Starship Armstrong - Season 3

Part 59 - Old Habits (I)

The Operations Team made its way through the thick-growing forest where the sunlight was drank dry by overlapping layers of canopy. Despite the darkness they still made excellent time. It was their individual and collective duty to have a mother's familiarity with their territory.

They slowed as they came closer to their destination, focusing on stealth over speed. These were seasoned Operations officers and they crept forward with the skill of hunting cats.

At the forest's edge they stopped and watched; four pairs of eyes stared out of the darkness.

The thing that fell from the sky stood still in the grassy clearing. It was large, larger than any animal Mupallidat-Tiamat had ever seen. It was angular and pointed like an arrow-head, stood on tiny baby legs, and was obviously constructed from highly polished metal. There were markings on it in the New Tongue but they didn't mean anything.

There were people in the clearing too. Four of them. One of them, a woman, was noticeably taller than the others. Two wore corrective lenses, one of the men and a second woman who was squatting on the ground. They were all dressed in strange clothes that were white like clouds. Mupallidat-Tiamat had no idea how they kept them so white.

Mupallidat-Tiamat hand signaled for the other to stay while she risked a closer look. When she was near enough she tried to read their lips and quickly found they were speaking the New Tongue. She could understand their literal meaning well enough, if not follow most of the conversation.

"I hope this time you can keep your dick in your pants and not try to convince these people you're a god," said the tall woman.

"I doubt it will come to that. What's the likelihood of two stone aged societies having prophecies foretelling my coming?" replied the man with the lenses and close-trimmed beard.

"That wasn't a real prophecy!" said the tall woman.

"That depends on your definition of prophecy," replied the bearded man. "It did foretell my coming."

The woman wearing lenses appeared to laugh, lean backward, and then almost lose her footing.

Mupallidat-Tiamat wasn't sure she was reading their lips properly, or perhaps they were speaking a dialect.

She couldn't see any weapons, unless that great arrow-head thing was somehow a weapon but she couldn't imagine how. The strange people really didn't look like a war party. Mupallidat-Tiamat was very curious to know who they were. She was going to risk an approach.

She slipped back to the rest of the Operations officers. They emerged from their hiding places once she approached.

"Damkina, you run back to the ship as fast as you can. Tell the Captain that the falling star was some kind of giant arrow-head shaped... thing. More importantly there are strangers already at the site. They speak a very strange dialect but it appears to be the New Tongue. Go now."

Damkina nodded, and took off into the forest.

Kinziru, Zirat-Banit, you two stay here and watch. If anything goes wrong run back to town and tell them what you saw. I'm going to approach the strangers.

Kinziru and Zirat-Banit nodded their understanding.

Mupallidat-Tiamat went back to the clearing, this time making no attempts to hide her presence. She kept her bow slung across her back and her small sword in its sheath on her leg. She held her hands in the air to show that there were no weapons in them.

"Greetings strangers. I am called Mupallidat-Tiamat, Operations-caste of the Starship Iannusu. I wish you no harm."