Chapter Five
He was watching her; he didn't say anything but when the rover stopped outside their units, she slipped into hers and went straight for the shower. She cranked the heat up, stripped out of her clothes and stepped under the spray. She wanted to cry, or scream; or maybe hit something.
She might not be able to remember everything, and maybe some of it would not come back; but she would put together what she needed. Already she had enough to do her job, she had her instincts and her training; she would learn to let go of what was gone.
It was a bitter pill to swallow but she would do what she had to, she was alive, and her body was sound. She would take that, but she would not take the looks if pity, or sadness from others; especially not from her husband. She was not made of glass and she would not break.
Alicia jolted in surprise as the hot water shut off, glaring through the steam as an arm retreated; she jerked the curtain back to find him standing there holding a towel. When she took it, he raised his hands defensively before she said a word. "You need some space, I will give it to you; tell me what you need, and I will do it Wash, you know I will."
"But don't push you away? Don't…" She started coldly; she'd been relieved when he interrupted Dr. Shannon's questions, reassured that he was there; until he was worse.
"Push if you need to, if you want to go a few rounds we can do that; but I do need you." His arm slid around her shoulders, pulling her into his side; but he still looked uneasy. "And we need to go to the fence; the slasher is back, and she's agitated."
Yet it made her grin, he was hating this, it made it much harder to treat her as fragile when he needed her to try to handle a dinosaur. Still he followed her and she saw his wince as she dressed; she felt the bruises too. The slasher hadn't hurt her, it hit her with its powerful tail but the scaled length of it; the barb never touched her.
Somehow, she suspected it had done exactly what it intended to, put her on the ground; when it had started calling all the babies had huddled to the ground immediately. She wasn't sure why, but it had mattered to the creature that she had not taken cover. And as they drew near the fence, she heard the slasher's calls again, it was a different tone this time, they had known the creatures communicated with each other but it sounded as if this one was trying to communicate with them.
Alicia frowned as she swung out of the rover, the soldiers looked uneasy on the fence, each had their weapon at the ready, but the slasher looked furious. It was behaving as though it was trapped, pacing the fence, calling out and spinning to slash at the beams; leaving deep gashes in the wood. It wanted to attack, until it scented the air and came to a halt.
Standing as close as it could on the far side of the fence the slasher stood frozen, its eyes fixed on her. The loud screeching calls stopped, it tilted its head one way and sniffed carefully, then the other and made a soft chattering sound in its throat. Alicia stared right back at it and then took a step forward; and another.
…
His heart pounded in his chest as she approached the predator who had moments ago been attacking the fence. Nathaniel watched her walk right up to the fence, the Slasher watched her and only her; the hatchlings were not in sight. She rested her hands against the rails and the slasher moved forward, dipping its head and sniffing; trying to stuff its snout between the rails.
He swallowed hard as she slid a hand between the slats, she could lose it in an instant if the creature turned on her; but it sniffed that too. And then shoved its head into the rails and made a sound that almost sounded frustrated; Alicia responded by ducking and stepping through the fence.
Nathaniel heard sonics charging as men palmed their weapons, the slasher pivoted around her and nudged her forward; then circled sniffing her carefully from head to toe. Dipping its head to chatter at her again, the same sounds they'd heard it make when calling to its young.
"Amazing." He shifted to find Malcolm Wallace standing at his shoulder. "I think its imprinted on her. It believes she is one of its young, I didn't understand its behavior until now; it searched for her when it returned. I thought it was checking its territory, but it was looking for her."
The slasher rubbed its cheek along her shoulder, nearly knocking her off balance but when she reached out to stroke it the animal leaned into her hand; chattering as if to encourage her. The hatchlings emerged then, darting around, between the slasher's legs and around Wash; one tried to climb her leg. And he watched her eye the adult as she reached down to pick it up, when it was in her arms the slasher pressed its head into her chest; close to them.
"It makes sense, she's handled it, helped it and fed its young; it is used to her scent." Malcolm continued; Nathaniel listened but his focus was on her. "Her scent is on it, on the hatchlings, their sense of smell is more powerful than we ever realized. It can detect her specific scent, not just of a different species, or even unique species but an individual member; that is just incredible."
Perhaps it was, but the slasher was still a predator, wild and deadly; even if it had calmed in her presence. He fully supported the preservation of this world and its creatures wherever possible; however, he didn't necessarily like having his wife standing right next to one.
He'd been getting used to the idea of her handling them, feeding the adult from a distance but now he had to get used to something very different. She didn't talk much over the next few days, at least not about anything beyond work; and whenever he had a few moments he watched her out there.
The hatchlings had hit a growth spurt and soon she would not be able to hold them in her lap or pick them up; not that the one seemed to have any concern about that. In a way Malcolm was right, it was incredible to watch her work with the slashers, the hatchlings played with her, but the adult watched every move she made.
None of them were gentle with her, she was bruised and battered, more so as the little ones kept growing but they didn't hurt her. He had watched as one of the little ones tested its tail, spinning in front of her as if to show off and when Alicia didn't dart back fast enough the edge of the barb sliced her thigh. The adult rose with a screeching call and the hatchling flew back, thrown by the adult's tail.
He knew a few hearts had been pounding in that moment, unsure of what was going to happen; she was bleeding, and the adult was between her and the fence. Nathaniel had eased closer and weapons had charged up in the towers but the young one shook off it's ride and went trotting back to her; shoving its head into her stomach. The adult chattered at them both.
Most days when the hatchlings got tired and retreated to their nest the adult would come to her, it would lay down and let her pet it, at first she had been cautious, always on her feet and ready to back up but this morning he'd seen her sitting at its shoulder; her hand running over its neck and back.
He was hesitant to pull her away, but she was their best sniper and he wanted her eyes out there; he was tasking a short mission out to the quarry. They needed ore, it was valuable to the colony and given the Sixers no longer controlled the quarry it was theirs to take; but he expected trouble.
There had been no issues since the slasher had taken out the sniper's nest in the West; and silence always made him uneasy. At least if they saw activity they knew where their enemy was, and by now they had to know their nest hadn't panned out.
When she noticed him, she rose, giving the dinosaur one last pat before crossing to the fence and ducking through. They might not have talked about her memory, but he knew physically she was well, besides playing with the slashers she was training again; it would be good for her and for her unit to work together again.
"You up for a trip?"
"The quarry today?" She fell in step beside him, it had been discussed at the command meetings the past two days; they'd headed a few patrols that way to prepare.
"Its your op, but you've got Reynolds and Reilly." He knew they were two of her best; she'd likely feel safe leaving the groundwork to them.
"I'll cover them, Reynolds can hold the perimeter and Reilly can run the team." She nodded, climbing into the rover.
He'd been hoping that was what she'd say, the quarry was a vulnerable position to hold, their perimeter had to be tight or they could easily end up facing an opponent on a steep incline; fighting in the wrong direction. Good thing was it was in the side of a mountain, she could make her nest up nice and high; see what was around, see her men, watch their backs and their blind spots.
…
It felt good to ride shot gun again, to wear her body armour and have a job; be trusted to have a job. She rode shotgun with Reilly at the head of the convoy, her rifle in hand as they rolled through the jungle; it made her feel normal.
They wouldn't be gone long; it would take more time to load up the rock than anything else. They weren't going to mine the ore on site, just blast out a vein of it and load the rocks into a rhino; it would be processed on colony.
At the quarry she was dropped off on the outer rim to climb up into the rocks above as the transports started down the rough road into the pit. Alicia wasted no time climbing up to a ledge where she had a steep cliff at her back and a good view on either side; her focus needed to be below.
Fastening the scope to her rifle she stretched out on her belly, eying down the lense, she could pick out each of her men below and watched the perimeter team take their places before switching to a thermal lense for a wider scan.
Her men were red reads, hot blood, there were a multitude of small cold reads, this was leaper territory. The small Compsognathus were omnivores, too small to be anything but a nuisance to humans, eating plants and bugs; the creatures didn't walk or run but bounced. Hence their nickname, in a pinch they'd made good eating for men on long out post assignments when Sixers had hit their supply runs; though they could be hell to catch.
"Reynolds your clear." She murmured into her comm, never taking a hand from the rifle. Her body was in the ready position, calm and cool as she scanned; sliding into the task like it was second nature. Thankful somethings didn't change.
"Copy. Thanks Lt." Reynolds clicked in; he wasn't leaving his comm open.
Her scope never returned to the center of the pit, it didn't matter what her crew was doing, the perimeter team had them covered; her job was the jungle beyond. She scanned wide and on the very edges she was getting larger reads; hot and cold. But at that range the scope was questionable at best, she kept going back, watching any reads bigger than a leaper.
There were a few but none were approaching with any directionality; just creatures passing through. She went back to the periphery a few times; but the read was unreliable and the jungle too thick for a visual. She felt the blast below her before she heard the rumble of the rock slide the explosives had created; work was advancing.
She stayed on alert as time ticked by, something was out there but it was beyond her range; only problem was it was between them and the colony. They could hope it was a pack of some sort, hunting or moving; but she didn't like the way the reads flickered orange every so often.
"We're moving out Wash." Reilly's voice crackled through her comm, the first comment directed to her in the better part of three hours.
"Copy that." Alicia rose, quickly shifting her gear to make the climb back down to the rim.
She climbed back to the jungle floor and movement to her left made her freeze until a head poked through the leaves; one with familiar markings. She choked back a laugh and approached slowly; holding out her hand. "Did you follow me?"
The slasher chattered at her, that sound low in its throat as Alicia rubbed its forehead for a moment. Surprised and a little pleased as it slipped back into the trees as soon as she turned away. They figured out the dinosaur had learned her scent, it wouldn't have been hard to follow.
She climbed into the rover and as they headed for the colony her eyes scanned the trees on either side of the track. She hadn't noticed it was with them on the way out, and even as she looked now, she could not see it near the rover. Out of curiosity she raised her scope, scanning until she found the cold read; the slasher was about a couple hundred feet off the rover on her side. In the jungle the transports had to go slow, the dinosaur kept pace easily; probably able to go much faster if she wanted.
"Something wrong Lt?" Reilly glanced at her, she kept her scope up, watching her shadow.
"No. The slasher followed me. She's about two hundred feet off our left flank right now." She glanced down the scope yet again, watching the heat signature move.
"Your going to keep her then?" Reilly asked, and she nodded; she didn't think she had much choice in it. The slasher had claimed its territory beyond the fence and clearly kept track of her. "Maybe you should give her a name then?"
"Whiskey." Alicia murmured.
"For the drink?" One of the men in the back replied. "How about something cool like Destroyer, or Reaper?"
As the others chimed in Alicia shook her head, speaking to herself more than any of them. "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. WTF, after everything that's happened this year I've got her."
"You've got a pet slasher, five of them." Reilly laughed, having heard her words as the men discussed the merits of Kamikaze and Torpedo.