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Authors: Blaze Ward
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horribly under–powered. She was almost thinking at human speeds. Egads. How did they operate so slow?
She spun the remote in place and pinged. Precious few birds, none of them big enough to threaten her new little flitter–ship. Some fauna large enough to maybe be dangerous, depending on how this planet had evolved.
Over there, some fields had been planted with human–digestible crops, so someone had survived the crash and broken out the emergency seed packet. And it had worked for them, if they’d been here for seventeen years.
Quick pass through the memory files of the remote. The wreck looked kinda like a Kallasky Engineering Mark IX Conestoga. Big, slow, durable. Too many pieces to be sure until she could read some part numbers off the engine, or they found the nameplate.
Suvi counted her humans. Javier, Tall Lady, two “pathfinders” (note: look that term up when connected to better resources. Got no useful dictionary here.), one heavily–armed male, one male and one female without arms, but with toolkits. (note: mark the latter tentatively as engineering crew. Update later. Ask Javier.)
She needed better information. She was missing too much. Javier had said to hide, so she decided to play along. Happy little flying mouse, zooming overhead.
She aimed her microphones down, but Javier grumbling to himself seemed to be the only conversation.
Who were these people?
Ξ
Lemuel watched the wreck from a nearby hilltop. He felt sure he was supposed to be overjoyed by the arrival of people. It would be possible to leave this world and return to civilization.
Did he want to?
The ancients had venerated the ascetics, monks living on the edges of the desert, praying and fasting, living holy lives of contemplation.
He had not intended to crash here. But once it was done, he had put in a great deal of contemplation on the Lord’s message to him. The Harlot was not meant to rule over men. So she had not. The others had not seen it that way. They had joined her. It was the way of things.
And now, he could return to the world.
But would he have to sacrifice holiness? More harlots had come. One seemed to rule them.
She would have to go.
But the others?
He would have to get closer to see how many of them would trod the path of the righteous. Many were incapable of enlightenment.
The silver bird troubled him.
It flew wrong, was shaped wrong, was wrong. Lemuel knew his eyes were old, but he remembered technology. The silver bird was a device, a thing. It had eyes to watch. He could not sneak up on them unaware. He would have to gain their confidence.
Lemuel silently rose to his feet and took a step down the hillside. It was irrational, but he could feel the silver bird’s eyes on him immediately.
So be it. He would be friendly and thankful to his rescuers.
Then he would kill them.
Ξ
Suvi understood the need for silence, but she really wished she could talk to Javier. Text lacked the subtleties. She settled for highlighting a dot on the display. That’s not a bear .
She pinged it, hard, once, with every sensor the little flitter–ship had. Yup. Definitely human. Male. Mid–fifties. Pretty good shape if he was a shipwrecked survivor deep into his second decade of local realtime. She displayed his stats.
Javier’s voice on the portable’s audio input. “Sykora,” he said. “Company.”
Suvi watched the two armed humans point rifles in opposite directions immediately. The two pathfinder women drew sidearms as well, squatting down and aiming outward. The two engineers dropped to the ground without a word. Javier just stood there.
Tall Lady spoke. “Where?”
Javier glanced at the screen, turned to his right, and waved with a cheery, “Good morning.”
Tall Lady was aghast. “What are you doing, Aritza?” she queried. A moment later, she called, “Flip.”
Suvi watched her and the armed male change sides of coverage like a ballet, leaving the one called Sykora pointed where Javier was looking
She spun the remote in place and pinged. Precious few birds, none of them big enough to threaten her new little flitter–ship. Some fauna large enough to maybe be dangerous, depending on how this planet had evolved.
Over there, some fields had been planted with human–digestible crops, so someone had survived the crash and broken out the emergency seed packet. And it had worked for them, if they’d been here for seventeen years.
Quick pass through the memory files of the remote. The wreck looked kinda like a Kallasky Engineering Mark IX Conestoga. Big, slow, durable. Too many pieces to be sure until she could read some part numbers off the engine, or they found the nameplate.
Suvi counted her humans. Javier, Tall Lady, two “pathfinders” (note: look that term up when connected to better resources. Got no useful dictionary here.), one heavily–armed male, one male and one female without arms, but with toolkits. (note: mark the latter tentatively as engineering crew. Update later. Ask Javier.)
She needed better information. She was missing too much. Javier had said to hide, so she decided to play along. Happy little flying mouse, zooming overhead.
She aimed her microphones down, but Javier grumbling to himself seemed to be the only conversation.
Who were these people?
Ξ
Lemuel watched the wreck from a nearby hilltop. He felt sure he was supposed to be overjoyed by the arrival of people. It would be possible to leave this world and return to civilization.
Did he want to?
The ancients had venerated the ascetics, monks living on the edges of the desert, praying and fasting, living holy lives of contemplation.
He had not intended to crash here. But once it was done, he had put in a great deal of contemplation on the Lord’s message to him. The Harlot was not meant to rule over men. So she had not. The others had not seen it that way. They had joined her. It was the way of things.
And now, he could return to the world.
But would he have to sacrifice holiness? More harlots had come. One seemed to rule them.
She would have to go.
But the others?
He would have to get closer to see how many of them would trod the path of the righteous. Many were incapable of enlightenment.
The silver bird troubled him.
It flew wrong, was shaped wrong, was wrong. Lemuel knew his eyes were old, but he remembered technology. The silver bird was a device, a thing. It had eyes to watch. He could not sneak up on them unaware. He would have to gain their confidence.
Lemuel silently rose to his feet and took a step down the hillside. It was irrational, but he could feel the silver bird’s eyes on him immediately.
So be it. He would be friendly and thankful to his rescuers.
Then he would kill them.
Ξ
Suvi understood the need for silence, but she really wished she could talk to Javier. Text lacked the subtleties. She settled for highlighting a dot on the display. That’s not a bear .
She pinged it, hard, once, with every sensor the little flitter–ship had. Yup. Definitely human. Male. Mid–fifties. Pretty good shape if he was a shipwrecked survivor deep into his second decade of local realtime. She displayed his stats.
Javier’s voice on the portable’s audio input. “Sykora,” he said. “Company.”
Suvi watched the two armed humans point rifles in opposite directions immediately. The two pathfinder women drew sidearms as well, squatting down and aiming outward. The two engineers dropped to the ground without a word. Javier just stood there.
Tall Lady spoke. “Where?”
Javier glanced at the screen, turned to his right, and waved with a cheery, “Good morning.”
Tall Lady was aghast. “What are you doing, Aritza?” she queried. A moment later, she called, “Flip.”
Suvi watched her and the armed male change sides of coverage like a ballet, leaving the one called Sykora pointed where Javier was looking
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