NOTE: This is derived from the "Swept Away" RP continuity which started in 2007 and has continued in various forms and spinoffs ever since, first on the old Hillbilly Hell forum and presently in Wingnut City. I'm sure it's not the first or only "Humans in the Carsverse" thing that ever came up, but boy, has it had staying power. By the in-RP timeline, the events of Planes 2 would be taking place perhaps 6 years after the humans' arrival.
Disclaimer: All canon characters are the property of The Big Mouse, aka Disney
Mii'auww was in no hurry as she allowed N'sheki to pick her way down the trail. It was mid-afternoonish, and they were a mile past the pass at Canopy Dome. The park proper wasn't all that big, not compared to her homeland where the plains were as wide as the sky. The elders of her tribe would have more felt a bit uneasy moving through a dense forest where they couldn't see fifty feet ahead of them, let alone the miles they were accustomed to. Here and there, shafts of light and warmth pierced through the tree cover, illuminating patches of green. The mare was taking her time, now and then grabbing a snack from the growth of the forest floor. Nick was ahead, skirling down the path. He was guiding them along a southeast route that would loop up and then take them to the edge of the lodge's perimeter. At the end of this trail, he knew, was a small meadow where the mare could be safely left while Mii was occupied elsewhere. As long as they were there by twilight.
A few Deere looked up, flicking their sideviews, as the curious trio made their way through. They concerned Mii a little bit, though so far, none had offered trouble. She would have liked to turn the scanner on, just to make triple- sure the smokejumper crew were not camped anywhere near her intended route, but the quieter, the better. As the sun began its slow descent, a bright spot appeared down-trail. They emerged into a meadow, maybe nine or ten acres, but having sufficient grass for a single horse to munch on.
"This place isn't under the approach path for the lodge's airstrip, so I think she'd be OK here." Nick's mote hovered just ahead of N'Sheki, who for once did not attempt to snap at him.
"Good thing." Mii uncoiled the tether rope. "You saw that last jet? Mr. Fancy-pants with that black and silver livery? He was flying pretty damned low."
"Yeah, I saw that character. Hope his wash didn't throw any sparks around." There was a decided frown in the spirit's voice. "Just how many people is Spinner cramming into that place? No matter how I add it up, it's always "TOO DAMN MANY."
With one last tug, Mii'auww checked the knots she'd made, then slackened N'sheki's girth. There was still maybe an hour of daylight left. The mare immediately settled to the serious business of grazing; a couple of weeks of steady riding had done much to wear the nonsense out of her. Under the saddle blanket, Mii knew, her mount's ribs were just visible. Some groceries were definitely in order. She had no reply for Nick at this point, but this business was looking scarier by the minute; her gut was knotting itself into macrame and every random noise pinged her nervous system like a vicious little spike as the light dimmed and died. Sitting down, Mii noted her accelerated heart thumping as if it was about to tear free of its mountings. Nick was hovering just at her chest level now, waggling a bit, in a way she'd come to understand as "puzzled as hell".
"All right, what's bothering YOU?" she asked of the mote.
"Your heart... it's not in the same place. It's like it's on the opposite side of the chest."
Mii'auww blinked. "Opposite" for one of the Mountain people, that is. You've been around us that long and you never caught on to the difference?"
"Well - uh - you're the only one I really spent time with." Nick's tone was now slightly sheepish.
"Well, it's not just where the organs are." Mii shrugged, almost relieved to have something to distract from the tension. "The mountain people say it can happen with them, but it's very, very rare. They also say we have a different number of .. what was it... chromo-something-"
"Chromosones?"
"Yeah. We have two more. But our peoples still have even numbers of pairs, so we can still interbreed and have children who can breed on. though it's kind of 50-50 which side their heart lies on. We can also do things just as good with either hand, though the mountain people are either right or left-handed, and not many left-handers compared to the rest."
"OK. So probably some difference in brain structure as well."
"That's what they say, from what they learned from those of us who went into the body-scanner the cars gave them. The doctor said it took some mods to make it usable for humans, but once they got it going, it was like looking at a body in slices."
"That... clarifies some things." Nick settled a bit. "Just as well the noise and the scents will be all over the place at the lodge tonight. Dusty wouldn't just know your scent, if he had even a few hours' exposure to both types of humans, he'd know the difference just from the sound resonance and magnetic field patterns. You already know planes can "sort of" see those as well. Helicopters, not so much. We do lower, shorter flights and navigate by landmarks and thermal patterns."
"You both still have the good night vision though." Mii interjected. She'd seen how light reflected back from carsversian aircraft retinas when hit exactly right with full dilation. Silver for planes, yellow-green for helicopters. As long as there were the moon and stars, they would see twilight where humans would only see darkness. A moonless or new-moon night might make a bit of a difference, but not much.
"Artificial light ****'s it up, 'scuse my French" Nick snorted. "FAA regs on running lights were the worst idea they ever had. If they weren't such scrapheaps about that, Air Attack would have NO problems flying after sundown. Cars are the last people who should be making decisions for aircraft, but when they're the majority, what can we do?"
Mii had little intrerest in the politics between the races of vehicles, but "minority" position she could understand instantly. "That explains some things about aircraft too."
"What do you mean?"
"They were some of the first people here to make friends with the humans, and teach them how to deal with this world... because they already knew what it was like to be outnumbered, outvoted, taken for granted and misunderstood. And two of the first ones the humans ever met were helicopters."
"Well, yeah, I have to admit we have a pretty unique lot in life." Nick shrugged. "We're designed to basically play chicken with all the laws of physics, but, we go too far, those laws win. EVERY TIME. There's no "glide" option for us. Get careless, get cocky, get killed."
"I've seen videos." Mii grimaced. "Old ones, from the world the mountain people came from where helicopters aren't living things. I wouldn't want to see it happen here."
"Happened to me." Nick sighed. "But if it's any comfort to you, I went quick. Didn't even realize it until I was floating over the smoking ruins of my frame, and Blade was going... crazy. The other night in the hangar, I heard the smokejumpers speculating whether he went "coo-coo" on the set. I can now tell you that was technically true on ONE occasion, but there's nothing funny about having to tie down a raving, rearing, snarling chopper and sticking him with a tranq needle on the end of a VERY long pole because he just saw his best friend go up in a ball of flames. "
"Well, now I know why he had that look in his eye, when I first saw him."
"That look of "Seen the elephant."
"So you've been hanging around humans a lot longer than you let on."
"Well, when millions of tons of mountain with hundreds of strange little beings inside suddenly materializes in the boonies of Colorado, it does tend to pique one's interest. Would have been something to see the device that transported them there, but it just looked like a few shards of slightly glowing glass when I saw it."
"The mountain elders say it looked like a hollow column of chrystal, and really didn't look like much even when it was intact. The chief elder lady said her great-grandfather had found it somewhere in the south of their world, and they had even used it as a vase and put flowers in it until she realized what it really was." Mii'auww paused as she felt a pang of hunger. She had not eaten or drank much since the previous night. It would not be good to feel the call of nature while trying to infiltrate the lodge!
"They'll be starting the festivities soon." Nick stated, after several beats.
Mii stared at the dirt in front of her, listening to the sounds of the oncoming night and the tearing of grass in the mare's jaws. For some reason she thought of Ronald Fairlamb, the old and now semi-retired stable manager at the mountain complex. He was a man who always had the scent of horses on his clothes, and scars that told of battles. He spoke little of his past, but others said that he had been a mounted soldier in a country that used to be called "Rhodesia" and was, to them, a living anachronism - an authentic horse warrior in a mechanized age. His experience was enough to earn him the respect of the surviving Nomad men. She had heard him say once, "Under battle conditions, you don't rise to the occasion. You default to your level of training." The people at the air attack base would concur with that, despite their physical differences.
What had she to default to?
In the falling mists of night, two tones rose in volume and took on shape. One droning, one melodic. One from the throat, one from the tongue and mouth. Half a minute in, Mii sort-of recognized that this was her own voice, traveling up the initial scales that were at once practice and meditation, that she had begun to learn at her mother's lap even before she had learned to braid her own hair, or ride on her own. Beyond a certain distance, it would melt into the ambient sounds of the surrounding woods, but in this small meadow, the drone and the melody expanded to fill the empty space. From scales it moved to progressions and trills that moved the deere in the surrounding bush to prick their sideviews and wonder. Farther out, something else picked up traces and came to investigate, though it refrained from crossing the meadow's boundaries.
It, or rather "he", just watched, and thought.
What the hell is Mr. Hollywood up to with that kid?
Then the last notes faded away, and the forest was as before.
Rising to her feet, Mii'auww stretched. She checked N'Sheki's tether one last time.
Then, she and Nick turned back down the animal trail that would take them to the edge of the lodge zone.