Merkiaari Wars: 01 - Hard Duty (43 page)

Shima froze for a moment when she saw it, but then continued her watch without a word to the others. It wouldn’t help anything to tell them that Merrick’s kah was standing there watching them. This wasn’t the first time she had seen one, and with the new war just starting, she doubted it would be her last. It would go to the Harmonies soon.

Shima had seen kah before, but she had never seen one do what this one did next. One moment it was standing near Kazim, the next it was a pace away and in Shima’s face trying to talk. It gestured urgently and tried to say... something. There was no sound of course, and the kah seemed frustrated by that. It walked passed Shima looking back at her with a pleading look when she stared. It held out a hand to her, still with that pleading expression upon its immaterial face.

Shima was shocked motionless, her thoughts in chaos. Kah didn’t do this! They just didn’t! They weren’t people. This kah wasn’t the youngling she had met so briefly and failed to protect. It was... it was a memory of him, like one of Kazim’s films. That is what she had been taught when her father realised she was strong enough in the Harmonies to see them, and had invited his mate’s favourite sib to visit their home to teach her. Only Tei were ever taught about kah because only Tei were strong enough in the Harmonies to see them, but she was a special case. Strong enough to be Tei, but flawed in herself and unwanted by the clan-that-is-not. Tei’Thrand had been kind to teach the scared youngling she had been, and had broken many an unwritten rule to do it. Such deep knowledge of kah and their link to the Harmonies was held exclusively by the clan-that-is-not.

This kah was all wrong. It was not playing by the rules, she thought plaintively. That thought was so absurd that at any other time she would have laughed, but not now. There was nothing funny about burying Merrick, or running for their lives from the Murderers, and there was nothing funny about this kah. It... she couldn’t think of it as a he. It wasn’t Merrick, it wasn’t! Despite its strange ways and looking like the youngling, she had to cling to her lessons. It wasn’t him, but it seemed not to know that or care. It acted like Merrick, wanted her attention like he had, and Harmonies help her she felt herself wanting it to be really him. That was so wrong.

She couldn’t talk to him... it! It was an it, wasn’t it? She couldn’t talk to him with the others nearby, but when she checked they were busy lowering Merrick’s body into the pit. Shima holstered one beamer and gestured surreptitiously behind her back, wanting the kah to move behind a tree. Shima almost gasped when it did what she wanted. They don’t do that, she wailed silently in her head.

Shima followed it behind the tree and stopped to watch its antics. “I don’t understand.”

The kah... oh Harmonies, call it Merrick. She was already losing her mind, what difference did it make? Merrick raised his hands and let them fall in defeat. He looked very upset.

“You can’t tell me, can you show me?”

Merrick’s face glowed brighter as if suddenly excited. Shima swallowed. He moved away and looked back. His expression asked if she was coming. Shima used her gift to look for danger, and gave herself over to the madness. She followed him through the trees, already guessing where he planned to lead her. Maybe she was asleep and dreaming? She stumbled over a hidden root barking a shin painfully.

“Not dreaming,” she muttered and rubbed the pain away. “I couldn’t be that lucky.”

Merrick stopped by the dead aliens and looked at her.

Shima and Kazim had dragged all the bodies together before deciding to just leave them for the scavengers. They’d had some vague notion of hiding them, but it would have taken too long. Better to bury Merrick and vacate the area quickly than spend time hiding dead aliens she had decided.

“What?”

Merrick pointed urgently to one of the aliens.

Shima raised her beamer, suddenly wary. Had it somehow survived? No, not possible. The Harmonies showed Merrick glowing very brightly and nothing else. They were definitely dead.

“They’re dead.”

Merick raised his fists at the sky and shook them. Then he pointed at the alien again.

“All right, all right... no need to get testy about it. I’ll look at your stinky alien if you will leave me alone and join your ancestors like you’re supposed to.”

Merrick grinned at her. Grinned!

Grumbling about getting even more blood on herself, she holstered her beamer and rolled the stinky and definitely dead alien onto its back. Kazim had stripped its weapons and shared them out, just as she had done with the other aliens, so she didn’t expect to find anything.

“Now what? There’s nothing here.”

Merrick crouched near her and mimed undoing its clothes.

“I am not stripping this foul thing naked!”

Merrick’s ears went back at that, and he looked disgusted. He gestured slowly and Shima finally understood.

“Oh, sorry,” Shima said and reached for the flap of material attached to the Merkiaari covering.

Merkiaari didn’t wear anything like a Shan harness with its loops and pouches, but they still needed to carry things. Like the new aliens, the Humans, they wore coverings they called clothes and those had built in pouches. She undid the flap securing the pocket and reached inside. Her hand felt something and she stilled. Had they missed a weapon?

“What is it?”

She looked for Merrick but he was gone. Had he gone back to the others? Somehow she knew he hadn’t. He was truly gone to his ancestors now. Shima looked back at the alien and withdrew the item. It wasn’t a weapon, she was sure of that. She suspected it was some kind of minicomputer. She turned it this way and that, wondering why this thing was important enough for Merrick’s kah to break all the rules to get it into her hands.

She turned it over and stared at her face reflected in the shiny surface. There were no controls, but if this really was a computer... she touched the shiny part and things started happening. She watched coloured icons and blinking graphics move over the screen. She cocked her head trying to understand the display, and her ears flicked at the nasty alien speech sounds coming from the device. Suddenly things rearranged themselves in her mind. She turned the device ninety degrees and her breath rushed out as the electronic map made sense and she associated the graphics with the real world.

“No...” she said in horror.

She dashed into the trees carrying her booty.

Shima threw herself onto her knees at the edge of the pit and unceremoniously began pushing the mound of earth into it with her hands.

“Shima!” Kazim said.

“Help me!” Shima snarled at Kazim. “Merkiaari heading this way. She passed the device to Nevin. “We can’t let them find Merrick or us. They will chase us forever using one of these things. It happened to me before in Zuleika.”

Nevin stuffed the device into a pouch and started shoving at the loose dirt. His family followed his lead and the pit was soon full. Shima kicked away the excess dirt, spreading it out to hide it.

“Kazim, lead them away from here. The stream. Take them to where we stopped yesterday. I’ll catch up.”

“But—”

“Go!” Shima screamed.

Kazim stumbled back in surprise. “This way.” He ran and everyone rushed to catch up.

Nevin stopped to look back. “Don’t do anything foolish. You owe me a life, remember?”

“I remember,” Shima said grimly. “I remember everything. I must hide our presence here, and blur your trail. Now go.”

Nevin dropped to all fours and raced after his family.

Shima used deadwood and underbrush to cover Merrick’s pit. That was the easy part. The ground all around the area was scuffed and trampled. She didn’t know how good at tracking the Merkiaari were. She hoped they relied upon technology and not natural instinct. Using primitive methods might fool technology, probably would, but she had to do the best job she could in case the aliens did know how to track prey without their devices.

She drew her knife and leapt into the air, aiming and swinging the knife at a low branch of the nearest tree. The blade was very keen, made of the best steel. It was one of a matching pair Tahar had bought her one nameday. She landed neatly and caught the severed branch in her free hand. Using it like a broom, she swept the entire area so that fallen leaves and other forest detritus spread evenly over everything. To the casual eye, no one had been here. To Shima, it was still obvious that people had been here but that was training and the scent left behind by the others. She could only hope the aliens weren’t her equal.

Shima backed away, still brushing furiously, following Nevin’s scent. She did that for a long time. Probably too long, but she was determined that any curious Merkiaari would not get any help from her inaction to find Merrick’s family. Finally she climbed into the trees, taking along her branch with its tell-tale freshly severed end. She wedged it in the crook of more branches to hide it, and then sprang into another tree heading toward the stream and the others waiting for her.

It didn’t take long to find them. Shima dropped out of the last tree to land lightly a few hundred paces from Kazim and the others. Wonder of wonders he had the Merkiaari mass driver aimed rather than his camera. The others were inexpertly holding the Merkiaari weapons they had liberated from their captors; the aliens had broken the beamers they had brought with them from the city. None of them knew how to use the huge weapons; they were used to hand beamers, which had no recoil at all. But mass drivers very much did, especially Merkiaari mass drivers. Merkiaari were big creatures and their weapons matched them in size and power. They couldn’t be held and fired like a Shan beamer, but Shima could tell no one had thought about that yet.

Shima didn’t have time to tell them now.

“May I see the alien computer?” Shima asked Nevin. He removed it from his pouch and handed it to her. “We might need to put greater distance between us. Let us see.”

Nevin watched as Shima touched the shiny surface and the display brightened. She pointed to the icons and looked the question at Nevin. He flicked his ears and his tail rose. Its dark tip curled and made a short slashing motion. He was right, the aliens were about to discover their dead. She flicked her own ears and her tail mimicked his. They turned back to the display and watched the alien lights stop at the place where the fight occurred.

“Watch, they will spread out and search the area. Probably in twos.”

Nevin flicked his ears in agreement. “Will they find Merrick?”

“I’m hoping not. If they do, it tells me something. A lot actually.”

Kazim joined their huddle around the computer. “How so?”

“If they find Merrick after all I did to prevent them, then it means they are skilled trackers. We already know from history they are hunters... mindless predators, but can they track us without one of these?” Shima said raising the alien device slightly. “If they can’t, we will lose them in the forest. If they can, we will still lose them I promise you, but it will be harder and I will have to be very careful.”

“And if they keep following?”

Shima wished Nevin had not said that. It was one of her greatest fears about this. She dare not lead the aliens to any keep. She remained silent and looked hard at Nevin. His ears went back just a little as he realised what he’d said, but they came up quickly. His tail gestured understanding but worry too; for his mate and cubs no doubt.

“Let us worry about that if it happens.”

Kazim finally realised the problem. His nostrils flared and his eyes flicked from Nevin to Shima and back. “We...” he swallowed hard. “Shima and I could lead them away if it comes to that. Nevin can take the younglings to the keep while we distract the Murderers.”

Shima felt a sudden burst of affection for Kazim. He could be clueless at times, but none could say he wasn’t brave.

“Yes,” Shima said. “That’s the plan.”

The aliens split into search parties; they searched in pairs as Shima guessed they would, and were methodical about it. They were using a grid pattern, logical enough, but Shima was very interested to note how exacting their spacing was. That kind of accuracy was machine-like and it made her grin. She looked at Nevin, but he hadn’t caught the clue. He noticed her expression and cocked his head in query.

“They’re using their machines to search. I’m certain now.”

“How can you be sure?” Kazim asked.

“The spacing. It’s too regular. I think they’re using a computer like this, rather than their eyes or noses. They won’t find us that way.”

Kazim looked unsure. “I don’t know, Shima. Maybe I’m missing something, but if we can see them with this thing, can’t they see us?”

Shima began to say of course they couldn’t, but why couldn’t they? She had assumed the Merkiaari could not because they had stopped to search instead of chasing them. Was that good enough? She looked at Nevin. He was watching the Merkiaari icons thoughtfully.

“I assumed they stopped to search because they couldn’t see us, but...” Shima gestured frustration with her tail. “Everything is a guess where aliens are concerned! I don’t like not knowing.”

“Scientist,” Kazim said and laughed. “Don’t scowl at me. You know that’s part of it.”

It was, Shima admitted privately. It was the curse all scientist caste suffered from—ever questioning, wanting to know the answers and reasons behind everything. It was often said that a cub’s caste could be predicted by the first word out of her mouth. Future scientists were born with the word ‘why’ on their tongues.