Barry Longyear - Enemy Papers

She went to school and filled a chair while driving everything out of her head by filling it with numbers. One year, two, then a USEF recruiting team came on campus. And what they promised was a life of absolute predictability; no surprises. So much time in, plus so much experience, education, and training equaled such-and-such a rank and assignment. While that was being done, there are all of those neat puzzles you can have to fill your hours; to fill your mind.

And if everybody gets killed, both the killing, the killer, and the disposal of the remains will be predictable.

It’s all in the contract…

Mallik’s death had been predictable. Dozens of fishers drown every year on Raina Ya.

Rut they had been nineteen, and immortal-

"Mallik, damn you-"

"Irkmaan?"

Nicole lowered her hand from her eyes and stood as she saw a Drac’s face peering at her through the bushes. "Benbo?" She looked around for the sergeant, but he was gone.

The Drac pushed the branches aside and stepped through. Its white robe was torn and filthy. It squatted several paces away, its thin arms cradled in its lap. In Drac it asked, "You are human?"

"Yes."

"Of the Madah?" Nicole didn’t answer, and the Drac nodded its head. "The Madah. I heard the rumor of humans entering Ditaar’s Madah." It studied her for a long moment.

"Do you have any food to share?"

"No. Why are you here?"

"Searching for food."

"I mean, why are you in the Madah?"

The Drac wearily pushed itself to a standing position. "I am only looking for food; not conversation -" A frightened look came into its eyes as the sounds of someone crashing through the brush came from behind. Nicole turned just as Benbo came into view.

"You all right, Major?"

"So far." She turned back to the Drac. "Who are you?"

Its yellow eyes looked down. "I am but another face."

Sergeant Benbo walked up to the Drac. "You wouldn’t fight?"

"I would fight," it looked up at Benbo, "if fighting were talma. It is not."

"The path? Talma to what?"

"The path, human. Talma…" The Drac waved a hand. "Do you have any food to share?"

Benbo shook his head. "No."

The Drac turned and walked into the bushes. In moments the sounds of its walking died away. Benbo rubbed his chin and frowned as he turned and faced Nicole. "I wonder how many Dracs there are wandering around here." He nodded toward the crest of the hill. "Major, I found something on the other side of the hill."

"What?"

"It’ll be easier to show you than to explain it." He glanced back in the direction of the departing Drac. "We’d better watch it." He removed his hand from his chin and pointed uphill. "This way."

The other side of the hill was barren. That it had once been covered with vegetation was indicated by the remains of a few blackened stumps. At the foot of the hill began the ruins of an obliterated community.

The blackened streets and remains of walls extended for a kilometer. Parallel to their position, the damaged area looked to be six or eight kilometers long, narrow toward the right, fanning out to the left in the shape of an enormous teardrop.

Benbo squatted and pointed. "There’s only one thing I know of that makes a shape like that."

"A USEF sonic warhead. Because of the small impact area. it was probably a fighter-mounted missile."

"There’s only one impact, Major. The pilot must have been on a for-the-hell-of-it run."

Nicole shielded her eyes and examined the area beyond the blast. "I wonder what the pilot was trying to hit. That’s one hell of a miss if he was aiming for the V’Butaan field."

Benbo picked up a small stone and toyed with it. "I don’t think the pilot missed." He stood and tossed the stone down the hill. "I think that shooter hit exactly what he was aiming at." The sergeant turned and began walking back up the hill.

Was it possible? Had some USEF pilot gone against orders to wipe out an entire civilian community? Or had the orders excluding civilian targets changed? Perhaps this was only one of several destroyed populations. It had been done recently. And that might explain why the Drac Fleet had leveled Catvishnu’s cities. Tit for tat. What had that Drac in the dirty robe said? "I would fight if fighting were talma. It is not."

Nicole noticed the movement of two Dracs picking through the ruins. They were looking for food. Madah. She turned away and followed Benbo’s trail.

After an hour of walking. they came down the hill into a part of the Drac village that had not been destroyed. They squatted on a high bank overlooking the streets and structures.

The homes were large, with vast expanses of lawn and woods around them. The distances between homes almost made each home look like a tiny village in itself. One of the streets led to what appeared to be a park or village common.

Half under his breath, Benbo muttered. "This must be the high-rent district." He lifted an arm and pointed. "Look."

She looked in the direction indicated and saw alone Drac standing in one of the streets. It wore a ragged white robe and a light blue stripe that went around its neck and looped down its back almost to the ground.

"It isn’t the same one we saw on the hill."

"I guess it’s another one of our Madah buddies, Major. Why’s it standing there?" Benbo’s answer came soon enough. One of the silent Drac vehicles turned a comer and moved slowly down the street. The Drac in the blue and white rags lowered its glance and held out its hands toward the moving car. The vehicle hurried past, and the Drac lowered its hands and again stood motionless in the gutter. Nicole heard the sergeant spit on the ground. "I don’t think I’m going to fit very good in the Madah."

"Sergeant, let’s go down and talk to that Drac. It’s about time we got an accurate reading on this Madah business."

Benbo frowned as he studied the terrain. "I’d hate to be a Drac wandering into a human town right after some Dracon Fleet pilot had fried the hell out of the place." He looked at her, one eyebrow raised.

"Let’s go." She stood and began walking down the bank, Benbo’s footsteps close behind.

As they approached the Drac, it turned and looked at them. At first its expression was confused, then its face settled into an expression of dull-eyed resignation. Before they could speak, it spoke to them. "Do you have food to spare?"

Nicole stopped in front of it. "We don’t have food. What is your name?"

The Drac seemed to study upon the question for a moment. Then it looked up at the treetops. "In the Madah…" It looked at Nicole. "You may call me Shalda."

She pointed at herself and the sergeant in turn. "Joanne Nicole and Amos Benbo."

Shalda looked puzzled. "You carry your line-names into the Madah?"

"Our family names? Why not?"

"The shame of it. Dah! Something humans wouldn’t understand. You speak Dracon adequately; that should help."

Another vehicle came along and stopped next to the three. The driver stuck its yellow head out of the window, giving Benbo and Nicole only a passing glance. "Chova, vemadai! You may beg here, but do not hold conventions! Move off! Chova!"

The driver waited until all three turned and walked toward the hill. When they had walked a few paces, they heard the car hiss away. Shalda continued toward the hill.

Nicole looked at the Drac’s face.

"If it is so shameful, Shalda, why are you here?"

"I have nowhere else to go. The Madah is now my land."

Benbo walked faster and pulled up on the Drac’s other side. "We met a Drac on the hill. It said that war isn’t talma. What did it mean ?"

Shalda stopped and closed its eyes. "It is talma, human."

"The other Drac said it wasn’t. What is talma ?"