Atypical Behavior: A Scene from "Somewhere Out There"
Story by Spiders Thrash on SoFurry
So here's the bit of "Somewhere Out There" that posted this morning, for anyone who hasn't been following it. This is what you've been missing. ;)
The ongoing story is posted here: https://tapas.io/series/Somewhere-Out-There1
There's also "Game Over" -- the whole novel is serialized at this link: https://tapas.io/series/GameOver1
And its sequel, "Uncharted Territory": https://tapas.io/series/Uncharted-Territory
And if anyone who enjoys all my content would like to buy me a "coffee" ... https://ko-fi.com/feel_boss :D
^_^
"I wonder what Xen meant about gnarly shit outside the perimeter?" Seth pointed his comm at the poles around the outpost and wondered how they kept the wildlife out. He zoomed in and noticed the air between each post seemed to ripple. Forcefield, maybe, or the devices vibrated at a frequency that the nearby animals didn't like.
"Hmm. I'm probably gonna regret this, but what the hell." Kamala pulled her comm out of a pocket and tapped the screen. "I'm connecting to the local server and seeing if I can find some basic info on the types of critters running around on this planet."
"Well, while you're doing that, I'm gonna take a few snapshots." Marissa used her comlink to capture some images of the outpost and the desert around it, then posed for some selfies with the others. "Wish I'd thought to do this in all the other places we've been. Nobody back home will believe this without evidence."
"We kinda had other things on our mind." Seth grinned and took his comm out. "But that's a good idea."
"I bet the sunsets and sunrises here are epic," Riordan said. "Hopefully, we can see one if we visit this place again."
Roger nodded and then seemed to notice something. "You okay, Kamala?"
Seth turned to find her staring wide-eyed at her comlink's screen.
"Think I'm gonna be having more nightmares." She pointed a hand at the device. "Just found an animal in the database that looks a lot like a scorpion, but it's the size of an elephant."
"What?" Marissa blurted.
"Fuck me!" Otto shivered and squeezed his eyes shut. "Oh, that image is lodged firmly in my head, now."
"Mine, too." Shakira grimaced and turned to stare out toward the perimeter. "Please tell me those things move slowly."
"Ehh, I wish I could, but according to the file, they're pretty quick."
"Wonderful."
Seth noticed a faint rumbling, whooshing sound and glanced around until he spotted a metal object in the distance. The sound grew louder as it approached. He pointed his comm at it, zoomed in, and relaxed a bit when he realized it was a shuttle. Everyone grimaced and covered their ears as the shuttle passed overhead and landed, its struts hitting hard and scraping across the platform for a few centimeters before coming to a stop.
"That didn't look good." Marissa headed back to the lift and the others followed. "Someone may be injured."
The lift brought them up to the platform as a pair of shonari stepped out of the shuttle and a human and a zorai hurried out to greet them. One of the shonari, Seth couldn't help noticing, was covered in a viscous whitish fluid and the other was going out of her way not to touch him.
"Oh, hell," Kamala muttered, "I hope we didn't just expose ourselves to a biohazard."
The zorai snickered. "Just don't touch it and you'll be fine." He grinned at the shonari and added, "You had a bukkake party and didn't invite us?"
Seth stared at him, his brain barely able to process what he'd just heard. "Uhhhhh … what?"
"Fuck you," the shonari snarled at the guy as he trudged past. The female watched him motion at a nearby door, wait for a passing mekharan to open it for him, and then step through. She shook her head and pressed her lips tightly together to stifle a laugh.
"We were collecting samples of a cactus-like plant out in the desert and he slipped off the shuttle's roof and fell into a huge puddle of that stuff. I'm new here, so I had no idea what it was until I noticed a pair of ryklaar mating nearby." Her face took on a darker shade of red.
"Ryklaar?" Seth raised an eyebrow.
"One of the indigenous species. It looks reptilian, but also has mammalian characteristics. And it's roughly the size of a T-Rex."
"Oh. So that explains the … uh, amount of … uh …"
"Ryklaar jizz." The shonari finally burst out laughing. "I'm sorry! I feel horrible about laughing at this, but I can't help it!"
"Heh." Otto raised an eyebrow. "The local wildlife gets horny minutes after we arrive. I'm sure it's a coincidence."
The woman laughed again. "The ryklaar have been in heat for the past few weeks. Which is early, this year. By several months. Which is kind of unusual, from what everyone else has been saying."
"Huh. Has anyone noticed any other weird behavior?" Seth flicked a nervous glance around at his friends. That'd be just what we need -- one of those giant animals getting in here and trying to hump our shuttle.
"That's actually something I need to talk to the rest of the team about," the shonari said, her amusement fading quickly. "On the way back here, we spotted seven or eight different species all stampeding straight toward our outpost. I need to ask them if that's just something they do on a yearly cycle or if it's something new." She hurried on toward one of the nearby doors.
"Terrific." Shakira shook her head. "We finally land someplace nice, and within minutes, there's a stampede. How much you wanna bet it's something those animals have never done before?"
"I'm not taking that bet." Roger sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "What is it with us?"