Heku: Flight of the Maita, #13

By C. D. Moulton

Taken from the story "Heku" in SSFSS and expanded into a book, plus an added later section when Maita and the crew return to find the engineers of the Vood.
Heku is the story from SSFSS. The book, Male Progeny Six/Heku, is a study of good, "normal" and evil.

Critic comment
I don't give five stars to anything. I give this one five stars
– PA *****

• Language: English
• Publisher: C. D. Moulton
• Release date: Jul 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201245351

Book preview

Heku

Chapter one

From Serendipitous SF and Such Strangenesses.

This story was written in 1985 and submitted to several magazines as a single, was received with glowing praise, was too long for a single issue but not suitable as a serial. I was asked to either shorten or lengthen it, but felt doing either would be detrimental. The later book fell into place as other things were written. This story was not originally meant to be part of the Maita series.

Heku

The dark primeval forest stood before him like a vast, unending wall. The vegetation began as low shrubs and bushes that pushed through the silvery-white clay of the prairie behind him.

Heku stopped to study the trees.

The nearer bushes were, at this point, about at eye level and were not too close together. He could still see fairly well where he had been and could see his line of footprints through the clay and stretching out far behind him to disappear in the low grasses of the prairie's edge.

He was in a no-one's-land between the flat, open land where he was born and raised and the dense growth of the forest that was always a forbidden thing to his clan.

Half of him wanted to flee back toward the open land and to the gods who would protect one of their own. The gods of the forest did not want his people to go there and would do much to stop him from ever coming out again should he be so bold as to enter their domain.

Heku did not believe that.

Heku was different from the others in his clan in that way. He thought things out while they accepted what the elders told them. Some of what the elders said was not true.

Heku's people had not as of yet developed a very high linguistic ability so they communicated to a large extent with signs. Heku was willing to concede he may have misunderstood some of what the elders said, though much he understood and knew they were wrong. The gods did not punish the people for things they did. The good ones were most often punished while the worst seemed to never have any punishment levied against them so it was obviously false that the gods cared what the people did.

Maybe the gods in the forest didn't care either.

It had been long since the rains came to the plains, crops were not growing, the remaining grass was poor and the grazers had left. Heku saw the grazers migrating in vast herds to the sunset side and suggested the clans go with them.

The elders said the gods would punish him for trying to get the clan to move from the sacred ground.

The only punishment he had known was that the whole clan was forced to live on the oormf roots because they had no food crops nor meat. The roots were nutritious and were plentiful, but they tasted bad and Heku could not continue to eat them. Besides, they would make you fat and sickly if you ate nothing else for too long. Everyone was experiencing this so-called punishment – not only Heku.

Heku had finally decided that the gods were not going to provide so he must do something for himself.

There was much rain as always was true in the dark forest to the left-facing-the-setting-sun. The whole clan could see it on the horizon. Heku decided that if there was rain there, there was food. The animals went first to water and plants grew best where there was water so the forest was healthy all the time. If the food was there Heku must go there if he wanted the food. It would not come to him.

This was a radical idea to the people of the clan. Their experience was to wait. The rains would eventually come and so would the food. This was a test sent by the gods.

Heku was shunned when he asked what the gods had to test them for. If the gods made them, then the gods knew everything without testing them and making them suffer.

Heku left one morning as the sun rose along the plain amid threats the gods would punish him severely for doubting them. He walked across the prairie for two whole days, and was in the morning of the third when he came to this point.

The only punishment he had received was to find a stream that still had pure water in puddles and two small animals to catch to eat the day before. It seemed that his punishment was to have good water and fresh clean meat when the clan was almost without water and was without fresh meat.

Heku stood high on his toes to stare into the dense green shadyforest. He reached a meter and a half standing thus extended.

He brushed the dust and seeds from his short brown fur while swiveling the pointed ears to listen to the sounds of the forest ahead.

It was quiet.

Heku watched with the large brown eyes. He could see nothing but the trees and some birds circling high over the forest. He had seen several broods of prairie birds lately. They also moved close to the forest where there were still seeds along some of the streams that came out from the trees onto the plains.

The streams were absorbed by the thirsty ground within a few hundred meters past the forest's circlement of fine silvery clay. The clay formed a smooth band around the perimeter of the forest, about 60 meters wide at this point.

Heku chewed on a dried freel twig, a thing he did because the spongy material of the wood cleaned his sharp teeth and the minty taste was pleasant. It also made him feel good and could stop his head from aching when he was in one of the occasional high-temperature sicknesses, though it made him hungry if he chewed too much.

That generally wasn't a problem, but these weren't general times. Food was scarce so it was wiser not to make oneself any more hungry than one already was.

Heku moved closer to the forest where he again felt an urge to go back, an urge he put away from himself. He was getting ready to enter the forest when a light, misty rain began.

If the gods cared at all they were inviting him into the forest! A cool rain was a blessing!

Heku did not believe in caring gods, but his heart beat a bit faster and he felt a thrill. Sensations were intensified and he felt he was being welcomed here! Alternately, he felt fear.

What if there were gods here? What if he came face-to-face with a god? Would his heart stop and he die? Heku choked back a sob and made a greeting/welcome sound.

There was no response.

Heku made a where-are-you sound and again got no response.

He would have to stop here at the edge of this strange world to think of what was happening. He must know more before he went farther.

Heku retreated to the clay where he moved leftward until he came upon a small stream. There he laid out his soft sleeping reeds and considered making a fire.

It would be too difficult in the dampness, but Heku noticed that the mist had tapered off and it was very dry only a few hundred meters away so he laid a good fire in a large area of clean clay.

All the people knew that fire was never to be allowed to come into contact with the grasses of the prairie because that was automatic disaster. One made a high mound of thick rocks with a hollowed center, making the fire deep inside of the protecting mound. If there was any breeze one did not make a fire at all. Only the center of the village could have a fire in a breeze and even then there must be three alert watchers to make sure that no sparks got away.

Heku went to the dry area to wrap a tight torch of long brown knifegrass leaves, then went back to the mound he had built. He took out the firestarter and soon had a blaze going over which he could cook the rest of the small rabbit-like animal from the day before.

Heku inspected the meat carefully for any signs of spoilage or contamination before spitting it and placing it carefully over the low flames.

The firestarter was made by placing a piece of clear quartz into a hole in some hard rock and directing water to fall down one side of the hole. The water hit the quartz to the one side causing it to spin in the hole against the smooth hard side of the rock. After a few days the round marble of clear quartz was removed from the hole in the rock to be split as carefully as possible across the middle, leaving two hemispheres. The women rubbed the flat side against a smooth stone until it was ground as smooth as possible, then glued the flat side to a stick, put the curved side against a skin coated with some special clay, then spun the stick until the quartz was highly polished. The flat side was rubbed against the clay-coated skin until it was also polished. The process took many days, but the lens thus formed was used to focus the sun's rays to a point with which fires could be started quickly and easily at any time the sun was shining.

Heku knew that the pale moons, even when they were almost together, didn't give enough heat to even make it warm under the lens.

Heku called the I-want-to-be-your-friend and where-are-you sounds periodically, but got no response.

In the afternoon he went into the cool stream where he washed himself carefully of the dust and grime of the dry prairie, using a soap made from one of the yucca-like plants growing there.

He did not sleep well that night. There were many strange noises in the forest. He called the greeting/welcome sound, after which all was quiet for a few seconds, then it started again.

Heku was tempted to move when some large grazers came to the stream, but they avoided the fire and he finally dozed for a few hours until dawn.

He went to the stream to drink when he awoke and found a large turtle by the stream's edge, which he was able to catch before it reached the deeper water. Heku had to move very carefully as it kept snapping at him and he knew of the strength of the jaws, though this one was far stronger and much more aggressive than those found on the plains.

Heku cleaned and roasted the turtle and found a bonus of many eggs inside. He again felt that if there were gods here he was welcome.

He then studied the silent forest awhile before carefully extinguishing the fire and scattering the mound. He sat to wait until all the rocks were cooled enough that he could hold his palm against them without pain. The clan was always very careful with fire.

Heku drew a deep breath, then walked toward the trees. He decided to stay along the stream edge because he could come back out along it. He would not get lost.

Heku admitted he was afraid. He never had a problem with being honest with himself or others as some did. Zemb would rather die than admit to being the least afraid of anything. A direct result was to be seen in the scars where he had been hurt. He was almost killed sometimes.

Zemb would swagger around after doing something stupid like that, acting as though he were something very special.

Heku knew that he and most of the clan thought Zemb was only stupid.

Heku stopped at the first of the real trees he came to. He had never seen a tree this close.

It was so big!

He knew that very soon he would be coming to much bigger ones, but this thing had a trunk as thick as he was and was ten times his height.

He looked back, but could see nothing but thick underbrush and the stream's edge. He soon realized he would have to find a way to mark his trail. This was not like the open land where he was born and raised and where he could see for great distances.

He considered making piles of rocks, but there weren't many rocks here and it would take a very long time. He had nothing strong or sharp enough to cut into the trees to make a mark.

Heku sat letting the legs hang into the cool water of the stream to think about the possible options. Finally, the decision was made to go back along the stream until the place of a plant with wide fan-shaped fronds. Heku tore one to find it was very tough.

Heku cut one off the plant with a sharpened piece of rock and carried it along the stream until he was where he had the camp overnight, then used the sharp rock to cut a large circle from the frond and ran a vine back and forth through the outer edge of the circle. He piled a good bit of the damp silvery clay in the center of the frond and drew the vine, making a pouch around the clay. He tied the ends of the vine together, making a sling belt around the shoulder with the excess with which he could carry the pouch and went back into the forest.

Heku followed the stream until he was deep among huge tree trunks. It was dark and there was very little undergrowth. There was a mat of leaves that was really pleasant to walk on, though he had to test each step to be sure it was solid underneath. This was automatic to the people so Heku didn't really notice.

He went for perhaps two kilometers into the forest along the stream before it began to get more hilly. There were many streams branching into the one he was following so he was making a mark on tree trunks with the silver clay every sixty or seventy feet. The rough bark held the clay nicely.

After a few more hundred meters he left the stream to travel straight along a sort of small shallow valley through the hills. The stream had branched so many times that only the marks on the trees told where he had been.

Heku had very little sense of direction in the forest, he found.

He went perhaps ten kilometers farther into the forest and was beginning to think there was no food here when he found some nuts strewn around an area. The trees here were somewhat lower, though they had thicker trunks than before.

Heku had long since stopped marveling at trunks that were two or three times as thick as his height. These trees seemed to be predominantly wide-leaved instead of the longer, thinner leaves of the forest's edge. There were shrubs and trees on the plains that produced nuts, some of which were good to eat, so Heku broke open a couple of these and tasted them.

They were very bitter. He could not eat them. He traveled on, noticing that the ground was now becoming more up and down. There was little that was level.

Heku found some more nuts and noted that many of them were chewed open. He broke a couple of them to find them to be very good in flavor. He ate one and wrapped a lot of them in leaves and put them in the pouch where he had used the clay. If he did not get sick he could eat these nuts. Heku had found food here so he was right!

He came to some low mountains where he could see a rocky area above through the trees so climbed to see the sun was near the horizon.

Heku could camp here. He did not have much room, but was able to make a low fire mound against a large rock-face. He reasoned it would be safe there so he made a small fire. It was getting cooler already to an extent that it seldom did on the plains at this season. He brought some branches up to the outcropping to make a warm nest in their leaves, then put some of the nuts in the fire to roast.

Heku checked the last of the turtle meat to find that it was spoiled so threw it far from where he was planning to sleep. The nuts were good and he found some clean water in the rocks. It was good, but there wasn't much.

Heku watched the sun set, then went into his cozy nest to sleep. He was awakened twice by the sounds of large animals passing below him, but slept well. He awoke as the rain started. It started as merely a cold misty drizzle, but soon was intensifying steadily. Lightning was streaking more and more across the sky, but Heku did not fear it here, though he knew that it was very dangerous on the prairie where the people had to stay very low when the thunder was close. He reasoned that here everything was high and Heku was already low so he wasn't afraid.

Soon the wind was blowing stronger and stronger so he put the fire out and watched it until the rain had cooled all the stones and ashes. Limbs were whipping around, some raking along the rock outcropping, so Heku packed up all he wished to carry and climbed down into the forest again. It was very dark now so he could barely make out objects. He heard a loud crash as a tree was blown over so stayed near the outcropping because it cut the wind a great deal. The rain lasted about four hours and was intense. The ground was several centimeters deep in water under the trees and the trunks gleamed brightly as the sun broke through.

Heku looked around and felt a sudden chill. He was frozen in his tracks for a few moments, then took a very deep breath before looking around himself. All the marks were washed from the trunks. He had no idea where he came from in this forest. No sense even of the direction. Heku was totally, irrevocably lost. He looked at the pouch, thought a moment, then sat it on a log. He released the vines and sadly dumped the clay onto the ground. He rinsed the frond clean and carefully placed the two handfuls of nuts back, drew the vines again, then sat on the log to think. After a few quiet minutes he stood to go back to the high outcropping. Heku studied the rocks for a moment, then climbed to the top. He could see very little except trees that were higher than the outcrop, but he did see a higher outcropping to one side.

He carefully noted the direction of the sun there, then climbed down and headed for the higher point. He found some more of the good nuts that had drifted into a little hollow. Many of them were eaten so he knew there was meat if he could find it.

Heku took as many of the good fresh nuts as he could comfortably carry and continued. When he came to the higher hill he didn't hesitate, but immediately began climbing.

It was no easy task, but he reached the summit late in the afternoon. The point was above the trees about twenty five meters higher, so he could look out over the treetops.

He did not see what he had hoped. He had gone too far to be able to see the plains. If he could only see enough to get the direction....

He saw some more peaks to the left of the setting sun and a bright wide river about five kilometers in the same direction. Trees were all that he discovered in all other directions.

He sat to put his face in his hands for a time. He made the where-are-you and the sad I-am-lost sounds.

Brom

Chapter two

He might as well admit it. He was lost in the worst sense of the word, and on what kind of a world?

As the survey ship had flown over he watched to see what was happening below.

This world was about one third land, much of which was in the area of the poles, covered in ice. The rest was in a lot of large islands or on three continents. Two of the continents were mostly forest-covered while one was two thirds forest and one third a huge flat grassy plain.

The ship landed on an island in the middle of a river on the third continent. They were close enough to the plains that the spy floaters could gather what they might want to know about the plains while their team could work in the nearby forests, which they felt was more likely to indicate if there were any higher lifeforms here. The river would furnish transportation, water, food, etc.

This was the first time  Brom was given an opportunity to escape and he took it. Brom was from a planet called Swaville (SWAH-vuh-leh, far to the galactic center. That was a standard type of place to pick up laborers for the empire's uses. The laborers were actually slave laborers who were bought and sold on a virtually wide open market, though the empire didn't allow a slave trade if you were to believe the common propaganda.

Brom was just a bit under two meters tall, physically powerful and moderately intelligent. He was a gray-blue rubbery-skinned being from a hot moist climate, was K-form (upright, two arms, two legs, head with two eyes, two ears and a mouth), with sharp nails on four-fingered hands and four-toed feet. There was a slight webbing on the hands and feet and a vestigial dorsal fin went from the back of his neck to the cleft in his buttocks. His eyes had a clear interior lid as well as an opaque outer lid. He had the remnants of gills, but they were no longer sufficient to supply enough oxygen for him to remain submerged and active in water for more than a quarter hour or so. His race had left the oceans a couple of hundred thousands of years past.

He was taken as a slave less than a year ago and had been planning his escape since. His chance came here when most of the crew was out of the ship and he was free to move around. He broke into the armory, got his hands on a phase shifter and a hand heat laser – and used them. He killed two of the six-man crew, then demanded to be taken home. The pilot jumped him from behind, but he broke its neck. He reset the computers at random before going out to get the rest of the crew. He knew a couple of them knew something about piloting the ship.

They waited for him under the entrance ramp and jumped him when he came back out. They knocked him down, got aboard and were able to retract the ramp before he could get back on it. They sealed the ship port and took off immediately.

He knew they hadn't reset their flight control computers because there simply wasn't time. The flash as the ship hit the larger moon was visible even in the daylight here.

Now he was stuck on this planet. There was no higher lifeform in the forest. It was hardly more than primeval. If this was the most likely place for intelligent life there simply wasn't any.

The probes had shown large fishes and other animals in the deeper waters of the rivers and in the vast oceans, but it was fairly shallow here and there was no known danger except from smaller sharp-toothed things.

There was some food on the island in the form of nuts and some rodents much like squirrels. There were also fishes and turtles along with some larger reptiles and many birds. A form of rice grew in the shallow water to the downstream end of the island, but it wouldn't be ripe for months. The river water was drinkable, so that wasn't a problem.

Brom looked at the thick forest on either side of the river and wondered if he wouldn't be better off to just stay here, but knew that was foolish. There wasn't any hope of finding intelligent life here. Of course, there wasn't any hope of finding intelligent life over there either.

He could try to get to the plains. They weren't really far away, but they seemed to be desert like when they flew over them. The probes said the rains were better to the south and there were herds of grazing herbivores there. This seemed to be a dry season that came every thirty years or so and would last probably this year and part of the next according to the sampler machines.

The only vague hope as far as going to the plains was concerned was that the probes had possibly found two small crude settlements on the plains. They hadn't been reprogrammed and sent back when he made his escape try so they were possibly some natural features that looked like habitats from the great distances, but what else was there to do?

Brom shook his head and took stock of what he had. The electronic stuff was just junk. It had no use here. There was no power for it. The work floaters were inside to be reprogrammed so were gone with the ship, even though they would've had little use except to show him whether there were actually settlements out there.

He had a knife, a laser almost out of power and a hand phaser ditto. He had no protection from weather or exposure. He could use the laser to start fires, but that might not last long.

All in all, he was in one hell of a fix! He was stuck on some backwater planet, no one knew he was here (though they wouldn't give a damn if they did) and he wasn't prepared to survive in any case. He was from a highly civilized society, not some semi-intelligent jungle planet. He didn't even know how to determine if a food was edible other than by eating some. If it wasn't edible he would be dead. How did these things happen?

Brom shrugged and looked across the river. He knew the plains were generally in that direction and there were some high points. He could climb one of them and maybe see the plains.

There's no time like the present, he thought as he picked up what he could carry with him.

Uh-oh. He couldn't take the phaser or the laser into the water without their cases. The power packs would short out and go dead. He looked around, but couldn't find anything waterproof.

He looked over the little cart that carried some of the electronic equipment to find it had a plastic shelf. He put the shelf on some wood, then put the guns on the shelf. It floated nicely so he struck out across the river.

He had almost reached the riverbank when he kicked a rock. The floating shelf slipped and started down the river. He cursed as he set out after it. He almost reached it when a little eddy spun it, dumping the guns into the water. Brom dove a couple of times, but there was a deep hole under the little eddy so he soon gave up. The power would be gone now anyhow.

He looked back toward the island, then went to the shore to climb from the river. He stood, looked around to see nothing and pushed through the dense shrubbery and into the dark forest floor with