Eric Olafson, Fleet Cadet (Vol 3)
Copyright© 2018 by Vanessa Ravencroft
Chapter 30: Interlude: Luna
His new aide, also a Commander, came into the office of the Admiral and said, “I am unable to raise the Commander or the Midshipman. The local police found the laboratory empty, but found the flier of the Xenobiologist 3 miles away near the mountains. No sign of the two. There is a piece of ground burned by TKU before a cave entrance.”
The Admiral leaned back and pointed at the file he was reading. “I was reading up on the Big Bone Mystery and I wonder why we never put more effort into this to solve it. There is a valley filled with bones of an animal that is not native to that planet. They had to come from somewhere and now we get a distress call from the Midshipman 90,000 light years away. There has to be a connection to this.”
The Commander opened the file on his PDD and said,
“It was never considered a priority and classed as a Level 32 research project. It looks like the research reports of the commander have not been looked at either, just filed for further analysis.”
“Call Luna Base and tell Captain McKenzie to ready the USS Shetland. I am going to Wichita Planet and alert the Fifth Marine Division. I want to take a company of grunts along.”
“At once, Sir.”
McElligott got up, tugged at his sporran, and made his way to the next Inter Building transport. He was almost at the IBT when his aide caught up with him, a little out of breath. “The Shetland will be ready for lift-off. By the time you come aboard, Sir. The Ultras have been alerted and are boarding as we speak.”
Elligott grinned as he stepped into the IBT car. “Would you like to come along? I have a feeling we are about to discover something quite unusual. Or to be more precise, we will find out that this Midshipman turned a standard, simple assignment into something quite different.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, Sir.” The Commander also entered the car, and while the Vac Tube transport shot through the network of pipes, he said, “I think your friend is in more trouble, and I wish I had done something earlier. I was just informed he called Med Central and transmitted data about a serious eukaryotic protist-type infection and requested treatment suggestions for his Auto Doc. Analysis is complex, and the Auto Doc he carries is most likely not able to produce the correct response without the additional data.”
“You are saying the Midshipman is suffering from some sort of malaria?”
“Yes, and the specialists think it is an early form of that disease and is very similar to those once known on Earth. Of course, this disease is extinct on Earth for a very long time.”
The Admiral’s old face showed genuine concern. “I would hate to have this resourceful man die of a disease.”
“As you say, Sir, he is very resourceful. There is not much we could do if he is indeed so far away.”
“We can’t, but maybe the Narth can. I will call the Narth Supreme right away.”
FREYA AND BRENDA
I was down to five pulses on my second Charge pack, and the forest clearing looked like the war zone it was. I had burned down most of the trees around us. The burnt remains of hundreds of the primates were strewn all over, the tent was in shreds, and Brenda was still in deep sleep. The Auto Doc was unable to come up with the right strategy to combat whatever disease she had. I was worried as I had been bitten too. I did not feel any ill effect yet, but it still could come, and I did not have the luxury to go into deep sleep for sure. It would doom us both.
Caram and his mate suddenly burst onto the scene and waltzed right through a mass of the Hanglers. Both scoped dozens of them into their maws, and I could hear the screaming and the bone-crunching chewing. The Hanglers still did not flee but began to pelt the Huffh with rocks. Now that they concentrated on the Huffh, I had time to take Brenda’s TKU set, set it to wide cone dispersal and high output, and strafed the tree crowns above the Huffh. Now the Hanglers retreated with high-pitched screams, and it turned quiet enough to hear the crackling of the many fires around us, and now I had time to use my Auto Doc to treat myself. Several of the rocks had hit me, but thanks to my Caver helmet, I still wore none; none hit me hard enough to knock me out.
Caram said, “Your mate is sleeping while you fight the Hanglers?”
“My mate is sick; she must sleep to become well again.”
“You can become sick, and you can be wounded.” He said, looking at me in a way that made me grab the TKU tighter.
“This is knowledge the other Huffh should not know right now. There are those who have new feelings about the Uni, and these are shadow feelings of darkness and hurt and not friendly. Much has happened to the Huffh since you appeared.”
“If I understand you right, they want to fight us?”
“Yes, fight you. This is a new word. Huffh never wanted to fight before. I will protect you as much as I can.”
“It is important we reach that Cave of Things. So we can learn how to trigger the gate and return to our place.”
“I will carry your mate. She is small and of no weight. If she is upon me, the other Huffh cannot reach her, and I am strong.”
“Let’s hope you do not have to fight your kind at all, and we can come to some sort of agreement.”
I was a little reluctant to place Brenda on the Huffh, but I had no other choice. I could not leave her behind. I tied her on the back of Caram.
His mate spoke for the first time. “Bondi will also protect those who made Caram well, and she can become Anali after all.”
I hovered next to them as the two big beasts moved on, while I kept an eye on the trees. “Yes, it will be so. Bondi will become Anali, and maybe it is through her that Uglam will return.”
Brenda looked pale, and I had to use her PDD as mine was completely drained. The Auto Doc confirmed that the deep sleep would keep her stable for the moment, and she was not in imminent danger.
After three hours, we reached the edge of the forest, and Caram said, “We do not have to worry about the Hanglers now. They do not leave the forest.”
Before us stretched a huge lake or ocean now. The light of day was fading, and it would soon be night. Caram said, “It might be good we cross the shallow waters before we rest, unless you are tired of flying.”
“No, I am good, and I agree. The more ground we can cover, the better. I am not sure how much time Brenda has, so I need to find the answers at that Cave of Things as soon as possible, but I also don’t want to overstress your legs. So we will rest if you feel tired.”
“I would not want to stop walking for many Light ball rises. I have been unable to do so for too long. We will take rest on the other side of Shallow Waters.”
The water was only perhaps 3 meters deep and reached just above the shoulders as they waded. The sun went down, and I noticed this world had two small but bright moons. According to the local magnetic field, we were moving steadily north now.
“Once every season, we come here to corral the flicks and eat them, but Balmi and I have foraged in the woods, and we are not hungry. Are you hungry?”
“I am fine. I carry food with me.”
Balmi then said, “Is Brenda your mate? Will you follow her to the Valley if she dies?”
“No, Brenda is not my mate, and we do not go to a specific place when we die. But I will try to prevent her from dying in the first place.”
“You come from the Valley, are you not?”
“Well, one could say so, yes.”
“How is it there?”
“It is a big meadow valley surrounded by mountains.”
To the east of us, something disturbed the waters. I could clearly see a dark, wet form that broke the waves for a moment. “Caram, are there any creatures in these waters that could harm you?”
“There are flickers, and we eat them, but some say there are Quoms to the east that can bite a Huffh. But I have never seen one here in the shallow waters.”
“I think there is a Quom coming towards us, whatever that is.”
“One Quom will not try to bite a Huffh. We will eat it.”
Just as he said that, something like a huge eel reared out of the water, less than 10 meters before Balmi. She roared at it. The Quom reminded me of the Cliff Eels of Nilfeheim, only this one was at least twenty meters long and had a narrow, cone-shaped maw with sharp teeth. It backed away from the roaring Huffh. I aimed the TKU, and Balmi virtually exploded as she catapulted her massive body out of the water and moved faster than I thought possible for such a big creature. Her jaws clamped around the neck of the eel. The thing was not much smaller than Balmi, and its snake-like body wound around the female Huffh. I did not want to hit the Huffh and waited for a good moment to shoot, but it was not necessary. Bone crunched, and a torrent of blood gushed from the eel’s maw as it became limp.
Caram said, and I was almost certain I recognized pride in his voice. “Balmi is not the strongest Huffh, but she is fast. The Quom will be a welcome food for us when we reach the shore.”
Balmi dragged the now-dead thing along, and two hours later, we came on a beach. The two Huffh tore the snake-like creature apart like feral Nubhir wolves and made a gory lunch of it. Seeing them doing it, I wondered what would happen if the idea of fighting really settled. While I had one more Charge pack, the spare of Brenda. It would not be enough to defeat them all. While I could fly to safety, Brenda had no such option at the moment. The next time someone invited me to a little cave expedition, I would make sure I took along a Destroyer suit and lots of spare E Packs.
The Huffh decided to take a break, and I checked on Brenda. The infection had slowed down, but was still spreading according to the Auto Doc, and the system estimated she had about 36 hours before the condition would become life-threatening.
I didn’t bother to set up the other tent, even though I felt tired and wished I had slept some last night. I had the system inject me with a stimulant, and that helped.
Caram said, “Will you not make a fire now? Balmi wanted to see how you do that.”
“Well, a fire could draw attention to us, and I am not so sure we should advertise our presence.”“There is no danger here on this side of the Shallow Waters. There are no Hanglers, and the other Huffh are almost at the Cave of Things now, and we will be there when the Sky Ball settles.”
“Huffh know fire. It occurs sometimes when the Light crack comes from the sky and makes a tree burn, and there are mountains far from here that sometimes speak fire into the air, but what is fire?”
I tried to explain fire in the most basic terms, and the two Huffh listened to me as if I told them about the meaning of life. Balmi left and came back with tree roots and all in her maw. “This is the fuel you are talking about, the wood of trees.”
“Well, yes, this is wood and it will burn too, but it is better to find dry wood from dead trees. The more moisture present, the harder it is to make it burn.”
Caram thought for a moment.“Then fire will not burn in water.”
“That’s right; you can use water to extinguish fire.”
“Then your fire stick will not be good on water?”
“This is a different kind of fire, and it burns even water. It is similar to the fire that is in the Sky Ball of yours.”
“The Sky Ball is on fire?”
The discussion went on for another hour, and the curiosity of the two Huffh only found an end after I had made perhaps the biggest campfire in the history of campfires, fueled by a dozen or more full-size trees Balmi kept throwing on the fire. The two of them stared into the flames, and Balmi said, “It is warm, and when close, it is very hot. I like fire.”
“You should try to utilize the fire then,” I suggested. “Man utilized fire for the first time just like that, I assume, and used it to cook food.”
Caram did not look away from the fire. “What is cooking, and who is man?”
Balmi, however, got up and threw a piece of the Quom into the fire. “Balmi knows what the Little Uni means. The little one is not Uni; the little one is man.”
I smiled. “You are very smart, Balmi. That is exactly what I meant.”
The female Huffh watched with awe as the meat of the Quom sizzled, and she said, “The Quom smells good now.”
She was right; the air filled with the smell of grilled meat.
I used a big stick to take the chunk of meat off the fire and said, “Wait till it cools down a bit and then try to eat it.”
It was actually a joy to see the two Huffh eat cooked meat for the first time in their species’ history.
--””--
THE HUFFH
Notugh and Beglo had not followed the other Huffh to the Cave of Things. The two male Huffh were curious about Caram and his new feelings, and now they both hunkered down at a hill less than 500 Huffh length away from the Beach where they feasted on the Flicks and they watched as Caram and Balmi came ashore with a little flying Uni along with them, and both felt fear as the fire started, but to their surprise, they saw Balmi throwing trees into the fire and they felt her feelings of warmth and knowledge. Notugh said, “Caram is walking. He has yellow skin on his legs, and now he is walking like before, and they foraged for Quom.”
“Balmi and Caram know fire. The Uni has told them. They are not afraid.”
“Not even the Old Utnalai knows fire. She is wrong about the Uni.”
“Then so is Akram, who wants to crush the Uni.”
“Let us observe some more, and then we ask Caram to show us fire. With this, we will have new thoughts and new words, and the Uni will give us power over the other Huffh.”
“You observe alone. I must tell all this to the Huffh.”
--””--
INTERLUDE: LUNA
There was no space port on Earth anymore. The old space port in the Sahara had been closed for almost 2000 years now. Only one of the space elevators still operated, but it was only used as a tourist attraction. The closest space port was on Luna and connected to Earth via Transmatter Tunnels. It took less than a second to pass through the tunnel. Mc Elligott had left his office in San Francisco only ten minutes ago when he stepped on the Slide Belt that carried him to the USS Shetland sitting on the landing field inside the famous Tycho Crater.
While the slide belt carried him underneath the invisible membrane force field, he remembered when he had first come to the moon and marveled at the Lunar lander left behind by the Apollo Missions and the first pressure dome colony. So much had happened since then. His own grandfather saw the first moon landing live on television. In a few moments, he would be aboard a huge spaceship that could load all Saturn 5 rockets ever made in its cargo holds and still have room for hundreds more. He was an immortal and had seen it all grow and develop. No human on Earth would marvel for even a moment to step through a matter tunnel and arrive on Mars or Venus or take an Inter System Taxi to Pluto, and he himself had crossed the Galaxy more than once, yet it was still a source of secret awe to him to be on the moon.
He turned to his aide and said, “Do you ever wonder about all this?”
“About what, sir?”
“About us being on the moon just moments after we left San Francisco.”
“Not really, sir. I come here a lot; my favorite Andorian Restaurant is on Level 19 in Armstrong town. You’ve been there too, sir.”
McElligott sighed. “Never mind. I am just an old man thinking about how it all started. It often hits me when I am here on the Moon. I am sure you have no idea who Armstrong was; they named the city after him.”
“Oh, but I do, sir. I am sure they named it in honor of Sid Armstrong, the biggest Zero G Star of all time. I think he lived almost 500 years ago. I bet you’ve seen him play life.”
McElligott sighed again as they reached the boarding ramp. “Never mind that, but I suggest you read up on the history of Luna in your spare time.”
“Sir, I am not complaining, but being your aide does not leave me with all that much spare time.”
The Captain of the Shetland greeted them right at the airlock, and McElligott asked the traditional question. “Request to come aboard.”
She responded in the same traditional way and saluted him. “Permission granted, Sir.”
She then said, “Can I ask where we are going, Sir?”
“Planet Wichita as fast as possible.”
“That is not too far, Sir. We should be there in eight hours. Anything I am allowed to know?”
“I think a mutual friend of ours ran into trouble there, Midshipman Olafson.”
“That young man just can’t stay out of trouble, can he?”
“In all my time, I have not met anyone except perhaps my old friend Richard, who turns up trouble no matter where he goes.”
--””--
FREYA AND BRENDA
Brenda’s skin had an unhealthy wax-like color, and I was worried about her. Even though the Auto Doc had not changed its prognosis. We had only two of these little marvels along, and both were taxed to the max of their design ever since we started on this mission.
We continued our trek, and Caram said, “There is a Huffh nearby watching us. I can feel his curiosity.”
“As long as he has no aggressive thoughts, I guess it will be alright. We will meet the rest of your kind soon enough, and I surely hope I can convince them that fighting me is not necessary.”
Balmi said, “All Huffh will learn about cooking and fire, and they will sing of you.”
My throat felt dry, and I knew my body was fighting the same infection now as Brenda. The Auto Doc had injected me with the same treatments, and for now, it seemed to work. I pushed the thoughts of the looming disease into the background and wondered if I had the right to teach the Huffh these things. They had no hands or appendixes that would allow them to utilize even the most primitive tool, and yet they seemed eager to learn, and it was evident that they were quite intelligent, and especially Balmi understood even complex explanations. They told me about the complex interaction and how they shared the feelings of the entire species and what impact the death of Uglam had on them all. I learned that the Huffh lived very long lives, and that the Utnalai was over 1000 Cold wet seasons old and would soon take the journey. Only when a Huffh died, a young one would be born, and a female Huffh that delivered a baby became Anali. It was not the word for mother, as all Huffh in a family raised the young. The word or concept of father was equally unknown to them. Anali meant Gate, and a female that became Anali rose to prominent status among the Huffh.
According to Caram, there were 100,000 Huffh and never many more or less. Death occurred maybe once every five or six seasons, which I figured was a local year. That explained the sporadic appearance of fresh bones in the Valley, but I wondered why nothing else was found but clean bones and why the Uni made this gate in the first place. Why would the Huffh not try to use it to return to the Old Place? No matter how sacred and special a place was, you put a cave like this near humans; they would explore it and try to figure it out. Yet the Huffh lived with that Cave for millennia, and none of them ever had the idea to explore it and go to the Valley before they were near dead. It seemed the Cave worked both ways, as it was evident with Brenda and my presence here.
“Has any Huffh ever tried to go into the cave and to the Valley just to see what is there and come back?”
Caram answered. “I asked this question myself only when I got hurt. I never thought of the Cave at all while I was healthy. Balmi had planned to follow me, but not to return. Even the Old Utnalai has not given me a real answer to my question about how we knew there is a Valley; it is only she who enters the Cave of Things to get these Instructions.”
Balmi also added to the conversation. “Only Anali are allowed to think these questions. Huffh that are not Anali must do what the Anali say. There are many now who question this, but only since you have arrived.”
--””--
THE HUFFH
The Cave of Things had been reached, and the multitudes had gathered around the plateau before the mountain. In all the confusion and all the uncertainty of the last days, the Huffh all knew that one female among them was now Anali, and a new Huffh was making its way into the world through her belly. They all could feel it approaching. This was seen as a good omen. Uglam died in the cave and not in the Valley, and yet he managed to return. The number of Huffh would be maintained, and Uglam was not destined to be dead forever. Since none of the present females claimed to be the one, it could only be Balmi.
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