Stalking

Posted on Fri Apr 26th, 2019 @ 6:05am by

Mission: Episode 1: Hell is a four letter word
Location: Bajor
2550 words - 5.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Estelle felt their afternoon and evening had been perfect. First she had started the fire, using wood replicated from the shuttle as she didn’t want to go through the trouble of collecting firewood or worse, cutting down any trees (as there were always species of trees around that burnt well fresh). The swim, in their birthday suits, had been a quick one, the water was fairly cold, but it had made warming up by the fire much more of an experience. Replicated and then roasted pork again spared the local wildlife from the impact of their visit, and by the time it got dark, Estelle held Liorga in her arms, half rolled up in the blanket and half facing the fire, which was big enough to last through the night. She was so relaxed and happy, the unfamiliar sounds of the various nocturnal animals dwelling in the forest only kept her awake briefly, mostly because of her curiosity, but sleep overtook her soon, and the no doubt interesting spectacle heralded by several alarm calls on the opposite shore of the lake failed to rouse her, even though it would have been the perfect opportunity to observe one of the planet’s apex predators in action, using her night glass and the glow from two of Bajor’s moons high up in the sky.

Liorga, for the first time since returning from Cortic, had drifted into a deep sleep, full of wonderful dreams, not the recent nightmares. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d fallen asleep that quickly; they’d gotten ready for bed, laid down, and she was gone in a matter of less than five minutes. Being back with Estelle, being somewhere so beautiful and natural, she just felt safe...

The large predator, belly full, walked round the lake, approaching the camp site to just outside the warning range of Estelle’s sensor, but repelled by the smell of the fire did not come closer. It only left its pawprints for them to disc… find early the next morning. No, they weren’t about to make any discoveries during their shore leave.

Liorga woke before Estelle, some things didn’t change even in the woods, and started getting the fire relit; it was going to be needed for Estelle’s coffee if she was going to be expected to be pleasant to anyone, even her girlfriend. As the fire started to crack, she noticed they’d had a visitor, just outside of the alarm perimeter. Shaking Estelle, she said, “We got a visit from something way bigger than Anje last night.”

Estelle blinked awake, smiling at the sight of Liorga in the early morning sunshine. “Did we not hear the alarm?” she wondered. She sat up and approached the fire, it had got cool overnight, and she scrambled to gather up her clothes and put them on. Then, feeling suitably protected from the elements, she stood and kissed Liorga a proper good morning.

“And good morning to you.” Liorga smiled, taking Estelle’s hand, “And, no, it didn’t cross the perimeter, but you can see where things have been disturbed.” She walked them both over, “Look at the size of that print.”

Estelle knelt down and put both her hands inside the print but her fingers still couldn’t reach from back to front. “That’s one huge animal”, she said. “Skirted round the lake, probably scared of the smoke?” It was typical animal behaviour to avoid fire, after all. “I’d so love to get to see one up close.”

“So, you want to go look for this thing?” Liorga asked, slightly unsure, “Okay, let’s do this then. After breakfast.”

“Yes, no hiking before breakfast”, Estelle agreed. “And I’ll have to pack the rucksack with new things, too.” She never went hiking without some essentials, even if they were in range of the shuttle and could have it replicated and beam anything over they wanted. “What are you in the mood for?” It didn’t register to Estelle, but she was cheerful and awake this morning, without a single drop of coffee.

“Something simple, I’m kinda excited to get on the trail.” Liorga said, “I want to see what’s out there.”

Estelle nodded, walking back towards the shuttle. “Let’s replicate something, pack at the same time, and get dressed properly?” she suggested. She’d need different shoes, more robust trousers and a hat of some kind to shield against the sun. Despite spending a lot of time in the arboretum, her spacer-pale skin wasn’t going to last without, sunscreen or no sunscreen.

“Yeah, good idea.” Liorga agreed, she’d need clothes more fitting the environment, also. She stopped for a second, realizing she should also look at a hat, since while Estelle had a blonde mane to cover her head and neck, she had no such luxury. The problem was, she’d never done this before, “So, you can help me decide what to wear?”

“Absolutely”, Estelle said. “There is lots of functional and sexy hiking gear. Which, in your case, means ordinary hiking gear as I can’t improve on your natural looks. Sorry.” She climbed aboard, leaving Liorga briefly to ponder what she had indirectly said, not that it was anything like breaking news.

Liorga blushed a little; sure, as a Deltan she was used to getting compliments, but for some reason Estelle’s always gave her a warmer feeling than any other. Oh, that’s right, she thought, I’m hopelessly in love with this woman.

It didn’t take them long to get ready. Estelle’s rucksack featured additional sunscreen, a small medkit, a water purifier so they wouldn’t have to carry any drinking water in this environment, rich enough with natural bodies of water, and a towel. One should never go anywhere without a towel. That was one of the first lessons taught in one of Estelle’s favourite books about travelling and seeing the sights of the galaxy.

Liorga checked over their gear one time, then turned to Estelle, “Ready to go?”

“Yes”, Estelle said. “Careful with the door.” This was to poke fun at the huge hat Liorga was wearing. But it was effective. Estelle’s was much smaller, shading mostly her face, such was the benefit of hair. “Feels nice to have some real sunlight for a change, though.”

“Right?” Liorga said, taking Estelle’s hand, “It’s been so long. I mean, Cortic was the last time and before that it’s been…. Months.” That realization bothered Liorga, she was now experiencing only her second time in the sun in months, that needed to change. She leaned back and took it all in, her free hand securing the hat to her bald head, “So, you really enjoy this, huh?”

Estelle hadn’t had time to enjoy anything about Cortic, not even the sun. She’d either been too busy or too worried, or both. For her, this was the first time in almost a year. “Every time I get the chance. I’m not as crazy about roughing it as Mona is, she’s tried to talk me into relying only on what I can carry in my rucksack and going up into the mountains, the moment she learnt I enjoy the outdoors… but yes, I love nature, being in nature, exploring nature, and especially with you because I don’t feel like I have to contain my enthusiasm or wonder.”

“So, what do you say we do this more often?” Liorga offered, “I have this shuttle I bought at a surplus auction, it’s not new or anything, but it’ll get us and a few others anywhere we want to go. I can install a replicator, some bunks in case the weather gets rough. It can be our Dutch trailer.”

“I love that”, Estelle said. “The one downside of our job, we hardly stop anywhere long enough to do this. At least that inspection is good for something now.” Though, with their effort on Cortic, everyone deserved some leave regardless.

“Maybe, but maybe we can arrange a little more free time.” Liorga suggested, “I know I could use it. Gallia will be fine left to her own devices for a couple days at a time.”

Estelle snickered. “I’ll arrange as much of my time as I can”, she promised. It was time well spent, so a perfect no-brainer for her. They found the track of the beast again and started following in its footsteps.

“This thing is huge.” Liorga gasped, she was excited to see what it could be that was making these monstrous prints, “So, have you got an imager? We should get pictures.”

“No, I never thought about that”, Estelle said. “But I could scan it with my tricorder, should be enough to reconstruct a holographic image?” She hoped, anyway.

“That should work.” Liorga agreed, that was how they’d done it in field engineering during the war. She moved ahead, slowly and quietly, never letting go of Estelle’s hand as they continued their hunt. She couldn’t wait to see this thing… whatever it was. Yes, she decided, I want to do more of this from now on.

“I wonder if that’s what those pre-historic hunter-gatherers felt when they were stalking their prey”, Estelle mused. “Lucky for this bear-like critter, we only shoot pictures.” It was exciting, and even though the sensor would warn them ahead of an actual encounter, every turn of the path, ducking between thick tree trunks and even thicker rows of bushes, provided a fresh outlook on unfamiliar plants, and sometimes just as unfamiliar small animals.

Liorga was enraptured by all the creatures and plants, they simply didn’t have this stuff in Detroit, "You won’t see anything like this on a ship.”

“No, no arboretum could possibly capture this”, Estelle agreed. It might have all been standard fare for planet-dwellers, especially outside of cities, and as familiar as Estelle was with natural environment, including dense forests or, as in this case, a mixture between forests and shrublands which were much denser and harder to navigate at ground level, she was still fascinated with every little peculiarity simply because she got to see them so infrequently.

“Next time, we bring friends.” Liorga stated, everybody needed to enjoy this, “I want to share this with everybody.” She’d seen stuff like this before, but had never really looked at it, had never taken it in. She realized she probably seemed like an overgrown child right now, but she knew Estelle would understand. Right now, she felt reborn.

“Let’s do that”, Estelle said. “But for now, you’ll have to make do with just me. You know, if you want to know any details about any of the species we see here, you can always ask, and I’ll make up a plausible-sounding but probably completely wrong explanation? I’m good at that, I promise.”

“Well, in the entire galaxy, there is nobody I’d rather hear bullshit from.” Liorga laughed, kissing Estelle deeply, “But if we bring Tayalas and she asks, we look stuff up and give good answers, okay?”

“Do we have to?” Estelle asked. “I mean, the way my parents raised me, they told me things and I had to figure out whether they were true or not. I asked my mother, ‘Why do ducks have feathers?’ and she said, ‘Because I said so.’ At first, I was totally in awe of my mother’s powers. Later, I learnt not to trust her in matters of science.”

Liorga just shook her head and sighed, “Tell you what, let’s cross that bridge when we get there, huh?”

“Yes, and in the meantime, just laugh at the mountains”, Estelle suggested.

“Fair enough.” Liorga chuckled, with Estelle around, she could laugh at anything, “Why the mountains though? What’s funny there?”

“No, they’re not just plain funny, they’re actually hill areas!” Estelle grinned.

“Oh, naturally.” Liorga groaned, though she chuckled in spite of herself. Even when Estelle’s jokes were just plain bad, her enthusiastic delivery would garner a laugh every time.

When they came to a patch of rocky terrain, the trail that had been so easy to follow was suddenly lost. “Hm, not good”, Estelle remarked.

“Right.” Liorga nodded, she knew if they couldn’t see his tracks it could become dangerous, they no longer knew where the beast was.

Estelle wasn’t concerned with dangerous, she wasn’t worried about encountering wild animals, unless they were the venomous kind, or they carried diseases. But on neither account had there be an official warning for either Terrans or Deltans, and Estelle had made it a point to check. She was always extra careful in those areas. “Where would I go, if I was a huge bear type thing?” she wondered out loud.

“Depends on what you were looking to do.” Liorga answered, “If you were hungry, you’d probably look for a stream. If you were sleepy, you’d look for a cave or something. Otherwise, you’d probably be looking into going to the woods. Either way, you’re going to want to spend as little time with your feet on these rocks as possible.”

“Very true, they’re a tad sharp”, Estelle agreed. She crossed the rocky surface to look for additional tracks on the other side, but then quickly stopped, waving Liorga over and pointing with her other hand. “Could this be it?” she whispered, suddenly feeling the need to be quiet. There was something big in the bushes.

Liorga whispered, “Yes, I think so.” She moved forward slowly, still hand in hand with Estelle, anxious to see this creature.

As they skirted around to reach higher ground, and thus a better vantage point, the huge animal woke and noticed them. It stood, looked directly at them and made a low, rumbling noise.

“I think it doesn’t want us here”, Estelle suggested.

“Then let’s not be here.” Liorga suggested, beginning to back away slowly, but positioned in front of Estelle.

Reluctantly, Estelle backed away as well. She knew she had to respect the local wildlife, as much as she was curious and wanted a closer look. Luckily, the animal was confident enough to put its head down again and continue to rest once they had back off to a distance of a little more than fifty metres.

“That was… exhilarating.” Liorga said between rapid breaths, “I needed that.”

“Beautiful animal”, Estelle agreed. She was enjoying the experience, though she wasn’t receiving as much of an adrenaline boost as Liorga, which she figured was likely due to the stories Liorga had been told about the creatures.

“Speaking of beautiful creatures.” Liorga began with a naughty smile, “You wanna head back to camp and keep the adrenaline going?”

“I was hoping we could stay out here and go back in the afternoon?” Estelle suggested. “Find a soft patch of grass, it’ll do just as well.” She took Liorga’s hand, leading her in the direction of where the vegetation looked soft and lush.

“Well, you know me…” Liorga shrugged, “Never one to argue with my doctor.”