Yuen-Mong's Revenge (14 page)

 
     
"And it still works?"

 
     
"Yes. The shortest arm indicates the hours, the long one the minutes
and the thin one the seconds. My father said that it was quite accurate,
gaining only about twenty seconds each standard month."

 
     
"How does it work?"

 
     
She took it from his hand and opened its back, revealing the mechanism protected behind a glass cover. "It has a spring that drives it. This
funny device here going back and forth times it correctly. The spring has
to be rewound once every twenty-four standard hours."

 
     
"That should do." He studied it with interest and then remained quiet,
looking at her thoughtfully. "I think your father was right about the ship
not having been found. I’m sure, I would have heard about it, since I
studied the results of all missions over the last one hundred years. The
curious thing is that the one of your father wasn’t listed. I wonder why?
If I remember right, there were only two, one I think 67 standard years
and the other one occurred about —"

 
     
"— twelve years ago."

 
     
He looked at her astounded. "How do you know?"

 
     
"Because I also heard the scream of terror of the pilot who crashed."

 
     
"He didn’t survive?"

 
     
"No, we only found the burned-out wreckage. There was not much
left."

 
     
Atun was silent for a while. "I was very lucky you found me, and I’ve
caused you only trouble. But I promise that from now on I will listen."

 
     
"Good." She smiled and saw his ears go red. She busied herself again
with her mending, pleased that he seemed to be receptive to the idea. She
too questioned why her father’s mission had not been recorded, particularly since they went missing. Didn’t the logging of any failed mission
serve both as a warning of possible danger and as a call to look out for
the missing ship? There was always a chance that it could be found and
the people rescued.

     
"Yuen-mong, was this the reason you rescued me from the savages?"
His question brought her back to the present, and the hesitant tone of
voice gave a hint that he feared the answer.

     
"It was in my mind, but only as an afterthought, after I had decided to
try it… Uppermost in my mind was that you were too young to die, that
I liked having your company, to have somebody to talk to, to reason out
things, to learn from."

 
     
"Learn from me?" The tone of voice betrayed his disbelief.

     
"Yes, you taught me a lot of what is going on in the Universe. And
then how would I ever be able to have a child without you?"

 
     
He looked at her, visibly shocked. "You mean you would consider …’
His voice failed him.

     
"— having intercourse with you? Is that not the way it is done, at least
on a primitive world like ours?"

 
     
He went crimson, averting his gaze.

     
"Oh Atun, would it be such a big thing? I thought men liked doing
it… But first we will try to get that shuttle working. If that fails, then I
would like to have a child, or don’t you want to be the father of my
child?"

 
     
He glanced up.

     
"Won’t you tell me, Atun?"

 
     
"Yes, I would be proud to be the father of your child." Their eyes met
briefly. She felt that he was ambivalent about her reasons for rescuing
him and she guessed why.

* * *

Atun’s feelings were in turmoil. Although Yuen-mong had said that she
liked his company, he still was too ashamed about his behavior to believe
that this was her main reason for rescuing him. How could it be? Needing
him to get off-planet must be the real reason, and he blushed just thinking
of her seeing him as simply a stud for her children. She had mentioned
this so casually, as if it were no big thing for her. He did not know why
this felt even more humiliating than having been captured by the savages.
He wanted to be valued by her as a person, not as a skilled AI whiz or the
only available stud.

     
How could she even admit such things? … Because she is utterly
truthful. So when she said that she liked my company, she meant it. She
didn’t just say it to humor me. Could it be really true?
He struggled with
those thoughts time and again over the next few days. He wanted to cling
to the belief that she had rescued him because she liked him, but could
that be so?

* * *

It took him four more days before his strength had recovered and all the
nicks had healed. Yuen-mong showed him how to remove the scabs
without tearing the new skin formed underneath. It was a slow process.
Some wounds took longer to heal than others, but by the end of six days,
all scabs were off. The swelling on his head had almost disappeared,
although it was still tender to the touch.

     
He always felt left out when she disappeared after nightfall with her
flute and climbed to her sanctuary. All he could hear was that sad tune in
many variations. He would have liked to join her, to know what triggered
that sadness. Finally, when he felt strong enough he mustered all his
courage. "Yuen-mong, may I join you. I promise to be quiet and not
talk."

 
     
She smiled and replied: "You may."

 
     
He wanted to sit a few feet behind her.

     
"Sit to my left." She put her flute on her legs, her eyes focused into
the distance over the water.

     
He followed her gaze and watched the last light over the horizon
slowly fade, while the reflections from the lit part of the ring played in
the waves.

     
"There they come, just above the horizon." She pointed toward the
offshore rocks. He saw two tiny dots, growing slowly. Then the first
haunting call reached him. Yuen-mong raised her flute and played the
tune he had heard each night drift down from the rock. The two birds
flew straight for them and circled above to gain height, their call blending
with her tune. When they flew on, she put down her instrument, letting
her eyes follow their path.

     
"Thank you, Yuen-mong, for sharing this with me."

 
     
"They come to greet me every night."

 
     
"They use the warm updraft from the rock to gain height."

 
     
"I know, but I may still think that my tune draws them to me."

 
     
Although he could only see her outlines, he knew that she was
smiling. "Yes, it’s magical."

 
     
"You should join me one morning when I tease the dawn birds."

* * *

On of the seventh day after his rescue, she showed him how to fashion a
bow, using long twisted spear grass fibers for the tension string. He also
made himself more arrows. They went to the beach to try it out.

     
Later, they discussed how to convert the shuttle to manual control —
he still saw it as her plan. He got caught by her enthusiasm about the
project. That same evening she announced that next day they would go
to the shuttle and probably stay one or two nights there.

     
They were off early the following morning. He carried one of her craw
carry packs — the savages had taken his survival pack — as well as his
new bow, although he did not yet know how to use it properly. By
midmorning they were close to the southern end of the beach and Yuen-mong assumed her typical pose when she was listening to other minds.

     
"The craw is hunting and there is a group of savages close by."

 
     
He expected that they would either hide and wait, or retreat. He did
not want another encounter with them.

     
"Stay close behind me and don’t talk," she said and continued toward
the estuary.

     
"But shouldn’t we —"

 
     
"It is mostly women and children," she interrupted. "and they pose no
danger."

 
     
As they got closer to the forest edge, he saw a group of about a dozen
people sitting just under the forest canopy, with several small children
playing inside the forest. Yuen-mong went straight for them. Suddenly,
the group discovered them and four men jumped up howling, retreating
at the same measure as he and Yuen-mong approached, while the women
remained sitting, watching them, seemingly unafraid. All the children
joined their mothers. When Yuen-mong reached the women, she greeted
them. They returned her greeting and scrutinized him with watchful eyes.
To his surprise, a young female, hardly more than a teenager, rose and led
a little girl to Yuen-mong. The latter knelt down and stroked the child’s
cheek, saying a few words and then gave her a handful of dried sweetberries. The little girl beamed.

     
Next, Yuen-mong prepared her craw decoy, while the children stood
around her watching, and then she walked to the edge of the forest. He
followed close behind.

     
"Stay here until I call," she said and went briskly into the open.

     
It took less than a minute and the shrill scream of the craw reached
them. All the women now got up too and collected their children. Atun
watched with trepidation how Yuen-mong ran as the predator swooped
down and closed up.
What a woman, what cold courage!
When he
thought that she had waited too long, she exploded the decoy and the
giant bird crashed heavily into the soft ground. She waved whistling and
then began folding the decoy, ignoring the screeching vulture.

     
This was the signal for the women and children to cross the estuary
on the run. Atun saw that the men did the same about a hundred meters
farther up the river. When he reached Yuen-mong, she had finished with
the decoy, and they trotted into the forest on the other side of the estuary.

     
"Why did that woman bring her child to you?" he asked the next time
they slowed to a walk.

     
"I helped deliver it."

 
     
He looked at her questioningly.

     
"She was heavily pregnant when a raiding party stole her and these
bastards simply left her behind when her labor started. I found her, took
her to a place safe from the night scavengers and helped deliver the baby.
It was the first birth I witnessed and she had to tell me what to do." She
chuckled. "She was so badly starved that she ate all the rations I had with
me, enough for several days. I did not know anybody could eat so much.
And then two days later I brought her in sight of her camp. This is the
third time we have met."

 
     
"You’re an amazing woman — helping your enemy."

 
     
"The women are not my enemy, and they know I will not harm them.
When I rescued you, they opened up a path for us to run through. It is
only the stupid men who don’t seem to learn that we could live peacefully alongside each other."

 
     
"I can see that the men must fear you when they see you bring down
the craw they worship. They must think that you’ve supernatural
powers."

 
     
"That possibility has not occurred to me, but you may be right," she
replied with a smile.

     
Shortly after noon, they reached the shuttle. The spear grasses were
regenerating everywhere and in places already reached above them. The
first thing Yuen-mong did was to slash all tufts around the shuttle back
to the ground, so that the night scavengers could not get on top of the
shuttle.

     
Once inside, she again opened the swing door. After a small meal,
they removed the panels that gave access to the main propulsion jet pump
and the rotation thrusters, two on each side aft and forward to control
roll, two in the back to control pitch up and down, and another two to
activate yaw to the right and left, as well as sets of two to move the craft
up and down, forward and backward, and sideways. The piping to bring
the separate fuels to each looked formidable.