I showed her the two string instruments that Childeric had copied from the fleeting images we had seen. He did not think they sounded particularly good, but it was the best he could manage with the artificial wood he had to work with. NorHan Si said that they must be decontaminated before the Nivinwa could touch them. This was a mystery to me. They were not at all dirty. Childeric had just made them, but NorHan Si was adamant that the Nivinwa might sicken and die by contact with our residue. She believed that Qualli would be pleased to receive them. I hope with hope in her heart it was so. We had made no plans for another meeting.
I saw Childeric making off with a large box. I ran after him. “What do you have there?”
“Paints,” he said, “Dagobert and Lothar wanted to try painting, so I kept some. They did not make a good green pigment, but maybe we can mix some other colors to make some.”
“Did you keep an instrument as well?”
“Yes, he answered, two.”
I felt much better after our contact with the Nivinwa, not only for them, but also for us and for our ability to make a life for ourselves on the Outward. I never heard from Qualli again. I did speak with RaLak5, however. He was pleased, almost vindicated in some way that I did not understand.
Gwynyth did not live long after the Nivinwa encounter, but she did see the change that had occurred among the People of the Outward Voyager, for that is how they began to see themselves. Perhaps it was their ignorance about where they were, or the hopelessness that their circumstances would ever change, but the very simplicity of their lives lead to a determination to take what little they had and use it to the utmost to make a living as best they could.
Chapter 14 Gracks
Brightly lit gas clouds surrounded the outer reaches of this solar system, and its changeable patterns were a new and unusual scene when viewed from the People’s narrow window into the galaxy.
“Have you heard when we will become weightless again,” Clovic asked as he and his mother were walking from the observatory to their rooms.
“I do not know exactly, it could be tomorrow or some weeks yet.”
“Is the lander really going to bring back new aliens? Did it really find some this time?”
“Apparently so, I understand from Ragnar that it has already left the planet, he did not know when exactly, and is already returning to the Outward so the star rounding could end at any time.”
“I wonder if they will they look like Old Lady Gwyn’s Nivinwa.”
“No, I am sure not, there is no reason why they should, and don’t call her Old Lady Gwyn, and before you ask, no, they will not live with us. I do not know where they will live, or even if we will ever hear a single word about them.”
“I wish we could though, I wish we could see them.”
“What should be important to you, Clovic, is to get your rooms ready, we need to pack things tightly so that they will not get all jumbled when we go weightless. It took days to sort out the mess from the last time, remember.” Gunhild hoped they would be given some notice before the ship’s engines were shut down. Weightlessness would come on very quickly. She would have no time to put anything right after that, and it would take days and days before rotation came up to speed again.
Gunhild was working on a new set of pants. She was using the new red fabric that just arrived. Her friend Averil said that it particularly complimented her red hair. She was trying to perfect a billowing style for the legs to match the sleeves on her top that worked out so well. Almost every person of the Outward made their own clothes and, without designers and fashion trends to show the way, everyone attempted to create their own ideas of how they should look. The People did not need to wear much. The temperature was quite warm, and they would have been comfortable enough with anything. That was fortunate for their fabrics were almost the same as the thin, form-fitting synthetics their ancestors were given so many years ago. Men and women wore skirts ranging from very short, young girls mostly, to floor length, as well as robes, tunics, pants, and hoods. Tight, loose, long, or short, individuality was more common than the occasional fads that came and went.
“I heard that Ingomar was helping to build their habitat.”
“Clovic, stop. Ingomar is not building any habitat. You know there is no room for another habitat on our deck. Now leave me be and get your stuff ready.” An alien arrival was a change in routine, if not a particularly pleasant one.
The Outward’s Robotic Lander Assembly closed on the cloudy planet and approached one of its small, extremely rugged verdant areas. The large nearby moon and close proximity to its star had subjected this planet to immense, continuous gravitational stresses throughout its long geological history. Those ever variable forces gave rise to a hot fluid core that constantly pushed outward through the thin crust to form patches of land that rose above the planet-girding sea. The turbulent ocean and frequent storms seemed intent on erasing each rocky blight. The soft volcanic rock was eroded almost as fast as it formed. Continuously erupting shield volcanoes covered swaths of land with fresh lava and barren cinder fields, while older mountains were eroded into steep, weathered hillsides and narrow, deep valleys. The few scattered patches of flat, fertile land lay in the rare valley floors and river deltas. Plant life was spotty on the newly formed rock, while dense vegetation covered the older ranges. The steep valley walls were too steep for any large beings to inhabit, but the small isolated plots of level land teemed with life, both plant and animal, and were highly valued and often fought over by the dominant species.
The Gracks, called so after a common call they made to each other, were two-legged, highly aggressive predators with thick square bodies, strong heavy arms, similarly shaped legs and a hard low lump of head. They were beasts in every sense of the word and ugly. They had moist black depressions along the ridge, where the neck should be, and below that, a round toothless mouth that always gaped open. The Gracks were taller than the tallest human when upright, even without a proper head, but they leaned forward when they ran and foraged about. Muscular, widely spaced arms and thick legs supported a barrel-chested body. Their dark-colored, firm, smooth, hairless body was extremely strong and taught. They were built like sharks with rigid collagen-like structures instead of bones and with body girding muscle.
There were a number of other large animal species on the land. Some were even more aggressive than the Gracks, but only the Gracks had mastered the use of weapons. Gracks were found in a considerable range of sizes and colorings, and lived as separate tribes among the planet’s isolated islands. While not very advanced technologically, they had a language and were well-organized, especially for hunting and fighting. They were a stone-age species that lived in small, highly territorial tribal bands that existed in a state of perpetual warfare. The planet itself seemed to insure that peace would not long reign, for the roiling geology periodically took away the fertile land, and earthquakes, floods, and landslides worked on the unstable flood plains, displacing tribes to cause another round of migrations or invasions, depending on which end of the trail you were on.
After careful and extensive surveillance, the ObLaDas selected a landing site seemingly free from conflict. Not a good choice, for in the land of the Gracks the appearance of peace only indicated the occupants were strong enough to have wiped out all their opposition. By choosing this peaceful valley, the ObLaDas took on, and eventually took on-board, the biggest and baddest Gracks around.
Eighty individuals occupied that particular valley. There were three hamlets, each on a hilltop and with clear sight lines from one to the other. The camps were situated near a lake and two small muddy streams with well-cleared trails running between them. The picturesque setting was unintended, for the towns were sited to provide mutually supporting defensive positions and dominated the central valley.
The approach was a spectacular sight as the lander circled above the deep ravine then, just beyond the surrounding peaks, made a steep swooping descent toward a cleared field next to the sha
llow lake. The fast decent was broken as the ship turned nose up and set off its vertical thrust engines. Still, it was a hard landing, and some of the robotic equipment broke loose and was damaged. The robotic landing craft’s high-speed approach and loud engines startled the animals throughout the valley and all but the Gracks ran away from the huge ship.
Within minutes, two small bands ran from the villages and took up positions on either side of the ship. They threw rocks and spears at the big silver thing until it became clear that the shell of the lander was too hard to damage. The Grack chiefs moved around the ship throughout the day. They were confused at the lack of movement by the thing that could obviously fly and move at will. It clearly maneuvered around after the landing, so it was not some dead thing that dropped from the sky, and it did not appear to have landed hard enough to cause an injury. Nevertheless, it did not move. The Gracks were not used to things that did not fight back.
The overlord, Durack, and two war leaders, Ropac and Guntic, headed each of the fortified villages and were the leaders of this particular band of Gracks. Durack was a young, tough character that was exceptionally strong and possessed a quick temper. He had had only recently killed the old chief and taken the top position by force, but he had been wounded and lost some of his vision in that fight. This, he feared, might be seen as a weakness and he was shrewd enough to see the lander’s presence as an opportunity to solidify his leadership position without being forced into a contest of strength with some rival. Ropac and Guntic wanted to retreat into the hills and wait until the big ship left the way it came, but Durack pushed the tribe toward a decisive effort to destroy the craft.
The species and their lives were optimized for conflict. It was a warrior society that could efficiently mobilize all of its available resources when needed. Female Gracks matured they went through a fertile period, but when that ended, they continued to develop both in size and strength until they rivaled the strongest males. During the night, Durack sent most of his tribe into the hills to drag dead brush and anything that would burn quickly to the lander. While it was still dark, they piled the brush under the lander’s wings, the thinnest and most easily burned part of the ship. Ropac pulled down one of the larger fortifications to get some of the rare long straight logs. Ropac’s troops sharpened the ends of these posts, crawled under the ship, jammed the butt end of these large spears into the ground, and wedged their pointed ends against the underbelly of the craft. It could not move without impaling itself.
Suddenly, two bright, probing lamps lit the underside of the lander. Their beams moved across the field below the ship, exposing the Gracks and their movements. The lights moved rapidly from the torches to the running Gracks. They had been detected. An increasingly loud whining noise sounded from deep inside the craft’s body, but still it did not move.
Durack’s troops threw torches onto the brush piles. They quickly took fire and smoke enveloped the craft. The lander must lurch forward to escape the flames where it would destroy itself on the spears. It was a good plan for as long as it lasted, which was not for long. The robotics onboard may not have had many weapons, but it was not without immense power. The vertically aligned engines were ignited. The down thrust of the hot exhaust blew the flames, brush, and a goodly number of Gracks into the air. The ship never changed position, but the balance of power took a decided shift.
Durack ducked as the blast of hot air passed over. He scrambled to his feet and was confused. None of the things that had been beneath the ship just a moment before were still there. Durack stumbled forward. Ropac and two others he could not recognize were dead. Grabbing and pulling his stunned troops, he pushed them toward the hills and away for the open field. The surviving Gracks gradually reassembled and conducted a well-ordered retreat to their cliff side stronghold to plan for a prolonged harassing fight.
The level of hostility the Gracks displayed was so great that the ObLaDas decided to rescind further operations. There was even some concern about bringing this violent life form on board, but they were clearly intelligent and had an organized, if warring, society. The ObLaDas had seen other species advance in behavior, learning, and civilization after being exposed to a settled, more stimulating, life within the Outward Voyager. Perhaps these aliens had the potential to develop a more settled society if placed in a peaceful environment. With that optimistic decision made, the robotics were instructed to initiate a sedation and collection operation.
Even this simple agenda did not go well. All young Gracks were proficient in the use of slings and were they were able to bring down flybots when they came toward them. This small victory proved to be the last gasp for the Gracks, however, as the lander was able to complete the abduction during that night. In all, thirty-three Gracks were taken, of these, twenty-eight survived transportation and insertion into to the Outward. Durack was one of them.
Over seven hundred years had passed since the Cathian revolt and the resulting changes in the ObLaDa leadership and culture. Substantial improvements had been made in the alien habitats and living conditions within the Outward Voyager since that time. Most of the captive societies were now stable and some even prospered. The humans had been given access to the deck outside of their habitat for parts of each day, but they had never gotten into any other part of the ship. While changes had been made, the ObLaDas’ had failed to progress further. They had adopted the practice of cloning notable individuals and that practice was still maintained. The Das favored a rigid consistency and were still bound to their original mission priorities. They continued to search for and collect intelligent life forms even though many of the questions they had been sent to resolve were, in fact, resolved.
Now those priorities led the ObLaDas to make a serious mistake. They were transporting a massive, aggressive alien species to the Outward that they could not properly house. They had underestimated the size and strength of the Gracks. The standard habitats were too lightly built for these large aliens, but nothing else was available. When they arrived, the Gracks were assigned a half-deck built from three levels of standard modules. It was intended to be temporary housing, while the ObLaDas rushed to complete a more suitable facility in the Farside module. The floors bent and creaked as the heavy aliens moved through the confining corridors they had been given. They could be fit into this limited area because of their small numbers, but it was far from a comfortable solution.
The Gracks lived within the Outward for eight long months, their anger and aggression increasing along with their sense of frustration and their inability to comprehend what had happened to them. They were in a seething ferment, determined to fight back. But how? Against what? Durack remained their leader, the only one that had survived, but he struggled to keep what was left of the tribe under control. It was clear enough that they were captives and were being held some distance from their valley, and that they were being watched. For what purpose, they did not know and did not particularly care. Durack was committed to fighting and winning back their rightful land and he was cunning enough to know that they should not reveal their strength, plans, or intentions until they were prepared to act.
The goal was clear, the objective certain, but the path was cloudy. Durack had twenty-eight Gracks with him; twenty-one were fighters. Too few to succeed, he thought, but he did not know. They were accustomed to the forest, the established terrain, the well-known enemy, where they could judge the force needed to win a battle down to a single soldier and the last weapon. Here they knew nothing. Their unseen and unknown enemy had great power and was operating within its own territory. They had seen the large, lumbering Das in their gold body covering when they were first brought into the Outward Voyager. They were big enough, but Durack sensed that there were not very many ObLaDas and they did not act, for all their success, as if they were battle savvy, or even well armed. They had machines to do their work, machines that were weak and easily defeated. But where were their captors now? Could they get to them? What weapons would they need?
Anger and frustration were building among the survivors. Aggression, a driving force to survival, was working against them here. Their habitat was small and flimsy, passages were tight, floors bent as if they would collapse, walls buckled if pushed against. Food was terrible, not that that mattered much, it was the hunting and killing that the Gracks missed. This place was intolerable, and Durack had a hard time keeping its followers from going out on their own. Durack knew well that the Gracks could break through the interior walls of their habitat and he had a good notion that they could go through the outer walls as well, but Durack wanted this kept quiet. They should not provoke their captors into reinforcing the structure, but the fact that the Gracks could get out of the habitat at will added to the tension created by the festering dissent. Inevitably, Durack’s authority began to be questioned. Not openly, but there was constant pressure for action and Durack’s resolve was being questioned. They only needed to try in order to succeed, some believed, and implied that those who were loyal to Durack lacked courage. Never confident, Durack felt the dissention and loss of authority that followed. Durack tried to defend himself, but it did not work. Had not Durack failed to drive off the lander? Had they not been captured? Slowly and against his instincts and judgment, Durack was being forced to order the escape.
The battle-hardened Gracks would find and attack the ObLaDas and return to their homes, or to die in the attempt. How to get it done became the subject of much argument and not a few fights, but as they were in almost complete ignorance of the ground and the enemy, there was little that could be planned. What was beyond the all-enclosing walls? They could do nothing but go forward and react to whatever they found, preferably fast and in force. But without weapons? There were none to speak of.
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