02 Quetzals Flock

QUETZAL'S FLOCK
part of his psyche wondered if perhaps Eridos had been correct, they should have
gone in the Ship, whilst they still had the chance. The opportunity had passed.
He looked up into the sky, almost expecting the Ship to reappear to rescue
them. He wondered if Hammadi was watching from some safe distance, waiting for
Jubal to erupt into hell. It would be like him to do something like that, keeping the
Ship in the star system. He might even contemplate a rescue mission, but he could not
know that they were still marooned on Jubal. Hammadi would not hazard the Ship
and those who remained of the People of the Two Tribes.
Kane watched the Sentinels streaming across the sky. They maintained their
distance from each other. They were like the companion who sat aloof from him on
the other side of the fire. He wondered if the great birds hated as vehemently as
Eridos. There was supposed to be an affinity between the People of Jubal and the
Sentinels. He remembered Dagh - or was it Motya - who had told him of the
superstition that when one of the People of Jubal died, a Sentinel was supposed to
come into being. He looked at Eridos, he was huddled in his Kous, in unconscious
imitation of one of the great birds at roost. The Sentinels never came into physical
contact one with another, but they possessed the Flock Mind, which linked them as if
they had one brain.
The Time of Migration had come for them. The approach of the white dwarf
had triggered the instinctive urge to take flight. They had been streaming across the
sky incessantly during the days which had led up to the battle. They fled from the
appearance of the white dwarf. Putting the greatest possible distance between them
and it, before it emerged from behind the eclipsing red giant. In previous migrations,
the oceans had risen and had scoured across the land and had swept away every
vestige of the previous cycle. Storms had screamed across the skies and the great
birds would have used their last strength to battle the super cyclonic winds.
In previous times, they had remained aloft, waiting for the turn of the cycle,
when the white dwarf would recede and the oceans would return to their beds and the
land would become dry. This time, it would be different. The Sentinels would never
enter the period of their life cycle when they would settle on the newly uncovered and
dried out land. Never again, would they produce their own kind. They would cease to
be, just as the planet would cease to be - and the Flock Mind would be lost for ever.
Quetzal thought otherwise. They were his Flock and their mind was his! To the
Masters of Psi, the physical form was of little consequence. It was the sentient mind
which could not be allowed to die! The seeding of intelligence throughout the worlds,
was the basis of their plan. It had always been their objective to take raw, base stock
and implant it with sentience,. Once, they had come to the raw avian stock of Jubal
and had implanted the Flock Mind. Now it was threatened and it was Quetzal who had
the task to rescue the Mind of his Flock.
"Tell me how much longer we are to sit here?"
"Until we are taken."
"I always knew you were a sentimental fool, Kane Ashford! You always
trusted a little too easily. You didn't learn in my school. I soon realised that the only
one I could trust was myself! Except for this one occasion - I broke my own rule and
listened to you. I can only blame myself for listening to your slick tongue!"
Kane didn't answer him. There was no purpose and to argue took too much
energy. Energy was in short supply. The food was gone and the heat of the fire hardly
kept the biting wind from freezing them to the spot. What remained of the herds of
Picun, those which could not be rounded up to go with the Ship, had long since
scattered. In any case, none would come close to the ocean, they could smell the
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