by Nate Johnson
“It’s okay,” he said to her in Eundai, “We’ll be there soon. Your grandmother is coming.”
The girl just stared at him, unable to believe what was happening to her.
Finally, he reached the East Gate, dipped through the arch, and slid to a quick stop. Bending, he gently placed the girl on the ground and put his hands on his knees as he gulped in gallons of fresh air.
The girl scurried away from him. scooting across the road like a back peddling spider.
Straightening up, he watched as the old female rushed past him to hold her granddaughter.
Amanda smiled at him, a proud, thankful smile that filled his heart.
“What in the hell is going on?” Nick said as he began to look around. The guards were manning the walls. Standing shoulder to shoulder with their swords drawn and staffs ready.
“There,” Amanda called out, pointing to a far point on the wall. Grundal stood with advisors looking back down the East Road, gesturing and pointing.
Grynd, his second in command, stood next to him, staring out over the fields. His brow knitted in obvious concern.
Nick took a deep breath and ran up the stone stairs two at a time, Amanda on his heels.
“Grundal,” Nick called out.
The Eundai Headman ignored them for a moment as he watched the last of his people scurry in through the city gates.
Heaving a heavy sigh, Grundal signaled that the gates should be closed.
Nick could feel the relief flowing through the Eundai around him as they let out a collective breath. It was as if each of them had been unable to breathe until those gates were closed.
The Headman held up his hand, holding Nick and Amanda in place until he was done with his advisors. Once he had finished issuing orders, and his men had run off to tend to their assignments, the Headman turned to Nick and lifted an Eyebrow.
“What is happening?” Nick asked in Eundai.
The Headman studied them for a moment then pointed back down the East Road.
Nick turned to stare.
It couldn’t be. It was impossible, he thought, as his stomach sank to his feet. Aircraft, distant aircraft were sweeping back and forth as if searching for something.
“The rescuers,” Amanda called out with a giant laugh. “They’re here.”
Nick continued to look, each second dragging out as he tried to put things together. No, it wasn’t right.
“I don’t think so,” he said as he slowly shook his head.
“What do you mean,” Amanda asked. “We are rescued.
“No,” he said, “I’m afraid not.”
She just stared at him, then back at the distant ships, then back at him again. Her eyes bore into him, searching for an answer.
Nick continued to examine the distant craft. Eighty feet long by forty wide. Short stubby wings that couldn’t possibly provide enough lift at those speeds. A long pointed nose, bent down slightly where it joined the fuselage.
“We don’t have ships like that,” he said, “Not in the Imperial Navy.”
Grundal who had been watching them, pointed and said, “Scraggs, Star travelers.”
Nicks guts tightened up into a ball as he swallowed hard.
It was one thing to come into contact with a primitive culture. But to meet an advanced, star faring culture, armed with nothing but a stick. This was not going to go well, he thought.
Even with a platoon of Imperial Marines at his back, this might not go well.
Chapter Seventeen
Nick continued to stare at the distant craft as they continued their search pattern.
“I need my tools,” he said to Grundal without taking his eyes off the distant ships.
Grundal looked at him for a long moment then told one of his guards to retrieve the human’s treasure. Grynd shook his head, obviously upset at his leader’s decision.
Nick continued to watch the craft, obviously they had anti-gravity capability as good as the Empire’s. What other technology did they possess? Was it better than or inferior to the Empire’s?
The answer to that question might very well become the most important piece of data in the entire Galaxy.
And what about the ability to travel between star systems? Did they utilize wormholes or had they developed some other form of faster than light travel?
Either way, now that the Empire had come to Eundai, these Scraggs could follow their path back to the human’s home worlds. They could be there even now.
Nick’s mind jumped to the abandoned Discovery. Was the ship still intact? Had these aliens already boarded her and gathered every tidbit of information. Squeezing every detail out of her.
The thought sent a long cold shiver up Nick’s spine. Followed almost immediately with the thought that this might be his out. Maybe the Navy might forgive him the sin of corrupting the natives if they were worried about the Scraggs.
Yes, the Empire wanted to meet intelligent species. Wanted to know that they were not alone in the Galaxy. But that opened up a dozen different problems. Was the Navy going to think he was a traitor for abandoning the ship and turning it over to aliens? Or were they going to think he was a hero for bringing them a warning about this new species? These fellow star travelers.
Biting his lip, Nick waited with Grundal and Amanda, like everyone else on the wall, watching and wondering about what would happen next.
Nick’s stomach turned over. Who would ever believe two intelligent species? One of them fellow star travelers. What were the chances?
Finally, the guard returned with the canvas tool bag. Amanda raised an eyebrow, silently asking him what he was going to do with a bunch of wrenches.
Grynd saw the bag and grimaced, shooting his leader a questioning look.
Smiling, Nick removed a square metal box and opened it up.
“What’s that?” Amanda asked looking down at the long tube and accompanying parts.
“Normally,” Nick said as he started pulling out pieces and assembling the tool. “It is a microscope. We use it to examine for metal fatigue. But ...” He added. “It can be converted into a crude telescope. Not great, but good enough.”
“Really?” she asked, obviously impressed.
“Yep,” he replied as his hands quickly put the pieces together, moving as with a mind of their own. Taking a deep breath, he brought the six inch tube up to his eye. A large smile broke out across his face when the scope worked like it was supposed to.
Looking through the tube, he examined the distant ships, confirming what he already knew. These were not Imperial Navy ships. And they weren’t Imperial commercial or private craft either. Their lines were too alien,
Finishing, he handed the scope to Grundal and mimicked putting it up to his eye.
Amanda gasped. “You shouldn’t show him that.” She hissed.
Nick laughed as he pointed to the distant ships. “Amanda,” he said. “The Eundai playing with our feeble toys are the least of their problems.”
She looked out at the searching vessels and nodded.
The head Eundai’s brow narrowed in confusion for a moment, but shrugging his shoulders, he obviously decided it was just easier playing along with the human’s silly request.
Grundal brought the tube up to look through it then let out a loud grunt as he stepped back away.
Nick smiled.
Grundal hesitantly brought the tube up to his eye, then turned to the city and looked through the tube, obviously trying to see if the thing worked only on Scragg ships or on anything he looked at.
Turning back, he examined the ships and the fields beneath them. Then, lowering the scope, he studied it in his hand for a long moment, before nodding and saying, “Thank you.”
Nick handed the scope to Amanda after Grundal was done with it.
She smiled and looked at the ships, her brow creasing in ever more worry. Even she could see these were not Imperial ships, Nick realized.
“What’s he doing?” She asked as one of the ships broke awa
y from its search pattern to hover over a stone silo.
“She,” Nick said to her with a gentle smile. “Ships are always she.”
“Maybe the Scraggs aren’t as sexist as we are,” Amanda said, continuing to look through the slender tube at the ship sitting in midair above a stone silo. It opened its belly doors and a long stream of the dried leaves rose up through the air and into the ship.
“Taking the Kruklane,” Grundal said with a very sad tone to his voice. “This is why they come.”
“You mean the leaves you harvest?” Nick asked. “That is why you put them in the silo. This is why you grow them?”
Grundal nodded, “We must, or they will not leave the Ymand.”
“Pig Iron,” Nick whispered to Amanda. “They must leave it as payment for the leaves.”
“But why do they want the Kruklane leaves?” she asked Grundal.
“I do not know for sure,” the Headman said. “But they become very upset if there is not enough for them. Their craft shoots fire, they have threatened to burn the city if they do not receive the amount they need. We must bring in enough from the outlying provinces to meet their demands.”
“They built the roads for you?” Nick asked, unable to believe he hadn’t seen it earlier. The smooth, marble-like roads were way beyond the Eundai’s technology.
Grundal nodded. “It is to get the Kruklane to these holders,” he said, referring to the silos.
“What are they searching for?” Amanda asked, indicating the aircraft still going back and forth over the fields. “If you store the leaves for them in the silos. Why the search pattern?
“Children,” the Headman said with a deep frown. “Eundai children.”
“What? Amanda gasped.
Grundal’s face twisted in a wounded, ashamed expression that highlighted just how much the words hurt him.
“They take our children. Only a few each time.”
Nick’s mind jumped to the little girl he had carried into the city. What would have happened to her if he had left her behind in the fields? No wonder her grandmother had been so frightened.
“That is terrible, barbaric,” Amanda said, using the standard word barbaric when she couldn’t find the equivalent word in Eundai to express her shock and disapproval.
“Why?” Nick asked as his heart went out to the Headman. How must it have hurt him to watch their children taken from them.
“To do their bidding, to make the Kruklane,” he said. “One of ours returned to us after many years. Sick, barely alive. I think the Scraggs knew he was no longer of value to them and dumped him in our fields. A lesson to us.”
Nick’s stomach tightened into a ball.
“He lived long enough to tell us that the Eundai are kept on the ships,” Grundal said with a quiet voice. “Never leaving, never breathing true air. They are made to work with the Kruklane. Turning it into a gray paste that the Scraggs trade on their world to be used for making happy.”
Both Amanda’s and Nick’s brows furrowed into confusion until Amanda suddenly said. “It is like a drug, and only the Eundai can process it without being impacted by the drug.”
“Slaves,” Nick spat out with a bitter expression on his face.
No wonder they had been treated so coldly by the Eundai. Their experience with Star travelers had been nothing but bad. These people had been too afraid to treat them the way they wanted to by slitting their throats, and too hurt to ever think of being really welcoming. Instead, they had selected the only response they could. Cold indifference.
“We never know when they will come,” Grundal said. “They take our children, they take the Kruklane. They leave the Ymand, and then they depart. It has been so for many generations.”
Nick and Amanda stared at each other, unable to believe what they were hearing.
“Have you tried to fight them?” Nick asked, afraid he knew the answer before he even asked the question.
Grundal’s snorted in obvious anger. “Many times,” he said. “Always, their ships kill many Eundai. It is better to give them what they want.”
The harsh words brought the conversation to a quick halt. What more could he ask of the Headman? Nick wondered. The man was obviously ashamed at his lack of ability to care for his people.
Nick sighed and slowly shook his head. He had thought he had it tough. What must it be like to constantly know that your people were being enslaved and there was nothing you could do about it. No wonder Grundal had been so interested in understanding the human’s technology. Desperate to find some way to use it against the Scraggs.
“What are they doing now?” Amanda asked, pointing at a ship that had broken away from the searching craft and was approaching the city at a slow, steady pace.
Grundal’s jaw tightened as he slowly shook his head.
“They come talk. I must meet them.”
Sighing heavily, his hands clenched in fists, Grundal turned away from them and made his way down the stairs. Nick watched the Eundai’s back, hunched with tension as he and Grynd slowly made their way to the East Gate.
“Where are Doctor Simpson, Professor Robinson? We have to tell them what is going on,” Amanda said.
Nick laughed. “Go ahead, I’m not leaving this spot. Aliens are coming for a visit. Smart ones.”
Amanda glanced out at the approaching ship then back towards their temporary home down the side street. Sighing, she shifted to stand next to Nick.
“We’ll explain it later,” she said.
He laughed again and brought the scope up for a closer examination of the ship.
Suddenly, Nick had a quick realization. They shouldn’t be exposing themselves like this. The last thing he wanted was for the aliens to know they were here.
Shifting, he bent down behind a corner post and pulled Amanda down with him.
Her eyes jumped open in surprise but then she quickly understood and scooted over to keep the ship in sight without being seen herself.
Nick smiled to himself. The girl was smarter than a Taurian Owl.
The craft looked well put together. Nick thought with admiration. Tight, slim, functional. A small antenna on top. No seams, no bumps or bruises. No sign of propulsion. No thruster engines, no sign of how the ship maneuvered.
He shook his head. God, how he would love to get inside one of those and tear it apart to figure out what made it tick.
The ship was a dusty gray in color, the kind of color that would have helped it blend into the underside of a rain cloud.
Why? He wondered. Why not the reflective surface that could shrug off a laser attack?
No obvious weapons. But Grundal had said the ships killed Eundai. Not individual Scraggs, but the ship itself.
The gray ship stopped moving forward, coming to a halt in midair about fifty feet from the East Gate. Nick’s knees were beginning to burn from the cramped position down behind the post.
What now? he wondered as his heart pounded in his chest while he waited. He could feel Amanda next to him. The anticipation and worry eating at her as much as him.
They both squatted there, silently waiting, until, the East Gate slowly opened and Grundal stepped out to greet his visitors. Nick had almost thought of them as guests. But that would not be the right word, he realized. These creatures were not welcome. Every bit of body language from every Eundai told him as much.
Grundal stood there waiting. Alone.
Eventually, the big belly doors opened and a long flight of stairs descended to the surface of the East Road.
Grundal shifted a little so that he was directly in front of the stairs. His hands at his side, his green cape pushed back off his shoulders to hang directly down his back.
A movement at the top of the stairs caught his attention.
Two pairs of armored covered legs appeared from beneath the ship. Two creatures marched down the stairs in perfect step. Dressed in gray armor, much like that of their ship. They were bipedal, two arms, each of them grasping a long weapon to their chest.
A third set of legs followed closely behind.
Nick held his breath, waiting for the aliens to expose themselves fully.
Finally, their heads appeared from beneath the ship. Nick let out a long breath.
Rats, was his first thought.
Fury face, long nosed rats. Little beady eyes and a snout long enough that it had to get in the way.
Two more soldiers started down the stairs, obviously providing security for the center Scragg.
The group of five marched in time, coming to a stop directly in front of Grundal as if they were asking directions to the nearest coffee shop.
Nick watched them, then glanced up at the distant ships still searching. One of the craft had stopped, hovering high above a field. He wondered briefly if they had found a hiding child amongst the bushes.
Then, the realization of where that field was in relation to the city sent a cold shiver through his body.
“Oh crap,” he said under his breath.
“What?” Amanda asked.
“The Pod,” Nick said. “I think they found the Pod.”
Her face drained of all color. He was rather confident that he looked whiter than a ghost himself.
Where was that regiment of Imperial Marines when you needed them?
Chapter Eighteen
“Come on,” Nick said as he grabbed his tool bag and walked scrunched over towards the stone steps. Keeping his head below the top of the wall.
“Why?” Amanda hissed.
“To get the Docs,” he hissed back.
“Again, why?” Amanda said with a frustrated tone as she followed him.
“Think about it,” Nick said when he reached the bottom of the steps. “If we had a nice little trade agreement with a primitive culture and found they were hiding an intelligent species. What would we do?”
“Meet them, the new ones.” She responded as if the answer was obvious.
He snorted. “More than that. If we were slavers and murderers. We’d snatch them, these possible threats. Squeeze what information we could get out of them, then toss them out an airlock somewhere in deep space.”