Alice - 2100, crossover fanfic
Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 8:24 pm
Alice2100, first story, "The jungle"
Alice, (trainee) biologist, a girl from Earth
The shuttle was climbing smoothly. We have passed the layer of clouds already, and the sky grew almost black. I adjusted my safety belts and looked around. A rather cramped four-seat cockpit painted light-gray, angular glasses of cockpit canopy. Two lads are sitting ahead – these are pilots. To my left, there is a blue-skinned girl with pointed ears and white hair. She is clad in blue-and-white overalls – which go well with her hair and skin. This is Beryl, my partner.
Our today’s task was not that important – not important at all, to be true. Arrive to the planet, fill up the hold with the beasties, that were stranded with care by automatic traps earlier, then depart home with them. Even so, most of the filling-up job was done by the lads, who undertook the heavy part of the job as perfect gentlemen. Many thanks to them for that, I myself wouldn’t have managed for sure. Not even with Beryl’s help, although she’s stronger than I. She and I were sent here as part of our training to become army biologists, to enable us “learn more about fieldwork”. This is plain pathetic! Filling in various cargo handling forms, this is all the work comes to. What can one learn in a matter of two hours, especially when practically everything is done for you by the automatics?! I sure understand: the war, and hence the intensive training course. At my 17, instead of the usual 22, I am already a fourth-grade student, near-graduate of the United Army Academy. But I am the daughter of Igor Seleznev, legendary professor of xenobiology, plus I can already boast of my own modest achievements in the field of science, but other students, my coevals, – what will they have time to learn?
I rubbed my eyes. Those nagging thoughts made me all sleepy, unwilling to do anything or think of anything. Beryl, it appeared, had read my thoughts and she offered me a sweet bar from her ration. I smiled at her, but didn’t take the bar. I closed my eyes and reclined to my head-rest, trying to make myself comfortable in the seat, to take a nap till we arrive. Oh well, dream on.
- Alice, we have some minor snag with the ACS1 ( 1 Air-Conditioning System ). Nothing lethal, but it’d do us no harm to sort out what’s up till we’ve travelled too far, - one of the pilots addressed me.
- What exactly is wrong?
- I guess sensors are out-of-order. Air consumption in the cargo compartment is not displayed.
- That’s where the beasts are… What d’you say? – I turned to Beryl, but she just shrugged her shoulders. – OK, land then.
The shuttle rolled into turn sharply. Safety belts and anti-g tubes were actuated again, and again my seat felt like it was made of iron. Small tongues of flame flickered behind the glass – we were entering the atmosphere. The shuttle shook several times, setting the maladjusted panels to creak and vibrate. On our further descend, gravity came to be of help, and we lowered to the level of clouds pretty quickly. Having made a couple of circles over the surface in search of a suitable landing spot, we commenced with landing. Behind us, I could hear flaps going down, while the released landing gear ski hooted beneath. The shuttle lifted its nose up sharply and, cutting off speed, it landed near-vertically right in the center of a small opening in the forest. In fact, it was rather a jungle than a forest, but that was obviously not the lads’ concern. When picking place for landing, pilots must think of a better landing comfort in the first place, last of all – of potential perils from the jungle.
Upon landing, we hurried to get rid of our safety harnesses. I made it faster than even the pilots, while Beryl, on the contrary, was unfastening everything with no hurry, closely following the instruction. Exit hatch lay almost behind the cockpit door, so we didn’t have a long way to travel through the shuttle, but then we had to jump – shuttles are not provided with stairways. The pilots picked up a step-ladder and stomped in the direction of the power compartment. Beryl remained standing in the hatch’s opening, while I went to check on the beasts. One could get to the cargo compartment only from outside.
Beryl, trainee biologist, a loroi
Here we are, on this planet again. This morning I found myself here for the first time, just like all of us in fact. As I could make it from conversations, this is a reserve, very seldom visited by any representatives of the sapiens species. Even the traps here had been set up by a robot. Talking about the traps, Alice and I were sent here alone, but some of the animals captured were pretty massive. I guess the instructors were counting on the fact that we, loroi, are stronger than humans. We are, but still, they’ve overestimated me apparently. The guys did all the work – I wanted to give them a hand, but they’ve rejected my help for some reason. I’m used already to seeing Earth men at work, even the heaviest one, but I can’t help feeling awkward all the same. They must be mad, using their men in such crude manner! They may be stronger than our males, and more numerous also, but like all humans they are deprived of such essential capacities as telepathy and telekinesis.
When others left the cabin, I didn’t follow them jumping down and remained inside the ship, poised by the exit hatch. I wanted to take a better look at this planet, to store it in my mind – hardly I’ll come back here ever. Alice calls this routine, but for me even two hours spent on a planet like this is a big event. The local sun was setting and its orange light dyed everything orange: the white body of our shuttle, the turquoise grass of the glade, the deep-green jungle which stretched up to the horizon. Even Alice’s black jacket and her dark-blonde hair were ginger now. Talking about Alice. There she was, walking now along the long body of the ship towards the cockpit hatch, where I stood. I read alarm and sulk emanating from her. It was all written on her face, in any case.
- Let’s go! – she snapped at me, turning on her heels sharply. I jumped down and followed her running. We climbed into the cargo compartment where our pilots already stood and where animals in their cages laid. Laid suspiciously still. I took a closer look at a small creature that looked like a terrestrial beaver who laid, not stirring and not blinking, with its mouth slightly open.
- Alice, it looks like… this one is dead. - I said uncertainly. Having served as a sniper already, I hardly felt qualms about deaths of the sapiens, but the animals…
- They all are dead. Could you give us the reason?
I nodded, while pulling a small scanner from behind my belt. These are singularly our, lorian scanners – we never give them to people or any other races. This is strictly forbidden, because it’s top secret. I crouched to bring the scanner closer to the animal, it irradiated the animal, beeped and produced on its display the animal’s tomographed image with several multicolored maculae. Despite the inscriptions being in Lorian, Alice who was looking over my shoulder, announced with certainty: “acute heart failure”. We checked the rest – all had the same problem.
- And so what does it all mean? Of stress, did they? – one of the pilots asked.
- Don’t know… Hardly our return could… - Alice shrugged her shoulders uncertainly.
- It has nothing to do with us, and with the AC system either!
- It looks like your traps have caught only old beasts! – the guys nearly attacked Alice, defending either themselves or their ship. Under their pressure, Alice took a step back, and I decided to support her.
- When we’re back at the base, it’d be up to them to decide whose fault it was and who’s to carry the responsibility.
- Who’s to be responsible for them but you?! Who failed to monitor them?!
For an answer, I placed my hand on my knife holster in a demonstrative manner.
- Enough! – Alice screamed, wedging in between us and throwing her arms apart. – The beasts are dead, aren’t they, and now it’s time to decide not whose fault it was but what we should do now. What exactly was the problem with the ACS?
- The sensors displayed zero air consumption.
- Meaning the air was not consumed?
- Well, yes, was not recycled, to be precise. Air here flows in a simple cycle. It goes to the impurities sensors first, then it’s purified in the filters, then air from the air bottles gets mixed in with it.
- And if impurities are absent?
- Then the air does not get mixed in.
- Impurities? Breath consumption, you mean? – I specified.
- You got it, carbon dioxide exhaled. Anyway, with the local fauna it’s carbon monoxide. Well, it all means that they died right on our takeoff. Indeed… Very strange.
- What are you going to do?
Alice peered through the open cargo hatch at the jungle.
- We’re going to set up traps again.
Alice, (trainee) biologist, a girl from Earth
Regretfully, all the beasts have died. And it isn’t clear why – for the beasts we had trapped were miscellaneous – some of them old, some young. Yet the reason of death was inevitably the same, as well as the time of death. We are going to have problems now, and the pilots too, we nearly had a fight with them about it already… and only a while ago I was complaining that there was nothing to do! To compensate for our mishaps, we’ll have to set up traps by ourselves now – next ship will have to pick them up later. Perhaps we’ll even manage to understand what exactly had killed the beasts. A shame the lads can’t join us – even if they wanted to, they’d hardly dare to leave the ship, and now, after our row, there’s no hope for that at all. A day here is twice as long as a terrestrial one, plus we are in high latitudes – sunset will last for four more hours at least, and still, all tells me that we are off for a night shift.
Beryl picked up several traps, I took a couple more. The tent, provisions and two power rifles we’ve agreed to carry in turns. And so we set off.
As soon as we dived under the jungle curtain, our nostrils were hit by a sharp sweetish smell. The clearing where our shuttle had landed, turned out to be a height – trees stood very high here, much higher than they appeared from the glade - with thick bright-green foliage. The branches were closing densely high above, forming a beautiful whicker ceiling or a cupola, with beams of flirty ginger light making their way through it here and there. Lianas, minor trees, bushes – all that was present here in great plenty, while the flowers were iridescent, yes, sir, iridescent with all colors of a rainbow! And yet, the out-of-line humidity typical for any terrestrial rainforest, was absent here. It was humid all right, but one could breathe here easily and with no effort. But what was weird – not a single sound around. No birds screeching, no insects buzzing, no rusting of some minor beasts in the bushes – nothing. Having walked for five minutes or so, I turned round to take a look at our ship, but I couldn’t see it – the jungle had closed in on us already! Seeing my confusion, Beryl gave me a questioning nod.
- Don’t mind me, it’s all right. It’s just the jungle had closed somewhat far too fast.
- Had it? I thought it was supposed to be that way.
- Ha, Beryl!.. Nature, whichever nature it is, doesn’t know any “supposed to be” - “not supposed to be”. At least, trees certainly don’t follow any instructions or programs.
- You made a strange specification. Was it essential?
- Oh well, the laws of nature exist anyhow, nothing is to be done about that, and besides, we sapiens are part of nature, too.
Beryl just shrugged. She possesses this pretty rare - even for people - gift to snatch out all the essential details. And thus, she tried to squeeze out most from what I just said.
- Does it seem to me, or are there very few animals round here? – she went on.
I took another look around. We have travelled a more considerable distance [from the ship] by now, and local lifeforms were gradually quitting to hide from us and camouflage themselves.
- They are here, they just hid because of our shuttle’s landing. Say, see that dry branch? – I pointed to one of the trees. Beryl nodded. I picked up some piece of wood from the ground and flung it at the “branch”. The piece of wood had missed, but that had proved enough in any case – the “branch” coiled up into a spring rapidly and made its retreat higher up into the branches. – There is another one of such “lianas”, see? – I pointed at another snake. – There are plenty of them here, and you, being telepathic, could have scanned the place by now. – In reply, Beryl only frowned fastidiously.
Alice, (trainee) biologist, a girl from Earth
We are marching for over two hours already, and still this jungle seems to have no end. No, I am aware of its dimensions pretty well, but indeed… To be honest, too, I don’t feel at ease in here somehow – this jungle is in some way different from all I knew before. It’s unclear, imperceptible, but there is something deeply wrong with this jungle. We have set up several traps already, and were now travelling almost light – each of us is carrying a rifle, to share the tent’s weight we split it in two, which proved possible thanks to its module construction. It was getting dark already, and we were looking for a place to spend the night.
- Maybe we should go to the riverbank? I saw the river as we were landing. – Beryl asked me.
- No, that’s a bad idea. The place must be infested with reptiles no doubt, plus local predators sure visit it for drinking. On the other hand, we do need an open space, you’re right here. And you made out it so well then?
Beryl nodded.
- And you could lead us there?
- I think I could. For my caste, strong memory is a standard. Could I ask you something, by the way?
- Go ahead.
- Why did the guys act in such a strange manner? They were so eager to help up at first – they’ve traced the captured beasts by the beacons, stowed them in the hold, but then, when it came out that the beasts were dead, they’ve started to put all the blame on you. Why?
- Well, at first they tried being sweet to us. But now, its not just us who’ll be punished for the beasts, they also will be.
- Being sweet? We just wouldn’t have managed on our own, their help was a necessity.
- No. This is called flirt, advances, this sort of thing… There are many words for it…
- You mean this was male courtship?
- Well, sort of yes and no… - I felt my cheeks flushing. – This is a kind of game, but at the same time a chance to impress – what if it works…
- What works exactly?
- A more serious relationship. – I replied diplomatically. However, Beryl got the idea.
- Oh well. Did you happen to like any of them? – she asked me with a hint of a smile.
- Well… they are both pretty sweet. And you?
- Me? Well, to be honest, the one who…
Beryl didn’t have time to finish. A bush right behind her has shot at her with a liana! I pushed her back automatically, and the liana swooshed past. But by then another liana was at me. Oh devil! My wrist felt scorched, I tried to set myself free, but the liana was dragging me up, into the greenery! A shot – Beryl’s shot split this liana in two, one more shot – and another one was agonizing on the ground. We set off running, me ripping off my hand the stinging whip as I was speeding. My set of traps, my rifle, my share of our provisions – all that was left behind. We ran for ten minutes approximately, until we reached a small glade. Beryl couldn’t keep to such a tempo any longer, neither could I. We both collapsed to the ground.
Beryl, trainee biologist, a loroi
Something unknown had attacked us in an unknown manner. We managed to break free, but we’ve lost part of our stuff – Alice dropped her provisions bag and the traps. Her rifle, too. Which is too bad, another rifle could be helpful. What a looser I am – lost focus for a moment, and as a result Alice had to protect me, to be injured in process. On the other hand, it’s hard to expect much speed from anyone – even a loroi – who’s heavily loaded with bags, plus we get overheated faster than humans. I hardly made it with all that load to the glade and fell on the ground. Alice tried to sit down, but she fell down too. It took us several minutes to get our breaths back.
When I was capable of standing up again, it was already twilight. Going deeper into the woods was out of question – even in daylight we nearly became someone’s prey. That was why, not to waste time, we were setting our tent up right here. Fortunately, we had both parts of the tent with us, which meant that the tent’s alarm system was here too. We worked as rapidly as we could manage. Alice was setting up the tent’s framework while I was spreading up the alarm system along the perimeter [of the glade]. The traps remaining with us served as a supplement to it. I also did the job of pulling the tent over its frame, while Alice attended to her hand. It looked like a pretty nasty wound. She treated the hand with a spray, but that didn’t help much. When everything was switched on and the tent was ready, I questioned her finally.
- What was that?
- A predator plant.
- What?!!
- Never heard of those? But yes, you were transferred from the geology section… See, there occur such degenerates of evolution. Incapable of sustaining themselves or even establishing links like common plants.
- But I thought… - what I’ve just heard came as quite a shock for me. On all four planets I’ve been to so far, I never heard of anything like that. – Was it a mutant?
- Sadly, nature gives birth to such creatures, too. Although, - Alice kept rubbing her wounded hand non-stop. – there were certain peculiarities here.
- A tree was trying to eat us…
- What’s the big deal? Plants like that exist on Earth too, only they’re considerably smaller. What was strange is that it had attacked us in particular. – Alice was trying to bandage her scarf around her burn that was developing more and more. – God, it stings!.. In wild nature, nothing happens for no reason. If a plant hunts, that means it either lacks nutrients, or else it defends itself. Soil here seems pretty fertile to me, and there’s enough light, which means, it was defense. But main enemies of all plants are insects and rodents. Those here are obviously not of our dimensions. All this just doesn’t make any sense. It just can’t be! Oh, dammit! – I saw blood oozing from Alice’s hand.
Thinking suddenly, I extracted a cooling package from my pouch quickly, broke it and pressed to her hand. She drew the scarf over this compress, then pressed the sick arm to her chest.
Having had a light snack with what we had remaining of our ration, we started settling down for the night. Alice was starting to have a splitting headache, so I gave her some tranquilizer. Then I made an attempt to contact the ship, yet to no avail – we were in lowland, and radio was not working here. I stuck my head out of the tent, to take a look around. Night fell already, and it was pitch-dark outside. All one could hear were the quiet sounds of some nocturnal animals rustling along the perimeter of the glade… When I got back in, Alice was asleep already. I turned on voltage on the tent’s surface, placed a loaded rifle next to me, stuck a chemical flashlight under my pillow and closed my eyes.
Beryl, trainee biologist, a loroi
I was woken by some rhythmical growing rumble. When I opened my eyes, it was already getting lighter outside. I unzipped the tent and looked around – the rumble was coming from the side of the slope from where we ran down here. Flocks of birds were rising from the trees that lay in the same direction. I crawled back into the tent, grabbed the rifle and started to wake Alice.
- Alice, get up! – no reaction. I touched her forehead and drew my hand back automatically – it was iron-hot! I tried to rise Alice up but to no avail. I dragged her out of the tent, and bending down, I threw her over my shoulder. Straightening myself up, I ran towards the river – I remembered where it was. When we reached the trees, I saw what it was rushing at us down the slope – a herd of huge steppe animals . Grey, dense, plenty of them.
I jumped into a large ravine – it should lead me to the river. Behind me, I could hear the alarm setting off, traps snatching and the animals trumpeting. But the traps failed to stop them, on the contrary, their whole mass rushed after me! Why?! Dropping Alice was unthinkable, I grabbed my rifle tighter and… I suddenly found myself on an open riverbank. As it turned out, the river was only a hundred meters away. I put Alice on the ground and made several shots at the ones running ahead – they fell, causing a jam – this spacey ravine was but a small footpath for them. The animals were trampling over each other, and while they were busy doing so, I took a quick look around. What a luck! There was a riffle at the river bending! Rising Alice back to my shoulder, out of my breath by then, I ran there. Several animals had managed to break through and they were now following me… To make a shortcut, they rushed after me right across the water, and there, from the fountains of splashes they’ve created, huge reptiles went to attack them! – just what Alice had been warning me about. Two of them attacked me, I’ve lost my balance and fell in the water, but I finished them off with the last bullets remaining in my rifle. I climbed up on the shore, carrying Alice in my arms and moving some distance away from the water to an open gentle slope, I placed her on the ground. When I caught my breath back and looked around, I spotted a small flat area rising amid the slope, with a small grotto beneath it. The place looked relatively safe, and I resolved to move Alice over there.
Beryl, trainee biologist, a loroi
We spent over half of the day sitting in that grotto. That is, I was sitting, while Alice lay almost motionless. Occasionally she’d made an attempt to stir or say something, but nothing but moans came from her mouth. I made no attempts to speak to her telepathically, afraid it may do her even more harm. Once I took a quick trip to the river to scoop some water and made a wet bandage around Alice’s forehead. What if it helps? For it was clear by now that that was poison, or maybe a virus.
Our first-aid kit, food, cartridges – it all remained in the tent. We had to return to the ship urgently, but I was afraid even to take a quick trip to the glade where our tent stood. The radio was dead, too. I was trying to think up something or to plan a safer route, for I could remember how this place looks from air. Bad luck, though, any the new route I could think of didn’t appear any safer than the one we arrived here by. A carnivorous plant could be anywhere, it didn’t look any different from any other bush (or perhaps it even was right here, concealed under a common harmless plant), and thus spotting it in advance, to bypass it at a safe distance was not an issue. Also there could be more of its likes that I’d like to think. Finally I came to a decision that that the safest way back was returning on our own trail, just as we had planned before. The single perilous place I did remember, our cartridges may well have remained intact back at the glade, besides, I could always apply telekinesis if required.
Right now, the issue was getting something to eat. Last time we’ve eaten was back at the orbit station, before we took off. Searching for berries or fruits may take too much time, besides there was no guarantee they won’t prove poisonous, so the only solution would be – a hunt. We were briefed a little about the local fauna, and for all we knew, it was potentially edible. I pulled my last remaining weapon – a jack-knife - from its holster, removed a belt from Alice’s waist and used it to fix the knife on the rifle’s barrel. A bayonet knife was supposed to go with this rifle, but we were not issued any, as always. Armed with my improvised spear, I climbed out of the grotto.
The option of going to the river I dismissed at once – the reptiles were too dangerous. The only way was going to the forest. I reached its edge pretty quickly and walked under its curtain with care. I didn’t pay much attention to it in the morning, but at high sun, it wasn’t not much lighter here than it was in twilight. But now the jungle was simmering with life – both upper and lower levels sheltered an enormous amount of birds. Birds here were of various sizes, shapes and colors. Some were not afraid of me, and now and then a bird would come so close that it looked like I’d be able to catch it with my bare hands. But they were such tiny birds that to satisfy one’s hunger, one had to eat at least a hundred of those. Again, they were so brisk, that at the slightest danger they’d vanish in a twinkle of an eye. Above, in the upper levels, scarcely moving their one-meter-long wings, large parrot-like birds flew - blue-and-red, their long tails bearing a pair of 3m-long ribbon-like tail feathers. It was one of such birds I’ve resolved to catch. I was going deeper and deeper into the woods while keeping a close eye on the birds. As it turned out, they never landed on the ground, they sat on trees exclusively, very seldom diving lower. Finally, one of the birds, attracted by a flock of tiny birdies who were pottering about in the earth not far from where I stood, has dared to come closer. As it let out its claws, and I was ready to fling my spear at it, two lianas shot at it suddenly from somewhere beneath the ground, dragging the bird down with them.
This forest is one big predator in itself…
I backed up, unwilling to become the next prey. Till the night fell, I kept trying either to catch something, or to make out how to tell a dangerous plant from the others, but neither worked. I returned to the grotto with empty hands. Damn! And that was what for I left you here all alone for so long… Please, Alice, forgive me!
Alice, (trainee) biologist, a girl from Earth
It hurts.
Hard to breathe.
Because of the pain, I can’t manage to concentrate.
OK, we focus on the sounds now. It helped last time, should help now as well.
I can hear some noise. It’s water, running somewhere beneath. Some squawks. Birds screaming? Must be. Over and over again. Am I alone? Was there someone with me? Some rustling. It’s footsteps. Something cold and wet touches my forehead. It makes me feel better. Should I open my eyes? I don’t have enough strength for that. But I’ll try.
My eyelids feel like they are made of lid. I can hardly open them. There is a silhouette hovering above me. Is it human? All is blurred. White hair, blue skin. Is she crying? She is crying and smiling at the same time. She calls me by my name. I know her. I surely know her. Beryl!
- Beryl… - I manage to squeeze out.
- Alice, you… Forgive me!
- What for?
- For leaving you here alone, in danger.
Here? Gradually, I come to. Here. Slanted ceiling. This is a cave. A small one. I’m lying on a stone floor. How did I come to be here? Beryl carried me. The grey beasts. I remember them.
- How are you?
- I?.. I’m fine. I went… - she cut herself short. – How are you feeling?
- Pretty shitty. Where did you go?
Beryl told me about her hunt, and also about how she was carrying me on her shoulder. All of a sudden, it all became so clear to me. All the inadequacies were gone. Things that looked stupid and illogical before, have now formed into a simple and clear logical chain.
- It’s all right, Beryl, calm down. Could you bring me to the river?..
Beryl, trainee biologist, a loroi
I couldn’t get any sleep last night. Perhaps the hunger, or the excitement, or this headache that’ getting heavier and heavier. Besides, I’ve spent much energy while taking Alice’s pain away telepathically. Let my caste be far from strongest in this skills, I did my best for her. And still, I’m feeling much better than Alice, though she says that I’ll faint soon, too. At the break of dawn, we leave the grotto. Alice is still too weak to walk by herself, so she’s leaning on me. We make our slow progress down to the river, to its dead channel, to be precise. I lead her following the map in my head, I haven’t been there myself yet.
We walked nearly a kilometer through the jungle. I helped Alice to remove her clothes, and despite my protests, she got in the water. She was trying to drag me in too but I refused. This is just too stupid – she knew of the water predators’ presence in the river, and now she was offering herself as a lunch to them. She was swimming, diving… Perhaps, of course, water now was a needed cooling agent to her body… And then, she didn’t dive out. I stopped breathing for a moment. Throwing off the top part of my overalls, I jumped in the water. Something grabbed me immediately, trying to drag me down. I beated it off with no effort – that was Alice! She simply enticed me to swim with her. To be fair, cold water really did make me feel better, only not for long. I got out quickly, pulling Alice out with me, screaming at her on the way for giving me such a scare. She just smiled at me. I almost forced her to put her clothes back on, but still I couldn’t drag her away from the river. She collected something from the ground, putting it in her pocket quickly. Then she scooped some riverwater with her empty flask, and drank it all up in almost one gulp. She was trying to make me drink too, but I resisted, naturally. In the end, she did manage to persuade me to take a few gulps. It was only then I’ve noticed – Alice did gain strength after that bathing.
Our trip back took longer [than our trip here]. First of all, we were walking uphill now, secondly, with each step I was feeling worse, I was having difficulties in breathing, and my headache was getting worse and worse. We made it to the grotto only by the afternoon, and we both fell on the floor exhausted. I could feel I was getting fever and my body growing week. Leaning on my back, I sat at the grotto entrance with my gun-spear. I tried to be on watch, for I realized how vulnerable we both now were. Gradually, some black stripes and colored circles started blocking my vision. I tried to ignore them, to keep up for as long as I could manage.
I tried to wave them away like some nagging mosquitoes, but that made it even worse. I got up sharply, but then the ground came very close for some reason… An impact.
I passed out.
Alice, (trainee) biologist, a girl from Earth
I pulled back the shutter and lowered the light – Beryl was beginning to come to. She lay on a campbed under a cooling blanket. Her clothes, which I first placed folded on a small chair, had to be moved the floor – I took the chair placing it close by Beryl’s sickbed. Her face was distorted with pain, and she was moaning haplessly, but that was already better than nothing – she was recovering. I took a cooling package, broke it and placed it on her forehead. She grew quieter and her ruby eyes opened slightly.
- Welcome back! – I smiled at her.
- Alice…
- Soon you’ll get your strength back, that’s how it was with me.
- Where am I?..
- You’re in the shuttle, and we are approaching the orbit station already. The lads had made a little refurbishment in here, moved the cages and set up a small hospital for us.
Beryl shut her eyes slowly, then looked at me sharply.
- But how?
- It’s simple. I’ve summoned the ship by the radio. Of course, I had to climb on top of that hill, the one that hosted our grotto, and also I’ve used that last bullet that you were saving for yourself in your bootleg. With its help, the lads had found us.
- So you know?..
- And how did you think? – I laughed. – But that was not the most interesting part. It was your words that made me understand what exactly was the matter here.
- How could you pass through?..
- Listen. I told you that nature doesn’t obey any programming. This is true, but only for natural nature, not the one created artificially. Everything in the forest was trying to kill us, even the things that are not supposed to be there in the first place – a plant that hunts birds, steppe animals that break through the jungle for some reason. All that had been created on purpose, to make anyone who finds himself on this planet, unable to leave it. Look! – I offered Beryl a metal plate, rust-eaten considerably, which bore scriptures in some unknown language. – I found it when we went swimming in that lake. I found plenty of them, in our grotto too, and in the jungle. It seems like there was a city down there once.
- Still, I don’t understand… What was the need for that?
- It looks like there was an epidemic down there. I think the ones who lived there and who created all that, have travelled to outer space and brought some disease from there. When they realized that they were dying, to save their remaining colonies, they’ve created an ecosystem which served as a weapon at the same time. They didn’t burn everything down to the ground, hoping perhaps that with time a vaccine may appear. But so as not to die before their time they invented a kind of insurance – another virus. It worked as a kind of an friend or foe system. The one who caught it and had been ill, became part of that world, and the world stopped reacting to him as to an enemy. And that was exactly what had killed our beasts – as we were leaving the planet’s exosphere, the virus killed them.
- But how about us?..
- We are now free from the virus. Sure it took some effort to find the cure, but now everything is fine!
Beryl gave me a trace of a smile and closed her eyes. I stroked her hair and got up to pour some water for her. This adventure had ended up happily for us – we were simply lucky to come back alive. Only, one thought kept bothering me – could the army command be aware of the danger and they sent us there to make us learn by ourselves how things stood? And learning that – was that our actual lesson? A pretty tough lesson, I should say.
The end.
Alexandr Koori
Translated by Tanya A.
Alice, (trainee) biologist, a girl from Earth
The shuttle was climbing smoothly. We have passed the layer of clouds already, and the sky grew almost black. I adjusted my safety belts and looked around. A rather cramped four-seat cockpit painted light-gray, angular glasses of cockpit canopy. Two lads are sitting ahead – these are pilots. To my left, there is a blue-skinned girl with pointed ears and white hair. She is clad in blue-and-white overalls – which go well with her hair and skin. This is Beryl, my partner.
Our today’s task was not that important – not important at all, to be true. Arrive to the planet, fill up the hold with the beasties, that were stranded with care by automatic traps earlier, then depart home with them. Even so, most of the filling-up job was done by the lads, who undertook the heavy part of the job as perfect gentlemen. Many thanks to them for that, I myself wouldn’t have managed for sure. Not even with Beryl’s help, although she’s stronger than I. She and I were sent here as part of our training to become army biologists, to enable us “learn more about fieldwork”. This is plain pathetic! Filling in various cargo handling forms, this is all the work comes to. What can one learn in a matter of two hours, especially when practically everything is done for you by the automatics?! I sure understand: the war, and hence the intensive training course. At my 17, instead of the usual 22, I am already a fourth-grade student, near-graduate of the United Army Academy. But I am the daughter of Igor Seleznev, legendary professor of xenobiology, plus I can already boast of my own modest achievements in the field of science, but other students, my coevals, – what will they have time to learn?
I rubbed my eyes. Those nagging thoughts made me all sleepy, unwilling to do anything or think of anything. Beryl, it appeared, had read my thoughts and she offered me a sweet bar from her ration. I smiled at her, but didn’t take the bar. I closed my eyes and reclined to my head-rest, trying to make myself comfortable in the seat, to take a nap till we arrive. Oh well, dream on.
- Alice, we have some minor snag with the ACS1 ( 1 Air-Conditioning System ). Nothing lethal, but it’d do us no harm to sort out what’s up till we’ve travelled too far, - one of the pilots addressed me.
- What exactly is wrong?
- I guess sensors are out-of-order. Air consumption in the cargo compartment is not displayed.
- That’s where the beasts are… What d’you say? – I turned to Beryl, but she just shrugged her shoulders. – OK, land then.
The shuttle rolled into turn sharply. Safety belts and anti-g tubes were actuated again, and again my seat felt like it was made of iron. Small tongues of flame flickered behind the glass – we were entering the atmosphere. The shuttle shook several times, setting the maladjusted panels to creak and vibrate. On our further descend, gravity came to be of help, and we lowered to the level of clouds pretty quickly. Having made a couple of circles over the surface in search of a suitable landing spot, we commenced with landing. Behind us, I could hear flaps going down, while the released landing gear ski hooted beneath. The shuttle lifted its nose up sharply and, cutting off speed, it landed near-vertically right in the center of a small opening in the forest. In fact, it was rather a jungle than a forest, but that was obviously not the lads’ concern. When picking place for landing, pilots must think of a better landing comfort in the first place, last of all – of potential perils from the jungle.
Upon landing, we hurried to get rid of our safety harnesses. I made it faster than even the pilots, while Beryl, on the contrary, was unfastening everything with no hurry, closely following the instruction. Exit hatch lay almost behind the cockpit door, so we didn’t have a long way to travel through the shuttle, but then we had to jump – shuttles are not provided with stairways. The pilots picked up a step-ladder and stomped in the direction of the power compartment. Beryl remained standing in the hatch’s opening, while I went to check on the beasts. One could get to the cargo compartment only from outside.
Beryl, trainee biologist, a loroi
Here we are, on this planet again. This morning I found myself here for the first time, just like all of us in fact. As I could make it from conversations, this is a reserve, very seldom visited by any representatives of the sapiens species. Even the traps here had been set up by a robot. Talking about the traps, Alice and I were sent here alone, but some of the animals captured were pretty massive. I guess the instructors were counting on the fact that we, loroi, are stronger than humans. We are, but still, they’ve overestimated me apparently. The guys did all the work – I wanted to give them a hand, but they’ve rejected my help for some reason. I’m used already to seeing Earth men at work, even the heaviest one, but I can’t help feeling awkward all the same. They must be mad, using their men in such crude manner! They may be stronger than our males, and more numerous also, but like all humans they are deprived of such essential capacities as telepathy and telekinesis.
When others left the cabin, I didn’t follow them jumping down and remained inside the ship, poised by the exit hatch. I wanted to take a better look at this planet, to store it in my mind – hardly I’ll come back here ever. Alice calls this routine, but for me even two hours spent on a planet like this is a big event. The local sun was setting and its orange light dyed everything orange: the white body of our shuttle, the turquoise grass of the glade, the deep-green jungle which stretched up to the horizon. Even Alice’s black jacket and her dark-blonde hair were ginger now. Talking about Alice. There she was, walking now along the long body of the ship towards the cockpit hatch, where I stood. I read alarm and sulk emanating from her. It was all written on her face, in any case.
- Let’s go! – she snapped at me, turning on her heels sharply. I jumped down and followed her running. We climbed into the cargo compartment where our pilots already stood and where animals in their cages laid. Laid suspiciously still. I took a closer look at a small creature that looked like a terrestrial beaver who laid, not stirring and not blinking, with its mouth slightly open.
- Alice, it looks like… this one is dead. - I said uncertainly. Having served as a sniper already, I hardly felt qualms about deaths of the sapiens, but the animals…
- They all are dead. Could you give us the reason?
I nodded, while pulling a small scanner from behind my belt. These are singularly our, lorian scanners – we never give them to people or any other races. This is strictly forbidden, because it’s top secret. I crouched to bring the scanner closer to the animal, it irradiated the animal, beeped and produced on its display the animal’s tomographed image with several multicolored maculae. Despite the inscriptions being in Lorian, Alice who was looking over my shoulder, announced with certainty: “acute heart failure”. We checked the rest – all had the same problem.
- And so what does it all mean? Of stress, did they? – one of the pilots asked.
- Don’t know… Hardly our return could… - Alice shrugged her shoulders uncertainly.
- It has nothing to do with us, and with the AC system either!
- It looks like your traps have caught only old beasts! – the guys nearly attacked Alice, defending either themselves or their ship. Under their pressure, Alice took a step back, and I decided to support her.
- When we’re back at the base, it’d be up to them to decide whose fault it was and who’s to carry the responsibility.
- Who’s to be responsible for them but you?! Who failed to monitor them?!
For an answer, I placed my hand on my knife holster in a demonstrative manner.
- Enough! – Alice screamed, wedging in between us and throwing her arms apart. – The beasts are dead, aren’t they, and now it’s time to decide not whose fault it was but what we should do now. What exactly was the problem with the ACS?
- The sensors displayed zero air consumption.
- Meaning the air was not consumed?
- Well, yes, was not recycled, to be precise. Air here flows in a simple cycle. It goes to the impurities sensors first, then it’s purified in the filters, then air from the air bottles gets mixed in with it.
- And if impurities are absent?
- Then the air does not get mixed in.
- Impurities? Breath consumption, you mean? – I specified.
- You got it, carbon dioxide exhaled. Anyway, with the local fauna it’s carbon monoxide. Well, it all means that they died right on our takeoff. Indeed… Very strange.
- What are you going to do?
Alice peered through the open cargo hatch at the jungle.
- We’re going to set up traps again.
Alice, (trainee) biologist, a girl from Earth
Regretfully, all the beasts have died. And it isn’t clear why – for the beasts we had trapped were miscellaneous – some of them old, some young. Yet the reason of death was inevitably the same, as well as the time of death. We are going to have problems now, and the pilots too, we nearly had a fight with them about it already… and only a while ago I was complaining that there was nothing to do! To compensate for our mishaps, we’ll have to set up traps by ourselves now – next ship will have to pick them up later. Perhaps we’ll even manage to understand what exactly had killed the beasts. A shame the lads can’t join us – even if they wanted to, they’d hardly dare to leave the ship, and now, after our row, there’s no hope for that at all. A day here is twice as long as a terrestrial one, plus we are in high latitudes – sunset will last for four more hours at least, and still, all tells me that we are off for a night shift.
Beryl picked up several traps, I took a couple more. The tent, provisions and two power rifles we’ve agreed to carry in turns. And so we set off.
As soon as we dived under the jungle curtain, our nostrils were hit by a sharp sweetish smell. The clearing where our shuttle had landed, turned out to be a height – trees stood very high here, much higher than they appeared from the glade - with thick bright-green foliage. The branches were closing densely high above, forming a beautiful whicker ceiling or a cupola, with beams of flirty ginger light making their way through it here and there. Lianas, minor trees, bushes – all that was present here in great plenty, while the flowers were iridescent, yes, sir, iridescent with all colors of a rainbow! And yet, the out-of-line humidity typical for any terrestrial rainforest, was absent here. It was humid all right, but one could breathe here easily and with no effort. But what was weird – not a single sound around. No birds screeching, no insects buzzing, no rusting of some minor beasts in the bushes – nothing. Having walked for five minutes or so, I turned round to take a look at our ship, but I couldn’t see it – the jungle had closed in on us already! Seeing my confusion, Beryl gave me a questioning nod.
- Don’t mind me, it’s all right. It’s just the jungle had closed somewhat far too fast.
- Had it? I thought it was supposed to be that way.
- Ha, Beryl!.. Nature, whichever nature it is, doesn’t know any “supposed to be” - “not supposed to be”. At least, trees certainly don’t follow any instructions or programs.
- You made a strange specification. Was it essential?
- Oh well, the laws of nature exist anyhow, nothing is to be done about that, and besides, we sapiens are part of nature, too.
Beryl just shrugged. She possesses this pretty rare - even for people - gift to snatch out all the essential details. And thus, she tried to squeeze out most from what I just said.
- Does it seem to me, or are there very few animals round here? – she went on.
I took another look around. We have travelled a more considerable distance [from the ship] by now, and local lifeforms were gradually quitting to hide from us and camouflage themselves.
- They are here, they just hid because of our shuttle’s landing. Say, see that dry branch? – I pointed to one of the trees. Beryl nodded. I picked up some piece of wood from the ground and flung it at the “branch”. The piece of wood had missed, but that had proved enough in any case – the “branch” coiled up into a spring rapidly and made its retreat higher up into the branches. – There is another one of such “lianas”, see? – I pointed at another snake. – There are plenty of them here, and you, being telepathic, could have scanned the place by now. – In reply, Beryl only frowned fastidiously.
Alice, (trainee) biologist, a girl from Earth
We are marching for over two hours already, and still this jungle seems to have no end. No, I am aware of its dimensions pretty well, but indeed… To be honest, too, I don’t feel at ease in here somehow – this jungle is in some way different from all I knew before. It’s unclear, imperceptible, but there is something deeply wrong with this jungle. We have set up several traps already, and were now travelling almost light – each of us is carrying a rifle, to share the tent’s weight we split it in two, which proved possible thanks to its module construction. It was getting dark already, and we were looking for a place to spend the night.
- Maybe we should go to the riverbank? I saw the river as we were landing. – Beryl asked me.
- No, that’s a bad idea. The place must be infested with reptiles no doubt, plus local predators sure visit it for drinking. On the other hand, we do need an open space, you’re right here. And you made out it so well then?
Beryl nodded.
- And you could lead us there?
- I think I could. For my caste, strong memory is a standard. Could I ask you something, by the way?
- Go ahead.
- Why did the guys act in such a strange manner? They were so eager to help up at first – they’ve traced the captured beasts by the beacons, stowed them in the hold, but then, when it came out that the beasts were dead, they’ve started to put all the blame on you. Why?
- Well, at first they tried being sweet to us. But now, its not just us who’ll be punished for the beasts, they also will be.
- Being sweet? We just wouldn’t have managed on our own, their help was a necessity.
- No. This is called flirt, advances, this sort of thing… There are many words for it…
- You mean this was male courtship?
- Well, sort of yes and no… - I felt my cheeks flushing. – This is a kind of game, but at the same time a chance to impress – what if it works…
- What works exactly?
- A more serious relationship. – I replied diplomatically. However, Beryl got the idea.
- Oh well. Did you happen to like any of them? – she asked me with a hint of a smile.
- Well… they are both pretty sweet. And you?
- Me? Well, to be honest, the one who…
Beryl didn’t have time to finish. A bush right behind her has shot at her with a liana! I pushed her back automatically, and the liana swooshed past. But by then another liana was at me. Oh devil! My wrist felt scorched, I tried to set myself free, but the liana was dragging me up, into the greenery! A shot – Beryl’s shot split this liana in two, one more shot – and another one was agonizing on the ground. We set off running, me ripping off my hand the stinging whip as I was speeding. My set of traps, my rifle, my share of our provisions – all that was left behind. We ran for ten minutes approximately, until we reached a small glade. Beryl couldn’t keep to such a tempo any longer, neither could I. We both collapsed to the ground.
Beryl, trainee biologist, a loroi
Something unknown had attacked us in an unknown manner. We managed to break free, but we’ve lost part of our stuff – Alice dropped her provisions bag and the traps. Her rifle, too. Which is too bad, another rifle could be helpful. What a looser I am – lost focus for a moment, and as a result Alice had to protect me, to be injured in process. On the other hand, it’s hard to expect much speed from anyone – even a loroi – who’s heavily loaded with bags, plus we get overheated faster than humans. I hardly made it with all that load to the glade and fell on the ground. Alice tried to sit down, but she fell down too. It took us several minutes to get our breaths back.
When I was capable of standing up again, it was already twilight. Going deeper into the woods was out of question – even in daylight we nearly became someone’s prey. That was why, not to waste time, we were setting our tent up right here. Fortunately, we had both parts of the tent with us, which meant that the tent’s alarm system was here too. We worked as rapidly as we could manage. Alice was setting up the tent’s framework while I was spreading up the alarm system along the perimeter [of the glade]. The traps remaining with us served as a supplement to it. I also did the job of pulling the tent over its frame, while Alice attended to her hand. It looked like a pretty nasty wound. She treated the hand with a spray, but that didn’t help much. When everything was switched on and the tent was ready, I questioned her finally.
- What was that?
- A predator plant.
- What?!!
- Never heard of those? But yes, you were transferred from the geology section… See, there occur such degenerates of evolution. Incapable of sustaining themselves or even establishing links like common plants.
- But I thought… - what I’ve just heard came as quite a shock for me. On all four planets I’ve been to so far, I never heard of anything like that. – Was it a mutant?
- Sadly, nature gives birth to such creatures, too. Although, - Alice kept rubbing her wounded hand non-stop. – there were certain peculiarities here.
- A tree was trying to eat us…
- What’s the big deal? Plants like that exist on Earth too, only they’re considerably smaller. What was strange is that it had attacked us in particular. – Alice was trying to bandage her scarf around her burn that was developing more and more. – God, it stings!.. In wild nature, nothing happens for no reason. If a plant hunts, that means it either lacks nutrients, or else it defends itself. Soil here seems pretty fertile to me, and there’s enough light, which means, it was defense. But main enemies of all plants are insects and rodents. Those here are obviously not of our dimensions. All this just doesn’t make any sense. It just can’t be! Oh, dammit! – I saw blood oozing from Alice’s hand.
Thinking suddenly, I extracted a cooling package from my pouch quickly, broke it and pressed to her hand. She drew the scarf over this compress, then pressed the sick arm to her chest.
Having had a light snack with what we had remaining of our ration, we started settling down for the night. Alice was starting to have a splitting headache, so I gave her some tranquilizer. Then I made an attempt to contact the ship, yet to no avail – we were in lowland, and radio was not working here. I stuck my head out of the tent, to take a look around. Night fell already, and it was pitch-dark outside. All one could hear were the quiet sounds of some nocturnal animals rustling along the perimeter of the glade… When I got back in, Alice was asleep already. I turned on voltage on the tent’s surface, placed a loaded rifle next to me, stuck a chemical flashlight under my pillow and closed my eyes.
Beryl, trainee biologist, a loroi
I was woken by some rhythmical growing rumble. When I opened my eyes, it was already getting lighter outside. I unzipped the tent and looked around – the rumble was coming from the side of the slope from where we ran down here. Flocks of birds were rising from the trees that lay in the same direction. I crawled back into the tent, grabbed the rifle and started to wake Alice.
- Alice, get up! – no reaction. I touched her forehead and drew my hand back automatically – it was iron-hot! I tried to rise Alice up but to no avail. I dragged her out of the tent, and bending down, I threw her over my shoulder. Straightening myself up, I ran towards the river – I remembered where it was. When we reached the trees, I saw what it was rushing at us down the slope – a herd of huge steppe animals . Grey, dense, plenty of them.
I jumped into a large ravine – it should lead me to the river. Behind me, I could hear the alarm setting off, traps snatching and the animals trumpeting. But the traps failed to stop them, on the contrary, their whole mass rushed after me! Why?! Dropping Alice was unthinkable, I grabbed my rifle tighter and… I suddenly found myself on an open riverbank. As it turned out, the river was only a hundred meters away. I put Alice on the ground and made several shots at the ones running ahead – they fell, causing a jam – this spacey ravine was but a small footpath for them. The animals were trampling over each other, and while they were busy doing so, I took a quick look around. What a luck! There was a riffle at the river bending! Rising Alice back to my shoulder, out of my breath by then, I ran there. Several animals had managed to break through and they were now following me… To make a shortcut, they rushed after me right across the water, and there, from the fountains of splashes they’ve created, huge reptiles went to attack them! – just what Alice had been warning me about. Two of them attacked me, I’ve lost my balance and fell in the water, but I finished them off with the last bullets remaining in my rifle. I climbed up on the shore, carrying Alice in my arms and moving some distance away from the water to an open gentle slope, I placed her on the ground. When I caught my breath back and looked around, I spotted a small flat area rising amid the slope, with a small grotto beneath it. The place looked relatively safe, and I resolved to move Alice over there.
Beryl, trainee biologist, a loroi
We spent over half of the day sitting in that grotto. That is, I was sitting, while Alice lay almost motionless. Occasionally she’d made an attempt to stir or say something, but nothing but moans came from her mouth. I made no attempts to speak to her telepathically, afraid it may do her even more harm. Once I took a quick trip to the river to scoop some water and made a wet bandage around Alice’s forehead. What if it helps? For it was clear by now that that was poison, or maybe a virus.
Our first-aid kit, food, cartridges – it all remained in the tent. We had to return to the ship urgently, but I was afraid even to take a quick trip to the glade where our tent stood. The radio was dead, too. I was trying to think up something or to plan a safer route, for I could remember how this place looks from air. Bad luck, though, any the new route I could think of didn’t appear any safer than the one we arrived here by. A carnivorous plant could be anywhere, it didn’t look any different from any other bush (or perhaps it even was right here, concealed under a common harmless plant), and thus spotting it in advance, to bypass it at a safe distance was not an issue. Also there could be more of its likes that I’d like to think. Finally I came to a decision that that the safest way back was returning on our own trail, just as we had planned before. The single perilous place I did remember, our cartridges may well have remained intact back at the glade, besides, I could always apply telekinesis if required.
Right now, the issue was getting something to eat. Last time we’ve eaten was back at the orbit station, before we took off. Searching for berries or fruits may take too much time, besides there was no guarantee they won’t prove poisonous, so the only solution would be – a hunt. We were briefed a little about the local fauna, and for all we knew, it was potentially edible. I pulled my last remaining weapon – a jack-knife - from its holster, removed a belt from Alice’s waist and used it to fix the knife on the rifle’s barrel. A bayonet knife was supposed to go with this rifle, but we were not issued any, as always. Armed with my improvised spear, I climbed out of the grotto.
The option of going to the river I dismissed at once – the reptiles were too dangerous. The only way was going to the forest. I reached its edge pretty quickly and walked under its curtain with care. I didn’t pay much attention to it in the morning, but at high sun, it wasn’t not much lighter here than it was in twilight. But now the jungle was simmering with life – both upper and lower levels sheltered an enormous amount of birds. Birds here were of various sizes, shapes and colors. Some were not afraid of me, and now and then a bird would come so close that it looked like I’d be able to catch it with my bare hands. But they were such tiny birds that to satisfy one’s hunger, one had to eat at least a hundred of those. Again, they were so brisk, that at the slightest danger they’d vanish in a twinkle of an eye. Above, in the upper levels, scarcely moving their one-meter-long wings, large parrot-like birds flew - blue-and-red, their long tails bearing a pair of 3m-long ribbon-like tail feathers. It was one of such birds I’ve resolved to catch. I was going deeper and deeper into the woods while keeping a close eye on the birds. As it turned out, they never landed on the ground, they sat on trees exclusively, very seldom diving lower. Finally, one of the birds, attracted by a flock of tiny birdies who were pottering about in the earth not far from where I stood, has dared to come closer. As it let out its claws, and I was ready to fling my spear at it, two lianas shot at it suddenly from somewhere beneath the ground, dragging the bird down with them.
This forest is one big predator in itself…
I backed up, unwilling to become the next prey. Till the night fell, I kept trying either to catch something, or to make out how to tell a dangerous plant from the others, but neither worked. I returned to the grotto with empty hands. Damn! And that was what for I left you here all alone for so long… Please, Alice, forgive me!
Alice, (trainee) biologist, a girl from Earth
It hurts.
Hard to breathe.
Because of the pain, I can’t manage to concentrate.
OK, we focus on the sounds now. It helped last time, should help now as well.
I can hear some noise. It’s water, running somewhere beneath. Some squawks. Birds screaming? Must be. Over and over again. Am I alone? Was there someone with me? Some rustling. It’s footsteps. Something cold and wet touches my forehead. It makes me feel better. Should I open my eyes? I don’t have enough strength for that. But I’ll try.
My eyelids feel like they are made of lid. I can hardly open them. There is a silhouette hovering above me. Is it human? All is blurred. White hair, blue skin. Is she crying? She is crying and smiling at the same time. She calls me by my name. I know her. I surely know her. Beryl!
- Beryl… - I manage to squeeze out.
- Alice, you… Forgive me!
- What for?
- For leaving you here alone, in danger.
Here? Gradually, I come to. Here. Slanted ceiling. This is a cave. A small one. I’m lying on a stone floor. How did I come to be here? Beryl carried me. The grey beasts. I remember them.
- How are you?
- I?.. I’m fine. I went… - she cut herself short. – How are you feeling?
- Pretty shitty. Where did you go?
Beryl told me about her hunt, and also about how she was carrying me on her shoulder. All of a sudden, it all became so clear to me. All the inadequacies were gone. Things that looked stupid and illogical before, have now formed into a simple and clear logical chain.
- It’s all right, Beryl, calm down. Could you bring me to the river?..
Beryl, trainee biologist, a loroi
I couldn’t get any sleep last night. Perhaps the hunger, or the excitement, or this headache that’ getting heavier and heavier. Besides, I’ve spent much energy while taking Alice’s pain away telepathically. Let my caste be far from strongest in this skills, I did my best for her. And still, I’m feeling much better than Alice, though she says that I’ll faint soon, too. At the break of dawn, we leave the grotto. Alice is still too weak to walk by herself, so she’s leaning on me. We make our slow progress down to the river, to its dead channel, to be precise. I lead her following the map in my head, I haven’t been there myself yet.
We walked nearly a kilometer through the jungle. I helped Alice to remove her clothes, and despite my protests, she got in the water. She was trying to drag me in too but I refused. This is just too stupid – she knew of the water predators’ presence in the river, and now she was offering herself as a lunch to them. She was swimming, diving… Perhaps, of course, water now was a needed cooling agent to her body… And then, she didn’t dive out. I stopped breathing for a moment. Throwing off the top part of my overalls, I jumped in the water. Something grabbed me immediately, trying to drag me down. I beated it off with no effort – that was Alice! She simply enticed me to swim with her. To be fair, cold water really did make me feel better, only not for long. I got out quickly, pulling Alice out with me, screaming at her on the way for giving me such a scare. She just smiled at me. I almost forced her to put her clothes back on, but still I couldn’t drag her away from the river. She collected something from the ground, putting it in her pocket quickly. Then she scooped some riverwater with her empty flask, and drank it all up in almost one gulp. She was trying to make me drink too, but I resisted, naturally. In the end, she did manage to persuade me to take a few gulps. It was only then I’ve noticed – Alice did gain strength after that bathing.
Our trip back took longer [than our trip here]. First of all, we were walking uphill now, secondly, with each step I was feeling worse, I was having difficulties in breathing, and my headache was getting worse and worse. We made it to the grotto only by the afternoon, and we both fell on the floor exhausted. I could feel I was getting fever and my body growing week. Leaning on my back, I sat at the grotto entrance with my gun-spear. I tried to be on watch, for I realized how vulnerable we both now were. Gradually, some black stripes and colored circles started blocking my vision. I tried to ignore them, to keep up for as long as I could manage.
I tried to wave them away like some nagging mosquitoes, but that made it even worse. I got up sharply, but then the ground came very close for some reason… An impact.
I passed out.
Alice, (trainee) biologist, a girl from Earth
I pulled back the shutter and lowered the light – Beryl was beginning to come to. She lay on a campbed under a cooling blanket. Her clothes, which I first placed folded on a small chair, had to be moved the floor – I took the chair placing it close by Beryl’s sickbed. Her face was distorted with pain, and she was moaning haplessly, but that was already better than nothing – she was recovering. I took a cooling package, broke it and placed it on her forehead. She grew quieter and her ruby eyes opened slightly.
- Welcome back! – I smiled at her.
- Alice…
- Soon you’ll get your strength back, that’s how it was with me.
- Where am I?..
- You’re in the shuttle, and we are approaching the orbit station already. The lads had made a little refurbishment in here, moved the cages and set up a small hospital for us.
Beryl shut her eyes slowly, then looked at me sharply.
- But how?
- It’s simple. I’ve summoned the ship by the radio. Of course, I had to climb on top of that hill, the one that hosted our grotto, and also I’ve used that last bullet that you were saving for yourself in your bootleg. With its help, the lads had found us.
- So you know?..
- And how did you think? – I laughed. – But that was not the most interesting part. It was your words that made me understand what exactly was the matter here.
- How could you pass through?..
- Listen. I told you that nature doesn’t obey any programming. This is true, but only for natural nature, not the one created artificially. Everything in the forest was trying to kill us, even the things that are not supposed to be there in the first place – a plant that hunts birds, steppe animals that break through the jungle for some reason. All that had been created on purpose, to make anyone who finds himself on this planet, unable to leave it. Look! – I offered Beryl a metal plate, rust-eaten considerably, which bore scriptures in some unknown language. – I found it when we went swimming in that lake. I found plenty of them, in our grotto too, and in the jungle. It seems like there was a city down there once.
- Still, I don’t understand… What was the need for that?
- It looks like there was an epidemic down there. I think the ones who lived there and who created all that, have travelled to outer space and brought some disease from there. When they realized that they were dying, to save their remaining colonies, they’ve created an ecosystem which served as a weapon at the same time. They didn’t burn everything down to the ground, hoping perhaps that with time a vaccine may appear. But so as not to die before their time they invented a kind of insurance – another virus. It worked as a kind of an friend or foe system. The one who caught it and had been ill, became part of that world, and the world stopped reacting to him as to an enemy. And that was exactly what had killed our beasts – as we were leaving the planet’s exosphere, the virus killed them.
- But how about us?..
- We are now free from the virus. Sure it took some effort to find the cure, but now everything is fine!
Beryl gave me a trace of a smile and closed her eyes. I stroked her hair and got up to pour some water for her. This adventure had ended up happily for us – we were simply lucky to come back alive. Only, one thought kept bothering me – could the army command be aware of the danger and they sent us there to make us learn by ourselves how things stood? And learning that – was that our actual lesson? A pretty tough lesson, I should say.
The end.
Alexandr Koori
Translated by Tanya A.