Invardii Series Boxset

by Warwick Gibson

  She inserted an earpiece into the boy’s rather oddly shaped ear canal, and fitted the rest of the workings behind his ear. It clamped firmly into place, despite the fact the ear was twice as long, and half as wide, as the ears it was made for.

  Celia was surprised to find that this Pellukech, at least, seemed to trust her. Was that even a small smile? She spoke slowly to the boy, a few simple words Mongo had helped her put into the database already, thanking him for his help.

  The boy’s eyes lit up, and he began to speak quickly in the desert tongue, pointing to the strangers and waving his stick-thin arms in the air.

  The other desert dwellers looked surprised, and then gathered round him. The chief looked in the boy’s ear, and began to poke at the earpiece. Celia decided to use the situation, and got Mongo to explain that the earpiece would only work in the ear of the first person it came in contact with.

  Let the boy have some respect among his people for a while, she thought to herself. She patted him on his bony shoulder.

  The chief growled something, and moved away to check that the Pellukech camp had been set up properly for the night.

  CHAPTER 17

  ________________

  Celia woke to the sounds of movement at the Pellukech camp, and the first rays of the sun slanting across the desert landscape. She was up and fixing a quick breakfast for her team when she heard the patter of light feet, followed by the boy with the earpiece turning up beside her.

  As best as she could make out, the boy’s name was Kee-tuk, and he told her the Pellukech would be leaving camp in two fingers time. Celia knew this one. She couldn’t remember how or why she knew it, but if a person held a hand at arm’s length, between the sun and the horizon, each finger was about a quarter of an hour of daylight under the old 24 hour system still standard on Earth.

  It was amazing that a little trick like that was also being used on Orouth, more evidence of a common ancestry – or at least a common way of thinking. Two fingers gave her team half an hour until the combined caravan headed out across the desert.

  When the caravan was assembling, next to the solid wooden frame where Mongo had set up the hide drum, Celia showed Kee-tuk how to wear a translation belt. The few words Mongo had fed into the linguist earpiece were woefully inadequate for a serious conversation, and she needed the boy’s help to expand the word base further.

  Hesitant at first, Kee-tuk began to enjoy the game as the belt asked him questions about their surroundings. He darted this way and that, almost daring the belt to keep up with him as he stood beside as many new things as possible. The fact he was also the centre of attention helped him enjoy the game as well.

  As the caravan moved out, the research team got their first really close look at the Pellukech. Seeing them move so differently, long bodies seemingly disjointed but covering impressive distances with their slow motion strides, tested their belief that the outside doesn’t matter, it’s the stuff on the inside that counts.

  Celia looked at the Pellukech striding along beside her, and realised he, or she, it was almost impossible to tell, was startling proof of the Rothii idea of cultural dissonance. The first step in that direction was increasing physiological difference, brought about by vastly different habitats. She had to admit Orouth provided those!

  Celia didn’t know how many distinctly different races there were in the many different habitats of Orouth, but the Kantari and the Pellukech had already taken noticeably different evolutionary paths. At least their physical differences hadn’t yet stopped them interacting for trade and information.

  If cultural dissonance proved true wherever individual awareness arose in the galaxy, it would change forever the way she viewed the civilisations she encountered. She couldn’t yet bring herself to approve of the Rothii transplanting a Human population to Earth, but possibly, in some much bigger picture, it had been necessary.

  Celia and her team had come prepared for the desert, and their clothing, well camouflaged, had the advantage of advanced technology that reduced the heat. Still, it was tough work, trudging along after the Pellukech under a scorching sun.

  The two reptilian camels, with their standard complements of two drivers apiece, ranged well ahead of the caravan. They reported back to the hakkim at regular intervals.

  This part of the desert was a rolling gravel and rock plain that seemed incapable of supporting life. As the day progressed, the research team became aware it was split by deep fissures that could have swallowed the whole caravan.

  In places there were tracks that led into the fissures they passed, suggesting the cooler depths might have been a good place to camp, or might contain trails to other locations. From the few glimpses she got, the deeper parts supported a range of desiccated shrubs and tangles of mosses and lichen. Vegetation, she thought, the reptilian camels might be able to live on in an emergency.

  Of more interest were the large outcrops of shattered rock that sh saw as the caravan got deeper into the desert. There was always shade to be had, and sometimes rudimentary tunnels that ran back into them. The shade began to look more attractive as the day wore on and the heat increased.

  Looking ahead strained the eyes. The horizon was lost in shimmering heat waves, and Celia learned to keep her head down. It wasn’t long before she had her hat pulled permanently low at the front. Roberto seemed to suffer from the heat the most.

  “Put me back in the rain forest any day,” he muttered to her as they plodded along.

  She was about to say something encouraging when there came a long, thin screech on the air. The Pellukech whirled about, spears appearing as if by magic. They spread out in a star formation, and each of Celia’s team was dragged down by several of the nearest desert dwellers, who then stood guard over them.

  A moment later several lazy wing beats sounded from the rise beside them, and a replica of Earth’s dinosaur days sailed overhead. Huge leathery wings soared on the desert thermals, and a massive beak gaped permanently open, as if it was scenting the wind. Dagger-long teeth adorned the lengthy jawline.

  It banked leisurely around, one tiny eye in the nightmarish head fixed on them. Long seconds passed before it returned to level flight, and disappeared over the next rise. It left one last dismissive screech behind it.

  “Karrich,” said Kee-tuk, when he found Celia again. He rattled off some information about the flying beasts, but the translation database was not yet able to understand him.

  He seemed to sense this, and slowed down. He held up one finger, and looked pleased, waggling his open hand in an odd way Celia didn’t understand. Then he held up two fingers, and looked a little more unhappy, before finally holding up three fingers and making a convincing mime of cutting his own throat. This last gesture seemed to have the same meaning in both cultures.

  She nodded. If she read it right, he was saying that the Pellukech could handle one karrich, maybe even two, but if there were three of them then someone would die. Someone unfortunate enough to be dragged off by one of the brutes.

  The caravan stopped at one of the outcrops of rock a little later, and rested in the shade of an overhang. While the others took their time over lunch, Celia moved off to a more private location, still within sight of the group, and opened a link to the shuttle. She told Andre and Jeneen about the karrich, and gave them a brief rundown of life on the move with the Pellukech.

  “But we detected nothing in the desert,” said Andre. “No life signs at all, certainly nothing that could be the size of a human or larger. And nothing that could be one of these karrich creatures.”

  “I know,” said Celia, “but I think I can explain it. I’ve already picked up from the boy that the Pellukech live in caves in the desert, so you wouldn’t pick them up while they were inside the caves.

  “The rest of the life here appears to be reptilian in nature, and is probably cold-blooded. You wouldn’t pick up the flying lizards by heat, and they’re basically skin and porous bone spread over a large area. Something like tha
t is likely to be considered an anomaly by the computer, if it was picked up at all.

  Andre grunted. It was possible. Unlikely, but possible.

  “What’s the food chain like?” he asked. “What do the Pellukech live on? What do the flying lizards hunt?”

  “The deserts are criss-crossed by these deep fissures,” replied Celia. “They can be deep valleys in some places, and I think there’s a water table not far below them. The water tables might be part of an extensive underground system that’s replenished by the rains in the southern and northern forest belts.”

  Andre was quiet for a while, and she waited patiently for his response.

  “I’m looking at the data from the surveys now,” he said, “and it supports your theory. Aquifers have been detected in most places around the planet. That could be enough to back your idea there’s enough biomass at the bottom of these fissures to support a food chain.”

  “Yes,” agreed Celia, “but not a complicated one. I doubt there are many Pellukech, or many flying lizards, anywhere in the desert.”

  Andre had little more to add, except to say the Orouth Freighter was in stationary orbit above Celia and her team, and it was tracking them without difficulty. He added that he and the shuttle crew were making good progress with the Kantari people at the longhouse.

  At the end of the first day, Celia and her team were able to examine one of the Pellukech dwelling places first hand. The caravan stopped at a large cave in one of the outcroppings of rock. She followed the others in, and was surprised at how far it stretched back from the entrance, and divided into a number of chambers.

  The artwork on the walls was striking, the figures appearing to move in black, ochre and white as flames danced in the cooking pits. Celia made a note to come back and study the pictures more closely if she had time, and she was able to quietly scan the images into her data base later in the evening.

  As the sun set outside, Celia and her team were shown to an alcove off the main cave, and left to settle in. The evening meal was a mixture of strange vegetables, that she suspected had been collected from the fissures that marked the desert, and rather gamey meat.

  She didn’t feel she knew the Pellukech well enough to ask questions – and the translation belt didn’t have enough words yet – so she was left to wonder about the meat. Did they cull the strange camel creatures they rode, or hunt the creatures that lived in the deeper valleys of the desert.

  After the evening meal the hakkim seemed more resigned to the presence of Celia’s team among his people, and the women slowly became more friendly, especially when Celia took an interest in how they prepared food.

  Kee-tuk was a help too. His growing closeness to Celia and Roberto, and even the impassive Habid and Tunak, seemed to reassure the other Pellukech. None of them would voluntarily go anywhere near the Hud pilots, all the same. The two Hudnee appeared massive beside the stick-thin Pellukech, and Celia could understand their fear that the Hudnee might inadvertently crush them, or flatten a wayward foot.

  During the first three days of travelling, the rhythm of life with the Pellukech became firmly established, and Celia’s team began to toughen up for the long marches through the desert. The hakkim clearly had a goal in mind, and at this stage Celia had to trust the caravan would deliver them to the Lizard’s Head eventually.

  The Pellukech always arrived at a cave in one of the rock outcrops as evening approached, and Celia realised they were on a time-worn and well used trail through the desert.

  On the second day they met a group of Pellukech who seemed to be permanently resident at one of the caves. It was interesting to see an extended family group, rather than the more warlike trading company of adults that had met them at the edge of the southern forest. It also made Celia wonder how Kee-tuk had been included in the trading party. Perhaps he was an orphan, or a slave. There was so much she didn’t know about the Pellukech.

  Celia’s team was more readily accepted by the larger group, and she came to view that evening as one of her fondest memories of Orouth. The glow of friendly people, the security of the cave, the flickering brightness of the fire, and the excitement of a completely new culture, all played a part. They made it a special time that she would remember.

  CHAPTER 18

  ________________

  The next day started early for the group of Pellukech traders, as it always did, and the caravan was soon out on the desert plains once again. Celia waved Kee-tuk over as she trudged along, and removed the translation belt from around his tiny waist. It took a short moment to transfer the new material to the linguist earpieces. The database had now compiled over a thousand words, and Celia was beginning to use it to chat with some of the Pellukech during the day.

  She wanted them to get used to the machine translating her words for her. She had a plan for the next part of their journey, but it was going to be hard to convince the desert dwellers to accept it. She raised the topic once the trading party had settled in for the night.

  “May I speak, hakkim,” she said, making a formal request to ask something of the group.

  The Pellukech leader had heard the translation belt speak on her behalf before, but he was surprised she knew the rules that governed the formal gatherings of the trading party. Celia had held the translation belt in her hand as she stood to speak. There were too few earpieces for the whole group, and she wanted every one of the Pellukech to hear what she had to say.

  There was a moment’s silence, and then the hakkim waved his hand in front of him, the signal that gave her permission to speak.

  “How many days will it take us to reach the Lizard’s Head?” she said, looking around the rest of the group, who were intently following the utterances of the belt. An older Pellukech man got up and moved forward until he was standing next to the hakkim. There was a momentary exchange in a sign language Celia hadn’t seen before, and then the older Pellukech turned to face Celia. He said something the belt translated.

  “Seventeen tarkeem, or a little over 45 days,” it said slowly. The older Pellukech had evidently been aware she might not follow their use of time units. She mentally thanked him for that.

  “This is a long time,” said Celia slowly, as if she were considering the pros and cons of such an extended journey.

  “I can take some of you, and my own people, across the desert in one day,” she declared, “and return you in one day more.”

  There were exclamations, and gasps of surprise, from the group, then some angry mutterings from the older Pellukech, who suspected this to be more of the foreign witchcraft.

  “We can fly like the karrich fly,” said Celia, hurrying on. “Inside a giant, ah, a giant cave,” she said, trying to find a comparison the Pellukech would understand. The hakkin waved imperiously for silence, and Celia stopped at the end of her sentence. She had to show the utmost respect to the hakkim if she was to have any chance to get him to agree.

  “Even a karrich would take many days to fly across the desert,” said the leader dismissively.

  “Give me permission to call my karrich tomorrow morning,” said Celia, in an inspired piece of improvisation. The Pellukech would want to see a tamed karrich, and from there she might be able to convince them to accept a short ride across the desert.

  Time was something the people of Earth were short of. No-one knew when an Invardii fleet might strike at their planet, but the alien vessels were continuing to spread across the Spiral Arm. If Sallyanne’s vague references to ‘battle gods’ had any merit, the research team might be able to contribute something to that fight, when it came.

  The hakkim hesitated. He knew Celia was up to something, but he also knew the collective will of the people could over-rule him if there was a general agreement against his decision. For the moment, the trading group wanted to see this happen, and it would be wise to bow to the inevitable.

  “Tomorrow!” he said sharply, and called more of the older men to the front to organise a hunt at one of the deeper valleys, a few
days travel ahead.

  Celia had been dismissed, but she had been given the opportunity to put her case to the desert people in the morning. She stifled a smile. Her idea was a good one, and she only hoped Andre could make it work.

  The next day dawned with a cold wind from the south, bringing a hint of dampness from the far off rain forests. Celia had talked to the Orouth Freighter overhead, and then with Andre at the longhouse clearing, the night before.

  The Pellukech had postponed the usual early start to the day to see if there was any truth in Celia’s claim she could summon a tame karrich. After a hurried breakfast, the desert dwellers assembled in front of the cave, and stood enjoying the first heat from the day’s sun.

  Celia felt like an old-fashioned conjuror, or an astronomer who knew in advance that there would be an eclipse that day. Her fingers tingled in anticipation. Well now, she thought, might as well give them a show!

  She had Habid strap a commslink to his upper arm, and set up a link with Andre. That way, her behaviour would seem more normal, as if she was talking to Habid, instead of Andre in the shuttle. If she started talking to a small wheel on her wrist, some of the older Pellukech might start muttering about foreign magic again.

  “Where are you?” she said quietly as she patted Habid’s shoulder, pretending to give him directions and getting Andre’s reply in her earpiece.

  “A little west of you, still descending through the upper atmosphere, using air brakes instead of burners, as you requested,” said Andre. It had been easiest for him to do a short orbital hop out of the atmosphere, and then re-enter closer to Celia’s position in the desert. Celia had wanted no meteor-like trace of the shuttle falling through the atmosphere before she ‘called’ her karrich.

  “Great, descend to just above ground level and let me know when you’re a few seconds out,” she whispered quietly, “as planned.”

  “Roger, and out,” said Andre, acknowledging her request.