A Matter of Survival
By Linda Hull
*****
A Matter of Survival
Copyright © 2011 Dangereye Inc.
License Notes
K24B really was a beautiful planet. With an atmosphere almost identical to Earth, her rainforests, plains, deserts and seas were easily accessible to explorers like Donna Rivera and the crew of Project EnviroQuest. While other exploration crews landed on barren rocks to mine minerals, or more often desecrated lush worlds into barren rocks by mining minerals, Project EnviroQuest was one of the few exploration companies whose mission was not to destroy but to discover. PEQ was renowned for their captivating documentary videos and amazing images of life-forms previously unimaginable. These documentaries always featured Professor Regina Gilliam, a brilliant and charismatic zoologist.
As a child, Donna had idolized Regina, reading all of her books and following her explorations on TV. Donna’s high school senior science project and essay on the habits of red squirrels earned her a scholarship at Newton University, where Regina Gilliam headed the zoology department. Donna aced all of Regina’s classes, securing herself a place on all student explorations, and finally a place on this expedition as a fellow zoologist. Donna Rivera was living her dream.
She tapped a code into the outer door panel and took a breath of cool, fragrant air as the door slid open. Sunlight glittered so brightly off the ocean to the south that her polarized glasses could barely compensate. In the trees bordering the rainforest behind the shelter, transparent snakes sang as the sunlight warmed and awakened them. On the plains to the north, tiny green antelope scattered into the lemon-scented grass. It was another breathtaking morning. Donna stepped outside.
“Take your jacket. It’s cold out there.” Everett Jordan, the handsome but jittery engineer grasped Donna’s elbow and tried to pull her back inside the shelter.
“I’ll be fine,” Donna said, disengaging herself with a gentle shake. “You worry too much.” She began her climb to the top of the observation tower extending from the roof of the mobile shelter.
“Worry too much? Here?” Everett called after her.
“I’ll be fine,” Donna said again. “I have coffee.”
“Coffee. Yes, coffee. That will help. Please tell me you have a gun?”
Donna was twenty rungs up the metal ladder and the wind was erasing Everett’s words. “I’ll be fine,” she yelled down. She knew he would watch until she reached the relative safety of the twelve meter observation platform before he ducked back into the shelter. The engineer would then go back to work trying to jury-rig the busted fuel pump, just as he had been since Mobile II became Immobile II twenty-three Earth days ago. Without the right tools the task was unlikely to succeed. Donna supposed the man simply needed to keep busy.
She reached the top of the ladder and flipped open the trap door to the platform. She tossed her rucksack through first, and then followed it into the observation deck. Cage was more like it. Donna closed the trap door and opened her rucksack. Inside was a pair of binoculars, her note pad, a communicator, a thermos of coffee and one protein bar. Coffee was one thing they had plenty of in Immobile II.
Donna tuned the vari-mesh floor to solid to make a more comfortable place to sit and settled down cross-legged. She opened her coffee thermos and poured herself a steaming cup of aromatic bliss and scanned her surroundings. Besides the rainforest, her view was of a wide, expansive plain covered with low, grassy vegetation and rocks. Northward, the plain seemed endless, but their orbital surveys had revealed more of the rainforest that covered huge expanses of the planet. The plain gradually turned to sand and ocean to the south, and a rocky, mountainous region to the east. A river from the mountains sliced across the plain and cut a gash into the rainforest about a hundred meters north of the shelter.
“Landed” was a very gracious term for the way the ship made contact with Planet K24B1. After two days in orbit collecting topographical data, pilot Nelson Hwan chose a perfect site for base camp: a flat plain overlooking an ocean and a few kilometers away from rainforest and a river. As the ship approached the landing site, they were suddenly engulfed in a flock of large birds. A few were sucked into the ship’s engines, stalling three of the four. Flying blind with blood and feathers coating the windshield and three engines down, Hwan shouted to everyone, “Hold on! This is gonna be rough!” The crew braced themselves as Hwan performed a heroic, but inelegant landing that dug a trench across the plain. The ship slid to a halt with its nose crushed and buried in rocky soil. It would never fly again.
The crew of nine and their cargo were intact. EnviroQuest Mission 41 began dented but undaunted. A larger, secondary unit with additional facilities and crew was due to arrive in six months. The first order of business was to turn the ruined ship into a Base Camp. The ship was set upright by extending struts, and parts of it folded out into crew quarters and laboratories, and an impressive galley stocked with food. After setting up Base Camp, the crew launched Mobile Units I and II. These units were equipped with smaller, specialized laboratories. Two Variable Terrain Vehicles or VTVs would shuttle teams back and forth from base to the secondary camps. Mobile Unit I was set up close to the ocean where an aquatic team would make use of their tiny submarine – Nelson Hwan was as great a pilot in the water as he was in space and in the air. Mobile Unit II was set at the edge of the rainforest.
A familiar chirping sound made Donna smile. She squinted toward the tree line; looking for the little monkey-bird she’d named Roger. As a wildlife biologist, Donna Rivera knew the protocols against humanizing animals. This expedition was meant to study, not interfere, but no one had explained any of that to Roger.
Curiosity brought Roger and five other monkey-birds into camp to inspect equipment and steal food the first afternoon Mobile II was set up. They were about the size of a domestic cat, their bodies covered with blue and green feather-like fur. Their wings were translucent black skin similar to a bat’s, and their monkey faces were likewise bare, but pink with huge round black eyes. The crew was amused by the clearly harmless little animals - except for Everett Jordan. He immediately sought shelter each time the monkey-birds appeared, blaming it on childhood trauma brought on by annual viewing of “The Wizard of Oz.” Donna figured Everett would have the same reaction in a city park back on Earth when confronted by a reasonably assertive squirrel.
The trees rustled and, with a chirp, Roger swooped down and landed on the outside of the observation cage. He had to squeeze, but made it through the bars to take his usual seat next to Donna. “Good morning to you, too,” Donna said. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” she told him, scratching his neck. “People are going to think I’ve lost my mind, talking to a monkey-bird.” Roger’s face turned deep yellow and he settled into a watchful position, eyeing the tree-line. Bodyguard in place, Donna Rivera was now able to commence research.
The variety of life on this planet was astounding. There were birds with scales like fish that spun circles in the skies, sun glinting off them like a rainbow of jewels. Playful marine animals that squawked and chattered like dolphins do on Earth. They harassed the research team so badly they had to change locations three times to find a quiet place to work. Luis Catalan would sometimes sneak out to swim with the feathered cetaceans, riding on their backs like a surfer. He was a native Californian and such habits are hard to break.
Herds of huge mountain buffalo numbered in the thousands and could be seen darkening the slopes like clouds. The rainforests were populated with butterflies that changed color according to mood and
Koala-like marsupials that hooted as they hung upside down from tree branches and watched you with heartbreakingly lovely eyes.
PEQ Missions were wondrous and exciting, but dangerous. Not all of the 143 planets within reach of Earth were hospitable. Mission 41 was not going well. Of nine crew members, only two were left – Donna Rivera and Everett Jordan. The others had been eaten by monsters.
“Not monsters,” Donna argued. “Animals.”
“How can you say that when you saw what I saw?”
“There was no evil intent. It was just animals behaving naturally.”
Everett shook his head. “There was nothing natural about what they did…”
“There was everything natural about it. They are acting on their survival instincts – nothing more.”
***
Those natural instincts had taken Tony Calvo first. It happened on the eighth night of the mission. Tony was a crew favorite – a smallish man who made up for his lack of size with a winning smile and quick wit. He was at Mobile II with the young grad student Lonnie Newlan and former military security officer Curtis Devoe, stowing equipment and tools after a full day of collecting specimens. Curtis was already inside. Lonnie was on the entrance ramp, carrying the hose for the hydraulic multi-tool when she heard a “yelp,” from Tony.
“You OK over there? Pull something?” she’d asked. “Need a girl to help?”
No answer.
Tony was a joker so Lonnie suspected she was about to be “Calvonated” - the victim of one of his pranks. “Tony, don’t mess around with me out here. It’s creepy,” she said. He didn’t answer. She took the air hose, figuring a good blast from it might counter whatever Tony had planned, and walked back to peek around the side of the Mobile where Tony had been working. She switched on her flashlight. Lonnie thought she saw movement just out of reach of her light. “Tony?” Lonnie called. She took a couple more steps and her flashlight beam caught the edge of something large and black moving into the rainforest.
Terrified, Lonnie hit the emergency button on her radio and ran back inside Mobile II. Curtis was already at the entrance ramp, gun in hand. The radio crackled as other crew checked in. Lonnie told Curtis what she had seen, but he didn’t take her seriously. Curtis picked up the radio and told the rest of the crew that things were fine. Lonnie had been Calvonated. Curtis then stepped outside and boomed, “Enough screwing around, Tony. Get your ass back here or I’ll have Regina put you on kitchen duty for the next two weeks!” With flashlights blazing, Curtis and Lonnie stomped over to the spot where Lonnie had seen the dark shape. They found Tony’s boot with his foot still inside. Curtis and a hysterical Lonnie retreated to the safety of Mobile II and radioed the news. The rest of the crew gathered weapons and a medical kit and rushed to the site on one of the VTVs. Floodlights revealed a trail of blood strewn with pieces of flesh, bone and torn clothing leading into the rainforest. With no clear idea of what kind of animal or animals they were dealing with, Regina made the difficult decision not to pursue whatever had taken Tony Calvo. His meager remains were gathered and everyone returned somberly to base camp.
The next morning Regina led a memorial service for Tony. Luis Catalan played hymns on his guitar, accompanied by the sweet voice of Megan Proctor. “I take full responsibility for Tony’s death,” Regina told them following the service. “I shouldn’t have let protocols become relaxed. It won’t happen again. We will dedicate this mission to the memory of Tony Calvo and we will step up security. Everyone now operates on a buddy system – no one is ever to be alone. No one is ever to be outside of a shelter after sundown. And most importantly, at least one person on each team is to be armed with a weapon.
“We’re here to study, not kill,” protested Megan.
“Our own survival is priority,” Regina told her.
***
Six weeks passed and the crew settled into a routine. Galley duty was originally shared by everyone on a rotating basis, but Lonnie Newlan took it over. She was slow to recover from the loss of Tony and reluctant to leave Base Camp. No one minded – Lonnie was by far the best cook. Mornings were for briefings. Over coffee, fresh bread baked in the galley and eggs gathered from the plains nesting chickens, the crew would discuss plans for the day. Teams would return to base for lunch, often with fruit gathered from the rainforest, fish from the river or salt water clams dug from the sand by the ocean. Afternoons were hectic, everyone trying to get back to work. Evenings were always a rush, ostensibly to abide by the No One Out After Dark Rule, but actually because everyone wanted to get back to see what Lonnie had whipped up for dinner.
When darkness fell on the forty-ninth night and Nelson Hwan and Luis Catalan hadn’t returned from Mobile I, the rest of the crew wasn’t particularly concerned. Crews sometimes spent the nights at the mobile units when they lost track of time in the labs and were unable to make it back before sundown. Curtis Devoe radioed them to tease that Lonnie had prepared Beef Paprika, Nelson’s favorite dinner and he was going to miss it.
The ominous silence from Mobile I set the crew into motion. When a video scan showed that the submarine was missing Regina, Curtis and medic Megan Proctor took one of the VTVs over to investigate. There was no sign of any trouble. Nelson and Luis had taken the sub out as usual. They simply didn’t return. Curtis and Megan volunteered to remain on vigil at the camp overnight. The next five days they took the skiff up and down the coast, looking for any signs of the sub. Their efforts were in vain.
A week passed before Regina officially declared Nelson Hwan and Luis Catalan dead. Lonnie retreated to her bunk and meals were dutifully, but not artfully, prepared by Everett Jordan. Regina was shaken at the loss of a third of her crew. She closed Mobile I, mandating that it not be used again until after the secondary unit arrived. She even considered restricting the remaining crew to lab work at Base Camp. Donna was horrified at the idea of not going back out to the rainforest and protested, reminding Regina that everyone on this crew knew and accepted the dangers. It would be disrespectful to their memories to quit. Regina relented and normal operations resumed.
No one had seen what actually happened to Tony, Nelson or Luis. Everyone saw what happened to Regina. It was noon on the fifty-sixth day and the crew had assembled at Base Camp for lunch. Lonnie had been coaxed back into her role as cook and was barbecuing hamburgers outside on the grill. The red eagle passed over the camp several times, but no one paid much attention. With no clouds in the sky it was difficult to judge the size of the bird until it made its kill dive. Donna saw the shadow over camp getting suddenly, rapidly larger. “Everyone get down!” she shouted. Regina was a fraction of a second too late. She screamed as sharp claws sank into her shoulder and the eagle ascended almost as fast as it dived. Curtis drew his gun, but hesitated to fire for fear of hitting Regina. There was nothing any of them could do but watch the immense bird fly away into the mountains with their struggling leader.
***
Curtis Devoe assumed command. His first action was to confiscate the keys to both VTVs and declare that the crew would remain at Base Camp until the secondary crew arrived. Everett set up an electronic perimeter with alarms should anything approach from any direction. Donna and Megan set to work cataloguing the specimens and samples that had already been collected. Lonnie again retreated to her bunk. The mood was somber and tense. A couple of weeks went by and Megan began to worry about Lonnie. She could barely be coaxed out of her bunk, she wasn’t eating and her health was beginning to fail. An anti-depressant and vitamin supplements would help, but the primary medical lab was located in Mobile II.
Donna approached Curtis with the idea of retrieving Mobile II. The unit could be docked with base camp and they would have the full lab and med facilities again. Megan backed her up, insisting that Lonnie wasn’t going to last long without treatment. Curtis reluctantly agreed. A crew of two was required to move a Mobile Unit. Everett was a logical choice as the only surviving engineer. Megan needed to stay with Lonnie, so Donna also volunteere
d to make the trek to Mobile II.
Curtis drove Everett and Donna to Mobile II in one of the VTVs. He stood guard, warily eyeing the rainforest while Donna and Everett retracted the structure’s stability struts, lowering it onto its wheels. The process took less than forty minutes. Donna and Everett boarded the unit and powered up the engine. Curtis took the lead in the VTV and the two vehicles started moving toward base camp. Mobile II made it a mere twenty meters before grinding to a halt. Everett climbed underneath and discovered a tattered fuel hose. “The animals are tired of eating us and have moved on to our equipment,” he moaned. Donna and Everett stayed at Mobile II while Curtis returned to base camp in the VTV to fetch a new fuel hose.
Donna and Everett had just finished removing the old fuel hose when they received a call from Base Camp. Something had struck the outside of the ship. Curtis asked Everett and Donna if they could see what was out there. Turning the powerful lens toward Base Camp, Everett scanned the area with Donna. They saw an injured mountain buffalo walking around outside the base. Its head was bloodied.
“That must be what hit the ship,” Everett said. “That’s odd.”
“It’s more than odd,” Donna said. “There’s something wrong. That buffalo shouldn’t be alone…” She quickly scanned the nearby mountains and spotted the rest of the herd thundering down. “Crap,” Donna exclaimed. “Everybody brace!” Donna shouted into the microphone.
Donna and Everett watched helplessly as Base Camp was engulfed by the huge herbivores, each one weighing at least a ton. One of the beasts fell, tripping another. They were both trampled to bits by the rest of the panicking herd. A particularly large buffalo plowed directly into one corner of the structure, causing one of the struts to buckle. The camp tilted sharply. Donna held her breath, thinking the strain might cause more of the struts to fail, but they held and the herd of brown and black horned animals continued to thunder past, parting around the structure and congealed on the other side like ants moving around a rock or a twig on the rainforest floor.