The downdraft of the flying craft's engines faded as it lifted back into the sky. It would guide itself home without a pilot, and Brooks turned away to survey their new environment.

After taking a crawler to shore, they had entered the jungle. The Pillar Trees facing the winds were remarkably strong, with deep roots acting as anchors.

Only once they had gotten in among those Pillar Trees, whose great bulk blocked the ocean winds, had it been safe to board a flying craft.

Now, he scanned the open area they'd landed in. It was a good place to make their initial camp.

The grass was high, but already a group of drones were scything it down. Several Pillar Trees had come down here, creating the clearing.

Smells assaulted his nose; already he was feeling his nasal passages start to itch in reaction to the strange cocktail invading them, despite the mask. He hoped that Y's implants would be sufficient.

The humidity, too, was oppressive. Without the ocean winds to keep the air clear, it was nearly saturated.

He'd been on jungle worlds before, though never one as hostile as this. Already their scanner drones were noting the presence of megafauna nearby, though none of them seemed predatory or hostile.

Kai had already brought out her big-game rifle all the same.

Unlike him, she had a partial helmet on, covering her eyes, mouth, and nose.

"Seventy Days, start," Brooks said aloud. A timer appeared in his HUD, counting down.

He looked to Kai.

"I'm going to check out the local lay of the land," she said. "Do you want to get the camp up and running?"

"I'll let the drones do that," Brooks said. "I want to come with you."

Kai paused. She wanted to order him, but she knew he'd not back down. "All right," she said. "Stay close."

The grass was stiffer than the kind he'd met before. It took some effort to push through it. Down by their feet, creatures ran, as big as his hand or even a little larger.

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The higher oxygen levels in the atmosphere meant larger lifeforms in general, he knew. Hopefully nothing with big jaws, he thought.

He suddenly was glad he wasn't wearing the mocassins. He couldn't imagine anything small with enough bite force to cut through his space boots, but that didn't mean it'd be fun to get something biting onto them all the same.

He could hear the river before he saw it; the roar of rushing water against rocks.

This would be a formidable barrier to beings on foot.

It was almost fifteen meters wide here; far too wide for even young !Xomyi to attempt to glide across. Their options for getting over would be limited.

"Look for a crossing," he told Kai.

She dispatched a few drones. "It seems to dive down off to the West, the ground drops down into some kind of fissure. We could potentially climb down if you need to get on the other side."

"Does it run near our camp?" he asked.

"Yeah, fairly close. Do you want to move?"

"No, but I think we know why the pillar trees came down, now. The fissure must have exposed their roots, and then the wind was able to take them down."

He crouched, looking across the water.

"Have the drones go upstream. I'm not trying to find our way across - I'm trying to find where the !Xomyi will go."

It did not take long. "Drones are spying a tree that's fallen across the river. Looks like it could be used as a bridge."

"Take me there," he told her.

It was too dangerous to walk close to the banks; the river here was rapid, and the plant life pressed right up to the edges.

Which had been the downfall of this Pillar Tree, he saw. The river had cut towards it, and as it had eroded the soil away from its roots, the tree had toppled.

The bridge it formed seemed solid, and it was wide enough that even he might feel safe crossing it.

It was perfect.

Climbing up on the trunk, he squatted down, peering across.

There were no animals visible, but many creatures were calling to each other. His system did not believe any of them to be !Xomyi, but it could be wrong.

They could be watching right now.

"We have drone spies out here, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," Kai replied.

"Check their logs. I want to know what the !A!amo have been doing since we got here."

The data came up in his HUD. Since the researchers had started observations of this group, just under a month ago, they'd had tiny, almost dust-like drones in their camp. Each one provided only a tiny bit of data, but when there were enough of them, a more complete picture could be formed.

Every member of the group had gotten a surreptitious dusting, allowing them all to be tracked.

All twenty-six known members of the group were accounted for. But two of them had been away from the others earlier. Foraging, perhaps, or hunting for small game.

But then something had spooked them. They'd stopped, looked up, and then gone back to their group in a hurry.

The time stamp matched perfectly with he and Kai's flight overhead.

So they'd been seen on the way in. It wasn't what he would have hoped for, but he could work with it.

Their computers predicted that the !A!amo would want to cross the river and move further South at this time of year.

So this is where they would have to cross.

"We're going to wait here," he told Kai. "Prepare for first contact."