CHAPTER 9
Ithaca
Ionia-5589 System
Southern Hemisphere
It had been days since Adisa Masozi had been able to have a proper bath. She found herself making do with a scrub in a river, watched over by Follower of the Storm and his warriors. The SAZ-CDF Rangers had laughed at her uptight northern modesty, but she’d told the men to stay away when she was bathing. Even if they were nothing but professional, having them around while she was so vulnerable made her uneasy.
Not so with Follower of the Storm and his companions. The aliens had about the same level of sexual interest in humans as humans had for beetles, and their lack of interest was strangely comforting. In the days she’d spent with him, Adisa had learned much from Stormy, as the Rangers affectionately called him. He was, in fact, male, or a close equivalent. His people almost always chose one mate and pair-bonded for life, and couples separating was all but unheard of. It seemed to Adisa that the aliens had, perhaps, a more limited emotional range than humans, experiencing neither the soaring heights of passion nor the crushing depths of depression. She’d had many long conversations with Stormy, learning everything she could from him, and he gave the impression that his people simply got along more easily than humans did.
The lack of emotional depth did not mean the aliens weren’t intelligent, however. Quite the contrary, Follower of the Storm seemed remarkably perceptive, and could grasp most of the concepts of human interaction, even if the reasoning behind it was alien to him. He found the concept of envy most puzzling, though.
“I don’t mean it like that,” she explained, drying herself on the rocky bank of a cool, calm river. “If someone wrongs you, or takes from you, or hurts you, then being angry at them is expected. But sometimes humans resent…uh, dislike, even hate other humans who have more than they do.”
“But these hu-mans did not take the things they have from others?” Stormy asked, again.
“No. They are angry that another has more than they do. More possessions, more wealth, more power, or a higher station in life, even if those humans did nothing wrong. Sometimes humans get so angry at those that have more that they want to hurt them, take away what they have, even kill them.”
“That is…” Stormy paused, as if trying to remember the word he needed. “Not good thinking. Ir-ration-al.”
“It is,” Adisa agreed, “and yet, it has been one of the great motivators of my species. Often, humans convince themselves that those that have more did, in fact, get what they have by stealing from others, but it is often not really the case. Pride and envy are two things nearly every human religion warns against. Where you find one, you’ll often find the other, and they can be very destructive. Does any of this make sense?”
“Makes sense,” Follower of the Storm echoed. “Humans grow angry at those that have what they do not, even though…wise ones…warn against this. Humans are not rational. Humans land here, many solar cycles ago. Entire world available, countless worlds available, and they come here to our…ancestral…homelands. We fought humans, but humans attacked first. This is known. I was there.”
“You were there?” Adisa asked, surprised. It had been well over a hundred standard years since the Colony of Ithaca was founded. Stormy’s people must live for a very long time. “At the time, we were at war with a species more powerful than ourselves, and they were trying to exterminate us.”
“We know of the…” He reverted to his harsh, native language, briefly, before speaking Commerce English again. “This one…I…do not know the human name for them. But we know of them.”
“We called them Maggots,” Adisa said.
“Mag-gots. What is mag-got?”
“It’s, ah…” She paused, tapping the screen of her handheld. A few seconds later and she had brought up video of a terrestrial maggot, depicting its life cycle, growing into a typical housefly. “This.”
Follower of the Storm didn’t nod his head or anything, but Adisa was learning to pick up on his body language. The way he moved conveyed understanding. “I under-stand now,” he said, returning her handheld to her. “I see the phys-i-cal res-em-blance. Humans give names to things that re-sem-ble other things.”
“Yes!” Adisa said, beaming, as she put her clothes back on. “Ahh. I feel so much better now.”
The olfactory organ above Stormy’s eyes flared slightly. “Your…scent…is better now.”
She laughed, and turned her attention back to her alien companion as she picked up her pack. “Tell me, how do you know of the Maggots? You said that your people know of them.”
“This one said too much,” he said, after a long pause. “Not my place. Elders must decide this.”
“I apologize, Follower of the Storm. I did not mean to offend you.”
“O-fend?”
“Uh…” Adisa paused, struggling to come up with good synonyms. “Insult. Upset. Anger. I did not mean to cause, um, bad feelings.”
Stormy swayed again, in his people’s equivalent of a nod. “Not angry. No…bad feelings. There is much about us that we do not discuss with…aliens. It has been decided. It is not for Follower of the Storm to…over-rule.”
“I understand, and I respect your customs. Will we meet with your Elders soon?”
“Yes,” Stormy answered, looking back over his shoulder. “Your…companions…approach.”
“You all done washing up, love?” It was Roc, accompanied by his teammate.
“I am,” she said, picking up her pack.
“We got some food warmed up. You should eat. You need the calories. We’ll be moving again soon.”
“How much farther?” Adisa asked.
Roc turned to the alien. “What do you say, Stormy?”
“One more solar cycle of walking. Less, possible. Not far now.”
Adisa sorely wished that she could have taken an aircraft to meet with the alien Elders. What would have been a short flight for a VTOL had translated into many days of walking through dense foliage and rugged terrain. They had only been able to move during daylight hours, since it was unsafe to trek at night. “Do you think your Elders will agree to help us?”
“Can not say. Big questions not for Follower of the Storm to decide.”
She hoped that she’d be able to bring the aliens on board. What she was doing, attempting to form an alliance with an alien species, was unprecedented in the modern era. If she pulled it off, she might go down in history as a pioneer in interspecies relations. If she failed?
She didn’t want to think about that.