Chapter Three: The Locals — Part 1

Several weeks had passed on the new world without event, Susan and her people growing comfortable in their quiet, relatively safe environment. On a night darker than any experienced on Earth, Susan woke up in Robert’s arms, the scent of his fear burning her nose. Having made a simple sling hammock from dead reeds and vines, Robert had hung it midway up a couple of young trees, meant to be a temporary fixture while the family finished building the home higher up. This was the first night that Susan feared for her safety.

She sat up carefully, looking straight into the eyes of something sentient. Robert’s eyes were locked on a face too alien to interpret. Susan forced herself to calm down. A bizarre and beautiful creature looked back at them, trembling as if it were taking the biggest risk of its short and otherwise uneventful life. It had no pigment to its exoskeleton, its long, slender legs moved nervously about, ready to strike or flee, every touch exploring the potentials of the ground. It looked too delicate to pose a threat, but Susan was cautious – three sets of fangs, each set within the other and designed to draw prey back into the mouth, kept her on edge. Still, there was something comical about its motions – it seemed too nervous to sit still, too young and inexperienced to pose a significant threat.

It looked like a frightened spider carrying a netted lantern – more likely to curl into a tiny ball and hope to be left alone than to strike. The lantern was a hollow glass sphere hung in a translucent woven net, filled with glowing liquid that brightened and dimmed randomly. The creature had only seven legs. Two twitching antennae whipped around and over its eye sockets. Susan acted on a hunch, using telepathy, hoping that direct mental communications would transcend language boundaries.

Do you need help?

I’m A’joshi. I can’t hurt you. I’m lost. Antans says to trust you. I want my mother.

It had pure thoughts, almost free of abstraction, to go with its glassy body, confirming Susan’s suspicion that she was dealing with a child. The differentness of those thoughts was also disconcerting. A’joshi’s content was more than understandable, but there was no mistaking the thoughts for human.

Robert, however, answered for her. I’d hate to tell you this, kid, but we just got here, and we haven’t a clue where you come from. We can send people out in every direction until we find your people, but not until first light. Sleep here, Susan and I can watch over you.

It’s not allowed for A’joshi to go out in the dark. Dangerous things live in the dark . . . Bad things.

We’ll take care of you. Go to sleep, we’ll make sure you don’t get hurt. Susan said.

It settled down under her hammock, completely trusting, and Susan stepped down next to it, standing on a the festering remains of a fallen tree branch so she could guard it while it slept. Her eyes and senses scanned the watery marsh, an absolute darkness with overtones of infrared and ultraviolet, the optical merging with a sort of passive sonar. Sonic reverberations gave her surroundings a layer of depth and substance that felt almost inhuman to her. She was sure that none of A’joshi’s bad things would get by her senses.

“The sun will rise soon. Go to sleep, the child won’t hurt anything.” Susan said, calming Robert’s nerves.

Robert didn’t get back to sleep. He just lay there, staring into the fog. A’joshi, on the other hand, felt completely safe with Susan taking care of its. It rolled onto its back, the tips of its legs and palpi closing over its midsection, like a spider in its final hours. Susan was momentarily worried, not wanting to be blamed by the child’s parents for its death. Susan put her worries aside; it didn’t look dead, its breather gills were still moving rhythmically.

She kissed Robert on the forehead. “I love you. I’ve never said that before – not to anybody.”

Robert’s eyes lit up with a slight bioluminescent glow that faded almost as quickly. “That’s right – you were one of the Blues. How did you deal with the loneliness?”

“I chose to remain mostly celibate. Class Ones are reassigned to different stations randomly and frequently. It doesn’t take long to quit caring about other people when you aren’t in one place long enough to get to know anybody. I focused on my patients. When I was reassigned to a new duty – at the Banks – I reacted predictably. They took me into a torture chamber, and expected me to remove a patient’s liver without anesthesia. I was brought before The Authority for aggressive interference.”

“That means you killed a superior.”

“I brutally slaughtered a superior. As I recall, I did it angrily and with a slow thoroughness that most people would have mistaken for psychosis. They actually offered me a position as an interrogator at the Banks. When I declined, they strapped me to the same table I had tied my superior to while working him over, and I stayed there for days while I was on trial, wondering when the torture would begin.”

“How did you miss out on a public execution?”

“Satrap Ivanski bought me from The Authority an hour before. They agreed to sell me, figuring this planet would be worse for me than the Banks. My psychological profile confirmed that I couldn’t be broken, and that if the opportunity arose, I’d kill again, so they figured they could use that to their advantage. So after Ivanski’s medics washed the waste off of my body, and gav me a fresh set of clothes, I went straight from the torture chamber to the cryochamber, and was, at my request, placed with the Reds on Satrap Ivanski’s Larger Cargo.”

“Small miracles are truly wonderful.” Robert said, pulling her close.

After a long pause, Robert spoke in quiet tones, “I fell in love with a Class Three. We kept it secret for three years while we tried to find a way to raise her into the Greens. They caught us in a Satrap’s Quarters, making love, of course. She went to the Banks, the sent me here.”

“Five years ago, give or take a month, she would have been dead.” Susan said, nearly crying.

“I know. I can’t change that.”

“The Banks are a way of straining out those considered too smart for their class or too rebellious for the system.” Susan said. “Genetic purity, class purity, and mental purity are the three goals of processing at the Banks.” Susan added, embittered. “It’s in the training manual.”

Robert shook from the cold chills of emotion. Susan held his hands in hers, keeping her eyes on the surroundings.

“We aren’t part of that anymore, and we won’t ever be again.” She said, nearly choking on her anger. “I don’t care what it takes.”

A spindly leg touched Robert’s cheek. Concealed Under the edge of a deadly looking claw was a warm pad of soft fur. I feel your pain, and all of Antans, the world we stand on, knows your sorrow. I woke up because I’m afraid, but now I’m worried. Why are you sad?

Susan explained as best as she could. The Cynosure will be here some day, and we’ll undoubtedly be destroyed. We’re no longer pure by their standards. Susan could feel a sort of confusion from A’joshi’s mind, so she tried again. We have to confront our own people some day, and they’ll find how we are now to be unacceptable. When they come for us they’ll destroy whatever we created here. Our numbers are too small to stop them.

I can’t help you now, but when I get big, I’ll fight by your side. A’joshi said, trying to sound brave.

Susan was quick to scold A’joshi, to warn him as well. This is our problem. We’ll not let you or any of your people get involved.

You’ll probably change your mind when you meet with C’rona. A’joshi didn’t say who C’rona was. Instead, he went back to sleep.

Morning was many hours off, so Susan continued to watch the land while Robert and A’joshi slept. She really didn’t feel a need for sleep, though she did find herself kind of resting parts of her brain, like a cat napping. The slightest click or sound or feeling of something too close would stir her senses back to full intensity. The child’s safety was important, Susan had no desire to find out what would happen between A’joshi’s people and her own if she failed to keep him safe.

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