Chapter 8

The Melkov left with the rest of the human fleet, but a shuttle left the cutter just before she translated to Hyper. I called Jay to tell her.

Me: ’Jay, a shuttle has broken free from the Melkov before it translated. There are three humans aboard the shuttle. They are your crewmates from the Destiny: Gabby, Robertson, and Nicolevna.’

Jay: ’They can’t do that! They are under orders. They’ll be in trouble when the fleet gets around to noticing they’re gone.’

Me: ’What about you, Jay? Aren’t you under the same kind of orders?’

Jay: ’I’m entitled to two months leave, plus some compassionate leave after the collision that Destiny took. I radioed my request for leave before the fleet left.’

Me: (chuckle) ‘Perhaps your crewmates did the same. And besides, I thought we were all destined to die as Yerowl is destroyed. Did you think to fight off a Bug invasion with your little unarmed pinnace?’

Jay: ’I have a germ of an idea for defense of the planet. And yes, we’ll fight off the whole invasion with an unarmed pinnace.’

I noticed the ‘we’ in her sentence, but I did not scan her mind for more information. I viewed Jay as an equal now. One does not casually scan the mind of one’s friends without permission or invitation. When she was ready, she would tell me.

The radio in her pack squawked. “Come in any receiver on Yerowl. This is the shuttle Melkov 4. Requesting permission to land.”

I sent a query to Merhnah, our leader now, and updated her on the situation.

Merhnah: ’These humans have more gromish than their Admiral, eh Grahhll?’

‘Gromish’ is one of many of our words that does not translate easily to English. It means a combination of chutzpah (not a word for which there is an English translation, either), courage and moral strength. There should be such a word in any language.

Me: ’Gromish, yes. Jay Nelson is here also, as you know. Perhaps the others are here partially for her as well.’

Merhnah gave them permission to land close to her camp now. It still felt strange to call it her camp, but it is. After all these six-days, it was somewhat easier. Meriah still fills my thoughts.

I passed the word to Jay, and she radioed up to the shuttle. The camp was about 130 kilometers from her original camp by the Nelson Sea.

Jay (via radio to the shuttle): “What are you lunatics doing coming down here? Don’t you know that there’s a Bug invasion fleet out there ... headed this way?”

Gabby: “We’re just taking a little r & r break. You know ... we’re entitled to after the trouble with Destiny. We even got permission from the Lieutenant who was the old commander of the Melkov -- and is now in command of it again. Don’t ask me why, but he thinks we’re gonna be okay. He said he’ll be back for us in about six or eight weeks.”

Jay: “Does he think we can walk on water, too?”

Robertson: “I think he’s sweet on you, Jay.”

Jay: “I think he’s sweet on most of the male Marines on board.”

Robertson: “Yeah ... well that, too.”

Jay: “Get off the radio, you clowns. I’ll see you when you land.”

Krayshall sent me a transmission about five hours after the shuttle had landed. He and Shenthra (formerly our youngest at 10 years, but with the coming of the twins, now our middle offspring) had taken to keeping company with Jay almost continuously. Mercahn, our eldest -- now about 17 years old -- spent her time with Merhnah. She was being groomed for some higher post in the matriarchy, and was more comfortable with her aunt.

Kray: ’Dad! Dad!! I think we should do it. It’s neat and we’ll blast ‘em all and probably have a couple of ships to bring home and...”

Me: ’Kray. Have I not told you not to scan the minds of our human friends. It is not polite to do that, any more than you’d scan the mind of Merhnah, or your sisters, or me!’

Kray: ’But I didn’t, dad. I just listened while Jay told her crewmates what her idea was. She was speaking like the humans do -- with her mouth. I just... ‘

Me: ’Well, keep quiet about it, whatever it is. Jay has her reasons for not bringing it up yet. We will honor them.’

Kray: ’But dad! It’s... ‘

Me: ’Do you want to be sitting by the campfire, stirring the vegetables broth for two days?’

Kray: ’No.’

Me: ’Then do as I say. You have the mental skills to do things, but not the discipline or wisdom to know what to do. You will do as I say, or... ‘

Kray: ’Okay. Okay. I understand.’ Now he was sulking. Too bad.

Later, after supper, we were all sitting around our little campfire -- and in this case ‘we’ included all the humans on the planet plus Krayshall and Shenthra. They were the two who I started calling half-human, for all the time they spent with Jay.

Jay: ’Grahhll, I’d like to discuss my little idea with you, if that’s all right.’

Me: ’Go ahead, Jay. I think everybody here knows about it, except me.’

Jay: ’Yeah. I’m sorry about that, but I wanted to see if they thought it was feasible.’

Kray: ’It IS, dad. Wait’ll you hear.’

I gave him a sharp look and he quieted down.

Jay: ’Grahhll, how many sentient creatures do you think you could kill at once?’

I looked around and did a quick scan of everyone at the campfire. They were all waiting for my answer.

Me: ’None. I have never killed a sentient creature. I do not know that I would ever do so. In fact the only non-hexapuma sentient creatures I’ve encountered are the humans who have come here recently.’

Jay: ’You misunderstood. I am not asking for a frivolous purpose. I didn’t mean to ask how many would you kill; I meant how many could you kill.’

I pondered.

Me: ’I suppose that any ninGrahhll could kill everything within his range.’

Jay: ’And your range is greater than any ninGrahhll. What is your range, Grahhll?’

Me: ’I do not truly know. I know that it covers all of this world. It extended out to the point of the collision that Destiny suffered. I did not sense you before that, so that is the extent of it, I suppose.’

Jay: ’No, Grahhll. We were not in the same dimension as you prior to our translation. So your range is limited to this dimension. But it extends to at least 300,000 kilometers. We’ll have to experiment to see what your range truly is.’

Me: ’What’s this all about, Jay?’

Jay: ’My little idea to save Yerowl ... To simplify, you kill the Bugs in their ships before they can get in range to hurl meteors at the planet.’

Me: ’May I scan, Jay?’

Jay: ’Yes, of course. I hold no secrets from you, Grahhll.’

Her plan -- more of a possibility than a plan -- involved getting me within range of the incoming fleet and then killing all the Bugs in their ships.

For the third time since meeting her, she had me speechless. I pondered for a long time. The others around the campfire grew restless, but Jay shushed them with a gesture. She passed a flask of some sort of liquid among the humans, and scratched Krayshall and Shenthra on the back of their necks and they were quiet.

Me: ’That plan might work, but it would mean killing hundreds, perhaps thousands of sentient beings.’

Everyone started talking at once, but again Jay stilled them with a gesture.

Jay: ’Yes, Grahhll, it would mean killing all the Bugs. Perhaps ten thousand of them, maybe more. But you would be saving the lives of all the living things on this planet. All of them. That means you, and your kits, all the hexapumas, all the lesser creatures, even down to the plants.’

Me: ’We have never faced this kind of question in all our history. Perhaps it is easier for us all to die.’ There was another outburst from the others.

Jay: ’Yes, no doubt it would be easier. You could go to your death with an easy conscience. You’d have not killed a sentient. At least you’d not have killed them directly. But the burden of all the deaths of all on this planet would be on you for not trying to save them. You might have saved them all if you acted.

’They have destroyed uncounted worlds in their migration across the galaxy. Billions of sentients have died so that they might live. Could they have stayed on their own world? Who knows. But they chose to be marauders in search of carbon based ‘food.’ That means people like hexapumas, and humans, too -- and others.’

She fell silent. Then suggested verbally that we should all retreat to our sleeping quarters for the night, that we could all think about this.

Humans have a way of looking at problems that is vastly different than the way that we hexapumas do. I am tempted to say the human way is inferior to ours, but then we have not had to deal with things like the Bug invasion before -- they have.

Early the next morning -- before sunrise -- I contacted Merhnah, once I sensed that she was awake.

Me: ’Greetings, Matriarch. It is I, your Grahhll. I beg to speak with you on a matter of importance.’ This was a very formal pattern of speech and was sure to get her attention. She was, after all, my sister-in-law (to use a human term) -- a person I was very familiar with and at ease with.

Merhnah: ’Grahhll, you may speak freely. This you know.’

Me: ’Matriarch, I would be relieved of my office so that you may appoint another as Grahhll.’

Merhnah: ’Why, Grahhll? I know that you have been under the stress of a great sorrow, but you have much to give to the people of Yerowl.’

Me: ’G’hann’lis will be a great Grahhll. Of this I am sure ... I ask to be relieved because I must leave Yerowl to face the enemy that threatens us.’

Merhnah: ’I will add my ninGrahhll to our talk, as this matter concerns him directly.’

Me: ’Certainly, Matriarch.’

Merhnah: ’Will you stop calling me that? I am still Merhnah to you.’

Me: ’Certainly, Matriarch.’ But this time I said it with mirth in my speech.

G’hann’lis: ’I am here ... The Grahhll has spoken to me of his desire to be relieved before, and I told him that I would be honored to take his post two days after never.’