Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit (19 page)

Their work done, the Tua simply dissolved their circle, collected their rolls from the harvest, and filed away quietly without so much as another word.

Soon they were laughing and playing tricks on each other again.

Mated pairs stopped for chunga breaks and then scurried to catch up.

The hunting party picked up the pace slightly to get back to the caves before dark, to share their latest bounty with the rest of the tribe.

A young hunter boy of ten or eleven fell wrong and broke an ankle.

Once his ankle was tended to and wrapped, Naero offered to carry him on her back. The Tua thanked her profusely.

The boy beamed all the way home and finally fell asleep with his head lolling on her shoulder.

All of the other children grew jealous of him once they got back.

For the first time since she arrived on Janosha, Naero went to sleep and slept peacefully that night.

When Khai contacted her via the astral crystals, she told him about her day with the Tua.

Even Khai had never had such an experience. But he was extremely interested.

They discussed her energy transformation in great detail.

Khai seemed very impressed and claimed to have gained several important insights that might actually help him in his efforts.

After that,
Naero decided to tell him a story.

They had all night while they slept. Plenty of time.

Khai made no protests.

“When I was little, my earliest memories were of my parents. Of course, we were always on one of their ships, going here and there. Both of them trained me…from the moment I could float.”

“Go on,” Khai told her.

22

Her mother was her sun and love.

Her father was her ship. Her courage and adventure.

Naero
’s parents taught her everything, from the moment she could start learning.

With their fighting careers behind them, and still being very young, they were used to spending lots of time training and sparring.

Naero practically grew up in practice rooms.

Her parents doted on her, sharing all their experience and knowledge with her. In her love for them, she wanted to be just like them. She practiced and trained very hard.

First she mastered individual techniques. Punches, strikes, kicks. Throwing. Grappling. Then every combination.

She practiced all the Spacer fighting forms before the age of five.

By the time Jan came along and joined them, she had already been sparring with her parents, for years.

It was cute and funny at first. Her totally serious. Going on the attack, against two of the fight circuit
’s greatest champions. Shouting her battle cries in her little voice.

Her mother blocked and deflected her tiny blows with the precise, flashing palm of one small, hard hand, giving her pointers on speed, timing, and strategy all the while.

Her dad was so big, that when he did the same thing, he intercepted her attacks with the deft tips of one or two fingers. Naero bounced off of him as if she were attacking a solid wall.

Yet their favorite thing was for him to pretend to give ground, and act like she was driving him back with her miniature onslaughts. Her dad was a great actor and showman, even better than her mom.

She would laugh so hard, knocking him around. As if any of her little hits could really damage a giant like him. Finally she would use one of her mother’s flashy finishing moves, a spin, flip, or whirl kick. Or even one of the few she made up herself.

Naero weighed next to nothing as a little girl, and being utterly fearless, she could practically fly through the air, and literally bounce off any available walls, ceiling, or floor like a rubber ball.

She would ‘finish’ her father off and he would fall back, pretending to be knocked out.

Then Naero would jump on top of him, plant her feet, and strike a victory pose. At which point her father would scoop her up, give her hugs and smoochies, and tickle her nearly to the point of hyperventilation.

She and her mom and then Jan would laugh so hard, and often join in the tumbling match until they were all exhausted and happy.

Then her parents would eventually kiss each other quite differently. They
’d give one another a certain look. One or both of them raising eyebrows at the other or winking. Actually, they looked kind of weird and stupid when they did that stuff.

Her and Jan didn
’t know what that meant, at first.

But they eventually figured it out, as they got older and saw the pattern repeat.

Within several standard minutes, both their parents would get someone to watch them and slip away for some alone time.

Now that Naero was of age, she was happy that her pare
nts had loved each other so keenly, and took their fun when they could.

While they could.

They were always busy. As their merchant fleet grew, they began planning the construction of their exploration fleet to explore the Unknown Sectors. What became their shared dream together.

Yet they still spent
lots of time with her and Jan, and oversaw their training, teaching them what they knew about fighting and about life.

Once she and then Jan reached their teens, they began becoming their own persons, with their own
forces of will and personal interests.

Jan, more of a scientist, a math nut, and a navigator.

Naero a pilot and warrior, but with heavy interests in history and galactic anthropology. Like her parents, she caught their love for exploration and adventure. The business savvy of her mother. Her father’s people skills and love of poetry and philosophy.

She truly inherited the best from them both.

The teen years also brought out her and Jan’s strong-willed, cocky, and rebellious sides.

Naero recalled the few times she thought she was going to actually defeat her parents. For real.

Not comprehending what it meant that both of them had trained with the Mystics.

Like Baeven now, either of them could have destroyed her
a dozen times over at any point. But of course they weren’t going to kill their beloved children. Just because they got full of themselves and started acting like a puffed-up snotheads who could lick anyone.

Both her parents used just enough speed and power to let her
and Jan know what the deal really was.

Leaving
them winded and slightly bloody on the mats.

She and
Jan more or less went through the same thing. And suffered the same fate.

Then their parents would hug them and get sa
d. Holding onto them without letting them go. No matter how angry they got, or whatever nasty things they blurted out in their rage–at their own mom and dad.

Once her father started crying.

It made a big impression on Naero.

“Naero honey, you might not understand this right now. But don
’t be so eager to fight and crush others. To see the dark and vile things in the universe in others and ourselves. You don’t know how bad things can get. All the wars and killing and death that our people have suffered. It’s all still out there. Just waiting. We must use our skills to defend what we love, and still remain the people we want to be.”

Naero was there when their mom winded Jan
and wouldn’t let him go, telling him something similar.

Jan told her that he hated her.

Their mom winced. “Shhh…” she told him “You don’t hate me. You’re just mad at me because I put you in your place. I would die for you Jan. Many times over. I would give my life for you. Because I love you. Never forget who you are and who you should be.”

No.

Naero would never forget where she came from, or who and what she wanted to be.

What she should be.

Even if Master Vane reduced her to cinders this instant.

In her mind, Naero ended her story to Khai and grew very quiet.

“Naero,” Khai told her at last. “I think your mother and father were very great people. I’m glad they were your parents.”

“Me too.”

“You miss them both the way I miss my father. I can tell, but let me say this.”

“What?”

“They have prepared you well to stand against all of the challenges life can bring. I can see clearly that it is not in your nature to accept defeat or any obstacle in your way. Believe in yourself, as they did, as I do. Given the chance and the right knowledge and training, I think you can accomplish anything.”

“Thanks
, Khai. You’re a good friend. That means a lot coming from someone like you. I know that my parents and their indomitable spirit lives in me. I sense it every day. They are always beside me, and I shall never be alone. I could say similar things about you. I know you will never stop striving to achieve your goals. I just don’t want them to kill you.”

Khai laughed. “Death is to be avoided.”

Naero smiled. Talking to Khai was like having Gallan back with her. And that was a very good thing indeed.

23

Naero spent another day with the Tua, learning their ways.

Each day it was something different.

Again
, Vane was dead wrong. The Tua did not simply loll around in their own filth and screw, as he put it. They were not lazy at all, and kept themselves busy sustaining a very decent way of life for everyone.

For one thing, they kept themselves and the village and the caves very clean.

Although, there was a lot of chunga going on at random. For the Tua it was natural and fun. Just another part of life that they hardly paid any attention to.

They were a free people. They didn
’t answer to anyone normally, or need permission to be who and what they were.

Who they wanted to be.

But even with all the Tua love everywhere, Naero started feeling a bit lonely at times herself.

She had started having
some pretty wild dreams about Max Lii giving her more than just a private throck concert.

And more than that, her growing curiosity of what Khai actually looked like in the flesh bothered her something fierce
. It burned in her imagination.

Naero tried not to let her mind wander too much
on frivolous things.

Not good for anyone.
She shook herself back to the present.

About two score Tua, all
older adults, prepared for today’s journey.

Except for their small tool pouches, they took nothing else with them.

Bahan and Iika bowed and touched their foreheads to her. All the others did the same. Naero did the same, returning their greeting and honor to them.

“W
here are we going today?” Naero asked. She breathed deeply. The sky always tasted so rich, clean, and fresh.

The
Tua tribal leaders motioned to the southwest.

“T
en of our friends are near their times. They’ve chosen the bava trees southwest of here. They’ve made their partings with the others in the tribe. Now it is time to go forth.”

Naero understood. The five pairs were all over thirty summers, by so many months.
They decorated themselves with circlets and garlands of bright, fragrant flowers.

They were going off to die, to go on
to the next journey, and to be buried by their people in peace in a place of their choosing.

The
party did not bother to sluna. They wanted to be seen. The five couples wearing the flowers laughed and spoke quietly among each other, re-telling favorite stories. Both they and the companion couples stopped to chunga and caught up when they could.

The ten sang at times, alone or in pairs. They sang to the trees, the sky. They sang to each other.

Gentle. Softly. Even a little sad.

Nah-gii-toh, zah-hah bahnoh, mah gah-duu, shii hah-dah zom.

They said farewell to their world that they loved and all within it.

Naero
had never seen any of the Tua weep. It did not seem to be their way. They experienced every emotion and could know both great pain and emotional sorrow, but they did not cry.

They gathered food as they needed along the way. They gave some
food to her as they always did. They knew where to find water.

They slept huddled around a great
snoka tree that night, kept warm by the same soft, false-leaves that the tribe used for toilet paper.

Naero huddled wit
h the Tua against the slightly chilly night air, although her Nytex suit kept her warm in part.

They woke up the next day as the sun rose and set out again.

By mid-day they reached the chosen spot somehow. Frankly, Naero could barely tell one patch of forest from another. Yet the bava trees and their leaves were somewhat different here. Some kind of local variation.

Then without warning, one of the ten
Tua toppled over face down in a pile of leaves.

Without a word, his mate lay down and put her arms around him.
She laughed and spoke to him softly, even laughing slightly.

Within minutes, she stopped breathing and went still also.

Naero was stunned.

What was this?
What was happening? How was this possible?

Small bands of Tua knelt down and began digging the graves with their strong hands.

Five graves in all,
like the petals of a flower, each about a meter and a half deep.

They sang their song of mourning and sorrow.

Moruu lahgoh nohmuu porron. Ah gii beh-ketuu. Urra gesh bamur. Ai-ii gah tandoh! Tandoh uu…nah-uu…

The Tua
apparently preferred to be buried in pairs. Some of the remaining eight helped dig their own graves in the dark black, rich soil. The heady scent of which filled the air.

Those who did not dig
produced rolls of supple brown snoka hide, which Naero had just learned was harvested in sheets.

Two other couples laid down in each other
’s arms and stopped breathing.

With their cutting tools of stone and bone needles, the other
remaining adults wrapped the bodies in hide and sewed them closed. But not before they kissed their friends’ faces, and gave them gifts of both flowers, bright crystals, and food.

Finally the shrouds of hide were
all sewn shut, and placed carefully in the graves like strange pods. The dirt was scooped back in on top of them, and the Tua tamped down the mounds with their tough feet.

The l
ast couple sat against a young bava tree, clinging to each other and kissing.

At last they too drifted away, breathing their last.

The Tua moved to bury them in the same exact fashion.

They covered the burial mounds with leaves and transplanted flowers so that the
latter would grow over the graves.

Then the Tua sang their song of love.

Shae-lah vah hii nah, ellah vii shiinah, jahmii vae sha-noh, Shae-lah vah Yah-vae!

Naero
learned their songs and sang along with them. Once more she allowed her own tears to flow freely. This time her reaction seemed to be either an amazing or confusing thing to the Tua.

Several of them came by and touched her face
. They even licked her cheeks and tasted her tears, until Bahan and Iika waved them away.

No one said much.

So Naero spoke to Om.

Haisha!
I don’t care what Master Vane says. The Tua are not rats. They are a very wise and beautiful people, and care about each other very deeply. They deserve as much respect and admiration as any sentient race in the galaxy. Perhaps more than many others I’ve had dealings with.

Naero, I
cannot help but share your emotions, but I do not fully understand or experience them yet, as fully as you do.

By then it was dark. The Tua did not intend to stay the night again and planned to march
and run all night to return to the caves by dawn. Their task here was done.

They
merely wanted to return home to their own lives.

Bahan and
Iika agreed to talk. Naero had many questions along the way as they set out.

“N
ot all go away for their passing,” Iika explained. “It is a choice. Many elect to pass quietly among the tribe or in their homes, and are taken to burial places nearby.”

Then Naero spotted small glowing lights, flitting overhead and through the trees.

She counted ten of them, flitting about together.

“W
hat are those?” she asked.

“W
hat are what?” Bahan said, glancing around in the dark.

“S
ome kind of insect that can produce its own light?”

Iika shook her head.
“There are no such bugs on Janosha that we know of.”

“T
hose little flickering lights that just passed overhead? You couldn’t have missed them.”

The Tua shuffled nervously.

“None of us saw any strange lights,” Bahan insisted.

Iika smiled, bowed and to
uched her forehead, and took Naero’s hands. Her eyes glistened in the dark.

“P
erhaps only halaena can see what you have seen.”