Wolf 3.0

The Hunt

Just for a second they glimpse an electronic flash in the elk's eyes.

The next morning everybody is training and readying for the hunt. Cassandra gets a glimmer that somebody is going to die or get severely injured.

A hunt like this starts at dawn with one or more groups doing small group training. The plan is to work on a herd of elk located in the meadow about a mile away. The two groups, each with one leader, Hunter in the one group, Mentor in the other, will converge on the herd and split off small groups aiming to isolate an elk stag or doe and section the elk off. Cassandra will coordinate from the rear using telepathy.

The training is done partly also by telepathy, partly by demonstration using small chunks of meat as props. This part is a demo of the sectioning up of the elk chase to come: The two younger wolves will be separated. Yearling, who has excellent instincts and is credited with an elk take-down, will be in the group headed by Hunter. Younger One will be in the group headed by Mentor.

I am in the group headed by Mentor, mainly because I am not in good shape.. This is at the meadow that we are guided to. We can see the elk herd about halfway down the giant meadow. There are close to twenty elks in the herd.

We do the pincers routine. Our two groups are getting ready like a pair of scissors preparing to cut the herd in half.

There's an elk with full antlers and a slight limp that we are keeping an eye on, lots of meat on him

In they go, up the middle. Hunter's group heads off to the right.

They have the elk in sight, and he looks like he's about to bolt away from the pack. Yearling is charging up, he wants to be the one. Hunter is off to the side keeping an eye on him.

Three of us peel off. The elk now sheds the limp breaks into a run and shifts into second gear. There's something electronic in his eyes.

Yearling amps up and starts closing in behind him.

Hunter is also catching up behind. Cassandra, Yearling's mother, has the view from afar, and is using her predictive abilities to plot out probabilities.

The elk shifts up a gear, and so does Yearling. It's getting dangerous. Yearling is coming in too close.

In Cassandra's head a subconscious alert goes off, picking up and echoing my thought. Her telepathic voice inside Hunter's brain amps up: Hold back Yearling that's enough! This is not worth it!

But Yearling, who not too long ago was a pup, is feeling the thrill and anticipation of a close-enough-to-touch kill. She has had two of these before and wants badly to add to this tally so she can move up in the estimation of her peers.

In a brutal, exhausting burst, Hunter is suddenly beside Yearling and checks her into a tree, and now Yearling is out of the running and Hunter, who of course is senior to Yearling, is getting close herself. This is more dangerous than the previous chase.

Cassandra is silent now. All three are hooked by the chase. They are going to get that elk.

And then it comes. The elk hits back from ahead with its hoof squarely in Hunter's head. Slam! Hunter's going down now like a squirrel hit by a speeding truck tire. A big spurt of blood gushes out.

The elk is gone. Hunter is down, and she's not moving.

Slowly the other members of the hunting pack gather around her trying to wonder what to do.

Word comes from Cassandra: We can try to link in to the Wolf 3.0 hospital station. I have been there. Come back here and let's make a relay.

It's gone from mid-afternoon to late afternoon, and the sky is begins to grow dark.

They set up the relay now, working with the other chase team to amp up the signal to pass to Cassandra, then me, the human element, who will do the relay contact with the Wolf 3.0 Project headquarters.

The elk disappears into the distance. The pack gathers around their fallen star player. They are going to activate the telepathic relay. I know how to communicate with humans, so I will be the one to send the message, which will be amplified by Cassandra and the pack group-consciousness for long-distance transmission. I will be the intermediary, although I do not know for what.

With a prolonged, straining effort by me, Cassandra, and the crew, the message is relayed through and accepted by some kind of computer.

We wait. Hours pass, going into the afternoon and sunset-evening. It's getting dark.

Something large appears overhead.

Then everything goes black and we are unconscious for an indeterminant time. We gain consciousness, in the dark but we are somewhere else. There is a very slight vibration. The bad news and the good news is, Hunter is crying out. It sounds bad, but better.

Then the telepath channel goes live.

I say Cassandra? What's happening? Where are we?

She says I don't know! I do not know!

Man's voice very close up, like a whisper on the common channel: We can hear you. Please be quiet. The hospital is opening in 20 minutes.

Yes, I know that voice. He's the one who brought me to this world, and he can access our telepathy. How is that possible?