GROUND / CH. 19:A REPAIRED SHIP

OUTSIDE THE CITY, GROUND

It was mid-morning, and from where they were, the little group of meat-traders would get to the city two hours before night-fall. That was good; it meant they would sell their goods before the ice melted and obtain maximum price. Then, as the trudged along with their wagon, the group of meat traders saw a large, very strange wagon approaching on a side road. It looking like it was made from glass, with glass wheels, too, and was being pulled along by a person. He was pulling it quite quickly, as though he wanted to meet them. That was all strange; very strange, as was the fact that the person had wrapped cloth on his body, like the traders had done three days before, when gathering ice in the high mountains. But the most surprising thing was how the person did not seem to be struggling with the load of the enormous, impossible wagon. Surely it must be very heavy, but he seemed to be having more of a struggle slowing it down than lifting it. It could not be so well balanced, surely?

“Greetings,” Mick called. “I am Mick. A foolish predator tried to eat my wife a couple of hours ago, and so now we have meat to trade. Do I see you are traders in meat?”

“We are,” agreed the chief trader. “But poor ones, we have not the money for predator meat. I am Yuth.”

“But you have heard-beast meat; fresh and killed with thanks to the One, Yuth?”

“Yes,” Yuth asked, confused.

“Will you accept an exchange? We ourselves prefer to eat dumb beasts killed with thanks to the One than foolish talking beasts. Maybe we will have guests who prefer the taste so much they don't mind finding pieces of shattered spine between their teeth, so I do not offer all. But... perhaps half the predator for the same amount of herd-beast meat? Left or right half, I don't mind.”

“You're offering to give me half a predator for the same weight of herd-beast?” Yuth asked. It was a bit like being offered silver instead of lead.

“Would that be acceptable to you?”

“Very!” the trader said, not believing his fortune.

“Great!” the person let go of his load, and climbed on to the waggon. The impossibly large two-wheeled wagon should have tipped up at that point, but it didn't. It just stayed there.

“What did you mean, 'left half or right half'?” Yuth asked.

“My wife was annoyed and she keeps her sword sharp,” Mick said. Then he called out some sounds that Yuth didn't understand. Another person, probably female under the differently arranged cloth, appeared from the covered part of the wagon. She opened a large box and easily lifted two halves of a large female predator that had been cut right down the middle, one half in each hand. Yuth's trader's eye saw the all the tell-tale signs that said the meat was fresh and cold. Maybe there was ice in the box? It looked too small. Mick called to Yuth. “Do you have a preference? I think the left half has the most backbone and all the tail.”

“Backbone and tail are good for calcium and for soup,” Yuth found himself saying.

“Then by all means, have the left half,” the person called Mick said, taking that half from Sathie and handing it down to Yuth. He'd been right, it was perfectly chilled. Who were these strange people?

“You really prefer herd-beast?” Yuth asked.

“Herd-beast is delicious,” Mick said, bringing laughs from most of Yuth's companions.

“You are those aliens that we are not to talk of, aren't you?” Yuth's wife asked.

“I crashed here,” Mick said, “this wagon used to be my ship. Now my wife and other friends and relatives have found me, but I cannot leave yet. But do be careful of that word alien if you talk of meeting us, you might be arrested for using it.”

“Surely there is space for you in their ship?” she asked.

“It is... much more complicated than that,” Mick said, “Also, we have found lots of planets with nothing, quite a lot with plants, a few with large animals, but this is the first planet we have found with people. The One who is, and who is three, told us we should find people and tell them of the wonderful thing he has done. He became a person and then allowed evil people to execute him. He then rose to life again, to prove that he was innocent of all wrong. In doing this he took the punishment that people deserve on himself. That is why sacrifices had to be stopped: the One has given the best one possible as a free gift, and all who trust in him will be saved.”

“And are your strange beliefs why you wear cloth?”

“No, we wear fabric because we are multicelular organisms, who cannot change shape. We wear it for different reasons; to hide parts of our bodies, for warmth, for fashion.”

“You are strange,” Yuth said, handing Mick the herd-beast meat.

“Very,” Mick said.

The alien's wife, who had returned to the covered part of the wagon made some more incomprehensible sounds.

“Ah! Good! My wife says she has finished her calibrations, I don't need to pull any more.” Then the strange creature Mick made some incomprehensible noises to his wife, and she shook her head and made some back. Yuth guessed it must be a language. “Oh,” Mick said, “My wife doesn't think we can carry your beasts without them panicking. Otherwise we'd offer to take you close to the city much more quickly than your beasts can move. Travel safely, Yuth.”

“You go to the city?” Yuth asked.

“We will camp outside, as befits visitors. Perhaps the party of tradition will acknowledge we exist if we act according to tradition.”

“Hani and Vic go to be students at the university, and only travel with us for safety,” Yuth said.

“They are most welcome to come with us,” Mick said. “Now that what is left of my ship can fly again, it will not be a long journey.”

“Your wagon can fly?” Yuth asked.

“My smashed and broken spaceship was very out of balance, and wanted to fly nose-up, which made it hard to sit on, hence the wheels. Now my clever wife has solved that. You may have the wheels if they are useful to you. I see they're about the same size as your wagon's.”

“Glass wheels? No thanks.”

“It's not glass, it is what my spaceship was made from.” Mick said, then offered “Cannon-fire might break it, but if you can break it with a hand-tool, I'll give you half of the half-predator that I still have. But don't blame me if your hammer or whatever you try to use is dented or breaks. I'll warn you, clear-coal does not scratch it.”

“It's still going to make my wagon too heavy.”

Mick made some noises, and his wife fiddled with something; the wagon lifted off its wheels. He knocked the pin out of the axel, and to Yuth's surprise, removed the wheel easily.

“It does not weigh as much as you might think,” Mick said, setting it down in front of Yuth.

“It feels warm,” Yuth said.

“It is not like metal, glass or stone, that take heat quickly from whatever they touch. It is more like wood, except you have no tools that can work it.”

“You do?”

“I have a tool that will cut it, my wife can use the tools that mould it. She is very skillful.”

Yuth lifted the wheel and judged it to be lighter than his wagon's wheels had been when they had last had their iron tyre-bands replaced. That had been a long time ago, and he knew the tyre-bands were dangerously thin.

“I do not doubt your word,” Yuth said, “but I will ask Refek to break it. The meat you offer is too valuable to turn down such a challenge.”

“Yuth, you're being greedy,” his wife scolded.

“Maybe Yuth is being sensible,” Mick countered, “he knows that carrying spare wheels will cost him space on the wagon, fitting them will cost him money or effort and perhaps he does not wish to pass up an opportunity to look after his family.”

“Refek! Come and try to smash this!”

Trading meat was not the safest job: predators wanted the meat, thieves were not unheard of, and suppliers and customers sometimes tried to cheat the traders. Refek was regarded by the rest of the traders as the solution to this problem and several others. He was big, strong, highly muscled and very handy with his sword or hammer. He never had any problems with cheats, or the draft-beasts either.

Refek brought his biggest hammer, and a cold chisel. But he also looked at the tracks Mick's wagon had left, and at the stones broken or crushed by its passing. He looked at the optically smooth running surface of the wheel and its pristine edges, and handed his chisel to Yuth.

“Wheel's beautiful, Yuth. Not a scratch on it after smashing those stones. I reckon it's worth far more than a few dead preds. You really want me to try?”

“Yes,” Yuth said to his cousin.

He said, “I'll use the chisel if you want, but I reckon it'll skid, and you're going to be holding it. When it skids, it'll like as not go into your arm or stomach, or fly out of your hand and hit someone. The other thing that might happen when it skids is your hand will still be in the way and get crushed by my hammer. Do you want me to use the chisel?”

“No.”

“Sensible man, Yuth. And if the handle on my hammer breaks, you buy me a new handle, OK?”

“OK, Refek. might manage that.”

Refek swung a mighty blow, and the crystal wheel rang like a bell. A shard flew off from the impact point, turning over in the air, reflecting light from its metallic surface.

Refek examined his hammer and shrugged philosophically. “I should have thought of that too. Oh well, it's an old hammer. So, Yuth, where did I hit the wheel?”

“I can't tell.”

“Good strong stuff that. It'll probably chew up your axles, hardly any give at all, but it ought to last you a lifetime. 'Course, I thought that about my hammer, too.” Refek looked at Mick, and said, “And we get arrested if we say anything about you?”

“As far as I understand it, if you say you met aliens then you'll be arrested as part of a conspiracy to undermine the government. I don't think there's a law against calling us strangers.”

“Travel well stranger, the One be with you.”

“And with you,” Mick said. “Hani, Vic? Will you travel with us?”

Vic agreed readily, but Hani looked nervous. “I don't know. You seem generous and kind, and as a biologist I am intensely curious about you, but I am also nervous of trusting strange people.”

“How about Yuth gets moving and we go behind while you decide?” Vic suggested.

Yuth, aware of how much time had already passed, readily agreed.

“Would it help if I showed you this?” Mick said, handing over a letter of introduction Lana had written.

“This is by Academician Lana? The one with two heads?”

“Read on,” Mick said.

“Oh no!” Hani said, part way through the letter. Then she asked, “Where's Yasfort?”

“The far south.”

“Lana is my relative, I was going to try to stay with her.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Oh, of course, it was arranged about this time last year, I remember. And now Lak is in prison for preaching about talking to aliens.”

“I am surprised you even know him.”

“The rift between Lak and Lana is healed. Possibly helped when Lana and I provided a predator for Kana's wedding.”

“Kana is married? Who to?”

“A messenger, Thek, much to his surprise.”

“To his surprise?”

“Thek thought they had been too discrete for Lak to know about it.”

“I'm confused... But it is only Lak in jail?”

“As far as I know, so you have other relatives you could stay with.”

“Who do not approve of biology.”

“I expect they approve highly of biology, as biological creatures, but not some streams of research. And even their attitude to Lana's research has changed, given what she succeeded in doing to save my life.”

“But Lana no longer carries out research.”

“Lana was hurt more than you know. She is healing, with the help of Takan.”

“Who is Takan?”

“A famous son of Yasfort. A long time ago, I hear, Kovan called him the most curious person he knew. These days, however, he's an astronomer and Lana calls him 'husband'.”

Mick's wife handed him a small box, and said something to him.

“Lana, in another one of those pre-ordained coincidences, we've met a relative of yours, Hani. She's wondering if she ought to trust strange aliens.”

“Oops. I lost track of the weeks! Sorry, Hani, I was going to write but after I got declared 'probably an enemy of the state' I wasn't sure that was wise any more, and I was hoping it'd all be sorted out in time. I'm so glad you've met Mick and Sathzakara.”

“It's all true?”

“Not knowing what all is, all I can say is probably.”

“You're in Yasfort?”

“I'm in old Yasfort, under the protection of the aliens, until the government comes to their senses. And the predators still haven't learned that our herd-beasts aren't for eating, so I'm on a very protein-rich diet at the moment, with the inevitable consequences.”

“Inevitable consequences?”

“Mick needed almost half my organisms, Hani, so I feel quite young again, and I'm married... You'll have a couple of second cousins soon.”

“A couple?”

“Yes, dear. I'll tell you more when we meet. I really don't recommend going into the city right now: Una's been arrested too, and Kana and Thek managed to get out and are on their way to your parents'.”

“How do you know all this?”

“A little box like the one you're talking to me on. Things are getting bad, dear.”

“I can't go home, Lana!”

“Mick could take you, I'm sure.”

“That's not what I mean. I had an almighty row, in public, with Gunth.”

“Gunth being your fiancé?”

“Gunth being the boy who blackmailed me into not saying I wasn't his fiancé, even though I detest him.”

“What did he blackmail you with?”

“I'd rather not say in public. But everyone thinks it was just a lover's row, and if I go back they'll expect a wedding!”

“Mick, do you want to make room for her, or bring her down to Yasfort?”

“What about Vic?” Mick asked.

“Who's Vic?” Lana asked.

“Our other passenger, who I've not had time to talk to yet. Vic? Do you want to stay around people who are getting arrested because of their family connections, and so maybe get arrested too, or change your mind and travel with the meat-traders and pretend this never happened?”

“I guess I'll go with the traders. Bye, Hani, been nice knowing you. Maybe we'll meet again sometime, who knows?”

Mick didn't miss the look of betrayal on Hani's face.

----------------------------------------

A THOUSAND METERS HIGH

“It's not too cold up here, is it?” Mick asked.

“No, no worse than winter,” Hani replied, “And we can see so far!”

“Yes, that's what the city looks like from up here, Yasfort is the other side of that mountain, your home is that way.” Mick said, “And you're almost crying. Want to talk about it?”

“Why would I talk about it?”

“Because I'm semi-family, don't know anyone involved, and won't tell. Oh, and because on the day after Lana budded me, we found a lot of slime-creature colonies trying to get inside Sathie, and I had no idea at all that asking my ready cells to help clean Sathie was at all problematic.”

“The day after you'd budded, you were podding with your wife?”

“No, the day after I'd been budded I was saving the life of a girl I loved, and hoping that she'd be able to marry me soon. Then we found out that what we'd been doing counted as three-quarters of the way to reproduction for you, even if it doesn't for us, and she agreed that marrying that evening would be OK. By which I'm telling you that while Lana and I have the same God, we don't have the same reactions or ethics. Speaking of which, you know what predator meat tastes like to my taste-buds?”

“No, but I expect you'll tell me.”

“I don't think I can. You probably like the extra taste that fruit gets when it goes brown and spotty, don't you?”

Hani looked at him for a while, “When it's started to ferment, you mean?”

“Fermentation is OK, that's caused by a single-cell organism. No, I mean when the... I don't know the word, when the little air-carried proto-cells get in and are starting to cover it in a mesh of joined-up organisms and eventually they burst out of the surface and even Lana says, oops, that's been in the cupboard too long.”

“When it's growing mushroomy?”

“I guess so. What would you do if you found you'd bitten on something that was growing mushroomy?”

“It's poisonous. I'd spit it out.”

“Exactly.”

“But it tastes good, that's why it's so dangerous.”

“See? I told you. Is there any flavour for you that tells you you're eating food that is too old, and you not only want to spit it out but when you've spat it our you still taste that horrible taste, and you need to wash out your mouth or eat something else to get rid of it?”

“Old fish. You're telling me that predator tastes like old fish to you?”

“I doubt it, but it's the same psycho-emotional response anyway.”

“Wow! That's gross,”

“Want to cook some predator steak? I've just thought the taste might spread to the herd-beast.”

“It's not lunchtime yet.”

“No, but we might as well do something as you tell me what you were being blackmailed about.”

“I can't.”

“Can't tell me?”

“I can't eat predator. That's what I was being blackmailed about. A predator ate my big brother, and, and I was there. Crunch, splat, Fik's head was gone, his brain-organisms... I'm not going to eat Fik, not by proxy, not...”

“Not by accident either?” Mick asked, guessing.

“Fik's knife was there. While it was eating him, I wounded it, wouldn't stop attacking it until it ran off. I got wounded a bit, and covered in predator blood, and to start with I licked it off myself. Then... then I realised that it wasn't just predator blood, it was Fik, too. I had been eating my brother.

"And in disgust, I expelled them. All the ones that had been involved, my digits and my lips and the bits of my stomach that had touched and tasted Fik. I expelled them and they fell in the soil. I told my organisms to do it and then I realised how wrong I'd been and how in horror I'd betrayed my own organisms.”

“You couldn't accept them as part of you, they were contaminated,” Mick said.

“Yes. I betrayed them and what's worse, I would do it again.”

“I'm not surprised, I expect I'd react the same way. But I want to correct you: you didn't tell them to eat your brother, you told them to eat predator.”

“What?”

“You told your organisms that predator blood was good to eat, I presume, healthy iron source?”

“Yes.”

“And it was only your eyes that told you you were eating Fik. You felt disgust, revulsion, horror, that your organisms had made you guilty of cannibalism. You assumed they'd know the difference, but they didn't, because you were young, and no one had told you, I presume, that predator tastes like person.”

“It what?”

“According to Lana, predators will eat herd-beast if they are hungry, but they specialise in eating multi-organism collaborations, that's what they prefer eating, that's the food that tastes best to them. They eat each other because pred tastes good too. Guess why.”

“Predator and person taste the same? How could anyone find that out?”

“Taste is just certain molecules, Hani. You're the biologist, analyse some of your own blood and compare with pred blood.”

“You're not going to convince me to eat predator.”

“No, but I'm hoping to help you understand why what happened happened, and why you reacted like you did, and why rejecting those organisms wasn't really betrayal.”

“Why wasn't it betrayal?”

“Let me ask you a question instead. Have you had the new vaccination?”

“The highly contagious and deadly?”

“Yes.”

“I have.”

“That's good. What would happen if one of your organisms had that?”

“My organisms would expel it.”

“Would that be betrayal?”

“Of course not. It had an infection, and would be doomed anyway, expelling it would be saving the rest of my organisms.”

“Lana tells me that when she had close contact with other creatures, she assumed any infection she had was deadly.”

“A sensible precaution,” Hani said.

“Even if the infection was just an irritation that would pass quickly?”

“She couldn't know that, she had to assume it was dangerous.”

“Did your organisms understand anything about eating your brother?”

“They were traumatised, they felt horror,” Hani said in a small voice.

“What would keeping them have done to you, Hani? Traumatised organisms with no reassuring message from the rest of you?”

“It... it would be terrible. I'd hate part of me.”

“And you had to assume it was dangerous. Even more dangerous than keeping an organism with an unknown disease.”

“Yes.”

“So was it betrayal?”

“Not really,” Hani said in a small voice, “They were doomed anyway, they would have destroyed unity.”

Mick allowed her time with her thoughts, and looked out over this strange world.

“Thank you,” Hani said, eventually.

“Gunth saw the attack, I presume?”

“Yes.”

“And saw you rejecting your traumatised organisms?”

“No.”

“And yet he wants to marry you? Someone that traumatised?”

“He saw me looking in horror, and spitting out. He thinks I spat out Fik. He claims he loves me. He threatens that he will say I ate my brother, but he actually thinks I did not. He says it is best that he hold the threat over me, to keep us together until I grow to love him, so that everyone expects us to marry.”

“And his blackmail was stronger than he thought, because you thought you were hiding a greater crime.”

“Yes.”

“And now? What do you do to the predator called Gunth? Knowing that your reaction was right and proper?”

“Predator?”

“Is he not? Is he not trying to consume you with no thought for what you want? That's not love, that's a sort of greed.”

“I don't know. Maybe I will just tell him he's wrong, that I did eat some of Fik's organisms, and I've slowly being growing crazy since.”

“That's one possible approach, yes. Back home, a predator like him... well, blackmail is a crime, and so is trying to force a marriage.”

“What's the punishment?”

“Do you see Sathie's knife? It's for dealing with predators that look like they're going to hurt people, no matter how many legs they have. Where we come from there are different laws in different places, in the place that Sathie used to live, the law is that if a male tries to force himself upon a female, then the female can use her knife to wound, to neuter, or to kill. Other places, it would be imprisonment.”

“To neuter?”

“The exact anatomy is different, but much as is done with draft-beasts.”

Hani looked at Mick's arms, puzzled, and he laughed.

“I did say the anatomy is different. I was very surprised when I realised why some draft-beasts had scars on their elbows, and others had bulges.”

“But milk-glands are in the same place,” Hani pointed out.

“Just the right place for cradling young when upright, yes. Further discussion on this subject should, I think, wait until Lana can interpret for you, with Sathie doing most of the answering.”

“You have been kind.”

“You are the relative of my half-mother. I do not know what else to call Lana. She calls me her podling, and I inherited many organisms from her, but I was alive for over thirty years before she rescued me, and when she rescued me she consumed quite a lot of me for her own needs. And in case you're wondering, my parents and Lana have met.”

“In some ways, you podded with Lana, didn't you?”

“No. Or you are saying that Lana also podded with animals she hosted?”

“No.”

“Good. Reproduction was never the goal, it was about research and then rescue. I think there will need to be a new term for what exists between me and Lana.”

“Your saviour?”

“That's a term I use for Jesus, the man who was God.”

“Your theology is wrong. A man cannot be God.”

“Thousands of confused theologians would agree with you. But nevertheless, the second of the three who are One became a frail human baby, was born, was raised, lived, called the first of the three his Father, and the third of the three his Spirit, taught, fulfilled prophecies, was arrested and died a criminal's death although he was perfectly innocent, and in accordance with the will of the first of the Three, returned to life. He offers life to all who choose to accept his free offer of total and absolute forgiveness, and he has been given all power and authority and worship, that at his name all will bow, either willingly or later, when he returns to judge the living and the dead.”

“Total and absolute forgiveness?” Hani asked.

“Yes. You can choose to accept it as long as the day it is called today, but of course eventually the day becomes too late.”

“As it is too late for Fik.”

“The judge of all the universe will do right. Fik will be judged according to how he responded to what he had heard.”

“He trusted the One. That didn't keep him safe.”

“Eternally speaking, I'm sure it did.”

“A lovely cop-out. Why does pain happen, then? Why do bad things happen?”

“You mean, things like, why did I bash my head, crash my space-ship on Lana's head, burning half her organisms, get a rib through my heart, get digested alive by a strange alien life-form — Lana — and separated from everyone I love for six years? I think that all happened so I could have conversations like this one I'm having with you, Hani. Normally, I'm not a patient language learner, ask my sister, but I didn't have much option when I was embedded in Lana's shoulder, did I? Other than going totally mad, I mean. I contemplated it quite seriously, but the One told me to be patient. What I'm saying is that perspective helps a lot, Hani. And maybe Vic's leaving was to allow you to have this conversation with me. I don't know. But feel free to discuss it all with Lana. We're here, and Sathie and I have to go back.”

“What do you mean, we're here?”

“That is Yasfort, down there, and the cave we're heading to is where old Yasfort is. Magdalena's cave, if you've heard of it, is that one over there, with the rectangular trench in front of it.”

“It's real? I thought it was just a story!” Hani exclaimed.

“Feel free to go look for yourself, I'm sure Lana can arrange it.”

----------------------------------------

OUTSIDE THE CITY, NOON.

“I've discovered something. I hate not knowing what you're saying,” Sathie said.

“You'd like a crash-course in speaking local?”

“Yes!”

Mick looked at his lovely wife. “Did you know that Rachel's grandma and my grandma knew each other?”

“No.”

“When they were working on the bubble drive.”

“Oh. What's the relevance of this?”

“Rachel's grandma learned a trick from her mother, who had the gift: how to pass on memory balls. Gran learned it, and taught me. It's risky.”

“Risky how?”

“Well, say I give you a memory of when I first saw you. You then have a memory of seeing yourself for the first time and thinking wow she's fascinating, and it's your memory. Remembering starting to fall in love with yourself can get really confusing.”

“But you could give me a memory of being on Lana's shoulder?”

“And then it would be your memory, influence your dreams and the way you react to Lana, and everything. People with the gift can keep them separate, consult them like a reference library. We don't get that privilege. It's a direct write into your long term memory.”

“So you need to keep it really neutral, facts and figures, things like that?”

“And pronunciations of words, but not when I learned them. The best thing, apparently, is if I'm actually in a room with lots of actual objects I can name. Second best is a picture, but again, nouns are easier than verbs.”

“Not in a mangled spaceship hovering a hundred meters above the road, you mean?”

“Well, I guess I can think of the words for the things I see.”

“Could you?”

“Please.”

“You'd better get behind me, then, beloved. And no, I don't mean hug me.”

“Why not?”

“You want emotionally charged thoughts wrapped up in your vocab list?”

“I guess not.”

“I know, I'll start in the kitchen.”

“OK. Any reason why?”

“Tradition. That's where Rachel's grandma first gave someone a language lesson by memory ball.”

“Who was that?”

“A friend of hers, Renata Dubois, who also worked on Bubble theory for a while.”