The Helavite War Read Free Page A

pointing at the lad. The kid just
buried his face deeper in his bowl. "Well, listen to me. I sound
like dialogue out of a B-Rated vid." Jake said, with a bemused
smile.
    Still no response. It was a bit unnerving.
Jake talked even more when he was nervous than when he was calm, so
that meant he was talking non-stop.
    When he handed the boy his bowl he noticed
what looked like a tattoo on the palm of his right hand. He started
to comment on it, just to have something to talk about, but thought
better. So far the only reaction to Jake that the boy had was to
devour his stew.
    Jake was telling him about the battle over
the galnon crystals. He got to the reason for coming to this
particular planet, when he quoted from memory his father's log
entry about the trader Raa. The boy's head popped up from his
stew.
    "Raa? My father was Raa!!" He said very
clearly.
    Jake was more than surprised. He thought
from the reactions he was getting that the kid might be deaf and
certainly didn't speak English.
    "So, you do speak English." And he was the
son of the trader Jake's father had met. Jake always seemed to be
bumping into people his father knew.
    "Speak more English." Arr said in
excitement.
    Arr was listening to Jake's every word as he
satisfied his hunger. He found, to his delight, that his mind
processed the man named Jake's language as he spoke. He literally
learned by ear. Once the word was spoken it was cataloged and there
for instant retrieval. Learning like this was an exciting
experience and he wondered why Nor did not tell him how wonderful
it was.
    Jake kept talking and Arr kept asking
questions, sometimes stumbling over a sentence, as if he was
missing a word and searching for the right one. Jake was beginning
to catch on. As he asked questions himself, he realized that the
kid only spoke words that he himself previously uttered. The boy
had a mind like a computer processing the data as it came in,
rearranging it to suit the situation and spitting it out again. It
was like he was some kind of savant.
    The next few days passed quickly for both
Jake and Arr. Arr was desperate to hear and learn this new language
of Jake's. As for the mercenary, he'd never had such a rapt
audience. He talked endlessly about his adventures through space.
He honestly had to admit that it was a relief when the kid fell
asleep then he could rest his voice for awhile. During one of these
rest periods, in the second day, Jake took Kay-o back up to the
cruiser. Being left alone, the dar-dolf would probably trash the
ship, but when Arr got well enough to get out of the tree house,
Jake didn't want another episode like the last. He wanted an
opportunity to conduct a controlled introduction between the
two.
    Arr steadily got better each day. He seemed
to be free of any infection, which was a lucky stroke Jake thought.
The kid's vocabulary also improved with every passing hour. Soon
the two could carry on a full blown conversation without much need
for sign language.
    Arr was starved for companionship. He told
Jake everything he could remember about the battle, the Henu and
Nor. He told Jake some of Raa's stories, as Nor told him, and was
delighted to find that Jake knew a couple of the characters from
the tales.
    Arr liked Jake the minute he set eyes on
him. He was like Nor who told him all those fabulous stories when
he was growing up. From what he could remember, and piece together
from Nor's tales, Jake was very much like their father too. Nor
told him that Raa was taller than all other Henu, he was very
outgoing, and entertained all at the Henu gatherings by recounting
his many travels as a trader among the aliens of the galaxy.
    Jake felt protective and responsible for his
new friend. He couldn't imagine himself facing a life alone on a
planet no matter how beautiful and idyllic this one seemed to be.
He admired Arr's quick mastery of English and wished he could do as
well with Henu. At first, Arr was under the impression that if he
could learn English