GENESIS - THE BEGINNING. Book 1

CHAPTER 7 ... Vigrior

Captain Billy O' Ryan opened his eyes and glanced about in consternation.

His right hand sought the laser pistol that hung from his side holster as regulations demanded. He wobbled on his feet. Alarm bells rang in his brain.

Where the hell was Hendricks? For that matter, where the bloody hell was his fighter?

Shock made him stumble. He sat down quickly, laser pointing in various directions, searching for unknown enemies. He sniffed the air once more. Lilies. His mother had grown lillies on their plot of land in the Cajun slopes of the Bighorn Mountains. The air, pure and sweet. He had never thought that air could be so untainted.

"MIKE?"

He listened as the slight resonance of his voice echoed into the clear distant air and returned to him. "Mike?" he called again. "Mike? Where the hell are you?"

"Jeez, bud," said a voice near the tree line to his right. "Do you have to shout? The whole frigging world..." she lifted her arms at the sight of the laser pistol pointing unerringly at her chest. "...do you mind not pointing that toothpick at me? I'm too delicate at the moment to run."

"Sorry. You're right. You find the ship?" he asked as she sat beside him.

"Yes."

The woman's eyes were wide and staring, jumping about in shock and disbelief. Mike massaged the back of her neck.

"Well...?"

"You aren't going to believe this Bill, but I could have sworn there was supposed to be something wrong with my neck." She massaged her neck.

"Bugger the neck you schmuck. Where's my ship? The last I remember is hitting the deck. After that, I guess I blacked out. Thanks for getting me out."

"Sorry mate." Mike shook her head. "Wasn't me that did the carrying. Thought you got me out ..." she looked around. Her hand suddenly sprouted a laser. "Ok, then. If you didn't do the carrying and I didn't do the carrying, then who did?"

"That's the sixty-credit question, Mike. Keep your weapon handy. We don't know what or who is out here. You don't seem to be hurt and neither am I. Now why would that be?"

He noticed the grassy plains dotted with clumps of trees. The blue mountain ranges far off to the west. "Mike, how far do you think those mountains are?"

"Give or take a hundred – hundred and fifty clicks. Why?"

"Check that clump of trees on the small hillock. See them?"

"About six clicks. Maybe six and a half. And your point is, exactly?"

"You are wrong Mike. That clump of trees is easily ten to fifteen clicks away. And that mountain range, they are over three hundred clicks or more from us."

"Crap." she said.

"It's the air mate. There isn't a drop of pollution on this planet. The air's so clear you can see for miles."

"A question," said Mike. "How come I also get the impression that there were a lot of purple and red and yellow colours and not so much green?" she picked a grass stalk. "The colour's off."

"This is another planet, Mike. Can't expect everything to be the same. Come to think of it, this is as close to a Bluegum as you can get." He shook his head in amazement. "How many planets have you visited? Five? Six?"

"Seven actually. Counting this bugger. Why?"

"How many of those planets had this quality of flora? Not only that but, how much of the plant life could be identical to Old Earth's? You have been to the Old Earth museum on Overlord, I take it?"