“They’ve got more than two,” Katie noted with another shudder.
“They have four. Old Earth arachnids had eight and also note, they have no antennae or wings.”
“So they cannot fly.”
“No. Unfortunately for them, they cannot fly so when the Community arrived on their planet they couldn’t fly away.”
“What’s their natural habitat?” asked Katie who was getting interested although she had no desire to actually touch one.
“They prefer to live up in trees,” Astrid said. “Trees with thick foliage and not too far from the ground. That’s what grows on their native planet. They live in a sort of silk tube-like structure woven in and out of the leaves and branches. These quilted bag-packs are as close to them as we could manage. They’re silk lined.”
“This planet seemed perfect,” added Paula who was sitting with the biggest Orumcek on her lap. “The foliage is very similar to what they are used to and it is, or so we thought, far enough away from the Community so that they would be safe.”
“We were hoping to rescue some more and bring them here,” added Astrid, “but that won’t be possible now.”
“Do they have names?” asked Thalia, itching to touch the littlest one.
“Of course. They’re intelligent, Perhaps they’re not as clever as us but they do have a limited vocabulary.”
“Can I speak to them?”
“Once you know the words, yes. The don’t speak in sentences but there are words for eat, hungry, babies, eggs and the like.”
“Their names?”
“This little one is called Oga and the one on Paula’s lap Ogafa. Osipa is still in her bag. She’s the most timid.”
“May I touch Oga?”
“Of course. Just be very gentle and make every movement as slow and as unthreatening as you can. She’ll soon realise that you mean her no harm. Just don’t touch her under-body or she might lash out. They’re not poisonous but they can nip with their toes.”
Thalia, a beaming smile on her face, began her first close acquaintance with an Orumcek.
The fur was soft like a Lind but there the similarity ended. The individual hairs were thick towards her body and tapered off towards the ends.
Oga began to croon.
After she had been stroking Oga for a while Thalia resumed her questioning.
“So how do they produce their silk?
“With their feet,” was Astrid’s surprising answer. “Their feet have sort of spigots on them. The spigots also help to keep them from falling.”
“I thought a spigot was a hole made in a cask.”
“They’re claws really, but they have a hole in the middle. When Planet Orum was investigated the exploratory team found the Orumcek. They called their claws spigots.” She raised her eyes. “Ours is not to question why but I’ve always thought the word a stupid one to use. They also have claws in between their toes, see them, at the end of their legs? They’re segmented. They have muscles all down them. These, with their leg hairs help them cling on to their web tubes.”
“What are the silk fibres exactly? Marcel told us a lot about what the silk can be used for and not much else.”
“Continuous strands made from glands which are located underneath their abdomens.. They make a framework attached to foliage. The silk is a protein formed as a liquid by silk glands and squeezed out of their spinnerets like paste from a tube. The liquid thread hardens as it leaves the spinnerets, their silk producing organs. There are three types of silk. One type is made is the type used for wrapping their prey, another is used to make the egg sac, and the last is a sticky type often used as part of a web. It’s this sticky one that the Community harvests. They harvest them so assiduously that many Orumcek die because they are forced to make so much - actually far more than they are capable of making to stay healthy. The normal life span of an Orumcek in the wild is about twenty to thirty years. In captivity they don’t usually live beyond ten.”
“When do they become adult?” queried Thalia, watching fascinated as Oga stood up and began walking towards her lap. She settled down with a sigh of contentment.
“She likes you,” said Astrid.
Katie was hoping the one on Paula’s lap wouldn’t decide to come and investigate her lap!
Thalia, having resumed her gentle stroking of Oga was watching Katie’s discomfort with some amusement.
“About five or six,’ Astrid answered. “These three are around seven years old.”
“What are these little white lumps on her underneath?”
“Her eggs. They’re attached to her under-body. Remember not to touch them. They get very irritated if you do.”
“Eggs! She’s going to have babies?”
“Their masters, the Community zoologists in charge of the facility we spirited them away from had inseminated them not long before we rescued them. All three are pregnant.”
“How many babies will they have?” Thalia asked.
“Females lay around one and a half thousand eggs about three to four times during their life-cycle. Only about an eighth of them will develop into silk producing adults though and the least strong die young.”
“Four and a half thousand little Orumceks!” exclaimed Thalia. She hoped the birth event wouldn’t occur whilst they were still on Tanha. The concept of fleeing through the foliage with thousands of tiny, ten-legged babies in tow filled her with dread. How could they possibly protect that many? She had a vision of the Orumcek’s home planet simply teeming with them.
“These eggs are still a long way from hatching,” Astrid made haste to say, interpreting the worried look on Thalia’s face. “The eggs are laid in their egg sacs and they stay constantly attached to their mother as the eggs develop so as to keep the temperature right. The babies remain inside the eggs for the entire time and when they hatch they are fully-fledged Orumcek, about three inches in diameter.”
She cupped her hands to demonstrate.
“The mother’s job doesn’t end there. She cares for her babies, feeding and grooming them until they are ready to leave home.”
“How do they defend themselves?” asked Katie.
“They don’t. On Orum they are the largest predators and nothing hunts them, or at least virtually nothing once they are full grown. There are predators, snake-like creatures that can climb and eat their eggs and young ones but only if they can get through the silk webs. It is man who are the predators,” she added sadly.
Thalia shared in her sadness and so did Katie, even though she remained less than enamoured with the fact that the three Orumcek were with them.
Katie had always hated creepy-crawly things.
* * * * *
After a short meeting when Artem informed everyone that they would be moving on back to the larger cavern the following evening Thalia organised the guard duties both outside and inside then settled down beside Josei to mend one of the neck straps of his harness that had got stretched.
The five newcomers were being allowed to move around as long as they didn’t attempt to go outside. With the Lind nearby Artem had quite rightly deduced that none of them would try anything (the five had by now seen the size of a Lind mouth and observed the teeth).
It was during this time that a friendship began.
Like Thalia, Paula was doing some mending. She had torn her spare trousers to the point of indecency so it was a most necessary task.
She looked at Thalia who was sitting not far away and smiled.
“Fancy a chat?” she called over. “I hate mending and I find the time passes quicker with company.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Thalia answered back.
“I’ll be with you in a minute,” said Paula, threading her needle.
Thalia looked blank. “What’s a minute?” she asked.
“You know, sixty seconds.”
Thalia looked even blanker.
“Don’t you know what a minute is?’ Paula asked, picking up garment, needle and thread and sau
ntering over. “You must have been taught about time in school?”
Thalia nodded.
“So,” Paula continued. “Remember the ditty? Sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, twenty-four hours in a day, seven days in a week, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Of course the day and the week part depends on what planet you’re living on but the first two are always the same.”
Thalia shook her head with the hint of a smile.
“We use bells. There are twenty-four bells in a day. Bells are divided into quarters.”
“At least you kept the twenty-four part,” said Paula brightly. “A bell is probably about the same as an hour.”
“Our allies have another way than us to tell the time. They use tvans. A tvan is … well, it’s a tvan. I’ve never thought about how many tvans there are in a bell, never needed to.”
She grinned at Paula. “At least we understand what one another is saying, most of the time. Friendship has little to do with language. The Lind taught us that a long time ago.”
* * * * *
Chapter 9
Escape
“Vadryzka Thalia, may I have a word with you?”
Thalia turned. “So formal Christel?” she teased.
Christel smiled self-consciously.
“Problems?” Thalia asked the younger woman in what she hoped was her most encouraging voice.
“I don’t know what to do. I thought that perhaps you could help.”
Thalia set aside the blade she was polishing and settled down to listen. She had an idea what was coming. During her first year with a Ryzck hadn’t she gone to her Vadryzka for advice and encouragement, and he had given it, each and every time? She would do no less for those under her command. From time to time she had been berating herself for thinking too much about of the current problems and forgetting the seven vadeln-pairs under her.
“I’ll help if I can, tell me about it. Are you having problems with another vadeln-pair? Are you finding it difficult adapting to Ryzck life? Or is it Samei? Is he encountering difficulties?”
Christel shook her head. “No, nothing like that Vadryzka.”
“Call me Thalia. Everyone else does. The Fifteenth Ryzck has never stood on ceremony.”
“I didn’t like to bother you before,” said Christel. “You always seem so busy and with everything that’s been happening, well, you’ve got enough to deal with but it’s getting worse. I’m worried how it’s going to affect my ability to fight in a crisis. I don’t … I don’t want to let the others down.”
As self-doubt was exactly what she herself was feeling about her abilities as a leader, Thalia thought she understood, at least a little but, and it was a big but, she hadn’t solved that inner worry herself yet. She hoped it might at least give her an insight into Christel’s problem and about how to deal with it.
“What does Samei say?”
“He says that I’m overreacting and that what will be will be, for good or ill.”
“That sounds like something my Josei would say too,” observed Thalia. “What does he say you’re overreacting about?”
“Rodick.”
“Rodick?”
“Thalia, I like him, I like him a lot and I think he likes me.”
“I don’t see a problem there,” answered Thalia carefully. “Relationships between serving vadelns have never been forbidden. Anya likes Samei too. I’ve seen them sitting together of an evening.”
“But what will I do if something happens to him? There have already been deaths here on Tenha. I’m terrified that if he is killed or wounded, that I’ll be so worried about him I won’t be able to do my duty.”
Lai’s wings! What do I say to her? No one told me they would come to me with this kind of personal problem. No, that’s not true but I haven’t a clue what to advise. My track record in the love department is pretty much a series of chapters of accidents and bad choices.
“Well,” she said, looking away from Christel’s expectant face and staring into the distance. “I’m probably not the best person to ask about it but I’m glad you did.” There, that was better. She sounded as if she actually had some advice to give.
Christel was looking at her expectantly.
“I’ve been in your saddle,” she continued. “I was very much on love, once. We were in each other’s company a lot and I fell for him hook, line and sinker. He was younger than me but that never mattered.”
She paused. Her voice had been growing slow and dreamy as she re-lived these halcyon days, the days when she and Daniel Ross had fallen in love. How it had hurt when he told her he was no longer in love with her. She came to herself with a start.
“We were getting to care for each other very much,” she told Christel. “We were in danger almost every bell of each day. Either one of us could have died at any time. One learns to control it and to live and love despite the fear. Have you told Rodick about what you feel?”
Christel shook her head.
“You should,” Thalia advised. “Love is a very precious thing and you shouldn’t waste a moment, especially” she added, “in times like these.”
She was aware Christel was thinking about her words as she stopped speaking and the silence lengthened.
“I’ll tell him,” Christel said at last. “Thank you.”
With a small smile Christel got up and left. Thalia picked up her knife again but she couldn’t concentrate.
Had she advised Christel correctly? Had she been right to tell her to speak to Rodick? The self-doubt about her abilities as a Vadryzka resurfaced. She put her knife back in its sheath and went to sit beside Josei. He was her ultimate comfort.
Artem found her there a short while later.
“Thalia?” Artem’s voice was gentle.
Thalia lifted a tear stained face to his.
“I should never have been promoted,” she sobbed. “Zeb would have made a better Vadryzka than me.”
Artem tried and spectacularly failed to picture Zeb in the role.
“Why do you think that?’ he asked.
“Because I’m not doing my job. Because I never even knew that Christel was in love with Rodick. He’s a friend. A Vadryzka is supposed to know every person and everylind under her command and lead them well. Christel said ‘she didn’t like to bother me because I was so busy’. I’m not doing that either. I’m letting you make all the decisions.”
“Vandiel placed me in command. In normal circumstances I’m sure he’d never have considered it but Larya and I have the experience of shall we say, difficult situations. We were Avuzdel and life in the Avuzdel was pretty dangerous. Vandiel didn’t want you to have all the responsibility of dealing with the strangers and learning how to lead your men, women and Lind at the same time. You’re new to command Thalia. It takes some getting used to. Believe me, I know. You’ll get there.”
“Do you really think so?”
“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t. Now, wipe your tears away.”
Thalia scrubbed her wet eyes with her sleeve. They were closed so she got no warning. She felt a light, feathery kiss on her forehead. It sent tingles down her spine and she wanted it to last forever.
“Now,” said Artem. “Now you know what’s what. We’ve a meeting with Tancred and the others in a half bell or so. Ready to make some decisions with me?”
Thalia nodded. She couldn’t articulate a single word, mentally or physically.
She ‘heard’ Josei’s chuckle.
: Stop that! :
His response was another chuckle.
* * * * *
“We have to keep going north, away from the Community troops,” Tancred opened the ‘Council of War’.
“They’ll be hunting for us,” agreed George, surprising everyone with his input, he being of the large, solid, silent type and little given to supplying an opinion. “I agree with Tancred.”
Artem disagreed and was quick to point out his reasons.
“No,” he said. “Travelling north, and
at night through uncharted forested territory, is not the answer. The vadeln-pairs can travel fast but you five are on foot. You could ride pillion but even the legendary stamina of our Lind has limits. They will find us eventually and find us tired and dispirited.”
“We don’t know where the caves are up to the north either,” Thalia added, determined to make a sensible and viable contribution. “We might get caught in the open and we all know what happens then.”
There was a silence as everyone remembered their dead friends and comrades.
“I agree with Artem and Thalia,” said Paula, “but I can’t think of an alternative.”
The five Dragon Wulf rebels were sitting to one side and opposite them were Thalia, Artem, Hael, Jim and Katie. Behind them stood the others of Thalia and Josei’s Vadryz, Christel, Rodick, Zeb, Ail and the twins Jack and Jon. There was no need for any Lind to be present as they could ‘listen in’.
Anyway, the five rebels were not yet aware of the telepathic link the vadelns had with their Lind and Artem wished to keep it that way. The five knew the ‘wolves’ were intelligent but had come to the conclusion that they were clever creatures who had chosen to live and serve with certain humans. Of the life-bonds they had no idea either although Thalia believed the observant Paula was beginning to suspect.
Tavin, a largely recovered Max and Mikey were not taking part, being absorbed in an external examination of the laser rifles.
Although the latter had begun to initiate conversations with Tancred and the others, he had not reported anything suspicious so far.
“Then we stay here, fortify the entrance,” stated George.
“No,” said Hael, in a voice loud enough to wake the sleeping. “That also could be suicide. They will be able to track us here, no one can travel through foliage like we have and leave no trail at all, and however careful they are. A bruised leaf would be all they would need.”
“All you might need,” observed Thalia, “which is not the same thing.”
“We left plenty of them,” added Jim.
“What is the alternative?’ asked Tancred, fixing Artem with a steely stare.
“We take them out. They won’t expect us to return to their base, especially so soon after Max escaped.”
Tancred laughed.
“We - take - them - out. You’re kidding me, yes?”