Fair Princesse of the spacious air,
That hast vouchsaf'd acquaintance here,
With us are quarter'd below stairs,
That can reach heav'n with nought but pray'rs;
Who, when our activ'st wings we try,
Advance a foot into the sky.
-
"the falcon" Richard Lovelace
-
02 . Stowaways
The image of the human vessel Constantine floated across the screen before Re'han's eyes. He was pretty sure of the reason why it was there. On one of their frequencies an even signal played over and over. Re'han had heard this many times before and came to know it as a distress beacon. It had probably pulled the Constantine from mid-flight. What the ooman crew were not aware of was the fact that it was already too late to help their kindred.
"It looks like the kainde amedha have been here for weeks, according to the ooman log." Re'han said, studying the documents from them planet below. He had dug into the computer system and extracted the last relevant files. Naturally Serenti, and many of the others, scoffed at this. Re'han was one of the few, if not the only one, on this ship who could understand ooman language. So far he had learned English, Japanese, and bits and pieces of what was called French.
The others thought oomans were an illogical and stupid race. They would always be inferior to the yautja. Studying them and learning about them was pointless. Some were hunted, but most weren't even worthy of that. Re'han mostly agreed with those statements. Oomans were hard to understand. They were so contradictory, and so blind to everything around them. However, Re'han was finding more and more of them having potential to be much more than what his people so strongly believed they were cursed to stay.
"Yeah?" Serenti said.
"It seems some of the scientists decided to play around with some 'strange creatures' they found out in the ruins of the old civilization."
"The Morr-gotts." Hartak, one of the oldest warriors, nodded. He had heard stories about the fall of the Morr-gotts. They had been a people that was quickly evolving, and if they hadn't been destroyed by the hardmeat they would have probably one day become equal to the Yautja.
"There were some 'accidents,'" Re'han continued, "and, well, there is really no more in the log, but it seems proper to deduce that the whole colony was infested."
"Sounds like oomans." Unaje growled. "Idiot race. They are always poking around where they don't belong."
Re'han could not disagree. "So it may seem."
- - -
Aliah Somerset ran down the known line of curses as she circled her room. She had done nothing but pace since Mateo had left. (Actually she had done nothing but pace even when he was there.) She still couldn't wrap her mind around what was going on. Nothing Mateo or any of the others said could placate the deep feelings of unease that were rising in her. Something was wrong, she could sense it. She only wished she could figure out what it was.
A soft whine broke through her thoughts and a wet nose nudged her bare ankle. She glanced down to meet the dark brown eyes of her golden retriever, Bob. "Oh, sorry, Bob." She said, crouching down so she could scratch behind the animal's ears. He rubbed his head against her and whined some more. "You know something's wrong, too, don't you, boy?" She asked, giving one last pat before standing up. "Don't worry, though. We're going to find out what's going on… and I think I know how to do just that…"
An hour later…
Aliah watched as they prepared a small ship in the docking bay. Shortly Captain Crenshaw would be sending down a small team of personnel to check on the people on Terra. It was Aliah's plan to stowaway on the ship and go down with them. Mateo was one of the pilot's assigned to the not-so-pleasant duty so she figured there was going to be at least one person she trusted down there.
Okay, Aliah, so he's the only person you trust. At least you have Bob and Karl. She glanced down the dog on her side and then stroked the furry, elongated animal on her shoulder. Karl, her pet ferret, was curled around her neck, seemingly snoozing. Aliah knew better. Sly little creature… She smirked at him. "We're going on an adventure Karl, get ready."
The animal raised it's head and looked straight at her with it's dark eyes, it's nose twitched expectantly. "Looking for trouble?" She commented. "I hope so, cause we're probably going to get it."
Karl squeaked.
- - -
Re'han lightly dropped his bag of equipment. The dusty earth spurted up, drifting briefly in the dry, warm air. A human would have considered the place hot - - it was nearing the mid-eighties - - but to the Yautja warrior and scientist it was below the desired temperature. Heh, but it's a picnic to the weather on Ganei. He thought, remembering its drastically changing atmosphere, forever cycling through the extremes: one minutes blistering hot, the next minute a monsoon, an hour later there would be a snow storm.
That had been pleasant. Not.
"I still don't see why they just don't take advantage of the situation," Re'han overheard one of the others saying. It was a newly blooded fighter by the name Fri'sak. Newly blooded and stupid. Re'han didn't know how he managed to survive this long. Dumb luck, perhaps. "This would be a good opportunity to hunt."
Idiot. Re'han thought, but said, "have you ever considered this situation isn't really as ideal as you think it is? We still do not know the numbers of the kainde amedha." There was a difference between honor and suicide.
Fri'sak paused only a moment before replying, not even bothering to turn and face his superior, "what's a few hardmeat to true warriors?" Silence. The three other warriors with them stopped what they were doing and glanced over to see Re'han's expression.
The younger Yautja had just implied Re'han was no real warrior. Yes, it was true that Re'han appeared to be more of a scientist and inventor more than a hunter, but to those who had actually met him, had seen him in combat knew there was more to Re'han than just electronics and tools. His usually quiet, and reflectively peaceful demeanor could turn extraordinary vicious in the blink of an eye, and then back again.
Fri'sak, of course, neither cared nor wanted to care about any of that. He had never wanted to know anything about the scientist, so his knowledge was wanting. His mistake.
Before he could even register the movement Re'han's elbow bashed him squarely in the face, leaving him momentarily stunned. A kick straight to his chest knocked him back a fair distance smashing him against a large boulder. He was lucky his spine didn't snap. Re'han watched placidly as Fri'sak pulled himself up. It was obvious he was in pain, but that was overridden by anger. He lunged for his superior, intent on avenging his hurt pride. Re'han side-stepped and landed a blow to Fri'sak's back.
"I'd advise you rethink your strategy." Re'han said. "It would be a shame to lose such a fantastic warrior such as yourself, Fri'sak," he continued sarcastically, "but if come at me again, I will kill you. Consider yourself warned."
He turned and walked away, snatching up his pack before vanishing around a rock structure.
"Fool." Unaje growled, and then followed.
Fri'sak was soon left to pick himself up. His pride was shredded. He would not forget. And when the time came Re'han would beg for mercy…
- - -
It was difficult keeping Bob quiet through the drop to the colony. He kept hearing Mateo's voice and tried to jerk from Aliah's grip to go running to one of his familiar human friends. Aliah had to keep her hand over his muzzle to stop him from barking. "Bad, Sir Robert." She hissed in his floppy golden ear. "Hush now. We'll see him soon and you can bark all you like."
He whined softly as she lightly bonked him over the nose with a couple fingers. That was as far as she ever went to punish her pets. Karl behaved nicely, but Aliah couldn't help but think how his long furry body felt like a nice fur scarf. He would be offended if she made the joke.
She felt the rough landing, then shortly after heard the main door being lowered. She listened until the sound of the team's voices began to fade and then came out of her hiding place. She made her way down the ramp and out into the warm day.
It felt like a sharp slap after being in the cold of space for so long. The heat of the planet seared at her skin. She shivered as the cold escaped her body. "Well, I hope you guys packed a fan."
Sir Robert whimpered.
Sorry abot the shortnesss. I meant to make it longer but Idecided what the hell. I'd go ahead and put it up. Its a bit boring right now. Tsk Tsk. Bad me.
Thanks everyone for the reviews. Continue to do so. I like to know what you think.
This story should be about fourteen chapters long and will most likely be followed by two sequels -- err that would make it a trilogy wouldn't it?
I'm also working on a Aliens/Pedator site. If you're interested in that let me know and I'll put in the address to it. TTFF. Muse.