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)
Nathaniel Wallace, the kid holding the stunner, said, “Dad’s
sleeping. Why are you here?”
I took a deep breath, feeling better than I had since
leaving Triad HQ back in Minneapolis and said, “Retired Lieutenant
Commander Patrick Bakhsh…” I didn’t get to talk anymore, because Nathaniel
shot me with his stunner again.
When I woke up, my hands were tied behind my back and I was
laying on my side. At least he didn’t want me to choke to death on any bile I
managed to throw up once the waves of stunner recovery started. He leaned
forward and pressed the stunner to my chin and said, “If I shoot at this range,
the beam will literally scramble your brain, causing it to short out, causing
irreparable brain damage. If you’re lucky, you’ll be dead. If you’re unlucky,
you’ll be a tube-fed, space-staring remnant of what you are now.”
I managed, “What am I now?”
“A prisoner of war.”
“Whose war? You working for the Yown’Hoo or the Kiiote?” He
growled, so I said, “Got it, the Kiiote.”
“I don’t work for aliens! I’m working for Humans!”
I snorted. I couldn’t help it. “So am I.”
“The traitor Bakhsh…”
I would have jumped to my feet if my hands had been free and
I wasn’t suffering from stunner sickness. As it was, I probably looked more like
a teenager rising from the dead by the look on Nathaniel’s face. I bellowed, “He’s
a great hero! He’s trying to bring peace on Earth!”
“He’s turning us over…”
I opened my mouth to argue and threw up. I think Xio called
it ‘projectile vomiting’ once when I got a bad case of gastroenteritis. Only
this was mostly acid and bile. Nathaniel cussed and skittered backwards. I fell
into a heap on the floor and I don’t remember much after that. When I did wake
up, Nathaniel was hovering over me and said, “You had a seizure. I didn’t mean…”
“What did you mean that Retired’s a traitor? Who told you
that? He’s helped us from the beginning escape the fighting down in the Cities!
He saved our whole Triad’s lives when somebody burned down my family’s farm…” Then
all of a sudden I was weeping, not just crying, I was sobbing so hard I couldn’t
breathe. Nathaniel reached behind me and took off the handcuffs or whatever he’d
put there to tie me up. I wanted to strangle him; pound his face, but I couldn’t
do anything but lay there and bawl like a baby. When that calmed down, I
started to babble, “Who the fuck do you think you are accusing one of the
greatest men on Earth of being a traitor? You’re the traitor! He’s a hero! He’s
my hero!” Then I was sobbing again. After a while, I dragged my sleeve across
my face, wiping away the snot.
“Listen…” Nathaniel began.
I rolled over and muttered another vulgarity. I hated words
like that. Retired once said that using them was a crutch. It meant I couldn’t
hold up my end of a discussion and I was trying to distract the person I was
arguing with from my stupid beliefs. He once told me that using vulgar words
proved that I’d lost the ability to reason. The word ‘vulgar’ meant it was a word
common, low, or uncultured people use. He’d
told all of us that we were none of those things. The Triad was a hope for the
nearly trillion intelligent beings making up all Humans, Kiiote, and Yown’Hoo. “We’re
the hope of intelligent life in the universe.”
“Who is?”
I sat up slowly, looked up at the bully, and said, “You’ve
never met Bakhsh, have you?”
“I don’t need to…”
“I don’t need to…”
I cut him off, “Because if you did, you’d have to make a
decision for yourself and not just parrot what you’ve been told. Who told you Lieutenant
Commander Patrick Bakhsh was a traitor?”
“It’s common knowledge.”
I slowly stood up, looked around the room, “Looks like you’re
the only person around here. Among whom is it common knowledge?”
“Everybody!”
He walked – limped, actually – around the room, fighting
down the urge to barf my empty stomach out again. “There doesn’t appear to be
anyone else in this room. You’re telling me that not only are you the only
source of information here, you haven’t bothered to do any research to find out
what other people think.”
“I’ve done all the research I need to! Bakhsh is a traitor!”
“I disagree,” I said, staring at him. I ruined my solid
attack by swaying and spreading my legs farther apart to steady myself.
“Your opinion doesn’t matter!”
“Why?”
“Why?”
He stared at me, sputtered, looked down at the ground, then
looked up again. “You don’t know him like I know him.”
“He raised me,” I said. “In every way he’s been my mentor,
my…if not father, my surrogate grandfather. He’s been like a grandfather to all…”
Nathaniel turned away, then turned back to me, “I’m glad he
was a grandfather to someone, because he’s never been the grandfather he should
have been to me. He IS my grandfather.”
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