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Updated: May 31, 2025
To the eye Sssuri was still listening to that which his friend could not hear. "They come from afar. They are on the move to find new hunting grounds." Dalgard sat up. To each and every scout from Homeport the unusual was a warning, a signal to alert mind and body.
A hundred years from now perhaps or a thousand but not yet. And remembering what had summoned the flitter winging toward him, Raf drew a deep breath. What would the men of Astra accomplish in a hundred years? What could those of Terra do to match them in knowledge? It was a challenge, and he alone knew just how much of a challenge. Homeport must remain his own secret.
But if they could send another such tribe traveling, arouse and aim south a hopper exodus, the story would spread until the fringe would reach the animals who lived in peace within touch of Homeport. The sun was gone, the dark gathered fast. Dalgard could not even see the clustered buildings of the city now.
A light so vivid, so alien, that it brought him to his feet with a chill prickle of apprehension along his spine. In all his years as a scout and woodsman, in all the stories of his fellows and his elders at Homeport he had never seen, never heard of the like of that! And through his own wonder and alert alarm, he caught Sssuri's added puzzlement.
Before he dropped out of sight behind that barrier he raised the spear in salute. "Swift and fortunate voyaging!" He gave the farewell of Homeport. Then Raf understood. The colonist meant just what he had said: he wanted no contact with the space ship. To Raf he had owed a debt and now that was paid. But the time was not yet when the men of Astra and the men of Terra should meet.
He could feel it, that strong pressure, that band united, in willing him into some move. His stubborn streak of independence made his reaction contrary. He was not going to be pushed into anything. "In this hour," Dalgard spoke aloud, avoiding the mind touch which might stiffen Raf's rebellion. He wished that some older, wiser Elder from Homeport were there.
But the ship was as alien to Homeport as it now existed as the city's globe might have been. Raf lay on his back, cushioned in the sand, his face turned up to the sky. Moisture smarted in his eyes, trickled down his cheeks as he tried to will himself to see! The yellow haze which had been his day had faded into grayness and now to the dark he feared so much that he dared not even speak of it.
It was the most impressive site he had yet seen, and his report of it would be a worthy addition to the Homeport records. A road ran straight from the top of the stair, stabbing inland without taking any notice of the difficulties of the terrain, after the usual arrogant manner of the alien engineers. But Sssuri did not follow it.
And it" though his furred face displayed no readable emotion, the sensation of distaste was plain "was one of the accursed ones. To such we have not returned since the days of falling fire " Dalgard was well acquainted with the ruins which lay not many miles from Homeport. And he knew that that sprawling, devastated metropolis was not taboo to the merman.
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