by Rayner Ye
“Huh?”
“I’ll explain another time.”
“I travel now?”
“Yep. But don’t fly there! You don’t have time. Hang on first. Let me look for you.”
How could she vanish without YuFang noticing? Was it dark enough? Perhaps she could climb to the other side, then disappear.
“I’m back,” Spider said. “There’s a public toilet up the street from MIP. Appear from inside an empty cubicle. Give your intent.”
“What form shall I take?”
“You know what Fenuks look like?”
“Purple skin?”
“Dark indigo skin. Thin, glossy, black hair. Purple eyes, flat noses—”
“Don’t worry, I know. I’ve watched many Mayleedian sitcoms.”
“Make sure you don’t look like a famous actor.”
“What should I do? Go to MIP and hand my video file to a receptionist?”
“Or head straight for the Human Trafficking Sector instead.” He sounded unsure. “Ah, here it says your files must be copied to a downloader.”
“But I don’t have my aurashield remote. It’s in my hand at Haunted River.”
“They won’t need your remote. But the MIP will want to scan your aurashield. The book says it’ll work on your normal aura. But you should have an aurashield and remote, so it looks real.”
Aedre frowned. What book did he have? “Just intend it?”
“You know what to do.”
“Give it to the receptionist or go through security clearance?”
“We’ll discuss that when we’re there. Meet me in that toilet cubicle first.”
“YuFang will see I vanished.”
“If you don’t wanna kill him, tell him. You won’t get where you intend without shape-shifting. He’ll find out anyway.”
She didn’t want anyone else to find out. But it would be impossible to hide it. “YuFang. I’m a shape-shifter.”
“And I’m a Urian windsurfer.”
“Fine. Don’t believe me. I’m going to vanish for half an hour to take evidence to MIP.”
Yasmin looked at her with wide eyes, and YuFang laughed.
“I want to—”
“Wait. Make sure you have sound transformers to block the gas giant’s vibrations. Fenuks can’t cope without them on Mayleeda’s tidally locked side, which constantly faces their gas giant.”
“I want to appear as a Fenuk man in a public toilet cubicle up the street from the Mayleedian Interstellar Police Office. Give my ears sound transformers.”
She appeared alone in a large white room, which was fresh and scented lemon. Different devices lined its walls. How could this be a public toilet? Didn’t they have a hole in the ground to shit through? She eyed her naked, purple torso. Six black nipples—in two lines of three, dotted her muscular pectorals and upper and lower abdominals. “I intend to wear smart spray-on clothing, popular amongst Fenuk males in, wherever I am.”
Spider laughed. “Forgot to ask for clothing? You’re in Fa Sher City, in Teeyen, by the way.”
A silver gown tied at her waist with a golden rope appeared on her new body, and black silk slippers covered her feet.
“Your hairstyle needs fixing. Ask for a long ponytail.”
“Please give me a long ponytail like other Fenuk males in Fa Sher.”
Sleek, black hair fell over her shoulder and cascaded to her waist.
“In case MIP ask, say your name’s Dien. I’ve copied a Dien’s identity and put it in your aurashield. You look similar enough. It’s raining, so activate your aurashield now. It’ll work like a real one.”
“Please give me an aurashield for rain protection.”
“Use this Mayleedian citizenship number: Ka5nay6a.”
Aedre gave her intention. “Hope the real person doesn’t get into trouble.”
“Nah. Time to go, before YuFang goes crazy.”
“What’s he doing?”
“Don’t worry. Nothing dangerous. Hurry, though.”
Aedre turned a handle and gazed in awe as she stepped onto a wide pedestrian street, made from what looked like black marble. Between offices and shops, different ethnicities from all over Plan8 strolled or floated on hoverboards, hoverchairs or hovershoes. Green towers on either side stretched up to the gas giant, Tushing, which spanned a third of Mayleeda’s blue sky. The purple and golden planet with rings looked surreal. Storm spots swirled in shades of desert sand and mauve.
A sweet and gentle breeze caressed her new body trough her silk gown as she looked all about her. Gardeners levitated up and down towers, attending to foliage which wove around chloroplastic green-tinted windows. Some harvested fruit while others organised pollinating insects around blooms. Sunlight beamed through vegetation and green glass, twinkling on pedestrians below. Robotic disks swept over the black street, sucking up fallen greenery and dispensing it into hatches in the road.
“The MIP office is across the street,” Spider said. “Good luck.”
Only its entrance contained clear glass. The remaining tower used chloroplastic windows for photosynthesis. Aedre walked up the black marble steps and searched for a handle. None. She touched the glass, it snapped open, and she approached a reception desk, centred in a black and white hall. A young woman with ebony skin, a red blouse, and perfect teeth smiled at Aedre from behind her desk. “How can I help?”
“I have important information for your human trafficking department.”
The woman raised a well-groomed eyebrow. “Sure. Leave it in this tray. Someone’ll get back to you once they’ve read it.”
“It’s video evidence from my aurashield.”
“Wait a minute.” The woman disappeared behind her desk.
Spider said, “Ask to have video evidence from the Yiksaan complex transferred from your aurashield to MIP, not including video footage outside the complex. You don’t wanna give away our secret travel.”
Aedre gave her intention.
The woman reemerged and walked around to the front carrying a device. “May I make a copy and pass it along?”
“To who?”
“A person who views evidence handed in by the public.”
“When will they do that?”
“When they have time.”
“Today?”
“Probably not. Everyone’s very busy.”
“But it needs to be viewed now!”
The woman frowned. “Do you know how many people walk through those doors claiming to have important information? Ninety-nine per cent is junk.”
“Look, if someone doesn’t watch this and do something about it today, another slaver will be free.”
The woman sighed, went behind her desk, opened an apple-sized airSphere, and whispered.
“It’s no good,” Spider said. “She’s calling security.”
“What should I do?”
“Go directly to the director of MIP’s human trafficking department.”
“They’ll see me disappear and reappear elsewhere. They'll have CCTV footage. It’s too risky.”
“It’s the only way you’ll get those assholes to take you seriously. They’ll never track you down. Security’s near. Do it!”
“They’ll shoot me if I don’t comply.”
“Come on. You’re not in the Firesnake.”
“They can escort me out. Then I’ll do it another way.”
“And what if your lorry stops somewhere and you miss the chance to get Yasmin to safety? What if it stops raining in Giok?”
Two burly men in green uniforms and carrying laser guns strode towards Aedre.
“Take me to whoever’s in charge of MIP’s human trafficking department.”
She sat at a round table topped with exotic dishes. Her sudden appearance between two old men caused the yellow-orange one to drop his chopsticks, and the red one to knock over his tea as he leapt from his seat. His long earlobes wobbled as he whipped his face around. “What the hell! Security!”
One orange man’s image
flickered—a hologram. He glittered and had reflective amber eyes.
The door burst open, and four bodyguards in tight black outfits pointed their guns at Aedre.
She swallowed and held up her hands.
The orange man dabbed his mouth with a napkin. “Another hologram? Or assassin, perhaps. Seize him.”
Aedre showed empty palms. “I’ve got evidence to give you. Scan my aura for human trafficking footage from the Yiksaan mafia in Rajka, the Fire—”
“Scan her, goddamnit. Do you have an aurashield downloader?” The orange man faded, then his pixels intensified until he looked solid.
The red man nodded to his security. “Do what Z’Das has asked. Get an aurashield video downloader.”
A bodyguard left and returned with a device. He scanned her aura and handed it to the red man, who opened his airSphere and flicked her file inside.
They viewed footage of caged women.
“Shall I leave?”
“Yes,” Spider said. “I can’t wait to see their faces when you vanish.”
She frowned. This situation put her life at risk and was no laughing matter. She returned to foul darkness.
Yasmin heaved a sigh and smiled when she saw her. YuFang lay on his side, apparently unconscious.
Not long after, the lorry slowed, manoeuvred and reversed up an incline. The container opened into at the end, into the starry night, and Aedre crawled over its sodden contents.
A rubbish pit lay twenty feet below.
Her heart thudded as she scrambled back. “How can I save them, Spider?”
No reply.
“Make me a gigantic spider, so I can roll Yasmin and YuFang in my web, carry them out, and stick them to the lorry’s roof. Quick!”
The container lifted on one side, and its contents slid towards the gaping hole.
Aedre’s body grew and split into segments. She grabbed Yasmin and YuFang with her arachnid front legs.
“Fucking hell!” YuFang protested, kicking at her stomach.
She reeled over, gasping for breath.
“It’s Aedre, idiot!” Yasmin shouted. “She’s helping us. She told you she’s a shape-shifter, and you saw her disappear.”
He lay still.
With a sore midsection, Aedre shot some spiderweb from four glands in her abdomen and wove YuFang and Yasmin into a silk bundle, careful not to cover their faces. She tied them to her underside and climbed onto the container’s ceiling so they wouldn’t fall. She slipped onto the roof before its hatch shut.
A full moon and half-moon reflected light onto the pit and surrounding rubbish, old furniture, and squashed automobiles.
“Are you all right?” Spider asked.
“I am now.”
“Sorry I didn’t help. I froze when your container opened and tipped.”
“No worries. I got us out. Don’t know what to do now, though. Can’t shift into a car, can I?”
“You shifted into a CCTV camera.”
The lorry’s engine started up. As it drove down the ramp, Aedre gathered her silent bundle and leapt off the vehicle. If anyone saw her, they’d shoot without a second thought, thinking planet Kuanja was being taken over by giant arachnids.
“I intend to become a useable car.” Nothing.
“Wishful thinking. Rajka’s ring-road isn’t far from where you sit. Say one mile?”
“Can’t see a wheelchair to push YuFang in, can you?”
“Sorry.”
“I give my intention to occupy…” She couldn’t occupy a random driver’s body. She’d crash. She’d never learned to drive. Nerthus hadn’t used diesel-fuel cars for four thousand years. “Turn me into a Jerjen man, waiting for the closest taxi from here to pick me up.”
Ashe appeared, standing by a road, and she waved down a Redbird taxi. “To the rubbish dump.”
The Native-Red driver swivelled around and pulled a long face. “Ah?” he asked, revealing his bottom teeth. “What’re you up to? Sneaking around there at night.”
“My friends phoned me. They were attacked and left there. One’s seriously injured.”
“You want an ambulance, not a cab.”
“Will you help me or not?”
“It’ll cost ya.”
“You can make money. But it’ll vanish when you return to Haunted River. You could’ve thought up a wheelchair too, but this was a better idea.”
She thought up a wad of notes and handed them to him. His eyebrows shot up, and he accepted the money.
“After we collect my friends from the dump, we’ll go to Jerjen town in North Rajka.” Apek, her elderly feigong master, would surely take them in if she appeared as herself.
When Aedre and the driver hauled YuFang into the taxi, the driver scanned his face and narrowed his eyes. He sat in his driver’s seat again, then turned to say something, but seemed to change his mind and faced the road ahead. Despite the fact YuFang bled all over his back seat, the driver remained silent throughout their journey. He had their money now, but not for long.
“You’ve lost so much blood,” Aedre said in a deep male voice.
He winced. “I don’t know who the fuck you are, but you’re not right. You don’t belong here.”
“I saved you. Those gangsters were about to do something bad to you, and I got you out.”
“Yeah, but you’re not real. What the fuck are you?”
“I’ll explain more when we’re safe.”
Two hours later, they pulled onto her old neighbourhood’s main road. The familiar ten-metre-wide open sewer cut through its centre. She gazed at a restaurant where she, Mosh, and other teachers used to dine, and they passed the language school in which she had taught. Her beloved Feili temple wasn’t far behind. The driver might seek revenge if he knew where they hid. “Here’s fine.”
“You sure? It’s only shops and houses along here. I can drive you to your doorstep.”
“Here’ll be fine.”
He pulled over and stepped out to help YuFang onto the street. YuFang bent over Aedre and the driver’s shoulders but was still unable to walk or stand.
“Lower him here. We’ll call our family for help,” she said.
The driver wrinkled his brow. “Here? It’s filthy.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll clean him up once our family comes for us.”
After the taxi left, she gave her intention for a wheelchair, and one appeared. She and Yasmin pulled YuFang into it and pushed him to Apek’s temple. Before tapping on a side door, Aedre shape-shifted back into herself.
Yasmin gave her a relieved smile. “Nice to see you again.”
Aedre knocked on the door, and an angry female’s voice shouted from behind it. “Who is it? So early in the morning!”
“YeLi. It’s me, Aedre. Do you remember?”
The top part of the door swung open, and YeLi squinted in the streetlight. She still wore her hair cropped short like a boy’s, but no dimples marked her cheeks—she didn’t look her usual cheery self. “Whatever are you doing?”
“We’re in trouble and need your help. We need somewhere to stay.”
“Who are these people?”
Aedre disliked her tone. “These people are my friends.”
“Why does he look so bad?”
“He’s been hurt.”
“Take him to the hospital.”
“I can’t. The Mafia are after him. We need a hideout.”
YeLi crossed her arms. “This is no hideout. It’s a holy temple! No place for hiding away criminals. No, Aedre. I’m sorry.”
A shudder shot through Aedre’s legs, and she went dizzy. She held herself up on wheelchair handles. “Please, go wake Apek.” Surely Aedre’s old feigong master would help.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“He’s in hospital himself, and that’s where your friend belongs if you want him to survive. He could die here.”
“What’s wrong with Apek?”
“He’s old.”
“What happened?”
“A virus.”
“Will he make it?”
“Don’t know.”
“Please, YeLi. Can we come in for half an hour, to get cleaned up and drink some water?”
“Only half an hour. Then you go.”
Aedre sighed as YeLi unbolted the inner door and it swung inwards. YeLi stepped back, and they followed her in.
How could she encourage YeLi to let them stay? Should she shape-shift into someone who YeLi respected? Appear as the Mother Goddess? YeLi was religious—that might change her mind.
Something crashed into Aedre and knocked her breath away. She lay motionless, looking up at the sky. Unable to move, she closed her eyes. Raindrops dripped off jungle leaves, and the river gushed around her. The rain had stopped and brought her astral body back to her physical form.
Paralysis
Aedre lay heavy and unmoving on the boulder as if she were attached to it.
Her breaths rasped, and she whispered. “I can’t move. I can’t move!”
After a few hours of terror, squabbling female voices came from down the path with foorsteps, but Aedre couldn’t turn to see who it was. “Help!”
“Hey! Look at that Noctar! She’s bleeding!” Water splashed, and Aede rolled her head to the side.
Three middle-aged Giokese women in temple gear—vivid lace blouses exposing colourful bras—lowered baskets of fruit off their heads, placed them on the footpath, and stepped over stones to reach Aedre. They pulled up their sarongs to stand in water surrounding her boulder.
“Do you speak Inarmuzzan?” asked a woman in yellow.
“Yes,” Aedre said.
“What’s your name?”
Aedre.”
“What happened?” A tall woman in indigo asked.
“I can’t move. I’ve been here since last night.”
“You’re bleeding!” The woman in indigo squatted down to look. “You have family here?”
“No.”
“Call the hospital,” their friend in red said.
“No,” Aedre said. “Call my guardian—Somare.”
She gave them his number, and the woman in indigo dialled him on her holophone. “Are you Somare?”
From the corner of her eye, Aedre could see Somare’s two-inch form standing atop the woman’s screen. “Speaking.”
“There’s a Noctar at Haunted River—”