Chapter 73: A Millennium Behind
Have you ever read that meme that said something like, "I don’t run, so if you see me running, it is because something is after me."? Yeah, that was how I was right now. And I knew that it wasn’t helping in the least.
I had been on enough forensic investigations in the forest to know that I was leaving an easy trail to follow in my haste to get away from whatever heat signature I saw a few minutes ago. Hell, I might as well be holding up a sign saying, "Find me at the end of the yellow brick road." Especially to a seasoned hunter.
And if it was a Saalistaja following me, then I needed to be a lot smarter than I currently was.
I stopped suddenly and collected my thoughts. I had never been a hunter myself, although I might have had more than one fantasy about hunting in a forest with one of my more annoying co-workers. But when his body didn’t show up the next day to work... well, I wasn’t willing to take the chance.
First and foremost, I should be invisible to both the naked eye and to any thermal vision. Which meant that nothing should be able to see me. That gave me an advantage.
I looked at the trail behind me, filled with broken branches and crushed leaves. Hell, I think I even see my footprints on the soft jungle floor. I didn’t want to take the time to erase it, but maybe I could use it to my advantage.
"Sha Shou," I said softly as I continued to study my environment. I remember old, old stories about how some cowboys would lay out a false trail only to double back on it in order to go in a completely different direction. I would do something similar, but I didn’t want to make my footprints too obvious.
"Yes, Mei Xing? I am trying to have something done by yesterday, if you recall," came the snappy voice of a cranky helmet.
"Yes. And you have done an incredible job of giving me a temporary solution to that problem, right? So, could you please help me figure out another solution?" I asked in my sweetest voice.
"And what is that?" Sha Shou replied, sounding more than a little curious.
"Does my suit have the ability to make me lighter?" I said, crossing my fingers and holding my breath.
"No, your mass will never change unless you go on a diet. You should know that. Unless you think there is another way to change your mass?"
Stupid, fucking, helmet! I was not asking if I needed to go on a fucking diet! I wanted to be able to fly like I did in space, but on land instead.
I bit my tongue, not letting the swear words that were at the tip of it out. Taking a deep breath, I tried my idea again. "I need to not leave footprints on this jungle floor. Is there any way to do that?"
"Of course, there is. Just use the anti-gravity setting. You will be able to adjust the setting depending on how high you wanted to go. I just added that feature. I saw it in an Earth movie and thought it might be fun to try. I mean, I didn’t need to use rocket boosters to do it. That technology is so a millennial ago."
Wow. Just wow.
We haven’t even been able to produce rocket boots, and we are already a thousand years behind the rest of the galaxy. Did you ever think that maybe Earth was that place in the universe where aliens locked their doors when they flew by? Well, except for the ones that stop in for a visit.
Then again, the Thuzirusians were a special bunch.
"Yes, how do I activate the anti-gravity settings?" I asked with a strained smile on my face. I was really trying not to lose my shit right now, but once I was back on the ship, I was putting myself in a time-out until I learned how to play well with others.
"The sixth button from the left," came the tired sigh like my helmet was so put out about having to answer my questions.
"Thank you. Maybe when you have time, you should create a user manual, so I know how to work my suit without having to ask you things all the time."
"A manual?" asked Sha Shou. There was more than a hint of scorn in her voice when she repeated my words. "You want me to create a manual for the suit?"
"Or you can have me asking questions every few hours," I shot back as I pressed the sixth button listed as suit operations. Scrolling down toward the bottom, I hit the anti-gravity setting. And immediately wished I didn’t.
I am not sure what the setting was originally on, but I shot so far into the air I think I was able to make out the outline of Jun Li. My arms windmilled as I tried to keep myself in a somewhat vertical line. I was currently having nightmares of turning onto my head and my feet shooting me back down to the ground with the same ferocity that it shot me up.
It would definitely give a new meaning to having your head buried in the sand.
At least I was saved from the embarrassment of someone seeing me like this. "Mei Xing? Is that you? Why are you up here?" came Jun Li’s voice through my earpiece.
So much for being spared the embarrassment.
"How can you see me?" I asked, not really caring about his answer. I was more interested in finding a way to get back down to the ground without free-falling from space.
"You came up so fast that your suit wasn’t able to adjust the external temperature to match the much colder atmosphere of outer space," explained Jun Li. "I thought you were a fire bolt or something with how hot you were coming up."
Fuck. And if any hunters were looking up at the same time, they would have seen the exact same thing. Here’s hoping that they think I left the planet and continue on their merry way. I mean, the planet should be big enough for the both of us, right?
