I've done it now... I've started work on a sequel...

Shaman Scout

Joyful Finder sat on the grassy hillside and watched the horses, feeling their emotions. They felt safe and well fed. One of the mares was feeling slowed and heavy with her coming foal. 

As she watched she thought about her family's history. Although her clan went back thousands of years, her family really started a mere two hundred years ago, when her great-great-great grandparents had met. 

Since then the star people had kept their word. Oh, there were occasional visits, but only to replenish the small cache of emergency supplies they had negotiated permission to stash for shipwrecked spacefarers. And once, long ago, to bring news to her ancestor of her parents' passing. 

During that time her people had developed from isolated clans to a series of interconnected towns, with railways linking them. Innovations that the clans had had the capability to do for many centuries, but had chosen not to develop until recently. 

There was even talk of building flying machines. 

Why all these changes? While the star people had kept their word, the clans had not been idle in extracting news and gossip of the wider universe from them. Not that most of them were aware of it. The few who were, well a couple of them stayed. The rest understood. And things were changing out in the stars. The clans needed to be ready in case raiders returned. 

Which is why Joy was sitting here on a hillside. Earlier that day the ancient sensor array that her ancestor had set up had noted the arrival of a ship from her ancestor's people. Time to make a choice.

Joy stood, and sent a suggestion to the horses to move into the woods. The arriving ship would not panic them there. Then she walked down to the field, and started spreading chalk into a series of shapes taken from Lorn's books. 

Setting out the pattern took most of the morning. Taking a break for a light snack and a drink, she surveyed her handiwork with the help of her favourite hunting bird. It was good, and well timed, too. A brief conference, and the bird landed on her shoulder. Dives Swiftly insisted that Joy needed her to look after her. 

The arrowhead shaped spaceship landed in the centre of the marked grid, and the usual single figure emerged. This one was not human, although they were still bipedal. 

Joy shrugged, stood, and approached. Now she had to convince them to take her with them, and to learn the ways of the star peoples' scouts. 

Joyful Finder was not feeling a lot of joy at what she had found. Neither was Dives Swiftly, her hunting bird companion.

The Scout training base had been OK. She'd even made some friends amongst the many peoples that made up the service. But now she'd been given her first assignment. And it was not one that impressed her.

Postal service.

Yes, it was an essential service, and one that the highly independent Scouts were well prepared to provide, but bouncing back and forth between two systems for the next few years was not going to help her get anywhere near home.

And for Dives Swiftly it was going to be horrible. Even knowing that, the fierce bird was not going to leave Joy to her own devices. Who knew what sort of trouble she could get into without Dives' beak and claws? Dives knew that she had been a major factor in Joy's academic success. Even the other students had noticed the stern mothering the bird directed at her human.

But, for now, they were being shipped like cargo to their home for the next few years. Every three months they'd get a few days break, but it was going to be a long time before they got to move to another assignment.

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Their little postal courier was surprisingly roomy - not enough space for Dives to hunt in, but at least she'd be able to fly some. And it was relatively new - only a few years old. But there was only her cabin and the bridge really. Oh, there were access ways and such in the engineering area, but not somewhere someone could live for a week or more. They were going to be on their own.

Joy shook herself, and got settled. The data banks would be filling already with transmissions from the world below - and from other ships in the area. Very few of these would be for the world she was going to, most would be sent to the courier waiting for her arrival, and then to another, and another, until the messages reached their destinations.

Meantime, when she was not piloting, Joy would be studying, learning more to take back to her people. And saving funds to purchase equipment. 

The radio came to life "Courier Gamma Whiskey Echo Three Seven Niner, confirm receipt."

She checked the logs, and replied "Tender Charlie Gamma Echo Five One One, I confirm receipt."

"Very good, you are clear for departure."

"Thank you Charlie Gamma, see you in a fortnight."

Joy checked the navigation instruments, the star drive status, and the rest of the checklist. Then she hit a button and the world turned inside out and back again. 

There, they were on their way. In a week they'd appear at their destination, and a tender would come out to them with fuel and fresh supplies, and then she'd make the same journey backwards.

The exciting life of the postie. 

It had been sixteen long years since Joyful Finder had been home. Given the changes she'd seen even while growing up, she imagined it would have changed even more in the time she'd been away. 

Dives Swiftly watched her hands move over the controls as her little ship emerged back into normal space about a day out from her home, and then pecked the radio scanner speaker control.

There was a burst of static, and then words - in her own language! A weather report for the jungle regions of the north-west. They must have succeeded in building satellite launchers. That at least would give raiders a little bit of pause.

Her little ship would not count for much in a fight, but what Joy carried was far more important. Twelve of those sixteen years away had been spent doing postal runs. Living almost constantly in a ship that had, really, only two components - a FTL engine, and massive computer stores. Such a life featured many long periods of doing nothing. And so she'd filled it with study - learning everything she could about kickstarting industry.

Her people had made great strides in the years since her ancestors had made a family, but there were two things that would allow them to fight effectively. The first was fusion power. Small, portable, and powerful fusion power. The second was gravitic control. With those two it was possible to build defence ships that could fight on equal terms with most raiders.

This was what she was bringing home. 

Dives Swiftly pecked another control and whistled. That sounded like air traffic control. She'd call in soon. 

As a teenager, Joy had looked back at her ancestor's journals. Lorn had been surprised at the depth of scientific knowledge that her adopted world had, given its largely agrarian appearance. In the two hundred years since the elders had decided to implement much of that knowledge. Now Joy would be adding to it. 

Picking up the mic, she transmitted "Shaman's Home ATC, this is Scout Ship Lorndottire, Joyful Finder commanding. I am on approach to the planet, ETA to low orbit is twenty three hours."

It would be a good five to ten minutes before a reply came in.

"We'll be home soon. And you'll have a chance to hunt proper food!"

She got a whistle, and a strong sense of focus formed in her mind.

The radio crackled to life. "Shaman's Home ATC, this is Scout Ship Chorus, Charlie Fischer commanding. I am on approach to the planet, ETA to low orbit 24 hours." There was a pause. "Hello there, Lorndottire! Fancy meeting you here."

There was a sudden sense of humour coming from Dives Swiftly.

Glaring at her companion "Charlie? What are you doing here?"

"Did you think I was going to let you disappear off without me? I've been chasing you for the last fifteen systems!"

Joy smiled, and then looked back at the bird busily preening. "You knew, didn't you?" Dives looked up as if to say "Who me?", and went back to preening.

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It was simultaneously completely ordinary, and utterly extraordinary for Joyful Finder to be following a scheduled approach plan. 'Ordinary' in that this was what she had done scores of times before during her career with the Scout service. 'Extraordinary' in that she was doing this on her homeworld, which did not even have flying machines when she'd left sixteen years previously.

As she approached the designated landing area, the cameras on the outside of her ship's hull showed a neat row of light aircraft. Mostly wood and fabric it seemed, but there was one made of metal. More remarkable was the tall gantry at the edge of the airfield, with a tall cone-topped cylinder next to it. 

The learning she was bringing home would make such devices obsolete - but would be so much harder to build. All the same, if the Elders kept up the pace she was seeing, it might not take that long. 

And then there was the problem of Charlie. Technically this was a quarantine world - no contact to be made. Of course the reality was somewhat different - her ancestor had settled here after being shot out of the sky by pirates. And there was an emergency supply station run by the Scouts. She was allowed to land because this was her home. Charlie would be technically breaking the treaty the Scouts had with the Elders. And interstellar law. 

But they had followed Joy here. Over six months journey from where she knew they had been deployed last. She was going to have to talk to them face-to-face. And tell them the big secret she'd been hiding the whole time she'd worked with the Scouts. That it was not training that led Dives Swiftly to obey her so well. It was the fact that the two of them could communicate mind-to-mind. And that she could do that with people, too. 

If Charlie could take that revelation, then there might be a way through this.

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Charlie was not hugely surprised when the landing field informed them that they were not to leave their ship after landing. Technically they were not meant to be here. Joy could get away with it because this was her home. Charlie was an outsider, from the great interstellar conglomerate that had spawned the Scouts. 

The airwaves had been silent since they had landed. There were people moving around, but no transmissions from the control centre. In fact, there were no local transmissions at all. 

A sudden thought, and Charlie activated the security cameras, and scanned around the ship. No-one. But the views did offer some insight as to the goings on outside. They could see small teams moving equipment from a hanger to one of the aircraft. Elsewhere, someone was pumping fuel. All perfectly ordinary for an airfield of this level of development. Except there was the rocket launchpad at one end. One that was clearly capable of handling orbital-class chemical rockets. That was out of place.

While they were studying the launch zone, there was a sudden banging on the forward hatch. A check of the cameras showed Joy with her ever-present pet Dives waiting.

They opened the hatch, and the two visitors entered the ship and made their way to the bridge. 

"Joy! It is so good to see you again" there was nothing forced in the welcome "I know -" Charlie broke off as the flying predator that was Joy's pet suddenly launched itself into the air, straight at their face! They barely got their arm up when it made the slightest of turns and shot past, one wingtip barely brushing their elbow. It landed on the control board, and started strutting about. Then it stopped, looked back at Joy, and looked about the panel. It stalked over to one end, flipped up a cover, and before Charlie could say or do anything, pulled the main circuit breaker out. 

The emergency lights came on, flooding the room with a pale yellowish glow. "Thank-you Dives" said Joy.

Charlie stared at her.

"Sorry Charlie, I had to make sure the CVR and everything else was shut down, so I asked Dives Swiftly to pull the breaker. I'll help you reset everything once we've spoken." She dropped into the co-pilot's chair. "I'll explain everything."

Charlie, lost for words, waved a hand.

"Did I ever tell you about my distant ancestor who was a Scout?" She got a nod, and continued "Lorn crashed not far from here, and then a horse turned up with a saddle and bridle." Joy retold the story of Lorn and Finder. "Now does any of that sound odd to you?"

"Um... How did the horse get there?"

"Finder sent it."

"Oh. Wait, from how far away? About half a day's walk? And the horse just went up to a complete stranger?"

"Because Finder asked it to."

"But horses are not sentient. Are they?"

"No, but Finder had a trick up her sleeve. She could show the horse exactly what she wanted it to do."

"How?"

Then Charlie froze, as they not-quite-heard a faint voice softly whisper "Like this" accompanied by an image of Dives Swiftly perched on their shoulder. There was a whistle from behind, a flap, and a sudden weight next to their head. Dives ducked their head down and gave a low, soft, confidential whistle into Charlie's ear.

They carefully looked to the left. A bright yellow eye looked back. "You're telepathic?" 

"Yes. A few of us are. We mainly use it to befriend animal companions, but we can, with practice, detect feelings from a distance and send messages." 

"So that's why you killed the recorders. But why tell me?"

"You landing here - even jumping into the system - is a breach of the Treaty. But there is a way around it. And given you were willing to travel for over half a year to catch up to me, I figure it is probably a goer. But if we are going to go down that path, I had to come clean."

"So you know..."

"I'm guessing. It would be very rude of me to actually look into a friend without asking."

"And how do you feel about it?"

Joy got up, took one step, leaned close to Charlie, asked "May I?", and getting a nod, kissed them deeply.

There was one way a Scout could stay on this planet. And that was to become part of one of the clans.