This week with Arlene and Jeff:
...Darkness found them gathering up tools and covering the trenchers and tractor as clouds began moving in. "Crap, I hope it doesn't rain," Dave said as he and Jeff finished tying the tarp down. "The water system is complete except for a couple of connections and filling the ditches, but that's going to be a bitch with everything turned to mud. At least, we weren't bothered by animals."
Jeff grinned at his friend. "Ship told me she had to move a saber-tooth a mile away three times before he got the message."
"I didn't realize her tractor beam would reach out that far."
"In space, I think it will reach several times that distance, but when she detected the tiger, it was still a half-mile or so away. With so many trees in the way, she couldn't just move him with the beam, so she moved to his location, picked him up with her beam and moved herself and him a mile away before releasing him. She had no intention of hurting him. The third time she moved him, he gave up and changed direction."
"Crap. I would never have thought a wild animal would come around with all the noise the equipment was making."
"Well, as Morales says, 'this isn't Earth,' and the animals here don't necessarily act precisely the way animals do on Earth. For all I know, the tiger might have thought the noise the equipment was making was just the normal sound of an animal that he wasn't familiar with. Or perhaps he thought we were trespassing on his hunting grounds. Or maybe he is smarter than animals on Earth and wanted to check us out. Crap, who knows? I'm just glad we didn't have to kill him. Morales would be pissed, because he would have thought he would have to skin the tiger and scrape its hide, and that would have been after a long day of work. No way would he have let that beautiful pelt go to waste. I'm sure all of us would offer to help, but our help would probably screw up the hide."...
Have a goodun;
Roust