by Jim Rudnick
He smiled and the three of them looked out of the side windows of the bus, and sand dune after sand dune went by.
After an hour of this brown vista, Tanner caught himself twice as he almost nodded off. “At least,” he said to himself, “the bus has AC else this would be a sweaty ride.” The sun beat down still as they rose on the crest of a dune, and ahead laid their destination or at least Tanner hoped so.
"That's the Dance Muse pyramid, yes, and we've made good time," Stonecraw Qew said as the bus pulled up at an access ramp.
The three of them hustled out of the bus and quickly across the baking hot sands to the stairs down into the tunnels below. Like all access points to pyramids, it grew nice and cool as they went down and down and then doubled back to take the long tunnel over to the basement area of the Dance Muse pyramid. At the bottom of the stairs to go up, a Resources colonel met them. About twenty feet away, seated on the floor, were at least fifty more Resources forces in full gear.
Each, Tanner could see, wore desert sand camouflage fatigues and had sidearms and full side-packs of other gear.
"Sir," Stonecraw Qew said to his colonel, "we just arrived, and I'm wondering if we should go straight up?"
He did not snap to attention. Different strokes for different folks, Tanner thought, is what made the galaxy rotate.
The colonel looked at first Bram, then Tanner, and finally to his stonecraw and nodded. "Jurors are just filing in upstairs, and the case results will be stated in just a few minutes, so yes, get right up there. Stay on the far side too, away from the stairs and the heavy Performance Muse seating on the south side too. If there's any issues, it'll occur there," he said, and his voice was matter-of-fact, but Tanner could hear he was a bit worried.
As they climbed the stairs quickly, Stonecraw Qew gave them a quick backstory on the case. Performance Muse had brought a suit against Dance Muse on the strength of a new play they had been showcasing for over a month. Performance said they had proof that Dance had taken materials—dances, music, songs, words—the base items that Performance had licensed for the show from other muses—and stolen it for themselves.
“Yes,” Qew said, “there was a short Dance presentation that they were using as a part of the whole show as a promotional item only. They were not charging any kind of price for this presentation, they showed it all over and often, and yes, it was in their opinion the best dance number in the show. Performance, however, made the claim that this presentation 'gutted' their own much larger show by taking the one show-stopping dance number and offering it up for free.”
Tanner nodded and thought that under that kind of pressure, yes, the revenues for the overall show itself might suffer. Wonder how that will play out, he thought and realized he'd soon know.
As they mounted the final bank of stairs, Tanner was surprised to see the space that could have held thousands held fewer than five hundred. He followed Qew as he walked around the large open rotunda space, and they took seats against the far wall of bleachers, in the very front row. Across from them, the first few rows of seating were all filled solidly with what Qew said were Performance Muse citizens. To Tanner, they seemed fairly low key and didn't fidget as they awaited the case verdict. To their left sat mostly Dance Muse citizens, and they, by comparison, were anything but calm. Some carried signs that Tanner couldn't read as they were written in the Enkian language. Others were clacking their beaks, the clicks loudly echoing well above them into the eaves of the pyramid surrounding them.
The head juror, Iavoesi Qax, rose, and with a ripple of the green and gold feathered crest on his head, the crowd quieted quickly.
Out of the corner of his eye, Tanner could see the colonel of the Resources squad now standing on the stairs, near the top, but not very visible in the rotunda.
Watching, I'd say and yet, I wonder what the big deal is here. So one muse loses, so what? The matter certainly can't be that serious an issue—revenues, yes, are important, but it was still not that important. At least to me, Tanner thought.
"Enkians, the jurors have been considering this Claim by the Performance Muse and Dance Muse, and we have come to a decision, one that was a unanimous decision by the jurors." As usual, the crowd was silent and waited with bated breath.
Qax looked first at the Performance Muse citizens on one set of bleachers and then at the Dance Muse citizens on the other side. He then looked at the five leaders of the Performance Muse who sat in front of him, leaned their way on the stage on the dais, and cawed loudly, ”Performance, Performance, Performance” as the winning side of the case.
Most cases ended quietly, but not this one, and even Tanner, who'd never even seen one before, was surprised at the sudden vigor of the whole slew of Dance Muse citizens who rose up and began to chant something in Enkian. They said the same phrase, "Snakth no finister," over and over.
Tanner looked at the colonel who was holding his squad still behind him and lower on the stairs.
"That is Enkian, Captain, and it means—um, that the verdict is bad—er, false, maybe. It is usually made by citizens who lose a case verdict—oh, oh—"
The Dance Muse citizens were now all moving toward the stage, carrying those placards and chanting the same refrain repeatedly. From somewhere in the back of the group of a few hundred upset citizens, someone threw a bottle of water at the stage, and it broke open on one of the tables on the stage drenching some of the jurors. That got a big hurrah from the Dance Muse citizens, who now were moving even more quickly toward the stage.
There were shouts from the Resources squad as they now poured into the large open rotunda. The colonel led one group to try to intercept the Dance Muse contingent, while others were running to the stage to try to get the jurors off safely, Tanner thought.
As he turned to his right a bit, he could see the quickest of the Performance Muse citizens grabbing some of the Dance Muse citizens and punches were thrown. Melees broke out as the two groups met, and the squad of Resources was too late to stop that.
Grabbing Bram, he said, "jurors!” As they had a closer vantage point, he ran to the stage. Tanner went up the stairs quickly as some Dance Muse followers reached the stage from the other side. He moved quickly to the center of the stage, grabbed Qax's arm, and moved the head juror behind him as Bram grabbed another juror. They backed up and that moved the jurors behind them to the edge of the stage. When the first rounds were heard, Tanner wished for his Colt, but he was unarmed.
Stonecraw Qew fired again and then one more time—three rounds into the air that went up a long way, and the ricochets could be heard way above their heads inside the stone pyramid.
Everyone froze, except for the Resources squad, who now were all over the stage and taking charge. Tanner was more than happy to give up his juror to someone in desert camouflage. The Performance Muse and Dance Muse citizens out on the rotunda floor slowly split apart, and the fighting was over. Both sides separated and moved to one side. The Performance citizens' feathered crests were all puffy with their purple and orange colors. Dance citizens, having lost first the verdict and then just a moment ago, this revolt in the rotunda, had their own crests, gray on brown, not at all puffed up and out. Instead, they all looked frustrated and beaten.
The colonel stood at the center of the stage and addressed all the occupants in the rotunda, his voice loud and strident. "You Dance citizens, clear this space immediately. You will leave here in the next five minutes or we will arrest you and take you in for failing to obey a Resources commander. You have five minutes. Performance citizens, please go about your business now. We will be here in the rotunda monitoring your compliance. That is all," he said, and the whole squad of his forces spread out to circle the stage and face outward as the citizens began to disperse.
After he finished, he quickly moved off the stage and came over to stand directly in front of Tanner. "Captain, I watched as you took the initiative and quickly put yourself between the head juror and the crowds as they mounted the stage. My commendations
will be made to my superiors—but on behalf of the Enkian justice system, thank you, Sir," he said as both hands snapped to his chest in the traditional Enkian salute.
Standing still quite close, the head juror also came over, and as his feathered crest rippled, he too nodded to Tanner and thanked him profusely.
Tanner came to attention and replied with his own Navy salute, and they smiled at each other. The colonel and head juror moved off toward the jurors who were all milling about just a few feet away.
The three of them turned to watch the crowds disperse the rotunda area.
Tanner watched and noted that even as the Dance citizens were leaving, they were grumbling to each other as they went down the stairs to the tunnels back to the access ramp across the sands. Bram watched too and then turned to his captain.
"Did you note that the Dance Muse group was still upset? Don't think that a few warning shots really did much to quell their anger either. Least as far as I can tell," Bram said which received a nod from Stonecraw Qew.
"Exactly as I see it," he said, and his feathers rippled slightly. "The Dance citizens were upset—and to my mind rightfully so. I believe that they were given a bad verdict, but then that is the usual thing about any kind of a verdict lately," he said as he shook his head.
Now that was interesting, Tanner thought. "Tell me more—what do you mean by that, exactly, Stonecraw?"
The soldier moved closer to them as they now too were going down the stairs to the tunnel below. "Only that the current rumors are all about the head juror—Iavoesi Qax—and how his last set of verdicts has been generally seen as—well, misguided is the word that is being used. Me? I'd perhaps use a different word—biased comes to mind," he said.
As they settled on the bus and prepared for the long trip back to the Words Muse pyramid and the Atlas shuttle, they kept Stonecraw Qew talking and learned much about the usual juror verdicts and that lately there had been a change.
#####
As the shuttle flew north, Tanner and Bram along with Stonecraw Qew sat and looked out of the windows at the changing landscape below. For more than half an hour, the sands that were normally below the shuttle were changing. Instead of the huge flat plains with few dunes and ridges, rippling dunes hundreds of feet high in some cases were now below them. It had been minute after minute of the same brown sand-colored background, but when you took the time to stare at the formations and sculpture of the sand itself, it was impressive. Nobody could see any water, but occasionally there was a copse of some kind of local trees with sparse grasses and even some kind of low shrub. Tanner thought these might be called oases, but he really didn't know for sure. There hadn't been more than a handful as they continued to fly north at about a thousand feet up. No water in any sizable amount meant, as far as he knew, no life could exist. That was pretty much a given, but then again, he'd seen some pretty strange things on planets all over the RIM and inward too. Still the dunes were magnificent, rolling and yet sculpted with sharp edges too. And on they still flew, and he could see on the horizon a different color—not so brown but sort of a brownish-green coloration. He watched as the new colored horizon slowly came closer, and then he noticed the dunes had changed. Instead of being free-formed, running in whatever direction or shape that they had so far, now they tended to run diagonally, as if they were sculpted by winds that blew from northwest to southeast.
"Absolutely correct," Qew said, "due to the prevailing winds here in the temperate zones. It's here that those winds with no moisture left in them still have enough power to shape the dunes. This area runs almost a thousand miles thick, encircling the globe both above and below our own living zone around the Enkian equator," he added.
Below, there were small sand devils that were whipping up the sides of the dunes. Qew had informed them that the small dust storms occurred often.
In less than an hour, the shuttle still climbed north by northwest, and the dunes grew bigger, as did the sand devils too, and eventually on the horizon, the color changed from sand brown to a dark green shade.
"We're coming up to the edge of the sand country," Qew said, and he pointed out a side viewport at what lay ahead.
Those sand dunes were now smaller and smaller, and yes, eventually they petered out onto flat bare rock and dirt and the start of some vegetation. As the shuttle moved on northward, the vegetation became greener and the rock and dirt less noticeable until there was nothing but fields of what looked like grass with only marginal patches of sand. The climate was changing below them, and Qew spoke up on that too.
"Enki is hot—you have learned that already. But due to the oddly flattened spherical shape of the planet, here above the fiftieth parallel, the ground falls away much quicker. Hence, the lack of the huge heated climate, and as a result, it's where Enki has all of its agriculture—our farms as you call them," he said, and sure enough in a few minutes more, Tanner looked down and saw big agriculture all over the horizon.
The Enki farms were automated with vast irrigation systems and water sprinklers too, and while they were too high to identify what crops lay below, the fields were full of heavy rows of foliage that stretched on for as far as they could see.
Up ahead, there was what looked like a small city—or a big town perhaps. Rows of streets were aligned with the river that ran through the town's center, and if pushed, Tanner thought he'd have to estimate there'd be five to ten thousand inhabitants there. As it was daytime, there was no way to tell what kind of lighting they used or how they powered their towns. In fact, he suddenly realized, he had no idea how the muse pyramids were powered either and made a PDA note to check on that when they returned.
As the shuttle pilot, Lieutenant Jenkins, yawed the shuttle to respond to an incoming base message, Tanner saw a Militia base below them.
"Sir," Jenkins said, "we have been granted landing privileges, and we'll touch down in a few moments.”
The shuttle turned once more to port and slowly began to sink down toward the surface. As the shuttle moved down, Tanner noted that a small personnel carrier was coming out toward them and thought this would be their landing greeting party. A few minutes later when the shuttle doors opened up, a small Enkian group greeted him.
What appeared to be a leader in that group stepped forward, and in Enkian, he yelled out what sounded like orders. Whatever this guy just said was certainly not "welcome." I know that much!
Qew, however, got in Tanner's way and led them out while barking orders in Enkian to the group. Tanner noted there was at least one senior officer who seemed to resent Qew taking over, but all of the greeting group moved back and stood off to one side.
Qew smiled at the humans and nodded over to the group. "It appears that while we were expected, someone here had assumed that we were going to be entering the base—not as visitors but as some kind of a task force that was due today to do some kind of an audit. That's not us and while they weren't happy to learn that, that's their problem and not ours," he finished off.
Gesturing for Tanner and Bram to follow him, he turned and marched off around the personnel carrier, and they all aimed at the far set of buildings to the east away from the landing area.
"There is grass on a desert planet," Bram commented and smiled.
Tanner hadn't spent much time so far on this trip thinking about the planet itself and how it was able to support itself, but that too was an area he should PDA himself on as well.
As they walked, Qew pointed out some of the training sessions that were going on around them. "Close order drill for that squad," he said as he pointed over to the west side of the field.
There, a group of fifty Militia members was being put through their paces by a drill sergeant, Tanner thought. No matter what military for what race, that kind of task required a drill sergeant who could rack up days and weeks of intensive training for the recruits—and there was no difference here on Enki. While he couldn't understand the sergeant's comments, he knew what the alien was saying nonetheless. Recruits we
re falling all over themselves trying to keep up. The drill sergeant was having none of that, and he barked constantly at them to get more focus, more involvement, and more output.
As they moved farther away, the taunting and complaining of the sergeant faded away and reinforced for Tanner that military training was of supreme importance no matter where it happened.
At the building just ahead, Qew turned to speak to them, and they all stopped short of entering.
"Small point here, Captain. That as a visitor group, we will need to follow base rules, and that means that we will have to accept what they've arranged for us inspection-wise and anything else that they've worked on for us to see. Hope that this is acceptable, Captain?" he said and Tanner could tell he was a bit concerned too.
"Not a problem, Stonecraw—we are yours for the day," he answered, and he and Bram nodded to the alien.
Nodding, he moved a few steps, opened up the door, and ushered them inside.
Just like any other base offices, Tanner thought as he looked around. Waiting room with chairs, desk with an aide or two, and more offices down a hallway.
They took seats while Qew went up to the aide and appeared to ask a question. Qew returned a moment later to speak to Tanner and Bram.