Rajani Chronicles II

by Brian S. Converse

  Bhakat had placed Rauphangelaa in a state of hibernation, but he couldn’t be sure it would last the entire time he was recovering from his operation. The Humans had been asleep for days after their own operations. Bhakat didn’t have the luxury of taking that much time. He estimated the ship had approximately thirty-six Standard hours of breathable air left, as long as there wasn’t a major structural failure in the next few hours. It would have to be enough.

  Chapter 4

  James slowly opened his eyes, adjusting to the bright morning light of Rajan. He opened them wider in shock at what he saw standing over him. The Krahn was bent over, looking James straight in the face. “What manner of creature are you?” it asked in guttural Krahnish. “Not Rajani. Not Jirina. Not Sekani. No matter. Get on your feet.” The Krahn pulled out a handgun-like weapon from a holster at its side and pointed it at James’s head. “I said, get up!”

  James stood up slowly, guessing what the Krahn wanted by its arm motions. His head was telling him he’d been knocked unconscious, and his stomach was telling him it had been a little while since he and the others had abandoned the Tukuli to her fate. He didn’t know if he could power up fast enough to stop a bullet. Hell, he didn’t know if the gun even fired bullets. The Krahn was smaller than James had pictured they would be. It was perhaps five and a half feet tall at the most, and thinner than a human being. But James could see its muscles ripple under its scaly skin every time it moved. Rauph had briefed them about how dangerous the Krahn could be. He wouldn’t underestimate it.

  While its body looked like he had imagined, dark green outer scales with lighter yellowish scales under its arms and on its throat, the Krahn’s head reminded him more of a bird than a reptile. Its eyes were olive-colored and slit like a cats. They were nestled deep in the Krahn’s face, with bone-like protrusions around the sockets to protect them. Its snout looked like the beak of a parrot, and its nostrils were slits on either side.

  James saw that what he first thought was hair was more like long, thin feathers that came off the top of its head and could be raised and lowered. The first word he thought of was ‘hackles,’ and this Krahn’s hackles were raised in what looked to be dominant posturing. The Krahn’s mouth looked like it had more teeth than an alligator and a tongue that could reach the tip of its snout easily. All in all, James thought the Krahn was pretty damn ugly.

  The Krahn was pointing off to their right. “You will come with me to Nestbase Two.” James could see each of its fingers ended in long, sharp claws. He started walking in the direction the Krahn was pointing. Then he got his first real look at his surroundings and stopped dead.

  The escape pod had landed on a small hill within the city limits. The land gradually sloped down to either the north or south, James guessed, by the location of the sun overhead. This was the direction the Krahn had pointed. James could tell the city had once been an awe-inspiring place. He’d spoken with Rauph about Rajan, and Rauph had explained the city had been built long before on the eastern coast of the Rajani continent, next to the only ocean on the planet. Many of the buildings had been converted over the years to dwelling units for the Rajani and Sekani, or places of prayer and solitude for the Rajani Elders and their Pledges.

  There wasn’t a commercial export industry on Rajan, and the Rajani, Sekani, and Jirina were relatively self-sufficient. There were large farms outside of the city providing their food, as well as what could be caught in the ocean. Anything needed from off-planet was purchased at places like the Mandakan Space Port, which the Tukuli had been forced to stop at on the way to Rajan from Earth.

  James had seen pictures of Melaanse on the Tukuli’s central computer. There had been huge buildings with intricate facades and thin, sparkling spires, smaller temples with glistening towers, with roadways winding between them and beautiful parks with colorful, exotic flora and fauna. They had all been destroyed. Some of the structures stood, but none of them were whole. Black smoke still billowed from some of them. The beauty of the city had died.

  There were destroyed buildings and vehicles all around him. Some of the vehicles had Krahn warriors in them, looting and pillaging. Some of the vehicles still held the bodies of Rajani and Jirina. Krahn were coming out of the various buildings clutching scavenged items. The Krahn Horde had thrived on scavenging other ships; it’s what they’d been raised to do, and they did it with gusto. James was dumbstruck. The magnitude of the destruction hit him like an electric shock. The city was like a dead carcass, and the Krahn were quickly picking the bones clean. Crumbling facades and dead bodies would be the only thing left.

  James and the Krahn warrior walked for maybe a hundred yards before they came upon a patrol of Krahn. The group of Krahn had a live Jirina, its arms tied up in restraints behind its back, and a dead Sekani, which one of the Krahn carried over its shoulder. Their hackles were lowered and their heads were bowed in submission as they stopped before their commander.

  One Krahn warrior saluted, with the arm carrying a weapon across its chest, and bowed to the Krahn who had captured James, whose hackles were still raised as it looked over its subordinates. “Sir. We’ve captured these beasts trying to escape the city,” the warrior said in Krahnish.

  “Good,” the Krahn commander said. “I’ve also caught something interesting. We will take them both to Nestbase Two.”

  “And the Sekani?” the second Krahn asked, practically drooling in anticipation.

  “You may share it between yourselves,” the Krahn commander answered magnanimously.

  “Thank you, sir,” the second Krahn said.

  The group of Krahn crouched down in a circle and tore the body of the Sekani apart right there, eating it raw. It reminded James of a pride of hungry lions eating a zebra. He couldn’t take his eyes off the spectacle. These Krahn were the most barbaric things he’d ever seen. The body of the Sekani was turned into so many bones and scraps before his eyes. He finally turned away from the gruesome feast and looked at the Krahns’ other prisoner. The Jirina was a pitiful sight. It was bruised and bloodied from its capture. It kept its eyes on the ground throughout the entire exchange, unwilling to watch the Krahn eat. James wondered if he’d been friends with the unfortunate Sekani.

  James made up his mind and powered up. For a second, everyone stopped what they were doing to stare at him in amazement. Even the Jirina lifted its eyes, an expression of wonder—or perhaps terror—on its face as it saw the alien become encased in the black power field resembling a suit of stone-like armor. Yvette had told him on the ship that his energy field reminded her of lava rock; black yet translucent. He’d had enough of being a Krahn prisoner. It was time to test his powers against the Krahns’ weaponry. The Krahn commander lifted its gun and shot James point-blank in the chest. The projectile ricocheted harmlessly off his energy field.

  James smiled. “Oh yeah. All I needed to know.” He grabbed the Krahn commander and threw it ten feet through the air, where it slammed against the side of a burned-out building and fell to the ground in a heap. The Jirina screamed in terror and ran, heedless of its Krahn captors. They paid him no mind. Their attention was on the black specter suddenly standing in their midst.

  He attacked the Krahn warriors in the same way he had their commander, tossing them about the area or just punching them in the head, watching their teeth fly and their skulls fall apart as he did so. He didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop, even when the Krahn warriors lay broken and bloody at his feet. He picked up their bodies and bashed them against the building remnants until they were almost unrecognizable. He’d seen just about every perversion, every crime possible that one being could inflict on another. Yet the Krahn had done something to him that had not been done in a long time. They’d seriously pissed him off.

  #

  Gianni and Kieren were both cut, dirty, and exhausted. The Sekani had awakened them and led them to a burned-out building a few city blocks from where their escape pod had landed. Kieren had attempted to speak to them along the way, but they’
d only looked at her and Gianni suspiciously and told her to keep moving. When they arrived, the Sekani had told them to stop and sit down. They had complied, and a short while later, one of the Sekani had brought them each some food and water.

  Now, they were sitting, leaning against the inside wall of a building. The building had once had ten floors, but was missing all but the bottom floor now, the top having toppled over onto a smaller building next to it. They were eating the food the Sekani had provided from wood-like bowls with utensils made from the same material. It was a thin stew with small chunks of what Kieren thought might be some type of vegetables. At least she hoped they were. A small band of Sekani had replaced the group who had brought them there. This group had gun-like weapons and stood a few yards away. They looked as ragged as the previous group. They weren’t pointing the weapons at Kieren and Gianni, but they were being careful, some casting worried glances toward the humans.

  “This stuff tastes like shit,” Gianni said, putting the bowl down with a disgusted noise and wiping his hands on his shirt.

  “Gianni!” Kieren exclaimed.

  “It’s not like they understand me,” he told her, nodding toward the Sekani. He sighed and pushed his hair out of his eyes. He hadn’t cut his hair the entire time he had been on the Tukuli, and it was growing long.

  “So what?” Kieren said. “I can hear you, and it’s rude.”

  “So, what are they doing?” Gianni asked her, deftly changing the subject. “You told them we’re here to help them, right?”

  “Of course I did. They’re discussing us,” Kieren told him. “They think this may be a trick. I can’t hear everything they’re saying, especially if you keep talking to me.”

  “I haven’t seen a Rajani here,” Gianni said, looking around.

  “Me either,” Kieren said, her own food now forgotten. “Gianni, I think these Sekani are runaways or something.”

  The Rajani considered the Sekani and Jirina to be what Rauph had referred to as ‘helper species,’ but James and the others had talked about it, and they all suspected the two species were considered little better than slaves. Rauph and Bhakat both had suspected an element within the Sekani had helped the Krahn invade Rajan. James had raised the possibility their status in the Rajani society had led to it, but had never brought it up to Rauph, as far as Kieren knew.

  Gianni ran both of his hands through his hair. “The Rajani were invaded by the Krahn and got a full-scale Sekani revolution as an extra bonus.” He picked up his bowl once again and began to disinterestedly stir the remaining contents. “Do you think the Krahn and Sekani are working together?”

  Kieren scrunched up her nose. “Um…no.”

  “Why not?” he asked, puzzled by her answer.

  “Well, from what I could pick up from their conversation on the way here, the Krahn consider the Sekani…delicacies.”

  Gianni placed his bowl on the ground. “I think I lost my appetite.”

  A Sekani female walked up to them and retrieved the bowl from where it rested at his side. She bowed to Gianni. A Sekani male who had just entered the room yelled at her. “No! Don’t bow to them. We’ll bow to no other species from now on.” He’d introduced himself earlier as Zanth, when they were brought before him by the small group of Sekani. He seemed to be their leader.

  The Sekani female looked shocked. “Zanth, they’re guests—” she started to replied.

  “I know they’re guests, Tiella, but it’s time for new customs,” Zanth said, walking over to the female and placing a small, clawed hand on her arm. “We are no longer helpless slaves to the Rajani oppressors. Do you understand?” The female Sekani nodded, though it looked like a reluctant response to Kieren. The female walked away, looking back over her shoulder at them before finally disappearing around a corner.

  Kieren stood, not knowing exactly what to say. “We’re sorry if we’ve offended you in any way, Zanth. Have you found our story to be true?”

  Zanth was standing a few feet away from them, studying both her and Gianni. “If Rauphangelaa the Elder did escape Rajan aboard his ship, then he was the only one who did. He left his entire household of Sekani, an entire family group, dead. Except for one member; his pilot, if what you say is true. More than likely the family was killed in the first wave of the Krahn attack. Nevertheless, they’re all dead.”

  Now it was Gianni’s turn to stand. He was getting tired of not being able to understand the conversation. This was how he felt every time his family got together and his uncles began to talk in Sicilian to each other: like an outsider.

  “No,” Kieren said, saddened by the news. “Poor Janan.”

  “What about Janan?” Gianni asked, recognizing the name, at least. “What the hell are you telling him?”

  Zanth kept talking, ignoring the protests. “We buried those we could find, but many others are still beneath the rubble of the buildings on Rauphangelaa’s estate. We couldn’t be sure who was alive, and who was dead, but none have shown up since then, and we’ve sent out a great many search parties.”

  “At least Janan is still alive,” Kieren said. “Or at least he was when we arrived here. His entire family?”

  “I’m afraid it’s true,” Zanth said, bowing his head in respect for the dead. He raised his head and once again turned his penetrating gaze on them. “Now, explain to me how you came to know our language. We are not speaking Talondarian Standard.”

  Zanth crossed his arms over his chest, looking at them. “Ours is a language tracing back to our home world,” he continued. “It’s the language we spoke before the coming of the conquerors. It’s one of the few traces of our culture still left to us. How have you learned to speak it so fluently?” He pointed at Gianni. “Why doesn’t he know it?”

  Kieren looked at Gianni, not knowing what to say.

  “What?” Gianni asked her. “I didn’t do anything.”

  “They want to know why I can speak their language and you can’t,” she replied.

  “Might as well tell them about the stones,” he said, smiling at Zanth. “It’ll be worth seeing the expression on his face.”

  Kieren turned toward Zanth. “We…we both, well, that is, all of my companions and I were…implanted…with Johar Stones, aboard the Tukuli.”

  There was an immediate uproar from the Sekani in the room. Zanth’s face was incredulous. “By the Goddess! No.”

  Most of the gathered Sekani now held their weapons at the ready, pointed at the two humans standing before them.

  “Quiet! Leave us!” Zanth yelled, pointing toward the exit.

  One of the armed Sekani, this one with a bandaged head, whom Zanth had called Belani, stepped forward. “But they—”

  “I said, leave us!” Zanth yelled. He pointed at the other Sekani. “And tell no one what you have heard here. You all know your objectives for this week. Go fulfill them. This gathering place is no longer safe for us. Go, now!”

  #

  James was no longer powered up as he walked down a narrow alley near the area his recent fight had taken place. He was going against his own advice, but he didn’t want to scare the Jirina any more than he already had. The Jirina recently held captive by the Krahn was cowering in a corner; his frightened eyes were wide as he looked at James. It had taken James a few minutes to track the alien down after he’d finished his battle with the Krahn. Luckily, he’d seen the direction the Jirina had fled after he’d first powered up, and the battle had been short.

  “Hello,” James began, trying to remember his Talondarian Standard from the classes Rauph had given them back on the ship. “There’s no need to be frightened,” he continued in English, knowing the creature couldn’t understand what he was saying, but trying to sound soothing, at least, so as not to frighten it away. “I won’t hurt you. You must be a Jirina. You’ve been through enough already, I’m sure. I’m afraid I’m in need of your services. I need a guide.”

  The Jirina pointed to himself, uncertain. “Jirina.”

  “Right,
” James said, able to understand the highly accented word. “Jirina.” He pointed to himself now. “Human. Friend,” he added in Talondarian Standard.

  “Hu-maan?” the alien said, now looking up at James’s face.

  “Yes,” James said, surprised a little the alien could quickly form a word it had never heard before. They’d been told on the ship the Jirina were not very intelligent as a species. This one must be an exception to the rule. Or else the Rajani had underestimated their servants a great deal.

  “James. My name is James. What is your name?” he asked, now pointing at the alien.

  The Jirina pointed to himself. “Mazal. My name is Mazal, J-jamess the Hu-maan.”

  “Good,” James said quietly, not wanting to spook the alien. “Good. We’re getting somewhere now.”

  Suddenly, the Jirina fell to its knees before him. “I pledge my life to you, in accordance with our law. My life is yours to do with as you wish, James the Human.”

  “Well, great,” James said in English, looking down at the prostrate alien before him, its hands still in the restraints placed there by the Krahn. “Now what do I do?”

  #

  Gianni hadn’t known what to expect when he’d told Kieren to tell the room full of Sekani that they’d been implanted with the Johar Stones, but their reaction was a little more than he had imagined. The atmosphere of the room seemed to have changed immediately as Zanth shouted out orders and the Sekani abandoned the building they’d been using as a temporary shelter.

  Zanth then spoke to Gianni and Kieren. “Come with me, both of you. We don’t have much time.” He led them deeper into the building, and finally stepped into a small room. “This will have to do for now. Sit, please.”

  They all sat on what were once finely woven and crafted chairs. Now they were tattered and covered with dust.

  “We won’t have long to speak,” Zanth began. “Word of your presence is already on the way to the Krahn, I’m sure.”