The Ride. Tom Ph.D. Anderson
a feeling that the new owner would have many children. It would be nice to have children running around the estate again.
Cedric walked in to find Michael staring at his plans for the new grape fields. “Michael the new owner’s gone.”
Michael looked up. “I thought the star transport to the planet Market didn’t leave for another two days?”
“Bob didn’t go by star transport. He left in Merritt’s ship, just Bob and Merritt and a Kinzu Warrior.”
“A Kinzu Warrior!”
“Yup, a Kinzu Warrior, I didn’t hear all of it, but I think the Kinzu wanted to have Bob kill some dangerous animals they were having trouble with. I can’t wait to tell the boys in town. I hope Bob brings home a recording of him killing whatever it is; the recordings of Bob killing the crocs and the tic is getting old.”
“Bob didn’t say anything to you before he left?” asked Michael.
“No, he just had this strange expression on his face.”
“Strange expression,” Michael said.
Cedric crooked his head to think. “It’s difficult to explain. Do you remember when your oldest son was about ten and you told him you were going to take him to that big deal children’s resort on the planet Delos. Remember that glazed, happy expression your son wore for days. It was kind of like that.”
“Cedric, maybe we should wait until Bob comes back to tell anyone. You don’t want everyone to think Bob is off fighting gloride monsters when he is only seeing a banker about a loan.”
“Can I at least tell Millie?” Cedric asked with a smile.
“You let me tell Mildred,” said Michael. “She is not going to like this.”
◊As I got off the star transport the storybook quality of the quest completely took me over. I was going to battle monsters that could kill a Kinzu warrior with ease.
The Kinzu world’s vegetation was a billion different shades of green and blue and the sky a rusty red. The gravity on Kinzu was more than on the planets I was used to and the air was thick and humid. Any plant I might eat would be instantly fatal. I had a good supply of allergy medication to counteract the effect that breathing the pollen from the local plants would have on me.
It seemed unfair that if I were to eat even the tiniest piece of setti it would kill me, but if the setti were to eat me the worst it would get would be an upset stomach.
The problem of the setti pod in the gloride mine was of sufficient importance that a Great Hall had been constructed near the entrance to the mine. I entered the hall where I would make the formal request to hunt the setti. I was warned not to mislead or exaggerate in even the smallest detail. I was only to speak the absolute truth and I would be believed. My complete credentials, including recordings of my previous battles with the gloride monsters had been sent ahead, as well as autopsy reports on the creatures, explaining the gloride monster’s cause of death compared to the blows I had struck.
A tall Kinzu with graying skin around his ears and the outside of his arms, a sign of great age, asked me why I had come. I had no problem looking into his eyes as I had no intention of lying or twisting my words.
“I have come to try my hand at killing a setti. I have killed a croc and a tic with my bare hands and I seek a greater challenge.”
A young male stood up. “Why Hunt These Setti? Why Here? Why Now?”
“I am not of your world. I am not fleet of foot in your gravity. I could not catch setti were they to run from me. In the mine they are trapped, they cannot run from me,” I told him calmly.
Another young male stood up, a look of triumph on his face. “Is it not true you hunt for the money? That the money is the reason you came, not the challenge of the hunt?”
“The challenge of the hunt was made to me and I accepted before the money was offered. I at first refused. I need no fee. The money was offered again and it was made clear to me that there were no conditions. The money was mine whether I hunted the setti or not. I accepted. If the money is the fee you require me to pay that I may have the glory of the hunt, the money is yours.”
Half a dozen young males stood up to avenge this insult, but more stood up to stop them. They could see the truth in my eyes as I spoke. The insult of implying that one would need to pay money to be allowed to hunt setti was no worse than the insult of asking someone if they required money to want to hunt setti.
After all the young males sat down, a male with so many streaks as to almost have more gray skin than blue stood up.
“The setti has only a shell. There are no bones to break. No pieces of bone to shove through a vital organ, and the spines of a setti are far more agile, far more dangerous than the claws of a croc or tic. Do you simply not go to your death? How do you plan to kill setti without weapons?”
“I did not know how to kill a croc or a tic until the last moment before it was killing or be killed. I feel that when the time comes I will know how to kill a setti. What good is life without a challenge?” As I spoke those last seven words I knew I had won. The vote to allow me my chance was unanimous.
I was invited to break bread with the Kinzu warriors in their great hall. It was a singular honor for a non-Kinzu. I drank Kinzu water filtered many times and ate food which I had brought with me. The only light was from huge fireplaces at each corner of the room which glistened off the walls and ceiling made of shiny white and gold marble. They spoke only standard speech so I could speak and listen to them as well as understand conversations that had nothing to do with me. I felt as though I was in Valhalla. I did not want the evening to end.
The next morning the guards at the mine, force rifles in hand, opened the gate to the mine to let me in. Ischuk stood at my side. “You don’t have to go,” Ischuk told me. “If you don’t want to do this, the money is still yours and I will take you back to the planet Cocuru in my own ship.”
I tried to pull my mouth into as much as a smile as I could manage. “Ischuk I have to go. This fantasy is the high point of my life.”
“Would you like me to come with you? If you’re ability wasn’t up to killing setti, I could hold them off while you run to safety,” Ischuk said solemnly.
“I have to do this alone. It will work out. My ability can do this.” Ischuk turned and started to walk away. I called after him. “Ischuk, if I don’t make it you will tell my Uncle?”
Ischuk smiled at me. “Failure is not an option. After your triumph I will take you to the planet Udell in my own ship and we will tell your Uncle together.”
The guards shut the door behind me. I had not been in a gloride mine for the better part of a year, but I was immediately at home. As I broke each successive gloride web, it was as if they were welcoming me back.
The air in the mine was far too thick and heavy. I looked for the atmosphere regulation equipment. They used an older model I was familiar with. It took only a few moments tinkering to get the air flowing again. I tuned the settings for human standard which would be thin and dry for a Kinzu, but I soon found breathing much easier. Each box I came across I tuned for human standard.
I wondered if it was too much to hope that the thinner air might make breathing difficult for a setti and give me an advantage. It was all very good to speak of the glory of dying for the glory of a challenge of a hunt when one is surrounded by Kinzu warriors in a nice safe great hall. Alone in a mine, the thought of being sliced to pieces by those razor sharp spines, and having those very same spines pick up the pieces and throw them in the setti’s maw, did not seem glorious at all.
I badly needed a drink. I told them I did my best work when drunk. They laughed at me, certain I was making a joke. I laughed too. I couldn’t face them again until all the setti in the mine were dead.
The first two setti I came across already were dead. They had many stab wounds. They had not started to rot. Nothing ever rots in a gloride