Tenacious

18

The wait lasted a week. During that time, Kris avoided the voyeuristic urge to watch Jacques in action, or rather observe his research. Or whatever.

Jack came back the next day, and Kris showed him just how grateful she was to have him back in her ship and in her bed.

“I take it you missed me,” he said when they came up for air.

“And I want you to remember how pleasant a nice, clean, civilized girl can be,” Kris said.

“Honey, you don’t need to remind me of that. That place stinks. The insects don’t make any distinction between us and them. Even with bug repellent, you’re swatting them all the time. It was almost enough to put us back in full space suits and armor. But, oh, did I mention how hot it was?”

“I think you should have stayed in full space armor.”

“We’ve been over this too many times before. The scientists agree we’re safe down there. I couldn’t carry enough oxygen to stay down there as long as I did, and if we’d had to go running in to grab someone trying to beat Jacques’s head in, it would have looked better if we were as low-tech as possible. Otherwise, they might suicide on the spot. You do want someone to talk to, right?”

“Yes,” Kris said, trying not to sound too pouty. “You do have some nasty bug bites.”

“The surgeon looked at them on the flight up. They’ve been treated and are not going to make me turn into a monster or cause you to shrivel up into an old lady in the next five minutes. So come here and remind me again why I wanted to come home to my civilized gal.”

“Since you put it that way,” Kris said, and did.

Kris and Jack monitored Jacques constantly. Or near constantly. It seemed that every woman in the group wanted a part of Jacques.

When Kris said something catty, Jack jumped in, man defending man.

“Kris, they stink. It’s hot and buggy as all get out. He’s really taking one for the team here.”

Kris chose not to dispute Jack’s opinion. She did, however, notice that the younger women began to bathe themselves along with their babies. The childless one damn near became a fish. Only the older woman would have nothing to do with the stranger.

Jacques certainly did his best to improve the quality of life for these outcasts. He showed them several more plants that were edible, and the clan became less gaunt. He also began to twist twine from grass.

The older woman, the one who bossed the young mothers and had tried to shoo Jacques away in the first place, made it clear she considered Jacques touched in the head. ~He makes noises from hollow thick grass. Now he twists grass into something that only the babies find interesting. He is not all there in the head.~

Then Jacques set his first trap.

And caught something.

It was small, something like a big-eared fox, but it had a bit of meat on its bones. He showed them how to skin it using a sharp stone flake. Nelly alerted Kris that something important might be about to happen. She also summoned Jack and Amanda to Kris’s day quarters. Together, they gathered around the screens as the issue of how the locals would react to their first fresh meat played out.

The locals looked hungry enough to eat the thing raw, but Jacques used the string again to make a fire bow. They stood back while he got a fire going, then stood back farther and mumbled among themselves.

Nelly translated for Kris and Jack. “I think they’re arguing among themselves about whether or not he’s the Enlightened One. We’ve heard a word like that among the other naked tribes. The established tribes have no word like it. Not even close.”

“The Enlightened One,” Kris said.

“Notice the emphasis on the ‘one,’” Jack said.

“I wonder what they mean by that?” Amanda questioned.

Several of the mothers seemed sure that Jacques was indeed “the Enlightened One.” The older woman definitely thought he wasn’t. The men seemed concerned about this theological debate, but they remained quiet. It was the childless young woman who took the bull by the horns and put the question to Jacques.

~Are you the Enlightened One?~ she demanded, hands on hips.

“How’s he going to play that?” Jack asked.

“Smart,” Amanda said.

~I do not know this word,~ Jacques said.

~Are you from the ship?~ the woman asked.

~Ship? I was born under this sky. My mother spoke of a ship, a world with no sky, but my father would have no talk of it and shushed her. Are you from a ship?~

The woman seemed hesitant to go on, but finally admitted, ~Yes, I was born of the ship.~

“Notice she said the ship, not a ship,” Amanda said. “I wish I’d taken more courses in sociology. It think that’s important.”

~I dream of being on the ship,~ Jacques said. ~Is that where the Enlightened One is?~

~Yes, he guides our ship. He guides us to the light. You guide us to food. Are you the Enlightened One under this sky?~

“How’s he going to answer that question?” Kris asked.

“Very carefully,” Amanda repeated.

~I am young. Aren’t Enlightened Ones full of years?~

~Yes, yes,~ the woman agreed. She looked back at the others, who waited expectantly. ~Are there young Enlightened Ones?~ she asked them.

The others, Kris would not have put any of them much past thirty, had no answer for her. The young woman turned from Jacques and rejoined the others. They squatted down in a circle, and their talk was long and animated.

“Nelly, are you getting this?”

“I’m getting all the words, Kris. The meaning, not so much. There are a lot of allusions to people and places that I can’t connect. I don’t think any of them ever saw any Enlightened One except the one they always had. One of them thinks there is a ceremony for the death of an Enlightened One and the recognition of a new one. Oh, oh, that got him in trouble. They’re saying that it was his crazy ideas that got them dumped here in the first place.”

On-screen, one of the men shoved two of the others away.

“He’s saying that they did nothing to cause them to be dropped here. They’re here, oh, that’s a bad turn of phrase, but I think it means to impress the others and make sure they meet their work assignments.”

“What were the actual words?” Amanda said. “That might tell us something.”

“It’s not nice,” Nelly said. “I think it’s something like ‘we are made to eat shit so that the others will be happy with their porridge.’”

“E-uw,” Kris said. “You’re right, Nelly. I’ll stick with your first translation.”

“You take the nice words, Princess,” Amanda said. “I’ll stick with the original. They’re traveling in a bound space, recycling everything. After hearing that, I have to wonder how well it works. As well as who gets the shit and who gets the porridge. And who maybe gets the best available?”

“You think you’re seeing fractures along class lines?” Kris asked.

“This Enlightened One is clearly at the top. ‘May the king or emperor live forever,’ was a popular illusion back when we had potentates with divine pretensions. I’m thinking we’ve got something like that here.”

Kris frowned as she let that bounce around in her head. “A hundred thousand years ago, someone pounded the living hell out of the next planet over. Someone abandoned this planet to go roving among the stars looking for any poor bastard that might rise up and do unto these as they were busy doing unto them.”

Kris eyed Jack and Amanda. They nodded agreement back. She went on.

“Somehow, these ships multiplied, but always, they kept the hate alive. No, let’s make that fear. It seems there is always someone to harangue the people. That must be the ‘Enlightened One’ we saw giving The Word to the folks in the first mother ship we blasted to bits.”

Again, Kris only got agreement from the others.

“It appears that this planet serves as some kind of dumping grounds for any problem children. If anyone won’t conform, get with the program, or maybe just voices doubts, they get a one-way ticket to here. Or maybe all you have to be is slow to get your work done if they don’t have enough examples to scare the others.”

“I think you may have something there, Kris,” Jack said.

“So how do we break into this chain of insanity and make them see that the whole universe isn’t out to get them? At least not if they aren’t out to get us?” Kris said.

She got no answer from the other two. She let the silence stretch for a minute or more, then made her call.

“Jack, would you please go down there and bring me back one of those men.”

“They stink pretty bad, Kris.”

“I’m not taking him to bed, Jack.” That got her a laugh from the other two. “You can douse him in the brig’s head, but I want to talk to him. Nelly has a vocabulary now. We need to find out just how bad this thing is. There’s got to be a way to reason with them.”

“I think you’re an optimist,” Amanda said.

“No doubt. The alternative, however, is just too bloody to contemplate.”

That got nods from the other two.

“I’ll be back for supper,” Jack said.

“I’ll see that the wardroom has some good chow for you and Jacques,” Kris said.

“They’ll need to keep it warm for later,” Amanda said. “Jacques is all mine.”