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Aliens Warned Us of 4 Alpha Beasts… We Tamed Them | Sci-Fi HFY Stories · Apex Humans | Sci-Fi HFY Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The ship dropped out of transit so hard that my
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: teeth clicked together. Red light washed over the corridor. A
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: low horn sounded three times, which on a Vantrell vessel
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: meant one thing only. Something outside the hull was worth
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: being afraid of. I grabbed the rail and pulled myself
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: toward the briefing deck, boots sliding on the metal floor,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: my heart going fast even though I did not yet
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: know why. I am Daniel Cross. Out of every human
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: who could have been picked for this posting, it was me,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: A maintenance and survey technician, somehow standing on a ship
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: called Kesson's Path, crewed almost entirely by a species called
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: the Vantril. They were tall, narrow-shouldered people with smooth gray skin,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: quick black eyes, and a habit of moving in short,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: careful steps, like the floor might bite them if they
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: trusted it too much. I liked them. They were polite, clever,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: and endlessly serious about danger. That last part was about
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: to become a problem. The briefing room was already full
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: when I got there. Commander Yorick stood at the head
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: of the table, her long fingers pressed flat against a
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: glowing display. Beside her stood Thal, the ship's survey officer,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: a Vantrell whose voice always shook a little when he
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: was nervous, which was often. Cross, Yorick said without turning. Sit.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: You need to hear this before we reach orbit. I sat.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Around the table, a dozen Vantrell crew members sat very still,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: The way people sit when they are trying not to
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: show fear and failing. Thal tapped the display. An image appeared.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: A planet, blue and green, ordinary looking from orbit, with
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: wide brown plains and thick forest belts running along its equator.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Vessos 9, Thal said. Our research outpost went silent eleven
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: days ago. No distress call. No final message. Just silence.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Could be equipment failure, I said. It could be, Fall agreed,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: except for this. The image changed. A dark shape moved
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: across a grainy frame, caught by an automated camera at
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: the edge of the outpost. It was low, long, built
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: like something between a great cat and a crocodile, with
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: a ridge of bone running down its spine and a
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: jaw that looked like it could close around a grown
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: man without much effort. This is a drask, Fall said.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: and his voice actually cracked on the word. The dominant
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: predator of Vessos 9. Apex in every sense our biologists use.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: No known creature on that planet challenges it. It hunts
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: in silence. It does not stop when injured. Three previous
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: survey teams from other worlds have reported encounters. Two of
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: those teams did not report anything after that. The room
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: stayed quiet. Somewhere down the table, a young crewman named Orin...
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: swallowed hard enough that I heard it. We believe the
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: outpost crew encountered this animal, Yorick said. You are being
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: assigned to the recovery team, Cross, because your skill set
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: includes wilderness survival, which none of the rest of us have.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I want you to understand exactly what we are asking
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: you to walk into. Thal leaned forward, his black eyes
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: fixed on me like he was trying to press the
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: seriousness of his next words directly into my skull. This
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: is not a threat you reason with, he said. This
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: is not a threat you outsmart with clever tools. This
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: is an apex predator cross, a true alpha. Do you
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: understand what that word means? And here is where I
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: made my mistake, if you want to call it that.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: I laughed. Not a big laugh. Not mocking. Just a
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: short breath of air through my nose, the kind of
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: sound you make when someone tells you water is wet,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: but in a room full of Vantrell, who had spent
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: the last ten minutes working themselves into careful, controlled dread,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: that small sound landed like a dropped plate. Every head
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: turned toward me. Something amusing about this cross, Yorix asked.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Her tone was flat, but her eyes had gone sharp. No,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: I said, and then, because honesty seemed like the better road, well,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: a little. Thal's mouth opened and closed. A little, he repeated.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I have just shown you an animal capable of ending
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: an armed survey team without leaving evidence, and you find
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: that a little amusing. I find the word alpha amusing,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I said. That's all. No offense meant. Explain, Yorick said.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: It was not a request. I looked around the table.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Twelve pairs of dark eyes stared back at me, waiting,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: and for a second I felt the old familiar gap
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: between my species and every other one I had met.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Not a gap in intelligence. Not a gap in courage, either,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: because the Vantrell were plenty brave in their own careful,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: calculated way. It was a gap in what fear was
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: built out of. Their fear was clean and rational, built
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: entirely from evidence and threat assessment. Mine, apparently, was built
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: from something else. Something older. Where I'm from, I said slowly,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: we don't really have one alpha predator. We've got dozens.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Maybe hundreds, if you count the ones that only kill
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: you if you're being careless. Thal blinked. Dozens of apex predators,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: on one world, simultaneously active. Give or take, I said,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: and your species has not been exterminated by this. Not yet,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: I said, and I meant it as a joke, but
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: nobody at the table laughed. In fact, the temperature in
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: the room seemed to drop a degree. Yorix folded her hands.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: You are telling me your homeworld hosts multiple apex predator species,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: and your people simply live alongside them. More or less,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: I said. We build fences sometimes. Mostly we just pay attention.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Pay attention, Thal repeated, like the words tasted strange. That's
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: the trick, I said. You don't have to outrun the thing.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: You just have to know it's there before it decides
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: you're interesting. The room went quiet again. but it was
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: a different kind of quiet now, less afraid, more curious,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: in the way people get curious right before they ask
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: a question they are not sure they want the answer to.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: It was Orin, the young crewman near the end of
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: the table, who finally asked it. He leaned forward, his
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: narrow shoulders tight, with a kind of nervous fascination, and
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: he said the thing that would follow me around this
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: ship for the rest of the mission. Cross, he said.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Forgive me if this question is inappropriate, but when you
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: say your people pay attention to these predators. Have you
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: yourself ever encountered one? Personally. I thought about lying. I
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: really did, for about half a second, because I could
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: already feel where this conversation was going, and some small,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: sensible part of me knew that the honest answer was
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: going to make things worse before it made them better.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: But I have never been very good at lying to
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: a room full of serious faces. Encountered? Sure, I said.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: A few times. Thal's whole body went rigid, a few times,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: and you are alive to describe it to us. I
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: mean obviously, I said. I'm sitting right here. How, he said.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Just that, one word, like he genuinely could not build
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: the rest of the sentence around it. I shrugged, and
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I want to be clear that I was not trying
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: to be dramatic. I was answering a question the same
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: way I would answer someone asking about my weekend. Depends
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: on the animal, I said. Some of them you avoid,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: some of them you scare off, some of them, and
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: here I paused, because I could feel Yorix and Thal
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: and the entire table leaning in without meaning to, some
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: of them you eat. The silence that followed was the
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: loudest silence I had ever heard. Yorix's fingers, which had
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: been resting flat against the table, curled slowly into something
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: close to a fist. Thal's mouth opened, closed, opened again.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Orin looked like he had just watched someone casually mention
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: they occasionally set fire to stars for fun. You eat them,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Yorick said, very carefully, like she was checking each word
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: before she let it out of her mouth. The apex
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: predators of your world, you consume them. When the situation
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: calls for it, I said, sure. Which one? Thal said suddenly,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: his voice climbing half an octave. Which apex predator have
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: you personally eaten? and I looked at him, at his
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: wide black eyes, and his rigid, careful posture, and his
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: complete inability to process the idea that danger and dinner
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: could ever occupy the same sentence, and something in me,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: some old human instinct toward mischief, decided the question deserved
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: a real answer. Which one? I repeated, and I let
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: a slow grin spread across my face, the kind of
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: grin that had gotten me in trouble more than once
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: back home. You're going to want to sit down for
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: this one, Thal. It's kind of a list. The horn
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: sounded again outside, three short blasts, the ship settling into
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: orbit around Vessos 9, and somewhere far below us, in
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: the tall grass and dark forest of a planet that
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: thought it owned the concept of fear, something ancient and
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: patient lifted its head and caught the scent of new
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: visitors on the wind. But up here, in the briefing room,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Twelve Vantrell crew members sat frozen around a table, waiting
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: for a human to finish laughing long enough to answer
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: a question that was about to change the way an
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: entire species thought about mine. I took a breath. Okay,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I said. So there's this animal we call an alligator.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Thal did not sit down. He remained stationary. arms folded
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: tight against his narrow chest, staring at me like I
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: had just claimed to breathe fire. An alligator, he said.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Describe it. Long body, short legs, jaws that can crack
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: bone like a dry stick, I said. Skin like armor plating,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Older than most things on my planet. Older than the
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: mountains in some places. It doesn't chase you across open ground,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: because it doesn't have to. It waits, sometimes for hours,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: sometimes for days. Then it moves once, fast, and it's
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: over before you understand what happened. That, Thal said slowly,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: sounds like an apex predator. It is, I said, one
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: of several where I grew up. And you have eaten
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: this creature. My grandfather used to make a stew out
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: of the tail meat, I said. Tasted a little like chicken,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: if chicken lived somewhere much angrier. Oren made a small
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: sound that might have been a laugh trying to escape
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: past pure disbelief. Yorick silenced him with a glance, but
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I noticed her own composure had cracked slightly, one eyebrow
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: raised just a fraction higher than Vantrell usually allowed themselves
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: in front of a commanding officer. Continue, Yorick said. You
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: said this was a list, so I gave them the list.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I told them about sharks, the ones that patrol coastlines
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: with rows of teeth built for a purpose and nothing else,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: animals so efficient at their design that they had barely
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: changed in millions of years because there was nothing left
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: to improve. I told them how people still swam in
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: the same water those sharks hunted, how surfers floated past
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: dark shapes some mornings, and simply decided the odds were
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: worth it. I did not mention that Shark had, on
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: one particular boat trip with my uncle off the coast
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: of a place called Cape Cod, ended up seasoned and
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: grilled over a fire on a beach, because by that
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: point Thal had both hands pressed flat against the table
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: like he needed it to stay upright. I told them
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: about bears, the big ones from the cold northern places,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: animals that could tear through the side of a vehicle
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: if properly motivated. animals that people still hiked past every
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: single day with nothing more than a bell on their
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: backpack and a story to tell afterward. I mentioned, carefully,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: that certain kinds of bear meat, prepared correctly, made a
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: very good sausage. A sausage, Yorick said, in the tone
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: of someone repeating a word from a language she was
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: only now realizing she had never truly understood. A sausage,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: I confirmed. I told them about wild boar, animals with
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: tusks long enough to open a grown man from hip
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: to shoulder if he was careless, animals that traveled in
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: groups and had been known, in certain regions, to chase
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: hunters up trees and simply wait them out. I told
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: them how my own father used to hunt them with
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: nothing more than a rifle, a dog, and an almost
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: suicidal amount of patience, and how the meat from a
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: good boar, roasted slow, was one of the finest things
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I had ever eaten in my life. By this point,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Thal had lowered himself very slowly into a chair, as
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: though his legs had quietly decided they were no longer
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: interested in supporting the rest of him. You are describing,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: he said, a species that treats its own apex predators
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: as a food source. More or less, I said. Look,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's easy. People get hurt. People die. Sometimes.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: It's not a game. But it's also not this. And
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I gestured at the frozen image of the drask. still
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: glowing faintly on the display behind Yorix. This idea that
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: an apex predator is something you can only run from
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: or die to. Sometimes it's just something you have a
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: complicated relationship with. Respect, mostly. Fear, sometimes. And occasionally, dinner.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Yorix was quiet for a long moment. When she finally spoke,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: her voice had lost some of its earlier sharpness and
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: gained something else instead. Something careful and considering. Your species
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: did not evolve at the top of your world's hierarchy,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: she said. It was not quite a question. No, I said.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: For most of our history, we were somewhere in the middle.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Big cats hunted us. So did other things. We weren't
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: the strongest animal on the planet. We weren't the fastest.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: We weren't the ones with the teeth or the claws
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: or the venom. Then how, Oren asked quietly, did you
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: end up here, on a ship, speaking to us? I
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: thought about that question for a second, because it was
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: actually a good one, better than he probably realized. We
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: got smart, I said. We got stubborn. We figured out
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: fire and tools and how to work together in groups
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: larger than any predator could organize against. And somewhere along
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: the way, the things that used to hunt us became
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the things we occasionally hunted back, not because we stopped
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: being afraid of them. We're still afraid of them, Ask
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: anyone who's ever stood ten feet from a bear whether
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: their heart was calm. But fear, for humans, was never
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: the same as helplessness. We learned to live next to
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: the things that could kill us. Sometimes that meant avoiding them.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it meant eating them instead. The room sat with
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: that for a while. Nobody spoke. Thal stared at the
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: table like it had personally betrayed him. Yorix's eyes moved
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: slowly around the room, checking the reactions of her crew.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and I saw something shift behind her expression, some recalibration
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: happening that I did not fully understand yet. Finally she straightened,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and her voice returned to its usual crisp, commanding tone,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: though something underneath it had changed. The recovery mission proceeds
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: as planned, she said. Cross, given your species' apparent history
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: with predatory wildlife, I am adjusting the ground team roster.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: You will lead the survival component of the landing party. Commander,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Thal said, and for the first time all meeting, he
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: sounded less afraid and more concerned, in an entirely different way.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: With respect, Cross has never encountered a drask specifically. His experience,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: however impressive, is with his own world's predators. This is
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: a different animal, on a different planet, with different capabilities
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: we do not fully understand. Noted, Yorick said. which is
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: exactly why he will be paired with our most experienced
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: field officer, Sella. A Vantrell near the back of the
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: table straightened. I had seen her before in passing, a lean,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: quiet crew member with pale gray markings along her jaw
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: that the others did not have, and eyes that studied
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: everything around her like she was memorizing it for later use.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: She had not spoken once during the entire meeting, but
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: she had been watching me the whole time, I realized.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: with an attention that felt different from the others. Less afraid.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: More curious. Understood, Commander, Sela said. Her voice was quieter
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: than Thal's. Steadier. The outpost went silent eleven days ago,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Yorix continued. We are not just recovering data. There is
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: a chance, small but real, that some of the outpost
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: crew survived. Every hour we delay reduces that chance further.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: The landing party departs in two hours. The meeting broke
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: apart after that, crew members filing out in twos and threes,
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: murmuring to each other in low voices. I caught fragments
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: as they passed, words like consumes and unbelievable, and did
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: you hear what he said about the sausage? I tried
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: not to grin too openly. It felt rude, given the circumstances,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: but some small, petty part of me was enjoying this
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: more than I probably should have. Sella found me at
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: the edge of the corridor as the room emptied, She
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: studied me for a moment with those sharp, careful eyes.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: You are not afraid, she said. It was not really
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: a question, but I answered it like one anyway. I
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: am afraid, I said. I'm just not only afraid, there's
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: a difference. Explain the difference. Fear tells you something is dangerous,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: I said. It doesn't tell you that you can't handle it.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Those are two different pieces of information, and most people
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: mix them up. Sela considered that for a long moment,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: her head tilting slightly to one side, in a way
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I had learned meant she was filing something away carefully
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: for later use. I have served on six survey missions,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: she said. I have seen creatures that ended experienced hunters
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: in under a second. I have seen soldiers with better
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: weapons than anything you carry freeze completely when a true
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: apex predator turned its attention toward them. Confidence does not
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: stop teeth, Cross. No, I agreed. but panic makes teeth
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: a lot more likely to find you. There's a difference
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: between being calm because you think nothing can hurt you
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: and being calm because you've decided panic isn't going to
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: help you survive the next 30 seconds. I'm the second kind.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: She studied me a moment longer, and something in her
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: expression shifted, not quite a smile, because I was not
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: sure Vantrell faces made that particular shape, but something close
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: to it. We will see, she said. Which kind keeps
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: you alive on Vessos 9? Two hours later, I stood
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: in the shuttle bay, checking equipment I had checked twice already,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: because my hands needed something to do. The shuttle itself
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: was small, built for six. Its hull scarred from previous
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: drops onto rougher worlds than this one. Thal was there.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: pale and tense, along with two armed vantral soldiers whose
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: names I had not yet learned, their weapons checked and
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: rechecked with the same nervous energy Thal carried in every movement.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Sela stood near the loading ramp, calm in a way
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: that made the rest of the party look even more
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: anxious by comparison. Final scan before departure, Thal announced, his
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: voice tight. The display above the ramp flickered to life,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: showing the outpost's last known location, a small cluster of
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: structures at the edge of a forest belt that stretched
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: for what looked like hundreds of miles in every direction.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: The image sharpened, and there, at the very edge of
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: the frame, half hidden by long grass, was a shape. Low. Long. Patient.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: watching the outpost the same way it had probably been
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: watching it for the last eleven days. Nobody in the
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: shuttle bay said anything for a moment. Then Thal cleared
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: his throat, and his voice, when it came, was smaller
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: than I had heard it all day. It appears our
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: guest has not left the area, he said. I looked
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: at the shape on the screen, at the low ridge
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: of bone along its spine. at the patient stillness of
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: something that had clearly decided this particular stretch of ground
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: belonged to it now. Good, I said, mostly to myself,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: because some old familiar part of my brain, the part
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: that had grown up walking careful paths through places that
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: did not belong entirely to humans, had already started paying
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: attention in the way I had been taught to pay
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: attention my whole life. Let's go meet the neighbors. The
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: ramp closed. The engines whined to life beneath us. and
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: somewhere far below, in the tall grass at the edge
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: of a silent outpost, something ancient lifted its head and
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: turned toward the sound of our descent. The shuttle touched
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: down two hundred meters from the outpost, close enough to walk,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: far enough that Yoricks had insisted we not land directly
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: on top of whatever was waiting for us. The doors
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: opened onto air that smelled like wet stone and crushed grass,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: thick with a kind of green, growing heat that clung
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: to the back of my throat. Vessos 9 did not
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: look like a nightmare planet. That was the strange part.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: The sky above us was a pale gold color, streaked
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: with high clouds, and the grass stretching out toward the
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: tree line moved in slow waves whenever the wind pushed
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: through it. If someone had shown me a picture of
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: this place without any context, I would have called it beautiful.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Movement sensors show nothing within 200 meters, Thal said, reading
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: from a handheld display. his voice tight enough that I
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: could hear his pulse in it. That does not mean
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: nothing is here. It means nothing is choosing to be detected.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Copy that, I said, and I meant it as agreement,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: but Thal flinched slightly at my tone anyway, like he
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: had expected more fear from me and was unsettled by
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: its absence. Sela moved up beside me as we started walking,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: her steps quiet and economical, eyes constantly moving across the treeline.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: The grass, the ground beneath our feet. You are reading
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: the terrain, she said. It was not a question. Habit,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: I said. Where I'm from, you learn to read ground
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: the same way you'd read a face. Grass that's been
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: pressed down recently looks different from grass that's just grown
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: that way naturally. Broken branches at a certain height tell
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: you the size of whatever broke them. Tracks tell you weight, speed,
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: whether something was relaxed or in a hurry. And what
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: is the ground telling you now? I crouched near a
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: patch of grass just off the path, flattened in a long,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: smooth line that curved gently toward the tree line to
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: our left. Something heavy came through here recently, I said.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Low to the ground, not rushing. This isn't a chase trail.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: This is a patrol trail, something that walks this path regularly,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: the way you'd walk a hallway in your own house.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Thal's grip on his weapon tightened. The drask, Maybe, I said,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: standing back up. Or something else that lives here too.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Either way, we're not the only ones who've noticed this
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: path exists. We reached the outpost twenty minutes later, and
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: the moment we stepped through the perimeter fencing, I understood
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: why the mission had gone quiet. The outpost had not
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: been destroyed. That was almost worse, somehow. The structures stood
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: mostly intact, their walls unbroken, their equipment still in place.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: but everything was covered in a thin layer of dust
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: and pollen that told me nobody had touched anything in
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: a long time. A supply crate sat open near the
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: main building, its contents scattered but not looted, like whoever
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: had opened it had simply stopped what they were doing
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: halfway through and never come back. Life signs, Thal said,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: scanning the area, his voice barely above a whisper now. Negative.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: No life signs detected in the immediate structures. That doesn't
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: mean they're gone, Sela said. It means they are not here.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: There is a difference. We split into two groups, Thal
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: and the soldiers checking the main building, while Sela and
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: I moved toward the smaller structure at the edge of
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: the compound, a storage shed with its door hanging slightly open. Inside,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I found a logbook, its pages slightly warped by moisture,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: the last entry written in a hand that had gotten
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: progressively less steady with each line. Sela read over my shoulder,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: translating quietly as she went, her voice tight. They stopped
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: seeing it after the first week, she said. Then it
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: started leaving marks, territory marks, close to the fence line.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Then it stopped leaving marks and started watching instead. The
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: last entry says it hasn't attacked. It hasn't needed to.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: What does that mean? I asked. It hasn't needed to.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Sela looked up from the logbook and for the first
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: time since I had met her, I saw something close
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: to real unease cross her face. I believe, she said slowly,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: that it has been waiting for something. Patience like this,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: in a predator, usually means it is not hunting out
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: of hunger. It is hunting out of territory. It considers
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: this outpost part of its ground now. It has simply
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: been waiting for a reason to act on that. And
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: we just gave it one, I said quietly, by landing here,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: We found the missing crew twenty minutes later, and it
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: was not the discovery I had been dreading. A narrow
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: tunnel ran beneath the storage shed, hand-dug, its entrance cleverly
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: hidden behind a shelving unit that had been pushed aside
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: just enough to slip through. Sella found it first, her
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: sharp eyes catching a groove worn into the floor that
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: did not match the rest of the room. Inside, in
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: a small reinforced chamber that must have originally been a
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: supply cellar, we found four members of the outpost crew, thin, exhausted,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: and very much alive. They had been rationing supplies and
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: taking turns keeping watch through a narrow gap in the
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: wall for eleven days, waiting for a rescue they had
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: almost stopped believing would come. Their leader, a Vantrell named Corrin,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: gripped my arm hard enough to bruise when Sela explained
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: who I was and why I had been brought along.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: It is still out there, Corrin said, his voice hoarse
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: from disuse. It knows this ground now. It will not
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: leave simply because more of us have arrived. If anything,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: it may see this as more territory to reclaim. How
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: many times has it approached the shed directly? I asked. Twice,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Corrin said. Both times at dusk. Both times it retreated
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: when the lights activated. We believe it dislikes bright, sudden light,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: though we cannot be certain. I filed that piece of
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: information away carefully, the same way I would have filed
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: away a piece of information about a bear's relationship with
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: loud noise, or a wolf's relationship with fire. Every predator
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: had a pattern. Every pattern had a gap you could
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: work with, if you were patient enough to find it.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: We got the survivors moving toward the shuttle an hour later,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: moving slow and careful, Corrin and his crew leaning heavily
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: on Thal's soldiers as we crossed the open ground between
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: the outpost and the landing site. The gold sky above
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: us had begun sliding toward a deeper orange, the long
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: shadows of the tree line stretching further across the grass
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: with every passing minute. Dusk, Sela said quietly, glancing at
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: the sky. If Corrin's information is accurate, this is when
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: it has approached before. Then we keep moving, I said,
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: and we don't run. Thal, walking just ahead of us,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: with one arm braced under a survivor's shoulder, turned his
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: head sharply. You want us to walk calmly toward a
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: shuttle while an apex predator that has been stalking this
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: outpost for 11 days considers approaching us at its preferred
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: hunting time. I want us to not look like something
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: worth chasing, I said. Running triggers a chase response in
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: almost every predator I've ever dealt with. It doesn't matter
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: what planet you're on. Fast, panicked movement says prey. Steady
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: movement says something the animal has to think about first.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: You are asking us to gamble our lives on a
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: theory built from creatures on an entirely different world, Thal said,
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: his voice rising. I'm asking you to trust that patterns
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: don't change just because the species does, I said. Fear
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: behaves the same way everywhere I've ever been. So does confidence.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: Keep moving. Keep the group tight. Don't look at the
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: tree line. like it's the only thing that matters, because
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: that's exactly what a predator watching from that tree line
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: wants to see. We kept moving. The tree line to
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: our left, the same one whose shadows had stretched wide
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: and long across the grass, held perfectly still for almost
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: ten full minutes as we crossed the field. And then,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: Exactly where the shadows were thickest, something shifted. It did
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: not charge. That was the first thing I noticed, and
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: it was the detail that told me everything I needed
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: to know about how dangerous this animal actually was. It
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: did not need to charge. It simply stepped, once, out
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: of the tree line and into the long grass, low
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: and silent, its bone-ridged spine catching the last orange light
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: of the setting sun. And it watched us the way
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: I had watched deer trails back home. Patient, and entirely unhurried,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: because it already understood that it did not need to
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: rush anything. Behind me, I heard Thal's breath catch. One
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: of the survivors made a small, strangled sound. Corrin's grip
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: on the soldier helping him tightened until his knuckles went pale.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: Do not run, I said, low and even, loud enough
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: for the whole group to hear, but pitched to sound
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: calm rather than urgent. Slow. Steady. Keep walking toward the shuttle.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Do not turn your back on it completely, but do
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: not stare at it either. Watching too hard reads the
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: same as a challenge to something like this. You are
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: certain of this, Sela said quietly, her eyes never leaving
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: the shape in the grass. No, I said honestly, but
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: I'm certain that stopping or running are both worse options,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: so we go with the one I actually understand something about.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: The drask matched our pace. drifting along the tree line
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: parallel to our path, close enough that I could make
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: out the slow rise and fall of its ribs, the
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: deliberate way its head tracked our movement without ever quite
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: pointing directly at us. It was testing something, I realized,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: testing whether we would break formation, testing whether fear would
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: win out over whatever discipline was holding this strange, slow-moving
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: group together. I thought about every hike I had ever
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: taken as a kid, Every warning my grandfather had given
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: me about moving through gator country, every lesson about how
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: the animals that could hurt you the most were rarely
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: the ones that attacked without reason. Most predators, on any world,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: were not looking for a fight. They were looking for
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: the easiest possible outcome, and a group that refused to
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: look easy usually got left alone. We were forty meters
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: from the shuttle when the drask finally made its move,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: and it was not the move I had expected. It
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: did not lunge. It did not close the distance. Instead,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: it let out a sound, low and rolling, something between
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: a growl and a deep exhale, and it stopped walking entirely,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: standing perfectly still at the edge of the tree line,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: watching us continue toward the shuttle without following any further.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: It's not pursuing, Sela said, disbelief plain in her voice.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: It got what it wanted, I said, still walking. still
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: keeping my pace steady, even though every muscle in my
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: body wanted to break into a full run toward the
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: shuttle ramp. We didn't run. We didn't panic. From where
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: it's standing, chasing us probably isn't worth the effort anymore.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Predators don't usually waste energy on prey that doesn't act
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: like prey. We reached the shuttle without further incident, the
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: ramp lowering the moment Thal's signal reached it, the survivors
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: half carried, half guided up into the safety of the hull.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: I was the last one aboard, and I paused for
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: just a second at the top of the ramp, looking
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: back across the darkening field toward the tree line where
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: the drasks still stood, watching us go. It held my
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: gaze for a long moment, and something about the stillness
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: of it, the patience, reminded me so strongly of standing
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: at the edge of a swamp back home, watching a
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: shape in the water that could have moved and chosen
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: not to, that I almost laughed out loud right there
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: on the ramp. Instead, I gave the animal a small nod,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: the same nod I would have given any dangerous thing
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: that had decided, for its own reasons, not to make
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: this night any harder than it needed to be. Then
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: the ramp closed, and the shuttle lifted off the ground
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: of Vessos 9, carrying four exhausted survivors, one deeply shaken
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: survey officer, and a group of Vantrell crew members, who
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: were beginning, slowly, to understand that the universe's idea of
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: an apex predator and mine were built from very different materials.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Back aboard Kessen's path, the medical bay was busy for
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: almost two hours. Corrin and his crew hooked up to
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: monitors while ship's medics checked them over, murmuring softly in
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: the careful, clinical tone medical staff use everywhere in the galaxy, apparently,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: regardless of species. I sat outside in the corridor with Sela,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: both of us still dusty from the field, and for
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: a while, neither of us said anything at all. It
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: was Sela who finally broke the silence. You knew it
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: would not chase us, she said, before we crossed that field.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: You already believed it. I hoped, I said. There's a
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: difference between knowing and hoping, and I want to be
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: honest with you about which one I actually had. You
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: did not act like a man who was hoping. You
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: learned not to, I said. Panic is contagious. If I'd
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: let my voice shake out there, the whole group would
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: have felt it. And a scared group moves wrong. Moves fast.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: Looks exactly like prey. So you make your voice sound
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: certain even when your stomach isn't cooperating. Sela studied me
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: for a long moment, her head tilted in that considering
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: way she had. This is a skill your species has
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: developed specifically. More or less, I said. We didn't always
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: have the sharpest claws or the thickest hide. What we
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: had was each other, and the ability to hold it
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: together long enough to think our way through something instead
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: of just reacting to it. That's most of what kept
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: us alive long enough to build ships like this one.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Thal found us there a short while later, looking better
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: than he had on the surface but still carrying a
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: kind of stunned exhaustion in the way he moved. He
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: lowered himself into the seat across from us without asking permission.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: which for Thao was practically an act of collapse. I
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: owe you an apology, Cross, he said. You don't, I said.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: I do, he insisted. I dismissed your composure earlier as
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: either ignorance or foolishness. I have reviewed the footage from
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: the field twice now. What you did out there was neither.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: It was, I believe, exactly the skill you claimed to have,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: reading the animal's intentions, managing the group's behavior to influence
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: the outcome. This is not something we teach in Vantrell
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: field training. We teach evasion. We teach retreat. We do
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: not teach engagement of this kind, because we have never
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: believed it was survivable. It's not always survivable, I said honestly.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: I got lucky today. That thing could have decided differently,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: and if it had, walking calmly instead of running wouldn't
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: have saved anybody. I want to be clear about that,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: because I don't want you walking away from this thinking
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: I found some trick that beats every predator in every situation.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: I didn't. I just made a bet based on patterns
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: I understood, and this time the bet paid off. And
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: if it had not paid off, Thal asked quietly, then
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: at least we'd have gone down doing something other than panicking,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: I said. That's not nothing, even if it's not a guarantee.
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: Thal absorbed that for a moment, then leaned back slightly,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: his sharp black eyes studying me with an expression I
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: hadn't seen from him before. Something closer to genuine curiosity
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: than fear. Tell me something, Cross, he said, when you
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: described eating these creatures. The alligator, the boar, the shark.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: I confess I assumed you were exaggerating or speaking in
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: some kind of metaphor I did not understand, but watching
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: you today, I no longer believe that. I wasn't exaggerating,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: I said. Then explain it to me properly, Thal said.
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: Not the food itself. The mindset. How does a species
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: come to view its most dangerous animals as something to
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: be consumed, rather than something to be feared and avoided entirely?
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: I thought about that question for a long moment, because
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: it deserved a real answer, and not just another joke.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: It's not that we stopped fearing them, I said. We
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: still do, every single time. But somewhere along the way,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: we learned that fear and control weren't opposites. You could
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: be afraid of something, and still understand it well enough
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: to take away some of its advantage. A gator's dangerous
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: in open water, moving fast, using surprise. Take away the surprise,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: and you've taken away most of what makes it frightening.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: Same with almost everything else. The scariest version of any
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: predator is the one you don't understand yet. Once you
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: understand it, some of that fear turns into something else. Respect, mostly.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Sometimes into a recipe. Thal actually let out something that
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: might have been a laugh, short and surprised, like it
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: had escaped before he'd decided whether to allow it. A recipe,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: he repeated. A good one, in some cases, I said.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: My grandmother made an alligator gumbo that people still talk
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: about at family gatherings, and half of them weren't even
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: born when she was still cooking it. This is the
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: strangest conversation I have had in my career. Thal said,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: shaking his head slowly. Get used to it, Sela said,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: and there was something almost warm in her voice now,
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: a shift I hadn't heard from her before. I suspect
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: this will not be the last time humans make us
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: reconsider what fear is supposed to feel like. We were
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: interrupted by a soft chime from the corridor speaker, Yorix's
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: voice following a moment later, calm but carrying an edge
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: of urgency that got all three of us on our
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: feet immediately. Cross Sela Thal, report to the bridge. We
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: have a situation. The bridge was tense when we arrived,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: crew members moving quickly between stations, Yorix standing at the
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: center of it all with her arms folded, staring at
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: a display that showed a second signal, faint and irregular.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: originating from somewhere further into the forest belt on Vessos 9.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: A second beacon, Yorick said without preamble, weaker than the
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: first outpost signal, and further from our landing site. We
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: believe it may be an earlier research team, one presumed
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: lost nearly three years ago, the signal only activated in
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: the last hour. Three years, Thal said, disbelief plain in
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: his voice. You believe there are survivors from a mission
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: three years old. I believe we do not know, and
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: that not knowing is unacceptable, Yorick said. Cross, given today's outcome,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: I am requesting your participation in a second landing, this
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: time deeper into Drask territory than we have previously attempted.
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: I want to be honest with you about the increased
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: risk before I ask this of you. I looked at
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: the display, at the faint pulsing signal buried deep in
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: unfamiliar forest. and I thought about every story I had
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: ever heard about people who went looking for someone lost
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: and came back changed by what they found, one way
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: or another. What's the terrain like where the signal's coming from?
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: I asked. Dense forest, Yorick said. Significantly more cover than
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: the open ground surrounding the outpost. Multiple territorial markings detected
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: by our earlier scans, suggesting this region may in fact
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: be closer to the Drask's actual den site, rather than
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: the edge of its hunting range. So we'd be walking
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: straight into its living room instead of its front yard,
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: I said. That is an accurate way of putting it, yes,
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Yorick said. I glanced at Sela, who met my eyes steadily,
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: and at Thal, whose earlier fear had settled into something
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: quieter and more considered, the look of a man recalculating
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: everything he thought he understood about risk. Different terrain means
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: different rules, I said slowly. Open ground, you can read
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: body language from a distance, use pace and posture the
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: way we did today. Dense forest changes that completely. You
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: lose visibility, which means you lose most of the advantages
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: we use today. It also means the animal loses some
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: of its advantages too. It can't watch us from a
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: distance the same way. Everything gets closer, faster, and a
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: lot less predictable. Are you saying this cannot be done?
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Yorick's asked. I'm saying it's a different kind of dangerous,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: I said, and if there's any chance there are people
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: alive out there who've survived three years on this planet,
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: I think it's worth finding out exactly how dangerous. Yorick's
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: held my gaze for a long moment, and something in
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: her expression, some careful, calculating weight behind her dark eyes,
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: seemed to settle into a decision. Then we leave within
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: the hour, she said, and cross- I want you to
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: understand that I am not simply relying on your species
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: history with dangerous animals to guide this decision. I am
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: relying on the fact that today, faced with something none
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: of my own crew members had a framework for handling,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: you provided one. That is worth more to me right
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: now than any weapon on this ship. No pressure, I muttered.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: And beside me, Sela made a sound that was almost,
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: almost a laugh. Welcome to serving alongside humans, she said quietly.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: I understand this feeling only grows more familiar. We assembled
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: at the shuttle bay less than an hour later, the
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: same team as before, minus Corrin's group, who remained under
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: medical observation, plus two additional Vantrell soldiers carrying heavier equipment
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: than the first trip. Thal checked his gear methodically, still nervous,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: but with a steadiness underneath the nerves that had not
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: been there during our first briefing. Cross, he said, as
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: we boarded the shuttle. For what it is worth, I
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: am glad you laughed at me this morning. That's a first,
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: I said. It forced me to ask a question I
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: would not have otherwise asked, he said, and the answer
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: to that question may well save lives tonight. I find
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: I am willing to overlook the insult to my dignity,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: given the circumstances. I grinned at him as the ramp
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: closed behind us, the engines beginning their low whine beneath
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: our feet. Don't worry, Thal, I said. There's plenty more
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: where that came from. Outside, the gold sky of Vessos
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: 9 had turned to deep violet, the forest below waiting,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: patient and unreadable, for whatever we were about to bring
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: into it. The forest swallowed the shuttle's landing lights the
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: moment we stepped onto the ground, thick canopy overhead cutting
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: the violet sky down to thin scattered threads of fading light.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: The air here felt heavier, damp and green, and every
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: sound seemed to arrive from three directions at once, bouncing
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: off trunks and dense hanging vines until I could not
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: tell which direction anything had actually come from. Signal is
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: 400 meters north, Thal said, voice low, his handheld display
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: casting a faint glow across his face. Territorial markings increase
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: in density the closer we get. I recommend extreme caution
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: from this point forward. Copy that, I said. and this
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: time I meant it without any of the earlier lightness
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: in my voice. Open ground had given me room to
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: read the situation from a distance. This close, dense forest,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: low visibility, this was not a place where confidence alone
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: was going to carry us through. We moved in a
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: tight formation, Sela just ahead of me, reading the ground
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: the way I had taught her that afternoon, pausing every
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: few meters to check disturbed leaves, broken low branches, patches
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: of ground pressed down by something heavy passing through recently.
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: Multiple trails, she said quietly, crouching beside a wide, muddy patch.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: Not one drask. I count at least three distinct sets
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: of tracks, different sizes. That stopped me cold. Three. A
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: mated pair, possibly. An offspring, Sela said. This would explain
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: the intensity of the territorial marking Thal's scans detected. We
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: are not simply near a drask's hunting ground. We may
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: be near an active den site. That changes things, Thal said,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: his voice tight. It changes things, I agreed. But it
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: doesn't change the mission. Somewhere ahead of us there might
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: be people who've survived three years on this planet. If
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: they found a way to live this close to a
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: den site for that long, they learned something we haven't yet.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: I want to know what that something is. We pushed forward,
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: slower now. every sense straining against the thick, close darkness
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: of the forest. The signal grew stronger as we walked,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: until finally, through a gap in the trees, I saw it.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: A structure, half buried into a hillside, covered in vines
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: and creeping moss, so thoroughly that if the beacon hadn't
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: been blinking faintly from a jury-rigged antenna on its roof,
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: I would have walked straight past it without noticing it
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: was there at all. Contact, Fall whispered, and then, From
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: the shadows near the structure's entrance, a voice called out,
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: rough with disuse, but unmistakably alive. Do not fire, the
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: voice said, in careful, halting Vantrell standard. We are unarmed.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: We are the ones you're looking for. Two figures emerged
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: slowly from the entrance, thin and weathered, their clothing patched
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: together from what looked like scavenged outpost supplies and forest
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: materials both. One was Vantrell, the other, to my genuine surprise,
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: was human, a woman with sun-darkened skin and steady eyes,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: standing with the careful, measured posture of someone who had
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: spent three years learning exactly how to move through a
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: place like this without drawing unwanted attention. Name's Marie Fallon,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: she said, looking at me with something between disbelief and
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: enormous relief. Didn't think I'd ever hear another human voice
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: out here again. Daniel Cross, I said. Didn't think I'd
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: find one either. Marie's story came out slowly over the
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: next twenty minutes, told in a low, careful voice, while
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: Thal's team secured the perimeter around the hidden structure. Her
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: original survey team had crashed here three years earlier, most
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: of the crew lost in the initial impact, the survivors,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: herself and a handful of Vantrell researchers, forced to build
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: a life out of whatever they could scavenge from the wreckage.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: We figured out the drask early, she said, or we
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: figured out enough, anyway. They're territorial, not senselessly aggressive. You
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: learn their boundaries, you respect them, you don't run when
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: you see one, and mostly, they leave you alone, mostly.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: Sounds familiar, I said, glancing at Sela, who returned the
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: look with something that might have been a small, private smile.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: We built this place right at the edge of their
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: den range, on purpose. Marie continued. Sounds backward, I know,
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: but other predators on this planet, smaller ones, more aggressive,
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: they avoid drask territory entirely. Living close to the biggest,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: scariest thing in the forest meant everything else left us alone.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: You used the apex predator as a shield, I said,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: and something in that idea settled into place in my
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: chest with a kind of satisfaction I hadn't expected. Didn't
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: have much choice, Marie said, but yeah, that's about the
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: size of it. We were preparing to move the survivors
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: back toward the shuttle when the forest around us went suddenly,
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: completely still, the constant low hum of insects and distant
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: calls cutting off all at once, like someone had reached
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: out and switched off the entire world. That's not good,
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: Marie said quietly, her eyes scanning the tree line. Sela's
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: hand went to her weapon. False soldiers tightened formation instinctively
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: around the survivors, and from the darkness beyond the hidden structure,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: low and rolling, came the same sound I had heard
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: on open ground earlier that day, except this time there
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: were two distinct voices calling to each other through the trees,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: deep and resonant, echoing between the trunks, in a way
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: that made it impossible to tell exactly how close either
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: of them actually was. The pair, Sela said quietly. They
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: know we're here. They've known we're here since we crossed
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: into their territory, Marie said. This is different. This is
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: a warning call. I thought fast, running through everything I
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: had learned that day, everything Marie's three years of survival
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: had apparently taught her, trying to fit it together into
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: something we could use in the next thirty seconds. Marie,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: I said. In three years, have you ever seen them
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: actually approach the den structure directly? Once, she said. When
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: we first arrived, before we understood the boundaries, we were
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: inside their claimed range without knowing it. They came close
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: enough to see, made that same call, and we froze completely.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: Didn't move a muscle. They circled twice and left. They
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: were testing whether you understood the boundary, I said. whether
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: you'd back off or push forward. That's my theory too,
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: Marie said. Then we don't push forward, I said, turning
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: to Thal. We move the group back the way we came,
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: slow and steady, same as this afternoon. We're not challenging
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: their den. We came, we found what we were looking for,
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: and now we're leaving. If that's the message they're testing for,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: we give it to them clearly. Thal did not hesitate
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: this time. the earlier fear in his voice, replaced by
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: something steadier, something that had learned to trust the pattern
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: even in unfamiliar terrain. You heard him, Thal said to
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: his soldiers. Formation, slow retreat, north face first, weapons lowered
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: but ready. Nobody runs. We moved as one group, tight
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: and careful, Marie and the other survivors flanked protectively in
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: the center, back through the dense trees the way we
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: had come. The calls continued behind us for a while,
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: deep and resonant, tracking our movement without ever quite closing
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: the distance, and then, gradually, the forest's ordinary night sounds
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: began creeping back in around the edges, insects and distant
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: calls filling the silence again, and I understood, the way
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: you understand a held breath finally being let out, that
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: the pair had accepted our retreat as exactly what it
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: was meant to be. We reached the shuttle an hour
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: before dawn, exhausted, Dirt-streaked and entirely, gratefully alive, Marie sat
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: beside me for the flight back up to Kesson's path,
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: quiet for a long while, watching the violet sky of
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: Vessos 9 shrink beneath us through the small viewport. Three years,
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: she said eventually. Three years. I told myself if I
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: ever got off this rock, I'd never think about that
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: place again. And now? She was quiet for a moment,
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: then smiled slightly. Now I think I understand why you
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: laughed at Thal's briefing. Somebody told me once, back home,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: that fear works best when it teaches you something, instead
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: of just stopping you cold. This planet taught me plenty.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: I imagine I'll be grateful for that, eventually, once I've
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: slept for about a week straight. Word of the mission
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: spread through Kessen's path, faster than any official report could
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: have carried it. By the time we docked, the corridors
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: were full of crew members finding excuses to walk past
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: the shuttle bay. murmuring to each other, glancing at me
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: with expressions I was slowly learning to recognize as a
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: specific mixture of alarm and fascination. Yorick's met us personally
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: at the landing bay, her sharp eyes moving over the
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: returning group, lingering on Marie and the Vantrell survivor beside
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: her with clear relief. Three years, she said quietly, echoing
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: Marie's own words from earlier. I did not expect this outcome, Cross.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: I want to be honest with you about that. Neither
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: did I, I admitted, got lucky, had good information, and
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: had someone out there who'd already figured out the rules
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: before we ever showed up. Do not diminish your role
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: in this, Yorick said. My crew does not have a
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: framework for approaching Apex Predators the way you do. Today,
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: you gave them one. I suspect that framework will outlast
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: this single mission. Over the following days, the story of
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: the landing party circulated through every level of the ship,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: gaining small embellishments each time it was retold, until by
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: the end of the week I was fairly sure at
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: least one version of events had me personally sharing a
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: meal with the Drask pair before politely excusing myself. I
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: did not correct most of these versions. Some things were
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: more fun, left slightly exaggerated. Thal found me in the
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: mess hall a few days later, sliding into the seat
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: across from me with a small data pad in hand.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: I have been reviewing historical records, he said. Other species
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: who have encountered your people in the wider systems. There
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: is a pattern, Cross. A consistent one. What kind of pattern?
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: I asked, already grinning slightly, because I had a feeling
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: I knew where this was going. Reports of humans treating
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: apparently dangerous wildlife with what other species describe as, and
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: I am reading directly here, unreasonable calm, Thal said. There
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: are at least four separate incident reports involving different survey
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: teams from different worlds, all describing the same basic event.
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: A local apex predator is identified. Humans present express minimal alarm.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: Humans present are later found to have some prior personal
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: history involving the same general category of creature. Sounds about right,
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: I said. I confess, Thal said, setting the data pad down.
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: that I no longer know whether to be reassured or
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: deeply unsettled by your species. Both, I said. That's usually
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: the correct reaction. Sela joined us a moment later, sliding
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: into the seat beside Thal with the same quiet economy
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: of movement she brought to everything she did. She had,
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: over the last several days, developed a habit of seeking
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: me out during meal breaks, usually with some new question
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: about Earth's wildlife. that she clearly found both alarming and
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: fascinating in equal measure. I have a question, she said.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: Of course you do, I said. The reports Thal mentions,
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: other incidents involving your species, and dangerous wildlife on other worlds.
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: She paused, her dark eyes fixed on me with that
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: same careful, considering attention I had noticed from our very
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: first meeting. Is there a pattern to which predators humans
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: choose to remain calm around? which ones still frighten you?
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: I thought about that question for a long moment, turning
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: it over honestly, because it deserved a real answer. Mostly
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: it comes down to whether we understand something, I said.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: The scariest thing in any given situation is usually the
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: thing you don't have a framework for yet. Give a
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: person enough time, enough patience, enough willingness to actually study
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: the animal instead of just running from the idea of it,
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: and eventually Most fears turn into something workable, not gone,
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: just workable. And if you have never encountered the creature
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: before at all, Sela asked, as with the drask, as
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: with anything you might meet after this, then I do
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: what I did with the drask, I said. I pay attention.
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: I look for the patterns underneath the fear, and I
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: figure it'll probably work out right up until the moment
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: it doesn't. Sela considered this, then leaned back slightly. something
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: almost like amusement settling into her expression. That is not
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: entirely reassuring, Cross. Never said it was, I said, grinning.
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: Just said it was honest. It was three weeks later,
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: on a different world entirely, that the pattern repeated itself
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: in a way that made even Thal laugh out loud
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: for the first time since I had known him. We
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: had been assigned to a new survey mission, a joint
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: operation between Kesson's Path and a neighboring science vessel from
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: a species I had not worked with before, tall, feathered
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: creatures called the Ilven, whose briefing officer approached me in
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: the shuttle bay with the same grave, careful tone Thal
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: had used weeks earlier. Cross, the Ilven officer said, her
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: feathers rising slightly along her shoulders, in what I had
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: already learned was a sign of stress among her people.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: Before we begin, there is something you should understand about
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: the wildlife on this world. There exists an apex predator here,
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: one of considerable danger, capable of ending an armed team
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: without warning. Beside me, Thal made a small sound that
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: might have been a cough, or might have been an
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: attempt to hide a laugh. I looked at the Ilven officer,
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: at her rising feathers and careful, measured warning, and I
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: felt the same familiar grin spreading across my face that
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: had gotten this entire strange chapter of my life started
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: in the first place. Which one? I asked. Grilled or fried?
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: The officer blinked, feathers rising even further, clearly confused by
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: the question. But behind me, Thal finally let the laugh
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: escape completely, and Sela, standing quietly at the edge of
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: the group, shook her head slowly, with the particular, resigned
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: fondness of someone who had long since stopped being surprised
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: by anything human said. Do not ask him to clarify,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: Thal told the Ilven officer, still laughing. Trust me, it
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: is better, in the long run, if you simply let
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: him meet the creature first, and ask your questions afterward.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: I promise you, Whatever happens next will be more interesting
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: than anything either of us could have predicted. The Ilven
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: officer looked between the two of them, deeply confused, and then, slowly,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: back at me. I do not understand the joke, she said.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: You will, Sela said, with the quiet certainty of someone
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: who had learned this lesson the hard way, given time.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Humans have a habit of teaching that particular lesson themselves,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: whether you ask for it or not. And as the
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: shuttle doors opened onto yet another unfamiliar world, another tree
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: line full of unknown shadows, another apex predator waiting somewhere
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: out there to learn exactly what kind of visitors had
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: just arrived, I found myself thinking, not for the first time,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: that the universe had a great many terrifying things hiding
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: in its forests and its oceans and its dark places.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: But somewhere along the long, strange road that had brought
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: my species this far We had learned something the rest
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: of the galaxy was only now beginning to understand. Fear
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: was never the end of the story. It was just
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: the beginning of a very long, very patient negotiation. And humans,
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: whatever else you wanted to say about us, had never
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: once walked away from a negotiation without at least asking
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: what was for dinner.