Delphi Castaways

Delphi in Space

Book Sixteen

Bob Blanton

Chapter 1

Kansas

Jason slowly regained consciousness as Zephyr, the AI in his Hyrax spacefighter, brought him out of stasis.  “What the hell,” he thought.  He started to check his fighter out; things seemed normal, well, except that his fighter’s right wing was trashed, its missiles gone.  He struggled to remember what happened.  They were fighting the Thoreans in the Thorean system.  His squadron had been doing fast flybys to rake one of the Thorean cruisers.  They had entered a wormhole to jump across the system so they could do another pass.  He’d come out of the wormhole and hit something.  That shouldn’t have happened!

As he checked his instruments, he noticed a second Hyrax flying in formation with him.  “Miranda?  It has to be; we went through the wormhole together.”

“Bravo 1, checking in,” he radioed.

“Bravo 1, this is Bravo 2; welcome back, Sleeping Beauty,” Miranda radioed.

“How long has it been?” Jason asked.

“Five weeks.”

“Geez, that doesn’t make sense.”

“Well, our AIs automatically put us into stasis.  I think you must have sustained some kind of head injury since it kept you under for so long.  I’ve been waking up every five days to check out the situation.  We’re coasting next to where we exited the wormhole.”

“What the hell did we hit?”

“It looked like a couple of probes.  Matilda, my fighter’s AI, managed to destroy the probe on my side before I hit it, but you actually hit the probe over by you.  Matilda destroyed it before you spun into it again, but you were in the way at first.”

“Yeah, I see that in my logs here,” Jason said as he continued to review the logs.  “I don’t hear anyone else on my Comm.  The damage on my fighter isn’t too bad, but it looks like my quantum relay lost its coupling.”

“I was afraid of that.  Matilda keeps saying that there is no relay available, but I’ve been hoping she’s wrong.”

“Wishful thinking, but no dice.  Any idea where we are?”

“I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure it’s not Kansas.”

“Damn, without a relay, we’re stuck here until someone comes looking for us.”

“Do you think someone will?”

“Sure.  They’ll have to launch a search and rescue.”

“I’m sure they did, but that would have been weeks ago.  We’re still here, and nobody has shown up to rescue us.”

“They will.”

“What makes you think so?”

“Well, a couple of reasons.  First, the probes we hit must belong to someone; maybe they’ll come looking to see what happened.  And second, us dropping off the grid will drive Catie nuts until she can figure out what happened.”

“But will there be enough clues?” Miranda asked.

“Catie’s pretty tenacious.  But until then, what should we do?”

“We could just go back into stasis again and hope to wait it out.”

“Ugh, I’m not in favor of that,” Jason said, sniffing at his ship suit.  “What about heading in system?  Is there a planet in the Goldilocks zone?”

“I don’t know, but I haven’t picked up any EM signals coming from the system.”

“That’s odd, given that there were a couple of probes out here,” Jason said.

“Maybe someone was looking to colonize the place.  Matilda just identified a promising planet.  Right size.”

“Great, then I vote for going in for a look.  We’ll be in stasis, but at least we’ll be doing something.”

“What’s the best-case scenario?” Miranda asked.

“Someone shows up and rescues us.”

“I’m not optimistic on that.  Next case?”

“That planet is habitable, and we hang out there.  I’d rather not spend the rest of my life in stasis.”

“You’re the boss.”

Jason realized that she was right, he was the boss; as the squadron leader, he was in charge, even if the squadron was just him and Miranda.

“I’ll tell Zephyr to take us to that planet; you follow.”

“Yes, sir,” Miranda said.

“Zephyr has the course laid in.  I’ll talk to you again in two weeks.”

“Got it.  Goodnight, Sleeping Beauty,” Miranda said.

Jason laughed.  He’d get even with Miranda for that Sleeping Beauty comment, but right now, he needed to focus on the immediate future.  He flipped the switch that would put him into stasis for two weeks.

◆ ◆ ◆

Two weeks later, Jason and Miranda woke up orbiting a planet, the second from the system’s star.

“What do you think?” Jason asked.

“Well, it looks pretty good,” Miranda said.  “I’m still not picking up any EM signals.  We need to get closer so our cameras can pick up details, but I’m pretty sure I see cities.”

“I think I do too.  But just on the two adjoining continents.  The one isolated by seas on both sides doesn’t seem to have any.”

“Right.”

“Let’s go down closer and do a survey.  We need to decide where we’re going to live for the next few months.”

“Months?” Miranda asked.  “I thought you said Catie would find us.”

“She will, but it’ll take time.  It might take years,” Jason whispered.  “Let’s drop to 420 kilometers above the planet's surface; that way, our telescopes will give us details.”

“You got it,” Miranda acknowledged.  She and Jason weren’t sticking to any military protocol; it seemed foolish, given their situation.  “I assume you want to set the orbital inclination to around fifty degrees.”

“Right, that should give us a mapping of the planet in two days.  Are you planning to stay awake?”

“I don’t think so.  I’d like to minimize awake time in this shipsuit until I can take it off and wash it.”

“And take a bath.”

“That goes without saying.  Talk to you in two days.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Two days later, Jason and Miranda were flying next to each other as they reviewed the data.

“They sure look human to me,” Jason said.

“I agree, but the Onisiwoens look pretty human as well.  We’ll have to see.”

“I wonder…”

“What?” Miranda asked.

“Could this be another Helike?”

“What does that mean?”

“You know some aliens seeded Helike with people from Earth.  Maybe they decided to seed another planet.”

“Whatever for?”

“No idea.  Now, where should we land?  I see four main continents; the big one is a bit like Eurasia, then there’s one like Africa below it.  Then in the middle of the oceans are the two that look like North and South America,” Jason said.  “Plus, there’s that small one down south, kind of like Australia.”

“Sure, we can refer to them like that.  Eurasia looks like it’s heavily populated.  Lots of castles.”

“Eurasia, I like that.  You know, castles mean war.  I see wagons driving around; I’m guessing the Iron Age.  No really big cities, so before the industrial revolution.”

“Agreed.  The Americas don’t seem very heavily populated — villages along both coasts, some inland along the rivers.  No wagons, no large structures, I’m guessing stone age.  It looks like the guys from Eurasia haven’t made it there yet,” Miranda said.

“Maybe not, but they seem to have pretty big ships.  Like 1500s Europe.  I suspect that they could make the trip.”

“But why bother?  They have that big continent, plus the African one.  It’s not that densely populated,” Miranda argued.

“Makes sense.  Do you have a suggestion?”

“We could try out that smaller continent in the Southwest.  It doesn’t look like anyone lives there.”

“Do you really want to spend that much time with just me to talk to?” Jason asked.

“Well, I’m pretty sure you won’t try to kill me.  And we’re not going to be able to understand them anyway.”

“Well, not at first.”

“Understand them or kill me?”

“Probably both.  But we would learn their language eventually, and our Comms will build up a translation program with help from Zephyr.  Plus, it would keep us from getting bored to death.”

“Then I vote for the Americas,” Miranda said.  “If we don’t like them, we can probably find somewhere in the middle where we would be isolated.”

“Okay.  Plus, they don’t seem to have firearms, so we’ll be safer.”

“So, the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question is, ‘How do we get down?’”

“We land one of them?”

“Why just one?”

“Because it might be good for us to have a satellite we could use.  So, leaving mine in orbit makes sense.  We could land them both, then send yours back up.  But then we’re at risk of not having a way off the planet if something happens.”

“How would we land one?  These Hyraxes aren’t designed to land on a planet.  The wings are too small.”

“I know.  The only reason these things have wings is so there’s a place to mount missiles.  But I’ve done it before.”

“You have?”

“Sure, Catie showed me how.  We did it a couple of times for laughs.”

“Isn’t that against regulations?”

“You do remember who Catie is?”

“Oh, that princess card.”

“Right.  So do you want to fly, or should I?”

“You, but how are you going to get over here?”

“Well, you have to open the canopy and crawl into the cargo section behind the seat.  Then I’ll jump over and get in.”

Miranda looked over her shoulder at the cargo section.  “Will I even fit?”

“Sure, I’ve done it.  Or you could fly it?”

“No, you fly,” Miranda sighed.  “Are you ready; should I open up?”

“Wait a bit.  I want to grab the survival pack from here and set Zephyr up so we can control him from the planet.”

A few minutes later, Jason pushed off from his Hyrax and sailed over to Miranda’s.  He handed her his pack, then climbed down into the cockpit.  He lowered the canopy and waited while the cockpit repressurized.

When the cockpit was pressurized, he pulled the bubble off his head.  He still had his flight helmet on, but now he could remove the oxygen mask and talk.  He waved at Miranda as he pulled it off.  “Are you ready to do this?”

“Not really, but why wait?  Take her down.”

“Preference on which coast?”

“East.”

“That’s what I was thinking.  There’s that big lake up in the mountains just inland from the coast.  I think we should start there.  We’ll hike to the coast once we’re acclimated.”

“Agreed.”

“Then, here we go.

Chapter 2

The Planet

Jason brought the Hyrax down on its tail.  As they got close to the ground, he used the plasma cannon to create a channel in the ground close to the lake.  Then he set the Hyrax down inside the channel, cutting power at the last second, so it settled to the ground with only a slight bump.  The channel was much deeper where the tail set down.

“Nice job,” Miranda said as she tossed a survival bag on top of Jason’s head.  “Can you open the canopy?  My muscles are cramping up back here.”

Jason popped the canopy and climbed out, dragging the survival bag with him.  He dumped the bag's contents on the ground and started sorting it.

“Why don’t you just look the contents up on your Comm?” Miranda asked.

“Not sure I’d trust it.  These are supposed to be the same as the Foxes, but since a Hyrax isn’t supposed to ever land on a planet, I’m worried that the crew chiefs have been economizing.”

“Well?”

“Doesn’t look like it.  It’s got a communication relay; a popup tent; water purification tablets; a bunch of freeze-dried food and energy bars; a small solar array to charge our comms; a laser-railgun combo — the array should be able to recharge its laser; compass; knife; flashlight; emergency blanket; some rope; a poncho; multitool; perimeter kit; a hatchet; a pair of binoculars; a hygiene kit; a flip shovel; and a first aid kit.”

“That’s nice, but you look disappointed.”

“The shovel’s kind of small.  It’s going to be hard to dig with.”

“Why do you care?”

“We have to bury the Hyrax.  A big shovel would come in handy.”

“Are you serious?” Miranda gasped.

“Yeah, we can’t have the locals coming up and finding it.  It might blow their minds, plus, we’d never be able to get close to it again if they did.”

“So we’ll just have to make do with the small shovels.”

“No, I think I’ll make a bigger one.”  With that, he grabbed the laser pistol and hatchet and headed toward the woods.

Miranda stepped up beside Jason as he made his way into the trees.  It took about ten minutes of walking before he found a large branch that had fallen off a tree.  He adjusted the beam on the laser pistol and then used it to cut one end off.  Then he stepped 1½ meters off and started to cut the other end off.

“That’s going to be a long shovel,” Miranda said.

“You can always make it shorter,” Jason said, “but you can’t make it longer once you cut it.”  He started to bevel one end when the laser pistol quit.  “Damn.  Did you bring yours?”

“No.”

Jason shook his head and used the hatchet to bevel the end the rest of the way.  Then he wrapped the rope around the log, wrapped the other end around his waist, and started dragging it back toward the Hyrax.

“Do you want some help?” Miranda asked.

“No, I’ve got it.  Here,” Jason handed her the pistol.  “Make sure nothing sneaks up on us.”

Miranda switched the pistol to slug mode, then followed Jason.  She felt a little foolish; she’d forgotten that they had to be on the lookout for wild animals.  The sensors had shown them that there weren’t any people in the area — but wolves?  She needed to get her head back in the game.  This was mind blowing, but damnit, she was a Lieutenant JG in Delphi Forces, and she needed to start acting like one.

“Okay, you set up a perimeter with the sensors, and I’ll finish the shovel,” Jason said.

Miranda grabbed the security alarms from both survival kits.  “I’m going to set up two perimeters, inner and outer,” Miranda explained to Jason.  “That way, we can adjust the settings if we want to.  Otherwise, every fox that walks by will be waking us up.”

Jason just nodded in agreement as he grabbed Miranda’s laser pistol and went back to work on his shovel.

◆ ◆ ◆

With the shovel ready, Jason started to dig between the lake shore and the trench holding the Hyrax.  He dumped the sand he was digging out to the side of the ditch.

“Are you going to tell me what you’re doing?” Miranda asked.

“I already told you; I’m burying the Hyrax.”

“With water?”

“No, sand.”

“Then why aren’t you dumping the sand into the hole?”

“Because I don’t want to waste any, the lake will fill it up to this level, the same level as the water; then we’ll need to fill it the rest of the way using this sand and some more dirt we dig up to bury it the rest of the way.”

“How is the lake going to fill the hole with anything but water?”

Jason gave out a sigh.  “Because the waves push the sand around.  When I was a kid, we used to go to the beach south of Seattle.  There was a rock shaped like a ship that I liked to play on.  Some days we’d come to the beach, and the rock would almost be buried.  Other days, it would be three feet tall.  Sand comes, sand goes; it’s the way of all beaches.”

“Is that a fact?”

Jason stopped digging where he was and went to the edge of the water.  He dug a small hole, then went back to digging his ditch.  “Watch, it’ll be filled with sand in a minute or two.”

Sure enough, in a minute, the hole was mostly filled with sand.  “Okay, I believe you.  Do you want to switch off?”

“Sure.”  Jason handed the shovel to Miranda and sat down.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Finished!”  Miranda’s pronouncement woke Jason up from his nap.  He sat up and watched as the water poured through the channel filling the hole.  It was only a few minutes before the Hyrax was covered with water.

“How long?” Miranda asked.

“I assume you mean how long until it’s filled with sand.”

“Yes.”

“A few days, probably.”

“What do we do in the meantime?”

“I’m going to work on a sled so that we can drag more dirt over here.  You might want to take a bath.”

“What are you implying?!”

“Nothing, I’m just going to be busy for a while, and it’s getting late.”

Miranda grabbed a hygiene kit and headed toward the water.  “Stay away from the lake,” she warned Jason.

Jason shook his head.  He liked Miranda, but he wasn’t sure what to make of her.  They were both friends with Catie, but they’d known her at different times and had never hung out with her together.  He first met Miranda when she joined his squadron two months ago.

If he was honest, she intimidated him a bit.  She had much more formal military experience than he did.  She’d been at the U.S. Naval Academy for three years before she’d had an accident.  She’d come to Delphi to get her neck fixed and joined the academy.  The only reason Jason outranked her was that he was involved with the Delphi Space Forces before they were actually a force, before there was a Delphi Nation.  He’d won the Delphi Cross back in the Paraxean war when he’d volunteered to be part of Catie’s crazy Odin’s Fist attack on the Paraxean cruiser.  But Miranda, she lived and breathed military . . .

◆ ◆ ◆

A few days later, Miranda shoveled the last bit of sand onto the pile.  “Okay, it’s buried.  Now what?”  She made a point of stomping on the dirt, causing water to squish up.  Jason’s method of prefilling the hole with sand also meant that the sand was saturated with water.

“Oh, ye of little faith.  Matilda, heat your hull to 120C,” Jason ordered the Hyrax’s AI.  Soon steam was rising from the ground.

“I forgot it could do that.”

“When it’s dried out, we’ll pile a bit more dirt on it and bring in some shrubs to make it look more natural.  We should be finished tomorrow.”

“Good.  Are you going to catch something for dinner?”

“Yes.  You go that way and take your bath, and I’ll go this way and get us a fish.”

Miranda gave Jason a look to let him know that he’d better not come back her way.  Jason shook his head.  She was a bit of a prude, or maybe she actually felt vulnerable.  Whatever, she’d soon figure out she could trust him.

◆ ◆ ◆

When Miranda came back from her bath, Jason was already cooking two fish over the fire.

“That was fast.”

“Yep, they almost hit my hook before it hit the water.  They must have been hungry.”

Miranda sat down and shook out her hair.  It was still damp from her bath.  She edged a bit closer to the fire.

“Jason, Catie once told me you were blinded in high school.”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m here.  A high school prank went a bit too far and pretty much blinded me.  I could get around if I was careful, but it killed my shot at the academy, and it ended my flying days.”

“So your dad came here to get you fixed up.  How did he connect with them?”  Jason’s father was an admiral in Delphi Forces now.

“Fred and my dad flew together.”

“Fred?”  Fred was one of the first people the McCormacks brought into their company.  He was now the president of MacKenzies.

“Yeah, what luck, huh?  Catie and I became friends, and since we both love to fly, she gave me a chance to fly all the spaceplanes.  That’s why I was a pilot in the war.  I’d been flying longer than most other people there.”

“That was lucky,” Miranda said as the pieces finally fit together.  She’d always wondered how a twenty something guy had become such a big deal during the Paraxean war.  Being friends with Catie wouldn’t have been enough.

“Didn’t you know Catie at the Academy?” Jason asked

“Not really.  I knew Alex MacGregor, Catie’s alias.  She ran a study group for one of the classes I was struggling with.  Her roommate, Yvette, and I were friends.”

Jason nodded.  He’d heard something about that.  He’d definitely heard about Yvette.

“Why didn’t you go to the Academy when Catie did?” Miranda asked.

“I wanted to, but since Catie was going as Alex, they figured that if I were there, we would blow her cover.  We knew each other too well.”

“So, you waited.”

“Yeah, but I got to keep flying.  It was no big deal.”

“Did you guys ever date?”

Jason snorted a laugh.  “No.  We’re buddies, more like siblings.  And dating Catie would have been weird.”

Miranda nodded as she continued to try and place Jason in the hierarchy of Delphi Forces.  She’d just joined his squadron, but they’d never really talked.  He wasn’t unfriendly, but they didn’t hang out with the same crowd.

“So, how is this going to work?”

“How’s what going to work?”

“You’re my CO.  We’re here on this planet.  What are the rules?”

Oh, that explained the awkwardness Jason had sensed.  Miranda, Cadet Commandant, Ms. Protocol didn’t know what the rules were.  She’d been shooting for casual, but now she needed to know.

“I’m not sure,” Jason said.  “We’ll play it by ear.  If there is something important, we talk.  If we agree, then good.  If we don’t, then we keep talking.  If it’s a big deal, I guess I’ll make the call.  But I’m sure you’ll be able to talk sense into me if I don’t make the right call.”

“So?”

Jason shook his head.  “So, you can yell at me.  Call me an idiot.  I’m not going to pull rank on you about anything but the final decision.”

Miranda gave a visible sigh.  It had obviously been bothering her.

“What about us?”

“I hope we’re friends.  We’ll have to make a point to check in on that every few months.  Depends on how long we’re stuck here.”

“And your estimate of how long that’s going to be?”

“Like I said, months to a year, maybe two.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Well, our signal went out when we came out of the wormhole.  It’s traveling at the speed of light.  We’re probably somewhere in a bubble 30 to 40 lightyears across, with Thorea at the center.  The first month, that’s like,” Jason paused as he sent a request to Zephyr, “millions of potential hit points for a probe to find us.  But after six months, it drops to around sixty-four thousand.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better.”

Jason laughed.  “But after a year, it’s only eight thousand.  Catie can probably get a few probes to jump around.  Eight thousand hits in a year’s not too bad.  At two years, it’s only one thousand.”

“That sounds better, but that’s assuming that you're right and we didn’t jump over twenty lightyears.”

“True, but it’s hard to believe that the Françoise could have projected a wormhole farther than that.”

“Okay.  So, six to eighteen months.  I think I can last that long.  And hey, we should be like geniuses here.  If we can get the locals to accept us, we can do amazing things to help improve their lives.”

“That’s what I think.  They look human.  I’m really betting they are.  Whatever happened in Helike, I think the same thing has happened here.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Jason and Miranda had finally finished fixing up the area above the Hyrax.  They’d planted a few bushes and raked the dirt.  It looked pretty natural.  Miranda had gone off to take another bath, and being the gentleman he was, Jason decided to give her privacy and take a nap until it was his turn.

Jason was just waking from his nap, enjoying the sun on his face, when the warmth of the sun went away.  A cloud, he assumed.  He stretched a little and opened his eyes.

“Holy smokes!” Jason gasped.  A young girl was squatting down, looking at him.  Her dark brown eyes were gazing into his.  He smiled while he typed furiously on his tailboard.

“Miranda, why is there a little girl looking at me?”

“What do you mean?”

“I was taking a nap.  When I woke up, I see this little girl staring into my eyes.”

“How do you know it’s a little girl?”

“She’s squatting in front of me wearing a little dress.”

“Boys wear dresses . . . Oh!  Never mind.  Sorry, I excluded you from the perimeter while I was bathing.  She must have wandered over.”

“Thanks; I’m so glad you were willing to sacrifice me to the wolves just to maintain your privacy.”

“I still have the outer perimeter set.  I saw it go off, I queried Zephyr and he said it wasn’t anything dangerous,” Miranda said, defending herself.

“Nonetheless, we obviously have visitors.”  Jason smiled at the little girl again.  He reached down, looking for something to distract her.  His hand touched the bar of chocolate he’d eaten a square from before he fell asleep.  He broke a piece off and slowly brought it to his face.  He took a little nibble, then handed it to the girl.

She grasped the piece of chocolate and pulled it to her face.  She smelled it, and then she licked it.  Satisfied, she stood up and took a bite as she wandered off.

“Is she still there?”

“She’s heading off.  She’s going south,” Jason replied.

“Oh, probably the snowberries.”

“What?”

“There are a bunch of plants that look like snowberries down south.  They just started to lose their leaves.  The natives probably came up here to pick them.”

“Great,” Jason said.  He grabbed the binoculars and a laser pistol and started to search for the natives.  He could still see the little girl walking along the lakeshore.  He watched as she walked away from the lake toward the trees.  Actually, she was probably heading toward the bushes in front of the trees.  Jason moved toward the trees.  He wanted to stay out of sight; who knew how many people had come to pick the snowberries?

“I’m in the trees, about three hundred meters behind you,” Miranda Commed.

“Good, I’m moving toward the trees.  I still don’t see anyone else,” Jason replied.

Jason saw the little girl walk through the bushes; she was small enough to fit under the branches.  Suddenly, she screamed.

“What’s happening?” Miranda asked.

“I don’t know,” Jason said as he ran toward the scream.  He fought his way through the bushes.  “Damn!”

“What?”

“Bears!”  Jason skidded to a stop.  The little girl was standing there looking at a big bear-like animal, bear was close enough.  The bear didn’t seem to be too happy.  It was snorting and roaring at the girl.  Jason looked around.  “Oh, shit.  She’s between a mama bear and her cubs,” Jason Commed.

“Can you kill the bear?” Miranda asked.

“Maybe, but I’d rather not chance it.  Who knows how thick her skull is?”

Jason checked out the two cubs.  They were getting pretty big, probably six or seven months old.  And like all teenagers, they were ignoring their mother as they kept raking snowberries off of the bushes and eating them.

“Hmm, I wonder,” Jason thought.  He aimed his laser pistol at one of the cubs and fired.  The laser was set on low, so it only singed the cub's fur, but it squealed.

The little girl turned around and looked at the cub.  She kept looking back over her shoulder at the mama bear, who was still snorting.

Jason fired at the other cub and then hit the first one again.  Both cubs squealed and quit messing with the bushes.  They turned toward their mother and the little girl.

The little girl started crying and shaking.  She didn’t know what to do.  Jason could tell she wanted to run.

“Shhh, just relax,” Jason cooed; he motioned with his hands for her to stay put.  “Stay right there.”  He shot the first cub again.  It squealed, then started toward its mother.  Jason started to fire at the second cub, but it was already following its sibling.

“What’s happening?” Miranda Commed.

“I’m trying to get the cubs to go back to their mother.  I think once they’re on the same side of the girl, then I can probably persuade the mother to move on,” Jason replied.

“I’m almost there; I should be able to help with the mother if you can wait.”

“Keep coming, but be quiet.”

“Of course.”

Finally, the two cubs were with their mother, but she was still staring at the little girl, growling, and snorting.

“What the hell, in for a penny,” Jason thought as he aimed at the mother’s nose and fired a low-energy beam.

She growled, looked at Jason and the little girl, then turned and sauntered off.  Her cubs were already well ahead of her, moving into the forest.  She moved slowly as if telling Jason, ‘I’m leaving because I want to, not because of you.’

“She’s safe,” Jason messaged.

“You do realize you have company?”

“What?”  Jason looked around.  About one hundred meters away, a group of people stared at him.  A woman was being held by a man while another man had an arrow nocked and pointed at Jason.

The man released the woman and she immediately ran toward the little girl, who immediately started to run toward her.

“Probably her mother,” Jason thought.

The man with the bow kept staring at Jason.  As the girl ran into the woman’s arms, Jason opened his hands palm first and held them at his waist.  He looked the man in the face, trying hard not to look too challenging.

The man still had his arrow nocked but hadn’t drawn the bow.  Someone called to him from the group the little girl had run to.  He ignored them.

Jason wondered how to defuse the situation.  The guy couldn’t know how Jason had gotten the bears to leave or if it was even him that did it.  Keeping his eyes on the man’s face, Jason took a step backward.  After a moment, the man also took a step backward.

“You got me covered?” Jason messaged.

“Yes.”

With that, Jason turned around and slowly walked back toward their camp.

“What’s he doing?”

“He’s watching you.  . . . Now, he’s turning around and walking over to the group.”

“Good.  Let’s go back to camp.  We need to decide what we’ll do about the natives.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“What do you think?” Miranda asked once she and Jason settled in.

“We need to decide if we should try and join them.  We need to start heading toward the coast.  It’s going to get cold up here once winter sets in.”

“They look human.”

“Yes, I’m pretty sure they are.  Like I said, this has to be another Helike, but why?”

“I don’t know.  But do you think they’ll welcome us?” Miranda asked

“You’d think that after the bears, they’d be willing to give us a chance.  And their population is pretty dense at the coast; I don’t think we’d be able to avoid them.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“What are you making?” Miranda asked.  It was early in the morning, and the fog was just lifting as they sat by the fire.

“A headband.”

“Whatever for?”

“I saw one of the men wearing one, and the woman had one on too.”

“So?”

“We shouldn’t wear our specs.  They’ll look weird.  But it’s nice to have them.  We can use the headband to hide them.”

“Then they’re not going to be too useful,” Miranda said.

“Yes they will.  We can make sure the cameras are uncovered.  Then Zephyr can interpret things for us and let us know what’s going on.  And the speakers will be nice when we want to talk to the natives.  If we need more, we can put them on.”

“Oh.  That’s pretty clever.”

“Thanks,” Jason said as he took a big sip of coffee.

“You know that’s the last of our coffee,” Miranda said.

“Don’t remind me.  I’m just hoping we can find something similar,” Jason said.

“You really are an optimist.”

“Yes, I am,” Jason said as he grabbed his laser pistol.  “The perimeter alarm.”

“It’s the natives.  I can see them,” Miranda said.  “It looks like they’ve come for a visit.”

Jason turned his head so he could see.  A woman and a little girl were walking toward their camp.  He was sure it was the same little girl and her mother.  Two men were following them at a distance, their bows ready, but no arrows nocked.

Jason waved gently.  “I hope that means ‘hello’ here.”

“So do I,” Miranda replied.  “This language barrier is going to cause difficulties.”

“Zephyr will start figuring it out soon,” Jason whispered.  “Then our Comms will be able to help us.”

“Hello,” he said quietly as the pair got close.  The little girl was hanging onto her mother’s dress.  She said something, and Jason tried to repeat it back to her.

When the two got close, the woman handed Jason a basket of berries and nuts.

“Thank you,” Jason said.

The woman said something else to them; Jason repeated it back to her.  Jason motioned for them to have a seat.  The woman looked over her shoulder at the men and shook her head.  She smiled, repeated the words she’d said earlier, and turned to leave.  The little girl didn’t move to follow her mother, but just stood there.

The woman said something to her, but the little girl shook her head.

“She must like you,” Miranda whispered.

“Yeah, right.  . . . Oh, I know what she wants,” Jason whispered back.  He motioned for the woman to wait as he slowly got up and went to his tent.  He returned with another piece of chocolate and handed it to the little girl.

She smiled at him, said the same words the woman had said, then bit into the chocolate.  This time when her mother tugged at her, she turned and followed.

“You’ve definitely made a friend there,” Miranda said.

“Kids, you can always bribe them with sweets.”

“Yeah, but do we have enough chocolate?  I’m almost out.”

“What, almost out of coffee and now chocolate.  What use are you?”

Chapter 3

Wins and Losses

“They have surrendered,” ADI announced.  “I have the command codes for their ships.”

The bridge of the Sakira erupted in cheers at ADI’s announcement.  Those cheers were followed by a deep sigh of relief as everyone remembered the lives lost in the short war, and then realized how many lives would be saved by the surrender.

“Quiet,” Commodore Liz Farmer ordered.  After a pause, she added, “we’ll have a chance to celebrate later.  Now, focus on your jobs.”

Catie felt the relief, but couldn’t feel the sense of joy that had spread over the bridge.  She was still reeling from the loss of friends and colleagues.  There had been no time to morn, to grieve.  Finally, they would be able to gather their thoughts and move forward.  But first, they needed to finalize the surrender and get control of the situation.

Weeks ago, the president of Thorea had reached out to Catie.  He wanted to end the war.  He was willing to change, to accept the rebel’s demands.  He had done things to wrest control of Thorea from the Golden Council, the real power on Thorea, and return it to the people.  But the head of the council was also in command of the Thorean space fleet.  They had been waiting him out for the last few days.  It had looked like he was going to fight, then he suddenly surrendered.

“What a relief,” Catie thought.

“Send a team to each ship,” Admiral Blake McCormack ordered.  Blake was Catie’s uncle and the head of Delphi Forces.  He’d brought the big ships to Thorea to help Commodore Liz Farmer and Catie end the war.  The rebellion that they had helped start on Sivaria had spread to Thorea and became a space war.

◆ ◆ ◆

It took two days to take control of the Thorean Cruiser and frigates.  Now, Delphi had control of the Thorean system, and they could finally stand down.  Catie and Liz had been summoned to the Victory for the commemoration ceremony for the lives lost during the battle.  Catie, because she was Princess Catherine, the diplomatic envoy who’d been sent to Thorea to negotiate their entry into the Delphi League, and Liz, because she was Commodore Farmer, the military lead at the beginning of the mission.

“Princess, Commodore, welcome aboard,” Captain Jodi Fitzgerald said as she greeted Catie and Liz at the airlock.  “We’re holding the ceremony in flight bay two.”

Catie just nodded; she wasn’t looking forward to this ceremony.  So many lives lost.  Twenty-eight pilots, two hundred thirty spacers, and two MIA — Miranda and Jason.  Gawd, she hoped it would be worth it.

They entered the flight bay and joined Blake on the stage.  There was a formal band to play taps at the end of the ceremony.  Catie would have to give a speech.  A symbolic ship had been constructed to carry the dead into the Thorean star.  The few remains that had been recovered were aboard it.  The rest of the dead were represented by small urns loaded into the ship.  The ceremony was being broadcast to every Delphinean ship in the Thorean system.

Catie made it through the speech, barely, but she held back the tears, kept her voice even, kept her hand from trembling.  Now Blake was reading the names.  Each name was met with a Delphi Salute, fist over heart and a beat from the drum.  Each name tore at Catie’s heart.  She had led Delphi into this war.  These loses were on her.  Could she ever forgive herself?

Finally, Blake finished reading the names.  Catie was presented two plaques, one for Miranda and the second for Jason, a symbol that they were lost, but not forgotten.  A symbol that there was still hope that they would be found.  That’s when Catie lost it, the tears rolled down her cheeks.  These two had been close friends, and they still had no idea what had happened to them.  They could be dead, they could be drifting in space in stasis, waiting forever until the fusion reactors that fed the stasis chambers died.  Then what would happen?  Would they wake up before they died, or would they just stay asleep and drift into nothingness?  Catie clasped the plaques to her breasts, praying she wouldn’t drop them.

Blake signaled for the ship to be sent out.  They had erected a clear barrier in the flight bay to separate the doors from the main bay.  The barrier kept the air in while the doors were opened, and the ship was pulled out by a Fox.  It would put it into a decaying orbit, one that would end in the Thorean sun.

◆ ◆ ◆

Blake walked over to Catie.  “How are you doing?”

“Okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Sort of,” Catie whispered.

“Come on,” Blake said as he took Catie’s arm.  He led her to the lift and eventually to his day cabin.  There, he poured a finger of scotch for both of them.

“To lost comrades,” Blake toasted.

“To lost comrades.”

“To Jason and Miranda.”

“To Jason and Miranda,” Catie replied.  Then she and Blake downed the rest of the scotch.

Catie winced as the scotch burned her throat.  “Where do you think they are?” she asked.

“I assume their fighters were destroyed when the wormhole jumped.”

“The Merlin wasn’t destroyed when our wormhole jumped to Helike.”

“True, but that was like a normal jump; the end simply moved to a better zero gravity point.”

“Right, so why wouldn’t theirs have done the same?”

“Maybe it did.”

“So?”

Blake looked at his niece.  He could see she was crumbling inside.  “I don’t know.  How could you possibly find them?”

“I have to try.”

“Of course you do.  Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I don’t think so.  I’ve ordered two Solar Explorers.  I’m going to send them to likely jump points around here.  Hopefully, we’ll pick up their signals.”

“What jump points?”

“Likely zero gravity points.  ADI and Aventurier are mapping them out.”

“That could take forever,” Blake said.  “What if their fighters aren’t sending a beacon?”

“Then they're dead.  . . .  I know, the search might take forever.  But unless the fighters were destroyed, there will be a signal to find.  I have to look.”

“That’s a lot of empty space to search.”

“I know, but the longer it takes, the bigger the detection radius will be.  I think we’ll find them eventually.”

“I hope we do,” Blake said as he gave his niece another hug.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Cer Catie, your uncle Blake is on his way to the Sakira.”

“Oh, did he say why?”

“No.”

“Princess,” Blake said as he greeted Catie in her cabin aboard the Sakira.  His use of the title Princess, meant that she was back to the diplomatic role, no longer Lieutenant McCormack, but Princess Catherine.

“I guess that means I have to get dressed up again.”

“Yes, and deal with all those nice ambassadors you have aboard the Aventurier and make nice with the Thoreans.”

Catie sighed.  “Probably for the best.  I think I’m a better Princess than I am a Lieutenant.”

“Hey, Squirt.  You and Liz did a good job.  Everything was well planned.  The execution was virtually flawless.  Don’t beat yourself up too much.  The losses hurt, but they were minimal.”

“I know, but was it worth it?  I keep thinking we should have just quarantined them like Daddy wanted.  We don’t need them in the Delphi League.”

“Was that the reason you came back to Thorea?”

“No.”

“Would you really want that despotic regime to still be in power?”

“Why not?”

“And how many Thoreans would have been beaten, raped, or murdered in the meantime?”

“I know.  But should we really risk lives to fix these kinds of problems?”

“Yes.  People join the Delphi Forces because they want to fix these kinds of problems.  They don’t want to risk their lives for economic reasons, but they’re willing to risk them to save others, to save people from having the threat of death hanging over them; that’s worth it.”  Blake stroked his cheek while he talked, the cheek that had once been a mass of scars from when he was in the US Navy and had gone down over Iraq.

“I know.  But it still hurts.”

“That’s good.  It has to hurt.  If it stops hurting, then you’re no longer fit to make these kinds of decisions.  You did the right thing.  The pain will fade.  Now go back to work and help the Thoreans stabilize, help them make the sacrifices worth it.”

“Thanks, Uncle Blake.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Catie busied herself working, and with Herr Hausmann’s help, they identified the parts of the Thorean constitution and laws that would be barriers to their acceptance into the League.  She enjoyed working with Herr Hausmann, he had a weird sense of humor and was always helpful.  The work helped her to avoid thinking about Jason and Miranda, well, mostly.  She had three weeks to wait until the Solar Explorers arrived, and she could begin the search.  She sent the information to the Thorean President so that he could act on the changes.  She wasn’t ready to work with him one-on-one yet.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Cer Catie, your Solar Explorers will be jumping into Thorea in two hours.”

“Great!  And ADI, can you drop the Cer, we’re friends.”

“I know that, but it’s part of my programming.  I could call you ‘Princess’ if you like.”

“No!  I guess I’ll stick with the Cer.  Have you finished mapping out the zero points we want to check out?”

“I have.  There are one hundred thirty-two.  It will take five weeks to check them.”

Catie shook her head.  She knew it would take weeks, but it still sucked.  “ADI, what about this reading in the sensor log?”

“I’ve looked at the logs.  They look normal,” ADI said.

“That’s my point.  Why would they look normal if the other end of the wormhole was loose?  If you look at the reading before the power spike, you can see the power fluctuate as the wormhole wanders a bit.  Then there’s the big power spike and the power stabilizes just before the wormhole collapses.”

“That is interesting.  I’ll do some research.  You should talk with Dr. McDowell; he might have some ideas.”

Catie sighed.  Dr. McDowell was difficult to talk to unless you were in his face.  He had a habit of ignoring you and playing with the equations on his white board.  Maybe she could use her double again.  It worked once.

“I’ll try.”

Chapter 4

Going Native

The natives spent another week gathering the snowberries.  During that time, the little girl made a daily pilgrimage to Jason for her treat.  When Jason ran out of chocolate, he resorted to giving her pieces of the protein bars that were in their survival rations.  He and Miranda had long since switched to fish and the occasional frog for their meals, and now snowberries.

During her visits, Jason made a point of getting the little girl to talk, showing her various objects, and getting her to tell him what they were.  Slowly, his Comm recorded the list of words as well as conversation snippets between the girl and her mother.  Zephyr was slowly compiling a dictionary and translation program for the language.  They had determined that the natives called themselves the Wakipee, the mountains they were in were called the Wapuza, and the ocean was called Wapini; apparently, they liked that ‘wa’ sound.

◆ ◆ ◆

“How are you going to ask them if we can join them?” Miranda asked Jason.

“I think they’ve already decided that we can.  I’m going to try today when Mina comes for her treat.”

“Mina?”

“That’s her name, or what it sounds like to me.  Her mother’s name is Adsila.”

“Thanks for telling me.”  Miranda gave Jason a glare.  “Anyway, I was by their camp yesterday, and it looks like they’re getting ready to leave.”

“That’s what I think as well.  Are you ready for this?”

“Sure.  But what are we going to represent ourselves as?” Miranda asked.

“Two strangers?”

“No, I mean, are we brother and sister, husband and wife, unrelated?”

“Oh . . . Hmm, I’m not sure.  What do you think?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to have to fight off unwanted advances.”

“Oh, I would never make a pass at you,” Jason said.

“Not from you, you idiot.  This is serious.  We have no clue what their mating rules are.  If the women even have a choice.  They might not even recognize couples.”

“What would make you the most comfortable?” Jason asked.

“I think brother and sister.”

“Of course.  I guess that puts me in my place,” Jason joked.

“This is not funny.”

“Sorry, I promise to make it clear that you’re not to be bothered.  And if you need to kick some guy’s ass for bothering you, I’ll back you up when his friends show up.”

“Thanks.”

“No, really.  I’ll do whatever I can to protect you.  I know you can handle yourself, but I’ll try to make it clear that you’re not to be trifled with.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Later that day, when Mina and her mother came to their camp, it was evident that something was different.  Her mother usually stayed in the background, creating the illusion for Mina that she had made the journey on her own, but today, Adsila came into camp with her daughter.

“Hello,” Jason said as he handed Mina a small chunk of a protein bar.

“Hello,” Adsila said.

“What?” Jason asked, surprised that she was actually addressing them.

“Tomorrow, you come.”  Adsila motioned to the sun, then pointed to where it had risen earlier in the day.  The Comm was doing a pretty good job of translating her to English.

“Yes,” Jason agreed.

“You bring.”  She pointed to the various items in their camp, tents, solar arrays, and kitbags.

“Yes.”

She reached into a bag, pulled out a simple dress, and handed it to Jason.  She pointed at Miranda.  “For her.”

“What’s that?” Miranda asked.

“I think the dress is for you to wear.  I suspect your shipsuit is not considered suitable attire for a woman.”

Miranda snorted, then accepted the dress from Jason.  “Yes,” she said.

Adsila smiled at them, then reached in and handed Jason a tunic like the ones the men wore.

“Thank you,” Jason said.  That earned him another smile before she stood up, took her daughter’s hand, and led her away.

“It looks like we’re invited,” Miranda said.

“Yep.  As long as you don’t look like a slut,” Jason said.

Miranda slapped Jason upside the head with the dress.  “What about you?  They must not be too impressed by your shipsuit either.”

“I don’t know whether to be offended or not.”

“Oh, you should be offended,” Miranda said as she eyed Jason up and down.  “That shipsuit just doesn’t do a thing for you, so it’s a good thing you’re covering up.”

◆ ◆ ◆

The following day, Jason and Miranda woke up an hour before dawn so they could pack up.  They rolled their kits up; they expanded the polysteel frames for their backpacks and loaded them up.  In deference to Miranda’s slighter frame, Jason decided he would carry both solar arrays and backup batteries; although she was a bit taller than him, Jason still had ten kilos on her.  When loaded, his pack was thirty-one kilos, Miranda’s twenty-five.

“Packed and ready to go,” Jason said.

“I guess.”  Miranda had put the dress on over her shipsuit; the light blue color of the shipsuit gave her legs a distinctive look.

She noticed Jason looking at her legs.  “What, do you think they’ll have a problem with it?”

“Probably not.  The women wear leggings and they’ve seen you in the full suit enough times that I suspect they’ll just wonder why you’re wearing it under the dress.”

“Because it’s getting cold.”

“Yeah.  They might buy that, but I don’t.”

“You cannot beat the wicking effect of the suit.”

“Right, did you charge the battery?  Establish a vacuum in the bottle?”

“Did you remember to breathe this morning?” Miranda snapped.

“Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood.  We’ve got a long walk ahead of us.”

“Around two hundred klicks.”

“That’s assuming a straight line,” Jason said.  He ducked his head a bit as if Miranda might slap him.

“You’re right.  How many klicks a day do you think they’ll do?”

“Forty?” Jason suggested.

“We’ll see,” Miranda said as they started toward the Wakipee camp.  They had used the imaging from Jason’s Hyrax to check out the probable route.  “Fortunately, I think it’ll mostly be downhill.”

By the time they reached the camp, dawn had fully broken.  The Wakipee had broken camp and were already starting to head out.  Everyone was loaded down; they’d managed to dry most of the snowberries they had picked; that, plus the nuts they’d harvested, meant they had a lot of cargo to carry.  Two of the men took the lead, followed by the six women, two of whom were carrying a child.  Two men marched along the side for protection and the last two men waited for Jason and Miranda to fall into line before they, too, joined the troop heading down the hill.

◆ ◆ ◆

When they finally took a break at midday, Miranda and Jason were stiff and sore.

“I forgot how much harder it is to walk downhill,” Miranda said.  “Everything uses the wrong muscles.”

“I know, and a week of this is going to kill me.”

Miranda just nodded in agreement.  She took a bite of the smoked fish they had brought for food, then a quick swig from her canteen.  “What are we going to do about clean water?”

“Not sure.  We’ve got quite a few tablets, but the stream is probably clean enough.”

“You’re an eternal optimist.”

“Hey, they’re drinking it, and they’re healthy.”

“Right.  But they’ve been doing it for their entire lives.  Their bodies have adapted.  We’re going get a nasty shock when we start drinking it.”

“We’ll have to deal with that when the time comes.  If they haven't already, we can dig a well,” Jason said.  “Now, keep watch; I need to take a compass reading.”

“What?”

“I need to take a compass reading.  We might need to make it back to the lake without the aid of our specs, so having a few compass readings would help.”

“Will this planet even have a magnetic pole?” Miranda asked.

“If it didn’t, we wouldn’t be here.”

“What does that mean?”

“To be habitable, a planet has to have a magnetic field,” Jason said.

“Why?”

“Without a magnetic field, the solar winds from the sun would strip the atmosphere from the planet.  And it also shields the inhabitants from solar radiation.”

“Oh.  Where did you learn that?”

“At the Academy.  They added that class after you graduated.”

“So that means nobody’s going to colonize Mars.”

“They could try, but they’ll be living in shelters all the time.  Might as well just live on a space station.”

“Hmm.  Interesting,” Miranda said.  “Oh, and here comes your friend.”  Miranda pointed to Mina, who was walking toward them.  This time without her mother.

“Hi,” Jason said as he waved to her.  He reached into the pocket of the pouch he wore around his waist and grabbed the piece of protein bar he’d been saving for her.

“Hello,” Mina said as she stopped in front of Jason.

Jason showed her the bar.  Mina smiled and started to point at various objects around them, calling out their names.  The only new words were backpack, or that’s what Jason assumed she was calling their backpacks since it was like the ones the other Wakipee were carrying, then trail or path.  But she’d fulfilled her obligation, so Jason handed over the piece of protein bar.  Mina took it, smiled, said thank you, then turned and ran back to her mother.

“What are you going to do when you run out?” Miranda asked.

“I’ve calculated that if I’m careful, I’ve got about three months’ worth,” Jason said.  “Hopefully, by then, she’ll be bored with me, or I’ll have found something I can make into a treat for her.”

“Good luck with that.”

◆ ◆ ◆

After a forty-minute rest, the group formed up and started heading east again.  It was a bit easier to walk as the slope had eased.  As they continued on their way, the path they followed now traced an ever-widening stream that was fed from the lake

By the time the sun went down, they had made their way back to the stream.  It was a bit more of a river now.  They set up camp like they had at the lake; the Wakipee were going to sleep under the stars with just native plants as bedding and a heavy blanket to cover them.

“Do you want to put up a tent?” Jason asked.

“No, we can manage with just the sleeping bags,” Miranda replied.  “I don’t want to look too fragile.”

Jason just laughed as they dropped their packs in a spot close to Mina’s mother.  “I’m feeling pretty fragile right now.  Do you think we can make it for another two weeks?”

“It should get better,” Miranda said.  “Hey, any idea what those guys are doing?”

Jason looked over; four of the men had walked out into the river at the ford they were camping by.  They were making their way upstream.  After a bit, one of them reached into the water, lifted a stone out of the water, and tossed it on the bank.  He immediately reached down and grabbed another one.  The other men were still moving upstream; the other stopped and started pitching stones onto the bank.

Jason laughed.  “I don’t think we have to worry about being exhausted.”

“Why not?”

“I’m pretty sure they are lifting ballast out of some canoes.  We should be coasting downstream tomorrow.”

Miranda looked closer at the men.  About that time, she could see the end of a canoe poking out of the water by the first man.  After a bit, he carefully turned it over, crawling under it and pushing it up out of the water.  He lifted it and walked back to the ford, where he climbed up the bank and onto the shore.  Jason ran over and helped him lower the canoe onto the ground.  The man returned to the river while Jason helped the second man with the canoe he’d brought up.

It was dark by the time they had all four canoes up on the bank, and Jason could join Miranda by one of the fires.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m feeling pretty useless; the only thing I was able to help with was starting this fire; everything else was just too different.”

“I know what you mean.”

“At least you got to help with the canoes.”

“Sure, but that didn’t require anything but muscle.”

Miranda gave Jason a look.

“Hey, I’m actually above average height here,” Jason said, referring to his 175 cm stature; Miranda was about two centimeters taller than he was.

Miranda laughed at him.

“We’ll probably be able to come up with many things that will improve their lives once we get to their village,” Jason said.

“I hope so.  By the way, I need to charge my Comm and my earwigs.”

“Here,” Jason said as he handed her one of the storage batteries he’d charged the day before.  They wouldn’t be able to recharge their batteries until they reached the settlement since they wouldn’t be able to deploy the solar array while they were hiking or in a canoe.

◆ ◆ ◆

The following day they were up before dawn.  The women made breakfast while the men started to load the canoes.  Jason occupied himself with fetching and carrying as they distributed the load between the four canoes.  With his Comm, he was just able to make sense of the words and hand gestures.

After breakfast, they moved down to the canoes.  Jason was directed toward one of them.  As he made his way toward it, there was a bit of a commotion behind him.

“Miranda, what’s up?” he messaged.

“It’s Mina; I think she wants to ride with you.”

“I’d be happy to ride with her.”

“I think they want to pair us up to manage the weight distribution, and mom’s not letting her ride in another canoe,” Miranda messaged.

There was a slight squeal; then, it got quiet again.

“What happened?”

“It’s all sorted,” Miranda messaged back.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Uh, do you see those rapids ahead of us?” Miranda messaged Jason as she poked him in the ribs.

“Yes.  They must know about them,” Jason messaged back.  Miranda was obviously doing the same thing he was, having Zephyr describe their progress based on the cameras in their specs and his satellite imaging.  Jason had noted the rapids about twenty minutes ago.  He hadn’t worried about it, but now that they were almost on top of them, they were starting to sweat it.  “There must be a portage.”

“What’s a portage?”

“A path to go around the rapids,” Jason said.

“I don’t think I’d recognize one if I saw one.  Did you ask Zephyr?  There must be one; these people know what they’re doing.”

It was another nerve-wracking five minutes before they saw the ford where they would beach the canoes to pack up and bypass the rapids.

After they beached the canoes and unloaded them, there was an extended discussion amongst the men.  Jason was attempting to listen in, but his limited understanding of the language just meant it was confusing to him, and his Comm was no help.  After a bit, Mina’s mother, Adsila, came by to see if she could help.  It took a while, but finally, Jason figured out that the men were trying to decide if they could do the portage in one trip.  If Jason carried one of the canoes, then it would leave three men free.  Two would be heavily loaded down with packs, and one would be unloaded and could act as a guard.  On the way up, they’d had four men carry the canoes and two guards.  They were arguing about whether one guard would be enough.  Finally, it was agreed that one woman would walk beside each of the men hefting a canoe and carry his bow so he could easily access it in case of an attack.

That day they had two portages.  The river was getting wider and moving slower, so Jason figured that soon they would be out of the foothills and into the coastal plain where the villages were.

The next day, they had one more portage before they hit the plains.  By midday, two of the canoes beached, and their occupants waved the other two on.  Jason could just make out the palisade that surrounded the village that was about two thousand meters from the river.

Everyone in the last two canoes ate a snack while they continued to paddle downstream.  The sun was just setting when they reached the second village and beached the canoes.  Eight men were there to greet them.  Six of them grabbed the packs from the canoes and headed uphill toward the village.  Jason, Miranda, and the women followed behind, while the other two from the welcoming committee provided security.

“This is quite a hike,” Miranda messaged.  “Why isn’t the village closer to the river?”

“Flood plain,” Jason messaged back.

“Oh, that makes sense!”

“You know, this was sure a lot of effort for just a bunch of berries.”

“I know.  It’s weird.  Maybe there’s something special about the berries.”

The rest of the men beached the canoes and caught up with them by the time they were halfway up the hill.  Mina was lagging behind, obviously tired, so Jason picked her up.  She nestled her head against his chest and stuck her thumb in her mouth.

Once they reached the palisades, there was a bigger welcoming committee.  Adsila immediately explained about their guests, and they were waved inside.  There were a few men standing by the gate, armed and giving Jason a wary look.  As he walked through the gate in the palisade, Jason peered to see the hinges, curious to see what they used.  “Leather straps.”

The inside of the palisades was filled with houses.  Jason thought they looked like military barracks.  There were campfires in front of each house with people gathered around them.  A few shouted greetings to Adsila as she continued to lead Jason and Miranda toward one of the houses.

As soon as they reached the house, another woman ran up and took Mina from Jason.  She carried her back to the fire where several women were sitting.  They were working on various pieces of clothing, repairing them, or maybe finishing up new ones.

“My house,” Adsila said.  “You stay here.”

She led them into the house.  It was a single room, long and narrow.  There was a shelf on each side about a meter off the ground.  Adsila pointed to one area close to the other end of the house.  “Your place.”

Jason and Miranda dumped their packs.

“No,” Adsila grabbed Miranda’s pack and carried it and hers toward the front of the house.

“Bachelor’s quarters,” Jason thought.

With their packs taken care of, Adsila led them back out to the fire where food was being made.  She introduced him to her husband.  The man acknowledged Jason, but then turned away and headed to another fire.  Adsila motioned for Jason to sit down.

As Jason sat down, the other women gave him a wary look.  He glanced around the fire; there were no other men there.  Jason started to get up, but Adsila took hold of his arm and tugged him back down.  She smiled at him and then explained to the other women that he was new, or at least that’s what Jason thought she meant.  The other women nodded.  Miranda had sat down on the other side of Adsila and was already eating from a plate that had been handed to her.

“It looks like the men aren’t invited to eat with the women,” Miranda messaged.

“Maybe it’s the women not being invited to eat with the men,” Jason messaged back.  “Did you notice the total lack of privacy in that house?” he asked.

“I know, this is going to be weird.”

They sat and ate while the women worked and talked.  Jason and Miranda couldn’t follow the conversation very well, but they did pick up that Adsila was explaining how Jason had saved Mina from the bear.  That got him a few admiring looks.

◆ ◆ ◆

After dinner, Adsila took Jason over to another fire.  “This is Hototo,” Adsila said.  Her voice indicated that Hototo was someone important.

“Hello.”  Jason nodded to Hototo.  He wasn’t sure how he should greet him, bow, shake hands, or kneel.  He was worried he would offend him, but the language barrier was still too big to figure this out.

Hototo just glared at Jason as if to say, ‘I’ve got my eye on you.’

Adsila took Jason by the arm and led him back to her clan house.  Miranda stood up and took Jason from Adsila, and led him away from the fire so they could talk.

◆ ◆ ◆

“It’s been a week; how do you think we’re doing?” Miranda asked Jason during their evening chat.

“Okay, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“Well, that Hototo guy doesn’t seem to like me.  Adsila’s husband tries to give me a break, but he clearly doesn’t want to get on Hototo’s bad side.  A few of the men were showing me how they make hatchets, then Hototo walked by and glared at them.  That was the end of the lesson.  And I’m mostly getting the cold shoulder when I try to talk with them.”

“That’s too bad.  Any idea what his problem is?”

“Not sure.  I guess he doesn’t know what to make of us.  How about you?”

“The women are being nice.  Adsila showed me how they make pottery today.  I’m going to help out there.  I need something to keep me busy.”

“How are you doing with the language?”

“Okay.  My Comm gives me a translation.  Zephyr has come up with a pretty good translation program, so I’m able to understand them.  It’s talking that’s hard.”

“Yeah, I just started to have my Comm translate for me in my ear, then I just repeat what it says.  I’m getting better.”

“You should have told me.”  Miranda glared at Jason.  “I’ll have to try it.”

“Hey, I was waiting to see if it would work.”

“And?”

“It does.  They’re patient with my slow response time.  They know I’m learning.”

“Good.  I’ll try it.  How are you doing with the bachelors?”

“You mean in the Clan house?  Geez, I’ve never shared a room with more than one person.  It’s weird having so many people in the same house.  All the smells and noises.”

“Yes, especially the noises,” Miranda said, giving Jason a grin.

“Ugh.  You don’t mean?”

“I’m afraid I do.”

“Luckily, I don’t have to worry about that being down at the far end with all the bachelors.”

“Do you have enough stuff to keep Mina happy?”

“I’ve been trying to wean her.”

“Is it working?”

“No, she just keeps standing there until I cough something up.”

“I guess we need to come up with another snack.  Maybe there’s something local we can make that they don’t or can’t.”

“Well, I’m not much of a chef, so I hope you can come up with something.”

“I’ll think about it.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Come on,” Miranda Commed Jason.

“Gawd, what's up with you?  It’s not even dawn yet,” Jason complained.

“Hey, nobody gives you a weird look when you work out.  I have to do it when nobody’s paying attention.”

Jason groaned as he rolled out of his sleeping bag.  He grabbed his gear and went outside to meet Miranda.  They slipped outside the palisades and went into the woods, where they did some stretching exercises.

“Five K to warm up?” Miranda asked.

“Sure, I’m right behind you.”

They headed down a trail that they typically used.  It paralleled the river but stayed in the woods, minimizing the chance of probing eyes.  They knew that the villagers knew what they were doing, there was always someone on security, and they had been followed many times, but the Wakipee men just shrugged and ignored them.  They weren’t doing anything to endanger the village.

There was a small clearing at the end of their run.  Five kilometers from the village seemed to afford them the privacy they wanted.  They'd been followed the first few times, so they just used the clearing to rest and do some stretching before making a slow jog back.  Later, they had installed some sensors so they would know if anyone approached.  That meant that they could practice their Aikido in private; it wasn’t that they didn’t want the Wakipee to learn about Aikido, but they weren’t sure how they would take Miranda being such an expert at it.

“Okay, some Katas first,” Miranda said; it sounded like an order.

“Hey, you do remember that I’m the commanding officer,” Jason said.

“Of course I do; I’m just reminding you of your standing orders that we stay fit and keep our skills honed.”

Jason smiled and shook his head.  Miranda had never quite lost the commanding presence she’d acquired as the Cadet Commander at the Academy, or maybe she was born with it.  He took his stance and started the Kata.

Later, they were doing hand-to-hand using one of Catie’s favorite sparring rules; you had to maintain contact with your opponent.  It was intended to get you to focus on throws and foot sweeps.  They had been going at it for a few minutes.  Jason was getting bored; neither of them was able to break through the other's defense.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Jason thought as he made a risky move to try and knock Miranda to the ground.  “Damn,” he hissed as he found himself on the ground with Miranda’s arm across his throat.

“Nice try.  You need to be more patient.”

“Right.  Patience is for when it really counts; you have to try things to really learn anything.”

“True, but I've learned that if I wait, you’ll try something risky,” Miranda said.

“Just remember, last time I got you.”

“True.  . . . Hey, isn’t there someone over there?” Miranda asked, nodding her head toward the trees.

Jason turned his head to look.  “I think so, but how did he get through the perimeter sensors?”

“Moved really slow?”

Jason shrugged Miranda off and stood up.  He looked directly where they had seen the movement.  After a minute, one of the men from the village came out from behind a tree.  It was apparent he’d been laughing, which was probably why Miranda had noticed him.

“Hi,” Jason said.  He was pretty sure the guy’s name was Tiquan.

“No wonder Mina likes you; she must think you’re her grandmother,” the man said.

“Ignore him, Jason.  He’s trying to goad you,” Miranda said.

“Do you want to try,” Jason challenged.

The man grinned, showing his teeth.  He moved forward, dropped his bow, his quiver, and finally, his knife.  He took up position in the center of the clearing.

Jason faced him and moved forward.

“Not you; you lost.  Her.”

“Miranda?” Jason messaged.

“I can take him,” Miranda messaged back as she walked into the center of the clearing.  She took a fighting stance, then held out her hand palm up and flicked her fingers toward herself.  “Come on.”

Tiquan tried to slap Miranda.  She danced around the slap and gestured to him again.

This time he swung harder, still trying to slap her.  Miranda ducked it and laughed at him.  He immediately started swinging with both hands; he tried to rush her; she just danced around him and kept working back to the center of the clearing.

Now, Tiquan balled his hands into fists and started to punch.  He was moving faster, too fast to duck, so Miranda had to start blocking his strikes.  They danced around the clearing for another thirty seconds or so; Miranda stayed focused on blocking Tiquan’s punches.

Tiquan started to breathe faster.  He was frustrated, and it was making him lose his center.  He started to try and rush Miranda with his arms wide, hoping to knock her to the ground.  Miranda sidestepped him twice, pushing him on by.  He almost fell the second time.

Now Tiquan was really mad.  He started to swing harder, rush faster.  Miranda kept dancing around him, blocking his blows and pushing him to the side.

“Miranda, he’s getting reckless.  If he gets in a lucky strike, it’s going to hurt.”

Miranda just waved Jason off.  The next time Tiquan charged her, instead of stepping to the side, Miranda backed up, blocking his strikes, and hit him back.  She got two sharp punches to his jaw.  Tiquan was shocked at the strength of Miranda’s punches.  He stood up a bit, and Miranda charged, punching him in the face and chest.  Tiquan tried to ignore the strikes and grab Miranda, but she just pushed his hands aside and hit him again.

Miranda backed up and created as much space between her and Tiquan as possible.  “Enough?” she asked.

Tiquan reached down toward where he’d tossed his knife.  Jason kicked it away.  “You asked for this.”

Tiquan was breathing hard, gasping for breath; his fury was palpable.  It was obvious he wanted to kill someone.  He looked at Jason; then, he charged Miranda again.

Miranda had been waiting for him.  This time when he tried to punch her, she grabbed his arm and threw him over her hip.  Tiquan landed hard, right on his back.  He rolled over, raised up on all fours, and charged Miranda again.  He tried to grab her legs; Miranda pushed off of his right shoulder with her left hand, throwing her feet behind her and out of his grasp.  She brought her right elbow down on his back just as they both hit the ground.

Tiquan collapsed on the ground, fighting for breath.  He was really in pain.  The blow had stunned him, and his legs were temporarily paralyzed.  He tried to get up but couldn’t.

“Enough!” Miranda said.

Tiquan just looked at her, his eyes blazing with hatred.  Jason bent down and picked up his stuff.  “We’ll drop this at your clan house,” Jason said.

Miranda and Jason walked away, leaving Tiquan to recover on his own.

“Huh, that went well,” Jason said.

“I think he’s going to be a problem.”

“We’re going to have to watch him.  I don’t trust him.”

“Neither do I.  I didn’t think he would be so overcommitted.  A few playful passes to figure out it wasn’t that easy to take me out.”

“I don’t think Tiquan does playful.  Crap!  What are we going to do about him?”

“Just keep an eye on him.  Maybe he’ll get over it?”

“You’re sure an optimist,” Jason said.

“What else can we do?  I don’t want to have to kill him.”

“This could be a problem.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Neither Jason nor Miranda saw Tiquan that night.  The following day, his stuff was gone, and by that evening, questions about where he was started circulating around the village.  Jason had run back to the clearing to make sure he wasn’t still there, but since his stuff was gone, he assumed that he’d run off; hopefully, he’d gone somewhere to cool down.  He never came back.

Chapter 5

Moving Along

After a couple of months in the Thorean system, Catie finally set up an office in the Presidential Palace.  That was the signal to Blake that he could leave.  He sent her a message to come up to the Victory and say goodbye.

“Why did I have to come up here?” Catie asked.

“Because I’m not setting foot on that planet.  If I do, your father might come up with a reason for me to stay,” Blake said.

“Hey, we could use your sage advice and judgment.”

“Yeah, likely story.  You know that Jackie is missing me.  You don’t want her to be lonely.”

“I’m sure she’s not lonely.  Maybe I should call her and ask if she’s enjoying her freedom before I let you go.”  Catie gave her uncle a big grin.  As Princess Catherine, she was actually in charge of all Delphi Forces in the Thorean system.

“Cer Catie, Cer Jackie did just tell Cer Latoya how much she was missing her husband,” ADI messaged.

Catie frowned.

“Ha!  ADI just backed me up, didn’t she!”

“Yes,” Catie groaned.  “I guess I have to let you go.”

“You take care.  I’m leaving the Sakira here for now.  You decide when you want to send her home.”

“So I get to make some decisions on my own.”

“Of course you do.  And be honest, you usually make them anyway and ask for forgiveness.”

“And who did I learn that from?” Catie asked.

Blake just gave her a sheepish grin and hugged her goodbye.

Chapter 6

Modern Things

“What are you making?” Miranda asked as she walked up to Jason.  He was in the corner of the palisades, pounding a post into the ground.

“I’m going to make a grinder.”

“A grinder?”

“Yeah, I got this chunk of sandstone, and I’m going to use it as a grinder wheel.”

Miranda looked around at what Jason was doing.  He had two posts about a meter apart.  She watched as he took a flexible reed and marked each post.  The reed was filled with water, making a water level, which helped him to ensure that the two marks were at the same height.  He then used his laser pistol to bore a hole through the two posts.

“That’s cheating,” Miranda said.

“I know, but I don’t want to spend all day boring a hole using a bow drill.  I could do it, so I’m only expediting things.  I did use a bow drill to cut the hole in the sandstone.”

Miranda bent down to look at the sandstone Jason was going to use in the grinder.  “Your hole has a flat spot.”

“That’s on purpose.”

“Why?”

“So it won’t spin on the shaft.  Once I put the shaft in, I’ll wedge a piece there so it can’t turn.”

“Oh.  How are you going to spin the shaft?  With a bow?”

“Kinda.  I’m going to use that branch there.  It’s flexible, so I’ll bury one end in the ground and then tie a leather strap between it and a foot pedal.  The strap will wind around the shaft, so you can make it spin by pressing the foot pedal.”

“Clever; how did you figure this out?”

“I read about one in a book set in the 1500s.  They did it this way back in the old days.  It’s a bit more convenient than having someone run a bow across the shaft for you.”

“You didn’t look it up in the encyclopedia?”

“I tried; it didn’t have any details,” Jason said.  “Why aren’t you working at the kiln?”

“I’m taking a break.”  Miranda had been ecstatic when she’d seen the pottery kiln on their first morning in the village since she’d taken pottery in high school.  She’d immediately wormed her way into helping make pottery.

“Have they let you start making pots yet?”

“No!  They didn’t like my first effort, so they put me on the kiln.  At least they haven’t made me go work in the field.”

“That might be easier.”

“Maybe.  Anyway, I’m planning to make a potter’s wheel.  That will impress them.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“I know this guy who’s real handy with his hands.”

“And you think he’ll help you?  Did you look it up?”

“He’d better.  I did look it up, but there weren’t any hints on how to make one.  But I remember the design of the one my instructor had.  I think we can figure it out.”

“We?!”

“Yes, I can tell you’re bored.  This will be another good project for you.  And I bet they’ll appreciate it as much as this grinder.”

“I don’t know; their pottery looks pretty good to me.”

“It is, but you can do things faster with a potter’s wheel.”

“It doesn’t seem like that’s too important to them.  They seem to have things down to a good rhythm.”

“I know, but they do trade between villages.  Even villages that are several hundred kilometers away.  They might be able to become a big supplier.”

Jason laughed.  “I guess we’ll see.”

“So you’ll help?”

“Sure, we can work on it tonight.  Now, I need to round my stone.”

Jason had finished putting an axel in the stone and inserting it between the poles.  Now, he was wrapping the leather strap to it and connecting it to the foot pedal.

“How long is that going to take?”

“Not too long.  I cut it pretty close.  I used a string compass to mark it.  But I want to be able to show them how to do it again, so I didn’t cut it too perfectly.  About what you would get if you used a chisel.”

“How are they going to protect their eyes?” Miranda asked.  Jason was wearing his specs as he started spinning the stone and using another one to grind it.  He had a crossbar set so he could control the distance between the grinder stone and the one he was using to shape it.  Sparks were flying.

“I don’t know.  I’ll figure out some kind of shield.”

◆ ◆ ◆

After dinner that night, Jason walked over to Miranda, motioning for her to follow him.

“So, the potter’s wheel,” Jason said.

“Right.  Well, the one I want to do is really a turntable.”

“Huh?”  Jason gave Miranda a puzzled look.

“You use your feet to turn the table so you can work on the piece without having to actually pick up the plate and turn it.  It’s hard to do consistent work unless you always have the same perspective of the piece.”

“So, it doesn’t spin?”

“No.  That would be nice, but it’s a lot more complex, and you have to spin it real fast.  I’m not sure it would go over well with the potters here.  It adds lots of issues that you have to deal with.”

“Okay, so what does one look like?”

“Big wheel on the bottom for your feet.  It should be the size of a small tire.  In fact, I’ve seen one made with a small tire at the bottom.  Then that’s connected to a round table at the top.  That’s where the bearing is that the table spins on.”

“On the bottom of the table?”

“Yes.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Are you working on my potter’s wheel,” Miranda asked.  Jason had gone to his work area by his grinder right after breakfast.

“Aren’t you supposed to be over at the kiln baking pots?”

“I’m taking a break.”

“And that means you need to come over and bother me?”

“No, that means I need to come over and check on my potter’s wheel.  And I have a question for you.”

“What?”

“Do you know how to make charcoal?”

Jason blew out his breath, “Charcoal.  I always bought it at the store.”

“So did I, but do you know how to make it?”

“Maybe.  Did you look it up in the encyclopedia?”

“Yes!  It only talked about uses.  Not very helpful.”

“Why do you want to make it?”

Miranda huffed.  “Because it burns in a more predictable manner.  When we use wood in the kiln, sometimes it gets too hot.”

“Right, burning off all the esters.”

“Oh, so you know something about it?”

“Not much, but I think all you do is bury wood in damp earth and set it on fire.”

“Huh, how do you set it on fire if it’s buried?  And why?”

“You leave an area unburied until you get the fire going.  And you do that so that it burns in an oxygen-deprived atmosphere.  That will allow all the highly flammable parts to burn off and leave mostly carbon behind.”

“Where did you learn that?”

“On some TV show.  It was a mystery, and the bad guy buried the victim in a charcoal pit.”

“Ugh.”

“Hey, at least I learned something so that I could answer your question.”

“Well, thanks.  Now, how’s the wheel going?”

“I’m getting there,” Jason said as he glanced over at the kiln.

“I can take a hint.  Bye.”

◆ ◆ ◆

That night after dinner, Jason and Miranda headed off to Jason's work area to test out the potter’s wheel.

“It’s done already?” Miranda asked.

“No, but it’s close.  I wanted you to play with it a bit to see if it will work the way you want.”

Miranda sat down at the wheel and put her foot on the lower section.  She pushed it.  “Uhh.  Kind of hard to turn.”

Jason laughed.  “Yeah, I haven’t found a rock for the bearing yet.  I promised to make a hatchet for the first boy to find one.  They were hunting for one all day.  They didn’t find one yet, but tomorrow they’re going down to the ocean to look.”

“Why didn’t they go today?”

“They need a bodyguard.  One of the Demalia is going to go with them.  Adsila arranged it.”  Demalia was the word the Wakipee used to refer to the men that were too mentally handicapped to manage to hunt or weren’t skilled enough to do things on their own.  They were left with the women to help them when muscle was required.

“Will that be good enough?”

“I think so.  I’m going to have Zephyr focus on that area.  I’ve programmed him to alert me if anything bigger than a dog gets close to them.”

“You know, nobody’s heard from Tiquan?”

“Yeah, it kind of worries me.  What are the women saying?  Maybe we should get Adsila to talk to his clan mother.”

“I already asked.  Nobody was too sad to see him go.  Apparently, they were getting close to asking him to leave.”

“Really?  Why?”

“He was too violent.  He kept getting into fights.”

“Where do they think he went?”

“They say he’s either just living on his own, or he’s joined up with a bandit gang.”

“Bandit gang?”

“Yea, the outcasts from the villages form these gangs.  They hunt together, but they also try to steal from the villages.  Mostly food.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Miranda was watching Jason while he was finishing up the potter’s wheel.

“How are you getting along with the guys?” Miranda asked.

“Better.  Hototo still doesn’t seem to like me, but I gave that hatchet I sharpened to Ashki, and he liked it, so maybe things will get better.”

“Enough to invite you to go hunting?”

Jason laughed.  “No way.  They say I’m too noisy, and I scare the game away.  I did a test using my specs.  They’re right.  When I’m moving, there is a lot more noise.  I don’t know how they do it.”

“Get them to teach you how they do it,” Miranda suggested.

“I’ve listened to them teach the boys.  I’ve tried to do it, but I think it takes lots of practice.  The boys are always out playing stalker, so they practice all the time.”

“So, play with the boys.”

“Yeah, right.  Besides being embarrassing, that might get me into more trouble.  They’re still pretty wary of me.  How about you?  Are the women accepting you?”

“Some, but like I said, they’re not impressed with my skills.”

“Maybe this will help.”  Jason pointed at the potter’s wheel.

“That’s the plan.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Once Jason finished the potter’s wheel, he set to work on a lathe.  Building the potter’s wheel had shown him how nice it would be to have a lathe, so he decided he’d just make one.  He could just make it as an extension to the grinder.  He’d sacrificed one of the knives he had, turning it into a cutting tool; the obsidian knives the natives used were almost as good, so he wasn’t too worried.

Finally, he was ready for his first project, a hoe.  The women used hoes fashioned from tree branches and the scapula of some animal.  He’d have to use a scapula for the working end, but he’d be able to make a much smoother and straighter handle.  He grabbed the branch he’d cut off for his first try, mounted it to the lathe, and started to work it.

“What’s going on?” Miranda asked.

“I’m making a hoe.”

“They already have hoes.”

“I know, but this will be like a modern one.  It’ll be much better,” Jason said.  “Do you want me to make you one?”

“Maybe.  I’ve avoided doing any hoeing so far, but I’m not sure how much longer they’ll let me just work at the kiln.”

“Well, I’m going to give this one to Adsila.  I’ll make you one next,” Jason said as he started to really dig into the piece of wood.

◆ ◆ ◆

Once Jason finished his hoe, he tested it out.  It worked just like the one he remembered from home.  Then he set out looking for Adsila.  She was working at the end of the row garden, tilling up new dirt to extend the garden.

Jason walked over and held his new hoe out.  “For you,” he said.

Adsila looked at it skeptically but took it, handing Jason her hoe.  “Thank you.”  She went back to work.  Jason watched her.  She kept twisting the hoe around as she dug.  Eventually, she walked back over to Jason, handed the hoe back to him, and held her hand out, looking at her old hoe.  “Sorry,” she said.

Jason gave her the old hoe back.  He watched her as she went back to work with it.  The handle was so crooked.  He shook his head.  “What’s up with this?”

As he watched Adsila work with the hoe, he realized that the branch was bent where she used her left hand to push it into the soil.  It had another curve right by her hip.  He watched as she pressed the hoe to her hip and used her body to pull loose a tough chunk of dirt.  He looked around; the other women had hoes that were fitted to them just like the one Adsila had.  They were different lengths, but obviously, each woman had taken care in selecting the branch they used for the handle.

Laughing to himself, Jason thought, “I guess when everything is custom, you might as well make it really custom.”

Chapter 7

Fitting In

As the weeks passed, Jason and Miranda slowly slipped into a routine with the Clan.  They would go days without talking to each other as the men–women barrier kept them separate except during the evenings.

The days continued to get colder.  Adsila told them that it looked like it would be a hard winter.  With the freezing weather, the men were more aggressive about hunting, bringing in extra game since they knew the meat would keep in the storage cellar.

“Hey, Jason, it’s been a while since we’ve been alone,” Miranda said as she caught Jason hiding out by his grinder.  She brought him a glass of mash from Adsila.

Jason waved his cup at Miranda.  “Yes, I thought you might be avoiding me.  How’s the potter’s wheel doing?”

“They like it, but it doesn’t change much.  I think the biggest advantage is you don’t get as sore from working.  Lifting the piece to rotate it was really tiring on the shoulders.”

“So you’re not a hero,” Jason said.

“Hardly.  You know this mash is pretty good.  I was surprised that they had alcohol.”

“Why?  I don’t think there has ever been a civilization on Earth that didn’t have some form of alcohol.”

“Really?  I thought the Native Americans didn’t.”

“That’s bull.  They had all kinds of alcohol.  They just didn’t distill it, so it was more like wine.”

“Oh,” Miranda said as she sat down next to Jason.  “I thought that they were kind of allergic to it.”

“Again, baseless stories made up by the White Man.  They were a bit shocked when they were suddenly introduced to 80-proof whiskey, but there are no genetic factors.  Alcoholism is a problem with Native Americans, but it’s mostly due to feelings of isolation, a disconnect between their culture and the dominant one.  And, of course, poverty.”

“Hmm.  How come you know all that?”

“My great-grandmother was Choctaw.”

“Cool.  So did the grinder make you a hero?”

“No.  The men do like being able to sharpen their knives and hatchets faster, but it just saves a little time, so they’re not that impressed.”

“Figures.  How are your lessons going with the boys?  Have you learned how to walk quietly yet?”

“I’m getting better.  I think the guys are going to let me go hunting with them next week.  With the snow, it’s quieter anyway.”

“Are you going to use your specs?”

“Definitely.  Between them and the satellite image from Zephyr, I should be able to help find some game.  Maybe that will redeem me a bit in their eyes.”

“One can hope.”

Jason laughed and took another drink from his cup.  “So why did you come by?”

“Just to catch up.”

“Sure,” Jason said, giving Miranda a skeptical look.

“Okay, I wanted to know what you’re working on.”

“Nothing much.  I’m thinking about making glass.”

“Bullshit!”

“What!”  Jason was shocked at Miranda’s tone.  She was always so proper and smooth.

“I see you over here working in your specs, using a stylus.  I know you’re doing something more complicated.  And you’ve got Zephyr working like crazy.”

Jason gave Miranda a look as if asking how she knew.

“I ran a utilization report.”

“You know you’re not supposed to be checking up on your commanding officer.”

“Yeah, right.  Now, tell me what you and Zephyr are working on,” Miranda asked.

“It’s probably better if you don’t know.”

“Don’t give me that.  Tell me!”

“I’m creating a written language for Wakipee.”

“You’re insane.  Why?”

“Because they need one.”

“They’re doing fine without one now.  And this has to violate executive order 1248.”

“What?”

“The prime directive.”

Jason rolled his eyes.  Leave it to Miranda to know the exact number of the order.  “I don’t care.  My great-grandmother was the only member of her family to survive the Trail of Tears.  Sooner or later, the guys from Eurasia are going to show up.  I want the Wakipee to have a chance.  I don’t want what happened in America to happen here.”

“And a written language will help?  How?”

“It’s the start of technology.  I’m also developing a math course.”

“Great.”  Miranda shook her head.  “You sure don’t do subtle.”

“Go big or stay at home.”

“And???”

“I’m developing a test.  I want to find the technical geniuses, get them to start developing a science baseline.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“Train a few guys, then send them out to test other Wakipee in other villages.”

“Do you think you’ll be able to attract them here?”

“Probably.  It’s likely they’ll be lumped in with the Demalia.  They probably won’t do too well with hunting and stuff like that.”

“What about women?”

“I was going to ask you to help me figure out how to recruit women.”

“Then why didn’t you bring me in?”

“I was going to wait until I’d gotten things started.  That way, you’d be in the clear if someone complains.”

Miranda laughed.  “Do you still think someone is going to come rescue us?”

“Sure.  The longer it is, the farther our emergency beacon will spread.  I’m convinced that Catie will be looking.”

“Okay, tell me about the written language part.”

“We’ve been working to isolate the phonemes of Wakipee.  I think Zephyr and I have it down to thirty-six letters.  Nine vowels and twenty-seven consonants.”

“That’s kind of a big alphabet.”

“Not really; there are some on Earth with over forty-five characters.”

Miranda gave Jason a look.

“Zephyr told me; it was in his database for languages.”

“Okay.  . . . Go on.”

“I want to keep the language phonetically based like Esperanto.  I’m also trying to avoid heteronyms.  . . . Words spelled the same but with different meanings,” Jason explained after getting a puzzled look from Miranda.

“Oh, right.  We’ve been removing those from Galactic standard, those and homophones.”

“Yeah.  There are a few of those in Wakipee, but not too many.  Without a written language, it would be hard to keep them straight.”

“Context.”

“Yeah, I know.  But fortunately, there aren’t too many.  If I don’t allow heteronyms, then we can avoid a lot of problems when we try to teach the language.  I’ve been trying to pick the characters for the letters.  Do you want to help?”

“Sure.”

Miranda and Jason spent the rest of the afternoon and much of the night huddled together, away from the rest of the clan, working on the letters.  It took well into the next day before they agreed on the thirty-six characters.  Miranda volunteered to take over developing the math test since she’d actually had some advanced math classes compared to Jason.

◆ ◆ ◆

Jason was working at his lathe.  He’d finally found a product that the Wakipee wanted: stools.  The women liked them for the potter’s wheel and when mashing corn since they could sit down and still use their feet.  He was on his third stool for the day; he assumed the women thought they could trade some of them to the other villages since he’d already made ten.  As he was fitting it together, he heard a loud screech, kind of like a scream.  He looked up he could tell it came from where several boys were playing in the snow.

Jason shrugged his shoulders and went back to fitting the legs into the seat.

“Jason!” he heard Miranda message his Comm.

“What the heck,” he thought as he set his tools aside and headed over to where the kids were playing, except they weren’t playing now; instead, they were huddled in a group.

“What’s up?” he messaged back.

“I need your help.”

Jason broke into a jog, figuring there must be some time critical component to the request.  When he arrived, he saw that everyone was gathered around a young boy who was writhing in pain.

“What happened?”

“He broke his leg.”

“And?”

“It’s a compound fracture.  They’re just going to splint it.  I need you to help me set it.”

Jason knelt down next to the boy where one of the women was starting to wrap the splint despite Miranda’s attempt to tell her to wait.

“Please, he will be crippled if you set it that way.  Let me help,” Miranda said.

The woman looked affronted that Miranda thought she was not doing it right.

“I’ve done this before,” Miranda said.  “I can make it better.”

The boy was moaning in pain.  One of the men had come over and was holding him down.

“Please!” Miranda begged.

The woman tossed the bandages she was using at Miranda and sat back to observe.  She didn’t look too happy about it.

“Okay, Jason, I need you to pull the leg so I can align the bone.”

“I’m just muscle to you,” Jason muttered.

“Muscle that can follow directions.”  Miranda looked at the man that was holding the boy still.  “This is going to hurt.”

The man nodded his head.

“Jason, pull it.”

Jason grabbed the boy’s leg; the break was below the knee, so he grabbed above the ankle and pulled.  The boy screamed.

“More!”

Jason put all of his weight into the pull.  He could feel Miranda rotate the bone.  “Okay, ease up,” Miranda said as she held the bone in place.

Jason slowly let up on the traction he was applying.  He felt a small twist as the bone fitted back together.

“Good,” Miranda said.  She grabbed the splint and handed it to the woman who’d first been applying it.  The woman made quick work of putting the splint on.  When she was finished, she looked at the boy’s foot, which was now aligned with his knee, and nodded.

By this time, Adsila had made it out to the group.  When she reached them, she knelt down and brushed the boy’s head.  Then she gave him a nugget to eat; it looked like the nuggets they’d made out of the snowberries.

Two other men had followed her out with a large hide; obviously, they were going to use it as a stretcher to carry the boy back to the village.  Adsila told them to wait as she continued to brush the boy’s head and talk to him.  Eventually, he stopped squirming and fell asleep.  Then Adsila motioned to the men to go ahead and load him on the stretcher.

They gently picked him up and placed him on the hide; Adsila held the leg the whole time, making sure it wasn’t twisted or bumped.  Amazingly, the boy didn’t cry out or wake up.

Jason looked at Miranda.  “Snowberries?”

“Looks like they might have some sedative effect when concentrated.”

“Hmm, makes sense; why else would they go to so much trouble to gather them?”

“Yes, it does.  Now you need to go make a set of crutches for him.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Jason was finally going to get to go on a hunt.  As winter approached, it became critical to stock up on meat, and since it was easy to keep it frozen, they could afford to do so.  Until now, Jason had been relegated to his grinder or fishing.  Hototo was taking sixteen men out to hunt.  They would separate into smaller groups, and each group would hunt in one of the areas northwest of the village.

Jason immediately had Zephyr map out the area and identify any large groups of the deerlike animals they would be hunting.  Between Zephyr and his specs, Jason was confident he could guide his group toward the game, that is, if they would take his advice.

They left early in the morning, before dawn.  Once they were in the forest, Hototo divided them up.  Pressure from Adsila was the only reason Hototo had allowed Jason to come.  He clearly didn’t want Jason to interfere with the success of the hunt, so he’d grouped him with some marginal hunters and sent them almost directly north into what looked like the poorest area for game.

The other men in Jason’s group shrugged as they set off, they didn’t have any choice about whether Jason was on their team, so they’d just make the best of it.  They set a fast pace since any game would be far from the village.  It was extremely cold and windy, so everyone was wearing a cap or hood, which allowed Jason to get away with wearing his specs for short periods of time.  While they were just moving toward their real hunting grounds, Jason worked furiously in his specs to map a path to the herd that Zephyr had identified.

“Which way?” Wovoka, the group leader, asked when they finally paused.

“I remember a strand of pine trees over there,” Jason said.  “They would provide shelter from the wind.”

Wovoka nodded, and since no one else offered another suggestion, he headed that way.

As they got closer, Jason tried to think of a way to get them to where he could see a small herd of deer.  They were among the pine trees in a small swale where they were feeding on some bushes at the edge of the trees.

As they approached the area, Jason veered off toward the herd, which was still well hidden from view.

“Wait.”

“There’s a swale over this way.  More shelter from the wind.”

The rest of the group seemed to like the idea of shelter from the wind, so they immediately veered with Jason, and the leader followed.  They were downwind of the area, so things were lining up.  They all slowed down and kept their eyes on the ground, looking for signs of game.  Jason had his specs down and the IR sensors turned on, but he still couldn’t see anything that pointed to the herd being where he knew it was.

Finally, one of the other men spotted some deer droppings.  Since they weren’t completely frozen, they had to be relatively fresh.  This got everyone excited and focused.  They spread out again and slowly crept into the pine trees, moving in the direction Jason was indicating the swale was.

Wovoka gave Jason a look, looked at his bow, then back at his face.  Jason shrugged.  He knew his aim was pretty marginal.  “I’ll wait.”  Wovoka nodded his appreciation of Jason’s willingness to take a back seat.

When they reached the swale, everyone could see a small herd of deer in the clearing where the bushes were.  There was a large eight-point buck that was guarding the eight females he’d managed to lay claim to.  Wovoka used sign language to indicate who was to shoot at which deer.  He chose the buck for himself.  The four men drew their bows and fired at nearly the same time.  Each of them hit their target.  Wovoka’s arrow caught the buck behind his shoulder.  The buck squealed and started running toward the trees.  Jason fired and caught it with an arrow in the neck.  That caused him to turn, and Wovoka’s next arrow brought him down.  In the meantime, two of the other men had managed to bring down another doe each.

Six deer, the hunters clenched their fists in joy.  Jason could tell they wanted to whoop, but they were too disciplined for that.  Wovoka patted Jason on the shoulder, showing his appreciation for the help of bringing the buck down as well as recognizing that he’d led them to this triumph.

“Jason, we have six deer and only five men.  Will you go west and find the next group and get some help?”

“Sure,” Jason agreed, knowing he wouldn’t be all that much help butchering the deer.  He’d never done it before.  So he headed out at a slow trot.  He could freely use his specs now, so he asked Zephyr to locate the closest group of hunters.

Jason finally made it to the two hunters that Zephyr had identified as the closest.  On the way, he’d veered around a small buck that was grazing on his own, clearly too small to have his own harem.

“Jason, what are you doing here?” one of the hunters hissed.

“We got six deer; we need help.”

“Six?”

“Yes, and one is an eight-point buck.”

They two hunters looked at each other and shrugged.  They weren’t having any luck, so helping to carry in the game would at least make them feel successful.  They nodded to Jason.

Jason led them back, but he adjusted the course so they would come in downwind of the buck he’d noticed on the way.

“Stop!” Jason said, putting a hand on one of the men’s arms.  He pointed through the trees.  He could barely make out the buck, but of course, he knew exactly where it was.

“I don’t see anything,” the hunter hissed.

Jason pointed through the trees.  “There!”

“You’re imagining things.”

Jason grabbed the arm of the other man.  “Look!”

After a bit of emphatic pointing, the hunter finally saw they buck.  He smiled at Jason, then slowly crept up on the buck.  Now the first guy finally saw the buck, it was too late, the other guy was already closing on it.  He shook his head and gave Jason a dopy grin.

It took the other guy five minutes to get himself close enough and aligned for a shot.  It was a good shot.  He waved to Jason, telling him and the other hunter to go on without him.  He would be bringing his own kill back to the village.

◆ ◆ ◆

When they got back to the village, there was quite a show put on about their bountiful hunt.  Jason got accolades from all the men from his group.  The next day the other groups made it back.  They had been successful as well, bringing back four deer.  Hototo’s group was the last to return.  They had bagged two big bucks, a small buck, and a doe.

“A very good hunt,” Wovoka said.  “But you should have had Jason with you.  He is a lucky charm.  We bagged a big buck and five does.  And when he went to get help to bring them back to the village, the hunters he got bagged a buck on the way back.”

Hototo just grimaced.  Later, when he heard all the details of the hunt, he nodded at Wovoka.  “You should have known about the swale.”

Jason couldn’t believe it.  What would it take to finally get some respect from Hototo?  Even after several more successful hunts, Hototo never gave Jason anything.  Not even a ‘good job.’  Geez.

Chapter 8

Raid

Tiquan was ready for his revenge.  He wished it included killing the strangers, but that was too much to hope for.  He had to prove to his new clan that he deserved to be their chief.  A men’s clan, not one run by women.  He was looking forward to the years ahead as they grew into a formidable force.

But now was not the time for dreaming, now was the time for action.  He’d spent weeks setting up this raid.  Now that there was a warm spell and the snow had melted, it was time to act.  His new clan needed wives, and they were here to get four.  The moon was low in the sky.  It would set early tonight, which was why he’d chosen this night for their raid.  It was dark, but the moon was bright enough to light their path as they snuck up on the settlement that had dared to cast him out.

Citali had created an opening in the stockade for them.  Citali and his men were there now, spreading the branches so they could slide inside.  The opening was located at the back of the compound on the opposite side from the latrine.  Citali had been luring the girls there for the last few days, promising to give them some jewelry that he was working on.  Each night, he would show them the pieces, and they would talk about the progress he’d made in polishing the stones.  The girls were young, but who else would be so foolish?  Besides, young wives would last longer and have more energy, which was important since they would have to share them.

They entered the compound and closed the hole back up.  They moved along the stockade wall until they were at the designated spot.  Tiquan and his four men each took up a position against the wall, in the shadows where they wouldn’t be seen.

“Are you almost finished?” a girl’s voice asked.

“Almost,” Citali said.  “I think I’ll finish the first one tomorrow.”

“The blue one?”

“Yes, is that the one you want?”

“No, I want the green one.”

“I want the blue one,” another girl said.

“No, I want it!”

“Quiet.  Do you want to get us into trouble?” Citali chided.

“Sorry,” the four girls said.

“Over here.  The moon is setting early, and we just have enough light so I can show you the stones.”

Citali positioned himself so the girls stood in front of him with the moon shining over their shoulders.  He brought out the four stones, handing one to each girl.  They held them up so that the moon shined on them as they admired the workmanship.

Tiquan and his men quietly snuck up behind the girls.  They’d been practicing walking without making a sound since they had been able to take their first steps as a child.  It was almost too easy.  Each of his men grabbed a girl, putting their hand over her mouth so she couldn’t scream and pulling her into their chest.  Then they hit them on the head with a rock, just hard enough to knock them out.

“Perfect,” Citali said.  “We’ll need to move.  The guard will be coming by in just a few minutes.”  He grabbed a pack that he’d stowed close by and followed Tiquan and his men back to the opening he’d made for them.

They slipped through it quickly, and Citali went to work closing it back up while Tiquan made sure each girl was gagged and bound.  They couldn’t have them waking up and screaming.  It was important that nobody notice a problem until much later that night.

“I’ve almost got it,” Citali said as he pushed the last pole into place.  He kicked some dirt along the bottom of them so they wouldn’t move around since they were no longer tied into place.  “Tiquan, this is going exactly like you planned.”

“Yes, it is,” Tiquan said as he reached over and put his hand over Citali’s mouth and pulled his knife across his throat.  He rolled him over against the stockade, so it would be unlikely that anyone would notice him until the next day.  He grabbed Citali’s pack and signaled to his men to head out.

“Why did you kill him?”

“He was willing to betray his people.  Besides, he’s a terrible hunter, noisy, and a bad shot.  We don’t need men like him.”

Tiquan and his men raced across the clearing to the edge of the wood.  There, the other five men of his little tribe were waiting for them.  They regrouped, distributing the load around so the men carrying the girls didn’t have anything else to worry about.

“Move; we need to get to the stream before the moon sets,” Tiquan hissed.  He had everything planned to the exact minute.  The only thing he couldn’t control was when the village discovered that the girls were missing.  He had waited so that the moon would set around the time that the village went to sleep. Until then, the girls might be visiting friends in other clans.  It wouldn’t be until bedtime that they would be expected to be with their mothers.

They jogged hard, moving as fast as they could while the moon was still up to guide their way.  It was just as the moon was setting that they reached the creek where they would rest before setting out on the next part of Tiquan’s plan.

The girls were stirring, so each man adjusted the gags, rebound their legs, and retied their hands.  They didn’t want to have to knock them out again; they needed them healthy, or all of this trouble was pointless.

“Okay, now you five put on the packs; fill them with rocks first.  That will make it look like you’re carrying one of the girls.  Follow the game trail like we planned, move as fast as you can,” Tiquan said as he pointed to the trail.  The day before, they had run along the trail for hours to establish a false trail.  With the five now running on the same path, it would be hard for the trackers to tell that there were only five of them.  It was important that they thought all of Tiquan’s men were running that way.

Four of the men picked up the packs, filled them with rocks, and with the fifth one leading the way, they started jogging up the trail.  Tiquan and the other four men, each carrying a girl, stepped into the creek.  They’d strategically placed a few large rocks the day before, that allowed them to move about fifty meters downstream without leaving a trace.  Once there, they got onto the bundles of branches they’d secured on the shore at that spot.  They were a bit like a dugout canoe in that they floated.  Lying on the bundles, they floated downstream for another twenty kilometers before getting off of the bundles, untying them, and sending the loose branches down the creek to the river.

Once off the bundles, they worked their way up the side of the creek using rocks and branches to minimize the traces.  At the top, they found another game trail.  Before the trackers figured out what was happening, they would be long gone.  Tiquan had several more feints planned along the path; he wasn’t sure how long the village men would be willing to track them just to recover four girls.

The other five men were to keep running until morning.  After morning, they would slowly discard the rocks in the packs.  Without the load, they would be able to run fast, far outpacing anyone trying to track them.

◆ ◆ ◆

Miranda was just spreading out her sleeping bag at Adsila’s fire when Adsila came to ask if she had seen Yolotl, her oldest daughter.  The twelve-year-old had gone off with friends to play after dinner, but she should be there now.

“No, I haven’t seen her since we ate.  Didn’t she go off to play with her friends?”

“Yes, but she should be here now!” Adsila said.

Adsila marched out of the longhouse to see where her daughter had gotten herself off to.  Miranda followed her out of the house.  Outside, three other mothers were looking for their daughters also.  Adsila immediately recognized them as the mothers of her daughter’s friends.

After a short conversation, it was obvious that the four girls were missing.  There really weren’t that many places to hide inside the compound, and the gates had been sealed since before dinner.  But with over fifteen hundred people, it was possible that the girls were hiding in plain sight.  So, each clan mother called her clan together to take roll call while several men began to search inside the compound using torches for light.  Jason followed along with a few that were searching along the palisades.  He was wearing his specs, hoping the night vision and infrared features would help him find where the girls were hiding.

They were about halfway around the perimeter when Jason noticed a heat signature outside the compound.  Something warm was up against the palisades. 

“Something’s not right here,” Jason called to Hototo.

Hototo looked at the ground.  He did a circular search around it, finding an area where they’re had obviously been several people standing.

“These prints are too deep.  Men carrying something,” he said, always the instructor teaching others how to track.  Hototo followed the prints back to where Jason was standing.  “The tracks go through the wall; someone brushed them to hide them.”

Jason and the other men started to push against the palisades, and it wasn’t long before it was obvious that the area had been compromised.  They pushed the various poles aside, creating a small passageway through it.  It was difficult to expand the passageway, but the reason was soon obvious; Citali’s body was lying against it.

They dragged Citali’s body aside, and Hototo examined the scene.  “Five men, four carrying the girls.  They ran that way?”

“How long?” someone asked.

“A long time.”

There was a hasty conference, then Hototo dispatched two young men with torches.  They set off at a run, following the trail as fast as they could.  For now, it was pretty easy to tell where the raiders had gone.

Hototo gathered the rest of the men together.  There were about two hundred fifty men who were in that 18-50 age group that could be counted on for defense and hunting.  Most would stay to defend the village; there was no way to tell if this was just a raid or a diversion to open the village up to a bigger attack.  Hototo identified twenty men he wanted to take with him.

Jason asked to join the group.  Hototo gave Jason a look, it was obvious he was going to say no, but then he shrugged.  “Yes, come.”

Jason grabbed his laser pistol, set it to slug mode, grabbed his bow and arrows, and ran toward the men.  Miranda intercepted him.

“You’re going?”

“Yes.”

“What can I do?”

“Could you work with Zephyr to analyze the infrared data?” Jason asked.  “You might be able to pick up the raiders’ trail.”

“I’m on it.  I’ll let you know what we find.”

Jason nodded to her and ran to join the rescue party.  The party immediately set out at a quick pace, following the trail.  They had two runners out front to let them know if something changed.

They had been trotting along for about two hours when Jason noticed something strange in his HUD.  There were two heat signatures just ahead of them, one close to the ground, another about a meter above.  They weren’t moving.

“Hototo!” Jason hissed.  “Something’s there.”

Hototo signaled for the party to halt, and he and two other men fanned out to the sides of the trail and crept forward without torches.

As they crept forward, Hototo could see a strange shape hanging from a tree.  He signaled the others to be ready, then he crept up on it.  It was one of the runners; he was hanging by one leg, his throat was cut, and he’d been stripped of his clothes.  The torch he’d been carrying was just a few feet from the hanging body.

Hototo knew that the other runner would not have left his friend hanging, and since he’d been stripped and his weapons taken, he was sure that they would find the other runner close by.  He told the men to come on up and help him search.  It only took a minute to find the second runner.  He was on the ground.  He’d been stripped, too, and had a wound in his upper chest where an arrow had caught him.  His throat had been cut to finish the job.

Hototo knew they were close to the creek.  It was unlikely that the raiders had stayed to wait for them.  It was more likely that one or two had been left behind to spring the ambush and were now hurrying to catch up with the others.

They cut the one guy down and placed him next to his friend.  They would deal with them later when they came back.  For now, they needed to push ahead, but slowly until they had a better idea of what the raiders were doing and where they were going.

“Miranda, do you have anything?”

“Yes, but it’s weird.  There were five heat signatures leaving the village.  About thirty minutes in, they were joined by another five.  An hour later, they cross a creek, and the signatures get weird.  It looks like there are five headed north, and one seems to just stay there.  Then two of them show back up.  They’re still there, but the other disappears, and I can’t see the other three.”

“Let me look.”

Jason examined the video of the heat signatures.  Knowing what he knew now, it was obvious that one of the raiders had stayed to wait for the runners.  They must have guessed that’s what Hototo would do.  Then after killing the two runners, he goes to the creek, where his signature disappears.

Jason ran the video back and forth a few times.

“What are you seeing?” Miranda messaged.

“Leaving the village, four of the heat signatures are big. I assume it’s the four guys who are carrying the girls.  When they cross the creek, the five we can still see aren’t that big.”

“Oh.  Do you think they split up?”

“Yes.”

“Would the creek hide their heat signatures?”

“If they followed it and were close to the water, like on a raft, maybe.”

“What are you going to tell Hototo?”

“Not sure.  Have to see what they find when we cross the creek.”

Jason ran to catch up with the main group.  A couple of the men had hung back to keep an eye on him.  It didn’t take long to find Hototo and the rest of the party studying the tracks around the creek.

Hototo glanced at Jason, curious about what had detained him, but he wasn’t about to ask.  The two men he’d left behind to watch over Jason just shrugged their shoulders.

Hototo pointed to the tracks.  “These are deep like the tracks we followed here.  Four men are carrying something heavy, like a girl.”

“Can it be a trick?” Jason asked.  He was sure that the infrared showed that nobody was carrying a girl as the raiders headed away from the creek.  But there had been no signature along the creek, so he wasn’t sure.

“Maybe.  But there is a village that way.  If you want, go with them and see,” Hototo said, pointing at the two men who were already heading downstream.

Jason shrugged and turned to follow the men.  Hopefully, they would find something to indicate that the girls were being taken downstream, maybe not as far as the village but far enough to throw off the trackers.

Jason and the two trackers followed the creek.  The two trackers used their torches to search for any signs that the water had been disturbed or that someone had walked on the edge of the creek.  After five kilometers, they halted.

“Nobody has come this way.”

“Are you sure?” Jason asked.

“Yes.”

“Could they have been on a log?”  Jason figured that floating in the water where your whole body would be close to it would be the only way to trick the IR, although that wouldn’t have been their reason.  They would have been trying to avoid leaving any traces on the banks of the stream.

The man snorted.  “Where would they get a log?  No, they didn’t come this way.”  He waved at the other guy, and they headed back upstream to rejoin Hototo.

Chapter 9

Jason’s Chase

Jason watched the two hunters leave.

“Coming?” one of them yelled.

“No, I’m going to keep going this way.”

The man shook his head.  “You will reach the neighboring village by dawn.  They will take you back to our village.”

Jason just nodded his head as he turned back and continued to follow the creek.

“Jason, what are you doing?” Miranda messaged.

“I’m positive they went this way.  I’m going to find them.”

“Should I join you?”

“It would take you too long to get here.  I have my pistol.  I think between it, the bow, and my night vision, I’ll be okay.”  Now that he was alone, he could wear his specs openly.

“Should I have Zephyr drop down closer?”

“I don’t think so.  We don’t want to risk losing him.”

“Okay. I wish those two guys had stayed with you.”

“So do I.”

Jason continued following the creek.  He was using the night vision feature sparingly; he didn’t want the battery to run down before dawn.  It was an hour before he found something that indicated that he might be right.  The bank of the creek was torn up at a bend, like something had run into it and then had been pushed off.  “Like a bundle of branches with people floating on it.”

Confident that he was right and sure that it would be obvious when they left the creek, Jason picked up the pace.  He knew he was racing against time.  He wanted to catch up to the group while it was still dark, when he would have the advantage.  He had five hours left.

It was another hour before he came to another game trail.  The signs were obvious.  Five men and four girls had walked out of the creek and started along the trail.  The trail was going back toward the hills, parallel to the previous game trail they had been following.  Jason was sure that the two groups would rejoin each other somewhere along this trail once the first group had lost Hototo and his party.

The prints he was following were cold.  Jason set his HUD to alert him when there was trace heat on the trail ahead of him, and then he set off at a fast pace, one he could keep up for twenty kilometers or more.  He was sure that the girls would slow the men down enough that he would catch them, even with the five-hour head start they had.

After another hour of running, Jason realized his trick with the infrared wasn’t going to work.  He could tell that one set of footprints was running.  That meant that the raiders were leaving someone behind to watch the trail.  He would then run and catch up with the group, and Jason assumed they would leave someone else behind to watch.

“Miranda, are you seeing anything?”

“I’ve just zeroed in on the heat signatures.  It looks like eight people walking; it’s hard to tell.”

“Why?  I thought you could see the sweat on their faces.”

“Only in the movies.  And Zephyr wasn’t fitted out with the best optics.  His are designed to see asteroids and moons, not someone running on a trail in the woods.”

“Okay, I think they’re leaving a scout behind to cover the rear for a while, then he runs back to catch up.  Let me know if you pick up anyone lying in wait.”

“I’ll try.  It’s going to be hard; I’m seeing lots of heat signatures, probably animals out feeding.”

“Yeah, makes sense.  Just ping me if one of them is close to the trail and not moving.”

Jason forged on ahead.  He kept an eye on the running prints, hoping they would give him a clue.  About twenty minutes later, he noticed that there weren’t any prints of someone running.  He pulled up just as Miranda pinged him.

“There’s a signature at your 11:00.”

Jason scanned the area.  “Damn!” he hissed as he dove to his left.  Fortunately, he was faster than the scout, and the arrow missed him.  He crawled up behind a tree, keeping low.

“Jason!  Are you hit?”

“Just my pride.  Now stay quiet unless you see movement.”

“Wilco.”

Jason pulled out his pistol and peered around the tree.  He could barely see the guy and definitely couldn’t get a good shot off.  He turned his pistol’s laser spot on and flicked it around, hoping he could get the guy to move.  It didn’t seem to do anything.  “He’s probably got his eyes closed and is just listening for movement,” Jason thought.

He could just get the laser spot to shine on what he thought was the guy’s heel, but it was hard to tell in the dark; even with night vision, things weren’t too clear.  As much as he hated to, he switched the pistol to laser.  It would cost him three rounds to use the laser, but he couldn’t keep waiting forever.  He set the spot on the heel, then triggered the laser.

The guy twisted, grabbing his foot.  That brought him into view, and Jason fired the pistol again, this time using slug mode.  The slug caught the guy low in the chest.

Jason crept forward to make sure the guy was down.  He was in full view lying on the ground after the slug got him.  As he approached, the guy grabbed his bow, but he couldn’t nock an arrow.  It was obvious he was a goner.  He glared at Jason, daring him, or maybe begging him to finish him off.  Jason just nodded and went back and grabbed his bow.  He still had a few kilometers to go before he caught up with the main group.

“Status?” he asked.

“They’re about five kilometers ahead of you, but there are other signatures joining them.”

“The decoy party must be joining up,” Jason said.

“I assume so.  Be careful.  They’re moving pretty slow.”

“I’m sure the girls are tired.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Hototo studied the prints.  The men they were chasing had been running for the last few kilometers, and their prints had gotten shallower, meaning that they were carrying less weight.  That had to mean that Jason had guessed right.  This was a diversion.  The prints went into the forest and disappeared.

“What now?” one of the men asked.

“Let me think,” Hototo said.

He’d hunted these forests and hills since he was a young boy.  He could see their layout in his mind.  If the raiders had done as Jason suggested and used the creek to hide their trail, where would they have gotten out?  As he recalled, there was a game trail a few kilometers before the creek reached the river.  It would be mostly paralleling the trail they were on, going a bit more westward, toward the hills.  If they cut across and went directly south, they would intersect the trail.  If they veered a little west, they would intersect it closer to the hills, maybe where the main party would be by the time they covered that distance.

“They went to the southern trail,” Hototo said.

“So Jason was right?”

“It appears so.  We will cut across and try to get in front of them.  Hopefully, we make it before Jason gets the girls killed.  ”

◆ ◆ ◆

Jason was working his way toward the raiders.  He was moving quickly, hoping that they wouldn’t have placed another rear guard until the last one showed up.

“They’ve stopped,” Miranda messaged.

“Stopped or paused?” Jason asked.

“I think stopped.  It’s an hour before dawn.  I think they probably think they’re in the clear.  They have to rest sometime.”

“Good.  How far?”

“You’re one kilometer behind them.”

“Thanks.”

Jason slowed down and moved off of the trail.  Now, he’d see how well he’d learned the lessons the boys had taught him.  He had to be quiet; he needed to even up the odds.  He only had four shots left with the pistol, or two laser shots.  He would need to take some of the men out with his bow.  They would be focused on the trail ahead and behind them, so he hoped he could sneak up along the side.

It took him fifteen minutes before he was close enough to hear them talking.  They were mainly telling the girls to be quiet.  The four girls were crying, asking why they’d been taken.  The men were mostly threatening to hit them if they didn’t shut up.

Jason continued to look for the pickets, the men who would have been placed around the camp to provide an early warning of any attack.  Based on his estimates, there were at least four pickets and maybe up to nine; he needed to be careful.

Finally, he spotted one of the pickets relieving himself against a tree.  “Sloppy, but what an opportunity.”  Jason nocked an arrow and drew the bow.  He eased a bit to the right to line up the shot and released the arrow.  It struck the man between the shoulder blades.  He fell against the tree, hitting his head.  He slid to the ground and didn’t move.  Jason hoped he was dead, or at least knocked out from hitting his head on the tree.  There was a shout in the camp for quiet.  They must have heard the man hitting the ground.

Then three men headed in Jason’s direction.  They were moving cautiously, spread out so they could cover the widest area as well as avoid being an easy target.

Jason shouldered the bow.  He wasn’t good enough with it to try to make multiple shots close together.  He’d have to rely on his pistol.  Since it was a subsonic railgun, it would barely make a sound, so he hoped he could take care of the three men without giving away his position.

Jason moved to the right, toward the edge of the advancing party.  He lay on the ground under a bush and lined up a shot.  He wanted to take the guy in the center to confuse the other two about his position.

It took a minute before he had the shot; he fired, hitting the guy in the chest.  The guy crashed to the ground, drawing the attention of the other two.  The one closest to him ducked behind a tree; well, behind if Jason were over in the middle.  Jason shot him in the back.

The third man yelled back at the camp.  Jason didn’t understand the word, nor did the translator.  He assumed it was some hunting or tracking word that gave them information about where the guy thought Jason was.  Jason rolled out from under the bush and moved toward the center.  It should be obvious that he had been to the left of the party, given that one guy was shot while behind a tree.

“Someone else is heading your way,” Miranda messaged.  “He’s heading toward where you ambushed the group.”

“Roger that.”

Being down to two shots, Jason wasn’t sure what he should do.  He could now tell that there were three men in the camp and three men hunting him.  Maybe, if he could take care of the three hunters, he could get the guys in the camp to leave the girls behind.

Jason eased his way toward the camp, hoping to get in behind the men stalking him.  It was past dawn, so he’d lost his night vision advantage.  They were moving carefully, making no sound except an occasional bird call.  He knew they were signaling each other, but he didn’t know what the signals meant.  He should have spent more time with the boys when they were playing.

Finally, the man closest to him made a mistake; assuming that Jason was in front of him, he moved quickly between trees and left his back open to Jason.  It was a bit far for a shot, but Jason had to take the chance.  He nocked an arrow and fired.

The man fell, yelling at the other two.  Those two split up and headed Jason’s way.  Jason ducked behind a bush and ran toward the left.  He slowly worked his way back around to where the other two men were searching for him.

One of them saw Jason and yelled.  Jason quickly let off a slug shot from his pistol and caught the guy in the shoulder.  As he fell to the ground, he yelled at the other man.  That guy came charging forward, firing arrow after arrow.  The fourth one he fired grazed Jason’s leg, ripping through his shipsuit and tearing his flesh.  The man had a handful of arrows in the bowhand and was just firing like a Gatling gun.  Jason ducked behind the tree, quickly checking the wound; it wasn’t too bad, just a lot of blood.

There was a pause in arrows, eight seconds, then they started up again.  The guy had probably needed to reach into his quiver to grab another handful.  Jason could tell by the angle of the arrows that the guy was working his way around the tree so he could line up a better shot.

“Well, go big or go home,” Jason whispered.  He clutched the pistol and waited.  He’d timed the arrows, five seconds.  When the next arrow hit, he counted to three and jumped out from behind the tree, hitting the ground and rolling over into a prone position, his pistol in front.  The next arrow hit over by the tree just as he was hitting the ground.  He could see the guy had nocked another arrow and was beginning to pull it back.  He was startled by Jason leaping from behind the tree and rolling on the ground.  He was just adjusting his aim when Jason fired.  Nobody could pull this stunt off with a bow, but a pistol was a different animal, and the guy’s shock registered on his face as Jason slug caught him full in the chest.

“Jason, are you hurt?” Miranda asked.  “I see a spike in your readings.”

“Just a flesh wound.  What’s going on with Hototo?”

“He’s heading your way.”

“How long?”

“An hour, maybe sooner.  It looks like he’s sent a couple of runners out ahead.  If they’re fast, thirty minutes.”

“Thanks.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Try to get the last three to run and leave the girls behind.”

“Can’t you wait?”

“I’m not sure.  Thirty minutes is a long time.  I’ll scout the camp and see what’s up.”

Jason worked his way back toward the camp.  He could now see it clearly.  There were three men, and he was sure that Tiquan was one of them.  The girls had their hands tied and a rope around each of their waists, holding them together so they couldn’t run.  One man was watching the girls while Tiquan and the other were trying to stand guard.  They were both facing his way; the noise from his fight was obvious.

“We will kill the girls,” Tiquan yelled.

“Why?  Just leave them and you can get away,” Jason yelled back.

“You!” Tiquan hissed.  “How did you find us?”

“I figured out your trick at the creek.”

Tiquan spat.  “Well, now what?”

“We wait here until Hototo shows up, or you make a run for it.”

“I’ll kill Yolotl first.”  Yolotl was Adsila’s oldest daughter.

“If you do, I promise I’ll not rest until I find you.”

“Ha, you’ve already found me.  Come on out.  I’ll fight you.”

“Yeah, and your friends will just watch?”

“They would not deny me the pleasure of killing you.  Knives, or are you a coward?”

“If I win?”

“Then I’ll be dead.  They’ll run.  Without me, they’re nothing.”

Jason could see the two men thinking about what to make of that.  Maybe they would kill Tiquan for him.

“Come on, if you don’t come out, I’ll go ahead and kill the girls, and then you’ll have to fight me.”

Jason stepped into the clearing.  Tiquan had already dropped his bow.  He looked at the two men; they laid their bows down and turned to watch.  Jason tossed his bow aside and drew his knife; his pistol was in his pocket.  Jason’s knife was a steel hunter’s knife, while Tiquan’s was a piece of obsidian, but that didn’t give either of them an advantage.

Tiquan grasped his knife in his right hand, the blade coming out between his thumb and forefinger, and pointed at Jason.

Jason held out his left hand palm up and flicked his fingers at Tiquan like Miranda had done.

“Come on,” Jason taunted.

Jason grasped his knife with the blade pointing out the bottom of his hand.  That’s the way they taught you in the Delphi Marines.  It didn’t look as cool, but you could use your fist, hook your opponent with the knife, slash, or stab.

Tiquan laughed when he saw how Jason was holding his knife.  He stepped forward and slashed horizontally, trying to catch Jason in the stomach.

Jason jumped back, easily avoiding the slash.  He circled, curling the fingers of his left hand at Tiquan the way Miranda had taunted him.

Tiquan made a hard thrust at Jason’s chest.  Jason blocked Tiquan’s arm with his knife hand, then circled his hand, bringing the blade around to Tiquan’s wrist.  He pulled down, his knife cutting hard into Tiquan’s wrist.

Tiquan yelled but somehow managed to hold onto his knife.  He switched it to his left hand and smiled at Jason.  Blood was running from his right wrist as he held it in front of him and prepared another attack.

Jason glanced over at the other two men, worried they might decide to step in and help Tiquan.  He needn’t have worried; they were lying on the ground with two of Hototo’s men, each had a foot on their back.  The two men motioned at Jason to continue the fight.

Tiquan thrust at Jason again.  As Jason stepped to the side, he brought his knife up sharply, raking it across Tiquan’s face.

Jason stepped back to see if Tiquan would surrender.

“Jason, you have to kill him.  If you don’t, he’ll do whatever it takes to kill you,” Miranda messaged.

Her message wasn’t necessary.  Tiquan charged Jason, hoping to at least cut him before Jason could kill him.  Jason leapt forward, blocking Tiquan’s left hand with his right, circling it around, bringing it to Tiquan’s cheek as his knife slashed across Tiquan’s waist.  Then Jason leaned forward, forcing Tiquan toward the ground as he drove his knife into his side, under the ribs, and into Tiquan’s heart.

Jason pushed Tiquan to the ground.  When he looked up, he saw Hototo and the rest of his men standing in a circle.  The first two men were helping the girls get untied.

“Good!” Hototo said.

“What a waste.”

“No, he was a bad man.”

“Yes, he was.”

Hototo walked over and gave Jason a hug.  “You are my brother.  Hear me, this man is now my brother!”

Jason looked at Hototo, a bit confused.  This was a huge honor.  Had he really done enough to deserve it?

“I have a daughter,” Hototo said, then he turned and motioned everyone to follow him home.

Chapter 10

Back to the New Normal

Jason used his new standing in the village to launch his teaching program.  His primary goal was basic: teach as many of Wakipee to read and write and how to do basic math as he could.  His secondary goal of identifying the geniuses among them would happen at its own pace.  He made a bunch of slate tablets for them to write on and started a few classes.  He hoped that a little success would generate more interest.

The classes were segregated by sex.  It wasn’t an absolute rule, but the men ignored the women, and even the girls that showed interest in certain young men would not tolerate being in a room with a bunch of them.

The boys were the most difficult.  Of course, Jason got to teach the men and boys.  Miranda took the women and girls.  Almost all of the men ignored Jason’s request about classes, saying they might think about it later when it was too cold to do anything else and if there were useful results from his previous classes.  He was sure that the few that did attend only did so because Hototo made them.

It was difficult to get the boys to come to class consistently.  Jason had gotten the mothers to assign twelve boys to take the classes, like the men, they said they would expand the list if things looked good.  The boys were used to being outside and playing.  So even though the classes were held outside, if it was warm, they considered it a waste of time.  If it was warm enough to be outside, then they should be practicing their hunting and tacking skills, or at least chasing each other around.

The boys actually paid attention long enough to learn how to draw most of the letters, but after that, it was a struggle.  The girls were patient and were well into writing and spelling words, while the boys were still arguing about how to draw some of the more complex letters.  The fact that the alphabet was phonetically based and the words were mostly phonetically spelled eliminated most arguments like ‘why do you spell it like that’ that Jason remembered from his early schooling; actually, what he remembered his nephew and nieces complaining about when they were in the first grade.

“Miranda, how are your classes going?” Jason asked after another frustrating day of trying to keep the men’s attention, much less the boys’.

“They’re going well.  We’re having fun.”

“Fun?”

“Yes.  We tell stories then write them down.  And I’ve started to do a mystery in each class.  I write clues on pieces of paper and hide them.  They have to find the papers, read the clues, then find the next clue.  The girls love it.  Even the women seem to be getting into it.”

“I should probably do something like that.  The boys are impossible to deal with.  All they want to do is go play stalk each other, and the men aren’t much better.”

“Well, my girls are getting out of chores, so they’re much more attentive.  The men and boys are spoiled.”

“I guess so.  They don’t seem to have many chores.”

“Right, gathering firewood.  That’s like playing to them.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“How’s your search for a math genius going?” Miranda asked a few weeks later.

“Okay, I guess.  Hototo actually took the test.  He did pretty good, but he said it was boring and he won’t study with me.”

“Did you tell him he would be studying with me?”

“No, and that probably wouldn’t have helped.”

“How many people have you tested?”

“Eighty-six.  I should have found one in that group, shouldn’t I?”

“No!” Miranda said.  Her face was pinched up like she’d smelled something rotten.

“Why not.”

“You’re looking for someone in the three-sigma range, right?”

“Yeah, that’s the 99th percentile, right?”

“No, a deviation is how far a given data point is from the average.  A standard deviation is the square root of the average of all the squared deviations.”

“Miranda, just tell me.  I don’t have whatever defect you and Catie have that lets you think in numbers.  I hated statistics.”

“Hey, I don’t make fun of you because you can draw a horse that actually looks like a horse.”

“Sorry, but math makes my head hurt.”

“Okay, three sigma is 99.7, so three out of a thousand,” Miranda said.

“Crap.  So there will only be six in the whole village.”

“And that assumes we have a normal distribution here.”

“Why wouldn’t we?” Jason asked.

“I’m sure the distribution at birth is normal, but what about survival rate?  Most geniuses I’ve met are a bit weird and not particularly observant, Catie being an exception.”

“So?”

“So, in this environment, are they more or less likely to survive?”

“I don’t know.  They might not be good hunters or trackers, but then they wouldn’t go out often.”

“That’s probably right.  So?”

“They’re probably one of the Demalia.”

“Why?”

“Those are the ones that they make stay in the village with the women.”

“I know, but they’re mentally handicapped.”

“Not all of them.  Some are just awkward and not observant.”

“Okay, then you should test them.”

“What about women?” Jason asked.

“I’m glad to see you’re thinking about us.  There are some women who are a bit odd.  A few are mentally handicapped, but some are just easily distracted.  I’ll test them for you.”

“What about our chances of finding a six-sigma genius?” Jason asked.

“That’s like 1.5 in a million.  There might not even be one alive on this coast.  Probably there’s one on the continent somewhere, but we’d be lucky to find them.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Jason convinced Hototo to send men to the other villages to give his test; searching for the few that would score high enough to be considered in the 2-3 sigma range.  He’d gotten two so far, but it would take time for the ones who’d gone to the farther villages to get back.

“How come men are the only ones coming back with you to study?” Miranda asked.

“Come on, you know why,” Jason said.  “I told them to test the women as well, but they just scoffed at me.  What am I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, but it’s not right.  Women are just as smart as men, and the geniuses we’re looking for are just as likely to be women.”

“I agree.  Why don’t you talk to the grandmother?  She’s in charge of the women.  Maybe she can help.”

“Sure,” Miranda said.  She wondered if she could even get an audience with the old lady.  The older women of the village always surrounded her.  The few younger women she’d seen around her were just serving food or doing other chores.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Grandmother, thank you for seeing me,” Miranda said.  She was able to communicate this herself, without the translator.  But she knew she’d need her Comm to translate once they started talking about anything serious.  Fortunately, it produced a voice that closely mimicked hers, not perfect since they didn’t have a massive AI to tune the programming.

“Welcome, daughter.  I am pleased that you wish to talk to me.  Now tell me what you wish to discuss.”

“Grandmother, you know that Jason and I are working with your people to teach them how to write your language.”

“Yes, I have heard this.  You tell us that it will allow us to record our stories so they are never lost.”

“That's correct.  We are also teaching math.”

“Math?”

“Working with numbers.  It will make determining how much food you need for the winter much easier.  Also, things like how to best use a hide to make the clothing you want.  It will allow your people to accomplish many things with few mistakes and less effort.”

The grandmother nodded her head.  “I hear this, but I’m not sure that it is a good thing.”

“Do you fear it is a bad thing?” Miranda asked.

“I fear it is a waste of time.  But it will not be too bad if people do it during the dark winter months.  Now, what is your request?”

“To accomplish this, we are searching for people with a natural talent for such things.  Just like some people can run faster than others, some can do math better than others.”

The old lady nodded.

“But when we sent the searcher out to the other villages to find these talented people, they only tested the men.”

“That is good.”

“Why is that good?”

“Because women have many things to do during the dark winter months; men do not.  There will be little lost if men waste their time.  But women will have children to look after, clothes to mend, and food to prepare.  We cannot afford to waste our time.”

“But grandmother, don’t some women want to do more than that?  Shouldn’t we give everyone a chance?  To survive and thrive, don’t we need every person to contribute their best, use all of their talents?”

“Having and raising children is how our tribe will survive and thrive.  This only women can do.  We cannot afford to have our women waste their time.”

“But if women are excluded, won’t they suffer?  Won’t the men start to make all the decisions, some of them not necessarily good decisions?”

“We women manage our men.”

“But will the men always allow this?  Do you not fear they will steal all the power?”

“Bah, they are not clever enough to do that.”

Miranda was frustrated.  The old woman couldn’t imagine a world different than the one she lived in now.  The population of the tribes was growing.  Miranda knew that the social structures and laws would need to be codified.  To concentrate power.  How would the women avoid being subjugated here as they had in every modern human society?

◆ ◆ ◆

“Miranda,” Adsila whispered.

“What?”  Miranda was surprised to see Adsila when she exited the grandmother’s clan house.

“I was in the back while you talked to Grandmother.”

“Oh, I didn’t see you.”

“You weren’t supposed to.  I’m not surprised by her answer.  She likes things the way they are.”

“Sure.  But do you understand what I was trying to tell her?”

“A little.  It’s obvious that we women do most of the work.  The men hunt.  Sometimes build things.  But . . .”  Adsila shrugged her shoulders.

“Yes.  And if the constitution and laws aren’t written down, what stops them from being changed?”

“Nothing.  My great-grandmother says the laws have already changed.  She says the men have more power now.  Especially when they say we are under threat of attack from another village.”

“That’s what I mean.”

“Well, we women travel to other villages to exchange messages, teach each other healing techniques, and trade certain medicines.”

“Oh.  So does that mean you can conduct the tests?”

“Not me, but I’m sure I can convince one of my sisters to do that.”

“Good.  Let’s go over the test.  Maybe you’ll see some things we should change.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Jason, you know your name seems to come up a lot around the women’s fire.”

“What, why?”

“I think Adsila is trying to marry you off.”

“Gawd, can’t you get her to stop?  Hototo made a joke about his daughter after we rescued the girls.”

“I’m not sure it was a joke.  You’re considered a hot commodity.”

“I can’t get married.”

“Why not?”

“What happens when we’re rescued?  It wouldn’t be fair to take someone out of this environment.  She’d be lost and confused.”

“You’re still assuming we’ll be rescued.”

“Yes.  I’m betting between two years and five years.  That’s how long it will take for our signal to spread far enough that Catie’s probes will encounter it.”

“That’s a long time.  Maybe you would decide to say here?”

“Not likely.”

Chapter 11

Meanwhile

It was midnight, and Catie was still in her office in the Thorean Presidential Palace.  She was studying the star map on the large screen she’d installed in her office.

“ARR,” she grumbled at the map.

“Cer Catie, you need to give it more time,” ADI said.

“I can’t.  There has to be something in this data that will give us a hint as to where the wormhole jumped to.”

“I have been analyzing the data as well.  I did not find any such indicator.  I will continue to study it, but you need to get some rest.”

“ADI!  I need to find them.”

“I know.  But you will not find them this way.  You need to rest, focus on your work, and let your mind relax.  Then you might get the inspiration to see the clue hidden in the data.  Now go to bed!”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Hey Liz, what are you doing down here?” Catie asked.

“You sent the Sakira home, so I don’t have a ship.”

“You have the Aventurier.”

“I know, but Questa is doing a good job.  She’s a new captain, and it’s good experience for her to have command without a Commodore hanging around.  I think she’s going to stay in Delphi Forces.”

“And you’re not?”

“You know I’m not.  As soon as this mission is over, I’m handing in my papers; again.”

“Yeah, until the next time Uncle Blake or Daddy needs you.”

“I think they’ll have enough other options by then.  I’m going to focus on Star Merchants and maybe do a few of the exploration missions.  Those were fun.”

“Yes, they were.  I miss those days.”

“So do I,” Liz said as she started to hum Eye of the Tiger.

“You’re lucky Uncle Blake can’t hear you.  He bans that song on any ship he’s in command of.”

“Hey, he can ban the song, but he can’t ban the memory.”

Catie laughed, “Shoot this thing!”

“He’s a big proponent of animal rights until one of them is chewing on his ass,” Liz said.

“Well, he was wearing body armor.”

“Right, what was he crying about?  That cat didn’t hurt him; it was just playing.”

“Well, he never likes being toyed with.”

Both women burst into giggles as they remembered that long-ago event.

“Okay, now that we’ve had some fun, what are you doing here?” Catie asked.

“I thought I’d come down and help you.  I could be your aide.”

“Ohhh, I see what you’re up to.  You’re planning to hook up with that pilot.  Commander Hayes.”

“No!  I’m here to help you.  If Commander Hayes and I happen to have time for a few dates, that’s just dumb luck.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Sam, what’s up?” Liz asked.  She was surprised that Samantha would call her.  They got along, but weren’t exactly friends.

“It’s about Catie.”

“What about her?” Liz asked, suddenly interested.

“You have to have noticed that her decisions aren’t very balanced.”

“Kinda.  But it’s a hard line to balance on.  The Thorean government is really messed up.”

“It is, but Catie isn’t really helping that much.  She’s obsessing about Jason’s and Miranda’s situation, and it’s having a bad influence on her.”

“Well, it’s influencing all of us.  Not knowing is tough.  There’s just no closure.”

“I understand, but ADI called me.  She’s worried.”

“What?”

“Cer Liz.  Catie is spending far too much time analyzing the data around Jason’s and Miranda’s disappearance.  She needs to let the signal propagate.  She needs to give it time.”

“I’m sorry.  I haven’t been paying that close of attention to her.  I should have caught this.”

“It’s okay, we understand.  But she needs a little wakeup call.”

“Ohhh, and you want me to give it to her?”

“You are acting as her aide.”

“Yeah, but . . .”

“I know, you’re really taking a break.  But she needs you to tap her on the shoulder.”

“Okay, okay.  But I need more details.  I haven’t really been paying that much attention.”

“I know.  ADI will take care of you.  How is Commander Hayes, by the way?”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Catie, how are you doing?” Liz asked as she walked into Catie’s office.

“Wow, look who it is, my long-lost aide.”

“Hey, I’ve been around.”

“Do you want to ask ADI for an accounting of your hours?”

“No!  I just came by to see how you are.  It seems like you’re still mad at the Thoreans.”

“Not really, but they are really screwed up.  They’re just now getting their government in order.”

“Yes, but does that mean you have to penalize them?”

“I’m not penalizing them.”

“You aren’t?  So Sivaria gets their cruiser back with nice upgrades so they can start exploring their asteroid belt while Thorea gets nothing.”

“Hey, we promised them the cruiser.  And until Thorea is accepted into the League, we’re not allowing them to have any space forces.”

“I’ll give you that.  But what about that surprise gift to Sivaria from Star Merchants?  A 70% discount on a colony ship from Thorea to Sivaria.”

“Well, most of the prisoners we captured during the war wanted to move to Sivaria, so they needed help getting their families moved.”

“You could have done that with a frigate or one of the smaller ships we have.  But the Dutchman.  Come on.”

“Well, there were a lot of people that wanted to emigrate.  You know there’s always that group that works hard but isn’t the type to go to college and get a fancy degree.  They want to be able to get ahead based on their skills and hard work.  They see emigration as a chance to get ahead, to move someplace where there’s room for them to succeed and where their skill and hard work will be appreciated.”

“Yeah, yeah.  I know.  And, of course, you had to make room for those with the fancy degrees that think they can get even further ahead on a new planet.”

“Well, of course.”

“You know you’re going to more than double the population of Sivaria.”

“I know.  That’s what they want.  They’ve been held back for so long, and they really want to expand, have some new blood.  Some young people.”

“And Thorea doesn’t need any help?”

“I’m helping.”

“How?”

“We’re helping them work through their change of government.”

“And getting them one of the asteroids wouldn’t make that easier?  Maybe relieve some of the resentment?”

“It might,” Catie said with a pout.  “I guess I’m still mad at them.  Every time I think about helping them, I think about Jason and Miranda.”

“You can’t keep taking it out on them.  Besides, most of the population of Thorea was on our side.  Can’t you focus on them?”

“Yes . . .”

“I’ll tell you what.  Let’s go out to dinner, then we’ll find a good bar and toast Miranda and Jason until they kick us out.  If we do enough toasting, the gods will surely notice and take pity on you.”

“Don’t you have a date tonight?”

“I did, but I just canceled it.  I’m taking my best friend out to get drunk enough to drown all her sorrows.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Catie was sitting in her office in the Thorean Presidential Palace.  She had a headache from last night, not really, more like a memory of a headache; she’d gotten a shot to take care of the hangover, but she still felt a bit out of sorts.  It’d been six months since the war, so after Liz’s pep talk and their binge last night, she decided she would focus on getting Thorea aligned with the League.  She was reviewing all the notes on the situation before her meeting with the president later that day.

◆ ◆ ◆

Catie smiled at President Zarkas as he joined her in her office.  “We’ll have a bit more privacy here,” he said.

“I agree,” Catie said.  “I have some news for you.  The Sivarians have agreed to sell you one of the asteroids.  We jumped it into your system last night.”

“Thank you so much.  That will really help us.  We’ve been cannibalizing much of our military tech to minimize the impact on the economy, but we’re getting to the bottom of that barrel without doing long-term damage to our future.”  The president took a seat and sighed.  He was obviously relieved that there was finally some motion.

“What else,” he asked.

“You’ve done a good job on restitution so far, but the League wants to wait a bit longer; they want to see a few more cases settled.”

“We’re working at it.  It’s a difficult problem,” the president said, giving his head a little shake.  “How can you separate the effects of the repression from the effects of life?  It’s easy when you have a case where something was stolen, but when someone comes to the court for restitution for being denied an opportunity, how can we respond?”

“I don’t know.  With kindness, with a similar opportunity, with an apology.”

“Hmm,” President Zarkas mused.  “Won’t an apology set unreasonable expectations?”

“I think the lack of an apology will set unreasonable resentment,” Catie said.

“That’s an interesting perspective.  I’ll discuss it with my staff.  We’ll see what we can do.”

“I see your crime rate has come down to normal levels,” Catie said.  “Is there anything we can do to help there?”

“I’d like my minister of justice to sit in on this.  We were talking about whether you might have technology that would help us.”

Catie and the president chatted about inane things while they waited for the minister to make it to Catie’s office.

“What’s your biggest problem with crime?” Catie asked once the minister joined them.

The minister of justice laughed.  “Racketeering.  You wouldn’t have a solution for protection rackets, would you?  We’ve been fighting that problem for hundreds of years, and we still don’t have a solution.”

“That is a tough one.  Even when you know who the victims are, you can’t get them to talk without them really becoming victims.  The threat against family is hard to overcome.”

“Tell me about it.  We keep adding policing and tracking, and still it happens.  Even when we know exactly who’s involved, it’s hard to build a case.  Did you ever come up with a solution?”

“We did, sort of.  Before Earth was unified, we did some things, and now that it’s unified, they’re expanding upon those methods.”

“What methods?”

“We determined that trying to prosecute them for thuggery was generally a waste of time.  You have to prosecute the people who you catch, but the real lever is the money.”

“What did you do?”

“As you said, it’s not hard to figure out who’s behind it.  If you just assume there’s some kind of racket going on, you can trace the money and find out who the key people are.”

“Sure, but what good is that?”

“At first, before we had a unified government, we just took their money.  We’d find their hidden accounts and empty them.  Now it’s done more legally.  The government does the same thing. They seize the accounts and then tell the owners to document how they came by the money and show the taxes paid on it.  Surprisingly, most of them deny having anything to do with the money.”

The minister of justice nodded.  “We started to do a bit of that, but not quite that aggressively.”

“That’s typical.  On Earth, the governments are getting even more aggressive.  They’re seizing assets that don’t have a solid public record of being sold.  They demand the owner show the providence of the money used to buy the asset, and they demand that the value be based on a current appraisal.”

“But doesn’t that just drive them to keep their money in cash, gold, diamonds, and such?”

“Yes.  But those things are just pretty to look at.  When you can’t buy anything with them without having the government knocking on your door asking for documentation showing where the money came from, they become less attractive.”

“We can work on that.  I’m sure we’ll get lots of support in the parliament right now.”

“Good.  There was also some concern expressed that you are not doing enough to eliminate tax havens and revise your banking laws?”

“Yes, we need to do that.  The privileged class keeps undermining that type of legislation.”

“Privileged class?” Catie asked.  She knew that the new government was mostly made up of people without the golden gene.  Those had been the privileged class before the war.

“Well, even without Golden ones in government, you still have wealthy people who want to protect their wealth.”

“That’s why you need to deal with it now, before they can regroup and get ‘relationships’ built up with all your newly appointed mayors and legislators.”  Catie used air quotes to stress relationships.

“Thank you,” the president said.  “Anything else?”

“I’m hoping that once you have new elections in a few months, we’ll be able to put forward an application for membership in the League.”

The president nodded his head.  “That seems like a good target.”

“In the meantime, I’ll work to get some trade started.  That should help relieve some of the pressure on the economy.”

The president looked like he wanted to jump up and pump his fist.  “Yes, that would be helpful,” he said instead.

Chapter 12

Damn Explorers

“Lieutenant Clark,” Zephyr messaged.

“Zephyr, what’s up?”  Jason asked.  He was at his lathe, working on another stool for one of the women.

“A flotilla of ships from Eurasia has crossed the demarcation line you set.”

“Shit!”  Jason set his tools down and adjusted his specs.  “How many ships?”

“Seven.”

“Show me.”

Zephyr put up the image of the seven ships.  Two were large cargo ships, while the other five were more like explorers or fighting frigates.  They were sailing in a tight formation.

“How long have they been sailing?”

“Thirty days.”

“So, does that mean another thirty days before they arrive here?”

“Yes, I estimate thirty days,” Zephyr said.

“Can you tell where they will land?”

“Not precisely.  But I would estimate it will be within four hundred kilometers of your coastal position.”

“Hmm, this is a bit far north.  Any data to explain why they aren’t going for a more southern location?”

“No, Lieutenant Clark, I have seen no data which would explain that.  Possibly they like the cooler climate.”

“Okay, keep me posted on their progress.  I want to know if their progress changes, or you get a better estimate of their landing target.”

“Yes, Lieutenant.”

“Miranda, can you join me at the lathe?  We have a problem.”

Maranda rushed from the kiln over to Jason.  “What’s up?”

“There are seven ships from Eurasia heading this way.  Zephyr estimates that they will arrive in thirty days.”

“Damn.  We always knew that they would show up sometime.”

“Yes, but we’re not ready for them.  The Wakipee haven’t advanced far enough to be able to have a chance at maintaining themselves as a separate nation.”

“Don’t you think it’s just an exploratory mission?”

“No!  Look at the ships.  That’s an invasion force.  They’re going to set up a permanent base here.”

“And the problem?”

“I don’t think they’re going to be nice about it.  For them to send such a big force tells me that they’ve been here before.”

“We haven’t heard anything like that.”

“I know, but I suspect they were here, but probably a long way from us.  Far enough away that the information hasn’t filtered up here yet.”

“Should we ask Hototo and Grandmother about it?  Maybe if we’re more specific, they’ll remember something.”

“But what excuse would we use for asking?”

“I don’t know.  And what do you want to do about it anyway?”

“I think when they land, they’re going to start a war.  They’ll take what they want from the Wakipee, and they won’t be nice about asking.”

“A war?”  Miranda mused.  “I’m not sure that’s going to be as one-sided as you think.”

“Come on, they’re going to have rifles — well, muskets.  The Wakipee just have bows and arrows.  I don’t think it’ll be a fair fight.”

“Well, surprisingly, a bow and arrow is a more effective weapon than a 16th century musket.  It’s got twice the range, and a warrior can fire a lot more arrows per minute than a man with a musket can fire.”

“I didn’t know that.  But even so, they’re probably going to have cannons.”

“Yeah, that’s a problem.  But if the Wakipee can set up on the high ground, they might be able to neutralize that.  We don’t really need to worry about exploding cannon balls, but grapeshot will be a problem.”

“Isn’t grapeshot just a bunch of pellets?” Jason asked.

“Yes, but they have about an 800-meter range, and those pellets do a lot of damage even at that range.”

“Okay.  So, what can we do to prepare?”

“I’m not sure.  You’re the one in command.”

“I am, and you’re the best strategist I have, so I want a battle plan.”

“Let’s talk after dinner.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Have you figured out what our goals should be?” Miranda asked Jason when she joined him by the palisades.

“Ideally, we prevent them from sailing back to Eurasia.”

“Why?”

“That should create the biggest break between this excursion and the next.  If we wind up chasing them back, they’ll just come with more force and more experience next time.”

“And if they never show up, then the powers that be will think long and hard about what to do next.”

“Right,” Jason said, looking satisfied with himself.

“Well, wiping out seven ships isn’t an easy task.  In fact, I can’t imagine how one might accomplish it.”

“What did they do back in the 1800s?”

“They would attack with a larger force, and even then, they didn’t usually destroy all the ships.  Maybe they’ll do it for you.”

“What?”

“Well, Cortez sank and burned his ships when he invaded Mexico.  He didn’t want his men to think they had the option of going home.”

“Maybe if we make things miserable for them, the leader will have to destroy the ships for the same reason.  Nothing like misery to make you think of home.  Now, did you develop any ideas about a strategy?” Jason asked.

“A few, but it all depends on where they land and what they do after that.  The one thing we have to do is make sure the Wakipee understand about firearms.  They need to know that even though there’s a loud bang, their bows are better weapons.”

“A loud bang?”

“Well, there are only two reasons I can think of for the bow being replaced by muskets.  The first is that it doesn’t take much time to train a soldier on a musket, while it takes years to learn how to use a bow.”

“Right, and the second?”

“Men like things that go bang.”  Miranda laughed at the look Jason gave her.

“Well, the bang does scare the bejesus out of you.”

“It does, but we need to help the Wakipee to know better.  And we can’t really do much until the invaders make a move.”

“Okay, what else can we do?”

“Make lots of arrows.”

“Why?  The Wakipee have quite a few arrows already.”

“Figure ten arrows per enemy,” Miranda said.  “We’re going to have to rely on volley fire like at Agincourt.  They won’t have time to take careful aim.”

“Great!”  Jason didn’t look like he thought it was great.  “Tell you what, I’ll make another lathe, and you can help with the arrows.”

“Aww.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Jason and Miranda spent the next few weeks making arrows.  Jason got the boys to hunt arrowheads for him by making knives and hatchets for them in exchange.  They dug a pit and lined it with deerskin to hide the arrow shafts.  They figured that once the arrows were needed, the Wakipee warriors would make quick work out of assembling them.

Based on seven ships and approximately two hundred twenty men per ship, Miranda decided they needed to make around fifteen thousand arrows.  Jason just wanted to cry when he thought of all the work ahead.

Chapter 13

The Return

“Captain, the lookout reports sighting the shore.”

“Can he see a bay where we can make a harbor?”

“No, sir.  He reports a rocky shoreline.”

“Then signal the fleet to tack.  We’ll stay out of sight of the shore and go north until we find a bay.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Signal the Sinara to sail ahead and find a bay; we’ll follow.”

“Aye, sir.”

Captain Vestry looked at the horizon.  He couldn’t see the shore of Wakara, as the natives called it, but he knew it was there.  It had been five years since he’d last been in these waters.  Five years that he had been plotting his return, his revenge.

Back then, he’d had three ships.  They’d landed on an island in the south.  He’d sent a boat ashore to greet the natives that were living there.  To talk about trade, to learn about the new continent he’d discovered.

He never knew what happened.  Suddenly, the natives had turned on his men, slaughtering them all.  They then lined up on the shore and chanted at his ships.  Undoubtably telling them to go home.

He’d ordered his gunner to fire on them.  Their cannons had made short work of the men who had stood on the coast.  He’d then sent a strong force of men ashore to take control of the island.  The Wakapi, as he later learned they called themselves, had abandoned their village and the island.

His men reported that there was a village, a stockade, just inland.  There was nobody there except two crippled old men.  He couldn’t believe his luck; months of work would be saved by just taking over the village.  It had plenty of room to house his three hundred men.  They would establish their base there, then finish exploring the island.  After that, they would begin to explore the mainland.

That’s what he’d thought he would do.  What he had thought and hoped would happen before they discovered that the Wakapi had poisoned the village.  Three days after they landed, his men started to drop dead.  Within a week, half of them were dead or dying.

He and his boat crew had had to force their way back aboard his ship.  It hadn’t taken long to figure out that the men who had never set foot on shore didn’t get sick.  Of course, that meant the men on the ships were reluctant to let anyone who had been on shore back on the ship.  Bastards.

They’d stayed for another month as the men who were sick either died or got better. At the end of that time, he barely had enough men to sail two ships.  They’d taken the supplies from the other ship and set fire to her.  He’d sailed home, defeated, still sick from whatever poison they had used.  He’d captured the two old men and brought them with him.  They’d laughed at the dying men, and it had been all he could do to keep his men from killing them.

He'd arrived home defeated but vowing to return.  It took six months before the two old men had learned enough Causian for him to question them.  They had laughed at him and said that even the Wakapi got sick on that island, but they usually didn’t die.  They’d said that after someone got sick the first time, they didn’t get sick again.

After many threats and bribes, they finally told him that there was a tribe called the Wakipee that lived to the north.  They said that the Wakipee had the best land, and they never got sick.  When he’d shown them gold and silver and asked if the Wakipee had metal like that, he’d been told that they had many mines.  That the women were covered in the metal.

He’d used that information to gather funding for this expedition.  He’d brought over twice as many ships, five times the number of soldiers.  This time he was not going to be defeated.

“Captain?”

“Stand down for general quarters.  Set the watch.  Let me know if the lookout sees anything interesting.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Two days later, Zephyr notified Jason that one of the ships from the invading fleet had sailed into a bay.  The rest of the fleet was still hanging out beyond the horizon.  The bay was five hundred kilometers south of where he and Miranda were.  The ship had just launched two small boats that were heading to shore.  Jason was able to watch as the boats offloaded six men, then returned to the ship.

Soon something would happen, and then maybe he would be able to get Hototo involved.  The waiting was killing him and Miranda.  They wanted to help, but their hands were tied until the villagers became aware of the situation.

◆ ◆ ◆

“You boys have a good hike,” the bosun yelled as he ordered the boats to launch from the shore and return to the ship.

Corporal Jenxa and the five men he had with him headed up the beach toward the woods.  They weren’t sure what they were going to find here, but they were confident that with their pistols and muskets, they could handle anything.  They’d trained on the battlefields of Eurasia; what could a bunch of backward heathens do against them when compared to that?  They’d wait at the edge of the woods until it was light; Jenxa figured that would be about an hour.

“Quiet,” Corporal Jenxa ordered.  He was confident they could handle things as long as the heathens didn’t get the drop on them.  Now that it was light, they could start their scouting.

◆ ◆ ◆

Nahuel sensed something moving in the bush.  He and his buddy were out doing night fishing.  They’d left their catch floating on a line in the stream and had made camp back in the woods a bit.  They were just getting ready to head out, and there shouldn’t be anyone in this area, at least, he didn’t think so.  He reached over and touched Ishi’s shoulder.

Ishi stopped what he was doing and listened.  He gave Nahuel a questioning look.

Nahuel signed that they had visitors.  The two men immediately gathered their weapons, rolled up their blankets, and prepared to investigate.  They would come back for the fish later.

It didn’t take the two men long to catch up to the party of men who were walking along the game trail that led to their village.  They followed the men, staying in the bush, quiet and hidden.  Nahuel wanted to laugh at the men they were following.  He could hear them occasionally whispering to each other as if no one else would hear them.  They looked like they were trying to be quiet, but they kept brushing against branches hanging over the trail.  “What idiots.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Corporal Jenxa and his men had been hiking for almost an hour.  They were starting to see signs of regular use on the trail.  It was worn with footprints; clearly, the natives used it a lot.  Their side excursions hadn’t found anything except the small river they had landed next to.  They assumed any village would be close to the river.

He signaled his men to halt.  It was time for another rest.  He wanted everyone to be rested before they met any of the natives.

“Check your weapons; make sure they’re primed,” he ordered in a whisper.  He’d been looking over his shoulder and into the brush for the last hour, worried that someone might be out there, following them, but all was quiet.

After a ten-minute break, they headed out again.  During the break, they had noticed a bit of smoke up ahead.  Jenxa assumed it would be the village.  He estimated it was five kilometers off, another hour of skulking about.

“Cacaw!”

Jenxa heard the bird call.  It was quickly answered by another, then there was some kind of bird whistle.  He called a halt, wondering what had disturbed the birds.

Nahuel heard the call too.  He immediately whistled to tell the boys to stay away, but he was too late.  Five boys came crashing through the bush, their slings whirling as they yelled and attacked the strangers.

“Hold your fire!” Corporal Jenxa yelled, but it was too late; several of the men fired their pistols at the boys.  One of the boys fell, and the others dove back into the brush, terrified by the loud noise.

Nahuel saw the boy fall.  He didn’t understand how the loud noise and smoke had harmed the boy, but it was obvious that he had been shot by some invisible arrow.  He immediately fired an arrow at one of the strangers.  Ishi did the same from the other side of the clearing.  Two of the men fell immediately.  Nahuel and Ishi were already unleashing their second arrow when another of the men fired his pistol.  Again, there was a loud noise, but this time Nahuel didn’t see anyone get hurt.  He fired his third arrow and started to move toward the men.

One of the men was struggling to get up; he’d been shot in the shoulder.  Ishi made quick work of him with his knife.  The other five men weren’t moving.  Nahuel and Ishi did a quick check of each of them before they went over to check on the boy.

“He’s dead,” Ishi said.  “How?”

“I don’t know.  They just have those sticks.  How could they fire an arrow with that?”

“I saw smoke.”

“Yes, I did, too; but what does that mean?  Gather up those sticks.  Boys!” Nahuel yelled.  “Come here and strip these men.  I’ll carry Cauã back to the village.”

◆ ◆ ◆

At noon, Jason heard the drums.  He’s heard them a few times before, but never this deep, this long.  “Miranda, any idea what’s happening?”

“No, but the women all look worried.  Can Zephyr interpret the drums?”

“No; not enough data yet.”

Jason made his way back into the compound.  Hototo was standing in front of his clan house, talking with some other men.  Jason walked over and gave him a questioning look.

“Something bad happened in the south,” Hototo explained.

South was where the ships had landed a party of men, but Jason couldn’t say anything.  How could he explain what he knew?

“What?”

“We don’t know yet.  Some strangers showed up.  They’ve killed someone.”  Hototo paused and listened to the drums some more.  “A child.”

“Did they capture the strangers?”

“No, they killed them.”

Jason nodded his head.  That was probably for the best.  It would deny the leader of the expedition any intel on the situation on shore.  That should delay him from moving on to the next step of the invasion.

“Is there anything we can do?” Jason asked.

“We wait.”

Jason watched as one of the men dragged a large drum from the house.  He started to beat it.  Repeating the message they’d received, relaying it to the next villages; the drums had a range of about twenty kilometers, about the distance between their village and the one up the river.

◆ ◆ ◆

“We should have heard back from our scouting party by now,” Captain Vestry said.

“Do you want to send another one out?”

“No, send for the Captain of the Sinara.”

“Yes, sir.”  The lieutenant went to the signal officer and told him to send the message.  Twenty minutes later, the captain of the Sinara was ushered aboard the flagship.  An hour later, he was scrambling down the side to his boat with his new orders.  An hour after that, the Sinara was sailing into the bay and toward the river.  Its captain dispatched two men to the front of the ship to sound the depth.  Sailing up an unknown river was not something he was excited about.

◆ ◆ ◆

It was just before noon the next day when the drums started to sound again.  Jason already knew what they were saying.  Zephyr had alerted him early that morning that one of the ships was sailing into the bay.  He’d just check on it and saw it was starting up the river.

“What’s the news?” Jason asked Hototo.

“A big boat with jazmakas,” Hototo said.

Jason didn’t recognize the last word, but he was pretty sure it meant sails.  He pointed to the flap that made the door to the house.  “Like that?”

“Yes, a sail,” Hototo said.  Jason’s Comm got the translation right this time.  “Far to the south, our people have small boats with a sail.  This is a very big boat with many sails.”

“They are dangerous,” Jason said.

Hototo looked at Jason like he was an idiot.  “We know; they killed a child.”

“More dangerous than that.  They have powerful weapons.”

“How do you know?” Hototo asked.

“I’ve seen them before.”

“Are they bad people?”

“I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t trust them.”

“It’s just one boat.  A big one, but just one.”

“I’m sure there are more.  They would stay far out to sea, so you couldn’t see them.  I think we should go there to help.”

“Not yet.  But tell me what you know.”

“They have weapons called guns.  There are small ones that you can carry in your hand, bigger ones that you have to lift to your shoulder, and great big ones that they carry on carts.”

“Carts?”

Jason drew a wheel.  “A sled with wheels,” Jason said.  “They pull it with men or horses.”

“What is a horse?”

“It’s like a deer, but bigger and stronger.  It can carry a man and run very fast.”

Hototo wrinkled his nose as he thought about that.  “Tell me more about these guns.”

“They fire balls,” Jason said.  He picked up a pebble and showed it to Hototo.  “Like these but harder.”

Hototo shook his head.  “How can they fire these?  Could one of them really kill a man?”

“Do your slings throw rock hard enough to kill a man?”

Hototo nodded his head as he thought.  “But how do they throw them?  These guns you draw are clumsy looking.  How can they throw a ball?”

Jason looked over at a group of boys playing.  “Balan, bring me your blowpipe.”

The boy ran over and handed Jason a reed that he used to blow spit wads or peas at the other boys.  “Here.”  Balan was one of the boys collecting flint for the arrowheads that Jason needed.  He was Jason’s friend since Jason had made him a hatchet as his reward.

Jason found a small pebble and put it in the reed; drawing a big breath, he shot the pebble out at a nearby plant.  The pebble bounced off of the plant’s leaf.

Hototo looked at Jason as if saying, ‘See what I mean.’

“They have a powder that makes a big wind.  It makes a loud sound like thunder and lots of smoke.  That wind can fire the pellet very fast; fast enough to kill you.”

“Okay,” Hototo relented.  “How far?”

“The small gun, fifty meters.”  The Comm converted the meters to paces for Hototo.  “The bigger one, they call it a rifle, two hundred meters.  The one on the cart, much farther.  It can throw lots of small pellets around three hundred meters and a big rock one thousand meters.”

Hototo had been sitting on his haunches.  At the proclamation of one thousand meters, he let himself fall back on his butt.  He shook his head in frustration.  “What can we do?”

“It takes a long time to load the big gun.  And it’s just a big rock.  They won’t have many of them.  We just have to stay out of their way.  We can beat them.”  Jason pounded his fist into the palm of his hand to emphasize the point.

◆ ◆ ◆

The village was in a tizzy.  The ship was sailing up the river toward them.  They had been told that it was dangerous, so the men had gathered their weapons, and now they waited.  But they were over one thousand meters from the bank of the river.  The men were confident that they could send any invaders packing.

The women were told to go back to work.  There was planting to do, children to watch, clothes to mend.  There would be plenty of warning if the invaders decided to head toward the village.

The ship continued to creep up the river.  The Wakipee laughed at how slow it was.  The village was only five thousand meters from the mouth of the river, but the ship had spent the entire morning sailing upstream.

It was almost noon when the ship was parallel to the village.  It looked like it had stopped.  Maybe it had grounded itself on a sandbar.  Stupid invaders, they should go home.

The villagers watching the ship saw the billow of smoke from its side.  They wondered if it had caught fire.  Then they heard a loud boom, like thunder.  What was happening on that ship?  There was a screaming sound overhead.  The villagers turned to follow the sound as it continued toward the village.  They stood and watched as the palisades of their village crumbled.  Holes were punched in it in some places; in others, the entire section fell to the ground.  Beyond the palisades, they could see some of the clan houses had collapsed.  They started to rush to the village to help.  They couldn’t understand what had happened, maybe it was a big wind.

Inside the village, splinters scattered from the hole punched in the walls.  Even more splinters flew as the walls and houses collapsed.  All around, villagers had been hit by the splinters; their bodies knocked to the ground, bleeding.

A second boom sounded, and there was more screaming overhead, then a crashing sound as more of the palisades collapsed and more of the clan houses fell in.  The clan houses were heaps now, so they threw up even more splinters than before.  Everyone inside the village walls was being impaled, the people behind the village were faring only slightly better.  Strangely enough, the people working in front of the village seemed to have escaped injury.  They had thrown themselves to the ground when they heard the second salvo, having recovered enough to realize they were in danger.

As the men entered the village, they heard screams, screams of terror, screams of pain.  They could see women covered in blood, trying to crawl away from the houses.  Other women were running, sometimes crawling toward the houses, yelling out the names of their children.

A third boom came, it had been only four minutes since the first one.  The villagers didn’t understand how it was happening, but they knew what was happening.  Their village was being destroyed.  They yelled at the women in the fields to run into the forest.  They yelled at the women in the village to do the same.  They ran to help those they could, but they knew another boom was coming even as they watched more of the village being destroyed by the last one.

The grandmother screamed at the men.  Telling them they had to warn the other villages.  She stood there like she was impervious to the hell that was raining down on the village as she directed the women and men whom they should carry and whom to leave behind.  The fourth boom seemed to pass her by.  There wasn’t much left to destroy, and she stood there telling everyone what to do.

By the time there was a sixth boom, the village was empty; well, empty of all living souls.  The dead had been left where they were as the living struggled to carry the wounded.  They were in the woods, working their way along the game trails they knew so well.  Some of the men stayed behind, vowing to kill the invaders if they ever left their ship of death.  The others forged ahead, protecting their families.

The drums started beating.  The grandmother made the drummer stop and send a message.  She stood by him to make sure he finished it.  She had sisters in the other villages.  They had to be warned.

◆ ◆ ◆

Jason was dumbstruck as Miranda told him what the ship was doing to the village.  There was nothing he could do.  Hototo had seen the change in Jason’s face.  He was reaching to shake Jason out of his stupor when the drum beats changed.  They carried the message of devastation, death, carnage.  Hototo could tell that Jason knew what the drums were just telling him.

“How did you know?” Hototo demanded.

“Know what?” Jason asked.  He was still trying to regain his composure after the message from Miranda.

“The ship has destroyed the village; they killed many, mostly women and children,” Hototo said.  He looked like he felt as sick as Jason did.

“I didn’t know,” Jason said.  “I just realized that they could do it.”

“Explain!” Hototo demanded.  “These weapons you described could not have done that!”

“No, they couldn’t.  But I didn’t describe the big guns that they have on the ship.  They are huge guns.  They call them cannons.  The ones I described on the cart are tiny compared to the ones on the ship.  They can fire a huge rock, two, maybe three thousand meters.”  Jason just shook his head as he imagined the devastation.  He was glad he wasn’t wearing his specs; glad he couldn’t see the devastation.

“How can we fight against that?” Hototo asked.  He looked defeated.

“They are very heavy.  They cannot move them around easily if they bring them ashore.  I doubt that they will even try.”

“We need to understand more,” Hototo said.

“Then we need Miranda to join us.  She has studied these weapons.  I just know what she has told me.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Captain Vestry smiled as he heard the first salvo from the Sinara.  He had ordered them to destroy the village, then to move upriver and destroy any other villages that they could reach.  He had the rest of his ships just a mile offshore when the first salvo rang out.  Now he ordered them to close with the shore.  He would have his men ashore and fortified before the heathens recovered from the shock.

Vestry had ordered all their boats into the water before dawn.  Since the boats were being pulled, it was only a matter of minutes after they reached the anchorage before every boat was pulling toward shore.  They were filled with marines who would secure the landing site.  The boat crews barely gave the marines time to disembark before they were pulling hard, back to their ships.  Captain Vestry had made it clear that he expected the gun crews to be on shore setting up camp within twenty minutes of the marines landing, and Vestry wasn’t someone you wanted to cross.

The marines spread out to secure the coast and guard the engineers who were scouting out a campsite.  They wanted a location a few hundred meters from shore, on solid ground.  It only took them ten minutes to find a spot they liked.  They immediately started to stake out the camp.  Captain Vestry had been specific about what he wanted.  Who knew where he’d come up with the idea, but it sounded like it would work.

When the gun crews showed up, the engineers set them to digging a moat that was two meters wide, one meter deep.  They had been told to pile the dirt on the inside; it would make a two-meter-tall wall about one meter thick.  That should protect them from any attack from the locals.

Captain Vestry smiled.  He liked what he saw as he strode up from the shore to his new camp.  The wall facing the woods was almost complete.  He’d had them double the crew on that section.  If there was going to be trouble, it would come from the woods; although after the lesson from the Sinara, he didn’t really expect too much trouble.  By tomorrow he would have his full complement on shore and be ready to establish his dominion over the area.  His plan was to seize control of all the land between the river they were next to and the one to the north.  Then he would start to negotiate with the natives.  They would know by then that he was there to stay, that he was a force to be reckoned with, a man to fear.

◆ ◆ ◆

In the cabin on Vestry’s ship, the two old men were looking at each other.

“What now?” Meztli asked.

“What do you mean?”  Moacir pushed his old friend.  They were speaking in their native tongue, so they didn’t have to worry about what they said.

“How long do you think it will take before Vestry figures out you lied about all the gold and jewels?”

“One week, maybe two.”

“And after that, how long before he kills us?”

“One hour.”

“So?!”

“So, we leave tonight.”

“How?”

“You remember how to swim?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

◆ ◆ ◆

The entire village was stunned as the drums continued to tell the story of what was happening to the south.  Once the ship had destroyed the village, it sailed upriver and destroyed a second village.  Again, six salvos had been delivered, but thanks to the grandmother of the first village, the second one was empty, as was the third.  By nightfall, the drums had told the story of the destruction of the three villages and the carnage wrought upon the first.

◆ ◆ ◆

That night, the two old men dressed alike.  They were hard to tell apart anyway, and the crew just thought of them as the two heathens, never bothering to distinguish which was which.

Moacir snuck out of the cabin and hid while Meztli went to the bow of the ship to go to the bathroom.  The head they called it on these old ships, the crew just hung their ass over the bow and went about their business.  Instead of going to the head, Meztli crawled down the anchor chain to the water.  There he waited.

After an appropriate amount of time, Moacir went back to the cabin, pretending to be Meztli.  He modified his clothing a bit, waited for five minutes, and went to the bow.  The two were never allowed out of their cabin at the same time without a guard.  That way, one was always a hostage to the behavior of the other.  The guard just nodded at Moacir; he’d expected the other heathen to head for the head before they went to sleep.

“Come on,” Meztli hissed as Moacir inched his way down the anchor chain.  “Hurry, but don’t make a splash.”

“Hurry or be careful?  Just pick one.”

Meztli shook his head as he waited for his friend.  “Now, which way do we swim?”

“South,” Meztli said.  “Always south.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“How the hell did you let them escape?” Captain Vestry yelled.  “Two old men, how hard could it have been to keep them prisoner?”

The bosun who had been on guard duty that night just mumbled.

“I’ll have the hide off of you.  Get him out of my sight!”

The First Mate nodded to the guards who hauled the bosun away.

“What are we going to do now?  I needed them to translate for me.”  Of course, they had taught the two men to speak Causian, but nobody had bothered to learn their language.

“We’ll just have to teach some more of them to speak Causian.  Or we can just use sign language.  That and a cat-o-nine will get our point across.

Chapter 14

What Can We Do?

“What can we do against these weapons?” Hototo asked.  He had gathered his best warriors to meet with Jason and Miranda.

“Their cannons are only good against fixed fortifications.  They’re too heavy to move around and they’re hard to aim,” Miranda explained.  “We have to be mobile.”

“Jason said they had small ones that they could carry up a trail,” Hototo said.

“They do, but they’re not as powerful.  They have limited range, less than your bows.”

“But you said they would build a fort.”

“Yes, it will be about one thousand meters long and three or four hundred meters wide.  It’ll probably have a moat and a dirt wall around it.  What would you do if you needed to attack one of your villages, say if bandits took one over?”

“We wouldn’t attack it; we would wait them out,” Hototo said.

“What does that mean?”

“We wouldn’t let them leave the village without being attacked.  Soon they would starve.  It wouldn’t take that many men to keep them bottled up.”

“So?”

Hototo smiled as he finally realized that they did have a way to fight back.  “Okay, we will keep them from leaving the fort.”

“We probably won’t be able to stop them from going back to the ships, but we’ll have to look at how we can make that harder,” Miranda said.  “But we need to go there so we can see and understand what is really happening.”

“Yes, we leave tomorrow.”

◆ ◆ ◆

As they prepared to leave the next morning, Jason dug up the cache of arrows he and Miranda had made.

“What is that?” Hototo asked.

“Arrows.”

“I can see that, but why so many?  How did you know?”

“We knew they were coming, just not when.  And Miranda says it will take this many arrows and more to win.”

Hototo just shook his head, then he told a couple of young warriors to pack the arrows up and distribute them among the men.  Jason and Miranda had managed to make almost ten thousand arrow shafts.

“You didn’t finish them?” Hototo said as he hefted one of the bags holding the arrowheads.

“We figured your warriors would do a better job of that,” Jason said.

“Lazy,” Hototo muttered under his breath.

◆ ◆ ◆

Hototo gathered sixty warriors to take south with them.  Other villages were sending about the same number each; no village wanted to weaken their defenses too much.  There were over one hundred warriors from the three villages that were destroyed waiting for them to join and help.

Jason took the solar arrays down from the clan house and packed them in their gear.  He wanted to be sure that he and Miranda could keep their Comms and specs charged.  He and Miranda had agreed that communication would be critical and would likely be the edge that would help the Wakipee win this battle.  Plus, any surveillance images from Zephyr would be invaluable.

Adsila and two other women accompanied the small army.  Adsila was there as the representative of the Clan Mother.  She would be responsible for ensuring that everything was taken into consideration as the men built their plans.  She would spend time with the grandmother from the first village to understand what her and her daughters’ expectations were.  Jason suspected she and the other women were also there to provide protection for Miranda, a chaperone.

After a grueling march the first day, they made camp for the night.  The men sat around the campfire, working on the arrows while the women prepared a meal.  One of the men was laughing about how many arrows they were expected to make.

“Miranda must think we need so many because Jason is such a terrible shot.”

Jason just smiled at the guy since he was a terrible shot when compared to any of the Wakipee warriors.

“No, we need so many arrows because you will be shooting at the enemy from a great distance,” Miranda said.

“I am very accurate at a great distance,” the guy replied.

“At three hundred meters?”

The guy looked at her and shrugged.

“See if you can hit that tree over there.  The one with the big knot in it.”  The tree Miranda was pointing to was at least two hundred fifty meters away, and the trees around it made a narrow path to it.

“Go on Mr. Big Mouth,” the guy’s friends all joked.  So, he got up, strung his bow, and took careful aim.  His arrow hit one of the trees closer to the camp, going just a bit to the left.

All of his friends laughed at him.  Then one of them asked, “How does it help if we have more arrows if we’re too far away to hit the target?”

Miranda reached down and picked up a medium sized rock and tossed it about a meter away.  “Here, try and hit it with this,” she said, handing the guy a small pebble.

The guy took careful aim and tossed the pebble.  He got close, but still missed the rock.  Then Miranda tossed a small handful of pebbles at the rock.  Several of them hit the rock, although most of them missed.

Miranda cocked her head as she looked at the men.

They laughed and jostled each other as they realized what Miranda had meant by firing in volleys.  “Ah, we get it now.”

They went back to making the arrows, but Jason noticed that they were not being as careful with the balance.  It made sense; they weren’t going to be doing target practice with them.  Numbers would be what was important.

◆ ◆ ◆

The next day, they ran into a messenger who was running north.  He was bringing details of the events surrounding the destroyed villages.

“Damn,” Jason thought, “this guy has run over two hundred kilometers in just over one day.”

Hototo called a halt to their march south so that he could question the man.  It was about time to stop for a break, and everyone was happy to stop early.  Jason quickly learned that the villagers had sent six runners, two south, two north, and two to the west.  They were heading to the main centers of each of the regions along the coastal plain.

Surprisingly, at least to Jason, the man didn’t need to catch his breath; instead, he immediately started to describe what had happened in the south.  He told them about the killing of the child when they had surprised the scouting party sent by the ships.  Then he told them about the destruction of the village, about the carnage, the total devastation.  The villagers were convinced that it was punishment for killing the scouting party.

“They couldn’t have known about the scouting party so soon,” Jason said.  “They must have planned to destroy the village anyway, and they moved ahead when the scouting party didn’t report back.”

Hototo nodded his head in agreement.  But the messenger was convinced they were wrong.  He talked about how the smoke had destroyed the village, just like the smoke had killed the child.  These invaders must have special powers, killing with smoke?

Jason explained how the cannons and guns worked in an attempt to get the messenger to calm down.  He told him he had seen these weapons before and that they were not magic.  He used the blowpipe example again.  The man looked unsure, but did seem less convinced about magic.

The messenger went on to describe the landing party from the ships and how they were building a fort.  It was at that point that he had been sent out to convey the details to the Hototo’s village.  Jason was even more impressed, realizing that the guy had barely had one day to reach them.

“What are your warriors’ plans?” Hototo asked.

“They watch,” the messenger replied.

Hototo looked at Jason and Miranda.

“I think that’s good,” Miranda said.  “We want to know more before our side does anything.”

“I agree,” Hototo said.  He told the messenger to rest.  He would travel with them for the rest of the day and sleep with them that night.  The next day, he would return to the south to tell them that they were coming and that Hototo wanted them to do nothing but observe the enemy.  Hototo stressed that the messenger was to tell the warriors that he, Hototo, had a plan and that the messenger should seek out his brother Amaru and talk to him first.

Jason was amazed that the guy didn’t even blink when Hototo told him he would be starting another two-hundred plus kilometer run the next day.

Hototo told the messenger and the people around him that he didn’t want them sharing any details with the rest of his warriors.  They already knew most of it from the drums, but the details might make them so angry that Hototo would have trouble controlling them.  He needed calm warriors around him, not a bunch of hotheads.

◆ ◆ ◆

It took them two days to finish the journey south.  When they arrived, they were met on the trail by four scouts who led them to the camp that the people from the villages had made.  The camp was mostly comprised of men.

“Where are the women?” Miranda asked.

“Most of the villagers have gone north to other villages.  These here are the ones who have stayed to fight,” Hototo explained.

“Are they all from the three villages?”

“Mostly, but two other parties have arrived before us.  Men from the villages just north and south of here.”

“Okay, so how many?”

“Eight hundred fifty?”

“Will more be coming?”

“A few?”

“How are you going to feed everyone?” Jason asked.

“Hunting and the villages will send food.”

They had just finished unpacking their stuff and setting up their tents when another group of warriors arrived.  One of them walked up to Hototo and gave him a big hug.

Hototo and the man linked arms, and Hototo led the man over to Jason and Miranda.

“Jason, Miranda, this is my brother, Amaru,” Hototo said.

Jason looked at the two men.  They could have been twins.  He realized that when Hototo had told the messenger to contact his brother Amaru, he hadn’t been referencing a fellow warrior, a brother in arms, but his true brother.

Jason shook hands with the man.  Miranda nodded at him.  Wakipee men did not shake hands with women.

“Come,” Hototo said as he and his brother turned around and headed to the other side of camp.  Jason and Miranda followed them, as did the group of warriors who’d arrived with Amaru and a select few of Hototo’s warriors.

They eventually came to a section of the camp that was totally empty.  There was a firepit, but not a soul in the ten-meter circle around the firepit.

Amaru and Hototo walked into the circle, followed by their entourage.  When Miranda stepped inside, a few of the men gave her strange looks.  They coughed and shuffled as if she’d just passed some obnoxious gas.

Amaru looked at Hototo, giving him a ‘what the hell is going on?’ kind of look.

“She knows their weapons,” Hototo said.

Amaru cocked his head to one side and pursed his lips, then he turned and took a seat at the head of the circle.  Hototo motioned for Miranda and Jason to follow him, and he took a seat on the opposite side of the circle from Amaru.  The rest of the entourage took seats around the circle creating an unbroken wall of bodies facing the fire pit.

Amaru nodded to Hototo, telling him to start explaining.

“My two friends here, Jason and Miranda, they know of the invaders.  They understand their weapons.”

That pronouncement created a murmur among the warriors.  Hototo waited for it to die down.  “They have explained them to me.  With that understanding, I know we can defeat these invaders.”

“How do they know them?” one of the warriors shouted.

Amaru stared the guy down.  The guy sat back and shut his mouth.

After a moment, Amaru said, “That is a good question.  How do they know these invaders?”

“We have met people like them before,” Jason said.  “We came here to get away from them.  Not all of them are bad, but it is clear that these people are.  They don’t care about the Wakipee.  They want to steal your land, steal your wealth.  Obviously, they want to frighten you into letting them do these things.  Their weapons are good at creating fear, especially when you don’t understand them.”

A warrior made a slight motion with his hand, and after a second, Amaru nodded to him.  “Then tell us?” he asked.  His tone was respectful.

“Tell them about the blowpipe and the ranges,” Miranda messaged Jason.

Jason pulled out the blowpipe he’d brought along so he’d be prepared for this explanation.

“These people have a powder that burns very fast and creates a big wind,” Jason said.  “That wind works inside their weapons like your breath when you use a blowpipe.”  Jason blew a small pea into the firepit.

“They use bullets and cannon balls, hard rocks made of metal.”

Jason paused while there were multiple side conversations going on between various warriors.

“When the wind pushes the rock out of the weapon, you hear a loud bang and see smoke coming from the weapon.  The smoke is from the burning powder.  The loud bang is created by all that wind escaping the weapon.”

Again, Jason paused to let the men absorb that information.

“How does this help us,” another warrior asked after getting a nod from Amaru.

“I’m getting to that part,” Jason said.  “The rock that the weapons shoot has to hit you to harm you.”

That statement brought a loud murmur of disagreement from the group; nobody spoke up, but their looks clearly said they thought Jason was an idiot.

“I know.  Many people were killed in the first village.  I’m sure you have found the big rocks that were fired.  And most people were not hit by those rocks.”

That brought a bunch of nods.

“What killed most of the people were the splinters that were created when the rocks hit the village wall or the walls of the houses.  The rocks they fired would have weighed ten to fifteen kilos.  That is a lot of weight traveling very fast.  When it hit the wood your walls were made of, it shattered it.  That’s where the splinters came from.  If you had been standing in the middle of a field, not very many people would have died.  The rocks do throw up other rocks when they hit the ground, but nothing like the splinters.”

That explanation created another flurry of side conversations.  Eventually, things quieted down.

“Okay, now the things you need to know.  The big guns they have on the ship can fire a big rock two thousand meters.  But the guns that the men can carry can only fire a rock two hundred fifty or two hundred sixty meters.  And most of these men are not going have a very good aim.”  Jason nodded to Miranda, telling her to explain about volley firing.

“Most of the invaders are not very brave men.  Their lieutenants, their chiefs, have to force them to fight.  They threaten to shoot them if they turn and run.  That means that they have to keep the men close together.  And, since most of these men are not real warriors, they haven’t spent their lives learning how to shoot.  That’s one of the reasons they use these rifles.  They don’t take long to learn how to shoot.  And they shoot in groups called volleys.  That way, some of them will hit their enemy.”

Hototo handed Miranda a handful of pebbles; he’d obviously scooped them up earlier so she could show how a volley worked.  Miranda gave the explanation and threw the pebbles at the stone she’d just thrown out.  “See, they don’t have to be very good.  They just point in the right direction and fire.  Some of them even close their eyes.”

That brought a chuckle from the audience.

“Now, another thing you need to know is that they have big guns that they can bring ashore and move around.  They are heavy and slow.  They can fire once every minute or so.  They can load them with big rocks, five kilos or so, but they can also load them with a bunch of smaller rocks, which they call grapeshot.  When they use that, they can only hit something around two hundred fifty meters away.  With the big rock, they can reach one thousand meters, but then that rock has to hit you, which is pretty hard at that distance.  They mainly use it against walls or a bunch of warriors standing close together like they do when they fight.”

“How does that help us?”

“Your bows have almost twice the range of their rifles, almost three hundred fifty meters.  So, we do the same thing that they do, we fire in volleys.  You don’t have to have a great aim at that distance if you shoot a bunch of arrows.”

“But the cannons?”

“You are warriors.  Amaru and Hototo don’t need you standing close together to make sure you fight.  You keep your distance from each other, that makes the cannons less effective.”

“But,” Hototo said.  “We do not want to start fighting them yet.  We want to learn more about them.  We want to figure out how to make sure that none of them leave our shores alive.  We do not want them bringing back any friends.”

“So, we wait?!”  There were murmurs of agreement.  Although the warrior had gotten permission to speak, his tone got a glare from Amaru; but Jason noticed a smile on Amaru’s face.  He was obviously pleased that his warriors now thought they could win.

“First, tell us what they have been doing?” Hototo asked.

“I think you know; the drums should have told you.  They have built a fort.  That took them almost two days.  Then, they started clearing the area around the fort of any trees, bushes, tall grass.”

Hototo nodded, he had heard this from the drums, and it was what he had expected as soon as he heard they had built a fort.  It was the same thing his people did when they established a new village.  “Anything else?”

“They have sent hunting parties out.”

Hototo raised his eyebrows.

“Don’t worry, Brother, we have been scaring the game away.  They have not had a successful hunt yet.”

“What about fishing?” Jason asked.

“Yes, they fish.  We cannot stop them.  They do it around their big ships.”

“I think it’s time to remind them that this is our land,” Hototo said.

Amaru gave a big smile.  “Good.  From now on, we kill anyone who enters the forest.”

“Yes, but we want to kill everyone in the party,” Hototo said.  “So, you must do it carefully.  We do not want anyone to return to the fort with a story.  Let them wonder what happens when they enter the forest.”

That brought smiles and nods from most of the warriors.

Chapter 15

Fighting Back

The next morning, Amaru took Hototo and his team — including Jason and Miranda — to view the fort.  Jason and Miranda had both snuck a few peeks of the fort via their specs, but that wouldn’t be the same as being able to see and study it from close up.  They both had their binoculars, which would let them get close up views.  They’d agreed that it would be okay to allow Hototo and Amaru to use the binoculars.  After all, telescopes were old technology, so binoculars weren’t too unusual, although they would be for the Wakipee.

The fort was only about five kilometers from the campsite, so they got there relatively quickly.  They approached it from the north, away from the river.  As they got close, Jason and Miranda could hear birdcalls as the Wakipee warriors provided Amaru with the current state of the fort’s defenses.  Hototo shook his head when Amaru told him that there was only one scouting party out from the fort today.

Finally, they made it to the edge of the clearing created by the invaders.  They were about one hundred meters above the fort, close to the bottom of the hill they had just descended.

Miranda had nailed it; the fort was just a bit over one thousand meters on the long side and was four hundred meters on its short side.  It was twelve hundred meters from the ocean and the same distance from the river.  The long side faced the ocean.  There were four ships arrayed along the ocean, each anchored about five hundred meters from shore, creating a formidable array of cannons.  There were three ships anchored in the middle of the river, flanking the short side of the fort.  No significant force would be attacking the fort from that direction.  The walls of the fort were dirt, as expected, and about five meters high.  There was a moat around the outside of the wall where they had excavated the dirt.  That would provide extra protection since it was about two meters deep and five meters wide.  They had cleared the area of trees out to about one thousand meters from the fort.

Jason pulled out his binoculars to study the fort.  There were cannons spaced around the wall, mostly twelve pounders, but with a twenty-four pounder at each corner.  Inside the fort was crowded; mostly, it was an array of tents, but they had started to build wooden buildings toward the center that were probably for the officers.  There was a lot of activity inside, most of it working on the building.  They were also bringing in more supplies from the ships, hauling them up from the shore on carts.  Toward one end of the fort, there was a paddock with eighteen horses in it as well as a few donkeys.

“Miranda, check it out.  Those are real horses down there,” Jason messaged.

“What would you expect, toy horses,” Miranda messaged back.

Jason chuckled and shook his head a bit.  “No, I mean, they must have come from Earth.  The horses on Helike look different; there’s no way those down there evolved here.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Miranda said as she handed her binoculars to Amaru.  She had to help him focus them, but he was appreciative of the help and amazed at what they did.  Jason had given Hototo his, and the two men were chatting rapidly between themselves about how amazing they were.  This was the first time Jason and Miranda had exposed the Wakipee to any new technology; they thought binoculars were not that far out there relative to what they would learn from the invaders.

They waited another hour while Amaru familiarized Hototo with the terrain and fortifications.  He obviously was also gathering a bit of new intel for himself now that he could see things better.  When they were ready to leave, Hototo gave the binoculars back to Jason; when Amaru tried to follow suit, Miranda motioned for him to keep hers.  She and Jason could share.

◆ ◆ ◆

When they arrived back at camp, they were shocked to see five bodies lying on the ground.  A group of warriors was standing in a circle while a couple of them were going through a miming routine explaining how they had killed the patrol.  When they saw Amaru, they stopped.  He immediately motioned for them to continue.  Jason was pretty sure, based on the audience's reaction, that they were starting over.

First, one man made exaggerated steps as he walked around the circle while the other followed him.  The stepper’s hands were positioned like he was carrying a rifle.  He would raise his foot high into the air and place it well in front of him as if he were walking in tall grass or something.  Each time he set his foot down, he slid it forward about two inches, making a scraping sound.  Whenever he did this, the second man would put his hands over his ears.  Even with it being the second time most of the warriors had seen this, most of them laughed at the antics showing how inept the invaders were at keeping quiet.

The stepper would pause every so often and look around.  He would slowly turn his head from side to side.  The follower would move in the opposite direction of the head turn.  Once in a while, the stepper would jerk his head suddenly to the side.  The follower would either duck down or freeze.  They did this routine for about a minute, then the follower inched his way up behind the stepper.  Once he was close, he tossed a small stone off to the right.  When the stepper turned toward the noise and moved in that direction, the follower followed him, tossing another pebble.  The crowd had to step back to allow them to move away from the circle.  Once they’d gone about three meters, the follower stepped up, grabbed the stepper by the chin from behind, and shoved his knife into his throat.  Of course, in the reenactment, the knife went to the side.

The follower then gently lowered the stepper to the ground and made motions indicating he was covering him with brush and leaves.  Back at the circle, another man was mimicking the same moves as the stepper with another follower behind him.

The same scenario played out again.  Then the new follower motioned, and four men stepped forward with bows drawn.  The follower counted down on his fingers, four, three, two, one; then the four men mimicked firing their bows.

Amaru nodded his head, obviously pleased with the results.  “No smoke?” he asked.

“No, smoke,” the follower said, meaning that nobody in the scouting party had gotten a shot off.  The two followers had taken out the two point-men, then the other men had shot the main party.

“No prisoners?” Jason asked.

“Prisoners would have meant smoke,” the first follower said.

Jason nodded his head.  He understood.  The priority was to eliminate the party without anyone being aware of the attack.  Amaru wanted the invaders to think the party had just disappeared.

“Traces?” Amaru asked.

“We went back about thirty meters where there was a fork in the trail.  We erased any signs.  We cleaned up the area as best we could.  But . . .” he shrugged his shoulders.

Amaru nodded his head.  “Good.”  The six men took that as a sign of high praise, and the rest of the warriors gave them a few cheers.

◆ ◆ ◆

Jason and Miranda were invited to the leader’s circle again that evening.  Amaru had delayed the meeting to allow the warriors time to celebrate their victory.  But they had a lot to discuss after the recon at the fort.  Again, they sat next to Hototo, who sat across from Amaru.

Amaru nodded to Hototo, who nodded to Miranda.

Miranda sketched out a map of the fort on the ground.

“The fort is well protected.  These big guns at the corners are twenty-four pounders.  They shoot a ball that is a bit over eleven kilos.  They have a long range.  They can easily reach the tree line with a cannonball.  With the grapeshot we told you about, it would be five hundred meters.  The smaller ones are twelve pounders; the ball is five and a half kilos and they have a range of about one thousand meters.  With grapeshot, they can reach three hundred meters.”

Miranda nodded to Hototo.

“So, we can keep them from coming into the woods, but we cannot force them out of their fort,” Hototo said.

Everyone nodded their heads.

“Can we starve them?” Amaru asked.

“A little,” Miranda said.  “With the ships, they can fish.”

“Yes.”

“But those won’t keep the horses from starving, and what about the men’s health — without vegetables, they’ll get sick,” Jason said.

Amaru looked hopeful until he saw Miranda shaking her head.  “What?” he asked.

“If they’re smart, they’ll harvest seaweed for the horses and to supplement the men’s diet,” she explained.

“But will they know that seaweed is edible?”

“Maybe not, but I wouldn’t bet on it,” Miranda said.  “And if they harvest it for the horses, they’re bound to try it for themselves.”

“With those ships, we cannot stop them from fishing,” Hototo said, giving Miranda and Jason both a look.  “The ships?”

“We’ll think about it,” Miranda said.

“So, we keep killing anyone who leaves the fort and comes into the forest,” Amaru said.

“No,” Hototo shook his head slightly.  “If they send a party out to search for one that we kill, then we should let them search.  Let them go back to the fort unless they discover what happened to the last party.  We want them to fear the forest.”

“Fear,” Jason muttered.

Hototo looked at him.  ‘Well, what’ the look asked.

“You should play the drums all night.  Make them nervous.”

Hototo shrugged and looked to Amaru.

“We can do that,” Amaru said.  “Our warriors will sleep through it.”

“Won’t they as well,” Miranda asked.

“Maybe,” Jason agreed.  “Can we have the drums beat a steady rhythm but add a discordant note once in a while?”

Amaru pursed his lips and nodded his head.  “Yes, we will try.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“What did you find?” Captain Vestry demanded.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing.  How could you find nothing?”

“We followed their trail about five kilometers into the woods.  Everything was normal until we came to a fork in the game trail they were on.  Then all signs of them disappeared.”

“That cannot happen!” Captain Vestry shouted.  “You must not have looked close enough.”  The Wakipee warriors would have agreed.  The efforts of the scouting party had brought laughter from everyone in the leadership circle when the story was told.

“We looked.  We went up both trails for a kilometer.  We didn’t find any sign of them.  We even checked alongside the trail.”

“This is infuriating.  First, we lose the first scout party over a week ago.  Then every hunting party we send out doesn’t find any game.  Now we lose a hunting party, and you tell me that they just disappeared.”

“I’m sorry.  I cannot explain it.”

“The men are getting tired of salted meat and fish.  This is unacceptable.”

The marine scout just stood there quietly.  What could he say?

“I want you to double the size of the hunting parties.  We cannot allow this to happen again.”

“Yes sir,” the marine said, but he didn’t sound very enthusiastic.

“What?!”

“With that many men, it’s going to be hard not to scare off any game.”

“Well, they haven’t been doing much better with fewer men.  I cannot have another party just disappear.  Make sure you send men you can trust.”

“Yes, sir.”

Captain Vestry’s aide, Jamerson, came into the captain's tent.  “Sir?”

“This is a disaster.  First, we let those two natives escape; I captured and trained them to speak our language so I could use them to negotiate with the locals.  Then we cannot even manage a successful hunt.  And now a hunting party just disappears.”

“It must be the natives,” the Jamerson said.

“You think they would dare to challenge us after our example with the villages?”

“It seems so.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Lieutenant Cartwright wasn’t particularly happy about being selected to lead the next expedition into the forest.  He knew he’d been chosen because he was a professional soldier as well as an expert hunter.  He assembled the men and gave them a bit of a pep talk.

“Alright, we’re going in there, and we’re going to prove we can take care of ourselves.  And if the gods are willing, we’re going to find those damn drums and break them over the heads of the natives playing them.”

That got a cheer from the men.  Everyone’s nerves were a bit frayed after two days and nights with those drums banging away.

“There are fourteen of us, and we all know what’s what.  We’ll split into two parties.  The main party of ten will proceed ahead along the game trail.  The other four will trail behind, staying hidden.  If there is an attack, they will be able to come up fast and provide support, surprising the heathens.”

The other men didn’t look too sure of themselves, but they didn’t have much choice.  They formed up and followed the lieutenant into the woods.

Ishi was sure that the warriors waiting along the trail would detect the second trailing group, but he sent a runner to them just to be sure.  He really liked the binoculars that Amaru had given to the team maintaining reconnaissance of the fort.  He wondered what he had to do to get a pair for himself.

◆ ◆ ◆

Nahuel laughed when the runner reached him and told him about the four men trailing the main party.  There was no way he would have missed that.  These invaders were like children; they couldn’t move two meters without announcing themselves to the entire forest.

The size of the two parties and their disposition to each other did pose some problems.  Nahuel was wondering how he could take out so many without them managing to get a shot off.  But the first goal was to take them out.  He’d risk them firing their smoke guns; they’d never see his men anyway.

At the last leadership circle, Hototo had mentioned that the discordant beat in the drums could be used to coordinate actions.  If you told your men to move on a particular number of beats after the discordant beat, then you could be sure they would act at the same time.  There was no need to give a bird call or any sound that the enemy might pick up on.  Nahuel liked that idea.  His first attack would be on the third beat.  His men were already shadowing the two parties.  He planned to take out the trailing party first.  “Four men, no problem.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Quidel was counting the drum beats; he and his partner were to take two men at the back on the third beat after the next discordant beat.  Then the others would use their arrows to kill the other two men.  With the dense forest and the way the men were spread out, they didn’t think they could take out all four with arrows.  “And hey, I want to have some fun.”

The men were following the tail, walking on the grassy verge instead of the dirt path.  That actually would make it easier to get them, Quidel thought.  They were closer to the trees.  They’d already stood next to the trail and let them pass.  He had no clue what they were looking at, but they sure didn’t notice the four warriors standing next to the trees.

“Boom . . . Boom . . . Boom . . . Blatt,”

“There it is.”

“Boom, one . . . Boom, two . . . Boom, go!”

Quidel stepped up behind the invader.  He grabbed his chin and drove his knife into his neck, deep, the blade sideways, cutting the carotid artery with the slice.  He bent over, pushing the man to the ground.

Four warriors fired their bows.  Two arrows struck the man on the right, but the man on the left dropped to one knee as soon as he heard a gasp from behind.  One arrow caught him in the shoulder, causing him to fire his rifle.  Two more arrows caught him in the back.  The ten men ahead scattered into the woods.

◆ ◆ ◆

Nahuel couldn’t believe it.  He couldn’t have asked for the invaders to make his job any easier.  Scattering into the woods.  Separating from each other.  He just watched and listened as his men took them out one by one.  A bird call would signal when they finished off one.  Maybe one of them would actually capture one.  However, they were still pretty angry about the destruction of the village, all those women and children.

◆ ◆ ◆

Captain Vestry slammed his fits against the post in his tent.  “What does it take?  Fourteen men, ten kilometers in, ten kilometers back.  How hard could that be?”

“Sir, I don’t know.  One of the sentries thought he heard a rifle shot.”

“One rifle shot!” Captain Vestry shook his head.

Chapter 16

Something New

Lieutenant Cartwright was thrown into the middle of a circle of natives.  His hands were tied, and he’d been kicked so many times he could barely move.  What were they going to do to him now?  He looked around the circle, he tried to stand up, but one of the men knocked him back down.  He eased himself into a sitting position, waiting for another kick.  Apparently, sitting was acceptable.  He knew they were talking about him, maybe to him, but he couldn’t understand a word.  “Why didn’t we at least learn a few words from those two old men?”

“What do we do with him?” Amaru asked.

“Give him to me,” Jason said.  “We have a way to learn his language.  We’ll be able to interrogate him in a few days.”

“A few days is a long time,” Hototo said.

“I know.  What else can we do?”

“Maybe these two can help,” a warrior said as he entered the circle leading two old men in strange clothing.  “We caught them heading south on our way to join you.  We just arrived.”

Lieutenant Cartwright gasped as he recognized the two men who had escaped from the ship.  “Well, at least we might be able to communicate now.”

“Who are you?” Amaru asked the two men.

“We were captured by the invaders.  We escaped,” one of the old men said.

“When?”

“Two months ago.”

“He’s lying,” Jason said.

The old man was startled by the conviction in Jason's voice.

“Look at him,” Jason pointed to the lieutenant.  “He recognizes them.”

“They’re Wakapi,” the warrior who’d brought them said.

“Who are the Wakapi?” Jason asked.

“Wakipee who think they’re better than the rest of us,” Hototo said.  He pulled out his knife and rubbed his thumb across the edge.  “If you lie again, I will cut out your tongue,” he told the old man.

The old man shook his head and let his shoulder sag.  His friend just looked relieved.  “They captured us five years ago.  They taught us their language.”

“Then ask him what their plans are,” Amaru demanded.

“What are your plans?”

“To conquer this place.”

“Why?”

“For the land and the gold.”

“For the land,” the old man translated.

Jason stared at him, and Hototo thumbed his knife again as he also glared at the old man.

“And for the gold,” he added.  His friend sighed in relief.

“What gold?” Amaru asked.

“The gold I told them that they would find here,” the old man said.  He stared at Amaru defiantly.

“Why would you tell them that?!”

“To save our lives,” the old man said.  “He needed a reason to keep us alive.”

“He must have already kept you alive for a long time for you to be able to talk to them!”

Lieutenant Cartwright looked at the two men, confused.  He didn’t understand why he was out of the conversation all of a sudden.

“Yes, but they needed more to want to come back and bring us home.”

“What else did you tell them?”

“They showed me a bunch of stones, and I said yes, you had stones like them.”

Amaru was steaming.  He stared at the old man, leaning forward, his fist clenched.

The old man stared back defiantly.  “Yes, I told them to come here.  Your people destroyed my village in the war.  I lost my entire family.”

Amaru fumed; he pulled his knife and leaned even closer to the old man.

“He is of better use to us alive,” Hototo said.  “If you must punish him, cut his foot off.”

Amaru gritted his teeth and sheathed his knife.  “Ask him what they will do next.”

The old man looked relieved as he turned to the lieutenant to translate.  He was defiant and angry, but he clearly preferred to stay alive.

“I don’t know.  There’s been talk of building another fort.  He might even send the ships back to get more men.”

“He?” Hototo asked.

“Captain Vestry, the leader of our expedition.  His uncle is King of Sultana.”

“Sultana?”

“It’s one of the largest kingdoms in Causia.”

The interrogation continued for hours.  They didn’t get much more, just a lot of supposition, maybes, and what Lieutenant Cartwright would do if he was in charge.

Once it broke up, Jason and Miranda followed Hototo out of the circle.  “What the old man said about his village, was it true?” Jason asked.

“Yes,” Hototo said.

“Why?”

“We were at war.  They refused to surrender.”

Miranda and Jason made their way to their tents.  “What do you think?” Miranda asked.

“I don’t know.  Those ships are a problem.  And if he sends for more people, they can just keep building forts along the rivers and coast.”

“Even if we don’t let them hunt?”

“The next trip, they’ll bring livestock.  They won’t need to hunt.”

“Then we need to get rid of the ships.  How would they have done it in the 1800s?”

“They’d bring ships into the bay to fight them.”

“What else?”

“I don’t know.  If they were bunched together, we could try sending a fire raft at them.”

“A fire raft?”

“Well, back then, they would use a big longboat or even a ship.  They’d load it up with wood and flammable stuff, set it alight, and send it to collide with the other ships.”

“And that would work?”

“Ships from that day were made of wood, with lots of tar to make them waterproof.  They were very flammable.  These ships look the same.”

“Hmm, flammable,” Jason mused.  “Did you know I got an A in high school chemistry?”

“No.  Am I supposed to be impressed?”

“Guess why I got an A.”

“You did well on the test?”

“Not really.  I got the top score on our science project.”

“Nice.”

“Guess what my science project was.”

“I don’t know,” Miranda said, clearly exasperated with the conversation.

“Greek Fire,” Jason said, giving Miranda a ‘so there’ look.

“Greek Fire?”

“Yes, do you know what it is?”

“Yes, and I also know that nobody knows how they made it.”

“Right, but I duplicated the effects.”

“Can you do it here?”

“Yes, I just need a few things.  I know they’ve got them.”

“Then we should start right away.  They could send those ships back to Sultana any day.”

“Okay, we’ll start tomorrow.”

“No, tonight,” Miranda said.  She grabbed Jason’s arm and dragged him over to Hototo’s tent.

Hototo flicked his head when they showed up, signaling them to explain.

“Jason knows how to make a weapon that might allow us to destroy those ships.”

Hototo looked skeptical.  “What do you need?”

“Limestone, charcoal, and vegetable oil,” Jason said.

“Limestone?”

Jason pointed to a piece of rock beside the tent.  It was probably used as a pestle.  “Like that.”

“Yes, I’ve seen this,” Hototo said with a shrug, “What will all this make?”

“Fire,” Jason said

“We have fire.”

“It will make a fire that you cannot put out.”

Hototo raised his eyebrows and then nodded his head.  “How do we start?”

“We either need to go to a village where they have a kiln or be far enough away that we can have a big fire going without drawing the attention of the invaders.”

Hototo pursed his lips and rocked his head back and forth as he thought.  “We can go to the village.  It is only ten kilometers, and they will have the kiln and the vegetable oil.”

Hototo stood up and yelled for two of his men.  He had a quick word with Amaru, then the five of them packed up and started hiking.

◆ ◆ ◆

They didn’t reach the village until midnight.  During the journey, Jason explained how much of each of the various ingredients they would need.  Hototo was only concerned about the limestone, but he said he would sort it out once they reached the village.

When they got close, they were confronted by warriors from the village, Hototo had a quick talk with them, and they were escorted to the village and inside the walls, where they were taken to one of the clan houses for the night.

“We will rest here.  I have sent some men to start digging up the limestone.”

◆ ◆ ◆

The next morning, Hototo spent some time talking to the village grandmother, then he brought a warrior, probably the village chief, to talk with Miranda and Jason.

“Do you need anything else?”

“Sulfur, if you have it.”  Jason used the English word for sulfur since he’d never heard it in Wakipee.

“What is sulfur?”

“It is yellow, and you dig it up.  It will smell like rotten eggs,” Miranda said.  “What does the sulfur do?” she messaged Jason.

“Makes the fire hotter.”

“We will ask the children; they are always digging things up,” Hototo said.  He explained what they wanted to one of the clan mothers, and she went to where a bunch of children were playing, calling them together.

“Anything else?”

“We need to make jars to hold it and some lard if they have it.”

“Lard?”

“Makes it sticky.”

“How much?”

Hototo sent a couple of warriors to the next village to get some more vegetable oil.  Ten liters was a lot of oil for one village to give up, plus they would need another two liters of lard.

It was an hour before one of the warriors came back with a big piece of limestone to verify that they were digging up the right stuff.

“Perfect,” Jason told him, then he looked at Hototo, “Let’s make a sample to show everyone what it will do.”

Jason put the limestone into a cauldron and placed that in the kiln.  He asked the women to make the fire as hot as they could.

After an hour, he pulled the cauldron out.  The limestone was desiccated, barely a third of what had been there before.  Jason pounded it into a sand-like texture, then had them put it back in the kiln for another hour.  When it came out, it had lost another third of its mass.

“This is called quicklime,” Jason said.  “Now, some vegetable oil.”

A woman brought him a jar.  He mixed the oil into the quicklime, forming a pasty mix.  He rolled it into a ball and motioned for everyone to follow him.  He walked to the creek that flowed next to the village.

Hototo and six of the lead warriors followed him.

“Ready?” Jason asked, building up the suspense.

“Drama queen,” Miranda said.

Jason tossed the ball into the water at the edge of the creek.  “I sure hope this works,” he messaged Miranda.

The ball bobbed around for a bit.  Then there were a couple of loud pops, and the ball burst into flames.

Hototo and the warriors were dutifully impressed.

“That works better than I would have believed; why do we need the other stuff?” Hototo asked.

“The sulfur will make the fire hotter, and the lard will make everything stickier.  That way, you can just push it onto the ship.”

“Okay, now explain your plan,” Hototo asked.

“We still need to fine tune the formula, but once we’ve done that, we’ll put the mix into a pot.  One and a half liters, I think.  Then seal the pot, someone swims out to the ship, they fill the rest of the pot with water, and toss it onto the deck of the ship.”

Hototo gave Jason a quizzical look.

“Their ships are covered with tar,” Jason explained, using the word for tree resin.  “It will burn like crazy.  That and they’re wood, have cloth sails, and ropes covered in tar all over the place.  It’s like a fire waiting to happen.”

“And when they try to put it out?”

“Water makes the quicklime get hotter; it will steam it off.  The fire is hard to put out; it should catch the deck on fire before they can put it out.  In fact, it will probably burn through the deck into the lower deck before its fuel is used up.”

“What about sand?” Miranda asked.

“That could be a problem, which is why I want to add the sulfur.  Also, when the jar smashes, it’ll spread the stuff out all over the place, not in a nice spot where they can throw sand on it.”

“Those ships are tall; how do we throw the pots into them?”

“I think we might be lucky there.  They’ve been keeping the gunports open to keep the lower decks cool.  If we can get up the side a little, then we can toss the pot through the gunport onto the lower deck.”

“Still, we have to be able to climb the ship,” Hototo said.  “And once we set fire to one, they’ll all be alerted.”

“That means we have to set fire to all of them at the same time,” Miranda said.  “And I’m sure you can figure out how to climb the wall of a ship.”

◆ ◆ ◆

They spent the rest of the day working on the formula for the Greek Fire.  The young boys knew exactly where to find sulfur; they had been tormenting each other with it for years, dumping it in various clan houses during the late evenings.  The clan mothers were happy to finally learn where the noxious smells had been coming from.

Eventually, they settled on the right mixture.  Jason eventually added a bit of charcoal to the mix to help the fire survive a load of sand being tossed on it.  They also came up with the best design for the pot.  A round pot with a narrow neck that you could put a cork into.  The bottle would be filled to three-quarters with the Greek Fire mixture, then corked.  Once they were at the ship and ready to scale the side, they would uncork it, fill it with water, put the cork back in, then quickly scale the ship and toss the bottle inside.  Jason expected the bottle to break and spread the mixture across the deck, but even if it didn’t, it would explode once the quicklime heated up enough.

“Time to head back,” Hototo said as he finished counting the twenty-two bottles they had filled with their concoction.  It was late, but Hototo wanted them to hike back to their campsite during the night.  The next day they would finalize their plans, hopefully striking that night.

◆ ◆ ◆

It was dark, past midnight, when Ishi started swimming.  He was one of the strongest swimmers, so he was swimming from the south.  He had to cross the river’s mouth, then swim past a ship to reach the second one.  Two others were swimming with him; they were the best.

They were using the breaststroke, not his favorite, but they had to swim underwater as much as possible and be quiet.  So, the girl’s stroke it was.  Each time he came up for air, he checked to verify that his two companions were still with him.  Swimming the breaststroke, pulling a pot behind themselves, and working against the tide made for hard work.

Finally, they reached the stern of the ship.  He waved to his companions.  One would go along the oceanside of the ship; he was going to the shore side, the most dangerous, and the other would stay at the stern.  They each had their job to do.

Ishi swam around the ship and slowly moved up along its side.  His target was about two-thirds of the way along the side.  When he got there, he tried to relax.  He listened to the drumbeats, waiting for the short beat to tell him that he needed to start counting.  Citali, his friend, had the easiest job.  He just had to wait for the signal.

Boom.  . . . Boom.  . . . Boom, the drum kept going, one beat every ten seconds.  Finally Boom, Boom, then the drummer stuck the second beat right away.  Now just ten more beats.  Ishi waited, psyching himself up, gathering his energy.  He strapped the reed pole he had been hauling along with him.  There was a big wooden hook at the end.  Ishi had made it himself; he wasn’t trusting anyone else’s work.  The tenth beat sounded.  Time to act.  Ishi raised the hook along the side of the ship, the moon had set earlier, so it was too dark to see what he needed to do.  He felt along the side of the ship with his hook, waiting for it to slip inside the open gunport.  Tap.  . . . Tap.  . . . Tap.  The sound of the taps was drowned out by the sound of the waves.  Tap.  . . . Tap, there it is.  He twisted the hook until it caught, then pulled down on the rope attached to it.  There it was, he had a solid hook.  Now for the hard part.  Ishi snugged the rope around his waist so it was holding him up, and his weight was holding the hook in place.  Then he pulled the clay pot to him.  He held on tight while he waited for the next signal.  Hopefully, he hadn’t missed it.  Boom.  . . . Boom.  Boom, it seemed like an hour before he heard the short one.  He must have been fast getting things set.  Now just five more beats.

Boom.

Now!

Ishi uncorked the pot and filled it the rest of the way with water, then he corked it again.  He climbed the rope, the pot hanging by a leather strap.  Boom.  . . . Boom.  Two more and he was ready.  He untied the pot from himself and took hold of the strap about half a meter from the pot.  A quick swing, up and over.  The pot flew through the gunport.  Ishi could hear it smash.  He slid down the rope, entering the water without a splash.  Now he was unencumbered, but he still had to swim around the ship before anyone started shining torches to find their attackers.

◆ ◆ ◆

Citali was treading water while hanging onto the anchor rope.  He knew Ishi thought he had the easy job, but Citali didn’t agree.  He had to take care of three different things, and one of them required that he swim to the other ship north of him.

Boom.  . . . Boom. Boom.  There was his signal to start.  He uncorked the pot and pulled the leather pouch out of it.  He didn’t need to worry about the other one getting wet, but he corked the pot anyway.  No need to have to drag more weight when he swam to the next ship.  He wrapped the pouch around the anchor rope, tying it to the rope on both ends.  Once that was finished, he swam to the boats that were tied to the ship.  He cut that rope; the hope was that the tide would carry these boats to the shore.  He tossed another leather pouch into the one boat. They couldn’t make enough for all the boats; they just had to hope that they bunched up on the shore.  Then Citali swam to the other ship.  He had to do the same thing to the anchor rope coming out of its prow.  Then he could start swimming south.

◆ ◆ ◆

Shikoba threw his pot into the gunport.  Crash.  Oh shit, he missed.  The pot broke on the edge, and most of its contents went into the ship, but part of it fell onto Shikoba’s shoulders.

Oh, no, he could already feel the heat.  Shikoba let go of the rope and fell into the water.  There was a brief burst of flame; then it went out.  But the heat!!!!  His body was burning.  He let himself sink, praying that it would go away.

“Idiot, wipe it off,” he thought.  He started to frantically brush at the sticky mixture.  Gobs of it came off him and floated to the surface, where they burst into flames.  He couldn’t reach it all.  He prayed to his ancestors, “Please kill me quickly.”  But he couldn’t force himself to drink in the water.  The need to survive was still controlling his actions.  Then suddenly, he felt an arm grab him.  Another arm wiped the remaining mixture off of his back, then he was pulled to the surface.

“Shikoba, are you alive?” Citali asked.

“I think so.”

“Can you swim?”

“Maybe.”

“Tie this around you.  I’ll help pull you along.  We need to go,” Citali shouted.

Shikoba tied the leather strap around his chest, then he started swimming.  “Damn breaststroke.”  The tug from Citali swimming ahead gave him hope that he would make it.

◆ ◆ ◆

“FIRE!!!”

“FIRE!!”

“What the hell happened?” the lieutenant demanded.

“We don’t know.  Fire just burst out on the gun deck in two places.  We’ve thrown sand on it, but it keeps burning.  It’s climbed the walls already.”

“Use water!”

“The lieutenant says to use water!”

“We have; that just makes it burn faster.”

“Have you unloaded the guns?”

“We can’t get close to them.  And I’m not carrying a gunpowder cartridge through that.”

BOOM!!!  A cannon when off.  Its recoil ropes had been weakened by the fire, so it just shot across the deck, rammed into the cannon opposite it, and rolled over.

BOOM!!! A second cannon went off.  It tore free of its recoil ropes and slammed into the other bulkhead, tearing a gaping hole in the side of the ship.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Sir, the bow anchor had broken free!”

“Why?!”

“We don’t know.  But the boats have broken loose as well.  They’re heading toward shore.”

“FIRE!”

“We know!”

“But it’s in the chain locker!”

“Can you put it out?”

“No way, there’s so much smoke.  The fire is blazing away.”

“Check the rear anchor!”

“No need,” the lieutenant thought as the ship started to drift toward shore.

◆ ◆ ◆

“What’s happening,” Captain Vestry demanded.

“The ships are on fire!”

“Damn it, man, which ship?”

“All of them!”

The marine pointed out toward the ships.  Of the four ships flanking the fort along the ocean, two were completely engulfed in fire.  The other two had smoke billowing out of their gunports, and they were all drifting toward the beach.

Along the river, the three ships had all broken free of their anchors and were drifting in circles.  The tide was coming in, overriding the river’s currents.

Captain Vestry watched in horror.  “Those heathens.  Send men out to the beach, kill any of that you see.  How could they have done this?!”

◆ ◆ ◆

Citali and Shikoba reached the beach just before the river’s mouth.  Citali needed to rest, and Shikoba was barely conscious.  Shikoba had managed to keep his head above water as he floated on his back for the last kilometer of the swim.  This was a dangerous spot.  Citali was sure that the invaders would be sending men to the beach to search for whoever had set fire to the ships.  He just hoped that by being at this spot, the furthest from the fort, he could buy some time.

“Shikoba, are you awake?”

“Yes.  Thanks for bringing me to the shore.  I didn’t want to be eaten by sharks.”

“Just rest up.  We have to swim another five hundred meters to cross the river delta.  Then we can get help.”

“I don’t think I can go any further.  Just leave me here.  I’ll die happy watching those ships burn.”

“Don’t give up.”

“I’m burned so bad; I cannot feel my arms.”

“Yes, but they’re still there.  I don’t think the burns are too deep.  You’ll get better.”

“No, you need to save yourself,” Shikoba said.

“No, we don’t leave our warriors behind.”

“You two, are you having a picnic?” Ishi asked.

“Ishi, what are you doing here?”

“You weren’t at the rendezvous, so I thought you might have stopped off to catch the view.  Do you need any help?”

“Yes!”

“Good, then I didn’t waste my time coming back for you.  Let’s go.  There are soldiers on the beach.  They’ve been firing at anything that moves.”

“Yes, we’ve heard them.  Are they getting any of our warriors?”

“Not from there.  A few warriors got shot from the ships, but they made it to the rendezvous.  I think those soldiers are mostly shooting the sailors from the ship.  The ones that can swim.  Did you see the first ship hit the beach?”

“No, we were a bit preoccupied trying to breathe,” Citali said.

“Well, let’s go.  You can hear all about it at the circle tomorrow.”

The two men dragged Shikoba through the water to the south side of the river, then they carried him to the rendezvous point.  There were healers there that would try to fix his burns.

◆ ◆ ◆

At the rendezvous, Hototo was counting men.  He was twelve short.  Then Ishi and his friends came in.  They were probably the last, so they’d lost nine warriors.  Not bad, given the havoc they had wrecked on the invaders, but still, he felt each loss.  Seven men had wounds, two were burns, and the others had gunshot wounds.  The burns would really tax the healers they had brought with them.  The gunshot wounds didn’t seem too bad, those guys could wait until the burns were taken care of.

They had captured twenty men who had managed to swim to shore, they’d been pushed south by the current.  Half drowned; they hadn’t put up much of a fight.  They were all tied up here at the rendezvous.  In the morning, they would use one of them to send a message.

◆ ◆ ◆

Captain Vestry spent the night watching his ships burn.  They had managed to save two ships, if beached and unseaworthy could be called a save.  The three ships in the river had drifted to the south bank, where they sank in the shallows.  He knew he would not be able to keep the heathens from seizing control of them.  He was seriously considering burning them the rest of the way himself.  He was furious, and he could not understand how the heathens had managed to pull this off.  He’d never heard of a fire that would burn in water.  They’d lost half the men who’d been crewing the ships.  Most of them had drowned since they couldn’t swim; the fire had gotten the rest of them.

“Captain.”

“What?!”

“One of our men is approaching from the south.  He’s carrying a white flag.”

“Which one?”

“Looks like one of our gunners.”

“Very well.  Let him in the fort and bring him here.”

“Yes, sir.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Explain yourself,” Captain Vestry demanded.

“I made it ashore after the fire.  The natives captured me.”

“And?” Captain Vestry looked at the white flag the man was carrying.

“They sent me here with a message.”

“What message?”

“They say that if you surrender, you will not be harmed.”

“Surrender, not a chance.”

“I told them you would say that.”

“Good.”

“They told me to tell you that they will starve us out and kill us.”

“They would say that, wouldn’t they?”

“I wouldn’t know.  But there were a lot of them.”

“How many did you see?”

“There must have been two hundred men across the river.  They said they had a lot more.”

“What were they armed with?”

“I saw a bunch of rifles, but mostly I saw bows and arrows.”

“They think they can defeat us with bows and arrows.  We’ll show them.  Take him to the gun master, have him put him to work,” Vestry told the marines.

The two marines took the old gunner by the arms and led him away.

“What are you thinking?” Lieutenant Carrington asked.

“How did they know how to talk to him,” Captain Vestry replied.

“I suspect those two old men made it to one of their camps.”

“Yeah, probably.  I wonder what else those two men told them.”

“They really didn’t know that much.  What are we going to do?”

“I’m not sure yet.  Make sure we have guards on those ships.  With some effort, we can probably get them ready to sail again.”

“Yes sir.  Anything else?”

“Have our gun crews do some practice today.  I want those heathens to know that we still have plenty of fight in us.”

Chapter 17

The End Game

Hototo and Amaru watched carefully as the invaders, the so-called Sultanans, set up their picket lines to guard the ships.  The binoculars that Miranda had given Amaru were like gold.  It allowed them to observe details from a safe distance; they still sent men in close to the enemy to observe, but they were given orders to be cautious.  Amaru thought the enemy’s efforts laughable.  Tonight, they would show them why.

◆ ◆ ◆

Ishi led his men toward the enemy.  Their target was the grounded ship, the one farthest to the north.  But first, they needed to take care of the sentries the enemy had set up.  Four of his men were wearing the uniforms they had taken off of the soldiers they had killed in the woods.  The blue color was hard to make out in the dark, and the blood stains were even harder to distinguish.

First, they had to take out the two men who were hiding in a hole they’d dug on the beach.  Ishi assumed they were supposed to be the early warning system.  He could hear them breathing one hundred meters from the hole.  “Idiots.”

It took two of his men ten minutes to creep up on the men, then ten seconds to slit their throats.  Now they were waiting for the first patrol to come by.  The enemy had two men teams patrolling the perimeter.  One carried a torch, while the other held his weapon at the ready.

Ishi smiled as three men crept up behind the patrol.  Two of them eased up behind the two patrollers, each grabbing one and cutting his throat.  The third man wrenched the torch out of the one man’s hand before it had even dipped more than thirty centimeters.

Two men rushed out to continue the patrol pattern, while the three assassins stepped back and waited for the next patrol.

Once the three roving patrols were taken care of and replaced with Wakipee imposters, Ishi brought his men in close to the camp where the guards had set up.  It was late, and it looked like most of them were asleep in their tents.  At his signal, the two sitting next to the campfire were shot with two arrows each.  They didn’t make a sound as they slumped over.

With the coast clear, his men moved in and took out the sleeping men.  Ishi’s young warriors quickly gathered up the clothes and arms scattered around the camp and headed back to the rendezvous point.  Now for the tricky part.  When they left the village the day before, the women at the kiln were making more of Jason’s concoction.  They had gotten the ten pots that they’d sent to them at midday, and now they were going to put four of them to use.

Four men started swinging the pots, slowly increasing the length of the rope gradually as the pots built up speed.  Ishi counted down for them, at zero, all four of them unleashed their pots.  Each pot struck the ship on the leaning deck, bursting into flames seconds later.  Ishi and his men scrambled away, heading toward the woods as gunfire broke out.  The imposters dowsed their torches on Ishi’s count, and another warrior dumped sand on the fire, so there was no light except that right next to the ship.  Ishi and his men were well into the woods before the men on the ship got organized.  Most of them were trying to fight the fire, but with the canted deck, the sand just slid off.

In the woods, Ishi counted his men.  All of them had made it back; only two men had minor gunshot wounds.  They took a moment to enjoy the flames before they turned and headed back to the camp.

◆ ◆ ◆

Captain Vestry was furious as he watched the ship burn.  He’d sent out a full platoon to make sure that the other two ships on the beach were not about to be set on fire as well.  He needed those ships.  He was sure he could right them and haul them back out into the bay.  He just needed to get control of the situation.  He knew he had to do something dramatic to scare these heathens away.  Get control of the area.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Send him,” Hototo said.

The warrior nodded.  He untied the sailor he was holding onto, gave him a white flag, and told him to run.  The sailor didn’t hesitate; he made tracks toward the fort.  He’d just spent the night with one of the warriors playing with a knife in front of him, pantomiming how he would use it to gut him, skin him alive, cut his throat.  As they’d made their way to the fort that morning, he’d been terrified that they were going to butcher him in front of the fort to send a message.  Instead, he’d been told to tell Captain Vestry that if he didn’t surrender, they would burn the rest of his ships and starve him out.

Jason watched the sailor run to the fort.  “What do you think will happen?” he asked.

“I don’t know, but I think their leader will feel he must make a show of force.”

“And?”

“We have our plan in place; let’s see if he does something stupid,” Hototo said.  With that, he motioned his men forward.  Three hundred warriors stepped out of the woods and made their way down the hill.  They stopped fifteen hundred meters away from the fort.  The distance that Miranda had determined was the range limit of the cannon on the fort’s walls.  They would be barely visible to the security patrols walking the fort’s walls, but they were sure that they’d be studying them with a telescope soon.

The warriors made a line two deep, offset so the second row could fire their bows unhindered.  They stood and waited as the sun rose over the walls of the fort.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Sir, one of our men is running to us.  And there’s like three hundred of those heathens lined up just this side of the forest.”

“Then mow them down!” Vestry yelled.

“They’re out of range, sir.”

Vestry grabbed his telescope and stormed out of his tent.  He climbed the wall so he could see for himself.  The sailor had almost made it to the fort.

“Damn,” they were right, the heathens were out of range.  Vestry studied them.  They were just standing there, two lines, mocking him.  “Well, I’ll show them!”

He marched down from the wall.  “Bring that man to me as soon as he’s inside,” Vestry commanded.

“Yes, sir.”

“I want a full battalion ready to go in thirty minutes.  Make sure we’ve got four cannons, and I want a squadron of cavalry,” Vestry gave the orders to his aide.  He returned to his tent to get his saber and to wait for the sailor to report.  He was ready to take the fight to the enemy.

“Sir,” the security guard announced the arrival of the sailor.

“What do you have to say for yourself?” Vestry demanded.

“Sir, I was captured last night.”

“I figured that out.  How many men are there?”

“I’m not sure.  This morning there were maybe five hundred in the camp.  But based on what another prisoner told me, that was just one of their camps.  Their main camp is further back in the woods.”

“Why did they release you?”

“They wanted me to deliver a message to you.”

“Where did they learn our language?”

“I’m not sure.  They have a bunch of prisoners, and I think I saw those two old men you had in the camp.  Maybe they taught them.”

“They weren’t using one of the old men as an interpreter?”

“No.  They sounded kind of funny when they talked.  When they were talking to each other, they used a strange language.  But when they talked to me, they spoke Causian.  They didn’t speak it all that well, and their lips didn’t really seem to sync up with their words too well, but that might have been because I was nervous.”

“Okay, what’s their message?”

The sailor shuffled his feet and ducked his head.  He was obviously afraid to tell Captain Vestry the message.

“Out with it!”

“They told me to tell you to surrender.  If you do, they promise not to kill anyone.  If you don’t, they said they’re going to burn the other ships and start killing more of us.  Then they said they were patient and would starve out the ones they didn’t kill.”

“What kind of weapons did you see?”

“They got a lot of our rifles, but besides that, I just saw bows and arrows.”

Captain Vestry snorted.  “It’s about time we showed them what a real army can do.”  With that, he slammed his hat on his head and stormed out of his tent.  His batman was waiting with his horse, a big black stallion.

“Mount up!” Vestry ordered.  “Open the gates.”

Vestry waited as the battalion of marines marched out of the gate.  They formed up in three ranks, creating a battle line one hundred sixty men wide.  The cannons were placed on each end, with two in the center.  The cavalry squadron formed up behind the line.

The Natives had the upper ground.  Vestry studied them with his telescope.  He could see one of them looking back at him through some contraption.  It kind of looked like two telescopes bound together, but it was way too short.  “Whatever.”  The enemy just stood there.  They didn’t even look like they were armed.  Just standing there admiring the sunrise.  “Well, I’ll show them.”

“Forward march!”

The company drummer started beating out the time for their march.  The marines started moving forward, their rifles held upright against their shoulder.  Vestry motioned to Lieutenant Carrington.

“Yes, sir?”

“I want to stop at the extreme range for our rifles.  We know they have several, and we don’t want our own weapons being used on us.  As soon as we reach that range, I want the cannon brought into action.  Let’s see what these heathens think of a little grapeshot up their backside.”

“Yes, sir.”

Lieutenant Carrington rode his horse to the middle of the battleline, between the two cannons.

“Are you loaded?”

“Yes, sir.  Double load of grapeshot ready to be delivered,” the gunner replied.

“Good.”

The gunners were forced to move the cannons themselves.  Horses were too nervous around cannons, and Captain Vestry didn’t want to give the enemy an easy target.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Stupid enough for you?” Jason asked.

“If Miranda is right about the range of those cannons, then yes,” Hototo answered.

“Well, she was right about the formation.  The cannons are right where she said they’d be.”

“They are,” Hototo said as he turned his binoculars to the four fox holes they’d dug the night before.  They were about four hundred meters in front of their line.  There were four warriors in each.  They had been practicing the maneuver for days.  Now it was time to see if it would work as planned.

The Sultanan battleline continued to advance toward the Wakipee position.  Hototo kept his men standing, their bows on their shoulders, just watching the enemy approach.  Miranda stood beside him, calling out the range.

“Five hundred meters.”

Now things would start to get interesting.  Four red flags appeared along the Wakipee line.  The flags slowly drifted left and right as the enemy approached.

“Four hundred meters.”

Hototo gave a signal, and the drums started to beat again.

“Three hundred seventy-five meters.”

Hototo nodded his head as he listened to Miranda call down the distance.

“Three sixty . . . Three fifty . . . Three forty . . . Three thirty.”

Hototo raised his arms, and the red flag flicked back and forth.  The warriors in the fox holes had been watching the red flags.  They were identifying the angle between them and the cannon teams.  When the flags flicked, they turned, adjusted their alignment, and fired five arrows each.  Each arrow following the next.  No aiming, they were only using distance and angle, and twenty arrows would surely cause some problems with the cannon teams.

At the same time, Hototo signaled his warriors to fire.  Their arrows would not reach the battle line, but it should confuse the enemy about where the arrows that struck them came from.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Heave!” the gunnery sergeant yelled.  “Heave!  Put your backs into it.”

“I wish he would just shut up,” one of the men pushing the cannon said.

“Hea . . .”

“What the hell!” shouted one of the men.  “Incoming!”

The men pushing the cannons dove to the ground.  The ones in the back got under the cannon.  Arrows were plunking into the ground all around them.  The gunnery sergeant was lying on the ground with one in his back.  Two others were also wounded.

Lieutenant Carrington was between the two cannons, gaging the distance to the enemy, when he saw the flight of arrows coming toward their line.  The first few landed twenty meters in front of them, but suddenly all around him, there were arrows slamming into the ground, into the men.  All the arrows that were actually reaching their line were centered around the cannons.

“Halt!” he yelled.  The gun crews were already halted and taking cover beneath their cannons.

“Get up and prepare to fire!” Carrington yelled.  The volley of arrows had ended and he wanted to fire at the enemy before they started firing again.

The gun crews made hasty adjustments to the cannons’ aim and pulled the flintlock cord.  The cannons roared, belching smoke and grapeshot at the Wakipee line.  The Wakipee didn’t even flinch.  The warriors in the fox holes were below the top of the holes so the grape wouldn’t be able to reach them, and the rest knew they were out of range.

“Reload!” Lieutenant Carrington ordered.  Then he raised his telescope to assess the damage.  He immediately knew they were still too far.  The enemy had the advantage of the high ground, and his cannons were still thirty meters out of range.

Unseen by Carrington, the red flags flicked again.  The drums continued to beat, then another volley of arrows was released.  Hototo had the warriors on the ridge just fire two arrows each.  The warriors in the fox holes fired five arrows each again.

The gunners were scrambling around the cannons, driving the charge home, preparing to load the grapeshot when the second volley hit.  Carrington watched as four of the gunners were hit.  He turned his telescope to see what had happened at the cannons on the end of the line.  There too, men were lying on the ground, arrows sticking out of them.  The gunnery sergeants were not signaling that their cannons were ready; instead, they were cowering on the ground beneath the cannons.

Lieutenant Carrington looked over to where Captain Vestry was, hoping for some order, something to make sense of the situation.  When he turned his attention back up the hill at the enemy, he was shocked.  They were advancing, slowly moving down the hill toward their line.  “Crap!”

“Stand your ground!” Carrington yelled.  “Present Arms!”  The enemy was still out of range of their rifles, but they had to do something.  The men were ready to bolt, firing and reloading would calm them.  Take their mind off of the advancing enemy.

“Ready!  . . . Fire!”  The rifle fire rippled down the line.  “Reload!”

The first row of men started to reload their rifles, and the row behind them stepped forward, preparing to fire.

“Fire!”

The ripple of fire was ragged this time as a volley of arrows hit their lines.  This time there were five volleys, each following the other by less than two seconds apart.  The line of marines started to break.  Carrington shot one of the men.  “Get back in line!”

They had to hold.  Captain Vestry and his cavalry unit were charging in from the left.  He would hit the enemy along their line instead of head on.  The heathens would not be able to fire such a large volley, and the fast-moving horses would make aiming difficult.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Here comes the calvary!” Miranda yelled.

Hototo nodded and raised a blue flag.  Miranda had told him that this would happen.

Twenty warriors formed two lines, facing the charging horses.  This would not be volley fire, at least not at first.  Jason had told them that they would want the horses, so they were to aim carefully, only killing the riders.

At two hundred meters, they let loose their first arrows, each one carefully aimed.  Each of them had a designated target based on its position in the line charging them.  They couldn’t afford to shoot wildly if they were to capture the horses.

◆ ◆ ◆

Captain Vestry pulled his horse up short as ten of his men fell from their horses, arrows in their chests.  He barely had time to think before a second volley struck them, eight more men down, their horses running for the woods.

Vestry ordered his remaining twelve men to retreat.  As the cavalry turned and raced for the fort, another volley took out four more men.  Lieutenant Carrington couldn’t believe his eyes, Vestry was retreating.  He turned back to his battalion, there was no hope.  At the sign of the cavalry retreating, the men had broken ranks and were running back to the fort.  Many had thrown their rifles to the ground.  Carrington kicked his horse into a gallop and raced toward the fort.

◆ ◆ ◆

As soon as the enemy line broke, Hototo signaled for his men to rush in and collect the rifles and cannons.  This whole engagement had been carefully planned over the last few days.  The enemy line was just beyond the range of the cannons at the fort.  Their first priority was the cannons and the ammo carts that accompanied them.  He had allocated his biggest warriors to this task.  They would be pulling the carts and cannons back up the hill any moment.  Hopefully, before the enemy realized what was happening and could regroup, although regrouping looked unlikely.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Open the gates!” Captain Vestry yelled as his horse reared up in front of the closed gate.  He was confused, angry, and, honestly, a little bit scared.  How could this have happened?  He’d heard stories about the old days and the effectiveness of the bow and arrow, but he’d always assumed they were exaggerations.  How could his battalion be decimated like this by an enemy that had never fired a rifle?  They had quite a few rifles now, but they hadn’t bothered with them.  And the range of those bows was insane.  The fact that they could pick off soldiers on horseback seemingly at will was beyond his imagination.

When the gates opened, Vestry had to force his way inside.  His horse was biting anyone in their way.  The rest of the cavalry, all eight of them, followed him in.  What a rat’s nest this had been.  He pulled up and turned to watch the rest of the men stream into the fort.  They were clawing and fighting their way over their comrades.  The sergeants were yelling, trying to restore order.  Finally, as most of the marines got inside, the sergeants were able to restore order, and the men started to line up.  He needed to get a head count.  How many men had he lost?

Lieutenant Carrington was the last to enter.  He’d used his horse to break up the unruly mob where he could, restoring some order.  Now, as the last few men marched in, he rode his horse to the side, giving them orders, demanding that they line up and march in formation.

The battalion reformed, and the sergeants started a headcount.  Vestry headed to his command tent, telling Carrington to report when the counting was done.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Carrington, how many did we lose?” Vestry asked, ignoring all formalities as Carrington entered the tent.

“One hundred eighty missing, fifty-six wounded.  Plus?”

“I lost sixteen men and their horses.”

“Sir, how could this have happened?  It was like they knew what we were planning.  I was sure your cavalry attack would break their line.”

“I don’t know.  The last time I was here, just firing our guns frightened them into running.  This time they just stood there.  How could they know they were out of range?”

“They did capture several weapons, so maybe they measured the range.”

“Those heathens can’t be that smart.  There has to be something else.”

“Maybe so, sir.  But now what are we going to do?”

“I don’t know yet.  I need to think.  You need to keep the men occupied.  We can’t have them thinking too much about today.  Maintaining discipline is paramount.”

Chapter 18

Final Moves

Amaru congratulated Hototo on the success of the battle.  They had captured four cannons and over three hundred rifles.  But most importantly, they had captured the supply carts that carried ammunition for the cannons and rifles.

“Do we train on these?” Amaru asked, motioning at the stack of rifles and the four cannons.

“Not now,” Hototo replied.  “We have to press our advantage while they’re still confused.  We need to hit them while they’re afraid to leave the fort.”

“How many warriors did we lose?” Amaru asked.

“Five men were killed.  Some of their cannons managed to reach our lines.  We have twenty-five wounded.”  Hototo looked sad, but everyone knew that had been a small price to pay.  “We have work to do.”

“He’s an amazing tactician,” Miranda said.

“Yep.  Just a few suggestions from you, and he laid out a great plan.  I didn’t think the Sultanans would come out like that.”

“Hototo did.  He knew how they would react to his taunting them with his men lined up like that.  I was shocked when he suggested the fox holes.  That showed some serious understanding of battlefield tactics,” Miranda said.

“Oh, I thought that was your idea,” Jason said.

“No, I just showed him where I thought the cannons would be and explained how they would reload them and pull them around.  He immediately saw the potential presented with such a dense pack of critical men.”

“Great.  We’ve got to get to work.  I see that they managed to bring in a few horses; time to show our friends how much a horse can do for you.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Hototo had seen the mistake the Sultanans had made as soon as he saw the fort.  They had built it away from the river and the beach, but they had put it in a small swale that the river had eaten out decades ago when it had been blocked and jumped its banks.  Now he and his men just needed to block the river again.

Jason had been working off and on with the teams of warriors that had been cutting down trees.  He’d told Hototo to wait until they could capture a few horses before dragging the logs to the river.  It was a risk, but having men drag the logs that far would have taken forever.  Now they had thirty hours to do it.

Hototo had shown them where stories of the past said the river had been blocked.  Jason could tell it was the perfect site for a dam.  With the aerial imagery from Zephyr, Jason easily confirmed that his suspicions were correct.  There was a huge rock in the middle of the river that they could use to brace the logs and create a dam.  Zephyr was able to help them plan the dam.  Another team of warriors had been digging a channel to help stir the river to the swale and prevent the water from making its way back to the river.  And yet another team was creating a temporary dam just at the edge of the woods where the swale exited onto the plain.  That dam would naturally fail once the water level reached its top.  This was Miranda’s idea since it would create the maximum chaos and prevent the Sultanans from doing anything about the water until it was too late.

Many more warriors arrived after they had destroyed the ships.  It gave the villages confidence that the enemy was contained.  The influx swelled the workforce and allowed them to accomplish the tasks that Hototo had mapped out.

Now they were ready to put it all into action.  After thirty straight hours of work, the dam was completed and was raising the water level up to the new channel.

“Here it goes,” Jason yelled as he eased the horses along to guide the last log into place.  He unhooked the harness and mounted the big mare that he had been using.  Miranda mounted the second horse that had helped pull the last log into place.

“Let’s go watch the fun,” she said as she kicked her horse into a trot.  The Wakipee hadn’t been willing to do more than lead the horses, and they hadn’t been too happy about doing that.  It would take a few weeks to get some of the warriors comfortable with riding a horse.

The two horses made short work of the two-kilometer trip back to the top of the ridge where Hototo and Amaru were waiting.

“How long?” Amaru asked.

“One or two hours,” Miranda said.  “We’ll see the water start to run by here just before our little dam fails.”

Amaru nodded his head and turned his attention back to the fort.  The soldiers were outside conducting drills under the protection of the fort’s cannons.  Jason checked things out with his binoculars.  He laughed when he realized that only about half of the soldiers had a rifle.  The rest were using a piece of a branch as they conducted the drills.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Here it goes,” Maranda said as the water started rushing by them.  It was a roiling mass of water with dirt, debris, and a few large rocks being pushed ahead of it.  The surge of water raced toward the fort.  One of the lookouts must have noticed it because all of a sudden, the soldiers who were doing drills were scrambling to get inside the fort.  The gates of the fort slammed shut just minutes before the water struck the fort.

“Damn, we missed,” Jason said as the debris pile slammed into the fort fifty meters south of the gate.

“That was too much to expect,” Miranda said.  “But just wait a bit.”

◆ ◆ ◆

In the fort, the soldiers were in a mad scramble to put dirt and sandbags at the bottom of the gate.  The water was already running through the center of the fort, a small stream now, but the fort was made of dirt.

Eventually, the water won out.  As it spilled around the sides of the gates, it ate away at the dirt walls, and soon the gates collapsed, and the water rushed through.

“Open the rear gates!” Lieutenant Carrington ordered.  He hoped that the water would just run between the gates and minimize the damage to the fort.  Alas, that wasn’t to be.  The same thing that had originally saved the western gate condemned the fort.  The gates were not at the low point of the swale, that was to the south, so as the water rushed through the fort, it had a southern bias to it which ate away at the wall around the gates, widening the hole in the direction of the low point.

“Captain, there’s not much we can do.  There’s too much water coming through.”

“I can see that.  How the hell did they divert the river?” Vestry demanded.

“They must have dammed it.  What now?”

“We can shift into the northern section.  It’s mostly dry,” Vestry said.

“It is, but the gunpowder store is in the south.  It’s flooded.”

“Of course it is.  What a disaster!”

“Sir!” Lieutenant Carrington called out when he noticed one of the marine sergeants was making his way toward them.

“Report!” Carrington ordered.

“Sir, we’ve had over one hundred men desert.  The rest of the men are getting nervous.  I’m worried about a mutiny.”

“Damn it, sergeant, control your men!” Vestry snapped.

“We’re trying.  But with the gunpowder wet, there’s no way we could repulse an attack.”

“Don’t we have some stored on the ships?”

“Yes, but who can we send out to get it?  I’m afraid anybody we sent would desert.  They’re terrified of these natives.  There’s talk that they’re witches.”

“Get a grip, man!”

“Captain!  There’s a runner approaching the fort!” one of the sentries yelled.

“One of ours?” Lieutenant Carrington asked.

“Yes, looks like one of our marines.”

Lieutenant Carrington and Captain Vestry waited impatiently as the marine finished running the final two hundred meters to the fort, then had to wade through the rushing water to reach them.

“Report!”

“Sir, I’ve been told to deliver a message.”

“Then deliver it!”

“Sir, the Wakipee say that you have until tonight to surrender.  If you do, they’ll guarantee the safety of your men; if not, they say they will kill every single one of us.”

Vestry looked at the marine with skepticism.

“Sir, they have the cannons and the ammo cart.  They know how to use them.”

Vestry dismissed the marine and turned to Carrington.  “Well?”

“I’m not sure.  We’re down over four hundred men.”  He spied the sergeant holding up five fingers.  “Closer to five hundred.  I don’t see what choice we have.  We’ll have to put a guard on the gates tonight to keep men from deserting, and even then, a lot of them will go over the wall.”

Vestry nodded his head slowly.  This entire mission had been doomed from the start.  In fact, he’d been doomed from the start of his first mission; he just didn’t see the signs.  He couldn’t believe he had to surrender to a bunch of heathens.  These people didn’t even wear proper clothes.  And he was sure that there was a marine waiting to shoot him in the back if he didn’t surrender.  He suspected that the sergeant had already set up a signal.

“Get that marine back.  Send him back and tell them that we’ll surrender once they stop the water.”

“Yes, sir.”

◆ ◆ ◆

It hadn’t taken much to tear out enough of the dam to stop the water flow to the fort.  Jason and Miranda were sitting on horseback with Hototo and Amaru.  They had given the two men a quick riding lesson and chosen the calmest horses for them to ride.  They wanted to meet the enemy commander at his level when he surrendered, and Miranda had assured them that he would be on horseback.

The enemy had torn out more of the wall to the north, which would allow them to exit the fort on relatively dry land.  That had taken most of the day, which had also allowed the land to dry up some.  Hototo and Amaru had identified a spot on the plain where they would accept the surrender.  It was dry and would provide a large enough area for a new camp, one where they would be able to sort through the prisoners and decide how to move forward.  The women were already preparing the firepits.

“Here they come,” Jason said as the first horse came out of the fort.  There were fifteen horses; the first one was ridden by a man in a sharp blue jacket and white trousers.  Based on his bearing and immaculate dress, Jason assumed he was the leader.  Following the horses were the marines.  They were also dressed in blue jackets and white trousers, although their trousers weren’t all that white.  They were marching along to a drummer with several men to the side yelling at them; Jason assumed those were the sergeants.  Following them was a gaggle of men.  They were in some semblance of order, but they weren’t doing anything that came close to marching.  Jason assumed these were the sailors.  The last man out of the fort also rode a horse and wore the blue jacket and white trousers, most likely another officer, Jason suspected.

There were warriors lining both sides of the path to the camp.  The Sultanans would have to pass between them as they made the final approach.  The line of warriors started at about eight hundred meters from the fort; nobody trusted the enemy yet.

Hototo measured their progress, and once they were far enough along toward the camp, he nodded to the others, indicating that they should go.  The goal was to meet at the camp at the same time as the enemy leader.

Jason’s nerves were on edge as they closed in on the meeting location.  The horsemen that were approaching seemed calm, resolved to their fate.  But the attack on the first village was still forward in everyone’s minds.  These people were not to be trusted.  When the two groups were five meters apart, they stopped.

“This is Hototo and Amaru.  They are our leaders,” Jason announced via his Comm.

“I am Captain Vestry, the leader of this expedition.”

“Are you prepared to surrender?” Jason asked.

“Are you willing to guarantee the safety of my men?” the leader asked.

Jason turned to Hototo and Amaru and translated.

“We will keep your men safe,” Jason translated their response.

“Then we surrender.”  The horsemen dismounted.  Several warriors moved in quickly and took the horses away.  Hototo then dismounted and walked forward.  He accepted the leader’s sword and then waved to a group of warriors who led the prisoners to a tent.

Things progressed quickly after that.  The warriors stepped in and made sure that the marines and sailors weren’t armed, then led them to various firepits around the camp where they would be guarded.  At about the same time, there was a signal from the fort.  The warriors had searched it, verifying that there were no men hiding within it.

The last man walked up and handed over his horse.

“I’m Lieutenant Carrington.  I’m the commander of the marines,” he said.

Jason completed the introductions, and Hototo accepted Carrington’s sword.

“What will happen to the men?” Carrington asked.

“We’ll put them to work,” Jason said.  “Those that have skills will be given jobs that require those skills.  The others will be used as labor at first.  They’ll be taught various skills so they can be of use to the villages that will take them in.”

Lieutenant Carrington nodded.  “Sounds fair.  Where do you plan to house us?”

“We’re going to rebuild the northern section of the fort.  With the cannons removed, we think it’ll make a good prison until you’ve proven that you can be trusted.”

“We should be able to accomplish that in a day,” Carrington said.  “If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know.”

“You can help us sort through the men tomorrow.  We’re going to want proof of their skills, so make sure they don’t lie to us.”

Carrington laughed.  “I’ll try my best.  But they’re pretty scared.  They’ll probably say anything to improve their odds of survival.”

“Then make sure they know that if we catch them lying, it will make things much worse for them.”

“I will.”

◆ ◆ ◆

As darkness started to fall, the women started distributing food to the men.  Of course, the warriors were the first to be fed.  Then they started to distribute food to the prisoners.

“What is this!” yelled Captain Vestry.

The woman who had handed him the bowl of mashed corn and meat cowered away from him.

Jason hurried over to deal with the problem.  Vestry, Carrington, the bosons from the ship, and the marine sergeants were all in the same group.  Everyone was eating away at the food except Captain Vestry.

“What is the problem?” Jason asked.

“This food, it’s disgusting,” Vestry said.

“I can assure you that everyone is eating the same thing.  And you’d better get used to it.  It’s what we eat.”

“This is unacceptable!”

Hototo and Amaru had walked up to the edge of the group to watch.  Miranda was next to them, providing translations.

Vestry hurled the bowl at the woman who’d brought it to him, chasing her away.

“That is not acceptable,” Jason said.  “You won’t be eating anything else tonight.  We will not allow you . . .”

A warrior walked up and pushed Jason aside.  He grabbed Vestry by the throat with his right hand then shoved a knife under Vestry’s ribcage.  Vestry gasped, then collapsed.  The knife thrust had penetrated his heart.  The warrior stepped back and turned to Hototo and Amaru.  He nodded to them then he stabbed himself in the heart just as he’d done with Captain Vestry.

The group of prisoners was in the middle of jumping up to fight when a shout stopped them.  “Stand down!” Lieutenant Carrington yelled.  Then Carrington turned to Jason, “Please explain.”

“He lost his entire family in the first village; his mother, sisters, wife, and three children,” Hototo said, and Jason translated.  Miranda translated for the prisoners.

“You heard!” Carrington yelled.  “Who among you wouldn’t do the same thing if given the chance to avenge such an atrocity on your family?  It’s over!  Now, sit back down!”

“I’m sorry,” Jason said.

“I think it’s for the best,” Carrington said.  “That man was a monster.  He would have caused more trouble.”

“But we still have to deal with the captain that actually destroyed the village.”

“No you don’t.  Only one of the captains other than Vestry survived your firing of the ships.  I suspect they weren’t too popular; Vestry tended to prefer Tartars for captains.”

“How?”

“Most of them liked to drink.  I suspect they had a hard time swimming from their ships.”

“Oh,” Jason said.  But he was glad that they didn’t have to deal with them.  And he was sure that he heard Amaru say to Hototo, “You guaranteed the safety of his men, not him.”

Chapter 19

Very Interesting

Catie was frustrated.  She had taken the advice from Liz, really Samantha, and been better focused on the Thoreans.  They were doing well.  She was confident that in another two or three months, after their election, they would be accepted into the League.  She was ready to hand them off to another League ambassador and move on.

She had been working with Ajda to design a new scout ship.  One that would be much smaller and easier to crew.  She was thinking about using it to do some exploring.  Marc had decided to go slower on meeting the next two civilizations, given the hard introductions they’d had with the first two.  So she and Liz were talking about exploring a couple of planets close to where Miranda and Jason had been lost to see if they could be added to their colonization list and to be close when their distress signal was detected.

“Princess, Prince Charming is asking to speak with you,” ADI announced.

“ADI, his name is Prince Nikitas or Kozma.”

“I know, but I like Prince Charming better.  And so does Morgan.”

“Grrr,” Catie growled; she did a little primping to get her hair just right, she thought about putting on some lipstick, but she didn’t have any handy and, nah, not her style.  “ADI, please put him through.”

“Prince Nikitas, the Princess will speak with you now.”

“Princess.”

“Kozma, call me Catie.”

“Princess, this is a diplomatic call.”

“Oh, sorry, Prince Nikitas, what is the problem?  Not another antimatter scheme?”

“No, we found a probe in our system.  Did you guys leave one to spy on us?”

“I’m pretty sure we didn’t, but let me check,” Catie said.  “ADI?”

“We did not leave a probe in their system.  The jump gates provide us the ability to track the EM signals.”

“Kozma, we didn’t leave a probe.  The jump gates do record the EM activity in your system, but we’re not spying on you.”

“We know about the EM signals.  This is a probe, much like your solar explorers.  It is thirty degrees above the ecliptic in a tracking orbit of Helike.”

“How did you find it?”

“We were testing the gravimetric sonar you gave us on our new ship.”

“Hmm.  Did you look below the ecliptic for another one?”

“No!  But we will.  What do you know?”

“Nothing, but if you wanted to spy on a planet, you’d need a probe both above and below for the best view.  Are you going to go get it?”

“We’re planning to, but we’re concerned about what it might do.”

“If you wait, I’ll see if Uncle Blake will send the Sakira to you.  Then you can send a Fox or a Lynx out to check.  The Sakira can fly it, so you won’t risk a pilot.”

“That might be best.  We don’t know what this means.  Who would be spying on us?”

“I don’t know.  Hopefully, we can find out.  I’ll let you know as soon as I hear from the Admiral.”

◆ ◆ ◆

The Sakira arrived in Helike just after the Helikens found the second probe.  They sent two Foxes out to examine the two probes.  Catie was in her office watching, listening, and waiting for something to make sense.

“Both probes are identical,” ADI said.  “They are using gravity drives to hold their position relative to the planet.  I see what is likely ports that can open and expose an optical telescope.”

“So, very much like a solar explorer,” Catie said.

“Yes, but smaller.  They are obviously not designed to do anything but maneuver around the system.  I would surmise that they were in orbit around Helike until the Helikens started their space program.”

“That makes sense.  So whoever put the Helikens on Helike must have left the probes behind to observe.”

“I concur.”

Catie's eyes opened as big as saucers.  “Wait a minute!”

“What?”

“Do you think they left probes at Earth?”

“Damn it, how stupid,” Blake yelled.  “I’ll have the system surveyed immediately.”

“Cer Catie, your father has joined the conversation,” ADI said.

“Daddy, what do you think we should do with the probe?”

“They must have quantum relays,” Marc said.  “Whoever left them behind must be listening in and watching what goes on in Helike.  And maybe Earth.  We should try to talk to them.”

“Yes, Captain,” ADI said.  “I have sent a message to the probe.”

“And if they don’t answer,” Blake asked.

“I know!  Put the probes in a faraday cage,” Catie said.

“Why?”

“To blind them.  Then whoever owns them has to talk to us if they want any data.”

“I don’t see how that will work, but I don’t see a problem either,” Blake said.

“I’m having two cages made now,” ADI said.  “We can use a drone to deploy the cage over the probe.”

◆ ◆ ◆

It took the rest of the day to encase the probes.  The Delphineans put a quantum-coupled relay and a regular RF transmitter inside the cages.  That allowed them to send and receive messages to and from the inside of the cage, but other than that, the cage was blind to whatever was going on around it.  They’d even made the cage opaque, so the probes’ optical telescopes would be useless as well.

Volmora was frustrated and furious.  His probes were being blinded by the Delphineans.  “How?  Why?  What can I do about it?”

The following day, Volmora's two probes in the Earth system were blinded.  “This is unacceptable!”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Hello.  This is Marc McCormack.  Can you explain why you have two probes watching our planet?”  Marc sent a more personal message to whoever owned the probes.

There was no reply.

“ADI, please monitor the four probes.  Let me know immediately if there is any communication.”

“Yes, Captain.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“ADI?”

“Yes, Cer Catie.”

“I’ve been thinking.  If there are two probes at Helike and two at Earth, what are the chances that there are other systems colonized like Helike?”

“That seems unlikely.  Why would there be more systems?  Didn’t they simply rescue the people of Helike from the tidal wave and transport them?”

“That’s what we assumed.  But why would an alien race be watching Earth, then decide to rescue a city?”

“The Paraxeans were studying Earth,” ADI said.

“Yes, but you didn’t try and rescue people from disasters.”

“If you discount Dr. Metra’s medical research, then you are correct.  But in 400 BCE, the risk of exposure would have been much less.  Perhaps these aliens were being altruistic.”

“I don’t know.  But if two of those probes were acting like a waypoint, then the wormhole in Thorea might have jumped to it.”

“Why would the two probes be trying to generate a wormhole?” ADI asked.

“Because whoever is watching Earth and Helike must know about the wormholes.  And if you knew about our ability to create wormholes, wouldn’t you be trying to figure out how they are made?”

“I know about the wormholes, and I know how they are made.  But I concede your point.  But the probes at Earth and Helike weren’t doing anything like that.”

“No, but you wouldn’t start with all your probes.  And you’d probably avoid using one in a system where there was an active space program as well as continuous wormhole activity.”

“Okay.  If we accept your hypothesis, then it would indicate that we’re looking for Jason and Miranda in the wrong places.”

“Right, we should be looking for an inhabitable system within, say, fifty light years of Thorea.”

“I have just mapped out eight potential systems,” ADI said.  “Do you want to redirect the Solar Explorers to them?”

“Yes!”

Chapter 20

A New Era

Once the camp settled for the night, Jason and Miranda had a chance to catch up with each other.  As usual, they found a quiet spot away from the others.

“Wow, what did you think about that warrior killing Captain Vestry,” Miranda asked.

“If he hadn’t done it, I’m sure someone else would have.  There were a lot of warriors like him who lost their whole family.”

“I know.  Hototo looked pretty mad,” Miranda said.

“There wasn’t much he could do when the guy offed himself.  But I think Hototo was actually relieved.  I heard Amaru point out that Hototo hadn’t guaranteed the captain’s safety, just the safety of his men.”

“I’m sure Vestry didn’t think there was a difference.”

“No, but even Carrington said it was for the best.”

“Yes.  And he did a good job of settling everyone down after.  I guess that puts him in charge of the men.”

“I guess so.  He seems like he’ll be easy to work with.  What do you want to focus on tomorrow?” Jason asked.

“I want to check out the three ships on the south side of the river.  One of the men we captured when they grounded themselves said he thought that they could be repaired.  Amaru would like to have a few ships.”

“Makes sense.  They might be able to stop the next invasion.”

“Yeah.  But he reminded me that the tribes to the south have some smaller boats with sails.  He thinks having a bigger fishing boat, along with better agriculture, will allow them to grow the villages bigger.  He says that the people aren’t very happy when they have to split a village.”

“I’d guess so.  You have to leave a lot of family members and friends behind,” Jason said.

“Right.  So what are you going to work on?”

“A sawmill and foundry.  Amaru wants to rebuild the villages soon, and I think it would be nice to use actual lumber to build the clan houses.”

“What are you going to use for nails?”

“We have plenty of iron.  Carrington says there should be a few blacksmiths among the prisoners.”

“Okay.  I’m going to get some sleep.  It sounds like we’ll both be busy tomorrow.”

◆ ◆ ◆

The next morning, Jason met with Carrington to set their plans in place.

“Jason,” Carrington said with a nod as he was eating breakfast.

“Lieutenant Carrington,” Jason replied.  “I want to get some of your men working on the fort.”

“Right.  We should get Sergeant Baxter on that.  He’s right over there,” he said, pointing to a big sergeant who was staring at his empty plate like he was wondering where all the food had gone.  “He ran the crew when we first built it.”

“Thanks.”

“Baxter!  They have a job for you.”

“Well, if they want me to work, they’ll need to feed me more.  I don’t see how anyone can live on so little food.”

“He likes to eat.”

“I can tell,” Jason said.

“Come on, Sergeant.  If you do a good job, they might be persuaded to up your rations.”

“Yes, sir.  What do you need me to do?”

“They’re going to close off the north side of the fort so they can put us in there.  They want you to put a crew together and get working on it.”

“Will they let us have our tents and stuff?” Baxter asked.

Carrington looked at Jason.

“Sure.  They don’t need them.  And they do want your people to be healthy.”

“You heard that.  Now get up and let’s go find you a crew.”

Baxter heaved his considerable mass upright and walked over to Lieutenant Carrington, and snapped off a salute.

“No need to salute.  We’re all in the same boat,” Carrington said.

“We were all in the same boat on the way over, and I still saluted you.  I’m not going to stop now.  Where do they have our men?”

“They’ve been split up into small groups; they’re all close to this camp,” Jason said.

“Lead the way,” Carrington said.

Jason led them in a circle around the main camp.  The prisoners were divided into ten different groups to make them more manageable.  As they stopped at each firepit, Carrington and Baxter conferred for a few moments, then selected several men.  When they had completed the circuit, they had one hundred men in tow.

Jason took them over to one of Amaru’s lead warriors.  “These are the guys who will be fixing the fort,” Jason said.  “This guy’s name is Baxter; he’ll coordinate the work.”

The warrior stifled a laugh; he obviously didn’t think Baxter was fit to actually do any work.

“He knows what we want.  So just keep an eye on them.  I’ll come down later and check on things.  Take one of those old guys with you to translate in case there are any questions.”

The warrior smiled; it was a bit feral.  He probably liked the idea of getting one of the old men under his control.  Somehow, nobody could forget that they were indirectly responsible for this whole mess.  Jason just hoped that the warrior wouldn’t take too much out on the old man he chose.  They still needed them as interpreters, and besides, there was no way that they could have known what Captain Vestry was capable of.

“Okay, now what?” Carrington asked.  “You wanted to sort through the men, checking for skill sets?”

“Right,” Jason said as he glanced at the men heading toward the fort.

“Don’t worry, we avoided choosing anyone with skills you would be interested in.”

“Thanks.  You’re being pretty helpful.”

“I want to make sure my men are taken care of.  I hope they can fit into these villages you told me about.  I’ll do whatever it takes.”

“Good.”  Jason led Carrington back toward the first prisoner camp.

Amaru and Hototo met up with them just before they got there.  Jason nodded at the two men.  They had obviously come to talk.  “What do you need?” he asked.

“We have thirty-two more prisoners.  They managed to make it south of the river.  Our warriors are bringing them back now.”

“I assume you’re saying they made it south of the river yesterday before the surrender.”

“Of course,” Hototo said.  He and Amaru gave Jason a hard glare.  They obviously didn’t like the idea that Jason even considered that some of them had escaped from their warriors.

Jason explained what was going on to Carrington.

“If I might suggest, you should send them directly to the fort.  Baxter will put them to work.  Putting them among the prisoners that are idle is asking for trouble.  Some of them won’t appreciate their proactive surrender,” Lieutenant Carrington said.

Jason relayed that to Hototo and Amaru.  Explaining that they had gotten a work crew together to start working on the fort.  Both men agreed about the new prisoners and dispatched a messenger to intercept the group and lead them to the fort.

“So now what are you going to do?” Amaru asked.

“I thought we’d start interviewing the prisoners to find out what skills they have that would be of use to us.  Like we discussed, we can have them start training some of the men in those skills.  And once we have a list, we might come up with a few projects for them.”

“Okay, continue,” Amaru said.

“Do you want to sit in?” Jason asked.

Amaru motioned to his ears and shook his head.  He obviously didn’t want to force the extra work of translating the conversations for him and Hototo, and maybe he was tired of hearing Causian.  He and Hototo turned and moved off.

“So those are the two guys who kicked our asses?”

“Yes, mainly Hototo.  He’s an amazing strategist.”

“What about you?”

“I helped out with a few things, but mostly just watched.”

Jason and Carrington moved on to the camp circle.  Miranda showed up carrying three stools.  “I thought you might want to have something to sit on,” she said, giving Carrington a big smile.

“Are you going to join us?” Jason asked.

“I don’t think so.  I thought you might want a stool for the interviewee.”

“Yeah, I guess that will work.”

“Here you go,” Miranda said as she handed Jason a stool and gave Carrington the other two.

“Your wife?” Carrington asked, nodding at Miranda as she walked away.

“Nope, just a very good friend.”

“You two look different than the rest of these people.”

“We’re from farther up north,” Jason said.  “We were down here working at Hototo’s village when your ships showed up.”

“Oh . . . well, sorry about that,” Carrington said.  He took a deep breath, “I think we should start with the sailors.”

“Why?”

“They get pressed into the service, so sometimes they are pretty skilled.  Plus, it takes a lot of special skills to keep a ship sailing.  Firing a rifle, not so much, and you guys made it pretty clear that our hunting and scouting skills don’t match up to yours.”

Jason laughed.  “Okay, there are quite a few at this camp, so let’s get started.”

“Okay!  Listen up.  These guys want to find out if any of you are worth your salt!” Carrington yelled.  “So those of you that have skills either from the Navy or from before, line up here and tell us about them!”

Just about everyone in the camp lined up.  Some started fighting for positions closer to the front of the line.  Jason looked at them skeptically.

“Okay, one more thing.  We’re going to test you.  And if you fail, I can guarantee you’ll wish you were facing a captain’s mast instead of these guys.  If you don’t have skills, they’ll put you to work on the farms or something, so don’t try to lie to us.  It’s not worth it.”

A few men edged their way back to where they had been sitting before, and a few moved toward the back of the line.  Carrington nodded to Jason.

Jason sat down on his stool, and Carrington sat next to him.  They motioned the first man to come forward and take a seat.  The man walked up to them but didn’t sit down.

“Name?” Carrington asked.

“I’m Ian Cooper.”

“Skill?”

“I’m a cooper,” the man said, obviously proud of his skills.

Jason shook his head and looked at Carrington.

“He makes barrels,” Carrington said.  “Common to have the same last name as your occupation.  Barrel making is an important skill in the navy.”

Jason nodded.  “Okay, make your way over there,” he said, motioning to a group of warriors who were going to help collect the skilled men.

Cooper moved off toward the warriors.  He was almost strutting as he made his way, obviously confident that his skills would be in demand.

Jason nodded to the next man.  He was another who looked like he thought he walked on water.

“Name?”

“Kean Wright.”

“Skill?”

“Shipwright.”

“Okay, head over there,” Jason said.

After a few more shipwrights, another cooper, and two blacksmiths, Jason leaned over to Carrington.  “I think we need to start quizzing them.  There can’t be that many of these.”

“Actually, there are.  I know all the ones who’ve come up so far.  They weren’t assigned to any of the work or fighting units, so they came out last when we left the fort.  They tend to hang together; they don’t really fit in with the regular sailors, and everyone avoids the marines.”

“Okay.  Next!”

Another big guy stepped forward; Jason guessed blacksmith.

“Name?”

“Jack Smithy.”

“Skill?”

“Blacksmith, but I’m much more than that.  I’m a smelterman.  If’n you’re going to melt those cannons down to make stuff, then I’m the man that can do it for you.  And if’n you’re going to do that, you’ll need a good man to run your furnace.  Tommy over there is the best there is.”  The man pointed to a young guy sitting outside of the circle.  “He’s not too bright, but he can make a furnace hotter the hell.  You’ll be wanting to keep him around.”

Jason looked at Carrington, who shrugged his shoulders.  “Not something we did on the ships, but he is a good blacksmith’s assistant.”

“Tommy, go with Smithy here,” Jason yelled.

The young man looked up, and Smithy waved him over.  The kid jumped up and ran over and they headed down to the holding area.

◆ ◆ ◆

They continued to work through the various firepits where the prisoners were being held.  They were a mess; Jason hoped that Baxter would come through and they could move most of the men inside the fort.  It would be easier to guard them, and they could let them do most of the work to take care of themselves.  Right now, the women were being run ragged, keeping up with them.

“Hello, Lieutenant Carrington,” a young man called out as they entered their sixth camp.  He was really just a boy.

“Hey, Rondo.  How are you doing?”

“I’m okay.  Bored, and . . .”  Rondo looked over his shoulder at the marines in the camp.

“They being hard on you?” Carrington asked.

Rondo shrugged his shoulders.  “They’re always kind of mean.”

“Hey, Jason, Rondo is our stable lad.  He’s really good with the horses.  He can trim their feet, keep them groomed, and knows right away if one is sick.”

“Oh, we need someone to watch the horses.  We don’t have any here, so nobody really knows what to do with them.”

Rondo gasped at Jason's pronouncement.  “Please?” he asked, looking at Lieutenant Carrington.

“You won’t find a better lad.  And all he really cares about is the horses, so you can trust him.”

Jason waved one of the warriors over.

“This is Rondo, we need him to take care of the horses.  Take him and grab one of the old men as an interpreter.  Do whatever he asks.  If you’re not sure, send someone to get me or Miranda,” Jason told him.

The warrior nodded and took Rondo by the arm, gently leading him away.

“That’s good.  Poor boy doesn’t fit in too well.  He usually sleeps with the horses.  They kind of protect him.  He sleeps in their stalls, and nobody will dare to go in there and bother the boy.”

“I’m glad.  And I’m sure the warriors we have taking care of the horses will be happy to have someone who knows what to do.”

By the end of the day, they’d gleaned eight blacksmiths, four gunsmiths, six shipwrights, five carpenters, eight sailmakers, three navigators, four masons, and one doctor.  There were quite a few men claiming to be farmers, and since that’s what most of the unskilled men would be doing, Jason separated them into another group.  They could help teach the others what to do.

◆ ◆ ◆

By evening, Baxter had lived up to his promise; the fort was repaired.  The smaller section to the north now had a complete wall around it with a single gate to enter it.  The cannons had all been tipped over to the outside edge of the wall and into the moat.

By dark, they had most of the prisoners moved into the fort.  They’d allowed them to scour the other section of the fort for their tents, blankets, and other non-combat gear.  The cooks were already scraping together a meal for the men.  The Wakipee had given them some fresh meat and grains to supplement the salted beef and gruel that they had scrounged from the fort.

With most of the prisoners now in the fort, most of the warriors prepared to head back to their villages.  They would spend this night in a final celebration of their victory, then head home in the morning.

“I will go home tomorrow,” Hototo told Jason.  “Will you stay?”

“Yes.  I told Amaru I would work with him to get the skills identified and start training.  I think we’ll try and get a smelter and a forge set up so that we can melt the cannons down.”

“What will you make first?” Hototo asked.

Jason laughed.  “It’s kind of funny, but I think we’ll make some saws and stuff so that we can start cutting lumber.  Amaru wants to get the ships repaired and maybe build some more.  Plus, I think you guys will like being able to build houses with lumber.  They’ll be stronger, less drafty.  Amaru wants to rebuild the villages and get his people back to normal before winter.”

“Good.  We’ll keep in contact.  I’ll come visit once we get things settled at home.  Mina will miss you.”

“I’ll miss her too.”

◆ ◆ ◆

The next day, a work party was organized to gather all the cannons in the same area.  There were actually four pairs of horses that were trained to pull the cannons, so the job wasn’t as difficult as Jason had feared it would be.  Lieutenant Carrington organized the work party while Jason spent the morning with one of the carpenters.  They discussed what it would take to set up a sawmill.  Scrawyer was an old man, but he’d been around sawmills and carpentry his whole life.  He was working in a shipyard when Captain Vestry recruited him for this trip.  Vestry had assumed that he might need to rebuild a few of his ships, so he’d made sure he had the right men with him to do that.

“Now, this here’s what we need,” Scrawyer told Jason as he drew up the basics of a sawmill.  It featured a set of rollers to move the log and a vertical saw run by something he just labeled ‘Power.’

“What are you thinking here?” Jason asked.

“Don’t know, a water wheel or maybe just a horse on a ramp.”

“I think we can rig up a water wheel,” Jason said.

Scrawyer looked at the swale that was still damp from the rush of water.  “I guess you can.  A little less water this time.”

Jason chuckled.  “Sure.  But this would be a good spot.  We could bring logs along the river or from up the coast.”

Scrawyer just nodded his head.

“Now, explain this saw?” Jason asked.

“It’s a whipsaw; when I was a boy, they’d have two men run it.  One on top and one under.  That was up in the hills.  They had waterwheels way before then, but we didn’t in our village.”

“Have you ever seen a sawblade like this?” Jason asked as he drew a circular sawblade.

“What is that?”

“A circular blade.  It goes . . . in a circle, just like the water wheel.  Geared up for speed, of course, but you can spin it real fast.”

Scrawyer stuck his bottom lip out, then sucked it back in between his teeth.  “I guess that would work if’n you get one of the blacksmiths to make one.  Don’t think I’ve ever heard of one like that.”

“Do you have whipsaws in the fort?”

“No, but there should be a few on the ships.  We could start with those.  If you ever get one of them circular ones made, we can retrofit it in.”

“Okay.  Let’s get a team started on what you need.” Jason pointed to a location closer to the river where he wanted to site the sawmill.  “We should also go ahead and get some men chopping down the kind of trees we want.”

“Right.  Have one of those warriors take me into the forest, and I’ll figure out which are the best trees.”

“Okay,” Jason said, pleased to see how the skilled men seemed just happy to have a purpose.  None of them seemed to be resentful over their defeat, unlike the marines, who had gotten into several fights during the night and were looking like they’d be everyone’s last choice for a work crew.

◆ ◆ ◆

Next, Jason met with Smithy and Tommy to plan how to set up the forge.  He wanted to get them moving on the process right away.  The survey from Zephyr said that there was a small deposit of iron just over the hills.  It would allow them to continue to feed the smelter once they had run out of cannons.  There was a seam of coal in the mountains that would be easy to mine and would provide the coal needed to run the plant.  Maybe one day, they would be able to shift to electric fired plants.

The stone mason had told him that he knew how to make concrete, and Jason was wondering if he should introduce the idea of rebar to the Wakipee yet, but that might be moving a bit fast.  He’d at least wait until they had figured out how to use concrete first.

“Wow,” Jason thought.  Finally, he knew some things, or Zephyr had data on things that would be of use to the Wakipee.  It had driven him nuts to find out that they didn’t really need or want any of his advanced knowledge.

◆ ◆ ◆

Miranda was watching as the seamen worked the ropes to get the ship righted.  They’d dug out the sand next to it during low tide.  Now at high tide, they would right the ship and pull it further onto the sand.  That would allow them to finally start the repair job.  They’d right one ship a day until they had all three upright and ready to be worked on.  She assumed that based on the input from the shipwright, that this location close to the mouth of the river would be an ideal spot for the shipyard.  There were already crews of men clearing the surrounding forest to make room.

“These ships were lucky,” Barney, the shipwright, said.  “They breached as soon as they lost their anchors, so the fire didn’t make its way to the chain locker.  That’s what did those on the ocean side of the fort in.  The fire burned right up the anchor rope and got into the chain locker.  No one knew about it until too late.”

“We didn’t expect that to happen,” Miranda said.  “We just thought they would beach themselves.”

“Well, they all did that, given you timed it for when the tide was coming in.  Pretty smart of you.  But those out on the ocean took a lot longer to drift to shore.  And with fire all around the gundeck, nobody saw the other fire until it’d opened up the prow of the ship.”

“I saw that,” Miranda said.  “You said you could still fix them.”

“Yeah, we can rebuild them into shorter ships.  It’ll be a lot of work, but not as much as building a new ship.  They’ll make very fine corvettes, or good fishing boats if you like.”

“That’s what we are hoping.  Now how about this one?”

“Well, you got some major damage here where the cannon went off and broke through the other side, but we can fix that up.  The deck needs replacing in a few places, and you managed to burn two holes in the side of the ship.  That’ll take some work, but we can get this one ready to go in a couple of months.  That is, if we can get the lumber we need.”

“Jason tells me they’ll have a mill up and running in a few weeks.  It’ll be slow at first, with everything done by hand, but we’ll get the lumber we need.  You can see they’re cutting down trees all around us.”

“They are, but we need the right trees.  Most of them I seen are just soft wood.  That won’t do for shipbuilding.”

“I think Jason said that he’d have one of the carpenters check out what kind of trees there are and where.  He’ll get some men cutting the kind of trees we need.”

“You’re lucky we didn’t lose any masts.  Them’s hard to replace.  You need real old trees, and big ones, for that.”

“You’ll need to help us figure out what trees to use.  We want to be able to build new ships,” Miranda said.

Barney nodded his head.  He was beaming.  Who’d of thought that he would be the head of a shipyard?  His old mates would be jealous if they could see him now.  Never mind who owned it; he never liked the owners of the other ones he worked at. What did he care if the heathens here were the owners?  As long as they took good care of him, he’d be happy.

◆ ◆ ◆

Jason had acquired a lot of credibility with his Greek Fire, which lent credibility to his skills test.  More men and women were taking the test.  The people sent to the other villages to conduct testing were welcomed with open arms.  Everyone was delighted to do anything for Jason or Miranda since Hototo and Amaru had given them a lot of credit for their victory.

Things were finally settling in.  There were eighteen math and physics students, fourteen men and four women.  There were fifty literature students, mostly women.  The literature students were spread out amongst five villages, but the technical people were all at the new village they were building next to the foundries.

“How are your eggheads doing?” Miranda asked as she and Jason settled down for their evening chat.

“They’re doing pretty good.  We’re just starting to play with calculus,” Jason said.  “You know, it should be you teaching these classes; you’re a bigger egghead than me.”

Miranda laughed.  “Maybe, but they’re not ready to have a woman teach them.  I’m fine with my literature classes and running the shipyard.”

“If they let you do that, why not teach a few of these classes?”

“Well, Barney is the figurehead.  I mainly work through him.  Nobody complains about my asking questions, but I give most of the orders through Barney.”

“They have to come to terms with an expanded role for women one day,” Jason said.

“I agree, but I think it should come from one of our students or trainees.  And by then, they’ll be used to seeing more women in various technical and semi-leadership roles.”

“Fine, you’re leading the charge.  I’ll let you do it however you like.”

Miranda gave Jason a stink eye to make sure he understood that he wasn’t letting her do anything.

“It’s been nine months,” Miranda said.  “Do you think it’s time to give up?”

“I thought you’d already given up.  You and Carrington seem to be pretty close.”

Miranda threw a stick at Jason.  “He knows it’s not a real thing yet.  We’re just friends.”

“With benefits,” Jason added as he ducked the inevitable stick coming at him.

“What about you?  Anyone catch your eye?”

“You know it won’t work like that for me.  Anything beyond getting a little extra on my plate would only come with a long-term commitment.”

“Yeah.  I guess you’re stuck until they advance a bit.”

“I think I’m going to be stuck longer than I’m going to be alive.”

“But if we’re going to be stuck here, then you just have to choose someone.”

“You mean let one of the mothers choose someone for me.”

“Same diff.”

Chapter 21

Hello Means Goodbye

Chapter 21            

“Shit,” Jason yelled as his earwig screeched as he and Miranda were walking back to the clan house after their chat.  Miranda was covering her ears as well, although that wasn’t too helpful since the earwigs were inside their ears.  It had been just over a year since they had been stranded.

“Lieutenant Clark, we have detected your distress signal.  A ship will be dispatched to the system within one week.  Expect their arrival at the planet in three weeks.”

“What?!”

“Apparently, we gave up too soon,” Miranda said.  “It looks like Catie has finally found us.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Jason spent the next two weeks documenting as much as he could about the technology and science that would be of use to the Wakipee.  Newton's laws of motion, Ohm's law, the law of gravity, and even Pythagorean’s theorem, although it was already part of the lessons he was teaching.  He even created a copy of the periodic table, although he didn’t really explain anything about it.  One day someone would be curious enough to figure it all out.

◆ ◆ ◆

“We found them!” Catie squealed.

“Ah, I’m so happy,” Morgan said.  “I was starting to worry.”

“I’m going to take the Marco Polo out to get them.  It’ll be a good mission for him.  He’ll get there faster since he can jump so much farther.”

“Umm,  Catie.  Now that you’ve found them . . .”

“Oh, you’re going?”

“Yes.  I’ve been delaying the transfer.  I didn’t want to leave you when you were so distressed.”

Catie came out from behind her desk and gave Morgan a hug.  “I’ll really miss you.”

“You can come visit.  Tracy would really love to see you again.”

“Sure.  Sure.”  Catie wiped a tear off her cheek.  “So, will you head out today?”

“There’s a transport heading to Earth tomorrow.  I’ll grab a spot on it.   Now don’t do anything crazy.  Fiona’s not ready for the full Catie experience yet.”

“I won’t.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Lieutenant Carrington,” Jason called out as he caught up with the lieutenant.

“Jason.  Haven’t seen you in a while.  What can I do for you?”

“Miranda and I have to go home,” Jason said.  He could see Carrington wince just a bit.  He and Miranda had been getting pretty close.  Whenever Miranda was down by the shipyard, they’d get together.

“Oh, for how long?”

“Probably a long time.  She’ll come down tomorrow to see you before we go.”

“That’s nice.  Where’s home?  Maybe I can come see you guys there.”

“It’s a long way north of here,” Jason said.  “But, back to what I wanted to talk about.  You know Miranda and I have been teaching these classes.”

“Yeah, I’ve watched a few.  Math and reading, right?”

“Right, but what you might not know is I’ve also been having people go out to some of the villages farther away to test people.  Looking for those that are especially good at math and science.”

“Oh, interesting.  Why do that?”

“I’m hoping to push the Wakipee into developing better technology.  You know, architecture, navigation, and other sciences.  To do that, they need people who are really smart.”

“I guess so.  So, what happens when you go home?” Carrington asked.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.  I’d like you to keep pushing them along.”

“Hmm, not sure how I could do that.  I was never that good at math.”

“But you don’t have to teach it.  Just make sure they keep pushing the test.  I think you understand what I’m trying to accomplish.  I’ve created the test and the answer sheet.  I’ve also created a bunch of documents that will eventually be of use to them.  I’ve given them to Hototo and Amaru, but they really don’t get it yet.  I think you’d be able to keep pushing it.  Eventually, you’ll come up with some genius that will be able to take it on.”

“I guess.  Do you really think they’ll be able to advance enough to catch up with Causia?”

“I hope so.  With the shipyard and the forge, I think they’ll be able to hold their own when Sinara sends another expedition.”

“I’m not sure.  I’d expect another one to show up next spring.  The year after, at the latest.  Of course, they won’t be any smarter than Vestry, so the Wakipee might be able to send them back home.”

“Right.  But it would be nice if they would just recognize the Wakipee as another nation.  Then they could set up trade and stuff like that.”

“Not sure.  They’re great warriors, but they still look pretty backward.  I think my people will still think they should be in charge.”

“Maybe, but with bigger villages, wood framed buildings or even brick ones, the Wakipee will start to look like another country.”

“Maybe.  Anyway, I can try.  Can’t promise much.  But I’ll stick it out.  I’m starting to like it here.  It’s actually got a lot to offer compared to Sinara.  I never liked the big cities anyway.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Jason, Hototo sent someone to talk to you.”

Jason was shocked.  He didn’t think Hototo was that interested in what they were doing, and when they’d sent a message to the village telling them that they were leaving to go home, nothing had happened.

“Who?”

“One of the Demalia.  He came from one of the northern villages.  He says you’ve made a mistake.”

Jason circled his head and rolled his eyes in a ‘why me’ motion.  He didn’t need someone complaining about what he was trying to do.  Especially now.

“Where is he?”

“He’ll be here in a couple of hours.  Amaru told me you were leaving today, so I ran ahead to catch you before you left.”

“Okay, I’ll wait until he gets here.”

Jason went back to sorting through their stuff.  He was leaving Carrington a few things that might be of help to the Wakipee as they advanced.  He and Miranda were taking the least amount of things they could.  It was going to be a long hike uphill when the canoes dropped them off.

After two hours, a guy finally came running up to him.  He looked exactly like one would expect a Wakipee nerd to look.  His tunic didn’t fit right, his headband was askew, and he had food stains on his tunic as well.

“Ah, I caught you.”

“Yes, you did.  What’s the problem?”

“This equation isn’t correct.”  The man held out one of the hides with equations written on it.

Jason was shocked.  He’d expected the guy to complain about what Jason was trying to do, not to challenge one of the equations he’d given Hototo.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“This should be a gamma symbol here.”  The man pointed to a symbol on the leather that Jason had written the equations on.

“I’m sure it is correct,” Jason said.  He brought his specs down, so he could compare it to the one that Zephyr had given him.

“Lieutenant Clark, he is correct.  You incorrectly copied the equation and wrote a sigma instead of a gamma symbol,” Zephyr informed Jason.

Jason looked at the sheet.  It documented the Callan–Symanzik equation, which he didn’t even understand.  He’d just asked Zephyr to give him the most important math equations and their derivations.  He’d copied them to the leather so the Wakipee would have them to study later.  And this guy had apparently gotten all the way past the first ten equations.

Jason grabbed a parchment and wrote a note for Lieutenant Carrington.  ‘This is your guy, protect him with your life.’

“You are right, it was a mistake; it should be a gamma.  Now go find Lieutenant Carrington.  Show him this note.  He’ll take care of you.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“How long will it take to dig the Hyrax out?” Miranda asked.  They had been in the canoe heading for the lake for a day now.

“I’m already working on it.”

“How?”

“I’m running the engines, shaking the dirt loose.”

“How can you do that?  The intakes are buried.”

“You do remember that the Hyraxes have space engines.”

“So?”

“Space is a vacuum.”

“Ah, yeah, but I still don’t get it.”

“They generally run off of the hydrogen or other molecules stored in their tanks.  They only use the intakes to scoop up hydrogen ions to extend their range.  When we landed, I made sure we had a full tank.  I’m just running the engines for a few minutes every two hours.”

“Why so little?”

“Those accelerated particles create a lot of heat when they impact that sand.  But I’m making progress.  Right now the nose is exposed.  So I think by the time we get there, we just have to do a little digging, but mostly so we can raise the canopy and get in without dumping sand into her.”

“You know you could have told me this a week ago.  I’ve been dreading all that work this whole time.”

“You should have asked.”

Miranda cocked her head and glared at Jason.  He just chuckled.  He kind of liked catching her off guard, surprising her.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Catie!” Jason and Miranda both yelled as they exited their Hyraxes in the flight bay of the starship Catie had arrived in.  It had only taken one day for them to get Miranda’s Hyrax dug out enough so they could climb in and take off.  They’d picked up his broken-down Hyrax right away; Miranda wasn’t interested in spending any more time than necessary in the back of her Hyrax.

“What ship is this?” Jason asked.  When they’d flown to it, he’d noticed that it was smaller than a scout ship by a lot.

“The Marco Polo, it’s my new scout design.  With the new gravity drives, we can make them smaller.  I want to use him to do some exploring.”

Miranda gasped.  “Not now?”

“No, I’m taking you back to Avalon right away.  I still have a couple of places to visit before Daddy lets me play.  But we’ve accepted the Thoreans into the League.”

“Cool.”

“You guys can go to the mess.  I brought a barber along; she can fix your hair up.”

“Oh, you’re a saint,” Miranda said.  She was tired of having to wash her hair in a creek without the aid of shampoo, not to mention conditioner.  And it was far too long for her liking.  She hugged Catie and headed right to the mess.

◆ ◆ ◆

It took three weeks to reach Avalon, during which time Catie pumped Jason and Miranda for details of their adventure.  But that wasn’t until after both of them spent hours in their cabin, showering, sleeping in a bed, and showering.

Catie had already read Jason’s official report, but now she wanted the real story.  It was fun and involved lots of alcohol and food, so Miranda and Jason were happy to regale her.

“We’re landing in an hour.  Are you guys excited to be home?”

“Yes, it’s been a long time.  I’ve missed my mates,” Jason said.

“Me too.  I can’t wait to get back in the cockpit of a Fox, or a Hyrax, as long as I’m alone.”

Jason just laughed.  They went to their cabins to put on their uniforms.  They would be met by a Delta Forces Admiral when they arrived.  Apparently, the Delphi League was making a big deal out of their rescue.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Ready?”

“Ready.”

The scout was small enough to land inside one of the flight bays on the ring, so they had gravity as they prepared to exit the ship.

Catie gave Jason the honor of leading the way.

They marched down the ramp and came to a halt in front of an Admiral.  There were four Marines flanking him.

“Welcome home, Lieutenant Clark, Lieutenant Cordova.”

“Thank you, sir.  We’re happy to be back.”

“I’m sure you are.  Now, Lieutenant Clark, you are under arrest.  You are charged with violation of executive order 1248, the non-interference law.”

“What?!”

“ADI, what’s going on?”

“I was ordered not to tell you.  The League Council wants to make an example out of Jason.  It’s all around the politics of Avalon having so much power.”

﻿Acknowledgments

It is impossible to say how much I am indebted to my beta readers and copy editors.  Without them, you would not be able to read my books due to all the grammar and spelling errors.  I have always subscribed to Andrew Jackson’s opinion that “It is a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word.”

So special thanks to:

My copy editor Auz B.

My beta reader and editor, Theresa Holmes.

My beta reader and cheerleader, Roger Blanton, who happens to be my brother.

Afterword

Thanks for reading Delphi Embassy!

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