“Holy shit!” He coughed and pounded on his own leg.
Carlos crossed himself and slammed the drink back. The former Marine sniper just looked at him calmly for a moment before his eyes got big, and began filling until a tear rolled down his cheeks.
“Madre Dios.”
Audy took the bottle back from Carlos and sat back in his own chair, looking somewhat chagrined. “I’m not certain what I’m doing wrong, but I’ll keep trying.”
“I know what you need,” Jake said, smiling.
“If you say a dog, I’ll make you carry my pack tomorrow.”
“I was going to say . . . I think you’re onto something here. You need an investor.”
“You like it?”
Jake shook his head slowly and held out his hand for the container. “I’m not sure, not yet. Needs more testing.”
It was well past noon when Kyle was able to force his eyes open. At this altitude, it was far too chilly to be lying around camp without moving, but he found it very easy to decide it was going to be a rest day. Why they had all had another round of Audy’s jasaka was beyond him, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time. The rounds that had followed, not so much.
He could smell fresh wood smoke outside and heard an occasional pop of a log from the firepit. Someone was up. He had far too much trouble getting out of his tent, and figured he’d still be in his sleeping bag if he’d managed to get into it the night before. He couldn’t even remember getting to his tent.
Carlos sat in his chair. The same one he’d been in last night.
“You still up? Or up early?”
“Not sure.” Carlos’s voice sounded hoarse. “I woke up here a couple of hours ago, added some wood, and passed out again.” They sat in silence for a few minutes until Carlos chuckled a little to himself. “I don’t remember shit, but I’m pretty sure I needed that.”
“You and me both, brother.”
They sat in painful silence around the warming fire for close to an hour. Kyle was pretty certain they both fell asleep again; he for one jerked awake when Jake walked into camp whistling, carrying two rabbits.
“Breakfast!” Jake yelled, loud enough that the pain behind Kyle’s eyes blossomed.
If Jake was hurting or hungover, it wasn’t evident in how he moved.
“How does he do that?” Carlos mumbled.
He shook his head. “He’s not right.”
They heard the zipper on Audy’s tent scratch its way open. The Jema stuck his head out and glared at them in disgust.
“You guys look like shit.” Jake grinned down at them before kneeling to skin the rabbits. Watching Jake work caused the gorge in his stomach to rumble. He didn’t know if it was because he was hungry or if it was the ripe smell of the dressed animal carcasses.
“How is it you’re not hurting?” Carlos gave voice to what he’d been wondering as well.
“I didn’t sleep so good,” Jake admitted. “I got up about four-ish and painted the tree next to my tent; felt better after that.”
“I vote for a rest day.” He rubbed at his forehead as he said it.
“Like you have a choice.” Carlos tried to laugh and pointed over at Audy, who stood just outside his tent, bent double, holding a hand over his mouth.
By mid-afternoon, they were all feeling better and starting to remember the night before. Carlos had been right; he’d needed it; they all had. He watched as Jake and Carlos sat mapping out their trail for the next day on a waxed fold-up map. He took a perverse pleasure in listening to the two of them argue. Whatever they came up with would be fine with him. He could just go along for the ride. No orders to give, no consequences, just walking. With any luck, the eastern slope of the Rockies would be downhill as advertised.
Chief Joseph Settlement, Eden
Elisabeth sat across the table from Kemi’sfrota, “Kemi,” Audy’s wife, imagining they looked like a couple of beached whales. Kemi looked at her and smiled. They’d exhausted the subject of their pregnancies, they’d complained about the men in their lives, and they’d even gotten some real work done, as they were both still very much leading the effort to integrate the two disparate cultures represented by the Jema and the Earth-born Edenites. To her mind, Kemi looked like she was searching for a way to say something. Earlier in the conversation, she’d put it down to the lingering difficulty Kemi had with English, but no more.
“Kemi, what’s bothering you?”
“We are friends, yes?”
“You know that we are.”
Kemi shook her head. “I never believed I would have a friend who was not Jema. We lived separate on Chandra, our whole lives. As a clan, we had very little contact with others.”
Elisabeth knew Jema history as well as any Edenite. That situation hadn’t been of the Jema’s own making.
“Because you dared to rebel, fight for your freedom.”
“True, but we lost. We lost honor, our families.” Kemi paused and wrapped an arm around her womb with a smile. “We lost . . .” Kemi struggled to find the right word, “fellowship with other clans. We became hated.”
“That was the Kaerin’s doing.”
Kemi agreed with a slow nod. “Yet it leaves a shadow on our hearts. One that does not leave.”
“Well . . . you have new friends now. Who trust you, and love you.”
Kemi nodded and looked out the window for a moment before turning back to her. “This is why what I must say, is not easy to say. We do not wish to betray your trust or your friendship.”
“Kemi?”
“Jomra will soon go to your council. He will inform them of our decision to take our fight to the Kaerin, to Chandra. Not all Jema are in agreement, but enough. Most, in fact. We are new to this place in our lives where what we do is decided by us, not the Kaerin. It is a strange problem, but a good one, I think.”
Elisabeth couldn’t help but agree. Freedom wasn’t easy, and it by no means meant you never had to do something you didn’t want to do. But this was different; the Jema were a small minority, less than 3 percent of Eden’s population, and they wanted to continue a war that for the rest of the population had just ended.
“Jomra will ask for our help?”
“Those who will go, will go,” Kemi said, somewhat defiantly. “With your help, or without. They feel strongly that they must.” Kemi paused and patted her belly. “Some wish to go, but cannot. Others are happy to begin their lives here. This freedom is a blade that cuts both ways, yes?”
Her heart hurt for what she was hearing. She knew better than most what it meant when the Jema made a decision. That said, she didn’t have to agree with any of it.
“If we don’t agree to help send your people back? They’ll try to go through one of the natural gates?”
“Yes.” Kemi nodded. “They’ll go without knowing where they’ll appear on Chandra. Our Gemendi have never seen the charts the Kaerin use to. . . time their travels. I fear our warriors, soldiers, would be lost. I fear to lose Audrin’ochal.”
“Audy would go?” Elisabeth would never question Audy’s courage; no one could. He had risked everything, his life and, more important to him, his very status as a Jema, to desert his people and jump blindly into the gate that had dropped him on Eden. Later he’d returned to the Jema with a story of having made peace with the Shareki the Jema had been sent to Eden to kill. That he’d been successful needed no proof beyond the fact she and Kemi were sitting together talking, as friends.
Kemi’s fist balled up on the table. “He must. Jomra must stay here to lead our people. Audrin’ochal’s place is to lead those who would go. Honor demands it.”
“What do you think?”
“I agree we should go. I do not think Audrin’ochal should go. He will have a child very soon, but this is me speaking as his handfast. As a council member I will support Jomra’s decision. As a Jema, I believe it is the right thing to do. We need to go back and fight to free the others.”
“I’m not sure how our council will r
eact to this news.”
“You could convince them to help.”
Elisabeth was almost overcome with panic as all she could think of was Kyle and the child growing inside her. Her concern must have registered on her face.
“Kyle could not go.” Kemi smiled softly. “His honor aside, which no Jema will ever question, he speaks Chandrian poorly. There are very few of you who could pass for a Chandrian, and not risk the others. That is not the kind of help I am asking for.”
A wave of relief and—once she put a name to the emotion—guilt washed over her as she realized Kyle wouldn’t be going anywhere.
“What exactly are you asking for?”
*
“Did you know about this?” Kyle tried to keep the accusation out of his voice. They’d all read the message from Colonel Pretty that morning. Evidently, Jomra had announced the Jema, at least some of them, were going to Chandra to begin a struggle against the Kaerin. One way or another, with or without the help of their new Edenite allies, they were going.
Audy regarded him for a moment and looked back out across the glimmering surface of the Missouri River’s headwaters. They were a full month into their trip, and now that they were floating eastward rather than walking, they’d been making good time.
“I believed this would be the decision reached by our council,” he said, then turned back to face Kyle. “You cannot be surprised that we would wish to free our people.”
Kyle wasn’t surprised. He could understand it; hell, he even supported the idea in a long-term strategic sense. But now? They were still licking their wounds from the Strema invasion, and they didn’t have any intelligence as to what the Kaerin were going to do next. That was the biggest problem he had.
The other side of that coin was that the Jema proposal could actually provide an answer to that question. But it could also very well decide the issue for the Kaerin. If they thought Eden represented a threat to their existence, a challenge to the continued Kaerin control of Chandra, what would keep them from launching another, bigger invasion against Eden that they wouldn’t be able to stop?
“Dr. Jensen needs the data for Eden, as observed from Chandra? Yes?” Audy asked. “In order to block the Kaerin?”
“He does.” In his mind, there were better ways to get that data than to take on the Kaerin. He knew Jensen had been considering trying to hit some small, uninhabited island in the middle of whatever the Kaerin called the Pacific.
“Audy, trust me on this . . . When we can, we’ll most likely choose to throw Jensen’s defense up to block translations from Earth. If they figure out the gate technology, they’ll be able to translate anywhere on Eden, with precision, just as we did. They could bring the power of several of Earth’s governments to bear against us. We wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Audy shook his head. “I have difficulty believing that the world that produced your people would prosecute such a war against you. We know the Kaerin would. They have already tried.”
Audy didn’t have an appreciation for the harsh divide between personal liberty and the state-run corporatist-socialism that had won out on Earth. Whether or not Earth knew about them, or pretended they didn’t exist, Eden now represented a center of gravity with its own base of power in that ideological struggle. Once Earth learned Eden was real, there would be no end to the treasure and blood those same governments would expend in bringing them under control, or more likely, trying to erase them from history. To that, Kyle added the potential of Eden; its resources, and its open land. Earth would spare nothing to crush them. Given the choice of which to defend against, Earth or the Kaerin, the choice was easy in his book.
“Audy, if we have to, we can fight the Kaerin. There are eight billion people on Earth. The governments there have militaries that are bigger than Eden’s entire population and they have the same technology we do. There’s not a single country on earth or people that would be willing to ally themselves with us. Even if they wanted to, it would just give the powers that be on Earth the excuse to move against them as well.”
“Chandra has billions as well,” Audy said. “They live in slavery, and would be willing to fight for their freedom if they but believed they had a chance of winning.”
“I know,” he said softly. “I’m not arguing against that.” It wasn’t the question of helping that he had a problem with, it was an issue of how and when.
“Earth has many scientists such as Mr. Stephens and Dr. Jensen?” Audy asked.
Kyle was taken aback by the change in subject, but then it registered where Audy was going with this.
“Yes, they are among the best, but there are many others, in many different countries.”
“Then, it is only a matter of time.” Audy pointed at him in exclamation. “Defenses or not, in time, the forces of Earth will find a way around Jensen’s magic wall and come here. If that comes to pass, even if it be many years from now, in our children’s children’s time—Eden will need allies.”
“Yes,” he admitted.
“The Jema can gather allies for you.”
“You’re just as likely to get them all killed, yourselves as well.”
Audy smiled at him. “We would perish as free men, something our fathers and their fathers could not claim. In the end, it will be . . .”
“One thing in the end?” Kyle finished for him.
Audy shook his head. “I was going to say, it would be worth it.”
*
That night, fifty miles west of what would have been the Montana-North Dakota border, their miniature Corps of Discovery sat around their last campfire. The decision had already been reached to call for a pickup and get back to New Seattle.
Audy had dug out a second and last bottle of his jasaka. This time around, they knew what they were dealing with and cut it liberally with water from one of the untold thousands of freshwater springs that dotted the river basin.
Kyle had figured Jake was pissed off their trip was getting cut short. His friend had been strangely quiet as Kyle and Audy laid out their respective arguments. He half expected an announcement that he’d be going on alone in the morning. Carlos hadn’t held back and had agreed with him. In his words; “now is not the time to start shit with the Kaerin that we aren’t ready for.”
“The worst thing to do,” Audy countered, “is to give the Kaerin time to act. Was it not you who taught us to force the enemy to react to us?”
He had to admit that issue was, by far, the best argument for acting now.
Jake sipped at his cup of watered-down jet fuel and pointed at him. “It goes beyond that, Kyle.” Jake scratched at an ear. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what Doc Jensen said about his whole defense thing. Audy, as much as it hurts me to say it, may be right.”
“You are being serious?” Audy was more surprised than any of them.
Jake ignored the question. “Say the doc can figure out how to make his shield thing work . . . for how long? If it works over the long-term, it would be the first defense to do that in, well . . . fucking ever. We have some serious advantages right now. We need to milk them while we can.”
“Milk them?” Audy’s whole head tilted to the side in question.
“Here we go . . .” Carlos sighed, looking at Jake. They all waited for some nonsensical explanation involving hunting dogs or an imaginary uncle.
Jake fixed Carlos with a look of disgust and scratched at his forehead with his middle finger, before turning back to Audy.
“We need to take advantage of the opportunities while we have them, because they may not last.”
Audy nodded in agreement. “Yes, exactly.”
“This is never going to end, is it?” Kyle cringed mentally. Carlos had just given voice to where his mind had been since receiving Hank’s unexpected message as to what Jomra had decided.
Jake laughed a little. “At some point, we’ll all be too old for this shit.”
“I think I’m there.” Carlos tried to smile and failed.
�
�You cannot go,” Audy addressed Carlos. “It will be enough of a shock to those we must approach that we are living, breathing Jema. Who’s to know what the Kaerin have announced regarding our fate, but it would have included our destruction. To have among us . . . allies from a different world? That would be too much. At least in the beginning. Carlos, your Chandrian is very good, but you do not look like us; you are too dark.”
“Did you just insult my beautiful Chicano skin?”
“Yes, he did.” Jake smiled.
Audy ignored them and turned to him. “Kyle, I know you have worked at it, but you still speak Chandrian like a child would. A young child, not fit to carry a blade.”
Jake reached out and slapped Carlos on the leg. “Amigo, you can’t help your skin tone. He just called Kyle a functional idiot.”
They all had a good laugh at that.
“But you.” Audy pointed at Jake. “You could pass as one of us.”
The bottle of jasaka had made its way to Carlos, who held it up in a salute.
“We have a winner.”
Kyle flashed a T with his hands. “Slow down, Audy. Our council will have to approve that. And where Jake is concerned, Colonel Pretty will have a say.”
“Screw that! Do I get a say?” Jake was looking at him in question.
“Of course.”
“Then I’m going. I don’t give a rat’s ass what our council has to say about it.”
“You serious?” He figured Jake would be the last person to think this was a good idea. “What happened to never volunteering?”
Jake just gave his head a shake as a grin spread across his face. “Think about it. I could be the first human being, ever, to have fished on three different planets.” Jake looked at all of them in turn as if he expected the argument to make sense.
He didn’t know what to say and just watched Jake turn to Audy. “You do have fish, right?”
“Yes, we have fish.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Jake groaned as he struggled to stand. He’d quickly drained his cup of jasaka.
New Shores: The Eden Chronicles - Book Three Page 5
