Annette nodded again, and the salesgirl tapped in the order.
“You want anything else?” The salesgirl asked returning the clothes to the racks.
Annette shook her head and stepped numbly back out onto the main street. She looked up at the projected sky and wondered why Niri and Angela had been so generous. A ripple of light caught Annette’s attention and she glanced towards it quickly enough to see a flicker of the rock above the projected sky show through. She put it off to being a symptom of her post metamorphic sensitivity syndrome, and glanced across the road at her next shopping goal.
Her mind fell back to her allotment, level five? Niri probably made the recommendation because Annette had nothing but jumpsuits to wear, but why would Angela have okayed it? Angela had mentioned that Annette had the potential to be a primary factor. Maybe the allotment was Angela’s way of putting weight behind the statement.
Annette glanced upwards, hoping to catch sight of the ceiling again, the image didn’t so much as ripple. Annette stepped across the street, pausing at a shop selling canvas shopping bags. Some had the logos of other Sanctuary shops, those were standard issue. A couple of Annette’s borrowed bags showed the same sort of logos. Other bags had pictures of scenes of natural beauty alien to Sanctuary, and some alien to earth for that matter. Annette selected one showing the various body forms of the dolphin-like Delphine swimming through the zero gee of a starship in front of a view screen image of a blue green planet. It was beautiful. She lifted it from the rack and found the words “Delphine Freedom” printed on the other side along with an indecipherable artist’s signature.
“You like?” The shop keeper, an elderly woman, said with a heavy Tanerian accent, “My ex-mate is paint-placer. He keeps shop on another street. If you like he sell poster of painting. He have many others. He lets me put paintings on bags. They sell good. You buy?”
Annette nodded her head and the woman tottered through a back doorway and she came back with an armload of delphine inspired images carefully printed on canvas sacks. Annette respectfully selected five more and put them in one of her loaner bags with the first. She guessed the girls would appreciate the gifts. Annette knew she planned to hang the extra’s in her quarters as art.
The woman tapped at her pop-pad. “Much thanks for you buy. Come back as you will!” The old woman said with a huge grin.
Annette smiled back and hurried on to the shop next door, it was close fronted with a display window divided into several panes. The door was unique in that it had a shiny brass knob and opened out like the ones around Tawny. The window didn’t display clothes and the day before Annette hadn’t even mentioned an interest in the stacks of books it held, but today it was one of her priorities. She turned the knob and opened the door to the jingling of a bell. Inside it smelled of dust and paper, and it was lit dimly enough that Annette felt safe removing her darkened glasses. She tucked them into her pocket and cleared her throat.
“Excuse me, is anyone here?” Annette asked when no one appeared. Silence answered her and she wavered between the desire to buy books and the instinct to leave. Annette noticed a bell sitting on the counter. She rang it and the sound of someone moving at the back of the shop was her reward.
Soon a young man appeared, though he had the shuffling step and stooped posture of one who was very old. He also had the faint odor Annette had come to recognize as belonging to briaunti. “How may I help you young lady?” The man spoke with a trembling voice as if he had more years behind him than the old woman selling shopping bags.
“Yes, I’d like some books about time travel,” Annette answered.
“Fiction, non-fiction, or human theories about it which are in part both,” The man asked opening a particularly large book on his counter. The book like the man was different than first glance would indicate, it’s insides were taken up by a particularly large display screen. He tapped on it while he waited for Annette’s response.
“I’d like some of everything,” Annette answered.
“I think then I will get you a few volumes I liked particularly. Have you read Neremu? DeFallini? Wells? Hawking?” He said in a more deliberate voice as several books levitated their way from the stacks to his counter.
“I’ve read The Time Machine by H. G. Wells,” instantly one of the books disappeared from the stack, “and I’ve heard of Hawking but not the other two.” Annette replied looking at the dusty covers now sitting in front of her.
“Neremu is a Tanerian. She wrote a really good book about the stupidity of forgetting the past while you are in it. DeFallini is a bit more difficult to read. He’s briaunti and he writes like Vonnegut. Speaking of which have you read Slaughter House Five?” The man’s eyes seemed to read her answer before she could even think it and another volume appeared. “Good, and your allotment is more than sufficient. I hope these volumes are helpful.” He reached over the counter and took one of her shopping bags and began filling it.
Annette left the bookstore weighed down by her purchases, and almost ready to quit shopping because of it. “Man, these are heavy!” she grunted spontaneously.
“Miss, perhaps I can help you with them?” A familiar yet unfamiliar voice twittered from somewhere near Annette’s shoulder. It took her a moment to realize it was coming from her remote pin and belonged to Prima.
“Really?” Annette responded.
“Yes, if you can manage to carry them to the nearest transport booth I can bring them back to your quarters,” Prima answered back, actually sounding enthused about the service.
“Cool,” Annette replied searching for the nearest booth, it was barely a few steps away. She lugged her bags to it and put the ones filled with her purchases into it. They promptly disappeared.
“See how helpful I can be?” Prima said smugly.
“I’m beginning to.”
- - - - - - - - - -
The week ran itself out quickly. Yllera had offered herself cooperatively to Tina for as many scans as the doctor could order. Tina found no worrisome signs that the massive changes Yllera had been through were going to cause any problems. She wore the constant recording scanner around her ankle beneath her survival suit.
Yllera’s new survival suit almost felt too loose after the time she had spent with the Agurians. Standing in the spaceport, waiting for Tatia to pick her up, she kept checking to make sure her suit was sealed to her face and at her wrist to her gloves. The extra material and give to the material was to counter her projected growth. Tina had guessed at a rapid growth rate which would have her back to adult size in less than two years, too fast to make several intermediary suits practical. If that had been the only option she would have spent more time changing suits than on her mission. Still, the suit felt too loose to be safe.
It was hot, and the humidity was stifling and Yllera wasn’t looking forward to the hike back to the village. At least it wouldn’t take as long as first hike. Then she had used the city of Mulitzemulitice as her point of arrival. It had taken a walk halfway across the continent to find Teverum and Illay. This time her point of arrival was the city of Starport, and all she had hike in the open was to the base of the mountains. From there an Agurian tunnel led underground to the village, with safe rest stops along the tunnel at reasonable intervals.
Yllera grabbed the handle of her kit pack and drug it slowly towards the arrival gate. The bag was almost as tall as she was. She could have packed the things inside the bag in a factor pack but the bag made it seem more like she had just come off a long trip on a starship and she felt less conspicuous.
“Out of the way Agurian scum!” A loud female voice grunted despite the fact that Yllera wasn’t actually in the way. The voice belonged to a Tanerian woman, fat from pregnancy with eight little girls trailing behind her. The eldest girl, of about nine years in age, held a small infant to her breast and tried to keep the other girls together.
Yllera stepped back from the group and realized there was no inconspicuous when you were an Agurian on a Ta
nerian held world. Yllera wished she had some way of getting revenge on the woman, but knew such a thought was beneath her.
Yllera breathed deeply and watched the fat Tanerian, and her brood, make slow progress for the nearest hotel. Yllera half wondered what the purpose of their visit was, and half didn’t care. Yllera was unsure of her own purpose on the planet. Other than the strong sense that the seer and the other elder Agurians might be able to teach her about herself, Yllera couldn’t say why her need to be there was so strong. Some of the reason probably lie in the sudden sense of home she had gotten with her first deep breath of Jelarian air, the pungency of livine grown ornamentally around the spaceport, actually had her salivating over the idea of the dried travel rations which had been her first real taste of Agurian culture, lizard jerky and all.
Where was Tatia? Yllera was getting impatient, especially for their reunion. The girl had come to feel something like a kid sister over the time they had spent together. Yllera had been Tatia’s teacher for six months and the girl had confided in Yllera that Yllera had been her hero for longer. A bit of anxiety churned in Yllera’s gut, she was no longer someone worthy of hero worship. She was a "helpless mute" that the girl was supposed to meet at the spaceport and help care for. Yllera wasn’t ignorant to Tina’s call to Tatia, she’d heard most of both sides of the conversation. Especially when Tina had told the girl what to expect, “Meet her at the spaceport, she'll be in a survival suit carrying a dung gray kitbag You'll know her but she doesn't look like Yllera.”
That had been the understatement of the ages, Yllera didn’t recognize herself, she wasn’t sure how Tina had so confidently said Tatia would recognize her. Yllera was small and thin, almost too thin, a preteen with no distinguishing features.
"Yllera?" Tatia’s voice asked from somewhere behind Yllera. She must have passed her on the way out from the ship.
Yllera turned sharply to face the girl and offered a short nod of affirmation, just a down stroke.
Tatia fidgeted, she seemed uncomfortable looking down at Yllera. "My transport is this way. I managed to talk Uoolit out of a pack bird." Tatia gestured towards a four-legged-ostrich-like berachi, waiting for answer, affirmation, or response, seeming to have forgotten that Yllera couldn’t speak.
Yllera nodded for the girl’s benefit.
“I’ll go secure your bag, then we can start the hike. I sure hope I can find the entrance again,” Tatia grunted lifting the bag and starting towards the bound bird.
Yllera grimaced, it was going to be a long walk after all if Tatia expected her to carry an end of a conversation while deprived of the gift of speech. Yllera shook her head and followed Tatia to the bird. Tatia hoisted the bag up onto the bird and lashed it down. Then they began their progress out of the city. Tatia said nothing until they had passed well beyond the last dwelling into the forest on the way to the mountainside entrance to the tunnel.
“A lot has happened since you, um, left. I had to explain Carl’s presence to the council of elders, trust me they weren’t happy at the sudden arrival and departure of a non-Agurian. They were almost ready to flay me alive until I explained his heart belonged to you, and that he risked much, even his life to be at your side. They could no longer object. They hold the passions of the heart in high regard so don’t be surprised if they treat you a little differently.”
Yllera blushed, Tatia had given the Agurian council the impression Yllera was halfway married to Max. All that Yllera needed to do was proclaim she was his and it would be a done deal. Max would be so pleased.
“They were also quite enthused to hear of your complete,” Tatia glanced down at Yllera, “well mostly complete, recovery. That started them talking about prophecies and the chosen one, whom you happen to be. Though there was an argument over the minor detail that they thought you would be male,” Tatia chuckled, “The thing of it is, and I did the reading on the prophesies, they are all so vaguely worded that pretty much you fit half of them by statistical default. The other half the council is already tossing out. “
By then they were struggling with the overgrown foliage that this wetter side of the mountain range sported. It was a sub-tropical rain forest and it pressed in on them from all sides. The muck of the forest floor trapped their ankles and tripped them as they passed. Almost the only saving grace of the foliage and the humidity was that the humidity prevented the deadly bacteria of the desert from growing at all. One other beneficial thing was the fact the jungle made good cover for the Agurian tunnel exit.
Yllera spotted the entrance before Tatia did. It was hidden in a vine draped cave. Yllera noticed it by the gleam of the glassy walls behind the carelessly-left-open airlock door. Yllera grabbed Tatia’s wrist and yanked pointing to the cave. The girl looked and broke out in a grin, “I almost missed it! Good thing you were paying attention.”
They entered the airlock and Yllera made a point of closing it carefully behind them. She then grabbed her pop-pad from her pocket and wrote a note Scolding Tatia for having left it open. She passed the pad to Tatia and began leading the pack-berachi towards the shower.
Tatia paused to read it then came racing behind Yllera, “I’m sorry, I didn’t think it would be a problem, sandburn can’t grow on this side of the mountains.”
Yllera snatched back the pad and typed a response, “It isn’t just about sandburn. The locks are part of the shielding that keeps the warrens safe. If it is compromised the entirety of the free Agurian population of this planet is compromised because these tunnels connect many of the major warrens. It could even compromise the populations of other parallel versions of this world!”
Tatia accepted the pad and read quickly, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I’m not used to my actions having so many repercussions.”
Yllera took back the pad, “That’s why tertiary factors don’t get assignments like this very often. If you want to earn a promotion you need to start thinking about repercussions.” Yllera handed the message to the girl and cringed internally at the knowledge she had made her own mistakes not that long ago.
Tatia lifted Yllera’s bag from the back of the berachi and hauled it to the inner airlock then she returned to help Yllera clean the muck and mud from the bird in the showers. Yllera watched the girl as they worked and was relieved to see the scolding didn’t seem to have done the girl too much harm.
- - - - - - - - - -
Angela glared at the electric blue of her office ceiling and tried to get comfortable in her new chair. Her worst fears had been realized. A crack team of office painters had snuck into her office and finished the job while she was gone, and they’d let in an interior decorator on their way out. All of Angela’s good old furniture had been feng-shuied right on out of the room. Replaced by newer more >modern’ furniture with stupid meaningless knickknacks and ugly-as-a-buck-naked-plumber paintings. There was even a idiotic fountain, the decorator had called a, “water feature.” Her nice smelly old books had been decoratively arranged on the high shelves, clearly from the decorator’s mis-impression that they were just for show. The only two things the decorator hadn’t gotten her hands on and changed were the carpet and Angela herself. Angela tired of staring at the ceiling, slumped her head to her desk. She wrapped her arms around it and sighed, deeply. So much for taking up a hobby.
She hadn’t had her head down for long when her office door resonated with a knock. That got her upright but not fully. Wonderful, someone to compliment her on the office makeover she hated. “Come in!”
The door slid open and in walked a man she couldn’t place a name on. “I want to talk to you.”
The man’s voice wasn’t at all helpful in placing a name, then Angela recalled he had something to do with Yllera. Max, that was his name he was a new secondary factor, she had promoted him for bringing Yllera in. “Max, if this is about Yllera. . . “
“Damn straight it’s about Yllera! What in the world were you thinking sending her back out when she nearly died!” Max exploded, “What in the world
could be so urgent that you would send someone in her condition out to do it!”
Angela sat up straight, “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know! Then why in the world did you send her?” Max flung himself into the chair across from her desk.
“Because she asked to go back. This is her mission, she’s the one you need to talk to. I just let her go to it,” Angela answered.
“You let her go? She couldn’t possibly be in any kind of condition to make rational choices!” Max growled.
“As I recall it you were there when I told her she could go back! You didn’t seem so hell bent to keep her here at the time.” Angela answered with a growl of her own.
“I thought you were humoring her!”
Angela glared at him, “Oh yes because it is very funny to tell someone something and take it back.”
“If they could be a danger to themselves. You did say she wouldn’t go if Tina found anything wrong.” Max replied.
“Yes, and Tina found nothing,” Angela was tiring of this discussion. Why hadn’t one of her assistants kept him out.
“She could have made something up!” Max voice carried something just short of desperation. It was a note Angela suddenly recognized.
“You’ve formed a pairbond with her?” The idea was unusual since briaunti rarely formed strong pairbonds with people outside their kind, in part because they were rarely reciprocal. “That has to be hard. Does she know?”
Max looked stunned by her words and stood up rapidly, “A pairbond? Don’t be ridiculous! I couldn’t form a pairbond with an Agurian! That just doesn’t happen! Besides, I have been an adult briaunti for years and I have even avoided forming a pairbond with briaunti!”
“That’s probably why she snuck in under your radar. I happen to know of several cross species couples. So I know it isn’t impossible, unusual, yes but not impossible.” Angela said gesturing for him to take his seat again, with her other hand she fingered the star in her pocket. “The truth is I even know of a case where a human formed a pairbond with a briaunti.”
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