January 3, 2019

LOVE IN A TIME OF ALIEN INVASION: CHAPTER 99 The Trials of Team Three – 5


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)

Xio started. Seg-go said, “Do we go, Herd-auntie; or do we back up and return to our leaders in abject failure?”

Xio scowled down at the little Yown’Hoo and said, “Don’t bother, Herd second, we are not peers, so the pressure you are attempting to place on me isn’t working.” She straightened her spine and stepped forward, “I had already decided to enter before you challenged my authority.” She kneed Seg-go, who stumbled as it tried to lead the Herd. She added a toe nudge and the Herd second backed up, its fellow Yown’Hoo pressing against it to relieve it of the stress of the Challenge. She smirked as she passed through the door, though her pulse raced when the door irised closed behind them.

The voice of Mother Kan Yuen said softly in Chinese, “Perhaps there is hope for you yet, Daughter of Humanity. Perhaps there is hope for us all.”

“What…” Xio began.

“Hold your questions. I cannot lay out appropriate query markers for the Herd unless I understand who you are and what you need to know to complete your mission. ” The floor began a slight downward slant first which increased until it was all they could do to hold back from rushing faster into the dimness, yet Kan Yuen did not seem to move any faster, nor did she seem to have any trouble keeping an even pace.

It was some sort of projection, Xio thought. The image had said as much. Xio said, “Where are we going?”

“To learn.”

“We don’t need to learn anything! We have to rejoin the Triad with a weapon!” Xio exclaimed.

Seg-go and Ali-go suddenly pressed on both sides of her. Seg-go said, “You cannot speak to the Mother with disrespect! She may be Human, but she has seen your St. Admiral, and the Kiiote, Pan and Zir, but most importantly, she has seen and spoken with and touched Ji-Hi, Mother of All.” Seg-go’s voice fell to a whisper, “And she has felt the slash of the Mother’s claws and survived the poison to serve as a bridge between Humans and Yown’Hoo.”

Xio shoved both of them away, “She’s as Human as I am! I can speak to her…”

Mother Kan Yuen turned and held up a finger. “We are sisters, it is true, Xiomara Mary-Laura Kimpo, but,” she moved closer and spoke in Twentieth Century English, “While Humans do not place great stock in ceremony, the Yown’Hoo and the Kiiote do. Once, long ago, we had the luxury of holding ceremony. But this world is a different place. Once we join with our enemies, then Human ceremony will return – and it will mix with Kiiote and Yown’Hoo ceremony until the three will be indistinguishable. Until then,” she waved away Seg-go and Ali-go, “Let them think they protect my honor.” The image started to move again.

Xio scowled. Who did this woman think she was? She’d done nothing to earn her respect! Respect was given, not claimed! “Follow the avatar, child!”

Muttering angrily as she did as the elderly Query Marker guru commanded, she didn’t notice the abrupt change of their path until she stumbled. The steep incline had flattened and become a broad, paved circle of stone. A door far across opened, spilling golden light in a widening wedge until it stopped at their feet. She swore and stopped.

“I live in the apartments ahead of you. There are rooms for you to rest. Then we will begin your training.”

“What kind of training are you offering? What do you know about what’s going on outside? It looks to me like you’ve been sitting around down here while everything outside has gone to hell in a gods-damned handbasket!” She’d spoken in Twentieth Century English again. Her small Herd moved away from her, their tentacles slurping menacingly.

“There is only one kind of training you need, child.”

Xio set her jaw, lifting her chin then said, “What you possibly teach me?” She braced herself for a bellowing, angry reply.

Instead, Mother Kan Yuen whispered, “Only that a soft answer turns away wrath, child. And once Earth has grown the Triads into effective governing units, Humanity, Kiiote, and Yown’Hoo will need all of their wisdom and skill to softly turn aside the spectre that seeks to devour us all.”

Xio’s mind was abruptly filled with an image of some…thing intangible, malevolent, horrifying…yet it was not spirit. It was technology; technology so far beyond the Triad, that not only did it appear to her to be magic…it appeared to be necromancy.


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