by Li Hill
Carefully, he eased Iilo out of the car, scooping him into his arms. Iilo stirred. He wrapped one arm around Tom's neck and fell back to sleep. He had weight to him, a solid body full of muscle and not just the dainty bones Tom had pictured. There was strength in Iilo, unassuming and quiet, but strength nonetheless.
Tom carried Iilo all the way to his home. He used his foot to knock into the door in hopes someone could hear it. He had no idea how thick the metal was that climbed up the spire.
Letic opened the door, his eyes flashing red before settling. He let Tom inside, grumbling in his native tongue.
"He fell asleep on the drive home." Tom put Iilo down on the couch, his fingers cold when he let go.
Iilo turned over, curling into himself.
"Big day, huh?" Inaraa asked. She leaned on the wall, arms crossed. Tom was surprised she could lean against it with all its sharp juts and uneven metal.
"We went to the FBI."
"What?!" Inaraa hissed, her body flushing pink.
Letic held his hand out to stop Inaraa before she stepped closer. "What say they?" Letic asked. He cared about what Iilo was doing. Inaraa, as a person on the Elect couldn't, but Letic did. Tom felt certain that Letic had wanted this all along. He wasn't a bitter person. He was just bitter about what was happening. Tom had been a stranger and Letic had been on guard.
"That they'll investigate."
"The Elect won't like this." Inaraa twirled her braids around her arms, tugging them in frustration. "I'll have to fight them. The FBI? Seriously? The FBI? My judgement is challenged with the Elect at every turn because of Iilo. And now you bring the FBI here?" She sighed, her face returning to its light blue. "He's not exactly the most well behaved of us. He's never exactly understood the concept of sitting still."
"If he sat still then more of you would go missing. One already has." Tom sat on the arm of the couch. Iilo was a fighter too.
"I know," Inaraa said softly. "You have to believe me—I hate what's happening here. The Elect just ignores what's happening. And the ones that agree with me suddenly change their mind the next day each time I get close to calling a vote. I've been trying to keep Iilo out of it, but then he brought you along."
Tom's ears burned. He sat up. It was almost ironic in its humor. What was mystery to Inaraa was clear as day to Tom. He saw it every day in his own politics. "They're being bought."
Letic frowned. "How know this?"
"Because that happens all the time. Politicians don't vote with their hearts; they vote with their pocketbooks. It's one of the reasons I—" Tom paused. "One of the reasons I became an attorney." A fighter. More like a fallen soldier, one who'd lost sight of who he was.
"Did it work?" Letic asked.
"Did what work?" Tom blinked, staring up at the swirling colors on Letic's head. His skin moved in a way that tricked the eye. Like water catching light.
"To fight politicians."
"Oh," Tom said. "I, uh, haven't gotten that far yet."
Letic rolled his eyes and headed to the kitchen.
"Letic's over the moon. You just can't tell. He struggles with your language and his anger," Inaraa said. "He's wanted me to push the Elect to review the disappearances."
"Did you try?"
Inaraa sat by Iilo. She ran her fingers through his hair, pushing it away from his face. "Of course I did, but I've been trying the right way. We learned from a young age that leadership takes more sacrifice than we're usually willing to give. To do this right, I would've had to abandon my brother. Now I'm branded a nuisance like him and I can't get enough support to compel a vote on investigating. I'm sure I'll be off the Elect when we vote again." From her tone, Tom didn't hear the least bit of regret. Her love for her brother was strong, and it was as plain as the nose on her face that she'd do anything for him.
"Inaraa! Where is flour?" Letic called from the kitchen. Unlike the rest of the structure, the kitchen was covered in human-made metal and most of the appliances inside were also human-made. Spaceships didn't have personal kitchens for everyone, it seemed.
Inaraa stood up, rolling her eyes. She reached out for Tom's hand and gave it a squeeze. "Thank you for helping him."
"Yeah, no worries." Tom looked to his hand as she walked away. His heart was thumping against his sternum. He'd appreciated her gesture, but he still saw a bloodied hand as it tried to reach his throat. A memory that refused to die.
Tom gave Iilo one last look before leaving, smiling as he saw Iilo's fingers curled into the blanket, his lips slightly parted. People always looked peaceful in their sleep, but the spackling on Iilo's face shimmered and morphed, giving Tom access to Iilo's dreams. They were peaceful, even after all this.
When Tom went to sleep that night, he thought of Iilo's fingers, safe and curled into that warm blanket.
Chapter Ten
When Tom arrived at the I'na compound the next day, his body chilled. Silence followed him as he walked to the group of I'na outside one of the spiraling towers. A rusty door was wide open. Investigators came in and out of the door, holding bags of evidence. They were robots. Seward still hadn't implemented robot peacekeepers, but this was the FBI's dime.
"Oh," Letic said when he saw Tom. "It's you."
"It's you," Tom replied.
Letic turned back to the spire, sighing. "You did a good thing."
"I'm sorry, wait. Hold on." Tom tapped his ear. "Say that again? I didn't quite catch it."
"Don't push your luck, human." Letic wore a wide smile.
"Wouldn't dream of it." Tom paused to watch the police with Letic. He felt more comfortable around Letic than he had in the past. At first, he'd felt like he was drowning with unbridled animosity. Now there was something between them. A common goal. "Where's Inaraa and Iilo?"
"Iilo is with FBI, and Inaraa with Elect. Ass-chewing."
"That sounds delightful." Tom winced.
"She's in there." Letic pointed to the old Victorian. It peeked out from the sheets of glowing white and pulsating gems of the spires, a reminder this wasn't Inaan anymore. This little area used to be a dark shadow of the past. Tom assumed the paints once were vibrant, but now with sun and age, they'd dulled into browns and yellows.
Tom moved from the crowd, watching over his shoulder for anyone looking. Curious, he wanted to see what the Elect was saying. Bought politicians were never the best, and if he could hear some of them, maybe he could pass that to the FBI. Not that Parker wanted him doing this. But Tom really didn't much care what Parker wanted. That, and he was just downright nosey. Attorneys had dangerous affairs with drama; they skirted the edges while their clients went for the punches.
He climbed the first stair, cringing when it groaned beneath his foot. No one noticed. When he felt it was safe, he went up the stairs and checked the door. It was unlocked.
Inside, the walls were barren. I'na junk lingered on the floors, parts of their spaceship and tools. Tom picked up a hunk of metal from a dusty table, turning it over in his hands. Carved into it were silver symbols that shimmered in the light. It reminded him of I'na skin.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Tom dropped the metal. It went clattering to the floor and split in two. He looked up to see an I'na woman on the stairs, her purple hand coiled around the banister.
"Oh shit. Oh shit, I'm sorry," Tom said.
The woman had a wrinkled face, a thin neck, and large eyes. Her hair was clipped back in a high ponytail with a giant red gem on the hairband. The gems weren't just for energy; they were part of I'na fashion. Tom wondered if the size of the gem had anything to do with her status. Inaraa's gems were small, but she had several. This woman only had one, but hers was large.
"I hope that wasn't important."
"It was only the official record of all Elect proceedings throughout our journey through the stars." She spoke with a clipped accent. When she descended the stairs, it was like she floated. She stood before Tom, her gaze directly level with his.
He shifted unc
omfortably.
"Do you have a copy?" Tom asked, cringing.
"No." She bent down, picked up the metal, and snapped it back together. "But it's not broken."
"It may be wise to get a copy. Ya know, in case curious, clumsy humans come by." Tom scratched the back of his neck. He knew from painfully embarrassing experiences that he wasn't exactly smooth outside of the courtroom. This woman wasn't going to buy into his dopey charm either.
"Humans aren't allowed in here." She pointed a long finger at him. "You will get out."
"Inissa!"
Two double doors opened wide to expose a long table and I'na sitting around it. Inaraa looked between Tom and the woman, Inissa.
"I'm sorry, he's with me." Inaraa came out, snaking her hand into the crook of Tom's elbow. "We never told him to stay away."
"This is a house. Do humans go into each other's homes uninvited?" Inissa looked down her long nose at Tom. He felt like she could gobble him up and still have room for seconds.
"He's been helping Iilo, so—"
"Oh!" Inissa put her hand on her ID. "He's that one. Please get rid of him."
"Hey!" Tom was prepared to argue, but Inaraa yanked him from the room and out onto the porch.
She slapped her ID a few times, cursing. Inaraa didn't seem the type to display frustration so openly. To see her straining like this had Tom panicked.
"So, did I like, violate some sacred tradition or something?" Tom asked.
"You pretty much killed my career." Inaraa shrugged. "It's fine. I couldn't get the votes anyway. They'll ask to remove me and then I'll be as in the dark as everyone else. Fucking damn it!" She grabbed a braid and twisted it. "I was working on getting them to vote to keep the FBI around. Except Xue has no next of kin, so they're going to ask the investigation to stop."
"They can't do that. A crime's a crime. That's state prosecutor's job to decide."
"But we're I'na. We're supposed to have our own jurisdiction."
"Sure, but when a federal crime's been committed, that becomes federal jurisdiction." Tom could sway to this dance all day. He knew his way around the law, and boy did he ever love both criminal and civil procedure. "Who is she, anyway?"
"Translated, she's our Heart. But we call her the Scou'luu'nae."
"Does that mean heart?" Tom asked.
"Roughly. She's like everyone's mother? The glue that holds us together. The heart of it all. She's not someone you want to piss off. Which you did. By the way."
Tom leaned his butt on the porch railing. He winced when he heard it creak and eased off just a bit. He should've thought better before galivanting into the Elect's place of business. And Inissa mentioning it was someone's home? He wondered if she was the one who lived there.
"Lovely." Tom sighed, running his hand back and forth over his hair.
"You do that a lot," Inaraa said. "The hand thing. We don't see many humans who do, but you do."
"Oh, uh, I don't know." Tom shoved his hands into his pockets to keep from doing it again. "Just something I picked up in the military."
"Iilo!" Inaraa said, her face turning a warm purple.
"Inaraa. Hey, Tom." Iilo smiled and Tom's whole world paused.
Tom waved his fingers before he slammed his hand back in his pocket. He was absolutely about to rub his hand over his hair again. He pictured Iilo from the night before, soft and asleep. Tom looked to his boots, clicking them together while he listened to the siblings talk.
"We should visit the Lincoln Outreach center," Tom said abruptly. "It's killing me not knowing if there's a bigger picture here."
Iilo's face lit up. The freckles on his face hummed, stars on a living, breathing backdrop. He inched forward, his hand coming to rest on Tom's chest.
It sent jolts up Tom's spine.
"Parker said not to go looking." Iilo pulled his hands back, pressing them against his own chest. He looked between Tom and his sister, his face paling.
"Honestly? Fuck him. I need to know what's happening."
Inaraa laughed and said something in their language. Tom got to stand there and pretend he wasn't an idiot for not understanding. He felt it didn't work as well as he hoped.
"Human always make trouble," Letic said from the garden below the house. "I saw you went into Elect house."
"Yeah, I learned pretty fast that was a bad idea. Why didn't you stop me?"
Letic laughed. "Curious what would happen." A lovable bastard. Tom would best describe Letic as a lovable bastard.
Inaraa stood up, tossing her long braids behind her back. "Well, him slipping in without either of you probably just cost me my job. But that's beside the point now."
"We're gonna go to the Outreach center," Iilo said to Letic. "Have they found anything in Xue's things?"
Letic shrugged. His brows reminded Tom of a Disney villain. They never settled on his face; they just always judged. "Not know. Robots don't answer me when I ask questions."
"That's probably why Parker brought in the robots," Tom said.
"Scheming over." Letic grabbed Iilo's hand and pulled Iilo over the porch railings.
"Iilo!" Inaraa came over to the railing, watching with wide eyes. "Seriously? Right in front of the Elect?"
Letic and Iilo were rolling around in the grass, both smiling and laughing. It reminded Tom of siblings, two boys just roughhousing. I'na were all about touch. Iilo touched Tom's face, his hands, and his chest. Letic and Iilo played with unabashed friendship. Tom watched the smile on Iilo's face, his own cheeks heating up. He'd never thought he'd admit it; he'd known, but admitting it was a whole different step. Tom had grown to adore Iilo. His passion. His story. His touch. It felt like a betrayal on some level, to himself or to the world. But he liked Iilo. A moth to a flame stood a better chance than Tom now.
He just didn't know what to do with that revelation.
"Okay, you two zulei, let's go back home." Inaraa picked them up by their ears, and the play fight was over.
"Zoo what?" Tom asked.
"It's like when humans say monkeying around. The zulil was a troublemaker on our planet." Iilo nodded, apparently proud of his explanation.
Back inside Iilo's home, Tom followed Iilo into the kitchen.
Iilo padded around the room. He touched the oven, opened a few metal cabinets only to have them slam shut. Tom waited, watching patiently. Iilo's behavior was unusual. He seemed like a cautious person, but here he moved in erratic gestures. Nervous, maybe.
"Can I tell you something stupid?" Iilo asked.
"Of course."
"I never saw a zulil. I don't even know what they look like. My whole life on a damn spaceship and yet we still remember all the names of the animals we had, even if we don't even know what they looked like."
It hadn't been nerves. It had been rage. Tom couldn't imagine a universe where he didn't know where he came from. Roots were important, even if he'd traveled far from them. Indiana wasn't the best, but it had a kind of character that Tom was proud to be from. Hard-working and a little stubborn. Without the Earth, without knowing his world or about elephants, what would he be like?
"That must be very disorienting for you," Tom said, because he didn't know what else to say.
"I don't know the kind of clan I had. It's me and Inaara left. We changed so much when we were on the ship. We sacrificed a lot just to survive. A lot of that was our culture. When we needed more space, we got rid of the art first, then the books. By the time we got here, we'd lost so much of our own planet." Iilo played with the hem of his shirt, a dingy gray thing that said MARSHALL. "There's a nice hill close by. You can see a mountain in the distance. I go there to think a lot. Wanna come? It's kinda like where we went that one day."
Tom ruffled Iilo's hair, laughing when Iilo crouched to hit him in the sternum with his exoskull. "Woah there! That thing is thick!"
"C'mon."
*~*~*
When they arrived, Tom remembered why he'd moved to Nebraska. Tall green grass swayed in a lazy dance. The sky
sprawled out above them, stretching across the horizon to where their eyes couldn't see. A mountain slept beneath the sky's bend, gray in the distance.
Iilo sat beside Tom, their shoulders close.
"Remember when I told you about the guy who died here? From our blood?"
Tom's heart squeezed. He vaguely remembered it. It was why it'd been important for Tom to help. Immunity allowed the I'na the freedom to relax a bit around him.
"He'd gotten blood in his mouth and died a few days later. His lungs crumbled away." Iilo sighed, lying back.
"God."
"Why do you say a god's name so much?" Iilo's brow quirked, lips pouted.
"It's just—it's just a human thing. I dunno. We're not supposed to say the Lord's name in vain, but maybe I wasn't. Maybe it's a short prayer. I don't really know. I'm not really the most religious person."
"The Elect had to fight off a full-on lockdown on the settlement. It was an accident, we swore. Some kind of tribunal or something happened. Ruled an accident, case sealed up. So your government left us alone. But I know they're watching us. Sometimes I even wonder if this is payback."
"It's not. Someone bad is out there, and I'm pretty sure they're not with the government. It'd be happening all over the country if it was." Tom knew more than ever how important it was to speak to other I'na, especially at the Lincoln Outreach Center. He had to be sure this wasn't happening everywhere. Feeding Iilo false information could be devastating, and Tom didn't want to mislead him.
Iilo smiled the kind of smile that pulled at the lips but where the eyes looked out of place. The sunlight lit up his freckles. They glowed, purple, pink, green—all glittering across his skin. His ID dim, Tom could see the grooves in the skull more this way. He reached out, unthinking, running his fingers along it.
Iilo's eyes fluttered shut.
"Sorry. I should've asked." Tom's cheeks heated.
"It's okay. I didn't mind."
"You're born with these?"
"Yes. It's an exoskeleton. We've got two layers of skull or whatever right here." Iilo tapped the skull side of his head distractedly.
