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It's early dawn and the sun have not started to illuminate the mountain tops yet, but the sky doesn't have much clouds, and it's bright enough to see very well. Still no warning or sight of enemy activity, and it is a very nice telescope with about 5 times magnification. I will not be able to make something this good, so hopefully I won't have to give it back. Xuela have taken over the main lookout, and I've taken Kima with me as it is time to interrogate the prisoner that is awake, not paralysed and shivering. The prisoner still have no clothes. We have deliberately avoided talking to her, and she is tied up well, with a cloth bag over the head, and she shouldn't be able to move her head or body. She is sitting on her knees and leaning back against a leaning tree, with her hands still wrap up and wrists tied to the ankles behind the tree and the wings on each side. Her shoulders are tied back too, and there is also a rope around her neck. Not the worse stress position, but also not comfortable. I think. She is an alien. If she can peep under the wrap and see through the bag, in front of her will be the upper cliff. Time to be an asshole. I stop a few meters away, and make sure to use a shield as protection, and I stay in cover from the cliff. There might be a random how knows what. The rest have been told to be quiet, and sign or whisper to me unless it is very important, or we come under attack. The only one approaching her will be Koru, and mainly from behind. I should have a free line of fire, and I hope I won't hesitate if I need to shoot an arrow or two in her legs. Or her body.
"Good morning. I'm going to ask you questions. Grunt twice for 'yes', and trice for 'no'. Do you understand me?"
She makes two reluctant grunts.
"Good. First question: Would you like us to have a friendly civilized conversation?"
Two grunts. So I signal to Koru who lift up the hood enough to pull down the prisoners gag, and give her some water to drink, which the woman gulps down.
"What name do you want to be called?"
"Lammy."
"So, Lammy; why did you use the cover of darkness and rain to land here uninvited and unannounced?"
"I was trying to steal things."
That is a bit unexpected. Sure, there really is very few answers to my question and frankly mostly more or less bad ones, but being a thief was actually not one of the expected responses, although she did have lockpick looking things. Then again, that doesn't really sounds true.
"Really?"
"Yes. I am a thief."
"You looked at us through that spyglass; saw how many we were, and how we built here, and thought: 'I should sneak up there during the night and steal their stuff. It will be easy. I just have to force the probably barricaded doors open silently, and can easily sneak in and steal their stuff while they sleep.'"
"Yes."
"Lammy, how long have you been on this world?"
"Four days."
"Who have you talked to before?"
"What?"
"Lammy, please. I'm trying to be friendly and civilized here, but you keep lying to me."
"I'm not lying."
"So you woke up on a completely different world four days ago. You flew around and saw all the large dangerous animals you probably haven't even heard of before. You saw the planetary rings at night and the moons. You found us, and after looking at us for a bit, decided to steal our stuff. That is a bad story, but you are not even surprised that we have this conversation, when we obviously isn't the same kind of people like you. None of us are."
Lammy - which I don't think is her actual name - is quiet, but there is a growing smile.
"Guess I messed up that story."
"I honestly don't know what you were trying to achieve with it."
"I couldn't think of any good reason that would justify my actions."
"Yeah, you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar."
"Good expression."
I signal to Koru who put the gag back on Lammy, that tries to protest and talk, but the gag comes on, and the hood is pulled down.
"You have again proven that you don't want to be civilized and friendly. You know you are completely in our control, and we can do whatever we want to you. You know you can be tortured for days or weeks. So why did you do that? Defiance? Pride? Stupidity? Are you hoping we will kill you? To avoid starvation, pain or disfigurement?"
I signal to Koru, and she grabs the hood from behind and pull it tight around the mouth, and starts to pour water on the hood, and soon Lammy is gasping for air and choking. Yeah, she is getting waterboarded, and with how she struggles and tries to move she really doesn't like it. I couldn't be sure it would work, and I guess that if she could fight her way loose, she would. Waiting to escape is a bold and very dangerous move, and panic is a powerful motivator. Lammy makes painful noises, wheeze and tries to coughs up the water in her lungs, but the position, gag and hood doesn't help. Those are horrible sounds. No-one of my companions knew about this simple technique, and Koru and Kima is giving me and our prisoner weird but increasingly evil looks of satisfaction. Blunt force, blades, fire and venoms are useful techniques for torture, and I get why their cultures never bothered finding alternatives. Especially Kima's. Reiley peek down from the lookout at what we're doing.
Once Lammy have recuperated, Koru have refilled the water bottles, and Lammy gets another session. She really really doesn't like it and struggles hard against her bindings. Koru doesn't seems to feel bad about what we're doing, and she continue to gently pour water on the hood and mouth while making sure Lammy can't turn her head or avoid it. I let Lammy recuperate again, and Koru refills the water bottles. I have no experience in torture, and I don't know what I can do to break Lammy's will and make her talk. What I know about torture is that it will make humans say anything to make it stop, but I'm dealing with an Alien. I don't know her culture, mind or body. I don't know if she will go through the stages I've heard about in popular culture and news. Denial, anger, frustration and fear. But I won't jump straight to the worse tortures, and this shouldn't leave any lasting physical damage. Koru lift up the hood a bit and remove the gag. Lammy tries to spit and bite as she coughs, but that is expected and Koru is standing behind her and can't be hit. I say nothing and just wait. Lammy also wait, and I assume she is thinking. I just look at my smart watch.
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After three minutes, I signal Koru who force the gag back on, pull the hood down and Lammy gets another waterboarding session. Then Koru removes the gag, and I say nothing and just wait. Lammy also wait, so I look at my smart watch.
"I scout for a group north of here. I have made secure and hidden lookout positions away from my group. I was at a position in the hills across the river to the north, and I saw a white Star Fall in the morning during the awakenings, indicating a group of at least four were here, followed by two blue stars falling here later on the same day. I've never seen blue before, or two special stars falling on the same day like that. So I reported to my group, refilled on food and water, and returned to the lookout. I saw your boat and that you travelled up the river and then further along the coast. Exploring towards my group. I saw you have your own flying scout. So I reported and returned to try to find out more about your group. Location and details. The night before yesterday I found your hidden boat, and found you on this cliff. So I found a hidden spot to watch you for a day. And another blue Star fell. Yesterday I watched you work and move around, but I couldn't risk exposing myself or leaving. Your flyer is fast and soaring high. So I waited until it was dark, and I was about to leave and report when the rain started, and I decided to take a risk to get more information. You have chosen a good location and the camouflage hides a lot."
Okay, that makes sense. I doubt it is the complete truth, but Lammy knows a lot that checks out, and the best lie is usually the truth told in a favourably way while omitting some things. I have been worrying about Star Falls attracting attention, and Vekalie told us about that Shore Cliff camp north of where we picked her up, and they would want to know who we are and if we are a threat. That is after all my plan, and Xuela have checked it out from a distance and taken photos. But if all of that is truth, it puts us in a bit of a spot. We don't know their intentions, but torturing and killing their scout is not a good way to start an amicable relationship. Letting Lammy leave is also a bad idea. They get their flyer back, and all the intel she have on us. And Lammy might be lying her ass off, and she did draw weapons when she landed. So if it is the truth she will at least be a prisoner we might exchange. But why did she pretend to be a thief? Giving those stories the other way around would have made more sense.
"That is a much better story, but landing here under cover of darkness and rain with a drawn weapon is not a friendly gesture."
"If I survive this interrogation and eventually return to my group, I'm going to get another ear full from my chief about taking stupid risks and not thinking before doing."
Trying to be friendly and nice. Just a stupid misunderstanding. My bad and I will be punished for it. Still, trading a valuable prisoner that tried to steal is another thing, and I wonder how her group will react, or what they will say when we contact them. Unfortunately writing a message is not possible due to that not being translated. Well, it's very likely they know we have a flyer, so having Xuela drop in to have a talk might be the next logical step. But I really don't like exposing Xuela to that danger, and she sure won't like it. She actually wanted to use one of the camouflage capes while being on guard at the balcony.
"Well, you know about us, so now you will tell us about your camp and the people in your group."
"My camp is on a large island like cliff jutting out into the sea, connected to the shore by a narrow rocky piece of land. Steep cliffs surround all sides and we use a tall ladder to move up and down, and have a simple crane for goods. With me, my group is eleven."
I guess Lammy suspect we already know or will find out, one way or another, so she continue talking about the Shore Cliff camp. It checks out with what Vekalie and Xuela told us and what the pictures show. It seems they've found a good spot for a camp. A big flat cliff top that slope gently up towards the sea, and there are between 10-30 meter high cliffs on all sides. The top is mostly grass and bushes, but there are clumps of trees. The top is something like 400 by 250 meters so they have more than enough room for a couple of large fields, and is planning on trying to tame useful animals as the animals can freely graze on the rest. Rain collects in a couple of natural ponds, and they have built huts off piled stone with turf roofs, and a few weeks ago started using ash cement to make better houses when a newly arrived person told them about it. Wood for building and fires is a bit of an issue, since they have to transport wood there. They have no big issue with dinosaurs, but they have to be careful in the huge forest behind the coastal cliffs. Clearing some of it our while collecting wood makes it easier to see the dinosaurs.
The cliff have a protected cove on the south side where they are building a raft. Lammy seems envious about our catamaran, but there are no huge trees like that in their area, and she doesn't seem to have flown much inland or found out about other camps. They have a fairly 'normal' selection of people that have been here for up to ten weeks, and I think there is one of Climber/Gjurl's kind in Shore Cliff camp, and the tall one might be the same as one in Lake Camp. Lammy was surprised I asked her to clarify details about the people and I am taking notes, and either she is vague about them, or she just never bothered that much memorising their looks, and frankly I would be kind of bad in describing my own group. We know Reiley-Nilma and Bokyli-Vekalie are the same species so yeah, I guesstimate there to be about 50 different species in the area and probably 6-10 people are doubles of the same species. According to Lammy, not many visions, but a couple have Pray. She have Direction 1 and Pray, although she say this is her fifth week. I check by having her give the direction to her home, and as far as I can tell she give a correct direction, although she did not expect I would do that, and she quietly mumbled the activation phrase. It makes me think she didn't use 'home', but that vision will stay active for a while, so I move on like I haven't noticed. If she have been scouting and tracking people, I bet she have Track too, which is another black mark against her honesty and story.
Her group obviously have a few Star Falls, but only some axes and machetes, and a bunch of white Star Falls with water bottles, blankets, cooking vessels, hoes, spades and so on. Basically they're a friendly bunch just trying to make their way since waking up. At least that is the impression Lammy is trying to give us. It might be true, but it can also be bullshit or a cover story. That story is basically what Reiley have told us was true about her camp, while King's Camp basically try to give that illusion if needed before showing their true colours, as violence and threat is common in their camp and some people are far from friendly. We have seen at least two red Stars fall to the north, but at less than half the distance to the Shore Cliff camp. Those could have been the DAB's trying to lure us to meet, or there are other people between our camps. Someone did capture Xuela, but he could have been a murderous asshole loner killing and looting bodies. Anyway, we might have to do a snatch-and-grab to question another person from Lammy's Shore Cliff camp, but if they are friendly, that have to be delicately done. And we might still be feed bullshit.