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

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Jess lost all thought of those bones as he circled above the textile farm. The glint of water was unmistakable, the previously green and gold fields turned to deep cobalt blue. He brought the flier down in the only dry place he could see – between the irrigation plant and the hive.

“What’s going on here?” He had to bellow to make himself heard above the equally loud shouts of Eulal and Niapse and their hammering on the irrigation plant door.

Eulal turned at the approach of Jess and Joel. “Poalt’s what’s going on. We’re going to string him. Tie him on the tenter-frames and hope he dies.”

“When we can get to him,” Niapse added. He didn’t turn but carried on fisting the door. But that door didn’t want to give a snip.

“He’s flooded your fields, yea?”

Eulal rolled his eyes at Jess.

“Why?”

“In Pendling protest, that’s why.” Eulal tore at his long golden hair in despair. “Our zem has an Itamakku pet, so why shouldn’t he? But you forbade him, that’s what he’s saying.”

Niapse left off the banging, turned from the door and scrabbed at his developing beard. “And happens, we agree with him. But that’s no reason to flood our perishing fields, and that just after we’d seeded.”

“Yea but could have been worse.” Of the two textile operatives, Eulal was calmer, more reasonable. “At least he waited till we’d harvested. But we need to get that water turned off, and he won’t let us in.”

“No, because when I get in there, I’m going to kill him. Slowly, in the Techs’ way.”

Jess folded his arms across his chest while he thought what to do. “We don’t kill. We’re not Techs. We’re Monza. Mature Monza. Now first, how to get in there. Obviously banging isn’t the answer.” He glared at Niapse.

“Idea. Back shortly.” Joel splashed through the lesser water that swirled at the back of the hive, around the range of sheds and stores.

“Poalt,” Jess called through the irrigation plant’s defiant door. “Poalt, you’ve made your point. I hear you. And despite what Niapse might say, we’re not going to kill you. Now please, turn off the water.”

“Is that the zem?” The door muffled Poalt’s voice. “You lied, Zem Jess. Said to plug those Sankis would be our deaths. Liar. And those who lie once will lie again.”

“I told the truth as I knew it. It’s the Techs who’ve lied. And it’s true what I said of the Banmakka. Play with their women, you risk losing your head. Now, turn that water off. Please. You’re hurting the entire clutch, not just me.”

The deep splosh-glunge through watery mud announced Joel’s return, his arms strained with several bizarre-shaped wood-hafted stones.

Eulal looked at him, eyes wide. “Don’t even think it. You break them and we’re stuffed.”

“Poalt,” Joel shouted at the stubborn door. “Shut off that water and open this door else I shall personally smash the entire plant to pieces. And then your head.”

“Can’t,” he said. “Can’t turn off the water.”

Jess turned away, head wearily shaken. “By every Black Pendoling Pit.” He brought his hands up to rub his face. His beard needed trimming. “Just…just get out here, hey. We’ll sort it.” Though he didn’t know how.

“Can’t,” Poalt said again. “You’ll have to smash, like you said.”

“Are you refusing?”

“No. I just can’t. I’m sorry.”

Jess handed a hafted stone each to Eulal and Niapse. “Is he crying?”

“Does sound like it,” Eulal agreed.

“He’ll sopping well sob when I hit him with this.”

“No, Niapse.” Jess reached out and stilled his hand. “I’ve told him he’s safe.”

It took no time to shatter the front wall of the irrigation plant, to pull away the broken boards, to reveal Poalt crouched on the floor, his hands held up and crossed over his chest as in defence.

“What the…?” Jess stared at Poalt’s swollen bleeding discoloured hands. Green, they were, and yellow and purple and… “What…how?”

“Those Banmakka animals.” Poalt turned his hands over, displayed the palms, the skin peeled away from the wounds.

“We’d better get you back to base. Let Antel sort those hands. But first, the water.”

“You know how?” Eulal asked.

“Sometimes Pendol smiles on us,” Jess said. “Poalt showed me the workings, first time I was here.”

*

Before they were even halfway back to base, the discoloured swelling of Poalt’s hands had spread to his arms. He was dead on arrival.

Jess called all those present to witness the gut-turning sight, now made worse by the stench that was rapidly generated by whatever was happening inside Poalt’s skin.

“This is what happens when you try to force yourself on a Sanki woman. No contact,” he reminded them. Then amended it. “No contact unless the woman offers it. I don’t ever want to see this again. Pass your knowledge to those who aren’t here. Guul, Azal and Mavlin, as overseers I’m relying on you to ensure this message gets through to your operatives. Meanwhile, the textile farm needs another domestic. Azal, that’s yours to appoint.”

“Might this be how our cave Monza died?” Joel had waited for Jess to complete the flight-log.

“What, to draw those figures with hands like Poalt’s? And it doesn’t explain the Sanki bones. Itamakku, I’m assuming. And I know there’s been bad feeling between them at times, but those bones were mostly women. It’s a puzzle.”

It was a puzzle he was keen to share with Kookka and Armar. And Antel. For of late, wherever Armar was, there too was Antel. Saker joined them.

“This is new.” Kookka held up a pottery jug.

“Why use a water-bladder for my brews when there’s a hive full of pots and jugs and no Techs to check them in and out. Look, drinking bowls too.” He filled the bowl almost to brim and with great care passed it to Jess.

Jess sipped and pulled back. “Yea, good brew.” Or maybe it was the difference between sucking it and sipping it. He belched his appreciation. “There’s a tang to it.”

“On its way down, or up?” Kookka laughed.

“Both,” Jess completed the tease, then turned serious. “Joel, I’d rather you told our companions about our discovery.” He wanted no accusations of being biased and only seeing what he wants to see.

While the bowl passed around, twice filled from Saker’s big jug, Joel described the drawings they’d found, and the bones in the other cave.

“Any ideas?” Jess asked. “How we’re to read the message?”

Their silence was broken by Armar. “A message, you say. And I agree, that’s an effort to go to without some intent. But was it intended for our Monza eyes, or for the Itamakku?”

“Point,” Antel said. “How likely was it that a Monza would find it? And when?”

Kookka disagreed. “I’d say inevitable that one of the Programme would find it, sooner or later. I mean, when do we ever hold tight to base? We’ve all got our interests that take us beyond the perimeter.”

“Cela-Byi thought the message was intended for the Itamakku. But she didn’t understand it.”

“So what is the message saying?” Saker asked and again topped up the bowl to pass it around.

“Apart from that enigmatic ‘I am dead’, it’s just showing the Techs in control of us Monza and with some kind of interest in the Itamakku women.”

“It shows the GM Programme,” Jess said.

“I am dead…” Armar mused on that.

“We think he knew he was dying,” Joel said, “and these were his last words, so to speak. His bones are in the next cave, along with those of the women.”

“With babies,” Jess added.

“Well, there you are then,” Antel said. “It’s a warning not to mess with these women. Rather apt when we’ve just lost Poalt to this ludicrous lust. How many more? And you encourage it.” That last aimed at Jess, Joel and Kookka. He took Armar’s hand. “It’s time you moved out of this hive. Let the zem have his space.”

“In which case, I’ll move in,” Kookka said. “These hives are only by Tech’s allocation, anyway.”

“In which case,” Saker said, “Brib had better move in with me.”

“And now if everyone’s happy…” Armar was a few moments in his bed-cell, then arms laden he followed Antel out of Hive One.

Jess, Kookka and Joel watched in silence.

“Do you think…?” Saker cut the quiet.

“Medic and former apothecary,” Jess said.

“No wonder they’re pals. And pass that bowl, Saker.”

But none of that had answered the puzzle. Had that message been a warning? Or was it that the Monza had realised the true nature of the Techs?

Continues next Monday

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