January 18, 2019

LOVE IN A TIME OF ALIEN INVASION: CHAPTER 100 The Trials of Team Four – 5


On Earth, there are three Triads intending to integrate not only the three peoples and stop the war that threatens to break loose and slaughter Humans and devastate their world; but to stop the war that consumes Kiiote economy and Yown’Hoo moral fiber. All three intelligences hover on the edge of extinction. The merger of Human-Kiiote-Yown’Hoo into a van der Walls Society might not only save all three – but become something not even they could predict. Something entirely new...

The young experimental Triads are made up of the smallest primate tribe of Humans – Oscar and Xiomara; the smallest canine pack of Kiiote – six, pack leaders Qap and Xurf; and the smallest camelid herd of Yown’Hoo – a prime eleven, Dao-hi the Herd mother. On nursery farms and ranches away from the TC cities, Humans have tended young Yown’Hoo and Kiiote in secret for decades, allowing the two, warring people to reproduce and grow far from their home worlds.

“We had nearly fallen into stagnation when we encountered the Kiiote.”
“And we into internecine war when we encountered the Yown’Hoo.”
 “Yown’Hoo and Kiiote have been defending themselves for a thousand revolutions of our Sun.”
 “Together, we might do something none of us alone might have done…a destiny that included Yown’Hoo, Kiiote, and Human.” (2/19/2015)

From a pine and oak wood, burst an immense white-tailed buck, sixteen points of stone-hard, twisted antler bone. He led his harem that came after him, a thundering animal herd that, for whatever reason, stirred Dao-hi’s blood, reacting to the buck as if it were a powerful female. She wanted to follow them and crouched to leap.

An instant later, what she thought at first was a deformed Earth deer followed the animal herd.

Suddenly she realized what it was and froze. The potential and the immature dropped to the cold, frozen ground. The elderly Yown’Hoo, its long fur dragging over the snow, looked at her then strode, every step difficult, stiffly, the sound of the fur across the snow a faint hiss. Either she was decrepit or moved with studied dignity. For a moment, Dao-hi stared, unable to decide which way the creature was moving. The air was curiously clear, devoid of scent. Dao-hi’s decision flipped back and forth until the bass voice of a Herd Mother, deeper than any voice she’d heard on Earth or in recordings, said, “Daughter. Your presence is long-awaited. Welcome at long, long last.” The scent of authority abruptly swirled in the air between them. The others rolled onto their sides as if they’d been struck dead.

Dao-hi stepped back, then forced herself forward and said, “You are clearly a Great Mother, and I acknowledge your authority, but I…I…have questions.” Startled because she’d never before felt – much less exhibited – such a confusion of senses.

The Great Mother shook herself, but so slowly, it was like a groundquake rolled through her body, threatening and comforting at the same time.

“I am Ji-Hi.”

Dao-hi’s knees went weak and trembled. She locked the joints, and it was the only thing that prevented her from falling to the ground in a quivering heap. She managed a hoarse whisper, “You cannot be Ji-Hi.”

“And yet, I am.”

“The Mother of All would be ten thousand years old!”

“And I am, child.”

“I am not a child in your sight, I am an egg!” She fell to her forward knees.

The tentacle the Mother of All pulled from its sheathe was leathery, dark, and deeply wrinkled. She lifted the fingers at its tip toward Dao-hi and slowly unfurled them. The Earth-born and raised Yown’Hoo had seen Humans who had aged this much look as haggard, but never one of her own kind. In fact, she had rarely seen Yown’Hoo older than herself. The Mother of All said, “I am not entirely ten thousand of the Earth years old, DNA.” She shuddered in gentle laughter. “My parts have been regrown and replaced many times, though this mind has indeed experienced ten thousand years of events.”

“But how…”

“I do not remember events as you or your Human and Kiiote partners remember. For one as old as I, memories are stored in tight coils of DNA then packed in cells that rarely die,” she lifted  hoof and bowed her head to show a crown of bone.

Dao-hi’s voice was a whisper, “A Crown of Wisdom?” She paused, “I thought that was myth?”

“Stolen from the echoes, it gives me memory of what must be done. It is the reason the Triads were formed. In time, the Triads will absorb echoes, conjures, and Human demons alike – the worst into the best. That, my daughter, is the Plan that will save all three, weaving us into a civilization strong enough to stand against the Chaos.”


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