

### Beautiful Beautiful

Copyright 2017 S J Garrett

ISBN 978-0-9938672-5-5

Smashwords Edition

Published by S J Garrett at Smashwords

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Dream

Dream Deep

The Great Abyss

I swear - I've been growing greyer by the day.

Some days, I hardly recognize myself when I look at my reflection. It seems so unfair when one considers the still pristine appearances of both Tia and Midge; they've not changed one iota since I first met them. They are designed for deep space travel, and I am not. Where there is still some muscle tone, I look pretty good if one discounts my skin color. My head however, is not just grey in color it's also quite swollen. I bet that I've grown at least two hat sizes since we first boarded the Nina. I'm certain that just the sight of me would near petrify a young New-Euron child with fear. I'm certainly not by any means the romantic image that we all once dreamt of as a deep space explorer. It's no wonder we leave most space exploration to remote technologies, but we'd have no heroes if that were always the case now wouldn't we?

A few months of some real sun light and a bit of gravity of course would fix most of this, but there will only be a week or two of respite from deep space travel when we dry dock on the bright side of planet Zeta 50071's only satellite for a quick overhaul and a 'look-see' as Midge describes it. I've been dreaming for months of just walking about freely inside the rather un-spacious confines of the Nina's tetra. A few meters this way and that way will seem like heaven to my aching legs. There will even be some soil to kick around. I'll have to be careful kicking the dust up because the gravity on the satellite will be only fifty or so percent of what I would call ideal. It's true: Until it's gone you can never imagine how much you miss something and especially so for something like the feel of earth beneath your feet. I dream of dirt. And I dream of a real wind and how it feels blowing over my uncovered flesh.

Our crews' first goal is almost within reach: Donald's Great Abyss and aptly named after a man who spent his entire life exploring nothing but that vast empty space. That was all near one hundred years in the past now and no one has found anything much larger than a dinner plate in it in all that time since, but they didn't have the use of the Nina – which is a superlative science ship as ever one was designed. She was: tiny, extremely fast, and outfitted to maintain herself from top to bottom and a small crew too, – for fifty serviceable years guaranteed. And, she was just a baby. Not yet fully commissioned even. Tia estimated that the Nina in ideal conditions could perhaps double the speed of the Beagle, – literally out run any weapon that we were aware of and of course I was banking that she could find whatever there was on the other side of Donald's Great Abyss.

Zeta should be the last time that we'll need to watch our backs. We've been on the lam since the destruction of the Olympia and it's a certainty that at least some of the Colonists' depleted resources are being spent at this very moment in an effort to capture those who were responsible for her demise. The remaining crew of the Olympia would have reached port months ago and the logical need to recapture the lost Nina and her crew of pirates would become a priority of no small importance for the Colonist fleet. So as soon as we can get Zeta behind us the better will be able to rest our worries.

Once the doves are forward enough the Nina will be able to double her speed and no ship will be able to catch up to her and that will be the case shortly thereafter our dry dock on Zeta's satellite. The doves are a key component to the Nina's navigational system. They are already out in front by near a year in the case of Hector the lead dove and the others nine in all, between he and the Nina relay his data back over space and time to the Nina`s navigational system. They are plasma technology and have virtually no mass, - they're just balls of energy. They can operate a program, record and send data, but besides being a little faster than the Nina there is not much else to tell of them. But it is Hector who is the golden one: it is he who charts our course for the most part and it is he who will find the next Nouveaux Paris – at least we all hope that becomes the case.

The hybrids get along well. The two of them split their responsibilities and share tasks according to their size. There are places and things aboard the Nina that are in need of monitoring and repair that Tia cannot reach and that is where Midge helps out. We'd be going nowhere without Midge on the crew because she by far has the most experience with Colonist technology. Me, - I'm the captain and the navigator. I command the ship but I can't make it run without the technical support of the hybrids. Sometimes, I feel more like cargo that should be stowed safely out of the way from these two. They've already organized shifts for duty once we reach speed in the Great Abyss. I'll share time with each occasionally, but I expect with the aid of my kit to sleep for most of the travel. The two of them don't even think of the mission in terms of time. I expect to find nothing for at least several years and then hopefully Hector will send us some good news and we can then watch the light of stars never seen before grow brighter and brighter.

Our reality, - that is for Tia, Midge and I: is that we will not be permitted to live in the world we are about to leave and that is likely for good, so spending the remaining years of our lives as adventurers is far more appealing and a far more preferable task when compared to the alternative even if we do find nothing in the Great Abyss any bigger than a dinner plate just like all the others before us. There were many others who come to mind, who were not much different than us, - those who once lived on the Thirteenth Colony for instance and those too, on Nouveaux Paris that had no choice but death. We live on for them.

.......

The landing on the Zeta satellite went without a hitch but it was to be another two days before the atmosphere within the tetra reached negative ten Celsius. I won't put my toes in an atmosphere any colder than negative ten; you can call me a baby. I don't care what others think. Tia and Midge seemed to think it to be amusing though. I was New Euron and a soldier at that, and they rightfully thought I should have the mettle to deal with a little cold. Frankly, there was no real reason for me to be going out there except for the experience of having some earth beneath my feet and I wasn't going to miss out on my chance to do so because it could very well be the last chance to do just that for years to come.

The Nina being a saucer hulled ship had just two hatches; one up top and one we call the 'poop chute' down below. Literally everything within the ship had to enter through one of her two small hatches when she was first assembled. It must have taken quite some time. The tetra serves as a protective containment system for the ship from whatever harsh components that could be present on a terrestrial object large enough to have an atmosphere. Oxygen for instance was a problem should it get out of hand, so the tetra was filled with plenty of nice, inert nitrogen and if you intended to work very hard within the tetra you were going to need the aid of a rebreather. This was not a problem for the hybrids – only for me.

I chose the bottom hatch; there'd be a pinch more oxygen down there as opposed to the upper hatch at the tetra's peak.

"Captain Mark," giggled Midge seeing me standing upright in the loose dust that served as the satellite's soil. "What do you think?" she asked referring to the tetra. "Pretty useful." she answered herself after a shrug.

"The Nina... Well she was shiny when we left the Olympia?" I said.

The Nina's hull was a dark black now, and almost charcoal like in texture. It looked burnt to me.

"This is quite normal for this kind of ship, Captain Mark. She builds up a light film or a skin of carbon on the hull's surface from her travel. It has quite a protective benefit when she skips along at her highest speed. In fact, it's this film that Tia and I will be examining most carefully. You can tell a lot about how she is weathering her travel by how even her film is."

"Oh..." and I pretended to have known that all along. Colonist technology; go figure. "And what's the verdict with this film then?"

"All good so far," replied Tia.

"Glad to hear that. I'm just out - finally, to stretch my legs. You two tell me if I get in your way."

I bent down to the earth and rubbed the sandy soil between my palms. Kind of like one would do before a swim but in this case it was beautiful earth running through my fingers. There's nothing quite like it when you've been away from it for a year. For a year I only touched fabric, plastics and metal; it was a joy to see and feel soil again.

"I'm losing my sea legs!" I shouted to the two.

They looked perplexed with the sight of my obvious joy and big boyish grin and they went back to their work. I don't think they were familiar with the term: sea legs. They can look it up later.

I poked about and found only a few small rocks. They were igneous in nature; both smaller than my fist and with a bit of iron in them. Nothing special and quite typical of what you might find on a dead waterless planet or satellite as it is in this case. I'd be jumping up and down like a fool right now if I found some clay or even some signs of quartz: they are signs that water was once present and maybe even just next door in a neighboring system.

We explorers, because I'm not the captain of a warship anymore, we look for signs of water even if it has been absent for many millennia. Where signs of water are found - there is hope for life. That's what we are looking for: a water planet. Something: not too gassy and hot, and certainly not too cold. Well. If it were all that simple; there are many, many things to consider when you are out searching for a paradise.

.......

It was all too short; in fact, just a few minutes over one hundred and twenty-five hours of a little taste of natural gravity. Just enough time to fall in love with it. And then, we were on our way once again through weightless space. I swear; I could feel my head growing again.

The Nina has some areas where artificial gravity is present. The lavatory and galley for instance and two work areas, the rest including the helm had none. We slept in tubes that had no gravity also, and that once you fell asleep in would rotate you slowly like a rotisserie. So when two or more of us were up and about while traveling, we often fought over the time we spent in those areas that had some gravity. I favored the big tool bench and the techs resented it. Spending more than a few minutes in the lavatory was just weird and the galley was not much fun either because your kit decided when you could eat.

We had a pact that we agreed to that once the Nina was up to speed that the three of us would have a bit of a celebration: a family meal of sorts, since once the shifts started one or two of us would be absent at most times – asleep that is. A sufficient buffer between the Nina and Hector our lead dove would materialize in about ten day's time and only until then would we be able to get up to speed. There was plenty for me to do between now and then since I'd be retiring first. I had logs to complete and there were still several navigational programs that needed editing since we had no qualified co-pilot to speak of. Tia was rightfully our second in command but she was not comfortable at the helm so I was to be awakened should the need arise in a hurry. We had practiced just that as a drill several times in the past year; our best time was five minutes from sleep to my seat at the helm.

There were drills for fire and drills for rapid cabin pressure decompression. And it was my responsibility that we rehearse them as frequently as circumstances permitted. Seeing how we would all be present and lucid for the next ten days we'd be rehearsing them all. Space travel in general and certainly at the speeds and distances we had planned required a high degree of professionalism else we become lax and prone to disaster. No one was more professional than Tia; she put other hybrid techs to shame. She took nothing for granted and once she knew the correct way of doing something – there were no short cuts to be taken thereafter. Sometimes, I had to insist that she hurry at a task that was wanting.

.......

"So this is it," I said to my crew and friends.

I had a glass of weak wine raised in the air and the three of us bumped glasses together in a toast as we sat in the Nina's galley.

There are some rituals that seem rather timeless. How many times I wonder has a captain toasted his crew before a mission begins. I bet the number is in the millions. From the ancient seafarer to the space explorer, - I bet millions of times.

I've caught both hybrids gazing at the empty charts of the Great Abyss. You can fully see it now on the Nina's view finder: behind us there's a universe of starlight, ahead – nothing but lonely black darkness. It was formidable alright. Hector had been out there for months now and he had found nothing. It was like we were leaving the edge of our world.

"Well, here's to the next five years - because that's how long it will take us, mind you if we can keep our speed up, to pass the deepest point that any prior probes have achieved successfully into the Great Abyss," I said and we crashed our glasses again.

"Here's to ten if needed!" piped in Midge.

"That's the spirit!"

"How about you? Tia."

"I'm just so happy to be part of a real mission, on a ship that I feel I'm a part of!"

"The Nina would be lost without you, Tia!" added Midge.

Tia looked away. She was flattered with Midge's remarks but Midge was the most familiar with the Nina's technology and her smaller size allowed her to access all of the Nina. Tia could only pass tools to Midge for many of the jobs that came up.

"I say we do this every year; as an anniversary celebration," said Midge enjoying a fruity confection.

"I like that. What do you think Tia? Though, will we be still friends? Two? Three? - years from now."

"Of course we will," assured Tia rather emphatically and obviously not completely understanding the levity of our conversation.

"It will be the toughest on me you know. You two are designed for this kind of thing," I said to the two of them.

"We'll keep you in line Captain Mark. We'll send you to bed if you become too difficult."

"It sounds like a mutiny already," I laughed.

Tia sat quietly and smirked. She was terrible with small talk. The only time you could chat and kid with her were in the few minutes before she would have a rest. Tia was always - on the job. I have never met a more conscientious hybrid. Midge however, and I suppose it was a result of her years of experience as a team member on the Olympia was far better socialized and liked playing the part of the crews' entertainer. If I had to guess I would suspect that she liked to tweak her kit a bit too much because at times she often appeared to be far too jovial.

"What if it takes longer than five years?" asked a pensive Tia.

"I don't know. The reality of that question is we won't know the answer until we near the five year mark. A lot can happen in five years. We'll talk about it each year just like we are doing now. Each of us knows there is no turning back right now. If we find something out there - maybe we'll be looked at differently. Today however, we are the enemies of the Colonists and we are traitors to the Republic."

"Five years is a long time to go without a proper dry docking to mend what things that may break. The Nina is a machine; she needs her maintenance. I can't make some of her repairs that might be needed while she's hurtling through empty space," replied Midge.

"The worst case scenario would be, - we coast to a controlled near stop. It might take a few months or so to even manage that. I know the repairs will take longer and be more difficult in a weightless environment, but it can all be done if the need arises," I offered back.

"I know Colonist engineering: it's long on promises and short on guarantees. The Nina is no different, Captain Mark. I'm onboard with the mission but I'm also a realist – the Nina is a machine. She might be fresh today but five or ten years of space travel is a long stretch for her to go without some down time in a dry dock."

"Well, - we shall soon find out how well built the Nina really is. We are adventurers now, and real risk is going to become a bigger part of our business. We are all going to have to adopt a can-do attitude for as long as it takes. I know full well there are going to be challenges – and we, are going overcome each one of them."

"Cheers."

.......
Year One

A year has gone by since leaving Zeta. It seemed like nothing as far as time's passing goes. In fact, I was only awake for a couple of months of it. Today marks one week that I've been awake since my last hibernation. One month up and five months down; that's been my pattern of late. The hybrids have changed their shift pattern thrice in the past year. It seems that they'd rather not sleep and would rather work together as a team. Whatever suits them, I say.

We've been traversing at near maximum speed and in a straight line for virtually all of it, too. There was a zig made a few months ago, and then a zag back but only just this once and that was to test the Nina's steering. And, there's been nothing newsworthy reported from Hector our lead dove; he charts our course and I fear he's growing tired of charting a straight line into nothing but empty space.

Though there is some good news to report of a personal nature: I think my head has stopped growing. Its fifty-seven centimeters in circumference now and that's three centimeters larger than as I remember. I even have a difficult time now fitting Sophie's old kit on these days. It's tight I must say, and thankfully her head was bigger than mine back in the day but at least it's a kit that fits me for now until I find time to modify my own. I often think of her. She saved my life by sacrificing her own. How do you forget something like that? I bet she would be pleased with the Nina's mission because as strange as it sounds the universe as vast as it is has already become too, small for humanity.

Some say that Donald's Great Abyss isn't actually an abyss at all and that it's really the edge of the universe. Imagine that? All I know is that it's the least explored frontier and that fact interests me. When will I turn around? When will I abort this mission: - to find what lies beyond the Great Abyss? Well confidentially, the answer is quite possibly – never. The Nina will continue its course beyond the margins of all the former charts and past all the trajectories of previously known probes until she finds the other side.

"Captain Mark. It's time to toast our first anniversary."

"I'm coming Midge. Save a glass for me!" I shouted after her and I left the helm for the Nina's galley.

.......
Year Two

Well little Midge was right. We are about to find out how close we can achieve a full stop in deep space for a maintenance need that has suddenly reared its head. A main drive component needs a part replaced. And since there is little in the way of solar activity out here which is traditionally our normal back-up power source; we'll be on battery power for eight hours. That's a scary thought: relying on battery power while in the middle of nowhere.

Following the repair, the hull will be inspected by the hybrids without any gravity and in near zero light. A full stop is desirable for the inspection and normally when you try this in free space something somewhere is pulling you into one direction or another, but we are presently deep within an empty abyss. There will be nothing to pull us anywhere. There's been no matter of any sort seen since we entered the abyss two years ago let alone something large enough to exert a gravitational force upon us. I don't think such conditions have ever been encountered like this before on a space walk.

"Midge? Certainly you are not telling me that the engineers who designed this ship never thought there would be a need for hull maintenance without dry docking?"

"Well, Captain Mark. We can dispense with the inspection if you want, but I don't recommend it. This mission is an unusual one. I mean, - in normal use we'd have docked a half dozen times or so for the distance we've travelled."

"Very well. We'll do the hull inspection."

It took about two days to come to a full stop. The repair to the main drive took an extra four nerve wracking hours on battery power. It's the absolute worst thing – to be completely un-powered in the middle of nowhere.

The hull inspection was extremely interesting. The hybrids could literally walk the hull. They could put a tool anywhere about them – and nothing moved. Nothing drifted away unless it was pushed.

This got me thinking and while they were out there. I tried everything I could think of to measure some kind of extraneous movement of matter within the Nina's cabin. There was only going to be a few more hours of this so I recorded everything that I tried for future examination.

I'm not a complete fool. I know that I can't chart a course continuously in a straight line to nowhere, - and forever. I can't chart by intuition either. There needs to be some logic. I need to send Hector into the right direction.

Following the hull inspection we gathered in the galley. It had been previously decided that this would be a good time to celebrate our second year of the mission.

"The hull inspection went well, I gather?" I asked the two.

"Good for another two years, Captain Mark," answered Midge.

"If we had a foundation, we could have used the tetra," added Tia.

"Yes. I was surprised with how full the stop was, too. I think we should do these inspections when needed in the future but only if the conditions remain the same that is. There are only the three of us and I don't want any unnecessary risk taking with hull inspections if they are not needed."

"We'll do them only when needed then, Captain Mark."

What do you think? Tia?" I asked.

Of course, this is like asking a fish if it likes water.

"I love the walks," grinned Tia with a bit of wine at the corners of her smile.

"I know you do."

.......
Year Three

I awoke prematurely several times from hibernation through the past year. Ever since that full stop I've found it difficult to fall asleep and stay down for more than a few months. Since then, I've been totally perplexed by the apparent evidence or lack of evidence I should say of any measurable gravitational pull on a mass from any direction in all my many attempts to find some. There should have been something measurable. Intuitively, it made sense that there should have been something detectable behind us. So, - were we in the middle of something or have we passed some threshold that's not been passed before? I researched what I could find out on the matter in the many logs that Donald had recorded years ago during his life-long exploration of the Great Abyss, but there was precious little to be found on the subject. Surely, he would have had the best instrumentation of the day at his disposal. At least that would be what one would think.

What I did find out is that the Nina had already exceeded the distances of any of the manned missions into the abyss, but there had been many unmanned probes that had reached deeper into the abyss than we will for yet another year. I fully intend to be wide awake when the Nina reaches that threshold.

I must say that of late anyways that I've noticed some animosity between the two hybrids. If I were awake in this tiny ship for as long as they have I'd be grumpy, too. Hybrids are engineered to get along with one another and not to become too easily stressed. Perhaps it was my more frequent presence that was at the root of it. I think we should do more together as a group but the two of them looked at me after making that suggestion as though I was interfering in something that didn't require any remedial attention.

My training had taught me that many a man in the past had gone crazy from deep space travel and that hibernation was the best means of preventing the onset of depression and anxiety. And, you wore your kit and you followed its advice. Your kit was your savior. It guarded your physical and mental well being. I'll admit I ignore my own sometimes and its pleas for more physical exercise, but how's that going to happen in this tiny ship?

Personally, I bet that Midge is at the bottom of it. Colonial hybrids are more competitive than their New Euron counterparts. I'll interfere if I see too much of it. There's no reason the two of them can't wear their kits all the time. My suspicion is that Midge like's to unwind and get a little tipsy when she has the opportunity. Colonist hybrids are famous for it. If your job is done and you're at rest; I have no problem with that, but a New Euron hybrid might think otherwise.

"Captain Mark, I have a favor to ask of you and I think it's a fitting time to ask such a thing seeing how our mission's third anniversary has just past."

"Go ahead Midge. What's on your mind?"

"Well, - back on the Olympia it could become a lonely place sometimes. It was a massive ship and there were months of travel at a time. Anyways, we were permitted to have pets. Something you could talk to other than another crew member. The custom was considered therapeutic. Could I have one? For here. On the Nina. Just a tiny one," and Midge raised her fingers a few inches apart to indicate the size she had in mind.

Tia exhaled and I thought about it for a moment. It's been three years now and if having a pet would help ease some tension on at least a third of the crew – then I suppose there would be some logic in it.

"Yes you may," I answered and Tia exhaled again.

What Midge was talking about was something we all did back in school. You could make these pets that were not quite natural. All of them lived on a sugary nectar of sorts for nourishment. Sometimes, a well designed one could last several years before expiring. I, myself was famous for creating colorful butterflies back in the day.

"Just a little one. We haven't much room. It must be quiet Midge. Something that purrs instead of barks if you know what I mean. And practical: nothing that flies around. Maybe something like a gecko that has sticky feet for getting around. And, – make sure that it responds quickly to a whistle and goes directly to its nest when required. Okay? Can you do that? If you can, you have my blessing."

Midge was thrilled. I was heavy on the conditions, but this is a ship. If it bought some peace and provided a distraction from the boredom then it was all good for the crew.

Midge's creation was indeed a good climber. It had a wool coat so it was good and cuddly. And, besides having sticky feet it was also an athletic jumper so in no time little Lizzy became a master of her environment. She was just a little bit larger than what would fill your open palm and of course, -she was thoroughly resented by Tia.

I limited little Lizzy's visits to once a day if I was awake and found it to be a well behaved pet myself. It spent no time with Tia, but Tia was good enough to tolerate it and I think it was rather obvious that little Lizzy had a profound effect on Midge. Many hybrids are natural nurturers; they liked to take care of things.

"It's just a gecko with a wool coat!" declared Tia the first time she saw it.

I had to hush her. I needed the Nina to travel a lot further – years more.

.......
Year Four

Little Lizzy the second I figured was an improvement on the Lizzy the first who had a mysterious accident which led to her demise while I had been hibernating earlier this year. She was not as timid as her previous model and she was far more engaging with her chatter and most importantly she was quicker on her feet. Midge had been sad for a day or two after Lizzy the first's passing but the new Lizzy was quickly planned and Midge was back in the game of being a pet owner after about twenty-eight days – the time it takes to grow one of these things.

Midge often behaved like a little girl these days and sang to her pet as she tended her chores about the Nina. I think even Tia secretly envied the pleasure Midge got from Lizzy the second's company.

Now, even I looked on with some jealousy. My body ached from inactivity. I was soon going to need a second kit to wear, if that were possible – just to stay engaged with the mission. You can sleep only so much and as the months became years and the years came and went; you suffered like you were a prisoner imprisoned in a cell that was becoming more and more each day - a tomb. I found myself at times wishing that some integral part of the ship would break down and force us to abort our mission. But imagine this: four more years just to return home.

What have I done? Hector was now more than a year out in front of us and he still has found nothing. That is - literally nothing. Nothing bigger than a football, Nothing of any consequence – moving or otherwise. Nothing. Only still... empty... space.

I've even lost interest in reading. All I do now or so it seems - is brood.

The crews' personal hygiene was suffering and that's a bad sign; it stunk in here. The cabin was unkempt and the two hybrids were back to their bickering.

There was pressure now. Plenty of it. To change our course. To do something. But I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait at least one more year before we start an arc and begin to circle back. Something is going to have to materialize or I'm going to have to invent a reason to alter our course. The crew will fall apart if I don't.

.......
Year Five

There have been two more Lizzies. I wish Midge would come up with a new name. I'm sure Tia is currently planning the murder of the present one. Lizzy the fifth was more of a homebody than some of her previous versions. She spent a lot of time in her nest which was more or less, a shallow semi-covered bowl set-up and out of the way in the main cabin. She seemed to favor the same spot in her nest as all of her previous namesakes had chosen to sleep in.

I got quite a bit of satisfaction sometimes just watching them sleep. There was a special tranquility about it. So, one day I wondered. Why do they all nestle up in the same spot? There was no overlap of Lizzies to learn the behavior. The bowl was perfectly symmetrical. I could not see any advantage whatsoever as for this apparent favoritism.

A tree's branches will grow and unfold into the direction of sunlight. Sun light is energy; visible and invisible. A sun is a star. Life is life. And I and every one of my crew members when we sleep, - we all face the same side as all the little Lizzies. Have I been missing something that's been staring at me in the face all these past years? Should I alter the Nina's course and bear to the right, - to our starboard so to speak.

"It'll be a gentle arc. One that we can increase or flatten out, but I have reason to believe that we can now alter our course. We are now deep enough into the abyss," I said to both Midge and Tia over some food in the galley one day early into our fifth year.

"Why? I thought we were to travel our present course until we find whatever is on the other side, Captain Mark," replied Midge.

"Well, - because I've had to reconsider that plan. It's been five years now that we've travelled directly into the abyss and now logic suggests that we should broaden our search instead of concentrating on what is directly in front of us."

"Are we lost?" asked Tia.

"Oh no. Our logs have charted our every move. We can return the way we came at any time."

"I think it's something to drink too. It's the first time in five years we've altered our course. Maybe this will be it. Maybe we'll finally find something," suggested an excited Midge who was already on her way to fetch some wine.

Tia looked at me while Midge was gone on her quest to fetch a decanter of wine that never seemed to go empty.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Tia.

"Yeah. We are not lost. It's time to try something different. I have a hunch. It's even based on science," I lied.

It was difficult to get to sleep when it became time for me to hibernate a few weeks later. I had doubts about the mission and now the crew knew it, too. This year six was going to be difficult one. Part of the crew worries that we are lost which isn't really true. The real truth however is that – the mission might be lost.

We needed a break. It boggled the mind. Just how was it even possible to travel this far into an empty space? The Nina is so much faster than anything that Captain Arnold had at his disposal back in the day or anyone else for that matter since. And nothing?

Oh. And I made certain as I rested my eyes that I was facing the correct direction and I wished. I wished as hard as I could for some star light to illuminate the Great Abyss.

.......

An alarm was sounding!

I was being awakened for an unplanned occasion. Not an emergency however, but for something of some importance. There was some tapping on my chamber that sounded like thunder. I'd been asleep for nearly nine months and one would think there'd be a little patience for me to gather some of my faculties. I have practiced this a few times and I need at least three minutes to gather my wits and come out of hibernation's fog.

"Captain Mark! Captain Mark! Hector has found something!"

It was Midge and she was as excited as I'd ever seen her. Tia, too was right at her side like the two of them were attached together and she wore the same inquisitive face as Midge wore: optimism. Something I'm afraid to admit that I've not seen in many years.

They hurried me to the helm where I received this message:

Hector had reported finding energy of a sort associated with that which is emitted by a star or a system of stars.

Well hallelujah.

"Bah Roo!"

Ah... I'd not heard that in some time.

The three of us started dancing about the cabin like little children in a playful frenzy.

Midge was swinging little Lizzie the sixth about like a flag.

Tia was near to tears with joy.

I said not a word but my face was burning with a satisfied grin. I might yet get to feel soil beneath my feet again I thought and then for a moment I felt like the most clever man in the universe.

How was this even possible? Five years in a straight line and then bang! After just nine months of a gentle arc to our starboard we hit the jackpot – a possible system of stars, no less.

.......

When the initial excitement abated we started to come to terms with our new reality. Hector was still months from arriving at said: star or stars and Hector too, was also eighteen months out in front of us. So, - we will all be two years older before we arrive at the said: star or stars. But we had a goal that we could now focus on and that was so thrilling.

Try to imagine this? You've been traveling in an empty space for six years and finally you see star light for the first time after all of those six long years of nothing. Each day the light from those stars grows a little brighter until there's a sea of them to look at, and - each and every one of them has never been seen by a man before. It's euphoria. It's bliss. It's happiness. It feels so good to win.

I didn't want to sleep. I didn't want to miss any of it - not a precious minute of our approach. The crew's morale took off. The Nina's cabins became spotless. The two hybrids were friends again and worked together like a polished team. Midge sang wherever she went and Tia followed and never made another condescending remark about Midge or one of the Lizzies again.

After about two more weeks of travel Hector started charting new stars. It started with a couple an hour and a few days after that Hector was up to over a thousand new finds. I had him hone in on the closest stars because the Nina was going to need a nine month refit in dry dock before we proceeded any further than we needed to. Midge was doing double shifts sometimes just keeping the Nina's drive systems running which were currently functioning at eighty-eight percent capacity; not bad for six plus years without a significant overhaul. There was only a bit of baggage and the three of us anyways is what I would tell the hybrids. They didn't get it. That's the problem with hybrids: they'd laugh at something that actually appeared to be funny in a slapstick kind of way, but any sarcasm or dry witticisms went over their heads.

If only we could make Tia smaller or even have her arms stretched a little longer we'd be in good shape. There was equipment acting up now that needed attention that she simply couldn't reach. It seemed unfair but Midge was doing most of the work some days, so Tia and I were becoming redundant and the Nina's crew manager had the two of us scheduled for a lot of hibernation until we find a suitable place to dry dock.

It was with some reluctance that the two of us went asleep for some hibernation even though we knew we were going to be in Midge's way anyways. It seemed to take hours for me to finally drift off. I remember thinking before I finally gave into the calling for some rest that I might name a new star after each of my favorite people: Dimitri, Cosmo and Sophie just because I could and oh, - one after each of my favorite hybrids, too.

.......

There is no alarm. This is the very worst way to awaken from hibernation: by a large shot of adrenalin coursing through your veins. You awaken screaming. There is little light. It's freezing. I can see the smoky illumination of the Nina's ten multis that serve as fire men and first responders when there is an emergency. The larger ones are supplying energy to the smaller ones. It was they who woke me because the ship is down. They'd have waited until the very moment it was possible to do so – soon as the flames where put out I would imagine; captain first, crew second.

What's happened to my ship? I struggled in the narrow confines of my bunk and dressed in the near darkness. I needed a kit and a rebreather, too. I opened my bunk manually and the acrid odor of an electrical fire stung my sinuses.

I called out for Midge, but there was no answer. The multi activity seemed to be focused on the opening to a maintenance duct that Midge frequented. I found my way over to it and ushered some of the glowing multis aside.

"Midge?"

"Midge?"

I couldn't decide whether I could even see her down the duct for the smoke that hung in the air. She did not answer. I went to Tia's berth and alarmed her bunk.

She can get down that duct; at least to its first bend. I need to know what's going on and quick, and then address our life support needs.

"Tia, I need to know what's up with Midge? She won't answer," I pointed to the duct and I know she could read the gravity of the situation by my anxious face because I could see that panicked face of mine in the reflection of her rebreather's face mask.

Tia is a lithe and very flexible hybrid and at least thirty centimeters shorter than me but she and I know exactly how far she can get down that duct.

"Midge!" she called out from within the maintenance duct.

Midge!"

"She's gone Mark. She's gone. I can just reach her ankles and feet. She's stone cold."

"Can you get her out?"

I could hear Tia grunting and struggling.

"I can't budge her. She's hung up on something," cried Tia.

"What's it look like in there?"

"Bad," whined Tia. "It's burned up pretty bad in here."

"Okay. We got to leave her. If she's dead; she's dead. We gotta save the ship. Come on out."

My head was pounding. A teary Tia wiggled backwards and out of the duct. She had just lost a friend. I looked over to the helm that was still unpowered and an audience of floating multis appeared to be awaiting my next move. They are life savers at times like this, - literally. They can supply light, heat, oxygen and carbon dioxide when needed. They can supply some basic first aid, too. They can tend to the wounded and mummify the dead and if needed – fight.

"Let's see if we can get some power going, Tia. We need to first isolate that duct electrically because I have to assume there is still a fault in there. Midge's body could become energized. We just don't quite know what happened."

"Most of the drive control is in there; all of the automation for the hyper drives in fact. The Nina will not have the ability to travel, Mark," said Tia.

"We will worry about that later. There's nothing out there for us to run into anyways. Life support and power; they come first. The multis are only good for about twelve to sixteen hours under conditions like this. We have to hurry."

It took some time to get most of the control that was contained down that duct electrically isolated. If I booted the ship up, it would simply shut itself down again if it thought there was still a possibility of an electrical fire starting; battery standby power included. But we got there and it took a couple of attempts before we had battery power. Once we had battery power; we had the ship's operating system back on line.

We took a break that was just long enough to re-hydrate ourselves and commend each other on our progress. There would be no rest until we were off battery power. We needed the drives operating at least at an idle to ensure our life support. Tia was brilliant as always when we were in a pinch. She devised a work around that if it worked would restore potentially half our former speed capabilities with the only caveat being that the Nina's drives would need to be operated manually.

"Can we not do this in two steps, Tia?" I asked. Can we not get to an idle and then try motoring later? What if it doesn't work?"

"Two steps will take too long to organize. You won't make it," said Tia referring to me, "I might," she added.

"Any other risks? Besides my demise."

"We'll have some white light at start up."

White light is a hybrid's politically correct way of saying we'll explode. There's actually a rather lengthy interval of about one third of a second in which a number of irreversible steps are taken to start the drives from a complete shutdown. An explosion is always possible after a major drive overhaul. Someone quite literally could have dropped a wrench in it somewhere. But in our case the risk involved an emergency start up after an electrical fire and then followed by some jerry-rigging we did to make things work.

"Let me make an upload to Hector before we do that." I said to Tia.

How do you update your log with that kind of information? For six years I've been logging the same thing: nothing. And then, when I finally do make a miracle discovery – I have to maybe sign-off all of a sudden. But that's what I did. Should the Nina fail, Hector would be returning to civilization however long that might take with my final report and his nine cohorts were to abort their missions and dissolve.

When I was done with the upload and Tia had all her workarounds checked and double checked. We both paused for a bit and looked all about our ship and our common predicament. She had been transformed from one smoky chaos into another: one of cables and jumpers running to and from various I/O points all over her cabins. I wondered for a moment what might happen should one become tripped over or become disconnected accidentally. Tia sighed and looked to me with both her double eyelids wide open. She was exhausted. She had been going steady for nearly twenty-four hours, yet she smiled and gave me two hybrid thumbs up.

She was ready.

I powered up the helm, took a breath and started up the drives.

The correct lights came on and there was once again the pleasant hum of a powered spacecraft for us to hear.

Hallelujah.

.......

So the mission was in danger. A third of the Nina's crew was gone. The Nina's ability to skip automatically through space at hyper speed on a charted course was gone. We estimated that a dry docking of three to ten years would be required to rebuild the Nina into a ship that Tia could maintain, - if that were even possible. A suitable dry dock location could be three to four years away now as a result of the critical automation we lost.

The reality of the new metrics was depressing. I'll be an old man should I ever see civilization again. If we can't fix what is broken maybe we can improve what we have that's still working. That was our new mantra.

I reprogrammed Hector to travel even deeper into the new star system but his new charts may never be of any use to us. I had the remaining doves hunt up and scout the best planets or satellites for the Nina's eventual dry dock and rebuild. They'd have plenty of time to do so now.

Something wet and temperate I hope. It'll have to be a planet; a satellite won't do. We need a light atmosphere and thus plenty of sunlight. Maybe we'll find a nice fat planet. Close to a star or even if not, we can set up the tetra near its equator because once we shut down we'll need solar power to supply our energy needs – for years. It sounds more like being marooned than a dry docking.

I managed my time as best I could to be at the helm as much as possible. The kit helped but as the months went by I felt more like a machine than a true pilot. Tia had found some hot fixes that we could implement on the fly to improve the Nina's performance but collectively they had bought us just a five percent improvement to our progress.

What was exciting however, is that now you could actually see starlight from the new system as we approached it. I think I know how the Nina's former namesake's crew must have felt nine hundred years ago when they finally saw land – they travelled just five weeks. Five weeks probably felt like an eternity back then I bet. I've found myself toying with that antique sextant I borrowed from the Olympia more than a few times these days. It's been a powerful and well demonstrated human trait and I suppose almost instinctual that we humans reach out as far as we can. I wish sometimes that that simple sextant could resolve my navigational problems as well as it once did in the nineteenth century.

I thought Midge's body would stink as it rotted in the maintenance duct that she was entombed in, but I must admit that the multis had done a good job of mummifying her and I should think the same for her little Lizzy the sixth, too. There had been no sign of the woolly little lizard since the fire. We suspect that she was with Midge at the time of her demise. Little Lizzy was pretty much always present when Midge worked alone.

Poor Tia. I felt so sorry for her. She had a lot on her plate. She spent hours manufacturing peculiar looking tools that could reach around corners and such. The multis were her eyes in tight places but they were no substitute for Midge. Her new reality was that a ten second job such as flipping a micro switch could now take several hours. So far, she's managed to keep us running and I tell her at least twice a day that she's doing a great job.

.......
Year Seven

I have had way too much time to think. I am the Nina's new drive automation. I do the same things over and over again. I could do them in the dark. These were once automatic maneuvers that were never meant to be done manually more than a few times a day in the past, but now they are a repetitive routine that I do mechanically over and over again. Push buttons are wearing out. We can replace those but I wonder about my fingers. I suppose we can replace those too if the need arises.

I have some serious choices to make in the very near future. I've looked at the numbers and I've analyzed the data that the doves have relayed back to the Nina. We have to focus on a star within this new system to dry dock the Nina. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can manage our course and expedite our final arrival.

There are currently three strategies that we've been considering. The first has us dry dock on a bone dry satellite and that one is the closest of the three. It'll be brutal: cold, no atmosphere and just enough solar activity to meet our needs but perhaps, not quite enough.

The second, a pristine water planet looks ideal but it's just too far away; Hector considers it fit for colonization, - but I can't commit the mission for two more years beyond the two we still have. We are trying to save ourselves from a disaster.

The third choice is a tough one also. It's a water planet too, and could also be colonized, but apparently Mother Nature has already started that; it's populated with about ten million souls. They appear to be civilized if you're using a bronze ruler that is. They have agriculture, some cities and the economies to support some governance and organization. Fortunately, a great deal of their planet is sparsely populated. It has one great continent and except for a generous amount of islands and wetlands, an enormous amount of the planet is covered in deep water.

It's been done before: secretly visiting planets inhabited by another civilization. It's also considered a bad idea. The problem lies in the nature of these things: civilizations. They have their own natural defenses. It's not just their viruses. They can be tamed like any other animal. It's the flora rather than the fauna. There are legions of new bacteria for a newcomer to deal with, which are simply symbiotic to the indigenous communities but a holy nightmare to the likes of myself and Tia to deal with.

It took about nine months or so after the fire but finally, Midge was dehydrated enough so we could pull her body free from the maintenance duct she was trapped in. It wasn't a pleasant affair. The multis had done a good job mummifying her body but it broke up into a number of gruesome pieces that we had to fish out of the duct that she had become entombed in for those nine months. Tia and I nonetheless, packaged up her remains for internment later on a freshly discovered new planet we hoped. Midge after all, had worked just as hard as any of us on this mission and she certainly deserved a proper burial on some terra-firma.

The oddest thing developed after the fire. Tia and I had been partners now for many years and in all that time I had never heard her sing or hum a tune but after Midge was gone she began to sing. At first it was soft and difficult to hear but as the weeks went by she grew bolder and more confident and when she sang I could hear her from anywhere within the Nina. I found it comforting and she had a much more pleasant voice than her former peer. When times are tough it's the little things that make us feel better I think.

.......
Year Eight

I've recalled half of the doves. There wasn't much need for them as the distance between our final destination and our progress became smaller. Hector was still way out in front and charting new stars and planetary systems by the day. I had two doves orbiting our likely destination and another orbiting the satellite that we might have to use. I was still wary of the alternate planet that was another two years away on top of the remaining year and a half that we were already committed to.

The eighteen months to the closer water planet seemed to be an almost palatable wait now. I never thought we'd get to be ten years out, but there was no thought of turning back once the Nina's drives started acting up; we needed to dry dock. The fire and the loss of Midge just made things so much worse.

It is heartening to actually see our destination now. It's just a tiny star in a cloud of stars but when we get there she'll be a majestic sight: bigger than ours back home but with more red in her yellow. There are only four planets in her system but she has a thick belt of asteroids between her two larger outer satellites and the two smaller inner ones. Second stone from the sun would be her proper address and I got a name in mind for her if she delivers what we need. I'd like to name her after my old savior: Sophie.

The doves reported that she had a temperate climate with real seasons, albeit shorter than we'd be accustomed to back home. And there was plenty of mature forest and fresh water lakes, that was exciting; I'd only seen the likes of that before on Nouveau Paris.

The doves had also collected data on about a dozen possible locations for our eventual landing. Isolation from the indigenous civilization was the highest priority and adequate exposure to sun light was the second most important. We can't make repairs without power. Can we? And we can't make repairs if we are ill from bacterial infections either.

It took two generations for men to acclimatize themselves to Nouveau Paris's environment which had no indigenous populations of civilization to deal with. I'll be a busy man mitigating that threat and Tia will be a busy hybrid disassembling the Nina and rebuilding her into something that she can maintain and I can still pilot. I just hope it all works out.

.......
Year Nine

We are six months away from the planet Sophie. There is not a familiar star to be seen. But just their magnificent presence is comforting.

Nearly two years has passed since the fire and it's taken all that time for Tia to clean up all of the jumpers she had to run through the cabins back then. We looked like a normal spacecraft again - at least superficially. She had a five year plan now; - sometimes six on a bad day when another technical headache would occur to her and her plan to completely revamp the Nina. Doubling her speed and improving her automation but all of this at a huge expense to her cabin space. We were too big and the Nina's hull was too small. All these things can be worked out later I reassured her once we had the Nina safely dry docked.

I spent a great deal of time researching our predicament. People in the past had found themselves marooned on planets where the indigenous life had been challenging. Some lived to see their eventual freedom. Some were discovered after the fact in the pages of another civilization's mythology. The best advice from what I could glean from all the accounts I read was that one required stealth and secrecy to be successful, force when necessary, and plenty of luck.

We had a two person plebiscite sometime ago. Two more years of space travel to reach a better planet perhaps or take our chances on the planet Sophie. The decision was unanimous: Two to zero that there would be no more space travel than necessary.

The doves had done a pretty thorough job of mapping planet Sophie's lands and seas but even more importantly: her weather patterns. There were islands on Sophie that were so secluded that no one was going to visit for generations but maritime weather was no good for our power needs. I was focusing on a remote mountainous area that was less than sparsely populated but with some ingenuity I thought I could make it impregnable to any sort of contact with the primitives who lived down below. There would be plenty of exposure to the sun light's travel due to the geographical pattern of the mountains and a relatively close location to planet Sophie's equator.

It's a sickness of a sort: a space traveler's longing for soil beneath his feet. I wonder if it is poisoning our good logic. But what are we to do? It's been more than ten years since I felt some significant gravity. Nine since I had felt soil beneath my feet. Without a lengthy dry dock, we were never going to see home again. So, - Sophie will be our savior once again.

.......
Planet Sophie

Somewhere down below is a wise man or sage who has already seen us. Perhaps he's even been studying the doves that have been orbiting his planet for several years now. There are astronomers in every generation of a civilization; that's how I got to be here. I'm waiting for the ninth dove to be reunited with the Nina before we land on planet Sophie and he is just a week away. Hector is still two years away but I've recalled him, too. We'll being needing him once the Nina's been refitted and made right for space travel once more. When he does arrive he will orbit planet Sophie until the Nina is ready to return to space to fetch him; he has no means himself to negotiate the passage from space to an atmosphere.

The Nina has been complaining a lot lately, but she'll be having an easy go soon. She won't be jumping through space for a long while. Another week of orbit and then she will finally get a well deserved rest.

It's certainly not Earth nor is it Nouveaux Paris either, but there's something quite attractive about planet Sophie. She's a live planet seismically and her surface is covered with real life. When we travel above her massive single continent you can see white capped mountains and deep green valleys. There's a sizable forest fire that's been going on for much of a week now in her near north. There's also plenty of cloud cover and no wonder because more than half of her surface is sea.

There's a high plain or plateau that I've been focusing on since our arrival just a few months ago. It's located in high terrain that should help us because there's a great deal of oxygen in planet Sophie's atmosphere which is good for us I hope but bad for the Nina. We'll need to keep her tightly sealed-in within the tetra to keep the oxidization of her sensitive metal components at bay.

The planet Sophie has no moon or moons. It's a pity. I love moonlight. Her sun will appear strong though she's actually a smaller star than ours back home but because Sophie is situated just a little bit closer there will be more natural radiation. That smaller orbit means a shorter year; we'll be using the New Euron calendar for logs and such anyways. And additionally, we're also expecting four short seasons to each year here because planet Sophie has a twenty-eight degree tilt to her axis.

I can't wait to see her sky. It's going to be a different hue of blue than what I'm used to. Tia says it will be darker in color on clear days; I say it will be a lighter hue but still sky blue. It's more about her atmosphere. How clean it is. Light is light that's for sure. But for certain it will be one of those blues you see in a rainbow not the grey I had to live with back in New Euro.

This little plateau I've been studying for some time now is quite isolated from the primitive residents down below. There are no civilized settlements of any substantial size to be seen for hundreds of kilometers in all directions but that doesn't mean that there will be no primitives nearby. They could be there in small numbers and quite likely be less civilized than their brethren living in cities and village sized settlements located for the most part near the coastal areas of the great continent. It is my hope to avoid them for all of our stay here on planet Sophie.

The lower life forms down there I just know are going to be fascinating. I've only seen a tree taller than two meters a few times in my life. Where my little plateau is, there are trees that I estimate are fifty meters in height. There is a familiar blueprint to life when you travel. As Cosmo used to say," the universe is actually quite small." Never so true when you start to examine things more closely like under some magnification - the same building blocks are everywhere.

Tia looked rested for exactly one day once we made orbit and that of course was the day after we finally shut down the Nina's big drives. I know I felt the relieved at the time but the reality for Tia was that she was about to start planning what was going to be her biggest project yet: completely rebuilding the Nina. "We're going to need a lot of space," she said. Which is quite an understatement coming from a hybrid because we'll need literally tons of space. Not to worry though, once the tetra is in place we'll be excavating deep down beneath her until we have all the room we require. There are thousands of parts that have to be disassembled and then reassembled again. Everything but her hull will have to be altered. Five years we estimate, and that's if we aren't too unlucky. My whole life it seems is one mission after another.

.......
Terra Firma

The ninth dove was recovered just forty-eight hours ago. The sky is now overcast over my target on planet Sophie and when night falls, Tia and I will start the next leg of our seemingly never ending mission: we will land the Nina. It'll be the first time in nine years that we'll have some natural gravity. It'll take some getting used to; it should be about ten percent stronger than what I would have experienced back in New Euro. Our descent will be done manually because we still have no automatics but the Nina's navigation system will prompt me for each step so there is little to worry about.

I figure it'll take me a month or so to acclimatize myself to the new environment. That means that for thirty days I'll be limited to the Nina and her cabins and some movement within the confines of her tetra. Tia will have no difficulties whatsoever adapting to her new surrounding because she is a true space traveler; engineered from top to bottom for this kind of thing. I have to put up with my human limitations.

I can't wait for my head to shrink back to its normal size. And it better. Same for this grey color; I want my normal skin color back. All in due time suppose.

"Are we ready Tia?"

"We are Captain."

"Navigation is prompting us for a controlled descent."

"Ready."

And down we went. It was a wee bit bumpy. Some sheet lightening lit up our descent here and there but nothing too brazen. It took all of thirty seconds and the Nina came to an idle and hovered about fifty meters above some treetops.

"Eyes and ears please?"

This was my prompt for Tia to launch the multis. They'll guide us the rest of the way down. And remove tree limbs or whatever else that might be in our way until we touch the earth of planet Sophie.

"Look at it. It's incredible. I've never seen such vegetation."

The multis were showing an enormous forested area below us.

Tia's mouth hung open in awe.

It looked incredibly claustrophobic. The trees were enormous.

"How will we power the tetra?" asked Tia.

"The multis will take care of that. They'll be our little lumberjacks. We can get the miu out to help if needed and make the Nina a nice big clearing."

It will take the multis a few minutes to put a plan together and so, I stepped away from the helm - and for the first time in nine years I walked albeit clumsily over to the galley rather than floating as I was used to, and got Midge's old flask out.

"Cheers, and well done Tia."

I held out a glass of wine to Tia who smiled graciously and took a sip.

"Cheers Mark."

"We did it."

"Yes we have."

"We are officially somewhere where no man or hybrid has ever set foot. Imagine that? Just you and me. There's no one else to share this with but it sure feels good. Doesn't it?"

"Yes."

It took the multis most of the night to clear a spot for us to set the Nina down; they had so many tasks at hand. Planet Sophie's atmosphere had to be more closely examined and the massive task of examining and cataloguing all of the local components of her native eco system which in itself will be ongoing project for months I would think – even years. I stayed awake though; I wanted to see my first proper sun rise in nine years.

She'll rise up in the east – the way god intended it. None of that crazy backwards stuff of some other crazy places I've visited. Planet Sophie rotates counter clockwise; the good old fashioned way. So tonight's sunset and everyone thereafter – until we leave will be in the west or as I like to think: the way god intended it.

Two hours before sunrise the early risers came to life: the birds. It was a symphony of sound with thousands and thousands of hidden voices. Some, I swear were in a counterpoint of dozens of choruses. As the aural entertainment increased in activity twilight ensued and a picture of paradise unfolded and grew in more detail as a red-gold crescent rose in the eastern vista as the minutes ticked by. It was like watching a flower open – and this happens at the start of every day? I was in awe.

"Beautiful, beautiful. It's so incredibly beautiful." I whispered under my breath though there was no one to hear me speak otherwise.

All of this I could only watch and hear remotely from within the Nina. Tia was outside in paradise. I was trapped in here. Thirty days better come fast. Paradise - is just steps away from me.

Some call it space withdrawal. A medical technician might call it a discontinuation syndrome. I call it the shits. I become flatulent and loose if you know what I mean. There can be nausea, heart palpitations, tremors, and more. The body is going through shock. It suddenly has to adapt quickly to a new environment that's totally foreign to its last one of some time. So, I suppose Tia and justly so will be spending lots of time outside and safely away from me as I become one with a chamber pot.

At about mid morning the tetra was just about ready and about half of the multis were back inside. Two were aiding Tia and the other three were on picket duty since we had no security set up just yet. The latter group sounded an alarm and I did my best to investigate from within the Nina as to what was up. What I found was a little surprising to say the least and I sent our full complement of multis back outside.

"Tia. How much longer?"

" An hour maybe. Why? Why are all the multis out?"

"You seem to have a secret admirer out there. He or she - is a one hundred and fifty kilo animal of some sort. He was up in the trees, but it appears that the extra multis have made him retreat."

"Biped? Quad? Should I have a sidearm?"

"It's hard to tell how many legs he had. He's a good climber though. I don't think you need a sidearm at the moment but in the future we'll have to be vigilant until we know what dangers if any there are out there. Rimbaud is armed and ready should he be needed, but I don't want him ripping the place up. He can be out there if need be through the poop chute in a second. I'll watch your back. Not to worry."

Rimbaud is the Nina's only real weapon. He is a fairly sophisticated miu who I've spent a great deal of time reprogramming over the past nine years. Initially he wanted to kill me. Colonists don't like New Eurons – and that's understandable I suppose but now he's a much more cooperative miu and yet he still possesses the same ridiculous amount of fire power of his former self. I even gave him a new name. I named him after a famous French symbolist poet, no less. He's more gentrified now and far less nasty. He even asks questions before he shoots which is more my style anyways.

The poop chute is what we sometimes call the Nina's lower hatch and it's the closest exit for Rimbaud. I hope that I never have to use him; he could destroy every living thing on this planet if he was allowed to. It just might take him a few days.

Once Tia had completed her work outside I brought all the multis back in but one. I wanted our presence to be as inconspicuous as possible in the forest. At least that was my plan. Perhaps a couple of hours passed when the solitary multi sounded an alarm again.

He was nasty looking. Top of the food chain I would say. He both resembled what I would say was a mountain cat and a wolf in appearance. He seemed quite alone and he circled the tetra several times at a comfortable distance I would say sniffing our draught if we possessed any.

"What do you think Tia?"

"That's what was out there with me?"

Tia appeared alarmed.

"I would say that was him. Look at his limbs; their thick with muscle. I bet if he stood up on his hind legs he'd be three meters tall. Tia. I would say that that is the 'Master of the Forest' who has come to pay us a visit."

He suddenly charged the multi who promptly gave him a high voltage shock well before his striking range. The surprise of the shock sent him running out of the Nina's clearing and back into the woods like a pup or a kit I should say.

The sight had the two of us laughing as we watched all this remotely from within the Nina.

"He's going to have to get use to us. We're not going anywhere for at least five years."

"He had teeth," said Tia.

"And big ones I suspect! When's the last time you or I have been chased by something with teeth as in - wanting to eat us?"

"What shall we call him?"

"How about: a Mastofor? For Master of the Forest," I volunteered.

"How about: a Monster? For Monster of the Forest," suggested a far more pragmatic and also worried Tia.

"Mastofor? Mastafor?" I opined. "I like the sound of: Mastafor. What do you think? Tia."

"Sure: Mastafor."

"How many eyes did you see?"

"Two."

"I didn't see teeth so much as I saw a nasty beak. Anyhow, I'm sure we'll be friends with him in no time. I'm sure of it," and Tia went back to her work.

.......

I was just beside myself with interest and excitement. I couldn't rest or concentrate on any of my tasks without thinking about the mastafor. I was determined that I was going to make some time and study him. He appeared to be playing the part of a mammal carnivore but he also appeared somewhat avian in my opinion. I was just pining to have a good look at him; inside and out.

My time from now until we leave this planet should that happen and I hope that that becomes the case is to help Tia when I'm needed and when I'm not, - to follow a science program that the Nina will provide for me. I'd really like to get on with exploring what's outside but that won't be happening until I get the go ahead from the Nina's medical clinic. I know that Tia would like me out of the Nina; she's been rubbing her nose a lot when I'm around. I can't help that.

I've been able to identify a number of bird breeds as I become more familiar with them. It is interesting that they seem quite similar to those that I've become familiar with back home on Nouveau Paris. Occasionally, I've even spotted some large rodents running about the floor of our clearing. They appear to be the burrowing type that I would suspect would live beneath the trees.

As the days crawled by I began an exercise routine. The excavations beneath the tetra had provided lots of room for calisthenics and jogging albeit in tight little circuits. There was a whole world waiting out there that I just had to see.

I jumped the gun and fudged the Nina's health program so I could get out early. The result was horrendous of course and Tia was embarrassed for me. I was as sick as I can ever remember. It was like being thrown into an atmosphere of toxins.

I took the tiniest breaths and could only squint my eyes about as I stumbled clumsily around on the rough terrain that the multis had made for our dry docking. Much of the foliage that had been cut down was already a foot high into its recovery from our trimming. I became so dizzy after about a minute of sipping the toxic air that I begrudgingly returned back to the tetra after just a few steps. I was pathetic; retching and wheezing once I got back inside.

"What's got into you? Where's your good New Euron logic? Have you no self control? You've been behaving like a young child since we got here," lectured Tia admonishing me.

"I can't help myself," I whined like a child and wiped up some of my own vomit up.

"It takes time Mark. The Nina won't have your immune system up for another two weeks. "

"I wonder if I wore a rebreather if that might help?"

"There is pollen out there that can harm you just by coming to rest on your skin. There's a good chance that you might make your adjustment period longer and harder on yourself if you keep trying these silly attempts to get out there early. Where's your good judgment? If you need something to do; I can find things for you to do," continued Tia on her tirade.

Well. Who's the captain around here? I thought I was. Why am I taking advice from a hybrid? All those things passed through my mind. But, - Tia was right. There was plenty of good reason for my enthusiasm but I was going to have to wait.

When Tia wasn't trying to tax my excess energy with little jobs to do that frankly were beneath me I spent my time exploring the forest remotely via the multis. I had them cut foot paths and at the same time, I started a path maintenance plan because in no time the thick foliage here was back up again.

I discovered that there was a pond of sorts with a mountain fed stream that was less than a half of a kilometre away from our camp. I haven't been in water in years. It was a favourite pastime back in my academy days. I was a pretty good swimmer. I'd be spending some of my time in that pond real soon. It was on my 'to do list'. Water in sunlight is like magic to watch. I can't wait.

The mastafor must have a long trail that he follows because it was to become a weekly event when he came to visit. Not as close as he had as in the first time but close enough that the responsible multi would sound the alarm. I got one more, brief look at him on one of those visits in that first month – remotely of course but it was in good light.

It was particularly quiet in the forest when he would visit. His prey - who were obviously many going by the deafening silence that occurred when he came around were not just silent but also hidden in some place of refuge. Anyways, he appeared to have a rather elaborate pattern on his face made up of whites, hues of brown and with black highlights. I could not quite ascertain whether he was covered in a down as in short feathers or a short layer of fur.

Tia was petrified of him. He fascinated me though. He was obviously not a social animal. He made no noise and appeared to have no call either. He was a hunter. Top of the food chain and a solitary predator; that's what he was. What else was there not to like about him?

.......
Finally

I'd been good. I kept up with the exercises and I had the Nina's medical program examine me every second day and it took five horrible weeks until I finally got a clearance for fifteen whole minutes outside. I had to wear tinted glasses, a hat and a kit. Tia came out for it; it was hardly going to take up much of her time.

"I'm going to be watching you. If you are out for longer than your allotted time I'll be right there on your case," warned Tia.

"What are you my gate keeper?"

She gave me a steely eye and followed as she said she would out the poop chute.

Wow. It was intoxicating. The air here was so much heavier. You had to suck it in and it was thick with pollen and aromatic odors. The sky was overcast but it still seemed bright and had an ochre coloring over to where the sun was behind some fairly heavy clouds. It was about an hour into the morning and the forest floor was quite damp with condensation.

I started walking off over to the edge of our clearing. Two multis floated about a half meter above the ground behind me as they followed my progress.

"Where are you going?"

"I've got something I've been waiting nine years to do, Tia."

"You've got to be kidding. The place to do that is inside."

I was perched over a pleasant looking shrub of about a half meter high and I opened my pants and had a piss. Oh this is going to be good. My own warm odor was now marking my presence on planet Sophie.

"Sophie would understand, Tia. This is taking ownership," and I pointed to my puddle. "Take that 'Master of the Forest'."

"You have only ten minutes left now, since you've wasted the first five minutes passing some water."

"That was the best spent five minutes I've had since I've arrived here. You know – I think I'm going to like this place. I'm not going to let it become my prison. I'm going to make it my home; my home away from home. I bet I'll rue the day when I have to leave here."

I tucked my penis away and proceeded with my walk around the clearing. Some of the leafy foliage was just so incredibly thick. And green – it was an orgy of photosynthesis in action. I picked a leaf from a leafy plant that seemed to make up the majority of the ground cover. It was thick and pliable and obviously rich in chlorophyll.

"Blue skies mean green plants. Did you know that, Tia. The chlorophyll absorbs light from the blue in the sun light spectrum. One of nature's miracles; all of this," and I pointed to the enormous forest. "And all of this because of that," I added while pointing up to the sun. "We once had all of this back on earth and then came civilization."

And here we are. I had just five more minutes. I noted that my heart rate and blood pressure were up. The sun began peeking out from behind the clouds and I think that all of the insects and birds took in a silent sigh and the forest fell quiet for just a second or two. I looked up to that sunny orb and while squinting my eyes I lifted my tinted glasses to have a closer look at the star that was responsible for all of this life.

"None of that," said the gate keeper.

"I hear you," and I ignored her.

.......

That first little visit outside the Nina made a world of difference in my attitude. I volunteered my help as often as possible to Tia with the dismantling of the Nina. It was a daunting task; she'd need to be gutted down to her hull and then all rebuilt again. Someone the size of Midge, or so it goes should be able to do it all in about five years. I'm not sure if that was ever tested but that's how the ship was engineered. Tia was taller than Midge and not as familiar with colonial technology as she was with New Euron engineering. So, the five year time frame was going to grow in length because some of the Nina's equipment was going to have to be destroyed just to get it out of the ship. Then whatever is ruined in that case will have to be remanufactured again before being reinstalled in such a way that larger tech such as Tia can be able to maintain it.

One of the miracles of these deep space science ships was that when they say totally outfitted for fifty years of service – they mean it. The means to remanufacture every component of the Nina with the exception of her hull is entirely possible given enough time to do it. Time however, was our enemy and we didn't talk about it much but it was the real crux of the matter. How long will it take to get off this planet? How long before we become discovered by the primitives that live perhaps as close as one hundred kilometres away from here? Will there be enough time following the Nina's refit, - to even consider returning home? The mission since Midge's passing had unfortunately become one more concerned with survival rather than a mission of discovery.

When I wasn't exercising and when I wasn't helping Tia, the Nina's science program had me work on manufacturing a rig that could be used as mobile seat or platform so someone like me could explore the great forest outside of our tetra; walking or hiking was positively treacherous beyond our plateau. The rig required four small multis to support it; one for each corner of the platform and a larger companion multi to provide more power when needed, for lighting, and insect and nuisance control and such. There was no shortage of insects here in the forest; the place was literally crawling with life.

I also really wanted to see what could be seen from just over the treetops. There were some sizable mountains behind us that intrigued me, too. Down a bit lower from our elevation were foothills and then a great plain that ended at the shores of the giant sea that surrounded this single land mass or continent I should say. The rig should manage about sixty kilometers an hour when travelling unimpeded and have a range of about five hundred kilometers or so. I'm not about to venture more than ten kilometers from the Nina but the ability to fly about will be extremely useful.

We think that there might be more than one mastafor. If that's not the case then his markings might change with the seasons. I think we arrived at about mid-summer here and already the days are becoming shorter and the temperatures are trending lower. If the mastafor is like every other animal he'll be looking to mate annually at some point in time. He really interests me: I have no idea if his species has live birth or lays eggs.

Starting in a week's time I'll be getting daily outings of an hour each day but only during the twilight hours of the early morning and late evening. I can't wait.

.......

The forest is so thick that it is only possible to go up and down within our clearing but I've got a plan. I've got the multis cutting some more paths: one up the hill behind us, and a second into the woods and down a ways to a pond and stream. The path up hill will take weeks to prepare but the path down to the pond has a natural depression or gully that can be followed. The multi rig works well and is obviously a well thought out utility vehicle; kudos to the Nina's science program for providing that bit of engineering. I've got to wear an enormous kit for the Nina's science program activities. It apparently records what I see and what it wants independently, so at times I have to wait until it's finished with its own task before I can move on to something that interests me.

This planet is very much alive. Every organism whether it's tiny and simple or large and sophisticated seems to have an enormous appetite. Just about any insect that I've studied out in the wild here seems to be always focused on the process of eating. I wondered if it was because of the relatively short seasons here on planet Sophie that life seemed to move along so quickly. Literally everything alive here: plant and animal appears to be in a big hurry to grow into sexual maturity and then reproduce. More than once while studying an insect another larger one would swoop in and consume it before I even had a proper chance to record it. It wasn't just the seasons that were short here; apparently life here was brief, too.

I'd seen plenty of rodents around our camp but once I got out beyond its perimeter I also found plenty of woodland cattle, too. They were just a little more shyer and they grouped themselves into collectives of ten or so and were quite quick on their feet. I'd imagine they were near the top of the mastafor's menu. The many birds I recorded; they too, tended to flock together some in pairs and some in dense flocks numbering in the hundreds.

As the days rolled by it never became boring. I looked forward to the excursions each day and if the weather was overcast I sometimes could spend two hours at a time visiting and revisiting sites that interested the Nina's science program. Much of the foliage here seemed to stay green year round as winter moved in. Winter seemed to put a bite into the animal and plant activity. However, new species of birds would appear during the winter months, in smaller numbers albeit, and who were heartier than their summer cousins. I'm not sure what they ate because most of the plants at this time went dormant and ceased making flowers and seed.

Every week at some point there'd be another mastafor sighting. After several months of this it became apparent that he intended to have us see him. His visits were pretty unsubtle when they occurred and usually included a long stare at us from a distance or a position of comfort for him rather than us. He always appeared from a higher vantage than we, too. The mastafor of course was always the consummate hunter and I would think that it was highly likely that I too would be on his menu.

The trail down to the pond was a joy; it been so long since I'd seen more than a cup full of water in front of me let alone an entire body of it. And it was cold and crystal clear; just the way I like it. And it too was filled with animal life: fish and invertebrates that predictably spent most of their time eating one and another also. The pond was about three meters deep at its deepest and much of it was really - just a meter deep or so. If it were not for the steep incline from the mountains behind us I'm sure it would be much larger. If you listened carefully you could hear the water moving. We shall soon see if it ices up when the winter really sets-in in just a few months.

It is uncanny how similar much of life is no matter where you find it. I've not quite seen these plants and animals before but flesh is flesh and vegetation is vegetation. I've examined a rodent closely and was surprised to find that his heart had just three chambers: two atria and one large ventricle. It was sophisticated enough – a good little motor but quite foreign to me nonetheless. He had the traditional sex equipment. He was male. I'd expect that he was born live but he too was beaked and lacked lips that would indicate that that would be the case. I need to catch a female and see if she may have a pouch. Not quite mammal, not quite avian would be the common observation of the higher animals here on planet Sophie. The fish appeared to be fish however and the birds appeared to be birds, too. Evolution here on planet Sophie appears to have followed just a slightly different path than that which we had back on earth and its colonies. On Nouveaux Paris the animal life had not had the benefit of enough time to truly evolve beyond fish and invertebrates.

It intrigues me to picture what one of these primitives who live just down below my plateau in the foothills might look like. I know they are bipeds that walk upright. I know that they must have articulate hands because they've been tool makers for centuries. They must be clever; they've managed to become civilized and all of what that entails. I hope that I never see the day that I meet one – for both our sakes.

.......
Insect Day

I've now come to hate insect days. I know that I shouldn't say that but it's the case, nonetheless. Its winter here now and there are very few insects running or flying about, however their larvae, their queens or whatever are still out there and we just have to look for them. Some weather the cold months beneath the bark of the trees but most can be found beneath rocks or simply dug up out of the soil.

There has been snow here but it never lingers for long. The mornings these days have accumulations of frost or rime on the forest floor and about the pond things can become quite slippery.

So, I was digging up some soil one morning a kilometer or so away from the tetra when I noticed the multi who was acting as a sentry hum into activity. This can happen many times a day and is almost always a false positive. And as what usually occurs is he quietly goes back 'at ease' and I continue digging. There was a particular yellow larva that I was hunting for at the time to please the Nina's science program. Apparently this ugly slug transforms itself into a handsome looking moth later in the year - at about mid-summer. After a few more shovel's full of frosted soil I had found a few specimens to bag and return to the Nina for more examination when the sentry came back to life humming again.

This was most unusual, so I returned to the rig, adjusted my kit and located a sidearm. And no sooner had I done so – the forest came to life with cracks of light fire from the multi. Up in a tree and perhaps just ten meters away was a mastafor. He emitted a loud hiss and made an unnerving spitting sound.

With the aid of the kit I could see him quite clearly and he was quite focused on me. I think he misunderstood his position above me as one of dominance. I instructed the multi to bring down his tree and burn him with heat should he attack. A second or two later and that is exactly what happened. I had to dodge a falling tree and there was a second one that came down with a huge thud immediately thereafter and thankfully away from my position. All that lingered after the commotion was some smoke that smelled of burnt hair.

Well, someone thought he could make a meal out of me.

I must admit that he was very light on his feet; I hardly saw him once he was in retreat. The multi however, had recorded the entire melee and I reviewed it more than a few times that day. The creature was practically salivating as he studied me and I think he's going to have a cool night or two because he lost a fair amount of his coat in the heat ray blast which was a hardly fatal one but if this is the same animal that has studied us in the past then he's already received several electrical shocks from the multis; so he's most certainly a brazen beast.

I collected some of his fallen coat from the forest floor to study. It did indeed appear to be a down as opposed to hair or fur. It'll take a little while but with that little bit of his DNA; I'll have a pretty accurate picture of what a mastafor is all about. I have no doubt that he'll be back following his trail just as soon as his coat grows back. One thing is for sure: the mastafor is no coward.

What will I tell Tia about the mastafor's new courage? Absolutely nothing. Tia is terrified of him. He's no more than an evil troll to her and she would be the first to cheer if one of the multis killed him. I have respect for him and I'm beginning to think that he will never become intimidated by the multis.

The multis have been quite busy lately when they haven't been trucking me around the forest each morning. They've finally finished a path to the peak of the mountain behind us. It's pretty much a stepped trench for the most part and some of it was actually tunnelled into the mountain itself. It was done this way so there would be virtually nothing for an observer down below to notice. We certainly don't want to bring on any unwanted attention upon us from the primitives who live down below.

I want to visit the peak somewhat regularly so I can observe Hector's orbit once he arrives in about eighteen month's time. I had the multis make the look out so it has plenty of northern exposure for which I can follow Hector's progress from east to west in the night sky when I visit. I suspect that the night time excursions will be more numerous and that daytime excursions will number only a little more than a few. Anyhow, warm attire will be required on these treks since snow has been visible at the mountain's peak for the past four weeks or so.

I think it requires a name but I'm reluctant to give it a name; it's not my mountain. I'm sure someone down below has a name for it. For me it is a lookout and it aids in my isolation. From peak to sea level she's just under fifteen hundred meters in height. The multis can get me up there comfortably in about two minutes.

Give or take a few millennia life on planet Sophie was much the same age as it was back on Earth. It was all there in the DNA. It can be read like a tiny time line. Life emerged from the sea; first the plant life and then the animal life. My mastafor was a much smaller animal at one time but a little luck and a lot of natural selection over time made him the 'master of the forest' that he is today.

.......

I know Tia has a plan and I'm very careful not to ask too many questions about it. She's completed much of the work on the lower deck and I know the upper deck is next on her list. The upper deck consists mostly of our quarters and the Nina's helm; she'll fly through that one. The middle deck however was the busy deck. It was the one that was going to require years to strip down and rebuild. With no practical way of disassembling it, the process of remanufacturing each of its thousands of components was going to take an estimated ten years. This is where we sorely could have used Midge. Only she could fit in the maintenance ducts that were behind and beneath all of the middle deck. The multis can show us what was needed to be done but they cannot hold or turn a wrench to help us.

Lately, I fear I'll become an old man before I get to leave this planet and I wish that was all I had to worry over because down below us was a civilization and I'm quite certain that some of them visit the mountains from time to time. I've found their DNA locally in the insects that draw blood here and it frightens me. What if we are discovered? What will we do? I'm loathe to even consider the consequences.

Tomorrow, Tia and I will visit the mountain's peak. She has some down time scheduled for tomorrow, and has expressed an interest in accompanying me on my first visit to the peak. We'll leave Rimbaud behind at the ready while we are away. I don't think it'll take more than a few hours but I'd like to visit in day light hours for my first visit so tomorrow morning I'll have a second rig prepared for the remaining multis to carry Tia up to the peak, too.

.......

Of course Tia could handle her rig better than I could. I'd had months of practise but she just got on the thing for her first time and beat me to the top. There's something about technology and hybrids, - they are just at one with each other.

It was brisk, - and bright up there. You could see down below forever it seemed and you could literally touch the clouds at times when they closed in on us intermittently.

"It's beautiful, Mark."

There were rich blue ribbons of water running down from the mountains and through the green foot hills to a dark blue seascape that went on and on for an eternity.

I shook my head up and down in agreement because I was at a loss for words. I'd never seen anything like it before except perhaps on Nouveau Paris but in that case this viewpoint would be all but forbidden. Most of Nouveau Paris was protected – there you looked up at mountains not down from them.

It was cool here at the peak but the air was light and comfortable to breathe. I could spend more time here; the atmosphere was more like home. I think I spent more than a few minutes slack-jawed and in awe.

"You like it?" asked Tia.

"Yes. I really do," I answered.

There have only been a few times in my life that I've seen such beauty and splendour. Some of those times I must admit were when I was younger and more easily impressed. I'm by no means an old man just yet, but these days real beauty has become something much dearer to my heart when I'm confronted with it. It's a different kind of glory: precious and fleeting, - fragile and heart lifting.

"It looks heavenly. I can't picture mastafors running about down there," said Tia.

"It's not a heaven to him."

"Then what is heaven?" asked Tia.

"It's simply something wonderful, - that's hard to obtain. You know it when you see it. And when you see it, and you experience it; you feel blessed. It lightens your soul."

"That sounds like being in love."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Hey, you're becoming awful insightful these days Tia."

"I've had a lot of time to think about things."

"You and me both," I said. "Look over there. Can you see the tetra? She's awfully bright. Can we tone that down?" I pointed to a rather brilliant gold reflection coming from our plateau.

The tetra is always active; it uses black body technology to collect solar power. Ideally, a tetra is placed in a location such as on a planet or satellite that has plenty of exposure to a nearby star. In our case here, it's basically black in colour when it's absorbing planet Sophie's sunlight and when it's not, it reflects the yellow gold colour of her sun.

"What would you suggest?"

"Tone it down somehow."

"That's not how it works. It would be easier to control the weather so there's more overcast."

"We need to be more hidden. Someone at a higher altitude than our plateau might be able to see us."

"I think that the air up here would be too thin for them, Mark."

"You can't underestimate nature's ability to adapt. We have no idea what the primitives are capable of."

Tia looked perplexed. She takes everything to heart. It's not her problem. I can optimize the tetra's operation so she absorbs light for longer periods at a lower rate and reflects less.

"It's good that we came up here, Tia. I've got a few ideas already that might help remedy the situation," and then we left to return to our work on the Nina.

.......

We've officially been on planet Sophie for an entire year on her calendar going by the season. The Nina's science program has investigated each and every living thing here, less the large animals, one or more times, and since we are more or less landlocked to our little plateau the science program has begun to change its focus. I spend more of my time in the lab and less time on outings unless it's to capture something and bring it back to the lab. I am becoming somewhat tired of being a slave for the advancement of science but it sure beats being a human vice or whatever for Tia and her needs. I certainly don't feel like a captain much these days.

The mastafor has been behaving and has recently returned after a month or so somewhere else – mating presumably. The forest is full of babies and resembles a nursery at times or at other moments a free for all feeding frenzy by diabolical predators whose only purpose it seems is to eat others' young.

I am still pretty much a morning and evening member of my new habitat and I've taken up a habit of bathing in the pond when it's not too cold. It's very relaxing once you've warmed up a bit. I have the multis heat it up for me sometimes but often they make the water, too warm. I prefer the fresh feeling of colder water personally. Tia thinks I've lost my mind when all of my hygiene needs are already being met on the Nina. I don't think she likes the water.

I had a look at what the Nina's science program had planned for me for the balance of the summer months and: it wanted to capture a mastafor. The bit of DNA that I had collected from his coat was apparently insufficient. In the past I had captured some of the local wild cattle by trapping them but the mastafor often got to them before I did and sometimes there wasn't much left to study so I found a solution. I used a specific wave length of excited light; enough of it was visible to the naked eye which made it easy to focus on the target. Once you got them to visually focus on the light beam they would become quite placid, and then after administering a sedative, I'd simply strap them to a multi rig and haul them back to the Nina.

I can understand the need to study the higher animals but the mastafor is not your average animal; he's a cunning predator. A quick snap of his jaws could take a limb off of someone like me. He'll need to be baited and then subdued remotely. Tia will be terrified.

.......

It took the remainder of the summer but by the first frost I had caught my mastafor. He was on to my game before I even got started. He took my bait every day for weeks until I devised a trap that orientated his head in just the right manner for the light to have its desired effect. And what a monster; he was almost two hundred kilos of might and muscle.

Four hours later he was on the loose again; less a few grams of this and that that we had decided to keep of him. He was a real beauty though. He was covered in down as I had expected and had seventy-six teeth inside his beaked rostrum. Some of the teeth were very fine and razor sharp and others were large and real pointy for tearing and crushing whatever he intended on eating. The lab repaired two of the big ones that were seriously caried. I expect that he will never thank me for that.

He had some serious hands and feet, too and though none of the fingers were adept at holding real tools; they were certainly deft tools by themselves for climbing. There was no earthly animal to compare him specifically to. He was part flightless bird, part cunning wolf and part tree climbing cat. He appeared to be a warm blooded animal. There were no signs of mammaries but a female mastafor could have those. And just like all the other higher animals found here on planet Sophie so far, - his heart consisted of two atria and one large ventricle.

I think he and I found a bond together threw all of this. He'd often look at me with a wary eye when we came close enough to see one another. I'm certain he watched me more than I watched him since it was discovered that his vision was at least double of mine. I like to think the mastafor had my back and as long as he was about there was only him to worry about.

.......

There was some severe weather through the following winter but I still saw the mastafor pretty much on a regular basis. He grew a thicker coat of down to weather the colder temperatures and it would be a very cold day indeed when I didn't see him. He liked to eat in front of me. He'd bring a fresh kill to perhaps fifteen meters or so from where I might be collecting samples for the Nina's insatiable science program. I didn't care; if he let me do my thing it was fine with me if he did his thing.

But about when the first green sprigs of new life popped up from the forest floor he just disappeared. He gave me a curious look one day and I assumed thereafter that he was out looking for a mate. He had done that the year before early in the spring and had returned after about a two week absence looking all refreshed. Tia said that she hoped he was saying goodbye for good that day and her prediction became more or less accurate. There was no more 'master of the forest' around to keep things in order, so – I was concerned.

Progress on the Nina's middle deck had come to a standstill and at times Tia looked distraught; the job requirements to complete the Nina's refit were simply beyond her means – she was simply too large. A hybrid cannot be a wrecking ball. It's not in their fabric to destroy equipment. The time frames for completing the job were reaching beyond anything even remotely reasonable. It appeared that we would be spending all our remaining years here on planet Sophie - and then some.

The Nina's science program kept me occupied but it was having me making trips increasingly further and further from our camp. Some of these excursions required that I leave early in the morning and then at mid day I'd need to find some shade until the twilight hours and night came. There was little need for me to be available on the Nina to aid Tia because her progress on the refit had slowed dramatically.

I was a good ten kilometers out from the camp one evening and some unscheduled weather had moved in. Rain didn't bother me but it made things more difficult for getting around when I was off the multi rig. My location at the time was in some pretty rough terrain and there was plenty of bare rock and stunted trees about. I'd say I was up at least two hundred meters in elevation above the plateau and to the east of our camp.

The multi on picket duty began humming an alert. I thought my old friend the mastafor was back and had finally returned to visit but this was not the case. There was unfamiliar noise and commotion coming from a steep rock face not far from me. I sent a multi down to investigate.

He reported back to me remotely. There was a small camp. Two lifeless prims were on the ground just outside a shallow cave of sorts. Their deaths were recent. Their bodies were still warm. Whatever had slain the two of them minutes ago was no mastafor; no one had been eaten.

I stealthily crept down the rocky crag as best I could. I wanted to investigate. The mission was being threatened I feared.

A quick forensic investigation revealed that the killer or killers of the two deceased prims had exited the camp site to the east and were now long gone. It appeared that as many as four other prims were included in that group by the bits of evidence the multis had collected.

The two slain had been killed with primitive weapons. One appeared to be quite mature in age and the other appeared to be somewhere between an infant and a pubescent in age. The older was a victim of a spear thrust to the throat and the younger by an arrow to its chest cavity – likely through its heart.

The bodies were still warm and the science program was very interested. What was I to do? I needed to know as much as I could about this new threat to the mission. No wonder I had seen no mastafor; he probably ended up on a prim's dinner plate. These were his predators.

I had no means of bringing both bodies back to the Nina; at least not both at once. There would be multiple trips required between now and the morning. The younger prim intrigued me. It appeared that he had fallen behind the elder who was guarding him from harm. The elder had held a blade made of brass or some soft alloy and it had dropped to the ground beside him. The young one had had no weapon in which to defend himself with. That's murder in my books. Something callous had happened here.

It took all night and I felt like an undertaker shuttling back and forth between the two camps. Tia retired for the night in depression at the sight of the two. "The mission was lost," was all she said to me as I worked feverishly to get the two prims into the lab and under the instruments.

It was determined that the wounds that each prim had suffered were indeed thoroughly fatal. However as morbid as it sounds, - if the undamaged heart from the elder prim was transplanted to the chest cavity of the younger prim – I might be able to rehabilitate the younger. He might live. What to do?

The science program wanted both bodies for dissection. I did something that night that was terribly selfish. The young prim was nearly half the size of Tia. He had articulating hands that included an opposable thumb and four fingers. At least so it appeared.

I chose to save him. I had nothing to lose in the gamble that wasn't worth the chance of getting off this planet in a more timely fashion.

.......

I've been awake for nearly forty-eight hours. I have not left the young prim's bedside since transplanting the elder's heart into his young chest. I had to lock Tia out of the lab; she had become distraught – something I thought was not possible of a hybrid. She feared that the beast was going to kill both of us if I saved its life.

He was really quite a fine specimen of nature. His flesh was thick with collagen. Nothing about him appeared tired or weathered. Nature was still preparing him for a full life. I'm not certain when he might reach maturity, but I'll find out.

I sat beside him under some restful dim light as he slept. He was barely illuminated. He looked so perfect. Not humanly perfect – but perfect nonetheless.

"Beautiful, beautiful," I said.

"He's so young and beautiful."

I counted his fingers habitually. I checked to make sure that they were pink and healthy. I had a look at his reproductive organs. He had a phallus that I would expect was a penis. That would be only the second one I'd seen; counting my own. He was like me in that way. We have things in common already; he and me.

He was however, anything but human. Yet, he was spectacular to me just the same. I wonder what his name is. I wonder who his companion was. There were so many things I don't know about him. I need him as my friend though.

His recovery from death is far from over just yet. He'll be confused for days and he'll also have a massive headache. It's quite possible that I may have to teach him how to walk again. If he's lost his ability to speak how will I be able to teach him my language? How will I become familiar with his, - if he cannot speak? I have to hope that his youthful age will help.

I never in all my days imagined myself someday relying on hope, - for my own survival. Yet here I am counting tiny fingers and nursing a strange primitive being back to life for the hope that he might be able to help me.

.......

It's been seventy-two hours since I've last slept. He's stopped breathing twice on this third day of his new life. I had to resuscitate him. He murmurs something over and over again when he's more lucid. He's clutched my hand once, - but then sensing it to be unfamiliar to him it was quickly pushed away. But he's getting better though, I can feel the life returning to him. He just needs more time.

Tia is getting better, too. I've unlocked the door to the lab. She comes to it to peer in but she hasn't entered it yet. It's going to take all of us some time.

I bet his murmurs are calls for his mama and papa. Who else would he be calling for? He's a natural child who has a family; not a numbered child like me who was manufactured by a machine. If I were young and near death I'd call out for my mentor, too: Dimitri.

I had the multis prepare a grave for the young prim's companion's remains once the Nina's science program was done with him. He's since been buried down by the pond next to Sophie. Unfortunately, I need to go and dig him up again. I have to inspect his digestive tract to discover what these prim's eat. There are vitamins, minerals, proteins and amino acids and such to consider if I'm to put together a healthy diet for this young prim. I can't have him expiring of starvation. He's lost two kilos since I brought him home to the Nina.

I'll have to leave him to do that. If Tia won't watch him then Rimbaud can be programmed to be his nanny while I'm away. It won't take but an hour. It's all the fetching thereafter to find the nourishment he needs that will take the time.

I don't need to sleep. I've gone ten days without any in the past when it had been required. My kit will see me through. The young prim must live. That is my mission now.

.......

Another day has past and my young prim is showing some improvement. Tia too, is better and has returned to her task of refitting the mid deck. Her heart is not in it the way it should be. She's tearing down the control section already ruined by the fire that brought us here. All of it will need to be remanufactured, but it is only a small fraction of the equipment that makes up the mid deck of the Nina. If we ultimately have to destroy the rest of the mid deck and remanufacture it all we will most certainly be here for an eternity.

My young prim is still resting and I intend to keep him that way for at least a week. I'll watch him; day and night as needed. For now, he has what he needs in regards to oxygen and some limited nourishment that I'm giving him intravenously. I'm going to revisit their camp tomorrow and see what I can find out from any of their personal affects that may have been left behind. After the camp I'll exhume the elder prim from his grave and collect some samples from his entrails. I feel that I can't wait much longer; my young prim needs some solid food. I'll make a dash for it tomorrow. Rimbaud can tend to my young charge and keep me in touch should his condition suddenly deteriorate.

I did finally succumb to the need for some sleep and I slept for four precious hours and then set out early in the morning for the prim's old camp. The camp appeared to be still intact and undisturbed as far as I could tell. There were no indications that any of the prims responsible for the murders that had taken place here just four days ago had returned. I fetched the crude blade that I assumed had belonged to the senior prim and in the shallow cave I found some personal affects that looked to have been upset by a robbery. There was a fabric shoulder bag that had once contained some seed, dried fruit and protein going by the trace remnants I found within the pretty much emptied bag. All this will help in determining what kind of nutrition my young prim needs.

I also found a small leather purse that closed and opened by a draw-string. It had been opened and tossed to the side once its contents had been searched I suspect. In the tiny bag I found three tiny but imperfectly shaped glass spheres and, - a mastafor tooth; an upper right incisor – which was one of the large ones as I remember. I suspect that these were the personal items of the young prim. I collected everything that I felt was pertinent to bring back to the Nina. Who knows how helpful they might be?

At the pond I extricated the mummified remains of the elder prim. I collected whatever I could find in his digestive tract so I could examine his digested and partly digested food back in the Nina's lab. I made haste after reburying the elder prim and returned back to the Nina; my young prim must be hungry.

What I couldn't reproduce in the lab I had the multis go out and collect for me. By the end of the day I had a feeding tube inserted into my young subject's stomach. And I was now finally feeling that I was making some progress in the matter of this young prim's rehabilitation.

I did some research. On earth, - say five hundred years ago, those small glass spheres would have been called marbles. They were a child's distraction. A toy if you will. The mastafor's tooth was likely a good luck token. Perhaps the eventual intention of its safe keeping was to make an amulet out of it one day.

Some of the seed food that I found in the digestive tract of the senior prim were familiar to me but were very unrefined. In particular, the maize like seed was quite primitive. The power of that seed through the course of humanity was incredible. To this very day it's grown everywhere that men have settled. If I could do just one great thing for these primitive men it would be to improve their maize. I liked that idea. If you use the services of someone you should pay a remittance or in this case, -if you are using someone's planet you should try to leave it a better place when you leave.

My young prim made some murmurs again. It was louder than his previous attempts which I'll take as a positive sign regarding his recovery. He had hearing and it appeared to be similar to that of the other animals on planet Sophie. He had good vision as far as I could tell, too. His eyes were very large and set in front of his face in an avian way. There wasn't much in the way of a nose but he clearly had nostrils though they were rather diminutive in size in comparison to his eyes and mouth. I had examined his voice box and though present it was significantly different from say - my own. So, communicating with him could very well be a challenge. There is however some excellent programming available on the Nina for just this such a thing.

Tomorrow, I'll try to get him a little more lucid. It's for his own good. I need him to exercise the heart I transplanted into him. A healthy heart is the very essence of good health in every animal.

.......

Doubts; I have so many. So much depends on this young prim. Is he going to be terrified by the sight of me? He has the size and he has the hands but will he have enough intelligence or even the right personality. A zombie will not be adequate. I have to make him not fear me. How? How does one become a charming alien?

I'm pretty certain that he's lucid enough now to know that he's not on that rocky crag anymore. And I'm also pretty certain that if he opened his eyes he'd quickly realize that he was not with one of his own kind. If he does become of no use to me I need at least to rehabilitate him to the point where I can safely set him free. I am committed to at least that. It's only right and the moral thing to do. I will not make him my prisoner.

I was counting his fingers again when his right forefinger closed onto his thumb all by itself. I checked his restraints. He would be able to sit up but he would not be able to use his legs to get down from his bed.

As the minutes went by it became apparent that he wanted to pull his feeding tube from out of his nostril. I did that for him. If need be I can sedate him again and return him back to tube feeding.

I truly feel sorry for him. He was dead. He had a death that must have been relatively short but still, - quite terrifying. I hope he remembers little of it. I'm sure that if he was given the choice he would want to live rather than die. I hope if that was not the case, - that he might forgive me.

By mid day is eyes had opened but his pupils were not responding to light. For another hour I worried that I had blinded him somehow, but his pupils did begin responding once I piped in some natural light.

Five days now, I've nursed this child. I have myself locked into the lab. I sleep here. I eat here. And, - I wait here.

"Wake my child. Come to life."

I counted his fingers again, and sleep overcame me. I dreamt of Sophie, Cosmo and Dimitri. They were all alive. It was a joyous dream and when I awoke, - he was staring at me. He wasn't afraid. He was brave. He made me proud.

.......

Tia didn't know what to make out of my behavior. She's not maternal. She doesn't understand. She needed my services for an hour or two the following day and I must admit I wasn't that much of a help to her because my primary focus was on the lab. I watched the young prim's every movement remotely from the mid deck. He rubbed his nose. He touched the wound on his chest. His eye's spent time studying each part of his room. I hope he doesn't find it – as a prison cell.

I had collected his clothes; cleaned and mended them. They were rough and unsophisticated but they were handmade, nonetheless. I'd never seen such clothing before. They were made from animal hide and hand woven wool. There were crude large buttons and button holes in his upper garments and there were iron buckles and hand woven laces that held his leggings to his flesh. I placed them all in a neat pile at the end of his bed for when he was well enough to wear them.

He was certainly the quiet sort. Except for the murmurs and the few noises he made when he wasn't quite lucid a day or two ago he has not uttered a noise since. I'm going to keep it simple when I do attempt to communicate with him. He and I need to know our names and occupations. I'll be Mark: the captain of a sky ship. Then, we can talk numbers, something simple like one to ten - just like the fingers on our hands. An awful lot can be communicated by just a small vocabulary. A program will be our intermediary at first and then I hope we can speak together someday and have a real intimate conversation just between the two of us.

These are the things I think about all the time now. I never knew this person until six days ago. And now, he's all I think about and I have yet to learn his name. He fascinates me. I am totally smitten with him.

.......

The young prim has begun sitting up in his bed and shortly thereafter I had him up and on his and feet and walking about, albeit while being carefully supervised of course. I have offered him water and food and he received both without much complaint. I think he prefers my food more so than his own. My food is sweeter and more salty than his. If I ingest too much of either my kit finds ways to rid my body of it. This young prim does not have that advantage. I can't have him getting fat so I'll be watching his diet.

He appeared to be house trained and he too, had a natural inclination to relieving himself in the great outdoors. Tia complained that she didn't know where to step when she was outside. I found it surprising that she looked down upon the poor lad and judged him so harshly. He was still a young boy and of limited intellect as far as we could tell.

I began to try and communicate with him. Tia thought that idea was total nonsense. When I caught him murmuring to himself I signed as well as I could that he should speak louder so I might hear him better. It was rather amazing: his speech was much like a bird but in a lower octave. It was beautiful and quite musical. It was like he was singing; at least to my ears. All of this was being analysed of course and it occurred to me - that of all the animals on earth only the birds were capable of reproducing human speech.

Over the course of several hours I pointed to things within the Nina and outdoors within our camp and I had him tell me what they were. He appeared to find it amusing and then I showed him a simple audio transducer that I held in my hand and I pointed out everything that he showed me within the last ten minutes and told him what they were using the little transducer. His eyes grew bigger and at times he corrected me or more 'matter of factly' – he corrected the program on the proper pronunciations of some of the things I had said to him.

At the end of it all I pointed to myself.

"Mark," I said.

"Blakk," he answered.

Mark is a hard sounding word for him. Every word he had mentioned so far was soft and musical in pronunciation.

"Mark," I said.

"Makk," he answered.

"Mark," I repeated my name again.

"Marakk," he said this time.

"Mark. I'm Mark," I said carefully enunciating the one syllable to my name.

"Mark," he finally said.

I paused and smiled.

"Coozo," he said while pointing to his own chest.

"Coozo," I answered.

He started chattering. Perhaps it was his way of laughing. At any rate, he seemed pleased with himself.

This was fantastic. I had him follow me back into the Nina and we went up to the middle deck to see Tia. Tia had told me previously in no uncertain terms that the prim was not welcome there, but I have rank.

"Tia, I want you to meet someone."

She was not amused. She came out of a tiny duct that she barely fit in and this is after months and months of dieting to trim her size down. She was about to point us in the direction of the door when I took the upper hand.

"Tia this is Coozo," and I pointed to our young guest.

"Coozo," he sang.

Tia was looking at me like I had just lost my mind and I pointed to myself while looking at Coozo.

"Mark," he said and he had to say it sharply and almost too fast but it was a 'Mark' alright. And spoken clearly I might add.

I pointed to Tia, and I said "Tia."

"Blakk," is all that he could get out of his mouth.

I laughed anyways.

"He has trouble with hard sounds and your name has two syllables."

"Tia," I said again as lyrically as I could muster it.

"Tea – ah," Coozo sang back.

Tia looked more perplexed than dumbfounded. I think that was a good sign and soon there were three of us smiling again on the Nina's mid deck.

.......

Insect day; it seems not a week goes by without another insect day in there somewhere. I swear whoever designed the Nina's science program had a real penchant for insects.

On today's insect day, I had Coozo come with me; he was small enough to ride on the back of the multi rig. At worst, he was going to have to hold some of our special cargo on the way back. The last time I brought him along on an insect day, he thought we were collecting food. One for me and one for Coozo was the pattern of that day. Today's focus was collecting end of summer insects such as locusts and butterflies or things of that nature.

It was a simple catch and bottle mission that would take about two hours and it was just five minutes or so away from our camp. Coozo seemed bored at times and I don't blame him but insect days were part of the larger mission. As it turned out it took us a half hour longer because the butterflies were rather wily and energetic fliers this morning.

When we did return to the camp all appeared as it should until we entered the tetra and immediately I tugged Coozo back with me in retreat and back outside of the tetra. I quickly sounded the alarm. The tetra had been compromised and there appeared to be the bodies of prims fallen onto the tetra's earthen floor.

"Tia! Tia are you okay?" I called to her remotely from the multi rig.

"Yes. Why?"

"The tetra has been compromised. Keep the hatches closed until I have time to investigate some more."

I sent two multis into the tetra. They reacted quickly to the presence of the deceased invaders and it was obvious that they were unaware of the breach that had taken place on their watch.

Two things here sealed these invaders' fate. The Nina has two hatches that are normally closed and were closed at the time that they tunnelled their way in and this helped trap them. Secondly, the atmosphere within the tetra is pretty much entirely made up of nitrogen to protect the Nina's hull from oxidization. So they would have become asphyxiated rather quickly since prims require a healthy amount of oxygen – even more so than I do. I hold my breath when I walk through the tetra and if I need to spend time in there I use a rebreather. Coozo has been taught to do the same. I never thought such a thing would ever deter an attack, but if you are somehow trapped in an environment without the necessary compliment of gases you require then death can come quick. In as little as ten seconds I've heard. An eternity as I remember back on the Olympia.

I brought the dead bodies out and into the camp's clearing. They were a motley crew in my judgment and certainly not soldiers. They appeared unclean and their attire was ragged. They possessed a bow and arrow, two spears and four short blades.

Coozo was mortified. I don't think he's been exposed to too much death, - except for his own I would imagine. These dead prims were most likely his murderers which I suppose is likely a good thing for all of us.

Tia would not come out of the Nina; she took some down time and retired to her quarters. I suppose she deserved to do so. I had the multis collapse the prims' tunnel and I had Coozo help me find its entrance. It was just a mere fifty meters away and of course cleverly out of sight.

"They must have studied our patterns and worked on the tunnel at night. What do you think, Coozo?" I asked.

I knew full well that Coozo could not understand me, but I could still see that he fully understood the gravity of the situation by the look on his face.

He pointed to the face of one of the dead prims and made a declaration of some kind while we ferried the four down to the pond to where Midge's and the elder prim's remains had been buried.

"Do you know him?" I asked.

He got the idea and nodded back. I had him in the habit now of nodding for affirmative answers and shaking his head for negative answers when I questioned him. Normally we did this for only the simplest of conversations but Coozo's intuition was pretty keen at the moment.

I know he is young. I know that there is an enormous language barrier between us. I'm also pretty certain that he can't recall everything about his past – including his murder. It's quite a common occurrence to experience some memory loss for those who've been rehabilitated after their death. But I need to know everything that he can remember.

Coozo became distraught as I rolled the bodies of the four dead prims into a nice deep hole that the multis had made for me. He became quite vocal and it all centered on the same prim that he had pointed out with more than a little disdain in his voice earlier. The word that he kept repeating was the same that he had murmured and wailed many times during his recovery: 'Doo Doo'.

"Doo Doo, Doo Doo," cooed Coozo.

I think my young friend Coozo had watched his father being murdered. It now occurred to me that the other prim, the senior one with the throat wound, the one that I had taken the heart from that fateful day might have been Coozo's father. How horrible, and it was I now - who felt like a monster.

.......

It took more than a few days for Tia and Coozo to come to terms with what happened that day. In hindsight of course it was rather predictable had we known a little more about what had actually happened three weeks earlier. The four invaders were not after Coozo; they were after the Nina.

It all started to come together in bits and pieces despite the communication gap between myself and Coozo. I had noticed on many occasions that Coozo was quite taken with shiny things. Metal and glass fascinated him and when he had the opportunity he would rub the surface of the tetra with his hands and in particular if the tetra was actively reflecting sunlight at the time.

In the days that followed the attack on the tetra I began putting some real emphasis on having Coozo and I learning some terminology that might help me come to understand more about his background. At one telling moment we happened to be just outside of the tetra for an English lesson and we were putting ideas and words together about the geography around us when he put two ideas together that I found rather alarming.

We had just established what a mountain was in his and my own words. There was of course a good sized one directly behind us that we had both been pointing at. Coozo however went one step further and he pointed to the tetra and then he pointed to a color selection on a chart that we had been using to learn our colors and he put his finger on the gold selection.

"Mountain of gold," said Coozo while he pointed to the reflecting tetra with his other hand.

And so it finally dawned on me: he, his father and the other four thought the tetra was a mountain of gold.

Coozo and his father were murdered because of their knowledge of the tetra's whereabouts.

A mountain of gold... Greed... It was all coming together now and not in a good way. For certain, more of them will come and the mission is going to be in danger.

And so, it became really difficult to relax after that revelation. Coozo's presence with us was probably a blessing of sorts because we'd have no idea what was going on outside of our camp if it were not for him. Unbeknownst to us at the time, we had been discovered by the primitive people here and well before I brought Coozo into our camp.

.......

So, the camp's security had to be improved. The multis alone were simply not enough; the prims were simply far too clever for regular watchmen. We were probably more secure back when the mastafor was running things out in the woods. I do miss him. It's been months now since I've seen him last and it's now quite clear why he's been absent. Life here was certainly much better while he was around. For the beast that he was – he did bring some order and a measure of security to the camp.

There were of course some other options that I had at my disposal. I'm hesitant however to use them. Firstly, I had my own 'master of the forest' if need be: Rimbaud my trusty miu. But I'm not about to unleash that kind of devastation upon the primitive population of this planet without good reason.

Tia and I require at least five years here, and then we'll be gone. That's our plan. It could very well evolve into a longer stay because of the technical difficulties we're having with dismantling the sensitive components contained on the mid deck but I'm still quite optimistic that we'll be gone from here in a timely fashion.

My second option is not much better than the latter one. It is easily done and well within our means however, and that is: I make a family of viruses to inflict on these people that they have no natural means to defend themselves from. I have at my disposal one of their own to study and the mountain here that I live on is rife with bloodsucking insects to spread whatever fatal or near fatal malady I choose to make-up.

I think a strain of influenza would work well. It's reasonably debilitating. It might take a month or so to make it happen. It has to be done carefully. It firstly has to be designed and then administered to the parasites; who they themselves, need to be genetically altered in order to become immune carriers of the virus.

No one will be able to spend more than a day near this mountain without becoming seriously ill. Each and every spring I'll introduce another altered strain to the parasites just to keep any natural immunity from growing within the hosts. Let's hope their medical technology is as grim as the rest of their iron age know how. They are near men in intellect and they are not to be underestimated as I have learned.

.......

The young Coozo was usually quite bored when I had lab work. He needed constant supervision when I was distracted from him so Rimbaud was tasked almost continuously with waiting on him when I was busy in the lab. Rimbaud would have to undo every questionable thing that Coozo did when I wasn't around to watch over him and alarm me if there was something of importance that needed my attention right away. I swear if it were possible he would be flying the ship by now if it weren't for our conscientious interventions. Even the Nina's operating system intuitively became aware of the presence of the 'passenger' as he became to be referred as.

I sometimes watched him remotely while he wandered the camp with Rimbaud in tow. The lab work required a great deal of care and patience. My virus needed to be just right to be one hundred percent effective. I'd watch him remotely from afar and it was worrying; I was in love with just about everything about him: his youth, his vitality and the magnificent future that a young life as his has in front of it. I understood Dimitri's and Cosmo's kind doting on me, now. It'll be a sad day when we have to finally depart. In the meantime there's so much I want to teach him.

"Coozo would you like to accompany me to the mountain top tonight?" I asked him after I had completed my lab work for the day. "There's something I want to see up there with my own eyes. You can come, too if you like."

Of course he was interested and for most of the next three hours till nightfall he followed me around with his mouth part agape. This was his way of smiling as far as I could tell because sometimes it was accompanied with hand clapping and his peculiar nonsensical chatter that served for laughter.

The real reason I wanted to visit the mountain top was because there was to be no overcast in the sky tonight and Hector had finally arrived. He was in a high orbit above planet Sophie, but nonetheless, he'd be visible to the naked eye if you knew where to look. There would be two passes tonight between dusk and dawn; so if we miss one there will be another. We never really lost contact with him, but it's been near ten years since we've actually seen him last. Tonight we'll watch for his flyby. It'll be our little reunion of sorts.

The multis struggled a little with our lift. Coozo has been growing but he still fits comfortably on the back of the multi rig. He is a young boy of course and spring and summers had him growing like everything else around here. We arrived at the top a good hour before Hector would be making his first pass. Any personal time I spent solely with Coozo was an occasion that he always appreciated and he would ask odd questions of me and we'd talk about ourselves – well in confidential terms. He'd share something, and then I too would offer something, also.

He couldn't see to the bottom of the mountain for the darkness of course but he peered longingly down there nonetheless.

I asked him about his family. His father had been a farmer and his name as best that I could pronounce was: 'Jockoo'. Who was a farmer who liked to hunt for precious metals between the growing seasons.

Everyone had to work in the fields if you wanted to live in the safety of the villages. Everyone needed a vocation just like in any other civilization.

His mum's name was 'Loopa'. Thank heavens it was easier to pronounce.

"Do you think she worries about you and your father?"

He didn't think so. She had several husbands. Jockoo was apparently a poor provider. It's funny I thought; you cross the universe and the genders all behave the same.

I had to share that I had no father, no mother, but I did have hundreds of siblings and those I got to know became good friends who all had the same birthday in common. He was quite intrigued when I told him that I was brought into the world to become a soldier.

"Had I killed anyone?" he asked.

"Yes," I admitted, and added, "too many - and at times I'm not very proud of that."

Coozo looked a bit fearful at me. He loved life. I'd seen him pet the woodland cattle with one hand and eat live salamanders with his other at the same time.

"It was my training. I was programmed to kill."

I don't think he understood. Someday I hope he does.

"Look Coozo," and I pointed up to the sky in the west.

I could feel him before I saw him and I could feel him as he progressed across the sky until he was right over top of me. It felt like he was part of me for that moment.

Hector could be seen if you looked carefully for his dim light up in the sky. He wasn't as bright as the much brighter stars and of course they did not move as he did. He'd flicker once every five seconds. That was his heartbeat back to the Nina. He'd be gone and out of sight in ten minutes as he crossed the sky from horizon - to horizon.

"He's my friend in the sky, Coozo. And from now until the day I depart you'll be able to see Hector cross the sky at night. He'll adjust his orbit to be right above me when he passes and that will happen twice in the day and twice at night until I go up there and reunite him with the Nina."

I think Coozo got the significance of some of it. He's known for some time now that I'm not from his planet. In fact, I would think he would have realized this rather quickly back in my lab at that very moment he first opened his eyes and got his first real eyeful of me - a real live alien, - standing there in front of him. An awkward moment I would think and one that he handled very well as I remember. And yet, so much has transpired between us since then. It seems so long ago, yet just one short year has passed since that fateful meeting.

.......

From the day I mentioned to Coozo that I had been a soldier back in my younger days he became obsessed with challenges; challenges for wrestling matches, challenges for racing and challenges for just about any kind of display of strength that you can think of. I'd rather he spent more time learning how to communicate with me but in a sense the challenges were just that, so I indulged him.

Tia would come out from the Nina and into the camp's clearing to watch. Which I thought was rather peculiar too. It appeared that I was the villain in every match. You know – the one to beat. Someone had taught him a few good moves but he was no match for me. I've simply had far more training – that's all.

As the days went on he got a little bit bitter and he bit me.

"Hey, hey, hey. No biting that's cheating!"

"Blakk," said Coozo with his smiley mouth half agape.

He wasn't feeling any shame at all.

"I'm not wrestling with a biter – that's cheating. That's breaking the rules."

"Blakk."

Tia was smiling.

"You don't play fair either. It's not a fair match," said Tia.

And I suddenly got an idea.

"Come with me. Come on," and I pointed to the tetra.

The two of them followed me into the tetra and then into the Nina and onto the middle deck whose refit was progressing at a snail's pace. I picked up a tool. It happened to be a wrench and I held it out to Coozo. He looked at me with some trepidation at first but he took the metal wrench into his hand knowing that that was forbidden to him just a minute ago.

"Come here," and I pointed to a simple fastener just inside one of the maintenance ducts.

"Put the wrench on the fastener and hold it," and I guided his hand.

From the other side I loosened the fastener and its back half fell into Coozo's opened hand.

"He can't do that for me deep into the duct. He won't know where to hold the wrench," said an incredulous Tia shaking her head negatively. "He's not ready for this. He'll never be ready."

I called up a small multi and had it focus a low powered laser onto another fastener a good meter deeper into the maintenance duct. Coozo's with his mouth half agape went to the fastener and immediately put the wrench on it.

I turned to Tia and she wasn't shaking her head anymore.

"Coozo, I'll teach you all the martial arts that I know and can remember after each day we work disassembling this mid deck."

I demonstrated the message the best I could with words that I knew he understood and with actions miming wrestling holds.

"Blakk, Blakk, Mark. Blakk, Blakk Tea -ah," laughed Coozo while nodding his head in agreement.

.......

It was an ideal arrangement for everyone. Together, we became a focused team. We all had our own specialized skill sets to bring to the job site - even our young prim. After a shift was done Coozo and I would go outside and practise our moves. Most of it translated very well to his physical characteristics such as throws, kicks and punches. Pressure points were another matter; his physiology was different from mine in that aspect but we found some anyways.

Coozo sweated profusely when he exerted himself, -but it didn't slow him down any. And he possessed a positively stubborn amount of stamina. I know he's young but I've had years of conditioning via kit and the Nina's health regimen and this young prim could out last me. His only real weakness was that he required more practice because these new physical movements were so unfamiliar to him. Another ten kilos and a year or two of training and he was going to eventually beat me.

I introduced him to some pike training seeing how that being such a primitive weapon he might adapt to it with some ease. I had learned some moves in the handling of a pike from some real experts back in my youth. At first, he seemed more interested in throwing it like a spear but I had him cart wheeling and vaulting in no time. A small soldier adept with a pike was a serious weapon on the battlefield. Multiply that by thousands and you can see from where the miu evolved from.

We saw less of Tia during those matches outside of the tetra. She could see a window of opportunity closing if she didn't hurry just as I could. So when I was out amusing our young friend in the yard she was preparing work for us for the next day. Coozo had already grown nearly five centimeters taller since he first came aboard the Nina a year ago and I was expecting that by the middle of next year he would become too large to help us with the disassembly of the mid deck; so time - was of the essence.

Fall was upon us in no time and as the winter approached I built a temporary enclosure to be used as a gymnasium for Coozo and I to continue our training indoors. I think the physical contact helped to bond us together more. We learned to be more patient with each other. We were signing less and speaking more. On my part I had to learn how to sing at times and for Coozo: how to speak. It was never going to be perfect because on both our parts whether speaking or singing it was too unnatural for each of us to do so. If we were both men then we were of two different species rather than races. A cat and a dog can communicate but they are never going to become fluent. And so understanding what each of us wanted to communicate to the other was going to be a slow and patient process at times.

I bet at least once a month he would ask me to tell him the story again of how I came to discover he and his father on that rocky crag on the mountain side. I think he wanted to remember it himself but he could not of course – he was dead or near death at the time. I'd explain to him patiently how I could only save him but not his father because of the severity of his father's wound. And I'd tell him how I buried his father's body down by the pond and how I spent days nursing his son Coozo back to health again.

The only detail that I would fail to tell – is that I transplanted the heart of his father into the chest of his son. I had no idea at the time that the elder prim was the father of the juvenile I found that day and had I, - I would have done just the same. But it did not make good sense to reveal to Coozo that he carried his father's heart within his breast. That information was, too dramatic, too macabre to weigh upon on anyone's mind let alone a young boy's.

.......

The critical areas of the Nina's mid deck, those that were going to be the most troublesome for Tia to disassemble on her own were all successfully disassembled by early the following spring. I wanted to have a party. Years of work had been averted. Our timely departure from planet Sophie was plausible again. We had our mission back. Tia was so much happier. We'll see how happy she is when we can fly this bird again. The re-engineering was going to take away fifty percent of the former mid deck's free space. My helm is in there. It'll be about the size of a broom closet or lavatory even.

That was the cost for Tia and I. But what of Coozo? We were not going anywhere soon anyhow. It would be another two years before the Nina would be ready for flight again. Everything that we had taken out of the mid deck would have to be reinstalled with many changes and alterations to accommodate our larger tech: Tia.

Sometimes, Coozo would entertain us. He'd put a kit on his head and tell us he was a 'spaceman'. If only it was that simple. The kit could not make 'heads nor tails' out of his brain. It was completely benign and ornamental in function - and nothing more than a tin crown upon his head. We'd indulge him when he toyed with the idea but it was never going to be possible. He was never going to be more than a passenger.

His fate weighs heavily on my heart.

.......

While the three of us were busy disassembling the Nina's mid deck over the winter Hector kept the Nina's science program amused. Hector wasn't just our eye in the sky he was mapping every square meter of this planet's surface and the locations of all its precious minerals, every city and settlement the prims had and the list goes on like a complete and total physical inventory. That rest for us was a blessing to us all but no sooner had we finished up with the mid deck it became time to administer our virus to the real world as the winter frost had finally left the forest soil.

Fleas were chosen as our preferred carrier and that was in the hope to keep the infection as land borne as possible. The specific family of flea that was selected were rather partial to the many species of vermin that lived here on our mountain. I'm pretty certain that one or two of our more adventurous infected fleas were going to make it off the mountain via a migrating bird but generally speaking our fleas preferred the local vermin as their host. The DNA that the Nina's science program had been collecting and studying for the past two years allowed us to tailor make an influenza virus that would have no harmful effect on the flea or the vermin, but a prim was going to become sick shortly after his first camp anywhere near this mountain.

Coozo and I were going to distribute the fleas at fifty different sites. Some of our drop offs were going to require the cover of darkness as many were at quite low elevations. I think Coozo got the gist of what we were doing seeing how Tia and I had frequently talked about the matter all through the winter months. Sadly, the real levity here was that we were interfering with a sovereign eco system and this is pretty much uniformly frowned upon by New Eurons and most Colonists.

Each site would receive a handful of flea ridden mice. Sometimes, I would have to administer two handfuls because someone would snack on one or two of the mice. There was no changing him. He was what he was. There were plenty of mice for everyone.

We knew we were done when one evening we came upon a small camp near the base of our mountain. It appeared abandoned but the reality was a little more sinister than that. The sole occupant was deceased. We found him curled up in his bedding. He appeared to be middle aged. I suppose the fever had got to him. We didn't disturb the site and left promptly after determining the likely cause of his death.

"Perhaps he had a weak heart," I suggested to Coozo who appeared shocked by the discovery.

To me he's a dead prim and someone I don't want on the mountain. To Coozo he's one of his own. Certainly no one he knew personally, but at the same time someone he'd be inclined to have some fraternity with. I am the alien here, - that is the unpleasant truth.

.......

Finally the day had come. The three of us were out in the camp. Coozo and I were entertaining Tia with a wrestling match. I had beaten Coozo fairly at wrestling for months now and today he finally had me in a hold that I could only get out of by cheating – for example let's say by some biting. But I didn't and I let the young prim win fair and square.

Well, - you'd of thought a galactic war of huge proportions had just ended. There was chest thumping, whooping and shrieking. Yahoos and Bah –Roos, and most of this nonsense was coming from my loyal friend Tia.

"Blakk... Blakk..."

"Bah – Roo. Bah-Roo."

Coozo was strutting about like a trumpeter in a parade and Tia was bouncing up and down and shrieking like a little tyke full of sweets.

"Hey. Hey, I could have got out of that hold if I cheated – and bit someone!"

All I received for that sour grape suggestion was a bunch of raspberries.

"Hey. Who taught him everything he knows about wrestling!"

More raspberries.

I shook Coozo's hand and gave him a fatherly squeeze at the shoulders.

"Good job Coozo. Good work my boy. I knew you'd get the old man in a fix some day. And we did it by the rules. You're the champion today."

"Thanks Mark," warbled Coozo.

You could see he was happy with himself. He was beaming.

"You're absolutely welcome."

From that day onward there was a noticeable change in my young friend. We'd have lots of wrestling matches yet, but they were to become more competitive. Coozo was getting close to maturity. He wasn't a young boy anymore. There would be more changes to come for sure. I could see restlessness in his eyes. He was going to want to go home.

And, of course I was going to let him leave. He wasn't my prisoner. He was the saviour of our mission. In two years I'll be gone from this planet and only because of Coozo's help.

.......

Within another two months Coozo could no longer fit in the bit of old duct work that still remained on the Nina's mid deck. He was feeling redundant. I tried to get him interested in the corn that I'd been developing for his planet but he was indifferent to it. I had a small paddock of it growing just outside of the camp. It was in its last step of development and ready to be introduced planet Sophie's eco system: a non invasive new species of maize that was tailored made to thrive through the short growing seasons here.

Coozo could become a wealthy farmer if he took this seed back to his former home, but he was not interested. He wanted gold.

"I can give you all the gold you can carry right now Coozo, but what's the point, - you have plenty of it right here."

Hector had mapped the entire planet for precious metals among many other things. There were places here on this mountain that contained gold that could be acquired quite easily. Some of it was running down the mountain in steep fast running streams of run-off water. One only needed to know where to look.

"I'll provide you with a map. And I'll teach you how to read it."

"Have you ever panned for gold my son?"

At first, he didn't know what I was talking about, but after some demonstration and a few words he seemed to know exactly what I was talking about. What is it about this metal? It's been the ruin of millions. I've travelled across the universe and still I see the lure for gold in men that I share not one iota of DNA with.

I made a chart for him. In it were all of the significant deposits of gold on planet Sophie. Some were deep beneath the sea. Others inland required a significant amount of excavation. But the ones that were near the surface I highlighted for him. Of course he couldn't read the thing at the time but after a few days of studying it he got the idea.

We had to sort out the landmarks and directions. He was all sun based such as east and west. North and south were just the directions that were at his sides when he faced the sun in the morning or early in the evening. And of course, he wasn't interested in visiting a smaller alluvial deposit that was nearby and that had a good source of water at hand. No, he wanted to visit a much larger one that was at least an hour up our mountain. It was a rich bench deposit however; that I must admit looked interesting. Why pan for hours for some dust if nuggets can be dug up a few feet beneath some gravel.

We picked a day when I would be available to help him find the site. Summer was not quite done yet and there was still plenty of time to hunt for some gold. It would be a good distraction for him. He'd be free to mine as much as he wanted.

We used a multi to get up there and marked a path here and there for Coozo to find his way to and from the camp. The insects were terrible up there; the multis were kept busy keeping the hoards of winged bloodsuckers at bay.

The site itself was just a heap of old gravel that had had water running through it a few millennia earlier. The many stones of all different sizes were well rounded from erosion. We had the multis clear a good sized area for us to work in. There was some foliage but not too much. I had fashioned some simple tools to bring such as a pick axe, a shovel and a sturdy classifier to sift through the sand and stone.

Coozo worked up a pretty good sweat rather quickly. This was a pretty high elevation for someone in need of a rich supply of oxygen. I helped him out for a few hours with the digging that we did here and there while the lad rattled through the dirt in our make shift classifier when he started whooping it up.

"Blakk. Blakk."

Between his thumb and forefinger he held up a nice nugget of gold the size of a knuckle. So, we concentrated on that part of the hill for perhaps three quarters of an hour and collected almost twenty kilos of these little nuggets. I was amazed. If I needed some gold I'd just have some made. But I could see how primitive men could be drawn to this. It was instant wealth.

Then, we found the mother lode. Well, the mother lode of the day. It was a thirty kilo nugget – and about the size of his head. He struggled and heaved on it until it came free from its resting place of the past ten thousand years and he hugged it to his breast.

"Blakk."

The sound of a happy prim. I hope this is not his undoing.

.......

It wasn't quite winter yet when Coozo announced that he wanted to go home. He couldn't be a spaceman because he loved his planet too much and I must add his gold, too. He had amassed hundreds of pounds of the precious metal over the past three months and he wanted me to watch over the gold that he couldn't carry with him back down the mountain. I could do that for a couple of years but after that I could be leaving I told him.

So of course he dug a big hole and reburied what gold he wasn't taking. And oh, - he had big ideas. He was going to live like a king. I told him to buy some powerful friends and pay them well or he'd become a sorry young man. He laughed.

It was a sad day when he left. The wet weather had arrived and the ground cover had gone fallow in wait for spring's return. He wore his father's old cap. It was made from stretched animal hide. His mouth hung agape in a smile. He took nothing from the Nina except for the map that I had given him. I bet he had fifty kilos of gold on his back. He was such a strong young man now.

We hugged. It felt so warm, so genuine. Tia hugged him, too. He had put her back in the business of refitting the Nina and he had saved our mission that is something a tech will never forget. I personally had never experienced a friendship like his and mine before. I truly loved him. I loved him long before he picked up a tool to help us. I saw something special in him when I first saw sight of him just as he passed over the precipice of his own death on that fateful day and I knew immediately at that very moment that I had to intervene.

It was a very sad farewell. I'll always remember the day I watched the back of my dearest friend, - walk away through a damp drizzle, down a misty mountain path. What a hollow feeling I was left with. Friends should make us happy. Friends should not make us cry.

I have only Hector to watch over him now. I'll always know where he is but I'll not know how he's feeling. Instead of love I have only worry. My heart aches.

.......

It was a mild winter compared to the past ones. I prepared another batch of influenza for the following spring. I had some breeding mice at the ready for just that so our security should still be assured. I also assisted Tia most every day in some way but in the end it was she who had to make every new connection and it was she who had to consider every modification we made. We were however on track to meet our two year goal. The prims would get their mountain back and no one would have to get sick again.

There was really very little debate about our plans thereafter. We could go home to an uncertain future or we could move on and visit that pristine planet that Hector had found just two years away from here. Uninhabited by any civilization, - a nice temperate water planet; it sounded like a paradise. Where there's lots of temperate water there is often a nice healthy atmosphere. It was the stuff that dreams are made up of. So there was little argument. We were going to set our sights on Hector's best find: Nu 256, which was just a speck in a misty cloud of star systems that kind of resembled our own Milky Way.

I'd gone up to the lookout several times to have a look in the direction Nu 256. With a bit of help from my kit I could at least envision it. I really needed say, - Hector's vantage point to see much. Nonetheless, it would be available to the imagination in the night sky for about two months of every winter here. These visits to the lookout were my best distractions these days. If I didn't find things to do I'd eventually find myself worrying about Coozo.

I'd often dream of him when I slept and most of the dreams were thankfully pleasant. Everyday I'd check with Hector to make sure Coozo was still alive. Apparently, he travelled quite a lot these days. Tia and I would often wonder what he was up to.

"He's spending his gold."

"No. He's opened a bank I bet."

"He's a big deal - a financier."

"No. No. He's got a career as a wrestler I bet."

Laughter.

We were never going to know unless he comes back for the gold he had buried here. But why would he? I gave him a map of where to find all the gold on his planet. He could simply find some more gold somewhere else. The maize I had designed for him was thriving and slowly finding its way out of its original paddock. Coozo could have become a nice wealthy farmer and I would have less to worry about, but he got the gold fever.

The woodland cattle were getting out of hand and apparently they saw the merit in my maize. I thought it a good thing; they could spread my maize all over the mountain in their dung. I'd feel better if a mastafor would show up seeing how there were plenty of woodland cattle to eat, but I suspect the prims are not far away and that only my local influenza was keeping them at bay.

Something not totally unexpected had begun manifesting itself of late that was affecting me quite personally: my immune system these days was having some trouble dealing with the local bacteria. For the most part they were relatively temporary occurrences in nature and easily dealt with. But now I was on guard all of the time for symptoms that might pop up such as a cough, skin eruptions, digestive problems, and even some fever. I was spending more and more of my personal time in the med lab these days dealing with simple infections that were of no consequence a few years ago but now however I needed to be more proactive with early treatment lest I become overrun with some fungus. Tia appears to be completely immune or impervious to any of the nasty local microbes here but there again she also spends most of her time within the safe confines of the tetra which I suppose is where I'm going to be spending more time, too.

I must admit that there had been some change in my vigor since Coozo had departed for his old home. Perhaps I was a tad depressed. He too, felt redundant once the Nina's mid deck was disassembled. I now know how he must have felt. I have little to contribute to the mission at the moment. I won't become the man of the hour until the Nina requires a pilot again and that is still most of another two years away.

.......
Mice Night

Mice night meant spring was here. I developed a whole new strain of influenza as severe as or more severe than the last one. I wanted something that was going to last a few weeks so there would be little will left in an infected prim to continue up the mountain once they recovered from their initial infection. I figured that if you have bronchial pneumonia, you are not going to be climbing mountains. But who knows how sturdy these prims are? I can't take any chances.

I didn't have Coozo to help me so it took two visits by night to deliver the new mice to the lower regions of my mountain. I found some old camps from last year but nothing new and no traces of any prims in general. Up above however was a different story. I found camps that had been inhabited as recently as the past fall and one of them was almost in sight of the tetra.

The problem laid not just in the mice themselves, but also in their environment. It wasn't the best habitat for them. Mice need more soil and foliage. Birds of prey had likely been preying on them. Without some foliage to hide their nests and without ample amounts of soft soil to dig their burrows into; they weren't safe from their natural predators.

I went back to the lab and bred more mice. Larger and heartier ones that might be better able defend themselves. And, I'd double up their population density. It was going to take several weeks and I worked feverishly, - literally, because time was of the essence. Mining season was upon us.

These new mice were likely going to prey upon my earlier smaller mice but I delivered twice as many as the first batch to the mountain above me. It took several trips not just because of their greater numbers but because of their increased size. I think I got them up there just in time because I saw some fresh signs of prims that had likely come down from some of the higher peaks north of here. I found a camp that had crude iron pick axes and pry bars left behind. They must have been either too ill to carry the tools home or they were absent from their camp to mine somewhere nearby. I didn't linger to investigate.

If there was any comfort in regards to all of this it was that I would only need to do this once more. Just one more influenza strain to develop and just one more week of mice nights and this sorry chapter will come to its much needed end. I could be off this mountain and planet, too and in as little as eighteen months from now. The Nina's refit was coming along much better now and I dream of Nu 256 just about every time I lay my head down these nights.

.......

I pretty much begged Tia for some more involvement in the Nina's mid deck's refit but she wasn't having any of that. She personally liked to oversee everything and she was quite particular on how things were to be done. She reminded me that she never interfered with my role as captain so I shouldn't interfere with her judgement as a tech. Sometimes, days would go by before she would call me to lend and extra hand so time just crawled along for me. The Nina's science program had even grown tired of the mountain and now spent much of its time crunching numbers and studying Hector's data.

So, I took up gardening. I had leisurely swims down at the pond when it was warm enough. I found things to do like an old man in a retirement home might find amusing. The days were quiet and for the most part uneventful. At night if the skies were clear I'd go up to the lookout and watch Hector's fly by. And though, summers here were short this summer seemed to go on forever. If I retire on that water planet in Nu 256 which is an idea that Tia and I liked to entertain, - just how was I going to manage? A man needs to be engaged with his world. All this idle time was unnerving.

As it has been a common occurrence for millennia the devil finds naughty things for idle hands to do. So, at the start of every day I followed the footsteps of my dear friend Coozo, unbeknownst to him of course. Hector would pinpoint his whereabouts every four hours and we could follow his progress. My young friend had been doing a lot of travelling. Tia and I thought he would have visited other mountains and some not far from here to collect some more gold but that was not the case. For the most part he visited populated places. The largest city he visited had almost one hundred thousand souls living there. And I must give these prims some credit because that's a substantial colony to feed considering their primitive technology.

I miss him so. I hope he's well. It's his apparent naiveté that has me worry. Are they all like that? I would think not. I only saw him upset a few times however and the rest of the time he wore his silly half agape grin where ever he went. The ones that murdered he and his father - seemed pretty cold hearted and cunning. He has martial arts skills; I gave him that at least.

I must admit this though; my young friend had his freedom. It is I who is the prisoner on this planet. Tia and I could only live in freedom vicariously through our young friend Coozo and we talked of his travels each day as though they were our own.

We followed him across rivers. Did he use a bridge or a barge? We followed him along paths and roads. Did he walk or did he use a beast of burden pulling a wagon? A 'Knee-Po-Pah' - that's the phonetic pronunciation for the prims' most common pack animal which was a tall, feathered biped. That's as close to a multi as the prims' have. You could ride on the back of one. They were good and sturdy so Coozo had explained to me. I've not seen one myself so I can only imagine what one might look like.

.......

One day around mid to late autumn we noticed an unusual course change in Coozo's typically meandering path; he had started heading back to our mountain. If he was coming to visit I was truly elated but he also appeared to be accompanied by an entourage of twenty or so – others. Surely he wasn't bringing them to the mountain, they'd become grievously ill before they were half up the path. But, as the days went by it became a certainty that that was exactly what was happening.

Tia was alarmed but I assured her that it wasn't possible that anyone but Coozo himself was going to make it up the path. By the end of the second day of their ascent what was becoming alarming was that there were still four in the party and they were a mere four hours away. I sent two multis down to have a look. Remotely, they showed two prims travelling by knee-po-pahs up the path. One was obviously Coozo. The other was a mystery.

I had the two multis engage the party and sure enough Coozo and partner were all that there was to the party. Coozo waved to the multis as he knew why they were there was to greet him. I think they spooked his beasts because there was some momentary commotion in their progress.

"Tia, we're about to have some company."

She looked perplexed but appeared to be composed as I readied Rimbaud. He needed to be briefed lest he see our guests as belligerents. I was becoming possessed with a mixture of emotions. My friend was returning. I missed him so dearly and now he was just an hour away. Yet, the good sense in me knew there was going to be some real wrinkles in his visit. Why was he here? Was it good news? Was it bad? I'll soon know I suppose. I could hardly sit still for the excitement. I fidgeted. I got up and paced the camp for no good reason several times. The wait was agony.

Then, there they were. Two prims mounted on two tall knee-po-pahs and accompanied by the two multis who I had sent to greet them. The second prim was slighter than my Coozo. I must say the two looked well attired and the stranger held his head quite high. Coozo's beaming grin was quite prominent as the two came to a stop and dismounted from their beasts.

"Coozo!" I shouted in joy. "My son," I whispered under my breath.

I was weak in the legs and felt giddy as I smiled back at my friend.

"We thought there were four of you. Who is your handsome friend?"

I held out my hand to shake and Coozo shook it vigorously. I hugged him close and took the deepest breath in of my life. He smelled like some of the happiest moments of my life if that were possible. His eyes were weak in vigour however. Something was bothering him.

" Yes. Yes. There are four of us. This is Paiya: my wife and she has given birth just a month past to two boys," said Coozo haltingly.

His new wife appeared in awe as he spoke my language and I his.

"Where are they?" I asked inquisitively with an endearing smile and I looked to this young lady prim who had eyes even larger than Coozo's.

"Blakk," said a proud father.

Well apparently she had a pouch and indeed she had two young offspring in there, - tiny young guys, who were born very much alive much like a marsupial would back on good old planet Earth. I had suspected that this was the case for prim reproduction anyways, but I was still taken aback when I was shown the two young ones suckling on tiny teats inside the young lady's pouch. Very unusual I must say. Not something I would ever have thought that I would see some day.

I'd never met anyone in a family way before. Sure there were a lot of colonists that still had children in a natural way but I was a New Euron and we were practically manufactured. I must say that such a sight instantly brings something primal out of you. You want to go on a hunt and become a provider or something like that and in a moment or two I was urging the two of them to come rest in our old gymnasium.

"Tia?" asked Coozo.

I pointed to the tetra which was just opening for Tia's exit. Paiya gasped and swallowed. She tugged at her husband and as much as I could understand, - she was terrified of the sight of Tia's reptile features. Coozo squeezed his wife closer and assured her that Tia was a good friend of his.

"Coozo this was all unexpected but I assure you I am delighted to have you and your young wife visit."

"It's not just a visit," said Coozo. "We're on the run. We were forced here under the threat of death if we didn't co-operate. I tried to tell them many times that they would be in danger if they tried to climb the mountain. One by one they fell ill. Each time one fell the survivors would force us to move along. The last one named 'Kah' died this morning. If we returned back down the mountain there would be many more waiting for us. They want your mountain of gold. They think that only I can take them to it."

Paiya listened to her husband speak but while he did she stared out the gymnasium's windows, - at the tetra; my mountain of gold.

"Are my children safe from the fever?"

"Yes. Yes you are all safe. You and your family have immunity. You have shared blood."

They didn't understand that and frankly I never anticipated Coozo having a family so soon. Every female that he was intimate within the past six months would have some immunity to the virus and any children that may have resulted from those relationships, too.

"Did you have any other relationships recently, Coozo?"I asked.

He's a young man after all, but I need to know. Perhaps my tact and timing were bad but he shook his head negatively.

"Well, you and your family are welcome to stay here. I think at least at the moment that you and your family will need to weather the winter with us. You'll be safe; no one can climb that path in the winter. If any of your kidnappers returned alive to the bottom of the mountain their presence will cause quite a season of influenza down there. In the spring, perhaps we can find a way through the mountains. I think there is a whole new community on the other side that I bet have never heard of Coozo and his mountain of gold."

Coozo shook his head in trepidation and worry but managed a weak smile. I think he knew he was with friends.

The following day Coozo was digging up his old stash of gold that he had buried last spring. He stowed it in the gymnasium where he and his family were setting up a temporary home. I think he wanted to be ready for a quick exit if any of his kidnappers showed up and I assured him that no one was going to come up that path without me knowing about it.

Coozo had many stories to tell however. The raciest ones were told in confidence when he was alone with me. The others were more structured to put he or his lovely wife in a favourable light and for the most part they were for her benefit. Coozo and his mountain of gold was a familiar theme in most of these yarns.

Tia found them all tiring. Paiya was a gold digger and Coozo was a well heeled mark. I sometimes wonder where she gets all her worldly wisdom from – she lives alone in a space craft for heaven's sake. Needless to say, Tia and Paiya did not get along.

I found Paiya interesting. She was attractively appointed with more down and finer markings than her husband. The Nina's science program was positively enchanted with her and requested a physical examination of both her and her two young ones. Well, that wasn't going to happen, but everyday nonetheless, the program requested the same.

I remember her being amazed when she discovered that the tetra was actually hollow and that it simply housed a large saucer shaped vessel. It wasn't a mountain of gold after all. Seeing is believing I suppose, and after that she was more impressed with her own pile of gold that she and her husband had stowed in the gymnasium.

In the weeks that followed it became apparent that Paiya was intellectually the superior one of the pair. She picked up on my language by speech and signing in a fraction of the time of her husband. She had focus and good wits about her. I could admire her for that but I don't think she took on the task just to be a better friend to me. She knew that ultimately it was going to be me who was going to get her and her spouse off that mountain.

I made it a habit to be cordial to Paiya but I shared little about myself and situation with her; that's my training. She knew that I liked to see her young ones and she used that as a means to manipulate more information from me. She would have made a good spy back in the colonies. But if I wanted to see the children I could manipulate my good friend Coozo. If I have any weakness it's that I have little experience, if that's even required in dealing with the trusting and naïve. The cunning types however, I am very comfortable with.

The wrestling matches were back on. My old friend had become sloppy in his technique and he was even out of shape. He winded easily now and once he slowed he became an easy mark for a takedown.

"I'll get you back in shape Coozo. You just need some practise," I goaded as I pinned him and tossed him about as though he were a rag doll."

Paiya would yawn and exhale as I beat her husband again and again but he still had the will and the zest for it.

"See. This is the Coozo I trained to fight just a year ago. And he beat me. The man's got will power and plenty of it. By spring your husband will beat me again."

Finding out just who this young woman was, was rather trying. She always manipulated any conversation I had with her to her advantage. Coozo was even more cryptic, but apparently she came from wealth. Her family were merchants who travelled the continent and traded in whatever merchandise that was currently in demand at the time.

"Gold?" I asked.

Coozo and Paiya would only smile when I asked that question.

"Does she know about the map I gave you?"

"No," said Coozo but I didn't believe that.

Gold it appears - poisons everything. Friendships, partnerships, and relationships of all forms are seemingly brought into question once gold is entered into the equation. In my world I can have all the gold I want; it's meaningless. Freedom, independence and security – they are the precious metals of my reality. If I had those I'd be a powerful man in my community. So rare are they that no amount of wealth can purchase them. Where I come from, only an immortal can possess those.

Coozo and Paiya suffer from gold fever. I am plagued by an endless need for freedom and independence, and likewise, any that I might find will never be quite enough.

.......

The knee-po-pah were magnificent creatures. They stood upright on two powerful legs and were a good two meters tall in height. I had the multis build a shed to shelter the magnificent knee-po-pah from the winter's rain and snow. They grew fond of my corn and the astute business lady: Paiya, -took notice. She and the knee-po-pah could see the value in my corn. There is not a colony that I know of that does not grow it.

Coozo taught me how to ride the beasts. His seat was not so comfortable to my posterior so I had my own saddle made, and I must say I preferred this vintage mode of travel over the multi rig I would normally use. As a rider you were more of a pilot of the beast beneath. The bumpy, topsy-turvy ride brought memories of my old stinger days. It was a ride that you could feel. There was no floating, no hovering – every movement of the beast beneath could be felt by its rider.

I entertained the idea of riding the knee-po-pah up to the lookout one night but I didn't want to risk injuring an animal that was not my own. Instead, I used the multi rig and took both Coozo and Paiya up to the mountain's peak one at a time until all three of us were up there at once.

The weather was brisk but the view was going to be awesome. I was going to make a point of showing Paiya, Hector as he crossed the night time sky. I don't think she and Coozo can relate to the stars as well as I can. Stars mean everything to me. They were like snowflakes: not any two of them were the same. They were anything but static displays to me. They were not night time decorations. They were destinations; places I could visit.

I obliged Coozo and took his fine wife up first. She was quite quiet on the ride up but once we were at the top she became quite talkative. Perhaps she too was impressed with the vista.

"Sky man," she warbled, "It's a pity that you come up here when it's so dark. Because if you had come up here in the day light you would see something that I don't think you are aware of."

"And what's that Paiya? And incidentally, I've never thought it to be a wise thing coming up here in the daylight hours and how would I ever see Hector. Not that I need to, but I find it reassuring just the same to actually see him fly by. So what am I missing?"

"Had you came up here during the daylight at sometime in the past year you would have noticed that there are many more of us collected at the bottom of this mountain today than there were two years ago. They came in ones and twos over that time and not all of them are here for your gold. There are wise men who have come from the big cities. They've come to investigate this 'mountain of gold' mystery. Some are men of the cloth. Some are men of medicine. Some military and some are just plain crazy. But they have all heard the stories of a man from the sky living on this mountain. Some, - are building monuments shaped just like your 'mountain of gold'... big enough that you should be able to see them from here, - in the light of day that is.

They are coming, and when they do they will put you and your friend in chains. This is their dominion; they do not want you here. You are clever but they are many. Be a clever sky man; make haste and return to the stars.

"It truly surprises me that my husband has not informed you of this. He should be a better friend and not leave it to his poor wife to tell you these things."

"Paiya, I thank you for your concern. Your husband has never been my informant so he's not required to tell me what the local inhabitants are up to. I can also assure you that our remaining time here is short barring any unforeseen technical difficulties that might occur. My 'mountain of gold' could be back in the heavens as soon as next winter.

"My biggest fear is how heavy handed I might have to become to keep your people at bay. Your husband's help has assured us that we will be able to depart in a timely fashion and for that I am eternally grateful to him but by this time next year I'll have other worries.

"When do you think we were discovered up here, Paiya?"

"I think the locals knew something had happened to their mountain shortly after your arrival. My deceased father-in-law saw your 'Mountain of Gold' two years ago and he had made the trek back then, only because of the strange rumors that had already begun to circulate in the villages down below. Now, the only man who has walked down from this mountain in more than a year without being deathly ill has appeared. He's laden with gold. He tells strange stories of a sky man who lives on the mountain and who saved him from death. I would wager sky man that there are now more that know about you than those who don't.

"If you required help from my Coozo," and she actually rolled her eyes at me, "then there will be many that will think you have a weakness that they can exploit and that your 'mountain of gold' can become theirs."

"And you don't want my 'Mountain of Gold'?"

"It's hollow."

"I see. I must collect your husband. He'll be wondering."

"No he won't. He doesn't wonder," she smiled smugly.

What a sinister woman she is I thought to myself as I piloted the multi back down to the camp to collect my dear friend Coozo. He could do better, - but she carries his children. I hope he doesn't have a life of marital misery because of me. She's using him more so than I ever did. I shall redouble my efforts in developing a stronger strain of influenza for this coming spring. I don't need the likes of her coming for a visit.

The evening atop the lookout went well otherwise. We watched Hector pass over. I pointed to the star that I was going to visit next. We had refreshments. We talked.

Tia had declined to attend; she had been making brilliant headway in the Nina's mid deck revamp. You couldn't pull her away.

Through the rest of the evening Paiya had little to say while her husband was around. She was like a raptor and Coozo was her prey. Someday, I'm afraid she will pounce upon him.

.......

"We need an early spring," said Coozo.

"Why even an early spring is more than a few months away." I replied.

"Then a warm spell."

"How long?" I asked inquisitively. "It has to be relatively short," I added.

Coozo nodded that that would be fine.

"It'll take a few weeks. I can make it perhaps four maybe five days long. No longer than that though.

"I'll take it."

"It'll mostly be rain."

"I like the rain."

And so, just like that, plans were made to seed some nice mild weather for the end of the coming week. Coozo and Paiya were anxious to get moving again. I had found an alternate route up the mountain and around to its opposite side. They will need to pass through some rough terrain but it was manageable. The knee-po-pah were excellent climbers.

Paiya was familiar with the people on the other side of the mountains. They were plains people who lived in the grasslands and prairies of the central part of the continent. I asked her why they had not bothered to investigate the sky man and his 'mountain of gold' on the mountain behind them. She said that they weren't that smart. They were too primitive in her estimation.

"When will you name your children, Coozo?"

"They do not get named until they poke their head up out of the pouch," said an amused Coozo at my apparent ignorance in these matters.

I had noticed that the two growing bulges in Paiya's pouch had more than doubled their size since their arrival and I'd seen movement at times.

"When do you think that might happen, Coozo?"

"Paiya says mid to late spring. I want to name the first to poke his head up: Mark."

"Why not name him after your father, Coozo. The other kids will laugh at him if he has an unpronounceable name. Your son is never going to know me. He'll grow to hate that name."

"He's never going to know the love of his grandfather's heart either," replied Coozo.

"Hmm. Coozo you may name him after me if you so chose. Will people actually call him: Blakk?" I kidded.

"Blakk, Blakk..." laughed Coozo.

I would so love to meet those two children. I'm certain they'd be so beautiful, beautiful.

.......

The warm spell arrived as scheduled. The remaining store of Coozo's gold was bundled up and strapped onto the two knee-po-pahs. Mama and Pappa were going to hike along side of the two heavily burdened animals until their descent down the far side of the mountain was complete.

It seemed that Coozo and Paiya had only just arrived, and now, - they were off again. Their entire stay was less than eight weeks.

The winter window of opportunity that I provided for them with some strong south winds would guarantee their safety; no one would be looking for them to come down from the mountain for at least another month. It's one thing to come down a wet mountain but it is quite another to climb up a mountain that is covered in snow.

In the eight weeks that they had stayed at the camp I had only been afforded a few glimpses of the children. In that time they had almost quadrupled their size since when they had first arrived. Each one of them was about the size of a clenched fist now but they were still a month away from poking their heads out of their mother's pouch to catch their first sight of their new world.

The departure of the four was even sadder than Coozo's last departure of a year earlier. This time there was more to worry about. There was the welfare of four now to be concerned about and also the additional worry that there were criminals who were actively hunting them down for their knowledge of the sky man and his 'mountain of gold'.

I had asked Paiya if she would not be safer with her family? Surely, being successful merchants they must have resources at their disposal that could protect them. But apparently gold is more treasured than family. Family could not be trusted as they had already found out. Nonetheless, she did think that they would have a better chance of finding safety with the plains people who were barterers more so than gold traders.

Coozo wanted to build a fortress and hire an army and with the map that I had provided him with months ago, - that might just be possible. I can't interfere anymore. I have already interfered far more than I ever should have. The best thing I can do to help these two is to get off their planet and as soon as possible.

So, no sooner had I watched the backs of the two leaving that day on their trek through the mountains; I got busy. Mice needed to be prepared for the coming spring because some determined prims were surely going to try and climb the mountain just as soon as the coming summer arrives.

.......

By the end of the following week, Hector's observations of Coozo's and Paiya's progress indicated that they had safely navigated through the mountains to the plains down below and were moving freely. I had the arrival of spring delayed by a few weeks to get my mice in order. I wanted a real hardy brood for this season and a strain of influenza that would incapacitate even a thrice infected prim. I was going to have to come up with some other means of keeping the prims at bay if the Nina's rebuild needs another year. I can justify killing a few of the old and the weak should they somehow become infected with my influenza, but I don't want to introduce another pathogen that goes beyond that.

The Nina's mid deck was now all in place and connected. It wasn't pretty to look at but Tia assured me that every connection and every point of interest to a technician, down to the tiniest and the least significant was now accessible to her. The work remaining now was to get everything operating together; a task that would take months – about nine to be precise if there were not too many hic-cups.

The helm had become quite condensed.

I wasn't going to be able to put my feet up like I liked to, I complained.

After that comment Tia showed me the door, sent me on my way and asked me to think about what I had just said. Well I think - she has no sense of humor anymore, but I wasn't about to tell her that.

There was even less for me to do once the mice had been distributed, so one day I travelled up to the lookout in the day light hours since Paiya had aroused my curiosity about what I might just see up there in the daytime. I was careful and left early in morning under the cover of darkness. I waited for some time up there on my perch for the clouds to break up but once they did it was like a theatre curtain rising and behind it was all this activity down below. Hundreds of hectares of forest had been cut and cleared at the bottom of the mountain. There were all sorts of constructs built and going up down there with roads connecting them all to even a larger road that followed the meandering course of the river that ran down the mountain into the foothills.

It was insanity. It was 'mountain of gold' fever. I could clearly make out the shape of the Nina's tetra seven times. One ongoing tetra shaped construct appeared to be made from quarried stone. My kit ticked up twice to slow my heart rate and alleviate my anxiety while I took all this in. I'll have to get Hector to give me a population count. It would have to number in the thousands. Five to ten I think. Too many. There's just far too many down there.

I spent several more hours atop the lookout and waited for the clouds to come back in so I could return back to the camp under their cover. In that time I watched under magnification, the placement of two more huge quarried blocks be put in their final place, by a team of a hundred or more men on that largest tetra construct. Were these men: journeymen, slaves, or both? I wonder? Were these constructs: temples, monuments? I don't know, but they were disconcerting to me – there were only some infected mice and their lice between me and them.

These primitive men were incredibly wily. I could not find any reliable means of detecting their presence near the camp. There were far too many false alarms to investigate. The forest was always alive with animal noise, their movement and their body heat that invoked false alarms. Why they've already tunneled beneath the camp without detection which again is why I've isolated the entire mountain with a virus. So, once I get back to the camp I'll refocus again on increasing the camp's security. What else can I do?

.......

I put a new expanded security perimeter in place. However, it required the removal of some trees that I had become fond of that lined the path down to the pond. My corn field was security nightmare also and the gardens too, but I brought them all in line by clearing more forest around them. Now, when a possible threat is detected within the new perimeter it can be investigated immediately.

I ran drills with Rimbaud. His longest response time to arrive from the Nina to anywhere in the camp was for the pond, - it took him four seconds until he had the pond in his line of sight. It wasn't a matter of removing some trees to better secure the pond, it was more of a matter of moving huge amounts of stone.

"Why not make a pond, - you know - a swimming pool, - here in the camp," suggested Tia.

She knew how much I liked to bathe in the pond.

"You could heat it," she added

Now you're talking. Why didn't I think of that? So I had the multis divert some water from upstream off the mountain stream that naturally fed my old pond. They ran it through a run of make-shift aqua ducts down to the camp and then back into the old pond down below. It was a nice setup; now I could fill and empty my spa as I pleased. And life was good again. I was a little more confined in my movements but immeasurably safer.

.......

It became positively the best summer on the mountain that Tia and I had had since our initial arrival here on planet Sophie. Every morning I'd run out of the Nina buck naked and jump in my heated spa for a swim. I'd listen to the birds sing; take in the mountain vista and dream of taking the Nina's helm again.

First power up was just sixty days from now. That doesn't mean we'd be leaving planet Sophie just then but real flight was not far off. It was coming and just knowing that made a world of difference in the camp's atmosphere.

The Nina's science program was already gearing up for a visit to Nu 256. Optimism was seemingly everywhere. Tia was singing while she worked again. I heard her shout 'Bah-Roo' more than a few times through those summer months as the Nina's refit finally came together. All of this, - all the joy of that summer was the result of her tireless work. Tia was truly the finest New Euron, deep space technician there ever was and I told her so.

Then when the first leaves of autumn were about to fall I noted that for the first time in the five years I had spent on the mountain that there was less water available. It was becoming difficult to fill the spa and the pond was low, too. It had just half as much water in it as it normally would have. There'd been no drought and the past winter had seen normal amounts of snow and rain. It was a real mystery and if it continued I was going to have to seed some rain.

So without a heated spa, if I wanted to swim at the start of the day as I had grown accustomed to, I needed to visit the old pond again. It was a little disappointing; I was hoping to have my heated spa in operation right into my last days here. Nonetheless, I'd run from the camp down to the pond, naked of course, - and still have a quick swim but in the much cooler water of the pond. Soon, I'll have no pond or spa to swim in for the next two or three years it'll take to get to Nu 256.

I can live with that because it was all coming together now. The entire summer had been quiet as far as the prims went. The dreaded invasion from down below had never materialized. They were twenty thousand strong and behaving thankfully. Hector had been reporting the apparently free movement of Coozo and his wife Paiya down on the plains and that was also a good sign.

I will miss Coozo more than anything else here on planet Sophie and certainly more than my spa. If it wasn't for him the Nina's mission would be in ruins. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be biding my time with swimming and such.

One bright morning I ran like the wind and much like a mastafor, - down to the pond because there was more than just a little nip in the morning air. I dove in quick with none of my usual wading about. The wind had a chilling bite. I had a multi with me. He'd normally heat my spa up but there was far too much water churning and circulating here in the pond so morning swims were quick affairs in the pond.

The water level of the pond had stabilized of late. It wasn't quite as much fun to swim in as it had once been when it was deeper but it was still the highlight of my day. There was some overcast in the sky and the birds were having the most unusual chatter.

I exited the pond and began urinating over by some shrubs that had a pleasant view of the mountain stream that fed my pond when the multi went into alarm. I collected my kit from a tree branch that served as its convenient hook when I swam. There was noise like sloshing. Movement of an animal of some sort or so I thought. Was it my mastafor? I hoped it was.

The multi hummed some more. I had it stand down. There was more sloshing. I was beginning to think there was too much sloshing.

And then they appeared. At first just several feathered faces. Then as though they were travelling in a column several more and several more arrived until I was looking at as many as a crowd of fifty prims all gathering in a bunch, - maybe fifty meters upstream.

The multi overrode my initial stand down order and placed itself a few meters in front of me – strategically \- between me and them. I reaffirmed my order for the multi to stand down.

I shivered. Not because I was fearful but because I was naked. I'd normally be jogging back up the path to the camp by now. But now I have unexpected company. Just as well they see me au'naturel. I'm just a stranded alien after all. One lone alien.

Why they are so clever. There are no mice, no fleas in the water. They've gone and damned the stream higher up I bet and made it passable and – most importantly, - disease free.

Let's hope it's a peaceful meeting of men from two worlds. They seemed disciplined. That was a worry. They were certainly not the rag tag types I'd become familiar with in the past. They were outfitted rather well, - in fine clothes and with walking sticks.

Two banners were suddenly raised up front. They were of brilliant colors. They were either about to charge or perhaps march. I let the multi go into standby. He grew brighter and the prims appeared to halt their advance as the multi became more intimidating.

It occurred to me that there was a chance that this might be a greeting party of some sort and not something more nefarious. These prims were well dressed. Who dresses up for a fight? There appeared to be men and, - women and children. Traditional war parties do not include women and children.

So I let them advance and I stayed my ground with the lone multi who I now placed next to me and at my side rather than up front. It seemed to put the advancing party of prims more at ease.

When they were at about twenty-five meters I shouted in their own tongue to halt. I could see alarm and fear in the faces of the leading cue. I think they were surprised to hear me speak their language. Who knows what they were thinking at that moment but it was quite apparent to me that someone was giving orders to that group.

I asked for their leader to come forward.

There seemed to be some confusion. The bright banners waved meekly in a weak breeze as they stood just twenty meters or so away from me.

I asked again for their commander to show himself and I used several nouns to describe whom I wanted to see in no uncertain terms.

There was some movement. No talk but the group of prims began to unfold as crowd would for someone of prominence such as some leadership that was coming up from behind.

One by one the group opened up like an opening flower as I waited for some heavily decorated leader to appear swaggering to the crowded front but that was not the case. Once the crowd opened up an enormous prim of huge muscular proportions appeared who hurled an iron tipped spear with such speed and velocity that it quickly overcame my reaction time to defend myself.

The moment its tip touched my skin's surface the multi leaped up in my defense and extinguished each and every life of the prim's apparent war party in a brilliant burst of white light.

I was completely flummoxed. There was no pain. The kit was taking care of that. Fate was terrifying me. The horror of that moment's implications was screaming inside of me as I held this staff that impaled me.

I grew weak with self pity.

I looked at my reflection in my lovely pond and I could clearly see that I had the entire spear's shaft protruding through me, - tip to tail. What an unusual sight that was I thought.

And I could hear him coming. Four seconds was such an eternity. He sounded just like the mius I had fought hand to hand with so many years ago what with his hydraulics hissing mechanically like a racing metronome.

I couldn't stop him. Not until I was medically stabilized would I be able to stop him. He paused momentarily to have two accompanying multis attach themselves to him, - and then he had flight.

He rose up into the sky to three set elevations and spread arrays of heat ray strikes up and down the mountain. Each higher elevation allowed for heat ray strikes to reach targets further and further away.

"Tia!" I screamed.

She could hear me. I know she's in lockdown within the ship but she can hear me by kit. I know she can. "Take command of the Nina before Rimbaud destroys the mountain." I pleaded to her.

I was down on one knee. The spear that had completely penetrated my abdomen from front to back prevented me from resting any lower. I'd been stuck. The man had pinned me like a bug. The Nina sent the remainder of the multis and the rig out for my rescue. I had them cut the wooden stave of the spear front and back so I could regain some independent movement.

Rimbaud appeared to be in stand down and hovered at about a hundred meters above the camp. The air was getting thick with smoke. I could breathe with the aid of the multis but it was getting hard to see. Had Rimbaud been left to his own, - a fire storm of epic proportions would have taken over the mountain by now.

The multis helped me onto the rig and I made my way up the hill to the Nina. Flames were threatening the camp already but I got to the safety of the tetra and a tearful Tia met me at the lower hatch.

"I've done it now. I've let them get me. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Tia."

She helped me to the lab and the Nina's medical clinic began a triage of sorts. My rectum and stomach were emptied. Next, I swallowed a surgeon. He was the hardest to deal with. He was large. I suppose colonists have large throats or something. Another surgeon went up my rectum without any trouble and two more were applied to the entry and exit wounds. Those last two I didn't like to watch in operation because they would burrow themselves into you.

"Tia, have the Nina's science program seed some heavy rain immediately or there will not be a tree left on the mountain by tomorrow."

She appeared to appreciate the command. It gave her something to do that might help our situation.

The injury looked worse than it actually was as far as the Nina's medical clinic was concerned. They are notorious for lying as I remember. It was going to take up to eight hours to deal with the injury. Some of the spear's stave would be dissolved and then some of my tissue would be repaired and this routine would go on until all of the stave was gone and my wounds were closed.

I would need a day's rest before I would be able to get up and around the clinic insisted and any signs of infection needed to be monitored closely for several days.

"I'm at war. I'm the only soldier on my team," I told the stupid machine and then it put me to sleep.

........

It was not a good sleep. It was fitful and peppered with disturbing drug induced dreams that were more nightmare than dream. I fought the whole time to waken to some lucidity.

Twenty-fours later and not a minute longer I woke up. Tia was inches from my face with her face cupped in her hands and her elbows resting upon my bed.

"You're going to be fine, my dear Captain," were her first words that I heard. "The Nina is safe."

"I never doubted that she'd not be safe in your good hands, Tia." I replied.

I felt sore. The surgeon by mouth and the one up my rectum had vacated my body but the two introduced to the wound were still in there and I could feel them moving about at times. They were left behind to nip any signs of infection in the bud.

"I've got to get up. There are things that need to be done," I said to Tia.

"There's a list of limitations for you to read before you can leave the clinic," said Tia.

And there was: no swimming till further notice, no physical exertion for the next two days, no outdoor excursions for the next two days, and of course, report to the clinic every eight hours for the next three days.

"You're on modified duties Captain. You can spend time at your new helm. I made it larger for you," offered Tia.

"How can I be a captain if I'm on modified duties?" I muttered under my breath as I hopped down from clinic's examination table.

"What's left of my mountain?" I asked as I wobbled unsteadily on my feet.

"You'll see. It's not as bad as it looks," answered Tia following my travel way too closely like she expected me to teeter over at any moment.

"That's what the clinic said to me yesterday when I was impaled on a spear," I added sarcastically.

Roughly thirty percent of the mountain's forest had been burnt down by Rimbaud's heat ray strikes and the resulting fires that had been started from the same. Most of it was up the east side and followed the mountain stream's path. He likely engaged the prims along the stream's path and the westerly winds yesterday carried the flames east.

"Did Rimbaud make any strikes down below?"

"None that I'm aware of," answered Tia.

"And where is he now?"

"Still on standby and one hundred meters above the camp. He's using the multis and your rig."

"Is he?" and I winced as one of the surgeons did something nasty in my belly. And Tia winced too as she watched me grit my teeth.

"What kind of data has Hector been collecting?"

"I don't know," Tia answered.

"I don't believe this. The science program wants to dissect some of the fallen women and children. That's not going to happen." And I denied its request.

"Well Tia I think there's lots that I can do today anyways. How's the refit coming along?"

"Why it's been in standby since the attack."

"Tia that standby has been lifted. The timely progress of the Nina's refit is tantamount now. We may need to leave this mountain. That's more important than getting the Nina into orbit. That's my gut feeling. How long until we can hover?"

"Power up is still eight weeks away."

I stared at her. I know it was unkind.

"To hover? Nine weeks. If I make that the next goal."

"We got to do better than that. What can we do later at say another temporary location? Think along those terms. All I have left in my tool box to keep us safe here now, - is him," and I pointed above.

"There is not enough time to be nice any more. I can't pull another virus out of my pocket. They take weeks to engineer and weeks more to make into an effective deterrent. I don't want to kill any more of these people than I have to. They are not my enemy. It's not moral. That's all I have to defend myself with. We shouldn't have come here, but yet we are here. And we shouldn't waste one more life than we have to in our effort leave.

"I'm a New Euron. I'm supposed to have some respect for life. That's the message that I've been taught to take to other worlds. That's what humanity is suppose to bring to every conflict – respect for life. It's what prevents war and eventually it's what ends a war. Every other victorious outcome is just the beginning of another conflict until we finally respect our opponent's right to live in peace. Do you, - do you think they are bargaining on that as my weakness?"

Tia wouldn't know. It was unfair to ask her. But for the first time in a very long time I was uncertain about something. I'd been tested by people of a primitive civilization and I can't let that happen again.

I gave an approving smile to the best deep space technician that ever was. And off she went; my busy bee.

Hector, where are you? I got some questions. And if my helm space got larger it was by only a few millimeters if that. And I winced some more.

.......

I called up Hector's analysis of planet Sophie's population distribution. A good portion of the planet's population was peppered about the continent's coastline and for the obvious reasons but there were also many coastal islands that had not a soul living on them. If we can just get the Nina powered-up we'd be able to hover directly east of here to the coast of the continent in less than an hour. Of course, it would be preferably done covertly after nightfall so no one can follow our progress but there were however, a number of potential maritime sights there that would give us some measure of security simply because of their remoteness. A maritime location would normally be an unsuitable location during a refit because of the heavy overcast that accompanies such coastal regions would certainly interfere in the collection of solar energy that provides our energy needs as it does here on our mountain when the Nina is powered down for a refit. But once the Nina is powered up, she can generate her own power until she's ready to take to the sky.

All of this requires the Nina's refit to progress in a timely fashion this winter and then maybe, - just maybe she'll be ready for power up and we'll have us an airship. There will be no more springs for us on this mountain. That's for certain now. No more infected mice - and no more unnecessary deaths if I can help it.

I dutifully attended the Nina's medical clinic every eight hours for checkups, just as I had been instructed as the days following the attack went by. And at the end of each visit I was always instructed to return again in another eight hours for another check up. After a week of this I used my Captain's privilege to view my medical records. And apparently, the clinic and for therapeutic reasons I would think, had been with-holding the fact that I indeed had some bacterial infection that was being managed surgically until an effective antibiotic could be developed or found. The pain I'd been feeling was being caused by the surgeons who were both busy removing infected flesh and restoring removed flesh. Without the aid of an effective immune system to fight the spreading bacterial infection it would become just a matter of time before the surgeons' work would become overwhelmed.

The possible implications on my health and mortality now - cannot be exaggerated – I was in danger of dying by a bacterial infection that was as alien to the Nina's science program as I was also alien to this planet. It was the worst case scenario for a space traveler – becoming infected by an alien pathogen. I'd be much better off it was a virus; I'd at least have something to fight it off with.

Was it the iron spear tip? Was it the spear's wooden stave? Was it bacteria from the hand of the man who hurled it? Or was it my just deserts for selfishly interfering with this planet?

The silence that becomes acute at a reckoning like this is most deafening. All of a sudden your mortality is in the balance whether it's your last breath that's coming next or whether it's a certain fate that can be seen to be positively inescapable in your near future. Once it's realized, there's a shroud of sullen silence that envelopes you. No: "Ta Dah" moment sounded by fate's bugle but just the thoughtful and silent realization that your life could be over.

What a difficult new reality I now found myself confronting. I'd keep it secret from Tia as long as I can but eventually she'll see my failing health.

Seeing how I was captain I had most of my limitations imposed upon me by the clinic lifted. What was the point? Even the Nina's science program saw me as a dead man walking.

My first excursion outside the camp was to visit my once lovely little pond of course. This time however, I was not running naked down the path. This time I walked soberly with a multi before me and aft. The stream and pond were still unusually low but now additionally much of the landscape that was previously green was ruined and charred black. It was a sobering sight indeed.

I walked over to where the prims' greeting party had been felled and I poked about the stream's banks for whatever I might find. I remember feeling like Christopher Columbus for a moment that day – fancy me, just like Chris meeting new world natives for the very first time. Today however, I found it rather remarkable that there was very little if any evidence that there were dozens of prims once standing here who had been felled here only ten days past. The seeded rain must have washed all of their dead bodies away and downstream. I did find plenty of walking sticks and outer garments and such strewn along the stream's banks. Was there just one weapon on hand that day? I wondered, because I could not find any others.

Such a waste, such a disaster, I ruminated. Was it all because of greed or was it just a misunderstanding? I suppose it doesn't much matter now. Soon I should think, one of their wise men will write about the tragic story of the 'Mountain of Gold'.

It did occur to me that perhaps there might be some useful bacteria on the handles of the walking sticks that might be of some interest to the Nina's science program. I'm certain the bacterium ailing me would be harmless to a healthy prim's immune system. For me however, their harmless bacteria could become deadly. I collected several of the walking sticks and one of those big colorful banners that was still attached to its wooden stave too, that I found at rest along the stream's shoreline to take back to the Nina's lab for examination. Just maybe, - I hoped.

I had to stop several times to rest as I climbed back up the path from the pond; the surgeons were doing some awfully painful digging and it became just too intense to bear while walking. I looked about at my old paradise that now had more resemblance to a war zone as I grimaced and I considered the weather. Winter was coming. I couldn't see it so much but I could certainly feel it. It should be quiet now I hoped, - at least until the arrival of spring. Tomorrow, Rimbaud and I will venture up the mountain and un-dam whatever those prims have got up there holding back my pond's water.

........

Hector's sharp eyes had determined the general location of where he thought the prims had been damming the stream. It wasn't too far up the mountain; I could get to it in ten minutes or so with the rig. I'd have Rimbaud come along and have him travel well above me so he could keep a watchful eye on both the camp down below and me too. I was likely going to need his heat ray to open the dam when I find it anyways.

The weather co-operated thankfully and as I glided up the mountain side I more or less through caution into the wind as far as avoiding my detection by those down below. What was the point of it now I thought to myself. There was no need to hide ourselves now; everybody knows who lives up here.

I was hoping to find some fresh camp sites that the prims might have used and maybe, just maybe some clue could be found that might help me fight my infection. The Nina's science program had found that the bacterium that was killing me was actually not that uncommon among the prims. It had been present in one of Coozo's wounds when I had first brought him into the Nina's lab. His infection was dealt with by his own immune system which he had inherited from generations of his own specie's evolution. The bacterium was similar to but of course completely unrelated to the bacterium that might cause a staph infection in my own species however and it was even quite harmless to me that day in the lab because it had no means of entering my body at the time.

There were a number of camps that we did find and investigate, but I must say I was so saddened to find so many dead prims. I figure several hundred anyways. Their deaths would have been quick but it bothered me terribly to think that all this death was completely unnecessary. Was I really that loathsome and threatening? Why was it so necessary to kill me? I tried to be a good tenant. I tried to keep to myself. I'm not an invader. I only wanted a safe port in a storm.

I found nothing alive. The knee-po-pah were dead. The men were dead. And they had brought their families with them, too. The little ones, the innocents; they were the most difficult to consider.

"This is my legacy," I moaned at one point while in some serious despair.

I have always felled soldiers, - today however; I have the blood of children on my hands.

They are a clever people, as primitive as they are; they had not so much dammed the stream, but what they had done was to divert much of the head water down into another crevice that emptied down the mountain and into the foot hills below. I had Rimbaud disrupt the rock they had moved until the old stream's source was restored again. They're going to have to swim down to my pond if they want to use that route again which was something quite impossible to manage considering the white water and fast sluices that dotted the stream's normal route down to my pond.

.......

My next check up at the clinic revealed that my surgeons were tiring. New troops were to be prepared to relieve those who had been fighting on the front line in my belly for almost two weeks now. Tomorrow I would require some more traditional surgery for this to happen and this would not go unnoticed by Tia. I couldn't withhold my poor prognosis from her for much longer.

We were in the mess; having our mid day meal that we always shared together. Usually I'd ask her about how her day had been going. How the refit was coming or whatever?

"Tia? How do hybrids die? Like of natural causes? Do they die on the job? Do they die in their sleep?"

Of course she was surprised with the morbid nature my questions and she quickly swallowed her food.

"Never. We work till.... We drop," she answered. "Why? Why are you asking such a thing?"

"Tia. I have to ask such things because I have to picture my mortality. But I worry for you the most. I'm having an easier time considering my own death. But I... I just can't deal with yours."

"What's wrong Captain?"

"The clinic says I'm likely going to die. I apparently, - have an infection that the Nina's science program can't treat."

Hybrids don't cry. When they are sad they close both of their double eyelids and sulk. Tia stopped eating and sat as still as a statue. She was the saddest statue I had ever seen.

"I still have several weeks; perhaps several months even. I'm sure the clinic will be able slow it up but truthfully, - part of my current treatment is already palliative."

And then I got up and did something I almost never feel the need to do: I went to my bed for a nap. Dying is exhausting.

.......

My surgery followed as scheduled the following day. However, I cannot say that it went well. The old surgeons were replaced and trenches of sorts were being built around the enemy. I was also told that I was going to become disfigured. At first there would be some puckering around the wound and then that indentation would continue until my belly resembled a bagel. At some point I suppose I'll be able to pass my hand right through my belly and out to the other side, - if I wanted to do that of course. It sounded painful. But factually this has happened to people before, - usually in a remote battlefield hospital or something similar that lacks resources, but once the patient is outsourced the infection is dealt with and grafts are done to correct the disfigurements. Its immortal technology and I don't have that here.

Tia was visiting the clinic now, too. It was on my advice that she did so. She was becoming depressed. She had stopped eating and her work was suffering terribly.

We have to go on and just like they say: as if there is no tomorrow. Easier said than done, I know, - especially for Tia; she's the one who will be left alone. We will follow our mission until we are dead - that was always the plan. See it to the end. And that's what we'll do.

Something unexpected happened to Hector after this latest surgery. Hector lowered his orbit. Just slightly but he did it without my approval. I didn't think too much of it at first but after looking into it; Hector was following a higher directive. The implications were terribly unsettling. Should I die Hector would have no means of reuniting with the Nina. The Nina needs to be at least in orbit for this to happen; he is not an air ship so he can't reunite with us while we are on the planet Sophie's surface. If he can't become reunited with the Nina – he'll return home. Yes, it will take him years to do that, but he'll bring along with him all his logs of what he knows and what he has found to the worst possible people in the universe. In twenty years, maybe less, this planet and all of her neighboring star system will come under the control of the Colonists.

Hector orbits at two hundred and fifty kilometers above planet Sophie's surface normally. He's presently dropped it to about two hundred kilometers. He must be watching me closely. I'd lost about five kilos in body weight since the attack. My heart rate and blood pressure are all well regulated. He should be only seeing a leaner and meaner captain down here as far as I can understand but the following day showed a drop in altitude of two kilometers or so. I don't think he can navigate safely below a one hundred kilometer altitude. So I have to wonder? Will this higher directive have him hold is altitude there until I expire and then have him return home? Or will he simply depart once he reaches his lowest sustainable altitude?

According to what I could find out in the Nina's schematics he'll watch for a number of things: my weight, body mass, body temperature, free movement, log entries and the list goes on and on up to and including - clinic visits. He knows. He's lowering his orbit to keep a closer watch. Hector, I thought we were friends, - but I suppose if Tia was no more he'd up and leave too, since there would be no one capable of completing the Nina's refit.

These days Tia could be found to be wearing a special kit. It was to help with her depression and it appeared to be helping but there was no singing or lift in her footsteps. She was going through the motions. I stopped bothering her for updates on the pending power up; it was still a six week eternity away. I could now estimate it to the hour without her input because I checked its progress at least twice a day.

And I swear each time I wince now because of those two surgical devils in my belly I can feel Hector coming closer. The wounds were now becoming quite puckered. My insides were becoming virtually renovated to accommodate the diseased flesh that was being removed from my belly on an hourly basis. I think my intestines had grown another meter in length to circumvent the growing hole in my lower body. The bacterium had to be kept out of my blood stream and internal organs and in a sense the surgeons were providing healthy, sacrificial flesh for the bacterium to ruin instead of my more important stuff.

.......

It was becoming difficult to sleep now. Every sixty minutes the surgeons would wake me up with their work. It would go on for five to ten minutes and then abate but in the meantime I'd be pulling my legs up tight to my belly and wince in pain as they removed more diseased tissue from my body. If that wasn't more than enough to tolerate, then on more than a few occasions when I did get some light sleep, I'd dream of the two of them eating me alive. I was not more than a head and limbs in one of them. I think these dreams are preparing me for my death. You carry that with you where ever you go – awake or asleep. It's always there in your subconscious.

In the mornings I'd spend some time sitting outdoors. I found that the birds and the rodents that visited the camp helped distract me from the bouts of pain. My kit did a good job at alleviating the dull aching pain but it was not very effective when the surgeons began burning for that five to ten minutes of each hour - that was the sharp, piercing pain that would get me wincing.

So, I investigated Sophie's old kit. Back in her day they practically used bayonets and sabres. Of course I'm exaggerating but their kits were meant to keep a soldier going even after incurring mortal injuries. But the big caveat with these old New Euron kits is: you are jacked.

I found after a bit of practice that Sophie's old kit was quite effective at killing the pain the surgeons were inflicting upon me every hour. I swore to Tia that I'd only wear it for two hours of relief each morning. It would give me some much needed peace I told her. I'm a dying man after all.

That old kit would make me think about pleasant things and I'd reminisce about my younger days but at times these ideas would transform into dreams – like a day dream. And before you knew what was happening what were once dreams earlier became things you could almost reach out and touch. They had become bona fide hallucinations. The real deal.

I tried to be careful and not spend more than the two hours I had allotted myself for each day but you become so engaged in these hallucinations that you didn't want stop. And I'll admit there were a few occasions that Tia had to leave her tasks to come out and remove the kit when I had obviously exceeded my limit.

"It was two hours of peace – why can't it be three?" I complained like a little boy.

About a week of this went by when the nature of the hallucinations migrated from things from my past - to me in the present. It didn't appear to be a dream at all. It seemed just like normal reality.

One day, I heard the birds of the forest go quiet and I saw the rodents scurry and run to their dens. And then I saw him: the mastafor. I saw his figure run and climb and swing deftly through the trees in almost near silence.

What a beauty. He was such a majestic sight to behold where he chose to perch on a prominent tree branch in the morning sunlight. The men are gone; he's back I cheered. He's come back. I've made his kingdom right again. When I'm finally gone, - it'll be his and only his - mountain again.

I watched him closely under magnification. I paid special attention to his markings but I could not quite determine if he was my old mastafor. I'd need to collect some down or a claw and compare his DNA with that of the one that frequented the camp more than two years ago. He seemed to study the camp from his perch. I'm certain that he could see me. Maybe it was just that – my presence - that was what was keeping him away and up high in the trees.

Tia was hailing me.

"Time to come in Captain."

"Yeah. I'll be right in." I answered and my mastafor disappeared into the woods.

........

The following morning I came back prepared. Rather than sitting at my chair I assembled a rig with four fully charged multis. I told Tia that I wanted some height so I could take in a bigger vista. She of course questioned the wisdom of that but I assured her that I would be securely strapped in. She agreed reluctantly but insisted that I not leave the camp.

You might wonder who the real captain here was. It wasn't me, - at least not any more. I was a wreck. My skin was grey. My face gaunt from the eight kilos I've lost. I was even unsteady on my feet at times. I wasn't much of a captain except in name.

Tia had become my keeper. She understood the need to have the Nina in orbit as soon as possible because my time was short. I told her I was waiting for Hector to get down to one hundred kilometers. It would make the Nina's trip into Hector's orbit a millisecond shorter... Oh boy.

And, - I did the math. I'd weigh just thirty kilos then.

It took about a quarter of an hour to get to a nice place once I had put Sophie's kit on. The morning could be under heavy overcast and the mountain's peak could be hidden behind clouds, but once I had Sophie's kit on and turned up, it was sunny clear day without a cloud in sight as far as one could see.

And I waited. I waited for my mastafor. I waited for the birds to go quiet and the rodents to scurry to their homes.

He was near. I know he was. I could feel his presence.

At about ten meters up I had a much larger vista to scour for any signs of fleeing birds. I could see down to the pond and I could see the forest's leafy canopy for kilometer after kilometer. I could also see the burnt portions of the mountainside on the other side of the stream and that too appeared to go on forever. If he was out there I was going to see him and with the rig I was going to get a good look.

The forest was already quieter than it should be. He should be easy to find if he's here. If it's not his movements that will give him away then it'll be his body heat. It can't be any warmer than seven or eight degrees Celsius out here. However, with Sophie's kit on it felt more like twenty-seven or so.

And then suddenly – there he was like I had willed him here. He was on the other side of the pond sniffing around. He appeared to be oblivious of my presence. I activated the rig and headed for him. He must have spotted me and he started to run up the mountainside in a fury. I gave chase and followed him; he down below and me ten meters above. I followed the mastafor as best I could until he disappeared just like that - like magic. One moment he was there and then the next moment he was gone. I went down to the ground and hunted about for signs that might indicate into what direction he was headed to. But of course the mastafor is a wily one. I couldn't find his tracks; not even a sign of his footsteps in the patches of snow and mud that he had run along.

I lifted Sophie's kit up and off my head. My eyes slowly adjusted to the light of reality as I looked about. I found myself standing exactly where I had left Coozo and Paiya early last year. This was the place that I saw the two before they started their descent down the mountain to the steppes on the other side.

"Coozo," came from my lips.

"Captain? Captain?"

My keeper was calling.

"Tia. What's up?"

"Where are you?"

"I've been chasing a mastafor. I'm just a few kilometers away," I lied.

"You get back here right now. I don't have time for this. We had an agreement that you would stay within the camp."

Tia was not happy.

"I'll be back right away. He's disappeared anyways," I answered.

I was guilty of course, but I wasn't going to waste any time getting back to the camp. I had an urgent job for Hector.

.......

Hector found Coozo down on the steppes and without the company of his lovely wife and children. There was no reason to think that anything was wrong with him; he appeared to have free movement and had recently arrived at the bottom of the mountains at about the same place he would have descended last winter.

He's come to see me I bet. I seeded some mild weather. He'd get the idea. It's quite likely that it's Hector's lower orbit that has got his attention. In two day's time I'd send a multi down to greet him.

Tia was somewhat ambivalent to the idea of another visit from Coozo, but when I explained that he was alone she was alright with it. I suppose he could watch over me instead of her. I was ecstatic. I really wanted to see my old friend before I passed.

Tia banned me from using the rig and insisted that I refrain from using Sophie's kit. She wouldn't listen to my story about the mastafor and where he had led me. She wasn't having it; it was all a hallucination. Had a real mastafor been within ten kilometers of the camp Rimbaud would have killed it.

I compromised by going without the use of the rig; there was no where I needed to go in a hurry anyways. The Nina's science program had begun ignoring me since the attack. Why, I haven't so much as collected an insect for it for weeks now. I hated insect days anyways. But I was keeping Sophie's kit – it was the only thing that was helping me manage the pain.

I'd lost another kilo and Hector correspondingly lost more altitude in his orbit. You could see him in the day now if you knew where and when to look; at night he looked magnificent. I wonder just what will he do when I finally expire: will he swoop up and into space and leave us behind? Just like that. Will there be a victory roll? Will he acknowledge my passing at all?

The wound to my belly however, - looked horrible. I could not understand how my intestines where not distending from it. The surgeons can be commended for that I suppose, but I think I was just a week away from having an opening of sorts – right through me. Eventually my spine and nervous system were going to become threatened and that was going to become the end of the road.

.......

Coozo climbed the mountains above the steppes by knee-po-pah and had the guidance of my multi. I could see his face was solemn. He waved to me remotely through the multi. I was looking forward to meeting with my old friend; he looked like he had much on his mind.

Both Tia and I greeted him on his arrival. He knew there was trouble; my star had fallen, so he said. He was tearful when he saw how gravely ill I had become. I could sense that I was being visited by a man overwrought with guilt. He wasn't the easy going Coozo of the past who had not a worry in the world and who I must admit: I have always loved and doted on. This man in front of me today was in as much misery as I was.

"How can I help? How can I help? How can I help?" he repeated, kneeling in front of me.

"You can't Coozo? I am dying. You need to focus on taking care of yourself and your family. You're a papa now."

"There is medicine. I'll bring you medicine for what ails you. I will."

Tia walked off and went back to the Nina. As disrespectful and rude as that may appear, she was trying to save his world and she needed every precious minute she could get. There was no saving me.

I tried to reason with Coozo and I gestured for him to get up and off his knees; he was a far too pathetic sight to speak to in that way. It was understood that he and Paiya likely had something to do with the attack – even unwittingly. The reality was that I was going to die and his world was in danger.

"You needn't make any more sickness for the spring. No one will bother you. My people are terrified of your monster. No one will dare come up here. They are pleased that I was coming to see you. No one wants your monster to come down from the mountain," implored a pleading Coozo.

"Coozo tell your people to leave the mountain alone and the monster will leave your people alone. But I have to be truthful to you, Coozo. Once I'm dead I'll have no control over Rimbaud. He may listen to Tia but I can't guarantee that, that will be the case. The one you need to worry about is Hector, who you call my star. He is the one who will bring change to your world like you can never imagine, Coozo. It may take a generation for it to happen but your children for certain will eventually see many more like me, and many more like Rimbaud.

"Your peoples' very best hope is that there are plenty of better planets here," and I pointed to the sky that surrounded us, "to colonize before they come for yours. It was my hope at one time, that I would leave your planet and look for just that. There is an enormous amount of uncharted and unexplored space here," and I pointed to the sky some more, "to pursue all those other possibilities, - could buy centuries of peace for your people."

"Mark. Were you not going to share my planet with others?"

"No. I've told you that before Coozo. I have nothing to go back to. Hector however, - does.

"I can think of only one man who might like to see me. All the others would want me dead. And even he, - he might even want me dead if he knew what I have discovered here. He would consider your security more important than my life. He... is a very wise man."

"And should you die will your friend Tia and the monster not leave this planet so we can live in peace?"

"No. I suspect they'll wait for their rescue in twenty years. I suppose Tia will live until then. They'll simply become marooned here without a captain. It's something that happens sometimes. Such is space travel. It has its risks. It's truly unfortunate how things have turned out.

"I have failed. I have failed you. I should have been more severe and had my monster, dispatch more of you much earlier. No one would have considered spearing me if that were the case. Instead, - I wanted friendship. Friendship or tyranny, - I think I'd still risk it for friendship. I've seen far too, much tyranny in my life."

"Mark. Can you not catch your falling star?"

"No. To do that I need to live long enough for the Nina to go up," and I pointed up to the sky again, "to catch him, Coozo, - I have to be up there."

"I'll get medicine. I will. I'll help."

"It won't make a difference Coozo."

"It will," and he reached down and gathered a handful of loose soil. "The sky did not make you sick, so sky medicine won't work to cure your sickness. This made you sick," and Coozo squeezed the soil in his clenched hand, "and only this will make you well again," and he opened his hand to show a clump of black soil in his palm.

The surgeons were back at work. I winced terribly and I'm sure Coozo noticed. Sophie's kit was back on the Nina. I excused myself.

"We can talk some more, Coozo. I would really like that. Perhaps, - in a few hours? Yes? Right now my good friend I need some rest. Your berth should you need it is at your waiting in the gymnasium."

I left the poor man beside himself with his anguish, but my insides were being eaten alive. I went straight to the clinic. I was an hour early for a regular visit. I didn't think it would matter. I'd never felt this much pain before – it was crushing.

The news from the clinic wasn't good. I was asked not to eat any solid foods again. Fluids only – by mouth or feeding tube, - for now on.

I also had to partake in a compulsory interview concerning the personal option for painless euthanasia. How about that? The clinic was becoming tired of treating me. I was now considered a waste of resources.

I went to my berth and maxed out Sophie's kit for sleep. Tomorrow was likely to bring worse news; a compulsory thirty day audit was being done today to determine if the Nina will make her power up. Tomorrow morning we get the results.

.......

Overnight, Coozo had left the camp to return to the steppes. He left word with Tia that seeing how time was so short for averting my impending end that he was going to go get help, immediately. There was still some fair weather left that I had seeded for his arrival and he wanted to take advantage of it. We were to look for his presence where the steppes meet the foothills in a week's time.

'Coozo to the rescue'. Now there's a thought. I could be dead by then. His heart is in the right place, however.

The audit: the audit had Tia in tears. Ten more days were added to the Nina's power up date. It was like the end of the world to her. She considered herself an absolute failure.

"Tia," I said. "It's been five years that you've been rebuilding this ship. What's another ten days?"

"You can't possibly live that much longer. We need orbit," she cried blinking her big, moist, double eyelids.

"Well thank you for that vote of confidence. The clinic has given up on me, - now you. But I've got Coozo on my side now. He's going to make sure that I get into orbit."

Tia went silent. She just stared back at me in one of her illogical looks of disbelief.

.......

I've taken to spending the late evenings outdoors when the nights are clear. You just have to bundle up and dress for it of course. The view is absolutely magnificent if you look straight up. I've already decided on two constellations. One I call Coozo and the other is really two: a winter one which I consider a major because of its greater size and a summer one with much the same shape but smaller thus he is the minor one. I've named those two the 'Major Mastafor' and the 'Minor Mastafor'. And of course tonight, we have a marvelous view of the Major Mastafor.

Also tonight, I'm going to be looking for a group of stars that I want to name Tia. It needs to be a small elegant cluster with at least two good twinklers in it. If I live long enough, I'm going to name all the things that I love after constellations that I've made up.

In about ten minutes Hector is going to show up on the eastern horizon. He'll be travelling overhead in a westerly direction. Hector has dropped his orbit another five kilometers since that fateful clinic visit the other day and he's now orbiting at about one hundred and fifty kilometers in altitude above planet Sophie's surface. Soon I'll be able to wave at him when he passes overhead. He'll not dip below one hundred kilometers; it would be the end of him.

He's certainly not a natural looking occurrence when he streaks across the sky these nights. He has a bit of a tail now because of his lower altitude in planet Sophie's atmosphere. I know there are prims who must watch the sky; it must frighten them terribly. He seems so close.

My good friend Coozo has travelled more than a hundred kilometers since he arrived at the bottom of the mountains. He must have a sore backside; the knee-po-pah are not a terribly comfortable animal to ride on the back of. Nonetheless, he's still riding away from the mountain rather than returning to it with his cure for what ails me. He's a good young man. And that's exactly how I would describe him if he were one of my own.

Sitting here tonight, staring up at the stars, weak, and ill reminds of another night a long time ago when I was very young. We were on a chain gang of sorts salvaging precious metals from a crash site back on earth. It was late at night and we had been temporarily abandoned by our keepers. We made a very temporary camp, a lean-to as I remember; to spend the night in. I think there were about six of us and I had been sent from the camp to investigate a noise and I found a mercenary miu commander or what was commonly called a man-machine in some tall grass. There was not much to one. They were shaped like a crab and had a circumference of about thirty centimeters or so. They were of the type that attached themselves to a lead miu's shoulder and who would then command a collection of miu's as a team. The worst thing about them was that they were an amalgamation of electronic and bio-technology. A live human eye and its optic nerve were used as the primary data input for the larger machine. Anyhow, this one was in terrible shape and just barely clinging to life. I brought him back to the camp for some 'show and tell' and was I treated very poorly for that. Nonetheless, I took him away and pretended to dispatch him but instead I perched him up so he could look up into the night sky to where he had once come from, wherever that might have been. Since then I always thought it would be pleasure to go that way: resting comfortably on some nice earth and staring up and into space.

The stars are so hypnotizing tonight. They are a comfort to me.

.......

The lab visits have become more routine now; every seven days the surgeons were refreshed, and thrice a day my vitals were checked and recorded. There were no more experimental treatments; the clinic had run out of ideas and I was getting just straight up palliative care.

While I was in there one day my curiosity got the better of me. There was this long instrument that was about two centimeters or so in diameter and about fifty centimeters long. I'm certain that it had some special surgical purpose but I had never seen it utilized. It also appeared to be quite sterile as was most everything in the lab. And I thought to myself: what if I applied some lubricant to it, - would I then be able to pass it through my wound from my belly to my back.

As macabre as this thought was it appealed to me just the same. So, I carefully lubed- it up and started to slowly insert it into my wound just below my navel. It might have been more beneficial if it were a little more flexible, but I took my time and moved my puckered belly about with my free hand to ease the probe if I may call it that, - into my body. I remember thinking for a moment: what if I hurt myself? And this caused me to grin. But after a few minutes and not much discomfort I must say, I had indeed successfully passed it through my body.

I took a minute or so to view myself impaled with this instrument protruding from both my back and my belly. It was a most unusual sight if I must say and once I was pleased with myself, I pulled it through and out my back, just like a featherless arrow and it made a little squishy sound as it exited.

And that was the highlight of my week up to and until Hector reported that Coozo was on his way back to the mountains and he was travelling with a companion. Paiya, - I thought at first but it was apparently not her; it was another male prim. I must say, this was indeed shaping up into the mildest winter on record I bet and I proceeded as Coozo had asked to seed more temperate weather for he and his companion's journey through the mountains.

I brought Tia up to date concerning the arrival of a stranger and I prepared Rimbaud, too. I didn't want Rimbaud incinerating our guest before he even got here.

It's strange how in touch you find yourself with nature when you are deathly ill. The life on my mountain was upset with this weather. Many of the animals and plant life depend on a regular cycle of rest that is followed by an interval of expended stored energy. I've been turning their world upside down and I must confess that I've been a bad alien of late.

It'll get better I tell them. Stay in your dens. Don't flower. Spring is not here yet.

.......

Good things were beginning to happen with the Nina's refit. Her top hatch was now sealed. The multis were busy packing up and recycling the labs and shops that were now unnecessary. With the exception of a final hull inspection all the remaining work needed to complete the Nina's refit was inside the ship itself. I helped expedite some of this myself in hopes that Hector might increase the altitude of his orbit but of course it did not.

My mobility was becoming a problem these days. I was unsteady on my feet and a tremor was developing in my right hand. Increasingly, I was depending on the multis to help me get up, help me get down, help me along, and help me do pretty much everything. The clinic won't tell me how much longer I have but I figure it's about two weeks from now. Unfortunately, that'll be two weeks shy of what I need to collect Hector.

I now weigh just thirty-two kilos and Hector's orbit is at about one hundred and twenty-five kilometers above planet Sophie's surface. I try not to think about the impending disaster that unfortunately looks to be unavoidable.

Anyways, it happens to be snowing and I had called for rain. I can't even get the weather to cooperate anymore. I've seen images of Coozo and his companion remotely through a multi that had been dispatched to oversee their trek through the mountains. This stranger is no ordinary prim; he's of a much smaller stature and appears to be a very, - mature prim. His clothing was different than Coozo's and his knee-poh-pah had a most unusual pattern of colors on its face. I suspect that I'm to be visited by a shaman. Let's hope he's a good one. I don't want a quack.

I had a terrible, fitful night of sleep the evening before Coozo's and his companion's expected arrival at the camp. I suspect my sub conscious was preparing me for something terrible. It used to happen the night before battle in my younger years when I was a soldier for New Euro. I must have died a thousand times through the night; at least that's how it felt, – nightmare after nightmare and night sweat after night sweat.

.......

I am sitting here...

Inside the gymnasium...

Waiting for my Coozo...

Rain is coming down in sheets outside,

And looking out a rain soaked window,

I keep a weary eye on where the mountain path opens,

Where my precious Coozo will appear.

But I seem to be having some difficulty keeping my focus.

And when I look across the camp,

The sides appear to be closing in.

The path is becoming blurred and obscured.

I can hear an alarm.

It's one I haven't heard in a long while.

Someone is in medical distress.

I wonder who it is.

Is it Tia?

Is it me?

I can't lift my arm.

How am I to get up?

I can feel Hector soaring up, and away from me.

I've got to get up.

I'm here.

I'm still here.

Can't you see?

.......

It was a great deal of commotion and I was embarrassed. I'd had a stroke. It was nothing serious. It was just a little one. There was only an alarm in the case that I might have fallen in such a way that might have obstructed my breathing. The surgeons had matters in hand internally.

"I'm just a little out of sorts, Tia. I'm okay. Not quite right as rain, but I'm still good."

"You near scared the life out of me. I ran as fast as I could." said Tia with a tiny forced smile.

I know what she was thinking: he's going. This is how he will go.

"I'm sorry if I've upset you. I suppose I needed to have a stroke. I'll try hard – not to have another."

I checked on Hector. His orbit appeared to be at one hundred and twenty kilometres in altitude and was steady. I checked his history and his position had only fluttered a little at the time of my stroke.

"I felt him leaving, Tia."

"Who?"

"Hector. I felt him soaring away from me like he was my soul."

"Do you need your berth? Some rest?"

"No. You can go back to what you were doing. I'll be fine. I want to wait here for Coozo," and I pointed to the path out the window.

"Okay. No more alarms," she said shaking her finger at me. "He should be here soon with his companion. Yes?"

"I think the muddy path is slowing them up," I suggested.

"Alright then," and I watched Tia run from the gymnasium's door to the tetra through the pouring rain.

.......

The two travelers came into the camp about one hour after Tia had left the gymnasium for the Nina. They were quite a soggy sight. Coozo waved and I waved back and I could feel butterflies in my belly in anticipation. What a pleasant feeling it was opposed to the digging pain the surgeons had been giving me for weeks now. Just the sight of my Coozo had me feeling ten times better.

I got up carefully anyhow and with the aid of a multi and went to meet the two.

"Can you not stop this?" shouted Coozo from atop his knee-po-pah referring to the wet weather.

"It was this or wet snow my friend. I'm not a magician. How are the children and Paiya?"

"They are good. The plains people have been good to us."

When Paiya first arrived at the camp months ago she had been immediately transfixed by the presence of the tetra and its golden glow. Today, once again the tetra was alive in color because of the heavy overcast left little sunlight for it to absorb. This newcomer however didn't bat an eye; his focus stayed solely on me. I'll take that into consideration as a good omen.

Everything about his appearance was weathered. His clothing was even in tatters. He had plenty of white and grey down about his head and indeed - a beard of downy feathers beneath his chin. He carried with him a long wooden stave which he used in earnest to dismount from his most interesting knee-po-pah. This knee-po-pah was a rather elegant looking animal compared to both his own rider and Coozo's beast. Coozo's beast in comparison looked tired and out of sorts compared to the shaman's knee-po-pah which looked both refreshed and at ease in its new surroundings that I would think were quite unfamiliar to him.

His name was Thorn and he had come to heal the sky man. At least that's what he said in his strange tongue. Coozo needed to translate some of his words for me. The dialect that Thorn used was somewhat different from what I was used to hearing. But apparently, he was from the coast which was several weeks travel by knee-po-pah from my mountain but he had nonetheless started his trek to see the sky man's mountain once it became abundantly clear that my star was falling.

I asked him when he had first noticed my star and though he could only see it at night he said he had noticed Hector's first orbit two years ago and supplied a date by the number of sunrises that he had counted since then and he was correct. I did the math. He had indeed seen Hector's first orbit.

I invited the two into the much drier gymnasium. Thorne was unfamiliar with exercise but he was familiar with the concept of an arena and was an enthusiast of wrestling.

He told me he would heal me, but for a price. He wanted to be paid, - his weight, - in gold.

Could I do that?

"Yes." I answered.

He then demonstrated for me how his compensation would be determined by taking his stave which was a very sturdy length of wood I must say. As sturdy of a pole that I'd ever seen and he laid it centered on a round stock of timber and stood at one end. It was a primitive scale that he was demonstrating and I nodded.

I asked how long he had been a shaman. Who wouldn't be curious how long their future physician had been in practice? There was some discussion between Coozo and Thorn that I was not privy, too following the question. I think Thorn had felt slighted with my question but apparently he was born with the gift, thus he had fifty-nine years experience. And, he wanted to know how long I had been a sky-man.

"I was trained to be a sky man as a very young man and since then I've accumulated nearly twenty years of experience."

Thorn smiled.

"You still have youth," he responded through Coozo and I suppose he had gathered that I was not an old man from another planet.

"When will the treatment start?" I asked.

"When I have my gold and once the skies are clear," answered Coozo for Thorn.

"I'll get busy with both at once. And Coozo , \- when time permits could you please show our guest about. I have more questions for both you. They'll have to wait at least for the moment while I attend to our dear visitor's two requests."

.......

Tia was livid. She didn't like the looks of this shaman and he apparently didn't care for the looks of her either. I think he already had something against hybrids and he had only met his first one. Frankly, I think it's good old misogyny at work – no penis, no respect. And now having said that, my sad member is nothing to brag about and is quite infertile, a decoration for the most part, but I always knew it would come in handy having one someday.

Manufacturing Thorn's gold was going to be the easy part; it would take less than a half hour to make the thirty-five or so kilos needed. However, the weather will take some time; a day or so I suppose. I might be a sky man but I can't move the heavens over night. I'll need Hector to help out and seed some low pressure south of here. It'll take a couple of days, and the high pressure that will rush in will be wintry cold; my poor mountain.

In a break in our presently very wet weather I showed Thorn the remains of my corn field and the stores of seed I had saved. He surprised me with some genuine interest. He wanted to know how hearty it was and it's nutritional value? I think at first he thought of it as sky man food that had magical properties but I assured him it was just good food as a kernel but additionally it had many more applications that would reveal themselves over time. I think he understood.

He was also quite interested in seeing my monster. I brought him down from his perch on his rig thirty meters up above the camp. Thorn appeared to be surprised by how small Rimbaud was; he's almost half my size but more than double my weight. Nonetheless, I gave him a quick demonstration of what a heat ray can do and he was most impressed with that.

"Why does he need help to fly? He could hunt like a hawk if he could fly like you sky man," asked Thorn through Coozo.

I explained to him that anything in flight was quite vulnerable from attackers in my world. Rimbaud and his brethren operate close to the ground and tunnel and burrow to protect themselves from attack. I had Rimbaud demonstrate just that. In a matter of a second or two I had him burrow by his own heat ray into the ground three meters deep or so.

"Now he's safe.

And then I had him return to ground level in a split second.

"Now he's ready for business.

"My monster is simply a very sophisticated foot soldier."

"A part of a much greater army with larger weapons?" asked Thorn via Coozo.

"Yes and very much so."

One would think that a man would want to sleep under a roof at night but not Thorn. He insisted that he'd be spending the night outdoors and in fact he spent almost all of his time out in the camp or out in the woods. He seemed to always be looking for something either in the soil or in the brown leafy foliage on the forest floor. He kept poking about with his stave wherever he went.

I had Coozo ask him what he might be looking for because the Nina's science program has a huge data base of just about everything there is on this mountain whether it be flora or fauna or simply a mineral.

"I'm looking for what ails you. If I can find what ails you; I can heal you, sky man," said Thorn.

Later in the day he came to the entrance of the tetra and asked for a meeting. Coozo collected me from my berth were I had been resting and we went to meet Thorn in the gymnasium.

"I need to see the wound," said Thorn via Coozo.

I gingerly climbed up on a table and removed most of my clothing for Thorn's physical examination. He looked me over inquisitively. Well after all, I was his very first alien patient. The wound had him perplexed. It was bloodless he said. There was little in the way of discoloration or swelling. At one point he stepped back surprised.

"There is something living in your body, sky man."

"They're surgeons," and I explained their purpose and that they had taken care of the bleeding and swelling but they were losing the battle in stopping the bacteria that was eating my flesh.

"They must not be present for my treatment," he insisted.

"But I require them to keep me alive," I implored.

"You will not die while you are under my care. The day after – you can return them to your body if you must. I'll be gone. My job will be done."

He asked about my secondary wound. I didn't realize at first what he was referring to but apparently he was referring to my navel; he'd apparently only seen such things on swine and vermin. I felt slighted; I was one of only a handful of New Eurons that had a belly button. At home I was considered an antique by the medical community and a freak by others. Now here on planet Sophie which admittedly has an enormous population of marsupial life, I'm compared to likes of vermin and swine because as a young tyke I was once attached to a placenta.

I nonetheless, spread my puckered wound open to show them a glimmer of the metallic top of the examination table beneath me. I think I had the two of them in awe with my freakish display but truthfully I just wanted some of their pity, too. I am after all a man who is going to be dead in a week or so.

I don't know if it was my shameless show but once I had shown the two what they had asked for the examination seemed to wrap up in a hurry. Thorn said he had much to do, and weather permitting – meaning a clear night tomorrow he will treat me as soon as the sun goes down. It sounded ominous but I was a man who was running out of time and alternatives.

.......

When I told Tia that I would be removing the surgeons for a day or so on the advice of Thorn she became quite upset.

"Why am I working so hard to save this mission when you are now intentionally placing it in danger? I rest only a few hours a day and work hard for the remainder of each day - day in and day out. And now you want to risk everything by taking the advice of a shaman. I know what a shaman is. A shaman is a primitive charlatan. He believes in magic and alchemy. There's no science behind his practice."

"Tia, I'm not going to live long enough to complete the mission. I had a stroke this morning. I have difficulty walking. I have difficulty swallowing. Soon I'm going to have difficulty speaking. I'm dying. I am dying now. Do you not hear me? Do you not understand?

"You can rest now, Tia. It's okay. You have my permission. Either this charlatan cures me or I die."

"I... Will... Only stop work... If you insist," replied Tia haltingly in a weak sullen voice.

"Carry on then."

It was the only way she felt that she could help. She wanted to continue her duties until all was lost. So be it then.

While I was still under the influence of adrenalin I attended to some programming of both Rimbaud and Hector if that were possible. If I suffer from Thorn's treatment I can't have him blowing Thorn to bits in my defense so I programmed Rimbaud to treat Thorn as my physician and to tolerate his actions. Hector was going to be a more difficult challenge but it occurred to me following my stroke earlier in the day that if Hector does soar up and away from me because my health worsens as a result of Thorn's treatment, would he also not return if my health improved? Nonetheless, I instructed him that I was to receive treatment as soon as tomorrow that might temporarily affect my well being. Following that bit of code his altitude dropped another five kilometers.

I exhaled a deep swooning sigh after that. You can't reason with an entity that only understands logic. And at the same time after exhaling once more it occurred to me that soon I may not get to exhale again and Hector knows that that's the case too. We take in an average of twenty-three thousand breaths a day; I'll soon be able to count them off. Hector has probably already started counting them down. These are things we think about when we are dying a slow death.

.......

Tonight was too wet and too overcast to watch the sky. It could be my last time for that activity after all and I was disappointed, but instead I made a last meal of sorts. I had some salty protein, a glass of red wine and for a taste of the exotic, - I made up some cinnamon. Cinnamon was a favorite treat when I was young. You mix it with a sweetener and voila: heaven.

Tomorrow night, life was going to get better or maybe, - finally come to an end. I wasn't afraid to die. I was sorry for Tia however. She was my biggest concern. I know -, that I wouldn't want to be alone and stranded on an alien planet. I wish I had only brought her better fortune.

How fortunate for me though. I was going to die with two people I love at my side. Should I become famous some day, they can make a statue of me seated atop a steely steed of course, with my sword unsheathed and my mighty steed having one foot dangling in the air.

"Ah."

Dark thoughts envelope me one minute and a gallows humor becomes of me the next moment. Sleep will become difficult tonight.

I love cinnamon. Cinnamon makes me smile. It takes me back to places where things were simpler and easily understood; where the horror of death was not just unthinkable in its finality but a long way off. Youth was pleasant and adulthood has been victorious up until now so I will deem my life a success. Look. Look at all of that I've done.

......

I could not rest. I paced about as well as my wobbly legs would let me. Tia had confined herself to her quarters; she would not answer my page. Coozo was still awake, too; I could see that all of the lights were on over in the gymnasium. Thorn, - I wonder if he ever sleeps, was likely out in the woods? I don't know how he does it, high pressure was moving in and the night was going to be frigid, but he still dresses as though he was living on a temperate coast. Since we all apparently had insomnia, I was going to pay Coozo a visit in the gymnasium.

I dressed as best I could for it; cold temperatures cut me deep to the bone these days and I headed over to the gymnasium. Hector was close I could sense him overhead as I walked. If the sky clears up tonight we might see him pass over again just before sunrise. I let myself into the gymnasium and found both Coozo and Thorn together inside having a conversation.

"Good evening gentlemen. How are my good friend and my physician this evening?"

"We've been having a conversation about you Mark," answered Coozo.

"And about what might I ask?"

"Thorn has asked if there is a spirit animal that you might feel an affinity for. I suggested there was – the one you call the mastafor."

I nodded my head in agreement.

"I suppose if there was a favorite the mastafor would be the one, Coozo. I've not actually seen one in such a very long time however."

Thorn smiled and nodded his head too in agreement and told Coozo that what I call a mastafor was a very good choice. I apparently had a wise head on my shoulders for someone new to this world.

"You need a talisman, Mark. Something of the mastafor; a piece of his hide for instance, a bone - something."

"Why, I have only some of his down. I have his DNA. I could make a mastafor, but not overnight. Why do I need a talisman?" I asked.

Coozo got an idea and went over to some totes where he stored his personal things. He rummaged around in one that I'd not seen opened for several years I think. From it he brought out the tiny hide bag that I had brought back here for him from his camp where he and his father had been murdered. In that little bag as I remembered were some children's curiosities – one being a mastafor's tooth.

"This is very good sky man. It will make an excellent talisman," said a grinning Thorn via Coozo. "Keep it with you now and tomorrow night; - make sure you bring it with you. You will need it. You will understand better tomorrow night."

"What you call a mastafor here Mark is very similar to what the coastal people have in their forests called the 'cayopacha'. They are smaller than your mastafor and every bit as cunning. The coastal and interior cayopacha are both considered to be man eaters; it is unusual that the two of you cohabitated together," added Coozo.

"They eat my pets occasionally and the knee-po-pah, too. But they have been eating these kinds of animals for as long as there have been mountains and seas. I do not own them in the same way that the cayopacha do. I can eat the grain and the fruit of the land; the cayopacha cannot. We must all share the forest's bounty. Only the cayopacha can keep the forest healthy. If you have lived in the kingdom of the cayopacha then he can make you well," said Thorn via Coozo as he bid both Coozo and I adieu for the evening.

"What can I expect tomorrow night?" I asked Coozo once Thorn had left the gymnasium.

"To be cured," answered a confident Coozo.

.......

I returned to the Nina. It was still and quiet. Normally, Tia and I would both be asleep, yet I could still see that the lighting in her berth was on. I paged her again but she still didn't respond; it was after all her time for rest. I went to her quarters and knocked at the door; there were things I needed to address her with and the sooner it was done the better.

"Tia. I would like to speak with you, please," I said just outside her locked berth.

She should be able to hear me.

"Tia, it concerns the mission. If you are awake and have a few minutes there are a few things that I would like to speak to you about."

The door opened a tiny crack. It was unlatched but not quite opened. I knocked again this time gently.

"Tia may I come in?"

"Yes," she said diminutively in a barely audible voice.

"Thank you for allowing me to speak with you at this late hour but apparently no one here in the camp can sleep tonight."

I entered her berth. She was not quite retired for the night as I had suspected, but nonetheless curled up like a child or a pet on her cot.

"I have something to ask of you."

"Yes."

"Tomorrow night, Thorn is going to treat me for this infection. Coozo will be with me for all of the procedure and I know you are not comfortable with this shaman business so it's not necessary for you to be there."

"I don't want to be there," she interjected.

"That's fair, but I do need you to do something for me, for us and for the sake of the mission."

"What?"

"Should I not be lucid after Thorn and Coozo are finished with me could you get me to the clinic?"

"Like if you're dead?"

"Well not quite dead I hope, but yes."

"I will."

"Thank you. Now, there is something else that we haven't addressed much lately and that's, - what happens to the mission should I die."

"Yes."

"I have left lots of personal advice and instructions in the Nina's logs that should help you manage until you are collected by and who I would suspect will be, - a Colonist recovery team in twenty years time. However in the interim you will still have a mission and things to do that your captain wants done."

"Yes."

"Once I'm dead there is no need for you to complete the Nina's refit. It's pointless. There will be no one to pilot her. So, I would like you to get her fitted so she can hover and become an airship of sorts. Does that make some sense?"

"Yes."

"Tia this is so: because if at sometime in the future Rimbaud malfunctions and can no longer keep the Nina and the mountain secure, the Nina will have the ability to fly to safety, and wherever you point her to; she'll take you there. It's that easy. You go to her helm, you put a finger someplace on the chart of the planet and she'll go there as quickly or as slowly as you want. You just answer her questions. I've made that so. Is that understood?

"Are you okay with that?" I asked again.

Tia didn't answer.

"Yes?" I asked her inquisitively for an acknowledgment.

"No." she said. "You're not going to die."

And I received one of her rare crooked smiles.

"Have a good night my friend," and I left her berth.

.......

I had to amp up the kit to get to sleep as fitful as it was when it finally came over me, but in the morning the sun was out albeit along with some frigid winter air and that was just what the good doctor had ordered. I had a late day appointment in the clinic to remove the two surgeons from my belly and I suppose I won't be allowed to have my kit on either for Thorn's treatment. I'm going to ask him about just that when I see him. The kit would be all that was between me and a lot of pain; I hope this shaman knows what he's doing.

Today, I was going to make an effort and get down to my pond. It was there I heard from Coozo that Thorn was making preparations for this evening. I bundled up and got atop my rig; I couldn't trust my legs anymore for climbing of any sort. They felt clumsy; my hands, too. It was like I was shutting down from my extremities first; the rest of me would implode later, I suppose.

Thorn was not at the pond however, but you could see he had been making preparations for a really long night or a really big bon fire; there was a huge pile of firewood that I suppose he had collected. Fist size rocks had also been laid down on the frozen ground outlining a foot path of sorts or perhaps even a primitive landing strip that ended at a large fire pit. I like a good fire; earth fires were my favourite – they had the best reds and orange hues to their flames.

I waited for the man but he never showed. The animals were out in abundance however. There were plenty of winter birds and seeing how much of their mountain home had been burnt to ashes they had flocked to the treed section of the mountain that hadn't been devastated by the fire of a few months ago. I could also see signs that nocturnal rodents had been about; their tails had left tell tale tracks and today they were etched upon a rhyme of frost that had coated the grass rather evenly.

After a half hour of waiting I was already tiring, so I returned to the camp, but I took the time to give a good sweep of the yard and say goodbye to all the little things I had come to love on this mountain. There was my corn field, and my spa that I wished I had more time to enjoy. I could see the paths that I had worn and followed to each of my favorite places. It was all so depressing, and to think - that a tiny, microscopic alien pathogen was taking all of this away from me.

My energy level was near zero; I wasn't going to be good for much of anything today. This was by far the worst I've felt. I had had a better day when I had the stroke. I retreated to the gymnasium where I found my good friend Coozo.

"Thorn wishes to be paid before he treats you if that is alright with you Mark."

"That's fine Coozo. I could pay him more gold than he can possibly imagine but if he wants his weight in gold to be his fee - a rather melodramatic amount I must say, that's fine with me. He is the physician, and he is allowed to set his fee to whatever he deems to be fair compensation. Is he truly a wise man in your judgement Coozo?"

"Yes. He comes highly recommended. There might be greater shaman than he but he was the only one brave enough to come to the mountain."

"I see. A man of knowledge is typically courageous in my estimation. Perhaps the mighty Thorn is smarter than his colleagues; there's nothing to fear from a man dying of a simple bacterium. Why, - I haven't the energy today to swat away a fly.

"You will I hope implore to your good people that should I expire that the mountain will become an even less safe place to visit; Rimbaud will still be very much on duty."

"I will Mark. I'll make them listen if I can."

"I trust you will. I don't won't anymore blood on my hands.

"May I ask? How are the children?"

"They are well. The eldest as I promised is named Mark. You would like him. He has an outgoing and caring nature about himself. He tugs his little brother out of Paiya's pouch whenever he can – to play."

"I would love to meet them, but I think I would scare the living daylights out of them. I'm happy for you and your family. You have a place. You are the captain of a family. I've told you that I have no formal family? That where I hail from we are related by numbers?"

"Yes."

"I envy you Coozo. You'd be a very fortunate man in my eyes if you had just never met up with this sky man from another world."

"You were a blessing. You made me stronger. You made my world richer."

"You are either on your way to becoming an excellent diplomat or you are a lot wiser than many of your wise men you tell me about," I said smiling back at my good friend Coozo.

My eyelids were becoming heavy. Glorious sunlight was flooding into the gymnasium through its enormous windows but I could not keep my eyes open.

"Should the mighty Thorn show up; you wake me?"

"I will. You rest," replied Coozo from where he sat next to me.

.......

I believe it was Coozo who was shaking my cuff and shouting my name to rouse me from a deep sleep. Apparently, I had only been asleep for an hour or so. Nonetheless, it had been of the deep and dreamless variety. The sun was burning into my eyes and a grizzled shaman was looking closely into my face.

He was singing in a low murmur a repetitive melody. It was simple melody but kind to the ears in a pleasant way. He had a head dress of sorts on or perhaps it was just a hat but nonetheless, there were more than a handful of insects crawling on it. There were – larvae clinging to his downy beard. They were wriggling and climbing through tufts of white feathers that covered Thorn's neck and chin. These were all local species that were out of season. I recognized each and every one of them. How did he acquire them?

"Awaken sky man. I've found the spirit of your cayopacha. He will be here for you tonight," said the mighty Thorn.

"I have what you have asked for Thorn."

I had two of the multis bring the gold into the gymnasium. It took them several trips. I had the gold formed as fifty gram wafers and bundled loosely into ten kilogram bags. Thorn stacked each package onto a tray he had fashioned and attached to one end of his stave. The stave itself was to balance at its center on a fulcrum made from a sharp piece of wood stock.

I was in awe as he bent and stooped over many times arranging his scale that not one of these worms fell from his bearded face. He smiled and grinned like an entertainer as he toiled. And once satisfied with his primitive balance scale, he stood upon an identical tray at his end of the stave and his tray sank immediately to the floor in a pounce. He giggled and looked at me with the craziest look in his eyes.

"I can gather more," I said. "As much as you like," I added.

He dropped his cloak to the floor revealing a gnarled and terribly weathered body and his tray rose up to a perfect balance on his primitive scale.

"Very impressive sky man, you have paid in full. Tonight, at dusk, you shall meet me at the pond and I shall make you well."

"I shall be there Thorn," I replied from where I was sitting and looking up at this withered old man.

Thorn then meticulously disassembled his scale and collected his stave, pulled his cloak back on and bounded out the gymnasium's door with a fury.

"Is he alright?" I asked Coozo questioning the mighty Thorn's sanity.

"Oh yes. He's been like this since early this morning. He's quite confident that he can heal you. You must let him be himself and not interfere. You have to trust me. The medicine that you once used to save my life was every bit as unconventional to my world as the medicine from this world, - must appear to you. You are in good hands, Mark. I guarantee you."

The surgeons were digging away at my insides again and I grimaced and twisted in pain. I reached up to my kit to adjust it for more pain relief, but there was no more adjustment in its range to increase.

"Coozo, could you help me to the clinic?"

"By all means -," and I thought I heard him call me papa as he helped me up.

.......

The clinic obliged me without argument to have the surgeons removed and retired from my body. I felt hurt just a little. It was like I was a waste of resources. What difference would it make if they removed them from my dead body or my live body? We're talking just mere days. Is that such a waste? There was no room for subjectivity in medicine any more. I can remember when I was considered an asset on this ship.

The mighty Thorn however, was my last chance and Thorn said they must go. If they are needed I can put them back in tomorrow. Apparently, their presence in my body was only going to add a predicted two more days to my existence, anyways. The clinic's last comment before the visit was complete was that it was recommended that I place my personal affairs in order.

I've been hearing that for weeks.

"Tia? Tia?" I bleated out as I searched her out like a maternal figure.

I needed someone to complain to. I was feeling terribly sorry for myself.

"Tia? Tia?"

I found her still locked away in her berth.

"Tia. Should you hear me screaming your name this evening? I don't want you to come to my rescue. Let me be. Let me go." I moaned at the very much closed door of her berth.

"Don't come to collect me till the morning."

She didn't answer. I hope she's asleep with her kit maxed out.

I had just an hour. I got a glass of wine; just a small one. And I sat for that hour and listened to music, - pastoral and ambient.

How did all this come to pass? I'm dying half way across the universe on a planet that shares not one iota of any familiar DNA with my own. There is much here that is similar but nothing you can touch, see, taste or hear that is quite the same. Everything beyond the walls of the tetra is foreign to the senses. Your years of training and your years of experience do prepare you for living in strange and at times harsh environments but none of that helps you when you have to die in one. It's lonely. It's so lonely.

.......
The Tea Scene

Coozo came and fetched me and with his help I walked on my own two feet – sort of, down to the pond. It was brisk outside but there was little in the way of a wind that could make things more uncomfortable. Nonetheless, I wasn't going to perish from the cold because down at the pond there was a huge fire going with sharp orange and crimson flames licking up into the clear night sky. Thorn was absent however.

"Is my physician attending anytime soon, Coozo?"

"He should be arriving anytime now," answered Coozo helping me down into a spot in the dirt made just for the guest of honour by the looks of it.

"My, this is comfortable," I lied. "Coozo, have a look up there," and I pointed to a group of stars. "I'm thinking of naming that constellation: Coozo. What do you think? Do you know what a constellation is?"

"I think so."

"And over there Coozo is a big group of four that's the greater Mastafor. There's a minor one you can see in the summer.

"Your planet has the best stars I've ever seen. Every one of them, - absolutely every one of them is new to me. Up until five years ago no New Euron has ever laid eyes upon one of these beauties."

I took in the heavenly vista for a few silent minutes until there was a rustle in the forest. The shaman was here. And was he ever. He had a new outfit on. It was mostly a cloak or cape perhaps with intricate tiny bead work that covered most of the front of it in glorious patterns and it had gold clasps that locked the front of it closed.

"Is this your formal attire Thorn? If it is I'm very impressed."

He didn't answer but instead he stirred the fire with his stave and made it smoky.

"I hope you brought your thirst with you sky man. I've made some tea for you."

"I'm quite alright Thorn. As a policy I never eat or drink anything that is not manufactured on the Nina."

"Tonight you are going to break that rule sky man."

"I suppose I could do that. I have nothing to lose these days that's not about to disappear soon anyways. What kind is it?"

"For you sky man it's a decision tea. Tonight, my world will determine if it wants you to live. If it does you will live. If it doesn't then I'll need to return your gold. I have asked many questions in the forest and I think you have a chance."

"And what has the forest said about me?"

"That you have taken nothing, that you have restored life to what was dead, that you have taken a seed – maize and made it stronger, and that you have peacefully cohabitated with the cayopacha. The forest listens, - my friend. The forest will be here forever, as long as there is sea and as long as there are mountains. You are not the first visitor from the sky to walk in its woods and you will not be the last. The forest tells me this in a voice as real as yours or your young friend Coozo.

"So let us first boil some water that I have brought from your beautiful spring fed pond," and Thorn lowered an iron kettle into the red embers that he had formed with his stave.

"Thorn, did the forest not ask about the innocent men and women, - and children for heaven's sake that died just over here by my hands," and I pointed just up the stream that fed the pond.

"Were they innocent sky man? I think your mountain of gold had much to do with that. I've yet to meet a man who would not want to be a king. Gold brings on madness in men."

Thorn paused for a moment in thought and then asked as he tended the embers about the kettle, "What do men from your world crave? What drives them to murder?"

"Freedom. Freedom from tyranny, Thorn. In my world we all have to answer to someone and sometimes they are not nice people."

"It's no wonder sky man that you respect the great cayopacha. He answers to no one. He's the king of his mountain."

"I can't say that I have had that insight precisely regarding my interest in the cayopacha but I suppose it's true. If I had a forest I would be a benevolent master of my domain."

"We need to steep our tea," said the mighty Thorn as he collected the steaming kettle from the fire and set the pot on the ground.

He had in his hand a long spoon like utensil and he stirred the contents of the kettle. Using the spoon he ladled out some leafy sediment from the bottom of the pot. He mixed the sediments with some soil he collected from the ground from about the campfire and bundled the works up with some animal hide. He then rolled all of its contents into a compact ball between the palms of his hands and squeezed some of the moisture out of it with a closed fist.

"Show me your wound sky man," declared the mighty Thorn as he approached me.

I pulled my clothing away from my belly and showed him my puckered hole. Thorn bent down and squished the warm ball of soil and tea sediment into my wound. It felt warm though Thorn's hands felt rough and his movements were anything but gentle.

"You'll need to keep that there for the evening. It will be of no harm to you; your wound has no blood."

I noticed that there appeared to be only one cup and I asked," Will I be the only person having tea tonight?"

"From this pot, - I should think so," answered Thorn," Your young friend Coozo and I will be quite busy tending to our patient through the night. We'll have no time for tea until the morning," he answered while grinning.

Thorn filled the earthen cup with the tea he had steeping in the kettle. He swirled the mixture about and gave it a careful once over before placing it down onto the ground.

"It needs to cool and settle a little sky man. It will be easier for you to drink."

"Is it safe to drink?" I asked.

"I tested it myself this morning sky man," replied the mighty Thorn.

"That explains a lot. I'll have some, - if that's what the physician prescribes."

We were all silent for several minutes. Thorn spent his time staring up into the sky. Coozo looked uncomfortable like the weight of the world was upon his shoulders. I hope all his worry was not being wasted on me. Whenever I got a chance to make some eye contact I smiled and nodded to him. I didn't want him to think that there was any doubt in my wanting to be here. If tonight makes his soul rest easier than all of this is worth it. I'm resigned to die but if my good friend Coozo wants me to try his world's medicine than I feel the need to oblige him. Who knows? He could be offering good advice.

Thorn went back to the cup, stuck his index finger into it to test its temperature and grinned.

"Your tea is ready, sky man."

He walked the stone lined path from the fire to where I sat upon the ground and carefully handed the cup to me. I should think it was still hot. He then sat himself down right beside me. I had Coozo on my left side and Thorn on my right.

"Have you brought your talisman with you?"

"Yes. It's here in my pocket." I replied shifting my weight to get it out.

"Not just yet sky man. Drink some tea. It will be a little bitter at first but then it will taste quite fine."

I sipped from the cup. It was rather crudely formed from clay and had an unusually thick body and lip to it. I had to be careful not spill any of the tea from my lips. These primitives might think I'm uncultured. Like Thorn had warned, it was bitter but not bad. It tasted like – my mountain. While I sipped the concoction Thorn unraveled a long strip of animal hide. I think on my home planet it was once referred to as sinew.

"How is your tea?"

"I like it. It appears to have settled my stomach," I answered.

"What is your strong hand?" asked the mighty Thorn.

It occurred to me that he wanted to know if I was right handed or left handed. I'm actually mostly ambidextrous, but I still favor the right for some things.

"My right," I answered.

"Good, I'll need your right hand sky man."

I held my right hand out to him and held my tea cup in the other.

"I need the talisman."

I had Coozo help retrieve the mastafor tooth from out of a pocket. Thorn then placed the tooth in the palm of my right hand and with the sinew he tied it tightly into my palm. He appeared to make a concerted effort with both his hands to tighten the sinew as securely as possible into the palm of my right hand.

"Now we wait. Drink sky man. You'll need to drink more than half of that cup to awaken the spirit of the cayopacha."

"Mastafor," I replied while drinking more of my mountain tea.

"He will know you by the name you call him," said the mighty Thorn with a thin grin.

I consumed the entire cup of tea like a drunken deep-space colonist. I felt good; real good. I stared into the fire and the flames had every hue and color of a rainbow in them now. I had not a worry. Not a pain in the world except for the mastafor tooth that was digging uncomfortably into my palm, but I didn't care. This was better than my kit any day. I was about to ask Thorn how the tea was made but then the fire had me suddenly transfixed. The smoke was coming to life. It was swirling about in the most unusual way.

"That's an awfully smoky fire," I said slurring my words.

I wondered for a moment if I was having yet another stroke? I felt Coozo and Thorn each grab one of my arms and hold me back like I was in danger.

A dark blue-grey plume poked up and out of a greater cloud and at the end of this long plume a great grey-blue coloured - hand grew. It seemed to reach out and around the circumference of the fire pit until it found the stone lined path that Thorn had prepared. It then raced like fire down the path to where I sat and grabbed the clothing away from my belly and pulled that lump of tea sediment and soil from out of my wound.

At that very moment I became overwhelmed with euphoria and the pond and its surroundings burst into an explosion of fluorescing colors and a symphony of bird and insect chatter. Was this heaven? Have I just died? The smoky hand held up that lump of soil and tea sediment in the center of its open hand and then that little lump of dirt began to sprout a head, a tail and four legs.

It jumped to the ground and immediately began running faster and faster in tight little circles around the three of us and the fire pit. The faster it ran, the larger it grew until it was a little mastafor running like the wind, and then a greater, and a greater mastafor until a full sized mastafor was running about us at a frenzied pace. I could feel his wake and hear his breath as bounded around us.

He was glorious. He was beautiful and I had to be with him. First, it was my right hand the one that held the mastafor tooth that broke free from my physical person that both Coozo and Thorn held tight. I reached out and into the direction of the circling mastafor, and the rest of my soul simply followed my right hand's progress from out of my body.

It was me, - but in soul only that stood up and I followed the mastafor's circular progress around the fire pit like the hand of a clock on the balls of my feet. The mastafor's tail bobbed up and down like fruit at the end of a bough as his arched back too, bounded up and down like he was a mad, mad carousel. And just before I leapt, I took pause to look back down upon the rest of me that sat still and limp between my two earthly guardians.

My only thought at this moment was that I wanted to be just like him and I caught the end of his tail with a clenched hand just as he sped by me. His enormous power pulled me along like a flapping flag. He was pure energy and I - just a wisp of ether clinging for dear life to the end of his swinging tail.

I pulled myself up and along the curve and dip of his tail till I had navigated my ethereal person to a heroic seat up upon the mastafor's great back. He then bucked and ran all the faster once he had his rider. And up and into the boughs and limbs of the forest's trees we went as I struggled to contain my excited state. From tree top to tree top we leapt and down below I could see the flickering flames emitted from a tiny fire pit.

"Who are you? Who are you?" I could hear the mighty Thorn shout out from down below where three bodies sat in front of a fire.

"I!" I shouted.

"I am the Mastafor!"

We ran quick. We ran fast. He was I and I was he and we were one, - on a common mission. Tonight, the mountain was to be ours again.

First, we bounded up the hill and jumped to the top of some trees that surrounded the Nina's camp. There was a clear bird's eye view of the tetra, my spa and the gymnasium from up there. The mastafor purred while he studied the camp. I bet he secretly studied our movements more than I had ever suspected.

After a few minutes of that we were off to visit more of the mastafor's favorite places. He took me to a mountain stream where we both drank the white crystal water that ran over its rocks. He purred. He appeared pleased that I too, drank from his watering hole.

Next, we leapt into the trees once again and bounded from treetop to treetop. I had to cling to his back with all my might; the beast was virtually in flight between his great leaps. He took me of course to his favorite hunting ground next. I knew this because I'd seen the remnants of his past kills here before.

We came down in a clatter and as he battled an imaginary competitor, he rose to stand upright and fight on just his hind feet. It was here that I finally lost my grip. I slid down his long back and onto the ground with two handfuls of white downy feathers clenched in my hands. Looking up; it was the majestic sight to behold. To see him snarl, snap and bite – while standing erect on just those two well muscled hind legs of his, no less.

He wouldn't however allow me to dine on his imaginary meal. He snapped and bared his teeth when I got too, close. This is the law of the forest: he who kills; eats first. Guests must wait.

He took time to clean himself after dining. I mimed my eating his leavings under his appreciative watch. It nonetheless tasted unpleasantly, too salty; I've not dined on the blood of a beast before.

It looked for a moment that a nap was in order after eating and grooming but instead the mastafor assumed a position that called for me to climb up upon his back. I rode on the back of my mastafor as he broke into a comfortable travelling pace. I needed to duck and dodge branches and adjust my center of gravity many times as he travelled down the mountain to a familiar old place deep into the woods. It was here that I first met him more intimately one insect day. He purred; I could feel it between my legs.

After a few reflective minutes to reminisce an old insect day the mastafor made a charge back up the mountain. We ran uphill for a good twenty minutes at full throttle and I could feel the heat being emitted from his magnificent body as he unleashed more and more energy. He knew the mountain well. Some of the route he travelled I too had used on my rig.

We were on our way to one of my favorite places: the lookout. When we reached the tree line and hit the snow, I let out a scream.

"Yah- hoo! Woo-hoo!"

The snow made no difference; his paws were still sure. Except for some rock it seemed that I was back in space. Delicious starlight surrounded us now and in a panoramic view.

He let me down at the lookout and rested behind me, confidently and apparently pleased with his own strength and vitality. This was for me. He carried me on his back all the way up to the peak of a mountain just to let me get as close to my home as he could.

"Thank you," I said.

And there he was; coming over the horizon. Hector was coming to see me and as low and as close I thought would not have been possible. He became so ridiculously bright as he approached, that the earth down below him was illuminated by his eerie light. I could make out the shapes of tetras down below at the bottom of my mountain. There were at least twice as many constructs down below as there were when I was last up here. It would be so much better for all of us, I thought if I could just pack up and leave - and then my former presence here could become just an old mystery.

If I could just get to collect him, dying would be so much easier. I think my mastafor was reading my thoughts; he began baying at Hector in the most unsettling voice. I never knew a mastafor had much of a voice but his was one that carried for kilometers.

"He won't listen," I said. "He has no heart.

"He won't listen to the Master of the Forest."

But the mastafor continued baying; this was more his dream than mine after all and as he did Hector grew brighter and brighter. He was coming closer. He was going to fly over and he did - ever so slowly. A tower of light emitted from Hector illuminated the mastafor and I on the peak of our mountain and then drifted away. I watched Hector go thinking as I have for so long now that this will be the last time I see him.

The mastafor however, had more to show me and he assumed the position, and I climbed back up and onto his back. This time as we travelled, he appeared to be in not much of a hurry as we descended the mountain at a much slower pace. The temperature grew warmer and warmer as we continued our descent and I swear I could feel him grow slower and wearier as we neared the prims' territory at the very base of the mountain.

"We need to be careful mastafor. We can't make any noise here or they will hear us," I whispered into his ear.

We stopped just at the edge of a grassy meadow. I'd never been so low on the mountain not even when I planted my infected mice. What was it that brought him here? What could he possibly want to show me? His breathing was heavy and I could feel him tremble and then he leaped with me still on the back of him of course, and he charged straight into the middle of the grassy clearing.

What was he thinking? We'll surely be seen I thought as he continued full speed ahead. We did a tight little circle in the middle of the meadow and then he reared up onto his hind legs heroically - and then promptly he collapsed to the ground.

I was thrown from the mastafor's back in the clatter and I landed a good three meters away with a thud. I rushed to my feet and ran to his aid. But his magnificent body was still, lifeless, - and curled up fetal and precisely where he had fallen.

I was in a panic. There was no life in his eyes. A bright red patch appeared on his neck and it grew larger and larger and spread to his breast. I touched its sticky dampness with my fingers. It was just blood. I'll get some more. I need to get him back to the Nina.

I struggled and I struggled to move him from where he had fallen but I couldn't move his heft; he was at least three times my weight.

"Don't die mastafor," I cried.

"Don't die."

.......

My hand ached. I looked about me and I was still not dead. In fact, I was in my berth and on my back. There was gravity so I likely was still on planet Sophie. I sat up and recollected the time and pretty much a full day had passed. I could hear footsteps. My vertical position and consciousness is probably bringing Tia.

"Captain?"

I looked at Tia's cheery face.

"Yes."

"How do you feel?"

"Like I've had too much wine," I answered. "How'd I get here?"

"Coozo and the shaman brought you in," she answered, and then added, "Late last night."

"Where is Thorn?"

"He's left. He said you were healed."

"And Coozo?"

"He's about. I can get a multi to bring him. I'm sure he'd like to see you. He's been waiting for just that I believe."

"Do I look any different?"

"No."

And I opened my aching hand and saw that I had the red impression of a mastafor tooth on the face of my right palm.

"You do seem rather feisty, however," added Tia.

I put my kit on and checked my vitals. I'd gained twenty-eight grams. I grinned.

"Tia. I've stopped losing weight. I've gained an ounce."

"What?"

"An ounce. An ounce is twenty-eight grams. I've gained an ounce. I might be getting better. Where's Thorn?" I asked again.

"I'll get Coozo. You stay put. I'll get Coozo. I'll be right back," answered Tia and I stared at my right palm some more.

It looked to me that the mark on my palm was going to be permanent. I now had a hole in my belly and, - the outline of a mastafor tooth burned into my palm. This better be real. This better be true. Why would Thorn leave so soon? I thought a physician followed up with his patient.

Coozo came into my berth and he too, was cheery and pleasant.

"How do you feel Mark?"

"Peculiar. Guardedly better I think. Where's Thorn?"

"He packed up his knee-po-pah and left early this morning."

"Did he take his payment?"

"Yes. His knee-po-pah is carrying his gold and he is going to walk back to his home."

"If he had waited around a few more weeks, the Nina could take him there. That would likely save him months of travel. And he said I'm healed; how so?"

"While you and the cayopacha were on your journey you spoke aloud quite a lot. The very last thing you said was: "Don't die mastafor. Don't die." Thorn said that meant you had won your battle with what ailed you."

"And had the mastafor not died I'd be dying still?"

"I'm not Thorn. He knows the ways of such things. You do seem much more alive I must say."

"I've gained some weight – an ounce. That's a small amount however. I don't even have a surgeon in my body. I slept without a kit. I can't wait to visit the clinic. It'll probably want to dissect me. It had washed its hands of me only a day ago.

"I do feel better Coozo. I just worry that it might not last. But nonetheless, I have a dove to collect and I need to get off of your planet. We're so close Coozo. In a few weeks the Nina will be an air ship and after another she'll be able to attain orbit. How about that? Help me up," and I held my arm out.

Coozo tugged me up and my head did feel clearer than a few days ago as I stood upright and unassisted without any wooziness.

"I want something to eat. Let's see what's cookin," I joked and we walked together to the galley.

"Did I tell you that I rode the mastafor?" I asked Coozo.

"I heard all about the mastafor."

"Did you see him grow and run around the fire?"

"No. I did not have the tea."

"Yes." I ruminated.

Tia was quiet but nonetheless she seemed silently engaged with every word I had to say as I ate like a hungry – mastafor.

"What's wrong with you two," I asked. "Have you not seen anyone get better?" and I grinned. "Look," I said, and I showed the two my right palm.

"What is that?" asked Tia.

"The mastafor tooth," I answered. "That is where Thorn had tied it. Where did it go? I'd like to return it to you," I said to Coozo.

"I don't know. I haven't seen it since yesterday evening. You need not worry. It was not mine. It was my fathers. It's yours now Mark if you ever do find it."

"Is that so," and Coozo nodded but he noticed my serious tone.

"Is that a problem, Mark?"

"No. None what so ever. It's just a mystery as to where it may have disappeared to," I lied but just a little.

"Coozo, there have been many times that I have wished that I'd had the chance to meet your father. He must have been a very fine man."

"Thank you Mark but I honestly have trouble remembering him."

"You should look at yourself more and I'm sure you'll see plenty of your father."

And I held my thoughts, but that man's heart has saved more lives than we shall ever know.

"Tia, how's the Nina's refit coming?"

Tia looked embarrassed.

"I know you weren't feeling well the past few days but until I know differently the mission is on again."

"I've been busy today."

"Excellent. When's the next audit?"

"Tomorrow if you would like," she answered.

"Good. Very good. I'm going to take an hour to let my stomach settle and then I'm going to visit the clinic."

And then I turned my head to my good friend Coozo.

"I know what's on your mind Mark. If you are truly healed I'd like to be with my family. I sorely miss them. I hope you understand, but if you are still ill and I trust you will be honest with me, - I will stay until your end."

"That's a deal. You sound so severe. Not about you missing your family but your concern for my end. If I am still ill, - I'll try to wrap it up quickly," I laughed.

"Well..." and I was about to get up and leave the galley when Tia interrupted.

"What was it like?" she asked.

"What?"

"Your dream. Your hallucination."

"I'm not sure that I'm ready to talk about it much. It was beautiful. It was sad. It was more like I spent some precious time in a mastafor's dream. It was definitely more his dream than mine."

"How did he die?"

"He died defending his mountain from, - men."

And I left the galley.

.......

I spent the next hour touring my facility; except for the gymnasium and the tetra everything had been put back in order. The labs beneath the tetra had all been emptied. The spring that filled the spa had been plugged. The fencing had been taken down from around my corn field. When we are finally gone from this place, - there will be some well worn paths that will lead to nothing and a few years after that there should be no signs at all that an alien space craft had ever been refitted here. And that's the way I always intended it to be.

I reported to the clinic as I said I would. I needed to get a more objective opinion on my health. I felt much better, but I had doubts. Within a minute of my arrival an intruder alarm went off that sent both Tia and Rimbaud running to the clinic. I thought I was going to be incinerated by a heat ray but I surrendered peacefully to the two.

Apparently, plenty had changed with my general physiology and so much so that the clinic no longer recognized me as a member of the crew. My perfect genome now had three new mutations and I possessed no fewer than one hundred and twenty new unidentified anti-bodies in my person. My health otherwise was stable and apparently recovering on its own from an unidentified bacterial infection.

At first I was furious.

"Am I going to grow feathers?" I asked imperatively.

And believe it or not, there was this big pregnant pause that followed my question. The clinic had to actually think about it. The answer nonetheless was: no.

Well I did indeed ingest quite a concoction of local organic matter in that tea and apparently - I'm now on the road to recovery. The clinic prescribed no treatment for me, so instead I received the usual lecture on wearing my kit on a regular basis to promote good health and so on. After some reflection the end result was that if I get to live even another thirty days or grow some feathers; I still ultimately get to save this planet from almost certain disaster in twenty years time. So, I should be thankful. Well done Doctor Thorn.

.......

I found Coozo in the gymnasium. He looked packed and ready to go. If I had a family that I hadn't seen in more than month I'd be anxious to see them, too.

"Coozo! I've been to the clinic and apparently, - I'm becoming well again."

He looked up to me from where he was sitting with all his waiting gear and what a joyous smile he had.

"I'm so glad to hear that, Mark," he beamed.

"I can't thank you enough my friend. I'll be truthful, I had my doubts about Thorn, but apparently he has a true understanding of the simple mechanics to life. I had an infection that wouldn't be a problem to anyone else but a stranger to this planet and that man knew how to address it."

"Thorn said that you had a very powerful will to live, Mark. Your spirit just needed a little help to find its way in a strange land."

"Is that so? I didn't think he liked me so much at first. Is that what I am: a stranger?"

"Not to me. At one time I suppose I pitied you and perhaps didn't respect you. Your gentle ways confused me. But then I finally understood that your good intentions were true. You are just a traveler who wants to get back on the road.

"Are you going home? Where will you go when you leave this world?"

"There is another star that interests me; it's just two years of travel away from here. Why, I've even shown it to you and Paiya. Remember? Up on the lookout," I quizzed him.

"But, I'm never going home."

"Never?"

"Never Coozo. It troubles me to say this but if you never see me again that'll be a good thing my friend.

"I shall miss you but I'll never forget you. Go home to your family. I'll always think of you as my friend."

"Blakk!" exclaimed Coozo smiling at me.

Blakk indeed and we hugged one and another just like father and son, - and then I watched him go. This time it was different. It hurt more, - watching him disappear into the forest atop his knee-po-pah because this time there would be no chance for us to meet again. In a few weeks the Nina will no longer be here on the mountain.

.......

The Nina's audit was good news. In just twelve days she'd be ready for her first power-up. Suddenly, I was busy with all kinds of tasks to do. Firstly, I hadn't piloted anything but a multi rig in the past five years. I was seriously out of practice. These things don't fly on their own you know. It requires some skill and real finesse to transition from air flight to space flight. It's not like getting back on a bicycle, as they used to say. If done incorrectly some serious damage could be done to the Nina's hull.

So, it was decided that once we had the Nina operating ably in hover mode, we'd take her down to the coast and practice her ascent into low orbit. Planet Sophie had a pretty thick atmosphere. The usual course of action in such a case was to take a ship like her slowly up to just beneath a low orbit where the atmosphere was much thinner – just ease her up there before we add much speed. There'd be plenty of wind gusts to deal with to zig and zag along with before we'd be able to put the pedal to the metal. All of this takes some care or at minimum we'll end up in an overly uncomfortable position such as upside down by the time we do reach low orbit.

The sea is the best choice for our good neighbors' sake anyways; we'll spare them all kinds of noise and fireworks. So, we'll go down to the sea. I love a big sea. Water is what makes a planet great. I don't mean the frozen kind; nice temperate water of the 'liquidy' type and lots of it, - means a real world – one that has life.

I looked for that mastafor tooth but I could not find it anywhere. The theory as to how it went missing was that it had fallen from under its sinewy strapping when I was being carried up the hill from the pond and back to my berth. I traced and searched the trail on my daily walks for those last two weeks on the mountain but I could not find it. It would have made an excellent keepsake to remember my good friend Coozo by, but it did belong more to this world more than mine I suppose. So be it.

Hector's orbit improved but it happened ever so slowly. I don't think he had much faith in me at first. I had to gain about three kilograms of weight back before he would budge and that took near a week for me to do, but he eventually regained his proper altitude. When I finally get a hold of him I'll need to see what can be done to alter his programming so we never have a similar disaster occur again. I'm not too familiar with his colonial technology but I'll have to learn fast because he has to get out in front of us soon if we are to make our way to Nu256 in good time.

.......

Finally, the tetra was coming down. The Nina can't hover beneath a tetra. With some luck we won't need the tetra for another two years from now. No more mountain of gold; she's been packed up and put away.

We're now just hours from the Nina's first power up. I was so excited. I had my doubts at times that I'd ever see this day, but it was finally here.

Tia had spent most of yesterday installing nitrogen spray heads on the Nina's hull. They'd be temporary of course and will be removed once we're up in a nice high orbit. Until we are up there which is still a week or so away the spray heads will trickle liquid nitrogen over the Nina's hull. She'll look spooky looking as it boils-off but it's absolutely needed in order to inhibit the damage that can occur to her hull because of planet Sophie's oxygen rich, lower atmosphere.

The real commissioning of the refitted Nina is likely to run-on for more than several weeks but once we're done she'll be able fly just as quick as ever. Until then we have to take baby steps to get to there.

On my last day last on the mountain I snuck out early in the morning and jumped the two meters to the ground from the poop chute. I did this as quietly as possible because I didn't want to disturb Tia who would still be asleep for another hour. I took in as many flavorful breaths as I could manage. I'd never smell this place again. It possessed a fragrance of life regardless of the season.

I can still remember becoming sick after inhaling her atmosphere five years ago. And though it made me sick then it also was exalting to smell something else besides my own smelly feet for the first time in ten years, or so as I remember back then.

I'm getting old, but it's just middle age. I've more places to visit and things to see yet, -thanks to Coozo and the mighty Thorn. But now more than ever I'm a believer in that you need just two things in life: the will to get up when you've been knocked down and a dream to chase..... And heaven help me if I run out of dreams but, a nearby star system called Nu256 has a water planet that I'm dreaming about right now.

I'm at the pond; my most favorite place. I can see a few early sprigs of spring sprouting here and there and the ends of the tree boughs are swelling with premonitions of renewal and new life. It's a fitting time for this alien to leave this world. Good bye my mastafor. Good luck my corn and I returned back up the hill to my waiting ship.

.......

I thought Tia would be a nervous wreck or giddy with excitement on this day but she wasn't; she was stoic in temperament and methodical in her actions. Four hours into the morning she announced that the Nina was ready fly, but as an air ship only of course. I think perhaps I was the giddy one. I had butterflies in my stomach when I felt the Nina's first gentle lift.

I took her straight up to about one hundred meters. I had three of the multis follow and record her every movement from outside. It was quite the sight. There was a mountain down below and foothills below the mountain. I could see flatland for about one hundred kilometers beyond the foothills too, until they too, dropped off a hazy horizon. I'd be ramping up our traverse speed ever so slowly until we arrive at the sea which had a leisurely ETA of sixty minutes or so.

It was odd to see the imitations of our tetra spread out down below us. I wonder how many of them will begin making imitation saucers, after today. I sent a multi down below to have a closer look and it was bedlam; there were primitives charging down the paths and roads of their communities. Their heads were often tilted and their mouths agape. Some hurled objects into the air at us and others were so overwhelmed they chose to kneel or cower.

In time – my visit here will mean nothing. There will be no evidence of our past presence here and eventually there will come a day when the doubters and even the former believers will insist - that aliens from another planet had in all likelihood never visited this planet. This is what I hope for – to be forgotten. It'll just take some time. In the meantime: Please enjoy the maize.

In fifty minutes I could smell the sea. That's what most of this planet is: sea. Seventy percent of it is covered in water; some of it frozen but most of it liquid. I love the water. It was Antoine who got me excited about it. It was he who showed me its power. It's the powerhouse of life he said. I remember the man's enthusiasm like it was just yesterday. He showed me fish living in the seas of Nouveau Paris that were so numerous in places that you could walk upon their backs.

It was a glorious sight to behold today, - planet Sophie's magnificent sea. A cold front was coming in however and the water was rough and the winds were quite turbulent. The water itself was colored in grey-blue hues with white caps tipping its turbulent swells. The coast itself resembled parts of my mountain with its rocky crags and pebbled stone cast along its weathered shores.

"Tia, this is no place for us to practice are low orbit trials. Hector says there's plenty of calmer sea south of here. It'll take us only a half hour to get there. I'm going to follow the coast line; if we have some hiccups I don't want to be too far from some solid land."

We passed over great a number of islands and cays where the sea was relatively shallow and as the sun joyfully reappeared it illuminated the watery world down below us and became overwhelmingly beautiful. There were hues of blue and green I had never seen before except for in art houses such as the Louvre back on Nouveau Paris.

There is so much beauty to admire on this planet. It's a pity that she's occupied with her own sovereign civilization. This is a place that I'm never going to forget and yet, never be able to talk about. In a couple of millennia; they might be able to defend themselves though that's wishful thinking however. I worry for planet Sophie and I swear, I'll never tell a soul about her for as long as I live. I have family here.

We had no sooner arrived in fairer weather when the science program began making demands on the mission. I could see via the multis that there was an enormous amount of life living beneath us. A meeting of sorts transpired and the outcome was that while the Nina practiced her ascents into low orbit a remotely operated probe specifically designed for an aquatic environment would be quickly manufactured and deposited into the sea for the same duration of the Nina's trials.

It was no matter to me. We are a science ship after all. Tia was a little upset that the Nina's resources were going to be spent this way instead of being completely focused on the Nina's trials but conceded that because the science program's research was going to be completed independently and would have no effect on the Nina's mobility for the trials that she could live with that. We'd simply drop the probe into the sea and then collect it later when the trials were complete. How easy is that?

The probe was built up according to the design the science program provided and my only observation was that it was awfully small but I suppose there wasn't much space needed for collecting samples if one only had twenty to thirty hours to work with. I wanted to ease the sea probe into the water from a few meters above the sea instead of dropping her from a hundred meters, so I brought the Nina down to about three meters above the placid sea water just a few kilometers out from the continental shoreline.

"Tia. I'm going to drop the probe from out the poop chute by hand. I need you to watch the helm."

"How will we get the probe back?"

"I'll engineer something with the multis. I need you to watch the sea. If you see anything suspect; take us back up quick."

"Are you expecting something to jump out of the water and swallow us?" she giggled.

"If we were on any other planet; I'd say no."

The probe went down the poop chute without any issues. I checked to make sure that she was fully operational and most importantly I conferred with the whining science program that all was good.

We then took to the skies. It had been some time since I had last flown an air ship let alone a space craft. One would think the process would be fully automated and if we were speeding through space on a chartered course that's pretty much how it's done but if you have to deal with the unpredictable winds of a planet possessing a heavy atmosphere things need to be done with some manual finesse that can only be learned with practise.

I struggled for an hour or so before I had the Nina behaving like a craft that could make low orbit without shaking the life out of its occupants. Tia could not help me with this. Her only task to deal with while I wrestled with the Nina's ascents into low orbit was to tune the drives. I felt like a young kid learning to pilot a space craft for the first time but as the trials went on I improved. The Nina was not as aerodynamic in shape as the old stingers I used to fly but I got her to travel from air to low orbit as smooth as silk, - sort of, by the end the day.

Late that evening a low level alarm came from the science program. Tomorrow morning's final visit to low orbit was to be delayed. Apparently, a large sea animal had swallowed our sea probe. We could destroy the animal or we could wait for nature to run its course which was estimated to be about twelve to fifteen hours from the time it was swallowed. The science program by the way was thrilled that its probe had been eaten and was now busy exploring the digestive tract of a one hundred and fifty metric ton sea animal.

We could use the wait as a rest period; neither Tia nor I had had much down time since Coozo's departure two and a half weeks ago. I was still gaining weight. It might even take a month to get all of the weight back that I had loss. I felt so much better but the wound had become terribly itchy. The clinic had prescribed me some powder to cure it but it wasn't making much of a difference.

The Nina had a small spa of sorts in the lavatory and I was going to make use of it before Tia got to it before me; she could spend hours at a time in there when she had some down time. I just wanted to see if cleaning out my puckered wound really well would alleviate some of the incessant itchiness I was having.

I generally spent no more than ten minutes in the lavatory even when having a complete wash but tonight I wanted a good soaking so to speak. The wash felt great but cleaning the puckered hole in my belly was taking forever and the itching would just not stop. It wasn't painful; it was just annoying. I poked my fingers deep into it. It certainly didn't feel natural doing it. You had to follow a rather circuitous path through this fleshy tunnel that wanted to collapse on your hand's progress all of the time. But, I found something that I had been looking for. Deep down there and pretty much in the very pith of my belly, I found the missing mastafor tooth.

I felt pretty excited about its discovery at the moment I had pulled it out and had a look at it. The tooth wasn't gooey like it had been festering in there; it was dry and relatively clean. But should I have removed it? Was it supposed to be in there? Am I going to get sick again if I remove it? When you are confronted with something you don't know much about: such as shaman business, - anxiety sets in. What do I know about his magic or science? It seemed so faith based.

It's mine; I'm keeping it. But it is not going back into my new navel. It's just too itchy. I told Tia about my discovery and she just shook her head. I told her about my worries and she told me to only listen to the clinic – I was no longer under the care of the mighty Thorn she said, and then she closed the door to the recently vacated spa behind her.

There's nothing more valuable than a very logical friend sometimes. They're so very grounding.

I slept with that mastafor tooth beneath my pillow that night just like a child. Tomorrow, I will finally leave this planet but only for its low orbit. It's just the first step of many. It will be still several more weeks before we test the Nina's hyper drive and then planet Sophie will just be a memory.

.......

We had to wait until late into the morning of the next day for the science program's sea probe to be excreted from something that resembled a large whale. We wasted no time in collecting the probe once it was free. There were some technical issues with getting the probe articulated properly so it could pass through the Nina's poop chute; multis do have their short comings but after some struggle: shaking and jiggling the slippery probe we were still left with plenty of time for our major task of the day by early mid day.

We collected the multis and secured the ship's poop chute hatch and I took to the helm again.

"Tia?"

My favorite deep space technician smiled back from her new station beneath me on from her own cramped station on the mid deck and responded, "Yes Captain."

"I need a big Bah- Roo before we attempt this."

"Bah –Roo!" she exclaimed in a cheer.

And we were off. It went as smooth as silk. I took the Nina up to about as high as she could hover and then I put some fire in her drives. I started trimming back the drives at about one hundred and fifty kilometers in altitude with a two hundred kilometer height as a target. The Nina's automation should have little challenge in maintaining orbit at that height.

This was going to be our temporary home now for the next few weeks barring some catastrophe occurring, - orbiting the beautiful planet Sophie. Tia and I would both have full work schedules for the coming days. Tia had maintenance to do on the hull. The nitrogen heads needed to come off and a thorough inspection was required of the hull, too. Me, - I had to collect Hector and overhaul his programming. The sooner I get that done the sooner we get onto our mission to Nu256.

I labored over reprogramming Hector for several days neither I nor the significant computer science resources of the Nina could crack the hardened code that needed to be changed in Hector. He was always going to follow a higher authority if he was free to do so should the Nina or I meet our end while he's out there navigating for us. 'Never underestimate the caliber of Colonist technology' has been a motto of mine for some time now.

We need Hector to be our lead dove. Only one of the others is coded like he is. The remaining doves' missions dissolve if the Nina or her pilot meets their end. I'll need to keep a tight rein on Hector. He'll be my lead dove for our journey to Nu256. He's already been there so he is the most qualified. I nonetheless, erased all his memory regarding Planet Sophie. Forensically, that might appear suspicious someday to whoever might find him should the Nina meet her ruin. But alas, I cannot prevent him from returning to his home with whatever records he may be carrying at the time and nor can they be erased if I become deceased. While Hector is being used as a lead dove, any risk that we may take or encounter that results in our demise will mean that Colonists will arrive here in twenty years time. That's a real burden; I've got family here. His name is Coozo.

When I was done with Hector I launched him and two additional doves to accompany him and explore the near space around the star: Nu 256. Until we get closer to Nu256 I think I'll retain the remaining doves for select secondary missions should they materialize. There was no need to commit all of the Nina's resources on a mission that has already been charted and mapped by Hector previously.

It was frustrating, idling so to speak, as we orbited planet Sophie but we require some time and space between the Nina and Hector before we can push-off and try the hyper-drive. That big moment was coming however; Tia was nearly finished with her work outside the hull. Another day or two perhaps and we'll be away from here.

When Tia takes her breaks and comes in to sleep I stay awake and focus the multis onto the planet Sophie's surface. There was little opportunity to see much of the planet below us while Tia was out there because the multis followed her about. This was the only benefit of idling here in her orbit: I got to look at her.

She was so beautiful. So alluring. There is nothing, - nothing more beautiful than a blue-white water planet. It's simply because if you squint your eyes a little, - it looks like home. Depending on the cloud cover and how much of her lone massive continent was exposed, planet Sophie looked positively, - earthly. I could stare at her beauty for hours and hours. And that is how I spent my last two nights in orbit: in ecstasy.

"Beautiful,beautiful," I'd whisper to myself at the start of each of those evenings as I would watch her beauty sail by beneath my feet.

It made my eyes water.

"I'll miss you Coozo. May you become the master of your forest."

.......

And then the moment had finally come. It was time to shove off and test the Nina's newly overhauled hyper drives. I certainly wasn't going to try it from here in low orbit over planet Sophie because there was always the small chance that starting the hyper drives for the first time after such a major overhaul might result in an explosion of white light. That would be a major disaster for both the Nina and Planet Sophie so we'd travel at a leisurely light speed until we leave planet Sophie's system.

Only a few hours later I found a big old open space that seemed suited for setting-off some fireworks.

"Tia?" I called out from behind a wall of control equipment that now interrupted our sight line on the bridge.

"Yes Captain."

"Shall we toast with wine before or after we try a hyper jump?"

"After," she answered with an awkward smile.

"Are you sure? This is all the result of five years of your work."

"No Captain. After please. There could be a false start."

"From you? Never."

Tia said nothing. She stared back at me with her big hooded eyes.

"At least give me a big Bah-Roo."

"Bah-Roo!"

"That was awesome." I replied grinning back to her from around the corner of the control panel that was blocking my view of my only crew.

I returned to the helm.

"On three."

Two seconds later I started the sequence to jump to hyper-speed. And we were gone.

The End

About the Author

S J Garrett is a Canadian poet and e-book novelist who resides in a steel town at the head of Lake Ontario in the very heart of Canada. He's been employed as a steel worker, an industrial electrician and more recently as a warehouse worker for a large Swedish furniture company. It occurred to him one day when he was just ten years old and as he was being pulled by the arms by rabid classmates to the front of the classroom to read his stories \- that maybe he could become a writer.

If you wish, you can learn more about the author S J Garrett, his poetry, and his other published novels at his website: www.thecomfortingchair.com.

