by J. S. Morin
But as the shuttle rose, Esper rocked with the ship’s motion and kept herself steady as the straps strained to hold Tanny tightly in place. “Hold on. This is a short ride, but maybe not a smooth one,” Chimjo said from the cockpit. Despite being able to hear him a bit, speakers in the passenger section relayed his voice with an annoying audio parallax.
The trip was, as promised, both short and rough. Tanny’s shoulders ached when she unfastened her harness, and she caught a sly smile from Esper as she rubbed the spot where the straps had dug in. Their landing spot was a smaller version of the concrete slab outside the starport, with the service desk replaced by a supply shed. Chimjo met them on the pad and escorted them to a ground vehicle with no visible means of locomotion.
“Well, here you have it, one of the largest privately funded, POGOFAFEP-approved refuges in the galaxy,” Chimjo said, waving a hand across their field of view as he started the vehicle. It hummed forward with far less panache than the petrol-burners back in New Cali, crawling along the ground.
“POGOFAFEP?” Esper asked before Tanny could.
“The Phabian Organization for Galactic Ocean Flora and Fauna Extinction Protection,” Chimjo said. “Sorry, not being laaku, I shouldn’t have assumed you knew. They’re the galaxy’s leading authority on the care and nurturing of at-risk species.”
“I see,” Esper said.
“So what are you going to show us?” Tanny asked. It was one thing to play the tourist and potential donor, but she didn’t want to linger around this place all day.
“Well, for starters, we’re headed to the forest section,” Chimjo replied. “We’ve got fifty-three species of avian life, as well as a number of—”
“Do you have any megafauna?” Esper asked. “I was on Vi Tik Naa once, and they had this great safari that—”
“We don’t approve of that place around here,” Chimjo said with an ominous note in his voice. “That’s a hunting world. Damn shame what goes on out there beyond ARGO.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if someone brought those big, wonderful creatures somewhere safe?” Esper asked sweetly. “You don’t have any big, ancient creatures around here, do you?”
“Ancient?” Chimjo said. “Wouldn’t say ancient, but then again, you’re human, so you drove all sorts of creatures extinct.”
“A little before our time,” Tanny mumbled.
“We do have some pretty big creatures around here,” Chimjo said. “We’ve got a mammoth clan in the Northwest part of the reserve. They keep to themselves mostly, and find their own food, but they know me and don’t mind me being around. Not sure that’s the best place to go looking though.”
“What else’ve you got?” Tanny asked.
Chimjo sighed. She could tell that he believed in this place and must have thought they were gawking clods. If it weren’t for the promise of a donation to fund the reserve, he’d probably have kicked them out of the vehicle to walk back to the shuttle pad. “We’ve got a bear/tiger hybrid rescued from a genetics lab, but she’s skittish around new people—can’t say I blame her. There’s also a long-beaked condor with a nest not far from here. Last of his kind as far as we know; rescued him from the Sarfeist Cluster. And there’s a sentient canid from Poltid, fresh in from a private collector—still just a kid, really.”
“Sentient?” Esper said with a grin. “Ooh, can we meet him?”
It was a good thing she spoke up quickly, because Tanny was about ready to grab the little monkey by the throat and wring Kubu’s location out of him.
Chimjo checked a chrono on the vehicle’s control console. “Well… not right now. It’s lesson time. Mrs. Inviu takes a particular interest in rescued sentients. They get proper schooling, tailored to their intellectual development needs.”
Esper cast Tanny a speculative glance. Damn her! Yes, Tanny needed to come up with something to teach Kubu. He did need some sort of education, and ‘living aboard a starship’ wasn’t enough on its own. He’d learn about heists and engine maintenance and a million different plots to holovids, but not the ABCs and arithmetic that were the foundation of literacy and productive society.
“Maybe afterward?” Esper asked.
Chimjo lifted his cap and scratched the back of his head—which fortunately left two hands for driving—before answering. “We’ll see. Maybe. That’s all I can promise.”
“What’s that building over there?” Tanny asked. A structure of white and silver glinted on the horizon.
“You’ve got good eyes,” Chimjo remarked. “That’s the main house. Anything that prefers an indoor sleeping situation gets a room or stable or whatever they need.”
“Is that where Kubu is?” Esper asked.
Chimjo cut the throttle and the vehicle came to an abrupt halt. Twisting around in the seat, he confronted the two would-be wizards. “Who the hell are you? I never mentioned Kubu’s name.”
Tanny shot a hand out and grabbed Chimjo by his collar. “I’m his Mommy.”
Chimjo grabbed Tanny’s wrist with his upper hands and brought his lower two to bear against her chest. “Lemme go, you crazy ape!” He was startlingly strong for his size, threatening to tear the fabric of his own uniform to free himself from Tanny’s grasp.
But Tanny only had one hand occupied. With the other, she gave Chimjo a swift cuff to the side of the head. His struggles abated momentarily, but when his dizziness passed, he resumed his efforts to break free. With all the patience she could muster, Tanny measured out a slightly stiffer blow and struck the laaku ranger again. During his daze, she shook him, dislodging his feet from her chest.
“I won’t help you… kidnap him,” Chimjo mumbled with his head lolling forward.
“We’re not kidnapping him,” Esper said. “We’re here to rescue him. If he doesn’t want to come, we won’t force him.”
“Inviu’s… legal guardian.”
Tanny lifted Chimjo’s chin so he was looking her in the eye. “We are—to put it mildly—not concerned about legalities.”
“I need that on a coffee mug,” Esper muttered.
“We’re here to get Kubu back where he belongs,” Tanny said. “With the people who rescued him and who he trusts. I didn’t save him from one zoo to put him into another one, even if it’s a little nicer.”
“Can’t keep him on a starship,” Chimjo said. “No place for… big animal like that.”
“Not your problem,” Tanny said. “Now, I’ve got Convocation backup here, but I don’t need this to get any more violent than it’s already been. We’ll be gone and you’ll never see any of the three of us ever again.”
“Not… help you.”
“Dammit!” Tanny shouted into the limp laaku’s face. “Yes you will, or you’ll regret it. If I have to, I’ll—”
“Were you friends with Kubu?” Esper asked.
“Huh?”
“Does Kubu like you?” Esper asked. “Have you been kind to him?” She lowered her voice. “I’ll know if you’re lying.”
“Kubu’s a good boy,” Chimjo said. “I think he likes everybody. I take him hunting… find bunnies.”
“Let him go,” Esper ordered. It was odd hearing an order from those lips. But Tanny knew she meant it and wasn’t hearing arguments against it. She set the laaku on the seat of the vehicle and loosened her grip until he stood on his own, leaning heavily against the seat back.
“Don’t do this,” Chimjo said. “He’s better off here. Mrs. Inviu can take proper care—”
“Get out,” Tanny told him. “If you’re not helping us, fine. Since you haven’t done anything to Kubu, we’ll let you go. But we’re taking this… whatever you call this thing. And if you go calling for help, you’re just going to get a lot of people hurt. Maybe us, too. Maybe Kubu. But definitely a lot of your coworkers, and I’ll make sure one of them is you. Got it, four-hands?”
“Got it,” Chimjo said, stumbling out of the vehicle.
“That was uncalled for,” Esper said as they sped off with Tanny at the controls. Des
pite its odd appearance, efficient laaku design had left the vehicle starkly simple to operate.
“Hm?” Tanny grunted.
“Calling him four-hands,” Esper said. “I mean, he has four of them, but you were deriding him for it. Would you have called him that if Roddy were here?”
“In a heartbeat,” Tanny said. They were bouncing along uneven terrain in a machine of a vehicular breed she’d never heard of. It wasn’t the time to get cutesy-fuzzy over word choice. “Roddy knows his up from down. It’s not personal.”
Esper slid her hands into her sleeves and gave a cautious nod. “Let’s keep that idea at the fore. This is a rescue, not a vendetta. And I mean that.”
For the first time since they’d been on this mission, Tanny realized that she might not be in charge of it.
# # #
The main structure of the Duploth Refuge was larger than Tanny had guessed from a distance. It didn’t appear to be residential-grade building materials, either. It had the look of a modular colony for non-atmospheric worlds, or ones with toxic air. The only saving grace appeared to be the front door, which had a welcoming, business-like appearance, with glass double-doors and a sign above, lettered in some laaku language Tanny couldn’t read. She assumed that it was a welcome of some sort.
The strange, crawling vehicle halted out front as Tanny cut power to the throttle. She vaulted over the side and hustled up to the door, with Esper following suit. “Shit, camera!” she snapped, turning away from the black glass dome in the corner by the door.
“Well, she’s not going to wonder for long who came for Kubu anyway,” Esper said. “Not like she can’t scan the omni for your service record and get an image that way. Kubu’s only got so many mommies.”
Tanny tried the door, but the handle wouldn’t budge. Set into the white steel wall was an input panel, with a screen that was also displaying laaku script. “English,” she said, and the screen complied. It asked her to identify herself and offered voice, retinal, DNA, and password validation as options.
“Where’s the option for none of the above?” Esper asked, peering over Tanny’s shoulder. “Oh, wait…” She gently guided Tanny out of her way, then mashed a hand against the screen. The image seen around that slender hand went haywire, twisting, then flickering, then blank.
“Nice,” Tanny said. She heaved on the door handle, but it still wouldn’t open. “Bullshit! Fail secure? What kind of place is this? They lose power, everyone’s trapped inside.”
“Unless they’ve got a wizard,” Esper said. Once again, she pushed her way past Tanny, this time taking custody of the door handle. The 50-kilo slip of a woman set her feet, gritted her teeth, and pulled.
Nothing happened.
“Hold on,” Esper said through gritted teeth. She put a foot against one door while pulling on the handle of the other.
Still, nothing happened.
“I think you need to try your next trick,” Tanny said. “And make it quick, we must’ve gotten someone’s attention in there by now.”
“This door is… rather insistent that it’s actually closed,” Esper said. “I’m having a very hard time convincing it otherwise. I think Inviu might have coached it on what to do against wizards.” There was sweat beading on her forehead, but no sign of the door giving so much as a millimeter to show for it.
“If only I had a blaster,” Tanny grumbled. It wasn’t an efficient way to get through a door, not at the output power of a hand-held. But it was a helluva lot better than muscle power, even magically juiced muscle power. “Hold up a minute. Don’t herniate yourself.”
Tanny ran back for the crawler and hopped into the driver’s seat. It was the most awkward vehicle she could remember using, but it seemed to have good traction. She swung it around and backed it up the front steps. Catching on to what Tanny was planning, Esper scrambled out of the way before the crawler hit the doors. They protested briefly, bulging inward before buckling under the strain. The glass didn’t shatter, just bent and crumpled like steel. It was a wizarding trick, same as Mort has done years ago for all the glass aboard the Mobius. It was still weird to look at the results.
Esper climbed through the open cabin of the crawler to follow Tanny into the building. The halls were stark white, scrubbed spotless, and serenely lit. Flatvid screens showed footage promoting the work of the refuge, with laaku caretakers interacting with a variety of rare and exotic creatures. It brought back memories of the Gologlex Menagerie, which helped steel her resolve.
“Hold it right there!” a laaku voice shouted. It had only been a matter of time, she supposed. They hadn’t been quick, or stealthy, or the least bit subtle in their entrance. If she’d proposed that sort of breach in tactical school, she’d have flunked the course.
Two laaku in park ranger uniforms like Chimjo’s had their heads poking out from a side corridor, rifles aimed at Tanny and Esper. Seconds later, another pair emerged from a corridor farther down, advancing slowly with their rifles trained on the two intruders.
“Easy boys,” Tanny said, raising her hands. “We’re unarmed.”
“Put down your weapons,” Esper ordered. She raised a single hand, not in surrender. An image formed in the palm of that hand, as if held there by the loose grip of her outstretched fingers. It was the sigil of the Convocation, same as Mort used when he wanted to bully someone without using actual magic—which was rare. “This is Convocation business. Stand aside and you won’t be harmed.” To Tanny’s shock, Esper started down the corridor right for them, as if they were just holo images of actual guards.
But they hesitated. Tanny noticed one of the laaku down the hall take a tentative step back. Another poked around the corner, angling his weapon to point away from her.
“My business is with Inviu of Chapath. Where can I find her?” Esper asked. Tanny had never understood magic, not beyond what she’d seen it do with her own eyes. Was it possible that this was Mort, or a fragment of Mort that had been deposited in Esper’s brain? Had he cross-pollinated with her? Or had Esper really changed so much in a few short days.
A few long days, Tanny amended. Something Esper had said on the transport ship en route came back to her. In a month’s time, she’d be twice as old as Tanny. She would have spent more of her perceived life in Mort’s dreamland than in the real world.
“Bring her here!” Esper snapped when none of the rangers seemed inclined to supply information on their employer’s whereabouts. “And put those ridiculous toys away before you hurt someone.”
“They’re set on stun,” one of the rangers said by way of apology. “We don’t fire lethal weapons in the refuge.”
“Good,” Esper said. “Now find Inviu, and bring her to me.”
“Inviu is right here,” a new voice said. Tanny recognized it from the background of the comm Kubu had managed to send her shortly after his capture. The laaku woman who stepped into the corridor didn’t look like any sort of wizard. But then again, Mort didn’t either, most of the time. She was dressed in coveralls stained with dirt around the ankles and wore a pair of old-fashioned spectacles. She tucked a pair of gardening gloves into a pocket. “What business does the Convocation have here? Since when do you people bother with… It’s you!” Inviu looked squarely at Tanny as she said it. “These aren’t wizards. These are the poachers who stole Kubu! And they’re here to do it again. Detain them.”
The first shot missed Esper by the finger’s width, a blue energy that dissipated as soon as it struck steel. She pushed off against the nearest wall, thrusting herself out of the line of fire, then kicked off the far wall like a springboard. As she was about to slam into the pair of laaku at the corner, they both got their rifles aimed center-of-mass at her. But nothing fired. Esper must have fouled the tech that the rifles relied upon.
Tanny wasn’t about to allow Esper to face the laaku all by herself. She rushed forward, yelling incoherently to draw attention and sow panic. The two laaku at the end of the hall retreated for cover, firing poorly aimed shots i
n the hope of slowing her. They didn’t. Tanny’s target wasn’t the two retreating rangers, nor the two that Esper was pummeling. She was after Inviu, and the laaku woman knew it.
Inviu fled, hurtling down the corridor on all fours. Even with her pharmaceutically enhanced muscles, Tanny couldn’t match a healthy laaku in a sprint. But that didn’t stop her from pursuing. She saw Inviu disappear through a side door, and seconds later, Tanny threw it open and barged through. She was just in time to see Inviu disappear around a corner and headed off after her. This place wasn’t big enough for the laaku kidnapper to hide.
Tanny rounded the next bend and froze in place. She hadn’t intended to. But Inviu stood in the next room, arms crossed, with a smug look on her face. Try as she might, Tanny couldn’t budge a muscle.
“Kubu, come here,” Inviu said in a soft voice. “Look who’s here.”
Kubu peeked through an open door at the far end of the room. Good God, he’d grown huge. He must have put on thirty kilos since she’d last seen him. And he was wearing clothes—some sort of kiddie outfit, grossly oversized. “Mommy?” Kubu asked. “MOMMY!” He bounded across the room, and Tanny felt a moment’s panic as she was unable to brace herself for the affectionate onslaught. The canid slammed into her like a huge sack of furry meat (which she supposed he was). He licked her face, tail wagging furiously. “Oh, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. Kubu missed you.”
“I don’t love you,” Tanny said, shocked to hear the words come from her own mouth, which moved of its own accord.
“Mommy?” Kubu backed a step away. His tail still wagged, but more slowly.
“I’m here to steal you back, because you belong to me,” Tanny heard herself say. She wanted to scream that it wasn’t true, that she did love Kubu, and that Inviu was forcing her to say these things.
“You see, Kubu?” Inviu asked, strolling up and laying a hand on the back of Kubu’s neck. She had to reach up to manage. “She was lying to you all that time. She wasn’t going to take good care of you like I do. But my magic stopped her, kept you safe. I’ll always keep you safe.”