Thanks for reading this far. From here on, you may start to notice traces of H. Beam Piper and Ursula K. LeGuin - those are intentional, by way of homage.
Thanks again to Kaereni and Iriad, for continuing to provide me with constructive criticism. You may find some errors and omissions, but the next few chapters are much better than they would have been thanks to those two.
***
Halygon ships have come a long way. The journey to CW144 would take just under 4 years - during which I would age approximately 48 days.
The crew of six (pilots and stasis techs) would be well paid for their 8 years in space. They could gain another University degree (or two) at the same time. Meanwhile, I would spend most of my time in a Stasis tank, learning everything there was to know about my destination, thanks to the magic of Sleepread.
Every sixty days, the stasis techs would awaken me, and put me through a series of mental and physical exercises. Two days out of the tank, walking and talking, and then back into 'the can'.
It was my first time in stasis. I'd heard it described as being similar to a coma, but for me it was more like a dream-filled sleep. I was aware, in a very confused way, of the information being pumped into my head. Meanwhile, my muscles were electrically stimulated to prevent atrophy.
My destination was the Westron Kingdom of planet CW144. The 'C' indicated that it was a pre-industrial world; the 'W' meant that its inhabitants were unaware that they'd been contacted by an advanced civilization - us.
Their technology seemed similar to Earth's 17th and 18th centuries C.E.. The governments were aristocratic monarchies, and 80% of the population lived in rural zones. Vast estates, hunting and drinking, arranged marriages ... the information kept pouring into my skull.
Waistcoats, muzzle-loading muskets, no horses ... enatic succession - meaning that only women inherited. A ruling Queen, then, rather than a King.
Four main species, on the continent I was headed for, all of them
mostly
humanoid in appearance - but with significant differences.
The Westrons, for example, were bipedal, but their feet were digitigrade. That is, they walked on their toes, and the bones of their feet seemed to be part of their lower leg (think of a rabbit, or a cat). They were capable of walking very precisely, but also could summon sudden bursts of speed.
I studied the films (taken secretly, by our agents). The Westrons looked quite human, to me, once I got past the strange feet. There were other differences: heart rate, body temperature, gestation period ...
They seemed to range between 4 1/2 and 6 1/2 feet in height, and 80 to 180 pounds in weight. There were a bewildering variety of facial structures and colouring. Viewed in close-up, those faces looked remarkably human. That impression was only reinforced by their clothing, which made them look like extras in a movie about Catherine the Great.
Except for the feet. And the hair colour.
The first few times I was taken out of stasis were mildly disorienting.
- "You'll get used to it." said the stasistech, a woman named Bia. "Feeling a little nauseous?"
- "Yeah."
- "That goes away."
Truth be told, I felt like shit. Nausea and dizziness were only part of it. When I came out of stasis, I remembered where I was ... and everything else.
I was on my way into exile. My military career was, in all likelihood, over before it began. And ... I'd lost Vanova.
Our relationship would never have been permanent. I knew that. But we could've had another 2 years together. Pelek and his staff had robbed us of those years.
Out of the tank, the crew fed me solid food, and supervised my exercise periods. One of the pilots, Grady, offered to spar with me, but he wasn't in my league - it was a bit like tai chi with contact.
Round about my 5th time out of stasis, the grogginess disappeared more quickly, and I had a bit more of an appetite. I also took more note of my surroundings, and began to ask questions.
The crewmed was named Long, which brought a smile to my lips - and to hers. She was a roly-poly little thing, of Asian heritage, barely 5' tall.
- "Yeah, yeah." she said. "Thanks for not making the standard joke. Only heard it 'bout 3 million times."
- "I wasn't going to say anything."
- "Sure, sure." she laughed. Long ran all the medical tests on me, and told me I was doing well. "Lots of fractures, there, Cook. You clumsy, or just unlucky?"
There were two other stasis 'passengers' on board, but I never met them, nor would the crew tell me anything about them.
***
CW144 had slightly lower gravity, confusing tides (thanks to two moons, one considerably larger than the other), warm days and cool nights for most of the year, with short vernal and autumnal seasons, and a surprisingly cold winter in between.
But I was far more interested in the inhabitants.
Westrons were unlike humans in another sense: they were basically asexual. That is, they had little or no interest in sex - until the females went into estrus. They called it hemmer, and it changed everything.
Females in hemmer gave off distinct pheromone-based odors and showed visible signs of their arousal. 'Horny' doesn't even begin to describe it; they were like cats in heat, some of them mewling and even yowling.
The males were particularly susceptible to all three types of display: aural, visual, and olfactory. The impact on them went beyond anything I'd ever heard of, or seen. That's right; our agents had collected video evidence.
Male Westrons would crawl over broken glass, naked, to get to a female in hemmer. They would fight over her, injuring other males - and sometimes the female - in their frantic rush to be the first to mount her.
Business would stop, workmen dropped their tools, and there would be a mad stampede of berserk males towards the female. It was chaotic. Insane. How did these people get anything done?
The females, apparently, could sense the onset of their hemmer up to 2 weeks in advance. Unmarried women could be sequestered, away from the males of their family - or any males. They had the equivalent of hunting lodges, well outside their villages, where she could be isolated for the 2-3 days that her estrus lasted.
Married women could prepare as well, to ensure that only their husbands had access to them. Of course, there were ... accidents.
For that reason, Westrons didn't worry overmuch about the paternity of children. There was no stigma attached to illegitimacy. The Queen herself had children by several different fathers.
Bizarre. But that was just the beginning.
The Battle of Schonden, over 150 years before, had caused massive social and political change. At that time, Westron armies were entirely male, as they are generally taller and heavier than the females.
They were at war with their traditional enemies, the Crolians. Crolians were also humanoid and bipedal, but larger and heavier than Westrons, with bigger heads and considerably more body hair, or fur.
At Schonden, the Crolians released several dozen Westron prisoners - all female, and
all
in hemmer - just before the battle.
A dirty trick. It worked to perfection. The Westron army simply disintegrated as several thousand males went berserk, dropped their weapons, and fought each other to get at the females. The Crolians slaughtered them.
Since then, Westron armies were entirely female. They lost that war, but reorganized their military -
and
