Chariot 3: Conception
Chapter 17 – Visitors

“Visitors…we have visitors.” Cai Yiu notified his Captain as an alert popped in his lenses.

A couple of hours passed since the extraction had started when Cai Yiu broke the ‘noisy’ silence that laid among them. “Captain, I have identified several human life forms approaching the ship. There are forty four of them to be precise. Forty one males and three females.” His lenses allowed him to obtain instant and precise counts of anything he wished.

A group of natives started to slowly come out from among the rocks a few yards from Chariot 3`s landing point.

Some of the men walked slightly faster, keeping themselves ahead of the group. As they got closer to the ship, the crew observed the variety of tattoos that the men had on their face, from condors, falcons and hummingbirds to pumas and what seemed to be a huge jaguar covering half of the face of one of them.

Cai Yiu could not hide his obvious expression of disgust once he saw their leader, the man with an occipital skull deformation on his head. Flumen attentively observed the same, but instead of repugnance, the most genuine enthusiasm featured on his face.

Skull deformation was a common practice in Nazca society, among many other cultures, and is believed to be a possible indicator of social ranking. The most common variety was occipital and frontal flattening, produced by binding boards to the head of an infant shortly after birth. Whether this was a tradition locally developed or an attempt to copy the shape of other beings unknown to the Human kind, as defended by others, remains a mystery.

“What do you think they want?” Cai Yiu enquired, giving Flumen a glimpse before returning his inquisitive eyes to the crowd that stood outside.

“It is hard to tell. It could be simply curiosity, willingness for an exchange of trophies, an offering, sacrifice, or even the pure desire for our blood.” As Flumen spoke, the others could not confirm or deny if he was speaking seriously or cracking a joke, probably for the first time.

“Something tells me this is not their first encounter with other cultures.” Flumen continued on a very thoughtful tone.

While Flumen tried to present Cai Yiu Hun with a succinct explanation, Cai Yiu drew out a tool which resembled a futuristic wrench except that its shape rapidly turned into a screw-driver looking tool by liquefying and then immediately re-solidifying on its own.

The tool then started to change its shape again until it ended up becoming an incredibly thin knife that started to spin continuously, until it made a metallic sound, and stopped thereafter. Cai Yiu then proficiently stored it back into the holster of his left arm where it became imperceptibly concealed within his uniform.

“I thought there were absolutely no weapons on this ship.” Flumen could not avoid the sarcasm he started to learn from V-Nus.

“This is not a weapon…this is just a working tool, my gisra” – Cai Yiu referred to it with the Nibirian word used to describe a stabbing ‘tool’. At that brief instant Cai Yiu did not bother to hide the creepy smile that the others saw for the first time on his face.

Flumen then continued to study a few archive pictures of the Nazca lines through his lenses in an attempt to find any detail that could be of some help.

“Captain, two hours until the new fuel is synthetized and we can fly again.” Chariot 3 completely ignored the fact that perhaps the crew would not last that long should the natives start a fight.

“Sissy, you will need to do much better than this...” V-Nus ordered.

“…I doubt we will be able to blend in.” V-Nus` observation had not only sarcasm but an unpleasant, although inevitable, truth at that occasion.

Without questioning, the Hebrew stepped ahead and firmly hit the deck with his wooden stick as he tried to make a point.

“I shall go out and speak with them whoever they are. I shall be the voice of God.”

The man turned his face to the Captain and then, with a deep breath, looked up towards the portholes trying to imagine what would await him in the outside.

Blinded by his faith and incapable of seeing what was outside, Ezekiel had no idea of the dangerous he had offered to walk into, but even if he did, it was likely to not stop him.

“Son of a man, you are under our protection and we shall not place your life in risk. Remain here and we shall find our way through it.” Captain Shoffer was very strict on not risking the life of somebody who was not part of the mission.

“V-Nus, Flumen, come with me!” Shoffer ordered.

“Captain, although I would feel privileged to establish contact with these people, perhaps we should let the man try. Our physical appearance and vestments may attract an unwanted attention, not to mention the Universal Law of Non Interference.” As he spoke, Flumen looked deep into the eyes of his Captain.

The Shoffer looked down after listening to Flumen`s wise words and reasoned for a second.

Captain Shoffer approached Ezekiel and looked closely into his eyes. For an instant, the man hesitated staring at the darkness of the frightening eyes. A drop of sweat run down his front and the tension involved his heart.

“We are thankful with your devotion. Please, be careful.” Shoffer asked him firmly, making it sound almost as an order.

The Hebrew smiled and felt an unconditional satisfaction with the gesture of trust he received.

With a hand signal, Captain Shoffer asked Ezekiel to follow him down the pipe.

The two then stopped on the Inter Deck where the graphene tanks were stored.

The Captain turned to the side looking for the doorway to the exterior. His eyes bypassed the door leading to the lab, almost invisible to the naked eye as it blended within the wall, same as almost everything else on that ship.

Although he never needed to spend time on that deck before, like Cai Yiu Hun, Captain Shoffer felt that there was something different about it, “something odd, something imperceptible, but what? Strange.” He wondered.

Shoffer preferred to ignore that awkwardness and get back to his mission.

Controlled by his thoughts, Shoffer watched part of the bulkhead in front of him liquefy, creating a circular doorway that solidified, creating a ramp that extended, leading its way to the Earthian ground that awaited the man outside.

Ezekiel smiled observing how incredible everything was onboard that chariot, the metal that melted without any heat and then reshaped without the use of any tool. He then nodded his head and convinced himself that he would no longer be as surprised with anything else that the hallowed chariot would do.

The man once more felt the fresh breeze blowing his beard, the light hitting his face and the faith pumping his heart.

As the air blew against his face, Ezekiel watched the simple beauty of a blue butterfly land on his beard. The splendid insect stayed there for a brief second with its opened wings until it took off again, making its way towards the interiors of the chariot.

From the interiors of the Nibirian ship, Captain Shoffer watched the man of faith walk off alone, gaining distance from Chariot 3 at the same pace its Captain gained a disturbing weight in his conscience.

The natives stopped walking when their leader ordered them to do so.

Together, they stared at the hatch that had just opened. For a moment all they saw was the shadow of a humanoid, and all they felt was the fear that began to consume their hearts.

The man had already descended half way through the ramp when Acari, the native whose eyes were following every step of the mysterious traveler, finally saw his face and then called the attention of his leader. “Marcaya, he looks just like a man of the land, same as us.”

“Warrior, no man like us can travel on the gray chariot. We shall not let our eyes misguide our souls.”

The leader then started walking again, realizing the humanoid leaving the ship was not as frightening as they anticipated.

There, the two cultures finally met, at about 130 feet from where the glorious chariot had landed.

Marcaya wore an imposing headgear with decorative feathers all around it, and next to him stood Acari who could not avoid staring at Ezekiel`s vestments, which in his opinion, were far excessive for covering almost all his body.

Ezekiel`s attention was equally caught by all the adorns that the two natives wore, necklaces with rectangular pieces of shells and square earrings made of teeth.

The large amount of bones hanging around Acari made his aggressive expression look much more hostile than he would ever imagine. At the same time, Ezekiel observed how some of those bones were much sharper than the ones he had ever seen before, and wondered if perhaps they were meant for a different purpose other than adornment.

Despite the goosebumps that climbed over his arms, Ezekiel faced the fear for his life, stepped forward, and spoke out loud. “Greetings. My name is Ezekiel and I come in piece!”

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