Chapter 3: Epsilon

Cal awoke with a pulsing headache, his vision blurry. He tried to rise from his seat, then realized that he was strapped in, fumbling blindly with the clasp. It took him a few more moments to figure out where he was, glancing around the passenger compartment of the Courser as his eyes adjusted to its cold lighting. It was a far cry from the opulent accommodations he’d enjoyed back on the liner. The deck was made up of exposed metal grating, the walls were covered in cargo netting, and bundles of cables snaked their way along the ceiling. He spat out his plastic bit, wiping his mouth on his sleeve and taking in a breath that tasted like metal.

He heard a whine, then hurried over to where Kevin was bundled up in his blanket on the floor, helping to free him. When he stripped the harness off the dog’s head, Kevin shook it, rising to his feet unsteadily.

“It’s alright, Kev,” Cal said as he gave the hound a reassuring cuddle. “That was the last jump you’ll have to do. At least for a good while, anyway.”

He stood and looked around, taking in the cramped bay. The liner had made berth at a station along its route, where Cal had transferred to a chartered Courser. Epsilon was only a single jump away on the far smaller and leaner ship, but it wasn’t exactly a comfortable ride.

“I already miss the spa,” he grumbled, fetching his bags and his rifle from their place beside his seat. “I hope the liner didn’t make me soft. Good thing they had a nice gym, right?”

Kevin cocked his head at his master, Cal giving him a shrug.

“A shuttle should be arriving shortly to take you down to the surface,” the pilot said, his voice coming through an unseen intercom. “Please collect your belongings and be ready to board.”

When it was time to leave, a precarious umbilical extended from the Courser’s airlock, what seemed to be a plastic tarp the only thing protecting him from the vacuum of space. He led Kevin across the bridge, feeling the metal panels vibrate beneath his feet. At the far end was another airlock that led onto a shuttle, a hiss of air filling the little compartment as it pressurized. As the inner door opened, he turned to see the umbilical retracting back into the hull of the Courser through the narrow porthole, the needle-shaped vessel already starting to pull away.

The bay of the shuttle was even smaller than the Courser’s, the padded crash couches that lined the walls only numerous enough to seat maybe a dozen people, the bulkheads above them covered in cargo netting. There was a ramp at the rear, and to the front of the craft was a cockpit sectioned off by a door. It was currently open, giving him a view of an elevated seat surrounded by consoles, a bubble-like cockpit looking out at the field of stars beyond. The pilot was wearing a flight helmet with an opaque visor, turning to give him a thumbs-up, his voice coming through tinny speakers.

“Welcome aboard, Mister Briggs. If you’d like to take a seat, I’ll be taking you dirtside. You’ll want to strap in. As for your companion ... uh...”

“He’ll be alright,” Cal replied, stowing his bags and slotting his rifle into a nearby rack. Was this a Navy shuttle – maybe military surplus? “He’s steadier on his feet than we are.”

Cal did as the pilot asked, strapping into one of the seats and ordering Kevin to lie down, leaning forward to get a view out of the cockpit windows. The pilot began to tap at the controls with one hand, a flight stick clutched in the other, the ship lurching as they started their descent. As the nose turned to face the planet, Cal was finally given his first real look at his destination.

From a distance, it didn’t look all that different from Franklin, covered in green landmasses shrouded in white clouds. The closer they got, the more differences began to jump out at him. The system’s star was a little more orange than Tau Boötis but not much dimmer, its light reflecting off the clouds to give them an evening hue. The greens were richer, and as he made out more detail, he saw that it was all jungle. Giant rivers snaked through it, appearing as cracks or maybe veins from orbit, widening in places to form long lakes. Just like home, there seemed to be little to no tectonic activity, a single contiguous continent dominating the world.

There were no visible moons, but on their way down, Cal spotted something odd. It looked like a piece of orbital debris, floating in a high orbit, his heart skipping a beat as he saw the unmistakable texture of Betelgeusian chitin. It was some kind of space station, blended from meat and metal – a technology that only the Bugs could fashion. It resembled the abdomen of an insect, but scaled up to maybe a quarter mile in height, glinting metal jutting between the organic plates in places. Around its midsection was a metal ring – maybe some kind of docking area or weapons platform.

“What is that?” he asked warily. “It looks Betelgeusian.”

“It is,” the pilot replied, keeping his eyes on his instruments. “That’s a Bug orbital defense platform. Don’t worry – they’ve been inactive going on eight years now. Their orbits will decay, and they’ll burn up eventually. When the Shiroyama took the planet back in 2620, they launched assault teams to take out the control stations on the ground ahead of the main invasion force. I don’t think they ever even bothered boarding the stations after the fact. The critters didn’t have any way to get supplies or fight back, so they let ‘em rot. The Marines used to call ‘em roach motels.”

“That’s morbid,” Cal replied with a grimace. “Betelgeusians can go into a state of hibernation on long voyages. There could still be some alive aboard those platforms.”

“Well, they’re not botherin’ us,” the pilot replied. “Atmospheric friction is going to solve the problem one way or another. It’s only in the last couple of years that there’s been any interest in the planet, so nobody was in any special hurry to clear ‘em out.”

The shuttle began to shake as it entered the atmosphere, bright orange flames licking at the nose beyond the cockpit window, but they were soon soaring over the jungles. There was no way to get a look down from the bay, but the pilot didn’t seem to mind Cal poking his head into the cockpit to get a better view.

The horizon was just green tree tops in every direction, their scale hard to pin down with no familiar geological features or structures for reference. From this height, they could be a mile tall for all he knew. Far from being flat, the terrain was rugged and mountainous, jutting hills and standing pillars formed by erosion creating a jagged horizon. No wonder nobody had been interested in colonizing the planet – the task seemed downright impossible in this kind of terrain. Everything was shrouded in a pervasive mist that hung low over the jungle, seeming to seep through the canopy almost like dry ice, flowing in slow-motion rivers. Here and there, a few larger trees protruded, the giant specimens rising above their smaller counterparts. As the shuttle coasted a mere couple of hundred meters above the trees, it disturbed a flock of birds, Cal whipping his head around just a moment too late to get a good look at them. He could already feel excitement welling in his chest. There was so much to discover here.

They coasted over the jungle until they came to a large clearing in the canopy. It seemed artificial to Cal, and his suspicions were confirmed as they passed above it. A landing area had been cleared, and there were several pads large enough for shuttles and small transports surrounded by white prefabs, a large comms antenna mounted on a long pole rising above the trees. A few of the pads were already occupied by other craft. It was hardly a burgeoning colony – more like a solitary outpost. It didn’t look like it could house more than a couple of dozen people at a time.

The shuttle circled around to shed some excess speed, then transitioned to vertical flight mode and began to descend. Its landing gear bounced as it touched down on one of the pads, the thrum of the engines petering out.

“You’re expected, so just head straight across to the building with the big antenna,” the pilot said as he turned around in his seat.

“Thanks for the ride,” Cal replied as he picked up his gear. The troop ramp began to lower, and as soon as he stepped out onto the pad, the humidity hit him like a wall. The air was so thick and soupy that he felt like he could swim across the courtyard rather than walk. The gravity wasn’t noticeably different from the AG field on the shuttle, so it must be within a pretty tight range of Earth-standard.

He walked out from beneath the tail of the shuttle, making his way down a set of steps, Kevin following behind him. Despite the heat, the dog seemed perfectly happy, bounding along for a few feet before dropping his nose to the dirt to sniff around intently. This was the first time he’d been outside in half a year, if one didn’t count the parks on the liner. This place was full of new smells and open spaces to explore.

Cal took a moment to take in his surroundings, glancing at the trees at the edge of the clearing. They were tall – some that he could see easily skirting sixty or seventy meters. They had twisted, gnarled trunks that formed a dense wall, something akin to vines and other parasitic plants snaking their way between them, the bark colonized by thick carpets of mosses. Their roots branched out to form wide networks, smaller shrubs and ferns sprouting up around them wherever there was space. There were no grasses, leaving the jungle floor relatively bare save for mud and fallen leaves. The mist was ever present, wafting between the trunks and forming drifting pools on the ground.

The other ships sitting on the landing pads were an even stranger sight. There was another UNN dropship that was recognizable, with its stubby wings and angular hull, but the other two were unfamiliar. One of them looked more like an archaic spaceplane, sporting a delta wing design and a belly covered in heat tiles, the rounded nose decorated with strange colored panels. It was patterned with ocean camouflage that seemed out of place on a spacecraft.

Another was clearly of Bug design, just like the defense platform. It looked like a madman had somehow mashed a cricket and a spaceship together, creating some awkward blending of the two, his eyes struggling to make sense of where the machinery ended and the flesh began.

From a distance, it had the silhouette of a grasshopper or a beetle, its six legs serving as landing gear to lift its rotund abdomen off the ground. The longer he looked, the more features that didn’t belong jumped out at him. There were maneuvering thrusters mounted in ball sockets that ran down the length of its body – or maybe its hull would be a better term – camera lenses that glittered like compound eyes peering out from its armored carapace. It had a distinct head with jutting sensor arrays that bore an uncanny resemblance to insect antennae, and there were a pair of clearly mechanical weapons mounted below its chin. It seemed that this was a vehicle to be piloted and not a creature in its own right. Its coloration was orange with black stripes that formed organic patterns, but someone had added prominent blue livery and a big UNN logo almost as an afterthought. Could it be captured tech?

He proceeded to the building with the antenna after waiting for Kevin to pee on a fern, finding a small cluster of interconnected prefab buildings. They had started life with clean, white paint, but their short time in the jungle had already tarnished them with streaks of moisture and a few enterprising patches of damp moss. They were about the size of shipping containers – same as the hab trailer he’d lived in during his stay with the ranchers – and they were lifted off the muddy ground on outriggers. There were a few more little clusters of buildings in the clearing, all of them joined by thick, insulated cables that were raised off the jungle floor, but this one seemed the largest.

The sliding door opened as he was mounting the metal steps, a woman in a tight-fitting white environment suit greeting him. She looked to be in her mid thirties, her hair cut short, the logo on her chest that of the UAS.

“Mister Briggs,” she began, extending a hand in greeting. When he took it, she helped him up the rest of the way, stepping back once he was inside the prefab. “I’m glad to finally meet you! I trust that your journey was a pleasant one?”

“A cruise ship is certainly more pleasant than a Courser,” he replied.

“You can call me Helen,” she continued, gesturing to the logo on her suit. “I’m one of the UAS staff who are assigned to this research outpost. They told us that we’d be getting a new arrival today.”

“Nice to meet you,” Cal replied with a polite nod. “You can call me Cal – most people do. Short for Calvin. So, that’s what this place is?” he added as he glanced past her. The prefab certainly looked like a lab, filled with scientific equipment and flickering holographic displays. “I wondered why we were landing in the middle of nowhere. Where’s the main colony?”

“Oh, it’s nearby,” she replied evasively. “For now, let’s get you settled in. We have a prefab ready for you – it will be your living quarters during your stay. It should have all of the amenities that you need, but if there’s anything missing, don’t hesitate to ask. If you’re not too exhausted from the trip, I’d be happy to give you a tour of the facility.”

Her eyes moved to the door, and she yelped, all of the color draining from her face. Cal spun around to see Kevin standing halfway up the steps, sticking his head through the doorway.

“Damn, sorry!” Cal began as he tried to calm the woman. “That’s just Kevin – he’s my dog. He’s very friendly.”

“A... dog?” she asked as she eyed the animal warily, placing a hand over her racing heart. “Goodness, I thought for a moment that some native animal had made it past the perimeter fence.”

“I assumed you’d seen him follow me over,” Cal added apologetically.

“No, I just heard the shuttle land,” she replied with a relieved chuckle. “If I’m not mistaken, that’s an archeox, am I right? A Rask Razorback?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Cal replied.

“No need to look so surprised,” she added with a grin. “I am an exobiologist, after all.”

“I think you’re the first person I’ve met who had any clue what he was.”

“They’re native to the desert regions of Borealis, aren’t they?” she asked. “How did you come by one?”

“Kevin was actually brought to Franklin by a trader as a puppy,” he explained. “The guy said he got him from a Rask merchant, but I don’t really know any more than that. Wherever he came from, it won’t have been legal, so I bought him with the intention of turning him over to a sanctuary. Turns out that razorbacks make pretty great pets and reliable working dogs, so I trained him and got him licensed. Now, he’s my sidekick.”

“I’m sure him being an adorable puppy had nothing to do with that decision,” Helen said with a knowing smile. “Why on Earth did you name him Kevin?”

“Seemed funny to give him a really mundane name,” Cal replied with a shrug. He patted his thigh, encouraging the hound to climb the steps. “C’mere, Kev. Say hello to the nice scientist.”

Cal reached into his pocket and fished out a treat, passing it to Helen, the dog planting his butt on the floor obediently as he watched it change hands. The ritual of meeting a new person and getting a treat was well ingrained by now.

“Hold your hand flat for him,” Cal advised as Helen reached down towards the animal. Kevin took the treat from her with an exaggerated gentleness, crunching the little morsel of biscuit in his teeth.

“Can I pet him?” she asked. Cal replied with a nod, so she reached for Kevin’s head, giving it a tentative rub. “Wow, the fur is so coarse and wiry. The hump is incredible – that’s how they store fat and water for periods of scarcity?”

“That’s right, yeah. Get him behind the ear. There you go – he likes that.”

“I wasn’t expecting to be doing this today,” Helen laughed as she stood up straight again. “I hope you have a lot of those treats, because everyone on the base is going to want to meet him.”

“He makes a pretty good icebreaker.”

“Well, let me show you around,” Helen said.

Helen gave Cal a tour of the facility, showing him the various prefabs and their uses. The UAS had a pretty nice setup on the surface, with labs for studying samples taken from the local ecosystem and equipment stores to support expeditions. They didn’t have very much computing power on site, but the antenna gave them a real-time link to a Pythia-class survey vessel that was loitering in orbit, which they could use as a remote server for processing and storing large amounts of data. They could also use the ship as a satellite to collect information with its suite of sensors.

The staff were just as friendly as Helen, and they were eager to meet Kevin. There were maybe twenty people working in the outpost, from botanists to geologists, and it was nice to be in a more academic environment after spending so much time with the ranchers. Now, Cal was the intrepid explorer rather than being the clueless rookie. The introductions were short, as most people were busy working, but he was able to meet everybody.

Helen led him outside to inspect the perimeter, showing him the fence at the edge of the forest.

“This is the security fence,” she said, gesturing to the twenty-foot structure. “It’s electrified, but only on the outside layer, so you shouldn’t have to worry about Kevin getting shocked.”

“Why does it have to be so tall?” Cal asked warily. “What exactly have you encountered out here?”

“Epsilon Eridani may be a relatively young star, but the ecosystem on EE-4 is booming,” she began. “We’re only just starting to scratch the surface, but biodiversity is extremely high, and there are already very clearly defined ecological niches. We haven’t seen any yet, but scouts have reported ambush predators as large as jaguars that understandably have no fear of humans.”

“They were pretty vague about that when they sent me the contract,” Cal said, turning to look up at the fence. “Glad I bought some firepower.”

“As I understand it, you’re going out there?” Helen asked. “You’re some kind of ranger?”

“I studied ecology and exobiology, and most of my work involves advising management agencies and making sure companies are following the rules,” he explained. “My job is basically to go out there and make an assessment about the state of the planet’s ecology and whether it’s being impacted by human activity, then help whoever’s in charge come up with a game plan. I’m also a pretty good shot, so I can be a little more ... direct in my investigations.”

“A conservationist and a hunter,” she mused, looking him up and down. “Odd combination.”

“Don’t worry – I’m very picky about what I shoot.”

“I suppose Kevin helps with that,” she said with a nod to the dog. He was sniffing around the base of the fence.

“Yeah, his senses are a lot better than mine,” Cal confirmed with a nod. “He generally knows that something is amiss long before I do. He’s also a razorback, so if you put his back against a wall, he’s gonna fight until both him and his attacker look like ground beef.”

“Glad he’s friendly,” Helen replied.

“Fortunately, we’ve never had to put that to the test yet, and I’d rather it stayed that way.”

“Well, you won’t be going out there alone,” she continued. “The UAS has assigned you a guide and a sherpa.”

“Really?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “Are they on the base?”

“No, they’re from the colony,” she replied. “You’ll probably be meeting them tomorrow. I’ll let them know that you’ve arrived.”

“This mysterious colony that I still haven’t seen yet,” he added skeptically.

“I don’t want to spoil the surprise,” she said with a smirk. “Come on – I’ll show you to your quarters.”

Cal paused as they passed by the landing pads, gesturing to the strange, insectoid ship.

“So, what is that thing?” he asked. “Is it captured Bug tech, like the defense platforms I saw on my way down?”

“No, that’s Jarilan,” she replied.

“There are Jarilans here?” he asked, Helen smiling at his surprise.

“They seem to be everywhere these days. Didn’t you have any on Franklin?”

“Can’t say that we did. I’ve heard about them, but I’ve never seen one in the flesh.”

“They’re fascinating creatures,” she replied as they admired the odd craft. “They’re completely artificial organisms – chimeras of human and alien DNA, but talking to one is just like having a conversation with any other coworker. After a while, you have to keep reminding yourself that it’s not just a human in a Halloween costume.”

“It’s not really the purpose of my visit, but I’d love to see any papers you have on them,” he added. “Just to sate my curiosity.”

“A little light reading before bed?” she joked.

“What about that other ship?” he asked, nodding to the spaceplane.

“Valbarans,” she replied.

“Makes sense. If you want green tech, they’re generally the people to ask. I’d love to get assigned to Valbara,” he added with a wistful sigh. “The megafauna there are something to see. Unfortunately for me, they have the whole harmony with nature thing down to a tee, so there’s not much demand for offworld conservationists. Maybe I can take a vacation with the bundle the UAS is paying me – see the Teth’rak.”

They continued on, Helen showing Cal to his prefab. It was very similar to his trailer back on Franklin, with spartan furnishings enough to serve his basic needs. There was a little shower, a kitchen area, a bed, and a living room.

“If you need food, it’s in the storage fabs,” Helen explained. “There aren’t any convenience stores out here, so just take what you need. Resupply from the colony isn’t much of an issue. Power comes from a portable fusion plant, so go wild, and we’re not in any danger of running out of water in this environment. We actually had to shut down some of the condensers because they were overloading.”

“Free meals and unlimited hot showers,” Cal mused. “Maybe this place isn’t such a downgrade from the liner after all. Not that I expect I’ll be spending all that much time here.”

“Rest up for tomorrow,” Helen said, turning to the door. “It’s good to have you onboard, Calvin.”

Cal was eating a breakfast of protein bars when he heard a buzz at the door. Kevin lifted his head, his ears pricking up.

“Stay, Kev,” Cal said as he rose from his seat. He walked over to the door and opened the sliding panel with the touch of a button, looking out at the compound in confusion. There was nobody there.

Someone cleared their throat, and he looked down to see something standing halfway up the steps. He recoiled in surprise, the sight of colorful chitin setting off alarm bells, but he soon remembered what Helen had said the evening prior.

“Hi!” the Jarilan chimed, lifting one of her four hands in a cheerful greeting. “You must be Mister Briggs. My name is Poppy – I’m your sherpa.”

“H-hi,” he replied hesitantly, struggling to stop himself from staring. She was scarcely four feet tall, an ornate, beetle-like horn that branched up from her forehead raising her height a few inches more. The first thing that leaped out at him was her coloration – the insect carapace that covered her body shining with a beautiful red iridescence, shifting hue like oil floating atop water. Next were her bright blue eyes, large and expressive, distinctly mammalian. Instead of hair, she had a set of four long, feathery antennae that came down from her head like braids. They resembled those of a moth, white in color, shimmering in the sunlight like frayed optical cables.

Her figure was distinctly feminine, with wide hips and stocky thighs, her upper pair of arms far bulkier than the more delicate lower pair. The upper had a trio of shovel-like digits, while the lower were slim and dexterous. Her whole body was covered in layers of intersecting plates, but there was pink, waxy flesh visible between the joints in places. It was hard to tell if she was wearing any clothes, and he had no idea if her kind even had any modesty to preserve. At the ends of her digitigrade legs were two-toed feet that more resembled the hooves of a deer.

Around her collar was a thick ruff of fur like some kind of Victorian-era noblewoman, seemingly made from the same material as her antennae, and the same fur was present on the joints of her wrists and ankles.

“Never seen a Jarrie before, huh?” she asked as she planted her lower pair of hands on her cocked hips. “Don’t worry – we come with a zero genocide guarantee, or your money back.”

Just watching her talk was mesmerizing, the individual plates that made up her face moving to approximate human speech and facial expressions. It was the same kind of mimicry one might expect to see on a leaf insect or a praying mantis, but designed to emulate humans. Her grasp of English was flawless, the inflections perfectly natural, her accent even carrying a tinge of British.

“Sorry – I really haven’t,” he replied sheepishly. “You’re ... fascinating. A true chimera.”

“Chimera?” she asked, cocking her head. “That’s a much cooler sounding term than half-breed or hybrid. I’ll take it.”

“I should invite you in,” Cal realized.

“You should!” she confirmed.

Snapping out of his stupor, he stood aside and gestured for her to enter, the little alien waddling past him. She paused, her eyes widening when she noticed Kevin. The dog was sitting in his bed, a little more alert at the sight of this new creature, his gaze fixed on her intently.

“Uh ... is that a good dog?” she stammered.

“Kevin,” Cal chimed, getting the hound’s attention. “This a friend. Come get a treat.”

Kevin slunk over as Cal fished a biscuit out of his pocket and handed it down to the Jarilan.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” she whispered.

“Feed him, and keep your palm flat,” Cal replied.

She held out an upper hand gingerly, the massive razorback dwarfing the diminutive alien. He was so large in comparison to her that she could probably have ridden him like a pony. Still a little wary of her but enticed by the treat, Kevin gently took it from her and began to crunch.

“You can pet him now,” Cal advised.

“Do I want to pet him?” she scoffed, grimacing at the saliva the dog had left on her shell.

“That’s the established procedure.”

Poppy took a step closer and gave the dog a pat on the shoulder, seeming to relax a little.

“He’s not very soft,” she mused. “Either this is the ugliest labrador I’ve ever seen, or it’s some kind of alien.”

“Kevin is a Rask Razorback,” Cal explained. “His species is native to Borealis.”

“That’s going to be an interesting conversation,” Poppy snickered.

“What do you mean by that?”

“All in good time,” she replied, stepping away from the dog. “Right, tell me what you need carrying, and I’ll take you to the colony.”

“Carrying?” he repeated, glancing down at her. “Is that what you meant by sherpa? No offense, but you look a little small to be carrying my equipment.”

“Okay,” she muttered, walking over to his kitchen table. “Sit down.”

“Huh?”

“Come over here and sit in this chair,” she insisted, tapping its backrest with her hand.

Bemused, he did as she suggested, returning to his seat. Before he could ask what she was doing, he felt his stomach lurch, the little Jarilan gripping the edges of the chair with her stout upper arms and lifting him off the floor. Cal lurched, holding on for dear life as she set him back down with the same ease that he might pick up a book, her face plates arranging into a smirk when he turned his head to look at her.

“Satisfied?” she asked smugly.

“Gear is over there,” he mumbled, pointing to the bags that were waiting on the couch.

Poppy put on his rucksack and hefted his duffel bag under one of her large upper arms, hauling his long rifle over her shoulder like she was carrying a ladder. The weapon was easily as long as she was tall. He wanted to tell her that he could carry his own equipment, but she seemed so determined, marching back out of his prefab. Cal shared a glance with Kevin, then followed her, the dog trailing after him.

“So, where are we going?” he asked as he hurried to catch up with her.

“The colony,” she replied. “You can’t start your first day of work without your scout, can you?”

“Right, they told me I’d have a scout and a sherpa,” he mused as they crossed the compound. “I couldn’t see any signs of habitation when I was flying in, and I doubt the colony is on the other side of the planet. What’s the deal with that?”

“Why ask when you’ll find out for yourself soon enough?” she replied, stopping at the gate. She hit a touch panel, and the two doors opened with a mechanical whir, revealing a dirt track that led deeper into the misty jungle. Cal patted his thigh – a signal for Kevin to stay close.

“Maybe I should take the gun,” he suggested as he glanced out at the trees warily.