The Search for Ulyssa

by Heidi J. Leavitt

  Dina thought this was ridiculous, but Kendra refused to listen to any of her arguments on the subject, and eventually Dina grumbled only to herself about it. She still made occasional comments about “irrational humans,” but at least she wasn’t trying to pester Kendra into seeking out Bren anymore.

  Kendra refused to acknowledge the gaping hole that Bren’s absence left. Instead, she wrapped her arms tightly around her chest as much as possible and smiled wider at everyone around her. Fake it until you make it, she had always heard. Well, she would fake it with a vengeance.

  Life suddenly got immeasurably bleaker when Kendra unwittingly betrayed her cousin by telling her aunt that Markus was a night librarian. When Markus told Tiran that her mother visited him and demanded that he stay away from Tiran, she was livid. She confronted Kendra angrily and then refused to speak to her for days. It only got worse when less than a week later, Uncle Casey returned home only to be summoned right back to Tyre. Aunt Andie and Uncle Casey had an explosive fight, and Kendra heard almost every angry word. Kendra huddled on her bed, gripping her pillow tightly, feeling like a terrified child. Her parents rarely fought—at least, though Kendra had seen them disagree often enough, they never shouted at each other. Once her uncle left off-planet again, a thick gloom settled on the whole house. Aunt Andie was silent and tense, and Tiran refused to acknowledge either her mother or Kendra. Kendra fretted about both of them; plus, she was barely holding herself together pretending that Bren’s rejection didn’t hurt abominably. With Tiran angry at her and Aunt Andie so unhappy, she found it impossible to concentrate on her classes or even to eat much. Without even Tiran to rely on, Kendra didn’t know that she could face another two years on Corizen.

  Just go talk to her, Dina insisted. You’re making yourself sick over this, and you need to eat. Not to mention that you have a paper to write and a project to finish.

  So Kendra finally cornered Tiran in her room one evening and begged her cousin to forgive her. She explained that she hadn’t told Aunt Andie anything specific about Markus; Aunt Andie just asked her who Markus was, and Kendra told her. She didn’t know that her aunt was going to march down to the library and humiliate Tiran by confronting Markus personally. Then Kendra held her breath, prepared to bolt from the room if Tiran showed the least sign of hostility. She couldn’t bear it. Fortunately, Tiran seemed as eager as she was to mend the breach.

  I told you, Dina said smugly. You humans. You just need to talk. Now if you would just talk to Bren . . .

  No. Kendra’s flat tone allowed for no argument.

  The girls made up with a lot of hugging and a few tears. Then Tiran explained that she was still spending time with Markus. “I told him I don’t care what my mother said. He is more important to me than her prejudices. She can’t understand what it’s like. Markus and I have a connection that means more than any age difference. It’s like it doesn’t exist.”

  Kendra listened in awe. She had never felt like that about anyone—love strong enough that she would defy her family. Travin came suddenly to mind, and she bit her lip. He was a case in point. She had cut off one of her closest childhood friends just because her family demanded it. Maybe she wasn’t capable of loving someone the way Tiran did. It made her a little envious.

  When Tiran begged her to help keep her secret, Kendra agreed. After all, Tiran was her only true friend on Corizen, and Kendra had to prove to her cousin that she could be trusted.

  This is a mistake, warned Dina.

  Why? I’m helping my cousin! She’s in love, and my aunt would never understand.

  Trying to hide something like this is never going to end well. Your mother made a mess of her life trying to hide her relationship with your father.

  My mom and dad hid their relationship? Kendra gasped. From who?

  From everyone.

  What?!

  Ask her about it sometime. It’s about time she told you. Maybe it will save you from doing something similarly stupid.

  It frustrated Kendra that Dina knew so much about her mother’s life but rarely told her anything. Dina had a weird sense of secrecy about the past, and there was little Dina would tell Kendra directly about stuff she wouldn’t otherwise know, unless it snuck out in little dollops like this. Usually Kendra found the snatches of memories Dina shared of her parents fascinating. But the thought of her mother sneaking around and hiding that she was in love with her father was shocking. Especially since Dina described it as stupid. Kendra had never seen her mother as anything but calm and collected and rational her whole life. Her mother was the smartest person Kendra knew.

  Just how well did she know her parents anyway?

  Not as well as you think, Dina said smugly.

  ♦

  As the weather finally grew warmer, Kendra started to make plans with Dina to do some scouting in the city in hopes that they would come across an isithunzi that Dina could sense. With the scanner broken, they would just have to range around and hope they stumbled close enough to someone for Dina to communicate with. They did know at least that someone was here. But what was it up to? Shadowing Denicorizens? Trying to influence humans to rebel against their government? What advantage was there for the isithunzi for them to do that? Or was it not related to humans at all? Just random chance?

  Not knowing who else to turn to, Kendra broached the subject with Master Terune. He was surprised that she wanted to venture out into Roma, but she told him that now that the weather was getting nicer, a group of her friends wanted to see some of the best sights of the city, and she asked him for recommendations. (She supposed if you stretched the definition, she and Dina together constituted a group of friends. So she wasn’t exactly lying.) At their next meeting her mentor produced a map, which he had marked up with several different locations around the city.

  “The yellow ones are the ones you can walk to from the complex,” Master Terune explained, pointing at a large yellow section merely a block away. This is the Hall of Congress, for example. Congress sessions are closed to the public, but you can request a tour of the grounds from security. They’ll most likely agree.”

  Kendra nodded. What do you think? Congress?

  Hmmm. Maybe, Dina replied thoughtfully. The major advantage is that it is easy to walk to. But is it so close that the shield will still interfere with my ability to sense?

  Possibly.

  Master Terune pointed out the areas marked orange on the map. “For these locations you will need a transport, but they are well worth the trip. This one,” he jabbed a finger, “is the Palace. Tours are definitely available there, though you will need to pass through the same kinds of security checks as you do here. It’s my favorite building in the city. I highly recommend a stop there. The grounds are as beautiful as the building.”

  “The Palace?” asked Kendra, her interest piqued. “Who lives there now?”

  “No one. It was the home of the king, though, before he was exiled to Nubia.”

  What do you think? The Palace? I’d like to see it!

  I don’t know that it is going to be what we’re looking for, Dina hedged. Nobody actually lives there. Why would an isithunzi be floating around?

  OK, but let’s go to the Palace on our way to whatever other place we choose. Besides, you never know. Who would have thought an isithunzi would have been floating around in an abandoned warehouse?

  ♦

  Of course, even the best laid plans go awry, and Kendra’s plans snarled rather quickly. The day she planned to skip her history seminar and venture out into the city was the day she found herself defending someone she’d never expected to. Zara asked her to meet in the common lounge and take a look at her most recent painting. She had attempted to paint Corizen’s Blue Plains from feed images, but she wasn’t sure that it looked realistic. Kendra pointed out that as she had never seen the Blue Plains either, she wasn’t the best judge, but she finally gave i
n to Zara’s repeated requests to evaluate it. So during their lunch break, both girls were sitting at a table, holding out the small canvas at arm’s length and discussing if Zara had managed to convey the desolate beauty of the plains. The only other person in the lounge was Hugo, who was sitting at a table against the far wall. Kendra glanced at him once, wondering if they would have to put up with snide remarks about art or Kendra’s crass frontier background, but Hugo was staring aimlessly out the window in front of him and didn’t seem to notice the girls at all. They’d only been in the lounge for a few minutes when a group of local students led by Mikal strode purposefully into the lounge and over to Hugo.

  “Hey, look, if it isn’t Wax Boy,” he said derisively. The other two boys sniggered. Kendra looked up, dread filling her stomach. She glanced at Zara, who dropped her eyes to her lap and seemed to be pretending she was somewhere else. Kendra wished fervently that they were somewhere else. The last place she wanted to be was in a room with Mikal and Hugo at the same time. “Wax Boy here thinks that all religion is nonsense. He thinks that Denicorizens like us are superstitious savages, isn’t that right?”

  Hugo flicked a brief look at the newcomers and then turned to the book on the table in front of him, pointedly dismissing Mikal. But Mikal wasn’t dissuaded by Hugo’s obvious lack of interest in verbal sparring. He sat on the table, shoving Hugo’s book to the side. His friends moved to flank Hugo on either side of his chair. Kendra started to rise, thinking that she should go find one of the professors before things got out of hand, but Zara gripped her arm like a vise, holding her down.

  This is not going to end well.

  Probably not, agreed Dina. But I don’t know why you care. They are both bullies. Let them fight it out on their own. Probably good for both of them. As long as they don’t involve you.

  Dina!

  “Well, you don’t have to believe in religion, but that won’t stop Veshti from destroying you,” Mikal said conversationally. “There’s a new prophet now, and he says you Citizens deserve to be driven right off the planet.”

  Hugo allowed himself a sardonic grin, though he still didn’t look at Mikal. “Doesn’t your father’s business depend on trade with Citizens? You’re hoping to be driven into poverty? It makes sense; most religions encourage people to live in rags and filth and feel righteously superior about it.”

  Mikal ignored this, though Kendra noted the cords in his neck standing out. She tried tugging her arm away from Zara again, but it was as if Zara had turned into a marble statue, inflexibly holding Kendra into place. Was she convinced that if they didn’t move then Mikal and his friends wouldn’t see them? Or did she have some kind of insane curiosity for what was going to happen?

  Mikal leaned over and fingered Hugo’s white sleeve. “Always wearing white, Wax Boy, aren’t you? I actually learned something in my seminar this week. It has to do with that Order of Reason you belong to,” Mikal said, his tone mock-friendly.

  Hugo went back to pretending Mikal wasn’t there. Though how he could do that with Mikal practically sitting in his face, Kendra didn’t know.

  “Apparently you wear white to show your purity of thought and your commitment to logic. Sounds like a religion to me,” Mikal said snidely.

  “I don’t expect you to understand the difference between a commitment to rational thought and the fevered rantings of your prophet,” Hugo said, trying to get up from his chair. Mikal’s friends shoved him back down.

  “We’re not done chatting yet,” Mikal’s voice turned cold. “You are exactly the kind of Citizen that Veshti will pull down. Arrogant. So certain of your Citizen superiority. It is people like you who are no longer welcome on our world.” He withdrew a small pocketknife and flicked it open. Kendra gasped, and Zara let go of Kendra’s arm. Then things happened so fast that Kendra didn’t think, she just reacted. Mikal’s friends grabbed Hugo, holding him firm while Mikal slashed at his white shirt, tearing a wide gash down the front. Kendra was on her feet, Zara right behind her. Zara darted for the door, while Kendra ran straight at Mikal.

  “What are you doing?” she shouted. “Have you lost your mind?”

  Kendra, implored Dina. No! Don’t get involved.

  Mikal paused, his knife practically pressed to Hugo’s chest. “Well, what do you know? The little brat from Zenith wants to join in the fun too. Another Citizen in line for Veshti’s wrath.”

  Kendra pointed at the camera right above him. “Are you a complete idiot, Mikal? This is all being recorded. Security is probably on its way right now. You’re going to find yourself kicked out of the university!”

  Mikal’s eyes jerked up to the camera, and he frowned. Had he honestly forgotten that pretty much every public area (and maybe even the private ones) were always monitored? He flicked his knife back into its sheath and pocketed it so quickly, Kendra didn’t see where it went. Then he nodded at his fellow thugs and jumped up off the table.

  “That’s just a warning. If I were you, I’d leave while I still could. Change is coming to Corizen, and I promise you, it’s not change you’re going to like.”

  He spun and strode out of the room, his two friends trailing in his wake.

  ♦

  Security did arrive quickly. Kendra only had time to ask Hugo if he was all right—he looked at her straight in the face, as if he were seeing her for the first time.

  “Yes?” he said, as if unsure of the answer himself. He stared down at his slashed white tunic.

  She was debating whether to say something more—Hugo still looked lost—when the first officers ran into the room and checked Hugo over, asking him question after question. He answered every question they asked, and his superior tone seemed to have fled the room along with Mikal and his friends.

  Since Kendra was present through the whole scene, she found herself spending the rest of the afternoon being interviewed in the security office no less than four different times. The officers seemed more concerned about Mikal’s words than his actions, and Kendra tried to recall them as best she could. After reviewing the security vids, they used the facial recognition program to identify everyone who had been in the room, and then presumably they used the same method Kendra had seen security track Tiran with not too long before. Just as she was finishing with her third interview, she saw officers escorting Zara into another room and gave her a tiny wave and a smile.

  It was not frightening in the least, unlike all the security interviews in drama feeds, but it was long and tedious. It was especially frustrating because she had to miss her trip out into the city. She missed her seminar, which she would have to make up. Granted, she’d been planning to skip it in the first place, but if she tried to take her sightseeing trip to the Palace on another day, that would be two seminars’ worth of material she would be behind on.

  Stupid Mikal, she grumbled.

  Tell me about it, Dina agreed.

  When she finally made it home, Aunt Andie greeted her at the front door.

  “Security let me know that you were on your way home. They said you witnessed a student altercation,” she said worriedly, taking Kendra’s pack from her and hanging it up.

  “Yeah, two boys on my track. Both of them are normally berks, but today it got out of hand.” Kendra followed her aunt into the kitchen wearily. She didn’t know why she was so tired. Sitting and answering questions wasn’t exactly a hardship.

  “I’ll have something to eat for you in a second,” her aunt said as she pulled a tray from the freezer and stuck it in the oven.

  Aunt Andie programmed the oven and then poured her a cup of jasmine water. Kendra settled at the kitchen table, wrapping her hands around the cup. The warmth seeped through the red-patterned stoneware and into her fingers. She drew in a deep breath and felt the tension start to leave her shoulders.

  “What was it about? The election?” her aunt asked, coming around to sit at the table next to Kendra. Ken
dra frowned, puzzled that her aunt would think it was about an election, then she remembered that it was almost time for the presidential election. It had been mentioned in her seminar; presidential elections were a big deal since they only came once every six years. She vaguely thought she’d heard some debates among the local students about the candidates, but she didn’t even know their names. Most of the students she spent time around were Citizens, and of course they couldn’t vote in a Denicorizen election. So why get involved?

  “No, not the election,” Kendra said, realizing that her aunt was still waiting for a reply. “Mikal—he’s a local—a Denicorizen, I mean—came into the lounge with some of his friends and decided to start being obnoxious to one of the Citizen boys from Terra. Hugo’s a real piece of work too, about as stuck up as Terrans come, so he was obnoxious right back. Then it started to get crazy, with Mikal making comments about some prophet saying that all Citizens should be kicked off Corizen or worse, and then he pulled a knife out and started slicing up Hugo’s shirt!”

  Aunt Andie frowned, but she didn’t seem surprised.

  “I guess it was inevitable it would show up on campus,” she murmured to herself.

  “You know what Mikal was talking about?” Kendra asked, finishing off her jasmine water. “It all sounded like hateful nonsense to me.”

  “It is hateful nonsense, but it’s very popular nonsense right now.” Her aunt sighed heavily. “There is a man who is claiming to be a prophet for the Denicorizen god, Veshti. He is against the Revolution and the Union and anybody involved with either. But instead of just giving speeches about closing trade or something—that was common enough in the first few years after the Revolution—he asks for assassinations and violence. It’s despicable, but the worst part is that the number of his followers is growing quickly. It’s sickening; people apparently agree with his rantings.”