Night fell and the battle continued to rage. The Paterian men and women were not affected by the dark, although it perhaps made them more vicious. By the middle of the night the aliens had stayed their attack and seemed to be regrouping back above the bounds of our atmosphere.


    The men on the battlefield did not trust the aliens to stay gone, so they took turns keeping watch. In the eerie quiet after the battle the gravely injured women could be heard on the ground and the men could not stand it. The rebel men collected the injured women and took them back to the underground caves, just as they did the injured men. The women were infuriated, but in no position to fight.


    I began to understand, through my family, that Paterian women believed themselves above simple things, like healing. A strong woman should either live or die on her own. The men did not agree and set to cleaning and patching the women’s wounds.


    My men patched up many women before theyy down to rest. All of them knew it could have been one our girlsying out there. Damien and his Brothers felt a duty to the injured women. All the men from the camps felt that way.


    Live to fight another day.


    The saying was from Earth and it was the first thing that I thought of when I understood the women’s strange beliefs. My family found the phrase usable and started saying it in Paterian to the stubborn women refusing healing. By way of themunication pads, the saying spread across the.


    “Do not die now!” Damienmanded one of them that was refusing to get on his transport. “Live to fight another day. There is no strength in dying in the sand right now! Help us defend this world when the sun rises!”


    The woman had listened, begrudgingly. She’d not appreciated Damien’s help, but she’d taken it. Most of the women were the same way, they’d never been in a situation like this.


    I had one tiny spot of relief. Both Hannah and Kennedy had left me messages. The girls were a little beaten up, but none were gravely injured. They had trusted the men’s weapons, although it had taken Hannah and Ra longer to realize their effectiveness. My girls had be scavengers, destroying the aliens that were knocked down by the men. It became a good system.


    “Tosu was here,” Kennedy wrote me, “as were Nu-reeh and Dinah. Tosu took a direct hit from a beam so it would not hit me. I dragged her behind arge boulder myself and sent men to tend herter. She lives, but she was badly damaged.”


    I felt for my child. Guilt could not im her. She had to stay strong in this fight.


    “Tosu made her choice,” I wrote to Kennedy quickly. “Whether you would like it or not she promised long ago to do this for me. Feel grateful and fight, but do not feel guilty. This was her choice.”


    I didn’t hear back from my youngest daughter, but I hoped that she would not be affected by this badly.


    In the quiet of the camp Rose and I settled on a warm stone to rest until the next battle began. No one believed it was over. We wanted to be at our post when we were needed. The warm stones were a fine ce for us to rest until the next day started.


    “You must eat,” Rose whispered to me in the pre-dawn of the next day.


    She was right and we moved to the food area. Men were there already, eating quickly so they would be ready. No one was really talking, we were all just waiting. Rose and I picked out our meal and finished as fast as we could.


    There was still no sound from outside. I saw men, heavily armed men,ing inside. They had obviously been on a night long watch, waiting for the attack that didn’te. All of them wore the same frustrated scowl on their face. It gave them the image of a dangerous gang and not a group of men we might have a pleasant meal with.


    “Sirs, can you tell me what is going on?” I asked as they passed.


    My voice came out more formal than I intended it to. The men’s demeanor was unnerving. Even Rose, who was now usually calm and collected in the face of uncertainty and stress was cringing beside me and gripping my hand. Our fearful reaction to them seemed to startle the men out of their funk.


    “Raif, rescued from the Barnaspound,” one of the men said attempting to rx and smile, “there isn’t much going on out there. We’ve been sent inside to rest until mid day. There is to be an announcement by the Administrators in a few moments.”


    I thanked the men for the information as Rose and I headed for the Administrators’ area.


    The announcement was brief. The Administrators listed names of families that had been killed. They told us that the attack had subsided for the moment and they told us to be ready for more.


    “Women on the other side of the world do not just build warships,” Hassar announced. “They also know how to operate them. It is not their favored way to fight, but the women have seen the devastation being done to our. They will take the fight to the warships above us.”


    The men and women around me murmured. This certainly was unusual. The women’s weapons had always been the first line of defense. If they’d decided to use the ships, that indicated how fierce the battle was.


    Everyone was dismissed. Those that had been on patrol or watch were sent to rest some. I was learning Paterian men, if they were healthy, had a great tolerance for sleep deprivation. Their recements had heard this already and were at their posts. Most of the men left in the camp were assigned to load transports with supplies. When the men on the front lines were sent home, their recements should be ready to leave.


    Rose and I were sent to the tailor’s shop to work.


    “I think they just want us out of the way,” Rose said quietly as we stitched and sewed.


    It made sense. I was not allowed out of the safety of our camp and Rose was too weak to do much fighting. This little part of the cave was a safe, out of the way ce for both of us.


    I felt my men in shes as I sat and sewed. They were taking a rest, while another part of their division took patrol. Their dreams were full of fighting and the wild prior day. I did feel theirfort in that their group had kept the aliens away from thepound. That sess let them sleep peacefully as the sun shone.


    It waster in the day when the fighting started again. It was different this time. The women had their ships waiting and went after the aggressors as soon as they breached our atmosphere. From what my men saw, it was like watching stars explode in the sky.


    The falling bits of alien craft streaked through the sky and mmed into the ground. Burning metal covered the desert around thepound in ces. The smell, at least ording to Kein, was horrific. He could barely stand the odor and kept his nose and mouth covered. On and off I felt his disgust at the rancid stench.


    The women’s counter measures made the alien attack scatter. In their rush to escape the Paterian women’s ships, the aliens identally found some of the rebel camps, including ours. It brought the fight to our door.


    The alien ships were damaged, many of them, and they crashnded in the jungle around us. The strange creatures evacuated their burning ships only to be attacked by the fierce, native creatures. Racks, scars, and the like saw the aliens as a new food source.


    The aliens scrambled to find somewhere to hide from the creatures and unfortunately they stumbled onto our camp. Thend outside the entrance was marked with trails where the men walked to the crops the men nted. If you were on foot, which the aliens were, the illusions didn’t protect us. We heard the war cry as they found our hidden entrance.


    The men and women left behind to defend the camp did their job well. The aliens were cut down before they breached our defenses. Rose and I waited in the infirmary again, but this time there was something to do.This content ? 2024 N?velDrama.Org.


    Men and women were brought to us injured, I thought, beyond repair. The Healers in the camp politely scoffed at my ignorance. There was much that could be done for them.