The Book of Ominiue: Starborn (6 page)

‘We would like you to know that we will remain here for the night, to give you and Madan’rah’s party a rest.’ They waited for Shayne to reply, but he maintained his usual silence when understanding something and not given a direct question in return. Pan’arden waited politely before continuing. ‘I am afraid that we only have Fa’Orian breed horses present in this village, and that they are not very well suited to Ta’Orian’s, even if your companions are taller than the Ta’Orian’s of our world.’

‘If they are rideable then we will manage.’

‘They are rideable, you will easily maintain a horse’s walking pace upon them, but they are far from comfortable and we will be riding faster than that. We will exchange before we reach Kérith-Árim,’

Shayne instantly picked up on the statement. ‘Is not Taríth our destination?’ His eyes narrowed and though his question was spoken softly a dark malice befell him. Both Pan’arden and Kíe shifted awkwardly.

‘I am sorry to say, no. The Journeyman and Madan’rah told me of your purpose. To obtain what you want, you need the permission from the UeVarda at the capital, Karmoníth.’

‘I do not understand. Are we not in Bohaníde?’

‘That we are, but these matters concern not only Bohaníde, but all of Dífrun. For that you must seek an audience with the UeVarda, the ruler of Kérith-Árim.’

‘The ruler of Kérith-Árim is the high Varda and any concern that may affect other nations must be brought to him. He is the one that you must seek,’ Kíe explained.

‘Also,’ added Madan’rah, ‘you have settled in Wayel-Éaa, it is forbidden to enter the forest. Only the Afradian may go beyond the borders.’ Shayne had overheard the Bohaníde warriors talk about this much while they were escorting them to their nation; he knew it posed a problem that must be addressed and would likely incur re-settlement. This scenario was accounted for when they first learnt of the importance of the region.

‘Madan’rah is right,’ replied Pan’arden, her brow creased in thought. ‘It is the law of the Markeeian and must be obeyed. You will have to resettle. Only the UeVarda has the authority to allow that, from there you can bargain with the lords of the nations you wish to deal with.’

‘But we require resources and materials, which the forest has in abundance. It is the one spot which holds all that we need,’ Shayne coldly reasoned.

‘You will have to find it somewhere else,’ Pan’arden firmly said.

‘Surely it can be found elsewhere?’ Kíe inquired.

‘It can,’ Shayne admitted, ‘but nowhere else are all the materials found in the same location, or in required quantities. If this is your final judgement then we might require more than one space of land, to fulfil our needs.’

‘That is a situation that you must first discuss with the UeVarda. Only he can answer your questions. First you must go through him to obtain permission. This is the law and must always be adhered to.’

‘I understand.’

‘Good,’ replied Pan’arden smiling. She then called for a subordinate to organise the food.

Shayne walked out of the building leaving the lionmen to discuss the adventure without him. He did not like listening to people repeat themselves, so he made his way to the town centre. The village was not a particularly attractive place. Being a farming community it only had basic and essential structures, but everything was well built with the added care of simple masonry artistry. What the town lacked in beauty, it made up for with the panorama of the Wayel-Éaa Mountains.

A large carved stone monument stood proud in the village centre, commemorating an ancient war. The central square also served as a resting place with seating arrangements that faced outwards. The Earthmen would learn that this was a common arrangement in the remote villages, with the larger towns and cities exhibiting more unique places of remembrance. looking out from the old stone benches one could see battered wooden gates of the palisade only a hundred or so metres out. The defences were not very practical, but walls of some kind were required by an ancient law. Their long peace meant these walls long ceased being about keeping invaders at bay, instead they were only suitable for deterring wild animals.

As Shayne ventured into the central part of the town he noted the Earthmen scattered around, resting their weary bodies anywhere they could sit and relax, some already seemingly asleep with their hats draped over their faces to shade their eyes from the sun’s harsh glare. A few native guards also stood amongst them, making sure the few curious civilians did not cause trouble, as well as keeping an eye on the foreign humans.

Corporal Bianchi had setup the communications equipment so that the Brigadier could talk with General Thorn Hendingson, relaying from the
Oxford
colonyship to the settlement. The image was only two dimensional but the picture was perfect. The general’s New American accent rang through hard and clear.

Shayne waited patiently for the conference to end. The General would need to know about the development, but the Hendingson’s temper was legendary, so to temporarily save the Brigadier from his wrath and possibly allow him time to prepare for the inevitable he decided to wait.

Shayne went to one of the seats and waited there, the conference could potentially take hours. The hard stone seats were surprisingly comfortable; he let himself enjoy the moments rest, allowing his aching body to return back to a normal state. Omar was lying a few metres away from him in a shadow provided by the monument, his hat tipped to hide his eyes. Dominic walked over after the link-up was complete. He tried to kick the resting soldier, who reached out with sharp reflexes and grabbed his leg making him stumble. Dominic took a few steps to regain his balance while laughing. Shayne was fascinated with them and often watched them as they fooled around. They were always making trouble or talking about things in life that interested them. Best of all they acted as if Shayne did not exist, even those who tried to ignore him tended to be intimidated by his presence, becoming awkward or silent while he was near.

After recovering from the stunt, Dominic came and sat down on a step near his friend. Omar resigned to his friend’s company and pulled himself up into a slouched position, propped up by one arm, where he looked across at the mountains. Omar cracked open a tin of canned fruit, and leaned back, eating while he joined Dominic in admiring the view, ‘Would you look at that? The trip was worth that view in itself, it’s a beauty.’

‘Would be, considering this is the only world you’ve visited, other than Mars and Earth,’ Dominic replied, but he too smiled as he looked out at the peaks. He then flung his free arm in a dramatic gesture, his voice tone increasing in false pose, ‘The splendour of skyscrapers as far as the eye can see.’

‘Very funny, not all of us are as fortunate as you and the Bianchi dynasty, and all the riches you left behind.’

‘Key words my friend, “
left behind
.” Was my family so rich that I had to come here?’ Dominic laughed. He did leave a comfortable fortune behind, but he hoped to earn his own and with his own hard work; ignoring the fact he gained his first colonisation contract because of his family and the not-so-legal exchange of money to the selection board. ‘I’ve only seen three other star systems. You should ask my old man about pretty views, not me.’

‘That’s two more than most of us, and I doubt he’s still alive,’ Omar commented, thinking about the 45-year journey they took, which only seemed a few months to those who were in suspended animation. ‘I really want to visit Alpha Centauri, the pictures I’ve seen, it looks awesome,’ Omar said while spooning food into his mouth.

‘Awesome? My nonno used to say awesome,’ Dominic mocked as he reached out and snatched the last of Omar’s canned fruit. ‘After this you’ll be able to. You’ll finally have the money to take outer world holidays.’ Omar’s mouth betrayed a half-smile. Dominic then pointed his spoon at Omar, ‘but you should spend some time enjoying this world, it might not have the same appeal as Centauri’s binary system, but there’s so much to offer here in relation to civilisation and culture. Alpha Centauri doesn’t have that.’

‘Of course I know that,’ Omar said annoyed and amused that Dominic was acting rational instead of causing trouble for once. ‘I was just saying I want to see other places, for many different reasons, — and besides, you’re the one who’s always complaining that we should
fly
instead of walk!’

‘Hey, I just think we should be using our ships, they’re just sitting there while my legs hurt from weeks of trekking. Fly in, in all our glory and become gods, screw the directive, we’ve already broken half the rules anyway. Then we can see all this from a very comfy seat up in the sky,’ he ended in friendly sarcasm before they both fell into silence. Omar’s thoughts drifted to the wealth that he would acquire, and what adventures he planned to fund with that wealth. He was pulled from his daydream when he heard the Brigadier shout out Dominic’s name.

Hanniver’s conference had ended and Dominic instinctively rose to return to the equipment under his care. Shayne thought the meeting had ended quicker than expected: The general must have been in a foul mood. He was well known for his shifting temper; one day he would be everyone’s best friend and generous in his praise, the next the mere presence of people would cause a constant state of agitation; on such days, people knew to keep their heads down and mouths shut. Despite the unpredictable temper his men loved him and he somehow managed to inspire the best from his troops.

Shayne was sceptical about the meetings between the two star officers. He thought that the whole process was flawed. A droid’s memory bank was all that was needed. Instead they insist upon reports and conferences to give themselves a sense of importance. The only things Thorn Hendingson wanted were reports of their mission’s progress. With the androids and plethora of technology they were lugging around it was possible to maintain a constant stream of real time data relayed to the spaceships. Shayne did not understand why they only maintained occasional contact when the robots were recording all interactions, part of him suspected it was distrust of the Astronauts, they did not want to send live streams of data through them and they did not trust the satellites provided, the other half was justifying the existence of paid personal. In a world built on machines the place for humanity in the workforce has become increasingly small.

Shayne was glad he did not interrupt the meeting. Such information would cause an explosion of anger that would probably be heard all the way to the Bohaníde Capital. Shayne intercepted the Brigadier as he was making his way to their supplies. He turned at hearing Shayne’s soft voice, his eyebrows lifted as he looked upon him.

‘Yes?’ he asked, not sure what to think. A Starborn usually waited for the superior solider to come to him and not the other way around.

‘Sorry to disturb you, sir,’ a statement which indeed disturbed him. ‘The lionmen have changed our final destination to Kérith-Árim.’

‘Kérith-Árim!’ Hanniver involuntarily called out. At the sound of his raised voice the other Earthmen turned to look, now listening intently to the conversation. ‘What the gorram hell for!’

‘They say that we must move from the forest,’

‘Like hell we are!’ the German side of his accent grew as his rage mounted.

‘It’s their law. If we work with Bohaníde, others might see it as a threat, we have to negotiate with everyone.’

‘Why Kérith-Árim?’ Hanniver retorted still angry but lowering his voice, Shayne stood silent for a moment, trying to find an equivalent society for the political system on this world.

‘It’s like their
League of Nations
.’ Shayne’s eyes narrowed as he shifted through the limited historical knowledge he had learned, ‘or the
Imperial Treaty Alliance
.’

‘And are they as useless?’

‘They’re the authority and hold power over the other regions; to oppose them is to oppose the rest. We’ve anticipated and planned for this.’

‘It doesn’t mean we have to roll over without a fight!’ Hanniver retorted, his agitation flowing through his face.

‘Like it or not, Bohaníde doesn’t have the authority to give us what we want, we
have
to talk to the Kérith-Árim king!’

The Brigadier locked eyes momentarily with Shayne, his gaze just as fierce as the Starborn’s. The officer then turned his back on him and returned to his gear, occasionally muttering to himself. Shayne stood there for a moment watching the Brigadier’s actions before he realised he was dismissed. The other army personnel also glared at the Starborn, but when he faced them they returned to their original focus. 

Sensing the hostility Shayne excused himself. He sat down on the steps of the meeting house; he could hear plenty of movement within as natives went about their business. He knew that Hanniver was a reasonable man: he just needed time.

The sun was low when the natives started to emerge from various buildings, bearing plates of food and drink. It seemed the entire Bohaníde Company had now come, all dressed casually with their tails still wrapped tightly around their waist and their military standard swords hanging at their belts. Kíe, Pan’arden and Madan’rah made their way to the town hall, signalling for the Earthmen to follow.

The old building was neat and friendly on the inside with good and strong workmanship. Carvings of gods and legends adorned their walls from roof to floor, each panel depicting a different story. There were no tables present. Instead everything was set out on the floor before them on raised wooden benches. The low benches filled the meeting house so there was barely enough room to move, even less when the natives filed in and sat upon the floor. Some local lionmen were already inside with more food and comforts. The Brigadier was still fuming at the deception and this seemed to him to be a continuation of that deception, but he could not help but be lifted by the smell of the food and the friendly nature of the simple village people. There was not enough room for all of them. Most of the warriors had their meal and entertainment within the tent camps around the palisade, while the villagers and higher ranked warriors hosted the Earthmen.