Chapter Thirty-Seven of my current wip. As before, all and any comments very much appreciated

Please note: This is a weekly post

Another Note: Please remember, this is a first draft. Things don’t always hang together. If you see something that’s not working I really would appreciate a nudge 🙏. Thank you

“I intend to be off base for four, maybe five days,” he told Armar when he returned to Hive One in the twilight of early morning. “To visit a cave. I’m taking Joel with me.”

Many days had passed since his altercation with Armar during which Jess had never again neglected his duties as zem. He wrote his reports and again took on the task of scheduling the flier rotas. No words passed between him and Armar regards the Itamakku women who now resided on base. The tensions between them faded away. Jess kept his visits to Cela-Byi to off-duty nights and the former irrepressible drive, now satisfied, was replaced by a tenderness greater than he’d had for his sister, and affection deeper than he had for Kookka.

“I told you about it.” But he realised he’d told Armar nothing, the air between them uncomfortably tight since his return with Cela-Byi. He remedied that now and briefly described the drawings in the dragon’s cave.

“And you think someone from the GM Programme responsible?”

“Undeniable,” Jess said. “If you saw the drawings you’d think so too.”

“But what’s their importance that you’ll take five days away? Though I’ll admit I’m curious. And why take Joel.”

The questions aggravated. He wanted to snap that he was the zem and if he wanted another look at them he’d have another look at them. Instead, he said. “Joel has knowledge of language.”

“Fine. I’ll play zem again. And who knows, we might’ve retrieved Canipse by the time you’re back.”

The fact that Canipse was still trudging northward through a trackless forest had never left Jess. Another cause for guilt.

“A cave, you say?” Joel greeted the news that he was to accompany Jess. “Almost like a return to Imms’ days. How innocent we were.”

“Of fertile females?”

“I meant of the Techs.”

Jess grunted agreement. He signed for the psi-lights and logged out the flier while Joel stowed water-bladders and ready-to-eat food, courtesy of the new catering overseer.

“Talking of fertile females…” Jess said, once he’d set the flier on course for the dragon’s cave.

Joel raised his hands, palms out in surrender. “I don’t deny my many nocturnal visits to Manula. I like her. She allows me now to call her by her special name. Segul.”

Jess side-eyed him.

“Yea, I know about the sense-destroying eager cocky bit. But no, I mean I like her. She tells stories that…they enrapt me. I want never to be away from her – duties allowing, of course.”

“I understand Kookka doesn’t feel the same about Tawan.” Jess turned enough to watch Joel’s face for reaction. No shock, no surprise, no hesitation while he concocted lies.

“Kookka told you then? He does not like Tawan. He’s well aware she leads him by his cocky bit. He hates submitting, always angry after. Segul says Tawan wants only to make a baby, then she’ll return to Toki-dow and Cela-Kuci will name her the next spirit-woman. And you were right to move Cela-Byi into a separate hive. I don’t trust Tawan and nor does Segul.”

Jess nodded. It was as Cela-Byi had suspected.

After the remainder of the flight passed in silence, Jess brought the flier down in the same grassy place he’d used before, close to the dragon cave’s gully.

“Now we’re here,” Joel said, “do I get to hear about these drawings?”

Jess gave a sharp shake of his head and handed stunner and psi-light to his companion. “All I’ll say is it’s a two-day climb through squeeze-you-tight passages. I want your reaction with no prompts from me.”

And now he had to face that fear-filled constricting climb again. Born in a cave, worked in a cave, even first drilled into Cela-Byi in a cave. Yet passing through those passages brought on a sweat, nausea and weakness. He must remember to breathe. But at least this time he had Joel with him, and they had psi-lights.

They ate honeyed grain cakes before they left the flier and buckled their resource packs around their waists. To hitch those packs onto their backs would only impair them. Before the cave’s resident dragon had a chance to rear its head in threatening stance Jess stunned it.

“My apologies Byi-spirit. We mean you no harm.”

Joel might look askance at him, and he had to fight off a feeling of foolishness. Cela-Byi would have preferred he left the dragon alone but without her beside him he didn’t trust the small creature not to bite him.

“Let’s go. Five caves between this and our destination.”

“And four passages?”

Jess tried to chuckle but… “Twisting circuitous long passages. We’ll take a break at every cave. Inspect them. See if they also contain drawings.”

“You didn’t check before?”

“Other things on my mind.” Let Joel think he’d been eager to push into Cela-Byi. Better he thought that than to know his fears.

Those fears began not far into the first passage. Unlike before, it wasn’t the fear of being trapped and suffocating. It was the image of that resident dragon, magnified to the size of the dragons he’d encountered that day he’d first seen Cela-Byi. He feared the dragon had followed them into this passage. There was no place to hide. There was death, and then there was death, and that wasn’t a death he cared to anticipate.

“Are you managing all right?” he asked Joel behind him. Joel who’d be the first bitten and torn, ripped and eaten.

“Ouch.” Joel let out a yelp,

“What is it?”

“Forgot how close the rocks. Stupid me nodded. Ouch.”

“Are you—”

“Stop fussing. No damage.”

They reached the first cave with nothing said nor done to embarrass Jess.

“Phew, what a stench.” Joel acted out holding his nose and vomiting.

Jess frowned. He didn’t remember any smells here, nothing strong enough to burn the lining of his nose. But there was no denying it now.

“Bats,” Joel said, who’d clearly taken a longer look at the Tech-provided information pack than had Jess.

Joel looked up. Jess’s eyes followed.

“Yea, bats.”

“And what are we standing in?” Jess said with a look down at the guano covered cave floor. “Bat shit. I think we press on. Not the best place to eat.”

But Joel was circling the cave, his psi-light trained on the walls and lighting into the many crevices.

“Anything?”

“Nothing of note.”

“Let’s go. We’ll eat at the next cave.”

They didn’t stop to sleep but pressed on. The last passage was the worst. Till then Jess was holding it together really well. But this was the closest, the crawl on the belly, the stretch up thin and squeeze, and there was no Cela-Byi in front of him with her bobbing bottom, and no ache in his groin, wanting. I am a mature Monza, I’m not an infant, not a junior at school, I’ve made this journey before, I didn’t get stuck, no one had to rescue me, I didn’t pee myself, I didn’t cry or shout or slither down on the floor and blubber. I can do this. Just keep going, it’ll be fine. And breathe, remember to breathe. No, it’s not closing in, it’s not getting tighter, this is how it was when you succeeded before. He laughed at himself. Maybe the sweat will grease the walls, and I’ll slip out. Plop.

“Are you chuckling at something funny? Or are the Fire-keepers to get a return visit?”

He must have laughed out loud. “Just thinking how these caves and the passages are like being born.”

“Don’t know,” Joel said. “I don’t remember my birth.”

“No, but we’ve seen the beasts squirting out their young.”

“Squirting. What a lovely image,” Joel said in disparaging tone.

Jess kept his other image to himself, of being his hardened shaft driving into Cela-Byi. The first time was in the cave just above. He heaved such a sigh and wanted to wrap his arms around her and meld. Always joined in that special place, to never be apart.

Oh, and now that part of him had grown awkwardly cocky. He pressed on, but not without pain and chafing.

*

Joel held his psi-light close to the drawing. “That’s us, with the three Techs holding us naïve Monzas with their mind-control.”

“And those?” Jess swept his hand across the lower image, with the fence corralling the women.

“Itamakku. Though they could be any breed pool. But breeding, it’s intended to show the breeding programme. And more than that, it’s intended to show us not as unobserved observers, eyeing, recording, but as the actual…call us the doers. See how our bits are exposed and at least half our number are hard-cocked.”

Jess stood back to view the whole drawing, his arms crossed over his chest. “Does that mean that the Techs want us to mate with the breed pool?”

“Well, yea, Jess, that is the whole point of the Programme.”

“No, I mean us. Observers. Not others brought in later.”

“We’ve discussed this before. That the Techs would control the breeding.”

“Yea, but ex utero. Not as it’s been happening. Besides, no Techs at base. And what about this other Monza? And the script?”

“Dead. That’s what it says. I am dead.”

“Enter and die,” Jess said. “Do you think he’s the one who drew all this? Cela-Byi thought it a message. And what about these? They’re fliers, yea. But what are these squiggles?”

Joel groaned in a laughing way. “Can’t we tell you’re not a scholar. Squiggles?”

“Are they words? I saw something similar in Toki-dow, but I wasn’t paying that much attention. Twelve, like the twelve star-spirits of the family-houses that give the women their names. Kija, Kerbi, Byi, Manula…”

“Manula? You know the language, what does Manula mean?”

Jess chuckled. “You’re not going to like it. Elephant.”

“You mean those huge hives on legs? Most unfitting for my sweet little Manula.”

“It has to do with their spirit.”

“Ah, Tech-stuff. But all this,” Joel nodded to the cave-drawing, “it shows our predecessor knew the Itamakku ways.”

“Yea, but how did he die, and where? I am dead. He shows himself dead. So where are his bones?”

“Any more caves?” Joel looked around this upper cave. For another passage?

And he found one. He gestured to Jess to follow. Jess rather would collapse on the cave floor and sleep. He hadn’t that same excitement he’d had when he visited here with Cela-Byi. And inside his head was a jumble where he’d tried to make sense of this message.

“Jess, hey,” Joel called back, his voice bouncing off the rock walls. “Come see what I’ve found.”

“Bones?” Jess asked, his interest roused enough to stir him.

Continues next Monday

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