by Sara King
“You sound like you know a lot about being a soldier,” Joe said.
Yuil glanced wistfully out at the city. “I used to wish I was a hoga or wriit so I could help the Army bring the Dhasha under control. I’m more mature now, but I still want to be there when the Fourfold Prophecy is fulfilled.”
Joe’s ears pricked up. “My commander mentioned that to me.”
The young Ooreiki glanced back at him, looking excited. “He did? He must have favored you greatly. What’d he say?”
“Nothing much,” Joe said, sighing. “He confused me more than anything.”
Yuil looked disappointed. “They say the Trith made it, that they’ve seen Congress’s doom from the moment it was conceived.”
“And it means Congress is going to fall apart?” Joe asked, remembering Representative Na’leen’s comment.
Yuil made a noncommittal sound. “No one really knows. My guess, Choe, is someday it’s going to meet a planet it can’t conquer, and that planet will have a species that is going to rip it apart. They’ll create a new peace, one not even the Dhasha can break.”
Joe contemplated that in silence as he stared out over the alien city. “I don’t believe in prophecies.”
“You should,” Yuil laughed. “You’re living in the time of the foretelling, Choe. Everyone’s saying it’s gonna be sometime in the next hundred years. Some say it’s gonna be the Dhasha Vahlin, but personally, I think it’ll be a Huouyt to end Congress. They can become any species in the universe, so why not one of them?”
“I heard about that,” Joe said warily. “They can change shape.”
“Yes,” Yuil said. “But more than that. It happens at a genetic level. All that remains of them afterwards is their zora.”
“Huh?”
Yuil made a dismissive gesture. “You’ve probably never even see a Huouyt.”
“I’ve seen one,” Joe said, remembering Zol’jib and Representative Na’leen.
Yuil looked a little surprised…maybe even impressed. “This is an Ooreiki planet. They’re very rare, here. Still, you wouldn’t see the zora. They keep that inside their heads.”
“The wormy thing,” Joe said. “Is that what they use to eat?”
“Actually, yes,” Yuil said, giving him an odd look, now. “They use it to collect and assimilate genetic material. It’s why they will rule Congress someday. They can be anything, Choe.”
Joe bristled at that. “A Huouyt told me there were plenty of creatures they can’t reproduce,” Joe said. “So why not one of them?”
Yuil’s sudah fluttered. “It is true. Certain creatures…resist…the pattern. Turn the Huouyt into mush for trying to imitate their genetics. But the Jreet and the Dhasha have had hundreds of thousands of years to throw off Congressional yoke, and here they remain.”
“What about the Trith?” Joe asked, thinking of the fabled creatures everyone seemed to talk about like the boogey-man. “Could they take over?”
“The Trith are as indifferent to us as a mountain is to a grain of sand.” Yuil had an almost…awed…tone when she spoke.
“Why?” Joe asked, frowning.
Yuil looked at him like he was stupid. “If you ever see one, you’ll understand.”
“You’ve seen one?” Joe asked, curious.
The young Ooreiki glanced around them, then put her silver-capped fingers on Joe’s shoulder and pulled him back inside the cave. She took him to the far corner and pulled him down into a sitting position, with the Ooreiki seeming to pool on the floor from the waist down.
Yuil glanced both ways and pulled her translator from her neck and set it on Joe’s knee so she could lean in close. “From a distance,” she whispered. “It was walking across the commuter terminal orbiting Neskfaat.”
“Congress lets them walk around?” Joe demanded. “I thought they were traitors. Why don’t they just kill all of them?”
“You can’t kill a Trith,” Yuil said, suddenly sounding irritated. “They see every loophole, every mechanical malfunction, every lapse in security millions of years before it happens.”
“But if Congress—”
Yuil held up her silver-capped fingers, stopping him. “We can speak more of Trith next time we meet. Tell me of yourself.”
Joe realized he had offended Yuil somehow and he began to worry that his conversation would be cut short. He looked at his knees a moment, then said, “I could tell you about where I come from,” Joe said.
“Earth.” The way Yuil said it, it sounded like, “Year-thuh.”
“I lived in San Diego during the Draft,” Joe said. “My dad stayed there after he got out of the Marines in Camp Pendleton. That’s like the Army, but better. They’re really bad-ass. I was thinking about joining up after I got out of high school.”
Yuil sounded almost dreamy when she said, “So you were destined to be a soldier.”
It was Joe’s turn to be irritated. “I’m not a soldier. I’m a prisoner.”
“Ah.” An uncomfortable silence stretched between them. Then, “It must have been nice to believe you were the only creatures in the universe.”
“Nobody really thought that,” Joe said. “Not many of us, anyway. We just didn’t think aliens would find us, you know? We always thought we’d find you.”
Yuil snorted through her sudah. “With your technology? It would have been eons before you left your solar system.”
“Hey, we’d been to the Moon,” Joe said. Then he felt stupid, because the aliens had been traveling through space for three million years, if not more, and moons were no big deal.
“It doesn’t matter,” Yuil said. “As soon as you become a citizen, Congress will give you the technology you need to travel to other galaxies. You Humans will learn more in the next hundred turns than you learned since you started building fires in caves.”
“At least we’re not scared of fire,” Joe retorted, feeling inexplicably defensive of his home. He hated the way everyone treated them like they were weaklings or morons or bacterial colonies under a high-powered microscope.
Instead of being angry, Yuil looked excited. “You’ve seen it?”
“What?” Joe asked, frowning.
“Fire.” Her huge eyes were aglow with interest, the pupils dilated so fully they appeared black.
Joe was a little stunned. “Yeah. All the time. My dad barbecues with his buddies on the weekends. He’ll cook hot-dogs and bratwurst for us on his grill. Mom bought him one of those nice big ones with the lids that fold down that’s got enough space inside to roast a pig.”
Yuil cocked her wrinkled head. “What are ‘khot-doks’ and ‘bratweers’?”
“Food,” Joe said.
Yuil looked shocked. “You use fire on your food?”
“Hell, yeah!” Joe cried. “Have you ever tasted barbecued ribs? My dad makes some bomb-ass ribs.” His stomach groaned with the memory. “It’s a thousand times better than that scummy shit, I’ll tell you that for free.”
The young Ooreiki stared at him. “Scummy shit?”
“You know. The stuff that tastes like something they scraped off the inside of an aquarium?” At Yuil’s continued blank look, Joe said, “The green slime. Kids have been adding the salt buildup from their skin after runs, just to make it taste better.”
Revelation brightened her eyes. “You’re talking about recruit food.” Yuil laughed, a froglike croaking in her throat. “Recruit food’s never any good.” She reached into a fold of her clothing and withdrew a bundled package. “Try this. I can get you more, if you like it.”
Gingerly, Joe took the bundle, afraid it was something alive. Up until now, he had never seen an Ooreiki eat. As far as he knew, they ate giant scorpions by the fistful and washed it down with glasses of arsenic.
At first, he thought the substance inside was a piece of ceramic. It detailed a solar system, with each planet a different color and pattern, some of which had moons and rings, all etched with delicate precision. It smelled lightly of mint.
�
��You recognize it?” Yuil asked. “It’s one of the new spices they found on Earth. I was told it was quite common…” She gave the solar system a dubious glance.
Joe took a breath, allowing the smell to reach deep into his lungs. After the ever-present rotten stench of Kophat, it was decidedly a slice of heaven.
“You like the smell, don’t you?” Yuil said. “I can’t stand it. The spicers were insane to bring it back with them. It’s like the downwind side of a Dhasha.”
Joe glanced up. “Can I have this?” His heart was pounding, his fists wanting to tighten on the tiny morsel for fear she would take it away again.
“Take a bite. It’s food.”
Joe stared at the intricate detail. “You eat this?”
“Of course. The chefs enjoy making it as much as we enjoy eating it.”
“I’d rather save it for the smell,” Joe admitted. “This planet stinks like someone cherry-bombed a fucking outhouse at a shitting contest. This shit fucking reeks.”
Yuil gave him a blank look. “That is something I never understood… I’ve done some research of your language and am puzzled. Why do you humans have such an obsession with orgies and bodily excrement? You are as filthy as the Jahul and the Dhasha in your speech, but even the Jahul don’t have such a barbaric focus on reproduction and waste elimination.”
Joe felt himself flush, because, for the first time since leaving his home, he had felt himself ‘let loose’ as he would have with other Earth teenagers. “Never mind,” Joe muttered. “Can I keep it? To save it?”
“I can get you as many of those as you want, Choe,” Yuil said. “Don’t worry about saving it.”
When Joe still did not move to eat it, the Ooreiki forcefully broke off a tiny moon and held it out to him. Joe reluctantly touched it to his tongue. It had a sweet-tart taste that diffused throughout his entire mouth, leaving it swimming in saliva. It was…different…than anything he’d tasted before, more complex and bitter. He knew that he would have spat the strange flavors back out on Earth, but here, he hadn’t eaten anything so good in his entire life. His stomach screamed for more as he swished the last little bit around in his mouth, savoring it. He couldn’t remember tasting anything so wonderful, partly because he couldn’t remember exactly what food on Earth tasted like. Despite describing lasagna and chicken pot pies to the kids during storytime, his memories of those things were fading just as surely as the rest of it.
“I can’t remember what food tastes like.” Joe stared at the candy solar system, feeling as if he had failed his home somehow. How could someone forget what food tasted like? He was pretty sure, then, that whatever drug Congress was feeding them, it was intentionally wiping away their old alliances, like a wet rag cleaning off a chalkboard. The idea frightened him more than fighting the Dhasha.
“I will bring you more,” Yuil said. “They have exotic foods in a little shop at the edge of the third ring. It’s got a bunch of Human stuff right now. I can easily get more.”
“I’ll pay you,” Joe blurted. Then he lowered his head. “Somehow.”
The young Ooreiki’s sudah began to vibrate in a laugh. “You’ll pay me nothing, Choe. Food is free here. The shopkeepers would even give you some if you ask. Everyone wants to see a Human close up.”
“Thank you,” Joe said, as he stared at the candy through tears.
Yuil stood up suddenly, whipping around to face the entrance. “Peacemakers are nearby.” She held up the akarit. It had changed from gold to black. “Probably just a sweep, but I’ve got to hide this.” She placed the akarit inside a small bluish metal box and shut the lid. “If they come inside, there is a tunnel behind us. Run down it. It will take you a few days, but the tunnel leads all the way to the ground. Takki made it when they were hollowing this place out.”
“What about you?” Joe asked, her obvious fear infectious.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll pretend I was sightseeing.” She stiffened. “They’re getting closer. Go to the tunnel.”
Joe, being the one training to be a warrior, felt as if he should somehow try to take the brunt of their elopement. “But I—”
“Go now!” Yuil snapped, shoving him towards the back of the room. “If I’m caught with you, it’ll be the end for both of us.”
Biting his lip, Joe ran into the deepening shadows. He found the tunnel, but his body simply locked up as he stared at it. It was only about four feet high and four feet wide.
That’s a Takki tunnel, he thought, panic swelling up from within.
“Get inside!” Yuil cried. “Hurry, Choe!”
Joe couldn’t do it. He tried, but his limbs started shaking as soon as he ducked his head to enter. He felt like he was going to puke as he backed out again, shame weighing down his chest like a tumor.
Yuil scowled at him, then went to the entrance to the cave. After a few long moments outside, she walked back to him, sudah fluttering in a hum. “They’re gone. What is the matter with you? Why didn’t you go down the tunnel?”
“I’m scared of tunnels,” Joe said.
Yuil blinked at him as if he’d said Dhasha had fins. “You’re afraid of tunnels?”
Joe swallowed bile. “Yeah.”
Yuil was giving him a strange look. “But you can’t—” Then she looked away. “Never mind. We must get back before they find you missing.”
“Will you come back tomorrow?” Joe asked.
“Maybe,” she said, looking uncomfortable.
Which meant he had disgusted her and she wanted to get rid of him.
Shoulders slumping, Joe followed her to the haauk. “Thanks for the food.”
Yuil said nothing and gestured for him to board the hovercraft. Once he was settled, she flew him back to the barracks in silence.
Once he unwrapped the now-green cloth from his shoulders and handed it to her, the Ooreiki wordlessly guided the haauk off the balcony and back out over the plaza. Joe was turning to go back into the barracks when she called his name from above. She was holding out the akarit box. “Here. Take this.” She dropped it into his hands. “You might need it someday.”
Joe stared at it. Despite wishing earlier she would do this very thing, Joe didn’t want it. “You don’t have to,” Joe said. “You probably need it.”
“I have others.” Saying nothing, Yuil turned off and was gone.
Joe stared after her in shock. He didn’t understand. She acted irritated, upset with him, but had given him the akarit…
…Then she had flown away without a word. He glanced down at the little box. It felt cold in his hands, dangerous. He had to fight off the impulse to throw it over the balcony.
What’s wrong with me? I should be happy. This could get me home.
Yet, the longer he held the akarit the more he didn’t want it. Deciding to hide it until he found a safe way to get rid of it, Joe reluctantly took it inside the barracks.
Maggie was awake and sitting up in bed when Joe stepped into the sleeping quarters. She watched him enter with an accusing look, following him with her eyes as he undressed and hid the akarit in the bottom of his clothes chest. When he stood up to get under the covers, she was still scowling at him over the other sleeping recruits.
“What, Mag?” Joe demanded, so tired he was near-delirious.
“Libby told me you left with some Ooreiki.”
He frowned. “Yeah, so? It was only for a couple hours.”
“You missed storytime,” Maggie said. Her eyes added, Asshole.
“Oh.” Joe grimaced. “Uh. Sorry, Mag.”
“Yeah whatever.” Maggie rolled over and went back to sleep, leaving him feeling like a jackass.
CHAPTER 21: Sleeves
“Did you give him the akarit?”
“Yes.”
“But?”
“But what? I gave it to him.”
“There’s something you aren’t telling me.”
“There is, but I doubt you want to hear it.”
“Say it.”
“He almost
got us both killed. I realized Peacemakers had followed me and tried to get him to hide in a tunnel, but he was too afraid. I had to kill them both.”
“He’s afraid of Peacemakers?”
“He’s afraid of tunnels.”
“Tunnels.”
“You see our problem.”
“But the signs clearly point to—”
“A grounder is useless if he can’t fight underground.”
“We could pay to have him treated.”
“And risk a recurrence? I’ve seen things like this before. It might be too deep to treat. It could come back at any time.”
“What will the Army do?”
“He’s hidden it well enough until now, but when they find out, they’ll get rid of him. They’d have to add a hundred turns to his enlistment to make it worth their while to treat him, and a grounder’s projected lifespan is only sixteen.”
“They’ll cut their losses? Sell him?”
“Yes.”
“That makes things simpler.”
“If you still believe he’s the one we want.”
“He is.”
#
Despite his exhaustion, Joe woke early, a thousand different worries racing through his head. He and Yuil had evaded Peacemakers. He was now Fourth Platoon’s recruit battlemaster. He had to lead a hunt. In tunnels. Knowing he wasn’t going to get any sleep with that thought on his mind, Joe finally pulled his exhausted body out of bed and tried to find something productive to do.
His eyes caught on Libby’s gear. She had finished modifying her pack. It now had a third strap, one that tied across her middle. Joe frowned at it, wondering how much trouble it would get them into.
He sighed and pulled out his jacket to look at his four-pointed star. He finally—finally—had battlemaster. He would no longer be watching on the sidelines. He was the one Nebil would yell at when things went wrong.
What if I screw up and he puts Sasha back in charge?
That was an unpleasant thought.
