Dark Planet Pt. 03

"Leader's orders would have killed him!" cried one who took me. Well, there was our voice of reason. Not much to go on, but true. Not a very loving thing to do.

"Look, it sounds like you guys have a lot to think about. I should be getting going."

"Not so fast," said the one I just saved.

"Hey now, we should be reasonable about this - "

"I agree," he said, his music still conflicted. "I still despise you. Perhaps your generosity made me despise you even more. But I love Leader. I always will. So a favor for a favor. You have saved my life and I am not so weak I have nothing to give in return. There is a spy in your midst."

There were suddenly a hail of shouts from the two creatures behind me and I spun around so I could make sure they couldn't ambush me.

"No!"

"Fool! We will be killed!"

He seemed to shrug it all off him. "Perhaps you should flee. I will fight until Leader refuses my strength. The spy reports to the King against whom we fight. We know this because the spy provided us a chance to feed in return for information about you. Who you are, what you do. I will tell the spy everything I know about you since I gave my word. I will not hurt you, also because I gave my word. I will not tell you who the spy is, because I gave my word. I have honor."

"I find that hard to believe. You're fighting the same war Leader is fighting but you're reporting to then enemy and you say you have honor?"

"I refused to give the spy any information about Leader, about the other tribes or anything else I know. Nothing about battle plans or strategy, thought I doubt the spy would want me for that anyway. The spy is far better placed to acquire such information."

"But you think you're honorable?" I was astonished. I supposed I loved Perikos too and even to save my own life I wouldn't sell him out to the enemy. And they weren't even my enemy, not really.

"Yes, I do," he said, clearly unabashed. "I promised I would not reveal anything about the spy's identity but I was intending to make its presence known so Leader can weed it out. Now I give you that information in exchange for your willing help. So go, tell Leader of the spy and no doubt they will be swiftly identified and dispatched and you needn't question my honor any further."

I knew better than to talk back when I was being shown the door. Without looking back I tore past the other two creatures, down the crevasse in the rock, stubbing my toe and knocking my elbows plenty along the way, until I emerged out into the air outside. Not only was I not dead, I had saved someone else and got some valuable information along the way. Now to hurry and find Perikos before he sentenced the entire camp to a week's starvation diet.

I took off at an ungainly run through the fungal meadow ahead of me. I thought I could see the river a ways ahead. My eyes were exhausted from all the strain and I could barely make out anything in the darkness. A moment later I smacked into a patch of tangible darkness head-on. I bounced back, landing on my ass.

"Oh, I'm so glad to see you. Look, I'm okay. Listen, because there's a - "

"A what?" The song was not Perikos' at all, but oily and thick, but without the usual sycophantic tones.

"There's a big rally or address or whatever that I'm supposed to be at. Shouldn't you be there?" I asked, recovering quickly. Turn the tables whenever possible, that's my motto.

"It was delayed because of you," he answered, oozing hatred with every inflection. "I will see you punished for wandering off and interrupting our reunion with Leader."

"Can I ask you something?" I felt my temper flaring up at once. "What exactly is your problem? Are you an asshole by nature or is it just something I bring out in you? Is it jealousy? Does everyone at this camp want to mate with P-Leader?"

I could tell by the way Shadow swelled in size and seemed to crackle with electricity that I had seriously crossed the line.

"I will make you beg forgiveness for what you just said to me!" His furious howl rung in my ears and I turned and ran. I expected to be caught and dragged away like I had been before but he must have decided to let me go, because I ran unimpeded as hard and fast as I could to the rock by the river.

"Perikos!" I called through shallow, labored breaths. "Perikos, where are you?"

I made out an odd blur of darkness by the hill and before I could worry about another chance encounter with some miserable native, the darkness wrapped itself around me in what might have been a death grip but felt much warmer.

"Jayn!" A tendril whispered in my ear, every note gushing with relief.

"It's okay, I'm fine."

Perikos did not release me but made a quick and thorough business of tracing my limbs and torso with his tendrils, as if wanting to ensure I was without injury.

"What happened, Jayn? Why did you leave after I told you not to?"

"That doesn't matter now, listen! There's a spy here somewhere and I think it's your Second in Command."

Perikos held me silently for a moment and then unwound himself from my body and positioned himself to stand beside me. "What makes you say this? Tell me what happened."

"If I tell you, you'll get mad at me or mad at them and there'll be even more misery and honestly it won't solve anything."

"Little Shade, you owe me honesty in this matter. If I must force you to speak of it, I will." I raised my eyebrows, less at Perikos' harsh words than the frightened tone to his music. I rarely heard him this anxious.

I sighed and confessed that I'd been taken to feed my assailant from two-weeks earlier. I even confessed that I did it willingly and that he kept his promise about not hurting me. I told him everything I knew about the spy.

Perikos was silent a moment longer. Finally, he said "I see no reason for you to suspect my Second. He has been loyal to me, to this cause. Just because he has been ungracious with you does not mean he has betrayed me. Not as others have."

That hung in the air for a moment while I digested it. Was he only talking about my three assailants? Could he be talking about me?

"Look, it won't help to punish them more. Two of them will just run away, they don't know anything anyway. The other one was going to die. He cut a deal but he worships you and your cause. He didn't hurt me and he certainly could have."

"You fed him willingly?" There was a cold note of accusation in Perikos' music.

"Not like that, damn it. I touched him, it was fear related, it was nothing pleasant. Look, does the fact that you told me he would be okay when he was actually dying mean anything to you?"

"Yes, if I didn't doubt it. I certainly survived much longer than two weeks without food or touch and yet he was dying? Impossible."

"Actually, it was pretty possible. They were starving when we got here, remember? And he was weak and pathetic anyway. You're by far the strongest of your kind, remember? That's why everyone fawns over you all the time? And you're holding everyone else to your standards. How is that bloody fair at all?"

"Even if that were true - "

"Don't be obtuse, of course it's true! Look, just because you're scared or jealous doesn't mean you should take it out on me! I haven't done anything wrong! And forget about taking it out on anyone else either! Nothing like arbitrary draconian punishments to stifle a rebellion, am I right?"

Perikos paused a moment before winding a long, thin tendril around my bracelet. "Yes, you are right. I nearly killed a soldier needlessly. The loyalty of that soldier is not in question since you are alive and well." Several more thin tendrils brushed my hair away from my face and behind me ears.

"Thank you. Now, what about this spy?"

"I do not know. I do not have any guarantee there is a spy or if there is, who it would be. I am sorry, but I cannot trust the words of those who have twice disobeyed me, regardless of the reason."

"But the spy is probably someone you know, someone you trust! And they've probably disobeyed you countless times, you just wouldn't know because they're doing it properly, not getting caught. I think your Second - "

"Jayn." Perikos cut me off, placing a wide, soft tendril over my mouth. "I am extremely relieved that you are well. When I returned to find you missing I became distraught and disbanded the address until you were returned to me. I knew you did not disobey me and leave the area of your volition. I am pleased you saved my soldier, especially without compromising yourself. But I do not wish to hear any further theories of betrayal at this camp without evidence to support it. Please, Little Shade, I have enough fears and concerns without suspecting my generals."

I nodded, feeling more than a little frustrated. If I was sure of nothing else, I was sure Shadow was reporting to someone else, someone who wanted to take Perikos down. I gave away something very intimate and in return I got information Perikos wouldn't let me use. I resigned myself to being his eyes and ears around Shadow. I was determined to get the information we needed to nail him to the wall.

Perikos led me by the bracelet to go meet his generals. I was getting more used to being treated as a pet I guess or at least I was content to be led around and then ignored by everyone eager to speak to their great Leader. Not that I was in any hurry to be called upon to speak or answer questions anyway, so I hid behind Perikos' mass and waited until they were done singing to each other about oddly named landmarks and confusing coordinates. Suddenly I felt a sharp jerk on my bracelet and felt myself being pulled toward and held against his body, pinned between three clouds of darkness. I knew better than to struggle but Perikos hedged his bets and enveloped my hands and neck into his body, effectively immobilizing me. Judging my how excited I was to be introduced it wasn't a bad move.

"This is Jayn, a human refugee from the Union System of Ferox. I owe her my escape and continued strength and good health."

Two thick, meaty tentacles wriggled towards me, one coiling around the top of my head before running its mass over my face while the other slid itself up and down my torso, lingering near my breasts and armpits and tracing itself over my bellybutton. Maybe it expected an orifice, judging by its repeated attempts to push past it but the General was just going to have to live with disappointment. I did my bit by not shrieking or carrying on and instead emitting what I had no doubt was rich, gourmet fear.

"Does it understand us?" One of them sang to Perikos. I recognized a cold, sterile femininity like the one that interrupted my bathroom break earlier. That made sense, considering she was a General but the question galled me a little, since she had clearly heard Perikos and I communicate down by the river.

"Yes, Jayn understands all but the most complicated of our names and concepts. Her brain is reasonably well-suited to understanding abstract concepts and as you can no doubt tell, particularly adept at accepting stimuli and producing emotion. I firmly believe we will owe our future victory to her cooperation."

I was glad Shadow wasn't here to hear Perikos say it. The tentacle roving over my face poked at my ears and ran its weight over my eyes and I couldn't stop myself from flinching.

"What is that?" asked the female again. I assumed by "that" she was referring to the reason I flinched though I also correctly supposed she wasn't actually asking me.

"Jayn, while only capable of a fraction of the sensitivity with her skin, is very reliant on sight as a sense organ. She can detect an object's apparent composition as well as infer distances and recognize others without touch." Perikos' music reflected a certain amount of pride and admiration, which was nice even if sight wasn't necessarily something I was proud of.

"It must be difficult for a human to adjust to lightlessness. It must be very dependent." The tone and rhythm were different this time and I realized the other General was speaking now. The music was more androgynous, more sympathetic.

"We share a mutual dependence," Perikos replied. "But since we are speaking of it now, how are you able to discern direction at all, Jayn? How do you orient yourself or tell us apart visually?"

I decided not to tell Perikos that I couldn't visually tell them apart, though I suppose I could have told them they were all different colors and they wouldn't have know the difference. I took a deep breath and hoped I wouldn't embarrass myself or him. How exactly would I explain without saying the word "light"?

"I can see, actually, just not very well. I noticed when we landed that there is color within what my visual spectrum. I'm probably wrong but my best guess is that the geothermal radiation that allows vegetation to grow on the planet also produces a red…glow that my eyes pick up and that allows me to distinguish shapes and directions. As for telling you all apart, it is difficult but you all sound different and…feel different, if that makes any sense."

That revelation was met with silence. So much for not embarrassing myself. The two tentacles withdrew from me, somewhat awkwardly, but it wasn't a total loss. The pair of Generals finalized their plans about waiting for the speech Perikos was to give in half an hour and departed for last minute preparations.

"Did I say something wrong?" I asked as Perikos allowed me to twist out of his grip and face him.

"No, at least not to my mind," he answered, his notes light, almost amused.

"What happened then?" I followed Perikos as he glided towards a thick patch of darkness at the far edge of the camp. "I said something that killed the conversation."

"You humbled them. When you spoke they realized it was only out of courtesy that you and I allowed them to speak about you as though you were not sentient. I answered for you for their comfort, not because you could not answer for yourself. That you extrapolated the reason for your functioning visual organs based on the energy emissions from the planet – energy emissions we are hardly aware of, I might add – and that you are capable of distinguishing between us based on feeling is very impressive, even if they did not condescend to you."

"I'm getting better at it." I fought to keep the gloat from my voice. "It's getting to the point where I can know things about the speaker from their voice, their intonations. And a few times I've anticipated a mood or presence before I've seen them."

Perikos didn't reply and for a moment I thought nothing of it. Finally, a tendril reached out and wound around the metal of my bracelet. "I think I mistook your meaning earlier. I thought you meant you could distinguish between us based on feeling with physical contact. I believe I am correct in assuming my Generals supposed the same."

I thought about it for a moment. Touch was informative to a certain degree. It usually reinforced something I already knew. I told Perikos as much and he was silent for another moment.

"So you say that you can discern some things from voice alone?" The music was toneless, completely devoid of meaning and I furrowed my brow.

"Yes. How can that be a problem? You can read my mood from my tone."

"It is not the same. I do not 'hear' as you do, though I did not think the distinction was one worth mentioning to my Generals. My skin can physically feel the vibrations of your voice, the pitch, the speed and rhythm and emphasis. If two related speakers stood next to one another, I would certainly understand the intent of their communication – the "mood", as you say – but I could not know other things, such as sex or personality or unobvious intent. Not without touching them. And to be able to discern such things without being able to sense the location of the speaker, to feel malice or sense a presence without a voice or our own sense of touch is absolutely remarkable."

"Well, you know me. My brain is suited to understanding abstract thought," I said, though I smiled. All things considered, it was kind of cool to defy expectations by being more capable than anyone thought possible.

I felt a tendril reach out to stop me as we reached the gathering armies.

"Can you feel anything about me? Without touching?"

"I think I'm probably pretty bias when it comes to you. It would be hard to disentangle my experience of you from whatever I'm supposed to be feeling," I said, suddenly shy at being put on the spot.

"It will not hurt to try, Little Shade," said Perikos.

I shut my eyes then, determined to concentrate, to try not to let my feelings get in the way. It was difficult. No matter what I did I couldn't get past the idea of him as this pulsing ball of warmth in an otherwise cold, empty world. Okay, maybe not empty but as far as I was concerned, it may as well have been.

"I'm sorry. I know what I think of you and it's kind of getting in the way of any real objectivity," I said.

I felt something thick and densely muscled press against the palm of my left hand. "What about now?" he asked again.

His skin was different. I felt every inch of darkness as though it was reaching out to me, touching me with such intensity that I gasped. The tendril in my hand tightened and my head swam slightly as different thoughts flooded my mind. His masculinity and my femininity were the first and I was confronted by the feeling of my own skin and the unbidden thought of myself suspended helplessly in the air, all three holes violated and I felt an accompanying sensation that felt for all the world like an orgasm that had nothing to do with my nether regions. Several more thoughts burst forth. First was a warm, tight heat and an accompanying heartbeat. The next felt like part of a longer story about an alien slave who became a Queen. Finally the idea of Shadow, oily and sycophantic. Not a traitor though, the idea came clear in my mind.

"He is though, if you would just hear me out," I said aloud, jolting myself out of the strange trance.

Perikos was silent a moment longer, though the tendril in my hand didn't move. I wondered if he was concentrating too.

"Little Shade." Perikos' music was quiet, measured again.

"Yes?"

"Little Shade, did you understand the thoughts I gave you?"

"I think so. They were feelings or sensations mostly, and then words right at the end. Though I could have been imagining it."

Perikos was silent again and I could feel my impatience growing. I was still touching him but I couldn't sense any revelatory thoughts. Well, maybe that wasn't strictly true. I thought I could feel consideration, weighing and measuring, calculation. Then again, I was probably projecting.

"What? What is it already? What's with the silent treatment?" I could hear the frustration in my own voice so I was sure Perikos wouldn't miss it.

The tendril in my hand tightened its grip again. "I am sorry, Jayn. I must admit I was lost in my own thoughts. You see, your skill is unprecedented."

"Bullshit. I mean, how can it be? You all can read each other through touch," I said.

"It is not the same. None among our kind detect ideas without physical sensation. It is impossible. Furthermore, your skin, while certainly receptive to appropriate stimulation, is not capable of functioning as ours does. You cannot discern movement, hesitation, delight, a minute change in temperature from a distance– the human nervous system is incapable of such things. So how then can you receive impressions from my thoughts or sense the presence of a hostile personality?"