A team of fore-colonizers crash landed on their way to the first confirmed earth-like planet. Running out of supplies and exposed to the perils of the planet, the team must use their wits when one of them become the pawn of hostile resident creatu...
Outside, the Spires loomed and zipped past us, as we continued our flight toward the Three Peaks. Rock spires were all around us, suggesting that the Three Peaks is part of the Spires region, just as what Minny and Lim made on their maps.
The ground started rising slowly just a few kilometers away from the Crash site. Although ELSA's calculations show that the Three Peaks were as high as 13 kilometers, from its base, the Three Peaks were visible except when thick fog covers the land. The troposphere is thick with haze yet it is unusually clear around it but the eternal cloudiness of the planet doesn't affect its presence. The Three Peak's color from a distance is shiny black, but as one approaches it, stubby grasses covered the base, making it green. As one gets higher, about a kilometer higher from the base, the coniferous forest began to appear. Remi spoke to us. It came strongly in my mind.
"Stop immediately!"
The hovercraft stopped as fast as I could possibly stop it. We were almost thrown forward.
"We're here Remi, what do you want us to do?"
"Only Peter and Pablo should get out of the craft. Alice and Jennifer should remain in the craft."
Alice also heard it in her mind. A look of bewilderment came across her face. I held her hand with my reassuring hand. She didn't say anything.
The Three Peaks looked even higher and steeper than I expected, when I got out. Our hovercraft traveled its gradually rising slope, but after two kilometers of gradual incline, a wall of bare basaltic rock juts out immediately, nearly perpendicular to the planet's very flat but rocky plain. The wall is part of one of the Peaks, and the Three Peaks are not as high as the other. This one facing us is probably the 13 kilometer high peak.
"Do not come closer to the Peak. It is highly charged like the other rock spires. If you climb upward from your location, you'll experience an electric shock, powerful enough to burn you that even your bones will turn to ashes."
Remi's message was almost a threat. On my position, the gradual incline still goes on for several hundreds of meters before the rock wall of the Peak becomes vertical. The ground where the hovercraft landed is sparsely covered with the familiar stunted, broad trunked, giant leaved conifers, much like cypresses, pine trees and firs of the American Continents. These trees abruptly disappear about 200 meters from where I am standing. Beyond the trees is a very bare surface, devoid of any plant. Not even algae thrive on it. The hovercraft wasn't affected from this distance, which is also a source of speculation. From this position, I couldn't even see the top of this Spire. The hovercraft's position is such that its nose faces the rock spire.
"From your position, walk to your left and keep on going until you see an area clear of any trees. In the middle of the clearing, you should see a white, flat-topped rock extrusion protruding from the surface."
"As you say Remi."
"Be careful, Peter" Alice anxiously said to me, again in my mind.
"Thanks, but I'll be all right."
Carrying Pablo with me, I walked away from our landing. The trees seemed to be deliberately arranged, after walking for almost a minute. They look like they were aligned when planted so that whoever is looking for this place will not be lost at all. The trees on my left look like pine trees, each almost 4 meters away from each other, while those on my left look like firs, also set 4 meters from each other. They look quite old. The Protector or the Guardian wind must have done these things, for before us, no other intelligent beings have been on this planet, but I could be wrong.
Pablo remained uneasily quiet. For more than three hours of travel, Alice merely breast fed them, but other than that, they did not cry and were not noisy. They're not doing babies of three months would normally do.
The clearing was larger than I imagined, almost the size of a basketball court, following the incline of the mountain. In the middle of this soft grass covered clearing is a rock platform, that looks natural enough. It is almost white, like marble with yellow and bluish marks, probably caused by the rock's large crystals.
"As I've promised, before, Pablo would not be harmed. Place him on the platform, Peter."
I couldn't see Remi, but he kept on talking to my mind with his still, small voice ringing inside my head.
After months of staying in this planet, I am not surprised anymore of this event. What Remi's asking me is some form of a dedication or sacrifice. Since he said, Pablo will be safe, I trust him that it wouldn't be sacrifice. In earth's ancient times, it is known that people sacrificed babies to the gods just to appease them. Now Remi's action symbolizes a form of ancient ritual, which the gods or whatever powerful beings they are supposed to appease with a gift. But Pablo's not even a gift to Remi.
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I gently placed Pablo, on the white platform. Again, he's very cooperative, smiling occasionally, looking around with his curious eyes. By just looking at him, joy and fulfillment fill my being. It feels different to be a father, and such feelings gave me idea of how much my own father must has loved and cared for me and my brothers and sisters.
