Maxwell's Demon Ch. 15-21

There was the thunk of a crossbow discharge above her head. She looked up to see the weapons officer releasing a Mainlights soldier's head, lobotomized by a tube of metal at point blank range. The soldier's hand fell limp, releasing the knife used to impale Jennifer's thigh. Generous amounts of red human blood flowed to mix with the sticky black mess of alien life already spilled.

She was being pulled by her legs, it was excruciating, it was sublime. She glided across the greasy, blood covered deck -- dragged along by whoever, to wherever they were going. "Give me your gun, Jennifer," she thought she heard in English. Shots were fired. They were weapons, not hers, not the cannons of the water ships, something unknown, something above her.

She could feel consciousness rise and fall with her heartbeat, like the waves rocking the sinking ship. The strange buzzing, the crack of unknown weapon fire. The first she could not place, the other reminded her of heavy caliber repeaters.

"Jennifer, stay awake!" A hand slapped her, then again, harder.

A great yellow bee floated above, its bulbous abdomen filling the sky. She could hear the buzzing of its wings. Flashes of light came from the underbelly. It wasn't a bee, it was a firefly, like she'd seen at Chenshan Botanical Garden as a child.

"Am I to go to the Ten Courts?" Jennifer said to the great firefly. It didn't answer, only more flashes of light came from its underbelly, followed by loud cracks. If it was angry, she would be punished in her first trial of the courts, a terrible way to start the afterlife.

Something struck her cheek, it hurt. It was not kind.

"Jennifer! You're not making sense, did you just speak Chinese? Stay awake!"

There was another voice, a language she didn't know, but somehow understood.

"There's been a great deal of Northlights blood spilled today. I hope you two were worth it. Take them up."

Something tight pulled on her pant leg. The waves her consciousness rode upon were becoming shallow; she grew sleepy.

Long spindly legs dropped from the firefly's belly. How could such a large animal support itself with such tiny legs? They swung back and forth in the wind, passing over her in a circular dance.

A pair of strong arms wrapped her in a blanket and held her tight. She was spinning... around and around. She was a child, held to her Father's chest as he spun her in the grassy field of the garden. She could see the sky. The buzzing of the firefly's wings grew louder, and she felt the wind from its wings on her face.

"Why did you never come home, Father? I waited so long for you."

Chapter 20: Clans, Plans and Radios

Greg tightened the straps on his pack bag; this was the first time he'd walked alone on Proxima b. On the opposite side of an arched stone bridge was a group of Teolid females, recognizable by their slighter build and softer jaw lines. The lot of them were shorter than Nira, the only Teolid he'd met in Anukina. The road looked familiar. He needed to walk across the bridge and through a corridor with stairs to be on the footpath for the train station. He'd have to negotiate his way through the Teolid females.

Warm weather and the urban setting of Newtown encouraged different clothing for the natives: yellow dresses, form fitting, and different from the functional mining clothes Nira had worn. Teolids as the Telluki, it seemed, were also more anthropomorphic than the crew first noted. Greg found himself unexpectedly staring at them in their more revealing clothing. The Teolids began chattering and shoving one another, and when he was close enough, the front female spoke.

"Hey cutie, wanna see my tail?" she said, punctuated with hyena like laughing from the rest. She turned sideways and gyrated her hips in a way that on Earth would be a very seductive motion. Its meaning on Proxima b was unknown. Greg saw no tail; he had no idea what she meant. The rest of the females blocked his path to the corridor.

"Was it something I said?" she followed up with when he said nothing.

"How about my tail then?" the second female called, performing her own dance.

"I need to walk there," Greg said, pointing in the direction he wanted to go.

"You talk funny," one said.

"It's cute," another said.

"You came on a water ship. You are not from around here, are you?"

"I need to go to the train. I need to go to Anukina," Greg said, trying to push through them. They were not going to let him pass.

"Hey, that's no way to treat a girl. Mena asked you a question," the one in front said, shoving him backwards.

The Teolid females were smaller than Nira but their teeth were just as sharp. The one who shoved him had incisors that draped over her lips, like a buck tooth. Saliva fell from them, and she spoke with a slight lisp.

A female behind caught him, breaking his momentum. It was the first time he'd been touched by a Centauran female.

"Ya, what's in Anukina, foreigner; you have girls up there that like you?" the female to his left said.

"He's not wearing any colors. He could be ours," said another.

"You are not old enough yet, stupid," the one in front said.

It was happening so fast. Greg didn't have time to consider extricating himself from the female who caught him after the first shove.

"Does not matter, I have the best tail," the female behind him said, who started to grind her pelvis against his ass.

"Say's who? Have you even seen a male naked?"

"Hey, that's enough!" Greg said in English, breaking her grip, distressed by how much strength it required to free himself.

"Definitely not from around here, that's not our language," the female on his left said.

"You can't leave yet. We haven't finished marking you," the one in front said, walking toward him with her jaw open, showing her upper and lower canines.

He stepped backward. The female behind him blocked his path again, and held his shoulders.

The female approaching him put her hand on his chest with an open palm. He could feel it through the material of his flight uniform; it was cool to the touch. She stuck her long flat tongue out, and her breath smelled like freshly killed meat. She was a few inches from his face, making to lick or bite his neck. One of the females to his left reached for his neckband.

"What's this? I've never seen anything like it before," she said.

Greg's elbow rocketed forward, clipping her in the face. The impact sent pain coursing through his elbow. He'd hit her teeth; they were hard as rock. She growled and backed off, wiping a drop of blood where he'd crushed her upper lip.

"Don't touch that!" he said, twisting his torso, regaining personal space from the female holding his shoulders, and the one in front who almost bit him.

"He's strong. I like him," the female who he'd just hit said.

They're out of control. Could he gun them down, Greg thought? Why was this happening? Nira was never like this. He didn't know the language well enough to threaten them, make them settle down. The four of them could overpower him. He unsnapped the retaining strap on his SX4.

"Maybe he doesn't like either of you; you are too rough," said the female on his right. She touched him lightly, running her hand through the back of his hair. Her claws pricked his scalp, and Greg winced in shock at the disparity between what he'd expected to feel, and her gentleness. It tickled.

Greg handled his SX4 to draw and fire a warning shot at the next one who gripped him. They had ears; even silenced, the caseless rounds were enough to signal danger to anything sapient at this point blank range.

Two groups of Telluki clans gathered around the forming spectacle. A large female from one of them walked up to the Teolid females surrounding Greg.

"That's enough. Leave the foreigner alone," the Telluki female said.

"But he has no colors, we were courting him!" the female in front protested.

"You are not old enough. You Teolids have enough personal rights issues as it is. You don't need to be accosting unsettled males and making things worse for your elders. Now apologize and move along before I find someone from the city guard."

There was a jumble in his translation matrix, the system only able to pull two phrases from the superposition of voices. "We're sorry," and another fragment that sounded a lot like a disappointed curse word.

"I do not know what kind of fool errand would cause a male to be wandering alone without colors, but whatever it is, you'd best be on your way quickly," the intervening Telluki said.

"Of course, Miss," Greg said, hoping that honorific was correct. He walked as fast as he could to the train station without running.

When he arrived at the train station the conductor singled him out while walking along the boarding line checking his timepiece.

"Hello Sir. Will the rest of your clan be coming shortly?"

"Clan?"

"Yes. Your Clan, Sir."

"No, I am alone."

"How unusual."

Greg handed him the coin from Nira. The conductor looked confused.

"That's more than enough, Sir," he said, staring at Greg, until it was obvious he didn't have any smaller denominations.

The conductor reached into his pocket and fumbled around, pulling out piles tokens multiple times, unsatisfied and increasingly annoyed until he found two identical ones. He returned a punched metal ticket and two smaller tokens of a different shape to Greg.

"You may board now if you like. We will be leaving soon."

"Thank you," Greg said.

"Yes, Sir. Do try to have a ticket or correct change next time."

-*-

On Earth there was a sense of loneliness when Greg was by himself, here, it was a different sensation: terror, like wandering unprepared in a jungle. That was the difference between being lonely, and being alone.

He waited at Anukina station for the other passengers to exit before disembarking. Some looked at him oddly; most paid him no attention. The mining settlement couldn't be that large, but his ability to remember Centauran faces was poor. He had no idea if they recognized him, or just thought he looked odd.

"You are back, foreigner. We didn't expect to see you again."

"It's only me."

"I understand. The mining work is not for everyone. Could I get you something?"

"Red wao," Greg said. He presented one of his two coins to the bartender.

"This one is on me," the bartender said, filling a mug and passing it to Greg.

Greg waited for the after work crew to come in, drinking a second mug of wao while doing so. The single token given as change from the train ride decomposed into another coin shape, the smallest of their currency. Assuming each Centauran was fair with him, a train ride was worth ten beers. Greg resolved he would pay Nira back. After seeing the behavior of the female Teolids in Newtown, he didn't want to be in her debt. The bartender tapped the counter and pointed toward the door, it was Nira and Litra.

"You came back. Where are the others? Where is John?" Litra said.

"Come sit at the table," Nira said, beckoning Litra and Greg with drinks in her hands.

"Is he ok? You should not have let him go," Nira said to Litra

"What could I have done? I asked him to stay. He said he was not feeling well, should I ask Greg?"

"What do you want to ask me, Litra?" Greg said.

"You can understand us when we talk fast? How do you understand us so well now?" Nira asked Greg.

"We tried something new," he said, pointing to his neckband.

"Your machines. I do not understand them," Nira said dismissively while taking a drink.

"There are not many males up here. We were going to ask if you would be clan with us," Litra said.

"Litra!" Nira said.

"What? You wanted to ask Greg too."

"They could hardly speak our language, I..." Nira said, not finishing her sentence.

"Ya, about clans. Is there something I should know about Teolids? When I was in Newtown, a group of Teolid females were yelling at me, asking if I wanted to see their tail. They were not as tall as you. They boxed me in. I think one of them was going to bite me. They were quite pushy and did not intend to let me go. I had to hit one of them. If a Telluki female hadn't come over, I do not know what would have happened."

"You hit one of them?" Litra asked.

"She tried to take my neckband. It was the only way I could get them to let go of me. Oddly, she didn't seem upset when I hit her."

Nira snickered, or so Greg thought. There were dozens of different growl and laugh sounds they made that he was still deciphering.

"She wouldn't be," Nira said.

"Where did you hit her?" Litra asked.

"In her jaw," Greg said, pointing to his mouth.

"Didn't your Father teach you anything? If you are trying to defend yourself, you hit them here," Nira said, pointing to her stomach. It knocks the breath out of them if you do it right."

"So what happened when the Telluki female came?" Litra said.

"She said they were not old enough, and that Teolids have enough personal rights issues, and that they should not be causing trouble."

"Well, that is true enough. They were not of age. They were probably in first heat," Litra said.

"First what?"

"How can you not know anything, Krek?" Nira said.

"She was trying to mark your neck. They were pretending to make a clan with you. The desire to mate is strong in first heat," Litra said.

"Would they have hurt me? And why do they talk about tails? None of them had tails."

"Oh they have tails," Litra said, laughing at her own statement.

"I've never seen your tail, Nira."

"I would like to show you my tail," Nira said, fidgeting on her stool.

"Settle down, Nira. You've had too much wao. Ever since they left, you have been having two on the first after work cycle," Litra said, pushing Nira, making her wobble on the stool.

"Are things that different where you are from? How can you know so little?" Nira said.

"John said they were from far away. Perhaps he has never seen a Teolid. Where exactly are you from, Greg?" Litra asked.

"The stars. I'm a Lani, like on your playing cards," Greg said.

"I told you that is what he would say," Nira said.

"When I was young, my clan visited Southlights. The great ships had just started crossing the ocean. I saw strange people from shores we had not been to yet. They were different from me, but I did not think they were from the stars."

"Is the tail real or not?" Greg asked.

"Will you join our clan?" Nira said.

"Oh, for Mother's blessing," Litra said. "Now she is trying to be polite. Her tail is wrapped around her, under her dress. It's a support for it, that's why they are so puffy. It's not considered appropriate to show your tail in public, not in most towns," Litra said.

"Why is that, the males show theirs?"

"Their tales are small. Boys are born with them. How to tell you, if you really are this stupid. A female Teolid gets her tail after about three journeys, when she wants to find clan members. The bigger her tail is, the more attractive she is to boys -- or so it's supposed to be," Nira said. She hiccuped, if he wasn't mistaken. "You usually only show it to boys you want to mate with."

"So it's like a secondary sex characteristic, and the dress is like a bra," Greg mumbled in English.

"What?" they both said.

Greg tapped his pec. "Your dress is like a bra, like Jennifer and Sarah's; they wear clothes to hold this part of their body up."

"Oh, those. Sarah mentioned to me once when she was cleaning my bruises at the mining clinic that her boys would be impressed. Why would anyone care about those?" Nira said, emptying her mug and taking another from Leo.

"Here," she said, loosening the string on her first vest, working it open, and then doing the same with the second, and then third vest underneath that.

Greg aspirated his drink. It was a glimpse, but what he could see looked like a human female pair of breasts. He shook his head to clear the image; the face of a Hyena and the boobs of a porn star was not something he wanted to process.

"Growl-hmm. That was weird. Would those make you interested in joining our clan?" Nira said, starting on her latest mug.

"So what is a clan? We do not have clans where I am from."

"That settles it; you are the dumbest and smartest boy I've ever met," Nira said.

"Everyone helps each other out, lives together, hunts together -- well back in older times. There is not so much hunting to be done, if you live in a city these days," Litra said.

"You want to be in my clan, Krek? I would show you my iko," Nira said, and just like that -- boobs were now in the language model. She leaned forward, baring her teeth like the girl in Newtown. At least she smelled like citrus -- not raw steak as the girl who almost bit him in Newtown did.

Litra pushed her friend back off the table. "Nira says you want to take a trail to the ruins. Is that why you came back?"

"Yes," Greg said.

Nira had polished off half the mug of wao, despite Litra moving it to the other end of the table.

"You should be in my clan, before I am in second heat, Krek. I could bite you, then you will be marked, and those girls will leave you alone," Nira said. Her empty glass made a thud against the table when she set it down.

Greg looked back and forth between Litra and Nira. Litra seemed reasonable but Nira had become capricious. She must be drunk. There was silence while Litra contemplated Greg's request.

"I will not take you there, not right away. It is a difficult hike, and you were having trouble walking when we last saw you. Nira will take you hunting tomorrow, to see how you do on the terrain, and then we will consider the ruins trail," Litra said.

"I'm ready now. My ankle is better," Greg said, as he watched a drool of saliva fall from one of Nira's lower incisors onto the table.

"I take you hunting, or we do not go to your trail, and do not work on your radeeo box machine thing," Nira said, burping, as near as Greg could tell.

"Fine," Greg said. "Can I sleep here?" Greg asked.

"If you bought drinks, Leo is happy to let you stay," Litra said. She pulled Nira up and directed her toward the door. "Nira, go wait by the door, and don't embarrass me."

"But Krek wants to see my boobs," Nira said, staring at her own chest while she laced the three vests up again and put her jacket on. "Which side did she try to bite you on, Krek?"

"Nira, move!" Litra said, shoving her toward the door but herself staying at the table with Greg.

"I know you are a foreigner, so let me apologize for Nira. Her heart is good but she is young. She grew up in the Teolid slums outside Mainlights and managed to earn enough money as a ring fighter to buy her freedom. We both made our way north, to Anukina.

We rarely get unsettled males up here... well, never, really. This is a frontier town, for already settled clans and families to be.

When we pulled your group from the mountain crash, she let her hopes of a clan rise high, and when you left, she started drinking... again."

"How old is Nira?" Greg asked.

"About four journeys," Litra said.

Greg recalled a journey was a time period based on the orbital period of Proxima c: 5.28 Earth years. "Are you her Mother?" he said.

Litra closed her mouth completely, with not a single tooth showing. That was a frown.

"No. Do I look that old?" Litra said, looking behind her, pushing her hands into her ass, assessing its size.

"No. Sorry. I don't know why I asked that."

"Goodnight, Greg."

He settled his pack against the wall for a pillow and passed out.

-*-

Greg woke to commotion in the tavern. He ate the second to last protein bar from his Earth food, resolving to save his last as a treat for a special occasion, like getting a radio working, or a final meal before his death on Proxima.

Litra arrived and took him to a building with stuffed animal heads hung as hunting trophies on a wall. Greg noted arrows, crossbows and a glass case with two weapons he was sure were chemically propelled. A female Telluki ambled from a back room. There were light yellow streaks in her hair and mane that ran down her back.