by Amy Thomson
“I am ready,” Tomas said.
Ukatonen held out his arms to* begin the link. “I have a plan,” he told Eerin and Moki in skin speech. “Follow my lead.”
Surprised, Eerin hesitated for a moment, then reached out to link with Ukatonen. Moki followed suit.
The link was a roil of emotions. Tomas was a swirl of bloody violence. Moki struggled to keep his fear and anxiety under control, while Eerin fought to suppress her anger and fear. Ukatonen reached into Tomas, and rendered him unconscious, a simple physiological trick. But there was nothing he could do for Eerin and Moki except wait for them to calm themselves. When the link was finally calm enough for him to be heard, Ukatonen sent a flood of reassurance and a sense of anticipation. He was pushing as hard as he could, yet it barely affected the tenor of the link. But it was enough– Eerin and Moki both responded with cautious optimism. He would explain when he emerged from the link.
Then Ukatonen turned his focus to the patient. The cancer was deep and widespread. It was a testament to the strength of Tomas’s will that he could appear as healthy as he did. It would be dangerous to underestimate this man.
Ukatonen released the killer cells that would clear away the cancer. With the help and support of Moki and Eerin, he reversed as much of the damage as he was able to, given his own fragile state. When he had done as much as he could, Ukatonen created a temporary pain block. Tomas would wake in pain in the middle of the night.
It was a strange thing to do, and in response to Moki’s puzzlement, Ukatonen conveyed anticipation. This was part of his plan. Then he sent a feeling of caution and urgency. He was going to do something. They needed to be ready.
Ukatonen woke Tomas and broke the link, hoping that Eerin and Moki understood him. Moki glanced at Eerin as her eyes opened. She looked at Ukatonen and moved her head in a fractional nod. They were ready to follow his lead. He only hoped that his plan would work.
“How are you feeling, Mr. Tomas?” Ukatonen asked. He felt drained. The link had exhausted him.
Tomas sat up in bed. “Better than I have in months,” he said. “It’s really amazing.”
“The pain block may wear off in a few hours,” Ukatonen told him. “If you start to hurt, call us, and we will come and reinstate it. You will heal faster if there is no pain. I have done all that I have the strength to do today. I will do more healing in a couple of days, when I am stronger.”
Ukatonen swayed suddenly on his feet, his color paling to a silvery white. “Be ready,” he said in skin speech. “Watch my skin.” He collapsed, going into convulsions, his skin becoming a riot of color. “I am all right, but pretend I have done too much,” he said, the symbols jumbled in amongst the swirls of color. “Get me into another room.”
“Ukatonen!” Eerin cried. “What’s wrong?” She looked up at the guards, who had their guns drawn and pointed at them.
“He’s done too much,” Eerin explained. “He needs food. Honey, sugar. Anything sweet. Please! Now! If you don’t do this, he will die,” she pleaded. “If that happens, he cannot save you,” she told Tomas. Ukatonen went suddenly limp, his skin pale silver.
The guards looked at Tomas, who nodded. “Take him out of here, now. Do what they say.”
“We’ll carry him,” Eerin said.
“Let my arm drop,” Ukatonen said in skin speech. “I will be dripping something out of my allu.”
Ukatonen let one arm droop down toward the floor, and released the first drops of the precursor to a potent sleep drug. It had a faint, acrid odor, but the nose-blind humans didn’t seem to notice the smell.
“This way,” one of the guards said. “Take them to the cafeteria. Put him on one of the tables.”
“Good,” Ukatonen said, still in skin speech, “a good place. Everyone goes there.”
They laid him on one of the tables, and a guard came running up with a container of sugar from the kitchen.
“Here,” he said, handing it to Eerin.
Ukatonen explained what he was doing in skin speech as Eerin opened his mouth and began pouring sugar onto his tongue.
“Tonight, when Tomas has us brought in to relieve the pain, I will release the second part of the drug. They will fall asleep, and will not awake for several hours. Link with me now.” He let his skin fade back to a neutral celadon color.
“Thank you,” Eerin told the guards. “It’s helping. Now we need to link with him.”
The guards looked at each other, and then the one in charge nodded. They linked briefly. Ukatonen showed Moki how to synthesize the precursor substance he was producing, then broke the link.
His simulated convulsions over, Ukatonen opened his eyes. He sat up, slowly and painfully. It was not really acting: the link, and then the false convulsions, had drained him. He was exhausted.
“Are you all right?” Eerin asked.
Ukatonen flickered agreement. “Food. I need food,” he said aloud.
“So do the rest of us,” Moki put in. He began letting some of the clear, synthesized precursor substance ooze from his spurs onto the table, where it evaporated quickly.
Their captors brought plates heaped with food– 6eans and rice, with fresh fruit and vegetables. They stuffed themselves. And all the while, the precursor oozed from the Tendu’s spurs, dripping onto the floor, or spread surreptitiously onto the tabletop. The substance was highly volatile and would evaporate and spread throughout the building, where it would be inhaled and absorbed by every single person inside.
“Could we go to the bathroom before we are put back in our cells?” Ukatonen asked. “I’m afraid there is some urgency.”
The guard in charge nodded. Ukatonen left a trail of precursor on his way to the bathroom. He let a small puddle of it accumulate on the floor of the toilet stall, and wiped some on the door handle and faucets. They brought him back to the cafeteria, and then escorted the prisoners back to their cells. Ukatonen stumbled and fell just outside the building, leaving a faint stain of precursor on the walkway. As Moki bent to help the enkar up, he sprayed some on the grass.
“He’s still weak,” Eerin said. “We should stay with him.” The guards hesitated, then one of them conferred with someone on his coram unit.
“Only the little one may stay. There will be a guard outside, in case there is any trouble.”
Ukatonen caught a glimpse of Eerins anxious face as they led her off to her cell. He hoped she would be ready to act when the time came.
Ukatonen was asleep when their captors came for them. The guards escorted them to Tomas’s room, where he lay sweating and pale in agony.
“Stop the pain,” he commanded.
Ukatonen nodded at the others, and they linked with Tomas, putting him under immediately. Ukatonen cleared their systems of all traces of the precursor to the sleep drug he had released earlier in the day. Now the second half of the drug would not affect them. Then, on a prearranged signal, they unlinked. He and Moki began releasing the second half of the drug from their spurs. The light, volatile compound diffused rapidly through the room. It had a peculiar, almost flowery scent. He heard the muffled thud as their guards fell to the heavy carpet.
Ukatonen slipped out of the link and called in the guards waiting outside the room. They were asleep before they took five strides into the room. Ukatonen and Moki crept out into the hallway, releasing the sleep drug from their spurs. Almost immediately the hallway was full of slumped bodies. Ukatonen gingerly opened doors, releasing more activator into every room where he smelled a human. In less than twenty minutes, everyone in the building was asleep except for Moki, Eerin and” himself.
“Okay, this building’s safe,” Ukatonen said.
“I’ll call out for help,” Eerin said, picking up the comm unit.
“No,” Ukatonen told her. “I want to talk to Tomas. I need to understand him. He goes with us.”
“Goes where?” Eerin demanded.
“The jungle,” Ukatonen said.
“Ukatonen, this compound is surrounded by arm
ed guards. How are we going to get him out of here?”
“I don’t know, but we have to.”
“We barely have a chance to get out of here with our own skins. It’ll be a whole lot harder with a hostage,” Eerin pointed out.
“I know,” Ukatonen told her, “but it is necessary.”
“Siti?” Moki said. “There are trucks here. I heard them come in the other afternoon. Maybe we can use one of them to get out of here.”
Eerin looked at him. “That’s a good idea, bai. We should move soon, before someone checks the building.”
Eerin stripped one of the guards, and put on his uniform. Then she scooped up Tomas’s comm, and slipped it down her shirt front, tucking it securely into the waistband of her pants.
They carried the unconscious Tomas to the back door [[:f]] the building.
“I’ll go first, and see if I can find a way to get out of here,” Ukatonen said. “You wait here with Tomas.”
“Be careful,” Eerin cautioned.
Ukatonen slipped out into the night. A few minutes of exploring brought him to a garage filled with trucks and cars. He crept up behind the guard and put him to sleep with a quick sting of his spurs. Then he returned to where Eerin and Moki were waiting.
“I found the garage. Let’s go.”
They carried Tomas to the garage.
“We’ll take that troop transport over there,” Eerin said, pointing at the largest truck in the garage. The back was roofed with canvas. Moki searched for the keys while Eerin and Ukatonen loaded Tomas into the back of the truck. Ukatonen climbed into the back of the truck to keep an eye on Tomas. Moki found the keys hanging on a board on the wall. He grabbed them and scurried across the garage toward the truck. Just then a pair of guards walked into the garage.
“Hey!” one of the guards shouted. “Stop, or we’ll shoot!”
“Siti!” Moki called. He deftly lobbed the keys through the driver’s window with a long-armed toss, and then leaped for the truck. Then Ukatonen saw the canvas truck roof dent as Moki scrabbled up onto the roof . There was a rumble as Eerin started the truck. Moki appeared framed in the opening at the back of the truck as he swung inside. There was a loud, sharp crack and the bami landed in an awkward heap in the back as the vehicle turned, the engine whining loudly in protest. There was the smell of blood, Moki’s blood.
Ukatonen moved toward the bami, but just then the truck surged forward, knocking him over. There was a rending crash, and then the garage receded behind them as the truck speeded up. He could hear shouting and more gunshots. There was another crash, and then Ukatonen could see the gate vanishing behind them. He heard more shots, but the bullets whined by without hitting them.
“Are you all right, Moki?” Ukatonen asked, his words glowing in the darkness.
“Something hit me, en. I’ve stopped the bleeding, but my arm’s gone numb.”
The truck was bouncing too much for them to link safely. “That’s not good. As soon as we’re safe, I’ll look at it for you.”
Moki flickered assent. The truck slowed as they rounded a sharp bend, then swerved sharply and started jouncing over rough ground. Ukatonen could hear branches crash and crackle against the canvas sides of the truck as he and Moki bounced back and forth inside. There was a sudden crunch and a metallic rending, and they slid forward, crashing into the back of the cab as the truck stopped abruptly.
The door of the cab creaked open, and Eerin got out. She climbed up on the back of the truck.
“Come on. We don’t have much time.”
Ukatonen dragged the still-unconscious Tomas out of the truck as Moki jumped out.
“Siti, I’ve been hurt,” Moki said.
“How bad is it? Do you need me to carry you, bai?”
“No, siti. It’s my arm. I can walk.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
Ukatonen swung Tomas onto his shoulder, “This way,” he said, guiding Eerin and Moki up a half-fallen tree draped with vines.
They had reached the canopy and were hurrying through the treetops when they heard the whine of approaching vehicles.
The trucks roared past. A moment later they stopped. Ukatonen could hear the grinding of the gears as they turned around.
They swung into the next tree, pausing to convey Tomas across the gap. Behind them, Ukatonen heard the trucks stop. Headlights sent splinters of light into the forest. He could hear the guards calling out orders and crashing through the underbrush toward them.
There was a heavy crack and swish as a branch fell somewhere off to their right, probably snapped as some startled animal turned and fled. The guards shouted and headed toward the noise.
“Go that way,” Ukatonen urged, pointing away from the oise. “I’ll draw them off. Go until you come to a stream, then head upstream until it branches. Wait for me there. If I’m not there in two days, go on without me.”
“Okay, en,” Eerin said, “but please, be careful.”
“I will be. Now go.”
Ukatonen settled Tomas into a secure, vine-draped tree crotch, then moved silently through the trees, moving past the guards and away from Moki and Eerin. When the guards were still a few trees away, he broke off a heavy, waterlogged bromeliad, and dropped it. It crashed noisily through the branches to the ground. The guards headed toward the sound. Ukatonen swung into the next tree, making as much noise as he could. The guards followed him with their torches and guns.
Ukatonen led them through the jungle for over a kilometer before swinging silently back around and retrieving the unconscious Tomas. He managed to carry Tomas about half a kilometer farther into the jungle, and then hid him again. Then he found Moki and Eerin’s trail and began iracking them. It was late afternoon before he found them.
“I’m worried about him. He’s lost a lot of blood, and there’s no feeling in his arm,” Eerin told Ukatonen, when he was settled in the nest she had built. There was a pale silvery cast to Mold’s skin that worried Ukatonen.
“He doesn’t look good,” the enkar agreed. “I’ll check him as soon as I’ve eaten.”
Eerin handed him a couple of pieces of overripe fruit. “I’m afraid there isn’t much to eat,” she apologized.
“I didn’t find much either,” he told her, pulling out a small bundle of wilting fern shoots and two very small fish. “I was too busy getting here to hunt.”
“Where is Tomas?” she asked.
“He was too heavy for me to carry the whole way. I left him in a tree. I’ll find some more food and check Moki, then go back and get him.”
Eerin sighed. There were dark shadows under her eyes. She looked numb with exhaustion. He touched her shoulder reassuringly, then set off to look for food.
The pickings were slim and he was tired, but eventually he came back with some small game, greens, and a few more pieces of fruit. They ate hungrily, wordlessly. Moki had lost a lot of blood. He would also lose his arm. There was little that Ukatonen and Eerin could do to help him. Their reserves had been drawn down to almost nothing. Still, there was a flicker of response. Moki would live through the night. Tomorrow, rested by sleep and restored by food, they could do more.
Ukatonen got up early the next morning and killed a sloth. He and Eerin gorged themselves on the meat. Strengthened by the feast, they were able to work on Moki. It was clear that there was nothing they could do for his arm. Ukatonen took it off, with the help of a machete that Eerin had found in the truck and brought with her. He stopped the bleeding of Moki’s stump, and helped it heal over. It would be at least a week before Moki would be strong enough to travel. With patience and careful work, the bami’s arm would grow back in less than a year.
Having done what he could for Moki, Ukatonen set off to bring Tomas back. The ants had found Tomas before he did. His body was covered with their bites. Ukatonen healed the bites and woke his captive up enough to make him walk. It was almost as much work as carrying him. He struggled against the fog of sedation that was the only way Ukatonen could control him. It wa
s growing dark by the time they got to camp. He hauled his captive up to the nest, put him back to sleep, then collapsed in exhaustion.
The next day, Ukatonen woke Tomas just enough to feed and clean him. As soon as he was conscious, Tomas began to struggle against the link, battering Ukatonen with his anger and hatred. Ukatonen wasn’t strong enough to control the man’s emotions. Finally, he rendered him unconscious and pulled out of the link. He sat there, looking down at his captive, his skin roiling with rusty red frustration.
“What’s wrong, en?” Eerin asked.
“He’s too angry. I can’t work with him, but”—he shook his head—“I can’t calm him down because of my injury. I have to understand why he’s angry, and try to address that.”
“Sefu Tomas controlled hundreds of people directly, and millions more indirectly, through violence and fear,” Eerin told him. “Now he’s alone among enemies in the middle of the jungle. He’s angry because he’s lost everything. I don’t think you can fix that, en.”
“But we have something in common.”
“What do you mean, en?”
“Coming to Earth, I too have lost everything. But,” he said, looking thoughtfully at the unconscious Tomas, “I did it voluntarily. It has been taken from him by force.”
He ate and rested, thinking the situation over. Linking with Tomas was like trying to tame a trapped predator.
He sat up. Yes, that was it. He needed to treat Tomas like a wild animal he was trying to tame. It would be much harder because of his injury, but if he proceeded slowly, it just might work.
He linked with Tomas, slowly letting him come to a dreamlike awareness. At first Tomas paced the cage of his mind, searching for a way out, but eventually he became bored and unwary. Then Ukatonen fed calmness into the link. It took hours of painstaking work, instead of the few minutes it would have taken before his injury, but eventually he managed to get Tomas to relax. Gently, slowly, Ukatonen coaxed him into a deep trance. When he was too relaxed to lie, Ukatonen began interrogating him.
Juna half-listened to Ukatonen’s interrogation of Tomas. Moki slept deeply, curled against her for warmth. She was hot, sticky, and bored. The insect repellent Ukatonen had synthesized for them was wearing off, and the bugs were starting to bother her. The slim black shape of Tomas’s comm unit caught her eye. She flipped it open and turned it on. Once again, the familiar opening screen requesting the password came up.
