Chapter 15: Achraf

Kutch asked Safo Nur to stay back, he knew that if even an autonomous turret at the entrance was old it still could injure inexperienced intruders. It was easy for him, his long-distance knife control gave him an upper hand over the machine. Yet, he kept vigilance in case the folk inside turned out to be hostile.

His experience as a hunter paid off, he crept up near the entrance and listened. His animal senses were on alert, however, after about 10 minutes of observing he noticed nothing. No sound, no trace of the living person inside. Next thing was to check the interior himself. Kutch tossed the small rock which was annihilated in a second by gunfire. Autonomous automatic gun, perfect guard. Needs no sleep, food, or break. Powered by the sun, it can work forever. Tough opponent.

Kutch held two of his throwing knives, they were matte black. He threw one after another but they were shut down in an instant. For Kutch though it was the end, his resource was the power of telekinesis, he lifted the knives controlling them with his mind, and made them fly towards the turret. And again knives were sent to fly back by the impact that came out in a flash. The autonomous turret spent no time thinking, it recognized any moving subject as a potential threat and shot it down mercilessly.

Kutch didn’t give up just yet, with the swing of his hand he threw one more knife up to the sky and in an instant manipulated the other two knives, that were resting on the floor, fly towards the metal enemy. Which in his turn, also was adamant about securing the cave. It shot two beams and knocked down the knives in front of him and raised its barrel to throw the falling knife just before it could land on the turret's frame. Knives versus Turret - 0:3. The confrontation continued for a while, Kutch lost every round, he used up all of his moves.

Non-stop usage of his ability along with thinking over the new strategy took its toll. Kutch started to get tired of losing. He sat down to rest for a bit. He was behind a big boulder all this time peaking through the little hole. He dived deep into his memories to recall a moment in his hunting experience that could be helpful in his position.

“Of course, how could I be that stupid?!” He finally had a solution. He remembered his teacher at school talking about this type of weaponry, the old models had one common issue. The owner had to input into the system who is the enemy and who is not, to avoid friendly fire.

In no time, Kutch was exploring the cave. “How did you kill this thing? I heard that it was relentlessly shooting.” Safo wondered, he would’ve loved to see the battle but unfortunately Kutch told him not to.

“Haha. I used my brain.” Kutch puffed his chest pointing his finger to his head. “We had a lesson about old mode turrets. One should input what to shoot - a target, before installing those things, you know. But it didn't shut down everything in his proximity, it ignored the big rocks and boulders. So I just moved the boulder at him, then I slipped behind and cut it open. Your mind is your best weapon, learn and remember while I’m around.” Kutch was very proud of himself. He, definitely, was to brag about his achievement to his sister and probably to everyone he knew.

The cave was about 30 meters deep, 5 meters wide, comfortably cool, and dark. Surprisingly though, it was furnished with a bed, a tank with ice functioning as a fridge, a stove, two chairs, and a table. The odd thing that Kutch pointed out was the fact that a picture of a happy family was hanging on top of the fridge. Red, almost dark crimson, skinned trio, supposedly parents with a daughter. Their appearance was close to humans except for skin color and ears, they had no ears. Instead, it was a bump of slightly lighter hue skin, with microspores to absorb the sound.

The family was posing in front of a pink and foamy waterfall. Both parents leaned down to hug their daughter, which was around her teenage years. Father, a skinny man with a bushy black mustache, all of his teeth were shining in a large smile. Mother and daughter were almost look-alikes, beautiful, even for Safo Nur who was mostly into humans for now. Long and straight dark hair, elegant red iris, and the warmest smile. Love oozed out of the picture, making both Kutch and Safo Nur miss their loved ones.

“They look like good people, I hope they wouldn’t be mad at us if we eat some of their food. I will help them hunt tomorrow.” Kutch said, looking at dozens of ant queens and 50 or so big ants covered by ice. Whoever from that picture lived in that cave had only ant queens in their diet. Kutch was too hungry to think about manners.

Safo Nur was on the same page so didn’t mind. It took 10 minutes for Kutch to grill the fat and juicy white insects. They gobbled 7 in total, leaving 4 more for the master of the house. It was already sunset outside so the duo expected them to come anytime soon.

At only a few kilometers away from the 4-meter metal construction was moving, on its 4 long but strong legs at a steady pace. It was inside of the half-destroyed pit, picking up big ants with its two lengthenings “arms”. The mustached man was controlling the apparatus sitting at the top of a spider. There were two sits, actually, and the second one was occupied by O’rmon, Kutch’s older sister.

“I wonder what an awful disaster unfolded here. I can only hope that your brother and his friend are fine. I will pick up only boulder ants today, I don’t want to give more trouble to this colony by stealing their queens. I have some at home.” The mustached man’s name was Achraf, he was the pilot of the 4-meter tall metal spider. His ship crashed on this planet as well, and he was stuck there for the past 6 years. He saw another ship entering the atmosphere and hurried for help. Unfortunately, by the time he came close to the ship he saw that it also was destroyed. There he met with O’rmon, two pilots who had a lot of common to talk about. They agreed to help each other with parts, to make one working transport. Achraf invited her to his cave to feed her, and they left a note for Kutch and Safo.

“I’m sorry for making trouble for you. It isn’t necessary, I’m sure my brother could hunt something. I would’ve been fine even on a ship, it’s too embarrassing to bother you by gathering food for me.” For a strong woman like herself, it was not an easy thing to rely on a stranger. From a young age, she was used to taking care of herself and a little brother all by herself. Still, she understood that Achraf was better informed about this environment and it would be stupid of her not to take his help.

“Don’t say that, I’m more than happy to meet other people here. It has been 6 years, I and my daughter were here all alone. Tomorrow, after making sure that your brother and friend are fine and fed, we will start the reconstruction of our ships. You are my savior here, remember.” Achraf gave her a warm smile, which was returned by another grateful smile from O’rmon.

After the dinner full of proteins, Kutch and Safo Nur were resting on chairs chatting about events happening on Earth and a little bit about New Tenga. It was then when Kutch heard a familiar voice of his sister. “What? How did she manage to find us here?” He stood up to meet her.

After some time and some apologies for the damaged turret all for laughing at their lucky meeting. Achraf brought his catch to make them a good ant broth soup and freeze shocked. He stared into the tank, his facial expression was not one of happiness. It was obvious for Kutch and Safo that Achraf didn’t like the fact that they used all of his ant queens.

“Yeah, sorry about that, We were starving so even those fat insects looked drooling. No worries though, I’m a renowned hunter, I’ll catch them all if you want. Haha.” Awkward silence enveloped the cave.

“What have you done?! You ate my daughter!” Achraf shouted at them angrily, his face twitched in sadness and rage. “How could you? There were so many ants! You, fools! You ate my daughter. I will kill you all!” With that, he pulled out of his pocket a blaster.

Kutch, O’rmon, and Safo Nur were at the gunpoint, in a panic they immediately raised their hands. “Wait, wait. Only ant queens, we ate only ant queens. We didn’t see your daughter, I swear Teng star.” Kutch tried to calm down the man. At the same time, he readied his knives just in case his plan failed.

“Please Achraf, we aren’t like that. Put down your gun, let’s talk. We can all go search for your daughter.” Calm, kind person that O’rmon met was gone by now, Achraf’s white sclera was all red from the blood veins.

“Hi daddy, I’m alive. So nice to see you again.”

Everyone froze and turned at Safo Nur who just said unbelievably rude things in a terrible moment. He not only said those words but he mimicked the behavior and tone of a girl. He waved his arms like a girl, he stood like a girl and sounded like a girl. His method of releasing the tension was more like a mocking, at that very moment. Kutch and O’rmon also didn’t appreciate his effort.

Achraf started shooting, as if it was a warning he fired upwards towards the ceiling of the cave. Madly. “Get out of my place! Get out! I will kill you if I see you again, bastard.” His misty eyes blocked the vision, tears flew down. He screamed and yelled, his sadness was boundless. His chest hurt, his knees softened and he fell on the ground crying.