Jethro: First to Fight (60 page)

“I see,” Deja murmured.

“Damn that was fun!” Tikaani said,
shaking herself. “Nice work out. Worth the effort to help these people.”

The mayor broke off from the people
congratulating and patting the native. He came over, nodding to the Marines.
“My people thank you for the services you have done here. We are in your debt.”

“It's not a problem. We enjoyed it,”
Tikaani replied. “Besides, we're here to help if we can,” she said.

“I see. Thank you.”

“It's great when we can join work and
pleasure,” a wolf Private said.

The mayor glanced at each of them
briefly. Slowly he nodded. “Call of the wild. It's strong here, the call of
blood and kinmanship. I think you're hearing it too,” the mayor said softly,
studying the Selkie. “Been long without seeing your people?”

“Ages. It seems like forever. But I'm
not from Agnosta.”

“Ah.”

“It might be a good thing. But you won't
get a warm reception. The nearest Selkie colony is ten clicks north. Follow the
shore line and you'll find it easily enough.”

“Thanks.”

...*...*...*...*...

Ten kilometers further north, Deja found
what he had been looking for. He found a lost colony of Selkie walrus and seals
living half in, and half out of the water. Much like their bodies, they were
split in their living.

Right off, from their expressions he
realized that they were isolationist, Inuit like. Occasionally they traded or
were raided by Eskimo wolves or humans. Males and females basked on the rocks,
some of the large alphas snoozed drowsily in the warm sun. A giant one ton
walrus rubbed and twitched his snoot, but didn't respond when a female passed
him by. She slapped him on the rump earning a grunt of irritation, but
otherwise didn't get a response. She snorted and then moved on.

“Fishing good?” Deja asked, nodding to
an old battle scared male. The Marine took his top off and tied the sleeves
around his waist.

“What's it to ya outsider?” The elder
asked, basking in the sun.

“Curious. You seem to be very relaxed.”

“We're waiting for the tide,” the elder
said. “Best move along. Nothing here for you.”

“Actually, I'm here for you.”

“We're not interesting in trading,” the
elder said. A walrus further away honked. A female looked up and turned baleful
eyes on the elder. Eventually he squinted an eye open and caught the look. He
sighed. “Fine fine,” he grumbled, opening both eyes and getting up.

“Sorry, I don't mean to be a bother. I'm
on a mission of first contact.”

“Really, you don't say.”

“We don't want any,” another male
honked. “Send him away or I will,” he said. Deja looked at the male. He had a
cross bow speargun and a broken tusk. He didn't look at all happy about the
Marine in their midst.

“I've been sent with a care package. A
radio, some medicines, and other goods,” Deja said, taking his pack off.

“Really,” the elder said. “And what do
you want to trade for it? Like we need it.”

“We do too need it! The medicine at
least!” a female growled. He turned and growled back. She shut up, cowed by the
larger male.

“It's free. Courtesy package,” the
Marine replied.

“Oh really. So, you've delivered your
package, now go.”

“I'm actually interested in your people.
There aren't many of our kind left in the sector. The Horathians have been busy
wiping them out.”

“So?”

“Did they bother you when they came
through two years ago?”

“Nope,” the elder said. He took the
radio out, looked it over, and then casually dropped it. A flippered foot
crushed it. “Oops,” he said casually. Deja winced.

The casual destruction of something
artificial and obviously a gift to the community got the attention of others,
and the ire of a few of the female cows. In moments dozens were around them.

“Now see what you've done?” the elder
sighed in exasperation.

“The young one didn't do it, you did,” a
female said. Suddenly Deja remembered his reading of his people. There were
many females, dozens. There were a handful of males, all large dominant elders.
Each were battlescared, each had a harem of females and their own territory.
Bachelor males were kept to the fringes of the society. Could that be the
reason for the hostility? Were they worried he was going to stay?

“What was it anyway?” a female asked,
picking up the bits. They watched her examine them.

“A radio. A device used to communicate
with others. To let you know of a storm or trouble, or visitors coming. And to
let the world at large know if you had something to trade or needed medicine if
illness or hunger struck.”

“Ah, a nice thing to have,” a female
said.

“If I had kept it you would have been
tempted to use it,” the male said in his own defense.

“To have it one does not necessarily
need to use it. But it is nice to have in need. Now we don't.”

“I can get you another if I visit
again.”

“Ah, so this is a visit?” a cow asked.
Deja nodded. She sighed, cocking her expressive head. “Pity.”

“Yes ma'am a visit.”

“Did you come far?”

“From the other side of the world. Oh,
well, I'm not from this world originally if that is what you mean.”

Her expressive eyes flared wide. There
were a bit of mixed breeding going on, genes from seals of different breeds as
well as sea lions. Her small frame and lack of spots said she was more sea lion
than seal.

“Why do you wear this?” a small voice
barked, tugging on his pants. He looked down to see pups around this feet.

“I'm a Marine. We wear clothes most of
the time. I don't usually wear them in the water.”

“Have you been in the water?”

“Not in the past few days. I've been
flying a lot?”

“You can fly?” a voice asked dripping in
excitement and disbelief.

“As if.”

“I'm actually a pilot too. I left my
shuttle about twelve kilometers south of here.”

“Then why don't you go back to it?” A
male grumbled.

“I'm trying hard not to take offense at
that,” Deja sighed.

“You have not been with your own kind
young one?”

“I'm not that young, I've had modern
medicine. And no, not in over two decades. I was afraid I was the last.”

“Oh.”

The elders were clearly not interested
in the outside world. At first, the leaders ignored him but the young pups were
interested in him because he was new and a stranger with strange things. It was
ever the way, they were interested in something new, a different path.

The females hung onto his every word,
which annoyed many of the men. Deja wasn't sure what to make of it. Were they
truly interested in the stories or because he was from far away? Or was it
something else, a way to get their mates jealous?

He spent long hours talking with them,
exchanging stories. Theirs was a difficult life. In the warm period they fished
and gathered food like sea weed and other things. A few of the Selkies had set
up off shore farms in the sea bed, they dived for clams, crustaceans and other
things. Groups used improvised rakes to dig for muscles on the shore.

He helped where he could, digging or
hauling nets. But still, the females and pups came and asked their questions.

The attention got the ire of the leaders
as well as the young male Selkies who thought of him as competition. The second
evening he left the camp and moved into the woods. The Selkies were tied to the
sea, they rarely ventured into the woods. He made a fire and called in a
report, then bedded down for the evening. It was short, the days were long and
the nights short, but he got enough down time to feel refreshed. He returned to
the camp with some food and branches.

“Ever we need such things. They are
useful to the hunters and to those who work with the nets,” a grandam said. She
was one of the few elders who didn't mind him. She seemed a bit strange, but
wise.

As he walked along the shore a walrus
blocked his way. When he tried to get around the walrus moved to block him
again. “Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but you are blocking my way,” Deja
said.

“Leave then,” the walrus said.

“Fine,” Deja turned back and then made a
wide circle around the male. The male blew an annoyed raspberry when he
realized the Selkie Marine had retreated, but then a blant of anger when he
realized he had been out maneuvered.

The male came to him as he knelt and
worked with a party of fishers. “Now what?” Deja asked impatiently when the
shadow of the giant grew close. He'd seen him approach on his implants. He
turned just in time to be body checked. The male had hit him with a head butt.
Deja had taken the blow not on his head but on his shoulder. He hissed as he
was knocked off balance.

“Now look,” he said, hand flippers up.
The male flashed green canines as he opened his mouth. Deja acted. He stepped
in close, grabbing an arm and then turning to have his back to his enemy. The
male roared as the smaller Selkie pulled him. The roar of amusement turned to
shock as the walrus was yanked off his feet in a perfectly executed hip toss.
He floundered in the air for a brief half second then slammed hard onto his
back. He gasped, looking up at his opponent in shock.

Deja grabbed his throat, pinning the
larger Selkie there with his enhanced strength. “Listen you ignorant idiot. I'm
not here for long. You go your way, I'll go mine. Get in my way again and I'll
break your spine. Understood?” he snarled, showing his own canines.

The male felt the incredible strength in
that hand flipper. If his enemy bore down with his weight he could easily crush
his throat. He nodded, cowed.

Deja let him up warily, stepping back
out of reach. The male rubbed his throat and moved off. Deja looked around to
see others looking at him. He shrugged, meeting stare for stare. “That's what
it means to be a Marine. I could have been harder on him. I wasn't. Don't screw
with me and I won't screw with you.”

“Oh, that's disappointing then,” a
female said. He turned to the cow. She fluttered her eyes at him, obviously
flirting. He snorted softly. She was a full arctic Selkie. An off white, with
black and gray shading on her back. Black splotches marked her back and sides.
She had incredibly short arms. She reminded him of a T Rex for some reason.

There was something there, something in
her expressive brown eyes though. Something he wanted to fall into, just drink
from and never come out of. “Hey girl,” he said lamely, brain lapsing.

“That's the best pick up line you've
got?” she asked coyly. She smiled slightly, turning and flirting with him.

“Sorry, first thing that came to mind,”
Deja replied. “Corporal Deja, Marine corps pilot and recon.”

“I know who you are,” she murmured,
twitching her whiskers. She raised her head and sniffed him, drinking in his
scent. “You're new. I like that.”

“Indeed,” another female said, eying
him. The female had a staff, she was old, hunched over, clutching the staff.
She had a shark's tooth necklace, and more shark's teeth tied to the tip of her
staff.

“He is a stranger to our people and our
lands. A stranger to our customs it seems.”

“Not completely strange ma'am,” Deja
said, bowing ever so slightly to the female. “I did do some research.”

“Ah.”

“And I heard stories,” he said.

“I see. And so polite,” the grandam
said. “I am Koko this is my granddaughter Kirima.”

“Kirima, it means hills in Inuit.”

“You know the language?” the elder
female asked.

“Yes. Well, some. I have implants,” Deja
replied, tapping his brow.

“Implants.”

“Cybernetic implants.”

“I see. Is that how you threw Yutu so
easily?” the female asked slyly.

He shrugged, looking at the limping
male. Yutu meant claw in Inuit. “That and a bit of Kung Fu,” he replied.
“Simple hip throw.”

“Ah, I see,” the female said, clearly
amused. “You are a wise one.”

“Just... cosmopolitan ma'am,” Deja said
diplomatically. He didn't want to come off as uppity and better than them. He
was in some ways, but in others different. Just different.

“Ah. Well, you and Kirima are quite a
pair. We had thought of wedding her to a cousin, but he has yet to come up with
the bride price, the dower.” She shook her head. “The last time he tried the
fish had rotten before he had gathered half.”

“I see,” Deja said slowly, clearly off
balance. He felt a sinking sensation. “And I see you have some experience with
the outer world.”

“I do indeed. It is I who usually trade
with the outside world. I who do most of the medicine. The tribe would think
that we live apart, but they look to me for medicines when their pups or loved
ones get sick. Some would scoff, say that they should live or die, but when
they are injured by a shark, that tone changes fast.” She smiled, twitching her
whiskers.