The Reality Rescue: Book Three of the Green Charisma Chronicles by David Pearce

Author:David Pearce [Pearce, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

A warning snarl brought my attention to the creatures hiding in the dark recesses of the glacial fissure. Red eyes stared unblinking at me, perhaps thirty paces from where I stood at the prow of the ship. I had a long run to the landing ramp where I would be safe.

“I’m here, Mac.” Sanraya’s voice came through the speakers inside my helmet. “Can you describe the creatures?”

I took a few steps back, closer to the Beauty. The beasts mirrored my movements. “Uh, tough to say. Shaggy fur. The larger of the two is three meters tall. A little smaller for the other one. It’s hard to see them in the dark. They seem to avoid the light.”

“Activate the thermal imaging from your drone. Patch the feed to the cockpit.”

Well, of course; that made sense. I called up the camera’s functions and selected from the drop-down menu. In moments I had the heat display up and running. It revealed two large quintopeds: two arms and three legs, with stooped muscular bodies. Curved tusks grew from the jawlines of flat, elongated heads. Long, stringy hair hung off the limbs.

“Listen, Mac. You’ve woken a pair of shaba-shaba. They hibernate during the winter. Breed as pairs, always together.”

“No kidding?” I swallowed hard. “How much trouble am I in? What do I do? Scare them away? Play dead? Tell them a joke?”

“Don’t run. That would only trigger an attack. The female—that’s the larger one—will protect her mate if she feels you’re a threat.”

“Carnivorous?”

“Omnivorous. They’re opportunistic feeders. If it’s alive or carrion, it’s on the menu.”

“I’m not feeling particularly tasty.” I kept my eyes on the creatures. “How do I make them go away?”

“Don’t sell yourself short. You are a delicious treat. At least I find you to be so, when you let me have a nip. And I’m sure our shaba-shaba would also think you’re delectable. After all, they’ve been in hibernation for months. They woke up starving.”

“Ha-ha. Hilarious. Can I outrun them?”

“In an exo-suit?” she said. “You wouldn’t get far.”

“I’ve got the rail gun in the drone. Maybe I should just shoot them?”

“No! Don’t do that.” The clicking of Sanraya’s nails on a keyboard came through the speakers in my helmet. “If you aren’t underneath the camouflage, that kind of energy signature might give away our position to the Confederation scouts. If it were an option, I’d blast them with the ship’s point defense lasers.”

“The Artificials are that close?” Swallowing a lump in my throat, I eased closer toward safety. A blink of my eyes brought up the camera’s functions, and I directed it to descend to breast height, near enough to snag it out of the air when I skedaddled. I activated the drone’s targeting system. An aperture slid open on the floating orb, with a flash of bronze revealing a quarrel moving forward into a firing position. “I thought we had a couple of hours until they arrived.”

“They’re switching search patterns at random intervals. Be glad we decided to wait out the storm.

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