by S. G. Basu
“I am sorry. You will not be boarding the same section as your friends.” He articulated the last part of the sentence with a chilly vehemence. “Your place has been chosen, and you will be taken there at the appropriate time.”
“Why?” Dani spat angrily.
“That is the rule. There are assigned sections for everyone, and yours is different from theirs. You cannot travel with them, not here in the settlements.”
We’re being separated based on our heritage.
For a brief moment, Maia simply wanted to run away from the humiliation. To think that the Jjord would treat them this way; they were one people not so long ago. But of course they would, she reasoned. They had kept the Solianese away for a century, and they intended to keep that segregation alive. Just because the Solianese children were competing alongside the Jjord in the Initiative did not mean their nations had turned into compatriots.
“You can’t tell me whom I should travel with. That’s my choice,” Dani almost shouted. Her face was a vivid shade of red, and her lips trembled as she argued with the man. “Where I want to sit is my choice too.”
Proud as she was of Dani’s resolve to be with them, Maia also felt a sharp pang of embarrassment. Next to her, Kusha fidgeted while Nafi stood quietly. Ren watched with an expressionless face, his eyes flitting from the man to Dani and back. People were starting to stare. Around them, eager and inquisitive faces gathered, some concerned, some worried, and some simply enjoying the spectacle.
Dani’s refusal to follow orders did not seem to sit well with any of the personnel. The man had nodded in the direction of the booths, and two women walked over to them promptly, their heels clicking on the hard floor with the sound of finality. Their eyes scanned the group and came to focus on Dani’s flushed face.
“You will please observe the rules. If you don’t, we will have to take steps to enforce them,” one of the women said. “And we do not want to do that to one of our own.”
“But . . .” Dani protested. She did not seem to care for the consequences. The woman’s face hardened and her eyes narrowed to slits.
“Dani, please,” Kusha interrupted before she could say any more. “I . . . we know you don’t like this, but you’re making this awkward for us, so just go with them. Please.”
Dani stared at Kusha, her eyes blazing. Then a pall of gloom fell across her face. Maia expected her to say something, but Dani did not utter a sound. She strode past the two women and the man and sat down on the bench without another glance backward. The agents seemed a little taken aback by her sudden compliance; it was not until a few moments later that they turned around to face the remainder of the group. Kusha was next, and he was directed toward the door where he joined Nafi. Ren took his turn after Kusha.
“What plans do you have for me?” Ren stood with his arms crossed, his headed cocked at the three agents.
“You will please join your friend over there,” the man said, pointing toward the bench where Dani sat alone.
“Interesting,” Ren declared. He turned to Maia and whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear, “Not sure if I should be happy or sad.”
After Maia was sent in the same direction as Kusha and Nafi, the trio walked together silently to the open door. The man at the door ushered them toward an empty seat on a sparkling platform that stretched endlessly in both directions.
10: To Zagran
The terminal felt cold as Maia sat with Kusha and Nafi, waiting for their transport. No one spoke, and Maia hoped the train would arrive soon. She always found Nafi’s silence hard to endure. Every time the vivacious girl refused to speak, it was as if the heart of the group had stilled. Maia shifted uncomfortably, trying to think of things to talk about, yet failing to break the silence. The quiet had grown unbearable when Kusha sat up and started the much-needed conversation.
“There it is, the Aquiccela,” he said, smiling at the sleek tubular vehicle that pulled into the terminal. “Looks quite snazzy.”
Nafi gave the Aquiccela a detached look-over. “Hmmm,” she said finally, her voice low and gloomy.
“Wonder how long the trip to Zagran will be,” Maia chimed in. Keeping the conversation going could not have been more difficult. Nafi did not even look in her direction. “Hope it’s not as boring as traveling through the tunnel into Xif.”
“I don’t think so,” Kusha replied eagerly. “I’ve heard that the transoceanic lines are laid right across the seas, no tunnels down here.”
“Guess it’s time to find out,” Maia said, looking at the men in uniform who had emerged from the transporter and were now asking the scattered groups of children to board.
Maia, her two teammates and the rest of the Solianese contestants were shown into the third compartment from the fore. As the groups filed in slowly, the air filled up with light chatter. The compartment was long, and its body lined with clear windows. Inside, rows of seats ran perpendicular to the length of the train. Two consecutive rows faced each other forming groups of four on both sides of an aisle that ran along the center of the coach.
Maia observed the flurry of activity on the platform. After all the contestants had boarded and the doors of the compartment were closed, more doors on the platform opened. People streamed out and slowly entered the coaches in the rear.
“They had this compartment reserved for the participants of the Initiative,” Kusha observed. “Now they are boarding the public sections behind us.”
“There they are,” Nafi said, looking toward the front of the train. “The whole gang from Xif and Dani are getting into the second car.”
“Hey, did you notice that Karhann’s team is missing?” Maia exclaimed, suddenly realizing the team rumored to have been disqualified during the last phase had not shown up. Karhann and his teammates—Loriine, Baecca, Yoome, and a boy whose name Maia could not recall—made up Core 7. They had been fierce competitors during the Xifarian phase. However, because they violated the Code of Honor during their combat with Maia during the final challenge, the team’s actions had been under scrutiny. And then Yoome had turned out to be an assassin of the R’armimon. By the time the groups had left Xif, no decision about Core 7’s further participation had been released.
“Serves them right,” Nafi said gruffly. She had not been able to forgive the group for their sneaky attack on Maia.
“I keep wondering about the challenges for this phase.” Kusha stretched himself across two seats. “And what we get to learn from these people.”
“I don’t have high hopes,” Nafi commented wryly. “They don’t seem even half as nice as the Xifarians, and we all know how charming those people were.”
Maia had to chuckle. Nafi was always to the point, not always pleasing, but hardly ever off the mark.
A tiny noiseless vibration started below their feet and slowly grew stronger. Then, with a small shake and a wobble, the transporter pulled away from the platform. Maia remembered their passage into Xif through the darkened lock gates and hoped the journey this time around would be more pleasant.
11: Into the Blue
The Aquiccela entered a passageway that was nothing like the dark tunnel leading into Xif. This one had shiny walls, silvery ribs spiraling around its entire length, and bright lights glittering like gems at closely spaced intervals. Not too long after it had left the terminal, the transporter turned sharply to the right and plunged downward along a steep incline. Midway through the fall, a wave of water rushed up the sides of the tunnel and splattered across its shiny length, making Maia shrink back from the windows. They had entered the seas. All around them swirled the clearest water Maia had ever seen. As the train sunk lower, it turned darker.
“I thought we were quite deep under the seas already.” Nafi seemed a bit agitated. “Why are we going down again?”
“Wish Dani were here to explain,” Maia said with a sigh.
Outside the passageway, the water grew murkier. Maia had started to wonder what Dani and Ren were up to in the next compartmen
t when she heard a voice.
“This is my home, and all I wanted was to tell you more about it on our way to Zagran,” Dani’s voice rang crisp and clear in Maia’s ears.
“Dani?” she exclaimed, turning to look at Kusha and Nafi.
“I hear her too,” Kusha whispered as Nafi nodded. “But how?”
“Maia . . . you can hear me?” Dani asked. “But how is that possible? I was simply talking to Ren.”
Maia looked around at the other groups. Everyone was busy staring out of the windows; no one spared a glance in their direction. It seemed as if they were the only ones who could hear Dani.
“I know,” Ren’s excited shout almost threw Maia backward with its sudden intensity. “It has to be the wristbands.”
Three pairs of eyes turned immediately to the dark and sparkly band that stretched around their wrists, the prize from Mahswa Tabrin for their bravery during the Seliban challenge. Mahswa was a Tierremorphe; she had the ability to terraform or shape land freely with her mind. Maia remembered her words clearly: “The firestones have special powers that not many know about.” Maia remembered the words of another man, the Emeritus Professor Phocluus who had known Sophie: “These stones helped you protect the Tyrillic Converter.”
“But how did you make it work?” Kusha whispered. “It was as good as dead all along.”
“Don’t know,” Dani replied.
“We can figure that out later,” Nafi whispered. “Now, Dani, tell us why we’re heading toward the bottom of the ocean.”
“We’re not going to the bottom of the ocean.” Dani’s laughter filled Maia’s ears. “We’re simply getting out of the fringe port through the North Central Spout. The transport lines almost always merge below the city levels, so these openings, or spouts, have to face downward in the direction of these interchanges. We’re now heading toward the Northern Interchange and we shall take the TTL to Zagran from there.”
“What’s a TTL?” Ren asked.
“Transoceanic Transport Lines,” Dani explained. “These are basically connectors between settlements, highways for the transporters like the one we are on. Then there are the Transoceanic Carriage Lines for private carriages driven by citizens themselves.”
“Like the Hansmobile?” Maia asked.
“Well, not exactly,” Dani laughed. “The Hansmobile can also use uncharted routes outside the tunnels—a vehicle like that is called an ‘off-liner.’ The Hansmobile doesn’t like to limit itself to the confines of defined transport systems; rather, it makes its own road, so to speak.”
Kusha stared at Maia, and Nafi’s eyebrows shot up a tad higher at this exchange, but before anyone could ask questions the rapidly changing scenery outside drew their attention.
The transporter slowed for a moment and immediately picked up speed as it entered the “mesh”—a web made of innumerable tunnels just like the one their own transporter was speeding through. They came from all possible directions at various levels above and below, a gigantic ball of shimmery yarn that spun around in the depths of the blue. Some of them merged, some intersected, and some diverged. Within them, vehicles moved swiftly in a frenzied blur.
“This is the Northern Interchange,” Dani informed.
Their Aquiccela sped through the complicated net, twisting and turning for a very long time before it was swallowed up by a tunnel nearly double the width of the first one it was in. Once inside, the transporter steadily climbed up and away from clustered transport lines of the interchange. Maia assumed this to be the TTL to Zagran; the long stretch under the Eastern Seas that it was designed to cover explained its wider girth. As the transporter climbed higher, the waters around it grew refreshingly lighter.
“We should be able to see the fringe port behind us,” Ren inferred. Maia, Kusha, and Nafi craned their necks to catch a glimpse.
“Not for this one, we can’t,” Dani was quick to correct him. “This fringe port is built behind an underwater ridge. We are outside that embankment now, so—”
Nafi groaned, obviously let down by the information.
“Don’t be upset, Nafi,” Dani chuckled. “Wait until we get to Zagran. You’ll forget all about the fringe port once you see the city.”
Suddenly, something stirred in the waters, and ripples spread across in a swift, circular motion. Rising through the curtain of blue were milk squids, creatures Maia had read about in books. She had never imagined they could be so large or so imposing. Their large, bulbous heads were as big as a pachyderm’s, and twenty long tentacles emerged from the base of the heads and dangled like hooks. It was not just one milk squid but a huge colony that rose and lingered around the speeding transporter, their mass casting a dark shadow on the area. Maia felt a bit unnerved by their presence, but thankfully the group sunk back into the depths as noiselessly as they had arrived.
The transporter moved on through reefs and canyons, some a mosaic of colors and some dull and lifeless. But there was never a lack of things to talk about—a zillion enticing and amazing creatures went about their ways. Shoals of colorful fish swarmed past; some stopped for a while and peeked at the Aquiccela with curiosity while others passed without a care. Some were small and some large, some in groups and some alone, and they were of the strangest shapes and sizes. Between Maia and her friends, it was an endless conversation about every new thing they saw, and Maia hardly noticed how time flew by.
“We’re almost there,” Dani said as the transporter glided past a bluish-yellow embankment. “As soon as we turn around that ridge, you’ll see—”
The transporter made its way past the ragged edge of the underwater hillock. A stunned silence descended on all conversation, and Maia forgot to breathe.
12: The City of Dreams
Sprawled all along the left of the transport line was a structure that could have popped out of a dream. It was a breathtaking arrangement of shimmering shapes, a composition of gigantic bubbles stacked and connected with each other through a complex series of tunnels, passages, and corridors. Its transparent surface gleamed in the soft blue light filtering through the waters; the curves and the bulges that housed the city reflected the myriad of colorful sea creatures that swam all around it.
“This is it,” Dani’s reverential voice came over the wristband. “This is Zagran.”
As the transporter drew closer to the colossal mountain of bubbles, the lights of the glistening city inside it slowly became visible. The Aquiccela suddenly seemed miniscule—the length of the whole structure could easily rival the Dorgashians, Maia guessed.
Dani’s voice sounded again. “Zagran is built around the Mount Setna, an underwater mountain. You can think of the Setna as Zagran’s backbone, it forms the axis to which the frame of the city is anchored. The city now looks like a cluster of berries, but it wasn’t always like this. The first few levels of it were partially carved into the mount, and partly erected upon an impervious rocky ledge. Slowly the structure grew. When our technology was advanced enough, the buildings grew taller. The bubble meshes were built over them as a protective cover.”
On nearing the city, the TTL subdivided into narrower transport lines. The Aquiccela picked one of these smaller lines that circled halfway around the underwater city, and plunged into the side of a shabby-looking dome protruding rather sorely from the middle of the superstructure. Within moments, the transporter came to stop at a platform.
The doors opened one by one, and people streamed out of the Aquiccela. By the time Maia, Kusha, and Nafi made their way out of the transporter, Dani and Ren were already waiting on the platform.
“So, what do you think?” Dani asked the instant they were together. Her eyes shone with pride.
“It’s ridiculously big.” Nafi exclaimed. “I have to say, I didn’t expect anything as huge as this.”
The crowd around them hummed excitedly among themselves, everyone seemed moved and upbeat after the ride. No one knew what they were supposed to do, so they simply waited on one side of the half-empty platform for
further directions.
“And we wait once more,” Kusha observed with a grimace. “You would think the organizers would arrange for someone to meet us.”
“Yes, I never thought I’d say this, but right now I miss Geir-Sei.” Maia chuckled as she remembered the flamboyant vice principal of the XDA who had received them at the spaceport of Arpasgula.
A door next to the huddled group opened noisily no sooner than Maia had spoken. A woman wearing a crisp white uniform walked in, her head held high, her posture stiff, and the heels of her shoes clip-clopping on the hard floor. She was tall and skinny. It was as if the thinnest fabric of pallid skin had been draped upon her bones. Her eyes were sunken and sharp, her lips a thin and disapproving presence below a harsh and unforgiving nose. Gray hair was swept away from her brows that knit in a tight frown on her cold, humorless face and tied up into a sleek ponytail that stood on her head like a flagpole. She crossed her long bony arms, her eyes sweeping over the faces around her as she faced the group.
“Welcome to Zagran,” she said icily.
No one made a sound or moved.
“I am Aerika from the University of Advanced Arts and Sciences. I will be your training supervisor during your stay here in Zagran. As you already know from the first stage of this contest, you will be expected to learn some of our skills and master them to be able to successfully compete in the two challenges. This will, of course, require your attention, application, and commitment, which I hope you have plenty to have survived the Xifarian phase. Each team will be paired with a mentor who will help you adapt to your new home. Your mentor will show you around, introduce you to our rules and regulations, and advise you when needed.”
The supervisor paused, and Maia let out the breath she had been holding. She found it very odd that they were being introduced to the contest at a place as public as the transporter terminal. People walked past, staring, and some even stopped to listen. Maia wondered if this was a deliberate attempt by the Jjord to show their displeasure at this whole exercise.
