Page 61 of I Married Amreth

Despite my stealth shield, Aku lifted his head to look at the exact position I was hovering in, a smug expression on his face. It still messed with my head that they could so clearly see me. I hated how vulnerable it made me feel, which was ironic considering that my people leveraged that very power to track our prisoners.

I nodded in concession before looking for the female who teased me about watching and learning. She was crouching on a thick branch a few meters to my right. She winked at me with a playful grin that had me snorting.

Aku emitted a single high-pitched sound that had all of them moving as one in the direction of the next beast, except for two of the Kreelars who closed in on their kill. They both took a few moments to spray something over the carcass. I presumedit would repel any carrion feeder that might want to take a bite until they could come back and dispose of it. I marked the location on my bracer before catching up to the rest of the tribe. I arrived just in time to see them make quick work of the next target.

Once again, I realized what a deadly army they would be in battle. It wasn’t just their speed and efficiency, but also how incredibly silent they were as they literally flew through the trees. Primitive or not, the UPO needed to strike an alliance with the Kreelars and nurture that relationship for the future.

With the next target located a significant distance away, I landed near Aku, the rest of his tribemates also descending from the trees.

“Impressive work,” I said as I disabled my stealth shield. “I’m curious though as to why you didn’t use your mind disruption ability instead of rushing straight to an enraged beast.”

“Specifically because they are enraged,” Aku said with a smile. “The mind of a rabid animal is already too confused for our powers to work. Your calming ability could actually slow them down as it makes the target a little groggy.”

“I would be happy to do it,” I immediately offered. “Although you don’t seem to need it.”

He grinned at me smugly in a way that had me shaking my head. In that instant, I realized that I would miss him once we left this planet. Under different circumstances, I believed he and I could have grown to be close friends.

“We will remove the berries in this area before we move on to the next beast,” Aku said pensively while glancing around us.

“I’ll go fetch a hovering platform so that we can bring back the carcasses to the shuttle’s incinerator as well as the crates to put the bushes in,” I replied.

“Thank you, my friend,” Aku said.

Once more, I watched in amazement the efficiency with which each of them worked, their physical strength and stamina easily rivaling some of the fittest Warriors I knew. On more than one occasion, I wondered if they had some sort of a hive mind happening. Nothing specific prompted that assumption. It was just a combination of things in the way they required little communication as they worked collectively towards a common goal.

They formed a line and moved forward as they tore out the berry bushes, stem and roots. A few of their tribemates shadowed them holding the crates in which they dumped the plants while also observing the ground for any signs that anything had been left behind. As they filled them, I grabbed some of the crates, flying them back to the shuttle, and then dumping them into the incinerator.

For now, the Kreelars and my mate’s team agreed not to play with the pH of the soil until they better understood how it might affect the surrounding fauna. Although their initial tests indicated that it would be safe to use some aluminum sulfates to lower the pH and make it less suitable for strawberries that thrived on more acidic soils, there was no rush. The current cleansing would give us a long enough reprieve so that more thorough tests could be performed first.

Everyone got back in the shuttle, and we moved to a different sector. They dispatched four more Murthis as well as a handful of less lethal, smaller rabid creatures that still threatened the local fauna.

We moved at a phenomenal pace that hinted we could clear the entire area by the end of the following day. By early afternoon, we flew back to the village for lunch and for the Kreelars to restock on darts. This time, instead of us eating in the meeting room next to the deployable lab in the inner courtyard, our hosts invited us to join them in their gathering hall.

It was common practice for them to eat together, although it wasn’t like everyone ate at the same time. While the room could fit the entire tribe, they usually came in smaller groups, like the infants with their parents or caretakers, the farmers and crafters as a separate wave, and then the hunters, although not necessarily in that order. That didn’t prevent people from various groups from coming in at a different time or mingling with others. If nothing else, the Kreelars appeared to be very informal, with a strong sense of community.

They didn’t have formal currencies. Everything was based on trade, goods for goods or services, whether within the tribe or with their neighbors. That they invited us to share their meal said a lot about how they were now accepting us as friends and not just intruders. Hopefully, it would give us an opportunity to get a deeper look at their society, which they were zealously keeping secret from us.

I couldn’t blame them for only showing us the strict minimum necessary for us to accomplish our task here. The less we knew about them, the less they exposed potential vulnerabilities that could be exploited later.

Multiple tables were set in the back corner of the building, with large windows looking out onto the square. A buffet had been laid out on one long table. It was one of my first times seeing their use of electricity with wide trays that kept some of the salads and vegetables cool, and burners that kept the cooked dishes warm.

While the hunters who had accompanied us scattered at various tables, Aku and Enre settled with my mate, her colleagues and me at our own table. We enjoyed the meal while making casual conversation. Most of it was dedicated to our hosts inquiring about our lives off-world. I didn’t miss how they skillfully deflected any efforts we made into getting them to open up more about their own people.

Under different circumstances, it might have come across as distrustful if not a little offensive. But he wasn’t the leader of his entire species. I strongly suspected that he and the other Kalds had agreed to avoid oversharing as it could potentially impact all of them. As only a handful of them had met any of us, they had no reason to trust us, despite the blossoming friendship we had with Aku.

At least, his questions were harmless. He wasn’t trying to pry into anything that might jeopardize our own national security. It was the type of friendly chatter one would have with a new acquaintance regarding our families, hobbies, and what led us to our respective careers.

Just as we were preparing to head out again, my com went off. Intrigued, I glanced at its interface, thinking it was only a notification from my scouting drones having detected more feral beasts. To my shock, it was an actual message.

‘You have company.’

“What in Tharmok’s name…?!” I whispered to myself.

A set of coordinates and a frequency followed that single sentence. The identity of the sender was unknown. Technically, I shouldn’t be receiving this type of direct message here. It was not using basic analog radio frequency, but a digital one which required connectivity.

“What’s wrong?” Ciara asked, her face displaying the same curiosity as the others.

I shared the contents of the message with them then redirected one of my drones closest to those coordinates to see what was happening.

---