Starport: Zeta Prime (Alt) (15 page)

“
Meena.
I’m showing
Jillian around. Plus, we need a morning meal–this one’s starved.”
Sennan explained to the woman at the table. She dusted her hands
off down her skirt and came over to them.

“
It’s all re
ady over
there, help yourselves,” she said kindly. She looked slightly older
than Sennan, her hair almost all white and unlike any of the other
females she had seen so far, had a slightly rotund
figure.

Passing her
a dish, Sennan taught Jillian the word for ‘bowl’ and waited until
it was spoken correctly before ladling some of the creamy white
mash from the pot into it. Jillian shook her head in quiet wonder.
In the colony, none of the humans had any idea of the similarities
between them and the natives of Zeta Prime. Sure, their lifestyles
were basic, but she was sure they would be as shocked as her to
discover kitchens, showers and community living. How narrow-minded
and assuming of them to move onto a planet without even the thought
of integration.

Jillian
crammed the
sweet mix into her mouth, too hungry to be fussed about being
ladylike. Sennan’s mouthfuls were slightly more delicate, scooping
morsels onto her fingers while she made small talk with Meena, who
had returned to another mound of dough.

Once she had finished eating, Sennan walked around the
kitchen with her, pointing out certain things and teaching her the
name for them in their language. It was insightful to
Jillian, she had a strong grasp of
the cat-people’s tongue but it was not comprehensive. She saw that
they indeed had something that looked like cheese, goodness knows
how–and that the dough Meena had been kneading was kind of like
bread
—
as she was encouraged to sample a piece that was
retrieved from a kiln. It melted in her mouth, and had that
distinctive sweetness they seemed to add to most of their food. It
was delectable.

“
Everybody he
lps out.
I mostly bake in the kitchen until lunchtime, and others drift in
and out. There’s no set place for anyone, most tend just to do
whichever suits them that day. I just seem to have found my niche
here.” Meena chuckled.

“
Ca
n I help,” Jillian
asked Sennan, hoping that it would look like watching the woman
work had prompted her, rather that her words? She had to repeat
herself, but Sennan finally understood. She and Meena bustled
around her, showing her how to mix and then work the ingredients,
ready them to be placed into the kiln. Meena giggled at the stilted
broken English that they spoke on occasion, and got great joy from
pointing to various objects and hearing Jillian give their English
name.

She worked until lunchtime, glad for the sense of purpose,
wanting to be as much use as she could be. This was her life now,
she wan
ted to chip in and be
respected–for herself and for Faron. Females popped in every so
often, some of them helping to chop foreign-looking plants ready
for lunch, some just briefly visiting, spooning the breakfast mix
into bowls and carrying them into the main room. It was really old
fashioned, the women in the kitchen and the men out–God knows
where
—
but it was warm and happy, too. They may have
had absolutely no technology, but they had a wonderful sense of
togetherness. Misha had been her only experience of any negativity
in the attitude of the aliens–and was very much the odd one out in
that respect, she thought thankfully.

All the
cat-people that visited appeared impressed by Jillian’s willingness
to join in, she heard nothing but compliments as they stopped to
chat. But the person who made her heart swell the most was Sennan,
who kept glancing at her with pride shining in her eyes. If she
could have ever picked a Mother, it would have been her. Having
never known her own Mom, this acceptance was a new thing for her.
For the first time ever, Jillian felt as though she belonged
somewhere.

Chapter
Seventeen

A week passed almost blissfully.
Jillian discovered the simple way of life suited her.
She would occasionally think back to her hectic, gadget-filled days
in the colony and couldn’t honestly say that she missed it. The
only pang she ever got was when she thought of Mikey–she hoped he
had moved on and wasn’t risking his own life and status in order to
clear her name.

Each morning,
Faron
would go out to ‘work.’ She had yet to discover what this entailed.
Her pretense at learning the language meant that she could now have
careful, broken conversation with him, mindful of not speaking too
fluently too quickly.

They laughed often at the pieces of
conversation they had, her purposely fumbling her words in order to
get the delight she felt from his smiles. But since they had begun
their relationship mostly through touch, there was a deepness
between them that seemed to not require many words, even when they
were able to use them.

“
I love you.” She told him in English every day, after he’d
leaned in to kiss her goodbye for the day.

“
You are my forever.” He always replied. Technically, that
was their most direct translation of the English phrase that she
used in the Zeta Prime language, but she liked to stick to her
language to tell him, it seemed to feel more genuine.

They
made love every
night–sometimes tenderly, sometimes energetic and intensely
forceful. Each time it was sexy, and the most wholly satisfying sex
she had ever had. He concentrated on her pleasure first and
foremost, always.

She had not had any encounters with Misha since the day she
had been shown the kitchen. There was talk of her during meal
times, when the men were still out during the day. A few of the
females were concerned about her bitterness and detachment from the
tribe.
Jillian was not so
worried
. S
he had more knowledge of jealousy from her own
people. The aliens found such dark emotion strange. They were a
peaceful, happy race, unfamiliar with the prolonged resentment that
she displayed. Jillian felt as though these feelings would run
their course within Misha, that she would work it out in her own
time.

Sennan came to her each morning, and introduced her to
different parts of village life. She had met
most of the tribe by this point–introduced by
Sennan as family which gave her a lovely warm glow. She and her
Mother-In-Law had formed a strong bond. Chat between them was
fairly fluid now, what with Sennan’s mix of English and Jillian’s
growing admission of the local dialect.

This morning was no different as there was a familiar knock
on the door.
Jillian was
dressed and ready for the day as she greeted Sennan with a wide
smile. Summertime was in full swing on Zeta Prime, and the heat of
the sun already stung her skin with a burn. Sennan sometimes rubbed
earth onto her shoulders if they were outside, to try and stop her
skin from burning. They were not used to the delicacy of human
skin–their own seeming unaffected no matter how long they exposed
themselves to the fierce yellow ball in the sky, and it had taken a
lot of explaining to Sennan, but she was instantly protective upon
learning about it.

“
We are going to the fields today.” Sennan told her, as they
made their way past the communal hut, past the shower and across a
path made in the
overgrown
shrub land behind the village.

Jillian
was intrigued
since, apart from the day of her and Faron’s bonding ceremony, she
had never left the main dwellings of the village before. As the
landscape opened up, she could barely believe her eyes. Here before
her seemed to be some kind of farm.

It was vast in comparison to the space she had called home
for the last couple of weeks. To her left, two large fields
sprawled, containing highly cultivated rows of various plants. Most
were a bright green in color
—s
ome just shoots
poking from the red ground, some with massive green leaves spilling
across acres. There were already a large number of the cat-people
in amongst them.

“
We grow our vegetables here and we will need to help today.
Most of them need to be picked ready for the new crop,” Sennan
explained.

Jillian
spun round to
take in the farm, and saw that to her right were several fenced
areas–filled with a few beasts. These creatures looked a little
like the cattle that they had on Earth. Large four-legged mammals.
Except that their horns were twisted into long, tight spirals, and
their skin a tough looking, mottled brown–like that of a
crocodiles. Inside each enclosure was a ramshackle hut–presumably
where the beast were locked in for the night. Close to where the
beasts were, she saw some of the men heaving great lumps of a spiky
red grass into huge feeding trays and a small group working on a
wooden contraption.

“
Is this where the men come ev
ery day? Is this what Faron does,” Jillian asked, almost
relieved that the most danger he was putting himself in was by
farming, rather than fighting.

“
Yes. The men tend to the
beasts. They are not domesticated.” She chuckled and motioned to
the wooden thing some of them were constructing.

“
This is Faron’s project. He comes to farm every day but has
been designing a tool to help us re-sow the fields ready for new
crops. He’s a clever boy.” She spoke proudly.

“
So why do the men go out to hunt in the forest then,”
Jillian asked? If they had all they needed here, why leave at all?
She craned her neck to try and catch a glimpse of her husband at
work but there was no sign of him.

“
We need birds and their
eggs. There’s no catching them and fencing them off, let me tell
you.”

Jillian
had seen
these birds before, crashing up through the trees. They were
imposing, monstrous things with a wing span the height of any man.
She loved this race and their simplicity, impressed with their
farm, their self-sustaining survival.

The fields
before her looked stunning, the contrast of the green crops against
the rouge earth striking. Sennan handed her a woven basket as they
entered the field, Jillian twisted her head once more.

“
So where is
Faron
today,” she asked, hoping to catch sight of him?

“
He’s probably gone to hunt I expect–looks like Camil and
Charin have gone with him.” Sennan looked to where most of the men
were and continued down the field, unconcerned.

Jillian
however, felt
a few pricks of worry. The last time Faron had taken his brother
and Charin out had ended in disaster, and she sincerely hoped that
hunting birds was all he was doing.

* * * *

Faron
and his men
were indeed hunting, but Faron also had to do his checks of the
invaders. Ordinarily, he would have gone alone–watching as he did
from the branches. This time he felt it prudent to bring Charin and
Camil.

“
I want to make sure that there are none of their
tracks leading into the jungle. That
it seems like business as usual in both of the places Jillian was.”
He informed them.

“
Then we are leaving,
yes?” Camil wanted to clarify.

“
Yes. I want peace of mind
that we did not cause more trouble than I intended. I want to make
sure they are not seeking retribution or looking for
us.”

The two men seemed wary, which was precisely the reason
that Faron wanted to force them to go. The unknown bred fear
and he didn’t want this to cause
doubt in his strongest men.

“
We still need to watch
them on occasion, to make sure they are not planning an invasion on
our homes like they did with the other tribe. The justice I wanted
has been served. Now, we go back to observing. If there is any
evidence that they are coming for us, we go back to gather men to
fight. Otherwise, we stay hidden and peaceful. Don’t forget, if we
remove their weapons they are powerless against us.”

Both nodded at their leader–
knowing this to be the case. They visited the bunker first,
the force field was back up and it looked like the same guard was
doing the rounds - his face was a little bruised but other than
that everything looked as it always had.

Travelling south, they reached the
gateway site with speed. Faron looked closely at the
place Jillian had been most of the time. The construction they had
been building was still in ruins, although the debris had been
cleared into neat piles, and it was obvious that there was urgent
work going on to rebuild the thing.

Faron
saw the man
with the dark skin–Jillian’s friend. He finished talking into a
square device and clipped it back around his middle. Before moving
on, the man looked out into the forest for a loaded moment. Faron
ducked between branches, but there was no need, the man hadn’t seen
him. He looked sad as he stared, and Faron saw him draw a deep
breath before continuing with his work.

“
They are still too busy to worry about her. Do you agree?”
Faron turned to his men.