The Search for Ulyssa

by Heidi J. Leavitt

  “You won’t be going out into the city,” Aunt Andie said flatly.

  “What?” Kendra was incredulous. She had hopped solar systems and come to a new planet just to be stuck on a university campus for three years?

  “Dad’s rule,” Tiran grumbled. “Though he’s the one on the Red List. This is the first time I’ve been allowed out of the complex in ages, and you saw how many guards we had to have.”

  Aunt Andie sighed. “The Brotherhood has a list of planned assassinations, and your uncle is on the list. So the rest of us need to be extra cautious as well.”

  Kendra bit her lip. That was going to complicate things.

  Probably best to be cautious for now anyway, Dina said. There’s a dark current in this city. It’s . . . unnerving.

  But how are we going to search for Ulyssa?

  There’s plenty of time. Let’s settle in first and get an idea of what we are dealing with here.

  ♦

  When they reached the gate, it was a heavily congested area of pedestrians and transports. They joined a line of transports that inched its way close to the gate. There were guards everywhere, with weapons loose and ready to use at a moment’s notice. Kendra peered through the window, and she could even see sniper towers on either side of the gate. People were getting out of the transports when they reached the gate and joining a queue of pedestrians waiting to pass through a scanner. The line was long.

  “We got here just at the same time as the morning rush,” Tiran said. “There’s a whole bunch of your fellow students, and some of your professors as well, I bet. This is the closest gate to the university.” Kendra eagerly studied the line. Tiran was right. Most of those waiting seemed to be young adults, though some were older. Everyone was much taller than her. She was going to look like a child compared to her classmates.

  “This is a vulnerable point,” brooded Aunt Andie, mostly to herself. “If the Brotherhood were going to attack, we’re all sitting targets here, armored transport or not.”

  “Mom’s paranoid,” Tiran said in a loud fake whisper. Kendra glanced up at the guard facing her, who was scanning the outside of the transport, not giving any sign he was listening. He was on high alert; either he was paranoid also, or there was reason to be concerned.

  Their transport eventually made it to the front of the drop-off line, and the guards jumped out first, weapons out, scanning the crowd. Aunt Andie went next, and then Tiran nudged Kendra. Kendra stepped out onto the street and then froze.

  Eeeeeeeech! Dina’s mental screech stabbed through her head. Kendra stumbled, dropping to one knee while Dina’s screaming reverberated in her skull.

  “Kendra!”

  She was aware of hands on her shoulders, voices trying to talk to her, but Dina’s distress had overtaken everything. The pain and confusion and noise were overwhelming, and Kendra tried to just ride the wave of pain, hoping that she wouldn’t drown. She only vaguely felt the arms around her waist, helping her up, helping her to stagger forward. She didn’t register passing through the scanner, though the retina scan jolted her into momentary awareness before Dina’s hysterical agony swamped her again.

  “Kendra!”

  Dina’s mental scream finally trailed off, though Kendra could still feel pulsing throbs from her direction. Kendra opened her eyes again, realizing that she was on the other side of the gate. She was lying on the grass beside the path, with one of the guards and her aunt bending over her.

  Are you all right? Kendra cried.

  I . . . I’m . . . that was . . . I’ve never felt anything like that before, Dina said weakly. But I think I’m OK. Just give me a couple moments to recover.

  “We’re . . . I’m OK,” she told her aunt, sitting up. “I think I had some kind of weird reaction to the shield.” Her aunt glanced back at the gate and then at Kendra again. A crowd of strangers was starting to gather around her. The guard stood back and started directing the students to keep moving along.

  “Just rest for a minute. One of the medical guys is on his way.”

  “No, I’m fine, I promise,” Kendra protested. But Aunt Andie wouldn’t listen. The medtech who arrived asked about her symptoms and scanned her. Kendra hesitated and then described a sudden splitting headache that blocked everything else out. It was close enough to the truth. He checked the screen on his device and then asked her to try and walk a bit. Kendra took a few steps, hoping she looked steady. Her legs felt fine, even if her stomach was still a little queasy.

  The guard offered to summon a ride, and Aunt Andie agreed. A few minutes later, Kendra climbed onto a small open motorized cart. It had three rows of padded seats, and she sat down next to Tiran with a thump in the second row. The students still streaming into the complex on the way to their classes stared in open curiosity at her.

  “I feel like one of those popular exhibits in the Terran Traveling Zoo. ‘Check out the collapsing Citizen!’” she muttered to her cousin.

  Tiran smiled. “Can you blame them? Not only did you pass out—which is terribly interesting and romantic, you know—you are also an exotically beautiful Citizen. Probably the most interesting thing they’ll see all day!”

  Kendra rolled her eyes. “Right.” Tiran giggled. Then Aunt Andie finished speaking with the lead guard and hopped onto the cart, sliding onto the bench seat in front of Kendra and Tiran. Their driver didn’t waste any time; he started down the broad road right away. He had to keep sounding a horn to get the mass of students to move aside so he could drive through, but then they turned onto an empty road that led the opposite direction from the giant cluster of buildings the students were heading toward.

  “We don’t need any guards now?” Kendra asked.

  “Nope. The nice thing about that shield—even though clearly you’re allergic or something, I’ve never seen anything like your reaction before—is that it’s safe enough in here that we don’t have to be guarded every second. Even Mom and Dad will let me run around on my own, free to run crazy, as long as I stay in the complex. Granted, you don’t want to run too crazy, just in case you’re getting any ideas, because there are cameras everywhere. I do mean everywhere, except inside our house.”

  Kendra glanced around. They were driving down a narrow road with a row of houses on the left and a large parklike space on the right, with graveled paths and manicured flowering bushes. Where were the cameras?

  “Trust me,” Tiran said, noting Kendra’s survey of the area around them. “Even if you don’t see them, they are there.” She pointed up to the sky, and Kendra spotted a tiny drone hovering overhead. Not much in the way of privacy here. Kendra supposed it was a good thing that she had given up dancing with Dina-leaf-figures years ago.

  Dina?

  Still not ready to talk, Kendra, came the faint response. Kendra swallowed her impatience and went back to studying her surroundings. Hopefully, Dina would feel well enough to talk to her soon.

  ♦

  The driver stopped the cart in front of the house at the very end of the lane. It was a bit larger than all the ones they had passed before. “Here it is—the Ambassador House!” Tiran said proudly with a sweep of her arm. Her cousin hopped out as soon as they stopped. Kendra stumbled out after her. Her legs were still a little weak after that . . . incident with Dina at the shield. Aunt Andie climbed out after and turned to speak to their driver, an elderly Denicorizen man in a tidy gray button-down shirt and stiff black pants. Kendra couldn’t understand a word of the conversation. Hopefully she picked up some of the Denicorizen language quickly.

  Tiran started up the path to the house, so Kendra followed after, staring upward at what was to be her new home for the next three years. The Ambassador House was about the same size as her grandparents’ house in New River, but that was where the similarities ended. It was built out of red stone blocks and had thick windows that reflected silver in the setting sun. The dull metal roof slante
d up at a steep angle. It looked slick and dangerous; Kendra wondered how anyone repaired the roof without sliding off to their death.

  There was no fenced yard or courtyard belonging to the house, though it was surrounded by an expanse of carefully manicured green grass. A wide path led from the lane up to a tall metal door that had decorative scrollwork visible even from the road. Tiran reached the door and pressed the thumblock.

  “We’ll take you to the security office tomorrow and get you coded for the door,” Tiran explained. “The Armada runs all the security for the International Complex, including our house.”

  “How big is the complex?” asked Kendra, as Tiran opened the front door.

  “Well, the public section is a little over two square kilometers, I think. The Armada base is bigger, but we don’t have access to that part.”

  The door swung inward on hinges, and Kendra stared at it. She’d only known sliding doors all her life. Doors that swung sideways? She stepped through the doorway and studied it. “It’s not automatic?” she asked in puzzlement.

  “No,” Tiran laughed. “You have to do the work. All the doors are like this on Corizen. You should have seen me when we first arrived back on Zenith, when I was a kid. Every door whooshing open startled me.”

  “But what if you have your hands full? Or you are disabled?” Kendra asked, swinging the door back and forth. It was heavier than she thought. Though with a door that was tall enough for giants to enter without stooping, she guessed that was to be expected. Tiran shrugged. “You put stuff down until you open the door. Or you get some help. It’s not a big deal.”

  “Hmmm.”

  “Come on,” Tiran said excitedly. “Let me show you to your room.” She started up the stairs, and while Kendra forced her exhausted legs to follow, she barely got a glimpse of a wide open living area dotted with comfortable-looking chairs and some tall potted plants. Her room was the first door on the left. Tiran waved her in, and Kendra walked through. It was a good-sized room, with a large bed with snow-white fluffy bedding and a pile of pillows. The walls were pale blue, and there was a wide rectangular desk in one corner with her own terminal. The window was large, with a cushioned bench right in front of it.

  “The window is the best part,” Tiran explained. Kendra walked up to stand beside her and gazed out. The house must have been up on a small plateau—she could see out across the complex.

  “That side is the university,” Tiran said, pointing toward the cluster of large buildings surrounding a plaza. There were small figures scurrying around as well as groups sitting or standing together. “On the far side, you can just see them from here, are the botanical gardens.” Kendra’s eyes wandered to the left, where a tall imposing building with rows and rows of windows rose up out of a mass of broad, leafy trees. “What’s that?”

  “The embassy building. My dad’s office is in there. Pretty much every Union official who is here on Corizen works in that building. Most of the Citizens on the planet stay here in Roma, though some of the more enterprising businesspeople have ventured out to Urok.” Just beyond the embassy building, Kendra’s eyes blurred. No matter how she focused, she could not see what lie beyond it. That had to be the shield.

  She felt a mental shudder from Dina and turned back to Tiran.

  “I don’t see anything blue,” observed Kendra with a frown. “Corizen is famous for its blue plants, yet everything looks pretty much like the green stuff that’s normal on my planet.”

  Tiran laughed. “I hear that from every off-planet dignitary that comes to visit my parents. Yeah, the International Complex has all kinds of vegetation and not much of it is blue. Some of it is from different planets—the botanical gardens have stuff from all over the place—but even here on Corizen we have pretty familiar vegetation around. Humans wouldn’t have colonized here without it. What would they have eaten? But the tukrite mineral that turned us all blue—that gives the Blue Cress its color too. It’s the Blue Cress you’re thinking of. If we ever get out of the city, you’ll see it everywhere. It’s definitely an aggressive species.”

  “What about the Blue Plains?” Kendra asked curiously. Everyone had heard of the famous Blue Plains of Corizen. Kendra had seen photos of the breathtaking expanse of barren clay fields in every hue of blue. It was beautiful and hostile and alien-looking. Something she hoped very much she’d get to see in person.

  “Oh,” sighed Tiran, sitting down on the window seat, “I would love to see the Blue Plains. They’re in Urok, though, so they might as well be on Terra. I’ll never get there. Mom says I’m not missing anything. She says they are dull and ugly.” She sighed again. Kendra suppressed her groan of disappointment. Another hope dashed. Was she going to get to see anything interesting at all? Why bother coming this far to go to school if she spent all of it penned up inside a small block of land created to look as much like home as possible?

  And how in the world could she help Dina find her twinspark? Unless Ulyssa happened to be hanging around Aunt Andie again.

  She’s not, Dina whispered. Not anymore. But she might not be able to get through that shield. Some of the built-up tension in Kendra’s neck dissipated. Dina was ready to talk again.

  Not anymore? So she has been near her since she returned to Corizen? And it was the shield that . . . affected you that badly?

  I can tell by your aunt’s aura that my twinspark has shadowed her since her last portal jaunt—the aura, or the energy signature record, for lack of better way to explain it, is essentially wiped clean with every jaunt. But she’s gone, and I don’t know how long ago it was. My guess is not very recently.

  “You must be tired,” Tiran said, breaking into the mental conversation. Kendra realized she’d been staring blindly out the window long enough for it to grow awkward.

  “I am, a bit,” Kendra agreed, trying to cover for her lapse. It wasn’t even a lie. Even though she had slept through the entire jaunt, she was exhausted. Traveling seemed to do that.

  “Well, I’ll leave you to rest. Do you want me to wake you when your luggage arrives?”

  “Nah, I’ll deal with it later. If you’ll make sure I don’t sleep through the next meal, though, I’d appreciate it. I’m sure I’ll be hungry by then!” she said gratefully.

  Tiran left her to the room with a wave, and Kendra flopped down on the bed, closing her eyes.

  The shield? she asked.

  Felt like it was taking bites out of my own essence and ripping them away. It repelled me, and I don’t think I ever would have been able to move closer on my own, but since you were still moving through and I’m bonded to you . . .

  You got dragged through it anyway. I’m so, so sorry.

  Now we know. Shields don’t just keep out weapons. They repel isithunzi too.

  What are we going to do?

  We are going to stay inside this complex. That’s what your family wants you to do anyway, and I’m in no hurry to go through that again.

  But Dina, we’ll never find Ulyssa that way.

  I know.

  But . . .

  Give me time.

  3. Orientation

  The next day, Kendra set out with Tiran to explore the university campus. She had a list of classes and the buildings they would be in, but no idea where anything was, of course. Kendra had been assigned a mentor, a senior Denicorizen student who would be helping her during her first year, but she wouldn’t meet him until later. In the meantime, Tiran offered to help her get a head start.

  It took about ten minutes for them to walk along the road past the other houses back toward the school. When they reached the wide walkway that led toward the campus, it was almost empty. Only a few others were headed in this morning.

  “If the school term hasn’t started yet, why were all those students coming onto campus yesterday?” Once Kendra recovered from the shock of Dina’s shield trauma and her own trip exhaustion
, she remembered all those gawking students headed toward the buildings and worried that she had missed something important.

  “I think it was just the locals’ orientation. It’s for all the new Denicorizen students; they give them a lecture about how important it is to be respectful and polite to the people from different planets and cultures.”

  “So my orientation meeting tomorrow morning is pretty much the same thing?” Kendra assumed.

  “I guess. Though you’ll probably also get the basic explanations about Denicorizen culture so you don’t end up in a blood feud or something.”

  “A blood feud?” Kendra’s eyes widened. That sounded ominous—it made her think of the early towns on Zenith that had ended up divided between large rival extended families that refused to work together. Those towns usually ended up abandoned, places that everyone escaped as soon as they could. But who would want to feud with the families of strangers from other planets?

  “Yeah. If someone gets seriously offended, they might declare a blood feud against you. Basically, they are announcing that they plan to kill you, your parents, and your children.”

  Kendra gasped. That is brutal!

  Reasonable, contradicted Dina. You eliminate the people most likely to retaliate against you.

  What?!

  It all depends on your point of view.

  “People are allowed to do that?” asked Kendra, fascinated against her will. Life must be very different on Corizen if murder was legal for, say, calling someone an idiot.

  “Well, no, not technically. It’s been illegal since before the revolution. But if you betray someone—especially someone who’s crazy in the first place—they still happen.” Tiran paused for a second to wave at a small group of young adults headed the opposite direction. One girl called hello to Tiran, and then all three stopped talking to stare openly at Kendra as they walked past. Kendra tried not to let it bother her. She probably looked as unusual to them as they did to her. Tiran looked bewildered as the girls walked on by, then glanced apologetically at Kendra.