Eliot woke up late the next day feeling like he had the grandmother of all hangovers. Channeling is something like drinking, he reflected as he waited for the world to stop whirling around him. If you do too much of it you can't even stand and you feel like crap in the morning.
When Cazondra's strength began to flag, Dutironomy, Mistoffelees, and Eliot had taken turns using their own power to keep her going. Jabez and Pavel had gone back to the Phantom with Admeetus and brought back the medical supplies from her rather meager sick bay. Together they did their best to treat the more minor injuries so that the channelers could concentrate on the serious ones. When they were finally done, the Coricat healer collapsed into Tughar's arms, thoroughly drained. At the moment she was still sleeping, with Vyktorea next to her.
His companions were still asleep, so as soon as he felt he could stand without throwing up, Eliot stumbled outside to get some fresh air. As he sucked in great lungfuls of oxygen, he saw the hunters preparing to leave. There weren't many of them today, he noticed. Admeetus, Plaetoh, Tughar, and Coricopat were there, also Mungojery and Rumplteezer. This was to be the red and black striped twins' first hunt. They stood near their older brother, anxiously juggling their bolas from hand to hand.
Eliot was a bit surprised to see Rhumpus' tall, dark form standing a little apart from the group. Apparently Admeetus had convinced his solitary son to help them in their time of need. The black cat carried no weapon of any kind. He probably doesn't need one, Eliot thought.
Admeetus looked up as Eliot approached them. When the small Terran was close enough, the powerful grey and white male bent over and gently butted his shoulder in greeting. "I can't go with you today, Eliot," he said. "Please, try to stay out of trouble."
Eliot's mouth quirked in a half-smile. "I understand," he said. "And, yes, I'll try my best."
He watched the hunters heading off into the forest, Admeetus sharing leadership with Plaetoh, then casually walked over to where Munkustrap and Alahnso sat under a tree doing some kind of rope and beadwork. The chief sat up straight with his back against the tree and it was obvious that breathing was still painful for him. Alahnso had his injured leg propped on a log and his right arm in a sling. Their quiet conversation came to a halt when Eliot plopped down in front of them.
"Hey, guys," Eliot greeted them. "What's up? Uh, I mean," he added when he saw their confused looks, "Uh, what are you doing? How are you feeling?"
"Well enough," Munkustrap answered to the last question. "We're trying to occupy ourselves during our…" he paused as he searched his memory for an appropriate Terran word, "recovery."
Eliot watched them for a while. There was a tray of faceted rocks in many different colors between them, and as they braided the dyed hemp, they would string some of them in.
"What are you making?" Eliot asked finally.
"A belt," Munkustrap replied, gesturing toward his own simple, black braided belt.
"For yourself?" Eliot pressed.
"No, for Demeetar," Munkustrap told him.
"And Cazondra," Alahnso added.
"It will be a present when the mating time comes," Munkustrap put in. He and Alahnso exchanged knowing smiles and continued their work.
"Oh," Eliot murmured, then, "Um, could I talk to you guys for a minute?"
"How would we stop you?" Alahnso asked without looking up.
"Before you begin," Munkustrap cut in, "I just want to thank you."
"Thank me?" Eliot said in a puzzled tone. "For what?"
"For taking charge last night," Munkustrap said, looking a little uncomfortable. "Admeetus and Plaetoh told me that you were very…helpful."
"They said that?" Eliot exclaimed in surprise. He was under the impression that they had considered him an annoyance.
"Yes, so I want to thank you for helping to take care of my people when I couldn't. Now, what was it you wanted to say?"
"I can't remember now!" Eliot groaned. He thought furiously for a moment, then it came back to him. "Oh, yeah! Look, I'm having trouble repairing my space ship. There are parts that I need that I don't have, and I'm afraid I'll have to call on some outside help. I just wanted to warn you."
"Why would we need a warning?" Munkustrap asked suspiciously.
"Because it would bring more off-worlders to Coricum," Eliot explained. "I thought you didn't like off-worlders."
"They can be a nuisance," Alahnso commented, "but we've always been able to handle them in the past."
Munkustrap glanced sharply at his friend, but said nothing.
"Yeah, but…" Eliot sighed. "You don't understand. I mean, you see those mountains over there?"
Their gaze followed his pointing finger. "Yes," Munkustrap nodded. "That's where the Meraris tribe lives."
"Well, those mountains…" Eliot began, then stopped. "The who?"
"The Meraris tribe," Munkustrap repeated. "We do trade with them."
An obscenity escaped from Eliot's mouth; he had hoped that the mountains were uninhabited. Curiosity getting the better of him, he asked, "What do you trade?"
"Usually our plants, materials, and some food for their metals and rocks like these," Alahnso indicated the tray of rocks next to him, "which seem to be quite plentiful in the mountains."
Eliot picked up one of the rocks and examined it. He didn't know much about gems; this clear stone could be a diamond or maybe a hunk of quartz. Jabez might be able to tell. "So are the Meraris miners?" he asked, tossing the stone back with the others.
"Miners?" Alahnso echoed the unfamiliar word. "They take metal from rock to be used for tools and other things."
"Then they're miners," Eliot concluded.
Alahnso nodded. "If you say so."
"What kind of metal…no, never mind. I already know what metals my sensors were detecting." Eliot studied the two Coricats, who looked at him blankly. He took a deep breath and began, "There are two kinds of special metal in those mountains. One is called gold and is very rare and valuable and is used for money sometimes. The other metal is titanium, which is what the outside of my space ship is made of, and it's also very valuable. The thing is, certain people knew about your source of gold and titanium, they would just come in and take it, without so much as a by-your-leave. And they would definitely get nasty if you tried to resist them at all."
"Are these people likely to find out about our…'source'?" Alahnso asked.
"If I call for help they might," Eliot pointed out.
"Then don't."
"But if I don't call for help, then I can't fix my ship!" Eliot said in frustration.
Munkustrap, who had sat lost in thought during Eliot's revelation about the gold and titanium, now spoke up. "Maybe we can help you," he said as he eased himself up off the ground. "Come on, there's something we should show you."
"What?" Eliot asked as he and Munkustrap helped Alahnso to stand.
"Just come."
Eliot followed the two Coricats to an overgrown area at the edge of the forest. They worked their way through the undergrowth until they came to a large clearing, and there Eliot stopped dead.
"Whoa!" he gasped, staring up at the rusting hulk of an old Grenosian freighter ship. It wasn't in a salvageable state. Besides the damaged sustained when it crashed, time had also left its mark. All the smashed view ports and the sagging exit hatch were choked with some kind of climbing vine that seemed to be the home of a family of little brown mouse-like creatures, who scattered when Eliot came near them. What was left of the corroded hull was so badly scorched that he couldn't even see where the name and registration number had been. "Where…did this come from?" he asked finally.
"It was the first space ship to come screaming down from the sky," Munkustrap told him. "We found no survivors."
Eliot stumbled over a fallen chunk of the hull as he tried to walk around the ruined vessel, and now he saw that it was only one of several derelict wrecks in this graveyard for old star ships. Not too far from the freighter was a tortured Terran passenger ship. The hull was crumpled like a beer can and the name and registration number (Nova II GT-27617-534-9148) were just barely readable. "What about this one?" he asked.
"That's the one that Mozu came in," Munkustrap answered. "As you know, she was the only survivor."
"How did you get all these big ships in one place?" Eliot inquired as he examined a hunk of twisted metal that was hardly identifiable as an Unlai one-man fighter ship. "I can't believe that they all crashed right here."
"You're right, we brought them all here," Alahnso confirmed.
"But how?" Eliot exclaimed. "I mean, even this little fighter must weigh something close to ten tons. How could you move any of these ships even a millimeter?"
"By magic. How else?" Munkustrap said simply. "All the adult Coricats got together and lifted them over to this clearing."
Eliot's frown cleared. "Oh, you channeled them here."
"You may call it what you like."
"Okay, what about this one?' Eliot said, walking over to the least damaged ship in sight. It was a sleek Shalin starcruiser, the kind used by the merchant lords of Shalis. "It looks like it's in relatively good condition, and it's even Shalin design like the Phantom." He paused to read the Grenosian characters on the hull. "Ash Y'y Ana," he murmured. This was the name of the Shalin goddess of victory. "Definitely a merchant lord's ship. Hey, are you saving these wrecks for something, or can I salvage some of the parts?"
"You can take whatever you need," Munkustrap told him. "This one landed only three years ago, and was not so badly damaged as these others."
"I'll say it wasn't," Eliot said excitedly as he poked around on the underside of the starcruiser. "It's in a lot better condition than the Phantom. So what happened to the crew, anyway?"
There was no answer. Eliot quickly ducked out of a compartment he had pried open, thinking for a second that the Coricats may have left him. They hadn't. Munkustrap and Alahnso stood near the freighter, looking at the Ash Y'y Ana and avoiding Eliot's gaze.
"Guys, what happened to the people on this ship?" Eliot asked again, suspecting that he didn't really want to know the answer.
"They…died," Alahnso said, still studying the Shalin vessel.
"When the ship crashed?" Eliot persisted.
Alahnso glanced at Munkustrap. "Um, no," he said quietly.
"Then how--?" Eliot began, but Munkustrap cut him off and picked up the explanation.
"They stayed on Coricum for a very long time. We didn't know what they wanted, but they didn't seem to pose a threat so we offered our hospitality, which they accepted."
Munkustrap paused in his narrative, and Eliot took the opportunity to ask, "We are talking about the Shalins, right? What did these people look like?"
Munkustrap studied the small, blond Terran hard before answering, "They were taller than you--"
"Most everybody is," Eliot muttered under his breath.
"--with no fur except on their heads and that was long and black. Their ears were on the sides of their heads, but they were bigger and wrinkled." Munkustrap closed his eyes, trying to conjure up a picture of one of the off-worlders. "Creased noses and foreheads, two fingers and one thumb on each hand, and bluish skin. And they wore masks because they said they couldn't breathe our air."
"That sounds like Shalins, all right," Eliot nodded. "Admeetus had mentioned them to me, but he didn't say what happened to them. I kind of assumed that they eventually left."
"That was the problem, they wouldn't leave!" Alahnso said heatedly. "They became very demanding, especially their leader. He behaved as if the whole planet belonged to them."
"How did they communicate with you?" Eliot asked curiously.
"Through Mozu at first," Alahnso replied. "When they found out that she could speak our language, they made her into their translator. It was when they tried to use her for more than that…"
"What?" Eliot prompted when he didn't continue.
Alahnso looked imploringly at his chief, who obligingly picked up the story where he left off, "Their leader kept making advances to Mozu and others as if he wanted to mate with them. He tried with all the females, actually, but Mozu and Vyktorea were the ones he kept coming back to. Vyktorea gave him a very clear rejection, which he ignored. Mozu…"
"Mozu seems to have different customs," Alahnso put in quietly. "She was obviously uncomfortable with the off-worlder, but she never came right out and told him to go away. Mistoffelees and Tughar tried to defend her…"
"And that's when the trouble started," Munkustrap jumped back in. "The off-worlder wouldn't back down, so Mistoffelees and Tughar tried to fight him, and they accidentally killed him."
"Accidentally?" Eliot said skeptically.
"All Tughar did was swipe at his face as a warning," Alahnso said in defense of his son. "The alien's mask came off and he started gasping like a fish out of water. He was dead before his people could get to him."
"Ah, he asphyxiated," Eliot deduced. "Serves the arrogant bastard right, too. But what happened then?"
"There was a fight," Alahnso continued. "The other aliens had weapons like the one you had last night, but Mistoffelees spirited them away before they could be used. Without their weapons they weren't very good fighters, and without their masks they couldn't breathe, so they weren't very hard to kill."
"Old Dutironomy wasn't entirely pleased with us," Munkustrap admitted, "but we all agreed that it was probably for the best."
A thought occurred to Eliot. "You said they communicated through Mozu at first?" he queried.
"Yes, well, after a month or so of listening to them telling Mozu what to say, and hearing her say it in Coricus, we more or less learned the language and started speaking it ourselves," Munkustrap explained.
"And that was only three years ago," Eliot murmured as the pieces fell into place. "So that's how you speak Terran standard so well."
"I liked the look on their leader's face when Munkustrap first spoke directly to him," Alahnso smirked.
Eliot's face suddenly turned serious. "Wait a minute," he said. "What would you have done to us if I, for example, had made advances to Vyktorea?"
Alahnso snarled, but Munkustrap nudged him into silence. "Nothing," he replied, "as long as she made no objection."
Eliot nodded, then turned back to the starcruiser to hide his blushing. "Tomorrow I'll bring Jabez and Pavel here, if that's okay," he glanced at Munkustrap, who nodded, "and we'll strip what we can off these ships."
He hesitated, then turned back to the grey and black chief. "But I'm afraid we're only postponing the inevitable," he said unhappily. "You couldn't possibly know this, but Coricum is at the edge of an area of space that is considered the domain of the Ungai. They're a race of very territorial aliens, and once they discover this planet, and I don't know why they haven't yet, they'll come in and take over, and there won't be much you can do about it."
"You think this is unavoidable?" Munkustrap asked with concern in his voice.
"Well, maybe not unavoidable," Eliot admitted. "There may be something hiding the planet from the Ungai; we crashed into it so fast, I barely saw it coming. I just thought I'd warn you."
"Thank you," Munkustrap said uncertainly.
©1999 Delilah