Page 29 of Experimental Voyage
As the last thing anyone needed was spacefaring, regenerative crabs, I shuddered. “I revoke that idea.”
“Wise.”
TEN
“What sort of hell planet is this?”
Accordingto Waldren’s fancy machines, if the planet had any significant pests, we had dodged acquiring them. My little bird turned out to be a girl, and she lived for her next meal. After a decontamination bath, which she handled with more grace than I would have in her position, the Veloc discussed the best way to protect her feathers, settling on the gentlest oil they had to make sure she wouldn’t become ill.
As she couldn’t fly, we set up a box filled with beach sand and a tub of fresh water for her to drink and kept her in the quarantine bay. She made a nest in the sand and settled in, and after consultation with the Veloc, they dug through the freezer, brought out fish from their planet, and offered it to her in small pieces.
Without the sharp tip on her beak other birds of her kind used to shred their prey, the bird relied on us to tear her meal into swallowable pieces. She ate the fish with enthusiasm, and while we waited, tense that we made a mistake with her diet, she went about her business, checking over her nest and digging through the sand to locate shells to place near her chosen space.Without knowing why she wanted the shells, I offered to make one more venture onto the beach to gather a bunch for her along with any crab legs left to regenerate so we’d have a more robust supply of native food for her.
I returned with enough shells to arm an army of the birds with palaces, more crab legs than I cared to think about, and the body of a small fish that had washed up on shore while I’d been busy picking up the discarded crab legs from a bird’s meal.
The fish went into stasis for later dissection, the bird received a few handfuls of the shells scattered across the sand, and the legs joined the other regenerating crabs in a large, covered tub with some sand and sea water to mimic their environment.
I then took my second decontamination bath of the day and whined through the process of having my hair and fur detangled, much to the amusement of the three Veloc determined to restore me to acceptable presentation. Their decision to avoid tricking out my hair in baubles counted as a silver lining in my evening. While I had vague memories of having something to eat, I passed out on the first soft surface to cross my path.
The bird survived the night. To our horror, so had the crabs, and they had regenerated while we’d slept. Rather than piles of legs on a bed of sand, we had hundreds upon hundreds of wriggling live crabs in the tub. The lid had spared us from having to chase down escapees, but they barely all fit, and we hauled them to the beach to release and keep a few specimens in stasis for examination later.
The birds, upon realizing we’d brought dinner, congregated in a flock, waiting for easy pickings.
“What sort of hell planet is this?” I whispered to Alban, who’d been sacrificed to join me on the beach to release the excess crabs.
Waldren wanted a hundred live samples of the smallest ones, no more and no less.
He got his hundred, I’d gotten pinched more than a few times, and I wanted to light the entire beach on fire by the time we’d finished sorting and releasing the ones we weren’t keeping.
The birds waited for us to haul the tub with our chosen crabs away before converging on the pile we’d left behind. The smart crabs fled.
The rest faced dismemberment.
With wide eyes, I turned to Alban. “Is it too late to change fields?”
“As a matter of fact, no. It is not too late to change fields. But at least the birds aren’t dangerous to us—as far as we know.”
“As far as we know,” I muttered. Grabbing my end of the tub, I picked it up and marched for the opened quarantine bay to discover three new birds, darker than the crab-dismembering terrors, with longer legs and shorter bills. “Oh, look. More fearless avians. These ones have decided to come right onto the ship.” I considered their beak shape. “Those look like seed eaters if I’m to judge from the bill shape.”
“They have rather large beaks for something that should eat seeds. I would not wish to get my claw stuck in one of those beaks.”
While I agreed with him, I shrugged. “Think nuts more than flower seeds. Yes, you will have a bad day if your finger gets in the way. The birds I’m familiar with have those kinds of beaks when they want to break into seeds with harder casings.”
The Veloc cooed, and without any fear of the birds, he led the way up the ramp.
They observed us with interest until the giant feathered murder machine got close. With shrill squealing sounds and trills, they lunged for the Veloc. Rather than bite him as I expected, they cuddled against his legs and tried to hide in his feathers.
“This planet is utterly terrifying,” I informed Alban, lowering the crab tub to the ramp. “I’ll drag it in, you… deal with that.”
“I am being aggressively cuddled with, and I’m not sure I consented to the aggressive cuddling from unknown avians.” Careful not to step on them, the Veloc lowered his side of the tub, so I could haul it in. He reached down and plucked the first of the birds off his leg.
The bird reminded me of a cat, nuzzling against the larger, feathered predator to mark its territory.
“Put them back outside,” I ordered. “They are not injured and do not need to come home with us.”
Heaving a sigh, the Veloc attempted to obey, but every time he put one of the birds down, they crowded against him again. Tossing them in the air to promote flight bore no results, as the birds circled once before landing to resume snuggling with the Veloc.
“I can eat you in a single bite,” the Veloc stated, showing the birds his teeth.
