The alien beckoned for us to follow him once more, and we did so, leaving the chamber behind. He led us back outside once more, back onto the path, this time taking us all the way to the cliff top, where he pressed something on his wrist. To the great astonishment of us all, an honest to goodness cigar shaped craft was sitting on a landing pad, appearing as if by magic, where just moments before there was nothing but sand and scrubby grasses.
“A projection, to help conceal our presence here from enemies,” he commented simply, walking up to the craft and opening a hatch for us to go in.
“Have a seat,” he instructed, repeating it in the guttural language Gree-Gree’s people spoke so they’d also understand.
There were rows of seats arranged like on an airplane, with similar sorts of belts. For once, I found myself being the one assisting Gree-Gree, which felt kind of nice. I was no longer someone he had to show everything to and look after.
“Where are we going?” Beth asked, which was an excellent question.
“To our ship in orbit,” came the reply. “Taking you to medical, for your translators, and a physical check up. Then we’ll return to your mountain village along with the technicians who will be installing the portal.”
He repeated this again in Gree-Gree’s native tongue.
“Why can’t you just take us home?” Patrick demanded.
“As explained earlier, it is forbidden.” His mouth tightened.
“Then take us with you. You’re leaving, right? Why do we have to stay on this frozen rock? Our society is miles more advanced than these guys!”
“Because you are still a pre-interstellar flight species, so it is forbidden.”
“Not even to drop us off on a warmer planet with supplies to start our own colony?” Patrick insisted.
“Your numbers are not sufficient for such a thing to be viable, and worlds that are hospitable that are not already spoken for are hard to come by.There has already been too much interference as it is from meddlers.”
“Just fucking great,” Patrick groused.
“I’m sure they’re doing the best they can,” Sam said gently. “They are probably bending the rules to help us now.”
“It is only permitted as you were exposed to the Pronok and found your way into an already compromised society that we have been tasked to oversee guidance and extend protection to. The three species on this world are a unique case.”
“Three?” I gasped. “There is one more other than Gree-Gree’s people and the guys from the forest.”
“Indeed. The folk who fish the waters near our base belong to neither.” He stood up from the seat where he’d been making what I’d thought were adjustments to the controls to prepare us for take off. “We’re here. Please follow me and do not wander off.”
He opened the door, revealing a hangar filled with more of his kind and a handful of the cigar shaped ships. Standing before the opening, he repeated himself once more for our yetis’ benefit while my friends and I scrambled to undo our seatbelts and stand up.
Holy shit balls. We were all on another ship filled with even more aliens.
30
GRIGHRI
The Sky God had led us to one of their own metal grak. I exchanged glances with my fellow hunters and Healer Grokah. They all looked as wide-eyed with shock as I felt. When the Sky God told us to climb inside and use the strange fasteners to tie us to the long benches inside, I pushed down the unease I felt and led our party inside to do just that. The hoomuns looked wary, but unafraid, and my Rah-bee did me proud by engaging the Sky God in conversation. My Rah-bee was a leader in the making; I had no doubt of that. One day, when he had learned our words, I would petition our Chief to give him a position as a junior clerk to our council.
“What do you think they are talking about?” Hroash asked me.
“Sky God business regarding the demons,“ I replied, basing my guess solely on hearing the Sky God name for the Sky Demons.
“Hmm,” he replied, with a sidelong glance at Sahm, who, like the other hoomuns were listening avidly to the discussion going on. Whatever was being said had them all looking both angry and sad at the same time. Rah-bee’s tone had become indignant, then a look of resignation crossed his face, his shoulders hunching inwards. I touched his fingers with mine, letting him know I was here, and while I couldn’t understand what the Sky God had said to garner these reactions from Rah-bee and his fellow hoomuns, that it was going to be alright. We could trust the Sky Gods. Their ways were strange, and they didn’t always give us what we wanted, but they always turned out to be right and were the reason our peoples had survived the Great Cold Season and the Sky Demons.
This was well established fact. All of our books and lore told of how they revealed themselves during a battle with another race of Sky Demons. They freed the clans of the forest and sea, growing the mighty frozen trees that made the lights glow in the tunnels their great metal beasts chewed into being. The new clans began to trade with us, and in turn, the Sky Gods began to gift us with bound books and guidance, impressed with how our village had survived the Dying of the Suns’ Love. Our world had always had the snows, but once, it had been far more hospitable. Then, the suns began to dim as the Great Cold came upon it. My people retreated into the warmth of the mountain, and our lore says that other villages did as well, but never in the memory of anyone living had we met another of our kind. There was just us, and later the two new clans. And now, the hoomuns who could be mates with us, unlike the other two clans.
“We have arrived,” the Sky God said, rising from his seat. The grak’s belly opened once more to allow us to exit its body. What I saw took my breath away. More metal graks sat inside a large metal cave flooded with light.
“This way,” the Sky God said, and Rah-bee grasped my hand, this time seeking to reassure me. It was a sweet gesture, and for a moment I felt shame. I was a hunter, tasked to go out into the deepest of snows, to track and trap what game there was, and if we were lucky to come across a herd of Kilon, to join in a hunt to bring down the slowest adult one or an injured young one so that the village could eat the meat, tan the hides, and carve the bones into useful items like the needles the tailors made our garments with.
Other Sky Gods scurried around us, tending to the other sleeping grak. They seemed disinterested in us for the most part, ignoring our presence as they focused intently on their tasks.
