by Viehl, S. L.
That could be a hundred thousand different things, from the gravitational field around the planet to the radiant energy emanating from its sun. “If it is . . . germinating, as you say, and all of those atoms will grow and become new crystals, how long can we hope to keep it contained?”
He returned to the console and checked the readings. “The process will be completed in seven days.”
“We should destroy it now.” I thought of how suspicious the oKiaf had been. “The oKiaf will be monitoring everything we do, won’t they?”
My husband nodded. “If we attempt to destroy it here, they may misconstrue our actions, especially if they retrieve the probe before it can fly into their sun.”
If Pegreas retrieved the probe, he would surely open it. “We should never have brought it on the ship.”
“I promise you,” Reever said, “as soon as we leave the system, I will destroy it.”
“If you don’t, I will.” I couldn’t stand to look at the deadly thing another moment. “I’ll meet you down in launch bay.”
On my way to medical, I encountered Herea, whose cheerful face wore an uncharacteristic scowl.
“Healer Jarn,” she said, making a quick gesture of greeting. “Is it true that the captain is not permitting any females to go to the surface?”
“No, for I am going,” I said. “The oKiaf have only allowed us to send a team of five. Were there room for more, I would have you with us.”
“It still does not seem fair that the Skartesh and that crossbreed are permitted to go.” She gave me a guilty look. “Your pardon, Healer. I mean no disrespect. It is just that . . . this is my first sojourn away from the homeworld. I am very disappointed.”
“Jylyj is the only member of the crew who has already visited this world,” I told her. “I would take you and leave Hawk behind, but I need an experienced healer to run things here while we are gone.” I put my hand on her shoulder. “Should anything go wrong and the oKiaf patrols attack the Sunlace, I am depending on you to keep the crew alive. You have reviewed your trauma protocols, have you not?”
“Five times.” She hesitated, and then asked, “Think you they would attack us?”
“They are very suspicious, heavily armed males who already don’t like us being here, and they have attacked other vessels in the past.” I gave her a grim smile. “Should they try anything, I have no doubt the captain will respond in kind. Such battles often result in many casualties among the crew. You may have your hands full.”
“We will see to their needs.” She stood a little straighter. “I am honored by your trust in me, Healer.”
I accompanied Herea back to medical, and took a few minutes with her to brief the nursing staff. Rather than issue orders, I instructed the nurses to follow Herea’s instructions, and turned the briefing over to her.
Before I left, I leaned close to the intern and murmured, “You may do as you wish, but I would advise you have them run trauma drills while we are gone. It will keep them alert and well prepared for any real casualties. That, and it allows you to shout at them now and then, something I’ve always found helpful in stressful situations.”
Herea nodded, her eyes glowing with amusement, and then turned back to continue the briefing.
I went to find Jylyj and Hawk, who were in the supply room. They had packed as many field supplies as could fit in the small cases we were being permitted to carry down to oKia; Qonja was just finishing rigging each case with shoulder straps.
As Qonja and Jylyj left to load the rest of our supplies on the glidecart, I went through one pack, squeezed in a few small hazardous-specimen containers, and then tested the weight of it by slinging it onto my back. “Good. We should be able to carry these without difficulty.” I glanced at Hawk’s wings. “With the exception of those of us who can fly.”
Hawk grinned and showed me the waist and arm straps affixed to his pack. “I told Qonja to use a front sling, but he thinks I will not be able to take off from the ground with it hanging from my neck.”
“You didn’t have a problem snatching me off the shockball field, and I weigh more than that pack.” I reached under my tunic to adjust my blade harness, and then saw Hawk’s face. “Forgive me, I’ll do this in private.”
“No, it’s not that.” He gave me a searching look. “You remembered.”
“Remembered what?”
“The day I took you from the field.”
“It was the first time I ever saw you fly.” My belly tightened, and then I understood his reaction. “No. Forgive me, I misspoke. It was the first time Cherijo saw you fly. You and I did not meet until some years later.”
Hawk didn’t let it go. “Jarn, can you see that day in your memory?”
I could, although I didn’t want to admit it. Then I seemed to slip into a trance. “It was very bright. There were people, so many people, screaming at me. I stood on strange grass and held a silver sphere, the shockball, between my hands. It had been rigged to kill Duncan.” I looked up at him. “By my brother.”
He nodded slowly.
“You jumped from the top of the place, and your wings ripped your garment apart, and you flew down to me.” I pressed a hand against my head, which now felt as if I were whirling around in a fast circle. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Hawk grabbed me to keep me from falling, and helped me over to the disposal unit. He supported me with one arm and held my hair back as I vomited. When I had emptied my belly, he wiped my face clean. “I will call for Herea.”
“No.” I took the cloth from him and wiped the tears from my eyes before I blew my nose. “Duncan saw it from the field. He gave me the memory of it. That is how I know.” I took a deep breath and forced a smile. “Sometimes it is difficult to think of myself as two people. Forgive me, Hawk.”
“Don’t apologize.” He seemed afraid of me now. “Jarn, are you sure you should go on this jaunt? No one would object if you chose to stay behind and rest.”
“Do you know what Cherijo would say to that?” My smile twisted. “I do. She wrote it in her journals: ‘I can rest when I’m dead.’ This, when she knew she was made so that she might live forever.”
“I think she knew she would not. Perhaps that was why she fought so hard to save the lives of others.” Hawk touched my cheek. “As you do. None of us know how much time we have left. Does Duncan know about these shared memories?”
“No.” I felt stricken. “Hawk, please don’t tell Duncan about this. Not now.”
“I won’t, if you will agree to tell him when the expedition is over.” I nodded quickly. “One more thing.” Hawk removed one of his bead necklaces and hung it around my neck. “Wear this for me.”
“It is beautiful.” I looked at the small, gray-blue stones, and saw streaks of other colors glimmering in them.
“The beads are made of Terran moonstone,” Hawk said. “My grandfather believed the gods cast them down to earth whenever it rained, to remind us that we cannot have rainbows without a storm.” He picked up our packs. “Now come. The others are waiting for us.”
I tucked the beads under the collar of my tunic, where the cool weight of them lay against my aching heart.
The Elphian did not allow us to take one of the Sunlace ’s launches to the planet, but flew us there on a station shuttle. The vessel had been built to transport more cargo than passengers, but our seats allowed us to see a little through one small viewport beside the loading platform panel.
“I was able to persuade Colonel Pegreas to take us to one of the more populated lands in the eastern mountain region,” Jylyj said. “We may interact with the natives, as long as we do not interfere with them.”
“I would like a definition of interference,” Reever said.
“With the exception of medical scanners, we are not to use any of our devices or equipment in their presence. We are not to talk about politics, other species, worlds, or cultures. And while we are on the planet, we are subject to and must obey tribal law.”
“We don’t know what tribal law is,” I pointed out.
“I have some knowledge of it,” the Skartesh said.“The most restrictions will be placed on you, Healer Jarn. As a female, you must not directly address any male unless he has first spoken to you. Nor can you examine any male without me attending. It should also be made clear immediately that you belong to Linguist Reever.”
I rolled my eyes. “So it will be like Akkabarr, without the beatings and the ice.”
“Oh, there are plenty of snow and ice in the mountain regions,” Jylyj assured me. “This is their summer season, however, so the daylight temperatures should remain tolerable.”
“It seems pointless for Pegreas to have given these instructions,” Qonja said, “for he has no way to know what we do on the planet.”
“I believe he will,” the Skartesh replied. “Not all of the surviving Elphian left the planet. They live among the tribes, and no doubt will be keeping close watch on our activities.”
“There it is,” I said, seeing the rim of the planet appear in the viewport.
oKia’s surface was a swirling mottle of dark red, green, and brown, liberally salted with white patches indicating snow-covered areas. As we grew closer, I noted the rough, uneven ranges of mountains, some of which extended the length of the planet.
“No oceans,” Qonja murmured. “Is there any water on the surface?”
“oKia has many lakes, primarily in the valley regions,” Jylyj said. “They are forbidden areas and the people do not dwell near them.”
“Are the oKiaf as hydrophobic as the Skartesh?” I asked.
“They share a similar aversion, but for different reasons. The ancient tribes believed they came from water, and used to sink the bodies of their dead in the lakes to return them to their birthplace. The oKiaf now bury their dead, but the lakes are still considered sacred.” His gaze became shuttered. “The oKiaf do not swim, so when a member of the tribe chooses to end his life, he often jumps from a cliff into a lake and drowns himself.”
The station shuttle easily traversed the upper atmosphere, and when the distorting streaks of heat outside dissipated, I saw a conglomeration of linear shapes and roads that comprised one of their cities. The lower we descended, the bigger and more detailed the city grew. The total absence of people, lights, and movement within the structures made it seem ugly and empty; little more than a neat pile of containers discarded by an uncaring hand. I thought the roads and passages between the buildings were made of white stone, until we dropped enough for me to see that they were blocked by snowdrifts, some as tall as the building rooftops.
As soon as we entered the lower atmosphere, the shuttle pilot flew away from the city and up into the mountain range beyond it. There he chased a line of peaks, weaving in and out of the tallest before he slowed and used the com to tell us to prepare for landing.
“My orders are to leave your team near the Parrak erchepel,” the pilot said. “Theirs is one of the oldest settlements in the region, and their chieftain, Dnoc, once served as a city administrator. He will deal fairly with you.”
I glanced at Jylyj. Such generosity seemed odd, especially after Pegreas and his men had shown such hostility and resistance toward us. What had the Skartesh done to convince the Elphian supervisor to make so many concessions?
The station shuttle landed on a wide, flat plateau that sloped down an incline to a series of terraced stone shelves that reminded me of the steps leading up to the main hall at HouseClan Torin’s pavilion. The shuttle pilot engaged the cabin’s biodecon controls, effectively decontaminating all of us before he opened the hull doors.
Dry, cold air immediately swept in to fill the cabin. My cheeks and nose chilled, my eyes teared, and still I could have groaned with pleasure. As lovely as the warm, perfumed air of Joren was, I had missed the cold.
Jylyj stopped each of us to check the native garments and footgear we had changed into before boarding the shuttle. He adjusted the belt of twisted strips of hide that cinched in the waist of my long shirt, moving the knotted ends to rest on my hip.
“You should take down your hair,” he suggested. “It will make you look more like the women of the tribe.”
“The wind out there will knot it more tightly that this belt.” I sighed and removed the clip, and then remembered how I had once woven the heavy length into cables. That would keep it from becoming tangled. “Are oKiaf females permitted to braid their hair?”
“They are, although you should wear it in a single braid.” He tugged on one strand in a teasing fashion. “Wearing two means that you seek a mate.”
I looked into his dark eyes and saw nothing playful there. He stood too close now, and when I glanced down I saw him winding a piece of my hair around his claws.
This had to stop. “I have a mate,” I told him, and tugged my hair free.
“I will braid it for you,” my husband said, stepping between us. “Jylyj, Hawk needs assistance with his leggings.”
I watched the Skartesh reluctantly move away, and saw Reever’s eyes had turned dark. “What is it?”
He leaned close as if he meant to kiss my cheek, and said in a low voice, “I don’t like the way he looks at you, or touches you.”
An ensleg female would have likely taken offense, but I only felt relief. “Neither do I. I am trying to discourage his interest. Perhaps you can assist me with that.”
Reever nodded and glanced over at the other members of the team before moving around me and lifting my hair with his hands. Deftly, he divided it into three parts. “I would rather be alone with you to do this.”
Duncan’s fascination with my hair and his love of grooming me had become an integral part of our intimate times, and I smiled to myself. “Someone will have to unbraid it later.”
My husband wove a loose braid before tying it off at the end. As he adjusted the back of my collar, his fingers touched the necklace of beads Hawk had given to me to wear. “This is one of Hawk’s prayer necklaces.”
“He gave it to me to wear for good luck,” I said, uneasy now. “I could not refuse such a gift from a friend.”
“No, you cannot.” Reever took my arm. “Stay close to me, Jarn. I don’t want you out of my reach while we are on this world.”
I had no intention of straying far from his side, but the harsh note in his voice made me look up at him. “Don’t worry, Osepeke. Everything will go well.”
It was only after we left the shuttle that I wondered what sort of prayer went along with Hawk’s necklace.
Following the directions relayed to us by the shuttle pilot, we left the plateau and walked down the stepped incline until we reached a crude path winding out of sight among a thicket of trees. I had seen trees before, both on Joren and in the images from some of the stories Reever downloaded to Marel’s reading pad, but these did not resemble any of those.
Each tree had exposed root systems that rose from the dark red soil and formed precise right angles to the trunks, of which there were a minimum of three for each tree. The trunks themselves soared high above our heads, where they divided and spread out in formed branches covered with bunches of thick, dark purple leaves and long, oval seed pods.
“These are heartwood,” Jylyj said, touching one of the trunks. “The tribes use them for kiafta supports and to sustain the cooking fires. They burn very slowly.”
On Akkabarr we burned methane in our heatarcs, so the thought of setting a tree on fire seemed bizarre to me. “What are kiafta?”
“Temporary shelters the oKiaf dwell in on the land.” Jylyj sniffed the air and pointed toward the path. “The erchepel lies in that direction, on the other side of the thicket. I will go ahead and present myself to the men on watch.” He trotted along the path until he disappeared into the trees.
We followed the path at a more sedate pace, keeping alert as we made our way through the thicket. In addition to the heartwood trees, I saw many other types of plant life, from orange and green pools of frilled spikes to dense thatches of pale g
reen shoots, the ends of which were adorned with cup-shaped blooms filled like servers with green liquid.
Reever tried to name some of them for me, but even he stopped and stared at one plant, a single wide pad of blue from which sprouted hundreds of tiny white berries. He scanned the berries before picking one and sniffing it.
“What does this remind you of?” he asked, holding it to my nose.
I breathed in. The scent of the berry was unexpectedly dark and rich, and reminded me of my favorite Terran beverage. “Coffee.”
“According to my readings, they’re safe for us to consume. If they taste as good as they smell, we should be able to steep them.” He gathered several handfuls and placed them in the pouch he wore on his belt.
The heartwood trees thinned, and then we passed through the last of them and into an open clearing. I stopped as soon as I saw Jylyj on his knees in front of two native males. He held his paws behind his back and his head bowed, which alarmed me until one of the males spotted us and said something.
Jylyj rose, turned, and walked back to us. “They have sent for the chieftain, who is out hunting,” he said as soon as he had rejoined us. “Until he arrives, we will be taken to a place of safety.”
“We are not in any danger, are we?” Qonja asked, reaching unconsciously for Hawk’s hand.
“They are concerned with the tribe’s safety, not ours,” Jylyj explained. “We will not be badly treated,but no one will speak to us until the chieftain gives his consent.”
I didn’t like the idea of being herded off somewhere and held prisoner, but Pegreas had made it clear we were to follow tribal laws. This might even be some form of test, to see if we would.
“Leave your packs here,” Jylyj said as we started toward the men. “We can carry nothing into the erchepel yet.”
“Some of the instruments in my pack can kill if used in ignorance,” I said. “Will they be searching through them?”
“No. They won’t be touched.” He gave me a sharp look. “Remember to keep your eyes down, and do not try to talk to any of the men.”