Alien Alliance (42 page)

Li was in tears as they finished up. She
muttered to Stella, “I’m going to Choose him now.”

Stella grabbed her and held on. “Oh no
you’re not! Don’t you be so self centred! He needs his sleep if
he’s going to survive the night. He doesn’t need a
distraction.”

“But he might die!”

“Yes he might. But if he has a good sleep
now he has more of a chance to live!”

“But he doesn’t know I love him!”

“The whole bloody Planet knows! Well the
ones who went with you up North all know; the way you two carried
on.”

Li blushed, “But I haven’t told him. And
he’s all I’ve got!” She started to cry.

“Li, you have a sister and a mother. We will
always be there for you,” and Stella held Li as she cried.

“What’s Li upset about?”

“Take an educated guess Kaz,” said Stella
dryly. Li blushed even more as Kaz smiled.

“The war won’t last forever Li,” he
said.

“Go and give Az a kiss and don’t say
anything to distract him. He needs to sleep.”

Li went over to Az and kissed him. “See you
when you wake up,” she said with a smile she didn’t feel and patted
him on the backside as he turned away.

Twelve hours later, Kaz and Az all ready to
go, Li and Az kissed soundly again and Li said fiercely, “You come
back to me!”

Az smiled, “Promise,” he said. Li looked up
in shock. He had spoken in English! She had been so used to the
Translator answering after he spoke that it had been a second
before it had registered that only he had spoken, not the
Translator.

Az and Kaz got up into the planes and left,
Li still a little stunned. She wondered later if that had been his
intention; to distract her.

The first part of the journey, they stayed
together, able to talk via ship to ship communicators that had a
very narrow band and a short range. They were flying low but over
miles and miles of ocean. They had chosen a route that took them
over sea as far as possible.

“I’ve been thinking. I think we should glide
over the cities. No engine noise,” said Az.

“Yeah, I thought that too.”

“Do you think Li will Choose me?”

“I think she would have today and Stella
stopped her so it wouldn’t distract you. I overheard part of their
conversation.”

“Do you think Stella will Choose you?”

“I hope so. I don’t know. I know she likes
me. Kelly’s watching me like I’m a threat!”

“Just think if we turned up home with a girl
each! Mum would think it was wonderful.”

“Do you realise we each come from different
planets? Where would we live? They’ll probably want to live on
their world. We’d be freaks on their planet. And they are so
different to us. We keep expecting them to act like us but they
don’t.”

“True. Well the ones here have got used to
us all right. Imagine a whole world of hairless people.”

“Yeah, weird.”

“Kelly says there are some who look like us.
She said their pelts aren’t nearly as good though. She also said
they have 104 boys born to every 100 girls, but that does vary a
bit from country to country.”

“That’s hard to believe. I heard her say
that too.”

“Stella doesn’t know her father. She told me
he took off before Stella was born. He went off with another woman.
Can you imagine that! Simone’s husband is even worse. He’s trying
to kill her and Dieter. How could a man want to kill his own wife
and child?”

“I know. I heard the women talking. They
weren’t shocked; well not like we are. There’s something very wrong
with some of these Terran men. They don’t treat their women right.
They cheat on them and some even kill them. Rani said it isn’t even
against the law in some countries. There are even men who have
several wives! But she also said some wives and girl babies are
still killed. Some boy babies too, but almost all of the babies
killed are girls. Li says some of the men regard women as their
property, including their daughters. It’s like the women are
things, not people. She says it’s a very pervasive attitude and so
many men have it to some extent. One of the things she noticed
about us is that we respect women and value them.”

“She got that right!”

“Li says so many men kill their wives that
it’s scary.”

“I don’t know how to take this. They seem so
normal here but what they say is mind numbing. It’s perverted. How
can their society survive like this?”

“Li says the men are in control and don’t
value women and children. She says it’s slowly changing but when
the law makers, law enforcers and lawyers are mostly men it’s badly
biased.”

“Did you tell her what it’s like in
Petislay?”

“Yeah but I don’t think she believed
me.”

“Do you think she just might go with
you?”

“I don’t know,” said Az slowly, “She’s
definitely interested. I told her what the law is like on Petislay
and what her rights would be. We talked a lot.”

“Oh is that what you were doing? Talking
with your hands? If Kelly finds out you’re for it.”

Az blushed. “We didn’t do anything we
shouldn’t. She hasn’t Chosen me.”

“Looks like she’s close!”

“I know. I don’t know what to do. Kelly
tells me she’s too young.”

“No she isn’t!”

“She is by their law.”

“On Terra? This isn’t Terra! And once she’s
Chosen only she can change her mind. Kelly can’t do it for
her.”

“That’s our law. It’s not theirs.”

“Their law is a puzzle. I don’t understand
it. How come she has to reach 16? Girls can have babies younger
than that. It’s safe three years after they mature and that’s 13 to
14 so why 16? If she’s young she has to have her parent’s consent.
Stella told me. But Li’s parents are dead. What happens then?”

“I don’t know. But she’s awfully lonely,
even with Stella and Kelly.” He sighed, “Stella had a few choice
words with me after we got back and she’d talked to Li. She
demanded to know if I was serious about Li. She said Li’s feeling
so alone. She hasn’t any brothers or sisters and neither did her
parents. Her grandparents are dead. She feels all alone even though
Kelly is adamant she is now her mother. And she’s not as strong as
Stella. Stella says she’s really fragile.”

“Yes I know. You’d look after her better
than any Terran man would! But, what do we tell them about us? That
we can’t father children without help. You know we have to declare
that.”

“No we don’t. That’s Niseyen law. That’s not
Terran law. And Helkmid treated us. He said our genes are
fixed.”

“He said probably. He said he needs to check
in a few weeks time. What if the treatment didn’t work? What if
we’re not close enough genetically?”

“Helkmid said it would work.”

Kaz decided not to argue. Az had been very
sensitive ever since both of them had been tested as adolescents
and failed the tests. Az had been devastated. Kaz less so as their
father had been the same. Kaz was more of a realist. It was after
this that Az had been determined to find a career attractive to
women. Their parent’s limited financial resources to help virtually
determined the final choice of something with on the job training.
Both were bright enough for higher education but lacked the money
to spare considering what their medical costs would be to start a
family even with the first child rebate. They flew in silence for a
few minutes.

“If Stella Choose you and came too, maybe
they’d come to Petislay just to have a look. Once they see what
it’s like, surely they might think about staying? They’d have a
much better life.”

There was silence again for a while as they
negotiated some cliffs and started to fly over land.

“Some things about these Terrans are really
worrying me,” said Az. “Notice how good they all are with weapons.
Even their women and children.”

“Yes. Stella and Kelly played that Paint
Ball game. Almost all of them seem to have a scary accuracy.
Stella’s a lot better than me with those blow guns and I’m supposed
to be the professional fighter here.”

“Heck Bella and Bea can beat me. Their
aggression is really frightening. And their whole world is like
this?”

“They’ll make deadly enemies. It’s their
expectation that they can win that scares me; against a Keulfyd
force.”

“To see them train, I believe it. Those kids
are training four to six hours a day and they love it. Mathew
intends to use the kids as a first strike. He’s going to get them
into the cities to get in behind those bushes and shoot the pilots
as they get up. They’ve all got those camouflage suits and they
look just like another bush with a long branch. Since the blowguns
are silent, the pilots will think probably it’s insects stinging
them. The kids have to be accurate enough to hit skin or their
faces and they are! Mathew has made sure no one tells the kids that
they will be killing them though. Kelly reckons it will harm the
kids if they know that. Also she says the kids will be more
accurate if they think the pilots are just going to go to sleep.
Helkmid reckons it’ll take about an hour for the poison to kill,
depending on their size and how many hits they get. By 15 to 30
minutes, they should be too dizzy and too sick to fight. Mathew’s
right. If the various diseases and blowguns get enough of them
before the fighting starts it is a possibility. Just.

But it’s the training that gets me. The
adults put the kids into teams and make a game of it.” Az said
slowly. “And have you seen them training the adults to take over
the cities? To enter the buildings they have one group defending
and one group attacking and then next time they switch the Teams.
They train them way better than we were trained. Moving through the
cities, they go in groups of three or four. The fastest one in
front, that they sometimes call point, two on either side and one
to guard the rear, or take over point if the front one is killed.
Have you seen them enter a building? They do it better than our
best. Their technique is amazing. Mathew already knew how to do
this. What type of a world do they have with such an emphasis on
tactics that they all know it? Worst, they train them to keep
fighting if they are injured. They actually train them in how to
fire from the ground simulating injuries. If they are dying, they
are to guard the rear. All of them fight, including all the
women.

Mathew is sorting them out by ability and
those who are the fastest and the best shots. Helene is one of the
front ones. Mathew makes no concessions for the women. Only for the
children. He is counting all over 16 as adults. Mathew says they
have to get the armouries. The Cat’s job is to find out where they
are. And to determine where the barracks and headquarters are. They
frighten me. The adults and the children. They fight so well. They
are so dedicated. Yet if they were not, they could not win.

“You think they can win?”

“I do,” Az said slowly. “It is possible.
When you look at their attitude and their ability. Mathew says they
must. He says it’s win or die. I asked him if he really thinks they
can win. He told me it’s possible, if the diseases and the blow
guns kill enough before the actual fighting starts. But he says
it’s irrelevant. They fight and die or they fight and win. All or
nothing. No reserve. No plan B. And all are in agreement. They
think the Kepi are wrong. But strangely, they do seem to understand
that some are not fighters. They say some Terrans would refuse to
kill and just die. Mathew has planned it right down to equipment
failure with spare gloves and a spare blow gun each for the kids.”
Kaz paused thoughtfully for a minute then continued, “Something
Mathew said was very interesting. Mathew and I were arguing about
the women fighting and Mathew was saying women make the best
fighters under these circumstances because they are protecting
their people. He said men make better aggressors and women make
better defenders. This is a defender war. He said not only can you
not stop them fighting, it would make no sense. He said they will
fight to the death to defend their families.

Mathew also said women tend to fight more
with their brains. They are less reckless unless nothing else will
work. He said his father often reckoned women tended to see more
possibilities and took more opportunities offered, where men used
less tactics and were less inclined to change tactics and take an
opening when they saw one. It wasn’t that the men weren’t just as
bright and couldn’t think fast on their feet because they could. It
was that men stuck more to the plan while women would take a better
plan if they saw one. He said it might be because women were a
little more flexible and their multi-tasking abilities were better
than men’s. But you couldn’t count on it, and some men could
multi-task just as well or could be trained to.”

“But isn’t multi-tasking like flying a
plane? Male pilots are just as good as women. Oh. I remember being
told most women learn to fly faster than men do because they can
concentrate on several things at the same time. Multi-tasking.” Kaz
flew for a while, thinking.

There was a pause while Az checked his
Navigator. “Li tells me China has compulsory military training.
Women too. And in their armed forces, everyone has to have basic
military training. That’s cooks, clerks, doctors, drivers, everyone
with no exceptions. Like Kelly said. Every one can fight. We don’t
do that. Not even in our military schools. Li said one country,
Israel, has had compulsory military training for years and during
it, women are forbidden from getting pregnant. She also said women
are in the fighting forces in most countries. In the front lines.
Flying the fighter planes. They are only exempt if they are
pregnant and that’s only usually when they are too pregnant to
fight and tell their commanding officer. She says that can be
embarrassing if they Are the commanding officer.”