Tacenda Read online

  ***

  She awoke to see the small room she was in lay empty. Scattered around her were abandoned blankets in small, crumpled piles. The only exception was folded neatly on the bench to her left. The sight made her smile.

  She could hear sounds filtering in from the main hall, low murmurs of conversation that reminded her she had slept much later than intended. The lack of windows in the small room she stood in made it impossible to gauge the weather, but she felt a chill in the air as she dressed. She was careful to keep her weapons close but out of plain sight.

  She steeled herself before rejoining the main hall. A rush of noise and motion hit her instantly. It looked different in the morning light, a hive of activity with patches of sunlight dappling a smooth wooden floor.

  Through grimy windows she saw movements in the fields and houses outside. Adults walked around hefting items or working in the weed-filled fields. In the nearest corner a woman struggled to fill the feed bins for a flock of feral-looking chickens. The birds themselves were a rush of ragged feathers, all caution forgotten. They pecked at the woman’s ankles in their haste to get towards the grains.

  Further out in the fields people moved in hasty circles which held many notable gaps. Inside the building adults moved around in set tasks, washing clothes or sorting food. Faces painted with fearful looks, furrowed brows and movements so controlled they wasted no energy.

  Children were everywhere, and Arucken sat amongst one small group. He sat on the floor to one side, with the children in a ring around him. He made fluid gestures, unhurried and careful. An odd contrast to the fast paced movements, flowing all around him.

  Kerris moved to join him, noting that although none of the children made eye contact they were engaged on some level. A red haired boy was tapping out a rhythm with his foot, a soft patter against the flow in time with the cadence of Arucken’s voice. An older girl, blonde and with bright green eyes was lying on her back, staring at the ceiling with no awareness of those around her. The red-head beside her kicked her in odd spasms, but she paid it no mind.

  Yet as Kerris grew closer she saw the girl’s lips, moving silently, echoing Arucken’s story a moment behind. A simple story of an animal searching for a lost toy, a weasel like creature no more familiar to these children than it would to Arucken. Where had he heard it?

  A few adults darted glances at them as they rushed past, a quick flick of their eyes before returning to their respective tasks. They looked so worn.

  Lyndon was one of the younger children, and he sat with his arms wrapped around both legs. He muttered a word, over and over, his eyes kept glancing at Arucken and back away. Other children got up, wandered around the room, touching items and walls or dancing. Their actions were disjointed, but peaceful.

  A small arm tugged at her sleeve, Kerris looked down at the small dark-haired girl she’d noted the night before. She introduced herself, whilst the girl jiggled beside her, looking like she might explode at any second.

  “You explore?” the girl said. Her voice was bright, cheerful and rapid. She began waving her hands randomly, as if she fended off attacks. “Where do you go?”

  “Anywhere we are needed.” Kerris answered. She smiled at an adult who tensed as the girl began speaking. He paused to watch them both, frowning. “Lots of planets, lots of new animals and worlds to see.”

  The girl nodded, three times. “I want to do that! Or make medicine.”

  She frowned. “Or maybe reach up all into the sky! Can you make medicine out of stars?”

  “I don’t know.” Kerris said. Most of her attention focused on Arucken, and the group of children around him. Why wasn’t this one with him? “Stars are different. Some species use parts from them.”

  The conversation continued for a few moments before the girl bounced away. She had never told her name.

  Arucken spoke to her, without pausing in his story to the children she’s neurodiverse, I’m told, so her brain is wired differently. An orphan. Whatever took the children didn’t change her. You should speak to Ryla about the weapons used. It’ll mean more to you.

  Who is Ryla?

  He sent her an image of an older woman in the corner, grey haired and short. After a moment Kerris spotted her, sitting as she wove plants together in the centre of the room. A few young adults sat around her, copying the gestures.

  Kerris snagged Jiang as he walked past her. He stopped awkwardly, arms overflowing with branches.

  “What do the children remember?” she asked.

  “How would we get an answer?” he shot back, unable to conceal his annoyance at the question although he tried to soften it with a tired smile. “They won’t talk. Not any of them.”

  Kerris added her thanks and left him, moving towards the woman Arucken mentioned. As the older woman spotted her approach she stood up, directing her students to continue.

  The gaze she turned on Kerris was shrewd, her eyes brown and sharp. It made Kerris feel five years old again. Grey hair with threads of white lay fastened by a simple wooden clasp, from which a few errant strands escaped. The clothes she wore were typical of the colonists, plain, sensible cotton that hung loosely and wide, grey trousers. A braided belt of bright green around her slim waist gave the only splash of colour.

  “I’d bid you welcome to Kalinaw, but these are not the best of times.” Her clear voice cut through the normal hum of conversation. She tilted her head to one side, an uneasy smile on her lips. “What do you need to know?”

  “At this stage? Everything.” Kerris said.

  The other woman nodded, and began speaking in a calm voice, nothing hinting at the emotion beneath the surface. “We didn’t know what had happened with Lyndon, although everyone was fearful. The next evening a parent raised the cry when she found her child missing from her bed. We followed a trail of footprints, arriving in time to see the last of the line of children vanishing under the sea.”

  Ryla took a deep breath, her voice losing strength. “A few figures stood by the shoreline. Serena led a charge against them, parents screaming their children’s names. The resulting fire injured three, Serena amongst them.”

  “Can you describe the figures?” Kerris asked.

  Ryla frowned. “Too dark, too much gunfire. We left, the next night we found two of our dead, lying there in the sand. “

  “Face up?” Kerris asked.

  Ryla nodded, her expression quizzical. “Yes, and with arms crossed. But Serena was not one of them. We found the children wandering along the edge of the waters, dazed and unable to recognise the faces of their parents. We brought them back here.”

  “Serena can’t have survived.” Ryla continued. “The wounds on Una and Deniz were severe. Whatever weapon they used it seems energy based, the shock alone killed them.”

  Kerris found her curiosity rising. Energy weapons were banned in many places. If the creatures had that kind of tech, they must be unknown to the Concordat.

  “Can we see the bodies?” Kerris asked.

  “No.” Ryla said, and the answer was short and empathic. “We cremated them. I’d advise you not to ask this elsewhere. The dead need their peace.”

  Something inside Kerris was twisted and roaring. She refused to think of her sister.

  “As do the living.” Kerris answered, too fast. She walked away before the other woman could respond and took a deep breath. Her hand when it touched the wall beside her, shook.

  Making friends? Arucken asked in her head, sensing the shock of emotion from her. He’d said before it felt like the ground crumbled beneath his feet, like a sinkhole opened underneath. She wondered if he ever feared it would pull him down with it.

  To her, her partner’s strong emotions crashed against her in waves. You could lose yourself in that connection and forget where you ended and they began.

  Superstitions! She said.

  Let them believe what they need! Does it harm you?

  If those bodies hold the answers, it harms THEM!

  Arucken
gave no sign of his multiple conversations, he never did. He brought his tale to its natural end and excused himself from the group of children. They gave his departure little attention.

  From the confused glances Kerris caught from some other adults, she guessed she appeared nowhere near as composed. Keeping track of both strands of conversation was hard, the internal conversation she held as real as knowing where her body stepped, and who she spoke to.

  “Let’s scout the area.” Arucken said aloud, for the benefit of those watching. “They do not come out during the day, and we may find some useful tracks.’”

  Kerris nodded, although she saw Ryla frown. They’d already discussed signs and she had to know they did not expect to find much. The doors were open wide, and no-one commented as they left.

  Although the creatures had so far limited themselves to shore and night, security was careless.

  Once outside, Kerris took a long deep breath and closed her eyes. Arucken fell silent in her mind. A sullen day greeted them, clouds gathering at the base of distant hills, blanketing them with a dull grey. The air held a sharp tang from the ocean, crisp in her lungs.

  “I don’t understand.” Kerris said after a moment, running her hand through her thick brown hair. Fingers snared in a few knots, and she pulled them through the tangles.

  “Nor I.” Arucken answered. “Our elders return to the pool, their nutrients feeding new growth. A new colony needs the help.”

  “But you don’t need to understand, to accept.” Kerris muttered back at him, pre-empting his common response.

  “What you cannot change, you have to accept!” Arucken said, although the smile he gave her reminded her that for all his stolen wisdom, he was no older in his species life than she in hers. She did not hold back her answering smile.

  They moved, without comment, to explore the area further out. None of the adults working spared them a glance, and Kerris noted chicken lady had gone. As they walked further out, even the sounds of fighting, pecking birds faded behind them.

  They compared notes as they moved. The returned children suggested the species did not intend conflict, yet their memories and minds remained affected. Many of the elders spoke of fears for the next generation.

  The children could eat, and talk, with prompting but were unable to keep focused. Their minds constantly danced from topic to topic. Some, like Lyndon, had developed stock phrases or motions that they did obsessively. Sometimes a gentle touch returned them to reality, and sometimes the same touch led them to violence. They had forgotten many words and meanings, a few no longer verbal.

  With adult time so devoted to keeping the children safe and reminding them of basic needs, Kalinaw was already showing neglect. The abandoned homes were basic but well built. Hand finished paint jobs and simple aesthetic touches lay half-finished around them.

  The colony was in its first few years, and the fields they cultivated held small but hardy plants, the easiest yields. Weeds threaded their way across, strangling some plants and a hoe laid to one side showed signs of rust. For a colony so new and close to the sea, it was beyond careless.

  It should have been without bloodshed! Kerris said.

  Agreed. Arucken replied, stepping on the well-worn track beside rows of struggling young plants. I don’t think either side expected the other to be here

  Kerris leapt the fence as they came to the edge of the field, and Arucken followed. She landed on rocky earth sprinkled with thick bushes. Long spiked limbs and entangled roots dotted the landscape, many attempting to reach up to brush the sky with their tangles even as their roots anchored them hard to the ground. They picked their way amongst a perilous host of prickles and rocks. Encroaching on all sides.

  The air was still here, the weight speaking of flux. Maylith Tara had a capricious weather system. Clouds might bring rain at one moment and be driven away by the threatening bluster of the wind the next. Even the land fought against them.

  Kerris’ thoughts turned bleak as they climbed upwards. Arucken’s large eyes looking around him with an avid curiosity. Much as he grumbled about the human colonies, he found the trappings of them fascinating.

  An odd sound came from the bushes nearby, an unnatural clicking sound amongst a heavy rustle of leaves. They stopped in tandem.

  As they approached the source a large animal plunged out from the foliage. White and brown stripes dappled a rough hide, sides heaving. A round, bovine face with large nostrils, flaring as it drank in their unfamiliar scents. Long lashes on the eyelids brushed eyes the colour of the earth. It snorted.

  The mouth opened in an unnatural grimace, far too wide. Sub vocalisations in its throat came out in a harsh, discordant growl. The eerie sounds were unlike anything Kerris had ever heard. The head tilted as it moved towards them, keeping rich, coffee-brown eyes focused on them both. Larger than any horse, she did not want to see it startled. Steady there beauty. Arucken projected. Easy there my dappled one.

  A smaller shape burst out from the bush, and where the parent whispered this one shouted. It growled and hissed. The parent jumped backwards, swinging round its large head. It snorted, stared up at both humanoids and fled when Arucken took a step forwards.

  Halting at a safe distance, the animal beckoned the child with a low thrum in the back of its throat. The young foal made no response, shivering as Arucken ran his long multi-jointed fingers across the wide dappled neck. The foal arched its head, odd clicking sounds emitting from thick lips.

  Arucken squeezed gently before releasing his touch. “Go!” he gestured raising both hands. It fled to its parent in a flurry of hooves and stirred earth. Their hooves rumbled on earth made loose from overgrazing.

  “Tampered with?” Kerris asked. Arucken’s nod confirmed her suspicions.

  Arucken wiped his hands down the front of his clothes, his look uneasy. “Not natural sounds. Is this colony allowed to interfere with natives?”

  Kerris shook her head. None of the colonists had the skills required, nor was the access often granted. The Concordat was strict in its desire to keep interference to a minimum.

  “A failed first attempt?” Kerris asked.

  “Looks so.” Arucken said. He wouldn’t meet her eyes. “But by whom?”

  Kerris tapped the console on her wrist, hoping to see the screen flare to life, but it remained black. Not a total surprise, given the remote location, yet Octavia held many surprises. A few moments access to the data archives would give her the answer.

  The radio silence disturbed her. Yet Arroyo must know at least some of the nature of the problems here. So why had the Concordat not been contacted?

  You put too much pressure on our girl! Arucken said, as he saw her tapping her communicator.

  More abandoned tools littered the ground around them, half-finished fences did a poor job at confining crops from wildlife. The colonists had been hard at work when the first child had been taken. Kerris frowned, trying to think if anything had been different between Lyndon and the other children. Why keep going? What was the aim here?

  As the afternoon wore on, they returned to the building. Arms full of beans and corn scavenged from the deserted fields further out. They had seen the stockpiles in preparation for winter but food had been low. It was too risky for any new colony to let winter creep up unawares.

  Ryla greeted them with pleasure at seeing their full hands, and directed people to take the food. The movement spoke of similar errands. The main exception was the young man she had noted earlier, who remained with the children. In his early twenties, pale and focused. He seemed intent on getting through to their blank stares.