After a time, the villagers apparently arrived at a decision. A group of them, perhaps ten, set off up a living ladder that had been carved into the bole of a tree just behind one of the larger hut in the village. It was the first time Asher had noticed the ladder, but now he saw that there were several of these throughout the village, ascending toward the canopy. The Cythrans climbed surprisingly easily. They balanced themselves by holding on to the bark of the tree and the overhead rungs with their head appendages and they propelled themselves from rung to rung with powerful thrusts of their short legs. In this manner, the ten Cythrans swarmed up the tree, one after the other. Soon, all that Asher could make out were the bobbing light-globes that were strapped to the back of every second climber. Then even these blinked out, one by one, as the Cythrans ascended into the dense canopy.
The three humans stood together amid a crowd of staring Cythrans. None of them tried to communicate anymore, seemingly having learned that the two species could not understand each other. Silence settled over the forest village, broken every now and then by one of those hooting calls from the canopy and once by the stumping noise of some large creature running through the woods. The Cythrans didn’t seem concerned about these environmental noises, or at least not concerned enough to turn away from the humans.
Finally, Jaydrupar broke the silence. “They’re coming back down.”
Asher looked up at the tree trunk where the climbers had disappeared. One by one, pinpricks of blue light appeared high in the tree and weaved and bobbed down the trunk. He was not able to distinguish the bodies of the Cythrans that held the lights until they were very near the ground. He was surprised to see several newcomers—possibly females—among them.
The returning climbers rejoined their brethren among the huts. Five of the females had come with them. Apparently, they lived or were kept in the trees for some reason, while the males lived on the forest floor. One of the females approached the humans and said something. Asher’s net struggled to interpret. “Sky Fire People [untranslatable] speak new-other person speak tree home people speak Bone Tree People.”
“Anyone figure that one out?” asked Kaz.
“I have an inkling,” said Jaydrupar. He indicated a larger female that had come down from the trees. “See that one? Her appendages are tied in a bundle so she can’t speak and the two at her sides are the only females armed with those knife-blades.”
“So?”
“So I think she’s a prisoner. I think she’s a ‘new-other person’ and the native females—maybe the Tree Home People—are going to use her as an interpreter.”
Jaydrupar was right. The female who had spoken turned to the bound female and released the band that confined her head-appendages. The prisoner shook them out, making each vibrate all along its length., then she spoke, “Release me, savages! Take me back to my people.”
“No problem translating that,” said Jaydrupar.
“Humans!” she said, as if seeing them for the first time. “Thank [untranslatable]. Are you here to take me back to Marateen? Do you have a ship or some some kind of vehicle?”
“I am afraid we are prisoners as well,” said Jaydrupar. Asher glanced at him and over at Kaz. The lie was an interesting gambit, so he decided not to interrupt the Intel man. This kind of deception was what Jaydrupar was trained for, after all.
“We had to launch an escape-pod when our shuttle malfunctioned,” said Jaydrupar. “We landed here in this forest, and these Cythran males found us.”
“But your weapons—” said the prisoner.
Jaydrupar glanced at the gun in his hand and looked back at the two security operatives, who were still armed to the teeth. “Useless, I’m afraid,” he said. “All of our extra ammunition was lost in the crash, and what little we had we used up trying to scare our captors off. Sadly, they only pretended to run away. When our guns were empty, they returned.”
“I am sorry for you then, humans,” said the captive Cythran. Asher was surprised that she had bought that line about the ammo. If he had been told that he would still have wanted to know why the Cythrans hadn’t taken the guns. Still, whether Cythran or Ferether, she was an alien. Sometimes it was easier to lie to aliens because they had no real frame of reference for your actions.
“My name is Hasim,” said Jaydrupar, “What is yours?”
“I am called Miraneeria,” said the Cythran.
“And how did you come to be here?” asked Jaydrupar.
“I was captured on the plains north of here when the vehicle I was driving began to leak fuel. The forest savages have held me here for four days. I do not know what they want with me.”
“Can you speak with them? They do not understand us, of course, and our neural nets can only manage a very poor translation of their speech.”
“I can. They speak our language, but as it was many years ago, before we moved out on the plains. They understand me well enough, and I understand enough of what they say to grasp their meaning. This is the first time they have let me speak in two days. Is it so I can translate your speech for them?”
Jaydrupar smiled. “Yes. I think that is what they want. They would like you to act as a translator between us.”
At this, the female native Cythran said, “Speak New-Other Person Sky Fire People [untranslatable] woman Tree Home People [untranslatable].”
“You see,” said Jaydrupar, “they call us the Sky Fire People, presumably because they saw the crash from somewhere in the canopy. I believe you are the New-Other Person. The females of their kind seem to be the Tree Home People and the males seem to be the Bone Tree People. That is just about all we have been able to understand.”
Miraneeria said, “They have called me that since they captured me. Even after I told them my name, they called me ‘New-Other Person.’ I do not know why that is, as we plains folk have lived in relative peace with the savages for countless generations. I do not know why any of this is happening.” Asher’s neural net conveyed to him a sense of anguish associated with her last words. If she was a Ferether trying to deceive them, she could act well enough to deceive his translation software. Plus, he thought, if this was all an act then she was very committed to the Ferether cause. For the first time since the conference on Cormorant and his father’s video, he started to think that Jaydrupar, Marcolis, and the Intel people were missing some key piece of the puzzle of the Cythrans.
The female forest Cythran spoke again, this time directly to Miraneeria. Asher’s net didn’t catch any of the conversation, as their heads were turned away and he couldn’t see their appendages clearly in the dim blue light.
After a moment, Miraneeria turned to them, “Tree Home Woman wants to know what you are doing here in the place of the Bone Trees. She says that your kind have always stayed on the plains with the New-Other People—why does she call us that?—but now you fall from the sky on a bird of fire and bring your strange weapons to the home of the Bone Trees. What is your purpose? Those are—a nearly as I can make them—her words.”
“Tree Home Woman?” said Jaydrupar. “So she is the leader of this band, or of the females, anyway?”
“It is difficult to explain. She is— you might think of her as their religious leader. They do not follow her in things related to farming or hunting, but in things related to the Sky Crosser and the Bone Trees, her word is law in this village.”
“The Sky Crosser and the Bone Trees?” asked Asher.
“The Bone Trees are all around us. They think of the trees as their reborn ancestors. The Sky Crosser—well I think you would say it is a spirit-being—a sort of god.” Miraneeria gave Jaydrupar a look that Asher’s net translated as excited and hopeful. “Perhaps they think you are somehow connected to the Sky Crosser. If they think you are spirit-beings, perhaps that can give us leverage we can use to convince them to release us.”
Jaydrupar jumped at this. “Tell them—try to reword it so it might interface with their religious beliefs—but tell them that we came from the domain o
f the Sky Crosser to visit the people among the Bone Trees. Tell her that we are to take you, the New-Other Person, with us to the land of the Sky Crosser because it wonders what you are and what your role is in the world. It wants to know more about you so that it can better help the Bone Tree People and the Tree Home People in the future.”
Asher looked at Jaydrupar with new eyes. That seemed like something an experienced exoanthro might have come up with, and he had done it on the spot. If it worked, it might well get them out of their predicament. The most amazing thing was that it barely seemed to qualify as a lie. Replace ‘Sky Crosser’ with ‘Hokozana’ and it was basically a summary of their current mission.
Miraneeria seemed to be thinking. Perhaps she was deciding how best to phrase Jaydrupar’s statement to be convincing to the Tree Home Woman. Perhaps, if she really was a Ferether plant, she was reading between the lines and trying to divine the humans’ intent. Regardless, she soon turned back to the Tree Home Woman and said something that once again Asher’s net was not able to translate. A conversation ensued, with a significant amount of rapid back-and-forth between the two Cythran females. Finally, Miraneeria turned back to Jaydrupar. “Tree Home Woman seems doubtful. I think she knows enough about humans to think that you are not spirit-beings.”
After some thought, Jaydrupar called to Kaz. “Pull out the emergency beacon and activate it.” The, he said to Miraneeria, “Tell her we will prove to her that we come from the domains of the Sky Crosser. We will summon a fire from the sky to take us away.”
Miraneeria turned back to the Tree Home Woman. Kaz had the beacon in his hand, his thumb poised over the trigger. “Do you know what you’re doing, Jaydrupar?” he asked. “You know this will bring DiJeRiCo down on us almost as fast as Komaru. And there’s no way the scout ship is going to come down through that tree canopy.”
“I know. We’re going to have to move fast. Kaz, can you carry Miraneeria and still climb the tree?”
“Sure,” said the big man.
“Even if she struggles?”
“Um, I think so.”
“Okay,” said Jaydrupar. “Then give me the beacon. Grab her as soon as I press the button. We’re going to head for the ladder that they all came down. Asher, you’re going to have to take the rear and discourage any of the Cythrans that want to pursue us. I’ll go first to deal with any other females that may still be up in the tree. Everyone got it?”
The two security men assented, and Kaz handed the beacon to Jaydrupar, who turned back to Miraneeria. “I told her,” said the Cythran, “but I don’t think she believes you.”
“Miraneeria,” said Jaydrupar. “As soon as I press this button, a ship will descend to pick us up. It won’t be able to reach us down here on the forest floor. We’re going to have to climb as high as we can into the canopy. We’re bigger and can move faster up the tree trunk than Cythrans. When I press this, Kaz here is going to grab you and we’re going make a run for the tree you just came down. When we get high enough, our ship will rescue us and we can take you back to Marateen. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” said Miraneeria. Her facial expression translated as excitement and fear.
“Very well,” said Jaydrupar. He pressed the button.
Chapter Ten
They moved fast. Kaz grabbed Miraneeria and slung her in front of him, pressing her body against his chest with his left arm. Jaydrupar sprinted for the ladder ascending the nearby tree, knocking a female Cythran down in the process.
Asher waited a moment for the others to get ahead, then set off after them. He sent a Cythran that tried to trip him sprawling with a blow from the butt of his pulse gun. The wild Cythrans were initially slow to react, and the three humans and their Cythran cargo were quickly up the first rungs of the tree. Jaydrupar was soon lost to Asher’s sight in the darkness above. The slower moving Kaz was a bulky form about five yards above Asher’s head. He looked back over his shoulder and saw the first Cythrans reaching the base of the ladder below. Two males bearng sharp knife blades were in the lead. One of them had a light globe on his back.
Asher hung back a moment to judge the Cythrans’ speed up the ladder. They moved quickly, but he could tell that the longer reach of the humans was going to be decisive in this race. He let one Cythran get close and then quickly kicked it right in the middle of its appendages. As he had expected, it lost its precarious grip in the ladder and feel back, taking one of its companions with it. It lashed out with a knife and nicked Asher’s boot as it fell, but the blade didn’t break the tough carbon-fiber material.
By the time they reached the foliage, they were well ahead of any pursuit. Asher’s displacement of the lead Cythrans had caused confusion below as their cohorts struggled across the sprawling forms at the base of the ladder.
Asher was beginning to think they were free and clear when he heard Jaydrupar’s submachine gun bark out overhead. Climbing as quickly as he could, he came upon Kaz—Miraneeria still docile in his grasp—standing on a branch beside the ladder and looking upward. He was about to ask what was wrong when a body came tumbling down from the leaves overhead. It was a female Cythran armed with some kind of long spear. She fell, bounced off the branch, and plummeted to the ground.
“Come on,” yelled Jaydrupar from above. “It’s clear, but I won’t be able to hold them for long.” Kaz and Asher rushed on up the ladder.
They found Jaydrupar on another large branch extending out from the tree. He was leaning heavily against the trunk. Down the branch about twenty meters were several Cythran females, many armed with similar spears. They stood warily in a group. Beyond them, Asher could see many light globes flashing through the leaves. Presumably, this was Tree Home, where the female Cythrans lived. Kaz glanced at Jaydrupar and went on ahead. Asher kneeled next to the Intel man. “Are you okay to go on?” he asked.
“Never been stabbed before,” said Jaydrupar. He pressed the emergency beacon into Asher’s hand. “You’ve got to go on ahead now. It can’t be more than a few minutes. I’ll make my way up behind.”
“Hell no!” said Asher. “You’re going up ahead of me if I have to push you.”
Jaydrupar stumbled to his feet. At Asher’s prodding he made his way slowly up the ladder. As Asher boosted him to a higher rung, his hands came away warm and sticky. Turning back to the Cythran females, he brandished his pistol at them and fired a pulse over their heads. They hunkered down and made no move to follow him. He turned and headed back up the tree.
The climb was agonizingly slow. In the gloom, Asher couldn’t tell the extent of Jaydrupar’s injury, but the man was clearly struggling. Kaz was well ahead of them now, somewhere in the dark above. Still, the two humans went laboriously on, ever upward into the canopy of the forest of Bone Trees.
Presently, the air grew lighter and fresher. Every now and then, light shimmered down from above. At first Asher thought he was looking at more light globes, but he soon realized that it was starlight filtering through the leaves. They had come into the upper canopy without realizing it. Of course, Asher thought, he should have realized that it was still night-time. In fact, there were probably several hours to go until Bright-Rise.
Asher kept pulling himself from rung to rung. Occasionally, he would reach an arm forward and give Jaydrupar a gentle push, just to make sure the man kept moving. Once or twice he fired a pulse down into the foliage below them, hoping to dissuade any pursuers.
They found Kaz and Miraneeria on a high, narrow branch at the top of the ladder. The big security man was winded, but seemed fine. He still clutched the Cythran tightly to his chest. She seemed subdued. Even the gunfire—proof that Jaydrupar had lied about them being out of ammo—didn’t seem to have shaken her too much. Perhaps it simply hadn’t yet dawned on her that her would-be rescuers had been lying to her.
They found themselves in another epiphyte farm. Unlike the one they had found in the tree where the drop-pod had landed, this farm was well tended. The red-leafed plants grew thick and straight. Here
and there, some of them had dark bulks among their leaves. Asher shone his light on one and saw some kind of sac growing from the bark. It was spongy and slightly moist to the touch. Perhaps this was the fruit that the plants were raised for.
“Cierren Cythra team, this is shuttle Slider. We are locked on to your beacon and inbound to your position. Hold as we clear this vegetation.”
Bright lights sliced down through the red leaves. Huge swaths of the forest canopy fell away. Overhead, the shuttle’s torch shone like a new sun as it descended toward them. Three cords snaked down, each terminating in a man-sized harness.
Kaz and Asher got Jaydrupar into the first harness. The Intel man seemed to be barely conscious. Each of the security men then threw a harness over the other and checked and secured it. Kaz clutched the silent, terrified Miraneeria. Finally, Asher signaled to Slider that they were ready. Winches whirred as the cables retracted, drawing them up to the belly of the hovering shuttle. As Asher looked up, he saw something flash to life far above the dark bulk of Slider. Another torch, well up in the upper atmo.
They were pulled on board by the strong hands of a female Fleet operative. As soon as she had Asher’s feet in through the hatch, she keyed it closed and yelled, “Go, go, go!” to the pilot. Slider threw on the gs, pressing all five passengers, the three bedraggled members of the Cierren Cythra team, the Fleet Ops woman, and the Cythran, hard into the floor of the passenger bay. After a moment of hard burn, the ship leveled off and the crewmember bodily threw Jaydrupar and Miraneeria into crash-seats. As she buckled them in, Kaz and Asher clambered into empty seats next to them. Finally, the crewmember got the oddly-shaped Cythran secured. She fell into an empty seat and buckled her own harness in the blink of an eye. “All secure,” she yelled. “Burn it!”
This time, the gs were unlike anything Asher had felt before. He was certain his stomach and kidneys were going to be extruded through his back. His spine felt like it would break. His mouth was forced open and his lips flapped uselessly around his clenched teeth.
Participant Species: Asher in Ordered Space Volume I Page 10
