"No I don't intend to cause trouble, although perhaps I already have. I do apologize for that," he offered, hoping to pacify things a little.

"My people might know a little more about the Brey-hahd than yours, but I don't know all of it myself. I had a file in my computer, but that's in the city. On the ship here I read a report on the Brey-hahd compiled by your people. Mostly it was about what the Brey-hahd had done to the colony it had taken.

"The main problem, I think, is that they need to be fought in space, rather than down on the ground. Now, unless you have ships..."

"No, unfortunately we do not."

"Yeah. That limits our options a bit."

"Tell me about what was done to the colony," Eesh'ket said, shifting on the furry mat.

"Three colonies actually. I think on two of them they enslaved the population to mine raw materials. The sick and elderly were killed. On the third planet there weren't enough resources, so they burned it completely."

"The whole planet?!"

"I saw pictures of it. The whole planet on fire. It would have been done from orbit. That's why you have to fight them in space. Because even if you start winning down here..." He let himself trail off. There was no point in saying the rest. He couldn't even let the people back home know what was going on.

There was a moment of stunned silence from Eesh'ket before he stood up.

"I will return in a moment," he said before leaving the hut. Kevan sat there, feeling stuck and frustrated at his current physical state. He felt like he was missing out on half the conversations around him and unable to participate in matters that could directly affect him. Fortunately, it was not long before Eesh'ket returned.

"I have called a meeting of all the leaders of our communities in exile," he said. "It will take some time for all of them to arrive, but then the matter can be discussed amongst us. A meeting like this has never been attempted before."

"What if some of them won't come?" Kevan asked. "Ar'shan mentioned that you sometimes fight amongst yourselves."

"There are those out here that were exiled for murdering people," Eesh'ket explained. "Those branded to reflect that crime are usually rejected by the other communities and must join with the communities of similar crimes. I have heard that those are harsher communities, usually led by the Rich'ti who can keep the others too afraid of him to challenge his leadership. When there are disputes over territory, they don't like to negotiate and fighting breaks out. I am hoping that the circumstances will be enough to overcome some of the differences."

"What do you hope to accomplish with such a meeting?" Kevan wondered aloud. "If you haven't any ships, you can't do much to change things."

"We can do plenty when it reaches the planet, I hope." he answered. "But, more importantly, we will not be left out of the equation. I am going to suggest we return and make our voices heard within the cities. I expect they will be surprised by our numbers, for one. We may only hold a small percentage of the population on this planet, but we will not be forgotten and left to die here either. I find it highly unlikely that any of the exiles on the other planets were evacuated in time. It is more likely that no one even thought to warn them."

"There's also the possibility that my government will find out about the Brey-hahd attack here, and that they might send ships to help."

"With Logur as Takor there will be no alliances with aliens," Eesh'ket stated matter-of-factly.

"My people have a history of getting involved without being invited. It would depend on how many ships could be spared, and even still it would take several days for them to get here. Eight or nine...maybe ten," he guessed, assuming the Rich'ti ships were faster and trying to estimate how much so.

"If the Brey-hahd are here," Eesh'ket began, "and were able to take the moon colony, why have they not attacked here on the planet?"

"I'm not the expert there... Maybe they saw the domed settlement as an easier target. Maybe they don't have enough forces to subdue and contain a larger population than that. Maybe they only took it to test defenses before a main attack. What we really don't know is how much time we have before they do strike here."

"Later we will have a meeting and you can tell us more of what you do know about them. More than just me needs to hear this, even before the other tribe leaders arrive--those that do, any way."

"Is it possible for me to be moved out of this hut? It is frustrating being the last to know what's going on," Kevan asked.

"While I can understand your frustration, I'm afraid that's not possible just yet. I've been made to understand that there is some concern still about one of your bones being better healed before you are moved. Here," He tapped at the hardened cast-like material covering Kevan's hip. "There are drugs we could possibly give you that might speed the healing process along, but no one has been able to be sure of how your system would react. There have been the occasional problems with Rich'ti who've taken such medicines. I will have Maruke return and explain it better and you can decide for yourself if you wish to try it. Without it, you will be lying here for a while yet."

"Is there any way I can get my electronic device back at least? My datapad?" he asked.

"Yes. That I can do. It has taken some damage but does still appear to be mostly functioning. There has been some discussion amongst the more technical-minded on whether or not it could be repaired. I'll find out what they have decided on the matter and let you know. I suspect the cracked casing may be a problem to replace, but repair might be possible. I think we have some salvage material that could replace the cracked bit of screen, if I'm understanding them correctly. Just so you don't think we are entirely inhospitable here." Eesh'ket gave Kevan a smiling nod.

"Thank you," Kevan replied. "I will --"

Kevan found himself cut off by the same male that had burst into the hut earlier when Ar'shan had been changing bandages. He seemed to be more out of breath this time than he had been earlier.

"Found some," the male said between breaths. "Three already, rumors of more in other areas. Two are being brought here. The third was picked up by Ing'grit."

Eesh'ket nodded at the male and stood up. "We can speak more later, Kevan. I must attend to this matter. Maruke should visit you soon." The leader turned and left the hut without another word, the male following behind him.

He groaned. He wondered if it was just going to stay this way. He was the least of their concerns right now, he supposed. He certainly couldn't contribute much right now. He would tell them what little he knew about the Brey-hahd, and then after that he'd just be in their way. How bad can the effects of that drug be? he asked himself.

It was a while before Maruke came back. "I was told you wanted to know about Rekshal."

"Is that the healing drug?"

"Yes. It has other effects, but I'm not sure I can predict exactly what it will do to you."

"What have I got to lose?" Kevan asked.

"It reduces pain and helps sleep. It accelerates healing. It can also produce hallucinations and ...disturbing dreams."

"I can't afford to stay lying here. I'm just in the way--at a time when you probably can't much afford people in the way."

"It is your decision. I will prepare some if you are certain."

"Yes, let's do it," he answered.

"I will prepare it now and return when it is ready," Maruke said, standing up. The Rich'ti turned and left quickly. Kevan found himself once again frustrated that every Rich'ti seemed to have a habit of stating their intention and then rushing out the door, leaving no room for further conversation.

Kevan lay there quietly while he waited. He realized that until he had his datapad again he had no way of knowing how much time was passing. It also occurred to him that there was only so much life left on its battery, as he had not had the chance to use the device that Kreckan had given him for it. He chided himself for not having thought to stuff that in his pockets as well.

It seemed to take a long time for Maruke to return, although Kevan told himself that it just felt that way because he had nothing to judge the time lapse on. The lights in the room appeared to be more like oil lamps now that he had a chance to look at them more clearly, although he couldn't see into the tubular ceramic jars to tell how much oil might have been consumed. There was no way to see past the walls, which seemed well-packed with the mud holding it all together. The doorway was covered over by a thick fur that hung on the outside of the hut, and was bigger than the doorway was wide. He found that if he was still enough, he could hear the murmer of voices outside, along with a variety of other sounds, but it was all faint enough that he couldn't make any of them out.

Maruke came in with a basket of items that he set alongside Kevan when he sat down. He pulled out a glass tube with a needle attached to it that looked almost exactly like a human syringe to Kevan. Maruke administered the drug in nearly the same manner as well, binding Kevan's arm briefly, finding the vein, and inserting the needle. The medicine felt hot as it moved into Kevan's arm, and it seemed as if he could feel it moving upwards through the veins to his heart. Then, without any warning, Kevan's heart raced and his whole body tensed tightly. He let out a cry of pain as injured parts of him jostled in their bandagings. His breath was coming in short gasps and he could feel the moisture building on his brow.

Maruke pulled out a scanner when he put the syringe away, and put his hands on Kevan's wrist as if monitoring his heartbeat as well. Kevan's eyes met Maruke's as Maruke looked quickly back and forth between the scanner and Kevan.

After a moment, the tension started to slowly ebb away, leaving Kevan feeling weaker than he had before, but better able to relax and breathe. His heart still raced and his breathing was still coming more quickly than he would have liked, but it was definitely an improvement. His body tingled and felt like it itched slightly, just below the skin, a fact that he shared with Maruke.

"That is a good sign," Maruke told him. "I would be worried if you told me any part of you was numb, but what you are feeling sounds normal. I did test your blood for this before even mentioning it to Eesh'ket as an option. You should not have any serious problems. Though the hallucinations may be trouble enough."

"So, when should I expect any hallucinations to start?" he asked, wanting to be as prepared as possible.

"It's hard to say. You will probably sleep first. You'll probably sleep a lot. It would be better if you did, actually. Given some of your injuries there's the chance that we'll have to restrain you if you start ...moving about too much."

Kevan's eyes were already getting heavy and dry feeling, and he yawned. "The more sleep you get," Maruke explained, "the faster the healing. The drug tricks your body into putting more and more of its energy into healing itself. It will take a lot out of you. We'll probably have to feed you ectrinegarrussrek--directly into your blood.

"Someone will be outside or here watching over you until it wears off. You will be cared for, do not worry. I'll leave you now, unless you have other questions. But you won't remember the answers to them later, so don't bother yourself with anything other than immediate concerns."

"No, I guess sleep sounds fine," Kevan answered with another yawn. Maruke nodded and put everything back in the basket and left.

The itching under his skin got a little stronger, and he shivered. He was covered in furs and knew he wasn't cold. He wondered aloud if he was going to regret taking the drug or not.

"You do what you need to do to win the game," his father told him. "You can't worry about regrets while the ball is in play."

"You can't live life like that too, dad," Kevan told him. Something felt wrong about his father sitting next to him just then, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"Why not? Our time is short. If we live each day as if it were our last, then we'll reap the rewards that each moment can potentially give us." Kevan sighed, as he always did when his dad started going on like this.

"What about planning for the future?" he asked. He didn't know why he kept trying to have this conversation. It always ended the same way. "What about mom and Leeta and I? What happens to us when your 'moments' run out?"

"You'll go on, living moments of your own. We can't be so dependent on each other."

"Isn't that what teamwork is about, dad? Isn't our family like a small team? We can't always focus on the ball if a team member needs us doing something else!"

"Your mother makes her own decisions, Kevan. She knew who I was when she married me."

"But it's okay for Leeta and I, who had no choice in who our parents were, to stand by and watch?" Kevan protested. "Why didn't you stop when you were ahead, dad? When we were born. Winning the game is all well and good, but didn't you want to be here to see your kids grow up and get married?"

In the silence that followed, his father seemed to be fading out of focus.

"Dad?" Kevan tried to reach out, but something was holding him down. "Dad!"

His father vanished, replaced suddenly by a Brey-hahd, grinning down at him with a gun in its hands.

There were Rich'ti around him, holding him down. They were the ones trying to keep him from reaching his dad. Now they were holding him prisoner.

The Brey-hahd laughed. It moved its gun over him, as if deciding where to shoot him. "Stooopid hoomin," it said in broken English. The Rich'ti were trying to tell him something, but they didn't know English. He thought they were trying to warn him about something.

Someone tightened something over his arm. He was on a hospital table. A nurse was strapping him down for surgery. It wasn't uncomfortable. She looked familiar, but he couldn't remember why. She had freckles. "Don't worry," she said, slurring her words as if she were drunk, "this is all routine procedure..."

The nurse left him. He was cold, so cold, naked in the hospital room with its bright white lights. He shivered, but could hardly move. There was a little heater in the room on a wheeled stand where it could be rolled around along with his IV, but it wasn't making much heat.

A parade of gray aliens came in to examine him. They poked and prodded him, gibbering amongst themselves in some strange alien tongue. But then marines came, and scared the aliens away. "We're here to take you home," one of them said.

Someone put a blanket over him. It was a warm blanket. There wasn't anyone around, and it was dimly lit. He thought that maybe he was in a cave. The marines must have put him there to hide him from the aliens. There were bugs crawling on the ceiling of the cave. They were walking in circles around a bat hanging asleep from the center.

The bat looked strange - scaley and and with a reddish tint to its fur. It turned it's head at Kevan and looked at him with black, endless eyes. Then it opened it's mouth and breathed fire on the bugs, igniting them into little firebombs that dropped down onto the blanket. Kevan screamed as the blanket caught fire and his skin began to burn beneath it. He fought to get it off of him, but vines had grown up from the ground below and were wound around his body, preventing him from getting away. The more he fought, the thicker they grew until one grew across his mouth to try and stifle his screaming. He gnawed at it with his teeth, but couldn't get them to bite into it. It tasted like rubber.

He heard a voice. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't understand the language it spoke in. Another voice, less familiar but still known to him, answered the first. Something cool doused the flames. Darkness fell softly around him.

The darkness didn't seem to stay long enough though. Too soon the light came again. He was loose from the vines, but his skin itched now. He scratched, but it didn't seem to make a difference. He scratched and scratched until he realized he'd scratched right through the skin and was bleeding in areas all over his body. He panicked, looking around for someone to help him.

"There now, it's almost over," his mother told him. His sister sat, wide-eyed, at the bottom of his bed while his mother gently applied a soothing lotion over the red marks. "I guess that vaccine wasn't enough for you, now, was it? You got the pox anyway." She smiled down at him and dabbed a cool cloth against his forehead with her other hand.

You're not real, something in his mind realized suddenly. He slowly began to cut through some of the haze of his mind, understanding that what he saw was either a dream or hallucination. He looked down at his sister, who looked to be about 6 years old when he knew her to be an adult now. His last memory of his mother had been in a hospital, where she had died. A part of him could barely breathe, seeing her there smiling at him. The other part of him knew that none of it was really happening. It was just a memory from when he had been a child.

He settled back and let the memory play for a little while before it seemed to drift away from him, and the darkness came again. This time, drawing him gently into a normal sleep.

He woke up slowly, ending up still feeling groggy at best. He was still in the hut, lying on furs and covered in a soft blanket. There was no lamp lit, and only the dimmest of light seeped through a gap in the covering over the door.

He was thirsty, but he was too exhausted to call out. He fell back asleep.

He woke again, this time not as slowly. There was more light--the door covering was open and it was daytime outside. There were two Rich'ti females in the room with him.

"How long?" he asked a little hoarsely. The females both looked at him, cocking their heads. One of them said a strange word. It took him a moment to translate it: speaking.

"Oh!" he asked again, this time in Rich'ti rather than English. He felt foolish for the mistake.

"Eight days. You have made an outstanding recovery. Your body is very good at healing, and reacted strongly to the drug. We were afraid it was too strongly at first, but if you're able to speak there must not have been any lasting problems."

One of them helped him sit up. He needed help more because of weakness than because of pain. He was stiff and aching, but the movement itself didn't hurt. The other handed him a bowl of water, reminding him to start slowly.

The two of them exchanged a look while he was drinking and one of them nodded and left the hut. A few moments later, Maruke came through the doorway. To Kevan's surprise, Sarsh'ta followed right behind him. The other female that had been in the hut left when they arrived. Only a few moments after they entered, Eesh'ket joined them as well.

Maruke was the first to speak, after he took a cursory look at his scanner.

"Good to have back, Kevan. You did both better and worse than we expected. Once you have your strength back, you should only need to be somewhat cautious about damaging the newly healed tissues and bones. I don't want to think about what all you were seeing while the drug did it's work though. You're hallucinations and dreams seemed quite vivid. You will find you are bruised in a few places from us having to hold you down."

Kevan nodded, realizing that the cast-like materials had already been removed and there was nothing more than a few lightweight bandages remaining on some of the areas that had been damaged the most. Someone had obviously been helping keep his muscles active because he didn't feel as if they had atrophied. He turned his attention towards Sarsh'ta and saw that she had obviously suffered some injury herself since he'd last seen her. There were many dark areas where he could tell she was bruised beneath the fur, and bandages on one arm and around a portion of her torso.

"What happened to you?" he asked with some alarm.

"Sudden and unexpected change of government," she told him. "I was busy trying to organize a more detailed search for you when Logur killed Gertat. I know you've heard some of it. Logur then had me brought before him and tried to demand that I publicly admit to being a traitor and betraying the Rich'ti people. I refused." She did a half-hearted smiling nod as she indicated her injuries. "He was very determined. He might have won eventually if Agronet hadn't shown up. Agronet still has a lot of respect among most Rich'ti communities. I'm trying to convince him he needs to challenge Logur. He's all but challenged him already when he found out what Logur was doing to me. Our mating on the ship was successful, so Agronet has a vested interest in my well-being right now."

She looked a little smug over that political move and it was all Kevan could do to not raise an eyebrow.

Maruke made some final grunting noises at his scanner before nodding at Kevan and Eesh'ket and leaving. Once he was gone there was enough room for the leader and Sarsh'ta to sit down next to Kevan, and they did. He noticed that Sarsh'ta seemed to be moving a stiffly too.

"So how did you get out here?" he asked her.

Author's Note

P.S. - My personal blog at www.rayndragon.com is currently undergoing technical difficulties for some reason. In case anyone wondered why I didn't post last night. Something on the server side is bugged - hopefully it will be back up soon.

"Logur can't afford to get rid of Agronet and they both know it. Logur had me arrested, and was going to do a show trial before branding and exiling me. Agronet has people loyal to him in the prison, and got me brought out here ahead of schedule. At least until things calm down.

"You see, one of Agronet's prior mates was exiled. He has been observing these areas for some time. He knows how many Rich'ti are out here. The government estimates are very, very wrong. He hasn't bothered correcting them."

"So, what, he dropped you out here just hoping you'd be safe?"

"Not quite," she said with a roll of her head. "He gave me a name to ask for. Shir'an and Ar'shan and I have had quite a bit to talk about since I was dropped off... Ar'shan is their daughter."

"Ar'shan? She's the one who first starting treating me here," he said, startled by the coincidence.

"Yes, I've thanked her for that. She was rather amused to hear that we were connected not only by Agronet but by you as well. I was able to explain some things to her."

"I thought Rich'ti children were raised by the father's community. Why was Ar'shan exiled with her mother?" Kevan asked.

"She wasn't exiled. Shir'an was still pregnant when she was exiled. The exiles have a few contacts within the cities, I've found out, so she was able to get word to Agronet. He was still much younger in his career at the time and could not get permission to have his daughter brought back. Once someone has been exiled, most consider them to no longer be Rich'ti generally."

"Rich'ti fathers tend to have a vested interest in their offspring," she continued. "It's a matter of pride if a male's children are successful as they were raised within the male's community. It's a matter of pride for mother's too, of course, as the child's first moments were within the mother's womb and the first year the child's life is so dependent upon the mother's milk. But fathers have always been exceptionally protective in nature amongst us. Agronet was unwilling to just forget that he had a child out here. They've never seen each other, but Shir'an was able to get messages to him from time to time in the beginning. Once Ar'shan got old enough, she began sending messages too. He occasionally drops packages with messages for her when he can."

Kevan shook his head in surprise. "She's an adult now. He's been trying to keep tabs on her all this time even though he's never met her?"

"I had no idea," Sarsh'ta said, nodding. "Who mates with whom is considered a personal choice, not a matter of public record. What I read in his file included an inquiry relating to the exiled Rich'ti but it was such a small mention I didn't think anything of it."

"Well I suppose that means that this particular community is less likely to be forgotten if the Brey-hahd attack," Kevan commented with a nod towards Eesh'ket, who had remained silently listening.

"That does not mean that the rest of them are not at risk," Eesh'ket replied. "We may not get along all the time, but we do not leave each other to die when disaster is upon us."

Technical Difficulties

RaynDragon

"Okay, so what do we do now?" Kevan asked.

"We?" Eesh'ket questioned.

"Do I have less to lose in this?" Kevan countered.

Sarsh'ta laughed. "You will find our human friend will surprise you in a number of ways, if you haven't noticed that already. Besides, as the human ambassador, shutting him out could have political results later.

"Sometimes he tries to hard, but I like him," Eesh'ket said after a moment's pause.

"It seems to me," Kevan said, "the first thing we'll have to do is get Logur out of power. Then we bring the exiles home so you can be one united people again. Then we get serious about this war finally. You don't seem to be winning it. But just as one united Rich'ti people will be stronger than separate groups, an alliance is stronger than two separate races."

He left Sarsh'ta's 'ambassador' comment alone for the time being. Technically he wasn't. He was just here to observe and make recommendations for the ambassador that would likely follow once some kind of alliance had been finalized. He hadn't originally expected to be here for life. He wondered now if maybe he'd like to.

"I tried to convince Agronet that he should take power from Logur for now, but he was very resistant," Sarsh'ta said. "He holds enough respect that he could hold the seat until the next election, but he doesn't seem to want the job." She sighed with an obvious level of frustration. "He can be so stubborn sometimes!"

"We need to talk to him. How do we get him out here?" Kevan asked.

"We have a few contacts in the cities, but none high enough to get a message directly to him," Eesh'ket said.

"Pergute!" Kevan exclaimed, remembering the brief moment in his room. "If we can get a message to Pergute, he should be able to get it to Agronet."

"Pergute?" Sarsh'ta asked, looking confused. "I don't think he's going to be getting messages to anyone that high up right now. He's going to be laying low until this all blows over in order to not see all our research on your race destroyed."

"No. He's got contacts," Kevan told her. "He was able to tell me briefly, but my room was bugged so he couldn't let me know much. He was involved in something to support Gertat. He tried to warn me that I was in danger but I don't think he anticipated an attack as soon as it happened." He remembered Pergute giving the driver a once-over before leaving, but the Rich'ti hadn't seemed to find anything unusual about him. Obviously Logur's plan had been well laid out. Kevan wondered just how many Rich'ti had been involved in the plot to kill him were also involved in Logur's plot to become Takor.

"Your room wasn't bugged!" Sarsh'ta exclaimed. "I would have known about it if it had been. I was very involved in the preparations for your arrival. And, as for Pergute..." she trailed off, shaking her head.

"Your people have been spying on mine for a long, long time, Sarsh'ta," Kevan said somewhat irritably. "I went to give the schematics for my computer to your technician only to find out that he'd been looking at them for some time already! I don't disbelieve Pergute when he said my room was being monitored as well. It seems in the Rich'ti nature to spy on the other races instead of actually communicating with them!" He found himself getting somewhat more upset than he had meant to and took a deep breath after he had fnished. Sarsh'ta's look was one of surprise. Eesh'ket seemed slightly amused.

"I..." Sarsh'ta seemed at a loss for words.

"If we're going to win this war with the Brey-hahd, then you're going to have to start trusting me. No more listening devices, no more truth drugs," he spared a glance at Eesh'ket as he spoke. "You need to listen to what I'm saying instead of trying to interpret it in some other way than it actually sounded. And we need to stop wasting time with discussion here and get a message out to Agronet through Pergute. Can you do that?" He looked at Eesh'ket, leaving the ball in his court.

"Yes. I believe we can get a message to this Pergute if Sarsh'ta can give us an idea of where to find him," Eesh'ket nodded slowly. "What should this message say?"

"Hmmm," he said, needing to think. "We need him here, so we can talk to him. We need a plan to propose to him. We'll need a way to unseat Logur and put either Agronet, or someone equally trustworthy, in his place.

"Then we need a strategy for fighting the Brey-hahd--something that hasn't been tried before. If we can't beat them outright, then we at least need to hold out until help can arrive. And for that, the sooner I can get a message out the better.

"If the government here is willing to commit to there being a treaty of some kind after the war, then my government should be willing to commit to a war-time alliance. Obviously you'll need to allow our ships in your space."

Sarsh'ta looked caught off guard and Eesh'ket looked stunned, and didn't respond right away. "Do you have any idea how much more complicated it is than that?"

Kevan turned to Sarsh'ta, "You've said before there are many kinds of challenges. In our elections the people all cast votes. The challenge cast is who has the most popular support. There is also a history of those challenges coming in the form of who has the most military backing.

"Now, I'm guessing that in his own right Agronet is charged with the safety of Rich'ti space. If Logur won't agree to changes in order to beat the Brey-hahd, then he's putting your whole race at risk. Agronet should have him arrested, at least for the time being, on those grounds if nothing else. If Agronet has the power to do it, and is able to, then he wins the challenge and by rights should be in charge. Couldn't that be one way to look at it?"

"Nothing like that has ever been done before!" Sarsh'ta protested. "What Logur did is even rare. Most Takor have gained the position by going through the regular trials and proven themselves to be the most capable and worthy of the position. There have been only a few points in history when a Takor has lost a death challenge like this. Most times when there is a death challenge, the Takor successfully defends his position. But even those are rare. The only logical way that Agronet can take the position from Logur right now would be to challenge him as he did Gertat."

"And what if Logur cheats?" Kevan countered. "If it's possible he cheated against Gertat, then it's likely he'd do it again with Agronet. He's playing dirty here to begin with. We don't want to see him kill the most powerful ally we currently have by some trickery when there might be a way to avoid a physical confrontation altogether."

"He has a point there," Eesh'ket nodded. "Without Agronet on our side, we lose all leverage with the population we might have. Are you so sure he could win a challenge, assuming Logur actually fights fairly?"

"If the fight is fair, I have no doubt he will win," she replied, sighing. "But if he cheats to win, we do lose everything. Agronet is honorable. He would certainly fight fairly himself, but that would leave him vulnerable if Logur does not."

"Then we need a legal way to remove Logur from power," Kevan said. "By closing off relations with my people, he is putting yours at risk. I know that convincing the rest of the Rich'ti of that could be tricky though. We need something that will get Logur out of power and Agronet in very quickly. What if Agronet could prove that Logur cheated in the fight with Gertat?"

"That's not going to happen," Sarsh'ta replied, looking angry. "Logur had Gertat's body burned almost immediately after winning the fight. Logur declared him a traitor and did not allow any burial rites or rituals to occur. There was no chance of any medical inspection either. Gertat's home community was in an uproar over it. And anyone that may have helped Logur isn't going to talk while he is in power."

We will now pause for a brief intermission...

Rayndragon

Kevan didn't know what to suggest next. He wasn't supposed to have to make decisions like this. He was supposed to be able to get messages back and forth readily. Cut off like this, he wasn't sure what they'd want him to do.

He slouched down a little, thinking. Of course, he mused, they'd probably advise him to do nothing and wait it out. He could act as an advisor, except that he didn't have any expertise they needed.

With their normal election process compromised, what other options can I suggest? he asked himself. Military coup, revolution, assassination--history was full of those, but it didn't seem like any of them were going to work.

"I guess we need to find a way to make sure he doesn't cheat," he eventually said. "How can we do that?"

"Make it very public, for one," Sarsh'ta suggested.

Kevan snapped his fingers when an idea came to him. The Rich'ti gave him an odd look. "Cheating properly takes preparation and planning. Whether it's taking a drug to increase his own performance, or planting one to decrease Agronet's. We need the challenge to happen in a public forum, at an unexpected time. And not a 'tomorrow at sunrise' kind of thing, but a 'right here, right now' kind of thing. Somewhere too public for Logur to decline or delay. Somewhere in view of your news media would be ideal."

"There are plenty of functions Logur will attend that would be public enough," Sarsh'ta suggested. "Although Agronet is not scheduled to attend any of them that I am aware. He's in strategy meetings and organizing our military efforts right now."

"Their military experts," Eesh'ket said suddenly. "You're in exile now. It would be good for you to start recognizing that Sarsh'ta."

Kevan saw Sarsh'ta's shoulders rise in a slightly defensive position, as if she felt she were about to be challenged and was making ready. She turned to look at Eesh'ket.

"If you are planning to rejoin with the Rich'ti of the cities, then perhaps it is you who needs to change their thinking. The Brey-hahd are unlikely to make the distinction."

"I have allowed you a lot of leeway here, pechute, because of your connections. But your prior position commands no authority here. The human can speak for himself, and doesn't require you to translate for him." Kevan could see that Eesh'ket's body was tensing in one of an offensive position, although he made no motion to move yet.

"I don't think you understand just who you're dealing with, outcast - " Sarsh'ta began.

"Enough! Children please!" Kevan said, managing to keep his tone just below actually yelling at them. "We don't have time for you to quarrel over who's more important here. The Brey-hahd are on the moon right now, possibly planning their attack on this planet. And the Rich'ti currently making the decisions about that problem is likely to get us all killed from the sound of it. Can we focus on the situation at hand please?" They both looked at him with some measure of astonishment.

"I'm starting to think the reason the Brey-hahd have gotten this far is that you are all too busy arguing over who gets to press the trigger," he finished, throwing his hands up in frustration. "Eesh'ket, please send a message to Agronet, insisting that he come and meet with us as discreetly as possible. I'll speak to him when he gets here. Sarsh'ta..." he trailed off, realizing he didn't know what to have her do right then. He thought for a moment before continuing.

"Sarsh'ta, why don't you find out from Ar'shan just how different some of the culture out here is from what you are accustomed to and help fill me in on that. If these people are going to be returning to the cities to help fight the war, then we're going to want to brief them on what to expect as well as brief the city folk so there can be less difficulties."

"I - " Sarsh'ta began, seeming as if she was about to protest. He cut her off before she could say more.

"I, however, will be getting dressed and having some food. It's hard to do all this planning when you're hungry. Afterwards, I'd like to speak with you, Eesh'ket, about the other communities that are out here."

He tried to leave no room for argument, tossing the covers aside and grabbing the pile of folded clothes up. He clenched his teeth as he slid his legs into the pants, realizing that he was still in some pain even though he was doing far better than before he'd taken the drug. There were bruises all over his arms and legs and some across his torso as well. It reminded him briefly of his days in gravball, and wasn't more than he could technically handle. As he yanked the pants on and fastened them closed, Eesh'ket rose and left the hut, giving Kevan an acknowledging nod as he did. Kevan hoped that it meant Eesh'ket was going to go and send the message.

"He'll need to know where to find Pergute," Kevan told Sarsh'ta. "None of this is going to succeed if we don't all work together."

Unlike Eesh'ket, Sarsh'ta gave him the Rich'ti equivallent of a frown as she rose and left. As he put his shirt on, he hoped she wouldn't be too upset with him. He was then distracted by the dishevelled nature of his clothes as he realized just how damaged they had become when he'd fallen. Not all of the blood stains had entirely washed out either, although some areas looked bleached from the efforts to clean them.

He didn't have his shoes, however, and he frowned at that before taking a deep, cleansing breath. He was very aware of the palmpad that still hadn't been returned, although so far he had gotten along well enough without it. Still, he reminded himself, there were going to be a lot of things coming up that he'd want to take notes on. His memory was pretty decent, but he was only human. He snickered a little at that. The expression had a very different meaning to him here.

He stepped out of the hut for the first time and was greeted by mottled sunlight spilling through a treetop canopy of subdued greens. There were other huts around, looking as though they'd been placed randomly. The huts were round, and most of them were low to the ground. He hadn't had to step up out of his, but it looked like most of them had floors a couple feet below the surface.

He saw cook fires in several areas, and smoke gently rising from about half the huts. There were lamps and torches on posts throughout the settlement, but of course none of those were lit then.

Each cook fire was being tended, and huts were being repaired, and gardens were being worked, and children ran and played. For a moment he felt like an anthropologist studying a primitive culture, but these were not primitives by any means.

He walked over to the closest cook fire. The ground was well cleared, but he still watched where he was putting his bare feet. There was a lone female turning big chunks of meat on spits. As the meat cooked she cut pieces and strips off which she set in a big serving bowl.

She didn't seem to notice him as he moved towards her, but then swung around to face him just before he would have gone around in front of her. She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment before speaking, and it almost felt as if she was appraising him to be the next to go on the spit. She rose from her crouch, knife still in her hand as she addressed him.

"So, you're the human. Been causing a lot of trouble here. I suppose you're wanting food next." She had a weathered look about her that had been unapparent when he'd approached her from behind. He doubted she was far from becoming one of the elders. Her eyes were mismatched - one green and one more of an amber - something he hadn't seen in any of the other Rich'ti he'd met thus far. As he began replying, she crouched down over the bowl and flicked some of the pieces out of it, onto the ground.

"Actually, I am hungry. If ..." he trailed off, looking at the small pile of meat sitting in the dirt. He sighed as she turned and resumed slicing the meat off the spit and carefully placing it into the bowl. His patience with some of the Rich'ti was really starting to wear thin. He moved around and reached for some of the meat sitting in the bowl instead, unwilling to allow the precedent to be set that he could be so easily dismissed. He noticed a few others watching the exchange as he picked a piece of meat out of the bowl.

More quickly than he would have expected, from what he'd seen of the Rich'ti so far, she turned and twisted her wrist around to bring the knife up against his throat. They stood there for a long moment, his hand on the meat and her knife against his neck, their eyes locked.

He forced his breathing to stay even and kept watching her eyes. He couldn't quite read them, but he knew if he backed down he'd lose, and he couldn't afford to lose. There were others watching. He shifted his feet just a little, she didn't seem to notice.

All at once he swept her legs out from under her with one of his while he pushed at her shoulder. She tried to lash out with the knife but was falling out of reach too quickly. She landed on her back. He hopped back expecting her to roll to her feet. His wrestling opponents usually did.

Apparently she wasn't a wrestler. She lay on her back, looking up at him stunned. He took his opportunity.

"Are you going to kill me over a few pieces of meat?" He still held some of it, and held it out for her to see. "Is this worth killing someone over? Have I done something to offend you? No, you didn't even give me the chance to. You were throwing meat on the dirt for me before I'd even had a chance to ask. Where I come from we treat animals better than that."

The female stood up, still brandishing her knife. There was a definite crowd watching. He wished he knew what she was thinking, but she was still unreadable to him.

"Well, if you're going to kill me, get it over with. You might as well, because until you people start behaving like a civilized race there's no chance you're going to stop the Brey-hahd, and when they're tired of abusing you for sport, and when they burn this planet to ashes from orbit... It'd hurt a lot less to die by a knife, I'm sure."

He took a bite of the meat. Through the mouthful he added, "And that meat's burning." After a deep breath he turned his back on her and started walking away. She didn't come after him.

He kept walking, not having any idea where he was headed, but not wanting to appear at all uncertain. He could feel Rich'ti watching him as he walked, their eyes weighing and measuring him with skepticism. He headed towards the other end of the camp, chewing the meat he had slowly as he mulled things over in his mind.

"Kevan?"

He turned to see Ar'shan gesturing him towards one of the larger huts, her head cocked as if both asking him to come but still wary of him at the same time. Repressing a sigh, he nodded his agreement and followed her into the hut.

Inside, was somewhat of a contrast to the scene he had just left behind him. Tools and devices were strewn about the room, some seeming carefully placed on mats made out of thick woven flat grasses, and others just sitting in piles of wires and plastic. Five Rich'ti sat inside, each on a similar grass mat, sitting in a semicircle. Three of them barely glanced up when Kevan entered the room before returning to tinkering with whatever device they held in their hands. One of those looked to be repairing a rifle, similar to what Kevan had seen some Rich'ti in the cities carrying.

The other two stood up when he entered, one holding Kevan's datapad. He winced when he saw it - it had obviously taken quite a beating when he had fallen. The heavy plastic casing had been more shattered than just cracked, although it appeared to have been melted back together in some places and glued in others. The Rich'ti handed it to him right away, and Kevan saw that the screen had been replaced with something that had a faintly greenish tint when held at certain angles. It looked clear, and Kevan wasn't sure if it would work, as he could now see the mechanical bits inside the pad through it.

Without hesitation, Kevan switched it on and the clearish green darkened to a deep green that displayed a slightly wavery but accurate image that he would usually see when it was started up. The two Rich'ti standing before him watched him, seeming anxious as the datapad booted itself up.

"This is Nedrut and this is Segwed," Ar'shan told him, pointing to both of the Rich'ti in turn. "They have been doing what they could to repair your device for you."

"The writing is meaningless to us, so we couldn't be sure if it was displaying right or not," Nedrut said. Kevan tapped one of the icons with a finger, the stylus had been lost. Text from one of his notes came up, and while it was not quite right, it was legible. "Pretty good, all things considered. Thank you," he said, bowing.

"So, how much technology do you have here?" he asked. "Looking around, it almost seems...primitive, but obviously it's not. Just how much are you hiding?"

Segwed looked to Ar'shan, who nodded. "From time to time ships fly over. Sometimes it's to drop off a new outcast, sometimes it's just checking up on us. All they see are small, scattered villages, with torches and crude oil lamps and open cook fires. They see nothing to suggest we might be a threat to them."

"Come with me, human," Ar'shan said, "I will tell you more."

She led him out. He thanked the two technicians once more before following her out. They didn't follow. She led him to another hut. She lit one lamp, and it barely lit the interior after she'd closed the door flap. She set the lamp down and sat, gesturing at a spot for him to sit. He sat facing her, the lamp not quite between them.

"Thousands of Rich'ti have been outcast over hundreds of years. Fewer are being outcast than were at the beginning, but over time populations grow. We are a competitive people in an environment that is not gentle. As the outcast tribes found their identities it was not long before birth rates had to be high for simple survival. They have remained that way. Mating out here is fierce and frequent, and the tribes have swelled over the long years as a result.

"We have been preparing for a long time now to insist on being recognized as Rich'ti, and to end the casting out. Some use words like rebellion--we have been unsure what to do, only sure that we knew we must do something. The yearning to act is in our nature, and we can not simply sit out here and hide much longer. It is an itch we must scratch or die.

"We have long suspected it would be an unusual event that would propel us into motion. Now we have the Brey-hahd invasion and an off-worlder; two extraordinary events. Unusual is not enough of a word for it."

"Recognized how?" Kevan asked. "Just what is it you plan to do? Saying it was a rebellion would suggest you were planning to attack the other Rich'ti, but you don't sound like that's quite what you are planning."

"No. Most of us do not expect to attack them or try to upset their government. There are a few, in the more hostile communities, who harbor anger, but they are outvoted by the majority. We are tired of being considered castoffs, and tired of receiving their criminals to add to our communities, although we are in the habit of giving everyone who arrives here a chance to join us. We have more direct ways of dealing with crime here than just tossing people aside and pretending they don't exist." She snorted, as if disgusted with the very idea, before continuing.

"We want to build cities of our own, without fear that they will try to prevent it. We want trade with them. There are many goods we cannot reproduce here, no matter how much ingenuity we use. And we want them to stop looking at us as the dredges of their society. We're our own community in our own right now. Just because someone was born of a castoff, does not mean that they are automatically someone who would commit a crime. And there are many who were cast out for petty political reasons and never committed any real crime beyond disagreeing with someone who had more power than they did at the time."

"So, how do you plan on accomplishing this?" Kevan could see that the issue was a personal one for Ar'shan, and was curious what they had in mind to resolve it.

"We had planned on a timed movement where all communities would move to sit at the edge of the nearest city until someone was willing to take us seriously," Ar'shan explained. "In the process, we would place ourselves in the paths of the heavy cargo vehicles that transfer large amounts or heavy goods from one city to another. This would interrupt their local trade and gain their attention. We hoped that eventually someone would come to negotiate with us, rather than use direct military force. And, if military force was used, we would attempt to defend ourselves. We've been developing some defensive armor that seems to be holding up well when we test it against the most current of the weapons we've obtained."

"But that plan required more time and patience than we now currently have. We can no longer sit quietly at the edges and hope for a peaceful resolution." She looked frustrated to Kevan.

He found it interesting seeing now that some of her features and fur coloring resembled Agronet. Thinking back on it, he realized that she had had some of the same mannerisms as Agronet had too, when he had first met him and he had been especially suspicious of Kevan. But much of her approach to the situation felt different to him. It made him wonder just how much of that was her mother's influence, and how much was an aspect of Agronet that he may not have had the opportunity to see yet. He hoped the latter, despite Sarsh'ta's indications that Agronet was somewhat willful and prideful. Ar'shan seemed to have accepted Kevan in a way that Agronet hadn't if she was telling him all of this.

"Well, it was probably a good plan. It's just time for a different plan now," he said.

"Since it's just the two of us for a moment," he said after a deep breath, "maybe you can help me with something."

"What?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure this war has to be won in space, and not on the ground. That means ships. I think the ships you have aren't getting the job done, but building new ships is probably going to take too long to be an immediate solution. Even bringing the tribes back into Rich'ti society won't help that as much, because I'm guessing there aren't many out here with the training to be ship crew right away.

"That leaves my people. We have ships of our own, and as far as I know there are far fewer Brey-hahd attacks in our space. If they're concentrating here first, then my people should be sending ships here to help fight them.

"So that brings me to my point. There are probably a number of long-term strategies, but right now we need something shorter-term to keep your people alive. I honestly think that the only thing that's going to save you is to ask for help. From my people, and maybe from other races as well. How do I explain that so that Rich'ti will listen?"

Ar'shan thought about it for a minute before answering.

"It cannot be a plea for help. It has to be an offer for trade," she finally answered. "Between the different communities out here, we often make loose alliances when fighting breaks out. Usually the one doing the asking, also offers something in exchange for the assistance - mating rights with that community's women is a common one, to help keep our genetics from getting muddled with interbreeding. Other times it is a certain amount of food supply or some other supply need that the community has had a difficult time getting. We take it more like a trade agreement, with one of the communities providing a service instead of a commodity. I understand there is a certain level of trade done amongst the other Rich'ti as well. They trade between both communites and planets. Some of it must be for services rather than just goods."

"Getting past the precedent that we don't trade with aliens will be the difficult part," she continued. "I'm not entirely sure how to get past it. Your people have a service they can provide. You could figure out some form of payment, I'm sure. But you aren't Rich'ti, and that is a large problem. As you've already found out, some Rich'ti will go to great lengths to keep aliens out. We have to hope that those fears don't outweigh the fear of losing to the Brey-hahd. Not to mention that the national pride is being damaged by the failure to win this war on our own. But it will be less of an insult if it is a short-term trade arrangement, rather than cry for help. Perhaps if they come to understand that we 'outcasts' make such arrangements all the time, they will see it as less of an insult."

"How do I get past the fact that they are trading with an alien race though?" he wondered aloud. "I've already been met with skepticism, and some would even go so far as to try and kill me to get me out of Rich'ti space. How can I explain that they need to allow more of my kind into their space as part of this arrangement. For that matter, how do I get the skeptics to listen to me in the first place." He sighed, feeling frustrated again.

"Two things you'll need to do," she replied. "One is to gather those Rich'ti who's approval you've already earned, and keep them close to you. Let them speak for your character to the other Rich'ti. You don't have time to make friends with the entire Rich'ti people, and they will be more likely to listen to another of their own kind, rather than you."

"The second thing you'll need to do is make sure they understand the threat," she told him. "I'm starting to think that there has been a bit of a downplay on how badly we're losing the war against the Brey-hahd. Perhaps it's time to put some fear into these people. Gertat was worried enough to start considering options that were previously unthinkable. That tells me that things were getting very bad indeed. As a leader, I expect he didn't want to panic people. There is probably details that have been held back from the public for their own good. We will need to find out what they are and let the population know what it is we are facing if nothing is done to prevent it."

"That's the best I can think of right now," she said with a shrug. "I've never lived among the other Rich'ti, so I can't be sure how they will respond. I've only got so much information to go on. But they can't be too different from us, overall."

The lighting shifted as the door flap opened. "Ah, there you two are," Sarsh'ta said. She entered bearing two bowls of food.

"I thought maybe proper food would be appreciated. I hope I'm not interrupting anything," she said.

"Largely we are waiting," Ar'shan said. "It will take some time to get any response from Agronet. I'm sure you're eager to hear from him."

Sarsh'ta nodded as she sat. She handed a bowl to each of them, explaining she'd already eaten. The bowl had some of the meat he'd tasted before, plus some vegetables and potatoes. Kevan's stomach rumbled and he didn't waste time before starting to eat.

"How long do you think it'll be before we do hear something?" Kevan asked.

"Probably not until morning," Sarsh'ta suggested. Kevan shook his head at the delay.

They sat and ate in relative quiet until music began outside. When they were done eating they all stepped outside. The sun must have been mostly set. There was still some light filtering down from the treetops, but it had a sharp slant to it, and there wasn't much of it. Certainly not enough to cast shadows.

The shadows that were being cast were from the fires and torches lit throughout the settlement. There was a larger fire towards the center of the village, and the music was coming from that way. They moved towards it.

"Two more communities from other tribes arrived today," Ar'shan told him as they walked. "The nearby tribes have arrived and are camped nearby while we wait for the remaining communities from the further tribes to arrive. We have been doing a lot of trade right now with so many here. The musicians tonight are from one of the communities of the tribe just to our north. We've sent ours to their camp in exchange for the evening."

"You might want to prepare yourself for something, Kevan," Sarsh'ta added quietly. "There has been a lot of exchanges between the communities of mating rites too. We had not fully discussed the differences, culturally, between our races when it comes to mating and privacy. You may see some couples engaging in the activity tonight."

"I see," he replied. He was glad that the light was darker now and that they couldn't see his eyebrows raise at hearing that. It's a different culture. It's not an unheard of custom, it's just not something I am used to seeing, he reminded himself.

They approached the music and he saw that there was a large circular clearing with a fire in the center of it, burning brightly from within a stone-lined pit that had been dug. He noticed the musicians sitting off to one side, and across from them seemed to be a slightly raised area where Eesh'ket sat with a few other Rich'ti, separated some from the rest of the crowd that was gathering. Grass mats were being tossed down here and there and Rich'ti sprawled out across them to listen to the music. A ringed area around the fire remained clear of mats, however, and Rich'ti moved around in it to the beat of the drums.

The music itself was very drum-heavy, although there were also a couple of stringed instruments being plucked and some reed-like tubular instruments as well. To look at them, the instruments weren't really too different from what Kevan was accustomed to seeing in his own culture, and distinctly reminded him of some of the original Native American designs that were still being on the planet that they had colonized as their own during the Great Expansion. In traditional form, the Native Americans had set up the two habital moons as trading posts, terraforming the moons to be more lush and creating resorts and casinos and a vast array of gift shops selling the handcrafted arts made on the planet below. Few people were ever allowed to go down to the planet itself, however, and there were restrictions on what you could bring with you.

Eesh'ket waved them over, and he found himself following Ar'shan to go and sit in the raised section. To his surprise, Sarsh'ta moved off and took a place off to one side instead of joining them.

All the Rich'ti in this section were seated in pairs. Ar'shan sat next to Eesh'ket, and gestured to a spot nearby for him to take.

"It is customary at tribal gatherings for the community and tribe leaders to sit together. It can be leaders, or the eldest, or those sent to represent a community. Normally it is one male and one female, but you are the only representative for your people."

"I have talked to several of the others," Eesh'ket said softly, "and while your people are not a Rich'ti tribe or community, you do sit as representative for your people, so it is not wrong for you to sit here."

"Then I'm honored," Kevan said with a nod.

The music swelled, delaying further conversation. Rich'ti children ran through with bowls, handing out bits of sweet, slightly sticky meat. It almost seemed coated in candied honey, and was very tasty. Kevan licked his fingers clean and dried them on his pants.

Dancers whirled and circled around the fire. A song was sung, and the children chanted the chorus. It told the story of a hunter and the creature he was hunting. The hunter was a great hunter, and had seen a wonderful prize in the animal. The hunter and the animal danced, sometimes one leading and then the other.

In the end the hunter had the animal cornered and helpless. But the hunter had enough meat at his camp to bring home to his village, and the animal was too much for him to carry home alone. He thanked it for the dance at let it go free. Kevan stared at the fire for a moment, pondering what lessons Rich'ti might take from the story.

Kevan watched several more dances, each with themes relating to acts of triumph over difficult situations, or acts of compassion. There was more food served, one small bowl during each dance, and Kevan sampled each. He had a sudden reminiscence of eating popcorn at movies, based on the types of foods they served him. Some were sweet, as the sticky meat had been, and some were more snack-like in nature - nuts, seeds, and small chunks of fruits. Some items had been cooked, while others had not. Most of it he didn't recognize from his studies on Rich'ti foods while he'd been on the ship. A sideways glance at Sarsh'ta revealed that she didn't recognize all of it either, as he caught her picking through one bowl with a slight frown, and tasting it tenatively.

Eventually, however, he could no longer stifle his yawns as tiredness washed over him. He reminded himself that he'd only just been through a rapid recovery and his body would still be exhausted. He excused himself to Eesh'ket and Ar'shan, hoping that they would be understanding of his departure. He hadn't seen other Rich'ti leave the performance yet, although he had noticed several who appeared to be mating in the shadows as the night had gone on. He had averted his eyes and tried to appear as if he hadn't noticed anything unusual, silently thanking Sarsh'ta for the warning.

He made his way back to the hut he had been sleeping in before, having only a small amount of difficulty in finding it. Eventually, he recognized the area he had scuffled with the female, and was able to make his way back from there. He lowered himself gratefully down onto the mats, not bothering to take his clothes off before drifting into a deep sleep.

Chapter 9

He pushed himself up to sitting. It didn't hurt. There was only some residual soreness left, hardly an ache. He stood up slowly. There was a hint of light coming from the doorway. He was impressed by how effectively the door flaps blocked out light.

On his way out he inspected it. It was quite a bit wider than the doorway, and weighted to hold it in place. There was a felt-like backside to it that created part of the light seal. It was still night outside. There wasn't even a hint of approaching sunrise.

Stars were visible here and there in the dark canopy that made the sky feel so low. One of the moons was up, so there was enough light to creep around the camp by. His eyes were adjusted to darkness, if nothing else.

Fires had mostly died down to embers, although he saw that a few had been tended to some, and still flickered with low flames. At first he thought there was no one awake, but eventually he noticed a few guards here and there. Lone sentries either wandered or sat, staring off into the distance. They were listening, more than looking, he decided.

He approached one, trying to be quiet but not trying to be stealthy. He didn't want to surprise him, but he also didn't want to step on anything in the dark with his bare feet.

"What are you doing awake, human?" the sentry asked without turning to face him. The tone sounded more conversational than threatening.

"Where I come from the days are shorter, so I'm accustomed to sleeping through shorter nights than you," he explained. "Actually, I was needing something. How is ...waste handled here?"

The sentry laughed. "Oh, you want to do that yourself now that your up and about, eh?" He pointed towards a sheltered area. "Under there."

"Thank you," Kevan said, turning and heading towards it. The area was larger than most of the huts, and only the side towards the camp had walls and covered doorways, while the other side seemed to have more of a tall fence serving as a wall instead. Basket lanterns of hung just outside on the fenced area, which helped illuminate the inside of the shelter as well.

When he went through the doorway, he automatically put his hand up to his nose to try and keep out the stench of it, but was surprised to find it wasn't as bad as he had feared. There were mats down on the ground around a large pit in the center. Next to each mat was a pan-like item that looked similar to a human dustpan, as well as what looked like a large soup mug. There was also several wooden barrels, some with some kind of reddish powder and a couple of large spoons in them, and others that seemed to be filled with water and some bowls hung from hooks along the sides. A quick glance into the pit answered quite a few questions, and he made some assumptions on the other ones while taking care of business. The water seemed clean and he hoped it was as he washed his hands afterwards. He noticed a few towels hanging on pegs by the doorways on his way out and he dried his hands.

He was too awake just then to try and go back to sleep, so he made his way to one of the fires that still burned and sat beside it, pulling out his datapad for further inspection. He was relieved to see that he still had some battery power left, although he was getting a couple of error messages. He wasn't sure what they meant, although they didn't seem too serious so he ignored them while he entered in some of the notes he'd been mentally taking since the last entry he'd made. It took him several hours to do, and his battery power had diminished considerably from when he started.

He switched it off and blinked several times, realizing that there was more light. The sun was starting to come up, and Rich'ti were starting to come out of huts and move about the camp, beginning their morning routines.

They came out of their huts and mostly ignored him, which felt very odd. Again he felt like a scientist there to observe. Some went to the waste pit, some moved to cook fires, some went and relieved sentries. They didn't come out and stretch, they didn't come out yawning. They all came out looking ready for the day.

It wasn't a great many coming out at first, and Kevan suspected that when food was ready the great hut exodus would happen. There was less need for shifts than there were on the ship, so he expected meal times would be stretched out more. It also occurred to him that maybe they didn't just have three meals, that maybe they fit a fourth one into their longer day.

While he watched a smaller female working at a cook fire, he reminded himself that he'd be probably going to sleep before sunset. It would probably be by two or three of their hours, and they'd find that odd. He would probably need to explain human sleeping and eating schedules on quite a few occasions.

When he decided he'd sat long enough he got up and moved to the cooking female. He circled around a little bit on the way, so that he'd approach from across the fire from her rather than from behind. She had several spitted animals cooking, and was turning them in between times of cutting and chopping.

"Can I help?" he asked. "You look like you have more than enough to do."

"I usually have another helping me, but she's hurt and resting. You can turn those," she said, pointing to the spits. "They're supposed to be mainly turned all the time. You turn one, and then the next, and when you get to the last it's time for the first again. I haven't been able to do that."

"Then cut and chop, and I'll turn," he said, giving the first spit a half turn. The animals were about the size of chickens, and there were five to a spit. Eight spits were arranged on a rack so that they were all about the same distance from the heat. Each one could be moved up or down to adjust as needed.

After they'd each had a couple of turns, she stopped her cutting to baste the animals with a thick, yellowish sauce. "I'm Ish'ran, by the way. I know who you are."

"Yeah," he said, "it's not hard to figure that out."

"Is it true you've been to many many worlds?" she asked. She used a number, but he couldn't translate it in his head.

"I've been to several worlds," he answered, not remembering off the top of his head how many he'd actually been to so far.

"What is it like?" she asked. "Going to other worlds, I mean?"

"Well, I'm not overly fond of the space travel part myself, actually," he answered. "But some find that part of it fascinating too. Mostly I enjoy seeing different planets and exploring the different cultures that other races have."

"How do we compare to the other races you've met?"

"Well, your kind hasn't had the influences of other races in the same ways that so many have. I find it interesting to see how many similarities between our cultures there are anyway."

"In what ways?"

"I think there are a lot of similarities between Rich'ti and my own race, partly because we are similar enough in physical form. A lot of the tools you use on a regular basis, as in cooking," he indicated the spits and the knife she was using to chop with, "are not unlike the tools we use for similar functions. And yet, you approach some other things very differently too."

"Are you angry with the Rich'ti who tried to kill you?" She looked up at him as she basted the meat again. He thought about it for a moment before answering her.

"Yes and no," he replied. "I understand that they are afraid of the changes that could happen just from my being here. But I also don't feel that it justified trying to kill me, either. I didn't come here to make changes, I came here to build friendship between our races. It doesn't have to be so complicated."

"Are most alien races mean and evil? You don't seem very mean," she said as he started another round of turning spits. He turned the whole set working out how best to answer.

"With animals, there are some that are gentle and eat plants, and there are some that are hunters and eat other animals. So there's lots of different kinds. There are also lots of different kinds of aliens. No two races are entirely alike."

"Some races are gentle and peaceful and avoid violence in any form, and they would find the Rich'ti rough and violent. There are some that are interested mostly in science and technology, some are more interested in art or trade. Some like to explore, some like to stay alone. And some, like the Brey-hahd, are interested in conquest and war."

"The pechute are losing the war against the Brey-hahd, aren't they?" she asked somewhat quietly.

"Whether it seems like it or not, it's your war too. And it does look so far like the Rich'ti are losing, yes. Other races are fighting them to. My people are. It's the Rich'ti way not to ask others for help, and not to trust aliens. But if this village was being attacked by a large tribe, wouldn't it make sense to gether nearby villages to help? That's what the elders need to understand."

"I said before I didn't come here to change things, and I can't force or create change. But I'll be honest with you, some change is good, and I think some change is going to be necessary if your people want to survive. Maybe I didn't come here to make change. But the Brey-hahd sure have."

"Why?" she asked, cocking her head at him. "What do the Brey-hahd want from us?"

"I don't know for sure," he replied. "They seem to be mining minerals from some planets. Maybe they have a need for something specific. Maybe they have just decided that the other races don't matter and should be gotten rid of. They haven't been willing to talk so far, so we don't know for certain why they came. But we do know that they don't have peaceful intentions."

His mind went back to the bit of footage he had seen of the one planet burning. He wondered if that planet would ever recover and become habitable again, and if so - how long it would take. He shuddered inwardly at the idea of that happening back at his home planet of Tangra Prime. He'd gotten some information off with his initial report, but had no idea how his government would react to not having gotten another report yet. If his estimates were correct, he should have gotten two more off already. They would be trying to contact him or the Rich'ti to find out what happened. What the Rich'ti said in return, if anything, would potentially make things more difficult in arranging help later on. Kevan felt frustrated just sitting there turning spits when the Brey-hahd loomed so close by.

"But you have peaceful intentions, yes?"

He was broken from his reverie by Ish'ran's voice and he made himself focus again on the conversation at hand.

"Yes!" He exclaimed. "My race want trade. Goods, and maybe technology or medicines we could exchange. We also would like to get to know your race better. Humans have always been explorers by nature. We love to see new things and meet new races. We believe there is much yet that the universe has to show us."

"It can also be a dangerous thing to be so curious," a voice behind him said, chuckling. "If one ventures too far out into the jungle, they may meet the beast that eats them."

Kevan turned to see Eesh'ket walking up. To Kevan's surprise, the leader came and sat down next to him, taking one of the spit handles and slowly starting to turn it.

"And how are you feeling today, Kevan?" He asked with a look that Kevan couldn't quite pinpoint.

"I thought it was impolite to ask that question?" Kevan replied. "Although I expect some things might be different here than in the cities."

"Indeed," Eesh'ket nodded. "Here it is wise to know how fit your warriors are before sending them on the hunt. Thus, it is not out of place for one such as myself to inquire after someone's well-being."

"Good point," Kevan agreed. "With my people as well it's common to ask others how they are. It's considered respectful, and shows that you care about them. I'm feeling pretty good, actually. Still a little stiff and sore, but no complaints."

"It helps that the gravity here is less than back home. The planet I'm from has more gravity than here, while Earth, our home planet has less. I'm in better shape than a lot of humans, and that's probably helping my recovery as well."

"Yes, you responded to the healing drug a lot better than we expected," Eesh'ket said.

"Our scientists would very much like to study some of that. It's interesting things like that we'd like to trade for."

"There are probably things your people have that we'd be interested in as well," Eesh'ket added, "but these things will take time."

"It might also depend on who ends up in power," Kevan suggested. Eesh'ket nodded in agreement.