The
Triads are made up of the smallest primate tribe of Humans –two.
The
Triads are made up of the smallest canine pack of Kiiote – six.
The
Triads are made up of the smallest camelid herd of Yown’Hoo – eleven, a prime
number.
On
Earth, there are three Triads – one in the US, one in India and one in China.
Protected
by the Triad Corporation, they intend to integrate not only the three peoples
and stop the war that slaughters Humans and devastates their world, but to stop
the war that consumes Kiiote economy and Yown’Hoo moral fiber (literal in their
case) – and eventually confront the extra-Universe aliens who created the
Interstice.
According
to the best and wisest of the Triad Societies, the Merger of Human-Kiiote-Yown’Hoo
into a Congenic will produce a stable construct capable of incredible
expansion, creativity, longevity...and wealth – for it seems that it is the
Three alone who inhabit the Milky Way, though unknown to them, there is another
called the Hive which must complete the Triad – hold it if you will.
Earth-Free
Activists plan to blow up one of the Nurseries – places where the Yown’Hoo and
Kiiote can actually breed and the young survive far from their homeworlds. One
such is south of Winnipeg on the Canadian Prairies. It falls to the North
American Triad to move to stop them without letting them know that they have
been betrayed...or discover that Humans know that the entire Milky Way has been
betrayed.
‘Shayla, the only other Human in the Triad and
who is sometimes my girlfriend, stared at me.
“What do you mean by that? Why
would the Kiiote and Yown’Hoo shoot up Earth? They birth and raise their kids here!”
I shook my head. “That doesn’t
matter! They’ve been fighting each other since Cortes committed La Noche Triste on the Aztecs – they aren’t
likely to stop just because we made the Triads.”
“But they signed the treaties not
to fight on Earth!”
“Humans have broken enough treaties
in their civilized life to know perfectly well how easy they are to smash and
bash – and exactly how sincere they were when they first made them.” I let the
implication hang. “Why would they be any different than us?” The bus traveling
along a programmed route. Especially because we were in it. We were important
and it was supposed to avoid the worst parts of the city. If the program messed
up, the Human driver was supposed to take over.
Something smacked against the wide
window of the bus. Suddenly we were surrounded by a silvery bubble. The driver
screamed as she was automatically stunned. The rest of us were grabbed by
robotic arms in the seats we’d been sitting in, dragged into them and locked
down. The bus sped up, turning abruptly and throwing us into the belts. Seconds
later, it slowed down and came to a stop. The bubble flickered then the doors
snapped open, slammed shut then snapped open again.
Qil and Fax, the beta female and
male of our Kiiote pack, leaped from their seats, one going to the front door,
the other to the middle door, but not exiting.
Standing in the center of the bus, Dao-hi,
the Herd mother – even though she was barely older than me but had five kids
who were immatures – swung her llama head back and forth. The Middles – males
Zei-go, Seg-go and Ai-gol and the female fighters Lan-mai and Ked-sah boxed
Dao-hi and the immatures in with their butts.
After worming my way around her, I
headed for the front while ‘Shayla headed for the back.
“We’re probably in front of the
Dome,” ‘Shayla said.
“We hope you’re right,” Dao-hi
said.
I went down the steps. It was dark
and starry. Fax followed me. Qilthebitch followed ‘Shayla. Humans always went
first. We use to think it was because the Kiiote and the Yown’Hoo thought they
were better than us. One night they told us that Human physical flexibility and
a mythic penchant for attracting individual luck – good or bad. Humans were in
always led the Triads – or the few other places Herd, Pack and Tribe attempted to
cooperate.
We weren’t the only interspecies
attempt at working together – we were just the most successful.
Nothing happened except the bus abruptly
powered down. ‘Shayla was standing at the far end of the but with Qil. The rest
of the Pack followed a moment later, then the fighting Herd. Lan-mai said, “She-neh.”
Fax said, “Yoo-yeh *tail twitch*.”
I said, “What smells wrong, though?
What kind of wrong?” The Human sense of smell was pitiful next to that of Herd
and Pack – so we deferred to them in that.
“Food,” said Fax.
“Death,” said Lan-mai.
“Crap,” I said. We were in a bad
part of the city. It had been bad before the Annexation of Humanity and the
Birthing Treaties – both of them made in secret with different Human
governments.
My mom had warned me about North
Minneapolis.
The sound of lots of Human voices –
‘Shayla and I looked at each other. Some of the voices were angry and they drifted
to us on the warm night air.
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