New Felicity: The Mur
Cel was still looking for shelters with survivors ten years after the Gulf event. One team found a shelter that had seven women and an apparent wild man.
He refused to show his companions to the team and when one came up from the cellar he punched her hard.
The team subdued him and asked the women to step up. They were asked if they wanted too remain with him or go with them.
All ran outside. All were naked. It was brutally cold.
They left enough supplies for the man to survive for a year then left with the women.
The women were in shock and did not do or say anything until after they were covered with blankets and had a warm cup of chicken soup in their hands. Then one began to giggle. The others were stunned but soon all were giggling too. They finished their soup and promptly went to sleep.
Back in Cel they found none of them spoke a language anyone recognized. Test showed each to be about forty years old but all looked like they were twenty.
Suspecting they were not from Earth Moesha asked the resident aliens to come talk to them.
All the women immediately began to talk rapidly with the Kindred. All seemed to be pleading.
Rah's father Yggs said, "They are from Mur, a warlike planet that was mostly subdued by the Federation many years ago. We were aware that they were close to achieving space travel but when the Federation confronted them they backed down. Recently they had a major war between the five nations that killed nearly all of them.
They treated women abominably and the warriors had as many wives as they wanted.
The man they left behind is a danger to all. He needs to be confined and his ship needs to be confiscated."
Moesha called Carmen and she immediately ordered the team that had found them to return and arrest the man and bring back his ship.
Finding the man and his ship was easy; he was trying to take off in it. He in fact had fired a weapon at them but it had fizzled before it hit their ship. They forced his ship to the ground and he came out ready to fight but was easily subdued by Lord Jim's third son Ichiro.
They restrained him and Ichiro went to inspect his ship.
It had been badly damaged and so had a young Devl male.
Ichiro helped him up and asked him if he could fly the ship.
The Devl was astounded that he could speak Devl and did not look at him with hatred. The human apparently understood he was not in league with the Mur.
"Yes," he said. "But it will not leave the planet, its energy coils are mostly spent. When I told him that he beat me and decided to try anyway."
"We are not going off planet, we are going home."
Ichiro told his wife Yara, daughter of Moesha and his ship co-captain, "We are going to lead you back at a speed that is comfortable for this ship. Tell your Mom a Devl will need medical attention when we get there."
"A Devl?"
"Yes."
The Devl managed to stay functional until they got home and the medical team immediately took him to Clara.
The Mur was put in a bubble on a tennis court in Felicity and the Council postponed deciding what to do with him until they heard back from the Federation.
All the resident aliens and many humans came to look at him. None had ever seen a Mur.
He did not look like the monster the stories had portrayed. He looked like a Kindred only taller and with hair. His manic behavior had terrified them at first but when he saw four different alien races staring at him he suddenly calmed and sat.
He had realized he was in Federation territory.
He ate his meals and answered questions from Yggs morosely.
He learned that it had been his clan that had started the war and had been the biggest losers.
The survivors of the other clans hated his a lot more than they hated each other so they all joined forces and attacked his clan.
All males of his clan were to be killed on sight.
"How many space ships did your Clan have?"
"Many. Most were lost in the war. Three of us left a battle and went home to pick up our wives. The other two ships were destroyed before they reached space. I survived because my Devl was a better pilot than the pursuers were."
"So if we send you home you are a dead man. If we send you back to your shelter you will soon be a dead man."
"I am safe where I am," he acknowledged.
"True, and you will remain here until the Emperor decrees otherwise.
A word of advice, on this and several other planets the women are in charge. If you insult or hurt any of them they may choose to have you executed at once. Behave towards all as you would a chieftain.
You have already attacked royalty and he may wish to end your life at any time.
You will be transferred later today."
Rah's father left him not at all bothered by his exaggerated threats, he knew no one on Cel would harm him but the man was a savage and needed to understand.
The Mur tried not to think about anything.
A few centons later his bubble lifted and carried him to an island in a bay, it was the habitat of giraffes, water buffalo, zebras, ostriches, impalas and wildebeests. The bubble expanded to include a cabin on the island within it and he was now living in the most comfortable home he ever had.
Two things the Kindred knew about the Mur, they worshiped large beasts and they were terrified of deep water.
The Mur's food and supplies were replaced every ten days but he soon got a note advising him that supplies would stop until his place was clean. He fumed for several days but had to have supplies so gave his home a token clean up.
He got token supplies.
He cleaned up everything including the trash he had left outside and he got full ten day supplies.
The visualizer in his home only received news. He did not understand the languages so he ignored it. Several days later he saw that words in Mur scrolled along the bottom of the screen describing what he was seeing. He was fascinated.
Later visuals featuring the animals on his island began to appear. He learned their names and habits and was fascinated by them.
He cleaned up after himself and when he began to smell something awful in his cabin he soon figured out it was he that stunk.
He was very surprised to find that the water in the shower was a comfortable temperature and enjoyed getting clean for the first time in his life.
He noticed his room still smelled and discovered the stench came from his bed. He took the mattress off and took it outside. Two hours later a small watercraft brought him a new mattress and took away the old one. The men that carried out that task ignored his presence and he stayed out of their way.
There were diagrams detailing how to make up a bed that puzzled him until he looked inside closets and found clean sheets that fit over the bed.
That night he slept on clean linens with a clean body. He was proud of himself.
The next morning he saw that the shield around his cabin was ten meters further out from the front porch. His cleanliness had been rewarded.
A week later women appeared on his island, they were rangers checking on the animals. He was impressed when the very largest giraffe came to them and took a treat from their hand.
He watched the women measure around a zebra and a wildebeest then took samples of the ground. When they were done they got on a platform on the water and left. They had never acknowledged him.
He was impressed with their bravery but had difficulty accepting the fact that he could not have done what they did. But eventually he admitted to himself that the beast was too big and the water was too close to the feet for him.
The next morning when he awoke there was a small shiny oblong box on the table next to the chair in which he sat to watch the visuals. It had three buttons and he pressed the red one, the visualizer came on. Panicked that he had done something wrong he pressed the button again and the visualizer went off.
Did he see the button turn green when he pushed it the first time? He wondered.
He pushed the button again and it went green and so did the other two buttons. He pressed one of those side buttons and learned he had just changed the program. He could control the visuals.
At home he had never had any choices in visuals, he had always watched what the Chieftain wanted him to watch.
He began to change channels and just pressed the side button until he saw he was back where he started. He was giddy until an image he had flashed past registered in his brain.
He went through the programming much more slowly until there it was, a note in Mur that read the news would begin in two centons.
He sat stunned for both centons then became manic when the image on the screen became his first wife.
"Hello, I am told you are doing fine. I told them you were the most intelligent man on your planet and would figure everything out.
First, this planet had not just suffered a war as we thought when we first landed but had been hit by meteors and a large comet. Most of the survivors are on this island.
They were not looking for you when they found us; they were looking for other survivors. They were not your enemy until you hit me. In this planet hitting a woman is the most un-manly thing a male can do. The respect they would have given you vanished then.
The Devl is fine but hitting him did not help your reputation any. The man you charged that easily subdued you is royalty and has placed you there until the Emperor decides your fate.
Expect to be returned to Mur but I hope they allow you to stay even if it is where you are. In Mur you would be tried and executed as a war criminal.
There are Akkad, Devls, Sprites, Kindred, Dorans and humans on this island. There are also Saurans, they are not a myth.
All get along well, all love each other. All seem to love me and love all your other wives. One Duchess is sponsoring me to be a chef.
I am learning a language they call Spanish.
I will renew this visual when I learn you have seen it. Take care. Adios."
