by Mark Wandrey
"Not very often. They are best suited as pack animals. They have a remarkable ability to reach back and bite someone on their backs. Only the ancient Rusks ever got the hang of riding them."
"Took someone nastier than a kloth to ride one," Aaron suggested and they all laughed. All except Pip who looked down at the remains of his meal.
"We have a few horses that the leaders would ride from time to time, but the whole reason we used kloth was because they can cross the desert with very little water. My father believes they evolved in the desert and that gave them some useful adaptations."
"Like what?" Pip asked, his interest renewed.
"They have a nictitating membrane that covers their eyes to keep out sand; it sheds with the rest of their skin twice a year. They can close both sets of nostrils with a fine mesh that acts like a filter against sand. And their feet are widely splayed for excellent traction."
"But what do you feed them?" Minu wondered. "They're carnivores; it can't be cheap to carry that much meat!"
"Well, we don't talk about that too much. We usually leave with a cow or two. Once they die of thirst they're slaughtered and after we take the best meat, the rest is given to the kloth."
"You actually let them die of thirst?"
"It just makes good economic sense. A few seasons ago, one made it eleven days into the desert. Don't look at me like that, I'm not proud of it, but it works. Some of the workers actually bet on how long a cow will live. Anyway," he said, trying to move on, "after they are all gone we let them go in pairs to hunt and breed."
"Don't they ever run away?" Aaron asked this time.
"They're pretty smart for a lizard. They won't go far from food."
"You said the cows are gone before you set them loose," Minu said. Gregg just nodded his head and looked at her. "Then what food are they coming back for?"
"The horses, silly," Pip pointed out. Minu's mouth made a silent oh.
"You're made of meat too," she noted. Gregg nodded his head. "So when they come back, they return to hunt you?"
"We have people we call Tempters. When kloth have been turned out to graze, they ride the perimeter on horses to tempt the kloth to attack. When they do, and they almost always do, we capture them. The older ones actually get docile enough to just wander back and wait to get caught. If they don't come back it means they found a lot of food. In those cases we just go out and find them. When they're fed they're sleepy and easy to catch."
"Wow," Pip said for them all. "So what job did you do before you left?"
"I was a Tempter from the age of eight," he said with a straight face.
"They let young kids do that dangerous job?" Minu asked, hoping he somehow wasn't telling the truth.
"It has a lot of risks. Old men are too slow and often cost the tribe a horse. Kids are fast with the rope." He used his hands, palms together, to mime a big set of jaw snapping closed. Minu grimaced.
"Ever have a close encounter?" Aaron asked.
Gregg turned in his chair and thrust out a leg. Pulling up the pants revealed a series of nasty pink scars cutting sideways across his lower leg and calf. "I stopped to take a drink and a nasty old female named Shiva came out of nowhere for the horse. I tried to kick her snout aside and in an instant she had my leg and pulled me off the horse."
"What did you do?" Minu asked for the hushed group.
Gregg pulled out a very long and slightly curved knife they hadn't even known he was carrying. Light glinted off its serrated length. "I convinced her to let go." He gave a little laugh as he put the knife away. "What about you, Minu, what does your family do?"
She'd been dreading the question and tried twice to start before Pip finally chimed in. "Her father is First Among the Chosen."
"How did you know?" she asked him, blushing again.
"I've been studying the Chosen for years," he said with what appeared to be a typically self-assured smile. "Chriso Alma has been First during the most violent period of history for the Chosen thus far."
"Why have so many Chosen died lately?" Gregg asked her.
She secretly heaved a sigh of relief, just glad none of them were going to give her a hard time because of who her father was. "My father says it's because the Tog are finally allowing us to go out on important and dangerous missions deeper in space. He told me last year that he took a team to visit a graveyard of spaceships on the other side of the galaxy."
"Spaceships?" Pip asked, for the first time he looked genuinely interested in their conversation, his eyes glowing with a youthful fascination.
"Yeah, he said there were thousands upon thousands of junked abandoned spaceships. Most were so old they were falling apart like old tissue paper." They all continued to watch and listen with their full attention. To Minu, this was the first time anyone ever wanted to hear any stories from her father, except maybe her mother. Of course, these people wanted to be Chosen; it only made sense that these were the kinds of stories that ignited their imaginations.
"How many worlds has he been to?" Aaron asked next.
"I don't know," she admitted, not even trying to guess, "more than you can count, I bet. He was most impressed with Herdhome."
"The Tog homeworld," Pip smiled, "it's supposed to be a commerce hub. The Tog are most known in the Concordia as brokers of rare goods, and farmers."
"You know a lot," Aaron said.
"Yeah, so what?"
"Nothing about it, I'm just impressed."
"Oh!"
"My family is farmers," Aaron admitted.
"What do you grow in New Jerusalem?" Pip asked, his knowledge coming into play again. "Those lands are very rocky."
"Olives," Aaron admitted with a grin. Minu whistled; she knew what a jar of olives or a bottle of olive oil cost. "Actually, it was my ancestor who brought olives to Bellatrix. He came across with a bucket holding five olive trees. Only two survived the first winter, but now we have thousands. It has made my family fairly wealthy."
"I bet," Gregg said, looking a little envious.
"Don't get me wrong, it’s hard work. During the height of the season you have to almost stand over the trees and chase away the howlers. Damn lizards love olives for some reason. They're the only thing besides humans on Bellatrix that does. Anyway, I'm a huge disappointment to my father."
"How could a Chosen in the family be a disappointment?" Pip wondered aloud.
"Because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in a desert chasing howlers away from olives."
Minu chuckled and he looked at her. "Who would want to?" she asked. They all laughed and Aaron smiled. Her friends now numbered three. They sat and talked for so long that the cafeteria was beginning to empty out. "Let’s go up to the nose and sit in the observation deck," she suggested. They all agreed and soon were heading for the dirigible’s nose.
* * *
The weather was merciful and the airship arrived at its destination within the normal eighteen hour travel time. It was evening on the 4th of Julast, the day before the Trials. The terminal at Steven’s Pass, home of the Chosen headquarters, center, was tiny compared to the one at Tranquility. It was really only there to service the Chosen and transfer a few passengers going north or south. There were extra EPC kept here as well to refuel if needed.
The dirigible finished discharging its passengers and was soon roaring back into the sky. Minu stood with Pip, Aaron, and Gregg watching it lift into the sky along with about twenty other kids their age and a scant half dozen adults forlornly checking their watches, dreading many hours of waiting for the next transfer.
Minu and her friends stood together and looked around for a few minutes wondering what to do next when an Concordia-manufactured flying aerocar rocketed overhead and banked hard. Gravitic impellers whined and made the hair on the back of their necks stand up as it came in for a landing. The shiny black craft was about twenty meters long and shaped somewhat like a flattened medicine capsule. An instant before it sat down, thin legs popped from its underside and gracefull
y absorbed the nominal bump from landing. The impellers’ whine began to dim. A seam opened along one side and a door slid away to reveal one man in his early twenties dressed in the black jumpsuit of the Chosen.
"Candidates?" he asked the assembled crowd. "I am Chosen Kenneth. Come on, I don't have all day. Are there any Chosen candidates here?" Minu raised her hand and was followed by her friends then all the others she'd suspected were there for the same reason. "Very good, grab your bag, and pile aboard. You have ten seconds. Move it!" The last was roared at the top of his lungs, the man leaning forward and spittle flying from his lips. Pip actually yelped in surprise, but Minu was already running.
She dashed for the cart where the dirigible crew unloaded baggage. Recognizing the green handle on her bag, she turned sharply and snatched it as she went by, wrenching it from the pile and sending half the other bags flying. Though the yank hurt her shoulder she ignored the pain. Her other arm found the shoulder strap and flipped it over her head as she ran toward the flier. The man moved aside just enough to allow Minu to dive past him and into the first seat she saw.
"While I appreciate your enthusiasm," the Chosen said over his shoulder, "you should probably let me drive."
She looked in front of her and saw a dazzling array of controls and realized she'd jumped in the driver’s seat. With a quick athletic maneuver she grabbed the seat back and pushed with her legs, flipping over the rear of the seat and landing in the one right behind the pilot. The Chosen glanced at her and nodded his head before turning back as the second kid arrived at a dead run. Minu was pleased to see it was Gregg. She'd been wondering if he was as quick as he looked and was thinking it would be fun to see if she could beat him in a foot race.
Next was Pip, who was almost bowled over by a much bigger boy. She was at first amazed he'd been third until she remembered that he'd had his bag all along after they disembarked. His delay was from shock at the brash orders from the Chosen. Aaron was fifth through the door quickly followed by ten others. The Chosen reached the count of ten and thumbed the door to close. A moment later he re-opened the door because a young blond-haired boy was stuck half in, and half out.
"Can't let it cut you in half," the Chosen said as the boy took one of the last seats and rubbed where the door crushed his stomach.
"Thank you, sir," he said.
"Way too much paperwork," the Chosen grumbled and took the seat in front of the controls. A few of the kids chuckled, Minu wasn't one of them. She knew how tough the week would be. Just as she knew it was not unheard of for candidates to die in the Trials.
The flier began to vibrate and Minu could hear the impellers spin up, albeit much quieter from the inside. A moment later it leaped into the air and began to accelerate toward the nearby mountains. She tried to sit and enjoy the ride and found it all but impossible. The Chosen's screaming at them unnerved her more than she expected. She was sure that was the intention. From this moment on, everything that happened would be calculated and planned to either wash them out of the Trials, or force them to give up and go home.
Through her mental musings she noticed the pilot was buckling his seat restraints. Why would he do that when the craft used inertial compensation? The advantages of the gravitic impellers extended to a comfortable and very safe ride for the passengers. He'd finished buckling his restraints and was now doing something with the controls. A tiny alarm began to flash on the display and Minu recognized the word 'override'. Quick as a flash, she snatched at the recessed belt tabs of her own seat. She just managed to buckle the lap harness when she felt the quiver in her belly announcing the cessation of artificial gravity.
"What-?" some kid started to ask, but he never finished his question. The Chosen wrenched over the control stick and sent the flier into a dizzying spin. A moment later through the sounds of screaming kids crashing around the inside of the cabin, he nosed his craft into a gut wrenching dive.
"Did I forget to remind you to buckle your restraints?" he yelled over the din of crashing bodies and screams of pain. Minu struggled to get the shoulder harness in place as negative and lateral Gs tore at her body. The forces were strong enough to make spots appear before her eyes and pull painfully on her breasts. The pilot glanced over his shoulder. Seeing her still in her seat he grunted and yanked the stick in the opposite direction. The maneuver generated at least nine opposing Gs of force.
Minu abandoned the shoulder restraints and grasped her padded seat, her lips pulled back from her teeth in a feral snarl. Was he actually trying to kill them?
"Stop it!" screamed one of the kids. "Are you trying to kill us?" another cried, panic evident in the tone.
"I'm not stopping until one of you quits," the Chosen announced, throwing his craft into a series of negative G loops, hoping to get his only seated passenger unseated. Minu felt herself start to slip out of the lap harness and gripped the seat even harder. She felt one of the fingernails start to tear away and heard the sound of ripping fabric from the seat. She wasn't going to let go, she swore to herself. The only way the bastard was getting her out of the seat was if it ripped off the dualloy deck.
“You won't beat me,” she managed to snarl through clenched teeth.
She stayed seated and none of them said they wanted to quit. The Chosen grunted and leveled their flight. Minu instantly snatched at the shoulder restraints and those kids who still had control of their senses dove for seats. A few just lay where they'd landed and whimpered. The distinct smell of urine and vomit reached Minu's nose as she snapped the shoulder restraints home with a reassuring click.
"What this ride needs is a better view," the pilot told them. Until now only a narrow view port was visible over his controls. With the touch of a control both bulkheads became so transparent it looked like they weren't there.
"Shit!" screamed someone who sounded like Pip. Minu felt her stomach give a lurch as she looked down thousands of meters to the ground hurtling by. "No, please," another whimpered.
"Not afraid of heights, are you? You know what is awesome about these fliers? They are nearly indestructible. Here, watch this!" Suddenly the impellers cut off and they fell like a stone, spinning and wobbling toward the ground. Many who hadn't gotten into seats floated up in free fall and banged against the craft's ceiling. Minu tried not to look down, and failed. The ground was hurtling up toward them at a precipitous speed.
"Fuck this, I quit!" squeaked a voice from the back of the flier. Minu moaned, the voice sounded too much like Pip to be an accident.
The pilot looked over his shoulder at the speaker. Then he simply nodded his head, toggled the hull back to opaque and flipped another switch. All sensation of flight ceased and the door began to slide open. Gravity gradually returned, gently lowering those pinned to the ceiling back to the floor. The nearest candidate, a boy lying stunned on the floor, yelped and tried to get away before he was sucked outside. As the door slid open, Minu saw the compressed gravel landing field where they had arrived a short time ago. The truth dawned on her like a wave washing over an unsuspecting beachcomber. They had, in fact, never left the ground at all.
"You shouldn't trust your senses," the pilot said and unstrapped, "they can lie to you." He moved to the rear of the flier, checking a couple of the dazed and stunned kids as he went until he reached one who was sitting on the floor shaking his head. Everyone was watching as the Chosen walked. "You're the one who quit?" The boy nodded slightly, tears beginning to form. Minu didn't recognize the boy and she let out her breath. She didn't look away to find her friends; the drama was too compelling. “There's nothing to be embarrassed about, you kids hung on longer than most." The boy looked hopeful; the Chosen just shook his head. "Up with you, time to go." Tears flowing freely now, the boy meekly followed the Chosen to the door and stepped down to the ground. He was handed his bag, and a red envelope. "The dirigible will be here in a couple hours. Thanks for applying."
The door slid closed on the disappointed face as the Chosen turned and climbed back into his seat
. He began strapping in once more and this time everyone aboard rushed to do the same. Regardless if any of them ever became Chosen, for the rest of their lives they'd instantly strap into any craft they boarded.
As the impellers began to spin up again, Kenneth turned to look at Minu. "Been in fliers a lot?" he asked.
"No sir, this is only the second time." He looked somewhat skeptical, so she continued. "It was one of those little open two-seaters."
"If you've ridden a Broomstick, your father is Chosen."
"Chriso Alma is my dad," she admitted. He gave that little smile again and nodded his head. "What's so funny?" Minu asked.
"You’re the first kid I haven't managed to bounce around the cabin," he admitted as the flier lifted off the ground. This time it felt different. Subtle clues of motion and sound that Minu carefully made a mental note to remember. She doubted this would be the last time deception would be used during the Trials. "Should have known it would be Chriso's kid that beat me. Welcome to the Trials." Minu didn't feel very welcome.
Chapter 5
Julast 4th, 514 AE
Chosen Headquarters, Steven’s Pass
This flight was real and in a few minutes they were deposited on a landing platform built into the side of a mountain thousands of meters above a lush valley. The flier swooped in to perch precariously on the platform where the candidates quickly filed out, some helping those who were still shaky.
"Wasn't that a little extreme?" Minu heard Aaron ask the pilot. She could see he was favoring his right ankle, wiping blood from his nose.
"Compared to what, being killed by a hostile alien? How about losing control of your craft and killing a whole squad of Chosen? Or maybe just being abducted by another race and fooled into revealing our secrets? All those things have happened at least once before. Still not convinced, think that kid got a raw deal?"
"Maybe, yeah."
"Fine, then you give up your spot and he can continue the Trials." Aaron looked taken aback by the offer, confusion flashing across his face. Minu took a half step toward her friend, prepared to offer a warning, but a quick look from the Chosen stopped her in her tracks. "Well, young one, what do you say? Willing to give up your spot for that poor lad?"