Dryland's End

by Felice Picano

  Ay’r had arrived within a dozen yards of them, was separated by only a single line of tall, small-leaved hedge, when suddenly he could no longer move. Not a muscle, not a finger, not his lips or tongue. Only his eyes were still mobile, and those moved only from side to side.

  The sudden paralysis was terrifying, and Ay’r panicked, yet at the same time he realized two things: first, the six Humes in front of him were also paralyzed, and, second, that besides seeing, he could also still hear, and he was hearing that particular whizzing sound connected with the arrival of the Gods and it was getting louder.

  They landed directly in front of the young peat cutters in two T-pods, each larger and older than any Ay’r had seen outside of a museum. The three Humes who emerged might have stepped out of Capella starport or any conveyance in Hesperia with their curly black hair and dark skin.

  Their costumes were a bit less fashionable than any he had seen: a less simple tunic, closer-fitting trousers, smaller capes. On their heads they wore a type of military helmet he had seen only in older PVNs, which obscured their faces. Even so, he was certain they were all male.

  The three Gods went up to ’Dward and the six statuelike peat workers and, without hesitation, began looking them over. One carried a hand computer, and as he spoke, another quickly tapped information into it. They didn’t seem to have noticed Ay’r; and unless they came right up to this hedge, they probably wouldn’t. He was safe, yet unable to move, to help ’Dward and the peat cutters. It was intensely frustrating.

  The first God removed an upper garment from one Bogland youth and touched each nipple, then held the pectoral loosely, all the while speaking what might be figures or numbers to his companion. Ay’r couldn’t hear them. Then the God removed the youth’s lower garment and palpated each buttock, as well as the flesh inside each thigh. It all seemed objective, medical, if only Ay’r knew what they were looking for, checking up on.

  The tested youth was redressed, and the two moved on to the next lad. Schorri – his snide comments stilled – then on to the next. When they arrived at ’Dward, the elder said something to his companion, and they lifted the hand-held device up to his face, as though holographing him for identification.

  The male with the computer shook his head. Evidently, ’Dward wasn’t in their file. The other grasped then dropped one of ’Dward’s leanly muscled upper arms and barked out an order.

  His assistant drew a tiny cylinder out of a small metal case hanging from his belt, swabbed ’Dward’s forearm, then held the cylinder against the spot.

  They didn’t bother to undress ’Dward, but once he had been injected, they moved aside and began to confer.

  “Not of The Bog Way?” the assistant suggested.

  Suddenly the third and youngest God, who had hovered around the T-pods, called out something that sounded to Ay’r like “Transmission coming in” in perfect Universal Gal. Lex. Ay’r couldn’t be certain.

  The elder male moved from ’Dward to the last of the paralyzed youths, the effusive Varko, and was now undressing him as he had done the others. He commanded something back to the man at the T-pods and went on pinching Varko’s thighs.

  The youngest God joined the other two and began to speak. Again, Ay’r couldn’t hear what he said, but as he pointed distantly behind him, the transmission evidently had to do with something outside of Bogland, perhaps even with Ay’r and his traveling companions, since they had just come from the area being pointed out. He wondered now if they had found the wounded Arach, or perhaps the other half of Alli Clark’s T-pod.

  The first God was now palpating Varko’s buttocks, paying a great deal more attention to him than to any of the others. He said something to the other two and illustrated it by brushing his fingertips against Varko’s nipples, which hardened immediately. The other two nodded in agreement.

  Varko was half dressed and lifted by the three Gods and placed inside one T-pod. The other Boglanders received injections in their arms similar to what ’Dward had been given. Their tasks completed, the three Gods got back into their pods, closed them, and took off again with that same buzzing sound, which Ay’r now knew was the sound older-model T-pods must make in the thick Pelagian atmosphere.

  It was a good four minutes longer before the five remaining youths and ’Dward suddenly all unfroze – long enough for Ay’r to wonder about what he had seen and what it meant. These so-called Gods were obviously Hume males like himself, yet from their older clothing and vehicles, they had come from somewhere else other than from where he and P’al and Alli Clark had come, or had already been on Pelagia for several hundred years, which would confirm the people’s legends. They were all male and seemed in good physical shape, yet Ay’r guessed that they must be considerably older than himself. Compared to the short-lived Drylanders, this long life and ability to move so rapidly through the air and to kidnap at will would make them Gods indeed. But he had been too far away to hear them or to understand what they were doing. Who were they really? Could his father be one of them?

  That they were scientists of some sort was clear from their actions. Yet even that was ambiguous. What had they injected into the youths’ forearms? What were they were looking for? Why had they taken away Varko and not the others? For a second, Ay’r was reminded of an ancient preMetro.-Terran legend about an old woman who fattened up children to cook and eat them. Could that be it? It was a ghastly thought. Ay’r pushed it out of his mind.

  A second after the others had been released from their perfume-instilled paralysis, Ay’r could move. He burst through the hedge, just as the others realized they’d been in an encounter with the Gods and that one of them had been kidnapped.

  “What are you doing?” ’Dward asked him.

  “I came to get you. No emergency. But I brought Colley.”

  “There was a kidnapping! They took Varko. I was right here. We all were!” ’Dward said excitedly.

  “Did you see them?” Ay’r asked.

  “No, of course not. But I heard them approach. Then Schorri smelled something in the air and said, ‘The Gods’!” He turned to Ay’r, still excited. “And you, Ay’r, did you see them getting away?”

  Ay’r nodded.

  By now the other youths were discussing how they would tell Varko’s family of his abduction.

  Ay’r added. “I was hidden.”

  “I wonder why only Varko was taken, when there were so many of us?” ’Dward said.

  Ay’r didn’t tell him what he had seen. He commiserated with the others on the loss of their friend and co-worker, then took ’Dward’s arm where he had been injected and looked closely at it. No sign of anything beyond the tiny dot of broken skin. “I’m certainly glad you escaped them.”

  ’Dward looked at him, a little baffled at the emotion Ay’r had expressed. Then he laughed and hugged Ay’r close and hard. “So am I that you weren’t taken.”

  “You are?”

  “Look at all the adventure you’ve brought into my life!” ’Dward said. “Adventure and companionship. You’ve almost made up for the loss of my brother ’Nton.”

  Ay’r would have to find some way to get Dr. Seppi to check over ’Dward for any effects of the injection. He didn’t know how advanced her medicine was, but what other choice did he have? As for ’Dward, he’d tell him he was afraid that in carrying the Arach stinger, he might have been affected by its sting.

  “I’ve had enough adventure for today,” Ay’r said. “Let’s get back to the village.”

  Oudma was awaiting them at Dr. Seppi’s with good news. The new antidote made from the Arach stinger venom had worked. Alli Clark’s fever had broken, and she was sleeping comfortably. At this rate, the doctor thought only another day of bed rest would be needed before Alli Clark could be moved again. No memory damage seemed present, and as she had been unconscious before the Arach grabbed her, Alli Clark ought not be prey to bad dreams or terrible visions. Naturally, they should tell her as little as possible about the incident. ’Harles had just r
eturned from the inn and was sitting with Alli Clark in case she awakened. Evidently she had asked for him during her single brief bout of clarity right after her fever had broken.

  When Ay’r asked about their other companion, Oudma shook her head. P’al hadn’t been seen since early morning. ’Harles had heard the innkeeper saying that he had been asking about transport into the capital. Perhaps he had gone there.

  Naturally enough, ’Dward was full of his news about the encounter with the Gods, and when he told her, Oudma expressed all the fear and relief he had expected. Once her brother had gone into the infirmary to tell ’Harles, Oudma looked thoughtful. “I thought here among the people of The Bog Way, no kidnappings occurred.”

  “Evidently we heard incorrectly,” Ay’r said. He wanted to find out from Oudma how much she’d heard of what Alli Clark had told him before, but didn’t know how to bring up the subject without having to lie about it and say it was merely fevered gibberish. Although he had gone out of his way during that dialogue with Alli to ask only the most circumspect questions, Oudma was intelligent enough to suspect that the entire exchange between them was much more comprehensible than it might have sounded to herself. “Doubtless they’re keeping word of the danger down as a matter of policy.”

  “Both of you might have been taken,” Oudma said.

  “I’m sure they don’t want me,” he tried to make it into a joke.

  “Why not?”

  “Well, for one thing, I’m not young enough. I’d make a terrible worker, if that’s what they’re looking for. I’ve led such an idle, lazing life.”

  She seemed unpersuaded.

  ’Dward came out again to say that ’Harles would remain with Alli Clark. “I’d be a little jealous, if I were you,” he teased Oudma.

  “Nonsense! He’s not interested in another daughter,” Oudma said, and the look on ’Dward’s face after her remark showed that he had begun to understand what she meant.

  The three returned to the inn, where early dinner was being served. Ay’r wondered whether ’Dward would begin to tale-tell the incident with the Gods, but evidently the youth decided not to – perhaps because he had not done anything heroic, like saving the kidnapped youth – perhaps because it was too disturbing to think that he had escaped the same fate through mere chance.

  P’al returned among a group of transport travelers from Lake Edge just as they were finishing their meal. Ay’r immediately asked to see him in their sleep chamber.

  “Alli Clark’s fever broke.” Ay’r reported. “She’ll be fine now!”

  P’al had no reply to that. And Ay’r wondered how much more he should reveal to this fellow traveler who was becoming more enigmatic every day.

  “I witnessed a kidnapping by the Gods,” Ay’r added.

  That got P’al’s attention and he began to delve into the incident, trying to elicit as much information as possible. Regarding the paralyzing perfume, P’al said, “I’ve heard of such sensory chemicals being used in the Bella=Arth. War, but none since. It sounds quite effective. Too bad you couldn’t bring back a sample of it. We could use Dr. Seppi’s laboratory to find an antidote. It’s a fairly primitive setup, naturally, since most of her work is homeopathic, but” – P’al seemed to have a thought – “none of the others remained conscious during the incident. Yet you did. I wonder if it was because of your distance from them.”

  Ay’r lifted his tunic and showed P’al the belt and force-field, explaining how he had found it and used it once before.

  “So we know that the shield can’t stop the fumes, but that it does reduce their effectiveness,” Ay’r concluded.

  “Perhaps it’s a good thing that you were hidden,” P’al commented. “Who knows what they would have thought if they found that on you?”

  “And Alli Clark’s T-pod has them perplexed,” Ay’r agreed. “Because she made the ’xchange in the Fast, they think she’s a Drylander who somehow found one of their pods and learned how to use it. But why don’t we want them to know we’re here?”

  “Surprise is always the better part of valor,” P’al said. “Who do you think they are?” Ay’r asked.

  “Obviously you think that your father may be among them.”

  “It seems likely, doesn’t it?”

  “Perhaps.”

  Ay’r followed the line of logic. “Which means these Drylander youths are being abducted as guinea pigs, for some sort of experimentation being conducted by my father.”

  “I thought your father was a Species Ethnologist.”

  “We both know that my father was one of the most brilliant Mammalian Reproduction Biologists in the galaxy three centuries ago,” Ay’r said, trying to get a rise out of P’al. “And a follower of Relfianism, which advocated genetic experimentation.”

  Instead of denying it or asking how Ay’r knew this, P’al answered, “Then why kidnap males?”

  “I’ve no idea. Unless he’s changed his specialization.”

  “Or unless those Humes from the T-pods are not connected to your father.”

  Ay’r described what the three had done to the youths, how they had palpated various portions of the Boglanders’ bodies. “They simply looked at ’Dward and knew he was a stranger. They immediately knew. How? Then they injected him with something – in the forearm. I want Dr. Seppi to check him.”

  P’al though that was a good idea, then asked Ay’r to repeat everything that had happened in the peat bog, step by step.

  At one point, Ay’r said, “I’m not sure why, but I wasn’t too surprised that, of all the youths there, they abducted Varko.”

  P’al wanted to know why Ay’r thought that, so Ay’r had to explain the incident on the street, about which P’al asked in excruciating detail.

  Finally Ay’r decided he had answered enough questions. Now it was P’al’s turn. “While all that was going on, where have you been all day?”

  “Out looking over Bogland. I would think that a Spec. Eth. like yourself would do the same.”

  Ay’r ignored the sniping and asked, “Well? What do you have to report?”

  “I visited Bottom-most briefly, passed through Bog Bay, and spent most of my time at Lake Edge, which is the most populated town here.”

  P’al had spent a fruitful day indeed, and he outlined his discoveries to Ay’r with the enthusiasm of an amateur speaking to someone who will understand all he has to say. Despite the kidnappings, Bogland’s population was close to 50,000 people. Peat cutting was the largest industry, and it had given rise to other allied manufactures made possible by the peat ovens the Boglanders had perfected: brick making; the production of simple metal alloys; metalworking itself; the concoction of remedies, herbal teas, and various other drinks – both alcoholic and not – from the grasses and grains that grew so richly in the bowl.

  From being a small populace of farmers who had been shunned by all the other Drylanders, the Boglanders had rapidly grown into an important, even a crucial, economic force as a result of their rich peat and grain fields. Their situation, midway between the Delta and the Mountain peoples, and equidistant from the four largest and oldest Old River towns, meant that, as their surplus had grown, trade had radiated out to the other areas of Dryland culture on a more or less equal basis. Furthermore, as the Boglanders had developed and discovered more and more important uses for their grains and peat, they had exported them along with their own brand of economic propaganda. As a result, they had made themselves the trade center of the continent. Caravans and travelers from all over Dryland filled the booths and stalls of the extensive market at Lake Edge. Commerce was rife and extremely profitable, further centralizing wealth in the Bogland bowl.

  Another advantage of the placement of the bowl in the midst of the vast river plain was that no competitors were closer than 100 kilometers. An invading army would spend exhausting days laden with provisions and travel only to arrive and find the place virtually impregnable. Anyone advancing along the plain could be seen days distant from the simplest
tower, of which a few had been built up along the rim of the great bowl. And it was strategically impossible to surround it, although from within it was defended easily. This had also bolstered the Boglanders’ reputation and helped foster their economic growth.

  The Bogland government was a “Deimos,” a republic in the rough, with individual representation in publicly held meetings for each of the twelve villages and six towns. Two representatives were appointed by each, one of whom remained in those villages and towns; the other lived and met in a sort of daily parliament at Lake Edge. Contact between the representatives was constant. Among themselves, the parliament formed about a half dozen blocs, mostly on the basis of similarity of agriculture or geography: the peat bloc, the grain bloc, the trading bloc, the metal bloc, etc. In turn they elected leaders who met as a sort of council. There was no army, yet all citizens of both genders were members of a militia, with a captain for each town. Weapons remained limited to throwing sticks and mechanical bows, a stage before firearms. But there was so little war that more sophisticated weapons were still unproven, considered experimental.

  The other Dryland cultures had learned from the Boglanders, and P’al had been told that both the Deltan towns and the Old River towns had adopted similar types of trade, markets, defense systems, and government.

  “What we are seeing, Ser Kerry, is the transition from one stage of civilization to another. The ancient Metro.-Terran philosopher Spengler would say from the pastoral-agricultural to the city-state. In a generation or so, the transition will have been completed. Only the high mountain dwellers and the far northerners retain simpler stages of development on Pelagia. But as their level of contact with the Bogland deepens, so will the changes. Our hosts, the Ib’rs, for example, come from an Old River clan society, which in the Bogland is understood and respected, if no longer emulated. Think of the Metro.-Terran system when it was still on a single pre-industrial planet. That’s what Pelagia’s continental civilization is like.”