Mitchell's Revenge
Wilderness Reserve, ten days trek from Covington, on EQ2

While Tim and Sibil sat watchingthe lights of Covington, Lou Pejic sat on a large boulder overlooking a ravine.A river ran through it wearing its way into the recently terraformed landscape.She watched the sun sinking below the horizon and reflected on what a good ideait had been to get out of the city and into the wilderness.

She had gone to Covington without aclear idea of what she would do when she got there. Talking with a few of thelocals had helped her to make up her mind. Lou needed nature to feel whole. Spacechallenged every fibre of her being. She was glad to be here, out in the freshair.

The landmasses were geologicallyvery new. EQ2 had been settled for around fifty years since it was confirmedstable enough for human habitation. The planet’s breathable atmosphere had madeit the perfect candidate for terraforming. Universal Starship Enterprises hadbeen one of the original investors in the project on the planet which nowprovided them with their home base.

Covington was built in the centreof the most stable land mass. The land stretched out around it for thousands ofkilometres. From the air it looked like a huge fried egg, with the city beingthe yolk in the middle. The landmass sat towards the middle of the Covingtonplate, one of the larger tectonic plates on the planet. Icy seas separated thecontinent from its nearest neighbours, none of which were inhabited by humans.

EQ2 was rich with minerals andother naturally occurring substances that were commonly used in spaceship building.When Tim and Erik inherited the business from their father, they decided thatit was more sensible to bring their shipyard to the minerals than to do it theother way around.

The start-up cost was enormous, butit paid dividends quickly. A mining complex on the southern edge of thecontinent drew minerals through the newly formed crust for processing prior totransportation to the shipyard, or export elsewhere.

The edges of the continentconsisted of bays and inlets with rough stone beaches. Lou had made her wayfrom Covington towards a low lying mountain range roughly ten days hike away. StrutVillage lay at one end of the range. She could replenish some of her suppliesthere.

There were low scrubby plants andthick sedge grass underfoot. She hadn’t seen any wildlife to speak of, but shecould sense that some kind of animals were out there. As she approached themountains she saw stunted trees growing part way up their sides. They werestruggling to grow in the newly formed soils.

It was a very open landscape, whichLou found quite strange. She came from a heavily forested planet and had spentmost of her young life amongst the trees.

As Lou watched the evening growdarker she became aware of a presence nearby. She turned carefully and lookedstraight into the eyes of a large cat like creature which was observing herfrom some distance away.

It had golden eyes and a tawny coatthat allowed it to blend into the background. Its ears seemed oversized on itshead. Brown tufts with knobs on the ends stood up from them. The knobsswivelled rapidly as if sniffing the air. The animal began to move towards her.

Lou sat completely still. She darednot move. She could sense curiosity rather than hostility, but she didn’t wantto frighten it. It came closer. The knobs on its ears continued to swivel. Ithad large paws and a stumpy tail that stuck straight up from its rump.

She could see the animal’s clawsgripping the ground as it walked. She decided she had seen weirder and moredangerous things in the forest on her home planet. She waited.

Now it was standing directly infront of her. It was as tall as she was sitting down. It came nose to nose withher and regarded her curiously. She sat perfectly still, breathing slowly. Ittouched her nose with its’ own.

Lou gasped. She felt as if anelectric shock was coursing through her body. She struggled to stay seated. Theanimal observed her for a moment longer, then turned and loped off towards theriver. A few moments later it had disappeared.

Lou stood up. Her whole body wastingling. She shook her hands and stomped her feet trying to get the sensationback into them. She was not afraid. She felt a sense of connection to theanimal, a bit like the feeling she had when she heard Em speak to Lucy for thefirst time. She decided she really did have an affinity with cats.

She walked around until the feelingreturned properly to her body. Then she began to make camp for the night. Itwas too dark to get down to the river now and she would have to make do withthe water she had in her handipak. She settled into her sleeping roll andquickly fell asleep.

While Lou slept, Flex McElroy satin a booth in the reading room at the Covington library staring at a vid linkhistory of the Intergalactic Mafia.

He knew that he was in a terriblebind. Natasha Orlov had indebted him to the IGM, even if she had not fullyunderstood what she was doing at the time. He now owed Yuri Orlov severalthousand credits. They would have to be repaid, one way or another.

Flex rubbed his eyes. He satcontemplating how he could disappear.