by S. H. Jucha
Mutter, Cordelia, and Julien provided the translation software for both Swei Swee and crew, who could now communicate effectively with one another, without regard to converting thoughts into the receiver’s language. The sender’s bio ID identified the originator’s language, and the receiver’s implant apps handled translation, if it was necessary.
Again, the test operation went well, this time on Whistles Keenly. However, the next part was a bit trickier. The concept of communicating by thought was more foreign to the Swei Swee than humans could have imagined. It was Ginny who taught Whistles Keenly that she could sing to him in his mind, without a single note passing her lips.
When Whistles Keenly heard Ginny in his mind via his implant, he didn’t register how it had gotten there and sought to accompany Ginny by whistling audibly. To stop the Swei Swee, Ginny placed her hands over his mouth parts and continued to sing via her implant. Whistles Keenly, not wishing to be rude, simply sang along with Ginny in his mind.
It was when Ginny played back her recording, via the implants, of the two of them singing together that Whistles Keenly understood what had happened. He bobbed up and down so enthusiastically that he strained some of the muscles in four of his walking legs. Along with Ginny, Whistles Keenly became a teacher of the other three journey crew members — Sand Flipper, Bobs A Lot, and Swift Claws.
During the final design stage of the Sojourn, Alex added a wrinkle when he asked the Assembly to consider allowing six journey crew members, Teague, Ginny, and four Swei Swee, to join the expedition. The Assembly’s reaction was one of consternation. The thought of adding teenagers and Swei Swee seemed to complicate the mission with unnecessary risks.
“On the contrary,” Willem told the Assembly representatives, “Celus-5 is covered in substantial bodies of water. The ocean’s vegetative coloring and growth suggest that the seas will support life as we know it. I can’t think of a better way to survey the water qualities and organisms than with a team of Swei Swee.”
When asked about the teenagers, Willem said, “The Swei Swee’s lives would be immensely improved by the presence of a People’s Singer. Ginny is imminently qualified to fulfill that role, and, as to the sixth member, I need say no more.”
It didn’t matter whether the Assembly thought that accepting Ginny meant accepting Teague or that Alex Racine had requested Teague be added to the roster, either way the Swei Swee, Little Singer, and Alex’s son were approved to take part in the unprecedented journey of the Sojourn.
-2-
Nyslara
Queen Nyslara’s jaw jittered in anticipation of the steaming delicacy heaped on a tray and placed before her by two servants. The hunt for ceena, the sea creatures, grew more difficult with the passing of seasons. An entire skimmer crew was lost in the effort to bring her this dish, but that was the duty of the soma, the queen’s people, to see that she was properly serviced, as was due her penultimate position.
The skimmers’ quarry was not only rarer to locate but had become more dangerous when encountered. Stories abounded of the easy hunts generations ago, scooping young off the beaches and netting females in shallow waters. Ceena were plentiful then, and Nyslara’s soma feasted on them every day. Now, ceena was the queen’s treat, and the hunters returned to the old ways, scouring the grassy plains for small creatures, many of which shared the underground with them.
Black, short-nailed claws picked a ceena shank from the tray. Sharp, needle-like teeth in an elongated snout cracked the tough shell, and the queen sucked the sweet flesh from the leg. She savored the nest’s favored meal, hissing her delight as she swallowed chunks of the meat.
The tray held six times more than what Nyslara could consume, but the expanse was the traditional serving to a queen. When satiated, she waved an imperial hand at her servants to remove the tray, selecting two enormous claws from the tray before it was whisked away. Nyslara’s feedwa, the queen’s dogs, whined in anticipation, and she tossed a claw to each one.
The feedwa, despite echoing many features of the Dischnya, the desert people, were more lizard-like in their build, low to the ground, longer snouts, and prominent canines that were displayed outside closed jaws. In contrast, the Dischnya appeared as a cross between an ancient dog and rat, standing on powerful, hocked, hind legs that ended in 6-centimeter claws. Hard, dark nails tipped the forearm hands, and both hands and feet carried the pads of an old race that existed by digging in the earth.
All Dischnya were furred, except for the rat-like tail, but the fur’s color and pattern varied and identified each soma’s nest. Small ears, yellow eyes, a pointed snout, with a long tongue, and sharp teeth, especially the incisors, completed the head. The formation of the Dischnya mouth caused their language to be spoken with a slight sibilance.
The noticeable difference between Dischnya males and females was the absence of an adult male’s tail. A youth’s tail was truncated in a ceremony, as he passed into the ranks of hunter or warrior.
The Dischnya weren’t native to Sawa Messa. Their home world was the fourth planet outward from their star and was called Sawa, by the people. But as the millenniums passed, Sawa continued to dry, and the nests spent more and more time underground, congregating around deep reservoirs of water.
The people’s primary food supply had always been the plains animals, herds of which roamed the grassy plains, but those were decimated throughout the ages by drying conditions, which withered the grasses, and the insatiable hunger of the ever-expanding nests.
Technology reached a point where the Dischnya could build crude rocket engines and small space worthy shuttles. A ring of small asteroids surrounded Sawa. It was suspected that they were the remains of a massive impact on one of the many small moons that orbited the home world.
The Dischnya long admired the green of Sawa Messa, the fifth planet outward from their star, which they observed as their home world eclipsed the fecund-appearing planet when their orbits aligned. More than a hundred years ago, the first nest, led by their queen, took the one-way trip to Sawa Messa.
The soma were housed deep in a chunk of space rock, as chemical rocket engines shoved the asteroid out of orbit and on a vector for a near pass, as the green planet approached the closest point of orbit.
When Sawa Messa hove into view, the nest loaded into their shuttles, which were designed to make planetfall on one of the continent’s smooth, arid plains. Most shuttle landings were successful; some were not. After the initial successful trip, the arrival of more nests to the new world occurred with every second rotation of Sawa and continued for eighteen rotations, until they stopped.
Communications from the Sawa Messa pioneers to Sawa’s Regents of Queens went unanswered, and those on the new planet were left to wonder what had befallen their home world. Many young queens, who had braved the voyage to the new home world, suspected that it was a fight between the traditionalists, who decried the concept of leaving Sawa, and the modernists, who saw the exodus to Sawa Messa as the only way to save the soma.
Whatever the reason for the lack of communications and the end to the arrival of more nests, the expected support shipments of heavy technology and vital spare parts from Sawa were never forthcoming. So, in time, the nests were forced to adopt a much simpler level of existence, as parts for shuttles, communications, construction, energy, and medical equipment ran out.
The newly formed Fissla, the arbitrative council of queens on Sawa Messa, broke apart, and the nests resorted to competing against one another for resources. They were Dischnya, so they loved the arid plains, but soon after landing, some queens had sent numerous scouting parties into the huge belts of green forests that bracketed the plains on two sides. When not a single hunter returned, the young queens fell back on what the Dischnya knew best, and the nests of soma moved underground.
* * *
Nyslara was woken from her night’s sleep by a polite rapping of sharp nails on the rock wall outside her inner abode.
“My queen, important news,” Cysmana,
the queen’s personal attendant said, “A ship has been spotted crossing the dark sky.”
“More of our people?” Nyslara asked hopefully, as she donned an embroidered royal robe that flowed to the ground, a slit up the back accommodating her magnificent whip-like tail, and joined her personal servant.
“No, my queen, the lookouts report a strange ship crossing the sky. They only caught a glimpse of it in the last rays of Nessila, before both of them passed below the horizon. The lookouts waited to see if the ship achieved orbit or passed on before they notified the sub-commanders. The ship was spotted again, as a dark object against the night’s sky, moments ago, my queen, and the warriors believe that the aliens might intend a landing.”
“Summon Pussiro,” Nyslara ordered.
“Yes, my queen,” Cysmana said and hurried away, the pads of her feet making a soft pat-pat across the compacted earthen floor.
Nyslara paced the front room, decorated and arranged for visitors. An alien ship, appearing in the sky, was not something she’d ever pondered. There was the ancient story of a ship visiting Sawa Messa before the Dischnya arrived, but the details were lost in the ages, and many queens believed it was unfounded and possibly invented as a tale to frighten the young.
Aliens who could travel between the planets and even travel between the stars, at will, would have power that Nyslara knew her soma couldn’t match, much less overcome. A scratch of nails on the wall drew the queen’s attention. “Enter, Pussiro.”
“My queen,” Pussiro said, curling his fingers into fists and placing them beside his hips, a sign of nonaggression among the soma, as he nodded his head in obeisance.
“Give me the benefit of your advice, Pussiro,” Nyslara commanded.
Pussiro carried the scars of a multitude of skirmishes with other nests on his muzzle, shoulders, and arms. As a survivor of numerous conflicts, he’d risen steadily within the ranks of warriors until his appointment as commander of the queen’s forces, several seasons ago.
“The ship in the sky would be vastly superior to our shuttle technology … when they were operable,” Pussiro lamented. “It displays none of our rocket’s extended tails of heavy exhaust gases, just bright circles of light at its rear.”
“Do you anticipate the aliens will land, Commander?”
“With certainty, my queen,” Pussiro said. His sad expression was accentuated by the slight graying of his muzzle, and it denoted one who had lived his life in successful devotion to his queen and having reached the pinnacle of his warrior career was now faced with the possibility of it ending in disaster.
“They will have superior weaponry, no doubt.”
“No doubt, my queen. But we are not without our own craft. We have our tunnels, and we are many.”
“I fear that will be little enough once the aliens decide they want Sawa Messa for themselves. Well, at the least, we must warn the other queens. Dispatch runners to the other nests and ensure the queens are aware of the ship. The message from me is that they should take their soma underground and disguise anything left above ground … and do so quickly. The same must be passed to our soma.”
“As you order, my queen.”
“And, Pussiro, prepare the warriors.”
“For what type of action, my queen?”
“The answer to that question we will discover together, Pussiro. Go, make haste.”
The commander whirled, and the great claws of his hind feet scratched the hardened floor of the salon’s entrance, as he hurried away.
Once alone, except for the ubiquitous presence of Cysmana, her personal servant, waiting quietly in the corner, Nyslara pondered the future of the nests. Her emotional reaction aimed waves of anger at the traditionalists, who, more than likely, would have been the ones to stop the exodus of the Dischnya from Sawa. By now, Sawa Messa could have been a bustling world with satellites, planet-wide communications, shuttle services to a space station, and perhaps even inner system transportation to the other worlds and moons of Nessila. At least, Nyslara thought, we might have appeared as an advanced society to the aliens instead of a culture hiding underground, stranded on a new world, while we seek to rebuild a technological society.
* * *
Pussiro emerged above ground, a cadre of sub-commanders, senior warriors, and more than fifty hunters close behind him. Word of the alien ship had disturbed the soma, and it showed in their furtive behavior. The warriors wanted to question their wasat, the queen’s commander, but they took notice of the fur standing out on his face and crown. It was obvious that Pussiro was in no mood for questions.
Orders were hissed to hunters, who were to act as runners to the other nests. From packs on their backs, the hunters pulled their emissary masks, which were painted with jagged lines of blue and white to prevent them from being shot by the lookouts of the competing nests. After donning their masks, the emissaries darted away into the night, their powerful legs eating up the distances on the dry, flat ground.
More hunters were sent toward the western shore with orders for the skimmer crews to hide their boats and return underground. Finally, the warrior cadre was sent to search the surface. All soma were to seek refuge below and take anything small and portable with them. Anything large was to be disguised.
Soon, Pussiro was alone, and his thoughts mirrored those of his queen. As a veteran of hundreds of nest fights, Pussiro understood the strategies of conflict — creativity above all else, flexible command, surprise attack, and overwhelming force. But his question was this: What could all that knowledge and experience gain him if the aliens simply remained in the sky and slaughtered nest after nest, as if the soma were ceena?
-3-
Celus-5
It took sixteen years for Willem’s interstellar investigation team to produce a list of possible habitable planets. The best candidates were narrowed to three planets most suitable for a new Haraken colony, and the data was presented to Alex and the Assembly. Since Celus-5 was Willem’s preeminent choice, it was approved as the destination for the Sojourn’s first voyage.
A small probe that was sent to the system had returned images of a world complete with multiple continents and hundreds of small islands, all of which were surrounded by extensive oceans. Two of the three continents contained great swaths of arid plains, located near the planet’s equator. Bordered on the northern and southern sides of these grassy veldts were vast, solid stretches of red and green vegetation.
Originally, Willem approached Alex Racine, then Haraken president, for the funds to build an explorer ship. Knowing his days as president were numbered, Alex sought the Assembly’s support for Willem’s efforts, citing the opportunity for Haraken to add its first colony. It was the Central Exchange, owned by eight Haraken SADEs, which financed the building of the explorer ship.
The Assembly decided the expedition would require co-commanders: a human captain and a SADE. Informed by Rosette, a SADE who supported the Assembly’s administration, Captain Asu Azasdau promptly applied for the position of the Sojourn’s captain. Asu had split his time between his duties as an Assembly representative and managing his business, which was providing services for the passenger liner Sternenvagabund (Star Voyager). His liner, which had serviced the Confederation by transporting Independents to Libre for incarceration, was granted to the captain and crew when Haraken was founded.
However, Asu found the jobs of liner management and Assembly representative a far cry from the exciting days of the flotilla’s escape from Libre, and he yearned for a return to the intensity of those times. As was common on Haraken with the community use of implants, when Asu submitted his request to the Assembly for the position of the Sojourn’s captain, all other interested parties demurred from participation — Asu was a well-liked and respected man on Haraken.
It was a foregone conclusion that Willem would be the mission’s SADE, who would fill the post of co-commander, but Rosette submitted the idea to the Assembly that a second SADE was necessary. Her argument was that Willem woul
d play an important role with the ground survey team, and that it would be in the expedition’s interest to keep a SADE aboard the ship in the event of difficulties planetside. And, of course, Rosette submitted her name for the position.
Rosette had first supported Asu as the SADE aboard the Sternenvagabund. Later, when Asu was elected to the Assembly, Rosette threw her considerable talents into the fledgling Assembly’s administration. From Captain Azasdau’s first step aboard the liner, Rosette had been treated with nothing but courtesy and kindness. His treatment of her was exemplary, a wonderful change from the cursory and dismissive attitudes of Rosette’s first two captains.
After becoming mobile, Rosette was inundated with the tasks of supporting the Assembly and her duties as a Central Exchange director. But despite the daily demands of her duties, Rosette always found time to support Asu in the little things. It was small repayment for the almost four decades during which her life, as the liner’s SADE, was a true pleasure.
The Assembly accepted Rosette’s suggestion of a second SADE on the mission, and she was added to the Sojourn’s roster.
* * *
“Captain Azasdau, here’s my final roster,” Willem said, sending the landing party list to Asu’s implant and copying Rosette.
“I see you intend to take all four of the Swei Swee and our two journey crew members planetside,” Asu replied.
“Ground surveillance has not produced any evidence of sophisticated or simplistic constructions of a society, and the creatures on the plains that can be observed are small in size. Furthermore, atmospheric conditions are nearly optimal. I see no danger to our two auspicious young people, and the Swei Swee can begin fulfilling their tasks to survey the waters.”
“Then you’re still intending to land near the single traveler location?”