Sly Mongoose

by Tobias S. Buckell

  None of this was on his shoulders anymore.

  “Are you doing this to yourself?” Katerina grabbed his hand and pulled him away.

  “You don’t understand. It’s expected.” And he couldn’t stop. He pulled his hand from her. “We’re not like you: rich, brimming with technology. I can’t take a pill and thin my waist, I can’t ask for a bigger chest for my birthday and,” he snapped his fingers, “make it so.”

  Katerina put a defensive arm over her breasts. “You’re being crude, Timas.”

  “I’m being true. We don’t have your advantages, and as we got poorer we couldn’t fit in the suits when they got handed down. Used items that our grandparents got, not even realizing we’d be normal.” He hissed the last word. “So we do this to fit.”

  “There are other ways.”

  “Maybe, but this is being xocoyotzin and what we do. Leave me alone.”

  “You don’t need to fit in a groundsuit, Timas, we’re prisoners right now. You need your strength.” Katerina sat next to him.

  Timas leaned back against the wall. The sour smell of half-digested food made him feel queasier. “It’s not that easy. Doesn’t just turn off.”

  “Listen, there can’t be that much food around here. They’ll stop feeding you if they find out you’re doing this.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Katerina grabbed his hand. “Don’t be sorry. Just please stop it for now.” She pulled him to his feet. “Now come.”

  “What are we doing?”

  “This can’t continue, what they’re doing to us. I asked us all to take a vote. We can’t check back into the Consensus, but we can certainly run one of our own. We don’t think this treatment should continue.”

  “What can you do about it?” Timas asked. They had no weapons and were cut off and outnumbered. “And what do you mean, ‘us’?”

  “They wanted to grab Renata and take her upstairs,” the Aeolian with the black eye said.

  “And risk their payments?” Timas didn’t understand. But he felt his mouth go dry. They lived at the mercy of these people up there. What if they stopped caring, and let Luc kill him?

  “They’re having trouble getting a Consenus focus, the cities are distracted by the Swarm. There’s jamming, and their captain, Scarlett, hasn’t called back. They’re starting to think Pepper double-crossed them.” Renata, Timas saw now, had a long and bloody tear running up her forearm.

  “I think Pepper’s right,” one of the men said. “We’re all on our own now. The Swarm is sweeping through everything.”

  “We’ll need your help, though, to do anything,” Renata said to Timas.

  He looked at all of them and felt the heaviness settle on his shoulders. He always helped. It was what he did.

  “What do I need to do?”

  “Fight back.” Renata folded her arms. “We need ten minutes the next time you get dragged away to get ready to jump them.”

  “Ten minutes.” Timas stared at them. That was an eternity.

  “Can you do it?” Katerina looked at him hopefully.

  Timas looked down, scared to meet their eyes. “Yes.” He hadn’t started out hating Luc. He’d felt sorry for him. Now Cen’s brother had distorted himself and lost all self-control. Timas couldn’t afford that pity anymore. It had been beaten out of him.

  Renata showed him several long planks of wood they’d pulled off the crates. “Just last ten minutes. When they come to throw you back in, we’ll have the crates stacked to reach the hatch.”

  “Okay.” Timas nodded. “I understand.” He sat crosslegged under the hatch with them and waited for the next round.

  The hours passed. Eventually shouting from above startled him. Feet pounded about.

  “Come look at this.” Katerina had her face stuck against one of the slits in the belly of the airship.

  They all joined her. Timas cupped his hands around his eyes and looked down at the whipped, rusted-out clouds below them.

  A ponderous creature flew below them, made of canvas and spars, an airbag at its center, a spiked nose, and large finned sails stretched out around its circular core.

  The wings flapped, pulling the contraption up closer in jerking motions. Timas could see thousands of gears, and equally as many articulated joints pumping and shuddering.

  “Strandbeests,” Renata said. “I’ve never seen one this close, they usually make a run for it if they notice an airship.”

  Timas had never seen, or heard of one. “I didn’t know there were living creatures in the clouds,” he breathed.

  “They’re not alive, they’re all gears and pulleys and joints.” Katerina stood back up. “Analog machines, but they self-replicate. Or so we think, they’re pretty hermitlike.”

  A cluster of them beat their canvas wings away from the airship. They wheeled about each other, flocking in a weird, grouplike pattern.

  Eventually they dwindled away.

  Timas had moved back to the end window in their compartment, pressing his face at an angle to try and see the last one, when the hatch opened.

  Luc stood in the light of the square opening. He tapped the button that dropped the ladder down.

  “Get up here, you little shit. We aren’t done. Now that we’ve gone this long without Scarlett calling in, they’re not as concerned about what happens to you.”

  Timas walked, step by careful step, to the ladder. His ribs ached, his face felt puffed up, and he hurt all over.

  “Ten,” Renata mouthed silently to him.

  Ten.

  Timas pulled himself up toward the decking.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Luc wasted no time in kicking Timas. The moment the hatch slammed shut with a metallic clank and a bounce he had knocked Timas over.

  Timas covered his head, but scrabbled backward like a crab. He groaned as he stood back up.

  “You’re going to stand up to me now?” Luc shook his head. “Maybe you should have stood up for Cen!”

  Timas glared at him. “He was my best friend. You know what it’s like to lose your best friend?” He balled his hands up into shaking fists.

  “Is it anything like losing a brother?” Luc wiped away tears. “We were close, too. Cen dragged himself up to xocoyotzin, running every night since he was four. Four. Already at that age he knew what he wanted to do, and how he wanted to save us from the city’s depths.”

  Luc attacked, smacking a fist into Timas’s nose. Timas wheeled back, bouncing off a door, then staggered around until one of the four pirates now watching grabbed him.

  They shoved him forward.

  “I know what it’s like,” Timas said. “I do know what it’s like for him. Always with your family on your back. Feeling like everything is your responsibility. I knew Cen better than you. We were the same.”

  Now Timas ran forward and hit Luc. Luc absorbed the body blow easily enough. He twisted and threw Timas to the floor. The deck burned his hands as he fell again.

  “You didn’t know Cen, you just worked with him.”

  Timas struggled up. “You know why you’re mad?” He looked through Luc like he didn’t even exist. “You’re like all the others, the parasites around the xocoyotzin. The parents forcing them to stay thin in the hope that they’ll remain on the top level. The distant family that feeds off them, depends on them. All of you crushing him as you stand on his shoulders.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You’re angry because you lost your free meals,” Timas spat. “Your undeserved status by just being his brother and nothing more.”

  Luc’s eyes widened. Timas smiled. He’d struck way too close, and Luc ran him down.

  The previous beatings had been nothing, Luc screamed his rage out while the pirates laughed and bet on how long Timas would remain conscious.

  Timas wriggled, trapped beneath Luc’s bulk, but suddenly full of fear as the desire to flee and the need to breathe took over his entire world as he was crushed.

  A pair of m
ismatched wrestlers, the awkward contest of wills continued, Timas dragging it out for as long as he could.

  At the ten-minute mark, with Luc still hitting him from a kneeling position, Timas rolled toward the hatch. “Please.”

  “Please what?”

  “I’m done, I can’t take any more,” Timas said with bruised lips, a bloody nose, and throbbing body.

  “Damn right.” Luc leaned down and yanked the hatch open.

  Renata reared up from under the edge, standing on a set of crates stacked and laid out like stairs. She grabbed Luc by the collar of his shirt and yanked him down into the hold headfirst.

  Just as quickly two of her men crawled up the boxes past her onto the deck and sprinted at the pirates.

  Caught off guard, they jumped back. The Aeolians raised their slender wooden stakes. Timas looked away as they impaled all four of the pirates.

  The pirates thrashed about on the floor, slowly dying as they bled out and gasped for air that wasn’t coming.

  Timas climbed down past Renata to Luc’s side. But Cen’s brother didn’t stir. Timas looked back up at Renata, and she shook her head.

  For her, a minor regret. For Timas, he now had gotten both his best friend and his best friend’s brother killed. He sat next to Luc, fighting the sick feeling deep in his stomach.

  Katerina walked over. “You’re hurt badly.”

  “We’ll never get them back.” Timas took the piece of shirt she offered him and dabbed at his face.

  “He wanted you dead. This isn’t your fault.”

  Timas put the bloodied cloth over Luc’s face. He’d been to many xocoyotzin funerals and watched the families of distant friends collapsing. Everyone carried the burden that pervaded the top level, the fear of constantly wondering if their children would return to the surface alive after every trip.

  Timas could only accept the responsibility of others’ burdens for so long. Was it not also the responsibility of the creature he’d seen in the mist, for getting caught out when the aliens had stayed hidden for so long? Or the fault of his grandparents for making bad choices that led to their citywide poverty?

  Didn’t the League, all those wormhole junctions away, bear the blame for the aliens’ persecution, the only thing that would drive aliens to hide here?

  Katerina was right. It was time to let it all go, Timas thought, lest it eat him up like it ate Luc up.

  “Come on.” Katerina stood. “They may need our help.”

  Timas followed her up the crates. They’d bury Luc in the clouds with his brother later.

  Timas and Katerina found the other six crewmen already tied with rope to chairs in the galley, taken by surprise. Pots of rice and stew still sat on the table that the chairs ringed, half-eaten bowls steaming in front of them.

  Timas felt his stomach rumble.

  “Let us go,” one pirate begged. Timas hadn’t seen him before, but bits of moss grew all over him. He looked dark green instead of brown. Bits of chapped moss flaked off as he pulled against the ropes keeping him trapped.

  This happened to people who worked outside cities or on the outside of ships. Tiny particles in Chilo’s atmosphere in the clouds would grow on you.

  Gross.

  “We’ll pay you well,” another promised.

  Katerina snorted, and they brushed through a bulkhead and past sweaty-smelling unkept beds bunked up three high against the wall. Small canvas lace-up flaps hung down to prevent sleepers from being tossed out of the beds when turbulence hit.

  After that, the chart room, where Renata sat looking down at several sheafs of paper with pencil marks all over them. She used a pair of rulers joined together to mark out lines in rapid strokes of the pencil. “The pilot spotted us before we got to the cockpit.” She pointed forward.

  Timas leaned out of the nook the chart table was in to look forward. Down past the next bulkhead where two of her men were, the pilot lay dead, sprawled facedown.

  One of the Aeolians turned back and waved. “Renata! We’re ready.”

  Renata grabbed Katerina. “We’re making a run for it.” They banked hard right, the small cluster of pirate airships in front of them sliding away to their side. “But they’ll be able to keep pace. It’ll be dicey. You’re an avatar, randomly picked for this. As for us, we chose this. Because of that we feel you should have a choice now in what comes next for you.”

  Katerina frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “We have guns to shoot back, charges to fire, and this is an attack airship. My men are up in the airbag to man guns there and on the airship’s car. Things are falling apart all across Chilo, that much is obvious. We’re in a good position to fight the pirates here, and maybe, maybe get back and help our cities. But we may get shot down.

  “You can stay with us, or, we can get you aboard an emergency bubble. Three days air, food, and an emergency beacon.” Renata shoved the map toward them. “After we drop you out the lock, which we’ll do at cloud level, we chaff the area. We’re headed back toward the strand-beests, between them and the chaff, the pirates will be hard pressed to stop and hunt for you. After we pass through, you increase the air and heat in your bubble, expand it a bit, and pop up five thousand feet. There’s a strong air current that feeds into the Great Storm. That takes you back toward Yatapek. Fire off your emergency beacon after fifteen hours.”

  “I want that option,” Timas said. “Whether she goes or not.”

  “I figured.” Renata rolled the chart up. “But we here owe her that choice. She made a big sacrifice to serve the Consensus.”

  Katerina looked down at the rolled-up wind map in Renata’s hand. “I’m not sure what to do. No friend polls here, huh?”

  Renata laughed. “No. We’re all cut out. I guess you’ve never had that happen, have you?”

  “No.” Katerina shook her head. “I miss everyone.”

  “You’ll have about fifteen minutes before we get near the strandbeests again, we’re gunning the engines here. Make up your mind by then. I’ll leave you some quiet time.”

  Katerina glanced at Timas and then back to Renata. “I want the bubble. I think Timas saw something important. I think I’ll best serve Consensus by getting back to Yatapek.”

  “Okay.” Renata stood up, her arm around Katerina’s shoulder. “Let’s get you ready.”

  She led them down to the bunks, to another hatch Timas had not noticed on the way up. They clambered down the ladder into the bowels of the airship’s car once again.

  A small airlock jutted out of the bottom of this compartment, though. And inside of it would be their escape bubble. After a quick delay, Renata came down the stairs with a tightly wrapped box. “Food and water. There are . . . expandable bags for both of you in the bubble already.”

  “Expandable?” Katerina frowned.

  “If it takes much longer than fifteen hours, you’ll need to use the bathroom. It’ll be uncomfortable in such close quarters, but many others have survived it.”

  Timas blushed as Katerina nodded.

  “One of you in first, then the next. It’s tight right now.”

  “I’ll go.” Timas took the lead and spun the hatch open. He dropped his legs through and then crouched in the tiny lock. He pushed his back up against the wall. It crinkled. He was inside the bubble lining, hanging from the insides of the airlock.

  Katerina’s long legs slid through, and then she dropped in. They were pressed up close to each other. Embarrassingly close, hips brushing.

  Renata leaned in, her puffy hair bobbing against the metallic rim. “Okay, usually these drop, wait, then shoot straight up. But you’re trying to avoid that and lay low. So I pulled the climb sensor. You have to yank on this ripcord to initiate the climb.”

  Timas looked at the red cord nestled inside four dials, and several gauges mounted on the solid plastic floor under his feet. “Okay.”

  “This dial here adds air pressure from the tank under your feet. The walls are pretty flexible, just watch the pressure dial and
don’t go into red.” Then there was the heater, which added lift, a vent to drop, the ripcord for the emergency beacon, and the tiny cupboard/trash can for waste. Including human waste. Ballast weights on the bottom, little bags of lead that could be dropped by another switch if needed, but the balloon would unbalance and tumble. Those were only for a desperation climb.

  “We got it all,” Katerina said.

  “If you inflate the ball out hard, there’s room for some five or six people, it should be comfortable.” Renata pointed out the webbing on the edges of the plastic floor. They’d have room to lay out and sleep as it stretched out fully. “Now zip up your top. I’ll fire you guys off when I hear we’re in position.”

  She slapped the rim, and Timas stretched up and zipped the clear plastic around the edge of the rim.

  They sat on the floor, knees knocking, facing each other in the tiny space.

  “Are you scared?” Katerina asked.

  Timas considered lying. He decided against it. “I’m terrified.”

  She laughed. “Me too.”

  Renata slammed the hatch shut and dogged it. They were truly alone. “But it’s easier, with someone else.” Timas bit his lip.

  “Yeah.”

  The wait dragged on. Timas felt his mouth go dry. It ranged from seconds to an eternity, just sitting there waiting, his heart hammering.

  “It’s been a few minutes.”

  Timas nodded. As he did so the bubble lurched and then dropped out of the bottom of the aircar. He glanced up, reaching out to grab the sides instinctively, and saw the airship shoot up away from them.

  Several thousands of tiny twirling bits of chaff exploded at random points in the sky.

  They tumbled slightly as they fell, the grungy brown clouds swirling around them. Timas caught a glimpse of the pirate fleet far overhead.

  The bubble stopped tumbling, inflating slightly with a hiss from under their feet, popping their ears. Then dropped through cloud wisps as the bubble slowed down, shook, and then steadied.

  A glance at the altimeter gauge confirmed that they had stopped falling.