“Deep-Space Response Ship Manessa Kwi on Satamia Two standard approach,” Rini said at navigation.
“Greetings, Manessa Kwi!” a gray fanator responded from Rini’s screen.
“How may we serve the gods?”
Rini felt himself blush for a moment. “Um . . . we’d like to do a little wilderness training in preparation for a difficult mission on another planet.”
“Bok. All Nebador citizens with medical clearance?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’m sending you the current planetary status map.”
It slowly formed on Rini’s screen and he sent it to all stations.
“The northeast continent just closed for ecosystem adjustments,” the fanator explained. “The south-central continent is available for wilderness training, but closed to any group larger than twelve.”
“Our training will be done mostly in pairs, trios at the most,” Rini said.
“Okay. We hope you’ll stop by Satamia City to enjoy our hospitality before you depart, perhaps after you’ve gotten your fill of the wilds, bok!”
Rini chuckled. “We might be able to do that. Thank you, Satamia Two.
Manessa Kwi closing.”
Ilika swiveled the commander’s chair and looked at Kolarrr’ka, busy studying the planetary map from his seat in the passenger area.
“Bok,” the bird began thoughtfully. “Let’s put our aquatic team near a
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little tropical island in the central wilderness zone, and sprinkle the other teams on the south-central continent. Tropical rain forest, Toran?”
The big cat, now sitting up tall in his seat, nodded.
“Grasslands to the south, Malika?”
“Yes,
please.”
“Ss’klexna?”
“Boreal forest in the mountains, just below timberline.”
Kolarrr’ka nodded. “I know T’sss’lisss wants to slither around that desert on the west coast.”
Rini, remembering with fondness the sand dunes on his home planet, grinned with anticipation as he began to construct a flight plan that would put all the training teams in the right places.
With the warm tropical ocean lapping at the bottom of the little ship, Boro, wearing only shorts, adjusted his buoyancy belt to take him just under the surface swells, slipped on his breathing mask, and nodded that he was ready.
“You’re
sure you don’t want a suit?” Kibi asked with a worried look.
“There are things with teeth down there.”
“Trekila has teeth!” Boro pointed out through the intercom in his mask.
“I meant non-sapient teeth!” Kibi clarified.
Boro laughed. “This is wilderness training. I feel bad enough that I have to use a breathing mask. I hope someday I won’t have to.”
Kibi looked out the hatch where Trekila Spimalo and Memsala were floating nearby. “I want my crew member to come back safely!” she called to them.
The dolphin promised while splashing with her tail, and the giant sea turtle nodded.
Boro jumped in, and Kibi could see him begin to kick in a steady rhythm about a meter below the surface of the blue-green water, following his two mission specialists toward the nearest little island.
While Mati looked for an opening in the dense tropical canopy forty meters or more above the ground, Kibi got ready in skimpy clothing, moccasins, and light gloves that would allow her to climb trees easily in the
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warm, humid rain forest.
Eventually the pilot found an opening, but could not get the ship all the way down to the surface because of fallen logs, branches, and creeping vines.
“This is a jungle,” Toran Takil declared from the entryway, looking through the open hatch. “We may not walk on solid ground all day long.”
Mati nudged the ship next to a fallen tree. “How’s that?”
Kibi stepped beside the large male cat and swallowed. They would be in the wilderness together, with no one watching, and no time limit until the Manessa Kwi picked them up the following day.
Toran leapt to the fallen tree, then looked back at Kibi.
Her mind raced, trying to think of any excuse to avoid the test she was about to . . . pass or fail. None came to mind. With her heart in her throat, she jumped to the log, wobbled for a moment, then found her balance.
Mati transferred the helm to Ilika so she could change into the long pants, boots, full shirt, and sun hat that would allow her to survive the wiry grass and hot sun of the plains region.
Ilika brought the ship to the ground and extended the ramp.
Malika-Terno clopped out, threw back his head, and whinnied loudly at the thrill of a day in open wilderness where he could run like the wind.
Mati came down next.
“I’m used to a saddle, you know,” she pointed out with a grin.
“That’s what today is for,” the large horse replied. “You must become as much a part of me as the hair on my back. Only then will you know the joy of running across the open prairie as only an equine can.”
Mati was ready. She reached around the base of his mane while launching herself with her feet, then slipped flat onto his back before attempting to center herself.
“I remember when I was a cripple, and couldn’t dream of doing that!”
“Those days are no more,” he said, and set off across the grasslands at a trot for her first lesson.
Sata
felt like a bear in thick boots and insulated clothing as she stepped from the ship’s ramp onto cold rocks with white snow glistening in the shady
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places. The sun blazed in a deep-blue sky, but the nearby mountain peak was wreathed in ominous clouds. A few twisted trees bore silent witness to the unexpected arrival.
Ss’klexna sat upright on another boulder not far away, taking the measure of the place with bright eyes and sensitive nose. Then she looked at her monkey-mammal student. “There’s a stream about an hour’s run from here, but I will let you find it.”
“Run?” Sata questioned. “I can barely walk in these thick clothes!”
“That will come in time. First, quit thinking and start smelling. The fish in the stream are almost making my mouth water even at this distance . . .”
At the final drop-off point, T’sss’lisss was the first one down the ramp, anxious to feel the sand under her belly. Kolarrr’ka spread his wings at the hatch and glided over his partner’s head, then flapped to gain a little altitude and scout the area.
Rini pranced out last, wearing light shoes, loose but long pants and shirt, and sun hat.
Ashley stood in the hatch and watched them go. “Have fun, desert rats!”
Rini chuckled as he dashed along a sandy wash behind T’sss’lisss, both of them keeping track of Kolarrr’ka by the shadow that occasionally flashed across the land.
Ashley closed the hatch and nodded to Ilika at the helm. “I envy them,”
she said, perching on the steps to the bridge while Ilika piloted. “We already know the status of the humans on Ko-tera Three, and it’s nothing to be proud of . . .”
The tropical island had looked close from the air, but Boro soon discovered he would be swimming for a long time. As the minutes became hours, he wondered if he would have the strength. His teachers each pulled him a little, just so he would know where to hold, but showed no intention of making his journey easy. And when the island finally seemed to be getting closer, they started calling to him to explore the ocean floor with them, where coral beds and colorful fish created a maze of sights and muffled sounds. He adjusted his buoyancy belt, looked inside himself for another burst of energy, and
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followed them down.
Toran Takil had been right — after hours of balancing on fallen logs, climbing up slender trunks, and sometimes leaping from branch to branch, Kibi could not remember ever standing on solid ground. Rushing streams passed by beneath them, but never did they get wet in those streams. They were both, however, soon drenched from the damp leaves, dripping bark, and creeping mists of the jungle. And to make it all worse, Kibi felt completely lost, and was sure she could never find the place they had been dropped off, somewhere in the vast jungle on a continent with nothing but wilderness.
At first Malika-Terno held himself to a trot as he moved across the seemingly endless grasslands, and Mati held on to his muscular neck and believed herself to be going faster than the wind. Eventually, when he knew they were in an area of tall, soft grass, he changed his running rhythm slightly and picked up speed, and soon Mati was bouncing up and down on his back and screaming. A moment later the horse felt his light burden vanish completely, so he slowed to a walk and circled back. “You were sitting on me,” he said to the sore monkey mammal in the grass trying to catch her breath. “You must learn to become the hair on my back, at all rhythms and speeds. Only then can we hope to catch up with the wind!”
After Ss’klexna Rrr’tak’fi yelled at Sata four times to quit thinking and use her senses, and once reinforced it with sharp teeth that didn’t break the skin, much, the response ship navigator got the message and followed her nose.
With a bear right behind her, she ran. She knew her teacher didn’t mean sprint, but just a steady lope that would slowly eat up the kilometers.
Three-quarters of an hour later, the faint smell of water gave way to the clear sound of a gurgling mountain stream, and soon fish could be seen leaping from pool to pool.
Rini was filled with joy as he pranced about in the sandy desert, explored little eroded canyons with T’sss’lisss, and climbed to high points to scan the wild horizon with Kolarrr’ka. To the west lay an ocean, and to the east, mountains, both too far to visit in one day. But as the hours passed, his joy was tempered first by noticing secretive glances between his teachers, then by hearing faint animal sounds, like the bark or yap of a small canine. As the sun neared the ocean, he became sure of it, and was also convinced the sounds
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were coming from every direction.
“Ah! He doesss have earsss!” T’sss’lisss commented. “Kolarrr’ka and I have decccided to let you figure out how we will sssurvive the night, with carnivorousss latransss all around usss. They hunt in packsss, love fresh sssnake and bird meat, and even though they don’t get it very often, I’m sssure they’d enjoy a tassste of monkey mammal, too.”
Ilika and Ashley, after parking the Manessa Kwi on a pristine beach and collecting some tropical fruit, opened a packet of grains and vegetables from Ubalora Three and began reviewing all the mission documents.