Chapter 344

The Prison Planet

As usual, Morales awoke with the dawn. Cupping a hand over his side and grabbing his stick, he made his way to his feet. The pain is always worse in the mornings, but then again, it's just been three days, so I guess I'm doing okay. After turning the lantern on, he took a quick peek under the bandage to assure himself that the wound hadn't developed any red streaks running from it. Hmmm, the swelling seems to have gone down more, but it looks as if my stitching was a bit rough – well, maybe a lot rough, he thought as he gazed at the puckered flesh that was held together by black thread.

Shrugging, he turned to the wolf. "How about you, Lobo? You got a little carried away fussing at the tiger last night. Guess we need to check to see how your stitches are holding up, too."

When Morales put the lantern down by the wolf, he turned onto his side, but raised his head to watch the human.

"Was that coincidence, Boy? Surely you don't know..." But the wolf turned its head more to look at the wound. "Well ... maybe you do know. Let me get the ointment and I'll put some more on while I'm at it."

Back a moment later with the first aid kit, he cut the tape on one side to keep from pulling the hair, and raised the bandage to get a good look at the wound. "Well, it's not bleeding and the stitches all look intact. Guess you didn't do yourself any harm trying to get a piece of the tiger." After putting on more of the antibiotic ointment, he taped the bandage back into place before turning to address the wolf as if it were human. "Looks like the edges of the wound are already starting to knit back together. Yours looks further along than mine does, but you need to be careful for a week or two. No fighting allowed until you're completely well," he ordered with a chuckle.

The wolf whined and looked at him.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But griping about it doesn't change things. I'll keep us both fed until you're well and can hunt for yourself. You have some panther meat left and I think it's still good. I plan to go bow fishing later today, so we should have fish for dinner tonight – well if my luck holds, that is. Otherwise, we'll have jerky and potatoes."

Morales reached over and rubbed the wolf's ears. I wonder if he'll stay with me after he's well. Guess I've gotten used to his ugly ass. Oh, well, time will tell.

After human and beast did their morning business, Morales put a pot of coffee on to perk. Sitting on his rock while waiting, his eyes followed the row of smaller cases that came from the big container he had found in the stream. "Well, Boy, it's a new day. Want to open another of my Christmas presents?"

Lobo just looked at him.

"Well, don't get so excited," he said with a chuckle. "Now, which one should I open? Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Oh, what the fuck? How about this one?" he said with a laugh as the wolf showed interest.

Morales put the case by his rock. Ruffling the fur on the wolf's head, "You sure are a talkative beast. Talk, talk, talk, all the time," he teased again.

Lobo, yet again, looked at the human as if he had lost his mind.

"All right, let's pop the top on this thing." When he released the catches, there was the sound of escaping gas that he assumed was put in to prolong the life of the contents. He really had no idea other than that, but vaguely wondered why someone would bother if they were just sending it through the portal to a team working on the planet. Hmmm. Maybe the gas did work. Everything I've found so far seems like it was put into the cases just yesterday. Oh, well. Who gives a shit?

The case, like the others he had opened, was well packaged and braced with Styrofoam, this one containing several boxes, both large and small. As he grabbed one of the boxes and pulled it up a little, he could see the printing on the side and a picture. "Well, shit. Now this is all I fucking need. A fucking laptop computer. No Internet here, and damn sure no electrical outlets. He freed the computer from its wrappings, anyway, then dug out its battery pack.

"Well, it's still sealed in its shrink wrap, but even so, I know the battery has to be dead as long as the case has obviously been on this planet," he told the wolf. Shrugging mentally, he put the battery in and hit the switch, anyway. Halfway through its boot cycle, a message icon popped up on the screen showing a mostly dead battery, and the computer shut off.

"Well, that was interesting and was a perfect waste of my ... What the fuck?" he mumbled as he continued to dig deeper into the case. A moment later, he pulled out two extra batteries and two solar chargers. "Whoever packed this shit sure as hell believed in redundancy," he said, letting out a chortle.

After trying another battery in the computer with the same result, he hooked the chargers to the batteries, grabbed up his armaments, and made his way outside to place the chargers and two of the batteries on a big rock in the sunlight.

Back inside the cave, he took the third battery pack out of its shrink wrap, fitted it into place and hit the On switch. Amazing him, the computer booted and the icon showed a half charge in the battery. As soon as the computer had completed its boot cycle, a message popped up on the screen:

Carmical;

I have installed the standard set of apps and all the data files that we have to date on 2214-XR. After you copy your team's latest data to the new system, you will be good to go. Package your old system in the return case, and don't forget to include more of those buffalo steaks for the next pickup.

Ebbs

Morales grinned when he remembered how much he had griped when Mazarella made all his people attend a basic computer familiarization class. Morales could remember only one e-mail he had received from Mazarella, and even that one was via his phone, but he knew that some of the higher people in the organization used e-mail a lot.

He sat looking at the numerous icons on the screen, most of their names totally unfamiliar to him. Noticing one that was labeled maps, he clicked on it. After a few seconds, he was staring at another screen where he could choose further options: Climate maps, Geological maps, Topographical maps and others. One map showed 2214 from very high up to what seemed like tree top level, and everything was crystal clear.

There was another icon that called itself a "Planet Database," that he assumed contained information the scientists had gathered about the planet, all of it seemingly grouped into categories. Then as he continued to dig, he realized that the same data was presented in other ways. For instance, he could have the maps show where the herds of buffalo were known to be located as well as any other animals that were listed. He assumed that the buffalo would move around, so doubted that an out-of-date file would be worth a lot to him, besides, he knew where there was a very large herd of the beasts.

By the time the low battery warning came up, he had finished the pot of coffee, his kidneys were screaming at him, and Lobo was lying at his feet trying to talk the human into feeding him.

After the two had drained off their excess liquid, Morales brought in two buckets of water, refilled the wolf's and put the other bucket in its place. After slicing a skillet of potatoes, he put them on to cook, then cut several strips of jerky into small pieces and stirred the meat in with the potatoes.

When the potatoes were done, he gave the wolf half and added the last of the panther meat to Lobo's plate. He thought about cooking some of the powdered eggs, but decided to save them. His half of the potatoes and jerky should hold him for a while.

After eating and cleaning up his breakfast preparations, he checked on the batteries and found that they showed a half charge. Not willing to wait, he replaced one with the newest low battery and put the half-charged one into the computer.

After sitting for another hour digging through the apps, he shut the computer off, put it on one of his shelves safely out of the way, and turned to his four-legged friend.

"Want to go fishing?"

Lobo came to his feet as Morales continued, "Well, it's not really fishing. Of course I have plenty of fishing line and a number of hooks, but I don't fancy sitting on the bank of the stream waiting for something to bite. Although, I could try putting a piece of jerky on the hook. I guess I could dig around and see if I could find some worms, but I managed to get a fish the other day. Let's see if my luck is still holding with the bow."

Again he asked, this time with inflection, "Want to go fishing, Boy?"

The wolf raised its ears and became excited. "Go fishing? Food? Eat? Hungry?" the human called out.

Well, I doubt if he understood any of that except go, but I've said that enough that he knows we're going somewhere.

"Well, hang on a minute. I need to rig my reel to the bow and get my other equipment on. Might meet ol' grouchy coming to visit in the daytime for once. Might be fatal if I'm not prepared. Who knows, it might be fatal even if I am prepared, but like I said before, I'm damn sure not going to give him a free lunch."

Outside, he glanced up at the big rock, hoping his chargers would be okay while he was gone. "Fuck it," he mumbled as he hurriedly retrieved them and returned them to the safety of the cave.

A few minutes later, he and Lobo quietly walked close to the stream at the place where he had shot the fish. The steeply sloping bank presented an ideal spot for bowfishing, but the sun wasn't cooperating for the moment. It sparkled off the water at just the right angle to make seeing any fish near the bank difficult.

"This isn't going to work, Lobo. Let's move on downstream a bit. Maybe the angle will be different."

The stream had turned slightly and they were now in a shallows area, but the fish seem to be on the other side among the cattails. He shot at fish twice, but the angle, distance and Morales' inexperience prevented him from hitting both times. He kept telling himself: 10-4 rule: If a fish is 10 feet away and 1 foot under the surface, aim 4 inches low due to the refraction of light in the water. If you double either the 10 or the 1, then you double the 4.

The damn fish look as if they are barely under the water. But he remembered that the article said this could be very deceiving. Turning to Lobo who was sitting quietly only a couple of feet away watching intently, "Okay, this time I'm going to guess the fish is a foot under the water unless I can see a fin sticking up. Hmmm, but the stream is about thirty feet wide here. Fuck it. I'm damn sure not a mathematician. If the fish was twenty feet away, I should aim eight inches low, so I'll try to aim that eight inches low and add a bit. Can't do any worse than I've been doing."

After a few minutes, he saw another ripple in the water along the opposite bank. He drew the bow, hardly feeling the pain in his side with the excitement of trying to hit the fish, sighted at the faint image, dropped his aim a guessed-at ten inches, knowing he was sighting too low, and released the arrow. The water exploded among the cattails. Startled, he almost dropped the bow, then with a shout, grabbed the line and began pulling before reason exerted itself and he changed to using the reel.

Lobo suddenly became extremely interested, pacing back and forth as Morales reeled the mostly dead fish in. When the human knelt to release the barb in order to pull the arrow back through the fish, Lobo stood staring down at the fish with "lunch" written all over his face.

"No, Lobo. This one weighs about five pounds. With another like it, we can both have enough for lunch and dinner tonight, and probably still have a little left to dry for our larder."

Morales put the fish well back from the bank and cautioned Lobo to not try to eat it. Taking station again, Morales waited for another fish.

Lobo, now fully understanding what the human was trying to do, began walking back up the side of the stream, his sharp eyes intently searching the water near the edge. The human's method was indeed strange, but catching a fish was easy. Just as Morales looked around to see where the wolf was, Lobo sprang high in the air to come down with a loud splash, and ... came up with a fish bigger than Morales'.

"Well, shit," the human mumbled.

Back on the bank, Lobo put his front feet on the fish to hold it down, then bit its neck, killing it instantly. Picking the fish up, he trotted back to lay it next to Morales' catch.

Forgetting that the wolf was wild, Morales dropped to his knees to hug the animal's neck. "Damn, Boy. You do a better job with what nature gave you than I do with this modern rig."

Lobo might not understand what the words meant, but he did understand that he was being praised for catching the fish.

Standing, Morales unhooked the line from the fish arrow and put it into his quiver, the bow over a shoulder and ran a line through the gills of the two fish to make carrying them easier. Patting the wolf again while telling him, "Good boy, Lobo," he picked up the crossbow and fish. "Let's go home. We have fish to cook."