Stories of the Confederated Star Systems (16 page)

The three overfathers came to the same conclusion, and Overfather Scelet voiced it. {“It wants us to follow it somewhere.”}

{“Szekely,”} Overfather Szefon said as he stood, {“stay with your counterpart and only join us if he does.”}

Szekely sat back down and looked at Eric. {“Is it always like this for you as well, strange friend?”} he asked and saw the stranger look up at him.

Eric stayed seated and looked up at the native. “We’ve got to make some progress. I wonder what you’d think if I really showed you my teeth?” He glanced around, but no one was paying any attention to him now, so he opened his mouth and ran a finger around his lower teeth, then motioned for the native to try it.

Szekely was shocked at first, but soon got the idea that the creature was just trying to compare their bodies. He accepted the invitation and closely examined the creature’s teeth and was puzzled. Its teeth were a mixture of shapes, some obviously for grinding like an herbivore and some for cutting like a carnivore. Throwing caution to the wind, he opened his own mouth wide and showed his teeth to the stranger.

Eric almost pulled back, but iron resolve and a feeling of nothing left to lose made him lean forward and take a close look. Those, he decided, are definitely carnivore’s teeth. He caught the native’s attention, then slowly reached out and stroked the fur on its arm. It was silky-smooth and soft, like a cat, and he could feel muscle under the fur.

Szekely returned the touch, touching the bare skin of Eric’s hand, then face, then hair and finally the cloth of his shirt and pants. The creature got his attention at one point and pulled the material of its upper covering tight and pointed at the lines. Then it got some twigs and did something with them. After a moment Szekely recognized that it was weaving them, like the basket makers did with reeds, and the thin blue line that Overfather Jvel had pulled made sense. The coverings were woven of thin pieces of some material.

Feeling about to burst with excitement, he stood and motioned for Eric to stand as well. When they were both erect, Szekely motioned to where the overfathers were trying to confer with the chief of the strangers. Eric got the idea and walked toward the command tent with the tall native at his side. When he was close he spoke.

“Sir, I think this one and I have discovered a few things about one another.”

Szekely was chittering at the same time. {“My Overfathers, these are strange people. They have carnivore’s teeth and herbivore’s teeth together. And their coverings are woven like baskets, only they used very fine material, almost like long hairs.”}

Commander Steinman and the older-looking natives turned to give them both almost identical stares. After a moment, Overfather Szefon turned back to Commander Steinman and tilted his head to the side. {“I have been trying to determine how they survived the ragna. I think that is a more important bit of information than what their teeth look like.”}

Overfather Scelet agreed and tried once again to get the information across, looking at the leader of the strangers and pantomiming swatting at something and being bitten.

“It’s the bugs, sir,” Eric said softly. “They’re asking about the bugs.”

“How we survived them, I’ll bet,” Commander Steinman agreed.

Eric looked at Lieutenant Ian and motioned her over. “Jen take off your bandage. Let them see that the bugs did get us. Then we can turn on the fields and show them how we survived.”

Lieutenant Ian did as she was asked and the four natives examined her wound carefully. {“They were attacked, yet they survived.”} Overfather Scelet said softly.

“All hands stand clear,” Eric said loudly, turning his head to speak to the sailors around him. “Repulser fields are coming up.” When the area under the edges of the awnings was clear, he said, “Raise the fields, please. Minimum power.”

There was a hum and crackle and the natives reacted by stepping back. Overfather Jvel shook his head violently and sneezed. {“What is that stench? It’s like when the sky-bolts fall and strike nearby.”} The leader of the creatures caught his attention and tossed a piece of wood about twice the size of a ragna toward the center of their camp and it bounced off thin air at the edge of the covered area. {“Did you see that? Did you see what happened?”}

{“We saw, Scelet. They have some way to stop things from entering their camp.”} Overfather Szefon stepped cautiously forward and was stopped by the leader of the creatures. It raised its hand and held it flat, then slowly moved forward. There was a crackling and hissing sound, and bright little lights showed around its fingers. The tang of a sky-bolt filled the air.

Overfather Szefon stepped forward and copied the creature’s gesture. The shock when he touched the invisible force was terrifying. Behind such walls of air the strangers would be invulnerable to attack. {“These are clever creatures, my friends. Very clever.”}

Commander Steinman looked over and commanded, “Fields down,” and walked forward when the tech signaled all-clear. He stopped exactly where the field had been to show his visitors that it was safe, and they all cautiously stepped forward under the awning. He led the way to one of the computer stations and signaled for Lieutenant Ian to take the seat.

“Ian, call up a view of the planet from space.” He waited until the image was clear, then pointed at the ground and made an all-encompassing gesture around them. “This is your world. Back off a bit so they can see the star,” he commanded and the circle on the monitor shrank. He pointed at the star and then at the sun shining brightly above them. There was some agitation among the natives, but they quickly calmed themselves. “Put a circle around the star, then back way off until you can spot a Confederate planet.” Again Lieutenant Ian did as she was commanded. Soon all that could be seen of the star was the circle marking its position, and she put another circle around the star Valhalla. “All right, zoom in. Which did you pick, anyway?”

“Valhalla. Planet Thor is pretty close to this one as far as the major flora goes.” She zoomed the view and the natives got excited as the disk of a planet became visible. Lieutenant Ian kept zooming in, taking them down to the planetary surface and showing a forest full of large trees.

{“Did you see that?”} Szefon asked softly. {“They know what Savalin looks like from far above. This is another place, possibly their home.”} He looked at his fellow overfathers and the strange creatures for a moment. {“They came from another world, my friends. Another place where there is life.”}

{“The sacred scrolls speak of such places, Szefon,”} Overfather Jvel said softly. {“Of the Forerunners, those who came and taught our ancestors of the stars. Of the places they called home, so far away across the seas of nothingness.”}

{“Could these be the Forerunners?”} Szekely asked and all three overfathers rounded on him.

{“No, of course not!”} Overfather Szefon snarled. {“They look nothing like the description in the sacred scrolls. Now be quiet, Szekely.”}

“Sir, they understand this,” Lieutenant Ian said softly while the natives chittered. “They aren’t awed or confused. They know what it means.”

“It would appear so, Lieutenant. It would appear so. I have to inform the captain. He’s really going to want to come down here for this.” Commander Steinman stepped away and went to the communications station. “Get me the captain.”

Captain Corban was on the screen in moments, and Commander Steinman relayed the information as quickly as possible. The captain’s reaction was predictable. “I’m coming down. Make sure I have someplace to land.”

It was just twenty minutes later that thunder rolled across the sky, making the natives look up. “Let’s take them outside so they can see the captain land,” Lieutenant Ian suggested, and Commander Steinman agreed, leading their guests out to watch the shuttle sweep in over the forest.

{“It is as described in the sacred scrolls. They come on pillars of fire, bringing with them gifts of knowledge and lore.”} Overfather Scelet said, flattening his ears to his head to block out some of the sound.

A great-
something
-landed not far from the creature’s camp and all of them went to meet it. A creature in the blood-blue coverings they had begun associating with the leaders of these creatures came from an opening in the side of the thing and all of the creatures stood stiffly erect with their arms straight at their sides. The creature walked straight up to them and stopped, looking up at each in turn before speaking to its subordinates.

“Please tell me we haven’t screwed this up.”

Commander Steinman smiled broadly. “No, sir! No, we haven’t screwed up this time. As far as we can tell, these three are elders of some kind. The fourth one is, I’m guessing of course, a kid. At least they treat him like one. Actually, he and Eric seem to be a lot alike.”

{“He’s talking about you, and your new friend, Szekely,”} Overfather Szefon said in an amused tone.

Without realizing it, both Szekely and Eric had assumed almost identical poses of embarrassment as the laughter of two peoples, creatures of different worlds, echoed across the clearing. And that was just the beginning of the friendship between the Cavvelat and humans.

“Szekely” © 2004

Even in the future, people are still going to be people, and some will drop off the grid for reasons of their own-and there’ll always be some officious busy-body who wants to “save” them.

Planet Danabia,

Orion Sector,

Confederated Star Systems

T
HE DANABIAN PLANETARY HEALTH AGENCY CHOSE
the year 357 AL, 3569 CE by Old Earth reckoning, to launch an anti-alcohol program in an effort to save their population from the deleterious effects of strong drink. It never occurred to the Health Agency bureaucrats that some people might not want to be saved. People like Anders Potemkin.

Anders was a drunk. That’s all he wanted to be. He said he had his reasons for drinking, but he never elaborated, and no one ever asked him to explain. He wasn’t unique. Half the denizens of the Pub-Bar and Grill were habitual drunks who just hung around all day, spending their money on cheap synthetic booze and rotting their brains away. For Anders, at least, that was entirely intentional.

A well-dressed young woman with the lapel pin of the DPHA entered the Pub and looked around, consulting the PalmComp in her hand when she thought she had found her target. She looked back and forth between the man and the image on the screen several times before nodding once sharply and walking up to the bar beside him.

“Excuse me, sir. Are you Ander S. Potemkin?” she asked.

“Nope,” Anders replied without looking at her.

“Are you certain, sir? Your bio-scan and appearance match Ander S. Potemkin.”

“Nope,” Anders replied again.

“Sir, you cannot fool the bio-comp or me,” the young woman said in a sharp, business-like tone. “You
are
Ander S. Potemkin.”

“No, young lady, I am not,” Anders replied, finally turning to face her. “I am Anders No-Middle-Name Potemkin.” He surveyed her critically, liking what he saw. She was slim, but not boney, and her face was made up in the current high-class style. He shook his head, then turned back to the bar. “What does Planetary Health want with me now?”

The young woman was blinking rapidly and took a step back, looking at her screen. “Anders Potemkin? I’m sure it’s Ander S. Potemkin. That’s what all the records say.”

“Your records are as screwed up as everything else on this forgotten hunk of space debris,” Anders muttered.

“I hardly think a planet with a population of over two billion constitutes a ‘forgotten hunk of space debris’ by anyone’s definition, sir,” the young woman snapped.

Anders smirked as he turned back toward her. “Offended you, did I? Good. Now take your offense and go away.”

“No, I will not go away. Mister Potemkin, however the rest of your name is formed, it has been determined by the Planetary Health Agency that you are in danger of drinking yourself to death. As this is a form of suicide, and indicative of an unbalanced mind, it has been determined by DPHA that you are in need of counseling and intervention to prevent your demise. I am Doctor Carin D. Cassini, DPHA Mental Health Division, and I have been assigned to help you recover and return to society.”

Anders didn’t bother to turn toward her as he answered. “Screw society. I have no interest in recovering anything. I live off my own savings, so there’s no ‘burden’ placed on the teaming masses. I have my reasons for being here.”

“Let’s start there then, shall we?” Doctor Cassini said as she started to sit down.

“Don’t sit there,” Anders snapped, stopping her.

“I will sit where
I
choose, sir,” Doctor Cassini said in a carefully controlled tone.

“Suit yourself,” Anders said and picked up his drink.

Doctor Cassini made a sharp motion with her head and climbed into the seat and plopped down. It took just a moment before she jumped back out of the seat with a startled squeal of protest. “What is that?” she almost shouted.

“That’s Lenny’s seat. He tends to piss himself,” Anders answered without turning.

“Why didn’t you…”

“I told you not to sit there,” Anders interrupted. “Now you’ve got a wet butt and smell like an old man with bad kidneys. That’s the problem with kids. Don’t listen. Think you know it all. There you are, fresh out of school, shiny new doctorate in your hand, ready to take on the world. You’re always so sure you know all the answers. Everything was right there in your school books.” Anders turned and looked at her with one eye. “Let me tell you a story about a freshly-minted young PhD on the planet Zarafal.”

“I can hardly see what a PhD on Zarafal has to do with anything. Zarafal is a dead world, and I can’t imagine why anyone would want to devote the time to earn a doctorate about it,” Doctor Cassini said as she moved to his other side. “Can I sit in this seat?”

“Suit yourself,” Anders said with a shrug. “Nothing worse than spilled beer in that one.”