The Search for Ulyssa

by Heidi J. Leavitt

  Dina . . . I need to tell you something . . . you need to know . . . But the words slipped right through her grasp. She couldn’t remember what was so important. She was growing too sleepy. When Dina spoke, her words seemed like they were coming from the far end of a long tunnel. She wasn’t even sure that it really was Dina or just phantom words floating in her dreams.

  Sleep well, my Kendra. I’ll keep you safe. I need you most of all.

  ♦

  When Kendra’s eyes creaked open, they felt gummy. She raised a hand to wipe the gloop away and found it a very challenging task. Her hand shook with the effort. Her thoughts felt gummy too—sticky and slow. Had something gone wrong? Why was she still sitting in the prep room? The capsule around her was slick with the residue of the stasis liquid, and the capsule lid was open.

  “Welcome to Corizen!” A round blue head loomed over her, and she squeaked involuntarily.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you!” The man grinned at her, flashing very white, even teeth. “My name is Taeth, and I’m your recovery medtech. Let’s get you sitting up, and when you feel ready, I’ll help you out of the capsule.”

  Kendra’s thoughts clicked into place as the man put an arm around her shoulders and lifted her up. She looked around a very different room from the one she remembered just a few moments ago. There was a row of ten capsules, with half a dozen medtechs scattered among them. At least three of the medtechs, including her own, were Denicorizen. She obviously had made the interplanetary trip without any problems at all. But what about . . .

  Dina! she shouted.

  Yeesh, Kendra, I’m right here. You don’t have to shout.

  A wave of relief nearly swamped Kendra, and she grabbed the sides of the medical capsule to steady herself. Tears pricked at her eyes.

  “Just take your time,” the medtech said. “The reanimation process can sometimes be difficult.”

  I told you there was nothing to worry about, Dina said.

  You’re OK?

  Perfectly fine. Still stuck with you, though.

  As long as Dina hadn’t dissolved into nothingness, that was all that mattered to Kendra.

  I’ve been bored out of my mind, actually. It was a long trip, and going through the gate wasn’t interesting at all. Just a few moments of feeling like I was being ripped apart and scattered to the stars . . .

  What?!

  I’m kidding! Kidding.

  Not funny.

  “Ready to climb out?” the medtech asked. Kendra nodded, and he lifted her up and over the side of the capsule. “Best if you walk. The more you move, the quicker your body will readjust.” She took a few cautious steps, looking down at her legs. Her tank and shorts were plastered to her body, the slimy stasis liquid making her look like she had been sprayed with yellow dye.

  Ugh, this is the worst.

  Hey, it looks better than the last time. Last time you ended up yellow and covered in mud from that hike through the jungle to Kip’s.

  “When do I get to take a shower?” she asked the medtech.

  “As soon as you show me that you can walk across the room without any issues.”

  She started forward, a bit wobbly at first, feeling like she’d had the flu or something and stayed in bed for a very long time. But quickly her energy started to return, and she easily made her way down the row of capsules. Some of them were still closed, with liquid draining away. She caught a glimpse of several faces she recognized from the waiting lounge back at Zenith. A few others were open, with medtechs hovering over passengers who had just woken up. She turned at the end of the room and made her way back to Taeth.

  “Am I the first one awake?” she asked, as he opened the storage compartment on her capsule and pulled out her bag.

  “Yes. You’re listed as a priority passenger,” he said cheerfully. He waved her forward. “Follow me to the showers.”

  ♦

  Ten minutes later, Kendra felt nine hundred percent better. She had scrubbed all the stasis residue from her skin and hair and dressed in her clothes from the bag. Rebraiding her hair, she stared at the mirror. Her skin still looked slightly yellow.

  Do Denicorizens come out of stasis looking green? she wondered idly.

  You should ask Taeth.

  Um, no. The last thing I want to do is offend the man who is going to medically clear me to leave the shuttleport!

  Taeth was waiting for her when she left the dressing room.

  “All you have left is your final clearance, and then I’ll send you into the arrivals lounge,” he said with a warm smile. Kendra returned it and followed him back into the recovery room. There were others up and walking around the room now. Kendra recognized the boy named Hugo from before. He scowled as he marched across the room, and she noted that he looked very different without his billowing white robes. His stasis clothes hung loosely on his thin shoulders, and his bleached white hair was lemon yellow.

  He looks like a yellow string bean, Dina said. Kendra smothered a giggle.

  Taeth waved her into a chair behind a partition and then pricked her with a probe again. He also drew a small blood sample, which he fed into the squat silver machine hooked to the probe.

  After a few minutes his tablet beeped. He looked at it and frowned. “I’m getting a misreading on your genetic panel,” he said. Kendra shrugged, trying to look innocent. They’d had this problem at her medical screen preboarding as well. Something about Dina had messed with her genetics. Every genetic panel she’d ever had came back with an error. But obviously it didn’t affect her physically, and no one had ever been able to explain it.

  “I’ll run it one more time,” he said, drawing another blood sample. Kendra tried to look bored instead of worried. What if, after all this, they decided not to let her stay on the planet? A few minutes later the panel beeped again, giving Taeth the same error message. By now there were two other passengers who had finished with their showers and were waiting for their medical screenings. This part should be moving quickly; because everyone was screened before going into stasis at the beginning of the trip, it was usually just a formality. Taeth commed a supervisor, and by the time she arrived, the waiting line of passengers had grown even longer. She studied the tablet’s readout, looked Kendra up and down, and then glanced at the impatiently muttering people waiting in line.

  Her voice dropped, but Kendra could still hear her whisper to Taeth, “She’s a priority passenger?”

  “Yes, the Union ambassador’s niece.”

  There was a moment of silence, and then the supervisor shrugged. “She’s disease-free and her vitals look good. Clear her and send her on. Mark it down as a machine error and schedule the profiler for diagnostics after we get this load processed.”

  She left the cubicle, and Taeth smiled nervously at Kendra. “Well, Miss Forrest, it seems everything is fine. Let’s get you off to the arrivals lounge to meet your family, shall we?”

  We got lucky again, Kendra said as she followed Taeth from the room. I don’t know why everyone always decides to let my weird genetic results go, but thank goodness they do!

  Mmmhmm, Dina said noncommittally.

  2. Roma

  When Kendra trudged through the gate into the arrivals lounge, she was weary from the journey and starting to feel the first twinges of homesickness. She didn’t even have the heart to process her first sight of another planet. She could feel Dina’s wonder and excitement, but it didn’t bleed over to her own emotions. She already missed her home and her family. For four years she’d lived with her grandparents in Omphalos, and that had been more than enough time away from home. All she wanted was to return home to Tarentino. Visiting Corizen, let alone living there for three years, was way down her list of life goals.

  Well, she didn’t have much choice now but to move forward with the plan. It was time to make the best out of her new adventure on C
orizen, for Dina’s sake. If they could find Dina’s twinspark, it would all be worth it. Every isithunzi had a twin, an essence that was created at the same time. They were closer than human twins—almost able to merge into each other through thoughts and feelings. Twinsparks could physically separate, but after too long apart they would grow restless and overwhelmed with longing for each other. Eventually, twinsparks that were not able to reunite would go crazy from the strain. Dina had not joined with her twinspark in over twenty years. Her twinspark had been shadowing Kendra’s Aunt Andie when she was sold to Denicorizen pirates and taken to Corizen. No isithunzi had sensed her since. When Aunt Andie returned to Zenith, she was alone. Though Dina had kept her sanity well for years, recently she had started to grow anxious and restless. Which led to Kendra’s decision to attend the International University on Corizen, surprising everyone who knew her. If Dina’s twinspark still existed, she was probably on Corizen. They just had to find her somehow.

  If we’re lucky, she’ll be waiting in the shuttleport with your aunt, Dina said eagerly. Her hope and excitement even roused Kendra a bit.

  Does she have a name, Dina? I can’t keep calling her your twinspark forever. It would be like you just referring to me as “the human.”

  Isithunzi don’t have names like humans. It’s more like a sense of one’s uniqueness. I don’t know how else to explain it.

  So give her a human name that you feel fits. Like you chose Dina.

  A human name. Dina snorted. She would hate that.

  Why does she shadow my aunt, then? If she doesn’t like humans?

  Dina hesitated. She is . . . drawn to her.

  Drawn to Aunt Andie? Even though she didn’t like her? Kendra frowned, gazing absently at the walls of the shuttleport hallway. Dina never would explain why she once shadowed Kendra’s mother either. She just changed the subject any time Kendra brought it up.

  Call her Ulyssa, Dina said abruptly. It fits her.

  Ulyssa? Doesn’t that mean angry?

  Yes.

  Kendra wanted to ask more, but she could sense that Dina didn’t want to talk about it so she let it go. Family could be complicated. It must apply to isithunzi as well as humans.

  ♦

  Aunt Andie and Tiran were waiting for her in the arrivals lounge. They stood out in the crowd—two women surrounded by armed Denicorizen guards. Kendra hadn’t seen either her aunt or her cousin since she was nine, when they had moved from Zenith to Corizen so that Aunt Andie’s husband could be the ambassador to Corizen from the Planetary Union. Tiran had been born on Corizen—she was a Denicorizen orphan that her aunt and uncle had adopted when they had lived on Corizen before they married. The details were a little fuzzy to Kendra, especially now that she tried to make sense of them. What had Uncle Casey been doing on Corizen in the first place? Her aunt, she knew, had been kidnapped on Zenith and sold as a slave on Corizen. Uncle Casey had found her somehow after she had been missing for years.

  Maybe now she would learn the full story. The adults always stopped talking about it when she came into the room. All her pestering of her grandparents hadn’t yielded much either. Apparently they thought her too fragile for the details. They had no idea.

  Her aunt strode forward, and her guards fanned out to include Kendra. Aunt Andie engulfed her in a giant hug. “Kendra! I’m so glad you came!”

  “Hi, Aunt Andie! Hello, Tiran!” Kendra greeted brightly, mustering up all the enthusiasm she could, even as she eyed the guards nervously. Maybe Corizen was as dangerous as her parents feared. Or was this just some kind of honor being shown to the ambassador’s family?

  No, there’s more fear here than back home, Dina reported. Strong enough that I can feel it without trying. And no, my twinspark isn’t here with your aunt. I can’t feel anyone of my kind nearby.

  Kendra took a deep breath and tried to swallow her own fear.

  That doesn’t mean she’s not here somewhere, Kendra reminded, trying to be positive. We’ve got plenty of time to search. Three years. She swallowed again. A very long time indeed.

  “Hi, Kendra,” Tiran said, a little shyly. Kendra let go of her aunt and gave her cousin a tight hug also. Tiran seemed a little taken aback, but Kendra figured she would warm up. That was one of the things she looked forward most to about this trip to Corizen. She had no other cousins. A chance to expand her family circle was exciting. She hoped they had something in common.

  There’s something familiar about her, Dina observed thoughtfully.

  Of course. We’ve met Tiran before. Remember? At that big party before they left for the ambassador post, and before that, at Aunt Andie’s wedding.

  No. I mean there’s something familiar about her aura. Her energy signature.

  Kendra thought that was highly unlikely. Tiran was clearly a Denicorizen—she had the blue-tinted skin and jet-black hair, and she was already taller than Kendra even though she was younger. Her biological parents probably never set foot on Zenith.

  Maybe one of her parents was a Denicorizen pirate? she suggested doubtfully. And they landed in Zoria sometime before you were shadowing my mom?

  Dina didn’t answer. She lapsed into a brooding silence.

  Aunt Andie held her back at arm’s length, her eyes ranging up and down. She shook her head. “I can’t believe how much you look like your mother. It could almost be Jenna standing before me.”

  “Thank you,” Kendra said sincerely. Her mother was so beautiful—she loved the idea that she was growing up to look like her.

  “You must be exhausted,” Aunt Andie observed. “Interstellar travel always leaves me feeling ragged. Your luggage is being delivered directly to our house, so we don’t have to wait. Let’s get you back so you can rest a bit before dinner.”

  “Thank you,” Kendra said again.

  “Welcome to Corizen,” Aunt Andie said as they started to walk through the lounge, the circle of guards working like a force field, opening up the crowd before them. “It’s truly a different world.”

  ♦

  The guards escorted them to an armored transport, and Kendra followed her aunt and cousin inside. They were followed by two of the guards, who strapped themselves into the seats on opposite corners from each other, one facing the front and one facing backward. Tiran offered Kendra the seat next to the transport wall. There was no window, but it did have a small viewport so she could see out. “I thought you might like to catch a glimpse of Roma,” she offered timidly.

  Kendra accepted with a smile and strapped herself in, watching with fascination as they left the shuttleport. There were people everywhere, and no real sense of order to the traffic. The transport would put on a sudden burst of speed, darting through tiny gaps between other transports only to slam on the brakes, jerking Kendra in her harness. Luckily she had nothing in her stomach after spending the flight in a stasis capsule, or she would have thrown up all over the guard sitting across from her.

  “Does the driver always . . . uh . . .” she began hesitantly.

  “Drive like a drunken fool?” Tiran said with a laugh.

  “I would say drive like an impatient four-year-old,” Aunt Andie said through gritted teeth. “Yes. Roma traffic is notoriously impossible, but I could drive better than this if they’d let me.”

  Kendra returned her attention to the sights outside. The buildings were mostly built of boring gray bricks, but there was color everywhere. Laundry hanging from windows, women wearing bright-colored cloaks, shop displays crowded with so many items that Kendra couldn’t even tell what they were. They rushed past everything so quickly that she could hardly even see what there was. Even the people added to the color. Denicorizens had blue-tinted skin, and Kendra only saw a couple of people with tan skin like her.

  How strange to be so unusual!

  Kendra, you are the only living human bonded to an isithunzi. You were already unusual, reminded Dina
.

  Then right in the middle of the street there was a burned-out shell of a building with a bright red symbol of some kind painted on the half-collapsed front wall.

  “What was that?” she asked, half terrified, half fascinated. In Omphalos fires that destroyed entire buildings were rare, and she’d never seen a blackened skeleton of someone’s former business before.

  Aunt Andie sighed. “Another target of the Brotherhood.”

  “What is the Brotherhood?” Kendra asked.

  “They’re a group of terrorists,” Tiran explained with inexplicable enthusiasm. “They want to overthrow the government and drive out the Union.”

  “Really?” That sounded ominous.

  “Didn’t your mother talk to you about it?” Aunt Andie frowned. “We contacted her and let her know that things were more dangerous now.”

  So that was what her mother had meant. She had commed Kendra and explained something about terrorists, asking if Kendra was still determined to go. Kendra hadn’t even really listened. She was going to go, and that was that. Besides, people called the Rorans terrorists too, and she hadn’t been in any danger from them. Mostly.

  ♦

  Long before Kendra got tired of staring at the shops and the people, they started to travel alongside a tall fence made out of crisscrossing girding that shimmered and flickered as she tried to look through it. “Is that shielded?” she breathed. She knew about nuclear shields but never had seen one in use. They were beyond expensive to maintain, and few people on Zenith felt they were worth the cost. Her father said the Quintan Edge had one, but it was only activated when the building was under attack.

  “Yeah,” Tiran said cheerfully. “Nothing gets in or out except at the gates. The shield goes all around the complex, including the Armada base.” The wall went on and on and on. “Nothing to worry about at all, as long as we’re inside.”

  “What about when we’re out in the city?” Kendra asked.