Chapter 5: Expedition

After a bit of a walk through the jungle and a short car ride in the hive’s tunnels, they were nearing the UAS basecamp’s gate, Poppy trotting along happily beside Cal on her hoof-like feet. If there were two things that she never seemed to lack, they were enthusiasm and stamina. Cal was drenched in sweat after spending all day in the jungle, his clothes glued to his skin, and he was anticipating a cold shower.

“Tell me,” Cal began as he walked along the dirt path. “Is it normal for taxi drivers to be so ... forward with their passengers?”

“That’s Pilots for you,” Poppy snickered. “They tend to be pretty outgoing. Most Jarilans are, really.”

“You are engineered to socialize with humans, so you say,” Cal conceded.

“Pilots are hot shots – they usually drive Warrior suits or fighter craft, so they think they’re the Queen’s gift to Endos. Apparently, putting them behind the wheel of a flatbed full of vegetables doesn’t discourage them in the slightest.”

“I take it men are a hot commodity in the hive?” Cal asked.

“Well, the only males we have are snapped up as scouts and paratroopers. There aren’t even any on this planet.”

“Really?”

“Don’t look so surprised,” she scoffed. “You’re a biologist – you must know about social insects like ants or bees. You know that we don’t reproduce, either. There’s no need for male Jarilans on EE-4, and even if there was, we’d still outnumber them a thousand to one.”

“So ... why the interest?” he pressed.

“Do you make a habit of asking obvious questions?” she replied, giving him a sideways glance. “Here’s your stop,” she added, the gate appearing ahead of them through the swirling mist.

“Thanks,” he said, catching the duffel as she tossed it to him. She handed him his pack and his rifle, then moved over to Kevin, giving him a scratch under the chin.

“See you tomorrow!” she cooed, the dog’s tail lashing the ground as it wagged happily. “Oh, I just wanna take you home with me!”

“I’ll come up with a plan for that expedition – talk to the people on base and take a look at the survey data,” Cal added. “I’m sure Murzka will want to look over it before she okays anything.”

“I’ll bring her,” Poppy replied. “Looking forward to spending days in the forest without running water or a nice bed, or did that trip on the luxury liner make you soft?”

“We’ll see,” he chuckled, turning to the gate. “Come, Kevin.”

Cal hit the touch panel, and the tall gate swung open. He turned to watch Poppy walk off into the mist, feeling a little worried about her. She was so small, and the jungle was so dark. His instincts insisted that she needed an escort. With her antennae, she could navigate far better than he could ever hope to, however. She’d also told him that scouts kept a vigil on the roads, so they might even be watching her right now.

On his way inside, he passed the parked dropships, seeing the bright glow of the prefabs ahead. Before turning in, he stopped in the main lab, finding Helen there working with a couple of colleagues. She was hunched over an electron microscope, lifting her head when she saw the door slide open.

“Evening, Briggs,” she began as she raised a gloved hand. “How was your first day on EE-4?”

“Pretty good,” he replied, setting down his bag for a moment. “I had my first look at the jungle, I visited the hive, and I met the Araxie councilors in the village. I’m very impressed by what I’ve seen so far. Usually, when people hire me, it’s because they’ve already made a mess of things and want help cleaning it up. The colonists here seem to be taking preemptive steps to ensure that never happens. It’s rather refreshing.”

“I thought you might think so,” Helen said with a smile.

“So, I want to start planning a longer expedition into the deep jungle to evaluate the situation further from the settlements,” Cal began. “Could I get access to the servers aboard the survey vessel? I’m assuming that you have terrain scans, satellite maps, topographical data – things like that. I’d also like to familiarize myself with any native species that you’ve cataloged so far.”

“Of course,” she replied, stepping away from her station. “I’ll give you a passcode that you can use from the terminal in your prefab. Just don’t saturate the link too much – it’s not a very fast connection.”

“No rush,” he added, but she dismissed his concerns with a wave and pulled a tablet from a nearby table.

“It’ll only take a second. Here it is,” she said, showing him a short numerical code that he recorded on his own device.

“There’s one more thing I wanted to talk to you about,” he continued. “Today, I saw this incredible animal. Murzka – the Araxie scout who was my field guide – called it a mossgrazer.”

“Oh, you were able to see a live one?” Helen gasped. “I envy you – they’re incredible animals. I’ve only ever seen dead ones that the Araxie bring to us for dissection. Working in the lab is a lot safer, but we don’t get out much.”

“Trilateral body plans,” Cal marveled, pleased to find someone who was as enthusiastic about the subject as he was. “The UAS didn’t give me any information to read through on the way over here, so I had no idea what to expect. I’m not aware of anything else like it in the Galaxy.”

“Most of our research is sitting in the survey ship’s data banks, so there wouldn’t have been much to share with you,” Helen replied. “There’s only one quantum satellite in orbit right now, and it’s not much use for transferring large data packets. Yes, the lifeforms here are amazing. From what we’ve seen so far, the common ancestor of all animals on the planet had trilateral symmetry, and that trait has carried over to the entire ecosystem just as bilateral symmetry did in ours. We’ve only seen something analogous to amphibians, and judging by how idyllic the climate is for them, it’s possible that mammals and reptiles never evolved here at all. I’ll bet you’re eager to get stuck into the backlog of field reports and the specimen catalog.”

“You bet.”

“We haven’t ventured too far into the jungle yet, so a lot of what we’ve sampled until now has been brought to us by the Araxie. They find a plant or an animal that they think is interesting, and they give it to us. It will be nice to have a more seasoned field operative out there. The cats are very helpful, but they’re not scientists. You really need a trained eye for this kind of work.”

“She mentioned something else,” Cal added. “Have you ever heard of a backstabber?”

“Heard, yes,” Helen replied as she reached up to straighten her glasses. “Seen, no. The Araxie have encountered them deeper in the valley, and they appear to be the apex predator in their ecosystem, preying primarily on medium-sized game like the mossgrazer you encountered. It’s the main reason we erected the fence. They’ve never brought us any carcasses for study, so we can only assume that encounters are rare, and the cats don’t exactly carry camera equipment around.”

“What do you know about them?” Cal pressed.

“They seem to be the equivalent of a leopard, filling a similar ecological niche and being of a comparable weight class. They’re ambush predators, and very elusive at that. As the name suggests, the forward dorsal limb has adapted into a claw that’s used to inflict wounds upon their prey. If I had to speculate, I’d say it’s likely used to cause lacerations that eventually weaken the animal until it collapses from blood loss.”

“Hence, being stabbed in the back.”

“The Araxie seem very wary of them, so it’s safe to say that they’re a credible threat.”

“I don’t think the Araxie like anything that’s sneakier than they are,” Cal replied. “Right, that was all I needed. I’m gonna go turn in, but if you’d like to point out any areas of the map or lifeforms you’d like me to investigate, we can go over it tomorrow. I’ll need to raid your equipment locker, too.”

“Will do,” she chimed. “Get some rest, take a shower, use the air conditioner while you have the chance. We can plan the expedition tomorrow.”

Cal was awoken by Kevin’s whining. He sat up in his bunk, rubbing his eyes as he looked around the still unfamiliar prefab, finding the dog standing by the door. His ears were up, and his tail was wagging excitedly, suggesting that it was a friend. Moments later, there was a buzz.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Cal grumbled as he flopped out of bed. When he opened the door with a button press, Poppy was standing there, her blue eyes flicking to his bare chest briefly before finding their way up to his face.

“Morning,” she said, shifting an oversized backpack that she was wearing. “Looks like I caught you a little early?”

Cal realized that he was wearing only his shorts, but in this kind of environment, it was a given.

“Yeah, uh ... what time is it?” he asked groggily.

“We haven’t really got the local timekeeping down yet, but it’s morning,” she replied in her usual chipper tone. “Hi, Kevin!’ she cooed as she reached out to give the dog a pat on the head. “Did you miss me, boy? I bet you did!”

“Gimme five to throw some clothes on,” Cal said, stifling a yawn. “We’ll head over to the main building – the UAS people will want to be involved in the planning. Assuming they’re awake.”

“Sounds like someone has jumplag,” she said with a smirk. “I’ll be here.”

Cal put on some casual clothes and wolfed down a cereal bar, then headed out to meet her, Kevin bounding away across the courtyard to sniff around one of the landing pads.

“I hope you’re not expecting to wear that in the jungle,” Poppy scoffed as she looked him up and down with a skeptical eye.

“No, I have tropical gear that I can wear on the expedition,” he replied. “What’s with the giant backpack? It looks like you could stash a second Worker in there.”

“Well, I can carry several times my own body weight,” she replied proudly. “This is just gear for the expedition.”

“Where’s Murzka?” he asked as he looked around the camp. “I thought you said you’d bring her along?”

“I am here.”

Cal spun around, letting out a yelp of alarm as he saw the eight-foot feline perched on the roof of the prefab behind him, watching him like a cat from a windowsill. She was as silent as a ghost – he hadn’t even known that she was there.

“What the hell are you doing on the roof?” he demanded. “Are you trying to give me a goddamned heart attack?”

She tilted her hooded head at him, Poppy cackling like a demon as she watched the exchange. Far more quietly than her size should allow, Murzka slid down onto the ground, her padded feet not making as much as a sound. All he could hear was the faintest rustle from the leaves that were woven into her cloak.

Kevin came trotting over to see what all the fuss was about, but he didn’t bark or growl. It seemed that his opinion of Murzka was now neutral after spending the prior day with her, even if she hadn’t given him a treat. She still eyed him cautiously, but she didn’t recoil or try to shoo him away now.

“Some guard dog you are,” Cal grumbled as Kevin sat beside him, the panting dog’s tongue lolling. “You know that we have an established process for who gets to be your friend, right?”

“Don’t listen to him,” Poppy said in a mock baby voice, giving the dog a scratch behind the ear. “You’re a good guard dog.”

“Let’s go and see if anyone else is actually awake yet,” Cal sighed, looking up at the sky. The sun was just starting to peek out above the mountains, the mist giving it a diffuse, ethereal glow.

“My people have not charted this valley,” Murzka said, one of her curved claws tapping against the glass screen as she pressed a padded finger to it. “Most of our efforts have been focused Eastward, towards the foot of this mountain range where the terrain and the game are more favorable.”

The group was crowded around a large table in the main lab – Poppy, Murzka, and Cal joined by Helen and a couple of the other resident scientists. They were poring over satellite imagery and topographical data collected from the surrounding region, trying to plot a route for the expedition that would glean the most useful data.

“Orbital LIDAR scans of the area show some pretty rough terrain,” Helen said, glancing up at Cal as though she expected a reply.

“I’ve done fieldwork in rainforests before,” he said. “I can handle it. How about you two?”

“Is there a need to ask?” Murzka scoffed.

“I can handle any terrain that you can,” Poppy replied.

“You’ll be able to remain in contact with the survey vessel as long as you can get a clear view of the sky,” another of the scientists added. “Not a given, I know. The problem is that if something happens and you need to be extracted, there’s absolutely no way we can get a shuttle out to you. Even the Jarilan dropships with their leggy landing gear won’t be able to put down in jungle that dense.”

“That was always going to be the case,” Cal said as he eyed the dense forest on the satellite image. It was just an unbroken sea of green that extended in every direction, the LIDAR giving them a rough overlay of the topography beneath, revealing hilly and uneven terrain. “If I want to gauge how the ecosystem is doing and how it’s reacting to our presence, I need to go out far enough to see places that have had no interaction with the colony. I need to take fresh samples to compare, and I need to observe how the native life behaves in its natural state.”

“You’re sure that you don’t want to take a larger entourage?” Helen suggested. “I’m sure that the Jarilans would give you a whole squad of Drones and enough Workers to build your own research outpost if you asked.”

“Nah, the lower the impact I make, the better. I need to travel fast and light. We make too much noise or overstay our welcome, and all of the animals that I’m supposed to be studying will just vacate the area.”

“There may be backstabbers, and who knows if there’s anything else we haven’t encountered yet,” Helen warned.

“My rifle will be protection enough,” Murzka added. “He speaks truth – many of the prey here are flighty. It is better to take only what we need.”

“There’s always the possibility that some poisonous tree sap or insect bite closes up my windpipe, but I have a medkit with plenty of anaphylaxis medication,” Cal added. “I’m about as prepared as it’s possible to be without having access to a full environment suit. That kind of spoils the fun, anyway.”

“Well, I think this route is the best option,” Helen mused as she leaned over the table to trace the plotted course with a finger. “It will take you through the foothills and into the valley, so there are some significant changes in elevation and some unique habitats that should provide a lot of scientific opportunities. The river that flows down from the mountain is sure to attract a lot of fauna. If you follow this plan, we’ll have a pretty decent idea of where you are.”

“We have all of the equipment that you requested ready to go,” one of the researchers added. “You can take whatever supplies you think you’ll need from the storage fab.”

“It seems that we have our route,” Cal declared, glancing around the table. “Unless anyone has something to add, I see no reason to delay any further.”

“I like your gumption,” Poppy said, giving him an appreciative nudge. “Let’s get to it.”

When they were done gathering their supplies, there was a considerable pile sitting on the ground in the courtyard. There were medkits, enough MREs to feed Cal for the estimated duration of their trip – and a little more on top. There were sample containers, vials, specimen jars, insect nets, molecular scanners not unlike the food scanner he’d used, and more aside. There was his tent, his bivvy bag, a battery bank, and a portable stove for cooking where the self-heating rations wouldn’t suffice. He had tools like a machete and a folding shovel. Each item was compact in its own right, but when heaped together, it was hard to imagine how they’d carry it all.

Cal was accustomed to hauling his own gear, but Poppy had encouraged him to bring more, and he was starting to think that she might have eyes bigger than her stomach. Murzka seemed to be carrying everything she needed on her person, adorned with satchels and leather pouches to the extent that she appeared to be wearing survivalist-themed holiday decorations. He didn’t dare ask her to carry any of this gear, fearing that she might interpret it as an insult.

“Maybe we should lighten the load a little,” he suggested as they appraised the pile.

“I can handle it,” Poppy insisted, shrugging off her oversized backpack and lowering it to the muddy ground.

“I don’t think even that bag is large enough,” Cal began, but he trailed off as she zipped it open. She was already carrying a few things, setting aside a couple of small containers made from uneven resin – no doubt a product of the hive. As he watched, she began to pull out a series of short resin rods, ordering them by length. They bore an outward resemblance to lengths of steel pole that had been smeared in some kind of glue to give them a slightly uneven and translucent finish. Using all four arms in a way that was rather mesmerizing, she assembled the poles with practiced ease, creating a kind of tiered frame like a scaffold. Only when she began to attach a leather harness and straps did he realize what it was.

“Wait, you’re going to be carrying all of our gear in that?” he asked in disbelief.

She lifted her newly built pack and slung it over her shoulders, testing the fit of its four-way harness and belt. Its straps even had a couple of pouches sewn onto them. The frame that she had put together formed a skeletal backpack with straps and attachment points to help secure the cargo, as wide as she was and tall enough to rise a clear two feet above her head. It resembled the kind of external frame pack he might have expected to see in mountaineering, but large enough to carry a couple of hundred pounds.

“I told you that I can carry multiple times my own body weight,” she replied, snickering at his shocked expression. “It fits pretty good, so let’s start loading it up.”

One by one, they secured each bag and tool to the frame, loading up the poor Worker like a mule. It was comically large and heavy when they were finished, the rolled-up tent and bivvy bag capping it off. Cal felt a little bad about only carrying a small rucksack, but Poppy had insisted, and she was a willful little creature. It was her job, and she was going to do it.

“You won’t be needing this,” she said, unhooking his folding shovel from the frame and handing it back to him. “Trust me – I’m better at digging than you are, especially with that sad little thing.”

“Now you’re just making me feel inadequate,” he muttered. “Alright, just gotta double-check that we have all of Kevin’s stuff. We’ve got some freeze-dried meat from the storeroom – courtesy of the Araxie, I’m sure,” he added with a nod to Murzka. “I’ve got his meds, his water bowl, and his blanket.”

“He’s a pretty big dog,” Poppy said, glancing over at the hound as he lay on the ground nearby. “Can you really bring enough to feed him?”

“Razorbacks are scavengers, and they’ve evolved to go for extended periods of time without food – or even water,” Cal explained. “Kev is very healthy, and he has a large store of fat in his hump. In theory, he could go a month without eating and around ten days without drinking, but that wouldn’t make him very happy. He should get plenty of protein and calories from what we can carry with us.”

“If that’s everything, we can set off,” Poppy said.

“Lead the way, Murzka,” Cal added with a gesture to the Araxie. “I have some rather rudimentary GPS from the survey ship if we get lost.”

“I will not get lost,” she scoffed, striding ahead with her usual grace. Poppy gave him a smirk, adjusting the weight of her pack before following after the feline, the extra weight not seeming to bother her at all.

“I feel like this is going to be a long expedition, Kev,” Cal sighed.

They left the UAS base behind them, traveling West with the nearest mountains to their right. They walked overland instead of taking the hive tunnels, as most of those routes led between the Araxie settlements. It didn’t take long before they had crossed the unofficial borders of the colony, heading out into uncharted jungle, the trees and mist closing in around them. Even if they had been standing fifty feet from a convenience store, Cal would still have felt like they were totally isolated.

“It’s nice to be out in the field again,” he sighed, taking in a breath of the humid air. He could smell strange, alien fragrances from exotic plants, the scent of rain and moisture ever present. “See, this is why I don’t like environment suits. If you’re wearing a helmet, you can’t smell or taste or hear properly, and you can’t interact with the world through gloves. Sure, the climate control is nice, but you can’t understand nature by isolating yourself from it.”

“I was only joking about the liner making you soft, you know,” Poppy said as she peered back at him around her bulky pack.

“I know,” he chuckled. “I have to admit, that worry has been in the back of my mind, though. Five months is a long time to go without sharpening your skills.”

“Kevin seems happy,” she added. The dog was trotting along ahead of them, his sensitive nose to the ground, every new scent lighting up his neurons like a switchboard.

“And it seems that our guide has disappeared again,” Cal grumbled, searching the trees for any sign of Murzka.

“Have you ever heard of object permanence?” Poppy asked sarcastically. “Just because you can’t see her doesn’t mean she’s gone. Relax – this is what Araxie do.”

“I don’t have separation anxiety,” he complained, hopping over a root. “But, traditionally, a guide is supposed to guide the group. It’s in the name, you see.”

“Go wander off and see how long it takes her to come fetch you if you’re worried.”

“How long have you known Murzka, anyway?” Cal asked as they rounded a particularly large tree. “Are you two ... friends?”

“I only met her a couple of days before you arrived,” Poppy replied. “She and I were the two people chosen for the assignment by the council. I’ve hung out with Araxie before, though.”

“Would you say that she’s an average specimen?”

“In what way?” Poppy giggled. “Are you talking about the way she looks or the way she behaves? She can probably hear you, you know.”

“I meant her personality,” he insisted. “Kind of aloof. Not very ... personable or approachable. Are they all like that, or is it more of a Murzka thing? Do you think she can actually hear me?” he added, glancing up at the trees warily.

“You didn’t make the best first impression,” Poppy replied. “That’s not really your fault, though. Even if you’d known how an Araxie would react to seeing a razorback, it’s not like you could have left Kevin behind. Otherwise, she was always pretty quiet and no-nonsense.”

“Glad it’s not just me, then.”

“Listen,” Poppy continued as she navigated a little patch of ferns. “If there’s one thing you need to know about the Araxie, it’s that they respect competence. Their whole society is structured around meritocracy, where being good at your job or your role in village life earns you standing. Right now, you’re some weird little alien who’s on her turf, and you don’t know the first thing about EE-4.”

“I didn’t get this gig because my name was drawn out of a hat,” he scoffed. “I’m probably just as good at my job as she is at hers.”

“So, show her,” Poppy said.

“Forgive me if I don’t think she’s going to be all that impressed with my knowledge of botany or my skillful taking of soil samples.”

“Maybe not, but that’s not really your job, is it?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“There’s a reason that you’re out here instead of Helen,” Poppy explained. “It’s because you know how to survive in hostile environments, and that’s something Murzka will respect, because it’s her job too. Just try not to be intimidated by her.”

“I’m not intimidated.”

“You seem intimidated.”

“Well, I’m not.”

They came upon a glade where there was a break in the trees, the open sky giving a garden of flowers room to flourish, their vibrant colors picking them out against the more uniform greens that surrounded them. The petals were shades of orange and white, with large stems that jutted out from their center coated in fine, hair-like bristles. As Cal drew closer, he could see the droplets of sticky pollen that clung to them.

“Pretty flowers,” Poppy mused. “A lot of us are named after flowers, you know. Our dad was a naturalist, kind of like you. Flowers, birds, gems – he likes to name as many Jarilans as he can.”

“Flowers imply pollinators,” Cal said, pushing through the shrubs as he searched around. “Hey, can I get a sample container from the pack?”

Poppy stopped and turned so that he could access one of the bags, fishing out a jar with a screw-on lid. He plucked away one of the flowers and dropped it inside, along with one of the leaves, then returned it to the pack.

After a few moments, he found what he was looking for, spotting movement out of the corner of his eye. Something was flitting between the flowers, pausing to land on one of the petals before hopping to the next. As he drew closer, he saw that it was some kind of insect. Insect was only the broadest and most familiar term, because its body plan was like nothing he had seen anywhere else. It had three spindly, jointed legs situated at the very bottom of a vertical stalk that made up its main body. At the top of the stalk was a trio of gossamer wings, keeping to that strange trilateral symmetry seen in the larger species. It reminded him of a bacteriophage, but large enough to comfortably fit in the palm of his hand. The creature’s head was positioned at the very bottom of its body where its legs met, a trio of compound eyes peering out as a butterfly-like proboscis snaked forth to sample the nectar.

“Fascinating,” he marveled, captivated by its strange method of flying. It pumped those three wings in tandem, almost seeming to swim through the humid air. “It’s an insect – or some kind of crustacean. See those fine hairs on its legs? They’re picking up pollen like a bee or a butterfly, and they’re spreading it between the flowers.”

“Should we try to catch one?” Poppy asked.

“No, I’ve seen these cataloged in the UAS servers,” he replied. “I forget the scientific name, but they were referred to colloquially as flitterflies.”

“I think I’ve seen a few of them near the colony,” Poppy added.

“I wonder how common these little flower glades are,” Cal wondered aloud, kneeling to examine one of the plants more closely. “See, this is my job right here. It’s possible that these flowers only exist in very specific conditions or isolated habitats, and that the flitterflies are their only pollinators. What do you imagine might happen if the colony did something to impact the flitterfly population, such as introducing pesticides to protect crops?”

“No flitterflies, no flowers?”

“Right,” Cal said with a nod. “An ecosystem is a big house of cards, and the more complex it is, the more fragile it becomes. There are so many interdependencies that if you reduce the population of a single insect species, it could trigger a system-wide collapse. The flowers that they pollinate, the pests that they control, the predators that eat them – it all falls out of balance. Rainforests are among the most complex and thus the most fragile ecosystems.”

“Surely you can’t plot out how all of those interactions work, though?” Poppy asked, watching as Kevin stuck his head into a nearby bush.

“Ecosystems are self-regulating, so one of the best ways to keep them intact is just to minimize your impact on them.”

“So, leave them the hell alone?”

“Basically,” he chuckled. “We find ways to live alongside nature without disturbing the balance too much. I’m the guy who figures out if that new spaceport is cutting across the flight path of migratory birds, or whether that new dam is going to isolate a population of endangered fish from their spawning grounds.”

“It’s hard to imagine the colony growing to the point it has that kind of impact,” Poppy said. “I suppose that in a couple of hundred years, it could look very different.”

Kevin lifted his head from the bushes, his ears pricked up, glancing at something high in the trees. Cal followed his gaze to find Murzka perched on a branch behind him, her cloak camouflaging her against the canopy, the glint of her goggles visible beneath the shadow of her hood.

“I have found a suitable place to make camp,” she declared. “Follow.”

She began to leap from branch to branch, slinking away into the forest.

“Didn’t take me by surprise this time,” Cal muttered, giving Kevin an appreciative pat.

Murzka led them to the riverside, Cal hearing the sound of rushing water long before he saw it through the trees. They emerged from the jungle and onto its rocky banks, where the plants hadn’t enough soil to take root. They were still in the foothills, and the river was flowing downhill, splashing over table-like steps of algae-covered limestone to create small waterfalls.