Red: the process is in progress and should not be interrupted.
Orange: the process is not finished but can be interrupted without danger to the patient.
Green: the repair process is complete: the sarcophagus can be opened.
Another diode, at the foot of Sarc-11, indicates the level of a load of its solar batteries and is currently orange.
The sun has been up for at least an hour, so the batteries have started to charge again and so Sarc-11 has begun its healing work on Gregory. Which is a relief to me, although I couldn't see his condition until the sarcophagus was locked.
Eva, David, and I decide to explore beyond the creek, equipped with a portable scanner for me, a tablet for Eva, and a blaster pistol for David.
Marc, Ferdinand, and the twins will stay to improve the camp until we find a better site. Ideally, we should choose to stay not too far from the crash site, in case the Confederation chose to send a rescue team. But for now, we need to find food.
David leads the way, his weapon ready to use. I follow him with the analyzer in hand. Eva leads the way.
I spot a shrub with blue-green leaves, some slightly bluish flowers, and also with slightly elongated blueberries. I scan it, hoping that the berries are edible. Eva immediately consults her tablet, which displays the data sent by the scanner.
“It's dead! This little shrub, as cute as it is, does not produce anything edible as is. And according to the AI, has no caloric interest. Let's continue,” says Eva.
We then come across a taller tree that has some fruit on its top. Its trunk is full of sharp prickles, so David aims his weapon at the stem of one of the fruits and knocks it down heavily. I hasten to scan again, this large purple fruit which has a rigid shell and the shape and size of a rugby ball.
“Jackpot!” says Eva looking at her tablet. “It's edible, you just have to remove the shell. Be careful, David, if you open it, there is a liquid inside. It seems to contain sugar, fiber, fat, and protein, but also potassium, iron, and magnesium. If it tastes good, it's a winner!”
“Great,” grumbles David, “but you know, as long as it doesn't bleed, I don't get carried away.”
“Stop whining, it's already unhoped for to have decent living conditions here. Look at the speed with which we are acclimatizing to the atmospheric conditions,” I tell him. “Our breathing is already more fluid than yesterday and we already feel less heavy to move. We will be able to survive here with the means at our disposal, while the Confederation goes in search of the black boxes of the Proud.’’
“Yeah, that's IF they go looking for us and those bastards Gerard and Louis didn't give them the wrong information, saying we were all dead and there was no point in launching a rescue mission, which I'm sure they did,” says David.
“Hopefully not. Can you imagine the eight of us stuck here for months or more? While the twins think only of hitting on anything that moves, including us, even Sarah and I who have already turned them down several times? Let's hope we'll soon find some sexy little natives,” laughs Eva, with a suggestive raise of her eyebrows, to lighten the atmosphere, made tense by the idea of being abandoned by our own.
Step by step, the shrubs and the bushes leave the place to the beginning of the forest. Some trees with the smooth trunks, which are well about thirty meters high, border a cliff which one guesses in background.A quick scan informs us that they are a kind of conifer. Not edible, but the similarities with our planet reassure us of the continuation. We have great chances to find here plants and animals of species close to those found on most worlds of the Confederation. No doubt that we will find meat for our companions.
As I approach a very fragrant bush adorned with tiny flowers, I scan it. Eva's tablet beside me double-pings, signaling an urgent message.
“Be careful with this one, Sarah,” she says. “It’s highly toxic. Its smell is a lure, it has a high concentration of cyanide in its sap.‘’
On closer inspection, but still from a safe distance, I can see that small insects have entered the fragrant corollas to draw nectar and have become entangled in the sap.
Eva and I consult the analyses collected on the tablet. The very juices of this plant are poisoned. We carefully locate the characteristics of this flowering bush, to warn our fellow travelers.
“Then girls, shall we make a bouquet to bring back to the camp and to make a romantic dinner this evening?” asks David laughing.
Eva and I don't deign to answer him other than with a black look and continue our exploration.
As the density of trees increases, we become more and more cautious of our environment, as we come across some chilopod-like insects, nearly fifty centimeters long. They are a kind of millipede whose bite can be toxic, even deadly. These are very dark red, with a large head framed by pincers, which on our land, is the part that can inject venom.
As a result, everything suggests that this world is equipped, like the others, with fauna and flora that can be as beautiful as it can be terrifying.
Conscious that predators are likely to walk through these forests, we evolve in silence. I manage to scan several species of trees and plants. Except for a kind of blue root, which seems to be a kind of sugar cane, we did not find anything edible, other than the big nut that David wants to open when we return to camp.
A slight cracking sound to our left makes us stop our progression. We regroup near David, the only armed one among us. A slight rumbling and a piece of the head appear.
We see a mammal with an elongated snout, with long legs bigger in front than behind. It looks like a canid, but without fur, with smooth and naked skin covered with a shiny substance. Its body is dark brown, but with uneven orange spots, dotting its entire body.
He comes forward, growling louder and louder, raising his lips to reveal a respectable set of teeth. David keeps him in sight and signals us to stay behind him to face the animal . . . which is soon joined by two other congeners.
Well, it gets tougher. They are not excessively big, but they are in a band and seem to want to make us their meal.
