The Cliffs of Utpala: Chapter Two

Chapter One
Chapter Two:

Kyra couldn't seem to decide whether to shuffle forward, drawing out her walk home, or stride purposefully. It seemed to be a metaphor her life right now. She knew where she would probably end up, but she was not overly happy about it.
She didn't know whether she should rush to it or drag her heels.

Cold and frustrating with a direction, but one not really desired. The cold was biting now as the sun started to get low. It wasn't sun set just yet, but she was far enough out she needed to reach the settlement before dark. There were more than the tigers the Republic of India's Extraterrestrial Settlement and Ecology Ministry had released: wolves were here, too, and while no one had been attacked, there had been some scary moments for a few colonists.

Actually, more terrifyingly, were the pigs. ESEM had created the mega goats, the local white tigers and the snow wolf to create an ecology humans could live in. There were numerous other animals as well, the mountain locust and the ice worm and the snow beetle and white bee were all examples. However, most of the animals and some of the plants were not meant for human consumption. They were more supporting actors in the hybrid highland ecology being created. However, like the mega goats, ESEM had created the wooly pig.

The wooly pig was derived from a genetically engineered Mangalica pig of Hungary, but it was tailored to have a number of traits from the Tibetan pig. Both breeds had adaptations to the cold. Together, it was thought, those traits would be great for a pig for Utpalan settlement. They were right. The wooly pig or Utpalan pig did pretty well with the wooly coat of the Mangalica, improved upon, of course, and the special genes to produce brown fat from the tibetan. It was entirely possible to have a porcine wool sweater made from the herds.

However, some escaped. Those that escaped could eat anything: pigs are omnivores, like people. However, the goats and native life did a better job of eating the local plant life and the gengineered Karakul sheep got most of the rest. Occasionally, a feral wooly pig would get into the fields, but the drones would often tag, bag and bring down the offending porcine. However, once, out in the dark, a sounder of pigs ambushed old man Ganesh and, well, it wasn't pretty. Pigs could eat anything, after all.

Thinking of old man Ganesh's fate, she decided she needed to pick up her pace: even if she did, she wouldn't be home until an hour after sunset. Her mother was going to be furious.

She set her undergarmet to soak up her sweat and sequester it in a cache. The salt and other bits, oils, etc. would be placed in a waste pocket. The water would be in somewhere useful so she could sip it when she got too warm. Warm! Ha! Someone could still get thirty when running even in the cold. She wasn't going to run, but rather broke into a slow job. Faster than a fast walk, but slower and safer than a run: her path did have ice on it.

She also set her jacket to watch for anything large: her jacket was old a year old and made of the newest smart fabric out of Bengaluru. Or the newest as of a year ago. She needed to focus on the job home, but couldn't watch the path and everything around at the same time. She knew it was highly unlikely, but she didn't want to share old man Ganesh's fate.

So, she jogged. It would look better to her mother if she was a little winded anyways. She could plead she had just wandered further than she thought and came back as fast as she could. She'd grab a ride if she saw someone. Not likely at this time, except maybe a hunter, but she could hope. She wasn't going to say her porcinophobia had even more to do with it than angering her mother.

Off she went, making good time, she was still going to be back after dark, but far, far sooner than if she had simply strolled. Her movement kept her busy. Her mind was focused on the road and its icy patches. The bots would be back in the predawn morning to heat and clear the route once again.

On and on she went, in the fading light. Her breath puffed and swirled like the smoke from a dragon's nostrils. On and on, she ran. She felt her perspiration whisked away as fast as it came. To be honest, her run from the drifts and into the frosted lands and to the farm fields was not very eventful at all. Fortunately, the road had enough icy patches she had to pay attention: otherwise her fears of a gruesome death might have been more dangerous to her than the pigs themselves. Fear often drove people to run from things or embrace ideas that were actually far more dangerous than the original problem. Fear could be a far deadly killer than any pig.

To be fair, the wooly pigs had been known to grow to a full metric ton, but those were really rare and if one had grown that big out in the wild, no one had ever seen it. Not the people. Not the bots. Not the drones. Not the satellites. So it was almost assuredly not out there. However, again, the fear...in the cold. In the dark. Alone. On an alien world.

Someone would think pigs would be the scariest thing, but on Utpala, the native life figured out people and Earthlife just tasted bad. Yes, they were edible, but there were far, far better tasting things. The local equivalent of a mosquito would even turn its nose up at a human. Ironic, because humans were perfectly edible for them. They just didn't like the taste. To be sure, in that forest she'd eyed, there were critters that were dangerous: sap adders, which weren't really snakes, after all, how many snakes drank the sap of, well, sorta trees; Laalpair always leap and bit; and the great blaaloo wasn't really a bear, but it could take a swipe at someone really easily. And that would end badly.

The sun was setting and she still had another couple kilometers to go. The sunsets were beautiful and pure in their high altitudal way. She also had on her sun glasses so they filtered the light so she'd not hurt her eyes. She sighed. All this she had and she wondered how much more there was on Earth. In New Delhi, in Bengaluru, in Hyderabad. So much more than Utpala.

She made it to the edge of the fields when her coat chirruped and she looked up. Arjun was barreling down at her. Or rather in parallel to her, since he was not actually on the road: he was on the robo sled. He pulled across the road and pointed himself back to the village.

He turned and smirked, "Your mom is as furious. She's been asking everyone if they'd seen you." He then reached out a hand and just had to say it, "Come with me if you want to live." Wildly out of date popculture was his source of humor. At least this time, he wasn't singing to her. That could get really annoying: he couldn't carry a note. He was so badly off key, it wasn't even remotely a key, it was a lock.

She rolled her eyes and climbed aboard. She'd get back even faster this way. She buckled up and away they went.

He was tactful enough to drop her off a block away, so her mother wouldn't hear the robosled. He waved and after returning the gesture, she scurried. She was going to be in trouble no matter what: she'd turned off her tracker. There were ways to override that, but being late for dinner was not one of reasons to do so.

She stomped off the snow from her boots and set her outwear to their neutral, default settings and in she went. Into the bright light of the entryway, all but an airlock to keep out the cold. She wasn't worried about the cold or the pigs anymore. She was worried about the flaming reproach her mother was about to give her.

She shucked and sighed and went in.

Right into the petrifying gaze of her mother...