Dark Planet Pt. 03

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Jayn and Perikos struggle with new enemies.
7.5k words
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Part 3 of the 4 part series

Updated 09/22/2022
Created 07/18/2009
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The following week and half passed quickly, if strangely. According to Perikos we were mobilizing our forces. I found out a week after arriving on the planet that the "camp" we were currently stationed at contained fewer than one hundred…I wasn't really sure what to call them anymore, since Perikos was out of the question. Soldiers, maybe? Well, the point was there were hardly enough of them here to throw a parade, much less an insurgent strike force capable of overthrowing a corrupt government.

Before Perikos committed the murder he was imprisoned for, he left instructions to his rebel army to disband into multiple nomad contingents so they would be more difficult to track and stand a better chance of avoiding retribution. Apparently word came down from two messengers that out of fourteen smaller contingents, three groups had been wiped out entirely and two more remained unaccounted for. It was grim news for Perikos but his mood brightened as two intact camps arrived to meet us, tripling our current numbers.

I stayed out of the limelight and therefore so did Perikos. I couldn't help feeling guilty, knowing he wanted to go out, raise moral and gather accounts of what happened in his absence but there was nowhere for me to wait but with him so the two of us stayed closer to the perimeter of the new camp. Perikos said we had to keep moving, that we would change camps twice a week or so.

I had a hard time thinking of the thick clusters of darkness dotting the otherwise barely visible planet as anything that could be properly called a "camp". There were no shelters; the aliens relied on mates and close friends to protect them while they rested and since there was no concept of night and day, they rested at all hours, off and on. There were no fires, Perikos informed me, and a great deal of superstition surrounded the very concept of bright heat, as though it would call into existence dreaded ultra-violet radiation.

The majority of the fungus I had encountered on Perikos so far was edible, at least the stuff that didn't look so unusual that I couldn't even bring myself to try it. Sure, the little white caps that looked like the button mushrooms my family used to harvest on our farm were poisonous enough that I was sick for nearly twenty-six hours, but the pinkish cup shaped fungus was actually pretty tolerable. It tasted kind of like bland, chewy honey.

Perikos hadn't let me further than arm's reach since when I'd first been accosted and in spite of the fact it was a bit smothering, not to mention embarrassing at times, at least I was getting more answers. I was beginning to understand what the war was about, at least the rebels' point of view. It had a long, boring history that went back two hundred or so years, which I suppose wasn't particularly long by Perikos standards. Many adult soldiers here were older than two hundred years. At any rate, about two hundred years ago some rebellious upstart broke away from the main tribe and claimed that the current practice of consuming one another as punishment for every minor triviality was barbaric. According to him (or her, I couldn't be sure), long ago there had been other species on the planet within the past three hundred years but the Perikos' greed and expanding populations had driven them nearly to extinction and they had been forced to cannibalize one another to survive. He proposed a moderate shift, away from cannibalism, to a system of mutual assistance, where the strong would feed the week and the many would feed the few, ideally, resulting in very little death.

According to Perikos, none of that sat very well with the King, who was traditionally chosen because he was the strongest in body and will. To allow everyone access to him, thereby dwindling his strength away, was intolerable. He consumed the rebel himself, but apparently his teachings about barbarism and not cannibalizing your friends and neighbors disseminated to a wider audience than the king could have known, Perikos being one obvious heir to the new school of thought. Perikos had not been alive when it had happened but was strong in his own right, and joined a growing rebel faction when he was strong enough to be an asset. He rose through the ranks and made a business of capturing and trying to convert the loyal faction. He didn't even need me to point out the irony of consuming those who could not be converted to sustain his army of peaceful, non-cannibalistic rebels.

"It is hateful, dangerous thing, Little Shade, to put practicality before ethics, to go against one's own beliefs just so that one might live long enough to fight for them tomorrow. Killing for peace is both absurd and absolute reality for us."

I found it pretty interesting that it was Perikos who ultimately killed that king. There were neutral tribes, bands of so-called "civilians" who pledged no allegiance to the King but who found the rebel cause hopelessly idealistic and stuck to eating one another by way of punishment. Well, apparently the King had become paranoid and since one of the largest neutral tribes had warned nearby rebels of an impending attack by loyalist forces, he decided they were all in league with one another and were to be made an example of. Under the auspice of possible peace talks with the tribe, the King's forces had moved in and wiped out the lot of them. And Perikos tracked him down and destroyed him. Maybe he was just a really good guy, or maybe it was a case of "if we can't eat them, you can't eat them either", but regardless, by traditional custom, anyone who strong enough to best the king was the king. Regicide, which is what Perikos had been charged with, had plenty of precedent. Killing the king had never been illegal before; only attempting the kill him and failing merited any real punishment. Not only did the fact the Perikos should by all rights be king but his bravery in avenging the "civilians" as well as his martyrdom in Kragosa and his eventual escape, made him a pretty hot commodity among his followers. The air was often thick with music about lust, admiration, mating and glory, all of which was tinged with the song I learnt meant Perikos.

On the twelfth day after I arrived on the dark planet, Perikos was scheduled for another meet and greet of the two other contingents that had joined us. I felt something flicker across my face as I snoozed over the soft mudcaps.

"Please wake up, Jayn. If I am to meet our reinforcements, you must complete your waking ablutions quickly."

I stirred, still expecting to see some hint of morning light and being met with only darkness. My eyes were beginning to adjust, at any rate, and I could make out the singular shape of Perikos' tendril in the near perfect darkness. I grasped it and pulled myself to a sitting position.

"These catnaps aren't enough, you know. I need actual, uninterrupted sleep. Probably more than I normally would because of the darkness."

"Understood. I will make certain your sleep is uninterrupted just as soon as this meeting is over."

I yawned and stood up, allowing Perikos' tendril to entwine my bracelet as he led me over the hill at the far perimeter of the camp. We had tried to stay away from everyone else but really there was nowhere to go, no shelter for me to hide myself away. Perhaps out of respect, everyone kept their distance and did not approach unless they had something urgent to say.

"Leader?" sang an oily voice from the darkness. Ugh, just what I needed. Shadow. "Leader, where are you going at this hour? Your people are expecting your address very soon!"

Maybe I was imagining the ugly, plaintive way Shadow said "your people", or maybe I wasn't. This guy was disgusting and shameless.

"Thank you, Second in Command, I am well aware of the time. Jayn and I need a moment of privacy -"

"Leader, surely such…indulgence can wait?"

"It is no indulgence, my Second. We will not be long." Perikos' tone was brisk and cool to my bubbling fury. When Shadow was out of sight I practically snarled.

"How does an insubordinate, smarmy, egotistical, bigoted prick like that get to be your Second anyway? I hate him! Telling you your business, insinuating that -"

"That I would lead you away from the crowd and elicit you arousal in private, away from hungry soldiers?" Perikos' tone was sarcastic, since that had been our modus operandi since that first night I arrived. But there was something bitter there too, something regretful. Likely, he just felt guilty.

"Damn it, Perikos, don't let that complete fucking idiot make you feel bad for anything! He's just doing it because he hates me!"

Perikos led me over to the creek that ran downstream from the camp. No chance of my pheromones running up to the camp, since it had been a few days since I'd washed and I did smell like sex. I leaned gingerly towards it, not able to see where the bank ended and the creek began. I reached toward to cup the cool water in my hands and drink. I waded in, shivering, and washed myself without soap. I was just emerging to retrace my steps behind the large rock I used as a bathroom stall when I heard a shrill song over the hill.

"Leader!" The darkness was before us in the space of a blink and the song was urgent, anxious. "Leader, a fight has broken out amongst my tribe and I fear it will end in death! I've tried to stop it, but they won't heed me!"

I felt rather than saw the full force of Perikos' attention turn from me to the other. "You are?"

It said something that didn't make sense exactly, but names rarely did here. Something that felt smooth like heavy cloth and thick like cream. It was feminine, which I was pleased to say I was getting better at recognizing. "I lead Tribe Six!" I heard her say clearly, and remembered tribes two and six where the two that have joined us thus far.

Perikos turned his attention to me again, a force I could feel as a warm surge deep in my stomach. "Can you wait?"

He meant could I wait for the bathroom and the answer was no, I thought, as I felt an altogether less pleasant rumbling down below. Perikos must have heard it too.

"General, can you not -?"

"Leader, I fear they will consume each other in the escalation! I fear it has already turned that way!" Her song was controlled in its fear, or perhaps it only seemed that way to me. I was distracted by a stomach cramp.

"Jayn, you will stay here until I collect you. I will not be gone long."

And just like that he moved in a blur of darkness with her back towards the camp and I had a second alone for the first time in nearly two weeks. I retreated behind my makeshift toilet stall and finished my business, dipping myself back in the stream to freshen up.

I stood stalk still, up to my waist in cold water. I felt something nearby, something that was watching me. Maybe I saw the darkness move without realizing it or perhaps I was getting good at recognizing the attention of others but something was definitely there and it was definitely there for me.

"Who are you?" I called out, sounding braver than I felt. I thought the first time I was accosted was just bad luck but now I knew there was very real foundation to Perikos' paranoia.

Something moved against the darkness. Bloody hell, these things could kill me before I could even see them. Not fair, not fair at all. The water froze my legs but I didn't dare move any closer to it.

"I'm serious! Identify yourself or leave."

"Alien, you will come with me at once," the notes were clipped and bitter and I saw the creature they belonged to emerge out of the blackness, swollen to four times my size. I tried to contain my urge to scream, to run and hide. Trying to run was beyond pointless here anyway, not least because of the gravity.

"Look, you were obviously following me and you were here before P-Leader left to break up the fight, so you know I'm not allowed to leave. I have…orders not to leave."

"That does not matter to me anymore. You shall come with me this instant or I shall make you."

I tried to debate which would be preferable, Perikos' reaction when he found out I went with this thing of my own volition or the distinct possibility that resistance would get me quite badly hurt. I came to my senses and realized that wherever it was leading me, it was somewhere Perikos didn't want me going. I did the only thing I could think of doing, which was to turn and run.

I had moved less than five feet when I felt the weight of the creature's mass wrap itself around my torso, pull me roughly from my feet so my head plunged into the river water. It dragged me to shore before wrapping a thick appendage around my neck.

"I understand that if I damage this part of your body you will not be able to speak. Do not give me a reason to do so."

As I felt the blood rush to my head as the creature dragged me away from the river and back towards the perimeter of the camp, I decided not to point out that my larynx wouldn't be all that got damaged if the tentacle cutting off most of my air lost its patience.

It dragged me across close to the edge of the camp and I saw what looked like another tall, standing cliff face with a crevasse cut across it width-wise. Perikos would pass almost a kilometer from here on his way to retrieve me. I was fucked, I thought, as the creature rearranged my body to fit the entrance of the crevasse as it dragged me onwards.

Suddenly and with seeming revulsion it released most of my body except for the tentacle enclosed around my neck. I blinked into the void, my eyes watering under the strain as I tried to see what was before me.

I was mostly enclosed in what was essentially a hole in the rock, eight feet wide or so, stretching a few feet in front of me and a few feet behind before narrowing into a thin passageway again. The only thing I could discern was that there was now more than one alien presence in the cave. Maybe more than two.

"Now that you have me here, what do you want?" I whispered, partly because of how tight the tentacle around my neck squeezed and partly to show that I didn't need my neck broken to make a point.

"Very stupid, do you not feel him?"

I raised my eyebrows. What was I supposed to feel? Who was "he"?

"Idiot alien, right in front of you. Fix him." It was a different song, more feminine than the kidnapper.

I strained my eyes again in the darkness and saw a small, shriveled shadow on the ground a few feet in front of me. It looked as though one of them had shed a skin and left it behind but this was apparently a creature not meant to be in such pathetic condition.

"Okay, I see it. What do you want me to do about it?"

The tentacle around my throat tightened dangerously and I heard two hisses of anger behind me. "Your fault, yours! You will feed him!"

Shit. Can't say I hadn't expected it, but seriously, shit. Stall for time. I needed more time. "What do you mean?" I rasped through the tentacle at my throat. "Why me? Why is it my fault?"

"He was punished! Because of you! Sentenced to death for wanting better for our leader than an ugly, stupid alien for a mate."

Gah. The one who knocked me out in the crowd. I had never seen him before, I'd just felt the oddest surge of envy, of hatred.

"Feed him!" a creature hissed behind me.

"W-why don't you feed him?"

"Leader forbids us!"

I coughed as it choked me. "That didn't stop you from bringing me here. I am no more allowed to violate laws than you are."

There was a moment of silence during which I hoped the aliens were considering the truth of my words.

Finally, one spoke. "He will die and we have little to give ourselves."

"But P-Leader said he wouldn't die." I wondered aloud. Had he lied to me? The whole point of the resistance was not to kill one another, and starvation was a pretty jerk way to sentence someone when everyone at camp was hungry.

"Leader was wrong! He will die before we move camp!"

I looked down at the shrivel of blackness on the ground. He did look as though he was dying, as though whatever Perikos meant when he said fourteen days wouldn't kill him was wrong. Fourteen days seemed like just the ticket. Still, I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to touch it, I didn't want it to kill me by accident or on purpose for that matter. I stood paralyzed. What would Perikos think? Well, he was either wrong and so didn't want the creature to die or else was lying to me and then could go suck it for all I cared. More to the point, what did I think? I was all for Perikos sending the thing to bed without supper, but the death sentence for backhanding seemed pretty extreme. But it was certainly capable of violence.

"I will only do it if you promise not to hurt me. All of you." Then tentacle that had choked me release my neck and shoved me forwards another meter.

I heard the other two promise, however cold and bitter their music was. What I was listening for was my assailant's promise. I waited a moment, until I heard it, so soft it was only audible as it ricocheted off the stone walls on either side of us.

"Promise."

I figured that was as good as it was going to get. I knelt down next to it, closed the distance on my hands and knees like I'd approach a wounded animal. I stretched my arm out slowly, extending my quivering fingers and it raised a feeble tendril to wind around my palm. Touch.

It felt limp and lifeless in my hand and I tried to focus on feelings strong enough to feed it. I didn't want to deal with arousal at the moment, not here, like this, so I focused on fear instead. Fear of them all going back on their word and swallowing me up whole. Fear of shadows moving in the darkness who were all faster and stronger than me. Fear that any second I spent away from Perikos would be a moment something else was waiting to pounce. Fear that I would never spend another moment with Perikos again.

I felt the tendril in my hand strengthen its hold and watched it grow as I scanned my brain for any semblance of fear. I was afraid of so many things I was sure I'd never run out. A billion things could go wrong just trying to survive in an alien habitat, never mind the fauna being after me as well. I focused on all of it, on getting lost, malnutrition, poisoning, radiation, a hundred different, probably inevitable ills. Getting recaptured by Kragosi guards. Someone killing Perikos. Everything on my mind came pouring forth, pouring into the creature that might have killed me if he could have. I didn't want it to die just because of me and not just because it would cause a backlash against Perikos and me. I wasn't just and I didn't need it on my conscience.

I opened my eyes and the creature before me had grown to nearly my size. He no longer looked shriveled, like he would collapse in on himself at any moment. Instead he seemed to emitting a soft hum, cautiously jubilant. He released my hand and I sat kneeling before him as he filled up almost the entire width and height of the cavern.

"Thank you," he said, though his music didn't exactly exude gratitude. Like his friends, it sounded mostly bitter, but a touch incredulous as well.

"Well," I said, and then stopped, not really sure what to say. "Don't try to beat people until you get to know them to know whether or not they deserve to be beaten."

"You still do," his music was soft, oddly conflicted.

"Pfft. Fine, have it your way. I'm a disgusting parasite leeching off your Leader's grace. Can I go now?"

"I do not think you are a parasite. Clearly we are parasites for living off you. But Leader needs…more than you can give."

I raised an eyebrow. "Well, I can see you have a fixation. I should have supposed you all swing both ways. What Leader does or doesn't want isn't any of your business though. I don't think you really endeared yourself to him when you specifically disobeyed him. If you love him so much, do as he says."