NIGHT DWELLER, Part 3
by Becky S.
"What's that you're working on?" Alonzo asked, plunking himself into the chair beside Julia.
"It's the solution from that creature that I extracted from Danziger's blood," she explained.
"There's nothing wrong, is there?" his voice was filled with concern. "No," she assured him. "I just want to learn more about what we're dealing with, here. It seems strange to me that, if we assume that this planet *is* one giant living organism, why only one species would be capable of entering it's metaphysical plane. Learning what kind of defense systems the life forms here have could help answer a lot of questions."
"Is that why you suggested to Devon that we stay here for a while?" he inquired.
"Partially because there appear to be many different species here, yes. Also because water and plant-life is in abundance, and we need to learn what plants are edible. Besides, do *you* want to have Danziger as a backseat driver?" she remarked.
"Good point," he agreed, grinning. He sat and watched for a few more minutes, then got bored and decided to wait for her to come to bed on her own.
Julia put down her equipment, and stared at the side of the tent in thought. She tapped her nails against the table impatiently. The more she thought about it, the more the dream plane issue began to bother her. If the planet is just one giant "mother" to all of its inhabitants, then why could only the Terrians enter the dreamplane? Surely there must be at least *one* other species with the same privileges...
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From it's perch in a nearby tree, the small creature sat and observed the quiet camp. It's beady eyes feel on the large man that still bore it's markings. He still hadn't fallen alseep, and the creature feared that these new intruders were somehow immune to its defences. If this were true, then the creature would perhaps have to do something more drastic to protect its home and family. It was quite upset about the fact that the colonists hadn't even moved from their camp in the past two days. It wondered about just how long they were planning on staying there...
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Devon looked up from her coffee mug at the younger woman who sat across from her. Her gaze strolled its way across the group, then fell back on Julia. "Do you think that finding a 'cure' is a possibilty?" Devon inquired.
"I doubt it," the young doctor replied. "Not yet, anyway. I don't think that a cure is necessary, it should wear off in three days. What I'm interested in is the creature's intent. Is this its primary defence system? Why would it feel so threatened by your precense? *Did* it feel threatened, or was it actually hunting you?"
"*Hunting* him??" Baines repeated in astonishment. He glanced almost longingly at the transrover, but Magus caught him and he looked away in embarassment.
"That's crazy," Walman retorted, "I thought that this thing was suposed to be tiny."
"Ever heard of a scorpion?" Bess asked. Morgan gave his wife a confused glance. He made a mental note to dig up his old Earth nature VR programs.
"If it was hunting me, then why did it take off so fast?" Danziger's words had been slightly slurred ever since the stimulant that Devon had insisted he take had worn off.
Julia shrugged, "Who knows? Who knows anything about the lifeforms on this planet other than the terrians, grendlers, kobas and fruit? What we do 'know' about them is mostly speculation. I'm not suggesting that it was hunting you, I'm simply labelling that as a possibilty."
The mechanic blinked and shook his head to clear it. It was hard for him to stay focused on the conversation. Danziger's head was throbbing, his vision was fuzzy, and his joints ached. Of course, he blamed it all on the stimulant, because that way he could also blame it on Devon. He tuned out of the conversation and directed his vision towards the forest surrounding them. His eyes followed along the row of crates, across the tents, until he thought he saw something moving in his peripheral vision. He was filled with a sinking feeling when something in the back of his mind told that the creature was near, back in camp, hunting him. He quickly turned to that direction, but didn't see a thing. The world seemed to fade even further away as he lazily looked away. Then he felt something on his left shoulder, on the same place that he had been bitten. He looked absently at his shoulder, and came face to face with a distorted, frightening version of the creature. Pure terror streaked through him. "Auuuuugh!!!!!!" he cried.
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"Calm down, John, calm down," Devon ordered as Julia ran the diaglove over him. Devon had never seen John in such a state; his eyes were wild, he was shaking and mumbling excitedly. "It's back!" were the only words she managed to understand.
"It was never here," Julia announced with a sigh. "Welcome to the wonderful world of sleep deprivation, John," she smiled wrily, "you were halucinating."
"That's impossible... it was here! It... it..." Then he had the foresight to examine his left shoulder; the fresh wounds that he had imagined were gone. "That's impossible," he said breathlessly. As if overcome by a sudden fatigue, he sank down to rest on and against a pair of crates. He looked at the dizzying activity around him, and closed his eyes to block it from view.
To double check, Julia ran her diaglove over him again. "There's no evidence of a creature being here, you don't have the wounds you described - only the old ones - and your cerebral activity indicates that you were hallucinating. Frankly, I'm not suprised. You've been awake for almost three whole days, and you spent one of those days walking along with us. I don't know what I can do to prevent this from happening again in the future... in any other situation, I would have told you to get some sleep."
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The frightened creature ducked behind one of the crates. This was the closest it had ever gotten to the colonists' camp, and after the large creature whom it had attacked's sudden and inexplicable outburst, it wasn't planning on staying around. It scurried away unseen and scampered up its tree. It knew that he shouldn't have gone so close to these aliens; they had only been less than fifty feet away from its hiding place behind the crate. The creature decided that it needed to learn more about these aliens before it approached them again. It needed to know for certain if they were going to be a threat to its un-born young...
Author's Chapter Notes:
Installment number three...there's about five more to go...