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  • Surefoot 03: Field Trip Ch. 03

Surefoot 03: Field Trip Ch. 03

12

Planet Luntanu, 1400 Hours Local Time:

Kit stopped for a fourth time that hour, excused himself, carefully set down his equipment, stepped to one side, bent over and vomited into the nearest bushes.

Giles looked away, but Eydiir approached. "I told you to stop eating the native insects."

From his hunched over position, the Qarari raised his head to answer weakly, "I- I have, Friend Eydiir- I promise-"

"And yet, I do not believe you." Eydiir knelt down beside him, running her tricorder first over his head, and then over his vomit. She reached down and moved her fingers through it. "As I suspected: this is too fresh to be from earlier consumption."

"That is... incredibly disgusting," Giles declared, wiping sweat off his brow with his sleeve. "How can you do that?"

"I would be useless as a medic if I allowed a disdain for the natural waste products that all living things produce to affect my work," Eydiir replied absently, reading from her tricorder. "The insects contain a virus which is causing extreme gastronomic reactions in Kitirik; possibly it is a symbiotic relationship which has evolved between virus and insect, as a mutual defence against being consumed by predators."

Giles set down the specimen case he was carrying, but kept his phaser in his other hand. "Virus? Is it serious? What about the rest of us?"

The Capellan fished through her medikit, withdrawing a hypospray and some vials. "The effects are only profound if the insects are eaten." She pressed the hypospray against Kit's neck. "There: an antiviral agent, along with some terakine for the stomach cramps. Drink plenty of water, Kit, and please try to refrain from eating more insects."

Kit kept his head in the bushes and moaned pitifully, but nodded.

Eydiir packed her medikit and stood up. "There is a Rigellian on Beta Squad, and a Terrellian on Gamma Squad; they are unlikely to snack on the local insects, but their biochemistries may react in a similar extreme fashion as Kit has even if they are stung. I will transmit my findings to the other Squads."

Finally Kit rose again, looking a little jaundiced but otherwise better than before. "Thank you, Respected Medic. I am ready to continue with our work."

Eydiir frowned at him, but then nodded and looked at Giles. "Assist Kit while I make my report."

Giles nodded, too hot and weak to point out to the woman that he was supposed to be in charge of this half of the team, and followed Kit deeper into the interior of the temple, or whatever the building had once been, switching on the torch application on his phaser to light the way.

The temple had lost its battle with the jungle; the immense black stones, piled in seemingly haphazard fashion but obviously showing signs of artificial adjustment and cosmetic alterations, were almost completely papered in layers of dirt, moss, vines and dark creeping things that moved if one looked at them for long. And the sectioned stone floors were covered in various forms of animal faeces, some more fresh than others. It was at least cooler in here.

And scarier. Giles recalled childhood horror stories, of ancient tombs on distant worlds that contained voracious monsters and death-worshipping cults and spirits who threatened those unlucky souls who venture into their territory. "Do your people believe in ghosts, Kit?"

Kit was a step ahead, holding out his science tricorder. "Our Behest, the directives which our Gods gave us, tell us that the spirits of our ancestors live around us, requiring us to conform to expected ideals, or they will suffer. As a member of the Seeker male gender, however, dedicated to the pursuit of reason and knowledge, I will remain open-minded. And you, Friend Giles? Do you believe in ghosts?"

He wiped more sweat from his eyes as he looked up at shadows that seemed to be moving along the tops of the walls. "I... I, uh..."

There was a horrible screeching noise that echoed along the corridor, and Giles yelled back, raised his phaser and fired. A bright blue beam struck the upper wall, making sparks blossom and sending a torso-sized chunk of the temple wall down. Kit had turned, wrapping an arm around Giles' waist as he pulled the other boy away from any more falling debris. The shrieks returned and seemed to multiply, as more things dropped from the ceiling... and began scrambling past the two cadets as they raced out into the jungle.

Giles aimed his phaser at them, but only to illuminate them. They were dog-sized primates with black fur and elongated limbs and a tail and flat faces, and they bounded away, around the legs of Eydiir as she caught up with the other two cadets. "What happened?" Then she saw the chunk of temple rock on the floor, the burning foliage clinging to the walls, and the phaser in Giles' hand. "You fool! You damaged the native structure!" She took the phaser from his weak grasp and attached it to her belt. "Why was it not on a stun setting, as per procedure? What if you had struck an Away Team member?"

He didn't answer, and the realisation struck him like a blow to the gut. She was right; he thought he had it on a stun setting, but must have absently raised it while they were exploring in the darkness, and he let his imagination run away with him. He could have hurt someone, or worse.

He had trouble catching his breath, and he felt dizzy. Before he realised it, he was teetering.

But Eydiir caught him, the Capellan easily holding him up.

"Friend Giles-" Kit started, concerned.

"Do not worry," Eydiir assured him. "The idiot is just weak-" But then she stopped and examined him. "No. He's suffering from heat exhaustion. Stay and put out the rest of the fires, I will take him outside to cool down. Be careful."

Giles wasn't sure what was happening, only that Eydiir led him outside and sat him down on a knee-high stone block, before removing his boots and socks, and reaching for the fasteners on the back of his uniform. "What- What are you doing-"

"Be silent." Quickly but with only a little roughness, she slipped the top half of his uniform off, before raising him like a child to lower it down past his waist and legs, finally casting it aside and leaving him in sweat-soaked vest and shorts. He noted how, despite the valiant efforts of his uniform, an extended stay here was too much for the material.

Now she started to remove his underwear as well. "H-Hey, no-"

"I told you to be silent. Do so, or I'll tranquillise you."

He didn't have the strength to protest further, as she stripped him completely, checked his canteen, found it empty, and then handed him her own. "Drink your fill, but slowly."

He nodded weakly, but still protested, "It's your water-"

"I am Capellan. We are a desert people. Should it become necessary, however, I will kill you and subsist on your blood. In the meantime, a tri-ox compound will assist you."

Giles looked up, forgetting his embarrassment as he watched her open her medikit and withdraw a hypospray, loading it. "Better if you just gave me some cyalodin and finished me off." He wiped at his eyes. "I'm sorry-"

She pressed the hypospray against his thigh. "Save your self-pity. You are not at fault; I am. I should have noticed your debilitated state sooner. I failed in my duty to you."

He shook his head. "You were- were distracted about Kit, that's all, and about letting the other squads know about the danger from the insects. No one's perfect."

"You are an obvious example of that."

He looked up, certain he saw genuine amusement in the woman's eyes. He had an impression of late that she was warming up to him, at least as much as the stoic Capellan did with anyone besides Sasha. "Thank you for helping me."

"You are a member of our Squad. And... perhaps not as execrable as you once were."

He smiled; that was practically a gushing compliment from her. Which only made him feel worse as his memories inevitably brought him back to weeks before, when his aunt, Captain Lucille Arrington of the Impala, visited him, giving him a secret mission: to watch Captain Hrelle, reporting on any evidence or suspicion of wrongdoing by him. It wasn't something he wanted to do; his initial impression of the man, an impression forced upon him by his extended family, had been shaken following a private talk the Captain had with him. But Aunt Lucille's argument had been persuasive, to the point where he gave in and finally agreed.

There had been nothing for him to report about Captain Hrelle since then. But that didn't assuage his guilt that he was doing anything at all, and not telling anyone about it. He set down the canteen and reached for his shorts.

"Leave those," she told him.

"I'm not walking around here naked on front of both of you."

"Kitirik does not care. And I am a medical practitioner. I have seen many penises."

"Good to know." He rose, swaying slightly as he continued to dress. "I'm feeling better, really. That tri-ox shot helped."

"Friend Giles!" Kit's voice carried from within. "Friend Eydiir! Come look!"

They entered while Giles was still barefoot, finding Kitirik standing in a pile of dirt and smouldering foliage around his feet, and a delighted red flush in the loose folds of his throat. "Look, Friends! I was stripping the burning plants from the walls, and uncovered these!" He pointed his torch at the walls.

They looked. The surrounding stones had carvings: elaborate swirls and sigils and symbols, dug several centimetres into the rock, chipped and cracked in places, but more from age than from any damage Giles might have caused. They walked around slowly, taking it all in.

Giles grunted. "Good work, Kit. Hope you're recording all this."

"I will assist," Eydiir offered, handing him back his phaser. "Go back outside and keep guard. If those primates return... don't fire, just throw your phaser at them."

He chuckled. "No argument there."

"This is wonderful!" Kit exclaimed. "I hope the others are having as much fun as we are!"

*

Two kilometres away, on an uneven slope of ancient volcanic rock with pockmarks and bulges that looked like an enormous black sponge, Sasha, Neraxis and Jonas stood at the foot, staring up, breath held, watching, watching-

The rocks moved. Or rather, the newly-christened Shriekers perfectly camouflaged by the surrounding rock moved, triggering a wave of dizziness, as if the slope was undergoing a tremor.

The trio had been collecting Planetary Sciences data on the rocks and climate when they came upon the Shriekers, and Sasha had to suppress a wave of fear, as a childhood memory returned of her stepdad reading her an old story, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, with its flying monkeys attacking Dorothy and her friends. These creatures weren't winged, and were probably not under control by a magical golden cap either, but she'd rather not get involved with them.

Beside Sasha, Neraxis had drawn her phaser, keeping it pointed at the ground. "Well, Boss? Ready to make First Contact?"

Sasha turned and opened her mouth to reply - when something hot and mushy like a mud pie struck her in the face and entered her mouth. She spun, tripped over her boots and fell, covering her head with her arms before striking the ground, as the air filled with the howls and cries of the Shriekers. She felt more clumps of mud strike her body repeatedly, before the chaos ended with a repeated phaser whine.

Hands grabbed her and helped her up, but she was choking as some of the noxious, gritty material went down her throat. She stayed doubled over, as someone - Jonas, she concluded - kept her steady. But she finally forced herself to straighten up and wipe the malodorous mud from her face... fully aware that it wasn't mud.

She looked across to see Neraxis, splattered as much as Jonas and herself, firing upwards, striking rocks and sending the Shriekers scrambling in waves further up the slope. Then the Bolian looked to Sasha. "You okay?"

She coughed again. "I will be, once Jonas gets his hand off my boob."

Beside her, the young man glanced down, and made a yelp as he released her. "Sash! I'm sorry, I didn't realise- I'm sorry! Really!"

Neraxis approached, wiping her blue, bald head, succeeding only in spreading more of the Shrieker filth. "Ooh, Scrappy, you're gonna have to marry her now."

"Shut up." Sasha felt sick, reaching for the canteen on her belt and swallowing half its contents. "I swallowed monkey shit."

The Bolian gave off a belly laugh. "Was it better than the rations?"

Sasha spat, trying to wipe what was left off her face, before answering with a particularly filthy Orion curse.

"Do you kiss your lover with that mouth?"

Sasha turned and looked down at the question, as members of Beta Squad emerged from the jungle, and led by Jared Miro. A rush of pleasure ran through Sasha despite her circumstances; she knew the other two squads were camped at different points around the lake, but had been so busy trying to salvage her own Away Mission that she hadn't thought about Jared.

The handsome young man, a humanoid from the pleasure-driven world of Argelius, had swept Sasha off her proverbial feet, with his breath-taking good looks, his accent, that sensual look in his dark eyes... but though they were both legal adults under Federation law, Academy Regulation 121 prohibited sexual activity before their senior year. It was a stupid, archaic regulation, made even more ridiculous when applied to the candidates of the AWE Program, continuing their studies while serving onboard starships.

Still, they weren't on the starship now. They were on their own, away from prying eyes.

Oh my... She smiled back. "Hi there."

Jared strode right up to her. "You have faeces in your teeth."

"And her hair," Neraxis added helpfully. "And probably down the collar of her uniform and in her bra."

The Argelian boy laughed softly. "Sash, as much as I want to make love with you tonight, you'll definitely have to clean up first."

Sasha felt her stomach drop at his bold admission, in front of her friends, and she glanced at them. Neraxis looked amused, but Jonas pretended to find something interesting on his tricorder.

Sasha drew closer to Jared, muttering tightly, "What the hell are you saying?"

Jared appeared nonchalant, still speaking at his normal volume. "The truth. We love each other. We want to express that love. If we weren't cadets, we would have been grinding together long before now."

"My squad doesn't know about us!"

He shrugged mischievously. "They do now."

Sasha's head spun, appalled by his actions. How could he have done that without asking first? "Jared-"

But Jared ignored her, turning to the rest of Beta Squad. "Ingalls, Pruhl, get those samples from the pools over there. Chaudri, Thykrill, scout ahead, see if you can find an easy route to that other temple." He smiled again at Sasha as he added, "And Thykrill, keep your phaser drawn, we don't want to end up with a faeces facial, too."

As his Squad move to obey, he looked more contrite. "I'm sorry, Sash. I couldn't help myself. I just feel so free and unfettered here, after being cooped up onboard that ship, unable to be myself!" Then he went serious, his voice low. "I do want you to spend the evening with me, in my own shelter. Let me make it up to you for my indiscretion."

Sasha couldn't deny the excitement of such a prospect, even if it was still dampened a little by his impulsive actions - and the recent attack from the Shriekers. "We'll see."

"But I'm serious, you will have to get yourself cleaned up, that stink is awful." Sasha knew that already. She returned to her squad members. "Let's get back to the others."

She was thankful that Neraxis and Jonas stayed silent as they followed the trail back to their camp. Yes, silent. Very silent. Judgementally silent. Even the birds in the flanking trees seemed to have stilled, sensing the tension in the air-

She stopped and turned to face her friends, confused and angry and embarrassed and probably a few more emotions she hadn't even recognised yet. "I didn't want you guys to be put in a dilemma since Jared and I were breaking regulations, okay? And not knowing about it, you could always claim ignorance if you were questioned-"

Neraxis stared back, smirking. "We knew already. The whole Squad does."

Sasha blinked. "They do?" She looked to Jonas for confirmation; the young man nodded, his face flushed. "All of you know? Even Kit?"

"It was actually Kit who first pointed it out," Jonas explained, blushing. "Since he started reading up on humanoid, uh, sexual habits and attraction, he noticed how you reacted whenever Jared was around, or whenever his name was mentioned. He's really quite observant, picking up little clues, even if he doesn't quite grasp yet what it all means."

"Yeah," Neraxis followed. "Then it became kind of obvious how you felt about him." She smiled. "Don't worry, no one's gonna say anything to anyone else."

Sasha looked to each of them in turn. "Thanks." She looked down at herself. "No one brought any spare uniforms, did they?"

Neraxis brushed more faeces off her sleeves. "I'm just hoping someone brought soap."

*

There were no spare uniforms. And while there was a local sterilising field in the medikit and the toilet unit, there was no soap. Once the usual wisecracks were made by the others and Giles gave a report on their own misadventures, the three victims of the Shrieker assault went down to the edge of the lake, stripped off and washed their clothes and themselves as best they could, by hands and on the rocks.

Sasha stared at her reflection in the dark water... and not liking what she saw. Well, so far her first Away Mission has gone down as smooth as that monkey crap she ate. Her father was going to be so disappointed in her.

When they were done, they silently dressed back in their vests and boxers and carried their soaked uniforms and boots back to their campsite, where a fire surrounded by a circle of large stones was crackling. "What genius thought we'd need a fire in this heat?"

Giles dropped some kindling he was carrying in his arms near the fire. "We were gonna set up a rack to dry your uniforms. And the smoke should help keep back the bugs."

Next to him, Kitirik turned his head and shot his long, thin, pink feeding tongue out, catching a particularly large four-winged insect.

Giles' face screwed up in disgust. "Kit, what are you doing? You're gonna be sick again!"

Kit froze, stared, and spat out the remains of his catch. "Sorry, Friend Giles. Force of habit."

Jonas dropped his uniform and boots. "I have an idea on what to use for a clothes rack." He looked to Sasha. "With your permission?"

"Sure, go ahead." She turned to see Eydiir standing beside her. "What's up?"

The Capellan was using her medical tricorder. "I understand you consumed faeces."

"Not by choice, I can assure you."

Eydiir nodded and returned to her medikit. "I examined the remains of it; there are some nasty parasites within, and I've compiled an antibiotic specific course based on the biochemical readings we've taken so far. Neraxis, Jonas, come here."

As the other two drew up beside her, Eydiir returned with a hypospray, injecting each of them in turn. "Try not to come in contact with it again."

"We'll do our best," Neraxis joked.

Afterwards, Sasha and Neraxis kept busy fashioning a makeshift rack near the fire, draping the wet uniforms over it. Then Sasha noticed Jonas and Giles hunched over one of the heating units they had brought. "Jonas, I love you like a brother. But I swear to the Great Mother and Her Cubs, you turn that thing on and-"

Giles looked up, smiling. "Our resident genius here thinks he can convert this to a cooling unit for the shelters tonight."

"Really?"

Now Jonas look up, appearing both proud and hesitant. "Well, it's possible. I once worked on a similar unit back when I was helping my Mom's company, and we'd found some frozen consumables on a Pakled freighter and were trying to keep them from defrosting, so-"

12
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