Chapter 504

The Prison Planet

... The two stood staring at each other, Jeff’s hands still on Morales’ shoulders before the latter chuckled. “She’s really going to marry me? And the General is going to let us?” he said, awe in his voice.

“Damned straight,” the Prime returned. “Now find me an open place, please.”

With the wind soughing through the limbs of the giant trees high above them, Morales turned and continued along the ridgeline, the Prime, barely noticing the snowshoes, followed with a smile on his face. They came to several open areas, the wind stinging their faces, but Jeff wasn’t yet satisfied with the partial view of the mountains that those areas provided, although the weather had cleared. Finally, they came to the larger open area that Morales had mentioned.

After walking around for a couple of minutes, the Prime found a place to his liking. Instructing Morales to use his binoculars, Jeff pointed while describing the area Morales was to focus on. “The tall tree by itself just to the left of that big outcropping of rock,” Jeff said while pointing in the general direction.

With the binoculars to his eyes, “Yeah, I see it,” Morales said after a moment of searching along the top of the mountain in the far distance. “But how in the hell do you see that without binoculars?”

“I’ll tell you more about that later,” Jeff promised. “With all the snow, the bare ground all around and the tree being by itself, there isn’t any danger of the fire spreading up there. Do you agree?”

Fire! What fire? Morales thought. “Uh, of course not. There’s little to burn up there and with all the snow, there’s no chance of a fire spreading, if that’s what you’re asking.” Wondering, he turned, only to realize that one of the shiny steel balls was hovering in front of the Colonel.

“You said something about my not being able to ‘throw’ one of these hard enough to protect myself against the cats.”

Morales was staring at the ball and shaking his head while he tried to get his mind around how Jeff was again making the ball hover like that.

Seeing the look on Morales face, Jeff continued. “Mr. Morales, I’m a very lucky man. Most of the things I do were ... given to me – at least the basics. I didn’t earn them per se, and sometimes I feel guilty because of that. For the visit, I could have worn a sidearm or carried a rifle or crossbow, but that, in a way, would have been a lie, maybe even condescension. Ship and Little One have given – awakened, I suppose is a better term – talents that I, basically, didn’t know I possessed. Some of those talents allow me to protect myself, my wives and friends. And ... I have been allowed to develop those gifts. There’s no use in going into detail now, but one of the talents I was given was the ability to move things ... with my mind. The force can range from gentle to the far opposite end of the spectrum. To some extent, it’s still a work in progress, though.”

Morales felt a gentle but invisible push on his shoulders which caused him to move back a step. “Comes in handy for putting Christmas decorations in high places,” the Prime said with a chuckle, “but I can also use the talent for other things,” he finished while making the ball dance around in front of them. “Now watch that tree,” he said while nodding toward the mountaintop. “Let me know when you have it clearly in view,” he added a couple of seconds later as Morales put the binoculars to his eyes again.

There was a pause. “Okay, I’m focused.” Morales said, still wondering.

There was a brilliant flash accompanied by a clap of rolling thunder as the ball, now plasma, tore through the air to impact the tree. There was no discernable time lapse between the launch of the steel ball and its impact when it exploded the tree and earth behind it as well as producing a tremendous expulsion of dirt, snow, water vapor and burning pieces of wood. It took at least a half minute for the wind to disperse the cloud enough for them to be able to see an impact crater that appeared to be thirty feet or more in diameter where the tree had once stood. A few heartbeats after the impact, they heard the report as well as the beginning of the echoes.

“Sheeeit,” Morales hissed out.

“I could easily push the ball faster, but both Helen and Selina, our resident geniuses, have cautioned me against that. So when I go outside without a gun, I’m not being stupid; I really am armed.”

“But ... why are you showing me this?” Morales wondered aloud.

“Because,” Jeff said as he again put a hand on Morales’ shoulder, “I think we aren’t that much different.”

The man chuckled. “Respectfully, my friend, you’ve moved into the bullshit category. I’m just a guy who has fucked up royally. I have zero talent of any kind, and I sure as hell can’t explode trees that are a mile away.”

“But you talk to wolves,” Jeff pointed out, “and ... they obey you.”

“Yeah, well, that may be, but we both know it’s the result of that thing in the ice cave.”

Jeff just grinned at him. “Maybe, but I strongly suspect it only boosts an ability you already had. Stop and think, do you communicate with the wolves when you’re away from the cave? And before you answer, I watched the video where you, Jasmine and the wolves went pig hunting. Did you communicate with Lobo and Lila then?”

“Well, I...” But then he remembered how the wolves had done the things he had wanted them to do without his having to tell them anything.

“Thought so,” the Prime responded after seeing the expression on Morales’ face. “Mr. Morales, I think the columns have had an influence on you that you don’t realize, and that influence is accelerating a change in your body and mind that you already possessed. Consequently, I’ve told the General that you’re changing.”

“Changing?” Morales demanded. “I have no idea what you mean.” But, he was beginning to wonder.

“And I’m not going to reveal any more to you just now, but if things continue the way I think they will, I’ll probably be forced to in the future – maybe the near future.”

“‘Forced to’. That doesn’t make a damn bit of sense to me,” Morales grumped while glaring at Jeff.

The snow leopard had followed the two men at a distance, but paralleling their tracks. She had a grudging respect for the humans because a while back she had seen one of them kill a hog with ease. She didn’t understand the weapon, but she knew it killed at a distance, and she could see one of the humans holding it. Were it not for the weapon, she would have attacked the two while they stood in the open area where she could easily run them down.

Hogs were smart, alert and hard to catch. Not only could they run at considerable speed, but they could change direction with appalling ease and ... the males had tusks that were designed for killing. As these things passed through her mind, she remembered the tusk that opened a long furrow down her side even as she was killing the owner of that same set of tusks. Still, the weapon the human carried had made a sound, and a hog had died instantly.

As the humans turned to walk toward her, and not wanting to venture into the big open area and chance the weapon, she retreated a distance before she climbed one of the giant trees. Choosing a big limb roughly twenty feet off the ground that overlooked the human’s tracks, she settled in to wait. She was hungry, and killing the two humans would be easy, but she would kill the one with the weapon first.

Jeff and Morales’ conversation continued. “Well, maybe ‘forced to’ is too strong a term,” Jeff hedged, “but the rationale is the same. I suspect that, one day soon, my statement will make sense to you,” he said over his shoulder as they started back.

Morales glanced toward the mountain one more time before following Jeff. Within a short distance, Jeff increased the pace dramatically, and Morales realized that the Colonel was going to test him for some reason. Testing or just trying to show me how much stronger he is, Morales mentally grumbled. Determined to keep up, he focused on the man in front of him, matching the Prime stride for stride. Briefly, he wondered if he could keep up, but he cast the negative thought aside. I will keep up.

They had crossed the last of the clear area and were almost a hundred yards into the woods while following their original trail back to the cave, Jeff continuing to maintain a blistering pace. The Prime was concentrating on Morales’ abilities while wondering if the man could maintain the hard pace all the way back to the cave.

Morales had never had reason to move at such a fast pace while wearing snowshoes, and was beginning to be stressed, but he had learned the hard way never to forget his surroundings.

High above, the snow leopard crouched on the big snow-covered limb, its coat blending with the surroundings. Again, its thoughts were on the human with the weapon, so it allowed the first human to pass under its perch, but rose up, and in one smooth motion, launched itself toward the one with the weapon.

Jeff had heard the movement and snapped a look above him in time to see the animal leap, but before he could turn, he heard the crack of the crossbow. He did manage to push the big animal aside in midair using his TK, but when the beast hit the snow-covered ground with a muffled thud, it didn’t continue its charge, or move, for that matter. One glance told the Prime why: there was a crossbow bolt embedded in the leopard’s forehead. By the time Jeff turned, a cursing Morales already had his crossbow cocked and was in the process of slapping another bolt into the rail.

“I don’t think you’re going to need another one,” the Prime said with a forced chuckle. Then as an afterthought, “Well, at least I did keep its dead ass from landing on you. Well done, Mr. Morales. Beautiful shot.”

As the two stood staring down at the beast, Jeff commented. “I wonder why it didn’t drop on me. I went under it first.”

“Who knows?” Morales said as he took his skinning knife off his belt and knelt to begin. “If she wanted to donate her pelt, so be it. We slept under the male version last night.”

“So, do you suppose this is the mate of the other leopard you killed?”

Morales shrugged as he continued with his work, only commenting that he had no idea how many of the things there were. While he worked, Jeff noted how efficient the man’s knife strokes were. Short minutes later, Morales pulled the hide free, and just as quickly rolled it into a bundle, cleaned the knife, holstered it and shouldered the pelt.

“Cut me some slack on the way back, will you? This thing is heavy.”

Jeff didn’t know what to say, so he just shut up, turned and started out at a much reduced pace.

As they trudged along, Jeff apologized for not seeing the leopard. “I suppose I was concentrating on testing you and didn’t look up enough.”

Morales chuckled. “Even if you had looked directly at it, with the size of that limb and the leopard’s coloration, you might not have seen it. And remember, I didn’t see it either, and this is my home. I know to stay on what you army guys call high alert – all the time.”