“You?” he said. “I thought you were dead, or worse.”
Doctor Saludalta responded with a simple smile.
[ 45]
Two months ago a woman had vanished from the stretch of Trullwick Boulevard known to the Thalassas family as Arcadia. At least one assailant was believed to be after her for reasons unknown. All that was left behind of the laeknar, in the public eye, was her blood on the ground.
Today she stood a kilometer north of that spot as if no such injury or pursuit had ever occurred.
Dasos said, “I take it you don’t have any idea what I’m talking about.”
“In this case,” said Veran’uvia, “I know more about it than you do. The Hulda’fi wanted me eliminated for something else that I can’t say I know about. I had contacted Ren’baek about it, and he gave me an emergency beacon for material transference. We used the opportunity to lead as many of them as possible into the open before I took my leave, apparently dead or missing. I saw the opportunity as well to speak with you and your little sister. It was after my apparent death, two months ago, that we were able to investigate who it was that was after me.
“Our efforts were nearly sabotaged for good, but we found a spy among our new crew members thanks to the efforts of one police cadet here in Elysium IX. However, we knew that whoever is in charge of those rebels had something planned, so we made it seem like the spy was doing her task until last night when we returned home. So here I am, visiting friends for the next few days.”
“You know, don’t you? About Il’lyse, I mean.”
“I had my suspicions until now when you asked about her. Now I regret to say I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“They’re all planning something big, you know.”
“We better enjoy ourselves in the meantime. Get yourself a nice lover if you have to. Spend time with those you care about. Let the rest of us handle it.”
“Enjoy; right. It’s midterms week.”
“You poor thing, but you do have a love life, do you not?”
He twisted his lips and leered at Veran’uvia while the trolley came to a stop next to them. He said, “I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about.”
* * *
If it wasn’t for the calendar on her digital pad, Zoey might have lost track of what day it was by the middle of midterms week. At least that was what she told herself.
Her first two tests were simpler than expected after all of the studying she had done, yet Zoey couldn’t help but feel cheated by the three questions in Hoshi-Lacartan History and Geography that weren’t at all covered in class. When she turned in her exam for the history class, the doctor noted in a low, quiet voice that Zoey had changed her date format to one he was familiar with.
She had learned on Earth to put down the numbers for month, day, and year, all separated by a line. In any Elysium, and some stations, writing it started with the year and worked its way down to the day, with each number separated by a colon. As she wrote down the date on the General Complements exam, “225:6:29,” Zoey came to the revelation about her inability to keep track of the present without the computer, thanks to the stress of her tests and studies.
Zoey had spent so long looking at so many other dates and reading all of the relevant stories about those times that she was surprised that the actual date wasn’t somehow way off from what it really was.
The General Complements exam was a written one, consisting of five short essay questions. Two questions at the start were a paragraph long and needed to be matched in their lengths to be properly answered. The remainder were one or two sentences that wanted half a page to articulate Zoey’s understanding of the reading material.
When it was done, Zoey was among the last third of the students to turn it in and leave. She spotted Bu working on her own still, and yawning as if utterly bored by the whole thing. Rolling her eyes, Zoey walked to the front of the classroom, where Doctor Evrahn sat and read on his digital pad. She placed her test booklet on the table.
“Doctor,” she said quietly, “when would you like for me to come back to turn in my class assignment?”
Her instructor turned his middle eye her way and said, “Technically this exam will be over in fifteen minutes, though you do have until the end of the semester to get it to me.”
“It’s ready, I think.”
“Well then, Zoi’ne,” and now all three of his eyes were on her, “if you believe it is ready, then you can message it to my campus mail, or hand it in, once I have left the classroom to carry these tests to my office. Since no one else, that I know of yet, will have turned in their assignment, I will probably schedule your presentation for after I review everyone’s scores on the day of transition. Be warned.”
“Let’s do it then.”
“No hesitation from you? My goodness.”
She ate lunch before heading to Doctor Evrahn’s office. There was a hallway that connected his classroom to another one, with a single office room in the middle of one side, and tinted windows to the other. Inside of the office the room was partitioned left and right for two instructors.
Somewhere in the last nine weeks, Zoey recalled hearing that many offices were like this, and some of the professors merely worked as well together as they did because they needed to, given their adjoined spaces. Doctor Evrahn was chatting with an older Aelf man from across their mutual barrier full of wooden shelves, pictures, and random knickknacks.
“I don’t think they’ll make it halfway past the season,” the Aelf said. “I’ll wager two hundred burras on it.”
“Make it two-fifty,” said Doctor Evrahn.
“Yeah, right. I’d take the bet if I didn’t need that last fifty to buy tickets to go to next the game with my boyfriend.”
“When are the two of you ever getting married? It’s been five revolutions.”
Zoey almost felt sorry for having to interrupt the two of them, but she knocked on the divider between them. Both men looked at her. She dug her short story out of her bag and waved it while grimacing at Doctor Evrahn.
“Here it is,” she said. “I hope you don’t mind my paper being three thousand words instead of two.”
“Miss Thalassas,” said Doctor Evrahn, “pardon the irony in this question, but do you have a life?”
“Honestly, that’s hard to say. Why?”
“Most of my students are too happy to put off that assignment as long as they’re able, and even then do as little as possible with it.”
She handed him the copy of the document with ten pages of a single short story and sources used. Zoey, of course, had chosen the first aid kit from Earth to write her short story on.
“I figured I might as well get it out of the way since the idea for that story was so fresh in my head. It went longer than I planned, though,” she said. “If anything I toned it down a bit in length.”
Doctor Evrahn flipped through the pages with considerable haste, allowing him to finish his motion in under three seconds, and huffed at one point. He said, “’It was an emergency for sure, but no glass nearby was worth breaking.’ Does this world still have breakable glass for every other emergency you can think of?”
“For quite a few of them, sir. How fast do you read?” Her question was met with a laugh from the other professor.
“I’m about average for my people. It’s as easy to us as that fourth dimensional double vision of yours is for you. I still take my time with exams and essays, however. You’d be surprised at the answers you’re sometimes given; it’s headache inducing.”
“That reminds me; I don’t see very many of you around in the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance.”
“That’s because we Metouka rarely leave our own stellar system. There might be a hundred of us who actively participate in this alliance by living with our colleagues and friends. After recent events, maybe less. The hundred of us never really take a daily census. As far as I know I’m one of two that lives on this planet, though I know a couple delegates wh
o visit from time to time.”
“Are you all reclusive, or what is it, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“It’s more like the vast majority of us prefer to stay where our carnivorous diets are more agreeable. Not even Lutoume enjoys meat as much as we do.”
“Some places on Earth might.”
“More humans.”
“They had a whole fad diet around eating meat. There are places that serve steak the size of your body.”
“At what cost, I wonder? Oh, well. The day after tomorrow, after I have gone over everyone’s exams, I will have you recite your story in front of the class. I do still have to check your work for spelling or grammatical errors, which didn’t look too serious from what I saw already, but bring out your best speaker for this and the remaining eleven weeks will be a cinch.”
“No pressure.”
“I expect no less from a Thalassas. Truth be told I’m still waiting for your older sister to make an entrance and finally give us her own demonstration.”
“That would be a sight.”
“As long as it isn’t interpretive dance. I remember telling her it’s a speech class, among other things. Well now, I should prepare for my next class. I will see you in two days.”
* * *
During Martial Arts the students were allowed to test for their next level if they felt ready for it, but the main purpose for exercise persisted. Zoey timed out for a break when she took down a third training dummy in succession today in a personal record time. Next was going to be her endurance exercise.
“Keep up the good work,” her mom said, keeping an eye on the students in case they needed help with their own exercises.
“Thanks, Sensei,” Zoey said.
“How many exams do you have left this week?”
“I have a second test to take for Geography tomorrow, meaning I can sleep in an hour or more since Tonny is done with her tests until the day of transition. That same day I’ll get to present my short story for Doctor Evrahn’s class.”
“It’s not an interpretive dance, is it?”
“It is not. Did she really say she might do that?”
“We still wonder if it was a joke or not. It was quite hard to tell with that girl. She was always unpredictable.”
“Even in martial arts?”
“Even when fighting. My Aelfen senses and trained reflexes helped me so much when I taught her as much as I did.”
“Raising her must have been fun.”
“Between her and Dasos? It was difficult when Aerak and I were home for them. Add Tonny to the mix, and Aerak’s parents were at wit’s end all too often. Mine too, for that matter. I really should invite them to dinner sometime. The problem is explaining to them that we have a second daughter now. What about you? Do you have any plans for the next week?”
“Well, Tonny’s little sister is in town. I have also been gathering ingredients to make a large pizza or two. So I’ll probably celebrate the end of midterms with a quiet dinner between the four of us. Well, as quiet as she and Dasos will make it.”
Bon’sinne looked at her, her mouth hanging open, like she was in the midst of trying to form the right question.
* * *
Shungdi was pacing outside the condo door when Zoey got home from college. She appeared slightly frantic, and there was a paper in her hand.
“What’s wrong?” Zoey said.
“Zoi’ne, hello,” said Shungdi. “Oh, I shouldn’t have come.”
“Again, what’s wrong?”
“Well, I received an urgent message from Ginserei saying that I must leave here no later than the first of next month, or I will trigger another incident between our two peoples. I knew I would have to leave soon, but this is so sudden and forceful. I have to see to my duties to High House Leezu, but, well, here.”
She handed Zoey the piece of paper. It turned out to be an envelope once Zoey could see it up close and was holding it in her hands. Her brother’s name was written on one side.
“Make sure he gets this,” Shungdi said.
“Why don’t you tell him yourself?” Zoey said.
“I thought about that. I thought about all of the time we have spent together so far. Almost every time we met for any reason ended up with the two of us, well, you know.”
“Getting it on like a pair of rabbits?”
“What are . . . ? Never mind. I’m trying to avoid that right now because seeing him will make it harder to leave than it already is. I can’t risk being around Dasos right now. Please tell him I’m sorry.”
“I hate telling him a girl is sorry who handed me a note to hand to him. You still have three days, you know.”
“Yes, I know.” Shungdi headed for the elevator. “I know how you Aelfs are with your sense of time. This doesn’t feel right, but I must go. Until we meet again, Zoi’ne. I hope the times will be better by then.”
Zoey took one more look at the envelope in her hand when her friend was out of sight. She shook her head and went inside the condo.
* * *
“Work is slow today,” Zoey said.
Brach’geros said, “It usually is about this time until early next week when we get to make large orders for seasonal parties. Maybe it is a little slower today, come to think of it. I know of a couple regulars who haven’t shown up today or yesterday that aren’t students from the university.”
“What do we do when it’s this slow and quiet?”
“I usually have a book to read, or my personal computer handy to watch an old show. Like, there’s this classic from half a millennium ago about a time traveling space alien.”
“You know something? I think Earth has something like that too.”
“I’m sure a lot of planets had something like it. Watch all of the missing episodes be buried on a moon once lorded over by a bunch of space pirates.”
“Those damned pirates; always saving things.”
The two of them shot a glance at one another, and then laughed for a while.
* * *
Oh God, what am I doing?
Zoey now stood in front of the class to give her oral presentation of the story she had written for the primary assignment. Sure, only twelve other students were present today, but she now remembered the stage fright she’d once had doing book reports at the age of twelve.
Come on, Zoi’ne, you got this. You did a practice speech before a fuller class a month ago.
“Right,” she said, “here goes everything. This may seem cheap to those of you who know me, or who’ve at least heard rumors about where I’m from, but I wrote a story about this little, white box here.”
She indicated the first aid kit that had been returned to the table in front of the classroom for the purpose of her presentation. Like some of her classmates, she had gotten to see what was inside of it without taking anything out of the white container.
Her story was about two men whose car broke down in the middle of a desert. One of them had experience with car problems, and swore to the other that he could fix his buddy’s vehicle. However, as the man went out to look under the hood, a venomous snake that had been hiding behind a rock bit him.
The driver fumbled his first aid kit and dropped its contents all over the ground. Luckily, everything was neatly packaged in air-tight containers and readily labeled for him, save for two quarters.
Why two quarters, or coins amounting to five burras? The kit happened to be an old one, dating back to a day when payphones were a thing in most populated corners of the world. By now they had cellular devices, though running low on battery power after half a day of doing nothing with them, so calling for emergency responders from several hours’ travel no longer required those quarters.
Next to the coins, on the ground, was the snakebite kit that the driver now had to use on his buddy.
Zoey went on and on about the items as they were brought up in the story. Many of her dozen classmates contorted with dread at a number of the things she said, as if this underdevelope
d planet full of humans was a grotesque experience for anyone who was a self-respecting Aelf. Bu, however, held a devious smile, looking on at Zoey for the whole of her story.
When she was done telling her story, Zoey bowed, and the doctor clapped.
Doctor Evrahn said, “Top marks. You see, class, Miss Thalassas here could very well have chosen to make up everything in her story, but she went as far as to find and list sources on the last page to show feasibility for everything said here. Not all planets shine as Elysium IX does today, and even Elysium Prime had its share of questionable or dark eras. You can believe what you will, or guess what you like, but without the proper levels of research, you are doomed to look like a greater fool than her two main characters felt by the end of the story. Thank you, Zoi’ne. Everyone, class is dismissed until the tenth.”
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