Shanna

by Bill Nolan

  A few days ago, they had been given their second required annual statement, and their contracts were now up to 35 zarigs. They talked to some of the other contract workers, and learned that the worst was yet to come. In a few months, Kamci would be 16 (Galactic years, which are about two months longer than Earth years), and then it would be legal for the company to assign her work in the brothels, or as "personal assistant" to one of the executives.

  After a few minutes in the garden, the girls put the bird back into its box, and hurried to work. At the midday meal, Kamci was told to wait on the executive table, because the regular girl was sick. This was considered a better job than the more menial work Kamci usually did, so she wanted to do well. She was hoping to be assigned to it permanently.

  As she was carrying a tray of soup out to serve the manager's table, the son of one of the foremen, a boy about her own age, stuck out his foot and tripped her. Amazingly, Kamci didn't drop the tray. She fell to her knees, banging her left knee painfully, but she held on to the tray of soup bowls. Nevertheless, they slopped a little, and a bit of the soup splashed onto the pants leg of the base manager's wife.

  The woman’s daughter, Suji, yelled, "You stupid wretch! Look what you've done to my mother's expensive slacks. They're ruined, and you'll have to pay for them!"

  Her mother said, "It's OK, Suji. It's just a few drops. What happened, girl?"

  Kamci answered, "I don't know, ma'am. I tripped on something. I am so sorry. Do you want me to come by later and take the slacks to be cleaned?"

  "Don't worry about it. Just be more careful."

  Kamci got up as quickly as she could and hurried back into the kitchen for some fresh soup.

  That evening, Kamci, Letha, and Laurni once again took the bird into the garden. They could tell it was getting stronger, and they thought it would be able to fly soon. Suji was also walking in the garden, and as they passed her she said, "Oh, what a cute bird. Whose is it?"

  Kamci said, "It was hurt. I've been taking care of it. I think it'll be able to fly soon."

  "It looks pretty strong now," Suji replied. "What kind of bird is it? Does it bite?"

  "I don't know the names of the kinds," Kamci answered. "It doesn't bite. At first it was scared, but now it’s used to us."

  "Can I hold it?" Suji said. Kamci handed her the bird, and she took it carefully, cupping it in both hands like she had seen Kamci doing. "You know, Kamci, you should be more careful when you're waiting table for us. My mother let you off too easily. I think you should have been punished. Don't you think so?"

  "I said I was sorry," Kamci replied. "Besides, missus said I couldn't wait table anymore."

  "Yes, my mother spoke to her. I didn't think it was enough. You know, my father is a cousin of the Empress, and you insulted our entire family with your clumsiness. How do you like it when I get clumsy?" As Suji said that, she casually wrung the bird's neck, and then dropped it at Kamci's feet.

  Kamci's mind just shut off. All she could see was the poor bird on the ground. She attacked. She managed to slap Suji twice, and then grabbed her hair. In a moment, the two of them were rolling on the ground, punching and scratching. A couple of men nearby ran over and dragged Kamci off. Suji jumped up yelling, "Hold her. She attacked me."

  A guardsman arrived a moment later. Suji said, "Arrest her, she attacked me."

  The guardsman looked at Kamci. "Is that true? Did you attack her?"

  Kamci was sobbing. She answered, "Suji killed my bird. She just killed it for no reason."

  "Well, you'll have to come along with me. There'll have to be an investigation. You will have to see the manager in the morning."

  The little mining base only had one holding cell. Kamci was locked in and left for morning.

  The base manager had a dilemma. He wanted to punish the girl for attacking his daughter, but he couldn't decide the case because it involved a member of his family. The mining base was so small there was nobody else with enough rank to decide it. His assistant said, "Just wait for the next freighter to come by and have the ship's captain decide it. He won't have the nerve to go against a base manager, and it'll look OK in the records."

  It was decided, and Kamci was told she would be locked up awaiting the arrival of the next ship to happen by.

  * * * * * * *

  Jeth had a problem. His old power tiller had thrown a rod, and even if it could be fixed, he didn't really have the money for parts. He was pretty handy with tools, and he had spent the morning taking the old engine apart to find out what was wrong. Now he was sitting on a bench, just staring at the tiller.

  Cathy took him by surprise. She could be so quiet he swore she could walk up on a cat. "What's wrong, Jethro?"

  "The engine's broke. I don't have the parts to fix it. I can't plant without tilling first."

  Jeth and Cathy lived in an old shack just outside of Creesburg, Mississippi. The shack was on ten acres of good bottomland, and the deal with Mr. Adams was that he got half the crop in exchange for letting them work the place and providing seed. They also got the use of the old shack to live in. Even growing vegetables, they didn't make much. Jeth knew a lot of folks were smarter than him, but he was a hard worker, and Cathy helped as much as she could.

  They'd been living on the place for three years, ever since they'd been married. Jeth was still amazed by that. Cathy was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, and he had no idea why she'd married him. He knew she could have done a lot better. He'd promised himself the day they got married that he wouldn't let her down.

  Cathy knew she was near tears. It just wasn't fair. Jethro worked so hard. It just wasn't fair. No matter how hard he tried, something always seemed to go wrong. He just had no luck. She didn't want to cry in front of him, because she knew he'd think it was because he let her down, but that wasn't it. She pasted on a big smile, and said, "Well, you'll think of something. You always do. I'm gonna go and gather the eggs."

  After Cathy left, Jeth sat for a couple of minutes, staring at the busted tiller. Then he got up, picked up a garden fork, and headed out to dig up his field. It was a full moon that night, so he worked until ten. He had about 1/4 acre done. Well, he thought, I'll plant this in the morning and then start on the next chunk.

  * * * * * *

  Fred and Betty Fontaine were living the American dream. He was Vice-President of a medium sized cell phone company named Western Cellular Dynamics. Besides a very nice income, his job included a company car, lots of travel, and some very lucrative stock options. Betty owned her own insurance agency, and specialized in auto insurance. It was a small agency, and she had only two employees, but it was growing.

  Their two children, both girls, were doing well in school, and seemed happy, and their friends seemed like nice kids. Jeanna was in 8th grade, while her older sister, Paula, was a sophomore in high school.

  Fred worked so hard he had no real hobbies, but Betty loved woodworking, and had a well-equipped shop in the basement. Her first love was woodturning, and she was getting quite a reputation in local circles. She specialized in small, but very intricate pieces, in various exotic woods.

  This month, however, their “hobby” was getting the financing arranged for their new home. They just didn’t understand why it was such a hassle. Fred’s Mercedes had cost over $50,000, and they had arranged the financing for that with a 20-minute visit to their credit union. Their pre-approval was waiting on their answering machine when they got home. That evening, they went to the dealer, picked out their car, and drove it home. Sure, the mortgage was bigger, but they were putting down 1/3, and the house securing the loan didn’t have a motor and wheels. They weren’t going to drive it away. It just made no sense.

  Now, if they could just get their friends to quit making fun of their names – Fred and Betty, do Wilma and Barney know? – life would be pretty good.

  * * * * * *

  Shotana read the report from the General who was her only remaining real friend. It wasn’t promising. Portions of her own f
amily had turned against her, and she knew she must act soon. Her only child was in danger. She had protected her daughter thus far, but she knew that if she gave her enemies enough tries, sooner or later they would succeed.

  Pacing in her chamber, she thought back to a time, many years before, when she’d had another friend. He had saved her twice back then. First he had saved her life from the men sent to kill her, and then he had saved her again by forcing her to really see herself. Her spirit had been locked away, and he had freed it. She had not seen him in so very long, and she wasn’t sure how he would welcome her, but she knew, deep in her belly, that if there was a solution, he would be the one to find it. No, she thought, that’s not right. He would create it. He wasn’t the sort of man to use a solution someone else had left lying about. True, his solutions tended to be a bit direct, but she sensed that the time for subtlety was past. It was time to seek him out. It was time to find out if he would consent to be her friend again.

  * * * * * * *

  Robert wasn’t sure how he knew things. He didn’t have visions, exactly, and he didn’t hear voices, but sometimes he just knew things. It was like remembering things that had never happened to him. He didn’t know where the memories came from, but he had learned to trust them, just as he had learned to trust himself.

  He had been hiding out for more than 30 years, living quietly with a woman who was more than his wife. He thought of himself as a spy of sorts, living under cover, but he was wrong. He was a consummate warrior in a Universe that doesn’t breed all that many. What he knew now wasn’t just a series of facts. It was more than that. It was that feeling you sometimes get on the back of your neck, when change, or trouble, or both are crashing toward you.

  He was sensing small events. They might seem very important to the people involved, but they were really nothing much in a universe so huge. And yet, he knew that the effects of these events would not be small. Some things start as tiny ripples, but as they spread, they join with other tiny ripples, and they grow, as ripples sometimes will. It is the essence of chaos that tiny things may affect great events, and our particular universe is, perhaps, more chaotic than most.

  These ripples had started with a girl named Tovey. He didn’t know her. He had never heard of her, but somehow he knew her name. The ripples had spread first to a woman named Kysandra Nutima, who is sometimes called the Yellow Demon, although not to her face. She was on her way to Earth, to see him. He knew that, but he didn’t know how he knew or even why she was coming. Kysandra was also a warrior, and had once been his friend. He didn’t know if she was still a friend, or maybe now something else.

  He closed his eyes. Sometimes, and he couldn’t predict exactly when, he could look with closed eyes and see the very weave that made up the Universe. Sometimes, not too often, he could see the individual threads of people and events that formed the weave. A couple of times, times of great need, he had even felt like he could actually reach into the weave, and rearrange the threads. But not today. Today he could vaguely remember events that had happened to other people, and today he could sense the approach of a woman who had once been his friend. Soon, he knew, she would be his friend again, or one of them would be dead.

  “Well, Kysandra,” he said out loud, “Which is it going to be?”

  New Beginnings

  Jane Masters was watching a rerun of Gilligan’s Island when Shanna told her someone was about to be at the door. “I know her, Jane. Be very careful. I don’t know why she is here, but you cannot handle her.” The doorbell rang, and the TV show would be forever connected to it in her mind. It was kind of like when Kennedy was shot. Everyone who was alive and conscious remembers where she was and what she was doing when Kennedy was shot. Some events can change your world forever, in the blink of an eye. It may happen with a gunshot, or a birth, or a death. This time it was a doorbell.

  There was a woman at the door. She looked to be maybe in her thirties, but, at second glance, she could have been 25 or 45 as easily as 35. She had that timeless look a few women are blessed with, and most women envy. She was short, even shorter than Jane — 5’1” at most — and quite solidly built, but looked fit, not fat. Her hair was also short, and too dark to be really blonde. Her skin was light, with a few freckles. She was wearing a dark green, one-piece jumpsuit sort of garment, tight, brown, ankle-high boots, and dark glasses that wrapped around. There was an emblem above the left breast of her jumpsuit. It looked almost like a snarling cat.

  “I’m an old friend of your husband’s. You must be Jane. May I come inside?”

  Her voice held the hint of an accent, but it was hard to pin down. Maybe Australian or South African. “I’m sorry. My husband isn’t here. I don’t think we’ve met.”

  “No, we haven’t. I knew Robert before the two of you were joined, and it is an honor to meet you.” There was something in the way she said, “honor,” like she really meant it — like you would say it to the President or somebody. “It’s hot out here in the sun. Please, may I come in?”

  Jane stepped back from the doorway, and the woman came inside. Jane noticed the way she walked, like a dancer or gymnast. As she came through the door, she took off the dark glasses, and Jane saw her eyes scan the room in a series of darting glances. They were bright amber. Jane had never met anyone with yellow eyes before.

  “How do you know Bob? Were you friends in college?”

  “No, he was older than me. Let’s see — about 12 years older. He called me ‘little sis’. By the way, I’m Ky. When will Robert be back?”

  “He just went up to the store for something. Is he expecting you?”

  “No. No, he’s not. I’m sure he’ll be really surprised to see me. I wouldn’t have come if it weren’t so important. You see, years ago, he promised someone he would help her if she ever needed it. She contacted us to reach Robert. That’s why I’m here, to let him know.”

  Kysandra had deliberately waited for Robert to leave. She wanted to be inside when she surprised him, because she didn’t know how he would react. She was trying very hard not to forget who he was, and what he could do. She knew that many considered her to be one of the most dangerous beings in the Galaxy, but she wasn't feeling very dangerous right now.

  A few minutes later, Jane heard Bob’s voice from the bedroom doorway behind them, quiet, like it always was when he was most serious. “Don’t turn around, Kysandra. I mean it.”

  Ky froze. Death was suddenly in the room. She could hear him speaking in Robert’s quiet voice. She’d heard that particular voice before, but never directed at her.

  Jane said, “How did you get into the bedroom? I didn’t hear you come in, Bob. Anyway, I’m glad you’re back. Ky said you were old friends.”

  “Yes, I think you could say that. It’s been a long time, Kysandra Nutima. What brings you here?” It was a casual sounding question, but something in his voice made it clear to both women that he was very serious.

  Kysandra spoke without moving anything but her mouth. “I’m sorry, Robert. I don’t mean to intrude, but there is a woman, Melia, and you promised to help her if she ever needed it. She contacted us through the Comm code you gave her, and asked us to give you a message. That’s why I’m here. Please don’t be too angry with me.”

  Jane dropped into her innocent persona. “Who are these people, Bob? Why haven’t I ever heard of them?”

  “Like Kysandra said, she and Melia are old friends of mine. I knew them before I married you. I'm afraid there are a couple of other things I've kept from you. It’s time we had a little talk. Let’s all go into the kitchen and get comfortable. Be careful, Ky.”

  Kysandra knew he wasn’t warning her to avoid tripping, not that she ever did.

  When they were settled in the kitchen, Robert winked at Jane when Kysandra’s head was turned, and then said, “Why don’t I start off? Jane, when I told you about my life before we met, I skipped a couple of things. I spent four years, more or less, in space, with my people. They’re not Earth people. D
o you understand what I’m saying?”

  Jane sat silently for almost a minute, getting into her out-of-the-loop persona. “I feel like that girl in the whale movie. You’re saying you aren’t from Earth.”

  “Not exactly. I was born here. I’m just descended from people who weren’t, and so are you. Oh, and by the way, I don’t mind showing you around my spaceship, if you want to see it.”

  Jane fell silent again, and then said, “I shouldn’t believe a word of this, but I feel like I've always known it. I’ve always felt like I didn’t quite belong. That’s what attracted me to you. You didn’t quite fit either, and you have always seemed like you were... you know, for years, I thought you were a spy. I really would like to see your spaceship.” She winked back.

  “I am kind of a spy, I guess. I mean, I don’t consider myself a citizen of any country on this planet, and I’ve been living here secretly. That’s why I never got a passport. I couldn’t declare myself a citizen. That’s why I never voted.”

  Ky finally spoke. “Robert Allen, it's time for Achilles to come home. Everyone is sorry about what happened. They knew you were right five minutes after you were gone, and then right after that they found your note. You had to know that if you just sat in Shanna for a few minutes everything would get straightened out. They would have apologized. Why did you leave? That’s the only thing I’ve never understood. It’s not like you to run away. I would have bet my life that nothing in the Universe could make you run away. I would still take that bet.”

  “I had to leave, Ky. They banished me. The vote was unanimous. I thought I knew them. I thought many of them were my friends. Friends don't vote to banish you without even asking to hear your side. If they had wanted to apologize, they could have come here. Nobody ever did, not until now.”