Koban: Rise of the Kobani (37 page)

She started up the slope, making a wide detour around the dead monster. Ricco, with a grenade in his hand, realized he didn’t have the pin to relock the handle. “Neri, what did you do with the pin?”

She looked back, and said her last words to him. “I dropped it on the floor or seat. I don’t remember for sur…” The sentence wasn’t completed, and if it had been, it was doubtful Ricco would have been listening.

The fourth plesiosauriod, unharmed by the gunfire in the outer wave, knew the fleeing prey could not have escaped the rush of their joint bow wave, and it wanted its share of the food the cooperative effort the four had made possible. His older female sibling and an aunt had abandoned the attack for some reason, and he heard their receding echoes and pain cries as they fled deeper into the home lake. He knew nothing of the wounds they had received. All he knew was that the feast on their prey would be in the lower pool as usual, with less sharing today.

It swam back towards the ridge from where it had briefly retreated, while his more massive mother completed sweeping the prey over the ledge and into the feeding pool. Coming up from deeper in the home lake, there was no need to push the energy draining surface bow wave to sweep the prey off the ledge now. It sensed the echo reflection of the wall as it approached where the prey had been. It arrowed out of the water onto the smooth ledge, to skim over into the pool. It quickly sighted the oddly square looking prey still there, his quivering mother pressed against it, and a small animal near her extended head. 

Cory and Danner instantly whirled and simultaneously raised their heavy rifles, seeking the hump at the base of the neck in the concealing spray of dark water as the big animal jetted onto the ledge. 

The young adult plesiosauriod saw his mother’s enormous form resting close to the path his wet glide on the smoothed slick rock would take him. He quickly rolled to his right to barely skim past her, and felt painful stinging sensations on his now exposed underside that burned their way deep into his body. Several of those burning tracks resulted in powerful impacts on the bony case that surrounded and protected his brain and its nexus of nerves.

However, as an experienced hunter, he didn’t let this pain distract it from visually tracking the land animal near his mother’s extended jaws. He recognized that without water surrounding her flippers, his mother had been unable to turn quickly, and had missed seizing the prey in her lunge. With a swift clack of its own jaws, it snatched the small prey in passing. It was easier than catching the fast and agile swimmers they hunted in the lake.

Sliding into the feeding pool, it had only seconds to enjoy that bite of food it had caught. Suddenly, in a shattering concussion, it lost sensations from its mouth, eyes, and his sensitive echo ranging ears. Something had struck him painfully in the head, and he couldn’t feel the prey in his jaws.

The force of the blow cracked the hard case around its brain at the base of its neck, already damaged by the burning and stinging pains. His thinking was numbed, and he lost muscle control so that he was unable to swim. In total darkness now, he couldn’t make the echolocation sounds used to find objects and prey in these murky waters. He drifted down slowly, as he felt the nibbling of the first of the smaller predators drawn to his blood. They always tried to steal pieces of prey as his family fed in their messy manner. It dimly understood in its primitive way that he was their prey today.

****

The painful memorial ceremony was over for the seven that would continue the expedition. They each had stood up and spoke their goodbyes to Ricco, and talked of the many things he had accomplished or done for them, of the many friends he had. The four cats were more pragmatic about the death, being predators themselves the act of a different predator taking a member of the pride as prey was a natural way of the world. They recalled the times he had provided them belly rubs when they were kittens, the few hunts they had made with him.

For the others, especially Neri, it was difficult while it was so fresh in their minds to blot out the vision of his sudden death. They all thought he had narrowly escaped with Neri.

She felt guilty that Ricco had stood there, exposed on the ledge in the shallow water, delaying only a few seconds longer than she had, taking the time to try to defuse the grenade she’d been holding. His look of startled surprise would haunt her, as another of the beasts, slightly smaller than the one that attacked their truck, seemed to spring from the lake and glide over the slick rock towards him.

It happed so fast in her state of shock that she didn’t hear the futile gunfire from behind her, or actually see the jaws snatch Ricco because she had cringed back from the spray of water, her eyes squeezed closed. He was simply gone when her eyes reopened.

The thump of an underwater explosion, and bloody bubbles erupting seconds later proved that Ricco was avenged by his own hand. She first thought it was an accidental result of his being killed, and simply releasing the grenade as he died. Cory’s higher rate of mental and visual processing showed her an edited down set of mental images, which proved that Ricco had taken deliberate action at the very end as he met his attacker.

In the Mind Tap images, she again saw his look of surprise as the creature exploded from the water, but she saw Ricco lift his left thumb, the grenade handle spinning away, and him thrusting his arm straight into the open maw sweeping towards him.

Rigson had reported Ricco’s death to Prime City, but had refused their evacuation proposal, after consulting with the other expedition members. They all wanted to continue, to locate the source of the mineral wealth the colony needed to pay for what it needed. The fun sense of adventure was gone, but the exploration trek along the river would continue.

Two months later, and a nighttime K-Rex kill behind them, they found the rich parent deposits of the precious metal traces detected by satellite spectrographs on the upper riverbanks and sand bars. The future mines were located near the mountain headwaters of the Ricco River.

On Haven, it was time to meet the neighbors. The shuttle lifted from beside the Beagle, and picked up speed towards the abandoned dome, and the inhabited forest a few miles beyond that. Marlyn slowed as they approached the dome, and noted holes in the windows and part of the dirty and formerly transparent roof. Enough dirt had blown onto the half-mile wide circular tarmac that grass and low bushes were growing over much of its surface. Where wind had blown drifts of dirt and debris against the sides of the dome, thick vines had grown up almost to the highest levels. This dome was a dilapidated clone of the one at Prime City, making it roughly fifty percent smaller than the one at Hub City. This dome was about the size a Krall finger clan might build as a first settlement.

A number of rabbit or gopher-size animals were seen scurrying around the base of the structure, and ducked into burrows or underbrush. Hundreds of multicolored birds flew out of the holes in the dome windows and roof, in a panic at the noise of the thrusters. The panic only increased as the fleeing birds and flying reptiles sighted what would be seen by them as some huge predator hovering overhead, and the source of the screeching noise of attack.

Marlyn moved closer to the forest of huge trees, which started a few miles beyond the old dome. These trees were reminiscent of Earth’s sequoias, except they had a green-brown color to their thick rough bark rather than red-brown. Their foliage on the ends of multi branched limbs consisted of long drooping green needles, ranging from a few inches for new growth up to four feet long. There were a number of brown fist-sized objects mixed with them, probably a seed or clusters of seeds.

The slightly lower gravity here allowed them to transport the water and nutrients they required roughly fifty feet higher than Earth’s tallest trees. The tallest of these beauties topped out at about four hundred feet. The trunks of the largest trees at the base were also thicker by four or five feet than the largest sequoias. They were cathedral-like from below, and magnificent in their massive beauty.

The forest floor, as they drew closer was relatively clear under the thick shade of the high canopy, and carpeted with fallen dead needles. There were a number of well-worn paths through them between the trees.

From their lower vantage this time, it was easy to spot the structures built around the trunks, where the lowest sections were at least thirty feet above ground. There were differing levels, but they were not all layered the same, and occupied a different height on adjacent trees, with sloping or swooping walkways and rope lines between them. Rope ladders, some with wooden steps as spacers, hung to the ground from many of the lowest levels.

There were no Prada visible, and of course, it was impossible for them not to have heard the shuttle’s approach. Marlyn set down at the edge of the woods, under the smaller younger growth trees, about a half mile from the closest Prada habitation. The housing was more extensive into the deeper woods than had been visible from orbit.

Marlyn opened the hatch and was first out. She smelled the traces of pale smoke she could see drifting through the trees above her. A cooking smell was mixed with that, which she thought contained the odor of animal fat products. The Prada were probably omnivorous, like humans, and to a much lesser extent the Krall, who were predominately carnivores, but ate fruit and little amounts of vegetables and grains.

Standing in the hatchway, Hakeem ran a small electric pump for a moment to get an air sample in an inflatable bag, and dashed back into the shuttle to see what was in the traces of smoke. Bradley carried the trunk of trade goods out and set it next to the shuttle, placed his rifle out of sight behind that, and sat casually on the trunk, but on watch. The other Ladies stepped out to admire the trees, sniff the fresh cool air, and study the Prada structures.

Hakeem came out to join them, and proudly announced the results of the quick air sampling, using his new (to him) technology.  “That is definitely animal derived hydrocarbon byproducts in the smoke. Some of the Prada are having ham or bacon and eggs for breakfast.”

Marlyn thought it, but Maggi said it. “Nice to know that your ten thousand three hundred credit gadget confirmed what my home grown, self-pumping olfactory chemical analyzer, located in the center of my face already told me was true.”

Bradley said, “I saw a face peek out from one of the unshuttered windows of the house on that closest tree, second structure up from the bottom. It was small, like one of their children, and was jerked down by a hand on its head.” This was probably a parent, pulling back a curious youngster drawing unwanted attention from these strange aliens.

The assumptions that these were houses appeared logical and the sides were formed of long planks of milled wood, overlapping clapboard style to keep water out. All the windows were equipped with hinged shutters, and the doors were all closed. This was a mid-latitude location on the southern hemisphere, in early spring. The northern hemisphere, at the same distance from the equator as here, had patches of snow. These houses looked suitable for summer or winter habitation, suggesting the population was stable and not nomadic.

Maggi, impatient as usual to do something, was ready to start. “How about I walk into that clearing, where several trails cross and there are no houses directly overhead. I can call out an invitation to meet in low Krall, then Raspani, and finally Standard. The first two might be recognized, and assumed to match the content of the third greeting.”

Sarah nodded. “That might draw them out, if they understand either of the first two phrases at all, and you have to start someplace. Standing in the open, calling to them should seem like a clear invitation to talk, in any case.”

Marlyn had her doubts about the sample phrase selected from the Krall low language. “The Krall don’t exchange pleasantries with each other. What we would call an
invitation
translates very much like an order to ‘come stand before me,’ as our early captives heard from them all too often. We’ll sound pretty bossy to them.”

Shrugging, Sarah said, “There are no Krall phrases I can think of that sound less imperative. Based on what we heard from them as captives, they don’t even have word usage that is equivalent to our use of terms like
please, grateful,
or
pleasure
when we extend polite invitations in Standard. All of their words that we overheard, used to ask someone to come see them, translate into what sounds like demands in Standard. Our translations could be biased of course, because to them they were speaking to dumb ‘animals,’ but the implications that those were more than simple invitations from a Krall were derived from the consequences when a person did not follow the ‘invitation’ promptly enough. We are stuck with how the Krall spoke to us captives if we need to use their language.”

“Well watch my back and overhead as well, while I go talk to the fuzzy wuzzy critters.” She was done with discussion, and despite her nonchalant demeanor, she was excited and eager to meet the Prada. She couldn’t wait to offer to shake hands.

She walked confidently along the start of a well-used pathway, which suggested the Prada left the deeper forest to go out to the open grasslands frequently. From a recent rain, she saw animal prints in dried mud that looked splayed as if from a wide paw, but they were not pressed deep in the mud, for example as if from an animal as heavy as the newly named werewolf.

Walking into gloomy woods, she was regretting that playful bit of species naming fun, done to annoy the stodgy academic types she liked to provoke. It brought creepy thoughts to her mind now.

She also saw the narrow prints with the long grasping toes of the Prada, based on the orbital images of them walking on the walkways. The larger splayed prints clearly seemed to be from a four-footed animal, but not a huge one. The impressions were only a little deeper in the mud than the Prada prints, and must have been made at the same time. Some of one alternately overlaid the other, showing they had traveled together. That detail was a relief to her imagination, which the prints had activated.

She figured the peaceful looking little Prada wouldn’t be “playmates” with dangerous predators, totally overlooking the two rippers back at the Beagle, munching on the werewolf horror she had just named.

Observing the prints was proof to her that even apparently useless information might eventually come in handy. Dillon and Thad’s tracking lessons finally found an unlikely application for her. She had hunted with them a few times, just to shut them up about “everyone needing to understand” where their meat came from, and the risks and effort involved. She in turn forced them to sit through a city council meeting, to “understand” where stupid decisions came from, and why the effort to stay awake was mandatory, to oppose the dumbest of the proposals.

She reached the intersection of paths unmolested, and except for the one face Bradley had briefly seen, there was no sign the elevated village was occupied. Other than the certain feeling she had that many eyes were on her.

Well, here I go,
she thought. In her best drill sergeant manner, she strained her throat to rasp out her loud version of a deep voiced Krall leader, calling for a Prada leader to come meet with her. Then, she tried the invitation in easier melodious notes of the Raspani language, one she did not know, but had let Sarah teach her how to pronounce. Finally, she called, “Prada, I am a human visitor, please come down to meet with me.”

That last was phrased somewhat differently than in the other two languages (they had no alien word for human), but the gist of the invitation was the same. It was said more for the recordings than for the Prada, who wouldn’t understand Standard anyway. She had leaned back to let her voice carry upwards, and held her hands and arms out, to show she was holding no weapon.

She hoped the Krall pronunciation of the racial name “Prada” was the word they used to name themselves, and not some derogatory term the slave masters used for them. It was possible she had just called them “turds” in their own language, or had used their word for “animals,” which the Krall often used for human captives. The Raspani had seemed to recognize a picture of the Prada and used that same word. That could have been them merely repeating the Krall word.

She waited to find out if they would respond. There were noises from the forest, and birds and insects of various types had resumed moving about after the shuttle had been quite for a time.

Maggi had repeated the invitation a second time, and told the others by Link, under her breath, that she was going to repeat one more time before going over to the nearest rope ladder to shake it. Marlyn and Bradley simultaneously reported movement on a tree walkway, fifty yards deeper into the woods.

Marlyn finished describing what they had seen, but by then Maggi could see for herself. An adult Prada, gray with white markings, and black rings around the eyes had descended from a walkway by sliding gracefully down a rope, which it had just dropped over the edge. It kept its gaze on her the entire time as it descended, twitching its tail to counter a tendency of the rope to rotate it away from watching her constantly.

Behind this apparent representative, now there were numerous triangular shaped and pointed faces peering through windows, and from around tree limbs and trunks, where they had concealed themselves. Reaching the ground it hesitated, and pulled a small metallic looking tube from a pouch on a waist belt with its left hand. Kap, using the small amount of zoom on Maggi’s button camera, reported that it looked like a three-inch long, quarter inch thick hollow tube. It didn’t
appear
to be a hand weapon.

Maggi squeezed her left arm down briefly, to feel the comforting Jazzer holster under her tunic and armpit. The loose jacket had one middle button unfastened, to allow her to slide her right hand inside to draw the weapon if needed.

The impression that the tube wasn’t a weapon was reinforced when it placed the smaller end of the tube in the corner of its mouth, and lowered its hand. As it started walking towards her, she couldn’t help but grin. It looked like it had one of the twentieth century cigarettes dangling out of the side of its mouth, as she often saw in the old flat image movies, made decades before the nasty smoking habits died out.

It stood vertical on its legs, and they bent at the knee as a person did as it walked. It swung its arms slightly with each step, and the long toes pointed slightly out to the sides as it walked, with a slight sway side to side as it moved. It moved very sleekly, with a slightly sinuous motion of its slender body. It never took its eyes off her, but its blinking grew more frequent as it grew closer, the yellow eyes always locked on her. The increased blinking probably indicated an understandable nervousness.

As it came within about fifty feet, she noticed that a middle finger on each hand was at least an inch longer than the other three. An opposable thumb appeared to be a bit longer than a human’s was, at least in proportion to the other slender fingers, and it had narrow hands and feet. It looked as if it would have dexterity at least as good as a human’s hand, and from the smaller hand and finger size, might be better able to perform more delicate work.

There was a six-inch knife in a belt sheath on its right side, although it had removed the tube now hanging from its mouth from its waist pouch using its left hand. There was no way to determine handedness yet, if it indeed had any preference.