I feel a frown forming as I study her, but then I nod in understanding. "My brothers, we do not have the skills, or the materials, to make more clothes. Or boots. If we need replacements, we must risk a raid."
"At least you have the option of stealing it from someone. We need to figure out how to survive, how to farm, before our technology breaks. If the leaders were smart, they would ask you those questions."
I tilt my head at her words…or at least what I assume are her words. How accurate is the whisperer in its word choices? "Aren't you supposed to be asking me those questions?"
She smiles, flashing her little white teeth. "They are more interested in finding out if you are a threat to the colony than learning how your people live."
"They want to know how we fight." While my brothers and I do not fear death, the humans fear everything, and view everything as a threat. Many tribes feel that way about the banished. They see us as a threat that needs to be eliminated and hunt us. Not all tribes are so harsh.
"And how many tribes there are, and where you live, and what weapons you have."
They would not like to learn that I can make a charge and destroy their tablets. Or their other technology. I will need to think more carefully about what I tell Chloe.
"We can leave all of that for another day… And there are some things I'm not going to record," Chloe says.
That is interesting. "And why is that?"
"Because the leaders of the colony are refusing to look at our present situation, and are intent on following the rules they were given before leaving Earth. We were told this planet had no sentient…" She pauses. "No people living on it. Yet here you are." She puts the tablet on the counter and pulls a few more things out of the cupboard. "I'm going to bring a few more things from my regular lab, but I can take some samples to start with and make some general notes." She glances over her shoulder. "I do need to provide enough information to keep the people in charge happy."
"Why not tell them everything you learn?"
"Do you blindly follow orders?"
I laugh. "No one follows all orders. That is a ridiculous expectation." But from the way she is looking at me, her peoplehave different expectations. "Are you expected to? Can you not voice your objection and be heard?"
"No, those that express their displeasure are called dissenters. Several have gone missing. I suspect they were banished or killed. I think the colony let my sister and the other women remain with your brothers because the leaders didn't want them returning with news of aliens. If too many people know, the secret will get out and then too many questions will be asked."
"Asking questions is a good thing. A leader who is not prepared to answer is not a good leader." I cannot imagine the same thing occurring in a Honey tribe.
"On that, we can agree. May I draw some blood?" She holds up something pointy that's not a knife.
"Why? We are not swearing an oath."
"Because I can examine blood to see if there are any sicknesses, as well as to learn how it's made. Your blood might be made differently to mine."
I use one of my claws to make a cut on my forearm. "There is some blood. What do you see that I don't?"
Chloe sighs. "I have a tool in my main lab that lets me look closer. And I need to take it out of a vein." She holds up the pointy thing.
I lick my thumb and press it to the cut. "Fine."
"I need to stick it in your skin to reach a vein."
"I understood the translation. That little thing will hurt much less than being stabbed with a knife."
Her mouth pops open. "I guess so, though it will pinch a little. Can you stick your arm through the bars?"
I want to refuse to see what she will do, but at the moment we have a rapport, and I would like to keep that. Already, ideas are simmering. She doesn't like the colony leaders, and she's worried about her sister.
Would she be willing to help me escape so she can be reunited with her sister?
I shouldn't be thinking of escape. I agreed to the trade. So I need to get used to my cage. But I long to see the sun and the stars.
"Can I touch you?"
"I assumed you would need to. How else are you to examine me and learn of my kind?"
Her cheeks turn pink, and her heart's signal changes again. When I draw in a breath, there is also a change in her scent. She presses her lips together and taps my forearm. I watch, eager to see what she's going to do.
