Let There Be Life

by Simon Archer

  “You may ask us directly, lady cat,” Elephelie said as she munched on her own fruit. “We live quite a while. Why, those Amorphie who are not felled by beasts often live close to thirty or forty of your years.”

  “See, that’s my thing,” Melanie said with a sharp nod. “Your life expectancy should be closer to double that easy.” She brought up a visual of an Amorphie then zoomed in so we could see the organs and whatnot. “You guys actually can’t handle this degree of sugar, so what’s happening is that this organ,” she pointed at a purple splotch of color nestled among the others, “gets overworked…”

  “And they get space diabetes,” I said with a nod. “Makes sense.”

  “Basically, yeah,” Melanie said with a shrug. “Only, I wouldn’t call it that because in practice it works nothing like diabetes.” She tapped her chin. “But for the purpose of this discussion, yeah.”

  “So… we could live longer?” Zemia asked as she looked down at the fruit in her lap. “Simply by changing our diet?”

  “Well, everyone can do that,” Melanie said with a laugh. “But in practice, it may be difficult. That’s usually the case.” She laughed nervously. “Why aren’t you eating more fats? Even if you can’t get it from animals, and if the Spiguar sample is any indication of the average non-oceanic terrestrial life on your planet, you can’t. Those things are like made of poison.” She waved her hand. “Your planet must have some version of seeds and nuts? Though, I’ll admit, my scans haven’t found any besides those in the sea tree fruit...”

  “The only seeds are varieties of this,” Elephelie pulled out the large peach pit at the center of the fruit and held it up. “And they are not tasty.”

  “Yeah, that makes sense. The pits have a high degree of hydrocyanic acid, and you guys can’t digest it. You would have to process them to remove the acid, which wouldn’t be that hard, actually.” She hit a few buttons and brightened. “Actually, you guys should totally do that. An ounce of that seed would have around twelve grams of fat in it. It wouldn’t fix the problem, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt.”

  “The average Amorphie gets one fruit every day or so. Poorer Amorphie might only get one a week,” Zemia said as she looked down at her pit. “Even if we processed all the seeds, it would not be enough to make much difference.” She held up her hands defensively. “Not that I am suggesting we don’t do it. Increasing food generated from a waste product will definitely be a good idea, assuming it is as easy to do as you say, lady cat.”

  “It is. I’ll beam the stuff to you, Garrett.” There was a ping, and I realized I had been sent the processing method for the seeds.

  “Seems easy enough,” I replied with a shrug. “We simply need to soak the seeds in water for about a day or so and change the water every few hours.”

  “We got a bit lucky there because the salt content of their ocean water is really close to optimal for removing the acid for the seeds. If not, we’d have had to mix fresh water and salt to get an optimal mix.” Melanie seemed pleased. “You guys could do this now.”

  “That may be a problem,” Elephelie had a concerned look on her face, and when she looked at her sister, Zemia just nodded. “We do not have a very large place to do this, really. Our water for drinking is held in small jugs made of sea tree leaves. It isn’t really possible to make larger jugs because the weight will break the natural seals of the leaves. So, we would have to make many jugs because I doubt more than two or three seeds will fit in a jug. Then, even if we made enough to process all the seeds produced in a day, we would have to constantly change the water in thousands of jugs.” Elephelie frowned. “This is not so easy, after all.”

  “Oh, I got that, I think,” I said as I studied the seed. “What if we just made a big net like you guys use for the bridges? A sort of basket-type thing, and just put the seeds in it. Then we could just lower it down to the ocean with a rope. Then, pull it up the next day. Would something like that work, Mel?”

  “It would, Garrett,” the catgirl said with a nod. “And because it’s in the ocean, you wouldn’t need to worry about changing the water.”

  “Perfect.” I looked at the princesses. “Would that work?”

  “Perhaps,” Elephelie mused. “We can definitely make the baskets and try.” She looked at her sister. “What say you, Zemia?”

  “The only concern is predators attacking us or the baskets.” She settled into thought. “Still, it is worth trying. If it does not work, we will only be out a little. We will instruct the weavers to begin work once we are done here.”

  “Great,” I said with a nod. “Queenie, can you summon up some of the Hobgoblins to help work on the net basket? Gobta is still passed out cold, and I want it going as soon as possible.”

  “It will be done, master,” Queenie said as she ate the last of her fruit and turned toward the princesses. “Would you mind leading me to the weavers?”

  “I would be happy to do so, lady ant,” Zemia said as she got to her feet. “Please come with me.”

  I watched the two of them go before turning my attention back to Melanie. “I’m assuming the rind is worthless?”

  “Yes.” Melanie shrugged. “It doesn't taste good and would mostly just be fiber.”

  “Can we burn it?” I asked as I stared at it. “It doesn’t seem like they have any kind of wood or fossil fuels here. In fact, I haven’t seen fire at all, really.”

  “Perhaps if you dried it, but it would be no better than any other dry plant matter. I can try to find something else that might be better suited for that, if you would like?” the catgirl asked, and when I nodded, she continued, “Okay, well, if I can’t find something, maybe I can figure out a way to modify a plant for what we need.”

  “Sounds good, Mel. Let me know what you come up with.”

  She nodded, then signed off, and the hologram vanished.

  “Garrett, I have a question,” Elephelie said, and when I gestured for her to continue, she added, “What is fire?”

  I wanted to ask her if it was a real question, but it didn’t look like she was joking. Still, it was possible the translation of the word wasn’t perfect. I’d been in situations where that was the case before.

  “Um… it’s a type of chemical reaction where heat and light are given off. It’s very, very hot, and sort of glows orange or blue…” As I said this, she just looked at me blankly. “Do you really not have anything like this? Something that burns, or eats up wood and well, anything?”

  “I’m not familiar with it at all.” She looked at me blankly.

  “Surely you must have storms and lightning?” I asked as I gestured heavenward.

  “Yes…” Elephelie hedged. “We can have tremendous storms with much lightning and winds so strong they blow all our houses down.” She glanced toward the sea, which was sort of everywhere but up, really. “The priests say they come to punish us for our transgressions against the gods above.”

  I wanted to tell her that wasn’t true, but as a god myself, I couldn’t be so sure. There had been more than a few times in Terra Forma that I thought I’d been in a system unclaimed by a deity and found, usually to my horror, that there was a god who had claimed the system. So, instead, I just pushed on with my point.

  “Right, okay, so when the lightning strikes the sea trees, what happens?” I asked.

  “There is oftentimes a wound where the lightning struck, but not much else.” She rubbed her head as she thought, then her eyes brightened. “Sometimes the lightning is so strong the branches get blown off. Is that what you speak of? The explosion?”

  “No…” I grumbled, and as I turned to look at the sea tree growing up through the High Priest’s place, I realized why it had never come up. The damn things were like ninety-nine percent water. If their composition was anything like the rind on the sea tree fruit, there was no way it would burn. And, to further that thought, even if the Amorphie did manage to, somehow, get fire, what would they burn? Everything they had seemed to be made of sea tree, water r
eeds, or in rare cases, the shell of creatures they hunted like the Spiguars.

  “You seem disappointed, Garrett. Why is it bad that nothing happens to the sea trees when the lightning strikes them?” Elephelie peered at me in confusion. “Would you wish them ill?” She smiled then. “Do you not like how their fruit tastes?”

  “I like the fruit fine,” I said with a laugh as I got to my feet. “It just means we’re going to have to start a bit farther back then I’d like. Because I’m going to give you the gift of fire.” I looked around. “Do you have any dried reeds or sea tree you do not want because this will destroy them?”

  “Yes, I can go get some.” Elephelie took me by the hand, which felt like a strangely intimate gesture despite how close we’d already been, and led me to another room which must have been used for storage because there were several broken baskets, loose reeds, and other assorted items. “This is where we keep the baskets we wish to repair.” She smiled. “Waste not, want not.”

  “Makes sense to me,” I said as I selected the most broken down basket I could find, and then after making sure it was dry enough to catch with a spark, I showed it to her. “Can I have this one?”

  “Yes.” She nodded, and with that, I took the basket over to a bare section of floor that sat atop a sea tree branch and set it down. Then I shredded some of the basket until I had a small, fine pile of debris.

  “What are you doing?” Elephelie asked as I finished up.

  “I’m making some tinder,” I explained as I pulled a bit of flint and steel from my inventory. I held up the rocks. “Now, I’m going to light them on fire.”

  “Where did you get those?” Elephelie swallowed hard as she stared at the rocks. “Stones are incredibly rare.” She gestured at the house. “Even this whole place would be worth half as much as the smaller of the pair.”

  “Ah,” I said because that made sense. They didn’t even have rocks because the ocean was a billion miles deep. “Well, where I come from, this is everywhere. Maybe we can work out a trade deal.” I laughed.

  “I would be rich beyond imagining,” Elephelie said dreamily as I began to strike my chunk of flint against the steel I’d purchased from the Bazaar.

  It didn’t take long for me to strike a spark, and then it was just a matter of blowing on it until my face turned blue from exertion. Slowly, but surely, I stoked it into a tiny flame and then began feeding it larger chunks of basket.

  “This is fire,” I said when I’d grown it into a modest flame. It wouldn’t last long, of course, because the basket burned very fast, and I didn’t exactly have logs or charcoal to throw on it, but it was more than enough to illustrate my point. “Feel.” I held my hands out toward it. “But don’t touch or it will hurt you.”

  “Okay…” Elephelie said, both afraid and curious. Then, very slowly, she held her hands out toward it as I did. “Oh! It’s so hot!” Her eyes widened. “This seems dangerous.” She pointed at the burning basket. “It is destroying things so quickly.”

  “It can be very dangerous, but it’s also useful. For one, you can cook food by putting it in the fire.” Then before she could ask why I would do that, I continued, “And if you cook meat the right way, it will last much longer than it would otherwise.” I gestured at one of the water jugs she had slung around her waist. “And you can use it to heat up water, so the water goes into the air.”

  “Okay, I understand why you would want to cook the meat to make it last longer,” it was cute the way she said cook because it was definitely a word she wasn’t used to, “but I’m not sure why you would want to do that to the water. We drink the water. Why would we want to get rid of it?”

  I supposed that made sense because their bodies were adapted to drinking salt water. They’d never needed to strip out the salt like humans did.

  “Because it will leave behind the salt that’s in the water, and that salt can also be used to preserve meat and probably sea tree fruit too…” I paused. “Hell, we may be able to just brine the fruit and meat as it stands. I will ask Melanie.” I shot her a quick note and received the standard ‘I’ll get back to you’ reply I’d expected.

  “And this salt would be better than the fire?” Elephelie asked as the fire I’d made finally went out because I stopped feeding it reeds.

  “Yes, because, unlike the fire, the salt can be safely transported, used in the field, etc., etc.” I smiled. “Trust me. With fire and salt, you can hunt bigger game and then keep the meat from spoiling until it is all used up.”

  “Well, I like that idea.” Elephelie smiled. “It will certainly make the hunters’ job easier.”

  “Speaking of which,” I said as I looked around, “how do you guys hunt? And how do you make the harpoon guns I saw the priests with earlier?”

  “They are made from the spines of an Evernall fish.” She held her hands out. “They are very large but sometimes become entangled in the branches of a sea tree when they rise to breathe. That is when we try to net them. If we succeed in netting them, we pull them out of the water until they dry out and then harvest their spines and flesh.” She smiled then. “Actually, that is how we most often hunt from the oceans. With nets. Would you like to see?”

  “Yes.” I nodded at her. “As soon as possible, actually.”

  “Then I shall take you now.”

  “Great,” I said, and as we headed out, I shot a mental note to Gobta which woke up his passed out ass. “Gobta and Hudson will be joining us.”

  24

  Barnabas

  “So,” I mused from atop my frozen throne where I ruled the icy plains of Antoract in the Northern reaches of Amorphie, “it seems the Princesses of Night and Day have made an Alliance with the High Priest of Zorak.” I rubbed my chin in thought. “I’ll admit, I did not see that coming.” I dropped the sight I shared with my spy in the High Priest’s camp and turned my attention to my assembled minions. “I had expected the High Priest to impregnate one or both of the girls and take their lands that way, but this…” I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my lips. “This is so much better.”

  “What would you like us to do Lord Barnabas?” Ultiract, my lead hunter, said from his seat to my left. “Should we lead a force there and crush them? After all, they are defying the holy laws by forming an alliance without being married.”

  “Perhaps,” I said as I surveyed the others at the table. They were all nodding. To be fair, though, they were always spoiling for a fight. The ice plains bred only hard men and women, the kind who could withstand snow, ice, and cold. Nothing could or would grow in ice, but that hadn’t stopped us from carving out a life here.

  We did it by force. Taming the frozen land inch by painstaking inch. We killed the great walroids and the demon whales. Then we used their bones and pelts to clothe ourselves and to make weapons. We hunted and killed more, and now? Now, we were thriving.

  And yet, those that lived in the southern lands suffered. Made weak by the nice temperatures and easy access to fruit. Which was, in itself, ridiculous. After all, we were meant to eat meat. To chew on the bones of our enemies. It was yet another reason why we were strong, and they were pitiful and weak.

  “This is a golden opportunity,” Norin, my head female said from her seat at my right. “Since their people starve, we can go there bearing gifts, have you impregnate the princesses, and force the High Priest to blood bond with you.” She nodded fervently. “After all, you are the strongest Amorphie. You should have their lands.”

  She was correct, of course. I could have attacked them before, but I wouldn’t have holy law on my side then. Now, I could claim they were in violation and take it all for myself. How much more powerful would I be then?

  “There is just one concern. Garrett Andrews.” I reached out and took the hands of those closest to me, and as I did so, the rest of the people at the table joined hands. Then I relayed to them the visions I had seen through the eyes of my spies.

  “What do we know about him?” Ultiract said when I had
finished. “Other than that this otherworlder somehow has tamed a Spiguar and negotiated a truce between the High Priests and the Princesses… all without impregnating anyone.”

  “That is all we know at this time,” I said as I looked around the table. “And because we do not know more, I wish to wait and see what they plan on doing there. After all, perhaps his arrival will be a good thing. Either way though, I think we should begin readying both a trade expedition as well as our best hunters.” I grinned around the table. “After all, they will inevitably join us, and it doesn’t much matter to me whether we use the fruit or the teeth to accomplish our goals.”

  They seemed pleased with that, which was good. Garrett was intriguing to me. As was what he would do next. Because, in the end, I didn’t care who he was. All, I cared about was my planet becoming strong. If he helped with that, why would I complain?

  If he did not? If he was a parasite intent to suck the lifeblood from the Amorphie? Well, I would be ready for that as well.

  25

  “I feel that went pretty well, all things considered,” I said as I rubbed the back of my neck nervously. “They only grumbled a little bit.” I glanced at Hudson and Elephelie. “What say you?”

  “It went as well as could be expected,” Hudson said with a shrug. “They do not understand what is going on, and they are too weak to do much about it. They have no choice but to accept what we tell them.”

  “At least until the Ice King comes with his armies and savages the land,” Elephelie grumbled. “But we have time to deal with that.”

  “Ice King?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “Who is the Ice King, and why have I not heard about him before now?”

  “I do not understand why you bring up the Ice King,” Hudson rolled his eyes. “His lands are very far from here.” He made fists. “And it will take weeks for the news of our arrangement to reach him. Even if he finds out about our alliance and cares enough to come to uphold the holy laws, it will not be anytime soon.”