Arrival (28 page)

“Pretty good, I guess.” Will picked up his pot of plant specimens to head back to camp. “I’m going to go test these samples. Let me know if you catch anything.” Will turned and walked away, trying not to laugh at the sight of his commander, squatting down behind a rock, hiding from the ‘smart fish’.

Jack soon tired of his crouching position, stiff from yesterday’s fall. He quickly decided that his position needed to be changed, choosing to sit on the ground behind the rock, and lean against it in a semi-reclined position with the pole over his shoulder. He was about to drift off to sleep when he felt a slight tug on the pole. He awoke with a start, unsure of what had caused him to stir. Then there was another tug at the pole, and he turned his head to see the little piece of plastic wrapping he had tied to the line get pulled under the surface. “Holy crap,” he exclaimed as he quickly turned around and rose to his feet, climbing clumsily over the rock to the water’s edge.

Jack tugged hard at the pole, hoping to lodge the hook deeply into the fish’s jaw just as the manual had instructed. “Hey, Will! I think I’ve got something!”

From his testing by the fire pit, Will heard Jack’s cries and jumped up to run down to the pond. When he got there, Jack had both hands on the pole, and was trying to muscle the fish up onto the shore. “Unbelievable!” Will exclaimed. “You do have one!” Will watched as the fish jumped up out of the water. It was long and grey, with a dorsal fin jutting out of its back. Its green and gold stripes on its sides glistened in the midday sun as it fell back into the pond with a splash.

“Man! Did you see that? That thing is huge!” Suddenly, his pole snapped in half, leaving Jack holding the stump as the other end fell into the water.

“And strong, too!” Will laughed.

But Jack wasn’t giving up that easily, not after over two hours of waiting. He ran into the water, splashing madly as he tried to reach the broken tip of the stick still floating in the water. Just as he was about to grab it, it shot away from him, stopping a meter further out into the pond. Jack dove for the stick, fearing it would get towed farther out and he might never reach it.

“Jack!” Will cried out, fearing that Jack might have fallen into deep water.

But Jack was quickly back on his feet, standing waist-deep, the end of the pole firmly in his right hand. He grabbed the end of the line with his left hand and then his right, as he began backing toward the shore. “Hah! I’ve got you now!”

Jack fought to keep his balance against the pull of the fish that was putting up a valiant struggle to survive. He was amazed at how strong the creature was, as the line dug into his fingers painfully. He quickly wrapped the line around his palm a few times, making sure that it wouldn’t slip through his fingers as he continued his way back to shore.

Will watched from the shore as the great fish jumped high above the water once again. It had to be at least a meter long. This time, the fish rolled over as it fell back to the water, and Will could see that it had several fins along its sides as well.

Jack was back on the shore now, pulling the fish along behind him as it continued to struggle against Jack’s hook and line. Then, as suddenly as it started, it stopped. There was silence.

“What happened?” Will asked.

“I don’t know!”

“Is it dead?”

Jack quickly pulled it onto shore, wrapping the line around his hand as he brought it in. A minute later, Jack was proudly holding the meter-long fish up high in the air. His blood was surging through his body like he had never felt before. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and he was panting with exhilaration. “Would you look at this thing!”

Will examined the fish as Jack carried it up to camp. It had three prongs to its tail fin, something that Will was reasonably certain Earth fish did not have.

Then the fish began flopping on the end of the now short line, startling the both of them. The line broke, and the mighty fish fell to the ground at Jack’s feet, thrashing madly as it tried to find a way back to the water.

Jack and Will hopped around in a panic, yelling madly as they tried to stop the fish from flopping its way back to the safety of the pond.

“Do something, Jack!”

“Like what?” he screamed as he pranced.

“Kill the damn thing!”

“How?”

“Hit it! Kick it! Stomp on it! Do something quick, before it gets away!”

They jumped around the struggling fish for a few seconds more, Jack looking about for something to strike it with. Finally, instinct took over and Jack pulled out his side arm and quickly fired three rounds at the bouncing creature, sending dirt and fish pieces flying in all directions. The fish stopped its mad dance of survival, thoroughly dead.

They stepped up to the dead fish. A greenish fluid oozed out of the end where the fish’s head had been. But now, it was only a jagged, fleshy end of the fish’s long, meaty torso.

“You blew its head off.” Will stated in shock.

“Yeah, well, I don’t think you’re supposed to eat the head anyway,” Jack said defensively as he reached down to pick up the carcass.

Will stared at the dead fish for a minute. It looked nothing like any of the fish that were raised in the tanks back on the Daedalus for consumption. It didn’t even look like anything that he had seen in any of the pictures of fish back on Earth.

“Do you think it’s safe to eat?” Will asked.

“After all that, it better be!” Jack exclaimed.

“So, how do you prepare that thing to eat?” Will asked.

“I still have to read that part,” Jack admitted as he carried it back to camp.

* * *

That evening, after Jack had cleaned and gutted the fish and Will had analyzed the meat and deemed it safe, or at least free of any detectable toxins, Jack skewered it with a long stick and held it above the fire to cook. Surprisingly, it smelled fairly appetizing during preparation.

Will decided it would be unwise for them to eat more than one new item at a time, and that they should each eat something different. That way if one of them got sick, the other would still be well enough to take care of them, or at least be alive to tell about it.

Will had generously offered to let Jack be the first to eat the fish, since he had been the one to catch it, and opted for the berries he had collected as his evening meal.

Jack cut off a piece of the fish meat, inspecting it on the end of his fork for some time before putting it in his mouth and chewing it.

“How is it?” Will asked.

“Not bad,” Jack said thoughtfully, still chewing. “A little tough.” He finished his first mouthful, swallowing it down with a drink of water. “It’s kind of bitter, and a little stringy. Definitely takes some getting used to.” He cut another piece, willing to eat almost anything at this point. “What about your berries?”

Will looked at his bowl of purple berries. He had washed them vigorously, paranoid about any alien bacteria that might be on their surface. He would’ve preferred to cook them first. But this would be something they would carry with them on their journey to eat on the trail, and cooking them wasn’t part of the plan.

Will picked up one berry, holding it up between his thumb and forefinger for inspection. “Well, here goes nothing,” he announced as he placed the berry ceremoniously into his mouth. He bit down slowly on the berry, squeezing it with his teeth until it burst open with a slight popping sensation, squirting sweet nectar into his mouth and onto his tongue. “Mmm.” It was soft, succulent, and sweet. “These are great,” he exclaimed as he picked up a few more and popped them into his mouth. “I sure hope these don’t kill me, because they’re delicious!”

“Great!” Jack congratulated him as he took another bite of his fish.

For several minutes, they devoured their food, shoving the next bite into their mouths before they had finished the previous one.

Five minutes later, their plates were clean and their bellies full. It had been a simple meal, but a very important one. It meant that they might actually survive this ordeal. It gave them ideas and inspiration. But more importantly, it gave them a chance. Hopefully, it wouldn’t give them indigestion.

* * *

The next morning, Will ate the rest of Jack’s fish, and Jack ate some of the tan nuts that Will had collected. The nuts, they had decided, probably would need to be roasted in the future, but for now, they were edible.

They spent another day by the pond, testing various specimens of plant life that Will collected. Jack caught another fish, this time using a stronger pole. It was a smaller variety, of a different color and fin configuration. This one Jack named a ‘yellow-tail two-striper’, and the one from the previous night he named a ‘tri-tail’ for its three-finned tail.

On the third morning, they broke camp and headed deeper into the jungle, carrying as many of the ‘safe’ nuts and berries as they could fit in their packs. Their plan was to meet up with the river they had seen from the top of the cliff and follow it across the jungle. They could fish along the way for their dinner, all the while looking for an easy place to eventually cross the river.

Over the next few days, they covered very little ground. The jungle was much more difficult to traverse, and most of their time was spent collecting possible food sources and testing them. They had ruled out countless varieties of plants, finding far more of them toxic than safe. And of those that were not deemed toxic, less than half of them tasted good enough to eat. But Will kept a careful record of every sampling in the data pad along the way, and within a week, they had a more than adequate assortment of culinary treats. The next step would be to try combining them into different entrees. This seemed a waste of time to Jack, finding simple preparation far more practical for their situation. But Will was determined to try, finding it an interesting challenge.

* * *

Frank woke up feeling strange. He opened his eyes as the first light of day spilled through his tiny window, illuminating his narrow berth with the warm, amber light of dawn. He rubbed his eyes for a moment, noticing that a slight perspiration had accumulated on his forehead. His ventilator was on, and it was blowing cool air, not warm, just as he preferred. But still, he felt overly warm.

He sat up in his berth, bowing his head slightly to avoid striking it against the overhead. Whoever had designed the berths must’ve thought that everyone using them would be less than one hundred and eighty centimeters tall, a damned inconvenience that Frank cursed almost daily. He noticed that his stomach didn’t feel quite right. A little queasy, maybe. Not really enough to be called nausea, but not exactly normal. Sara had been on cooking rotation last night, and although she was a skilled agriculturalist, her culinary talents left much to be desired. Deciding it was probably Sara’s cooking, he headed for the bathroom.

An hour later, he was picking at his breakfast. Laura had the breakfast duty this morning, and she was quite adept at food preparation. She had prepared several loaves of bread the day before, using the wheat Sara had cultivated over the last two weeks using a fast growing, genetic hybrid developed on the Daedalus. Unfortunately, the meal Laura had prepared this morning, while delicious, wasn’t helping his stomach problems.

His work assignment today was indoors, which would leave him close to the bathroom if the need should arise. He had considered consulting Maria about the problem, but decided against it for now. Maria was over protective as it was, and he didn’t want to give her another excuse to mother him any more than she had been since his near-drowning experience nearly a month earlier.

* * *

Jack and Will had depleted their supply of portable food, and thus chose to take a day off from their journey to collect more. As usual, Jack took the role of hunter, spending the day trying to catch small game. They had been eating fish nearly every night for over a week now, and he longed for something different.

Will was content in his role as gatherer. It left him free to leisurely observe the environment around him, rather than rush through it as they did while hiking. He had even taken to dictating his findings along the way into a digital data recorder. He had realized early on that their journey exposed them to a greater variety of organisms than could be observed from one location. Someday, the information might prove valuable to future explorers of this world.

Today’s gatherings provided a few new testable varieties, although Will preferred to stick to those that they already knew were safe. Jack, on the other hand, seemed to prefer variety to safety. He had pointed out that it might be worthwhile to field-test a wide selection of edibles, since there was no telling what might be available along the way. It was a valid point, but arguable nonetheless.

Will had been gathering for over an hour and needed a break. He wandered farther from camp than usual and used up most of his drinking water in the process. He decided to refill his canteen from the river not fifty meters away, since it was considerably closer than the camp. The water had proven safe thus far. Although they had been boiling it as a precaution, he knew it was probably unnecessary. And Jack had already drunk the water straight from the river on more than one occasion without any ill effects.

Will found his way to a small clearing along the river’s edge. The sun felt warm on his neck, after wandering under the jungle canopy for so long. It was an experience he enjoyed, feeling the energy from the nearby star warming his body, even though he knew that it was really the feeling of radiation showering his body.

Squatting on the riverbank, he carefully dipped his canteen into the water, watching as the air escaped from the submerged container, rising to the surface in a stream of bubbles. Once the bubbles had stopped, he lifted the canteen from the water and brought it to his lips, taking a long, cool drink. The chilling river water was far more refreshing than water that had been boiled sterile and left to cool overnight. They had abandoned testing the water unless suspect, realizing that their supply of testing materials was limited, and they needed to save them to test potential food sources. So far, the water on Tau Ceti Five had proven safe to drink, as long as it was not stagnant. Will pondered the thought as he dipped the canteen in again to replace what he had drunk, before replacing the cap and returning it to the holster on his hip as he stood upright again. Never would he have imagined himself taking such risks, or ‘jumping in the deep end’, as Jack put it.