Passage

by Thorby Rudbek

  Several strangely garbed individuals of indeterminate sex came out of an alley about ten yards ahead of them and started walking towards them, taking up the entire width of the sidewalk. Latt nodded, oblivious to the gang.

  “I never had any such beliefs; none of my family told me anything beyond how to ssurvive on almost nothing to eat. I remember one–”

  Judy grabbed his arm and darted out into the street. A moment later they were standing on the broken white line, traffic continuing to move past them unconcernedly, just inches away. She found a gap in the traffic going the other way after a short wait, and rushed Latt quickly to the other side.

  “Why did you do that?” he asked in amazement. “We could have been hurt!”

  “That’s why I did it,” Judy countered. “See those people over there?” Latt looked where she was pointing and watched as the gang she had noticed surrounded another young couple. There was a lot of pushing and shoving, and finally the group moved on. Behind them, the couple huddled together and then walked on uncertainly.

  “I didn’t realise,” Latt sounded horrified as he looked for signs of injury. “They sseem to be all right.”

  “They were lucky; the thugs must have been in a good mood. They only scared them.”

  Latt walked on beside her in silence. Finally Judy remembered that he had been about to tell her something when she had rushed them across the road.

  “I’m sorry, I interrupted you.”

  “Oh yes,” Latt responded. “In the early days of my time with the Controllers, when I had not yet learned that making friends is a misstake, because you meet each fellow human only once, I met an older man. At least he was greyer than I, so I pressumed he was older. He told me of a legend that said that many years ago, before the Narlavs came, we had mighty friends who came from the sky. According to the legend, they promised to return and free us from the oppressors. It never made any sense to me; if they were so mighty, why had they let the Controllers come in the first place? Then I discovered that the Narlavs had ships that went up into the sky. I figured the sstory must have become twisted over the years; there were no mighty friends, just the invaders themselves. In comparisson with your Earth religions, I suppose the Controllers must be likened to the Devil, taking over the world.”

  Judy looked at him, fascinated by the story.

  “Was there anything else?”

  “No, it was really short on details, he didn’t know when they would come, or anything useful like that. That’s one of the reasons why I couldn’t believe him. He sseemed like he was hanging on to the idea like a life-raft.”

  “That’s what a lot of people use religion for.”

  “Ruth has some kind of belief; perhaps it is a religion. She spoke to me about it when we were stuck on Mars. She said there is a ‘Purpose to Life’. Somehow she sseemed like she really knew it. It wasn’t like a life-raft to her, more like your contact lenses; it helped her ssee life more clearly.”

  “She must be a very special person,” Judy said, sounding vaguely jealous.

  Latt agreed, not noticing her lack of self-confidence as it took centre stage because of his complimentary references to Isaac’s pretty wife.

  “Yes. I remember how Isaac and Terry worked for an hour or more to revive her, when she started to ssink into a coma after the abduction.”

  Judy insisted on getting a detailed account, which took Latt a few more minutes. Once he had finished, she found herself marvelling at the story.

  “How do you feel about her now?” she asked hesitantly.

  Latt looked over and noticed her expression, which seemed to be masked, as it was when he first met her.

  “She seemss to remind me of my mother; at least I think that’s who it was. You know, when I was very ssmall. I think she died about that time.”

  Judy walked on in silence, intensely relieved by his statement, and feeling more than a little foolish about her insecurities concerning her companion, who, she suddenly admitted to herself, was now the most important person in her life.

  Latt abruptly continued, after a couple of minutes.

  “That’s about all I can – oh, yes, there was one more thing. He said the mighty friends were called the ‘Shoo-Nann’.”

  “Hmm…” Judy looked for the right street to turn down. The crowd jostled and blocked the sidewalk as several men stopped outside a brightly lit entrance.

  Latt looked and saw large, back-lighted boards on each side of the entrance, covered with pictures of naked women in lewd poses.

  “What kind of place is this?”

  Judy turned and recognised it immediately.

  “I’m afraid it’s another of the disappointments you will have with this world,” she began reluctantly as she hustled them past. “Some people think that the body – especially the female body – is just for entertainment. They would not understand how you and I felt at Niagara.”

  Latt put his arm around her, enjoying her company as much or more than ever. “That was new to me, as is this concept. But somehow I think there is something very wrong here.”

  “Oh, there’s worse,” Judy assured him softly. “There are those who will take money from another to allow them access to their body. In one night they may do this many times, with many different people. Usually they don’t even know them.”

  Latt stopped walking and looked at her in amazement and horror.

  “They make money by doing this? What kind of person would be able to rent their body for money? What sort of people would seek out ssuch emptiness?”

  “I don’t know, Latt.” Judy sighed. “I’m sorry, but there is much about the world that I don’t understand. In fact, I don’t want to understand this stuff; I don’t want to even know about it. I would prefer never to be reminded of it.”

  “But shouldn’t we explain to them what they are missing? Shouldn’t we tell them that they are degrading themselves?”

  Judy thought about his questions in all seriousness. I never thought to question it. I just accepted the sickness around me. Now I see, through Latt’s eyes, how sick our world is. He can’t comprehend it, but neither can I. We really are alike. Judy looked a little further along the sidewalk as the crowd ahead thinned out, and saw a long-legged girl leaning on the roof of an imported American sports car about thirty yards ahead. Despite the cold weather she was wearing very skimpy clothing, leaving little to be imagined. She was smiling as she leaned forward, making the most of her cleavage as the man inside the vehicle checked out her attractions.

  “I wouldn’t advise it,” was all Judy said.

  Latt saw the girl then, and he slowed his walk, taking in the transaction in progress. He and Judy were just passing the bright taillights when they faded as the man lifted his foot from the brake pedal. Suddenly the car pulled away, tires squealing, leaving the girl standing with an expression of disgust on her face.

  “May I ask you a question?” Latt began, before Judy even realised his intention.

  The bleached blonde turned and looked at him with surprise as she took in his subtly foreign appearance.

  “I don’t do groups,” she responded abruptly, casting a disparaging glance at Judy.

  “No, that’s not it,” Latt denied hastily. “I want to know if you think what you do is an insult to yourself.”

  The lanky girl’s eyes flashed, showing her long, false eyelashes.

  “Buzz off, Mister, before I get my friends to help you along.”

  Judy pulled hard on his arm, and he stepped forward to keep his balance. Despite this, he managed to verbalise his last comment before the girl turned away.

  “You have ssold your freedom for comforts. The price is too cheap!”

  “Cheap?” The girl spat at him. “Too much for you to afford, that’s for certain,” she said with contempt as she walked off to try another location.

  “Latt,” Judy whispered as she hurried him along. “Don’t do that.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because she proba
bly has a pimp watching her.”

  “What’s that?”

  “A pimp is a man who manages several girls like that one, for a percentage of their earnings. He protects them and makes sure that they get the best paying customers; he also keeps them from quitting, if he can, by threats and violence if he thinks it necessary. He might’ve come to chase us off.”

  Latt looked around, studying the faces in the crowd around them, trying to see if he could spot her pimp.

  “I won’t do it again,” he promised. “I can ssee now that my people are freer in their minds than these twisted ones. At least on Rhaal, they are slaves, and they do the work they do to stay alive. These ones turn themselves into slavess in a world of freedom!” Latt exclaimed. Several people were watching them now, and he realised this just as he felt Judy’s hand squeeze his in warning. He lowered his voice and walked faster. “We were like animals, used to work the fields in your history. These are less than animals; they destroy themselves,” he breathed in disgust in her ear.

  Judy found the street sign and sighed with relief as they turned the corner.

  “Latt, it’s not that simple. What if my mother had not come home that night? I would have hated myself even more than I did. I would have felt like trash. Remember what I said about pimps. Sometimes they rape a girl and then convince the poor kid that she is not worthy of returning to her old life.” Her blue eyes glistened as she attempted to explain it to him. “Maybe something like that happened to her,” she jerked her head back, indicating the prostitute they had just met. “When she was young. Maybe she hates herself much more than I ever hated ‘Miss Brisson’. You don’t know what motivates her.”

  She found the entrance to the restaurant and let Latt open the door for her. Latt didn’t say anything else until they had been escorted to their seats.

  “I’m ssorry. Nothing is ever really ssimple, is it? Except our fight against the Controllers.” He reached over the tiny table and took her hands in his. “How did that kind of business get started?” He tilted his head back towards the entrance.

  Judy shook her head slowly to indicate her total ignorance.

  “Can we talk about something else now?”

  “Ssure.” Latt smiled back. “What would you like to talk about?”

  “How about – what’s on the menu?” Judy grinned, holding up the beautifully printed laminated folder as their private joke about Latt’s addiction to food restored their good humour at last.

  ***

  “I wonder how they’re doing?” Ruth shook her head, flipping droplets of water from her still wet hair to tease her husband, as he watched her walk out of the bathroom. She had draped a huge dark red towel around her, covering herself from her neck down to her mid thighs.

  “Right now I expect they’re sampling some of that excellent food at that restaurant in London that Terry took us to back in the summer,” Isaac responded, ducking and grinning, as he finished dressing. “I thought you’d have that all figured out, anyway.”

  “I’m no mind reader, not like that Karen you were telling me about, but I can tell you they need this time to figure out each other, so they can realise they were made for each other!”

  “You mentioning Karen reminded me – I’ve been meaning to tell you – I’ve been thinking about her, and someone associated with her – they are a couple too, I’m sure. Now, that other couple – his name is Richard, and Karen.” Isaac replied, as he watched his wife fixing her hair with one hand as she held the towel in place with the other. “It took me quite a long time, and I had to piece it together like a jigsaw – a bit from Leroy, a bit from Ed, a bit from Eric even – and of course some from our rather repressed Judy.”

  “And?” Ruth turned to face him from the mirror, her eyes sparkling as she waited a bit dramatically for his ‘revelation’.

  “Ed thinks they may come back. Mostly because Karen told him they would not.” Professor Hardy settled back against the pillows, and waited whilst Ruth cuddled up beside him, warm and damp in her towel. “You probably think that’s typical – the girl was not believed, just because she’s so obviously female.”

  “I’d expect that from Baynes! He’s a bit of a throwback. But Karen and Richard were right to leave this place. They got nothing but abuse and were treated like criminals – and what did they do to deserve that?” Ruth murmured, her cheek against his shoulder.

  “I didn’t know you knew so much of the story already – I should have guessed. That’s not Ed’s version of the events, that’s for sure!” Isaac kissed her forehead. “You probably got it all from Judy, I suppose?”

  “Some from her, yes. Actually, I learned a lot from Leroy. He told me about how much damage that Citadel could have done but didn’t do in the big showdown before they left. He even admitted that if he had been on the receiving end of the hounding the NUIT team, the police and the military gave that mysterious couple, he would probably have taken great pleasure in killing the entire force – and blowing up all thirty tanks on site, not just two.”

  “Mr. Fraser comes across as such a calm sort of guy; I guess you can never tell, huh?”

  “They all tell me their deepest secrets – you know how it goes!” Ruth smiled and closed her eyes as she found her husband’s shoulder as comfortable as ever.

  “Deepest secrets… My darkest, deepest secret is that Latt knows more about Physics than I do. And I’m telling you because no one else would believe me!”

  “And I’m about to believe something that lessens the status of the ‘Greatest Physicist I Ever Loved’?” Professor Hardy’s wife poked him in the ribs, in the exact spot where she knew from experience she would get a great reaction. Sure enough, he flailed about until he managed to grab her hand and kiss the offending finger.

  “I only get respect when I don’t deserve it!” He murmured into her curly locks under his chin.

  Ruth thought about the other aspects of the conversation she had enjoyed with Leroy, about his growing attachment for the Canadian flying genius Harold Morton and his wife, and especially the Morton kids. There’s someone else that I need to do some matchmaking for!

  “So,” Isaac continued. “Richard and Karen – exactly how do they fit in with Latt, his people, and the Narlav ‘Controllers’, do you think?”

  “There’s no connection. Yet.” Ruth sat up. The towel slipped down a little, exposing one shoulder, but she took no notice as she looked into her husband’s brown eyes. “But there’s always a reason for things like this. There are no coincidences.”

  “We’ve proved that enough times!” Isaac put one hand on the bare shoulder and squeezed as he saw the emotion in her eyes.

  “So, do you think they are our enemies?” Ruth looked worried now, as she considered the implications of treachery and how it seemed to contradict even Ed’s rather frustrated and consequently warped opinion of the platinum blonde beauty that had ultimately defeated him.

  “I can’t tell. That fragment of material left over from the artefact Judy ‘tested into oblivion’ is about as informative as the congealed mess left over from Richard’s laser weapon, after the army dug it out from under the remains of Mr. Hawk’s ’copter. Richard and Karen left a trail of bodies across the east, but a whole bunch of others lived, when they might easily have been neutralised to keep them from reporting on the movements of the ‘secret agents from an undisclosed country’, making their return to Citadel much easier, much safer.” Isaac paused for a moment. “In any case, I wish they hadn’t left.”

  “You do?”

  “That Citadel of theirs sounds so advanced compared to what we salvaged from Mars. If we had access to that kind of technology, we could really make some progress. As it is, I feel like David preparing to go against Goliath, except there aren’t any smooth pebbles in the brook. I think I’m going to need Latt back very soon to make some of those pebbles. I’m sorry, this break you planned for him will be brought to an abrupt end – I’ll let them have a few more days in England.” Isaac sl
ipped his hand up into her curly hair and winked as she continued to look into his eyes. “I can’t do this reactor thing without some microgravity products – you know, things that can only be made in orbit – and he’s the only one who can just walk in to NASA and pass all the pre-flight requirements like you’d pass the stipulations for ‘Wife of the Century’!”

  Ruth tipped her head to one side and fluttered her eyelashes at this, though the thought of curtailing this ultimate emotion therapy for her dear friend Judy and her even dearer friend Latt saddened her intensely.

  “I know you live for these experiences, my Dear.” Professor Hardly sighed, proud of his wife’s almost obsessive compulsion with helping others become as happy as she was.

  “Judy needs him so much, and although he doesn’t know it, I think Latt needs her even more! I can’t believe I got Ed to let the two of them go, especially as he is still quite ‘interested’ in her.”

  “I know you know it, but I’ll say it again and again – ‘you decorated my life’ – and you’ve still got the emotional paint brushes and rollers, so you’d better keep using them.” Professor Hardy’s voice cracked a little as he reminded her of his conviction that she was his personal angel. “There’re so many other lives that need decorating, like Mr. Baynes himself. I’ll just try and keep them, and us, free from Narlav oppression, so they can come by and see you, one by one!”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Unpredicted combinations will produce unpredictable results – Ibernal

  Kirrina stuck her checklist under her arm and watched Paranak insert a new Macral in a panel near the floor while he still observed the display above, a feat achievable only by someone with arms like a gorilla. Or a Narlav, of course.

  He finished the task and turned to see what she was doing. “All operating Macrals are now functioning at maximum effectiveness,” he announced. “Why do you not work also?”

  “I was just thinking about this ship. You said that the technology in it is based on the same principles as those which govern your own Pakak and Warrnam, but that none of the ships you saw were equipped with such sophisticated components and devices, and all were built with an exterior skin of high-strength alloys with conventionally structured interiors.” She watched as he moved to indicate his understanding and agreement with what she had said thus far. “But this ship and its associated components were designed hundreds of years ago. It would seem that the Arshonnans are way ahead of the Narlavs.”