Catastrophe in the Firesnake

by Rayner Ye

  That night, Inga slept soundly beside her on the feather-bag they shared. Noomy Foster stroked her daughter’s course ginger hair and kissed her freckled forehead. Try as she might, she couldn’t sleep. She tossed and turned because Yasmin occupied the forefront of her mind.

  She rolled out of bed, careful not to wake Inga, and padded to her greenhouse. She reached for her toolkit, hanging on a hook, and took it to her new flowerbed, then thinned out the seedlings.

  Keeping her hands busy usually allowed her mind to calm, but Delisa’s words had left a bitter taste in her mouth. Had Yasmin died of smoke inhalation? Had the flames burned her? Did the crowd of party rebels stampede over her in their haste to get out? Or had she survived? Was she free?

  She polished her tools before putting them away, washed her hands and trudged towards her favourite bench under the roses. Stomach tight, she looked around and tried not to cry. Who knew if Delisa was watching. Hopefully, Aedre would never seek her out.

  Hunched over on the bench, she withdrew into herself.

  A bird sang overhead. A lullaby Noomy Foster used to sing to the girls when they were small—safe in your mother’s arms, under the stars.

  Her breath hitched. Lips slightly parted, she focused on the bird’s location.

  A blackbird sat on top of the arch, staring at her with shiny eyes. It hopped onto a climbing rose and stretched out its wings. Etched in white feathered-down were three letters on each inner-wing—YAS MIN.

  Noomy Foster’s muscles stiffened before she forced them to relax. She rose to her feet and went about picking dead leaves and flowers from around the shrubs. What should she do? Go and tell Delisa? But the bird might have information about Yasmin. Perhaps she could use the leaves to write a message asking if Yasmin was alive.

  If Delisa watched, she’d notice her strange behaviour. If Noomy Foster could detect the drone’s vantage point, she could block the view while scratching a message in the dirt. But mosquito drones could hide anywhere in the vegetation.

  She threw the plant matter into the compost. How could she tell the bird she was being watched? She couldn’t communicate with Aedre, but she could look for signs from her. Stupid, stupid. She should tell Delisa right away.

  She sat by the waterfall, and the bird flitted into a nearby tree. Noomy Foster nodded at it. If only one of Delisa’s larger video drones would drift towards them so that Aedre knew Glass City expected her. If the bird did anything else out of the ordinary, a drone or guard might vaporise it.

  The bird opened its wings again. This time the word ‘I’m’ appeared on the underside of one wing, and ‘Yasmin’ appeared under the other.

  Pulse racing and rejuvenated by adrenaline, Noomy Foster tapped her chest with a fist. Yasmin was alive!

  But the warmth radiating her body cooled. Yasmin shouldn’t come to Glass City, even like this. But if she told Yasmin outright, Delisa would take Inga away, perhaps even kill her.

  Noomy Foster got up and walked closer to the bird. Keeping her gaze on the waterfall, she made up a song. “Come because you love me so, come because you care, but they’re watching you and me, my dear, although you’re unaware. The stars are gleaming on your face. The wind howls through your soul. I know you’re here, but I don’t want you, just let me, please grow old.”

  She walked towards her living quarters and looked back towards the waterfall. The bird no longer sat in the tree.

  A sudden giddiness overcame her, and she stumbled towards her bed, then lay down.

  Yasmin, her first child and biological daughter, was probably free, safe and well. She’d used Aedre’s form of travel, so Roobish’s prophesies must’ve been right.

  Inga turned over, her face centimetres from Noomy Foster’s. “Noomy.” She reached her fingertips towards Noomy Foster’s chin, then combed them through the ends of her hair. That was Yasmin’s form of comfort, not Inga’s. “I can’t let you grow old here. I’ll be careful.”

  Noomy Foster clutched her hands in hers. “Oh, Inga, my dear.” ‘Yasmin,’ she mouthed nodding. “I hope Aedre never tries to free the women of Glass city. Otherwise, I’ll have to tell Delisa, the director.”

  “Why? Noomy Boomy.”

  Noomy Foster smiled and let out a sigh of relief. Only Yasmin had ever called her that. She could see her gaze in Inga’s pupils.

  “Because Delisa will take you away from me again if I keep any secrets. Maybe kill you.”

  “Do you think Yasmin’s dead?”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  “I have faith.”

  “That’s good to know. I think Yasmin is free too. I think she’s safe. Night night, Noomy Boomy.”

  ***

  Delisa sent for Inga and Noomy Foster to visit her at her house on Mount Crone. During their journey, Noomy Foster clutched her moonstone pendant and repeated a silent mantra—‘Please let us be safe.’

  This time, Delisa didn’t meet them at the maglev terminal, and the guards escorted them straight up the elevator shaft to her Glass Dome. When they left the central column, the guards didn’t lead them farther into Delisa’s home, but stood to attention, frozen to the spot.

  In red stilettos and a black catsuit, Delisa stood seven feet away, between them and the Biluglass shell. Hands on her hips, she leaned to one side, sticking out a boney hip. All Biluglass furniture absent, her home resembled a fighting arena, with the wild cat waiting in the middle.

  She crossed her arms and held her chin high. “You disobeyed me.”

  Noomy Foster’s heartbeat accelerated. She swallowed. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  A gigantic airSphere flashed open between them, and presented an image of the blackbird with outstretched wings displaying the words, ‘I’m Yasmin.’

  Inga’s eyes had rounded.

  Noomy Foster’s song rang all around. “Come because you love me so, come because you care, but they’re watching you and me, my dear, although you’re unaware. The stars are gleaming on your face. The wind howls through your soul. I know you’re here, but I don’t want you, just let me, please grow old.”

  “Now, do you know what I mean?”

  “Y-yes. I’m sorry—”

  “Guards, seize them!”

  The guards clanged handcuffs onto their wrists, then took them into the lift. It descended to the basement, and its doors opened on caverns.

  Inga sobbed. She attempted to move her arms. A guard shoved her, then steered her in the opposite direction.

  “Noomy!” Inga threw her a glance.

  The guard yanked her farther away.

  A wave of heat went through Noomy Foster. Her eyes filled with tears. “Inga! I love you! Don’t give up! Someone will save us!”

  “You’re being shipped to different planets, Foster.” Her guard sneered. “No one will save you. Glass City doesn’t want you anymore.”

  Chapter 18*YuFu

  YuFang bolted upright, causing the rowboat to rock side to side. Although the rain had stopped, the sky was still as mud-brown as the river and land.

  Yasmin folded her umbrella and stared at him with large, chocolate eyes. “Are you alright?”

  “Didn’t expect it to stop raining. That was a sudden jolt of reality.”

  “You don’t think the visions are real?”

  “They’re real.”

  Yasmin’s eyes fixated on the riverbank where two boys plucked water snails from the silt and tossed them into a basket. “I hope Aedre didn’t die in that eruption. What if she’s still alive and needs our help?”

  “The area’s off-limits, Yasmin. The volcano’s still erupting, and those pyroclastic flows are the most deadly.” He inhaled, then puffed out his cheeks. “I think she’s dead. A tsunami down Haunted River flooded Monkey Forest, followed by deadly ash clouds throughout her village.

  “I hope you’re wrong about Aedre dying. Did you get any closer to discovering who YuFu is?”

  “I’m YuFu. Don't know who YuFang is anymore. Can you call me YuFu fro
m now on? Don’t wanna be related to that psycho.”

  Yasmin saluted. “Yes, Sir. I mean, YuFu.”

  “Dunno how I killed all those people or did what I did. Someone’s been toying with my memory.”

  “Replaced your memory with YuFang’s?”

  He nodded and looked into his empty hands.

  “What did you see on your journey this time?”

  Tears stung his eyes, and he sniffed them back. “My kids.”

  “Whoa! You have kids?”

  He nodded.

  “What were they doing?”

  Images of his two teenagers wearing hovershoes and dancing in the air with other girls their age returned to his mind. “Taking a dance class.”

  “How did they look? Mixed blood kids are so cute.”

  “Like you?”

  She blushed, and a dimple appeared in her cheek.

  He chuckled. Was it true that Yasmin's Jerjen mother was artificially inseminated with a foreigner’s sperm?

  His stomach hardened, and he flinched. He had other kids too. Xuxu had discussed them with Tao Tao. They'd had sex also. They were an item—seven years after his disappearance. “That’s enough about me. Tell me about your journey.”

  Her words tumbled out. “I saw my noomy in our garden dome. She looked so sad. I changed into a blackbird and asked for the words, ‘I’m Yasmin,’ written in white feathers inside my wings.”

  He grinned. Ingenious. “She read them?”

  Her eyes danced as she gazed at the meandering river. “She did. But she sang how dangerous it was for me to be there, and that Glass City was watching her closely. She told me to let her grow old and not come back.”

  YuFu drew his eyebrows together.

  “I even overtook my sister’s body and whispered to her as we lay in bed. She knew it was me. But she was expecting it. Glass City isn’t ignorant about Aedre and her form of travel.”

  “That’s worrying.”

  They pushed themselves to the river bank. As they walked back to their log cabin, Yasmin talked non-stop about her plans to save the noomies and girls of Glass City.

  He half-listened as he imagined showing up at his old home and getting back with Xuxu. If she took him back again, he’d forgive the fact she’d been sleeping with his brother. Hopefully, the two of them weren’t in love.

  The next day as the rain beat down, YuFu rolled up the living room rug to take with them. His leg was gaining strength, so they power-walked to the sleepy stilted village and went out in the boat. He lay the rug in the bottom and gestured to it. “Wanna go first?”

  “Not today. I need you and Apek to advise me on my plan of action for recording evidence at Glass City. Don’t wanna get vaporised by a laser drone while I’m there.”

  “You mustn’t get your ma or sister into trouble either.”

  “I won’t look for them until it’s safe. Glass City’s security’s superior to Bamdar’s.”

  “Wise words. We’ll talk about that later when we get back to the cabin. I can go to Glass City too. Want me to go for you?”

  “You might get zapped.”

  “I don’t mean now. But another time?”

  “Maybe.”

  “You know Aedre took over technology and androids. Might be something to consider.”

  She rubbed her hands and nodded.

  YuFu settled into the relaxation. “Take me to the place where I used to earn my salary before coming to Kuanja. Turn me into a tiny fly and put me in a position where I’m safe from harm and out of view.”

  He sat on the inside of a curved window. Accustomed to compound eyes, he went out of focus until the image became one. Stars all around. What lay behind? He couldn’t turn, so he lifted off the surface and flew to the other side of the glass sphere. Tushing’s brown storm cloud roiled ahead.

  A heaviness expanded in his core, and dizziness overcame him. This was what he did! For years and years—diamond fishing for Tanmixan.

  He didn’t recognise the fisherwoman with indigo dreadlocks at the control panel beneath. But, he needed to confirm what had happened to him. “If one of my colleagues is talking to another person right now, let me occupy that other person’s body so I can talk to my colleague.”

  He sat at a stainless steel table in a bar. Out the window lay a grey landscape with stones, silver puddles and streams. A purple Fenuk sat across the table from him. He remembered him—Rex.

  YuFu thrust his chest out and asked in a firm voice. “You remember YuFu?”

  Rex froze for an instant, glass halfway to his mouth, then swigged. “Yeah, man. He was my buddy.”

  YuFu looked down at his orange hand, clutching a glass of spirit. Was it okay to eat and drink? He let go of his grip on the glass. “What happened to him?”

  “You’re joking, right?”

  “No.”

  Rex twisted his glass with long slender fingertips. “Vessel got hijacked. I was out fishing when it happened. We were arguing as usual.”

  “Fuck! Really?”

  Rex frowned and leaned back.

  “What did they tell his wife?”

  “What they always tell them when men get lost.”

  “What?”

  Rex sniggered and looked YuFu up and down. “What’s going on with you today, man? How long you been working here?”

  “Uh.”

  “Ten years?”

  “Around. Just not heard of this happening before.”

  Rex leaned forward, black eyebrows wrinkling his indigo forehead. “It happens all the time.”

  “Come on, Rex. What’d they tell her?”

  Rex sighed and lowered his gaze. “They told her his oxygen tank exploded when he was out pumping liquid methane on Tai.”

  YuFu hesitated and forced himself to come closer. “Did they wipe his memory and replace it with a different one?”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Rex waved at a waiter. “You know the protocol.” The waiter came. “Same again.”

  Rex must’ve noticed YuFu’s shocked expression. He laughed. “What’s wrong with you, man? You know Tanmixan resets memory devices.”

  “What if YuFu remembered?”

  “Doubt he survived the hijack. He had a huge haul of diamonds on there.”

  Now it made sense why his false memory made him believe he was a fugitive who stole diamonds from the Hwaider Brotherhood. He rubbed his chin and gazed through the window at the lunar landscape and puddles of liquid methane. “Let’s pretend he survived, his memory came back, and he went back to his family to tell them he was alive.”

  “Don’t think that’s gonna happen.”

  “But what if?”

  “Tanmixan would assassinate him as soon as he re-entered Mayleedian territory.”

  He grimaced and rubbed his forehead. How could he return to Xuxu and his beloved children? They belonged to him, not his brother.

  ***

  After Yasmin went to bed, YuFu lay on the warm rug in the living room, and Apek inserted needles into various places on his back, neck, arms, and legs. “Relax into it,” Apek said. “Breathe and release the tension.” Apek left him alone, then returned and took the needles out. They drank green tea on the porch, and Apek identified the different nocturnal birds from their songs. “Tell me about it,” Apek said.

  YuFu shook his head to alertness. “What?”

  “What happened on your venture? Something bad?”

  YuFu sighed. “I was a diamond fisher for Tanmixan.”

  Apek raised an eyebrow.

  “Mayleeda’s only energy cooperation. They use the diamonds for space-based solar panels, but also sell them on the black market.”

  Apek pinched his lips between thumb and index finger.

  “All the diamond fishers have a second memory chip inserted, as well as bio-weaponry. If we get into trouble, we have to wipe our real memories for the sake of not giving away Tanmixan’s secret.”

  “I cannot believe it. Mayleeda of all planets?”

  YuFu nodded.

>   “The utopia of civilisation?” Apek stared at his palms as if they had the answers. “Just crazy. How can you get back to your family?”

  “That’s the problem. Tanmixan would assassinate me if I returned. Their surveillance is everywhere. That’s why it’s such a safe place.”

  Apek stood and walked to the edge of the terrace, his small, wiry body vulnerable with age. “What are you going to do? Yasmin has a plan, what’s yours?”

  “I could remain a fugitive forever in Kuanja and live in your temple or elsewhere, or I could bring the Tanmixan down.”

  “How would you do that?”

  “Take evidence to MIP.”

  “But perhaps MIP already know. Perhaps they work together.”

  “If they do, I’m sure MIP’s humanitarian division don’t know about wiping employees memories and assassinating those who remember. If I told them, I might be able to go home safely.”

  “You’ve got a warrant out for murder.”

  “I don’t know if it’s an interstellar warrant.”

  “It’s dangerous.”

  “But if the MIP knew that I murdered those people because of Tanmixan, perhaps they’d let me off.”

  Apek said nothing.

  “I wish I could tell Xuxu everything.” She’d probably tell Tao Tao, though. One of them might get killed.

  “If Mayleeda’s surveillance is so good, you need to be careful.”

  “I said I’d hand myself into the Inarmuzzan police once I understood why I’m having these dreams.”

  Apek took a few steps forward and clasped YuFu’s shoulder. “Oh, no. Don’t do that. What do you want to do? In your heart.”

  His throat closed up, and he raked a hand through his hair. “Be with my family and watch my kids grow up. I don’t want them to mourn me.”

  “Then you must defeat Tanmixan.”

  Chapter 19*Akachi

  A few miles away from the pyramid, Akachi stopped his hoverboard and called Scarn.

  Her purple face appeared in his airSphere monitor. Her four eyes widened one after another when she looked at him and the ash-covered landscape beyond. “What happened?”

  He coughed up blood. “Gonna die unless someone rescues me. I’m in Giok with a stab wound. Will try to make it to the southern coast. Northern and central Giok are too dangerous for aircraft, boats or subs.”