“Elena, I’ve been thinking. I believe I can recommend a replacement ship along with a crew,” Ferd said casually as he loaded a large mountain of Tarram cabbage out of a steaming bowl and onto his plate. “The FL Raindragon. It’s not an especially modern ship, and the crew consists of merely two people, but they’ve completed a lot of difficult jobs to my satisfaction over the past mazuras. They’re not as savvy as Melissa Banks, of course. Not in business as long. But they are good. Very good.”
Elena looked up from her meal and put her spork on the rim of her plate. “And what kind of people are they?”
“Mhhh, pretty strange guys!” Erki interjected with his mouth full. Mona chuckled. “Real strange.”
“Erki!” Sanja cried rebukingly.
“Well, it’s true!” the boy defended himself against his mother’s punishing look.
Ferd chewed and swallowed a last bite of Tarram. “If you were only half as normal as Uchan and Kalmanckalsaltt, Erki, then I wouldn’t have to worry about the future of this planet…,” he winked.
Mona snorted. “Erki, the world killer! Haha!”
“Uchan t’Scct is a war veteran of the past Xenon Conflict,” Ferd deftly explained to Elena. “He belonged to the crew of a scout ship of the Patriarch, which was damaged toward the end of the Conflict. He was the only one who survived the accident.”
Elena made a thoughtful expression. “A servant of the Patriarch… Ferd, are you sure that a Split is the right choice for this mission?”
“Can we get up?” Erki interrupted, whining.
“Yes, of course, Sanja replied. Erki and Mona were out the door before another word was spoken.
“I think so, Elena,” Ferd answered. “Uchan t’Scct has strong reasons to do more than just talk poorly of the Patriarch. I vouch for him in this regard. Besides, I think that in fact, a Split is especially well-suited for this task!”
“And this… Salamanck… a Paranid, judging by the name?”
“Exactly right. Kalmanckalsaltt. Let’s go over to the study, I have some material there to show you. Sanja?”
“Just go,” she said. “I have more to do, anyway.”
“Kalmanckalsaltt is a two-eyed Paranid,” Ferd explained after they were seated back in the study. The Argon showed some films and pictures that had little meaning for Elena. Ferd continued. “He’s an outcast among his people. In their eyes, he’s on the same level as us two-eyed folks, and therefore unholy. But don’t think that makes him any less arrogant!”
Elena smiled and nodded. “I understand. Ferd, I’m relying on you. If it’s your opinion that this crew is up to the job, I trust your judgment.”
“Erki is right,” Fred answered. “The two are a bit strange, each in their own way. But Kalmanckalsaltt and Uchan t’Scct together make a perfect, comprehensive team.”
“Just for the sake of interest,” Elena said, leaning in to take a closer look at the image of the Split that shone on the video field, “but under what name do these two offer their services?”
“Mercenaries of the Free League,” Ferd replied dryly.
Chapter 10
Does he know what really distinguishes the Argon from us? Only one thing—they control their hatred better than us. That is their greatest advantage—and simultaneously their greatest mistake! Does he understand that?
Cho t’Nnt,
Confidant of the Patriarch of Chin
“The creature will stand!” demanded the giant Split whose wooden spear had hit Nopileos across the throat and knocked him down. To further emphasize his words, he nudged the frightened Teladi in the side with the sharp point of his weapon. Nopileos hurried to comply with the order. He scrambled achingly to his feet and peered out of the corner of his eyes. There they stood, the Split. They had discovered him and were quite openly happy about it. They looked dangerous, yes, but not nearly as martial and unapproachable as Nopileos’s vivid memories of his archrival, Cho t’Nnt.
“The creature is welcome with us!” the large Split boomed and made a thin smile. Nopileos cocked his head. “We have not had a guest at the Double Moon Ceremony for a long time,” the warrior went on.
“A guest of honor!” cried a female Split with a still-childlike voice. She knew the trading language well, but but spoke with a harder accent than the older one. The girl was thin as a rail and not much taller than Nopileos. She took a step forward to peer at the Teladi. Nopileos backed away involuntarily. “I’m looking forward to seeing the creature suffer on the torture rock!” it whined in its bright voice and added a croaking noise that was suspiciously like a human’s laugh.
“The creature will remain silent,” spoke the warrior with the spear again. He turned to the girl. “Hatrak, bring Rhonkar and your mother here. Then prepare the punishment hut for the creature. Have one of the captured Teladi cargo crates brought out of storage.”
“But Thro, why do you want to feed the creature?” The girl named Hatrak was visibly disappointed. “We should torture it!” Approving murmurs rose from the other Split, who surrounded Nopileos and pointed their weapons at him as before. Nopileos’s ears turned up involuntarily at the word “feed,” the following “torture” made his forehead ridges pale.
“Am I Thro t’Mggt, the First Warrior of the Family Rhonkar?” the Split inquired.
“It is you, sir,” Hatrak answered.
“And was there any reason to doubt my decisions?”
“No, never!” Hatrak spread three fingers of her left hand in a sign of unconditional declaration.
Thro t’Mggt nodded in satisfaction. “Well then, Hatrak, daughter of Rhonkar and Aqhn. Then run and do as you were told!” Hatrak threw Thro a confirming gesture and ran away quickly. The warrior turned to the Teladi, whose mind had been haunted for a few sezuras whether this was really the dreaded Split or a debate team. He wisely kept this idea to himself.
“The creature will answer all our questions. Since it has disturbed the celebration of today’s Double Moon Night, it will settle this debt with its life at the next ceremony.”
“But I had no idea…”
“Did I ask the creature something?” Thro roared, his voice echoing across the clearing. He made the gesture for anguish and eternal obliteration. Shaken, Nopileos wiggled his ears negatively and remained silent.
“Garand and Zhi, you bring the Teladi creature into the punishment hut and keep watch there. Gilha, you assume the role of restrainer and make sure the creature does not suffer internal injuries and remains in acceptable health until the questioning by Rhonkar and Aqhn.” The two former, older Split with white mutton chops confirmed the orders with brief hand signals, while the latter, a grim-faced woman carried a wooden spear, dropped a sullen word in the Split language.
“Because you raised seven proud warriors, respectable Gilha,” Thro answered in a grumbling trading language. Gilha made a aggravated face, but complied without comment or hand signs. Nopileos wobbled his ears uncomprehendingly. What the deficit was a restrainer?
The gathering of the Split which had found and caught Nopileos gradually dissolved. The warriors, elders, women, and children retired to one of the larger longhouses, where they apparently continued their celebration. Thro t’Mggt also rushed to a meeting with his master Rhonkar and his wife Aqhn, but not without issuing a few commands to Nopileos’s three guards in the Split language.
Nopileos listened to himself. All the horrible experiences of the past wozura made him in some ways calloused, internally hardened. Not quite one mazura ago, the situation in which he had just stumbled would have driven him into a long catalepsy. Thro’s announcement to sacrifice him at the next Double Moon Ceremony would have turned him into a hysterical bundle of nerves. But not so now: instead of being incapable of clear thought, he cold-bloodedly calculated how long it would take until both moons stood in the sky as full discs. He was no astronomer, but if he remembered the data from the Nyana’s onboard computer, it would take at least seven to eight weeks to get there. So much time.
/> Nopileos found a small moment to look around. He noticed that the palisade fence that spanned the clearing was built very close to the first trees of the forest, far below the overhanging branches. The longhouses and log cabins, all around the forest path, crowded their back walls tightly against the paling fence, so that they, too, were covered by the branches and treetops. The path that led out of the forest, paved with carved stones, forked at the place where the Split had beset Nopileos, in order to ring itself around the naked ground in just only half the width. The wide, center area of the clearing seemed to be overgrown with tall grasses that were undoubtedly red by daylight, and not otherwise cultivated. In the center of the place, Nopileos recognized the bulky outlines of a massive object that looked like the terminal moraine of a glacier in the pale moonlight.
From scout fliers and satellites, this small hamlet would certainly look like once of Nif-Nakh’s natural clearings. The Split living here had built their fences and houses in such a way that they were hidden from the sky by the forest, but still had bright daylight reaching down to them. Nopileos hissed softly. These Split hid here from their peers! They were illegal settlers, people who were not allowed to exist in this place according to the prevailing law of the Split—and also that of the Community of Planets!
“The creature will not hiss!” the left of the two bearded Split barked at Nopileos.
“Do something about it!” Nopileos responded rebelliously and without regard to possible consequences. The Split nudged Nopileos painfully in the side.
“Tshhhh!”
“The Teladi will be silent and nothing will happen to him,” Gilha cut in, who according to Thro was responsible that Nopileos sustained no “internal injuries.”
“I’ve kept enough silence for my tastes!” Nopileos cried softly. At the same moment, he was startled by his own courage. The small procession came to an abrupt halt and the Split turned to him with sparkling eyes and faces as red as a lobster.
“The creature can thank its luck that the Supreme Warrior’s command protects it!” Gilha forced through her teeth. With a wave of her hand, she shoved the older warriors, who were both about to rush the much smaller Teladi. The woman reached into a side pocket of her leggings and brought out a thin leather strap, which she tied tightly around the perplexed Teladi’s protruding muzzle.
“Better to cut his tongue out!” suggested one of the warriors.
“Did you not hear the Supreme Warrior’s command, Zhi t’Nnt?” Gilha replied angrily as she tied Nopileos’s claws behind his back.
“Yes,” the old warrior mumbled contritely. “I’d like to hurt the creature anyway!”
Gilha sighed. “Me too, but if we cut out the Teladi’s tongue, Rhonkar and Thro can no longer question it.”
Garand, the second Split, spoke up. “But we could cut a finger off it!”
“Mhhm-mhhh!” said Nopileos in horror.
“By Thuruk’s beard, no!” cried Gilha, now seriously angry. She made the sign for blameless confrontation with stupidity. The warriors glared at her angrily. “Continue on now,” ordered the Split woman, who in spite of all odds was respected by the men in a strange, grumbling way. Nopileos was glad that Thro t’Mggt had ordered Gilha of all people to protect him. It looked like the Supreme Warrior knew all of the idiosyncrasies of his people.
After a few mizuras, the group had circled around half the clearing and was situated opposite the village entrance. The punishment hut turned out to be a log cabin without windows, with a thick, lockable door. Only a few houses stood in the immediate vicinity; Nopileos guessed that they were not used as dwellings, but guard booths, because a few armed Split emerged from the sheds and greeted the newcomers with gestures and friendly hellos. As it seemed they had already been informed. Gilha spoke with the guards briefly, then nudged Nopileos into the punishment hut and removed his shackles.
“Now the creature is allowed to hiss!” Gilha grinned. But not too loudly—is that clear?”
“And am I allowed to ask a question?”
“No!”
“Tssshhhh!”
Gilha left the room and the heavy door crashed shut behind her. Nopileos looked around, but could recognize almost nothing. A little residual light shimmered between the cracks of the stacked tree trunks, but this went out while he was looking. The moons went down again. He took small, lumbering steps with his outstretched arms until he felt the wood of the wall under his claws. He groped along it cautiously, past the door and back on the other side. Halfway down, he stubbed his clawed feet painfully against something large that stood in the middle of his path. He nearly fell over it, but caught himself in time. With throbbing clawed feet, he knelt down and felt the obstacle. It was very smooth, like a neomer compound or carbon crystal, and felt pleasantly clean and cool. The shape seemed to be a cube with chamfered edges. If he was not completely mistaken, that was a standard freight container! Of course! Hadn’t Thro instructed Hatrak to retrieve a “Teladi cargo crate” after the girl indignantly asked if he wanted to “feed the creature”? That had to be this container! Hurriedly, Nopileos slid his claws along the edges of the cube. They had apparently not bothered to place the box right side up: the lid locks were underneath. Nopileos balanced the heavy cargo container around in the dark, then felt the latches and snapped them open. It hissed sharply as air rushed into fill the vacuum of the container. Very good, so the box had not yet been opened! His searching claws carefully felt through stacks of packages held in place by flexible webs of plastic. These were quite clearly insanely expensive, shelf-stable foods in standard rations! Nopileos knew quite well what they felt like—luxury goods were, after all, found in all muzzles in elite Egg Breeding Complexes for the sake of corporate pride. So here was a complete, unadulterated food cube, with dried salamander, real wonton and kala ferns, stott spice, spider paste, bone pudding, kork, and many other delicious treats. Nopileos hadn’t the slightest clue as to how the Split had come by the foodstuff and what in the world they were doing here, in this egg-forsaken place. Because one thing was certain: as little as a Teladi could take Split nutrition, Split could do just as little with Teladi proteins! But it was the same to him in the meantime. He picked out the first ration form the cube and freed it from the plastic webbing. Then he tore open the foil package (it hissed softly), and sniffed at its contents. Oh! Shredded kanga vegetables!
“Real gourmet stuff!” he hissed in joyful anticipation. Nopileos scooped up the vegetables with his bare claws. It took only a moment until he had already fished the second package out of the cargo box and opened it. Marbled ngusi in spider paste sauce! Delicious! Not even his grandfather, the CEO, dined so exquisitely! At least not very often. Perhaps this container had been part of a delivery to an upscale restaurant in the ore belt, or belonged to an order by a Teladi nividium magnate. But no matter who all these delicacies had been ordered for, they had awaited their arrival in vain.
The half-starved Teladi ripped open one pack after another and gobbled everything down in no time. Only after the seventh or eighth package did his saurian stomach signal that it now had enough. Nopileos stroked his stomach in satisfaction. He guessed that he had barely touched the contents of the container, because they usually held about ninety-six rations. Through careful rationing, he should be able to get by for many wozuras with just this one freight box. And maybe there was more where this box came from! Exhausted, he let himself sink to the rock-hard ground. Wonderful: the sleeping accommodations also met a Teladi’s needs! If he only had a drink of water… He groped around and found, barely two steps away from the cargo cube, a medium-sized drinking hose.
“I don’t understand you, everyone out there,” he hissed softly and put the hose to his muzzle. His worldview regarding the Split was seriously starting to waver. They treated him halfway decently, provided him food and drink, and placed a personal bodyguard—Gilha—at his side. “I mean,” he said in the darkness of the hut, “not that I have any objections. But when did anybody hear about the
Split treating their prisoners properly?” He curled up comfortably on the hard floor. Now, with a full stomach and a safe place to sleep, his usual optimism returned. Over a month until the next Double Moon Night, a lot could happen before then.
Chapter 11
Major Kho is the most capable officer that the USC currently has. I am strongly opposed to sending her on this suicide mission! Unlike Cpt. Brennan, she would never engage in any such ill-considered nonsense!
Admiral Morrison,
United Space Command (USC), Earth
While Ringo Moon dropped behind the AP Nikkonofune, Elena checked the instruments. A glance a the gravidar made her hackles rise. There it was again, the washed-out blip that followed her spaceship’s every maneuver from about five-hundred meters away!
“Niji! A list of all objects closer to us than a kilometer, at once.”
“None, Major Kho.”
“But that can’t be! There is a blip on the gravidar holding its position relative to us. Don’t you see it?”
“I’m sorry, Major Kho. There are no data on that.”
Helplessly, Elena leaned back. There were no other signs on a defect on the part of the onboard computer and the instruments; even the self-check before the AP Nikkonofune’s liftoff had suggested nothing like that. But it couldn’t be anything other than a technical error! She leaned over to the cockpit window and stared out, but discovered nothing special against the black of space.
“Please show me the gravidar’s log file, level 3,” she requested. A display field jump up, listing many lines of time coded entries. Elena inhaled sharply. Bingo! There it was already! The last two entries corresponded to a low mass object at a distance of exactly half a kilometer. Why hadn’t she thought of this idea earlier? She called out the time codes and asked Niji to comment on the corresponding entries.
“I’m sorry,” the onboard computer answered, “but there are no no entries for these time codes.”
“Damn!” Elena exclaimed. The thing became more and more mysterious. Why did the onboard computer deny these entries? She got an idea. “You have interior cameras and can see me, right, Niji?” The computer confirmed. “Can you see the entire cockpit or just me?”
Nopileos: A novel from the X-Universe: (X4: Foundations Edition 2018) (X Series) Page 10
