Space Relations Pt. 20

"That cat-woman we saw, do you think she was a meat eater?" Cruz wondered.

"Definitely." The Viking nodded. "The large eyes are signs of a predator, and also the claws. These creatures are intelligent enough to coerce us after them through various means. You'll notice that they tapped on trees to first get our attention. They used larger numbers to bring us closer, and they put a single one in front of us right before we fell into their trap. I'm surprised they're not throwing spears at us now to finish us off."

"Oh, no." Cruz replied. "If I see anybody aiming a spear at me, I'm using my blaster. I don't want to do it, of course, because I am a man of peace. But if it comes down to whether or not I will use lethal force, trust me, I won't be going down alone."

"Do you even remember which end of your plasma gun is the business end?" Thor chuckled, as he patted at the hard dirt enclosing them. "We can get out of here."

"How?" Cruz asked.

"There are exposed roots all over the ground here." Thor pointed out. "If we had to, we could use our plasma guns to cut sections of roots apart. Then we could use the roots to dig out handholds and footholds and simply climb out way out. Whoever constructed this pit built it well. They packed the soil tight to make it tougher for wildlife to get out, but they didn't make it so tough that us intelligent types would be caught for long. There is an easier way than that, though."

"Well, lay it on us, you big brute. Don't keep us in suspense, man!"

"It's only about ten feet to the top."

"So?" Cruz asked.

"So one of you can climb up on my shoulders and get out." Thor reasoned. "I'm six feet tall. You're five feet. If you're standing on my shoulders, I can push you up higher with my arms and get you out. You'll both have to go out before I do."

"Why?"

"Because I weigh two-forty. It will take the strength of both of you to pull a highly muscular and fine specimen of a man like me out."

"Ah, I see. Should we try the maneuver now?"

Thor shrugged, crouching down next to a dirt wall. As the captain watched, Cruz climbed on the big man. When Thor straightened up, Cruz had his head and shoulders out of the pit.

"Hold on a moment, Thor." Cruz said.

"What is it?" The Viking asked.

"She's still here." Cruz replied. "The cat-woman is still by the tree. She's standing up now. I must say; she looks even more tempting upright than she did when she was lying on the ground."

With his plasma gun in hand, Washington stepped up next to the two men. "Does she look threatening?"

"No, I don't think she does." Cruz answered. "She's only standing there watching me."

"Maybe you can try talking to her." Thor suggested. "Maybe they only led us into the pit because they've never seen humans before."

"I'll try it, with your permission, Captain." Cruz agreed. "Hello, there, cat-woman. I'm a human from Earth. We've come on a mission of peace to your planet, or planetoid, whatever you want to call this place. We seem to have fallen into a hole. We're going to try to get out now. If you try to hurt any of us, I'm afraid we might have to blast you. I don't want to do that, but I will if I have to. You don't happen to have any rope handy, do you? If you do, it would help matters considerably if I could use it."

"What did she say?" Washington wondered.

"Why, nothing at all." Cruz shrugged. "Wait until you see her hips, Captain. That one is voluptuous woman-beast. Will you come closer, darling? No, no she won't. She's only standing there like a furry statue."

"Captain, help me shift Cruz's feet from my shoulders to my hands." Thor requested.

Once this was done, the muscular Viking pushed the smaller man's one-hundred and fifty pounds up like an overhead press. Cruz easily scrambled out, only to turn around and sit on the edge of the pit a moment later.

"What is she doing?" Washington called out.

"She nearly ran off when she saw me coming out." Cruz replied. "Let me sit here for a couple of minutes to let her become accustomed to seeing us out and about." The man went to his hand-held computer. "I'm setting this on thermal. Oh, my! Captain, there are four more creatures lurking about in close proximity. They must be the same type as this one, based on the readings for height and weight proportions. I think they're watching us very closely at the moment."

For a short duration, Cruz did nothing but whistle a tune out loud. When nothing looked to be taking place around them, Thor pushed the Captain out, so that the black man was soon seated on the edge of the pit next to the brown man. They both observed the gray and black-striped cat-woman watching them from very nearly the original spot they'd first seen her.

Washington was intrigued by the female's very human-like form. The cat-woman had robust thighs and wide hips. If one could get past the pointed ears at the top of her head and her furry skin, her facial features were handsome and alluring. Her large eyes were especially intriguing.

"Didn't I tell you, Captain?" Cruz mentioned. "That's one hot tamale. It has to be some sort of proto-human. You know, I can't remember which Earth mythology it was, but I'm certain one of them mentioned cat people. There are all sorts of strange proto-humans in ancient Earth cultures. Spider people and ant people in Native American myths, blue people with many arms from India, blue people from under the sea in..."

Eager to get out, Thor started patting the legs of both men. "How about it?"

As predicted, it was a major undertaking to lift Thor's bulk out of the pit. The two men managed to drag him out to the waist, after which they both fell to the ground and nearly let him fall back in. After a second undertaking, Thor was able to stretch a leg out and finished his escape by rolling his body away. In a scolding manner, he pointed at both of his rescuers.

"You two need to lift more weights." The blonde man said. After that, he started wiping away at the soil now dirtying up his uniform.

When the three of them stood up, the cat-woman ran behind a tree. She peered at them from past the edge.

"That looks a lot like a woman in a cat costume." Thor commented.

"It's a proto-human, I'm telling you." Cruz reiterated. "We have legends of lizard people under Los Angeles, snake people in India, fish gods in Babylon. I'm telling you, this isn't as farfetched as you might at first imagine."

"Do you think she'll hold still for a picture?" Thor asked.

"No, don't point anything at her." Cruz warned. "If they assume we are threats, the rest of them might come out of the foliage to attack us. The last thing we want is a war with a new species."

"First of all, we need to get to a higher elevation so we can call the ship." The captain reminded them. "We still have our bearings to return us to our original route. You two keep our thermal scans going front and back. I'll try to hail the ship every five minutes or so until I get them. Let's get going."

Thor took point. The moment he ducked into the foliage hole, he halted. At the other end, he could see a calico cat-woman peering back at him. Her fur was white with patches of black and orange, and her claws were clearly visible on her hands. The Viking started through the hole, assuming the creature would scamper as he came closer to her, but she did not. Instead, the cat-woman only backed away by a few yards when he emerged and stood upright on the other side. There were two other cat-women nearby, both standing and all of them apart from each other. Besides the calico were one that was furred all black and another in orange.

The moment the three men had gone through the hole, they observed that the gray cat-woman was coming through the little tunnel after them. She didn't emerge right away, but only after the humans had given her a few yards of space.

"Well, there are four of them surrounding us now." Washington commented. "Do any of you want to take any guesses why?"

"They're hungry." Thor replied, his hand close to his sheathed weapon.

"They're all female." Cruz noted. "They all have small breasts compared to human women, but wider than average thighs and hips."

"How does that help us?" The Captain asked.

"I don't know." Cruz threw his hands up. This action caused all four cat-woman to cringe, as if he might be about to throw something at them. "Uh, sorry, girls. I think we should keep our hands close to our bodies so we won't spook them. We have to consider that these females might be after something more than just food. They're not afraid of us, clearly."

"Yeah, but dodo birds weren't afraid of the hunters that wiped them out, either." Washington replied. "These beings have never seen humans before."

"But they do recognize that we are a little like them." Cruz said. "They're as curious about us as we are about them. If they were repulsed, they would have run off already. As I was saying before you so rudely cut me off, Captain. The small breasts indicate that none of these beings are nursing, while the wider hips might mean they give birth to litters. Those are just guesses, anyway. What I'm getting at is that they might suspect we are males of some sort by our scent. At the same time, either they or their males built that pit for us to fall into, so they must have at least a primitive intelligence. We need Mary, Captain. She can try to communicate with these cat-women through her mind."

"I agree." Washington nodded. "Let's keep moving back toward the ship. Maybe these creatures will follow us there."

As the men traced their path, they saw the cat-women diving into the brush ahead of them. The felines move through the foliage a lot faster than the humans did, so that when the men emerged from the heavier foliage, the cat-women were always there waiting for them on the other side.

"Did you see how they lope?" Cruz mentioned. "Their hips have evolved in such a way that that they don't drag their knees on the ground as we do. Perhaps their feet have extra joints on them, or hinges."

"The tails are just under three feet long and approximately two inches thick." Thor spoke into his multi-function recorder. "The ears range from three to four inches in height and are located near the top of the head."

Washington tried to call the ship again, with still no success. "I'm sure they're out looking for us by now. We're what, two or three miles away from our original route. It might take a while before they get into our radio range."

They moved again, this time pausing when they came to a mid-size tree that wasn't too difficult to climb. Both Washington and Thor undertook the task, while Cruz stayed on the ground and kept an eye on their following. They'd attracted two more female cats by then, one colored in brown and a second calico in a mottle of black, brown, orange and white.

"Do you think they might have several males or just one in their pack?" Thor asked the other two men, as he climbed higher along the tree. "Like a pride of lionesses?"

"I couldn't tell you." Cruz replied from below. "I can say that these females are not pushing each other around. I believe that means they are all equal, instead of having some sort of hierarchy within the group." He watched as several of the cat-women leapt up on the same tree and started scaling it with much more ease than the humans were having. "Heads up, guys. You're going to have company up there!"

Two females stayed on the ground, the black one and an orange one. Cruz noticed how they were still only a few yards away from him, but also how they were keeping the same distance away from each other.

"I wonder if there is a way to communicate with you ladies, without setting you off of course." Cruz considered. He glanced up to see where his superior was. "Captain, with your permission, I'd like to try something."

"What's that?" Washington peered down from some twenty feet up the tree.

"Do you remember how the first gray lay down before us, right before we fell into the pit? I'd like to lie down the same way to see what they do."

A calico cat-woman was keeping an eye on him, Washington noticed. She was especially looking at his hands, and at how he was using his fingers to pull and push his body higher on the tree. By contrast, the feline was embedding her claws into the bark and easily hoisting her weight up the side. "What if they decide to claw you in half?"

"I wouldn't be very happy with them if they did that, Captain."

Washington started climbing up the tree again, observing how the calico was observing him. As an experiment, the captain slowly tried to reach out for the calico. She drew back from his reach but did not appear to be alarmed. When the black man leaned further in her direction, the calico climbed away by a couple of feet. This tactic wouldn't be getting them anywhere, he decided. "As long as you think you'll be safe, Cruz, go ahead. Just be very careful and no sudden movements."

"Right. Thank you, Captain." Cruz replied. He took note of where the black and orange felines were. "Don't be frightened, ladies. I'm just going to take a few strides closer to you, symbolically of course, to let you both know I'm approaching you. Now, I will be lying down on this patch of proto-grass, like your gray did just a little while ago. As you can see, I am not menacing or threatening anyone." Growing more than a little anxious, Cruz took a deep breath and relaxed. "Oh, I wish Mary were here. She'd know what to do in a case like this."

The two felines were seen circling around the nervous man, once he was stretched out on his side. Their strides brought them a little closer, until one cat-woman actually stepped over his feet before moving further away. Cruz thought the black one was the most exotic of all, as her face was as dark as her fur. The fur only surrounded her handsome features, now that he saw it up close, and looked sort of like a wolfman costume from the horror movies, but much prettier.

"Well, you're something special, aren't you?" Cruz asked, when the feline came up close to sniff at his hair. He figured she was either catching his scent or remarking at how little hair he had on his head, compared to how furry she was. He did cringe, however, when her clawed hand came to hover directly over his face.