“And you’re a case in point, is that it?”
“Oh yes.” Mikal chuckled. “Most pure-blood Lamanians are much too rational to want to go wandering around among the Fringe Worlds, looking for law-breakers. Mind you, to keep things in perspective, my boss in the Peace Officer Corps, the Sector Chief in charge of Anti-Human-Trafficking, is a Lamanian, and a very capable one at that. She is excellent at her job. However, she does her directing from the Second City offices, never venturing farther from the planet than the Star Federation Space Station. Fortunately, she has a gift for choosing people to work under her, who will gladly do the travelling that she does not care to do.”
“And you are one of those people?”
“Yeah.” Kati heard the laughter in Mikal’s voice. “I travel a lot. And I like it. I don’t usually get caught like I did this time. I guess the slavers are getting bold, snatching a Peace Officer from a city street on a—more or less--Federation planet. Maybe I’ll have to see if I can’t talk someone in the Federation government to send a few Torrones ships to teach that world some manners.”
“Torrones ships?”
“Torrones are a warrior race. About a thousand years ago their leader, the Ghan, had the bright idea that his world could take over the whole corner of the galaxy simply by blockading the Brain Planet, and thereby gaining control of the translation node supply, right at the source. Unfortunately for him, the Torrones are good at fighting, but statecraft and diplomacy are not their strong points. Once they had killed or frightened away the Lamanians and the Shelonians, who together had been persuading the Brain to produce the nodes, the Brain went on strike. The Ghan of the Torrones did what he knew best, and landed several shiploads of soldiers to punish the Brain and to force it into submission. With the predictable result that the Brain began to withdraw from the surface of the world into whatever subterranean reality it also inhabits. Thus nobody, including the Torrones, had any chance of getting translation nodes, and for a while it looked like all humans would have to retreat from easy communication with other language groups.
“Well, even among the Torrones, panic ensued. The Ghan found himself ousted, and a new, more conciliatory, Ghan came to power. He sent a delegation to Lamania and another to Shelonia. He was smart enough to stuff his natural arrogance in a back pocket, and request help and co-operation in order to bring back the status quo. He did not get quite that because the Brain refused to deal with anyone unless the Torrones’ destructive streak was curbed. That was the beginning of the Star Federation; after a lot of dealing and wheeling, a common government was agreed upon, the Lamanians and the Shelonians returned to sweet-talking nodes out of the Brain, and the Torrones were given the job of protecting the Federation, but with the caveat that their ships took their orders from the Federation Grand Council.”
“And you think this Grand Council would send some Torrones ships to Gorsh’s home world?”
“I don’t know,” Mikal said and she heard him laugh again. “One can always hope.”
“You implied that Lamanians are not particularly adventurous. Yet your mother travelled to Borhq, and even married into a local family there. That sounds kind of adventurous to me.”
“Yes, it’s true. But then, my mother never was a run-of-the-mill Lamanian; she always was curious about the universe around her. I believe my grandparents considered her a handful, and were almost embarrassingly thrilled when she married my step-dad and became a respectable Lamanian matron.”
“Marrying into a Borhquan tree-family did not qualify as respectable?”
“Oh, it definitely did not! I do believe that my Lamanian grandparents did not share my mother’s grief at my father’s death. They were glad to have their daughter return to their home world, even as a widow with a hairy, bronze-skinned son in tow—it’s not that they did not love her, or me for that matter—but they were always rather uncomfortable with her escapades.
“I remember when my Borhquan grandfather came to Lamania to demand that I go back to Borhq to learn the rites of Borhquan manhood. I was fifteen and living at the vineyard estate with my mother, my step-father and my half-siblings who were small children then, and as luck would have it, Mother’s parents were visiting. Here was this big, burly bronze man, wanting to know why his daughter-in-law had not sent his grandson to Borhq for the training that every male of the Northwestern Continent is required to take. My mother, to her embarrassment, had completely forgotten about such Borhquan protocol, in her new life with a second husband and two more children. To add to her embarrassment, her father decided that it was nonsensical to require me to adhere to Borhquan customs, since, as he said, I would likely never live on Borhq anyway. Me, I wanted to go with the hairy man: one look at him, and I liked him much better than my Lamanian grandfather. He was a kindly man, I saw that right away, and had a sense of humour, something that my mother’s father was rather short on. My father’s father tried to explain the tree-family obligations and rights that were my birthright from that side of the family; my mother was apologizing to him for having been remiss in her duties; and her father was insisting, that for the sake of my Lamanian education, I should stay put and keep going to school. Chaos, arguments and even tears ensued, until my step-father, an admirable man, waded into the fray, and pointed out that my mother and her family, including himself, had been in charge of my upbringing for thirteen years, and surely it was only fair that the Borhquan tree-family could have a turn for the two years that the Borhquan gentleman was requesting. Peace was restored, and in spite of the presence of my mother’s parents, Grandpa Iaon had a great visit on the estate. He told me later that he was reassured of my mother’s good sense by her choice of a ‘fine second husband’, as he put it. And I went to Borhq with him.”
Kati enjoyed that last story a lot and she told Mikal that.
“Your folks sound like a great bunch,” she said, adding lightly: “But is that the extent of your family? You’re not married then? Foot-loose and fancy-free? The happy bachelor, is that you?”
A silence fell into the darkness between them. Kati’s mood darkened too; she had the unpleasant feeling that she had just stuffed her foot into her mouth. There was no way to retract the questions now that they were out in the open, so she simply lay silently on the wagon, chewing on her lip, waiting to see if Mikal would respond at all. Finally, after what seemed a very long time to her, he spoke.
“I’ve been married. And divorced. No children since the marriage lasted only days. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Sorry,” Kati whispered. “It’s none of my business.”
Once again silence fell between them. The only sounds in the dark tunnel were the steady rustle of the cart wheels against the stone floor, and the soft slapping of the aliens feet as they ran, pulling their cargo towards their destination.
*****
The strange trip lasted for another two days, according to the granda’s estimation of the time elapsed. During the rest of that time Kati found herself being less easy with Mikal than she had been previously, aware that she had touched a raw spot in the man’s psyche with her thoughtless questions. He seemed to have retreated into his shell, brooding perhaps on whatever had happened in his short marriage to wreak havoc with his emotions. She was savvy enough to realize that her best bet for getting along with him was to keep her distance for a while—as much as that was possible under the circumstances. Fate had thrown them together into an enterprise and an adventure, and at the moment they had only one another to meet needs such as for companionship, for the exchange of ideas, and for watching one another’s back. It was not surprising, Kati mused in the dark, that she had managed to take a misstep in the relationship; they knew almost nothing about one another to begin with, and had been circling about one another cautiously, because they understood that they would have to get along if they were going to see their escape through. It was a situation fraught with opportunities to make errors; there was no need to berate herself for her mistake. Sh
e just had to keep from compounding the error by harassing Mikal while he picked at his scabs.
Accordingly, she stayed quiet during much of the rest of the trip, talking only at meal breaks, and then only about immediate trivialities.
Mercifully, the end to this leg of the journey did finally come.
CHAPTER FIVE
Kati sat up on the moving wagon, her eyes wide open.
“Light,” she said to Mikal who was curled up in a fetal position beside her. “We are moving towards light.”
They were indeed. She could see the white forms of the eyeless ones around them, and Mikal, stirring into motion beside her. The source of the light was ahead of them but still hidden by the turns of the tunnel. They were moving closer to it; that was obvious from the increasing brightness of their surroundings. Kati watched, absurdly fascinated, as the tunnel walls slowly emerged from the shadows, and for the first time she was able to really see how unnaturally smooth they looked.
“Somehow I didn’t dare to hope that we were heading towards light,” Mikal said, rubbing his eyes. “It seemed perfectly possible that we were heading deeper underground since our travel companions have no apparent need of light. Although, I may be wrong about that, come to think of it. They may need sunlight for reasons other than sight.”
“Like Vitamin D,” Kati commented.
“Huh?”
Kati wondered exactly how her words had come out in whatever language she had spoken. “Granda, get on the job, you old rascal,” she subvocalized. With the node’s help she was able to explain to Mikal about the sunshine vitamin, and the need for people on her world to get sun exposure on the skin.
“Yeah, that’s quite common among beings of our type,” Mikal agreed when she had succeeded in making her point. “I would expect that the surface-dwellers on this planet have the same requirement. And if these folk are a mutated sub-species, then they may well be similar that way. They may have arranged their living areas so as to enable themselves to spend at least some time in places where they can bask in sunshine.”
“Truth be told, I have been hoping that we’d meet this Farseer in such a place; this place coming up, would do just fine. I’d love to do a little basking in sunshine myself.”
“Agreed! A bit of sunshine to sweep away the mental cobwebs of the past days would be most welcome!”
They emerged into the bright sunshine of a clear day; the sun directly above them at planet noon. The wagon came to a stop and they got off, keen to exercise their legs in a place where they could look around them. Also, they wanted to gain some idea of where it was that they had come.
Mikal gazed about him curiously, turning around in a circle to see their surroundings from all sides.
“We’re inside the caldera of an ancient, dormant volcano,” he stated after a careful examination of the massive bowl that they were in.
Kati agreed with that assessment. They were at one edge of a round, verdant valley, surrounded by high walls of rock on all sides. After all the time spent in the dark tunnels the sunlight felt blindingly bright to her eyes and its heat drew beads of sweat onto her brow.
She watched mutely as their guides abandoned the wagon and began to cavort around in the open air, turning cartwheels, taking dance steps, running and jumping on the grassy lea that they had emerged onto.
“I would guess that our friends are very much aware of the warmth of the sun,” she heard Mikal say softly beside her.
“Yeah, and I kind of wish I could abandon the sense of propriety which keeps me from joining them in their games. Reaching open air does make me feel like a heavy weight has been lifted off my back,” Kati commented with a sigh.
Mikal chuckled. It was the first time she had heard that sound since their ill-ended conversation much earlier. She turned to look at him, and he, indeed, appeared to have regained some of his light-heartedness. Shedding the weight of the mountain range was working magic on them all.
Just at that moment Kati became aware of The Farseer touching her mind; not as the vast gestalt entity that had contacted her at the beginning of the journey, but as a singular being, less encompassing and powerful but, nevertheless, still having the particular qualities that she recognized as The Farseer. She turned her eyes towards where she sensed an imposing eyeless one walk towards her and Mikal from the trees that bordered the grass that they were standing on, and knew without a doubt that she was looking at The Farseer. Mikal made a slight chortling sound beside her and she took hold of his arm to steady him. She understood. Without the awareness of the imposing mind, the old alien must have seemed almost comical to him: she was naked except for the short fur that all the eyeless ones were covered with, she had an old woman’s pendulous breasts hanging at her chest, and unlike the athletic guides they had become used to, her body had the rolls of fat and the lack of muscle tone that marked a sedentary existence.
She walked confidently through the guides who were still doing their acrobatics on the grass, her inner senses so sure that she never touched any of them even once. She came to stand before Kati and Mikal, seemingly staring at them out of non-existent eyes. Kati could sense Mikal’s discomfort and kept her hand on his arm, squeezing a warning to him. She could feel the old woman’s impressive mind studying hers, and the physical trappings meant very little, she realized, in the context of that mental energy.
At last this examination was over and The Farseer turned to go.
“Come,” she commanded Kati subvocally. “Bring the male with you.”
She tugged at Mikal’s arm and they followed the old woman, through the capering aliens, across the grass and into the trees, where they followed a narrow path under a forest canopy which provided some welcome shade. After a short walk they came to a pond beside which was what Kati recognized with surprise and amusement, as a picnic area. Stone seating was arranged in a circle around a low table which at the moment was heaped with foodstuff; there were fruit and vegetables of various kinds, crackers made of different types of grains, and boiled, peeled eggs of some sort. The sight reminded her that it had been quite some time since the wagon had made its last rest stop and she was, indeed, hungry. However, she deemed it prudent to wait for The Farseer to invite them to eat, and kept her growling stomach reined in. Mikal was choosing to follow her lead, and stood silently next to her, waiting for some sign.
Abruptly he convulsed into a spasm, pulling away the arm Kati had been clutching. He brought his hands to his temples and groaned in pain. Alarmed, Kati looked from him to the old woman; she was sure that The Farseer was doing something to Mikal, but what?
“I am breaking through his barriers,” the crone subvocalized. “There are many like him among my people, too, and one of my talents is the ability to bring them into the mind group. It will do him no harm, although the first assault on the barriers can be very uncomfortable. The three of us will be able to communicate with one another once I have cleared the pathways—ah, he has one of those node things, too, although his node pales in comparison with yours. But perhaps I can make use of it; with a little bit of luck he may retain some telepathic sensitivity in his future life.”
Kati waited, somewhat apprehensively. There did not seem to be anything else she could do.
Then she felt it. It was as if The Farseer was bringing to her a strand of Mikal’s mind. She recognized it as Mikal immediately; there was the sense of casual competence and relaxed self-assurance that she had noticed as soon as he had begun to shed the effects of the mind-tangler, intertwined with a strong feel of maleness. There was also a touch of sorrow and of frustration; she guessed that these had to do with the things he had not wanted to talk about. Plus, he was full of curiosity about—well, everything--and he had a deep belief in the equality of all sentient beings.
“Ah, Mikal,” the old woman’s powerful mind greeted him, “you are more impressive than I expected you to be! I thought perhaps you were just a hanger-on to this strong-willed, double-minded woman whom you accompany, but no, th
at is not so! You are her equal, at least, although your talents are different from hers.”
Kati could swear that she sensed the Mikal mind creating an image of himself bowing low to The Farseer.
“Thank you, Madam. I do try my best not to be a burden to anybody. I owe a great debt to Kati, since she sprang me from a captivity which I could not have escaped alone. However, perhaps I can repay at least some of the debt by helping her to get off this world and to find the means to get the other slaves on that space ship to freedom.”
“Ah, so. The two of you share a purpose then, at least for the present, is that so?”
“We do, indeed. Kati was snatched willy-nilly off her world, as you probably already know, and she made friends on the ship, friends that she has promised to help. For me, trying to do away with slave trade is a job; however, it is a job that makes me feel that I can be of use to other sentient beings. There is real pleasure in being able to free and return home people who have been thoughtlessly taken from their ordinary lives to work as manual labourers, servants or sex workers. Sometimes I flatter myself that I get, in some minuscule way, to lessen the weight of the wrongs of the universe.”
Kati sensed his grin. “Pompous of me, isn’t it?”
The Farseer laughed, both mentally and physically. Now she came physically over to them and took hold of an arm each, and led them to the seats and the food of the picnic. Kati was certain now that she did see them somehow, with some inner set of eyes, just as well as she and Mikal saw her and each other. With that thought left hanging, she reached for the victuals, avid to slake her hunger.
*****
They spent the whole afternoon with The Farseer, exchanging information.
The Farseer was keen to pick their brains about what was happening in the universe outside of her world. Mikal, especially, was her target in her quest for information. Kati’s granda had information as to what had been happening in the Fringe Worlds, the last decades, but it was what Mikal had to tell about the goings-on in and around the Star Federation, that seemed to interest the old woman the most. She was fascinated by the minutiae about the proceedings of the Federation Senate, about the decisions taken by the various Federation Councils, and queried Mikal, endlessly, it seemed, about the Federation membership, the laws that bound them, and how those laws were enforced.
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