Chapter 11: The Apple and The Serpent

Wake up, Fengge...

“Ah!” Fengge lifted his head. His senses were trying to reestablish everything that had happened. He looked at the scenery. It was still dark, but a hint of light was coming from the horizon. Dawn was starting to approach. Perhaps one of the binary stars would poke free from the planet’s rotation in another hour.

He noticed that he was still on top of Tonja and was quite naked. He could feel her breathing. Her breast had been the perfect pillow, and he likely could have gotten more sleep if he wanted to.

He was thankful. Tonja was a heavy sleeper. Even in his stir, her eyes were still closed. How much time had passed?

From Fengge’s guess, at least a few more hours had passed. Despite the night being pleasant, something in his mind was telling him that danger was slowly coming. It wasn’t that of angry locals, but something else.

His eyes looked down upon Tonja’s body. There were still hints of injury in her fight with Tochasa. It even reminded Fengge of his own near-death experience. However, by now, most of his pain and injuries were gone.

The sense of urgency remained. How long would it be before the Vice Admiral would call in on his report? What about the population? What about the status of everything? The planet was paradise, but the fact was that danger was looming around.

He looked back at Tonja and could note her body more and more. He could see her stomach and hear it growl a little bit. She was hungry, and it further dawned on the paleontologist that important questions remained unanswered. Finally, he had to do something about it.

He could hear the distant wildlife. The forest was still active. He carefully moved and slipped off of Tonja. He was expecting her to be woken up, but amazingly, it didn’t seem to happen. He turned and saw her shift a little bit to the right. Not a single eyelid opened.

Fengge remained quiet. Standing next to her, he activated his augmented arm and walked to his little camera. The light continued to flow from its lens, but the need for any of it would soon end. The paleontologist pulled up his main menu and interacted with the camera.

“Hmmm ... let’s see...,” he quietly said to himself. He tapped a few buttons on the 3d projected screen. “Go through recordings ... past recordings...”

He looked at the lengthy video recordings, skipping past important and non-important events. Obviously, it wasn’t on the entire time, but little details would catch his eye as he listened and observed. This would rush through the little festival that happened the night before. Among some of the things seen were the Alara’jal children and the fight that broke out near the edge of the food hall.

At first, the events didn’t particularly matter to Fengge. However, as he reconsidered it, the scenes started to become more and more concerning. The fact was that there were orphans. Why would an indomitable race, such as the Alara’jal, actually have orphans, to begin with? It seemed out of place. To lose both the mother and father at once would be marginally slim in a relatively good environment. However, as he looked over at Tonja, he remembered the fact that her father had passed away not that long ago.

Each random event the day before provided a clue. The Goagoa hunt gave one. The hunters were growing more concerned about actually encountering one at all. It might have been possible that the hunt would have proved fruitless. Had this been a common occurrence? From Tonja’s point of view, it seemed that was the case.

The other clue resided in the village farm. There was a great effort to ensure that the yields generated could feed the population. The plants were healthy and stable. However, as Fengge considered it more and more, it dawned on him to look at what he specialized in the most, the ground. As a digger, his knowledge of the dirt was expertise that not many humans had. He had to keep looking. He switched the recording to the village mine.

“Hmmm...,” he quietly thought. “Not much about the soil ... but ... I can at least compare...”

As expected, the recordings were mostly dark since it was a cave. However, he noted the layer densities. The colorization would alter as they got lower and lower. Eventually, something else caught his eye. These were the bones encountered of the various wildlife. The cave preserved some of these fossils. Then he looked at the soil colorization. He frowned as it started to dawn on him slowly. Plant roots would seep to different levels seeking the moisture needed to survive.

“Let’s ... look at the farm soil again...,” he commented. He switched the recording to the farm. He then took and compared both recordings together. Both soil colorizations were different. One had a slightly more orange color than the fertile brown.

“The scientist ... was ... she wasn’t angry about me being there ... she was concerned about her work. Almost ignored me the entire time ... like I wasn’t there. That wasn’t her personality ... she was scared about everything else.”

Something caught Fengge’s eye. It caused him to halt the recording. The moment he turned around in that building, the camera caught something. It was almost blurry, but enough to register a large clear plastic box. In it was a soil sample with one of the growing fruits. The fruit seemed to be dead and rotting. A simple vertical label was on it, but barely readable. From what Fengge could translate, one of the words was “Dead.”

He noted the color of the soil. It had a familiar orange color to it. For some reason, it almost reminded him of Earth’s orange muck crisis. It was the same color of death, unsettling and ever-constant.

There was another stirring from Tonja. Her head shifted toward his direction, but she still remained asleep. Fengge pressed his hand to his head as he continued to concentrate. He ran a soil colorization comparison of the cave levels and the dead fruit plants. He then noted the living fruit plants that grew in similar-colored soil in the mine. Snapshots of the hunt soil and dirt road were even compared.

He finally put the pieces together. “The Alara’jal ... they are starving ... but ... in this environment?”

“Mate...,” Tonja whispered in her deep voice. She finally stirred awake. Her two eyes lightly opened and peered at him from the ground.

“How are you?” he asked her.

“Happy,” she replied with a smile.

Fengge smiled, but he kept things serious. “Tonja ... I need to talk to you about your village. I think there is something that is happening with your food supply.”

She took a deep breath. “It is true...,” she hesitantly replied. Finally, she appeared to have enough trust in Fengge to finally confess the truth.

“Were you telling me the truth earlier?” he asked her.

“What?”

“About the health of your village?”

She remained quiet. Fengge remembered what she had told him yesterday. He had to press forward on this question, but he tried to be peaceful and non-accusatory.

“The fight ... the orphans ... how you’re shaped,” he asked. “It’s a sign of famines. Is that how your father died?”

“Yes...”

“What happened? You seem to be growing plenty of food. The Goagoa still provide protein to help.”

Her nostrils flared as she leaned up on her side and rested on her shoulder. “It ... happens sometimes ... cycles apart. The plants provide little ... the Goagoa appear less and less.”

“Any pattern to what is causing this?”

“I do not know.”

“I noticed the soil samples and dead plants. Yet, I saw the same plants growing healthy in the cave. Yet, your scientists couldn’t figure it out.”

“Yes...,” she lowered her head a little bit. “We do not know why.”

“Those orphans ... their parents starved to death ... your father ... Tonja, this is a major crisis. You don’t know what is causing it and your best people are clueless about this.”

“I do not know what to do.”

There was sadness on her face. Fengge hated having to bring the truth upfront, especially after a pleasant night. However, this was the source of that trepidation. He had to press forward on this.

“I’m sorry I’m bringing this up,” he commented. “I know it’s bringing painful memories, but I care for your people. Have you ever considered relocating to other regions on this planet?”

“Yes,” she answered. “We study Goagoa migration. It is strongest here.”

“What about farm raising them? Have you considered that?”

“We try. Goagoa does not reproduce in small areas.”

“What about moving to the coastline? Any seafood?”

“We try fifty cycles ago. Too little seafood.”

Fengge sighed. “For a world like this ... it is almost devoid of animal or insect wildlife. It may explain why the trees grow with no hindrance to them. Barely anything to eat it. I’ve never seen anything like this. Your people moved to a world with almost no food available.”

“We ... were desperate.”

“I know you are. Your people have been doing their best, but you’re limited in technology. Even with expertise in bioengineering, if you can’t get food, you die. With the Alara’jal, you need more food than any of us. Tonja ... you may need to consider relocating your people ... really consider it.”

She frowned. “I ... do not know.”

“It’s not like this on other worlds. Even on Earth, it may be a mostly dead world, but food can be shipped to you. The T’rintar have been feeding themselves rather well. I’m sure they can handle a thousand Alara’jal with ease. If not, we can find other worlds. You know this, don’t you? It’s why you didn’t mind having me in the beginning. Deep down, you know your people can’t survive in this world.”

“It’s our home,” she protested. “I only know this world.”

“I know ... but I see it all the time. Your people are pilgrims to this planet. This wasn’t your native planet, to begin with. You have almost no infrastructure here. It’s plagued your people over and over again. You try to live simple lives, but in the end, the others don’t care. The warlords before ... they only saw potential soldiers ... ready to dominate others. The same can be said with Noreep ClickClick. How long before she seizes more and more power? Or, when the next food crisis hits ... there are too many factors that are hampering your people. But, the Alara’jal can be so much more than this.”

Tonja could see the naked man put his hand to his heart as he emphasized his speech. She had to consider all of this. The fact was, Fengge knew that he was right. A new opportunity was available now. If the Alara’jal didn’t seize this, then they would be plagued by each little disaster. Their survival was paramount. Even the elder woman could see this from the human. There was compassion in that heart.

She shifted her sitting position. “My mate ... you are correct.”

Fengge walked over to his clothing and began to start putting it back on. “There is a story that my people had. It was about paradise. We had a mythical place that was called ‘Eden.’ It was the beginning of the human race ... at least from the religions that worshipped it. There were two humans named Adam and Eve. They lived in a forest of beauty. One day, Eve, the woman, encountered the serpent, an animal. It tempted her with an apple, the forbidden fruit that should never be touched.”

She seemed curious. “What happened?”

“Eve ate it. Both her and Adam were removed from Eden,” he laughed a little bit. “It’s just an old story ... of course, they never tell you that Eden was a restrictive place. It was a place where progress never happened. I look at the numbers and know that there should be more of your people in the course of hundreds of years. Even with hundreds of pilgrims ... the number of kids you should have had should’ve been bigger. It only makes sense that starvation is hindering your population. It’s a plague against your survival.”

She sighed. “We lost so much ... during those cycles. We fought ... almost each other. Not all died from starvation. We ... almost ate each other. A few killed or go insane. Is it better ... for your people?”

“We have plenty of food. I promise you.”

There was a lot for her to think about. But, unfortunately, her time to contemplate was coming to a close...

“Sir,” the navigation officer called out to the vice admiral. “The communication gate with the Sol System has been established. We are receiving a hail from Martian Command.”

Vice Admiral Passos stood by his console leaning down to look at the screen. The UHN Drake’s bridge had remained alert but also relaxed. The officer seemed groggy but eager to communicate with the home base.

“At my station, Petty Officer Ravine,” Passos replied.

“Aye...”

There was a short pause as Passo’s display showed that of an Admiral. The high-ranking male officer was seemingly young. He had gloved hands and sat behind his desk. His pale complexion and hair were a telling sign of familiarity.

“Admiral Hazer,” Passos addressed him. The hint of the Martian accent lay in his voice.

“Passos,” there seemed to be a smile on the officer’s face. “You seemed a little more tired than usual. Had enough sleep?”

“I just took up watch again ... looking forward to retirement.”

“Good to hear from the Drake and the success in finding the Alara’jal. Good job.”

Passos would twitch his gray mustache. “Hazer, have you received any word from the Lifen? We hadn’t got ahold of Captain Shira.”

Hazer held his gloved hand up. “I have ... unfortunately, the news isn’t good. It was why I needed to get in contact with you ASAP.”

“Sir? Is Shira alright?”

“No. The Lifen was conducting salvaging operations with the wrecked Alara’jal fleet. I last communicated with her about an hour ago when she reported the arrival of an Aksren warship. Has she managed to get any communication with you?”

“Yesterday, but there has been nothing new. Is she safe?”

“Knowing her, she is,” Hazer seemed confident in how he answered that. “She’s probably using the fleet to hide, but ... that doesn’t leave us good news for you. According to what Shira reported, the possibility of an Aksren clan response is concurrent with her calculations.”

“Is it possible that Aksren cloaked warships are monitoring her communications from the Sol System and relaying it to their command? Is that how they managed to find her?”

“If they did, it’s unlikely they would have had enough time to calculate the exit trajectory when I last spoke to her. No...,” he took a deep breath. “But you know what that means, right?”

Passos also took a deep breath. “It means that our exit trajectory was either calculated from Zalri’eko or the Aksren clan have extended sensors that we don’t know about. The Aksren clan may already be calculating where the Drake and the Menshe’tat jumped to.”

“Yes.”

Passos appeared to tense up a little bit. “It means we might have company soon. Hazer, is it possible that we can get reinforcements?”

“I’m readying a fleet, but Shira and I concur that launching our fleet to your sector may provoke the Aksren clan to launch an even larger response, especially if they’re monitoring the Sol system. For now, they only know so much about your location. Most likely, they’ll send a small recon fleet to investigate.”

This was bad news indeed. Passos sighed. “Captain Shira told me to almost expect this ... but ... I just wish it wasn’t true.”

“Sorry, Passos,” Hazer gripped his gloved hands together. “Luck isn’t on your side today. I contacted the T’rintar clan, and we’re getting ships ready to help assist in the evacuation of the Alara’jal people. What is Doctor Fengge’s status on the surface?”

“I ... haven’t heard from him in several hours, sir. The last report didn’t seem promising in getting the people ready to leave.”

“Well ... they need to think fast. We don’t have the resources to repel a large-scale Aksren fleet, and the T’rintar clan will only offer so much, either. What is the status of the Alaron?”

“We’re still having trouble getting the ship operational.”

Hazer tapped his fingers on the desk. He didn’t seem entirely pleased. “Very well, Passos ... you have your orders. If the Aksren clan does send a recon fleet ... if it seems too much for your two ships to take on ... leave the Alara’jal to their fate. I can’t risk losing our ships and crew for a small settlement.”

Passos didn’t seem pleased to hear it as, well. “Understood.”

“Good luck, Passos. Hazer, out...”

The communication line was cut. Passos had to focus. Time was running out. Somewhere in the galaxy, Shira and the Lifen were in a predicament of their own. However, he had to focus on himself and the Menshe’tat. Only two ships ... against whatever the Aksren clan planned to throw at him. However, despite the news, Passos did have something to rely upon. Shira was expecting this. Even the Vice Admiral knew that the possibility of this predicament could occur and what to do about it. His back was to the wall, and now he had to set the next course of action. Hopefully, it would work...

“What do we tell the village?” Fengge asked Tonja.

“About what?” she asked.

The two were walking down the dirt path back to the village. Dawn had arrived and lit up the landscape. By now, Fengge had stuffed his camera into his pants pocket. The time for documentaries was over. Efforts needed to be made to improve relations.

By now, Fengge would look up to Tonja as she walked. She was hungry and ready to get some sustenance. Even the paleontologist could feel it to some degree. However, there were a number of issues that needed to be brought up. He already began to summarize what he was going to do.

“Fengge?” she addressed him.

“Ah ... yes...,” he reacted. “Sorry ... just have a lot of things on my mind. I was asking about ... telling the others about us.”

“Mateship is ... the word... ‘sacred?’ It can be private or public.”

“Ok ... so ... that leaves us with ways that we can counter Noreep ClickClick’s arguments. Knowing her, she probably hasn’t stopped talking for the whole night.”

“And Tochasa...”

Fengge kept moving forward as he briefly turned his head back. “I wish I had more bullets ... and find my gun...”

“Tochasa won’t make his mistake again,” she was adamant. “You are my mate ... if he threatens you ... I will ... do what I have to do. His honor will be lost.”

Fengge nodded his head. “Hopefully, it won’t come to that.” He rotated his shoulder a little bit. “Can’t take another beating like that. I was...”

There was a beeping sound that came from Fengge’s augmented arm. He halted his walk as Tonja saw what had happened in turn. She seemed to be on the lookout, observing for anything that might be out of the ordinary. For a moment, she pressed her leather shirt over her breast to ensure that it was partially tight.

The paleontologist activated the communications channel from the Drake. He watched as a 3D image of Passo’s face appeared over his arm. It was big enough for Tonja to observe if she wanted to.

“Vice Admiral, Good Morning,” Fengge greeted him with a smile.

“Doctor, I wanted to check up on your progress with the Alara’jal,” Passos addressed him. “Have you made any progress in convincing them or getting them ready to leave?”

Fengge shook his head. “It’s too early to ask them. I tried to make some headway last night, but the people practically kicked me out ... and more. I might have something new to use in my argument to help convince them, but...,” he lightly shrugged. “I still don’t know if it will be enough.”

“Doctor, it is urgent that you convince them to leave. We have a problem.”

The sense of urgency started up suddenly. Fengge could already see it in Passo’s face. It almost didn’t have to be said at all, and the doctor would have understood. The paleontologist could feel like something was crushing him, and now, he didn’t even want to hear it.