Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
"Here is your grandmother Yuryev's day," I thought to myself. Here is the uninhabited planet, the melancholy is continuous. I wonder if our electronic translator will be able to cope with an unknown to anyone while dialect? And are they developed ??
We took a step toward the savages, but they immediately took a fighting stance, from afar throat cry. The expression of their gorilla-like faces was vicious ... We were involuntarily overwhelmed by the horror of what we saw, but I decided to try to talk to them. Aboriginal faces first stretched in surprise, then they began to exchange glances among themselves, gesticulating and making some sounds.
I made a little movement, in order to set up an interpreter, but there was a nehily snag. The translator began to really wedge. He translated the individual words, but they could not add whole phrases from them. I had to try at random ...
When I tried to speak to them again, a surprised expression appeared on the faces of some of them, but it did not become kind. On the contrary, they again became silent and began to approach us, surrounding them from all sides. We had no choice but to wait for further developments.
Approaching, forest people signs showed us that we went with them deep into the forest, where, apparently, there was their village. We just in case did not resist, the forces were clearly not equal. What could two unarmed men do (weapons lay in backpacks, we did not even get it during the campaign) against a mob of evil Aborigines?
We could not even give SOS signals to our friends. We had only to hope for the best, that we could contact the ship later. We set off, uncertainty awaited us again ... Our path was short-lived, which could not but please us. If we manage to suddenly free ourselves, we will not have to run far to reach the clearing where we were tied up.
We went out to a small clearing, where about ten or two aborigines awaited us, headed by a tall, gray-haired man. Despite his venerable age, he looked rather strong and muscular. Apparently, this should be the leader of this wild tribe.
The expression of his face when he saw us was not at all spiteful, most likely puzzled, because we not only differed from people of his tribe by his appearance and apparel, but the very fact of the appearance of strangers in their locality put him in a stupor. Until now, he and his tribe, if they had met with other people, they practically did not differ from them.
The leader for some time gazed at us intently, then gave an order to our guards with a sharp, guttural voice, and they began to push us closer to him. When the leader was about a meter, we were forced to kneel and bow his head in front of him. Unpleasant sensations, but what could we do? With bare hands against the armed savages can not trample.
A little while passed, when the leader finally gave a sharp order, we were lifted from our knees and let us know by signs that the leader wanted to speak with us. I inconspicuously switched on the translator again and listened to the sounds pronounced by the leader.
In Captivity ... Part 2
Little by little the situation began to clear up. The leader told about himself, his tribe, about the dangers threatening him. From his words we realized that his tribe was constantly being attacked by people from the mountains, who, threatening his soldiers with spitting fire weapons, robbed them of food supplies and led their women into slavery. At the mention of this, outlandish for this planet, weapons, we exchanged glances that did not escape the gaze of the leader. He frowned, but continued his story. Then, pointing at us with his finger, he asked who we are and where we came from in this forest.
Arthur, with a light hand shake, invited me to talk with the leader. In general, as always. The decision of important problems of a man is always shifted to fragile female shoulders. Carefully selecting words, I began my story, helping myself with gestures and trying not to make them too harsh. As I talked, the leader's face, his gaze, became somewhat softer and more relaxed. Sometimes, apparently in some way agreeing with me, he even nodded his head. When I finished speaking, he signaled to his people, and they retreated somewhere. He asked us to sit down and wait for his servants to cover the table, thus offering us to share a meal with him. In addition to us, there were several other people at the table, the approximate leader, who, though with some apprehension, looked at us with interest, but did not dare to ask questions.
At the end of the dinner, which lasted quite a long time and consisted mainly of fruits growing on this planet, the leader continued the conversation. Now members of his "retinue" also took part in it. Many questions were asked about our ship and the people who came with us, about armament, about how we should somehow call for order of the arrogant opponents of the tribe, and at the end of the conversation the leader asked for help.
We had to explain to the leader that we can not solve such problems personally, only our leader, the commander of the ship, can do this, and for this we must first contact him on the radio, but we will be able to do this only in the morning.
On that and decided, but while it was time to rest. We were identified for the night in a kind of grassy tent. Inside, it was dry, soft and pleasant smell of motley grass. Weary by such a long day, full of adventures, we fell asleep, without forgetting, however, to put our things under the head for safety, which the leader returned to us before. Naturally, we have previously checked the contents of their backpacks. At first glance, everything was in place, but in the morning it will be necessary to double-check again.
The night swept by unnoticed. It seemed to us that we just fell asleep, as we were awakened by the sounds of a furnace. Thus began the day with the tribe, whose unwilling guests we became. When we crawled out of our tent, the sun was already shining on a forest glade, in the middle of which stood a table set for breakfast. And again among the food there were only fruits ...
Arthur decided to ask the leader, whether they hunt animals and eat meat, or are they vegetarians? The leader explained that all the meat they had mined in the last hunt was taken away by the warriors of the hostile tribe that he had talked to us about yesterday, and the new hunt must be waited only in the autumn when the children grow up in the beast.
After breakfast we tried to contact the base, but did not succeed, in response there was silence. After consulting, we decided to ask the leader to let us go, and then, when we find our people and talk with them, we will go back and help them in their trouble. The leader thought for a long time, he really did not want to let us go. But there was nothing to do, and he, reluctantly, agreed.
To the very edge of the forest, we were seen off by his people. In principle, we were grateful to them for that. So we saved time to orient on a little-known terrain. After parting with the guides, we set off ...
To be continued...
image from pixabay.