Storm World Ch. 09

I bet you weren't expecting this update yet. ;) Well, chp9 is here and ready to read. I have a lot of editing to do on chp10 and chp11, but there is so much material already laid out I see no reason to delay posting this one. Keep in mind, though, it may be a few weeks before chp10 is ready and I will be holding onto it until the rough draft of chp12 is done.

To those who have been sending me support, I thank you. I am glad you are enjoying my story. Be sure to read the author's note at the end of this chapter or go to my forum thread for a special note regarding emails. You can find the link below.

Note: When you see an asterisk (*) after a word you will find a definition or note at the end of the chapter.

Commander M`peth qHo -- Thahn `Den -- Intelligence Branch. Leader of the survivors.

Pilot Officer (Pilot) Liat `del Qha -- Pah`Tht -- First officer of the Char`Noth. Second in command.

Chief Weapons Officer (Gunner) Chep `Urt vEss -- dTel`Qohar -- Second officer of the Char`Noth.

Ima` Nef`Tn -- dTel`Qohar -- Weapons technician.

TaH `Kiy mTh -- Thahn`Den -- Engineer.

Tem l`eth tong -- dTel`Qohar -- Veteran weapons specialist.

Ty`em P`tral -- Thahn `Den -- Engineer

For additional notes please go to Literotica Discussion Board > Main Literotica Forums > Authors' Hangout > The Savage Shore Universe.

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Chapter 9

"Watch your footing through here," cautioned Benjamin as he led the group down the uneven slope.

Rain was only falling lightly now and looked as if it might blow out at any time. It made the smell of the air salty, but to the jZav`Etch that was preferable to the stony scent of the caves. The ground was either rocky or muddy and some places were slick with slime, but so far no one had fallen. And in spite of Benjamin's frequent warnings, or perhaps because of them, the cats were actually enjoying this sojourn into the forest. It was in the nature of their species to love wild places and this island was not merely wild, it was primeval. There were no sounds of aircraft overhead. No rumbling of heavy industry in the far distance. Not even a beaten path for them to follow. Benjamin navigated by landmarks, alone.

"Don't touch this vine," Benjamin called loud enough for all to hear. He was pointing to a particularly innocuous looking length of green and purple vegetation with small hair-like bristles sparsely distributed over its surface. "Dangerous. Hurts like hell. Give you a nasty infection."

M`peth qHo translated his warning, edging away from the vine as she passed it. At another time she might have been tempted to take a sample to have its properties analyzed, but that was not what she was here for. She needed to get on with her mission. Though the past three days had seen much progress in the construction of the boat, that was only a secondary, if important, concern. And she was frustrated by this treacherous hike down the side of the mountain. If she looked back she could still make out the narrow crack in the stone through which they had left the caves. Benjamin had done well to pick his way back and forth down the steep slope, but every switchback took time and the urgency of her mission was made more acute with every tick of the clock.

Delayed by the storm and cooped up in the cave with nothing to do save bind reeds together and plan their escape from this island, M`peth qHo had grown increasingly restless. Thahn `Den do not do well in prolonged, enforced close confinement. Eventually she had risked walking out on the ledge that led up to the power station atop the ridge just to have a view that did not end in stone. She and TaH `Kiy mTh had spent time together on that ledge in quiet contemplation. The howling of the storm had prevented much conversation and lessened their enjoyment of the open air. It had been a relief, nevertheless. Ty`em P`tral had joined them when she had recovered her strength, but had not stayed long. At least the young engineer was on her feet, though still pained by her injured shoulder.

At the bottom of the cleft they had been following Benjamin once again turned back, following a new winding way. There were no paths, only ways. M`peth qHo bit down on her frustration. The necessity of bringing her four able-bodied crew along meant they could not take Benjamin's canoe even part way. How many more turnings would they have to take before they got to the crash site? And once there they would have more delays. She had no idea how long it would take to remove the power pack and motor from the spinner and no way of knowing how much more time would be needed to transport the components to where Tem l`eth tong would be able to work on them. And that was yet another concern. Would the motor even work after the crash and all its time lying unused through who could even guess how many storms?

"Stop!" Benjamin snapped urgently, barring progress with an extended arm. His posture indicated stress and fear. Something had gone wrong! Danger all around! The line of jZav`Etch bristled with alertness. Weapons were drawn. "Everyone, stay where you are."

M`peth qHo and Liat `del Qha quickly translated his words and cautioned the others to be vigilant. Benjamin prowled forward to a wide, muddy stream, probing ahead with one of his long, stone tipped spears. Bare foot and naked save for his torn and dirty shorts, he looked quite the savage in spite of the rifle slung across his back and the massive pistol on his hip. A long bladed machete and a knife hung on the opposite side and many pouches were clipped to his belt. Had he been streaked with war paint and adorned with a feathered headdress he might have struck a romantic figure from tales and legends.

As it was, an outsider could easily have been forgiven if they had mistook Benjamin for a native guide leading a safari. All the jZav`Etch wore their environment suits with their helmets on and sensors at maximum gain. The contrast between the two species could not have been greater had the entire party been naked. When M`peth qHo had asked Benjamin why he was not wearing his own environment suit he had explained simply that he no longer needed the thing. She wondered if that were true or if he was suffering from some sort of minor lapse into his peculiar insanity.

Ahead, Benjamin crept cautiously forward a few more paces and then squatted down to pry a fist sized stone from the sandy black mud. He watched the water's surface for several heartbeats before tossing the stone at a point a little to his left on the opposite side of the stream. To the accompaniment of all the proximity sensors chiming, something as long as Benjamin's arm with a many jointed body curled into an arch and slammed a spiked end down on the stone like a war mace. The thing thrashed and splashed and as it rose to strike again Benjamin cast his spear, skewering the creature as neat as could be, pinning it to the bank.

"Lunch!" he said, sounding very pleased. "Don't even need to cook him. Taste great raw. You'll like these."

The Human stepped into the knee deep water and pulled the spear from the mucky bank. He held up his kill to examine it, ducking his head back as the monster flashed vicious barbs at his face. Benjamin turned to present his kill to the others who all examined the large squirming thing with varying degrees of interest. Thick, sharp pincers clacked spastically at both ends and short, thick, fin-like legs quivered along its length. The jZav`Etch all cast doubtful looks upon Benjamin who smiled in return.

"It'll be dead in a few minutes," he said. "These are really territorial. Keep other predators away. I call them centipedes, but I don't know what they really are. Neither fish nor fowl, as my mother would have said. This is a small one. Most are as long as I am tall. Some get even bigger than that. Drag their prey under water and smash them against the rocks until they stop moving. Then they eat. Can't kill them with a club. Their carapace is like leather and tough. A club just bounces off and makes them angry. Have to spit them and keep the spear in place. Blood runs out and they die. Take the spear out while they're still wriggling and pretty soon they're crawling around again and causing trouble."

"How did you know it was there?" M`peth qHo asked. "Our sensors did not detect it."

"I didn't know it was there," Benjamin said. "I figured something was, though. Muddy water from all this rain, something is hiding in it."

"Our sensors did not detect it," she repeated. "Why not?"

"It wasn't moving, so your motion detectors wouldn't have tripped," Benjamin said. "Most things on the island are pretty much the same temperature as the background, so a heat signature is useless. Not sure what else you've got. Background radiation isn't much help, either. I don't know, Commander."

"Is stream now safe?" Liat `del Qha asked, impatient to get moving again. She did not like this place. The undergrowth was far too dense to see anything coming. The ground far too sodden to run on if need be. And after surviving the tanglefish in the water and seeing what Benjamin intended for his lunch she did not fancy the idea of standing to and fighting. At least, not on this slope.

"It'll be safe for a while." Benjamin gestured up and down the stream's course. "Another one will smell this one's blood and come looking. We'd have to do this again if we were going to come back this way. Maybe get a bigger one for dinner if we did. Roast it with some marsh tatters and leaping root knuckles. You haven't tried those, yet. Taste like maize."

"How much further to the crash site?" M`peth qHo asked, stepping down closer to the stream.

"Those tall trees over there," he said, pointing into the jungle which looked to be composed entirely of tall trees that towered up into the mists. "About another half hour once we're down from this slope. Come on. Let's cross before something else gets here."

Benjamin looked even more barbaric leading them through the ever thickening forest with his still squirming lunch on the end of his spear like a bizarre standard. The centipede did not die until they arrived at the vicinity of the wrecked spinner. At first no one could see the machine anywhere. Even Benjamin was unable to pinpoint it. M`peth qHo quickly resorted to an active scan of the area so as to waste as little time as possible. She found a dormant energy source surrounded by synthetic material and complex alloys

"It is this way!" she called over the noise of the drizzle on leaves and began marching purposefully towards a curtain of some sort of vines, ready to slash them out of her way with her knife.

"No!" Benjamin bellowed.

"Let us waste no more time, Benjamin!" she yelled back and struck at the vines.

In the next instant M`peth qHo found herself dangling upside down, entangled in dozens of flat tendrils. She slashed at them frantically with her blade, scoring hit after hit. For every vine she cut another wrapped around her. Finally, three or four entangled her knife arm and she could only squirm and wriggle in their grip.

Suddenly blasts of jeq'istle fire sounded and M`peth qHo saw flashes of blue-white light near her. Tendrils began falling limp from above and then someone was close. Her helmet was all but covered in vines now and she could not see, but the sound of a blade passing through the ropey vegetation and the slackening of the grip of some of the vines told her they were cutting the things. And then she thumped gracelessly on the ground, stunned and breathless.

M`peth qHo struggled to free herself even as someone hauled her across the forest floor. She could not catch her breathe! Worse, the vines that remained around her were now constricting. Claustrophobic panic set in and she fought more violently. Her knife was gone, but she had her claws. She tore at the vines and kicked, fighting for the smallest breath. And then the vines were gone. She sprang to her feet and dashed away only to be tackled and thrown to the ground again and pinned. Squirming and fighting with all her might she twisted and clawed. Her teeth snapped and she beat at her attacker.

"Knock it off!" shouted Benjamin, avoiding the worst of the blows. "Calm the fuck down!"

Figures rushed up behind him and hovered above. One dropped at her side and she struck with her claws only to have her arms once again pinned.

"Commander!" roared Chep `Urt vEss, holding her down. "You are free! Commander, calm yourself!"

A much smaller figure knelt by M`peth qHo and took her helmeted head between her hands, forcing her to look into the face of Liat `del Qha.

"You are free, Commander," said the pilot. "We got you down. You are free."

M`peth qHo's panic subsided. She could breathe again. She stopped struggling and looked up at Benjamin who was straddling her midriff, his hands pressing her shoulders to the ground. Chep `Urt vEss still held her arms, but not as forcefully as a moment before.

"You're alright," Benjamin said, breathing hard and then got off of her. His arms bore minor cuts from her claws and his cheek was reddened from a blow.

Chep `Urt vEss nodded and let go. Rising, he stepped away, drawing his pistol and looking out at the jungle. The other jZav`Etch followed his example while Liat `del Qha helped her to her feet.

When she could speak again, M`peth qHo asked, "What was that thing, Benjamin?"

"I warned you not everything that looks like a plant is a plant," he said, picking up a severed tendril. It was flat and jerked feebly in his grip. "These things are sort of like gigantic starfish or anemones. I don't suppose you have those where you're from, but they don't look like animals. Neither does this."

"I am sorry," she said, finally collecting her wits.

"Broke the first rule, Commander," he said, picking her knife from among the writhing tendrils. "I can't see everything with all this vegetation. That's why I told you all to not do anything without I say so. And don't be sorry. Be alive. If your friends hadn't come out with their shooters so fast I would have had to kill the thing. That would have been a right mess."

"Kill it?" she asked.

"Look," he said and pointed up.

M`peth qHo followed the line of his finger and saw a gnarled knot of the tendrils in the crotch of one of the massive trees. Some still writhed and some oozed a milky, translucent slime.

"In the heart of that mass is the core," Benjamin explained. "Probably would have taken ten or twelve shots to kill. No central nervous system, see? I don't know if you would have survived the fall."

"I was not that high," she said, but not in objection.

"You would have been. That's where its mouth is," he said and handed her knife over. "Now, where did you see the wreck?"

All highly alert for danger, the company carefully skirted around several large trees to get to a mound of vegetation. Benjamin drew his machete again before probing the mass of vines and broad leafed plants with his spear. Nothing attacked or even slunk away so he began to cut at the foliage with judicious strokes. Leaving Chep `Urt vEss on watch the other jZav`Etch lent a hand dragging vines and roots clear of the wreckage.

The machine proved to be somewhat larger than they had expected. Two huge overlapping ducted fans were situated at the bow. Both were shattered. A long, multi-jointed leg resembling that of a crustacean was still caught in the blades. Two other fans were at the stern and looked to be intact. In the middle was the cockpit, originally with room for a pilot and five passengers. Now it was a mess of twisted carbon plating, shattered controls and crumpled seats. Behind the cockpit was a smooth, streamlined cowling. Benjamin stood back for several minutes, staring at the machine.

"Ben `Jamin?" Ima` Nef`Tn whispered.

"You can still see the blood," he said thickly. "All those fucking storms and it's still staining the seat."

"Ben `Jamin?" she asked, not understanding the English words. She cautiously placed a hand on his arm.

"I'm alright, Babe," he said, covering her fingers with his own. "Some things you just don't get over. Got to live with them. I should have killed Troi after the Skipper died. Carla wouldn't have said shit and I'm pretty sure Grace would have kept quiet, too. If I had, Carla wouldn't have died here. The auto-doc wouldn't have been damaged which would have meant Grace wouldn't have died, maybe. I should have killed that fucking bitch."

"He laments the death of his friend, Ima` Nef`Tn," M`peth qHo explained in jZav. In a gentle tone she addressed Benjamin in English. "Where do we begin?"

The work was not as time consuming as M`peth qHo had feared it might be. Using the tools still secured in the spinner's locker, Ima` Nef`Tn and TaH `Kiy mTh with Benjamin's guidance removed the cowling to expose the power pack, relays and a whole host of less vital components. TaH `Kiy mTh, though unfamiliar with Free World technology, made short work of disconnecting the leads that once had supplied energy to the fans and stabilizers. Thus proving he was not entirely unfamiliar with tools.

Removing the power pack from the machine was another matter. It took the combined strength of Benjamin and Chep `Urt vEss to lift it clear once the brackets holding it were removed. Both large males strained to shift the heavy component from the spinner to the forest floor and once done they straightened panting and somewhat spent to regard one another. Chep `Urt vEss flicked his ears a few times as he looked the Human up and down. Benjamin wiped the back of a grimy hand across his mouth, his eyes narrowed. Almost simultaneous they both nodded and then turned to look at the spinner.

M`peth qHo glanced down at Liat `del Qha and twitched her whiskers speculatively. Liat `del Qha flattened her own whiskers as if to say she did not know. Both were relieved that some sort of truce had arisen between the gunner and the Human. Perhaps their situation was not as bad as it might have been.

"Ben `Jamin, I do not believe these fans will be of use to us," said Ima` Nef`Tn in her improving Japanese. She was standing on the stern fan assembly with a wrench in her hand. TaH `Kiy mTh was crouching below it, looking up through the blades.

"What are you saying?" M`peth qHo demanded, stepping forward with a very concerned expression. She had not understood the Japanese, but Ima` Nef`Tn's posture and tone told her something was amiss.

"These fans are too large, Commander," TaH `Kiy mTh said, rising and tapping his wrench on the fan blades speculatively.

"And the motor does not look as if it will work to drive a different kind of propeller," Ima` Nef`Tn added.

"So we have wasted our time coming here?" M`peth qHo growled, displeased. Spinning to face Benjamin she demanded angrily, "Why did you not warn us about this?"

"You need to cool your jets, lady. You're getting bitchier all the time," Benjamin said, brushing her aside and going to Ima` Nef`Tn. In Japanese he explained, "We are not using the lifting fans. Look at the manifold behind you. The motor we came for is in there."

The pretty jZav`Etch engineer squatted down to look into the opening. Her expression became curious and pleased. She extended her hand, touched the fan inside the manifold, but it would not spin freely. There were small vines holding it in place. She was about to pull them free when she recalled what had happened to M`peth qHo earlier. Her gauntlets were in a pouch on her belt and it took only a moment to put them on. When she pulled on the thin vines they came away in her fingers easily enough, but she was surprised to see them jerking spastically.