Alien Skies, page 16
part #3 of Wakanreo Series
“She spent three years in Security there. Came with a great write-up from her last boss.”
“What training base?” Kamuhi asked.
Instead of answering, the Lieutenant pointed toward the door with his chin. “That’s her.”
Kamuhi turned and had a flash of recognition. “Barker!”
The Terran woman stood in the doorway, her red security sash across her uniform. Her face lit up when she saw Kamuhi, but it froze again when she saw Prouhdhum. She came to attention and saluted.
The Miloran returned the salute. “Relax, Sergeant. It looks like you’ve got a friend on base.”
Barker turned to Kamuhi and grinned. “What are you doing here, Hailoaka? Did you wash out of OPI or something?”
Kamuhi shook his head. “On the contrary, I finished early. I’m the Liaison Officer here. I’m in Admin now.”
“We let him hang around anyway,” Prouhdhum said. “Tossing him around the room gives us something to do when it’s slow.”
“Couldn’t keep away from Security, huh, Hailoaka?” Barker said. “Guhlhan would be proud. He was awful sorry to see you go. After you left, he muttered for weeks about how unfair it was.”
“He was a damn good teacher,” Kamuhi said.
“Let’s see how good he was,” Prouhdhum said. “Wilohuan, you’re with Barker.”
The other Miloran nodded. Barker removed her boots, her sash, and her uniform jacket, and did a quick warm up. When she was ready, she took her place on one side of the mat, and Wilohuan stood on the other.
“This should be interesting,” Prouhdhum said.
Kamuhi grinned. “My money’s on Barker.”
The Miloran tapped his teeth with one finger. “What’s the bet?”
Kamuhi thought about it. “If Barker takes him down first, you have to give me a free shot. If Wilohuan throws her first, you can take one at me.”
The Miloran snorted. “A Terran woman dropping a Miloran Wilohuan’s size?” he said incredulously. “I’ll give you three free shots if she can do that.”
“It’s a bet,” said Kamuhi.
Barker and Wilohuan were circling. Barker made some tentative moves but backed off from them. Prouhdhum smiled, but Kamuhi wasn’t worried. He knew it was Barker’s way of sizing up Wilohuan’s ability to move left and right in response to her attack.
She took her time. Wilohuan tried some moves on her, but she had no trouble avoiding him. Prouhdhum grunted in appreciation. “She’s very quick.”
Kamuhi grinned. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
As if she had been waiting for that as a signal, Barker made her move. She darted in on Wilohuan’s left and rolled to the floor behind him, hooking one of his legs with her arm. Wilohuan lost his balance and went down just as she came out of her crouch and stood up.
Kamuhi and Prouhdhum applauded. Wilohuan got to his feet a little sheepishly.
The Lieutenant shook his head. “That was a great move, but I don’t know that it counts as a throw.”
“If you’ll recall,” Kamuhi pointed out, “I said ‘if she takes him down first’.”
Prouhdhum shrugged his shoulders and admitted defeat. He took his place in the middle of the mat with his back to them while Kamuhi planned his moves. The Terran stood at the edge of the mat taking deep breaths. Then he coiled himself into a spiral, whirled across the room and struck the Miloran at full tilt in the side. Prouhdhum wavered but held firm. Kamuhi was out of breath from the shock of the impact.
Barker watched and shook her head. “If he gave you enough shots,” she said in disgust, “you could kill yourself, Hailoaka.”
Prouhdhum was taking his position again. He frowned at this comment. “Assisting the enemy is treason on this base, Sergeant.”
“Yes, sir,” Barker said. She smiled at Kamuhi but said nothing more.
Kamuhi considered his next move. He decided to try the direct approach, and walked up to Prouhdhum, grabbed an ankle and lifted with all his strength. Prouhdhum’s foot never left the floor.
Kamuhi stood bent over and panting from the effort. He noticed Barker leaning down slightly, brushing the back of her calf with her hand as if she were brushing away a bit of lint. She smiled meaningfully, and Kamuhi nodded.
He moved behind Prouhdhum and took his time catching his breath. The Miloran had braced himself, feet a little apart, hands at his sides. Kamuhi knew that whatever he did, Prouhdhum would not lift a hand to stop him. He would simply stand there and absorb whatever force Kamuhi could throw at him.
Kamuhi walked within a half a meter of Prouhdhum’s back and paused. He concentrated, visualizing what he would do, and then he struck. He jumped into the air as high as he could and came down with both feet aimed at the back of Prouhdhum’s right calf. The Miloran’s right leg buckled and he went down on one knee. Kamuhi bounced off of him and hit the floor hard.
Prouhdhum had fallen forward on both hands to stop himself from hitting the mat. He got up before Kamuhi, and turned to offer the Terran a hand. Kamuhi was too dizzy to take it, so the Miloran simply grabbed him under the arms and hoisted him to his feet.
“Congratulations,” Prouhdhum said. “That’s as close as a Terran has ever come to getting me down.”
“What do you mean close?” Kamuhi croaked. “I had you.”
Prouhdhum grinned. “Sure. Don’t give me a bad time, or I might let go.”
He waited until Kamuhi could stand and then helped him to a bench. “Maybe you’d better stick to practicing with Barker for a while, Kam?”
Kamuhi was feeling better. He laughed and shook his head. “Don’t do me any favors, Prouh. She’s come close to killing me lots of times.”
Prouhdhum called Barker over to the mat and proceeded to do a thorough job of checking out her skills. They were actually well matched. The Miloran was much bigger and she wasn’t able to take him down, but she was quicker and he couldn’t take her down either.
After she succeeded in breaking free of his hold, Prouhdhum grunted in approval and called a halt.
“You’ll do,” he said. “Wilohuan,” he called to the other Miloran, “show Barker where she can get cleaned up and then show her the rest of the office. Make sure she’s checked out on the all the systems.”
Prouhdhum turned to Kamuhi. “Your Lieutenant Guhlhan must be a very good teacher indeed. She’s amazing for a Terran female. Much better than you.”
Kamuhi laughed again. “I’d like to chalk it all up to the fact that she’s had a lot more practice, but I have to admit that natural ability probably counts for more.”
Prouhdhum shook his head. “You could be as good or better if you practiced every day. You have a lot more height and weight than she does, and you’re almost as quick.”
Kamuhi felt his shoulder where it had hit the floor. “If I lived, you mean.”
It was Prouhdhum’s turn to laugh. He slapped Kamuhi lightly on the back, and went off to get cleaned up himself.
Kamuhi was off duty for the whole day, so he went home to give Yulayan a break with Malia.
“Hello, sweetheart,” he called as he came in the door.
Yulayan was in the kitchen. “We’re in here,” she called back.
Kamuhi came in and gave his wife a quick kiss. Malia was sitting at the table drawing pictures on her monitor. She didn’t even look up when her father kissed the top of her head. When Kamuhi looked down, he was amazed to see that she had drawn a very life-like picture of a guisha. It was a little awkwardly posed; Kamuhi doubted that a guisha could really stand quite that way, but it was clearly recognizable. Raji’s daughter had a pet guisha, and it was a favorite of all the children on base.
“That’s a great picture, sweetheart,” Kamuhi said. “Did you draw it by yourself?”
Malia nodded, and Yulayan concurred. “I didn’t touch it, Kam” she said. “Not that I can draw, anyway. Can Terran children draw that well at her age?”
Kamuhi considered the question. “I’m pretty sure most of them can’t. I can sketch a little, and my mother used to draw and paint a lot. My sister Greta used to, also. But I don’t think any of us started this young. I know I didn’t.”
Malia ignored them both and concentrated on her drawing. She was very carefully drawing the guisha’s whiskers. She held the stylus firmly in her left hand and drew precise lines, six on each side of the guisha’s face.
“She’s going to be left handed,” Kamuhi observed.
Yulayan shook her head. “Not necessarily. She keeps changing back and forth. She used both hands in drawing that picture.”
When Malia was satisfied with the drawing, her mother printed it for her. The little girl took the picture off to study it. She was chattering to herself about the guisha and how she liked to play with it.
“I’m finished with my workout,” Kamuhi said. “If you need a break, I can watch Malia.”
“No thanks,” Yulayan said. “I’m too wound up. Now that I’ve submitted my dissertation, I’m suddenly nervous about it. I need something to keep me occupied. How did it go? I don’t see any broken bones.”
This mention of working out reminded Kamuhi about Barker.
“Fine,” he said. “Tanaka’s been rotated out, though. Guess who replaced him?”
“I haven’t got a clue,” Yulayan said. “Who?”
“Barker.”
“Barker, the black-haired Terran woman from New Iberia?”
Kamuhi nodded. “Yup. I couldn’t believe it when she walked in the door.”
“Why don’t you invite her for dinner,” Yulayan said. “Cooking for company will give me something to do, and it’ll give you a chance to talk with her.”
“All right,” said Kamuhi. “I’ll go back over in a little bit and see if she wants to come.”
Barker had finished her work when Kamuhi showed up at the Security Office. She was watching Wilohuan and Prouhdhum spar. Prouhdhum had just thrown Wilohuan to the floor when Kamuhi arrived. He could feel the floor shake.
“It’s like the giants battling in the old stories my mother used to tell me when I was small,” Kamuhi said.
Barker nodded. “Milorans are so big they tend to end up in Security a lot. It helps when you have one on your side—especially if there’s one on the other side.”
Kamuhi thought about the Miloran drunk on his first security call back in New Iberia. “I know what you mean. How was Jasoahn when you left, anyway? Was she still there?”
Barker smiled happily. “That’s right! You left before Jasoahn got her orders. You don’t know what happened.”
“What happened? Did she ship out?”
“She got orders for shipboard duty. A heavy cruiser I think it was. She didn’t go, though.”
Kamuhi couldn’t believe it. “What? Jasoahn was ThreeCon all the way. I can’t believe she’d refuse an order.”
“She didn’t exactly. Walk with me over to my quarters, and I’ll tell you what happened.”
Kamuhi remembered his errand. “Yulayan wanted you to come for dinner. She’s a good cook if you want to try some Wakanrean food.”
“Sure,” Barker said. “Just let me get my gear.”
She picked up a bag and slung it over her shoulder. “Your wife is Wakanrean, isn’t she?” she said as they walked. “I remember meeting her once, and when I landed in Wisuta yesterday, I made the connection. I’d never seen a Wakanrean before except for your wife.”
“She’s actually half Terran and half Wakanrean,” Kamuhi said. “She’s one of the few Wakanreans who’ve ever left the planet. They’re pretty insular. They’ve only been in ThreeCon for about sixty years.”
“There seem to be a lot of Terrans on Wakanreo. Wisuta was crawling with them.”
Kamuhi shook his head. “Not planet-wide. The Terrans tend to stay in the capital and a few of the larger cities. In Yiangliun you won’t see many at all.”
“How about other non-Terrans?”
“A few, but again, mostly in bigger cities like Wisuta. Although I do have a team of four Miloran cultural anthropologists staying in Yiangliun right now. They’re working on a long-term project and they wanted to get away from the capital because it’s so full of outside influences. They’ve been here several months already.”
“What does a liaison officer do, anyway?” Barker asked.
Kamuhi smiled. “It’s a little like babysitting. Any non-Wakanrean visitor who wants to come through this part of the planet—and that covers a lot of territory—has to get cleared through my office. I make sure they’re aware of all local regulations and customs, check up on them from time to time, and I give any help they need in finding what they’re looking for.”
“What are the four Milorans looking for?”
“Right now they’re hoping to see lightning strike.”
Barker looked up at him. “Why are social scientists studying lightning?”
Kamuhi was apologetic. “Sorry, I was being facetious. They’ve been studying a unique Wakanrean phenomenon called shahgunrah. They’re hoping to see an actual occurrence of it.”
“What’s shahgunrah?”
“It’s a kind of mating,” Kamuhi said. “Do you remember being told you’d need an inoculation before you landed here on Wakanreo?”
Barker nodded. “Sure. All the Terrans got them.”
“The reason we Terrans need that inoculation is that Wakanreans don’t chose a spouse or marry in the same way that we do, or other species, either. They undergo a biochemical process. When two unmated people with compatible pheromones get close to each other, it happens. They have no choice about it at all. And we Terrans are close enough in our biochemistry that we could set it off without ever feeling a thing. The inoculation stops us from producing the pheromones that could set off shahgunrah in a Wakanrean.”
“So that’s what you mean about lightning. It just hits them, and that’s that?”
“Pretty much.”
Barker shook her head. “What if the other person turns out to be a real slime ball?”
Kamuhi nodded. “That’s a problem. Shahgunrah doesn’t come with any guarantees about the quality of your mate at all—not age or gender or anything. The only guarantee is, it lasts for life unless you have it surgically stopped.”
“It sounds scary.”
“It is, in a way.” Kamuhi decided to change the subject before the discussion got too personal. “You were going to tell me about Jasoahn,” he reminded her.
Barker grinned. “That’s right. You really missed something good, Hailoaka.”
“What?”
“Well,” Barker said, “Jasoahn got her orders. She was in the training area when she got the word. Lieutenant Guhlhan came out and gave her the envelope. He gave her a little six word speech, very gruff, about how much we’d all miss her and then he turned around and marched back into his office.
“Jasoahn stood there looking after him for just a second. She tore open the envelope, glanced at the orders as if they were nothing—threw them to the floor in fact—and then she marched over to Guhlhan’s door and opened it without knocking. We could hear an explosion of wrath from Guhlhan, and then she slammed the door shut. It seemed like they were in there forever—an hour at least. We could hear a noise occasionally, like someone was moving the furniture around, but that was all. Finally, when we were just about to die from curiosity—the door opened and Jasoahn came out.”
Barker grinned as she remembered the event. “Have you ever seen a Terran cat stalk something—a bird or a mouse? Once it’s caught it, the cat gets a very satisfied look on its face. It’s a look that says ‘I wanted it, and I got it.’ That’s what Jasoahn looked like.”
“But what had she got?”
“Guhlhan! She’d been in love with him for ages, but she didn’t want to do or say anything while she was under his command. Once she got her orders, she just went in and told him how she felt. Turned out he felt the same way. In fact, he’d been sitting on her orders for days because he hated to see her go. Finally, he gave up and gave them to her.”
“Good for Jasoahn,” Kamuhi said with a smile. “She deserves to be happy.”
“Oh, she looked happy, all right. Her tunic was wrong side out.”
Kamuhi burst out laughing. “So they weren’t moving furniture after all?”
“Well, not on purpose, anyway.”
Kamuhi laughed again. “I’m sorry I missed it. How about Guhlhan?”
“He looked pretty happy, too,” Barker said. “His clothes were all on straight, but he didn’t slam the door for days. He and Jasoahn went over to the registry office the very next day and registered as a married couple. Married couples who are both in ThreeCon get special consideration. ThreeCon changed her orders, and now she’s working in the Security Office at Training Base Gamma. She has quite a commute every morning, but she doesn’t seem to mind.”
Kamuhi was still chuckling when they got to his apartment.
“What’s so funny?” Yulayan asked.
Kamuhi told her about Jasoahn and Lieutenant Guhlhan.
Yulayan smiled, too. “She seemed very nice the time she brought you home, Kam.”
This made Barker laugh as she recalled how little Miloran whiskey it had taken to take Kamuhi out of action.
Kamuhi shook his head. “I can’t believe people actually drink that stuff willingly. Aside from the fact that it knocks you for a loop, it tastes incredibly foul.”
They sat down to a dinner of juija soup and a vegetable casserole. Barker was very taken with Malia.
“She’s such a sweet child,” she said. “And she speaks so well for such a little one. How old is she?”
Yulayan had to stop and count. “She’s almost two in Wakanrean years. She had her first Terran birthday while we were on New Iberia.”
Barker chuckled. “She gets two birthdays? That’s every child’s dream.”
Yulayan smiled. “Actually, most Wakanreans don’t make much fuss over birthdays. We only do it so she’ll remember she’s both Wakanrean and Terran.”
“Did your parents do that for you when you were growing up?” Barker asked.
“Yes,” Yulayan said. “It was one of the few things my mother did to preserve a Terran influence—except for kissing. She always kissed us good night every night. And of course, she made a point to speak Standard to us most of the time.”
