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. The Braiders accidentally created a
resonance wave that will destroy the Milky Way and the only way to stop it is
for the Yown’Hoo-Kiiote-Human Triads to build a physical wall. The merger of
Human-Kiiote-Yown’Hoo into a van der Walls Society may produce the Membrane to
stop the wave.
The young experimental Triads are made up of the smallest
primate tribe of Humans – Oscar and Kashayla; 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)
“Where are we going?” I asked.
Lieutenant Commander Patrick Bakhsh (retired) shook his
head, “No need for you to know. You just follow my directions and we’ll get
there.”
“What if you die on the way to wherever we’re going?”
“I’m not going to die, Oscar!”
I hate it when he uses my full name. Everyone else calls me
Car – it’s easier for the Yown’Hoo and the Kiiote to make the sounds necessary
for my name. But I was bugged. “We just about died back there – how are you gonna
protect us from everything?”
The Yown’Hoo Herd Mother, Dao-hi said, “The Human has a
valid point. If you are the only one who knows our final destination and you
are killed or die of natural causes, it will be impossible to complete our
mission.”
“I’m not going to accidentally die – and I’m certainly not
going to die of natural causes!”
From behind us, Qap and Xurf, the Pack leaders leaned close
and took a deep breath near him. He tried to stand up, but the seat belt held him
down. “What are you doing?” he cried.
“You may very well die of natural causes if you continue to
ignore the gelp fungus growing on
your skin.”
“I don’t...”
Xurf said, “Lying to us about a disease we are quite familiar with would be
unwise, Human Bakhsh,” it came out as a harsh bark from the Pack male. “We know
the scent. You are the first Human we have ever smelled it on. It is...not a
minor scent.”
“What, he’s got some disease you guys gave to him?” I said. “That’s
crazy! Humans can’t get non-Earth diseases…”
I couldn’t look over at him, I got the feeling he was
thinking fast and hard and he was scowling. Finally he said, “Fine. I have gelp.”
"How?” asked Qap. Besides being the Pack female, she was also
a doctor. She knew Kiiote medicine, Yown’Hoo medicine, and most recently Human
medicine. She was curious about everything. She also didn’t know adult Human
emotions well enough to know she’d gone too far.
I said, “Listen, it’s not important how he got it…”
“Of course it is! Knowing how he got it will allow me to find
a cure.”
“You can cure it?”
"No. It is not even curable in Kiiote. It’s simply something
we live with. I believe you Humans also have a fungal infection most of you
simply live with as well.”
“It’s nothing like athlete’s foot!”
“It is exactly like…”
“The Kiiote version of fungus grows little root things into my
skin like I'm a pot of soil seeking the warmth of my major blood vessels. It’s nothing like…” Lt.
Retired’s voice had risen to a shout. He stopped, faced forward, leaning until
his hands planted firmly on the desiccated surface of the dashboard and took
deep, heaving breath’s. Miles later, he said without looking up, “Where would I
possibly get the things to make a cure.”
Qap was first to respond, Xurf had bristled at Lt.’s tone of
voice – and his muscles had distorted his body into its more flexible form. The
one that could tear Human flesh from bone, after running a fleeing Human into
the ground and ripping its throat out. She said, “There are some compounds
common to all worlds, others that have analogues on several worlds, and then
there are things specific to one world that would kill one Sentient along with
the disease.”
“What do we have on Earth?”
“What you have on Earth will not cure you, but it will force
the retreat of gelp.”
He sat up as we sped into the night. He’d activated a strange
sort of system that used radar or sonar that, once reflected back at us, created
and image I could see on the windshield. “Where would I get these compounds?”
Still in her humanoid for, she gestured, “One place is not
far off of our straight-line path along this body of water.” We drove on a hill
now, to our right, the ground dropped away to a wide river below. The
Mississippi River.
Image: http://www.riverbills.com/pic_of_the_day/012609_frozen_river_03.jpg
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