Dominion

by Scott McElhaney

  One of the creatures replied in the same foreign tongue, gesturing them to come forward as he spoke rapidly.

  “If you really don’t know who the Shomani are and don’t realize that you are Cheronook, I ask that you at least feign reverence for the Demigods of the Shomani,” she whispered to him, keeping her head low, “They understand you are confused right now, but even the confused know how to show respect.”

  “What should I do?” he whispered, keeping in step with her as she approached the three creatures.

  “Keep your head low and do not make eye contact unless one of them lifts your chin. If they do that, you are free to act as an equal, and share in their company freely. But please do not act in arrogance,” she said, “I wish for you to keep the status of honored guest so that I may continue to serve in this capacity.”

  He stared at the marble floor as she led him down the center of the room. He heard the beasts talking to each other in the unfamiliar language as he approached. Kashuba said something foreign just before Hawke found himself gazing upon the large shod feet of the Shomani.

  “Koon ta ta fohnaka,” the creature before him stated.

  A bony white hand with a single outstretched finger reached out to Hawke and touched his chin. There was a moment of pause before his chin was lifted, bringing his gaze upon the deep black eyes of the creature.

  “He extends greetings and wonders if you are hungry,” Kashuba translated.

  “Please tell them that I return kind greetings and that no, I’m not hungry. I just have a million questions,” Hawke said, turning to her suddenly, “Questions for you, Kashuba. Questions for them. What are they? Are these beasts a mutation of some creature that used to-”

  “Stop, Hawke!” she called out in frustration, “Please give me some time to translate and I do not appreciate you referring to the Demigods as ‘beasts’.”

  She then turned to the creatures and spoke rapidly in the alien tongue. One of the creatures grunted in a way that could only be considered a laugh.

  “The leader, Orlo, understands completely and believes that your confusion comes as a result of the berthing chamber. He wishes for answers as much as you do and requests you join him for dinner,” she said, “Your answer must be yes whether you are hungry or not.”

  “What is a ‘berthing chamber’?” he asked without hesitation.

  “That is not the response he wishes at this time,” she replied.

  “Surely this beas… Orlo,” he corrected himself quickly, “Surely Orlo realizes that some of his words may confuse me. If there is some mysterious chamber that has caused me to have problems accepting this… this weird ‘reality’, then I’d like to know what the chamber is!”

  She turned to the creature and spoke rapidly to him, making pleading and apologetic gestures the whole time. He was worried that this fragile helper feared for her life in their presence. Orlo replied, then reached out and patted Hawke on the shoulder.

  “He agrees that there will indeed be problems in our translation. He calls the place where you slept on your ship a berthing chamber and expects that it caused you some problems,” she replied, “Will you please accept his dinner invitation?”

  He sighed, then nodded, “Yes, I would be honored.”

  She quickly translated. The three creatures spun and led them deeper into the enormous cathedral.

  “Where is the other man who was with me?” he whispered to her, “There were two of us in berthing chambers.”

  “You were the only one, Hawke,” she replied.

  “No, there was another man. There were two of us,” he insisted, “Where’s the ship that you found me in?”

  “We don’t-” she began before being interrupted by two of the creatures before them.

  She replied to them in the Shomani tongue, getting another response from the aliens.

  “They want to know what we are discussing as it is very impolite for us to keep talking without translating for them. I told them about your question and they stated that the other Cheronook with you was significantly decayed,” she said, “They say he died in his sleep. They also don’t know the location of your ship.”

  So Casey Shores was dead and Meriwether Hawke was MIA according to NASA. He wondered why the abrupt news of Shores’ death didn’t pain him as he suspected it should have. Perhaps he was having a little trouble accepting any of his current circumstances and that included the deaths of anyone he knew. It still wasn’t possible to him that he was on another planet following three “Demigods” to a feast.

  They were led through a corridor to another large room with marble walls and a high ceiling. This room, however, was filled with dozens of curious Shomani seated on the floor staring his way. They all had the same bony features; some with rows of jaw horns and some without. All were seated around small rugs on the floor divided into groups of three or four. Each of the rugs were loaded with large ceramic bowls of food.

  Hawke tried to hide his intense curiosity as he followed their group to one of the rugs near the center of the room. Orlo gestured to the food and said something that sounded like “zoo colon,” which he immediately hoped had nothing to do with animal intestines.

  “You are being invited to be seated first as the guest of honor. As your servant, I will share in your meal and sit where you choose,” she explained.

  “My servant? I thought you were my guide and my interpreter,” he stated in shock, “Please don’t take on the role of some ‘servant’ of mine.”

  “Hawke, this is not up for discussion and you are being rude by keeping these people standing,” she hissed through clenched teeth, “Choose a seat and we can argue then.”

  He smiled at the Shomani and nodded. He then sat down at the edge of the rug nearest him. Kashuba sat down next to him, making it obvious that the three Demigods would take the other three sides of the rug and Kashuba would share in Hawke’s side.

  “You are not a servant, a slave, or anything else that is submissive to me,” he whispered to her, “If anything, I am your guest and doing as you so generously guide me to do.”

  “No, this is not the way. When you agreed to be an ambassador and a guest, you accepted me as your gift. If you reject me, you have shunned their gift and insulted them,” she stated, “And you would be left without an interpreter in a place where you seem very insistent on insulting your kind hosts.”

  “Then let’s agree that I have accepted you as a ‘gift’ but that I release you from any code of bondage, servitude, slavery, or whatever it is you feel you must be bound by. And now I ask you in your newfound freedom to choose that you would please agree to help me as you have been,” he stated.

  Tears pooled in her eyes as she stared at him. One of his hosts spoke something to which she quickly shook her head.

  “You are not pleased with me?” she asked, a tear escaping, “Is it my appearance? I assure you that I have kept to a strict regimen of exercise and a god-pleasing diet. Orlo wants to know if you wish to exchange me.”

  “You misunderstand me, Kashuba! Tell him now that I accept you completely and I am more than grateful,” he demanded, “I just don’t want you to be my aid against your will or to do anything at all against your will.”

  She wiped her eyes and spoke something to the others in their group. The one without horns reached out and touched his arm, stating something.

  “Orlo’s wife Tutanza says that it’s kind of you to request my freedom, but that I am an orphan and have been rescued by the Demigods,” she said, “I can tell you myself, Hawke, that I have spent many years with the Shomani and I have studied in their schools and have been accepted as one of them in spite of being born of an enemy race. I believe in the Shomani and I have accepted my position in their church. I am called a ‘peacekeeper’ and my duty is to serve the gods and the Demigods in this role.”

  He closed his eyes and breathed out a sigh of resignation. Whatever the Shomani were, they appeared to be stuck in the same ancient traditions found on Ear
th. It also sounded like the humans or “Cheronook” were enemies of the Shomani.

  “Let them know that I accept you and I am honored to be their guest at this feast,” he said, smiling at those around him.

  He looked down at the large bowls of food while she talked to his hosts. Each bowl was heaping with various foods resembling different colored biscuits and crackers. Some of the bowls were filled with what appeared to be soups or sauces.

  Orlo lifted a brown biscuit from one of the bowls and ripped it in half, offering the other half to Hawke. He accepted it with a smile, impressed to see that it indeed appeared to be an ordinary dark bread similar to pumpernickel. Orlo then took his half and dipped it into one of the red soups, then he took a bite and chewed hungrily. The others had their eyes on Hawke, apparently waiting for him.

  He dipped his bread in the same bowl and then took a bite. The soup was cold and somewhat bitter, but the bread was soft and sweet, masking much of the soup’s unpleasant taste. He smiled and chewed as though it was the best thing he’d ever tasted. Immediately, everyone smiled and started grabbing for various foods.

  “I can only eat whatever you choose for me as this is the position they are accustomed to, Hawke,” Kashuba said, “I highly recommend the red loaves of bread dipped in the yellow cream sauce.”

  He accepted her hint and retrieved two red loaves, offering one of them to her. She broke her loaf long ways and then dipped it in the cream sauce.

  “I know, by the way, that you didn’t like the red sauce. It’s a Shomani delicacy, which to the Cheronook means it’s either sour or bitter,” she said, taking a bite and smiling at him, “They knew you would not like it but wanted to see your reaction. You honored them with your smile.”

  “And the yellow sauce?” he asked.

  “A sweet butter cream that compliments any of the breads except the ones that look like burned cubes. This bread is my favorite,” she said.

  He chuckled at her description of the burned bread nearest Tutanza. He dipped his bread into the butter cream and found it to be exceptional. He savored his bite with a groan of satisfaction.

  “Peh joon ah konasta,” one of his hosts said.

  “He commented on the fact that Cheronook are not good at hiding their satisfaction when it comes to certain foods,” she offered, “We tend to groan or sigh an awful lot.”

  Hawke smiled and nodded as he dipped his bread again into the yellow sauce.

  “It is good,” he replied, “Thank you for the suggestion.”

  . . . .

  The meal continued on with only light conversation until the bowls were empty. Hawke tried to ask questions, but Kashuba stopped him, insisting that it was impolite to discuss important matters at dinner. That was saved for afterward. Now that the food bowls were empty though, it seemed that the Shomani were ready to talk.

  “Orlo wants to know how you got into space and how you bypassed the Shomani detectors,” Kashuba said, interpreting what was just spoken, “The Shomani believed they were the only ones with Komano engines capable of boosting a ship into outer space. Cheronook have yet to discover any true methods of suborbital flight beyond that of dirigibles.”

  He stared at her for a moment, then glanced at the others seated around the carpet. It would have been hard enough for him to comprehend and accept all that she was inferring had she been using regular English words, but now it was all the more difficult for him as he tried to break down the meaning of the alien words scattered throughout her explanations.

  “By the way, the person seated to my right is one of our most honored space scientists, the Demigod Ploy,” she added.

  “Let me get this straight,” Hawke said, turning to Kashuba, “Cheronook are people like you and me. And these Cheronook don’t live here with people like them – the Shomani. The Shomani have spaceflight capabilities, but the people like you and me lack any sort of… well, we lack any form of technology as though we were part of some third world country?”

  “I don’t know what a third world country is, but yes, what you say is correct otherwise,” she said, turning to the others and translating all that Hawke had been saying.

  The one who Kashuba had referred to as “Orlo’s wife” spoke rapidly; looking at Hawke the whole time. He looked at Tutanza, understanding nothing of what she said but making sure she knew that she had his attention. He wondered now if the horns along the jaw line were one of the differences between males and females among the Shomani.

  “She is asking if you are from the frozen continent. The ancient stories of the Shomani speak of a secret society of Cheronook who live beneath the ice of the unnamed northern continent. Some stories state that they are far advanced beyond that of even the Shomani,” Kashuba explained.

  “Tell them that I don’t believe I am from this planet at all, but I really don’t know for sure. The planet I come from is called Earth and there are no Shomani there,” he replied.

  She quickly translated his statement to them. Gasps and discussions rose from all around them as Hawke suddenly became aware of others all around them eavesdropping on the group. Orlo said something, then nodded for Kashuba to translate it.

  “As odd as your statement sounds, he finds it believable based on the craft you came in. Demigod Ploy was the one who inspected your ship and claimed it to be very old based on the dirty, pockmarked hull. But he also claimed it to be oddly futuristic based on the lack of thrusters for your engines,” she said.

  “I designed that engine, but if you were hoping to share in that advanced technology, I regret to inform you that there was a significant flaw,” he said, shrugging to those around him, “Not to mention the fact that it doesn’t operate by burning combustible fuel in the conventional sense.”

  She continued to translate while he spoke.

  “It was a gravitational-reflex engine that was supposed to shrink the distance between the stars by a thousand; a million; a billion fold and I think it did exactly that. Shores and I had programmed a test jump into the guidance computer that should have taken us to one of our outer planets. We ended up somewhere far beyond our star system instead. Without inspecting my ship or the engine however, I can’t readily tell you what caused this fatal error,” he said.

  “How can you speak of such nonsense about being from another planet? Lies will not help your cause any. You’re Cheronook,” Kashuba translated Ploy’s animated reaction, “You even speak the same language as the Cheronook.”

  “I can’t explain that, my friend,” Hawke replied, “I wonder, perhaps, if this could be the planet that I once called Earth, but that wouldn’t explain the presence of the Shomani or the loss of my own people’s technology.”

  Ploy leaned forward and folded his hands, staring at Hawke in a way that he couldn’t read. The expressions of the Shomani were very subtle due to the taut appearance of their skin. Hawke only hoped that these people would be able to read him and see that he wasn’t bringing them a load of lies. He could only imagine the methods of torture this alien race reserved for liars from an enemy land.

  “You are a thinker like me, and willing to look at all possibilities,” Ploy replied, “This is good. Our records go back for centuries upon centuries however, showing a long history of the Shomani living here on this planet. Archaeologists have uncovered Shomani cities dating back more than five thousand years. As far as we can tell, the Shomani have always had a presence on this world. It’s our only home.”

  Kashuba continued in her role of translator, keeping up well with the conversation.

  “I’d hate to believe I’ve been asleep for that long and find it highly unlikely anyway that my ship would have maintained a body in cryostasis for more than a hundred years,” he muttered, “I really don’t know how to explain any of this.”

  “Can you teach us the technology of your interstellar engine and allow our scientists to help try to discern what caused the distance prediction problem?” Orlo asked, “We would provide you with many servants and peacekeeper
s to meet all your needs even after you have assisted our people.”

  Kashuba didn’t meet his eyes as she translated this for Hawke. Something in her demeanor changed in that moment and he caught on immediately.

  “Peacekeepers… like you, Kashuba?” he asked.

  “We serve the purpose of the-”

  “People aren’t supposed to be used in this manner,” he said, “And now you’re telling me that there are others who have accepted this way of life too?”

  His hosts continued to talk silently amongst themselves. Kashuba gestured to his hosts with a quick tilt of her head, though still refusing to meet his eyes.

  “They are beginning to get curious about what you are saying to me, Hawke. I wish not to repeat your disrespectful words, so I am going to lie,” she said.

  “Wait,” he said, raising his hand quickly to stop her, “Tell him I didn’t understand you at first but now that I do, explain that I don’t need any more peacekeepers or slaves or whatever he calls them. And yes, I’d be willing to assist in sharing the engine technology. First however, they need to understand that it will require significant quantities of some heavier lanthanide and actinide elements. I’m not sure what the Shomani capabilities are when it comes to nuclear technology. Oh, and they need to understand that I refuse to be treated as a prisoner of the Shomani.”

  She stared at him for a moment, then her gaze fell down to the gold bracelet on his wrist. He followed her gaze and then started to ask her what it was. She cut him off abruptly by translating what he had said for the others in the room.

  The room exploded in overlapping conversation all of a sudden. He couldn’t tell if it was excitement, anger, or confusion. He slid closer to Kashuba, trying to avoid the questions directed at him from all directions.

  “There is some argument over what you are meaning by ‘heavy actinides and lanthanides’ and ‘nuclear technology’,” she explained, not bothering to translate any specific person’s words, “It seems they fear you are trying to make it so you don’t have to help us.”