Eric Flint - Slow Train to Arcturus

"So who is going on this expedition?" asked Howard. "I volunteer, of course."

"I'll have to go. Nobody else drives a computer system well enough," said Amber.

"We go," said Nama-ti. "Food here terrible. Go look for game and new hunting grounds. Besides, want to see new place."

"People may try to kill us."

Uppity gabbled something.

His companion broke into laughter. "Dandani he say: is just like home. All women here give trouble. Need to get away."

"Yeah, but he understood what I was saying without you translating it, Perp-One."

Nama-ti grinned. "He understand more than he tell. But too shy to speak."

"Shy. Him?" Lani raised her eyebrows. "You're a sneaky bunch of rogues."

Nama-ti beamed. "Thank you for compliment. We small tribe. Stay alive. Stay tribe by being sneaky. Chief Abasaque-do-rinti say that. He say lots of clever things, like never argue with woman, she talk long after head sore."

"I appreciate this, brothers," said Howard. "But it will be dangerous. We have no right to ask this."

They looked at each other. "Without danger, what for is life?" said Dandani, venturing on his first English.

Zoe shook her head. "With that attitude you'll have half of Icarus going along. We have more in common than I realized."

"If I've learned one thing on this journey," said Howard quietly, "It is that men and women of goodwill have far more in common than I had realized."

Dandani looked at Nama-ti. Said something. Nama-ti shook his head, laughed.

"What's he saying?" asked Lani, suspicious because they definitely looked at her.

"He say: This 'In common,' does mean Howard no get cross when Dandani run off with strong woman?"

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You'd be so lucky. The one you have to worry about getting cross is me, Uppity," she said, shaking a fist at him. She had to smile at the two of them. And then again, she had to be glad that they wanted to come along. Those bows of theirs were silent and lethal. And the two of them could move like ghosts when they wanted to. Hunting had honed them into being very deadly. She wondered, suddenly, if it was this deadliness that made them so confident, if that had been what she'd been seeking with weapons and martial arts training? She also noticed that Howard was looking just a little protective. That was… very satisfying too.

"We might as well save oxygen. Taking Kretz across is not exactly a dangerous and stressful thing," said the flyboy. "And it gives us an excuse to do it again," he said with an impish grin. "We'll do it. Let your lot rest."

It made sense. But Lani discovered afresh just how much she hated anxious waiting.

Kretz slipped back down in through the emergency exit of the lifecraft and into a familiar world. The light-a slightly different color to that of the alien light-system-was almost like the familiar caress of an old lover. He walked through to the control room and sank into a chair that had actually been designed to fit Miran form, and started powering up, running system diagnostics at the same time. It took him a few moments to find the little preventative measures that Derfel had set up. The comforting thing was that they all seemed designed to disable rather than to actually destroy. Derfel obviously had plans for the lander. He was not the engineer Kretz was, and it was easy to disable the internal traps, even the one attached to the debarkation ramp. Next came the crucial phase. He hoped that the two humans had moved back to the walkways as instructed, because he took the lifecraft straight up, in a four G take off. Anything that went wrong or exploded would either be harmless on the surface, or at least have the lifecraft well clear of the habitat if it was destroyed.

He breathed again… he was still here. He began to set the craft down despite a voice in his head screaming "go back to the spacecraft now." And then he realized that it was not just his desire to be back there… but Selna's voice in his ears.

"I can't just yet, Selna. I have to set down and remove a few booby traps and clear up some damage," Kretz said. "But I will, shortly. I am afraid there is no way to rescue Abret."

"Don't delay," she said crossly. "I can't wait much longer. There is nothing that Derfel could do that you couldn't undo very fast. But I don't suppose you'll listen to me. You never do."

Kretz set the craft down again awash with guilt. What she wanted was self-centered. He knew that he'd done all he could… but had he really? Could he have been more effective? Should he take the further risks that had to be involved in trying to free Abret? Deep instinct said no. The females of the species had to be preserved. There were always more males, but to have survived to sex-change age, you were a rarer being. Instinct, and the culture built on it, still said this… even if male mortality was no longer the huge proportion it had been during Miran evolution. Logic had a hard time winning, over this. It had been a different matter before he'd had a real way of returning to her.

"But he could be anyone," Abret said to the guard, the only one that seemed to want to talk to him.

"He Great Leader," replied that individual, scratching. "Give much food. And also fulfill prophecy: Foreign devils come to free us."

"And are you free?" asked Abret.

The jailor thought about this one. Jangled a bunch of keys. "Me free. You prisoner."

Abret sat on the middle of the floor. "Has Derfel made anything better? Really better?"

"Killed president-for-life's guard. That good thing. They murder many."

" I killed them. And, I tell you, truly I did not mean to."

"Great leader say he kill with holy force."

"Ask someone who was there," said Abret.

The jailor looked thoughtful. Nodded. "I will."

Apparently he did, during his off-time, because he came back a very troubled man. "Is true. Why are you in jail?"

Abret sighed. "Because I want to go home. And Derfel enjoys being important here. He likes being your Great Leader."

"But we need a Great Leader," said the jailor.

"Why?"

"Because… someone must lead. We ordinary people are too stupid," said the jailor, with the air of someone who has been told this often enough to assume that it is true.

"I can promise you this: Derfel-the Miranese that you now call your Great Leader-is not very clever. At least he is clever enough, just not very sensible. Within the next few years he will go completely mad, when he becomes female."

The jailor blinked. "Foreign devils change sex?"

That might make the rule of Derfel a little more awkward. "Yes," said Abret. "He will become a she. Just like you."

"But now he is male?"

Abret nodded. The jailor said nothing, just got up and walked away.

A little later he came back with another human. One whose mouth was set in a thin, hard line. "This is my brother, Ji. The Great Leader he take his daughter."

"We are logged in," said Amber. "I'm initiating the search." She raised her eyebrows. "Can you please tell that guy on your radio to shut up."

"That is Selna. I'm afraid our main spacecraft detected the movement, and now she is insisting I return, immediately, to the ship."

"Oh. I suppose the voice being deeper makes sense with females being bigger," said Amber, adding parameters to the search.

"Yes. It confused me with your species at first," said Kretz. "The idea that the gender which would have to have the physiological strain of child-bearing would be smaller seems entirely bizarre to us."

"Hmm. I can see the argument, but different selective pressures got our males bigger than our females. And now please go and tell that female to shut up. So far I'm not having a lot of joy here. I'll need to think. Your body temperatures are higher than ours, right?"

So Kretz hit the transmit button on his suit radio. He couldn't tell her to shut up, since such rudeness to a female was just not to be considered. But he'd try reason. Otherwise he would just have to do without comms. "Selna. I have problems here."