That evening after Jack got off from his shift, I tried to explain the terror my team and I had felt, but my words weren’t sufficient to express my emotions. And so, while he was concerned and supportive, something was lost in the retelling of it. I began to think maybe I had overreacted and that the entire team was still new to all the potentially dangerous situations a scientist could encounter out in the wild.
After a couple of glasses of wine and a pot pie Jack had whipped up for us, I was feeling safe and relaxed. Our conversation turned to the logistics of Jack moving in with me. He hadn’t had much time to amass many belongings here in Origin, and so it seemed a simple enough undertaking. I’d never lived with a boyfriend before, but I knew Jack’s history with women had been more involved. It was certainly high time I maintained an adult, committed relationship, and although we were starting one amidst such a strange new environment, we had every right to be just as happy as everyone else. We were lazing in front of the television, watching what amounted to the nightly news and not really paying attention, when I asked Jack what he really thought we had heard in the jungle.
“I’m a physician, Mina. But your idea that a species not normally found around here has now been bred and introduced into the ecosystem makes sense. As far as I know, everything on Earth is how it was when Homo sapiens evolved to be the dominant species. But who knows? There’s a lot we don’t know. Why don’t you ask someone at the Facility? Your team reports to them, don’t they? On a daily basis, if I’m not mistaken. Or your neighbor Adam? Maybe he knows what goes on a little better than we do.”
I thought that was a great suggestion, and made a mental note to track Adam down as soon as possible to see if he could shed some light on things. I didn’t want my team paralyzed with fear every time we went out to do our jobs. And I didn’t want to be frightened, either. We both fell silent then and just enjoyed the low tones of the television, and soon it was time for bed. As we lay there entwined, I quietly told Jack I hadn’t had my recurring dream yet in this new incarnation. I missed it.
“Do you think it’s because my memories are all scrambled or something?”
“I doubt it, kid. They seemed to know what they were doing when they made us. Anyway, why do you want a perfect dream when you’ve got me?”
He had a point.
Morning dawned with an overcast sky, and I hoped the mood of my team wouldn’t mirror the weather. We had serious work to do, and I didn’t want any of us distracted. Kissing Jack goodbye, I grabbed my pack and hurried through the crowds to the train. I kept my eye out for the people who were fast becoming my friends, and was pleased to see Elizabeth and Luke get in my car. I waved them over. Elizabeth smiled and waved back, and I felt some of my worries fade. Our discussion consisted of what we had done the night before, and we laughed at speculations about what Marilyn had been up to. Luke stayed quiet, though, and I wondered what he was thinking. Soon Nick and Marilyn joined us, and our conversation turned to what we would be trying to accomplish that day.
“I really need to examine my pregnant pygmy hippo. I don’t want her going much farther into term without getting my hands on her,” Marilyn insisted, and I didn’t forbid her from going against the Facility standard of as little interaction as possible, because it turned out all the team had veterinary training. I felt it was appropriate for them to monitor an animal’s health directly when they were able to. I had an idea to bring bags of fruit tomorrow and attempt to make contact with the bonobo troop, but I didn’t mention my idea yet to Elizabeth, who had become a little reticent upon arriving at the station. I thought perhaps she had been the most frightened of us all the day before. While I didn’t think she would protest my idea, I recalled my team’s warning that it was generally frowned upon by our superiors at the Facility to try and habituate the primates. But to best get an idea of their social structure, I needed to get closer and have more interaction with them. Fudging the rules a little would be forgiven in the name of science, I hoped. Conversation turned to what had happened the day before, and we decided to spend a little time on the station’s console trying to identify the species again. Overnight, my team had come up with more theories, and I told them Jack’s idea.
“I’m thinking we need to go farther back, to species that are extinct. What do you guys think?”
This seemed to sit with them as the best explanation and plan to proceed with. We would search extinct species in the database, and, if there was a match, we’d go to someone at the Facility with the information. The guys fooled around at the console while the rest of us prepared for the day.
“Ready?” I asked Elizabeth, and she nodded.
She still hadn’t relaxed much, and I knew she’d be very alert to any sounds and movements on our trek today. Marilyn gave us each a bug spray that was supposed to work amazingly well, and, although I was skeptical, I knew inventions around here were more advanced than I was used to. We took the trail we had the day before. I looked up into the canopies searching for life, and was not disappointed. I longed to be here during the night to observe the nocturnal activity, but I didn’t suggest that to Elizabeth, lest I spook her too much.
We didn’t go far before hearing some travel calls. These peeps were the sounds of the bonobo troop, which had broken up into smaller groups while foraging for food. We stopped and hunched down, but couldn’t see anything. Still, we had our devices out to record the sounds. No threat calls were being made, so we hadn’t been spotted. A rustling above us signaled one of the adult bonobos was foraging in our area. They were being communicative today, after their lazy silence yesterday when we’d first observed them. I motioned for Elizabeth to go in one direction while I would crawl in another, so we could see if one of us could make visual contact.
Creeping low through the brush, I came upon three of the adults with one of the juveniles, eating some fruit. They were high enough in the trees that my presence hadn’t been made known, and I sat obscured and made a video of them. My eyes, sharp now in this new body, took in their overall health and interactions. They were smaller than their chimp cousins, more compact, but muscular. Their coats were shiny and lush, their eyes, teeth, and limbs displaying steady nutrition and no disease. They were bonded with each other, and there was no aggression occurring at the moment. Bonobos rarely engaged in threat behavior, unlike chimps. The female who seemed in charge of this small foraging group was affectionately patting the youngster, and the males were allowing each other to eat rather than bicker over who got the food. I wondered what Elizabeth was seeing, but didn’t want to move yet and alarm them. Eventually they made their way off further into the trees. I stood up with a fluidity I had not yet gotten used to, and quietly walked in the direction Elizabeth had taken. I came upon her still hunched in a crouch and quickly assumed the same position. She wordlessly pointed upward and I saw she had found the other group that had been foraging. She whispered to me that she had been able to film a male and female engaging in sexual conflict resolution, and I was eager to see the video. These bonobos were behaving in normal, natural ways, and, while this was not surprising, it was exciting.
We conferred for a moment. Should we follow them farther into the forest? I decided we should, but we would stay a little way behind them and listen to their travel calls to determine where they were. We walked deeper into the forest, putting aside our fear from the day before, when we heard someone in the distance shouting our names. It was a woman’s voice, and it sounded hysterical. We snapped to a stop, and the bonobos ahead of us began to make threat calls, having heard the cries.
“Marilyn?” I asked Elizabeth, and she nodded, her face ashen.
We quickly made our way in the direction the voice was coming from, hurrying through the brush that lashed at our faces. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins. Was she hurt? What had happened? Elizabeth redirected us so that we were going toward the station, calling out to me that we would get lost if we didn’t go back. I was moving much faster than she was, and ordered myself to slow down. We didn’t hear Marilyn calling anymore, and my terror intensified. Worst-case scenarios were playing out in my mind, and when we arrived back at the station we saw the guys running through the brush toward us.
“What happened?!” I called out to them, but they were shaking their heads in response.
Where was she?
“Fan out, try to find her!” I called, but then realized I might be sending them into greater danger by doing this. Too late to call them back: they had already scattered.
Whatever was out there might … But I couldn’t think that way. My team’s safety was paramount. We didn’t have to go far, because Marilyn came stumbling through the trail’s brush soon after, running and tripping over herself to get to us as quickly as she could. Nick ran into the station and brought out the first-aid kit, and Marilyn sat down in the dirt and was staring blankly around her, unresponsive to our worried questions. Her perfectly coifed hair was in disarray, and dirt smudged her face and arms, but otherwise she seemed unharmed. While the others were prodding her for answers, I slowly manipulated her limbs, checked her vitals with a stethoscope from the first-aid bag, and determined she was in mild shock but was otherwise OK. Nick had brought some water, and Marilyn obediently drank it through stiff fingers and wooden lips, but I thought it was a good sign.
She was clutching her computer, her fingers white with the force of her grip. Elizabeth gently pried it from her fingers, but Marilyn didn’t seem to notice. She hadn’t spoken yet, so I ushered everyone to stand back from her and allow her room to breathe. Her eyes were wide and frantically scanning the trees as if expecting something to come after her. Luke was watching the tree line too, frowning. I didn’t ask what he was thinking. My focus was on getting Marilyn to stand and come into the station. We could try and get some answers from her inside the safety of the cabin. I motioned for Elizabeth to help me get her on her feet, and slowly we made our way up the stairs into the station. It was cooler inside, and without the humidity that had made breathing difficult in the midst of our fear. We sponged Marilyn’s face, and she seemed to relax a bit more. I knelt in front of her and got her to focus on my face.
“Tell us what happened out there,” I said gently, and Nick confirmed she didn’t have any outward injuries. He had stealthily examined her further after I had listened to her chest. She opened her mouth to speak, then shook her head and closed it again. Elizabeth handed me Marilyn’s computer.
“Look at the recording.” Her voice was chilling.
I watched some benign footage of a trail coming back from the large pond the hippos were occupying. Marilyn made a few comments about the state of the water and soil surrounding it. Then she fell silent and hunched down in the grass, and, before I could make out what I was seeing, something sped past her line of sight and leapt up into the trees ahead of her. I gasped involuntarily, but didn’t drop the device. What had that been? I looked up at the team; they had been watching over my shoulder. Their faces were pale, and I could only assume mine was as well.
“Slow that down so we can get a better look,” I said to Elizabeth, who silently nodded.
I dreaded what we would see. Was this the creature who had made that horrific noise the day before? Were we seeing a new species? I didn’t know yet, and I didn’t think I wanted to know. Something deep in my bones told me this was bad, bad news. Elizabeth froze a frame of video and her eyes lingered on the image before handing it back. Marilyn suddenly reached out to grab my arm, shaking her head.
“Don’t” was all she said, and I explained that we needed to figure out what we were dealing with here. I tried to sound authoritative, but failed miserably. I looked at the screen, and what I saw froze my soul. My first conclusion was that this was not an animal that had ever existed on this planet. But then I reminded myself to remain objective. I would not become a superstitious pseudo-scientist, arriving at far-fetched conclusions. But still, the blurry image suggested what I was looking at wasn’t earthly in nature. My eyes lingered over the lupine figure that was caught in mid-leap. Its head was partially human in shape, but the snout was almost wolf-like. And that’s where any similarities to any other species ended. This creature had teeth unlike any mammal I had ever seen or studied. Its hands had opposable thumbs, but the claws were almost prehistoric, long and rapier-like. Its hide was a mottled green and brown, hairless and reptilian. We’d have to go to the database to find which species this thing most closely resembled, but I was at a loss. I needed more answers from Marilyn, who was now wrapped up in a thermal shroud from the medical kit. She was blinking more, and looking directly at us, so I sensed maybe she’d be more receptive to our questions.
“Please tell us what happened out there Marilyn,” I urged quietly.
This time she nodded. Her voice was tremulous but strong as she recounted what had occurred. “I was coming back from examining the hippos. I was able to get close to the pregnant female. She was looking really good, and I couldn’t wait to tell you guys. I put some vitamins in their water. None of them were aggressive toward me. I was so proud. So I was coming back and I heard a sound behind me and I just knew…. I knew I had to get down on the ground as fast as I could. It was instinct. That something behind me was … was going to kill me if I didn’t hide. And I knew it wasn’t anything that was supposed to be in this jungle.”
She gripped my hand at that statement, and repeated it to me directly. “It’s not supposed to be in this jungle. Do you understand?”
Her voice took on a frantic edge, and we worked to calm her down before she proceeded with the rest of her tale. “I knew I should at least keep my computer recording. I had to have proof, didn’t I? If I just came back, still alive, and told you all I had merely thought something was out there … Well, I knew you’d all laugh.”
We assured her nothing of the sort would have happened, but let her continue.
“And then it ran past me. This video doesn’t show how fast it was, though. It was faster … faster than anything possibly could be. And then it jumped. It jumped so fast and so high I barely registered it. And I thought maybe I was losing my mind. Because what on Earth could do such a thing?”
She laughed hysterically, and I thought about slapping her, but decided against it. Elizabeth shook her by the shoulders, though, and that seemed to bring her around.
“So there it was, on video. And you can barely see it, but I saw it. I saw it firsthand. And I know I haven’t gone insane. It was real. But—Mina. You lived here a long time ago. You know more than we do about things that might have existed before we did. What was it? What is that thing? And what does it want?”
I was silent. I told myself I was processing her information, but it was much more than that. I was feeling my tenuous grasp on what had become my new reality beginning to slip away, and it was selfish of me. It was purely self-serving, but I didn’t want my new chances at a career and a relationship to be hindered in any way. And I felt badly for thinking only of that, and not the well-being of my team, or of the rest of the population that lay not far from this forest. But in that moment, it was all about my own fears and desires.
I cleared my throat and suggested we all stay inside until Cayman arrived.
“We should call someone, at the Facility. Tell them to get us out of here and that we’re never coming back,” Luke declared, and I saw on the faces of the others that they agreed.
“We need to remain professional, and also safe. And I think we should keep this video to ourselves for now,” I replied, sensing this was a delicate situation.
Until then, no one had been injured. No one was in imminent danger that I could ascertain, and I stressed this fact to my team. They warily agreed, and we went to the console to further scrutinize the video feed. We spent several hours combing through as much data as we could. Through billions of years of evolution, we searched for any animal that might resemble whatever this mystery species was. But to no avail.
Marilyn had calmed down enough to join us, offering more insight into what she had observed as she crouched in the bushes, fearing for her life. I would go home and find Adam immediately, rather than try to contact someone in charge at the Facility. If they were covering something up, I wouldn’t get any answers from them. But Adam might have more insight he’d be able to share. He seemed willing to complain about his job, and maybe I could exploit his unhappiness. I shared this idea with my team, and they agreed this might be best, as our only contact with the Facility was sending in our daily reports. Their faces were drawn and tired, and we were ready for Cayman to come fetch us. No one wanted to think what the next day would bring, but we had to keep up the appearance of going about our jobs. We seemed to know this instinctively. If too many people caught on that we were frightened of something out here, who knew what would happen? I felt a sinking disappointment that I likely wouldn’t be able to track the bonobo community further, but maybe getting some answers would make it safe to go out in the jungle again. I could only hope.