At Galactic Central

by Kate MacLeod

  “I wanted to ask you something,” Scout said.

  Daisy didn’t respond right away. But then she switched the table lamp on to its lowest setting and turned to look at Scout. There was a guarded expression on her face, and Scout guessed she was bracing herself for Scout to ask prying questions about what she did all day.

  Not that she didn’t wonder every day what her friend was up to. But, having secrets of her own, Scout respected that Daisy would tell her everything she needed to know when it was important and the rest when she was ready.

  “Do you know another way out of this place besides the fissure under the bridge?” Scout asked as she sat up. Shadow made a soft protesting sound and burrowed deeper under the blanket. Gert didn’t stir at all.

  “Another way out?” Daisy repeated. She looked around the room and then back at Scout. “Where’s your glider?”

  “Yeah, I lost that,” Scout said.

  “Ugh, I’m just too distracted these days,” Daisy said, rubbing tiredly at her face. “You said there were troublemakers. I didn’t follow up on that.”

  “It’s not serious,” Scout said. “Just a bunch of kids our age or a little younger. No enhancements or anything, just normal kids.”

  “How did you lose the glider?” Daisy persisted.

  “So, okay, one of them slashed the wing with a knife, but they were just trying to force me down. If they had wanted me dead, they could have done worse.”

  “What did they want?” Daisy asked.

  “I’m working on that,” Scout said. “But on my terms. I would rather not run into them again if I can help it. I can plot a different course out to the Tajaki island; that’s not a problem. But I will need a new glider, and a different way out of here would help too.”

  “I got our gliders from a kid at the end of the hall,” Daisy said. “I hope he’s an early riser, or I might have to spend a little extra for waking him.”

  “Sorry, I should have mentioned about the glider last night,” Scout said.

  “Maybe you should stay in today anyway,” Daisy said.

  “No, I can’t,” Scout said.

  “Your friends will be fine without you checking on them for one day,” Daisy said.

  “It’s not that,” Scout said. “What if Bo Tajaki leaves me a message? I have to check every day. I have to be sure.”

  “I can check,” Daisy said. “Although you’d have to tell me what I’m looking for.”

  “I can’t,” Scout said. “I don’t know what it will be. You said that he said I would know it when I saw it. I’m not sure if that means it will be something specifically targeted at me or something anyone could puzzle out.”

  “Shi Jian keeps bouncing from wanting to kill us to wanting to take us alive and recruit us. Are you sure these troublemakers weren’t part of her army?”

  “They definitely didn’t have enhancements,” Scout said. “I slipped away by hiding in the shadows under the bridge. They were right there, circling around in a search formation, but they never saw me.”

  “It could be a ruse,” Daisy said, unconvinced.

  “I’m working a lead,” Scout said. “I think I know who they report to; I just don’t know what they wanted with me.”

  “Who do you think they report to?” Daisy asked.

  “Sparrow, the Space Farer girl who was in the Months’ court of pirates,” Scout said. “I’ve seen video of her. I know she came here with them. I’m not sure if she’s still with them, or if she’s on her own, or what she wants from me.”

  “Okay,” Daisy said slowly. “I can ask around too. I’m guessing we’re thinking along the same lines: confront her directly when you can find her, but in the meantime, stay away from these troublemaker kids.”

  “Exactly,” Scout agreed.

  “I’ll figure out what I can,” Daisy said. “I know some people I can ask first. But Scout, promise me you won’t confront anyone alone. If you find out where she is, come get me.”

  “Come get you from where?” Scout asked. She held her breath, half certain that Daisy would abandon the beginnings of their plan for the sake of keeping her whereabouts secret.

  But then she straightened her spine and looked Scout right in the eye. “There’s a large public house at the far end of the bridge. The only way off the bridge to that island is a series of archways through the public house itself; you can’t miss it. If you don’t see me there, ask for Ruby.”

  “Who’s Ruby?” Scout asked, but when Daisy’s face flushed, she held up her hands as if to snatch that question back. “Ask for Ruby, got it.”

  Daisy slipped out the door, and Scout got out of bed and washed in the bucket of water they kept at the head of the bed. The water was so cold she expected to see ice forming over the surface, but the sting of it chased the last of the sleepiness from her mind.

  Daisy came back with a pink glider an exact match to the one she had lost. Except for the color. Scout preferred earth tones. At the moment, she only cared about being able to stay aloft.

  “He said there are a bunch of ways out of here,” Daisy said. “Follow any of the hallways; none of them dead-end. Some lead up to the street above, some just to the sewer levels. But the largest opening is at the far end of the cave. It leads to a fissure on the other side of the island.”

  Scout nodded as she pulled on her boots.

  “Scout, these places are well known to the locals,” Daisy said. “Any of them could already be staked out for an ambush. Or all of them.”

  “I’ll be careful,” Scout said. “Honestly, I don’t know why they didn’t just try talking to me, but I’m certain they weren’t trying to really hurt me. I don’t think Sparrow is my enemy.”

  “A lot could have changed since you saw her last,” Daisy said.

  “I know,” Scout said, getting to her feet. “I’ll be extra careful. And I won’t confront her without you there. Although she’s just an ordinary kid. Not even twelve.”

  “She’s got others to do her bidding,” Daisy said. “That’s power.”

  “I’ll check Bo’s compound for a message, then I fly straight back here,” Scout promised. “The dogs are due for a full day’s romp with me anyway.”

  “Okay,” Daisy said. “I’ll see you at dinner.”

  “Stay safe,” Scout said.

  Daisy nodded absentmindedly, then disappeared out the door.

  Ruby?

  Scout gave herself a little shake. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t her business.

  And yet she couldn’t help wondering again what Daisy did all day.

  Scout brought the dogs down to the cave and let them run about for a bit until she had identified the tunnel the glider-maker had told Daisy about. Then she brought them back up to the room, ignoring their doggy protests as she shut them up inside the small, boring space with the wash bucket of water and a few handfuls of kibble strewn in various hideaways for them to find. She had to leave them with something to keep them occupied, poor things. They were used to a far more active and interesting life.

  Then she carried her new glider through the cave, down the long, unlit tunnel that passed under the city above. It took nearly an hour to reach the far side.

  This place was actually nicer for takeoffs than the fissure under the bridge. There she had to jump and unfurl her wings as she fell. It had been absolutely terrifying the first few times.

  But the tunnel opened out on a ledge covered with sand like the cave below. There was plenty of room not only to unfurl her glider wings but to get a running start, to hit the air with a good amount of forward momentum. She dropped only a meter or two before catching a blast of current that carried her spiraling high over the island city.

  Although the skies over the city were full of other kids on gliders riding the winds, none of them appeared to be wearing black. Certainly, none of them were closing in on her or even looking her way.

  Scout spread her wings and soared through the misty clouds toward the familiar far-off district where both
sets of Tajaki cousins had their estates. Scout knew Bo shared his compound with a few distant members of his family, but she had never met them or even known their names. She only knew they were the reason she couldn’t just walk in the door and talk to Bo directly. They were the reason she had to watch for subtle clues to be sure she wasn't missing a message.

  Although Daisy had told her the weather here never really changed, the air felt warmer than it had the day before. Perhaps she was just plunging through fewer clouds.

  She reached the base of the wall of the Tajaki island compound and carefully stashed her glider behind an outcropping of rock where it wouldn’t get damaged or blown away. Then she started the long climb back up to the narrow ledge.

  It was early, too early for Seeta, Geeta, and Emilie to be out in the garden, but she paused there anyway. She zoomed her glasses in on every detail of the place, staring down into every open garden, trying to peer through every window and door.

  The windows all flashed brightly back at her as if reflecting intense sunlight back at her. And yet as always, Galactic Central was all the pink, cloudy softness of a foggy morning, no proper sun anywhere.

  She suspected this was some sort of anti-spying technology. If Sparrow were anywhere inside that building, Scout was not going to determine that just by looking through the windows.

  Nothing had changed in the little garden around the pond. She wished again that there was a way to get them a message, to at least let them know she was there and was watching over them, but there wasn’t.

  At last, Scout scaled the last of the wall, pulling herself up on the narrower top to look down on the grasslands below.

  Scores of horses were grazing closer to her than she had ever seen them before. They usually didn’t cross the little river that ran parallel to the outer wall. She had taken it for granted that the river was a barrier, that she would never see them so close.

  Was this the message?

  If so, what did it mean?

  “Hello, Teacher,” Scout said.

  “Hello, Scout,” Warrior said, appearing in front of her, straddling the wall and looking down at the grasslands just as Scout was. “Interesting.”

  “It’s the message?” Scout said.

  “Don’t you see it?” Warrior asked. “Adjust your glasses to read heat.”

  Scout didn’t have to; the glasses heard Warrior’s words as a command and adjusted themselves.

  The bodies of the horses glowed a warm shade of red, but several of them had something more going on. It looked like someone had painted their skin with . . . cold. How was that possible?

  “Does it hurt them?” Scout asked.

  “No, it’s likely just a surface layer of nanites repelling heat. They don’t feel a thing,” Warrior said.

  Scout looked from horse to horse. The cold patterns against their warm bodies were forming letters, but the letters made no sense.

  “It doesn’t spell anything,” Scout said.

  “He must have been pressed for time,” Warrior said. “Otherwise he could have trained them to stay in formation. You’ll have to work it out from what you have.”

  Scout frowned. Her AI already knew the answer, but because it was a teacher first, it wouldn’t just tell her.

  Scout looked at the letters again. There were only five, although some of them repeated. Was that part of the word or part of Bo’s effort to be sure she had all the information even if some of the horses wandered off to other parts of the enclosure?

  “Court?” Scout said at last. “The courthouse. He wants me to go to the courthouse.”

  “Very good,” Warrior said.

  “Do you have any idea why? Any news?” Scout asked.

  “Nothing in the feeds,” Warrior said. “But he’s in a position to know things before that knowledge goes public.”

  Scout bit her lip. “I have to get to Daisy.”

  “I think that’s wise,” Warrior agreed. “And may I express again my assessment that she is a friend worthy of all of your trust?”

  “Yes,” Scout said, “you’ve said.”

  “And yet my existence remains a secret.”

  “Good-bye, Teacher,” Scout said, then started the climb back down to her glider.

  She knew she could trust Daisy. Daisy had saved her life more than once.

  She knew she should trust Daisy. Daisy had forgiven her for killing her little sister Clementine. Granted Clementine had been shaped into a monster by Shi Jian, and Scout had only done it because Clementine had been about to kill Gert, but still. Forgiveness for that had been beyond Scout’s hopes.

  She had no reason not to trust Daisy, and she knew that. What she didn’t know was why she couldn’t just tell Daisy that she had a teaching AI. Especially as she was more than half convinced that Daisy, who had been spying on Shi Jian while hiding inside the walls of Bo Tajaki’s starship, already knew that Bo had gifted it to Scout. He had consulted with Shi Jian about nearly everything; they must have discussed it.

  But she couldn’t bring herself to say anything about it out loud, or even just to summon Warrior when Daisy was around. Was she a glutton for the guilty feelings of keeping a secret from her closest friend?

  Or had so many years living alone with her dogs made her physically incapable of trusting another human?

  She didn’t like that thought. It made her sound broken. Not fixable. And she didn’t think that was true.

  And yet, Warrior remained a secret.

  Scout dropped the last couple of meters to the rocky ledge, then deployed her glider and leaped out into the sky.

  She and Daisy had to get to the courthouse right away. Everything else would wait.

  6

  Scout knew exactly where to find the public house Daisy had described. She had flown over it many times. It was larger than any other single building in the marketplace, providing a transition from the smaller shops and restaurants to the larger government buildings on the island itself.

  Scout spiraled down to land in the middle of the street on the bridge in front of the house. People were streaming past her in both directions, towards the markets behind her and towards the open plaza beyond the public house. She could just see the steps that led up to the massive court building on the far side of the tiered fountain that dominated the plaza.

  Scout gave her glider a swift jerk and it collapsed back to its storage configuration, wings folded against the central spine so tightly it resembled little more than a tallish walking stick.

  The public house had no doors, just open doorways that revealed little of the dark interior. But she could hear the sounds of people talking and laughing and carousing in a manner that felt incongruous with the early hour.

  She could also smell the odors of people carousing. The sour smell of spilled beer left too long on the stone floor, the juicy aroma of meat grilling over an open flame, the richer scent of browning butter.

  What were they cooking with browned butter? Scout’s stomach was growling at her loudly, reminding her she had left in too much of a hurry to grab anything for breakfast.

  But she was still in a hurry. She grasped her glider/stick and plunged into the dark interior of the public house.

  It was bigger on the inside. The ceiling was lost in shadows far above her—she had expected that—but there were also sublevels dug down into the stone of the bridge itself. Every dimly lit table seemed to float on its own platform, letting the proprietor truly maximize all dimensions of the space to cram customers in.

  And that space was crammed full. Scout didn’t even know where to start looking for Daisy. Or Ruby, as she was called here. She took a few hesitant steps further inside.

  A flash of red caught the corner of her eye, but when she turned to follow it, she saw nothing but drab clothing made even dingier by the inadequate light.

  Scout rose up on tiptoe, then ducked down to try that angle between the platforms that insisted on bobbing ever so gently up and down. She was certain it was Sparrow’
s red hoodie that she had seen, but there was no sign of it now.

  “A bit of a rough crowd for you, I’m guessing,” someone said. Scout straightened, gripping her glider tightly in both hands across her body, but the youth talking to her didn’t have a threatening look to him. Not with his hands thrust deep within his pockets. But there was no mistaking the strength in his bare arms, and the tattoo of a dragon coiling around his arm with its tail wrapped around his wrist and its eyes glaring balefully at her from over his shoulder had a sinister look to it. “It’s mostly ship crews here, looking to blow off some steam. Maybe not your crowd.”

  “I’m looking for Ruby,” Scout said, and the youth’s eyebrows rose.

  “A friend of Ruby,” he said, looking her over as if she would have some identifying mark to prove she was.

  “Is she here? It’s urgent,” Scout said.

  “She’s just over there,” he said, pointing to a doorway to Scout’s left, one that opened out onto one of the archways that led from bridge to plaza. “Probably give her a minute, though.”

  At first, Scout could only see the silhouette of two bodies moving against the brighter light from the doorway. Then her glasses adapted and she could see the details. Daisy, wearing the same tight pants and sleeveless shirt as the youth standing beside Scout, was wrestling with a much larger woman. The woman’s left arm and right leg appeared to be made of metal, like robotic implants, but Daisy had interlocked her fingers with the fingers of the woman’s fleshy right arm, twisting them back so fiercely Scout flinched just looking at it.

  It had to hurt, given the way the much larger, half-robot woman was letting herself be guided to the exit. Then Daisy thrust her outside with such force the much larger woman fell to the ground.

  “I’ll be back!” she shouted, shoving a mass of flame-red hair out of her eyes to fix Daisy with a glare.

  “Sleep a bit first,” Daisy shouted back, then turned to look towards the youth.

  And Scout.

  She didn’t run, but Scout doubted many could walk as fast as Daisy when she wanted to be somewhere in a hurry.