Several hours later, Yendern and Endynna returned with an abundance of new intelligence thanks to their scouting.
They learned a lot about the settlent, certainly more than we could gather from our deep space probes—including the na of this new central settlent; it was called Coralia, which ant brightest light, and I assud it was a reference to their new god.
The agents told us while Coralia’s outskirts were a collection of younger/newer clans and their camps, the central part of the settlent was structured more like an actual city. Sure, everything was still a bunch of circles with clans having their various territories, but with the way they blended together it created a system of pathways almost like roads for frequent traffic, and while normally clan territories tried to stay separate, the lines here were all blurred as they shared the space so they could all trade regularly, slowly turning into a real civilization.
So of the founding clans even established a system of order for the city, employing a sort of police force to help with security, but they mostly stayed towards the core of the settlent, especially around the temple, so they were kind of like temple guards who helped manage the settlent.
Wells had been dug for public access to water all over the settlent, and there were so areas turned into weird desert fields so they could harvest their cactus crops, as well as vast areas for animal husbandry.
It wasn’t all sand and desert though as part of the settlent was built around a forest haven, but it was protected for its resources and used to grow additional crops, as well as having another great water source nearby. No surprise the temple was built right next to the forest haven, but it wasn’t very large—sa as most of the sparce forests on the planet, maybe only spanning a few acres.
Aside from all the information they gathered on the settlent’s layout, the agents were able to discover who controlled Coralia; it was all centered around their new religion, with laws and edicts passed down by 23 founding clans—the elder clans. The heads of the clans acted as both religious leaders as well as chiefs over sections of the city, with one central ruling figure who had the most direct line with their new god, a man they called the praetor.
Of course the gojens all wanted to visit the temple and see the new god, but the elder clans and the praetor were strict about who had access to their holy grounds. Clans were allowed to visit and leave offerings outside the temple, but in order to go inside for their pilgrimage to directly deliver their offering, a clan would need to get a blessing from an elder clan to et with the praetor who made all final decisions on who was allowed inside. Furthermore, it was nearly impossible to get an actual audience with the new god; only by receiving the praetor’s special token would they be allowed to et with Gamma-11, but according to the agents no regular clan had ever been awarded that sacred honor.
From what the agents told us, it sounded like the praetor was the only person who ever got to see Gamma-11, and he was fiercely protective over the temple and their new god, even enforcing the rule of law and structure over the elder clans—the absolute authority for their religion.
It honestly sounded like there was no way we’d get to see Gamma-11 in person without breaking so rules and protocols, and considering how strict Dryden was with following along with the Lord Generals’ orders, I didn’t see how we’d ever complete the mission without significant adaptation.
Once all the intel had been relayed there wasn’t anything for us to do except set up our encampnt that would serve as our temporary base while we were planet-side. The standard gojen practice was for everyone to dig a small, circular hole a foot down into the sand to help keep us cooler while we slept, flattening it out and building up a little barrier to fra our tents. The tent itself was rather simplistic wooden framing in a rounded shape with a cloth tarp over it, with a heavy blanket made from the thick hide of a kummo and secured directly into the sand for extra protection from the environnt. The individual tents weren’t very large and were only ant for sleeping and holding private supplies; while lounging through the day it was actually considered rude to disappear into a tent, but if you wanted so shade it was okay to sit at the opening with the flaps tied back so you could be seen by everyone in the camp circle.
Aside from all the smaller tents, there was one large tent at the head of the circle ant to house our clan leaders and hold etings with other clans, the only ti privacy wouldn’t be considered rude. These tents were at least five tis as large as the regular ones, decorated with cloth streams and a flag in the center, but no animal hide protecting it since it was simply too big.
Our carts were then placed evenly between the tents as part of the circle, always on display for other clans to see to hopefully grab their interest in our goods to bring them around for trading. Apparently window shopping was common for the gojens, so they’d walk around various clan circles looking at the goods available, but they wouldn’t make an offer of break into the circle unless they were invited—and sotis they weren’t, as older, more powerful clans might be picky with who they were willing to barter with. As for younger clans trying to establish themselves, it wouldn’t be strange for them to call out to people looking around to drum up business; in the middle of the day, walking around the clans could get as noisy as any populated bazaar with the way the gojens would try to wrangle in the custors.
For us no one would make their way to investigate our goods yet; a day was supposed to pass where we could all get settled before we’d be open to trade with other people—as was tradition.
Obviously, I had Eve’s cart parked right beside my tent, and while I’d hoped I could’ve brought her statue into my tent so I could disable the disguise and maybe see her at night, her containnt cell was simply too large to fit into the small tent, so I didn’t think I’d be able to see her for so ti now—at least while we were pretending to be a normal gojen clan.
Still, I talked to her regularly, hoping it wouldn’t look strange for a gojen to be talking to himself or a statue, but I didn’t want Eve to think I’d abandoned her or anything.
I wasn’t sure what she was doing inside that cell, if she really was working on a plan to get us free or sothing, but every once in a while, I heard the quietest little trilling tones as she let know she was still listening.
It might’ve seed like scraps, but I couldn’t deny it made my heart flutter every ti I heard her soft, musical giggles.
Since the clan leader’s tent offered them privacy, it was there Dryden and Crisson were able to contact high-command on our progress thus far, and get orders for what to do next. Crisson seed fine with following along with our standard operating procedures and standard mission protocols, but Dryden was insistent we keep the Lord Generals inford about every little thing.
The two officers exited the leader’s tent, a grumpy look on Crisson’s ape-face, while Dryden looked like he was totally recharged from his latest ass-kissing session.
“Alright everyone, gather round the fire so we can go over the plan for tomorrow.” Dryden said cheerfully, then turned to specifically, “You as well.”
I wasn’t sure why I would be excluded from mission briefings, but I wasn’t going to say anything about it. I patted Eve’s statue and then joined the rest of the group sitting around the fire.
Dryden and Crisson had their wrappings pulled away from their faces so we could see their expressions—probably did it so the Lord Generals could see too if they were using video/holo comms. Dryden seed like he was in a weirdly good mood, probably received a word of praise for getting our team settled in our spot in the city—lovely to see it took so little to make him happy. Crisson on the other hand didn’t look anywhere near as pleased, and if I had to guess it was because he was already sick of all the micromanaging that Dryden seed to thrive under.
With a stiff upper-lip, Crisson nodded along as he addressed the team, “We’re going to be splitting into two groups from here. The first group is to stay here in the camp to barter with the locals and hopefully improve our standing with the other clans by stocking up on necessary supplies and animals. The other group is going to visit the temple tomorrow, and while we won’t be allowed inside, we’re going to scout around for the elder clan we should focus our attention on to receive a blessing to get a eting with their praetor and see about getting inside the temple.” He explained, rattling off the long chain of events like it wouldn’t be an issue to resolve.
Dryden swept his gaze across the camp, “We’re going to split things evenly to divide our resources.” He turned to the agents, “Endynna, you’ll be on the away team with us, Yendern will stay back with the camp.” He turned to the researchers next, “Thorrio on the away team, Lialonn will stay at camp.” He added.
I could see both the agents and the researchers didn’t like the idea of being separated from their partners; for the most part I’d learned most of those professions liked to work in pairs, so being split apart worked against how they’d been trained. More unnecessary ddling from the Lord Generals, probably trying to maximize efficiency by spreading everyone out, but since I doubted they were ever boots-on-the-ground like we all were, they probably had no real understanding on how their decisions would affect the team’s productivity.
Dryden turned to the soldiers then, “We’ll split up the rest of you between the teams, those who remain in camp will be under Crisson’s supervision bartering with the local clans, while the others will be under my direction as we head into the settlent.” He clarified, sounding more than a little smug over the authority he was given.
Wininn raised his hand, and even in his gojen form he had that eyepatch on his face, “Uh, lieutenant, you know we have regular teams used to working together, rather than split us all up we should—”
I was surprised it was Crisson who stepped up to cut off Wininn, “We have our orders, soldier.” He looked over everyone around the fire, “I expect everyone to carry them out without complaint.”
I could see then while Crisson didn’t appreciate the micromanaging, he was still a by-the-book soldier and wouldn’t be questioning any orders.
That was actually one of my concerns with befriending the Imperial soldiers; despite how close I might get with any of them, at the end of it all they were still tools of war to be used by the Empire, and if the Lord Generals demanded it, I was sure most of them would follow through with their orders to kill if I was branded an enemy of the Empire in league with the Predazoans.
After the little briefing we had our evening al (no real evening on Congoren, but since nobody followed a strict titable on the planet, we ended up just following along with standard Imperial hours), making a show of it to our neighbors we were having quite the feast to show ourselves as wealthy. We even brought out so casks of red cactus brandy we had our computers synthesize for us, really trying to show ourselves as fancy. The Brandy was sweet at first, but had a strange, bitter aftertaste, but it got us drunk just the sa.
We broke out our kummo steaks and made kebobs with the cooked roots we brought along, and I had to admit it was all quite good despite how weird it looked, and if the synthesizer was accurate with the taste, I was kind of excited to try the real thing once we started trading with the other clans.
We finished our feast and then made it a point to work on our fire to make it larger than ever before, a display to announce we were there and ready to stay. Once the next day started—or light fade as they gojens called it, the surrounding clans would start bartering with us.
A few of our group got into bed, but the agents pulled out so gojen instrunts they’d been practicing on, and while nothing they played sounded very good, it was just to show we were a close-knit clan to our neighbors—a happy clan was a prosperous clan.
Still, the journey and the brutal sun had pretty much everyone wiped out—even I was worn out despite my enhanced stamina. So after just an hour of the festive atmosphere, we retired to our tents with the intention to sleep through the light fade and start up in the morning when it was okay to begin trading.
I made my way over to my tent, but I turned to the cart beside it and hopped in and put a hand on Eve’s statue, leaning in to press my forehead against it.
“Goodnight sweet-thing, I love you.” I said, and while I was sure she couldn’t understand the gojen language, I hoped my gentle tone would convey my aning.
I paused for a few monts, hopeful I would get a response, but I was t with silence instead.
I sighed, then turned and jumped back down to the sand.
“Love Adam—Eve love Adam.”
The words were so quiet I could barely hear, and yet I was sure Eve said them in her musical, alluring, gentle tone.
I smiled then; that was all I needed to reinvigorate for the day.
Despite the harsh sun and brutal desert, despite all the weird cultural rules we had to follow, despite Dryden and his ridiculous micromanaging orders coming from high-command, a few loving words from Eve were enough to lift my spirt.
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