They were terrified.When Cruz looked at his two crewmen, he saw fear. He felt fear, too. His instinct was to run, to get away as far as possible as fast as possible. But he couldn"t. The plan didn"t allow it.
The plan was that Susanto would implant two more crew members, but without putting them to sleep. They were to act as messengers. They would transmit whatever Cruz said back to the implanted crewmen on Earth, who would relay the information to Susanto.
Susanto was to send the two messengers right after Cruz. Cruz didn"t understand what was keeping him. They should have appeared on the beach a while ago.
Then he remembered the impression he"d had in the brief period between giving himself the implant and falling asleep. Everything in the New World seemed to be happening very fast. But once he"d actually entered the New World, everything seemed to be happening at a normal pace, the pace he was used to back on Earth.
He thought: they"ll be here any moment now. And instantly, almost as if by magic, the two crewmen materialized on the beach.
They entered the New World just a handful of steps from the beast that had emerged from the water. They entered the New World naked, and were instantly confronted with a monster. They both froze with fear.
Cruz wanted to shout, to show them where he was hidden and order them to join him. But his voice died in his throat. The ground under his feet wasn"t vibrating any more. It was shaking, and it was shaking to a faster, urgent beat. The beast that had crawled out of the sea squealed and hissed. Then it turned around, flailing its tail. Its tip struck one of the two crewmen.
He didn"t make a sound, just flew through the air like a tossed ball. He hit the beach with a thump that Cruz heard in spite of all the noise made by the beast as it splashed back into the sea. He shouted:
"Here! Over here! Run! Run!"
Thankfully, the surviving crewman heard him. He ran towards Cruz and the others, though not as fast as Cruz would have liked. He could hear as well as feel the steps of the beast running towards them -
- thump thump Thump Thump THUMP THUMP -
The crewman tripped and fell not more than a dozen steps away from Cruz. He stood up and one of his legs buckled under him. He screamed with pain.
He was answered by a hiss and a lot of splashing as the beast from the beach lunged into the sea. Its tail whipped the surface, raising a curtain of water that sparkled in the starlight.
Then it was gone. And a terrible hissing roar split the air. It wasn"t very loud. But it paralyzed all of them: Cruz, the two crewmen next to him, and the man with the broken ankle lying on the beach.
THUMP THUMP THUMP -
He could see it now, G.o.d, the thing was as big as a house. Its legs were bigger he was. It was coming -
Cruz felt his head explode. It didn"t hurt. It simply disintegrated. He collapsed -
- he sat up screaming on the silvery mat on the beach. He wasn"t the only one screaming. A crewman seated nearby was screaming too. And in the darkness, the wh.o.r.es were starting to wail as well.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" screamed Susanto.
Cruz shut up and looked. Susanto was in the process of removing the implant of a crewman sleeping on the hiber bed. The moment he did, the crewman sat up and started screaming.
"f.u.c.k! f.u.c.k!" screamed Susanto, and removed the implant of the second sleeping crewman. Then he went up to the seated screamer, and removed his implant.
The screaming stopped. There was a final terrified wail from one of the wh.o.r.es, then they fell silent too.
Susanto said:
"What happened? Gabriel, can you tell me what happened over there?"
Gabriel Cruz was silent for a while. Then he said:
"Get me a drink."
Two drinks and less than a minute later, he started talking. He told Susanto everything, down to the smallest detail. He even mentioned the distaste he had felt for his own body.
While he told his story, the crewmen calmed down. Susanto had wisely instructed them to have a beer. They had brought a couple of cases of beer to the beach, and it looked as if they might have to get more soon. The crewmen were on their second or third bottle by the time Cruz stopped speaking.
"Incredible, " Susanto said. "Just... incredible. We must wait till daytime before any more implants, any more trips. I mean, new attempts at reproduction in the New World."
"You want to go there yourself, this time?"
Susanto shrugged. The darkness made it impossible to see the expression on his face when he said:
"Sure, why not. I"ll take a guy with me, and you"ll implant two more for instant messaging. All right?"
Cruz laughed, then fell silent for a while. The wh.o.r.es came out of the darkness and approached the cooler that wasn"t cool any more, and took the last three beers. One of the crewmen cursed and all of them laughed, including the wh.o.r.es. That was good; the situation was returning to normal.
Cruz said:
"I think we should establish a base here first. We have to check for other people on the island. There may be a town. We have to do this quickly, because your ship won"t last long."
"It"s built to last," Susanto said, sounding offended. "It cost -"
"It doesn"t matter. The tide will come in and out a couple of times and move it around. It will tear a hole in the hull or pull it free of the bottom or both at the same time. This ship will sink soon. We should get as much food and drink and gear as we can before it does.
"s.h.i.t," Susanto said. "Please excuse me. But I suspect you"re right. This is very bad news. s.h.i.t. Please let me think."
Cruz nodded.
"Certainly," he said. "Think all you want. We shouldn"t attempt anything before dawn. And we shouldn"t attempt anything in the New World for a couple of days."
"Disappointing," said Susanto. He sighed, and added:
"What can I say? You"re right."
"I know I"m right."
Susanto stared at him gloomily.
"Our priority is to ensure our survival here," Cruz continued. "We need food, we need water, we need shelter, we need to explore the island. Those are the four things that come before anything else. Once that is done, we can discuss another venture in the New World."
"Maybe you"re being a little too cautious," Susanto said.
"Be my guest," Cruz told him. "Get an implant and go over for a look. You"ll meet a monster or two. It will be interesting."
Susanto was quick to shake his head. He said:
"No, what you said makes perfect sense. But you should know something I learned while you were over there. My mate told me we"re probably on Henderson"s Island. It"s north of Pitcairn, and it"s uninhabited. But the guys from Pitcairn visit sometimes to gather some kind of wood."
"Pitcairn? Isn"t that a long way to the south? We were sailing to San Francisco."
"We steered south initially, to get clear of all the Hawaii traffic. And then we had the storm, and lost the engines. We"ve been drifting south with the current, and it runs fast. My mate thinks the storm made it run even faster than usual."
"Your mate? You mean your captain?"
Susanto drew himself up stiffly.
"I am the captain of my ship," he said. "My mate deals with the technical side of things."
"Of course. I see."
"I think it"s best we got some rest. Those mats are very comfortable."
"They are."
"Can I bring you anything?"
"Thank you, I"m fine."
"Goodnight," said Susanto, and went off to issue instructions to his crew and order the wh.o.r.es off to sleep.
Cruz sat for a short while on the hiber bed, looking at the pale shape of the ship offsh.o.r.e. Would it last until they got everything they needed from it? At least they had guns. They could hunt.
He remembered the size of the beasts he saw in the New World, and shuddered. He doubted if an a.s.sault rifle could stop them. A few wounds would probably just make them angry. And anyway, there was no way to reproduce guns in the New World. Guns weren"t alive. Guns were dead.
In spite of his super-comfortable hiber bed, it took him a while to fall asleep.
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