The Urimine Effect

by Matthew Fortuna

It is cold out this morning, Yin thought, wiping the glass of her second story window. Her light brown paw made quick work of the foggy condensation there, clearing the view of the small suburban street outside. In a few minutes, she was heading out to the city to sell some information her father dug up from one of his human friends, but she wanted to enjoy some peace and quiet before she left. A hover craft sped by, two male humans sitting in the front seat, a Meregal, one of her own species, sitting in the back and seemingly subdued. Yin backed away from the window and adjusted her white knit sweater around her feline torso before taking the stairs down to Flynn's room. She opened the door cautiously, trying not to provoke a torrent of angry words.

  "Flynn, I need to go to market today to sell your secret." Yin looked in to the human, Flynn, she called father, who was hung over from the night before. He coughed, putting his hand against his temple, and dropping the bottle of liquor onto the floor, spilling it all over the carpet.

  "Just a moment my dear." He mumbled, his breath reeking from the sour drink on his tongue.

  Yin pulled the sheet off his bed and splashed alcohol all over his face, jolting him from sleep. She figured her best chance to make an impression was when he was suffering from the consequences of his actions.

  "What did you do that for?" His words were slurred and angry.

  "You need to wake up. I need your secret for market today, otherwise we won't have any money for the rest of the week."

  "You get fired from work?" Yin braced herself for what was coming next. "No good piece of trash can't keep a job for three weeks before they fire you."

  "I don't get my paycheck from the factory until next Friday." Her words were defiant, she'd worked hard at her new job, trying her best to keep the managers satisfied.

  "Oh." He said, sitting up. He pulled out a small envelope and offered it to her, "I swear, if you lose this one, you'll have more to answer for than just a few words from me." Yin fought hard not to show the fear she felt when her father finished with a wolfish grin. She tucked it away in the pocket of her skirt, keeping her paw tightly against it.

  "Flynn, when I get back, you'd have better fixed up this mess in your room. Otherwise, I'm not getting you anything." She tried to keep her voice steady, afraid of offending her father anymore that morning.

  "Get out of my room."

  "Flynn, I need you to promise."

  He shook his head, "You aren't worth promising to."

  "I want you to promise out loud."

  "Out loud?" He pulled himself back up, "Alright, I promise to hit you so hard, you can't see straight for two weeks before I hit the sense back into your head."

  Yin nodded her head quickly, afraid to push anymore, "I'll be back around noon."

  "Get out of my room."

  "Thanks, I love you Father!" She turned and left. Flynn spat in her general direction and picked up his unfinished bottle, taking another swig.

 

  "I can't expect less than three pieces of silver." Yin placed the secret on the counter in front of the old man. "And three jots of copper."

  The old man eyed her, "Why do you keep coming? I told you I don't want you here."

  Yin nodded her head and pretended not to hear, "My father has found a very nice secret, you'll actually enjoy it quite a lot once you see what the media will give you for it."

  "I'll bet I will." His voice was sarcastic, ignoring the envelope. "Yin, I told you I don't want you here anymore."

  "Why? Just because I'm a Meregal doesn't mean I'm not a person!"

  The old man shrugged, "I'm sorry Yin, I don't want you in my shop anymore, some of my better customers complain that I'm being too lenient by letting you in to do business with me."

  Yin glowered at the man, taking her envelope before leaving for a different dealer.

  The old man hated her for what she was and they both knew it. Prejudice had always been strong between the Meregals and the humans, ever since they'd come to Earth almost five hundred years ago. Some people were just better at hiding it than others. Her father, Flynn, was one of the few who thought the Meregals were more human than they'd been given credit for, but to Yin, being human was one of the last things she wanted to become. They were selfish and rude and they never did the work they were supposed to and, honestly, every time she wanted to work, the only reason they let her on was because city ordinances weren't allowed to discriminate by race, and such was only a remnant of a much earlier time when Meregals weren't even known to exist. Time and time again, the humans she'd worked alongside had blamed her for their mistakes, no matter how obvious they seemed to be and, in the end, she paid the consequences for their stupidity.

  The next dealer threatened to shoot her before he kicked her out of his front door, throwing her flat on her face, and soiling the sleeve of her knit sweater. Yin glared at the man before he slammed the door behind him, leaving her out on the curb.

  The next was the same, and the next, and the next, until she'd tried everyone on the outer rim of the city. Yin loathed the only option before her, she needed to sell the information to someone who would take it, but the only way she could do that was by going down to the city in the valley below. She sighed as she headed back toward the lift that acted as the main source of transportation for those who couldn't afford something nice, like a hover bike, or an actual hover car.

  She stood in line at the old zip line, waiting her turn.

  "Are you here to see the city?" An old lady asked.

  "No, I'm here to sell my father's secret to have money enough to make it through the week."

  "Oh I see. Any chance an old lady like myself could see this secret for herself?"

  "Are you stupid? This secret is worth too much to give away." Yin faced the front of the line.

  "It would only be a peak young one. No one can get hurt from just a look."

  "They can old lady. My father needs me to get it out before someone else does and I can't go around giving it up to old fossils."

  Yin shook her head haughtily and placed a copper jot in the slot before sitting down in the hanging seat, buckling herself in. The seat dropped onto the zip line and carried her down past the towering structures of the city. She relaxed as the wind whipped past her face, pulling at her fur.

  Yin put her back paws down and pattered to a halt once she'd reached the ground. She unclipped the harness from around her waist and stepped down onto the street, falling to all fours on the landing platform before handing it to the retrieval bot alongside the return line.

  "Do you know where I can find an information dealer?" Yin asked, approaching a tall guide tower on the side of the walkway.

  "Hmmm... let me think... You'll find one just off the corner to your right, down past the old memorial and just next to the police drone."

  "Thank you sir!"

  "You are welcome, young Meregal child."

  Yin hopped along the street, avoiding confrontation in the huge crowds. She'd grown used to enjoying the thoughtful contemplation of the info towers spread throughout the inner city, they didn't carry prejudice like the humans did and sometimes Yin felt like they were the only ones kind enough to be civil to her. A child screeched a few feet away, startling her from her reverie.

  "You're late for my birthday party!" A little girl in a pink tutu screamed at her parents. They hushed her quickly and hurried along the road.

  Yin watched them with quiet amusement, human children had always made her smile, they always seemed to say what was on their mind regardless of what they wanted. If only their parents were capable of making her smile that way, she thought, hurrying along the sidewalk. She sighed with relief when she saw the "Meregals welcome" sign in the window of the information dealer. It was getting warmer ou
tside as the day went on and Yin felt happy for the first time that day as the warm light touched her face. She smiled to the man across the counter when she went in and handed him the envelope straight out. He accepted it reluctantly, but overcame his hesitation when he saw what she'd brought. He read quickly before pulling a piece of electric paper from a shelf behind him, and filling out several spaces with a stylus.

  "You need to sign here ma'am." The dealer said, handing her the electric paper and the stylus.

  Yin smile widened when she saw the shop owner's offer; seven golden talents. Seven. She signed quick and accepted the coins, counting them all out and feeling their weight with each stroke of her paw. The dealer had given her real gold, enough to buy a small car even. Her mind drifted toward the things she could buy, and she looked longingly into the window of the department store of robotics just across the street. She'd have to buy reasonable things of course, and her father didn't need a car. Yin left the dealer, her eyes caught by the display across the street. She'd always wanted a robot, ever since she'd heard of them many years ago, and a new cleaning bot was being displayed in the front window, with pink bows and a nondescript plastic body. She wanted it for her house; it could take care of her father, and with it, she could leave every day knowing he couldn't hurt himself or anyone else. She played with the gold coins in her pocket. Seven gold coins. Her heart raced when she thought of all the things she could do with that