Chapter 34
..[ SYLVIA ]..
It had been Helbos in Garine, and the natives at Quei referred to them as Helfos. But the idea was the same; beings wielding power that sounded suspiciously similar to what Jacy and the others called the Energy. It had been an offhand question, even Sylvia didn’t remember why she had asked it. But she had, and she had gotten an answer. The only difference between the two was the fact that the Helfos were very real to the Quei. They claimed that they visited once every few Years or so. From what she had understood, the Helfos visited the planet once every six Years and their last visit had been just Weeks before the Swift arrived.
Mativo obviously wanted to chase. He had gotten out of the funk he had fallen into after the whole Garine situation after his hunting trip with Mondhe. Some wanted to wait. Some were very keen on going back. She didn’t know what the waiters wanted to wait for, or why the others were keen on running away. She wanted to follow them, albeit cautiously. She thought that the experiences they had been through had prepared them for going toe to toe with an equally powerful civilization. A superior civilization? That might be a little too much for them at the time. They had already moved a quarter arc from Ũsumbĩ IV, if there was another expansive civilization in the Milk Way, it had covered no more than half of the galaxy. The same could be said about them.
The Quei hadn’t given them much information about them, except that they looked like some of the humans. And that they had pointed ears instead of the rounded ones the humans had. Sylvia had tried asking more questions, a lot more. But either they didn’t understand her, or they simply didn’t know. Sylvia had left it at that and hoped that the next civilization they met would know more.
“Do you know why we were called here?” Andrew asked, bringing her out of her reverie.
“I got the same memo you got,” Park said. “Who send it?”
“Mondhe,” Jacy answered. Sylvia hadn’t known that. She had suspected, but she hadn’t known for sure.
“She says she has great news for us all,” Mativo said as he joined them in the shuttle bay. “And that we should receive it with open hearts. No judgement.”
“That just makes me worried,” Dominic said. Having returned from clearing the Shuttle Bay of all personnel. Why that had been necessary, Sylvia couldn’t tell.
“Yeah, when someone tells you that, it’s usually because they want to tell you something you might not be okay with. Emphasis on the not okay part.”
Mbithe too was there, completing the list of people that Mondhe wanted to… then it clicked. The Shuttle Bay, the whole secrecy thing; the only thing Mondhe had that ticked both those boxes was the shuttle. And just as she had that thought, the hangar doors opened and it appeared. A sleek black thing that just wanted to disappear.
“That thing will disappear into space; you will not be able to see it!” Park exclaimed. “I want it.”
Everyone turned to look at him. “Tell me you don’t wish it was yours, and I’ll call you a liar.”
“I’m not into black, but…” Mbithe trailed off. She didn’t need to finish that statement. The shuttle had an allure of its own.
It had a background low hum, the sound of a powerful beast wanting to be released. It definitely looked powerful. Compare to the body frame she had been given to work with, it looked smaller somehow. Sylvia suspected it was the embedded engines. For the main ship and the shuttles, the engines were held to the side of the ship clear of the hull with pylons. Mondhe had embedded hers into the hull itself. So seamless that the hull appeared like a continuous curve on the sides. Its front was slightly elongated, giving it a more streamlined body than all the other shuttles but the Class Zero a.k.a. the Racers.
They started moving around it as it settled down in the middle of the Shuttle Bay. Other than the engines to the back, everything seemed continuous. The shuttle hissed and a small door-sized latch opened to a very anxious looking Mondhe. She stepped down as the latch-door closed behind her. Then another hiss and the lower back slowly rose up disappearing into the upper part of the shuttle. It presented an opening around two and half meters tall and as wide as the interior of the shuttle.
They spend the next thirty minutes touring every nook and cranny of the shuttle. When Sylvia was done, she found Mondhe with Mativo a few meters to the side, talking about what, she couldn’t even guess.
“What do you think?” Mondhe asked as she approached them.
“I… I don’t know what to say. A good I don’t know,” she rushed to add. “Wow. That’s… wow.”
She turned to stare at the shuttle again in wonder. A fifteen year-old had done that. What was she doing at fifteen? Running around the beaches of her home and wishing the local village boys would notice her. There was also school, but that was just what everyone else was doing.
“Thanks,” Mondhe told her. “He just said it was nice.”
“How could you?” Sylvia was seriously angry with Mativo then. Very angry.
“What? I added—”
“Yes. Very nice.” Mondhe finished for him.
“I should castrate you right now,” Sylvia knew she was losing control, and she didn’t care anymore.
“There is a child present.”
“And she should know her father-figure is a ball-less idiot.” She took Mondhe’s hand then, part to ground herself and part to lead her away from Mativo. “Come. Let me show you what I liked best about your shuttle.”
An hour later, after everyone showered her with praises and congratulations for her accomplishment, she left for her maiden voyage. But only after strict instructions not stray too far and to be back in two Days-time. She had wanted a whole Week out, even Sylvia had not liked that idea at all.
…
A few Days later found them in another inhabited planet. From orbit, it had looked a lot like an industrial era Earth. What with all those soot spewing ships on the oceans and in the large cities. There had been a debate on whether electricity had been invented. It had. And if cars too had been. None that they had seen.
Due to the suspicion that they were within, or already in, another power’s territory, their advances had become something of sneaks. Once they had been more than sure there was no other ships around the planet, they had send twenty Class Four shuttles and the main ship retreated to the shadow of a moon orbiting one of the two giants in the system. There was still the risk that they could be discovered, but they had agreed it was worth it. And that the new power would have to be aware of their presence to know to look for them.
The Class Fours had been chosen for their smaller size, easily concealable in a relatively forested area. The Class Seven shuttles were just too big for that. After landing in a relatively secure area, a group of six was left behind to guard the shuttle while the other three groups spread out to their destinations.
“You are saying this is how Earth look liked two hundred Years ago?” Mondhe asked after Jacy had made an off-hand comment about how the planet reminded her of Earth two hundred Years ago.
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Mondhe had returned as she had been instructed to. She had been happy, claiming that the shuttle worked even better than she had hoped. Meaning she had pushed it to the edge of its capabilities in terms of speed, weaponry, sensors, etcetera. Sylvia didn’t even want to think about where she had tested those weapons. They were in an unknown power’s territory for crying out loud. To Mativo’s credit, once he learnt of the weapons’ testing, he had advised the ship to perform evasive maneuvers while increasing speed from cruising to near top speed. It had been luck that had let them find the planet.
“Two hundred, a hundred, hell for some areas, this was fifty years ago.” Mativo looked around for a while, then added, “Well, seventy years now. But you get the point. Not all areas of a planet, or even a nation, develop at the same pace.”
They continued trudging through the forest, keeping an eye and ear out for anything that could be a native. If the natives were in contact with the Helfos, it was best that they don’t learn of their group’s presence on the planet. That would be a sure way for the Helfos to know about them. They were keeping from the roads for that same reason. Their goal was to learn as much as they could without making contact at all. After that, they could decide the safest places to make contact that wouldn’t raise too many questions.
The few glimpses of the roads they had seen were either dirt roads or murramed. They were heading in the general direction of a large city they had seen while in orbit. It was most probably the largest in the whole planet. The risk of discovery there was greater and at the same time it wasn’t. If they behaved like humans, then most natives would leave them alone as long as they didn’t stand out. It had taken a lot of convincing to have Mondhe hide her tail. She even walked funny, like the tail was essential for her balance. Sylvia wouldn’t pretend to know what was and wasn’t necessary for her to walk properly.
The first time they saw the natives, there was a sigh of relief. From a far they appeared humanoid enough that it looked like with a set of local clothing, they could fit right in. But the third time they saw them, it was from up close. And unless they had a bag of soft feathers and beaks, they were not going to fit in with the locals. They could, if they covered everything but the eyes. Sylvia doubted that would be the kind of not standing out they wanted. They had found a dead native in the forest they were trekking through. The body appeared to have been dragged from somewhere else and dumped there.
The native had black small soft feathers starting at the forehead and growing backwards to just before the neck. The feathers changed color progressively until they were a dark red at the base of the head. They had light-toned skin. They had human-like eyes with yellow-brown iris and no eyebrows. There was no noticeable nose present, but they had a upper beak that stretched from just below the eyes going downward expanding until it reached where a mouth should be. On the lower side, there was no chin. Just the lower beak, going back to just below the ears.
And that was not the end of the differences. The hands ended in claws for nails. But they had been clipped. The feet had a small sole with the toes stretching outward to provide the necessary base for balanced walking.
If they wanted to stay undetected, mingling in with the natives was completely out of the question.
“There is no getting into the city now,” Mondhe said. “Can I lose my tail now?”
“We can still blend in with the right kind of lighting,” Mativo said.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Mondhe asked, looking from Mativo to the dead native. “What kind of lighting would be right enough to hide our differences?”
“He means darkness,” Jacy explained.
“Not necessarily. Even the late dusk could be enough for us to blend in,” Mativo said. He turned to look at the overhead star peeking through the tree tops.
“What about clothing?” Sylvia asked. The dead native was dressed in washed out browns for the pants and a grey shirt.
“We can throw those over our combat suits, they are tight enough it won’t look that ungainly,” Jacy said.
“After we lose our weapons and the Suit Control Unit.”
“The weapons can be repositioned,” Mativo said. Then he stood with a slightly puffed out chest. He looked at his back saying, “With a readjustment to our posture, we should be able to account for the SCU’s bulge.”
“That will be a lot of work. Very stressful,” Sylvia pointed out.
“We have a lot of Hours to practice and get the details right. Besides—”
A notification for incoming communication from their Comms interrupted Mativo. It was a broadcast message to all crew. Sylvia opened hers.
Unknown ship planet bound. Swift discovery highly improbable. Caution advised.
“We need to know where they will land,” Mativo said as he quickly tapped at his Comms.
“At one of the cities,” Sylvia thought that was obvious.
“Yes. But which city and where in that city,” Mativo clarified. “Inside or outside. We need a watch.”
Sylvia realized that Mativo was speaking whatever he was typing. “You are going to sacrifice a shuttle?”
“Hmm?”
“A watch. A shuttle will need to move to orbit.” She clarified.
“No. Only if no one is near the landing site. And only if we will gain something from the exposure. They will be watching from the ground. Also, we need to move.”
“What?” Mondhe asked as she moved to joined Mativo. He had already started moving at a fast pace. Sylvia and the others were a step behind.
“We have to be at or near our destination in case they decide to land there,” Mativo said, easily jumping over a log. Mondhe was even more graceful. When Sylvia tried, she clipped her toe on the top of the log and nearly fell forward. Jacy’s hand her only stabilizer.
By the time they came within the vicinity of the city, Sylvia was sweating. Even with the Suit Control Unit trying to keep her body temperature down. They had come down from a region of high elevation, with the city sprawled below them. They could see all its entirety. With a river from the forest they were on the edges of, snaking its way through the city and out into a lake. The city didn’t stretch to the shores of the lake, hinting at a possible rise and fall of the lake’s shores.
There was another notification before Mativo said, “It’s heading our way.” He sounded eager as he looked up around, trying to spot it. “Sighted,” he said as he tapped away at his Comms.
Soon enough, Sylvia saw it too. It was the size of their Class Four shuttle, maybe even smaller. But the delta wings made it look bigger. With the four engines mounted to its body, two above and two below the wings, they gave it a more cubical shape with a protrusion in the front. Its main body and the wings were silver while the engines were black with three stripes running along their lengths.
Looking down at the city, Sylvia couldn’t see anywhere for the shuttle to land inside the city. Unless it chose to land in the middle of the roads. And even those weren’t big enough to accommodate the shuttle, never mind the wings. The buildings didn’t look big enough or strong enough to land on top of. That left outside the city.
And true enough, it came to a hovering stop before it landed on a clearing less than hundred meters from the edge of the city proper. It was too out in the open, it would be risky to even try and get close.
“Anyone with a pair of binoculars?” Mativo asked, looking around the group. “A spyglass? Anything?”
They stared at each other dumbly. As the Helfos got out of the shuttle, she realized that they were too far away for them to see nothing but small grey figures moving into the city proper. Sylvia thought she had seen black within the grey but she couldn’t be certain.
“I guess we are getting closer then,” Mativo said. Sylvia was sure it was meant to sound dejected but he just couldn’t keep the happy tone from his voice.
Luckily for them, the shuttle had landed on their side of the river. Unluckily, it had landed on the lake side of town while they were on the high side. They had to circle around half the city to get anywhere near the shuttle. The trip took two hours of careful movements to avoid drawing attention to themselves. They couldn’t move fully back into the forest. First, they didn’t want to risk the shuttle leaving without them knowing. And second, the forest didn’t stretch all the way around. Only about half way. The rest was farmland, with the shuttle in the space between farmland and city. From far away, Sylvia couldn’t tell what kind of crop it was but it looked like bushes.
It took them more than an hour to get to the farmland. And Sylvia was happy to find the bushes close, thick and waist high. They had to crouch through the farmland but the bushes kept their progress hidden and steady. Half an hour later and they were less than hundred meters from the shuttle. When they came, they would be able to tell exactly who the Helfos were. They all had their suspicions, but it would be nice to have confirmation.
They spent the next two hours waiting. They couldn’t talk with each other or do anything really. There was no telling what the Helfos were capable of. Some of the hybrids could pick up whispers from their distance. It was best to be safe than sorry. Then Jacy signaled them, and they all turned to look.
There was movement from the city, eleven individuals were making their way towards the shuttle. All tall. Sylvia had been right. Their uniform was a grey-silver color with patches of black from the shoulders to the elbows. And again from the waist to the knees along the outside of the thigh.
Their helmets were either absent or opened fully exposing their whole heads. Of the eleven, she counted seven brown-haired and two blacks. The ones with black hair also had purple-hued skin. The brown-haired either had green or white-hued skin. Then there were the blonde and red heads. Both of them were white-hued. And the few ears she spotted were all pointed, slightly angled backward.
One of them threw a glance in their direction, causing Sylvia’s heart to nearly skip a beat. She held her breathe as they stared for a second too long. Then they quickly embarked on their shuttle and it left for orbit. She didn’t see any more details to tell exactly what they looked like, but it was clear as day what they were.
“Elves.”