Gami stalked her way through the dense jungle. She maneuvered over thick vines and around deep thickets. All of her senses were totally focused on the task at hand, navigating and surviving. Prey animals scurried away or went still. She didn’t detect any predators, a fact which concerned her greatly.
***
Eli addressed his student, “The four fundamentals of marksmanship: breathing, getting a steady position, aiming, and trigger squeeze.”
Eli took aim and fired. One of the cans folded in on itself as it leapt off of the fallen log Tarl had placed it on.
“Where did you learn all of this?” Savaa asked, wide eyed.
“The army. My nation’s army. That was a long time ago.”
“You did your time and got out? That’s how it works, right?”
“That’s how it normally works,” he managed a little smile, “They called it a ‘pattern of misconduct,’ guess they just didn’t like how I did things.”
“Wait,” Tarl began, “You got kicked out?”
“Ya, I give them the best years of my life, and they stab me in the back.”
“Typical,” Tarl sneered, opening up a drink and taking a sip.
***
Spotting a suitable tree, Gami started to climb. Shots muffled by distance and the foliage. No need to worry, it was just Eli and his weapon instruction. She reached a good vantage point and stopped, crouching down on a sturdy branch.
The jungle below her slowly came back to life. Crawling things foraged for vegetables in the undergrowth. Climbing things picked fruit from high branches. But no predators.
Her thoughts turned to the ship’s new guests.
Anara. What was she? If it came to it, how could she be subdued? Bullets would just pass through. Perhaps the bones could be targeted and broken. Otherwise, she’d have to deplete or destroy her shield.
Then there was Savaa. His face didn’t register on any database she had access to. But then again, he had said he was from an isolated world, on which there was seemingly a theocracy. She’d never enforce the rule of such a system. The same was true for secular governments that were authoritarian in nature. Having to worry about whether or not the law which she was enforcing was just or not spoiled a lot of the fun. She longed for a simple challenge.
Once again, she scanned the jungle above and below her. The ecology of the area began to unfold and reveal itself to her. The way in which the energy flowed from the sun and soil to the plants, and then to the animals began to become more and more clear. She started to discern the survival strategies of each of the creatures. But she still failed to detect any predators.
***
Rotek sat in her cell. She pulled a rectangular device out of one of her pockets. It appeared to be made of graying wood but sported a strip of glass that ran along one edge. Light sprang from the glass, a short wall of it projected up. After adjusting a few dials on it she absentmindedly moved her finger though the hologram. The device admitted a sound like a string being plucked.
Straight for the karana, once she got out of there.
***
Savaa took aim and fired. The top was ripped off of the can and it toppled over. Excited, he looked toward Tarl and Eli, who looked back approvingly. He went for another can, fired, the round blasting a chuck off of the side of the rock on which the target sat.
“Damn!” Tarl exclaimed, “Pulled it.”
“Yeah,” Eli agreed, “You anticipated the shot.”
Undeterred, Savaa squeezed the trigger. The shot knocked the bottom out of the can, hurling it away. Savaa smiled and aimed at another.
“I think he’s getting the hang of it,” Tarl declared, before taking another sip.
The next few shots were mixed. He scored a few solid hits. With some trepidation, Savaa reloaded the weapon.
“Give the bottom of the mag a little slap to make sure that it’s seated,” Eli advised.
He did as told, “How many people have you killed?”
Eli chuckled, “You know, before the Sad’Daki invasion, people would ask me that when they found out that I had been in the army. I always told them I had nine and a half confirmed kills.”
“A half?”
“That’s what they’d say. Then I’d tell them that it was BS that child soldiers only count as a half a kill.”
Tarl and Savaa looked at Eli in horror. After a few long seconds the human started to laugh hysterically, “That’s my way of teaching people not to ask rude questions.”
Tarl began to laugh along with the human. Savaa managed a little nervous chuckle. Then he squeezed off another round, scoring a grazing hit. He adjusted his aim, “I’ve killed two.”
“Really?” Eli asked.
“Yes. Anara would kill me if she knew that I’d talked about stuff from home. But the hell with it. You can’t turn me in anyway. I used a shank to kill one of the inquisitors when I was in prison. I don’t feel bad about it. He tortured me every day.”
“Yeah,” Eli began, “Sounds like they had it coming. What about the other one?”
“This isn’t the first time I’ve escaped. This cop spotted me, tried to take me in. I managed to get ahold of his gun. I don’t feel so good about that one.”
“A police officer that is enforcing a bad law isn’t really a police officer.”
“You’re starting to sound like Gami,” Tarl teased.
“Well, in this case, she’d be right. Someone with a badge tries to use that badge to commit an injustice, they should be treated the same as any other criminal, if not even more harshly.”
“Fair enough,” Tarl said, then he looked at Savaa, “Here, try this!” he shouted, tossing the empty drink can downrange.
Savaa went wide eyed and fired wildly at the target as it traveled in a wide arc. The sound of the frantic barrage drowned out the muffled clunk of it landing in the short grass. It sported a single hole.
***
A beast with long tusks dug around near a bush. Gami took aim, slid her finger along the length of the trigger a few times before letting it settle into the well. The round went clean through its neck. The creature stumbled around for a few seconds, before falling down and going still.
Eli on the com, “We heard a shot. You okay, Gami?”
“Yes.”
“What was that?”
“Dinner.”
