Aedre's Firesnake

by Rayner Ye

“We need to fly to get to my home. Say what you want.”

  “I want to be an owl.” Aedre’s body transformed. Her eyesight and hearing sharpened, and she took off, into the air.

  ***

  Aedre lathered soap over her wet body and scooped water from a bucket to rinse. Her mind played the conversation she’d had a week ago with Sharr Shuvuu in her treehouse. She’d never imagined the spiritual plain was Eeporyo, one of Plan8’s inhabited planets.

  She couldn’t wait for it to rain again. But where would she go?

  Somare wanted her to retrieve a key from a crow, but she couldn't carry things by river and rain travel. She’d learned when she’d failed to bring back a leaf from Eeporyo to Haunted River. Perhaps this crow had information about where her future-self had hidden it.

  Sharr Shuvuu wanted her to rescue Bamdar’s slaves. How would she find the power? The Yiksaan had security and laser guns. She poured water over her head and wiped it from her face.

  In her heart, she wanted to see Dad on the next downpour of rain. Shape-shift to Soozan and gain access to his mental asylum.

  But maybe he was better now. Well over a year ago, before Aedre went to the labour camp, the foreign embassy had allowed her to use their airSphere. Failing to contact Soozan, she’d called Dad’s office, and his colleague had told her about Dad’s attempted suicide. He’d also promised to tell him Aedre was alive and well in the Firesnake.

  She wrapped a sarong around her body and strolled along a dark garden path. Frogs croaked in distant paddy fields, and cicadas chirped in trees. Neither stars nor moonlight peeked through the layer of clouds.

  Which mission should she carry out first? Visit the crow woman, save Bamdar’s slaves, or visit Dad?

  A short and round shadow caught her eye on the adjoining path. Wayan. But it was too late, and Wayan bumped into her. “Sorry. Aedre?”

  “Yes.”

  “I keep asking Komang to fix this lamp here, but he hasn't yet.”

  “Usually, I can follow the light from the stars and moons.”

  “Not tonight. Monsoon season's coming. Here…” Wayan patted Aedre’ shoulder. “I was about to give you this sago milk.”

  Aedre accepted a warm bowl. “Thank you.”

  “You’ve saved me the effort of climbing those steps. My knees aren't young anymore.”

  Her knees would benefit from her losing some weight, but Aedre wouldn't hurt her feelings.

  ***

  Later that night, a crack of thunder awoke her. Rain pounded her roof like a million stones. Her body, heavy from sleep almost drifted to the lullaby, but she shook herself awake.

  She’d follow Sharr Shuvuu’s desire this time, not Somare’s. His village had ten more years until Giok’s volcanic eruption, but Bamdars sex slaves needed freedom now.

  Dad could wait too. She gritted her teeth and swallowed. She’d told herself the same thing at the Air Dome in Rajka.

  Aurashield on rain protection, Aedre felt her way out by running her fingers along the wet curve of the brick wall. Upon entering Monkey Forest, she switched on her aurashield’s torch, careful to keep central to the path. Locals feared ghosts in Monkey Forest, but only poisonous snakes scared her.

  Where was her drone? Surely it couldn’t fly in this downpour. As long as it wasn’t in her aurashield, it shouldn’t matter. Bamdar would no doubt think she was strange lying on a rock in the middle of Haunted River at night, but who cared what he thought?

  Only the second downpour in two months, Haunted River still ran shallow. On the boulder, she lay down and switched off her torch. Although dry within her aurashield, she shivered from fear. Something or someone might harm or kill her on her journey.

  First, she'd gone to Eeporyo from Haunted River, now Rajka. “Take me outside the Yiksaan complex in Rajka. I will take the form of a common fly.”

  Once transformed, she buzzed above the river and dark jungle. Damp mist engulfed her as she ascended through the cloud.

  Above clouds, in clear sky, her new compound vision displayed thousands of tiny moons. She unfocused, and the image merged into one—a half-moon and a crescent, resting on opposite horizons. She zoomed to the west, towards Rajanakki. Her body jerked to a stop, and she fell like a lump of iron. How could she feel so heavy with a common fly’s body?

  Spiralling through the cloud and towards the capital, her stomach leapt into her throat. A strong upwind felt as if it would blow her apart. Would this be her last memory? How would the impact feel?

  “Don’t let me die. Don’t let me die!”

  As if something answered her prayer, she bounced on air a metre above ground and floated downward, then hovered outside a wire fence. Taking a moment to calm her racing heart, she scanned the area. Armed guards patrolled the security gates.

  Even though houseflies were small, even smaller would feel safer. Change me into a mosquito. Her body twisted and mutated, and she peered at her gangly legs. Good.

  The only open entrance to Bamdar’s warehouse had a neon ‘karaoke’ sign above it. She flew through spaces in the wire and over patrons.

  At the entrance, a beautiful ultraviolet light caught her attention. She couldn't stop herself flying towards it. Her heart yearned for that bright colour.

  Pain seared her limbs. Her body convulsed, then blackness.

  She couldn't move on the boulder. Liquid trickled from her nostril and down her cheek. Blood. Her head felt as if it’d been smashed and broken like an egg, then her brains left to sizzle on the rock.

  Action and the Yiksaan

  Rain still pounding her aura shield, dawn greeted Aedre with a grey sky. Although she could now wriggle her fingers, everything else remained paralysed. At least her pain had subsided.

  Somare might be waking and hoping she’d gone to Haunted River to find that key. But the slaves were more critical. She wouldn't give up, even if she’d never walk again. She’d go back now.

  Her astral body shot into the rain-drenched sky like a rocket. She zoomed over the cloud once more. How much time went by in Giok while she travelled? It seemed to take half an hour to fly like this. Next time, she’d attempt to emerge from a burrow as she’d done in Eeporyo.

  She broke through the clouds above Rajka, a grey blemish bordered by lush mountains and a turquoise ocean. The city expanded, and beauty shrank as she zoomed in to the capital, diving closer. A metre above the ground, she bounced again and drifted.

  "Shall I find a safe place for you?” A boy’s voice asked.

  She nearly jumped out of her skin. She looked around. No one.

  "I'm in your head."

  Blood pounded in her ear. "Who are you?"

  "You can call me a dream explorer if you like."

  “What do you want?”

  “To help.”

  "How can I trust you?”

  "Look, if you want in, I suggest you become an android maid and record evidence. That mosquito zapper got you, didn’t it?”

  “A mosquito zapper? Oh, yes. An android maid? I can’t occupy machines.”

  “How’d you know?”

  “A friend told me.”

  “True. You can’t occupy machines, but you can copy them.”

  “Like a 3D printer?”

  “More than that.”

  “How can I record evidence as an android maid?”

  “Just ask the system to record.”

  “The android maid’s system?”

  “No, the river and rain travel system.”

  “But I thought I couldn’t carry anything back with me.”

  “You can’t physically, but a recording can be copied onto your aurashield.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “Shall I help you or not?"

  “Uh...” She landed her fly-body onto a rock. "Why didn’t you speak to me before?"

  "I've only recently found you. Like a cosmic spider, I am."

  Aedre shivered and looked at the wire fence. "And I’m a fly. Spiders are my predators."

  "Th
is web isn't sticky, and I'm not a predator. Just a traveller, like you. Trust me and use me, or don't.”

  "How do I turn into a maid?”

  “From inside. Ask the system to make you identical.”

  “I remember Yiksaan maids from before. You’re right. They are identical.”

  “I know I’m right.”

  She shook her head. Cocky.

  “But they have different patterns in their irises for entrance identification."

  “Whose iris shall I copy? Is it even possible?”

  “All matters of shape-shifting are possible in water travel.”

  “But not occupying machines.”

  “That’s right, only copying them.”

  “Won’t surveillance notice there are two maids with identical irises opening different doors?”

  "I thought you were clever." He chuckled. “If your maid were human, you could inhabit her body—"

  "I wouldn't dare. Seems cruel.”

  "You can’t, anyway. You must power off the android maid's power and hide her somewhere."

  "How?”

  “Let me go have a look.”

  Who was this kid? Cosmic spider? How did he get in?

  After some time, his voice popped into her head again. "I've looked around and now know what you can do. Number sixty-two of the south-west wing is in charge of delivering water and towels. She washes new girls and tends to those wounded by clients. Next time she’s in her towel closet, you appear from behind, power her off and hide her in within clean linens.”

  Aedre’s eyes widened. “Leave her in a towel cupboard? Won’t someone come in?”

  “Don't think so. There aren't any security cameras in there, but they are everywhere else."

  "How do I switch her off?”

  "Twist her ears towards her face, then the opposite to turn her on again.”

  She laughed. "Sounds too unreal. If you're trying to get me into trouble, the only people who’ll lose out are those innocent girls and women. I want to bring them justice properly."

  He didn’t reply.

  "Did you travel by river and rain too? Where are you from?"

  He chuckled. "Let's concentrate on our task at hand, shall we? It's a noble one."

  “Shall I wait here until the time is right?”

  "Good idea. I’ll see where android sixty-two is now.”

  "But how are you getting in?”

  "I’m only looking. I’m not able to go inside while I’m in this form.”

  “What form?”

  “Oh! She’s there now! You can go quickly. Express your intent! Android sixty-two of south-west wing. Appear with her in her towel closet.”

  Piles of towels, mops, brooms and cleaning products crowded the closet. The android maid’s dark red face turned towards Aedre, and it opened its mouth to say something. But, Aedre reached out and turned its ears towards her.

  The maid crumpled to the floor, and Aedre hid its body under dirty towels. She breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed. Her mission would be more straightforward with this voice's guidance, whoever he was. But, what if he had an alternative agenda?

  "Ok, I've done it. Where shall I go now?”

  The voice didn’t speak.

  She froze. What should she do now?

  A different male's voice came from her inner ears. “Change water in the cage room.”

  She automatically collected clean towels, opened the door, and walked along a corridor.

  Unable to change her course, her feet carried her to a room where she'd been imprisoned. Women from all over the galaxy cried, chatted, rocked themselves, and sat stunned in the cage.

  “Start recording a video,” Aedre said in her mind. If Spider was correct, she’d have evidence for the media and Mayleedian Interstellar Police.

  Without thought, her body automatically moved again, placing towels on a shelf, and turning to a device besides the cage. She scanned her iris and unlocked it.

  Relief swept through her. Her iris was identical to the maid’s. She entered to collect stainless steel tubs of dirty water and emptied them down a drain. The clean and clinical surroundings clashed with the filthy, naked women and girls, many covered in cuts and bruises.

  An electrical burn travelled up Aedre’s inner arms, neck, and jaw, as her heart centre twisted in anguish. It hurt more than human emotional pain. Was this what happened when androids felt sympathy? If only she could free these women and girls now. Perhaps if she touched them and expressed her intent to go back, she could turn them to flies too or make a cosmic spaceship which travelled at the speed of thought.

  "Please help?" a purple girl asked.

  "She can't help," another said. "She's a robot."

  “Take clean water, towels, and first aid kit to room forty-two,” the voice said. “Once there, clean, disinfect and robe.”

  This time, her body didn't move on its own accord. So Aedre rushed to a tap, filled a clean tub with warm water and placed it on to a trolley. A few women in the cage looked at her quizzically as water splashed over the sides with her erratic movement. Aedre tore her eyes away from them and walked calmly out, acting more like other maids.

  In the corridor, she followed numbers descending from sixty-seven, then entered forty-two using an iris scanner.

  A naked woman lay in a ball on her bed. Her dark hair matted and olive skin bruised, she sniffed and sat up. Only a teenager, her Jerjen features were mixed with another ethnicity. With large, almond-shaped eyes, she was a pretty girl. She stood pigeon-toed, and blood trickled down her neck from a head-wound.

  A burning sensation shot up the undersides of Aedre’s arms again. She clenched her jaw and fists. “Please wash.” She lowered her tub to the floor.

  The girl accepted a towel and squatted to wash. The water turned brown with blood.

  "I will get a bigger tub," Aedre said.

  "Who are you?”

  "Number sixty-two."

  The woman peered up from her washbasin. "You’re different from other maids. They don’t speak."

  Aedre looked around. Hopefully, they weren't being recorded. She took the cloth in silence, wrung it out, and wiped the woman’s back. The woman winced, and Aedre gasped at fresh cuts steaking her skin. Aedre touched her shoulder and spoke from within. “Take this woman to Haunted River with me.” Nothing happened, so she left the room.

  "Are you there, Spider?” She asked on her return to the cage room. “Cosmic spider?”

  He did not reply.

  She returned to room forty-two with a fresh tub, helped the woman to wash, and applied some antiseptic to her wounds.

  She pursed her lips as the desire to escape with her pulsed inside. But the cameras watched them. She kept her face down and did not make eye contact as she combed the woman’s hair and dressed her in a black tunic and leggings. Aedre moved involuntarily again and rolled her trolley containing towels and water away. Who knew where she was going this time. She walked in the opposite direction to the cage room.

  How could she possibly save these slaves on her own?

  Her body walked her to a lift, which brought her to a basement floor. She passed through a corridor to a room with a furnace, laundry chute and waste disposal chute. A trolley rattled as another android entered pushing a female corpse.

  Aedre’s heart fluttered, and she held her breath. Would she know she was a fake?

  The maid opened the furnace door and threw the body in as if it were no more than a rag doll.

  Aedre gagged and turned away. She threw used towels into a laundry chute and tipped water down a drain. The furnace door banged shut, and fire blazed through its window as it consumed flesh and bone.

  Back in the towel closet, she had an idea. “Shape-shift me to a rat, so I appear in the laundry chute.” She awoke in the dark tunnel, twitched her nose, and slid into a room full of old towels. "Are you there, Spider?”

  "Yes! I could see you, but not talk to you. There must be an energy field blocking our communication.” />
  "I’m outside the complex now."

  "I know, I can see. But you must go to the closet.”

  "Can you find out when these stinking towels will be collected and if it's possible to escape this way?”

  "You want to save that girl you washed, don't you?”

  "Yes.”

  “I wish you’d wait to try and save them all, not risk it for one.”

  Aedre shook her head. “I’ll take my recordings to the Mayleedian Interstellar Police too.”

  “I don’t get what it is with this one.”

  “My intuition’s telling me to save her now. Will the towels be collected today?”

  "I cannot find out so soon,” he said in alarm. "Get back to the closet before you’re discovered!”

  She sighed. “Okay.”

  As soon as she switched back, her body returned to the cage room and went through the same routine. This time she helped wash a Black Biluvian. Biluvians were rare outside their solar system. How had human traffickers managed to get a Biluvian? Aedre kept her gaze away from the woman’s eyes, which spanned half her face.

  In the closet, she turned the android maid on and appeared beside the wire fence as a fly. "Are you here?"

  “Yes." His moody voice matched the cloudy sky. "Luckily, your android maid hasn’t reported you. Maybe there’s an error in her security programme. You take big risks. You could jeopardise this whole operation! ”

  "Whose operation?”

  "Yours!”

  She flinched and frowned. "I wanna save that girl, alright?”

  “But she’s no more important than the others.”

  “She is to me. Now tell me. Can we get out through the laundry chute?”

  "You can if you're quick. The laundry will be collected in an hour. Stupidly, security doesn't seem to check laundry leaving the complex. No cameras in the lorry either."

  "Will you help me save the woman? You seem to enjoy helping.”

  He sighed. "If you wanna save her, you need me. The place is wired with cameras. You need to occupy the security guard who monitors CCTV.”

  "Then what?”

  "Hmm, let's see..." After a couple of minutes, his voice returned. "It's no good. Someone monitors everyone. You’ll need to change the whole system.” Silence, then he spoke again. "You must change commands for android sixty-two. You must occupy a body—the person who types android orders—"