“They’re coming?” I said.
“Yes,” Andrew said, from the communicator. “I just got word. Time to get dressed.”
In spite of all of my pleas Bethany had kept wearing the skirt, which she now took off as she and Adelphe got dressed in these long robes, which covered them almost completely up. Andrew looked at me, and laughed. “Don’t worry, Sport, she’ll be able to get undressed again tonight, after we get these Rihalan’s settled down.”
I blushed, embarrassed that he would have thought I was worried about that! Besides, Bethany looked wonderful in her robes. The girls had made them out of bark, so they would be light and cool. There were these hood, things, and the whole thing was one piece (not really, stitched together. I know, I helped do some of the stitching) all long sleeved, long skirt pretty much to the ground, and all tied together with a belt around the waist.
The end result was kind of like one of those old fashioned monk’s robes. Adelphe looked kind of funny, as her belt had to go way up high, right under her breasts, really. But Bethany looked simply wonderful.
“Sorry I haven’t built that shelter, yet,” Andrew said. “Hopefully Carl, the boys, and I can get to it tomorrow… well, I can. Carl and the boys will be busy with blinds for the next few days, I guess.”
I nodded. And then all of our heads snapped up. “Boys, to your places,” I said.
I had decided that, after the last attack, the one that killed my parents, it would be good to have sentries out, at least for practice. The boys raced to the positions we had determined, and I went to mine.
I was, we were, supposed to be scanning the jungle for threats, but I, at least, spared a few glances for the descending shuttle. It was a specialty troop transport shuttle, I knew, with more room in it for people… less dedicated to particularly carrying cargo, water, that kind of thing. Being bigger than our normal shuttle it hovered higher up, at least a hundred feet or so, and the zip lines seemed to come down forever.
Four men came down first, down the corner lines. These men were in pretty standard soldier wear, nicely camouflaged brown and green. They thumped down and then stepped back, standing in the four corners of area we had prepared for landings.
Seconds after they had come down, the other lines filled up, and men began zipping down then. At least, I assumed they were men, and Rihalans, although the way they were dressed, had I not known they were men I would have assumed they were girls, in their long robes.
I looked back, then, and scanned the jungle floor. I saw several Juvies and a whole pack attacking and killing a big water lizard, but no adults. I glanced back, briefly, when the shuttle took off, but I stayed at my post, watching, for the whole speech after that; despite my desire to turn around.
“Soldiers!” a voice came, loud even over the jungle sounds. “Welcome to Hell!”
I expected laughing at that, but none came. The voice was standard New Genevan, very much like my father’s had been, but the man speaking sounded almost angry. “You all know the rules, but I shall repeat them anyway. This is the pathfinder base, the foreigner base. You may come here only when sick or injured, and you may not go inside. No looking at the women, no talking to the women.”
“You shall report all of your kills with your camera-pod. “
“I will review your reports every day. Dereliction of duty shall be punished by whipping. Talking to the women will be punished by whipping. Looking at a woman, or touching a woman, will be punished by death. You will take orders from me, any of my subordinates, or any pathfinder. You are mere soldiers, everyone here outranks you, even the women!”
There was a bit of murmuring at that, and the officers voice got louder. “Disobedience to my instructions will be punished with death. Questioning my instructions will be punished by whipping.”
The man stepped back, and a boy standing at another corner started speaking… speaking in Rihalan, which I understood only partially. He was repeating the same speech, except where the one man had said ‘I’ or ‘me’ the boy was saying ‘The father’ or ‘the commander’ or some such. When he finished he yelled out, “Do you understand?” and the crowd yelled out “We do,” or some such. Then ‘will you obey’, followed by ‘we will.’
“Hold ranks,” the father said, and turned to Andrew.
“Carl!” Andrew said to me after a few seconds discussion, and I raced over to him.
“You will need to replace him on lookout,” Andrew said to the officer, and the officer, nodding, sent one of the soldiers over to my place.
“Pick four soldiers and take them to post 21,” Carl said, nodding at the waiting soldiers.
I turned back to them, getting for the first time, a look at the ‘soldiers’. They were staring straight ahead, and I walked forward to ‘inspect’ them a bit. The youngest of them looked older than I was, and I pitied them for their unmarried state. Of course, I pitied their wives more. “You, you, you and you,” I said, using my Rihalan. “Come.”
The followed obediently enough, turning after me. But I felt their eyes on my back as they struggled after me with their enormous backpacks. What must they think of me, they in their long, now soaking wet, robes, me all but naked, and painted brown, green and purple.
Well, I didn’t care what they thought of me, as long as they did their jobs. Post 21 was almost the farthest post, no doubt why Father had had me take them. In a few seconds they were cursing as they pushed their way through the various branches. I didn’t let up, either. At least, until I had to, when the lead man was almost out of sight. Then I sighed, got myself a seat, and watched them.
“What are you?” the lead man asked, when he had come up and while we waited for his bretheren to arrive. His eyes traveled over me. I suppose I must look a sight, but his question was rude, and I answered in turn.
“Your superior,” I said. “You will address me as Luitenant Tome’ and will speak respectfully at all times or I will have you whipped.”
“You are naked,” he said, and I knew I was going to have problems with this one.
“You are stupid,” I said. “And slow, and clumsy. It is a good thing the Bn can’t climb trees or you would all be eaten already.”
“No pig of a Bn would dare to try to eat me,” he said, and I laughed, turning back and starting to climb. Post twenty one was at least two levels up from here, and was looking forward to them trying to climb in those stupid robes.
“Here!” I said, an hour later. “This is your shelter. We have prepared blinds in the area, much lower. They will deliver food once a week to the staging area where we met. Hopefully that is the only time we will see you.”
“What is this?” the man said. He was the fastest climber and every time we had stopped he had spoken to me. If he spoke that same way back at the house I would have him whipped.
“This is your house,” I said to him, chuckling internally. “Feel free to remodel.”
I had had to say that last in Standard, as I didn’t know the Rhialan word for ‘remodel’. I had the last word, as he seemed too shocked to answer, and I was out of there, disappearing in the jungle, before he could answer.
Ten minutes later I was back, to a crowd that was about half there. Benjamin hurried up to me, with a paper… a bit of bark really, in his hand, and a charcoal which he was using to mark it. “Your next group goes to post twelve,” he said. “Uncle said…”
Thanks, Benny,” I said, turning back to the group. “You, you, you, you… with me.”
This trip was very different. The lead boy on this trip… not that I’m saying he outranked the others, they seemed to have no rank insignia, but after our first few seconds, the one that started asking me questions… what this plant was, what that lizard was, how often we saw enemy, what my blowpipe and darts were. His voice didn’t sound mocking, either.
“Why are you naked?” the boy following him asked, as we waited for the fourth boy to come up.
“It rains all the time here,” I said. “If you are wise, you will be ‘naked’ tomorrow, as well.”
“What are your clothes made from?” the lead boy asked.
“The bark from a tree,” I said. “It is easy to make.”
“And your skin?” the third boy asked. “Surely you are not normally that color. Your father was not.”
“No. We make the dye from leaves and bark and things. It makes us harder to see.”
“That it does,” the lead boy said. “Perhaps you could show us those leaves?”
I looked at him, but he didn’t seem to be kidding. He leaned forward to me, and whispered in my ear, “I would like to be one of those who returns home… after valiantly killing many enemy. Pride is sometimes the enemy of success. Where are the women to blush at seeing my nakedness here? Where is the father to scoff at my skin, tho it be purple and green? It is the successful, not the prideful, who will return, with great honors, to a wife.”
“Surely some are wise,” I said, remembering a Rihalan proverb. “I will gladly return… here… to show those that are wise the secret of leaves and bark. But now we have to finish our trip.”
These boys, following the lead of their leader, did not scoff at their shelter, although it was, if anything, worse than that of the previous one.
Twice more I took groups out until I was done, and got to go into the house. “Hello!” I said, coming through the door. One of the boys from the shuttle was there, sitting at the table, talking to Bethany and Justina. He was dressed in his soldier suit, and they were still all wrapped up in their dresses, although with the hoods pushed back.
He hopped up and came over to me, his voice slipping into heavy NG dialect. “Brother,” he said, slapping me on the back. I saw Adelphe and Bethany staring at me as I slapped him back. We didn’t use this greeting much on ship, but I knew of it, and had used it, for example when new recruits came from NG.
“Brother,” I said back. Doing my best to match his dialect, and getting looks from Adelphe and Bethany, “You are still here?”
“I am staying, an you be willing,” he said.
“You and yours?” I asked, and he blushed.
“Not yet wife I be having,” he said. “Some are not so lucky. Mine wife is to come from another unit, and she is not yet arriving.”
“I weep for you,” I said, and he laughed at this, our famous mocking sympathy. “Glad we are to have you. Whipping I almost was one of yours.”
His face got serious, and he shifted back to Standard. “We will need to whip them, and more than one. We will get no respect from them otherwise. They despise us officers, but they have none of their own. With each group it is the same. My father has inducted three groups of them and it has always been the same. Let me know the name of the offender.”
“I didn’t get his name, actually,” I said. “Post twenty one, the oldest one, or he acted like it.”
“We didn’t write down the posts,” he said. “Oh, well, we’ll have an opportunity. It will be a little tricky though, we’ve never done anything quite like this. Tomorrow, if you can, I need you to take me on a tour.”
“I’ll need to visit as many of the posts as I can, tomorrow,” I said. “And show them their blinds. You are welcome to come. You have met mine, by the way?” I said, lapsing back into dialect and waving at Bethany.
“Yes, she told me she was the wife of the brave and handsome young pathfinder,” he said. “I told her that I knew no handsome pathfinders but, as there was only one young one…”
I hit out at him and, within seconds, we were having a little unarmed combat training. “This isn’t fair!” he called out, after a few seconds, “You are far too slippery!”
Everyone laughed and just then, Andrew came in with the boys. “Having fun?” he asked me.
“They’re speaking weird, anyway,” Adeleph said. “I canna understan them!”
We all laughed with that and sat down to dinner. “What is your name, anyway?” I asked our visitor.
“Glenn,” he replied. “Glenn McDougal.”
“Welcome, Master McDougal,” Andrew said. “Let me introduce you to my family. You have met my adopted son, Carl, and his parten… wife, Bethany. This is my adopted daughter, Justina, and my partnére, Aliyah. Growing inside her is my son or daughter… she won’t tell me which.”
“You didn’t want to know!” Aliyah protested, and Andrew grinned.
“Tell us about your family,” Andrew said.
“I am the oldest son,” Glenn said. “I have three other brothers, who you saw today, and three sisters. My mother is great with child now, as well. We are soldiers, obviously, assigned to officer the Rhialans.”
“Not an easy job?” Andrew hazarded.
“No,” Glenn said. “But it has its moments. And it’s important. They give us a lot of soldiers, and we use them for a lot of the harder jobs. Like here. Or where a lot of them will get killed.”
“Not like here, I hope,” Andrew said. “We haven’t lost anyone, so far, although there have been a few close calls, and one man lost his hand… not to an enemy, actually, but to a lizard. And a woman lost her leg to infection.”
I remembered that. Adelphe had cried when she got home from that case.
“So, what’s your plan for tomorrow?”
“If it is OK with you, I’m going to follow Carl around, learn where the posts are, learn about fighting here.”
“It’s more like hunting,” Andrew said.

<Note: Not finished>