Bell Toll said, “We’re heading north on our last leg, if anyone’s interested.” Everyone clicked over to the map to see. “The bay is a glacial formation, which is interesting as we’re at the thirty-seventh latitude. There’s some odd climatology here. It’s deep and narrow, and the river delta is fairly solid and not marshy once we get inland. It shouldn’t be hard to walk. I can’t get a good image on the shore, yet, so we’ll assume heavy growth. If it’s not, we’re lucky.”
“So with that in mind, everyone get some sleep,” Shiva said. “We’ll wake, eat and run ashore. Local dark is when, sir?”
“Actually,” Bell Toll said, “that will put us ashore right about local dark, if we get six hours rest and allow two hours for eating and prep.”
“You heard the man,” Shiva said. “Nighty-night.”
Chapter 6
The wake-up chimes were drowned out by Shiva’s strong voice singing, “OH! What a beautiful morning!” followed by even louder bitching from Dagger, Thor and Ferret.
“It’s time,” Shiva reminded them. “Grab your last, hot, home-cooked meal, kiss your screen of your mama goodbye and get ready to suck mud.”
The meal was abbreviated and interrupted by the sorting of gear. Rucks, harnesses, helmet displays and clothes were all checked, with Shiva and Bell Toll scanning a troubleshooting program to see if the troops missed any problems. Gorilla had calmed down and seemed almost cheerful. He most of all would be glad to get out of the ball and on land, even if it was hostile land. Conversely, Gun Doll and Ferret were tensing up a bit more than the others, but no more than they had on previous operations. Tirdal was still physiologically normal. His alpha history didn’t seem to match up with him getting any sleep, but the Darhel were so thoroughly nonhuman in character that it was impossible to say.
“Feet Dry,” Bell Toll announced as they reached a depth that would allow no further submerged progress. “Vent and unplug.” Everyone took one last opportunity to relieve themselves, then disconnected the equipment that made that possible. The Darhel’s anatomy was strange, but it was the type of event that no one wanted to discuss, so no questions were asked. Wiped off with towels in lieu of showers and fastened into assault suits, everyone took a last bite or two and squatted with their gear. That made the center of the ball a packed, elbow-to-elbow mess.
“Tirdal, do you sense anything?” Bell Toll asked. He felt stupid saying the words, they sounded overly melodramatic, but there wasn’t any other way to put it.
“Animals of some kind,” Tirdal replied, not bothering to comment on the captain’s evident discomfiture with the request. “Primitive thoughts regarding hunger and pain. Nothing else. Nothing sentient nearby with the exception of the team.”
“Thanks. Gorilla, go.”
At a signal from Gorilla, the first robot was released from a side hatch. It floated clear of the pod and swam quietly across the choppy surface trailing a hair-fine control wire, its progress slowed by the shore currents. Its paddlelike legs propelled it, and after an impatient time it reached the pebbly beach.
This bot had been chosen for its unobtrusiveness. It looked like a giant pill bug. While it was convenient that it was low to the ground and matched many fauna, it was also a compact and efficient design. Once it touched land, its “antennae” made a sniff for chemicals, sounds and motion. Sensing nothing, it shifted its legs from paddles to tractioned feet and trundled up the rocky terrain into the nearby weeds.
The camera feed came on at once, visible on everyone’s visor in any part of the spectrum they chose to look at. Gorilla said, “Infrared Three appears to have the best image,” and there were grunts of acknowledgment as people sought that view.
“Temperate forest?” Gun Doll asked, examining the dark patches of growth.
“Sort of,” Bell Toll said. “I’m not sure if those trees are actually deciduous. Cycad or palmlike. The undergrowth is heavy.” It was. The screens showed a thick, tangled variety of bushes. Over the bushes loomed broad, spreading trees reminiscent of palmettos and rubber trees. Above them were tall, spindly forest giants, with leaves spiny like cacti. The vegetation was packed in at the shoreline where access to sunlight was the greatest. The ground was thick loam with much rotten vegetation, riddled with holes made by animals. A molten sun was dropping behind the trees, in a pink and blue mural of sky.
“There’s an animal,” Dagger said, his eyes always sharp for movement.
“I see it,” Gorilla said, and adjusted one of the cameras for a closer view. The controller on the front of his harness was set up for fingers or voice, though voice control was rarely used. If he was too busy shooting to have a free hand, then he’d shout orders, but that was to be avoided. “That is the biggest freaking cockroach I have ever seen,” he said, bringing it into sharp focus for everyone.
“More like a trilobite or silverfish,” Bell Toll said.
“Whatever. It’s an insect,” Gorilla said. “If you’re afraid of bugs, you’re in trouble.”
“Aren’t you afraid of bugs, Gorilla?” Thor asked, pushing awfully closely to Gorilla’s real phobias.
“Only from the inside,” Gorilla said, eliciting chuckles. “Which might be possible here. There’s another one, different species. It appears insectoids are the dominant animal form around here.”
“Likely, but let’s not assume too much,” Bell Toll put in. “There could be monstrous birds who eat those things.”
“Good point, Captain.”
“Holy crap, look at the jaws on that bastard!” Ferret said. He lit the creature in question with a cursor.
“Those are some serious mandibles,” Shiva agreed. The bug in question was shearing through plant stalks about ten centimeters thick. The stalks didn’t look like spongy weed, but appeared to be rather woody, like bamboo. As the plants fell, the bug handled them with lobsterlike pincers, feeding them into its mouth as a kid would French fries. They disappeared about as fast.
“Question is, does anything prey on that?” Ferret asked.
“Will it reassure you if I say that the bot found fecal matter and determined it to contain meat residue?” Gorilla said.
“No,” Ferret admitted with a shiver.
“I sense no carnivores at present,” Tirdal said. “If there are any nearby, they are not conscious or self-aware.”
“Mammaloid!” Bell Toll said. “There!” A circle glowed around that part of the image, and Gorilla zoomed in.
“Looks a bit like a capybara,” he said.
“Capybara?” Tirdal asked.
“A large rodent creature from Earth.”
“Thank you.”
“There’s a small flyer,” Shiva said, spotting flitting movement.
“Whoa, too fast! Hold on,” Gorilla protested, sequencing the images and numbering them for review. He brought a close-up image of the flyer up for everyone.
The flyer was also mammalian, a bit like a bat but with a longer snout. It and the capybara analog were both shaded from yellow to brown. Their claws were long but curved.
“Herd,” Gorilla said, shifting the image in a blur to the south. The browsers were bugs, and huge, at least a meter tall at the “shoulder.” Their carapaces were striped for camouflage, and they flickered through the darkening shadows, seeming to phase in and out.