Wandering Star

by Steven Anderson

  We left the Mission through a narrow tunnel that I didn’t know existed and came up through an abandoned house a hundred meters outside the Mission’s walls.

  “Why was this built, Cuza?” I asked.

  “Clans sometimes don’t have no respect for the Mission. They come in and we got to get somebody out quick to keep them from dying. Clans killing clans goes back a lot of years.”

  “Is it better now with the Confederation?”

  “Better but not good yet. Killing is a hard habit to break.”

  We walked down narrow roads and narrower alleys, sometimes cutting through buildings by going in the front door and out the back. I quickly realized I’d never be able to find my way back to the Mission.

  “Cuza,” Alice asked after about fifteen minutes. “Is this the most direct route or are you making it complicated so we’ll never find this safe house again without you?”

  He smiled at her, looking guilty. “Some of both. Sorry, but I gotta protect her.”

  She smiled back at him. “You’re doing the right thing. Don’t trust anyone unless you have to.”

  After a half hour Cuza stopped and pointed to a building across from us. “There. Second floor, front room on the left. She’ll be expecting you.”

  When we opened the door to the room I was not surprised that a gun was pointed at us.

  “Alice.” Hannah said, not lowering her weapon.

  “Hannah.” Alice replied. I noticed two of the Tarakana dogs in the room raise their heads, sensing emotions that were new to them.

  “Do you plan to shoot us?” I asked her.

  “I’m not sure yet. Why don’t you tell me why you’re here instead of on your way off planet like I told you to be?”

  “Because Ted is very good at lying to me when he feels he needs to protect you.” Alice glanced at me, unhappy. “Unfortunately, he’s right this time. Father Ryczek is going to betray you. If you or any members of your council accept his invitation your lives will be forfeit. I have a plan to save you and your Confederation but you’ll need to trust me.”

  Hannah put the gun back into her holster. “I don’t trust you, Alice, but what choice do I have?”

  Alice smiled. “Absolutely none.”

  We sat around a small table and the dogs put their heads down and appeared to go back to sleep.

  “How many of them are there now?” I asked.

  Hannah swept her hand around the room. “I don’t know. I lost count after fifty. They keep eating and then one of them will sort of tear apart down the middle. Have you ever seen a dog tear itself in half down the middle? It’s disturbing.”

  “They’re eating?”

  “Vegetables mostly. They seem to really like potatoes.”

  “Have you tried not feeding them?” Alice asked.

  Hannah looked confused for a moment. “I hadn’t thought of that. It doesn’t seem right not to feed them, you know?”

  “We know just how that is,” I answered.

  Alice turned to look at them and said, “I wonder what set them off last night to start doing this.”

  I glanced at Hannah and I saw the slightest of smiles in the corner of her mouth and a knowing sparkle in her eyes. Looking at her, the memory of the passion we had shared the night before was suddenly sharp in my mind.

  Hannah looked away from me. “OK Alice, tell me what you’re planning.”

  Alice said. “It’s time for you to die. Ysabeau Romee has done all she can for the people of the Warrens. You will die a martyr’s death next week and be reborn as Hannah Weldon once again to continue your fight as a member of the Union commission investigating the treatment of residents of the Warrens and corruption within the Bodens Gate government.”

  “I didn’t know such a commission existed.”

  “It’s new but it’s very real. The Central Government will fall and you can be part of determining what replaces it. Or you can choose not to trust me and just die here as both Ysabeau Romee and Hannah Weldon in the next week or so. The end result for Bodens Gate will be the same, so I don’t really care whether you trust me or not. I told Father Ryczek this afternoon that I know that you and Ted are planning a secret meeting for next week. I also told him that you are the key to stopping the coming civil war and that I want you eliminated. I even cried a little when I told him and he’s convinced now that I hate you.”

  “You don’t?”

  “Every deception requires a little bit of truth. The point is that Ysabeau will die very publicly at the same time you can be leaving the Warrens.”

  “Who will be sacrificing their life for me this time?”

  Alice pointed at one of the dogs. “He will be. Or she. Tarakana don’t really have genders but I’ll pretend it’s a female dog once we show it how to look like you.”

  Hannah started to laugh. “Damn, Alice, I wish I could like you. If you had been with me for the past nine months the Confederation would be running the capital by now.”

  “Thank you. You’re almost as good at this game as I am, you know, you just use different techniques. Give it another six months and you will be running the capital. After I save you.”

  “I still don’t trust you. There must be things you’re not telling me.”

  “Of course there are. Like I haven’t talked the Tarakana into this yet and I don’t like talking to them. They scare the crap out of me, and the three of us just helped them create a new colony because we couldn’t help ourselves. But I don’t have a choice now.”

  Two of them had approached her while she was talking. “Ted, push them away from me if this goes on more than a few minutes. They really like Mala Dusa, I can hear them talking to her now even before we touch.” Her eyes closed as she reached out and wrapped her fingers into their fur.

  “She’s very brave,” Hannah told me. “I don’t remember her like this when we met on board Wandering Star.”

  “She’s gotten better over time. She changed a lot while we were alone together on Cleavus and she had been hurt pretty badly not long before we first met her.”

  “You’re good for her, Ted. If this commission she talked about is real I’d like to have her there with me, if the two of you would consider staying around Bodens Gate for a while.”

  “I’ll talk to her but I don’t think so. Maybe she can provide help to you from off-site.” I paused, looking at Alice humming to herself. “It would be better for us to go back to Dulcinea. The truth is that it’s difficult for me being this close to you.”

  “Really? I’m not even trying tonight. I’m too afraid.”

  “Of the CG or the Tarakana?”

  “Of Alice. I’m sure she knows how I feel when you’re around.”

  “Heart not healing?” I looked at her, not wanting to but unable to turn away.

  “Not like I’d hoped.”

  “I think it’s time to bring her back.” I pulled Alice away from the Tarakana and put my hand up against her cheek supporting her head as she swayed a little. “Did they agree?”

  “Sure, they did right away. To them it was no more than asking for a single drop of blood. I stayed in there for a while because Mala Dusa was playing so nicely with them.” Alice smiled at me, still not quite back in the world. “She is going to be such an amazing little girl, but she thinks like you, all straight lines and distant horizons. I’m going to have to work on that.”

  We spent the next couple of hours going through the details including where Ysabeau Romee was to die to give maximum exposure. Alice didn’t tell her about the shuttle so I didn’t either. We also worked with the Tarakana to make sure it could imitate Hannah’s appearance while being fifteen kilograms lighter.

  The first attempt, based on Hannah’s image of herself was unconvincing. “How could you not know what you look like?” Alice demanded.

  “I only see myself in pict
ures or flat mirrors, maybe a couple of times in a 3D mirror but that made me look weird.”

  “I suppose it doesn’t really matter, there aren’t many who know what you look like up close.”

  “Cuza does,” I replied. “And others. It needs to look like her. Let me try.”

  “No, Ted.” Hannah tried to stop me but I was already touching the Tarakana. I closed my eyes and let it see Hannah through my mind. When I opened them again both Alice and Hannah had a hand up to their mouths.

  “What?” I turned and there was a perfect Hannah standing beside me, just slightly smaller. She was also naked.

  “Do you really have a birthmark there?” Alice asked.

  “Uh huh,” Hannah replied quietly from behind her hand. “You couldn’t have imagined clothes for me too?”

  “She’ll need to be wearing real clothes when she dies. You can’t just have it growing out of her like fur.”

  “I suppose.”

  The Tarakana reverted back to dog form and rubbed up against my legs, looking happy.

  “After the Tarakana looks like Ysabeau how do I get it to the marketplace where the CG is waiting to kill me?”

  “I’ll take you,” I answered, knowing that Alice had left me no choice but to volunteer. I could see her satisfied smile out of the corner of my eye. “I’ll walk Ysabeau to the market, get her looking at the stalls and then quietly and quickly run like hell to the rendezvous.”

  “And if they arrest you?” Hannah asked.

  “Then Alice will have fun planning my rescue.”

  “And if they kill both of you?”

  “When the Confederation wins and they erect a statue to us, I’d like to be standing on your left.”

  There was a knock on the door and Cuza stuck his head in. “We need to be getting back if you all are done with your talking.”

  “We’re done,” Alice answered. “Hannah, keep low and don’t be late. Please trust me, for the sake of the Warrens.”

  “For the sake of the Warrens, I will.”

  CHAPTER 17

  HOMO VIATOR

  ALICE WAS HUMMING IN HER sleep, curled on her left side with my arm wrapped around her. This was our last morning in the Mission and how she could sleep at all was a mystery to me. I could feel Mala Dusa moving under my hand and how anyone could sleep with a baby swimming around inside them was an even greater mystery. Yet whenever I tried to remove my hand Alice would mumble ‘nope’ and pull my arm back around her.

  I was out of time so I kissed her ear and told her, “I need to go make breakfast.”

  She sighed and let me go. “Waffles,” she murmured. “Want waffles this morning. You know how I like them.”

  I’m not sure who she was talking to since I had never made waffles for her or anyone else. I kissed her gently again. “Waffles it is.” She smiled and drifted deeper into sleep.

  Two hours later when she came through the line I put a scoop of hash browns on her plate and told her, “Sorry, no waffles.”

  “Waffles?”

  “Yes, you asked for them for breakfast when I left this morning.”

  “Really?” She stopped, considering this for a moment. “Philip used to make them for Sunday brunch. Why would I be dreaming of that?”

  I leaned forward and whispered to her, “Because we’re starting for home today.”

  She leaned close and whispered back to me, “Yes, I want to go home.”

  “I like the shirt you’re wearing this morning. It’s blue like your eyes but you’ll need something a bit warmer when you go for your walk this afternoon.”

  “I’ll be wearing my sweatshirt over it. And my coat. I wish we could take more with us.”

  “Think of it as a donation to the Mission.”

  “I love you, Ted.”

  “And I love you. Now move along. There’re hungry people in line behind you.”

  At noon, Alice asked Cuza to go with me to the community market that was about a kilometer away because she was craving some of the local fruit. Alice knew that Hannah had already sent Cuza a message that morning saying she was tired of spending all of her time confined in the safe house and requesting protection so she could go to the market.

  Cuza shook his head. “Don’t think I should,” he said. “I already told Ysabeau that I would escort her and it ain’t safe to have them out there together.”

  Alice reassured him. “You being there makes it safe. I know you’ll bring him home to me.” She smiled, kissed him and her last deception was in play. I would guide the Tarakana Ysabeau and Cuza would be there to witness her death.

  It was cold out but the sky was clear and the smells of the Warrens seemed muted. As we walked Cuza told me how lucky I was to have a woman like Alice in love with me.

  “The baby coming soon?” he asked.

  “Five, maybe six weeks. The extra gravity might make her come sooner. It’s been hard for her here.”

  “This ain’t no place for her or her baby. You ought to take them back home when she can travel.” I nodded agreement and we stopped in the shadows across from a house with boarded up windows. “You go fetch her. I’ll be waiting here watching.” He smiled at me and rested one big hand on my shoulder. “You ain’t back in three minutes and I’ll come in there and toss you out in the mud, understand?”

  “You’re a good friend to both Alice and me,” I answered. “I’m here to go to the market with you and Ysabeau, nothing more.”

  “Good.”

  There were two Hannahs waiting for me in the upper room. One of them looked scared so I hugged that one and gave her a quick kiss.

  “Wait for us to be gone a couple of minutes and then start toward the field where the Bovita landed the stolen shuttles.”

  “Why are we meeting there? Oh. Tell me you’re not planning on stealing another shuttle.”

  “Is it really stealing if the Captain is the one doing it?”

  “Von Muller? You talked him in to this? I don’t want to see him again. I’m sure he wants me dead.”

  “No, you’re his hero for saving Velena’s life. I think I may have forgotten to tell him about what you did to Star’s brain. I’d suggest you forget it too.”

  “You lied to him for me?” I could see the wild look coming into her eyes.

  “Yes, several times. Now let me go. Cuza only gave me three minutes to fetch Ysabeau before he comes in here to pound me. I’ll see you soon, Hannah Weldon. Don’t be late.”

  Ysabeau walked with me down the stairs and out onto the street, her hand on my arm and her legs moving gracefully. I could feel the Tarakana hum within her, tied loosely into my mind. I knew that no one, including Cuza, would think to question anything about her slightly smaller stature and inability to talk. Cuza stayed several meters behind us as we strolled down the muddy street toward the market. He said it was so he could better watch for danger but I think it was really because he wanted to make sure I was behaving myself.

  The market was crowded with people, just as Alice had hoped it would be. I walked to a few of the stalls with Ysabeau, browsing, picking things up, putting them down again, and making sure she knew what I wanted her to do. I slowly increased my distance from her and watched Cuza watching her while he pretended to be interested in a display of used plates and cups.

  I wanted to tell him what was about to happen, that the Ysabeau that he was about to watch die wasn’t real. It seemed cruel to set him up this way but when I had suggested to Alice that we find a way to let him know the truth she had been horrified, so I stuck to her plan.

  I waited until he wasn’t looking and then drifted away, cutting around behind him and walking down the street that I knew led toward where a shuttle would soon be waiting. I walked slowly at first and then a little more quickly, thinking that by the time I reached the end of the block I could start to run.

 
It was the push against my back that I felt first, as if strong hands had hit me between the shoulder blades, tossed me several meters and dropped me hard into the middle of the street staring up at the sky. Then came the sound of the explosion roaring around me mixed with human screams and black smoke. When that passed there was the feeling of debris landing all around me and the taste of dust and the smell of things that had burned. Then there was nothing for a time.

  I woke up tasting blood and with Cuza’s face close to my own, the talons on the dragon’s wings looking very sharp.

  “I saw you trying to sneak away but you didn’t quite make it far enough, did you?” He pushed on my shoulder and pain rolled through me. “You killed her sure enough and about fifty others besides but you’ll be joining them soon. First I want you to tell me why. Are you working for the CG? Was Alice behind this? Maybe Father Ryczek?” He punched my shoulder, harder this time, and there was nothing in the world but pain. “I’m having trouble hearing you.”

  “She’s not dead,” I managed to gasp. “Decoy, only a decoy.” The pain was starting to subside enough for my brain to work and I knew that the truth was the only thing that could save me. “That wasn’t Ysabeau. We thought the CG would shoot her, not destroy the whole damn market. Ysabeau is safe. We were taking her off world.”

  Cuza moved his hand like he was going to hit me again, then stopped. “You playing straight with me, Teddy? She’s alive?”

  “Yes. It has become too dangerous for her here. She can continue to fight for you, but not in the Warrens. We need to get to the field where the Bovita landed the shuttles last year. We have to hurry and I’m not sure I can walk very fast now.”

  Cuza looked down toward my legs. “You ain’t walking at all for a while. This might hurt.” He lifted several chunks of what had been a building off my legs and stomach and I could see that my pants were covered in blood. I tried not to think about what was under the fabric.

  “I can carry you slow and try not to hurt you or we can go fast and it will hurt like hell.” He looked at me, uncertain. “We gotta go to the Mission. That way you might live.”