He looked so crestfallen Danika was almost sorry she'd snapped at him.
She discovered that Seth, Dane, and Niles were looking at her indignantly when she turned around. "What?"
Niles glowered at Basil. "When she is in the fucking mood she will letmeknow because I am a member of this fucking squad and you are not and she has not sexed me yet!"
"Before this gets any more out of hand we need to get one damned thing straight!" Danika snapped. "I will NOT be spreading my legs any time you guys feel like fucking, because I wouldn't ever get the damned chance to close them again! WhenIam in the mood, I'll let you know! And if you four start pestering me, I'm damned well NOT going to get in the mood!"
Chapter Seventeen
Given the orders Reuel had left, and the supplies they had on hand, Danika thought it best that they hang on to what they could and hunt for food.
Everyone agreed until they discovered she meant to leave two men on guard and take one with her on the hunt. That was immediately vetoed. Despite the fact that Danika had knowledge and experience in hunting and none of the men did they were united in disagreeing with every argument she made to support her idea.
As far as they knew, there were still hostiles lurking in the area and they weren't about to let Danika go anywhere with only one man to guard her.
While she appreciated the fact that they wanted to guard her, it not only pissed her off that they refused to simply look upon her as one of the group, but the suspicion that their main concern was about the pussy she was carrying around pissed her off more.
"Well we can't leave our post unguarded!" she snapped.
They thought that over for a while and then Seth volunteered Basil to return to base and inform them that they were leaving their post to hunt for food.
Basil immediately looked deeply suspicious.
"When they send someone to take post, we will all go," Seth said coolly.
Danika was also suspicious, mostly because she knew the guys hadn't accepted Basil even if she had and had told them they must, but also because Seth was so careful to look innocent when he made the suggestion. Finally, she shrugged. "He's right. That would be the best way to handle it. Reuel may have pretty much left us to our own devices here, but we certainly can't leave post without alerting them of the possibility of an attack."
She discovered that neither her suspicions nor Basil's were misplaced when Seth got up not long after Basil disappeared from sight and collected his alien weapons.
"We were going to wait until he got back," Danika said.
Seth shrugged. "He has had time to reach base camp and alert them. He can catch up to us when he returns."
Danika considered objecting again, but the truth was the base was on full alert already due to Reuel's absence. Beyond that, she thought the outer guard posts were mostly unnecessary since they'd driven the savages out. They hadn't seen any sign of them since--apparently none of the posts had since they hadn't heard any sounds of an encounter.
Of course that wasn't by any means conclusive evidence that they'd driven the savages away for good. She didn't think anything short of annihilating them would give them absolute certainty--which meant they were always going to have to be on the lookout for the primitives.
She supposed that was Seth's reasoning, as well, which made her wonder why he'd suggested Basil return to base camp at all since there wasn't actually an officer to report to.
She dismissed it after a few moments. Basil could find his way and if he didn't catch up with them, they'd rendezvous on their return.
Truthfully, the news had unnerved her. She'd entertained a fantasy of putting down roots of some sort and now was looking at the strong possibility of harsh reality and she hadn't seen more than a few acres of the world she could be living on for quite some time. She didn't just want to check it out. She needed to--because if she found any nasty surprises, she was going to have a place on one of those damned ships when they left even if they did have to dodge Confederation fighters!
They hadn't had the time to determine much about the vegetation--as in which plants would be edible and which were poison. And their frenzied activity and the battles they'd engaged in since landing had driven most of the wildlife from the immediate area. Their supplies weren't going to last long. She wanted to see what was available and how hard it would be to catch.
Shelter of some kind was also vitally important. The night time temperatures weren't survivable in the long term without some kind of shelter and those temperatures could drop even more if it happened that it was summer on Xeno-11.
There was the cave they'd found, but that place gave her the creeps. If push came to shove, she would endure staying there rather than freezing to death, but she wanted another option. There was something about the place that just 'felt' like it was a sacred place to the natives. She wasn't superstitious, but the natives probably were and if they decided to squat on a place that was sacred ground to the savages they were going to run into trouble really fast.
They followed the larger stream when they headed away from their post. It was a rushing stream, which meant it made enough noise to mask their progress through the rustling brush at least somewhat. Unfortunately, that also meant it made it hard for her to hear anything else, too, but although that aspect unnerved her, she figured it was a worthwhile trade off. They needed to be watchful anyway and the stream would definitely be a place to attract the wildlife.
They trekked about a quarter of a mile through the jungle before she saw the first sign that she'd been looking for. She squatted down and examined the prints in the soft soil--small, cloven hooves. Unless the creature just had dainty feet, she decided it was pretty small. There were also a good number of tracks, which she thought could indicate some kind of herd animal.
Straightening after a few minutes, she studied the jungle. There wasn't a path. Disappointed since she thought that probably meant she hadn't discovered a spot they used regularly, she moved on after she'd thoroughly examined the area, watching the ground for other tracks. The further they went, the more tracks they found. The cloven hooves appeared to be the most prolific. Whatever it was that had made them appeared to be abundant.
There were other tracks here and there, a lot of them smaller, a few that looked like they belonged to much larger animals. Predators of some kind, she decided, feeling the hair on the back of her neck prickle.
It was to be expected, of course. There was always a food chain. Every living thing made up a link in the cycle.
