*
While the teams were away Sarah and Dan got the children organised. They set up targets for the blowguns and held competitions with prizes. Lots of prizes. Very quickly, the children were deadly accurate. The pipes remained at full length to give accuracy. Simone and Kelly had added different colours of tape to cue the children as to where to put the balls and where to put the gas canisters. The triggers were slightly altered by Con to make it easier for the children’s smaller fingers to fire them. The targets were dabbed with wet paint to determine where the balls hit. Tents were spread under the targets so the children could readily retrieve and re-use the balls.
The most hilarious aspect was the camouflage suits. Everyone had to have one and made their own. This also quickly turned into a competition. With prizes. Once made, their main use tended to be for hide and seek and ambush.
“It would be worse without the children,” Sarah said softly to Dan as they watched the children playing hide and seek. “We are all holding it together because of them.”
“Yes, and I reckon there are fewer disputes and arguments and more cohesion among us.”
Sarah nodded as they watched the play. There were. He was right.
Az
Az missed his brother and not for the first time, he wondered about the wisdom of taking up with these Terrans. Sometimes he was in awe of them and sometimes they frightened him. He sighed. So many decisions, from the moment as a young teenager when he had decided to be a mercenary to earn a ship. Kaz had followed him as usual. It had all been going so well until the Zeobani suddenly and inexplicably lost. He shuddered at the memory of facing surrender and capture, feeling so guilty at involving Kaz. He had expected to die when he refused to pilot for the Keulfyd. He refused both because he despised them and because they told him what he would have to do. He didn’t feel much better when he realized he was headed for the slave locker. Hunched down in despair and humiliation, dirty and naked, he had been thoroughly miserable for several awful weeks until bowled over by an equally grubby, joyful young brother. The two had stuck together, looked out for each other and supported each other day after day following the appalling task of removing bodies. They had been the only Niseyen in that locker but there were a lot of Zeobani. Some of them had suicided.
His mind skipped past the horror to the moment of seeing a lot of his own people, all dead, to a body up in a cupboard and to the horrible moment of gritting his teeth to pull a little Niseyen girl, he thought, down from a cupboard. He closed his eyes and replayed the moment Li had opened her eyes and looked up at him. He smiled. He and Kaz had decided within minutes that they could not leave the girls alone but would desert and join them. And now this. But he worried about Kaz now. The scanners would probably not be searching the Southern continent but Kaz would be in danger from them.
By the third day, they were well up the river and estimated they were parallel to the village. They pulled the boat as far up the bank as they could. They tied it up securely. They couldn’t get any further now by boat due to rapids, waterfalls and steep cliffs. They would have to round this part by foot. If this mission failed they would need to get back by boat. If they couldn’t get the planes, Mathew’s back-up plan was a mixture of balloons with gas canisters and releasing the virus, from the sea, during the night, when the wind blew onto the land. Both methods would probably be suicide missions.
Li shouldered up her pack and looked around at the others. She was missing Stella terribly. Every time she got to sleep the nightmares started. Even the two nights they’d spent very uncomfortably on the boats, trying to sleep. They had pulled up last night, unwilling to risk piloting with lights and risking being seen by Keulfyd satellites and just as unwilling to pilot, blind. Every time they couldn’t see by moonlight, they stopped. When the light was bright enough, they went on. By this time most were tired and grizzly and longing for a decent sleep on something that didn’t move. But it had been worth it. They were ahead of schedule.
Li’s nightmares had started a few nights after the invasion. She kept seeing all the dead bodies. She’d turn them over and they would be her mother, or monsters, or decaying. The nightmares were getting worse and now occurring every night. She was frightened, irritable, terribly tired, felt stretched and strained and simply standing up was an effort. She wasn’t all that worried about the future. Li walked all day, without complaint and with barely a comment. She ignored her surroundings. By evening, she was so tired she couldn’t think and had to be told twice to stop. She sank down.
As Jolene and Akira prepared a pre-packaged meal, Helene again asked her what was wrong. Wearily, past embarrassment Li explained about the nightmares. That night the nightmares came again and Li woke up. In desperation, Li looked over at where Az was and decided to move beside him. She knew Az was totally smitten with her and she reasoned he would help her unconditionally. She was beyond caring what the others thought. She smoothed her bag beside his and he woke up as she moved next to him. She snuggled in beside him and he put his arm around her. Exhausted, she went back to sleep. Waking from another nightmare, he was there to comfort her as Stella had been. It helped. Exhausted, she slept most of the night, waking after the others to find them all up and breakfast ready. She felt better for the sleep but stiff and sore from yesterday’s tramp. Helene and Jolene were unsure what to do. Quietly, they discussed the situation. They decided to take turns sleeping on the other side of Li to keep Az honest.
They walked steadily through that day. Li was awake today, alert and looking around. The vegetation was a little different here but the trees were still weird shapes and colours. She also realized that there were more shrubs than trees. Or were the shrubs immature trees? It would take decades to make a start on studying the plants here. Purple leaves were interspersed with trees with more familiar green leaves, tending to yellow green in colour but soft colours and pretty. She reached up to one tree and plucked off a purple thing that hid among identical shaped leaves. It was like a small, purple banana. She tasted it. Like a melon but a little tart. Nice though. She turned to Mayling who was behind her to find she was already munching another. They both laughed.
“What about a fruit stop,” said Mayling and they all stopped. Karl boosted Li up into the tree and she passed fruit down. Az groaned at the sight of Li up a tree. Another thing so self respecting Niseyen adult would do. He still ate his share of the fruit though, even if he disapproved of the method of harvesting it. But this trip was making him re-think all the protocols ‘civilized’ people were supposed to live under. He thought again about the Kepis who refused to wear clothes and as a consequence were ignored by most People. Not Terrans though. They had made friends with them and promptly helped them. Az had been to another world once, that was owned by fish. He had not even considered trying to talk to them or learn about them. Yet all the Terrans had spoken to, helped, played with and socialized with the Priskya; People that his customs decreed were below him in the pecking order and therefore not worthy of noticing. And it was because of this, and because they had helped the Priskya, that most were alive. The Terrans had made friends with the Okme too. Another Race categorized as very low in the pecking order as they only had one planet. It did have a Defence Shield though, which Petislay didn’t.
The church had been at first agreeing with those attitudes, then went almost silent for decades, but over the last few hundred years had been getting increasingly critical over arrogant and xenophobic inter-racial attitudes and the general lack of tolerance. Az shook his head. He had too much time to think. This type of thing didn’t normally bother him. He’d been around Terrans too much. They were making him rethink things.
As evening approached, they decided on stopping for the night by a river. This was a problem. Tue turned to Az, “how are we going to get you across?”
Appalled, Az stared at the river. It was wide and deep. He shuddered. It looked to be fast too. “I can’t cross that. We’ll have to find a way around it.”
O
ver tea, they all discussed at length flying foxes (not possible, only one large tree), rope bridge (not enough rope), pulling him across by rope (veto’d by Az) and in the end decided to sleep on it. Privately, and out of earshot, Dan and Helene made plans. Everyone except Az, washed in the river which was cool, but not uncomfortably so. That night, Li slept between Az and Helene. Again the nightmares came but comfort was there from Az and she managed to fall asleep again. Just having him beside her seemed to help.
Next morning, they breakfasted, then the women all headed off out of sight and the men all stripped off, walked or dived into the river, washed themselves and changed their clothes, towelling off with a cloak. When Az did nothing, Karl politely said,
“You stink and water is all we have to get clean with.” Karl tried to hand him the soap and offered to help. Az was having none of this.
“I’m not getting into that!” said Az adamantly refusing to wash.
The women returned to see a stand-off. Jolene came up with the idea of using a bowl to pour water over him. Az refused. “I’d rather be filthy than pour that disgusting stuff over me!”
Without warning, Dan and Karl grabbed Az and pinned his arms while Tue tied him up securely, Az putting up a panicked fight and yelling as it dawned on him what this was for. His arms were tied tightly to his body and his legs were also tied together. Helene came over and lifted Az’s head up looking into his eyes which showed terror and anger, the former predominating.
“We’re going to get you across. Don’t panic. Sorry about this but I can’t have you struggling. You’ll drown us both. Relax now. We have a few things to do first,” and they laid him down. Very upset, Li stayed out of sight. She had refused to have any part of this.
Karl swam across carrying one end of two ropes. Dan went with him. They turned the ends around the only sturdy tree in sight. Helene tied one rope around her waist and the other around under Az’s arms which were tied together. Az started to struggle again. Jolene, Mayling and Tue helped lift Az up and carried him into the water up to their waists while Helene followed.
“How are you going to do this? Asked Mayling.”
“I’ll have to swim sidestroke and carry him like a child with his head and chest as far out of the water as possible. He’ll have enough trouble coping without getting his head under water.” She signalled she was ready then started to swim strongly as Dan and Karl pulled her and kept the rope around Az taut. The others all went in downstream of Helene and swam with her ready to help if needed. They all made it across with good speed though the others drifted a good bit downstream before scrambling out. Karl and Dan helped pull Az out, untied him and got back out of the way in case he decided to lash out in retaliation.
“You bastards,” he spluttered among many other comments the Translator declined to translate. Helene towelled him down with a cloak while he continued to gasp and swear and the other girls straggled up and helped. Then they all walked off except for Li who had kept out of all this and been designated to stay with him. Karl left carrying Az’s pack until Az recovered. After a few minutes, Az followed, furious and very embarrassed. Li followed, watching him carefully, unsure what to do. After a few minutes, she took his hand and walked beside him where she could. Some places the undergrowth was thick and they took turns helping each other through.
Az was thinking hard. They had played him well. He didn’t know what to think of this. They had planned this all, he had not suspected a thing. He grudgingly had to admire that. Even to all the ones involved moving away and surrounding him with the girls, using towelling him down as an excuse. They anticipated he would not hit out at the girls. They were right.
Now he was still wet through and his clothes were soaked. His shoes were full of water. They walked on in silence, Az maintaining his distance behind the others, Li keeping pace with him. After another hour or so, Li said,
“What is your world like Az?”
He paused for a while to think. He sat down, took his shoes off and dried them using foliage, as best he could. Li helped. “Not like this except in midsummer in the hottest places. Colder even in the cities because Petislay can’t afford climate control yet. There’s snow most of the year or all of the year. Plants grow, but little in the way of food crops. Food is mostly grown indoors.”
“What about native animals?”
“There’s a lot of them. Some very beautiful ones. Some very big, some small. Some that fly too. Not like the balloons though.”
“What do they eat if there’s not much vegetation?”
“There’s food they can eat but we can’t. A lot of plants grow on the rocks some under the snow and the main crops grow in the snow itself. Some eat the plants and things in the seas and rivers. We can eat some of the fish and some of the tree crops. A lot of food is imported, dehydrated. There are a few places we can grow crops outdoors now but that’s recent.”
“What colour is the sky?”
“Light blue.”
“Ah. Same as Earth.”
“Why do you call your planet different names?”
“Well, we have a lot of languages.”
“Why?”
“Because we lived away from each other. We developed apart. So we speak differently.”
“Is that why you have a different way to measure things like temperature and weight?”
“Yes. We programmed both into the Translator but used metric system, base 10, for most stuff and for the Translator.”
“Why base 10?” asked Az thinking he knew that one.
Li held up her hands and spread her fingers.
“Us too. Base 10, same reason,” and they both laughed. They stopped talking while they scrambled up a small steep hill on all fours. Li noted that going on all fours didn’t seem to be against some silly protocol or other.
“So, when you say you are different races does that mean you are different in other ways? Are you different species?”
“No, all the same species.”
“Even Dan?”
“Yes. And me.”
“Are you all, well, able to reproduce with each other?”
“Yes. We’re all the same. The differences are superficial.”
“You have so many differences.”
“Do you mean you don’t?”
“No. Most of us look very similar. I mean our faces are different, but not body colour or size or shape.”
“Stella said you have albinos.”
“Albinos?”
“Pure white People with pink eyes.”
“Yes, but not many. They are increasing though. Especially the ones with blue eyes.”
“How come?”
“The pink eyed ones have trouble with their eyesight. Many can’t see in daylight unless they wear special eye covers. The blue eyed ones have no eye trouble. They are very popular.”
“What do you mean?”
“They all get Chosen. Because their colour is so lovely.”
“Oh.”
“Anyone who is different is popular.”
“Oh. How about me?”
“Very popular. And Dan would be too. And Kelly.”
“Why Kelly?”
“Blue eyes.”
“Oh.”
They walked in silence a while, still following the others but well behind them. Ahead of them, the others stopped. Catching up, Az saw to his horror that there was another river. He stopped abruptly. The others had scattered to each side and seemed to be looking for something. Some of them were in the river. Where they were seemed shallow. Mayling called out and the others went over to her. They spanned out and started picking up rocks and splashing them in the river. Despite his dread, Az was puzzled about what they were up to. Li went over to talk to them then came back grinning.
“Relax. This river is really shallow. They’ve picked out the shallowest part and are making a crossing of stones for you. You’ll get your feet wet but not much else.”
Warily, Az stayed where he was. Finally, Li came ove
r and took his hand. “There’s a sort of bridge for you.” She tugged gently. Az stayed put.
“Az, it’s OK. We’ll balance you either side. Please trust me.”
Slowly and reluctantly, Az walked over with her. He looked. They had piled stones up making a sort of crossing which looked only a few inches below the water. Dan and Karl stood either side of the piled stones ready to balance him as he walked across.
Az wanted none of this but at least it looked like he could walk across. Slowly, balanced by Karl and Dan, the two tallest, he walked across, getting wet only up to mid calf. In some places, the way was narrow and he needed the others to balance. Finally, he was across.
After a quick discussion, they decided to have lunch then keep going. They were making good time but anything could happen yet. They kept on for several hours, snacking on the dehydrated museli-type bars. As it started to get dark and they were looking for a camp site, they came up to yet another river. This one was swift and wide and looked deep. Az looked at it in horror. Most of the others were looking too, half at the river and half at Az.
Kaz
Kaz, Stella, Kelly, Akira, Ali Nedri, Mahmoud, Miyuki and Steve were the ones chosen to go to the Northern Continent. Their journey was anticipated to be much easier as most of it would be by ship. They were travelling as fast as possible to get there before the Keulfyd. Akira was piloting, and teaching the others. Kelly had partly come because she had had her suspicions of Kaz’s intentions towards Stella. She decided to supervise. She should have known better. Kaz and Stella decided this was a challenge and reacted as Kelly really should have anticipated. Especially because it was exactly what Kelly would have done at Stella’s age. Predictably, the others aided, mostly, Stella and Kaz. The two were together as much as possible given the restrictions of on board life although often Mahmoud was there as well.
Stella and Mahmoud were full of questions and often there was a fascinated audience of others.
Mahmoud was interested in technology. Using his watch and Kaz’s equivalent, he had figured out how to programme Earth time and Petislay time into the Translator. The others watched, fascinated, as Mahmoud calculated it out. Finally he was ready.
“Exactly how old are you in Petislay time?” he asked. Kaz calculated it out, and turned out to be just over 25 in Earth time while Az was nearly 27. Kaz then, using Mahmoud’s calculations, wanted to know how old Stella and Li were. Li was almost 16 and Stella a few days younger. Kaz was amazed that Stella was the younger. He thought she looked years older. Mahmoud was next at just over 15 and a half and Donny had not long turned 15. Mahmoud was still on the subject of technology.
“Do you have an internet?’
“What’s an internet?”
“Information stored in cyberspace.”
“What’s cyberspace?” asked Kaz who knew but looked innocent as they tried to tell him.
There was hilarity and a bit of discussion as Miyuki, Stella and Mahmoud discussed trying to explain this. Finally Kaz said,
“It’s OK. I get it. Cyberspace. We call it something similar. Yes we’ve had it for centuries.”
“Wow!” from Mahmoud, “how big is it?”
“Yeah pretty big. Lots of rubbish in it but we have very good…umm…search dictionaries. Sarah told me about search engines but we have something that sounds better.”
“You knew exactly what we were talking about!”
“But it was fun listening to you try to explain it.”
“I want to hear about your planets. How did you get three?’ Miyuki asked. By this time, Kaz had most of them listening.
“Our original planet, Medala, we won in battle. We were slaves. We finally overcame the race that were our masters. It took us a long time. It’s hard to measure time that long ago. Jaynar, we bought from the Zeobani. It needed full development. As planets go, it was cheap because it was cold and needed a lot of work to be habitable. It was much too cold for the Zeobani. They like worlds more the temperature of this one.
Petislay, we found ourselves and claimed it. It also wasn’t wanted by other Races because it is so cold but it is getting warmer.
“Is it coming out of an ice age or something?”
“Well we don’t really know Mahmoud but we think so. According to our scientists, the planet has been a lot colder and a lot hotter. The changes are slow though, but the fascinating thing is that the plants and animals are adapting and surviving.
Petislay, we found soon after we got space flight. It is close to Medala but was thought to be too hard to develop. We claimed it anyway. It had some minerals we wanted but the climate was so bad, even for us, that we intended to wait till our technology was better. But as the centuries passed, the climate changed and it became warmer. Then it was a possibility. We started to take a good look. By this stage, we could land and we could survive on the open for a while. It was by then about fifteen degrees warmer on average, which is a lot for a planet. We finally put a permanent settlement down and claimed our third inhabited planet. We prepared in secret for nearly forty years and then had to move very fast or it would have been taken off us once other Races realized it was able to be settled. The Zeobani helped us which is another reason why we like them. That was over 340 years ago. My ancestors went there 165 years ago. The planet is still getting warmer. It’s now averaging twenty degrees warmer than when we first found it. That’s at the warmest part at the equator. We first settled there but we are spread out over the planet now. The next step is to get a planetary Defence System. Medala and Jaynar have one but we don’t.
“How long have you had space flight?”
“Ah, about eight hundred years I think. It’s so nice to be able to calculate time! How long have you had space flight?”
“Less than 100 years,” answered Stella, “And nothing like this,” she sighed.
“Relax,” Kaz said. “We stole it off the race that enslaved us. It took us a long time to work it out though.”
“When you say cold, how cold is cold? What’s the daytime highs and lows winter and summer?’ asked Stella.
“Where I live, summer maximum is five degrees. Overnight is minus ten, winter lowest is minus 60 daytime and seventy to ninety at nighttimes if I’ve got my math right. It depends on the wind. When it’s windy it can be deadly.”
“I can cope with those temperatures. That’s about the same as where I come from.”
Kaz looked at her in astonishment.
“I would be staying inside. If I went. Which I wouldn’t,” declared Mahmoud emphatically.
“I could cope with that,” said Miyuki, “colder than where I come from but I could survive.”
Kaz was thinking hard. Stella said she could survive on Petislay!
“What about Terra? What’s it like,” he asked Stella.
“Warmer, crowded, greatly varied, especially in temperature. Some places can be very hot in summer and very cold in winter. Where my friend Peta lives in Alberta, Canada, can be 44 degrees in summer down to 40 below zero in winter. We get colder than that in Vermont where I come from but not as hot in summer. I hate it that hot. Terra is dangerous in places, peaceful in other places, lots of animals, all sizes. About eighty percent of it is water.”
“Eighty percent? Most of it is water?”
“Yes, but we live there too.”
“What? On water? In water? Just how amphibian are you?”
“Over water in rafts and pole houses and some houses can float…”
“What are rafts and pole houses?”
There was a pause while Stella and Mahmoud explained, adding ships and barges and river boats into the mix.
Kaz shuddered. “Not for me. Who lives on water? Any of you?” he said looking around. All shook their heads.
“Karl and Julia had a river boat. They lived there before they had the children. They come from Holland.”
Stella was watching Kaz. The more she saw of him the more she was liking him and it was driving Kelly nuts. That was half the fun.
He had such a wicked sense of humour. She had realized he was teasing Mahmoud. Stella knew she was regarded as being too serious. But so much of Kelly’s life had been so difficult which had impacted on Stella. Kelly had been unable to afford to be a doctor without working full time so she had become an army medic. That meant Stella had to become an army brat and they lived on army bases because it was cheaper. The army had sponsored Kelly’s training at medical school. Then Kelly had to work off her bond. Kelly reduced this faster by hazardous duties overseas while Stella went to her grandparents or they came over and lived with Stella on the bases.
Stella had also been left alone a lot. There often hadn’t been a lot of fun in her life. She found Kaz fun. And his feelings for her were intoxicating. And he really did like her she knew. Stella had had the odd boyfriend but nothing serious. She saw Kaz looking at her sometimes with such a look of longing. It made her feel funny. She knew he would do anything for her. She wanted to exploit that but she didn’t want to hurt him. She felt like a car with the accelerator going full, then slow, then full again. Stella had never kissed a boy seriously. Not like they did in the movies. But Kaz hadn’t tried. She wanted to encourage him but wasn’t sure how to. Normally, she wouldn’t be considering this but she might be dead tomorrow. Or he might. It was getting chilly as evening wore on. Now there’s a thought.
“Brr it’s getting cold,” she said and snuggled up next to a delighted Kaz who, so invited, promptly put his arm around her. Kelly glared. Stella laughed and moved his other arm around her too.
Swimming Lessons
Az awoke next morning with a feeling of dread. They breakfasted and then went to look at the river.
“Well Az, what do we do?” asked Dan.
“Don’t tie me up. I won’t struggle.”
“You’ll go across? With Helene?”
“Yes.”
“OK. I’ll show you what we want you to do. If you can. A volunteer please.”
Li went over and she and Dan stripped most of their clothes off. Az tried not to gape. Yet the others hardly reacted. Li had more curves than he thought. Some very nice ones. A child, she definitely was not. He wondered again if she was a midget but was reluctant to ask. They went into the water and demonstrated life saving technique with Li floating. Az shuddered. “I’ll try,” he said.
“If you take most of your clothes off, you’ll have something dry to put on,” suggested Dan but Az would have none of it.
Before he had too much time to think about it, they crossed as before with the others swimming downstream in case of problems and Karl and Dan pulling Helene across with the ropes. Despite his promise, Az struggled a bit and succeeded in going under once or twice. Miyuki and Tue were there in a flash helping him up as he spluttered and gasped. They reached the other side and let Az rest.
“Do all Terrans swim?” he asked after a few minutes.
“No, but Mathew insisted all who came with you had to be good swimmers.”
“Oh.”
“Az, how did you expect to get across the rivers?”
Az looked very embarrassed, “I didn’t think about it Li. If I had planned the route, I would have avoided the rivers.”
“But that would have added days on our trip and we have no time to waste.”
“I know. But we would not consider crossing rivers. You, I suspect, would not consider avoiding them!”
“True. In this temperature certainly. But if it was very cold, they would be dangerous to us too.”
“How do you mean?”
“Under fifteen degrees would be difficult. Under five, we couldn’t manage at all.”
“Why not?”
“Too cold. It would drop our body temperature too much, too fast and we could drown.”
“Drown because of the cold?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t understand. How can cold drown you?”
“When we get too cold we can’t move. Our bodies start to shut down. And it happens very fast. We wouldn’t be able to swim. Then we’d drown.”
“Oh.”
“And too hot is no good either. Over 45 degrees is a problem and over 50 I think would cause burning to our skin and would exhaust us quickly. So our water temperature range is much narrower than the air temperature range we can tolerate.”
Az stood up and started to move off after the others. “What air temperatures can you tolerate?”
“I’m not really sure. About 50 below zero to 50 above is OK but I think we can do a lot better. I don’t really know. I’m pretty sure we can go up to about 100 degrees above zero but not that far below. We do take a few months to adapt completely though but most of do adapt well. I know most humans can tolerate a fair range. I once left Shanghai at 3 degrees below zero and it was 38 degrees above when I arrived in Australia. Stella said she once left Vermont when it was 37 degrees below zero and arrived in Christchurch at 32 above zero. That took her a few days to get used to! She said she promptly got sunburned.”
“This above zero and below zero counting system of yours would be very confusing without the Translator. Why do you use it?”
“Zero is the temperature water freezes at.”
“Why is that so significant?”
“Because we’re amphibian!”
“Oh. Yes, I guess that makes sense to you. Water is very important to you. But that is really confusing to me. How can we be the same race? We are definitely not amphibian!”
“How would you know?”
“How would I know what?”
“Is all the water on your planet frozen?”
“No, not all, and more melts in the summers every year. Why?”
“Well you’d never try to get into water if the cold of it alone would kill you now would you?”
“I can’t see the relevance of that. I never heard of any Niseyen getting into water voluntarily. Apart from the physical stupidity, it would be culturally unacceptable.”
Alien Alliance Page 28
