'Ah!' said Neuryzh. 'The very galaxy I explored with Friend Eetoo. The planet we found may have been a major hub. You kept the coordinates in your computer, did you not, Eetoo?'
'Yes, I did.'
'Of course, how open they would be to us, remains to be seen.'
Heptosh had one more thing to say. 'Friend Blazz, I, a Nefzedi, who were close allies to the Nephteshis, think I should apologise to you for the way we treated the Groki. I have understood, for some time, that our actions were unjust. It has occurred to me, since we began this conversation, that an apology is in order.'
With that, they departed.
26
the pupil and his guardian walk to the place of challenge
not knowing what the day will hold
I had that dream again last night, the same one I had those other times.
It's weird! The first time I had it, I didn't know anything about any part of it. The second time, I knew about the golden tablets from the writings, and I knew they were the same as in the first dream. I still didn't know who my friend was who was with me. Last night, I had exactly the same dream, no changes at all from the other times, except I knew that the girl who was with me was Tsaphar!
That makes me feel a bit better.
So, today is the day. I've got a groin cloth Heptosh used when he was young, wrapped about my hand. I've double checked that everything in the clearing near the beehive is ready.
It feels good to have Heptosh with me. I'm glad someone believes in me.
The house is shut. It's almost noon, so they've probably shut it to keep Tsim out. I think I have to come out from inside the house to challenge him, so we knock loudly.
When they know it's us, they open up.
Shav is upstairs looking out the window for Tsim and his gang.Ima and Tsaphar are trying to talk me out of it. They're sure Tsim will absolutely kill me.
Heptosh tells them he's practised wrestling with me, and he thinks I have a good chance.
They say Rav probably won't come with them because if there's trouble, it would be awkward for him to decide whose side he should be on.
I tell Tsaphar about my dream.
Shav shouts, 'They're coming!'
This is it! Oh! Elkhem! Help me!
They open the door, and I walk out. The rest of them are standing at the door.
Tsim and the boys look at me. They look as though they're ready to tear me apart.
Sure enough, Rav isn't there.
I hold up the groin cloth. They're suddenly quiet.
I throw the groin cloth at Tsim's feet.
'Okay, then,' he says.
He throws off his cloths. I throw off mine.
He puts on the groin cloth. I don't have a groin cloth to put on. I'm just standing there -- nothing.
'Pssst! Eetoo!' It's Shav, calling from the upstairs window. 'Here!'
He throws a groin cloth down to me. I put it on.
Tsim looks like he's not taking this very seriously though. He probably thinks I'm easy takings.
He's got his fists up. I'm ready. He's probably wondering why I don't have my fists clenched.
He throws one -- a test punch, I can tell, but I'd better strike while I can.
I grab his arm, and twist it while I put my right foot around his leg and and trip him. He's down -- but he slips out.
He back on his feet again, but now he looks more serious.
I can tell he's tensing up to get me good on the next punch.
He lunges, but I dodge him -- he does it again -- ooh! He got me in the side of my face! I stagger a bit but I recover.
I should have seen that -- the one-two punch. He did that a few times in the market.
He's coming again -- there it is, the one-two punch. I dodge the first one and -- perfect! I got him in an even more secure hold! I twist and force him to the ground.
I've got him so he can't reach me with his other hand. I hold him that way until he knows he can't get out. Then I start to twist his arm so he thinks I'm going to break it.
It takes a while, but finally he knows he's not going to get me off of him.
'All right!' he says.
'We not finished,' I say. I've still got his arm. 'We do this fight different way, okay?' I'm talking in Akkadi.
'What?'
'I give you chance to fight again, but you fight, not me, but Tsaphar!'
'Huh?'
'But you don't hit with hands.'
'How then?'
'You fight with bees.'
'With bees?'
'Yes. With bees. You try to take all the honey from the beehive. If you can't, then Tsaphar try it. If she can, but you cannot, she can choose her own husband.'
He's quiet for a while. I'm still holding his arm.
He shouts, 'No one can take honey from a beehive! The bees kill!'
'Will do, or no?' I twist his arm some more.
'Okay! Okay! Will do!'
I let him go.
Everyone's standing there, looking at me. Tsaphar's looking happy for the first time in a long time. I smile at her. She smiles back.
We all walk round the house, out to the back, over the fence, and into the woods. I think I'm turning blue where Tsim punched me. At least now, I'm wearing more than that skimpy groin cloth.
Shav walks up beside me. 'Eetoo, I don't want to fight. I just threw you the cloth for you to use because you don't have one -- that's okay?'
'Yeah -- okay.'
Oh! I get it! He threw me the groin cloth, and now he's afraid I thought that meant a challenge. 'No, no!' I assure him. 'I not think you fight! Thank you for the cloth!'
He looks relieved.
I lead them to the beehive in a small clearing. It's just right for the honey.
I can see the pole, the string, some dry branches and a metzig torch under a bush where I put them earlier today.
I point to the beehive. All the boys are looking at it.
I go to Tsaphar. She's standing with her mother, Heptosh and Shav. I point to the stuff under the bush. She smiles, and we watch Tsim walking about, looking up at the beehive.
He picks up a rock.
We all back up into the woods.
He's holding the rock, looking up. He thinks better.
He finds a stick. He's climbing up the tree.
This hive's on a rather thick branch, so at least he can't try to break it down.
He's in the tree, trying to get up the nerve to hit the beehive with the stick.
The stick's already closer to the hive than the bees like it. A couple of them come out and sting him.
'Ow!' he cries, and jump down.
He keeps this up for about an hour. He gets a few more stings.
He finally gives up.
'If Tsaphar can take all the honey out of that beehive without getting stung, Eetoo can have her.'
I say, 'No. If she win, she pick her own husband.'
Rav just now arrives. He finds out what's happened, and says to Tsaphar, 'You won't get the honey out. Eetoo made it look easy, but I tried it with the smoke. It's not as easy as it looks.'
I nod to Tsaphar.
She goes to the bush I pointed her to, takes the poll, ties the dry branches to the end of the poll, lights the branches, and waits till it's smoking just right like I showed her. I don't have to say anything to her. She takes it to the beehive, raises it up to a safe distance from the hive, just close enough for the smoke to cover it. She keeps it there, making sure the smoke goes evenly all over it.
When it's time, she puts the poll down, takes a stick, climbs the tree and goes at the beehive.
All the boys suddenly run into the woods. They look back in time to see her scraping the bees off, and they're falling on to the grass.
Next, she grabs the honeycomb in her hand, breaks it off the tree, and jumps to the ground.
Victory!
* * *
We're walking back to the house. Tsaphar's carrying the honeycomb.
'Why did you do i
t this way? Why did you say "No" when he said you can have her if I get the honey?' she asks.
'I don't want you to marry me because I win you like you were some wall ornament. I want you to choose me because you love me.'
She kisses me on the cheek. 'I do choose you! I love you more than ever!' She starts nursing my bruise.
Heptosh and I stay at the house for a special dinner Ima fixes for us. We have the honeycomb as well.
They ask a few more people to come, and we have a good time. Rav is very quiet.
Even though I'm legally a man, they don't really consider me old enough to get married. We're engaged now anyway!
27
the pupil works at his sums
his betrothed, at a computer, records transactions
family members come in and out
they relax, they engage in light conversation
they're hard at work again
Here comes Rav again. This time Tsim is with him.
'Shalem, shalem,' he says to all of us.
'Shalem,' Tsaphar says. She's more friendly with him now.
'Eetoo, teach me some more of your moves afterwards, okay?'
'Yeah, okay.' My Akkadi has improved so much, even he speaks it to me now.
Rav says, 'If you change your mind about fighting in the market, we'll put money down on you, won't we, Tsim?'
'We sure will!'
'Naaa,' I say.
'Ima,' says Rav. 'We're off to meet Elder Akhan's younger daughter.'
'Good luck to you then,' says Ima.
They're off.
I'm confused. 'But I thought...'
Tsaphar explains, 'Tsim decided to keep his end of the bargain, even though you wrecked his plans to have me, so he's introducing Rav to Shalma anyway.'
'Oh.'
I get back to work. I still have a page of sums to do, and then I have to read another one of their legends from their book, and do some writing. By the time I'm finished, I guess, Tsim will be back and I'll have to teach him some more wrestling moves.
Then there's tomorrow. Market days are a lot of fun now, since Tsaphar and I are free to talk and go places together. But I can't wait till next week. We're taking Tsaphar along to Kalodzu-Famta, when we go with Blazz.
I don't know if the people in the village are still upset with me or not. I still feel bad about that.
Whatever.
But I'm looking forward to having Tsaphar meet Venerable Too Dha.
28
Heptosh drove to the spaceport in the carrier with Eetoo and Tsaphar. Blazz arrived with Neuryzh, who saw them off.
'The last time a Groki was ever in one of these,' commented Blazz, 'was undoubtedly an unpleasant experience.'
'I hope all future experiences between Groki and Human can be happy ones,' answered Heptosh.
'I hope so too.'
They took off the usual way. Then, Heptosh flicked the reverse beam transmitter for the Kalodzu-Famta solar system.
'Speedy things, aren't they!' said Blazz.
Heptosh found the planet, and simulated linear movement towards it.
The approach to a planet was always the time consuming part of a journey.
To kill time, Heptosh said, 'Friend Blazz, you couldn't have been any more right regarding Amanhep.'
'Has he begun to show his colours?'
'Yes. Since gaining the upper hand in negotiations, he has consolidated his own power within the Indigenous Nephteshi Alliance, and is using every resource they have to build himself up. They've even restricted their knowledge of relocation technology to the repair of their own ships.'
'I understood that was in their plans. Have they begun to expand yet?'
'They've subdued Imtep. A couple of other planetary governments report that they're being pressured to come under their jurisdiction. The Department of Human Affairs has all but forgotten about the Kalodzu-Famta project in their preoccupation with Amanhep's new empire. I'm only free to make this trip whenever I wish because they currently can't find the opportunity to send a negotiator.'
'My sources tell me they've also attempted to annex human planets in a few other sectors as well.'
Heptosh began plotting a course for landing.
'Let's visit Mr. Too Dha first.'
Heptosh consulted his computer clock to check where the Famtizhi area would be in it's rotational course. He had timed the trip to fall during daylight hours.
'As long as there's no recognised government controlling the space port, we can land wherever we choose.'
Things looked sufficiently quiet on the ground, so he landed the ship behind Too Dha's hut.
Heptosh and Eetoo got off first, and met Too Dha. They told him Tsaphar was inside the ship along with a non-human.
Too Dha had never met a non-human, so they thought best to mentally prepare him.
Tsaphar got out first, and Eetoo introduced her to his Venerable Too Dha. Too Dha assured her in Nephteshi that he was, indeed, deeply moved to meet the future wife of one who was like a son to him. He commented on how beautiful she was. They embraced.
After that, Blazz emerged. He softened things by immediately greeting Too Dha in Famtizhi, which he had received as a brain to brain download from Neuryzh.
After that, they decided to take Too Dha along to visit Shan.
They all got in and lifted off.
Heptosh signalled the port for landing. The answer appeared to be from Shan, himself.
He navigated the ship through the entrance to the port, and landed. Shan was outside, waiting.
Heptosh pulled the lever to open the door, and Blazz got out first.
He simply stood at the door of the spaceship, and silently sent signals to Shan, who stood quietly receiving them. Then, Shan turned around as Blazz approached him and began doing something to the back of his neck.
After that, Shan turned around. Blazz signalled for the others to come out.
'Before shutting your control circuit, I uploaded all the information you'll need to do to other bionics, exactly as I've done to you. You can also disable them completely, if you choose, by sending the appropriate signal. You should be able to hear any signals sent by the Groki, but they'll no longer have involuntary access to your control circuit.'
'Thank you, very much,' said Shan.
'Now,' continued Blazz, 'how many other bionics are there on the planet?'
'Thirteen active bionics, including myself, and 1,976,243 in hibernation, sealed off from any energy source in the downtown section of the subterranean city.'
'Good. We can deal with them as ...'
'Sir! I'm receiving a signal. The Groki operatives suspect an intrusion and are approaching the planet!'
'Then quickly! Please upload me a map of the subterranean structure.'
After a short pause, Shan said, 'There.'
'Good. Where can I find a means of transportation I can use in the underground area?'
'That way.' Shan pointed.
'Good. Heptosh, take Shan with you and get as far from this planet as possible. I'll try to get Friend Too Dha back to his home through the underground passages. I'll deal with the other bionics as I meet them.'
'But --'
'Hurry! Keep Shan with you. He'll be an extremely valuable tool. Now go! Friend Too Dha, come!'
Heptosh obeyed. He, Shan, Eetoo and Tsaphar got back into the ship and they took off through the port door.
Some ships appeared in the sky above.
Heptosh engaged the relocator for a far away spot. They were gone.
Again, ships appeared.
'Don't tell me they're able to read my reverse beam signals!'
He entered a new set of coordinates, and they were away again.
Again the ships appeared. He could detect a thernguin net beginning to form between them.
As long as he kept moving, he could evade any such device. He kept inputting coordinates and flickering.
He sought Shan's assistance.
As Heptosh continued fl
ickering, Shan connected Heptosh's computer to the relocator and entered a series of random locations. Heptosh initiated the input from the computer, which altered their location about four times in quick succession -- faster than the Groki could reappear and read their reverse beam signals.
They lost the Groki ships, but they were now looking at their galaxy from a distance.
To be on the safe side, Heptosh decided to contact the Toki space port, using the twin particle communicator.
An answer returned almost immediately: 'Please stay where you are until further notice. The Inter-sector Groki Alliance has issued an alert, identifying your ship as a rogue. According to galactic protocol, we have to explain your business on Kalodzu-Famta and clear up any misunderstanding before allowing you back. The sector council is in the process of doing this, but it may take a while. We will contact you as soon as it is clear.'
They waited a while. They had some lunch.
Tsaphar didn't seem hungry. Heptosh thought he could guess why. She and Eetoo were talking in low tones, but it didn't look as though Eetoo's short answers were building her confidence.
Heptosh gave it a try: 'It'll only be a matter of time, Tsaphar. We were on a valid mission on behalf of our sector, and the sector council won't let it rest until they see it through.'
Tsaphar seemed a bit happier.
A few hours later, Heptosh sent another message.
The answer came: 'There are complications. The Groki Alliance insist you have been interfering with one of their projects. We are also making inquiries as to what project they could possibly have in our sector, and why we weren't informed. They are making things difficult by insinuating that our sector council is responsible for Amanhep's Indigenous Nephteshi Federation's expansion to some human planets in one of their sectors. They raised the question of you being somehow working for them, which we assured them, you're not, but they require further verification. We may need to send a legate to their central planet.'
'This may take a long time,' said Heptosh. 'I hope we have enough food and water.'
Eetoo Page 17