Read an Excerpt
Krr'Tip
The Clanless Series: Book 1
By Robert Zimmerman
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2010 Robert Zimmerman
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-4630-3
Chapter One
It was a moonlit night as Krr'Tip headed back to her cave. The hunt hadn't gone too well for her, so she decided to move to a different location. As she went back to her cave, she could feel a vibration through the sensitive pads on her feet. It was a low thrumming vibration she couldn't identify; bothering her because she couldn't remember it from anywhere in her life and it really irritated her pads.
Turning around, she surveyed the valley that had been her home for the last three years and saw nothing. Suddenly, the vibration stopped and a huge explosion rippled through the ground, knocking her onto her back. Momentarily stunned, she was looking at the ground and straight ahead as she saw a massive reball rise up above the trees at the end of the valley.
Instinct finally took over as she flipped herself over and stood on her trembling legs. She felt a warm wind caress the fine hairs on her legs and back. With a curiosity that only the young have, she started moving toward the end of the valley.
After a couple of hours of steady walking, she felt another vibration that was also strange to her. She stopped and flattened herself down onto the ground to feel it better with her sensitive belly hairs.
"That's odd," she said to herself. "I can only feel two legs." She had never heard any of her clan talking about a creature with two legs. They only talked about the multi-legged creatures that were in their hunting area. She realized that the two-legged creature was coming toward her, making a lot of noise in the underbrush.
The hairs rose up on her back and she felt a momentary ash of panic. She didn't know what to do and she couldn't move away from whatever it was, then suddenly, she saw the most incredible thing she had ever seen: a creature that walked upright on two legs with appendages hanging by its side. One of them was dangling like it was injured and was staggering like it was hurt. It had hair on top of its torso that was long and shaggy as she watched it fall down and lay still. After a few deep breaths to calm herself, she gingerly walked over and gently pushed it with her foreleg.
It opened an orifice and sent out a high-pitched vibration that startled her making her jump back a full body length. Quivering with all her hairs standing erect, she was in defense mode, wondering what was going to happen next. Her fangs were out with a glistening drop of venom hanging on each tip and she was standing her full height of eight with her back arched, giving her spinnerets a clear shot to shoot out webbing to bind it. Her eyes were fixed on the two-legged, not sure what to think of it, taking a few steps back. She had no idea what to do, so she stood there and let the adrenaline ease out of her system. After a few minutes, she carefully walked back to the two-legged and stood over it, the thought of what it was running through her mind.
She reached down, gently put a foreleg on its torso, feeling the beat of something inside of it. She could sense its life force slowly draining away due to the injury on its appendage, so she withdrew some heavy silk from her spinnerets and gently placed it on the wound. She waited and after a couple of minutes, the fluids stopped seeping and she could sense its life force gaining strength.
As she stood there and wondered what to do next, she realized that she had spent too much time here and dawn was getting close. She almost panicked but realized that she couldn't leave the two-legged out in the blistering radiation and heat of both suns. She didn't think that its shiny skin would protect it. She gently picked it up and wove a cocoon of thick, non-sticky webbing around it so she could carry it better, and left the top of its torso bare, thinking that was how it breathed through the openings there. She gently tucked it under her thorax, holding it with two legs, then took off at a steady lope to find shelter.
Krr'Tip didn't know what the creature was but she sensed that it wasn't from her world. It didn't have the thick body armor like the multi-legged had and it had no feelers, either. Its life force was strong but it lacked the innate shielding that all the multi-legged had to keep it contained within them. As she was thinking about that, the dual suns rose above the mountaintops and hit her with such intensity that she could feel pain. She was desperately looking for shelter, when she saw a cave above her.
Sensing no energy inside, she scrabbled and clawed her way up the mountainside until she came to a ledge jutting over a sheer drop of more than a thousand feet. She knew she couldn't climb her way up with the two-legged under her, so she had to look for another way up. She found it after searching and quickly crawled into the coolness of the cave.
She gently laid the two-legged down and collapsed, breathing heavily and letting her body cool down. She had pushed herself too far and was weak from the heat and the rough climb. She turned around until she could see the entrance and the two-legged at the same time and thankfully fell asleep.
After a couple of hours, Krr'Tip snapped awake, wondering what it was that woke her. She could see the entrance, but there was no sign of the two-legged. All that was left was a pile of webbing that was cut apart. She lowered her shield and passively read the energy around her, sensing the rocks and the vegetation of the mountains and the valley below, along with the multi-legs that lived down there.
Then she felt its energy, raw and undirected, so she tuned into it. She sensed it behind and below her; deep in the cavern. Without hesitation she turned around and headed into the depths, following its energy until she could go no further because of her size. She was in a dilemma: she couldn't go forward nor could she leave it behind. If it made its way down into the valley, it would be easy prey for the multi-legs. She sent a pulse of energy down through the mountain to find another exit and thankfully, there wasn't one. She didn't have to worry about it getting out, being still tuned to its energy, she went back to the cave entrance and settled down to wait for it.
After another couple of hours, she felt the two-legged coming towards her, and roused herself from her doze. She saw how weak its energy was and how it clutched at the wall to support itself. She moved forward to help and saw it take out a rod-like object and point it at her. Krr'Tip stopped and wondered what the thing was that it was holding. She saw one of the openings in its head open up and felt sound vibrations coming from it. She had no idea what it was doing, so she just stood there watching it and waited.
After a few minutes, the vibrations stopped and she saw it put the rod object back where it got it from, and take out something round and shiny. She watched with interest as it touched the surface of it, put it to its opening, and felt the vibrations once again. She assumed it was its mouth, due to all the blunt fangs within it.
Krr'Tip watched as it sat down with its back against the wall of the cavern, looked at her, pointed the round object at her, and pushed the surface again. She heard a high screeching noise that made her jump and then words she could understand came through the noise. Although the words had no tone to them and wasn't in her clan's dialect, she could make out what they said.
"I am Captain Bruce Adams. My spaceship was damaged after landing on you planet. I am the only survivor and I am in need of help. If you can understand this, lift your front leg."
Krr'Tip could understand some but not all of what it said. What she did understand was that it needed help and wanted her to raise her front leg, so she did. With her right foreleg raised, she sensed its body and energy relax. She saw its mouth move and saw it push the surface of the shiny thing again. The high screeching noise came out but this time, she didn't jump and heard more words.
"This is a translator. It will change your words into my words so we can communicate with each other. Thank you for rescuing me. Please tell me your name, if you have one, and whether you are male or female. I am Captain Bruce Adams and I am a male of my species. I have been on your planet for a month studying the different species here in this valley. I have watched you many times and have seen you hunt in the valley. On my planet, you would be called a spider. What do you call yourself and your species?"
The vibrations stopped and Krr'Tip wondered what it all meant. She couldn't grasp the concept of being able to go to another planet or even what a spaceship was. She realized her foreleg was still up so she lowered it and noticed that the two-legged (Bruce Adams?) was watching her and seemed to be waiting for her to say something. What should she say? Well he (?) was asking for her name and said that the shiny thing he was holding would be able to "translate" (?) her speech to his. With a mental shrug she started to vibrate.
"I am called Krr'Tip. I don't know what a species is but my clan was Frr'Pon. What is a spaceship? What is a planet? Where is your armor? What was that thing you pointed at me? Where are your feelers? How can you move on only two legs? What are you? What kind of name is Bruce Adams? Why are you here? Where did you come from? Why were you watching me? Where is your clan?"
She stopped vibrating when "Bruce Adams" raised his hand in a gesture she understood as to wait. She waited impatiently, bouncing up and down for the "translator" to give him her questions. After a couple of minutes, he looked at her and showed his fangs to her, then spoke into the translator and the words that came out confused her even more.
"So you are called Krr'Tip. I will try to answer your questions as best as I can. First off, a spaceship is something that we travel in to go to different planets and stars. My species live on another planet far from here with only one sun. A planet is what you and I are on and it goes around your two suns and all the moons go around your planet. What I pointed at you was a weapon, something that could kill you and any other species on this planet. My people don't have armor because where I come from, we don't need it.
"We don't have feelers to see our surroundings, because we have eyes and ears to see and hear with. We evolved using our arms to hunt and gather food and our legs for walking and running. I am a male of my species and my parents gave me my human name. I came here to study you and your planet. I'm sorry, but that's all I can tell you."
"I do not understand many of the things you have said, but I do know that you are not from my world," Krr'Tip said. "I also know that you do not have sharp fangs to puncture the armor of the multi-legs around here. I do not think you would last under the suns outside, so I will not leave you. How did you get out of my webbing?"
"I was able to cut your webbing with this," pulling out what looked like a long fang and showing it to her.
"You're right. I wouldn't last long under your suns or against the multi-legs without my suit or this." He pulled out the rod-like object again and pointed it the wall. He pushed something on it and a beam of light came out of it, putting a three-inch hole into the wall.
Krr'Tip inched not in fear but because of the intensity of the light. After regaining her vision, she inspected the hole and was surprised at how deep it was. She turned, looked at Bruce and vibrated,
"From what I have learned from my clan, there has not been anything like you on my world. Why did you come here and what do you plan on doing?"
Bruce raised his shoulders, bared his fangs at her and said, "I don't mean any harm to you or any other creature on your world. I am an explorer, learning about other worlds and now with my ship damaged, I can't leave until others of my kind come to get me. I don't know when that will be, but I must survive until then. My species is fighting a war with another species that wants to kill all of us. I am here to find ores and minerals that could be processed to help make more ships. Your world is very rich in such ores and minerals and it would help my species."
After trying to understand all that he said, Krr'Tip realized that his clan was losing its hunting grounds and are trying to stay alive. She could understand that but was still puzzled by the word "spaceship". What did it look like? What was it?
At that moment she felt a vibration at the entrance of the cave. Something was coming in! She turned and scurried toward the entrance, sensing it was a hunter beetle. She was scared because it had very thick armor and sharp cutting jaws that could rip her apart in seconds. The only advantage she had was her speed because her webbing was useless against its slick armor.
Krr'Tip came to a halt when she saw the beetle, its feelers waving in the air, trying to discern where she was. She knew there wasn't much room to move around but she did not want to lure it outside because the suns were still in the sky and she would overheat within seconds. Suddenly the beetle turned and rushed at her with its jaws clashing together.
She tensed her muscles, jumped up and over the beetle, landing behind it. She quickly turned but wasn't fast enough. Even though it was massively built, it moved almost as fast as she did. It hit her in the side, knocking her into the wall. She instinctively flattened to present a smaller target. Krr'Tip heard the beetle's jaws smash into the wall above her, felt its weight on her then back off. She sensed that it was lining up for the kill and once again, tensed her muscles for a life-saving jump. She saw it coming at her headlong, waiting until the last second before making her jump. Krr'Tip jumped forward again and heard the beetle hit the wall behind her so hard the ground shook.
She turned around to face the beetle, saw that it had knocked itself out and was lying on its side, its soft belly exposed. She ran forward and sank her fangs in deep, injecting her venom. Krr'Tip's stomach grumbled making her realize she hadn't fed all day or night, so she proceeded to feed. After eating her fill, she wrapped the carcass up, dragged it to the edge of the cave and pushed it over the ledge to fall into the jungle below. She came back and saw Bruce standing in the cave, watching her. She stopped to probe his energy, saw it was low and vibrated to him.
"I do not know what you can eat here, but I will try to get it for you. Are you hungry?" After waiting for his translator to tell him what she had said, he spoke into it.
"Yes, I am hungry. I saw the fight and you fought very well. I can eat the multi-legs without harm as long as it does not have your venom in it. It is because of one of those that my ship was damaged. I would like to go to my ship now and see what I can salvage out of it. I cannot make it on my own with this bad arm, so would you mind helping me?"
Krr'Tip was excited with the idea of seeing his spaceship, but she had some doubts about him going down the mountainside with his bad arm. She knew he would not let himself be carried underneath her, but he could not walk fast enough to keep up with her. Thinking about what to do for him, she noticed that the suns were starting to set, walked over to the entrance of the cave, and stared out at the valley.
She could feel the energy of the multi-legs starting to wake up in the valley, and knew it was going to be dangerous. Suddenly, she felt something touch her side and jumped. Turning to look at Bruce, she saw him standing with his bad arm tucked into his suit and his other hand outstretched.
Krr'Tip knew he had no chance without her because if the flyers did not get him, then the other multi-legs would. Even with his fang and light rod, he would have problems just surviving, especially since he could not keep his energy radiating out of him like the suns in the sky. He would draw the multi-legs to him because of his energy and would need to fight his way to his spaceship and back. But, how would he get down off the mountain with his bad arm?
While Krr'Tip was pondering this problem, the suns set. She could feel the energy radiate from the valley in waves sensing the flyers hunting in the air and the multi-legs moving through the trees. She could sense each individual life force, knowing Bruce would never survive being down there, finally coming to a decision. She turned to him and vibrated,
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Krr'Tip by Robert Zimmerman Copyright © 2010 by Robert Zimmerman. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
