SenSaru Rising

'It's difficult now, after six decades,' the ancient journal continued, 'to reach back for those first impressions. They've been overlaid so completely by everything that came after. And which is more important, after all: the enemy one seemed at first sighting, or the true and loyal friend they proved to be over time? Or again, which should be recorded in an accurate history: the staunch initial supporter, or the tunnel snake they turned into, boring through the heart of our great endeavor and attempting to destroy it from within?

'The answers are obvious.

'And yet... those first impressions DO matter, because they colored so much of what happened after, for such a long time. Even today, the repercussions continue. So I shall strive again to reach back, and tell this story true.'

^..^

SesTok's patience was wearing very thin, and every one of his subordinates knew it. The situation at home was becoming more desperate by the day; if a solution was not found soon, all of SenSaru'a would be in ashes, no one left to sing the Great Song to Marusska Moon.

Worst of all, he couldn't squash his own doubts, that they were going about this all wrong. They had tried this four times already – four! – with disastrous results. How many more times would the Council of Elders insist on this folly? They'll put us all under the sea before they're done. Council of Elders my aching left fin. Council of Children, more like. Why, Marusska, did you take our Wisest Ones first?

Still, he had no better answer to give, not then. I'll do this once more, just once. If it fails as the others did, I will stand up to the Council and demand they reconsider, and try something else. Even if it means my command. I'll soon have no-one to command, anyway, on the present course.

He'd taken the highly unusual step for a ship's Commander of going down with the landing party and personally overseeing the operation. Their sensors had picked up the obvious traces of nuclear fission power from various points on the planet from far out in the system, but hadn't noticed the more subtle trace of fusion reactions until they'd reached orbit. Quickly realizing that those enjoying for the far more advanced fusion power would likely be those responsible for its creation, and therefore more advanced themselves, SesTok had made the snap decision to concentrate their harvesting there: the better the stock, the better the results. One such plant stood out on their sensors as the oldest, from the concentration of elion particles surrounding it – and further sweeps revealed large clusters of life forms conveniently sequestered inside numerous groupings of evidently communal structures scattered closely around that plant: easy pickings for a quick grab.

Of course they'd quickly garnered mass attention when they'd landed, groups of the locals surrounding each ship and making their hideous noises. A number of individuals had tried to stop them; he'd given orders to stun them all rather than kill them – no need to waste life unnecessarily, even of such low life forms. One of the beings in particular was persistent, walking out of the crowd and speaking urgently to him, showing its empty appendages in an obvious attempt to parley. SesTok had regretted stunning it; it had seemed almost intelligent. Had the situation been slightly different, he might have herded it inside the ship with the rest of their catch to study later, but there was too much going on at that second, and SesTok had needed to maintain control. So he stunned it and left it on the short plants between the structures.

Their sweep finished, his men came barreling back out of the target structure. They'd gathered quite a catch from this one alone, and SesTok ordered them back into the ship, sending the same order out to the other five landers. The final counts came in as the six ships ascended, and he smiled. Plenty to choose from.

"Take six from this lander for processing and identification," he ordered the medical crew as they docked. "No need to shuffle them all on and off. Once you've found the markers, move only the females to the holding pens, then we'll send the males back down and gather more females."

"Why not just space the males?" his second, JanDel, wanted to know.

"Take too long. Faster this way," he replied with a shrug. He knew his crew considered him too soft, sometimes; no need to give them any more fodder for their talk. His order to stun rather than kill had already been controversial enough.

He walked slowly down to the cargo bay of the lander and stood at the observation port overlooking it, staring down into the herd. They were clustered in a number of groups, taking comfort from each other in their frightening circumstances. Several – probably males – were lined up in front of the doors in an obvious attempt to protect their females; a useless gesture as they had no weapons. The six, grabbed at random from the closest bunches to the door, had already been taken for examination.

SesTok tapped the viewglass, increasing the magnification, to take a closer look at these new animals. They had an interesting variety of fur on the tops of their heads, all different colors, and of wildly different lengths. He noticed one animal standing by itself, its blue eyes locked on the doors, whose very long fur, hanging down far past its shoulders, was of an intriguing reddish color. Scanning quickly, he didn't notice any others with this same color, and wondered if it were a mark of some prestige – or pariahship; either one would explain the several lengths of space being given it by the others. He turned back to this one, studying it closer. That color was interesting – exactly the same shade as the baby folismats he'd played with as a youngling. Though hopefully with fewer – and duller – teeth, he reflected, absently rubbing the tiny scars that still remained on his fingers from those baby teeth.

The chief medical officer's voice came over the comlink. "We've identified the genders, Commander. Two of the first six were females – and they have the marker!"

"Good. Return the four males to the lander, and send the gender data to all scanners. Begin sorting out the rest immediately." He breathed a silent sigh of relief. They have the marker. Good. So, the seer was correct – this time. Maybe the Council was right, after all – maybe this is the way.

He watched as several of his crew entered the bay below him, scanners out. The line of animals reacted bravely, attempting to intimidate the crew, but to no avail. As soon as the scanners revealed the results – SesTok had been right, they were males – the crew waved them back with their stunners. It only took a single shot, stunning just one of them, for the rest to give way, and the crew began making its way through the crowd, methodically scanning each animal. Each female was shoved towards the door, where more of his crew waited, while the males were sent to one side of the bay, out of the way.

When the sorting was done, the crew returned to the door, and began connecting the females to each other with forceropes, hand to hand, then they took them twelve at a time out towards the holding pens on the next level down. Just then, SesTok noticed that the reddish one he'd been watching earlier was with the females. On impulse, he thumbed his comlink and got the crew chief below him, pointing out the female and ordering the chief to take her to his own cabin.

He wanted a closer inspection of this, the salvation of the SenSaru.