“No, it’s all right,” she said, speaking carefully. She remembered her training with the U.T.s. You have to speak slowly and clearly and you can’t use slang or idioms. “This machine lets me talk to you.”
He nodded when the Ute translated. “I am Niktus, …[unknown] for the … [unknown].”
“What, um, tribe are you?”
“We are the Baktu. And you?”
Beth wasn’t sure how much she dared tell him. “We come from a place called Earth.”
“Yurth? Not heard of … [country-state].” Whenever it stuttered like that, Beth knew the machine was having a little trouble with some translations, so it gave two or three possibilities in rapid succession. She’d have to give it a little more time.
“It’s far away from here. We were exploring when we were captured.”
He nodded. “Why are women … [traveling-wandering] alone?”
“It is our custom. We are a free people.”
The machine stuttered. “What is freerl people?”
Don’t they have a word for free here? Or was the machine just slow on the learning curve?
“Here, men are free. They do what they want. Women are not free. They do what the men tell them to do.”
“Ah. That is our way. Our women are … [cared-protected-loved].”
Beth thought of a dozen different arguments. She didn’t want to get into philosophical discussion right now. Instead, she asked, “Why don’t women wear clothes?”
“Clorthes? What clorthes?”
She pointed to his loincloth. “Clothes, like what you wear.”
He laughed. “Not clothes. This is to keep penis from …[unknown] during work, causing pain.”
“Don’t women need to protect breasts during work?”
“No. Women don’t work like men. Women need to show breasts, to attract [protector-master].”
“So women are, um, for sex only?”
Niktus shook his head. “Serx? What is serx?”
Great, the machine couldn’t translate that yet, which meant she’d have to play charades. “Sex is what we you and I did—your penis and my vagina.”
“Ahh, nerhanka. Not just sex. They work in house. Cook. Have [children-babies.] Help man.”
Greta, listening to the exchange, groaned. “We’ve stumbled into a nightmare world, doc. We’ve gone back in time to when women were chattel. God help us—we’ve got to get out of here.”
Beth quickly thumbed the Ute so it wouldn’t translate her outburst. “Shh! It’s not up to us to judge. This really isn’t all that much different from our own 16th century, you know. Didn’t you study your history?”
She snorted. “Anything before women got the right to vote and my eyes glazed over.”
“Well, times were plenty tough on women back in our Middle Ages. Give the Baktu some time, they’ll come around. Now, hang on while I sweet-talk this guy.”
Beth thumbed the switch. “We don’t belong here. We must return to our own people. Can you help us?”
Niktus shook his head. “Cannot undo sale. Can only sell again.”
Beth flashed on a glimmer of an idea. “Can we buy ourselves back?”
“No. Only men have …[unknown] to buy, sell.”
Greta couldn’t help but speak up again. “Great. Just what Hunter had been warning about—if we’d taken a man along on this trip, maybe they would’ve let him buy us back.”
“We’d never live that down,” Beth retorted. To Niktus, she said, “We need to find our friends. We can help them talk to their new masters.”
He nodded slowly. “Magic box helps.”
“Do you know everyone who bought women of my tribe?”
“Yes.”
“Can you take me to them?”
Niktus pursed his lips, thinking. “They will want box too.”
“That man has them. The one who brought us in. Gorshun?”
“Gorshun. Yes. He will want much coin for box when he know what it do.” He smiled. “I buy first.”
Beth couldn’t help but smile as well. Niktus was a true capitalist. Wait until he found out what the medical kit could do.
Chapter 22
Kate walked the last two klicks without a drop of water. The heat bore down until she felt like an ant under a magnifying glass. She could see the trees ahead, yet they shimmered and danced away each time she thought she was close. Kate carried only the small backpack containing the scanner, her phaser, Ute, the explosives, food, and the empty canteen. Her coveralls had been left somewhere back—she hadn’t had the energy to bury them. Some native will start wearing those and be crowned king, she thought, almost giddy. More meddling in their affairs. It mattered little now.
Her legs were on autopilot, one sliding in front of the other, knees wobbling. To stop would mean failure and that one thought drove Kate onward above all others. She wasn’t going to leave her crew trapped on this planet. Everyone’s going back, she kept telling herself. Everyone’s going back.
The trees swayed in front of her. She was used to their tricks by now. Any minute now the optical illusion would shatter and she’d be faced with another kilometer of open plain, the heat sapping the fluids from her exhausted body. Kate tripped and sprawled down. She lay there, crying softly without any tears, trying to find the energy to get up again.
Her outstretched hand touched something rough. She expected a rock, but it wasn’t. Groggily, she looked up to see her hand resting at the base of a spindly tree. Kate looked around and saw more trees. She had made it to the treeline.
Shade!
Crawling now, she moved into the embrace of the trees, feeling the harsh sunlight thwarted in its efforts to burn her alive. She lay there for several minutes, letting the shade refresh her. Finally, the urgent signals from her brain reached her exhausted limbs—Water! You need water!
Groaning, she rolled the backpack off one shoulder and fumbled for the scanner. Holding it up, she checked for the nearest water source. Just one-half kilometer away. Without the sun flattening her, Kate thought she just might make it. Using a branch for support, she pulled herself upright and staggered on.
She no longer trusted her judgment or her sense of direction. Keeping the scanner in one hand, she moved through the trees like a pinball through a game, bouncing from one tree to another, always moving toward her goal. Kate felt the branches rip at her tee-shirt. She knew she was close now—she could smell moisture in the air. It was like a drug, invigorating her, intoxicating her. Kate came over the top of a ravine and looked down to a beautiful sight—a shallow stream, maybe ten feet wide, sluggishly moving through an ancient streambed.
Her mouth open in anticipation, Kate stumbled down the slope, dropped her backpack and scanner and flopped headlong into the lukewarm, delicious water. She didn’t care if it contained microbes or deadly parasites. She would have to take that chance. It was her salvation and she welcomed it. She drank and drank until her stomach hurt.
She lay a long time in the water, her face turned to the side to suck air. Her clothes—what little she had on—were soaked and she didn’t mind a bit. Finally, she dragged herself back to the shore. She sat under the shade of a large tree and thanked the stars that she had been given this reprieve. The idea of leaving this tiny paradise and walking back across the plain to the village was too painful to think about for the moment.
Kate picked up the scanner and checked her position. She was now thirty-one kilometers from the village. Her best route would be to travel south for about twenty-six klicks, staying close to water, then cut across the plain. She would pass by the pod and be able to check on its condition. For now, however, a rest was in order. She lay back her head and dozed.