Koban: Rise of the Kobani (39 page)

She pulled him around, forcing him to sit next to her, and she grasped his left hand in her right. She had been on the receiving end of this process a thousand times, but had never been a transmitter before. She sent the Prada images of the animals below, and some of humans interacting peacefully with animals, such as dogs, domestic cats, horses, and finally the rippers. The context of the images implied that these were not intelligent creatures from alien civilizations.

She was shocked to see that the Prada’s claim to have been to Koban was true, when it recognized the ripper image, accompanied by a memory of seeing a pride from the safety of a dome roof under construction. It was shocked in turn, that these aliens, the one next to him in fact, had often been in close proximity with rippers, and survived. Moreover, it sensed she loved some of them, and trusted them, just as he loved and trusted the animals below that wanted to protect him from her.

Marlyn was still worried when she Linked. “Maggi, we saw you climb up, but you are out of view from the shuttle at the moment. We can see your camera image, at a bit of an angle, and it looks like you are Mind Tapping the Prada. Everything OK?”

Maggi answered. “I’m sharing images with the local leader, named Wister. Damn, this TG1 ability is neat as hell. You h
ave to let Rafe and Aldry upgrade you. I have been missing out on so
much
, and the ability to kick ass simply can’t be overrated. Gee will it be fun when Dillon and Thad get back.” She shook her head to dispel the cheerful (for her) thoughts of their first uncomfortable days after they returned.

Tiger Lady my ass,
she thought.
Wait ‘til they meet the “mighty mite!”

Her diabolical chuckle bothered her Linked friends as much as it did the Prada leader.

Shaking off that last amusing thought as well, she continued. “Anyway, the leader here is worried. He fears we might kill the marsh dogs.” She paused in thought.

“Oh yes, I’m giving them a name too, based on where they apparently came from. Get over it Captain
Discovery
. You’ll get your chance to name the entire damned world.” She was feeling flush with new felt power. Before, all she really had was her mind and words to get people to do what was “best” for everyone. Now she had the advantages of speed, muscles, and telepathy, at least until the other SGs caught up with her.

“Please don’t hurt their pets,” she told them.  “They feel about them as we do about rippers. If any of them come close to you, get into the shuttle until we straighten things out. I was about to drop my hostage and climb the tree using the rough bark. Then I checked the backstabber here via Mind Tap, and I wanted to know if the dogs could climb a tree. He knew they couldn’t climb without a ladder to help, and that the one overhead was mistakenly left hanging too low. I knew I couldn’t jump high enough to reach it while holding onto him, so I threw him up first, then jumped to grab the ladder. I gotta tell ya. It’s
good
to be so bad assed and strong. Now I’m ready to negotiate with this little shit.”

“I don’t know, he did attack you with a knife unprovoked, and sent a pack of killer hounds after you. You can’t trust him.”

“It’s a lifelong Krall slave issue, Marlyn. I certainly have not had time to probe him much, but he has a fear of not pleasing and obeying the
Rulers
, which have to be the Krall.

“I believe we can come to an agreement with the Prada eventually. Any people that can display so much affection and empathy for animals, as this Prada does, should have the ability to understand and cooperate with other intelligent species. Give me a bit of time today. I’ll move around to where you can see us.”

“I’ll leave negotiations up to you. Assuming toting their presumed ambassador around by the scruff of the neck and kicking his dog is a form of diplomacy.” She laughed at how that sounded.

“By the way, could you rotate your button camera to straighten out our image?”

Maggi glanced at her disheveled tunic. “I will, as soon as we stand up. I’ll walk him around the corner of the house where we’re sitting, so you can see us. While we are sharing mental images, it might get quiet up here sometimes, so don’t get antsy. This Mind Tap ability is going to revolutionize human and alien diplomacy, and first contact situations if we ever have any others.

“Mr. Wister here is in a daze from all the shocks he has just had in the last few minutes. Not to mention the fact that I grabbed him by the balls when I slammed him to the ground. He’s doing a Dillon thing, holding his legs together. I’ll help him stand.”

At the shuttle, the button camera’s picture tilted and rotated as she stood up and adjusted her tunic. They saw her reach down to help the Prada stand, who made it more difficult by keeping his knees together. Obviously, he learned faster than did Dillon, to guard his “jewelry” when this alien was around.

Having TG abilities or not, she directed Wister to precede her on the board walkway around the house. One strong hand on a small sloping shoulder was a reminder she was close behind him. She had his knife and whistle, but she had not sensed any lessening of his desire for the humans to leave now, so she would not turn her back on him.

She had sensed he was worried the “Rulers,” as he had called them in low Krall, would return to punish the village if they didn’t oppose an obvious alien enemy. He didn’t use the name Krall when he spoke aloud, but they were in the mental images of his thoughts.

The suspended walkway swayed and bounced as they walked, and she saw the Prada’s knees and hips move to counter the motion as it walked, so that its upper body and head remained nearly steady. She mimicked that, and in a matter of seconds had a gait as smooth as did the Prada on the jouncy walkway.

She prompted him to walk out to the center of another walkway strung between two of the giant trees, and grasped his shoulder to stop him midway across. They were in plain sight of the shuttle, as well as the now eight marsh dogs, which had followed below them as they moved, yipping, but no longer growling or howling.

Maggi glanced down to look at them. Although probably related to the larger werewolves, they had the thinner body shape of coyotes on Earth, or the dune dogs on Rhama. These animals were built for running and agility, with a sort of paddle-footed paw that would make running on mushy marshland easier. They probably could “dog paddle” in water rather well.

When they didn’t have their fangs exposed in a snarl, they looked very much like a large dog, with an elongated snout similar to the German shepherd breed, with pink tongues hanging out as they recovered from the run to get back here. They even had a long hairy tail, which swished from side to side, probably like a counter weight when chasing prey that was turning and twisting to avoid being run to ground.

Maggi immediately empathized with Wister’s feelings for them, because she had been a “dog person” back at home on Rhama. She thought often about what became of her two pets, Murphy, a dachshund, and Bentley, a mixed breed lap dog. She had left them with a niece for the time she would be at Midwife. After twenty years, they were both long dead. Humans had never tinkered with dog longevity, despite tinkering with almost everything else about their most faithful companions.

In low Krall, she said, “We will now get to know more about each other’s clan. Also about the Rulers, whom you still obey and fear. Sit here and I will share my mind with you.” From time spent with TG1s and rippers, she already was a master at holding back thoughts and images she didn’t care to share. This Prada’s thoughts were completely open to her each time she made a suggestion of what to discuss and share. The alien was about to spill their innermost secrets. Maggi shivered with anticipation. Damn this was fun!

****

Two tiring hours later, she realized she needed to eat and drink, and so did the Prada.
It was hungry for a… bark grub?
She pushed away the unpleasant thought of Wister, using his specialized long middle finger, digging out a plump white grub from the bark of a smaller variety of tree at the edge of the woods. Those grub trees were not the giant “Temple” trees on which they built their houses, which were resistant to most wood pests. The Prada had no religion now, but in their remote pre spaceflight era on their former home world, they had built tall narrow structures to reach towards their sun god. That ancient tale had inspired comparing the giants of the forest to those temples, from a life and world long lost to them.

Maggi released the Prada’s hand, and stood. She told him in low Krall, “Wister, you and I need to eat and think, and share with our clans what we have learned. I have seen your young ones watching us, as well as their parents. They do not understand what you and I have been doing.”

He replied in the only language she now knew he spoke, low Krall. “I
do
know what we have been doing, but I do not
understand
how it is done. How can I convince the other old ones to disobey the Ruler’s instructions? I don’t know if I can do that myself, even with your mind pictures to help. When you leave here, I may doubt what I was shown. It seems a trick that is hard to believe.”

“If you will meet us at the edge of the woods tomorrow, with other Prada, we can show them as well. We can show you where this ability came from, how it was developed naturally on Koban. Not by us, because we only copied the ability. Here is your whistle, and your knife. I think you know that you are not fast or strong enough to beat one of us in a fight, but we do not want to be your enemy, and we will not try to force you to be our friends. We are not here to replace your Rulers.”

“I will try to explain to the village.”

“That is my request. Another is for you to send your pets away below. I truly do not wish to harm them, but if attacked we will be forced to kill or injure them.”

He made that forward head motion, his small pointed black nose aimed at her. A gesture equivalent to an affirmative head bob in most human cultures. He put the whistle in the side of his mouth and blew.

Bradley immediately called on the Link. “We heard what you said, and I can hear that whistle clearly from out here. The dogs are getting up and moving deeper into the trees. Do you want me to come in and escort you out?”

Maggi looked at Wister. “I have a communication device, and one of my clan mates knows we are departing here for today. He heard your signal, and asks if your guardian pets, which we call dogs, will stay away when I walk back alone.”

“Yes, they were sent to their sleeping and feeding area by my signal. You can also hear the sounds of the caller?” He held the whistle up. “I cannot hear it, but the Rulers can.”

“Only some of us can hear that today. We all will be able to hear it in the future.”

Another head dart move indicated he heard her words, but surely didn’t know just how it would be done.

He made the first considerate offer she had heard from him. “I can lower a ladder or rope for you to descend.”

Ready to impress him again she grinned and said, “Don’t bother. I will return tomorrow.” Then she vaulted one handed, lightly and gracefully over the rope rail, and dropped to the ground thirty feet below. She landed on the balls of her feet with a slight bending of her knees to absorb the shock. After all, this was only 59% of the Koban gravity she was accustomed to feeling, and the TG muscles were hardly tested by this short of a drop. It almost felt like slow motion to her new senses as she descended. Perhaps riding a rhinolo when she got home might be fun after all.

She walked confidently back to the shuttle, while the others were preparing to return to the Beagle. Maggi asked to know what those at the Beagle had found today, but those in the shuttle wanted to know about the Prada. Marlyn compromised.

“The three truck teams have recorded a dozen grazing animal species, and four predators, including the wolves. One is a legless ten to eighteen-foot crocodile equivalent, living in that river. It’s an air breather, but can stay under for at least twenty minutes. We encountered another set of pack animals that resemble cousins of the marsh dogs, with gray and white coloring and normal sized paws. They found a lone jet-black hunter that has the shape of a wolverine, but is the size of a grizzly bear. It isn’t terribly fast, and Kobalt and Kit tormented the thing until it left the area. There are hundreds of birds.” She turned to Maggi.

“Now tell us about the Prada. Give. Except for your occasional questions in low Krall and his answers, most of the time you were holding hands, all chummy and exchanging mental pictures we couldn’t see. What did you learn about them, and what did he mean when he said he had been to Koban? When was that?”

“I’ll have to repeat this, you know, when we get back to the Beagle in fifteen minutes.”

“I know, but tell us anyway while I fly. Talk loud.” Marlyn urged, as she started the thrusters.

“OK. These Prada here are one of several clans that are supposed to be on this world. Following the Krall example, they describe themselves as a clan, each isolated and placed on different continents. The Prada call the Krall their Rulers. They all speak Low Krall, and have for thousands of years. They were only allowed to speak that tongue among themselves, as can the Torki. The crab bodied Torki are mentally different and they never forgot their own language, however the Prada lost theirs. The Prada assume there are multiple groups of Torki still living here, because they have done delicate electronic work for the Krall here and on Koban, and repair and adjust the systems on clanships and other spacecraft and weapons the Krall use.