by Calista Skye
Xark'ion got to his feet and opened the shuttle hatch. Immediately the shuttle got colder, and a stale smell of decay spread in the cabin. “Perhaps. And perhaps we want them to focus their anger on me, and not on the exalted diplomat.”
Ava got up and looked out of the hatch opening. It was as desolate a place as she had ever seen, and those Solp gave her the creeps. “Perhaps. We'll have to play it by ear. Just stay out of sight.”
He looked past her out onto the alien landscape. “Don't make my task unnecessarily challenging by walking too far from the shuttle.”
“I have to get close enough for the translator to pick up what they're saying.”
He pointed at the device she was wearing. “Will that alien device understand these beings?”
“Eventually,” Ava said. “It has to hear enough of their language to understand it.”
That was the problem with the device – it needed data, and it could sometimes be hard to get. More than once Ava had been wanting to talk to an alien species for the first time, and they just wouldn't utter a sound. Sign language usually didn't work with non-humanoid aliens, and it had sometimes taken her hours of her chattering away about random things before the aliens would say enough to the translator to start helping her.
“Possibly we can accelerate it.” Xark'ion turned to the control panel and pressed some buttons.
Suddenly the cabin resonated with a screechy noise like that of a hundred bricks being rubbed together, hard.
Ava clamped her hands over her ears. “Ouch! That's loud. What is that?”
Xark'ion turned down the volume. “This craft has a sound sensor. I directed it towards the ruin. That noise is what I remember from fighting the Solp. It's the sound they make.”
Ava frowned. It was nothing like any speech she'd ever heard from any alien. “That's the way they talk? This might be harder than I thought.”
She checked the translator. A small LED light was flashing in orange, the way it did when it was adapting to a new language, but couldn't yet translate it. “But it does seem to be working.”
She looked out the hatch opening again. The sky was a dirty yellow, as if stained with some unhealthy smoke. Yeah, the less time she spent out there, the better. Despite the sound from the speakers in the shuttle, she couldn't see any trace of the Solp.
She glanced over at Xark'ion, who was leaning casually into the back of his seat. He was so tall and wide he seemed to fill up the whole shuttle. The sickly light from the planet outside made his fire tattoo stand out more, and it looked so vivid she longed to touch it and trace it with her finger.
He noticed her staring and inclined his head quizzically.
“Did you have tough Trials?” she asked.
“Everyone does. That's the point of them, diplomat.”
“How many survived?”
“Two.”
“Of how many?” She already knew the answer, but for some reason she wanted to hear it from him, too. She liked the way his deep voice sounded in her ears, and sometimes it would set her chest vibrating with its bass tone. What was that deepest voice called in choir music? Basso profundo, wasn't it? But Xark'ion's voice had a power to it that she hadn't heard from any choir.
“Of nine.”
She knew this could be a sensitive topic for many Acerex warriors, but it was also of extreme importance to them. And if they didn't want to be asked about it, maybe they shouldn't carry those huge tattoos as mementos. Or maybe they could at least cover them up.
“Did the others burn?”
“Some burned. Some were taken by firebirds. Some taken by hergs. Some died from just accumulating too many injuries.”
She let her eyes wander over his bare torso with its immense muscles and many scars. “Were you injured?”
9
- Ava -
“Yes.” Xark'ion looked out the viewscreen and the shuttle was silent, except for the unpleasant alien chattering from the speakers. His jaws were tight with the memory.
“I'm sorry if I got too personal. I don't mean to pry. I know that the Fire Planet Trials are tough. I have been on the Fire Planet. I know how dangerous it is.”
He lifted his eyebrows a fraction. “You've been on Bosh?”
“Yes, right when I and the other Earth girls met Vrax'ton. We got very close to the Fire. We felt the wind as it sucked the air in from in front of it.”
He looked at her with renewed interest. “You experienced the Blast Storm and survived?”
She shuddered as she remembered the fear she had felt. It was the cold hopeless panic of someone who knows they're going to die. Shit, why had she picked this topic? To impress him with her toughness? Girl, seriously...
“Barely.”
He just looked at her for three heartbeats. “I think the diplomat has had her own Fire Trials.”
“Yes.” Now it was Ava's turn to look away.
She could feel his eyes on her while she forced down the memory. Things had turned out okay, but the Fire Planet had traumatized her worse than she'd admit. Not only had she been in danger herself, but as the leader of Gideo Station, she felt responsible for Harper being abducted in the first place and for taking the others along to look for her. She suspected that her hard work in securing space for Earth was at least partly because she wanted to make up for that.
“Anyway,” she said, “you and one other warrior survived the Trials. Am I right in guessing that the other one was Groti'ax?”
Xark'ion just looked at her. Then he pointed at her translator. “Your device appears ready.”
The LED had turned green.
“Oh. Yes, now we can talk to them. I won't move too far away from the shuttle. Keep an eye on me, please.”
She stuck her head out the hatch and looked down. The ground was so muddy she wondered if she would sink down and vanish without a trace. With any other footwear she'd hesitate to step out, but the encounter boots were highly advanced and would protect her from any issue there might be. They wouldn't even get that dirty, because the nano material they were made from would repel dirt on a molecular level.
She held onto the door frame and jumped down. She only sank down an inch in the wet dirt.
She took two steps towards the ruin and activated the translator.
“Hi,” she said, and the translator responded with the appropriate grating noise projected forwards. “I'm Ava from Earth, a planet far away. I'm here to meet you guys and maybe talk?”
There were more grating noises, and Ava did her best to not clench her jaw and make a face at the unpleasant sound.
There was no reply and no movement.
“Hello? It's okay, I'm not here to fight, just to talk.”
The formal 'we come in peace, take me to your leader' stuff wasn't Ava's thing. She'd had more success with a casual approach for communicating with aliens.
After another minute, a rock rolled down from the side of the ruin and past Ava's feet. She looked up and saw movement.
“Hi,” she said again, as brightly as she could. “Come out if you want. I will not hurt you.”
She could see one wrinkled head stick up from the heap of rubble. She smiled at it, fully aware that aliens as different from her as this would have no idea what that meant.
The Solp raised more of its body out of the rubble, dislodging more old pieces of broken concrete and forcing Ava to take a step to the left to avoid them.
Then the alien made its way down the side of heap on stiff, ungainly legs that only bent where they were attached to the rest of its body.
Ava felt her skin creep at the sight of the alien face with the spider eyes, but she managed to avoid taking a step back in disgust. This was the least appealing alien she'd seen since she and the other girls were abducted by the Nerng aliens. Its similarity to a rat was unsettling, and its three long front teeth just made the illusion stronger. It made its way slowly down to the mud, and then it stood there on six legs while its eye stalks waved slowly around its head. Now it lo
oked less like a rat and more like a huge spider standing upright.
Its three brown teeth ground against each other and Ava winced at the noise.
“Purpose you are here for what,” the translator said into her ear in a pleasant female voice.
“I am here to talk,” Ava said and looked up onto the heap, as another rock with jagged edges came rolling down towards her. “To talk with the Solp.”
The Solp ground its teeth together. “You are alien.”
“Yes,” Ava agreed. “I am an alien from far away. Will you talk with me?”
“We are a fierce killer of aliens.”
“I'm sure you are very fierce. But I am not here to kill. Or to be killed,” Ava added quickly, sending a quick glance to the shuttle behind her. She would have liked to have Xark'ion right next to her, but it was too soon.
“We have chased many aliens away. We have eaten many. Still we gnaw on their bones and their bones are food for our young and we will keep gnawing on their bones.”
Oh-kay.
“Again, I'm sure you will. And still, I'm not here to fight or be gnawed on or to invade. Do you have a ... king?” Well, maybe it was time to play the 'take me to your leader' card after all. This one seemed to have a limited focus. Most alien species had some kind of royalty.
“The king,” the Solp said. “He gnaws on the bones of many alien enemies. Even now his gnawing can be heard all over the world.”
Ava scratched her head. She'd never had an alien encounter go quite like this. “Uh-huh. Is he anywhere close? Could I talk to him? Could you take me to him?”
More rubble was dislodged as several Solp stuck their heads up from the rubble.
“The king,” another one of them said. “He gnaws on the bones of the enemy. Perhaps he would like more bones to gnaw. That alien appears to have bones. Observe its forelimbs! They end in a cluster of claws that must be backed by bones. Let us gnaw on it.”
Ava quickly put her hands behind her back, regretting not putting on gloves.
“There will be no need for any gnawing,” she said. “I will not be gnawed on. Or attacked in any way. I have only good will towards the Solp. Will you let me talk to your king?”
She was vaguely aware that if she'd been alone, she would have been going back to her shuttle just about now. All that 'gnawing' stuff was unsettling her. But Xark'ion was there, watching her. She would stay a little longer.
More Solp stuck their heads up, and some moved down the heap towards her. Their movements looked nothing like any creature that Ava had ever seen, but there was an agility in their stiff-legged movements that told her they could probably move fast when it was needed. It was very clear that Xark'ion was right – these beings were not builders of civilizations. They were scavengers.
“The king doesn't talk to aliens,” one of them said. “He gnaws on them.”
The aliens came closer, and Ava had a strong urge to turn away and jump into the shuttle. But she had to show Xark'ion that the friendly way was the best way.
“Your king will like what I have to say,” she tried. “Perhaps there will be many bones for him to gnaw on if he will see me. Many bones for all of you.”
She had no idea how that would happen, but in her missions among aliens she'd learned that it could be very useful to know what the other party wanted and valued. Gnawing bones was a first, but she might be able to use it still.
All the Solp froze when her translator finished making its ear-rending grinding noises.
“Many bones for all?” one of them said.
“For all,” Ava repeated. “Very juicy ones, I'm sure. But I must see the king if that is to happen.”
“It's a trick,” one Solp said. “Observe its size. It's as big as two of us. It intends only to murder us and then gnaw upon us.”
“Can it gnaw?” another rat-like alien said. “It has very tiny teeth.”
“But sharp,” another replied. “Let's take no chances here. With aliens, it's gnaw or be gnawed.”
More and more Solp stuck their heads up from the heap of rubble and then slunk down the side towards Ava, until it was like a river of greasy fur and dead, black eyes coming towards her.
She took several steps back, stumbled over something and fell on her butt on the mud. The hi-tech suit she was wearing stiffened and absorbed the impact, and she was back on her feet the next second.
But now the flow of scavenger aliens was only feet away. Some of the closest ones opened their mouths to wide gapes with one long, sharp tooth in the upper row separating from the two in the lower jaw. The suit could easily withstand this kind of attack, but Ava's head was unprotected, and if they started climbing up on her ...
She drew breath to call for Xark'ion to help, knowing it was too late. But before she could make a sound there was a shadow in front of her, and suddenly the air was filled with many Solp, cartwheeling helplessly away in large arcs before they landed on the rubble.
Xark'ion's huge shape was between Ava and the Solp, and apparently he didn't need his sword to protect her. He kept grabbing the aliens by their necks and flinging them back, and now the river of attackers was flowing the other way. The air was trembling with high-pitched grinding noises.
“It is a giant!” her translator said into her ear. “A bladed monster! Flee! It will kill us all and gnaw on us!”
Xark'ion flung a couple of more Solp up on the ruin.
Then he turned around with a merry smile on his face, holding a rat-like alien by its neck. “Does the diplomat wish to ask them something?”
The alien was twisting and sprattling wildly in his hand, and its stiff legs were running furiously in the empty air. Its grinding noises were frantic and so high-pitched they made Ava's ears hurt.
“Monster!” the translator insisted. “I will be gnawed!”
“I do want to ask him something,” Ava said. “But not like this. Can't you let him down or hold him less tightly?”
“I think it will run away.” Xark'ion released his grip a fraction, but it had no effect on the Solp. It was about the size of a large dog, and it gave off a sour, stale smell. The other Solp had vanished into the rubble, clearly only too happy to leave their compatriot alone with the alien monsters while they got away.
“Okay,” Ava said. “I guess this is the best we can hope for. Solp, I'm very sorry about this. We will of course release you right away. We will not gnaw on you. But could you please tell me where to find your king? Or maybe you know where the Kunuru aliens can be located?”
The Solp kept writhing and running its legs uselessly. A disgusting fluid trickled down its rough, greasy fur and dripped onto the mud. Xark'ion made a face and held the creature further out from him. It still made its grinding noises.
“The translator can't make sense of it,” Ava said. “This guy is scared out if his mind. I'll try again. Honored Solp, please do not be alarmed or afraid. We will release you very soon. Where is your king?”
She hoped her mild tone was coming through in the translation, but the noises the device was making sounded just as disharmonic and unpleasant as ever.
The Solp hung limply in Xark'ion's strong hand, trembling slightly as its eye stalks waved back and forth.
Xark'ion shook it and leaned in so his voice was picked up by Ava's more advanced translator. His Acerex language was translated both into English quietly in Ava's ear and into the Solp language, very loudly to their surroundings.
“Where is king of Solp? Where is Kunuru?”
The translator voice in Ava's ear was angry. But that wasn't what she wanted.
She reached up and put her hand on Xark'ion's thick shoulder, noticing the smoothness of the skin and the impossible firmness of his muscles.
“No, no! That's too aggressive. We're supposed to make friends here, not force information from them.”
Xark'ion leaned in again. “Say where king is or I throw you against that rock.” He pointed to a sharp piece of shattered concrete and shook the pitiful alien hanging f
rom his hand like a greasy rag.
“No!” Ava exclaimed. “Don't threaten him!”
The Solp ground its teeth together, making it sound like an anguished shriek.
“The Citadel,” the translator said into Ava's ear in its bright soprano. “The king is in the Citadel up high.”
Xark'ion shook it again, but Ava put her hand on his arm. He couldn't hear what the alien was saying.
“No, it's okay. He answered. The king is in the Citadel. Up high.”
The Acerex fixed the scavenger alien with eyes that could have bored through granite. “Where is this citadel?”
The Solp stiffened in his hand and made more noises. “In the stars! The king is in the Citadel in the stars! Not know what is Kunuru!”
Ava nodded. “It's okay, Xark'ion. We got it. The Citadel. In the stars. I think that's all he knows.”
Xark'ion unceremoniously dropped the alien to the ground, and it scurried into the rubble heap and was gone.
The warrior looked at his now empty hand with disgust. “A citadel in the stars. It seems it could be anywhere.”
Ava gave the landscape a skeptical look. “It could. But I don't think it can be that far away. I mean, this is probably their homeworld. I don't think the king would be that far away from home. I know King Vrax'ton prefers to be close to Acerex. Maybe we should look for buildings that are still standing. I mean, there can't be that many.”
Xark'ion stepped up into the shuttle and offered Ava his hand to help her inside. She hesitated for a moment, then took the huge, dry hand and stepped the two feet up.
“There can't,” he agreed and sat down in the pilot's seat.
Ava sat down beside him and fastened the seatbelt. “And next time, we can't just grab them by the throat and shake the answers from them. Give me your translator.”
The Acerex took his little device out of his ear and handed it over.
“It worked. Or so you say.”
Ava touched his translating machine to her own, then handed it back. “Now you speak Solp, too. Yes, it can work in the short run, but in the long run that method is going to be destructive. They'll just flee at the sight of us. I'm willing to wait and build trust before we get the answers we need. Even if it takes longer. We want to be friends with everyone.”