Chapter 5: Lena the Intrepid

Lena knelt and placed the weather balloon on the surface of the mud. It was a blocky device about the size of a lunchbox, serial numbers and logos decorating its white casing. She pressed an activation switch on the top and watched it unfold, taking a step back as it whirred to life, its protective shell opening up and expanding into an octagonal dish to reveal the probe within. It was as much a drone as a weather balloon, with four little rotors that were currently folded up in order to keep them safe. The body of the drone contained all of the sensory equipment that would need take atmospheric and meteorological readings. Once she turned it on, a latex balloon would fill with helium, sending it high into the planet’s atmosphere where it would float until it had collected all of the data that it needed. When its task was complete, it would disconnect from the balloon and fall back to the ground, using its limited supply of electricity to power its rotors and navigate back to this landing pad.

Because there were no satellites in orbit above Krell that were under human control, and because there were no receiving stations on the ground, the little drone would have to physically return with its payload. A tether would have been another possible option, but nobody knew what the winds in the upper atmosphere were like on this planet, and there was a good chance that the cable would snap and that the balloon would be lost before it transmitted any useful information back down to the ground. While the air would be too thin for its rotors to function at the altitude that such weather balloons operated, the little drone could simply fall until it encountered more favorable conditions.

She would have to return to the octagonal landing pad once a day to make sure that it was clean, the drone wouldn’t be able to find its way back if it got covered in mud.

Sleethe watched curiously as the white balloon inflated, the probe slowly rising into the air until it vanished from view inside the sickly, green haze that blanketed the planet. If all went according to plan, in three or four days she would return to find the drone sitting upon the landing pad, ready to give up all of the readings that it had taken during its visit to the stratosphere.

Lena looked back over her shoulder at the Krell village, perhaps two hundred meters behind them, the mist billowing between the many trees and stilts that acted as its supports and obscuring the mountain of huts and shacks that rested atop them. Sleethe was acting as her pack mule again today, hefting a rucksack full of supplies and equipment with ease that would have been impossible for Lena to carry through this bog. Once again she was clad in her white hazmat suit, her yellow boots sinking up to the ankles in the wet mud, and she was wearing her wide-brimmed had to protect her from the sun and rain.

The system’s twin suns were on the rise, it was early in the morning and Lena was ready to get her science on after having spent the previous night in the temple with Sleethe. While the stars were dimmer and redder than Sol, they still kicked out a lot of UV radiation, so she needed to be careful about protecting her skin. She had a fair complexion and she had always burned easily. Unfortunately sunscreen was not a viable option in this muggy environment, the sweat and moisture would just wash it away, so she had to rely on her hat.

The humidity was still a nightmare, and the entire planet stank of rotting vegetation, but she would get used to it in time.

“Ok Sleethe, you ready to do some exploring?”

He huffed affirmatively, and they set off along the muddy shore of the lake.

They struggled through the twisted roots of the mangrove trees, their pale trunks curving and winding as they reached towards the sky. This patch of swampland was even denser than the one that they had traversed on their journey towards the Krell village, weeds and all manner of smaller plants growing thick and strong wherever they could take purchase. Lena spoke into her wrist computer as she went, taking notes of everything that she saw for the benefit of the biologists and botanists back at the UAS.

“The mud seems firmer near the trees, perhaps the roots act to prevent erosion of the soil. I’m noticing that other plants seem to cluster around the roots, and anything that can either grow up or cling to the trees in some way appears to be doing so. The forest floor is coated in dead leaves and decaying plant matter, it’s pretty much all compost, very nutrient-rich.”

She paused by a creeper that was coiling its way around one of the exposed roots, waving Sleethe over. He was perfectly at home in this environment, not sinking even an inch into the mud on his splayed toes despite his weight. He held the pack out to her and she rummaged through its contents, retrieving a pair of forceps and a stasis chamber.

These devices were an example of the scant technology that the Brokers seemed willing to share, transparent containers about the size of a small jam jar that were equipped with a stasis field. The machinery was no larger than the lid of one such jar, situated beneath the container, and it could somehow bend space within the enclosure in order slow the passage of time. It meant that perishable items could be transported over great distances, or in this case, that specimens could be kept as fresh as the day that they were collected during their transit back to human space. These containers were rare and expensive, it had been quite a feat for the UAS to collect even a dozen of them for use during her expedition. They must have called in all of their favors and expended a great deal of resources.

Lena searched around for a moment, trying to identify the largest of the purple flowers that were blooming along the length of the creeper, and then plucked one of the plants from its stem with the forceps. She placed it carefully within the container, sealing the lid, and then watched as a colored light on the base turned from blue to orange. The Brokers seemed to use those colors instead of red and green, perhaps seeing in slightly different wavelengths to humans. It took some getting used to.

There was no visual indication that the stasis field had activated besides that, but time inside the container had now slowed to a fraction of what it should be.

It would probably be fine to place several plant specimens in the same jar, and so she could make the most out of each one.

She placed the container carefully back inside her bag, and then tapped at the touch screen on her arm, now mounted outside of her suit for ease of access. The gloves were stowed in her pockets, she couldn’t interact with the monitor through them, and constantly taking them on and off was becoming a chore. She took a few photographs of where she had found the plant, and then switched on her translation software.

“What do your people call this plant, Sleethe?”

“Purple flower,” he replied.

“Ok ... helpful.”

They moved on, Lena now knee deep in the muck. She struggled through the rough terrain as tangled nets of smaller roots from the weeds and shrubs made the going even tougher. She stopped here and there to take more samples of interesting plants, doing her best to catalog where she had found them, and what kind of conditions they were growing in. There was also moss and fungi clinging to every available surface, this muggy environment was a haven for them.

Lena was no botanist, and so much of her specimen collecting was simple guesswork. If something looked unusual or different, then she’d pick it up and put it in a container. There were sure to be all kinds of critters hidden away in these forests too, and she wasn’t especially looking forward to the task of catching bugs.

She climbed over a large root, landing in a patch of tall, green weeds that seemed to be growing around a pile of decaying logs. Perhaps there might be mushrooms growing on them, or maybe there were some bugs or other creatures living in the wood. She waded through the undergrowth and then crouched, extending a hand towards the wet bark.

Suddenly she was in the air, her yellow boots dangling two feet off the mud as Sleethe plucked her off the ground, holding her by the collar of her suit like he was scruffing a cat. He emitted a sound that she had never heard him make before, half way between a hiss and a growl, like an angry alligator. With his free arm he reached down and gave the log a thump, and to her shock it began to move.

What had looked to her like a felled tree was actually some kind of reptile. It almost looked like a leatherback turtle, but as long as a man was tall and shaped more like a salamander, its stubby legs emerging from the mud as it grumbled at Sleethe and pulled itself along. It had been perfectly camouflaged, its tough hide textured like bark and covered in green markings that resembled moss, its tube-like body writhing along the ground like an eel as it made its slow escape. She could make out its head now, extending from its body on a long neck like a snapping turtle, its sharp beak open wide as it peered back at them with a pair of beady eyes.

Sleethe set Lena down gently once it was out of range, and she readjusted her suit as she watched the creature slither away, cursing herself when she remembered that she was supposed to be documenting this kind of thing. She looked up at Sleethe, his calm and stoicism staying the rapid beating of her heart.

“What was that?”

“Biting log,” he replied. The naming conventions of the Krell were deflating in their simplicity.

“Was it dangerous?”

“If you don’t see it.”

“Tell me if you spot another, I want to get a picture of it.”

She gave him an affectionate pat on his scaly thigh and began to move forward again, this time paying closer attention to where she was going. She tried to stay closer to Sleethe too, this was his home, he knew this environment better than she ever would. There was plenty to explore and discover within these mangrove forests, but there must be other biomes too. Was the whole planet made up of swamps and marshes, or just the places where the Krell chose to live?

Her hazmat suit was starting to feel more and more like a mistake the longer she spent inside it. While it did a fine job of protecting her from the mud, it was inflexible and hard to move around in, the plastic material only compounding her suffering in the heat and humidity. After wearing it for just a few minutes and exerting herself, the suit would begin to fill with sweat, sloshing around in her boots and soaking into her socks. It was disgusting and uncomfortable.

It was only a level C suit, levels B and A providing far more protection with their powered respirators and radiation shielded lining. While the suit that she was using did come with a hood, she had elected to leave it off. The last thing she needed was to seal herself up, her deodorant stick wasn’t really cutting it out here.

“You know, I envy you Sleethe,” she grumbled as she struggled over a mass of roots. “You always smell good no matter what environment you’re in.”

After walking for some time, the terrain started to change. Lena’s boots began to sink deeper into the mud, and she noticed that there was a film of water over the ground, her deep footprints filling with dirty liquid a brief moment after she made them. Before long she realized that they were on the bank of a river, or what looked like the marshland that usually surrounded a river delta. This one must be feeding either from or into the large lake beside the village.

Lena’s theory about the mangrove trees had been proven correct. Their tangled roots were shoring the soil beneath them, preventing the silt and mud from being carried away by the river. It wasn’t very fast moving, and the surface was covered in a thick layer of weeds and debris. She felt a pang of fear as she looked out over the drifting pieces of wood and broken branches, remembering her run-in with the ‘biting log’. She couldn’t see beneath the surface of the water, she had no idea how deep it was or what swamp beasts might be lurking in its depths, just waiting for a careless explorer to step into their reach.

She could see more trees on the far side despite the layer of fog that hung over everything. The river wasn’t specially wide but she had no idea how deep it was, and so wading across it wasn’t a very good idea. Instead she decided to explore the shore, feeling along with her feet for weeds and obstructions as she struggled through the water. Sleethe followed nearby, crashing through the terrain like a monster, the vines and roots doing little to impede such a strong and heavy creature.

Movement caught her eye, and she paused to watch an insect skip along the surface of the water a short distance away. It looked like a large spider with far too many legs, the span of its spindly limbs about that of a man’s hand. Its weight was spread across the surface of the river like a pond skimmer. Much like the water striders and sea skippers of Earth, it must be using the surface tension of the water and perhaps a hydrophobic coating to prevent itself from sinking.

She considered catching it, but large insects gave her the willies and so she elected to take a few photos of it instead. Perhaps she could employ Sleethe to do the bug catching for her, he seemed perfectly at home in this environment, protected by his leathery skin and thick scales. There was no chance that some creepy crawlie might find its way inside his clothing.

Lena shuddered at the thought. Fortunately she hadn’t seen any Krell equivalents of mosquitoes, or she would have been off the planet faster than you could say ‘I don’t want to catch space malaria’.

The water was actually quite pleasant, it was colder than the humid air and it was helping to cool her down a little as she waded through it. She longed to tear off her suit and take a bath, to wash off the sweat that was caking her body, but the fear of slimy eels and other unseen horrors nipped that impulse in the bud rather quickly.

There had been a shower of sorts in the village that she had used to wash herself off after her ... night of passion with Sleethe. More of a specific point on the roof of the temple where water seemed to condense in large enough quantities that there was continuous drip off the side of the building, than something that was designed for the purpose. Everything on this planet was wet, all the time, and even when it wasn’t actively raining there was usually moisture dripping from every overhang and pooling in every available recess.

Still, inundating her whole body in water would be a dream right now, maybe she would ask Sleethe to take her down to the shore of the lake when they got back to the village. That area was surely safe and devoid of lurking critters. In fact she should probably make a habit of bathing in the lake once or twice a day during her stay.

Her wandering thoughts were snapped back to reality by the sensation of something slippery brushing against her leg, and she froze up, a shiver running down her spine as something shifted in the water around her feet.

“Ew! Ew! Sleethe!”

Her reptilian bodyguard was by her side in the space of a second, plunging his muscular arms beneath the water. He struggled with something for a moment, and then pulled back, withdrawing what looked like a black tube from the murky river. It was a fat eel, perhaps three feet long, its winding body coated in a layer of reflective slime as it thrashed about in his scaly hands. Lena recoiled in horror, the idea that something like that had been hiding in the mud at the bottom of the river filling her with revulsion. He held it out towards her, and she stumbled backwards, recoiling from it.

“Keep it away! Oh God, what is it?”

“Harmless,” he replied, her translator picking up his resonating speech. “Eats only fallen leaves.”

A herbivore then? It wouldn’t hurt her after all. She felt a little foolish for reacting the way that she had. It was still a repulsive specimen, staring at her with a pair of beady and expressionless eyes, its mucous-covered body flexing like a length of rubber hose as it battled to free itself. Lena reluctantly held up her wrist computer and took a few snapshots of it with the camera, along with a short video, documenting the grotesque creature before Sleethe lowered his hands into the water and released it.

Her pride slightly wounded, she carried on her way, pausing to take samples of floating water plants here and there. There were beautiful lilies atop the surface of the lake, anchored to the riverbed by a thick stalk, a pale blue flower blooming between its fleshy leaves. While Lena was tempted to ask her companion what his people called them, she had a sneaking suspicion that it would be something along the lines of ‘blue flower’, and so she collected some specimens without comment.

“You like flower?” Sleethe asked as he handed her one of the stasis containers, watching as she carefully plucked one of the blooming plants with her forceps and placed it inside.

“I don’t think there’s anyone alive who doesn’t like flowers,” she chuckled, “but these are just specimens to take back home with us.”

He cocked his head at her, and she realized that her sentence had been too complex for the translator to interpret accurately.

“Yes,” she reiterated, “I’m taking them home.”

That seemed to satisfy him, and she wondered where the sudden spark of interest had come from. Perhaps he would keep a lookout for native plants and point them out to her if she missed them?

Once the container was sealed and placed safely back in Sleethe’s rucksack, they continued their search for alien wildlife. She was growing more confident the longer they trekked. As much as the humidity was getting to her, not to mention the smell, she was starting to get the hang of feeling her way along with her feet. The cool water was soothing too, making for a welcome reprieve, even if it was only felt through the lining of her suit. She was still baking inside the garment, stewing in her own juices, but even such minor relief was a stark contrast compared to the usually inescapable heat.

“Is this why you guys like water so much?” She grumbled, pushing her way through an especially thick patch of water weeds. “To cool yourselves down?”

Probably not, they were cold-blooded after all, but perhaps even the lethargic reptiles could get too hot in this muggy hellscape.

The suns were out in force, it was nearing midday now and she had been exploring all morning. It was odd that they were so red and dim compared to Sol, like two red rubies in the sky, their glow barely visible through the cloud layer. Yet she could feel their heat on her face when she lifted the wide brim of her hat, the UV radiation that they gave off penetrating the mist and seeking to redden her cheeks. The quality of the light told her that it was late afternoon, and yet the heat was that of a summer’s day. It might have been a good planet to get a tan on, if it didn’t also resemble the fevered dreams of a Cajun who was blacked out on his own moonshine. Banjos and airboats wouldn’t have been out of place here.

A sudden ripple on the surface of the river drew her attention, and she spied something splashing into the water from the nearby bank. It looked like it was making its way towards her, and she tensed up as she saw its wake drawing closer, confirming her fears. It hadn’t sounded very large, what could it have been? Another eel?

She resisted the urge to call to Sleethe for assistance. This was her job. If naturalists on nature shows could handle horrible snakes and wrestle with giant catfish, then so could she.

The disturbance slowed as the unseen creature dove beneath the surface, the wake that it had left slowly dissipating. Lena squeezed her eyes shut as she felt something moving between her legs, it must be investigating her. Was it dangerous? Sleethe had not leapt to her defense, and so it didn’t seem likely.

Come on Lena, she thought to herself, you’re going to have to get over this fear if you want to be taken seriously. You’re not in Munich anymore, you’re not on the Pinwheel, you’re doing real field work and everyone back home is counting on you. Sleethe can do it, Sousa could do it, even that asshole Dubois could do it. If they can, then why not you?