by Rayann Marse
Though they were already in grand moods, Amnay and Kozue became almost giddy as they set off on the last leg of the journey. As happy as they had been, both had harbored secret doubts. Kozue thought something terrible might happen to prevent their safe arrival. Amnay feared the abandoned mine might be the harbinger of an equally abandoned village.
But they needn't have worried. They arrived in the village less than two days after Kozue climbed the tree, buoyed and accelerated by their happiness and soaring spirits. They were greeted immediately by a party of male Menin. The males were dressed in a rustic fashion, similar to the tiny natives who had almost eaten Kozue for dinner. Their weapons were also primitive. Wooden spears with stone tips. Despite these surface differences, they carried themselves just like the males on the ship.
One of the males lowered his weapon and gestured at the others to do the same. Then he strode forward, meeting Amnay in the rare fashion of two male Menin who were not afraid to show their affection. Each set their right hand on the left shoulder of the other, and they briefly touched their foreheads together.
"Amnay," said the other male, "brother of Agron. Our instruments picked up seismic activity in the north. We were worried it was a natural disaster of some kind. But now we see you here."
"My ship," Amnay explained. "Damaged. Crashed. I would have landed here if it hadn't, and you would have seen me sooner. Has my tent been left alone?"
"I made sure it wasn't disturbed. Just as you asked me to." The male turned toward Kozue with a look of curiosity and mild alarm. "We've never seen such creatures here. They must live far away."
"Be kind," said Amnay. "This is Kozue. She's a human. From Earth."
The other male shook his head. "We actually went to that planet, did we? The Mindseat was never good at listening to reason, were they?"
"What does he mean?" Kozue asked. "Mindseat?"
Amnay touched her gently, a promise that he would explain in due time.
"She's with me," he told the other male. "Without her, I might never have made it. My spirit might have given out. She will be treated as an honorable guest."
The other male nodded at his companions. They dispersed, retreating back into the village. Their leader smiled in greeting at Kozue, bowing his head slightly as she went past.
The village was a hodgepodge of materials. Most of the houses were made of wood and other native materials. But several resembled shanties, crafted of cast-offs and scrap metal. The only exception was a huge hangar in the center of the village. It was as seamless, well-constructed, and imposing as the great Menin ship, itself. Though all the doors were shut, Kozue imagined that was where they were building their ship. If Amnay was right.
No one looked twice at Amnay as they moved through the village. But everyone stared with open mouths at Kozue. Some with curiosity, others with fear or disgust. At one point, a Menin child, very young but already as tall as Kozue, ran up and started poking her back as though to figure out if she was real. Amnay hissed at the child, swatting at the air above its head. The child ran off.
Finally, at the edge of the village, sheltered in a copse of young trees, they reached what Amnay had called a tent. It was shaped like a teepee, but made of individual slats of metal, like helicopter rotors, which overlapped each other.
Amnay went in through a narrow opening and slid the door shut behind Kozue as she joined him.
The tent was much larger on the inside than it had looked from without. Amnay made a circuit of the space, flipping switches, pressing on pedals with the ball of his foot, sliding connectors into place. The quiet hum of machinery filled the space; a wind blew past outside, creating a distant whistling sound.
"There were discussions about whether we should go to the Earth system and confront humankind," Amnay said as he worked. "We had been aware of your existence for a very long time. The only reason we didn't come sooner and conquer your entire race in the space of a day was a very personal one. Nowhere else in the galaxy had we ever found a race so closely matched to ours. The humanoid form is surprisingly prevalent; it seems to be a natural zenith of evolution on at least half of every terrestrial world we've visited.
"But none of those races could come close to matching us in other ways. Like those small creatures we encountered near the crash site, they fell short. But humans are different. You have a unique spirit to you. A persistence and willpower, a stubbornness. Given enough time, you will use those qualities to overcome all obstacles and shortcomings. And there is a tremendous amount of diversity in your populace. The largest and strongest of you rival any Menin. There are humans on Earth that even Slych or my late brother would be reluctant to challenge.
"But the upper limits of your race are not merely physical. There are highly intelligent individuals among you. A reconnaissance subsection of our race has been observing you constantly. During your twentieth century, you achieved growth at a rate never seen in Menin history. In the beginning of the twenty-first, you lagged a bit. But in the second half, your progress picked back up and has been steady ever since.
"Let me say that we have never been afraid of you. We never worried that you would be a true challenge to us. After all, we had the power to snuff you out at the first sign of your growing supremacy. At least, that is how the majority of Menin think. But I have a different idea. The compassion and empathy and helpful spirit that pervades all of humanity is usually seen by us as weak. But I never saw it that way. What I saw, when I observed the lengths that humans go to in order to help one another, was a race that would one day race past us and leave us far behind, in the dust and gloom of barbarism and stubbornness. You would never truly challenge us, because you would never feel the need to. The Menin project their own aggression and love of violence onto you. But humankind, as a whole, operates differently than that.
“For you, the incentive to explore the stars is to save yourselves. For us, it is the desire to find ways to exorcise the violence and rage we feel. To find new concubines. To prove that we are better than one another. That is why we occupy a single large ship and a number of colonies that we never even bother to check up on. In a million years, we Menin will probably be exactly where we are now. There may be no change at all. But humankind will have spread across all of creation. You will have filled the galaxy with your so-called weakness and frailty. And you will have spread yet further, crossing intergalactic space as we have long been able to do but never bothered to try, because there is nothing to kill in the emptiness between galaxies."
Finally finished powering on all his gadgets, he came to Kozue and lifted her from the floor. She latched onto him as she always did, hugging him tightly. He rubbed her back and kissed her neck.
"The Mindseat is the group that guides the fate of the Menin," he went on. "It is an ever-changing group. Ever-changing, because the members often die of age or illness. They are the seniors. This is a facet of our society I haven't told you before. When a male passes a certain age, he becomes untouchable. He cannot be challenged. His concubines can no longer be taken from him. If he reaches this age having fought and survived at least fifteen challenges, he has a high chance of being elected to the Mindseat.
"Decisions, ideas, and suggestions can be brought to the Mindseat by anyone. There is no limitation on what you can say to them, or what you can ask. They will contemplate each decision, and whatever they decide becomes law. It may seem like a good system, but is not. The Mindseat is comprised of the most violent, aggressive, and single-minded of Menin males. And these traits do not dull with age. The decisions they make are the main reason why Menin culture does not progress. The Mindseat has led us into a backwater of evolution, a stagnant pool. The entire thing is perfectly designed for the task of keeping things the same.
"It was the Mindseat that made the decision to finally come to Earth. It was my brother Agron who suggested to them that the Menin should demand female emissaries from humankind. And it was also him who suggested that humans be given a fair chance. If th
e female emissaries pleased us, the Mindseat promised to attempt a working relationship with humankind. It was the closest to a progressive decision that this cadre of old fools has ever made, but I fear learning what their idea of a 'working relationship' is."
Amnay carried Kozue to the center of room and set her down on the edge of a huge machine. He bent down and pulled a screen out of the floor. He swung two arms out from either side of it, locking them into the floor. This gave the screen stability and strength.
"You say anyone can speak to the Mindseat?" Kozue asked.
"Anyone. As far as I know, no distinction was ever made that only Menin could speak."
"Then I will see them," said Kozue. "Once we get back to the ship."
"Then we will have to figure out what suggestions to make."
"I'm sure you've been trying to figure that out for a long time," Kozue replied, folding her arms. "Have you ever gone to them before?"
After a moment, he shook his head. He didn't look at her. "I have not."
"Amnay," she said, hopping down to the floor and touching his arm. "Don't take this the wrong way but... maybe it's better if you stay here for a little while, if you just send me through alone. I'm worried about what will happen if..."
He grabbed her suddenly, turned her to face him and kissed her with surprising ferocity. He broke away and brushed a lock of hair away from her eyes.
"I understand why you would want that," he said. "But I cannot give them any more reasons to think me a coward. I think it's time they learn what I really am."
He turned to the screen, hitting a button on a remote.
A scene sprang into life. It showed a wide, brightly lit chamber. A long series of steps, made of a million types of stone and polished lengths of petrified wood, led to a platform where eighteen Menin males sat in lavish thrones arranged in a circle. They all faced inward, gesturing as they conversed. Though the camera, or whatever it was that fed the image, was positioned at the bottom of the steps, Kozue could see that they were old. Their purple skin was mottled with orange patches, and their muscles, while still mighty, had taken on a sinewy, saggy aspect.
"The Mindseat?" Kozue asked.
Amnay nodded. He was smiling ear to ear. "One of the places I decided to place one of my inventions. Who would think to be suspicious of a wall in such a sacred place?"
"Hidden in plain sight," Kozue said, nodding in approval.
"What will they think," Amnay said, "when we come walking through the wall?"
There was only one way to find out. Kozue gave the tent one last look, knowing she might never be back on this world. The thought made her sad, but only for a moment.
There was a whole universe out there to explore. And it was in her power to make sure it was explored.
Chapter Thirteen
The fear and the anxiety over what they were doing didn't hit Kozue until Amnay stepped through. She watched the back of his head appear in the two-dimensional scene in front of her. His right arm trailed out of the screen like a piece in a pop-up book and pulled her in.
She pierced the membrane between worlds with a light pop. And she was back in the Menin ship, in that stable environment of perfect temperature, pressure and humidity.
Kozue looked back at the wall they had come through. It was just a wall. Flat and featureless. Apparently, Amnay had not set up a full-fledged rig on this end. It was a one-way trip.
At first, it seemed no one had noticed them. Kozue assumed the effect was wasted, that everyone would think they had just walked into the room by ordinary means.
But then she saw that there was only one door in or out of the place. It was shut and sealed, with several guardsmen standing by it. All of them had looks of shock on their faces. Looking up the steps, Kozue saw that one of the elders on the Mindseat was staring down at them with a similar expression. He reached out with one spotted hand and tapped the shoulder of his neighbor. In a few moments, news of the strange appearance of Amnay and his tiny companion had spread through all eighteen seats.
"Perhaps we picked an imperfect time to come through," Amnay said as the hubbub and confusion spread over the Mindseat.
"What do you mean?"
Amnay nodded at the sealed doors. "Those doors are only ever locked when the Mindseat is in the middle of a contention. That is when half of the Mindseat is in favor of a decision, and the other half is against. Contentions can take days or longer to be resolved. They are the reason why the Mindseat must always consist of an even number of members. An odd number would allow certain decisions from being passed based on mere technicality."
"So, we've interrupted an important process." Kozue sighed. "Great."
Finally, one of the elders left his seat and appeared at the top of the steps. He kept one foot on the platform and set the other on a lower step, as though to signify he was willing to meet them on equal ground. At the elder's appearance, Amnay tensed up.
"Who's that?" Kozue whispered.
"The elder Uklu. Though the Mindseat makes no special deference to any of its members, Uklu is still considered the chief member. He has won more challenges than any of the others."
"What do we do?"
"Wait for him to speak. And hope he is in a pleasant mood."
They didn't have to wait long. Uklu brought his other foot down so that he was standing level and raised a hand in greeting. "You are Agron's brother," Uklu called, his voice deep and resonant. "But I do not recall your name."
"It is Amnay."
"Amnay! I never had any reason to know your name before. But it seems you have found a way to enter this place during contention without the door ever being opened. How have you managed that?"
Amnay stepped forward, fighting a smile; the corners of his mouth twitched. It was the first time Kozue had seen him act any way other than stoic and funereal around an authority figure.
"It's an invention of mine," he said. "I need to visit a place only once, and then I can link it forever to a network of doorways. The device is highly efficient. It is powered by light, heat, wind, sound... anything that touches it imbues it with a small charge. Although I obviously haven't been able to test its lifespan, I predict that the device will last for at least fifty years before its power source needs to be properly recharged."
Uklu seemed intrigued. He took another step down. "Go on."
"It is teleportation," said Amnay. "One of these devices can be linked to as many others as you would like. The doorway we came through is only one-way. For reasons of stealth, I have not connected a receiver on this side. But if I did, I could take you through to a number of locations. Including the planet we have just stepped out of mere minutes ago, arriving here instantaneously."
Another of the elders approached the steps now. He was a bloated, slack-faced male who seemed much older than the others. "Is that where you've been?" he asked. "Have you fled through one of these doorways of yours?"
"I fled to escape death," said Amnay. "I will admit to that. But the Menin have much more to gain from me than a single concubine. As lovely as she is." He gave Kozue a fond glance. "I can create wonderful things. I can do a great service to our entire race, elders. My inventions will change the course of the future in only good ways. There will be no need to choose one life or the other. The life of a colonist or the life of a conqueror. We can come and go as we please, to where we please. We can travel light years in seconds. And I have created this on my own. While constantly looking over my shoulder for threats. Think of what I could achieve with the support of the Mindseat."
The bloated elder stepped down, anger flashing on his face, but Uklu barred his way with one powerful arm.
"We are in contention," Uklu said. "We cannot consider the matter of your invention until after the current discussion is resolved. That being said, I wish to know what you require."
Amnay smiled. "Full access to our laboratories and stores. Peace and quiet to achieve my work."
"And where does the human factor into this?"
It was Kozue's turn to step forward. Amnay went quiet and turned up the volume on the translator, giving her the floor.
"I am not Amnay's concubine," she called up the stairs. "I am his companion. His assistant in all matters. As such, Amnay has no concubine. I am not able to be taken by way of challenge. And Amnay cannot be challenged."
Uklu did not look completely shocked by this. But she had more to say.
"Furthermore, my fellow humans will be treated as equals. Our sole purpose for being on this ship, elders, is not to serve your sexual desires. If you came to our star system to learn about us and to give us a chance at building a real relationship with you, then I fail to understand the way we have been treated thus far. We've been treated as property, as pieces of meat to be devoured. And though it sometimes feels nice to be owned, to be used, it is not a woman's only desire."
Someone laughed. Someone else howled in outrage. Uklu remained entirely composed.
"What is your wish?" he replied. "Say it plainly."
"We wish to be considered as equals in all matters outside the beds of our chosen males," she told him. "If you want to build a relationship with humankind, use your damn minds and build one. That is all I want."
"But you are not equals," Uklu said, without venom. As if it was plain truth.
"They can be," said Amnay, stepping forward. "We have nothing to lose from giving them a chance and treating them fairly."
"As equals," said Uklu. "But they are females. In Menin society, females do not function on the same level as males. They are equally important, but not equal in every area."
"We are emissaries of humankind," said Kozue. "We are your closest cousins and your closest friends in a vast, cold universe. When I said we wished to be treated as equals, I meant that we want you to respect our customs, ideals, and cultural differences. We will not interfere with your private matters if you do not interfere with ours. Together, we can build a future that will benefit both races equally."
