The Amelioration Expedition
Chapter 15
Marlin tried to stay busy and not think about the fact that they might never be rescued. Donte was always busy with some project. Right now it was a rope. He had an idea about attaching it to the end of an arrow and shooting it up through the opening. He had no idea how they could anchor it once it was up there. A grappling hook would be great, but they didn't have anything like that and none of the debris in the cavern was sturdy enough to hold a person.
Donte suggested that the next time the apes came for water, he could try to enlist help from them. His idea was to leave Marlin hidden and swim across. In her condition, she couldn't swim against the current without the possibility of being dragged down the whirlpool at the back of the cavern. Donte seemed to think he could safely cross the river, but what if the apes decided he was a threat. Donte had his laser weapon, but that might scare them to the point that they wouldn't return. There was no method that didn't include a gamble and Donte wanted to take all the risks.
With Donte's help, they stripped the bark from all the small limbs they could find and soaked them in water. Then Marlin wove an elongated basket large enough for the baby. Hopefully they would be rescued before the baby was born, but she felt a need to complete it as soon as possible. Donte didn't question her haste. He simply followed her lead.
Donte's rope was progressing slowly, so when she finished the basket, she helped him with the rope. He showed her how to weave it together for the ultimate strength and while she did that, he worked at making more strips to add to it. The rope was heavy and Marlin doubted an arrow could travel fast enough to lift it.
The second visit by the apes happened on the first day of their second week in the chamber. As usual, Donte sensed their presence before they came into the chamber. He told Marlin to stay back in the shadows and dived into the water. He swam across and was waiting for the first ape when it came down the ladder. It didn't notice him at first, and when it did, it turned and ran for the ladder.
Donte knelt on one knee and when the ape looked back and saw him, she stopped. Yes, it was a she, with pendulous breasts that were free of the short hair that covered the rest of her body.
She slowly backed down the ladder and turned toward Donte. When he made no move to stand, she took a few steps toward him. One slow step after another, she worked her way to an arm's length from him. There she stood for a while, watching him. Kneeling like that, Donte was about her height.
She finally moved closer and when he made no attempt to touch her, she reached out and touched his smooth chest. Stepping closer, she examined his face. She ran a finger over his lips. Marlin could understand the fascination with his lips. The ape studied his smooth hairless cheeks. She traced his eyebrows and touched his hair.
Donte never moved. Gradually her attention returned to his chest. Her fingers glided over the muscles and touched his nipples. She was apparently fascinated with his smooth golden skin. She traced his rib cage down to his trousers. She frowned and leaned forward, trying to pull the waist out to examine the rest of him. When she was unsuccessful, she jerked on the waistband and made a noise.
Marlin watched in amazement as Donte allowed the ape to work at the button. What would he do if she figured out how to unbutton his trousers? It occurred to her that he was so curious to see if she could figure out how to unbutton them that he hadn't thought about what would happen after that.
The ape grew frustrated with the button and jerked on the waist band again. Suddenly she pulled the waistband away from his stomach and shoved her other hand down into the opening.
Donte removed her hand and spoke for the first time, looking at her face. "No."
She shoved him and said something that sounded a little like no.
Donte didn't respond until she attempted again to reach into his trousers. Again, he pulled her hand away and said no in a firm tone.
The ape shoved him again, but Donte was ready for her aggression. Instead of being pushed back, he stood.
The ape turned and ran to the ladder. There she stopped and turned to look at him. Donte stood with his hands at his sides, waiting. She turned and advanced in his direction, her steps cautious.
Donte slowly and deliberately lifted one hand. He patted his stomach and made a motion to his mouth. "Food," he said slowly and distinctly.
The ape said something and Donte repeated it. She stared at him a minute before calling to someone above.
The pot was lowered and Donte gently removed it from the basket. He walked over to the water and filled the pot. Then he carried it back and placed it in the basket. He walked over to the ladder and pointed at his chest and then the ladder.
The ape climbed the ladder until her head was level with his. Again, she touched his lips. This time she said something. Donte touched his lips and said "Mouth." Then he carefully reached out and touched her lips. "Mouth," he said again.
Marlin suppressed a giggle. It crossed her mind that the ape was saying his lips were attractive. He could get into trouble that way.
The ape began climbing the ladder and Donte gripped it. Possibly his intent was to hold it steady for her, but she apparently took it as an act of aggression. She slapped his face, which was the closest part of his body to her, and said "no" in a clear firm tone. Donte smiled, but immediately released the ladder. The ape scrambled up the ladder and looked down at him.
Donte stood quietly watching her for a minute. The ape dismissed him. Crawling the rest of the way out of the cavern, she pulled the ladder up. Either she didn't understand his request for food or wasn't willing to help.
Donte dove into the water and came up half way across, swimming the rest of the way on top of the water.
Marlin joined him near the fire pit and smiled up at him, noting the red mark on his face. "You seem to have a problem relating to females of all species."
He touched the spot on his face. "Until you mentioned it, I hadn't thought about the similarities between the two of you."
Marlin caught her breath. "I'm not anything like…." She stopped when he grinned. "You just had to play the gentleman, didn't you? Did you think an animal would appreciate the fact that you were holding the ladder steady for her?"
He frowned. "I was examining the ladder to see if it was strong enough to hold either of us. I imagine she thought I was trying to take it from her."
"Oh. So what did you determine?"
"I don't think it is strong enough to hold us. They are about half our size. The method they used looked like it was only two thin vines strong. That would make it lighter, but…"
"What?"
"I wonder if they leave it somewhere up there instead of carrying it with them."
"What good would that do us? Even if we could get it down here, we wouldn't be able to climb up it."
He nodded. "Unless we reinforced it. Of course, we still don't know how it is anchored."
He glanced down at his trousers. "I think I'll go behind that rock and wring some of the water out of my trousers."
Marlin laughed. "Oh, suddenly you're shy. What would you have done if she had figured out how to unbutton your trousers?"
Donte blushed. "I wondered if she could figure that out. I was wearing undergarments, though."
Marlin sobered. "I wonder what she was trying to do – reaching into your trousers that way."
Donte shrugged. "I suppose she was wondering whether I was a male or female."
To Marlin, Donte was decidedly masculine, but the ape may have questioned the lack of hair on his face or chest. Maybe she merely wondered if he had hair in other places.
Do you think she will come back?"
He nodded as he turned toward the rock. "I feel certain that she will."
He stepped behind the rock, but Marlin could see the back of his head.
"Why are you so sure she will come back – because you're so good looking?"
He turned his head and looked at her, his eyes full of humor. "Do you think I'm good looking?"
She rolled her eyes. "It hardly matters what I think. Everyone else thinks you're good looking – even you."
He laughed. "If they made a ladder, this must be one of their water sources. Still, I think she will come back because she is curious – like the…equine. I think of how I would feel if I found a trapped animal I had never seen before. I'd probably want to hold it captive for a while too."
Marlin remembered the way he had tried to ask for food. "Do you think she will feed us…you?"
"It's possible." He walked around the rock. "There. They are wrinkled, but not nearly as wet." He shrugged into his shirt and leaned against the rock while he donned his socks and boots. "Maybe they can keep us alive until the spaceship arrives from Purlieu."
"What makes you think they have any better chance of finding us than our own team – and why are you so sure that Purlieu is sending a spaceship?"
Donte smiled. "Because they are my team, and because there are Mascots who won't give up any easier than I would."
"Are all Mascots like you?"
He looked at her a moment. "Probably not, but they are engineered to rescue."
She sighed. "I wonder how much you were engineered to do and how much you are convinced you were engineered to do."
He shrugged. "I've wondered the same things many times. Does it matter?"
"I guess not, but they worship you." She thought about her wording. "Why did the man bow to you when you boarded the Spero? Do they think Mascots are Gods?"
Donte shook his head. "No. In fact, the man who bowed to me was a Mascot. It's difficult to explain, and I'm not sure I actually understand. My birth was prophesied when Fontalo abandoned Purlieu. I knew nothing about it until I was almost thirty, but the Premier Infantry was preparing for my arrival long before then. I was to lead them when Fontalo returned. I was supposed to work with Celyn and lead Purlieu to freedom. We accomplished that, but they still think of me as their leader."
"They will come looking for you. That's why they wanted to send someone to protect you."
Donte nodded. "Gerritt will send a spaceship. I'm his second and he doesn't realize yet that he doesn't need my help to rule Bergen."
"You think colonists can rule without Mascots."
"Absolutely."
"Do any of the other colonies have colonists as leaders?"
"Yes. Lochfowk has a colonist that they elected president last year."
"That's it? The rest are Mascots?"
"Yes."
"Well, no wonder he feels incompetent."
"Exactly, but I believe Gerritt has the qualifications to rule as well as or better than I ever did. Bergen needs Gerritt, not me." He pushed away from the rock. "This is what I do best – guide and protect." He made a face. "Only I messed up this time."
Marlin sighed. "I was being careful, taking slow steps. I think I could have made it if you hadn't added your weight to it. You just couldn't resist helping me. Maybe it is in your engineering – just like the way you try to boss me around."
Donte blushed. "I could sense the river below. I thought the rock pile might be a warning. I wasn't bossing you. I was trying to warn you, but you rebelled. Why do you always try to do the opposite of anything I suggest?"
Marlin gaped at him. "Suggest? You never suggest anything. You treat me like an inexperienced teen. News flash. I'm not your ward."
He frowned. "Your what?"
"Ward – an underage person who has been legally made your responsibility."
He shook his head. "No, I don't think of you as my…ward…or as a teen. I think of you as…."
He didn't finish the sentence, so she finished it for him. "As a…selfish, manipulative…spinster." The last word came out in an anguished gust.
He took a step toward her, lifting his hands, as if to take her in his arms and console her. "Marlin, I didn't mean to…."
"No," she said, taking a step back from him.
He stopped and lowered his hands, his expression confused. "I don't think you're selfish or manipulative. I don't know what a spinster is, but I guess it must be something bad. I do think you are stubborn."
She glared at him. "As if you have any reason to talk about other people being stubborn." She shook her head. "A spinster is a woman who has waited too long to get married."
His gaze dropped to her swollen stomach and he blushed.
She rolled her eyes. "Not because she's pregnant. It's a woman who is past the usual age when women get married." She threw her hands in the air in defeat. "It doesn't matter."
He met her gaze. "Of course it matters. It makes you unhappy. I know and admire lots of women who are much older than you and never been married."
Maybe it was yet another way Oriel was different than Purlieu…unless…. She gave him a suspicious look. "Are all these women you admire so much Mascots?"
He frowned. "What difference does it make?"
"Maybe there aren't enough male Mascots for all the females."
He closed his eyes. "Oh for…it doesn't matter." He opened his eyes and looked directly into hers. "I'm beginning to wonder if you're the only one who is concerned about the fact that you're not married. Who else would care - except maybe your boyfriend?"
"He doesn't…" Warmth raced up her neck and spilled onto her cheeks.
He smiled. "Is he the one who called you names?"
She turned away from him. "I didn't say anyone called me names." She sat between the rock and the fire. Pulling her knees up, she rested her forehead on her arms. "My life is a wreck."
"I'm sorry I got you into this mess, Marlin. I hope you'll forgive me. I hope your boyfriend forgives me."
When Marlin lifted her head, he was walking toward the river. She didn't actually blame him. She was terrified and he was handy – and offered no resistance. He was sympathetic and kind and she was being mean to him again. She drew a deep breath.
"You tried to help me. I would have drowned if it hadn't been for you."
He paused a moment, but never looked back. "I'll see if I can find us something to eat."
Marlin woke with back pain. No light came down through the hole, so it must be night. She sat up, groaning. Oh, for a comfortable bed – and something to eat besides fish.
She leaned against the rock, but quickly moved away. It was cold and made her back cramp worse.
"Donte?" she called.
"I'm here," he said from a short distance away. The sound of his voice was comforting. "Is something wrong?"
"I'm cold and my back hurts."
She couldn't see him, but she could hear him moving around. After a few minutes she saw glowing coals. He tossed some wood on the coals and they quickly caught fire. After placing more wood on the fire, he stood and walked over to her. He knelt beside her.
"Let me rub your back."
She leaned away from the rock and turned so he could reach her back. As he massaged her back, the pain eased. She relaxed.
"Does it feel better now?"
"Yes." She expected him to stop, but he continued the massage. He was still massaging it when the pain returned. She shifted her position, hoping it would help.
"Does it hurt again?"
She groaned again. "Yes. I must have twisted it somehow – or maybe it's this hard ground."
He stopped massaging. "I think they are labor pains."
She gasped. "It's too early."
He helped her lie on the ground closer to the fire. "Well, babies tend to have their own schedule."
"Are you a doctor?"
He chuckled. "No, but I've delivered a few babies." He stretched out on the ground beside her and reached for her. "Put your back against my chest and I'll help you get warm."
"Have you ever delivered a colonist baby?"
He was silent a moment. "No."
"Then you don't know if it's the same."
"It's the same."
"How do you know?"
"My father is a doctor."
She snorted. "My grandfather was a spaceship captain but that doesn't mean I know anything about being the captain of a spaceship."
He chuckled. "Point taken. Try to get some rest. You'll need to conserve your strength for later."
"Maybe it isn't labor."
"Maybe not. You still need to rest."
The warmth of his body, and perhaps the pheromones, helped her relax and the pains abated. It was probably false labor. Hopefully they would be rescued before the real thing started.
In the morning she woke with her back against Donte's chest and her head on his arm. She was warm and comfortable for the first time in a long time. She lay still, listening to him breathe. There was nothing sensual about it – more like sleeping with a nice warm dog. After all, wasn't a good dog everything Fontalo had invented the mascots to be - to protect and guide the colonists?
It wasn't true. Sometimes she was attracted to Donte in a sensual way, but right now wasn't one of those times. The truth was; she was frightened. Giving birth might be a natural thing, but she had been frightened enough of the process on the Spero with a good doctor. She didn't want the baby, but she didn't want it to die, either. She wasn't convinced that anyone was even looking for them, much less that they would be discovered in time to save their lives. Donte's constant assistance should have been reassuring, but instead it was a constant reminder of her weakness.
The baby was unnaturally quiet this morning. Was it still alive? If it was born alive, would she have milk to feed it? It had been over a week since they had eaten anything but fish – and little of that. Donte always gave her most of the food. He said Mascots could survive on less food. That might be true, but he wasn't eating enough to keep up his strength.
Donte stirred and lifted his head. She moved away from him and sat up. "Thanks. I feel a lot better this morning."
He sat up and rested a moment before standing. He was getting weaker, but he wouldn't say anything. He built up the fire and grabbed his spear, heading for the water. Hopefully he would find something this morning. Last night he had been unsuccessful.
He was concentrating on the water when he suddenly looked up at the opening. He was silent a moment before motioning to Marlin to get back into the shadows. The apes must have returned.
The ladder was not lowered, but something was tossed down to the ground. After a few minutes Donte turned to Marlin, motioning her to join him.
"I think they just threw us some food. I'm going to go over there and investigate."
He looked tired. He retrieved the rope he had been making and anchored it to a rock. Taking the other end of the rope in his teeth, he dived into the water. He surfaced about half way and began swimming on the top of the water. He drifted with the current, but managed to come out on the other side. He was much too close to the whirlpool. He climbed onto the bank and leaned over with his hands on his knees, resting. Finally, he took the end of the rope and went over to investigate what had been dropped into the cavern.
He tied the rope to it and approached the water. For a moment he stood still, looking at the water. He was in much worse condition than he was willing to tell her. If that was food he had tied to the rope, she was going to make sure he got a good portion of it. She walked over to where the rope was anchored and called to him.
"Hang on to the rope and I'll pull you across."
He looked uncertain for a moment, but never responded. Instead, he waded into the water, working his way across the rope hand over hand until he reached the strong current. Then he wrapped the rope around one arm and began to swim using his legs and the other arm. Marlin pulled the rope, surprised at how little effort it took to pull him toward her.
When his feet touched the ground, he walked out of the water and dragged the other end of the rope out of the water.
"What is it?" Marlin asked.
He shook his head. "I don't know. Some kind of animal. We'll have to cook it, and you'd better let me eat part of it first to make sure it's safe."
When he pulled the animal from the water, Marlin stared at it. It looked like a primitive bird with no feathers – like a raptor but with wings like a bat, only smaller.
"Oh, I wish Chandler was here to see this!"
Donte gave her a wry smile. "Id rather we were with Chandler."
That was true enough. She looked up at him. "If you'll give me your knife, I'll skin it and cut it up so it will fit in the bowl."
His brows shot up, but whatever was on his mind stayed there. He dug the wet knife from his pocket and handed it to her. "Let me eat part of it first," he reminded her."
She made a face at him. "Greedy."
He chuckled as he squatted down and leaned his back against the rock. Within minutes he was asleep.
Marlin had never cleaned a…whatever the animal was…before, but she had cleaned everything from chickens to deer and even a turtle once. By far, the turtle was the most disgusting.
She skinned the animal and set the skin aside. Then she gutted the animal, separating the liver, heart and some soft-shelled eggs and sitting those aside as well. She filled the biggest bowl with water and set it beside the fire. She placed the liver, heart and eggs in the bowl to cook. Those would provide vital fats and protein that Donte so desperately needed for energy. She ran a stick through the carcass and hung it over the fire to slowly cook.
She had read in books how to tan a hide, but most of what she had read involved removing the hair. She didn't need to do that. One of the things that needed to be done was to scrape the inside of the hide and soak it in an oily solution so that it would be soft. If she remembered correctly, brains provided that, so she used a rock to break open the scull of the animal and removed the brains. She only had two bowls and didn't want to tie them up with the tanning process, so she climbed up on the rock and found an indentation large enough to hold water. She used the other bowl to carry water to it and mashed the brains into the water. She scrapped the inside of the hide with a sharp rock as best she could and submerged the hide in the brain solution.
As she climbed back down from the rock, Donte looked up at her. "What are you doing?"
She shrugged and kept her expression sober. "Aren't you getting a little personal?"
He blushed. "I thought…"
She grinned. "I'm trying to tan that hide. If I can make it soft enough, it would make a nice liner for the basket, don't you think?"
He stood and brushed the sand off his trousers. "Where did you learn how to tan a hide?"
She knelt beside the fire and checked the bowl of food. "I read about it, but I've never done it before. Have you?"
He shook his head and squatted beside the fire. "No, that's women's work."
She studied his face for a moment. Finally, she sighed. "I never know when you're serious or making fun of me."
His gaze lifted to hers. "I'm not making fun of you, but I am teasing you." He turned the spit. "No, I've never tanned a hide before."
She turned the bowl. "Well, you're not much help."
He smiled, but otherwise didn't respond.
She sighed. "You look tired."
"I am."
"You're starving."
He shrugged. "I'll be all right."
"Not if you keep giving all the food to me. I put some eggs, the liver and heart in this bowl to cook. I want you to eat all of it."
"You need to eat it. You're eating for two."
She gave him a level look. "I didn't ask you if you wanted to eat it. I told you to eat it and that's final."
He smiled. "Haven't we had this conversation before?"
"Yes, but if you think you can be more stubborn than I can, you don't know me very well."
He released a long sigh. "It takes too much energy to argue with you."
Soft Science Fiction
