14 Chapter 14 Religious Purists (1/2)
”Here, take this personal device.I'm going to see if I can get any info from it,” she said, shoving it at him.
He backed away, wondering what she tricks she had learned while living with them, to get them to talk.As far as he knew, getting anything from one was like pulling teeth, and since they didn't have teeth…
It stared at her, obviously not sure what she was about to do.
She tucked her hands into her armpits, and took a wide stance with her knees bent and her feet pointing out.Dustin gaped at her.Was this some kind of joke?Doing the chicken dance was supposed to get them to talk?He knew that they were bird people, but still!
As she high stepped towards it, she would pause with one foot in the air, and turn her head to look at the hunter out of one eye.Dustin looked from her to it, and was amazed to see a look of fear come over its face.No way in hell this was working?!
As she finally got close enough to kiss it, if she wanted, she said, ”I haven't killed anything today.”
It pissed itself.Dustin had to turn away.He was going to bust something trying not to laugh.All the suspense of the past couple of moments, to have the chicken dance terrify the big bad hunter was too much.
”Where did you learn that?” it asked in a terrified whisper.
”From Master Ghaou.” She straightened up, letting her hands fall to her sides, and grinned.”Tell me about the space port, or I will start my quota today with you.”
”The AI sentry analyzes our personal devices to see if we have evolved in the past 24 hours.Since we have a time limit of 20 hours to check back in, that ensures no prisoners escape.There is a grey zone, where initial entry will initiate the sentry guns, to give the hunters time to deal with any potential tagalongs.”
”And if you don't check in before the 20-hour limit?”
”It is assumed we are dead.”
Dustin busied himself, turning the meat near the fire.It was starting to smell good, and he didn't want it to burn.He had to do something to keep from butting questions in.
”How do you arrange transport on and off the planet?” she asked, her voice a strange monotone, as if she were talking to a classroom of boring teenagers.
”None of you have ever escaped.Our security is overseen by some of our best hunters.You would never get through the check point.Our personal devices log our entry into the planet, and we have to log our exit.You have no entry log.”
”So, there are shuttles that take you back and forth to a space docking station?”
”Yes.Only the Josagn are allowed on the station. If there is any sign of contaminated genetic material within you, you would be thrown out an airlock.”
A couple of bone foxes had shown up, and started a fight between some of the three-tailed foxes over the tongue.Apparently, his venom was short lived after killing his prey.Grimacing at the memory, he decided they were welcome to it.
”How far does the sentry stretch from the shuttle bay?” she continued, still in that annoying tone of voice.He was starting to get fed up with it, but managed to ignore it by focusing on the action between the small predators.
”Only half a mile.Though it is set to kill anything that is not a Josagn within that area.Your PED's should not be capable of evolving with our genetic material.All of this talk is a waste of your time.”
”Why can't our PED's use your genetic material?” Her voice changed.She was obviously surprised by this concept.
”Where do you think your human government got the technology from?” it asked in a condescending tone.