by Joe Darris
Thunder strikes, not far from the hunter. A deafening crack, menacing echoes through the garden, then silence. Kao hits the ground, certain the Hidden hunt him even after nightfall. The thunder cracks again, as close as before, but no bolt of lightning comes from the sky. He strains his ears and listens.
Beneath the echoes there are low bellows of prongelk rutting. Impossible. Prongelk have awful night vision. The ones Kao knows duel in the morning. Yet there is the sound of their rumbling approach, heavier than what it would be closer to his home. Then instead of the dry clack of antlers, a thunderclap. More silence, then it all repeats.
The noise beckons to Kao and he abandons the dome for the night. His ears lead him to the dozen enormous prongbucks that attended the lion and Elk duel. They are smaller than that one, undoubtedly the Alpha before the lion proved her own superiority, but still far larger than any that roam the plains. Each of them boast antlers like tree trunks, with as many prongs as a tree has leaves. They stand in a rough circle around a pair. These two kick at the earth, eager to rut, though Kao sees no females. They charge. Lightning dances from one's antler's to the other's. They collide and a blue white explosion expands spherically.
Kao braces himself for the wave of energy but it does not go past the ring of bucks. Their antlers leach it from the air like a tick sucks blood. The ring of males bellow a judgment. One lowers its antlers, the victor carefully snaps off a few of his prongs. The ground is littered in prongs, dozens of them. Their sacrifice made, the two rejoin the circle. The ritual repeats.
That the group is judging the bouts is obvious to Kao, though he has no idea how they determine a victor. He's seen duels between pairs before, sometimes three, but they were gory, violent things. The tribe got most of its prongs from the maimed carcasses of the losers. Those battles were nothing like this. These prongelk are organized. They take turns, the losers do not complain, the winners do not gloat. Kao watches as the go round and round.
Hypnotized, Kao fails to notice the antlers on his prongbuck skull begin to glow. All of a sudden, the circle opens up to him. His helmet crackles with lighting. They sense it through the brush.
Kao thinks of running, but prongbuck are much faster. The thought of trying to outrun a boulder covered in blades is not appealing. He is terrified to show them his form. They will blame him, rightly, for the death of their kin, and might want to make things even. Not sure what else to do, Kao puts the helmet on his head, happy he never peeled off the leathery skin, and bows low to the ground: the males' signal of submission.
The larger ones bellow and kick at the ground. Kao does not want to leave the brush, they will see he is no elk. Then the smallest of the twelve steps forward, lowers its horns, and charges.
Though smaller than the rest, the buck is twice his size and as comfortable with jousting as the hunter is with throwing blades. Battle with it would be folly, but to run? His flight would end with prongs gored into his back and jutting from his chest. So Kao does what he must.
He raises his antlers, roars some courage into himself, and charges the elk.
Each of the buck's steps shake the earth. Kao's own steps fall like feathers. Its antlers are no bigger than his, but more jagged. No foolish hunter has been snapping off prongs to use as blades.
Kao can feel the elk's weight pulling him towards it. He understands how an apple feels when it falls to earth. Still more than ten long paces away, the thunder booms. Too early. Kao feels heat from his antlers jump to his arm. His muscles are invigorated, he runs faster. More lightnings cracks to him. The other bucks bellow in surprise. Their own stored charges are being stolen by this interloper.
They collide. An enormous blast of energy ignites between them. Kao is flung back.
He heaves himself to his feet. His elk skin is gone, blown from him in the explosion. He stands before the elk for what he is. The prongs in his shoulder crack with lightning and throw sparks.
None of the elk attack.
Confused, Kao looks to his opponent. The small buck (more of a hill than a mountain) bleats painfully from the ground. Lightning twists beneath its crown of horns. It is dying. The herd knows it as well as Kao. One of the Hidden's stones is killing it.
In a breath Kao scoops up a prong from the ground and kneels next to the elk. The base of the elk's head radiates energy. Kao can feel it in the air.
He comes in close, careful to avoid the elk's antlers and puts a hand on its neck. The spot is hot, Kao can smell it cooking the prongbuck from the inside. He slices open the elk's neck and grabs the stone. It is white hot and throwing sparks. Touching it weakens Kao and he stumbles to the ground. It tells him something, but not in words, its deeper than that.
DEATH.
Part of him wants to obey, it would be so easy to lay down and sleep, but he knows that is the Hidden's magic, and hurls the stone as far as he can. The feeling subsides. Kao is himself again.
The hunter returns to the dying prongbuck. It is breathing too fast, its heart races like an insect's wing. Though the Hidden's stone is gone from him, he will not live through the night. He bleats painfully into the quiet night, wishing for peace from the pain that comes from its damaged spine.
Something large as a mountain pushes up against him and Kao knows he is doomed. Another elk wants revenge for what he did to the youngest member of their clan. He wishes he could tell them he did not mean to, that the lightning is still beyond his control, that the Hidden should pay. Curse the Hidden with their cursed lightning and damned stones.
Kao turns to face the prongbuck. He stands solemnly next to him. His large eyes stare straight into Kao's. He's never seen one up close before (save those he has killed). Its two round horns stand majestically off the side of its face while the rest of its pronged antlers sweep back across its huge body. Their beauty and the tuft of white hair growing from its chin remind him of his uncle and his head dress. He notices this one has more prongs than any of the others. This is their new leader, already wise and kind.
The young buck bleats again. Flecks of drool and blood spray with its call.
The leader, the great prongbuck (though still smaller than the one the lion killed) nods his head towards the youngest and Kao understands. Prongelk are not killers, but they know death. The young one does not have the strength to live. Kao feels same as they, better to end the suffering. He takes the prong, the same one he used to free the Hidden's stone and gently pushes it into the buck's heart. The buck bleats once more, wishing the world its last farewell, then Kao closes its eyes for the last time.
The great elk lowers its head to Kao in thanks. One of its knees touches the ground before him, an incredibly graceful act for an animal so large. Kao tenderly reaches out and grabs hold of one the elk's prongs. Lightning runs between the two, each shares the other's energy. Kao gently snaps the prong, it breaks cleanly in his hand, almost like the buck intended it.
Then, as if the buck whispered in the rest of their ears at once, they all go off in different directions, soon lost to the blackness of the night. Kao leaves, lost in his own thoughts, an increasingly common phenomena.
Their new chief stays to mourn.
Chapter 28
This isn't right.
It's okay, you can trust Urea.
But can she? She's never even seen her, and she doesn't like this Zetis either. He is too slick, his words play games in her head and hadn't he made the Storm destroy her people?
We need you, your brother needs you, Urea's name blinked as she chimed the girl. Her voice was as distorted as the boy's. Phoebe said they were both prisoners, trapped in cages like her.
Please? Pheobe begged
I have all of the pathways set up. Phoebe, it’s your last chance to make her do a jig or scratch your back, once she commands the chamber you won't be able to control her. Zetis chimed.
Phoebe forced a weak smile but the humor was lost on the wild girl.
Baucis looked down from a set of clean surgical tools to the old ape, unconscious on the table. Skup watched the entire thing through Baucis's own eyes. The Master ecologist had insisted on the two synchronizing their Virtual Reality Chips, a forbidden use of technology, something far beyond the petty chiming program Zetis invented. That this was even possible boggled the young Evanimal pilot's mind.
Skup stood in an amplification room, while Baucis prepared for surgery in the medical ward. His mind clawed at him. Take control. The electromagnetic field would support him, but he'd never asked an Evanimal a question, only given commands. Still, he could probably make Baucis want to answer. But such thoughts were dangerous, blasphemous in fact. Even if it did work (and Skup felt certain it would) the repercussions would be dire. Baucis would withhold no punishment. Skup was sure of nothing, only that he feared this ape, or this Wild Man. Whatever name he gave it fell short of the truth. All he could do was try to focus on the task at hand, or more precisely, Baucis's hands.
The ape looked so human. He had ten fingers, ten toes, eyes, ears, a nose. He snored gently. In the harsh light of the operating room he could see through his wispy hair to his skin. It was wrinkled with age, like any old man. Obviously it wasn't Nature's Warrior: the Wild Man of the earth High Priestess Ntelo prophesied. That one was still out there. This guy was just a tired old man with a hunched back, at least that's what he looked like to Skup.
That Baucis expected him to synchronize with the ape only confused him further. His sister was the more gifted pilot. Everyone knew that. If the ape overwhelmed her then what can I do?
Urea had been convinced it was intelligent, maybe it was as simple as she had refused to help Baucis. But then why the secrecy? He couldn't even chime her. His little sister better be safe. If the ape hurt her... the thought made his blood boil. But it must have! Why else would Baucis allow Skup to synchronize with him? Using another human's VRC was an egregious sin. Even now, he could almost touch Baucis's thoughts...
Baucis's adept fingers trembled over his tools. With Skup in an amplification chamber and synchronized with him, he needed the pilot to remain calm, he could feel his trepidation flooding into his own mind through the electromagnetic frequency the Virtual Reality Chip made their minds share. The boy's nervousness made his mind race.
After the ape's last display, the Baucis wanted the surgery to happen immediately. He could not risk others finding out about the ape's ability to draw symbols, nor that another one was traipsing through the Garden. Surely the Naturalists would cling to primitive scribbles as a sign of intelligence. They could be so melodramatic. Birds sang songs, but that did not make them musicians, ants built mounds, but that did not make them engineers. Yet Baucis was certain the Naturalists would worship the simplistic figures as sacred art. Sometimes the religion he spawned repulsed him. If the Naturalists had their way humanity would have crashed to the ground long ago. Maybe the ape's sketches did make him the Wild Man, for if the Naturalists found out about his abilities, they'd surely try to bring an end to the Spire.
Baucis had to act. If the VRC and accompanying implants worked on the ape, then he'd finally have the tool Tennay had long demanded for his engineering works. The ape was twice his own height, covered in muscles, had a thick skin and large eyes that seemed to be able to distinguish color at least as well as their own (judging from the paintings he made). Best of all the ape had fingers. Ten digits complete with two opposable thumbs, same as homo sapiens. It was almost too good to be true. If they weren’t so hairy and brutish and had a real language instead of their primitive grunts, Baucis might actually consider the possibility that they were a long lost cousins of homo sapiens. Though that kind of thinking would keep humanity bottled in the Spire forever.
And now Skup was scared of the same religious propaganda? Urea he could understand, her attack only proved how much she had let the panthera into her mind. Baucis would conduct the operation alone. If Skup had to watch through his own eyes, so be it. The arrogant Councilor refused to even harbor the idea of explaining his incriminating scars to anyone, especially the boy. Baucis regretted imprisoning Urea, but she hadn't given him a choice. She forced his hand. He'd be damned if he heard otherwise. These thoughts set his heart beating and Baucis doubted his decision to synchronize for the umpteenth time. How much access did Skup have? Does he know only what I'm thinking or can he read my brain like data spreadsheet, flipping around as he pleases? Or can he see anything at all?
Baucis immediately felt his heart rate slow, his body still. Skup really was a prince of control. Baucis hoped he didn't realize how much control the young pilot had over the ecologist at the moment. But he had to push such thoughts from his mind. Person to person synchronization was studied far less than person to Evanimal, they were playing against the odds. He'd have to talk the pilot through the surgery.
A long pause from the boy, then finally,
Baucis took a deep breath, and began. The area was already shaved, so his scalpel sliced through the ape's muscled neck with little resistance. He had done the operation hundreds of times, on both howluchins and humans. He suspected the ape's brain would be somewhere between the two, but was surprised to see it was almost identical to a human one. He wished he could dissect it, instead of just look at the brain stem, but that would happen one day. Patience was key.
In less than a minute, Baucis had all of the synaptic nodes connected, and activated the VRC.
Skup's vision instantly shifted from the ape's back to complete darkness. He panicked at first, wondering if the connection had failed but quickly remembered the ape was lying face down on the operating table.
He waited, feeling for any instincts or actions the ape might try to perform. He felt nothing. Perhaps its more complex mind had done away with all but the most basic instincts, leaving nothing to combat the VRC.
Cautiously, he pushed the body up, then swung its legs over the side of the table and sat there for moment. The ape responded surprisingly well. Skup had never experienced anything like it before. He marveled as he slowly turned the arms over and carefully touched his thumb to each long finger tip. It was uncanny to be in another body that was so different yet so similar. The nearly identical form seemed to trump the lack of metallic compounds. Skup had perfect control.
He looked around the room. The ape's eyes were sharp, they saw more detail than his own, more than even the vultus eyes. He cleared his throat and was astonished the ape did the same thing. It even had vocal chords like him! Any action he thought of the ape performed automatically, there was no need to translate actions into a foreign body and learn how to synchronize anew like he did when he had changed species before.
Skup stood up. Raised one knee, then the other. He could even balance o
n one leg! This was miraculous! And he felt none of the instincts that his vultus so often confronted him with, none of the hesitations, or desires battling his own consciousness.
He turned to Baucis. He knew the Ecologist could read the grin on the ape's face as easily as he could read his own. But then his smile fell.
Baucis had four cuts across his face. It was impossible but it looked like a panthera had swiped the ecologist.
“Who?” he managed to ask, surprised that the ape's voice was so similar to his own.
YOUR SISTER.
A flood of memories overwhelmed him. He painted an entire mural with furry hands that felt like his, but he knew that objectively, they were not. He watched his own human body storm off and abandon his sister, and felt the ape's tender emotions as strong as his own as he comforted Urea when no one else would. He watched Urea confront Baucis, he knew it was about the little girl he had captured. He saw his sister claw Baucis's face then get hauled away like an animal. He hated what Baucis did to her, hated that the arrogant Councilor hid his face because he knew he must.
DEATH.
Then Baucis's neck, tiny and fragile, was in the ape's strong hands, his fingers squeezing tighter and tighter. Skup could feel Baucis's windpipe collapse and the pulse of his jugular weaken as it tried to feed his brain oxygen. The veins on his head stopped pumping blood and stayed fat, growing steadily darker.
For a moment the pilot did nothing. This is what I want, right? He was confused, first Baucis's emotions and then the ape's had muddled his mind. Baucis's face turned blue, then purple. But it couldn't end like this, with Skup in the chamber that gave the commands to kill Baucis. Baucis was the closest thing to a father he ever had.