Stray (Touchstone)

by Höst, Andrea K.

  The recording started out with the Ionoth cat, sitting on top of a high cabinet in a huge and busy industrial kitchen, staring down at something below it. It was all coiled and intent, tail twitching, and the person who was recording called out to the other people in the kitchen, drawing attention to it. The cat didn't seem to care, staring down at this guy standing just beneath it. Some girl made a joke and the guy looked up and looked confused, and stepped away. The cat's tail twitched even faster and then it leapt at him, making a lot of people shout and shriek, and it would have landed right on his chest, except it went right through him. And he gasped and shuddered and sat down in a heap and there was the cat on the floor on the other side of him, with something in its mouth that looked like a big silverfish with octopus tendencies. The cat shook the thing briskly, then held it down with a paw and bit it in a particularly final way, crunch. Then it picked the body up, jumped up to the nearby counter and on top of another cabinet, and vanished.

  "Is stickie?" I asked, still feeling sick about the whole thing. The Ionoth cat had followed me home because I'd petted it. If it had attacked the cook instead of the bug-octopus, then it would have been my fault.

  "A new type." Ketzaren sat down with a sigh, apparently deciding we weren't in immediate danger of attack. "One that's beyond the current scans, which is a huge problem. It's too much to hope that that's the only one. It's far more likely that there's a more developed originator, and that we're looking at a minor or even major plague of the things. And that could get extremely nasty. Stickies don't kill you quickly, but they're fatal left unchecked, even if the host doesn't have a psychotic break. And if we can't detect them, we can't even tell how far they've spread."

  "What happen now?"

  "We stay in lockdown. They'll start with the kitchens and try every kind of scan available to see if they can detect any Ionoth. If that fails, they'll randomly treat some unlucky volunteers with unpleasantly painful sonics and see if anything falls out. And if it does–" She wrinkled her nose. "More attempts to find some way to detect them. And if they don't, a very high chance they'll treat everyone in KOTIS with sonics, and issue a general health alert so civilians have the option of being treated, which most of them won't because it's unpleasant. And then people will start to sicken and die and the majority will get treated but a few won't and there'll be an endless cycle of infection and outbreak hotspots."

  I stared at her. I think she meant it.

  "Lohn was right," Jeh said, placidly

  Ketzaren lifted her eyebrows and said: "Only rarely. What this time?"

  "He said Caszandra is lucky. Which she is, to have survived Muina. To have been rescued. To have put Ruuel in the right place to find that Pillar. And now for meeting a cat which eats stickies." She smiled at me, but then added: "Not that you should ever go petting any other Ionoth which come walking up to you. That truly was–"

  "Dumb." I sighed. I can tell I'm never going to live that down.

  We stayed in the waiting room for three hours. Ketzaren and Jeh told me about the last major stickie outbreak, which happened nearly fifty Tare-years ago, and then a few stories about stupid things they'd done early in their training. Jeh had been really good at falling off things whenever she went into the Ena and Ketzaren had once walked through the gate next to the one everyone else went through.

  When they finally figured out a way to scan for the new type of stickie, we had to report to be scanned and I was really glad to learn there was no octopus-silverfish living in my chest. But they've found something like five hundred infected people so far, and have extended the scans to the rest of the island and they'll be part of 'elevator security' on all of Tare in the future.

  But they haven't found the cat yet. And I'm glad.

  Saturday, February 23

  Bring out the whips

  Mara took my training seriously today. Dodging right after breakfast (ow), and then we went jogging slowly around a running track which had an obstacle course in the middle which a bunch of kids were scrambling their way through in a terrifically professional kind of way. Setari of the future.

  The whole squad met up for lunch, and talked about the progress of the stickie cleansing. KOTIS have found what they think was the original infection point – a food supply place out in the city – and the number of cases has risen to thousands. KOTIS only had a secondary infection hub. I'd already seen some of this on the news, but the real numbers involved aren't publicly announced, and all of First Squad were looking relieved and worried both. From their point of view this is just another sign of the increasing strength of the Ionoth, in numbers or in ability, and no-one understands what's changed which has made the problem increase so much these past few years.

  I feel more a part of the team rather than a guest now, settling in to that caddie-type role I was thinking of earlier. But my assignment to First Squad isn't going to last, which sucks. I've got testing with Seventh Squad tomorrow. Their Captain was the one pretending to be nice to Zan at the pool, the one who called me 'it', so I'm not looking forward to having anything to do with them. I'm really not sure what I'll do working with squads who have people I'm not comfortable with or who make me feel bad. Especially if we go out on rotation in the Ena. What I said to Lohn and Mara is close to how I feel: going out there is scary, but I'm not panicked by it because I trust First Squad. I wonder if I'll ever be given any choice about who I work with?

  After lunch, all First Squad did swimming training with me. Maze says we might do some of the flooded rotations, and so we swam in our full uniforms with the breathers, and had little races through the underwater obstacles. Underwater battles have whole new levels of complications: talents like Fire and Wind are useless. Telekinesis is still viable, but you handle it differently, since picking up a rock and throwing it has an entirely different effect underwater. Lohn and Mara's Light powers still work pretty much the same, and there is apparently a water manipulation talent, though no-one on First Squad has it. But most water environments are close-combat, except harder.

  I was so tired afterwards. I keep having afternoon naps, and then waking up in the evening. Hopefully when I'm fitter I'll be able to handle all this better.

  Sunday, February 24

  Seventh Squad

  I shouldn't have been surprised that the Seventh Squad captain, Atara Forel, was totally professional. Back when she was being nasty-sweet to Zan I'd already seen that she was the type whose attacks aren't open, and she definitely wasn't the sort to show herself in a bad light during an official testing session which was being recorded. So when I reached the testing room, all she did was nod at me and say: "Good, we can get started now. Same routine as Kanato's squad. We'll start with you, Mema."

  Seventh is another of the big-hitter squads, and just like Eighth, were caught up in the sheer excitement of being enhanced to super-destructive levels. It's spectacular to watch the big-hitter tests, but at the same time kind of dull, so I spent my time studying them instead.

  Forel is like a cat: lithe and slinky, with a pointed chin and big eyes. I can just picture her purring and digging in the claws. Her primary talent is Lightning, and she saved her testing for last. It was important to her, I think, that her overall result was higher than Hasen's from Eighth. When she's pleased her eyes go all slitted.

  The other guy who was with her at the pool is Pol Tsennen, primarily an Ena manipulation talent, with a secondary in Fire. He seems mainly interested in watching Forel. Then there's the smug twins, Mema and Residen. I don't think they're really twins – they don't look precisely alike, and they have different surnames – but their hair is cut the same way and they seem to use the same mannerisms and they're very pleased with themselves and keep exchanging looks. They had a swag of talents, with a primary of Ice for Mema and a variation of Light manipulation for Residen.

  Dahlen is their Sight talent, with both Gate and Path Sight, along with Telekinesis. She's tall and strong-looking and I don't know if it's just because of her height,
but I kept thinking of her as a tree. Cats might sharpen their claws on trees, but they've got plenty of bark, and don't really care.

  The last squad member, Saitel Raph, was the only one who caught me watching them. Him I couldn't make out at all, other than an impression that he's smart. He's also the only one who spoke to me outside Forel's strictly correct instructions, and then just to say "Thank you," before heading off.

  Is it really the second level monitoring that makes the younger squads so disinclined to interact with me? Or do they think of me as human machinery, there to perform a task? With the notable exception of Eeli, the younger Setari never seem to consider the possibility of just chatting with me.

  Or – just occurred to me – they're all competitive with each other, and there's an advantage in having me assigned to them. Maybe they're all determined not to be seen 'pursuing' me, so to speak. But...no. No-one's ever acted like any of my assignments will be my decision.

  Speaking of which, when I woke up from my inevitable after-testing nap, I had another bunch of rotations assigned. All with First Squad, so I have something to be happy about.

  Monday, February 25

  Bridges Rotation

  I spotted Zan again, having dinner when I went for breakfast, and wasn't slow to ask to join her. She had circles under her eyes, but almost sort of smiled at me as I sat down. I asked if she could recommend any novels to read, and tried to explain fantasy to her. I don't want to read stories about Setari – I was getting more than enough of them in real life and from television – but hadn't succeeded in finding any good stories which were based on mythology rather than reality, so to speak. We had a really interesting conversation about the origin of myths and the kind of stories people tell when they know what's "out there" compared to when they don't. I almost forgot to meet up with First Squad for the day's mission, and had to dash off, but she emailed me a list of books to try.

  Bridges Rotation is only one space, although we had to walk through an awful lot of Tare's near-space to get to its gate. Near-space is usually fairly clear, because the Setari spend such a lot of effort killing off everything in the surrounding spaces, but we've a couple of times encountered things on the way to the gates and today there was this swarm of razor-tipped rabbits (O.o) which First Squad chased down and killed on the way.

  The Bridges space itself was very strange. The bridges are all made of bone; the starkly curving ribs of giants. But the space is twisted, distorted, and perspective plays tricks with up and down and where things end and begin. A space designed by Escher, which I should have appreciated, but it made me dizzy, so I eventually had to concentrate just on the section of bridge in front of me.

  There were three types of Ionoth there. Quite large ones, about the size of a car, that had attached themselves to the underneath of the bridges and were very similar in colour. I suppose the idea is that they wait until something walks above them and then they close these massive filigree claw-things over the top. An odd kind of Venus fly-trap. Combat Sight made these immensely easy. Maze or Zee would spot them well ahead, and then Maze just pried them loose with Telekinesis and held them up so Lohn could shoot them with unenhanced Light beams.

  The rest of the time we chased about after long-legged, metallic storks with curving, sword-like beaks. They would run if they met us alone, collect in groups, and then try and rush us. The walls of light and columns of fire came in handy for them.

  And there were two dog-things, rather like afghan hounds, but with possum-type claws to grip the bridges as they raced along. They trailed a pearly rainbow light, and looked strange and dangerous. Since they were a new type, First Squad paused to observe and document them, waiting to see how they would react when they sighted us.

  They stopped, and sat down, heads angled toward each other as if they were talking. First Squad waited, and made no move to prevent them when the dogs loped off through one of the gates.

  I was glad First Squad doesn't indiscriminately slaughter everything they encounter, but curious as well, and asked Zee about it over dinner. I've learned not to ask too many questions while in the spaces. First Squad will usually answer me, but I think they'd rather keep their attention on scanning for attacks.

  "Fortunately, the Castle Rotation was one of the first spaces we encountered," Zee told me. "It's an obvious lesson: some of the Ionoth can act as our allies, if only by lowering the number of our opponents. Combat Sight allows us to judge intention to a degree, and those two today sparked no reaction. Wary, but no more. If they attack unprovoked, they'll be put on the kill on sight list, but not until then. In some of the spaces, if we tried to kill everything there, it would take us a week, and it only makes sense to focus on Ionoth which pose a tangible danger. Still, don't–"

  "–pat cats," I finished resignedly. "Has been seen again?"

  "Not yet. Hardly an ideal situation, having an Ionoth loose in KOTIS, no matter how useful. It is pushing us to develop newer and better scans. If you see it at all, contact one of us immediately."

  I nodded, though I can't say I'd particularly want to help get it captured. Tomorrow is Fifth Squad testing, worse luck. Not looking forward to it.

  Tuesday, February 26

  Fifth Squad

  Fifth Squad are fuckwits.

  Their captain is that Kajal guy with the voice, who was making an ass of himself to Zan. I was lucky, I think, that I'd had that warning about what he was like: smugly pleased with himself and the type who is really interested in proving himself better than everyone else, even for small things. I don't know if his squad started out as unlikeable as he is, but he seems to have infected them pretty thoroughly. It's a five guy, one girl team, but I can't say that the girl, Elwes, is any nicer than the rest of them.

  They're a generalist squad, so we met in Test Room One to start with. They were all standing in the middle in a circle, and didn't glance at me as I came up. Kajal's a big guy, maybe 6'4", and the rest of his team are pretty close to as tall. Even though I'd learned from Seventh Squad that I shouldn't have to worry about official on-the-record test sessions, I still felt a bit nervous. And then annoyed, because even though there wasn't a chance they didn't know I was there, Kajal left me standing at his elbow while he finished telling his squad something not particularly interesting-sounding about their next day's rotation.

  "Right then," he said, at last. "Let's get started. Nise, you're first up."

  They moved away, only one of the guys staying near me (he had great hair: spiky with dark blue tips). He waited till Kajal nodded at him, then grabbed my shoulder for a moment and began testing a Telekinesis talent. It went on like that for all of them. None of them spoke to me or nodded to me or anything like that. Every one of them gripped my shoulder in the exact same way – not roughly or hard or anything, but enough for me to feel it through the uniform's padding. All the other squads, since the first day with First Squad, have barely touched me, usually brushing the back of a hand against my arm. It couldn't be coincidence that every single one of Fifth Squad approached enhancement so differently, though it's really hard to imagine them sitting around deciding this would be a worthwhile exercise.

  Then we went into the Ena to test Ena-specific talents. Since Kajal continued to address all his remarks generally, so they could be interpreted to include me, I followed along behind, wondering if what he was trying to do was get me to kick up a fuss or act upset or what. We always do Ena tests in the grassy space First Squad took me to, which is both easy to get to and seemingly permanently clear of Ionoth. There was nothing different about what Fifth Squad did for their testing there, except they walked in front of me on the way, striding along at a pace I didn't expect, so that I trailed them by a few feet.

  That was a mistake, I think. Sure, there was pretty much no chance anything was going to attack me, but it looked like they were being lax and had forgotten they were supposed to be protecting me. I hope they get demerits. And when we were back in real-space, they just walked off without anothe
r word.

  I took myself off to medical, and tried to figure out why Fifth had bothered. To intimidate or upset me, yeah, but why? What does it gain to make me feel uncomfortable? It did work. I spent most of the time feeling embarrassed and angry. They acted like my enhancement was something bad, a thing causing them inconvenience. Like they were barely tolerating that they had to work with me.

  Perhaps they expect me to complain? For a lot of the time I felt like it, but I don't even see the point. I don't feel safe working with them in the Ena, but I'm unlikely to be assigned to another generalist squad if they do change who I work with. I figure I'll either be kept with First Squad or swapped between the big hitters and the Sight specialists as the need arises. I don't know. I want to bitch and complain about it, but there's no-one I can do that with. Everyone on First Squad would have to deal with it officially if I whined about it, and so would Zan if I laid it on her.

  I guess, if I brood on it too much, they'll have won. So I'll try to forget all about it, and not worry unless they show up on my schedule again.

  It's occurred to me that, in gaming terms, I'm an escort quest. So funny. And Fifth Squad are hardcore pvp-ers who think quests are a waste of time. Tools.

  Wednesday, February 27

  Cancelled

  Today was supposed to be Boxes Rotation, but when I woke up this morning I had no appointments for the rest of the week. I've gone all paranoid that this means they've decided to assign me away from First Squad.

  I guess this is an opportunity to catch up on all the school work I've been ignoring, which I will get to right after I'm done with some important worrying and sulking.

  MARCH

  Sunday, March 2

  Aether

  'Aether' is an Earth word, I'm sure of it. Or, at least, 'ether' is, and I know that's an anaesthetic, but there's another definition. I've read it in fantasy novels, used for the 'atmosphere' in one of the afterlifes or something. There's a phrase, 'off in the aether' isn't there? Aether is a word on Tare, as well. I found that out...it's four days ago now, I think. The day which was supposed to be Boxes Rotation.