When Ghinn and Uchan left the AP Nikkonofune through the temporary entrance tunnel, Elena gave Niji a pair of last instructions. She also wanted her ship to return to its home base, unmanned. She hoped that the Argon military would keep the M4 for her and not send it on missions. Her lips drew into a small smile as he finally made her way to the airlock to cross the tunnel over to the FL Raindragon. “Last one turns out the lights” went the very old saying from Earth. She turned once more in the cramped passageway to the lock and glanced back into the cockpit. Strange, how much her heart yearned for something it could call home!
“Kyotsukette Nikkonofune,” she murmured, “take care of yourself,” then the outer bulkhead hissed softly as it closed behind her.
The massive headquarters of the FL Raindragon seemed tidy and surprisingly friendly. A large, two-part window provided a wide-angle view of surrounding space. Extensive control panels with flickering buttons and changing holoprojections stretched a half-length through the room. In front of the instruments there were three simple, metal seats, the middle of which was a raised command chair of Split construction. Uchan was already sitting on it and was operating flight systems as well as the weapons control station, the control panel for which was mounted on a swivel arm. The cockpit’s other instrumented walls were subdivided into rectangles of different sizes and outlandish colors. To the right of Uchan’s command chair, Kalmanckalsaltt towered in front of a narrow lectern that was peppered with blinking signals. Paranids never settled down, at least not in front of other species. No one even knew if they ever sat or lay down.
The FL Raindragon took off and left the star system of Argon Prime four hours later through one of the four stargates. The flight from Argon Prime to Nif-Nakh would require about five and a half tazuras; that was roughly a third of the maximum distance one could travel through the Community of Planets. How many light years the Community actually spanned, astronomers were paradoxically not able to say with certainty. The only thing that was certain was that some star systems must be many hundreds or thousands of light years apart, even though their jumpgates made them direct neighbors. Other sectors, on the other hand, obviously belonged to common regions in the Milky Way; the colored gasses of the Halmnan Aurora, which stretched in all its glory from across the Argon regions to over the domains of the Split, were a well-known example of this. In addition, there were still some star systems and sectors that had escaped any positioning on the galactic map. However, the scientific community agreed that these locations were millions of light years distant and mostly likely belonged to galaxy clusters on the edge of the so-called Local Group.
Near the end of the first flight-tazura, a messenger drone went to the Patriarch of Chin which informed the leader of all Split of the imminent arrival of his consort. Nola Hi, who at the request of Uchan never left his environmental space, initially suggested merely asking Chin for landing authorization, but both Uchan as well as Ghinn rejected this as being too submissive. Both preferred an impersonal note that confronted the Patriarch with completed facts. Elena did not know why he hated the ruler of the Split so intensely, but that he did was obvious.
Ghinn, too, did not seem well disposed to her lord, and the prospect of meeting Chin soon apparently left her completely cold. The Split woman almost never spoke; if she said anything at all, she spoke exclusively to Uchan. She avoided Elena and Kalmanckalsaltt wherever she went. If an encounter was unavoidable, she treated the Earth woman and the Paranid as though they were invisible. How had Uchan managed to get Ghinn to return to Nif-Nakh? All indications showed that she would prefer to spend the rest of her life in exile than return! Elena racked her brains but found no meaningful explanation. At mid-tazura on the second tazura of flight, Elena squeezed through the narrow central aisle that separated the Boron’s environmental region from the oxygen region to confront Ghinn with these questions directly. The Split woman opened the temporary door, but immediately pressed the close button when she saw who had requested admission. Elena put her foot on the pressure seal of the guide rail so that the door opened again. “Ghinn, we have to talk.”
“The creature talks with the Boron thing next door,” Ghinn replied with contempt. “She will remove herself immediately.”
When Elena refused and was about to step into the room, Ghinn stepped into her path with her eyes full of hatred. With a sudden movement, she jerked her right arm up and struck at Elena’s temple, but Elena’s reflexes kicked in and she ducked skillfully under the blow. Despite her advanced pregnancy, Ghinn was still very nimble; she turned instantly and prepared to strike Elena again. But Elena was faster: before the Split woman could act, she was already behind her and reached for the menacingly raised arm, which she turned back with only one hand and locked at the joint. Ghinn struggled hard, but Elena didn’t let up. After a few moments, Ghinn surrendered, panting.
“You only win because of my condition!”
“I know that,” Elena replied calmly, pretty sure that was the case. “I know you hate me, Ghinn,” she said, pulling the Split woman away from the door so that it could close. “I’m sorry, but having said that, I can also understand it.”
“Then leave me in peace,” Ghinn hissed, unconsciously switching over to the more respectful style of address used for equals.
“I will, as soon as you answer some of my questions. Can I let you go now?”
“Try it!” Ghinn snapped, her eyes flashing.
Elena had barely released Ghinn’s wrists when Ghinn turned in a fluid motion and rammed her elbow into Elena’s face; Elena, taken completely by surprise, reeled and fell backwards with a dull sound, where she lay dazed for a moment. She expected Ghinn to immediately attack again to take advantage of the situation, but the attack failed to appear. Elena felt something hot running over her lips and chin. She scrambled back to her feet and felt for her nose, which felt completely normal. She found a heavily bleeding laceration only two centimeters above the bridge of her nose, which was from the Split woman’s bony elbow. Now, as the immediate shock subsided, the wound began to throb.
“The blood of the Split is dark brown,” said Ghinn. Her wide, drawn-down mouth spoke of great satisfaction. “I always wanted to know what color that of the Argon is.” She raised her arms and showed her wrists, which had been darkened by the pressure of Elena’s iron grip. “Pain for pain.”
Elena pulled a corner of her white undershirt out of the light blue USC jumpsuit and pushed it against the laceration. “Now that we are even—can we finally speak with one another?”
“First cover your disfigurement,” Ghinn replied, staring at Elena’s navel with a disgusted look. She threw a white, linen towel at the pilot’s head. Elena stuffed the blood-soaked undershirt back into her uniform and squeezed the cloth against her laceration. “You Split are a strange people,” she said. She looked around the spartanly appointed room and settled on a cargo box.
“We Split are first and foremost a proud people,” Ghinn said back, sitting on the edge of her bunk. “We have our own rites and laws, but we will not bow, never!”
Elena nodded, waiting.
“I do not hate you, Earth woman,” Ghinn continued. “Do not believe that! But there is nothing we have to discuss. We have nothing in common. Nothing at all.”
Elena looked at the opposite wall for a few sezuras. “I just want to know what made you change your mind and return to Nif-Nakh.”
“Why do you want to know that—are you expecting difficulties?”
Elena shrugged her shoulders. “Hai.”
Again, that contented expression flickered over Ghinn’s face. “The Patriarch will surely torture and kill you,” the Split said with the corners of her mouth raised. “But he will not execute me before I give birth to his son. And that is all I want: I would like the little warrior to grow up among the Split. He should not waste away among alien creatures on a secluded world. And now, go.”
“That’s the entire reason?” Elena asked. Of course it sounded logical—
almost too logical for her taste.
“Yes. The creature will remove herself. Immediately.” Suddenly the Split woman had reconsidered the impersonal form of address for subordinates and thralls. She stood up to emphasize her words. Elena did the same. For a few mizuras, she had managed to break through Ghinn t’Whht’s cold mask. As frosty and dismissive as she seemed, there was a person underneath, a woman with wishes, hopes, and strong emotions.
“Thanks, I…” Elena hesitated a sezura and then shook her head slightly. She said goodbye without waiting for a reply, and left the room.
Chapter 20
All the beasts of heaven can’t restrain me!
Thuruk t’Mhhg
To make everything worse, it was now raining, too. Zhi cursed cautiously; like all Split, he didn’t love water, and was only prepared to expose himself to it in exceptional and emergency situations. This was obviously both: Qham t’Trrh, the wise, old woman, had awakened him and hastily told him that Hatrak had supposedly gone to the latrine but had not returned. Where had this rebellious beast gone off to? She wanted to be a restrainer, when she herself was the one who needed restrained! Or maybe just the care of a nanny.
Ahead lay the drying hut, and through the entrance Zhi could dimly recognize the strips of drying meat hanging there. For a moment he struggled against the thought of waiting out the cloudburst in the hut, but then he resisted the temptation and simply glanced in it: no living soul hid here. Without a word, Zhi turned and continued following the path that led out of the interior of the island. The rain still beaded up on his leggings, but shortly thereafter it began to soak into the tanned darphin brain linings that made up the fabric. The membrane clung to his thighs with each step. Zhi growled: unbridled anger rose up in him. He moved faster and faster, until he nearly ran, but he couldn’t out run the constant, hideous splash of his ever-harder stamping feet. He vowed to kill the Teladi as soon as he found him. It was quite certain that the saurian was with Hatrak, because she was not in the punishment house, he made sure of that before he left the village. He would ignore Hatrak no matter what punishment Rhonkar devised for his disobedience! The dirt trail ended with the last row of trees, and the old warrior finally came panting into the twilight rain-gray of the lake shore. What he saw instantly diffused his rage. Icy shock flashed through him.
Hatrak was lying with dilated eyes halfway between the edge of the forest and the shore; her slender body was pushed deep into the muddy sand by the weight of a dead ghok that lay partially over her. Blood trickled unceasingly, thin and brown, from a large wound in her left side: it was watered down and washed away in rivulets by the torrential rain, and it flowed steadily. The girl’s rattling breath was lost in the soundscape of the rain shower, but the inflections of the choppy fragments of words, which she spluttered in a fragile voice, swirled dully and incomprehensibly to the edge of the woods and drove themselves under the old warrior’s skin. Hatrak t’Frrt, daughter of the thrall consort of Rhonkar, Aqhn, was badly wounded, possibly lay dying!
For a long time, no ghoks remained on the island, but occasionally, very rarely, a specimen ventured from the mainland. You could escape the animals by simply retreating into the forest; they never followed. Why hadn’t Hatrak done this? Why not inform Supreme Warrior Thro, who could put together a hunting party and slay the beast quickly and without danger? Only then Zhi noticed the saurian descendant cowering beside Hatrak like a picture of misery, holding the girl’s hand helplessly in his claws. A rumbling rose in the warrior’s throat and developed into a long-drawn battle cry. Terrified, the Teladi looked up as he saw Zhi t’Nnt charging at him with his spear raised and ready to throw; but he didn’t let go of Hatrak’s hand until the Split pushed him aside roughly. Hatrak’s wounds were even worse than they looked from a distance. It wasn’t just a deep, jagged tear that stretched across her left side; in addition, Zhi saw numerous burns that covered the girl’s entire arm. Some of the acid marks were still steaming, betraying how fresh they still were.
“The creature will run to the village and seek help. Immediately!” Zhi barked. Without waiting for Nopileos’s answer, he threw away his spear and gripped the ghok’s tail with both arms; greenish, shimmering acid escaped from the dead jaws and spread over the warrior’s fingers and arms, but he ignored it. As he pulled the animal’s heavy body away from Hatrak, its huge, death-slack wing membranes stretched out and lay over the girl like a translucent, sand-smeared skin. The wings proved to be extremely tough and unruly, so Zhi finally separated them at the arm-thick joints, being careful not to release any more acid. Only when he had cleared the giant insect’s wings away did he fall to his knees panting, to put his arms into the wet cold mud that extinguished their burning with a hiss. Zhi didn’t know why, but he was completely certain that the creature had actually run to Gus-tan to get help instead of taking the opportunity to escape.
“Zhi?” Hatrak whispered. She coughed. The warrior answered curtly, ripping off his sodden shirt to tie bind the girl’s blood-seeping wound. The wide shirt completely reached around Hatrak’s narrow body twice; she gasped wildly as Zhi improvised a pressure bandage and knotted the sleeves of the shirt over the wound. The shirt immediately turned light brown, but perhaps the procedure would help to slow the bleeding.
“Let t’Nop go,” Hatrak whispered. Instead of answering, Zhi began to pile wet sand over the acid burns on the girl’s limbs.
“Will you let him go?” Hatrak asked again after a while. Zhi straightened up, stowed the knife and picked up his spear; he could do no more for the daughter of Rhonkar.
“Noble Hatrak… Rhonkar, your father, my master, has decided the fate of the saurian creature. It is not in my power to change that.”
“You don’t want to, either,” Hatrak whispered after some sezuras had elapsed, in which the only the continuously beating down cloudburst could be heard. Zhi hadn’t been aware of the water for a long time; he slowly looked around in the murky veil of rain. His eyes caught on the short spear that was buried in the body of the giant, dead insect, right where the beast’s nerve center was hidden. Only a Split could know where the sensitive spot of the ghok lay. Hatrak must have struck down the animal alone. Almost unthinkable, really, but it didn’t matter anyway.
“No,” the warrior answered, unusually calm. “I certainly do not want to.”
Hatrak remained silent and resigned. Even before she could summon more words, the sound of hasty footsteps penetrated the nearby forest. Gilha broke out of the thicket before the rest. She threw the Teladi, whom she had simply shouldered, carelessly down from her back, put down her blowpipe, and dove over to Hatrak. Hasty sentences in Split language flew back and forth between her and Zhi. After Gilha, Aqhn emerged from the trail onto the beach, and after her followed Thro, Rhonkar, the boy Fjuny t’Scct, and after a long moment, the breathless village elder, Golan t’Vllt.
Nopileos had picked himself up to his feet. No one seemed to notice him; the Split had all gathered around Hatrak and were apparently discussing how the girl could most safely be brought back to the village. More and more Split came along the forest path; soon the entire population of the village seemed to be gathered on the beach. Most of them carried their new blowpipes with them. What to do? Undecided, the Teladi’s gaze moved back and forth between the Split and the lake. He had escaped the water at exactly this point seven wozuras before and had gone ashore. Shouldn’t he… take the opportunity?
A distant rustling pierced the rain and interrupted his thoughts. The Split looked up in surprise. The buzzing quickly developed into a roar, and finally to the characteristic crackling that only came from ion engines! Slowly, two jets descended to the beach from a great height, their metal bellies visibly bearing the glowing insignia of the Patriarch. For a decazura, Gus-tan had existed here, unnoticed, on the other side of the planet. But that was finally at an end. The long-awaited, much-anticipated confrontation with the hated Patriarch of Chin would make its beginning here—or find its end. While the warriors of
the gathered Split sized their weapons tightly and prepared for the landing of the fighter planes, the women and children retreated back into the forest in an orderly fashion. Only the closest confidants of Rhonkar as well as Zhi stayed behind to protect the severely wounded girl Hatrak.
Since nobody seemed to pay him any attention, Nopileos slowly backed into the water, step by step, which already reached to his waist. As the craft hovered some hundred lengths above the ground, Zhi t’Nnt’s gaze fell on the lake. Without any recognizable element of surprise, the aging warrior stormed away. Rhonkar followed his movement with his eyes, spotted Nopileos as well, and shouted something to Zhi, who ignored it. The Teladi turned and waded further into the lake in panic; but he wouldn’t make it, Zhi was far too fast and his spear would reach him before he was deep enough to dive away!
“Lizard t’Nop!” a familiar yet strangely altered voice screamed over the engine noise. Nopileos glanced over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of Hatrak, who had half risen with effort—and of Zhi, who in the meantime had come within throwing range..
“Seven and twelve—t’Nop! Seven and twelve!” Hatrak yelled in a failing voice. Through the improvised pressure bandage, light brown Split blood still seeped from her wound, but less, and in short, fast spurts. Nopileos stopped dead in his tracks and turned around completely. As in slow motion, he saw Hatrak’s lips silently forming the words “seven” and “twelve” twice, then the girl’s eyes flickered closed and she sank back.
Nopileos: A novel from the X-Universe: (X4: Foundations Edition 2018) (X Series) Page 17