Atoma and the Blockchain Game

by Gerard O'Neill

  He could see they did not understand his words. The fear in their faces was plain to see. He tried once more.

  “Where are you from?”

  Okaitamani stepped closer to the jigatsu and tried a different question.

  “What country do you come from?”

  Ilyin hurried to the old man’s side. His guests should not show this rudeness to the See-er. Surely by now, they had realized the old man’s status? Perhaps they could be considered refugees, bringing strangers into the village was allowed in times of catastrophe. He wondered what catastrophe they had suffered.

  “If a stranger wanders into the valley seeking refuge, it is given,” the See-er assured the girls. “But before I can give you that permission, you must tell me where you came from.”

  It had been a long time since the valley had been burned by war. Vigilance was always a priority. One day, the marauders from the other side would return. He had seen it written in stone.

  ‘The Xyglottus have been here once before. Always be alert. Prepare for the day of their return.’

  Okaitamani knew he must be careful they were not Xyglottus. The problem was that no one knew what one looked like. Vague legends and fantastic nightmare images created by artists were all they had to go by. A marauder could not be a Kai. Even though Kai from other valleys were outsiders to this place, they were still human beings. A marauder was not. They were Xyglottus, and they came from the underside of the planet.

  Ilyin was not of the same mind. He remembered how his classroom teacher, Sezu Taiphanori, had laughed at the idea Xyglottus were demons. He suspected the old See-er was among those who believed that to be true. Ilyin’s teacher had said demons always turned out to be flesh and blood men. A belief in demons was truly for childish minds and could lead only to fear and confusion. The end result was almost always a tragic misunderstanding. Surely, the old man did not believe in demons.

  Ilyin shifted nervously from foot-to-foot while he waited for the old man to make up his mind.

  “Why did you come here?” Okaitamani asked.

  The fierceness in his voice was unmistakable and yet the two girls barely flinched.

  Ilyin could stand it no longer. He stepped up to his steed. He slapped the legs hanging in front of him twice, and they were hard slaps.

  The girls jumped.

  Maybe now they understood.

  The antennae of the jigatsu waved like four agitated snakes. It could smell the stress in the air, and it craned its neck to see what was happening. Annoyed by the irritatingly loud noise, it turned its head to see the riders, bared its fangs at them, and snarled loudly.

  The girl he had freed from the Screechers was the first to fall off the jigatsu’s back. Ilyin caught her neatly in his arms. The jigatsu twisted its head, and snarled, showering the girl in his arms with its dribble.

  She screamed again, and much louder this time.

  It was Ilyin’s turn to be surprised, and he dropped her on the hard road.

  He looked up in surprise as the second of his two guests tumbled from his steeds back. He managed to slow her fall, but she too rolled onto the pavement surface.

  The neighbors had walked across the road as soon as they saw the See-er appeared at his front door, their curiosity outweighing any caution. They gathered around the young warrior’s steed to point and stare.

  It was becoming too much for the jigatsu who associated a crowd with hostility. It kicked at the road with all six of its feet, flicked its head from side-to-side to snort and bared its fangs. Freed from its riders it wheeled around to focus on the new annoyance.

  Most of the onlookers caught the hint, it was plain enough to see, and they quickly fell back. The obstinate few circled around the beast not willing to miss anything.

  The See-er glared at the two girls. What was to be done with them? He squatted beside the one Ilyin said had spoken using the Kai tongue, ran his fingers over the fabric of her strange garments. It was not Kai technology. He ran his fingers across the girl’s shoulder and found the metal rim where the helmet and visor were hidden.

  “I have seen images of beings who wore strange garb like they do,” he said. He straightened himself as if confronted by the troubling thought.

  “Their clothing does not look comfortable,” Ilyin said. “And that’s for sure.”

  He looked down at the tunic gathered loosely at his waist by a sash, and the woven fabric of his leggings and pointed to the two girls still lying where they fell.

  “Why are their bodies sealed in their clothes?” Ilyin asked the old man. “Do you think it’s so they could safely cross the Desert-of-White-Bone?”

  “That could be so,” Okaitamani replied. “Take them to the sheriff’s office and tell them to secure them. In the morning, I want you to assemble a party of armed warriors and escort them out of the valley.”

  Ilyin stared at the See-er in alarm, but he did not get a chance to protest the decision, because the girl who spoke to him in Kai suddenly let out a squeal.

  One of the neighbors, a wiry man had snuck around the back of the jigatsu, and now emboldened by the words of Okaitamani’s grasped a handful of the girl’s hair.

  “See that?” The wiry man called to the crowd. “Now we know they feel pain.”

  The girl stood up, rubbing her injured head.

  “We should be wary of them,” a voice cried out.

  “That’s right,” another neighbor added. “We don’t know what tricks they hide in their strange clothes.”

  “Leave her be,” Ilyin said, and he the man away from the two girls.

  “You are only a boy,” the girl’s tormentor cried out angrily. “I am an old soldier, and you are not yet an officer. Don’t dare touch me again!”

  Seeing the girl was on her feet the man reached out to grab another handful of hair.

  This time the girl was ready. She twisted her body from the hip and landed the edge of her right fist on the man’s cheek. It was a full roundhouse strike.

  The stunned man lay in the road as the crowd laughed at him.

  “Old soldier, you’ve been felled by a child,” a voice called out. There were more howls of laughter.

  He got to his feet and looked around in dismay at his neighbors. This time he moved faster than before. He clamped a hand on the girl’s shoulder and hooked her leg, throwing her to the ground.

  Nako’s head tapped the road, the rim of her suit protecting her skull from the full impact. She lay there staring up at the peak of the roof above her as she made sense of the moment.

  Ilyin grasped the girl’s assailant by the wrist and stepped past him. In the same fluid motion, he spun on his heels and straightened his arm. The old soldier flew through the air to land under the jaws of the beast.

  The surprised jigatsu gazed down at the Kai, tasted the old man’s scent.

  The man stared up in shock at four jagged rows of fangs that could easily shred him in an instant. The animal rolled back its lips to reveal more of the razor-sharp teeth.

  A drop of slobber spattered the old man’s forehead and it was too much for him. He let out a squeal of fear and jumped to his feet, sprinting off down the road without a second glance back.

  36

  Speaking Kai

  The old man stared helped the second girl to her feet and shook his hand before his face. The only lasting injury would be to her pride.

  “I will take them to the sheriff,” Ilyin said softly to the See-er.

  “They will be safer there,” Okaitamani told him over his shoulder as he walked back to his house.

  Ilyin saw the taller of the two was crying. Her tears ran rivulets down her dust-covered cheeks. It was a good thing the sheriff’s office was only a block from the See-er. It was too bad though that he couldn’t spend more time with the two girls.

  The shorter of the two stepped aside and looked back after the See-er.

  “We are very sorry,” she called out to the old man.

  She said other things too, but
they were unintelligible. Then she called out in ancient Kai once more, and her words were clear.

  “I am sorry.”

  Ilyin saw the figure of the old man in the doorway and his heart jumped.

  “Please, look after us in your gentle way,” Ilyin hissed in a whisper to the girl. “Go on! You said it before to me. Now, say it to U-Sezu.”

  She stared back at him in bewilderment.

  “Please-look-after-us-in-your-gentle-way,” Ilyin said slowly. “Are you stupid? Tell him!”

  The girl turned back to the old man.

  “Please, look after us in your gentle way,” she said.

  The crowd turned to each other, their mouths making little o’s.

  Okaitamani walked back out outside and bowed to the two girls. He had never heard of an outsider using the old tongue to say anything to a Kai.

  “Welcome to our humble town,” he told them. “You may stay here until you are able to leave.”

  It was an old formality, and the exchange was a ritual. A guest would be ill-advised to stay around long enough to make a nuisance of themselves.

  Okaitamani watched the two girls return clumsy imitations of a bow. He looked at Ilyin.

  “They are your responsibility while they are here. They live under the roof of your family home or another place if the councilors decide it’s better. Tell your uncle I wish to see the Chief as soon they return to the village.”

  When the See-er disappeared into the house once again, Ilyin turned to see even more people had gathered.

  “Go back to your life,” he told them.

  “Who are they, Ilyin?”

  “What are they?” Daizu, a thickset man with graying hair asked.

  “There’s no need to say it like that,” an old woman snapped at the Daizu. “They are human. Any fool can see.”

  “Go back to your homes,” Ilyin warned them. “The councilors will make an announcement after they meet, and they will tell you everything you need to know.”

  “Why weren’t you at school today?” Daizu man asked unhappily.

  “He graduated last year,” the old woman informed the man.

  “I go to the same fencing school Ilyin graduated from,” a boy said proudly to no one in particular.

  Ilyin’s steed was beginning to groan loudly. The six legs pawed at the ground road.

  Ilyin places his palm on the creature’s side and it settled.

  “Come with me,” Ilyin told the girls.

  He took a firm grasp of the saddle to walk beside his steed. To lead it with a hand anywhere on his steed’s head was far too dangerous. He hissed, and the animal acknowledged him with a groan.

  The three humans trudged up the paved road alongside the grumbling jigatsu. Behind them were the towers either side of the gate and in the near distance, at the top of the road, stood two great pillars at the bottom of a hill. Ilyin would stop at the town stable to leave his steed to be fed and tended along with the others belonging to the warriors. His home was the house of Ilyin’s uncle, less than a block before the hill, the place where all ceremonies were held.

  37

  Warriors

  Our spacesuits lay on a platform in the corner of the narrow room they gave us to sleep in. The creamy white tunics hung loosely on our bodies. Our new clothes were at least two sizes too big for us. We tied a knot in the front of our very loose pants and it helped. Despite being way too large, the clothes were not too unpleasant to wear. The material looked like cotton, but it felt softer and much lighter.

  “Children’s clothes?” I asked her.

  “Without a doubt,” she replied. “I haven’t seen an adult under seven feet tall, have you?”

  “What are we really doing here?” I asked her.

  “Jacinda might have known,” Nako replied. “But, since she’s probably dead we probably won’t be finding out from her. And, since the computer in her capsule refuses to tell us…”

  “That’s not what I mean. Why are we staying in this village?”

  “That’s easy,” she said. “We’re surviving. We have no idea what else might want to prey on us. By staying here, we have at least some shelter and food.”

  “Do you really think so? Because I’m picked up a lot of suspicion on the street today.”

  “Me too,” she said unhappily.

  The boy was sitting on a platform in the center of the room. Beside him sat an older male. He was dressed in dark armor, but it was his ornately pleated beard that really captured our attention. A woman was busy stirring a clay pot over a stone stove.

  They had been carefully observing us the whole time we arrived here. At least they had turned their backs to allow us to change into the tunics.

  “I wished the place had doors,” I said.

  “Me too,” Nako replied. “At least there’s one woman in this house.”

  “So far so good,” I said. “They seem a very uptight though, don’t you think?”

  “A village is a small world,” Nako said. “Small world. Small minds. You know? Could also be something to do with the fact we are aliens.”

  I laughed. For some stupid reason, I had forgotten that detail.

  A shrill horn cut sounded outside. It was not too far away.

  “That came from the direction of the hill,” Nako said.

  We watched the boy and the older man walk outside and stand in front of the house. It didn’t take long before they were joined by others. We watched the neighbors across the street come to their doorways. They were waiting for something to happen.

  “Come on,” I told her.

  We stood beneath the awning, under a pink evening sky, aware we were once more the center of attention.

  Although there were many pairs of eyes watching us, they were gazing more frequently down the road. Finally, they paid less attention to us and more on the gate between the two towers, the entrance to the town. All the houses on both sides of the road had a gathering standing expectantly at the front.

  The steady drumbeat beyond the entrance to the village was faint but distinct and it grew steadily louder. The guards in the towers called out, and they were answered in turn by shouts and a rhythmic banging. The noise echoed up the street, and it was growing louder.

  When the figures everyone had waited for appeared between the towers, we saw it was a long column of dark figures. Those at the front rode jigatsu, but as they came through the gate, we saw there were figures running behind them. As the column drew close, we saw they wore shiny vests that reflected the pink light. The last rays of the orange star glinted off the edges of their weapons. As we watched, the soldiers slapped their gloves against their chest and yelled in unison. The single crash of sound we heard before they reached the village towers.

  We saw they were soldiers wearing the same dark armor as the boy’s father. They each had a bulbous plate over their chest and abdomen. The breast plate partially swept around their bodies, joining to another plate shielding their back from neck to butt. More of the shiny plating protected their shins and their forearms. They wore helmets with curving sides covering their neck and face so that unless they turned their heads, we could not see their faces.

  They jogged past us in perfect rows, their feet falling as one. The drum beat we had heard.

  “There are women among them,” Nako shouted.

  The warrior sat proudly in her saddle, a bow across her shoulder, a quiver of long feathered arrows hanging beside the sword in its scabbard by her knee. She turned her head at Nako’s shout. Despite her position in the front, she stared in shock at our strange faces, but she quickly recovered herself and looked to the front once more.

  “Did you see the scar down her forehead?” Nako asked.

  “Yes, it went all the way down her cheek,” I answered.

  “What would do that?”

  “Could be another sword,” she answered.

  “We have gone back to the Middle Ages,” I said.

  She glanced at me with a look of despair.
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  “It’s starting to look that way, isn’t it?”

  I shook my head. This was definitely not an optimum situation for aliens to show up.

  “We have to be careful not to upset them,” she added quickly.

  “Isn’t that funny? I was thinking exactly the same thing.”

  Most of the onlookers were women, children, and old people, and they weren’t just standing at their front door gawking at the parade. They were a part of it, banging the uprights of their houses with short sticks in time with the rhythm of running feet.

  The drumbeat stamp of feet continued as the procession ran up the road and reached the two columns. The riders on the giant beasts had turned them down a side road. The rest of the soldiers ascended the hill as a single body without slowing their pace.

  Later, we heard the sound of a gong from behind the tall columns, and a powerful voice delivering a speech, followed by a great cheer and a rhythmic pounding. As the sky reddened a tall bonfire flared into life on the peak.

  We had decided the older man in the house was the boy’s father. There was a definite resemblance between the two after all. It was something in the expressions on their faces that told us they were related. We watched old men hurry off after troops.

  The boy watched as several neighbors in their armor followed the boy’s father.

  “He wants to go too,” I told Nako.

  The boy turned at the sound of my voice.

  “Go on,” I told him gestured for him to follow his father.

  He scowled at me and turned back to stare at the hill.

  “I’m sorry,” I muttered. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  There were shouts and thumping and cheers through the evening.

  “I’m getting hungry,” I told Nako.

  Behind her, I saw the boy staring at me.

  Nako saw it too.

  “You can tell he likes you, right?” Nako told me with a snigger.