Traveller - L.W. Samuelson (free e books to read online TXT) 📗

strange visitor had gone. He looked around for several minutes before spotting Traveller running rapidly up the hill behind his shop. It astounded him to see his visitor running up the hill far faster than was humanly possible.Chapter 20 - Catamounts

Traveller lifted off the ground elevating above the hill to head eastward again. He followed what he now knew to be Highway 77 toward the small hamlet of Malta. It was not long before he spotted Jim Sage Mountain. A ridge ran along its top. Traveller turned south then elevated to 10,000 mezures.
In the valley below him, Traveller caught glimpses of a creek meandering through the green fields that lined the valley. Dense vegetation obscured most of the waterway. To the south of the small valley, hills rose up to become mountains. On the slopes cattle grazed.
Following the contour of the mountain, he could see the pinion-pines and junipers that covered the slopes to where the shale and rock formed a skirmish line holding the trees back. The upper slopes sat wild and windswept. At the top, rocky cliffs with red-tinted rock outcroppings lined the high desert plateau. A small herd of deer walked along the trail at the base of the cliffs. Traveller traveled the ridge until it ended then circled back in an attempt to spot a catamount. I have to see one of the tawny creatures that were in the pictures. I will photograph it and send a picture back to Ship then they will see I am not a total failure. Then he remembered. They hunt at dawn and dusk during the gloaming part of the day. I will set the ship down and wait.
He found a suitable place to land on the plateau to the south of the cliffs. The wind rocked his ship causing it to wobble as it landed. The buffeting continued, so he elevated again. The ship continued on to the west until Traveller spotted a large rock jutting from the plateau. On its east side, sand had swirled into a wind-protected beach where he sat the spaceship down again. Traveller cut the engines as the wind howled around him.
He checked his watch to see that it was three-thirty in the afternoon. He rummaged through the sack of books in the cargo hold to find Animal Farm by George Orwell. The novel began with Old Major, the hog, lecturing against humans, calling them parasites because they live off the labor of farm animals. When Old Major dies, two other hogs take over the leadership of the barnyard animals. The new leaders, Snowball and Napoleon, lead a revolt to drive the drunken farm’s owner, Mr. Jones away. When they succeed, seven commandments are written. The last one states the all animals are equal.
Traveller enjoyed the author’s imagination. Imagine a world in which animals are in charge. He thought of his own home world where Lemmings had destroyed all but a few animals and even those were confined to cages to make room for the ever-increasing numbers of Lemmings. Eventually, Traveller tired of reading. He closed his eyes and dozed.
An hour later, the sun sat just above the mountains in the west. Traveller exited his space ship to walk up and across the plateau with his digital camera in hand. When he got to the top of the ridge, the game trail at its base came into view. The sun sank rapidly as he walked quickly along the edge of the cliff peering down. The adrenaline caused by his excitement coursed through his body.
Traveller stopped, sniffed the air. The scent of deer emanated from the trail below. They came into view trotting west through the trees that lined the path. There was also another scent, an unfamiliar one. He heard rocks clatter. Something caused the deer to bolt from the trail down the side of the mountain but nothing came into view behind them.
Traveller stayed on the ridge and resumed his walk to the east. The dark gathered around him making it impossible to see. A loud, terrifying, howling screech sounded on the north slope of the mountain startling him. The scent of blood reached his nose.
Realizing the danger of the dark, he pulled the headlamp out of his daypack, switched it on and started back, leaving the edge of the ridge. Traveller’s bitter disappointment at not seeing a catamount accompanied him back to the spaceship.
Inside the ship, he made several synthowafer and peanut butter sandwiches placing them on the console near his seat before opening Animal Farm to resume his read. Napoleon and Snowball were competing for leadership of the other animals. Napoleon gains an advantage by training an army of farm dogs. Snowball is banished, while those animals who oppose Napoleon’s rule are killed. Boxer the horse tells everyone that Napoleon is always right.
As Napoleon consolidates his power, he becomes ever more corrupt. He and the other pigs break their own commandments or change them when it suits them. Napoleon takes to wearing a uniform, sleeps in a bed, and drinks alcohol, activities that were once forbidden by the commandments. The more power the pig gains the more corrupt he becomes. Traveller could predict the train wreck to come. He closed the book to wonder why he hadn’t been able to spot a mountain lion. He was sure he had smelled and heard one.
I was too excited. Maybe they smelled my adrenaline and sensed danger. If I walk slower and keep calm, I will have a better chance of seeing one. He turned his view screen on to watch television as he ate his synthowafer sandwiches.

The next morning, Traveller awoke early while only the stars and the crescent moon broke the black of night. He dressed, stuffing the camera in the inside pocket of his down coat. Once outside, the chill air bit at his exposed skin. Staying low on the southern side of the mountain, Traveller walked eastward behind the ridge with his headlamp on. The rock ledge slowly dwindled with the slope also gradually diminishing. The light of the sun pushed the dark away as he moved around the mountain to the other side.
With the headlamp off, Traveller walked slowly to the west, through the trees that dotted the landscape. He thought back to what Porter had always stressed. He tried to stay calm. Breathe in deeply, let the air out slowly, feel the tension leave. He actually stopped moving to relax.
The light gradually increased until the tip of the sun peaked over the distant mountains. Traveller placed each step carefully so as not to make noise. When he broke through a copse of trees, a strong odor of blood assaulted his nostrils. Turning his attention to the source of the smell, a brown mass of movement captured his eyes. A tawny cat was dragging the gutted carcass of a deer through the trees. The mountain lion’s long tail swished back and forth while its jaws firmly clenched the doe’s neck.
The lion was just entering the trees when Traveller snapped his first picture. He waited until the camera adjusted the frame for a close-up before pressing the button on top. The cat turned its head just in time for its fierce yellow eyes to be captured in a digital reproduction of the moment. Two more shots and the cat adjusted the weight of the dead deer and carried it off into the trees. I did it! That was far out!

Back inside the spaceship, Traveller activated the computer. Experimentation coupled with following the screen instructions allowed him to download the pictures of the mountain lion into the ship’s database. He brought the picture up on the view screen. The golden morning sunlight reflected off of the green trees with the tan lion and tawny deer’s hide juxtaposed against the red flesh of the kill. The contrast of colors is acroluminous! Traveller studied the picture for a long time before returning to his book.
Eventually the pigs in Animal Farm replace Mr. Jones as the oppressor. They learn to walk upright, carry whips, and form an alliance with humans against the working class of both worlds. Traveller had read about societies on Lemmus whose history resembled that of Animal Farm. Whenever ruling elite sprang up in any of Lemmus’s societies, the working class was taken advantage of, oppressed. He wondered how many societies on Earth resembled the situation described in Animal Farm. By equating humans with pigs Orwell must be saying that those in power are greedy and self-serving.
The sky darkened seemingly in sympathy with Traveller’s thoughts. His mind had been dormant while on Ship. Learning a new language while contrasting his world with this one had caused him to think deeply about himself, his relationship to the world. The wind buffeted the ship as the storm blew in. Within minutes the cool autumn morning had changed into a blustery snow storm. White flakes fell on the windshield to melt into streams that traveled the clear surface. After several minutes the snow started sticking. Soon, the windshield became covered with white water crystals clinging to each other. They built up until the outside world was obscured.
Traveller decided to wait the snowstorm out. His snow-covered windshield caused him to reflect on what had obscured his own view of the universe. Orwell, from Snowball’s point of view had written that mankind puts his own interests before all creatures but himself. Yet his limited experience with humans had been the exact opposite. His friends had helped him, sheltered and clothed him, even fed him. He decided that Earth was a very complicated place.
He continued to read about the pigs’ transformation into humans until the book ended with Orwell writing that the other farm creatures watched the pigs playing cards with the men. They looked from man to pig, and from pig to man again, but could no longer tell the two species apart. This negative view of mankind troubled him, made him want to learn more about Earthlings. I wish Lori were here so she could explain how she feels about the book.

The snow stopped falling late that afternoon. The wind howling across the mountain top had caused it to drift over the rock and gather on top of his ship. Traveller could feel the weight of the snow pushing against his roof. When he tried to open the door, it opened a quarter mezure then stopped as the snow built up behind it. Manually pushing against the door proved fruitless. He re-closed it then sat back in the pilot’s seat.
Traveller turned on the five o’clock news. He watched the national and international news until the weather announcer appeared. “Our first snow storm left ten to twelve inches in Pocatello and up to three feet in the mountains. Another storm will hit the area tonight. Up to six inches is predicted for Pocatello with two feet falling in the higher elevations.” I have to get my ship out from under this snow or it will be buried for good he thought. How am I going to do that? The thrusters, turn them on and melt the snow.
Traveller engaged the thrusters adding just enough thrust to push against the snow. His spaceship was definitely stuck in what he later came to know as a snow drift.
He searched the cargo hold for something to dig with until a long handled scoop was found. Again the door was opened this time with Traveller pushing hard against it. Snow fell onto the floor of the ship. When the crack was as wide as possible, he used the scoop to shovel the snow into his ship. He shovelled for several minutes before pushing on the door again. This time snow fell down from the drift. He had to re-shovel