3 -: Chapter 2 :-

Proverbs 16:18

"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall"

Adam pulled at his thinning hair, that didn't go as well as he had hoped. For some reason last nights epiphany hadn't translated well to the colonists, they had to see that the planet already provided everything they needed. The dry-apple trees seemed to have an unlimited supply and there where tens of thousands of them across the northern glades. The spongy moss was more than abundant and tasted actually quite nice if you spent the time adding the right seasoning. There was absolutely no need to cultivate the land for their own crops. It was frustrating, they had been given the chance to go about colonisation in a different way and yet here they were... sowing the land with hardy grains and changing the mineral content in the soil.

Adam had left his multimillion-pound penthouse on New Scotland to leave all the greed of his family behind, he wanted to make a difference. Yet even here people seemed to brush off his ideas as fanciful or not practical, it was disheartening. A pair of arms wrapped their way around his waist, Beth's warmth pressing against his back.

"Don't worry sweet, I'm sure they will listen after time."

"I hope you're right, but with men like John Hunt I don't see how..."

Beth said nothing, instead she just squeezed him tighter, she was better than he deserved.

********

"He is bloody insane" Joshua muttered over his third coffee of the day while reclining into his office chair.

David didn't reply, the lad always went quiet when people argued or talked down about someone else.

Feeling awkward Joshua turned the conversation onto other things, "How have you been getting on with the Humming-birds"? The lad's eyes lit up at the mention of them. David had shown intense interest in Joshua's line of work and insisted that he help.

"Josh they're so weird! I think... I'm not sure." The boy was obviously perturbed "I was watching one, it looked fit and fine one moment it landed on a dry-apple tree and just, Josh it just died!"

"Huh, you don't say," Joshua said distractedly as his PDG lit up. An alert, his analysis of the moss-cows feeding pattern had been completed "Maybe it was just its time lad, I've run analytics on the trees and their fruit, they always come out clean."

The boy nodded slowly.

"The real mystery here is how do we have a contained system, with no natural predators not burn itself out with rampant growth" Joshua eyed the young lad "We are pioneers in an alien land, the creatures here aren't the same as on NewScotland and their life cycles reflect that, our definition of old may not hold true here."

His faced creased in deep thought, David asked: "Maybe they just know when they should stop breeding?"

"Perhaps lad, we won't know without further observation..." pausing Joshua took note of the time, 13:05 the planets day cycle was shorter than the earth standard at 22 hours. "You should be getting back to your mother lad, she will be wondering where you have gotten to"

Groaning with disagreement David reluctantly fetched his coat from the shoulder of Joshua's sofa.

"Come back tomorrow David, we can go through some of your notes in detail then, ok?" before he reached the front door.

A broad smile split his face "I would like that, cya tomorrow".

Turning back to his PDA's display, Joshua launched the feeding pattern analysis "Let's see what we have then".

Several hours later three striking knocks came from his front door, the signature rap of the Sherif. While not unusual, the Sherif never visited without a reason and they were rarely enjoyable. The Sherif was a short, stocky man with a heavy mustache streaked with lines of silver, though age lines ran deep furrows through his face, his eyes were sharp.

"Joshua"

"Paul" a moment of silence as the two men regarded each other, stepping back and tilting his head towards his lounge "Coffee?"

The Sheriff nodded.

"Quite when were you planning on telling me about your little escapade then Doctor?" The sheriff's eyes locked on Joshua with intent "I had to find out from young David Lawson that you couldn't be found" after three months Joshua still wasn't used to the intensity in the man's eyes, "If anything goes wrong, it's my head, do you understand that? I don't expect at the university you had many rules that actually mattered."

Joshua refrained from explaining that he had been on dozens of worlds before, many teeming with strange predatory life and he knew what he was doing, "Look, I'll make sure to inform you if I go out again okay? You can arrange a chaperone for me and all will be good." The sheriff's eyes narrowed.

Joshua brought in two steaming cups of coffee, setting one down in front of the Sherif who promptly brought out a small whiskey flask to fortify the hot drink. The golden fluid carefully measured, blended with the coffee, the sweet warm esters of whiskey permeated the lounge. The sheriff took a sip, some tension that Joshua hadn't noticed before thawed from the old man.

"David Lawson idolises you," the Sherif said eyeing Joshua over the rim of his mug, "With Mary for a mother I don't envy the mantle of his admiration Doctor." There was a slight smile in the man's eyes. David was Mary Lawson's only son and she was fiercely protective over him, an image of an old lioness hunched over her sole cub flickered into his mind.

Joshua's body heaved in a half laugh, as one of the ship's nurses she had a reputation for the bluntness of her diction, garnering healthy respect from the colonists. "I'm keeping him busy with some smaller tasks, to keep his mind active" and thoroughly out of harm's way he thought to himself.

"See that you do, see that you do", taking a deep draught of his drink the Sherif sighed in satisfaction. "There has been talk of a hunt, some of the lads from machining fancy themselves the next Saxon Pope. They have been eyeing up the Bramble apes in the thorn plains to the south, reckon they would be good game they say." The bramble apes were six armed tailless sudo-primates, initial satellite scans had them weighing anywhere between 200kg-400kg. It wasn't surprising, the younger men of the colony had been itching to find something worthwhile to hunt. The moss-cows were too slow and lethargic, the hummingbirds to small, the burrowers were too timid and the giant land worms moved at a sedated pace. Still, it irked Joshua, he hadn't a chance to properly study the creatures in depth yet.

'I suppose I should go along, ensure they don't do anything too stupid, plus I guess a body would be useful for analysis, who is heading the party?"

"Lola Hunt's scallywag, John"

"Right, well I'll drop him a message to let him know I'll be accompanying them on their soiree, will you be attending Sherif?" Joshua knew full well that Paul would be there, he was bored witless with the mundane colonial life and longed for a bit of action.

"I'll be there to ensure the louts don't shoot their shoes off, God knows they need the guidance".

"On foot or by Skimmer?" Joshua asked.

"Skimmer, the party is to meet at the southernmost perimeter tower at 08:00 tomorrow morning, bring your choice of rifle" downing the last of his drink and setting it down on the table in front of him, the Sheriff leaned forward before standing "Good Afternoon Doctor, I'll see you bright and early" with a final nod the Sherif made his leave.

My choice of rifle eh? Joshua thought to himself, it had been a while since he had spent any time aiming down a sight. He brought up what weapons were available to the colonists on his PDG, he had a few options, a medium range energy rifle or several of the traditional kinetic rifles. The first was more accurate than the traditional kinetic weapons, with focused beams of ultra energised light, they took an awful lot of power to use and thus had less fire time. There was also the issue that if you missed, the beam would continue on until it traveled through enough of the atmosphere to disperse it, or it hit something solid enough to absorb the radiation. Joshua found himself drawn back to the old kinetic weaponry. Settling on something a bit more traditional, a K-30, kinetic hunting rifles had barely changed in the few thousand years since they had first been invented. Cheap and easy to mass produce, while being extremely effective at what they sought to, making them a staple for any new settlement. Joshua found himself looking forward to the prospect of the hunt, its just to keep the lads out of trouble and to learn more about the bramble apes he reasoned with himself.

The morning air of Arcadia was bracing as Joshua and ten others sped over the roaming bramble fields south of the colony, the sun was burning low in the sky casting a pale orange light over the land. Around him the lads hooted and hollered, winding themselves up for the hunt ahead. Joshua felt the stirring of long-buried instincts deep within himself, the primal surge of adrenalin and endorphins coursing through his blood. Giving a loud "whoop" Joshua allowed himself to be carried away by the atmosphere, even the old Sherif was grinning.

Below them the brambles rushed by, many of them containing small family groups of the bramble apes, any would have done fine for the hunt but the lads from machining wanted to make a trip of it. Joshua tapped his PDG creating a voice channel above the roar of the wind between him and the Sheriff, "how far do you think John is going to take us out?"

"There is unusually thick bramble patch a few miles from here, it spans just over a kilometer, the lad probably assumes the bigger the bramble the bigger the ape."

There was some logic to that Joshua admitted to himself, the apes were matriarchal by nature with family sizes from as little as a single mated pair to huge family groups. The record for the most apes to a roaming bramble had been 50, with an absolute monster of a female at the head. "That's not a bad bet Sherif, though I question the wisdom of venturing into a bramble that large."

"Agreed, if it looks too dangerous when we get there I will put a stop to any foolhardy notions. There is plenty of game all over these plains, no need for gallivanting."

"I'm not sure how John will take that".

"I don't care how he takes it, it may be his party but I have authority over any use of firearms on this planet."

The Sherif had made it quite clear when the colonists first landed, he wouldn't stand for any foolishness, it looked as though that conviction remained just as firm.

"You must be a hoot at parties"

"I'm not here to have a hoot Joshua, I'm here to ensure no one gets hurt"

"Be that as it may my good man, I think the lads have other ideas!"

The Sherif cut the communication link hunkering down, the grin wiped from his face. I really need to stop upsetting the man Joshua mused.

The sight took Joshua's breath away, the natural construct was well over ten meters in height and extremely dense. The Roaming-Bramble bushes that they had flown over were fractions of the size and no way near as dense, their leathery yellow flowers drowned in a sea of dark green.

"Well, that doesn't look inviting"

"Not scared are we Josh?"

"I wasn't scared when a two-ton Herendanti was charging at me on the plains of Isaac, this is child's play John" I wasn't scared, I was absolutely terrified but he didn't need to know that. The truth be told the Bramble was intimidating, the silence of the place was deafening, the darkness that slinked between the vines grasped, pulling his consciousness forward.

"Ha! You hear that boys? The Doctor's hard as nails! I say we make a wager, whoever bags the first ape buys the rounds back at the colony, eh?"

Tearing his eyes away from the dense brush, a smile played across his face. "I hope you're good for that, I hear the Sherif can put them away"

The Sherif looked grimmer than usual if that was possible. Leaning against his Skimmer the grizzled man was checking over his rifle, he glanced up at his mention.

"I prefer to drink in my own company, but if you're paying"

His eyes kept darting back towards the brush, looks like he feels it as well Joshua thought. Usually, the Roaming-Brambles were full of creaks, scraping and rustling as the vines slowly moved forward gripping and tearing at the ground as they pulled themselves across the plains. The Apes that lived within them, usually chirping and swinging from the vines were silent now, the whole construct was still.

John turned to some of the other lads shouting "Tommy, Rich, stop pissin' about, we've got about half the day left and I want to set up camp before the suns gone!" He went about shouting orders and joking, all the while the silent pressure of the brambles grew.