Harvest Time

16 - New Blood, Less of a Future

Upon our return to the village, we immediately noticed a new face. The woman was older than both Emla and myself by several years, and was obviously in a lot of pain. A bandage of sorts had been wrapped around the remains of her foot, but there was much blood on it.

Seeing the mess, Emla grimaced and shook her head.

"That could so easily have been one of us," she whispered to me.

I nodded.

Teshlo explained that the woman, whose name was Landah, had staggered from the Harvester depot earlier that morning. He had used a piece of her tattered skirt as a temporary bandage and then half carried her back to the village.

Elcanah was attending Landah's injuries. Therefore, she didn't have time for us and what we'd discovered. But we helped by fetching clean water from a nearby stream. Elcanah had also instructed us to look out for willow trees that could be found adjacent to that stream. She already had a pre-made concoction derived, so she told us, from ingredients made from willow leaves and bark but it was running low and she would need to make up more.

"One of the best sources of unrefined salicylic acid," she explained. "It will relieve some of Landah's pain. We could also do with some alcohol as well. But, as yet, we have not found a suitable source on this world."

Several hours later, Landah had fallen into a troubled sleep and we finally had time to tell Elcanah of our discoveries. In return, she told us that Landah had been born in the citadel of Yeshan but had gone to Fordkeel to get married. She had described them as two of the nineteen citadels.

Emla and I exchanged a glance.

"Another one gone," Emla whispered.

"She was in too much pain to tell me the names of all the nineteen," Elcanah said. "So, I haven't figured it out for myself yet."

"We should go back to the Harvester depot soon and see if we can see which set of lights has been turned off," Emla said.

Elcanah nodded. "However, I have found something interesting in those manuals. Two things, actually, if I've fully understood them, of course."

"What are they?" Emla asked.

"The first is a simple one – the panels of the Harvesters can be opened by pressing buttons above each side panel or near one corner for the top panel. There are always two buttons, one inside and one outside, for each panel."

She showed us the points on a diagram in the manual.

"It should let you get back inside a Harvester and..."

"If the rats give us a chance," Emla interrupted.

Elcanah grinned. "I may have news on that front as well."

"Really?"

"Yes. But first, look at this diagram," Elcanah said, turning to another marked page. "I think another set of lights within the top of each Harvester determines a mode of operation."

"Mode of operation? What do you mean?"

"Four states. Idle and attack are the main ones. They are idle when they return here. They are in attack mode when they are sent to Nervanna."

"And the others?"

"I think one means travel or explore. The other is a variation of attack. One is grabbing anything living nearby, and I think the other is what drives it through walls in search of the breeder areas."

"How do we change it from attack to travel?" I asked.

Elcanah pulled out one of the manuals, opening it at a page into which she'd inserted a brown leaf as a bookmark. "Are these panels familiar to you, Toquin?"