Chapter 50 - Beast of Burden

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When they came back to Anjii's hut, Cat went to the field and looked at the leather harness that the Alien-Horse had vacated. She motioned for Anjii to come over. The harness was tied to a small plow made of cheap metal that Anjii had used to plow and sow her field. She picked up the harness and put it on her shoulders. Before Anjii could protest, she pulled the plow and Anjii quickly grabbed the plow's handles.

They worked the field every day. Cat replacing Anjii's beast of burden and pulling the plow. Helping Anjii to sow the field. Watering with what little precious water they had collected in the rain barrels.

One night, after a hard day's work. Cat slipped away and made her way towards the city. It was especially easy at night for the city's lights guided her. Traveling at night was dangerous. Many predator were night prowlers but Cat's newfound kinship to Aurora's fauna emboldened her. Mina had kept silent and Cat worried that she might be hurt. She had tried to communicate with the entity embedded in her to no avail. Mina would not respond.

On this night, many weeks after her encounter with the Snow-Wolf and the Sky-Dragon, Mina broke the silence.

'Where are you going?'

"Good red Mars! You scared me, Mina."

'You are not going towards the sea.' Mina observed.

"I'm going to check out the city. I want to find my friends."

'The chances of their survival are slim. You know that Catherine.'

"I know..." Cat sadly replied to the voice in her head. "Why were you silent?" Cat asked the alien A.I.

'You needed some alone time and I needed some alone time as well. I find it difficult to adjust to this timeline.'

Cat observed the dark scenery before her. Aurora was a beautiful planet. Full of life. Even in its most desolate places. She could hear night scavengers scurrying around all around her. The buzzing of bugs of all sizes that came out after the sun had set.

'I sense something' Mina warned her suddenly.

Cat heard it too. She crouched behind a scraggy bush that offered no cover whatsoever. The noise was like sand shifting. And it was coming closer. A predator?

Cat held her breath as she saw a footprint form itself in the sand two hundred meters in front of her. Then another, and another. It was coming her way.

Anjii had made it clear that Cat was not to go out at night. Cat had thought at first that she was warning her of Aurora's night predators, but this was... a human footprint. She couldn't see the owner of the foot who imprinted the sand so diligently in front of her.

A ghost? Jabrina's fear for anything supernatural crept up in her mind. Jab had been a superstitious fool, but she remembered Jab's Swiss Mamie telling her about seeing the ghost of people that had just died. People her Mamie had knew. People who had a message to convey.

A glow appeared suddenly where the chest of the invisible apparition would be.

Cat shook like a leaf by now.

"Listen..." She babbled.

She was cut off by a sudden roar and a rush of air caused by the motion of a gigantic body passing in front of her, intersecting and colliding with the 'ghost' in front of her.

Gort!

He sat on top of a writhing shape and kept hitting it with all his might. Sparks and metal bits flew everywhere. Cat heard crushed metal sounds and stood up.

"Gort?"

Gort stopped hitting the apparition under him when it stopped moving. He stood up and came over to Cat. He was breathing heavily. Gashes in his skin closing slowly. He put a big clawed hand on her shoulder and looked down on her.

"Thanks." Cat said simply. She walked over to the prone figure on the ground. It was still sparking madly with plasma.

A robot! A humanoid robot. A sentry? Enforcing a curfew?

She noticed something odd about the robot's body. It's casing was open and she could observe something gray and red inside. She realized it was organs of all functions. Organic matter. A set of organs inside a metal body? What sort of horrible monstrosity was she witnessing? Why would anybody allow their organs to be transplanted into an artificial body? She pried open the cranial cavity. A small silvery mess of a quantum brain was waiting for her there. It was totally destroyed, but the organs stubbornly went on about their business. The heart was still pumping whatever this creature used for blood. The fluid was pinkish and to Cat's horror, it was spilling all over the place. She started to shake badly as she realized the scope of the horror she was seeing. Good Mars! This was as bad as what they had done to those poor clones, turning them into reverse cyborgs. Removing their brain to replace it with a robotic one. The Ultra-Marines...

The thought sent shivers of shame down Cat's spine.

Gort came over, put his hands on her shoulders again and turned her in the direction of Anjii's hut. The message was clear.

Go home. Not safe.

"Okay, I'm going back." Cat was shocked enough not to protest.

In the city, a person smiled and in the light of the holoprojection displayed on his luxurious desk, his smile looked feral. "Interesting." He growled in perfect Standard.

A week later, she had her wish fulfilled. Anjii brought her to the city to sell their harvest. A kind of buckwheat as it turned out. Cat realized she had made a stupid mistake by trying to reach an unknown city, by night none the less.

She looked around in wonder. The city was lively, many people walked with them. All going to the market to buy or sell the newest crops. Cat could smell spices, food cooking, perfume on women and men. She heard the cacophony of a thousand voices all speaking at once. Negotiating and bartering.

She observed many types of people. Some with their head covered by scarves that protected their heads from the harsh desert winds. Some almost nude, save for a loin clothe. Some obviously rich and displaying it with jewelry and bright clothes. Others, dirt poor, like Anjii and her. All trying to scrap a meager living out of the city's market. Anjii stopped at a food kiosk selling some kind of fried meat stuffed pastry pocket. Cat took the two burning hot wrapped items while Anjii paid the young girl.

Anjii took her pastry and eagerly bit in it. Cat tentatively nibbled at it and found it delicious. The meat was brown with lots of fat. Almost like duck, but definitely didn't taste like duck. More like wild boar. Cat had eaten Wild Boar on Bellona station. Her grandfather had taken their whole family to a famous restaurant there. He had shown her what the animal looked like in the wild. Cat had laughed and told her grandfather that boars looked like unkempt pigs. He had laughed at his granddaughter's wit.

Cat was shaken out of her daydreaming when Anjii pulled her to an empty corner where they set shop. Cat did the heavy lifting and put up the tables and set up the crops to be displayed. Anjii set a small scale and immediately started to sell her wares. People obviously knew of her and her produce. It seemed to be in demand for they didn't have an idle moment since they had set up shop. It took the better of six hours to sell the entirety of the grain. When it was over, Anjii looked exhausted but happy. Today had been a good day apparently.

Cat undid the small table display and tied their pieces together, preparing to leave and go back home; but Anjii had other plans. She talked to an old man pointing to their tables and they shook on whatever they had decided. She motioned for Cat to put the tables next to the old man's stall, then Anjii took her by the arm and pulled her towards an immense building surrounded by a gigantic crowd.

They pushed their way inside, elbowing people as they went along. They got their fair share of elbowing themselves as this seemed to be the customary way to act in a crowd here. They seated themselves inside on thin cushions on the earthen floor. Someone came quickly and sold them food and drink. The food looked good and was steaming hot. Some kind of crepe with vegetables inside. Cat sniffed at the drink and quickly determined that the drink was probably alcoholic. She put it aside not intending to consume it.

Within minutes, they were all settled in and waiting for whatever was going to happen here. The hubbub stopped in minutes, everyone looked seated and it all had been done efficiently enough. Cat was impressed that a crowd could be dealt with so efficiently. She looked around and saw an expectation on all the faces she observed.

But what in Mars's name were they expecting to happen here?

In the center of all seated here lay a ring of dirt. About twenty feet in diameter, it was delimited by a thick white rope circling the central area.

The crowd suddenly roared and a man entered, walking slowly towards the center ring. He was imposing in both height and width. His body thick with muscles. Cat recognized the stance. A fighter's stance. This would be a fighting match. Another roar announced the contender. This man was much smaller but bound with a nervous energy that seemed to come from his wiry muscles. His step was lighter and much quicker. The most striking feature of the smaller fighter was his eyes. They were intelligent eyes, and they seemed to see every details around them. Both men took their place and all the noise died. Not silent whispering. Total silence.

Another man came in. His most striking feature was his hair. It was white as snow and it fell to his hips. He was extremely tall and well proportioned. A regular face with a strong chin and no facial hair. He was accompanied by a small humanoid. Its origin was hard to determine for it wore a body suit that covered every inch of its person, and that included its whole head. Slight in built, it looked like a child. It was slightly stooped and respectfully walked behind the man never coming to close to him.

The man seated himself in one of the balconies and the small creature attended diligently to its master. As it was bringing some device to him, it got too close to him. The man with the white hair pushed it roughly away from him. The creature fell and Cat couldn't see it anymore. Its head re-appeared as it got back to its feet and tried anew to give the man the device, keeping a respectful distance this time.

The man stood up, and his stance was regal. He was used to power. Probably born into it. Her grandfather had had that stance. When he had to address his people, she had observed the same mannerisms in her grandfather.

The man started in a long diatribe, completely incomprehensible to Catherine. His hands were moving at his sides, palms towards his audience, signifying openness. He had a pleasant voice and he modulated it well. Cat looked around and saw that everyone was listening intently. Taking in every syllable he uttered.

Cat on the other hand, got bored very fast. Her head bobbed up and down as sleep threatened to engulf her. Their neighbors looked at her with barely concealed hostility. Anjii alarmed, elbowed Cat who jerked upward, sniffing and grunting, "hmm?".

Anjii, in a state of panic, gestured for her to shush. She looked up and saw that everyone in the arena looking at them; and, worst of all, that included the Velt's prefect, whose name was Pontilate, who was observing them with an amused curiosity.

"Am I boring you older sister?" Pontilate asked Anjii in a silky voice.

She prostrated herself and said. "Forgive my niece Dominus. She isn't used to the cities."

"Obviously, but what piqued my curiosity is that you have no immediate family. Is she one of your lovers?" The Velt prefect said.

A few timid laughs made themselves heard at this comment.

"It's just my cousin from the country. Cat's unrefined and speaks mostly country pidgin gibberish Dominus." Anjii countered.

Cat who had seen Anjii put her head to the ground in submission, had imitated her. But she involuntarily raised her head again when she spied the huge fighter, who had sneaked his way to the back of the scene unnoticed, producing a long wicked knife and lifting it to plant it in the Velt's back.

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