by J. L. Hilton
Duin and J’ni entered Sector W and left the crowd, the cops and the thoroughfare behind.
She was breathing hard, but the run didn’t seem to affect him in the slightest. “What just happened?” He led her to the bay containing his Tikati ship.
“Smart mob. Impromptu real-life assembly, mobilized via the net.”
“And Seth?”
“Asshole. Irrational real-life dickweed, motivated by his fucked-up principles. I had to kick him in the face.”
“I tried to tell Blaze it was a bad idea to enlist his assistance. But the colonel believed Seth was your friend and would want to help.” Duin pulled out a data key and opened one of the doors.
“Yeah, well, I guess he did want to help. He wanted to help me straight to Adiri and then to Earth. He’s a little jealous of you, I think.”
The Tikati vessel was a big disappointment, compared to the vast catalog of alien craft created by human imagination. It wasn’t saucer-shaped, or chrome, or very alien-looking at all. An exterior plating of dark metal gave it an insectlike appearance. But, other than that, it was dart-shaped and conformed to the laws of physics like any airplane, commercial space shuttle, or military cargo transport from Earth.
“Are you well?” Duin asked with deep concern as he helped her into the ship. “You were imprisoned for several hours.”
“I’m fine. I slept.”
“Slept?” Duin shook his head in disbelief. “You astound me. I would not have been calm enough to sleep. I would have been hysterical. Glin don’t deal well with confinement.”
“Are we going to Earth?”
Duin strapped her into one of the seats on the bridge. The size of the halls, the shape of the chairs and distance between navigational instruments made her wonder about the physiology of the Tikati.
“No,” he said. “This vessel cannot shift through space.”
“Glin, then?”
“How I wish that I could.” He sighed with longing. “But no. You will be safer with the Wandant.”
“What’s that?”
“Not a what, a they. They are the Finders.”
Chapter Nine
“The Finders taught me how to fly this ship,” he said, sitting down at the controls. “I still don’t know everything. So there’s some amount of risk involved.”
“Risk like you might break something, or risk like you might crash? Or risk like the Tikati might find you?”
“Yes.” His hands danced over the glowing touchscreens.
“Should I be worried? I’m not feeling very worried. So much has happened, I don’t think I have any worry left for this.”
“Or, perhaps, you have the utmost confidence in my abilities.”
“That, too.”
He threw her a smile over his shoulder, and then she heard the industrial-sized fans sucking air out of the Sector W hanger, followed by the exterior doors opening. The floor of the bay shifted like a conveyor belt, rolling the vessel backward and ejecting it from the colony.
In the golden light of Centauri A, the ship’s windows turned dark red, casting the bridge in a sanguine glow. Several digital markers and readouts appeared on the thermal glass, including five flashing icons corresponding to five objects in the sky. A voice filled the bridge as Duin turned the ship around on the tarmac.
“This is the United States Air & Space Force. You are ordered to remain on the ground. Do not attempt to leave Asteria.”
“Will they be able to stop us?” she asked.
“They can try.”
The ship shot forward, lifting off at a low angle. They left Asteria’s gravity and slung into the weightlessness of space.
“Isn’t that fun? I can only do that on Asteria because there’s no atmosphere. On Glin, the ship would burn up.”
She wasn’t sure she would call it fun, even with the gen-mods for motion sickness and space travel. But it still wasn’t as bad as shifting. He touched the control panel and she heard a faint hum. False gravity pushed her into the chair and gave her a mild headache.
“Are they following us?” she asked.
“Doesn’t look like it.”
“Can I get up?”
“Anah.” He removed his own restraints and began checking the displays around them.
J’ni squeezed between Duin and the instruments, to kiss him. They fell against the control panel, setting off the rattling of an alarm. He reached past her and turned it off.
“Are you glad to see me?” He rested his forehead against hers.
“You don’t know how much. It drove me insane not knowing what was happening to you, and whether or not I would ever see you again.”
Duin related what happened to him after she was taken from the colonel’s office.
“Now I regret all of the terrible things I said about Blaze while I was locked up. But why would he go out on a limb for me?”
“Idiom,” Duin said.
“Going out on a limb, a tree limb, that might break from his weight. Taking a risk for me.”
“I suspect the limb is well fortified and the risk is minimal. The colonel is not a careless individual. But he is a good one, and good enough to know that goodness requires action, even disobedience, in order to persist.”
She moved out of his way as he zig-zagged across the bridge. “And who are the Finders?”
“A sentient race from another star system. Earth doesn’t know about them, from what I could l’up on the net. We didn’t know about them, either, until after the Tikati came. Finder technology is beyond my comprehension. It’s much more advanced than human or Tikati, I think. But they don’t have any warships or weapons.” This he said with obvious disappointment. “Still, they do what they can to help us. There is a temporary settlement of my people on their world. What I think you would call a refugee camp. We call it Meglin.”
“In this star system?”
“No, no, it’s out there.” He swirled his hand in the air. “Way out there. Somewhere. I don’t know the Earth names for all of the stars, yet.”
“I wouldn’t think so.” She laughed at the thought.
“The Glin don’t name them. To us, the stars are tah baheet, the glistening of the sky ocean, rarely glimpsed through the clouds. Of course, we understand now that we were wrong. Now that humans have come. And Tikati. And Finders.”
“And these Finders call themselves Wandant.”
“No, they call themselves something like Urkey Hurripted, but with more chirping than I can manage. Wandant is Glinnish. It means Finders. We call them that because they find things—resources, information, food. Last rain season, they found some Glin in a Tikati prison ship and gave them refuge. Then they found me on Glin—I don’t know how—and taught me to fly the Tikati ship. Wandan is singular, one Finder. Wandant, plural. Wandalin, their world. Lin indicates a place.” He sighed in frustrated self-recrimination. “I should have taught you my language.”
“You still can. I promise to be an attentive student.”
He didn’t return her eager smile. The way he moved from the control panel and reached for her hand, the way he looked at her, she knew what he was going to say, and she didn’t want to hear him say it. Her eyes burned with tears before he even drew the breath to speak.
“I am not going with you, J’ni. I still have work to do here.”
Then he shared the second part of his conversation with Blaze. “Colonel Villanueva has asked me to gather information about the Tikati, their bases, ships and weapons. He called it intelligence, but only a fool would go on this errand. It will be much more dangerous than swooping in, scooping up water and flying away. But it’s also an excellent opportunity.”
She nodded. “If you abandoned Glin, you wouldn’t be…you wouldn’t be you.”
He held her to him. “You’ll be safe. Don’t worry.”
“I’m not scared for myself. I…I want you to know how much I admire you.”
“I only do what I must do.”
“But you’re the only one
doing it.”
“Which is why it’s critical that I continue,” he said.
“I know.”
Holding her face in his nacreous palms, he said, “I admire you, as well, nagloim. And I will do everything in my power to make your government see reason.”
“Good luck there, that’s been a lost cause for all of human history. Use my blog, if you think it might help. You know the passwords. And J.T. will do all he can. You can have my money if you need it. They couldn’t freeze my assets without going through the international courts on Earth, and that would require me to be convicted first. But you might want to move the funds, just in case.” She explained how to access her accounts.
“You are generous as well as brave, and I will endeavor to be worthy of your trust.”
Duin opened a small storage compartment and removed her bag. It contained her few remaining belongings, those she’d been carrying the night of the explosion.
“When you reach Meglin, find Sala.”
“Sala.” She nodded.
Then he gave her Tucloup’s translator. “You will need this. My current level of linguistic ability will have to suffice, for the present.”
“I think you’ll get by,” she said, amused that he still believed his language skills were lacking.
“The device has a voice-activated mode that works for both languages. I’d stopped using it before we met.” He pushed a button and said, “I love you.” The display produced several Glinnish symbols. Turning the device sideways, Duin ran a finger down the line of characters and read, “Na oola vinishay.”
She replied, “I love you, too.”
He pushed another button and the device itself spoke the Glinnish translation with a simulated voice. “Pa na oola vinishay.”
J’ni repeated the Glinnish phrase. Hearing the sentiment in his own language, spoken from her lips, sent a surge of emotion across Duin’s face. It wasn’t difficult for J’ni to sense his feelings and to respond with more than words.
After a few moments, a clicking sound filled the bridge. They ignored it for a while, but then he pulled away from her to turn off the noise.
“The Finders are here.” With renewed urgency, he grasped her by both arms and his words rushed out of him like a downpour. “I should have explained, before, what your name means to me. I wanted to, but I wasn’t sure you would understand. Not because I lack faith in you, but because I lack faith in my own adequacy for the task. The j’ni is a sacred flower on Glin, a symbol of everything my people hold dear. It blooms on the surface of the water, but its roots go deep, through water and stone. No one has ever found the end of a j’ni, and legends say that it grows straight into the heart of the world.”
He pressed her hand to his heart as if he might push it through his chest.
“You have gone straight into me, J’ni, so far into my heart that I cannot find where you end and I begin. Which is why I want to give you this.”
Duin removed an object from the pocket of his vest. It was a gray stone that shimmered in shades of green, blue and purple. It was asymmetrical, and had a hole near one end through which it was tied to a braided cord.
“This is a nagyx, a soul stone. I have carried it with me all my life, in all my lives. It is suffused with my spirit. If you wear it, it means that I am of you and you are of me, and wherever we go, We are One. Do you agree?”
“I am of you, and you are of me, and wherever we go, We are One,” she repeated. “Yes.”
He tied the cord around her neck, and the stone lay on her chest as cool and reassuring as his touch on her skin. Then he kissed her again, the nagyx hanging between their hearts.
The ship lurched, forcing them to step away from each other and onto their paths into the future.
He accompanied her to the door of the Tikati ship. Duin didn’t touch any controls, but the portal opened to reveal a Finder. It was a being no higher than her chest and resembled something between a Mysteria goblin and a plucked chicken. Symmetrical and bipedal, its rotund little body was braced upon knobby-kneed stick legs and very long, two-toed feet. Its arms were also thin, each bending at one large joint, and ending with long, two-fingered hands. It had no neck at all, and a round lump of a head with enormous eyes set far apart, a broad nose, and a mouth between round cheeks. The eyelids blinked from the bottom up. It was either wearing a very ugly yellow suit, or it was naked, J’ni couldn’t tell.
“Augla, Wandan,” Duin said, holding out his hands, palms up. He began speaking in Glinnish and J’ni pulled out the translator.
“…to my aid. As ever, I am deeply grateful to you. This is the individual whom I ask you to take to my people on the Finder world. She is under the threat of unjust relocation and imprisonment only because she has dared to help me. So, I am responsible for finding her safety and justice. But more than that, We are One. She is myself, the embodiment of all of my values. Generosity, independence, fairness, honesty, courage, passion, intelligence, perseverance and wisdom. I love her. And all love is sacred.”
The Finder made a pretty little trilling noise, like a bird. Then it spoke in Glinnish.
“Yes, Duin.”
Beyond the door, the Finder ship looked nothing at all like a Tikati or human ship. It was shimmery and translucent, and she could see the stars beyond its walls.
She turned to Duin. “I am leaving you alone in the dark again.”
“I like the dark.” He placed his hand over the nagyx. “And we have never been alone, you and I.”
Everything about that moment was captured in her heart like a vid, and she knew she would replay it again and again while they were apart. She thought she should be angry about being forced to leave. Or sad. But she wasn’t. She was content to know how much Duin loved her.
The Finder touched the Tikati ship and its door closed between them. On the Finder’s vessel there were no chairs or restraints, just benches of the same translucent substance as the walls. The Finder sat down, and J’ni did the same. The seat conformed to support the shape of her body. She didn’t feel weightlessness or a sense of false gravity, but she did seem to be pulled down into her seat. As she had felt a bit too small for the Tikati ship, she felt a bit too large for this one.
The Finder’s ship was attached to Duin’s like a glob of gum. It reconfigured into an orb shape without losing any oxygen, as it disengaged. She wondered if the vessel was made of some kind of organic material, or an intelligent plastic, or if it was something humans wouldn’t even begin to understand.
Studying the Finder, she regretted not having her bracers. First contact with a new planet and a new race. This was Pulitzer material. And only the beginning of what she was sure would be a long string of experiences she would want to record, ticker, or blog. How long would she be away from the Stellarnet?
They were surrounded by patterns of light and color, and she no longer saw stars or the Tikati ship. She assumed they were moving, but she couldn’t hear any engines nor see anything that might be a control panel. It didn’t feel like they were shifting through space.
After a few minutes, she said, “Thank you very much for helping me,” and the translator repeated her words in Glinnish.
The Finder cheeped like a bird, which wasn’t translated.
“My name is J’ni. What is your name?”
“Wandan.” Finder.
“Anah.” Sure, she had picked up yes easy enough. “But what is your own name?”
“Wandan.”
“What is this ship made out of?”
“Wandan.”
Maybe it didn’t understand the translator, or it didn’t want to talk to her.
She held up the device and said nagloim into it, the word Duin had called her.
“My soul,” it translated.
Her hand went to the nagyx and she thought about what he said. We are One… She is myself, the embodiment of all my values…
It sounded like some sort of Glin equivalent to being engaged. Was that possible? Had he given up the
hope of ever seeing his family again? What would happen if he found his wife? It was both a joyous and a dismal thought. J’ni wanted him to be happy, but it would mean losing him, and she didn’t want to think about that. She had lost too much in the past few days.
In her bag, she discovered several bananas and a bottle of water. She hadn’t eaten in hours, but the water tasted even better than the food. Before she finished a second banana, the colors faded from the walls and she saw stars again. There was a planet up ahead, and far beyond it a white sun.
“Is that your home?”
The Finder chirped. J’ni didn’t understand, but it sounded happy.
They drifted, like a feather falling, making a very slow descent through the atmosphere. Below the clouds was a lush green and blue landscape, like old vids of Earth. She wished she could record it.
The ship glided to the dusk edge of the world, and she spied a field with rows of large bushes, not far from a chain of lakes. They floated to the right of these landmarks and settled on a stone platform in the middle of a jungle. The base of the ship flattened out, which forced her head even closer to the ceiling, and she hunched over. A hole formed in the gleaming hull of the ship and expanded to the size of a doorway.
J’ni was awed by the dense forest of trees and vines that surrounded them. She had never seen anything like it, except in vids or the occasional amusement park holographic theater. In the liminal light, deep shadows slanted through the green foliage.
Outside. She hadn’t been outside since leaving Earth, two months ago. And there was no place left on Earth like this. She felt it tugging at her, from within her human genome, the lure of the trees.
She went to the door and hesitated. The Finder didn’t get up.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Wan Ga’lin.” It clucked and pointed its two long fingers in the direction of the field.
Find the Glin.
