"I'm saying that what we know about the species might not apply."
Nimri sighed. "They were difficult enough to deal with when we knew their weak spots."
Tem-aki and Raine shared a worried look. Raine was the first to turn to Nimri and ask, "How could you deal with them if you didn't have properly equipped craft?"
"Water," Nimri said.
Raine relaxed and nodded. "Nambaba's main defense and control mechanism was her hydro-blaster. Plenty of water around here to supply us."
~o~
Tem-aki watched the man, who claimed to be Larwin, tickle Mica's feet. He was the same height and had shoulders the same width that she recalled her brother having, but his skin was darker, his hair, longer and lightened by the sun. This man dressed in hand-woven fabrics and sandals instead of black, form-fitting battle-gear, but the difference between the brother she remembered and the man in front of her went far deeper.
Mica's peals of laughter were answered by a deep, warm chuckle. "Like that, don't you?" Larwin's well-known voice said.
Amazing, this man's eyes glinted with happiness and laughter tinged his words. Previously, she had only seen determination in his eyes and she had never imagined him laughing.
Could anyone really change this much?
Could anyone really be as happy as he seemed in a world, which didn't seem to operate on power and profit?
At face-value, it seemed so, but this was something that she would have to watch and try to understand.
Granted, she understood how someone like Cameron, who didn't know any different could be happy without luxuries and the technologies that a powerful society could offer. Cameron simply didn't know what he was missing.
But Larwin knew what was available, so why had he let Thunder use his environmental suit to try to close off any option of escape instead of use it to repair his ship?
Nimri settled down next to Larwin and touched his wrist. For a moment, they smiled into each other's eyes in a way that reminded Tem-aki of the way her parents looked at each other.
And it looked as genuine as Mica.
Had her brother left everything and everyone from his past behind because of a woman? Tem-aki's hands clenched into fists, but she didn't know if she wanted to lash out at Larwin for abandoning her or Nimri for luring him away.
And because of her blind devotion to her brother, now she, too had lost everything and everyone that was important to her.
~o~
Cameron held tight to the tiller as his grandfather's small fishing boat beat its way through the waves. As uncomfortable as his stomach felt, he had the satisfaction of watching Varlet and Malin hanging precariously over the rail as they emptied their stomachs for the umpteenth time.
Perhaps a rogue wave would sweep the rail clean and two-thirds of his problem people would vanish.
But, instead of a wave solving that problem, the small boat rounded the point and the raging seas calmed. Gradually, Malin and Varlet moved a pace away from the railing and sat down on the slick deck.
Once free of the confused seas, the boat began to make serious progress.
Varlet turned a glowering, green-tinged face to him. "We should have walked."
"It would have taken too long," Cameron said. "If GEA-4 is correct about Shaka-uma awakening, we needed to be there yesterday."
Malin's dark, oily hair clung to his acned face. "I never realized the seas could be so rough."
"They only seem that way," Cameron said, "because The Sirocco is much larger and you aren't sleeping in your hammock." Cameron glanced back at the area that sailors referred to as 'the cats and dogs' because in that section the waves always seemed to be fighting.
"If you say so," Malin said. "Don't know why you chose us for this trip. If we had to go in such an unstable thing, I'd think you'd choose one of the novices from the lower ranks."
Cameron bit his tongue so he couldn't waste more breath trying to explain that being the son of a fisherman was equal, if not better than being the son of a money-lender. And, for the millionth time, he wondered if Malin's family had urged him to become an initiate, so his beliefs would act like a cancer, harming their order from the inside.
If so, then the plan might be working on Dirk, but then his attitudes were already so skewed by Varlet, that it probably didn't matter when Malin made his snide little status comments.
Varlet, who had demanded that he, Malin and Dirk be allowed to come on this 'momentous trip', lay down on the deck and closed his eyes. If his reason for traveling along had held any sinister plans to take over the order, at least for the moment he was too ill to execute them.
Cameron settled down for the second half of the journey and hoped that without Varlet and syncopates there to distract them, that the rest could finish preparations. Though Benji had wanted to come along, too, he had understood that once he rested, his help was needed at the main base. Besides, the small, old boat really wasn't large enough for five grown men. In fact, having four adults aboard was double its normal capacity.
~o~
"Now, all three are clawing," GEA-4 said. "And the first two are nearly through the exterior."
Nimri shivered. Glancing at Mica, who Raine held protectively in her arms, she wondered if being aboard a boat, would protect her son from the impending danger of young madrox.
Would they be like infant poisonous snakes, who were more deadly than the adults, because they had not learned control?
Or, would they be like Mica and require a mother's attention? Involuntarily, she looked at the thin portion of lava, which GEA-4 claimed the mother was under. Had Shaka-whatever woken from her sleep because of the impending hatch?
Was that a ripple of movement in the crust?
Nimri swallowed three times before the lump of fear stopped choking her.
GEA-4 pointed to the ovum on the right. "And it is through."
Raine stared at the tiny hole in the rock. "So they hatch like birds... I've always wondered."
"Why?" Larwin asked in surprise. "I thought you said you worked with them every day."
"I did, but never knew how they procreated." Raine shrugged. "My job was to keep them near Vilecom and not let them stray away." She gave Thunder a warm look. "Obviously, I wasn't always successful."
"But you did get it back to the herd and save me in the process," Thunder said.
"So, you do have experience with the young ones," Larwin said. Raine nodded. "Aside from presumably being smaller than an adult, is there any major difference between how you need to handle them?"
Raine raised her face to the heavens. "Yes." She sighed and looked at Thunder. "I met you because a juvenile escaped. and I had to get it back to Vilecom." She turned her attention to Larwin. "The adults are too well-trained to escape like that."
Nimri frowned. "As I understand it, your people have herded them for decades."
Raine nodded in agreement."Since before I was born."
"Did you ever hear anyone say anything that would make you think that herding, instead of getting older might change their behavior?"
Raine's eyes widened. "No, but you're right, being trained to couple with the reclamation units and react to the herders might have changed how they acted."
"And since the ones we need to deal with have never encountered Kalamaran ships, it is safe to say that none of us really knows how they will act," Larwin said.
"I think it is a safe bet to predict that they will go after myst-energy," Thunder said.
Nimri nodded in agreement.
Mica wailed and Raine held him close, as if frail human arms could protect anything from a powerful, primitive madrox attack.
"The second has broken through," GEA-4 said, as she pointed to the ovum farthest from the shore.
"Too bad there isn't a way to pump their ovums full of water and drown them before they ever hatch," Larwin said.
Nimri nodded in agreement. In this case, the miraculous machines and amazing things he occasionally told her about woul
d be very handy and could save lives. Her gaze went to Mica.
~o~
Tem-aki listened to Larwin talking with Thunder and Nimri as if he seriously was planning to stay here and fight the hatching madrox in hand-to-hand combat, even though he, like all other pilots were taught that the proper way to deal with the destructive beasts was to run. Even though how fast or far could one could run with these primitive boats, was doubtful, running was certainly a wiser alternative than sitting here watching the things hatch.
In fact, since they were stuck with such primitive transportation, they should have left as soon as GEA-4 let them know there was danger.
Had her brother suffered some sort of head trauma when he crashed?
Was that why he looked and acted so different from the brother she knew?
Knowing that they did not have time to waste, talking and planning, she knelt down near Larwin and took his hand. "We need to leave here."
He stared at her. "Why?"
Tem-aki swallowed twice. "It's too dangerous to stay."
"It is more dangerous to leave," Nimri said. "Unless we deal with them here and now, they will remain a threat."
Tem-aki clenched her teeth together as she slowly turned to face the woman who had brainwashed her brother. "That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
Nimri stared at her as if no one had ever had the nerve to disagree with her. Tem-aki narrowed her eyes at the arrogant woman. "At the moment, they are trapped in those rock shells, we need to leave now, while we can." The more Tem-aki spoke, the surer she felt that she was right.
Nimri gave her a sad smile. "Larwin thought that, too, but then he learned that Guerreterre has different ways of doing things than Chatterre. We have no fast ships, so there is no escape. If we run, now, then the threat will always be here. Worse, the baby madrox would have time to grown into a bigger threat."
"She's right," Larwin said. "I know you don't understand this, but if we don't take care of this now, it will only get worse."
Tem-aki squared her shoulders. "But not today, and probably not tomorrow."
"Maybe not even for the next hundred years," Larwin agreed.
"So you understand why you need to be sensible and do what we were always taught to do."
Larwin gave her a sad smile, then shook his head. "Just because we were taught something since we were old enough to focus our eyes does not mean it is right." He cracked his knuckles. "Fortunately, I lived long enough to learn that."
Nimri's hand covered his hands with her own. "We survived the first one. We can survive this, too."
Right, like they'd done hand to hand combat with a dragon. Tem-aki took a deep breath and tried, again, "Can you understand why I question this choice? When you captained a star-fighter that had the fire-power to blow up a planet, you always ran. Didn't you?"
"Of course," Larwin said. "And can you understand that I now have a family to protect?" He took Nimri's hand in his.
Tem-aki gritted her teeth and nodded. "Still, this is impossible to do, so you need to leave."
"If you believe something is impossible, then you never will be able to do it, but if you believe that you can do something, the impossible becomes possible," Nimri said. "I learned that when we faced the first one." She took Thunder's hand in her free one. "It took all of us working together to win, and it will take all of us this time, too. If you're afraid, then you and your negativity need to run away."
Fingers itching to slap Nimri, Tem-aki clenched her fist. "I have gone places you never imagined and taken assignments no one else would, while I tried to find out what happened to my brother." She glared at Nimri. "And now you tell me to leave?" When Mica wailed, Tem-aki realized she was shouting. With force of will, she lowered her voice. "I found him and I will die with him, so I'm afraid you'll just need to get used to having a reality check around. And if by some miracle you survive this and I don't, remember that I told you so."
Chapter 28
As the prow dipped into the rolling waves, Cameron lined his grandfather's old fishing boat up with the harbor's entrance and then waited for the on-shore breeze. If it hadn't been an emergency situation, which forced him to travel with the worst three in the order, he would feel excited, instead, he felt tense. But what else could he do? He certainly couldn't leave Varlet, Malin and Dirk behind. And they had insisted on coming.
Feeling the first stirrings of wind, Cameron flexed his fingers, then wrapped them around the tiller and made the final adjustment, so the sail caught the wind and the tiny craft leaped toward the opening between the jagged rocks that protected the harbor-area.
"What are you doing?" Varlet bellowed.
"Isn't it obvious?" Cameron asked.
"We're pointed at the rocks." Malin snarled, as he lunged toward him. "He's planning to kill us!"
Dirk grabbed Malin a fraction of a moment before he got to him. After wrestling him to the deck, Dirk sat on Malin's chest and held his wrists down. "It's safer with his hand on the tiller than no one guiding us."
Malin hissed a reply, but the fight went out of him and Dirk was able to go back to his spot by the rail. Malin crawled to the other railing.
"If I wanted to kill any of you, do you think I would put myself in a position where it was three to one?" Cameron raised his brow at Varlet, then, when the only response he made was a reddening face, Cameron turned his full attention back to guiding them through the passage.
The rocks had looked wicked from the deck of the Sirocco, but from a smaller boat, they looked lethal. Years of navigating the passage gave him the knowledge that the sides of the passageway were like those of the harbor-area and were nearly vertical, thus, Cameron gently altered course, so that the knife-edged rocks were close to Malin's side of the boat.
Malin turned white and closed his eyes.
Cameron pretended not to notice, but inside, he was dancing in silent glee at finally finding something that could unnerve the annoying initiate.
As they rounded the last boulder, he saw the golden vessel Benji had mentioned floating next to the Sirocco. Though he couldn't see anyone aboard his ship, there seemed to be several people sitting in the shade of a thatch-roofed shack on the deck of the smaller ship.
Not knowing what to expect, he guided the old fishing boat to The Sirocco's other side and tied it where they usually secured the dory, which had been pulled up on the shore.
~o~
Tem-aki watched Cameron pilot a small, scruffy boat into the harbor. He'd come! Her heart skipped a beat, then, realizing that he wasn't coming directly toward her, she rudely turned away from Nimri, climbed back aboard the Sirocco and rushed across the deck to see where he was going.
As she looked down, Saphera and Kazza joined her at the rail. Looking down, she realized that the three nastiest novices were with him and a lot of her happiness fizzled.
Still, as Cameron looked up, into her eyes and his face broke into a look of delight, her heart skipped another beat as she smiled back.
"You came," she said.
He nodded. "We did."
"So Benji made it." Tem-aki bit her tongue and told herself that stating the obvious was stupid. Varlet and his two buddies scrambled up the ladder and made a bee-line for the galley. Tem-aki swallowed then added something Cameron didn't know. "You're just in time to see the dragon eggs hatch."
"What?" He frowned in confusion. "Benji told me that Shaka-uma might be alive. What's this about eggs?"
"GEA-4 says the madrox you call Shaka-uma is warming herself in the lava, and that three of her eggs are getting ready to hatch."
"You're telling me that after having no dragons for over a century, that we'll have four?" Cameron's face looked like he'd just won the greatest lottery prize in ten galaxies.
"That's about it, but why are you happy about this? Don't you realize how destructive dragons are?"
"Do you mean fire?" Cameron asked, looking confused.
"Well, since the old world burnt to a crisp, that would be one re
ason why people can't understand why you'd want to welcome destruction."
"Yes, fire can destroy, but it also built this island, it can protect us and it can burn out poisons and feed us safe food."
"Larwin believes that your dragons feed on some humans. How can you think that is good?"
Cameron blinked in surprise. "Is that what you believe?"
She gave a cautious nod.
Cameron inhaled deeply and stroked Saphera's flank. "What about the fertility they bring? Isn't this just another example of how one thing is both good and bad? And, when you think about it, isn't that true of most things?"
"I don't know, but I think you need to speak to Larwin, Raine and Thunder, because they are making plans to kill those dragons."
Cameron's eyes widened in shock. "How can they even consider that?"
"Ask them," Tem-aki said, then ushered him to the strange boat and introduced him to everyone. She watched with interest as cultures collided over the question of whether it was right to kill the dragons to possibly save lives or if the correct thing to do was leave them alone and hope Cameron was correct about the dragons making the land more fertile, and thus save lives from starvation.
Thunder cleared his throat then said, "Until you brought up the subject, I hadn't thought about it, but our crops are doing especially good this year." He looked at Nimri. "Do you think that is coincidence or might the madrox have done something to enrich the soil?"
For the first time since she'd met the woman with the ridiculously long black braid, Nimri didn't seem to know what to say. Tem-aki clamped her teeth together to hold in the bubbling laughter over her confused expression. So, she wasn't as perfect as she thought. Good!
"Now that I think about it," Raine said, "The fields, which were downwind from the storage sheds were our most productive." Her forehead wrinkled in thought. "I don't know how the broken bits being stored there could affect fertility, though."
"Strange coincidence," Larwin said. "And while I would love to say, fine, they might have a valid use, so let's quit trying to figure out a way to deal with them before they become a major issue'. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly willing to trade a slightly larger crop of vegetables for my son's life." Larwin put his hands on his hips and looked Cameron in the eye. "Mica is already showing a talent to use myst-energy, but he's a baby and too young to control it."
Fire Island: Book 3 of The Chatterre Trilody (Chatterre Trilogy) Page 21