Authors Note
Hope you enjoy the 4th part of Emily's story! 5th part is on the way.
As the escape pod drifted lazily toward the jungle Emily took a moment to ponder Pest. In a way, she was the closest thing to a mother Emily had ever had. Emily never got to know the woman who gave birth to her more than 94 years ago. Her dad told her about her mom dying as a result of a tragic jaywalking accident when Emily was only 1 year old. The driver of the vehicle had been fined but that was all.
Emily vividly remembered her life up until being cloned. Especially her time at the Federation's Fleet Academy. However, a few key details had been wiped from her memory. One of them was her original name. That didn't matter now. She had a new name in this life, Emily. She remembered being excited to be the chosen cadet at graduation. She remembered parts of her life here and there. However, it all seemed like a distant dream compared to this new one she was in. In this life, it was Pest who gave birth to her in the cloning bay. It was Pest who had watched over her and provided equipment to her. It was Pest who had helped her after her first embarrassment with the comm equipment. And yes it had been Pest to give her advice about men.
Emily missed Pest now that she was gone. She looked up to see if she could see any parts of the ship still in orbit. They had drifted too far into the atmosphere to see out into the stars at this point. All Emily could do was remember her mom, Pest, sacrificing her life in a final act to try and protect Emily and the others as they fled out into the unknown. Leaving the nest, so to say, in the most spectacular fashion possible.
"One minute," Andre said, breaking Emily out of her thoughts.
"What was that?" Emily asked, making her way out of her head and back into reality.
"We will be down in less than a minute now," Andre said again. "With any luck, our parachute will get hung up in a tree and our pod will not reach the floor of the jungle."
Fully intrigued, Emily asked, "Is that a good thing? Why do we not want to be on the floor of the jungle?"
"There are lots of dangers on the jungle floor. We have a better chance of making it to the station if we stay in the trees as much as possible. One big threat is quicksand. Judging by where we are coming down, we are a few kilometers south of Station 2. The jungle floor will be about 60% quicksand between us and the station." Andre informed her as he pulled out a piece of gum and put it in his mouth. He looked up, already chewing, and handed another piece to Emily. "Chew some gum to help your ears."
"Oh, thanks! My ears are killing me!" Emily hurriedly threw the gum in her mouth and started to chew with gusto.
"Careful don't choke!" Andre laughed as he watched her enthusiasm.
His dimples really looked cute. As Emily stared at him she tried to think of something witty to say back to him about choking. She almost blurted out I don't have a gag reflex! but thought better of it. So she just sat and smiled at him for a few moments like a simpleton.
"Gee you really like gum," an amused Andre said to the vacantly smiling Emily.
Emily, snapping out of it, decided she had to say something to the hot guy staring at her with amused concern and just went with what was already in her head. "I don't have-"
The pod jerked violently causing Emily to choke on her gum mid-sentence. "We just hit a tree!" Andre said, "Wait, are you ok? Emily are you ok?" as he noticed her choking.
Emily coughed mightily with the next jolt of the pod, sending the piece of gum across the pod back at Andre. It hit him in his upper chest and bounced off his toned pecs.
"Oh my!" was his response. After taking a moment he asked, "What were you saying?"
Emily just turned red with embarrassment and wished she was sinking in that quicksand right about now.
After a series of hard hits and turns and nearly tipping over twice the pod finally stopped its descent. It bounced like it was on a giant rubber band a few times as the limbs holding the parachute bowed under the strain then began to swing to and fro like a big tire swing.
Emily looked out the windows at the massive trees they were caught in. "Whoa! These trees are huge," she exclaimed.
"Yeah, they are about 100 meters tall. Some of the big ones can get to 150 meters tall, or about as tall as a 45 story building," Andre said as he unbuckled his harness. "I think it is safe to undo the restraints now," he got up to look out and get a better view.
Emily, still flushed and embarrassed, couldn't help but think about how the hot guy she was trapped in close quarters with had said 'I think it is safe to undo the restraints now'. Luckily he was turned the other way and not facing her now. She unbuckled her harness and also stood up in the pod. Emily took in the view with mouth agape, looking at the vibrant jungle and seeing how high off the ground they were.
"We still need to wait about 1 more minute to let the pressure equalize before opening the pod. Let's establish radio communication with the station." Andre sat down in a seat across from the door next to the communications panel. He picked up the handset to make a call to Station 2 and looked over at Emily. "Don't you need to change?" He smiled at her then clicked the handset. "Station 2, Station 2, this is C.S.3975. Station 2, Station 2, this is C.S.3975. Do you copy? Over."
As soon as Andre released the handset to await a response from Station 2 Emily responded, "Does that ever work? Asking a girl to change while you are sitting right there?"
"Sometimes!" he smiled. "You T models are sometimes a little naive, but things have changed a bit in the last 75 years. But you can change after I get out of the pod if you prefer. I need to climb up and get a visual on the station before we head out."
The radio came to life "C.S.3975 this is Station 2. How many in your pod? Over."
Andre quickly answered "Only two survivors in this pod. Myself and T-" he looked up at Emily.
Emily took the handset and said, "T302."
The voice came back, "Good we could use a few Technicians and Scouts here. Stand by while we triangulate your position. Key your handset 5 times in succession for us to pick up the static burst."
Emily handed the handset back to Andre who pressed the button on the side of it 5 times in a row.
"Excellent. We have your location plotted. Looks like you are about 4 kilometers due south of us. Our records show you have experience on Signa-4. You know the drill. There is no passcode when you reach the station's perimeter fence. If you are human the guards will let you in. We are not expecting spies and there are not solid enough comms with all the pods dropping in. Station 2 Over and Out." And just like that, the conversation was over.
"Wow, it is hot in here!" Emily said. "Is it from reentry?"
"Maybe a little," said Andre. "It is about 45 °C. So yeah, it is hot for wearing that skin-tight, full-body space suit designed to keep you warm in the vacuum of space." He paused and looked at her for a moment, letting pressure build, then turned to get his rifle and backpack.
Emily considered changing in front of him right then with how stifling it was in this suit. Not in this escape pod. Not in this hot tight suit, in an escape pod, with a hot guy flirting heavily with her. She couldn't let him get her naked that easily! No she would just sweat until he left.
"The pressure is about equalized now," Andre said as he checked the panel next to the door. "I am going to climb up and get my bearings. I will be back in a few minutes."
Oh, thank goodness! Emily thought, relieved she didn't have to wait any longer.
Andre opened up the pod door and let it swing to the left and around until it was fully open against the outside of the pod. Gravity kept the door open as the pod continued to sway from the parachute cords high above the jungle floor.
What hit Emily first was how humid it was. The humidity was insane with the atmospheric pressure being twice that of Earth. Also, this was clearly a rainforest they were in. The next thing she noticed was all the color! The greens were extra green and varied but the flowers! All of the colors that captured her attention were in the flowers and they were so vibrant. And the sounds. The sounds of the jungle were continuous and kinda loud. Birds, maybe, frogs too, even insects with their buzzing and other sounds she could not categorize.
"Ok see the green vines over there?" Andre motioned for Emily to come closer as he pointed towards said vines. "Those are Flypaper vines." Andre pointed.
"Uh...where, oh those yes I do," Emily answered.
"See how sticky they look?" Andre continued.
"Yeah like they are wet." Emily took note and also mentally giggled, thinking of all the tension that had built between them since the station.
"That is a very sticky sap. Don't touch them. If you need to you can eat these vines in a survival situation. Just cut them off in sections first. The sap smells very good and is quite tasty but is acidic. Giving it a sweet and spicy flavor. Like a Jalapeno/Orange sort of, but a little sweeter. Don't eat too much of it raw! Boil or cook it somehow to break down the acid if you need to make a meal of it."
"Why is it bad to touch it?" Emily wanted to know.
"It is carnivorous." Emily's mouth dropped into an open o. "If you are not careful it will eat you instead of you eating it," Andre said as he reached out and with his index finger helped Emily close her mouth. "Look over there. See that bulge in that vine below us off to the left?" He pointed to the example he was talking about. "Looks like that vine got a careless GreenOtang."
Emily saw the bulge move and wiggle a little in a nearly transparent green sack. "It's alive still!"
"Yeah and it will be for a while," he said. "Until it melts with the digestive juices and is absorbed into the vine, it will wriggle for a little while yet."
"How does a vine...well...how?" Emily asked with wide eyes.
"Mostly they eat insects, and the insects are really big here. However, they eat whatever gets stuck to them if they can. If you get stuck to one cut it and drop to the ground quickly. Otherwise, that sweet sticky sap will start to digest you as more of it is secreted as the sack forms around you." He pointed to a close vine. "See the rings every meter or two like a bamboo ring?"
"Yes," Emily said, her fascination with this new plant and place growing. She decided at this moment that it was good she had Andre to guide her in this alien jungle. She had better learn all she could and fast.
"Those rings are where the sack comes from. The ring is anchored there and opens up and travels down the vine covering whatever was stuck to it when it was triggered. It trails a thin but strong membrane behind it. When it gets to the next ring after passing the prey, it fastens itself to it, sealing whatever creature is caught in a digestion sack to slowly work on." Andre looked at Emily and continued the lesson, "See the brown vines?"
"Yes," Emily answered wondering what these vines did.
"These are safe; you can climb them." And with that Andre leaped out of the capsule and grabbed a vine and swung out and away before climbing up into the canopy of the jungle with the agility and skill of a monkey. Emily watched with a mixture of awe and envy. Andre was off the vine and onto a large tree branch above her in no time. He looked down at her and gave a wave before turning to climb higher. Emily waved back even though by now he wasn't paying attention. But then remembering he would only be gone a moment, Emily now left alone in her metal nest dangling in a jungle with flypaper vines. Emily stepped back away from the capsule door to find her backpack.
The biology lesson was over and now she remembered how hot and stifling this suit was. She quickly found her khaki shorts and a tank top. She rummaged around a bit more for her socks and underwear. Then she got out her hiking shoes. Briefly, she thought I hope these are the right size! Before remembering that she was a clone and of course they are the right size. This made her giggle slightly as she undid her suit. The perks of being a clone, she thought as she peeled herself out of her skin-tight space suit, aided by how slick she was with sweat. As soon as she was out of the suit and naked as the day she was born she reached for her panties and started to put them on. However with the pod swinging and her standing on one foot, she quickly fell over into one of the seats. Glad Andre didn't see that! Quickly she finished getting her panties on and took a minute to relax in her seat and enjoy the slight breeze on her body as she reclined. It still felt like being in a steam room but was more bearable. That suit may be great for working outside a ship in space but is no good here in the jungle. She opened her eyes after a few moments to look out the windows above her. She wondered if she could see Andre up there in the trees above her. Wait a minute! If I could see him he could look down into the windows and see me changing if he wanted to. I wonder if he is... She kinda blushed but was too relaxed and relieved to be able to change that she didn't care if he saw her. He surely had seen other T model clones naked before anyway. She let her mind wander to what it would be like if he was in the pod with her now. Part of her hoped that he might be spying. How would his face look as his eyes took in the sight of her lounging in just her panties? What would he-
The moment was broken as the escape pod radio had a burst of static before a voice crackled through, "-y station… any st-. This is -08. Any Station do you copy?"
Emily's training took over as she quickly moved to the radio and responded, "This is T302, I am picking you up with interference. How copy? Over."
The voice came back, "Have you the same," Came the reply. "Signal -trong, we a- close. Jung- -terferance."
"Roger," Emily said. Thinking quickly she continued with direction to base as per training, "We are due south of Station 2, 4 clicks. I say again. Due south of Station 2, 4 clicks. Fire a flare so we can get your 20. I say again, fire a flare so we can get your 20. Over"
A moment later she heard, "-opy, 4 cl- outh of -tion. I ss- ain. - clicks sou- station. -tand by - for flare, stand - for flare."
Emily put the handset down and moved to the pod door to look outside and used her short distance 'space earplugs' to contact Andre. "Andre keep your eyes open for a flare."
"What?" Andre sounded surprised.
"Someone is in the jungle close by and cannot contact Station 2. They need an assist from us to get their bearings." She answered.
"They are going to fire a flare?" He asked again. "Tell them to wait! There is a giant Pterocephalopod flying around!"
"A what?!"
"Pterodactyl Squid!"
Just then she heard a distant pop and heard a trailing hiss sound as a flare was fired not too far away down somewhere in the jungle. She could barely make out an orange glow a couple hundred meters away before the flare went out. With a wet hissing noise, it landed in the water on the jungle floor. The jungle immediately came alive with all manner of noise and activity. A flock of hundreds of colorful birds larger than the parrots of Earth took flight nearby and flew threw the trees around the pod and off away from the flare. They all made shrill cawing sounds filling the air with excitement and beautiful vibrant shades of red, blue, and yellow. Emily ducked into the pod for just a moment as a few of them flew close by with 4 wings flapping. Sticking her head back out, she saw a few of the colorful birds get stuck to some of the flypaper vines.
"I got their location!" Andre said over the radio. "A clear area without trees just to the east about half a klick."
"Roger, solid copy," Emily answered. She looked around to see some large ape-like green creatures with 4 front limbs and two shorter hind limbs traveling in a group of about 70 or 80 she guessed. They were all calling with a Whooot Whooot Whooot, sound as they made their way through the upper canopy above her. They were close to Andre no doubt.
Emily returned to the communications panel on the far side of the pod away from the door. "We have your location. I say again, we have your location. You are a half klick due east of us. You are a half a klick due east of us. How copy? Over."
The reply came back "Roger solid copy due-"
The rest of the transmission was drowned out by a loud roar that seemed to come from everywhere. It was a loud, low, and deep sounding roar. Clearly from a massive creature.
"Emily! Tell them to get away from the clearing and into the trees quickly!" Andre yelled. "I am on my way back to the pod. We will meet them halfway, on a small patch of dry grassy ground, I spotted between us! Tell them to go now!"
Emily didn't wait, "Get into the trees; we will meet you halfway! I say again, get to the trees, we will meet you halfway. Meet us at the small grassy area."
Emily looked up out of the large trapezoid-shaped window above the comms panel to see Andre sliding down a brown vine quickly as a dark shape with large wings passed over the jungle canopy. "Oh shit!" She exclaimed at seeing the large roaring flying monster pass at the same time she realized she was still just in her panties and Andre was almost back to the pod. There was no asking him to wait outside either!
She grabbed her top and put it on quickly. She sat down and put her feet into the khaki shorts and stood up, pulling them up as fast as she could. She vaguely remembered getting dressed this quickly once at the Academy when her roommate returned to their dorm and Emily had had a boy over. Yet this time she was getting dressed quickly so the boy she wanted to be naked with didn't catch her naked. She found her hiking shoes and socks laying in a seat next to the pack just as Andre swung into the pod.
"You ready to go?" Andre asked.
"I just need to put my shoes on then I am," she smiled, trying to look not as flushed as she felt. "Hey! Weren't you wearing pants earlier?"
"Yeah, I turn those combat pants into cargo shorts with my knife every time I go out in the jungle here. Just too hot for pants." He answered. Then taking note of her attire he continued. "You may want to put your tank top on forwards instead of backward unless that is a new style you are going for. Or is that how you used to wear tank tops in your day? If so I think I would've liked living back then," he grinned mischievously.
"Uh...yeah." was all she managed to say.
"Yeah what?" Andre laughed back. "Are you starting a new trend? I hope the P models follow suit too!"
Not amused at him thinking about the P models in such a way while looking at her, Emily changed her tone a bit, "No I am not starting a new trend." she huffed and pulled her arms in and rotated the top around to its correct orientation. Sticking her arms back out she finished tying her shoes as he opened a compartment under the comms panel.
Andre pulled out a waterproof hard case and opened it. Inside she could see a first aid kit and some rations. Andre put these in his backpack and then held up some flares. "These may come in handy," he said and put 3 of them in his equipment vest and handed her 3 more. "You know how to use these right?"
"Yes, take the cap off and put it on the bottom then hit it. It shoots a large flare," she responded still brooding over the P model comment he made.
"That's right! Now let's head out. That pod of survivors likely has not been on the surface of Singa-4 before. Besides, there is safety traveling in numbers here." Andre said as he tightened down his gear and shouldered his pack. "Remember to climb down on brown vines only," he pulled the two straps on his backpack cinching it up tight to his back. "Follow me and do what I do. I don't know what we are going to encounter down there so stay close." He checked his rifle and slung it over his back and climbed out of the pod and clung to the outside to wait on Emily.
Emily finished tying her hiking shoes and put her pack on. She grabbed her plasma rifle and put two reloads of 100 rounds each on her belt. "I'm ready to go, but you said earlier that the floor of the Jungle is 60% quicksand," she said. Emily stepped up to the door and slung her rifle over her back.
"Yeah going to the jungle floor is not ideal at all in this area. Other places on this continent are better for being low in the jungle." He looked over to her and continued, "However, we don't have a choice. There is large predatory creature flying around. Asking a whole escape pod full of people to climb into the canopy to meet on some random tree branch is neither practical or safe. One thing is going for us though. It's still day time for 10 more hours. Let's find them before something else does."
Andre leapt out and grabbed a brown vine closest to where their pod was hanging and began to climb down. Emily took a deep breath and when Andre was a ways below her she jumped out and grabbed the same vine and followed him down. The vine swung a bit but not as much as she thought it would. It was rather sturdy. Well, it seemed much sturdier than the green vines looked.
As Emily climbed down she took a quick break to look around her and take in the sights. She was about one-third of the way to the ground at this point she guessed. These trees were truly massive. At least as tall as the giant sequoias back on earth but much bigger around. Maybe 20 meters across at the base and some even more. She noticed one of those very large 4 winged parrot-like birds stuck to a flypaper vine next to her within reaching distance. The vine was about halfway done swallowing the bird with its thin almost transparent green membrane. Looking down she saw Andre stepping onto a tree branch and getting off the vine. She decided to keep going.
When she reached the branch Andre was standing on, he reached out his hand and said, "Good job, see this jungle isn't so bad and climbing down is kinda fun."
Emily took his hand and left the vine she had been clinging to. She was happy for some solid footing the tree offered. Clearly, a bit winded from using her less muscular upper body she was just happy to be using her feet again.
"Come here, you will like this," Andre said as he turned to walk towards the trunk of the tree Emily following close behind. The tree branch was about 3 meters wide and was enormous. The top of it was even flat and made an easy path to follow to the main trunk where it grew from. "Up here," he said as he led on, climbing just a few steps up once he reached the trunk. He laid low, his toned body against the tree. Quietly he lifted his head up and peered over the top of an open area in the middle of the trunk. He smiled and waved her to come up too and look. He put his finger to his lips to motion that she should keep quiet.
As Emily joined him in looking at the top of this massive tree she saw a pool of water. It was about the size of one of those above ground pools that her brothers talked her dad into buying one summer. Surrounding the edge of the pool were all sorts of winged animals and green looking ape things again. The edge of the pool was covered in mosses that sprouted flowers every color of the rainbow. Some of the flowers were coin-sized and others as big as her head. She could see insects or hummingbird like creatures buzzing around from flower to flower. Then she breathed in the fragrance of the flowers.
Seeing her stare at the apes again Andre said, "Those are what we call the 'greenotangs," he pointed them out, "They are absolutely everywhere here."
"Are they dangerous at all?" Emily asked, looking at a human-sized creature with four long Orangutan like front arms, and smaller hind legs.
"Not in the least," Andre responded. "They eat lots of fruit as they are growing up but eat much less once they are about human-sized. See their small mouths? They don't even have teeth."
Emily took note of their heads and how they looked very similar to a sloth. "They are hairless!" Emily whispered to Andre.
"Yeah, their skin looks and feels about like a tree frog. No hair at all on their bodies. The science officer I was escorting last week said that they stay near the top of the trees near sunlight during the day because they are capable of photosynthesis." Andre explained.
"You mean like a plant?" Emily said surprised.
"Yeah, this place is kind of backward. The plants are just as likely to be carnivorous as the animals here. Most of the plants eat these greenotangs. It is a good thing they lay at least one egg every day, sometimes as many as 3 a day. There is no male or female either. They mate to fertilize each other's eggs a few times a day, once as a male and once as the female etc. We had one as a pet back at station 4 until we realized it was laying so many eggs. Since it was both male and female we named it Pat." Andre laughed at the memory. Clearly, he was fond of this place.
"Wow poor fellas," remarked Emily.
"Yeah, but they are a little less smart than chickens are back home. They reproduce in mass numbers and once they are fully grown in about 6 months they just need sunlight to keep going. Think of them as very cute spinach." Andre chuckled. "Spinach that moves around a lot and is funny, but an important part of the food chain."
Andre stood up and all the birds stopped chirping and froze. "We need to keep going and our destination is on the other side of this pool," with that he stepped up onto the ledge of the pool and most of the birds flew away and only a few of the greenotangs took note of his presence but did not otherwise respond. Then Andre jumped into the water and swam to the other side of the pool and crawled out. "Most of the time these pools are sort of safe." He said as he got out of the crystal clear water on the other side.
Emily not to be outdone by the hot guy she liked climbed up and jumped in the pool next and swam across. Reaching the other side, Andre reached out his hand to help her. Soon as he had Emily's hand in his, he picked her straight up out of the water and set her on the side of the pool next to him. "Shall we continue after that refreshing swim?" he said before turning to continue down another large tree branch.
Emily did feel much better after her swim. She shook her hair out a little bit and started to follow Andre, turning to say goodbye to a massive greenotang a little larger than her. The greenotang just made a low whooot sound in response as she left.
Andre and Emily stopped after the large branch they were on took a turn to the right next to several hanging vines. "That tree is growing next to the grassy clearing we are going to meet them in." Andre pointed. "Almost there!"
Before Emily could acknowledge his statement he jumped for a brown vine and started to climb down. Quickly she followed him, landing on another massive branch only about 20 meters above the wet swampy jungle floor.
There was a distant roar from overhead. Andre looked off to where it came from and smiled. "Looks like the pterosquid is moving away from us now. Come on, we should be good from here." They walked to the trunk of the tree. It wasn't hard to get to the other side of a trunk and see which branch stuck out over the dry grassy area that turned out to be a small hill covering about half an acre. Quickly walking out from the trunk and down the branch, they reached as close to the middle of the hill as they could. Once there they climbed down the only vine hanging from the branch. It was only about 4 meters from the branch to the dry ground.
Once on the ground, Emily enjoyed the feeling of solid earth under her feet. For as good at climbing and scouting, Andre was, Emily thought he looked happy too. She took a moment to look around and see where they were. Looking up she could see the sunshine in the gap in the trees. There were a few small clouds high in the upper atmosphere. But it was an otherwise beautiful day with a clear blue sky. Looking around at the other end of the meadow she saw a grove of tall gorgeous flowers. They had thick light green stems that were 2 to 3 meters tall. The actual flowers were the biggest she had ever seen. The petals were pink and blue. At the center of the flower, there were 3 bright yellow shoots with their tips curled at the end.
"Andre what kind of flowers are those?" Emily asked, mesmerized by these giant beauties.
"Actually I have no idea." Andre shrugged. "I haven't ever seen them before. I spent most of my time on Signa-4 a long way from here. I am seeing new stuff too," he smiled at her.
"Emily is that you!" an excited female voice said over the radio.
"Yeah who is this?!" Emily answered wondering who recognized her.
"Look up over here," the woman said again, this time not over the radio. There was Courtney in a tree on the other side of the clearing above the flowers waving at them!
"Hey, Courtney!" Emily said as she turned her comms off. No need for radio now in talking distance. Emily had a rush of emotions. Instantly she remembered that the scouts like Andre all preferred the P models. And here her friend was alive. One of the only people she knew in this world. Showing up to ruin any chance she had with Andre, and end her alone time with him.
"How many are with you?" Andre asked. "Weren't you in a fighter?"
"Yeah, shooting the Cyrealian shuttle caused a piece of their ship to hit mine when it exploded. I was able to safely land in a swampy area full of quicksand. I was able to climb a vine hanging over my fighter so I didn't even get wet." Courtney told them.
"Where is your flight suit?" Emily asked her.
Courtney answered her while starting to climb down a vine, "I changed before getting out of my cockpit. It didn't provide any privacy though being completely clear. Hehe"
"Do you have any weapons or a pack with you," asked Andre thinking about supplies.
"No, just had a set of khaki shorts and this tank top with me in the fighter. I let the others take all my stuff on the shuttle. To be honest I didn't expect to survive the action while in orbit. But it is good to see you two."
"Good to see you as well!" Andre said.
Emily still felt mixed emotions. She was so glad that Courtney had made it! Why couldn't she have just made it to the landing pad at Station 2! Emily thought.
Courtney gracefully finished her climb down the vine making it look so easy with her enhanced strength and longer limbs. Landing at the edge of the soupy mud that was most of the jungle floor and the dry ground she turned to face them. "This place is kinda crazy! Mud is everywhere here. Is the whole planet like this? Also, did you see that giant flying dinosaur octopus thing?"
"Yeah, I saw it! Thought it might head your way after the flare. As for the mud, there are some large plains to the north and mountains far to the east." Andre said. "But much of the landmass on this planet is covered with jungle."
"At least the flowers are pretty!" She said walking through the tall pink and blue ones that Emily had been admiring. "I do remember getting a glimpse of some mountains on the way in." While walking through the flower patch one of the tall flowers she brushed against as she passed turned to follow her like it was looking at her.
Emily turned to Andre and whispered, "Did that flower just turn to look at her?"
Before either of them could respond, the three yellow shoots in the center of the flower shot out. They hit Courtney from behind just below belt level and knocked her forward as she let out a surprised yelp. Then just as quickly, they pulled her off her hands and knees back to the flower landing her in the center of its petals. "What the hell!?" is all Courtney said at first, still trying to figure out what happened as she looked at Emily and Andre who both looked stunned. It looked like she was sitting in a big blue and pink Papasan chair. "What is this thing? Put me down-" She was cut off by the flower opening a little and tugging on her backside down into the new opening. "Oh...OH wow! I think this pretty flower is trying to eat me."
The flower opened up just a little more and pulled her in butt first as she was bent forward in half at her hips. With her head now between her knees, just her shoulders, arms, legs from the knees down, remained outside the plant. She spread her arms wide on either side of the hungry flowers maw. Gripping the petals she held herself outside the plant by bracing against it with her toned arms flexing under strain. With each time the plant tried to swallow she lost a little strength in this one-sided battle. Each time the plant tried to swallow her, she lost a little ground and grinned a little bigger.
Courtney looked absolutely excited and almost cheerful in a surprised way as she made eye contact with Emily. Clearly no longer able, or willing, to stay outside the flower she winked at Emily. The last thing she said was "Tell everyone at Station 2 I said hi!" as she waved with both hands in the air. She giggled and kept waving as the flower sucked her down. The next second she was pulled in leaving only her waving hands and her feet sticking out of the center of the flower. Then with another gulp, she was gone.
Emily turned to Andre, "We need to do something!" she shouted. Then seeing that he had his rifle up and was aiming at the flower she prepared for him to shoot and turned to watch wondering what part of the flower he was going to hit.
As Emily watched the flower that had Courtney inside of it she saw movement. The stem had a bulge in it as it expanded many times its normal size to accommodate its meal. Emily could make out the shape of Courtney folded in half clearly as she traveled down the stem to the ground. Still waiting for Andre to shoot she turned back to him. "Are you going to take the shot?"
"What? It is a flower. If I shoot it the round would hit her too!" he answered never taking his eye away from the scope.
"Then what are you doing with the rifle?" she exclaimed.
"The scope has a record feature. We need to get this footage back to the science and survey teams. Luckily I got the whole thing on video." Andre said.
"Luckily!? You mean you are not going to try and get her out?" Emily asked realizing that Courtney was gone.
"How would you propose we do that? There is a whole patch of those flowers we would have to walk through. If you feel like trying I will keep recording." Andre told her.
Emily took a moment to look back at the flower patch and noted that he was right. There was no way to safely navigate to the one that had their friend. Looking back at the flower she saw Courtney wiggle a little trapped in her tight new home. "It just seems like we should do something." Emily said resigned to the fact that Courtney was not going to get away from the flower.
"Don't worry Emily," Andre said still recording. "I don't think she minds. She is a P model after all. I don't think she wants out." Andre lowered his rifle clearly done recording. He smiled at Emily then said, "Listen to her comms channel if you want." Then he turned to walk away towards a different tree than the one they had come from.
Emily watched him go for a moment then turned her comms piece to Courtney's channel again and listened. She could hear Courtney from inside the stem of the flower all right. But she was not talking. Courtney was making noises. Emily concentrated to ascertain what those shallow gasps and groans were. Then she blushed. Emily realized Andre was right. After listening for a few more moments to make sure, 'she knew' that Courtney in fact did not want to get out of that plant. Emily looked up again to see her friend wiggling inside the plant before blushing a little more and turning off her comms piece to give her some privacy. Turning around to leave she saw Andre standing next to a low hanging branch on the other side of the clearing.
"Satisfied?" Andre asked as Emily caught up with him standing next to a vine leading up to the tree they would climb.
"Uh...yeah...but not as satisfied as her," Emily said.
Andre chuckled a bit and said, "Remember they made her model on the cheap so they could mass produce them quickly if needed." As he climbed up just a few meters to the branch. Standing on the branch he waited for Emily to climb up to him and continued. "It is easier to make all sensations feel good then to differentiate between sensations and make your body numb to pain that gets too intense. You and I don't feel extreme pain. That is a very complex process to code into DNA, and it is not always successful. Sometimes our models are defective with that process making everything hurt. It was decided to play it safe with the P models and keep it simple. P models feel everything as pleasure. The stronger the stimuli the stronger the pleasure response."
Joining Andre in the tree again and glad to be off the ground she looked up at him and said, "So it was no accident that they are made this way."
"It was a decision based on cost savings and making politicians happy, while shortening their DNA so the Federation can clone them quicker and have less chance of them being defective with complex engineering." Andre led them along, heading north to Station 2.
After a few moments of walking, Andre added, "I bet Stacy wished that she had the same response as a P model. Especially when that Cyrealian stabbed her in the airlock. I know if given the choice I would want to have the same reaction as a P model in that scenario. Really they are the lucky ones."
Emily continued to walk in silence for quite a while behind Andre. She always kept an eye out for where he walked, what he touched, and what he avoided; learning by example. This jungle was unforgiving to slow learners. The whole time her mind was on Courtney. She had seen other P models die. She had even seen a few T models like herself killed as well. However, in her wildest dreams, Emily never thought death would look or sound like that. Why was it on her mind so much? She wondered. Andre was right; the P models were the lucky ones. In a war like this, or on a planet like this, it is better to be engineered to be always cheerful, carefree, and pain-free. Maybe going out with the sensations Courtney displayed with gentle moans and slight gyrations, was the kindest send off the Federation could afford to give a fallen combatant. Another thing in her growing list of reasons to be jealous of the P models. She hated herself for thinking it, but she was kind of happy to be alone with Andre again. Emily tried to reassure herself by saying in her mind Courtney didn't mind and was even excited with her exit from their party. The fact remained that Emily was here and Courtney was not. Maybe both of them could be happy in their own way now. "Hey if Courtney was so 'lucky,' why shouldn't I be able to get lucky too?" Emily thought to herself. With that, she looked up at Andre and picked up her pace following him.
What other Adventures await Emily and Andre in the Jungles of Signa-4? With Courtney gone does she have a shot at getting with Andre? These questions and more will be answered in Part 5! Stay tuned and let me know what you think.
Thanks for reading!