by Smith, T. L.
“Well, if you can’t get a specific answer with your scanners, send us a shuttle and we’ll go take a look.” Schaeffer snipped.
“Sorry, I won’t authorize that. Not yet.”
“What?”
I cringed. The pissing match was about to start.
“Sir, we don’t know what’s down there. Do you really want to risk a fly-by, unprepared, unarmed?” She hesitated on her end, making him think about it. “Give us time to see if we can break through these wacked out signals. If we can’t get detailed scans by the end of the day, I’ll put together an armed detail and send the shuttle to you.”
Lizzy started translating. I almost stopped her, but Yinet’s trust was important. We had to be totally honest with her. Which meant telling her why we were here. “Yinet?” I pulled the rock out of my pocket, holding it out to her, giving it back. “Let us talk more.”
Lizzy had to get out her sketchpad to explain why we came here. Yinet remained quiet for such a long time. We had come here for the specific reason of taking away the ore, to build more ships. The difference was our intentions. Our mission statement was clear we wouldn’t take resources if the planet’s life forms were sentient.
The Parredet changed the plan. My new mission was to negotiate any possible trade agreement. Unfortunately, someone violated the plan before I could even start. I promised we would make them stop.
I waited, sitting easily within reach of Yinet’s long arms, and teeth. I had to be honest and vulnerable, if she was to believe in me.
It took a long time, but finally she bowed her head to us. “Ara, friend. Litty, friend.” She said the words, but we didn’t get the nuzzle, making my chest ache. “Parredet talk.”
She got up and left. Lizzy let out her breath. “She’s not happy, but she’ll stand by us.”
“Glad you’re confident.” Schaeffer came to the bench. “I don’t like waiting for answers.”
Remy stood at the terrace edge, watching Yinet leave “I’m sure they didn’t either, but they spent as much time studying us as you spent trying to figure them out. They wanted Shara to come back, to reveal themselves to her, to confront her. We have to rely on that trust.”
“I don’t think it’s their trust we have to worry about.” Lizzy tucked her pad back into her bag. “What if the scans confirm there’s some illegal mining operation going on? How are we going to stop them?”
Remy turned back from the ledge. “She’s right. That ship up there isn’t a battle cruiser. You didn’t build it for that purpose. I doubt we can say the same for these others, whoever they are.” Remy stared at Schaeffer. “They came here with the specific purpose of taking what they wanted, and to hell with anyone getting in their way. You think they’ll stop, because you tell them to?”
“No, I don’t think that. Not at all.” Schaeffer looked out over the mountains.
“I’m sick just thinking about all this.” I pushed off the bench, past Remy and into the cavern. “I need to think. Let me know when we hear from the captain.”
I left them on the ledge, grabbed an MRE and headed to the sleeping chamber. I crawled deep into the ledge, away from the lighted leaves covering the ceiling, back where it was cool and dark. There I pulled out the cookies and nibbled on them, thinking about all I’d done here, since day one. All my work, undermined.
What would happen if some LR… some Parredet approached these outlaws. This could get ugly, quick, and we were light-years from home. All the firm resolve I’d put out for Yinet dissolved and I curled up under the blanket.
“Are you sulking?” Remy crawled up next to me, pulling at the blanket, the Parredet blanket, so delicate looking, but strong fibers holding up as he tried to see my face.
“No, I’m thinking how screwed we are. You know I have to go dark before I can start thinking about how to fix this mess.” It was a habit both Kazan and Batista shared.
Of course, Remy never respected it. I gave up trying to keep my face covered as he came up under the blanket too.
“We’re soldiers. We were trained as soldiers, before we went off into our separate specialties. We’re going to have to be soldiers again. We can recall our sister-ship, pack it with real soldiers and get their asses here to confront these people.”
“Yes…” Remy hesitated. “If you’re going to the dark scenarios, consider whether or not your command is behind this.”
I looked over at him. “You would bring that up.
“You know me. Devil’s advocate.”
“I’m sorry I got you into this. You and Lizzy.”
“I’d rather be here than you going through this without my even knowing.” He kissed me. “We’re in this together, remember? You, me and Kazan. No more secrets”
“I remember.” I curled up close to him, glad he’d come to join my sulking. “I can’t believe they’re doing this, virtually under our noses. What are they, less than two hundred miles away? Maybe if I hadn’t been playing secret agent, I’d have found out about this sooner.”
“You can’t blame yourself for this, part-time or full-time, you were doing your job the way you were instructed. I’m sure if command were in on this, they wouldn’t have been so demanding about you figuring out the local life. We have to keep faith in that part of the mission, though I wouldn’t guarantee all levels of command have clean hands.”
“Really? Why do you think that?”
“Someone told them about this place, in order to get smugglers here.”
I pulled the blanket down so I could look at him. “Since when are you the one to go down all these conspiracy paths?”
“Who reads all the political mysteries? Beats the crap you read.” His hands slipped down my back. “All those sappy romances. At least when you’re Batista. I don’t know this Kazan person so well yet. What do you read when you’re out here?”
“What do you think? Science-fiction, of course.” I laughed as his hands pulled me tighter. “I’m getting the impression you’d go for a bit of sappy romance.”
“Really?” Remy pinned me down for a kiss. “Why would you be getting that impression?” His hand pressed between us, unfastening my belt. “I certainly wouldn’t want to mislead you. I’m just trying to help clear your head.”
“We’re not alone. Schaef and Lizzy...”
“Went for a walk.” Remy sat up and removed his shirt. “A nice long walk.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Parredet went about their business as we waited for the captain to get back to us on her scans. Lizzy took the time to download the history lesson we’d gotten and put in narration, as best as we could without an accurate translation from Yinet.
Schaeffer and Remy studied our morning log, catching up on details they’d missed. Any doubt as to Yinet’s meaning was erased, not that Schaeffer doubted me. It was mid-afternoon when Schaeffer’s comm chirped at him impatiently.
“Schaeffer here. What do you have for us?” He turned the volume up for us all to hear.
“We need to send the shuttle for you. The jamming is intentional, which means they know we’re here. I’ve put together an armed detail to provide protection at the camp until we can get our people aboard.”
I’d heard that tone in the captain’s voice. She was on full alert, ready to make a run for it as soon as everyone was safe. I tapped into the link. “I’m sorry, Captain, but we’re not going to abandon these people. We brought this on them.”
“Col. Kazan, you don’t know that.” She was about to order us back.
“Yes, we do. The Parredet are perfectly clear we arrived first, then this other batch of humans showed up. The fact we tried to make contact with them is why they trust us. They trust we’ll take care of this problem.”
I looked around at my small party. We’d spent the day conjecturing on how this other faction learned of this world. “They didn’t go hopping randomly to every faint molecular signal. They sat back prepping their resources. We found it and someone in the organization leaked the info to the
m.”
The other end was silent for a moment. No doubt she’d already run through a few conspiracy theories herself. “Either way, you’re not safe down there.”
“We’re as safe here as back at camp.” Schaeffer pulled the link back. “Send me a shuttle. Make it absolutely clear that the indigenous life-forms are NOT the enemy. I want no instances of hostilities towards them, no matter what they do. At this point they consider us allies.”
“Schaef, what are you planning?” I leaned across, whispering.
He waved me off. “Pick me up in one hour. I’ll send coordinates.”
Clear of the connection, he got up from our circle. “I need to get aboard the ship to report back to HQ, to get our sister ship remissioned.”
Lizzy bit at her lip, looking up at him. “You’re coming back?”
It was an odd question, sounding a bit worried. Schaef gave her a strange gaze back. “Of course.” He smiled at her. “You’ll be safe here. You just keep working with Yinet on their history and culture. We want as much detail as possible.”
I got up too, waving to Yinet and pointing to include Gerret. They started up the cliff. “An hour. You’re intending to be picked up somewhere else?”
Schaef looked to the distant range. Its height made it visible, even from our vantage point. “They’ll be watching to see if we know about them yet. If I can hitch a ride further down the range, we can keep them from pinpointing this location. We don’t know how well the Parredet have been hiding from them, hopefully a lot better than they did from us.”
“I’ll try to get it across to Yinet for the other villages to lay low, and that we might have to wait for backup. They’ve waited this long to tell us…trust us. Hopefully we can keep this contained.” I stepped back as Gerret crested the ridge first. Yinet came up beside him. She gave me a nuzzle before going to Lizzy. Her mood had improved.
I waited until they both perched on the benches to try explaining what we wanted to do. Lizzy was going fast and furious to draw it out, to make it as clear as possible.
Yinet studied the plan for a moment, then studied me, as if trying to read my mind, my intentions. Turning to Gerret, she rambled out a long series of their chirping communications. He gave her a quick nuzzle before disappearing down the cliff face.
“I take that as a go?” Schaef picked up his pack, but stopped as Yinet gave him a curious look. He held the pack for a moment, before handing it to Lizzy. “I probably won’t need this and it’s just more weight to carry.”
“Leaving it indicates you’ll return.” Lizzy took it, putting it behind her. “However, she probably expects a ‘see you later’.” She stuck her face out to Schaeffer.
Seeing him blush was weird. As weird as him bending down to give Lizzy a kiss. “That good for you?”
“Had better.” Lizzy smirked. “But I’ll wait for you to come back.”
Gerret returned with two large Parredet. They remained on the edge of the cliff wall as their leader spoke to them, gesturing to the southeast. He knew a location suitable for the shuttle to land, but far enough away to be misleading. He motioned for Schaef to approach.
Though this was his idea, I could see Schaef pale just a little. Lizzy saw it also, going to him and giving him another kiss and nuzzle, as our hosts would. “Just hang on and think about being eight years old. They’ll do all the work.”
“You’d know?” He turned to the first of the two giant males.
“I went to circus camp for book research.” Lizzy gave him a push, laughing as the first male grabbed Schaef and swung him around onto the other male’s back. Schaef scrambled to get a grip, before falling down the side of the cliff. “Remember to let go when they do.” She shouted her instructions down the wall as the two males disappeared, two more joining them as they reached the trees.
I watched too, gritting my teeth. “Man, he’s going to hate me when he gets back.”
“It was his idea.” Lizzy still giggled. Yinet did too.
I backed away from the edge. “Let’s get to the rest of the message, so Yinet can get her emissaries on their way too.”
Hearing her name, Yinet rejoined me on the bench, Lizzy next to her with the drawing pad. I talked, Lizzy sketched and Yinet gave me slow head nods, mimicking our gestures. When I got out the last of my instructions, she gave us nuzzles and disappeared over the cliff.
Remy had sat by quietly throughout our exchanges. He looked a bit dejected. “What’s wrong, Hon?”
“Just feeling left out, I guess.” He came over to take Yinet’s vacant spot. “Nothing to build or fix, and no boy scout duties right now.”
“Sorry. Maybe you should have gone with Schaef.”
“No, he’d want me here, just in case.” Remy gave Lizzy an elbow. “He’d worry you’d get yourself in some kind of trouble.”
“With who?” Lizzy nudged him back. “Let’s see about that tour you two were getting. We’ve only seen the history cave and there’s so much to learn yet.” She saw me look down at her feet and she kicked one out. “I’m much better, really.”
The raw blisters had dried up and there was only a slight redness to them. “Our medics would be interested in those leaves.”
“Again, your field, not mine.” Remy stood up, offering Lizzy a hand, even though she didn’t need it. “Come on, I’ll show you as much as we saw, then hopefully we’ll find someone you can talk to about the rest.”
Lizzy took his hand, but let go quickly, nodding to the Parredet village. It was pushing customs to be in close proximity while Schaeffer was away, best not to outright break them intentionally. He went down the terrace, giving us each a hand down, me first. We both helped Lizzy, until a female arrived to accompany her, proving the Parredet were keeping tabs on us.
At the base of the cliff, the female stayed with us, but dropped back a discreet distance as we walked through the village commons studying the cliff carvings. Lizzy was the artist among us, but after a few minutes I could see a flow, a pattern, far more intricate than the cave. We followed as much as we could from the ground. As we moved further from our point of residence, the carvings changed. There seemed to be breaks, like turning pages.
“Eras. What we saw was an abbreviated version.” Lizzy held her arms out to encompass the current cliff face. “This section is an entire era.” She stepped back. “They recorded every moment of their history, documented for the next generations, to never be forgotten.” She looked further down the range. “Somewhere we’ll be added.”
“Let’s hope it’s a good annotation.” I’d joined her as she’d moved back far enough to look up the cliff a bit more easily. “So, the cave, why that, if they have all this?”
“Book blurbs.” Lizzy looked at me. “We grasped the truth faster in those few feet, than we did looking at thousands of feet.” She spread her arms out. “Now you’re prepared to read the whole book and believe.”
“You mean comic strip vs. War and Peace.” Remy turned away from us. “This goes on and on, virtually the whole mountain.”
“I believe, but never expected anything like this. We need to go back to the beginning, record as much as possible and figure these people out. There’s so much we need to know, like where they used to live. Why they rejected all their technology to live like this.” I looked around, at our escort. “Why a clearly intelligent species had chosen to continue living like this.”
“Don’t criticize.” Lizzy snapped at me. “If these people faced a catastrophic history, this is their answer, to return to nature.” Lizzy drew as she spoke, something she’d done since she was a kid, probably what made her such a good writer, being able to split her thoughts so completely.
“I wasn’t criticizing.” I hadn’t meant to. “I’m worried.”
Lizzy looked up at me. “So am I.”
What was about to happen on this peaceful planet was terrifying. “Let’s get everything we can.”
Lizzy was quick to get the female to understand what we wanted. Getting to the
beginning of the story was far more difficult. We found out just how large this village was. We did as much as we could, returning at nightfall.
We barely had MREs out of our packs when Schaeffer slipped off the back of a Parredet, with a great deal more ease than he’d left. He bowed to the gentle giant before turning to us. “It’s not our people over there. I got word out to reroute our other ship, with soldiers.”
“And in the meantime?” His arrival took me off guard. Our new friends never even raised an alarm at his return. At least any I heard. Yinet knew, showing up only a bare second after Schaef.
He gave Yinet a bow, then Lizzy a proper smooch, as a mate should.
“What’s the plan?” Formalities grated on my Kazan nerves, considering what was going on behind our backs.
Schaeffer sat down with Lizzy, switching back to the serious officer I knew. “We need to send a scouting party out to see exactly what’s going on over there. I brought back some… tools.” He looked up as Gerret joined our group. “As the Parredet are skilled at moving about quietly, we need to enlist their help in this. A party of soldiers with Parredet escorts.”
Lizzy was quick to know her role, drawing out a quick sketch. Gerret nodded.
“I’ll take a party of males back to our camp to get soldiers. Four. I don’t want so many as to make it impossible to maintain stealth.”
“Four, with us that makes eight, and twice as many Par...”
“We’re not going.” Lizzy interrupted Remy, getting a glare I’d only seen him use a few times in our years together.
Schaeffer nodded. “Four soldiers and me. The rest of you remain here.”
“Wait a minute. I’m no slacker.” Remy riled. “You want to see what they’re doing. I’m an engineer. I can tell you what they have for equipment.”
Schaeffer turned his glare to Remy. “No. If they see us, they’ll aim to kill. I want to get in and get out. You can identify equipment from the vids.”
