Rogue Stars

by C Gockel et al.

  Jutka stopped beside a big ground car waiting to take them to Zuleika. It hovered above the ground on a cushion of air. No anti-grav meant no flying and a longer trip.

  “Sometimes we all feel that way, Elder,” James agreed with a nod. “I like my life and my work, but it does no harm for me to imagine what would have happened had I taken another path.”

  Jutka climbed aboard the car followed by the ladies; Bernard and David were next, followed by Bindar and James last. There was plenty of room to sit comfortably and they continued their conversation uninterrupted by the quiet power up of the hover car. It glided smoothly along and James thought the Alliance should take note of this mode of travel. Alliance roads were notoriously uncared for, and travel upon them was often uncomfortable and noisy.

  They drove into Zuleika and James split his attention between Jutka and her people going about their business outside. He felt truly privileged to be here. Zuleika was a lovely place full of open parks and delicate seeming buildings. The Shan didn’t go in for mile high towers or anything near it. Instead of building vertically like a Human city, the Shan had chosen to build Zuleika horizontally with many connecting bridges between buildings spanning wide streets. Those bridges were a marvel in themselves. There didn’t seem to be anything holding them up! The spans could almost be made of air they were so fragile seeming.

  James watched dozens of Shan crossing a bridge and knew it was not air they were walking upon. It must be some kind of metal—a super strong alloy that could be used to construct such wonderful things as those bridges out there, yet not clutter the city with supports and pylons. Sheryl would be fascinated when she noticed them, but she was deep in conversation with Jutka and all her attention was focused upon the elder.

  “Look there,” Brenda whispered to him and pointed at a group of young Shan chasing each other in a park. “Are they playing?”

  “Not playing,” Jutka said raising a paw in apology to Sheryl for interrupting her. “They practice the hunt.”

  “The hunt? They’re still cubs!”

  “Barely two orbits old I would say,” Jutka said glancing at the cubs as they drove by. “We begin training early.”

  “Two years old…” David said in astonishment.

  “Shan grow very fast compared to us,” Brenda said. Xeno-biology was one of her disciplines. “Six years old is adult for Shan.”

  “Seven orbits,” Jutka corrected.

  “I thank you, Elder,” Brenda said inclining her head.

  Seven Shan years was adult? James wondered how old Tei’Varyk and Tarjei were. If seven was adult, then they might be as young as ten! No, that couldn’t be right. It would surely have taken Tei’Varyk longer than that to learn everything he needed to know. Then of course there was the experience necessary to be promoted to command a ship. The Shan only had forty-one warships at present. Forty-one captains from among millions of Shan made Tei’Varyk a very special Shan.

  The Markan’deya was different to the other buildings in Zuleika. It was a large round building separated from the rest of the city by wide boulevards and set in the centre of a forested park. Access was by foot only, and to this end, their car pulled into a space beside another similar car. The Shan seemed to prefer walking or running to riding in cars. James had seen very few on their way to the Markan’deya. He gazed at their destination trying to reconcile the differences he found in this one building. It looked nothing like those in the city.

  There were no bridges this time, and no sign of the light and airy feel of the city. It was all heavy stone columns and walls as if belonging to an earlier age. It was striking, but ugly in a way James could not put his finger on. It was as if the Shan had deliberately made it this way as a warning. He did not like what that said about its contents.

  The Markan’deya had been deliberately set apart from the rest of the city, yet it was still at its heart. There was a symbolism here that was not lost on Bernard. His area was cultural studies specialising in the Merki. The President had decided his expertise on an alien culture would be valuable to the team.

  He was right.

  “Harmony again,” Bernard rumbled quietly. “You set your past at a remove, Elder. It’s as if you wish to separate yourselves from those living back then, yet you do not wish to forget them. Is that not so?”

  Everyone was quiet. Bernard was greatly respected and he was always worth listening to. This time they waited with baited breath to see if Jutka would answer the one question that had stumped them all. Where was harmony in Shan culture?

  “I believe the Human word for Zuleika would be lovely or am I wrong in this?” Jutka said seemingly avoiding the question.

  Bindar answered, “Not wrong Elder, but I believe a closer approximation would be the word fair or perhaps even intelligent. Intelligent city?”

  “No,” Jutka said. “Zuleika then means fair city, but there is nothing fair about the Markan’deya Bindar. We remember, but it is a hard memory and one without harmony. That is why this place is separate from our city. The Markan’deya is at the heart of things, at the heart of all Shan. By coming here we remember our past, and what was lost. Our past is the Markan’deya.”

  That was as long a speech as James had ever heard from any Shan barring Kajetan. They all silently exited the car and followed Jutka toward the Markan’deya. All of them were apprehensive about what they would find and took no notice of the crowd beginning to form in their wake.

  Jutka stopped at the huge door. “This is what we are,” she said and opened it.

  They followed Jutka inside and were confronted by the snarling visage of a huge Merki female. James and his friends froze in shock.

  “Be not alarmed,” Jutka said grimly satisfied with their reaction. “It is not real.”

  “It looks very real to us, Elder.” Janice stared with fascination. She moved forward to view it from all sides. The Shan had set the figure in the centre of the room. It gave the impression that it was barring the way further into the building.

  James meanwhile was looking around the anteroom. There were relics displayed in glass-like cases spread around the room. They were remnants of weapons almost exclusively, but the walls were what fascinated him the most. There were scenes of Shan life lovingly drawn and painted covering the walls. The artistry was excellent, but James found the contrast between the scenes on the walls and the broken beamers and launchers in the cases both striking and puzzling. There seemed nothing to link the two.

  “They were painted from memory by the survivors of the war. This one…” Jutka said gesturing at a pastoral scene. “This one shows my people living a simple life. We knew nothing of technology and did not care. We were happy in our villages. We raised our cubs and hunted when we were hungry.”

  Jutka moved to the next scene showing some kind of meeting between elders.

  “Here we see my people have prospered, but the clans were becoming too large for the range they claimed. A meeting of elders was called and a solution was sought.”

  “What was the solution?” Bernard asked, studying the artwork with interest.

  “The clans were made into one with each of the elders working together to govern all the clans equally. It was the birth of the Great Harmony. The clans themselves were joined by blood when mates were chosen from different clans. If not for the creation of the Great Harmony, we may well have starved as we depleted more and more of our resources. There were many times more Shan in those times.”

  Bernard was nodding enthusiastically. “Your people turned away from the hunter gatherer life and towards permanent settlements and farming.”

  “Had we not learned to farm and husband the animals we fed upon, we would surely have starved,” Jutka said and move to the next scene. “This one shows homeworld many orbits after the founding of the Great Harmony. We extended our settlements more and more until they became towns and then cities. We had learned to feed ourselves and were no longer chained to the land. We had more than enough for everyone and
had more time for other pursuits.

  “Here we see my people discovering electrical power. Before that time, we had used the wind or muscle power to do what was needed.”

  “How long after the founding did this occur elder?”

  “Many generations,” Jutka said. “Almost three hundred orbits.”

  “Three hundred!” Bernard gasped.

  “Yes, a long time.”

  “That was not what I meant elder,” Bernard said. “You advanced from a hunter-gatherer society and into an industrial one in just three hundred years. That is amazing!”

  “Why?” Jutka said with interest. “Three hundred orbits is almost six generations of my people.”

  “Yes, but you see elder, it took Humans many times longer to reach the same level.”

  “I see, and you believe this is significant?”

  “Well… yes!” Bernard said. “Don’t you?”

  “No. We are all of us different from one another. How much more different then must two races be?”

  “Well said,” James said.

  There were murmurs of agreement from his colleagues but Jutka simply twitched her ears and moved on to the next to last scene. James judged from the subject matter that this one depicted more recent history, and Jutka confirmed it a moment or so later. James listened to her describe the launching of the first probes to the outer planets of the Shan system while he studied the images. The scene showed the actual launching of the probe against a backdrop of cheering Shan.

  “And the last one,” Jutka said moving to stand before the picture. “This is an important time in our history. Homeworld was becoming overpopulated and we desperately needed new range. The probes gave us the data we needed to find Child of Harmony, and our scientists gave us the means to reach and land here. This ship was the very first to be launched to Child of Harmony, but it was not the last. As you can see, we began building ships as fast as we could in an attempt at colonising this planet. We succeeded.”

  The painting showed a large fleet of ships assembled above Homeworld with others already on their way to Child of Harmony. On the surface, a city—Zuleika perhaps, was already under construction. The colonisation was an amazing achievement for any race, but for the Shan it was survival. Shan females gave birth in litters. Five or six cubs at a time was the average and overpopulation had obviously been a concern.

  “How long ago was this?” James said already guessing it would be around a century. The Shan had met the Merki around then.

  “One hundred and twelve orbits.”

  “Just before the war?”

  Jutka did not answer. Instead, she moved to the door guarded by the Merki statue. “In here are the answers to your questions,” she said and entered.

  Kachina Mountains, Child of Harmony

  “It’s very beautiful here,” Brenda said looking around her. “It smells wonderful.”

  Jutka raised her muzzle to scent the wind. “There are many such places on Child of Harmony, but we have come here for a reason other than the scenery.”

  “Of course, forgive me.”

  “There is nothing to forgive. Beauty is always worth noting, but come, let us go on.”

  Brenda and the others followed the elder and her entourage along the rock-strewn path, if path it was, and up into the foothills of the Kachina Mountains. It was slow going, Jutka was old for a Shan and so were Janice and Bindar, but there was no hurry. The Markan’deya was a horror but it had one redeeming feature. It had given them an excuse to find out what a Keep was like.

  As Brenda climbed higher, she could not help remembering what Jutka had shown them inside the Markan’deya. Jutka said they would find answers through that door, the one guarded by a Merki female. They had found answers all right, but Brenda had found sadness and pain—and nightmares…

  They had followed Jutka through that door and found the end of the Great Harmony. Hundreds of cases filled the hall and thousands of horror stories were painted on the walls. It had made her sick to her stomach and Bindar was white-faced. She had wanted to run away from what she saw, but she felt almost obligated to look.

  “The Murderers came and destroyed our ships,” Jutka said indicating the first images. “We had no weapons, no defence against them. On the surface of Homeworld, there was panic and disbelief. We did not know what was happening, or why it was happening. The Murderers bombed our major cities and then descended to the surface to round up my people. Millions upon millions of Shan were killed before we learned to use the Merkiaari weapons against them.”

  “What of this one?” James whispered loath to break the horrified hush that had fallen.

  Jutka turned to see what James had found. “My people fled to the deep forests where they hid from the Merki and slowly starved. While those lucky enough to acquire weapons fought the Murderers, their mates and cubs starved.”

  Brenda studied scene after scene of atrocity. Cities burning, Shan fighting unarmed and dying against huge Merki, cubs running as Merki ripped apart their parents… it was horrible.

  “And this?” Bindar said.

  “The first Keep,” Jutka said.

  “What is a Keep?”

  “A refuge—merely deep caves. My people were dying in their millions, we had no choice but to hide. If we had not, you would have found our worlds empty. We would all be dead.”

  “I understand, but may I see this cave?”

  Jutka was still and so were those with her. Bindar was about to apologise when she twitched her ears in agreement. “I will arrange it.”

  Brenda stumbled up the rock-strewn path and thanked James as he saved her from an embarrassing fall. She needed to keep her attention on the here and now, and not on the Markan’deya’s upsetting images.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine, James. I wasn’t watching where I was going. I can’t help thinking about the Markan’deya.”

  “I know what you mean. I dreamed about it again last night.”

  “Me too,” Brenda admitted though she had not been aware of James awakening. “Did you get a few hours?”

  “Ummm, about four or five… minutes.”

  “Yeah.”

  Jutka led the way up into higher elevations until they reached a kind of plateau. A cliff-like wall of rock, the beginning of the mountain proper was a sheer barrier before them, but the so-called path did continue by turning hard right and following the base of the cliff. The plateau was a small flattish outcropping of rock with large boulders seemingly scattered around at random. Appearances can be deceiving however.

  “We must wait a few moments to be recognised,” Jutka said and sat upon a boulder with the aid of her friends. She was very old for a Shan and was tired.

  “I do not see the Keep, Elder,” Bernard said looking around. “Are we close?”

  “Very,” Jutka said dryly and her companions dropped their jaws in amusement. “You will see it soon, do not be concern—”

  A rumbling split the air and the cliff opened. Brenda watched in amazement as a huge section of rock slowly slid into the ground revealing a lighted passage that ran deep into the mountain’s bones. Jutka rose to her feet and led them to the welcoming committee just now approaching from within the Keep. There was a moment of confusion as Jutka’s companions moved ahead with the Shan equivalent of The Box. The newcomers were outfitted with earpieces and pickups so Brenda and her team might understand them.

  “Honoured Elder,” a Shan from the new group said. “Welcome to Kachina Twelve.”

  Twelve? Brenda blinked in amazement. The opening in the mountain was huge with the passage disappearing into the distance hinting at the size of this place. How many Keeps could there possibly be?

  Jutka introduced Brenda and the others then introduced the leader of the newcomers. “—and this is Tei’Kerttu. She has the honour of being Tei for Kachina Twelve.”

  “Honoured,” Brenda said with a bow.

  “A very great honour,” Bindar said.

  “
Honoured,”

  “—noured Tei,” James said.

  “Honoured to meet you Tei, I have many questions,” Bernard said.

  “Welcome, welcome all,” Tei’Kerttu said in reply. “Your wish, Elder?”

  “Our new friends have many questions about our past, Kerttu. I want you to show them what a Keep is, what it does, and how that is achieved.”

  “At your command,” Tei’Kerttu said with a bow.

  Jutka turned away and addressed herself to James. “I will leave you with Kerttu. She will see to your needs and your return to my home.”

  “Thank you, Elder.”

  Jutka and her escort left then and Tei’Kerttu took charge of Brenda and her friends. They were ushered inside in order to close up the mountain. Kerttu explained that the Keeps were always sealed to prevent detection. They should only be opened in an emergency, but an elder’s word was law and this was a special circumstance.

  Brenda followed Kerttu into the mountain listening to her explanations of what they saw. In a spare moment between questions, she asked what she had been wondering about.

  “How many Keeps are there?” Brenda said. “I mean, this is Kachina Twelve. Is there a Kachina Thirteen or even a Kachina Twenty?”

  Kerttu hesitated but her elder’s words had been specific. “There is a Kachina Twenty,” she admitted reluctantly. “There are hundreds of Keeps on Child of Harmony, and hundreds more on Homeworld. Some are even larger than Kachina Twelve, not many to be sure, but some. Forgive me for not saying more, but I am not comfortable discussing this.”

  “We understand Tei,” James said and the others murmured agreement. “If we had such places, we too would keep the information secret. You have my word of honour that I will not reveal what I see here,” he said and the others were quick to agree.

  Brenda was not sure they should agree to that actually. They were here to learn about the Shan and report to the President and the Council. Swearing not to reveal what they learned was a little too much like disloyalty for her peace of mind. Unfortunately, it was obvious she would learn nothing further if she did not agree.