It was almost one shock too many. “I--uh--I would have to discuss this with the –uh--the other queens,” she stammered, sparing for wind and trying a little frantically to assimilate the fact that she--they--had just been offered their choice of males.
Did the males have no choice in the matter?
So much for her certainty that this was a male dominated society!
“In any case, we have the seed of our males. We have no need for--uh--mates,” she added after a moment.
Sademeen looked saddened but not surprised. “I thought as much. They would still be useful to you. There are enough to form new pazaans for yourselves.”
“Harems/family structure.”
Eden blinked several times and finally tapped the translator. “Excuse me,” she said apologetically, removing the headset and checking it for malfunction. She could see no sign that it was broken and finally returned it to her head. “I thank you for meeting with me, but my device is malfunctioning. In any case, I must return now and consider what you have said and discuss it with the others. We are all pleased, though, that we have established peaceful relations between our two peoples.”
Chapter Six
Eden didn’t prod Baen to talk as she headed back. In truth, she was so caught up in her tumultuous thoughts that she wasn’t completely certain of whether he’d accompanied her back. She found herself in her quarters--home, she mentally amended--with surprise and no clear memory of getting there.
She thought it was her home. After a brief search that turned up personal items that she recognized, she sagged with relief. No one, including her, had had the time since their arrival to devote to making their personal space comfortable. The focus had been on setting up the factories to begin producing their own goods. On the schedule directly after that was the search for useable raw materials. Naturally, there had been very limited space for bringing such things. They had enough to start and that was all.
Dismissing that for the moment, she looked around for a place to sit. One not-terribly-comfortable chair sat in one corner of her living area. She dropped into it for, despite her nervous energy, she was tired from the trek to and from the alien compound.
From out of no where a sense of pity swamped her.
They had been abandoned on an alien world to get along the best they could and, from the way Sademeen had spoken, they were little more than babies, only just matured to adulthood!
She supposed she and the other colonists were in pretty much the same boat, but they had chosen to come, after all. And everything had been planned out and provided for them to the best of the project’s abilities.
They hadn’t simply been taken off and dumped--like an unwanted pet!
Frowning, she summoned a mental image of Baen’s face. It hadn’t occurred to her that he must be very young. He looked young, of course, but she was so used to the life spans afforded by their anti-aging drugs it hadn’t occurred to her that Baen--all of the aliens really were young!
She dismissed that for the moment. She couldn’t afford to expend a good deal of sympathy on the aliens. She had her own people to consider.
She could not tell them what Sademeen had suggested, not yet, anyway. They were liable to demand to take the mother queen up on her offer without considering the long term possibility for repercussions.
Guilt almost immediately swamped her at that thought. The aliens were probably over there right now wondering what their fate was to be.
The decision wasn’t hers alone. She didn’t know whether to be glad or sorry that that was the case, but she also knew that the others would most likely take their lead from her.
She thought they would, anyway.
She hoped they would. She didn’t know what would become of them if the colonists stampeded the alien colony and began looking the males over to claim. They’d had several physical disagreements over space. They were liable to resort to real violence if they got into a dispute over the males!
Regardless, she needed time to recover from the shock of her discoveries and ….
Her eyes widened abruptly. She’d been in so much turmoil, she had completely forgotten the potential threat. Getting to her feet abruptly, she moved to the communicator near the doorway. “Major Sterling?”
Ivy answered immediately. “What the hell’s going on, Chisholm? You walked right past me like you were in a trance or something!”
“We need to talk.”
Almost on the heels of her comment, the chime rang at the door, alerting Eden to a visitor. Impatiently, she stalked to the door and commanded it to open. A shockwave of surprise washed over her when she saw Ivy was standing on the other side of the panel.
Briefly, amusement glinted in Ivy’s dark eyes. It vanished almost immediately, however. “Something happened,” she said, taking the open door as an invitation to enter.
Eden wrestled with her disordered thoughts, trying to think of some way to relay her news without sounding overly alarming. Nothing came to her. “We were right. The aliens aren’t from here.”
“I didn’t think so. I’ve gone over the computer logs. There was no malfunction. That--whatever they want to call it--wasn’t there when we dropped the bot pod.”
Eden chewed her bottom lip nervously. “They’re from this world’s moon.”
Ivy’s eyes grew so wide Eden could see the white’s all the way around her dark irises. She could also see the dawning horror in them.
“I don’t think they represent a threat to us,” she added hurriedly.
Ivy gave her a look, depressing her wrist communicator. “I’d rather be safe than sorry … Lt. Carter?”
“Affirmative.”
“Be advised, we have learned that the aliens inhabit this planet’s satellite. Copy?”
There was a faint pause. “Affirmative. What do you want me to do, Major?”
Ivy studied Eden a moment. “Do you have a visual?”
“Negative. It’s currently on the dark side.”
“For now I want you to settle into an orbit that keeps you in a position opposite the moon. Copy?”
“Affirmative. Will calculate the speed of its orbit and adjust ours.”
She paced to the window of the living area and stared into the distance when she had broken off communications. “Why didn’t you tell me at once?”
Eden was embarrassed. “The meeting was--uh--nothing like I’d expected. To be honest I was just plain thrown for a loop.”
Ivy was frowning when she turned to look at Eden questioningly. “You said you didn’t feel like they posed a threat.”
Eden rubbed her head. “The mother queen was very apologetic. They seem to think that this is our world.”
“It is.”
“I mean, they obviously haven’t been here before and thought it was unoccupied when they sent the others down, the kzatha, they call them.”
A thoughtful expression crossed Ivy’s features. “So they’re just beginning space exploration, you think?”
“It seems that way.”
Ivy was silent for some time. “What did she have to say that threw you into such a state of disorder then?”
Eden shrugged. “She said we could have them.”
Ivy commenced to blinking. “Excuse me?”
“That’s what I thought. I checked the translator, though, and it seemed to be functioning properly. Besides, she didn’t leave me in any doubt. She made it clear we could have them if we wanted them--or we could send them away if we didn’t, or wipe them out if we felt it was necessary.”
Ivy laughed, but it was a sound of disbelief. “That isn’t funny, Eden.”
“I’m not joking. The females have harems. The one I spoke with, Sademeen, seemed to think we were the same as they are, and that we’d … misplaced our men, or something. I told her we didn’t need them for … uh … breeding, but she said they would be useful anyway. I’m telling you, she was trying to give them to me--us.”
Ivy commenced to pacing. Abruptly, she
stopped and turned to stare at Eden again. “The Trojan horse!”
“What?” Eden asked blankly.
Ivy shook her head. “This is ancient military lore. An army came up against a city they couldn’t breach. So they built a great wooden horse and left it as a ‘gift’. When the people of the city dragged the ‘gift’ inside, the soldiers came out and destroyed the city from the inside.”
“You’re saying you think that’s what this gift is? An attempt to get inside to attack us?”
“It seems just as obvious that they are aware of our force fields as it is that they don’t have the technology to breach them, so, yes, that’s what I’m suggesting.”
Eden realized that, deep down, she’d harbored the same fear in spite of her sympathy for the aliens who’d apparently been discarded for no other reason than because the older males felt threatened by them. “There is absolutely nothing to support a suggestion that they mean us any harm, however--except the human capacity for deception and treachery and we don’t know that they’re as bad as we are.”
“From a military standpoint, from a security standpoint--it would still be better to destroy them,” Ivy said forcefully.
Eden merely gaped at her while that slowly sank in. As it settled in her mind and then the pit of her stomach like something completely loathsome and indigestible, Baen’s image rose before her mind’s eye, and then the faces of the others she’d passed when she’d visited their city. “You can not be serious,” Eden managed faintly.
Ivy’s expression was impatient. “You can’t allow emotion to color your judgment, Eden! Our future--the future of everyone here--is at stake. From a purely logical standpoint, you know as well as I do that there will be trouble down the line even if we could get relations off to an agreeable start now. We are seriously, scarily, out numbered here, even if our technology does give us an advantage at this point. We could and should destroy them now, while we can, to preserve our future.”
A wave of nausea washed over Eden. Anger was the backwash. “You’re not just suggesting we annihilate the colony that’s here. You’re talking about attacking their home world, aren’t you? I will not sanction such a thing! I won’t even consider it! They haven’t threatened us in any way. If they had, I might agree with you. If I’d seen anything to suggest they were being less than honest, I might consider it. From everything I’ve seen and heard, they are completely focused on their own concerns and have no real interest in us at all, however. Moreover, we’re not talking about a damned rodent infestation. We’re talking about intelligent beings!”
“Who have a standing army at least twice the size of ours! If they were a completely peaceful people, they wouldn’t have an army! For all we know the group they banished here is a prison full of miscreants!
“In any case, I’m head of the army and security. The decision should be a military one, based on logic and threat assessment, not emotions!”
“I am the designated head of this colony!” Eden shot back at her. “You answer to me and the council. And I can tell you right now the council would never agree with what you’re planning, certainly not before we’ve had time to fully evaluate the situation.”
Ivy stalked toward the door. “Then call a meeting. We can discuss this in council and see where the others stand,” she said grimly.
* * * *
Eden would have far preferred more time to compose herself and wrap her mind around the things that she’d seen and heard before she spoke before the council, but it was obvious this was not something that could be delayed.
To a degree, she could understand and agree with Ivy’s stance. They still didn’t really know what they were dealing with. The aliens could prove to be a threat, if not immediately, then at some point in the future, but they could not consider such a measure as Ivy was suggesting just on the chance that they might pose a threat.
Fury went through her, however, directed completely at Ivy when she arrived at the meeting and discovered that Ivy had been ‘campaigning’ outside chambers while the members were gathering. Before the meeting was even called, the other council members were arguing among themselves.
It took Eden almost twenty minutes to establish even a semblance of order. When the sector leaders had quieted sufficiently for a discussion, Eden related her experience and the observations she’d made prior to that. The message stunned the council members as much as it had her.
“It must have been a malfunction of the translator!” Stacy Sessions exclaimed. “Or the computer just hadn’t assimilated sufficient data to properly translate.”
Eden shrugged. “I thought so, too. I am completely certain that the computer hasn’t had nearly enough input yet to clarify everything that is said, but I’m also reasonably certain that Sademeen meant what I thought she did. She was clearly anxious to make amends for encroaching and just as obviously petitioning for the sake of the kzatha.”
“You didn’t find that suspicious, at all?” Ivy demanded.
Eden gave her a look. “I know there is a lot we don’t understand about these aliens, and I also know that I pointed out that we couldn’t judge them by ourselves, but I was speaking to her face to face. I could see her eyes and her expressions. She seemed completely sincere.” She turned to Liz. “What do you make of all this?”
Liz looked almost as stunned as the others. She collected herself with an effort. “Frankly, I don’t even like the idea of taking a wild guess at this point, not when Major Sterling is advocating war with the natives.”
“They aren’t natives,” Ivy pointed out tightly.
“They’re a hell of a lot closer than we are,” Deborah Pugh snapped. “I can’t believe you would even consider such a …. An unconscionable act of aggression!”
“Remind me of that when they’re trying to blow your ass away!”
“Order!” Eden growled, slamming her gavel into the table until everyone finally fell silent. “We’re going to have to find a middle ground! Ivy’s at least partially right. For our own safety, we can’t afford to just welcome them with open arms. We have to keep our guard up and we need to learn as much about them as possible, as quickly as we can so that we can make an informed decision one way or the other.” She turned to Liz again. “I’d still like for you to take a stab at assessing the situation, Liz. Is it too dangerous, to your mind, to even consider fostering relations with them?”
“I don’t like this,” Liz said crossly. “I need the chance to gather data and observe them myself to make any sort of recommendation.”
“We’re liable to have mutiny on our hands if … when the other colonists learn about this if we refuse to even consider Sademeen’s offer,” Brenda Coleman, chief of agriculture put in.
“Oh! Well forgive me all to hell and gone for pointing out the possibility of waking up with your throats cut!” Ivy growled, surging to her feet abruptly. “Let’s just all stroll over there and pick ourselves a harem and live happily ever after! Christ almighty! Do you just have to get a whiff of something swinging a dick to lose all sense?”
“There’s no need to be insulting! We’re not dismissing your concerns, Major Sterling,” Brenda said heatedly. “As it happens, I’d rather err on the side of caution myself--although I completely disagree with the suggestion that we just ‘kill them all and let god sort them out’ mentality! Surely to god we can come up with something somewhere in the middle?”
“Liz,” Eden said commandingly. “Just tell us if you feel--intuitively, in your gut, based on the little you’ve seen--whatever--that it would be safe enough to at least proceed with studies?”
Liz’s jaw dropped. She blinked rapidly several times. “Well--I assumed we would. This is an opportunity of a lifetime, studying a culture and species entirely different from our own! We have to do that much!” Assuming a pose of ‘the thinker’, she propped an elbow on the table top, stroking her full lower lip thoughtfully. “This is just a wild stab at this situation, and who knows how accurate it could be considering I ha
ve to draw from knowledge of the past of the human race, not theirs, but, assuming we can safely make a correlation here, this actually sounds like a number of Earth societies in their early development.”
“This is your field, not mine,” Colleen Dryer put in. “But I’m kind of a history buff anyway--and I don’t recall ever running across anything even close.”
“Because it’s reversed,” Liz said, sounding more certain of herself now. “Early in man’s history, when they were predominantly an agrigarian society and before they had developed machines to help them, there were cultures where men took many wives to insure their wealth. Having many wives meant many children, who were mainly produced to do the labor needed to survive, and, hopefully, become wealthy. The more wives and children they had, the wealthier they were because they had the labor they needed to produce more and not only have what they needed to feed themselves, but more than they needed so that they could trade for valuable commodities--their offspring were assets in trade, as well. They could sell off their daughters to other men, who paid in herd animals or whatever else they wanted or needed. If they were predisposed to produce way more males than females, then the females would, by their rarity, be far more important since they couldn’t have children without them. It sounds very plausible to me, given what we have learned, that the females became the central focus here, taking many males probably partly because the males would have no mate otherwise, producing more males than females and compounding their tendency with each generation. But their ability to have multiple births ensured that they would have all the labor they needed to make the pazaan strong and wealthy. They may even bear the offspring of more than one male at the time, becoming impregnated by four or five different males within their pazaan each time they mate.
“I couldn’t begin to guess why they held on to these old customs even when they became advanced enough to make it unnecessary, but then again I could sight other cultures on Earth that clung determinedly to old customs long past their practical use.
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