by Ken Pence
This was too much for these guys and two let fly with arrows that just fell to the ground when the reached the outer layers of the soldiers’ armor. Andrew nodded to the soldiers and they stunned the two that had shot them. That was enough for the rest. The natives threw down their bows. Humans would have run at this point but these fellows were stout and just stood their proudly. “These little guys have cajones. I’ll give them that,” Peters said.
Susan motioned the leader into his building – it was much too elaborate to be called a hut. He got up and entered – reluctantly. Susan told the other shuttle to bring the field generator and training machine plus a cylinder for Trade. It wasn’t fifteen minutes before the shuttle appeared, unseen, behind the leader’s building and unloaded another soldier and the required equipment. Andrew picked up on what Susan intended. The leader was in abject terror now. The soldiers stepped a few meters from the building and stood guard. The shield generator started and was set to a time rate of 30 to normal...thank goodness for Tod’s improvements. As soon as the field was in place, they pulled out the teaching machine and popped in a Trade language cylinder. Susan motioned for the leader to put on the device head strap but when he refused – Andrew forced him down and put it on the leader’s head. Ninety minutes later – 3 minutes normal time – they turned off the machine and Susan spoke to the leader in Trade.
“I will ask you again. Where is Hllouge? We wish to speak with him – now. How did you get this coin that I gave him?” she asked.
“You are a female and I will tell you nothing?” said the leader.
“We will change you into less than dust if you do not answer me. I will enjoy destroying you if you are so stupid you do not understand that fact. You are not my leader and I do not mind getting rid of a stupid leader,” Susan said.
“How can you do this...how can I speak your language? It is not from books I gained this ability – is it that box?” the leader asked.
“I may answer questions if you answer mine. Do you want enemies who will destroy all the civilization you have managed to save? Your climate is getting ready to improve and you wish to end it all?”
“I was right. We have entered the reawakening period. Hllouge was exiled because he claimed you were from another planet – I know about other planets and they are incredibly far away – impossible,” said the leader. “It was undermining my authority so I banished him.”
“I sincerely hope he is still alive or nothing in this village will reawaken if you don’t find him. We are much better as friends than enemies,” Susan said in Trade.
“I will order my men to go find him and bring him here,” the leader said.
“Tell your men to ask him to come so he can talk to Susan. Say please if you have to but use no force,” Susan said.
“Yes Susan,” said the leader as he stepped out and started yelling at his men to go find Hllouge and ask him to come back and talk with Susan. He made them all repeat it three times each before he sent them out so Susan felt that the message had gotten across.
Andrew turned to Susan. “Were you going to kill all these people? No. No. You just didn’t want him to think you were a weak female. That is a hard trait to break but this guy was damn quick on the uptake. Those men outside didn’t just run away when they saw superior force – pretty respectably quick on us using technology to teach him. He even knew about the climate changing. We did see some pretty advanced tech astronomy-wise here the first time. It would be pretty hard to do anything with little metal though their ceramics were like nothing I had seen before but I have no idea what we should ask them for in trade.”
“Aren’t you the talkative one? I don’t want to spend a lot of time waiting in a suit. What do you think? The planets rotation is a bit longer than Earth – so tomorrow morning?” she asked as the leader came back in.
“I have sent most of my men out to the old city. That was where he has been seen digging,” the leader said. “He is probably close to there and should heed a call to return...”
“Welcome him back when he returns,” Susan said. She asked her MemDex if Sol would be visible from this village and in what direction. The MemDex said affirmative and displayed on her heads-up display. “He was correct that we were from another planet,” she said and turned off the lamps in the room. It was dark even though it was still daylight outside. She told he MemDex to project the image of Sol and then zoom in on Earth. The image began to display and the leader kept his cool...she thought that she would have been floored by this display just years before. “Here is a re-creation of how it will look tonight.”
The MemDex projected the image of the daylight fading and the stars coming out. It projected wisps of clouds from its weather scans. It showed the labels for Sol and other third magnitude stars that would likely be visible. The debris cloud around Tau Ceti would be clearing more and more as the planet’s orbit shifted closer to the sun for a few centuries.
“This is what our records have been saying. You came here because we are entering a warmer period?” the leader asked as he relit his lamps understanding that the presentation was over. This fellow was sharp and she doubted humans would have done so well with the first extraterrestrial they saw.
“No,” Susan said. “We came here to see Hllouge. This is how a trip from here to our home would look like,” she said and her MemDex steadied the view and projected an image traveling first away from Tau Ceti 3 to hover over the planet. The view then changed to zoom outward past the debris field and the 4th planet and out into space with Sol getting larger and larger until they swept in past Saturn and Jupiter and through the asteroid belt. The view then approached and hovered over Earth and finally descended.
“I will admit to the village that I was wrong and reinstate all of his rights. Will that appease you?” the leader asked.
The guy was pretty astute. “No,” she said. “...but it is a good start. Do not start saying a female is weaker...you lose many valuable ideas that way,” Susan said and had a sudden inspiration. “Do your records say anything about treating women as less than men? Do any of your records say anything about women being less intelligent than men?”
The leader thought for a minute and then said the line that has been quoted millions of times on multitudes of planets in millions of tongues. “We have always done it that way,” he said.
“Do all villages treat women as second-rate citizens?” she asked suspecting the truth.
“I know of some that do and some do not,” the leader said. “I do not recall ever having seen a record that described them in any way like they did not rate as highly as men. We just have been doing it that way. I will investigate. I can see men think highly of women in your species.”
It was like this guy was just another colleague she was talking to and not some tribal leader now. He seemed incredibly educated for a village leader.
Susan had another hunch. “What happened to the leader that was here when I came last? What title or office did you play then?” she asked.
“He died of natural causes. I was the senior record keeper and had access to all the books and scrolls,” he said. “I became the leader.”
“..and Hllouge was assistant record keeper and you did not want him as senior,” she stated.
“He was unstable – we thought he was unstable because though the knowledge inheritance spoke about other stars, it never spoke about other peoples except when talking about the before time,” he said.
Knowledge inheritance...I like that phrase, she thought. “What do you mean by the before time?” she asked.
“That is the time before we reached civilization. Our biggest cities were built on the sites of the before people,” he said.
“Your ancestors?” she asked.
“No. The before people were here when this world was young. They built large cities. The city where we are looking for Hllouge is near such a city but we do not think they were like us,” he said. “Our records go back many -- many years. We are excellent r
ecord keepers. The before people built buildings much differently than we would. It seemed they lived in or around water. We never found a crypt or skeleton,” he said. “Hllouge will know more. He was obsessed with them...another reason we thought he was unstable. This language sounds very odd but strangely familiar to my ears. Why is that?”
“We used a learning machine that transfers the memories from one being to another. The machine learns how to imprint very fast. It works best on beings that can see or hear near our hearing and sight ranges,” she answered as honestly as she could. “We will monitor to see when he comes back. We will be here tomorrow at this time of day if he has returned. We expect to be treated better next time. Do you think that can be arranged?” she asked getting angry thinking about their reception.
“We will treat you as very advanced technological beings should be treated,” he said. “We will have a feast to honor you.”
As Andrew and Susan left the hut they chuckled over the leader’s last words – not sure how very advanced technological beings will be treated but they’d have to talk with Hllouge before they would eat or drink anything here. Susan concurred with Andrew’s suspicions and walked back to the edge of the forest before flying the rest of the way to the ship.
The leader questioned one of the men he had assigned to track them back through the forest. “We could see their tracks clearly and then they were gone. How could you lose them?”
“It was just like they vanished. We searched in a large area and there were no more signs to follow,” the man said and was dismissed by the leader.
Vanished...that was like the tales of the before-people. “More and more like the before people...I wonder where they got their technology. Much is explained when I think of words from the before time. I understand words I never understood before. We must get that technology for the reawakening, he thought.
Political Motivation
All went back to their ships for some needed rest and showers. They carefully monitored the village and tracked movements of the villagers with thermal imaging as they searched for Hllouge. The search gave them an excuse to focus their search on the area the leader had said was from the time of the pre-people. The ground penetrating radar located the area where Hllouge was supposed to be working. The thermal imaging only showed one being and the villagers were searching miles away – none in this area. It was decided to go down and see if this was Hllouge. We just took the Victoria shuttle with Andrew and Susan. Hllouge had seen us fly so it wasn’t something they had to hide.
Hllouge saw the two beings flying down near him. They had the white clothing and golden shiny helmets he had seen a few years before. He stopped and started walking toward them. He was not afraid at all – he had been separate from the village for almost two years now. The company was most welcome even if it interrupted his digging.
The native was short with ochre colored skin with greasy black hair. He carried no weapon and came up to them. They were soon standing a few meters apart. The gold tinted sun shield was turned off and Hllouge could see their ugly skin and jutting chin.
They were sure ugly he thought but the one with the longer hair looked like, “SU-SAN. Gobble gobble gobble,” he said – at least that’s how it sounded to Andrew. The alien approached Susan with both hands extended out and showed more emotion than any of the villagers had before.
After a brief reunion of hand waving and grunted words that produced nothing but frustration – Susan was able to convince Hllouge to sit down while Andrew flew away and brought back a strong field generator and the teaching machine they had used at the village. Susan convinced Hllouge to put on the head band to the machine and started the Trade language cylinder. Five minutes of normal time – 90 minutes later for Hllouge – the training session ended and Susan asked, “Do you understand me now?”
Hllouge was suitably impressed, “This machine worked very well. The sounds are odd to my ears but I understand clearly. The language opens many new ideas for me. It clarifies many of the ideas described in the records and legends of my people and the pre-people. There used to be a huge city right here and I have been trying to uncover an entrance. The senior record keeper kicked me out of the village. I was more popular than him and he was afraid I would be elected leader. He took my betrothed along with another to be his wives and said I was unstable because I said you were from another planet and that you could fly. His name is Hffalam.”
“We met him and agree with you. We had to give him this language, Trade to help us find you. He had your coin and I took it back,” Susan said and handed him back the duralloy coin necklace she had ripped from Hffalm’s neck.
Hllouge took it with both hands and placed it back around his neck. At first, I thought you would return in a day or so but then, I realized that you would be a long time returning. Hffalam convinced everyone that I had drugged everyone and produced hallucinations to try to become leader. He is very ambitious and dangerous. Record keepers are very skilled in ceramics, medicines and herbs. Do not eat or drink anything near him and do not breath smoke. He can poison it all. He is very skilled in that area. I think I would have been made senior record keeper when the leader died unexpectedly. Then I was exiled. I was trying to uncover parts of the pre-people technology so they restore me to the village and make me senior record keeper.”
“We will help you,” Susan said. “We can help in the study of your before-people as they are of interest to us also. Come with us for a little while. Gather all your valuables and tools. Tell me if you need help.”
“I have a large selection of artifacts I have found and quite a few books and scrolls. I need to get those,” he said.
Susan said, “I will send my mate, Andrew, with you. We can take a small sled to help you move items. Do you think you can ride with us when we fly?”
“Yes. I am excited and scared but mostly excited. The pre-people could also fly,” he said and Susan looked at Andrew. “Take two of the soldiers with you for protection,” she said in English. “The more I find out about Hffalam – the more I think he will hurt these people’s chances and will try to kill us for our technology. He knows we are not gods and is not startled by our advanced tech. He has evidently read about it as record keeper and will lie. If he lies, he will steal. If he steals, enough, he will kill to protect his thefts. It is as true here as it is on Earth.”
They assembled a team. The flying sled did not surprise Hllouge, as much as the two armored soldiers in their black armor. He almost fell out of his seat when they faded from sight as they flew over the landscape.
“Their suits show what is behind them. How brilliant an idea and so simple...I imagine it is easier to think of the concept than to make it work,” Hllouge said.
Andrew was surprised that this greasy-haired native was so sharp. No flies land on these boys. They are smart. “That is correct,” he said. “Which way?”
Hllouge pointed and they landed a short distance away in a small area of vegetation with a small spring nearby that provided fresh water and game. Hllouge loaded up the sled with books and scrolls and food and weapons and pottery containers of various sorts. The sled was nearly full when they arrived back at the shuttle. “This is everything. How many beings will you lend me to dig? I think we can uncover the entrance in a few weeks with a crew of ten,” he said.
“I think we can do better than that...“she said and displayed the radar images of the buried city.
Hllouge became very excited and dug into the contents of the sled and produced a clay tablet that had drawings very similar. “See. This is how I knew there might be an entrance where I was digging,” he said and pointed to a corresponding spot on the radar image.
Susan and Andrew ordered down the Albert and both shuttles began using the same technique they had used on Procyon. Soon, huge plumes of sand began rising as the shuttles began evacuating the sand from the site.
It took the better part of the day to uncover the city. They landed at the area that Hllouge had b
een trying to dig it out himself. He realized the futility of his former action since he was 130 meters below where he was digging. “I would have had to dig 100 lifetimes to get to this point. You are truly an auspicious species – just like the pre-people.
“What do you think they are like?” Andrew asked.
Hllouge looked at Andrew and pulled out another clay tablet. “This is the tablet I saved that shows what the historian Hsllofat said he thought they may look like,” He showed them the tablet and it showed a drawing like a cephalopod with eight tentacles.
“We think that this is the race that developed the lamlees,” Susan said.
“Lamlees. You mean these things,” Hllouge said and opened a pouch that contained thousands of lamlees.
Susan and Andrew were stunned. “These are worth a lot, Hllouge. These are good for trade. Let us explore a little before we take you back to the village.”
They called the ships above and said they had uncovered another city. LeiLei and Shiv watched the video feeds and made suggestions. It wasn’t long before they had acquired more lamlee than they had recovered at Procyon. They let those above know about the duplicity of the village leader and Kyger had suggestions that Susan said she would take under advisement. They sent the Albert back to unload the lamlee onto the Odin and asked for a contingent of military to accompany them back to the village with Hllouge when they would return. They also traded him a flying belt and taught him to fly it with some precision and how it would protect him from kinetic projectiles. Andrew was skeptical until she reminded him that they never would have another shuttle full of lamlee if it hadn’t been for him. She let him shoot arrows at her with the field strength turned up. He showed emotion when they forced him to shoot but the arrows stopped. He said he had thought they would kill him for threatening her again. They laughed and explained that they were just trying to show him the protective power of the field. They explained how long it would last and its limitations.