Gratuitous Epilogue : Touchstone Extras

by Andrea Höst

  The tears into the Ena are healing – painfully slowly. Since they no longer gape, there's no longer nearly so many Ionoth finding their way into real space, but Ena missions are still necessary on Tare and Kolar – and scheduled on Muina for research and to clear the few non-Ddura-protected settlements like Kaszandra. Fourth and First-Second (currently captained by Grif) have been very busy the past month. Maze and Lohn have both taken long leave (and Regan will take leave once his two sons are born). Kaoren's continued to exhaust himself with Ena missions, and will be up to when our baby's born, which has annoyed his mother a great deal.

  Teor just won't let herself believe that Kaoren really enjoys being a Setari. Partly, I'd say, just because of his own sheer excellence at it. He likes the challenge, he likes doing well, and he likes being in charge. The exploration tasks are his favourites – he usually talks about those missions with me afterwards, describing what he's seen and talking about all the worlds which must be out there in fact or fiction to produce those spaces. It's dangerous, and the longer missions exhaust him, but if he didn't take it so seriously it would be fun for him.

  I get stressed about it when they're on long missions, but I'm managing fairly well. It's very much a part of who Kaoren is, and I don't feel a need to press him to change direction any time soon. He'll have a long break when the baby is born (sleepless nights don't make for combat efficiency) and Fourth will probably be split among other teams or be assigned a new captain. He says he'll have to evaluate after that whether to make a more permanent change to primarily real-space work. I've asked him if he's ever considered swapping to focus on art, but he doesn't want to make such a complete shift any time soon, and isn't really sure it's something he could ever do.

  Talking about drawing always leaves him quiet and withdrawn. His perfectionism, his all-or-nothing approach, is very different from my casual attitude to life, but I have no urge to push him to do any particular thing. Drawing or fighting, he's still Kaoren.

  Chapter 20

  Another July

  July 19

  Names

  Muina Year 3. The biggest downside of my pregnancy is that I don't want to risk projecting, and so I can't check in on Mum, and can't ask her questions.

  Back when we got engaged, and briefly talked about having babies, I told Kaoren he could name any boys, and I'd name any girls (mainly because I had a girl's name I'd always liked, but not really a boy's one). He's been thinking about it very seriously ever since. Names matter to Kaoren.

  Earth's languages added a new level of complexity to his choice, since he's seen me trying not to giggle at more than a few Kolaren and Taren names which are considered quite ordinary, but are very silly to me (like one of the technicians whose name is Fearme). Kaoren's never volunteered any suggestions until today, when he asked what I thought about the name "Tyrian". It's a little unusual – sounds like a name for a style of architecture – but I kind of like it. I expect it would be 'Tyr' for short most of the time, and I don't mind that either. We're provisionally settled on that unless we change our mind, though we're not sharing it as yet (Sen is very annoyed with me for saying we haven't decided whenever she asks what the baby's name will be).

  But I really really wish I could check with Mum, in case Tyrian means something which would make her giggle.

  I had an excursion earlier this week because I decided to go on one of my very rare non-interface shopping trips – Rye's starting to shoot up a bit in size and all the kids could do with new clothes and I had maternity and baby stuff to buy. Virtual reality shopping is far beyond grainy photos on E-Bay, and I'm usually happy enough to make my purchases online because public appearances are a pain in the neck. I like my island, and I visit the other islands a lot, and we frequently go on little nature exploration trips to places that don't have a lot of people. I can go to the cities so long as I'm not seen much in public areas. But occasionally I feel a strong need to just wander around in an actual shop.

  No-one argued the point when I asked to be allowed to go shopping with the kids some day in the near future, though I was uncomfortable because I knew that there'd be at least two security meetings about me going shopping before the city police even get told about it. I sometimes wonder if it would be better if I just went out every day until everyone was bored of looking at me. I also keep picturing Lira hitting her really rebellious mid-teen phase and deciding she wants to go nightclubbing alone.

  It took five days before everything was settled, and it was agreed we would go (with an escort of six Setari) during the after-lunch lull. While KOTIS would really rather I sat somewhere quietly and just let them guard me, they've never argued with my requests, or suggested that it's inconvenient for the kids to attend the talent school. Even dropping them off has been a bit difficult at times, because people will come to the edge of the school grounds (now with ornamental fences and gardens) and watch the island skimmers arrive and try and take pictures.

  The talent school has become, not too surprisingly, the school every child wants to attend, and there's some wonderfully distorted stories about combat training, and stumbling across Setari everywhere. They've set aside a great swathe of the land to the south and east of it, and are in the process of laying out a large campus for what will eventually be a weird hybrid selective school to deal with kids with strong talents, and also kids who are attending for other reasons (primarily relatives of other students, and the children of VIPs who need guarding). KOTIS Command is slowly shifting operations on Tare and Kolar to make their Kalrani facilities into one of the new style talent schools, and Pandora is expecting an influx of Kolaren and then Taren Kalrani in the next few weeks.

  They're even talking about it being a 'world school' if the experiments in recreating the aether-making buildings and the transport network work, and thus kids from every settlement might be attending. I'm pleased about the expanded campus because there'll be sporting facilities, and Rye is so looking forward to more options for team sports. I'm also pleased that the draft plans I've seen leave lots of the trees intact.

  Other than once or twice being glimpsed at the school's dock, I hadn't made a public appearance since the wedding pictures were released – I refuse all the invitations to events which are now forwarded to me – so me wandering about was considered likely to cause a high amount of fuss. We decided to go in two groups for shopping, with the boys hoping to stay low-key, and meeting up with Siame for lunch at the fancy café at the Pandora Museum before taking a tour of the exhibits and checking out the Gallery.

  We went first to the big underground shopping complex below Moon Piazza (after a brief stop to look at the statue, on the insistence of Sen). It was reasonably non-busy once we were in the main mall, and we were wearing sunhats and were shielded by our escort (Alay and Maze, Nils, Mori, Zee and Glade) and strolled along window shopping. Alay, Maze and Zee are technically on leave at the moment, but volunteered to be part of the escort (so me, Zee and Alay could talk baby stuff, really).

  While handily blocking casual view of us, Nils, Zee and Maze got recognised themselves (the senior Setari are all fairly well-known by now), and it's really kind of fun to watch the ripple impact of an interface connected world. First a few people paused for double-takes, and then stopped altogether and watched outright while we were peering in a jewellery store window (Lira is very keen to get her earrings) and then a couple of reports appeared on the Setari-watch and Caszandra-watch pages and then there was this snowball effect as more and more people in the shopping complex spotted us, or were contacted by other people. We'd gone into a "young girl's clothes" store and the lone assistant didn't even look up as we came in and then suddenly spun around because someone had obviously told her we were in her store.

  It's pretty hard to shop normally when people start hanging about, watching everything you do. Ys – whose interest in shopping is minimal – put up with it because she could see how much fun Sen found the experience. The crowds disconcert Sen a little, but she's dec
ided it's amusing to peep out from behind our legs and wave at people. And she and Lira love shopping, especially trying on clothes in a way which is just that bit more satisfying than virtual clothing. Fortunately one of the things which had been decided upon was to ask the stores to set their display windows to opaque while we were inside, which saved us from having too many prying eyes hoping to catch glimpses of anyone modelling new outfits. I had to prod Ys to try on anything, of course, but managed to get a good set of clothing choices for all three, and then we passed through a food court and indulged in unhealthy but gaudily coloured snacks before moving on to shoes and then a baby and maternity store before heading off to meet Kaoren and Rye.

  By that time I was feeling pretty tired and was glad we'd booked ahead for one of the café's private rooms. Particularly since it was rather a fancy café, and the privacy gave Kaoren a chance to remind the kids (and, well, me) of some of the niceties of Taren table manners.

  I really have to wonder what my Mum will make of all this, if I manage to get her here. And Jules. I don't think either of them will like this part of living on Muina at all.

  Chapter 21

  Another August

  August 2

  Games

  Siame submitted one of her paintings to an anonymous art competition and won second prize, which has annoyed her extremely so far as I can tell. She's also slowly been resuming her Setari training, attending the talent school at Pandora. Officially she was never dropped from the Setari program, since while Kalrani usually don't get to take a year off to paint, Sight Sight talents are rare enough and touchy enough that the bluesuits decided that she'd be permitted extended recovery time from being half-gutted by the Cruzatch. Kaoren says she's returned because she wants to be in the exploration teams working through the ruins outside the Ddura-protected areas.

  That includes Kalasa, which is slowly being cleaned as well as studied. They're learning a lot, having translated the intact books, and those I visualised for them before I went on leave. They're still having big arguments about whether to completely restore it, or preserve it in its damaged condition. People want to go be tourists there, but it's still too important. One day, probably, and till then they have incredible virtual tours.

  There's a new interface game starting – being released on Tare and Muina at the same time – and maybe Kolar as well, since the interface is slowly spreading there now Tare has relaxed its restrictions on trade. It's called Home and it's based on what is now known of the fall of Muina and the exodus of whole villages through deep-space to find other worlds to live on. Players will take on the roles of junior Lantarens and warriors and have to find a route to a habitable planet and escort hundreds of NPC villagers and explore and settle the planets. Lots of weird deep-space stuff, battles with massives, 'resting' in various spaces accessed on the way, searching for food and supplies, locating planets and checking to see how habitable they are, getting trapped in sprawling zones and having to puzzle a way out.

  Battlestar Galactica without the spaceships, basically, but it sounds really different and fun and event-based and I'm definitely going to play a lot. Unlike the online games I've played, everyone gets to go through the zones, no matter what level they are, and they just get assigned different tasks according to the skills they've built up as the game progresses. I was a bit worried that people would recognise me from my accent, but Nils (who plays lots of online games because he likes battles which don’t have any lives in the balance) told me not to worry, that there's always plenty of people in games pretending to be Setari, or me, or my kids. He said he sometimes pretends to be someone pretending to be a Setari.

  Kaoren says he will play Home with me, and smiled even before I laughed. This is home, and nothing virtual about it.

  Chapter 22

  Another September

  September 17

  Echoes

  This has been a month where the Ena reminded us that it might have faded as a threat, but it's far from gone.

  First came a stickie outbreak on Kolar, one which was unfortunately discovered because a few of the infected reached the 'psychotic break' stage of the stickie lifecycle. It was in what the Kolarens call The Grey – the permanently twilight area close to the northern pole. The Grey is a highly desirable place to live on Kolar, with just enough light to navigate by thanks to the sun dancing around the horizon, and with a comfortable temperature range, edging toward chilly as you approach The Black. [South of The Grey is The Gold and then The Sere. Then it reverses to the southern pole. Kolar is a planet of latitudes.]

  They have more above-ground buildings in The Grey than anywhere else on Kolar, and rather lovely street lighting powered by a kind of fungus which produces a soft radiance it evolved to lure insects. As you head toward The Black it must be like living in glow-worm land. The stickie-infected people apparently ran around smashing all the lights in their building, then spread out into The Grey snuffing the glow-worm fungus leading into The Black and getting luminous gunk on them and leaping out at unsuspecting passers-by. It sounds like it would be funny, but they hurt quite a few people, and mostly died themselves, so definitely not funny.

  The stickie infection was very widespread and Kolar was still mopping up when a batch of new settlers on their way from Tare nearly collided with a massive – a particularly difficult one to avoid, too, like a hungry sea urchin-octopus, all spines and tentacles. The ship – the Isadore, the largest of the passenger transports – took a bad knock, gouged all along its underside and nearly tossed off course when it powered free of the tentacles. Nor could they just race off and escape the massive, needing to keep to the delicate timing through the ebbs and flows of deep-space. It was a slow-moving tentacle monster, but fast enough to follow them through their stop-start journey to Muina.

  When the Isadore came lumbering through the rift gate, too damaged to do more than avoid setting down directly on top of Atanra, I was on my balcony enjoying the Autumn view and the fact that Twelfth has finally had another posting to Muina. I hadn't seen Zan since my wedding, though we've kept up an exchange of emails, and we were bonding over stepping exercises (which the medics recommended I keep up through the pregnancy).

  I was just working my way up to asking Zan her opinion of Shon, who I thought might make a nice match for her, when KOTIS went to full alert. Roake (Lenton), Dess and Sora Nels had been over at Arcadia's Setari house, and came whizzing up to stand protectively around me.

  When the "Massive at Atanra" message came, Zan exchanged a glance with her squad, then they all looked at me, not impossibly large but well past the point where I have to think before bending down or standing up. I'd been dreading a massive attack, since many of the Setari still can't reliably enhance themselves, but there's no way I can risk the strain on my system.

  "Atanra has plenty of weapons, right?" I said to Zan.

  She nodded, attention elsewhere. Because I'm on leave, I hadn't been brought into the forming mission channel, but just then Kaoren opened a private link to me, because he knew I'd need to know what was going on.

  Muina's Setari, scattered all over the planet, were already heading to Mesiath, because there's a reliable and short route from Mesiath to Atanra via the Ena. Eighth Squad was out of the loop, busy on Arenrhon rotation. That left us with all nine Nuran Setari, First-Second, Fourth, Twelfth, Fourteenth and Sixteenth. No Kolarens – they'd been recalled because of the stickie mess.

  First and Fourth had taken down the Umbrella massive, but it had needed so many more squads for the Dohl Array massive. And as information flooded in from Atanra, and Kaoren and Tsur Selkie made their initial evaluations, it was clear that Atanra's defences were not sufficient – particularly when using most of them would destroy the Isadore more quickly than the massive. Mara, Jeh, Ketz and Alay all hurriedly made arrangements with their handily-close relatives, while Zee (frowning rather) came across to take over being my guard.

  Zan spared me a glance and told me to go sit down, then she flew he
r squad off to Pandora's platform. I went inside obediently enough, sending an email to the kids explaining briefly what was going on so they wouldn't have to wonder why some of their teachers had dashed off.

  "It's bad, isn't it?" I said to Zee when she followed me in. A pointless thing to say, really – I could see it was bad, as Kaoren was watching vision from Atanra of the massive slowly shuffling across grassy meadows towards the downed ship. [If I were the goats that live by the rift, I would definitely consider permanent relocation.]

  Zee only gave me a brief nod, and then Ys sent me a channel request. She, Lira and Rye were all in-channel when I joined.

  "Will people die?" Ys asked, with typical bluntness.

  "I don't know, Ys." The passengers of the Isadore were in a state of complete panic, rushing the exits so that the ship's captain had had to open them just to prevent people dying in the crush. "I think it will depend how long it takes the squads to get there." And how much firepower it would take to bring the thing down.

  "Lira wants to help."

  I paused. The question of Lira working as a touchstone has been raised over and over, and particularly after it was known I was pregnant. But Lira has so firmly refused to admit that she can still project, and has so consistently responded with anger and then panic to any discussion of her working as a touchstone, that KOTIS decided to back away from the discussion until she's older.

  Suspecting that this was perhaps more Ys thinking Lira should help, I said: "Are you sure you're ready for that, Lira?"

  "No," Lira said, sounding angry. "I don't want to do it. But I don't want people to die. And I want that more."

  "I'm glad," I said, and then opened a channel to Tsur Selkie, Zan, and Kaoren (a second link), telling them: "Lira wants to help. I think she's ready for it."