A New World

By Wesa

Series: War of the Worlds, The Equalizer, and The X-Files. Guest appearances in future parts from characters from Due South, The Man from UNCLE, and The Pretender; perhaps from others as the whim takes me.

Standard disclaimers apply. All characters belong to their various creators and the powers that be. Some of these characters belong to Chris Carter, Fox, and 10-13 Productions. I've just invited them over to play for a while, and I promise to send them home when the party's over. Others belong to Universal or Paramount, but it doesn't look like anyone is playing with them at the moment, so I'm going to let them stay as long as they want. Littlehawk belongs to Jan Harley. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jan, for your wonderful story. I hope you don't mind if he comes over to help chaperone the party; of course, he can come home whenever you need him. Tierney, Lainie, and Kira are mine; they live here.

Constructive criticism is welcomed.

By Wesa.

To almost no one's surprise, Samantha and Michel's antipathy toward one another blossomed into romance and, far too soon in Mulder's opinion, he was giving away the bride at another wedding. After the ceremony, Father Nick put away the clothes he wore for masses and weddings, by now threadbare and worn, saying, "Well, that's the last of the Earthborn."

Control eyed the children of the village, the oldest ones involved in a raucous game of tag, the youngest ones still in their mothers' arms, and the middle ones corralled in the playpen he and Norton had built. "Don't worry, Father," he said. "At the rate we produce children around here, you won't be bored long." He shook his head, watching Lonato chase Robert between the teepees while the other boys called out encouragement to one or the other.

"I'm not bored," Nick said somberly. "In fact, I was thinking about Dana and Suzanne's concern about inbreeding. We need to find the other groups. There must be other groups. Perhaps they have no spiritual counselor. And I feel...led in that direction." He sighed wistfully, looking at Noah. More and more he sensed that the semen the aliens had taken from him had been used to inseminate Control's daughter. It was more than the physical resemblance; he felt a kinship to the boy, and a love that was not easily explained. Unless he claimed Noah as his own son, Tierney would continue to wonder why Nick seemed to pay extra attention to him. And what that might do to Tierney and Norton's relationship was totally unacceptable, not to mention the impact on the child.

"You're thinking of going to look for them?" Control wondered. "Have you talked this over with Mickey?"

"Mickey's my brother, and I love him," Nick replied, "but he isn't in charge of my life. I gave that responsibility over to God long ago."

"Still, I don't want you to go alone any more than Mickey would, Father," Control told him. "Perhaps my reasons are a little less altruistic and more practical: I don't want you to teach the phantoms and notlions that humans are good eating. People I love might suffer if they learned that," he added, gazing at Yvette and Tierney where the two very pregnant women worked at their looms.

"I know how to use a spear-thrower," Nick assured him, "and Kira tells me that wandering traders were common even two thousand years ago in North America. That wasn't exactly a safe place, you know."

"Wandering traders may have been common," Control countered, "but Nicholas Kostmayers weren't. They probably had lots of traders, but we only have one of you. I'm not saying you shouldn't go. Just don't go alone. At least not this first time." He coughed and looked around for a place to sit down, finally settling on a stool placed conveniently near the fire. "I'm getting old, Nick. I may decide to go with you myself, but I'm no longer all the help and protection you might need."

"There isn't anyone here who would be willing to leave their wives and families for as long as it might take," Nick objected. "A week? A month? A year? Who knows how long? No," he said regretfully, "I have to go alone."

**********

"Absolutely not!" Mickey objected when Nick told him his plan.

Nick smiled understandingly at his brother. "Mickey, you can't make this decision for me. Someone has to do it, and I'm the only man here who doesn't have a family to care for. I can be away for weeks or months without anyone suffering. What I'd like to ask is that you help me make it as safe a journey as possible, so that I can come back. Because I do want to come back. I want to officiate at Adam's wedding, and the other children's. But Suzanne and Dana are right." He looked from Noah to Mickey and Sydney's daughter, Vicky, just starting to walk. "We don't know how long we have before children who shouldn't marry begin to fall in love. If I can find another village, we can minimize that."

Mickey had followed Nick's gaze, and frowned at his brother. "The aliens took semen from you, too, didn't they?" he realized. "They had no way of knowing about your vows, if they even cared. I just assumed ... I'm sorry, Nick. They don't know, do they?"

"It's better for him if they don't," Nick admitted softly, "but he must not marry Vicky. Who knows how many others are in the same situation? Not just here, but in other villages."

Still frowning, Mickey reluctantly admitted the need was real. "Alright, I'll come with you."

"No," Nick insisted. "Sure, Michel's here, but he has a new wife, a new life of his own. Sydney and your children need you. So help me figure out how to do this so that I can survive it."

**********

Once Nick's intention became known, everyone helped with the planning. Emergency rations were stored in sealed pottery jars and, along with spears, furs and clothing, were placed in rock cairns at intervals of one day's travel north, south, east, and west of the village, then at two-day intervals further out. Meanwhile, the women worked quickly to gather or create items for trade that would be light enough for Nick to carry in a backpack. Scott made a small drum and two alto flutes. Yvette completed the length of textile she had on her loom and dyed it cinnamon-red by boiling it with the bark of the peachfruit tree. Debi contributed a pair of nearly new moccasins that Ariel had outgrown; they were decorated with tiny shells from the lakeshore, and sparkled when the sunshine caught them.

Lainie had discovered an outcropping of soapstone in the hills above the river, and she and Mulder carved small figurines from it. Kira made spearheads and hand-axes from an obsidian deposit several miles east of their campsite, and bone-handled knives from the flint deposit downstream, while Paul hunted and added zagelle and dinette hides to Nick's load.

Nearly everyone contributed something to Nick's pack, helping to prepare him for his trip and his new occupation. They gathered in front of his teepee on the morning he was to leave, bringing him more personal gifts of trail food and from Sydney, a hat and a poncho. "To keep the sun out of your eyes and the rain off your back," she told him, smiling. "Be careful, Nick. Come back to us."

He smiled at his still-pretty sister-in-law. "I have to," he told her. "I cannot fail to be here to baptize any future nieces and nephews - or grandnieces and -nephews," he added as an afterthought, glancing at Michel and Samantha, both of whom blushed.

Mickey placed a soapstone cross on a leather thong around Nick's neck. "So when you do find others, they'll know you're not a threat to them," he told him. "I still wish you'd reconsider this, Nick. Or at least take someone with you."

"I'll be fine, Mickey. I'll be back before winter," Nick promised. He shouldered his pack and waved farewell to the others, accepted a quick hug from Mickey and a kiss on the cheek from Sydney, then turned and strode into the west.

**********

Every spring for five of the new planet's years Nick went out to seek other groups, and every autumn he returned without having found them. And nearly every autumn night for five years, Mickey stood at the western edge of camp, staring into the fading sunset. Tonight he laid his arm around Adam's shoulders as he looked for any sign of Nick's yearly return. Behind them, Yvette and Cathy sang a duet beside the central fire, accompanied by Scott on flute and Phillipe on drums, with most of the rest of the camp joining in on the choruses.

"Are you worried about Uncle Nick, Dad?" the slender youth asked, concern in his still-young voice.

"Uncle Nick knows how to take care of himself, son," Mickey assured him with more confidence than he felt. "As long as he doesn't run headlong into a notlion or a pack of phantoms, he shouldn't have any trouble."

"Why does he go away every summer?" Adam asked. "He knows better stories than anyone, even Paul, even you, Dad."

"Because we need to find other people," Mickey explained.

"Other people?" Adam repeated. "Other people? Are there other people, Dad?"

"There used to be," Mickey assured his son. "You've heard all the stories, about the Garden of Eden, about Jesus, about Jem and Littlehawk, about Byers and Langly and Frohike. You know about Cathy's father Robert who died before she was born, and how Walter came here after that. We think the aliens who brought us here would have brought other people, too. Uncle Nick is trying to find some of them."

"Why?"

Mickey glanced down at his middle son and wondered how to tell him that Noah was his cousin. "Because," he said at last, "cousins are too closely related to marry, and your children and Michel's and Vicky's and David's will all be cousins. By the time you're all grandparents, our people will be inbred, and babies will be dying, if we can't find other villages."

"I should have gone with Uncle Nick this year," Adam said.

Mickey shook his head. "Your mother would never allow it, even if I thought you were ready to do such a thing. And you're not."

"I killed a zagelle last week!" Adam protested. "I could protect Uncle Nick."

"But I need you here," Mickey told the boy, smiling down at him - well, not so much down anymore as across. "I need your help as well as Michel's to bring in enough food for our family for the winter." With relief, Mickey saw that Adam was going to accept this excuse. He'd better talk to Sydney tonight after the kids were asleep and make sure she told the boy the same thing when he asked her permission, as he certainly would, sooner or later. He turned away from the darkening sky where the stars he'd never gotten used to were breaking through the last of the sunset. "Let's go listen to Cathy and Yvette," he said, using the pressure of his hand on the boy's shoulder to turn him back toward the fire. "Uncle Nick isn't coming home yet tonight."

**********

"Cousins?" Lonato repeated the next evening when Adam told his friends what his father had said. "Mom and Lainie and Tierney are cousins."

"Closer than cousins," Noah corrected. "Mom told me that their mothers were iden- iden-ti-cal triplets." The unaccustomed words stumbled off his tongue. "She said they're almost like half-sisters, like Yvette and Cathy, only instead of having the same father, they have almost the same mother." He frowned, still trying to understand. "So you and I, Lonato, are closer than cousins, but not quite as close as brothers. That means you can't marry Desiree or Teena, and I can't marry Teena or Iya or Walela."

Lonato made a face. "Why would you want to marry Walela?" he asked. "All she does is cry."

Adam and Noah looked at each other and sighed. "She's still a baby," Adam pointed out. "She'll grow up. Dad says that's why Uncle Nick travels every summer, because we're growing up, and we'll need wives, and our sisters will need husbands."

"Oh." Lonato frowned, looking at Ariel, who sat next to her mother on the far side of the camp, learning to sew. "We can't marry the girls here?"

Noah laughed softly. "Are you in love, Lonato?" he teased.

"No!" Lonato denied. "I just - I mean - " He blushed under the older boys' teasing. "She's the prettiest girl here, and I will marry her!" he declared defiantly.

"You haven't made a spear or even been on a hunt yet," Adam scoffed. "What makes you think you can marry the prettiest girl in the village? Maybe she'll want to marry me."

Lonato realized he was being taunted, but couldn't resist the bait. "She likes me!" he told his friends defiantly. "And you know what our fathers say: we always have to let the girl choose. 'Only animals take mates against their will. Humans,'" he added, "'only mate by mutual consent. A man who takes a woman against her will is not a man,'" Lonato quoted his father.

"Then you'll have to go on a hunt," Noah said, "and hope you can kill something for her. If you give her the skin, maybe she'll accept you."

Adam shook his head. "First kill should go to his mother, for having borne and suckled him. You know that, Noah. You gave your first one to Tierney, didn't you?"

"Of course," Noah replied huffily. "It was just a jackalope." He smiled and wiggled the toes of his low boots. "Mother lined my moccasins with the hide. They're very soft inside now."

Lonato compressed his lips. "I'll make a kill," he said. "Father's teaching me how to straighten a branch for a spear shaft, and Mother has taught me to knapp stones for spearheads. I'll finish my spears soon, and my first kill won't be a jackalope." He raised his chin proudly. "My mother killed the first notlion here. I can kill one, too."

The other boys laughed. "Right," Adam said. "Lonato, the mighty hunter. Who do you think you are, anyway?"

Scowling as fiercely as his father could, Lonato insisted, "Mother's notlion skin is very soft. She and Father sleep on it every night. It may not be my first kill, but I'll get one, and I'll give the skin to Ariel, so she'll share it with me the rest of our lives." He stalked away, the other boys' laughter ringing hollowly in his ears.

**********

Kira's eyes were gentle on her eldest son as he passed, and Debi turned to see what she was looking at. "He's a lot like Paul," she murmured.

"Too much, in some ways," Kira agreed. "Sometimes I wonder if there's anything of me in him at all."

"He has your eyes, Kira," Ariel said. Kira and Debi both looked at her oddly, and the girl's cheeks burned. "He does!" she exclaimed.

"Spending a lot of time looking into his eyes, are you?" Debi teased her firstborn, mischief glinting in her blue eyes.

"Hey," Kira protested. "Don't discourage her, Debi. I rather like the idea of Ariel being my daughter-in-law."

"Mo-o-om!" Ariel protested. "Ick. He's such a - a boy!"

Debi laughed gently and hugged her. "That's okay, honey. Most men are boys when they're seven. They get over it."

"Says who?" Kira objected. "Paul's still ticklish, and he still doesn't fight fair when we argue."

Debi raised her eyebrows. "You two fight? I've never seen you."

This time Kira blushed, one hand following the curve of her stomach where her latest pregnancy swelled. "Seems like every time we fight, I get pregnant," she murmured.

Laughter bubbled from Debi's lips so suddenly that others in the camp turned to look at them. "Well, that's one way to win an argument," she observed merrily. "I'll have to try that with Eric."

"Mo-o-om! Eww, I don't want to know this stuff." Ariel blushed scarlet.

"Fine," Debi observed, "go stir the stew. Your father should be home soon." She watched as Ariel obediently rose to tend the pot bubbling on the edge of the fire. "She's growing up too fast," she sighed.

"The boys are starting to look at her already," Kira agreed, "and I can't fault them. She's very beautiful, Debi."

"I know," Debi admitted. "Is it wrong to be proud of your child?"

"If so, I'm just as bad as you are, and our husbands are worse than either of us," Kira told her. "I've seen the little dance Eric does, trying to keep between Ariel and all the boys of the camp, especially Lonato. And Paul...Paul has been all grins every time Lonato did something for the first time since - well, since he was born. Of course, he's like that with all our kids. He just takes it to extremes with Lonato."

Debi chuckled. "I know what you mean. And I'm afraid Eric's little dance is kinda my fault. I was the one who pointed out that Ariel's starting to get curves," she admitted.

"Oh, surely not! She's just a child." Kira exclaimed, turning to look critically at the girl who stood beside the fire, laughing at something Noah had told her.

"This is the seventh summer since she was born," Debi pointed out. "She's nearly fourteen in Earth years. She is young, but --" She broke off, shaking her head.

"Well, yeah, I guess she is starting to strain that dress at the breast and hip. Poor Lonato," Kira observed, watching her son seethe while Ariel and Noah flirted harmlessly.

Ariel looked past Noah's shoulder and flipped her long braid back over her shoulder, her eyes on the boy sitting beside Paul. Served him right, she thought, though she didn't know what for. Belatedly, she laughed at Noah's joke, not really having heard it, and checked to see if Lonato had noticed her laughing and having a good time in another boy's company.

Noah excused himself and went over to annoy Cathy McCall with his jokes and stories, and Ariel bent over the stew pot to stir it again, unaware that she had turned her back to Lonato just before she did.

Paul Ironhorse followed the direction of his son's gaze and sighed. Didn't girls know what those sorts of sights did to young men? True, Lonato could hardly be called a man yet, and his desire so far was only for the love of the girl, but very soon he would begin to want her body. Paul's eyes met his wife's across the campfire, and she seemed to read his thoughts in them, nodding her agreement. It was time to repeat the 'mutual consent' speech, and make sure Lonato knew what he was not allowed to do with a girl before they married, not even if she wanted to, because a man took responsibility for his offspring, and helped raise them.

Lonato gazed longingly at the high round buttocks so clearly outlined under the zagelle-skin dress Ariel wore, and shifted uncomfortably. It wasn't bad enough that she flirted with Noah, laughing at one of his lame jokes. No, then she had to bend over to stir the stew. Lonato thought of the bedfurs he'd sneaked out of the teepee that morning, taking them down to the lake to wash after his body had betrayed him in the night. He couldn't allow his mother to find the mess he'd made, and if he'd asked Iya to do it for him, she would have wanted to know what it was. Then she would have told their mother, and probably everyone else as well.

"Lonato." Paul's voice broke in on his son's turbulent thoughts. He sounded impatient, as if he had had to repeat himself.

Lonato looked around at his father guiltily. "Yes, Father?" he tried to say. All that came out was a high-pitched squeak. He felt his face burn, and tried again. "Yes, Fa-" he managed to get out before his throat tightened up and refused to make any sound whatsoever.

Paul raised his eyebrows at his eldest son while on his left his middle son, Wahya, laughed aloud, cutting it short when Paul reproved him with a look.

"Sounds like you'd better postpone the hunting trip, Paul," Norton chuckled.

"No!" Lonato protested. At least, he thought he did. Who had spoken? He looked around, unconsciously rubbing at his throat with one hand. Seeing no one, he turned back to Paul. "Dad, please. I'm ready. I know I am. I want to go hunting with you."

Paul smiled. "Your voice breaking isn't a terrible thing, Lonato," he assured him. "And it could take months for it to settle down and decide how deep it's going to be the rest of your life. I won't make you wait. We'll just change our strategy. You're on the verge of manhood. It's time for you to learn to hunt. You'll have a family of your own to provide for one day not too many years from now."

His father didn't often speak to him so gently; he tended to give orders. Lonato flushed with pride at being treated as an adult, even if it was as a subordinate one. He sneaked a glance at Ariel to see if she had noticed, but her father was teasing her in greeting, yanking gently on her thick black braid.

**********

Another summer of wandering had produced no other people, and Nick was heading back to the village beside the lake. He was beginning to get discouraged at the fruitlessness of his search, but after catching Noah washing his own bedding the previous spring, Nick knew that the need to find other people was about to become desperate. The oldest boys were becoming young men, and soon their fathers' warnings would not be enough to keep their physical urges in check. Please help me find someone soon, he prayed.

A herd of zagelles caught his attention. They stood all facing the same direction, with their heads up, ears forward, and tails switching wildly. They'd spotted a predator. Nick tilted his battered hat to better shade his eyes, trying to see what they were looking at, but all he could see was a large, rather hairy dog. He wasn't clear on the breed, but he was glad the aliens had brought dogs along. He whistled, startling the zagelles and bringing the dog's eyes to focus on him.

Instantly Nick knew he'd made a mistake. This dog was no domestic pet, but a predator. And Nick was now its prey.