by S. H. Jucha
“How far have the aliens advanced since you last viewed them?” Pussiro asked.
The warrior, a veteran of the lookouts, marked movement on the plains by comparing enemy positions to the rocks, which dotted the landscape. Before he turned over his sentry’s duty to his partner, a much younger warrior, he’d carefully marked a small rocky outcropping near the massive figure in the center of the group when they had assembled. He was fully prepared to report on the alien’s deployment and their advancement. Now, locating the same pile of rocks near the feet of the broad alien, he said, “Commander, the leader hasn’t moved since assembling his soma.” The warrior scanned left and right. He’d taken the time to memorize the placements of several figures, who were remarkable in their coloring. “Commander, not only has the leader not advanced, but it would appear that most of his soma have not moved.”
“If they haven’t advanced, they haven’t moved,” Nyslara snarled with impatience, which immediately had the warrior dropping his muzzle and ducking his eyes. To her surprise, Pussiro shot her an irritated look, the edges of his lips rippling in consternation. Nyslara was reminded that she was interfering with the commander’s underlings.
“Explain,” Pussiro commanded.
The warrior’s head snapped up, responding to his wasat’s order. “Commander, I noted the exact positions of several aliens. With this large a number, I thought they might try a fade tactic.” The lookout was referring to a favorite Dischnya maneuver to present a large force to the lookouts of another nest and then slip some warriors out of the force to flank the enemy. Because the warriors in a soma were so similar in appearance, the technique was quite successful when performed well.
“And,” Pussiro prompted.
“Unless my eyesight is failing me, Commander, the aliens I marked haven’t moved a muscle … same position on the ground and same body position. It’s … it’s —”
“Uncanny,” Pussiro finished for the warrior.
“It’s unnatural,” Nyslara said softly. Then she drew her body up to her full height, her tail cutting back and forth. “So now what, Commander?” Nyslara demanded, fervently hoping Pussiro didn’t ask for her opinion.
“Now, my queen, I take Fellum, and we talk to the aliens,” Pussiro replied. He bowed briefly to Nyslara, walked into the corridor, and ordered Simlan, Hessan, and Willem to follow him.
* * *
Alex was thankful for his Haraken-fabricated clothes. The fabric wicked away his sweat, keeping him cool in the hot sun.
Reiko was about to ask Alex how much longer they would wait when the entire assembly received a SADE’s broadcast, reporting movement in the ground and its exact position.
A cleverly concealed hatch opened and one of the native creatures climbed out, stood still, and slowly held his hands out to his side, palms toward the group.
Alex waved the native over to him, but, instead, the alien gestured toward the bolt-hole, which brought Willem climbing out. A slender cable encircled his neck, the other end of which was held by a gray, muzzle-scarred individual. A third creature climbed out of the hole and stood waiting beside the older one.
Those closest to Alex could hear the knuckles popping on his tightly curled fists, as he took in Willem’s treatment.
Alex slowly blew out a deep breath and unclenched his fists, and the twins relaxed ever so slightly.
Knowing that the news was good, Alex sent it on to the Harakens. Renée’s relief and warm thoughts flooded into his implant. Alex sent to Willem,
Willem sent the Harakens a map of the discovered Dischnya’s tunnels, marking a series of points — the tunnel they entered after capture, the storeroom where they were held, their newest accommodations, and the extended classroom. The map was annotated with accurate distances between the marked points, but the relative angles were estimates.
Alex gestured again for the natives to approach him, but his gesture was imitated by the first individual, who had climbed out of the bolt-hole.
After a short discussion between Willem and Pussiro, Willem called out, “The wasat, the warrior commander, wants to meet halfway, Ser, and he insists on only meeting with three of you.”
After a short debate, Alex, Reiko, and Étienne stepped forward to meet the natives, much to the consternation of many in the Haraken’s ranks.
< Alex, Reiko, and Étienne,> Willem sent in the open,
Pussiro was introduced to Alex Racine and Captain Reiko Shimada, but not the third individual. Then again, he didn’t need an introduction. As slight as the alien appeared, his watchful eyes said warrior, and, if he accompanied the leaders, his capabilities would be formidable.
During the initial greetings, Pussiro was surprised by the aliens’ display of Dischnya amenities. His suspicious mind connected small disparate items. Willem had learned the Dischnya’s mannerisms, and now his people exhibited the characteristics, but Pussiro couldn’t conceive of a means by which Willem had the opportunity to communicate to his people.
The alien known as Alex Racine stood directly in front of Pussiro. He appeared to be unique among his people. Pussiro was taller than the male, who had no prominent teeth or dangerous claws. But his girth and bulging muscles warned Pussiro that if the alien closed on him, his back would be broken in a heartbeat. The alien’s eyes were narrowed and glanced occasionally from him to Willem, and Pussiro could imagine the heat inside him from the treatment of his comrade. Be angry, Alex Racine, that redness in your mind will keep you off balance, Pussiro thought.
“Willem, tell Pussiro that I want the return of our people now,” Alex said.
After a quick exchange with Pussiro, Willem said, “The commander wants to know if you’re the leader and speak for your people.”
Alex was tempted to say yes, but that would complicate matters between Reiko and him. Instead, Alex gestured to his right and said, “Captain Shimada has mission command.”
Willem recognized the confusion that Alex’s response would generate for the commander and tried his best to interpret the statement in a manner Pussiro would understand. To Pussiro, he said, gesturing toward Reiko, “Captain Shimada represents the people of the vessels above. She commands the sting ship, the nest killer. The leader of our people is on a planet far away and rules a soma many times greater than all the Dischnya on Sawa Messa.”
Pussiro eyed the tiny alien, the commander of the strangers, and his lips rippled in amusement. In his mind, she was neither a queen nor a warrior commander. He spoke to Willem, who relayed his words. “Pussiro finds Captain Shimada unsuitable as a representative with whom to negotiate. Apologies, Captain.”
“Alien misanthrope,” Reiko mumbled. “Willem, tell the commander that he has a choice. Deal with us fairly, whether he feels it appropriate to talk to aliens or not or deal with our ships’
beams. We don’t take kindly to the kidnapping of our people.”
Willem took pleasure in baring some teeth as he translated Reiko’s words.
Pussiro was caught off guard by the threatening message from the tiny alien and the rude display of teeth by Willem. In his world, only the more ferocious of foes displayed aggressive behavior, and her size negated a fair comparison. Pussiro’s attention was diverted away from the tiny captain to the enormous alien, whose hand was raised over his head. He imitated a ship diving for the ground. Then he made a sound like the sizzling of meat on a cooker, and a second, massively explosive sound escaped his lips as he indicated the ground being thrown into the air. Then he pointed an intimidating finger directly at Pussiro, retracting his hand to make a slicing motion across his throat. His final motion was the baring of a huge grimace.
The alien’s message was clear to Pussiro, as was its insulting method of delivery, and Pussiro couldn’t resist the affront, snarling his own challenge.
Alex started to speak to Willem, but Pussiro was issuing his own reply, which required Alex wait.
“Sers, Pussiro said only the queen may free what the soma possess, which includes us. Furthermore, he says that none of you are worthy to meet with the queen.”
Pussiro snarled a command and Simlan pulled on Willem’s cable. The Dischnya backed up, taking Willem with them, and climbed down into their tunnel.
Reiko glanced up at Alex. “Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t think standing on protocol as the mission commander would screw up the negotiations.”
Alex didn’t reply to Reiko’s comment. Instead, he was staring into the distance.
-15-
Confrontation
Nyslara had never seen Pussiro so agitated in her presence.
“Bad enough we are invaded by aliens, but the soma are so honored as to receive truly strange ones,” Pussiro raged.
The comment had Nyslara’s muzzle twitching. “I believe, Commander, that the terms alien and strange go hand in hand.”
Pussiro stared at her, as if she had raked his muzzle, but he soon turned to pacing her chambers again.
That will require replacement, Nyslara thought with lament, watching Pussiro’s great clawed feet cut into the room’s finely woven rug.
“If you’re done fuming, Commander, your queen waits to hear more details about your encounter other than the aliens are strange.”
“Your pardon, my queen, but how can I deal with these creatures when I can’t understand their ways? I addressed the large male, who I believed to be the leader, but was told that their commander is the smallest female you’ve ever seen.”
“Interesting. What did she have to say?”
“She threatened me, saying that the prisoners must be returned or we would face the consequences. Then the enormous one made motions with his hands of a ship attacking and destroying us, and he had the effrontery to bare his teeth at me.”
“Did he demonstrate these poor behaviors beforehand?”
“That’s the odd thing, my queen. From the moment of greeting, etiquette was carefully observed, as if they knew our ways.”
“So think, Pussiro, what would have caused the male to react that way?”
Pussiro thought for a moment and then ducked his head before he looked up at Nyslara. “It might have been me, my queen. When the tiny female was introduced as the commander, I might not have paid her the courtesy due her.”
“Might not or did not?”
“Did not, my queen.”
“Males,” Nyslara snorted. Nests were governed by queens for just that reason to balance the aggressive tendencies of the wasats and their warriors.
“So how did you leave the talks, Commander? What comes next?”
“I don’t know, Nyslara,” Pussiro said with a pained expression. “I told them that only a queen could choose to free what the soma held and none of them were worthy of meeting with you.”
“That’s the sum of your talk, Commander? You’ve left these powerful invaders with a slap of your claws across their muzzles?” Nyslara’s eyes flashed. She was tempted to do the same to Pussiro, but she swallowed her anger with great difficulty. “Well, Commander, either this will be over quickly when the aliens burn out our nest, or they will demonstrate more intelligence than you have and return to speak with us one more time. If we’re given another opportunity to negotiate, I’ll be the one speaking with them.”
“My queen, we can’t risk you in the open. You have no daughter!” Pussiro exclaimed, aghast at the thought of risking their only female in the nest’s great unbroken line of queens.
“The soma will have no use for a queen, or I for them, if the nest is turned to cinders by the aliens’ ships, Commander,” Nyslara shot back. She stood with hind legs fully extended and tail thrashing.
Pussiro realized he had overstepped his bounds and extended obeisance to Nyslara.
“I have one more piece of information for you, Pussiro, which might awaken your senses to what we face. While you were above ground, a lookout reported a most unusual observation. The warrior, who delivered the message, was the senior over the junior who shot the alien exiting the ship. He used his scope to focus on that same alien in the group you faced. To verify his observation, he called two other warriors, who had been with him during the fight. All three confirmed that the female was the one who was shot. Not only does she live, but she bears no semblance of injury … this despite earlier reports that she was struck in the shoulder and fell forward onto the shuttle’s hatch.”
“How is that possible?” Pussiro said quietly, his forehead furrowed in puzzlement.
“It demonstrates what I’ve been trying to tell you, Pussiro, and why it has to be me who speaks for the soma. Our traditions, even our courtesies, must be set aside so that we truly hear the words of these aliens. Our asset is Fellum, and we must heed his advice.”
* * *
Days passed without action from either side of the conflict. Classroom lessons for the captives continued as if their comrades had never arrived. It was entirely unnerving to Pussiro, who had expected an immediate retaliation by the aliens. In the intervening time, he had done his best to prepare the nest for the attack.
The receiver next to a sub-commander whistled. He snatched it off the wall, listened, and hung it up. “Commander, the aliens are landing again,” the sub-commander announced.
Pussiro confirmed the landing location, which was the same as before, and hurried to tell the queen.
Nyslara called to Cysmana, her attendant, and wasted no time donning her best robe and adorning her person with the trappings of her supreme position, a necklace of gemstones, arm bracelets, and a headdress of rare flight feathers from birds captured at the green’s edge.
Pussiro was pleased to see that Nyslara stopped at a nearby gated room to snarl a command to her feedwa. The queen’s twin dogs were raised to respond only to her and were often used as protection when two queens met in truce.
The soma deserted the corridor at the approach of Pussiro and a group of his sub-commanders. Not because of the warriors’ presence, but because they announced the coming of the queen and her feedwa. The aggressive beasts were highly protective of their mistress and allowed none of the soma near her.
At the same lookout site, Pussiro examined the display of shuttles and aliens, seemingly identical to the previous positions of ship and individuals. The commander shook his head, trying to clear his mind of his unreasoning fear over the nature of the aliens. He managed to display a more confident expression when he signaled Nyslara that all was ready, breaking open the hatch, and stepping above ground first.
Nyslara signaled her male dog up the ladder, and the lizard-like cr
eature scurried up it with ease. The second one eyed her, anxious to follow, and Nyslara waited a moment before she signaled the female, who was the feistier of the two dogs, to test its obedience. She hadn’t used the feedwa in more than an annual and wanted to ensure she had firm control over her. Finally, she nodded, and the female tore up the ladder.
“Fellum, queen’s dogs, feedwa, dangerous. Don’t approach Nyslara or her feedwa,” Simlan warned. Hessan and he climbed the ladder next, bringing Willem with them. Simlan had apologized to Willem when he extended the cable noose to him, but the alien nodded his acceptance and placed the restraining leash over his head and tightened it. Hessan ducked his head, disturbed by their treatment of someone who long ago had lost the appellation of alien and become much more than an acquaintance.
* * *
The Harakens arrayed themselves in the exact same positions as before, hoping to unnerve the natives. This time, they substituted the mission shuttle for the standard traveler at the center of the five ships. After it landed, the aft ramp was deployed.
Alex, Renée, Reiko, Julien, and Miranda waited in front of the assembly. They watched Pussiro, the commander, climb out of the tunnel’s entrance. Then first one and then two odd-looking creatures scampered out of the ground. The animals had a similar coloring to the natives the Harakens had seen, but these creatures walked on four legs, possessed powerful tails and elongated snouts, filled with long, sharp teeth, which they seemed intent on baring.
Following behind the creatures walked a tall, robed female, decked out in her finery. She towered many centimeters over Pussiro and carried herself in a regal manner. She snarled a command, and the creatures scampered to her sides.
