The Lord of the Plains (2 page)

Nothing.

‘We are the Astar Home Defence Patrol, show
yourself or be fired upon!’

A sound. Then from behind a tree in the
distance a figure stepped out. It took a hesitant step forward.
Lestar thought he would vomit. ‘Wh-who are you?’
What are
you?

It took another step. Lestar’s hands
tightened.

‘Identify yourself or be fired upon!’ Maz
ordered from behind him.

The figure stopped. It raised its hands.
‘I-I’m not dangerous.’ It said. Its voice wavered and shook.

A gemeng.

‘Are you human?’ Maz called again.

The figure shook its head.

Lestar tightened his hands, his weapon
shook.

‘Leave this area immediately!’ Maz
ordered.

‘B-but I-I…’

‘But what?!’

‘I want to come t-to Astar. I h-heard some
g-gemengs live th-there.’

Maz considered the gemeng’s words for a
moment before saying, ‘you have to go to the testing station out
past Garrondin. You can’t come through here.’

The gemeng was silent. It was short. If it
was human Lestar would have thought it was a child. Did gemengs
have children?

‘Do you know where Garrondin is?’ Maz asked,
a hint of kindness in his voice.

‘B-but…’ the gemeng stuttered. It sounded
like it was going to cry.

‘But?’

‘It’s not safe out there!!’

At that Lestar burst into wild laughter.

They waited until Batar and his team
arrived, then Maz and Lestar escorted the gemeng child to the
testing centre, through Garrondin. It wasn’t strictly necessary for
them to do this, but the gemeng was frightened, and they couldn’t
leave it hanging around the perimeter, and it didn’t seem
appropriate to shoot it for being afraid.

The sky was darkening slowly, it was still
summer and the sky would retain light for some time. The trio
walked in silence, Lestar and the gemeng in states of fear, Maz
maintaining a calm, soothing presence. His long strides were easy
and relaxed, though if you looked carefully you would see his hands
were trembling.

The sky turned to dark blue, with gold at
the horizon. Lestar noticed briefly.

As they came to Garrondin, a collection of
well maintained, if not exactly pretty houses, the gemeng started
shaking. Maz did not change his stride. The villagers came to stand
in the doorways, some peered from windows. None came any closer.
Lestar quickly glanced at them. These gemengs were not the gemengs
of his nightmares, of the outside world. They did not possess the
claws and teeth and spiked tails and second mouths that
real
gemengs had in terrifying abundance. No, they were just stupid,
weak creatures that needed humans to provide them with the material
for making weapons. Maz and Lestar walked down the main street and
were quickly free of the town.

About half a kilometre down the road they
came to the testing centre. It was an unadorned box of a building.
There were two main entrances, one on the opposite side for gemengs
hoping to migrate into Astar, and the one they were approaching for
the successful migrants.

Maz led them around the building towards the
main entrance. The road in front of the building was empty.

‘Hey there!’ Maz hailed the two guards
standing before the doors of the centre. ‘We have a gemeng
here!’

‘You’re late! It’ll have to wait til
tomorrow.’

‘Where can we leave it?’

One of the guards shrugged and pointed down
the road.

‘Is it wise to have gemengs gathering so
close to home?’ Lestar asked nervously. Maz glanced at him, his
expression saying he was thinking the same thing.

Just then a man dressed in civilian clothes
came to the door. ‘What’s all this commotion?!’

The guards turned and quietly explained. The
man looked towards them, out through the reinforced glass doors.
‘We’ll take him.’ He said and motioned for them to follow him as he
turned and walked deeper into the centre.

Surprised, Maz and Lestar headed towards the
door. Despite himself, Lestar did not suggest they leave. For once,
curiosity got the better of his nervousness. He wanted to know what
tests were conducted here. How could you tell a gemeng was weak
enough to be allowed to live among humans?

One of the guards pulled the door open. Maz
and Lestar said their thanks (Lestar mumbled) and they entered with
the gemeng behind them.

The corridor they entered was dark, as the
centre had closed for the day. In front of them was a glass window
with a blank terminal behind it. The corridor continued to the left
and right, though to the left it was too dark to see anything. To
the right the corridor stopped at a door, which was open, revealing
another hallway. The first door in the second hallway was open, and
light was spilling from the room, the man who had summoned them was
waiting.

As they entered he closed the door and
turned to the gemeng. ‘So we’re going to have a look at you,
eh?’

Maz and Lestar moved out of the way so the
gemeng was standing alone in front of the man. ‘You know what
happens here?’ The man asked.

The gemeng shook and shivered. ‘N-no.’

‘We do some tests to determine your
strength. If you’re too strong you won’t be allowed into Astar and
you will be forced to leave the area. Some of these tests are quite
painful, do you understand?’

The gemeng nodded.

‘Right then. We’ll start by taking some
blood.’ The man moved towards a cupboard on the wall and removed a
needle. ‘What are your abilities?’ He asked as he prepared the
needle.

‘N-none…’

‘None? No fire in your blood? No lightning?
You can’t command water? You can’t smash boulders with a single
punch?’

‘N-no.’

‘Are you very resilient? Can you walk for
days without tiring? Do you need regular food and water? What is
your diet? How long does it usually take a wound to heal?

‘No..no, uh, vegetables…some meat…’

‘Hmm…hold still now. Do you have any less
hairy areas?’

The gemeng shook his head wildly.

‘Alright, do you mind if I remove some
fur?’

The gemeng stared at him before slowly
shaking his head. The man had already fetched a razor.

‘Now hold still,’ he said, and quickly
shaved a small area on his arm. ‘Hold on,’ he said as the gemeng
started at the sight of bare skin, ‘I’m not done yet.’

The man scrubbed and cleaned the freshly
bared skin. He did it quickly, then with a needle he took some
blood from the gemeng.

‘Hmm…’ the man said as he held the needle up
to eye level. ‘Not too much resistance, and the needle hasn’t burst
into flames. That’s always a good sign.’ He turned to a table by
the cupboard and set up some vials. He took a piece of metal, wood
and paper from the cupboard and laid them out.

First he put a drop of blood into each vial.
Then he dropped blood first on the metal, then the wood, then the
paper.

He waited, his eyes flicking from the vials
to the materials, a deep frown on his face. ‘That’s good…not even
the paper is damaged. And the colour is good.’

The colour of the liquid in the vials had
changed from dark red to layers of different colours. The top layer
was a clear yellow, nearly transparent, and the bottom a darker
orange.

It meant nothing to anyone but the man, who
seemed satisfied.

‘Alright, next room.’ And he strode quickly
across the room, turned the lights off and flung open the door. He
turned the lights on in the other room and gestured impatiently for
the three to follow.

‘This will be a painful test, and you will
be injured. We’re going to shoot you and see what happens.’

The gemeng made a small sound, but it didn’t
ask to leave.

Lestar and Maz looked at each other and back
at the man.

‘Stand over there please, face me.’ He
gestured towards a wall that had scorch marks on it. There was a
red line marked on the floor in front of the wall, which is where
the gemeng stood. The man approached and with a measuring
instrument measured the width of the gemeng’s shoulder. He pulled
on its skin with another instrument and then walked to another
cupboard. He selected an energy weapon and started changing the
settings on it.

‘This is a very sensitive experiment. This
weapon is set to a level that it will go right through a human
shoulder of the same width as yours, with a similar amount of fat.
If it doesn’t go through your shoulder it tells us you’re a little
bit different to us. Are you ready?’

The gemeng shuddered.

The man faced him, the energy weapon loosely
held in his hand by his side. Suddenly he fired, so quickly that
Lestar and Maz didn’t even see him raise his hand.

There was silence as the light from the
weapon died down. The gemeng made a strangled sound of pain and
shook. The smell of burnt flesh and fur filled the room. Lestar’s
mouth twisted in disgust.

The man approached and looked at the wound,
as if he did this every day, which he did. The wound was a small
round tunnel through the gemeng’s shoulder. ‘Not all the way
through…mostly, but not all.’

Lestar felt cold steal over him. Sweat broke
out on his skin. He had seen gemengs on the screen in the military
training facility, he had heard about them, but he had never seen
one. Not a
real
one. Maz blanched.

‘I see, well, that doesn’t necessarily mean
you won’t be allowed in, but we’ll have to do some more tests. Are
you up for it?’

The gemeng nodded slowly.

‘I thought you wouldn’t take long to pass,’
the man frowned, ‘you get to recognize a look about them.’ He
explained. ‘Why don’t you go rest at the gemeng camp, hmm? Come
back tomorrow and we’ll do the rest of the tests.’

The gemeng didn’t respond.

‘I’ll patch that shoulder up for you.’ The
man said.

As he worked he turned to Maz and Lestar.
‘Thanks for bringing him all the way here. You boys can head on
back now.’

‘How do you know it’s a him?’ Maz asked
suddenly.

‘I’ve seen a lot of gemengs.’ He
shrugged.

Again that cold feeling stole over Lestar as
he and Maz left the building. It was dark outside. They greeted the
guards and headed back up the road towards Astar. So many gemengs,
so close. And so different…

Chapter 2

Aerlid glanced down at the girl as she
trotted alongside him, swinging her legs forward in an entirely
impractical manner.

She was excited. She wasn’t quite sure what
about, but she knew it was something new so she was excited.

The sun was approaching the middle of the
bright blue sky, and the day was slightly warm. It was an excellent
day for travelling.

‘There’ll be gemengs there.’ The man said.
‘Other people, and children for you to play with.’

The girl had heard the words ‘gemeng’ and
‘human’, but never before seen one. All she knew were bugs and
birds, animals for eating and animals that would try and eat her.
And Aerlid. Animals and Aerlid.

And that was ok. That was all she knew, so
how could she want any more?

Aerlid, for his part, was concerned about
her. It was time, he thought, for her to meet the people who shared
her world. Time to learn there was more to the world than trees and
animals that could be hunted and animals that would hunt you,
plants you could eat and plants you could not.

And so he had told her they would head to a
place where gemengs dwelled together. None of these things meant
anything to her, and that was what was exciting. And the day was
nice. That was exciting too.