Merkiaari Wars: 03 - Operation Oracle (24 page)

“Balance is always good, without it there can be no harmony.”

“Don’t start that,” Kate said crossly. “Religion isn’t my thing.”

Shima cocked her head and flicked her ears, but Kate didn’t understand the gesture. It meant she wanted more information.

“I know the word, Kate, but this isn’t about religion. Harmony is not a religion; it’s a way of life. Shan do not believe in a deity or a maker of all things, as I understand some Humans do. My people put no stock in it.”

“But how can you not? You’re always talking about the harmonies.”

“The harmonies are not what you seem to think, Kate,” Shima said. It had always made her sad that Humans could not sense the harmonies. What a horror, to live life oblivious that way. “The harmonies are created by life itself, all life, not a single entity that you might wish to call God. Take me into space and leave me alone up there, and I would be cut off from the harmonies. If you were right, there would be nowhere in the universe that I could not sense them.”

Kate nodded slowly. “I think I see. The trip here must have been horrible for you.”

“At first, yes, but not the way you think. I wasn’t alone and the harmonies were with me, but I couldn’t see, Kate. Back home I spent all my time in the garden because I could use the harmonies to see, at least in a crude way. Aboard ship I was slowly going mad until Stone gave me the simulator helmet.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

Shima flicked her ears acknowledging the sympathy. “I’m not sorry... well, not now anyway. It was a torment, but it was a price worth paying for my new eyes.”

Kate nodded thoughtfully.

The flight lasted about three segs or hours, Shima judged. She didn’t know how far Gina had roamed from her drop off point, except that she had stayed within the general vicinity bounded by the mountains and that of the valley she was exploring. Shima had studied the maps, but Kate had switched on a display in the seatback in front of them to show her the land they flew over. The area was lush and beautiful, the mountains high and snow capped. Shima wondered about the weather and found herself hoping it was not too harsh. A colony here would be a fine thing; at least it would be based upon her scant knowledge.

The valley was heavily forested with gorges and rivers connecting it to the mountains, and was joined by other valleys to the west. Farther south, it widened and formed into a lake before narrowing again. The fast moving water of the river had cut a deep canyon at the southern tip, and would take Shima weeks to navigate should she try. Glaciation in the far past had created the landscape, and it had done a wonderful job. Shima approved, as did all the creatures that called it home she assumed. The entire area must be teeming with life. She could hardly wait to get down there.

“Are the other worlds of the Alliance like this?”

Kate shrugged. “Some are, but others are so different you wouldn’t believe it. Desert worlds, jungle worlds, and even water worlds where nine tenths of the planet is ocean. Then there are planets like Garnet that have crystal forests and metal mountains, and hardly any breathable air. I’ve not been to all of the Alliance worlds, but almost anything you can imagine is out there somewhere, Shima, and don’t forget there are a lot of planets that haven’t joined the Alliance. You can’t be surprised surely. The Shan homeworld is different to Child of Harmony after all.”

“Oh...” Shima dragged her eyes away from the screen to look at Kate. “Yes, you’re right, but Child of Harmony’s differences are quite subtle. The sun in the sky is the same sun, though it looks bigger, and the gravity is different. A tree is a tree, grass is grass there. Different species and varieties, absolutely, but obviously still trees and grass. Here though, the sun itself is a different colour, and the light makes everything look so alien.”

Kate looked at the screen. “I’m trying to see it the way you do, Shima, but I’ve seen so many worlds that they blend together. Snakeholme’s star is main sequence, what we call F-type. It’s hotter than Sol and plants absorb its light differently. I look down there and I still see trees no matter these are orange not green. A tree is a tree. They stick up high out of the ground, taller than a bush, have a trunk and bark... that’s what a tree is to me. It doesn’t matter how weirdly shaped the leaves are, or what colour they turn in winter. It’s a tree!”

Shima laughed and indicated herself and Kate. “And we are people, no matter our shape?”

“Exactly, and no matter our colour,” Kate waved vaguely in Stone’s direction. “Or whether we have fur or not. I guess it’s a mindset. You may not know this, but the people living on Bethany, my homeworld, do not think like me at all. I’m sorry to say, you would not find a welcome there and neither would I now.”

That was interesting. “They don’t like vipers?”

“They don’t like anything different to themselves. When your people send someone to join the Council, I guarantee she will have no welcome from Bethany’s councillor.”

Shima flicked her ears in acknowledgment and nodded in thought. She would ask Varya to add this information to his report. The elders may already have heard, but in case they hadn’t it wouldn’t hurt to tell them. Not that they would be surprised. There were plenty of Shan wary of Humans just because they were alien. Why shouldn’t Humans be wary of Shan in the same manner?

“One minute to drop point,” Stone said over the cabin intercom.

Kate stood and hurried forward to the cockpit, but was back very quickly to open the hatch. She had to by-pass the safety interlocks to open it while in flight. Depressurisation wasn’t a concern at such a low altitude.

Kate waved Shima over to the hatch as the shuttle hovered. “
I’m not extending the ramp!
” she shouted over the engine noise.

Shima nodded exaggeratedly. She held hard to the opening and leaned out to look down. Stone was holding the shuttle steady just a few tails or metres above the treetops. She could easily climb down... hmmm. What need for a rope then? She turned to find Kate watching her with the rope still coiled. Kate cocked an eyebrow in one of those strange Human face-screwing gestures. This one was a challenge, Shima thought, and laughed.

“
I won’t need that at this range. The trees will be my road!
”

“
You sure?
”

Shima nodded and dropped to all fours. She moved into the hatchway but sideways so that a shuffle to her right would have her falling directly down onto the closest tree. It might look dangerous to Kate, but it wasn’t really. She could jump twice this distance and catch another tree branch if she had to. Dropping straight down like this, she couldn’t miss.

“
See you back at the base!
” Shima yelled over the noise and stepped sideways into empty air.

Shima fell away from the shuttle and immediately spread all four legs wide as if pouncing upon prey with claws extended. The drop was short and she grabbed the tree at its highest point. It was thin and flexible, but tough, and it held her weight beautifully. It did bend outward, but that was actually helpful. It let her see her next target easier.

Shima looked up to find Kate hanging out of the shuttle yelling at her. Shima waved, but Kate pointed exaggeratedly southward. Shima looked that way and then back, but understood just a moment later. Gina and the others were south of her. Shima nodded and waved again. Kate waved back and disappeared inside. The hatch closed and the shuttle veered away climbing for altitude.

Shima found her target branch on the next tree and leapt. It was like old times, moving this way. She didn’t always hunt from above, but she did it often enough to be practiced at it. The foliage was a burnt orange colour, and her pelt would not blend well here, but the difference did not affect locomotion. She moved from tree to tree easily; they were close together but the canopy wasn’t too thick. She had the choice to stay aloft or take to earth again. She decided to go down and try for Gina’s scent.

Shima leapt down and circled with her nose close to the ground. Moving that way was slow, but she didn’t rush. The circles grew in diameter until finally she gave up. Either they had come through here too long ago for scents to linger, or she hadn’t crossed their trail yet. She switched her attention from scent to sight and began looking for tracks. There were many, but they didn’t belong to Humans or Shan. The tracks belonged to native wildlife. Shima took an interest and studied the tracks, taking the time to memorise the scents associated with each of the different types. She dragged air in over her tongue and the scent glands at the back of her throat, but kept the
scree scree
noise low and quiet as she could. She didn’t allow herself to forget that she was in unfamiliar and wild country.

Shima decided to cut directly west. It was an arbitrary decision. East would work just as well. She needed to cut Gina’s trail before she could actively hunt for her friends.

Shima used the harmonies and moved on all fours quickly west. She could cover a lot of ground without fearing attack that way. The harmonies allowed her to sense the alien beasts that called the forest home, and there were many of them.

Segs passed with Shima choosing to avoid contact with the wildlife. She wished she could investigate the intriguing tracks that she discovered; she would wager her best knife that the animals that made them would taste wonderful. Their scent alone made her belly grumble and her mouth water... very undignified, drooling like that. She decided that if she didn’t find sign of Gina soon, she would hunt one of the beasts and see how good it tasted before camping for the night.

The day passed and Shima found no sign of Gina and the others. It looked as if she had chosen wrong. Should have gone east. Oh well, it wasn’t the end of the world and she was having fun using old skills on new terrain. It occurred to her that her people might soon explore other alien worlds like this. What fun! It could even happen in her lifetime. Oh how she hoped it would be so. There might one day be ships like the heroic
Canada
, but built and crewed by Shan surveying new worlds and helping to rebuild the Great Harmony among the stars. That was a wonderful dream.

The thought brought her up short, and she stopped where she was thinking furiously. Surveying and studying new worlds... ships like that would need scientists, and she
was
one. She shivered feeling a strange excitement that ruffled her fur all the way down her spine to the tip of her tail. She shook herself to settle her pelt back into order. Dreams like that were far from reality. It would take many orbits of recovery before her people would be ready to venture out among the stars. They needed to make the home system secure against the Merki first. They mustn’t rely upon the Humans for that. Shan had to be self-sufficient. Allies could be allowed to help, not do the job for them. The realisation that she would likely be long dead of old age before her dream became reality saddened her. Shan life spans were too short, she thought sadly.

Shima shook off her sudden bad mood, and looked about herself. Trees trees and more trees... and a puddle. She padded toward the puddle and sniffed the water. Fresh, and not a puddle, more like a pond. Too small to be a real lake, but deep enough that the water table had filled the depression. The harmonies revealed no fish, but a small lap of her tongue at the surface confirmed it was clean and cold. She emptied the by now stale water from her bottle, refilled it, and replaced it upon her harness. She quenched her thirst directly from the pond itself.

She took a deep satisfied breath. This was a good place, a safe water supply and it was removed a short distance from the more obvious game trails. It would make a good campsite. And that’s what it would be, she decided. It was time to see how good those intriguing natives tasted, but first she would gather wood for a fire.

Shima quickly gathered dead wood from nearby and piled it close by for convenience. She cleared a wide area of leaves and revealed the bare dirt beneath. She would keep an eye out for stones to make a proper fire pit while hunting; there didn’t seem to be any here. It didn’t matter. If she had to, she would dig down a little and use the excavated sod to ring the pit.

Satisfied for now, Shima took to the trees to begin her hunt.

The harmonies sent her northeast toward prey. It wasn’t cheating, she assured herself. She wouldn’t use the harmonies to hunt, but she did need a starting direction. Now that she had one, she would hunt as her father had taught her, using her wit and her senses.

She used the trees to stay high and downwind of the creatures she found by scent a while later, and spied a family group of something she had no name for. The grunting growling noise they made as they squabbled among themselves was completely unfamiliar to her as was their form. They were low to the ground four legged tusked creatures. The tusks could have been simple fangs growing as they did from the lower jaw, but these were oversized and curled. Definitely tusks, not teeth.

The creatures had muscled forequarters, but were slimmer at the rear. They had short tails, whip thin and useless seeming. She doubted they used them for defence. Might be used to defend their anus from insects, she mused, but useless for anything else. Their hides were dark brown, close to black, and looked tough. She might have a problem hooking her claws through that hide, but she was looking forward to trying. They were covered in short bristly hair over their backs and sides, not proper fur, and seemed bald underneath where the hide looked paler. She didn’t like the look of their hooves. They looked dangerous, nasty enough to open her belly she was sure. Sharp hooves but not clawed, no spurs, but she had a feeling these things used those hooves for rooting about in the dirt like a Shkai’lon. Shkai’lon were rage filled menaces; these... call them tuskers she decided, might have a similar niche on this world. She drew a breath to sample the scent.