Orion Colony Complete Series Boxed Set J.N. Chaney (books for new readers .txt) 📖

did, we’d lose sight of him. If he came across something he couldn’t beat on his own, well, let’s just say I was growing a soft spot for the animal.

Something very much like a cat’s meow came from the darkness. With my free hand, I added my own flashlight power to that of the others. Our beams of light sliced through the eerie darkness like sharpened blades through bread.

Nothing, but the noise came again. I was sure it was a meow this time.

Mutt trembled on his feet. He was a coiled spring, ready to be let loose.

“Hold on, buddy,” I whispered in his ear. “Hold on, give us a minute. Stay.”

Over my time with the dog, I came to realize he was well-trained and obedient. He had been groomed to go on this trip with us and whoever had trained him had done a stellar job. Mutt’s eyes never left the darkness in front of us, but he did stay.

“Ricky,” Arun whispered as the sound came yet again. “The floodlights on the crawler; can you point them in this direction?”

“Yes,” Ricky said. Slowly, he rose to his feet and went over to the driver’s side of the crawler. He unlocked the door and pointed one of the side floodlights in the direction we were all looking.

A brilliant white light shot out, making our flashlights look like puny candles in comparison.

Ricky worked the light around, finally settling on two shining orbs I knew were eyes. The creature didn’t just sound like a cat; it was a cat, one of the largest I’d ever seen.

“Arun?” Stacy asked. “Is this one of the creatures taken aboard the Orion? Did it survive?”

“Cats were on the list as well as dogs to provide companionship for our new colony,” Arun said. “I can’t imagine more than a few animals of any kind survived the crash. It’s a miracle we found Mutt.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Stacy used a soft voice as she hunched low and slowly made her way to the cat. “It’s okay.”

The cat gave her one look then bolted back into the darkness.

Again, I felt Mutt tense under my hand. Every natural instinct he had and some unnatural ones told him to give chase.

“Easy, buddy,” I told him. “We’ll let you go tomorrow when there’s more light. We can’t see you if you run off now. We don’t know what else is out there.”

Mutt whined but obeyed.

“We’ll take watch in shifts,” Arun said. “I’ll take the first one while you try and get whatever sleep you can. Tomorrow, we’ll search this site then head for Tong’s installation for supplies.”

We all agreed. Sleeping came easier than I thought. Even though I slept most of the afternoon away in the crawler, fatigue was still bearing down on me.

We slept close in a circle with blankets under us and backpacks for pillows.

I drifted off into another dream that I couldn’t remember when I awoke. It couldn’t have been more terrifying than what we might face in the morning.

14

The night was colder than most. If I was Lou, I might have found meaning in that. The thick blanket we slept on as well as the ones that covered us did their jobs. Stacy woke me for my shift in the early hours of the morning.

She handed me Ricky’s rifle to hold while I stood watch.

“See anything?” I asked as I rubbed sleep from my eyes.

“Nothing,” Stacy said. “The cat didn’t even come back.”

I nodded, stretching with the rifle in my right hand.

Stacy went back to sleep as I surveyed our camp. Dew sprinkled the ground. The sky overhead was just beginning to clear as the moon and stars gave way to the twin suns that ruled the day.

I found myself in awe not for the first time at how much this planet was very much like our own. Minus the killer intelligent virus and the aliens, this place might have been nice. I could see a seed ship coming here to touch down and begin a new life for thousands of colonists searching for a brighter tomorrow.

Of course, none of this had happened, thanks to our Disciple friends. Plus, as much as we wished otherwise, we did have a killer virus trying to wipe us out and feuding aliens to deal with.

I felt someone watching me again. This time, I looked over to the four sleeping bodies underneath the blankets. Tong was wide awake. The morning rays caught his yellow eyes and reflected them back to me.

He gave a toothy grin and flipped me off again.

I waved back.

He removed himself from the blankets and made his way over to my side. He kept his voice low as to not wake the others.

“Dean, I am glad you are awake, we must talk,” Tong said, nodding as if he were agreeing with himself.

“I’m about at my limit for prophecies, killer viruses, and such crazy talk,” I told him. “You have anything else in your vocabulary?”

“Well, yes and no,” Tong said, thinking for a moment.

“More yes or more no?” I asked.

“Perhaps that is for you to decide,” Tong told me. He worked his shoeless toes into the ground below us as if he were doing some kind of morning stretch. “I thought you should know that the prophecy of the Great Dawn tells of his partner—a fierce warrior and leader of her own tribe. Together, they are an unstoppable force.”

I looked over to Arun.

“Nothing against her, but Arun isn’t really my type,” I said. “Maybe you got this all wrong and Ricky is the Great Dawn. I think he’s into her.”

“No, not that leader.” Tong motioned with his head over to where Stacy slept. “I can smell the pheromones off her when she’s around you.”

“Too much information, buddy,” I said, shaking my head. “Stacy and I are just survivors thrown into this thing together and trying to make the most of not getting killed.”

“Sometimes it is these such events that draw us even closer.” Tong nodded with knowing eyes.