On Mars Pathfinder (The Mike Lane Stories Book 1) (33 page)

Achael, Hlef & Gilda

After embracing each of the girls and kissing them on the cheek, Gilda had them sit down. It was only then that the girls realized there was a hot pot of tea on the small table by the leather sofa. There were only two cups on it, but Gilda opened a small cupboard and brought out a third. The tea service and the cups were not china, as you might expect. They were pottery. Gilda acquired them from a potter named Firça who was located in Avanos, Turkey. She flew there every few years for a big shopping spree. It was one of Gilda’s weaknesses, but when you saw how colourful and ornately beautiful the items were, you completely understood. You could hardly move in her home kitchen for all the pottery she had collected. She had even taken Hlef to see Firça when she was a small child and still looked very human like. The teapot she had in her office was the one that Hlef had picked out during that trip.

Gilda asked after about her boys, the girls’ brothers, then made small talk for a bit about their research projects in low atmo flight systems that didn’t use alien tech. Finally she told the girls she had an important meeting to attend, but asked if they would stay down-side a while longer and have lunch with her, so she could meet them in the commissary in about ninety minutes. Hlef immediately spoke up for both of them indicating their pleasure to stay for lunch and meet their mother in the commissary when she was done with her meeting. She didn’t fool Gilda for a second, but Gilda also knew that there was a protocol being followed when Hlef was on her way down-side. She had created the protocol.

She had to make a phone call so the girls showed themselves out of her office. Passing through the reception area, they told Billy they were staying for lunch. He excused himself for just a moment and asked them to wait. Major Billy Harper called the service bay and informed the Duty Officer that the cargo shuttle would not be leaving until after lunch, at the General’s request. He also asked for the shuttle pilots to join him for lunch in the lower level cafeteria. They couldn’t really risk having a True-Blood Eben come up to the commissary during the morning of a weekday. He secretly got a thrill out of sitting around and having lunch while making small talk with an alien. It made him feel special. Lots of things he did with the aliens made him feel special.

He went back out to the foyer, and informed the two of them that he had ordered the shuttle departure to be delayed until after lunch. They thanked him, and Achael shook his hand. When Hlef shook his hand, standing a bit closer than was comfortable, she felt his other hand on her hip, putting something in her jacket pocket. He just winked at her, and wished her a safe journey. As the two women walked through the hall towards the commissary, Hlef reached in her pocket and felt the unmistakable shape and wrapping of a chocolate bar, and smiled. It would be of course, a Mars bar. It wasn’t the first time that Hlef and Billy had such an exchange on parting. She smiled at the other things they had occasionally done before parting.

Both Achael and Hlef felt a little bit better now that the drama was over. They were also glad to be having social time with their mother as well. They didn’t get to see her as much as they used to, and given their upbringing, they both secretly craved her presence and attention just as much as they did from their father, Hof, whenever he visited from Sapro.

Achael said she wanted to stop in the Logistics Planning Office to see if there was any word or pictures from Tech Sgt. Moesby, who had recently given birth to her first child. Achael, Hlef and Sharon had been quite close a few years ago while working on the X-303 project. They had stayed in occasional touch and tried to do lunch once or twice a year. Achael even tried to get her to come to Mars for a weekend, but she flatly refused. “I’m an Earth girl,” was all she would say. She didn’t say that the thought of travelling by folding engine terrified her in ways she simply couldn’t explain.

As it happened, Tech Sgt. Moesby, Sharon, was visiting the office with her newborn daughter, as new moms are want to do. Achael and Hlef walked in, Achael and Sharon both making sounds of welcome surprise. Hlef stuck with her, but she wasn’t really a baby person. Too much poopy-poopy, and not enough party-party.

Sharon was holding her baby, wrapped tightly in a swaddling blanket, and Achael peered closely at her, making all the right sounds and facial expressions. Hlef marvelled at her sister as she watched on. Achael was one of the deadliest warriors in this galaxy; and she was going goo-goo and gaa-gaa, like she knew what she was saying.

“Oh, I have something for you Achael,” Sharon said, surprised at herself for almost forgetting. “Here Hlef, hold Patty,” and with that, she thrust the small bundle, sleeping again, smelling of baby powder, into Hlef’s arm’s. Achael winked at Hlef, and walked behind Sharon to her desk. Sharon had no qualms about this. Given the Eben predilection to family and children in particular, that little bundle resting in Hlef’s arms was probably in the safest place it would ever be, for the rest of its life. Hlef looked at Achael and Sharon in surprise, looked down at the baby, then back up at them. She looked around the room, and several people, all with clearances that were beyond Ultra Top Secret, smiled at her. Seeing that little bundle of baby in those long gangly arms was indeed a little humorous.

Then it happened.

The bundle squirmed and made a
coo-oo
sound. Hlef looked down with her big dreamy blue eyes just as the baby opened her eyelids. The baby looked up at Hlef with her big (human-sized big) dreamy blue eyes. The fresh pink skin, the delicate amber coloured eyelashes, the brown hair, the warmth of the baby in the blanket, the smell of the fresh cleanliness of the baby, it all combined to have a profound effect.

Hlef made eye contact with the baby and couldn’t look away. The baby looked up at the top of Hlef’s head, and slowly wandered its gaze down to her chin. Then the baby focused again on Hlef’s eyes. The baby smiled. With that one stroke of the brush of life, Hlef was changed forever.

Hlef looked up at Sharon, who was quietly talking to Achael, and then back down at the baby. Gunnery Sergeant Rina Michaels (U.S. Army, on special assignment) came up beside Hlef with a chair, “Would you like a seat Ha-Lay-eff?” her south Georgia twang made the mispronunciation sound almost like it wasn’t one. Hlef smiled at her, and sat down slowly as Gunny held the chair for her.

She couldn’t take her eyes from the child. The little bundle of potential was an actual person. It was a living human being, a seedling that was going to grow into someone big, strong, smart, and wonderful. Hlef thought about how Gilda reacted to them during the times both pleasant and rough; how Hlef wanted to please her, and to have her around whenever possible, sometimes wanted to be just like her. Those things would be felt by Sharon and little baby Patty as well. Only Sharon and little baby Patty would have that all the time, every day. This little one would grow up with one mother and one father, instead of being raised by a community, a very loving and doting community, but a community nonetheless. It suddenly hit Hlef what she had missed. What all her sibs had missed. Even the True-Blood Eben had families like this on base and back on Sapro, but not the hybrids. Not the ones of her generation anyway.

Damn
, Hlef thought to herself,
I want one.

The thought surprised her. Hlef was the carefree spirit, the party girl, the one voted most likely to never settle down. She had never had a steady boyfriend, and scoffed at the idea of marriage and commitment. She smiled at the irony of the wanting. It would never happen. So far, hybrids had not been able to breed with humans, or True-Bloods, or with other hybrids. They were effectively, for want of another term, sterile.

The baby yawned and blinked her eyes a couple times, she squirmed a bit in the blanket. She seemed to be trying to nestle closer to Hlef’s not-too-small bosom. It took Hlef a moment to recall the tune and the words. She finally started gently rocking the baby from side-to-side, while sitting in the chair, softly singing:

Sleep, baby sleep,

The father guards the sheep,

Thine mother shakes the dreamland tree,

Down falls a gentle dream for thee,

Sleep, baby sleep,

Sleep, baby sleep.

Sleep, baby sleep,

Our cottage vale is deep,

The little lamb is on the green,

With snowy fleece, so soft and clean,

Sleep, baby sleep,

Sleep, baby sleep.

Hlef realized the room had gone dead silent. She looked up and everyone was staring at her. Sharon was smiling, Gunny Michaels had a tear rolling down her cheek, Achael’s eyes and mouth were wide open. Glancing at her, Sharon reached over and pushed up on Achael’s chin, who snapped her mouth shut.

The baby coo’d, gurgled, and (Hlef was sure) smiled at her again. Hlef smiled back down at the beautiful delicate bundle. Starting the gentle rocking motion again, she then lapsed into an Eben lullaby ballad she remembered, singing in a slow, lilting, alien accented voice:

Showa tao shumash, tre ota ola,

Kayam binta sa-kwo nah,

Labo koy ep-fran e amat tey ross,

Laba shpin shumash a-awa nah,

Koma hush e rel om tahsh,

Showa tao shumash, tre ota o—la.

As Hlef softly sang to the baby, Achael had tears forming in her own eyes at hearing the song. That song had often been chosen to sing her to sleep, so many nights, during her childhood visits to Sapro. Hof, their father, was the one that had first sung it to both of them. Achael quietly translated for the others in the room, while Hlef was singing.

Sunshine on baby, this brings life,

Kayam tree is just like night,

Mama holds your hand and loves you strong,

Daddy rocks the baby all through the night,

Safety sighs and dreams high sweet,

Sunshine on baby, this brings life.

The five women and two men in the room were all parents themselves. There wasn’t a dry eye when Hlef had finished the lullaby ballad. They were the first humans to ever hear an Eben lullaby. The moments when an Eben child was being laid down to rest, the time for a lullaby song, was considered an intensely emotional and private time for bonding between Eben parent and child. It was closely guarded from the humans that occasionally visited Sapro. By the time Hlef had finished the song, the baby’s eyes had closed, and she was fast asleep again. Hlef looked up, her own eyes moist, to see Achael standing over her, smiling.

“Sis, that was beautiful. I didn’t think you would ever remember those.”

Sharon was smiling and standing beside her. She held out her hands. Hlef stood and gently placed the small bundle in her arms. Sharon nudged her gently and said, “You’ve got the magic touch girlfriend. Maybe we need to find you a man?”

Hlef smiled, started to say something but stopped, did an about face; and walked hurriedly out of the room, arms tucked tightly under her elbows, and sunglasses back on her face.

Teviot Vallis

Blitowyn, Crequan and Ochalz gathered in the privacy of Crequan’s lavish quarters. He had banished his children to the common area, and after the Trigla servants laid out sumptuous plates of food and drink, ordered them out as well. About to sit down around the laden table, Crequan realized his Vesna assistant was hovering nearby.

Leave us.

The Vesna looked at him,
I must not Master Crequan, my Mahal has ordered me to stay with you.

I don’t care, leave us.

Arguing with a Master was unheard of, refusing to obey them was unthinkable.
With great and deepest respect Master, I ache to obey your command. With the recent turn of events, however, I must remain with you.
At that the Vesna turned over his hand to reveal a small weapon in its pasty white palm.
For your safety Master.

Crequan paused and cast a dubious eye around his compatriots as they looked from the Vesna back to Crequan. They all stared at him expressionless. Crequan dismissed the Vesna from his thoughts.

As the senior member of the House, Crequan, began the meeting,
we have three items to deal with. The affront of the hybrids forcefully entering our base and the two human colony ships.

There was no worry of being overheard by anyone outside the room. The Masters were communicating telepathically, and they were closely guarding their thought range. Of course, the Vesna attendant would be able to pick up most of it but as stated, the Vesna attendant had been dismissed from their minds, for now.

Is that not two matters Crequan?

No Ochalz, it is three. My advisors don’t think the two human ships are working together. The second one has no support in place and there has been no outdoor activity around it. It is also of a significantly different design, I am told, from the other human ship.

It is under surveillance as well?

Yes Ochalz, Rillixiwen assigned a Drone when it landed. That Drone now reports to me.

That is outrageous!
Blitowyn came out of his seat.
Rillixiwen was my brother! His possessions fall to me! That includes his drones!

Sit down little ‘Lixiwen,
sneered Crequan, purposefully using the diminutive
. I am not possessing your precious inherited Drone. It has been ordered to transmit its recording to my advisors until a proper chain of command is established for it.

I am its chain of command! My advisors I mean. They should be getting the data from the Drone, not you!

Does it really matter who gets the data at this point as long as we get it?
asked Ochalz.

Everything matters Ochalz,
responded Blitowyn with venom in his thoughts.

Attend me
, Crequan looked at the Vesna.

Master?

Have the data from the Drone at the second site sent to little ‘Lixiwen’s advisors.
Then turning to Blitowyn,
happy ‘Lixiwen?

Blitowyn came out of his chair and started to advance around the table towards Crequan with rage in his eyes and face. Raising both hands and pointing at Crequan he began,
Do not call me that you simpering …

As if by magic the Vesna was suddenly standing in front of Blitowyn. Blitowyn stopped short not to run into him and cut off what he was thinking at them.

Great and glorious Master,
began the Vesna
, I am thrilled and delighted to see the degree and depth of your commitment to participation in these urgent discussions. Perhaps they would proceed more effectively, if I could humbly suggest, that you return to your seat?

Blitowyn sputtered and looked up into the Vesna’s eyes, he was so mad he used his outside voice, “YOU DARE TO ORDER ME VESNA?”

While smiling wasn’t something that the Vesna did often, they were capable of it even with mouths as small as theirs. The Vesna smiled at Blitowyn as he raised his hand with the small weapon pointed in the middle of Blitowyn’s stomach. He held out his other hand indicating Blitowyn’s empty chair,
Master Blitowyn, I most humbly and regretfully must ask you to return to your seat. For your own safety.

Blitowyn paused, staring at the Vesna and the weapon, Blitowyn’s hands now curled into fists at his side, opening and closing rapidly. He spun on his heels, and as imperially as possible he settled once again in his chair.

Crequan was suppressing a snicker, Ochalz looked at the Vesna and felt very disturbed by what had just happened. He began the rudimentary steps of forming some of his own private plans.

Crequan continued, after they took a moment to have a few bites of food. He knew things would progress more productively if Blitowyn had a moment or two to calm down a little bit. He realized he had pushed him too far, and now with just the three of them, the odds of a power coup were all that much higher. With the current situation, having his leadership wrested away from him would not only be personally damaging, it would probably mean the end of the current Eridani mission on Mars. Not that it would be the end of the Eridani on Mars, just the end of their House.

I’m not that worried about the second ship for now,
he continued as though he had never been interrupted,
it’s the first one, the one setting up a base of operations out in the open. This concerns me, as it concerned many of our departed House-Brothers.

It worries me as well,
added Ochalz,
for years the human leaders have known that we will not tolerate their presence on this planet or on their planet’s moon. This flagrant disregard for our warning and instructions must, MUST be replied to.

Do we know what leader put them here?

Does it matter?
responded Crequan to Blitowyn.

If we knew which leader it was, we could make our position clear by demonstrating our anger on his people. We could even have him taken and brought here to remind him of who is in charge of this system.

Blitowyn …
began Crequan.

What? You have a problem with demonstrating our strength and abilities to these infants?

You don’t think things through Blitowyn! They demonstrated their own commitment and abilities at Dulce! Have you not heard the Vesna stories? Have you not read the historical accounts of our surviving Trigla warriors? Do you not think they have grown in power and ability of their own in the intervening years?

I am not afraid of the puny humans! They take almost a third of a Martian year to get here. We take ten minutes to get there! They can’t match our accessibility!

All the more reason to be wary of how catastrophically they will respond. We are not without defense. but we are also not without our own weaknesses.

I am not afraid of the humans,
chimed in Ochalz,
but Crequan is making a point. Do we want to risk the Eben Battle Cruisers? Do we want to risk hundreds of nuclear warheads flying here from Earth? Only two or three would have to get through to destroy us. So far we have suffered a little affront from them directly. The loss of our House-Brothers was because of Rillixiwen’s Drone failing to follow its Master’s Order of Action, and the ensuing egoism of eight Masters all thinking they were the prime. As for the politics of confrontation, in addition to the logistical issues, we will lose the regular delivery of biological material. Do we want to go back to the wasted time and workload of night time snatches, stealthily taking test subjects and having to deal with their screaming and raging while our Vesna scientists try and perform the experiments we are here to achieve? We, you and I, have to put up with all of that because only we can erase their memories, and only we can apply the paralysis thoughts. The Vesna have still not been able to learn that skill regardless of years of trying. Crequan and I will have to go on all of those missions again! You’ve never even been on one! You have no idea how difficult it is!

You are happy to work the samples they send us? You are happy to accept their meager offerings? You are happy to work with what they allow us to have, rather than select the stock that we desire? Are you their puppy?
sneered Blitowyn to Ochalz.

Ochalz picked up an apple and threw it at Blitowyn, who dodged it expertly. Most of the food on the table was from Earth, it was just simpler than importing everything from Epsilon Eridani.

Blitowyn, adopting a tone of reason over bluster, continued,
House-Brothers, if we again establish the might and dominance that we once had, then we will have the samples and test subjects that we require and desire simply by commanding it to be so! If we show the humans we are still very much here, and still very capable of flowing wrath and destruction upon them, they will have no option but to bow before us and be contrite to our will! If we expose ourselves to their populace, their governments will be too busy and distracted to effectively mount a defense against us! If we strike first, fast, and hard against the half-breeds, we can take their base out of operation making them, essentially, insignificant. We all know the council has been displeased that our research is taking so long. We all know that the council is not happy with our détente and that we have not fully mastered the humans. How long will their patience remain with us? How long before they assign another House to this mission? What will become of our House, especially in as weakened a state as it is now, with this morning’s deaths?

Our house is not weak
, challenged Crequan,
we still have our fighting and defense forces fully intact.

Of course we do
, pleaded Blitowyn,
but do you think the Council will see it that way, do you really believe Supreme Master Rheaum will see us still as strong without a full house of Voiya?

Ochalz leaned forward, putting his elbows on the lower than normal table and sipped something cold from a large mug. He looked pensive as Crequan looked from Blitowyn to Ochalz. Ochalz raised his eyes and look at Crequan,
I’m afraid that our young House-Brother is also making some sense in this matter. I believe he is right about those in the council. Even our House-Brother Rillixiwen himself had to contend with questions and accusations from some on the grand council.

Crequan sighed heavily and sat back in his chair as Blitowyn folded his arms in triumph.
I will deal with the human leader,
said Blitowyn.

No, you won’t,
said Ochalz.

You just said you agreed with me! That we could not appear weak!

Yes, House-Brother, that is mostly correct. However we must approach this smartly. We must play the long game here, and not accelerate our demise through the mistakes of haste.

Blitowyn started to sputter, but Crequan held up his hand,
continue Ochalz
.

Ochalz stood up and began to pace back and forth behind his chair. The Vesna attendant found things to straighten on that side of the table, and then stepped back against the wall, very close to Ochalz; and watched him closely without being overly obvious about it. The Vesna’s Mahal and his work unit were in the corridor outside of Crequan’s quarters. With them was a group of armed Trigla, just in case. Everything that was being said that the Vesna could pick up from the trio was  relayed to his Mahal, and therefore the rest of his pod.

House-Brothers
, began Ochalz,
notwithstanding our ability to neuter the half-breeds,
I think that to attack the human leadership would be a provocation with responses we can’t at present, properly identify. However, I believe there is a way that we can achieve part of our desires, and do it quite legally within the terms of our détente.

This made both Blitowyn and Crequan curious.
How is that?
asked Crequan.

We must show the human leaders our power and commitment by destroying the human colony base they are setting up on our planet.

But they will consider that an act of aggression and respond to it as such. The half-breed commander of their base informed us this very day that the human was under their protection. We’ve agreed that right now, that may not be such a great way for things to proceed
. Crequan had leaned back again, and folded his arms as he said this.

Yes, that is true. However, if we are merely defending ourselves, then by the terms of the détente, we are well within our rights to take the steps necessary to stop any attack or action against us. If the human attacks us, the half-breeds protection does not apply to our response.

Blitowyn sputtered a noise of disgust.
I told them we were defending ourselves when that half-breed brought back the scout ship.

You were blustering Blitowyn, we all know that,
sneered Crequan.

Of course I was dear House-Brother,
Blitowyn of Chernasai sneered back at him,
we always bluster when we don’t know what else to do. It’s our way. Besides, have you not considered that the damaged ship is evidence of an attack on us? Evidence of an aggressive move by the human setting up his precious little base? Are we not within our rights to respond in kind right now?

It wasn’t attacked Blitowyn, and you know it,
responded Ochalz.
That idiot Drone got in the way of the human’s ship that was landing. All of our advisors have seen the telemetrics, and agree that’s what happened. As well, Blitowyn, that Drone had gone off on its own. It had violated its Master’s Order of Action, and it went to the human site and attacked the human. Anything that the human did or didn’t do, from that point on, was in its own defense, according to the very terms of the détente we are going to use for our own purposes. According to the recordings of your encounter in the hangar bay, even the half-breed was able to figure it out; and she never believed you gave the kill order. A statement which, had she believed you, could have put us in violation of the détente. Idiot. We can also infer that they don’t believe you gave a kill order, because the Eben ship of war did not turn this base to molten slag and us along with it.