by Sulin Young
They strode out of the dome in single file with Lorn leading the way, marching across the deck. When they reached the great revolving door that led down, they stepped in, and descended into the hub of the ship.
It was alive. Students filled every corner, aisle, nook and cranny as they chattered, shouted, and screamed excitedly about the ice-phoenixes. Some of them were even crying and shaking, while others were on their knees, praying. Terrana looked at the praying students in surprise — it had never occurred to her that aliens from other worlds had religions. She made a mental note to ask Baneyon about it later.
They hopped over a few Sneleks, snail-like creatures from Sector Eleven who communicated via telepathy and left a trail of slime wherever they went, and met a wiry, Lizonian boy who was selling pictures. Lizonians were reptilian in appearance and hailed from Sector Five from a planet called, funnily enough, Lizonia.
“Ithe phoenikth pikths - I haf them! Thee hundedth kedits o yo entia yia’s poketh mani! Kum and get them!”
Lorn halted in front of him, nearly causing Mikin and Terrana to collide with each other. “Bit pricey, Mawuk!” he said.
Mawuk had the largest eyes that Terrana had ever seen. They were like dark glass set in a scaled head. He was tall, and dark brown scales tinged with white covered his entire body.
“Histowi has no pice,” replied Mawuk, haughtily. “And I am thee only one with pikths.” His eyes changed. A white circle appeared in the centre of each eye and, as Terrana watched, the circles widened, like a camera lens trying to focus.
“Let’s see them then,” said Lorn.
Mawuk nodded and became very still. From his eyes, images appeared. He muttered something and the images were projected along the wall, flashing by as he flipped through them. Lorn whistled.
“Very clear, as if they were taken from the kitchen’s storage area. You know — the area which is supposed to be off limits to students?”
Mawuk waivered and the images vanished from the wall. He suddenly looked nervous.
“You do realise that students caught in the kitchen face expulsion from Minda Yerra because there’s a high chance you’ve contaminated our food source?”
“I … I wasn’t thea!” wailed Mawuk. “I swea — I tuk them fom the thed dek!”
“Don’t believe you, Mawuk,” said Lorn lightly. The corner of his mouth lifted slightly. “Sorry, but I’ll have to report you to the captain … unless you print the fifth, tenth, and eleventh pictures for me, and, you tell me who sent you to the kitchen.”
Mawuk’s face fell.
“I’ll haf them fo you at skool. And ith was Bogath who sent me … he wanted goot stuf.”
“Ahhh, Bogath huh?” Lorn’s face turned dark. “He never learns. Looks like I’m going to have to pay him a visit.”
He turned and walked away, leaving the other two to follow after him. “What did you mean by, he never learns?” said Terrana, as she hopped, spun, and ducked under the other students rushing by. She could barely keep up with Lorn as he pressed on through the crowd.
“A student nearly died last year because Bogath sent a Snelek to steal some food from the kitchen,” said Lorn abruptly. “Its slime came into contact with prepared food and the students who ate them fell ill. Sneleks’ slime is extremely poisonous to Lipporians, and a Lipporian girl almost paid the price with her life.”
As they passed the other students, Terrana began to notice more of their traits and abilities, and as a human being from Earth, she suddenly felt small and insignificant. For instance, Donkinongans were bug-eyed, solemn little people who could fly, the Magarkans were cat-like and could jump really high, the Lipperians could sprout tentacles from their backs, and she had already seen what the Lizonian boy could do.
Even though they were so different, Terrana referred to everyone as people. As it turned out, it was an acceptable word in this part of the universe, but with a slight difference in meaning. People didn’t just mean humans or humanoids; it meant living inhabitants of the UWIB.
Now and again, Lorn stopped to chat with a group of students. He slipped in a seemingly innocent question — always the same question. “Did any of the ice-phoenixes enter your cabin?” Each time he was answered with peals of laughter. “Always the joker, you are!” they replied.
It didn’t take much for Terrana to realise that everyone on the ship associated the ice-phoenix with death, and the notion that one had come aboard was just ridiculous. Eventually, they came to a door displaying the message, ‘By invitation only.’
Lorn rapped three times. A couple of seconds later, they heard a soft, feminine voice call out, “Who is it?”
“It’s Lorn.”
The door slid open immediately and out stepped the most beautiful girl Terrana had ever seen. She was tall and slim, with pointed ears and glistening white hair. Her sunny blue eyes were long and slanted and she had full pink lips. When she smiled, Terrana saw perfectly straight teeth. Next to her, Terrana felt she had been living in a dumpster all her life, with her short hair and scarred face. The girl was around Lorn’s age and seemed happy to see him.
“Lorn! Why didn’t you come earlier? I missed you!” She pulled him into a tight embrace before kissing him on both cheeks. When she finally pulled away, she spotted Terrana and Mikin, and her forehead crinkled. “Who are they?”
Lorn glanced at them quickly before making the introductions. “Kalindra, this is Terrana and Mikin. We are sharing a cabin.”
“Oh,” said Kalindra, unable to hide her surprise. She stared pointedly at Terrana. “Where are you from?”
“Pophusia,” replied Terrana.
“Oh. You are rather sunburned, so I thought you might be from Migos. Are you an immigrant?”
Terrana nodded. That much was true.
“I’m from Nipponia,” said Mikin, putting out a hopeful hand.
Kalindra smiled at him. “I didn’t ask you.”
Mikin’s face fell and he looked down at the floor in embarrassment. Kalindra returned her attention to Lorn.
“Weren’t the ice-phoenixes the most amazing thing ever?” she gushed. Her hand was on his shoulder, no doubt pressuring him to walk into her cabin and abandon the other two. “Imagine, we’ll go down in history as the only people to have seen them so close and survived to tell the tale!”
Her hand must have been pretty convincing because Lorn took two steps and was in her cabin. The door shut immediately, leaving a baffled Terrana and Mikin standing in the corridor.
Terrana glanced at Mikin. “You think she locked us out deliberately?”
Mikin nodded miserably. “She didn’t look too happy to see us.”
“Yes, but Lorn wouldn’t have left us, would he?” Her left eye twitched. It did that sometimes when she was annoyed. When Mikin didn’t say anything, she asked again. “Would he?” No answer. She turned towards the door and started banging it.
“Oi, Lorn! Let us in! Oi!”
She kept banging for the next half minute until the door opened and an older, taller girl stepped out. She wasn’t Kalindra, and she wasn’t from Daiphus either. She was Pophusian, with silver hair like Baneyon. And pretty, too, had it not been for the angry scowl on her face.
“What do you want?” she snapped.
“We came with Lorn but got locked out accidentally,” answered Terrana, with a bright smile. “Thanks for opening it.” She moved to step in, but the girl pushed her back so violently that Terrana ended up colliding into the wall behind her. She winced as her shoulder took the brunt of the impact.
The girl’s face suddenly loomed in front of hers. “Kalindra told me there was a dirty immigrant outside. She must have meant you. Why don’t you crawl back to your hole and stay there?”
“Terrana! Leave her alone!” cried Mikin, rushing over to help.
The girl looked down at him as he tried to pull Terrana away. “Awww, how cute! A little elephant trying to save a smelly immigrant. No wonder they’re so dumb — they try to save anything these days!”
&nb
sp; The other students were starting to take notice and a few had gathered at each end of the corridor, eager to see what would follow. The girl pressed her face close to Terrana’s. “My name is Misa and you best remember it, Migos immigrant. I don’t want to see your dirty face around this part of the ship ever again!”
Terrana’s eyes hardened, but the rest of her face remained placid. “Nipponians are just adorable,” she said in the sweetest voice she could muster. “Their tolerance for testosterone-pumped girls with lousy brains for geography is admirable. I, personally, can’t stand stupid people.”
Misa hissed and stepped back, her expression livid. Terrana breathed an inner sigh of relief. Her adversary’s face had been too close.
“You just called me stupid!” Misa snarled. “You, a Migos immigrant!”
“See? There you go again being stupid,” said Terrana, drawing herself to her full height. “I’m not a Migos immigrant. I’m a Fijian immigrant — big difference.”
“Fijian? What’s that? Some kind of chocolate?”
“No, stupid. Try Sector Thirteen.” She knew she was asking for trouble, and yet she couldn’t help herself. Some part of her wanted to know just how far she could push other people’s buttons in this new world, and what reactions to expect. She soon found out.
“Fijian? Sector Thirteen? You dare mock me?” Misa shoved Terrana against the wall and drove her fist into the younger girl’s stomach. Terrana grunted in pain and doubled over.
“Terrana!” cried Mikin. He tried to push Misa out of the way but she sent him flying across the floor. The Pophusian was really strong. Not yet done with Terrana, Misa pushed her against the wall again, ready to strike. This time, her fist came towards Terrana’s face. Terrana moved quickly, and the fist struck the hard wall.
“Urgh!” cried Misa, clutching her right hand in pain.
“You got that right, lewa,” said Terrana, from behind. Lewa simply meant girl in Fijian. Misa spun around, kicking out reflexively. But this time Terrana was ready and she blocked Misa’s right leg with a sweep of her left hand. She then grabbed Misa’s injured hand, pulling her forwards. As Misa stumbled towards her, Terrana ducked and then straightened at the right moment. Her shoulder sank into Misa’s stomach and Terrana pushed up with her legs. The girl flipped right over Terrana’s shoulder and landed on the floor.
Silence. A pin could have dropped and everyone would have heard it. All eyes were on the young, feral-like girl standing over her fallen opponent, unable to believe she had just defeated a much stronger, taller person.
Even Terrana was surprised at how easy it had been to throw the girl, but years of swimming, climbing trees, lugging coconuts, and digging for cassava back home had given her incredible strength and endurance.
“You should have just let us in,” she said, looking down at the girl. “Then we could have avoided all this —”
The door slid open suddenly and something came flying out. It landed heavily on Misa, and Terrana stared open-mouthed as Lorn walked out of the cabin, leaving the door open. His expression was unreadable.
Terrana turned back to look at the thing that had landed on Misa and her eyes widened in surprise as a dark boy climbed to his feet. He glared at Lorn and hissed, “You will pay for this!”
“Believe me, Bogath, I already have,” said Lorn. “This is the last time I’m going to warn you. Stay out of the kitchen.”
Bogath snarled but he did not attack Lorn. Instead, he turned and left, heading down the corridor. The other students scrambled out of his way. It was only then that Lorn noticed the girl lying on the floor. He couldn’t have looked more surprised.
“Misa?” he said out loud. He looked at Terrana. “What happened?”
“She wouldn’t let us in,” said Terrana quickly. “She attacked and I … well, I threw her on the floor.”
“Didn’t I tell the both of you to wait outside?” He was frowning.
“Eh?” Terrana scowled. “No you didn’t! You just disappeared into the cabin and left us outside. Right, Mikin?”
Mikin nodded quickly. Lorn sighed in exasperation. “Didn’t either of you see my hand?”
“No, it was lost somewhere on Kalindra!” snapped Terrana.
“The other one!”
“You were scratching your back with it,” said Mikin timidly.
“I was signalling the both of you not to follow! Don’t you understand hand signals?”
“Who taught you to signal? A dead cockroach? Cos that’s what it looked like from behind!” retorted Terrana.
“Er, guys? Maybe this isn’t the best time to argue,” said Mikin nervously. “Everyone’s staring.”
Lorn released a frustrated sigh and went over to Misa. Then, very gently, he lifted her off the floor and carried her back into the cabin. When he reappeared, he grabbed Terrana’s hand.
“Let’s get out of here,” he muttered. He led them quickly through the crowd, up the decks and out the revolving door. They were crossing the main deck when two students jumped out in front of them.
“Lorn!” Terrana watched as a young girl with a lavender complexion hurled herself at Lorn. He released Terrana’s hand to catch her, staggering backwards under her weight.
“Umph! Bindal, you need to stop doing this! You’re getting heavier!” Lorn swung the girl around before lowering her to the ground.
“How mean! I’m still the same size!” The girl had large eyes with impossibly long eyelashes. She had two antennae on her head, and vibrant purple hair pulled back into a ponytail. She looked about ten years old and wore a pretty, colourful frock.
“Lorn was never one for manners, Bindal. You should know that by now,” said the boy next to her. He may have been a boy as far as age was concerned, but Terrana and Mikin had never seen anyone like him. In short, he was a monster! He was at least four times broader than Lorn and three heads taller. He was also completely covered in dark fur and had two tiny horns sprouting from his head. His hands were like spades, with rough callused fingers, and his feet resembled a horse’s hooves. It was difficult to make out any facial expressions under all that fur.
“As usual you understand me well, Bagruth,” said Lorn, smiling.
“Who’re your friends?” asked Bindal, staring at Terrana and Mikin curiously.
“Bindal, Bagruth … meet Terrana and Mikin. Terrana’s from Sector Thirteen and Mikin’s from Nipponia.”
“Hi.” Terrana waved her hand, plastering a stupid smile on her face.
“Sector Thirteen?” Bindal looked incredulous. “I thought it was just a rumour!”
Terrana’s hand fell and she threw Mikin a glum look. He could understand since he was feeling rather bummed out that no one had noticed him. Also, he knew Terrana felt like she was the gossip subject of the day.
“Word gets around fast,” said Lorn. He grabbed Terrana’s hand, which didn’t go unnoticed by Bindal and Bagruth, and pulled her towards the stairs leading to the upper deck.
“Hey, where’re you going?” Bindal called out.
“The forecastle,” replied Lorn, climbing up the stairs. “Care to join us?”
“You’re kidding, right? Only blue coin holders are allowed up there.”
12
Olden Kartath
“You weren’t kidding!” gasped Bindal, wandering around the cabin in amazement. “You even have your own snack bar!”
“Games!” shouted Bagruth happily from the other side of the room. “Unlimited channels and access to Clusteria’s Top Five! This is the supernova!”
“And you had this all to yourself?” Bindal stared at Terrana with large, round eyes.
“Sorta.” Terrana shrugged her shoulders. She felt awkward, now knowing that she was the only student on board with a blue coin, travelling first class.
“No wonder Lorn held onto you tightly.” A mischievous smile played on Bindal’s mouth.
Terrana didn’t know how to respond to that. To think that Lorn was with her only so he could travel in comfort hurt
her feelings, and yet she couldn’t fathom any other reason; she didn’t dare to believe he really liked her.
“Don’t listen to her, Terrana,” said Bagruth, walking up to them. “Lorn is a good person. He doesn’t hang out with people he doesn’t like, blue coin or not.”
Terrana gave him a small smile.
“Miss Ondur …”
“Yes, Kazu?”
“We’ll be passing through the gate of Olden Kartath in one hour. You should be in bed or sitting down by then.”
“Ok. Thank you, Kazu.”
“Breakfast will be served in a few hours. Shall I notify the kitchen to cater for five?”
Five. Kazu had included Bindal and Bagruth. Terrana turned to the newcomers.
“Do you guys wanna have —”
“Yes!”
“Err … breakfast for five then, Kazu. Thank you.”
“You are welcome, Miss Ondur. Please don’t forget, you must all be lying down or sitting before we pass through the gate.”
Bindal grabbed Terrana’s hand and squeezed it tightly. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” she gushed. She looked so happy and bubbly that Terrana couldn’t help but like her. She looked around, noticing that Lorn was missing.
“If you’re looking for Lorn, he’s in the shower,” said Bindal, flashing a cheeky grin. Terrana turned beetroot red.
“I wasn’t, that is, I wasn’t looking —”
“I was just teasing.” Bindal’s grin grew wider. “Gosh, you’re a shy one, aren’t you?”
“Why do we have to be in bed within the hour?” Terrana quickly changed the subject.
“Wow, you really are from Sector Thirteen. If Lorn hadn’t told us, I wouldn’t have believed it. Let’s sit down first and I’ll tell you.”
The four of them headed to the pods by the window. Since she, Mikin, and Lorn had already claimed theirs, Bindal and Bagruth pulled down two more from the ceiling. As soon as they settled in, Bindal explained.
“The inhabitants of Olden Kartath are ancient and powerful. They invade the minds of those passing through their world and inflict them with terrible hallucinations. Seeing these hallucinations can make you go mad. Some people are even known to have died from them.”