Invasion Aftermath by Patricia Renard Scholes

Author:Patricia Renard Scholes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Patricia Renard Scholes
Published: 2021-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

DAWN BROUGHT A SMALL Neevee aircar that landed on the rocky spit where Tadellin waited. He stood as rigid as the stones around him, as if he controlled his own fate.

Inside he felt very small. What would the Neevee do? How would he communicate with them? He had been a toddler when his mother’s abductor wanted to adopt him. Did these Neevee speak Irelli? He had learned an old form of Irelli from a traveler years ago.

He fought a strong urge to run back to the villagers who hid among the rocks. In the same way as most of his village, he was too tired to run any longer, and too ill-clad for this climate. So instead of running, he waited, and prayed. Did Khaadi still listen? It no longer seemed so.

The aircar landed a short distance away, letting out a tall Neevee in a long, dark blue coat lined with silver fur. A soldier left the aircar also. The tall Neevee pointed a pistol at Tadellin’s chest. The other held a rifle. He tried not to look at the weapons, keeping his eyes on the tall Neevee who seemed to be in charge.

“Peace,” he told the Neevee in Irelli, hoping the man understood his use of the northland tongue.

The Neevee looked surprised. He lowered his pistol, even though his companion did not. “You may speak, Krindarwee Leader. Why are you this far north?”

“My people and I have traveled here many long years to escape you gray-skins. We now see that there are no places free from you. We will either die here, or we will come with you. If we come with you, we promise to give you no trouble, if you will also promise to kill none of us.”

The fur-clad Neevee looked behind Tadellin, confused at first. Then he searched. Tadellin felt the Neevee’s mind’s energy brush along his skin. The alien male, more than Many Threaded, was also a Searcher. Tadellin’s heart sank.

“How many of you are there?”

“All that remain,” Tadellin said. “Two hundred and twenty-three still live, counting the littlest ones.”

The Neevee frowned. “Our Sector City is crowded, with few resources.”

Tadellin waited. He had already picked up a flurry of surface thoughts. One intrigued him: this Neevee leader hated the slavery that Sector One (the Southland?) imposed upon the Krindarwee.

At the same time, the Neevee felt little compassion for the plight of Tadellin’s people. He was a general, a military leader of war, another foreign concept to Tadellin. The Neevee general, assigned to deal with the problem of lone wanderers, intended to capture them and place them inside his City, but they numbered more than he expected.

He answered to an administrator with a City full of problems. This general, Tadellin realized, had the administrator’s full confidence. Whatever the general decided, the administrator would support.

“I have one solution, and only one. There is a place where you can live, but it is full of vermin. If you rid this place of vermin, we will provide one winter’s supply of plastiform for your people to mend the shelters that remain there.

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