Dominant Species Omnibus Edition by David Coy

Author:David Coy [Coy, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-02-24T22:00:00+00:00

8

After dropping off the last contractor, John Soledad lifted off and put the shuttle in a straight course down the jungle’s western-most edge, just above treetop level, just like always.

He set his jaw, and for a moment feigned resistance to the call.

He wasn’t supposed to do it, but it wasn’t like he was breaking any law or anything. Besides, he could get back in a matter of minutes if he had to. It was just so damned boring sitting around with nothing to do for most of the day.

Nobody would mind anyway.

He banked in a hard right turn, leaving the relative safety of the clearing behind. In a matter of seconds he was half a kilometer into the green.

He set the ship’s guidance to pick up the route he’d followed yesterday. He’d try to go a little farther this time, maybe far enough to get a look at that valley over the range of hills to the northwest.

How could they expect a pilot to sit all day anyway?

He lit a smoke. He wasn’t supposed to do that either.

Everybody he came in contact with complained about this project. He heard the contractors bitching and moaning about it when they got on board in the morning and when they left in the evening. They bitched about the heat, they bitched about the rain, they bitched about the bugs, they bitched and they bitched.

He didn’t mind any of that. In fact, he liked it. He liked the richness and diversity of the plant life, especially the scent of the flowers once you got away from the installation with its huge mounds of rotting plant stuff. He’d set down in a dozen places over the last week, and each one seemed more beautiful than the last. Just yesterday, he’d found an incredible sparkling stream running through a deep green grotto. He didn’t think he’d ever seen a more beautiful place. The stream plummeted over a fall of perhaps ten meters into a crystalline pool. He’d been tempted to strip and jump into it; but since he didn’t know what was in the pool, he decided against it. He’d taken pictures for most of the morning; and when he left, he marked it on his map so he could find it again. He planned to go back many times.

He watched the sea of green roll pass under the shuttle like waves and delighted in the excitement and promise of discovery. This was what piloting was all about, going into the unknown; seeing and experiencing new things. He wasn’t just an airbus driver—he was a pilot for God's sake. One of these days he was going to snag the shuttle on his day off and fly it all the way to the sea and back. Now that would be a trip.

He rounded “Soledad Spires” and headed down “Soledad Canyon” for about ten kilometers. He could see the range of hills now dead ahead. He had to guess at his ETA since the shuttle had no distancing radar.

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