Paws and Planets (19 page)

“I will tell my
brothers and sisters of Lai,” said Daru after a considerable time
in thought while Suchdei stood waiting for his judgement, shuffling
from one paw to another, his chelas tracting and retracting.
“Report to me every piece of intelligence, however trivial it may
seem that Afanasei’s Lindar tells the Gtrathlin.”

“You believe
Mariya is right not to destroy these creatures,” mused Suchdei,
“you believe they are not a danger to the rtathlians.”

“I do not know
that for certain,” answered Daru with a quirky grin and a blue eyed
wink, “but Mariya is right to be cautious and not to order a rash
action. We need to learn more of them before a decision is made but
my gut feeling tells me that they have not come here to make war on
us.”

“But
why
have they come?” asked the perplexed Suchdei.

“Perhaps they
had nowhere else to go.”

“And at least
they have not landed amongst our brothers the Larg,” added Suchdei,
“a bloodbath we would have seen then I think if that had happened.
The rtath of the two-legs would not have been a match for the
kohorts. Why, they cannot even run fast!”

“That is
because they only have two of their legs and no wings,” answered
Daru.

“Four legs are
better than two,” agreed the Susalai of the Avuzdel.

* * * * *

Each sunrise
and sunset Suchdei reported on the days happenings about the
newcomers. A thankful and pleased Daru learned that indeed the
‘two-legs’ did not appear to be of a warlike disposition. They
looked after their young. The animals they killed they killed not
with joy but to eat. He also learned that some of the watching Lind
of the rtath Zanatei Lindar were being drawn emotionally to some of
the ‘two-legs’.

Now the Lai,
unlike the Lind, had no telepathic abilities. If they had been
creatures of the pack once that had been lost a long time before,
in the misty xanus of pre-history on the planet they had originated
on. The Lind and to a lesser extent the Lard
did
communicate
telepathically.

“It is
good
that you and they have this in common,” he pronounced
to Suchdei one winter evening when news came that some of the Lind
of rtath Zanatei were intending to ‘persuade’ some young two-legs
to run away with them. This will be the means how you shall learn
to work and live with these newcomers and together you will defeat
the Larg when they attack once more.”

* * * * *

“News,”
announced Suchdei with the twin airs of one who knows and is about
to drop a very large bombshell. “Susa Ruldavdr of Larg has
confirmed what we thought. The Largan has made friendship with the
angry two-legs who have arrived in the southern continent.”

“Friendship?”

“Wrong word,”
Suchdei admitted with a wag of his tail and a quirky look, “they
will attack when Vadrhed arrives in the hot season.”

“Does Mariya
know of this?”

“She does
now
,” Suchdei answered in a dry voice. “It is not good. The
rtaths she has warned and the two-legs who share land-space will be
warned soon. A group from rtath Zanatei is on its way there
now.”

“Will the
two-legs fight?”

“Mariya says
they will. She has heard from Zanatei himself. The Susyc of those
who will meet the Larg in battle is to be two who are mind-bonded,
they are Jim and a Lind of Zanatei, Larya by name. This Jim,
Zanatei says is the best choice. The battle that will be faced will
be as never before. The arrival of the two-legs, they call
themselves humans I believe has complicated the balance on this our
world. It appears that this Jim has plans about how to deal with
both the Larg and what he calls convicts, bad men all. The bad men
have already killed some of those who they came with.”

* * * * *

Those readers
who have read ‘Wolves and War’, the first book in the Planet Wolf
Series will be aware of the fact that led by Jim and Larya the
‘Lind and Human Army of the North’ met the kohorts of the southern
Larg and the convicts in battle and trounced them with a great cost
in lives. The battle became known as ‘The Battle of the
Alliance’.

* * * * *

“So do you
reveal yourselves now to my brothers and sisters on the other two
continents?” asked a panting Suchdei. “Has
the time
come at
last?”

Daru shook his
golden head. His hide glistened in the sun.

Suchdei had
reported on the result of the battle to Daru as soon as the news
had been telepathed to him, running as fast as he could to be the
first to tell the story. The golden Lai had been resting by the
lakeside with his son Haru, discussing what would have to be done
if the battle was lost by the north. If that happened they had
decided, the Lai would have to come out of hiding to resolve the
situation. They most definitely did not want hundreds of
bloodthirsty Larg and male convicts rampaging through the large
northern continent which was adjacent to their own.

“No, the time
is not right, it may
never
be right,” he answered Suchdei.
“We shall watch and wait as we have done for xanus beyond counting.
One day though, the time will be
the
time although I do not
think I will myself live to see it. Haru here though, well, who
knows? Perhaps his generation will be the one when all creatures of
our world can learn to live together in light and peace.”

Haru nodded his
own golden head.

* * * * *

For the next
six-hundred years the Lai continued to remain hidden to all but a
few on the smaller, western, northern continent. Only when the
planet was in dire danger did they emerge.

* * * * *

POEM 2-
CHILDREN OF THE WOLVES (AL 2)

During the
early pages of the first book of the Planet Wolf Series, twelve
Lind, using their telepathic talents, ‘persuaded’ twelve youngsters
to run away with them. Numerous adventures followed, culminating in
the Battle of the Alliance when some of them were killed. Tara
Sullivan wrote this poem shortly after the battle, to help her come
to terms with their deaths. She recounted it to her surviving
friends a few days later but only the first and last verses were
included in the book. It was mentioned in the fifth book but yet
again only a couple of verses. Here it is in its entirety…

Twelve children
set out for the west that day,

Confused,
bemused, yet happy and gay.

There was Kath,
older than the others,

And Bill and
Geoff, twin brothers.

Clever Thomas,
who stood so tall,

And Peter,
vulnerable and small.

Bereaved Alan,
quiet and sad,

And Mark, happy
and glad.

Studious Emily,
steeped in history,

And Moira, her
thoughts a mystery.

Pretty Yvonne,
who we often did heed,

And Brenda,
thin as a wood-willow weed.

The twelfth
Child of the Wolf, who was she?

Her name was
Tara, myself, me.

The twelve Lind
with them knew the way,

To the wooded,
beautiful domta Zanatei.

Well-muscled
Matvei and bushy-tailed Malya.

Pale-backed
Sindya and many-whiskered Stasya.

Long-legged
Radya and wide-striped Kiltya.

Sharp-eyed
Ilyei and dark-faced Aya.

Wet-nosed Andei
and large-eared Tavei.

Deep-chested
Inei and fleet-footed, my Kolyei.

Once at the
domta we watched as ltsctas did fight-play,

Under the
direction of the Susa, one Afanasei.

The hints were
there for us all to see,

They were
learning how to live, how to stay free.

The winter
winds began to blow,

And the daga’s
trees were covered in snow.

How were we to
know,

As we sat
beside our cook-fire’s glow.

That we would
be at war within the year?

We believed
there was nothing to fear.

We were the
first ‘Children of the Wolves’ you see.

One big and
happy family.

We thought we
would be together,

For these days
and forever.

But our new
planet was not as idyllic as we had thought,

And we learned
to our horror how the Lind fought.

They fought to
protect all they held dear,

Their
remembered images were so dreadfully clear.

Kill or be
killed we were repeatedly told,

So to the war
would go eleven vadeln-pairs bold.

These ‘Children
of the Wolves’ travelled back east,

To join with
the Lindars and make war on the beast.

Fortune favours
the brave ancient ballads do say,

But it did not
save four of the children who entered the fray.

The battle
raged for hours,

As the Larg
tried to kill us and ours.

Moira and Andei
were the first to die,

Under the blue,
battlefield sky.

We sensed their
deaths,

Knew as they
took their final breaths.

Then the Vada
charged with swords held aloft,

And with them
went the twins Bill and Geoff.

Born together,
died together, both seventeen,

Their ferocious
leave-taking was by us, unseen.

There also did
Thomas fall,

Emily’s Thomas,
handsome and tall.

His Lind, his
Stasya followed him through,

To the
death-pastures, into the blue.

We won the war,
the cost?

Innocence
lost.

Eight returned
home to the west.

Four we
left.

But we
‘Children of the Wolves’ will live on and shout,

With resounding
voice, all eight will chant out.

We’ll fight to
live with thee and thine,

Free in the
land which now is mine!

Be still, my
rtathen.

* * * * *

DEATH IN SPACE
(PART 2)

(AL 12)

Captain Wanda
Lambert was enjoying a spot of well earned rest and recreation when
it happened.

Every alarm
klaxon that the WCCS
Melbourne
possessed went off, a
dichotomy of noise that sent everyone on board’s hands to their
ears from the youngest to the very oldest.

Not since the
cosmic storm had the alarms rang out.

The noise sent
the crew running hot-foot to their duty stations. Wanda herself
made a dive for the nearest comms-link and punched in the emergency
code for the bridge.

She was aware
as she did of everyone disappearing out of the relaxation space,
crews to their emergency stations and colonists to the emergency
areas where their families would be gathering.

Her mind was
racing although she looked outwardly calm as the passengers noticed
as they left. It couldn’t be anything very serious if their Captain
was looking like that.

“Captain,” said
Denis MacBrayne, her 2IC, through the link, “sensors are reporting
that another ship is approaching to our stern. It’s coming in
fast.”

“Visuals?”

“Not yet but it
is very big and,” he added, pre-empting her next question, “it’s
definitely not one of ours.”

Wanda gasped.
Another ship! An alien ship! For all the many years Spacefleet had
been exploring space, never had they come across an alien ship, nor
had they come across any evidence that there were other
space-travellers out here. There were protocols for use in case it
happened, every Captain knew that it might, the galaxy was gigantic
and why should there not be other worlds whose people had attained
the advanced technological levels required for space-flighting?

“You positive
it’s not another survivor of the convoy?” she asked. Over the years
she had always hoped that they might come across the WCCS
Argyll
or even the WCPS
Electra
sometime, a faint
hope and she had not been the only one.

“Definitely not
Wanda,” Denis replied, “both size and shape are all wrong and the
speed! It’s coming in at forty-two hundred per second.”

Forty-two
hundred! Stars. That’s over three times my Melbourne’s top
speed
.

“Wanda,”
Denis’s voice sounded urgent, “there’s no way we can outrun them.
Your orders?”

“How long have
we got?”

“There was a
pause, “if they maintain their present speed and course, three
hours.”

Three hours,
not much time to prepare for contact with what must be an alien
species.
What kind of aliens are they? Friends or foes?

“Hope for the
best and prepare for the worst,” Wanda said under her breath,
“there’s no reason so far to believe that they must be unfriendly.”
No reason to believe that they will not be.
This was Wanda’s
inner voice of caution. “If they are warlike, what can we do
anyway?”
She’s a colony ship, not a warship. I don’t have any
weaponry, no outer gunnery and internally, some forty laser
rifles.

“Start the
welcome hailing protocols,” she ordered, “and begin ‘Emergency
Protocol Six’. Authorisation Code
Zero-Alpha-Sugar-Hotel-Echo-Lima-Lima-Echo-Yankee-Seven-Niner.”

“Airlocks?” he
queried. Emergency Protocol Six, unlike number seven meant that the
airlocks remained under the control of the bridge and did not
automatically seal each section off.

“Not yet,” she
replied, “let’s wait and see. I’m on my way to the bridge
now
.” She broke the connection.