Arrival (38 page)

“It may
look
like a rabbit, Mac, but it’s definitely
not
a rabbit. It is an alien creature. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

“I’m not stupid, Sara.”

“Then don’t
act
stupid, Mac.”

“Look,” Mac explained as he dropped the dead animal by the fire pit. “The way I see it, everything else here appears to have developed in pretty much the same way as it did on Earth, right?”

“Yes, but…”

“And Laura said the DNA structure is basically the same…”

“So far, but…”

“Soooo…it stands to reason that this little critter, who also probably developed the same way, has a better than average chance of being safe to eat.”

“Mac,” she urged. “Not every creature on Earth was safe to eat. Many organisms were extremely toxic to humans.”

“Bugs and spiders, sure. But my great, great, grand-pappy—who lived on Earth—once said ‘Every animal on God’s green earth was edible. Some of them just didn’t taste very good.’ So the way I figure it, if it looks like a rabbit and acts like a rabbit, then it probably tastes like a rabbit as well. And guess what,” he added as he pointed at the Cetian rabbit on the ground, “that thing was hopping when I shot it, so it’s a rabbit.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “That’s your argument?” she asked. “It was hopping?” she continued, mocking him. She reached over and picked up the dead animal, turning to march off to dispose of it for his own good.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Someone around here has got to make sense,” she declared. “I’m tossing this thing into the floodwaters!”

“The hell you are!” he objected, rising to give chase.

“Oh yes I am!” she insisted as she headed toward the water.

Mac tried to grab Sara as she broke into a run. She only managed a few steps before her ribs began to hurt, causing her to stop, grasping at her injured side.

“Give me the damn rabbit, Sara!”

“It’s
not
a rabbit!” she refused, holding the dead animal behind her back.

Mac tried several times to reach behind her, being careful not to bump her tender ribs.

“Don’t make me get tough with you!” he threatened.

“Ha!” she laughed mockingly as she played keep-away with the carcass. “I’m so scared!”

That was enough. Mac grabbed her right shoulder, spinning her around with ease.

“Ow!” she screamed as his hand squeezed her shoulder and spun her around abruptly. “Let go of me, you jerk!” she commanded, resisting his hold on her.

“Give it to me!” Mac ordered with determination.

“Fine!” she agreed after seeing the anger in his eyes. “Go ahead and eat the damn thing!”

Mac snatched the carcass from her hand, letting go of her shoulder and heading back to the fire.

“But don’t expect me to take care of you when you get sick and die!” Sara yelled after him.

“Jeez, Sara! Have you lost your mind?” he demanded as he dropped the carcass and returned to building the fire.

Sara rubbed her shoulder where Mac had grabbed her. “I’m only trying to save you from your own stupidity.”

“Why is it that you women always think you know what’s best for us?”

“Because you men are always pulling stupid stunts like this!” she retorted as she followed him back.

Mac stopped, turning around to face her again. “Have you found
anything
even
remotely
threatening about the plants here?”

“No, but…”

“And what about the dirt?” he interrupted. “Is it so terribly different that Earth plants won’t grow in it?”

“Well, no, but…”

“Have you found
anything
that would lead you to believe the organisms here would be unsafe to eat?”

“No,” she admitted reluctantly.

“Then why are you
so
sure that I’m gonna die if I eat this thing?”

“I’m not sure, Mac,” she confessed. “That’s my point.”

“Do you think we can thrive here if we can’t eat the indigenous organisms? What are we going to do, grow Earth crops in Earth soil, inside big domes or something? Keep raising Earth rabbits inside the domes as well? Does that sound like a good plan to you? That’s what we’ve been doing all the way here… Four generations of us. And we’re barely surviving, let alone thriving.”

“Mac…”

“
That
is
my
point, Sara,” Mac continued. “You can test things for years. But sooner or later, someone’s going to have to eat the stuff to be sure. It might as well be someone who’s hungry. Someone who has as much to gain as he does to lose.” Mac tossed another log on the burning fire. “Well that
time
is now, and that
someone
is
me
.”

Sara looked at him for a moment. His logic made some sense, despite her best arguments. “But, Mac. Wouldn’t it be safer to wait until more tests have been done? Or at least wait until we’re back at the LRV where Maria could take care of you if you got sick?”

“Yes, but what if they can’t get to us tomorrow?” Mac pointed out as he sat down by the fire, pulled out his knife, and started trimming a large stick. “What if we’re stranded out here for several days…or even weeks?” He looked her straight in the eyes. “We won’t have much choice then, will we?”

Suddenly, she realized what he was doing. He wasn’t just hungry. He wasn’t just trying to feed himself. In his own stupid way, he was trying to protect her, in case they
did
have to stay there for a few weeks.

“They’re coming to get us tomorrow, Mac. You said so yourself.”

“If their plan works, sure. But in case you’ve forgotten, none of us has had much luck in the water since we arrived here.”

Sara was speechless. She watched as Mac began to cut apart a few branches. Sitting down a meter away from him, she watched as he trimmed two large branches into small Y-shaped pieces and stuck them into the ground on either side of the fire pit. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Making a cooking spit,” he answered quietly.

“Oh.” She watched as he selected a straight branch long enough to reach across the fire, scraping the thin bark off of it with his large knife.

“Where did you get that knife?” she asked. “I’ve never seen anything like it, before.”

“My father gave it to me.”

“Really?” She continued to observe him cleaning the stick. The knife was nearly one hundred centimeters long, with a wide, silver blade that was polished to perfection. Its cutting edge appeared razor sharp, and its opposite edge was lined with a long row of saw teeth that looked like they could cut through just about anything. It was a formidable looking weapon that looked natural in Mac’s hands. “Where did he get it?” she asked politely.

“His great, great grandfather brought it with him when he left Earth. It was the
only
thing he brought with him.”

“Why a knife?”

“He was a simple man, or so I’m told. A carpenter. He liked to hunt and fish, mostly. Anything he could do to get him outside.”

“Hardly seems the type to agree to be locked up inside a spaceship for the rest of his life.”

“Yeah, well, I guess he fell in love with the wrong woman. A doctor, the daughter of one of the scientists who worked on the original project back on Earth. They met in Australia. She and her mother and brother were hiding out from the Syndicate with the Eden Underground, working on the Hercules drive. He was working for some developer out there, building tract homes for young Australian families. When it was time for her to go, I guess he couldn’t bear the thought of losing her, so he went with her.”

“Wow, that’s so romantic.”

“Shows you what romance gets you,” Mac muttered darkly.

“How do you mean?”

“He spent the rest of his life tending to the landscape on the garden deck. Not much of a life for a
real
outdoorsman.”

“So he gave that knife to his son?”

“Who gave it to his son, and so on, until it reached me.”

“Are you going to give it to your son?”

“Probably, if I ever have one.”

“Oh, I’m sure you will. I can’t imagine you without a son to corrupt.”

Mac chuckled. “Every Morrison male since then has been told the same thing when they received it.”

“What’s that?”

“‘All a man really needs to survive are his wits, and a good knife.’”

“Kind of a simple philosophy, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, well we Morrison’s come from simple stock.”

She knew that wasn’t really true. Mac probably was only remotely related to the man who originally owned that knife, if at all. Not with all the genetic dilution that had occurred over the decades due to the use of in vitro fertilization instead of natural conception. But he knew that. Many of the Daedalians clung to the idea of family heritage, despite their lack of genetic relation to their predecessors. It seemed to provide them with a sense of family pride that they sorely lacked. Even Sara preferred to consider herself related to her great grandmother.

“I don’t know, Mac. You don’t seem so simple to me.”

Mac looked at her again. He knew she was only trying to be nice. She was an intelligent woman, confident, and well-educated, considerably more than him. Those serving in scientific disciplines had far more education than those whose jobs involved more manual labor. “Thanks.” Mac finished peeling the bark off his roasting stick, setting it aside to begin cleaning his kill. “You know, you’re a lot like she was.”

“She who?” Sara wondered.

“Great, great grand-pappy Peter’s wife,” Mac explained, holding up the knife.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“That’s how it was meant,” he assured her as he cut away the dead creature’s hide.

“What was her name?”

“Jennifer. Jennifer Bell.”

“
Matthew Bell’s
daughter?” Sara was shocked.

“That’s her.”

“Wow. Then it was
definitely
a compliment.” Sara thought for a moment. “Then you’re related to Jack?” she surmised.

“Considerably removed, yes.”

“I didn’t know that.” Sara watched as he removed the last of the animal’s hide, tossing it aside for later. “If I remember my history correctly, she was opposed to a lot of the council’s ideas as well,” Sara teased.

“That she was.” Mac jabbed the tip of his knife into the animal’s gut, slicing it open down its length, its internal organs spilling out onto the ground. “You definitely have
that
in common with her.”

The sight of the creature’s guts gushing out repulsed Sara, and she looked away. “So that’s why you signed up for this mission, to be a builder?” she asked to take her mind off the bloody display.

“Seemed like the thing to do,” Mac shrugged. “Maybe I thought that it would make old Pete happy. You know, seeing his kin following in his footsteps, building homes on an alien world.” Mac stopped his disemboweling momentarily, looking up at her. “Seems sort of apropos, doesn’t it?” he mused.

“Apropos?” Sara replied, almost laughing at his unexpected use of the word.

“Hey, I know a few words.” Mac looked a little unsure of himself for a moment. “That was the right word, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was,” Sara assured him with a smile. “And yes, it does.”

Mac finished removing the animal’s innards, wiping away as much of the blood and undesirable tissue as possible. Grasping the head of the creature firmly in his left hand, he sliced around the circumference of its neck, severing all of the tissue surrounding its cervical spine before snapping it off cleanly with both hands.

She watched as Mac drove the long, bare stick forcibly through the length of the creature’s body from head to tail, positioning it in the center of the long stick and placing it gently in the crux of the two upright “Y” shaped cradles he had pushed into the ground on either side of the pit earlier. It had been a gruesome display, watching him skin and clean the creature for consumption. But it had somehow been comforting to watch him perform the act without hesitation. If they did end up stranded here for weeks, he would undoubtedly be able to provide for her.

* * *

An hour later, the sun was down, leaving only the blue and amber light of the twin moons, the angle of their shadows becoming more oblique as Proxima moved farther ahead of Dista on its orbital plane.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Sara asked.

“Please, Sara,” Mac objected as he ripped a leg from the cooked animal’s carcass. “Give it a rest?”

Sara moved her pinched right thumb and forefinger across her mouth as if she were zipping it closed, indicating that he would hear no further objections from her. She watched in fear as he took his first bite, as if he would suddenly drop to an agonizing death right in front of her.

“Mmm,” he hummed with satisfaction as he chewed the tender meat. “This is delicious!” He took another bite, nearly devouring the leg bone in the process. “You’ve gotta try this, Sara,” he urged with his mouthful of Cetian rabbit meat. “It’s great!”

“I don’t know,” she said hesitantly, still waiting for him to fall over in pain. She watched as Mac consumed both hind legs and then dug into the torso, moaning praises over the flavor between every bite. Sara looked at her energy bar and dried fruit. It didn’t look very appetizing right now. And with every bite she watched him enjoy, her rations became less appealing. Eventually, the sound of Mac smacking his lips and the intriguing aroma of the meat wore her down. “Maybe, just a little taste?”

Mac smiled, pulling one of the smaller front legs from the body and handing it to Sara.

“Thank you.” Sara looked over the juicy, brown leg. Tan meat hung from the small bone, threatening to fall off it at any moment. She sniffed at it for a second, testing its aroma as if she might be able to smell some unknown toxin. Mac watched with great delight as she sniffed the meat, trying to get up the courage to touch it with her tongue.

“Are you going to eat it, or just lick it?” he laughed.

“Just give me a minute, will you?” she snapped. She opened her mouth tentatively, trying to pinch off a tiny piece of meat to test. But the entire portion began to fall off the bone, and she instinctively opened her mouth wider to catch it before it fell to the ground. “Ugh!” she moaned, afraid to close her mouth around it, but not wanting to spit it out.

“Just chew it, Sara,” he cackled loudly.

She closed her mouth slowly, biting down onto the warm, tender meat. It tasted unusual, not like anything she had ever tasted before. But it was not an unpleasant taste, she noticed, as she began to chew. It was actually quite delicious. Her expression slowly turned from horror to pleasure as she continued to chew the alien meat.