Vale Ch. 07: The Coming of the Gods

Author's Note: I have for a long time now been thinking about how Vale ties in with Zar's world. It didn't need to, but I wanted it to, and this story provides a little closure too to the Vale series.

*

Veh Shla had seen many planets destroyed by warfare, and indeed had been part of that destructive force on one occasion. War was an inevitability whenever a clash of ideals combined with scarcity of resources, and there was honour in choosing a side and fighting for victory. There were no innocents in war, save perhaps those too young to understand.

There had been no wars in a long time, not since Veh Shla's youth, when 'she' had still been 'he' and the accursed flux had not cursed his flesh. Not that there was any shame in the feminine veh or even the hermaphroditic ulaxr body forms, but she had been born as a masculine uxur and was more at ease in that shape. The curse of the flux, however, was in its unpredictability, the way her body morphed constantly between the sexes so that she might be uxur in the morning and ulaxr by nightfall.

She made the final adjustments to bring the ship into orbit, and sat back to study the violet hue of her upper arms. Violet suggested her form would be stable for a while. "We're here," she announced, and stared at miserable dirtball below. "Looks pretty dead to me."

Err answered from the observation deck, his voice quavery with age. "There was life here. And recently too. There are still operational satellites in the unstable zone."

"Zero comms traffic, though," Veh Shla said.

It was radio signals that had brought them here. A new species crying out its existence to a war-torn galaxy. Electromagnetic waves soaring out into the cosmos at the speed of light.

No doubt Err had hoped to find some species that delighted in unfettered sexuality. He would have worked himself into a disgusted rage, and demanded action be taken to cleanse the ignorant population of their immorality and excesses. He would have taken it upon himself to be their judge and executioner.

It was too late for that though. They had executed themselves, destroying their own planet through ecological mismanagement. They had taken the universe's most precious gift, and squandered it.

Der Shil, the ship's engineer and occasional copilot, joined her on the bridge. His attraction to her in the veh form always unsettled her a little, although she tried to take it as a compliment. "There are still functioning computers down there," he said. "The biggest were the first to die, of course, but I'm still hopeful of finding something useful."

Mina We, the youngest of their little party, chimed in with, "Bipedal, it looks like. Two arms, two legs, no tail. Bisexed as well, as far as I can tell from the statuary. A wheeled primary transport system, and what looks like a secondary rail system. I wonder if they had aircraft too."

"Almost certainly," Veh Shla commented, "given they got into space."

"There's an active device on the next planet out," Der Shil added, "and several on the large moon."

"Large moons are excellent for stabilising planetary rotation and driving the hydrologic cycle," Err said.

"I think it's beautiful," Veh Shla said, struck by how the planet's sun and moon subtended the same angle. "The eclipses here would be almost magical."

Err snorted. "Don't talk of such superstitious nonsense."

Veh Shla smiled to herself. "The Bindaji believed magic was real."

"The Bindaji believed a lot of things. It didn't help them, did it?"

"A good half the planet's population was unaccounted for," she said, enjoying Err's growing irritation. "Did you look under the floorboards? And no children anywhere! Sounds like magic to me."

"What is that?" Mina We said. "It's as if a huge round circle of land has been removed."

Veh Shla adjusted their orbit to pass over the location, while Der Shil focussed his scanners on the site. "How curious," he said. "There are a number of highly sophisticated devices located just outside the circle."

"There's a large building there made from stone," Mina We added.

"Can we land?" Err asked, his anger at Veh Shla forgotten in the excitement of the discovery.

"Yes we can," she said, decelerating and dropping, aiming for the building with its telltale traces of artificial intelligence. "We should take weapons. Just in case."

"We'll need suits too," Der Shil added. "I'll prepare some."

"I think there might be something alive in there," Mina We said.

"Don't be absurd," Err snapped. "There's nothing to indicate that, and I didn't bring you here to indulge in fanciful speculation."

"Even so," Mina We said calmly, "there is definitely something alive down there. It just said, 'Welcome.' And something about us not needing suits or weapons."

"Preposterous," Err snarled, but Veh Shla could see the uncertainty in his eyes.

"There is a pocket of breathable air around that building," Der Shil said.

"We're about to find out," Veh Shla said, and the ship slowed its fall until it hovered a hair's breadth above the ground. She pressed the button to deploy the feet, and disengaged the gravity drive. "Sensors confirm the atmosphere is free of toxins and is the perfect balance of oxygen and nitrogen for us."

Indeed, it was as if someone had read the standard on what a perfect atmosphere should consist of, and had created it specifically. "But let's take suits and weapons just in case," she said.

*

The gravity was uncomfortably high for Veh Shla's liking, but not so high as to be an obstacle. She had considered ordering Der Shil to stay on the ship, just in case, but his expertise with computers would likely be useful, and she herself was far too curious to stay behind.

The dead planet had become something of a mystery, so that she no longer felt as if the long journey out to this star had been a waste. "This building feels so old," she said, and her voice echoed back from the dark shadows. "And so empty."

"I can hear something," Mina We said. "Very faintly. From upstairs."

They made their way upstairs, Veh Shla and Der Shil with weapons ready, the noises still indistinct but louder.

"Perhaps it's music," Mina We said, pressing her ear to a large wooden door. She laughed abruptly. "I don't think it's music."

By the way Err stiffened with sudden resolve, Veh Shla knew there would be a confrontation beyond the door. "Let's find out, shall we?" she said, and pulled open the door.

Numerous creatures reclined on colourful furniture, wearing clothes of no practical purpose, and despite the planet-encompassing wasteland outside, they were engaged in activities that were almost certainly sexual in nature. One central creature had an extra limb with which he penetrated the flesh of another, with rhythmic thrusts, and all made strange sounds that sounded like music.

"Filth," declared Err, his eyes bright with excitement. "Stop this at once!" he shouted. There was no possibility they might understand his words, but Veh Shla had no doubt they would interpret his tone correctly.

They barely reacted. Some glanced indifferently at their visitors, but returned immediately to their various tasks. Veh Shla chuckled over Err's impotent fury - until he snatched Der Shil's weapon and fired it at the nearest creature.

The creature exploded in a shower of sparks and burning plastic, and suddenly all the creatures turned to confront them. The one with the extra limb advanced in a fury, shouting and gesticulating until Err aimed and fired the weapon again, resulting in a second explosion of sparks and plastic.

The rest of the creatures screamed and ran towards Err, and would have overwhelmed him quickly had Veh Shla not taken pity and calmly used her own weapon, firing until nothing of the creatures was left except smouldering debris.

"Robots," Der Shil said, examining the remains of a head.

"Robots having sex," Mina We said. "Did you have to shoot them all? We could have learned a lot from them about the creatures they were built to resemble."

"We could have learned nothing!" Err yelled. "Nothing! They were an abomination left here to taunt us. These creatures did the universe a favour by destroying their own world. Let us go."

Veh Shla wasn't listening. Her attention had been caught by a water tank so huge she had mistaken its transparent side for a wall. Within the water was a shadowy, tentacled creature, and this one, she was sure, was no mindless robot.

"No indeed," the creature said inside her head, transforming slowly into a young, black-limbed veh and climbing out of the tank.

Err pointed his weapon at her as she dropped down onto the floor with graceful ease. "I know what you are," he growled. "A deceiver. A corrupter of souls."

"I've been called worse," she said, "but I answer to Vale." She ignored his weapon and walked over to pick up the one extra limb. "You killed my brother." The words were stated without emotional context.

"Vale," Veh Shla said. "The Bindaji called you a destroyer of worlds. Are you the destroyer of this one?"

Vale studied her with open curiosity. "If any here deserves such a reputation, it is you, Veh Shla. I am merely a granter of wishes, and I have a good idea what you would ask. If I gave you the choice, would you be veh, uxur or ulaxr?"

Veh Shla shrank away in horror. "I would not -"

But Vale was not listening. "And you, Err, would stand as a guardian over the gates of heaven and hell, exulting in your power over mortal creatures."

"Fiend!" screamed Err and fired his weapon - but Vale moved too quickly for him and the hot beam shattered the wall of the tank. Water poured out through the widening break, and quickly became a flood about their feet.

"Der Shil would ask to follow his beloved captain wherever she went, isn't that so?" Vale said, "and Mina We... what seductive powers would you wish for, I wonder?" She laughed and danced away before Err could fire again.

"Let's get out of here," Veh Shla yelled to the others, and ran to the door. Der Shil was close behind her as she reached the stairs, and Mina We and Err were not far behind.

"Wish granted!" Vale cried after them, and it seemed to Veh Shla that she could hear Vale's laughter as the ship's thrusters poured fire through the dark windows below.

*

The thrusters cut out midway through the thermosphere, and the ship fell.

Mina We screamed at the abrupt weightlessness, and Err clutched desperately at a rail. "Sensors are all offline," Der Shil said, stabbing at lifeless buttons with desperate fury.

Veh Shla managed to get the secondary systems running, well enough at least to maintain a stable descent down a ground she could not see. "Brace for impact," she shouted, moments before they hit the ground hard, and -

*

Veh Shla awoke in a body that was not her own. That she did not immediately recognise this was itself a remarkable fact. What she saw was several of the creatures like the robots in that building. Five, she counted. All stirring as if from a deep sleep, and no sign of her own people.

Where was Der Shil? Where were Err and Mina We?

Just as importantly, what had happened to the ship? Was it fixable, or were they trapped forever on this hellhole of a planet?

The creature beside her sat and studied itself. "What the hell?" it said.

"You speak -" Veh Shla started in surprise, and realised abruptly that the language had not been her own, even if she did seem to understand and speak it now.

It was then that she observed herself being not herself, and realised something terrible had happened. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Uxur Shla," the other said, and a third creature turned and said, "But I am Ulaxr Shla."

Veh Shla wanted to object, to say that she was all these three parts of herself, but it made no sense to argue that she was them and they were her when the odd thing was how certain she was that she was her female self. She studied her two arms, wanting to see them violet and stable, but they lacked any colour that she was able to interpret.

"Veh Shla?" said the creature that must be Der Shil.

"Yes, Der," she said, lifting a hand. "Ship status?"

"Dead," he said with a cry of sorrow.

"What happened to us?" another voice said. Mina We for sure.

"The deceiver," Err snarled. "Vale!"

"She said she granted our wishes," the creature calling itself Uxur Shla said. "But what wishes?"

"To leave," Err said, "but we didn't. We're still on this accursed planet."

"I'm not sure about that," Mina We called, her voice coming from the observation deck.

They all hurried down the stairs to where the great window had come adrift from its frame and threatened to fall. Outside was greenery as far as the eye could see, grasses and trees, with fluttering insects and swooping birds.

"The air smells so fresh," Mina We said, standing at the edge of the window and breathing in deeply.

"Be careful," Der Shil said. "We should test it first."

"No point," Veh Shla muttered. "Even if the sensors worked, we're different now." She sighed. "We wished to leave. We didn't specify where to. I wished to be free of the flux, and she divided me. Der wished to be with me, and he is. Err, no doubt, wished for divine retribution -"

Err snorted. "On Vale and all the wretched creatures of this planet..." He faltered, perhaps recognising that he himself was one of those same creatures now.

"- but what did you wish for, Mina?" Veh Shla continued.

Mina We sighed. "I was thinking what a shame it was that this civilisation ended before we could get to know it. That perhaps we could have helped them."

Veh, Uxur and Ulaxr groaned in synchrony.

Der Shil laughed. "I'm guessing we'll get to know them very well. Look, there are some approaching." He pointed to where a trio of the creatures threaded through the grass, working their way towards the ship.

"I guess we need to find a way out of this ship," Veh Shla said. "Do you think the manual release will work?" Blowing the bolts was usually a desperate last measure, and would mean yet another thing to fix before the ship could be operational again.

Der Shil shrugged and kicked the window - which tumbled to the ground below with a heavy thud. "This ship's going nowhere," he said. "Not unless these people have better tools than they did before."

*

The trio of creatures were wearing brightly coloured clothes, and of a more functional and practical nature than the robot creatures had worn. Veh Shla and the others had no clothes at all, and she had worked out, if nothing else, certain anatomical differences between the males of her party and the females. Ulaxr, her hermaphroditic form, combined aspects of both.

She was getting used to her new form with surprising ease. Her eyesight was astonishing, and it seemed to her she could even catch fragments of thought from the approaching creatures.

"Humans," Err said. "They call themselves humans."

"They seem honest to me," Veh Shla said. "Peaceful and intelligent."

"They're interesting," Mina We said with a smile that suggested something Veh Shla could not understand.

Uxur and Ulaxr were more interested in each other, it seemed, each caressing the other in gentle exploration. "Stop it," Veh Shla hissed at them, feeling strangely aroused by the sight.

They laughed, but separated, and together the six of them dropped down onto the fallen window. "These bodies are very strong," Der Shil said.

"They're in awe of us," Mina We said. "Not because they think we're aliens. They think we're human, like them. Humans from space. But they think we're beautiful."

"They're staring at my cock," Ulaxr said. "They're thinking of doing some very interesting things with my cock."

"Mine too," Uxur said, grinning. "I'm going to enjoy these people."

"Filth," Err muttered.

Veh Shla focused on the central figure of the trio as they halted a few steps away. A young woman with something very unusual about her. Something at once familiar and utterly alien. Unlike the other two humans, her thoughts were veiled, so that only wisps of emotion could be sensed.

"Do you speak English?" the woman asked.

"If it is English you speak, then we speak it also. I am Veh Shla. Here are Uxur and Ulaxr, and here are Der Shil, Err and Mina We. We come from the stars, and are not like yourselves."

The woman laughed, but without any sense of mockery. "You look like how we wish we looked." Her eyes widened in alarm and she covered her mouth.

The woman's companions shuffled their feet awkwardly, and Veh Shla perceived their fear at the thought of wishes. "What do you know of Vale?" she demanded.

To her surprise, the overriding impression she got was one of loss. Of sadness. "Vale was my mother," the woman said. "My name is Zo. Vale saved us from Earth's destruction, but stayed behind to be with her brother."

Veh Shla thought it better not mention their destruction of the robot humans. "Vale sent us here," she said, "but where exactly is here?"

"This is Earth," Zo said. "The Earth that would have been, if humans had never evolved. I bid you welcome, strangers. Our home is not far from here, and you are welcome to stay with us while you... repair your ship."

This time the scepticism in her thoughts, and in the minds of the other two, was brutally clear. One of them, the man, had witnessed the fall of their ship and its crash into the soft earth.

"Our technology does not work well here," Zo said. "When Vale brought us here, she granted a lot of very unfortunate wishes. It's likely your ship has been affected too - I'm sorry. But we have food and shelter, and we will share what we have."

"That's very generous of you," Veh Shla said. "We accept."

*

The humans' home proved to be a small city inside a huge geodesic dome. "We built the dome so that we could regulate the atmosphere inside during the last days on old Earth. The planet was burning and the catastrophe was a runaway event, out of control."

"How did it ever reach that point?" Mina We asked. "Couldn't you identify the causes and correct them?"

"We knew the causes," Zo said, "but we had built an economic system that rewarded individuals regardless of the cost to the planet."

As they entered the dome and walked along the pathway, hundreds of humans peered down at them from walkways and balconies. Veh Shla was almost overwhelmed by the cacophony of thoughts and images. There was amazement at the arrival of strangers from space, scepticism given their human appearance, curiosity about anatomical particulars, and a deep, mischievous lust.

Uxur and Ulaxr encouraged this unhealthy adoration with laughter and friendly waves, and their cocks swelled to rigidity. Der Shil's cock swelled too, but he was more curious about Zo's experience with technology. Even Err's cock hardened under the barrage of desire, and he scowled with disapproval.

Veh Shla was not immune to the lustful fantasies that centred her, though she found the suggested intimacies distasteful. The humans had a brutality to their nature, and she suspected they could in time prove to be a warlike species.

"This is our home," Zo said, "but not for much longer. This island we're on is sinking into the sea. We are busy building boats and packing what we can to bring with us, but where the sea will take us, and how many of us will survive the voyage, I do not know."

"Is there no high land?" Veh Shla asked, worrying about her ship.

Zo shrugged. "We must plan for the worst."

If so, it was a cruel jest on Vale's part, to force a crash landing onto a sinking island. And in some kind of alternative reality too. Perhaps the changes reached further than this one planet. If humans had never evolved, then they had never sent that message, and no one would ever think to come in search of her. Perhaps, somewhere out there, another Veh Shla still had a functioning ship.