“Did you do something wrong? Are you being punished? What?” he coaxed.
“You have the strangest way of speaking,” said Cho. The boys laughed when she pointed this out.
Gar laughed as well. “I suppose I do. What I mean is why do the other people around here avoid you guys?”
“Oh that,” said Cho. She and her brothers exchanged a look before she went on. “People are uncomfortable around us.”
“But, why?” he asked.
“One child,” She replied, playing with her food since she had lost her interest in actually eating it. The look of confusion on Gar’s face informed her she needed to elaborate. “Aklesh only give birth to one child at a time. Having more than one together among my people is a very rare occurrence.”
“But you’re triplets,” said Gar, matter-of-factly. “So what?”
Their faces screwed up when he said the word.
He explained. “Three children born at the same time to one mother are called triplets where I come from.”
“There’s a word for it?” asked Cho.
“Of course, its not that uncommon.”
“That is interesting.” said Cho as she contemplated a place where something like them was not an oddity. “But here, a triple birth is so rare, my people really don’t have a word for it.
Well, nothing that’s polite anyway. It’s considered unnatural.”
“That makes no sense,” said Gar, not understanding the tribe having a problem with them.
Cho shifted her body so it faced Gar. “You and I are talking, right? We are having a conversation.
Well, you have only been aware of about one third of what is actually being said. I know you have noticed Chi and Che don’t speak very much. It’s because they don’t feel the need to talk aloud. They are of such like mind they prefer each other’s company.”
“But, you talk,” Gar said.
“Yes, or course. But as you can see, I’m not exactly like them.” Cho was getting frustrated. “I can still hear in my mind everything they say to me and each other. That never stops. Sometimes it drives me a little crazy. They try and reign it in on my account, but it is so a part of their nature, they can’t help it. That’s why people avoid us. We’re are strange. And sometimes I’m glad they do.” One of the boys, Gar didn’t know which, put his hand on her knee in a comforting way. She looked at them. It was obvious something was being said beyond his ken. Whatever it was seemed to disagree with her and she got up and walked away from the fire. Gar could tell she wanted to be alone. He felt pity for her because it was apparent she never would be truly alone…not really.
The situation had become very uncomfortable and Gar contemplated getting up himself.
“We love our sister…” said two voices simultaneously in the exact same pattern and tone, then stopped.
It surprised Gar since he’d never heard the twins speak. The boys stared at each other in an accusing manner for a moment, clearly in the midst of some sort of mental argument. They were deciding which would be the spokesperson. The one on the left continued.
“We love our sister. Sometimes we think she would be better off if she did not have us for brothers,” he said. Then they both finished with,
“We don’t mean to cause her pain.” The left brother glared at the right brother, who had not meant to speak but couldn’t help himself. Gar could see it was very difficult for them to not act as a unit and understood why others might find them a little disconcerting. They moved and spoke the exact same way. They were less like individuals and more like reflections of one person.
But since he had a lack of friends on this planet, he wasn’t going to turn up his nose at their comradeship just because they were a little different.
They were still having an unspoken disagreement and Gar didn’t wish to cause them anymore discomfort.
“I understand. I have a sister too,” he said, interrupting their discourse. “I miss her very much.
I’m sure Cho knows how you feel, and she’s lucky to have you both. That’s what I think anyway.” The boys smiled at him.
At that moment a large shadow fell over their small group. It belonged to Tyro.
“You are wanted at the fire,” he said to Gar.
“Follow me.”
***
Tyro took Gar to the smallest fire of the three that were blazing at the Aklesh campsite.
Only seven of the warriors were around it, including the Healer. These seemed to be the head warriors. They spoke earnestly among themselves in low voices.
All conversation stopped when the two of them approached. The large Aklesh warrior took his place among his peers leaving Gar facing the intimidating collection and feeling a little exposed.
Vol glowered at him. He had seen her earlier that evening but the lead warrior had either avoided looking at him or didn’t even notice he was there. She made no effort to hide her feelings for the stranger. This was evidenced in how she curtly addressed him.
“Have you made contact with Kai again?”
“No, but not for want of…“
“Then you are no good to us.”
“Patience, Vol,” said the Healer. She then addressed Gar. “Please sit down.”
A space was made for him across from the Healer and Vol, who rolled her eyes as he sat.
None of the other warriors were too keen on his presence either, taking the cue from their leader.
Even Tyro would not look at him directly. Peer pressure was apparently hard to deal with in this group. Tyro was probably only allowed in because of his massive physical ability. Gar kind of wished he was still at the less popular fire. At least there he didn’t feel quite so radioactive. After he clumsily settled in, the conversation picked up from where it had left off.
“All the animals have vanished,” said a large warrior. “They are avoiding this place.
Something is scaring them.”
“We have nothing to report,” said another of the tribesmen. “We could find nothing.”
“I’m telling you,” replied a third near him.
“Kai’s not here. It’s just like before. Whatever it was that took them is gone…again.”
“Well,” said Vol, turning her glare to Gar.
“You’re reach lead us to this area. We can’t find him, so where is he?” Her indignant approach was really grating.
But the truth was, Gar was beginning to doubt what he had felt himself. He had tried all day but could not connect again to Kai. It was so strange. When he had found Kai the first time it had struck him like lightning. He had felt the young native in every part of his body. Now he was unsure. The last thing he wanted to do was appear weak in front of Vol. Everything about her rubbed him the wrong way and he hated the fact that he felt stupid every time he was around her.
“Kai’s here,” he said, staring right back at her. “Maybe your people just haven’t been looking hard enough.”
Gar felt every person by the fire bristle and realized too late that maybe he should check his attitude, considering he was the outsider.
The Healer spoke hastily while Vol fought the urge to reach over the fire and throttle him.
“Gar, tell them what you told me about the ships. About why they are invisible.” Now Gar really felt like an idiot. These people were used to looking for animal tracks and broken branches, but not entire spaceships. Of course they wouldn’t see the ship if it was cloaked, they wouldn’t know what to look for.
But, he did.
“The Sky Ships can hide themselves in plain sight,” he stated. The others scoffed, especially Vol, but he went on. “You might not believe that’s possible, I get that. But I tell you the ship could be right in front of you and you’d never see it.”
“Then how can we find it if is invisible?” asked Tyro. “It’s hopeless.” Others joined in agreement.
“Not quite,” said Gar. “There are other ways.”
“What
do
you
mean?”
asked
Vol
suspiciously. “Go on.”
“Are there any clearings around here?” asked Gar. “Really big ones?” He used his hands to indicate what he meant, as if the width of his arms could somehow express a large size.
“A few. But we’ve already searched those,” she said dismissively.
“Take me to them when the sun comes up.”
“And why?” she asked.
“Because,”
he
said
with
growing
confidence, “I’m going to find your invisible ship.”
***
A few hours had passed since sunrise and Gar had been taken to two other clearings already that morning.
He was being guided by Tyro and another warrior from a different hunting group. The unfamiliar native had been introduced to him as Caen’Vrhal. He was a little shorter and thicker than Tyro, but not by much. Caen had come along because Gar had requested a good archer to accompany him. For what he had asked to do, Caen was certain they didn’t need his skill. In his opinion a small child could have done the job. He was quite happy to tell them as much and often.
The trio was on its way to another clearing about a mile away from the previous one. Tyro was leading with the young prince in the middle and the bowman following behind.
Caen hadn’t trusted or even liked Gar ever since he had arrived. The bowman had only come along because Vol had commanded him to go.
Even then it was under protest. He wasted no time in complaining, saying the whole excursion was a foolish exercise. Wearing a snide smirk, he asked a relentless torrent of questions, mostly to get on Gar’s nerves.
“So explain to me again how the Sky Ships can be there and not be seen?”
Gar sighed.
He would never have been forced to suffer such idiots back on Orestus. The prince was now getting very tired of trees, walking, tribes, mind-links and stupid, questioning savages. He wanted to be home in his warm, soft bed having enjoyed a warm, sweet meal and lying next to a warm, sweet, soft body.
Roughing it had gotten old.
“They have technology that allows it to reflect the environment around it,” he replied in a dry monotone.
“How?”
“Through the shielding?”
“Shields? Like our shields?”
“Yes. Sort of.”
“How?”
“By recording the environmental data on one side of the ship and projecting the images on the other.”
“What is recording?”
“The coping of data.”
“What’s data…“
Gar stopped in his tracks and wheeled on the tribesman. “Listen, Caen, is it? I could explain it to you. I could tell you that micro cameras in the plating of the ship import the data into tiny nanites.
This information is interpreted by the ships central system, which in turn measures the amount of adjustment necessary to the image then projects that image on the opposite shield, which is really only photons that encompass the ship making it impervious to harm. But, it would be pointless because you are a troglodyte who only understands spears and arrows and is too stupid to conceive of anything else!”
Caen’s right hook landed squarely on Gar’s jaw with a crack that threw him to the ground.
“Caen!” shouted Tyro, but Gar lifted a hand to show that he was alright and had no intention of retaliating. Vol’s henchman had been toying with him and he had taken the bait. A dull ache was starting to creep into his jaw and he moved it a little to loosen the joint. He had been hit before.
There had been many a bar fight on foreign planets and jilted lovers who held a grudge. He thought that even some members of parliament would love to take a swing at him. The thing he’d taken for granted was of all the words he had let fly in his tirade against Caen, the one the native would understand was ‘stupid.’
The archer walked ahead smugly while Tyro offered a hand to help Gar up. The young prince didn’t mind the arrogant attitude of the warrior. He was quite capable of being just as much of a twit.
Tyro hadn’t been overly friendly to Gar since they had arrived at the rendezvous point, yet the large leader had not gone out of his way to make things uncomfortable for him. Gar hadn’t expected anything since hee hadn’t expected much He knew the warrior had to stay neutral due to his position among the other hunting groups. So it was surprising that once Caen was a few yards away and out of earshot, Tyro confided in him.
“He’s always been like that,” he said.
“Don’t take it personally.”
“I’m taking solace knowing if he were on Orestus, I could have him put to death,” replied Gar. Tyro looked at him, uncertain if he was kidding or not.
“He’s part of Vol’s hunting group. They all carry a bit of a grudge in general. Outsiders make my people nervous. In time it will change.”
“Hopefully, I won’t be here long enough for it to matter, no offense Tyro.”
They walked for a while in silence before Tyro got the nerve to ask something that had been on his mind for a while.
“Have you really ‘felt’ Kai…in your mind?”
“I’ve been aware of him…yeah,” Gar said, then raised a playful eyebrow at his hiking companion. “Jealous?”
Tyro was confused. “Jealous?” He did not understand Gar’s meaning.
Gar realized Tyro did not know or was unaware that Seema had told him about the nature of his childhood friendship with Kai. He thought it best to let the warrior off the hook and stop trying to tease him. They were not on that level of friendship yet.
“In my mind, things are fuzzy,” he said, moving the topic along. “There’s a lot coming at me and I can’t always make sense of it. And right now there’s nothing. I can’t sense Kai at all.”
“Oh,” said Tyro, focusing on the ground. He seemed disappointed, wanting to ask him more but not knowing what to say.
“I don’t think I’m giving you the answers you’re looking for,” Gar said, moving some of the purple foliage out of his way as they walked. “Was there something else?”
“Yes,” said Tyro. What he was wrestling with appeared difficult for him to put into words.
Finally he seemed to come up with them. “I was wondering…well, Seema and I wondered…is Kai…well, happy? Can you tell that?”
“Seema and you?”
“Yes.”
Gar sighed. His concern for his lost friend was touching. The prince was learning more and more about the compassion of these savages as he spent time with them and was surprised by the depth of their feelings. “I don’t honestly know. I don’t know how to sort through what I’m sensing.
Is that the sort of thing you can sense about Seema?”
Tyro smiled broadly, which was all the answer he needed. They walked on for a few more meters.
“Have you ever thought to ask him yourself?” Gar suggested. The thought struck Tyro as if the concept had never crossed his mind, but before he could reply they were interrupted.
“We’re here!” shouted Caen’s voice from up ahead.
Putting their conversation away for another time, the three came into some bushes just outside a white, grassy field surrounded by tall purple trees.
“Same as before,” Gar instructed Vol’s archer.
“Three
arrows,
three
opposite
directions…”
“I know my job, Sky Tribesman,” said Caen, who had already drawn his bow. He first shot an arrow to the left. It let loose with a sharp twang then whistled through the air in a high, clean arch before landing in the grass several meters away.
The bowman gave him a put-upon look.
“This is a waste of good arrows.”
“Just shoot the next one,” Gar said.
Caen strung the second arrow and let it fly, this time directly in front of them. Just as it hit its peak and started
to descend it collided with something in mid-air and bounced off. The impact made the air ripple. Gar had seen the effect many times before. They could hear a faint hum in the air as if someone had plucked a very tight guitar string. The hair on their bodies bristled with the static electricity that surrounded them.
Both Tyro and Caen’s mouths had dropped open in surprise. Neither had ever seen a phenomenon like it before.
Suddenly the image of trees before them began to wobble and lose shape, as if someone had touched the surface of a pond. A dark shape immerged in its place with a whooshing noise.
It was a spaceship, large and deep brown, with three levels and three engines in the back. The vessel hovered in stasis about ten feet in the air.
Gar recognized that type of ship instantly. It had been constructed on the planet Graphan. The muted texture of the hull plating gave it away immediately. He could’ve told Tyro and Caen everything there was to know about that ship, but they wouldn’t have understood. His keen interest in spacecraft would be little appreciated among his current companions.
From the belly of the vessel a ramp descended and an armed guard in a blue uniform stepped out. He scanned the area and seeing nothing in particular walked back up the ramp, which closed behind him with a hiss of hydraulics.
There was a shimmer and the shield was regenerated, the ship disappearing once again under the illusion of the forest on the opposite side of the glade.
Gar put his hands on the shoulders of the warriors, who were still awestruck by the sight.
“And that,” said Gar coyly, “is how you find a ship that isn’t there.”
CHAPTER 9
Dr. Jenna Hines was miserable.
She sat in the commons area of the ship surrounded by three times as many blue uniforms than tan. The mercenaries were all very similar; hard jawed soldiers with grim humor who had all become restless on their mission to protect seventeen scientists from the ominous threat of grassy plains, trees and white furry animals. Typically a science team needed no such protection. But, as she had discovered, they were no ordinary science team.
The whole project had the stink of military, immorality and corruption.
She tried to eat her rations but had long ago lost her appetite. Nothing tasted good, she couldn’t sleep and she missed her home and family.
AKLESH (Under Strange Skies) Page 10