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Chapter 17

Lah-Shah, Aurox. 5 IGASS standard days later

Lah-Shah hovered the shuttle over Sahrai’s compound. The late summer sunlight bathed the shipping containers in an orange light as the vegetation reached out grasping branches and a small crowd of flying monkeys rested on the hot roof. The shuttle didn’t seem to disturb the creatures even as Lah-Shah landed in the roadway. One of the creatures sat up and started furiously batting stubby wings. It climbed down the side of the container, bounced across the yard and up on to the fence, where it balanced carefully.

Lah-Shah watched in amazement as it held up a tablet and started to type. He opened the shuttle hatch, stood from his chair, stretched his own truncated wings, and prepared to leave.

“Oi!” A squeaky voice screamed. The creature had left the fence and approached the shuttle hatch.

“What” Lah-Shah said, “are you?”

The creature tapped at the tablet screen with a claw, “I Prrt-hai, am Rwwharr. Maria call us purple flying monkeys.” The tablet spoke.

“Have you seen Maria?”

Prrt-hai looked at the tablet, witing for the translation. The purple flying monkey spoke, the tablet translated and spoke again.

“Yes, yes, Maria at den with Sahrai and Suppai. We take you.”

“Is it far, I can fly us?”

“We fly! Come, we fly!” the tablet spoke again.

“No, I’ll fly us in the shuttle.” Lah-Shah found he was already getting used to talking to Prrt-hai and hearing  his question translated into a facsimile of Prrt-hai’s language, and then getting two answers, the expressive screams and clicks the creature used and the bland computer voice of the tablet.

Prrt-hai looked at the shuttle and at the tablet, reading and listening to the translation. It started typing again. The tablet said,

“No shuttle, no. Quiet. Shh! We fly.” Prrt-hai flapped its wings, climbing into the shuttle.

Lah-Shah had doubts about the ability of the flying monkeys (who, despite Maria’s expressive name for them weren’t quite purple, but a mix of orange, brown, red, and purple) to keep up with him.

“Ah,” Lah-Shah breathed out and felt his skin change to a reluctant cream, “Let me lock up and shift, and we can get going.”

“I help?” Prrt-hai was looking around now, inquisitive.

Lah-Shah feared that once the Auroxian sentients joined the Association they would find themselves a niche on ships, they seemed to have a quick grasp of technology.

“No, I’m fine, please get out of my shuttle.” The little simian alien looked from the tool box it had opened to Lah-Shah, “And leave that wrench there, thank you.”

Prrt-hai blew a raspberry and hopped down, taking the tool with it.

Lah-Shah flickered a frustrated green, “Just stay clear of the shuttle,”

Lah-Shah followed Prrt-hai and about a dozen of the purple flying monkeys as they flew over the forest, towards a grey bluff that rose out of the slowly rising ground like a metal ruler dropped in the forest. Tree-like vegetation whipped by, small bat-like creatures swooped past, chasing even smaller flying animals and avoiding the whip tendrils of the vegetation, while chittering angrily in the ultra-sonic range.

It was some distance, Lah-Shah calculated they’d been flying for a standard hour when they flew over the bluff and down into a cove, where water from a stream pooled and the vegetation had been cut back, revealing a small valley. Lah-Shah landed in the valley, where the ground around the stream was marshy. He hopped awkwardly further from the water and looked around. The cove walls were pock-marked with caves, too evenly spaced to be natural. Small faces poked out of some of the caves.

Too his left, near the forest edge, a group sat around a fire pit. A tent had been erected beneath a collection of branches. Several of the flying Auroxians landed by the fire and started chatting in their screaming language. Most banked over the pool and made neat landings in the caves. The sun was going down, making the cove shadowed and the fire brighter.

Prrt-hai landed on Lah-Shah’s back, tapping at the tablet at the same time.

“Maria and Sahrai by fire. With Suppai den.”

“Ah, at last!”

Maria walked towards him, tiredness and anxiety in every step, mud on xyr clothes and face. Another of the Auroxians, also carrying a tablet, hopped along beside his assistant.

“Maria, you’re safe! Why haven’t you answered my messages?” He turned his long serpentine neck to look at Prrt-hai, “And why is there a flying monkey on my back?”

Prrt-hai grinned as it read the translation. Or showed its teeth. It wasn’t a friendly look. Prrt-hai bounced down off Lah-Shah’s back, much to his relief, and fluttered over to Maria and xyr friend.