Twice Removed... 8

Printer-friendly version
landing.png
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.

 
 

Twice Removed
Chapter 8
New Civilization

By
Amethyst
"These people have no loyalty, no honor, and no respect for any of us. If they make any further attempts to take what is ours, then I fully intend to fight back.”

 


 
Author's Note: Thanks as usual to my readers and of course the Big Closet team who work tirelessly to give us all a great place to post and read TG fiction. ~Amethyst.
 


 
Chapter 8: New Civilization

*Well shit,* I cursed. I let out a sigh as Krie finished extracting the chip *At least we know he won’t be causing any more trouble. We’ll give the chip to the guys after dinner and hopefully they can figure out what’s up with it. I don’t want any unwelcome guests and there may be a way for us to use the tech to our own advantage.*

My sister nodded in agreement as she placed the chip in a sample container and handed it to me. *We’ll have to be careful handling it and warn Xawin and Karran about the toxin.*

*Yeah, who knows what other booby traps that thing might have,* I agreed. Then I used my mental amplifier to send out to all the other Saer’khi, *We extracted the chip but it released a nerve toxin that killed Eric as soon as we touched the damn thing. I guess that saves the colonists the trouble of killing him, but I’m half tempted to just destroy the thing right now. Xawin and Karran be careful when you look it over, it might be useful but we need to expect that they put anti-tampering measures in place. What’s our status everyone?*

*All the photon lamps are set Commander,* Xawin replied first. *We’ve got several cooking fires going and we’re building a few large ones for people to gather around to keep warm while we eat since we can’t be sure how cold it gets at night.*

*We’ve got people helping the kitchen staff prepare the meat and fish we brought in and all our people are accounted for,* Tanna chimed in next.

*We should have plenty of firewood but we didn’t have time to gather many supplies to make shelters,* Karran admitted last.

*Good work everyone; I think we’ll have the colonists sleep in the personnel drop ship tonight to be safe. There should be room and we have plenty of thermal jumpsuits to keep everyone warm or roll up to use as pillows,* I pointed out. *The drop ships should be secure enough and we can start planning shelters and such tomorrow. I don’t want to risk any nocturnal predators catching us with our pants down, and if the Murqui are concerned, so am I. Our situation is bad enough as it is. I really hope we can use that chip to find some way to contact Saer’kah.*

*Why would we need to?* Tanna’s mental voice sounded a bit confused.

*So they can send help of course and so we can tell them the situation with the sleeper agents from Earth,* I pointed out.

*We should be able to tell them all that when they get here though,* she replied still sounding confused. *They will know something went wrong when our reports stop coming in, that’s why daily reports for the communications officer are standard procedure. Also the continual uplink between the ship and the subspace beacon network has ceased so they will send search and rescue ships as soon as possible to find out what happened and search for survivors.*

I breathed a sigh of relief. At least I had some good news to give the colonists. I was a bit annoyed though that I hadn’t had time for the full officer training that most commanders would have had. *At last, some good news. Still this is a pretty large sector of space to disappear in and there’s that debris field that they would have to search, unless of course there’s something else I didn’t have time to learn about?*

*There is the subspace pulse emitters,* Tanna added. *Each one sends out a unique subspace pulse signal once every twelve hours to help search crews find us. They do not have a long range but they should be picked up by anyone searching for those signals in this system. The space agency requires that all Ji’turi have one injected during our pre-launch medical exams. Don’t you remember getting one?*

I gave a mental shake of my head. *No, Mom said a medical exam would be a waste of time on me so she just injected me with some new nanites that will permanently maintain the nanites already in my system and cover the ‘necessities’. We have the ability to reproduce those here for people like Sarah and Matt too, but that was all she did. She does have a habit of forgetting I’m not really Saer’khi and thus not telling me details that she feels are obvious to most Saer’khi though, so it’s possible she included that in the injection as well.*

*I remember getting one and they show up on most medical scans Xia. Let me scan you and we’ll see if you have one too. You’re really important to Mom and to our people so I doubt she would have forgotten to equip you with one. She doesn’t forget medical details, she just sometimes forgets to mention or explain them,* Krie put in with a smile. She too was all too familiar with our mother’s tendency to not mention details that were obvious to her but not necessarily her patients. We had both gotten used to it during our training and tried not to do it ourselves with the colonists.

She took a quick scan of me and I didn’t have to wait long for the results. *It looks like you have one Xia, she must have included it in the necessities she put in with your nanite upgrades.*

*It is both disturbing and a bit of a relief that people can track me like this,* I said with a mental sigh. *How long before we can expect searchers from Saer’kah, Tanna?*

I could hear the humming in her thoughts as she mulled it over. *It will likely take days before they figure out that the Bounty’s up-link to the subspace beacon network is down. Once they figure that out and realize that no reports have been coming in they will start preparing search and rescue ships to head in our last known direction and find out what happened. Then it will take over an Earth week before they can get here. Optimistically it could be anywhere between two weeks and a month.*

*Well that’s a lot better than not at all, and I doubt that Earth has the tech to get here any faster yet. Eric himself said that they don’t really have the resources available yet for space exploration without assistance from the Saer’khi.* I gave my crew a big mental grin. *I think things may be looking up my friends.*

Following that conversation I called Captain White to inform him, Matt, and Luiza of our situation and the death of Eric. We decided to put the body in cold storage until he and a team could dispose of it the next day. Then Krie and I used what little matter we had in the medical programming console to make a mag-lev chair so that Amy could come join the other colonists for dinner and have a way to get around until I had enough base metals to create a pair of bionic legs for her. She needed to be around other people and to be able to come and go as she needed to or she would start getting depressed.

With that made, Krie left to go see how Sarah was getting on with dinner while I pushed the chair to Amy’s room. Amy, Tarek, and the slip were waiting, and the latter of the three leaped off the bed as I entered the room and nuzzled against my shins making that buzzing sound. Once again that possessive, affectionate feeling washed over me and I realized that since the critter seemed intent on keeping me, or vice-verse, that I should come up with a name for it. I pushed the chair beside Amy’s bed and smiled at her, “We’re going to get you out of this room for a bit so you can eat something with the rest of the colonists, how’s that sound?”

Amy looked at the blankets covering her where her legs suddenly ended and gave me an uncertain look. She was biting her lip as she considered her answer and it didn’t take a genius to realize that she was scared of how people would react to her infirmity. I sat down beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder, looking her right in the eyes. “Amy, you need to get this over with sooner or later. These colonists have all lost something on the Bounty, and many of them have cybernetics or cloned transplants or know someone who has, you can’t be afraid all the time and hide in here away from life. Besides I promised to look out for you, so if anyone mistreats you they will have to answer to me and Tarek.”

She looked from me to Tarek and took a deep breath to steady herself before finally replying. “O…okay. I guess I am a little hungry.”

“Good,” I replied, wrapping her up in a hug. Being so close I could sense her emotions and her fearful thoughts but she was willing to try, and that was a good start. “Before we go out though, I need to come up with a name for my new little friend here. I’ve never had a pet before so I’m not quite sure how to do it. Do you think you can help me out? And as soon as we can, we’ll try to get you a slip of your own.”

Her eyes lit up as I said the last, but she gave me a dubious look. “You never had a pet before?”

I shook my head. “Before my parents died we were thinking of getting me a goldfish or something but then the quake hit and they both died. After that I went through a lot of foster homes but I was never there long enough to form any attachments or get a pet, and then they moved me to the hospital because of my medical problems. I stayed there until my mom found me and brought me to live with her on Saer’kah.”

“Don’t the Saer’khi have pets?” she asked curiously.

I laughed at that. “I found it odd at first that I never heard of Saer’khi having pets, I thought it might be some sort of social taboo, but that wasn’t the problem.” Amy gave me a confused look and I laughed again. “The problem was that there were no creatures on Saer’kah suitable for pets, except maybe Saer bees, and they mostly just ignore us. Besides it would be awkward having them as pets when we’re so closely related genetically, so it never really occurred to them. All the other creatures on Saer’kah are much bigger than us and are dangerous predators that see the Saer’khi as a tasty snack. Saer’kah isn’t the most hospitable of worlds ecologically speaking, that’s why you were all kept in the barracks where it was safe.”

“If you really think we can get one for me I’m gonna name it Huggles, or maybe Cuddles or Pookie,” Amy said with a smile before turning her young mind to my dilemma. “You could always name it Spot. Lots of people name their pets that.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “I heard that on Earth a lot but it doesn’t really make sense, she doesn’t have a single spot on her.”

Amy giggled at that. “Pet names don’t need to make sense, they just need to sound right for the pet and maybe mean something to the person naming it. So I guess you should call it something that sounds good to you.”

I thought about it for a long moment as I looked at the slip. She was kind of weasel-like but with those big ears and eyes she kind of reminded me of a fennec fox as well. “Hmm I could maybe call her T’Pol with those ears…” I quickly shook my head at that though. “Violet? No… too obvious, I imagine lots of people will be naming slips that. How about something fox related? Socks maybe?” She did have black paws and it would be a subtle Dr. Seuss reference, but perhaps we already had enough of that with the Seussfish. “Maybe Kitsune?” I finally muttered.

“What’s that mean?” Amy inquired.

“They’re fox-like creatures in Japanese mythology,” I explained patiently. “In Chinese culture we referred to them as Huli Jing. They’re spirits that play tricks on others, seduce and/or manipulate them. Huli Jing is a bit of a mouthful for non-Chinese and since it’s not a common word the translators don’t pick it up. Kitsune can always be shortened to Kit, which is what baby foxes are called though.”

“I think Kit sounds nice Commander Phar,” she said with a smile before turning to Tarek. “What do you think Mr. Tarek?”

Tarek ruffled her hair and smiled at her. “I think it sounds pretty good, but like Xia said we don’t have any experience with pets on Saer’kah, so I’m probably not a good person to judge. It is short and easy to remember though.”

I nodded in agreement and picked up the slip to look right in her eyes. I was hoping that if they really were psychic at some level that I could reinforce the name telepathically by using the right concepts and images while speaking telepathically. I sent her a mental image of myself then Amy and Tarek and with each image I spoke our corresponding names into her mind. Then I sent to her. *I will call you Kit.* After that I repeated the whole process out loud in case the telepathy didn’t take. They may not be sentient but I still wasn’t sure just how clever these creatures might be.

I gave Kit an affectionate hug and a good petting before I set her back on the floor and turned to Tarek. “Could you get Amy into the mag-lev chair so I can show her how it works?” I spoke it aloud so that Amy would have some warning that the other Saer’khi was going to pick her up.

“Sure Xia,* he smiled as his electronic voice answered. “Let us get you mobile again Amy.” He picked the girl up with his upper set of arms and used his bottom set to gently tickle her ribs causing her to giggle and me to smile. Thanks to the nanites his shoulder seemed to be properly healed, he didn’t even wince, and I was greatly relieved by that. I also never realized before just how good Tarek was with kids. He and Amy had really taken to one another. He might make a good surrogate father for her, though Matt might as well with their similarities and his general good nature. As the Saer’khi had shown me, one can’t have too many loving fathers.

I suddenly realized what I was thinking and abruptly switched my thinking to Mandarin. I did not need Tarek getting any ideas. It was bad enough that I was. I had offered to be a surrogate mother to Amy and, well if they were surrogate fathers just what did that make them to me? Why was I even thinking like that? I loved Tarek of course, he was my best friend and maybe even a little more but I really wasn’t Saer’khi and as much as I found Matt attractive and extremely likable I wasn’t human either. Not that that seemed to matter to him at all, he had made it quite clear that he saw me as a person, no matter what my genetic heritage may be.

I knew that I needed to have the talk with Tarek regarding our pending marital status but I wasn’t really sure what to say. The link was made and it was obvious that he loved me deeply. If I really thought about it I loved him too but Ji’turi have multiple husbands and aside from Matt there was no other males I might even be interested in. Matt was human though, would he even consider such a relationship? And he may have said he saw me as a person, but was I an attractive person to him? I looked in the mirror often enough to know that I was actually very pretty by human standards, probably exotic as well with my Saer’khi features, but how did Matt see me?

Dammit, all these thoughts were starting to make me feel self-conscious and uncertain, and right now I couldn’t afford that. The colonists needed me to be a strong and decisive leader for them until the emergency was over and we could elect a proper government. Stop obsessing about boys Xia, I told myself sternly. Despite your appearance you are not an insecure teenage girl and you don’t need to start acting like one now. You can talk to Krie about this later and she can talk some sense into you. Now put your game face on because there are colonists out there waiting for status reports.

I took a deep breath, switched back to thinking in English and asked, “So, all ready to go try out the local cuisine?”

Tarek gave me a concerned look but nodded as Amy, now sitting in the chair did the same. I quickly gave Amy a lesson on how to move the chair and we all left the ship to join the others with Kit right on my heels. It was dark now and the clear and cool night air was refreshing. It wasn’t cold, just pleasantly cool, and reminded me that this part of the planet was technically entering late spring. If we generated some bees and hummingbirds quickly enough and started planting crops soon then we should be able to make it through the winter if no help came by then.

Sarah and her staff were carving up the large cooked molehogs and she smiled as we approached, “It’s good to see you three out here getting some air. The molehogs are surprisingly tasty, a lot like pork actually. The seussfish taste more like trout than salmon but they’re good too. We also roasted some of the wingnuts.” She gave us each a plate with a filleted fish, a couple slices of molehog, roasted wingnuts, and some berries. There were cups as well which we could fill from the water containers and Sarah gave me and Tarek a small bowl of liquid honey as well.

I was about to refuse since nobody else seemed to be getting any honey but she quickly cut me off. “We don’t have much honey, but the kitchen staff discussed it and decided that you Saer’khi will need it until we can start making some syrup from those trees. You need sweet things for your metabolisms to run properly, or did you forget about what happened that first day in the research lab?” she prodded with an intent look at me.

I sighed but nodded. “How could I forget? It scared the hell out of both of us.” We had been talking and I had only eaten a light lunch. I never had a taste for sweets before so I had ignored the sweet desserts that the lab’s staff had provided. I hadn’t been sure that I wanted to eat much anyway since I had been feeling a bit dizzy since I had been brought to the room to meet Sarah. Later that afternoon I began shaking really bad and was afraid that the nanites were malfunctioning when it progressed to full blown seizures and I passed out. I learned the hard way that Saer’khi, and thus me as well, are extremely prone to hypoglycemia, and need sweet things or high sources of protein regularly to keep our blood sugar at normal levels. I sighed again as I remembered that and said, “You’re probably right, thanks for thinking of us Sarah. Thank your staff for me too.”

As we ate Tarek and I each shared a small portion of our honey allotment with Amy. The poor girl deserved something sweet after all she’d been through. The food was good and nice and warm, though I think Sarah could boil old shoe leather and somehow make it taste good. I didn’t mind too much having more meat and fish than anything else, the nuts and berries were good but the meat and fish were both filling and pretty high in protein and I was really hungry. The only reason I hadn’t gone sugar low so far was that while on the Bounty I had gotten into the habit of keeping sweets and ration bars in my uniform pockets so I wouldn’t.

Halfway through dinner Kyle came up to me and snapped a quick salute. “Reporting as ordered Commander. “ He handed me the bottle of coolant spray and grinned at me, “Two guys got some of the sticky tree stuff on them but I helped them, just like you showed me.”

I smiled at him and held back a chuckle. “Good work Kyle, I knew I could count on you.” Then something occurred to me and I smiled to myself as I put the coolant spray away. “Krie and I are going to be keeping pretty busy with any major injuries, organizing things for the colony, and cloning the birds and the bees and whatever other species we might need here. I was thinking of taking Amy here on as an apprentice and starting her off with basic first aid lessons, but how would you like to learn first aid too? We could use a couple people to help with minor scrapes, cuts, and small things like dealing with that resin. We could teach you both at the same time and then have two people we can send on first aid calls when we’re needed elsewhere.”

“Really?” he asked, his eyes lighting up. “I could do that. I’d like to help more with the wood gathering and building shelters but I’m not really big enough yet to do much more than fetch things.” Then he turned to the girl beside me, “Hi Amy, I thought we might have lost you on the ship, it’s good to see you here. Did your mom…” he trailed off, probably realizing that it wasn’t wise to ask that.

Amy shook her head sadly. “She didn’t make it, but Commander Phar has offered to take me in, she and Mr. Tarek are really nice.”

I put my hand on the girl’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “You’re pretty nice too Amy. Kyle, you go enjoy your dinner and tomorrow I’ll have someone come find you and send you to the medical ship for first aid lessons.”

“Yes Commander,” he said with a grin and another salute before dashing off to find his parents.

I turned to Amy and put an arm around her. “I think learning first aid will be good for you both. If you like what you learn in first aid and want to learn more, Krie and I really could use an apprentice. And it’s a good time for you to start learning since we’ll have to teach you to read Saer’khi as well.”

“Does that mean I’ll be able to be a doctor like you when I’m older?” she asked.

“Yes, we’ll teach you everything we know,” I assured her. “It’s very rewarding work being able to help others feel better or give them their lives back when something bad happens to them. People like you and me who have been through major medical problems of our own make pretty good doctors too, since we can relate to what the patients are going through.”

“I think I’d like that. I want to be just like you when I’m grown up. How did you get to be a doctor so young though? You’re still a kid too, you look like a teenager.”

I shook my head as I thought about how to explain it. Finally I asked,” Do you remember how I said that the Saer’khi had to alter my body to keep my psychic abilities from killing me?” She nodded so I continued on, “They used tiny little machines to change my body closer to theirs so I could handle my power and one of the side effects was that I ended up looking like this. The tiny machines though are still in my body and their job is to make sure that my body stays this way and that I am always healthy. But the machines were new technology then and to keep me healthy and my body this way they refresh my DNA constantly to what they were programmed with. I was sixteen at the time and the machines prevent me from physically aging or getting ill or anything so I haven’t changed in six or seven years. I’m nearly the same age as Krie actually. Matt, Sarah, and Captain White all have similar machines, so they’re all older than they look too.”

“Is it hard having everyone see you as a kid?” she asked before adding, “Or being different?”

I nodded slowly. “Sometimes it is, but despite how I look the people here seem to see me as a good leader. I think it’s not so much how we look but who we are and what we do that defines us Amy. I may look like a kid and neither fully human nor Saer’khi, but I don’t let that stop me from doing my best at everything I do. You lost your legs, but that doesn’t need to define you. I’ll build you a great new set of legs, but even if I didn’t, you wouldn’t need to let that hold you back. Human history is full of people who faced physical challenges and yet they went on to do amazing things. Some changed the way that we see the universe. Being different doesn’t stop us from being amazing people, it just makes us try harder.”

To my surprise, the younger girl wrapped her arms around me. “I don’t think you need to try hard to be amazing.”

*I agree with her, she’s a smart kid,* Tarek’s voice said in my mind. *You don’t need to try to be amazing.*

I was blushing at that and quickly returned to finishing my meal. When dinner was finished and everyone had their fill, I called everyone, even Captain White and the others patrolling the perimeter, to the large central fire for a brief announcement. I opened up by asking, “How is everyone feeling now that we have full stomachs?” There was a cheer at that and I grinned. “I couldn’t agree more. Things are looking up people. We are on a relatively habitable planet with the tools we need to make it even better, we have proven that we can access food and clean water for the time being, and Tanna has informed me that we can likely expect Saer’khi search and rescue teams to come and find us within two weeks to a month.”

There was a buzzing about that and someone asked, “How can she be sure?”

“Tanna was trained by the space agency as a communications officer, long before my plan to get us all off planet and on the way to a colony happened,” I pointed out. “She’s familiar with their procedures and how the communications gear works. She says they will start looking from our last known location once they realize we’re missing. She was sending daily reports, but now those and the Bounty’s connection to the subspace beacon network are both gone. So they’ll know something happened and send people to find out what, and to offer us aid when they find us. This is a big sector of space to search though and the subspace trackers they inject in all Ji’turi only send out a pulse every twelve hours so let’s hope for the best and just keep on doing what we need to do to survive here.”

“Are they going to want to up and move us again?” someone else asked nervously.

“Hell no!” I exclaimed. “This is our planet and our claim and the Saer’khi know that. They will likely send more supplies to replace some of what we lost but this planet is our home, and I for one have no intention of leaving it. We can make this planet a great place to live if we work at it. We all worked hard at that today and look where we are now, enjoying a large hot meal and looking to the future. I am proud of each and every one of you for what we accomplished together today. Tomorrow we begin building shelters, gathering more food and wood, and preparing fields for planting. Tonight Tanna, Karran, Xawin, and Tarek will help issue you all jumpsuits for warmth and try to make you all comfortable in the personnel ship, while Captain White will be taking volunteers for a night watch. Krie and I will be available in the medical ship if you need us for anything, but before that I have another announcement to make.”

The excited murmurs settled down at that and I took a deep breath. “Eric Townsend, the man who planned the mutiny and who was responsible for the destruction of the Bounty is dead.” There was excited buzzing at that, some people were happy and some were confused. “He deserved death, we all know that. But he was killed by the very government that tried to get him to take control of our ship and colony. Krie and I were performing surgery to remove the subspace tracker he had been outfitted with and as we did so it released a powerful nerve toxin which killed him instantly. These people have no loyalty, no honor, and no respect for any of us. If they make any further attempts to take what is ours, then I fully intend to fight back.”

There was some cheering at that as well as grim nods of determination. After that things settled down for the night. Krie, Amy, and I returned to the medical ship with meals for our four prisoners. Once they were fed, I placed Amy in one of the four bedrooms for medical staff, where she would be more comfortable. Then I returned to Krie in the lab to work on analyzing some soil and other samples, stifling a yawn as I did so. My sister shook her head. *Oh no you don’t, Xia, you haven’t slept in days. I will do the analysis on these and get our geologist in here to look at the mineral and ore samples. You go get some sleep, I can handle anything that comes along, and if I need you, I’ll wake you.*

*I’m too tired to disagree with you,* I agreed. *Wake me if you need me.* I left for one of the other staff bedrooms where I stripped off my uniform, climbed into the large gel bed and covered myself with the warm blankets. I was only vaguely aware of Kit climbing into the bed beside me and snuggling up close, making that relaxing buzzing noise. That was the last thing I was aware of as I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

I awoke to an inhuman shrieking noise, like some sort of high pitched siren. I sat straight up and covered my ears as I looked around the darkened room. The noise ceased as soon as I sat up and I heard *Xia*. It was strange because it seemed to be coming from the slip but it wasn’t really a mental voice; it was more of an echo of when I had told the slip my name. It got my attention though, as did the image that followed it into my mind. The image was of a massive hulking creature in the darkness and the presence of it seemed to be getting stronger with each passing second. Was it trying to warn me of something?

I reached over and grabbed my uniform, tapping the subspace comm. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been out or just who was on watch so I quickly issued the order, “Get everyone inside the camp and preferably inside the ships! And I mean yesterday, I don’t want anyone outside without a weapon and nobody alone.”

“Most of the colonists are asleep in the personnel ship,” Luiza reported. “We’re midway through the second watch so it’s just me, Matt and a couple other human volunteers out here right now. What’s going on Commander?”

I cursed, “Dammit, I knew I should have asked for a Murqui on each watch, they probably would have sensed it. That big nocturnal predator that they were so worried about, I think one is curious about how we taste and heading this way. My little purple friend seems very insistent that something big and dangerous is coming. Get everyone inside and wake Captain White and Lirra but do not stay out in the open for long. I’m going to see if I can get a look at it from the air before it makes its move.”

I practically jumped into my uniform, allowing my wings to stay free, and put on my goggles. *Stay here, protect Amy,* I instructed Kit before I left my room, dashed out of the darkened medical ship, and leapt into the air for some reconnaissance. I headed toward the river since I figured that that was where it would be coming from and used infrared to try to see anything large and out of place. I didn’t see anything clearly on that though, so I switched to night vision. There was something large down there and it was definitely moving toward the camp. It didn’t come up on infrared so it must be cold blooded.

I went down to land in a tree for a closer look and saw a large crocodile-like creature with bone spikes protruding from its spine and tail and although it was hard to tell how big in the dark I would have guessed it was close to thirty feet long. It sniffed the air and looked right at me, opening its massive mouth and roaring. That mouth was filled with razor sharp teeth nearly as large as one of my hands. “Holy shit,” I whispered before flying back to camp as fast as my wings would let me.

 © 2013-2014 Amethyst Gibbs
All rights reserved
up
228 users have voted.
If you liked this post, you can leave a comment and/or a kudos! Click the "Thumbs Up!" button above to leave a Kudos

Comments

Love the story

And I love the name Kit. I went from one name to this one last night and then I saw your choice to day Yay.

Please keep up the good work.

Huggles

Michele

With those with open eyes the world reads like a book

celtgirl_0.gif

Thanks Michele

Amethyst's picture

The name Kit does seem appropriate for it, and I'm glad I'm able to keep the story interesting.

*hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Honoured, and Great Story...

As I've said elsewhere, I'm honoured people chose my suggestion for the slip, though the full honour for coming up with it isn't mine as Eric and fish029 led up to it...

Also, another great segment and... 'oh crap' SCARY MONSTER! GIANT SCARY TOOTHY MONSTER!... I'm gonna go hide in a hole k?

I wonder just what's gonna happen with the rescue teams, etc, etc... either they will turn up, or something will happen and keep them isolated... though perhaps there will be another drop or two of colonists just to get the colony up to size...

Let the flames of inspiration blaze within, and the sky be less of a limit, and more of a challenge

Kit

Amethyst's picture

was a great suggestion for the name and I think it fits the critter well, so you all did a great job :)

The crocosaur is one mean and deadly machine built to survive even the harshest conditions, that said I kind of want to hide in a hole to :)

When and if the Saer'khi rescuers show up it will be first things first. Exchange of important information and relief supplies will be the top priority. If the colony decides it wants more settlers they might bring more but that would be up to the colonists since it's their planet.

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Eek!

Crocodile-Rex! Big huge curious predators or not, things aren't as grim as they seemed if the good guys, errr, Bees, have a good idea of where to go looking for our fearless crew.

Great stuff!
Hugs
Grover

Scary

Amethyst's picture

The crocosaur might be a terrifying creature but really it's not much worse than some of the things found on Saer'kah. That aside things are looking up for our ragtag group of colonists with the possibility of help on the way.

*hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Hmmmm

What big teeth you have Grandma lol.

Anxiously awaiting the next installment.

Vivien

Big teeth indeed

Amethyst's picture

Certainly not something I would want to wake up and find in the middle of the night.

Already working on the next chapter so it should be on schedule next week :)

*hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Cliff Hanger !!!!

Ah ! How could you? I love this story. I wonder how this monster will taste? Does it breathe fire?

Now Kit is another matter entirely, I want one. :)

Gwen

lol

Amethyst's picture

I'm really glad that people are enjoying this. Occasionally I do like to keep my readers on the edge of their seats and in a book format this would make people move on to the next chapter instead of sleeping or getting to whatever important things they have to do. I'm a bad influence ;)

We'll find out next week if there are answers to those questions.

I want one too. Cute adorable critter with and early warning system for danger built in? Yes please :)

*hugs*

Amethyst

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

If it were me

Amethyst's picture

as the author and not Xia naming it I would have definitely gone with Socks. But Kit is a great name and something that Xia would have come up with so it's all good :)

I think I'm going to need someone to draw a slip that I can use on an adoption page or something. The adopt-a-slip thing could be fun and when the book comes out it would make for a great way to spread the word.

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

I want one too!!!

I'd probabky call it Amethyst. Lol. Always liked the word, and the color ;)

Really great story btw!

Falconian

Amy's Amethyst...

Personally, I hope if Amy gets her own pet slip, it will be named Amethyst... Both in honour of the wonderful author... and because... well, come on... Amy and Amethyst? :P

Let the flames of inspiration blaze within, and the sky be less of a limit, and more of a challenge

Actually

Amethyst's picture

most people call me Amy for short, and some use my middle name. We'll see who get's slips and how they'll name them later though :)

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

What? wait a minute, middle name? spill girl!

(Giggles Talia Arissa!). Lovely chapter sweetie! Things are looking up for our Castaways. Now all they have to do is figure out how best to deal with man eating monsters! Hey, maybe they're vegetarians! (Giggles again!). Thanks hon for this! Loving Hugs Talia

Middle name

Amethyst's picture

My middle name is Jade. It was funny because the first time I was in Montreal when I got my SRS I was here for like 2 weeks and nobody called me Amethyst or Amy, they all called me Jade, but with a french accent it sounded a bit odd. A lot of my friends called me Jade too when I first changed my name because it was easier, some still call me that. (So it's Amethyst Jade)

Yup things are looking up but this planet obviously still has a few surprises to throw their way. Glad you're enjoying it.

*big hugs*

Amethyst Jade

ChibiMaker1.jpg

Don't take me too seriously. I'm just kitten around. :3

Interesting

If you marry a guy whose last name is Stone, then you are all set ^_^

predator !

uh oh ...

DogSig.png

Teeth, it had to have bunches of teeth

Jamie Lee's picture

Yeah sure, there had to be something big and with lots and lots of teeth. What would a new planet be without a toothy big something?

But they left a planet that was loaded with things that would snack on them if given a chance. So maybe they know how to handle big nasties.

Others have feelings too.

Question

How exactly is Tarek talking to Amy and Xia in the medical bay?

Question

TheCropredyKid's picture

If she's twelve, Amy still has growing to do.

Will her bionic legs have nanites that cause them to grow to match her new size ... or will they need to be recycled every year or two for six or eight years?

======================

On another tangent - Xia is permanently sixteen, physically.

Astra, the main protagonist and narrator of Marion Harmon's Wearing the Cape books was pretty much elf-size before her "breakthrough" that made her a superhero. She still is.

She's about five-foot-nothing {if that tall}, very slender {does not exhibit the mammary hypertrophy typical of female superheroes in comics}, and weighs maybe a hundred pounds {in later books she carries a titanium maul that weighs more than she does}. She's what they call an "Atlas-type" - a flying brick, basically Supergirl without the X-Ray and heat vision powers. She's one of the strongest superhumans in the world - bench-pressing a bus is trivial for her.

She was nineteen when her breakthrough happened ... and it has pretty much stopped her aging process.

She's twenty-two now, and confidently predicts she can expect to be carded every time she walks into a bar for the next few decades.

Or centuries.

================

Incidentally -- trout are pretty much land-locked salmon, actually.

{The magpie mind strikes again!}

 
 
 
x