Kate
I feel a tremendous weight off my shoulders. Rennek and I finally had the “mate” talk and he was super chill about it. Part of me worried that if I wasn’t on the same page as him he would change or get angry, but he didn’t. He was just normal, positive, reassuring and accepting Rennek.
Now, to be fair… it isn’t that I’m exactly on a different page than he is. It’s just that everything in my life is happening super-fast right now. It’s a lot all at once. I do want to be with Rennek, I do. It’s just he is very… official with all this mate talk. It sounds very… forever, and although I want to be with Rennek for the foreseeable future… I’m just not sure if I believe in forever and I get the impression he really does. I don’t want to be the asshole that ruins that for him. He deserves someone who can give him his happily ever after.
Also, I don’t think it’s a good idea to commit to a lifelong relationship after only knowing each other a couple weeks. It just doesn’t seem smart especially given all the crazy shit that has happened to me since I met him.
I wonder if all alien dudes move quick like this? I wish Reagan were around so I could have some girl talk with someone about it. I suppose we’ll get the chance in a few days anyway. Until then, I’m just happy Rennek and I are in a good place.
Even though we are off exploring on our own, Rennek uses his personal comm unit twice a day to check in with both the ship and Da’vi and Allison. The conversations have been brief. It seems everyone is doing well and finding their own stride. I got to speak with Reagan a couple times, though it was just for a minute or two. She told me Tennir was able to fabricate translators for the other girls. They are a little different from ours, but they work and I guess that’s all that matters. It’s good news for the girls, because now they can communicate with everyone and double good news for Reagan because now she doesn’t have to translate every single little thing. I can imagine how frustrating that must have been.
My days with Rennek are a mixture of exhausting and exciting. We do a lot of walking... and hiking, and tree climbing, and mountain climbing and… well, basically every outdoorsy thing possible. At the end of the day I’m sore in muscles I didn’t know existed, but it really has been so much fun. It’s like going on a road trip and seeing a sign that says “World’s Best Pie, 200 miles” and you just go for it because why the hell not. We see a ridge that looks neat, or a waterfall, or cave and we go check it out.
There’s just so much to see here. The views are beautiful. At night, three moons light up the sky--one large and two that are so small they are tiny pin pricks. I wonder if they are actually nearby planets.
A couple semesters ago I took an Intro to Botany class. I wish I remembered more of what I learned. Not that much of it would transfer to an alien world. In any case, all the plant life appears to be what I would consider megaflora, or close to it. Yesterday we stumbled across some pink flowers the size of cabbages! Subsequently, much of the fauna appears to be supersized as well. I wonder if the ugly bear thing we ate the first day was this planet’s version of a mouse.
We see more of the muppet like pterosaurs from our first day here too. They do appear to be carnivorous. Luckily, they tend to stay closer to the ocean and our path has taken us further inland.
We also notice there is a great deal of shallow cave systems at the base of the trees, forming out of the earth and the massive twisting roots. Rennek keeps a close eye on these when we descend from the trees. He explains creatures likely nest in the caves and he doesn’t want us to stumble upon anything dangerous or predatory. I try to make mental notes of all this helpful stuff he’s sharing, but I really just count on his tough guy skills to get us through the day.
I was in the middle of a Geology course when I was abducted and though we were only three weeks into the semester, I do remember some of that stuff. So, I pay close attention to the landscape. Many of the rocky ridges we traverse are filled with large crystalline inclusions--some of them are as big as fire hydrants, making the place feel like fairy land or somewhere you’d expect to find the seven dwarfs. I wonder if these are made of quartz or if they are actually diamonds or something.
Yesterday we came across a rocky cave carved out of the side of a mountain. There were beautiful stalactites and stalagmites stretching from floor to ceiling. Deep inside the cave we could hear rushing water, but I freaked out when a family of squirrelly salamanders ran around my ankles. At the time it was repulsive, but once I had the chance to really look at them they were kind of adorable. They had bodies like squirrels or ferrets, but their flesh was a depigmented pinkish color and smooth like an amphibian’s. Then, Rennek suggested we eat them and it got repulsive all over again. For whatever reason, it feels less creepy to eat things with fur or feathers. I’m sure all my vegan buddies back home would not like to hear that, but frankly eating alien creatures is super weird and I’m just dealing with it as best I can.
“Hey Rennek?” I ask at breakfast the next morning. We are down to our last MREs, but haven’t been hurting for food since the forest is so abundant with wildlife.
“Yes, my goddess?”
“We’ve been having some protein heavy meals lately; do you think today we could try and find some fruit or vegetables? Can your scanner tell us if things are edible?”
“Hmm,” he grunts. “That is a good idea. Have you been getting bored with our meals?”
“Yes and no,” I laugh. “Eating anything here is far from boring. But, to be honest I have been craving Earth food. This is cool too though, it’s like Bear Grylls extreme.”
“What is it you crave?” he asks.
“Oh man… things I’ll probably never have again. Rocky Road ice cream. Brownies. A carnitas torta. Some really good salsa.” I try hard to remember the last good-enough-to-drink salsa that I had.
“Rocky Road?”
“It’s a cold dessert. Chocolate, marshmallows, nuts. What kinds of things do you eat, I mean when you aren’t in space or backpacking alien planets?”
“On Thaad you can buy flavored ices. It is similar I think. Though, I do not know chocolate or marshmallows.”
“I keep getting surprised by how many things are similar across our cultures, even though our planets are light years apart,” I say getting a little lost in thought. Rennek is silent. “You’ve been a little quiet today.”
“Quiet? No,” he smiles at me.
“Okay, not quiet… introspective perhaps?”
“Introspective… Your words bring to mind the Vendari. I wonder if I will have anything in common with them.”
“You are Vendari too,” I tell him, but instead of responding he helps me to my feet and smooths my hair down, admiring me.
“Today is an exciting day,” he says--his eyes shining.
“Why’s that? Did you find a shower?” I tease.
“Better… well perhaps not better, I do enjoy you and I in a shower together,” he says leaning in to kiss my neck.
“No!” I laugh, “I’m all salty and gross!”
“Mmm, no you are just… potent… ripe,” he says leaning in again.
“Ew! No, get away! That’s like the least sexy thing ever!” I say trying to swat him away through my laughter, but he pulls me close and kisses my lips and I relax into him. “So, why is it an exciting day?” I ask.
“We will reach the beacon today.”
“That’s wonderful Rennek! So, what’s the plan? Will you try to activate it or what?”
“I do not believe that activation will be a straightforward process, otherwise Gorrard would have done it straightaway. I will take scans and send them back to Tennir and Bossan, see what they can uncover. But I am picking up some interesting readings on my scanner.”
“What do you mean?”
“There is something like a structure in the vicinity of the beacon…” he begins.
“Whoa! A what? I thought this planet didn’t have any civilization!”
“It does not appear to have any sentient life forms, the planetary scans we did before landing did not pick up any such life forms or modern structures,” he tells me.
“But you think there is a structure up ahead?”
“It is too uniform to be a natural formation,” he says.
“Could there be people living there?”
“No, my scanner does not detect anything besides native wildlife.”
“Then what could this thing be?”
“It is a mystery,” he beams.
“Well, then what are we waiting for?”