The First Riders by David Ferguson

Author:David Ferguson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-04-19T16:00:00+00:00

He was drawn back into the real world by a sudden flare-up between Reffurio and Mekbill. Ombissu knew it would happen some time in the immediate future but he was slightly surprised it had happened so quickly. Reffurio disliked and distrusted the worship of gods while Mekbill was in the business. It seemed he was also a pugnacious arguer completely unimpressed by Reffurio’s obvious toughness. Ombissu began to feel a reluctant respect for this priest.

They were arguing about conversion of any heathens they might meet on their travels. As this was the least of their problems, Reffurio felt this an exercise in futility, and said so.

Mekbill countered, "We must be prepared. We may find other races and they will obviously be unbelievers. It is my duty to convert them to our religion."

"And how will you do that?" Reffurio asked. "For a start they won’t speak our language. I don’t see how you can get over an abstraction like religion to people who have no concept of the idea without a common language."

"We will have to learn their language anyway in order to achieve anything," Mekbill replied.

"They could also learn ours, of course," Reffurio said.

"That assumes they are of equal intelligence," Mekbill replied.

"Of course. A reasonable assumption, don’t you think?"

"No, I don’t. It is very unlikely we will meet beings of our intelligence."

Ombissu was amazed at the arrogance.

"We’re unique, are we?" he asked sardonically. "You believe we are the only highly intelligent beings on this world.?"

"The gods made us to be superior over the animals. It follows that everything is our inferior. So - to answer your question - yes, we are unique. We are in no danger unless the gods decree otherwise. So we must appease them." With that, Mekbill stared hard at Reffurio and Ombissu.

Fallassan observed the stare and felt it was justified. Reffurio and Ombissu were far too cavalier in their attitude towards the gods. They had barely concealed their disbelief when the ship was being blessed. It made the success of the voyage all the more problematic.

This had been one of the arguments put forward for not arming the ship: they would never meet a superior enemy, therefore there was no need for cannons. Indeed, it had been argued that there was no need for rifles, but this fatuous argument had been rapidly quashed. Even if there were no dangerous enemies there was always animals to hunt and it was unthinkable to go back to the bow and arrow.

Fallassan wondered whether she should speak her mind. She was naturally rebellious and had no fear, but she was conscious of being in a team whose stability was essential to success. She also liked and respected Reffurio and was beginning to feel the same towards Ombissu. But they were both iconoclasts. She was surprised that she felt this way about Ombissu. After all, he was part of the establishment, a well regarded member of the King’s circle. But after listening for a few more minutes to the argument between Mekbill and Ombissu, she decided to intervene.

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