The Cold War between the Kiiote and the Yown’Hoo has
become a shooting war. On Earth, there
are three Triads one each in Minneapolis, Estados United; Pune, India; and
Harbin, China. Protected by the Triad Corporation, they intend 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. The Yown’Hoo know about the
extra-Universe Braider, aliens whose own “civil war” mirrors the Cold War. The
Braiders accidentally created a resonance wave that will destroy the Milky Way
and the only way to stop it is to physically construct a sort of membrane. The
Braiders don’t DO physical stuff on that scale – the Yown’Hoo-Kiiote-Human
Triads may be their only chance of creating a solution. The merger of
Human-Kiiote-Yown’Hoo into a van der Walls Society may produce a stability
capable of launching incredible expansion, creativity, longevity and wealth –
and building the Membrane to stop the wave.
The young experimental Triads are made up of the
smallest primate tribe of Humans –two; the smallest canine pack of Kiiote –
six; and the smallest camelid herd of Yown’Hoo – a prime eleven. 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. Grendl, Manitoba is one such place. No one
but the Triad Company has ever heard of it and the physical plant goes by the
unobtrusive name of Organic Prairie Dairy.
The Triads never hear of anything they aren’t spoon fed
in their luxury worlds and have heard only rumors of the farms and ranches. Surrounded
by a Humanity that has degenerated into a “duck-and-cover” society as the Big
Boys fight their war, they don’t care about anything but their own lives.
Oblivious, cocooned, manipulated, they have no idea that their privileges are
about to be violently curtailed and all of their biology ransacked for the
correct Membrane pattern.
“Why north?” Lieutenant Commander Patrick Bakhsh, retired
asked.
I shook my head, “I’m not entirely sure, but a long time
ago, my teacher had me memorize a map on a tablet computer. I pissed and moaned
and asked why. He just told me to memorize because someday, Humans might not
have access to computers and I might want to go somewhere.”
“You didn’t think to ask any more questions?”
“I was ten years old. Not having computer access was all
that caught my attention.”
Patrick snorted and said, “I can see why that you’d notice
that . Must have scared you.”
“Scared me? I laughed out loud – like I did when I was four
and a different teacher told me the ‘Why did the chicken cross the road?’ joke.
The idea of being cut off from the Web was a joke.”
“You ain’t laughin’ now, kid.”
I nodded, “I ain’t ‘kid’, either, I’m Car.”
“Like ‘beep beep’?”
“No, that’s Road Runner.”
Lieutenant Commander Patrick Bakhsh, retired, guffawed,
clapped me on the shoulder and said, “Perfect! I’ll call you Road Runner from
now on!” He jostled me into the house, closing and locking the door behind us.
He went to a keyboard and small screen mounted near the door and tapped in a
long string of numbers and letters. The screen glowed a baleful red.
“You have security here?”
“I used to be in the Marines. I retired six months before
they were vaporized in the Yucatan Action.”
I nodded. I’d even heard of that. Humans sided with the
Kiiote in an attempt to stop a major Yown’Hoo landing – they were going to
establish a beachhead on Earth to attack Kiiote drilling operations in the Gulf
of Mexico.
Together with the Kiiote, Humans stopped them, driving them
back into orbit.
Then the Kiiote withdrew from the peninsula suddenly,
leaving their erstwhile allies behind. The Yown’Hoo used a massive weapon they’d
never used before. The crater that remained after the KT Event in Chicxulub,
Mexico – you know the one that pushed the extinction of the dinosaurs into high
gear? – was now on the Island of Yucatan... The ancestors of my Herd Mother,
Dao-Hi had disintegrated an area that was a hundred klicks across, centered
exactly on Parque Nacional de Laguna del Tigre – and happened to include two battalions
of Marines and Army.
“Oh,” I replied. “Sorry.”
“You weren’t born yet, Road Runner.”
We entered the living room just as Shayla came clomping up
the stairs, shaking her head. She looked at the retired Marine strangely and
said, “Did you used to have a kennel down there?”
“Yeah. Raised mixed-blood Golden Retrievers.”
“Aren’t you supposed to raise pure-bred dogs?”
He shrugged as he racked the shotgun he’d been carrying. “I
raised dogs for hunting, not show. Purebreds tend to be too skittish and prone
to hereditary problems. I mix compatible breeds – other purebreds, usually – to
give me strong ‘Mutts’.”
The Herd Mother whistled a query and asked, “Define ‘mutts’.”
Patrick laughed, shook his head and sat down, “Time for
fluff later. We have to figure out how to get you out of town.”
Shayla glared at him, crossed her arms over her chest and
said, “You aren’t the boss of us!”
The light-heartedness vanished. “You want me to just put you
back out on the street?”
“We can take care of ourselves,” she began.
Patrick made a hand motion and one of the walls – the whole
freakin’ thing! – lit up with a scene from outside our home. He boosted the
volume as a reported spoke and BBC America scrolled across the bottom, “This is
Cyprian Ashimolowo reporting to you live from in front of the former
Minneapolis Vikidome Sports Complex and Entertainment Center. It has just been
reported that Human terrorists exploded a bomb inside the Hubert H. Humphrey
Replica Metrodome. Casualty reports are uncertain at this time, but local
wechat twitter is reporting that two Human teens as well as several Yown’Hoo
and Kiiote tourists were killed inside. North American Criminal Apprehension Bureau
authorities are on the scene investigating and we will bring you the latest breaking news. Now back to
your regularly scheduled LiveFeed.”
Lieutenant Commander Patrick Bakhsh, retired look at me and
Shayla, then over at the eleven in the Yown’Hoo her as they settled in an open
corner away from the windows. He looked at Shay and said, “So, Missy, you
plannin’ on holding your own funerals then?” He held up a finger, “Oh, and how
will you be explaining the loss of a hoof of Yown’Hoo, a paw of Kiiote, and a
passle of young’uns like you and your boyfriend?”
Shay opened her mouth, then closed it.
I have to comment here that that is the first time I have
ever seen her speechless. I should also mention that in seeing that, I was
terrified.
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