*
The Keulfyd ship flew overhead and then circled. The observer turned the scanner to the symbol meaning Kepi. “The scanners confirm the Kepis are still there. Damn. We’ll have to clear them out later. The Kepis are self-sufficient and cannot be starved out in time. We had been told this group would be gone. Now we have two populations of Kepis to clear out. This is a problem. Mercenaries will not go in after them. We will have to gas them out.” She slammed her paw down angrily. “This will cause a delay. And I will have to explain it!”
The pilot carefully kept the smirk off her face. “Ain’t seniority a bitch,” she thought.
Reunited
Aswin opened his eyes as something hit him, knocking him flying and saw his brother. His smelly, dirty, naked and grinning little brother. Irrepressible Kaswa. How he had missed him! He reached out and hugged him, crying with relief, joy and sorrow. They quickly caught up, both having refused to fly the death planes, both having assumed they had been intended to kill Zeobani but both now wondering if this planet would have been the target instead.
“Do you know where we are?”
“No. No one seems to know.”
“Have you seen any other Niseyen?”
“A few.”
“Have you been loading up bodies?”
“Yes.” Kaswa shuddered. “You too?”
“Yes.” Aswin looked down. “Kaswa I’m so sorry I got you into this mess.”
“Hey, I’m capable of making my own decisions. I thought it was a good idea too. We’re not dead yet. I was wondering if we could steal a plane or spaceship. I saw the port from one of the skyscrapers.”
Aswin smiled. Typical optimistic Kaswa. “I’d given up,” he confessed. “I’d assumed you were dead.” He didn’t add that he was equally afraid that Kaswa might have agreed to pilot not knowing what he would be asked to do. Such a task would have destroyed Kaswa, who had always been more gentle and compassionate than he was.
But he had given up. His little brother had been a lot more resilient. Maybe, he thought, because things came easily to him but Kaswa had had to work harder. Not thought to be as bright as Aswin, he had had to put long hours in to pass some subjects while Aswin sailed through with minimal effort. Other subjects, he just seemed not to bother at all with and failed. That had caused some arguments at home!
Aswin smiled thinking of the pilot’s training. Kaswa had studied for that though. Incentive! He wondered if Kaswa was brighter than he let on. Maybe he just didn’t like study. Kaswa was a very good actor as Aswin knew well.
Aswin noticed as Kaswa tried to get some organisation going among the slaves. He tried to get them to help each other but the lack of Translators was a problem. And the apathy. Aswin watched, noticing not for the first time that Kaswa was a natural leader. What a waste. Born into a poor, low status family where he had had no chance to develop this particular talent. And he refused to give up. Aswin smiled as he thought of the despair his mother had often had with Kaswa’s stubbornness. But stubbornness was a gift if used properly as demonstrated by Kaswa’s fight to get himself licensed, determinedly cramming himself with the theory. He’d even rigged up a player in the cockpit and had it playing constantly, hearing the lessons he had laboriously spoken onto the player. Aswin had helped him, interspersing dry humour into the lessons. He’d also copied him. It worked well. He’d marvelled at flying time used to get qualified, earn money and study. In these almost two years, they had packed the equivalent of four years of study, eight years of income and five years of flying time, all at the same time. Impossibly long hours that would be illegal anywhere else. They would still be well qualified even if they just somehow got themselves home alive. Their qualifications were on the data link. But all their money was lost.
They had grown a lot closer during this war. What a pity war was such a negative; united, but in shared hate. Each of them had qualities the other lacked, even to different biological clocks. They made a great team. Kaswa had always adored his big brother but now the feeling was mutual as Aswin had a new respect for his little brother. But Aswin had not realised that Kaswa had such resilience nor that he himself had so little. Aswin looked around. No, he thought. It wasn’t that. He was normal. It was little Kaswa that was different. He got up and went to help, second in command to his little brother.
Spurred on by Kaswa, Aswin started to think. How could they get themselves out of this? As the day passed, they both studied the problem.
“We are guarded, day and night. There are snipers up on the top floors. Is the spaceport equally guarded?” Kaswa wondered aloud.
After discrete questioning, Aswin told him,
“A whole group of slaves and Relogs have gone through the spaceport emptying out the dead from the spaceships and apparently finding some alive. The poor crews. They were quickly killed.”
“Why did none of them try to fly the space planes off? Did they expect they would promptly get shot down if they tried to escape?”
“Probably.”
Talking with the Zeobani, Kaswa found that some of them, as they were small but very dextrous, had been delegated to pack and load up all sorts of luxury items into the troopships that had brought the slaves in. The troopships had then left. The speed at which this was all being done was amazing.
Aswin saw Cikatcee, a Niseyen pilot, as he looked out the second floor building. He looked around and thought. He went down to the ground and started to move bodies into the nearest plane, carefully watching for flying bodies. He needed to avoid both the bodies and their contents as some were breaking apart on landing. At the same time he was thinking what he should ask. He moved until he was out of sight of Cikatcee and hidden in the shadow of the plane.
“Cikatcee. Don’t look around.”
“Who’s that?”
“Aswin Celon.”
“Where are you?”
“Hiding in the shadow of your plane so I won’t be seen!”
“What? Why?”
“I’m after some information. Where are we? What planet?”
“We don’t know.”
“Is this a planetary war or what?”
“No, piracy. Well, we suspect a war disguised as piracy. Standard pattern.”
“Were these two wars connected? The Zeobani/Nashi war and this one?”
“I don’t know but I think so. The Keulfyd were waiting and loaded us up virtually as we surrendered. They were definitely helping the Nashi. We wondered if we were the payment, among with an awful lot of booty loaded up from the Zeobani cities. We had to help load it.”
“Kaswa is here too. We suspect we will be killed once this is over. What’s the timetable?”
“Five days of gassing, then dumping the dead and loading the troopships with booty from the Northern cities and most of them have filled up and left. The emptying the cities of the dead and loading more booty is supposed to take about 25 days. Then they’ll mop up any resistance and clean up. I heard we’re supposed to be finished and gone by about day 35, maybe 40. I think there are penalties after day 40.”
“So there’s no room to carry the slaves off?”
“No. Soon there’ll be just seven of those bloody Flying Fortresses and none else. They can only carry 35,000 tops. Less, looking at all the booty they plan to load on board.”
“How many slaves are there?”
“I don’t know. Between half to one million I’d guess. A lot have died though.”
“Yeah, I noticed.”
“Are you a slave?”
“Yes.”
“Oh shit. Sorry.”
“Are they planning to kill us all?”
“I don’t know but I expect so. There’s not enough room. There are rumours you’re to be dumped after all the dead are cleaned out and before the resistance is mopped up.”
“What do you mean dumped? Where are the bodies going?”
“Out to sea. The whole bottom of the aircraft opens up. There are some Keulfyd in the back compartment. They com
e out and push out the rest. The bodies are dumped into ocean trenches.”
“Nice. What day are we up to?”
“Day four I think. I’m not sure because I only know when I started.”
“Kaswa and I were thinking about stealing a plane. Want to join us?”
“And what would happen to me when we get back home?”
“Make you a deal. You don’t tell anyone we were slaves and we don’t tell on you. And could you get us some clothes?”
“Thanks Aswin, but that isn’t possible.”
“Why not?”
“Because one of the first things they do once they arrive in a city is empty all the spaceships and planes which often have survivors inside. Then they disable all the planes. They remove rather essential parts and the same type of part from each one to stop smart People like you repairing them. To prevent exactly what you have in mind. And to make it easier and faster to repair them again later. One hope we do have is that we were told we will each be ordered to fly a spaceship away with the fleet as it goes. To add to the booty they take with them. They could potentially take several hundred spaceships away with the Fleet all loaded with booty. Quite a haul.” He paused.
“The whole factor that makes planets developed like this one so easy to conquer, is the concentrated population. People scattering all over the planet is exactly what they don’t want. There were a few that tried to escape. They got shot down. And in case you were thinking of trying to fix and steal one of these planes and go hide, they now all have locator beacons in them. And I can’t escape anyway because they put Deadman’s on us. If we do get to leave with the Fleet, that ensures we can’t get more than a certain distance away from the Fleet. And they have scanners going all the time. They’re top quality ones. They told us that. You escape, they’ll find you. They don’t even have to land to blast you. They told us no one will be left alive on this planet and no one can escape. They said if we behave we will get to go with them to the next job. We don’t believe them. We know too much. We are way too much a security risk. Even if we get to go with them, we don’t expect to live long once we get there,” he said bitterly.
“Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” Aswin thought hard. “How many mercenaries are there?”
“I’m not sure. They don’t tell us much except orders and we have no Translators. They only give us Translators to tell us something. I think about 3000 troops. Then there’s the pilots and the crews and the support staff. We guess about 6000 in all.”
“That’s not much to take a planet! What’s the population here?”
“That I do know. There were around 100 million.”
“Why such a small population?”
“This planet’s original sentient population was fish. No Terrestrials until the Ridianit took it over. They don’t count the fish.”
“Ridianit. Yes there were a lot of them among the dead. But that seems too small a force to take a world.”
“If you kill almost everyone in the first few days it isn’t. And too much resistance just gets a city blasted from space. They’ve got the fire power in those Fortresses! And all the planes are armed. And the shuttles. And this planet had no military I gather, no defence. There’s a guard coming. You’d best shuffle off. Don’t look too bright.”
“OK. Thanks.” Aswin shuffled off out of the shadow, not looking anywhere except at the ground and up where bodies were being thrown. As warned, he tried not to look intelligent.
That night, he told Kaswa and the Zeobani what he’d heard. “I’m sorry. It’s not looking good.”
“This was a worry. This was something a lot of the slaves were worrying about, that is, those who were functioning cognitively. Most weren’t. They weren’t thinking at all. They were just following orders and trying not to think. There are not enough ships left to carry the slaves back.” Jidiff (one of the Zeobani), rambled on. His eyes looked into the distance, unfocused.
The next morning, the shuttle landed at another city and the day began as normal but with Kaswa and Aswin working together and looking out for each other. They were perturbed to see a few members of their own Race dead. They passed them by and headed up the ramps.
“Hey the power is on!” Aswin said and scooted into the Cleaner, followed by Kaswa next. “Oh what a relief to be clean even if temporarily!”
They worked steadily, quickly getting dirty again. It was truly amazing the volume of work that was being done and the speed it was being done at. This city would be finished in another day or so. They wondered how many cities there were and if everyone lived in cities. Where did the rich live?
Aswin entered a store room and looked around. He reached up and opened some cupboards, removing some junk to look behind and his heart jumped as he saw a child of his own Race, a little girl! She looked about ten years old. Gritting his teeth, he reached up and pulled her body down.
Running on Empty
Following the gas attack and Karl’s panic attack due to claustrophobia in the Kepi caves, Julia led the run to the shelter of the hills above the caves. They ducked under some trees. Rani brought up the rear.
"The ship didn't land," she said, "should we go back?"
"Are you sure? Did you watch it all the time?" asked Julia.
"No, we were out of sight for a few minutes," Rani added regretfully.
They agonized for several minutes then decided to go on. A few minutes later, Julia said, "I think we should stop a minute and strip off all things a scanner might pick up."
There was no argument and they removed all items except natural fabric clothing. Rani used Julia's pocket knife to remove the studs and zip from Julia's jeans and then tied them up with a cord made quickly from a plant with long, thin, fibrous leaves. Carefully, they checked everyone's clothing and the contents of everyone's pockets.
"That still leaves the fillings in our teeth," said Karl, trying to think of everything.
Rani looked at the small pile of metal, plastic, a calculator, three pocket knives, their watches, cellphones, the precious Translators, and other miscellaneous items. She hoped this wasn't a mistake. They dare not even carry a water bottle. They were plastic.
They hid the items digging carefully, placed a cairn of rocks on top and hoped to fool the scanner.
“Julia pondered, “Is the scanner programmed to detect just People with non-organic items? Or the items themselves?”
No one knew. They marked the spot and continued up and away from the city.
“I hope this isn’t a mistake,” Rani said softly, “we now have no food, no water, no method of communication and no means to get any food except for fruit or nuts if we can find them. What else is edible?” No one answered.
"Did anyone see any maps? Any idea of what's over the hill?" Karl asked.
"Yes there's a valley or something with a river running through it." Yogabala continued, "It looked lovely and we wondered why no one lived there."
"It's because the education centre had to be built where the Priskya could use it. They insisted," added Bea. "Do you know there are only about 130 cities on this planet and almost everyone lives in cities? There are a few hunting lodges, some fishing villages and that's about it."
"And the fishing places are small cities and for sports fishing," added Yogabala in disgust. "This planet imports almost everything."
"Well I admit it boggles the mind to think of a fish cutting down trees," said Julia.
"Or mining," added Ilse.
"Or farming or gardening," Julia laughed. She was relieved that the children had not realised just how bad a situation they were in. She blessed their enquiring minds, amazed at the amount of information they had acquired in such a short time.
With night coming, they were heading into a forest. They stopped and debated what to do for the very long night.
"We know there are carnivores out here but is anything dangerous up the trees? You kids all went to the zoo. What lives up trees?" Rani looked at the girls.
The childre
n tried to remember but could only think of land animals.
"Any snakes on Torroxell? Any poisonous spiders? For that matter any poisonous trees?" Julia asked the girls but they didn't know. They didn't think so.
Everybody agreed that up the trees for the long night it would be. They all felt vulnerable on the ground and while they didn't know what lived up the trees, they did know what lived on the ground and they had no shelter and no weapons. They all climbed up and bent the flexible branches over laughing about pretending to be gorillas. Carefully, they wove the branches into a mat. It wasn't very comfortable. The children were put in the middle and the adults lay down beside them to keep them warm and secure. Yogabala and Bea quickly fell asleep. The others talked and planned quietly for awhile. Then Ilse fell asleep.
Karl decided to keep a watch. It was a very long night, made longer by strange noises, fears, uncertainty and grief. He cried softly about the probable deaths of his friends. He wondered if they were all that had survived and if the Nedris were still alive. There was nothing to do but think and worry. He agonized long about having brought the children to this danger but finally his good sense prevailed and he started to plan what they would do in the morning. Rani had gone to sleep but then Julia woke up. They talked quietly and planned. Several times one or the other tried to sleep but it was cold and uncomfortable despite the warm clothes they had taken because of the caves.
"I can't sleep it's no good," and she moved up beside Karl snuggling into him. He put his arm around her.
"Do you have any idea how far away dawn is."
"Yes, around six hours."
"Seriously."
"Yes seriously. The third moon comes up about half way through the night," and she pointed.
They continued to talk softly for a while and then Rani awoke and moved over. She was wide awake and determined to keep watch. Karl and Julia decided to rest for a while and curled around the children. Despite their worries, they were soon asleep.
Rani sat and thought and worried. She too cried for the presumed deaths of so many, for their predicament and for her family. She wondered where they were, if they were alive or dead and what they were doing. The long night dragged on when suddenly she felt there was someone there, at the base of the tree. The feeling grew as did her apprehension. Slowly and quietly she eased forward until she could see. At the foot of the tree looking up at her were three creatures. They looked to have bodies twice human size and long thick necks. They had four legs and two arms, no visible ears, large eyes and a smooth head. One had reared up the trunk of the tree for a closer look. She estimated its height at around human height but memorized which branch it was near to calculate it tomorrow. They stayed looking and seemed to be sniffing for a few minutes and then abruptly left. Rani was surprised she wasn't more frightened. They had made no attempt to climb the tree. The long night continued to drag on. About an hour before dawn the children awoke, first Ilse, then the other two when she tried to wriggle out. They sat up beside Rani.
"I need to pee," said Bea.
"So do I," added Yogabala.
Rani explained about the animals she had seen and the children told her they were dangerous and big. Several were in the zoo. They were supposed to have been hunted to near extinction. All four of them eased themselves along a branch, balanced and peed one at a time.
"Oh yuk, I can't wash my hands," worried Rani. "I feel filthy."
"You don't smell so good either," Yogabala cheerfully informed her.
"I'm thirsty," grizzled Bea softly.
"We all are honey," Rani cuddled her.
So when Karl and Julia awoke soon after dawn it was to see the four looking down at them. Rani explained about the three creatures she had seen. All were thirsty and in favour of heading for the valley and the water so down the tree they all headed. Rani did a quick estimation and worked out the height of the creature from head to feet must have been eight feet or so. All were grateful they had decided to sleep in trees and vowed to do so from now on. It was disconcerting that these animals that were supposed to be extinct had found them their first night away from the city.
It was nearly midday before they got to the top of the hill and by that time all were very thirsty. The shade of the trees helped keep them cool and for this they were grateful. Although they searched, no fruit or nut trees were around or if they were they didn't find them. The children were certain there was a river in the valley and it seemed likely so they pressed on determinedly with the adults taking turns piggy-backing the children in places where the bush was not so thick. But mostly they had to push their way through thick undergrowth. Although soon exhausted, the children kept on with few complaints. Julia was so relieved she had insisted on warm clothes and shoes for the children. Every so often, one of the adults would climb up a tree to check they were headed in the right direction.
At last to their heart-felt relief, the trees thinned and they headed to an area of grassland. Now Bea and Yogabala were being carried in turn by the adults. Their pace quickened but they soon had to slow down again. All were exhausted but no one wanted to rest for more than a few minutes. Thirst drove them on.
Finally, just after midday, they reached the river. After drinking, the little girls stripped off their clothes and went swimming and one by one the others joined them. They spread their washed undies out to dry. A little later, Rani, Karl and Julia went off searching for food. The protesting Ilse was delegated security for the little girls.
The afternoon wore on. The little girls curled up in the warm sun under a tree and slept. Ilse yawned. To keep herself awake, she examined the grasses around her. She had an idea. She found the long thin fibrous leaves they had used to join Julia's jeans together and experimented. She made a series of small bags and tested them for strength, then made a larger one out of what seemed to be the best leaves. Finally she had a large sized bag, with a flap, made of one piece, with the sides ‘sewn’ together with thin plaited thread made of the same material.
Karl arrived back late afternoon, frustrated, tired and angry with no food. Julia arrived some time later with a few nut things, worried, hungry and also frustrated. The nuts were like concrete. But both were intrigued with Ilse's invention.
"Hey, this would make a good fish net," enthused Karl and went on to describe a whitebait net design he had seen on holiday in New Zealand. "It channelled these tiny fish called whitebait in through a cone shaped net, through a small outlet and into a big, sealed bag. The fish are trapped there."
But Julia saw it another way, "This would make a good mattress, like a hammock. My back still hurts from last night." They agreed Ilse got the achievement award for the day.
"Where's Mummy?" asked a worried Yogabala.
No one knew. They had agreed to split up in order to increase their chances of finding food. It was obvious Yogabala was near tears. Karl and Julia were getting worried too but they didn't know where to start.
"Could we light a fire to guide her home," asked Ilse.
"Well I don't think that's a good idea," said her father, "It would be a beacon to the scanners."
"Then how will we cook fish if we catch it."
"Oh, I didn't think of that Ilse. Raw?"
“Yuk!”
They pondered what to do. The afternoon was wearing on. It would soon be dark. They were reluctant to leave the children again. They decided to move up to the trees, climb one and start to call out.
"But what if those beast things hear us?" worried Bea.
Suddenly, from the tree line, Rani burst out at a dead run, frantically waving her arms. Julia took one look and boosted the three children up the tree. Quickly, she handed up the bag containing the nut things and the other bags. Then she climbed up herself and left Karl to boost Rani up. She stared behind Rani to see what had scared her but there was nothing visible. Karl helped Rani up the tree. She was gasping, crying and shaking. It was some time before she could speak.
"It was those three animals again. I climbed
up a tree and it was ages before they went away. I didn't see them again but I think they followed me. I dropped the fruit I was carrying," she added.
"Fruit!" said Ilse hungrily.
"Yes, I found a tree. There are lots more. It's those yellow things that look like a mini pumpkin. I've eaten them before."
"About these animals. Did they act aggressive or curious?" asked Julia.
"Well they didn't attack I guess."
"Were they close enough to?"
"Well I guess so. Depends how fast they are."
"Could they just be curious?"
"I don't know but I wasn't about to ask," she replied dryly.
It was near to dark but they could still see the area up to the trees. Karl persuaded Rani to climb down and drink some water, reasoning that it was going to be a long night.
Reluctantly despite her thirst, she did so with Karl, who was ready to help her back up. One by one they all went down for a drink while Julia and Ilse kept a lookout. Then the little girls kept a lookout while the others drank. Still no animals.
"I'm going for some of those leaves. Keep a lookout," said Julia and headed off down. She picked several armloads of the leaves and handed it all up and went off for more. Meanwhile the rest of them got busy weaving the branches into a platform and keeping watch. Julia continued until Karl called her back saying they couldn't see the tree line now.
For some time in the pale moonlight, they all learned from Ilse how to weave. With all six of them making a mat and Ilse ‘sewing’ them together, a large mat grew until they couldn't see enough to continue.
"That's enough for now," said Julia. “That’s big enough to hold you kids. Tomorrow you kids can continue with it while all three of us go and get breakfast. And with my smart child's bags, we can bring back more."
"You could take the mattress, fold it over and carry heaps," suggested Yogabala.
Bea had obviously been thinking. "How long can we live without food?"
"About four weeks for you and about six for your father," she said poking at Karl's paunch teasingly.
"That long?" Bea was shocked.
"Yes. Its water you can't live without. That's why we were so desperate to get to water today. After about four days without it, it's difficult to keep walking." She refrained from telling Bea that she had exaggerated a bit and that if starving, they wouldn’t be doing much walking either.
It had been a tiring and long day so they soon cuddled down to sleep. Julia and Karl said they would keep watch and promised to wake Rani and Ilse half way through the night.
Early in the night, the same animals Rani had seen the previous night, came carefully down in the darkest part of the night. They found the tree where the Terrans were and moved silently away without being seen.