Quiet Invasion(13)
How did a rot start in his own village?
She shook herself out of her own thoughts as she realized D’seun was watching her.
“I’m sorry. You spoke?”
D’seun dipped his muzzle. “I was saying this is your latitude. You should warn the cities.”
Good, good. Pay attention, T’sha. There’s work to do. “Yes. Of course.” She commanded her headset to call Ca’aed.
“I hear you, Ambassador,” returned her city’s deep voice.
“Ca’aed, there’s an emergency in Village Gaith. Warn the downwind cities to take quarantine precautions. I’m on my way to assess the damage. I’ll have more news soon.”
Even as she spoke the words, a fresh finger of wind touched her. This one was not empty. It was thick with something far too cloying to be a healthy scent. She could see Gaith in the distance—a sphere bristling with sails and sensor fronds. It looked peaceful, but that smell, that too sweet taste…
“I have their location, Ambassador….” Ca’aed paused, and worry stiffened T’sha’s bones. “I can’t raise the village. I hear no voice.”
T’sha glanced at D’seun, but he was looking straight ahead at Gaith. It took T’sha’s eyes a moment to focus, but then she too saw what was wrong.
Around even the smallest village, there would be a few citizens flying freely about their business, but Gaith was surrounded by a swarm of its own people. They fluttered about the shell and bones like flies without purpose.
It was the sight of panic.
D’seun spoke to the kite. It brought them around to Gaith’s windward side. They closed on the village, and T’sha saw that its sails and wind guides were no longer white, as they should have been. Huge patches of grayish-brown funguslike growths disfigured their surfaces.
The smell of rotting flesh engulfed her. T’sha instantly tightened in on herself. Breath of life, bones of mine, what is happening here? I’ve never seen one this bad!
The village cried as if hurt just by the wind of her approach. All around those diseased sails flew its citizens. Now they were close enough that T’sha could hear their voices—shouting, crying, demanding, trying to give orders. Above it all, she heard the wordless keening of the village’s pain. It was dying and it did not know how to save itself. In its fear, it called desperately for its people.
D’seun snatched the bulky caretaker unit from out of the kite’s holder and launched himself into the air. T’sha dipped her muzzle. The caretaker might be able to speak to the village where a person could not.
“Engineer K’taan,” T’sha bawled into her headset as she launched herself into the air. “Where are you?”
“Approaching from leeward. We have you in sight.”
“Get a catchskin under the village. We can’t let the rot fall into the canopy!”
“Yes, Ambassador!”
Flies clustered everywhere, the eternal flies that should have been clustered around the clouds. The insects scattered in angry swarms around her wings. The smell was unbearable. T’sha closed her muzzle tightly and tried not to think of what was filtering in through her skin.
Bubbling gray fungus turned the nearest sails slick. Even as she watched, great patches melted and sagged. Speckled liquid ran down what was left of the clean white skin. Something unseen whimpered.
“Gaith! Gaith!” T’sha called through her headset. “Answer me! Are you there?”
No answer. None at all.
D’seun flew straight into the thickest crowd and started forming them up into an orderly flight chain. As soon as the formation was spotted, people started flocking toward it, leaving fewer to flap in panic around the dying village.
T’sha ordered her headset onto a general-call frequency. “This is T’sha So Br’ei Taith Kan Ca’aed, ambassador for Ca’aed, to anyone who can hear me. I need Speaker T’gai Doth Kan Gaith at the center of leeward.”
She got no answer. It was possible there was nothing healthy enough left to hear the call.
Ten yards below the city, K’taan directed a group of four researchers to stretch out the transluscent, life-tight catchsheet. It wasn’t big enough. Two other researchers rushed in, carrying an additional sheet. They sealed the sheets together and spread them again. That was just enough if the wind did not take too much. They needed to get a quarantine blanket around the village as soon as possible. Why were those not grown generally?
Why is this happening at all?
“Ambassador T’sha.”
T’sha wheeled on her wingtip. Behind her floated T’gai. His tattoos branched all the way to the roots of his crest now, but the crest was dimmed by age.