Earthers

by S. H. Jucha

  More males stuck spears into the insectoids’ bodies.

  One of the stockiest hunters pulled a stone axe from a sheath on his back. With a huge swing of the heavy weapon, he cleaved the red’s head from the body. Then he did the same to the two grays.

  At the end of the fight, three insectoids lay dead but so was a hunter. A gray’s sharply pointed leg stabbed the male in the neck, and he rapidly bled out.

  The grays’ heads were tossed away. The red’s head went into a skin sack, and it was slung over the large male’s back to rest beside his stone axe.

  The hunters cut down saplings to make poles, and they strapped the carcasses and the body of their companion to the poles. Then they set off for their camp.

  The holo-vid went dark, and Jess reflected on what he’d seen.

  “Dangerous adversaries,” Homsaff commented.

  “Ambushing from close quarters and with heavy spears,” Simlan added.

  “Any observations on the juveniles?” Jess asked.

  “Unfortunately, Captain, the ships didn’t provide any information on that subject,” Z said.

  “That doesn’t fit with our thoughts about the timeline. From these observations, it appears that these are recent arrivals with few to no young,” Jess mused. “Why aren’t we seeing juveniles?”

  “There’s something else that doesn’t fit,” Lucia said. “We’ve spotted herbivores. They’d be much easier to hunt for food than the insectoids. Why are the local sentients focused on killing and eating the insectoids?”

  “From ancient text of early Earth cultures, I learned primitive tribes believed that eating the flesh of their enemies enabled them to absorb their strengths,” Julien replied.

  “If the inhabitants are hunting the adults for their power,” Menous said, “then they might be neglecting the juveniles.”

  “A deadly mistake,” Hessan remarked, “and to the captain’s point, we’ve still no idea how long ago the adults landed here.”

  “So, how do we hunt the insectoids, adults and young, without being ambushed by the locals?” Lucia asked.

  “The shadows can focus on scent,” Homsaff replied. “It’s even more acute than the Dischnya. Could they warn us of potential attacks by the natives?”

  “Undoubtedly,” Z replied, “providing we’ve an unspoiled sample.”

  “Good enough. Who’s dropping planetside with me?” Jess asked.

  It was the SADEs’ opinion that a female’s scent, although easier to collect, wouldn’t suffice. It was presumed that the males and females would possess different smells.

  Sharon dropped the traveler through the thin atmosphere and headed toward a pole before it rotated from its dark period to light. She stationed the ship overtop a camp and used infrared imaging to watch.

  The veterans slept, and Miranda stood, with her avatar locked, at the traveler’s rear. She was linked into the ship’s controller.

  Far below, a lone young male kept watch over the firepit. He huddled beneath an animal skin and crouched close to the pit for warmth. Occasionally, he tossed a piece of wood onto the glowing embers.

  While it was still dark before the bright cycle lit the region, males emerged from their huts. They scattered in several directions and returned a few moments later, rearranging their wraps.

  When the males left the camp, Sharon’s traveler silently tracked their shapes through the trees. In the dark, their body heat stood out against the cool of the forest.

  The males followed a trail. As before, at some point known only to them, they vanished into the heavy foliage, which hid their heat signatures.

  Much later, insectoids scurried down the trail. Two grays led four juveniles about a meter in length.

  The hunters leapt onto the insectoids and dispatched them with the same techniques witnessed by the veterans in the vid.

  The bodies of the juveniles were thrown into the bushes to feed the scavengers. The grays were beheaded, and the heads were also tossed away. Then their carcasses were strapped to poles.

  Sharon let the veterans sleep until the males finished cleaning up the ambush site. They went so far as to spread soil, dead leaves, and twigs on the places where the insectoids had bled out.

  As Sharon dropped the traveler, she sent in the open,

  Jess sent, standing and stretching. As he stepped into the aisle, his fingertips stroked the back of Lucia’s hand. Then he signaled the veterans to don harnesses.

  Sharon sent.

  The ramp dropped, and Miranda deployed the tripod and line.

  “Tacnock,” Jess said quietly, sending his friend over the ramp first.

  The Jatouche hooked his harness to the line, checked his weapon, flashed Jess a grin, and dropped down the line.

  One by one, the other veterans followed Tacnock to the ground. They spread out and searched the brush for hidden attackers — natives and insectoids.

  Jess had deliberately blocked Miranda’s path to the ramp’s end, and the SADE had acquiesced.

  When the veterans, except for Jess, cleared the ship, Miranda said, “It was only necessary for me to leave the ship, Captain.”

  “True, Miranda, but this isn’t about necessity,” Jess rejoined. “As Alex’s protector and one of his confidants, you’re favored among the Omnians, and I’m doing all I can to reduce the risks to you.”

  “You’re aware that I’m more deadly in combat than this ship’s veterans combined,” Miranda replied.

  “Makes no difference to me,” Jess replied. “Encased in that avatar, I don’t know how you could be harmed. I haven’t the knowledge or the imagination, but one mistake is all it takes.”

  “Your caution is appreciated, Captain,” Miranda replied and accepted Jess’s overprotective actions. Once again, he risked the future leadership of the resistance to protect one SADE. It was something the SADEs wouldn’t forget.

  Lucia sent.

  Jess stepped aside, and Miranda stepped off the ramp, dropped nine meters, and impacted the trail with a ground-shaking thud. Despite the hardpacked soil, the SADE’s feet left fifteen-centimeter depressions.

  Miranda scoured the brush where the males had waited in hiding. She located a heavy concentration of scent. A male had rested his bare bottom on a comfortable pile of moss under a huge tree trunk. With sensitive fingertips, Miranda lightly brushed the moss and absorbed the biochemical compounds. Her kernel’s algorithms ran analysis and separated the extraneous compounds until she had clear samples of the male’s body oils and sweat.

  Miranda sent, when her analysis was complete.

  The veterans evacuated the woods, hooked onto the line, and small motors reeled them upward to the ship.

  Jess stood by to pull them onto the ramp. He expected the next action. Nonetheless, he hated it.

  Aputi was the final veteran to make the ship. As his body was hauled up the line, Miranda took off at a ground-eating pace. She headed for a river about two kilometers away. It was the direction from which the insectoids had come.

  “Inside,” Jess ordered clearly, as Homsaff and he pulled Aputi onto the ramp, and the veterans scrambled for seats.

  Jess sent, as he gained a seat.

  Sharon signaled the controller, which swiftly lifted the traveler and shot the ship toward the rendezvous point.

  Within moments, Sharon had the shuttle hovering over the river and near its edge. The ramp was still down, and it faced the steep riverbank.

  The veterans stood guard on the ramp, alert for insectoids. As Miranda neared the ship, the veterans’ implants picked up her signal, and they cleared a path for her.

  Miranda burst from the tree line at speed and leapt the final five meters from the embankment. She la
nded with a bang on the traveler’s deck.

  Jess observed Miranda’s grin. With his fingers, he swiped at her shoulder, and his hand came away slick with insectoid blood.

  “Enjoy your run?” Jess asked casually.

  “It was invigorating,” Miranda enthused. “An excellent test of this avatar’s full capabilities. And, yes, I did encounter some resistance.”

  “How much?” Lucia asked.

  “A red, three grays, and nine juveniles,” Miranda replied. “They were in my path,” she added, as if to explain the reason for the kills.

  Jess grinned and said, “Z’s going to be jealous.”

  “He already is, Captain,” Miranda replied, with a wink.

  30: Beware the Natives

  With Miranda’s samples, the SADEs programmed the shadows to scent the natives and warn the veterans of their presence.

  Due to the denseness of the woods, Jess ordered the teams to be prepared to backtrack rather than skirt around the males, when the shadows detected them.

  “If you’re attacked, you’ve the option to stun the males,” Jess explained to the auditorium full of veterans. “There’s only one problem with that course of action. The males can throw their heavy spears much farther than your stun guns reach.”

  The veterans understood what Jess was saying. If they weren’t careful, they would find themselves in a fight with the natives, and it would be necessary to use their Loopah weapons. They would be killing sentients, who weren’t the enemy.

  The SADEs had chosen not to program the shadows to fire on the males, not even to defend the veterans. It was a decision that Alex and Renée regretfully approved.

  Travelers continued to collect data on the camps. The pilots tracked the males’ hunting trips. The natives often roamed twenty to twenty-five kilometers in any direction from their huts.

  When the SADEs became aware of an incongruity in the numbers, they alerted Jess.

  “Nine transports, eighteen shuttle landing sites, and three hundred sixty expected adults,” Z said, addressing the veteran leaders. “However, take note of this contradictory data.”

  The veterans, except for Menous, received the SADEs’ summary. For the Norsitchian’s benefit, it was projected.

  An image of the planet rotated in the holo-vid display. Cones of light popped up from the camp locations. A number was embedded in the cone, and it was added to a running total.

  “We’re counting the mounted skulls discovered at each camp,” Miranda explained. Directing her attention to Menous, she added, “The others are observing a total of two hundred and eleven skulls.”

  “Based on our observations only the heads of the reds are collected,” Julien continued. “Do these numbers make sense to you, Captain?”

  Jess frowned. His initial impulse was to ask the SADEs if they were sure of their count, but that was a ridiculous question. He turned to regard his friend, but Tacnock appeared as confused as him.

  “The reds are usually less than half the count of those who land. Closer to forty percent,” Aputi mused. “Why would the Colony land more of them here?”

  “These reds have abandoned their slug throwers,” Simlan pointed out. “They aren’t new arrivals.”

  “Miranda, when you ran through the woods, how many insectoids were left alive after you passed?” Jess asked.

  “It was a significant congregation, Captain,” Miranda replied. She replayed the imagery. “I counted four reds, seven grays, and thirty-eight juveniles.”

  “What sizes were the juveniles?” Lucia asked, understanding the information Jess was pursuing.

  “All sizes,” Miranda replied.

  “The largest?” Homsaff queried, also catching on.

  “Two-and-a-half meters. It would become an adult gray,” the SADE replied.

  The answer occurred to the SADEs and the veterans at the same time.

  “This is one of the oldest invasion sites we’ve encountered,” Jess said. “The juveniles have been achieving adult status.”

  “We can’t rely on landing site estimates,” Aputi said dejectedly. “We won’t know by our kill count what percentage of the Colony we’ve eliminated.”

  “Maybe we have to accept that,” Lucia said. “We do the best we can for an appropriate amount of time. Then we leave this planet in the hands of the natives and their disappearing habitable landscape.”

  “Agreed,” Jess said. “We hunt by thermal signatures until the insectoids discover our tactics and take to camouflage. We make the most of the opportunity.”

  As the Norsitchians did on the planet of the Ot-Totlanyans, they hunted together. Without implants, the SADEs assigned two shadows to each brassard to warn the troops of the natives and lead them safely away.

  The other veterans hunted with shadows, and the fleets’ pilots were kept busy dropping and retrieving the teams.

  Access to the best hunting grounds was restricted by terrain. Teams dropped on rocky uplifts or at streams and riverbanks to be able to offload the shadows. Then they made their way on trails into the thick woods.

  Shadows protected the veterans fore and aft. At best, they hurried along the trail two by two, but sometimes they only managed single file. Due to the thick brush and narrow paths, it was the best they could do.

  As the hunt for the Colony continued, it was inevitable that the natives would be encountered.

  On a dim cycle, Homsaff deployed with her shadows on a boulder-strewn stream that had gone dry. She directed the shadows toward the contacts the pilot had located, which were five kilometers away. There was no direct trail to her destination. When the queen came upon intersecting paths, she navigated via her link to the traveler, which kept watch above.

  Loping along the trails, Homsaff made good time toward the target. She was hunting at the most dangerous time. The dim cycle had just descended. It was the preferred period for the natives’ ambushes.

  Homsaff’s implant told her she was nearing the insectoids’ location. She was about to slow the shadows, when they froze in unison and signaled her. Homsaff skidded to a halt, using her great clawed feet to tear at the hardpacked soil.

  The queen saw the shadows face outward in all directions. She realized she was in the middle of an ambush.

  For several seconds, nothing happened. It occurred to Homsaff that the natives might not know what to do either because of her or the shadows, which displayed polished metal.

  Homsaff took advantage of the momentary stalemate, and she ordered the shadows to return the way that they’d come.

  It wasn’t a slow retreat — more like a mad scramble. All the while, Homsaff hoped she didn’t feel the solid stone blade of a spear penetrate her back. The fear made her drive her hocked legs with strength she never thought she possessed.

  The encounter was a lesson to every other veteran. The locals were ranging farther from their camps. Worse, by the time the shadows detected the natives, who were well hidden in the thick foliage, the hunter team was in their midst.

  Jess recalled the veterans to the Freedom. He spent the evening and the next day speaking with them and the SADEs.

  As the next day’s morning meal wound down, Julien placed a holo-vid on the table. He signaled Homsaff and the squad leaders, who left the Dischnya table to join Alex and the others.

  “We thought you’d find these visuals fascinating,” Julien said to the table, as he activated the display. “This imagery was captured of the camp from where the males originated that Homsaff and her shadows encountered.”

  The traveler’s view closed on the camp from high above. It was during a bright cycle, and the camp appeared deserted, except for a youth minding the firepit.

  Not far from the pit, a new structure had been erected. It was entirely sculpted from sticks, which were tied into place with thong strips. The construction was more than three meters high.

  The traveler rotated around the camp to gain a better view of the object.

  Around the table, eyes turned to Homsaff, recog
nizing that the natives had built a statue to the Dischnya queen.

  “I don’t see the likeness,” Homsaff quipped and then chuffed good-naturedly at her rudimentary image.

  “Too bad the camps don’t communicate with one another,” Tacnock said, chittering. “These males could tell others about the strange entity and the shiny multi-legged protectors who appeared in their territory.”

  Alex and Jess regarded each other across the table. They had the same thought.

  Alex sent privately.

  Jess sent in reply.

  Alex asked.

  Jess replied.

  Alex sent.

  Jess sent.

  Alex sent. His humor was evident, and Jess grinned.

  “Let’s talk in my suite, Captain,” Alex said, so the table’s individuals could hear, and he signaled several of them to accompany him.

  Alex invited Renée, Tatia, and Julien. The suite’s guests were Jess and Lucia.

  “There’s every indication that the Omnian fleet will sail from alliance space before the Pyrean station is complete,” Alex said.

  Tatia glanced at Renée, whose face remained neutral. As far as she knew, no message had been received that would direct the fleet home, and Alex was speaking in the future tense. It meant only one thing — Alex had glimpsed something to come.

  “For the resistance to succeed, it must have leaders,” Alex continued. “We’ve come to the conclusion that the Tsargit isn’t the place to look for that leadership.”

  “The councilors might want to approve your choices,” Jess posited.

  “They might, but they aren’t going to get the opportunity,” Tatia said definitively. “The races contributed to the outpost on the basis of the organization working to remove the Colony. No offer was made to the Tsargit members that they could have a say in its operations.”