A World for the Taking Ch. 03

"Bob, could she have been coming for Tammy?" his wife wondered.

"Doesn't add up," he replied, shaking his head. "Makes no sense for her to come here like that."

"Pa?" Tammy broke into his thoughts.

"Yeah, Fuzzybutt?" he said, reaching out and putting his arm around her hips, pulling her close without looking away from the figure on the stretcher.

"What if she was being chased?" she said.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, the jZav`Etch Hegemony is made up of a bunch of different cultures the way the Conglomerated Planets is made up of a bunch of different planetary systems. There are at least five subject races in the Hegemony. Five that we know of."

"Right." Bob nodded.

"And the Hegemony forced them to join," she said. "They used their military and took over their worlds. They let the natives run things, but the worlds were forced into the Hegemony."

"The CP does the same thing," her sister said.

"No they don't, Jean," Bob corrected. "The CP considers wars too expensive to fight. They use economics to bring new worlds into the Conglomeration. There are several independent systems within the borders of the CP and there is the Free World Confederacy out on the edge. And the Confederacy is too expensive to overrun. Cheaper to make trade deals with them. Hell, the Confederacy has been petitioning Juniper to join them for years. But go on Tammy. What are you thinking?"

"What if one of these cultures doesn't want to be in the Hegemony anymore?" she said. "And maybe this woman was sent to do something about that. Does that make sense?"

Everyone was quiet for a while. Finally Deborah spoke.

"I don't know," she said. "There's something to that. But it doesn't quite fit."

"Not quite," agreed Bob. "But from what you three are telling us, it does sound like she was being chased."

"It certainly sounds like her ship might not have been her ship to begin with," Deborah said. She drank more coffee and narrowed her eyes on the pilot. "Why would she have a headless body with her? Was it male or female?"

"I don't know, Ma," Mike admitted. "We didn't touch it. It was lying on its belly and... Well, I didn't have the stomach to turn it over."

"Was it larger than she is?" Bob asked.

"Maybe," said Mike. "Hard to say for sure."

"But it wasn't smaller?" Debora asked.

"No," he said. "Not smaller. It was in an environment suit, though, and that might have made it look bigger than it is."

Suddenly, everyone's attention was drawn to the figure on the stretcher. Some movement had caught their eyes. As they watched the end of the pilot's tail sticking out from under the blanket twitched and then curled and relaxed. Her breathing became deeper and she let out a sigh. A moment later her eyes fluttered open and she lunged against the restraints. Feeling the straps resist her she began thrashing violently.

"Calm down!" Bob said soothingly, moving quickly to her side and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "It's alright. Calm down."

The pilot snarled and tore her hand from under the strap over her abdomen. Claws extended, she tried to grab Bob's throat but he was faster. He snatched her wrist and held it firm. She tried to match his strength and failed.

"Calm down!" he insisted. He spoke in the same tone he used when dealing with unruly, green broke stock. "We are not going to hurt you. Take it easy. You're going to make me spill my coffee."

Tammy stepped up behind her father and looked down on the pilot, trying to compose her expression into one of friendly intent, but this was an alien and expressions were not universal.

Upon seeing Tammy, the pilot froze. Surprise was evident on her face and her tail lashed uncertainly. Strange words composed of chitters, grunts and mews spilled from her in a sharp interrogative and she went silent as if waiting for Tammy to respond.

"I don't speak your language," Tammy said gently. "Can you understand us?"

The pilot frowned and her tail lashed. She relaxed. Her claws disappeared back into her fingertips. Bob eased his grip and lowered her hand to her side.

"That's better," he said. He handed his coffee cup to Tammy and showed his open hands to the pilot for a second, letting her see that he held nothing in either of them. Very slowly he unbuckled the straps and set her free. Reaching back, he retrieved his cup and took a sip then offered it to the pilot. Uncertainly she sniffed at it. Had the situation not been so tense, her reaction would have been hilarious. Her whiskers vibrated and her eyes went wide in astonishment. She took the cup carefully and brought it to her nose, inhaling deeply. Bob smiled and nodded encouragement and the pilot sipped. Again her expression spoke louder than words. Her ears snapped forward and she sat up, gulping the hot liquid thirstily. When the cup was empty she held it out and nodded.

"More?" Bob asked. He turned to his son. "Another cup for the lady, Mike. Tammy, go get some of your rations. She's probably hungry."

Half an hour and four cups of coffee later the pilot was still eating one sausage after another. Now that they had gotten a good look at her it seemed as if she might not have been eating very well for quite a while. She had attempted speaking to Tammy a couple of times. When Tammy did not respond in kind, the pilot went silent. Furtive glances and the lashing of her tail suggested she was uncertain of her position in the small group. She watched Bob and Mike warily and when Roy and Yoshi came in with Temper she watched them just as warily. Her eyes widened and her ears turned sharply forward when she observed Tammy and Roy holding hands and whispering to each other. Her attention remained on Roy for some time after that.

"What are we going to do?" Bob asked Deborah in low tones.

"We have to figure out some way to communicate with her," she said. "She knows what's going on and we need to know."

"Well, we can't start by telling her what a cup is called the way we did with Tammy," he grumbled.

Deborah smiled at the memory of teaching their daughter the English words for common objects. Tammy had spoken some of the jZav`Etch language when she had first come to them, but that was many years ago and she had not used any of them since before Jean learned to walk. Suddenly, she had an idea.

"Mike, you used your binoculars to track the ship in, didn't you?" she asked.

"Yoshi did," he said.

"Were they recording?" she asked.

"Sure," he said. "I transferred the data to my pad so we could find the crash site."

"Bring up the first clear image of her ship on your screen and come over here."

Deborah stepped carefully to the pilot's side, holding eye contact until she was squatting next to her. Mike passed his data pad to her and Deborah held it so the jZav`Etch could see the screen. The Pilot looked intently at the image for a couple of long seconds and then her ears flicked. She looked at Debora, nodding slowly.

"That is your ship," Deborah said, indicating the image on the screen and then pointing to the pilot. She advanced the recording until the ship began striking the treetops and froze it. "You crashed. And this is what happened."

The pilot watched the screen as it jumped second by second through the landing. Finally, when the ship was hidden by a cloud of dust and smoke the pilot closed her eyes and hissed. Her tail lashed the dirt floor and she shook her head.

"Mike and Roy pulled you out," Deborah said, enunciating carefully. She indicated the boys when she spoke their names and pantomimed a pulling motion. "They brought you here."

The pilot frowned deeply, her whiskers vibrated and she looked at the boys.

"Mike?" she said, pointing at the dark haired, brown skinned boy.

"Mike," Deborah confirmed, nodding.

Pointing at the red haired, freckled boy, the pilot said, "Rddoy?"

Deborah nodded, forcing herself not to smirk at the mispronunciation.

The pilot flicked her ears and pointed at herself. "F`reet `du Hom."

"Ferret Doom?" said Bob experimentally.

"Honey, your language skills are hopeless," his wife whispered.

The look on the pilot's face seemed to indicate she agreed with Deborah.

"Furreet Du Hom?" Deborah asked, trying to enunciate clearly.

The pilot shook her head and repeated her name.

Deborah tried a few more times until the pilot nodded.

"I don't know if I can pronounce that," said Bob.

"You're all going to have to try," said Deborah.

"I can." Tammy stepped closer to the stretcher and squatted down. She pointed at the pilot and said, "F`reet `du Hom."

The pilot made several sounds, nodding emphatically.

"I am Tammy," said Tammy, indicating herself with her two right thumbs tapping her chest. "Tammy."

"T` Emmi?" asked the pilot.

"That's it!" Bob said, surprised and excited. "That's what your mother was saying! I couldn't say it so Dan and me started calling you Tammy!"

Unexpected tears welled in Tammy's eyes until they overflowed. She had no memory of her birth mother. She could not remember ever having heard her real name. And to hear it pronounced by one of her own kind overwhelmed her. She buried her face in her hands and wept. Deborah reached out and enfolded her daughter in a warm, comforting embrace.

For her part, F`reet `du Hom looked bewildered. Her gaze snapped from one Human to the next in rapid succession until it landed back on Tammy and Deborah. She said something in a tone that was gentle and inquisitive. When Tammy did not respond she reached out a hand and brushed the fur between the girl's ears, stroking it softly until Tammy got herself in hand once more.

"Okay, baby," Deborah said gently. "I need to keep going. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Mama," Tammy sniffled, nodding. She rose and went to Roy. He hugged her and stroked her back.

Deborah took out her own data pad and sorted through images until she found one of the spinner. It was taken years ago when Bob had first brought it home. Big and ugly, built strictly for utilitarian purposes, there was no mistaking it for anything but a farm vehicle. She showed the image to the pilot. F`reet `du Hom examined the image and looked questioningly at Deborah.

"This was ours," Deborah said, gesturing back and forth between herself and Bob. "An aircraft. It was shot down last night."

F`reet `du Hom frowned and shook her head.

Deborah sighed in frustration.

"Let me try," said Bob. He reached out and took the pad from his wife. With a few clicks he transformed the two dimensional image into a hologram that floated half a meter above the pad. He pointed at it and said with emphasis, "Spinner."

F`reet `du Hom frowned and considered the hologram. Finally she nodded as if indicating Bob should go on.

Bob set the pad on the floor and rose. From his holster he drew his pistol. The jZav`Etch immediately became warry and drew back as if she would spring away. Bob held the weapon pointed away from her and made a calming gesture. He ejected the magazine and cleared the chamber. He looked F`reet `du Hom in the eyes to be sure he had her attention and then pointed the gun at the hologram. Sure she was still paying attention he pulled the trigger and said, "Bang!", then used his toe to flip the pad over, causing the holographic spinner to dive into the dirt and disappear.

With a flash of comprehension F`reet `du Hom shook her head violently. She pointed at herself then at the pad and shook her head as if protesting her innocence.

"Not you," Bob said, squatting down so that he would not tower over her. He smiled and shook his head. "Not you. We know."

F`reet `du Hom responded to his calm tone and leaned forward to flip the pad, screen up. The hologram reappeared and she made a gesture that seemed to indicate she wanted to understand.

"Up there," Bob said, pointing out of the barn door at the sky. He held the gun and pretended to shoot the dirt then pointed out at the sky again.

Understanding spread across the pilot's face and she pointed to the sky and the gun and then at the image of her crashed ship on the other pad.

"That's right!" Bob said, pleased she was beginning to understand. "Who?"

"Dusig!" F`reet `du Hom said emphatically. "Dusig."

"Tammy, ever heard the word Dusig?" Bob asked.

"That's one of the subject races of the Hegemony, Pa," the girl said. "That's about as much as anyone knows."

"Sounds like Tammy was more right than we thought," said Mike.

"Sounds like," agreed Bob.

"How does that help?" asked Yoshi.

"Don't know yet," Deborah said. "We could spend a week asking questions and get nowhere."

"We aren't going to spend a week," said Bob, rising. He slid the magazine back into his pistol before slipping the weapon into its holster and considered the situation. Finally he turned to his adopted daughter and asked, "Tammy, have you got some clothes that would fit this lady?"

"Sure, Pa," she said. "All my jeans are dirty, but I have a couple of clean shirts."

"Take her up in the loft and let her get dressed," he told her. "Make sure she has a warm shirt. I want her to come along. She might not speak our language, but she knows who shot us down. I have a feeling we are going to need her for a while."

*****

*gravitic impulsers - Impulse motor (Impulser) - This is the common layman's term for an antenna designed to focus waves of artificially generated gravity to levitate loads above the surface of a planet or counter the effect of artificial gravity on spacecraft and space stations.