Exigency

by Michael Siemsen

  Aether sat up, surveyed the scene, and saw basket-lugging Seekapock fleeing to the jungle, while a few others ran along the levee toward the injured Eeahso.

  “Come on!” Qin shouted, grabbing Aether’s hand.

  He helped her up the rest of the way and they both fled toward the cover of foliage across the field, pain lighting up Aether’s right leg with each limped step.

  “Now what?” Qin huffed. “Where do we go? Tell me what to do!”

  “Just keep going this way,” Aether said as they hurdled the low wall and returned to the darkness of the jungle. Aether activated IR. “Let’s get a ways in before finding some cov—” she suddenly belched and more acid filled her mouth.

  “Are you okay? What’s happening?”

  Aether slapped her visor up and dropped to her knees, empting her mouth along with everything that came behind it. Throat and stomach burned. Tearing eyes burned. Chest. Everything burned.

  Qin’s hand rubbed in circles on her back when footfalls came crashing through the jungle behind them. Multiple individuals were closing fast, and it didn’t matter if they were Seekapock or Threck. Neither seemed a safe bet anymore. Qin pushed her down, atop her mess, and lay down flat beside her. Frozen in the undergrowth, Aether fought the urge to wipe her stinging eyes. The crackles and snaps of the approaching steps halted right beside her.

  “Bad hide place, this is,” Skinny said. “Threck will come and find without difficulty. We go move.”

  * * *

  “I made a major mistake, didn’t I?” Qin whispered to Aether as they plodded through the dense, untrodden vegetation. “I panicked.”

  Aether was hot, tired, in pain, and sick. Her drooping eyes watched the hypnotizing rhythm of Skinny’s marching legs ahead. “You followed your instincts in a dangerous situation and probably saved my life.”

  “These are Orange People words?” Skinny asked without turning.

  Aether selected and sent the affirmative response from the floating hotlist hovering at the right of her Livetrans app.

  “Funny sound,” Skinny said. “Like hissing pikpik.”

  Skinny had been walking slower for the last kilometer, apparently no longer concerned about pursuers.

  Aether was done with submissive diplomacy. “Skinny, please stop for a moment.”

  Skinny complied and faced her, eyes wide and clubs pressed together backward.

  LIVETRANS: [Curious awaits].

  “Here’s the thing,” Aether’s synth began. She’d spent the last few minutes revising her wording. “Us Orange People are pleased to have met Skinny and Seekapock. Everything you have shown us today has been interesting, and we’re sorry that Eeahso, Threck people, and any others were injured.” Skinny’s eyes hid at this. “But now is time for us to go. We have much to do and other Orange People waiting for us. We will certainly return to visit Eekareth in the future, if you will have us again as guests.”

  Skinny was silent for a moment, but for the deep inhales and exhales through her siphons.

  Finally, Skinny replied. “You will come for one more observe. You will follow.”

  Aether had anticipated resistance. “No. I’m sorry once again. We do look forward to pleasure of seeing you again sometime.” She put out her hand to shake.

  Skinny looked at the hand, then at Aether, then Qin. Her arm rose and pressed gently against Aether’s hand, cilia wrapping tenderly around fingers.

  “Qin keep Eeahso alive. Eeahso wish to see Qin and Aether, and express new pleasure to replace old bad.” Skinny twisted half a turn and pointed through the vegetation ahead with her free arm to an apparent clearing. “We meet just there. Short time. Then Orange People go be and return sometime. Short time. Short time. After take you fastest way back to Eekareth and white egg.”

  QIN: Now we’re talking.

  Aether sighed, apologized to her protesting stomach, and hoped she wouldn’t soon regret her decision. “Yes. Let us.”

  Skinny laughed and released Aether’s hand. “Now we must sneak!” She dropped to the ground and proceeded spread out on all-fours, creeping forward smooth and crab-like.

  Aether and Qin took to their knees and strove to keep up.

  “How are you doing?” Qin asked. “Physically.”

  “Same. Need meds and food. And don’t worry. I set a timer for ten minutes. We’re heading back to the EV at that point, whatever happens up ahead.”

  They reached the clearing a few moments later, and their location was instantly apparent. To the right, above the tops of tall, thin lichen trees, a clear view of Threck City’s soaring tower alit with multicolored torches. Skinny had led them along a gradually curving path around the city’s outer perimeter. Ahead lay the “Soccer Field”—another Tom designation. Several times a year, the Threck held sporting competitions in this place. Running, leaping, throwing, block stacking, feats of strength. It was like Threck Olympics.

  So why had they circled round to the other side of the city?

  “Wait, do you realize where we are?” Qin said, and Skinny threw up an arm.

  LIVETRANS: Silence!

  AETHER: Yes, though I’m not sure why. She said this was to briefly meet up with Eeahso and accept gratitude.

  QIN: How would an injured Eeahso have even made it all the way over here ahead of us? There’s no way. I say we bail. We need to get those meds in you.

  AETHER: And you. Seven more minutes on the clock. Like I said, we go either way.

  QIN: You’re the boss.

  Skinny reached the other side of the field first and, once more hidden by foliage, stood up and helped Aether and Qin to their feet. She stepped back and gestured.

  LIVETRANS: Just here. Little farther.

  Five more minutes were spent climbing to a rocky hill’s crest before edging a quarter of the way down to the other side, stopping on a small, natural balcony. Skinny crept to the edge, peered over the precipice, and then signaled for them to silently take up positions beside her. Frustrated, and with only a minute left on the timer, Aether slinked to the edge as she searched Livetrans for a way to specify a sign-only response. Qin crawled up beside her and peeked out over the ledge.

  With no sign of Eeahso, or anyone else for that matter, Aether decided to stick to her guns and call it quits. She lowered her PA volume to a whisper and leaned the speaker close to Skinny.

  “Eeahso not here. It is time. We are leaving.”

  Skinny put up an arm—a sign that no longer required translation.

  “Wait.”

  “No, we will wait no longer, Skinny. We are leaving.” She reached behind her and tapped Qin on the back before shuffling backward.

  “Aether!” Qin whispered. “Look! Is that Tom?”

  Aether scrambled back to the edge and peeked out. Below them, beyond the rocky hill’s base and past perhaps 50m of wild vegetation, Aether saw a perfectly circular clearing surrounded by tiki-type torches and tall, planted epsequoias, like an arboreal Stonehenge. To the right of the clearing, a paved trail curved off toward the city. But closer, at the end of a separate, unlit path, Aether spotted an apparent observation post.

  “Angela too!” Qin hushed. “The Threck have them!”

  Indeed, the observation post—about half the distance between the tree circle and Aether’s position—contained several individuals, Tom and Angela among them. Among her friends stood three cloaked Threck, and all eyes appeared to be on the circle, including Tom’s and Angela’s.

  Skinny tapped Aether’s arm and signed.

  LIVETRANS: Any second.

  “What’s any second?” Aether replied through the hushed PA. “What’s going to happen?”

  Skinny edged close, placing one of her siphons right up to the visor opening in Aether’s helmet. Strange, sour air jetted out as Skinny whispered, “Like I say before. You see difference of Seekapock and Threck.”

  Aether gazed down at Tom and Angela as she realized her alarm had been flashing in front of her all this time. She dismissed it, tension rising
in her neck and forehead. Her stomach gurgled and reminded her that its rage had yet to be quelled.

  “Look, there!” Qin breathed.

  Aether shifted focus back to the circle of trees and saw a very young Threck slowly entering the lit area from the path. A second later, another Threck child appeared, then a third. Aether watched nervously as all three children went to the center of the ring, each picking up an object from the middle, then separated, spreading out toward the edges. The epsequoias obscured most of their view, but Aether caught fleeting glimpses whenever they crossed the space between trunks. After walking the full perimeter, the three reassembled at the edge of the clearing, opposite the entrance path, and lay down, stretching their appendages out like four-pointed stars. Tentacles overlapping each other’s, the children went still.

  A small commotion in the observation post. The Threck around Tom and Angela grew excited, pointing toward the tree ring.

  Beside Aether’s head, Skinny had begun absentmindedly tapping one club against the rock and, upon closer observation, the cilia were in an uproar, dancing wildly like a thousand arms above a concert crowd.

  “What are those?” Qin whispered.

  Aether glanced back to the children. “What?”

  “Are you zoomed? If not, do.”

  Aether closed her bio eye and zoomed right up to the three young Threck. It took a moment, but she spotted them. Slithering out from the bushes beyond the trees: three little worms, hardly visible in the mossy ground cover, like tiny snakes in high grass. Each moved on a direct course toward a Threck child.

  Within a minute, the worms reached the children and disappeared beneath them, presumably to their mouths. And then nothing happened. The young did not appear to react. Not even a slight tentacle movement.

  Aether heard Skinny’s breath speeding up. She looked over at Skinny’s eyes. They appeared focused not on the ring, but beyond it and to the left, and they were widening, creeping almost imperceptibly forward.

  Skinny uttered a single, muted syllable: “Soot.”

  LIVETRANS: Now.

  And then all hell broke loose.

  2.6

  Having taken her meds and eaten, Angela seemed to be in a bit better mood. One might even surmise that she was excited about visiting Threck City. After her fury dissipated, Tom enjoyed witnessing her engineer side taking over as they jounced about in a wagon on the main road.

  Threck wagons were designed unlike any cart or vehicle in human history, and while the team had detailed schematics and imagery of the peculiar inventions, to see them up close—to travel upon one—was no less thrilling for her. The Threck had examples of wheels in various mechanisms (pulleys and such), and yet they relied upon heavy cement spheres for all sorts of on (and off) the ground load bearing and shifting. City gates, carts, and the massive water-wheels around the city all used these large balls. The wagons had a sphere on all four sides and rolled on the front and rear balls for normal forward travel, and the two side balls for side-to-side motion. It was highly impractical considering that without domesticated beasts of burden, propulsion was achieved via teams of Threck, and at any given time, 200 kilos of extra weight must be hauled above and beyond the cargo.

  During an obligatory exigency meeting, the team had discussed what sorts of technology advancements the team might offer the Threck in exchange for accommodating the foreigners on their island. Limited medicinal advancements met with mixed reactions, but the wheel had been agreed upon unanimously.

  “Isn’t it funny,” Angela smiled, motioning to the weary Threck driving the cart forward, “how once-theoretical negotiations about technology sharing now have a real-life bearing on our own personal comfort?”

  Tom was sweating, and not from the heat outside his suit. He really needed to move his bowels. “Explaining the wheel to them right now isn’t going to smooth this ride or get us there any sooner. Let me concentrate.”

  “Just say something, you wuss.” Angela smacked his shoulder. “We’re going to enter those gates in …” she craned her neck toward the gradually growing city, “I’m guessing around ten minutes, and once we’re in there, walking around, meeting with honchos, you’re definitely not going to say anything. I know you won’t. You’re going to end up crapping in your suit or rupturing something internal.”

  “I think that’s a myth. The door would surely give way long before the walls.”

  “Regardless.”

  Tom stiffened his posture and raised his chin, speaking in a posh tone. “Apologies, but, notwithstanding this excruciating encumbrance, I’m like an ambassador at present. Someone of my stature does not—”

  “Crap themselves in public,” Angela finished for him.

  She stood up in the cart, searching for stable footing on the crops. A few seconds later, her Livetrans synth voice played loud enough for Amoss, in the cart ahead of them, to hear over the rolling din.

  “Pardon me. One of us requires an excretion stop.” She pointed at Tom.

  Fifteen minutes later, the carts entered the city’s main western gate. In the broad tunnel, the temperature dropped rapidly, and a cool breeze flowed from inside out. It smelled faintly acrid, like overwatered indoor plants with rotting soil. The tunnel widened abruptly and they found themselves in a large dome-shaped room where Threck moved quickly to unload the carts into baskets. Though Tom and Angela hadn’t escaped the notice of these new Threck, no one appeared to slow down or hold a glance for long. These people were well-trained and disciplined, executing their assigned duties like hive insects.

  A scurrying young Threck carrying two stepstools placed one beside Tom and Angela’s cart just as Amoss and another Threck (Oose?) arrived to help them down.

  “Come now, Tom and Angela, and follow Tatsis to your waiting place,” Amoss said. “Our jubilant Thinkers have been notified of your auspicious presence and currently travel to their celebrated chamber.”

  “Have Syons People previously observed Threck City?” Tatsis, a somewhat smaller figure with an apparently permanent leftward lean, gestured around the substantial room. “From within or without?”

  “Only from the outside,” Tom carefully replied.

  And it was true. John would have never allowed a dragonfly or any other probes within the city perimeter, no matter how many assurances Minnie offered. But imaging technology certainly had no problem penetrating concrete or the Threck version of waxed canvas. The team had fairly detailed maps of all but the deepest and centermost areas of Threck City, and most everywhere else had been filled in via conversation analysis automations. This, however, did nothing to subtract from Tom’s trembling delight to actually be inside.

  Boots firmly planted on the wet floor, Tom helped a grinning Angela down from the cart, and the pair followed Tatsis across the busy room. Tom tried to study everything at once. The floor was of particular interest. This was the surface upon which Threck “knee” bends must step and slide every day. While the team had assumed that everything at or below the water table would be mud, it was, in fact, covered in meticulously polished stone, like marble, and each massive slab was lined up perfectly to its neighbors, making the floor, at first glance, appear composed of a single, arena-sized piece. This flooring choice made perfect sense. Smooth against the skin, easy to keep clean, no issues with constant wetness, and surely great for sliding cargo around. Many of the paths outside the city were paved with polished stone slabs, but the crew had no idea of its extensive use inside the city.

  Tatsis led them into a long, bright passageway. The tunnel’s roof was fashioned of the same purple canvas that swathed the rest of the city, draped over successive stone and mortar archways, and held taut by braided fibers. Generations ago, in the interest of temperature reduction, Threck Thinkers and Materials workers had settled on the color of the sky as the best reflector of heat. Logic dictated that the sun’s violet rays carried with them the heat one felt while standing outside. And so, if one wished to reflect these rays, the optimal material color
would, of course, be violet. As far as Tom knew, no one had yet questioned this reasoning, and based upon the remarkable coolness of the interior thus far, clearly other design aspects or mechanisms were picking up the slack. The air felt damp, like a bathroom after a shower.

  At the passage’s end they reached a T, and followed a new hallway left. Passers-by here were not so indifferent to the orange-clad guests’ presence.

  “What are these?” A Threck stopped in front of Tatsis, even reaching out abruptly to touch Angela’s unshielded face.

  Tatsis thwacked the arm away. “Guests from another land. Be on your way. City address to come.”

  The curious Threck stepped back to let them pass, but remained planted in that spot, transfixed by Tom and Angela as they moved on.

  The next citizen hindering their progress was not so easily dismissed.

  “What are these, Tatsis? And why have I received no notice?” She was a wide one, commanding in both manner and form.

  Tatsis froze and appeared to shrink even smaller in front of Tom and Angela. “Dowfwoss Fetz, I’ve come directly from Dowfwoss Amoss, delivering these to holding—”

  The Dowfwoss’s eyes studied Tom and Angela as she spoke. “Before what? In wait of what? They walk on two … Where are they from? What are they for?”

  “They are for learning them,” Tatsis replied, still appearing to shrivel with every passing second.

  Fetz continued eyeing them. “Is one for me? Is one to open?”

  Tatsis stood upright, twisted round with bulging eyes to observe Tom. She held up both arms to Fetz. “No, no, Dowfwoss! These are smart! These are Tom and Angela of Syons People.” Tatsis lowered her voice. “And they know Threck words.”