Merkiaari Wars: 03 - Operation Oracle Read online

  Shima flicked her ears acknowledging the sympathy. “I’m not sorry... well, not now anyway. It was a torment, but it was a price worth paying for my new eyes.”

  Kate nodded thoughtfully.

  The flight lasted about three segs or hours, Shima judged. She didn’t know how far Gina had roamed from her drop off point, except that she had stayed within the general vicinity bounded by the mountains and that of the valley she was exploring. Shima had studied the maps, but Kate had switched on a display in the seatback in front of them to show her the land they flew over. The area was lush and beautiful, the mountains high and snow capped. Shima wondered about the weather and found herself hoping it was not too harsh. A colony here would be a fine thing; at least it would be based upon her scant knowledge.

  The valley was heavily forested with gorges and rivers connecting it to the mountains, and was joined by other valleys to the west. Farther south, it widened and formed into a lake before narrowing again. The fast moving water of the river had cut a deep canyon at the southern tip, and would take Shima weeks to navigate should she try. Glaciation in the far past had created the landscape, and it had done a wonderful job. Shima approved, as did all the creatures that called it home she assumed. The entire area must be teeming with life. She could hardly wait to get down there.

  “Are the other worlds of the Alliance like this?”

  Kate shrugged. “Some are, but others are so different you wouldn’t believe it. Desert worlds, jungle worlds, and even water worlds where nine tenths of the planet is ocean. Then there are planets like Garnet that have crystal forests and metal mountains, and hardly any breathable air. I’ve not been to all of the Alliance worlds, but almost anything you can imagine is out there somewhere, Shima, and don’t forget there are a lot of planets that haven’t joined the Alliance. You can’t be surprised surely. The Shan homeworld is different to Child of Harmony after all.”

  “Oh...” Shima dragged her eyes away from the screen to look at Kate. “Yes, you’re right, but Child of Harmony’s differences are quite subtle. The sun in the sky is the same sun, though it looks bigger, and the gravity is different. A tree is a tree, grass is grass there. Different species and varieties, absolutely, but obviously still trees and grass. Here though, the sun itself is a different colour, and the light makes everything look so alien.”

  Kate looked at the screen. “I’m trying to see it the way you do, Shima, but I’ve seen so many worlds that they blend together. Snakeholme’s star is main sequence, what we call F-type. It’s hotter than Sol and plants absorb its light differently. I look down there and I still see trees no matter these are orange not green. A tree is a tree. They stick up high out of the ground, taller than a bush, have a trunk and bark... that’s what a tree is to me. It doesn’t matter how weirdly shaped the leaves are, or what colour they turn in winter. It’s a tree!”

  Shima laughed and indicated herself and Kate. “And we are people, no matter our shape?”

  “Exactly, and no matter our colour,” Kate waved vaguely in Stone’s direction. “Or whether we have fur or not. I guess it’s a mindset. You may not know this, but the people living on Bethany, my homeworld, do not think like me at all. I’m sorry to say, you would not find a welcome there and neither would I now.”

  That was interesting. “They don’t like vipers?”

  “They don’t like anything different to themselves. When your people send someone to join the Council, I guarantee she will have no welcome from Bethany’s councillor.”

  Shima flicked her ears in acknowledgment and nodded in thought. She would ask Varya to add this information to his report. The elders may already have heard, but in case they hadn’t it wouldn’t hurt to tell them. Not that they would be surprised. There were plenty of Shan wary of Humans just because they were alien. Why shouldn’t Humans be wary of Shan in the same manner?

  “One minute to drop point,” Stone said over the cabin intercom.

  Kate stood and hurried forward to the cockpit, but was back very quickly to open the hatch. She had to by-pass the safety interlocks to open it while in flight. Depressurisation wasn’t a concern at such a low altitude.

  Kate waved Shima over to the hatch as the shuttle hovered. “I’m not extending the ramp!” she shouted over the engine noise.

  Shima nodded exaggeratedly. She held hard to the opening and leaned out to look down. Stone was holding the shuttle steady just a few tails or metres above the treetops. She could easily climb down... hmmm. What need for a rope then? She turned to find Kate watching her with the rope still coiled. Kate cocked an eyebrow in one of those strange Human face-screwing gestures. This one was a challenge, Shima thought, and laughed.

  “I won’t need that at this range. The trees will be my road!”

  “You sure?”

  Shima nodded and dropped to all fours. She moved into the hatchway but sideways so that a shuffle to her right would have her falling directly down onto the closest tree. It might look dangerous to Kate, but it wasn’t really. She could jump twice this distance and catch another tree branch if she had to. Dropping straight down like this, she couldn’t miss.

  “See you back at the base!” Shima yelled over the noise and stepped sideways into empty air.

  Shima fell away from the shuttle and immediately spread all four legs wide as if pouncing upon prey with claws extended. The drop was short and she grabbed the tree at its highest point. It was thin and flexible, but tough, and it held her weight beautifully. It did bend outward, but that was actually helpful. It let her see her next target easier.

  Shima looked up to find Kate hanging out of the shuttle yelling at her. Shima waved, but Kate pointed exaggeratedly southward. Shima looked that way and then back, but understood just a moment later. Gina and the others were south of her. Shima nodded and waved again. Kate waved back and disappeared inside. The hatch closed and the shuttle veered away climbing for altitude.

  Shima found her target branch on the next tree and leapt. It was like old times, moving this way. She didn’t always hunt from above, but she did it often enough to be practiced at it. The foliage was a burnt orange colour, and her pelt would not blend well here, but the difference did not affect locomotion. She moved from tree to tree easily; they were close together but the canopy wasn’t too thick. She had the choice to stay aloft or take to earth again. She decided to go down and try for Gina’s scent.

  Shima leapt down and circled with her nose close to the ground. Moving that way was slow, but she didn’t rush. The circles grew in diameter until finally she gave up. Either they had come through here too long ago for scents to linger, or she hadn’t crossed their trail yet. She switched her attention from scent to sight and began looking for tracks. There were many, but they didn’t belong to Humans or Shan. The tracks belonged to native wildlife. Shima took an interest and studied the tracks, taking the time to memorise the scents associated with each of the different types. She dragged air in over her tongue and the scent glands at the back of her throat, but kept the scree scree noise low and quiet as she could. She didn’t allow herself to forget that she was in unfamiliar and wild country.

  Shima decided to cut directly west. It was an arbitrary decision. East would work just as well. She needed to cut Gina’s trail before she could actively hunt for her friends.

  Shima used the harmonies and moved on all fours quickly west. She could cover a lot of ground without fearing attack that way. The harmonies allowed her to sense the alien beasts that called the forest home, and there were many of them.

  Segs passed with Shima choosing to avoid contact with the wildlife. She wished she could investigate the intriguing tracks that she discovered; she would wager her best knife that the animals that made them would taste wonderful. Their scent alone made her belly grumble and her mouth water... very undignified, drooling like that. She decided that if she didn’t find sign of Gina soon, she would hunt one of the beasts and see how good it tasted before camping for the night.

  The da
y passed and Shima found no sign of Gina and the others. It looked as if she had chosen wrong. Should have gone east. Oh well, it wasn’t the end of the world and she was having fun using old skills on new terrain. It occurred to her that her people might soon explore other alien worlds like this. What fun! It could even happen in her lifetime. Oh how she hoped it would be so. There might one day be ships like the heroic Canada, but built and crewed by Shan surveying new worlds and helping to rebuild the Great Harmony among the stars. That was a wonderful dream.

  The thought brought her up short, and she stopped where she was thinking furiously. Surveying and studying new worlds... ships like that would need scientists, and she was one. She shivered feeling a strange excitement that ruffled her fur all the way down her spine to the tip of her tail. She shook herself to settle her pelt back into order. Dreams like that were far from reality. It would take many orbits of recovery before her people would be ready to venture out among the stars. They needed to make the home system secure against the Merki first. They mustn’t rely upon the Humans for that. Shan had to be self-sufficient. Allies could be allowed to help, not do the job for them. The realisation that she would likely be long dead of old age before her dream became reality saddened her. Shan life spans were too short, she thought sadly.

  Shima shook off her sudden bad mood, and looked about herself. Trees trees and more trees... and a puddle. She padded toward the puddle and sniffed the water. Fresh, and not a puddle, more like a pond. Too small to be a real lake, but deep enough that the water table had filled the depression. The harmonies revealed no fish, but a small lap of her tongue at the surface confirmed it was clean and cold. She emptied the by now stale water from her bottle, refilled it, and replaced it upon her harness. She quenched her thirst directly from the pond itself.

  She took a deep satisfied breath. This was a good place, a safe water supply and it was removed a short distance from the more obvious game trails. It would make a good campsite. And that’s what it would be, she decided. It was time to see how good those intriguing natives tasted, but first she would gather wood for a fire.

  Shima quickly gathered dead wood from nearby and piled it close by for convenience. She cleared a wide area of leaves and revealed the bare dirt beneath. She would keep an eye out for stones to make a proper fire pit while hunting; there didn’t seem to be any here. It didn’t matter. If she had to, she would dig down a little and use the excavated sod to ring the pit.

  Satisfied for now, Shima took to the trees to begin her hunt.

  The harmonies sent her northeast toward prey. It wasn’t cheating, she assured herself. She wouldn’t use the harmonies to hunt, but she did need a starting direction. Now that she had one, she would hunt as her father had taught her, using her wit and her senses.

  She used the trees to stay high and downwind of the creatures she found by scent a while later, and spied a family group of something she had no name for. The grunting growling noise they made as they squabbled among themselves was completely unfamiliar to her as was their form. They were low to the ground four legged tusked creatures. The tusks could have been simple fangs growing as they did from the lower jaw, but these were oversized and curled. Definitely tusks, not teeth.

  The creatures had muscled forequarters, but were slimmer at the rear. They had short tails, whip thin and useless seeming. She doubted they used them for defence. Might be used to defend their anus from insects, she mused, but useless for anything else. Their hides were dark brown, close to black, and looked tough. She might have a problem hooking her claws through that hide, but she was looking forward to trying. They were covered in short bristly hair over their backs and sides, not proper fur, and seemed bald underneath where the hide looked paler. She didn’t like the look of their hooves. They looked dangerous, nasty enough to open her belly she was sure. Sharp hooves but not clawed, no spurs, but she had a feeling these things used those hooves for rooting about in the dirt like a Shkai’lon. Shkai’lon were rage filled menaces; these... call them tuskers she decided, might have a similar niche on this world. She drew a breath to sample the scent.

  Scree scree scree.

  Hmmm, an odd earthy scent, but tasty, she decided as drool filled her mouth again. She swallowed, and winced as her stomach growled. Was it loud enough for the tuskers to hear? She watched them closely. Apparently not. She closed in, but not too close.

  The two adult creatures were guarding the little ones, who continued squabbling among themselves over something they’d found. Shima chose the male for her dinner; it was the larger of the two adults, but Shima wondered if tuskers might fight cooperatively in a pack. She would find out she supposed, but she hoped not. A good hunter did not waste meat. She couldn’t eat all of them, even gorging to build reserve fat, and she didn’t need to do that here. Should she look for something else? No, she decided. She was new to this world and its creatures. She had to start somewhere and learn its ways.

  She pounced.

  Shima dropped with her limbs extended and claws out roaring her challenge. The little ones scattered, and ran in all directions. Good. The female spun toward her mate, saw Shima land on his back, and charged.

  “Yow!” Shima screamed in pain and surprise. The bristles covering the tuskers were quills, not wiry hair. She yowled again and threw herself off the male.

  Shima’s fur protected her somewhat, but the quills had penetrated her skin shallowly and in numerous places. Curse the luck. She was bleeding, but not badly. She hoped they weren’t poisonous. She didn’t think they were. She pulled one of the quills out of her harness strap and took a quick look at it. No sign of poison. Good, the fight was still on.

  Her appraisal was quick enough that she avoided the female’s charge, and had enough time to scream another challenge. The female turned quickly, almost folding herself in two to face Shima, and shook her body aggressively. Every quill on her body stood up and rattled against each other as a warning. Then it surprised Shima again. The little demon spawn rolled into a ball presenting spiky pain in all directions to any attacker. Shima spun to the male in time to see him fold himself into a ball as well.

  No fair!

  Shima padded up to the male and batted at the annoying thing. Yow! That hurt, harmonies curse it. She pulled the broken spines out of her paw and glared at the little menace. She sniffed and growled and nudged the thing trying to make it unroll itself, but no go. Well... she backed away in consternation. Well shit, as Kate would say. Now what?

  Shima glared at the two spiky balls of alien goodness and paced around them, daring them to open up, but they didn’t. She could use her beamers to shoot the stupid things, but that wasn’t hunting, that was slaughter. It didn’t seem fair somehow. She could use her knives to kill them, and that seemed better, but it was still an unsatisfying conclusion to the hunt. If she’d been truly in need, she wouldn’t hesitate, but she was hungry not starving.

  Shima chuffed in annoyance, and turned away. She walked back the way she’d come staying on four feet, leaving behind the demon spawned excuses for dinner. She looked back over her shoulder hopefully, but no, they weren’t taking chances. Still tucked up tight. She spat in their direction, and trotted away. They probably tasted awful anyway, she thought, trying to convince herself that she hadn’t just been bested by a pair of spiky aliens less than half her size.

  Shima followed a game trail and picked up more alien scents. She discarded the tantalising and delicious seeming tusker scent layering the trail, she was learning after all, and zeroed in upon something else. This one was a predator, at least it smelled like a meat eater, and the scat it left seamed to verify it. She chose it as her prey, and planned to expiate her humiliating failure with the tuskers by enjoying its flesh tonight. She was hungry enough to eat it raw, bones and all, but she would have anyway—not the bones thing, but eat it raw yes. Meat always tasted best still warm and bleeding. Besides, this was her first alien dinner. It would be wrong to cook it the first time; this was research of a sort a
fter all.

  Shima laughed to herself, and finally found the funny side of her non-fight with the tuskers. She could laugh at herself now. It had been funny in a way, but she was glad she’d been alone. At least she knew not to hunt tuskers by choice now, and no one had seen her failure.

  She followed the scents and tracks off the trail and far into the trees. The animal left prints completely different to that left by tuskers. No hooves for this creature. It left prints indicating padded feet and claws. She placed her hand beside one of the impressions and her ears swivelled listening for movement close by. The print was bigger than her hand but not by much. She backed up and compared the depth of her print to that of the prey. Similar. Very similar. Their weights must be close too. Shima looked around warily. This didn’t feel right. She was tempted to use the harmonies, but no. Her previous failure still smarted. She wouldn’t betray her father’s training.

  Shima advanced again, but warily, her ears straining for any sound. Her eyes were wonderfully keen these days, making her aware of how far below a normal Shan’s perceptions she had been before. She was at her peak now with regard to her senses, and was determined to build her body’s stamina back to peak fitness as well. She slowed as a feeling of being watched came over her. Right forefoot, left hind foot, and pause to listen, left forefoot, right hind foot and another pause this time to taste the air.

  She whirled and slashed as something dropped from the trees behind her. She felt the barest touch on one claw as she spun, but there was no blood. Her ears were back, safely out of danger as her roar rumbled up to shatter the silence. The answering roar shocked her to stillness, and she blinked at the crouching creature before her.

  Her jaw opened wide showing her killing teeth in an instinctive threat display, her vision tunnelled and her ears clamped themselves against her head tighter than ever. The creature before her was startlingly familiar, but not at the same time. His jaws full of teeth any Shan would be proud to own. His eyes were nothing like a Shan’s eyes and glowed red with blocky horizontal pupils, but the orangey red coloured fur and sharp claws? Marvellous! Obviously a hunter, using the trees to stalk prey as Shan would, as she herself had so recently done! Shima felt a kinship with this creature and would have liked to admire him at her leisure, but she was busy.