Dystopyum (The D-ot Hexalogy Book 1) Read online

  Not much was said on the way home until Martha spoke first — and then wished she had not. “Thankth for thticking up for me in there,” she said with her swollen, wounded tongue.

  Griswolt was just waiting — “What the hell was all that about? I’ve never been so humiliated in my life! You looked like a damn love-lover up in ‘ere! You could have gotten us both into DeathBT!”

  His voice was as deep as his body was big. He shifted his large frame in her direction, waving his hefty dark gray hands for emphasis. They hit a bump in the road. The metal alloy wheels of most means of transportation had only their suspensions to buffer the roads.

  Griswolt’s rising voice was a concern to Martha. The taxi driver up front might hear. Griswolt did not know she was in the LERN underground, and Martha had to keep it that way.

  “I bit my tongue!” Martha protested.

  Many LERN members had marriages with non-LERN members since it served as a good cover. Because of their knowledge of how to love, even covertly, their spouses were generally happier with their marriages than most couples were. They simply did not know why. In some cases, they did know why, or at least had suspicions. Still, they “didn’t want to know”, or let it come to the surface, because they could not face such a fearful thought.

  Griswolt gave a skeptical look at Martha, and said, “You bit your tongue, huh?” he sighed, “When was the last time you bit through your tongue like that?”

  Martha realized she did not want to go down this path because it was a loser — and the talking was making her tongue hurt. She retorted, “That inthructor thcared the hell out of me! Weren’t you lithening, or do you only look out for yourthelf?” Owww.

  Griswolt thought about the class they had to sit through that day. That was really rough, he thought to himself. What hell these girls have to go through to have a baby. My baby. He looked at Martha. She had her scales done for the class, and they looked positively beautiful in the moonlight. Under the full, lesser moon, their polished surfaces seemed to glow with a deep, gray-almost luminescent-blue.

  Griswolt smiled. Our baby, he thought.

  Chapter Two

  Trachnas Interruptus

  J

  an woke up. He had just celebrated his third birthday yesterday, and his next-door neighbor Rebecca was coming over to visit today, too. He jumped out of bed and ran upstairs. His mother Martha was in the kitchen, cooking breakfast. The toasted yama

  bread smelled wonderful. The kitchen was large enough to have room for a table and chairs. It was the central room of the home, with the home entry stairs coming down into it. From the kitchen, a hallway went to the bathroom and parents’ bedroom. From the other side of the kitchen, one could enter the living room. In the living room were the stairs that led down to Jan’s bedroom, and a storage room was down there as well. From Jan’s room there was also a narrow-staired emergency exit to ground level. The black stove was the newest appliance in the kitchen. The refrigerator and toaster were black as well. The very light green walls of the rest of the house did not extend into the kitchen. The kitchen had tan/yellow paint over a coat of a nonporous ferrist, same as in the bathroom. The well-lit rooms in the home had recessed lighting in all the ceilings. The cabinets were a shade lighter than the walls, the counter top was a finely polished deep green, white, and black striped marble.

  Although Jan was too young to care about yama bread’s source, his mother was always cognizant of the fact that yama was the only plentiful source of carbohydrates, essential amino acids, minerals, and certain vitamins on D’ot. They harvested yama directly from the ocean in the old days, which was dangerous. Sea creatures would stalk the harvesting areas, particularly along the NOV’s coastline. Now they had aqua farms that were free of those dangers. Huge corporations processed yama in many different ways. Differing extracts were plentiful, and people used them as spices, medicines, cosmetics, as well as a multitude of other specialized uses. Yama was part of most meals, in one form or another. Jan looked forward to the butter and suka she would be putting on the toast. He always asked if his mother would put more of the sweet suka on it, and sometimes she would.

  Jan also smelled something he was not too happy with — keesh. The slices of keesh his mother was preparing came from an animal that used its mouth to attach to sea creatures when it was in the ocean, or in lakes and rivers. Once attached, it did not matter if the host animal stayed in water or not. The keesh would then suck blood and lymph fluid from its host. It looked like a big, black blob with a pointy tail. These days they raised and harvested keesh from the bodies of elas. Farmers would keep them caged in the keesh farms. Elas were dangerous, long slithering creatures that could support the growth of this parasite without dying. Keesh could be prepared in many different ways. It was a common part of breakfast, because it could be fried quickly, and only needed salt and one or two seasonings. One common seasoning was an enzyme extracted from yama, called “nako”. It added a “hotness” to the dish and helped a little with digestion.

  Jan did not like a lot of the food they gave him, but he sure loved yama toast and butter. “Can Rebecca come over now?” he asked.

  “A little later, Jan,” Martha said. “After we eat, OK?”

  “OK.” Jan stood there watching her slice the keesh, with the frying pan waiting. What can I do? He glanced over at Sala, their pet emui. She was sleeping at the entrance to the living room. She was one of the few animals on D’ot that had fur, and Jan liked to touch the light brown and white fur because it was always warm and soft. Better leave her alone, he thought. Sala scratched me the last time I woke her up.

  Jan turned his attention back to his mother. “Can you play music?” he asked her.

  Martha sighed, and put down her knife. “What do you want to hear?”

  She’s going to do it! “Stahs at Night,” Jan responded excitedly. He loved that tune. It made him feel happy.

  “Well, at least it will keep you busy until I'm done cooking breakfast.” She gave his crest a rub.

  Jan had a singularly unusual crest. Whereas Aletians had crests with shades that were a bit darker than their natural gray scale coloring, Jan’s crest was very different. It had irregular yellow-gold stripes, running vertically on a rather white crest. The crest coloring stopped at the base of his skull and faded into the usual gray as the crest became minimal along the spine, and into the tail. When he was first born, the entire crest, from head to tail tip, was yellow-gold on white. While out in public, people would stare at him, but those who were familiar eventually got used to it.

  Martha went and fetched the music player from a drawer, and placed it on the kitchen table. She took the case that came with it, picked out a spool, and inserted it in the player. Then she threaded the metallic string through the guides to the receiving empty spool. She turned it on and the empty spool started turning, pulling the string through the guides. The music started.

  Jan jumped up and down, clapping his hands. “I love you, Mama!” he yelled loudly.

  Jan's outburst startled Martha. By reflex, fear shot through her, and she ducked. “No!” She quickly spun around, turned the music off, and squatted down to Jan’s eye level.

  Jan had no doubt something was wrong. “What Mama?”

  Martha grabbed both of Jan’s shoulders and said “Jan, please listen to me. The bad police will come and get you, and take me away forever if they catch you say the word “love”. Do you understand?” she asked with extraordinary intensity.

  Jan just looked at her with his big, wide eyes, and said, “No, I don’t.”

  Martha sighed and looked up, as if an answer were up there. She looked directly at Jan again and said, “It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand why. They are bad police, and they hate the word ‘love'. They will hurt you! They will kill Mama. You don’t want that do you?” she asked, shaking her head “no” so as to lead him in the same head motion. It worked.

  Jan was now shaking his head “No”. He said, “I won’t say tha
t bad word again!”

  Martha responded, saying, “Baby, ‘love’ isn’t a bad word, except to bad people. If you want to tell me you love me, you have to whisper it in my ear, OK? And I have told you many times never to say ‘love’ in front of Daddy, because he works with the bad soldiers.”

  “Daddy is bad!” Jan said, with attitude.

  “No, dear, Daddy is not bad. You just don’t understand. He loves you too, but he cannot say it, even to himself.” Martha sighed. How do I explain this nonsense to a three year old? Another sigh. “Here, give me a hug, you little blog!” He jumped into her arms with a big smile.

  She whispered in his ear, “I love you.”

  He giggled, “That makes my ear itchy!” He whispered back into her ear “I love you,” and now she giggled. She gave him a quick tickle, and went back to finish cooking breakfast.

  A little later, she called Jan to come eat. Jan had a good appetite, and cleaned his plate. He wanted her to be happy with him, and she always was when he would finish it all. After they finished up, she sat with Jan in the living room and read to him for a while. It’s so nice when Mama can stay at home with me, he thought.

  There came a light knocking at the door.

  “Rebecca!” yelled Jan, as he jumped out of his mother’s lap. He ran into the kitchen and up the stairs to the entry door. He opened it, and there was Rebecca, his favorite friend in the world. “Hi Rebecca!” he said, come in and let’s play! I have a game out for us.” Jan then said, unexpectedly serious.

  Rebecca, suddenly distracted, ignored his remark for the moment.

  “Look!” she proclaimed, as she pointed to a large six-contiss bus passing by on their street.

  They both looked at it. It was unusual to see a bus that big on this street.

  She jubilantly exclaimed, “Aren’t they beautiful?” Rebecca had some toy contiss figures in her house, and she cherished them.

  Jan readily agreed. The fact that such a large animal was not dangerous was intriguing. He knew what was coming next.

  “I can’t believe they can fly,” Rebecca said. “I’d love to see it.”

  A contiss was about twelve feet tall at the head, and ten feet tall at the shoulders and rear. They were a dirty brown color for the most part, but they were unique in that they had a shroud of loose leathery hide that fell between the front and back legs, enabling them to leap from almost any height, and glide to a landing. A contiss would land by balling up and rolling out of it, unfortunate rider or not. Along with the shrouds, which looked like a skirt, they had vertical, (from the side,) bands of thickscaled hide that looked like armour running over their shoulders and torso. The bands ran from one side of the contiss to the other, and each band was about a foot or less in width. The bands closest to the neck or tail were narrower than the rest.

  After the bus passed, Rebecca said, “I wish I had one,” but with the entertainment over, they turned and went inside. Rebecca passed Jan on the way downstairs, sniffing the breakfast aroma that still lingered.

  Martha was back in the kitchen again, and catching Rebecca’s eye as she was coming into the room, asked her, “Would you like some toast, dear?”

  “Yes, please,” Rebecca said shyly. She was on the thin side. Her mother Salom blamed it on her appetite, but Rebecca always seemed to have room in her stomach for whatever was available at Martha’s house.

  The children prepared to set up a game called “Catch the Yeta” on the kitchen floor. Jan said, “Hey Rebecca, look at me!” He took his looseknitted cream-colored leathercloth security blanket and fluffed it into the air, slowly letting it settle down perfectly on the kitchen floor.

  “Wow!” said Rebecca, very impressed. “I don’t know how to do that,” she said, shaking her head and munching on her toast.

  “I’m grown up!” Jan said proudly. They then proceeded to set up the game on top of the blanket.

  Martha had gone into her bedroom to do some laundry. Jan and Rebecca had just finished setting up the game, when Jan, hearing something unusual, cocked his head. All of a sudden, there was a rhythmic hard tapping sound. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Jan turned his head, and saw a trachna on the kitchen counter. He had not seen one before, but simply looking at it, he instinctively knew it was bad. It jumped to the floor. It was shiny, hard looking, and had a lot of legs. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

  Trachnas were about twelve inches around, and had eight legs. Their legs had exoskeletons, so that the muscle was inside the shell-like leg sections, resembling some bottom dwelling sea creatures. The shell itself was a chrome alloy that the trachnas were able to absorb and utilize from chrome deposits in the ground where they would nest. They used their legs to tear and rip into their prey until it was dead. The legs joined a central roundish body that had no such armour. They traveled in packs. After a kill, they would stay there for as long as the carcass lasted, sharpening their claws against one another, readying for the next kill.

  Jan and Rebecca huddled together as his emui Sala unexpectedly leapt into the kitchen, dividing the trachna from the children. The emui was growling at the trachna, and had its head down low, and tail straight up.

  They screamed — both he and Rebecca were absolutely terrified. “Mama! Help!” Jan cried out, as he pulled his blanket out from under the game, making a clatter. Jan grabbed Rebecca to bring her with him at the bottom of one of the kitchen chairs. They tried to hide behind the blanket.

  The children were horrified as they watched the trachna take one leap at the emui, and immediately lock its huge jaws into Sala’s shoulder. It tore and stabbed at the emui with incredible speed. The emui was dead within seconds, and a bloody mess. The children screamed even more. Martha was in her bedroom, down the hallway, and heard them.

  What’s that? Martha thought. “Oh my God!” she cried aloud as she opened the bedroom door and heard the true intensity of the children’s screams. Martha ran down the hallway towards the kitchen.

  “Trachnas!” Martha gasped as she found two large ones blocking her way. She ran back to the bedroom to get the gun. “Trachnas!” she screamed again unbelievingly as she fumbled with the lock on the gun cabinet. She knew that Griswolt kept a common metal stick and small sword under the bed for protection, but that wouldn’t do for trachnas.

  After killing Jan’s pet emui Sala, the trachna in the kitchen had become distracted by the footsteps and voice of Martha, as well as the sound of its partners screeching their attack call in the hallway.

  Jan and Rebecca were still cowering on the kitchen floor at the bottom of one of the chairs, with the blanket over them. Jan was peeking out from the blanket. Inexplicably, a beautiful soft light above the kitchen table, just above him, distracted Jan. Jan smiled at it, unexpectedly oblivious to the trachna and his surroundings.

  He heard a friendly male voice, “Jan, come up here with me. Remember to hold Rebecca’s hand. Come quickly now!” The voice made him feel safe, and he followed it.

  Jan hurriedly grabbed Rebecca’s hand, and pulled her onto the chair with him. Then he got on top of the table, pulling his blanket with him.

  Their activity attracted the trachna’s attention again, and it started tapping its way towards the kitchen table.

  The voice said, “Jan, throw your blanket over the bad animal — nice and easy, like before.”

  Jan felt safe now. He went to the edge of the table, and deftly fluffed the blanket into the air above the trachna. It came down perfectly, loosely trapping the trachna for the moment.

  Two deafening shotgun blasts from the hallway rang through the kitchen. Martha exploded into the kitchen, spotting the children. She instantly saw the trachna trying to escape the temporary net it was caught in.

  “There you are!” With a half-wail, half scream, she lifted her arms high and brought the shotgun butt directly down on the trachna once, smashing its center with a cracking, squishing sound. A red color appeared on the blanket, and the trachna stopped moving so fast, and started twitching. Then she just cut loose
, smashing it repeatedly, screaming the whole time, while the children watched with their eyes and mouths wide open.

  “Stay where you are, Jan. I’m going to look around.” Martha reloaded the double-barrel shotgun, and went through the house, room by room. She looked under beds and behind furniture.

  When she had disappeared, Jan looked to see if the light was still there. “Thank you for helping us.” he said.

  “Thank you for helping Rebecca,” said the voice. “If you listen to me, you will always be able to help her.”

  Rebecca watched Jan as he sat on the table, talking to nobody. After a while, Jan stopped talking, turned his head to Rebecca, and said, “He’s gone now.”

  “Who —” Rebecca started to say, when Martha came back, proclaiming, “There are no more trachnas.” Then she looked at the mess in the kitchen, what was left of Sala. “Oh, poor Sala!” Martha said sadly. She stood there looking at the scene, and realized what happened, shaking her head.

  Martha went over to the emui laying dead on the floor. She knelt down, held its head, and petted it. “You saved my little boy,” she said with bittersweet gratitude. She picked up their dead emui, carrying her upstairs and out of the house to bury her. The children followed her, accompanying her for the impromptu ceremony. They brought a shovel along, and dug a small hole in the back of their property. Martha laid Sala in it, and covered it with dirt. She then placed some big brown rocks over it. “We need to put these rocks over Sala so the wild animals won’t dig her up,” she explained to the children. Then Martha asked Jan if he would like to say a short prayer.

  Jan was happy to, and as they bowed their heads, he said, “Dear God, please take good care of Sala because she was a good emui.” They finished with the ending response, “Let it be.”

  Rebecca said, “I want to go home now.”

  Martha said, “Sure, sweetheart, Jan and I will walk over with you.” They went over to Rebecca’s house, keeping an eye out for any more trachnas. “I’ll need to call the Hunter’s Station about this when we get back home.” She paused and then asked herself, “How did they get in?” Jan just nodded his little head, as if he understood what she was talking about. He could tell it was important though, and it would keep the trachnas away.