by David Liss
“Sorry,” Urch said. “Nothing.”
Why had she not thought to send me a few lines? I wondered. Maybe she was too busy. Maybe she was overwhelmed by everything that was going on. Maybe everything she did and said would be monitored until she left her planet, and whatever she had to say she wanted to keep private. It was a small thing, I told myself, and I decided I was not going to worry about it.
Urch called up a blue plasma sphere from his bracelet. It had buttons all over it, and it rotated as he tapped them.
“The room is now secure,” he said. “I detect no listening devices, but we are nevertheless shielded now. I think anyone but Captain Hyi and myself would report suspicions to Junup, and I know that Knutjhob is looking to discredit your mission, whatever it is, before it begins.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m not popular with the goat-turtles.”
“I have known several of their species who are worthy and honorable beings,” Urch said. “That family, however, is ambitious and ruthless. In any case, we may speak now without fear of being heard.”
“Okay,” I said cautiously. Clearly he had something private he wanted to say.
“When Charles and Mi Sun and Nayana arrived,” he began, “I had to inject them with nanites so they could understand me. I gave you an injection, since to do otherwise would have been conspicuous, but you did not need the nanites to understand me.“
I said nothing.
“The Confederation treated you shamefully,” Urch said. “Beings like us, who come into this culture from the outside, have no innate devotion to it, no patriotism that we are born to. Loyalty must be earned, and I know that the Confederation did not earn it with you. It is no exaggeration to say that the Confederation betrayed you, so I would understand if you had been tempted to turn your back on it, but if that is the case, you must tell me now. We can deal with the situation if you reveal everything, but the longer you wait, the more suspect your concealment will seem.”
“Wait a second,” I said, hardly believing what I was hearing. “Do you think I was working with the Phands?”
“I am saying only you had access to technology that should have been unavailable. The Phands are the most likely source.”
“I blame Junup for what happened, not the Confederation, and I would never work with the Phands. They murdered the Ganari kids who were supposed to be delegates for their planet. They tried to destroy a ship I was on—several times—and tried to have me brought back to their world for punishment. They imprisoned my father, and they were looking to invade or destroy my planet. Do you seriously think I would join up with them? For what? So I could watch kung fu movies without subtitles?”
“I said the Phands were the most likely source,” he explained, “but I agree not the only one. Perhaps you would enlighten me.”
“Have you reported this to anyone?” I asked him.
“I wished to speak with you first.”
I took a deep breath. I couldn’t have Urch thinking I was a traitor, and though I didn’t want to tell anyone what Dr. Roop had done, he was already a fugitive and probably couldn’t get into much more trouble. “Dr. Roop did something before I left the station last time. He kept my translation system working. He hinted about it, but I didn’t pick up on it until after I left Confederation Central.”
I tried to scratch my ear, but I could not lift my hand.
Calm your miniscule mind, meat bag, Smelly said. In case this creature knows enough of physiology to monitor you, I am concealing the physical manifestations of lying. I am keeping your heart rate at a normal pace, I am preventing your eyes from shifting to the left, and I am not allowing you to touch your face.
I stopped trying to touch my face, hoping Smelly would free me up. I could now feel a slight relaxation, as if an invisible hand had let go.
You’re welcome.
I supposed Smelly was right. I should thank it. Obviously I did not want anyone rooting around in my brain trying to scrape it out. Urch was a friend, but once he knew, there was always the risk someone else might find out.
“Interesting,” Urch said. “Roop obviously had something in mind, though I can’t guess what. I was surprised he ran rather than face the legal system, but clearly he was more desperate than I realized.”
“You won’t tell anyone about all this, will you?”
“I’m not sure that it would get you into trouble, but if they catch Roop, I would hate for him to face any more charges just because he wanted to help you out. I think we can keep this between us.” He pressed some buttons on his rotating keyboard, presumably to deactivate the dampening field.
“I’m still not sure how you broke into that military base. Maybe no one else will notice. Most Confederation types don’t really know what to expect on a place like Earth, but my planet was not unlike yours before we joined. I know you must have faced great danger.”
“I had help from my friends,” I said.
“It must have been some help for you to get that far without anyone getting hurt.”
I shrugged. “We were lucky, I guess.”
Urch stared at me, and I felt sure he knew I was lying. Smelly was likely keeping me from any physical betrayal, but Urch was no dummy, and he clearly suspected I got more from Dr. Roop than just a universal translator. I had to hope that he’d believe I would never work with the Phands, and as long as I wasn’t cooperating with the enemy, he was probably okay with me having my own secrets.
Just then both our data bracelets chimed, almost at the exact same moment. I looked at mine, and a text message popped up. Report to the brig.
“I must go to the brig,” Urch told me.
“Yeah, me too.”
Why was I needed there, of all places? Had one of the other humans already gotten in trouble aboard the ship? I couldn’t believe any of my friends would have done anything improper, but Colonel Rage was an unknown, to say the least. Even so, if he’d decided that he wanted to try to steal Confederation secrets, I doubted he would have gotten started quite so quickly.
I followed Urch through the corridors and down a flight of stairs. We then found the captain and Colonel Rage standing by a closed door.
“We’ve got a problem,” the captain said, gesturing toward the door with one of his spindly limbs.
“Stowaway on the shuttle,” Colonel Rage told me.
The captain moved to open the door, but I knew what I was going to see. The door shifted to the side with a hiss, revealing a chamber with a main control panel and three cells, two of which were empty and dark. The third was illuminated and blocked off by a blue plasma field, and on the other side, hands in her lap, was Alice.
CHAPTER TWELVE
* * *
The captain, Urch, the other humans, and I sat in the briefing room—that is, the other humans besides Alice, who remained in the brig. I felt a twisting in my stomach, like I’d done something wrong and was about to get in serious trouble. The fact that everyone was staring at me didn’t help, but I kept telling myself that it wasn’t my fault. Not that it much mattered at this point. Alice was on board, and finger-pointing wasn’t going to change that.
The captain clicked his insectoid mandibles. “None of you knew she was on the shuttle?”
“Negative,” Colonel Rage barked, speaking for all of us. He seemed to understand that this was a serious matter with military implications, and he had instinctively taken control.
I knew, Smelly told me. She was doing a lot of mouth breathing.
I tried not to react. If Smelly had known about Alice, why hadn’t it said anything? Obviously, I couldn’t ask that now.
“Captain Hyi,” Colonel Rage said, “I questioned this young lady extensively back on earth. It’s my belief that she is simply an enthusiast. She has a history of being interested in beings from other worlds, and it seems clear that, given such close proximity to aliens, she couldn’t quite master her eagerness to see more.”
“You don’t consider her to be a threat, then?” the
captain asked. “Perhaps she is in league with the Phands.”
“When she was on the run with Zeke, we conducted an extensive background check on her. There’s nothing to indicate she’s anything other than what she says she is.”
“If the Phands wished to place an agent on board,” Urch said, “I doubt they would choose one so obvious. The girl was going to be discovered eventually, and once discovered, she was always going to be an unwelcome guest.”
“I very much doubt she is a spy,” Charles said. “But that doesn’t change the question—what is to become of her?”
“We cannot divert back to Earth,” Captain Hyi said. “Director Ghli Wixxix wants us to make best possible speed to Confederation Central.”
“Can you send her back when we arrive?” Nayana asked.
“Resources are spread quite thin these days,” Captain Hyi said. “No will authorize sending an insufficiently armed transport into territory still coveted by the Phands, and we cannot afford to send a battle-ready ship that might be needed elsewhere.”
“If there’s one thing I get, it’s allocation of resources,” Colonel Rage said. “I understand you can’t ferry this girl all over the galaxy. She’s a stowaway, and you have to deal with her, but she’s from my planet and an American citizen, which means I need to look after her interests.”
“You sound like you have a proposal,” Urch said.
“Right you are, warthog alien. It seems to me you have two choices. You can charge her with whatever Confederation crimes she’s guilty of, and deal with it through the legal system, but I’m against putting her through all that when she hasn’t really done, or intended, any harm. Your second choice is to let her out. Zeke can keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn’t get into any more trouble.”
For some reason, this plan made me uncomfortable. I liked Alice, and I respected her. She’d given up a lot, and she’d taken some crazy risks in order to help me, but I didn’t want to be her guide to the Confederation. Whatever the reason we had been summoned back, it was almost certainly bound to involve some risk, and I didn’t like the idea of being responsible for keeping someone with no training out of harm’s way.
“I’m going to have my hands busy with whatever Director Ghli Wixxix wants me to do,” I protested. “Maybe we could put Nayana in charge of keeping an eye on her.”
“I would rather not.” Nayana folded her arms and looked away, like she’d remembered something really important she had to think about.
“We can help guide her through life on Confederation Central,” Mi Sun offered, “but we’re strangers to her. She knows Zeke. He should be the one to look out for her.”
“She’s not a baby,” I said. “It’s not like you’ll have to change her diapers. Just make sure she doesn’t open any airlocks or anger the locals.”
“I agree with your friends, Zeke,” Colonel Rage said. “You brought her into this; you need to see her through it.”
They were right, of course, and my vague worries about possible danger weren’t enough to justify my position. On the other hand, I needed Alice to understand that she couldn’t go around breaking any rules she didn’t like. Tamret was on the way, and one habitual lawbreaker in the group was enough. “Can I suggest leaving her in the brig until we arrive at the station?”
Colonel Rage raised an eyebrow. “Explain.”
I shrugged. “I agree that she’s no threat, but she’s flouted the law and gotten away with it. There are a lot of laws on Confederation Central, so maybe now’s the time to make sure she’ll think twice before doing anything else too impulsive.”
Urch snorted. “He wants to make sure she knows her place before that fiery Rarel shows up.”
“That too,” I admitted.
Captain Hyi nodded. “Either way, I believe it is a sound suggestion. Make it so.”
I stared at the captain.
He clacked his mandibles together. “The one called Charles asked me to say that. He thought you would appreciate it.”
Charles grinned. “We shall see which of us is the true fanboy.”
• • •
I went back to my room and closed the door. “If you knew Alice was on board, why didn’t you say anything?” I demanded of Smelly.
It wasn’t my problem. Besides, suppose I had told you. What could you have done? Announced that you’d picked up the rank stench of one of your females in the storage closet? If you had revealed your knowledge of her, you would have raised questions you could not answer, and that might have led to the others learning of my existence.
“She was hidden on the shuttle in the docking bay,” I said. “Did you know for a fact they wouldn’t decompress the bay?”
No, I recognized that decompression was a possibility.
“She could have died.”
That is true. You fleshy types don’t do well in a vacuum. You are so porous, and you require oxygen. And warmth.
“The next time someone’s life is in danger, you have to let me know,” I said. “I’ll cover my tracks to conceal you, but you can’t risk letting anyone die.”
There are billions of you, Smelly said. And countless billions more species that don’t look exactly the same but are otherwise barely indistinguishable—meat in different-shaped bags. I am unique, and that means my existence is more valuable than your own. Next time I shall behave precisely the same way.
I opened my mouth to speak, but there was nothing to say. I’d always known it, but I think this was the first time I’d set it out quite so bluntly for myself. I had an intelligence inside my head I could not control or trust or anticipate, one for whom sentient life—other than my own, on which it depended—was utterly expendable.
• • •
When I entered the brig, Knutjhob was sitting in front of the panel, making some adjustments. He turned around at the sound of the door opening, and his nostrils flared.
“Ah,” he said. “One criminal to visit another.”
“Hey, Knutjhob,” I said, trying for the casual approach. “How’s it going, my man?”
“It would be going more pleasantly,” he said, “if my ship were not contaminated by primitive life forms who cannot understand the rule of law, and who wish to drag the Confederation into a pit of filth and degradation.”
“On my world,” I said, “when someone asks how it’s going, you usually just say ‘good’ and leave it at that.”
“Since you have mastered the art of pointless conversation, I am surprised you do not rule the galaxy.”
I sighed, deciding to make one last effort. “Here’s the thing. Your uncle and I don’t get along. I’m not sure what I could have done to avoid that, since he took issue with choices I made that seemed unavoidable. But you’re not him. There’s no reason we have to be enemies.”
“The reason,” Knutjhob said, “is that you are a member of a degenerate species, and of that primitive rabble you are the worst sort. You care nothing for law and order. You are selfish and greedy and violent. As long as you and your kind poison my air, I will despise you.”
I was silent for a moment. “I was hoping for a different response, but that’s okay. You’re telling me how you feel, which means we’re making progress. In the meantime, can you give me a moment alone with Alice here?”
“So the two of you can plot your criminal mischief?”
“I just want to talk to her, okay? There won’t be any mischief.”
Knutjhob snorted. “The law states I must allow you to confer in private, and I shall comply, because that is what advanced species do.”
Apparently, they also like to make self-important speeches. As soon as Knutjhob was out of the room, I grabbed a chair and pulled it over so I could sit across from Alice.
She sat alone on her bunk in the brig, running her fingers through her tangle of nearly white hair. As I sat down, she looked up at me through the blue film of the plasma barrier and flashed a huge grin, like we were both in on this together.
“Here I am, i
n outer space,” she said.
“Here you are,” I agreed.
“That guy,” she said, gesturing toward the door Knutjhob had just walked out of, “he’s got some issues. A lot of anger.”
“I may not invite him to my sleepover,” I said.
“He kept ranting about how violent species should be eliminated.”
“Did you point out the obvious logic problem?”
“Since I fall into the category of species he was talking about eliminating, I decided to smile and act harmless.”
“Probably a good strategy,” I said. “My usual approach of antagonize-and-alienate doesn’t seem to be getting me very far.”
She adjusted her glasses and said nothing. I smiled and also said nothing.
I believe, Smelly said, this is what we call an awkward silence.
Smelly was right. In order to move things along, I said, “So . . .” Then I ran out of ideas, and it was back to awkward silence.
“So,” she agreed. “Can I get one of those data bracelets?”
“Are you kidding me?” I snapped. Awkward-silence time was done. “Do you think this is some sort of vacation? You snuck aboard an alien spaceship. No one knew you were hiding out on the shuttle bay. You could have died.”
“And you could have been killed when we broke into Area Fifty-One,” she countered. “Sometimes you have to take risks.”
“Yeah, well, not this time.”
She sighed. “I’m sorry. I know my being here makes you look bad, but I had to see all this for myself. Besides, now that I’m here, I can help you.”
I wouldn’t have chosen to put her in danger by bringing her into all this, but she was here, and I couldn’t do anything about that. Having an extra person around who was brave and smart and loyal was probably not such a bad thing. I just needed to make sure that she and Tamret didn’t clash.
I braced myself for the most awkward question I’d ever had to ask anyone. “We’re friends, right?”
“Of course we are, Zeke,” she said, clearly warming to this approach. It was a more promising approach than, say, threatening to put her out the airlock.