Zero's Return (17 page)

Eelevansee made
everyone food and water, then waited for them to finish feeding themselves
before taking her own share.  Twelvay and some others were already Dreaming by
the time she sat down amongst them.

As tired as she
was, Eelevansee didn’t notice the Other standing nearby until it moved.  She
tensed, ready to raise an alarm. 

The Other
crouched when Eelevansee spotted her, preparing to bolt.  She was small, only
coming up to Eelevansee’s chest.  The girl was wearing Keeper skin, but it was
dirty and tattered.  Her tiny face was bruised and scratched, streaked with
tears.  Quietly, she said something in the Keeper language.  Eelevansee’s spine
prickled.

The little Other
repeated herself, motioning at Twelvay.  She pointed at the sides of his head,
then touched her ear and babbled a long string of Keeper-speak, obviously
confused. 

Eelevansee
watched her, wondering if she should wake Twelvay.  The Other said the same
thing twice more before Eelevansee decided to shake him awake.  Twelvay sat up
with bleary eyes that immediately sharpened as soon as he saw the girl.

As soon as
Twelvay was awake, the Other cried out and backed away, her hand to her mouth. 
Twelvay frowned at her and immediately the girl stopped moving.  Eelevansee
realized he was going to hurt her.

The Other must
have sensed Twelvay’s thoughts, because she started to cry.

Stop it!

Eelevansee
grabbed Twelvay’s arm.  It was obvious the child was terrified.  Terrified and alone. 
At least the People had each other.  This little Keeper had no one.

When she
projected to Twelvay that they should help her, however, Twelvay reacted with
anger. 
The Others made the Keepers.  We must stay away from them. 

It was too much
for Eelevansee.  She got to her feet and walked over to the little Other, then
drew her into her arms.  When Twelvay demanded that she put her down,
Eelevansee refused. 
She can teach us!

That made
Twelvay pause.  He glared at the girl, then at Eelevansee, then back at the
girl.  Finally, he shrugged and went back to sleep.

The girl,
Eelevansee discovered, was called Aliss.  Saying her name out loud like a
Keeper was difficult for Eelevansee, so she stopped trying.  The Other’s
speaking made her uneasy, and when Aliss asked what Eelevansee’s name was, she
had an even harder time producing the sound that had only ever passed over
Keeper lips.

“Eelevan-
see?
”
The little girl asked with obvious shock.  She said some more stuff, even
drawing diagrams in the soft ground, but Eelevansee didn’t understand.

Aliss finally
gave up and moved on.  She began naming the things that surrounded them as
‘trees’ and the tattered Keeper skin she wore as ‘clows.’  When it became
apparent that Aliss wanted to know why Eelevansee and the rest of the People
weren’t wearing any, Twelvay frowned at her from the ground and the questions
stopped.

Aliss, however,
was quick to find a new subject.  She seemed absolutely delighted by Nynjee,
calling him a ‘jyant.’  Nynjee snorted and woke at her examination, and in a
second, he was crab-crawling away from her, eyes wide.  This seemed to delight
Aliss even more and she grinned, walking toward him.  Nynjee stuck out his palm
at her and Eelevansee quickly stepped between them.

Undeterred,
Aliss ran out from behind Eelevansee to stare at Nynjee with obvious
fascination.  Nynjee continued to gawk at her in horror.

Aliss babbled a
few things to Nynjee, foremost among them being ‘jyant.’  Nynjee continued to
hold his palm between them, though his shock was quickly becoming curiosity. 
Finally, he lowered his hand and crept toward Aliss, a tentative grin on his
face.  When he reached out and rubbed her long black hair between his fingers,
she squealed with delight and pried his hand away, enthralled by his huge palm,
which spanned her entire chest.  Nynjee responded by stroking her hair again,
his jaw open wide.

Eelevansee
reached up and felt her own stubbly head.  The hair had grown since the Keepers
had disappeared and she could almost grasp a tuft between her fingers. 
Eelevansee drew an excited breath.  Was it possible to grow it as long as
Aliss’s?

Eelevansee
couldn’t help herself.  She reached down and felt Aliss’s hair as well.  It was
soft and silky in her hands, softer than anything she had ever felt before.

Nynjee had
already moved on to the strange Keeper skin she wore, her ‘clows.’  He tugged
at it, frowned, then pulled it open and peeked down the front.  Aliss squealed
and pushed his hand away, giggling hysterically.  Nynjee held the girl still
and showed Eelevansee what he had found.  Eelevansee blinked, stunned. 
Underneath the Keeper skin Aliss was just like the People!

Aliss broke free
and climbed on top of Nynjee, pushing him over.  He fell onto his back and
grinned as she sat on his chest and started tugging on his nose.  He seemed
equally fascinated by her feet.  He started yanking on the strings he found
there and Aliss laughed and pulled off her foot.  Eelevansee stared in dismay
until she saw the normal toes wiggling underneath another layer of Other skin,
which Aliss promptly peeled off.  Aliss then stuck her foot out for Nynjee to
examine, and squealed as he lifted her by one leg to peer at it.

Laughing, Aliss
kicked and pounded on his chest until he released her, then threw her arms
around his neck and stayed there.  They fell asleep like that, both of them
snoring loudly.

When the People
woke, their reactions were similar to that of Nynjee and Twelvay.  Every one of
them jerked away, but eventually Aliss’s hair and skin drew them back for a
closer inspection.

Nynjee guarded
Aliss jealously, knocking away curious hands when he had decided they had felt
enough.  Finally, he put an end to the whole affair by slapping the ground and
looking up at Eelevansee with expectant brown eyes.

Eelevansee made
several pits, giving herself, Aliss, and Nynjee a pit of their own.  Twelvay,
who had made a point not to show any interest in the Other, went to eat at a
different pit.

Though Nynjee
and Eelevansee immediately began to eat, Aliss frowned at the pit for a long
time before she finally reached down and touched the Keeper food.  When she put
a glob of it to her tongue, she spat it back out.  Then she wiped her lips on
her arm and gave them both a funny look.

Aliss babbled
for several minutes, pointing between the pit and her mouth while making a
face.  Then, when neither Nynjee nor Eelevansee could understand her, Aliss
went and grabbed Twelvay by the arm and dragged him over to them.

Twelvay frowned
at the girl, then at the food pit.

She thinks it
tastes like dirt,
he told Eelevansee. 
She wants to know why you don’t
make something else.

Eelevansee was
confused. 
Like what?

Twelvay looked
at the girl and his brow furrowed.  Then he turned to Eelevansee and deluged
her with images and thoughts and feelings and tastes and emotions of food.  It
wasn’t Keeper food.  Instead, it was round and soft and flat, but hard enough
to hold its shape.  Struggling with the flood of information, Eelevansee tried
her best to make it.

When it was
done, Aliss let out a squeal of delight and took one of the soft round Other
foods and ate it happily.  Then she motioned for the others to do the same.

No one moved. 

Nynjee was the
first to give in to Aliss’s pleading.  He tentatively grasped one of the Other
foods between thumb and forefinger and peered at it.  Then he sniffed it and
his eyes widened.  He stuck out his tongue and licked it.

Instantly, his
head jerked back and he stared at the Other food like it had bit him.  Beside
her, Twelvay tensed and Eelevansee moved closer to Aliss.

Everyone gaped
when Nynjee crammed the round Other food into his mouth and reached into the
pit for another handful. 

“Kookees,” Aliss
repeated between bites.

Nynjee thrust a
fist of Other foods against Eelevansee’s chest emphatically.  Since he looked
like he was ready to force-feed her if she didn’t try one, Eelevansee
tentatively broke off a small piece and carefully touched it against her
tongue.

Sweet,
tantalizing flavors shot through her mouth like an electric shock.  Her look of
ecstasy, mingled with the enthusiastic thoughts that were emanating from Aliss
and Nynjee, made Twelvay’s curiosity overpower his caution.  He took one of the
Other foods and tentatively bit into it.

Then Twelvay’s
jaw dropped open and he stared at the Other food and Aliss with equal awe.  He
finished it and gobbled up a handful of others as the rest of the People came
to investigate.

As soon as they
tried Aliss’s creations themselves, not even the threat of being turned into
Keeper food would keep them away from the pit.  Eelevansee was shoved aside by
a wave of hungry People and would have retaliated had Twelvay not taken her arm
and pulled her away.

Without warning,
he flooded her mind with another wave of images and thoughts that he had
plucked from Aliss’s brain.

Eelevansee knelt
and created another pit.  This time, however, the savory smells were too
overwhelming to resist.  She and Twelvay fell to their knees and began putting
pieces of the Other food in their mouths.  This new food wasn’t sweet like the
‘kookees,’ but was a whole new flavor unto itself.  Aliss called it ‘terkee.’

By then, the
People had been drawn by the wonderful smells emanating from the second pit and
they were pushed aside once again in the rush to get at the ‘terkee.’

Aliss, however,
hadn’t run out of foods.  She gave Twelvay another recipe, who then passed it
on to Eelevansee.  It was similar to the ‘terkee,’ but both Twelvay and Nynjee
were more impressed with it and both fought the other People off when they came
to explore this new pit.  Aliss called it ‘stayk.’

Before
Eelevansee even had the chance to taste the ‘stayk,’ Twelvay bombarded her with
another set of images, this one of a clear purple liquid.  Eelevansee made a
pit of it and took a tentative sip.  She spat it out again when it stung her
tongue, but Aliss happily slurped it up.

‘Grayp sowdah,’
Aliss explained with a purple-stained grin on her face.

After that,
Twelvay wanted her to make something else, but Eelevansee closed her eyes and
shook her head.  Making the food had weakened her.  She stumbled and Nynjee
dropped his fistfuls of ‘stayk’ to catch her and lower her to the ground.  Then
Eelevansee’s eyes rolled back into her head and she fell into oblivion.

CHAPTER
8 – Crash Landing

“
Please wake
up, my lord,
” the autopilot of Mekkval’s courier ship said, jolting Rat out
of a weird dream about a crazy, cottonball-headed man.  The dream was quickly
forgotten, however, when the subservient Takki voice continued, “
I am in
need of further instructions.  We are arriving at Earth and we are under
attack.
”

“Well, ash!” Rat
cried, lunging out of her chair.  “I thought we were going to get here in
time.”

“
We arrived
on schedule, my lord,
” the ship informed her.  “
It appears that the
Ooreiki Corps Director in charge of this sector of space decided to launch the
attack three days early.  I apologize most humbly, my lord.
”  Takki always
used ‘my lord’ when referring to her, even AI Takki, because female Dhasha
never left their dens, and despite her multiple attempts to correct the ship,
the computer ranked her of ‘High Importance, Confidential’ in its database
list, which left Rat male by default.  One of the many quirks of working with
the Dhasha that Rat had grown used to.

“
Hostile
ships are targeting our location in numbers too great for me to safely avoid,
”
the Takki voice told her.  “
Would you like me to divert back to Koliinaat,
my lord?
”

Rat hesitated,
her heart beginning to pound.  The idea that she had just spent an entire
rotation in transit on Mekkval’s fastest courier ship, only to miss the attack
by three days, left her feeling sick.  “Can you get around them?  All I need is
for you to get low enough to drop me on the surface of the planet.  I can
scavenge whatever I need from there.”

“
Unfortunately,
my lord, such an attempt only has a partial success rate of thirteen percent. 
Your safest option is to return home.
”

Rat knew that,
but she also knew that she couldn’t return to Mekkval without at least
attempting her mission.  To go back home now would be…unacceptable.  Hell, Benva,
who had tried to kill the three Dhasha that Mekkval had sent to keep him from
going with her, would probably kill her himself, for the dishonor of her
failure.  Jreet were funny like that.

Still, she was a
grounder, not a stick-jockey in the Space Force, and aerial battles unnerved
her, especially when the ship’s computer said they didn’t have a chance in a
Jreet hell of making it to the planet’s surface.

“
I need
further instructions, my lord,
” the ship reminded her gently.  “
We are
half a tic from losing our lead and being blown apart.
”

Half a…
tic
? 
The little hairs raised along Rat’s spine.  “Okay, uh, can you do evasive
maneuvers for awhile to give me a chance to think?”

“
I have been
doing evasive maneuvers for the last six tics, my lord,
” the computer
responded.  “
My auto-targeting defense system is running out of diversionary
bodies.  I am unfortunately a courier ship, and not combat-capable, my lord.  I
am not equipped to handle sustained aggression.
”

“Soot,” Rat
whispered.  “Soot, soot,
soot
!”  She bit her lip, realizing that it was
now or never.  She couldn’t go back to Koliinaat.  Even if she could slip past
the Watcher, who was going to have a kill-on-sight alert out for her species,
she couldn’t face Mekkval or her team.