Jethro: First to Fight

by Hechtl, Chris

  “I see. Thank you.”

  “It's great when we can join work and pleasure,” a wolf Private said.

  The mayor glanced at each of them briefly. Slowly he nodded. “Call of the wild. It's strong here, the call of blood and kinmanship. I think you're hearing it too,” the mayor said softly, studying the Selkie. “Been long without seeing your people?”

  “Ages. It seems like forever. But I'm not from Agnosta.”

  “Ah.”

  “It might be a good thing. But you won't get a warm reception. The nearest Selkie colony is ten clicks north. Follow the shore line and you'll find it easily enough.”

  “Thanks.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Ten kilometers further north, Deja found what he had been looking for. He found a lost colony of Selkie walrus and seals living half in, and half out of the water. Much like their bodies, they were split in their living.

  Right off, from their expressions he realized that they were isolationist, Inuit like. Occasionally they traded or were raided by Eskimo wolves or humans. Males and females basked on the rocks, some of the large alphas snoozed drowsily in the warm sun. A giant one ton walrus rubbed and twitched his snoot, but didn't respond when a female passed him by. She slapped him on the rump earning a grunt of irritation, but otherwise didn't get a response. She snorted and then moved on.

  “Fishing good?” Deja asked, nodding to an old battle scared male. The Marine took his top off and tied the sleeves around his waist.

  “What's it to ya outsider?” The elder asked, basking in the sun.

  “Curious. You seem to be very relaxed.”

  “We're waiting for the tide,” the elder said. “Best move along. Nothing here for you.”

  “Actually, I'm here for you.”

  “We're not interesting in trading,” the elder said. A walrus further away honked. A female looked up and turned baleful eyes on the elder. Eventually he squinted an eye open and caught the look. He sighed. “Fine fine,” he grumbled, opening both eyes and getting up.

  “Sorry, I don't mean to be a bother. I'm on a mission of first contact.”

  “Really, you don't say.”

  “We don't want any,” another male honked. “Send him away or I will,” he said. Deja looked at the male. He had a cross bow speargun and a broken tusk. He didn't look at all happy about the Marine in their midst.

  “I've been sent with a care package. A radio, some medicines, and other goods,” Deja said, taking his pack off.

  “Really,” the elder said. “And what do you want to trade for it? Like we need it.”

  “We do too need it! The medicine at least!” a female growled. He turned and growled back. She shut up, cowed by the larger male.

  “It's free. Courtesy package,” the Marine replied.

  “Oh really. So, you've delivered your package, now go.”

  “I'm actually interested in your people. There aren't many of our kind left in the sector. The Horathians have been busy wiping them out.”

  “So?”

  “Did they bother you when they came through two years ago?”

  “Nope,” the elder said. He took the radio out, looked it over, and then casually dropped it. A flippered foot crushed it. “Oops,” he said casually. Deja winced.

  The casual destruction of something artificial and obviously a gift to the community got the attention of others, and the ire of a few of the female cows. In moments dozens were around them.

  “Now see what you've done?” the elder sighed in exasperation.

  “The young one didn't do it, you did,” a female said. Suddenly Deja remembered his reading of his people. There were many females, dozens. There were a handful of males, all large dominant elders. Each were battlescared, each had a harem of females and their own territory. Bachelor males were kept to the fringes of the society. Could that be the reason for the hostility? Were they worried he was going to stay?

  “What was it anyway?” a female asked, picking up the bits. They watched her examine them.

  “A radio. A device used to communicate with others. To let you know of a storm or trouble, or visitors coming. And to let the world at large know if you had something to trade or needed medicine if illness or hunger struck.”

  “Ah, a nice thing to have,” a female said.

  “If I had kept it you would have been tempted to use it,” the male said in his own defense.

  “To have it one does not necessarily need to use it. But it is nice to have in need. Now we don't.”

  “I can get you another if I visit again.”

  “Ah, so this is a visit?” a cow asked. Deja nodded. She sighed, cocking her expressive head. “Pity.”

  “Yes ma'am a visit.”

  “Did you come far?”

  “From the other side of the world. Oh, well, I'm not from this world originally if that is what you mean.”

  Her expressive eyes flared wide. There were a bit of mixed breeding going on, genes from seals of different breeds as well as sea lions. Her small frame and lack of spots said she was more sea lion than seal.

  “Why do you wear this?” a small voice barked, tugging on his pants. He looked down to see pups around this feet.

  “I'm a Marine. We wear clothes most of the time. I don't usually wear them in the water.”

  “Have you been in the water?”

  “Not in the past few days. I've been flying a lot?”

  “You can fly?” a voice asked dripping in excitement and disbelief.

  “As if.”

  “I'm actually a pilot too. I left my shuttle about twelve kilometers south of here.”

  “Then why don't you go back to it?” A male grumbled.

  “I'm trying hard not to take offense at that,” Deja sighed.

  “You have not been with your own kind young one?”

  “I'm not that young, I've had modern medicine. And no, not in over two decades. I was afraid I was the last.”

  “Oh.”

  The elders were clearly not interested in the outside world. At first, the leaders ignored him but the young pups were interested in him because he was new and a stranger with strange things. It was ever the way, they were interested in something new, a different path.

  The females hung onto his every word, which annoyed many of the men. Deja wasn't sure what to make of it. Were they truly interested in the stories or because he was from far away? Or was it something else, a way to get their mates jealous?

  He spent long hours talking with them, exchanging stories. Theirs was a difficult life. In the warm period they fished and gathered food like sea weed and other things. A few of the Selkies had set up off shore farms in the sea bed, they dived for clams, crustaceans and other things. Groups used improvised rakes to dig for muscles on the shore.

  He helped where he could, digging or hauling nets. But still, the females and pups came and asked their questions.

  The attention got the ire of the leaders as well as the young male Selkies who thought of him as competition. The second evening he left the camp and moved into the woods. The Selkies were tied to the sea, they rarely ventured into the woods. He made a fire and called in a report, then bedded down for the evening. It was short, the days were long and the nights short, but he got enough down time to feel refreshed. He returned to the camp with some food and branches.

  “Ever we need such things. They are useful to the hunters and to those who work with the nets,” a grandam said. She was one of the few elders who didn't mind him. She seemed a bit strange, but wise.

  As he walked along the shore a walrus blocked his way. When he tried to get around the walrus moved to block him again. “Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but you are blocking my way,” Deja said.

  “Leave then,” the walrus said.

  “Fine,” Deja turned back and then made a wide circle around the male. The male blew an annoyed raspberry when he realized the Selkie Marine had retreated, but then a blant of anger when he realized he had been out maneuvered
.

  The male came to him as he knelt and worked with a party of fishers. “Now what?” Deja asked impatiently when the shadow of the giant grew close. He'd seen him approach on his implants. He turned just in time to be body checked. The male had hit him with a head butt. Deja had taken the blow not on his head but on his shoulder. He hissed as he was knocked off balance.

  “Now look,” he said, hand flippers up. The male flashed green canines as he opened his mouth. Deja acted. He stepped in close, grabbing an arm and then turning to have his back to his enemy. The male roared as the smaller Selkie pulled him. The roar of amusement turned to shock as the walrus was yanked off his feet in a perfectly executed hip toss. He floundered in the air for a brief half second then slammed hard onto his back. He gasped, looking up at his opponent in shock.

  Deja grabbed his throat, pinning the larger Selkie there with his enhanced strength. “Listen you ignorant idiot. I'm not here for long. You go your way, I'll go mine. Get in my way again and I'll break your spine. Understood?” he snarled, showing his own canines.

  The male felt the incredible strength in that hand flipper. If his enemy bore down with his weight he could easily crush his throat. He nodded, cowed.

  Deja let him up warily, stepping back out of reach. The male rubbed his throat and moved off. Deja looked around to see others looking at him. He shrugged, meeting stare for stare. “That's what it means to be a Marine. I could have been harder on him. I wasn't. Don't screw with me and I won't screw with you.”

  “Oh, that's disappointing then,” a female said. He turned to the cow. She fluttered her eyes at him, obviously flirting. He snorted softly. She was a full arctic Selkie. An off white, with black and gray shading on her back. Black splotches marked her back and sides. She had incredibly short arms. She reminded him of a T Rex for some reason.

  There was something there, something in her expressive brown eyes though. Something he wanted to fall into, just drink from and never come out of. “Hey girl,” he said lamely, brain lapsing.

  “That's the best pick up line you've got?” she asked coyly. She smiled slightly, turning and flirting with him.

  “Sorry, first thing that came to mind,” Deja replied. “Corporal Deja, Marine corps pilot and recon.”

  “I know who you are,” she murmured, twitching her whiskers. She raised her head and sniffed him, drinking in his scent. “You're new. I like that.”

  “Indeed,” another female said, eying him. The female had a staff, she was old, hunched over, clutching the staff. She had a shark's tooth necklace, and more shark's teeth tied to the tip of her staff.

  “He is a stranger to our people and our lands. A stranger to our customs it seems.”

  “Not completely strange ma'am,” Deja said, bowing ever so slightly to the female. “I did do some research.”

  “Ah.”

  “And I heard stories,” he said.

  “I see. And so polite,” the grandam said. “I am Koko this is my granddaughter Kirima.”

  “Kirima, it means hills in Inuit.”

  “You know the language?” the elder female asked.

  “Yes. Well, some. I have implants,” Deja replied, tapping his brow.

  “Implants.”

  “Cybernetic implants.”

  “I see. Is that how you threw Yutu so easily?” the female asked slyly.

  He shrugged, looking at the limping male. Yutu meant claw in Inuit. “That and a bit of Kung Fu,” he replied. “Simple hip throw.”

  “Ah, I see,” the female said, clearly amused. “You are a wise one.”

  “Just... cosmopolitan ma'am,” Deja said diplomatically. He didn't want to come off as uppity and better than them. He was in some ways, but in others different. Just different.

  “Ah. Well, you and Kirima are quite a pair. We had thought of wedding her to a cousin, but he has yet to come up with the bride price, the dower.” She shook her head. “The last time he tried the fish had rotten before he had gathered half.”

  “I see,” Deja said slowly, clearly off balance. He felt a sinking sensation. “And I see you have some experience with the outer world.”

  “I do indeed. It is I who usually trade with the outside world. I who do most of the medicine. The tribe would think that we live apart, but they look to me for medicines when their pups or loved ones get sick. Some would scoff, say that they should live or die, but when they are injured by a shark, that tone changes fast.” She smiled, twitching her whiskers.

  “Dower?” Deja asked, looking at the females.

  “Yes. It would however be in the best interests of all concerned for her to breed outside the tribe. We have become too enclosed, that is not good for the blood,” the female said, eying him. “Perhaps your arrival was quite fortuitous. It would have been much better had you arrived during the breeding season though. A pity you couldn't have arranged that.”

  “I... um, see,” Deja said, feeling a little light headed. Kirima looked away, clearly embarrassed.

  “The males sometimes fight for the right to the females, which further complicates things.”

  “I see.”

  “I have spoken with Yoskolo. He is the big fat fool you met yesterday. He will not interfere with you. And the females wish for you to spread your seed far and wide. We must open our bloodlines if we are to survive.”

  “Ma'am...” Deja said, feeling a bit put out.

  “Oh, not to worry little one,” she teased wickedly. “We speak of the future. And you'd need consent of your senior wife Kirima of course. But we can get to the details later...”

  Deja closed his eyes. Somehow, suddenly his life had just gotten a whole lot more complicated. But wasn't that the way when females got involved?

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Half way through his second day the shuttle landed nearby. He and the pups watched it land. He was amused by their show of intent interest and bravery.

  “There goes the neighborhood,” Yoskolo grumbled. “We might as well draw a map and lay out a sign.”

  “Oh hush,” Koko scolded.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Deja spent the next evening in the company of Koko and Kirima. Kirima told him softly of the tribe as she worked on repairing the nets. When it became apparent that he was useless helping her, she'd smiled politely at his antics but firmly taken the net away from him, he'd gone out and come back with an improvised sled loaded with fire wood. He'd built a fire on the shore, a rare treat for the Selkie.

  Some still sported in the water, about half the tribe had just returned from fishing though and were quite exhausted.

  A few of the pups and their mothers came to be closer to the crackling fire. They were memorized by the flames. “So, white sharks, I know I've run into a couple at Parris Island, but what else?”

  “Polar bears. Neo polar bears are rare. But they too can and do eat us. Anything on the shore seems to feed on us in tight times. Wolves, Neowolves, and sometimes humans,” Kirima said darkly. She looked at the Neowolf Marines. They flicked their ears at her but remained silent. They had hunted earlier in the day, and had brought back caribou to the tribe. The meat was a rare treat for the tribe, usually they only got red meat from carrion that died near the shore.

  “That's terrible!” he said.

  She nodded. “It is ever the way, eat or be eaten. The circle of life.”

  “Yeah well, it's still not right. Sapient's shouldn't feed on each other.”

  “But you said the Horathians do?”

  “They don't eat people. They do kill them though. And yeah, they do terrible things to them. Sometimes they keep you alive. As a slave,” he said darkly, looking away.

  He felt a hand flipper touch his. He looked down at it and stroked it gently.

  “What happened?” she asked softly.

  “I was young. Just in the space lanes. They took our ship. There was nothing we could do. I was the senior navigator. They kept me alive because I am a Selkie, because I was so good and they had few navigato
rs. But they hated me.” He sighed, shivering slightly. “Oh how they tortured me!”

  “I'm sorry.”

  “I... survived. Others didn't.”

  “What happened?” Kirima asked. “Obviously you are free.”

  “Yes,” Deja said. Slowly he related the story of the attack on Agnosta, then Pyrax. He explained about the admiral, and the great space battle that had taken place. “Some of us died, but better to die in that then to live another day as a slave.”

  “I see.”

  “I signed up. Oh, they wanted me to be a navigator again. I was tempted, but I wanted... revenge. Some of my own back. And I... had an aversion to flying a ship. It was horrible, painful. Dry, so dry! No water at all!”

  “I couldn't live without water!” Kirima said, expressive eyes boring into his soul. “You must have been incredibly strong to have lived through that!”

  “I did what I had to do. I survived. Now I'm a Marine. A pilot. I fly shuttles, I fight when needed.”

  “I see. So you will go back?”

  “I have to. I have my orders. I have to leave tomorrow Kirima. I'm sorry, but I do.”

  “I'm sorry too,” she said softly, looking away to the fire.

  “I can come back on my next leave,” Deja said, stroking her hand.

  “I'd like that.”

  There was a long silence as they drank in the warmth of the fire. Finally he broke it.

  She giggled, wiggling her whiskers. She leaned into him, nuzzling him. He nuzzled back.

  “I like this,” she murmured.

  “I like being with you, but I've got a rock digging into my butt,” Deja grumbled. That got another giggle. He lifted the offending cheek, fished the rock out and then pitched it into the dark water. It skipped once then sank into the waves.

  “You were saying, about things here? Just sharks hunt our people?” Deja asked. “In the water I mean.”

  “The white death. They strike from below. If ever you survive an attack, stay on them, stay away from the teeth and stay on them,” Kirima said.

  “I'll try to remember that.

  “There is another,” a male said. He nodded to Deja as he took a seat on the other side of the fire. Kirima seemed annoyed by the interruption but didn't say anything.