“What do you expect to get from this little visit? I assume it’s a visit. Or do you intend to take these people all the way home with you?”
“I don’t know, Captain. I’m making this up as I go along,” Kris admitted.
“Well, let me know when you find out. By the way, should I be expecting guests in the wardroom?”
Kris had the good sense to flinch at that question. The ship’s china, silverware, and linens would, no doubt, suffer greatly from an effort to explain table manners to these hunter-gathers.
“I think we can set up some sort of chow line in the drop bay,” Kris said.
“That sounds like a very good idea. See if you can keep your new best friends out of my hair. I’m not nearly as patient as you’ve been misled to believe.”
“No doubt,” Kris said, and headed for her quarters to change out of her battle gear and into a clean set of khakis. She could have done it in the drop bay, but she wasn’t sure if the natives fully understood that she was female and didn’t want them to make a discovery they weren’t prepared for.
She returned to the drop bay to find that Gunny had arranged something very close to a campfire, at least it threw a cheerful glow and warmth over the immediate area around it. Most of the locals were gathered around it, seated on wool blankets that several of them were still examining.
Jacques was trying to explain how and where you might locate wool, then pull it into thread and weave it into blankets. Kris hoped he wasn’t starting something that would get these folks’ great-to-the-nth-degree-grandkids lased by the angry Sky Gods.
Then again, by the time those putative grandchildren were born, Kris would either have won her war or lost it . . . and a whole lot of grandkids would not be born.
Kris tried not to scowl at that thought as she walked toward where Jack was standing with the parents and grandparents of the sick boy. A few feet away, the child was still laid out on a bed in a clean surgical bubble under the watchful eye of Dr. Meade and several assisting medical personnel.
“How’s the kid doing?” Kris asked.
Jack didn’t look away from the boy. “The temperature is down a bit, but not broken. Blood pressure is climbing, but still bad. Pulse is improving.”
“So we’re on the right track,” Kris said.
“But we’re not out of the woods,” Doc Meade said, looking up at Kris. “I don’t know how this infection will take to what we’re fighting it with. If the crazy system these folks have adapts and fights back, we could still lose. I’ve got half the chemists and docs in the squadron looking at this. If we can, we’ll beat it. But I won’t take any bets just yet.”
“There has to be some survival benefits to the extra DNA these folks have. It must make some proteins that help them survive,” Kris said.
“Look at that planet,” the doctor said. “Is it overpopulated?”
“No,” Kris admitted.
“Then you tell me what the extra proteins they make are good for. Meanwhile, I’ll need a couple of years to finish our analysis.”
Kris chewed the bottom of her lip. “Maybe it makes them good, obedient slaves.”
“You said it, not me,” the doctor said, and turned back to her patient.
The locals had stood quietly while all this conversation in a strange tongue went on around them. Now they turned to Kris and Jack with questions in their eyes.
~Will my son run to the hunt with me?~ the father asked.
~The hunt for what makes him pale and warm still runs,~ Nelly said for Kris.
The natives seemed too overwhelmed by all the new and strange to react to Kris’s having two voices, one from her mouth, and one from her collarbone. They just nodded dumbly and kept the vigil, waiting to see if the boy would, indeed, go down into the earth.
With Kris back, Jack was relieved to go through decontamination and change out of his battle gear. As he undid the top half if his armor, the old man and the bald woman came over. She knocked on the armor, then touched Jack’s shoulder.
~I told you,~ the man said. ~They are not like the demons of your songs from your grandmother’s time and her grandmother. These ones can take off their thick hide. They are soft inside.~
~The stories sing of the demons who were soft inside, once you stuck a spear in them,~ the woman said.
Jack offered his armor for her totem. She rapped it so that the stone blades hit it. Then she hit it harder. Several stone points shattered.
~There are many different people who walk the stars,~ Kris had Nelly say. ~We are not the ones sung of in your stories.~
~Do you walk the stars?~ the bald woman said, glancing around the drop bay. Kris realized that there were no windows in the longboats. No windows in the Wasp. These people had gone from their own open sky to a series of rooms. Caves, if you would.
KRIS, I MIGHT BE ABLE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. MIMZY, CAN YOU HELP ME?
YES, MOM.
Kris suddenly found her head very empty. WHAT ARE YOU UP TO? she asked, but got no answer.
A minute later, Penny galloped into the drop bay, spotted Kris, and raced for her.
“What have you got Mimzy up to?”
“Nothing, it’s Nelly’s doing.”
But neither computer answered, so Kris and Penny were left exchanging strange looks.
“Don’t worry,” Sal said from Jack’s collarbone. “It’s gonna be a surprise. I think you’ll like it. Oh, look over there!”
At the end of the drop bay, a hatch suddenly formed.
“That went better than I’d expected,” Nelly said. “Now, if you will kindly take our visitors through that hatch, I think we can end any question about us being Sky Gods, or whatever.”
Jack quickly finished buttoning his khakis and led the way for Kris, Penny, and the two older natives. He opened the hatch. There was a small room inside with another hatch.
“Everybody in,” Nelly said.
“Tell me, Alice, how was it down the rabbit hole?” Penny quipped, leading the way as she stepped across the hatch coaming.
They crowded into the room, the natives a bit less enthusiastic than the spacers. Jack dogged down the first hatch, and Penny opened the next. She took a glance out.
“Oh. My. God,” was likely a real prayer from Penny. “Kris, you’ve got to see this,” she said, and stepped through the hatch.
Kris could already see what lay ahead.
For years, Kris had been in space, but she’d always had a ship securely around her. She’s seen the space ahead of them, and aft, via radar sweeps and cameras projected on screens. She’d never seen space up close and personal.
Now she did.
“Clear Smart Metal, Nelly?” Kris asked.
“Yes, Kris.”
“You said you couldn’t make clear Smart Metal yesterday for the woman in the brig.”
“Yes, Kris. I did. I would have had to risk converting metal all the way through the ship, including the hull. I didn’t do this today. Those two hatches are hull-type Smart Metal. This clear metal is borrowed from inside. There is no risk to the ship.”
“And to us?” Jack asked, now joining the two women.
“There is some risk, but not much more than when you’re in the Forward Lounge, and I start moving walls, tables, and chairs around.”
Kris listened to Nelly with her ears, but her eyes were staring at a sight that made her mouth gape. Here was space at its barest. Tiny dots pierced the black. Kris would have sworn that she could make out the slight difference between pure white and yellow, red, and maybe even brown stars.
Closer in, the other ships of her squadron swung at anchor. The Wasp sprawled out to her right and left, and beyond the Wasp swung the Royal, anchored to her by a long pole. Now the Wasp swung down and Kris got her first overwhelming view of a life-draped planet.
If it were possible, her mouth would have fallen open even more.
“Yes,” she whispered, “I’ve got to see this.”
“Good heavens,” Jack said over
and over again.
Behind them, the bearded man slipped his head out the hatch. His eyes narrowed. ~What do I see?~ he demanded gruffly.
~This is what is above the sky,~ Nelly said. ~This is where those who walk the stars live.~
The bald woman stuck her head out, looked, and scowled. Then she shoved the man over and looked off at the other side. The Wasp swung around more, and now the moon was coming up.
This planet, like Old Earth, had one large moon. The woman looked hard at it and gulped. ~The moon shows her face full.~
Now the man followed her gaze, then twisted around to catch a view of the planet beneath them. Puzzlement showed strong on his face.
“Captain Drago,” Kris said.
“More trouble?”
“No, but could you arrange to discharge one of the aft lasers into the ocean next time we’re back to the planet?”
“A demonstration of Sky God fire, huh?”
“Something like that.”
“Wait one. Actually, wait fifteen seconds.”
Kris pointed aft as the moon disappeared and the planet came in full view below. They were over the narrow ocean between West and East Continents. There was a jet of reaction mass aft, then one bright laser beam reached through it and down.
Below them, the ocean steamed and roiled. Clouds rose and churned.
~We can burn the water and the earth,~ Kris said. ~We do not.~
~You do not,~ the man repeated several times, total puzzlement on his face.
~Can you sing for us the old songs?~ Kris asked.
~Yes, I can,~ the bald woman said. ~Let me feast my eyes on what I have never seen.~
~I can wait,~ Kris said.
In hushed awe, all of them feasted their eyes on space, and moon, and a blue-green planet. After a long time had passed, Jack reopened the hatch and, one by one, they walked, eyes looking back at the sights they’d seen, into the cave of the Wasp’s drop bay.
28
~The People lived in peace and harmony,~ the bald woman sang.
~The People fished and hunted in peace and harmony.
~Then the hard demons came, and there was no peace and harmony.~
The woman moved around the fire. Sometimes she’d pound the butt of her totem hard on the deck. Other times, she’d wave it high over her head. Not for a moment did she stop moving, stop waving the stick passed down from grandmother to grandmother.
The others sat around the “fire” in the Wasp’s drop bay. The bald woman’s song went long, and had a lot of repetitions in it; how else would it have survived unchanged for so many years? There was also a lot missing. Kris spotted nothing about genetic manipulation, but that didn’t surprise her. The song had the basic facts down.
The hard demons had come. They had conquered and enslaved the People, and the People had wept bitter and bloody tears. In time, the hard demons made the mistake of getting soft, or maybe they just got sloppy. The People rose up and slaughtered the demons, they took from them the power to walk the stars, and they then took their wrath and vengeance across the stars to where the soft demons lived.
The story got very gory at that point. It went into great detail on just how they disemboweled this one and chopped that one’s head off. ~Infants’ heads, they smashed against the stone,~ was one that particularly sent shivers down Kris’s spine, but the listening natives seemed to like that particular verse.
It was repeated many times, and they pounded their fists on the deck each time.
Jack held Kris closer when that happened.
The important part, the part that made listening to the gory tale worth it, came near the end. The warrior tribes that walked the stars met with the tribes that had not gone on the walk to the other world. Some were for walking the stars forever so that this could never happen again to them. Others were for taking their torn world and returning to the way it had been before.
There were many angry words. In the end, the two went their separate ways. But the anger of the Sky Gods still spilled on any who walked away from ~the ways from of old~ and tried to build a path that could lead back to the stars.
~We must walk the path of our grandmothers and their grandmothers.
~We must hunt along the path of our grandfathers and their grandfathers.
~You stray from the path and you will burn.~
The bald woman came suddenly to a halt. She spat those words at the bearded man.
~So, my man, what path will you have the people walk now?~
It appeared that Kris had guessed the family relationship right. Which only left her wondering if any old married couples were ever still happy?
She filed that away in “to be determined later,” and tried to figure out what to say next.
But the old man was already coming to his feet. When he spoke, it wasn’t to the woman but to all those around the fire.
~Our wisewoman speaks wisdom, as she does from of old. I would chose to walk the different path we set our feet to today.~
He paused, folded his hands across his chest, and went on. ~I do not see that we have walked it so far that we cannot walk back. If that is the way for you, walk it, and I will cheer you. I have seen the stars, and the logs these people ride in to float between the stars. My son’s son lives because of the craft they have to hunt for a lad’s smile. If these different star gods will have me, I will walk with them.~
“I didn’t see that coming,” Jack whispered to Kris.
“I expect there are a lot of surprises coming from these people,” Kris answered.
~Our son’s son still lingers at the hole down into the earth,~ the old woman jumped in, reminding any who might have forgotten the child sleeping fitfully in the medical-quarantine tent.
~Yes, and I do not know what tomorrow’s sun will shine on,~ the grandfather agreed. ~Still, having fed your eyes on what we ate today, would you not follow this path?~
~It is not the path of my grandmother and her grandmother.~
~No. There is more to eat here,~ he said. The deck of the shuttle was littered with the leavings from the strange feast the Marines had provided.
~Are you sure they are not demons?~ the old woman demanded. ~Different from the hard-skinned demons~—her eyes picked out dark-skinned Gunny Brown where he sat cross-legged by the “fire”—~but demons just the same?~
The friendly alien leader drew his flint knife and raked its blade across his forearm. Red blood flowed.
Both of the aliens, old man with a bleeding arm and the wisewoman with all the accusations, looked at Jack.
Jack stepped forward and offered his arm. The man cut it. Red blood flowed.
Gunny had seen the look the woman threw in his direction. He might not have understood the words, but he read the glare perfectly. He rose from his place and came to offer his black arm to the knife.
Again, the flint blade cut flesh. Again, the blood dripping onto the deck was red.
~I will not speak for you,~ the old alien man said. ~I will speak for me. I will follow after these people. Where they walk, I will walk. Their people will be my people. Their enemies will be my enemies. This I say by soil and water. This I say by sun and moon. Let me live and die by these words.~
KRIS, I THINK GUNNY’S GOT A NEW RECRUIT, Jack said on Nelly Net.
I DOUBT THERE IS A STRONGER OATH THESE PEOPLE CAN SWEAR, Jacques added.
WHAT COMES NEXT? Kris asked.
I THINK WE WAIT AND SEE, was all Jacques could say.
Two local men rose from their places and came to stand beside their leader. One of them was the boy’s father. A couple of women did, too, but not his mother. For a long minute, nothing more happened, then a couple of more men stood up but didn’t move to join the three.
Over the next couple of minutes more joined one group or the other. The bald woman moved from her husband’s side to where the other group stood.
“I don’t like the looks of this,” Kris said.
“Do you think it’s as bad as it seems?” Jack asked.
“I think,” Jacques said slowly, eyeing both groups, “the admiral has the shape of things. How many of them brought their knives?”
“Ah, most of them,” Gunny said. “General, you want me to put an end to this?”
“No, I will,” Kris said, and stepped between the two apparently rival groups.
~You came to my ship in peace and harmony. I will have nothing else on my ship. In peace and harmony, you may leave it.~
~We came as one to your ship. We will leave as one,~ the bald woman spat.
~We are no longer one. I will not leave, I have sworn it,~ her husband spat.
~The men will carry your bloodless body home from this hunt,~ she spat right back. The look on her face was tinged with eagerness.
~Nobody will bleed out their lifeblood on my ship,~ Kris said.
The old woman raised her staff and ran at Kris, swinging it down hard.
Kris had kept on her spider-silk underarmor, something she didn’t normally do aboard ship, but then, she didn’t normally invite armed natives home for dinner either.
Armored or not, Kris didn’t like the look of that staff, but the blow was easily sidestepped. Gunny would be proud of her use of her hand-to-hand training.
Or not.
As Kris stepped in to strike a blow at the old woman’s abdomen, the alien flung herself down and rolled under Kris’s strike.
Recovering, she rolled back onto her feet and brought the stick up, ready to swing it again.
Jack stepped forward. ~Enough of this,~ he shouted.
~No, Jack. Wait.~
Kris backed away from the woman. ~Must all of you fight to choose the path for all of you?~
~That is the way of it from days of old,~ the bearded man said. ~We fight until one side yields or dies.~
AND WITH THE OATH HE SWORE, IT’S TO THE DEATH FOR HIM, Jacques provided on Nelly Net.
BEFORE YOU OPEN YOUR GREAT BIG MOUTH AGAIN, MY DEAR, ARE YOU WEARING YOUR SPIDER SILKS? Jack asked.
Kris Longknife: Tenacious (Kris Longknife novellas Book 12) Page 18