Fear and Aggression (15 page)

A couple of days later something happened
behind closed doors, and she was floating like a butterfly and
smiling from ear to ear. At times she was so excited, she was
almost giddy. At other times she seemed stressed and overwhelmed,
and she snapped at everyone who got in her way. The last two days
she was being sweet to everyone, and at times she could be caught
singing to herself. She was giving very sweet, personal attention
to everyone as she helped them put on the space suits. When it was
time for Captain Jenners to finish getting suited up, she was
smiling so brightly with both her mouth and her eyes that
sunglasses were almost necessary. Before she put his helmet on she
reached up and kissed him. It was done instinctively and happened
quickly, but was noticed by everyone. Fortunately, everyone’s
attention was quickly distracted from it by the event just about to
begin.

“
Is everyone set?” Kenny’s
voice could be heard over the speaker and in the four men’s
helmets. “We’ll be landing on the surface in five
minutes.”

While Kenny talked over the intercom, Tammy
continued to help with the finishing touches. James paced around
the room from the moment his helmet was secured. Mike sat by the
side, and although his face was not visible through the helmet, he
seemed to be in deep thought. Bob kept checking himself in the
mirror, with his suit on. The suits were jet-black. The helmet was
black on the back, and silver on the face of the helmet. “You guys
look seriously scary,” said Danny.

“
I’d say sexy,” Tammy
countered.

“
Sixty seconds and were on
the planet,” Danny said.

“
Get me a good one!” Tammy
said as she left the room with Danny, for air lock
purposes.

“
Green lights on, we’re on
the planet,” said Steve through his helmet’s microphone.

“
Confirmed, we are on the
planet,” said Kenny. “I’ll have the doors open in about a
minute.”

“
Gentlemen, let’s get this
done. The sooner we have our specimen, the sooner we get back and
in orbit,” Captain Jenners said with confidence and
assurance.

The assurance was what sent a chill down
Bob’s spine. He began to feel his heart beat and started to feel
himself sweat in the suit. James and Mike had been ominously quiet
since they started getting ready to go out. Bob, for the first
time, noticed that he could hear them breathing deeply. Only Steve
seemed to be at least somewhat calm. The doors started to open, and
the four men in suits walked out into the darkness of the alien
world’s night.

The ship was black but it was not shiny. The
night’s cloak of darkness was selected to minimize the chance of
the ship being seen. They were in black suits for the same reason.
They had picked for their landing, a spot about three quarters of a
mile from the outskirts of a small, alien occupied area. As it
turned out, there were civilizations throughout the planet.
However, it was only this one area that had any evidence of
electrical technology. Other civilizations had the markings of more
primitive dwellings. The area picked to land was just outside of
the least populated area where there was evidence of
technology.

The men walked out of their ship onto the
surface of the planet. They had all been on the surface of a planet
besides the earth before. In every case, these previous planets had
no evidence or trace of life. Now, for the first time, they were on
a planet—not the earth—that was clearly alive! There were trees, or
at least they looked like trees. Their suits had microphones tuned
in such that they could hear the minutest sounds. Danny was
monitoring frequencies outside of the range of human hearing. What
sounded like a coyote could be heard in the distance.

“
Did you pick up anything
with that Danny?” asked Steve.

“
It sounded just like a
coyote,” said Danny.

“
It’s eerie how earthlike
it seems out here,” were the first words from James. A humming
sound could be heard surrounding them. They all listened closely.
As they walked towards the aliens dwelling, the sound waxed and
waned. It was like the sound of night insects in the trees. About
fifty yards in front of them, something moved—just a foot or so,
and then stopped. Steve spotted it first, pointed, and then ducked
down. The men followed; watching with the keenest attention. They
couldn’t see anything, so they began to walk again. Whatever it
was, it scurried away quickly into the trees of a nearby
forest.

“
We don’t have any idea
what the shape or size of the intelligent creatures is,” Mike
stated. “How do we know, that whatever just took off, wasn’t one of
them?”

“
What did you see?” asked
Tammy.

“
We’re not sure. It looked
like a small animal, maybe the size of a rabbit, and it took off
into the forest,” answered Steve.

“
The readings that we have
on the creatures’ dwellings indicate that they would be larger. But
it’s really an estimate at best,” informed Tammy.

“
Larger than what?” asked
Mike.

“
Size is only going to get
us so far. What characteristics should we look for, in assuring we
are getting the right creature?” asked James.

“
We really don’t know,”
she responded.

The men approached the forest with some
internal trepidation. They would have to go through a small wooded
area before they would approach the known dwelling place of the
creatures that they were after. The helmets provided some night
vision, but it was going to be difficult to see in the forest.
Clearly there were creatures all around them and they were hunting
for something that they had never heard nor seen before. The men
carried weapons of various capacities: bullet guns, laser guns, and
tranquilizers. The hope was that a tranquilizer would work, and
that it would cause no permanent harm to the creature they would be
bringing in as a sample. But they had no idea what they were up
against, and wanted to be ready for anything. Even a dead creature
would provide for Tammy much to research. Steve told Bob to have
his tranquilizer ready. Steve carried the bullet gun. James held
his laser gun. Mike was the only one weaponless; he carried the
netting for capturing and carrying the sample.

As they entered the forest, it became eerily
silent. The hum dropped off completely. Bob stepped on a branch and
it broke loudly. The other three men turned quickly, and Steve and
James had their weapons pointed momentarily at Bob. “Sorry,” he
muttered. The four men turned again and kept moving slowly through
the trees.

Up ahead, some rustling could be heard, but
at first nothing could be seen. They each stood motionless and
gazed up ahead, and then again they heard some rustling. Mike put
down his netting, and grabbed a weapon. The men stopped and
listened. Again some rustling, and then a whitish creature could be
seen. Before anyone had a chance to think, Bob fired the
tranquilizer. The creature was hit. It continued for a short
distance, and then fell in a heap. The men stood silently.

“
A tranq. went off! What’s
going on?” asked Tammy.

“
Bob shot a large white
creature. It is four legged, and it went down with the
tranquilizer. It’s about seventy-five yards in front of us,”
explained Steve. “We’re going in. Mike, bring the
netting.”

The men approached cautiously, and as they
neared the creature, they were taken aback by its beauty. It looked
like a deer, with almost perfect whiteness. It was somewhat larger
than an earthly deer, and there were no antlers. Its face was
beautiful and peaceful as it slept. “Tammy, it looks like a white
deer. It’s rather large, but I think that the four of us can handle
it. I don’t know that this is the intelligent creature. It looks
just like an animal from home,” explained Steve.

Bob walked up closer and said, “Nice shot,
eh?” while he reached down to collect his dart.

“
No don’t!” shouted Steve.
But it was too late. Bob touched the creature, and its legs kicked.
Bob jumped backwards and fell on his backside. All of the men were
startled, and Steve aimed the bullet gun at the creatures head. The
creature did not come to, and seemed to be asleep once
again.

“
Keep the dart in until we
get it back to the ship,” commanded Steve. “Let’s get this thing
netted.”

The men began to net up the creature, and
were preparing to hoist it when James noticed a light in the
distance. “Look at that.”

“
It’s a light,” uttered
Mike.

“
Bob, stay here with the
sample.” Steve motioned for the others to walk towards the light.
Bob felt completely spooked: both by the creature in front of him,
and the fact that he was now alone. Actually, the men were only
fifty yards in front of him.

The men hid behind the trees and peered
towards the light. “I see a dwelling,” said Steve. “It’s almost
like a cottage, and there is a light shining through a window.”

“
I think that the light
just came on,” said James.

The men stared towards the cottage and the
light. Bob, slunk behind a tree, where he could see the creature,
and the light, but he thought he might be able to hide from
whatever was in that dwelling.

“
I see something,”
whispered James. All the men looked, and sure enough something was
moving in the dwelling. “The creature looks to be a biped. I don’t
think we netted the right creature.”

“
There is another one in
there, too,” said Mike. The two creatures appeared to be
communicating briefly, and then disappeared from sight. The men
watched, hardly able to blink or breathe.

“
I don’t think that we can
go in. We know that there are at least two creatures in that
dwelling,” Steve explained. After a few more moments the door to
the dwelling opened and one of the creatures stepped out of the
dwelling and into the night air. The creature carried a light,
almost like a lantern. “There is one creature out of the dwelling.
The creature is carrying a lantern of sorts, and is walking in our
direction. Bob, get another tranq ready—Mike, you too.”

The creature was a biped, and appeared
almost humanoid from a distance, in size, shape, and gait. As the
creature continued to approach them, they could begin to make out
more details. “It’s wearing some clothing,” said James.

“
Do you want me to tranq.
it?” asked Mike as the creature came within range.

“
No, I don’t want to do
anything in sight of the dwelling. It looks like the creature will
be in the forest soon.”

Sure enough the creature moved into the
forest. Mike did not have a clear shot, but they could see the
light from the lantern. “Don’t lose it!” The men kept their eyes
peered but did not move, in fear of making a sound. The creature
was still moving, and did not show any sign of having detected
them.

The creature came into view for Bob. He got
his finger on the tranquillizer and prepared to fire. He hesitated,
as the creature came closer into view. Something about the creature
mesmerized him. The creature continued closer and then stopped
abruptly and looked in Bob’s direction. He’d been spotted. He
froze, afraid to move a finger, or take a breath.

“
It’s stopped,” said
Steve. “Can you see it, Bob?”

Bob didn’t speak, even though no audible
sound could have been heard through his helmet. The creature began
towards Bob directly. As it got closer, Bob could see that the
creature was actually heading towards the deer-like creature that
he had just shot. The creature continued towards the deer, and
seemed to hurry up. “She’s found the deer,” whispered Bob.

Steve and Mike began instinctively towards
Bob. They came into view of the deer, just as the creature
approached it. The creature stooped, and then turned towards the
dwelling that it had come out of. The creature made a loud audible
sound, almost like a shout. Mike fired his tranquilizer, and it hit
the creature in its leg just as the shout terminated. The creature
dropped, but seemed to be conscious for a few moments in a sitting
position, then fell backwards with its head resting on the body of
the deer.

“
I see something coming
out of the dwelling,” James exclaimed. “I think it heard the shout.
It doesn’t have a light.” The men could hear this second creature
shout in the distance.

Steve ran towards the creatures. He picked
up the creature with the lamp, and cradled it in his arms. “Let’s
go,” he shouted, and started to run towards his ship. Mike
hurriedly grabbed the net off of the deer and removed the
tranquilizer dart, as James came up to him. James took the lamp off
the ground and threw it in the opposite direction from what they
were heading. Bob’s paralyzed body finally returned to
functionality and he, too, began to run. The other men caught up
quickly to Steve, as Steve was weighed down with the creature. They
could hear the other creature shouting in the distance. It was not
possible to tell if they were being pursued. Fear caused adrenaline
to pulse through their veins. Steve was strong and fit, but he was
running with a strength even he had never known before.

He kept his head up, and watched what was in
front of him; afraid to look down at the creature in his arms. The
creature was dead weight, but seemed gentle to him. Sooner than
they imagined the ship was in view. Tammy and Danny were scurrying
to prepare for the men and their catch. Kenny was ready to enter 3D
orbit the instant that the men and sample were secured.