Volume 6: Gamma-11, Chapter 6.12

I wanted to say something about it being the next morning, but with the way the sun worked on this infernal desert planet I wasn’t sure how to actual quantify it. Whatever.

When it was time to wake up, we had a brief breakfast as a clan around the remains of the dead fire, and after reactivating Eve’s statue disguise (much to her trilling disappointment), we resumed our journey to the central settlement.

Thanks to all the planetary intelligence, we knew Congoren would be a harsh planet, so we were able to supply ourselves accordingly for the journey with plenty of food and clean water. However, we couldn’t pack a limitless supply of goods, and while we’d have enough for the journey to the central settlement and about a cycle after, we’d need to start trading with the other clans to ensure our survival.

There was a lot riding on the hope we’d be able to blend in with the other clans, and I had to wonder if it was maybe a significant risk.

Then again, aside from the cycle’s worth of supplies, we brought along plenty of gojen currency and rare goods to trade, so for all I knew our clan would be seen as incredibly wealthy next to the other clans.

After a few hours traveling in our line, we finally saw our first sign of actual gojens in the distance. They were quite far away, but I could see on the horizon a long line of people traveling in the same direction as us, albeit at a different angle.

Another hour or two passed, and again we started seeing more clan convoys, some of them small like us, while one was so long I couldn’t even see the end of the line—trudging along much slower than us with our small, efficient team.

It was obvious all the clans were heading for the same destination, the central settlement—probably on a pilgrimage to see the new god themselves.

Kinn walking beside me at the back of the line waved out to the dozen or so clans around us far out on the horizon, “You think they’re going to see Gamma-11, or are they just heading to this new settlement to trade with all the other clans?” He asked.

I nodded along, “I was just wondering the same thing, but if I had to guess I would say they’re all hoping to see the temple too.”

He shook his head slowly, “So strange after thousands of years of tradition so much has changed for these people, even their ancestral-based religion got side-lined, all thanks to a Predazoan contacting this primitive planet.”

I shrugged, “What do you think your people would’ve done if some godly being descended from the heavens? Just ignore it?”

Kinn waved me off, “My race has been part of the Empire for over 20,000 years now, there’s hardly any records of our time before then—the pre-history. Honestly, I’d have no idea how the primitive version of my people would react to such an event.”

Since I was a human from a pre-contact planet, I thought about it a little differently—not to mention there were hundreds of movies, shows, books and comics on the idea of aliens coming to visit us.

Honestly, I felt like humans would be split right down the middle; half would welcome them with open arms, maybe being a little too welcoming to the point it would be dangerous, while the other half would be fiercely defensive and refuse to even sit down to talk with the visitors.

Once again, I had to wonder how Earth would react when the Empire made its offer to join them.

Time marched on and so did we, and after another few hours, we could finally see the grand settlement in the distance.

“Hey, there it is.” Kinn cheered.

For the most part the settlement was rather flat, small stone buildings surrounded by a huge collection of tents, but in the very center of everything there was a huge structure, multiple stories tall, obviously the new god’s temple.

I nodded along, “They certainly made a grand palace for Gamma-11.” I said.

Kinn looked over at me and tilted his head back, “You think she demanded it of them, or did they built it to glorify her or something?”

I shrugged, “I have no idea what this Predazoan’s plan is; does she actually want to be worshipped and revered, or is this all just some ploy to accumulate biomass?”

Obviously Kinn didn’t have an answer for me—nobody on the team did, and the only person who might have any insight on the situation was stuck trilling like a silly little girl.

Our convoy paused in its march and circled back so we could discuss our next course of action before we actually entered the settlement.

“As we know from the intelligence reports, the gojens are all about accumulating respect. As such, we need to follow along with their culture and make sure we don’t step out of line to cause any offense.” Crisson explained from the center of our circle, then he gestured over towards Yendern and Endynna, “Our agents are trained to assimilate into local populations, so they’ll enter the city and scout for information while the rest of us establish our camp.”

New arrivals, especially the younger clans weren’t allowed to establish themselves in the center of the settlement until they were given a blessing from an older clan—basically permission to camp beside them. For now, we’d have to hold up on the outer edge of the settlement.

Apparently the gojens followed similar rules when clans found forest havens to camp in for an extended period while they traveled, but here in this new settlement those rules were enforced much more strictly.

Violators of the new law would be expelled and shunned, unable to trade with other clans for several generations.

“We’ll also spend some time trying to trade with nearby clans, hopefully get some animal stock to give our clan more legitimacy.” Crisson added.

Giamma raised her hand, “Why is it so important we get some animals for this fake clan of ours? Won’t taking care of them require more attention and resources to the point it would take our focus away from the mission at hand?” She asked.

Crisson opened his mouth to respond, but Endynna stepped forward beside him instead.

“For the gojens, everything is about respect, and any clan that can’t take care of animals out in the desert is considered weak; managing larger flocks means the clan is strong, able to take care of their people

and

animals. Already we’re going to be at a disadvantage heading to the settlement without any, but if we can build up a large flock quickly, we can mitigate the damage to our reputation.” Endynna explained.

I remembered something like that was said back on

The Judicator

during our numerous briefings, but there was no way we were going to remember all the gojen’s intricate cultural rules—and I was glad to see some of the soldiers had the same memory problems I did.

Crisson looked around at the group, “Does anyone have more questions?”

Dryden looked straight at me then, “Adam, you’re sure you’ll be able to manage Alpha-03? If there’s any chance she won’t follow your commands, we should reactivate dark-mode on her containment unit.”

I was pretty sure that wasn’t the kind of question Crisson was worried about, and lovely Dryden once again put me on blast in front of the entire team.

I patted the red statue beside me, and the illusion barrier made it feel like there was a staticky resistance when I touched it, although it still felt like wood for the most part.

“My Evie’s a good girl; she’ll behave herself and follow orders.” I insisted.

Dryden didn’t look like he really believed me, but he let it drop anyways. Honestly, I wasn’t so sure he even wanted us to pass the remedial training; with the way he treated our little duo, it seemed like he believed we never should’ve been employed by the Empire in the first place. That, or he was just excited over the idea of having the power to pass or fail us and present his decision before the Lord Generals he was so obsessed with.

When Dryden returned his attention to Crisson and the two started going over what all the agents were supposed to do next, I leaned in close to Eve’s statue and pulled away the translator collar.

“You’ll be good for me, won’t you Evie? Be nice and quiet, and I’ll be right beside you all the while, talking to you when I can get away with it.” I whispered carefully.

Eve didn’t respond, and I took that as a sign she really would behave and remain silent—that or she was just napping and missed the whole thing.

Our convoy reorganized itself and returned to its standard line and continued on towards the sprawling desert settlement.

The closer we got, the more we could see details of the settlement and all the people around it. It was definitely a large settlement, spanning several miles. I could see more towards the center, the older buildings were meant to be permanent, made of wood or stone. Simple structures really, nothing outrageous or detailed in their design. However, same with the carts that belonged to a clan, there were flags and pillars, sheets of cloth with symbols or insignias to denote what clan they belonged with.

Outside the center areas with the more permanent structures there were plenty of carts that seemed to be turned into merchants stalls, able to be moved if needed, but considering how they were packed in by the outside clans I’d imagine they hadn’t moved in quite a while.

And then of course the farthest rings outside were filled with tents and regular carts, clans parked up in circles upon circles upon circles around each other. That was where we were headed.

Our team found a nice section between two smaller clans that were maybe double the size of ours, each with a handful of animals with them. The alien livestock the gojens had was certainly interesting; there was a large, furry creature that looked like a mix between a camel and a boar, with weirdly reptilian feet and a long bushy tail. Instead of a hump on their back though it just looked like their spine was half-crooked with the highest point a couple feet above their head that hung down low just a few inches above the sand. The largest ones I saw were about the size of a large cow, most of them with reddish brown fur, although a few were purple and some were even blue.

Then for fowl I saw some yellow puffballs that looked like an adorable mix of great horned owls and a beachball—fat little things that were probably nutritious and delicious; I’d bet their eggs were quite rotund too.

Finally, I saw some of the clans around us had the equivalent of a guard dog, and while I could see it had some canine characteristics, it looked like it was part chimpanzee too. It stood on all fours low to the ground with monkey hands and feet with a wolf-like snout and ears, with a long, dark bald rat tail at the end. These were mostly all black or white or a combination of both—spotted, stripped or anything in between. They seemed to almost blend in with the sand around them, and I wondered if that was an evolutionary trait to blend in with their surroundings.

There were a few more random alien animals I saw here and there, but those main three were the most common, and I knew their names from the intelligence reports on the planet; the camel-boars were kummo, the fat birds were heffants, and the monkey-dogs were grekken.

When we found our spot, we circled around a dozen times in the sand to establish our territory—a cultural thing to claim our spot in the sand. Once our circle was complete, we looked around at the clans around us and bowed their way as they watched us, and only after they bowed back was it okay for us to fully claim the area for our clan.

We started a fire right away, same as every clan around us, and we unloaded some of our supplies from our carts in a somewhat presenting manner to show what we had available for trade.

Already, I could see some of the nearby clans were very interested in our goods, but generally clans wouldn’t ask to barter until they were sure the new arrivals were fully rested from their travels.

Crisson looked over towards his agents, “Alright, go on and scout as much of the settlement as you can without invading anyone else’s territory, and see how close you’re able to get to their central temple as a visitor.” He ordered.

Yendern and Endynna nodded together, “Yes sir.” They said, then turned and marched off for the heart of the gojen settlement,

I looked off in the distance towards the temple, and it was obvious it could be seen from anywhere around the settlement, standing several dozen feet over everything else. Most of the stone huts were made of darker stone, either black or grey or a swirling combination, but the temple was all pure white stone, layers and layers of tapering stone to look like a rounded pyramid with three evenly spaced pillars surrounding the structure, with streams of beautiful white cloth connecting the pillars to the top of the temple where a huge white flag was displayed, with a golden eye or sun in the center—the new god’s emblem I assumed.

We cooked up a big feast of our synthesized supplies, both as a celebration for making it to a haven in our travels (as was tradition), and to display our wealth and prosperity to the clans around us, hopefully getting some good attention so they’d be willing to barter with us.

It was wild how everything was a show or display, how import respect was to the gojens, and then a funny thought hit me as I remembered how important respect was to Eve—how she abhorred the idea of being disrespected by lesser beings.

I wished she was in her right mind so I could’ve teased her about it now, saying her place was amongst the ape-people of Congoren.

I stayed by my cart and talked to Eve’s statue in an inconspicuous manner, but I knew I’d need to keep the disguise active while we were camped out here, so the thought of how long it would be until I’d get to see Eve again was quite frustrating—no idea when it would be safe to really talk with her again either, see if I could get her to properly communicate once more.

When the feast was finished, the soldiers got out their balls again and started playing around the fire. The gojens lived a hard life, but whenever they had a moment of reprieve, they enjoyed numerous primitive games around the fire—a rather sociable people, so it was actually part of the mission for the soldiers to play their games, to dance and celebrate to show ourselves prosperous before the other clans.

Kinn and Giamma headed over towards me, ball in hand, and it seemed like they weren’t going to take no for an answer this time.

“Come on, you can’t just hang around your cart all mission; we’ve got to do as the gojens do and play around like fools before the fire.” Kinn insisted.

Giamma nodded along, and while she was still wrapped up so I couldn’t see her face, I assumed was smiling.

“It’s part of the mission—following orders actually.” She added.

I didn’t want to leave Eve’s side, but I really shouldn’t mope around forever. Besides, she was probably sleeping or hibernating or whatever—maybe in that weird stasis state again trying to repair her brain or something.

I smiled then and jumped off the cart, “Alright alright, you’ve convinced me.” I snatched the ball up quickly from Kinn before he could even react, “But don’t think I’ll go easy on you.”

Giamma laughed then, “Well don’t use too much of your power; we’re trying to blend in, right?”

I joined in with the soldiers for a game of keep away around the fire, and I seemed to be the center of it all as the soldiers tried to keep the ball away from me as long as they could since I was so much faster than all of them, but I was careful and didn’t use too much of my power—well, at least I

tried

.