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

and then push, re-shovel and then push, until finally the top of the drift collapsed. Now, he could climb out. He turned the thrusters to stasis before climbing up through the snow then onto the top of the drift. Once there, he shoveled the drift from the top of his spaceship and cleared a space around the outside of it. On the back side of the ship, water ran from the snow the thrusters had melted.
He had been so intent on getting the ship out that he hadn’t looked around him. Once he did so, Traveller saw a land transformed into a beautiful montage of color. White-covered green trees, white-dusted red rock, and white sand dunes pushed against light brown rock formations created what for him was a surrealistic landscape set against a bruised sky. It was as if he had been transported to another planet. And then it came to him. A cougar will leave imprints with his paws in this. Maybe I can find one by following its tracks.
Traveller hurried into his spaceship. He elevated out of the drift to fly north over the ridge and then flew down the slope searching for a suitable landing site. A rock outcropping with plenty of room for his ship appeared as he flew back to the east. The natural canopy would provide shelter from the snow so he circled around, engaged the thrusters, and landed underneath it.
Traveller got out of the ship before putting the snow shoes on. He headed uphill. The dark rapidly approached as he powered up the slope until he found a game trail. He snow-shoed slowly east along it. When he picked up the scent of a cougar, the head lamp was turned on. Walking farther east with the light on the trail, he spotted a set of tracks that crossed the path and led up into rocks. The scent of the lion was stronger with each step up the slope.
The tracks led up through a passageway in the rocks then onto a small plateau with several junipers. Traveller turned the lamp off before he slowed his walk to a crouching crawl staying behind the trees. When he got to the edge of the vegetation, he spotted a mountain lion lying in a cave looking down at him. Being face to face with a ferocious predator brought a feeling of terrifying awe.
It snarled when he flipped his light on. Traveller kept the beam on the cat as he took several shots with his digital camera. The cat became nervous then agitated. When it growled and walked around, Traveller sensed its aggression. He turned his light off and slipped back through the trees.

Traveller awoke early the next morning. He used the laser to heat some water for instant coffee. Two teaspoons of Folgers with the same amount of sugar brought him eye-poppingly awake. A couple of synthowafers later, he left the spaceship as the sky began to change from black to grey.
Traveller snow-shoed back up the mountain. When he arrived at the junipers, a strong feline scent came from ahead and to the east of him. It immediately started to fade telling him that the puma (another name for a catamount) was heading away eastward to the base of the cliffs. He followed the smell until he came to a game trail. Once there Traveller stopped to survey the area ahead of him. A glimpse of a black tipped tail told him that the cat was just ahead.
Now the smell of deer reached his nostrils. It strengthened as the small herd headed his way. He hurried forward sensing that the mountain lion lay in ambush somewhere on the trail before him.
At the top of a slight ridge, he saw the cougar crouched on a tall boulder lying near the edge of the path. When the deer filed past, the cat jumped on the back of a large doe. Clutching the deer on either side with its claws sunk deep into its hide, blood spurted red streaks as the animal jumped to get away. The claws raked long gashes across the deer's ribs, but it managed to free itself momentarily.
The cougar lunged after the bleeding doe, sinking large canines into the animal's back haunches. The deer went down. Again the cougar lunged, this time for the neck. It sunk its teeth deep into the doe's spinal chord. A vigorous shake ended the struggle. The deer's eyes clouded over. Its life ended with the spasmodic twitching of four legs.
Traveller had become so engrossed in watching the life and death struggle that he had forgotten to photograph it. As he watched the cougar pull its prey up into the rocks, he remembered. Lization! By the universe! What is wrong with me? It was too late to get a picture of anything but the cat disappearing into the rocks. With bitter disappointment, he returned to his ship.

Once inside the confines of his pod, Traveller took his coat and snow shoes off. Angry at himself, he threw the snow shoes haphazardly into the cargo hold. A slithering movement accompanied by a rattling sound ensued. I forgot about Fang. Jesse was so shocked when I draped him around my neck. That was funny. Thinking of Jesse triggered his memory. My friends might come today. I need to get back to the campsite.
Excited, Traveller plopped in the pilot's seat, engaged the thrusters, and then slowly moved out from under the rock canopy. The ship shot straight out away from the mountain before turning west. He followed the highway to Ward's store then veered north toward Pomerelle. Several herds of deer appeared as moving dots on the white snow as they migrated to the lower elevations.
Traveller moved slowly westward, observing the changes the snow had wrought on the landscape below. Green pine trees sat frosted in white snow. The highways made black snakes twisting on the white carpeted terrain. The creek edged by red willows meandered in a trail of color on the white surface. What an acroluminous change! he thought and then he remembered. Putting the ship on autopilot, he retrieved the digital camera from the cargo hold to take several freeze frame shots of Earth's painted surface. Click, click, each click a masterpiece wrought by the Universe.
He flew toward Elba before cutting north, and then the ship was elevated above the mountains. Soon Pomerelle came into view with tree-lined ski runs twisting through the dark green arrows that pointed skyward. Cutting back toward the west, Traveller spotted the campsite.
Circling in the air, the approach was made from the east. Stablizer bars were extended to make landing skids. I don't want to use the thrusters and bury myself in the snow. He slowed the ship to a crawl setting down parallel to the ground. The craft skidded through an opening in the trees stopping where he judged the campsite to be.

Traveller's friends didn't show up that day. He spent the afternoon studying or watching T.V. The next morning, he started reading Hermanne Hesse's Siddhartha. It was slow going. After a few minutes he gave up.
Dressed in snowshoes and his down coat, Traveller left the spaceship. The sky, dark and grey, filled with snowflakes that became progressively thicker. Wading in the deep snow brought the realization that neither Lori's van nor Tim's V.W. were suitable vehicles for storm travel. He returned to his ship to wait the storm out knowing they wouldn't be able to visit him today or for several days.

The snow let up late that evening. The next morning, Traveller dug the spaceship out of the snow again before engaging the lifters. He flew back to Jim Sage Mountain. When he arrived at the rock outcropping, it was surrounded by drifts but the ground underneath was bare. Traveller flew toward it then cut the engines and engaged the reverse thrusters to slow the space craft. He cut all power to the thrusters and engines before extending the stablizers. The ship skidded on top of the snow then burst through a snowdrift coming to rest under the rock canopy. That was fun. I am learning how to fly this thing!
Traveller's plan was to spend five days photographing cougars. He would read and study in the daytime, hunt for mountain lions in the mornings and evenings. He found a book called Siddhartha and started reading.
The first chapters explained that Siddhartha, a young, handsome Brahmin, mastered the wisdom and religion of his village at an early age. Despite learning the thoughts of his elders, he remained dissatisfied. He yearned for enlightenment, feeling that the village wise men had yet to achieve that lofty goal. The young prince decided not to follow in his father's footsteps, but to seek something deeper than the customs and traditions of the Hindu religion. So it is that he decides to go on a spiritual journey, a quest for nirvana.
Traveller empathized with Siddhartha. In a sense, he had done the same thing. His father had expected him to become a geneticist, but he had found that vocation boring. He wanted adventure and so had sneaked onto one of the space pods sent to explore Earth. His quest had also become one of searching for truth and enlightenment. A mutlitude of thoughts plagued him now that he was learning about a new world.Chapter 21 - A Deadly Predator

The deer moved down to the lower elevations of Jim Sage Mountain after the storms. The temperature moved above freezing melting the snow at 5,500 feet and below. There were four mountain lions on Jim Sage. A large male, two smaller females, and young male barely a year old. The lions stayed at the higher elevations except to hunt. At morning and night they descended to stalk their prey.
Traveller had spent most of the week tracking cougars. Although remaining quiet and calm, he caught only a few glimpses of the cats. His scent rested heavily upon the snow-packed upper reaches of the mountain. It wasn't until Thursday that he realized that the cougar's prey had migrated to their winter grounds in the valley and foothills.
That morning, his excitement grew as he ate his synthowafers washing them down with coffee. When he finished, Traveller put on his down coat, slung on a day pack, hung the camera around his neck, opened the door and shuffled across the sand in his snowshoes.

***

While Traveller remained ignorant of the lions' whereabouts, they were well aware of his prescence at all times. They had familiarized themselves with his odor. His clumsy attempts to track them with snowshoes on while walking in the heavy snow were futile. They simply circled around him.
The largest male made a kill that morning in the willows that banked Cassia Creek. He had waited by the water until an older fawn had come to drink and then pounced on it for an easy kill. The females had also made successful hunts earlier in the week dragging the uneaten portion of their carcasses uphill where they wouldn't be bothered.
The young male cat hadn't been successful for days. His mother, one of the females, allowed him to pick over the remains of her kill, but there was little flesh left by the time she allowed him to gnaw on the bones. The larger cat kept the young cougar clear away from his carcass.
Although the young cat had made several attempts to bring down a deer, his hunts had been clumsy and fruitless. Desperate, the youngster's hunger caused him to seek easier prey. He had seen an awkward animal shuffling through the snow several times. He had even followed the strange creature back to its lair. It always entered and exited on the same path. Although its scent was alien,