Chapter 4

The ogres had all scurried back into their ship without making any effort to recover the bodies of those we had shot. Of course, that attitude was foreign to us, but we had no data to base an opinion on the ogre mores and ethics. They had abandoned their firing pits so quickly that we thought they might have left something behind.

A thorough examination of their firing pits produced nothing of value, so all we really had to show for our efforts were the photos of the aliens. We went back to our base, but we did detour long enough to knock off four of the "gulls" to see how they tasted. We were going to have to do that eventually, so why not now?

Everything in the galley was automatic, but it seemed appropriate to appoint Bixby as the cook. She gave me a dirty look, but did not argue, so I chose to ignore the look. She dropped the four gulls into the preprocessor and flipped the switch to start the process. The system was set to a normal time for eating, so the birds were processed in time for lunch.

We were each served a complete bird along with a serving of local vegetables. To my surprise, the meat had a very good flavor, and I ate every vestige of meat on my serving. I also ate the vegetables, and I felt fully satisfied. I don't know why, but I did eat a larger quantity of food than was normal for me. The serving size seemed appropriate, but I did plan to keep a close watch on my weight. I sure as hell did not want to get fat.

I had sent the photos to Earth via the FTL radio and I was surprised to receive a return message so quickly. Well, hell, I was surprised to receive anything on the subject. The substance of the message was that these aliens were typical of those causing trouble on several planets, but we were the only ones to have one of their ships pegged to the ground. Therefore, our orders were to ensure that the aliens did not take off in their ship. As soon as practical, a detail of experts would be sent to learn what they could about the alien ship. Unfortunately, that now appeared to be at least a month away.

Okay, we had our work cut out for us, but I didn't think that we would have much problem keeping the aliens from fixing the problems with their ship. At least, that was my opinion based on what we had been able to do so far. However, to be sure that we were not going to be caught short, I decided to promote Sue to corporal and assign Potter to work with her. I took on Bixby, and I hoped that she did not get me killed!

That afternoon, all four of us went back to the alien ship to see if they had returned to working on fixing whatever was wrong with it. Sure enough, they were out, hard at work, and with guards placed around their work perimeter. We fired a few rounds at the workers, and precipitated an explosion of fire in our direction.

The return fire was not at all effective, and it seemed as if we were not in any great danger. Now, that really did not make sense! It almost appeared that the aliens shooting at us had little or no previous experience using their weapons. On the other hand, our fire was as effective as it had always been, so the aliens ran for the interior of their ship as soon as they thought they could get away with it.

We shot our supper on our way back to our ship, and Bixby fixed our next meal. This was some sort of beast that looked a lot like a 3-foot-long lizard. This, too, had a pleasant taste, but I really preferred the gull. Porter had reprogrammed the base's AI to check whatever we dropped into the preprocessor pot to make sure that eating it would cause us no harm.

After supper, I discussed with Sue about her forming a combat pair with Potter to keep a watch on the aliens. I would team with Bixby for the same job. Sue and Potter would take the morning shift and Bixby and I would take on the afternoon shift. That way, we could keep even more pressure on the aliens so that they could not do much to repair their spaceship. I made sure that Sue understood that I had no intention of changing the sleeping arrangements, and she was in favor of that.

The next morning right after breakfast, Sue and Potter left for their shift of pestering the aliens. I put Bixby to cleaning up the base while I took care of some necessary paperwork.

The aliens were already at work by the time Sue and Potter got to the alien ship. The aliens had a defensive perimeter set up which was essentially a copy of what they had used on the previous day. Sue decided not to just harass the aliens, but to try to kill as many of them as they could. They had plenty of ammunition with them, so they set their combat shotguns for fully automatic fire in preparation for their attack.

Sue ordered Potter to fire at the workers near the actual work site while she concentrated on another group near the ramp leading into the spaceship. Each shotgun was equipped with an ammunition drum holding 30 rounds. Her intention was to use all of that ammunition on the workers. They would then switch to fresh drums and go after the guards.

They were not spotted by the guards until after they started shooting, and the return fire was as ineffective as it had been the day before. Potter fired first and swept his stream of fire across the workers who were reasonably close. As soon as he started shooting, Sue fired at the other group. Each one of them managed to cut down a good 50% of the group they were shooting at. Potter's group tried to escape from being hit by dropping to the ground and Sue's group ran up the ramp to try to escape.

Sue and Potter switched to full magazines and began firing at the alien guards. They were not quite as successful with these aliens as they had been with their first firing, but that might well be because of the element of surprise with their first shots.

This time, more alien troops came running down the ramp from the spaceship, and Sue and Potter were forced to run back into the jungle. They simply were not able to cope with the number of aliens rushing at them. Discretion appeared to be called for at this point, so they faded from sight. The aliens stopped chasing them as soon as they were out of sight, so the two humans started to shoot at the aliens with single shots as the opportunity arose. They managed to kill five more aliens before the aliens all withdrew back into the ship.

Sue and Potter stayed at the alien ship until Bixby and I showed up. Sue gave me a rundown of what had happened that morning, and they went back to the base to eat lunch and do whatever struck them as a counter to boredom. Meanwhile, Bixby and I took up stations at the alien ship and waited for some of the ogres to stick a nose out where we could shoot at them.

Man, did we have a boring afternoon! Not one alien showed up, and all Bixby and I did was sit around on our asses hoping for some action. Still, nothing had happened before it was time for us to leave. We did pick up some more gulls for food on our way back, but that was all of the shooting we did on our whole turn of duty. Well, we had accomplished what we had been ordered to do, so there was no complaint about that, but we were not looking forward to just sitting around for four to six weeks.

Sue and Potter went out the next morning and drew the same kind of blank that Bixby and I had. However, there was one item of interest. Potter noticed that there were now strings of lights hung from various supports. Did this mean that the ogres were now working at night when we were not bothering them? Shit, if that were the case, we were going to have to change our routine. Bixby and I stood our watch, and no ogres showed themselves as was kind of expected.

As a check, Bixby and I went back after dark to check on the alien ship, and, sure enough, there were lights on and they were madly working away at repairing the ship. Bixby and I found convenient firing positions and turned loose on the ogres. They were caught flatfooted by our fire, and we managed to knock off a significant number of the workers. The rest scurried for the ramp to reenter the spaceship, and we soon ran out of targets.