Book 1 Flight of the Armada Chapter 7

The Thuringi scouts grew accustomed to their new outpost planet by painfully slow increments. They were used to the Stellar Council worlds, where the populations were much smaller, the races more definable and the languages easily translated through the Sengan-designed Universal Translator. Earth’s population was greater than all the worlds of the Stellar Council combined, plus the estimated numbers of the Shargassi Empire. Instead of one or perhaps two gods per world (except for the Borelliat who boasted three gods) Earth had multiple religions, multiple political systems, multiple countries, multiple races and multiple civilizations. It was hard enough for the Thuringi to keep abreast of American differences, much less try to incorporate the rest of the hemisphere or the other continents of the world.

They liked the variety, however. There was nothing like the animals of Earth to be found anywhere else. They never saw a cat before, nor elephants or monkeys. Gakkis were found on every world of the Stellar Council. Physically they all boasted a singular horn in the center of the forehead, but the coloring and genetic differences could identify the home world. Each world bred gakkis to meet its own specific requirements but did interbreed its racing gakkis a little since racing gakkis was a source of planetary pride and interplanetary coin for the known worlds.

Instead of cattle, the Stellar Council worlds had cabrett, which had stouter legs than Earthian breeds, and each world had its own variation. One could tell by looking the difference between a D’tai cabrett and a Thelan cabrett. Chesser were originally from Senga but had been exported to other worlds. This was good for Borelliat's agricultural society but nearly disastrous for Thelan. Their lake-filled world provided an easy-to-evade landscape for loose chesser, and the piglike creatures multiplied so rapidly in the wild that they were considered a nuisance and dangerous. Annual hunting seasons were necessary to keep the population of the wild chesser in check.

Chickens were not native to Thuringa but Borelliat had birds called nobi that were equivalent to chickens, and the Hunda and D'tai had domesticated fowl. Most of the other worlds did not bother to domesticate birds. They took eggs as they came across nests, provided the protective parent birds allowed it. Birds had variety among the Stellar Council worlds, and some types of birds were best to avoid entirely at certain times. The Thelan farba, for instance, had a wingspan of twenty feet and were used for transportation by early Thelans centuries ago. The farba were not domesticated but tolerated humans on their backs until mating season, when no one rode a farba for any reason and expected to live.

Earthian chickens were small, relatively harmless, and versatile for all sorts of domestic purposes. They were also very appealing, and Carrol liked to pet chickens whenever she got the chance. She adored the soft “awwk, awk awk awk” sound brooding hens made, as if commenting to their feathered sisters.

Despite the number of new things to learn and remember about Earth or perhaps because of it, it was a much more enjoyable place than any other outpost the Thuringi ever knew. Earthians, at least the Americans they met, were curious and exasperating and talented and suspicious all at once. Brent’s journeys took him all over the world, but he did not approach people much if at all. His gills and webbed fingers were hard to explain without preparation, and he had far too much area to explore undersea to bother with non-aquatic life. He left that up to his Airmen kindred.

The Sheldon ranch included the surrounding pastures with the beef cattle and stock pond in back. When Michael came to visit one spring day, he noted the wistful way his friends regarded the local horses on the farm next door. "You know, it probably wouldn't hurt to get a horse for you to ride to and from town. It would keep you from illegally driving more than you have to except for grocery trips. But then, you will need to buy some sweet feed and hay."

"Why can we not grow it ourselves?" Glendon suggested. "There is a perfectly large block of land adjacent to the yard."

"Do you know about ranching?"

"Gareth comes from a long line of farmers."

Gareth looked up from his work at the dining room table, where he was rebuilding a small engine. "Yes, but I know little about Earthian farming."

"It is not so different from our way. Michael, your gakkis and cabrett eat hay, is this correct?"

"Yes, it is, and I will tell you what: if you can find a way to plow up that whole forty acres over there, then you can plant it with hay, cut and bale it, and then plant winter wheat, you might get two crops in."

"Wheat? That is like our bran?"

"That is right, Stuart. Wheat and bran are I guess the same, essentially. But you will have to string up the fencing to keep the cattle out of it. They will eat anything but especially whatever you worked hardest to cultivate, it seems."

Michael thoroughly enjoyed the enthusiasm and willingness to experiment that his Thuringi friends seemed to live by. He only had to demonstrate how to string up barbed wire and the next thing he knew, Stuart and Carrol were out digging post holes in order to extend the side fence all the way back to the end of the pasture so they could close off forty acres for a hayfield. Michael reported back to his father that his friends were good stewards of the land.

"The old house never looked better, Dad, and they are planning to grow hay in the forty acres to the west. I really wish you would meet them."

"Look Michael, if you say they are doing a good turn of it out there, that's fine by me but frankly, I really don't care what you do with the old place. It's yours now and I don't have time to go back out there right now. Maybe one of these days. Aren't these friends of yours ever going to find jobs?"

"They do have jobs. One works for Dickie Forbes and another for the Gentrys. Two are doing scientific research for their country and another is an inventor. And the leader is the one who is heading up the farming."

"Oh. Well, all right then, go ahead since they're improving the place. Funny how you never gave two hoots in hell about the ranch before now."

"I never needed it, but they do. Guess I'm seeing it through their eyes, and I see its worth now."

Carrol liked to wear the blue denim pants. They fit snugly like uniform breeches and were amazingly durable. She liked the swishing sound the legs made as she walked through the tall grasses in the pasture. Fencing was difficult, tedious work but someone had to do it and there was no point for her to make the men do all the hard tasks. Stuart handled the post hole digger expertly after a few initial mistakes that would have left the fence line staggeringly out of line.

Carrol took her turn at it and thanked the God of All that her Arda-powered healing ability made quick work of blisters. All along the fence line they dug holes, planted posts, and then strung the barbed wire strands tight across the posts. They had to take down some of the fencing in order to drive all the cattle out of their planned hayfield, but the oversight was understandable.

Michael brought out a bay mare which Carrol promptly named Bishop. "I always thought Bishop Trapis would benefit from a bit in his mouth and someone to rein him in," she said dryly as she gave Bishop a good rubdown.

Glendon bought a plow rig from Franklin Morris's family and hitched Bishop to it. He tilled the west side of the yard from the roadside all the way to the back-yard fence near the corner of the barn, a considerable garden space. In their enthusiasm, the Thuringi planted a great deal of vegetables and set out many starter plants from the Gentry's store: Corn, bush and pole green beans, snap peas, tomatoes, bell peppers, three kinds of squash, loose lettuce greens, cantaloupe, and watermelons. They were enthusiastic about potato plants because potatoes closely resembled friaks, so they planted twenty hills of those as well.

Stuart realized it would take days to till the forty acres with one horse and a single-disc plow. He studied the problem with his usual zeal until he came upon a multiple cultivator. Michael leased it and brought it to the ranch, and instead of the horse they hitched up the Good Lad to it with a slight modification by Gareth. Thus, the Good Lad was the first and so far, only Thuringi fighter ship to be used in Earthian farm work. Stuart and Darien plowed the frontage acres at night so people would not see the ship in action. The back acres hidden by the rolling Oklahoma hills were plowed during daylight hours. Then the brothers took turns spreading the grains and tilling them into the soil.

Gareth took no part in the effort, which mystified them all at first. He watched from the side yard fence one day, his arms crossed over the top strand of barbed wire as he took on a jaunty hipshot stance. Carrol and Glendon approached him from either side, and Glendon slapped him on the back and exclaimed, "Reminds you of the good old days, does it?"

"Well," Gareth replied with a barely noticeable tremble in his voice, "It is indeed similar to how my father used to do it."

Carrol and Glendon exchanged regretful glances. It had not occurred to any of them how this farming venture might affect Gareth, so enthusiastic were they. "Oh, Gareth…I am so sorry," Carrol stammered.

"No, no. It is very admirable for the sons and daughters of kings and nobles to till the soil like a farmer from Carzon. Very commendable indeed." He brushed it off with seamless bravado and picked up a hoe to weed the garden.

That night, Carrol told Stuart and Darien about it as they quietly talked on the porch after sundown. "There we all were, playing at farming while not giving a single thought to Gareth's reaction. That is why he did not have any enthusiasm for it. He had to do it every day of his life plus his other tasks and never got to attend Academy the way he should have. We see it as a novelty, an amusement. I am so ashamed of myself."

"I never thought of it that way," Stuart anguished. "Poor Gareth! We must look like foolish wastrel noblemen to him."

"No," Darien said after a moment's thought. "He holds no harm against us in his heart. Perhaps he only recalls his father and how much joy he might have felt to know his son traveled all this way to watch a pair of princes revel in his task."

"In fact," Gareth said from the doorway, "That is exactly how I feel." Carrol rushed to him and hugged him tightly with a sob. He patted her on the back. "There now, Your Nibs; do not carry on so. Your brother has an amazing gift of the heart, for that is what I thought this afternoon. Imagine what Father would have said, had he lived to see this day! Prince Stuart and Prince Darien and Princess Carrol and Lord Glendon, finally enjoying what he had the privilege to enjoy all his life! My only regret is that he did not live to see it. I think he would have laughed and slapped his knee at the sight."

I like him, Darien thought. The entire class system has been turned on its ear by a single gentle man from Carzon.

The spring rains came, and it seemed to the noblemen that after each rain, the garden and hayfield issued forth something new to behold every time. Soon their every waking hour was taken up in weeding and thinning and checking for insects in the garden. Gareth came out of the house and after one look in the hayfield, he laughed so hard he fell down helplessly on the ground. He finally picked himself up and stumbled out to the field where Stuart doggedly chopped at the ground.

"No, Crown Nibs," he chuckled, "one does not need to weed the bran field so diligently." He steered him toward the vegetable garden.

Darien stopped by the Gentry’s store one afternoon to find Glendon off on an errand for Margie Gentry. As he waited for Glendon’s return, he saw Ed Gentry prepare to change a tire on his car. Darien approached him. “May I aid you in your task?” Darien asked. “I would enjoy the chance to return the many kindnesses you have given our family.”

“Well, all right,” Ed said, relieved. He was about to go in to call the local garage, since the lug nuts were on too tight for Ed’s arthritic hands to loosen with his tools. He stepped aside.

Darien rapidly unscrewed the nuts with his bare fingers. Ed stared in disbelief as Darien plucked the tire off the hub and plopped the spare in place easily, as if everything were made of cardboard. He screwed the lug nuts on and tightened them by hand. Ed stood by with the unnecessary tire tool in hand, astonished. Darien straightened and dusted off his hands.

“Is there anything else you need?” he asked, and Ed shook his head wordlessly. Glendon returned from his errand at that moment. After he took some paper sacks inside to Margie, he re-emerged with dangling truck keys in his hand.

“Have you been behaving?” he asked Darien.

“Lord Gentry is far too kind a man for me to misbehave in his presence,” Darien said, and bowed to Ed. He and Glendon got in their truck and went home. It was at the end of the workday and they were happy to go.

Ed Gentry walked inside the store and stood by the gumball machine, lost in thought.

“Ed? What’s on your mind?” Margie asked when she saw her usually restless husband deep in pensive thought.

“Those folks of Glen’s. They are the strangest folks, but I like ‘em, Margie. I do.”

“Lots of folks around here do,” she agreed.

Glendon and Stuart took the truck into the larger town of Muskogee one Saturday to gather scrap metal for improvements to Gareth’s ships. Gareth stayed up most of the night to work on a design and was still asleep at mid-morning. Carrol studied a strange animal they caught, a fat gray creature that had rings on its furry tail and a pointed face with black around its eyes. It was not a domestic creature but did not appear to be a particularly dangerous creature. It was adorable to her, however. She enjoyed giving it little knobby berries through the mesh in the wire cage Gareth made.

"Look at your little hands!" she exclaimed in delight. "Oh, why did we not have such clever creatures on Thuringa?" She saved images of the creature to add to the photo collection of things she definitely could not take back in samples.

Darien decided to walk to the Gentry’s store for a fizzy drink that afternoon. He admired the strong material called denim and was especially pleased the fabric did not allow the little barbed weeds scratch his legs. He watched some gakkis as they ran in a field for a while and whistled at a herd of cattle in another. He rounded a curve in the road and saw a minor auto problem ahead. He recognized the car.

Evidently Ed Gentry lost control going around a curve in the road. The car slid off the pavement and was now at an angle that would not allow it to get out of the ditch. Darien continued to stroll until he reached the vehicle.

“Automobiles are not kind to you, are they?” he asked, and Ed laughed.

“Well, that’s so. I’m figuring to get somebody to get me a wrecker and just pull it out.”

“And it will be all right to drive then?”

“Yeah, I hit a slick spot on the road back there and just slid off as pretty as you please. But look at that tire back there. It can’t get no traction, you see, and with it straddling the ditch there’s no way – “

Ed Gentry’s voice trailed off as Darien went around the back of the car, seized the car firmly by its trailer hitch, and moved it over until the back wheels were on the same side of the ditch. He walked around to the front and gestured to Ed. Ed started the engine and put it in reverse, and Darien helped the car back out of the ditch. Ed motioned to Darien to get in the car, and together they drove to the store.

Ed cleared his throat several times but could not say anything at first. Finally, he managed to speak. “I have never seen anybody as strong as you and Glen before in my life. You folks are just real unusual.”

“That is true,” Darien agreed.

“Just how do you spell where you’re from?”

“We are from Thuringa,” Darien replied. “I am not certain how you might spell it.”

Ed nodded. “Well, I sure appreciate your helping me out, I couldn’t have done it by myself.”

Darien cheerfully bought an icy cold fizzy drink before he headed back home to the ranch, explaining he enjoyed the stroll. Ed watched Darien walk away, shoulders back and head erect with the easy grace and power of a jungle cat. The gait reminded the Earthian man of his son in the military and wondered if Darien served in the army on Thuringa. He was stronger than he appeared, and maybe he was older than he looked.

Darien went in through the front door and wondered at the silence of the house. He heard the back door click shut and walked that way to look out the back window. Gareth evidently just awakened, for his hair still bore the signs of bed rest. The mechanic scout approached Carrol from behind while she hand-washed linens in a pan of soapy water. She stood in profile to the window, but neither noticed Darien observe them.

Gareth gently placed his hands on her waist and stepped up close behind her. Her hair was in its usual braid, and Gareth nuzzled her neck, coaxing the hair aside in order to have access. Her shoulders sank in a relaxed response to his affection, and she leaned her head back to rest against his shoulder. Gareth’s hands did not wander; his mouth did not seek hers for hungry kisses. They simply stood still. Carrol’s eyes were closed in dreamy delight, breathing deeply in enjoyment of the moment. Gareth’s eyes were also closed, his lips touching her ear.

Whether the good major was whispering to her or not, Darien could not tell but the emotion of the moment brought tears to the Warrior Prince’s eyes. So much passion and such longing were embodied in those two still, quiet forms that he was quite overcome. There were no naughty movements as Brent and Isador might have made; no suggestive gestures as Darien himself might offer up to a woman. There was only the quiet strength of love, a love that needed no action in order to flourish. This, then, was how a Duncan courted, and how a Phillipi in love should react.

In the distance Darien heard the return of Glendon and Stuart in the truck. Gareth kissed Carrol’s neck and stepped over to add a teakettle of hot water to her washtub. The truck pulled into the back yard, and the two riders emerged from the vehicle. Gareth went to see what kind of scrap metal they found, and Carrol continued to wash out her laundry.

Subtlety was a quality high on the list of desirable traits of the well-born, and from that day forward Darien considered Gareth Duncan de Gordon to hold all the requirements necessary as a suitor for Darien’s sister the princess.

That evening, Ed got out his atlas and inspected every country with a magnifying glass.

“Ed, aren’t you coming to bed?” Margie finally asked. “It’s late. You’ve been looking at those maps all evening long. What’s going on?”

“There is no Thuringa,” Ed said thoughtfully, and put aside his magnifying glass and the atlas. “Every country that speaks English is listed here, and it isn't here. There's a region in Germany with that name, but those boys don't have German accents, not even a hint of it. Margie, he lifted my car out of the ditch as easily as Glen moves around cast-iron stoves. Things the rest of us couldn’t possibly do. Darien twisted the lugs off the car with his bare fingers.”

“Well, he’s always been a very nice boy to me,” Margie said with a shrug. “I don’t know what you’re so worked up about. They’re just strong boys.”

Ed rose to his feet and saw a superhero comic book on the coffee table left by some friends’ child during their last visit. “Maybe they’re not boys at all,” Ed said to himself before he went to bed.