“They’d continue to think they were safe because they don’t want to believe that life is dangerous. They were coddled on their homeworlds,” Gabe said, laughing.
Maybe he’d had too much drink. Holly couldn’t tell, but the conversation wasn’t heading in a direction that would help to soothe the hurt any of them were feeling. Holly reached her hand across the tiny gap between her leg and Odeon’s, and gave it squeeze. His vibrant eyes connected with her gaze. She hoped he knew the silent request in her face.
“Tyro, what do you think of the brined marang and umeo?” Odeon asked.
Gabe and Meg’s attention both snapped to Holly and Odeon, seated across from them. They knew immediately that the conversation was being steered away from the argument.
Tyro answered, and Holly leaned back in her seat. She was full. She glanced down at her niece who had been sitting next to her. Lucy had eaten very little.
“You doing OK, kiddo?” Holly asked.
Lucy shrugged. “Get my friend back and maybe then I’ll be OK.”
“So that’s a no?”
“Yes, that is definitely a no.”
Holly wrapped her arm around Lucy’s shoulders and pulled her close into her side. “I’m going to find her.” She wanted to promise. But Holly was too aware of how promises failed and she didn’t want to do that to her niece.
TWENTY-FIVE
IT was the first morning in several days that the cloud cover parted and sunlight glinted through the spire-tops. The light warmed the air and burned off the water that lingered across the city in puddles and in rivulets running down the jade covered towers.
Holly watched as Darius put the finishing touches on the mini-airship that would sweep the city’s communications, suck them up and transmit it back to the Bird’s Nest. She’d seen it being built and knew that it had a metal skeleton with cells filled with helium. But for now, it was already covered with a lightweight waterproof fabric that didn’t weigh it down. Hanging off the bottom part of the airship was the radio control and the mechanisms to intercept and then broadcast signal down to Darius. Housed in the complex electrical area there was also a camera, in case Darius needed to see to steer it. There were propellers around the body to propel and rudders on the back to steer it.
“Now, this baby is going mostly maintain its height, but it will continue to be moved back and forth, in a specific course. I’ll control it down in the Bird’s Nest and the communications will be beamed to us.” It was a very small rigid airship. Darius finished filling it with helium from a small tank he’d brought to the platform. It was a light color that absorbed energy from the sunlight. He maintained that it would be so high as to be out of range of visibility. And Holly trusted him.
To launch it, they’d chosen a spot on the edge of the city that saw very little traffic due to its location on the fringe of the Yellow Jade District. The Spireway platform was empty of people except for Holly, Darius, and Odeon. As Darius finished connecting wires and the engine started up, Odeon watched for any intrusions from suspicious people. He leaned on his Ousaba club, which was almost as tall as him and his gaze constantly swept the area.
“Thank Ixion the weather finally cleared. I was beginning to think the monsoon season would last for months,” Darius said.
“How soon will we begin having info?” Holly asked.
“As soon as it’s up in air,” Darius said, rising. He used a handheld control device to steer it up and off the platform.
Holly half-expected it to plummet to the ground once it left the safety of the Spireway platform. Instead it kept rising. Darius let out a whoop and Holly couldn’t help but smile, feeling a bit of that elation herself. The little dirigible kept rising and rising, moving into a channel over the street to avoid crashing into a tower.
“I have to get it above the tallest spire before it’s out of sight. The v-screen monitors are back in the Nest and I won’t be able to steer it around the buildings.”
Above the city, Holly could just make out the jagged, snow-covered tops of the eastern range of border mountains that delineated the edge of the Sliver. The Ridge of the World. No one ever went east of them. They were a thick band of an unscalable range that extended for hundreds of miles before reaching the volcanically active region of Kota. The far edge of the mountains shielded most of the Sliver from the ash and pollutants that spewed out into the atmosphere from the few remaining active volcanoes. To the west the plains of the Sliver extended to the Lucid Ocean, the vast body of water that separated the main continent and the volcanically active other side of the moon.
“Alright Drake, I’ve got the FAA Jackson in her course, far above the city and safe in her programmed flight path. Let’s head back and I’ll start the search filters going on the communications.”
Odeon made a scoffing sound as he straightened up from leaning on the Ousaba.
Holly looked at her Druiviin friend. “What?”
“He doesn’t like the name I gave it,” Darius said, laughing and heading for the Spireway to ride back to the Ice Jade district. He looked one last time in the direction the airship had disappeared in.
“The FAA. What’s it stand for.”
“Fucking Awesome Airship.”
“FFA Jackson.”
“Right. It bears my name. Because I created it.”
***
A short time later they were back at the Bird’s Nest, passing through the bar area where Torden was slicing garnishes for breakfast drinks. Charly would be hosting a brunch of sorts and that required, obviously, the sort of drink that was acceptable to partake of before noon.
Charly appeared in the stairway up to the Nest as Holly and the others approached. “Hey guys,” Charly said, then called out to Torden, “Did you hear back from the caterer? They should be hear already. I’ve got seventy-five people showing up soon.”
Holly exchanged a look with Darius and then hurried up the stairs with Darius and Odeon right behind her.
Shiro was already there, sitting in an arm chair, his bowler and cane on the coffee table as he thumbed through an old book. “Shiro. Reading a book? Is this a comedy?”
He lifted his dark brown gaze to Holly’s face. “Ms. Drake, always refreshing to see you. Good day. Odeon, Darius, hello.”
Shiro seemed more subdued than usual, choosing to ignore her teasing comment. Her fingers itched to check the title the book, but he closed it and tucked it beside his leg.
“Thanks for getting here, Shiro,” Holly said. “We just launched the mini-airship. Darius should be getting data that he can sort through to find out where they’re holding Charm.”
“Wonderful. It was no interruption. Essentially I just wait at my condo in a compartment until I’m needed and then I come here.”
Holly stared at him, then went to the kasé machine and began a brew. “Anyone else?” Yet another strange thing, Shiro hadn’t already made something to drink.
“I’ll have a sip of something, Ms. Drake, please. If you don’t mind?”
“Odeon? Darius?”
Darius was working intently at his station, clattering through boxes of odds and ends, and then sitting down and touching screens as he filtered through the information.
“What? Oh yeah, sure, Drake,” he managed to say and then fixed his attention back on the screens. “Sorry, gotta get this shit going.”
“No problem.” She pulled the long, dried yellowish pods out of an airtight container and dropped them into the grinder. It churned until they were a coarse powder. She poured the pale powder into the filter, and turned the machine on. The reservoir of water began to heat. Holly turned and leaned against the table. Odeon had filled up his regular spot, with his feet up on the coffee table. Charly was still down in the bar area barking orders at the help and, it sounded like, reaming the caterer on her communicator, and Shiro was thumbing through his book again.
Holly bit her lip so that she didn’t start pestering Darius with questions about the information. Is there any inf
ormation yet? Have you found Charm yet? It would be an unnecessary burden on him.
So she found something else to bug him about.
“The big tap, Darius? The hub? Are we ready to move on that yet?” Holly asked, from her position against the table. Behind her the odor of the brewing drink began to permeate the room. Shiro looked up as though he’d just caught the smell. His eyes brightened and whatever turmoil he’d been feeling seemed to flee.
“Yes. Let’s get moving on that,” Odeon said, suddenly animated. He rose and began to pace at the window overlooking the bar. “Holly is right. The situation gets worse the longer we wait on it.”
Darius paused in what he was doing, with the headphone cup pressed up against his ear.
“I’ve got this going. The filters are turned on. It could be hours or, sorry, days before the program finds anything.” He put the headphones down and stood up. “As for the big tap. I’ve got the parts mostly situated. The one problem I’m waiting on is the biggest piece of the wiretap. Which is, quite literally, a massive wiretap. Beatrice didn’t have one. There are two parts to it. The cable itself and thermo. . .” He paused, seeing the look on Holly’s face. “You guys don’t get it. But the point is, we’re waiting for the parts.”
Holly felt a sinking sensation in her gut. “How long?”
“Beatrice said the shipments should be here soon, but then I got word that an aetheric storm from a surge on Ixion interrupted the flight path and the ship coming from Paradise had to go back.” He sat down and pulled up a box on one of his v-screen monitors. “I did see that a supplier on Helo had one up on an underground market. The problem with these parts, is that, well, they’re for this sort of thing. A gray, almost black area. The only people who’d want them are people like us. Supply and demand isn’t big, if you get what I mean.”
“So if we want to get moving on that . . .” Holly began.
Shiro finished with, “We’ll have to go to Helo?”
Darius nodded, still staring at his screen. “Yep.”
“Shit.” Holly clenched her fists. Her palms began to sweat. The kasé was done brewing. She turned and busied herself with preparing a cup. The steaming hot liquid sloshed into the slender, insulated cup. She dumped in condiments and stirred with a long spoon.
“Well, Ms. Drake. Looks like we have another trip in our future. Unless you want to wait, taking a chance on that aetheric storm dying down. Helo is currently in the opposite direction of Itzcap.”
“He’s right,” Darius said. “We can still get to Helo. I mean, you can. Someone has to stay to keep an eye on the FAA Jackson. Something from that communication might ping us.”
“The trip, is currently the best way. Keep moving, keep our momentum.”
Odeon came to Holly’s side and made himself a drink. “I agree, Holly Drake,” he said softly. “Aetion and Tyro are on my mind constantly. I can’t sit back and wait to find Charm. We must keep moving.”
“Another trip, guys?” Charly said, fluttering in, her curly hair lifting like wings behind her, the air moving around her and stirring the heavy smell of kasé that hung in the room.
“You can’t come with?” Holly asked, giving her friend a pleading glance.
Charly laughed. “I’d love a goddamn break. A simple trip would be so much easier than the shit I deal with here. The fucking caterer thought the brunch was tomorrow, so they’re currently trying to put together a meal and get here before the party of seventy-fucking-five shows up with their ravenous appetites and descends on the club like a fucking plague.”
Holly smiled and patted Charly on the back gently. “So, you know, when you put it that way, your life does sound like a whirlwind of shit.”
“Right? And a trip on a freaking posh liner sounds like a damn vacation.”
“Sure, sure, Charly,” Shiro said. “Remind me again how you’re on the team, short of providing an endless supply of delicious drinks and the roof over our heads?”
“Someone’s looking to get punched.” Charly punched her fist into her hand. “I seem to remember a near-death experience on a certain transponder moon that basically puts me at level one hundred on this team.”
“Ah, yes. The near-death of Charly Stout. Sounds like a play. Someone should write it.”
“I would see that,” Odeon laughed. “As long as there was a Yasoan in it that heroically saved the day at the very end.”
“Team effort,” Darius pointed out. “Trip helped too. Basically Charly owes everyone her life, right now.”
“I owe none of you, anything. All of you have a drink tabs longer than Kota’s distance from Ixion.”
“Alright Drake,” Darius said, chuckling. “How many tickets am I buying to Helo?”
TWENTY-SIX
HELO spread out below them, a layer of white cloud like a plush rug in a Centau’s spire-top condo. The clouds reflected the sunlight in a blistering glare right at them. Holly squinted against it. “Why would anyone live here?” she asked. Odeon was strapped in beside her, and Shiro was on the far side of Odeon.
“Perhaps a person who hates anything other than sunlight. The novelty of living above the clouds. And trade, I would guess,” Shiro answered.
“And because you love to grow food,” Odeon said. “Many Yasoan live here because they love to grow and sing to the plants.”
Helo was yet another marvel of Centau engineering. The planet was covered with water. Beneath the oceans, enormous pylons that were drilled into the rocky core supported the massive platforms that extended above the usual cloud cover and held the cities. These cities were bright and clean and full of sunlight. Though it never rained above the clouds, water from the oceans was piped up into a series of sprinklers that rained down regularly to wash the dust away. The dust came from the artificial soils that had been brought in for growing from many of the rocky mini-moons. It turned out that the amount of sunlight and the quality of what hit Helo was perfect for many grains, vegetables, and fruit. All that Helo needed to supply on its own was the mineral dense water beneath the cloud cover.
And so Helo was the bread, fruit, and vegetable basket of the 6-moon system, filling large container ships with the plants on growing cycles that only varied depending on a city’s location on the moon.
Soon the skeleton crew found themselves wandering the streets of city of Halo Stand. The Zeppelin ride from Kota to Helo had been uneventful, and now Holly was hungry. Her anxiety—though what was beginning to seem like constant exposure to the dreaded space-flight seemed to be helping—had prevented her from eating. And now that she was moon-side, she needed to fill her belly.
“Let’s find a place to eat. Then we can locate this Constie,” Holly said. “Anyone else hungry?”
Shiro pointed with his cane. “Food is that way. I’m not famished, but I wouldn’t mind grabbing something light.”
Halo Stand was built only three to four stories high. The platforms that kept the city above the cloud cover were already high enough that the air pressure was weak. Holly felt the thin air fighting with her lungs every time she inhaled. The buildings and streets were concentrated in the center of the platform they found themselves on. Around the perimeter of the city were vast swatches of farmland. Orchards, gardens, and grains grew in octagon patches.
“Let’s go. I’m not feeling picky at the moment.” So they headed up the street on foot, soaking up the sights. The air was brisk and light, and there was an immaculate feeling to the area that brought a spring to Holly’s step.
“Odeon have you been here before?” Holly asked thinking back to something he’d mentioned, about the Druiviin singing to the plants that were grown on Helo.
“Once. As a child. My parents came here to help with a plague. A few insect hitchhikers had come down on some cargo. With no natural predators, the bugs multiplied rapidly and infested the plants. Once they’d taken care of the bugs by introducing house-cats from Earth and woolly rock-cats from Centau, the crops were so decimated they tried to work quickly to r
eplace what had been lost. They used song to help speed up the growth process. And my parents, along with many other Yasoan, came to help.”
Holly squinted. The remnants of that episode were all around her. There were the smaller house cats of Earth lazing about in the sun, as well as the slightly larger species of cat from Centau. “I vaguely remember when that happened.”
“As do I,” Shiro said, surprised. “I suppose we’re all old enough to recall the same events.”
They cut through the crowd and reached a plaza with several stories of small restaurants. They were all built in a cluster surrounding the plaza and people descended the stairs from the three-story collection of eating establishments and ate at tables that served all the various restaurants.
Holly picked a Centau restaurant serving bowls with a type of rice-like grain and vegetables. She got her dish and went back to sit down. Odeon soon joined her with his meal of Druiviin food, and then Shiro showed up with a fusion of ramen and Constie cuisine.
About halfway through their meal, there was a soft beeping from loudspeakers around the city. People eating around the plaza suddenly produced umbrellas and covered themselves and their food. Holly and her crew looked around in alarm, and then the artificial rain shower began. Overhead sprinklers on nearly invisible cables criss-crossing in a grid pattern across the sky above the platforms turned on and showered down on them. Their food, not entirely eaten, was soaked, as were their bags and clothing. The three of them stared at each other as water dripped over their faces and filled their bowls and plates with water, rendering their food inedible. Odeon laughed. Shiro glowered for a moment, before attempting to eat the ramen dish, slurping up the noodles.
“Needs salt,” he said around the food.
“Yes, I heard the chef waters it down to save money,” Holly teased. “Well, at least we got to eat a bit before the rain started.” She rose and walked through the rain shower to deposit her bowl in a tub that would later be picked up by the clean up crews employed by the restaurants.
Hands of the Colossus Page 16