While they were perfectly capable of building and using machines, they generally preferred not to. They liked their existence to be as natural as possible.
While they were capable of living on land indefinitely, they felt most comfortable living an aquatic existence. “You humans go swimming on occasion, and you are enjoying the experience certainly very much. Yet you soon are wanting to get out of the water. We Tellefontu are just the same, but quite the opposite, you see. I think that we can definitely share this planet very nicely, without interfering with each other, but lending each other a hand when it is thought to be appropriate.”
Laws had been passed on New Yugoslavia, giving them the oceans, although we were allowed to fish commercially at certain times and places, and to engage in sport fishing provided that we restricted it to hook and line. Also, they were given ownership of those islands that had been declared primitive nature preserves, provided that the original fauna and flora were actually preserved.
They were familiar with all aspects of space flight, but after some early experiments with it for scientific purposes, they had decided that it wasn’t for them. They had been prepared to stay on their own planet for all time, having none of the outward-driving instincts that both humans and Mitchegai possess.
On their home planet, their astronomers had seen the Mitchegai invasion fleet approaching, and had been able to give their people a few months’ warning. In that short time, they had been able to build weapons enough to give the invaders a stiff fight, but not enough to win. Scarcely a thousand of them had been able to escape, and make it to New Yugoslavia, over twelve hundred years ago.
They were searching the other planets in Human Space, looking for other possible refugee groups, but hadn’t found any yet. There was some discussion about possibly colonizing other planets, to insure their racial continuity in the event that New Yugoslavia fell to the enemy, but nothing had been done, yet.
Once on New Yugoslavia, they had dedicated themselves to rebuilding their civilization, and replenishing their numbers. There were now over eight million adult Tellefontu living here, and seven times that number of children.
They had resolved that they would not again suffer what they had before. The next time the Mitchegai came, they would be better prepared, and they would be victorious.
They saw the humans as a way to help them do that.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
FROM CAPTURED HISTORY TAPES,
FILE 1846583A ca. 1832 a.d.
BUT CONCERNING EVENTS OF UP TO
2000 YEARS EARLIER
The Start of a Pleasant Little War
The duke’s well diggers had made their fascinating discovery, the tunnel had been surveyed, and Dennon’s army was secretly mobilized.
As a favor to Kren, the duke scheduled the attack to coincide with the two-week-long midwinter break. The scheduled date of the attack would be on Warrior’s Day, a major winter holiday among the Mitchegai military.
Bronki’s sales representatives arranged for a major giveaway program designed to encourage sales to the countryside outside of the cities. Duke Tendi was to receive two thousand selected children a week before Warriors’ Day, as would eleven other dukes in the area.
This program had been designed to encourage Duke Tendi’s forces to eat well and go into a stupor just before Duke Dennon’s attack, and to have all of the other duchies around in no position to immediately counterattack Dennon.
At least that was the hope. Maybe it would work. And sales were such that there was a surplus of children just now, anyway.
Kren arrived the evening before the attack was to be launched, and he brought with him an entire trainload of supplies, along with Bronki and Dol.
“Welcome, Kren!” Duke Dennon said in high spirits while gesticulating with his sword, “But what is all of this stuff?”
“It’s a present for you, Your Grace! First, there are a few thousand baggage carts, with room in each one for the armor of more than four dozen troops, water enough for the trip to Tendi’s place and back, and room for two dozen warriors to sleep on top of it while another two dozen pull them along. With half sleeping and half pulling, you can keep going day and night! You’ve got a five-gross-mile-long march ahead of you, and with these carts you can do it in a week and a half, not the three weeks it would otherwise take you. Also, you will notice that they have lights on them, so you won’t have to walk in the dark.”
“You had these made especially for this attack? That must have been expensive! And I can’t imagine ever needing them again. Wheels aren’t permitted for overland transport over the grass, although they would be allowed in a tunnel. But, I mean, we will probably get away with pulling this ‘discovered tunnel’ stunt once, but I wouldn’t dare try it again!”
“The carts were costly, Your Grace, but once you are through with them, I’ll take them back, install electric motors in the wheels and new control panels for the operators, and use them for delivering children from the train stations to my underground stores. But as they are right now, they are perfectly legal for use in war.”
“Well, thank you, Kren, although you really should have informed me of this in advance. If your scheme works, it will be a wonderful aid to our advance on the enemy. But if it doesn’t, don’t be offended if I abandon them all and do it the hard way. And those cages back there?” Dennon asked, pointing with his sword, “The signs on them say that those are young carnivores!”
“That’s exactly what they are, two thousand of them! Please consider that you are inevitably going to take some losses in this attack. With all of these new bodies, you won’t have to permanently lose any of your well-trained troops.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you, but all of my men have armor now,” Dennon said. “We won’t be taking that many casualties.”
“Then perhaps we will be able to find some other use for the rest of these young adults. What do you do with captured troops, anyway?”
“Well, most dukes just kill them as a security risk, but my policy has always been to give them a choice. Once I’ve killed the opposing duke, his soldiers may either die with him, or they may give their oath to me. They lose two grade levels, and they have to go through my basic training system when coming into my army. We watch them very carefully for the first two years or so, but we treat them very well, otherwise. The great majority of them turn into loyal soldiers. If they don’t, well, they still have that death sentence hanging over them.”
“A practical policy. Do any of them prefer death?” Kren asked.
“One did, a few gross years ago, so we killed her. But you don’t often see that sort of loyalty, not once they know that their leader is dead.”
“And what do you do with the enemy dead?”
“The same thing that everybody else does. We burn their brains and eat their bodies,” the duke said.
“Well, wouldn’t it make more sense to rejuvenate them? I mean, why waste good troops? Once you conquer Duke Tendi’s duchy, you will have to enlarge your army to guard it properly. Why not feed each of them to a young carnivore? Once those dead soldiers wake up in new bodies, you can give them the same choice that you gave the ones who weren’t killed.”
“Well, normally, there aren’t that many young carnivores handy, and we need the food, anyway.”
“But now there are, and I can provide all the food that your troops need,” Kren said.
“Very well, once my own men are taken care of, we will try out your idea.”
“Could I have half of the resurrected enemy soldiers? I could use some guards for my own lands.”
“If you wish,” Dennon said. “But I still think that you have too many carnivores out there. This battle will be mostly a matter of sneaking up inside of Tendi’s castle, killing a few guards, and then killing the duke. It’s not as though we will be fighting a full field battle. There just won’t be all that many dead soldiers in need of ressurection.”
“Perhaps. I imagine that you don’t kill enemy civilians.”
“Not normally. They are part of the wealth of the land, and after I reduce the taxes a bit at first, few if any of them will feel the least bit of loyalty to their old nobility. The noble leaders are all killed, of course.”
“That makes sense,” Kren said. “They have every reason to hate you, and it would be dangerous to have them around. Still, it seems such a waste, all those years of education, experience, and training, just dumped into the fire.”