The Cartographer (12 page)

Wraith took the vial, placed a stopper in the top and slid it into his rucksack. “Pretty standard stuff,” he explained to me before walking over to the nearest tree.

“This is interesting.” He pointed and I moved in to take a closer look.

Even though the leaves of the tree were not a color I was used to, the bark of the tree was a familiar shade of brown and resembled those on Earth, with one difference. The viscous substance I observed on the leaves earlier now ran down the base of the tree like a river. I moved past it to examine another tree where its bark appeared free of the substance. When I moved in closer the fluid from the leaves seemed to get thicker and started to slide down the base of the tree as if they were
excreting
it. Soon the tree was coated in the substance and the fluid took on a light-brown color as it descended the tree, resembling honey. I had no urge to taste it, though.

“What the hell?” I exclaimed in disgust and took a step back.

Wraith moved in quickly and we observed more of the tacky substance rolling down the tree. He whipped out his pistol-grip scanner and circled the tree. The device crackled like a radio with a bad signal and digital readouts displayed on the screen but I was too far to make out anything intelligible. He conducted three passes around the tree before he finally stopped and scratched his head.

“What's wrong?” Satou asked.

“Well, I'm not sure,” Wraith replied and handed the scanner to Gard. “Can you figure this out?”

Gard looked down and his eyes flashed in quick succession. After several clicks and a beep he looked up and handed the scanner back to Wraith. “
After analyzing the data, I have concluded that the substance on the tree is a defense mechanism
.”

“A defense mechanism?” I asked.

“
Yes
,” he stated casually and rolled over to the nearest tree. With his “normal” hand he reached out and stuck a finger in it.

I tensed and waited for an adverse reaction that never came. Gard stood there with the sticky goop hanging from his finger like a baby jellyfish. His eyes went from azure blue to a powdery white and he focused on the substance and made a god-awful grinding sound, like two gears that hadn't been oiled in years. After several minutes went by, he reached down and rubbed the substance on a nearby rock.

“
Substance is toxic in nature
,” he stated. “
However, its toxicity seems limited to flesh beings. It does not affect the trees themselves nor my metallic structure in any way. I cannot gauge the potency of the material, but I advise the scouting party to avoid touching it
.”

“Interesting, it appears that the trees are sentient in nature,” Satou replied and scanned a nearby tree. “They have sensed our presence, and since we are an unknown variable among them they have initiated a defense mechanism.”

I examined another tree and noticed the flow of the substance increased as I got closer. I assumed there must have been omnivores on the planet that tried to feed on the leaves of the trees and this was their way to discourage them. They weren't much different than stinkbugs or skunks on Earth, they just had a different way in dealing with their predators.

“I'm guessing not too many animals on this world would be able to feed on these things,” I said. “It makes me wonder what kind of animals do live here.” I pointed to Satou's scanner. “Can that thing pick up life signs?”

“Of course,” he said and looked up from the scanner. His face was intense and I instinctively touched the graphite rod at my side. “As a matter of fact four life forms are coming at us at a high rate of speed.”

Satou grabbed his neutralizer, never taking his eyes off the scanner. I started for the graphite rod but decided to get the stun knuckles from my rucksack instead. I shoved my hand into the weapon but it seemed like an eternity before I finally got it secured because my hands shook so much. Tossing the rucksack aside I stood next to Satou, quivering like an idiot. He sensed my nervous state and placed his hand on my chest gently, but firmly, guiding me behind him. I decided to take up a flanking position next to Gard, who stared emotionlessly at the path.

“Life forms are approximately thirteen meters and closing,” Satou whispered.

I listened as he counted down the distance—ten…nine…seven…four meters and closing. I couldn't see anything and became concerned because we should have spotted them. Instinctively I looked beyond the trees thinking they might have been in flight, but I saw nothing except the crescent moons and a couple clouds.

“Where are they?” I whispered.

Satou took a tentative step back, completely focused on the scanner. “According to the scanner they should be right on top of us.”

I glanced at Wraith who calmly trained his hand cannon in front of him, used to the unknown. After several minutes passed, I was ready to write the scanner off as faulty but then the rumbling started.

Madoc's panicked voice came over Satou's wrist communicator. “Scouting team, we are picking up something big. Get out of there NOW!”

No one questioned his request and we retreated to the shuttle. I grabbed my rucksack and Gard told me to hop on his back. I didn't question the logic and did as he instructed, riding him like the headless horseman through Sleepy Hollow with the rucksack clutched in my hand like a disembodied head. We were about halfway back to the shuttle when all hell broke loose.

Gard jerked violently to the side and I got thrown off the path into a clump of green, leafy substances that looked like moss which I hoped was nothing more than that. When I stood up and brushed myself off, I thought that the alien moss was the least of my worries. Gard fell over on his side and attempted to prop himself upright, Wraith and Satou were thrown into the grove on the opposite side of the path and I found myself face-to-face with a very large hole in the ground, as if there had been an underground explosion. Lined up along the outer rim of the hole were four birds, owls to be exact with the exception that they were larger than ostriches. They looked like common barn owls except they were missing eyes and instead had a tight clump of feathers covering their brow and forming a dark ring around their head, like a visor. Although they had no visible eyes, they had to see us clearly because they focused their attention on us immediately and let out a horrible screech, which froze the blood in my veins and caused me to fall down with my hands over my ears. Their bloodcurdling screams seemed to last an eternity, and I almost cracked.

“Jesus Christ, make them stop,” I yelled, although I was pretty sure no one could hear me over the noise.

Satou was the first one to reach them. When he stood up I noticed his immense size gave him a slight height advantage, despite the fact they towered over the rest of us. He fired the neutralizer and several fiber optic needles struck the closest bird, knocking it back into the hole. The other three birds sensed immediate danger and moved in to attack. They spread their wings and waddled towards him, and that was when I realized that although they had wings, they couldn't fly.

The closest bird clamped down on Satou's arm with its beaky chops and he dropped the neutralizer, followed by a scream of pain. He grabbed the bird in a bear-like embrace and tossed it into a nearby tree. Its screeches from before were nothing like its howls of pain as the viscous substance of the tree flowed over the doomed beast.

I helped Gard into an upright position and ran over to join Satou, who favored his wounded arm. The two remaining birds closed on him and I looked for Wraith, wondering where he ran off to but then I remembered his disappearing act on the Argus and questioned his courage level. I reached the closest bird and swung my fist but missed by a mile, exposing my glaring need for more weapons training. When the bird turned and focused his attention on me, I became concerned I would never get the opportunity.

Before the bird closed in for a strike it screeched in agony as half of its face vanished, spraying me with a generous amount of brain matter. It fell dead at my feet and I looked up in time to see Wraith stumble from the woods. I noticed his hand cannon smoking at his side, and realized he used his vanishing act as a catalyst for a surprise attack.

Before I could thank him, the last bird circled the far side of the hole and crept towards us, its head low. It seemed to study us, perhaps preparing a strike until it fixed on Gard who casually rolled towards it. Although the creature didn't have eyes, it still sensed our robotic companion and let out a final screech before it fled. It used its wings and beak in conjunction to tear a hole into the ground and vanish below the surface. I gaped at the hole and at the speed in which it burrowed below the surface.

“Well I'll be damned,” I exclaimed.

Gard extended his head like a ladder and peered into the hole. “
Sensors are no longer picking up signs of the creature
.”

I picked up my rucksack and strapped it to my back before looking down the first hole. The beast struck by Satou's neutralizer lay about thirty feet down, unconscious, maybe even dead. I adjusted the straps of the backpack and inadvertently caught sight of the unfortunate creature that struck the tree. It was nothing more than a brownish skeleton drenched in the tree's defense mechanism, and I shuddered as a cool wind breezed past the back of my neck. I was pretty sure it wasn't the breeze causing the reaction.

Satou appeared next to me, favoring his right arm. “We will need to be on the move before the animal regains consciousness. Based on the hostility of the indigenous creatures I suggest we set up a secure base camp.”

I nodded and looked at Wraith, who was bent over the half-faced dead owl. I removed the stun knuckles, approached him and noticed that he had stuck a syringe into the carcass.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

Without looking at me, Wraith puckered his lips in mock concentration before responding. “Simply put, I am gathering a DNA sample from this creature.”

“Hurry up,” Satou grumbled. “We need to set up camp.”

Wraith pulled the needle out and held it up, tapping it with his finger. He pulled on the center of it and I was mildly surprised to see that the center of the device was actually a vial, which he pulled out and loaded into his backpack.

It took us about ten minutes to hike back to the shuttle and another twenty to set up the camp. Madoc and Crag'Dughai turned off the camouflaging device and assisted us with the set up.

When we were done we had a protective dome shelter, like a giant tent, capable of housing the entire scout team as well as a portable fire pit, a Sustanant and a mobile research lab covered by a canopy. If it wasn't for the research lab and weapons, I would have felt like a boy scout on weekend camping trip.

“So, what do we do now?” I asked Satou after we finished setting up.

He clicked the canister on his neutralizer, finishing the reload. Earlier he explained that he had ended up firing at least fifty needles into the owl-thing which meant the creature would be unconscious for at least five hours according to his calculations. He shoved the weapon into his pack and examined the trees.

“Well, according to Madoc, there is a cave about three miles west,” he said and pointed past the grove. “Of course we will need to avoid the trees, but I located another path leading away from the grove, which would swing us out of the way a bit, but it is better than running into the trees.”

I nodded and thought of the unfortunate bird which sent another bout of shudders through my body. I had to remind myself to be on my toes, that anything could happen at any time—like flightless, burrowing owls.

“Wraith, wait here. Nathan, you and Gard will come with me,” Satou ordered.

We took the path that Satou discovered and traveled away from the trees which made the trip less dangerous, although longer. I fell in behind Satou with Gard taking up the rear. The journey took us about an hour and had been rather uneventful, except when we neared the cave and Satou stopped to scan an animal that popped its head from a nearby bush.

“What is it?” I asked Satou who grimaced at the scanner.

“Well, I will be damned,” he said and turned to Gard. “Gard, can you verify my scans?”

Gard rolled to the bush and, as they did before, his eyes changed color. After several moments of clicking and clacking the eyes returned to their normal blue.

“
Your scans are correct
,” he said. “
The genetic makeup is similar to the Caelum Grof with slight variances
.”

I had no idea what a Caelum Grof was, but the animal in the bush looked like a cross between a lizard and a frog. It was partially hidden by the bush but its face was very frog-like in appearance, yet the body appeared elongated like a gecko. The bush had fern-like leaves which concealed the rear half of the animal but it had to be at least the size of a small alligator.

“Interesting,” Satou replied and retrieved the neutralizer.

“What are you going to do with that?” I exclaimed. “He isn't hurting anyone!” I watched as the Grof took a big bite out of a fern leaf and chewed it like a cow.

“Calm down, Nathan. I will only fire one needle, which will knock it out long enough for Gard to retrieve a DNA sample.”

Satou aimed and fired. A lone needle struck the beast where its neck and torso connected. It jerked its head in surprise, the fern leaf jutting comically from its mouth before it retreated into the bush. Several seconds later it emerged, lethargic and making some sort of gagging sound. Eventually it ceased moving and lay near the bush where I could admire its length that topped four feet.

Gard rolled over and retrieved the DNA sample similar to the way Wraith did with the bird. Instead of a rucksack, he stored the vial inside his torso and I found myself wondering how much bowel storage he had.

We resumed our trek and after a few moments found ourselves in front of the target cave. Although this cave had been surrounded by alien flora, I still couldn't help but be reminded of the cave in New Mexico. With the exception of the abundant creeping vines and spongy moss, the entrance brought back the memories of my time spent exploring with Sam. I shut my eyes to prevent the tears and remind myself that there was no going back.