Hunter, Warrior, Commander

by Andrew Maclure

  “Come over here and sit down Sah Lee.” She took Sah Lee’s arm and helped her over to a small table with a chair either side of it and sat her down. She took the other seat and sat facing her. “The outcasts killed many of your people, and many more died in the orbital bombardment the Ants used to destroy your enemy. Ker Din Ser Forn used People’s technology to search for survivors, so we can be confident we have evacuated everyone left alive to this ship. There are exactly one million, four hundred and twenty-two thousand, nine hundred and two of your race left alive.”

  Chapter Twenty Two

  The Remnant

  “One million four hundred thousand?” Sah Lee whispered. “One million four hundred thousand?” she repeated.

  “I am sorry, we did all we could. They are all receiving the best treatment available from Ker Din Ser Forn’s ship.”

  “One million four hundred thousand?” Sah Lee said again. “Is that all that’s left?”

  “I am so sorry, but if the Ants hadn’t intervened, the outcasts would have killed everyone.”

  “But… why are they on this ship? Why am I here? Why didn’t you take me home? And what is a biosphere? Why did you recover it?”

  “There is no easy way to explain this Sah Lee. Your planet, Aarn, has suffered massive environmental damage. The outcasts and the bombardment killed most of the animals on Aarn and the ground was so torn up that most of the plants were destroyed too. There is so much dust thrown up into the atmosphere that it will blot out the sun for several years. There will be no daylight, it will be night all the time. It will be like the coldest winter ever for five or six years. All the plants and trees will die, if not from the cold, they’ll die from the lack of light. Any surviving animals will starve to death or freeze. All the plants in the sea will die from lack of light and all the fish which eat the plants will die. The dust in the atmosphere will drop into the seas, smothering anything left and it will be so cold that the sea will freeze solid. Nothing will survive on Aarn except the deepest buried bacteria. We don’t have the resources to do anything about saving the remaining plants and animals, but Ker Din Ser Forn does. He has created a vast space inside this ship, it takes up most of it, and collected every living thing left on the surface of Aarn and put it safely inside. He has called another of his kind here to collect what they can of the sea life. Ker Din Ser Forn said the sea is less damaged than the land right now, so they may need to bring more ships here to collect everything left, and they will do it. They will leave nothing left alive on Aarn to die there.”

  Sah Lee slowly shook her head. She felt sick and empty. “But how will everything survive on a ship? Where are we? Where is the ship if it isn’t on the sea? None of what you say makes sense! Is this a nightmare?” She looked blankly at Touren. “Have I gone mad?” she whispered. Then with a flash of anger, “You are lying! This can’t be true! It’s all lies!” She leapt from her chair to attack but Touren was too quick for her. She grasped Sah Lee’s left arm with her left hand and swung her down, catching her body with her right arm just before Sah Lee hit the floor, breaking her fall. Touren let go of her arm and held her down with her knee in her back, snatched another injector from her pocket, jabbing Sah Lee in the neck again.

  “I am sorry to have to do this again, but I was ready for you to react like this. It is quite understandable. I have injected you with a muscle relaxant and an antidote to the sedative. Your mind will clear shortly but you will have difficulty moving. This is for your safety as well as mine.”

  Touren gently picked Sah Lee up and carefully laid her on the bed. She pulled a small transparent mask with a tube attached from under the bed and pressed it against Sah Lee’s nose and mouth. “The muscle relaxant will make it hard for you to breathe, this will supply you with extra oxygen, so you don’t suffocate.” She pulled over the chair she had been sitting in and sat next to Sah Lee.

  “I know this is difficult for you to comprehend Sah Lee, but it is all true. The ship is not on the sea, it is a space ship. It is in the void, in orbit around a planet in a star system far from Aa. Your people will decide what to call the planet, it will be your new home. The star is almost identical in its physical characteristics to Aa and the planet is the same size and density of Aarn. Ker Din Ser Forn is moving the planet in its orbit, so it will have the same distance from the star as Aarn has from Aa. The planet is uninhabited and not claimed by any other race. The only life on it is single-celled, harmless to you and everything in your biosphere. The atmosphere is not completely suitable for you to breathe, so Ker Din Ser Forn will build temporary sealed habitats for you and for your biosphere. He will engineer the DNA of the most dominant of the single-celled life forms to remove the sulfur from the atmosphere and replace the high concentration of carbon dioxide with oxygen. That will make it breathable for you. Some of your plant life - on land and sea - will tolerate the present conditions. These will be propagated and seeded onto the planet to start the process of making you a second Aarn.”

  “I don’t understand what you are saying. My home, my world, my beloved Aarn, is dead? All my race are dead? This can’t be true.” Tears ran from Sah Lee’s eyes and ran down the side of her face. She wished they had left her to die on her beloved plains.

  “I can’t begin to imagine how hard this is for you Sah Lee. There are many who will help you on your new home. Ker Din Ser Forn has asked for volunteers to give you all the help you might need. Your race has suffered a great tragedy, but fortunately Ker Din Ser Forn became aware of it before it was too late to get the Ants there to stop your attackers and for us to mount a rescue mission. He has set out a charter for the Aarnth. He has undertaken to protect and provide for the Aarnth and to offer you technology and education equivalent to a newly post emergent civilization. He will initiate measures to return Aarn to its former condition, but this will take several centuries.”

  “Several centuries?” Sah Lee said, angry and contemptuous of the offer. “We will all be dust well before then. If this Ker Din Ser Forn is so powerful, why didn’t he step in sooner and kill all the demons, or outcasts as you call them? If he had, Aarn would still be alive, and so would most of the Aarnth?”

  “The People are a complicated race. I don’t understand them, nobody does. They are peaceful, but have terrifying weapons. They don’t get involved in wars and conflict, but sometimes they will provide assistance when it is clear that one side is wrong, and the other side is suffering.”

  “We have suffered. Why didn’t he intervene and save us?” Sah Lee said bitterly.

  “I can’t answer that Sah Lee, but he has promised to do more for the Aarnth than I have known him to do before.”

  “Everything but save our homeland, our people, everything we love. He has left me hollow, with no home, my family and all my friends are dead. Can you find out who has survived? Are any of my family here?” Sah Lee asked, suddenly eager to know.

  “I have a complete survivor list, with the areas we rescued them from. Is Lee your family name?”

  “No, it is Sah. My mother is Sah Krin, my sister is Sah Elt, although she was on a field trip to the southern mines. And my aunt, Sah Lek.”

  “I am sorry, none of those names are listed amongst the survivors.”

  The tiny flame of hope that had burned faintly within Sah Lee flickered, and went out.

  “Someone has asked about you though. Do you know Sor Tan?”

  Sah Lee’s face hardened, and she felt the cold fury build up inside her again. “Yes,” she answered carefully, “I knew her at university.”

  “I’ll see if we can arrange a meeting.”

  “I’m sorry I tried to attack you. I promise I won’t again. You have been very patient with me. But I don’t understand. You say there are one million four hundred thousand Aarnth here and one thousand two hundred of your - what did you call yourselves?”

  “I am a member of the Boran Medical Emergency and Recovery group.”

  “Why are you here with me? Shouldn’t you be l
ooking after a group of people?”

  “The Aarnth will need leaders. Arrussmer is a good judge of character, she said you’re your reaction to her when you were so sick you almost died, and would have if we hadn’t rescued you, showed great spirit. Ker Din Ser Forn has analyzed all the information we have and said you are special. Whether you choose to become a leader of the Aarnth or not, you are destined to be someone exceptional. I am here to help you on the path that will lead you to your destiny.”

  Sah Lee slumped back on the bed. “I’m not special. I don’t want to be exceptional. I just want to run on the plains again, to feel the soil beneath my feet, the wind blowing against my cheek, to catch the scent of prey and be a hunter. That was my destiny, Now, I have nothing.” A single tear formed in each of her eyes and ran down her face. “Now I have nothing.” she whispered again.

  Chapter Twenty Three

  The Past Is Gone

  “Sah Lee!” snapped Touren. “Stop feeling sorry for yourself! I know what it is to be a hunter. Not on the dry plains of Aarn but in the humid jungle of my home world. I know the joy of the kill and the sadness that sometimes comes with it. I lost all that too. Things have changed now. You must change with them. You are strong of spirit; your people need you to look up to and to follow your example. The past is gone, you must live in the present, for the future.”

  Sah Lee lay back with her eyes shut. She knew what Touren said was true. She had spoken to her friends about this at university. Not about the invasion and destruction of their world, of course, but that their old life was gone forever. They couldn’t go back to their old villages at the end of university and pick up where they had left off. They had changed too much and in the six years they were away their villages would have changed too. The elders would probably all be dead. Her mother would be six years older and have changed in subtle ways that Sah Lee wouldn’t understand. Some of the people they knew would have died, some would have left to go to other villages. There would be new people who had come from other villages who wouldn’t know her. She could return and live there, but as a stranger in an unfamiliar home. This was no different.

  She opened her eyes and pushed herself into a sitting position. “Do you have an antidote for the muscle relaxant? I am struggling to hold myself upright.”

  “I have, but are you going to attack me again? I’m not worried for my safety, I am bigger and stronger than you and I am a master of self-defense and unarmed combat, but I might injure you if you attack me.”

  Sah Lee gave a tight smile. “That was a good move you made on me last time. You must teach me how you did that. I’m not going to attack you Touren. You have been patient with me. I realize that none of this is your fault. You said you were a hunter and lost that. Did the same thing happen to your home?”

  “No. My family sent me off planet to learn high energy field physics. They said I couldn’t spend my life acting like a savage, although our ancestors had. They sent me to an orbiting habitat - like an artificial island in space. I stayed there for twenty years, learning how to create and manipulate energy fields. I was very young when I went there, and it became all I knew. When I finally returned to my planet, I went straight back into the jungle, but I didn’t belong there. The jungle hadn’t changed, I had. I haven’t been back there since. When I eventually die, I want my body to be taken back and left in the jungle for the wild animals and insects to eat, so that at last I can become part of it again.”

  “It seems we have something in common. Can you give me the antidote please, so I can move around?”

  Touren stepped over to the wall where she had got Sah Lee’s new clothes and came back with an injector.

  “I’m not going to regret this, am I?” she asked.

  Sah Lee gave another tight smile. “No, you’re quite safe.”

  The antidote took effect quickly. Sah Lee pulled the mask off, stood up and stretched. “What happened to my knife and harness?” she asked.

  “In a safe place. Do you want them now?”

  “Yes, please Touren. I will feel safer with them.”

  “You are safe here Sah Lee. I will be your companion for as long as you need me, and I will make sure that nothing happens to you.”

  “Do you mean I can’t have them?” Sah Lee asked with a frown.

  “They are here,” Touren said walking toward the wall. A different panel than the one which she got Sah Lee’s clothing and the injectors from slid open and she retrieved Sah Lee’s knife and back harness. “Before you put the harness on, would you like to try one of ours? It will fit you better and be more comfortable.”

  “I’ll try it.” she said.

  Touren opened the panel that the clothes came from and handed Sah Lee a harness made from a single piece of gray material. Sah Lee examined it carefully. “How did you make this? There are no joins or seams.”

  “It is made from smart material. This is Ker Din Ser Forn’s technology, but it isn’t much different from my civilization’s, just a bit more capable. Put it on and it will adjust itself to fit you and will keep adjusting as you move so it will always be comfortable. It is self-cleaning and hygienic, so if you want, you never need to take it off. Put it on and then hold your sheath against it and it will secure it to itself. If you like, I can help with that.”

  Sah Lee slipped off her tunic and put the back harness on. She found that Touren was right. The harness was light and comfortable, and she could feel slight movements as it adjusted itself to her body. She handed the sheathed knife to Touren, turning her back to her so she could put the sheath where she wanted. Sah Lee practiced drawing the knife and Touren adjusted the position of the sheath until it was just right. She pulled her tunic back on and practiced drawing her knife again.

  “Thank you Touren. That was kind of you, what one of the Aarnth would only do for a friend. Trusting too. I could have used the knife to attack you.”

  “We can become friends Sah Lee. You must trust me, and I can earn that trust by showing I trust you.”

  “All of my Aarnth friends are dead. My closest and most trusted friend died next to me, killed by a demon - I mean outcasts, using a stick weapon.”

  “Was it one that made a loud noise or a silent one?” asked Touren.

  “It made a noise like a rock cracking in the heat of the sun.”

  “That is called a KE, or kinetic energy weapon. The silent ones are pulsed particle beam weapons. If you ever join an army, you will learn how to use them both.”

  “An army? I learnt about them at university. We used to have them a long time ago when we fought wars over who ruled Por Dars Erntoran, the continent I live - lived on. That was before the males were kept separate. Do you still have armies?”

  “There are two small armies in the galaxy who the People sometimes use. Most civilizations no longer have their own army and it is unusual that they need one, if they do, they will use one of the freelance or independent armies.”

  “Do they fight outcasts?”

  “Yes, groups of them sometimes form and they act as pirates, attacking small outposts, habitats, colonies and ships. If there is a big group of them the Ants will attack them, usually supported by one of the People.”

  “Who are the Ants?”

  “They are a race of insectoids. They are a warrior race, whose hives used to fight each other, then, when they agreed to treaties and stopped fighting each other, they fought together against other races. Eventually, they stopped that too, and now just fight to protect the weak and vulnerable. The name my translator has given them to you will be similar to something on Aarn, but they are much bigger than what you have on Aarn. These are almost as high as you and are longer than you are tall. They are ferocious and remorseless warriors, but also very adept at orbital bombardment, which is what destroyed the outcasts invading Aarn.”

  “Are they one of the independent armies?”

  “No, the independent armies are a mix of races, as varied as the outcasts.”

  “That’s in
teresting, it’s given me something to think about. What’s next?”

  “The future is in your hands Sah Lee. We will need to stay on the ship until the habitats are ready to live in, then you can go down to the planet and start to make it your home. If you wish, I can stay with you. There are many options available to you, but first, we’ll go to our quarters, that’s where we’ll live while we are here.”

  “Touren, why will you stay with me for so long? You said you were on a habitat doing something, I didn’t understand what you said, for twenty years. That’s half your life. Do you want to spend your last few years with me?”

  “You have a great deal to learn Sah Lee. Ker Din Ser Forn will give your civilization the same level of technology as a new post-emergent civilization would have. There is much for your people to learn, it is going to take a long time.”

  “What is post-emergent? You’ve said it a few times but what does it mean?”

  “The Aarnth are a pre-emergent civilization. That means you do not have the technology to travel between the stars or do many of the things which people like me take for granted. When you develop the technology to go into space and travel between stars, you become what we call post-emergent. No civilization will give another any technology beyond the level they have already reached. When that has happened in the past, any civilization given what is to them, advanced technology, always ends up suffering badly. I believe Ker Din Ser Forn will give to the Aarnth what they need to ensure survival. With that technology will come a host of improvements to your life, not the least of which is that you need not get old. You can stay young forever. How old are you?”