by S. H. Jucha
Choslora’s confusion was evident — thrust into the position of queen, her mother abandoning her in the face of a Fissla attended by aliens, and protection from a wasat not of her choosing. She gathered her courage, unwound her tail from her legs, and boldly faced Nyslara. “I would hear more of the Fissla. When should we attend?”
“We would go now, Choslora, aboard Dassata’s ship,” Posnossa said gently, stepping forward. She was similar in age to Choslora and neither of them were as old as Sissya. Together, with Homsaff, they were the youngest of the thirty-nine known queens. There were two more nests that neither the Dischnya nor Alex’s people knew who ruled the nests.
Witnessing the peaceful passing of the robe had struck Posnossa to the marrow. Both Homsaff and she were unfortunate enough to have executed their mothers. Posnossa was forced to prevent her mother, who had dared to kill an emissary, from doing the same to the Harakens when they attempted to recover the emissary’s body, and Homsaff delivered the final blow to Chafwa, her mother, who was judged guilty of trying to kill Dassata and nearly succeeding.
Hessmas drew breath to speak, but Choslora stood high on her hind legs and barked a command for him to follow. The young queen nodded quickly to Nyslara and Alex, then marched toward the ship, her tail in a high arc behind her.
In triumph, Nyslara flashed her bared teeth at Alex, and, for the briefest instant, he regretted breaking the Dischnya taboo and teaching the human expression.
The presence of queens, wasats, aliens, and a foreign ship forced the capitulation of the last two queens. Nyslara stood at the front of the main cabin with Alex after the last queen and wasat had boarded. Her emotions ran high and she itched to swish her tail. Instead it stayed carefully wrapped around her legs, and she contented herself with the occasional baring of teeth in Dassata’s direction.
-9-
Fissla and Peace
By the time Alex had collected the seven reticent queens and their wasats and returned to Nyslara’s nest for the Fissla, the other pilots and crew had retrieved the remaining queens and their warrior commanders. Thirty queens and their wasats waited under tents, as Alex and company disembarked, bringing eleven more queens and their wasats. All forty-one nests were present, as if anyone couldn’t tell that by the manner in which Nyslara covered the ground to the tents — muzzle tilted up, high on hind legs, and tail cutting swaths of dried grass.
As Nyslara approached the gathering, a thought struck her about the seven queens she had collected. Before she met Dassata, Nyslara would have threatened the seven errant queens with the combined forces of the thirty-four others of her kind. They were prepared to remove the disagreeing female from her nest and absorb her soma if she didn’t cooperate. Instead, Nyslara found herself willing to sway the seven by virtue of appealing to their duty as queens, saying, “If you choose not to take part in this opportunity, you and your soma will be left to inhabit your tunnels, while the rest of us enjoy the rays of Nessila with the help of the alien’s technology, which my wasat and I have witnessed.”
Nyslara and the other queens took to their pallets. Only the seven queens, who were new attendees to the Fissla, were surprised that it was the alien leader, Dassata, who opened the ceremony.
“I’ve asked Nyslara to call this Fissla,” Alex said. “It was agreed by the queens at the first conference that if my soma provided opportunities for the Dischnya to return to the light, the queens would agree to end the fighting among the nests. Furthermore, no sentient creature on this planet would be harmed, now or in the future, without dire consequences. This would include Dischnya; Swei Swee, who you call ceena; my soma; or any others who are invited to live on Sawa Messa. In return for these things, the queens must invite the soma of my people to live among them.”
“Are you ready to build, Dassata?” Sissya asked.
“Aboard the huge ship that your telescopes have observed are more than ten times the number of soma of all the Dischnya on Sawa Messa and more technology than you can imagine. We’re ready to help the Dischnya,” Alex replied.
“What of the green, Dassata?” Nyslara asked.
“Allowing my soma to live on this planet is conditional on the invitation of two species, yours and the Swei Swee, which have been hunted by Dischnya. Leaders of both groups, who have lost soma in the green, have wondered if a sentient species lives there. Here’s your answer.”
Julien stepped to the forefront, holding a portable holo-vid. Slung over his back was a power cell. It was determined that the holo-vid would be put to good use, for several hours, during the Fissla. When Julien activated the device, under the tent’s shade, hisses and growls arose from many present. Nyslara briefly bared her teeth at Alex. She, for one, was pleased that the queens and their wasats were experiencing Dassata’s technology.
As an edited vid of Z’s encounter with the Nascosto played, the queens left their pallets and crowded around the holo-vid. Julien dropped a set of legs from the bottom of the holo-vid so it could stand on its own and backed away to allow the queens an unobstructed view.
When the rodent shrieked and leapt off the branch, the queens and wasats, who were crowded behind their principals, snarled. It was an instinctual Dischnya response to witnessing an attack. The vid ended when the troop attacked Z in force.
“You lost your soma, Dassata,” Homsaff lamented.
“His name is Z, and he’s fine,” Alex replied.
“But do not your images show these creatures to be poisonous, Dassata?” Posnossa asked.
“Highly so,” Alex agreed.
“Is Z one of your soma without scent, Dassata?” Nyslara asked.
“Yes, he is.”
“Dassata’s metal soma,” Pussiro hissed into Nyslara’s ear, and she lifted a hand from her thigh to silence him.
“So, these creatures have no voice in whether your soma stay or go?” Nyslara asked. She wanted to be sure of this point.
“None,” Alex agreed.
To the assembly, Nyslara said, “Every queen has heard from her matriarch of the dangers of the green, and now we’ve seen the evidence for ourselves. The green is a deadly place for the Dischnya, and you might be asking how the Dassata’s soma survived an attack by these creatures that have decimated many groups of our hunters.”
Nyslara’s comment had the queens and wasats nodding in agreement, and she knew it was time to start adding her voice to Dassata’s. “There is not enough time to tell you of all the wonders that my wasat and I experienced aboard Dassata’s ships, and be aware that their technological superiority is not limited to devices. For those who were not present at the last Fissla, know that Chona Chafwa and her wasat breached the rules of the Fissla and attacked Dassata. He received grievous wounds to the chest and head from Dischnya weapons. Every queen present was sure that he would be dead before he reached his ship above where his people flew him. But he lives, as you can see. We can have these things for our soma.”
“Chona Nyslara, is Chona Chafwa banned from the Fissla?” the newly elevated queen, Choslora, asked politely, and silence descended over the assembly.
“I’m chona of the Mawas Soma,” Homsaff said. She stood high on her hind legs, although she barely reached the height of most of the mature queens in their relaxed stances. “My mother, her wasat, and emissary were judged and punished for their breach of the Fissla.”
The new queens and wasats turned their eyes on Alex. Many were wide, and Alex could guess the reason for their concern.
“I don’t hold the Dischnya accountable for the attack of a few individuals,” Alex said. “Chona Chafwa was frightened by the changes that a future with us might bring to her soma, and she was jealous of Chona Nyslara’s contact with us. Understand that her way is not my way.”
“Dassata,” Nyslara said softly.
“Dassata,” Homsaff echoed, and one by one, the queens added their voices.
When there was quiet, Choslora said, “What of our ways, Dassata?”
“Name your concern, Chona Ch
oslora,” Alex said.
“If the Dischnya enjoy Nessila’s light, there’s an opportunity for our soma’s number to grow, but only if we have more food. Unfortunately, the plains barely support the nests now. Will you provide meat for the soma in addition to what our hunters gather?”
“My soma don’t hunt and gather food anymore,” Alex replied.
When Nyslara threw a confused look at Alex, he nodded to her to speak, and she said, “But Dassata, I sat at your table. I ate your food, the same food that your soma ate.”
“Did you enjoy it, Chona Nyslara?”
“It was an enjoyable meal,” Nyslara admitted. “And we dined on meat. I’m sure of it. The taste and texture were unmistakable.”
“My soma make our food and create dishes, such as the ones you enjoyed. I repeat … we don’t hunt and we don’t gather. There’s no need to do this. If the Dischnya choose to live aboveground, then this is the way you will eat, and, over time, your soma will learn to make your own food.”
Alex watched the queens and wasats murmur among one another. The discussion had traveled further afield from the consensus he’d hoped to quickly build on the subjects of peace and an invitation to stay, but if he didn’t respond to their concerns, he knew he’d never get to his objectives.
“How will we live aboveground, Dassata?” Sissya asked.
“Julien,” Alex said, and his friend activated the holo-vid for another viewing. The final plans for the structures the Dischnya would inhabit sprang into view. Both Alex and Julien felt twinges of regret that Willem wasn’t present to display the results of his efforts, but the SADE was buried in the planet’s survey research, and he’d yet to decide on his future allegiance, to Haraken or to Alex. However, Julien did the next best thing. He relayed the Fissla proceedings to Willem.
Nyslara and Pussiro’s eyes lit up at the familiar designs. The two closed on the display and proudly exhibited their proficiency with manipulating the view, with a small amount of covert help from Julien. The two Dischnya conducted a show and tell about their experiences aboard Dassata’s ship, concerning the various facilities, and how they related to the building plans.
The queens and wasats were mesmerized, not only by the structures and their facilities, but by the stories of Nyslara and Pussiro.
Alex waited patiently for the presentation to end, but it dragged on and on. At one point, he took a seat on the ground and soon nodded off.