by J. L. Curtis
She finally dropped off the snag, running hell for leather for the cabin. Not sure what was after her, Fargo prudently ran back into the cabin. Hearing Urso hit the porch, and not sensing pain anymore, he cautiously opened the door.
Urso was sitting on the porch, licking her paws and rubbing her muzzle, making soft grunts like it hurt her. Fargo cautiously approached, remembering that Urso was, in fact, a wild nearbear, and now big enough to take a chunk out of him. As he touched her muzzle, he came away with something sticky, and saw her paws were also sticky. Cautiously sniffing it, then touching the tip of his tongue to it, he realized it was honey! Urso had found a honey tree and the the pain was from the bee stings. He pulled one stinger out, whistling. It was almost a quarter inch long!
He got an antiseptic pad from his emergency kit, radiating calm as he gently wiped her muzzle, eyes, and ears with the pad, which also had a topical pain reliever in it. After he did that, Urso licked him happily, then rolled on her back, taking turns licking her front paws.
***
Nicole looked out the side of the liteflyer and smiled, “It’s so beautiful up here! The falls, the field, and oh my deity! That field of Blues! Is the honey from there?”
Fargo mumbled, “Probably, let me get this thing on the ground.” A quick scan around, and he was relieved not to see any of the animals, not sure even now if this was really a good idea. With a thump, the liteflyer landed and he taxied it up in front of the cabin.
Helping her out, he offloaded the funny suit she’d brought, along with a smoke can, whatever that was, a ten gallon container, and some tools in a bag. He went around to the shed, pulled out the gravsled, tweaked it to a foot off the ground, and keyed it to his belt. It dutifully followed him back around the cabin to the liteflyer, and he loaded all of the gear on it.
Walking down toward the snag he’d seen Urso on, he kept a good lookout, the small rifle in hand. Pointing out the snag, he said, “I think that’s the one.”
Nicole picked a pair of distance goggles out of her pocket, slipped them on, and adjusted them, “Oh, that’s it alright! Those are some big bees too! Bigger than what I’ve got in the hives at the winery. I don’t think we’d better approach any closer.”
She pulled the suit off the gravsled, slipping into it, then putting on the gloves, hat and net shield. She saw Fargo looking curiously and said, “Beekeeping suit. Keeps me from being stung until I can smoke them and calm them down.”
She looked over the controls of the gravsled, “Okay, I’ll take this from here. You’d better stay here in case I don’t get all the bees.”
“I’ll stand guard from here. If I yell, lay down and don’t move, okay?”
Nicole nodded and started forward, pumping the smoke can as she went. As she got to the base of the snag, she sprayed the smoke around, then sat on the gravsled and commanded it higher, spraying as she went. She finally got to the top of the snag, sprayed some more and finally set the can down.
He saw her fumble with something, then heard a yell, “Woo hoo! Oh my deity, pure honey!” He watched her open the container, start doing something with the tools, and remembered he was supposed to be the lookout, not watching her very nice rear end as she bent over the top of the snag.
After a half hour, he saw the smoke can come back out and into use, then the grav sled slowly drop back down. Nicole hopped off, put the smoke can back on the sled, and started back toward him. As she got close, Fargo could sense her joy and satisfaction, finally seeing her face and the wide smile through the netting.
“Amazing, simply amazing! There’s got to be another twenty or thirty gallons of honey in that snag!” Nicole burbled, “It’s so pure it… Wow! And it’s a bear tree too! I saw the claw marks on the trunk where they’ve climbed it. I’m glad there wasn’t one around, I’d probably have crapped my pants. I want to come back later and get more. This is so good!”
Fargo winced at that, then took the gravsled control back as they walked back up to the cabin. Nicole slithered out of the beekeeping suit, folded it, and put it back in the bag with all of the tools. She grabbed the container of honey, and oof’ed at its weight.
“Here, where do you want to go with it?” Fargo asked as he took it from her.
“The porch is fine. I just want to check it. I’m pretty sure it’s totally pure!”
Fargo plopped the container on the porch at the top of the steps and Nicole sat next to it as Fargo stood at the base of the steps. She eased the top off, ran an instrument over the honey, then stuck a finger in the honey and touched it to her tongue, “Oh, this is magnificent! It’s completely Blueflower, maybe a little other stuff, but probably ninety plus percent Blueflower.”
Impulsively, she reached over and hugged Fargo, “Thank you for telling me about this, and letting me collect it! I’ll split any…”
Fargo felt her freeze in his arms, “What?” He felt her terror of wild animals and bears and knew she was seeing something. Extending his empathic sense, he felt Urso, just as he heard her squall. Gently freeing himself, he said, “Don’t move, just don’t move.”
Turning he saw Urso twenty feet away coming toward the house, obviously responding to the smell of the honey. “What are you going to do?” Nicole whispered.
Fargo projected calm, and said “Sit Urso, sit!” Urso stopped, sat, and squalled again, sniffing the air. Reaching behind him he said, “Give me something with some honey on it.” A couple of seconds later, he felt something pressed into his hand.
Bringing it around in front of him, he saw that he held some weird looking tool with honey dripping off it. Taking a step forward, he handed it to Urso, who promptly took it in both paws, rolled on her back and slurped with joy.
Nicole asked, “How did you do that?”
Fargo sighed, “It’s a long story.” Reaching out with his empathic sense, he called to Canis and Cattus to come.
Nicole looked at him, at Urso, then back at him, “You have a pet bear, and it’s a long story? I really wouldn’t try…” She trailed off, recoiling as Canis and Cattus came pelting around the corner of the house.
They slid to a stop, both of them jumping up on him, licking and cavorting,
“Yep, long story.”
***
Fargo lifted the container of honey out of the liteflyer, placing it gently in the back of the runabout, along with the tool bag, and beekeeper suit. Nicole stood hipshot looking at him, “I still, damn Fargo, I saw it, I petted them, I watched them play, and it’s still hard to believe.”
Fargo shrugged, “I know. But I’d really appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell anyone. I don’t want them to end up as science experiments for some Xeno, much less have them hunted down for science.”
Nicole said, “I won’t tell anyone, hell, I’m not sure anyone would believe me. Want me to drop you at the store?”
Fargo climbed in, “Please.” They rode in silence to the store, where Fargo jumped out. As he started to walk away, Nicole reached out.
“Hey, thank you. I meant what I said about halfsies on the honey.” She jumped out of the runabout and gave him a quick hug, “I enjoyed today.”
Fargo returned the hug, confused by her thoughts, and waved as he walked up the steps.
Ian met him at the door, “Unka, Unka, come on! It’s time for dinner, before Momma gets mad.” Fargo let Ian lead him back to the living quarters and distractedly ate dinner.
Mikhail finally asked, “What’s up Ethan? You’re awfully quiet tonight.”
“Have you heard anything about a militia being formed?”
Luann piped up, “Yes, we’ve been posting flyers, and handing them out.” She hopped up, disappeared through the curtain, coming back with a flyer, “Here you go.”
As Fargo scanned it, Mikhail said, “I was told I can’t join due to my position as TBT lead. I have to stay above the fray was the way they put it.”
Fargo waved the flyer, “This is only for this region? What are they doing? One centered on each terraformer
?”
Mikhail replied, “As far as I know, that’s what they’re planning. It makes sense to spread them out. GalPat is going to release one shuttle to each port, with crew, probably on a rotational basis to handle anything that comes up.”
“What prompted this? I’ve been gone.”
Mikhail shrugged, “Well, that Trader you got was apparently not the only one on Hunter. They caught another one trying to get out of the space station, and might have run one to ground in White Beach, but she suicided.”
Sighing, he continued, “That, and some of the problems they’re having with some of the outlying areas with stuff going missing, occasional battles between people over stupid shit, etc.”
Luann set a piece of cake and a bulb of coffee in front of Fargo, handing him a fork. Taking a bite, he rolled his eyes, “So basically over-reaction.”
“Maybe, maybe not. If there are Traders infiltrating, that means they’re looking for a place to set up housekeeping. One little GalPat Det isn’t going to stop them.”
Fargo took another bite of cake, “No, nor will a few companies of militia.”
Joining Up
Fargo landed the liteflyer at his normal spot off the side of the spaceport, locked it up, and trudged to the administration building. He saw Nicole, sitting on the front steps, working on something on her datacomp, and wondered where OneSvel was.
Sensing curiosity and frustration radiating from her, he stopped a few paces from the steps, and quietly said, “Morning, Nicole.”
She jerked her head up, “Oh, morning, Fargo. Sorry, wrapped around a plumbing issue at the Mug.”
“You still want to go? Or do you need to stay here and handle that?”
Nicole shrugged, “The mech has to do the fix, and me standing there isn’t going to get it done any faster. ‘Sides, it’s not often one gets a chance to visit a Ghorka enclave.”
Fargo nodded, “Have you seen OneSvel? He’s supposed to go and do some medical checks for folks as necessary.”
“Not yet, but I haven’t been inside either. This blew up just as Holly was dropping me off.”
Fargo looked around and didn’t see the shuttle yet, so he walked quickly up the steps into the administration building. Sure enough, OneSvel was sitting in the conference room, the only place big enough for him to actually sit. “Morning, OneSvel.”
OneSvel extruded a pseudopod even as he chirped his response. Reaching out, he gently touched the pseudopod to Fargo’s temple. We are ready to go. Under the guise of doing medical updates, I will log all of the volunteers into the GalScout system.
Fargo projected, They are going to be under contract to the Grey Lady consulting firm, so I don’t know how that will play out. Better safe than sorry. What about… Wait, all of them are ex-GalPat, so they are already in the system.
OneSvel chittered, and the GalTrans spit out the equivalent of laughter, We are not good secret agents, are we?
Fargo laughed, “Not so much.” Turning, he saw the shadow of the shuttle descending in front of the admin building, “Looks like our ride is here.” OneSvel retracted the pseudopod, and grunted to its feet, following him out of the building to where Nicole waited at the bottom of the steps.
The aft ramp on the shuttle dropped to the plascrete with a thud, and Klang clomped down the ramp, waving to Fargo as the auto loaders queued up behind the shuttle, and started loading cargo into the shuttle bay. By the time they had walked the hundred yards to the shuttle, the last auto loader was dumping its pallets on the aft gate. Klang bowed in Nicole’s direction, and his GalTrans started, “Ho, lieutenant of the retired, welcome we make you. Lady, yourself is welcome too.”
Turning to OneSvel, he asked, “Ho, persons of Taurus, capable are you of short flight without sling support?”
OneSvel chittered, “Cargomaster, fit to ride I am. Comfort I do not need.”
“Let us now go,” Klang replied, and led the way up the ramp. He pointed Fargo and Nicole to a set of seats folded down from the side of the shuttle, and busied himself clamping the cargo down as OneSvel positioned themselves against the front pallet, extruded pseudopods, wrapping them around both an overhead rail, then the pallet itself. Nodding, Klang clomped forward, “Pilot, ready is the cargo.”
Evie answered over the IC, “Thank you Klang. Welcome aboard Fargo and guests. Enroute time is forty minutes. Please remain strapped in. Track is available on your datacomps channel three-one if desired.” As the shuttle’s engines powered up fully, she said, “Lifting.” Fargo and Nicole felt the shuttle tremble, then swoop upward and nose down as Evie started climbing out.
Fargo leaned back and nodded off as soon as he saw that Nicole didn’t want to talk, and it felt like moments later Evie was once again on the IC, “Landing in three minutes. Seat trays stowed, seats upright, and seat belts fastened please.”
Nicole looked at Fargo questioningly, “What the hell was that, and why are Evie and Klang on here? Don’t they have a dedicated shuttle crew?”
Fargo leaned over, “Evie just loves to fly anything with wings or thrusters. Klang is probably bored, and wanted to breathe real air. The comment was Evie’s idea of a joke. Apparently, in olden days, people had seat trays to eat off of, and seats that actually reclined to some extent.”
Nicole shook her head, “Spacers…” With a gentle thump and a shudder as the shuttle leveled, they were down. Klang was already opening the ramp, and the smell of grass and flowers penetrated the interior of the shuttle along with the chill in the air as Fargo, Nicole, and OneSvel unstrapped and walked down the ramp.
Fargo stopped so suddenly Nicole ran into his back, as he stared at Hyderabad. The ship was parked across the river, with the forward set of skids on one side, and the aft set of skids on the other side. Both ship ramps were down, effectively providing a bridge across the river. OneSvel continued on to the ship, either not noticing or not caring, as Evie came down the ramp, “How do you like my parking job, Fargo?” She asked with a purr.
Fargo shook his head, “How did you, I mean… There can’t be fifty feet of clearance…”
Evie shrugged, “Oh, I had plenty of room. Came in on anti-grav, used GPR to ensure there was bedrock that would hold her, and here we are.”
Nicole just stared at Evie, “I can’t believe you even tried that, much less did it! I’ve never seen anything like that in my life!” Evie laughed, and with a short bow, headed toward the ship, waving over her shoulder.
Lalbandur Thapa, the clan elder, walked stiffly across the meadow, and Fargo shook himself out of his amazement, trotting forward to meet him. “Lal, thank you for inviting us. I know you don’t like outsiders in your home, but it’s important that we get this done, if we’re going to form an effective militia for our little corner of Hunter.”
Lal bowed graciously, “You are welcome, Ethan Fargo and Nicole Levesque. Please come.” As they started walking toward the ship, he continued, “I don’t know how much you know, but we are actually a combination of the Thapa and Thakuri clans, here. We trace our heritage back to Earth, over one thousand years ago, in Nepal.”
Nicole asked, “Sir, are many of you former Galactic Patrol?”
Lal smiled without humor, “All of the men, and probably a fifth of the women are veterans. That is how we established this enclave. We, like our ancestors that left Nepal to serve with the English, weren’t really welcomed back home.” Nodding to Fargo, he continued, “When Fargo found this world, we got wind of it, along with the original survey maps his team completed. Word went out among our active and retired Ghorkas, and the decision was made to pool our assets and start an enclave here for those who were ‘homeless,’ so to speak.”
Fargo said, “Reminds you of earth, right?”
Lal’s smile broadened into a real smile, “Oh, yes.” Sweeping his arm, he continued, “This, this is just like Nepal. Wild, cold, windy and harsh. Here, one earns one’s right to live.”
Nicole shivered, not just because of the cold. Lal chuckled, “Yes, we
are crazy! And we love it. We smile at danger, and laugh in the face of horror. Come, come. We have tea set up on the ship.”
Lal led them up the ramp into the cargo hold, pointing to a mid-passage corridor, “There is a lounge there. We have food and drink. Captain Jace was gracious enough to give us that space to hold the signup for Grey Lady. We are also doing fitting for armor there.”
As they continued walking toward the corridor, Fargo asked, “How many are signing up?”
“We had a meeting last night, and one hundred of the youngest and fittest with the most service are signing. The average age is eighty-five. No women, as they are needed for home duties. They don’t like it, but they understand it. All of them are either command sergeant majors, master chiefs, or warrants. All of them are combat veterans.”
Nicole snapped, “No women? Isn’t that discriminating?”
Lal smiled, a feral smile this time, “No. It is simply a fact. If we lose men, they can be replaced. Women, especially child bearing women, cannot be. Our clans are so small, losing one woman is a major impact. That was a decision the women made on their own. As I said, they don’t like it, but realize they have a higher priority.”
Somewhat mollified, Nicole continued, “Do any of them have a problem working with women? Shit, never mind. I’ve known enough of you Ghorkas to know that is not a factor.”
They finally reached the corridor, walking slowly past the line of men standing against the bulkhead patiently waiting their turn. Entering the lounge, they found Captain Jace and Keldar, the purser, were the only two crew there. Keldar was at one table, being his usual grumpy self, dotting I’s and crossing T’s on each Grey Lady contract, as each one of the Ghorka stepped forward. The captain was assisting OneSvel with the holo measurements and physicals as each Ghorka stepped away from Keldar’s table, and the captain was soothing the occasional ruffled feathers. OneSvel was also doing medical checks on a line of Ghorkas who had various ailments between the physicals.