crispina kemp

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

Please note: The penultimate episode

Long before they were close enough to see the details it was obvious that Jess and his companions still had time – though they had to circle around the landing site to avoid the thick white plumes of smoke. Even in the flier’s controlled-environment the fumes from whatever the Techs were burning stung their eyes.

Clear of that veil, Jess counted eight separate fires. “One per clutch. What’s going on?”

“More than a temporary evacuation then,” Shelek said.

“I’d say. Obvious isn’t it, those Techs don’t intend to return.”

Jess took over the psi-powered flier from Shelek. He wanted to stay at a distance until they had an explanation of what they were seeing.

“Oh no, Pendoling Pits, no…” Shelek groaned, and a sudden flood of tears washed his face. “Those are—”

“Not your breed-pool,” Canipse said, as if that made a difference. “Harvesters. Seen them on other planets.”

“Harvesting…seaweed?”

So that explained the location of the landing site, right beside the western ocean. It also explained the barrels stacked staggeringly high, though now diminishing as those same harvesters loaded them into one of the…Jess counted…five landers. Big landers. Far bigger than the one which had transferred them from the STC-Transporter and dispersed them to their various bases.

But it wasn’t just those barrels the harvesters were loading. Though wrapped in grey sheeting, there was no mistaking their contents – especially since a group of blood-splattered Techs were frantically slaughtering and gutting yet more. Jess wasn’t as sensitive as Shelek, yet he preferred to look away.

“Told you,” Canipse said. “We’re traction. And when we’re not traction, we’re meat. Yes, Jess, we, not just the breeders.”

Jess’s eyes fixed on the Monza he’d then located, corralled together. At a guess, three hundred. “You mean…?”

He turned away to look at Canipse.

Canipse shrugged. “Maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe they’ve another use lined up for them.”

Canipse seemed so calm. How could he be so resigned while for Jess this was too much. Bile rose into his mouth. He shook his head, closed his eyes, he didn’t want to be here. Yet burying his head would resolve nothing.

“We can’t rescue them all. And how many Techs?”

“I’ve been counting,” Shelek said, by his voice more deeply affected than Jess. Jess hoped the Banmakka couldn’t understand their words. “There ought to be no more than thirty, maybe fifty, but I gave up counting at five hundred.”

“I’d say double that. If our drummers are right about blocking their power, we might be able to get in there, rescue our few, and get out. But not all of them. How can we rescue all of them?”

“You could kill the Techs,” Canipse suggested.

“Yea. How? We can stun them, but stunning won’t kill them.”

“Same way the Techs are killing those harvesters. A sharp blade across the throat.”

“Canipse!”

Beside Jess, Shelek drained of colour, his arms swiftly raised around his head.

“Best do something quick,” Canipse said. “You’ll lose the advantage.”

“We came here to fetch Kookka and Joel.” Jess hated to say this. “To do more, we can’t.”

“You can free up those harvesters where they’re waiting for slaughter,” Canipse said. “Of the others, you don’t know what’s to happen to them. It’s a maybe-maybe.”

They could do nothing without they landed the flier. But first they needed to block the Techs’ power-source. Jess nodded to the pile of drums. “Ignore whatever the others’ beats. Discordant, we’re aiming at discordant.”

Predictably, Canipse complained, yet he conformed. Shelek grabbed the tallest drum leaving Jess with the big beast. He loved that drum. He whispered to it as he started the beats. “This is for Kookka, for Joel.”

But at once he had to shout to stop, frantically waving his arms as the flier plummeted from the sky.

*

The flier was already entangling in the sparsely scattered tree-tops by the time Jess gained control of the flier.

“Clever,” Canipse snarked. “So now the Techs know we’re here.”

Jess turned from him to the Banmakka.

“As soon as we touch land I’m out. That’s when we need those drums. I’ll be quick as, be back with Kookka and Joel.” But how much of that did the Banmakka understand? “Canipse, you stay with them. Grab that drum and—”

“Imagine it’s a nasty Tech-head?”

“Shelek. We have to be quick.”

This wasn’t at all how he’d planned it. He hadn’t thought it through. But this was how it had to be. He brought the flier in as close as he dared to where the Monza were corralled, awaiting the loading. Or killing?

Mostly the Monza stood as patient as cattle. Unaware of what might be happening? Or held there by the mind-control of the multitudinous Techs. A thousand? Yea, likely a thousand. Amongst the Monza it was easy to locate Kookka, his long-term friend, as familiar as his own hand. Joel was close by. But the longer the Banmakka and Canipse created their psi-blocking cacophony, the more did the Monza stir.

“Can you believe this?” Shelek held up the top rope of three that formed the corral. “They really do believe that’s going to contain them?”

Released from the Techs’ mind-control, Kookka and Joel were immediately to that step-over fence. Others of Clutch Six were following, watched by Monzas from other clutches, faces long with confusion.

“Quick, Kookka, Joel, and we’ve space for one other. You others, while the Techs’ minds are blown you can climb over this rope and be gone.” That was the best he could do for them.

“You crazy?” Kookka shouted at his would-be rescuers. “Mass evacuation. An asteroid on its way. Boom-boom-boom, this planet is gone.”

Jess drew back, stunned as effectively as if by a psi-gun. “Gone? But they’re rocks. They burn up in the atmosphere.”

“Not this one,” Kookka said. “Huge, so they say. The Techs are terrified.”

Jess’s jaw dropped. He looked at Shelek. Then, a semblance of sense recovered, he drew himself up. “We made a promise, you and I, Kookka, that we’d find a place where we could get away from those Techs. And this past year you’ve pushed me, saying here’s the right place. Now I’d rather go boom-bang-gone than spend an eternity with those grey-skinned killers.”

Kookka slapped Jess on his back and was over the rope-ringed corral in a flash, Joel following. But no others took up this offer of freedom.

“I guess if you’re looking at death…” Shelek said.

“The only ones looking at certain death are those harvesters. We have to free them before we go.”

They ran, four sturdy Monzas beneath the psi-confusing racket of the Banmakka’s drumming. But the harvesters hadn’t been told about any colliding asteroid, and they knew what was to happen to them, they’d been watching it. Finding themselves free of the Techs’ control they’d already hopped that flimsy fence.

Joel grabbed Jess’s arm and pointed to the waiting landers. “You think we could make it off-planet?”

Jess looked at Shelek, query large in his eyes.

“I’ve never controlled a lander.”

“Me neither,” said Kookka.

But Joel said, “We could try.”

Jess shook his head, even as they ran for the massive psi-vehicle as if the decision was made. “Canipse. And the Banmakka. One of us has to take the flier, return it. Have we a time…for this collision? How long have we got?” And if he was to die, he wanted to die with Cela-Byi.

Kookka shrugged his lack of definite knowledge. “A five-day? Two five-days? Though the sense of urgency is loud amongst the Techs—”

“Loud,” Joel said. “It’s outright shouting.”

“It’ll take some time to fly everything out,” Kookka continued his thought. “And they won’t want to be close when it hits.”

“My friend, Kookka, I’m so sorry, this isn’t what we intended.” He turned to Shelek. “Would you take the flier back to what’s left of our base? Please. Return the Banmakka to where they belong. Don’t panic. We won’t leave you there alone. We’re headed there too.” Though he couldn’t say what they’d do with any time left to them.

This story concluded next week
Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed
Please do comment, your commets can help me improve the story

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

Please note: This is a weekly post

Jess’s feet hit the grey rock of the emptied base at a run. His drums were stacked where Hive One had been and it was starting to rain. Shelek followed him to help him retrieve his gear, though without Jess’s haste. He was glad he arrived at those drums alone. Beside his favourite, the biggest, the beast, was the sun-baked spirit-carrier for his son – his probable son. Why had Cela-Byi left it behind when the Banmakka swept them away? Although it created a conspicuous bulge, he tucked it into a pocket.

Even while he and Shelek were ferrying the drums to the flier, he kept straining back in the hope of seeing his woman. Instead, he saw the Banmakka. Not many but more than a handful.

“Greetings. I’m told I owe you plenty gifts for your help when the Tech-gods came.”

One stepped forward – their headman? Feathers rose high from his head, as he’d seen with the Itamakku. “God-gifts oblige us to help. Now you leave us?”

Jess looked from the Banmakka towards the west where he figured the lander had taken his clutch. “I’ll be back,” he said, though it surprised him that he said it. “You keep Cela-Byi safe for me?”

“Spirit-woman safe with our women. We come to help more.”

Jess lowered his head in gratitude, though he couldn’t imagine how else they might help.

The Banmakka headman beckoned another to join him. That other beckoned to yet another, a youngster. “Dan-Cel-ta, our spirit-man. Itta-Cel, his boy.”

Dan-Cel-ta, the Banmakka spirit-man, glanced to where Shelek and Canipse were stacking Jess’s drums into the flier. “Those, spirit-drums?”

It was true, sometimes playing his drums did take him into the psi-sphere, rather like Kookka’s harp would take him into the animosphere. He nodded.

“When grey gods come, much activity in god-place. They draw power from there?”

Jess hadn’t joined the dots, but yea, it made some sense. He and his observers used the psi-sphere to control the fliers. Their stun-guns were powered by the psi-sphere, so too the psi-lights. For those who could access it, the psi-sphere was also a source of information; he’d downloaded Canipse’s map from there and would again enter to locate the Techs landing site. The psi-sphere permeated the universe and everything in it – including the Monza’s unprotected minds.

“Drums take seeker to that god-place,” Dan-Cel-ta said. “Cross-drums block way.”

“Cross-drums?” Jess didn’t understand what he meant.

Dan-Cel-ta turned to Itta-Cel, his boy, and gabbled something very fast. The boy quickly snatched up two of Jess’s six drums, one given over to Dan-Cela-ta. They both dropped to the ground. Drums between thighs, the boy tapped, the man hammered.

Jess covered his ears. Shelek and Canipse winced and pulled pained faces.

“Cross-drums, they block god-way.”

Jess nodded. He understood that now. And if the Banmakka could cut off the Techs’ source of power…? Yet the fliers had limited space. Ten. Then his drums and some boxes already stacked belonging to Canipse and Shelek. But he’d only six drums. And as he figured it, it took no skill to play cross-drums, so Canipse and Shelek could play too.

“Three.” He held up his hands to show three fingers. “I can take three with me. And I’d prefer two of them to be Dan-Cel-ta and Itta-Cel.”

That would limit how many of his clutch he could rescue. Four? He slapped his head. What a silly thought. And who else amongst his clutch would want to stay? Just Kookka. Maybe Joel. Yet that depended on why this round-up of clutches. That the Techs were withdrawing from Sipaziann Ayin he’d no doubt. But where would the Techs take them?

Somewhere to be reared and eaten, the words rose in his mind.

But why not take both the fliers? Shelek could control one and he the other. Though Shelek mightn’t be so adept in the psi-sphere. But no, that wouldn’t do; it would delay them while they took turns in catching up with their sleep. And how far anyway was it to the landing base? Three, four, five times as far as to Clutch Eight. He needed to access the psi-sphere.

The Banmakka headman beckoned another of his men, in age between the spirit-man and his boy. “This one – Anak-tu – never has heard our gods. He heard nothing from your grey-gods when they came. He could be good companion?”

Jess bowed deep to the Banmakka headman, and again to each of his new companions. Then turned to Shelek and Canipse. “We need food, water.”

Shelek nodded towards the stacked boxes. “We’re good for a while.”

“Then all we need now it to discover where to go.”

*

There was no advantage in having two Monzas accessing the psi-sphere. Jess was the more experienced, it made sense for him to do the night flying. But he wasn’t yet tired enough to sleep, he doubted he’d even sleep after his session as pilot. Calculations. Estimations.

“Either of you remember how long it took the Techs to transport us from the main landing site to our basecamp?”

“Too long.” Canipse slumped in the seat, a segment all to himself, a gap between him and the Banmakka. Perhaps his excitement at sharing what he knew about the Techs had exhausted him.

“Shelek?”

Shelek shook his head. “Playing knuckles with Saker, most of the day.”

“Day, just the one day?” Jess was quick to pick that up.

Shelek squinted, working to recall. Unfair of Jess to ask this question while he was accessing the psi-sphere, but he needed to know. He remembered it as daylight, sleep, then daylight again. But everyone was dozy, not long having woken from that mega-sleep while they bypassed who knew how many galaxies.

“Two days,” Shelek amended. “Maybe. Don’t stun me if I’m wrong.”

“Yet at the distance we’re currently covering?” Jess groaned. “Maybe two five-days. We have to go faster.”

“Yea? How? I’m doing what I was doing when we were tracking…” Shelek glanced back at the slumbering Canipse.

“Piss on him – now he’s going to be jabbering down my neck when I’m having to focus in the negative night. But…” he waved dismissive arms. “The Techs do it in two days and a night. How?”

“They live in the psi-sphere?”

Jess punched the air. “You clever arsehole! Why didn’t I think of that.”

“You think that’s the answer?”

“But they do live in the psi-sphere. Not all the time, but—yea.” He turned enough to see the backs of the Banmakka’s heads, and the stack of drums. Jess didn’t have the Banmakka speech, but he did have Itamakkuese. He hoped these three companions were as word-wise as their headman. “Drums.” He pointed to be sure. “You drum us into psi-sphere?”

“Now?”

Jess nodded, his body twitching with excitement. “Now.”

It worked, but they still weren’t covering the distance known of the Techs. Yet by the time light replaced night they had flown over Clutch Seven’s base. That was a doubling of their speed. But now the Banmakka were lost to them, in that nebulous sphere.

*

The Banmakka spirit-men drummed – but on entering the psi-sphere they stopped that drumming. Without that input, Shelek and Jess lacked the strength to keep the flier at high speed. They then must wait until the spirit-men returned to regain that speed. Jess despaired of reaching the landing base before all were gone.

“We’ll get there.” Shelek wrapped an arm around Jess’s head, a reassuring gesture unknown in the basecamp.

“Hey, is one of you now changing gender?” Canipse’s tone gave no hint of whether he was jesting or not. “Haven’t we had enough of touching and…stuff?”

“No change of gender,” Shelek assured him. “I’d take on another woman tomorrow, given the chance.”

“And I have one waiting. I hope.” Jess touched the idol of sun-baked clay in his jacket pocket where he’d tucked it four days before. “But however much I care for her, I care equally for Kookka. And no, that doesn’t mean I’m changing gender. It’s just I wouldn’t be making this crazy flight if it weren’t for him.”

Shelek looked back over his shoulder. “Space for three. Apart from Kookka, who will they be?”

“I would take all – or all who wants to join us. You do realise,” Jess glanced back to include Canipse in this, so easy to ignore him with him being so quiet, “we’ll be on our own, no Techs to help us.”

“Well, that’ll make you happy. Hey, Zem?”

Jess ignored Canipse’s jibe. “I’m hoping Joel will come with us.”

“Zeke,” Shelek said. “He’s a good cook.”

“I cook, remember,” Canipse sniped. “And I notice you’re not thinking of operatives. Yet it’s ops who’ve the survival skills. What are your observers good for? And must those Ban-men make so much noise? All that drumming, caving my head in.”

Jess sighed. And Canipse had been so quiet until now.

“Many of the observers have useful hobbies,” Shelek said. “Like Saker. He ferments a mean brew.”

“If we get there in time. And even then, what happens next?”

“Guess that’ll depend on what the Techs are up to?” Shelek said.

“They’re withdrawing, that’s obvious,” Canipse said it like he was volunteering his greater knowledge.

“But why?” Jess and Shelek said in unison.

“Well, it’s not because you obs are bedding the breed-pools, is it,” Canipse said. “That might explain the Techs’ departure, but not your obs.”

“We’ll just have to wait till we get there.”

Jess grunted at that. But what if they were too late, and when they reached the landing site no one was there?

Continues next week
Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed
Comments, please, gratefully accepted, especially now we’re so near to the end