Arrival (37 page)

There was yet another factor for Sara to consider, one that she had been denying to herself for some time now. She
wanted
children. She
wanted
a family. Deep down inside, she knew it. And the feeling of security she had felt in Mac’s arms only served to reawaken that instinct within her.

“Good morning,” she greeted him as she stepped out of the hut.

“Good morning,” Mac returned, obviously happy to see her awake, alive and well.

There was something different in his tone, a sincerity that was usually missing. Mac knew how to be polite, on occasion. But those occasions were rare, and usually forced.

“How are you feeling?” Mac inquired.

“Not bad, considering,” she replied, not wanting to complain. In fact, she was feeling abnormally weak.

“Are you hungry?”

“A little.” She was actually famished.

Mac handed her one of the food portions he prepared.

Sara looked at the meager rations with disappointment. “Is this it?”

“Sorry,” Mac apologized. “I figured we better ration what little we have. No idea how long we might be stuck out here.”

“Really?” Sara asked, surprised by the news. “Have you heard anything?”

“They’re trying to build a raft to rescue us. They’re taking the floats off the pods. It’s not an easy task. I’d be surprised if they get to us today. Tomorrow, more likely.”

Sara looked down at her skimpy breakfast. “I see,” she replied as she selected a piece of dried fruit and popped it into her mouth. The last thing she needed right now was another day alone with Mac. She was confused enough already. “Did you already eat?” she asked, trying to make polite conversation.

“Yup. Same thing.”

“Is that going to be enough for you?”

Mac chuckled. “I’ll be alright. I’ve been getting a little chubby around the middle lately anyway. A little starvation will do me some good.”

“Yeah, right.” Sara remembered how firm his torso had felt last night. She’d be hard-pressed to find an abnormal amount of fat anywhere on his body.

Sara ate the dried fruit rather quickly, having developed an affinity for it over the years. Dried fruit was more common than fresh fruit on board the ship. It was the only way to keep it from spoiling between harvests.

The energy bar was a different story. She had never cared for them, they were awfully chewy and always left an unusual taste in her mouth. She ate it nevertheless, knowing that she needed the more complex carbohydrates if she was going to get through the day.

“It’s warming up rather quickly,” Mac commented, looking up at the sky. “Clouds are gone as well.”

Sara looked up. The two moons had drifted farther apart, and the sky was back to its usual brilliant topaz. “So, what’s the plan for the day?” she asked as she forced down another bite of the energy bar.

“Well, first, we have to find a fresh water source. I saw a couple of waterfalls when I was looking around the area yesterday. So we shouldn’t have any problem there. And Frank wants us to check on the flood levels to see if they have gone down at all since last night. After his little skirmish in the ocean, he’s probably hoping the water will go down enough for us to walk back across,” Mac laughed. “Probably lost his taste for saltwater, eh?”

“Probably,” she agreed. Until yesterday, she couldn’t imagine what it must’ve been like for Frank.

“We should probably collect some more firewood, just in case we have to spend another night here.”

“Do we have enough food for another day?”

“Nope. We barely have enough for today. If we have to spend a significant portion of tomorrow out here, we may have to live off the land.”

Sara didn’t like that idea. As a botanist, she had a pretty fair understanding of the risks involved in eating the indigenous plant life without thorough testing. And she had no desire to become a human guinea pig. But neither did she have the desire to go on a crash diet.

The idea of going back into the water and trying to swim across was looking more appealing now.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Fearing they would find food less available once they reached higher elevations, Jack and Will decided to set up camp just after lunch. They would spend the day hunting wild game in the hopes of finding and killing a significant source of protein. Jack had devised a method to dry meat in the Cetian sun. It would enable them to carry and consume the meat for at least a week at a time, making their journey across the mountains less problematic.

Jack moved quietly through the forest, attempting to move closer to his target. About forty meters away down a long narrow valley was a long, fat, reddish colored animal that resembled images of wild boars back on Earth. Based on strategies Jack had found in the survival guide, Will circled around the hill to the far end of the valley and had taken up a position just out of the creature’s line of sight.

Jack froze as the boar suddenly looked up, its concern peaked by the sound of Jack’s footsteps. Jack decided the animal did not have good distance vision, since it looked directly toward him, yet didn’t appear to see him.

Will, on the other hand, was certain the animal had spotted Jack, and he jumped out from his hiding place, whooping and hollering as he ran toward the animal. The boar-like creature, shocked by the sight of this unusual, and apparently psychotic, creature dancing in the distance, turned and ran in the opposite direction, directly toward Jack.

The creature lumbered along at a remarkable speed for an animal with such short, stubby legs. Jack raised his pistol as the boar approached him at an all-out run. Taking careful aim, he waited for the animal to get closer before firing. When the time was right, Jack gently depressed the trigger of his pistol, firing a single shot directly at the forehead of the charging beast. To his disbelief, the round bounced off the animal’s surprisingly hard skull, leaving nothing more than a small patch of torn, bleeding fur where it struck. The bullet failed to even knock it off its stride. Jack suddenly realized there was nothing wrong with the animal’s distance vision… The creature simply wasn’t afraid of him.

Jack fired again, this time without such careful aim. The round kicked up dirt as it struck the ground to the left of the onrushing boar, missing the animal completely. With no time left, Jack scurried up a nearby rock to escape the angry animal as it circled the rock, looking for a way to climb its sides and seek retribution for the unwarranted attack.

The boar-like creature snorted and growled as it paced angrily about the base of the rock, rearing up on its hind legs more than once to reveal its long, sharp fangs in a ferocious display. It worked, at first, and Jack realized he wanted nothing to do with this creature. But without an escape route, he was left with little choice. He fired round after round, some bouncing off the creature’s tough hide, others entering its body through areas of less resistance. Still, the creature refused to die.

The beast, now full of rage, reared up again, putting its front hooves on the rock as if trying to jump up in a single bound. Jack aimed for the animal’s open mouth, firing three rounds in rapid succession, all of which struck the boar directly into its snarling, red maw. Blood and tissue flew out of the creature’s mouth as its eyes filled with blood. The animal let out a painful squeal, then fell over onto its side, dark reddish-brown blood oozing from its wounds. Seconds later, its breathing stopped, and it lay motionless next to the rock.

After watching it for more than a minute, Jack decided the creature was dead, and jumped down from his perch. He gave it a tap with his boot, the boar’s lifeless body quivering from the blow. It was an ugly thing, with ragged fur and beady black eyes. It smelled horrible as well, and Jack wondered if it would even taste good.

Will walked up to him a minute later, stopping next to the creature and looking down. “Too bad we had to kill it,” he commented as he stared at the dead animal.

Jack raised his eyes to Will, dumbfounded. “That was the plan, remember?”

“Are you sure it’s even edible?” Will wondered, noticing the creature’s pungent aroma.

“After all that, it better be.”

* * *

“That should do it,” Tony announced as he finished securing the last deck plate to the raft.

Frank walked around the makeshift raft, pushing and pulling at various points to test its sturdiness. “I think we should put some sort of a skirt around the nose and under the first deck plate, just to help the water flow around the nose and under the deck.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard. It might reduce the drag on the nose a bit too,” Tony replied. “How long do you think it will take to install the propulsion system?”

“I don’t know. A few hours, maybe?”

Frank looked up at the sun. It was already sitting fairly low in the sky. “I don’t know. There are only four hours of daylight left, and we still have to rig up a way to tow it to the water.”

“How were you planning on doing that?” Tony wondered.

Frank lifted one end of the raft. “It’s not too heavy. I thought I would lash a couple of canopy poles together and make a long triangle with a couple wheels on the back end, then lash it to the back of the ATC.”

“Like a trailer. That should work,” Tony agreed.

“We’ll get started on the trailer while you and Adia work on the propulsion system.”

* * *

“
Mac?
” Frank’s voice squawked over the comms.

“Go ahead, Frank.”

“
How are you holding up?
”

“Oh, pretty fair, I’d say.”

“
Think you can last until morning?
”

“No problem,” Mac assured him. “What’s the hold-up?”

“
Well, the raft is finished, but Tony still needs to install the propulsion, and I have to make a trailer to tow it to the water.
”

“I was thinking about that earlier,” Mac replied. “You could use the wheels from the cargo pod tow kit, and some of those long poles from one of the portable canopies.”

“
That’s what I was thinking. The whole thing would have gone a lot faster if you were here to help build it. We should finish it up sometime tonight, and have it in the water in the morning.
”

“Copy that. Just bring some breakfast, will you? We’re running low on rations here.”

“
You got it. Hang in there.
”

“We will,” Mac promised as he turned his mic off.

“What’s the news?” Sara asked.

“They’ll be here first thing in the morning,” Mac promised her.

“Great,” she commented unenthusiastically. “Another night stuck out here in the middle of nowhere.”

She was depressed, Mac could tell. He looked at his watch. “It’ll be getting dark in a few hours. I’m gonna go for a walk, explore our little valley.” He rose to his feet. “Care to join me?”

“No thanks,” Sara declined. “I’m gonna stay here and rest a bit,” she said as she rubbed her sore side. “My ribs are still bothering me.”

“Suit yourself. I’ll be back in a few hours.” Mac turned and began to walk toward the woods.

“Wait a minute!” Sara called after him, suddenly panicked. “You’re just going to leave me out here? What if I need your help?”

Mac was a little surprised. Not only was she admitting that she might need his help, but she seemed genuinely frightened at the thought of being left alone here. Something was different, she was no longer the same Sara he had known only a day ago.

“There’s a signal flare in my pack. Just point it toward the sky and push the button on the bottom. I can be back in minutes if I have to,” he assured her as he continued to walk away.

Sara sat there, watching him until he disappeared into the distant tree line. She scanned the area in all directions. It was quiet and peaceful here. A soft, warm breeze blew across the meadow, fluttering the tall grass in graceful waves. The topaz sky above was littered with puffy, white and gray clouds that moved slowly from east to west, casting lumbering shadows across her as they passed under the afternoon Cetian sun. She could hear the sounds of birds in the distance, one of them occasionally soaring overhead in a high, drifting flight. The grass made a subtle, brushing sound as it danced in the breeze. The whole scene was utterly surreal to her. Even though she had spent most of her life working with plants and soils, it had all been in labs and ag-bays on board the Daedalus. Large, climate-controlled compartments stacked from floor to ceiling with growing flats, sunlamps and irrigation systems. It had seemed enough of a miracle to her that something could grow from a mere seed into a fully mature plant with nothing more than a little light, water, soil, and carbon dioxide. But that had been in a carefully controlled and closely monitored environment. Here, under the open sky, it occurred naturally. There were no sunlamps, no growing flats, no irrigation systems. No computers to monitor the status of the crops. No one to till the soil or plant the seeds. No one to harvest the crops or control the growth rates through genetic manipulations.

Sara laid back on the grass next to the tent, watching the clouds pass overhead. She was in the middle of nature in its most pristine form. She was surrounded by the miracle of life itself. She felt different somehow, changed. She felt renewed, rejuvenated. She couldn’t explain it, but she was sure it had something to do with the life that surrounded her.

* * *

“Wow,” Jack exclaimed as he chewed his first bite. “That’s not bad.”

“Thank you.”

“How did you get rid of the stench?”

“I didn’t,” Will admitted. “I used those pungent purple leaves to season it. Basically, I replaced one smell with another.”

“Well whatever you did, it worked. This stuff is great. You’re going to have to write a cookbook when we get back.”

“Oh, yes. William Scheller’s Wilderness Recipes.” It was an amusing thought.

“There’s another reason for your name to go down in the history books.”

Will took another bite of the boar meat. “One of these days, I’m gonna try my hand at making a salad. I haven’t had a good salad since we left home.”

“Good idea,” Jack agreed as he shoveled down his dinner. “Why don’t you get started tomorrow? I could really go for a good salad, myself. Besides, I think we could use another day of preparation before we head up into the mountains. Maybe even two or three days for that matter.”

Will was a little shocked by that. Jack had always been so dead set on trudging ahead, trying to get to the landing site as quickly as possible. “Why do you say that?”

“Well, I was thinking. Winter can’t be too far off. What, maybe one or two months?”

“Something like that, I would guess.”

“It’s bound to get colder as we move into higher altitudes. And to be honest, I have no idea how long it will take us to cross this mountain range. If we’re lucky, we’ll find an easy route through to the other side.” Jack finished his last bite, setting his small metal plate into the pot of hot water they used for cleaning up after dinner. “Then again, we may not be so lucky. So I was thinking, maybe we’d be better served to stay here a few days and prepare. I’ve been reading the survival guide,” he continued. “I think we need to do some more hunting, gather some extra meat to make into jerky. We should collect more roots, nuts, and berries as well. Also, we need to be thinking about protecting ourselves from the elements. These clothes aren’t going to cut it once winter sets in, especially at higher elevations.”

“What do we do? How do we protect ourselves?”

“Furs,” Jack smiled. “We hunt some larger animals, something with heavy fur. We skin it and make some heavy winter coats to keep us warm.”

“We can do that?” Will asked.

“Why not? All the instructions are in the survival guide.”

It made sense; that much Will had to admit. He just had a hard time imagining himself wearing animal fur as clothing. “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Jack?” Will remembered Jack’s difficulty killing the boar. “I mean, it took the whole clip to kill this thing.”

“Yeah, well, next time I won’t use a pistol,” Jack gestured toward the rifle leaning against a nearby tree.

“Coats, huh?” Will contemplated.

“Oh yeah. We can even make boot covers, mittens, head gear, you name it. We’ve got a sewing kit and lots of high tensile-strength fishing line. We should be able to make anything we want.”

“I didn’t know you were such an accomplished seamstress,” Will teased.

“I’m not, of course. But the survival guide has all the instructions. Cutting patterns, stitching patterns, skinning and tanning instructions. You name it.”

“So, we’re going to become real mountain men,” Will chuckled, remembering the references in the history files he had studied as a young lad.

“You got it. Oh, by the way, we’ll have to stop shaving.”

“Really?” Will asked. No Daedalian had ever worn facial hair. It was considered unhygienic. “Why is that?”

“Beards will help keep our faces warm during cold weather.”

Will stroked his chin in contemplation. “I wonder how I’ll look in a beard. Distinguished, maybe?”

“Undoubtedly,” Jack laughed.

* * *

Mac returned just before sundown, triumphantly carrying the carcass of a small, dead animal.

“Where have you been?” Sara asked. “I was beginning to get worried.”

“I was hunting for dinner,” Mac announced, holding up his kill for display.

“You killed that thing?” she said skeptically.

“Yup,” Mac grinned, holding it up proudly.

“You’re not planning to eat that thing, are you?”

“You bet I am.”

“Are you crazy? How do you know it won’t kill you?”

“I don’t. But I do plan on finding out.”

“You can’t just
eat
it! You have to test it first. Determine its toxicity, its effects on the human body.”

“That could take hours!” Mac objected.

“Exactly!”

“But I’m hungry now, and we don’t have a test kit.”

“So you’re just going to eat some strange alien animal?”

“Oh, come on, Sara. It’s just a rabbit.”