Chapter 7

Our main problem in hunting a Tiglon, unless it was to be an ambush, was to get it to ignore the Zebras and to come after us. Dammit, no matter what we did, the Tiglons simply ignored us, instead. We even tried shooting the Zebra and dragging it away from the Tiglon. Surely the Tiglon would react from its food being hijacked.

Nothing! The Tiglons just continued to ignore us. It was as if they took the philosophical attitude that “we’ll catch a Zebra tomorrow.” This was absolutely frustrating! Okay, the only thing that we could think of was to kill a Tiglon where a bunch of other Tiglons could see us do it. Maybe then they would attack us.

Okay, I figured that this was my job. It was too chancy to stick a neophyte with the job. I made sure that the replicator was going to supply hog-loads as my resupply of ammunition. I set the fire selector to semi-automatic and walked toward where five Tiglons were resting after taking their turns at chasing the Zebra. I stopped at about 50 yards and took aim at the largest male Tiglon.

I fired one shot and waited to see what would happen. Six drones were devoting their attention to me so that we would have a full and complete record of the experiment. The male Tiglon dropped instantly in death, and the rest of the group looked at me, but they did not move. What the hell was I going to do?

By now, I was really pissed off. In disgust, I picked up a rock and hurled it at a female who was looking at me. The rock hit her on the snout, and that immediately got her attention. She jumped to her feet and ran at me with the rest of the pride at her heels. Oops, now I had more action than I wanted.

I dropped to a kneeling position, why I am not sure, but when I did, the Tiglons seemed to pick up more speed. Able was following me, and she began to shoot at the lead Tiglon. That was the one I had hit on the nose with the stone, but it now made no difference to the rest of the Tiglons. They continued their charge.

I began firing, still on semi-automatic and dropped two more of the Tiglons. Able took care of the rest of them, and I had to believe that I had my first substitute hunter.

Now we had to figure out why the thrown rock did the trick when nothing else would. After a long discussion, we came to the conclusion that the Tiglons had no idea what a gun could do, so they ignored it, but they somehow were aware of what a thrown rock could do, and that was something that they could not ignore.

By this time, the light was becoming too dim for good photography, so we shut down for the day. Tomorrow, I would take Baker as my partner, and we would start off with thrown rocks to see if that really was what had aroused today’s Tiglons.

We did take the time to look through the film that we had to see if it could be used in the program. We certainly had enough of it, but it was just not very exciting, except for that last charge by the Tiglons. In any case, we had enough footage of the Tiglon’s hunting techniques that we did not need any more of that.

We went to bed in hopes of being able to get some more exciting footage tomorrow. The Tiglons looked a good story, but they sure were a disappointment when it came to action. All we needed was for this to become a bust like the Scorpion episode.

The next day, Baker and I went out. Of course, she had seen what had happened yesterday, and she was so nervous that even I could see it. “Baker, do you want to call off this trip? It could be death for both of us if your nervousness gets in the way of your shooting.”

“Oh, no, Emil. I will be alright. It’s just a case of stage fright, and it should go away once we hit the ground.”

“I don’t know if I want to take a chance on that, Baker. I think that we need some insurance. Able, I want you to go with us to act as backup. You are not to shoot unless one of us is about to be hit by a Tiglon, but you are to shoot to kill the Tiglon if that happens. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I do, Emil. Don’t worry, I won’t let you down. My biggest worry is that I will be too eager to shoot, but I am sure that I can control myself. I promise that you will be proud of me when this is over.”

“Okay, Able. I am already proud of you, or I would not have invited you along today. Just follow orders, and we will all be okay. Remember that this is Baker’s day to be tested, and you are along just for safety’s sake. Okay, Ladies, let’s go.”

This time, we were set down close to some Tiglons resting after chasing a Zebra. I didn’t fool around, but picked up a rock and aimed a throw at the nearest Tiglon, who happened to be a male. I bounced the rock off his head, but that was still enough to get his attention. He jumped to his feet and charged us at a very respectable speed. The other Tiglons followed close behind.

Baker was ready and opened fire as soon as the Tiglons were obviously running at us. Frankly, I had no idea how fast those animals could run. I had thrown the rock about 45 yards, my practical limit, and the Tiglons were already too damned close for comfort. I added my fire to that of Baker, and we were still not moving fast enough. Able had to start shooting, too, just to keep us from being overrun. The shotguns seemed to make absolutely no impression on the Tiglons. Fortunately, the hog-loads made all of the impression that we needed.

Wow, that little adventure was enough for me today, and I was pretty sure that the women felt the same way. We returned to the spaceship, and I told the women that I was taking all three with me tomorrow. That was just too close today to getting one of us seriously hurt. Tomorrow, we were going out with more insurance.

By the way, I did apologize to Baker for doubting her today. She grinned and said, “Dammit, Emil, had I known what today was going to be like, I would have been even more nervous.”

Before we went down this time, I asked the replicator for a device that I could use to throw a rock a hundred yards. I wanted a little more operating room this time. That business of 45 yards was just plain ridiculously short when it came to my life that I was playing with.

The replicator came up with a device that was much like a crossbow for one hand. It included four pieces of lead shot to use as ammunition. Each shot weighed about three ounces, and that was heavier than the rocks that I had previously thrown by hand. I didn’t know if that was going to get the Tiglon’s attention or kill it from a cracked skull. Well, here we go again. There was only one way to find out.

The transporter put us down about 200 yards from another group of Tiglons, and we walked toward them. I fired my first missile from about 100 yards range, but I was off my mark a bit. I hit a female Tiglon in the side, not in the head, and I think I heard a rib crack. She didn’t jump to her feet, but she certainly stood up and headed toward us.

The other Tiglons joined her in a run toward us, and they soon outran the Tiglon that I had hit. Nevertheless, she kept running toward us as best that she could. Charlie started shooting at 75 yards, and the other two women cut in at about 60 yards. I dropped my crossbow to the ground and started shooting. We were all using hog-loads, and they did an excellent job against the charging Tiglons. For what it is worth, Charlie was the one who shot the originally wounded female Tiglon. Okay, all three of the women proved that they could stand up to the job of hunter. Now, all they needed was practice.

We returned home and began work on making a program episode from this footage. We had plenty, that was not the problem. The problem was how to use it to our best advantage. We spliced it together in chronological order and ran through it.