Salene's Secrets (21 page)

“Those are beautiful names.  Do you have a last name?”

Mali looked at her blankly.  “I don’t think so.  Is that bad?”

“No, honey, it’s not bad,” Salene said, smiling.  “I’m just curious is all.”

Mali’s shoulders relaxed a little and they sipped their drinks in silence.  “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” Salene replied.

“What’s going to happen to us now?  To Tab and me, I mean.”

“I’m not sure.  What do you want to have happen?”

“I don’t want us to go back to the silo,” she said.  “I like seeing the sky.”

“You can’t see the sky from the silo?”  Mali shook her head.  “I wouldn’t want to be in a place where I couldn’t see the sky either.  I’m afraid I need to talk with Tonka before we can make any plans or decisions, though.  Why don’t you and Tab lay down and get some sleep while we talk.”

“After you decide, then will you tell me?”

“Of course I will.  Before a final decision is made I’ll want to know what you think, and how you feel first.”

“You will let me help decide?”

“Yes, to a point,” Salene replied.  “I don’t want to do something you don’t like, but if I think something’s best, or safest, for you and Tab, even if you don’t like it, I might have to do it anyway.  But I’ll still want to know what you think, and how you feel.”

“I understand,” Mali replied.  “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Salene said.  “Your little eyes are drooping and Tab’s half asleep already so let’s get the two of you settled in.”  Salene helped Tab off with his shoes while Mali untied the leather thongs on her own.  “I wish I had a way to make this bed soft for you,” she said as she tucked the two of them in, adding one more of the blankets she’d taken from the hut.

“That’s okay,” Mali said sleepily.  “We’re warm and we’re not hungry.”

“And you’re safe,” Salene pointed out.

“Yes, safe too,” Mali agreed.  “Can I ask another question?”

“Certainly.”

“Is that a crown?” she asked, pointing to the circlet on her forehead.

“No, it’s not a crown.”  

“It’s very pretty.”

“You’re prettier,” Salene said, tapping her lightly on the nose as she smiled down at her. 

“I’m pretty?” Mali asked in unfeigned surprise.

“Oh yes, honey, you’re very pretty,” Salene assured her.  “And you’ll be even prettier when you’ve had some sleep.”  She kissed Mali and Tab goodnight which surprised both children, making Salene feel even sadder for them.  Not once in her entire childhood had she or any of her siblings gone to bed without goodnight kisses unless they were away from home.  She decided then and there that neither Mali nor Tab would go without a goodnight kiss again so long as they were with her. 

After tucking the children into bed, Salene returned to her own place and fixed fresh cups of tea for herself and Jinjie.  She sipped her tea while waiting for the children to fall asleep, which didn’t take long at all.  When she was certain they were both out, she turned her attention to Tonka.

“Tonka, will you tell us more about the silo, the Nomen, and the…what did you call them?”

“The Harri?”

“Yes, them.”

“
Certainly
,” he agreed.  “
What would you like to know?”

“I’m familiar with the Nomen, so let’s start with the
Harri
.  What do they look like?”

“They are not as tall as you, most of them would probably reach your shoulder, but none that I’ve seen would reach higher.  They have no fur or what humans call hair.  They have blue skin, something I’d never seen before.”
  He paused.  “
What has upset you?”
  He turned his attention to Jinjie. 
“You are both upset.”

“You’ve just described those we know as the
Doftle
,” Salene said. 

“Yes, that is what they call themselves.”

“Why do you call them
Harri
?”

“It is the name the Brun used for them before we knew their true name.  It means
stone
.  They were called that because biting them is like biting stone.  You have a peculiar set of emotions concerning them.”

“Do I?” she asked faintly, her mind a confusing whirl of thoughts.

“You hate them and fear them in equal measure.  Oberto felt that way about them, too.”
  He looked at Jinjie.  “
You hate them and are wary of them, but you do not fear them.”

“They do be evil, and evil do be best to avoid,” Jinjie said.  “No, me do be not afraid.  Doftle do be take all Jinjie have.  There do be no more to fear.”

“I thought it was the Xanti who destroyed Jotunn,” Salene said.

“Xanti and Doftle do be work together,” Jinjie shrugged.  “Evil do be evil.”

Salene nodded her agreement.  “And you, Tonka?  How do you feel about them?”

“Like Jinjie I hate them, and I am wary of them, but I do not fear them,”
he said. 
“They’ve taken everything from me that has meaning.  What did they do to you, Salene?”

“They kidnapped my sister and tortured her for an entire year,” she said.  “Then they kidnapped me, and…other people who were important to me.  Thanks to my sister, they had me for less than one full day, but they still left a mark upon my life.”

“I understand the pain of having one’s family harmed
,” Tonka said. 

Salene saw the pain in Tonka’s eyes, but that wasn’t a subject she felt comfortable asking about.  If she asked, he might feel obligated to answer, and she didn’t want that.  Whether he shared his story or not was a decision he had to make.  So she asked another question instead.  “How do you know how we feel, Tonka?”

“Scent,”
he replied simply. 
“I’ve lived closely with humans my entire life, and most emotions have their own scent.”

“I should have thought of that,” Salene said.  “Why don’t you tell us what the Doftles do here, and what the silo is?”

“Very well,”
Tonka replied. 
“A few days journey from the foot of this mountain is a large grassy valley.  Hidden deep beneath the valley is a cavern that roughly matches the valley above in circumference.  That cavern is the silo.”

“What’s inside of it?” Salene asked even though, judging from Tonka’s body language, she wasn’t altogether certain she wanted to know.

“Hell,”
Tonka replied. 
“That’s what Oberto called it and once he’d explained the word to me, I had to agree.  There really is no other word for it.”

“If the Doftle created it and are in charge of it, I have no doubt of that at all,” Salene said.  “But I’m afraid we need a bit more detail.”

“Doftles make people, animals, and worst of all, creatures that are combinations of different parts, like the hybrids you saw.  Whatever they want or need they make in their laboratories then put them in tanks to grow and mature.  The silo is filled with their creations, far too many for me to count, all in clear tubes stacked on top of one another nine levels high.”

“Why do be you there?” Jinjie asked.

“I was born there,”
Tonka replied, surprising Salene and Jinjie. 

“This is your home world?” Salene asked.

“
Since I was born here, as all of my pack were born here, I suppose I have to say yes to that,”
Tonka said. 
“But this is not the home world of the Brun.”

“Where is the home world of the Brun?” Salene asked.

“I don’t know,”
Tonka said sadly. 
“I can tell you what I do know, if you are interested in hearing it.”

“We are,” Salene and Jinjie said at the same time.

“What I know of the history of the Brun was taught to me by my father, who was alpha of our pack.  He was taught by his father, and so on, going back seven generations.”

“How long do be Brun live?” Jinjie asked.

“Thirty to forty Standard years.”

“So the Brun have been here about 250 years or more, is that right?”

“Two hundred and sixty four, to be precise.”

“How did the Brun come to be on this world?”

“The Doftle took an entire pack of Brun from their world and brought them here, then did something to them which more than doubled their previous size, and significantly increased their intelligence.  Then they duplicated the pack over and over again in their tanks.”

“Cloned them?” Salene asked.

“Yes, the original pack was cloned,”
Tonka replied
. 

“Do be you cloned?” Jinjie asked.

“No, I was born, as all members of my pack have been since the first cloned pack placed in Silo 56.”

“Was there a reason for cloning the pack and putting them in the silos?” Salene asked.

“The Brun were set as guards over the human and humanoid slaves who are forced to maintain the tubes and machinery in the silos.”

“How many silos are there?”

“I do not know for certain,”
Tonka replied. 
“My father told me that, in the beginning, the Doftles cloned sixty packs, one for each silo that existed at that time.  It has long been suspected that more silos have been built since then, and more cloned packs created, but we didn’t know for sure, and didn’t dare ask.”

“Why not?”

“Because questions concerning other silos were answered with death.”

“Good reason,” she said, not surprised in the least.  “So you know of sixty, but suspect more.  Is that right?”

“Yes,”
Tonka replied.
“Oberto thought there were between one hundred fifty, and two hundred.”

Salene swallowed hard, feeling ill at the thought.  “And each one is filled with these clones?”

“Clones and hybrids, some too monstrous to describe.”

“But…why?” Salene asked.  “What do they do with them?”

“That I cannot tell you,”
Tonka said. 
“This is just where they store their creations.”

“Wait…are you saying that these silos are all
storage
?”

“Yes, that is what they call them.  In fact, their name for this world is Storage Unit 17.”

Salene shuddered.  That there were so many of these silos on this world was bad enough.  The name
Storage Unit 17
implied that there were at least sixteen more such worlds numbered one through sixteen, and there was no telling how many more.

“They do be making army,” Jinjie said.

“Yes, that’s what Oberto thought as well.”

“An army for what, though?” Salene asked, but neither Jinjie nor Tonka had an answer for that.  After a moment she set that problem aside and asked another question.  “Tonka, if the Brun are silo guards, then why were the Nomen after you?”

“The Doftles decided that the Brun were becoming too friendly with the workers.  It is true that we made friends among those we lived with since we saw no reason not to, but we saw to our duties, as did the people, and no rules were ever broken.” 

“What did they do about it?”

“They ordered us to cease speaking with the prisoners, and to treat them as the slaves they were,”
Tonka said.
  “It disturbed us, but we had no choice other than to comply since, in reality, we were no less slaves of the Doftles than the people we watched over.

“How did they know you were friendly with the people?” Salene asked, then her eyes widened as fear raced through her.  “Are there Doftle in the silos?”

“No,”
Tonka replied.
  “Doftles hate being what they call
world bound
, and never step foot on land if they can help it.
 
They prefer to be in their ships so that they can easily move whenever they wish.  That’s why they created the Brun to act as guards in the first place.  They brought in humans and humanoids to keep the machines running, adding more as they needed.  The Brun kept the people from escaping, and a team of Doftles visited once every few weeks to make sure everything was being done as they wished.  In between visits their cameras record everything that happens throughout the entire silo.  It’s been done this way from the time the first packs were set to guard the silos.  Doftles like routine, and tolerate no deviation that they do not initiate themselves.”

“I see,” Salene said.  “I sure would like to know why the Doftles don’t like being on planets.”

“Oberto often said that, as well.  Unfortunately, we never learned the answer to that question.”
 

“What happened after they told you to stop speaking with the people?”

“A few days after that order was given, the Doftles whose task it was to patrol the silos crashed their air transport in an area of this world that is always covered in ice and snow.  There were twenty of them on the transport and they all perished.  This caused enormous upset amongst the Doftles since they very rarely die.  When no Doftles would agree to take their places, there was some confusion as to what would be done.  They needed someone trustworthy to perform the patrols but, since we Brun are incapable of operating their transports, it couldn’t be us.  After many days my father was informed that the Nomen would be taking over the patrols.  The Doftles failed to mention that the Nomen would also be replacing the Brun as guards.”