Upon a Savage Shore Ch. 20

"Hush, little coward," Tem'Ma'tel purred mockingly and stroked his forehead. Her tail swished lazily in the air and her ears perked forward attentively. "Hush. I will not kill you. My mate said I must not and I will comply with his wish. At least, this time I will."

Qlik did not understand her words, but her tone was relaxed and soothing and Qlik dared to hope she would let him live. He blinked at her, so frightened his teeth clicked uncontrollably.

"I will not kill you this time," Tem'Ma'tel purred again, leaning down so her fangs were closer to his face. "If ever you hunt me or my family again, though, little coward, I will hang you from a tree and open your belly with my claws. I will rake out your entrails and watch as carrion eaters fight over your guts while you yet live. And in the end, when you are no more than the wretched piece of filthy meat I know you to be, I will laugh and piss on your corpse, marking you as unworthy to be eaten. Your flesh will rot and your soul will be forever damned. And I will think on you in the chill nights and be warmed by the memory of your death."

Tem'Ma'tel surged up from Qlik's shaking body and lashed him across the face with her claws, leaving bloody tracks where they raked his cheek. Then, spitting a curse on him, she turned and stalked back to where her mate and Sue stood guard over the other two Fauns who were hardly more than children.

"You enjoyed that," Liam said, seeing his wife come through the trees.

"Yes," she said and picked up her bag full of roots. She pause, regarding her mate for a moment then smiled and kissed him. "He no dead, SarJ'ant."

"Do you feel better?" Liam asked, understanding why she had done what she had done.

"Yes," she purred and her tail lashed the air gently. "Better."

***********

Commander M'pel E'kmel examined the carcass of the huge reptilian water predator as the hunters of the village continued to flay its hide off. They'd hung it the previous evening, but due to the festivities they'd waited until this morning to dress it. She and Clot'ilda had already looked in on the wounded female, finding her in better condition than either would have guessed given the crude care available. The young hunter that had accompanied Sergeant Carter and Tem'Ma'tel during the hunt had also been there, holding the girl's hand while the mother looked on unobtrusively. Clot'ilda had remained to change the bandages while M'pel E'kmel excused herself to have a look at this beast.

Seeing nothing particularly irregular in the animal's external anatomy, M'pel E'kmel turned her attention to the pile of innards the hunters had removed. Using the knife she had brought from the kitchen she began sorting through the constituent organs. Heart, lungs, something like a kidney and everything except the stomach was there. Guessing the reason for that organ's absence, she ignored it. There remained several organs she could not identify, though. They didn't seem to belong to any particular category. She poked the largest of these with her blade and felt a severe shock of electric current run through her arm. She jerked away violently, dropping the knife and blinking in pain.

"Well, that's unusual," she panted softly and looked to see if the hunters had noticed what had happened. They hadn't.

Flexing her tingling fingers she picked up a short stick and more carefully probed the strange organ. It seemed denser than most, not made of muscle or filter but some other tissue. She sniffed it, finding an acidic coppery odor under the scent of blood. Very strange, indeed. Still using the stick she moved the other offal away from the strange organ, tracing its connective tissue to an even stranger organ that looked like a coiled spring. This one was equally unrecognizable in function.

"Let's see what the scanner can tell me," she murmured to herself.

Picking up her medical kit, she ran the sensor slowly over the two organs. Readings like nothing she had ever seen scrolled across her screen. Very strange. Very, very strange. It was as if they were not true organs at all. With a thoughtful frown she called up all the data available on the species on her medical kit. Data scrolled across the screen until she finally came to the internal organs.

"I should have guessed that," she said to herself. "And now I know our intelligence is right."

Quickly she closed up her kit, tucking the knife in along with everything else. As she made her way back to the hut where Clot'ilda was still tending to the injured Faun she hardly noticed her surroundings. What was she going to tell Sergeant Carter? He had to know about this. They had to prepare for what was coming. Her greatest fear had come to pass. They were here. They were on the island. What would she do? How would Liam react?

Her contemplations were interrupted by a chirp from her radio.

***********

Liam had sent the young Fauns and the one he had dubbed Wile E back to the village with Sue, depending on her to tell the chief what had happened. There wasn't much chance the chief would have believed Wile E, but he would believe Sue for certain. She had scolded Wile E while Liam tied the bastard's hands behind his back. Wile E had not resisted, looking shaken and sending fearful glances at Tem'Ma'tel until the Fauns set out for the edge of the forest.

"Well that's over with," Liam sighed and returned to where Charlie was still grazing on the leafy plant they had been investigating before the excitement. "You can harvest a bushel of that stuff if you want. We can't eat it, though."

Charlie blinked at him, his cheek bulging as if he were chewing a quid of tobacco. Liam chuckled at the boy and pulled out one of the collection bags.

"Go on, fill this up," he told the young Faun who blinked at him again. "Like this."

Liam began plucking the leaves from the plant and stuffing them into the bag. He demonstrated the action a few times then handed the bag to Charlie. The Faun considered the bag for a second and then jumped to his work. He happily plucked handfuls of the leaves and packed them into the bag until there were no more to be plucked. Liam watched as the boy moved to another bush and began pulling leaves from it. The bag was already looking like an overstuffed pillow.

"How you doing, Marine?" Liam asked, kneeling next to Tem'Ma'tel who had gone back to digging out roots.

"Good," she purred. She seemed all too pleased with herself and very content after hunting Wile E. She asked quietly, "Take?"

Liam kissed her on the back of the neck and laughed, "Not with Charlie around. I wouldn't want to scare him."

"SarJ'ant good mate," Tem'Ma'tel said softly. "SarJ'ant smart. You no stop me from hunt."

"I wanted to kick Wile E's ass as much as you did," he said and rubbed her back. "I just couldn't let you kill him."

"No," she said. "Better Wyl'Ee live now."

"The chief might just kill him for what he tried to do," said Liam thoughtfully. "Maybe they'll just kick him out of the tribe. No way to know, really."

Suddenly Charlie called to them in an excited series of whistles and clicks. They both looked to see him standing waist deep among a cluster of shrubs waving his arms.

"What now?" Liam grumbled and rose. Tem'Ma'tel followed him over to where the Faun stood. Neither had known what to expect, but what Charlie had found took them completely aback. Laying in a fold of ground and covered by vines and low branches was a heat blackened cigar-shaped object roughly three meters long. Liam instantly pushed Tem'Ma'tel behind himself and snapped his visor down, bringing up his sensors on a quick boot. His HUD flashed on as the scanners completed their work. The device, whatever it was, had no power readings and no indication there was radiation higher than background levels.

"What this, SarJ'ant?" Tem'Ma'tel, asked peering over his pauldron.

"I don't know, babe, but it's inert." Liam stepped forward and tore some of the vines off the thing.

"Bomb?" Tem'Ma'tel wondered, walking around the object carefully.

"If it is, it's a dumb bomb," Liam said and pulled more vines off of it. Charlie got the idea and started tearing the undergrowth away from the object. "Like I said, there aren't any power readings. It's cold. No radiation."

"SarJ'ant," she said and pointed at the end of the thing. "Open."

Liam stepped to her side and looked down. The end of the thing was open, the lid laying in the dirt. He knelt down and looked inside with his scope, finding nothing but a smooth walled tube with some kind of residue on the bottom.

"Warrior," Charlie said and held up a bundle of fine cords.

Liam stood and went to examine them. They were dark green and he at first took them for more vines, but when he gave them a tug he discovered they were attached to a spread of dark green and black cloth. He hauled it into the open, quickly realizing it was a parachute.

"Tem'Ma'tel, call the commander," he said and continued to pull the parachute out of the undergrowth. "Ask her to come here as soon as she can. This is somebody's supply pod."

"Commander, this is Tem'Ma'tel," she said into her radio. "We found something SarJ'ant would like you to have a look at. Over."

"What is it? Over," M'pel E'kmel asked from her end.

"SarJ'ant said it is a supply pod, but I do not think it is from the CP and it is definitely not one of ours. Over."

"I'll come right away," M'pel E'kmel replied. "Meet me at the edge of the forest. I have something I must tell Sergeant Carter, as well. Over."

***********

M'pel E'kmel stopped in to let Clot'ilda know where she was going and told her to return to the villa when she was done changing the wounded Faun's bandages. She then mounted her landstrider and rode out across the plain to rendezvous with Tem'Ma'tel. Crossing the grassland she saw Sue and three Fauns she did not recognize headed for the kraal. She was curious to know why Sue was with them, but decided questions could wait until later. She had more pressing things on her mind.

"How will he react?" M'pel E'kmel wondered aloud. "He and the girls need to know what I have found. Tem'Ma'tel and Clot'ilda will accept my reasons for keeping it from them, but Liam is not one of my marines. He is not jZav'Etch."

She continued to worry all the way to the forest. Even when Tem'Ma'tel met her, M'pel E'kmel felt no relief. She had to school her expression and body language to give nothing away. Climbing down from her mount the commander followed the younger dTel'Qohar through the trees to the place where Sergeant Carter and Charlie were still pulling vines and branches away from the supply pod.

"There you are, Commander," Liam said seeing the jZav'Etch coming through the underbrush. "We got most of it cleared. I don't think this has been here very long. It's not one of ours. Tem'Ma'tel says it's not one of yours, either. You ever seen one like this? Maybe a civilian model?"

M'pel E'kmel looked at the pod, noting the odd markings on its side and the blackening of its hull.

"Is this thing made of steel?" she asked, puzzled. Most supply pods were constructed of carbon fiber sheathed in a composite ceramic skin to resist the extremes of entering an atmosphere.

"Best I can tell, the outer layer or heat shield jettisoned after it passed through the stratosphere." He kicked a panel at the closed end of the pod. "This is where the parachute was stored. Pretty crude deployment device. Looks like explosive bolts with a pressure trigger. The CP hasn't used anything like that for about two hundred years. We've gone over to mag locks. More reliable and less likely to get damaged."

"jZav'Etch do not use explosive bolts for such things, either," she said and went to look inside the tube. "What is this residue? Were your scopes able to tell you?"

"The only thing they could tell me was that the residue is there," he snorted. "My sensors aren't designed for that kind of detailed analysis."

"Sergeant, I have something I must tell you," she said uncomfortably.

"Okay, but could you get a sample of that stuff and run it through your kit?" he asked, missing the implication of her tone. "If we can figure out what it is, maybe we can figure out what was in the pod. Might even be able to tell us where it came from."

"I can do that, Sergeant, but you need to hear what I have to say," M'pel E'kmel insisted.

"Fine. Tell me after you've got the analysis."

"Sergeant, I know where the pod came from," she blurted out.

Liam and Tem'Ma'tel both stared at her.

"I know, also, what the pod contained," she continued in a subdued tone.

Liam stood looking at her with narrowed, assessing eyes for several heartbeats. Finally he said, "It was that thing we killed, wasn't it?"

"Yes," she admitted.

"I figured you were hiding something." Liam leaned on the pod. His hands pressed flat over its mottled surface. "Go on. Tell us."

"There is much to tell," M'pel E'kmel said, reluctant even at this hour to tell all. She drew in a deep breath, made her decision and went on, "My people have been at war with another race for more than a year."

"Did you say another race, Commander?" Tem'Ma'tel asked. She had never heard this before.

"Yes," M'pel E'kmel sighed. "The information has been a closely guarded secret. The High Command and the General Staff felt it was necessary to keep it so. If the soldiers in the field discovered we were now fighting on two fronts they might become demoralized. More importantly, the General Staff believed if the information leaked to the Conglomerated Planets through one of our troops who was captured they might increase the pressure all along the front in order to force us to cede territory and end the war in a manner that would favor the CP. The High Command refused to risk it. We've been fighting this new threat with a very small portion of our fleet. The last information I had was that our forces were holding their own, but the battles were costing us greatly. Two protectorate worlds have fallen to this new enemy and they have been pushing along our frontier, apparently seeking a weak point in our defenses."

"Pretty standard tactics," Liam nodded. "Who are they?"

"We don't know their name," the commander said. "I can tell you very little about the enemy. I was given limited information on them before I was sent on my mission."

Liam narrowed his eyes again and cocked his head in thought. "You aren't talking about your mission to map this system, are you?"

"I am not," she said, but she had to force it out, so full of dread was her heart. "I never meant for you to learn this. It would not have been necessary had this creature not been here."

Liam stepped around the pod, his face clouding with confusion and a touch of anger.

"I think you better come out with it, Commander," he growled. "All of it."

"I will, Sergeant, but you must know I never intended to harm you," she tried to explain. "I was under orders. I couldn't tell you."

"You couldn't tell me what?" he demanded. His mouth was pressed into a line, his brow furrowed.

"I and a number of other officers were sent out with the express purpose of making contact with Humans," she said. Her chest hurt from the tension and she could not bring herself to look into Liam's eyes. She felt if she did that, she would not be able to finish. "Admiral Aka'Tem'al persuaded the General Staff to petition the High Command to go before the Senate with a request for them to propose an armistice with the CP. The High Command refused on the grounds that we could not trust Humans. They believed the risk that the CP would increase the pressure along our mutual boarder or in some other way take advantage of our situation was too great."

"Couldn't trust us?" Liam asked, his frown deepening. "You couldn't trust me?"

"I do trust you, but I couldn't tell you, Sergeant," M'pel E'kmel said, almost pleadingly. "I couldn't tell you."

"Why not?" Liam growled. His confusion warred with feelings of betrayal and anger.

"I was under orders," M'pel E'kmel said, finally raising her eyes to his. "Admiral Aka'Tem'al developed a plan to show the High Command that we could trust your people and that in time our races could become allies. The Vespans joined the Conglomerated Planets after your war with them, after all. He had fought at W01F 426. He knew your admirals and captains were honorable. He witnessed your ships taking jZav'Etch life pods on board during lulls in the fighting. After the battle, when our side requested to know what had become of our crews, the admiral learned they were being treated in accordance with your Rules of War."

"Sure they were!" Liam said caustically. "We don't execute prisoners. We don't throw them out airlocks."

"I know," she said in a reasonable tone. "But my people have fought other races that did just that sort of thing. The Galvascians made peace with us and on the day the treaty was signed they sent an invasion fleet to capture six of our systems. That war lasted fifteen of your years, costing many brave jZav'Etch their lives."

"And your people practically exterminated them," he said in a hard voice.

"And what would you have done?" she chellenged. When he only looked away she went on, "That your people would rescue ours and treat them decently was enough to convince Admiral Aka'Tem'al an experiment was worth trying."

"What kind of experiment?"

"Five hundred officers of the intelligence branch were assigned to make direct contact with Humans," she told him. "We were not to risk ourselves or our crews unduly. Our crews were vetted for certain traits that our analysts had determined were the most appealing to Human males. Since virtually no jZav'Etch males are physically appealing to Humans, the crews were almost entirely female. They were chosen for their personalities and physical appearance."

"So, what? You were supposed to cruise up to one of our ships, knock on the hatch and ask if you could barrow a cup of sugar?"

"We were to take advantage of special circumstances."

"Like what?"

"Circumstances such as being marooned on a planet with Humans," she said, louder than she had intended. "Circumstances where jZav'Etch and Humans had to rely upon one another to survive. Circumstances that might lead to a joining of the two races in common cause."

Liam just looked at her for a very long moment. Finally he growled, "You manipulated me."

"No," said M'pel E'kmel, shaking her head.

"You withheld information from me," he said.

"I was under orders," she said.

"You lied to me!" he snapped.

"My orders, Sergeant!" she turned away, unable to face the accusation in his eyes. "I had my orders."

"You pimped out your crew to get me to cooperate with you, Commander!" he shouted at her back. "You lied! You lied to me. Did you tell Clot'ilda and Tem'Ma'tel to sleep with me? Was it so I would roll over and sit up whenever you wanted me to? You manipulated me into going along with this fucking experiment. I deserve to know!"

"They knew nothing of it!" she said, turning burning golden eyes on him. "They knew no more than you did. It would have invalidated the results if they had. Clot'ilda and Tem'Ma'tel acted as their natures dictated. They love you, Sergeant. I may have concealed the truth from you, but their emotions and their actions have been genuine. Surely, you must know that."

Liam went quiet again, but he looked over his shoulder at Tem'Ma'tel. Her expression was as confused as his own. Her ears laid out to the sides, showing how uncomfortable she was. She met his eyes, swallowed hard and nodded, reaching out a hand to touch his shoulder.

"So you kept all of us in the dark," he said in a thick voice. "What if I had killed you that first day? They would have died for nothing."