Asimov's SF, August 2011

by Dell Magazine Authors

  "The war?” said Stiamot leadenly.

  "Yes, of course, the war. Your war. The war that we pretended for so long wasn't coming, and which has now arrived. And happy I am to be able to hand it to you and hide myself away in the Labyrinth. I have enough sins on my soul for one lifetime.” Strelkimar rose. He loomed over Stiamot, a big man, heavy-muscled, deep-chested, still young himself. His face was bloodless with fatigue. Stiamot saw what might have been tears glistening at the corners of Strelkimar's eyes. “Come, man. Let's go out to the others and give them the news."

  Stiamot nodded like one who moves in a trance. As it all sank in, the meaning of the bloody events of the night before, the change of government at the Labyrinth, his own precipitous rise to the Coronal's throne, he knew that Strelkimar was right about the coming of the war. He had known that it was coming from the moment of Mundiveen's death, or even a little earlier. There is no hope, the little man had said, before running from the banquet hall to yield himself up to his doom. This was something new, an attack on the Coronal himself, and it would not stop there. This is a war to the death. The uneasy peace that had obtained so long between human and Metamorph was at its end. And this was the end of the line, too, for Stiamot's own dreams of a moderate middle course, of some peaceful resolution of the Metamorph problem. The races must be separated, he thought, or else one of them must be exterminated; and now that high power had been thrust upon him, he would choose the lesser of the two evils.

  "Come,” Strelkimar said again. “I have to introduce the new Coronal to them. Come with me, Lord Stiamot."

  * * * *

  The war began in earnest in the spring. It ended in victory in the thirtieth year of Lord Stiamot's reign.

  Copyright © 2011 Robert Silverberg

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  Novelette: CORN TEETH by Melanie Tem

  Melanie Tem's work has received the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, British Fantasy, and multiple World Fantasy Awards, as well as a nomination for the Shirley Jackson Award. She is the author of eleven solo novels, two collaborative novels with Nancy Holder, and two with her husband Steve Rasnic Tem. In Concert, a collaborative short story collection with Steve Rasnic Tem whose title story first appeared in Asimov's, was published in August 2010 by Centipede Press. The Tems live in Denver. They have four children and four granddaughters. Melanie's new tale was inspired by her experiences as an adoption social worker.

  Her name's Sonya.

  "So-nya."

  "So.” They get that part.

  "Nya. Nya.” Their great big old mouths get all wrinkly and she sees their big long teeth like straws they suck through and they don't have tongues, they have those little pillowy things way back in their mouths, that Ib let her stick her finger in and feel. She doesn't have that pillow thing yet. She keeps hoping, but when she tries to find it in her own mouth, or when she tries to make the noise they make for the “nya” in her name, she feels like she's going to barf and it isn't the right noise anyway.

  When she came here HI didn't say her name right, either, because it talks like them. At first HI made her really nervous, eyes and ears in every room, the voice coming out of nowhere. But they had her teach it and now it can say Sonya. She's told them to just call her So, but they keep trying to say the whole thing because it's respect or something. They can say Todd. Mommy and Daddy gave them Sonya and Todd for names and then Mommy and Daddy went away. She's going to change her name when she gets adopted, she doesn't know what to but something Ib and Yoolie and Zama can say. They say not to, it's a good name, but it's not.

  She likes when Zama brushes her hair like this, likes all Zama's hands on her head and on her neck. Alayayxan kids have three parents. Sometimes four, she thinks. They call all of them some word that sounds sort of like a bad People word and Sonya tries not to laugh even when she's with People kids. Right now Sonya and Todd call Zama and Ib and Yoolie Zama and Ib and Yoolie.

  Alayayxans are more than he's and she's, there's another kind, too, chchchs. Sonya thinks Zama's the she and Yoolie's the he and Ib's the chchch, which is hard to say.

  When Sonya gets adopted, and her skin gets gray like theirs and her fingers grow together and she gets more hand-things and all her hair falls out except some strings and her mouth gets big and her teeth get long like straws instead of these stupid little things like corn that Ib likes to touch because they're so cute and she has to make herself not bite, when the judge bangs the hammer-thing—Sonya heard the grown-ups say it was hard to find a judge who'd let Alayayxans adopt People kids or People adopt Alayayxan kids, she doesn't get why, but they found one—when that good judge says out loud so everybody can hear that she and Todd are theirs forever and they won't have to move again until they're all grown up, then Sonya'll miss getting her hair brushed. But she can't wait to put that weird oil on her gray head with almost no hair, that little bottle of it she stole from Zama's box. It's in with her underwear. Alayayxans don't wear underwear. Maybe she'll be a she Alayayxan after she gets adopted or maybe she'll be a he or maybe she'll be a chchch. She doesn't know how that works. It'd be kind of cool to be a chchch, whatever that is. Her corn teeth are already starting to fall out. Zama said something about the Tooth Fairy, but Sonya knows better than that. Or maybe the Tooth Fairy's real where their grandparents or whoever came from?

  Sonya likes to visit Zama here at her work now. At first she was scared of the elevator and scared she'd get lost, which was dumb because how could you get lost in an elevator? And she didn't know how to act, if she should sit in the big hammock or not, what to say when People and the Alayayxans Zama worked with talked to her.

  The big tall windows all the way to the floor and all the way to the ceiling made her feel like she was going to fall right into the city. She and Todd have only actually been down in the city a couple of times since they came to live here, once on a school field trip and once with Yoolie and Ib. But they used to live right down there in it and she might fall back in there. Or jump, or fly away into the orangey sky.

  Back then HI had to remind her when it was time to go up to Zama's work and GoPHER had to take her so she wouldn't get lost or jump. Now she's big. She can tell time and she could ride the elevator eleven floors up from home to Zama's office all by herself and she doesn't even look out the windows. But HI still says every time, “Sonya. It's time to visit Zama” and GoPHER still brings her up in the elevator like she's a baby.

  Zama's working. She keeps touching the screen with some of her hands while two or three of her hands pull the brush, smooth Sonya's hair, rub her head. Sonya watches the faces on the screen. Some are People and some are Alayayxan and some she can't tell. She listens to all their voices. She's with Zama so she isn't scared of them but she watches and listens.

  Zama's busy. It used to be that made Sonya mad and she'd mess things up on purpose, spill stuff, throw stuff at the screen, crawl under things and hide, have tantrums, hit Zama. She was bad. Now she's good. She's a good girl.

  When Zama gets busy Sonya thinks about other stuff, like her best People friend Amalie and her best Alayayxan friend Puy that's how you spell it P-U-Y but Sonya can't say it right and Puy can't say Sonya right and that makes them laugh. Puy and Amalie don't like each other. Amalie says her mom says it's wrong for one species to adopt another species. Puy says her chchch says it's wrong, too. Puy and Amalie both think it's wrong but that doesn't mean they like each other. It doesn't mean they're right, either.

  It makes Sonya nervous to think about Amalie and Puy in the same thought so she thinks about the Dancing Doughnuts game for school where you have to get the ring thing over the ball thing and both of them change shape all the time and you can change the shapes yourself and it can be the universe with planets and moons and suns. An orrery. She can't really say that word. Is it Alayayxan or People? Maybe it's both, and she still can't say it. She's good at Dancing Doughnuts the game. She can make the ball bounce when she moves her hand a certain way. She's not so good at o
rrerys.

  Thinking about orrerys makes her nervous, too, so she thinks about what that social worker told them about Adoption Day. Sonya can't figure out if that social worker is People or Alayayxan or half-and-half if you can be half-and-half, maybe he or she or chchch. That social worker's one that lets you stay forever, not takes you away, and Sonya doesn't hide anymore but she doesn't talk she lets Todd do the talking. Adoption Day's when you get to stay with your family forever.

  Ib put a squiggle around Adoption Day on the People calendar holo. Sonya goes to look at it every day, a bunch of times every day. It makes her heart hurt how it moves. Thirty-two, thirty-one, thirty, twenty-nine days. That's a long long scary time. Stuff could happen. Sonya has to be really careful so she doesn't make bad stuff happen just to get it over with so she'll have to move and she won't have to worry about having to move.

  Their calendar doesn't work here. Ib says time's different on the old planet. That's dumb because days and weeks and months are days and weeks and months. Time's time. Anyway, they were born here and they grew up here and they live here. They shouldn't use the calendar from the old planet. Ib says a lot of things are different there and a lot of things are the same.

  When Zama looks at those pictures on the screen from Layayx and listens to those weird voices talking in a weird language or maybe lots of weird languages, Sonya can feel something she doesn't like. Once she asked, “Are you mad at me?” That wasn't exactly what she meant.

  "Oh, no.” Zama said her name wrong and reached some of her hand things toward her but Sonya stepped back. “I'm happy at you,” Zama said softly. The picture on the screen was a whole bunch of Alayayxans without any hairs at all.

  "You wish you were there instead of here?” Sonya didn't say “here with me."

  "This is my home,” Zama told her. “It's just—” She turned the picture off. “Something pulls me. You know how when you think about your birth Mommy and Daddy you feel pulled?"

  Sonya yelled, “No, I don't! Don't say that! You don't know anything!” and she punched the screen and went and hid in her room but HI knew where she was HI knows everything about everybody in the house and Zama found her right away and held her with all her hands and they both cried with their different cryings.

  Sonya doesn't exactly know where she comes from. She knows it's here, it's Earth, but it doesn't feel like the place she comes from. Nowhere does.

  Layayx has got a sun and a whole bunch of moons. Sonya used to like the moon because it made her think of Mommy and Daddy, she didn't know why. Now just one moon is like you're poor and you don't get enough to eat.

  Some People say the Alayayxans should go back where they belong. There's already way too many people on Earth, not enough food, not enough water you can drink. In school they're studying all those poor People and poor Alayayxans far far away on Earth. Her notebook's got notes and sometimes she taps her pen on “poor” or “homeless” or “die of starvation” just so she can hear the teacher telling her all about it over and over and over. Chchch says they have to know how things are for others.

  Sonya doesn't see why. That's not here. That's far far away on the other side of the world somewhere, or on the other side of the universe like a dancing doughnut, or in those apartments under the ground where Ib works that she can't help seeing and hearing and smelling and tasting from the screens. They're right underneath the ground. They could poke up their heads and all their hands and grab her, and she holds on tight to Boo even though he's breakable and couldn't really keep her safe.

  In their building there are a lot of People and a lot of Alayayxans, but everybody she knows has plenty to eat and to drink and smart houses, and her Alayayxans belong here just like Todd does and she does. Those People who say they don't are just mean and liars.

  She holds on tight to Boo and he says in his happy voice, “Don't worry, Sonya. You're safe.” He says her name right.

  Zama says, “Oh, are you scared, Sonya?"

  Sonya forgets and shakes her head. Her hair pulls.

  Zama says, “You are safe, you know."

  Sonya stops herself from shaking her head yes and says, “I know.” Zama keeps brushing her hair, very soft and gentle, and Sonya leans back into her and Boo snuggles into Sonya and it's nice. Sonya lets it be nice for a while.

  One time Ib showed her where Layayx is. First it was a dot that kept moving like a teeny tiny ball. Then Ib made it fill up the whole entire screen, lots taller than she is and lots wider than she can reach her arms on the screen where she does her homework and plays games and hears music and they order stuff and work and talk to People and to Alayayxans all over the world. Some of the Alayayxans from all over the world are going to come here for Adoption Day. She won't look like them until the judge bangs that hammer on that table, and she hopes they won't hate her and think she's ugly even though she still will be when they get here. Maybe she could run away just before they get here and then just show up at the judge's place and then there'll only be a few minutes until she looks like them. But where would she go?

  Now Zama's done brushing her hair. Sonya's head hums. That feels good. Zama always says, “Your hair is very pretty.” Sonya waits for her to say it now, and she does. “Your hair is very very pretty.” This morning Sonya tried to pull some more of it out. That hurt. Nobody saw her do it except HI. A couple of ugly blonde hairs are stuck in the brush. Probably HI knows about the slimy hair like a little banana peel she pulled out of the drain Wednesday and made a ring out of and hid it in her shoe and waited till everybody was asleep and then she put it on and it felt weird and she liked how it felt—

  Todd said, “What's that?"

  Sonya jumped and went “Ack!” When she put her hand with the hair ring on it under the covers she whapped her elbow on the wall and it hurt and she made another loud noise and it felt like all her fingers got mushed together. With the other hand that still felt like fingers she pushed Todd away. “Go away!” she whispered. “Butthead!"

  "Ooh, you said a bad word! I'm telling!"

  He started out of the room and she said almost out loud, “Look! It's a hair ring. See?” like when Mommy and Daddy'd been fighting or gone or sick and she'd tried to keep him quiet.

  Todd came back and climbed onto the bed and crawled over her and looked really close at her ring without touching. “Eeuw,” he said. “That's disgusting. Where'd you get that?"

  "It's mine. It's my hair."

  "Eeuw.” Then he got in under the covers with her like in the hot crowded apartment or on the hot crowded street with nobody they knew and just the one moon in the sky or the hot sun in the sky or rain that could make you sick and Mommy and Daddy might come back or they might not ever come back. She didn't have Boo then. Mommy and Daddy didn't have a smart house. All the places they lived were really dumb.

  She let Boo cuddle up to Todd. GoPHER and the mice bots were cleaning in the living room. They used to scare her but now the teeny tiny whirs and buzzes and beeps made her feel taken care of. HI still scares her sometimes when it talks all of a sudden and it knows everything about everybody. But she's practicing how to ask it stuff and tell it to do things with her voice and with her People hands and her People body.

  After a while that night Sonya whispered to Todd and to Boo, “We're gonna get adopted."

  "What's adopted?"

  She didn't exactly know, still doesn't. They'd talked about this a zillion times. With Yoolie and Zama and Ib but never just the two of them. “We're gonna go talk to a judge and Yoolie and Ib and Zama are gonna say they want us forever and the judge is gonna say we're their kids forever and there's this big hammer and the judge'll pound on the table with the hammer and then we'll turn into Alayayxans."

  Todd stayed quiet. Sonya thought maybe he was asleep. That made her mad and she was going to poke him but then he said, “Huh-uh. We're People."

  "Uh-huh. Just like them.” She was smiling in the dark. Smiles always feel bigger in the dark.

  So do tears. “I don
't wanna get adopted!” Todd was punching her.

  She pushed him off the bed. Boo growled. “Don't you mess this up for us, butthead.” She was hissing like Ib does sometimes.

  "I'm telling!” This time he did go and get Zama and Zama came in still sort of all curled up from sleep and she didn't get mad she just talked to them but they wouldn't either one of them tell her what they'd been fighting about.

  Now it's twenty-seven days. Yoolie takes them to the Park Room. It's springtime in there, birds and blue sky and flowers that look pretty and smell pretty but don't die if you forget to water them. There's a big long line all the way down the hall, People kids and Alayayxan kids and their grown-ups. Sonya doesn't like to stand in line. She doesn't care about “social skills.” She wants to go home. Yoolie says they'll go home right after they play in the Park Room.

  Yoolie says most families aren't as lucky as they are. He means their apartment on the seventy-third floor with just the five of them in it. He means Alayayxan parents who are going to adopt People kids no matter what dumb mean People and Alayayxans say. He means People kids that are going to be adopted and turn into Alayayxan kids in twenty-six and a half days.

  Todd's avatar gets into a fight right away with a bunch of Alayayxan avatars, and Yoolie stops it. Todd is so embarrassing. Right now Sonya wishes she'd never found him that day in the real park that wasn't as nice as this one, all hot and brown and dirty sky and no trees or flowers or birds and really crowded and yucky air and Daddy and Mommy left them there and Todd got lost and Sonya looked all over for him and she found him and he was scared. She was scared, too.

  Yoolie's paying attention to Todd. Sonya puts both her hands on the Alayayxan kid in front of her. At first whenever she touched Alayayxans, on purpose or by accident, it freaked her out. They're not furry or soft or rough or smooth. She doesn't know what the word is because nothing else feels like Alayayxans. Now she wants to touch them all the time. She used to try to touch Alayayxan kids all the time and they'd get mad and they'd call her things and they didn't like her. Zama and Yoolie and Ib let her touch them, not as much as she wants to but sometimes. Right now her own skin and Todd's skin still just feels like skin. Todd punches her whenever she tries to feel his skin so she waits till he's asleep. The kid in front of her just moves away.