REDEMPTION

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 32
Striking It Rich
 

Toshiro unrolled the plastic sheet that had a simple map printed on it of the immediate area around the colony that had been sent along with their supplies. The image had been gleaned from the survey of the planet years before and while not overly detailed, it did contain relatively accurate topographical information. He then laid a clear plastic sheet over it that documented the previous colony’s explorative forays.

“This is the area that interests me,” the Japanese fox told the others. “Particularly this point here. Along the river here you can see the fault line and how the river followed that for the most part. I would like to survey this area here, and then return to the colony, stopping at these points here, here and here,” he indicated with a claw tip.

“How long would this be taking?” Sofiya asked as she looked over the map.

“Only two days at the fault line. The return along the river would require two, possibly three days, though on horse, the ride out should only take one.” Toshiro looked at his colony leader with a hopeful expression, fighting to keep his tail from wagging.

“And you are still not wanting to tell me what it is you think you will be finding?”

The male Vulps shook his head. “I truly do not want to get hopes up, Sofiya. If I were to say what I thought was there, and then turn out to be wrong, I would feel most ashamed at the disappointment of the others.”

“Meaning you don’t want to be lynched,” Richard added with a chuckle.

“There is that,” Toshiro agreed.

Sofiya continued to look at the map for several moments before pushing off the table and standing upright. “And you are not minding that we are coming with you?”

The Asian Fur smiled warmly. “I would be most happy for the four of you to come along with Conchita and I.”

Sofiya looked at her mate, the silver fox shrugging to indicate it was her decision. “Then we will be leaving tomorrow morning,” Sofiya informed the Asian Fur, unable to keep from smiling at the male’s own grin and wagging tail. “Richard will help to get the supplies needed for the journey. I will go speak to Hector about operations while we are gone.” The vixen paused after turning to find her first officer. “Let Mandy be taking care of the selection of horses. She has been working away from the stables and misses them terribly.”

Richard clapped the red fox on the back after Sofiya left the dome. “I don’t know if you’ll find what you’re looking for, but I know a little time away from the colony is just what I need,” the silver fox said with a grin.

“Here is hoping that I’m right!” Toshiro beamed.

***

Richard put his saddlebags over the back of his horse, a gentle Tennessee Walker by the name of Hobie, an animal he knew well that had been with the group at the Adirondack Furmankind Institute. Once the bags and his pack were secure the silver fox went to help finish loading the two pack horses with the rest of their gear, Amanda already with the pair of Morgans and checking the harnesses that would distribute the weight evenly.

The fennec vixen tightened the last of the buckles, a small furrow between her eyes as she stood and looked at the setup critically. “Something wrong, Mandy?” Richard asked, his paw-like hands settling on the smaller female’s shoulders while he rested his chin between her large ears.

The fennec sighed. “I remember the few times I went riding when I was at school, and I guess it just seems unnatural to have tack and saddles that aren’t made of good leather.”

Richard chuckled. “Well, the stuff we have is a lot lighter and won’t dry out or rot. It’s not like we can run to the nearest shop that sells tack and saddles.”

Amanda smiled as she let herself get pulled back against her mate, her eyes closing happily as his arms slipped around her. “I know. But there’s something about the smell of leather and horses that always seemed…comfortable. Good, you know?”

“Yeah. It is one of those good smells. But I bet our horses are happy not to have to get decked out with fifty pounds of gear plus us. That and there’s less chafing, too.”

“I still miss the smell of real leather, though,” the fennec persisted.

The others appeared shortly, each with a travel bag, freeze dried provisions that were a far cry better than the ones that Richard had while in the Marines, and small kit bags of equipment. “We are being ready?” Sofiya inquired, her mood light and almost carefree, looking forward to a trip away from the colony site.

“We just need to get everybody else’s stuff tied up,” Amanda told the other vixen with a grin and tail wag. “All the horses are ready. I checked their hooves and made sure none of them will come up lame. As long as the ground between here and where Toshiro wants to go isn’t too bad, I don’t think there’ll be any problems.”

“This is good!” the red fox said, giving the sandy colored female a pleasant hug and nuzzle.

“All we need are the radios, the rifles, flares and we’ll be ready,” Richard added.

With the last of the gear and rifles the small expedition turned their horses to the northeast, almost on a parallel to the track the grass-lobsters had taken. The name had finally been settled, though Daniel had wanted to give the beasts a rather convoluted name in Latin that hadn’t really stuck, the other Vulps calling them by their more familiar moniker. The trail left by the migrating creatures veered off to the south, much to the relief of the party, particularly Amanda and Conchita who still shuddered whenever the topic of the arthropods was brought up.

It was a little difficult for the Vulps to notice the gradual incline that they traveled until Conchita turned around to ask Elena a question and gasped, her eyes widening considerably as her mouth gaped open. “Madre de Dios! Look!”

The others expected trouble, Richard’s fingers tightening on the synthetic stock of the rifle, though he relaxed and smiled when he saw what had the Argentine Fur so excited.

Framed by the strange velvety trunks of the Bastien trees was a vista of rolling hills and small copses of woods. The tops of the colony domes were just visible, and beyond the next few smooth ridges were the deep, almost indigo waters of the sea. While the sky above was a dark, slightly off shade of blue, towards the horizon over the water it turned into a deep pink cast with the orange-white light of Epsilon Eridani.

“It is beautiful!” Sofiya said, turning her horse slightly.

“It certainly is,” Toshiro agreed.

Sofiya turned and smiled at her mate before noticing the curious expression on his face. “Kokhanyy? Is something wrong?”

“Hmm?” the silver fox intoned before looking at the vixen and smiling widely. “No. Nothing’s wrong at all. This is just one of those moments that happens from time to time that makes me realize I’m one of the luckiest people to have ever lived and I’ve made the right decisions.”

Nudging her mount, a rather docile mare named Blossom for her propensity of eating any flower she encountered, Sofiya reached out, letting her fingers settle lightly on Richard’s arm. “You are not alone in this feeling,” she said softly.

With plenty of pictures saved through their PBJs, the group pressed on, all of them wondering what other sights and discoveries waited for them.

***

Explorations would wait until the next day as the group finished setting up their camp by a burbling stream that provided a rather peaceful setting. Richard and Toshiro put the tents up with the backs against the large trunk of a fallen tree that had succumbed to age, giving them a modicum of security that everyone felt better for but didn’t mention. While this was happening Sofiya and Elena had put together a fire pit while Amanda and Conchita worked on readying supper for all of them, heating water for the different packets of freeze dried rations and cups of either tea or instant coffee. Once the tents were up, the two males took care of the horses, the animals finding good forage that had already been approved by the previous colony and rechecked by the Abeona group, then set small perimeter sensors that would provide additional security during the night.

“You know, Ruiz would enjoy this,” Toshiro chuckled as he set aside his empty bowl. “He said there is nothing that makes him feel at complete peace as playing his guitar while being outside and sitting next to a fire.”

“That’s because Ruiz is a hopeless romantic,” Conchita added as she lay with her head on her partner’s lap while the Asian Fur gently stroked her ears. “That isn’t an altogether bad thing, mind you, but he is young and full of exuberance.”

“I’m just glad he was able to patch things up with Tipper and Mina,” Amanda said to the others as Sofiya brushed out her hair.

“Truly?” the South American vixen asked with a curious expression. “Even after Tipper attacked you?”

The fennec shook her head. “She didn’t realize what was going on, and she cares about Sofiya and Richard,” Amanda replied. “In a way I can’t fault her for that, but there was no permanent damage, and we have to be together. I can’t hold a grudge and all of us live together, too.”

“I think you are a better woman than I could be,” Conchita told the desert fox with admiration in her voice.

Typical of receiving any kind of praise, Amanda lowered her head and shrugged. “We’re all friends now, and that’s for the best, right?”

Richard set his rifle to the side and looked at the Asian fox. “Okay, Toshiro. It’s time to come clean. What do you think is out here that has you so excited?” he asked lightly.

“Oh, no, my friend! You will have to wait until tomorrow. I do not think I wish to spoil what may be a very pleasant surprise!”

Richard shook his head. “I guess it really doesn’t matter. All I know is I’m actually getting to see some of our new world, it’s a beautiful night, I’m surrounded by three very stunning vixens…what more can I ask for?”

“Dessert!” Amanda enthused, tossing out packets that the ones that had worked the kitchen had put together. The rough flour that the colony was producing had been combined with local fruits and a little ingenuity and in the small, paper wrapped bundles were like thin tarts. “I just wish we had ice cream to go with them,” the fennec lamented.

“You are a naughty girl,” Elena teased. “I will have to work hard to be keeping from getting fat!”

The rest of the group began to laugh at what was becoming the standard joke among many of the vixens, all of them knowing that with the physical work that was required at the colony none of them were in danger of gaining excess weight, that and their new metabolisms seemed to prevent any sort of gain that wasn’t in the form of muscle mass when a strange chirping noise caused all of them to look up and scan the darkness.

“That wasn’t one of those bugs, was it?” Amanda asked quietly, her eyes wide as her ears twitched to better pick up the sounds of something moving.

“No,” Conchita said, sitting up and moving closer to Toshiro. “That wasn’t one of the bugs. I…I’ve never heard that sound before…”

A slight rustling sound from overhead followed by more chirping made Elena look up. Her slightly fearful expression turned to one of amusement and when she started laughing the others looked at her then up, spying the source of the noise as a colony of tree imps observed them from the branches of the trees over the camp.

“They’re so cute!” Amanda exclaimed.

Richard set his rifle down and chuckled. “At least we know they aren’t something that can cause harm.”

“Perhaps not harm, but that does not mean they can’t be trouble,” Toshiro pointed out, the Japanese red fox recalling the mayhem that the de Chevalier’s little pet got into.

“Will the sensors be keeping us safe enough?” Sofiya asked the silver fox as she caressed the fur of his arm, her eyes glancing into the gloom outside the ring illuminated by the campfire.

“I think so. The tree imps didn’t cause the horses to get agitated, and they’re more alert for the presence of predators…even ones that are alien to them, or that they’re alien to,” the silver fox said with a grin. “I mean, we’re the new kids on the block, after all.”

“Do you know how safe you make me feel?” the blond vixen inquired as she took the other anthro fox’s arm in her paw-like hands. Her look was full of affection and a sort of contentment.

“That’s a two-way street. You make me feel safe as well,” Richard replied softly.

The expressions on the two Furs’ vulpine faces was something each knew well, particularly before leading to a romantic interlude, but before either could go any further one of the strange creatures that looked like a melding of bird and monkey dropped down from the overhead branch and landed on the fallen tree, scampering quickly to where Amanda sat on the other side of the silver fox. It looked at the fennec with a curious tilt to its head before jumping to Sofiya and Richard.

Without any hesitation or signs of caution it darted behind the male fox and leapt to his shoulder where it began to gently preen one of the Fur’s triangular ears. The toucan-like beak could easily take Richard’s ear, but the creature was exceedingly gentle and as it groomed the fox, its clever little hand stroked the silver fox’s head hair.

“Etienne said these things were as gentle as they were curious,” Richard said with a smile. “I guess he was right.” When the tree imp began making a strange, soothing cooing noise as it worked, the fox slowly lifted a finger and held it up, the imp not moving, and let Richard give its head a scratch, the cooing noise increasing in both volume and enthusiasm. “I think I have a new friend.”

“He’s too cute!” Amanda gushed, her eyes sparkling in the fire light.

“How can you tell it’s a he?” Toshiro asked.

Amanda pointed at the creature’s beak. “The males have that bright red streak that runs from just below their eyes to the tip. The females don’t have that according to them.” The vixen’s ears darkened as she gave a small laugh, “That and…well, his bits are showing.”

“He’s not going to do something to the side of my head, is he?” Richard asked with a certain level of nervousness.

Amanda shook her head and giggled. “No! He’s just…um, a boy. Well equipped, but not…um…happy, you know?”

A second and third tree imp joined the first and also began preening and grooming Richard. “This is becoming a little much,” the silver fox said as one of the newcomers, a female as she was lacking the splash of red on her beak, used her feet to latch onto the Fur’s robe top and looked the fox in the eyes as she stroked his whiskers back along his muzzle over and over.

“Are we needing to be concerned, kokhanyy?” Elena asked with a grin. “I am thinking to be rather jealous at this attention!”

Conchita was grinning along with the others. “They definitely like you, Richard!”

“I just don’t want them to poop on me if I move,” the Fur said as the third imp, also a female, joined the other in preening the fox’s facial fur. “Mandy? Are there any more of those tarts?”

“Huh? Yeah, I’ve got quite a few left.”

“See if they like them,” Richard said with a chuckle as his ear was tickled by the male that sat on his shoulder.

As soon as the fennec began to unwrap the paper around the pastry, all three imps turned to see what the strange noise was, all of them jumping down and chirping with curiosity displays that made the creatures look positively adorable. The curiosity from the tree imps only intensified as Amanda held out little pieces broken off the tarts, though that lasted only a moment before the little creatures were sitting on her lap and devouring the treat.

Amidst happy chirping and very animated antics, the imps jumped around and cavorted before disappearing back into the upper branches of the tree, their noises eventually fading and leaving the group of Furs alone again.

“You know, when humans eventually settle here, I see a great many of those tree imps being made into pets,” Toshiro said with a smile as he leaned back with Conchita in the circle of his arm. “I know they would be very popular back in Japan! It would start a whole new craze. Not just pets, but toys, anime, manga…”

Richard snorted in humor. “We haven’t even been here a year and you’re already looking at potential exports, Toshiro!”

“No. I will leave that to others, Richard,” the red fox said as he rested his head on his vixen’s shoulder.

***

The night passed quietly, and come morning the exploration group was more than ready for a day of adventure. Breakfast was consumed quickly, each of them anxious to see what the geologist thought they might discover and left the camp, though their supplies were secured against possible ransacking from local wildlife and took the horses a short ride to the place where Toshiro was interested in.

“It’s beautiful here!” Conchita exclaimed as they dismounted along a slow, shallow river, the trees overhead casting an almost primordial twilight around the Furs as the branches and rich foliage overhead blocked the morning sun.

Along the banks of the waterway, strange flowers and blossoms lined the low ledge that had been cut through natural erosion and from the blooms darted little four winged insects that the previous colonists had termed zip-bees, following the function of their Earth born counterparts in pollinating other plants. Despite looking like arachnids and having eight legs, the long tails resembled dragon flies, and the carapaces glinted in astonishingly vibrant shades of green and gold as if they were made from some form of metal. Thankfully the insects were sans stingers, and their large mandibles were used strictly for opening recalcitrant flowers for the harvesting of nectar and moisture.

Richard looked at the turgid water, the slow moving river quite clear and he could see what looked like fish moving in the depths the size of his forearm. “I should have brought a pole,” the silver fox said with a merry expression as he absently adjusted the sling of the rifle.

“Can you tell if they are fish the Felis documented?” Sofiya asked as she helped Conchita and Toshiro get some equipment out of his saddle bags.

The silver fox shook his head. “Not from here. That and there really isn’t enough light for me to see any markings that look familiar.” Richard smiled. “Daniel would love this place.”

“New critters for him to study?” Amanda asked between taking pictures with her PBJ.

“No!” Sofiya laughed. “Daniel is crazy for good fishing! He and Richard have had many discussions about places to be catching good fish!”

Still lamenting the fact that he didn’t have a pole, Richard watched as the Asian red fox made his way to the edge of the water and scooped up a bit of the dark sand and began to swirl the contents with a bit of water. Living in Alaska, the silver fox recalled the people that would go to that state to pan for gold, many of the amateur hunters doing exactly what Toshiro was.

“Gold,” Richard said, making the connection. “You think there’s gold here.”

Toshiro didn’t look up, but he began to grin wildly. “Not thinking, my friend. Proving! See!”

The mention of gold and the sudden enthusiasm on the red fox’s face brought the others around him with sudden interest. They watched avidly, five sets of vulpine eyes widening at the wash of yellow amidst the black sand. While some of the flakes were small, most of what was uncovered were pinhead sized nuggets and a few that were even larger.

“When we were still on Sebra, I saw that there were some strong similarities to the terrain features here and the ones in Alaska and Canada,” the Asian said. “Because of the extreme similarities, I figured that the chances were better than even of finding something like this!” Toshiro swished a little more water in his find, removing even more sediment. Even though he didn’t add any more material to what he’d already had, it seemed as if there was even more gold than before. “I know that we are all bound by contract for the rest of our lives, but those that follow, the next generation of Vulps, they can be rich! Our children can use what is here to build a world that we have only ever dreamed of!”

“But…our contracts,” Amanda said, a frown appearing between her sandy colored brows. “It says that the AHCP gets a sixty percent share of anything of value that is discovered during initial colonization.”

“And leaves forty percent to the colony,” Conchita continued. “I think that forty percent of this is still rather astonishing!”

Even Sofiya was caught up in the moment, but stopped her laughing and carrying on when she noticed that Richard was looking at the pan, then the river and woods around them, a frown on his vulpine face. She stepped over to her mate and placed a paw on his shoulder. “Richard? What is being wrong, my love?”

“I lost my home when oil was discovered on the land there. That was the reason I joined the AHCP. Look around. Look how wonderful this place is. I…I don’t know if I could stand seeing the same thing happen here,” the silver fox said. “I don’t want to see the same thing happen here that has happened on Earth.”

The others heard what the fox said and went silent, regarding the former American as he continued.

“There are whole places in Alaska where there aren’t any more trees, and there’s just bare ground because miners have gone in to strip the soil down to rock to get at the last traces of gold. Some places look like a desert where there were once trees and forests and all sorts of wildlife.” He pointed at the pan that Toshiro still held. “We’ve seen what is useful in the few months we’ve been here, and gold is kind of useless, isn’t it?

“Unless it’s used in electronics, it really doesn’t have much use. You can’t make tools with it because it’s too soft. You can’t make cooking pots because it melts too easily. But if…no, when word gets back to Earth about this, there’ll be mining operations set up, equipment, they’ll strip the land to nothing and it will be the same thing all over again. We’ll just be wrecking another planet for gold.” He pointed at the land around them. “Is it worth destroying all of this just for that?” Richard asked and turned his gesture to the contents of the prospecting pan. “We won’t even get a chance to discover if there are plants that can make medicines, or if there are animals here that can benefit anyone before it’s all gone.”

“But…we can mine without causing any much damage to the land,” Toshiro pointed out. “We don’t have to destroy anything when it’s so easy to find.”

“We don’t, but do you think that will stop others?” the silver fox inquired shrewdly.

“Hector told me of vast areas in the Amazon that are dead because miners used mercury to pull the gold out of the dirt. Whole areas are poisoned and lifeless now because it was a very cheap way to get the gold, making the miners much more money,” Conchita told the others. “I have seen the pictures and it is very sad. Many of the children near those places also have the most terrible birth defects. The ones that don’t die, that is, because their water for drinking is filled with mercury as is the land where they grow their food.”

“I don’t want babies with birth defects!” Amanda cried, suddenly distraught, her hand going to her belly.

“Your babies will not be having birth defects, kokhanyy sestra,” Sofiya said as she put an arm around the fennec. “We will not be using mercury. There is nothing to be afraid of.”

“You mean it’s not already here?” the young vixen inquired fearfully.

Toshiro shook his head. “Mercury must also be mined, and normally it is very deep in the ground in veins of rock called cinnabar.”

“No mercury, sweetie. I promise,” Richard answered slowly, stepping to the desert fox. “Why are you so worried about mercury?”

Amanda swallowed hard, her eyes still watering from the tears from the thought of children being born with birth defects. “Be…b-because I’m pregnant,” she whispered. “I…I only found out a couple of days ago and wanted to surprise you!”

Richard’s eyebrows raised, giving him a rather comical expression while Sofiya and Elena grinned happily. “You…you’re pregnant?” the silver fox asked, more than a little stunned. “Really?”

Amanda nodded, an almost pout giving her an adorable look. “I…I wanted to surprise you…” she whispered again.

Richard caught the little vixen in his arms, lifting her off the sand of the river bank, laughing joyfully as he spun her about, crushing the fennec to him. “I’m surprised alright!” he told her with a kiss after setting her back down, Sofiya and Elena joining them in their embrace.

“You aren’t mad?”

“Honey, why would I be mad? This is wonderful!” the silver fox told her, holding the vixen close again, his head resting between her ears.

“But…well, it means…um, we can’t…you know…” Amanda said while her ears turned a deep pink. “And I like…you know…when you and I…um…”

The confession warmed Richard all the way to his soul and he squeezed the other Fur just a little tighter. “We still can for a little while. When we get back to Abeona we’ll talk to Suzette and Etienne. They know more about this than anyone else at the moment.”

Sofiya and Elena both kissed Amanda on the cheek, both of them still grinning. “I am thinking that we will be needing to make our little home a bit bigger!”

Richard brought the other two vixens further into the embrace, his own eyes warm and bright with unshed tears of happiness. “I’d say we definitely struck it rich, and it doesn’t have a thing to do with gold!”

— NEXT CHAPTER —

Unless otherwise noted, all material © Ted R. Blasingame. All rights reserved.