Bellmus asked Bichael to send out the other leaders and Lyemad so that he could show Baskwit his son. It took a few hours of confusing conversation before Baskwit started to understand the strange ways of all the alien friends he was making. Finally, he asked if they would all like to come into the city and meet the other Lipkians. Bellmus, quite amused by the literal way Baskwit took everything, hoped that no one would say anything that sounded hostile or intimidating.
The cave city of Courtyard had long, smooth tunnels leading down to it. Along the way, other tunnels intersected and branched off in every direction. Bellmus and the crew saw many other Lipkians rolling effortlessly through the tunnels. Baskwit could walk in the tunnels, but he made it obvious that he preferred to roll. Many times, he noted that walking was an inefficient way to travel. Tessslan, after talking Bellmus into letting him come along, asked, “Bassskwit, how do you get ssso much ssspeed when you roll?”
“That is easy,” said Baskwit, happy to be talking, if he had to walk, “We use our hands and feet to push off the ground. You may not be able to see it because we push them in and out of our bodies very rapidly—just at the right moment on each turn. Our young ones are very funny to watch when they first come out of their eggs and try to roll. They sometimes forget to stick their legs out and they roll down hills. Sometimes they stick them out to soon while they are rolling and they pop up into the air. Most of the time, they just flop around for awhile until they figure it out.”
“That sssounds like the young onesss might have a tough beginning,” said Tessslan, surprised that the Lipkians would laugh at the children’s struggle.
“Our hatchlings have to figure it out on their own if they are to grow up strong and independent,” replied Baskwit. “Although we float very well in the water, there are dangerous creatures in the water and on land from which we have to be able to roll away.”
Inside Courtyard, the floors were smooth and sloped down towards the center of the cave, away from where the tunnels entered all around the outside walls. Just inside the cave, where each tunnel entered, there were short, rock ramps that curved up sharply. Lyemad was first to see one of the Lipkians roll into the city and up one of the ramps. The Lipkian flew ten feet into the air and stuck out his arms and legs. His body stopped spinning just as he landed on his feet just past the ramp. With no hesitation, he started walking toward one of the many stone buildings that made up the city.
“Wow, that was amazing!” yelled Lyemad.
Within minutes, everyone had a chance to watch dozens of such feats. Other ramps—closer to buildings—allowed the Lipkians to roll and fly up to second-and third-story balconies. Outside one of the bigger buildings was where Baskwit took the Ambassadors and sat them down to introduce other Lipkians to them. For the next few hours, they talked and learned many things about their strange culture. The Lipkians treated them to a smorgasbord of different fruits, vegetables, and roasted insects. Some of the vegetarians politely passed on the insects. Even Lyemad tried them and was surprised at how good they tasted.
Lyemad and Tessslan had not even looked at each other during the entire visit. Tessslan had decided to talk to a small group of Lipkians—off to the side of the main group—about the Flidoring. He did not want any more outbursts from Lyemad, and he knew that it would be easier to explain the “Way of Peace” to a smaller group. Lyemad stayed close to his father and Baskwit, learning as much as he could about their culture.
Everyone was ready to go back up to the Volkran for the night. Lyemad and Baskwit were walking near to where Tessslan was talking to another small group of Lipkians, when they heard him say, “Remember, do not sssay anything about thisss to anyone elssse in the landing party.”
Suspicious, Lyemad said, “What secrets are you telling now Tessslan?”
Tessslan jumped to his feet saying, “Oh, you ssscared me. You should not sneak up on people like that. I wasss not telling sssecretsss.”
“Oh, come now Tessslan. I just heard you tell them not to tell us. That is a secret and now you are a liar,” said Lyemad with a vengeful voice.
“Who are you to sssay that I am a liar?” Tessslan shouted back. “You have no idea what true ssspiritualism isss. All you care about isss the technology you can take from other worldsss.”
Lyemad got right into Tessslan’s face and said, “Do not start preaching your fraudulent beliefs to me. I am so tired of you…”
Without any notice, Tessslan twisted quickly around and walloped Lyemad with his powerful tail. Lyemad went sailing across the room and bounced off two different Lipkians before finally landing on the floor. Fortunately, the soft fatty tissue of the Lipkians broke the force of his fall. As he slowly stood to his feet, the pain from the strike was obvious in the strained look on his face. Holding his side and looking down, he saw the blue from his blood staining his clothes and trickling onto his hand. One of the pointed spines from Tessslan’s tail had pierced his skin during the blow.
Overcoming his shock, Bellmus ran over to Lyemad and helped him over to a stone bench. After examining the wound, he turned toward Tessslan and yelled, “What is wrong with you, Tessslan, have you lost your mind?” Realizing that the injury looked worse than it was, he continued, “This is no way for Ambassadors to be acting. You should be ashamed of your behavior.”
Timsssack had made his way over to Lyemad to inspect the damage when he said, “Tessslan, go to your quarters and wait for me there.” Then looking at the blood he said, “Lyemad, are you alright? I am so sorry about this.”
“I am fine,” started Lyemad with a stressed voice, “I just need a minute to catch my breath.”
Confused by his son’s actions, Timsssack asked, “What did you do to Tessslan to provoke him like that?”
“I did nothing to him, I asked him what secrets he was telling the Lipkians. He said that he was not telling secrets. So I told him he was lying, because both Baskwit and I heard him,” said Lyemad, still having a hard time getting air into his lungs.
“You must have misunderstood him. Tessslan does not lie,” said Timsssack.
“No. All day long he was off with small groups of Lipkians and when we walked by him, I heard him say, ‘Do not tell anyone about this.’ That sounds like a secret to me,” said Lyemad in a sarcastic tone.
Seeing the situation could get out of hand, Bellmus said, “Well let’s get you back to the Volkran and bandage this laceration. We can sort out the details later.” Then, in a more diplomatic voice and turning toward Baskwit, he said, “Please forgive this little incident. It seems that our boys might need a break from all this star traveling. We will continue our talks with you in the morning, then we can discuss the future of our relationships.”
Baskwit and the other Lipkians had not said a word during the whole incident. They were not in shock as much as they were curious about the aliens’ strange ways. After a brief moment of reflection, Baskwit said, “I do not know this word ‘forgive’, but if you want to come back at the beginning of day, that would be fine. I do not know the future of our wives, sons, daughters, or parents, but if you want to talk about our relationships we can.”
“Oh, dear. I meant that we could talk about the future of how your world and ours will interact with each other,” said Bellmus, remembering that he needed to choose his words carefully when talking to the Lipkians. He continued with, “To forgive means that you will not be angry or take any bad actions against us for the trouble we caused you.”
“Oh, I am not angry with you. Your ways are strange to us, but we are not in trouble over them,” said Baskwit in his normal unattached way. “We would not take bad actions against you unless you took them against us first. Yes, we can talk about those interactions at the next beginning of day.”
On the Volkran, things had heated up more as Tessslan, Timsssack, Lyemad and Bellmus all tried to sort out what had happened in Courtyard. Bellmus was the only one to stay calm and he was surprised that Timsssack was so defensive of Tessslan, when he was the one
that got physical and hurt Lyemad. Two hours had passed before Tessslan offered an apology to Lyemad and, even then, he still felt it was Lyemad’s fault. They both were boiling with hatred inside and everyone could sense it.
The next morning Lyemad and Tessslan stayed in the Volkran while the rest of them finished talking and drafting up peace agreements with the Lipkians. Bellmus found it more difficult than he thought to pick the right words for the peace agreement. He knew that the Lipkians were intelligent because of their technology, but they seemed a bit inept when it came to understanding language. He did his best to tolerate the situation and eventually he completed the agreement. When it came time to leave Lipkus Prime, Bellmus spent more than an hour trying, but failing to persuade Baskwit to join them. Baskwit did agree to keep a transmitter for future communications, and he accepted plans for an orbital subspace communications station, which the Electerians would build for them. The Lipkians seemed interested in space travel and other worlds, but they wanted the other worlds to build or give them everything they needed to interact with them. Of course, the other worlds agreed, as long as they could learn from the Lipkians how to use cold fusion and make stronger force fields.
Chapter XI
Shortcomings
Bellmus was sitting in his captain’s seat pondering the fate of the rest of their voyage. The next star system on their journey was the Sinkar system. They had no communications with the one planet in the system, and he was not sure if the crew could handle the stress of another uncertain encounter. He did not even know if he could handle the stress. He had three days to try to get things back under control. There was no way that he was going to let the recent events jeopardize the success of his claim to fame. He decided that a nice meal and some calls back to their loved ones would be a good place to start bringing order and peace back to the crew.
After everyone had talked to a loved one and ate a wonderful meal, Bellmus stood and said, “My fellow travelers and friends, I know that last stop on our journey was not a smooth one. However, it still was a good experience. We made new friends and found new technologies that will benefit all our worlds. Tomorrow we will arrive at Drewlay in the Sinkar system. We know there must be intelligent life there because of the energy signals we have picked up. As we get closer, Lyemad will be able to scan for cities and/or life. Let us remember why we are out here, and remember that we are representatives of our home worlds. Together we will build an alliance of planets that will unite our section of the Galaxy.”
Although everyone applauded his words, most of the Ambassadors still felt leery about the future of their mission. Lyemad had been paying close attention to the Wicterians and the Graznosians. He was certain that they had exchanged suspicious glances – more than once. The pain from his injury was mild in comparison to the betrayal he was feeling from Tessslan. There was no doubt in his mind that some sort of plot was in the works, and he was determined to discover what diabolical thing Tessslan was dreaming up.
Later—back on the bridge—Lyemad reported, “Father, we are entering the Sinkar system.”
“Excellent, how have your scans been going?” Bellmus responded.
“I have found numerous cities and we are just now getting close enough to scan for life-forms,” answered Lyemad. “Yes. I have multiple returns. The largest creatures are concentrated in and around the cities. It would seem that the Drewlayians are possibly some form of reptile.”
“Very interesting,” said Bellmus with a puzzled look, “just how advanced are their cities?”
“They have communications and power generators that are comparable to ours on Electerus,” said a surprised Lyemad. “I do not see any farms or gardens for a food supply, but there is an abundance of large rodents that I would guess could be a source of food.”
“Tessslan, bring us into orbit around Drewlay. Bichael, start your transmission of the prime numbers,” ordered Bellmus. “ I think there is a strong possibility that they have received our transmissions before, but perhaps could not translate them. That would explain why we received no response from them. We can only hope that they will respond to the numbers.”
After hours of no reply to the prime numbers, Bellmus broke the tense silence and said, “Tessslan, take us slowly down to the edge of a large city. I want to give them plenty of time to see us, and I do not want to move so fast that we threaten them any more than necessary.”
“Yesss Sssir!” Tessslan yelled back. “Ssslow and easssy it isss.
“Do you think we might provoke an attack if we just pop in on them?” Lyemad asked. “The visibility on the surface will be poor because Sinkar is an extra-large Red-giant star and the Drewlayian atmosphere will disperse the red light. I would estimate the mid-day light to be dusk-like at best.”
“That may be true,” answered Bellmus, “but I would venture to say that their eyes have adjusted to those conditions. I think they will see us long before we get to the ground, and our slow descent will hopefully make them more curious than hostile. However, just in case, Tessslan, be ready to get us out of here quickly if we are fired upon.”
“I see them. Over there!” yelled an excited Slabriel.
“Wow, they are like big sssnakesss,” said Timsssack.
“Look at how small their arms and hands are,” said Huglam. “How can they build cities while slithering along the ground like that?”
“Well it looks like they are not going to shoot us down,” said Bellmus, relieved that he had made a good choice. “Tessslan, go ahead and land. Timsssack, Antamus, and I will make first contact. If all goes well, then the rest of you can follow.”
Bellmus opened the hatch and lowered the ramp. The red glow from Sinkar filled the sky and gave everything a mysterious ambiance. The air was damp and cool with a musty smell that Bellmus found very unpleasant. Many of the other worlds had musty smells, but this was the first one that turned his stomach. Feeling a little woozy and trying not to pinch his nose shut, he started down the ramp. The landscape was mostly grassy with a few small trees scattered around. There were many small bodies of water, but no large lakes or oceans.
A large gathering of the snake-like Drewlayians had gathered a few feet from the bottom of the ramp. Many of them had raised the front part of their bodies into the air, leaving only a small portion supporting them on the ground. They stood about eight feet tall and were a full three feet in circumference. Their scales were a light pale-blue. As Bellmus stepped out of the Volkran, some of the Drewlayians turned a bright hot pink color. He was sure that the color change was due to a mood change—possibly fear.
At the bottom of the ramp Bellmus held out the translator and said, “I am Sir Bellmus and we come to your planet in peace.”
Right away, many of the Drewlayians started making sounds and looking at each other. After a couple of minutes, the translator started making sense of their language and Bellmus repeated his introduction. The Drewlayians instantly started turning all different shades of blue, red and pink. Finally, one of them slithered forward and said, “I am Crusher, ruler of our city. How can we understand you now?”
“A very good question Sir Crusher,” started Bellmus. “We have built this translator that figures out your language and converts it to ours. Please accept it as a gift.”
“Thank you,” said Crusher. “We have received your messages many times in the past but did not know what they were. We scanned your ship while in orbit and saw that you had no weapons that we could detect, but we did not know how to invite you to come down for a visit. We would like to learn more about you and where you come from, but our city entrances would be much too small for you to get through unless you are able to crawl.”
“No, most of us would not crawl very well, but we want to learn more about you and your world. Please join us inside our ship. You can bring as many as you like in with you,” said Bellmus, once again comforted and amazed at how well things were turning out.
A couple dozen Drewlayians entered into the ship and met th
e rest of the Ambassadors. After many hours of talking and exchanging stories, Crusher and three other Drewlayians agreed to go on the journey to the next and final star system called Bancy. They agreed to gather back at the ship first thing in the morning. Bellmus asked Lyemad to build a huge holding pen for the rodents that the Drewlayians called Podicles—the only thing the Drewlayians eat. One Podicle, when swallowed whole, will last a Drewlayian for a week.
The next morning the Drewlayians gathered around the Volkran as it took off into the red sky. Crusher stood on the bridge and watched out of the window as his planet seemed to get smaller and smaller under his feet. With no fear or noticeable apprehension, he said, “I have always dreamed of leaving my world and somehow I knew that I would.”
Tessslan had been very interested in the Drewlayians when he realized that they lived a peaceful yet unreligious life style. After hearing Crusher’s last statement, he knew that this would be a perfect time for instructing Crusher on the “Way of the Flidoring”. With the Bancy system three days away, he would have plenty of time to get the Drewlayians away from the rest of the crew. He felt that the Creator had preordained the snake-like creatures to be open to his teachings. He sensed they were comrades with much in common – right down to their forked tongues.
The mid-day meal was just finishing when Bellmus suggested that everyone take some time to relax and enjoy some of the recreational facilities. The Volkran was on autopilot and there was no need for anyone to sit on the bridge. Huglam, always excited about working out in the gym, asked, “Sir Bellmus, would you care to join me in the gym for a good workout? I must say that your facilities are superb.”
“Well thank you Sir Huglam, I would be delighted to workout with you. I was eager to have you help me tone up my abdominal muscles a bit,” Bellmus replied enthusiastically.
Flidoring The Early Wars Page 10