Wearily, Austin stripped off what was left of the parachute harness and dug through his rucksack for some painkillers. Okay, so the good news is, I’m alive and relatively unharmed. The bad news is, I went ahead and got myself separated from the two survival experts, and am now stranded in a jungle somewhere with limited supplies and possibly enemies all around me. So the question is: what do I do now?
Austin mulled over his options. There were really only two choices: he could either stay where he was feeling sorry for himself and wait for the others to rescue him, or he could continue with the mission. The decision was so obvious that Austin was a bit ashamed that he’d even had to think it over. If it was the Black General or Admiral Ortega in my place, they’d already be on the move for Nembane Mountain—they wouldn’t just sit around and wait to be rescued like some spoiled tourist, and I can’t either. If I were here on Guild business, I sure as hell wouldn’t just wait around for Justin or whoever else I was working with to bail me out. The Admiral trusted me enough to include me in the mission on Leva and enough to take me along to Espir—it’s pretty safe to say that I’ll lose his trust and respect if he has to dig me out of every minor problem I get myself into.
Besides, he reminded himself, his expression growing grim, when it comes down to it I’m not here for the Admiral—and I’m certainly not here for that damned Vizier. I’m here for Justin, and every moment I sit here is one more moment that he has to suffer at the hands of that monster. I’m coming, Justin—and that’s a promise.
Having made his decision, Austin rummaged through his rucksack to see exactly what he had at his disposal to help him get to Nembane Mountain. He had a few travel-sized water bottles—one of which he drained immediately and gratefully—and some unappetizing-looking military-issue survival rations. He had a breathing mask, a small piece of fabric designed to be stretched across the nose and mouth with tiny but powerful filters that could extract oxygen from water. He was relieved to find a short pulseblade and a small par-gun, ensuring that he would not be totally helpless if he did run into any of the planet’s larger predators. He found a comm, but based on the fact that the device’s casing had shattered and its insides were spilling out like the seeds of a cored kejelha, it was a safe bet that it was no longer functional. A handheld personal navigator had suffered a similar fate. Going to have to do this the old-fashioned way, thought Austin as he packed both devices securely back in his bag.
Fortunately, neither technological aid nor the numerous physical maps also packed in the rucksack would be necessary. No, I don’t think it’ll be too difficult to find Nembane Mountain, thought Austin with a wry smile. Tilting his head upwards, he stared at the canopy of trees over his head. The cover was reasonably thick, allowing only a limited view of the surrounding environment, but he could still see Nembane Mountain towering over him. Fortunately for me, that mountain’s so tall that I bet I could see it from a hundred kilometers away. He chuckled in spite of himself at this tiny break of good fortune. “No,” he said, rubbing his back and wincing. “Finding Nembane Mountain isn’t going to be a problem at all.”
“Ak pona?” came a sudden voice from behind him. “Ke dola merata?”
At the first sound, Austin’s hand instinctively went for his blade, but his conscious mind stopped him before he drew the weapon. If the speaker had hostile intentions, there had already been ample time to strike while Austin had been lying unconscious. Besides, that didn’t sound like a warrior talking—or even an adult. The high-pitched tone and cheerful innocence were unmistakably that of a child. And indeed, when Austin turned towards the speaker, that was exactly what he found—a young girl of perhaps eight or nine, seated atop a boulder with her legs dangling freely over the lip.
A young Human girl.
She had long dark hair and skin tanned nearly red from constant exposure to the intense ultraviolet radiation of Espir’s blue star. She was thin without being gaunt, with gangly limbs that seemed slightly too large for the rest of her body. A thin slip of some kind of weathered animal skin covered her from her shoulders down to just past her knees. Her feet were bare, the skin tough and calloused. She looked down at Austin with wide, curious brown eyes.
When the Vizier had informed Austin of their destination, he had called Espir a ‘scientific curiosity.’ This was what he had been referring to—the tribes of natives who called the planet home. They were hunter-gatherers with a few basic agricultural techniques and almost no manufacturing to speak of. Their technological level had remained stable for the five hundred or so years since Federation surveyors had first explored the Espirian system, and there was no indication that this would change soon; near-constant warfare among the tribes, combined with the ever-present danger from the large predators who roamed the prairies and forests, left little time and energy for technological advancement.
The existence of a pre-space-age people did not make Espir unique; the Federation knew of a handful of other such races, and there could very well be hundreds more yet undiscovered. However, the people here were Human—identical to the Federation Race not just superficially but genetically as well. Every scientist of repute agreed that the only explanation for their existence on Espir was that they were the descendants of a lost colony ship launched from Tellaria during the early days of Human interstellar travel. There was simply no way for two genetically identical races to independently evolve half a galaxy apart—there had to be a connection between the two, and a lost colony ship was the only theory that made any kind of sense.
Except that it was also impossible. Federation archaeologists had found artifacts—and, more tellingly, biological remains—on Espir dating from over ten thousand years ago, several millennia before the first colony ships had launched. However Humans had come to be here, it could not be via a Tellarian colony ship. Most scientists had effectively given up on the entire business as hopeless, especially since the intense funding, both Federation and private, which had originally gone towards the study of the Espirian tribes had long since dried up. Espir, which had once captivated the galaxy enough that the Federation had designated it as off-limits to any without official sanction, was now barely more than a footnote within various small scientific communities. As far as Austin knew, no one from the outside galaxy had been to Espir in over two hundred years, and few now even knew of its existence.
The two of them stared at each other for several long moments. Then the girl spoke again: “Erta colo belara? Dara te lo kahana!”
At first, Austin wasn’t sure how to react. He didn’t know the local language, and this girl certainly would not be fluent in Federation Standard. But then again, he realized suddenly, we don’t need to know each other’s languages. Someone else has already done that work for us.
Moving very slowly, so as not to alarm the girl, Austin reached into his pack and began to rummage around. Within a few moments, he found what he was looking for—two objects, one of them disc-shaped and about the size of his thumb and the other a flat square barely larger than a grain of sand that was attached to a tiny needle. He inserted the first into his ear and implanted the second—wincing against the sharp prick of pain—into his neck just below his chin.
The girl waited, leaning forward so that it appeared that she was about to fall right off of her perch. Her eyes sparkled in the morning light, and a raptured expression stretched across her face. She was obviously intrigued by what Austin was doing, for when she spoke again, her voice was soft and full of wonder. This time, however, Austin understood her. “What is that?” she asked. “What are you doing?”
Austin breathed a sigh of relief. The translating technology encased within the audio receiver in his ear and the vocal modulator nestled up against his larynx had been designed millennia ago by the insectoid Erigion, whose vocal cords could not replicate the sounds produced by the other species they had encountered. Nowadays, the Erigion were still the primary users of that technology, but the devices could be programmed to support any known language
. Austin whispered a silent thanks to whatever researchers had accepted the tedious task of documenting the local languages during the initial surveys of Espir. And also that the language obviously has stayed stable enough for the translators to recognize it even hundreds of years later.
The girl, who had no idea what had just happened, seemed to suddenly lose her patience with this silent, slow-witted outsider. She dropped down from the boulder and walked so close to Austin that he had to crane his neck to keep eye contact. “Hello? Did you hear me? What are you doing all the way out here?”
Austin hesitated. Technically it was still against Federation mandate to interact with the natives of Espir; the scientists who had come here had done all of their research under strict orders of non-contact. It was a little late to be worrying about that, though. I’m on the ground, now, which means sooner or later I’m gonna have to deal with the natives on some level or another. Might as well get started now. He met the girl’s wide-eyed gaze. Besides, what else am I gonna do? Ignore her? It seems unlikely that she’s going to use this encounter to enact a revolt against the Federation. “I could ask you the same question,” he replied.
The girl cocked her head, brows furrowing. “How come your mouth doesn’t move right when you talk?” she asked. “How are you doing that?”
“What? What do you—?”At first, Austin had no idea what the girl was talking about, but then realization dawned. “I’ve got a device in my ear, and another one in my throat,” he said, pointing to the respective body parts. “The one in my ear translates your words so I can understand them, and the one in my throat translates my words so you can understand them. So the two of us can talk even though I can’t speak your language and you can’t speak mine. You see, to me it looks like your mouth doesn’t move right when you’re talking.”
The girl’s eyes were so wide that it seemed they were about to pop out of their sockets. “Kopana!” she breathed, a local expression of amazement that had no analogue in Federation Standard. “Where’d you get them—does everyone have them where you come from?”
Austin laughed. “No, not quite. Well, I suppose they could if they wanted to, but where I come from everyone mostly speaks the same language, so we don’t really need them all that much.”
A look of wonder came across the girl’s face when Austin said ‘where I come from.’ “Are you from Lai’kar?” she asked in an excited whisper. “Daddy says that everyone on Lai’kar is a god, and they can do anything they want and look like anybody or any animal, whatever they want. But sometimes I think he’s just telling stories, and Lai’kar doesn’t really exist. Are you a god?”
“No, I’m just a regular person like you. My name is Austin Forgera. What’s your name?”
“Katrina,” said the girl proudly.
“Nice to meet you, Katrina. As for where I come from…” Austin glanced up towards the sky, hoping to catch a glimpse of the stars, but the canopy of tree branches was too thick. “When you look up at the sky at night, do you know all those little tiny points of light you can see?”
Katrina gave him the patented child’s ‘what are you, an idiot?’ look. “Of course. What kind of a god are you?”
It was remarkable how fast a child could go from cute to petulant, but Austin had plenty of experience dealing with young children, and he kept his voice calm. “Well, each of those little points of light is a star just like your sun, and I’m from a planet orbiting one of those stars.”
“Wow.” Just like that, Katrina’s expression shifted back to wide-eyed wonder. “So you are a god! Kopana! Are you here to save us?”
“No, I told you, I’m not a god,” said Austin quickly, mentally berating himself. Should have seen that coming. ‘Lai’kar’ probably translates as something like ‘sky realm’. “I came here in a spaceship—uh, like a giant metal boat—that can travel between stars—well, it crashed, so I—” Very smoothly done, Austin. This isn’t the time to try to explain interstellar flight to a little kid, for gods’ sake. “The point is, I’m not a god. I don’t know where Lai’kar is, but that’s not where I come from.”
Katrina was silent for a moment, chewing her lip as she stared quizzically at Austin. Probably trying to figure out if I’m crazy or not. Finally she made a strange clicking sound with her tongue. “Okay, I guess you’re not a god. So what are you doing here, then?”
Austin breathed a sigh of relief. That one I can answer. “I’m chasing a very bad man. He’s already killed a lot of people, and he’ll kill more if I don’t stop him. A few days ago, I was part of a team that almost stopped him, but he escaped and came here. He also took one of my friends hostage, so I’m here to rescue him.” Actually, I’m only here to rescue him. Admiral Ortega came for Rokan Sellas…but I’m here for Justin.
“Oh.” Katrina smiled knowingly. “So you’re a fai’la’if.” Whatever a fai’la’if was, it also didn’t appear to have a Federation Standard counterpart, so the chip in Austin’s ear didn’t translate it. “My daddy says that only a fai’la’if is allowed to kill people outside of battle, and anyone else who does has his soul go straight to A’Lai Mar.” She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “But he also says that even a fai’la’if can go to A’Lai Mar, if he kills someone with rage in his heart. So be careful, Austin-Forgera-Not-a-God.”
It’s remarkable how many times I’ve seen that exact same philosophy throughout the galaxy, on worlds with every conceivable level of technological advancement. Maybe they’ve got something there. “Your daddy sounds like a smart man. I promise, if I kill this man, I’ll make sure to do it without anger. Besides, I probably won’t even be the one to kill him. I came here with two other men, who are both much, much more experienced than I am. One of them will probably be the one to kill the bad man.”
“Three fai’la’ifa!” Once again, Katrina’s eyes grew wide as saucers. “This man must be really, really bad. I heard that there was a man named Grakal who was so evil he had two fai’la’ifa chasing him, but I think my daddy just made him up to scare me. Three! Kopana! So what happened to your friends? They can’t be anywhere nearby, or I would have seen them.”
“Actually, I’m not sure where they are. Our ship…uh…broke, so we had to jump out, and I got separated from them. They could be anywhere within a hundred kilometers of here. And, since I still don’t know where here is, I don’t know how to find them.”
“I can look for them!” said Katrina excitedly. “I can find anything—just ask anyone. If they’re around here, I can find them!”
“I’m sure you can. But, like I said, they could be just about anywhere. Besides, we made a plan as to what we should do if we got separated. We know where the bad man is, so if I go there I’ll find my friends. Thank you for the offer, though.”
“Sure! Is it far? Because I can take you—” She suddenly broke off, and her head turned towards the huge mountain looming over them through the thick canopy of trees. “Ah, Kil’la’ril! Yeah, that’s it! That’s where you need to go, isn’t it?”
Austin vaguely remembered the ‘Kil’la’ril’ was the local name for Nembane Mountain. He nodded. “That’s right. That’s where the bad man is.” He turned back towards the mountain, trying to estimate the distance, but from current his vantage point he couldn’t tell for sure. Could be ten kilometers, could be a hundred. “Say, Katrina, you know the area a lot better than I do—how long should it take to get there?”
“Not long. But—” and the girl suddenly lowered her voice to a whisper, as if afraid someone might overhear “—I can’t take you there. To get to Kil’la’ril, you have to go into the land of the Traika. They’re bad people, very bad and very strong, and they don’t like outsiders on their land. The last time I tried to sneak in, I got caught, and I got in a lot of trouble—Daddy had to promise the Traika all kinds of stuff to get them to let me go. Sometimes I go right up to their land and sneak around on the border a bit—but I never go too far inside. Certainly not far enough to get to Kil’la’ril.”
Austin’s heart sank, and he fought to keep the disappointment from his voice. “I see. Is it possible to go around these ‘Traika’? Maybe—”
Katrina was already shaking her head. “The land of the Traika goes nearly all the way to the sea, on both sides. It would take…oh, many, many days to go around. Besides, they control the land on the other side of Kil’la’ril too, so that wouldn’t do you any good at all.”
Austin weighed his options for a few moments. “Well, I have to get there. I’m pretty good at moving unseen—maybe I can sneak through—”
Once again, Katrina cut him off. “You can’t,” she declared firmly. “The Traika land is full of traps and really dangerous animals, and their to’laka can sense when someone enters their land. You’ll never be able to sneak through.” Her face scrunched up in what looked like righteous anger as Austin wondered what exactly a to’laka was. “But I have to get you through. Daddy always says that nothing is more important than a fai’la’if—I’ve got it!” Her expression brightened immediately, as if someone had ignited a tiny star behind her face. “I’ll take you to Daddy—he’ll know what to do! He’s the smartest man in the whole world—everyone says so. If there’s any way at all to get you to Kil’la’ril, he’ll know what it is.”
Austin thought for a moment, but, as it seemed was the case with every decision he’d had to make today, the choice was obvious. I can try to trek through several kilometers of dense forest while trying to avoid detection by these Traika, or I can get the help of some people who actually know how to survive on this planet. Provided they don’t think I’m a spy and kill me on sight. “Are you sure about this? I don’t want to be any trouble—”
Katrina waved her hand dismissively, as if his statement was the most ridiculous thing in the world. “No, don’t worry about it, he’ll be glad to help—” I wouldn’t be so sure about that, thought Austin wryly, thinking back to all the times in his life when a young Jordin had volunteered him for something without asking him “—he’s always helping people like you—well, I guess not quite like you, but anyone that needs help. I promise, it’s no trouble at all.”
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