Merkiaari Wars: 03 - Operation Oracle (22 page)

Shima laughed. “Trust you to find good even in disaster, Sharn. I don’t want a microscope in my head, just working eyes.”

Sharn hugged her. “And now you have, but I don’t think the warriors back home will change your title at this late date.”

Shima growled.

“Don’t tease her, Sharn,” Chailen said. “You know how she feels about this Blind Hunter business.”

“Foolishness,” Shima growled again.

“You need to get passed that,” Chailen warned. “It’s done now and nothing will change it. Besides, it’s proven useful already. You don’t think Kajetan would have given permission to just anyone to come here do you?”

Shima had to admit that was true. Kazim was famous back home and an ideal candidate because of that. Varya had been chosen because he was a warrior and for his work with vipers during the war, but The Blind Hunter was the people’s choice. Famous, a heroic figure during the war, and tragic. It made Shima feel sick, but Chailen was right. The title opened doors that might never have opened without it. She would try not to spit when people called her a hero.

When they reached the doors leading to the outside, Chailen and Sharn dropped back without discussion to allow Shima her moment. Shima appreciated the sentiment, but the greatest moment had already past—opening her new eyes to see light for the first time. Still, this was a first of another kind... sort of. It was the first time she would step out into an alien world and see it with her own eyes.

Shima paused only briefly before opening the doors and advancing into the open. The first thing that surprised her was the time of day. The sky was purple edging toward black. The second thing was the sky again. So beautiful the stars, but Snakeholme had rings! The band of silvery light was amazing, and she gasped at the wonder of it.

Chailen and Sharn joined her. Chailen hugged her, “Amazing isn’t it?”

Shima flicked her ears in agreement. She gathered Sharn in with her spare arm and the three of them stood there watching the sky as it turned completely black and the ring brightened until it blazed in the heavens.

“Gina told me the larger moon is called Gabriel,” Sharn said. “Its reflected light makes the ring shine so. The little moon is Uriel. There are stations up there for tracking and defence. She says there used to be three moons, but millions of years ago Gabriel smashed it to bits. The ring is made of the dust and debris from that cataclysm.”

Shima could imagine the disaster. There would have been meteor showers and strikes for centuries after the event. Anyone living here back then would have been in extreme peril, but of course no one had been.

“It’s beautiful,” Shima said.

Chailen flicked her ears in agreement. “Let’s go in. Are you hungry?”

Shima was. “I could eat a Shkai’lon, hooves and all!”

Sharn laughed.

They made their way home, though home was the wrong word. They had a small house on the base normally used for viper officers. It was a comfortable dwelling, not designed for Shan of course, but Gina had helped them furnish it to make it a better fit for them. They had plenty of cushions to sit upon, and the table had been lowered close to the floor as was proper. Carpets were thick and extravagant compared with the bare polished wood floors used at home. Shima secretly liked them while pretending that such luxury was decadent. When alone she often abandoned her sleeping mat or her cushions to recline upon the carpet, but she would never tell.

Chailen hurried away to prepare food. She sometimes used the Human machine called autochef when they were in a hurry, but this time was a special day and they had nothing more to do. She chose to cook the food herself. They had brought supplies with them, but a surprising number of Human foods were edible by Shan. They tasted exotic and Shima enjoyed most of them, and wished she could try some of the meat animals on the hoof as it were, but they didn’t live wild here. They were all raised on farms, and it just wouldn’t be the same hunting on a farm. Not very... sporting? Was that the Human term? Whether it was or not, she was a hunter not a butcher.

“Whatever shall we do tomorrow and all the tomorrows ahead?” Sharn said. “Now that you’re well, Shima, what will we fill our time with?”

They were in the cooking area, what the Humans called the kitchen. It was well supplied with foods and the appliances used to prepare them. Shima busied herself with setting the table while Sharn peeled and washed vegetables, following Chailen’s instructions.

“I don’t know,” Chailen said. “We can’t go home until Varya is ready, and even then we must travel on a Human ship. I don’t know when one is due to leave.”

Shima flicked her ears in agreement. She would have to ask about that. She supposed it was time to decide many things. Now that the vipers had given back her life, she should be thinking about the future. Her life before the war had been all about her work. She was a scientist, and her life had been research into new variants of food crops. She had been an agricultural geneticist working at the centre for agricultural research on Child of Harmony near Zuleika when the Merkiaari attacked. As far as she knew, the centre was still there, safely sited among the farms used to test their ideas. The Merki had been uninterested in molesting it. No vermin to kill, Shima mused. In Merkiaari minds, any non-Merki species was considered vermin and must be exterminated.

Research had been her life, and what she was trained for. It was the one thing she knew beyond doubt or question she was qualified to do, but it no longer drew her heart and soul. It was important work still, but it didn’t
feel
as important as it used to. Perhaps that was due to so many losses back home. Shima knew that it would take many orbits for the population of both worlds to fully recover. New efficient farming methods, though still useful, were no longer a priority in the elder’s opinion—in hers too, Shima thought glumly. With so much happening and with the Merkiaari on the move again, there were too many other things to think about.

Was that the answer then? Should she consider the unthinkable and ask to change caste? It was rarely done, and those who did so were considered... flighty. If they needed to make a change, it must mean they were not properly schooled, or hadn’t properly considered the options and had made a hasty decision. Flighty.

The choice of caste was a huge deal to a youngling; it was choosing the path your life would take. In her case, joining the caste of scientists and engineers had been a given, and not because her mother and father had been of that caste. She had always known where she was going, always planned to be a scientist, and had chosen her studies based upon her future choice of caste. Now she didn’t have any idea where she should go, and that was very unsettling for someone such as her. She liked having a goal and knowing how to achieve it. She had always been that way. Chailen could tell stories about her so serious sib that would have an entire house full of people rolling around in laughter. Yes, this decision should be about goals not profession, she realised. She needed a goal. Only then could she consider methods of achieving it.

“Well as for tomorrow and other tomorrows,” Shima said. “I plan on going hunting. I’m out of condition and need to run. Do you want to come?”

Chailen flicked ears in the negative. “You know me; I’ll trip over my own tail.”

Sharn laughed and hugged his mate. “You’re not that bad!”

Shima chuffed. Chailen was that bad actually, but only because she never practiced. All Shan were natural hunters, but it was still possible to be clumsy. Not honing one’s skills and instincts did have that effect. A case in point was Kazim. He’d been a real trial to Shima back on Child of Harmony when she tried to lead him to safety. Gina would call him a city boy, and Shima would have to agree. She doubted there could be a more urbanised Shan than Kazim.

“I can teach you, Chailen. I swear I can teach you to equal father if you would apply yourself and give me time.”

Chailen waved that away, her tail weaving in the complicated gestures that meant
maybe you could, but I’m not going to let you
. She always said that or similar when this came up. It was a polite way to acknowledge the offer and agree that Shima was skilled enough to do as she said, while at the same time declining it without giving offense. Chailen just had no interest in hunting. She was healer caste, and preferred saving life over taking it, even if the prey was a non-sentient food animal in the wild. For fun, she preferred caving with Sharn.

Shima thought for a moment. “We could go exploring then. There must be caves.”

Chailen’s ears pricked with interest. “The Humans have lived here less than two hundred orbits. I don’t think they’ve explored everything yet.”

Shima couldn’t understand that. From what she knew of them, Humans had an insatiable curiosity, always poking into things and wanting to know the reasons behind everything. Why wouldn’t they explore their world? All she could think of was that they had other things to do, like make war upon the Merkiaari. She could understand that, but their war until recently had been over for almost two hundred orbits. They’d had the time for other things, hadn’t they?

“They’ve built cities here,” Sharn was saying. “They must have explored the areas near them.”

“Maybe so,” Chailen said. “But there aren’t many of them. I saw the maps they gave Varya. Most of the planet is still regarded as wild and untouched.”

Shima felt the pull of that. To hunt and explore the wilds would be such fun! But, Chailen would not enjoy that. Perhaps they could explore some caves until Chailen had her fill and Kazim returned, and then she could take him off into the wilds to teach him how to hunt.

“I’ll ask about caves then,” Shima said. “I’m sure we can borrow supplies. We’ll need ropes and lights at minimum.”

“We’ll have better than that,” Sharn said. “Gina told me that some of the vipers went climbing together after they became vipers. They wanted to test themselves on the mountains near here. It’s not the same as caving, but they’ll have everything we need.”

Shima was sure they would, or if not, the vipers could have them made. Snakeholme had a small population, starting as it had from the families and friends of the original vipers based here, but it was a modern world with modern industry. Petruso City had shops; Chailen had visited most of them a time or two, and Humans enjoyed sports of all kinds. Shima had no money of her own here, but Gina said everything was free for the vipers and that extended to their guests. It wasn’t really free of course. The regiment paid for such things and considered the minor cost a tiny but important part of its budget.

“It’s settled then,” Shima said. “I’ll get the supplies we’ll need, and we can go caving and exploring for a few days. When Kazim gets back, I’m going to take him hunting. It’s embarrassing watching him stalk prey. He needs lessons.”

Chailen and Sharn traded looks behind Shima’s back, and grinned.

* * *

Petruso Base, Snakeholme

Shima’s caving plans worked out very well over the next few days, but first she went into the city on the maglev train, and spent an entire day there buying everything three people would need to survive alone in the wilds. She added ropes, lights, and other things needed to explore caves the right way. Tei’Burgton insisted they take emergency beacons with them, and Shima agreed, but they were the kind that transmitted when turned on and not before. Shima herself had insisted upon that. She had often taken one with her when hunting on Harmony and prided herself upon never using it. She would not start now.

For five days, Shima and the others explored the caves along the coast and just inland. Shima did enjoy it, but that wasn’t why she went. It was for Chailen and Sharn, a small beginning on the debt she owed them. She didn’t bring up her reasons of course; they were family and would be insulted, but Shima felt that she had let Chailen down this past orbit. By letting herself fall into a funk, she had put a greater burden than necessary upon her sib and her mate at the worst possible time. Their world, like that of so many others, had ended when the Merki came. Chailen had lost her father, her mate barely made a living for them by scavenging and trading trash for food, and on top of all that her sib had been suicidal and needed constant watching. This was a chance to put things back into order, to roll back time to before the war when Shima looked after Chailen not the other way around.

The days passed.

Shima hunted and supplied the camp with fresh meat. It was good exercise after so long. Her muscles ached, and she slept well, but already she could feel her strength returning. It would take time, but not too much time as the gravity of Snakeholme made a simple walk a real work out here. They moved camp three times as they explored. To Shima one cave system would have satisfied her, but Sharn wanted to compare each one and planned to come back to explore them all more thoroughly later.

Chailen enjoyed herself and seemed more relaxed than she had in a very long time.

They returned to the base satisfied and considered their time well spent, but Shima was not happy to learn that Varya and Kazim had returned briefly while she was away, and had left again. It was as if they were trying to avoid her on purpose! Well, she would see about that!

The day after her return to the base, Shima dressed herself in her hunting harness, and added the emergency beacon to it. She left her translator in her room. Her English was more than good enough now, and if she became stuck, Gina’s Shan was excellent despite her odd accent. All the vipers spoke Shan well, even those who had never uttered a word of it. Their internal computer systems translated in real time.