Chapter 52: Rescue Titan: Nomad by JohnnyScribe

Aisell stiffened and her heart pounded. For a moment, she felt like a little kid caught stealing from her mother’s purse. Then she shook herself and turned to glare at whoever had discovered them.

Aisell found herself being glared at by a young woman, maybe the same age as Aisell, with short cropped and dyed green hair. The woman’s eyes narrowed as she scrutinized Aisell.

“The situation where you kidnapped these people from their homes, and I am here to bring them back!” Aisell snapped, pushing herself to her feet.

“Who are you?”

“I’m the woman whose property you trespassed on today, that’s who I am.”

Ncaesi blinked. “You’re one to talk about trespassing. What do you think you’re doing right now? At least we didn’t have to break in!”

“Nah, you just kidnapped them from their home!” Aisell spat.

“Whatever, I’m not letting you walk out of here with those humans.” Ncaesi shrugged. “We need them to help get our message out.”

“Did you bother to ask them what they wanted?” Aisell asked. “I mean, one of the tenets of your organization is that humans are thinking creatures, is it not?!”

Ncaesi stiffened. “They’ll come around, eventually. We’re offering them a much better life and the chance to help their fellow humans. Sure, they might be in shock right now but…”

“Shock?!” Aisell growled. “They’re bloody terrified! You’re a miserable hypocrite, you and your whole organization. I’m taking them with me, right now.”

“I should tell you, I’ve called law enforcement.” A second voice called out. Moments later another woman appeared from the shadows. “They’ll be here momentarily.”

“Well, then I guess I’d better be on my way.” Aisell bent down to the holding cell that contained the abducted people. “But I’m sure not leaving without them. Luke, Quendra, are they ready to go? Because we’re on a clock.”

“You’re not going anywhere, thief!” Ncaesi snapped, grabbing Aisell by the shoulder.

“Get off me!” Aisell reared up and shoved Ncaesi away. The other woman growled and shoved Aisell to the ground, before tackling her and attempting to pin the smaller woman on the concrete.

“You… fat… slag.” Aisell groaned as she attempted to push Ncaesi off.

“Don’t worry; I’ll get off when the police arrive.”

Aisell’s vision tinted red, she was just about to throw Ncaesi off of her the way she had Ler-Tonga when suddenly…

“GET OFF MY SISTER!”

There was a blur as another form rammed into Ncaesi and sent her flying off of Aisell, who sat up grateful for freedom.

“Pup, are you okay?” Lezah asked as she ran up to Aisell, followed closely by Gae.

“Yeah.” Aisell nodded, then looked over to where Aezhay had Ncaesi trussed up in a sleeper hold, while the other woman- Leny- ineffectually tried to pull her friend free of the taller woman.

“You alright Aisell?” Aezhay called over her shoulder, completely ignoring the struggles of the other two women.

“Yeah.” Aisell called back. “But we gotta move fast, the police are on their way.”

Suddenly sirens cut through the air.

“Ah slag it…”

*.*.*.*.*

Half an hour later, Aisell and Ncaesi sat on the pavement outside the warehouse, hands cuffed behind their backs, glaring at each other.

Down the line was everybody else: Gae, Aezhay, Lezah, Lesis and Leny. All were similarly bound, though not nearly as angry about it. They were forced to be silent, however, by the large imposing police officer that had been, in his words, left out to baby-sit them all while his compatriots checked out the scene inside.

Finally, after what seemed like an interminable wait, the other two officers who’d responded to the call exited the warehouse and strolled up the walk to the assembled group.

“Well, we’ve spoken to the owner of the building, and since no property of his was damaged, he’s perfectly willing to let this be settled by you lot.”

“Well, we’d most assuredly like to press charges.” Leny snapped angrily. “Breaking and entering.”

“Well, it wasn’t your property they broke into, and the owner of said property has waived that right.”

“Assault, then.” Ncaesi added in.

“You assaulted me!” Aisell responded. “My sister was just trying to defend me! And if you’re going to press charges, we will definitely respond with trespassing on our property.”

“Prove it!” Leny snarled, then turned to the despondent looking man sitting next to her. “Lesis, aren’t you going to say anything?”

“Oh let it go already, Leny.” Lesis sighed irritably. “This was a bad idea from the start and it only got worse from there.”

“Look…” One of the officers interrupted, rubbing his temple. “My advice to you all is to just forget everything that’s happened. You mutually agree not to press charges, and we all go home. Fair?”

Ncaesi and Aisell glared at each other, but nodded. “Okay.”

“Grand.” The officer sighed.

“We’re not leaving without the humans, officer.” Aisell reminded him. “They were stolen from our lands.”

“Again, prove it!”

“Well… here’s the thing.” The officer said. “I spoke to a few of ‘em and they say you did, in fact, take them from their homes. So I’m sorry young lady but they do seem to belong to these people here. And I’ll be letting them go home with them too.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Hey, if it means I don’t have to fill out a bunch of paperwork, I’m all for it.” The officer shrugged.

“But, they’re humans!” Leny cried angrily. “They don’t know what they’re saying!”

“Do you hear yourself right now, Leny?!” Gae interjected.

“All I know is that if two people claim to own a shaar, and that shaar hisses at one and adores the other, then that’s really all I need to know. Now, we’ll be letting you all loose, providing you can behave yourselves, and if you can’t then we’ll be taking a little trip. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes sir.”

Within moments, all the handcuffs were undone and the officers were silently supervising as the Maris sisters, and Gae, began to carefully transport the Tribe humans from their holding cage and into Lezah’s beat up old shuttle.

Inside the cage, Drugar and some of the older tribe members were organizing their compatriots into groups to make their transition to the care of the sisters easier.

“Are you sure we should be trusting them, Leader?” Oronia asked as she watched her people being gathered up by the giants and taken away a few at a time.

“What choice do we have?” Drugar asked. “If given the choice between Hair Like Fire and the possibility of going home, however slim it might actually be, and staying with the angry green haired one and no chance of returning, I will choose the slim chance.”

Oronia nodded. “I agree, but as you know it is my job to ask these questions.”

“It is.” Drugar agreed. “And I am grateful for it. Nevertheless, the fact that they have come with Luke and Quendra eases my mind quite a bit. I am glad to hear that those who are not with us are still safe.”

“As am I.” Oronia agreed.

“So that’s it?” Ncaesi said, looming over their prison. “You’re just going to go with them? Go be pets?”

“The Guardians are taking us home,” Drugar shouted. “If you had taken us home, we would have gone with you.”

“And you, Gae.” Ncaesi snapped, turning around. “I heard you were a pet owner. But this is horrific.”

Gae turned from where she was helping people onto the floor. Yamma paused in helping to direct traffic. He half-smiled as he saw the anger on his girlfriend’s face. “Don’t hit her, Gok’ma,” he said.

“The truth hurts, doesn’t it? All the time you worked for TETH, saying you thought they were our equals. And you’re a pet owner.”

Yamma stared up at the green-haired Titaness. “Ncaesi, do you remember me?”

The activist’s eyes flitted to him. “No. Gae always kept you hidden.”

“Do you remember another human, named Aenur? Had dark hair, dark eyes, and a laugh that sounded like the wind through trees?”

“Um…no,” Ncaesi said, turning away.

“How ‘bout Ganu? Fara? Sath? Little Orte? Abisar? Come on, you have to remember Abisar.”

Ncaesi looked over her shoulder. “What are you babbling about?”

Yamma looked at her with cold fury. “I would have thought you’d remember one of us. One of the people you ‘liberated.’”

Ncaesi continued to look on the human quizzically. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Yamma threw his hands up in the air, and laughed. “Oh, Nuri, I wish you could see this,” he spat. He turned to Ncaesi. “Do you remember Aementos? Or is that a blur too?”

Ncaesi’s eyes suddenly widened. “No,” she said. “You must be joking.”

“I wish I was.”

“How…how did you get here?”

“Gae saved me,” Yamma said. “The first of us died within hours of you dumping us. And you don’t even remember her name.”

Ncaesi looked down at Yamma. “You…but I freed you.”

“No, Ncaesi. You threw us to the klipkaers and the shaars, with no preparation, no hope.”

“But…this tribe survived.”

“Yes, because they have experience!” Yamma roared. “They have learned how to survive! We were pets. We weren’t prepared. We weren’t taught. You didn’t free us. You consigned us to death. If Gae hadn’t come back to find us, I would be dead. And thanks to you, the others, who could have been saved, would not trust her. I suspect they have all died as well. And you don’t remember their names, either.”

“But…I mean, why would I remember their names?”

“I remembered yours!” Yamma shouted. He was barely composed at this point, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I remembered yours, Ncaesi. But then, you were a person. There’s a question you haven’t asked. It was the first question Gae asked, when she found us. The first question she asked, when she found out one of us had died.”

“I…I don’t know what you expect me to say, it’s awful, but….”

“HER NAME WAS AENUR, YOU SLAG,” Yamma screamed. “But you don’t care. You don’t care that she was bright, and adventurous, careful and observant. You don’t give a gorram about her. And that’s why you’re gorram right I’m going with Gae.”

He looked up at his girlfriend, who was sobbing. He took a deep, ragged breath, and turned back to Ncaesi. “She always saw me for what I am. Yes, going with her means I will have to be her pet, technically.”

He smiled at Gae. She was resting her vast hand against the ground, steadying herself; he walked over to it, and sat down heavily on her index finger, and put his palm against her warm skin. He looked back up at Ncaesi, and he shook his head.

“She knows what I am. And I would rather live as a pet to someone who knows that I am a person, than be freed by someone who doesn’t believe I really am.”

Ncaesi opened and closed her mouth. Finally, she stammered, “But…I do see you as a person…..”

“What’s my name?”

“Yamanu,” said Lesis from the corner. “His name is Yamanu, Ncaesi. Don’t forget it.”

Yamma looked up at Gae, who stared down at him through eyes slick with tears. “I love you, gok’ma,” he said, quietly.

“I love you too,” she said. “Now, let’s get these people home…”

*.*.*.*.*

It was a quiet, uneventful trip back to the farm. Lezah drove and Gae and Aezhay sat in the back, keeping an eye on the tribe members. The humans had been loaded into produce crates, which was somewhat uncomfortable but was unfortunately their only option.

Still, after all the indignities they had so far endured, this seemed fairly minor to them.

Eventually, they made it back to the farm just as Aisell was landing her vehicle outside their family home. Gae and Aezhay set the crates down on the ground and carefully tipped them on their sides so the humans could walk out onto the ground themselves.

Everybody looked at each other awkwardly for a moment, before Lezah finally decided to speak up.

“Uh… listen…” She said, slowly crouching down in front of the smaller people so as not to loom over them as much. “We, uh, we understand why you choose to hide from Titans… and frankly we can’t really blame you. I hope that what happened tonight will show that we, at least don’t mean you any harm. However… If you want to return to the way things were, with you all staying away from us… we will certainly respect that. But, um… I really hope that isn’t the case. I hope that, if nothing else, we can be good neighbors.”

The tribespeople looked at each other for a moment, each unsure of how to respond. One by one, they turned to Drugar. He was the leader, after all, and it was up to him to make the choice. Go back to how things were, stay hidden… Or risk everything to trust.

“We are grateful for your help in returning us to our home, Hair like Fire.” Drugar finally said to the Titaness, whose eyebrow quirked at the nickname. “I do not think we will be able to return to the way things were, after this night. After all, knowledge of our existence cannot be taken from you.”

“Drugar… I-” Luke began, but fell silent when Drugar shook his head.

“I think, however, that tonight you have given us reason to doubt our previously held beliefs about you.” The Leader continued. “I think it would benefit us all to see what possibilities lie ahead for all of us. Therefore, we will show you our home…”

There was a ripple, an uneasy murmur that ran through the crowd momentarily… but then, after a moment, that ripple became cheer.

“Come.” Drugar said.

The Tribe headed down the path, with the Titans following behind, walking carefully so as not to step on any of them accidentally.

“No wonder we never found them…” Lezah muttered. “We never really go to this part of the property.” They pushed aside a tree branch standing in their way, and finally beheld the Tribe’s Hometree.

Lezah’s eyes widened as she beheld the thorn covered bush in front of them. “I don’t believe it…”

Aisell’s eyes narrowed and she peered at a clump of the strange red fruit. “You’ve got to be kidding me…”

The fruit of the glowberry bush gave off a pale red luminescence in the dark of the night. With whoops of joy, the returned humans rushed towards the home they had thought lost to them for good. Luke watched, from his perch next to Quendra on Aisell’s shoulder as the men and women climbed up the bark and trailing vines and disappeared into the roots of the plant.

He had to discretely wipe away a tear as the little girl, Nela, was reunited with her parents.

Aisell and Lezah stepped over to the bush and examined the glowing fruit hanging from the vines, but protected by thorns. Carefully, Lezah reached in and plucked a handful from the plant and held them in her hand.

“The Tribe calls them glowberries.” Luke informed them. “They use them for wine, medicine, all sorts of things really.”

Lezah shook her head, letting loose an incredulous chuckle. “All this time, there’s been a royalberry bush on our land… and we never knew it.”

“Royalberries?” Luke asked.

“That’s what we Titans call them.” Lezah explained, turning to face the humans. “They’re… well, they’re very valuable because they’re almost impossible to harvest. At least, for us they are anyway, because of the thorns. I mean… this handful right here is probably worth fifty credits all by itself and- Wait, did you say wine?”

“Yeah.” Luke responded with a grin. “A little on the sweet side, but it’s not bad. Although… it does interesting things to your urine…”

Lezah burst out laughing.

“I think Lez is startin’ to lose it.” Aezhay muttered to her sister out of the corner of her mouth.

“No! No… don’t you see? This is it! This right here is the miracle I’ve been praying for! How can you not see? We have royalberries and we have the means to harvest them. ALL of them!”

“Whoa, now wait a second Lezah… if you’re thinking of press-ganging the humans into forced labor…”

“Of course not!” Lezah’s expression became a mixture of hurt and offended. “We’ll certainly figure out a deal that is equitable to everybody, Emperor knows there’ll be more than enough credits to go around…”

“Okay.” Luke nodded. “That’s what I thought you were talking about, but I had to be certain, for the sake of the tribe. My tribe.”

“I know, Luke. I understand.” Lezah smiled. “But this is in their best interest too. As long as we own the farm, they’re safe. If we lose it, who knows who will move in and what they’ll want to do.”

“Believe me, I want this to be fair for everybody and we can iron out those details later. But for now…” the ginger-haired titaness grinned and popped the tiny berries into her mouth, her eyes rolling back in pleasure. “I think this calls for a celebration…”

47 comments

  1. Aura The Key Of The Twilight says:

    wait the bush is near at the hometree, i understood was more far that the hometree, but here the people enter in the bush not in the tree

    • Genguidanos says:

      Yeah this part was kinda confusing. My interpretation was that either the bush surrounds the tree or is grafted on it like a parasite.

      • Aura The Key Of The Twilight says:

        yeah well some chapter ago, Luke and Quendra reach the bush in the twilight, or in chapter 35, Gae seems very close to the hometree but she doesn’t see the bush

        perphaps i think too much?

      • JohnnyScribe says:

        That’s probably down to multiple authors. I always pictured the Hometree being a glow berry bush (a tree to a human being a bush to a Titan) but I’m not sure my fellows authors conceived it the same way

  2. QMajor says:

    I agree that this seems to be wrapping up, although there are still some obvious loose ends that should get covered.
    OK, the royalberry thing seems a bit silly, I seriously doubt that Titans can’t harvest them with space-age tools. But hey, it works. 🙂

    Luke could really use an opportunity to explain the situation a bit more for sure…

    • Soatari says:

      I suppose it depends on how fragile the plants are. Or how impressively expensive the specialized tools for harvesting them are. Or maybe a combination of both.

  3. Nitestarr says:

    Wow, loved Yamanu’s raging anger, couldn’t have said it better…..

    First some technical points….police? thought they had peacekeepers and where was the Imperators (?) Or they don’t deal with small domestic matters such as this.

    I didn’t forsee these chain of events… thought that the sisters would sweep in and scoop up the tribe after an epic battle with TETH…

    Speaking of which has there been a more useless organization in the verse? Hell, even the HOS was better (although not much) in their treatment of humans. Gives us a scary look into the mindset of a radical… parallels to our own world hmmnmm 🙂

    • Johnny Scribe says:

      Imperators and Peacekeepers are more military. Imperators would only handle situations of national security or black ops military. Police are the general public law enforcement.

      And yes, TETH is useless. They may or may not be based on a real world organization for which I have much contempt >.>

  4. NightEye says:

    Lots of stuff happened this chapter !

    The rescue itself was surprisingly easy (Aehzay nonchalant rampage was funny tough) but, boy ! Yamanu’s anger was SO intense and powerful, loved it.

    And then, the Tribe are going to trade with the sisters using the glowberries : did I call that or not ? Didn’t I ? Kazuma, you’re a witness ! 🙂
    Do I win a prize for guessing right ? 😀

    Sure hope we finally get *The Talk* next chapter. And still hoping for a Holosuite fight between Aisell and Quendra 😀

    @faeriehunter & Ancient Relic : there is potential for more problems but not sure they will happen at this point.
    For one, TETH knows where the Tribe is and the Marris land is not closed, it’s easy to trespass as we just saw.
    The other thing id that “FellTree” Tol-Bot champion we saw in Campaign : if it is Aisell, then what is that Tree that fell ? The Tribe’s Great Tree ?

    • Nitestarr says:

      That would be a rather ugly and quick affair. All things being equal in the holodeck… Quendra would annihilate Aisell as she has the fitness level of an Olympic athlete. In addition, humans gram for gram being stronger than Titans, the Tribe’s lifestyle and physicality would make them a formidable opponent for any Titan. I like Aisell, wouldn’t like to to see her get stomped in the ring. even that old lady who was beat by Quendra would pound poor Aisell…

      • NightEye says:

        Everyone I tell ths idea to says that ! Aisell beat that Ler and he was a lot stronger physically. (Never thought I’d be defending Aisell 😛 )

    • Dann says:

      Eh, who cares about Luke. The story has become much bigger than the original Luke and Aisell duo we saw in the early chapters. Luke has made it very clear he has found a home with the Tribe. Luke has a wife, a home, and a purpose.

      Oh, I’m sure JS will get around to the inevitable conclusion of the Luke and Aisell saga, but I am much more interested in how Lezah, Drugar and co will come to an accord on how to deal with the “Glow Berries” and if that will be enough to save the farm.

      DX and JS have done well creating such a co-dependent relationship between the Tribe and The Maris sisters, the two groups could not need one another more. But will that be enough to ally them together, as we know people with such vast differences can not often work together even when their livelihoods are on the line.

      (Oh of course I already know the answer, but these are things to think about right?)

      • Ancient Relic says:

        “I’m sure JS will get around to the inevitable conclusion of the Luke and Aisell saga” I’m sure, too, because they’re the central characters and that’s the main plot. That will have to be wrapped up in a way that resonates, though since it’s the main plot it should be last. The side plots you mentioned are also quite interesting, though, and they need to be concluded too.

  5. Ancient Relic says:

    Excellent work Yamanu, telling Ncaesi what she needs to hear.

    Lezah said “What, did you say wine?” Am I to assume that Titans never made glowberry wine?

    Now that the Tribe is willing to establish contact with the Marises, you could have humans visiting the house. I wonder how Aezhay would react to meeting Fray Fray’s grandson…

    • faeriehunter says:

      Lezah probably said “Wait, did you say wine?” because she wasn’t expecting the Tribe to be able to make wine. I doubt that the Tribe’s technology level was part of the abbreviated explanation that Luke gave to the farm residents. And Gae and Yamanu have yet to tell the Maris sisters about the bronze arrowhead they found. (It came up in the pre-rescue conversation at the farm, but only indirectly. Gae told the sisters that she sent evidence to TETH, but didn’t say anything about what that evidence was.)

      • Johnny Scribe says:

        well you’re both kinda right. It’s not that the titans never thought of making wine, but… well, each of these fruits is proportionally about the size of a pomegranate seed. Add to the fact that they are extremely difficult for Titans to grow and harvest. In order to make a bottle of wine, the whole process would be so expensive only a few people besides Pryvani could afford one.

        Of course, that was before a far more effective method of harvesting them was discovered.

        • sketch says:

          I was going to ask about that. That really is a blessing for the Maris family to have a royal berry bush on their farm and a means to harvest them. The fact that Dhan hands the girls a couple royal berry juices in Campaign, (also still not sure how Lessy’s hologram can drink it), means the process must have become quite productive a titan decade later. Hopefully is because the tribe and the farm have grown, and not because other growers have started using slave human labor.

        • Ancient Relic says:

          Now how many bushes are on their property? You need a lot of fruit (15-20 pounds per gallon for grape wine) to make wine on a commercial scale. How much human labour would be needed to produce that, and how much can a few hundred people provide? That’s what I’d like to see when this subplot is resolved.

      • Nitestarr says:

        Just wait till they get a closer look at their home tree..More surprises will be in store…(Or online if thats how they roll) 🙂

  6. sketch says:

    Wow, that went better than anyone could have expected. The tribe is safe, the Maris family have proven themselves friendly enough to trust, and now they have something that can save the farm thanks to the humans which also allows the titans to offer them food and medical aid in emergencies without coming off as charity.

    I feel like I’m forgetting some lose strings. What about the one who was predicting Luke would fulfill the prophecy of doom for the tribe?

  7. Kusanagi says:

    Three cheers for lazy police work! If he hadn’t been so willing to get out of there that could have been bad, imagine if he wanted to see proof of ownership or anything like that.

    Yamma hammering Ncaesi was a Titan series highlight, while I might have preferred to see someone punch her lights out the verbal knockout he delivered was a close second.

    As for the story winding down, eh it could be then again it might not be, there are still potential threats with Lert or if TETH is stupid enough to try again, but just as easily Lyroo could be good with her promise and TETH could see there’s little to gain in trying anything else.

    What definitely still needs to happen are the more personal topics. Aisell is definitely going to have a talk with Luke before all is said and done.

    • Johnny Scribe says:

      There will more than likely be an Aisell/Luke hashing out conversation. Will probably get OHH to write it.

      As for the cop, he was probably like “it’s the middle of the night, my shift is almost over, I don’t want to hash this out.”

  8. faeriehunter says:

    Everyone, I’m not so sure that this story is winding down just yet. The current crisis may have been resolved, but as far as I can tell Lert Prenn is still out there wanting to take over the Maris farm. Sure, Lyroo is supposed to put a stop to that as part of her deal with Aisell, but that’s easier said than done. And don’t forget, Lert already made a deal with the Empire’s equivalent of the mafia to help him acquire additional land. At this point in time the Maris farm is still struggling; it’d only take a little to push it back into the danger zone. Arson anyone?

    • Ancient Relic says:

      I was thinking something similar: that the rescue was so easy that there must be something else coming.

      • Soatari says:

        Not every situation needs to be some epic struggle. The resolution of that kidnapping seemed fairly realistic.

        Plus, having one less story being written concurrently means that the others have the potential of seeing chapter updates more often, which is something I would love to see with Sovereign.

    • Soatari says:

      Honestly, it really needs to wind down. This story is on the verge of getting stretched too thin. I imagine what’s left will be tying loose ends and “Physics” style epilogue chapters.

  9. Nostory says:

    All’s well that ends well? Or perhaps there’s more. Still confused about how this fits into the Exile timeline, bloody confusing. Good to see that the Tribe and the sister might just have something that could help them to keep the farm AND co-exist with each other peacefully.

    • Kusanagi says:

      Everything with Darren on the farm, from when he’s rescued to whenever he leaves for whatever reason in the future, happens before the tribe is discovered.

  10. KazumaR1 says:

    Go Maris Sisters! I definitely got a laugh out of Aehzay nonchalantly dealing with Ncaesi and Leny. I’m glad everything ended rather harmlessly for all parties involved.

    Now I hope Lesis, Ncaesi, and Leny take Yamma’s emotional outburst to heart. He’s probably been holding those feelings in for a long time. Ncaesi’s misguided actions ended up killing the humans she attempted to “free”. At the very least she should have apologized to Yamma. I have hope for Lesis but I don’t know about the other two. Judging from Campaign it appears TETH didn’t really change all that much in the future, though.

    Now that the tribe has agreed to coexist with the Maris family openly and the glowberries can be used to get Lezah out of her financial problems, all that is really left is to see just how the Maris family and tribe interact and Aisell and Luke having their long awaited talk. Hard to believe Nomad is about to end. It’s been a long ride. Damn this chapter was good and now I’m sad I have to wait again >.<

  11. Soatari says:

    (Really wish this comment section allowed editing)
    I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of accord Lezah makes with the tribe for their help in harvesting the “glowberries”. I wonder how open she’ll be (or the tribe will let her be) about the nature of her business relationship with the humans on her land.
    This opens up so many possibilities for the tribe. The Maris sisters have the beginnings of a little Atlantis on their property, only without the political strife, famine, or bandits.

  12. Soatari says:

    Glad to see this story winding down. There was really only so much more that could be done in this story before it started to feel spread too thin. As it is, I really feel this should have been put under a different title at the first chapter Luke was on Archavia. Like Titan: The Tribe or something.

  13. gadgetmawombo says:

    Awesome! And I for one am REALLY surprised the police office bothered to ask the humans what happened to them. For me, that little tidbit was the most significant part of this chapter. Maybe all this human activism stuff really IS changing Titan minds, slowly over time!

    • Soatari says:

      The Tribe was definitely lucky they got such a progressive officer. A by-the-books officer probably would have just carted them off to the nearest shelter.

    • TheSilentOne says:

      I wouldn’t put to much stock in it. To most Titans, humans are just talking pets. Of course, this does make it a tad easier to figure out who they like or not, other pets you would have to go by what reaction they have to people. That being said, You got to have an enemy to make a good story, and so most of the ones we see in the Titan Universe don’t really have a good view of humans. As far as I know though, it’s illegal to mistreat them, no matter what other status they might have.

        • faeriehunter says:

          That police officer didn’t strike me as particularly progressive either. Asking humans what happened is easy, and not the same as taking them seriously. Actually, he came across as uncaring and indolent. A colony of over a hundred pets was apparently stolen, and instead of getting to the bottom of the matter and ensuring that it won’t happen again, he let everyone involved go because that’d mean less work for him and his colleagues.

          • Nitestarr says:

            Why should he? they are just pets, not people. In their mind, its like breaking up a fight over a litter of puppies. He’s reacting like an average Titan would….Its an annoyance to him..

          • NightEye says:

            Nitestarr : he should because he just stumbled upon over a hundred stolen humans, being kept in a hangar by a bunch of shady people fighting over them.

            The Feast of the Overseer and its huge media coverage was just a few Titan months ago and Mr Cop doesn’t think for a second than 100 humans, fought over by young people, could be the sign of another Feast ? Where Dunnermacs eggs wuld also likely be consumed (a crime in archavian law) ?

            Not just lazy, incompetent too. But of course, that’s a good thing for the Tribe.

        • Ancient Relic says:

          To me, the Shaar comparison shows that he does view humans as animals, but like most Titans has no ill will toward them. Still, it made things a lot easier.

          • Johnny Scribe says:

            Basically. The cops were looking for the easiest way to resolve the issue. He didn’t really “listen” to the tribesmembers so much as judge their attitudes.

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