*
The main group of Aliens that survived the gas were clustered in one building running on recirculated air. There was some panic until they managed to figure out how to stop the air conditioners. Several Terrans found each other. Tue Ng, who was frantically searching for his wife Maeling, and Dan, and several children. All the children had been on an outing and not one had a parent.
Desperate for information they finally found a Clet that would talk to them. He was a large brown male named Loefee. He told them that several of his people had managed to fly away but that he didn't know what had happened to them. "Our communicators are blocked," he said. His Translator was a more expensive one that incorporated a communicator that was linked to the other Clets on Torroxell. Luckily the Translators still worked because they ran off a battery. He told them that,
"this type of attack is not unknown and is probably because Torroxell is an unaligned and independent planet. There is a vast and complicated system of treaties and alliances. The Priskya label most Aliens as unethical and lacking a moral code. I tend to agree. Most are. No one has seen the Aliens who conquer planets."
"But why do they attack?" "What do they kill for?" asked Tue Ng.
"Various alliances buy conquered planets. Sometimes a Race will buy one. It is complicated. If a planet is independent then it has no other planet or planets to fight for it. Or to claim it. So it goes up for sale."
"I still don't understand. Do the aliens that conquer the planet buy it?"
"No. That is not possible if they are pirates, only with open war. This must be piracy because there was no warning, no declaration, no Challenge, and gas is illegal. They get whatever booty they can steal and disappear. They steal small, valuable items. It is suspected that they conquer planets to order. That someone pays them to clear a planet and then tries to buy it. Nothing can be proved. But there are few consortiums that can afford to buy a planet and it is suspicious that the huge amount of credit required is available."
"Who do they pay? I thought the Priskya owned this planet."
"The Priskya were tricked into a long term lease of the land. They only own the oceans."
"How did that happen?"
"Innocence and unscrupulous lawyers."
"But the ones who leased the land. Are they also independent?"
"No, but no alliance will go to war for a lease, only for ownership."
But Tue still looked puzzled. "Who gets to sell a planet? Who gets the credits and why?"
"It's very complicated. In this case I don't know. I believe some consortium pays all the creditors, all those who are owed money, big financial institutions. Then more money is paid to the main financial institutions to put the planet into credit. Maybe they will just move in. Who will stop them?"
"Sounds like possession is nine-tenths of the law," muttered Dan.
"What will happen to the Priskya?" Continued Tue.
"Probably nothing if they live. They will be ignored. But they have lost all right to ownership of this planet. They will have no rights. No appeal.”
By this time the planes had gone. Outside, they could see bodies everywhere. The gas was still there, drifting a little in the breeze. It was horrific.
The long afternoon drifted on. Amazingly, some started to grizzle about lack of food and having to use the dispensers. Later, they found out that some had given up and gone out into the gas. It seemed that all were convinced they would die.
When night came there were more grizzles as they all had to sleep on the floor. The Clet, Loefee, was miserable as his feet were ill equipped for sleeping standing up and he said he couldn't get up if he lay down.
Loefee said in the morning he was going to leave, gas or no gas. "I won't live long but at least I'll die free."
"If you can fly away, how come you can't live?" Asked Mayling who had joined them.
"There's no food or drink outside the cities. Pretty soon now they will cut off the power and we will starve."
"But you can drink water and aren't there game animals you can catch and eat?" asked Maeling.
Loefee replied, "I couldn't do that and they have scanners so they would find me where ever I went."
This was the first the Terrans had heard of scanners. Loefee explained, “They are usually so good they can find a single being, so long as they have been programmed correctly.”
"You mean they need to know what to look for?" Asked Dan who was a computer buff. "If they haven't been programmed to find Terrans how would they know what to look for? What would we show up as?"
But Loefee wasn't sure. “Perhaps as animals.” The Terrans discussed this and most decided to leave in the morning if the gas had blown away. They would risk the scanners.
The night was uncomfortable, crowded and noisy. Most of them got little sleep except for some of the children. In the morning, the gas looked to be clear and they decided to take a boat and go out to sea. One of the Clets, arriving that morning, had told Loefee to tell the Terrans that many were in boats on the sea.
Dan said, ”I’ll go out by myself, locate a boat and have you others join me if I seem to be alright.”
Loefee disagreed. "If they have good scanners they will see you and gas you. You are best to go all together and very fast."
They decided to take his advice and do that.
Most left together except Steve who had joined them last evening. He refused to move. The children were eager to go and ran ahead to the boats while the adults looked around warily. Wanting to see if their parents were alive, the eight children chose a boat and leaped onto it urging the adults to follow. They did and after a quick discussion found one child, Ali, who had seen how the boat was started. Carefully, and with a few very scary moments, they got the boat underway and headed out to sea. As they went, they saw a Clet winging its way into the hills. They hoped it was Loefee.
It wasn't long before they reached the other Terrans. Mathew called out,
"How many of you?"
"Eleven.” Answered Maeling, and they learned that the survivors now numbered 47 in this group, but some others had been seen going down the coast. They didn’t know what their fate had been.
"Well 48, said Dan. "Steve Nilsen wouldn't come with us. He still seems to be in shock." Quickly, Sarah brought them up to date. She added, “the planes attacked the boats yesterday but by getting under the water we survived. Do you know of any other survivors?”
"Some people went to the caves yesterday," said Ali.
"Yogabala went with her family and Bea's," added his twin Alia.
"What were their surnames?" But the children didn't know. "Well how many of them?" Added Dan.
"About ten. Ilse and Bea were sisters…"
"The Nedri's and the de Jonges?" Interrupted Sally.
"Yes, that's right," confirmed Alia. "There's so many people it gets confusing and I was…" she stopped appalled as it hit home and started to cry. Dan cuddled her. Her parents were missing too.
"The Clets seem to be the only race apart from us who even seem to consider trying to survive!" said Dan in exasperation. "Lily livered bunch the rest of them!"
Sally cut in with, "The sun is hot. Get these kids under shade," she said pointing to the paler ones. But there was little to use to shade the children.
There was some laughter as the Negroid Dan made a show of hiding from the sun.
Mathew was still visibly unwell and breathless but considerably better than yesterday. Sally had stopped guarding him and pronounced him “on the mend”. He decided to hold a council of war as he called it to discuss their options. They were joined by a Priskya.
"We need intelligence, strategies, a safe place to hide, allies would help, supplies, communication. Who wants to do what?"
There was a chorus of offers. Mathew quickly sorted them out and organised who would try what. “You can go in one group then split into two. You can all leave after dark. You all need to exchange information with all the others. Tell them what worked and how you su
rvived. Move around the city and learn. See if anyone survived. There should be survivors in any airtight area. Keep a sharp lookout for the planes while you’re outside. Get out of the city before daylight. Understood?”
“Understood,” they all chorused back.
Mahmoud
Stella looked at Mahmoud in shock. This couldn’t be happening! Then all the years of experience she had had with her mother and all the teaching kicked in. Trying desperately not to cry she started cardiac massage. Li, used to helping her parents and trained in first aid too, took over the respiration. They continued for a few minutes that seemed like hours and then Stella, who had kept checking, found that his pulse was going.
“Stop,” she told Li. “Just do the breathing.”
Donny looked up in alarm, “Has his heart restarted?”
“It can’t have stopped. It must have slowed down or stopped circulation to his limbs maybe. You can only restart the heart with a defibrillator. I counted. His heart rate is 26-28, but it is going.” Li and Stella alternated with the respiration. When Li was doing the respirations, Stella checked him. “Heart rate steady at 28, no response to pain, no corneal reflex. He is deeply unconscious. Donny do you know what to do?”
“No but I’ll try,” so Stella coached him and he took a turn. This made it a lot easier.
“I’m dizzy and I feel sick,” said Li.
“Me too,” said Stella. “I guess we inhaled a little too. That’s why I need Donny to help. If we stop he’ll die. Oh God I’ve got a belter of a headache.”
“Me too,” said Li. “I feel terrible.”
“Why can’t he breathe for himself?” Asked Donny as Li took a turn.
“I don’t know. I’m wondering if all those animals are dead. Whatever this is, it seems to paralyse the lungs.”
“Should one of us go and get your mum?” he asked.
“I’m too scared of what that smoke did to the city. And we shouldn’t leave him. It will need all of us to keep this up unless he recovers quickly.”
“I was trying not to think of what happened to the city.”
The long afternoon wore on until the light started to fade. Stella was a little relieved to see that Mahmoud, although he still was not breathing, was rousing. His heart was beating faster and was now up to 40 beats a minute. Stella reported, “He is improving. He’s responding to pain and has a little muscle tone.” As the light faded he started to stir. Several minutes later he was grizzly and moaning. But he still was not breathing for himself. Neither was he conscious. Stella was encouraged but still very worried.
By this time the three kids were exhausted, frightened, still dizzy and frustrated. They all had very bad, pounding headaches. But it was another hour still before Mahmoud roused. He too was dizzy, he had a raging thirst and a terrible headache. They had no water left having drunk it all, including his. Stella’s focus had been on keeping her helpers going. Slowly and carefully, they got him down to the ground. They started to move back to the city but he kept staggering and couldn’t co-ordinate himself. They took turns supporting him but his balance was terrible and twice they all fell over. He still kept forgetting to breath.
Stella organized them so that two supported him, his arms around their shoulders, while the third walked behind prompting him to breath.
“I feel sick and I’m all dizzy. My head’s splitting,” he moaned. Stella, however, was delighted that he could think and speak. She had been terrified he might be brain damaged due to lack of oxygen. He stank of the smoke too.
“Stop!” yelled Li suddenly, “I can smell that smoke again! She cautiously walked forward. “It’s in all the hollows. We’ll have to go around it.”
They continued walking slowly. Mahmoud was taking more of his weight but still had poor balance and poor co-ordination. They had passed many dead animals and balloons but then Li noticed some balloons up in the sky. It was heartening to know they weren’t the only survivors. Stella wondered at their calmness. She thought they were probably all in shock. And scared of what the city would be like.
Eventually they approached the city. All was quiet. The smoke smell was everywhere. Then they saw there were bodies everywhere all races including Terran.
They walked towards the bodies as if in a dream. Then Li ran forward. She crouched beside a woman thinking it was her mother but it was Dr. Jones. She was dead. A man was beside her and he was dead too. Looking around, they saw some of the American delegation that came with Mathew. Stella and Li checked a few of them. They were all dead. There were balloons everywhere as well; still and unresponsive. Every creature they saw appeared dead.
Li turned and ran for the sea. Reaching it, she loudly and furiously clanged the bell. A few minutes later she saw a Priskya speeding towards her. As it neared her she saw it had a Translator! By this time the others had reached her. Mahmoud was sitting in the water trying to drink as much as he could but his hands were trembling and he was dropping most of the water.
“What happened, where are our people, are any alive, what was that smoke stuff, was that what killed everyone, are they all dead?” she wailed.
“Many have died but some of your Race have survived with us. They are in boats. The gas kills all it touches. It dissipates over the sea. We don’t know who attacked. If you can find a boat I can tow you out to your people. You must avoid the gas. A touch is deadly.”
“Not quite,” said Stella. “It got Mahmoud and seemed to paralyse his lungs but we breathed for him and he is alive.”
“I have never heard of that before.”
“He is very sick though. He keeps forgetting to breath.”
“Can you find a boat?” the Priskya repeated, “there should be some in the shops. All by the sea have been used.”
Li refused to re-enter the city. Mahmoud was no use. Stella took charge again, “Keep an eye on Mahmoud.” She ordered Li. “Don’t leave him and make sure he keeps breathing. Donny and I will go and look.”
They reluctantly returned to the city. Both switched off from the horror and did not look at the Humans they passed. Both were terrified of seeing their parents. They did not want to know. They searched the shops and found a boat big enough to take four but small and light enough that they could carry it. They returned to the sea struggling with the boat. Li came up to help them put it in the water.
“Can you go back for some rope so I can tow you?” asked the Priskya.
That took another nightmarish trip into town. “I’m hungry,” said Donny. They looked around for some food but were unsure what was safe.
“That fruit could be poisonous now,” said Stella as Donny picked up some. He dropped it.
Stella looked around and walked back into the larger stores. “Look for pictures that look like food,” she said. They walked past bodies before Donny said,
“Why don’t we just wheel out what passes for shopping trolleys here. There must be food in these,” he said as he looked at packets of stuff in a sort of trolley. “Do you know what any of this stuff is?”
“No, but I think you’re right. We’ll just empty a few trolleys,” said Stella. They filled up two trolleys from stuff that other Races had chosen, hoping it was edible and wheeled them down to the sea along with some ropey stuff from the same store where they found the boat. Donny made up a harness and put it around the Priskya. They got Mahmoud into the boat, piled the groceries around him and got in. Soon they were being slowly towed out to sea and away from the horrors on land.
After travelling about fifteen minutes, they saw some boats in the distance. There were several! As they got closer, people started yelling out asking who they were as it was too dark to see clearly.
“Li Chieng, Stella Black, Mahmoud Nedri and Donny Nilsen,” yelled Li. “Are my parents here?” But she was interrupted as Kelly yelled out to Stella.
Another voice yelled out, “We think your father went to the caves Li. No one has seen your mother.”
“That’s Mathew,” Li hissed. “Why did he hav
e to survive and my mother be missing?”
As they got alongside the other boats, it soon became clear that of all their parents, only Kelly was here. She and Stella hugged and cried over each other then Stella became all business like again.
“Mahmoud is sick. He keeps forgetting to breathe. The gas got him and he arrested. We resuscitated him.” The adults were very impressed with how the kids had survived.
“But what happened in the City?” asked Stella of her mother.
“We survived by initially trying to save the Priskya. Then we were gassed again and again by the planes. We survived by going under the water. Dieter survived because Simone put him into what passes for plastic bags here but we found no other bags big enough for other kids. Mathew held his breath as he swam through the gas but he was sick too and is struggling to breath. We didn’t know what the gas was but it dissipates very quickly over water. The smell of the gas seems to affect people…”
Listening, Donny grabbed Mahmoud and tipped him into the water.
Mahmoud spluttered and gasped, “What’d you do that for?”
“Dr. Black says the smell of the gas makes you sick. It’s in your clothes. It was a good excuse anyway. You’re breathing better now aren’t you!” And as it turned out, he soon found he was.
Meanwhile Li had been talking to the other survivors. She met up with one drenched Mahmoud, Donny who was still grinning and Stella who couldn’t stop crying and told them, “There’s been a heck of a fight here and Sarah is our new leader. Mathew is our self styled General in charge of guerrilla warfare. He told me that is what this is now. He said everyone has to fight including us kids. You have to report to him and tell him what we saw and did. He wants to hear from everyone.”
Donny went first and came back stunned, “He listened to me! He asked questions and my opinion and he didn’t treat me like a kid! He said we kids have done outstandingly well. He said we need information, about weapons and tactics but information is the most important thing. He said you must know as much as possible about your enemy in order to defeat him. I promised to help any way I could. He said we need to know who’s alive. He said Mahmoud’s family might all be in the caves and safe. I don’t know where my parents were today. Mathew said he didn’t see them. He said the political people were in the city and all his delegation but most others were exploring. They could still be alive. Oh, why didn’t I ask them where they were going? He said they were gassed three times here on the water yesterday. We have to learn to obey orders instantly, like soldiers, to survive. He says if you stop and think you die. Several people died the first time because they weren’t fast enough. No one died the third time. You learn fast or you die. We have to keep a lookout, get over the side when the planes come, go under at the very last minute when you’re told to and hold your breath as long as possible. The gas moves over fairly fast and kind of dissolves.”
Stella went to talk to Mathew last. She came back and said, “Cripes he’s human. He’s never even talked to me before. He does seem to know what he’s talking about too for once. He said he’s an expert on military tactics in general and guerrilla warfare is his specialty.” Stella’s mum and Mathew had also been at loggerheads a few times. Kelly had considered him an idiot. Kelly told Stella later that night,
“I just might just revise that opinion under the present circumstances.”
It was a long night. No one felt much like sleeping and most were too cramped. Some of the adults were on sentry duty but it was doubtful they were needed. Everyone was worried and kept looking and listening for more planes. Unfortunately, the planes were very quiet. All watched the dawn’s beautiful colours as daylight slowly broke; from blue/black to dark blue, to blue/violet and finally to a soft violet. Soon after, they saw a Hoekfyd flying towards them. It landed awkwardly on a boat near them where Mathew was. They heard its Translator chattering. Apparently Mathew had anticipated its arrival as he had a message waiting. It took off again.
Minutes after this the kids heard, “Take cover! Into the water! The kids froze in shock but moved when they saw the others leap straight overboard. “Hyperventilate!” yelled the voice. Following the other’s lead, the kids forced all the air into their lungs that they could and breathed in and out as deeply as possible then “Dive! Dive! Dive!” Yelled the voice and they all went down together.
Donny stayed under until he thought his lungs would burst. Struggling, he started slowly releasing air while staying under and panicking. He had never been good at this. He also worried about Mahmoud, hoping his damaged lungs could take this. At the point when he was near blacking out, he rose up gasping for air. He looked around and sniffed. He could smell the gas but it was not too bad. He was breathing. He noticed to his embarrassment that he was one of the first up. Slowly, one by one, the others rose up. There were a few minutes of confusion then a woman’s voice was heard demanding each boat do a roll call. In a few minutes the result was clear. All OK, including Mahmoud who had come up just after Donny. He was dizzy and his headache was worse but he was alive.
A few minutes later they got ‘breakfast’. A container of something that looked like a museli bar but tasted more like vegetables. They drank sea water. The adults said there were some salts in it but it didn’t taste salty. They reckoned it was safe to drink. At least they wouldn’t die of thirst.
Stella swam over to Mathew’s boat in time to hear that the Hoekfyd had been gassed. A Priskya had come up to talk and reported it was dead. The Priskya were asking for help. They were terribly worried about what was happening and what it would mean for them and their world. There was a lot of political stuff that Stella didn’t follow about alliances and war. She already knew that Torroxell was independent and that being so was risky. Mathew wanted to talk to them about fighting back but the Priskya were begging him to help and release the animals in the zoo. Some of them were endangered. The Priskya wanted to know if some of the bigger carnivores were still alive.
Li had swum over along with others and was listening. She offered to go but Sarah said no.
“But I’ve been there. I know which animals they mean. I know where they are. I know which animals are dangerous and where they are. And I’m not stupid.”
“Yes Li but you’re what, 13?”
“15!”
“OK, sorry, but it seems wrong and irresponsible to ask you to do this. Those ships might attack again. The city is occupied and you might be seen. We also have no idea of what sensing equipment they have. They might have life signs detectors. They probably do. Li, the Priskya say they will try to kill every sentient Person on this planet. They will cause an enormous amount of damage to the planet when they kill the Priskya and obviously they will need something other than this gas to kill fish. We don’t know what they will do next. They might somehow make the water poisonous. We don’t know enough. We don’t know if they can detect one person or groups. We don’t know if they can sense you and kill you.”
Stella was thinking hard. “The zoo is on the far side of the city and the animals the Priskya most want to know about are over by those really screeching exotic birds. How about if just Li and I go? We could look for some of the big plastic-like bags and put them over us if the planes come. But we wont be anywhere near the people in the city.”
“Some of us tried twice to get back into the city yesterday to try to find our people. Both lots got gassed,” said Sarah. They’re dead!”
“But we’re not going into the city. The Priskya could tow us and we’ll stay real low.”
After a lot of discussion, Mathew won the day. “These kids were in the city last night and weren’t attacked. Maybe because it was night. Maybe because they are a bit smaller. No one else here knows the zoo like these two. And I think they should go but stay out of the city. I would not recommend going into the city to look for anything. Land at the side of the zoo furthest away from the city.”
Sarah held back what she wanted to say. She felt disloyal to Kelly and the girls and that thi
s was wrong. But Mathew kept insisting every person had to be involved if they were to survive this. And their chances were abysmal. He said he was an expert and he did seem to know what he was saying. One person had to be the military leader. It was not her forte. Reluctantly, Sarah resolved to leave the military decisions to Mathew and back him. All their lives were at stake here. She would take a back seat and let him lead.
Stella and Li were a little stunned, especially Stella. They hadn’t expected to be allowed to go. But Li was determined. “We have to go,” she hissed. “It’s the most likely place for Mum to be.”
“Oh. Good point. Now lets get out of here before my mother stops us!”
Quickly, before Kelly found out, Li and Stella left, towed by one Priskya each. They stayed as low in the water as possible. As they got fairly near to the shore, they let go and told the Priskya they would swim. They swam most of the way underwater. They kept going until they found some trees by the water so they could sneak out under cover but it then took nearly an hour to get to the zoo. Li had been thinking hard.
“We need to let all the smaller and non dangerous animals out first and try and scare them away. Then let the carnivores out last, smallest to largest.”
“OK.”
But first, they ran around the zoo looking for Li’s Mum. There were bodies everywhere and some Humans but not Dr. Chieng.
They split up and both worked separately as fast as they could opening cages and pens. They also kept looking. They passed the tanks and pools with regret. They could do nothing for them. Anything that lived under water was safe from the gas but would starve to death. Another problem was that many of the released creatures wouldn’t come out and they wasted a lot of time shooing them out. They then closed the cages behind them. They kept searching for Dr. Chieng but she was nowhere to be seen.
“What’s going to become of the animals,” worried Li. “There are all these exotic species here too including a lot of birds. Will they starve to death?”
“I don’t know. There are no native birds on this planet. What will they eat? The lizards should be OK and there are a lot of them.”
Finally, there were just the carnivores left. They stood and looked at them.
“How are we going to do this,” Stella asked. “Is it my imagination or do they look hungry? I don’t want to be lunch.”
They studied the creatures. They had dark purplish fur, four legs and two smaller limbs that might be arms or legs. They were large, about the size of a small polar bear but thinner and shaped more like a tiger but not quite. And with no visible ears. They did have long tails though. Their eyes were violet and very alert. Their heads were large. So were their teeth. There were seven of them in one very large enclosure. They were all very close, on the other side of the clear perspex-like cage wall.
“Why are they all looking at us?” asked Li.
“Could we feed them, open the cage and run away while they’re eating?” asked Stella.
“Brilliant idea!” said Li, “and that will give these idiots more time to get away.” Many of the released creatures still didn’t seem to know where to go and were milling around. The girls ran off to where goop like food supply tanks were and pulled the lever. They ran back to the cages. No goop. They ran back to the levers, puzzled.
Looking around the lock Stella noticed some wires. “Are these electric?” She asked.
“Oh God. I think you’re right. The power is out. Now what?”
They worked at the lever but could find no way to get the goop out.
“Now what?” said Stella.
They walked all the way back to the cage and looked at the animals.
“We promised,” said Li. “This species will die out if we don’t. Mum said they think there are only these seven left on this continent. None others have been seen for years.”
They looked at each other. Li looked at Stella, then struggled to open the gate manually. Between them they managed. Li opened it a crack, then they ran full speed back to the control room and slammed the door. They looked at each other, then out the windows.
“What if they wait outside for us? Can they climb? Can they run faster than us.”
“Yes and yes,” answered Li.
“Are there any weapons here?
“Yes there are but I don’t know where or what they’d look like or how to use them.” She stopped and looked at Stella who was laughing at her.
“What’s so funny?”
“We saw weapons on those entertainment films for kids they showed the little ones! And how they worked! In that museum, remember?”
Li looked sheepish. They searched the control room and nearby offices and forced open some cupboards. Nothing. They looked around thinking.
“Weapons would be well hidden or well locked up.” Stella looked around. She saw a lock on a large cupboard that looked like a cage lock. She opened it. The cupboard was full of weapons! She looked at Li. “All the locks were electric! I bet if the power was on we wouldn’t have been able to open the cages. Of course!”
“These are the stunners!” yelled Li. “And these are gas weapons,” she kept looking and grabbed, “gas masks!” Li held them up in triumph.
Now well equipped, they felt invincible. They walked out, very carefully, through the zoo towards the sea walking almost back to back. There was one of the large carnivores in the distance. It walked towards them.
“Go away. We don’t want to hurt you. Scram.”
“Get away from the city, well away. Go into the hills. Stay away from People and the gas. It’ll kill you. You have to live. We think you are the last of your kind,” added Li. “Stay away from us too cos you frighten us and some of us might kill you.”
Like Li, Stella had been watching the beast in front. She suddenly had a bad feeling and turned around as one of the beasts landed on her back, flattening her. She screamed.
Li swung around with her weapon but another beast they hadn’t seen leaped onto her. Terrified, she looked up at it. It knocked the weapons away from her. She looked up into the rather ugly face and cringed. A funny feeling of a mix of disgust, and amusement flittered through her mind. Also a smugness, a ‘got you that time’ sort of feeling. It seemed external; not her thought at all. She looked across at Stella. A peculiar look was on Stella’s face. The beasts on both of them pulled back and sat down. Stella and Li were too scared to move a muscle except for their eyes. The other four beasts were ambling towards them. They too sat down.
All of them looked at each other. Several minutes passed. Very slowly, Stella sat up. None of the creatures moved a muscle. But she could swear the animals were amused! Li sat up. No reaction. One of the beasts held out a paw towards Stella. She looked at it. The paw opened showing five fat fingers plus an opposable thumb. Open, the paw was large and circular. If there were claws, they were sheathed.
Tentatively, she reached out her hand and touched the paw. Images and feelings flowed into her mind. ‘Smug’, ‘gotcha’, ‘I like you’, ‘you good,’ ‘you smart/not smart’, ‘ugly’, were some of the ones she could put a name to. Images also that astonished her; the creature assured her it (she) was very grateful to be released, she acknowledged Stella had released her despite fearing for her own self; a flurry of images, not words, before words, behind words, words came after the image, words were a poor attempt to explain the image! Yes, she’d got it right. She felt the agreement, also words were inadequate, pathetic communication?! Yes, that was what was meant. Silly way to communicate. Not accurate, words can be imprecise and can mislead, images can’t. Yes she’d got that right, that’s what she meant, the creature was criticizing Human communication. Why? Again came the images, this time slow and patient.
Stella’s thoughts were an image, translated into a word(s), then spoken. The words were strung together like picking up a lot of objects and putting then in a particular order. Then saying them. But this process lacked speed, accuracy and clarity because the symbols or images had to be translated in
to less precise, less accurate speech, for someone else to understand them.
The creature wanted to know why Humans used language instead of images.
An image or teeth and claws; so they did have claws!
Stella turned and looked at Li who was talking to another one. “Are you getting all of this?”
“Yes.” she giggled, “What’s Mathew going to say when we turn up with weapons, stunners, gas masks and a few million allies?”
“Not a bad day’s work.” Stella replied.
Boat City
On the way back to the boats, Stella and Li, separately, tried to talk to the Priskya about the creatures they had seen and talked to but the Priskya would not discuss them and asked that they not tell the others. They begged the girls not to tell. Both Priskya were clearly very uncomfortable. The weapons had been stashed under the trees near where the girls had gone into the water. The girls were towed back to a furious Kelly. The Priskya wisely scrammed.
After several minutes of a spectacular and loud tirade from Kelly, the girls were rescued by the arrival of Mathew, Sarah, Dan and Alan. Mathew was amused at the situation. He did look a little abashed when Kelly turned her attention to him but a few words she normally reserved for Mathew were very conspicuous by their absence. Both girls noticed. Kelly was mad at the risk and the fact she hadn’t been told. Mathew reasonably pointed out the girls were the best qualified to go and she would have tried to prevent their going. He apologized but added if she kept reacting like this he would have to do the same again. The wind blew straight out of Kelly’s sails. Mathew, being open, reasonable, logical and dealing with human emotion. He was also right. It was like the man had gone under the water and come up a different person.
In a sense, he had. Mathew felt like his whole life had led to this point. This was his time. His moment. He had never felt so alive, especially now that he could breathe again! For the first time in his adult life, he cared what others thought and was doing his best to include everyone and mould them into a cohesive force every way he could. His only choice was to use everything he had to win. Nothing and no one was going to restrict this. Kelly rounded again on the girls.
“Next time he asks you to go on a suicidal mission you come to me!”
Stella looked at her mother. “Mum we are at war. All of us. We have to use everyone. If our General gives me an order and I go running to my mother first, the chain of command will be busted. We completed our mission. Besides, we found gas masks, gas weapons and other weapons in the zoo. We hid them.”
Both girls then went on to describe to Mathew what they had seen and done. They gave a rough description of the creatures they had released and told Mathew their conclusion that the locks were electric. That meant other locks might be the same in the city. No planes had come near them. They wondered aloud if it would be safe to go back into the city tonight to look for survivors and the things they needed to survive. They had also seen larger boats in a boat yard and since things were pretty crowded here, that would help a lot. Especially if all the locks were able to be opened and they could get out some boats that looked like launches. Most people had had very little sleep since all this began.
Although she didn’t want to be, Kelly was impressed. She could see why the girls kept surviving. They adapted, improvised, noticed things, used their brains, thought about what they had seen and made conclusions from what they observed. She wondered if she would do as well. As Mathew and the others swam off though, Kelly again eyeballed Stella and Li.
“What are you hiding?” Years of being a doctor had made Kelly extremely sensitive to notice when her patients were being evasive. Or lying. She was very good at it as Stella had frequently found out.
“Mum we found out something and the Priskya begged us not to tell. We don’t know why.”
“Is it significant?”
“Yes. Very.”
“Why don’t they want you to tell?”
“We don’t know.”
“I suggest you discuss this with the Priskya. Would it harm us or help us?
“Monumentally help us!”
“Then try and find out why. This will be difficult, but if it is that significant, maybe you should tell Mathew or Sarah or me.”
“OK.”
The girls tucked into some lunch of weird food and then swam off to talk. They went to see Sarah.
“Who would be the best expert we have on languages? I mean use of language, understanding of it.”
Sarah thought. “Probably Anne. She’s on the boat over there,” and she pointed.
The girls swam over to talk to her.
“Anne, we’re trying to work something out,” started Stella. “When we talk, exactly how do we turn our thoughts into words?”
“We think, use a part of our brain to translate the thought into words, then say them.”
“No, go back,” said Li. “What happens before the words?”
Anne pondered. “First, as babies, we think only in feelings; cold, hungry, wet etc. We communicate distress and someone fixes it.”
“We meant as adults. What’s the process from a thought or feeling to a word?”
A thought starts. It forms into a symbol. We translate the symbol into a word. We say the word.”
“So we think, then translate. And if there isn’t a way to say what we want to say?”
“We pick the nearest word or make a new one.”
“So it’s not exact and it’s slow,” said Li thoughtfully.
“We talk by…We know this best by studying those in whom the process is not working. Like victims of brain damage.”
“Like a stroke?”
“Yes.
“They know what they want to say but often can’t say it. One friend of mine said talking is like going to a bookcase and picking out the words you want to say, then putting them all in the right order and saying them. That sounds slow but it is incredibly fast. But for her, it was like going to the bookcase and finding words missing. She knew there should have been words there but because they were missing, she couldn’t say them. She was thinking like a thought or feeling or symbol but couldn’t find the word to say it. Usually she could pick an alternative but it wasn’t quite right. Other times, she could go to the bookcase and it was empty. She would then either stand there with her mouth open or swear. She could remember those words! It was terribly frustrating for her. A lot of her other brain functions weren’t going either or were not going properly.”
“What happened to her?”
“She fell off the back of a motorcycle and landed on her head.”
“That caused a stroke?”
“Yes. A stroke is brain damage. A lot of things can cause brain damage. In her case it was trauma but it can be due to infections, disease process, poisons, drugs, haemorrhaging, loss of circulation due to clots, other things too. Lots of things can cause brain damage.”
“Did she recover?”
“Mostly. Some brain functions never worked very well again. She also had difficulties with memory and learning complex new tasks. Most of her language skills came back. Just as well. She was a nurse.”
“So if we could just communicate in thoughts, or symbols, it would be much faster and more accurate,” said Stella thoughtfully.
“Yes, that’s called telepathy.”
“Can some people do that?”
“I’ve often wondered. There are always claims. I have always suspected that the claims could be based on reality. Maybe in the past before spoken language.”
“Why would we switch to something inferior?”
“I’ve discussed this with students before. Telepathy would not be able to be used in writing. Or between distances. It would have a range. Also people who could use it would be at a huge advantage. Like in war. If there were few of them, they could have been wiped out. Maybe because they were seen as a threat. There are a lot of civilizations that have risen and then abruptly died out or disappeared.”
“But the abil
ity could remain in our genetic code. In some people.”
“Yes. Why?”
“We have a problem,” said Li. “We need to go and talk to the Priskya.”
They swam off leaving a puzzled and thoughtful Anne behind them. Kelly had also been watching. The girls swam over to a group of Priskya. Kelly and Anne watched as quite a conference started. Within a few minutes, many Priskya were there, some senior ones. After nearly an hour, it was obvious to everyone that something was going on. A lot of senior Priskya were there.
Finally, most of the Priskya swam off towards the shore.
The girls went off to look for the boys. Mahmoud looked back to his old self except he was very worried about his family. No one in the city had seen them and none of these here. So many were missing. Of the original 418, there were 173 in the boats. Most were women and children. Nineteen out of the 20 of the American Delegation were missing. Most of the diplomats were gone and most of them had been men.
“They might have been in the caves. If so they could be safe,” he said hopefully. Donny was by his side as usual.
“What were yous up to this morning and what was all that confab with the Priskya?” asked Donny.
The girls explained again about the zoo.
“And what else?”
“The Priskya asked us not to tell.”
There was a thoughtful silence.
“Why?”
“We don’t know, but I am beginning to suspect. We asked the Priskya to reconsider. We think Mathew needs to know.”
“You think no one knows?” asked Stella.
“Yes. I think it is a very carefully guarded secret. What Anne told us makes sense.”
“Anne knows?” asked Donny.
“No. But something she said about brain damage…”
The boys looked baffled. A group of Priskya children had come up and Stella and Li slid over the side of the boat to go and play. It was either get in the water or sit cramped in a boat. Only one boat was big enough to walk in; the one the older ones were on like Mathew, Sarah, Alan, Dan, Kelly and Bert. Obviously a lot of people felt the same way. Soon, there were more in the water than out of it.
Stella and Li snuck off by themselves.
“You realise the Priskya are probably telepathic also.”
“That had occurred to me,” said Stella. “I think you’re right. When you put that together with what Anne said…”
“Hmm. Prime targets for paranoia. The other thing that interests me is that they are different species.”
“From the same planet though.”
“Yes but different species. Is that significant? Is it unusual? Is it logical? I mean is it ‘well of course’ or is it unusual?”
“Stuffed if I know. Are there any other telepathic species here? What about the balloons? And the huge variety of insects and lizards things. Some of those lizards were massive.”
The boys came over so they had to shut up. Towards evening, a large delegation of Priskya came up to the surface and swam to the biggest boat where Mathew was. Stella and Li, who had just got into dry clothes, looked at each other, shrugged and went back into the water in their clothes. The ritual needed to get into dry clothes and back, via a small boat, into their own boat had taken them nearly an hour.
Wet yet again, they congregated in the water beside the boat with a great deal of others. The Priskya simply asked the girls to explain what they had discovered about the large carnivores in the zoo. So they did, adding Anne’s information and suspicions in. The Priskya were interested in that. Mathew was gob smacked but immediately understood the implications. Millions of Allies that the Attacking Force knew nothing about. A land based spy network in the least. Mercenaries at the most.
Pickdaa, the spokesperson for the Priskya said, “There is a delegation coming down to meet with Mathew tonight. Now that the secret is known,” she said, “the Attacking force is the Keulfyd, as identified by our new allies. This puts us all in extreme danger if it is discovered that Humans have this ability you call telepathy.”
But Mathew said, “I’ve never heard of it actually working to a significant or predictable degree. The military have been trying for years to get a reliable communication system and spy network going but it is unreliable and subject to misinterpretation. Actual real talent is incredibly rare.” He looked at Li and Stella,
“Can you two talk to each other in telepathy?”
“No we already tried,” answered Li “and we can’t. We don’t understand how we can talk to the creatures but not each other. And what is the name of the creatures?” She asked Pickdaa.
Pickdaa told them but as usual it was unpronounceable; a sort of a growl mixed with a hiccup. It was on the tip of Li’s tongue to make the obvious connection that the Priskya also had to be telepathic but she remained silent. Maybe they also could not talk between themselves.
The Kepis
Unaware of their impending peril and due to the unfortunate fish BBQ the night before, the party, the sickness and the interrogation aftermath, Ilse, Yogabala and Bea were having trouble the next morning prompting their respective parents to help the Aliens that had asked them to pay their bill and get them some adults to help. Even though none of them were among the sick and they all woke up feeling well.
“But these people are in trouble and they asked for help,” insisted Ilse, backed up by Yogabala and Bea. They explained again about the bill, and the ship, and the eyesight problem. They neglected to mention they would have been late back anyway. But the next morning, the need to detail what they had eaten took first priority and Ludmilla sat the inpatient children down and made them answer the questions first. Finally, they were finished and convinced Julia to help.
Julia took the children to a hotel lobby and explained the problem. Helpfully, the staff worked out which company it probably was. After finding the communication company and confirming it was the correct one, which took nearly an hour, they handed the debit card over and it was held to a scanner(?) and handed back. Julia, prompted by Bea, explained that there was some urgency involved as the ship was late to pick up the Kepi and they were unable to communicate with it due to no power.
The next problem was that the kids were determined to get their parents to go to the caves. Now. “But Dad please,” begged Ilse who had only got a glimpse, “the caves are fantastic They were real nice to us and they said we were welcome. They said land dwellers wouldn’t go to see them,” she said, (having talked to the little ones and speculating from what they had said). “They can’t come and see us cos they can’t see in the daylight. We don’t need torches, they have these light things.”
“No!”
“They said they need help! They asked us to get adults to help!” Bea said totally truthfully. Julia looked at the stubborn, determined and convinced looks on the faces of the children and concluded they certainly seemed to be telling the truth and had been right so far. She thought if these Aliens really did need help then she should help.
“All right, I’ll go,” said Julia, “but leave your father alone. You know he can’t bear to be shut in.”
But in the end Karl came too, shamed by the enthusiasm of his family and the Nedri family all eager to go. So on a bright summer day they climbed up the hill behind the city to the cave complex. It was a long walk but over fairly even ground and there was a nice breeze. Julia was enjoying herself. It was so good being outside. She knew Torroxell had few roads as most of the traffic was by air. The enthusiasm of the kids was infectious, the temperature warm and the sky a clear violet with a scattering of fluffy white clouds.
Ali and Rani Nedri, plus all the kids went ahead. Julia envied them their fitness and leanness as she and Karl puffed behind them. The kids, Bea, Ilse, Harsha and Yogabala got on fairly well together.
They reached the first of the livestock paddocks and Julia stopped to puff and look. Her parents had been diary farmers in the Netherlands and she was fascinated by the fencing system which she had figured out yes
terday and was keen to show to Karl.
“My parents farmed 157 acres which counted as a large farm. With this system, they could have fenced the whole property in a day, around each tree in the orchard, around the chook house. Oh what Earth would pay for this!”
“Yes but how much is it?”
“I don’t know Karl but it’s got to be cheaper. Think of the saving in labour. Maybe we could swap it for music recordings. They seem to like our music. It’s that it can keep each animal confined to an area. A fence that will keep the cattle in one paddock and the sheep in another, let the dog go everywhere, let the pigs into the orchard but not the garden, let the cat go everywhere except the goldfish pond and all done by tuning electrode things that you just stick in the ground. When I think how much trouble we went to, to stop the cattle eating the shelter belt and the orchard. And some of these posts are a kilometre away from the next one, no wires between. Just a sort of force field.”
“Yes but what’s the power source?”
“I don’t know. We would have to convert it somehow. But what a fabulous system.”
“Be a bummer if someone set it wrong.”
“No worse than a hole in a conventional fence or a short in an electric fence.” Julia was enthused and determined not to be put off.
“Does it give an electric shock?”
“It seems to give something of the sort.”
Bored, the kids had taken off and she saw they were examining a balloon that was stuck in a bush. They seemed to be the most numerous life form on this planet. The kids were always seeking information about them but a lot of the adult Aliens here ignored the kids. The Priskya didn’t though. The balloons were called something unpronounceable. At first, they tried to pronounce things properly but it wasn’t possible. Not even the kids could. So balloons it was. Every Race called things by their own names so it was a pointless exercise anyway. Many of the Aliens names were unpronounceable. So they made up names, normally descriptive. The Translators sorted it all out effortlessly and sorted out time, day, date, length, weight, age etc.
No one seemed to mind the balloons being attached to the children. There were no birds here, but there were huge numbers of lizards, flying insects and, in fact, all kinds of insects. Julia saw butterflies, or something that looked like them. They kept moving up through the paddocks and the kids were apprehensive about the big fuzzy brown things but Julia told them they ate grass not kids and ignored Humans. The fuzzies were about twice the size of a large sheep. Julia saw other creatures in other paddocks. These apparently made up the protein in the goop and for the proper food dispensers of the ‘kitchens’ for want of a better word. The kitchens could make up food that was ordered and deliver it to a machine in an apartment. How, seemed to be a trade secret. They had all found out, the hard way, that the food didn’t look nice because it was a soup or puree. It was, however, the ingredients that were ordered. The kids just took it for granted and thought it was no big deal. They had seen it in science fiction movies anyway. Getting fed in the ‘hotel’ they had stayed in had been quite an experience. Luckily, they had mostly eaten their own food because that little bit of experimentation had added to their debt as they found out later.
They had looked at proper restaurants but there was a problem the science fiction books hadn’t anticipated. A lot of the food looked awful and smelled terrible. Obviously other Races thought the same way. Inter-racial dinner parties were rare they were told. Diners were not in a single large room but in lots of little rooms. There were also, of course, lots of different restaurants for different Races. They were told that when Torroxell was colonised by multiple Races, they brought their own cooks, servants and slaves after the buildings were built. Apparently, the Ridianit, the Race that signed the Treaty with the Priskya, built the buildings to order, then on sold them. Torroxell’s main industries were a mixture of agriculture, mining, medicine, tourism, education, commerce and conferences as they had found out from the various places that had free ‘lectures’. But their chief problem had been that they had no money. Which rather limited what they could buy…
They had learnt that Torroxell had some large native animals, some grazers and carnivores, but over time the latter had been hunted to near extinction. Some survived only in the zoos and had not been seen in the wilds for years. From all the information in the zoo, walking out of the city seemed to be safe or so Julia hoped.
So they were walking through the protein source and heading for the first of the cereal crops. According to the zoo lectures, plants were not planted one type to a paddock, but planted so that one paddock ripened all together with multiple different crops. So the paddocks were smallish. Did that mean they didn’t grow anything that took an unusually long or short time to grow, Julia wondered. Masses of flavourings were used and most Aliens brought these with them. The trouble was, Julia only found this out in the hotel. And a lot of the flavourings had been left on the ship as the People who helped with the Translators had told them they could leave stuff on the ship for the return journey. So, of course, they had.
Predictably, by this time, each child had a balloon. Julia noticed Bea’s one made a funny trilling sound; not a hum or a purr but something between the two. Harsha said,
“They have some kind of intelligence. The Priskya say you can teach them some tricks. The bigger ones can fetch. They have been known to catch fish and deliver them. They eat lots of stuff, but they have their favourites. Sarah bought some in one night that had no tendrils. We’ve been having a lot of fun feeding them. We don’t know how long it will take them to grow more tendrils and we don’t know how they reproduce yet.”
Julia knew that the Aliens who ran this planet were not the Priskya that owned it. The Priskya had to go on land in bubble things. Different Races trundled them off to lectures. They did not seem to have any technology of their own. Their bubbles were also not self propelled. This was a problem. Often they were kept waiting. The kids loved to help push them but it took several kids. They were heavy. The bubbles were full of water and the fish weighed more than a human.
“How much further?” puffed Karl.
“Over that ridge and in the valley beyond. Downhill from the ridge. The caves are at the base. It’s all smooth going,” said Ilse sympathetically.
By this time they had passed several more fields of plants and animals. Some paddocks had animal type things but were bare of vegetation. Julia puzzled aloud over this but Harsha had the answer.
“Their food is imported cos they can’t eat the grass stuff on this world. It’s probably in those tubs over there.”
Karl marvelled at the knowledge of the children and how much they had soaked up in such a short space of time. Although very apprehensive about going into a cave, he was looking forward to meeting a race of Aliens that wanted to meet Terrans. A lot of other Races were completely indifferent to them and their plight. He suspected that the children learned very fast, which Aliens to ask. Adults tended to think that if they asked a question, someone would be polite enough to answer. It wasn’t always that way though. Some Aliens obviously thought Terrans weren’t worthy of answers. Many were arrogant and rude. Some didn’t even answer. Karl wondered if that had been the problem for these cave dwelling Aliens.
Finally, they reached the entrance to the caves. The kids were up front, impatiently waiting for the adults. As they reached the kids, they scampered into the caves and down the passage. The adults followed. The passage was wide enough for two to walk side by side. A soft green light sparkled on the roof and sides of the cave. They looked up. It looked a bit like a glow worm type of glow.
“I wonder what they come here for?” Karl said.
There was a series of clicks and other peculiar sounds and they whirled to see a creature standing in the shadow. The translation followed, “We came because we wanted to see the wildlife that lives in these caves. We love caves of any sort and we love to explore them. We often collect wildlife that lives in caves and take it back
with us. We have been doing this for centuries. For instance we have all colours of these,” it said pointing to the ‘glow worms’. “We are so pleased you have come. Very few ever come to see us. We are so thankful to you for paying our communication debt. We have, thanks to you, been able to send messages off and have heard that our ship is delayed. This is a huge relief to us.”
It moved forward walking on two legs and Karl saw a creature the size of a large human, the shape of a thin bear, but with an odd looking head with two very large black eyes and no visible ears. It looked almost like a seal head on a skinny bear. And it had hands with thick fingers. Karl was puzzled, “I thought the Translator only translated for the person carrying it but I heard you from here.” Karl was well behind the others.
“The Translator translates voices coming from a certain distance. It depends on how it is set.” The Kepi, whose name was a pronounceable Trlin, took them down to a large hall like room. They were greeted by many other adults who expressed great joy at seeing adults. They had so much they wanted to ask. The children meanwhile were sparking up a lively conversation. Rani noticed six children, three of each Race, playing a game with some things that resembled playing cards and sticks. The balloons were a hit with all the children of both Races, she noticed.
“How well can you see in here? We notice your children seem to have no trouble,” noted Trlin.
“Our eyes can adjust to the pale light here and the light outside,” answered Julia noticing that the Nedris were now talking to another group.
“That’s unusual/remarkable in our experience,” said a smaller Kepi. The Kepis were fascinated by how Terrans had handled First Contact and how they were adjusting.
“The psychologists told us we would have problems assimilating all the new experiences here. They told us our brains have to sort out and catalogue data in order to handle it and that we would be trying to compare things to familiar things back home. They were right. We do. Also we need to judge when to invent a new category. But mostly we stubbornly persist in trying to compare an alien environment with home. Not a logical response but apparently a common one. Sarah bought all this information with her from SETI,” said Karl. He then had to explain SETI and Sarah.
There were general comments from several Kepis indicating that they coped in exactly the same way.
Julia continued, “The Psychologists said the kids would cope a lot better because their minds are more flexible. Again, they were right. The children are adapting much faster than the adults. But some things seem to bug us more than others. The colour of the sky and vegetation, we hardly notice any more. The same with the extra moons and all the different sights. We are even accepting of different Races, hugely more so than we thought we would be.
Where we are having trouble is with the longer day. The 28 1/2 hour day has thrown us. It’s only another 4 1/2 hours but it is just stuffing us up. It is so annoying when these experts predict something, you think hey I can adjust to that and I’m wrong and they’re right. Apparently it stuffs up something called circadian rhythms which I’d never heard of before. That’s a sort of body clock we have and it doesn’t like being disrupted. Of course I knew about what we call jet lag, which is flying across different time zones on our own planet. But this is way more than that. It’s even affecting the children but they say we will adapt and the kids will beat us to it. You wouldn’t think 4 1/2 hours would be significant but it is. Many of us are having a lot of trouble sleeping through the night and staying awake during the day. So we’ve taken to napping during the afternoon and going to bed later. It is helping.
Gender is another big confusion for us. We have two genders. Most of the fauna on our planet has two. Nothing has three genders. Some have only one gender or two in the same creature. Intellectually, we had expected differences but the variety has us gob smacked. I guess science fiction enthusiasts might have done better than us but the reality of up to eleven genders, and some needing two or three different species in order to reproduce! Well that just has us floundering. For us, personal pronouns are important. Not knowing the gender seems so wrong. We noticed with some amusement that the Translators don’t even try and just use ‘it’ for all personal pronouns. We learned to programme the Translator on the way here. That ‘it’ had us puzzled. We thought we were doing something wrong. Now, we understand.” She paused as she remembered and handed the money card to Trlin.
“But our main problem is that we believed we were invited here as guests for political and trade negotiations and that now seems to have been a lie. We understand that we could be in serious trouble.”
Karl went on to explain about the trader Paswalda and what it had apparently done and what was apparently intended to happen i.e. slavery. Trlin confirmed this type of thing happened. Karl stressed that, “We can pay but we have no access to any credit. We have no interstellar bank accounts. We did bring some trade goods with us but don’t know where to sell them, nor how to get a fair price. We don’t understand the trade rules here.”
The long afternoon continued with much talk and the children kept themselves well amused with their new friends. The Terrans had brought their own food. Companionably, they all had a meal together as the Terrans were luckily not nauseated by the Kepi’s food nor vice versa.
Trlin noted, “We see you drink water. We are pleased to share ours. There are underground rivers in the caves and we wash ourselves in water, drink it and cook in it.”
“So do we,” commented Karl.
“This reclassification of you Terrans to amphibian has profound implications. We are very contemptuous of the snobbery of the Terrestrial Races.”
“Among us, Mathew and his ilk seemed to be the only ones it really matters to. The rest of us Terrans are relieved. At least it solves so many problems.” Karl said.
“We Kepi don’t wear clothes. We think clothes are ridiculous and frivolous particularly when ours are built in so to speak.” But Trlin explained, “These differences in attitudes set both our Races apart from the mainstream Terrestrial Races. The main reasoning around clothing seems to be that slaves have to wear no clothes in order that others know they are slaves. Refusing to wear clothes, we upset this rule. Many Races, a little more humanitarian in their thinking, think slaves should be able to wear clothes especially in cold climates and that slaves would be better off wearing maybe a uniform.”
All were intrigued when they discovered they shared a sense of humour as well as a sense of the ridiculous and this tendency to be non-conformist.
At one point Julia closed her eyes and continued to listen to a conversation while her mind wandered, worrying about their future. She then returned to the conversation in time to comment on a point Karl was making and then realized to her shock that for a moment she had forgotten she was talking to Aliens.
On the problem with the Trader, the Kepis agreed that, “The course Sarah is taking seems to be the best. There is little we can do at the moment but once our own problem is sorted, we should be able to help. Maybe buy some of your seeds. That would interest us. But another concern we have is that we wanted to meet the Priskya and have been unable to do so because no Race will bring one to us. In fact most Races won’t even talk to us.”
Ali and Rani had joined the group by this time and Rani said, “We promise to try to bring one up. We should be able to hire a ground car if we could hire a driver and then do the rest on foot and wheels so to speak. Unfortunately, a driver’s license is required to hire the cars. I’m sure I could persuade a Priskya to come. We like the Priskya. We find them amiable and flexible. They also have a sense of humour. And they won’t wear clothes. They say it is ridiculous and the wrong environment. Clothes might look good if the current is going the right way but it is impractical for them and can be dangerous.”
“Bringing a Priskya ought to be worth a transport fee which would help with your debt. And we can pay for a driver now the power is on.”
Finally, it was time to depart. They were still in
the process of rounding up the children when the lights flickered and a group of Kepi who were listening to a communicator came over. For Julia, it was as if this was happening to someone else. She had a sense of unreality as the Kepis explained,
“An attack has begun on Torroxell and seconds after the warning was broadcast, power and communication went out. We are back on our internal system again. We have a local communication system. The big cities don’t use this system but isolated settlements do. It isn’t connected to the main power grid. People are reporting the satellites have all been blown up and the explosions were visible in both hemispheres. This radio source is still going and other Kepis can access it. With it, we are talking to other Kepi in the Northern Hemisphere. They say a gas attack on the capital city is killing everything it touches. We know what this gas is. It seems to be deadly to all life.” Trlin was explaining, “You will have to stay here because it isn’t safe outside and…”
Karl screamed and started to run towards the entrance. Julia snapped out of it and ran after him. Since he was panicking, he was stumbling and uncoordinated so she quickly caught up with him and dived on his legs bringing him crashing down. Her best ewe catching technique. Ali pounced on him also saying,
“What’s up with him?”
“Claustrophobia. He’s pretty bloody stubborn and fights it. But sometimes he has a panic attack, like now. Probably because he thought he was going to be trapped here.”
“So how did he manage the spaceship?”
“Tranquillisers. But he didn’t think he’d need them today I guess. I didn’t think he’d come in. I don’t think he meant to but he hates it when he gets left out of things because of it. He’s really ashamed of it.” Rani came running up to help too.
Julia turned to Trlin who had come up also, “Is it safe to take him up to the entrance? He’s terrified of being trapped underground.”
“I don’t know.”
Julia decided to risk it. She turned Karl over. His eyes were staring, his breathing rapid and his skin slick with perspiration. “Karl, get up slowly. Do your breathing exercises. We’re going to take you to the entrance to see if it’s safe. OK?”
Rani bent down to help and the three of them lifted him up and walked him towards the entrance. Carefully, Julia went ahead and looked out. All was quiet. Trlin followed along with the now frightened children and some of the Kepis. Ali and Rani had a good grip on Karl but he started to calm down as he saw the entrance. Julia signalled to the others to stay put and walked slowly out. She looked and sniffed but couldn’t see or smell anything. She moved further out. She motioned for the others to come forward. Karl collapsed just past the entrance and sat facing the sun, gasping for breath. The others followed except for the Kepis who stayed in the shadow.
“Here, give me a boost up,” said Harsha standing by a tree. Julia did then followed her thinking this was a good idea. Luckily she was wearing jeans. She was always good at climbing trees. Pretty soon the two were thirty or so feet up with a good view.
Julia called down, “There’s a sort of white mist over the city. Is that it?”
Rani called up, “It’s supposed to be a gas according to the Kepis.”
Harsha and Julia heard a noise and looked down. Ilse and Bea were coming up too. All four looked carefully around.
“There’s no balloons in the sky,” said Ilse.
“There’s one up there,” Bea pointed up into the hills.
“But there’s none over the city. They’re usually all over the city. Ilse, go down and tell the Kepis we can see a white mist all over the city and no balloons there. Is that the gas?”
Ilse went down then climbed back up saying, “They don’t know but it sounds like it. Apparently whoever does this, doesn’t leave witnesses so they don’t know. But they think that sounds like it. They say it kills anything it touches. Oh and we’ve really upset them but I don’t know why. You should have seen their reaction when they saw you climbing up the tree.”
They all continued to look at the city but nothing changed. All was quiet. Minutes passed. Julia thought carefully. “We should keep a lookout. Bea and Harsha, can you two stay up here and keep a lookout please while we try to find out what’s going on. Look for any aircraft coming anywhere near us. Make sure you look behind you as well. If you need to report anything, one of you come down and the other stay watching. OK? I’ll send someone up to relieve you in about an hour or so.”
She carefully climbed down with Ilse. Karl was looking better and very embarrassed. Rani had stayed with him while Ali was rounding up the children and questioning the Kepis. Ali quickly brought Julia up to date.
“This isn’t all that unexpected. Torroxell is an unaligned planet and so a favourite type of target. Having only one planet makes it worse. There’s a real pecking order here based on lots of things but also how many planets you have and if you can fight. Superpower status is around five planets depending also on money, allaiances, development and population. That gets you some kind of protection but I didn’t understand all the reasons why.
Apparently these attacks have a system. An attacking force destroys all the sentient beings on a planet. Once it’s cleared, it’s counted as abandoned. Apparently, if the Priskya could fight and win, it would their planet again but they can’t fight. And due to their Treaty and the fact that they are fish and in the ocean which Terrestrials don’t want anyway, they might be alright. Trlin says he knows of no weapon which could kill them without causing great harm to the planet which the attackers will want to avoid as it would reduce the value of the planet. Unless they use Biological Warfare specific to fish or the Prikya themselves. Whatever happens, the Priskya will lose all control of Torroxell though. Whichever Race takes over can do anything they like. The Priskya will have no rights at all. The Kepis said only a Defence System would have helped Torroxell. It would have made the planet safe. It’s a system of a satellite defence network and is manned. It’s prohibitively expensive to buy but no planet with one has been attacked in a long time.
Anyway, the usual method is to destroy all the communication satellites and the power grid. It’s awful but the Kepis say even if the Priskya had got a message out, no one would come to help, but they might come to see who these Planet Attackers are because no one knows who they are. The Kepis think a Race will be jacked up to take over Torroxell simply by offering to pay off all the creditors and the bank financing Torroxell. They will have paid the Attackers for it too. But that can’t be proved.”
“This doesn’t make any sense!” Julia said. “What is this so called civilization? This is unethical. How can it be legal? How can it be possible that no one knows who’s attacking? There must be many spaceships arriving and departing daily. What happens to them?”
“The Kepis think they are warned off somehow. Or shot down. They say they had to pay for their return fare in advance. If the ship decides not to come they can make any excuse they like. If the Kepis survive, they can ask for their fare back. If not, there’s no one to say what happened. No one left alive. Apparently all warned off ships shut up. They make up excuses for not honouring their contracts. The Kepis think their ship was warned off and just said they were late but are probably light years away by now. They are convinced there is nothing they can do and are just waiting to die.”
“I don’t believe People don’t know who these planet Attackers are,” Julia repeated.
“No,” Ali said slowly, “I don’t think I do either. What’s the bet it’s a powerful Race no one wants to challenge?”
Trlin ambled over. Julia talked to him but to no avail. He said it was pointless to resist. They were helpless and would die. Better sooner than later. Julia looked at him in frustration, “Well I’m not going to roll over and die!” and she headed off to Karl. “Get up,” she said, “We’re all in deep shit here.”
“I can’t go back down there. I can’t be trapped. I can’t!”
“Fine. You stay at the cave entrance and be a lookout. Or we
can get the Hell out of here and head for the hills. Will whoever is attacking know you are here?” she asked Trlin.
“Yes. They have scanners. They find everyone. They’ll come after us. It’s hopeless. No one ever survives.”
“Can the scanners detect you under rock?”
“Yes.”
“Can they see us?” asked Yogabala. “They don’t know what we are.”
There was a lot of discussion between the Kepis. Finally Trlin said, “We don’t know what kind of scanners they have or how good they are. If the scanners don’t know your People then you may appear as large animals. If they are good scanners, they will see you as unknown sapients if they detect any evidence of sapience.”
“Like what?”
“Electronic equipment, weapons, metal, plastics, those Translators. It depends. We don’t know.”
A lot of discussion followed. Karl was adamant, “I can’t go back into the caves. I did take tranquillisers to cope with the trip out here. I’ve got enough for the return journey. I didn’t expect to be so confined on the ship. I expected portholes! To be able to see out! I didn’t think it would be that bad but I had come prepared, just in case. Just as well.”
Ali and Rani felt they shouldn’t leave the Kepis because they were helpless. They were going to give up and had no knowledge of war. Ali had had military training. He wanted to at least try to hide them.
But all the discussion stopped as Harsha came rapidly down the tree yelling that a ship was coming. In seconds, all was decided. The de Jonge family left at a run with Rani and Yogabala and the others went into the caves. There was a water and air tight door which had been designed to keep out flooding. The Kepi slammed and locked it. Ali was relieved to see that they at least did that. As he quickly followed them down into the cave he was starting to plan what he could do. The first thing to do tomorrow was to get close enough to the city to confirm what had happened. He needed urgently to see if there was another exit from these caves. Were there airtight areas? What kind of supplies did they have? There was water. Could they survive a siege and if so for how long? Did they have any weapons or anything that could be made into weapons? Ali’s mind was buzzing with plans as he followed the Kepi but the first priority tomorrow was to get near enough to the city to see what had happened to the others.