Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 68478 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68478 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 342(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
“Go away, Pashov,” she tells him in a cheery voice. To me, she says, “The houses were here when we came, but the people were long gone. We just put tops on them and moved in.”
I glance over at Niri, but she shrugs. “Two civilizations here seems strange to me, but I’m guessing whoever did the initial survey here didn’t do a very good job if they missed this.”
We’re led to the large meeting house, and I’m surprised at the wealth of greenery in here. I’m not expecting to see rows of small trees in baskets, their branches ripe with fruit. They line the walls of the lodge and the edge of the bright blue pool of water. Off to one side, there’s a large, stone-encircled fire, and several women with small children sit around it. One tiny woman with a strange pale face and curly hair approaches the chief, and I realize this must be one of the humans that Farli mentioned that were stranded here, aliens from another primitive planet.
Gods, they are ugly. Their features are small and soft-looking, and their skin is a terrible pasty color. They look fragile and strange, their heads seeming shrunken without horns on them. I look at them and wonder how these males can be so happy with the odd creatures, but as the hunters move to the women and pick up babies, I realize that there are more of the strange-looking females than mesakkah females.
And I see that a few of the warriors in the back of the group are looking at me with unbridled jealousy. Have I stolen Farli away from them? Good, I think uncharitably. She’s mine. I shouldn’t feel so possessive, but I can’t help it. I pull her a little closer to me.
Vektal, the chief, brings his human forward to meet us. “This is my mate, Georgie.” He touches the cheek of the pale child in her arms. “My younger daughter, Vekka.”
Georgie smiles at us, displaying strangely shaped teeth. “Pleased to meet all of you. Are you from the sakh homeworld or another planet?”
I am surprised at how quickly the human understands something as baffling to Farli as space travel. “Do your people have interplanetary travel, then?”
“Not quite yet. We’ve made it into space but not much farther than that. Humanity—the people on planet Earth, where we come from—is just now branching out in that direction.” Her expression looks hesitant, and she holds the child in her arms a little closer. “You…you haven’t seen people like me before, then?”
“Earth is a D-class planet, I am afraid,” Captain Chatav says. “It is off limits until technology has reached acceptable levels.”
She nods slowly. “Ah. Well, I don’t know if that’s good or bad. Good, because I would hate to think there are a million humans out there being stolen, but bad because clearly someone’s stealing them.” She grimaces. “I’m sorry, here I am going on and on about me. We just have so many questions and we can’t get answers now that the Elders’ Ship is toast.”
“Elders’ Ship?” Niri asks. “There’s another ship here?”
“Salvage,” Trakan murmurs in Mesakkah, rubbing his hands together.
Georgie nods. “Come sit by the fire. We’re preparing food, though I admit it’s not much. We weren’t expecting visitors.” She hands her child off to another human female, one who has several children around her. They all watch me with wary eyes. “And yes,” Georgie says again. “The original ship that brought the sa-khui here to this place is still around, but it was damaged badly in the big earthquake several years ago.”
The four of us are seated on hide-covered stools made of what look like long animal bones instead of wood. The fire is stoked, and it’s warm enough in the meeting house that I can unzip my insulated suit without feeling as if I’m going to freeze. Niri sits next to me and leans in. “There are a lot of cross-breed children here. I didn’t think the two species were compatible seeing as they’re from completely different planets.”
I shrug. “They seem happy.” I see one great-horned savage lean down and press a kiss to the forehead of his dainty human wife, then he takes their child in his arms and swings it around. The child’s laughter fills the air. Everywhere I look, these people are happy. It’s strange. It doesn’t matter that the planet is bitterly cold and barren and that they’re living in a canyon and wearing furs. Everyone’s so damned happy. It’s almost as if they enjoy this primitive lifestyle.
Niri is right, though—there are a lot of small children, most of them with the delicate features or lighter coloring that indicate a human mother. Each time I look around, I see a woman with either a rounded belly, or a child on her lap. I wonder how many of the mesakkah females were left before the humans arrived. Was their small tribe dying out? I think it would be a very different story if they weren’t, because everywhere I turn, the hunters seem to be paired up with humans. Interesting.