Inadvertent Adventures (37 page)

"Then go home. Several other conglomerates have accepted these terms. And, honestly, NHI isn't big enough for us to actively court." Mister MacDonald sputtered for an instant, then the connection went dead. "I think I made him mad."

"Gee, really?" Sterling asked while Denise chuckled.

"Really. Mister Stevenson, I want to send a message to Admiral Meerhof." She waited until he nodded, then spoke. "Admiral Meerhof, this is President Stevenson. Per your orders and our agreement with Admiral Gagarin, we are releasing you to return to Beloofte. Have you decided which ships you will be leaving behind? Stevenson, out." She smiled when Sterling looked toward her. "Go ahead and send it. It'll be two or three hours before she replies, if she's awake. Could be more."

"Aye, Ma'am." Sterling pushed the transmit stud. "Message sent."

The watch settled down, and was routine until Admiral Meerhof contacted them six hours later.

"
Admiral Ann's Revenge
, this is
Amsterdam
, Admiral Meerhof speaking. President Stevenson, it has been a pleasure meeting you. I am leaving the heavy cruiser
Lisbon
, the light cruiser
Orinoco
, and the corvettes
Lance
and
Bow
. I'm also leaving the tender
Sperry
with supplies. I'm having all of my ships offload their extra stores to the
Sperry
to support the others. On behalf of Taskforce 305, we bid you farewell. We'll probably already be underway by the time you get this message. Meerhof, out." The message ended and Ann looked at Sterling with a slight smile on her face.

"Not in a hurry to get home, is she?" she asked, and Sterling had to laugh. They had only been in Farflung for ten months.

Two hours later Mandy and her watch section took over. "Continue toward Jarnsaxa. I intend to refuel, and then go directly to Frisland. Navigator, run an exercise plot to Frisland from Jarnsaxa, planning on a geosynchronous orbit over the equator. If there are any further messages, tell them that we'll be available after watch change."

"Understood, Ma'am," Mandy replied. Ann led the way out of Control as Mandy and her people settled in.

"They'll be fine, Ann," Sterling assured her.

"Reading minds is an unattractive thing to do, Sterling," she muttered.

Sterling chuckled. "Relax. They've been handling the
Revenge
for more than three years. They can handle this just fine."

"I know, I know. I never enjoyed turning my ship over to anyone else when it was the Navy's ship. Now it's worse, since this is really our ship."

Sterling and Denise shared a look as the three of them went into the wardroom. It was late at night, which meant traditional mid-rats: microwaved leftovers.

They were soon joined by Thom and Rauld, the off-going engineering watch section. "How are we doing, Captain?" Thom asked.

"We're doing well, Thom," she answered as she nuked a bowl of stew. "I'm planning for the junior section to take us in to get fuel, and then set course to Frisland."

"They can handle it," Thom commented without looking at her.

Ann glared at Sterling as they went to a table. Sterling sat beside her while Denise, Thom, and Rauld sat across from them. "So how long before we head for the surface of Frisland?" Thom asked as he wrapped a piece of flatbread around some cheese and rice.

"As soon as we hit orbit," Ann replied as she took a bite of her meal. "I'm planning on sending everyone down in shifts. We only have four qualified shuttle pilots, and I still want to maintain a watch section on the ship."

"Yes, Ma'am," Rauld said, pausing to take a drink. "Miss Carter has been telling me about her experience on the surface. Have you considered protection?"

Ann and Sterling shared a look. "Yes," Ann admitted cautiously. "President de Villers suggested we bring along some small arms for the unexpected. I understand that your ancestors had some trouble on Beloofte when they first arrived."

"That's what the history books say," Rauld agreed. "The next question I have to ask is; can any of you shoot?"

Ann, Sterling, Thom, and Denise exchanged glances. Denise said, "I learned to shoot varmints on New Texas."

"Please define varmint, if you would?" Rauld asked.

Denise was quiet for a moment, then said, "Imagine an Old Earth badger the size of a man, with six legs and a bad attitude. Carnivorous, aggressive, and territorial. They attack and kill any animal that enters their territory, and eat anything. They're worse than pigs."

"Lords of Space," Sterling whispered. "What did you use to protect yourselves?"

"Rifles. Anything from an ought-six to a seven-millimeter magnum. Some of the men carried pistols, though it takes two or three shots from a forty-four to put one down."

"Anyone else?" Rauld asked.

"Not that I know of," Ann admitted.

"Then, President Stevenson, I recommend you have at least one of us with each party. And by us, I mean Boers. Di, 'Rika, Mijon and I are all experienced bush hands. I don't know about the good doctor, but you might ask him. How many of what kind of guns did you bring?"

Ann seemed uncomfortable as she said, "Ten seven-millimeter magnum rifles and ten twelve-gauge shotguns from a Beloofte company called Vickers. Fifteen nine-millimeter automatics from Glock of New Frankfurt. Same model as the Navy uses."

"What's wrong, Captain?" Rauld asked.

"I can't get used to having firearms on a civilian ship," she finally admitted. Everyone turned to look at Ann. "It just goes against everything I held true in the Navy. The Navy is supposed to protect civilians. Civilians aren't supposed to
have
to have weapons."

"From the captain of an armed merchantman," Denise all but whispered.

"Ann," Sterling said in a soft voice, "we're not a civilian ship anymore. We are, for all intents and purposes, the entirety of the Farflung System Security force."

"I can't get used to that either," she muttered.

"I still urge you to have at least one person with a rifle with every crew that goes to the ground," Rauld said as he leaned forward. "You can bet that even the university researchers are going to have armed men and women on watch. Even after twelve hundred and fifty years, there are things on Beloofte that come after us."

Ann took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You're right, of course, and thank you for suggesting it. I think we can send teams of five at a time. Sterling?"

"Agreed. I'm not sure Doctor Persoon is going to want to go down, though."

Thom laughed. "Sterling, you've got to be kidding. Not go down and set foot on a newly discovered planet? If he didn't want to go, he'd be the one who needed a doctor. A psychiatrist."

"You have a point," Sterling said as he joined the laughter. "You have a definite point."

T
HE FIRST SHUTTLE TO THE SURFACE
left the
Revenge
at seven in the morning, ship's time, the day after they reached orbit. Sterling was the left-seat pilot, and Ann was in the right seat co-pilot position. Balder, CM, and Elrika rounded out the group. All of them wore pistols either belted to their hips or under an arm, and there was a rifle secured near the lock for Elrika. Ann had the ammunition locked up until they landed, though. She still didn't feel comfortable with the firearms in a space ship.

Sterling was heading for the same landing spot as before, on the western edge of the Stevenson continent. It was about midday local time, but that left them plenty of sight-seeing time before evening.

The landing was unremarkable, to everyone's satisfaction. They spent a few moments stripping out of their environment suits and getting more comfortable. Then, by silent consent, everyone stood back to let Ann be the first out of the shuttle.

As soon as the outer door opened, Ann snarled, "Oh, Lords of Space," and covered her face with the neck of her ship's coverall.

Sterling was right behind her and had to agree. "It smells like a winery," he said as he covered his nose and mouth.

"I'd have said a dump," Balder said as he moved forward.

CM just gagged.

Elrika took a deep breath through her nose and shook her head as she blinked tears from her eyes. "That'll clear your sinuses."

Ann walked forward and was the first to set foot on Frisland. "It wears off fairly fast," she commented as she knelt to touch the ice-plant ground cover.

"No, your olfactory receptors are just filtering it out," CM said as she looked around. "We're one of the few species that can do that. Considering how we smell sometimes, that's a good thing."

Elrika was just looking around from a spot at the top of the ramp, watching the surroundings with the long rifle held confidently in her hands.

Sterling was looking around on the ground. "Well, my eyes aren't watering anymore. I guess that's a good sign." He bent over and pulled up a spear of the groundcover. "Looks like okra. Mom used to pickle okra." Then he raised it to his mouth as Ann shouted,
"Sterling, no!"

He stopped with the plant an inch from his mouth. "Someone has to be first, Ann. I'll just take a nip, and I swear I won't swallow." He smiled at the concern on her face, and then did as he said he would. He took a very small bite from the tip of the plant and chewed it thoughtfully. "Tastes better than okra. Kind of minty. You can definitely taste the alcohol. If I was going to compare it to anything, it'd be cucumber pickled in mint liquor." True to his promise, he spit the sample out. "Now I won't taste anything else for the rest of this visit."

Ann growled, "Sterling Albert Stevenson."

"Ann, we knew the chimps could eat it. It was safe, just a matter of taste. And it tasted pretty good. What was it that the bio-lab compared it to? Asparagus? Tastes a hell of a lot better than asparagus. You could eat that plain, picked straight from the ground."

"He has a point, Ma'am," CM said from off to their left. She was near the bushes where Mandy had been chased, but she didn't stay. She just picked a few of the broad, fleshy leaves and brought them back. "My turn, with your permission, Ma'am?" Ann nodded and CM followed Sterling's example. She took a nip, then her eyes flew open wide. "This is
so
good," she all but gushed. "I can't think of what it tastes like, but it's delicious." She rubbed the leaf she'd bit and sniffed it. "Smells nice. Clean. Not really antiseptic, but like someplace that has been thoroughly cleaned with something that has a slightly minty scent." She spit out the sample. "I wonder what the common factor is that makes both of them taste like mint?"

"We'll leave that to Kat," Ann said as she looked around. "Once you get used to the smell, it's a nice place. Chilly, though," she said as a slight shiver shook her frame.

"It'd call it brisk," Sterling said as he put an arm around her shoulders, "but New Kashmir is a colder planet than most."

Elrika raised the rifle and said, "There's movement over there," drawing an instant response from everyone. Four pistols whipped into view, and clicked as the safeties were disengaged.

What emerged from the bushes was not one of the huge herbivores that had chased Mandy. It was small; the size of a large, flattened Bassett hound, but it had eight legs arranged in sets of four, front and back, with two legs on the outside and two on the inside. Its movement was almost comical. It kept its legs straight and always had four legs on the ground, moving either the inner pair or outer pair of each set, then putting them down and moving the others. It was kind of like two men on crutches in a dog costume. The movement gave it an undulating gait. It seemed ungainly, but the animal was moving fairly quickly; and it was moving toward them. When it was five meters away it opened its mouth to display dual rows of teeth that would have made any shark proud. The next instant a bullet from Elrika's rifle blew through its skull.

"And that, Captain, is why you have an armed guard whenever you go into the bush," Elrika said as she chambered another round.

Sterling and Thom both stared at Elrika for a moment, and then Sterling walked cautiously forward. He kept his pistol pointed at the beast as he nudged it with a toe, but there was no sign of life. "This must be one of those scavengers the
Duyfken
examined," he said as he walked around it. He knelt and touched the shattered skull, then examined his fingers.

"The blood is red, but much lighter than ours," he commented as he finally holstered his pistol and looked closely at the carcass. He touched the hide and was surprised. "It's soft. Short fur like-when I was a kid, my sister had a rabbit-fur coat. That's what this feels like."

"It doesn't look like any rabbit I've ever seen," CM said as she circled around it.

Sterling looked toward the shuttle and said, "Balder, grab some bags and a long knife and help me. I want to take some meat back to Kat and Di."

"You are
not
going to eat that thing, Sterling," Ann said in an angry tone.

"We're going to have to try local meat sometime, Ann. And we know what this died from. Cranial evacuation."

"He's right, Ma'am," Elrika said without taking her attention off the bushes. "There are only two good reasons to kill: protection and food. And if you can make one into both, all the better."

Ann looked toward space, and then shook her head slowly. "Take enough for all of us, then. We'll see what Dihandri and Kat can do with it." She looked around and sighed. "My turn, I guess," she muttered as she walked over to a tall, tree-like plant and pulled a leaf from one branch. Looking at the rest, she took a nip.

Ann's reaction was almost instantaneous. She vomited violently and repeatedly until she was dry-heaving. Sterling ran over to her side and wrapped his arms across her back as she remained bent over.

"Ann, are you all right?!" he shouted as soon as he got to her.

"Oh, Lords of Space, that's nasty," she finally grumbled. "Why did I have to pick the nasty one?"

"What did it taste like, Ma'am?" Balder asked.

"Barf. Morning-after, hangover-from-hell, tequila barf. CM, give me one of those leaves," she commanded, holding her hand out and pointing at the bushes.