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 that
will produce a canceling wave – generated from the rim of the Galaxy inward.
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 city 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, the Triads 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. (update: 5/2/2014)
Lieutenant Commander Patrick Bakhsh (ret) burst out laughing
and jumped out of the truck.
“What’s so funny?” I cried after him, then scrambled to
follow.
A moment later something rolled out of the darkness. I had
no idea what it was, but Commander Bakhsh ran up to it and pounded on the door.
“The man is insane,” I said.
The rumbling dropped off a bit and I finally got a good look
at the thing. At the back was a cylinder with a wide pipe sticking out of its
top. Steam floated from it, hissing like it was water on a hot pan – I’m the
group chef, so I’ve cooked since I was a little kid – and it rode on a flat
bed, barely clearing the ceiling of the parking garage. It rode on six tires,
rubber, but with spoked wheels. The forward part of the thing was split between
a pilot’s seat that could be covered with some sort of top, and a box behind it
that looked to be a little lower the one everyone was riding in. By ‘pilot
seat’, I mean it was a contraption that looked like it could be bent and folded
to accommodate a Human, Kiiote, or Yown’Hoo driver. From the box a ramp
suddenly stuck out like a tongue and a Herd mother and a Kiiote with so much
gray fur it looked white loped and clattered down.
Painted on the side, under the silhouette of a white barn on
a dark green field, were the words, ORGANIC PRAIRIE FARMS.
Commander Bakhsh went from the Human pilot to the other two
and greed them, sniffing the Kiiote’s backside and letting it do the same to
him; and butting heads with the Herd mother. He looked back at me and said,
“Let everyone out.”
“What?”
He laughed, the Kiiote yipped, and the Herd mother rolled
her head back then spat on the floor. They all must have thought I was the
Commander’s court jester. Blushing furiously, I ran to the back of the truck
and opened the doors, grabbing the handle that would pull the ramp out.
Instead, I found myself staring up at a mad Human girl, a couple of snarling
Kiiote pack leaders, and an irritated Herd mother and a salivating, horny Herd
father. I held up both hands, cleared my throat, and shook my booty to calm
them down. I said, “I didn’t have anything to do with this!”
Kashayla jumped down and grabbed the ramp handle from me,
glaring as she extended it and almost dropped it on my feet. “You’ve been
stupid before, Oscar, but this time? I think you get a new prize.”
“What did I do?” I tried to say. I hate it when I whine.
Qap and Xurf had both rearranged their form to quadruped and
said, “You are by far the stupidest Human we have ever met. We will never get
that wretched stench out of our nostrils!” Xurf raised a leg to mark me, but I
dodged. A moment later, they both stretched up into their bipedal forms. It’s
creepy to watch, but I can never help myself as they crouched as one, shoulders
down, tails in the air. Pushing up from the ground, they stood and I could see
bones moving under fur and muscle. Each one straightened its neck with a snap,
shrugging the shoulders back at the same time stretching the arms out straight
at me, wriggling four skinny fingers. Two others unfolded from farther up the
forearm. Long-clawed, they were opposable and matched with two fingers each.
Chest muscles stretched tighter and the neck appeared more rigidly held than a
Human one, tilting the head and neck forward where it swung side-to-side, nostrils
on the muzzle twitching. The facial skin pulled tighter, stretching the lips
back to reveal a carnivore’s teeth and more of the orbis of the eye.
In the rear
legs, end toes splayed widely forward, ankle and lower leg straightened to lock
into a tibia-fibula arrangement. The upper leg and pelvis flared, but the upper
leg remained forward bent rather than Human vertical, giving both of them the
impression of coiled springs.
There were
no external genitalia I could see, but I knew that made babies like Humans do.
But all of them suddenly started snorffling in excitement.
Dao-hi was dignified as usual, but I felt more snubbed by
her than by any of the rest of them. Especially after she kicked Nah-hi in the
face when he started pawing her – it’s what Herd males do when they get
nervous. They want to have sex. The opposite of me, though I’m pretty sure I’ll
have to be a Catholic celibate the rest of my natural life. At least the way
things are going right now. Dao-hi though, abruptly lifted her head and instead
of spitting, sniffed the air and let her eyes go terror-wide.
Me and Shay had to scramble out of the way while the Herd
and Pack stampeded through us. By the time we reached them at the foot of the
car-thing, Qap and Xurf’s Pack were laying on the floor, bellies up in front of
the white-haired Kiiote. Dao-hi and her Herd were kneeling at the feet and
leaning on the legs of the almost black Herd matron.
Shay looked at me then at Commander Bakhsh and said, “So,
should we be bowing down to you, too?”
He snorted then said, “No need to bow, a simple nod of the
head will do.” She opened her mouth to reply and he held up a finger, “And not
questioning me ever again.”
Her eyes bugged and she said, “Never?”
He pursed his lips then said, “You can question me as long
as you never question Admiral Mnar Ile-ijọsin.”
The truck driver pulled back her hood and bowed slightly.
I was speechless, but Shay fell to her knees. She had every
right to, I guess, because we were talking with a ghost of a Human woman who
had both commanded the All Earth Defense Fleet and died spectacularly and very
publicly when the Kiiote and Yown’Hoo had blown a hole through the same Fleet
as they’d invaded Earth.
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