The Black Pod (2 page)

Adams didn’t know if the
beast’s physiology was compatible, but he treated it with the
nanites anyway. When he sprayed
its
muzzle it sneezed, and the
girl actually laughed for a moment, until the
creature
began
to push her forward with its lowered head.

It wasn’t just smoke coming their way
this time. The grasses were on fire, and it was moving towards
them. The girl led the charge to the ramp leading into the Black
Pod. With all the gear down, sitting in the tall grasses, the pod
looked like a great, black dome of a building that had been there
since the dawn of time.

They ran.

***

The hatch closed behind
them just before another cloud of smoke engulfed them. Safe inside
the lower deck of the pod, the girl fell flat on her face as soon
as she hit the
heavy
gravity plating.

“
Box, grav-plates off,
please.” He saw the girl react when it returned to
normal.

She sat up and started speaking
rapidly to Adams. He could tell by the upward inflection in her
voice that she was asking questions. He thought he recognized a
single word: “Keeper.”

He started to speak
over
her, “Please, I cannot understand you. Do you speak English?
Are you a colonist? What is the name of this planet? I am here from
Earth.”

She became quiet. Adams
did not know what he said to cause this, but she fell to her knees
and placed her forehead
on
the floor at his feet. The beast
slowly moved
to
position
itself protectively between the
girl and Adams.

Alarms sounded in the otherwise quiet
room. Not so loud as to panic his guests, but urgent nonetheless.
Box reported, “Passive sensors have discovered that there is comms
traffic. Sat-based. Air traffic has also been detected.”

“
Oh
shit,
” he said
as he climbed the ladder to the control room. “Tactical display,
Box.” A map appeared to Adams’ right. It was more detailed than he
had expected of this continent. It had distant cities annotated and
comm signal points of origin. It even had their position and
the best
guess at the fire’s progress around them.

Tony was worried that ships would come
to mop up. The tactical map revealed that only four were currently
detected in the air, all on vectors away from his location. They
were easy to track because they emitted constant ident codes on a
side beacon.

Box speculated, “They look like old
colony shuttles, based on these protocols. And not many of
them.”

“
Where did you get these
maps?”
Adams asked as
he looked closer.

“
A prior survey. No dates.
No additional information. How odd.” Tony had never heard Box sound
puzzled before.

He hadn’t noticed when the girl
climbed the ladder to stand behind him. Her mouth was wide
open.

***

Together they watched the
entire forest burn nearly flat over the next days. When it began to
rain, it was too late. Now all was
black,
as if to welcome and
hide the pod. They watched the night sky as more debris fell,
burning up in the atmosphere.

The girl seemed to assume
that when he spoke out loud to Box that he was
talking
to her.
After the second
day,
she began to talk a lot.
She
spoke to
Adams
. She
spoke
to the beast. She
just talked. Adams gathered that her name was Wynn. The beast’s
name was either Telis or Lane. She seemed to refer to him as
both.

And she healed.

The beast called
Lane
recovered
as well. The nanites must have been working. It
drank enormous amounts of water. The girl only had a slight fever.
He managed to convey to Wynn that she should not scratch and she
somehow communicated that to Lane.

On the second
day,
they had let the animal outside. It ran full speed into the
scorched remains of the forest.

“
Tony,” Box said, “I think
she is speaking a heavily accented and colloquial version of
English. If this is true, with
time,
I can begin to translate
via your personal Heads Up Display. With your help, I may be able
to engage her to do a vocabulary session.”

Tony was sitting in the
command chair and said, “Wynn, come here.” She seemed to understand
the word ‘come,’ much as a dog would. She climbed up and sat on the
wide
armrest of the
massive chair
. Tony was amused when she
handed him an oatmeal protein bar. She had one as well. She loved
them.

An image of the Chief displayed on the
screen. He pointed and said, “Tony.”

She pointed to him and said,
“Tony.”

The image changed to a still of the
beast. Tony said, “Telis.”

She said, “Lane.” She pointed to
herself and said, “Wynn,” without prompting.

The image changed to one
of fire. She said a single word, then “
rain”
and “trees” and
“water,” and it went on like that for a long time. It was like a
wondrous game for her.

“
Box, how do you think she
would react to an Avatar? It might make things easier. If we pick
one that is gentle, female, soft spoken?” Adams asked.

In his personal HUD, Box showed him an
attractive woman wearing the same type of homespun dress that the
girl had been in when he found her, minus the char and
damage.

Wynn was wearing a
man’s
T-shirt
from stores now. She seemed to love it.
It hung down below her knees,
she was so tiny.

As they
spoke,
Lane reappeared from the
char
of the forest. He held a
deer in his jaws, dragging it back to the pod.
Wynn shot down the ladder and was
literally hopping up and down, she wanted the door opened so
badly.

When the ramp was
completely down, Lane was waiting for her, with the deer as
an
offering
.

***

“
She is requesting a
knife. A sharp one.” Box translated in his HUD-like
subtitles.

Adams drew out his own belt knife and
handed it to her saying, “Careful. Sharp.”

She looked at the blade critically. It
was black and indestructible. The edge was just a few microns
thick. It was sharper than any steel blade ever made. She was quick
with it.

She did an odd kind of
butchery. First she split the deer’s hide along the length
of
its
spine and quickly extracted long, thick sections
of meat from either side of
its
backbone. She handed these
to Adams and moved on to one of the rear legs. Starting at the
lowest joint, she
peeled
the
hide
back until
the
haunch
was skinned and the meat exposed. She expertly
removed the entire leg at the pelvic joint.

Lane sat nearby all the
while, scanning the area in all directions. Wynn had communicated
that Lane
was in
fact
a “he”, and that he was a Telis
Raptor. The species name, Adams presumed.

Wynn stood and lifted the
haunch of meat to her
shoulder. She
stepped back and paused
saying, “Lane.” The beast looked at her face at full attention. Its
lips drew back in a parody of a horrific smile. Its long fangs
reminded Adams of a saber-tooth tiger’s.

It waited.

She clicked her tongue,
and the beast tore into the deer. Savage ripping of flesh followed.
It gorged itself on the guts, meat and bones. In short
order,
there was only some hide,
hooves,
and the skull left.
Adams had not realized just how savage the beast really was until
then.

Turning back up the ramp
with a satisfied smile, Wynn began speaking quickly again. In the
small galley
kitchen,
she placed the meat in the
sink and began washing it. He knew as she talked she was demanding
something.

“
Box,
help
me
out
here,
” Adams said.

“
She seems to be
requesting
a container of some kind for the
meat.”

Adams opened a cabinet and
took out a large pot. She grabbed it from him, and as she finished
washing each piece she placed it in the pot. The single
hoof
comically stuck out the top. She
set
the pot in the
refrigerator.

Wynn washed her hands quickly as she
continued to talk fast.

“
Tony, I think she is
going to collect wild onions and some sort of root. She is also
asking for her own knife and belt,” Box translated with 80%
certainty.

He collected another knife
out of stores and was looking for a belt in the lockers when she
was suddenly at his side handing him his freshly cleaned knife
back. He traded it for the other sheathed one. Without
asking,
she reached into the
locker
and grabbed a belt
before he could pick one. She threaded the sheath onto it and then
wrapped it around her waist three times before buckling
it.

She waved to him over her
shoulder as she descended the ramp calling for Lane. As Adams
watched, she jogged
quickly
toward what remained of the
forest, with Lane running
alongside
. Her heavy boots
left clear tracks in the ashes of the clearing.

Adams wondered about her family for
the hundredth time as she disappeared into the charred skeletons of
trees that were still standing. She looked like she knew where she
was going.

“
Box, keep an eye out for
them. Close it up.” Adams turned away as the hatch slid
closed.

***

He took a shower, put on a
fresh set of clothes and managed to eat only
a protein
bar.

He climbed the ladder to
the dome level.
Box
had the external view turned on. It
was as if Adams were on a round platform about four meters from the
ground. He walked in a circle around the command chair and console
in the center. The late afternoon sun shone
brightly
on
the
fire's
devastation. The landscape was black and gray in
every direction.

“
It has a kind of beauty,”
Box said. Her computer generated avatar had appeared. It seemed
like she was standing on a ledge just on the other side of the
dome, her hand clasped behind her back. She stood at parade rest.
She wore a standard security team flight suit. Her ginger hair was
longer than shoulder length and moved gently in the breeze. Looking
over her shoulder she said, “We should move the pod.” Adams said
nothing.

“
We are far too exposed
here.” She looked again out over the vista as Adams sat heavily in
the chair. He pounded a button on the extreme right and the entire
console receded into the floor.

A flock of birds flew by overhead.
They looked like geese. He didn’t know for sure. It occurred to him
then that he had never seen a real one.

He drew out his Glock and set it on
top of his right thigh.

Box
remained quiet but present. She
changed her position now and then. Always looking out. Always in
his field of view.

Sundown came early, and it was
spectacular. He thought the smoke may have contributed.

He fell asleep.

His chin was on his chest.
He snored
lightly
as Box watched over him. The
twilight deepened and it became full dark with a sky full of bright
stars. The moon rose and was brilliant. Even over the
charred
vista,
it was
dazzling
.

Adams slept as
Box
kept silent vigil. There was no sign of Wynn.

***

The sun was just rising
over the
forest-covered
mountains in the east
when Adams began to stir. He raised his head as if he had been
asleep for only a moment.

“
Box, any sign of her?”
Adams asked quietly.

The command chair faced
directly south according to the augmented reality annotations on
the dome.
Box
was standing on the ledge to Adams’ right, the
sun and the breeze
on
her face. He stared at her red hair
as it drifted in the breeze. He marveled at the beauty, detail and
complexity of the simulation. He felt empty inside. He was denying
all except this very moment.