CHAPTER 2
Arkad took a step toward the figure in the alcove, and instantly it snapped into motion, almost too fast for him to see. The cloak changed to a chaotic blur of color as the figure dodged between shoppers. But in that instant, Arkad saw that it was indeed a human underneath the cloak—someone slender, very pale, and no taller than Arkad himself.
He followed, feet pounding on the smooth concrete floor. The pale figure grabbed a post in order to swing around a corner, then sprinted toward the big doors facing the rail terminal. Arkad skidded around that corner himself a second later, but the cloaked human was already at the door.
Tiatatoo shot past Arkad and dove through the doors along with the fleeing human. When Arkad burst out into the square a moment later, the Itooti called down to him, “The swift fugitive turned right!”
He spotted the cloak, which had now gone a neutral gray, as the slim human plunged into a narrow street on the north side of the square. Arkad followed. His quarry was fast, which was a little galling to Arkad. For most of his life in Ayaviz, he had relied on three talents: running fast, throwing things accurately, and noticing things. But this other human wasn’t just faster than Arkad, he—she? Arkad wasn’t sure—was faster than a flying Itooti.
But Arkad also knew the city, including many secret ways that a stranger wouldn’t even see. He turned aside and climbed up to a walkway which ran above the rooftops roughly parallel to the street. Traffic up there was a lot thinner, so he could run at full speed until he was almost level with the cloaked figure in the street below.
She—definitely a she, he decided—looked up at him and ducked into a side passage on her left. Arkad ran to a taut cable which spanned the street, and dashed across with the confidence of long practice, grabbed a hanging cable to swing to a wall where bolted-on rungs allowed him to climb down. He took a narrow alley to the left where the Vziim brokers traded property and loan shares, dodging through the crowd calling apologies over his shoulder.
The cloaked female human disappeared into a dark passage to the right, and Arkad followed. They emerged into a plaza where Itooti tanned fish skins. The place reeked of smoke, sulfur, and rotting flesh, but the smell didn’t seem to deter the other human. Arkad followed her between stacks of dried sea plants ready for burning, then under racks of skins drying, and around the big vats of lye and acid, then down a half-hidden passage leading back toward the center of the city.
His side was starting to hurt, but the other human showed no sign of slowing. They reached a wide avenue where a six-wagon road train rumbled along, headed for the north road out of town along the coast. The cloaked figure didn’t even slow down. One leap took her to the top of the fourth wagon; she dashed along the top of the train to just behind the tractor, and then jumped off on the far side, thirty meters down the street.
Arkad waited for the last wagon to pass, then ran across, but he couldn’t see the other human anymore.
Tiatatoo circled his head. “Heavy-breathing Arkad has lost his elusive prey.”
“Frustrated Arkad asks if observant Tiatatoo can find the cloaked being.”
His friend rose into the air again, spiraling up on a column of warm air coming from one of the deep shafts which led down hundreds of meters into the bedrock. He dove in a wide loop which brought him back to Arkad’s shoulder. “High-flying Tiatatoo can see no running cloaked being nearby. Surprised Tiatatoo asks secretive Arkad if that mysterious fugitive is another uncommon human.”
“Uncertain Arkad does not know. The bipedal being looks like a graceful human, but the high-leaping creature performed physical feats agile Arkad could not.”
Just then Tiatatoo dove into the folds of Arkad’s blanket, clutching the boy’s torso with his claws and pulling his tail in after him. “Worried Tiatatoo begs large Arkad to find a place of effective concealment.”
“Baffled Arkad wonders what terrifying thing fearless Tiatatoo wishes to hide from,” said Arkad, as he found a narrow alley between two large buildings and slipped in.
“Lovely Atett has jealous suitors who resent handsome Tiatatoo’s romantic success. Vicious Utto and brutal Tattat are circling above us and may wish to inflict permanent harm on vulnerable Tiatatoo.”
Arkad glanced casually upward, as if checking the weather, and saw a pair of powerful-looking Itooti males. “Perhaps cautious Tiatatoo should seek a willing female who does not have so many dangerous suitors.”
“Voluptuous Atett has many ardent lovers because of her matchless desirability. Daring Tiatatoo does not allow those unattractive rivals to deter him—but prudent Tiatatoo hopes helpful Arkad will let him stay hidden until the two impotent bullies leave.”
It was difficult for Arkad to walk casually with a nearly full-grown male Itooti clinging to him under his blanket, but he managed as best he could. His pursuit of the cloaked human had taken him about a quarter of the way across the city, so he took a more direct route back to the square by the rail terminal. After a few minutes Tiatatoo poked his head out and anxiously surveyed the sky, then climbed up onto Arkad’s shoulder.
“Dirt-encrusted Arkad should bathe more often,” he said.
“Poverty-afflicted Arkad cannot afford luxurious baths.”
“Cost-conscious Arkad could take a free dip in the cleansing sea.”
“Warm-blooded Arkad does not want to take a life-threatening dip in the icy ocean. Fastidious Tiatatoo should not complain about the adequate hygiene of the generous friend who is hiding him.”
Just then he stumbled as a long furry body shot across the alley at knee level. Before Arkad could recover his balance, Zvev had wrapped herself around him with her head above his looking down.
“I know where they are,” she said.
“You tell me where,” said Arkad.
Zvev took her time answering. She uncoiled herself and spent a few seconds cleaning her fur, then said, “I am wise. I do not run through town and try to catch one who is too fast for me. Nor do I let the one I seek know I am here. I go to those I know and ask them. At last I find one who has seen your kind in this town.”
“You tell me where,” Arkad repeated.
“I spent time in the search,” said Zvev. “And now I owe a debt to the one who told me where they are. All this has cost me.”
“You tell me what you want,” said Arkad.
“They come from space,” she said. “To do that is not cheap. They must have wealth. I want you to find out why they are here. What they want—and how much they can pay for it. We can make a lot from them if we are wise.”
Arkad thought for a moment before answering. Zvev was probably smarter than he was, but her goals were not his. He decided to be honest, if only because she probably suspected the truth anyway. “I do not want to get some small gain from a quick scam,” he said. “I want to leave this world with them.”
“You tell me what you will do if they do not want to take you with them.”
“I will do what I must to make them want to do it.”
“But you may fail. Then you are stuck here as you are now, but with no more than you have.”
“Then I will be no worse off.”
“You will have no friends,” she pointed out. “If you do not help us to gain, you tell me why we should still be your friends.”
Arkad looked up at Tiatatoo, who was sitting on his head, and switched to the Itooti language. “Loyal Arkad wonders if honorable Tiatatoo will remain his reliable friend without any material reward.”
They both knew that Zvev could understand what he was saying, even if she couldn’t manage the precise vowels of Itooti speech. Tiatatoo leaped from Arkad’s head and landed neatly on a broken arch which had once spanned the alley. He looked from Arkad to Zvev a couple of times before replying.
“If you go from here, you should help the friends you leave,” he said, using the pidgin.
“I will do that,” said Arkad quickly.
“If you go,” said Zvev.
“Yes.”
She groomed herself a little longer, then said, “They are at the spire of Aviiva, four floors up. I do not know which room.”
“I thank you,” said Arkad. He hesitated for a moment, then took off again at a run back to the plaza by the terminal.
As with most Vziim-built towers in Ayaviz, the lower levels of Aviiva’s tower were market space, so even a stray young alien like Arkad could enter freely. Unlike the restrained affluence of Eviavo’s tower, the market section of Aviiva’s was loud and eclectic. One saw spaceship crew members here, buying souvenirs or trying to work out private deals with merchants. Crafters hawked the goods they made. At least a few of the stalls had goods which were probably stolen, or at least had been “salvaged” before they were quite lost.
The tower boasted two elevators, a pair of big open platforms four meters square that ran next to each other in a single shaft up the center of the building. Their cables were connected at the top, so that the two platforms counterweighted each other. They both went up and down ceaselessly, stopping for five seconds at each floor before continuing.
Arkad waited at the center of the building until one platform landed at the bottom with a bump. Four Pfifu dragged off a small cart loaded with blown glass, and the boy boarded along with a pair of female Vziim who were apparently inspecting the building and taking notes. Itooti never bothered with elevators unless they had a heavy load to move. A couple of them swooped past him to circle up the central shaft. Arkad stood at the edge of the platform and counted four floors, then hopped off and explored the corridors. His mouth was dry. How would he find them? He could just start knocking on doors…
Just then he caught a scent which was unique in Ayaviz, but which struck a chord in his memory. It was the smell of cooking sausage. He couldn’t remember when or where he had eaten it, but he knew what it tasted and smelled like. His dry mouth began to water.
The sausage smell led him to a door, where he stood for a moment working up his courage and composing himself before he knocked.
The door opened, and Arkad had a glimpse of a pale figure shrouded in black before she grabbed him by the throat and one arm, lifted him, and yanked him into the room, pinning him against the wall with his feet half a meter off the floor.
“Who are you and why did you follow me?” she asked very calmly.
“My name is Arkad, I’m the only human on the planet, I wanted to meet you,” he said.
“Be polite, Baichi. Put him down,” said a man, putting his hand gently on the girl’s shoulder. He was much taller and heavier than Arkad, with darker skin. His eyebrows and the hair on his face were gray. He wore sturdy-looking clothing with lots of pockets and a wide-brimmed hat, and he smelled like smoke.
The pale girl lowered Arkad to the floor and let go, then stepped back and wrapped her cloak around her, all without saying a word. Now that Arkad could get a good look at her, he could see that she was about a hand’s width shorter than he was. Her skin was hairless and white—not the light pinkish-tan of people he had seen in pictures, but an absolutely colorless white, like clouds or new snow. Combined with her slender build, it gave her an appearance of delicacy, almost fragility. Her eyes were all black, and she looked at Arkad without any expression. Her cloak had turned black, so black Arkad couldn’t see any folds or wrinkles in it, just the outline.
The third person in the room was a little bit shorter than Baichi, with skin about the same color as Arkad’s, and short blue hair. Arkad couldn’t tell right away if the individual was male or female, but something in the shape of the face and the narrow shoulders made him guess female. There was no sign of hair on her face, and she wore a spotless white smart-cloth coverall. She looked very surprised.
“Let’s start over,” said the man. “My name’s Jacob Sato.” He extended a hand toward Arkad, who wasn’t sure what to do with it. “And you are?”
“My name is Arkad,” he repeated.
“Pleased to meet you, young man. This is Ree Bright,” said the man, gesturing to the blue-haired woman. “It appears you’ve already met Baichi,” he added, nodding at the cloaked girl. “Would you like some dinner? Or breakfast, or whatever you want to call it?”
“Yes…please,” said Arkad, remembering the way people in books asked for things.
Jacob went to a corner of the room where a small fire of rubbish was burning in a metal can. He knelt by the can, took up a fork and resumed cooking sausage. “Give me a minute and I’ll whip something up. Have a seat.”
The room was small, with no windows. Small vent holes near the low ceiling opened into the elevator shaft. The glow of the ceiling was controlled by a small slider switch by the door. There was a water tap in one corner with a drain below it for waste. About half the floor space was covered by luggage and supply boxes. Arkad had seldom seen such luxury.
As Jacob cooked, he and Ree Bright fired questions at Arkad while Baichi sat silently watching him.
“Why are you here?”
“How did you find us?”
“What happened to your parents?”
“How do you survive?”
In the end, he wound up simply telling them his story, or at least as much of it as he could remember.
“My name is Arkad. I was born on this planet, but I think it was far from here. I came to this city with my mother when I was small, and then she died. The Psthao-psthao took her. Since then I have lived here in the city, and a few other places. I find things, I work, I have friends who help me sometimes.”
As he talked, Arkad focused his attention on the three humans. For half his life, his survival had depended on being able to read the behavior and emotions of alien beings. Applying his skill to humans was simultaneously easier and more difficult. He could tell some things about them without even thinking, but other things were very confusing.
Jacob Sato was easy to read. The big man was relaxed, confident, and very observant himself. Even as he cooked he was obviously paying attention to everything Arkad said and did. He worked with the ease of skill and long practice. His movements and posture matched his expressions and his words.
Ree Bright was more puzzling. Her curiosity about Arkad was genuine; that was plain to see. But she also seemed nervous; even when speaking with Arkad she kept glancing at the other two. Her speech and her face didn’t match her body.
If Bright was a puzzle, Baichi was a complete enigma. Arkad couldn’t read her at all. When she moved, she was fluid and graceful, with never a correction or a wasted motion. When she sat still, she was absolutely immobile. Her face was perfectly blank, like a mask carved from ice.
“There!” said Jacob, putting three bowls in front of Arkad. “A proper dinner. I made you some miso, grilled up the last of the hard sausage, and fixed you a little salad of raisins and pickled carrots. Bon appétit!”
Arkad seldom turned down food, and this time he didn’t even have to worry about whether he could eat it safely. The soup was hot and salty, with cubes of something soft and flakes of limp green matter floating in it. Arkad sipped it tentatively at first, then drank it in great gulps. The sausage tasted of smoke and salt and spices—almost, but not exactly like what he remembered—and he nibbled it slowly to prolong the experience. The salad also tasted familiar: he had a sudden memory of picking up raisins from a plate and feeding himself. When had that taken place?
Sato shared out soup and salad with the other two. “There’s more if anyone wants it,” he said. He watched Arkad eat with a look of amusement. “Though I rather doubt we’ll have any left once our guest is finished.”
Baichi ate her serving gracefully and efficiently, still without any expression. Ree finished her salad but handed off the soup to Arkad. “This poor hungry boy needs it more than I do,” she said, and then unwrapped a food bar for herself.
When Arkad had finished his own food, Ree’s soup, a third helping of miso and the remains of the salad, Jacob collected the bowls and rinsed them. “Now that we’re done with dinner, we can talk more comfortably. We’ve been asking Arkad about himself, so now it’s only fair that we explain ourselves, if that’s possible. Ask away,” he said, extending a hand toward Arkad.
“Why are you in Ayaviz?” the boy asked.
Jacob didn’t answer right away. He glanced over at Ree and raised his eyebrows. She licked her lips nervously and then nodded her head.
“Okay,” said Jacob. “We’re here looking for a spacecraft called the Rosetta, and I’m pretty sure it wound up on this world, about fifty years ago. Fifty Earth years, that is. In local years that would be…”
“Thirty-eight,” said Baichi.
Jacob nodded to her. “Thank you, my dear. Anyway…” He paused and looked at Arkad thoughtfully for a moment. “How old are you, by the way?”
“I’m not sure. Nobody here pays much attention to days or years.”
“Hmm.” Jacob peered at Arkad. “From his voice I’d say he’s at least fourteen,” said Jacob. “He’s got some lip fuzz, too. Maybe fifteen? The lack of height could be malnutrition, or maybe he just comes from a short family. Never mind. Back to Rosetta.”
Arkad found it hard to keep up with Jacob’s shifts of subject. It was like having dozens of tempting dishes put in front of him, but he could only get a bite of each before they were snatched away.
“Anyway, I traced the Rosetta from when it left Earth, as far as the Roon merchant station in the Qualaroo system. Just before flipping the ship into hyperspace there, the crew transmitted a message, but they used a code that only a very clever person well versed in Terran literature could figure out. Fortunately, I’m both extremely clever and extremely well educated—not to mention insufferably modest. The message said they were heading for this system next. That was fifty years ago. In all that time, the Rosetta hasn’t been seen anywhere else, as far as I could find out. So odds are it’s still here.”
“Why are you looking for it?” asked Arkad.
“I want to liberate Earth, and Rosetta is my weapon of choice. Her cargo could do more to free Earth from the invaders than any warship ever built.”
“Don’t be elliptical, Jacob,” said Ree.
“It’s the simple truth!” he insisted.
“Who are the invaders?” asked Arkad. The other three looked at him in surprise.
“You don’t know?” asked Jacob.
Arkad shrugged. “I’ve lived here as long as I can remember.”
“What do you know about Earth?” asked Jacob.
“I know a lot of things. There are cities called London and Paris and Bristol and Lahore and Oxford and Petersburg and Chang’an and Vulture Peak and Baghdad and Jerusalem and Ithaca. There are oceans and jungles and forests and mountains and islands and a desert called the Sahara, and a river called the Mississippi and another one called the Ganges. Thousands of humans live there, and many different animals.”
“There may be some gaps in your knowledge,” said Jacob. “In particular, fifty years ago, Earth was invaded by a species called the Elmisthorn.”
“I’ve seen some of them! They come here sometimes to trade. They have four legs and lots of little limbs around their mouths.”
“That’s them. They rule an empire they call the Family of Species, and wanted to add humans to their collection, so they showed up with a battle fleet. We fought, we lost, and now they control the whole Solar System. A few thousand humans got away and set up refuges in systems where the Elmisthorn couldn’t reach. The Rosetta was one of the last ships out. It was a good-sized interstellar ship, a hundred meters long, built for planetary landings. Show him, Ree.”
She tapped a device on her wrist and the image of a sleek triple-hulled spaceship appeared in the air between her and Arkad. He felt the hair stand up on the backs of his arms when he saw it.
“And that’s the one you’re looking for,” said Arkad.
“Exactly! But I don’t know where it is. I paid the Roon who brought us here to do a quick orbital survey, but unfortunately this planet is just cluttered with weird masses of metal, electromagnetic emissions, and heat sources. It’s like we’re trying to find a needle in a haystack made of metal hay.”
“We still haven’t established that the ship is even on this world,” Ree added. “There are four other planets in the system, plus who knows how many asteroids and moons.”
“Which is why we’re looking here first,” said Jacob patiently. “It’s the most likely place, and we simply don’t have funds to search the whole system. Now, Arkad: your presence here is a bit suggestive, to put it mildly. Do you know anything about the Rosetta?”
He started to answer, then stopped himself. This was it, the big moment. His whole future depended on how he handled this.
How would Zvev do it? She would be able to get what she wanted from them.
He cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and said, “Yes, but it will cost you.”
Jacob raised an eyebrow at that. Ree was looking back and forth between Arkad and Jacob. Baichi was immobile.
“Well?” asked Jacob. “What’s your price?”
“I want to leave Syavusa,” he said.
Jacob visibly relaxed. He looked inquiringly at Ree. “Can we afford an extra ticket home?”
She tapped at her wrist computer, and Arkad could see flickers of green light from her eyes as it projected text onto her retinas. “I think so,” she said. “Knowing where the Rosetta is should cut a lot of time off this expedition.” She looked up at Arkad and gave him a friendly smile. “Don’t worry, Arkad. I’ll get you off this planet somehow.”
“Will you take me to Earth?”
“No. Not to Earth,” said Jacob. “Not yet, anyway. Maybe someday. But you can come back to Hinan with us; that’s a space habitat in Machine Civilization space. It’s where Baichi and I come from. Or you could go to Invictus, where Ree lives. That’s where the government-in-exile is based.”
“Are there other humans there?”
“About ten thousand, and there’s always room for more.”
“When can we go?”
Jacob smiled. “Well, that’s up to you now. Take us to the Rosetta and we’ll be on our way. The quicker we get going, the quicker we can get you civilized—if you can stand it.”
There was a moment when nobody said anything, and then Ree asked him, “Where is it? The Rosetta.”
“I can take you to it,” said Arkad.
“Why can’t you just tell us?”
Because I don’t really know was not the answer Arkad wanted to give, so instead he replied, “I don’t want you to leave me here. I want to go with you.”
“Don’t quite trust us yet?” asked Jacob. “I guess that makes sense. We could be anybody. Of course, that works both ways. You could be lying, too.” His gaze was steady, and Arkad realized that here were some beings who could read his expressions and body language as well as he could read theirs.
“No, I promise I know where it is. I swear by the River Styx,” he said, remembering the most binding oath in any of the stories he had read.
That made Jacob smile. “A hero of the old school, I see. Very well, Arkad Polytropos, I’ll take your word for it. Lead us to the Rosetta and you can leave the planet with us. Deal?” He extended his hand again.
“Deal,” said Arkad, and now he realized what the hand was for. He took it in both of his and shook it.
“I’d suggest a drink but you look a little young.”
“Do you need a place for the night, Arkad?” Ree gestured at the foam pads on the floor. “You’re welcome to stay.”
“No, I—thank you, but there’s some stuff I need to do. Before we leave.” Arkad stood up.
Jacob got to his feet along with Arkad and offered him his hand once again. “Well, Arkad, it has been a pleasure meeting you. Please come back soon. Is there a way we can get in touch with you?”
His mind was whirling, but Arkad tried to concentrate. “On the other side of the rail terminus there’s a big slab of red stone, part of an old wall. Write on that in English. I don’t think anyone else on the planet can read it.”
“No phone, no comm implant demanding your attention thirty times a day? You don’t know how lucky you are. All right, we’ll write on the wall. And we’ll check it for messages from you. But feel free to stop in whenever you like.” They shook hands yet again.
Arkad turned to go, making himself walk to the door before he said something he shouldn’t. He looked carefully up and down the corridor to make sure nobody was watching, then slipped out. To see if they were following him, he got on the first elevator going up, and he rode all the way to the top of Aviiva’s tower, glad of the chance to think.
The humans wanted to find the Rosetta. The humans could take Arkad with them, to a habitat where more humans lived—thousands of them!
The tiny flaw in that arrangement was that Arkad didn’t actually know where the Rosetta was. He remembered his mother talking about it, and he had vague memories of traveling, but the details were lost in the fog of early childhood. Syavusa was a big place, even with half the planet perpetually covered by darkness and ice.
There was a game the Vziim played, which they called Zom-Zviivazi. Each player had an army, moving on a board of squares, and the goal was to get control of the enemy’s fortress. But before starting, each player could put colored dots under some of the other player’s men, and reveal those traitorous units at a key moment during the game. When you played, you always had to make sure that your pieces couldn’t turn against you.
Arkad felt as though he was playing a game of Zom-Zviivazi, or maybe two games at once, with everything he owned and his life as the bet on the outcome. He had to pick his moves very carefully right now. It was kind of exciting.
By the time the elevator car reached the top of the tower and then began descending, Arkad had worked out a plan. It involved some risks, but after all, what didn’t?