The Yggdrasil Highway Saga

everittdmickey (73)in #fiction • 7 years ago (edited)

#36: Blood Brothers..or else.

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“But Sir!” pleaded Sgt. Hobbs for about the tenth time

“just think of what you are proposing. You’re talking about slicing one of those big mother’s with a knife..then shaking hands with him. That’s not going to end well”.

“I’m going to take precautions” said the big Texan grimly.

“but it’s got to be done. They are too big of a potential resource to ignore, and too big of a danger.”

“Then just shoot em” suggested First Sergeant Halsey. “We can do that safely”

“ We just might have to do that. I’d rather avoid it. That might be murder” said Lamar “ I’m sure you know that”

“Yeah...I do” murmured the First Sergeant. Shaking his head mournfully.”Why does it have to be you? You are…”

“Just a Black Man” said the Texan Ironically. “ My kind used to be Slaves you know?”

“And I fought in a war to stop that practice.“ Said the First Sergeant.

Hobbs nodded his head in agreement “Many of the men here did, also. I did. I was at First Manassas.”.

The Texan looked a little startled at that, as did the First Sergeant. The Battle of Bull Run, or First Manassas as it was called by some...had been a bitch. “Doesn’t matter,“ said the Texan” It’s still got to be me. I’m the only one big enough. You know the process works faster the more blood is transferred? You little shrimps are too small. Loosing that much blood that fast might kill you.”

Lamar went to talk to Baranath first. He’d thought that he’d overheard her say something earlier and wanted to make sure.

“Baranath...would you mind telling me about your wagon? Can I have a look”?

Lamar was an Engineer AND a Medical Doctor. He had an idea.

“Well...yeah I guess” said Baranath. She wasn’t all that sure about this big fuzzy guy. However Kirki and Kara vouched for him. Kirki was the nearest thing the Kindred Kids had to a leader so she co-operated. “follow me.” and she lead him to her wagon.

The wagon was several times larger than any human wagon and NOT made from wood. Lamar didn’t know what it was made from but it wasn’t wood. It was some kind of metal perhaps? He cautiously entered the wagon and began to explore. Baranath was right there with him. That was a good thing. She could advise.

“Ah” said the big man...running a finger along an inside panel in the wagon. “Have you ever opened these Barantaha?”

“Open what” she said...puzzled

“Ah” said the big man again. Much was becoming clear now. The Kindred Kids WERE just children. They were remarkably bright but untaught and inexperienced. Just as if they had been abandoned as babies. Everything they knew ,they had pretty much taught themselves. It must have been heartbreaking for the old Kindred back at the...the….he shook himself. Time to get into that later.

“This is a latch, Barantaha, it opens. It’s a very well made and very well concealed latch, but it’s a latch. There’s something inside” He said gently.

“Inside?” she said “Inside what?”

“ Inside the cabinet. Let’s have a look” he said as he released the latch.

“Oh my” she said.

Lamar nodded. He had been right.

For the next few hours he and Berantaha explored the wagon. She learned more about the construction and the contents of her wagon in those few hours than she had in her whole life up till then...even more so than when they had discovered the less well concealed weapons. She’d previously been more interested in the animals. Only lately had she become curious about the hardware. Lamar, knew things about wagons and ordinary objects that she did not.

Lamar’s low level knowledge acted as a trip wire that released Barantaha’s higher level quest for knowledge. Unknown to Lamar she had cybernetic implants.

However, she really didn’t KNOW that she had those implants, she’d not had much occasion to use them. Her teachers had left at just the wrong time.

Lamar was exceptionally well educated in…….seventeenth century earth tech, as far as he was concerned Berantha’s people’s tech was magic. Berantha’s and the others, thanks to Lamar’s gentle probes, were now learning at break neck speed.

“I think I know what this is” said the big man, pointing to an apparatus that had been concealed from sight in storage”but it look weirdly different from what I’m used to, can you help me here?”

“Hang on”, said the young Kindred Kid putting her hand to her head, shutting her eyes and frowning. She intoned…

“running a image analysis

...done

...running an analytical search routine

….done

...running

..done

...running

...done…”

She spoke faster and faster...leaving out whole sentences.

“…….and complete. I got it now. I know what it does and how to operate it. It does a whole lot of other stuff too that I don’t understand just yet. That’ll take a while to bone up on”

“That’s amazing dear,” said Lamar only vaguely aware of what she had just done. “ why didn’t you use that mind trick to find out about the wagon before?”

“I’ve not messed with the wagons much until we came on the hunt. “ said the young kindred female “ It’s all pretty much new to me . What do you want this transfusion set for?”

“I thought I could use it to draw blood" he said referring to the apparatus “so I could swap blood with Troll and make the “blood brother” language transfer technique work faster”

“Certainly” she said “That’ll work just fine. Better let me operate it for you though. I know how to do it now and I can avoid some danger points. You don’t want to mess with those”

“Oh?...no I don’t...Yes” he said...shocked and surprised. Every time he answered one question a whole library of new questions presented themselves to him_”