The Redwood Trilogy Box Set Page 8

  “You’re the first girl he’s ever seen, Dee Dee.”

  “Actually, that’s not true. I’ve seen lots of girls before. I’ve seen them on just about all my layovers on other planets.”

  The triplets were rather jealous of my trips off-planet. I didn’t bother to explain to them that being a pilot on an automated ship was not exactly prestigious.

  I changed the subject.

  “Who came up with the name, ‘Fred?’”

  “That’s a good question, Marcus,” the Professor said. “I don’t know.”

  “It stands for First Real Enemy Detected!”

  “Really, Jason? Where did you learn this?”

  “Aw, I just made it up.”

  “Ah. Well, it sounds as plausible as anything else.”

  -+-

  We had smoked turkey sandwiches for lunch, along with some dried fruit.

  “Go ahead and pack the mess up, Colt,” the Professor said. “I hope to be home before supper.”

  Ranger Jenkins nodded.

  “Let’s hope Melody’s statistical model works out.”

  “Daddy, the sensor grid is showing the hunting party leaving the city!”

  The Professor and the Ranger looked at each other and smiled. Physician Patel walked up.

  “So it begins?”

  The Professor nodded.

  “They’re doing their part. Let’s see if Fred shows up.”

  Some time later, the party’s scout showed up in the omnicam’s hologram, jumping onto a branch on the outer edge. He looked around, jumped down to another branch, stood up on hind legs and sniffed the air. He hooted, apparently giving the green light to other members of the party.

  One by one they came into range and appeared in the hologram, a dozen of them. The last four were laden down, arms crossed, carrying fruit close to their chests. The fruit looked like berries of some kind, purple and each about the size of a tennis ball. The others ran around from branch to branch, inspecting a small bush-like outgrowth on some of them. When they found a berry or two, they’d rush back and put them in the arms of those carrying the fruit.

  Jason chuckled. “Twelve little monkeys. Only, they’re not so little, are they?”

  We watched as the party gathered fruit, jumping from branch to branch, making a slow arc through the omnicam’s field. Everybody seemed to be holding their breath.

  “There!”

  Dee Dee pointed to the edge of the hologram. A new monkey slowly slid into view, climbing along the trunk of a tree at the omnicam’s outer periphery.

  Then it stopped and remained still. The other monkeys slowly made their way toward his position.

  The scout approached Fred’s position first. He stopped and rose on two feet. He sniffed the air and his ears twitched. He remained like this longer than before. Finally he looked in all directions, then jumped to a higher branch and repeated the process. He dropped down to another lower branch and repeated it a third time. Finally he scratched his head and called out the go ahead signal to the others.

  They slowly approached, hunters inspecting bushes, fruit carriers in the rear.

  One of them came within a few feet of Fred. We found out later it was a female. She approached one of the bushes near a branch on Fred’s tree.

  Suddenly, he leaped from his perch. She screamed an alarm and jumped down and away just before he landed on her. The other monkeys screamed and scattered in all directions. Fred howled in rage, and ran after his intended victim.

  She jumped from branch to branch, scrambling along open areas, jumping to trunks, climbing higher, jumping again.

  Behind her, Fred followed, howling.

  The other monkeys ran too, but without Fred chasing them they eventually slowed down. We were able to examine the sensor data later, and saw they all went back to the settlement on their own.

  “You getting all this, Diane?”

  “Yes. But, Daddy, they’re coming this way.”

  We watched as the chase continued through the hologram, in the direction toward us. The female monkey jumped off a final branch in the sphere and disappeared from view. Fred followed her.

  “Where are they on the grid?”

  Dee Dee waved her hands over the controls. The hologram disappeared to be replaced by a larger sphere. It was translucent, but didn’t show all the branches or details from the omnicam. This was the grid. Data points only. Our location was marked by nine green circles, one for each member of the team. On the edge, purple circles were scattering, mostly headed for the sphere’s center which was darker and represented Monkey City.

  But one purple circle headed straight for our position, followed closely by a red circle in hot pursuit.

  “Daddy, they’re coming straight for us.”

  “I see it, Diane. I doubt they’ll get to this particular branch, but we need to be prepared if they do. Everybody gather round! Colt, get your weapon ready.”

  Jenkins nodded and pulled out a pistol. He racked the slide, chambering a round.

  We gathered close, watching the sensor grid hologram nervously. The purple and red circles came ever nearer. Eventually I thought I could hear something scampering through the trees.

  She jumped onto our branch near the trunk, just yards away from us. We were all bunched together and stunned to see her appear, even though we’d been following her progress on the grid. She froze, just as surprised to see us.

  Almost immediately Fred was on top of her. He howled, and with one swipe of his paw removed half her throat.

  Then he stopped. Slowly he shifted his gaze toward us. Jenkins held his pistol up, the barrel shaking slightly. Fred’s mouth stretched into an angry rictus grin, showing every tooth. He howled and jumped right into the middle of us.

  We scattered. Equipment flew. He swung out with a paw through the grid hologram and scratched up the instruments near it. The back of his paw caught Jeremy in the face, who went flying backwards. He snapped his jaws at me. I dodged out of the way. We all scrambled back. Dee Dee slipped. He jumped on top of her and bit her shoulder.

  Bang!

  Fred stopped, and looked up at Jenkins. Blood trickled from the giant monkey’s left breast.

  Bang! Bang!

  Fred leaned his head back and howled. A long, angry, bone chilling sound. He leaped off Dee Dee, jumped to another branch, and disappeared through the trees.

  -+-

  Physician Patel stopped Dee Dee’s bleeding, patched her up, gave her a sedative and pain killer. Jeremy had a bruise on his face that promised a black eye. That was the extent of our injuries. After seeing to Dee Dee and Jeremy, the Professor salvaged the equipment that wasn’t damaged and reactivated the grid hologram to provide us a warning if Fred decided to come back. He ordered the rest of us to pack up what we could and get ready to leave. Then he went over to the body of the monkey that Fred left behind.

  Physician Patel set up a sling to carry Dee Dee between Jason and Jacob. Jenkins set up another sling to carry the dead monkey, and asked me to help. We left a lot of stuff behind, but we vacated the premises within twenty minutes of Fred’s attack.

  We flew slower on the way back. It took some getting used to, carrying the dead weight of the monkey between me and Jenkins. Eventually we figured it out, though, and we were able to make good progress through the trees along with the others. Likewise, Jason and Jacob were able to figure things out while carrying Dee Dee back.

  Several hours later as we approached the Ranger station, a large group met us. Back home they’d seen the action on the sensor grids, and realized we’d met up with Fred.

  Mrs. Patel and her daughters were there with extra medicine and first aid supplies. The O’Donnells were there to check on the triplets. Mrs. Cruz was there, too, and wailed inconsolably when she saw Dee Dee flown in on a sling.

  Together we all made it back to the landing platform by nightfall. The Patels rushed Dee Dee off to the medical ward, closely followed by the Cruzes and several other concerned friends. Mrs. Cruz�
�s bitter weeping drifted through the night air as they hurried through the city.

  I heard somebody say, “That’s her adopted daughter, right?”

  Somebody else said, “Yes, but they raised her as their own.”

  Jenkins rounded up volunteers to move the monkey’s body to an examination facility. I took my PHU off, stretched, and decided to check on Dee Dee.

  A large crowd gathered around the medical ward entrance. Mrs. Patel stepped out, closed the door behind her. She turned to address us.

  “She’s fine. She’s going to make it. But it’s been a long day and she needs rest. Everybody go home. You can see her tomorrow.”

  The crowd slowly dispersed.

  I lingered. I decided to go around back, sneak a peak through one of the windows, and make sure she was really okay.

  I knew I was close to where I wanted to be when I could hear Mrs. Cruz crying. I crept up next to the window and peeked inside. Professor Cruz held her tight. She sobbed into his shoulder.

  “Why? Why did you have to take her? I told you not to take her.”

  “I know, sweetheart. You did. I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry?”

  Her head shot up from his shoulder. Anger snapped across her face.

  “You took her into the most hostile environment on this planet! You risked her life! You . . .”

  At that moment, a door opened and Physician Patel entered the room.

  “Curtis? Melody? You need to see this. She’s changing.”

  Chapter Nine

  The next day, Dee Dee seemed all better. She walked around, met everybody, thanked them for their help and concern. The only sign she’d been in trouble was a bandage on her shoulder. I decided if her wounds were like mine on my neck years ago, they’d heal up soon. She probably wouldn’t have any scars, either.

  The station remained a beehive of activity. Besides the excitement over Dee Dee, and our team’s misadventure, for the first time the researchers had a monkey cadaver to examine. Everybody seemed giddy as kids on Christmas morning.

  I didn’t bother to go look at the cadaver. I’d seen enough monkeys for a while.

  Ranger Jenkins and his wife Ella led a group to retrieve the equipment we’d left behind. I volunteered to go with them. The triplets did, too. We were rebuffed. The Jenkins took another Ranger husband-wife team with them instead, the Joneses. All four went heavily armed, and returned with all our stuff. They saw no sign of Fred.

  The days rolled by. Jeremy refused any kind of treatment for his black eye. He wore it proudly, like a medal. His skin was never broken, and the Physician confirmed he was not hematophageous, much to his parents’ relief. He retold the story of how Fred jumped us over and over again, usually with himself as the main focus. Every night for a week before going to bed he wanted to talk about it. Each night, Jacob, Jason and I finally had to tell him to shut up and go to sleep.

  Over time, with each retelling, he shifted the focus ever so slightly, and his role in the incident became more and more prominent. After hearing it for the umpteenth time on the porch one night, I clasped him on the shoulder and gazed seriously into his eyes.

  “Thank goodness you were there, Jeremy. You saved us all!”

  Jacob and Jason howled in laughter. Jeremy’s ears reddened, then he joined in. He stopped recounting the tale so often, though.

  The Patel girls, Aneeta and Anusha, fawned over Jeremy’s injury. They were younger than us, 15 and 13, but old enough to notice boys. Since their parents comprised the medical team at the station, they had a natural interest in medicine and injuries, too. Aneeta in particular turned into something of a teenaged Florence Nightingale.

  Aneeta gushed over Jeremy and his injury so much, Jason and Jacob grew quite jealous. They decided to bop each other in the eye so they too could have shiners, until I reminded them it wouldn’t be the same since Fred wasn’t involved. Reluctantly they agreed that was true. They decided instead to wait until Jeremy fully healed, then they gave him another black eye.

  I resumed working for Mrs. Ng, and kept waiting to catch her smile. It seemed I would have to wait forever. She was the most expressionless person I’d ever met. She did seem happy at the end of the work day, though. Especially when I’d done all she’d asked of me. Sometimes I’d do more, if I had time for it. Really there wasn’t a lot else to do, and I’d been laboring like this all my life anyway. Most of what she had me doing was food prep. Shelling peas, skinning potatoes, and so on.

  I considered Mrs. Ng my boss, and deferred to her on schedules when others asked for me, for research purposes or otherwise. She never acknowledged it, but I think she appreciated it. Often I found myself working beside her in silence for hours, nothing but a grunt or a couple spoken words passing between us. The days went faster while I worked, and were never boring.

  As the days slid by, I got a chance to know Mr. Ng, too. David and Susan Ng were originally from New Indonesia, but made their way to New Texas A&M shortly after marrying. David was a Scientist specializing in arboriculture, so after Janus 28 opened and the giant trees of Redwood were discovered, he and Mrs. Ng were on one of the first spaceships over.

  They never left. The University fabricated departure documents for them, and they continued researching the trees with the rest of the team on Ranger Station Alpha. They had one daughter back on New Texas, who was of age and stayed behind when they came to Redwood. They hadn’t seen her in all those years.

  Unlike his wife, Mr. Ng was quite jovial. He almost had a bubbly personality. He’d often stop by to visit us around lunch time. He was short but stout, and had a dark complexion and dark hair like hers.

  “Hey, Marcus! How are ya?”

  He was loud, boisterous, and perpetually happy. In other words, the exact opposite of Mrs. Ng.

  She usually ignored his entrances, so he’d walk up to her and give her a big bear hug from behind.

  “How’s my beautiful bride, huh? How’s my sweetie?”

  “Get off me. Go away. Let me go, I have work to do.”

  But I noticed despite all her protestations to the contrary, Mrs. Ng always seemed a little happier after his visits.

  -+-

  Dee Dee and I spent more time together while the Physician and the Professor examined us daily. New volunteers donated blood to drink since Dee Dee’s was no good for me anymore. I wasn’t really hungry for it yet, though.

  Connie took all the changes the worst. She no longer spoke to her sister. Evidently she had trouble living under the same roof. She spent her days as far away from both of us as possible. She avoided the triplets, too, and looked at Jeremy’s shiner with horror and disgust. I don’t think he noticed.

  Everybody waited anxiously for Dee Dee’s cravings to start up. Mine started about two weeks after being bit, so we expected the same for her. On the fifteenth day after her bite, Dee Dee developed her first symptoms. Just like I had: sweating, shaking, stomach cramps.

  The Professor and the Physician watched the instruments hooked to her with interest. They discussed at length whether they should offer her blood immediately or wait a few days and observe the cravings increase in intensity. After much back and forth they decided to let Dee Dee decide.

  “I can handle this, Daddy. For now. We can go a few days.”

  So they continued monitoring her.

  On the eighteenth day after the bite, her symptoms grew considerably worse. The expression in her eyes changed, too, and she began looking at people differently. With hunger. When the two men hooked her up to the instruments that morning, she licked her lips every time they came close. They decided it was time to give her some blood.

  “Remarkable. The symptoms cleared up immediately.”

  “Yes, Jiven. For the first time, we’ve been able to follow the process from the time of infection to first feeding. Sweetheart, I’m sorry you had to go through this, but the contributions to our understanding have been extraordinary.”

  “It’s okay, Daddy. Anything for science.�
�

  She said it flippantly, and we all laughed. But there was a strained undertone that no one vocalized. She was different now. Officially, she was an “Enemy of the State,” and faced eradication if anybody found out her secret.

  Just like me.

  -+-

  One addition to the daily routines since our encounter with Fred: target practice. Ranger Jenkins unlocked the storage center with the base’s rifles and made sure everyone knew how to use them. I went with the triplets, Dee Dee, Connie, and the Patel girls for our turn at training.

  “Standard issue nine millimeter, semi-automatic. Load a magazine like this.”

  He demonstrated, pushing ammo down into the magazine.

  “Make sure the bullets are pointed that end down the rifle.”

  We all laughed at that, except Aneeta and Anusha who took everything very seriously.

  “Insert the magazine here. Give it a slap on the bottom to make sure it’s seated. Pull back the bolt. Now a round is loaded. When you pull the trigger it will go bang. Never ever point it at something you don’t want to shoot. Never play with it. It’s not a toy. Always treat it like it’s loaded, even when it’s not.

  “Okay, everybody get their earmuffs on.”

  He aimed at a target set up at the base’s shooting range. It was open air, but had a backstop forty yards out with some kind of spongy material that prevented ricochets and absorbed the bullets.

  “Hold your breath. The more movement you make while holding the gun, the more you affect where the bullet hits. Line up the sights. Squeeze the trigger, don’t jerk it.”

  Bang!

  He pressed a button and the target came back on a pulley. Now it had a fresh bullet hole in the middle of the bullseye.

  “We’ll do a point system. Friendly competition. Ten shots. Ten points each for hitting the center circle.”

  That excited the triplets, who scrambled to see who could shoot the best.

  Jenkins took Aneeta and Anusha off to one side and spent more time one on one with them so they could better familiarize themselves with the firearms. Dee Dee, Connie, and I shot with the triplets.

  Connie never said a word to any of us. She fired off her practice rounds and left. The rest of us stayed and chatted for a while.