Ancestor's World (15 page)

Krillen's ears flickered quickly, then flared, the body- sign of amusement. "It is not a question of how we see things. It is a matter of Law laid down millennia ago by the Ancestors. We follow their rules. When we do, we prosper. When we don't, we suffer."

Mahree turned her attention back to the stone-paved Royal Road. Though built in the First Dynasty six millennia ago, the wide road had been kept free of blowing sand and even lava flows ever since. Crews of Na-Dina workers labored mightily to maintain it. Such devotion! "What does the Law say about the work roles of males and females?" Krillen sighed, a mannerism Na-Dina shared with humans. "You are just like most females. Curious, curious, curious. Without their curiosity, we would not have discovered electricity."

She found the Investigator's bland, elliptical manner both frustrating and a challenge. "Is electricity the domain of females, then? Lightning does come from Mother Sky." Mahree glanced his way.

The Na-Dina fluttered his ears. A laugh. "What curious

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logic you off-worlders pursue. No. Actually, the Domain of Mother Sky is reserved to service by males, while the Domain of Father Earth is served by females. It's all very simple."

"Simple?"

Krillen glanced at her, his beady black eyes opaque. "This is going to be a long trip, isn't it?"

She laughed and focused back on the Royal Road. "Perhaps, but I meant no disrespect to your customs. We can discuss other matters, if you like."

Mahree pointed at the deep washes lying ahead. "Geology, for example. I studied up on it during the trip here. Aren't those deep washes indicative of transform faults?"

Krillen looked left at the volcanic cones of the mountain spur that bounded them on the west. "I believe so. I remember my uncle's sister saying something about how much work it was to maintain road crews out here. To fix quake damage. And clean up after lava flows."

Mahree studied the landscape, and her little map. "This whole area looks like what we call a rift valley, where adjacent tectonic plates are pushed apart by deep, upwelling magma." She grinned at the alien. "See? I uphold the female responsibility to serve Father Earth."

"No doubt you think of our customs as laughable. But you must understand, if we are to proceed." The alien swished his scaly tail, disturbing the tarp-covered supplies in the rear. "This Case involves a human male, doing what males usually do. Tempting the anger of Mother Sky by flying through her. It is said that in the Beginning Mother Sky surrounded the world with her tail, in the embrace of a mother. Father Earth supports and feeds his people, just as a father nurses the new-hatched offspring. So Earth is our Father. Since each gender knows best the needs of the other, why, females work for Father Earth. They are the best miners, engineers, stone cutters, architects, dam- builders, farmers, and military guards to be found. Why else do you think Axum hired an all-female dig crew?" Mahree had been unaware until that moment that Gordon's dig crew was all female. Did he know? Grinning to

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herself, she asked "And the males? What are they best at?" The alien sat back from the dashboard, his attention now focused on the thunderstorm clouds sweeping down from the mountain spur. "Weather forecasting, for one thing. But it does not take a male to see what those clouds threaten.

Make for high ground. Quickly!"

Mahree swung the skimmer off the Royal Road, climbing out of the deep wash they'd been in. In moments they reached a rock-strewn ridge that offered a wonderful view of the River of Life to the east. She shut off the fans and they settled to the ground. Suddenly the hair on her neck rose up, her ponytail frizzled, and her bare arms felt the caress of static electric charges.

The Na-Dina pushed open the door and began to clamber out. "Krillen, wait.

We're safe here."

"But metal draws Sky's Touch."

Mahree shook her head. "The rubber skirt on the bottom of the skimmer insulates us from contact with the ground." Yellow lightning flashed to the left, bright as the blaster shots the other night. Moments later, thunder boomed with such a crack! that her whole body vibrated. "Seven seconds.

It's ten kilometers away." Mahree looked at Krillen, who had flattened against the skimmer floor like a trapped mouse. Lightning flashed again, closer this time. The thunder boom rattled the tarp-covered equipment in the back.

The rain fell, like a waterfall, drenching her to the skin. In seconds the floor of the skimmer was awash in pounding rainwater. Below them, in the formerly dry wash, Mahree saw a wall of brown wetness surging their way, quickly reaching nearly to the crest of her ridgeline.

Krillen swung his snout her way, his eyes filled with fatalism. "The Mother comes in Her anger. It must be that She is displeased by the Sky Infidels who scarred her face when they came for the Tomb treasures."

Lightning exploded a hundred meters from them, burning a black scar on the ridgeline. "She comes for us!"

Mahree slid over and leaned out into the deluge, reaching for the door handle. Cold rain doused her as she pulled the door shut with a thump.

"That felt good." She licked at a

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droplet running down her face, then chuckled. Krillen sat up, his ears starting to relax.

Ka-boooom!

The biggest strike yet rocked the skimmer, splitting open a nearby boulder.

Krillen cringed, eyes wide. "She comes for us!"

Mahree blinked, hardly believing what she was seeing. "It's ... ball lightning!"

Translucent bluish spheres of coagulated lightning-charge danced in the rainy air like sunspot mirages. Coming toward them, toward the metal of the skimmer.

"Aiiee!"

"Krillen, relax. We're in no danger. Look, the rain is stopping." The blue spheres, closer now and not veiled by rain, were very insubstantial-looking, and, as she watched, they faded away into little sparkles.

The sky began to lighten. Mother Sky had spared them her Touch.

Krillen told himself it was illogical to believe the female alien was an emissary from Mother Sky. He was temple- educated, father of three grown offspring, and an Elder of his clan. He knew better than to believe the old superstitions. Still... someone had intervened with the Mother, stopping the storm like that. Perhaps she knew of an ancient custom of the Law that his people had forgotten. Over forty-six dynasties, not all is remembered.

Witness the loss of understanding of the ideoglyphs of the First Dynasty.

He considered her bravery, her strength in the face of certain destruction.

The best soldiers, the bravest fighters, were always females, but somehow, this was different. It must be that she was an Ancestral Ghost, traveling among them in this odd disguise.

When the skimmer regained the Royal Road and they'd driven for a time, she turned to him and met his eyes. "Krillen? Are you all right? You haven't said a word since the storm ended. Did I do something wrong?"

"You can do no error, I think." He watched her stare at him, noting for the hundredth time the strange eye-blinks.

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Mother's Eye came out from behind the clouds, and golden warmth poured over them. "You were correct to insist we stay inside."

"Theory. Only theory. Rubber is a good insulator. But I've never seen ball lightning before. It's very rare where I come from."

"Here it is common." Krillen continued to gaze at her, wondering why she seemed uncomfortable. He watched as she looked up at Mother's Eye, squinting so her forehead skin crinkled together like the soft shell of a new-birthed egg. Then she went back to piloting the skimmer, a tension in her facial muscles that Krillen didn't recognize. His eyes didn't waver.

Yes, the Minister of Justice had been correct when she warned him that the Sky Infidels had no appreciation of the fragility of life, or the permanence of death. Perhaps that explained the bravery. And the cavalier attitude toward the elements. This female never offered water to Father Earth, never tossed salt to Mother Sky. The sunlight glistened on her eyes, brightening the dark irises to a rich umber.

"Krillen, is something bothering you? You're looking at me very strangely."

Mother! He must have violated some social taboo of her people. He took his eyes off her face and instead focused them lower, at the two mounds on her chest. Suddenly, she brought the craft to a halt and turned to face him.

"Krillen, please. Why are you staring at me? Did I do something wrong?"

She glanced down at herself, following the direction of his fixed gaze. "Uh ...

I... We humans call them breasts. They come two to a woman, and are one of our secondary sexual characteristics. They generate a liquid with which we feed our newborn. What has gotten into you?"

Kril en bowed apologetical y. "My deepest apologies, Ambassador. I was not looking at your... breasts. Among the Na-Dina we show gratitude and respect by staring ... by giving our complete attention ... in the name of the Revered Ancestors, I meant no disrespect."

The female was staring at him now, but he could tell it

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was not a compliment. Krillen hurried to add, "You have mistaken my intention, but perhaps it was ... fortuitous. I'm afraid I was on the verge of making a great blunder."

"How?"

Krillen lifted his left arm. "See the nipple? When my wife gave birth to the eggs of our triad, her Birth Scent aroused my milk glands. By the time each egg hatched, I could hardly walk down the street without leaving behind a trail. Males of the People feed milk to newborn scalies. It is the prime duty of fathers. Just as Father Earth nurtures the plants grown by our females." He lowered his arm, covering the shrunken armpit gland. "Your breasts show that you are definitely not an Ancestral Ghost."

She stared at him for a moment, then suddenly smiled. He could tell she was amused, but attempting, out of politeness, not to show it."Oh. That's good ... I guess." Mahree stayed quiet for a long time, her attention fixed on the Royal Road. In these parts, it was straight as a pole, going up and down ridges, crossing ravines on stone bridges, and in general giving no quarter to the undulating landscape. At this speed, they should reach their destination before nightfall.

When the sun had begun to dip, she glanced his way. "Krillen, do you miss your wife? Your family? Being away for several days must be hard."

His chest squeezed tight. The image of his wife Nalado filled his mind's eye, reminding him of what he had sacrificed too often, all for the row of gold chevrons that adorned his Sash of Rank. He sighed. "Yes, I miss her. To accompany you, I had to miss our twentieth Pond Anniversary. But she understands. She was an architect, before retiring early to raise our offspring."

"Careers can be like that." She blinked, but kept staring at him. A compliment? "I miss my daughter Claire. She's staying with her father, Rob, on a distant asteroid we call StarBridge."

"The place where Interrelator Waterston studied?"

"Yes. It is a place of study and training, much like your Temples. Young people come there to learn the languages

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of other peoples, to learn how to be good diplomats, and a few even learn how to touch mind-to-mind, though that is very rare among humans."

Krillen gave silent thanks for that blessing to Mother Sky. At least his thoughts would be known only to Her. "You ... you are not a mind-toucher, are you?"

She laughed softly. "Noooo. But my daughter is. It makes a parent's life hard."

Ahhh. Something they shared in common. "A parent's life is always hard.

You know too much and have so little time in which to share it with your offspring, before they grow up and think they know as much as you."

Mahree glanced quickly at him, then back to the road. "Quite so. What is that?"

He scanned the mountainous horizon. A volcano had erupted not long ago, and now a thin sheet of fast-moving lava was coming toward them faster than a person could run. "Father's Anger." The ember-red lava under the crusting surface stretched as far as he could see. "There are many volcanoes in this region. The crews must work constantly to keep the roads clear."

He peered at the lava flow, calculating from long experience of living on this dangerous world. "The front edge is wide here, but Sand Lake is just ahead.

If we can make it there, we should be safe."

"Hang on!" Mahree bent forward. The skimmer flew ever faster.

Krillen hung on, his talons digging into the dashboard. Just as they came in sight of the far edge of the molten flow, the skimmer shuddered and bucked.

"What's wrong?" he cried.

Mahree fought the steering yoke. "I... don't... Power! We're losing battery power,"

The skimmer slowed more. Krillen wondered if Father Earth was upset by the finding of the Royal Tomb. Else- wise, why would he send his Anger after them?

As the two occupants of the skimmer stared at each other in horror, the air cushion died and the craft settled to the stone-paved road with a crunch.

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Krillen glanced back at the approaching lava flow. There was a good chance it would reach them. It might not engulf them, since it was thin--but the heat would surely kill them. "What's happened?"

Mahree grimaced. "Something's wrong with the batteries." She swung around and scrambled back to the rear of the skimmer. Wondering whether they should try to make a run for it, Krillen followed. Mahree pulled at the engine access plate. "Ouch!" she cried. "It's boiling hot. And it's stuck! Help me!"

Krillen caught the edge of the darkened metal plate with his finger talons. He pulled hard. With a groan, the plate opened. Noxious fumes spewed out.

"Ooof!" cried Mahree, turning her head from the terrible smell.

Krillen held his breath and looked into the interior of the engine compartment. Two blackened boxes that were obviously electric batteries smoked with white fumes. "They are dead." He looked upslope. The orange-red lava surged and buckled toward them like molten fire.

Mahree looked up. "Damn it!" She clenched her jaw, her eyes wild with fear and frustration, then she reached under the storage tarp and pulled out a piece of alien equipment. "Krillen! Disconnect the cables from the dead batteries. I'm going to try and jump-start the skimmer! Watch out for the acid!"