Here We Stand by Karen Traviss

Author:Karen Traviss [Traviss, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Karen Traviss
Published: 2023-03-06T16:00:00+00:00

08

How would we view Solomon if he hadn’t chosen us? He could have decided we were the ones who needed to be left to die. How different is he from Earthmother?

Dr Ingrid Morris, family physician, Kill Line.

Meeting of the Halu-Masset, Cabinet of the Government of Jatt in exile: three days after losing contact with the probe.

“Does this tell us anything at all?”

“That we should approach our new neighbours with caution, Primary,” Cudik said. “But how we approach them at all now is anyone’s guess.”

Nir-Tenbiku Dals had watched the recording at least five times, trying to wring more information out of it. The human garrison stood between a river and the coast on one of the planet’s northern continents, and a high aerial view from the probe showed hundreds of buildings and a large area of fields under cultivation. The inset screens to the right hand side displayed specific areas of interest that the probe had identified as worth watching. The whole site looked well established, but that didn’t necessarily mean it had been there for long.

As the probe descended, it zoomed in on the specific features that had alerted it: large structures that could have been hangars or silos, entire zones of transparent tunnels that were full of plants, and enclosed grass where large quadrupeds stood around in groups. The probe circled the perimeter, which didn’t appear fenced or walled, but was surrounded by a wide strip of cleared land that could have indicated concealed automated defences instead. Humans showed sensible caution.

There was quite a population, too; vehicles, objects that were probably mechanicals, and creatures that had to be the humans passing across the open area in the centre of the base. From this altitude, it was hard to appreciate the scale, but the humans were as Gan-Pamas had described them, bipedal and as tall as Kugin, but more slimly built.

“I still can’t see anything that looks like a military installation,” Cudik said. “Gan-Pamas must have seen much more than this.”

Nir-Tenbiku ruled out the possibility that humans were native to this world and had never left it. They had to be recent arrivals. The garrison was the only sign of habitation, and a species with that level of technology would have spread across the planet a long time ago. But Cudik was right: there was no visible sign of military equipment or ships, least of all the prenu.

When the probe attempted to scan inside the buildings large enough to house a Nar-class vessel, the structures blocked the signals. Gan-Pamas had suspected they kept their larger assets in bunkers, which would have required an extensive underground complex, and that meant they were well dug in if an attacking force attempted to dislodge them.

Even if Nir-Tenbiku knew nothing about humans, he could deduce some important facts from that alone. They didn’t want to advertise their presence, they were here to stay, and somewhere on another world there’d be many more of them with technology that had enabled this garrison to appear out of nowhere.

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