Wandering Soul

by Steven Anderson

  BODENS GATE

  Officer Trilby had her weapon back out and was pointing it at Sam.

  “Trilby, I believe we were ordered to move these folks down to the surface. There’s a shuttle waiting for us.”

  She glanced at him. “I don’t remember him saying we had to take all of them, Franklin.”

  “It was kind of implied.”

  “Whatever. How does delaying it a day or two really make a difference? Dead by the flame, dead by torture, or dead by a bullet to the head, is still dead. Franklin, you stay with me and we’ll transport them. The rest of you go catch up with Boden and make sure he stays safe.”

  “What should I do about their swords?” Franklin was looking at Mom, uneasy.

  Trilby smiled. “Let them keep them until we’re on planet. I’m kind of hoping they try something stupid so I can kill them all right now. ‘Killed while trying to escape’ always looks good on a report.”

  Franklin shook his head and motioned for us to precede him through the door. I helped guide Winona. Between the tears and the swelling around her left eye, she was nearly blind.

  I kept watching Mom, waiting for her to make a move or signal or something. She just walked, head held high, not talking, not even looking at me. No one had said anything about Dad, and I didn’t want to bring him up, but I was worried. And hopeful. I kept expecting him to suddenly appear behind us, kill the guards, and whisk us off to the Orso Ipato for a daring escape.

  We reached the shuttle and Franklin attached our arms and legs to manacles that were built into the seats. Trilby’s gun never wavered and Dad never came.

  Trilby turned to Franklin when he was done. “Go catch up with the others. I’ll take it from here.”

  He hesitated. “Are you sure?”

  “Oh, yeah, I’m sure. I need to have a little time alone with them before I turn them over on the ground.” She smiled. “Don’t worry. They won’t be dead.”

  “That’s not procedure. There should be two of us at least.”

  “Go.” She put a hand on his chest. “I need this. I’ll cover for you if there’s any repercussions.”

  “I don’t know…”

  She shoved him backwards out of the hatch. “I’ll make it up to you. Personally.” She kissed him hard on the mouth.

  “You’re crazy. I’m not sure I can deal with crazy.”

  “Yeah, I am crazy. Tonight you’ll find out how much fun that can be.” Trilby put her hand on the panel by the hatch and it slid shut. She strapped herself into one of the seats facing us. The shuttle was larger than I had expected, with room for maybe a hundred prisoners and eight guards. A few minutes later I felt the gravitational wobble as we passed through the field around the dock.

  Trilby finally holstered her weapon and smiled at us. “That was close. I was afraid he really was going to insist on coming. Franklin’s a stickler for procedures.”

  She unstrapped and knelt in front of Winona, unlocking her manacles. “Sorry about the slap, kid. I had to make it look real.”

  “Yes, it definitely felt very real.”

  Trilby touched her cheek. “A medical AI should be able to fix that right up.”

  She knelt in front of me and looked into my eyes before undoing the locks. “I didn’t know he was going to do that to you, but I should have guessed. I’m sorry.”

  “If this isn’t just another trick, then you’ve already made it up to me. But how can I can trust you?”

  “Huh. Am I that good at playing a psychopath?” She was unshackling Sam now, and as soon as he was free, he stood and drew his sword in one fast smooth motion. He held it to her neck and looked at Mom, silently asking her what to do next.

  “Mala Dusa, take her gun and then get these chains off me. Where’s this shuttle going?”

  Trilby’s eyes were staring at the blade resting against her throat. “Um, empty field about three klicks from the Mission. Your friend Cuza’s supposed to have transportation waiting.”

  “And then what happens to you?”

  “Cuza fixes it so it looks like you overpowered me and stole the shuttle. If I don’t get arrested, he said it should earn me a medical discharge. I think I’ll find a nice desk job somewhere.”

  “What’s he going to do to you?” Sam had moved the blade away from her now that Mom had the gun. She dropped the magazine, looked at it, and put it back in.

  “I didn’t ask for specifics, but I’m sure it won’t be pleasant, if that makes you happy.”

  “Why not just stay in the Warrens?”

  Trilby sank back into her chair. “No, not a chance. I don’t like the chaos and disorder. Or the way it looks or, especially, the way it smells.” She closed her eyes. “The people are violent, uneducated, and have been bred for brutality for generations. Given the proper guidance, they might be ready to participate in our civilization in fifty or a hundred years. Maybe. I know they can’t help being inferior, but that doesn’t mean I have to like them. Actually, I hate the people in the Warrens.” She paused and looked at each of us. “And I hate all of you too.”

  “If you feel that way, why are you doing this?” I was standing in front of her, my hand braced on the bulkhead as we passed through turbulence in the upper atmosphere.

  “It was better than having Cuza kill me or turn me over to be sold. And, well…” She sighed. “I did owe you something. I’m not a psychopath.”

  “You just work for them.”

  “Not after today.”

  The shuttle spoke to get our attention, a stern male voice. “Ten minutes to landing. Please secure loose items.”

  “Dusa, bring me the first aid kit.” Mom held her hand out.

  I grabbed the box from the wall and gave it to her. “For Winona?”

  She removed all of the gauze bandages and a small tube, then tossed the kit back to me. “No, Officer Trilby.”

  Mom shot her point blank in the stomach.

  I jumped at the sound and my hands went up over my ears.

  Trilby was already going onto shock. “What...Why?” She was looking down at the blood soaking through her shirt.

  Mom opened the tube from the kit, smeared the clotting agent on the gauze and pressed it onto the wound. “Now you don’t have to be concerned about whatever Cuza was going to do to you. Don’t worry, I didn’t hit anything vital and the Mission’s medical AI should be able to ‘fix that right up’ for you. If Cuza’s waiting for us, you should be there in twenty minutes.”

  “What...” She licked her lips, “What if I had been lying about that part?”

  “Oh. Well, then you’ll be dead in about forty-five.”

  Trilby looked up at me. Her eyes were glassy and scared. “I wasn’t lying. Promise you’ll tell him to take care of me. Promise you’ll tell him. I know he’ll listen to you. In case I can’t speak for myself when we get there.”

  “I promise.”

  Hannah was frowning at me. “Go get strapped in.”

  I sat next to Sam and cried all the way down to our landing in a muddy field. It was a cold afternoon in the Warrens, and I could smell it immediately after the hatch opened; sewage soaked garbage and wood smoke.

  When Cuza entered the shuttle he glanced at Officer Trilby and then Hannah.

  “I shot her,” she explained, “That should be enough to keep her from being executed, and the time line will match up better.”

  “That’s generous. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you was goin’ soft.”

  “Yeah?” She pushed past him down the ramp. “Explain that to Mala Dusa for me.”

  He knelt and examined Trilby. She moaned a little, but didn’t open her eyes. “Little Soul, you know this is softer than what I was plannin’, right?” He looked down the ramp to where Hannah was waiting impatiently for us to join her. “She’s a fine, gentle woman at heart. Where’s Ted
dy?”

  I sighed, not knowing what to think, so I settled for kissing Cuza’s cheek “He’s still up there.”

  “That ain’t good.”

  “What’re we going to do?”

  “Do you trust God?”

  I nodded while he wiped my tears.

  “Keep trusting him and do what you think is right. It’ll work out. And love on your mom. She needs it, especially if Teddy’s gone and gotten himself into trouble again.”

  “You’ll take care of Trilby? We’d be in a lot worse trouble right now if it wasn’t for her.” I touched her hand. It felt cold.

  “Just like Alice. Yes, Little Soul, she’s going to be fine. Hannah was careful.”

  He walked down the ramp with us and I turned back to him. “And Winona. I need to get her to a medical AI.”

  “There’s no time,” Hannah answered. She kept looking at the open sky above us. “We’ve already been standing around too long. Where am I going, Cuza?”

  “Number twenty-six. You still remember the way?”

  “Like it was yesterday. Medical supplies?”

  “In the usual places.”

  She kissed him on the lips. “How many times have I owed you my life?”

  “Aw, I don’t count such things.”

  She touched Winona’s chin, moving her head back and forth in the fading light, looking at her eye. “Can you run?”

  “I am the wind.”

  Mom chuckled. “Sam, I’ll lead, you bring up the tail. The path is complex, designed to reveal anyone following us on the ground, and fool those watching from above. Stay close.”

  Complex was an understatement. We went into people’s apartments and out through their kitchens. We were underground part of the time and once leaped from rooftop to rooftop. Mom never slowed and never spoke until we entered an abandoned building, ran up the stairs and stopped.

  She was out of breath, but still managed to gasp, “Made it.”

  It was cold and all the blinds were down. I put my hand on the light switch but nothing happened.

  Mom smiled at me in the dark. “I helped pull all those connections out seventeen years ago. The CG was tracking us and we thought they might have been using the building’s wiring as a listening device. They were.” We were on the second floor landing and she was looking around at the gloomy hallway, remembering.

  I moved closer to Sam and touched his fingers. “What do we do now?”

  She seemed to be surprised that we were still there with her. “I need to find Ted.” She shivered, pulling herself back from wherever her thoughts had wandered.

  Mom took out her display pad and opened it. “I shouldn’t do this, but I have to know he’s all right. It’s risky. They could find us.” She waited, wanting us to give her permission.

  I looked at Winn and then at Sam. Winn answered for us. “Do it. I won’t be able to enjoy my time here if he’s still in danger.”

  She nodded, touched a few keys, and then disconnected.

  “What did you tell him?”

  She held the display up for us to read.

  “Running through the snow?”

  “He’ll understand. He’ll know right where we are and that we’re safe for the moment.” She started to shake her head, but it turned into another shiver. “Don’t ask me how.”

  “No lights. Is there heat?”

  I saw a crooked smile touch her lips before the light from the display pad winked out. “No. But there’s lots of blankets.”

  Sam squeezed my hand to reassure me. I know that’s how he meant it, but God help me, all I could think about was being under a stack of blankets with him.

  I think Sam blushed. It was getting easier for us to feel each other’s emotions. I know Mom felt it too because the way she looked at me, head tipped.

  “Let me show you the room you and Winona will share, and then I’d like to put something on her eye before we try to find dinner.”

  We examined our room with its bare floors, single bed and one desk with a hard chair. I was about to protest that I didn’t want to share a bed, but stopped myself. It seemed very petty given the circumstances. We examined Sam’s room, Mom using the light of the display pad to show us that it looked the same.

  “There’re candles in the drawer if you want a little light and to save your display pad power. Keep the shades down though if you do. Don’t even peek out. There’s a bathroom down the hall that shares a wall with the apartment next door. We steal a little hot water from them. Use it sparingly.”

  Her pad dinged and she smiled when she opened it.

  I read it out loud when she showed it to me. “I’m buying the beer?”

  “That’s a good sign. He’s safe and we have new allies. Remind me to tell you about how we talked our way out of New Palisade some time.” She sighed. “It took a lot of beer and a lot of dancing.”

  Winona leaned forward. “Dancing? You were a dancer on New Palisade?”

  “Ms. Killdeer?” Mom warned her.

  “Yes, ma’am. I work for you.”

  “Good. Now let’s get your eye tended to.”

  Watching her putting salve in Winona’s eye and touching healing sticks to her cheek by candle light made me feel like I’d stepped backwards in time a thousand years. Winn claimed it didn’t hurt anymore, but I think that was just her being brave.

  “What happens tomorrow?” Sam was still holding the candle while Mom finished with Winona.

  “Cuza will be back in the morning. He’s trying to set up a meeting for me with the leadership of the Bovita and then with the Council. If the political situation in the Warrens is as fractious as I’m afraid it is, we have a hard fight ahead of us. And I need Ted.”

  My heart skipped a beat. “I thought we were going home.”

  “You didn’t notice when Boden changed that plan?” She glanced at Sam. “At least for some of us. Mesa Vista will be here in four or five days, if the CG lets them dock. I’m going to do everything I can to get you back up there.”

  “Thanks. There’s times when I catch myself starting to feel like Winona, that I work for you.”

  She smiled at him with her eyes catching the candlelight and he blushed. I added learning how to smile like that to the list of things I wanted her to teach me.

  We ate a dinner of cold, prepackaged synthetics while we sat on the stairs, a single candle providing light. I was wrapped in a blanket with another one on top of that that I was sharing with Winona. The cold didn’t seem to bother Sam. Mom had a blanket, but it had slipped off her shoulders and she hadn’t bothered to wrap herself up again. She shivered a couple of times while we ate. I don’t think it had anything to do with being cold.

  “I’ve been thinking about the plan that the Tarakana put into Duse’s head. It was flawed, but there might be some elements that we can build on.” Winona was picking at the brown lump of ‘food’ in her hand, tearing off chunks and sniffing at each one before putting it in her mouth. “I wish I had seen more of it.”

  I nodded. “Most of it’s gone, like a half remembered dream. I should talk to the Tarakana again. They may have a better plan now.”

  Winona and Mom stopped chewing and stared at me. “I don’t mean the bad Tarakana colony, I mean Merrimac.”

  “Part of the Merrimac colony is down here?” Mom spoke quietly.

  “I thought you knew. You didn’t feel him on the shuttle?”

  She shook her head.

  “Really? There were–” I thought about it for a second, “–eighty-three of them on board. I thought you felt them.”

  Winona’s eyes had gone large. “Are they here with us now?”

  “A couple somewhere in the building, I think. I was going to try to find one after dinner and chat with him a bit. I suppose I’ll need to touch him to get what I want.”

  I lo
oked at Sam for support. He was looking at his shoes. “See!” I pointed. “Sam knew they were on board too. Can you feel the ones that are here?”

  “One in the bathroom and one up on the roof.”

  “Yeah, I think you’re right. That’s even better than me. You’re getting good at this.”

  “It’s important that I go with you, MD. I need to talk to him too. And touch him. I’m not sure why, but I think it’s really important to touch him together.”

  “Like hell you will.” Mom interrupted before I could agree with him. “I don’t have time to keep the two of you from doing the stupid things that your ‘friends’ keep trying to convince you are so important. Not if I’m going to keep us alive for the next forty-eight hours, or even till morning. Please,” she took my hand and stared hard at Sam. “Please promise me that you won’t do what they’re trying to get you to do.”

  I stole a quick glance at Sam. He had the same defiance in his eyes that I was feeling. I swallowed hard before answering.

  “No, I can’t promise that. You need what Merrimac is offering. He can help you unite the clans and reach a settlement with the CG that doesn’t involve mass murder.”

  “It’s called war.”

  “And he needs our help to eliminate the bad Tarakana colony that’s making things here even worse.”

  “Ah, now we’re getting to it. What else does he want? You and Sam?”

  “Yes. But I’ve convinced him that he has to wait for that.”

  Mom laughed. “Really? And you believe him? OK, then, let’s all go touch the damn Tarakana.”

  She stood and there was a hooting sound that came from somewhere in the building. A sort of panic started to fill me. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. They don’t want you to touch them.”

  “So, he’s still afraid of me?” She was smirking.

  “Uh huh.”

  Winona was staring at her. “If they’re afraid of you, how are you still alive? He seems to have no problem eliminating family members, or allowing them to die, once they’ve served their purpose. Alice’s mother, Ted’s mother, Sam’s father. There’s more.”

  Mom sat and took another bite of her dinner before answering. “I don’t know. I guess he still needs me. For Mala Dusa’s sake, I suppose. I know they don’t like me connected to their group mind. I understand them too well. The last time it almost felt like I could control him.”