by S. H. Jucha
Finally, Waffala gave in and tipped his muzzle the slightest amount. Anything was better than having the alien leaning over him and gazing at him with those unblinking eyes.
“Then, I’ll tell you,” Alex said in a friendly manner. “You request your queen or advisor, whoever can read these inscriptions, to meet with us. We’ll listen to their words, and then we’ll immediately depart Sawa. That’s all you have to do. We’ll land here on the following day, soon after Nessila rises, to meet with them.”
Waffala would have replied, but the alien seemed uninterested in an answer. Instead the metal object, which appeared to be a doorway and was directly in front of him, levered down and away. Waffala could identify the rock formations and boulders, which bordered his nest, and his hopes soared that the aliens truly intended to release him.
“Tomorrow at Nessila’s rise, Sub-commander. I need someone who knows the carvings’ meanings. Now go,” Alex said, and triggered the release of the warrior’s bindings.
Waffala pulled his arms free, threw aside the strap at his waist, and kicked his legs out. Nothing held him, and he leapt through the doorway, frantically racing for cover behind a rocky outcrop before he stopped to look back. The metal door had closed, and the large object he had first seen at the center’s site rose into the air. Waffala’s jaw fell open, as he watched the object rise quickly and quietly into the sky, and he stared dumbfounded at its retreating shape. None of the warriors, who had raced to the defense of the temple on their wasat’s command, were told that the object had come from the sky.
Waffala stretched out his arms to brace himself against a boulder, the heat from it warming his hands. He shook his muzzle in confusion. The foundation of his beliefs was shaken. Obedience to his queen and commander were absolute, but he asked himself why the warriors were not told of the object’s alien nature. Surely, a lookout saw the object land, he thought.
The evidence was clear — the aliens came from the sky, as they had professed. It struck Waffala that perhaps everything the aliens told him was true, and those truths were damaging in that they contradicted the queen’s words. The soma were repeatedly told of the grievous errors of the queens, generations ago, who thought to migrate away from the home world. Their folly was proven when they perished in the trips to the next planet outward or soon after landing there. Yet, here were queens and wasats, living with aliens, who said Dischnya existed on Sawa Messa.
Unsure of what to do with his newfound information, Waffala made his way slowly across the dry, Nessila-heated sands toward a lookout’s hatch. He would make his report to the queen and commander, but he would be careful to keep some things to himself.
* * *
Waffala’s commander, Falwass, met him alone at the lookout post that he entered. A pail of water and brush were supplied, and he was ordered to thoroughly clean himself.
“You must remove all traces of the creatures’ poison from your fur, Sub-commander,” Falwass said.
“Poison?” Waffala queried.
“Yes, poison. The creatures sprayed it into the air. That’s how they felled our warriors.”
“Will I die?” Waffala asked. He was still torn between the words of the aliens and those of his wasat. So many words and so little time to determine the untruths, he thought.
“The creatures probably gave you a cure so that they could speak to you. Obviously, they wished you to deliver a message, so it’s unlikely you’ll perish from their poison.”
The way Falwass spoke gave Waffala chills. It was as if he were saying that death could creep over him in unsuspecting ways. “Commander, I would ask, how many of our warriors died during the fight with the creatures?”
“We were fortunate, Sub-Commander Waffala. Chona Ceefan’s advisors managed to concoct a cure to the creatures’ poison. None of our soma perished.”
“Good news, Commander,” Waffala replied, relieved to hear of his warriors’ survival, although none of the commander’s words fit with what he knew.
“Hurry now, Waffala. The queen waits to hear your report.”
As quickly as Waffala could, he finished rinsing his fur and drying off. The commander marched ahead of him through the tunnels with such a strong gait that the Tamassa Soma warriors, who were pleased to see him, didn’t dare speak, bark, or yip in celebration of his return. At best, muzzles were lifted in silent salute.
In the queen’s chambers, Waffala was grilled thoroughly and continually by Ceefan and Falwass on his treatment at the hands of the interlopers, what he saw, and what they said. Most important, the queen wanted to understand their repeated requests to learn the nature of the temple carvings.
It was curious to Waffala that not once did either the queen or his wasat ask how he and the interlopers could communicate with one another. It was if they didn’t want to hear the word alien spoken, which made Waffala think that they had seen them, but somehow the warriors had been convinced that they didn’t. Had they asked, Waffala’s answer would have been simple — the interlopers were aliens, who spoke Dischnya, but not as the Sawa soma.
The longer the questions went on, the more Waffala realized he’d been smart to keep his muzzle closed on many of the small points. He was careful to never mention the words alien or ship. His queen called them interlopers, and steered away from how the object appeared and disappeared from their territory. Words of untruth, Waffala thought. We’ve been told words of untruth.
“And you say, Sub-commander, that these interlopers asked only about a specific area on a single column,” Ceefan said, hitting on the subject for the fourth time.
“I believe so, my queen. As I know not the words of the sacred carvings, it would be difficult to tell if they showed me one or several. They did appear the same.” Waffala ended his statement with a conciliatory dip of his head, apologizing for his lowly skills, and hoping to end his interrogation on this subject.
“Lift your muzzle, Waffala,” Ceefan said generously. “You’ve done well to escape the object before the interlopers carried it away. They’re dangerously clever to be able to move this fortress of theirs across the plains.”
Another untruth, Waffala thought, I, myself, saw it fly away.
“One more item, Sub-commander, and then we’ll relieve you to go and rest. The poison these creatures used is strong, and we’ve seen it play with the minds of our soma, so much so, that their memories were altered. Tell me again what they said to you about Nessila’s next rise.”
“The largest of the interlopers requested you, my queen, or a skilled advisor, who could read the temple carvings, to meet them at the place where they appeared before. If the meanings were made clear to them, they said they would not bother the nest again.”
“An excellent report, Waffala; you may go,” Ceefan said.
As soon as Falwass confirmed that Waffala was out of earshot, Ceefan asked, “Are the warriors unsettled by our stories?”
“No, my queen,” Falwass replied, “They’re grateful to your advisors for their speedy recovery. That they had no injuries supports our story of a poison sprayed into the air to which they succumbed.”
“What of the lookout, who saw the ship land?” Ceefan asked.
“I took care of him soon after I received his report of the first landing. Our hunters believe he was lost or killed during the next days’ foraging and have spread the story. I ensured he was unable to tell his tale to anyone.”
“And what of today’s landing?”
“There’s only one lookout post that views the location where the aliens landed, and I’ve assigned no lookouts to that station since the first landing.”
“Excellent work, Falwass.”
“But, my queen, what will you do when Nessila rises tomorrow?”
“I’ve considered that. I believe our best course of action is to give the aliens what they want and hope they will keep their word and return to Sawa Messa.”
“The warriors will expect to accompany you and protect you, Chona Ceefan.”
; “We can’t allow that, Falwass. The untruths we’ve told are piling up. Besides, the aliens killed none of our warriors, only put them to sleep. Even poor Waffala was returned unarmed. Better they hadn’t. He will soon need to meet his own foraging accident.”
“I will be on duty at the lookout post before Nessila crests the horizon tomorrow, my queen.”
“And I will wait there with you, Commander. Ensure that no soma enter the post while we’re aboveground.”
“It will be as you order, my queen,” Falwass replied, dropping his muzzle in obeisance.
-17-
Plan C-3
In the morning, a little before Nessila broke the horizon, everyone aboard the traveler with an implant or comm was linked to the controller. Svetlana floated the ship half a kilometer above the edifice, at the far edge of the Tamassa Soma nest. The landing party could distinguish two individuals on the ground, and one of them possessed a regal tail.
“It would appear that Waffala delivered your message, Alex,” Julien said.
Once the traveler was down, Alex said, “Only Julien, the twins, and I will meet the queen. If we enter the edifice, Z and Miranda, you follow and take up posts at the bottom of the steps. Any trouble and we’ll join forces to fight our way back to the ship.”
“Alex, it would be better to have one SADE and a twin with you,” Z replied.
“Perhaps for armament, Z. But, in this case, I don’t wish to intimidate these Dischnya. I’m big enough, but you two are —”
“Careful, Ser,” Miranda warned.
“Are so magnificently endowed that I’m sure they would be overwhelmed by your presence,” Alex supplied with a huge grin.
“A charming recovery,” Miranda commented.
When the hatch dropped, the twins exited first, followed by Julien and Alex. In the quiet of the morning, the team could hear the hisses of the waiting Dischnya.
Julien replied, sending a vid of a SADE-like avatar with wings and whose entire body was covered in feathers. He displayed the avatar walking and behind it fell copious amounts of small, down feathers.
Alex would have asked Julien if he had ever considered a role in entertainment, but by then they were approaching the queen.
“I’m Chona Ceefan, Tamassa Soma,” the queen announced, her tail cracking like a whip behind her. “This is my wasat, Falwass.”
“I’m Alex Racine, leader of my soma. We wish to know the meaning —”
“Yes, we’ve heard your request from our sub-commander,” Ceefan interrupted. “We require your promise that once you learn the meanings of the carvings, you’ll return to wherever you came from and visit our nest no more.”
“Once we understand the messages in the glyphs, we’ll leave your planet, Chona Ceefan,” Alex replied. “We’ll not return to Sawa unless we’re invited by your soma,” Alex replied.
Something about the alien’s phrasing of his promise bothered the queen, but because she couldn’t conceive of her soma agreeing to the aliens’ presence, she accepted his response.
“Shall we go?” Alex replied, when Ceefan nodded her agreement. He gestured toward the edifice’s steps, his hand low and palm up.
Ceefan and Falwass loped ahead of the aliens. She wanted to be finished with the intruders before her soma wondered of her absence from the nest.
The landing team hurried to catch up with the Dischnya, running up the steps to join them at the entrance.
“Show us the carvings you want to learn,” Ceefan demanded.
Julien unerringly led the group to the column in question and pointed to the first glyph, which their queens had already translated. For the SADE, it was a test of Ceefan’s credibility.
“That carving indicates the presence of a great ship, shaped like an orb. It’s known by a few of us that this ship visited Nessila generations ago,” Ceefan replied.
“And the carvings below that one?” Alex asked.
Ceefan read the first glyph and then moved onto the next two, her brow wrinkling in confusion. “I don’t understand,” she muttered.
“What don’t you understand?” Alex pressed.
“These carvings are without foundation. They’re a collection of numbers without meaning or description,” Ceefan replied.
“You realize if you’re refusing to translate these carvings, there’s no reason for us to leave your planet, as we agreed,” Alex replied.
Ceefan’s hiss carried her anger and was emphasized by Falwass’ growl. “Make no mistake, creature, I want you gone. I’m telling you these carvings have no place here on a column of a sacred temple.”
“Let me be the judge of their worthiness, Chona Ceefan,” Alex said, employing his command voice. “Read the numbers in the carving.”
Ceefan announced each glyph and read off the numerical sequence.
Alex glanced at Julien and smiled. The SADE sprouted his infamous detective’s cap, one rarely seen in public, and began pursuing the interior of the edifice, scanning the number of columns, stones, and interior proportions, searching for a match.
The queen and wasat glanced at each other, as if to ensure each had seen what the other witnessed. Their wide eyes confirmed that an object had appeared from air to cover the alien’s head. Now, more than ever, Ceefan wanted the aliens gone, and not only for the sake of her soma. She found them entirely too disturbing.
Ceefan wanted to ask why the alien leader didn’t depart. She’d read the carvings as required, but the creature stood there quietly watching his soma walk the temple’s interior. Meanwhile, his other two soma, who resembled a view of one’s self in polished metal, regarded Falwass and her with quiet eyes. They had never looked anywhere else but at them. Warriors, she thought.
Julien’s analysis returned a result, and he walked to the entrance of the temple. From there, the SADE began walking into the edifice’s interior, counting the broad stone blocks in the floor. At one point, he turned sharply left and paced out more stones. Finally, he turned right and continued to count.
Alex stared at the stone Julien pointed to with his foot. It appeared similar to every other stone surrounding it. There was nothing to distinguish it.
“It would appear that those who were in charge of building this edifice chose to record some information publicly on their columns, because it was general knowledge at that time. However, they didn’t wish certain specific information, concerning the event, to be known, so they hid it,” Julien said.
“Dig it up,” Alex ordered.
When Julien bent to pry up the stone, Ceefan cried out in horror, “You can’t desecrate our temple.”
“We wish to look under this stone, Chona Ceefan. We’ll replace it before we leave,” Alex replied.
Ceefan and Falwass growled harsh warnings, and the twins moved to stand between them and the other aliens, baring their teeth in evil smiles. The queen and her wasat stopped their noise and suspiciously eyed the odd instruments on the warriors’ shoulders. The tools tracked their movements like weapons.
Julien slipped the stone free and slid it to the side. Unfortunately, there was nothing beneath it but a layer of fine, crushed stone. Al
ex and Julien stared at each other and then simultaneously eyed the errant stone, and Julien snatched it up. On the underside was another carving.
Ceefan moved close to study the strange glyph. “This one also makes no sense,” she muttered.
In contrast to the queen, Alex and Julien were grinning at each other. Julien replaced the stone, and Alex turned to Ceefan and said simply, “We’re gone.” Then Julien, the twins, and he marched out of the edifice, down the steps, collected Z and Miranda, and quickly crossed the ground to the traveler.
Ceefan and Falwass looked at the disturbed stone, confused by the fact that the aliens asked no questions about what was inscribed on its bottom. They hesitated only briefly. Then they fled the temple and hurried to the unattended lookout post.
* * *
While Alex and company were inside the edifice, the commanders and SADEs monitored the ship’s surroundings.
“We have movement,” Deirdre remarked to Svetlana. The commanders switched from the sound-surveillance app to a visual scan of the traveler’s perimeter and spotted one lone individual approaching the ship. It was a Dischnya warrior, who carried no weapon and wore no headgear.
“Does he look familiar?” Svetlana asked Deirdre. She sent the image to Miriam, who ran a recognition app on the face, and the SADE replied that it was Waffala.
The commanders, Miriam, and Glenn, watched with fascination through their implants and comms, as Waffala approached the hatch, stopped 3 meters short, and fell to his knees. He held his arms out in supplication.
“What?” Sissya asked Miriam, noticing the heightened tension of those who could communicate by their minds.
“Waffala is outside and seems desperate,” Miriam replied. The SADE signaled the drop of the hatch and moved to exit, but was stopped by Sissya’s chuff.
