The Kelbird names in this story are strangely spelt, but it actually does serve some purpose. For example, "Ka'an" would be pronounced "Kah-an", adding a silent "h" between the double vowels. That makes the first vowel short and the second one long. Another name, "JaLa'an" would be split into two words at the second capitol. First "Ja", and then "Lah-an". It's pretty much the same pattern for the rest of them.
As noticed, Kelbrid have a fondness for double vowels. It might have something to do with the shapes of their throats and vocal cords, which makes thier voices dwindle, often splitting one sound into two. (And therefore, it would be very hard for a human to learn to speak Kelbrid, although Rachel has done a good job at it!)
- - -
9 About a harmless prank
- - -
Jake realized that he had to do something. Quickly. Ka'an seemed to have lost himself in his wrath. Someone needed to pull him out of it, before things got out of hand.
"Ka'an, phas!" he snapped, remembering the word for 'come'.
No response. A noise almost like a growl was coming from Ka'an, and he was stepping forwards to meet his enemies.
Jake acted quickly. He grabbed Ka'an's tail, got Marco to help, and together they yanked the Kelbrid off his feet.
Ka'an fell, but just as soon flew up again, agile as a cat. His horns whipped forwards towards Jake and Marco – very capable of wrapping around their throats and snapping their necks before they even had time to notice – but then, when Ka'an saw who had yanked him, the horns stopped in mid-air, quivering.
"Phas," Jake repeated sternly, pointing at the edge.
"Yeah," Marco agreed, nodding warily. "Do that. Live to fight another day."
Ka'an did not understand them. His ears twitched back and forth, his horns whipped and his claws kept clicking. At first, Jake thought he would ignore them and their advice. But then the Kelbrid came to his senses and gave a short nod, leapt casually out over the edge – leapt casually at least TEN METERS out over the edge – and fell down after the others.
Before the Touched closed in, Jake and Marco followed, hearing the cries of the Touched and feeling the wind of horns that passed only centimetres behind them.
- - -
Aristh Carali-Sarthantir-Malar's tail-blade could easily cut his teacher's head right open. Not that he'd ever do such a thing. It was just a comforting though when his teacher, Sarjil, was in his most annoyed, critical, and disapproving mood.
Yes. Could.
Except for the small fact that Sarjil had a much more experienced, efficient, and speedy tail. He would have Carali chopped up into a hundred pieces before Carali's strike reached its goal.
As Carali again was told off for his slow, clumsy – just slightly clumsy, mind you – strike he hoped that the only one to witness the disastrous show was Aralgo-Karfur-Emonrili, his friend – more or less, they were only friends because there was no-one else for Carali to be friends with, but with Aralgo you never knew exactly where you had him. And he comforted himself with the thought that if he really had to, his tail could probably perform a good strike. A decent one, at the least.
Sarjil was of another opinion.
«You couldn't hit a sleeping Gedd with a swipe like that!» the old warrior growled. «How many times do I have to tell you? Follow through with your entire tail! ENTIRE! As in all of it! You're only using half, you nitwit irfach!»
Irfach! The word made Carali wish he had teeth, so he could grit them. But Sarjil didn't like cocky retorting, so Carali didn't reply. Although it took some effort to keep quiet. Sarjil might be good, but he wasn't so good that he could come and –
«Now be off! After you, I need to comfort myself teaching some student who actually knows the difference between stalks and tails.»
Carali bowed his stalks, swiveled around and… stopped. Aralgo was by the wall, grinning (his lesson, which had went just about as bad, was before Carali's) and surely waiting to tell some stupid joke he had just made up. But in the opening out to the corridor – no door to the training room – stood the three remaining arisths.
There were, at the time, five arisths on the Daybreak. Himself, Aralgo, and three females; Minalea, Olana and Larynia. The last had arrived only three days earlier.
Carali and Aralgo were not exactly on best possible terms with the two first. But two against two had been a fair deal. Two against three was a little worse. Especially since the third, Larynia, had demonstrated for Sarjil exactly how skilled she was with her tail. And Sarjil had given a long, detailed explanation about how Carali and Aralgo compared better to djabalas than to warriors next to her.
For some mysterious reason, Sarjil had forgotten to mention anything about Olana or Minalea, both of whom were utterly hopeless.
But now there they were, all three, probably having a good laugh at his expense.
There was nothing to do except to hold his head and tail high and march out with what dignity remained.
Aralgo followed, of course, swaggering a bit. He stopped in the doorway (Carali watched it all with a stalk) and preformed a mocking bow.
«Ladies,» he said in a singing voice, eyes twinkling mischievously. «If you ever find yourself in need, you only have to call. My tail swipes at your word.»
«Look, Minalea! How cute. It thinks itself all grown up,» one of them replied with a smile. It was the new one, Larynia. Pretty in her own way, but all too much temper. «I'm sorry, I don't remember your name.»
«Oh, don't worry Larynia, it isn't important,» Minalea agreed. «Wasn't it something on A? Arfath? Arasath? Aristh... no, wait. Aristh, that's me, isn't it?» Her grin was as wide as a Dome ship. «Great! I don't have to listen when people call me 'lady' anymore!»
«I find it difficult to believe you ever were one,» Carali told her, and brushed past them. He was in no mood for a discussion.
«I find it difficult to believe the Fleet took you in,» Aralgo went on - Aralgo rarely passed up a banter. «What can a bad lady make, if not a bad aristh? What sort of aristh can a bad lady make, if not a bad aristh? For that matter, what sort of aristh can a good lady make, if not a bad one? Females have no business here.»
«Then why don't you pack your make up and go home?» Larynia wondered, while her eyes grew hard.
Aralgo was smart enough to see that it was time for a quick retreat. He left the area and caught up with Carali – but he was still grinning. «They definitely like me,» he said.
Carali rolled his stalks.
«You don't believe me?» Aralgo said, sighing loudly, almost prancing his way along the corridor.
«Oh, I believe,» Carali replied. «I believe very strongly that they'd like to cut you open.»
«Of course. But it's a start.»
«You know you're a nutcase, Aralgo?» Carali wondered.
«Oh yeah,» Aralgo laughed, rearing up a bit but then ceased his prancing and (finally) returning to a normal way of walking. «A nutcase? I am a genuine lunatic. I have a hopeless case of insanity. But it has been proved that it takes a lot of intelligence to be crazy.»
«Then do the universe and yourself a huge favour; use that intelligence for something else than chasing female arisths.»
Aralgo's expression was suddenly shrewd. «That, friend Carali, I have already done. I have thought up a small payback for our humiliation at class two days ago. And for that event in the hallway, yesterday, when they "accidentally" made you spill those chemicals that we had to clean up.»
«Which almost putrefied our hands and confined us to the sick bay for hours!» Carali remembered in a growl. «Now then. What kind of awful revenge have you planned?»
«You'll find out soon enough,» Aralgo grinned smugly.
- - -
Tobias again felt the curse of morphing. When two hours had almost passed, he was forced to – like it or not – stop whatever he was doing and demorph.
Rachel sat down by the foot of a spiral-shaped tree, pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.
«Cold?» Tobias guessed.
"Chilly," she replied.
«I thought I'd cured that,» Tobias laughed, finishing the morph and fluttering up to a branch. «But if –»
"Hush!" she said sharply, tilting her head to the side as if listening.
«What?» he wondered, surprised, sharpening his own very sensitive hawk hearing.
"Just be quiet."
Tobias did as he was told, straining his ears to pick up any sound. But there was only the constant rustling of the wind blowing gently through the strange, alien forest, making the spiral trees shiver and making their cube-shaped leaves shake and rattle, like the sound of a dozen rattlesnakes. Rachel sat still for a few moments but then nodded to herself and stood up.
"Tom's coming," she announced.
«How could you hear him? I heard nothing,» Tobias admitted. «I know blind people are supposed to have sharper ears than average, but this…»
"He sent a message ahead, as usual," Rachel explained. "Thought-pictures. Your thought-speech made it a bit fuzzy. He's not used to competition, and I'm not used to listening to thoughts from more than one source – not any longer." She made a wry smile. "I forgot about him. He's probably been terrorizing anyone who's tried to pass."
Tobias smiled mentally. «Poor Marco.»
"Poor Marco?" Rachel echoed. "Why?"
«Jeanne was the only one on the Rachel – our ship, you know – with her own quarters. Marco conveniently 'forgot' that now and then.»
"He did, did he?" Rachel grinned.
«Jeanne caught him zooming about her quarters in fly morph. When she was about to take a shower.»
"He'd have tasted a newspaper if it'd been me," Rachel declared.
«We were short on newspapers. But Jeanne did even better. She caught him in a glass jar, let him sit there for almost two hours, and then – here's the good part; handed him in to Jake.» Tobias thought-laughed briefly at the memory. «Marco still shudders when someone mentions 'fly'.»
"You mean he actually learned his lesson?"
«Maybe. He didn't do it again.»
"Amazing. But for the record; if he ever needs a reminder, I'm sure I can come up with something. Or Tom can."
Just then, as if appearing when named, Tom came out from a shadow and walked up to Rachel's side, on paws so silent that even Tobias hardly heard his footfall. The big kii-raja pressed his cold nose into Rachel's hand to let her know where he was.
"Maybe we should head back…" Rachel began, but stopped, receiving a string of thought-pictures from Tom. "Tobias. Look up. Towards the village. What do you see?"
Tobias peered up but the densely located trees kept him from seeing much. He couldn't see as much as a glimpse of the treevillage from where he was perched, so he lifted up into the air for a better look.
"Don't fly too high," Rachel warned. "The air gets thin quickly on Cava'ara. There's less atmosphere here than back home. Less gravity, too, for that part."
Tobias was – at least the hawk brain was – noticing that quickly. He pumped his wings for altitude but had to work hard for every centimetre. That the night air was cold and there were no updrafts didn't make things much better. But he soon saw the village – quite clearly. It was lit up by the streaks and flashes of blue that set fire to the sky.
Tobias had seen enough space-battles to know one at sight.
«I see flashes of blue,» he reported. «The sky's as bright as if it was day.»
"Kelbrid fighters firing. A battle," Rachel concluded.
«Touched?»
"Has to be. So Tom's proved useful again," Rachel muttered, as Tobias began descending back to his perch, having seen all he needed to see.
«Jeanne, Marco, Santorelli, Menderash and Jake and still in the village,» he said.
"Ka'an will help them," Rachel reasoned. "Or another Kelbrid will. In fact, a Kelbrid has already been in the house, or Tom wouldn't be here. I told him to stay; someone must have told him yaysh."
«'Yaysh'?»
"Means 'eye'. Tells him to go and find me. Gets him out of their way."
«Okay,» Tobias said and landed back on his perch – a hopefully safe distance above Tom, whose golden eyes were watching him like he himself might have watched a mouse. «You know this planet. So what do we do?»
Rachel sat back down, and at a gesture from her hand Tom lay down next to her, head on her lap. But not even then – not even when Rachel brought a hand down to stroke his ears – did he manage to look even remotely cuddly. Perhaps only a little less intimidating.
"We wait," she said. "The Touched won't be looking for us here, so we're out of danger. We'll return when things have calmed down."
Tobias looked down at her. A look meant to be a questioning glance, but ended up as his eternal hawk glare. That statement did not sound like something Rachel would have said. It sounded almost… sensible.
«The others might be in trouble. And you say we should stay here and do nothing?»
"The Kelbrid will take care of them. I'm more worried about the crops; sometimes the Touched burn them all, and we'll have to go hungry till next season. Besides, we can do nothing. The Touched like taking prisoners, which they land to do, and if the Kelbrid can't stop them, we can't either. Everyone will be down in the shelters by now, and showing up this late will get us where the Touched are – outside the shelters trying to break in. And unless you're feeling a need for a long, painful death in a torture chamber, you do not willingly put yourself among a few hundred bloodthirsty Touched."
«Doesn't sound like the Rachel I knew.»
"I might have changed." Rachel shrugged. "Being blind makes me see things in another perspective. Or maybe it comes from getting killed."
«What perspective?»
"The 'keep alive' perspective."
«Just wait until Marco hears this one,» Tobias laughed. «He'll bug you about it for years.»
"Not for years," Rachel disagreed.
«And why not?»
"Who says he'll live that long?"
- - -
Olana's hands were almost trembling with excitement when she stepped out of the dropshaft and onto the bridge. The bridge was usually an aristh-free area. But Olana had gained access thanks to her unusual understanding of technology. One of the fighter pilots had given her permission – a "recommendation" – to visit the bridge and see how the entire ship was piloted.
She knew that none of the other arisths had been to the bridge, except for Aralgo earlier that day – on some type of errand, he claimed. He had swelled at least two sizes with pride when he described the place – Minalea had overheard him talking to Carali.
Olana did not stand around for long. She swiveled her stalks around and quickly found Lantafar, the pilot. She walked up to him to report her presence, but he only told her to look around freely and enjoy the visit.
She had seen a Dome ship's bridge, of course, but this was different. The Daybreak's systems were newer, the consoles were neater, and – supposedly – it was all easier to use and more efficient. And everything was up-to-date and modern, and for once the Fleet had hired a decent stylist so the place did not look like things had been stuffed in without any consideration to order or appeal.
She tried to keep out of the way as she looked around, trying to take everything in at once – trying to keep her main eyes from shining like on a child with a new hologram emitter.
There was another thing about the Daybreak's bridge that was different. There was a large patch of grass in the back, that allowed pilots to feed properly without having to leave the bridge, making it easier for them to return to work quickly if they were needed.
Olana trotted back to it to see what types of grass it held. Aralgo had talked a lot about that, too. He rambled on for a long time how unfair it was that the arisths' section did not have anything like it.
She stopped at the edge and looked down. Counted the types, and suddenly felt hungry. She lifted a hoof forwards… then something caught her eye. There was grass on the patch, obviously, but…
She folded her front legs and bent down to pick the small, oval-shaped blue leaf up. It was about the size of a thumbnail, not that remarkable… she recognized it at once. Even though she never had been any good at plants and herbs.
Tarfat leaves. It was an intoxicant that caused temporary dizziness, slowed reflexes, and made it very hard to focus. Used often as a painkiller. Not harmful in itself, not in small amounts, but if the pilots or the captain… they were the ones on the ship that needed to stay clear in the head and focused at all times.
She got back up and pulled back with a jerk.
The captain jumped nimbly out of her way. «What are you doing, aristh?» he asked. Not especially sharply - but his voice was a tail blade at the best of times.
She spun around and bowed both stalks and tail low. «Nothing, captain,» she said, forgetting the leaf she held in a tightly closed fist. Rumour said that the captain was in a bad mood that day; and then it was as unwise to disturb him as it would have been to disturb the notorious Head of Council.
Captain Kandion walked up closer to the grass patch, looked down at it with his main eyes, one stalk circling, one watching her suspiciously. «I assure you, aristh, there are no hidden computers in the grass.»
«Yes, captain,» she agreed, hoping he would dismiss her. At once. Or sooner.
«So why did you bend down to examine it?» He was scanning the grass. «Did you happen to see anything of interest?» Then his four eyes snapped towards it. «FO Thalus! TO Ranmili!»
The two came immediately. Kandion pointed down into the grass. Thalus glanced down, and when he had seen what he needed to see he looked back up, without even as much as a change of expression. He almost looked bored; nothing unsettled Thalus. Ranmili's face turned into a frown and he bent down, as Olana had. Lifted up a small, blue leaf. He and Kandion recognized it quicker than Olana had – but not as quickly as Thalus.
«Tarfat!» Ranmili barked. His eyes turned to Olana, steaming. «Did you place it there, aristh Olana?»
«No, tactical officer,» Olana whispered, wishing she could pull together and shrink.
«Do not lie to me!» the TO roared. He was almost purple in the face with anger. His tail was cocked. «Why else look so closely at the grass? You have seen grass before!»
«I… I…» she actually did have something to say, but nothing came out.
«Answer the TO!» captain Kandion snapped.
A good number of the remaining pilots – the ones that were not focused on the ship – now turned to see what was going on. Lantafar had come closer, and now politely asked the captain why he was angered.
«Your recommendation was unwise, pilot,» Thalus said lowly, as Ranmili showed the leaf. «This was found in the grass.»
Lantafar's surprised face turned stony as he looked at Olana. «Did you place tarfat in the grass on the bridge?» he asked, voice as calm as ever. Lantafar was one of those Andalites who would become angry on the inside, but never display it for the outside world – not in his voice. No warning at all before he exploded.
«I didn't,» Olana managed. «I'd… I'd never…»
Lantafar's steady gaze was almost worse than the tactical officer's sharp glare, or the captain's hard, evaluating stare.
«Then what is in your hand?» Kandion asked.
Olana flinched. Kept her hand clenched.
«Open your hand, aristh Olana,» Lantafar ordered.
Olana hesitated, but then did as she was told. Opened her hand and held out the leaf, saying; «I found it on the grass.»
Lantafar sighed. Thalus's expression was unreadable, and Kandion only showed a wrinkled forehead. They left it to Ranmili to be angry; he was, by far, best suited for the job.
Ranmili somehow evaded exploding, but it was close. His nostrils flared as he breathed. His tail twitched behind him. «Captain, I believe this is a matter of the ship's security, as much as one of a misbehaving aristh,» he grated. «Thus, I will leave it to you.»
«Very well,» growled the captain, face dark. «We will consider this… event. Thoroughly. Until then, aristh, you are to remain in your quarters. And prepare for your departure.»
«Departure?!» Olana protested loudly, not stopping her eyes from going wide. Even a few of the pilots seemed taken aback.
Kandion's tail swiped at air to bring silence. But he still waited until he spoke, in a low, quivering voice. «This may seem like a harmless prank to you, aristh, but it endangers the safety of this ship. I cannot allow that. My honour, aristh, lives or dies with my ship. Not to mention my crew!»
«Captain Kandion, I didn't…»
«SILENCE!» he thundered - Olana backed away. «I will not see this ship unnecessarily endangered!»
Olana did not dare object when the Captain used that voice.
Lantafar had taken the leaf out of her hand and was watching it thoughtfully. He was ignoring Olana, almost flagrantly, but not arrogantly. She was only relieved, being under enough angry glares from the top officers and pilots of the Daybreak.
Kandion's piercing gaze turned back to Olana and again she felt like shrinking away would not necessarily be a bad thing. «Before you leave, female; I know this was not your idea. It is not your way of thinking. Who planned this? Aristh Minalea? Or was it aristh Larynia?»
«Neither,» Olana said. «I didn't do this. We didn't do this.»
«So you've told me,» Kandion reminded her. «But until this is cleared up, they will have to be separated too. I know a few good ships with crews perfectly capable of teaching them proper conduct. As well as for you…» he sighed, maybe with true feeling, maybe not. «You could have become an excellent pilot. Or a technician. But now… I will consider it further, but it seems you will have to be sent home. The Fleet cannot tolerate mischief of this level.»
«Captain…» Olana began, but Kandion was not listening.
«Escort the aristh to her room!» he told a warrior. «Lock the door and make sure she does not sneak out.»
- - -
The warrior led Olana away. Lantafar looked up, but his mind was still deep in thoughts.
«What are you thinking, pilot?» the Captain asked, as the aristh disappeared down a dropshaft.
Lantafar held up the leaf. «The same thing TO Thalus is thinking, I believe.»
Thalus looked up at his name. They exchanged a glance. «These leaves are fresh,» Lantafar said.
Thalus' expression flickered to surprise, but then smiled. «Not yet dry,» he agreed.
«Well?» Kandion said.
«The aristh could impossibly have done this,» Lantafar said.
Thalus agreed again, flicking his tail to the side. «Correct. What is your theory, before I tell you mine?»
«Where would she have gotten the tarfat?» Lantafar said. «The only fresh tarfat on the ship is in the sick bay. Aristh Olana has not been there for days – and tarfat leaves dry out quickly. Neither has aristh Minalea. And, finally, aristh Larynia has not been there at all.»
«Exactly my point,» Thalus said. «Tell them to let her out again. We shall have to figure out who played this prank later, but it will not be necessary to send that certain aristh home.»
«I was not going to,» Kandion sighed. «The Fleet does not give up on arisths that easily. But away? Yes. All of them will still be sent away…»
- - -
A few hours after Tom's arrival Rachel judged it safe to return to the village. Tom walked as usual on her left side, and Tobias rode on her shoulder most of the way.
Then he lifted his wings and rose to the sky, saying «Wait here» to Rachel. Rachel felt his talons leave her shoulder, and Tom flashed her a thought-picture of Tobias disappearing upwards. She stood motionless, near a normal-sized but spiral-shaped tree, with her kii-raja standing next to her.
When he did not detect any signs of danger Tobias gave the all-clear and swooped back down. Rachel had – despite his order – begun walking and when he found her again she was already far from where he had left her.
They quickly returned to the big tree. At the base, Kelbrid were rushing back and forth, some disappearing up the stem while just as many were coming down.
Rachel purposefully led the way to the ladder. Tobias morphed human – the prospect of flying that high in Cava'ara's thin air didn't exactly thrill him. He briefly wondered how she was intending to get Tom up – and how he had come down, for that matter – when suddenly a Kelbrid shouted for Rachel and she stopped.
"Cer y'yhan!" the Kelbrid called, and Rachel turned around, searching for the source of his voice. She replied something in the musical Kelbrid language, voice falling and rising like ripples on the surface of a lake. For about three or four minutes the two discussed the matter, Tobias listening but understanding nothing, but then the Kelbrid stopped speaking and his right hand slapped at his left shoulder.
"Cer y'yhan," he said again, and ran off.
"What was that about?" Tobias asked.
"For once, we've taken a prisoner," Rachel replied. "Usually the Touched do that. Lead me to the ladder, Tobias."
Only then did Tobias realize that Tom was gone. Rachel's arm was held out, and he took it gently to do as he was asked.
"They consulted you for that?" he said. "Why you? Why not Ka'an?"
"Ka'an gets… overeager. He hates the Touched badly enough to treat our prisoners as badly as the Touched treats theirs." She shrugged. "We do our best to keep them secret."
Tobias didn't ask why, but Rachel continued anyway; "You've seen the scar on his face. He got that from the Touched. From his mother, to be exact."
"His mother?!"
Rachel nodded grimly, as Tobias held her hand out to find the ladder. "Long story. Made short; when Ka'an was young, he refused to let the One touch his mind. Refused to become one of the Touched. So the One ordered his mother to kill him – to avoid him putting ideas in others' heads – and she obeyed. Or tried to.
"Ka'an cut her throat to stop her and escaped in her fighter."
"He did?" Tobias said, repulsed, feeling that he didn't like Ka'an so much any more. "Cold-blooded."
"Not as bad as you might think. His mom didn't want to kill him, of course, but she had no choice. She was probably ordering him to get away at any price at the same time she was trying to rip him apart. Ka'an did what he had to. To survive. Of course, it leaves scars in someone's head to kill their own mom. Ka'an handles it by blaming the One, and the Touched."
"He shouldn't have done it, then," Tobias reasoned, shaking his head as he began climbing.
"Tobias. Let's make another example. You're a Touched. You have no choice but follow the One's orders – to the word. And he orders you to do something horrible. Let's say… he tells you to blow up… something that's very dear to you…"
"You."
"Me," Rachel agreed, a smile flickering across her face. "Now if someone blew up you first, what would you feel?"
"I'd be dead. I wouldn't feel much. But I'd be glad you were still in one piece."
"Would you be mad at the person who blew you up?"
"Probably not. I'd be thankful."
Rachel nodded, pleased. "I know it doesn't justify anything, but… now maybe you understand, at least."
Tobias did not respond, but he did not need to. They continued their climb up the ladder, that was just as long and dull as it had been during their last climb. But halfway up Tobias spoke again; "What does it mean? That word the Kelbrid called you. Kerian."
"What?"
"Kerian. Something like that."
Rachel was silent, not at first understanding what he was talking about. Then she laughed. "Oh. Cer y'yhan. It began as a joke, really. It means 'Master of Horns'. A title given to warrior-officers. Like an Andalite Prince. But I'm not a Kelbrid, and I don't have horns… a joke." She thought for a few seconds. "As well as a sign of respect."
"Kelbrid are very accepting, aren't there?" Tobias mused. "Taking you in like a part of the family. Letting you join their society. Even the ranks in their military."
Rachel shrugged – something that was not easy at the same time she was climbing the ladder. "Kelbrid are warriors. Every last adult among them is a warrior. From horns to claws. They give respect where respect is earned, they pay back friendship with friendship, and put those who are fit for a job in that job. Very simple, really. Effective. But accepting? No. I wouldn't put it that way. Not at all."