by Gian Bordin
"And it still works?"
"Yes. The shortest arm indicates the hours, the long one the minutes and the thin one the seconds. My father said that it was quite accurate, gaining only about twenty seconds each standard month."
"How does it work?"
She took it from his hand and opened its back, revealing the mechanism protected behind a glass cover. "It has a spring that drives it. This funny device here going back and forth times it correctly. The spring has to be rewound once every twenty-four standard hours."
"That should do." He studied it with interest and then remained quiet, looking at her thoughtfully. "I think your father was right about the ship not having been found. I’m sure, I would have heard about it, since I studied the results of all missions over the last one hundred years. The curious thing is that the one of your father wasn’t listed. I wonder why? If I remember right, there were only two, one I think 67 standard years and the other one occurred about —"
"— twelve years ago."
He looked at her astounded. "How do you know?"
"Because I also heard the scream of terror of the pilot who crashed."
"He didn’t survive?"
"No, we only found the burned-out wreckage. There was not much left."
Atun was silent for a while. "I was very lucky you found me, and I’ve caused you only trouble. But I promise that from now on I will listen."
"Good." She smiled and saw his ears go red. She busied herself again with her mending, pleased that he seemed to be receptive to the idea. She too questioned why her father’s mission had not been recorded, particularly since they went missing. Didn’t the logging of any failed mission serve both as a warning of possible danger and as a call to look out for the missing ship? There was always a chance that it could be found and the people rescued.
"Yuen-mong, was this the reason you rescued me from the savages?" His question brought her back to the present, and the hesitant tone of voice gave a hint that he feared the answer.
"It was in my mind, but only as an afterthought, after I had decided to try it… Uppermost in my mind was that you were too young to die, that I liked having your company, to have somebody to talk to, to reason out things, to learn from."
"Learn from me?" The tone of voice betrayed his disbelief.
"Yes, you taught me a lot of what is going on in the Universe. And then how would I ever be able to have a child without you?"
He looked at her, visibly shocked. "You mean you would consider …’ His voice failed him.
"— having intercourse with you? Is that not the way it is done, at least on a primitive world like ours?"
He went crimson, averting his gaze.
"Oh Atun, would it be such a big thing? I thought men liked doing it… But first we will try to get that shuttle working. If that fails, then I would like to have a child, or don’t you want to be the father of my child?"
He glanced up.
"Won’t you tell me, Atun?"
"Yes, I would be proud to be the father of your child." Their eyes met briefly. She felt that he was ambivalent about her reasons for rescuing him and she guessed why.
* * *
Atun’s feelings were in turmoil. Although Yuen-mong had said that she liked his company, he still was too ashamed about his behavior to believe that this was her main reason for rescuing him. How could it be? Needing him to get off-planet must be the real reason, and he blushed just thinking of her seeing him as simply a stud for her children. She had mentioned this so casually, as if it were no big thing for her. He did not know why this felt even more humiliating than having been captured by the savages. He wanted to be valued by her as a person, not as a skilled AI whiz or the only available stud.
How could she even admit such things? … Because she is utterly truthful. So when she said that she liked my company, she meant it. She didn’t just say it to humor me. Could it be really true? He struggled with those thoughts time and again over the next few days. He wanted to cling to the belief that she had rescued him because she liked him, but could that be so?
* * *
It took him four more days before his strength had recovered and all the nicks had healed. Yuen-mong showed him how to remove the scabs without tearing the new skin formed underneath. It was a slow process. Some wounds took longer to heal than others, but by the end of six days, all scabs were off. The swelling on his head had almost disappeared, although it was still tender to the touch.
He always felt left out when she disappeared after nightfall with her flute and climbed to her sanctuary. All he could hear was that sad tune in many variations. He would have liked to join her, to know what triggered that sadness. Finally, when he felt strong enough he mustered all his courage. "Yuen-mong, may I join you. I promise to be quiet and not talk."
She smiled and replied: "You may."
He wanted to sit a few feet behind her.
"Sit to my left." She put her flute on her legs, her eyes focused into the distance over the water.
He followed her gaze and watched the last light over the horizon slowly fade, while the reflections from the lit part of the ring played in the waves.
"There they come, just above the horizon." She pointed toward the offshore rocks. He saw two tiny dots, growing slowly. Then the first haunting call reached him. Yuen-mong raised her flute and played the tune he had heard each night drift down from the rock. The two birds flew straight for them and circled above to gain height, their call blending with her tune. When they flew on, she put down her instrument, letting her eyes follow their path.
"Thank you, Yuen-mong, for sharing this with me."
"They come to greet me every night."
"They use the warm updraft from the rock to gain height."
"I know, but I may still think that my tune draws them to me."
Although he could only see her outlines, he knew that she was smiling. "Yes, it’s magical."
"You should join me one morning when I tease the dawn birds."
* * *
On of the seventh day after his rescue, she showed him how to fashion a bow, using long twisted spear grass fibers for the tension string. He also made himself more arrows. They went to the beach to try it out.
Later, they discussed how to convert the shuttle to manual control — he still saw it as her plan. He got caught by her enthusiasm about the project. That same evening she announced that next day they would go to the shuttle and probably stay one or two nights there.
They were off early the following morning. He carried one of her craw carry packs — the savages had taken his survival pack — as well as his new bow, although he did not yet know how to use it properly. By midmorning they were close to the southern end of the beach and Yuen-mong assumed her typical pose when she was listening to other minds.
"The craw is hunting and there is a group of savages close by."
He expected that they would either hide and wait, or retreat. He did not want another encounter with them.
"Stay close behind me and don’t talk," she said and continued toward the estuary.
"But shouldn’t we —"
"It is mostly women and children," she interrupted. "and they pose no danger."
As they got closer to the forest edge, he saw a group of about a dozen people sitting just under the forest canopy, with several small children playing inside the forest. Yuen-mong went straight for them. Suddenly, the group discovered them and four men jumped up howling, retreating at the same measure as he and Yuen-mong approached, while the women remained sitting, watching them, seemingly unafraid. All the children joined their mothers. When Yuen-mong reached the women, she greeted them. They returned her greeting and scrutinized him with watchful eyes. To his surprise, a young female, hardly more than a teenager, rose and led a little girl to Yuen-mong. The latter knelt down and stroked the child’s cheek, saying a few words and then gave her a handful of dried sweetberries. The little girl beamed.
Next, Yuen-mong prepared her craw deco
y, while the children stood around her watching, and then she walked to the edge of the forest. He followed close behind.
"Stay here until I call," she said and went briskly into the open.
It took less than a minute and the shrill scream of the craw reached them. All the women now got up too and collected their children. Atun watched with trepidation how Yuen-mong ran as the predator swooped down and closed up. What a woman, what cold courage! When he thought that she had waited too long, she exploded the decoy and the giant bird crashed heavily into the soft ground. She waved whistling and then began folding the decoy, ignoring the screeching vulture.
This was the signal for the women and children to cross the estuary on the run. Atun saw that the men did the same about a hundred meters farther up the river. When he reached Yuen-mong, she had finished with the decoy, and they trotted into the forest on the other side of the estuary.
"Why did that woman bring her child to you?" he asked the next time they slowed to a walk.
"I helped deliver it."
He looked at her questioningly.
"She was heavily pregnant when a raiding party stole her and these bastards simply left her behind when her labor started. I found her, took her to a place safe from the night scavengers and helped deliver the baby. It was the first birth I witnessed and she had to tell me what to do." She chuckled. "She was so badly starved that she ate all the rations I had with me, enough for several days. I did not know anybody could eat so much. And then two days later I brought her in sight of her camp. This is the third time we have met."
"You’re an amazing woman — helping your enemy."
"The women are not my enemy, and they know I will not harm them. When I rescued you, they opened up a path for us to run through. It is only the stupid men who don’t seem to learn that we could live peacefully alongside each other."
"I can see that the men must fear you when they see you bring down the craw they worship. They must think that you’ve supernatural powers."
"That possibility has not occurred to me, but you may be right," she replied with a smile.
Shortly after noon, they reached the shuttle. The spear grasses were regenerating everywhere and in places already reached above them. The first thing Yuen-mong did was to slash all tufts around the shuttle back to the ground, so that the night scavengers could not get on top of the shuttle.
Once inside, she again opened the swing door. After a small meal, they removed the panels that gave access to the main propulsion jet pump and the rotation thrusters, two on each side aft and forward to control roll, two in the back to control pitch up and down, and another two to activate yaw to the right and left, as well as sets of two to move the craft up and down, forward and backward, and sideways. The piping to bring the separate fuels to each looked formidable.
"If the AI unit is given the coordinate destination, then the propulsion jet and the maneuver controls are all operated automatically, but the pilot can also control them manually with this stick." He pointed to the right one of two levers in front of the pilot seat. "You move it right or left depending on the direction you want to roll, forward for down pitch, backward for up pitch, and twist the knob clockwise or anticlockwise for yaw. Small sideways horizontal and up-and-down movements are controlled with the other stick. Obviously, each individual action could be activated from a separate switch, a total of twelve. That’s no problem. The problem is to coordinate different actions. The two sticks make this possible, particularly since the AI unit interprets the hand movements made." He shook his head. "I can’t see how this can be done by operating individual switches. It looks impossible." He knew his doubts were written all over his face.
"I see it would be easy to lose control and crash before one can recover. Managing all twelve may be difficult for one person, but we are two. We could each control six. For example, I look after roll, pitch and yaw, while you operate the main engine and the vertical and horizontal movements."
"Roll, pitch and yaw are more difficult to manage."
"I am confident that I could. It is not as if we would have to get to Palo or Andromatis like that. It is only to get to my parents’ ship… Atun, it is our only chance."
It was said with great confidence, and he trusted her. He had seen her dexterity and instant reactions. It had saved his life. But there was more. He wanted to believe her. "We may have to practice and waste some fuel."
"Could we not lighten the weight of the shuttle by dismantling and discarding anything that we do not absolutely need for the shuttle to be operational?"
"Yes, I thought of that too."
They continued discussing and arguing about how to make switches since there were no spares in the shuttle they could cannibalize, and about a convenient way to control the propulsion unit, as well as the best location and arrangement for the switches. When night fell, they had solved most problems that had looked almost impossible on first thought. Although Atun still had the occasional bout of doubt and panic, he began to feel more positive about their project. He loved working with her. Time and again she amazed him with her ability to reason through difficulties, spot any flaws, and come up with simple solutions, nor was it only one-sided. Every time he came up with a good solution, such as switches that went automatically into the off position when released and how this could be done with the materials available to them, she rewarded him with a big smile that went right to his core.
Next morning he made a list and sketches of all materials needed. It was the first time in several years that he used pen and paper. A block of paper and a pen was stored in one of the drawers. By late afternoon, they were back in the cave.
7
Over the next eighty days they visited the shuttle more than a dozen times, working on the conversion two to three days each time. On their first visit, they searched for a systems backup cube in all the obvious places.
"My guess is that there is none, since the mother ship has a backup on its system. It would have been too fortuitous," remarked Atun.
"Let’s not give up yet. There are still places we have not looked… Maybe the paper service manual shows where a backup is stored." She shifted some things on the floor. "Here it is," she said, picking it up, and holding it out for Atun. But rather than take it, he quickly bent down and opened the panel giving access to the interior of the control console, and then triumphantly held up a cube.
"Thanks for reminding me," he said grinning. "Let’s hope this works."
"But should you not also be prepared in case this has also been wiped?"
His smile vanished. "You are right. That means programming in machine language… I can do this while we’re at the cave."
"In the meantime, let’s return this precious cube to its rightful place."
* * *
The time at the cave they spent renewing their food and fuel supplies. Whenever there was some free time he practiced using his bow. Initially he despaired that he could not match Yuen-mong’s deadly accuracy.
"But I have been doing this for at least fifteen years," she exclaimed exasperated, when he once voiced it. "Please, Atun, stop trying to compete with me. Do your best, that is all I ask, and I will not respect you any less or like you any less if you cannot match me. There are many things that you are better at than I."
He doubted that, but it still felt good to hear her say it. Often, when he did something wrong or through lack of experience failed to think of survival and she corrected him, he expected that she would remind him of his early acts of stupidity. But since that evening, when she had told him not to dwell on the past, she had never mentioned it again. Gradually, he gained back some of his battered self-esteem and confidence. With it grew his love for her, because he dared to admit it to himself. He guessed that she knew. She could read his mind like a book — it did not bother him anymore — so she surely must have read that too.
That she could read his mind often simplified things. Many times she anticipated his needs. But if she knew his lo
ve for her, it did not change her behavior. The women he had known on Palo all would have exploited this, played with his feelings, made him do things against his will. Not so Yuen-mong. She included him, but she also kept her distance. She never flirted or was provocative, only to push him suddenly away. He had never encountered a more even-tempered person. She also told him more than once that she liked his company, that it was fun to have another person to share things and that she was glad that he was with her. Her uncompromising honesty and openness encouraged him to be equally open and honest. Only his love for her he kept and cherished deep inside.
Another time she said: "Atun, let’s not place unspoken expectations on each other, except for being honest and truthful. If you want something from me, ask for it, the same as I will ask you." And this too felt freeing.
These days were not just work and nothing but work. Whenever the opportunity arose, they snatched some fun. At the cave, they went swimming in a protected lagoon nearby. He shed his embarrassment to be in the nude. It seemed completely natural to her.
She introduced him to the ancient game of chess that her father had taught her. They regularly played a round after dinner, and he quickly developed into a skilled opponent. The first time he won, he could not stop smiling, and she kissed his cheek. It took all his will not to let his fingers search out the spot she had touched.
"Did you let me win, Yuen-mong?" he questioned.
"No, I would never. I saw right away when I made the mistake and then all I could do is to prolong the game, waiting for you to make a mistake. But I admit that I also hoped you would not. You won fair and square."
He beamed.
"I like it when you are happy, Atun. It feels good."
* * *
Their movements attracted the attention of the savages. Twice a sizable group, hiding at the edge of the forest near the field of spear grass, was intent on ambushing them on their way home, but Yuen-mong sensed their presence well in advance. The first time, they made a small detour around them unseen, but they found signs that the savages had visited the shuttle and had painted a skull on its outside. She explained that they believed that this would ward off bad spirits.
