"That was a shorter conversation than I expected," Tarmian said, blankly.
"You couldn't hear rest," I said, with an internal sigh. "I make transcript, give me minute write."
"He was speaking using a similar method to the Ddura," Ruuel said, as expected.
"That would explain why your heart rate kept spiking." Maze leaned forward to examine my expression.
"What was his true purpose?" Selkie asked, the first time he'd spoken.
"Came rescue me from misguided and corrupt Tarens," I said, risking a glance up at Ruuel, but he was more expressionless than ever. "Let me concentrate now or will forget bits." I dropped out of the channel and shut my eyes, relieved when they obediently moved away. I was actually really upset and stressed and didn't want to talk to them or even see them while I thought about turning down going home.
Ever since my jaunt to Earth's near-space, I've had this plan to work out what I'd done, and find a way to do it properly. As I'd told the Nuran, I know that the Tarens won't put my interests above theirs. Going home isn't just about homesickness, it's about choosing the best option for me.
I blame Doctor Who. Mr Spock. The Scooby Gang: both the ones in the Mystery Machine and the ones with the stakes. I've spent my life with stories of people who don't walk away, who go back for their friends, who make that last stand. I've been brainwashed by Samwise Gamgee.
Even though I'm no longer critical to unlocking Muina, I still made a difference to First Squad's encounter with those roamers, and the way things are going, it won't be the last time my enhancement could save lives. There's just no way I can cut and run simply because I'm an assignment, and a test subject, and I can't absolutely trust the entire hierarchy of KOTIS. Even second level monitoring isn't a big enough reason to abandon First Squad. They matter to me, so much. I can't go back to being me if I have to spend the rest of my life ashamed of myself.
So when I wrote down everything the Nuran said, I didn't leave anything out, and by the time I was done and had re-read it a few times I'd calmed down and accepted that I was choosing to do this, that I wasn't trapped, hadn't lost my only chance. Good or bad idea, I mean to see this out.
Something cold touched the back of my hand at the end of all this decision-making, which nearly had me leaping out my skin, but it was only a glass. Ruuel ignored my expression, and made me take it, saying: "You haven't eaten since before the rotation."
Ever the captain. Drinking did make me realise I was really starving, though, and I was glad to see a tray of food at one of the corner clusters of table and seats. Giving in to the inevitable, I forwarded Ruuel and Maze the transcript in return and went and picked over the food while they, and probably every bluesuit in KOTIS, read it through.
Ruuel went out of the room, leaving me alone, but he and Maze came back while I was still eating, and joined me sitting around the little table of food.
"Feeling better?" Maze picked up one of the chewy sticks of bread.
"Just tired. Are people from Kolar likely turn up and want talk to me as well? Can I pretend not speak language if they do?"
"They haven't focused on you, and will not if that can be avoided."
"Distracted by our failure to communicate any of these developments to them," Ruuel added. "Kolar heard that Muina was unlocked from the news services."
"Same Nuri, maybe? Think interface bad, but big coincidence if didn't hear about me through it."
Maze shrugged, and the faintest wince crossed his face: his shoulder was still hurting him. "Very likely they've cultivated local informants. We vastly underestimated the Nurans, had no idea they had the ability to travel through the Rift without vehicles. No wonder they were so disinterested when Tare announced that we'd located Muina."
"Will Tare unlock Muina for Kolar and Nuri?"
"Kolar, very likely. I've no idea how it will be handled. I don't like the idea of divvying Muina up into territories, but the trade agreements we've established are far too important to try and deny access to the Kolarens. I wouldn't care to guess what's going to happen with Nuri. They did just try to...rescue you."
"Can you estimate how much of what he told you was true?" Ruuel asked.
"No. Or, he seemed all 'my honour not permit lies' but then act pleased when I told him I thought Nurans stupid hypocrites. He didn't act like he lied, but guess he didn't necessarily agree with what ordered to do. Think he meant it about Setari."
Ruuel gave me a dry look – quite the most reaction I've ever had from him – then said: "Did you believe he would be able to return you to your home?"
"Believe he thought he could." Remembered anger made me frown. "Semantics, really. He said he here to offer me Nuri's aid. Was here to remove inconveniently located thing called touchstone from hands of people Nuri not want to have. Would still count as rescue, of sorts, but was for their benefit, not mine. Don't see that they'd think me any less corrupt and misguided than Tarens. Is Setari some sort historic title?"
"Not so far as I was aware," Maze said. "The word wasn't created for us, and has a long-standing meaning of 'specialist' with an overtone of 'special guard'."
"And touchstone?" Dalenset – dalen for touch and set for stone. I think touchstone is a word on Earth, too, but don't think it refers to people.
"Not even in the dictionaries. Though I can see how the name might come about for a talent like yours."
I sighed. One in ten generations was not something I'd been happy to hear. "Will I more restrictions because this?"
"I don't know. We made a mistake, letting the Nuran meet with you. He knows your face now." Maze wasn't happy about it.
"Think he try rescue me again? Risk teleporting?"
"It comes down to a question of what is more important to them." Ruuel had reverted to being super-shuttered, but opened his eyes properly as if I was a symbol he was trying to decipher. "Did they want to use you for some purpose we don't understand? Or simply ensure that we could not?"
Since I was falling asleep, Maze took me back to my rooms after that. He didn't give me any speeches about staying or going, just told me that if anything even slightly unusual happened I was to send an alert immediately. An alert is a personal panic button, sending a broadcast message to whoever is on security detail. I don't count Ghost as anything unusual any more, and was very glad she showed up after my nap, sitting on my desk shamelessly begging for attention while I've filled up the last of my diary writing this down.
So today I met a psychic space samurai called Inisar, who did me no favours by making it clear to the Tarens that I'm even more interesting than they suspected, and who may or may not be sent back to kill me. As a result I decided to not be 'just Cass' any more, and I know there'll be times I'm going to regret that so hard, just as I know that the people who are important to me here will have spent some of today discussing strategies for making sure I don't have reason or opportunity to leave, and finding a balance between me wanting some privacy and their wanting to keep watch on me at all times.
And after ninja and samurai, I'm wondering if next up will be psychic space pirates.
Continued in Part Two: "Lab Rat One"
GLOSSARY
Agowla - The (fictional) high school Cass attended in Sydney.
Aspro - Aspirin
Carche Landing - The main airport in Unara.
Casszilla - Rawr!
Cruzatch - A dangerous humanoid Ionoth, shadow burning white.
Ddura - An enormous energy being created by the Lantarens.
Deep-space - The large portion of the Ena which exists between the 'memory spaces'. It is white in appearance, and filled with gates which open directly to real-space worlds.
Deep-space Ionoth - Ionoth which are formed and dwell not in the relatively small Spaces, but instead in Deep-space.
Diodel - One of the ships KOTIS uses to travel between Tare and Muina.
Do Not Go Gentle - "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night", a poem by Dylan Thomas.
Drone - An advance
d robot, usually used for scanning and monitoring.
Ena - A dimension connected to the thoughts, memories, dreams and imagination of living beings.
Ena manipulation - A psychic talent which can change the substance of the Ena, particularly in stabilising gates between spaces. It can also be used in a limited way to change 'reality'.
Escort quest - A mission in an online game involving protection of a non-player character while they travel.
Fan service - Revealing or provocative shots of characters in anime/manga.
Fanfic - Fiction based on the stories of others and/or fiction involving a person of whom the writer is a fan.
First level monitoring - Interface monitoring which triggers an alert if certain conditions are reached (eg. loss of consciousness, heart attack). All residents of Tare are on first level monitoring.
Gate - A tear or rift between spaces/worlds.
Gate Sight - A psychic talent which can judge the status of gates between spaces.
Gate-lock - An enclosure built around a gate from near-space to real-space to prevent Ionoth from passing through.
Gelzz - A now nearly-extinct cave-dwelling Taren insect noted for its tendency to admit a lingering rotten odour as a defence mechanism.
Goralath - The name originally given to the ruins where Pandora is later established.
Gorra - The first island settled on Tare.
Hasata - A city on Tare.
HSC - Higher School Certificate. Received when graduating from high school in Australia.
Ian Thorpe - A famous Australian swimmer.
In-skin - An immersive interface experience where most of the senses – sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste – are stimulated.
Interface - An in-body nanite installation used by Tarens as personal computers/the Taren internet.
Ionoth - Creatures which form in the Ena, usually remnants of the dreams and nightmares of inhabited planets.
Ista - An honorific for medical doctors.
Isten - Professor.
Joden - The Taren equivalent of a minute, though the unit is longer than an Earth minute. One hundred joden equal a kasse.
Kadara - Naturally-forming massive Ionoth.
Kalrani - Trainees not yet qualified as Setari.
Kasse - The Taren equivalent of an hour, spanning approximately two and a half Earth hours.
Kasse - Two and a half Earth hours.
Kolar - A hot, arid world settled by Muinan refugees, and advanced technologically by the Tarens.
Konna - Both the city and the island where the main KOTIS base is located on Tare.
KOTIS - An acronym for the "Agency for Ionoth Research and Protection".
Kuna - Supplementary memory provided by the interface.
Lahanti - Leaders of the cities of Tare – an equivalent to a 'mayor' of a city-state.
Lantarens - The ruling class of Muina before the disaster. Powerful psychics.
Litara - One of the ships KOTIS uses to travel between Tare and Kolar.
Massives - Ionoth of unusually large dimensions.
Muina - A world abandoned after a disaster brought about by the Lantaren psychics.
Nanites - A machine or robot on a microscopic scale.
Near-space - The envelope of Ena immediately surrounding a world, full of reflections of the world as it currently is – and it's most recent nightmares.
Noob - A new gamer who does not fully understand how to play.
Not happy, Jan - A popular phrase taken from an Australian television commercial for Yellow Pages.
NPCs - Non-player characters – a gaming term for characters in a game which you are not expected to fight.
OMGWTF - Oh my god, what the fuck?!
Pandora - First Taren settlement on Muina.
Path Sight - A talent for location.
Pippin - A small animal of excessive cuteness.
Public Space - Virtual décor visible to all interface users/anything accessible to all interface users.
PVP - Combat in online games where players fight other players rather than computer-controlled opponents.
Rotation - Setari missions in the Ena designed to cover Ionoth respawn near Taren cities.
Rotational space - A space in the Ena which moves so that its gates regularly align and move out of alignment.
Sa/Tsa - An honorific for academics.
Schoolies - Australian highschool graduates celebrating the end of school during "Schoolies Week". Primarily located around the Gold Coast in Queensland.
Second level monitoring - A safety/security interface setting causing all sights and sounds experienced by the monitored person to be retained in a secure log which can be accessed under exceptional circumstances.
Setari - Psychic combat 'Specialists' trained since childhood to combat Ionoth.
Sf&f - Science fiction and fantasy.
Shared Space - The interface equivalent of a conference call.
Spaces - A concept used in multiple contexts on Tare, covering 'world', 'dimension', 'area', 'region of the interface', and many others, but most particularly 'a bubble containing a fragment of a world remembered and reproduced by the Ena'.
Stilt - A spindly-legged deep-space Ionoth.
Stray - A person who walked through a wormhole through the Ena to another planet.
Swoops - A variety of deep-space Ionoth resembling a pterodactyl.
Tairo - A kick-ass ball sport.
Talent - A psychic ability.
Tanty - Tantrum.
Tanz - Taren air transport.
Tarani - A many-legged deep-space Ionoth reminiscent of a caterpillar.
Tare - A harsh, storm-wracked world settled by Muinan refugees. The highly technologically advanced inhabitants live crammed into massive whitestone cities.
Taren year - One third of an Earth year.
Third level monitoring - Active observation of everything a subject sees and hears.
tl;dr - Too long; didn't read.
Tola - A classification of Ionoth which have little physical substance.
Toolies - Adults preying on teenagers during Schoolies Week/pretending to be a Schoolie.
Touchstone - The subject of the story.
True-space - The world, not the Ena.
Tsa - A general honorific similar to Mr/Ms.
Tsaile - Commander.
Tsee - Setari Squad Captain.
Tsur - Director.
Tyu - A zither-like musical instrument.
Unara - The largest city on Tare, located on the island of Wehana.
Unco - Uncoordinated.
Unstable rotation - A rotation where the spaces are more likely to change and bring unexpected situations.
Wehana - The largest island on Tare, almost entirely covered by the city of Unara.
Whitestone - A building substance formed with nanites.
Zelkasse - A quarter of a kasse.
CHARACTER LIST
Squads
First Squad
Maze Surion (m)
Zee Annan (f)
Lohn Kettara (m)
Mara Senez (f)
Alay Gainer (f)
Ketzaren Spel (f)
Second Squad
Grif Regan (m)
Jeh Omai (f)
Nils Sayate (m)
Keer Charal (m)
Enma Dolan (f)
Bree Tcho (f)
Third Squad
Meer Taarel (f)
Della Meht (f)
Eeli Bata (f)
Tol Sefen (m)
Geo Chise (m)
Rite Orla (f)
Fourth Squad
Kaoren Ruuel (m)
Fiar Sonn (f)
Par Auron (m)
Glade Ferus (m)
Charan Halla (f)
Mori Eyse (f)
Fifth Squad
Hast Kajal (m)
Dorey Nise (m)
Faver Elwes (f)
Kire Palanty (m)
Tralest Seet (m)
Seyen Rax
(m)
Sixth Squad
Elen Kormin (f)
Sten Ammas (m)
Juna Quane (m)
Del Roth (m)
Meleed Aluk (f)
Kester Am-roten (m)
Seventh Squad
Atara Forel (f)
Pol Tsennen (m)
Tez Mema (m)
Bodey Residen (m)
Aheri Dahlen (f)
Saitel Raph (m)
Eighth Squad
Ro Kanato (m)
Pala Hasen (f)
Seeli Henaz (f)
Zhou Kade (m)
Kye Trouban (m)
Zama Bryze (m)
Ninth Squad
Desa Kaeline (f)
Zael Toure (f)
Rebar Dolas (m)
Oran Thomasal (m)
Kahl Anya (f)
Terel Revv (m)
Tenth Squad
Els Haral (m)
Loris Darm (f)
Sell Tens (f)
Joren Mane (f)
Fahr Sherun (m)
Netra Kantan (m)
Eleventh Squad
Seq Endaran (f)
Kire Couran (f)
Yaleran Genera (m)
Palest Wen (m)
Zare Seeth (m)
Den Dava (m)
Twelfth Squad
Zan Namara (f)
Roake Lenton (m)
Dess Charn (f)
Sora Nels (m)
Tenna Drysen (m)
Tahl Kiste (m)
Other
Alyssa Caldwell (f) - Cassandra's best friend.
Cassandra Devlin (f) - An Aussie teenager not enjoying her big adventure.
Clere Ganaran (m) - KOTIS liaison.
Deen Tarmian (f) - KOTIS liaison.
Elizabeth (Bet) Wilson (f) - Cassandra's aunt.
Helen Middledell (f) - aka Her Mightiness or HM. A well-off and popular girl who goes to Agowla School.
Helese Surion (f) - Original First Squad captain, killed by a massive.
Ista Kestal Leema (f) - KOTIS medic assigned to first Muinan settlement.
Ista Noin Tremmar (f) - KOTIS medic assigned to Setari.
Isten Sel Notra (f) - Pre-eminent scientist researching the Ena.
Stray (Touchstone) Page 30