Page 24 of Alien's Eternal Mate

Apparently, Gro had accumulated a great deal of these discs due to his skills in combat. From what I gleaned out of Lo, it seemed that combat was primarily a one-on-one affair with clear cut rituals and rules.

Gro, however, was known to bend or break the rules in order to win. This led to his lack of respect from his tribemates.

On occasion, battles would be fought en masse, tribe versus tribe, winner take all. There were naturally different tactics and strategies involved in the mass battles. Gro, however, did not work well with others.

According to Lo, who had no motivation to lie to me, Gro would either ignore his teammates or worse, use them as fodder or distractions to further his own survival.

“No one shed any tears when you were Backlashed, Gro. And I suspect that they will shed a few once new travels that you have survived.”

Wonderful. I’m inhabiting the body of the most hated man in town.

I checked the air quality, missing my compad more than ever. Once it was obvious the air tasted stale but breathable, I entered the hallway beyond.

The floor tilted at a twenty degree angle, forcing me to put my hands on the walls to keep myself upright. Rubble blocked my passage through the first two portals I passed.

A third portal revealed a chamber roughly the size of a large lavatory, with a raised rectangular island in the middle. Piles of dust on the island probably used to be equipment made of more perishable materials than the ship itself.

I cleared away the dust and found outlet ports of some kind. Obviously equipment could be plugged into this spot, but I had no way of knowing what the nature of that equipment was or what its function could have been.

I continued down the passage, only to have my way blocked by a cave in. I thought it could be cleared, but it would take time, and at least a board for leveraging. But Gro’s body could pull it off.

For the time being, however, I thought I could learn something from the Sages the boy had mentioned.

We exited the ship ruins, and walked to the top of the rise.

“This is going to be hilarious. I bet none of the Sages predicted the day when Gro of all people petitioned them for membership.”

“Do you think they can be convinced to let me in?”

I turned around to face Lo, but what lay beyond stole my breath. I hadn’t been able to see last night, but with the rising of the golden sun new details emerged on the landscape.

Beyond the ruins lay a cliff, which looked down on a lush, verdant valley nearly a mile beneath us.

The village had been built into the ruins of a ship, that much was clear. But the ship had crashed into one of the floating mountains I’d seen earlier. We drifted slowly, casting a big shadow on the land below.

“What are you gawking at? It’s only the Valley of Quanji, we pass over it every few days or so.”

“We’re flying.”

“Uh, yes, we’re a Sky tribe. It’s one of the few reasons why Jank hasn’t already conquered us, to be honest.”

“How do you get down?”

“With a Skyrigger harness. Or a glider, or one of those new hovercrafts the Engineers have managed to build.”

“There’s Engineers, too? I need you to make the introductions with them as well. I, too, am an engineer.”

Lo laughed, his slender form shaking with mirth.

“Now I’ve heard everything. Well, I don’t have an in with them, I’m afraid. You should talk to your pretty little wife, though. Her grandfather is an engineer, or was until he got too old.”

I started. I hadn’t known any such thing about Arael.

“I suppose we should concentrate on the Sages for the time being. One thing at a time.”

“All right, but we need to get the grilled satchna first.”

I realized how famished I truly felt.

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