Over the next several hours we continued circling around the temple, and if I thought just guarding Zyno or the engineers back on Jessipie-90 was boring, this was beyond miserable.
We weren’t the only clan doing it though; I could see there were quite a few smaller groups like ours that did the circling, and after hours of it we all ended up digging into a surprisingly deep path in the sand that almost seed to create a barrier around the temple.
I was pretty sure that was the point though; from what I knew of the gojens they were all about territory and circling things, so this was probably so way to honor the temple by creating a circle around it. I didn’t know exactly how we were honoring it, but that was the impression I got watching all the others join in with the sa practice.
While circling the temple, we saw the praetor left the temple after about an hour, ca back a couple hours later (followed by the sa crowd and fanfare), left after a shorter period, then ca back again like an hour later and stayed for a couple hours that ti.
There was no rhy or reason to his visits I could discern—no schedule I noticed, and yet he always drew a crowd every ti. Of course there was simply always a crowd around the temple, so I didn’t know if it was a right-ti/right-place kind of thing or if it actually was scheduled.
I also couldn’t help but help but wonder what the praetor was doing up in that temple with the dangerous Predazoan pretending to be their god; was he actually talking with her, was he worshipping her and giving her offerings or news from her people, or was it all a show and he wasn’t actually interacting with her at all.
From what we could see he hadn’t brought much into the temple with him, a collection of cloth once, and then a large cactus fruit basket, then the third ti he wasn’t carrying anything in with him that we could see—maybe it was sothing small and hidden, ant to be private.
From our intelligence gathering there were reports there’d been several deaths around the temple at so point, people who went in and never returned, and our concern was if there were living sacrifices being offered to the Predazoan. That was a long ti ago from our records though, and the information was limited since it was gathered from across the Empire. Maybe it was a temporary thing and Gamma-11 only needed the sacrifices initially while she was accumulating extra biomass, or maybe any sacrifices now were much more secretive—hidden by the praetor so the rest of the gojens wouldn’t learn the dark truth of their new religion.
That, or maybe it was all a massive misunderstanding, and those deaths were unfortunate accidents during the construction of the temple; maybe Gamma-11 had no part in those deaths and was trying to show herself as a benevolent god, at least for now.
I couldn’t help but wonder what the gojens gained by following their Predazoan god—especially if she was demanding sacrifices; did she bring them enlightennt from beyond the stars, teaching them laws and rules for civilization that would be thousands of years beyond what they would discover themselves, or was it all just blind devotion to this incredible lifeform beyond their comprehension?
The fact I had all these questions and no answers was beyond frustrating, and I finally had to admit maybe I had been sticking my nose where I didn’t belong on previous missions all to satisfy my curiosity.
But it wasn’t like I didn’t have anything to offer the mission teams; I might’ve been a simple human without agent training, soldier grit, or even the knowledge of the researchers, but with all my interactions with the Predazoans and my relationship with Eve, I knew I understood them more than any other mortals—more insight into how they planned and sched, how their wildly complex hiveminds worked and how they followed along with their supremacy drive to achieve perfection.
Of course I didn’t actually understand them—didn’t think a mortal ever could, I just understood them more than any other person at this point, so I thought that insight would be invaluable.
According to the Lord Generals, however, it wasn’t, and I was just an obstacle standing in the way of them controlling Eve directly.
We spent a solid 12 hours circling the temple, taking a few breaks here and there to eat or look like we were praying against the walls so we could huddle up and share our findings for the day. No one really had anything great to share, no sign of any elder clans who had control over the settlent or a connection with the praetor we could see.
Finally, we’d had enough for the day, and Dryden started leading our clan away from the temple, heading through the heart of the settlent once more.
It seed like our line was heading back towards our camp, but Endynna leaned over to say sothing to Dryden, and he nodded along, then we shifted to start walking back towards the busier parts of the settlent.
I hated being at the back of the line, not knowing the plans for the day or what we were doing, but after suffering in silence for another 10 minutes, I saw Dryden was leading us to a public feast hall—basically the gojen’s version of a restaurant.
Sa as all the other buildings around us, it was made of stone and hardened sand, mostly grey with so swirling black accents thrown in probably not on purpose. It looked like a stoney igloo with a higher ceiling, with a giant wooden pole with a huge draping flag and emblem at the top—so purple and gold affair that looked grand and inviting. There were openings for windows all over and more than a few doorways, all with purple cloth draping over them to keep the wind and sand out, but nothing more than that—no glass protection, not even an actual door either.
Our team stepped inside and the first thing I noticed was how crowded it was and how everyone seed to be intermingling. At the center was a very large firepit with a few stone grills around it, and a staff working around the fire with less clothes on than any gojen I’d seen so far—no robes, just simple flowing pants, shirts off for the males and simple wrappings to cover their breasts for the won. Inside the building was almost uncomfortably warm, so I couldn’t even imagine how hot it would be working around the fire.
Around the grills were dozens and dozens of pits dug down into the sand with low stone tables in the center—no chairs I could see, everyone sat on the ground. There also seed to be no real organization for the pits, so were large, so were small, so blended together with others in more oblong shapes following along the stone table, others had multiple tables connected to them.
Aside from the huge fire in the center, there were torches placed evenly up on the walls, brightening the place up and giving it a surprisingly cozy atmosphere. But any coziness you might’ve felt was kind of destroyed with how rowdy it was; the gojens talked loudly in their guttural language, having conversations through the entire building—even talking to people several pits away.
It was a huge contrast to what we’d seen before of the gojens being so reserved and respectful when trading, but from our intelligence we knew their feasts were a big deal where they could totally let loose and engage in fellowship freely, forgetting status for the ti being.
The gojens worked hard and they played hard.
We looked around and saw there wasn’t a single table or pit that was totally free, but that seed to be the point, people were supposed to just join in freely with the feast.
We found a pit with a smaller group towards the back and when we made our way over we were imdiately greeted as if they were expecting us.
“Welco friends! First ti at a communal Coralia feast-hall?” The man at the head of their table said.
Before we could even sit down the group of a dozen native gojens shifted in the group to give us room, and they started pulling us down to sit with them before we could even make a noise of protest.
“Oh, uh, yes, we just arrived yesterday and visited the temple today.” Endynna confird.
The head man threw his head back and laughed as though she’d just told a hilarious joke.
“Wonderful! You dine with us today, and we’ll cover all your expenses!” The man insisted.
Throwing around money like that, another display of showing off wealth or influence—crazy they did it for complete strangers.
The group around us was wearing robes that looked much nicer than ours, with so fancy designs along with trim with a few combined colors, rather than ours which were all solid and without any flair. They also had their heads all uncovered, and for the first ti we could actually see what the native gojens looked like.
Sa with our disguises, they looked like elven ape-people, with pointed ears and expressive eyes above flat, wide noses and those big monkey mouths. The n clearly had more fur on their faces, looking like a mix between a beard and the normal hair a gorilla might have on their face, while the won just had sideburns without anything else on their lips or chin. They also seed to have fuller lips, larger eyes with longer eyelashes—clearly more feminine, sa for most Imperial races.
The skin tone and fur mix was the most interesting thing I noticed; there was no real pattern I could discern, although the hair always matched the skin color sowhat, albeit a different shade.
The man who welcod us into his group had dark red hair and pale red skin, while the woman next to him had dark blue hair and pale blue skin. There were a couple more of those red and blues, a few were purple, and then a couple green and yellow, and then one who was entirely black to the point he basically looked like a gorilla back on Earth.
We were fully intermingled with their group, in between them mostly in pairs, and they weren’t at all shy about getting close to us.
The headman stood in his spot in the pit, then bowed to us respectfully, “My na is Calngar, head of the Dennosh clan.” He announced, and with my translator active I understood the na of his clan ant ‘glad tidings’. Calngar gestured to the woman next to him, “This is my first wife, Jioara.” He waved over across the pit, “And my second wife, Nebora.”
From the intelligence we gathered on the gojen culture, we knew they practiced polygamy, but it wasn’t overly common. Standard rules for a clan was one wife per husband, but in the event a clan took over another clan—either through so trade or debt, or just needing to be combined together to survive out in the desert, the head of the founding clan and its elders would take a second bride from the new/younger clan when they joined. It was seen as a huge status symbol and point of pride for a clan to absorb another clan, and it would take several generations for the assimilation to be considered complete, aning the next few generations would also be able to take multiple wives—so any sons Calngar might have would get to take another wife from soone from the new clan lineage. After sothing like three generations passed, only then would the new clan be considered totally part of the old clan they joined—the two would be one clan from that point on.
From their fancy robes, offering to pay for our al, and showing off his multiple wives, it seed like Calngar and the Dennosh Clan were actually quite well-off indeed.
Again, before we could even be properly settled in the nice, cool pit, Calngar and his people started putting food on our plates and started filling our mugs with so unknown green drink—probably cactus wine.
“So, what has brought your people to this wonderful new land?” Calngar asked, still standing at the head of the table, breaking off parts of a large piece of that dried cracker bread and passing them around to the rest of the table.
Dryden bowed respectfully as he accepted the food, “We’re on pilgrimage to see the New Light, hoping she’ll be pleased with the offerings we bring.”
Calngar laughed and nodded along—seed like an outrageously jovial fellow, “Yes of course, the New Light calls to all gojens.” He smiled down at our group, “And what do they call your clan? Will I have heard of your people before?”
Endynna shook her head, “Surely not, we’re a new clan born just three generations ago, nad Golvenara after my grandfather.”
Calngar barked out a laugh, “A wonderful na I’ve never heard before!” Finally, the man sat down and pulled Dryden in close with an arm around him, “Tell true, do you only seek to glorify the New Light, or do you seek wealth and riches to glorify yourselves and your young clan?”
Dryden and Endynna exchanged a glance, and I could tell they felt like they were being tested—made think they were idiots who didn’t understand people.
I nodded along, “Of course, we would both glorify ourselves and the New Light, as surely she wishes for her people to prosper.”
Dryden threw a glare, but Calngar laughed again and slapped Dryden on the back, “Of course, of course! What wonders and riches the New Light brings our people!” He declared, obviously pleased with my answer.
I couldn’t believe the fucking agent and Imperial lieutenant couldn’t see this Calngar was being as open and friendly as possible—no double-speak, no agenda, no need to hide what he was saying at all. Was it because he was primitive they didn’t realize how simple all this was? with my lack of formal agent training, but having a wealth of experience dealing with all kinds of people from when I was a dic back on Earth, I actually felt I had more in common with these simple people than all the advanced alien races in the Empire.
Calngar pulled out a large leather pouch and reached inside, then grabbed up a handful of small circular white bones that looked like they were knuckle joints from so animal. I knew they were a form of currency the gojens used for livestock and perishables—one of the more common currency types for their people.
Calngar slamd the bones on the table and barked out another laugh, “Co, we shall redouble our feast now, enjoy ourselves, then tomorrow you will co visit our clan so we can help you with your offerings to the New Light.” He announced.
We didn’t really have a say in refusing the man, and since we hadn’t made progress on our end of things, we just decided to go with the flow for now.
The feast was outrageous and delicious, and anyti our table seed to be running low on food or drink, Calngar and his people made sure to throw down another handful of bones to replenish everything.
The at was primitive, greasy, riddled with fat and definitely over-seasoned, and was probably one of the most delicious things I’d ever eaten. The cactus fruit was sweet and sour and paired well with the dried crackers, and the wine flowed freely and got everyone well-beyond loose.
Forgetting the obligation we created for ourselves tomorrow in the connection we made today, the feast and all the food was more than worth it.
And yet it didn’t seem like we were the only young clan that got snatched up by an older, more respectable clan. All over the feast-hall I could see wide-eyed gojens in simple robes getting pulled into pits and tables to dine and feast with larger groups in much more noble dress—didn’t think it would be outrageous to think they were asked to co visit their clans to trade tomorrow too.
Was this why Endynna wanted our group to have dinner here, had the agents during their scouting run yesterday found the perfect place to network?
Well, I didn’t care either way; after a couple hours I was well-passed drunk, eating more than I had since my ti in the Holistia Nebula, and while enjoying the festive atmosphere, I didn’t even care that all Calngar and his people’s stories were just them bragging about their exploits and trying to make their clan seem impressive.
That night, I felt like a real, native gojen, and it was the most fun I’d had in a long, long ti.
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