Chapter 1

I sat still in my hiding spot, silently waiting with practiced patience. The awkward position I was forced to assume to remain hidden left my muscles screaming for relief. I refused to allow my focus to shift from observing the group I now had in sight. I swore to myself never to let myself get stuck hiding in a tree again.

The group's eight members were mostly men, but there were a couple of women as well. They all wore clothes that had been made from leather. Their moccasins had been made from dried leather. Considering the brisk air early this morning, it was amazing that they were able to keep enough body heat from such shoddy tunics to be comfortable. The tools were just as primitive, mostly fashioned of stone tied to sticks.

That said, at least their skills had moved beyond the crude levels I had feared I would see. The leather was actually relatively well processed, so they must have discovered a method to treat it. The clothes weren't exactly high fashion, but they were sturdy, and looked relatively warm and comfortable. The weapons were harder to judge at a distance, but considering the accuracy with which they had been thrown they were likely of very good craftsmanship.

The group was efficiently processing the kill they had made earlier. Most of the men were quickly slicing the animal into chunks which the women were packaging in parcels that they could carry with them. The packs they were using were made of some variation of dried leather as well. It was obviously a very messy and bloody process but they did it quickly and without any fuss.

One of the men from the hunting party was keeping close watch on the area. I knew why. I had learned from recent, painful, experience. Several of the carnivores were extremely aggressive, not to mention dangerous. The lion analogs were particularly vicious. I had been forced to kill several after they started stalking me.

As the hunting group finished processing their prize, they walked down to a stream a short distance away to clean the worst of the blood and guts off of themselves. The stream was one of the major water sources in the area, and it was how the hunters had found their prey — and how I had found my targets.

All the work had been done with very little conversation, which indicated that this group had worked together often. I remained close, to record everything they said. Even so, I didn't think that I had recorded enough to break their language, yet.

As they started away, I maneuvered myself out of my hiding place. I suppressed a groan of relief from my cramped muscles. It took a few stretches, before my muscles were willing to cooperate with me.

Though I'd had extensive training from the beginning of my military days, it had been too long ago. I hadn't paid much mind to the ground portion of that training, anyway. Without tracking and sneaking skills, I could neither safely approach other humans, nor effectively hunt.

Eating regularly was important to my happiness, so one of my first tasks was to rectify my lack in those skills. I had spent several weeks retraining myself. Using those newly relearned skills, I silently tracked the group while making sure that I didn't expose myself to discovery. While I eventually intended to introduce myself, I wasn't nearly ready to take that step, yet.

The forested area was extremely advantageous for my attempts to keep myself concealed. Between the trees, brush, and my camouflage, I was confident in my ability not to be seen casually. The trick was to not be heard either, and to not do anything stupid enough to give myself away.

The hunters were now talking and joking amongst themselves, now that they were done with the hunt. I stalked the group from a distance, and methodically recorded everything that they said. Hopefully, it wouldn't take much more before I would be able to understand their language. The recordings, however important, were less important than remaining undetected, though. I remained extremely careful; especially since the hunting group always kept close watch of their surroundings, to prevent any predators from sneaking close enough to ambush them.

After they had gone several miles at a brisk pace, I put my recording device away so that I could concentrate on stalking the group. Though I had followed several such groups, I had been unable to follow any of them far enough to see them enter their camp. I quietly disengaged, and then quickly moved ahead of the group.

The camp was in a clearing, which made getting close enough to observe very difficult. The first time I had come upon the camp, I had been fortunate enough to spot one of the sentries in a hut on the outer edge of the camp. I didn't dare get to get too close to the camp. I had seen glimpses their defenses, and was wary of placing myself close enough to be discovered. I had decided that the best way to observe them without getting too close was to watch the hunting group as they returned.

Having snuck so I was within sight of both the hunting group and the camp, I quickly found a spot where I could observe without being seen. I slid my utility scope out of my bag. I strapped the scope to my head in a practiced motion and turned it on. It only took me a few seconds to adjust the zoom, to get a clear picture of what was going on at the camp.

As the hunting group came within sight of the camp, one of the sentries at the outer edge quickly walked towards the inside of the camp. By the time the group had made it most of the way to the camp, the sentinel was back with several other men and women. Quickly, a small crowd formed to greet the hunting group. They seemed to be very happy that the group was back, and more importantly, that they'd had had a successful hunt.

Even as everyone had come to greet the returning heroes, I had been careful to spot where the sentries around the camp had come from. Now that I knew where those guards were, I could sneak closer to the camp without being observed. Hopefully, I could get a better idea of what kind of people made up this tribe.

It wasn't until I heard the growl from behind me that I recalled my dangerous surroundings.

My hand went for my weapon as I spun around. I pulled the gun in a quick draw, and pointed it in front of me, even as I finished my spin.

I was almost fast enough. Almost.

I slowly regained my senses. As I registered the aching pain spread throughout my body, I opened my eyes. I was trying to figure out where I was and what had happened. I found myself in a bed of animal skins, inside a tent. I heard voices talking outside the tent, but I couldn't make them out.

It took me several minutes before I could remember what had happened. The realization the I should be dead right now sent chills down my back, as did the realization that the people from the camp must have found me and brought me here. Though I had observed several of their hunting groups, I knew almost nothing about the tribe or its people. For all I knew, they could be cannibals; I had certainly seen that happen before.

The tribe had apparently stripped me all of all my clothes; and more importantly, of my equipment. There wasn't much I could do about the situation but pray that the people of this tribe were friendly and somewhat civilized. My helplessness frustrated me, but I had simply made too many mistakes. I would have to roll with the consequences.

The first thing I had to do, though, was to access my PAD and see if it had broken the language barrier. Without that, I would be in severely deep shit. I willed the Personal Access Device to activate. I felt a tingle in my right temple as the miniature microchip activated, and then a GUI lit up on my retina. Using distinct eye and facial muscle movements, I quickly navigated the system. It confirmed that the last series of recordings had allowed the PAD to put together the basics of the language. I entered the language in the queue to be learned.

Having done that, I attempted to sit up. I stifled a scream as my body protested violently. I fell back, suddenly sweating. I forced myself to shunt aside the pain. The talking outside got louder, and I heard movement towards the tent. I needed to gauge how injured I was, preferably before I had company. I pulled aside the animal skins and looked down.

My entire chest was a study of the different pigmentations of purple. It was all there. The light purple bruising and the dark purple that looked like the bruises had been bruised. There was even some green and orange mixed in for good measure, but they weren't nearly as flashy as the purples.

Fortunately, there were no chunks of flesh ripped out. I knew that there would have been, without the armored shirt I had been wearing. Even so, the sight was enough to send a wave of nausea through me. I felt a wave of sharp relief sweep through me, which probably meant an anesthetic had been administered to keep me stable.

I brought up my PAD interface again and accessed the menu for my nanobots. As I expected, particularly since I was so hungry, the nanos had been working hard on my injuries. Apparently, they had been very serious injuries.

As with all personal nano systems, in the case of serious injury, they acted to stabilize the victim, then bring him back to consciousness. Without my authorization, however, they wouldn't be able do anything further.

I brought up the specifics, and looked in horror at the report. I had several ribs cracked or broken, which accounted for much of the pain and bruising. Beyond that, many of my internal organs had been injured. The nano system had been forced to make extensive repairs to most of those organs, just to stabilize me.

The repairs to my injuries would take several days, particularly to fully set and mend the broken ribs. During that time, I would be nearly senseless from the pain, medication, and anesthetics that would prevent further damage by inhibiting my movements.

I didn't dare authorize the nanos to fully activate. Once I did that, I literally would be helpless to take care of myself. For several days, I would be cared for by a primitive group of strangers. I didn't know the least bit about their moral and ethical standards. If I activated the nanos, I very well might never wake up again.

Unfortunately, that meant that there were very few options, until I could communicate with them. Pulling my PAD up once more, I activated a learning and sleep cycle. I immediately felt the sedatives take effect, and let myself drift to sleep.

I awoke suddenly. Through a wave of disorientation, the knowledge I had absorbed while sleeping slammed into my conscious mind. After I recovered, I spent a few minutes mentally cataloguing what I had learned. I was pleased with the result. It was by no means comprehensive, but it was thorough enough that I would be able to communicate. It would be a few days before I was completely comfortable with the language. I didn't have a few days to prepare myself, unfortunately.

"Hello," a female voice said hesitantly.

I looked up and saw a pretty girl sitting on the ground a few feet away. She was watching me cautiously. I could see the uncertainty written on her face. I guessed that she had been tasked to take care of me, but was clearly worried about how safe I was. Despite that caution, I could clearly see compassion and concern in her eyes. No matter how genesis societies evolved, emotions were always the same. The fact that she felt compassion for me, gave a good indication that these people were friendly.

She was tall compared to the average woman I was used to. The slightly lower gravity would account for that. The bronzed skin that seemed to be the norm in this environment was caused by the thinner atmosphere. It was easy to focus on her green eyes as the most striking feature of a beautiful face. Shoulder-length, light brown hair accentuated that face. The rest of her body was well muscled. Her athletic body showed the distinctly pleasant curves, and her features were soft and feminine. Despite the rough lifestyle she undoubtedly lived, her attractiveness shone through.

"Hello," I repeated, deciding to let her take the lead.

I didn't want to cause offense by tripping over some social nicety that I wasn't aware of. The fact that I felt another dose of anesthetics having their way with me didn't help.

"You have been hurt very badly," she said. "We found you outside our camp."

"I figured out about the hurt when I tried to sit up," I said lightly.

I could feel the side-effects of the anesthetic, as my thoughts became fuzzier and less focused.

"I don't really remember much about what happened," I admitted.

"You killed a great cat without a spear," she said, with a touch of awe in her voice.

They had obviously not figured out what the gun was. Since there was no obvious weapon, they must have assumed that I had killed the lion with my bare hands. It was little wonder that she was afraid to get too close to me. I decided that modesty was the tact to take, here.

"When you are fighting for your life, you can do amazing things," I finally said. "It is a good thing that your people were nearby to save my life after my foolishness."

I could hear my words getting slurred, as the anesthetic continued to take its toll on me.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm called Din," I said. Though that was just the shortened form of my nickname, I decided that it was the best name to use. "Can I ask what yours is?"