Two suns failed to warm the days on Hindsight, even now during first summer. Hindsight, named because anyone that came to this planet realized that they'd fucked up within the first day of boots on the ground. Callum knew it before they put boots in the muck. And kept that observation to themselves. It didn't pay to share opinions on a job. Even on a shitty planet like Hindsight.
Normally anyone experienced with other worlds would tell you not to judge a planet by your first landing site. Just because where you came down was dank, reeked of decay, where the air was moist and sticky—even on the hills and mountains—didn't mean that somewhere else on the planet wasn't a tropical beach paradise, verdant grasslands (or the equivalent vegetation), or a winter wonderland with fantastic skiing. Except that wasn't true about Hindsight. The data made that clear. In every detail Callum reviewed in budget background feed sent to spacers.
Take the stink. Ubiquitous species of bacteria and algae released a cocktail of methane and other molecules guaranteed to make the newcomers puke. Go anywhere on the planet—except maybe the tallest peaks where the air was thin—and you'd find the same sort of stink. The bouquet might vary slightly based on local species and season, but it never smelled fresh or clean.
Access olfactory implants and decrease sensitivity eight-five percent. Callum's neural link nodes adjusted their perception of the stink and dialed it back to an annoying background odor at the level of standing next to someone with bad body odor. Looking at the planet from the foot of the landing ramp, they didn't doubt that most of the inhabitants, organic and otherwise, had bad body odor. And even that would smell better than the planet's native stink.
They considered accessing the old movie library; the one with the puppets and the bog of eternal stench. That described Hindsight, sure enough. Only watching a movie instead of the port could get them into trouble. Even if they masked the data use, there was always the slim possibility that they might miss something in the port. Missing something important while watching a movie could be grounds for being left behind on Hindsight. It wasn't worth the risk.
The two suns—the Red Queen, a red dwarf star that was the planet's primary star, and the White Queen, a blue-white dwarf—barely provided enough visible light. Their apparent sizes in the sky mislead those on the planet. Being closer to the Red Queen, it appeared as the larger star in the sky but was the smaller of the pair, orbiting the White Queen. The blue-white dwarf star encompassed a larger volume but was farther from the planet. Hindsight's orbit was complex, being pulled closer to the White Queen and farther away depending on the Red Queen's orbit. Both cool stars and the planet's axial tilt kept Hindsight from freezing for the most part, but it wasn't warm. Abundant greenhouse gasses kept the planet's atmosphere heated and the tidal forces of the complex orbits kept the interior molten. According to the background feed, scientists loved to speculate about the stability of the planet. Of course they did.
Not Callum's concern. Their only concern was how long Captain Lambert planned to keep them waiting outside the ship on watch.
"I don't want so much as a bug from this place getting into the ship," she had ordered, before going off to the cargomaster's office. Reckoning was the largest city on the planet and the main ground port for traders.
A tentacle sort of thing poked up out of the muck not far from the ramp. It was about the size of Callum's finger, a toxic purple on the top side, noxious orange on the underside, covered in viscous slime, with an unsettlingly pornographic slit running along the underside where the orange bled into red. The nasty tentacle extended out in the direction of the ramp half a stride from Callum's boots. Ruined boots, the stink would never come out. So they might as well be used for stomping.
Callum brought their foot smashing down on the tentacle-thing, planning to crush it into the hard-packed ground beneath the muck. Grind the nasty piece of Hindsight life into a lifeless wreck and point it out to Captain Lambert when she returned. Proof that Callum had done their job and kept the disgusting thing away from the ship.
Muck splashed out to each side of Callum's boot with the impact. Even through the sole of their boot, Callum felt the hard rubbery shape beneath the heel of their boot. They lifted their leg and eagerly looked for the gooey remains.
The tentacle was there alright—but not squashed. It coiled and drew back, tip curling over to point in Callum's direction. They noticed shiny black beads in the tentacles upper surface. Eyes? This thing couldn't get more unsettling.
The swollen lips around the slit in the thing's underside opened up with a puckering suction sound. White teeth lined the sides of the gash like a smiling nightmare. Pointed, sharp teeth side-by-side, in alternating rows. It just had to prove Callum wrong about how unsettling it could get.
"Die, fucker!" Callum stomped down at the tentacle again.
It whipped to the side. Callum's boot thudded into the ground. The tentacle flexed, drawing back slightly—
Callum snatched their foot back.
—The tentacle snapped like a whip at the place Callum's boot had been an instant before. Mud oozed into the imprint as the tentacle waved from side to side in the air. Seeking.
"No, you fucking don't," Callum said, taking another step back.
A wet slap hit the side of Callum's boot. They gasped, twisting and looked down at their left leg. Another tentacle had smacked down on the left side of their boot. The body of the tentacle flexed as it chewed at the vat leather of Callum's boot.
Muck squelched as the original tentacle thrashed closer. Then, to their horror, Callum saw at least a dozen more of the foul things rising from the muck around them and the ramp. Most were coming toward Callum, but some looked determined to reach the ramp. And the ship.
Callum activated their comm. "I need some help out here!"
"Callum?" Jock's voice over the comm. "What are you doing?"
"There's things out here," Callum said, panic rising as they shook their boot and the tentacle chewing it refused to let go. It remained connected beneath the muck somehow, stretching as Callum lifted their leg. "Nasty, tentacle things—"
"Oh come on, Callum," Captain Lambert said. "What are you playing at?"
Callum's head snapped up. Captain Lambert stood a couple meters away, just past the tentacles—more writhing out of the muck—with her hands on her hips. Her slick waders keeping the mud off her tight brown pants.
"Captain—"
Captain Lambert pulled a palm light from her belt and flicked on an intense blue beam. She played it across the tentacles in front of her. As soon as the light touched the tentacles the slimy skin erupted into blisters and the tentacles stabbed back down into the muck.
It only took a few moments, playing the light back and forth, for Captain Lambert to send all of the tentacles squelching away out of sight beneath the mud. She snapped the light off.
"Pay attention to briefings, Callum," said the Captain. "Life on Hindsight is sensitive to UV light. You do have your light with you, right?"
Callum touched the pouch holding the light and nodded, not trusting their voice.
"Okay, then fucking use it next time. We've got cargo coming in. I want you to scrub it and the hold so clean after its loaded that there isn't a whiff of this place. Use UV to sterilize it all. Understood?"
Swallowing, still unable to talk, Callum nodded again.
🚀
It was the start of third shift before Callum finished cleaning and sterilizing the cargo and the holds. They'd put their clothes into the disassembler. Showered twice. Put on thermals, and collapsed in their bunk.
Jock woke in the bunk beneath Callum. He leaned out, bald head gleaming in the dim dorm light. He wiggled a finger suggestively. "Sweet dreams, Callum."
Callum turned away, ignoring the laughter, as their face flushed. It didn't help that Captain Lambert had been right—in hindsight—they needed to pay better attention to the briefings. And hope they never returned to this planet.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!
This is a new challenge. I’m writing short short stories, under 2,000 words, many under 1,000 words. I’m sharing them to my Instagram stories several times a week. They’ll drop off that, but premium READINARY subscribers can read the full archive of stories here. When I have 100 stories, I’ll publish a collection of them all.
Best wishes, always — Ryan
CALLUM’S HINDSIGHT
Copyright © 2022 Ryan M. Williams
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