Symbios by Jack Kilborn Read Free Book Online Page A

water.
    I haven’t scouted very far yet, only a few kilometers. Maybe I’ll be lucky and there will something to eat on the other side of that big hill that splits my horizon.
    Hunger is starting to weaken me. I can’t stay awake for more than seven or eight hours. Tried several times to pry open the steel pantry doors, but can’t budge them a crack. I think I broke my big toe kicking the panel in frustration.
    I hope for rescue, but know the odds against it. If this is truly an undiscovered planet, then no one knows it exists, and no one knows that I’m here.
    And I have no way to tell them.
    Voice Module 195569
    Record Mode:
    My hiking boots were a gift from my mother, and came with genuine antique pig-leather laces.
    I boiled and ate the laces this morning. My boots won’t stay on now, and I’ve got — I know this sounds funny — a terrible knot in my stomach. But there’s nothing else to eat. The only other organic thing on the ship is the Brain, and I’m not touching that. I’d rather starve to death. I’d rather die.
    Morals are what make us human.
    Voice Module 195570
    Record Mode:
    I met my new neighbors today.
    They are only knee-high, and somewhat resemble the extinct species called dogs. They’re covered with a short, rough fur, have pointy ears and yellow eyes, and walk around on underdeveloped hind legs.
    I was sleeping in what used to be the control bay, dreaming about food, when I felt something poke me in the ribs.
    I opened my eyes, startled, and found six of them in a circle around me. They spoke to one another with high pitched yaps.
    None wore clothing or carried weapons. And even when I stood, towering over them by some five feet, none seemed afraid.
    One of them yipped at me in what might have been a question. I said hello, and it cocked its head, confused by my voice. I can’t recall reading about any life form like these back in school. For all I know they are an undiscovered species.
    They half-coaxed, half-pushed me out of my ship and led me further than I’d previously scouted, over the hill.
    They took me to their home. There were no structures, just a collection of holes in the dirt. When we arrived, dozens of little brown heads popped up out of the holes to stare at me.
    A short time later, I was surrounded.
    A kind of collective humming sound rose up within the group, and they all came to me, holding out tiny paws to touch my legs. They took turns, their eyes locked on mine.
    For a moment, I felt like a god.
    When I reached out to touch them they weren’t afraid. And when I did pat a head their dog lips turned into grins and they wiggled their tails.
    It was like being around dozens of well-behaved children. For a while I completely forgot how hungry I was.
    Voice Module 199571
    Record Mode:
    They eat the plants. Somehow they’re immune to the acid content. They eat many different varieties, raw. Then, out of their droppings, new plants grow.
    Nature’s perfect symbiotic planet. Ironic that I’d wind up here, considering how my own species has trashed the earth, and the planets of the surrounding star systems.
    Perhaps this is a penance of sorts.
    I stayed for most of the day in the village, watching the puppies play, patting small heads. I’ve counted eighty-two dog people in this settlement. Maybe there are other settlements, elsewhere. Staring across the huge landscape with nothing to see but kilometers of horizon, I have to wonder.
    Later I left them and tried once again to pry open the metal door that locks away all of the food in the ship’s pantry. Once again I was unsuccessful.
    Voice Module 199572
    Record Mode:
    I’m dying. My clothes hang on my body like sheets, and I know I’ve lost at least fifteen kilograms.
    The dogs seem to understand that I’m deteriorating in some way. They try to do funny things to make me laugh, like cartwheels or jumping on me, but I can’t laugh.
    In fact, when I look at the dogs for too long, I start to salivate.
    I wonder what they