An Accidental Alliance (11 page)

     
“I could be wrong,” Iris attempted an interpretation, “but I think she’s telling us we’re not out of danger.”

     
“Jeefah!” the young woman told them, pointing downstream.

     
“It could be these critters go berserk at the smell or taste of blood,” Park replied thoughtfully. If that’s the case, they might not stop attacking until there is nothing left in sight.”

     
“Jeefah!” the young woman told them, sounding frustrated. Then with an exaggerated sigh, she made a beckoning gesture and started swimming downstream, careful to avoid the ravening neo-crocs.

     
“I think ‘Jeefah,’ means ‘this way’ or ‘follow me,’” Park told Iris. “Catch up to her and I’ll pull her on board.”

     
“Sounds more like ‘Vamoose!’ to me,” Iris remarked as she turned the accelerator on the motor. Solar power was enough to catch up to a swimmer even one who seemed to be of Olympic caliber like the woman they were following.

     
Park leaned over the gunwales as they passed, held out his hand and, as the woman grabbed hold, he pulled her up and into the boat. Then he nearly dropped her again when he realized she was not human at all.

     
Instead of legs below her waist, she had a long, dolphin-like tail, colored dark brown like her long hair. Her tail seemed to be covered with scales, although it soon became apparent these were a sort of evolved hair in spite of their fishy look. Realizing he was still holding her off the deck by her arms, Park gently lowered her on to a seat and only then realized that she was as surprised by his anatomy as he was by hers.

     
She was not unclothed by a long shot. Besides the tight, shirt-like garment she wore over her upper torso, she also wore a short tan skirt with pockets. Park could see she had a number of items in them. The weapon holster slung over her shoulder bandolier-style, was removed and placed on the deck so she could sit comfortably.

     
“Ooh,” she gasped interestedly and reached out to gently touch Park’s right leg. “Ja na catayma. Koo!”

     
“You’re pretty coo too,” Park chuckled. “Iris, look what I caught.”

     
“I see her,” Iris laughed. “If these weren’t such dangerous waters, I’d say she was too young and you should throw her back.”

     
“Jealous?” Park asked. “Doesn’t sound like you.” Thinking back, Park realized he had never done anything to make Iris jealous, so maybe…

     
“Not really,” she laughed, “No. But she is definitely too young for you.”

     
“That she is,” Park agreed and turned back to the mermaid. “Can I offer you something to eat or drink?” he asked.

     
It was another stupid question and her politely puzzled look told him so immediately. Before he could think of something else to say, however she pointed at her herself and said, “Marisea. Marisea Waisau,” and held her hand out in greeting.

     
“Park Holman,” Park replied, grasping her hand. Then for no particular reason he bent over and kissed it, making the mermaid giggle. He pointed toward Iris and introduced her too. Then he let go of Marisea’s hand and went over to the cooler. Looking inside he found a few grazer steaks he and Iris had acquired a few days earlier, and a large supply of water and soft drinks. Early on, Park had considered bringing a few six-packs of beer, but decided no matter how well he knew he could hold his alcohol, it was a suicidally stupid thing to bring along on a dangerous mission. He considered offering her a Coke, but decided that evolution had come too far to assume it would be safe for her to drink, so instead he pulled out three bottles of water, tossed one to Iris and gave another to Marisea. Finally he sat down next to the young mermaid and opened his own bottle.

     
Marisea caught on instantly and untwisted the cap of her bottle. “Harif gana too,” she told him, raising the bottle as if in toast. “Halu!” she drank the water and nodded.

     
Park raised his bottle to her, and in the same tones replied, “Here’s mud in your eyes, kid.” and drank as well. It was apparently the right gesture even if Marisea had no chance of understanding his words.

     
They had only gone another two miles or so down the river before Marisea remembered something. She pointed obliquely toward the north bank of the river and said, “Lim gretin wallata pbaba.”

     
“Excuse me” Park asked in turn. He too pointed toward the shore, although not in the same direction.

     
“Neh,” Marisea shook her head. “Neh torala; yetta fador.”

     
“If you say so,” Park replied for want of anything else to say. Marisea sighed heavily and jumped back into the water, swam a few strokes, turned and called, “Jeefah.”

     
“Iris, she wants us to jeefah again,” Park reported.

     
“I gathered that,” Iris laughed. “Jeefah it is, then.” She steered the boat to follow Marisea. As they caught up Marisea jumped back up into the boat with Park’s assistance and muttered, “Tarrase! Hant tou wokes gena haecka tangua?”

     
“It probably has to do with being stubborn,” Park told her seriously. She just laughed.

     
As the boat approached the shore, Marisea directed Iris with gestures to bring the boat around just another bend where there was a small sheltered cove. In that cove was another boat. It looked like it was made of white fiberglass or some similar material and was broader in the beam than the one Park and Iris used, but she was a slightly shallower craft with a solid cabin built toward her bow.

     
Marisea slipped into the river and swam to the other boat and reached into the gunwale to pull out a belt. A moment later she rose up and out of the water until only her tail was still submerged. She flicked it a couple times to bring herself to shore and then held her hands out toward the humans.

     
Park reached into the bow of his own boat and threw the painter to the waiting Marisea. He was only mildly surprised when it turned out she could pull the boat into the river bank. He had not been sure she had the leverage to actually haul them in, floating there like that, but evidently she did. He jumped ashore and together they pulled the boat firmly up and on to the bank.

     
For good measure, Park set the anchor, causing several unintelligible sentences to escape from Marisea’s lips. From what he could see she was curious about the design and probably wondered why he bothered with the boat already firmly beached. “It’s a long walk home,” he told her, knowing she would not understand the words but might catch a bit of the humor. Her answering chuckle told him he was right.

     
Park helped Iris ashore and together they followed Marisea as she hop-stepped away from the river. After a few minutes, they saw a merman somewhat older than Marisea working with some sort of odd contraption. Nearby, there was something that looked like a giant ant dressed in a striped bathrobe in shades of brown. The ant creature was kneeling on the ground and Park got the distinct impression it was praying.

     
“Bapa!” Marisea called
 
out. “Genno whatta fomay tee!”

     
“Gata?” the other merperson asked.

     
“Neh, Bapa,” Marisea replied, shaking her head. “Tika donna spea neh.”

     
“Olaw,” the merman nodded. He stepped up to Park and Iris, made an adjustment on a torq he wore around his neck and said, “Kollahne, repoa. Yiesta, Taodore Waisau.” But from the torq. Park and Iris heard, “Grachta, wachtinoche. Boranoshtka, Taodorin Waisautka.”

     
“Parker Holman,” Park replied, holding out his hand in the same manner Marisea had. “I think your translation doohickey has a sore throat.”

     
“Neh Gata,” Taodore mused absent mindedly before remembering his manners and accepting Park’s hand. “Neh Gata, do leet!”

     
“I hope that’s a good thing,” Park chuckled at the guttural translation that poured from the torq. Taodore touched buttons on the torq and it said something else, in a less harsh-sounding language. “Not that either,” Park shook his head. The torq was silent. “I think we’re going to have to do this the hard way. Hello. My name is Parker Holman, my companion is Iris Fain,” he indicated Iris.

     
Taodore turned toward Iris and extended his hand. As Iris took it in his, he bowed, in much the same way as Park had with Marisea and kissed Iris’ hand in a courtly manner. Standing to the side, Marisea giggled again and Park guessed this was an adult thing in their society – something children and teens found amusing. He corrected himself a moment later, seeing a blush rise on Marisea’s face. It was obviously a form of mild or possibly courtly flirtation. Children always found that funny.

     
“So who’s your friend?” Park asked indicating the other being. The insectoid creature had stood up as Taodore greeted the humans and was now inspecting them gravely.

     
“Ah,” Taodore paused and turned toward the large ant-like creature, “Niesta, Okactack omo Totkeba yno Atackack yno iente.”

     
“Tkak,” the insect clacked at the humans and indicated itself, “Okactack.” He lifted both
 
of his left arms in a sort of formal wave, that Park imitated as best he could while introducing himself and Iris. He took a good look at Okactack. The Insect stood approximately three and a half feet tall

     
“You am Parker Holman, Iris Fain?” the torq said after Taodore garbled some syllables at them.

     
Park started and laughed. “That’s right. Yes, but that should be ‘You are Parker Holman and Iris Fain,’ but that’s a start. We should learn your language though.”

     
Taodore frowned at the attempted translation but gestured that Park should say more and led him through a number of common objects in the vicinity. After a while they built up a fair vocabulary the torq could handle. By sunset it was still only using baby talk, but at least they could converse. It was still another day before they could really ask questions of each other.

     
“So, my friend,” Taodore began once they finally had the words they needed, “you say you come from the ancient past?” They were sitting in the Mer’s boat. Park and Iris had been surprised to learn Taodore and Marisea called their people the Mer, but chalked it up to an amazing coincidence.

      
“That’s about the size of it,” Park admitted. He described Project Van Winkle and the reasons behind it.

     
“True working stasis,” Taodore marveled. “We have stories of lost science, of course. The wonders and wisdom of the ancients, or so we were led to believe. But why were you sent so far into your future? Two hundred and fifty million years?”

     
“That’s our estimate,” Park agreed.

     
“Were you intended as a sort of time capsule perhaps?” Taodore asked.

     
“Not in the usual way,” Park replied. “The project was initiated because there was a large asteroid headed toward the planet. We didn’t actually expect it to hit, but we did it just in case. We were supposed to be a kernel of civilization should the real civilization collapse. Well, from what we learned in our own computer’s records, the asteroid did, indeed miss but the powers that be decided that since they already had us assembled and safely in stasis, it would be simpler and cheaper to just keep us there in case some other emergency came along. Not that we had any say in the matter, you understand.”

     
“But surely some great calamity must have befallen the civilization of your time,” Taodore insisted. “Otherwise you would have been awakened sooner.”

     
“More likely we were never needed,” Park replied. “If there had been a disaster, we’d have been woken up to deal with it. As it is we’re only up now because our systems were beginning to fail. I suspect there were a series of earthquakes that eventually disrupted the power to the equipment that kept us safe.”

     
“And yet that I should have lived to meet you,” Tadore replied. “Are you of the Originals?”

     
“The Originals?” Park echoed.

     
“The first intelligent species to come from Earth, of course,” Taodore explained.

     
“Well, not the first exactly,” Park shrugged. “Our scholars knew of earlier species of the genus Homo from whom we evolved, but we were the first to achieve civilization.”

     
“And you evolved naturally?” Taodore asked excitedly.

     
“Of course,” Park nodded. “There was no one else to breed us intentionally for one trait or another nor anyone to practice gene splicing or any other form of artificial genetics. Even in my time it was illegal to do so on people.” Then he thought of something, “Why do you ask that? Are there many artificial species?”

     
“Almost all to one extent or another, or so I believe,” Taodore replied. “My own people did not evolve at all. We know that we were created although it was so long ago that the records have been lost.”

     
“Well, I have to admit it seems unlikely you would have evolved naturally from humans without a nudge or two,” Park agreed, ”but how do you know for certain? Is it a religious belief?”

     
“It is a part of our religion,” Taodore nodded, obviously taking no offense from Park’s question, “but we know because we cannot evolve. My people are gene-locked. The Galactics tell us so and our own scientists agree. We can never evolve. My hundred thousandth descendant will still be a Mer, no different from any other Mer.”

     
As Taodore and Park spoke to each other, Iris and Marisea were walking along the river where Marisea was showing Iris which of the local plants were good to eat. This region was far more varied in vegetation than it was to the north and looked more like the African veldt to Iris than the area around Van Winkle Base. Instead of an endless expanse of three-foot tall grass, constantly waving in the wind, the grass here was much shorter and there was brush and trees. The brush and trees were in small clumps, giving the region an open look even so and here there were larger beasts and far more flyers in the air.