Hilok lifted his wolfish head high. One flexarm gestured at the cold box. “That depends on the amount of elk meat portions within that box. And on the hot sauces and combat games you brought for Trade, Pack Leader Jack Munroe.”
Jack kicked at the cold box, causing its spring-loaded top to open and rise up. White air rose up from within. “We have twenty kilos of elk meat within that box.” Reaching behind Jack pulled around his fanny pack. “And within this bag are new hot sauces and new interactive combat video games. Do you wish to view them?”
Hilok cantered forward, drawing within a meter of Jack and Nikola. “Yesss,” it snarl-grunted. His nose sniffed deeply. “The scent! Your wild meat animals are tasty! Show us what games and sauces you brought.”
Jack smiled, looked around and spotted a flat-topped boulder near the cold box. “Over here. I will lay them out here.” Followed by Nikola, with Maureen padding quietly behind him at three meters distance, Jack stopped in front of the boulder. Reaching into his fanny pack he pulled out his Trade items. “The hot sauce bottles go by the names of Ass Kickin Cajun Hot Sauce, Bayou Blow Torch Hot Sauce, La Preferida Traditional Louisiana Hot Sauce, La Guacamaya Hot Sauce With Lime and Santa Fe Jalapeno Hot Sauce.” Setting the bottles down he reached inside and pulled out the game disks. “We earlier traded you the first year of the game Halo. Now we offer you the games Elysium, BattleBots, Deux Ex, Uncharted, BioShock, Modern Combat, Aurora Sentinel, Socom 4, Strike Suit Zero and Fallout.”
The son of Hilok now cantered closer, his furry ears canted forward. “Progenitor, their Halo game was stimulating! There are more?”
Hilok now draped his tail over the back of his eldest son. “This is Sator, my eldest son. Who may one day inherit my Pack leadership. Depending on how well he learns to do more than snarl and attack.” The Nasen glanced to his eldest son. “There are more such games. Perhaps you have jewels and metals to offer in Trade?”
The young wolf-giraffe looked away from the game disks. “But progenitor, is not our stellar data sufficient to acquire all that we see here?”
Hilok shrugged his muscular shoulders. Both flexarms reached up to grip his jeweled chest strap. “Offspring, the elk meat portions in the cold box more than repay the value of our stellar data. Which, after all, are known to every Nasen. If you wish sauces or games, you must offer something in exchange. That is the way of Trade.”
Sator’s yellow eyes glanced at Nikola, then fixed on Jack. The youngster pulled around a red sack hanging from his tool strap. He pulled it off, then upended the sack onto the top of the boulder. Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, yellow diamonds, aquamarines, citrines, topaz, opals and other jewels tumbled out. Most were cut and faceted, though some stones were in raw form, like the yellow diamonds. A clank sounded as two flat plaques of gold fell to the boulder top. The Nasen looked at Jack. “Enough?”
Jack grinned, then stopped when he noticed how nearby Nasen showed their white canines in response. “Uh, more than enough, young Sator. We will accept the two gold plaques in return for two combat game disks. As for the hot sauces, there are five such bottles. Two gems per bottle will equal their value to us. Nikola? Why don’t you pick out ten gems. For you, Denise, Blodwen, Maureen and anyone else who might like a memento.”
His lifemate snorted. “Anyone else? I’d be glad to take care of all ten! But . . . yeah, share and share alike is your motto, right?” Nikola reached out and picked up two rubies, three emeralds and one each of the other gem stones. She stepped back from the boulder.
Jack looked over at Sator. “Reclaim your other gem stones. Take with you five game disks. And the five sauce bottles.” He looked at Hilok. “Pack Leader, accept the other eight game disks along with the elk meat as our payment for your stellar data. Perhaps your offspring will trade you some sauces for some of the games?”
Hilok whinnied in what Jack was coming to recognize as the Nasen version of laughter. If wolves moving on giraffe legs could be considered to have a sense of humor. “Done!” The Alien looked around to where his fellow Nasen were, then back to Jack. “Pack Leader, we Nasen hunger for our midday meal. Let us separate for awhile so each Pack may eat as it wishes. Later, perhaps you can explain some Human behaviors that I found puzzling while we visited in your Kuiper Belt.”
Jack stepped back to stand beside Nikola. “Agreed. We humans also take a midday meal. Let each group do as you say. Later, perhaps you can show me a holo of your world Hunt Forever. And I will answer your questions as best I can.”
Hilok reared up on his hind legs, then twisted his entire body to one side and leaped two meters to land beside a group of his fellow Nasen. The Alien’s eldest son and daughter did likewise, their movements a display of liquid motion that had Jack feeling glad they did not have to fight a Combat Challenge within the habitat dome. He glanced at Nikola, who was stuffing her yellow datapad and the gems into her rucksack, then to Maureen. Who reholstered the two revolvers that she had taken out upon the approach of the Nasen.
“Reassured?”
The trim woman gave him a lifted-eyebrow skeptical look. “You know better than to rely on appearances. Or on short-term behaviors. Actions, not words, are what matter.” She looked aside as the Nasen cantered twenty meters away to gather around a pond and hill area similar to their location. “Though I grant you that we gained vital information. Now, if this in-person parley ends as quietly as it began, then perhaps I will be reassured.”
Jack passed the woman by as he headed for the cluster of his fellow ship captains and crewmates, who were gathered atop the flat hill that overlooked the pond. “You know, now that this session is ended, it’s fine with me if you wish to spend time with Gareth.”
“Oh, oh,” murmured Nikola.
Maureen’s narrow face tensed. But when Nikola stepped between her and Jack, she gave him a wintry look. “Tough lifemate you got there, young Jack. Be sure to show her proper appreciation.”
“You’re right. I will.” Jack licked his lips, counted himself lucky to have avoided a stinging slap for his allusion to Maureen’s romancing with the Welsh captain, then reminded himself of a duty he owed to them all. He tapped his shoulder comlink. “Elaine? Is all quiet on the orbital vector? You and Max still awake?”
“No, we’re snoring,” his sister said in a sardonic tone. “Of course all is quiet up here. Our nine ships have made a few orbits of Hot Blood. The Nasen ships have done the same, while keeping their distance from us. No evidence of offensive preparations. Or grav-pull lensing. Though Archibald says he is tired of bringing Angelique hot tubes of French onion soup. She’s been sitting in the Battle Node of the Dragon every moment you all have been down there. Says she won’t leave until everyone is back aboard their ships.”
Jack liked what he heard. The Dragon’s Battle Node sported both an antimatter emitter and the Higgs Disruptor beamer. The other fleet ships made do with neutral particle beamers, antimatter emitters and HF lasers. Plus magfield driven railguns. “Tell Max to keep our Compact Fusion Reactor drive at Pinch Mode. Same for the other ship Drive Engineers. We might need them in case some Alien ship decides to point a particle beamer at us. Pass it along, okay?”
“Okay,” Elaine said, her tone casual.
“Until later.” He stopped before his fellow captains. Nikola moved close to Minna, their words too soft for him to make out. Young Blodwen and Denise stood off to one side, watching the group of Nasen. He looked their way. “Ladies, time for lunch. Why not come—”
“Look!” cried Blodwen, pointing.
The three Nasen who had entered with boxes on their backs had taken them off and were now opening one end. They shook them.
Out bounded small four-legged creatures that resembled guinea pigs crossed with terrier dogs. What looked like three dozen of the brown-skinned critters exploded out of the cages they had been held in. As soon as their paws hit the ground they were off and running in all directions. Including a few headed their way.
“Damn!” cried Denise.
“Oh!” gasped Blodwen as four Nasen got close enough to the fleeing critters for the wolf-giraffes to grab them with their teeth.
This seemed to be the Nasen method of having lunch.
Jack watched as more Nasen caught the rapidly swerving critters with their toothy jaws, then stopped, head-tossed their catch up into the air, opened wide their purple mouths and let the small prey fall into their gullets. Jaws slammed shut, usually severing legs and paws that stuck out. Red blood spurted in all directions. Including onto the hides of nearby Nasen.
Blodwen pulled something out of her backpack. She held up a Y-forked device, pulled back on its flexible tubing and let fly a silvery ball bearing.
“Yes!” she cried as one of the brown critters yelped, then fell unmoving just ten meters from them.
Denise turned toward another critter coming their way. She was twirling a shepherd’s sling in her right hand. Faster and faster it spun round. Then she released it with a forward throw.
“Got it!” she said, her tone triumphant.
Both women began walking toward their fallen prey. They stopped abruptly when three Nasen skidded to a stop just behind the two fallen prey. The Aliens looked down at the prey, then up at Blodwen and Denise. Both of whom now held their swords point outward, toward the Nasen.
“Sator speaks,” said the middle Nasen, who like the other two was smaller in size than Hilok or the other Nasen. “You humans hunt your Meat meals without chasing them?”
Jack joined the two women. Behind him came the patter of many boots as his ship captains moved to protect him and the women. Who had, somehow, interfered with the midday meal hunting of the Nasen. “Sator of the Northern Pack, yes, we humans use tools to augment our running abilities. Just as you Nasen use spaceships to allow travel from world to world. Different Packs. Different traditions. Do you claim these prey?”
The eldest son of Hilok looked over his long haunch toward his father, who was patiently watching the encounter, then looked back to Jack. “My crèche-mates and I cannot claim these prey. Your younglings killed them. Prey belong to those who kill them. Is that not the rule among you Humans?”
Maureen moved in front of Jack, her movements nearly as lithe and swift as the Nasen. “Yes, that rule is the same among Humans,” she said to Sator.
Jack stepped around her, while gesturing back to his captains to stay behind him and the women. “Sator! We humans do keep the prey we kill. But we also share among our Pack mates. Is that not the same among you Nasen?”
The Alien’s yellow eyes glanced to his two crèche-mates, then back to Jack. “It is our pattern also. All Hunt. All fight to defend the Pack. Those who bring prey home share it with the entire Pack. Including females and newborn younglings.”
“Blodwen? Denise? Do you ladies wish to say something to Sator of the Northern Pack?”
Blodwen looked down at the blood-spattered corpse of the critter she had killed with her slingshot. “I prefer eating my prey cooked over an open flame. Sator of the Northern Pack, you may claim this prey for the benefit of your Pack.”
Denise pulled her sword back from a defensive outward thrust into an upright hold. “While I enjoy raw fish, I do not eat raw ground-runners. Sator of the Northern Pack, please accept this prey for the benefit of your Pack.”
“Step back, ladies,” Jack murmured.
Maureen lagged behind him as Jack stepped back. Blodwen and Denise also stepped back hurriedly. To either side Jack saw his captains fan out in a small arc, their own swords, revolvers and staves held at the ready.
Sator slow-cantered forward, lowering his muzzle to sniff at the dead prey. He looked to the Nasen on his right. “Hator, take this prey meat back to the Pack.” Turning to inspect the second dead critter, Sator flicked his tail toward the other Nasen. “Mogot, grab this one. Take it back. Present it to my sister Nalik.”
Jack watched as Sator’s two partners did as directed, snapping white canines about the bloody bodies and then moving like liquid lightning back to the main group of Nasen. Who were munching and swallowing their own prey meat.
Hilok cantered over before Jack could say anything.
“Sator! You did well. A Pack Leader always provides for members of the Pack.” The Nasen looked Jack’s way. “Shall each Hunt group return to its own way of taking food?”
“Yes,” Jack said, his stomach relaxing from its clench at a scene that could have gone so wrong. “Your eldest son showed wisdom, as you did in Sol system. Let us—”
“Captain Jack!” cried Elaine over his shoulder comlink. “Three ships have blipped into orbit! They are HikHikSot! They, they are . . . attacking!”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Battles in space do not last long. Not when you are using lightspeed coherent energy weapons. Jack knew that. He also knew that he lacked any way of guiding the battle from inside the habitat. He looked to the Pack Leader.
“Hilok! Can your imaging device show us a view of our ships? From your ships? I want to see this.”
“Imaging now,” Hilok snarled, his skin rippling with his reaction to the attack news.
Before Jack and his people there appeared a person-high holo that showed the blackness of space, with the red surface of Hot Blood showing at the bottom. In the center of the holo hung the nine ships of Jack’s fleet. The largest ship, Hideyoshi’s Bismarck, hung to the left. Jack’s Uhuru floated like a silvery white diamond in the middle of the fat spearheads that were the other Belter ships. Green laser beams and blue particle beams shot out from the three HikHikSot ships, which hung some thousands of kilometers distant.
Yellow gases flared from the attitude jets of each Belter ship as the Auto-Track and Defend functions of each ship’s Battle Nodule worked to shift its ship out of the target line of the attacking ships. Their form was distinctive. Appearing as a golden ball embedded in a tan rectangle, each ship depicted the snarling face of a cheetah-leopard, with two paw-hands flanking it on the rectangular hull. Two golden yellow eyes occupied the center of the globe, staring at Jack. Three keystone predator ships now attacked.
Black furrows showed on the hulls of four Belter ships. A blue particle beam cut through the rebuilt drive module of Ignacio’s Badger. But before a second barrage could be fired, his fleet fired back.
The yellow of the Higgs Disruptor struck out at the middle HikHikSot ship, dissolving it into a flaring scatter of subatomic particles.
Black antimatter beams struck out from every fleet ship, including the Uhuru. The beams impacted on the golden ball sections of the other two HikHikSot ships, creating a yellow-white globe of total matter-to-energy conversion. Both ships flared into a ball of plasma as their fusion reactors lost containment.
Three seconds it had lasted. Leastwise, by Jack’s mind count.
“Remarkable,” yelped Hilok. “Your ships used weapons we have not encountered before.”
Jack gulped, saw the white outgassing on the four laser-struck Belter ships stop as onboard mechbots sprayed sealant into the hull gashes, then felt fury at the sneak attack.
“Hilok! Why did your ships not fire on those attackers! Your rule for Hot Blood is no combat in orbit. And why did you not warn us that—”
“Stop!” the Nasen growled deeply, its yellow eyes fixing on him as other Nasen ran swiftly to his side. “No graviton pulses gave warning! And the HikHikSot ships arrived beyond our weapons range. Your ships were closer to them.” The Alien’s white-tufted tail whipped from side to side. Beside him the tails of the other Nasen did the same. Several adult Nasen showed their dagger-like teeth in offensive snarls. “Pack Leader Jack Munroe, we Nasen will defend our Home Range from all attackers! Even now our ships move
out to form a protective shield for this habitat. Do you stay or do you leave?”
“We leave,” Jack said, gesturing to his fellows to fall back. “We have ships to repair, Pack mates to heal and decisions to make.” He paused, noticing the tenseness of the gathered Nasen. “Your Trade with us was welcomed by our Pack. We respect the Home Range of the Nasen. Regrettable it is that others interfered with our Trade. We depart your Hot Blood in calmness. We seek no blood revenge. Agreed?”
Hilok’s body tenseness eased. His ears flared back. “The Northern Pack accepts your Trade visit. We accept your departure in calmness. May your younglings prosper and have many offspring.”
Jack felt a hand on his right shoulder. Maureen, urging him to pull back. “A last Trade exchange. You noticed that we used weapons different than what you observed at Sedna. One is an antimatter beam. The other we call a Higgs Disruptor. It causes all matter and energy to lose its strong nuclear force binding. We humans will defend our Home Range and our Hunt territories with these and other weapons. But you Nasen show honor in your Trade with us. Your territory and subject peoples we will pass by.”
The Nasen’s posture changed abruptly. Its tail curled forward toward Jack, as if seeking contact. Long black eyelashes blinked swiftly. The Alien’s gaze on Jack seemed to reach an emotional nexus. “We Nasen value those who show respect to our Packs. We value even more those who defend their own Pack from senseless violence. We offer your wounded ships assistance in your repairs.” Shocked yelps and barks sounded from the Nasen gathered behind Hilok. “You arrived here by my Pack’s invitation. You should leave our Home Range only after recovering from these injuries. Our medocs will assist your medocs if any Human needs extensive repair.” Hilok gestured at the holo that hovered to one side. The imagery changed from a view of Jack’s fleet to a view of the planet six gas giant. “This world provides fuel for our ships. It also supports an orbital ship repair habitat. You and your ships are welcome to enter our Home Range so far as this world, there to receive repair and assistance. No further Trade exchange is required. Northern Pack, and all other Packs of the Nasen, we offer this in respect of the Human Pack.”
Humans Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 2) Page 22