Minding My Own Business

by Mark Reasoner

part 1

I was snoozing happily in the shade of my cloaked ship when I heard something ping off the hull. I looked up and saw two creatures start across the open field, heading directly toward me.

I thought I was safe. My ship was invisible inside its cloak, but then I remembered I wasn’t. These jokers could see me. I had to move fast. I couldn’t let them discover my ship, and I certainly didn’t want them blundering across the open area and running into it.

I rolled off my reclining rack, scooted over to the open hatch, and reached inside for my emergency pack and go-bag. Grabbing it, I then tossed my recliner inside, grabbed the ship remote controller, and closed the hatch behind me.

Still seeing these beings headed my way, I took off running at a diagonal to them headed for the line of large green wood things on the side of the clearing.

I heard two more popping sounds and something stung my right shoulder. Damn, that hurt!

I made it to the area of coverage. I kept running, jumped over two large horizontal round things, and hung a quick right. I saw another horizontal thing, jumped over it and sank down to the wet ground. Peeking over the top of this thing I lay behind, I couldn’t see my pursuers, but I did hear them.

“It can’t be far, I know I winged it,” one of them said.

“Yeah, but let’s be careful, Marv,” the other said. “You know how a wounded animal gets.”

Animal! I thought. How dare they! I might be a lot of things, but I am certainly no animal!

Okay, so I did have hardened scales over most of my body, but when you grow up on Phanasia Five where it’s normal that micrometeorites pummel you on a daily basis and storms kick up lots of tiny debris, evolving a protective armour just makes sense. At least it did for my ancestors.

Besides, my two bloated and hairy chasers were uglier than the primordial ooze still occupying several worlds I’d been to recently. And what were those bright orange things on top? At least I could keep track of them.

I hugged the wet soil, trying to make myself as inconspicuous as I could, but they were still moving closer. I had a weapon in my pack, but didn’t dare try to get it as that would probably make noise. So I waited.

There was a sound from the other direction.

“Over there, Harry,” the second one said. “Let’s go.”

They moved off toward whatever made the noise.

Thank the stars! I thought. I still didn’t move for some time, though.

The day was turning into a complete disaster. I was on a scouting mission, trying to locate suitable places to set up research outposts and supply depots for our ever-expanding trade and scientific explorations throughout the galaxy. My group of small ships had left our large star cruiser base about four seven-rotations ago. We were scheduled to rendezvous with the mother ship in another two seven-rotations.

It was just my bad luck to end up way out here on the fringe in the system called Solus 235. And this is where my problem arose.

My ship was powered by a dual system of ion-plasma engines capable of faster-than-light travel, coupled with a series of storage batteries to run almost everything else.

“It’s a perfect system,” the engineers had told us. “Your engines can be smaller since all they have to power is your propulsion. The batteries will continually recharge through solar radiation as you travel. Only your defensive cloak and the ship’s computer will run directly from the engine.”

It might have been perfect in theory, but didn’t work in reality. We tried to tell them, but the words fell on deaf ears. Once the engineers had their theory and their analysis, nothing would change their minds. They would follow through until the absolute bitter end.

Actually, the system was fairly adequate when travelling through binary and trinary star systems, but when travelling through the vast and empty cosmos or around single stars, the batteries drained faster than the engines could recharge them.

The only alternative was to hover around a star while rotating like a beast on a rotisserie, letting the batteries stock up. And the problem there was that once the recharging started, all systems had to be shut down until it finished.

Another alternative was to land on a planet, shut things down, and let the natural sunlight do the work. That’s what I’d done here. I’d found this clearing in an area densely covered with other vegetation, but with enough bright sunlight to get the job done.

I knew the area was inhabited, but I hadn’t seen evidence of the natives around my landing area. Or so I thought. As I lay there hunkered down, I did some research. I pulled out my datapad and adjusted my position until the pad could lock onto one of the rather primitive orbital units I’d seen coming near the place. It was old-style binary code linkup, but it did work.

This planet itself wasn’t unknown to us. It was classified as an “M” category planet and labeled on the charts as P3-Solus235. Beyond that, though, the databases didn’t have much to offer. The most complete entry was from another scouting mission by a different species many ages ago. It did tell me a few things, though.

System & Planet: P3-Solus235.
Class: M (can support oxygen breathing life)

Description: Solus235 is a single yellow dwarf star with eight major orbiting planets along with two debris belts. Should have been a binary system but the second star mass (now the fifth orbiting body) failed to ignite.

Notes: P3 has is mostly covered with liquid, but there are major dry masses. Quite varied eco-system supporting millions of organic beings, most growing from the soil, but many independent life forms wander around.

Highest order of beings are capable of rudimentary communication and some rational thought, though few examples of the latter are evidenced. These creatures refer to themselves as “Humans.”

The humans show extremely violent tendencies toward each other, toward the lower level creatures, and each type displays ingrained fear of others who do not look like them. They seem to make progress in spite of their best efforts.

Conclusion: P3 has great resources to exploit, but given the actions seen by the indigenous beings, it would be best to steer clear.

Well, now I knew what I was up against. I really needed to get out of here. The problem was, I couldn’t. Not until the recharge cycle completed, and that was another rotation away.

I read more about the place. I learned that the fibrous things I was hiding in were called “trees” and the area was called the “Rocky Mountains.” That was from a fragment of downloaded information. I also learned those things the two creatures fired at me were called “bullets” and that they were intended to maim or kill. They were propelled by a violent chemical reaction inside a small container attached to the projectile.

That reminded me. I opened my travelling suit and looked at the place I’d been struck. A deep red welt was forming. I suspected there was a similar one on me backside. They did hurt a bit but were only annoying for the most part.

As I lay there, I tried to come up with a plan. I didn’t want to be spotted, but I had to get back to my ship. My best course of action was to slip back aboard, keep the cloak on, and sit tight. The problem with that was with all systems except the cloak and computer offline, I wouldn’t have enough breathable air. That wasn’t a real issue as I could use the emergency air bottles until the recharge was finished. I’d done it before when recharging in space.

I couldn’t come up with anything better, so I started back toward the ship.

Before I could get clear of the trees, I heard my two pursuers returning. I hid myself again.

They weren’t trying to be quiet, and I could hear every word they said.

“Dammit, Marv,” one said. “I did see something. It was big, too. At least our size.”

“I believe you, Harry,” the other one said. “I heard it, too. It must have moved fast, though.”

Now I knew who was who.

“Got that right,” Harry said. “But we still should have been able to track it.”

“We can pick it up tomorrow,” Marv answered. “Hell, I’ll call Darby to bring his hounds. Let’s make camp next to the clearing and start fresh in the morning.”

“Yeah, okay,” Harry said.

The two did just that, and my plan for getting back aboard was shot. Now what?

To make matters worse, my comm device beeped softly as I watched Harry and Marv set up their camp for the night.

Crap! I was overdue for a check-in. I could use help, but if I just missed the check-in, my colleagues would come barreling in with weapons blazing, wreaking havoc all around. That would be worse that my current predicament.

So I took out the datapad again, synced it with the comm device and typed up a status report.

Scout 3QXR81. Authentication-2-X-2-L

Landed on P3-Solus235 for full battery recharge. Need one additional rotation to complete cycle. (Can we PLEASE get rid of these frakkin’ ships?)

Planet has great possibilities for research station with many areas away from life forms. Old data states it should be avoided due to violent tendencies of native beings. Can confirm this.

Intended to recharge and complete survey, but problem arose.

Was off-ship and spotted by two indigenous ‘humans’ who attempted pursuit. Currently hiding among ‘trees’ attempting to get back aboard.

If unable to regain ship, will need assist and possible tow. Will communicate update during next light. Location coordinates listed below.

End status report.

I sent the message and watched my two pursuers settle down for the dark. I did the same, eating a couple of ration bars to curb my hunger. I could still hear their conversation.

Proceed to part 2...