Amid the Crowd of Stars
Page 19
Saoirse almost laughed. “No. Do yeh think I’m the same as my mam or Uncle Angus or my brother? Do yeh think the Mainlanders are the same as us on Great Inish?”
Kekeki sank lower in the water, until her gill covers were underwater while she held onto the ledge, her fingers clinging to the crevices of the rock. Saoirse saw bubbles rise around her before she rose again. “Yer people are far less like each other than we are,” Kekeki answered. “We understand that. What is yer word?” Saoirse had the sense that Kekeki was rummaging about in Saoirse’s mind. It was an uneasy feeling, but before she could say anything to Kekeki, it was gone again. “Ah. Yeh think of yerselves as individuals. We had hoped that perhaps the sky-people were not so much individuals and more like us. Of the same mind always.”
“But the sky-people, as yeh call them, are us,” Saoirse told her. “We’re all from the same world. Fourteen or fifteen generations back, our people were born there, too.”
Kekeki’s body gave a long tremor that started below the waterline and ended at her head. “No. Yer wrong in that,” Kekeki responded. “They aren’t like yeh. We know that. In the sky-people there exists nothing that belongs to this world. Nothing. We feel that. But this world lives in yeh as much as if not more than the home of yer ancestors. Yeh might once have been the same, but yeh are no longer them.”
Saoirse was shaking her head in mute denial before Kekeki finished. If that’s true, then none of us will be allowed to go back. I’ll never see Earth, never see all the places I’ve imagined, never see Ichiko’s Japan . . . “Why are yeh telling me this?” Saoirse asked Kekeki.
“We’ve decided we need to know more about the sky-people. We were a long time coming to that decision, but we see now that just trying to hide away from them was a false hope. They already suspect that we are more than simply animals, so we want yeh to bring yer friend to us. We’ll tell this to yer mam and the others who know us. Yeh will bring her to us when she comes here again.”
“Yer not going to hurt her.” Saoirse said it flatly as a warning, though she had no idea how she could guarantee that if the arracht decided otherwise.
“We would only hurt those who first hurt us,” Kekeki answered.
Saoirse knew that was the only answer she was going to get.
Learning The Other
I’LL BE IN DULCIA early next cycle with my uncle and Liam. Yeh and I can take the flitter back to Great Inish, and I’ll introduce you to Kekeki on Sleeping Wolf.”
That was the message that Saoirse had sent to Ichiko as she was descending on the shuttle toward First Base. Ichiko loosened her grip on the handles of her seat, which was shaking with the entry into the Canis Lupus atmosphere.
“Saoirse, this is Ichiko. I’m still on the shuttle and just approaching First Base.” Saoirse wasn’t the only one listening: the three ensigns coming down for rotation on First Base had all stopped their own conversation in their seats ahead of her and were all obviously pretending not to listen, even if they couldn’t hear Saoirse’s answers. Ichiko ignored them with an effort.
“Is that why yer voice sounds so shaky?” Saoirse asked.
Ichiko laughed at that. “It absolutely is. The winds are knocking us around quite a bit.”
“Oh?”
“Don’t worry. It’s nothing serious. We’ll be through the clouds in a few minutes, and things will smooth out. I need to go over my mission outline with Lieutenant Bishara, then I really need to catch a few hours of sleep. I should be in Dulcia by Low Sixth next cycle to pick you up. Will that work?”
“Aye,” Saoirse replied enthusiastically. “I’m looking forward to this!”
“So am I—I finally get to meet this Kekeki, eh? That’s great news. I’ll let you go, though, since we’re starting to make our approach to First Base. I’ll call you when I’m in Dulcia with the flitter, but if for some reason you’re going to be delayed, let me know. Until then, take care of yourself. AMI, close the connection.”
A background hiss that Ichiko had barely been aware of vanished. In the row of seats in front of her, one of the new ensigns leaned toward the other. Ichiko caught part of the whisper: “. . . that one and Commander Mercado—” The whisper ended as the ensign glanced behind and saw Ichiko staring directly at him. He quickly turned away and sat back in his seat.
“Shut up,” Ichiko said, to both the ensign and AMI.
Neither one answered.
* * *
“Mam, I’m heading to Dulcia with Uncle Angus and Liam. I’ll be back with Ichiko in the flitter by Low Seventh or Eighth. And next cycle I’ll take her out to meet Kekeki.”
Saoirse’s mother was sitting at the table in the front room of her house in the compound, with Rí Keane Craig across the table from her and a jug of poitín in the center and clay mugs set before each of them. They were both smoking pipes; the air in the room was clouded. “Come here a moment,” her mam said, motioning to her. When Saoirse reached the table, her mam said simply: “Rí Keane and I are worried.”
Saoirse felt a surge of irritation as she released an exhalation and sharpened her voice. “About what?” She looked from her mam to Rí Keane, who didn’t meet her eyes, only looked down at his poitín as if the answer might have drowned in the alcohol.
Angus entered the kitchen at that moment, evidently looking for Saoirse. He said nothing, leaning against the wall at the door. Her mam glanced over to the Rí, pressing her lips together, then shook her head at Saoirse.
“Everything’s moving so fast,” her mam said. “And we don’t know where it might lead.”
“It’s Kekeki and the arracht who are wanting to move forward,” Saoirse answered. “They’re the ones asking me to bring Ichiko to meet them. Yeh know that. Yeh heard it just like I did.”
“But that wasn’t their attitude when yeh first brought Ichiko here,” Rí Keane responded, lifting up his head. “And the last time we did as the arracht asked, we ended up in a war with the Mainlanders. All the clans, Mainlander and Inish, lost several good people then.”
“It’s not that we regret having helped the arracht,” her mam interjected, with a slight shake of her head toward Rí Keane. “They never deserved anyone hunting and killing them an’ we know that. We’ve been more than repaid by them with the help they’ve given us in the years since: with our fishing; with keeping the Mainlanders away from our fishing grounds; with their knowledge of the currents and the weather. They’ve rescued our people when currachs foundered on rocks or during storms; they’ve given us plants we can use for medicine; they do what they can to keep creatures like the feckin’ blood feeders from threatening us.”
She turned back to Saoirse then. “I know Kekeki has asked to meet Ichiko,” she continued, “and I suppose we have to trust the arracht’s judgment on that. I just worry for yeh, Saoirse, since yer friends with the woman. What if the arracht decide that they need to consider the Terrans as dangerous? What if the Terrans decide that the arracht are dangerous? What if this leads us into another war, only this one between the arracht and the Terrans? I don’t want our clans in the middle of that. It’s a war we can’t win.”
“What if having Ichiko talk to Kekeki doesn’t do anything at all except allow the Terrans and the arracht to understand each other, the way our clans understand the arracht?” Saoirse answered. “Mam, I’m not friends with the Terrans—the only one of them I know at all is Ichiko. I’m friends with her. Would I go with them back to Earth if I could? Aye, I would, just so I could have that experience. That doesn’t mean I love yeh all or this place any less, and it doesn’t mean that I would’na ever come back.” She waved her hands, encompassing the sky and the unseen stars. “Just think of how much more there is out there. I want to embrace that,
not be afraid of it. Ask yerselves this: isn’t that the way those of Clan Mullin and Clan Craig felt when they first left the mainland to come out here?”
“Your daughter has the right of it, Iona, if yeh don’t mind my saying so,” Rí Angus interjected. “As the proverb goes: ‘The wind stays fast asleep when prophets say it will blow.’ There’s no sense in playing a ‘what if’ game. If Kekeki wants to talk with Ichiko, let ’em talk. What happens after will happen. If we worried about things that might happen, not a one of us would ever take a currach out t’sea. Speaking of which, ’tis a fine day and mine is ready. Liam’s already down at the Strand quay.” He pushed off the wall. “Yeh coming, Saoirse?”
“Mam?” Saoirse asked.
Iona sighed. “I suppose Rí Keane and I have said our piece. G’wan with yeh, then. And I hope yer right. Both of yeh.”
Her mam stood up and opened her arms to Saoirse. They hugged, and Iona kissed Saoirse on her forehead. “I’ll pray to Spiorad Mór that yeh and Kekeki are right about this,” she whispered into Saoirse’s ear. “No matter what, I love yeh. Just remember that.”
“I will,” Saoirse whispered back. She tightened her embrace momentarily, then released her mam.
“I’m ready now, Uncle Angus,” she said.
* * *
They had brought the currach into Dulcia Harbor and tied up the boat to the cleats on the quay. “There she is,” Liam said to his sister, pointing toward the mountains beyond Dulcia. Saoirse pushed her glasses closer to her nose and squinted through the glass. She saw a darker blur moving against the backdrop of clouds: Ichiko’s flitter, if Liam was correct.
Her Uncle Angus glanced up also and nodded. “That’s her,” he acknowledged. Saoirse could hear the whine of the flitter’s rotors now as the flitter cleared the buildings up near High Street and approached the harbor. She could see a distance-blurred Ichiko waving to them from behind the glass of the flitter’s canopy. The flitter set down on the harbor walkway several meters from them, visibly startling a capall that was passing by with a cart of sugar root destined for the local market. The canopy lifted, and Ichiko stepped from the flitter.
“Dia duit,” she said to them, mispronouncing the words enough that Liam snickered. Saoirse dug an elbow into her brother’s ribs.
“Dia duit, Ichiko,” Saoirse answered, and Ichiko shook her head at the subtle correction, chuckling ruefully.
“AMI told me I nearly had the phrase right,” the Terran sighed. “I’ll just have to practice more. Are we still taking the flitter over to Great Inish?”
“Aye,” Saoirse told her. “Liam and my uncle are staying here in Dulcia for a few more bells.”
“Or longer,” Liam added. “Hopefully.”
“If yeh do, it’ll be because of Uncle Angus, not yerself,” Saoirse told him. Then she turned to Ichiko. “I’m ready if yeh are.”
“Let’s go, then.” Ichiko gestured to the passenger seat in the flitter. “Rí Angus, Liam, we’ll see you back on Great Inish.”
Angus grunted at that. “I certainly hope so,” he said.
* * *
Ichiko found the first day back on the archipelago largely a repeat of her first trip. Crowds of children greeted their arrival (including Gráinne, who immediately claimed Ichiko as her own). There was the gathering at Clan Mullin’s main clanhouse, with the Banríon as well as Rí Keane and others of Clan Craig in attendance, with the usual accompaniment of blue-gray tree strand pipe smoke. As the group became more socially lubricated, there were tales from the older folks (
Ichiko smiled and laughed through it as best she could, though she noticed that Saoirse said very little to her mam or Rí Keane. It was nearly High Fourth with no end in sight to the party before Ichiko managed to disengage herself enough to seek out Saoirse, who she’d glimpsed leaving the clanhouse. Ichiko found her smoking her pipe outside while gazing out over the calm sea. “Looking for Rí Angus and your brother?” Ichiko asked as she approached Saoirse.
Saoirse laughed at that, smoke billowing from her mouth to be snatched away by the wind. “Neh. Given how late in the cycle it is, I suspect one or t’other or both of ’em found someone to be with. I doubt they’ll be back until the next cycle or the one after. I just needed to escape from all the people. I take it yeh did, too.”
Ichiko nodded in the direction of the clanhouse. “They certainly ask a lot of questions.”
“And usually all the same one only with different words? The one yeh keep telling ’em yeh can’t answer?”
Ichiko managed a short laugh at that. “Exactly.” She looked out over the sea, then pointed to an island to their left. “That’s where we’re going tomorrow? The Sleeping Wolf?”
“Aye, ’tis.”
“Is there anything I need to know before we meet Kekeki? Should I be prepared for anything?”
“I don’t know,” Saoirse said around the pipe stem clenched in her teeth. To Ichiko, she sounded unsure and hesitant. Her hands lifted and fell again, then she took the pipe from her mouth. “I really don’t know. Kekeki . . . she said she wanted to meet yeh and that it was to be just the two of us. No one else.”
“She said this?” Ichiko asked, her head tilted inquiringly. “So they can communicate with you, and they do have language? That’s not what you told me before.”
“Aye,” Saoirse admitted, her face coloring. “I wasn’t supposed to tell yeh, but yeh might as well know now ‘cuz you’ll know it for certain when we meet the arracht. When I first met Kekeki, she . . . well, she touched me and that did something to me so that we could understand each other. Kekeki . . .” Saoirse hesitated, seeming to be searching for the next word. “. . . changed me. It scared me at first, but it happened so quickly there was nothing I could do about it. Like this . . .”
Saoirse reached out suddenly toward Ichiko’s arm, her hand trying to squeeze around Ichiko’s forearm; after a few seconds, Saoirse cried out and snatched her hand back quickly, shaking it. She stared at Ichiko, wide-eyed.
“Sorry,” Ichiko told her. “The electrical current in my bio-shield keeps increasing when you try to hold on until it shocks you: it’s a defense mechanism. I should have warned you. The numbness will go away in a few minutes.”
“Then we do need to tell Kekeki not to try the same thing. We don’t want her thinking yer attacking her if she tries to touch yeh. I’ve told yeh; the arracht don’t like yer technology. Yeh remember what Kekeki did to yer flitter when yeh first came here? What if she does the same to that thing that protects yeh? What if she just turns it off, the way she did to that AMI thing yeh say yeh have in yer head?”
Ichiko answered in her head.
Ichiko decided that might be an important question. “What do you mean when you say Kekeki changed you?” she asked Saoirse.
Saoirse gave a shrug. “She said something about it being because of the plotch, that the plotch is why we could suddenly understand each other.”
Ichiko’s eyes narrowed at that. “Plotch? That fungus under your skin?”
Saoirse nodded. “I’ll be your translator. That way Kekeki won’t have to do to yeh what she did to me since yeh don’t have the plotch.” Saoirse took another pull on the pipe and exhaled a long, shuddering breath of smoke as Ichiko waited. “I really wanted yeh to come back,” Saoirse said finally, “but now all these terrible thoughts are going through me head, and I worry I did the wrong thing pushing for yeh to come back to the islands.”
“This was my choice,” Ichiko said in answer to both of them. “I was well aware of the risks and willing to accept the consequences. Saoirse, whatever might happen tomorrow, it won’t be your fault. I wanted to come out here to learn more, no matter what the cost. My choice. You didn’t convince me to do anything I didn’t want to do already. You have to believe that.”
“If yeh say so.” Her answer was nearly a whisper stolen by the wind. She looked so upset that Ichiko wanted to hug her, but that would have been a mistake—for more than one reason.
“Hey,” Ichiko said loudly enough that Saoirse turned to her. “It’s okay,” she told the young woman. “I’m looking forward to tomorrow—next cycle—and you should, too. Everything will be okay.”
Saoirse managed a fleeting smile that only touched the corners of her lips. “Yeh promise?” she asked and Ichiko nodded enthusiastically.
“Promise,” she said. “Now, let’s go back in before they all start wondering what we’re doing out here.”
Minds So Like Still Water
OH, MY GOD,” Ichiko breathed as they entered one of the caverns along the “tail” of the Sleeping Wolf. She’d said little on the way over, as Saoirse rowed a small, two-person currach from Great Inish. The sea, thankfully, had been relatively calm, though the deep and slow swells lifted and dropped them far more than Ichiko’s stomach liked—it reminded her too much of the rough shuttle descents from Odysseus to the surface.