers. Some mistakes you just didn’t get over.

One of the technicians poked a head out of the tent. “The new automated analyzers are fast. We used both, and they each say there are no dangerous toxins or proteins in the…,” he fumbled and failed to find a word, “for whatever that thing will be called. It should be safe to eat, but we’d like the head intact, and the skeleton for study. Can someone tell the cats?” He ducked back inside.

When Kobalt and Kit were frilled the information, they took the prize off to some bushes to eat, aware of how the tearing and rending sounds, and deep throated growls of contentment sometimes disturbed squeamish humans. Too bad, being able to frill revolted and horrified onlookers could have enhanced the ambience of their “dining” experience.

Maggi, who had closely inspected the dead animal, drew on one of her favorite sources for reference. “Bradley, you watched that old movie with me and Cory last month. Look at the picture we took of that big furry monster and tell me if it reminds you of anything we can use for a name.”

He looked over at the computer screen image and his eyes lit up. “Oh, sure. It looks just like the guy after he turned into a werewolf.”

She asked loudly, “Who votes for werewolf, or possibly lycanthrope?”

Two people asked what a lycanthrope was, so the confusion factor settled it. “People, I think we have an authenticated werewolf here. Who supports that as their name?”

The horror movie connection cinched it for the enthusiastic youngsters. Maggi grinned in satisfaction, as the more scientifically minded members of the group grimaced at yet another ad hoc name being applied to a new species.

Marlyn, enjoying Maggi’s manipulations, put everyone back on track. “Drive the three trucks down, and load them with gear for the local explorations. Cameras, sample kits, and take a fifty-caliber rifle on each of them, with a TG on watch in the back. Stay within a five-mile radius of the Beagle for now, no more than six people per truck. Draw lots to see who goes first, and take turns every two hours. The rest of you continue to set up camp, and check out the river a quarter mile on the other side of that small grove of trees. This place is a bit tamer than Koban, but watch for things that bite in the water, or might be up in the trees. 

“I’ll fly the shuttle, for Maggi, Francis, Bradley, Sarah, and one of our lab techs, and land close to the tree village. Bradley, please place the trading case we prepared inside the shuttle.” They had selected possible trade goods, ranging from primitive and low technology items such as fire starters, jewelry, fabrics, hand tools, up to com sets and video players, for showing the Prada about humans. There was no way to know what level of technology the Krall slaves had retained after the Krall left them here, possibly a long time ago.

One of the lab techs eagerly volunteered to go with them. Hakeem Taleb was the man who had announced the wolf like animal was safe to eat. He took one of the portable organic analyzers purchased on Poldark. It was possible that local food or drink might be offered if the meeting went well.

Sarah Bradley had put off her research at Hub City to participate. She wasn’t a qualified linguist, but in working with the Raspani, she had acquired a sizable vocabulary of their words, and a considerable command of low Krall speech, because the Raspani understood many phrases in that language.

All of those going on the trip to the village had previously studied low Krall, particularly in the last month, as part of preparedness for meeting the Prada. It was assumed that any slave race would know some of the Krall low frequency language. The Krall themselves had proven to have a facility for learning languages, and picked up vocabulary quickly. However, they used only their own language with the Raspani, so that might be the best method of early communication with any species they had enslaved.

The quickest source of translation would be from Kap, because the AI had copied Jake’s complete store of information on Krall speech. He could start building a new vocabulary of the Prada language as soon as he saw and heard them speak. The new transducers they had received would function out to at least seventy miles, so Kap would be able to hear what they heard, and feed them information at the village by transducer. They would only be thirty miles away.