by S. H. Jucha
“Undoubtedly, but that is the risk every queen will take except for Nyslara and those whose territories are adjacent to her. Let’s hope that none of them meet the fate of poor Haffas,” Willem replied.
“Willem, describe how the Fissla proceeds,” Alex requested.
“The queens’ council is ringed by their wasats, who act as bodyguards. The emissaries form a broad ring around the group and act as another layer of protection. The queen, who called the Fissla, in this case, Nyslara, leads the meeting.”
“Do the queens discuss any other subjects beside the one Nyslara will present?” Renée asked.
“I don’t know this, Ser,” Willem replied, “but I will seek an answer. I have several subjects to pursue with Nyslara.”
The group went back to the general discussion about who would be present for the Fissla. In the end, Alex lost every argument — to the SADEs, to Xavier, to Renée, and to the captains. For a brief moment, Alex regretted not having the president’s power but only for a brief moment. Looking around the table, he realized that it was no longer necessary for him to be in charge and have his way. His people were capable of making their own decisions, wise ones at that, and directing their own paths, and he couldn’t have been prouder of them.
* * *
Two days later, the Harakens landed a couple of hours before the appointed meeting time. The Tawas Soma had set the field with tents. The tops were covered with woven cloth. The edges fluttered in the breeze. Underneath the tents, the ground was layered with bessach. The greater tents displayed soft pallets for the queens, and already twenty-nine queens, including Nyslara, reclined on these comfortable mats, lapping at drinking bowls. Their commanders lined the tents’ peripheries, and the emissary warriors waited in small shades set up for them in a wide ring 10 meters farther out.
When the Haraken’s ships came into view, the queens rose and congregated to watch the alien ships land, anxious to observe the occupants, as Nyslara had spent much of the morning describing them. Two of the strange entities stepped down from one of the ships, both remarkable in their differences from the Dischnya. One queen murmured to the others, “Dassata,” and others nodded in agreement. There was no mistaking the figure that Nyslara’s tales told of the alien peacemaker. The queens watched Nyslara and her wasat hurry to meet the odd-looking pair.
“A good turnout, Nyslara,” Alex said to the queen, when she stopped before him, bowing her head gravely in greeting.
“Dassata is pleased to see this number of queens assembled,” Willem translated for Alex.
Alex watched Nyslara glance back at the assembled group, but when she faced him again, she was frowning. “What’s the matter?” Alex asked.
“Dassata wishes to know the reason for the furrows in your brow, Nyslara,” Willem said.
The queen glanced at Pussiro, who replied, “Lookouts report sighting four queens near or entering the Tawas Soma territory. They’ve traveled far.”
“The count is at thirty-three, Ser, with the queens that the lookouts have observed entering this nest’s territory.”
“And the thirty-fourth?” Alex asked.
“Which queen is not seen?” Willem rephrased for the queen.
“Chafwa,” Nyslara replied. “Her nest borders the Tawas Soma. It’s important that Chafwa attends the Fissla.”
“Why?” Alex asked when he heard Willem.
“Chafwa’s soma are large in number,” Willem said to Alex after he received the queen’s reply. “She’s an older queen, and her voice will carry great power. Her nest also hunts the Swei Swee.”
Nyslara’s words struck Alex hard and reminded him of the Fissla’s purpose.
The queen saw Dassata’s short muzzle tighten. The muscles along its edge flexed and distended the flesh. The Haraken leader wanted an agreement from the queens that the ceena would be hunted no more, but a consensus among chona would not be easily reached simply because he desired it.
* * *
The Harakens returned to their travelers to enjoy the cool comfort while they waited for the arrival of the last queens. In the two remaining hours before the Fissla was due to start, four more queens, including Posnossa arrived. Finally, Chafwa and her wasat, Foomas, led by an emissary warrior, strode across the grounds to join the assembly. The warrior doffed his mask and took up his duty, as a member of the Fissla’s peripheral guards.
As had been orchestrated with Alex, Nyslara opened the Fissla. “Each of the queens who accepted my offer is present. The Harakens, who you think of as aliens, have identified forty-three nests. Two are dead from the taking, and seven queens refused to attend. These people …” Nyslara said, indicating the travelers with a wave of her hand.
The queen’s gesture was a cue for the Harakens. Franz’s ship controller relayed the image to his helmet, and he passed the signal to everyone on open comm. The entire assembly of Harakens flooded out of their ships, but stayed close to them.
At the aliens’ coordinated display, hisses issued from many of the queens and several recoiled, backing up several steps. The wasats and warriors tensed, their clawed feet gripping the bessach or soil for purchase to launch themselves in defense of their queens.
“These aliens have capabilities far beyond our imagination,” Nyslara continued, “and we’ve discovered that the ceena are part of their soma.”
“Impossible, the ceena are not thinkers!” Chafwa snarled.
“It has been proven to us beyond doubt, Chafwa,” Nyslara said calmly. “The Harakens travel with ceena in their company. They’re called Swei Swee.”
“This is a trick to prevent the Mawas Soma from harvesting the ceena so that the Tawas Soma will be the only hunters,” Chafwa challenged.
“Your words might have force, Chafwa, if I called this Fissla of my own volition. I didn’t. The one we call Dassata requested this council of queens. He wants peace for his soma … an end to the hunt, and his ships have the power to burn nests to blackened holes if we continue to attack the ceena of this world.”
“You speak of power beyond our vision, Chona Nyslara,” Foomas said, from the edge of the tent.
Pussiro’s neck hairs bristled. Wasats did not speak at a Fissla, but Chafwa was a powerful queen, and she allowed her commander much freedom.
“Queens of the Fissla, we’ve witnessed the power of the alien ships,” Nyslara replied, deliberately not addressing Foomas. “If you require proof, we can lead you to the shore where a wide stretch of sand is now a smooth, glassy black hole. The destroyed surface, which you will see that no soma could have created, will convince you of their power.”
“How many of your soma died encountering the aliens?” Chafwa asked.
Nyslara knew the old queen was wondering if the Tawas Soma had been seriously weakened and was ripe for a takeover. “Many of my warriors fell to the aliens’ weapons,” Nyslara replied, and then she bared her lips to reveal her teeth just the slightest, as she added, “But later, they rose.”
Growls and hisses of incredulity escaped the queens’ muzzles at Nyslara’s words.
“Nyslara speaks the truth,” Posnossa said into the noise. The young queen surprised herself. She hadn’t wished to voice her opinions during the Fissla, not wanting to attract the attention of older queens who bordered her territory. “My matriarch killed the emissary sent to us and staked him out. The aliens sought to recover his body, as was their right, since they brought him to our nest. My mother would not have it, and our warriors attacked them. Six warriors went down; six of them recovered.”
“And why is your matriarch not here, Posnossa?” Sissya, a young queen, asked.
“It was time for the heir to lay a mad queen to rest and assume the robe of power,” Posnossa replied, and every queen knew what she meant. In most cases, the handover of a nest’s control was orderly, and sometimes it wasn’t.”
“Shouldn’t we hear from the aliens if we’re to believe these stories?” Chafwa asked. She leaned back on her pillows and stared quietly at Nyslara.
The other queens discussed what Chafwa said, and soon they were requesting exactly that from Nyslara.
“One among the aliens speaks passable Dischnya,” Nyslara said. “He’ll translate the words of Dassata, who will speak directly to you.” She stepped off the bessach and raised her arms to Alex, waiting by his traveler.
“Time to get the show started,” Alex murmured, as he stepped forward to join the Fissla with a small retinue in his wake.
The queens rose from their pillows at the approach of the aliens. Sissya eyed the leader of the group, impressed by his breadth, and then her eyes traveled to another, walking slightly behind him, who was even more formidable. “Do they get any larger than those two?” Sissya hissed to Nyslara, indicating Alex and Z.
“Let’s hope not, Sissya,” Nyslara replied.
Alex waited while Nyslara introduced him to the waiting queens. A detail he’d observed about the female Dischnya gave him evidence as to the emotions they were experiencing. It was their long, scaled tails — some lay relaxed behind the queens, some curled tightly about their legs, and others swung slowly to and fro.
As Alex spoke to the queens, Willem delivered translations on the fly. “You might not wish to hear what I have to say to you. Nonetheless, the requests of my people are simple and twofold,” Alex said. “First, the Swei Swee of this planet are not to be harmed. They are of our soma, and we’ll take any measures we deem necessary to ensure their safety.”
Alex heard the hiss of the old queen, who was the last to arrive at the Fissla. Chafwa, Nyslara called her.
“To accommodate our first request, the Dischnya must change their ways,” Alex continued. “Your food source is too scarce to support your growing nests. There are better ways to feed your soma, and we’ll teach you these ways. But, if you want this, then we require that the queens agree to live in peace … your fighting must end.”
The first point was easily accepted since most of the queens had no access to the great waters. So, the hunt for ceena was not an issue. It only required the agreements of Nyslara and Chafwa. But Dassata’s second request astounded them. His words were simple, but what he asked was monumental in scope. To end nearly a hundred annuals of fighting just because aliens wished it seemed absurd.
“You ask for our pledge that we won’t hunt these creatures you call your soma, Dassata, requiring the Dischnya put aside their way of life,” Chafwa said, as she stepped forward. “What do you offer in return?”
“What do the queens want in return?” Alex asked.
“The gift of your alien capabilities for the soma of Sawa Messa,” a voice said from the back of the tent.
When Willem asked who spoke, Foomas walked around the tent’s edge to stand beside Chafwa. “I speak in my queen’s name.”
Hisses and snarls of dissent issued from the queens at the impertinence of Chafwa’s wasat. Besides Chafwa, only one other queen hadn’t reacted. Nyslara watched Chafwa quietly and with interest, wondering what the old queen gained by fomenting dissension among her peers. Whatever her reason, it was an impediment to what Dassata sought.
Without uttering another word, Chafwa and Foomas pulled short-barreled slug throwers, which were hidden from sight in their clothing. Haraken security forces were still drawing their stun guns when the twins fired at the queen and her wasat. Beams hit their targets even while slugs exploded within the Dischnya weapons, despite the fact that the queen and her wasat moved first.
The queen’s heavy metal pellet struck Alex in the upper chest, and the wasat’s slug threw Alex’s head back sharply, dropping him like a stone to the ground. It was Étienne’s beam shot that struck Foomas as he fired and threw off his aim by centimeters. Foomas was known among his soma as a deadly shot.
Even though Chafwa and Foomas instituted the fight, growls echoed from the Dischnya ranks at the thought that the aliens had killed some of their own during a Fissla. Desperately Nyslara cried, “Halt! These two aren’t dead. The alien weapons don’t kill.”
Sissya and her wasat knelt by the fallen pair and checked for signs of life. “Nyslara speaks the truth,” Sissya called out. “They breathe and show no wounds.”
“It’s as I spoke earlier,” Posnossa declared. “Six of my warriors were struck by these alien weapons, and they rose later with no ill effect.
While the Harakens held the Dischnya at bay with drawn stun guns, Z, faster than the eye could follow, scooped up Alex, as if he was a baby, and raced for the mission shuttle. With its large ramp, it would accommodate a fast ingress. SADEs parted like waves in front of him, and the combined mass of Alex and Z thudded the ground with Z’s every swift step.
Pia raced after the pair but quickly fell behind. Suddenly, she was hoisted in the air. “Times a wasting, dear,” the medical specialist heard Miranda say, and soon they were covering ground in a blur.
Svetlana, who had been standing by next to her traveler, heard the shots and received Z’s determined comm to the assembly to clear way. Her ship was next to Orly’s, where her location app indicated Z was headed, and she took off at a dead run.
“Medical emergency, Orly,” Svetlana sent, recognizing he was sitting in his pilot’s seat. “Move over, I’m flying.” She made it up the ramp only moments before Z, even though she had a 30-meter headstart on the SADE.
Z judged Miranda’s speed and signaled Svetlana to lift, copying Miranda, who was still 12 meters away.
Miranda linked into the traveler’s controller to track Svetlana’s flight orders. The traveler was lifting and spinning, while the ramp was rising. At a flat-out run, Miranda corrected her course and leapt for the ramp, throwing Pia and her combined weight into a twist to ensure that they were firmly planted against the ship’s spin, while the ramp closed behind them.
Pia doubted they could have made the leap. So, as her feet hit the deck, she said her thanks to Miranda and hurried to Alex’s side. Z reclined a seat to lay Alex on it.
* * *
Part of Renée’s mind howled for her to race after Alex, but she stood rooted in place, sending an urgent open comm to the Harakens to stand still. She wouldn’t allow Alex’s efforts to be undone this way and went so far as to block comm transmissions, good or bad, from Svetlana’s flight. She could ill afford to be distracted. Renée glanced toward Julien. They could read the pain in each other’s faces.
The twins and security continued to cover the queens and wasats with drawn weapons, daring anyone to move. The Dischnya were quiet, after it was proven that the two perpetrators of the fight still lived. It crossed the minds of most of those called to attend the Fissla that the treachery of Chafwa and Foomas would spell their demise.
“If my partner is … dies,” Renée said, addressing the queens in a choked voice. “I would see your nests turned into great black holes in the ground. Isn’t that the Dischnya way? Repay an attack with one of your own? It’s fortunate for you and your soma that this isn’t Dassata’s way, and I will act in his stead, as he would wish me to do. All of you stand still, while my soma search for more weapons.”
At the translation of Renée’s words, Chafwa’s emissary warrior broke from his shade and bolted for his nest’s territory. He barely covered 50 meters when he had the misfortune to pass close to a Tawas Soma lookout post. Three of Nyslara’s lookouts leapt out of the tunnel and tackled Chafwa’s warrior. Soon, Nyslara’s warriors had the emissary warrior’s hands trussed behind his back. One of the lookouts displayed the emissary warrior’s long blade. It was another breach of Fissla’s ancient rules.
Snarls and growls greeted the discovery, and several emissaries left their posts to collect the traitor. The Tawas Soma lookouts stood where they had caught the runaway, since they were forbidden to approach the gathering. Once the emissaries affirmed that the traitor carried a sheath
under his vest that fit the knife, they left the weapon with the lookouts and hauled the prisoner back to their shades. Tying their captive’s hocks together, they lowered him to the ground.
During the silence that followed the attack, Esther sent a comm to the Confederation’s SADEs.
To this, Winston could add no more. So, he seconded it.
Xavier and his people investigated every individual carefully and thoroughly — queens, wasats, and emissaries. More than one Dischnya felt an intrusion into sensitive areas, but none objected. No other weapons, slug-throwers, or blades were found.
“Ené, mate of Dassata,” Nyslara entreated, when the search ended. “The Fissla has been dishonored. Allow the Dischnya to discipline those who’ve forgotten its sacred rules, so that we might demonstrate our intentions to you to abide by Dassata’s requests.”
“Why should I believe that justice will be dispensed?” Renée asked, after hearing Willem’s translation. “The Dischnya shot and critically injured an alien. What’s one of us mean to you?”
“There are no words of mine to give you, Ené, which you would take as truth,” Nyslara replied. “But you can believe this. The queens standing before you attend their first Fissla. If the Dischnya’s traditions aren’t upheld, there can never be another. Punishment will be given … must be given … according to our laws.”
Renée tried desperately to think of what Alex would do if their roles were reversed.
