Another week soon passed, with a gradual return to some kind of normality. Though it was a normality punctuated with the occasional threat. Twice, van Horn's car's sensor suite detected aerospace fighters making an over flight, to which he had the others get under cover just in time, or so he hoped. One time, even a VTOL which he had identified as a Peregrine make an over flight, though that time he was sure that everyone had made it under cover. He was also sure that his converted scout car hadn't been detected, either, since the Blakests hadn't launched an attack to destroy it.
Also during that week, the shaman from the plains tribes had arrived, and with him a small contingent of warriors, since bandit activity had picked up recently. He too, found the stories of the last few days disturbing, and he was shocked as well by the appearance of the human, van Horn.
Still, before the Four could make any determinations of what the Gatón tribes should do, there were things to take care of. For instance, the Gatón had begun to again go back to their ruined village for supplies and equipment. Van Horn had warned them, however, that this may bring back the Blakests; a prediction that proved right as another 'mech came to investigate. Van Horn had identified it with the human name for the war machine, and it's specific design; an old FS9-H Firestarter, which was a dangerous anti-personnel design that Mikula and Alexis had identified as the thing that attacked the Tanzano army that stormy night.
The machine hadn't tarried, as it saw nothing since the gatón and the lupar helping them had been told that the best thing to do against the machines was to hide in buildings and not move. Thus, the Blakest machine had taken a quick look, then left. Van Horn had puzzled over this, since the wobbies had taken the time to attack the village in the first place.
Nevertheless, it had spooked the gatón even more, and now the question had come up with the survivors of what to do? They obviously couldn't go back to Kuamket for now, but the game near the caves was running out, as was the food stockpiles. Clearly, they had to leave.
"We would be glad to take your people, but the plains are rife these days with bandits both Lupar and Gatón. Not only would your people be preyed upon during the trip there, but the raiders have driven the game away, so there wouldn't be much to feed you once you arrive at a suitable location." The plains tribes' Shaman, Chuka, was saying. The plains tribes of the Gatón, unlike their forest and swamp brethren, were colored more akin to a Terran Tiger, with a base coat of dark orange and more regular, finer stripes than the forest and swamp tribes.
Forbasa, sitting back in the tent the newly arrived shaman had brought for himself to sleep in during the trek over the plains, shook his head. "The swamps are too poor in game and dry land to feed us, and the other forest areas all have villages in them already. The eastern plains are out, for if the Lupar don't chase us away, these invading 'Wobbies' will kill us. Your western plains are the only places we could find another spot to settle."
"And as I just told you, the plains are not as inviting as they once were." Chuka was getting annoyed now, as his twitching tail and the movement of his ears back could attest to.
Garona decided this was a time to intervene between the two elder shamans. "Please, we shouldn't bicker. Chuka," she said as she turned to face him, "Are all the plains so crowded now? Even all the way to the sea?"
Chuka shook his head now. "No, of course not. But to get to the sea even a fast group would take months. A group of surviving villagers would surely take longer, perhaps a year or more. Especially if you would take your wounded with you, instead of leaving them at a nearby village as I've suggested."
"We cannot leave them to strangers, you know that. It is a tradition known among all Gatón, and I would think that you, my dear Fero would be the last to suggest breaking a tradition as that." Forbasa spoke with a bit of hurt in his voice.
The other male shaman bristled at that, his fur standing up a bit along his back and neck. "Just what are you insinuating?"
"Shamans, please!" Once again Garona interrupted the dialog that seemed to go nowhere. "Again, bickering does us no good. Surely we can find an arrangement that will solve our dispute."
Chuka looked a bit less cross, but his voice carried the sting of annoyance. "Perhaps there is not such an arrangement. I certainly know that the plains are not able to take a group of refugees, and that if such a group moved through, we could not give it help of any kind. They would be alone, for no village can spare anything in this time of drought."
"And I'm saying that cannot be true, since I see none of drought's effects on you or your party." Forbasa replied crossly.
"Again, you imply motives to me that are unjust."
"I do no such thing," Forbasa backpedaled a bit. "I simply wonder if perhaps you are overstating the effects out of a misplaced sense of caution."
"Caution? Yes. Misplaced? I doubt that. Already your village has been burned after taking in survivors of an attacked Lupar city, and I wonder if perhaps these 'wobbies' won't follow you to our homes and burn them as well." Chuka leaned back after finishing, partly to emphasize his point, partly to adjust his position. I'm too old to be sitting on the ground like this for long periods of time.
They all sat around a map of Gatón lands that Forbasa had had fished out from his house's library. On it sat small stones that represented the sightings of the 'Wobbies' that van Horn had mentioned, and that stories that a pair of merchants had brought with them when they had made a call to Kuamket, only to find it burned and the citizens hiding in the forest. Van Horn had looked at it earlier, and stated that it looked "strategically sound." Whatever that meant, Forbasa thought to himself as he took the moment of silence to collect his thoughts. Looking up after a second, he spoke. "Although it is true that these invaders attacked us, I believe it is more coincidence than design. We just happen to be the largest Gatón village to Tanzano, so I believe they attacked us to make sure that we would learn to fear them; something you are easily allowing yourself to learn."
Chuka's ears folded back and his tail curled; the Gatón equivalent of a blush. "I fear not these fools, but I do fear for the damage they could do to my people."
"Then you can chose one of two paths: Wither cower and bend to their bidding, or stand and fight." A new voice made itself heard. The clear tones and distinct punctuation marked the speaker as not gatón on lupar, but that of their guest. Thy turned to see the tent flap open to accept the human van Horn and admit the night air in to cool the speakers. Van Horn leaned forward and stepped in without being invited, but he knew that now wasn't exactly a time to be too polite. "Every day, the Wobbies move forward. This I know from their past behavior. They will not leave you alone forever. Sooner or later, they will come for you, and the longer you wait, the more converts they get to their cause."
Chuka, taken aback a bit since he hadn't seen the human much, recovered quickly. "What in the world do you mean? What converts?"
Van Horn sat heavily by the flap, which was at the fourth, unclaimed side of the map in the center. "The Wobbies are demented bastards. They use techniques to-" He paused, trying to think of how to say, 'brainwash.' "To change a person's mind, and indeed their very thoughts. They used these techniques to train an army that was to try and destroy the worlds of Man in their insane quest for power.
"As much as they were effective in doing that, they may not even need such plots here, for their strength alone will drive many into fearing them and even to obey them out of that fear... And some, of course, " van Horn's voice took on a dark timbre, "some will follow out of greed or lust for power. Such are things among my people, such are the way things are wherever there is civilization and its enemies."
The silence stretched, and van Horn wondered why he had grown so lyrical. It's the way they talk, he realized, so much like the English of Shakespeare, precise in nature. He wondered how long it would be before he started thinking that way, as well.
His attention was brought back to the present when Chuka responded to his arguments. "I know that there will be some who follow a great power, no matter how evil it is, but to change a person's mind? How can such a thing be done?"
Van Horn sighed. "I don't know exactly, as most decent people have no wish to learn such dark science. But I know it can be done, it HAS been done. They almost succeeded in their nefarious goals once before."
"If they are so dangerous, then how did they get stopped before?" Chuka was naturally skeptical.
"Because my people chose the second option; to stand and fight. But not only to fight, but to fight at once! Else you give them enough time to ready their armies. Hell, we waited almost too long, so close were they to launching their Jihad..." Van Horn's voice trailed away as he remembered the images of the fighting, and how he had managed to be one of the few professional soldiers left behind to defend the Republic.
"Jihad?" Forbasa's repeat of the foreign word brought van Horn back from his reminiscing. "Yes," van Horn said in reply, "it is an old word that means, 'holy war.'"
"'Holy war?' That sounds like a contradiction in terms."
"It is, believe me. The people whose language that word came from used it to cover the fact that they engaged in brutal, despicable activities, like raping and killing in cold blood. Now, their culture is a minority, forgotten as my people left behind such foolishness as fighting over which God to worship. But the word remains, and it is a dirty word to match dirty actions."
"Indeed," replied Garona. "But I suppose the 'Wobbies' didn't just lie down and let themselves be beaten?"
Van Horn shook his head. "No, there was tough fighting, but we caught them flat-footed... I mean... we struck when they least suspected an attack, so arrogant they were in their power."
"Tough fighting, even for your people. What chance do we have against such monstrosities as I've been told about?" Chuka asked in a skeptical tone.
Van Horn looked at him. "Not much, I'll agree, but you can do something. All campaigns of terror - terror that the Wobbies now intend to use on you - they rely on one thing: That you fear the enemy rather than fearing the loss of your freedom. Fear now, hide now, deny your friends help now, and you've already lost."
Alexis wondered from the encampment, seeking to get some solitude in order to think. The last week had prevented her from doing anything of the sort, trying to take care of the recovering wounded. Thanks to van Horn's help, all would survive, even Soru, who had been hit directly from one of those deadly streams of flame that fateful night. He hadn't awakened yet, but he looked to be set on recovering consciousness soon.
Such thoughts she now pushed from her mind as she walked beyond the picket line that had been set up. She only absent-mindedly nodded to a guard, some lupar that she didn't recognize as she walked farther away from camp and into the nighttime gloom.
After a bit, she picked a tree near the village clearing, and climbed up it quickly. Reaching a fairly large branch, she settled on it and began the process she had often used to organize her thoughts, namely calm breathing and a focusing on nature's sounds, rather than trying to force her thoughts into a pattern. As usual for Alexis, it worked and the events of the past week started to trickle through her mind.
So it would have gone on for another hour or so, she thought to herself, if not for the noise of someone's arrival near the tree. Suddenly brought back to the present, she tensed and tried to not move, so as to not draw attention to herself, for she knew not if it was friend or foe that was near.
"Hello?" The somewhat halting word, spoken in gatonese with a detectable accent, arrived at the same time as the familiar scent entered her sensitive nose, and she relaxed. Alexis moved a bit and stuck her head over the side of the branch to see the new arrival. "Mikula, what are you doing here?"
"I was going to ask you the same question." Mikula responded with his lopsided grin. "I saw you leaving camp, and I decided to see what you were up to... If that's alright." His grin disappeared as uncertainty entered his voice. "I hope I'm not intruding on anything?"
Alexis shook her head, then swing over the branch and began to climb down, while saying "No, it's alright. I just needed some time to think, that's all." She reached the ground easily and turned to face the young lupar.
"Ah, well if it's solitude you want, I can go." Mikula felt uncomfortable, as evidenced by his twitching ears and the way his tail flicked a bit behind him.
"No, it's fine, really." Alexis tried smiling to show she wasn't angered. "I just wanted to think about the past week or so, try to understand what's happening. I just like to do so when it's quiet, but it certainly can wait if you want to talk."
Mikula took a step back. "No, it's okay, I was just a little bored, and I felt like going for a walk to exercise my leg like Vanhorn said I should. When I saw you leave, I decided to follow as a lark. No offense," he added hastily when he realized that it might not sound very complimentary.
Alexis' smile grew a bit at that. "It's okay, I know what you mean. Lately, none of us have hardly had any chances to be ourselves, with all the strange things going on."
Mikula nodded at that. "Aye, it certainly has been... Unusual, to say the lest." They both had a moment of silence at that as they remembered that many weren't there to reminisce. Both had helped with the burial details that had quietly gone through the town at night after the brief revisit of the attackers' 'mech. They had buried the dead, both gatón and lupar alike, in another clearing not too far from the village, and hopefully, not so close that the enemy would notice it. So far they hadn't, but they were label to be suspicious since they had taken time to revisit the attacked village.
Alexis broke the spell. "Well, we cannot dwell too much in the past, my mother always says." Her voice picked up a little on that, as her family had made it out safely, though her parents had decided to stay with the group at the other end of the caverns. "I think she would say that, now that the dead have been taken care of, we can begin to live for ourselves again."
Mikula lowered his head and looked at the ground. "Perhaps. I still feel their loss, however, so forgive me if I am not so... Inspiring, lately." He chose his words with care, wishing to not offend Alexis.
She nodded and gave another, small smile. "I know. I don't find it a problem, Mikula, since you always seem to rise above your feelings to help others."
Mikula did a lupar equivalent of a blush then, with his ears turning down and his tail falling to hang low. "Thank you, Alexis. It's been hard, but with friends like you, I know that I can get through this more easily than if I was still in an army unit somewhere."
Now Alexis did the gatón equivalent of a blush and turned away. "You're too kind. All I've done is help take care of hurt people. A noble cause to be sure, but not one that makes me anyone special."
"But you are special," Mikula said. "I've not seen anyone so dedicated to helping others, even when surrounded by such an inhospitable environment. And especially," he took a step closer now, "when you've seen the horrible things that we've all seen."
She turned back and looked at the lupar, and then smiled a bit. "Thank you, Mikula. I think you overstate my qualities a bit, but I guess I can take your word for it."
He smiled again. "You certainly can, Alexis. After all, I wouldn't be very good in repaying my debt to you if I lied all the time, now would I?"
With that, her smile died again. "Mikula, I've told you this before, but you really don't owe me your life. Shaman Forbasa did most of the original treatment, and even Vanhorn helped some. All I did was take care of some simple things."
"They were not simple to me," he said as he stepped up to stand next to her, though she was facing off to his left. "Alexis, while it is true that Forbasa did more medicine, and that even young Soru helped out, I still consider what you did a great service. You told the shaman and Soru about the attack, and because of that, they came to the place and found me. When I was healing, you brought me food when Soru was off doing errands, you stayed and talked to me to help keep me from being too lonely or bored, and you took care of my injury as well as I ever saw Forbasa did."
"All things that any good person would do, Mikula; Nothing special." She said with a small sigh.
"It was special to me, Alexis. It still is," and he put his hand on her shoulder to emphasize.
Alexis startled a bit and looked at Mikula, not in anger or shock, but simple surprise. He quickly took his hand away and turned and took a step. He was surprised at the turmoil of emotions inside himself, and the look of surprise on Alexis' face had jarred him.
Alexis, for her part, looked down at the ground as she too, wrestled with her inner thoughts. She recovered first, and said "Perhaps... Perhaps we've tarried too long out here. The others at camp may be getting worried."
Mikula, glad that Alexis had found a way out from the awkward moment, turned back to face her. "Yes, we should get back. Should I lead the way?" He said with a voice that belied his inner confusion.
Alexis nodded, and they began back.
Mikula and Alexis only took a few minutes to arrive in camp. Coming from the east, they passed by van Horn's vehicle and were surprised to find the door open and a light on inside. A flickering shadow and muffled noises told them that the human was inside and at work on something. Mikula, mind still in turmoil, realized that he wanted to ask the human some things. He decided to go and ask now, since this seemed a good time to talk to the human and perhaps quell the thoughts that ran through his head.
He turned to Alexis and said, "I want to talk to Vanhorn about something, if you'll excuse me?"
Her reply surprised him. "Would you mind if I came with? I haven't spoken to him much and I wouldn't mind talking to him myself."
"Well, of course I don't mind. Shall we?" And he gestured to the door.
Arriving at the opened door, Mikula stuck his head inside. The forward cabin was a mess, with boxes lying around on the floor, and clothes draped on the chairs. The doorway to the back cabin was open, and this was the source of the noise, as van Horn sat on the floor with his back to the door. He appeared to be hunched over something, though Mikula didn't know what it was. The light, he noticed, came not from oil lanterns or candles, but from strange panels mounted in the ceiling of the vehicle. They gave off bright light that was strangely lacking of warmth or strength. Mikula wondered at these, since despite his previous experience with the human's equipment, he had never seen the lights. Although I shouldn't be surprised, given that show on the first day he arrived, the young lupar thought to himself.
He knocked on the doorframe, which brought van Horn's head around. "Oh, it's you Mikula. What can I do for you?"
"Well, it's me and Alexis, and we were wondering if we could come in and ask you a few things."
Van Horn looked puzzled, then shrugged. "Okay, just gimme a second to clean off the chairs," van Horn said as he got off the floor carrying what hew had been working on; a book, Mikula noticed, though it seemed awfully large to him. Van Horn put the book down on a shelf, and quickly moved the clothes and laid them down in the back before coming forward again. "Okay, please come in now that I've at least got seats for you."
Mikula climbed up the short gap from ground to vehicle, and then turned around and reached out to help Alexis up. She gratefully accepted his offered hand, and used it to help pull herself up to join the other two. Van Horn indicated a pair of chairs on one side of the compartment and he took the third across from them.
Both Alexis and Mikula sat down in the offered chairs, and van Horn started talking. "Now, what is it you two wish to talk about?"
"Well, I don't know why Alexis wished to speak to you, but I wanted to ask you about something you mentioned to my brother Pavlo when you first arrived here." Mikula said, a bit of embarrassment on his features.
"Oh, what was that?"
"Well, you said something about our family name, something about its origins. Pavlo told me you asked and mentioned that you seemed to know something. I was hoping you could tell me what you knew, if that is possible." Mikula's voice grew softer as he approached the last words, unsure of how to sound. Although van Horn had been in the presence of the natives for a while, few talked to him, afraid as they were of his abilities and his tools. Thus, no one knew, exactly, how the human was, personally, save that he was polite and kind.
Van Horn grinned a bit. "Well, I can talk about that, if you want, since I don't think I can make things any worse by talking to you."
Alexis and Mikula puzzled over this, and she asked "Worse? How could you make things worse?"
"That's the point; I can't." Van Horn replied with his grin firmly entrenched. He shook his head when he saw the puzzled looks on the two natives' faces. "Sorry, I was joking a bit. What I mean, is, that what I tell you cannot possibly make the cultural contamination any worse than being invaded by the Blakests.
"So you want to know about your name, mainly how I know it?" Mikula nodded to van Horn's question. The latter took a breath, and began. "The last name, 'Farkas,' it appears in an ancient language of my people that pre-dates our world-hopping abilities," the last words he chose instead of space flight, mainly because he didn't know anything that would explain it in either native language.
"So, what does that mean?" Alexis asked, intrigued now.
"Well, first off, the word itself means in that ancient tongue, 'wolf.'" Van Horn used the gatonese version of the word, since the Lupar just referred to themselves as, 'lupar.' The fact that there is even a translatable word like that, instead of using 'lupar,' makes this idea of mine more likely, van Horn thought to himself.
"A strange coincidence to be sure." Said Alexis, after she had taken a minute to explain to Mikula what the gatonese word meant. He seemed vaguely amused, though his eyes showed curiosity.
"Coincidence, possibly in word structure and sound. But meaning? Such a coincidence is rare, indeed," van Horn concluded. "What makes it even more unlikely as a coincidence is the word is from an unusual language called 'Hungarian;' a language known for its difficulty to master for those not born to it."
Mikula just nodded a bit, then said, almost absentmindedly "Strange, since my clan's history never showed any special meaning for 'Farkas,' save that of 'fighter.'"
"A good derivative, to be sure," van Horn replied. He tilted his head as an idea entered it. "By the way, what is your clan's name?"
"Regulus, why?" Mikula paused as he saw surprise wash over the human's face. Or, he was fairly sure it was surprise, since he was still unsure of the human's emotions. "Is something the matter?"
"No, it's fine, it's just that... Your clan's name, it too, has a partner from my people's past." Van Horn said in a quiet voice. "It is from Latin, a dead language that is known only by scholars."
"Another coincidence?" Mikula asked incredulously.
"I begin to have my doubts as to coincidences lately..." van Horn trailed off and he looked down a bit as he considered this new information.
Alexis and Mikula waited a minute, before the latter asked, "But what does it mean in that language?"
Van Horn looked up. "Hmm? Oh, yes, it means 'leader,' 'prince' or 'little king.' But people seldom use it for that, anymore, since it is more recognized as the name of a star."
"A star?" Alexis asked, interested in the points of light in the sky that she knew now to contain different worlds after a previous talk with van Horn.
"Yes, a small star that is seen from the oldest home of my people, Terra." Van Horn replied with a bit of wistfulness in his voice that the other two could notice. "'Regulus' as a name has always been given to ships and pioneering technologies, since the old Latin name refers to it as a leader or king, as I've said."
"Now, that matches with what I've been told," said Mikula. "The older stories I heard when the clan got together was always of how we were always the first to lead off into new frontiers. There is even a story about us being related to the Great Kings of Basun... But I speak mainly of legends and such." Mikula added the last in dismissively.
"Legends often contain facts, my friend," replied van Horn. "And the coincidences keep building up in the name department, especially with Alexis' name."
Both the natives were visibly surprised. "My name?" Asked Alexis in a voice that announced her surprise with a raised pitch. "What do you mean?"
"Your name, my dear, is a copy of a name that has been used for thousands of years among my people." Van horn took a breath before continuing. "It is a female version of the name, 'Alex,' which itself is a shortened form of 'Alexander,' a name once carried by a fearsome conqueror."
"Conqueror?" She asked in even greater surprise.
"Yes. Back when my people were much like yours, still using swords and spears, still having little in the way of science, this great leader of men, Alexander, conquered the known world at the time. It was an achievement so great, that his name was spread far and wide, and even now, nearly four thousand years after his death, people still name their children after him.
"So my friends, you can see that these coincidences are so unlikely that there must be something else at work."
Another, brief silence entered the room. Then Alexis decided to speak. "I don't suppose you have an idea?"
"I do, my dear lady. But I don't think I should give voice to it until I have the idea more fully formed," van Horn said. "However, I shall inform both of you if I ever find enough information to validate my theory.
"In the meantime," he added with a bit more energy, as their voices had gotten a bit low key while talking, "I think it would be best for all of us to get some sleep; Tomorrow will be a big day."
"Why? What's going on?" Mikula asked in surprise.
"Forbasa has decided that this place is not safe anymore, and I tend to agree with him. So tomorrow everyone is to make preparations for traveling." Van Horn had a visible reaction that neither native could guess at, but any human would recognize it as uncertainty.
"What? Where will we go?" Alexis asked most poignantly.
"Forbasa tried to get the plains shaman to grant you passage, but he was most stubborn. I'm afraid that for now, the plan is to go north and seek out other gatón villages, or perhaps a lupar town that might take your group in. After all," van Horn looked at Mikula and smiled a bit, "the mix of lupar and gatón in this camp is somewhat unusual, is it not?"
Both Alexis and Mikula glanced at each other, then looked back to van Horn and gave a pair of smiles. "I suppose so," said Mikula. "Like I said, my clan has always been at the forefront of exploration, and I suppose a point of exploration is trying new things..." His sidelong glance to Alexis didn't go unnoticed by van Horn, though Alexis seemed too busy in her thoughts to pay much attention to the others for a few seconds. Mikula went on, his grin returning "And I suppose a group of Lupar and Gatón traveling together is going to be something new and different, indeed."
Van Horn just smiled back, and its warmth was reinforced by what he had seen. "Certainly. Now, off with you two, I have my own preparations to make."
This brought Alexis around. "Why? Are you coming with us?"
Van Horn nodded his head. "Yes. I am an explorer of sorts, as well. And what kind of explorer can I be if I don't go where I haven't been before?" He asked, still smiling. The smile then disappeared. "Besides, when my people come back to this world, they will need to be told where the Wobbies have set up. I can't tell from here where all of the invaders are, so I must go and see if I can discover their locations."
"So your people can fight them?" Asked Mikula hopefully.
Van Horn nodded. "Yes, so that we can end this madness once and for all."
With that last one, van Horn stood up. "Now, as I've said, we should get some sleep, for it is late and the morning grows ever closer."
The others rose. "Indeed. And I hope you will let me know about this theory of yours concerning our names?" Alexis asked with curiosity.
"Certainly, my dear. Now, I bid you both goodnight." And with that, the natives left, leaving van Horn to wonder about his theory, which seemed to grow ever more solid. I must keep my eyes open for other clues...