by S. H. Jucha
Alex led Nyslara through the ship at a slow pace, since the queen was taking time to examine everything in detail. He did clear the passages of crew so that Nyslara wouldn’t be forced to pass people in the corridors. The lift to the upper deck seemed to be a treat to the queen, and Alex could envisage how Nyslara was imagining the technology helping her people.
On the bridge, Alex introduced Captains Azasdau and Shimada, and then he activated the holo-vid, requesting Willem display the plains area, which crossed the entire continent, from ocean to ocean.
Nyslara hissed at the sight erupting before her eyes, but as the image zoomed in to show an area of great waters, shore, and nearby arid land, she recognized many of the rock formations. Her eyes gleamed, as she realized she was looking down from the sky at her nest’s territory. “Tawas Soma,” she said, poking a hard, black nail into the image, which zoomed into to a single rock formation. She snatched her hand back and eyed Dassata, waiting for his outburst of anger.
Several of the soma surrounding Nyslara uttered that strange alien sound she heard directed once at Dassata, but they held their hands over their mouths to prevent the display of teeth. “This time it’s me, who’s served your soma’s gesture,” Nyslara huffed.
“Yes, but no harm is intended,” Alex said, and he placed his hands in the holo-vid, separating and closing them slowly so that the holo-vid responded to his actions, zooming out and zooming in. Then he gently rolled a finger, first one way and then another, across the face of the image, and the holo-vid shifted view.
When Dassata indicated she should try it, Nyslara tentatively tried manipulating the alien device. In short order, she was moving the display around, looking at her world, as she had never seen it. Suddenly control was taken from her, and the original image was projected.
“Tawas Soma,” Alex said, and when he touched the point where they had met, a yellow dot appeared.
Again, Nyslara was offered to use the alien display. She set her nail on the coastline, and yellow bloomed under her dark nail. Carefully she drew an outline around her nest. Each queen knew her territory intimately.
“Another queen,” Alex said.
When Willem explained Dassata’s request, Nyslara drew Sissya’s territory, which bordered her own. Her finger drew in blue, this time. Nyslara didn’t need any more prompting. She concentrated on the display, zooming in and out to spot key formations, which helped her plot the territories that she knew. Near her nest’s rooms, Pussiro had built a miniature replica of the territories and identifying formations bordering each nest, as reported by the messengers. It was how every queen spied on her neighbors, under the guise of the blue white messengers’ flags.
In the earliest of her drawings, the borders were precise and often heavily convoluted, revealing her intimate knowledge of those territories nearby. Each nest was outlined in a different color. When Nyslara spoke the name of the queen and soma, small lines appeared in the territory, and she took those to be the aliens’ language.
As Nyslara continued to define territories farther and farther from the Tawas Soma, her shapes became blobs or boxes, indicating the nests’ boundaries were not well understood. When she finished, the territories ended halfway across the continent, far from the other shore. She looked at Dassata, and said, “All that is known.”
Alex nodded his understanding. Then he picked up the discussion where he had left off when they landed aboard the Sojourn. When Alex’s app chimed for meal time, he motioned Nyslara to follow him, and more than a couple of crew members were treated to the sounds of stomachs rumbling from Alex and Nyslara as the two passed.
* * *
Nyslara thought of the amazing sights she saw aboard the alien ship. Her heart ached for all that her soma might have possessed, if she could have only brought these things to them. But, having told Dassata everything she knew of the territories, it was her thought that her usefulness to him was ended. Part of her was resigned to her fate; part of her wanted to fight, to tear at the aliens, and win her freedom.
Doors slid apart in front of Dassata and the scent of food assaulted Nyslara’s nose. She inhaled deeply, her muzzle tingling from myriad new and welcome smells. The Haraken soma sat on chairs around tables, much as her warriors ate. She followed Dassata to a table, fitted with more chairs, and she envisioned herself standing while the aliens ate. Unless I’m to be the one who is served for the meal, thought Nyslara.
Dassata stopped at the head of a table, as was his right, and he indicated a bare area next to him, opposite where she stood. Rounding the table, Nyslara spotted a stool with a single leg, anchored in place. Its seat was round but with a cut out at the rear. She glanced at the alien leader, who nodded at the stool, as he took his own seat. Nyslara, who was accustomed to lying on cushions to dine, unwound her tail and gingerly lowered herself onto the simple seat. Her tail exited nicely though the cut out, and she relaxed as she wound it back around her legs, nodding her appreciation to Dassata for his efforts.
Willem, who had an exacting knowledge of the Dischnya diet, had compared the queen’s needs to their own fare. She would have a strong preference for lightly acidic food, as the Dischnya preferred preserving much of their food in salt or an acidic liquid, made from a local plant.
Food was served to Nyslara, and she sniffed the plate. The smells made her mouth water, and she smacked her jaw in anticipation.
Nyslara snatched up a piece of food, tossed it to the back of her mouth, and swallowed it whole. She did that several times, picking through the plate for tidbits of interest. Belatedly, she noticed the Harakens using tools to eat with that sat beside their plates. Dassata’s mate offered her a cloth and imitated wiping her fingers. After Nyslara did so, she picked up a tool and speared a chunk of food from her dish. But, the bite dropped to the table when the tool struck a long canine.
The dink of Dassata’s eating tool on the table caught Nyslara’s attention. She watched him pick a piece of food from his plate with his fingers and stuff it into his mouth, grunting in satisfaction. The lips of Nyslara’s muzzle rippled in humor. She dropped her tool, plucked the offending piece of food off the table, and gulped it down. Then she returned Dassata’s grunt of pleasure with one of her own.
The table watched Alex and the queen consume dish after dish, but even she quit before Alex finished his meal.
Nyslara looked across the table at Dassata’s mate. Ené, she called herself. The queen knew that she was not speaking the alien’s tongue correctly, but many of the Harakens’ sounds were difficult for the Dischnya’s muzzles, filled, as they were, with sharp teeth and long, thin tongues. Nyslara thought Dassata chose one of the slightest mates she had ever seen. Then again, the way Dassata admired the female made her seem many times more important than her size.
A hearty belch escaped Nyslara’s lips and the Harakens resorted to their odd noise, accompanied by the covering of their mouths with their hands. But she didn’t mind. If this was to be her last meal, it had been a fine one, as befitting a queen. For that small mercy, she was grateful.
* * *
Afterwards, Nyslara was led to a small room. No curtain concealed the doorway. Instead, metal, such as she saw throughout the ship, slid aside at her escorts’ approach. When the door closed behind her, Nyslara surveyed the simple accommodations. It contained none of the fine trappings of her rooms. No wov
en carpets decorated the floor or the walls, and the ceiling was unpainted.
Attached to the room was a personal space. Careful testing revealed a source of drinking water and the ability to carry her waste away. When she tried the controls of the large stall, she was inundated with a liquid and jumped from the stall with a shriek. Fabrics hung nearby, which allowed her to dry off. Nyslara eyed the mist pouring from the little metal head. She was loath to step into the stall to switch it off, not wanting to get wet again. To her relief, it turned itself off. Some alien technology I don’t want for my people, she thought, shuddering as she dried her fur.
The long day had taken its toll on Nyslara, and she eyed the bed with longing. When she placed a knee on the bed, it moved under her leg, and she leapt back with a snarl. Placing a hand on the bed produced the same result, but she kept it there, adding a second hand beside the first. She tested the bed in many ways, trying to understand the reason for its movement. It occurred to her that this was to be the manner of her death. The bed would enfold her, and she would suffocate.
In the end, Nyslara chose to accept her fate with dignity, and she lay on the bed, turning on her side and curling her tail over her. The bed moved, as it had always responded to her pressure, and she gathered her courage, awaiting the end. Soon, the caress of the bed eased Nyslara’s fears and lulled her to sleep. Her last thought was that this was a most comfortable way to die.
* * *
Alex and Renée were in the refresher together. It was Renée’s idea. Alex was seated, and Renée stood behind him, slowly scrubbing his neck, shoulders, and back, allowing the warm moisture and soothing massage to lessen the tenseness in his muscles and help him think.
Renée halted her ministrations, as a thought occurred to her. “I forgot to tell Nyslara’s escorts to demonstrate the cabin’s facilities to her.”
“She’ll figure out the sink and the toilet, and she won’t need the refresher. The Dischnya must have their own means of cleaning their fur, but it isn’t with water. The warrior that Teague threw in the ocean freaked in less than a meter of water. I don’t know if these people fear the sea or if they just don’t like getting wet.”
“Are you taking Nyslara to your meeting with Wave Skimmer?” Renée asked, as she resumed her efforts.
“I thought about letting the two of them fight it out on the beach, winner take all.”
Renée paused, glancing down to see Alex’s face, not sure if he was making a jest or not. From the frown on his face, it was clear that he wasn’t. Realizing that the refresher and her touch were failing to help Alex think, Renée signaled the refresher’s shutdown, and the two of them dried off and climbed into bed. They chatted for a while, but Renée was soon asleep. She woke hours later to find Alex staring at the overhead.
“Can’t sleep?” she asked. Alex’s response was a small shake of his head. She propped herself up on an elbow and studied her partner’s face. “Well, my love, if you can’t sleep, then you should make yourself useful to me.”
Renée eased on top of Alex, and they quickly fell into their intimate routine. Their implants engaged, relaying to each other what they felt and fostering a mental intertwining of lovemaking that few could imagine.
Much later, it was Alex who was fast asleep, and Renée who was wide awake. She listened to the sound of his deep breathing, pleased that she had brought him a small measure of peace. The rest is up to you, Alex, she murmured, tracing the outline of a deep pectoral muscle with a finger’s soft touch and laying her head on his chest.
-19-
Wave Skimmer
Nyslara’s keen hearing woke her to the hiss of her domicile’s metal door sliding open. She jerked upright, surprised to be still alive. Her escorts gestured toward the facilities room, and she took the opportunity to eliminate waste and sip deeply of the water flowing from the post. Nyslara hoped for another meal, but such was not to be the case. Her escorts led her through metal tunnels, and they entered the odd room that transported the Harakens up and down within the ship.
As a queen, Nyslara was affronted by the lack of information shared with her about the ship, but, as a prisoner, she accepted the indignity. She and her escorts traversed more metal corridors to wait in the small room with its view of the cavernous space where she had exited the Haraken’s shuttle, which had whisked her from the world below. The question of the tiny room’s purpose burned in her mind, but she refused to ask the alien warriors, who stood next to her, not wanting to appear weak and ignorant. It’s just as well, Nyslara thought, I would speak, but they wouldn’t understand me or, if we could exchange words, their answer would be too strange for me to comprehend.
The escorts stayed within the room, but they motioned Nyslara toward Dassata, who stood alone beside his shuttle. She strode with dignity across the intervening space and, without urging, climbed aboard the shuttle, her claws screeching against metal, as she clambered up the steps.
The ship’s interior was filled with Harakens, and, despite their presence, Nyslara walked to the front of the room where she considered a queen had the right to stand, regardless of what fate she would meet today. Dassata walked through the shuttle to stand beside her, and the lights dimmed, as they had before.
Nyslara expected to be transported to another Haraken ship or somewhere on the plains below. But when the room brightened and she exited the shuttle, the last thing she expected to find was sand beneath her feet, with the great waters lapping the nearby shore. Fear clenched her guts, and bile rose in her throat. Somehow Dassata had discovered the Dischnya’s great terror — that of drowning.
Nessila was brightening the horizon, but hadn’t yet revealed its orb. To Nyslara’s relief, Dassata did not approach the waters, but Ginny did. Her whistle split the morning’s still air.
In response to Ginny’s call and much to Nyslara’s horror, the seas boiled with ceena. Hundreds of huge, dark carapaces churned the shallows as the creatures raced for the shore. Most stopped where their walking legs could lift their bodies clear of the waters, but three giants scurried forward to gain dry sand.
During Nyslara’s lifetime, she’d only dined on the lower legs of the ceena, the prized portions. She’d never imagined the size of the huge beasts, which possessed them and loomed over her now, the claws clacking furiously. Her legs trembled in fear at the sight of the three monsters.
In a moment of clarity, Nyslara, as queen, recognized a greater concern than that of her own life. The number of male ceena in sight was more than twice her warriors. The soma had thought the Dischnya’s hunt decimated the population, thinking only a few individuals remained — apparently, not so. It underlined Dassata’s point that the ceena were of his soma. The ceena must be intelligent creatures if they could hide so cunningly from the nest’s hunters, who rode skimmers to collect them.
“You stand with a land hunter, Little Singer,” Wave Skimmer whistled in accusation.
Before Ginny could reply, Alex’s quiet whistles and warbles caught the First’s attention. “This is the Swei Swee you described, Little Singer?” he asked Ginny. “A leader who doesn’t bother with introductions?”
Wave Skimmer, Long Eyes, and Dives Deep eased down from their extended walking legs, and eyestalks twitched toward one another at the rebuke.
“I’m known by the People of my world as Star Hunter First. My familiar name among Harakens is Alex Racine. I would know with whom I speak.”
Immediately reminded of Swei Swee courtesies, Wave Skimmer and his hive mates introduced themselves.
“I’m pleased to find the People surviving on this planet,” Alex whistled. “Your skill and cunning, exhibited by escaping the world traveler, are a compliment to the People.”
“The Star Hunter First’s words are of comfort to our hives. Little Singer said that you freed the People and destroyed the world traveler,” Long Eyes whistled.
“We helped the People achieve the destruction of the world traveler and send its inhabitants to travel the endless waters,”
Alex replied.
Dives Deep spun around and relayed Alex’s message to the host that waited, which consisted of Firsts and two key males from each hive. The Swei Swee responded with shrill whistles and snapping claws, held high in the air. The din was horrendous, and it set Nyslara to trembling afresh. She glanced at Dassata, who bared his teeth fully at the ceena. Only his lips were crooked, as if his short muzzle suffered from an injury. Before my death, I must know what this expression means, Nyslara promised herself.
“Why have you brought a land hunter to our meeting?” Wave Skimmer asked.
“Among the land hunters, a female is a First,” Alex whistled. “This is Nyslara, the First of her people. She has offered herself as a sacrifice to the Swei Swee to appease your anger and call an end to the hunt.”
“One female,” Dives Deep whistled in derision. “The People have lost hive members for more than a hundred annuals. How is her offer equal to that suffering?”
“Even if we were to accept this female’s offer of sacrifice, Swei Swee don’t kill for the sake of killing,” Long Eyes whistled.
“Didn’t you kill the land hunters when they found your hive younglings?” Willem asked.
“We destroyed their platforms,” Wave Skimmer replied. “The endless waters took them.”
I’ll extend my apologies later, Alex, Julien thought.
“If that’s your usual means of defending your hive, then I suggest you take this First out beyond the shallows and let the endless waters claim her,” Alex whistled.
