Chapter 7
MARDOK
Ikeep my features carefully neutral, though inside I am struggling.
I could take Farli away from here. I could tell the others it is for her own good and she deserves a shot at civilization no matter what she thinks.
Better yet, I do not tell the others until we are far away from Kopan VI and then they won’t have a choice about turning around.
I could take her with me and seduce her with kisses and caresses until she never wants to come back here.
Until she’d rather spend her time in my bed than anywhere else.
The thought fills me with intense hunger. I’ve never wanted anything as badly as I want Farli. And even though it’s wrong to think about it, I don’t care. I’m not a nice guy. Never have been, never will be. And the thought of keeping Farli—whether or not she wants to be kept—is a tempting one.
I keep that to myself, though. She thinks she is safe here. That she cannot possibly leave this planet because of her symbiont, but I know that our med bay technology can remove it as easily as it can stitch a wound shut.
Plenty of time to convince her to go with me still.
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea.
Traveling wouldn’t be so lonely if I had someone like Farli with me.
Someone to make me smile, to share my thoughts with, to watch light up in wonder at the sight of a ringed planet or passing by an asteroid belt that glitters with distant sunlight.
I could get a freighter of my own, maybe, and she could help me crew it.
Most of all, it’d be someone at my side.
Someone who also mouth-kisses like a vid actress and snuggles up against me as if I’m the thing she’s wanted most in this world.
She is talking happily to her chief, and I assess the men standing before me.
To a one, they look fierce and untamed. Scary keffers, that’s for sure.
They are dressed in loincloths, and a few wear vests strapped with knives of varying sizes.
No one has capped horns, and a few of them are scarred up.
To a one, they are bulky with muscle and look as if they could tear the much leaner (but taller) Trakan to bits without a second thought.
I’m glad I’ve kept in shape since leaving the military, because I could stand toe to toe with these beasts if I had to.
But it’s a little intimidating to see how fierce they are.
Farli turns back to me as the others put their weapons away or relax. “Bring your people. We will have a celebration and you can meet everyone.” Her smile is brilliant.
I nod. “I’ll let the captain know. He should meet the chief, offer his greetings.”
The intimidating one that has to be the chief nods, crossing his arms over his nearly bare chest. His eyes don’t seem to have the same glowing warmth that Farli’s do.
Instead, they carry a warning. He might be welcoming us, but he is still uncertain of whether or not we can be trusted. I don’t blame him.
I turn and head back to where Trakan, Niri and Chatav are waiting. They look cautious, but Chatav steps forward to meet me.
“I’m not even going to rebuke you on disobeying orders,” he says to me. “Just tell me if they’re willing to meet.”
“They are.”
“And the one in front is the chief?” He eyes the big one over my shoulder. “Do you know if they have a particular greeting that would not be offensive?”
I think for a moment, and my ears flush with heat as I remember how Farli greeted me—with her mouth. “I, ah, think you should just introduce yourself.”
Our two parties meet, and even though things are a little awkward, soon enough we are all heading down into the gorge to check out the village.
After Farli’s story of living in a cave, and given that these people are carrying spears and are dressed in skins, I expect something a lot more primitive than the tiny cluster of houses and the cobblestone streets.
Each dwelling is topped with a tented set of skins complete with a smoke-hole, and the walls themselves are tightly bricked.
There has to be several dozen of the small houses, and one large meeting house at the far end of the village.
“You built this all yourselves?” I ask Farli, surprised. “It must have been a lot of work.”
“We found it,” her hovering, protective brother tells me. It is the one with one horn, and he likes to walk between myself and Farli every now and then, as if he can push us apart. Farli shoves him aside and takes my arm to put a stop to that.
“Go away, Pashov,” she tells him in a cheery voice. To me, she says, “The houses were here when we came, but the people were long gone. We just put tops on them and moved in.”
I glance over at Niri, but she shrugs. “Two civilizations here seems strange to me, but I’m guessing whoever did the initial survey here didn’t do a very good job if they missed this.”
We’re led to the large meeting house, and I’m surprised at the wealth of greenery in here.
I’m not expecting to see rows of small trees in baskets, their branches ripe with fruit.
They line the walls of the lodge and the edge of the bright blue pool of water.
Off to one side, there’s a large, stone-encircled fire, and several women with small children sit around it.
One tiny woman with a strange pale face and curly hair approaches the chief, and I realize this must be one of the humans that Farli mentioned that were stranded here, aliens from another primitive planet.
Gods, they are ugly. Their features are small and soft-looking, and their skin is a terrible pasty color.
They look fragile and strange, their heads seeming shrunken without horns on them.
I look at them and wonder how these males can be so happy with the odd creatures, but as the hunters move to the women and pick up babies, I realize that there are more of the strange-looking females than mesakkah females.
And I see that a few of the warriors in the back of the group are looking at me with unbridled jealousy. Have I stolen Farli away from them? Good, I think uncharitably. She’s mine. I shouldn’t feel so possessive, but I can’t help it. I pull her a little closer to me.
Vektal, the chief, brings his human forward to meet us. “This is my mate, Georgie.” He touches the cheek of the pale child in her arms. “My younger daughter, Vekka.”
Georgie smiles at us, displaying strangely shaped teeth. “Pleased to meet all of you. Are you from the sakh homeworld or another planet?”
I am surprised at how quickly the human understands something as baffling to Farli as space travel. “Do your people have interplanetary travel, then?”
“Not quite yet. We’ve made it into space but not much farther than that.
Humanity—the people on planet Earth, where we come from—is just now branching out in that direction.
” Her expression looks hesitant, and she holds the child in her arms a little closer.
“You…you haven’t seen people like me before, then? ”
“Earth is a D-class planet, I am afraid,” Captain Chatav says. “It is off limits until technology has reached acceptable levels.”
She nods slowly. “Ah. Well, I don’t know if that’s good or bad.
Good, because I would hate to think there are a million humans out there being stolen, but bad because clearly someone’s stealing them.
” She grimaces. “I’m sorry, here I am going on and on about me.
We just have so many questions and we can’t get answers now that the Elders’ Ship is toast.”
“Elders’ Ship?” Niri asks. “There’s another ship here?”
“Salvage,” Trakan murmurs in Mesakkah, rubbing his hands together.
Georgie nods. “Come sit by the fire. We’re preparing food, though I admit it’s not much.
We weren’t expecting visitors.” She hands her child off to another human female, one who has several children around her.
They all watch me with wary eyes. “And yes,” Georgie says again.
“The original ship that brought the sa-khui here to this place is still around, but it was damaged badly in the big earthquake several years ago.”
The four of us are seated on hide-covered stools made of what look like long animal bones instead of wood.
The fire is stoked, and it’s warm enough in the meeting house that I can unzip my insulated suit without feeling as if I’m going to freeze.
Niri sits next to me and leans in. “There are a lot of cross-breed children here. I didn’t think the two species were compatible seeing as they’re from completely different planets. ”
I shrug. “They seem happy.” I see one great-horned savage lean down and press a kiss to the forehead of his dainty human wife, then he takes their child in his arms and swings it around.
The child’s laughter fills the air. Everywhere I look, these people are happy.
It’s strange. It doesn’t matter that the planet is bitterly cold and barren and that they’re living in a canyon and wearing furs.
Everyone’s so damned happy. It’s almost as if they enjoy this primitive lifestyle.
Niri is right, though—there are a lot of small children, most of them with the delicate features or lighter coloring that indicate a human mother.
Each time I look around, I see a woman with either a rounded belly, or a child on her lap.
I wonder how many of the mesakkah females were left before the humans arrived.
Was their small tribe dying out? I think it would be a very different story if they weren’t, because everywhere I turn, the hunters seem to be paired up with humans. Interesting.
One human with a rounded figure and a motherly smile approaches us, a primitive cooking pot in her arms. “I’m going to start the food, but before I do, I should ask if you guys have any allergies.
The sa-khui don’t, but you guys seem a little…
” Her gaze flicks to Niri’s capped horns and my tattoos. “…different. Do you eat raw meat?”
Niri makes a sound of horror.