For the Love of Gelo! (11 page)

Ikuna couldn't handle it anymore. “Let's kill the Vorem scum, Raefec Azusu!” she screeched from behind me. “Toss him from the top of Oru and be done with it. He can't even fly.”

“No, no, no,” cried Unuro. “We are loyal Vorem subjects! We love the Vorem. Raefec, remember, your own claim to power is a Dominion title. You are their local representative!”

“You heard the
Homo sapiens
,” said Ikuna. “No one even knows this Vorem worm is on Oru.”

“It could be a test!” said Unuro. “If we help him, maybe the Imperator will reward us. With more weapons, perhaps! Or even some of these ‘roller coasters' I've been hearing so much about! In fact maybe the
real
enemies are these other five. I bet they're in league with the Uji. Perhaps the Dominion wants them—”

“The Dominion doesn't even remember that Kyral exists,” said Ikuna.

“Wrong,” said Taius. “My father's battle cruiser,
Secutor
, is orbiting this planet as we speak. If you help me,
he
will reward you.”

“Yeah. More like
half
his father's battle cruiser,” Little Gus corrected him. “And not the good half either. No weapons. No communications. It can't even move. Also, his dad's a huge wad.”

“What? My father is not a ‘wad'!” snapped Taius.

“We can't take this little red alien's word for it, Raefec!” squawked Unuro. “If we harm a Vorem legate, then the Dominion will rain fire from the skies again. We'll all be burned!”

“If General Ridian actually wanted Junior back,” said Becky, “he probably would have contacted us about it sometime in the last three months. He didn't. You know why? He doesn't care.”

At this, Taius turned and glared at her with pure hatred. His fists were balled, and his teeth were bared in a snarl. He opened his mouth to yell something, but Azusu cut him off.

“All of you, shut up,” said Azusu. Her little black ring caught the firelight as she turned it over in her wing. “I need time to think about this. Everyone out.” She bowed her head sarcastically to Taius. “With your permission, of course,
honorable Legate
.”

Taius said nothing, but he turned to leave.

Unuro and Biji remained behind the throne, looking concerned for their aged Raefec. Asuzu turned to them. “I said
everyone
!” she squawked. Her two servants hung their heads and followed us out of the hut.

For an instant, I spied the small, white-feathered Aeaki peeping around the edge of the doorjamb. Eavesdropping? At once, she disappeared again.

“Raefec Azusu,” I said, stopping. I turned to face her. “May I ask one more question?”

“Make it quick,” said Asuzu. She rubbed her temples as though she had a terrible headache.

“Why do you all speak Xotonian?” she said.

“Around here we call it Aeaki,” she snapped. But then she softened. “You're right: It isn't our native language. If we ever had our own, it died in the nuclear fire.” She gestured toward the mural.

I nodded and stepped out into the sunlight. The whole village of Oru had gathered outside the Raefec's hut.

“So what just happened in there?” asked Hollins. “I definitely caught something about roller coasters.”

N
ight had fallen on the village of Oru, and the fire pit was blazing. The crowd of villagers had not dispersed for two hours. The Aeaki gave all of us aliens a wide berth, though, as we sat on the ground and waited.

On one side of our three-meter bubble of space, Taius Ridian rested, legs crossed, eyes closed. I huddled with the humans on the other side.

“Now I think I understand how you all must have felt when you first came to Core-of-Rock,” I whispered. “Everyone here hates us.”

“Yup. ‘Oru'?” said Little Gus. “More like ‘O-rude.'”

We all stared at him. No one laughed.

“What?” he said. “They can't all be winners.”

“Hey, I wonder what that one did,” said Hollins. “They treat her even worse than us.” He pointed across the fire to another patch of empty space. At the center of it sat the small, white-feathered Aeaki. She was playing in the dirt and talking to herself. Around her neck she wore a shiny necklace of nuts and bolts.

I stood, and the crowd parted before me as I walked toward her. “Hi,” I said. “What are you doing?”

The little Aeaki looked around nervously. She didn't seem to realize that I was talking to her.

“Just watching,” she said at last. “Watching and listening.”

“What's your name?” I asked.

“Eyf,” she said.

“My name's Chorkle,” I said.

“I'm—I'm not an Oru,” she said as though confessing to some grave sin. Then she turned away in embarrassment.

“Yeah. I'm not either,” I said. “And I'm glad too. With a few exceptions, the Oru seem to be jerks. And the exceptions all seem to be mold-brains.”

Eyf stared at me. Then she laughed, a high chirping sound. A few nearby Aeaki gave us disdainful looks.

“You are a space alien,” she said, dropping her voice to a whisper.

“Yup,” I said, “I can even do this.” And I changed my skin color to the mottled orange and red of the Oru Aeaki plumage. Eyf gasped.

“I wish I could do that,” she said. “But my feathers just stay white.” She regarded her own wing. “I'm not an Oru,” she repeated glumly.

I was about to ask her what was so great about being an Oru anyway when the crowd started to murmur. I shifted to see what they were looking at.

At last, Azusu had emerged from her long hut. She cleared her throat and addressed the crowd.

“As you all now know,” said Azusu, “we have outlanders here in Oru. They came all the way from outer space to our little village. Few of you have ever seen one in person, but that purple fellow there is a Vorem.”

Some squawked in disapproval. Taius stood and faced the crowd, defiant.

“Some say we should kill him,” said Azusu, “after what his species did to this planet, to the Aeaki. Maybe he deserves it?” About half the crowd cheered at this. Azusu quieted them and continued. “Others say we shouldn't court trouble. That we should bow down to this little Vorem legate. Arrest his enemies”—she waved at the humans—“maybe even toss them off Oru and watch them splatter.” She glared at Unuro, but he appeared unapologetic. No one actually cheered for the second option, but I could tell that some were open to it. The humans all looked sick with worry.

“Well,” said Azusu, “you all know your Raefec. If half the Oru want one thing and half the Oru want another, old Azusu will pick a third thing just to spite everyone.” A light chuckle came from the crowd.

Azusu turned toward us. “All of you aliens: Vorem,
Homo sapiens
, Xotonian,” she said, waving her wing dismissively, “we of the Oru clan will do you no harm. But neither will we help you. Tomorrow you must leave this village. You can take as much food and water as you can carry. But I won't have a Vorem living here among us, trying to pull rank with me. And I won't give aid to wanted fugitives either. Not while I'm still a Dominion praefectus.”

The crowd grumbled, but they seemed to accept the verdict. The humans smiled with relief. I, for one, didn't mind exile. One day was quite enough time in the village of Oru for me. If they couldn't help us find Kalac, they were wasting our time.

“Um, excuse me,” a tiny voice called out.

“What?” said Azusu, looking around in annoyance. “Who is that?”

Little Eyf stood and stepped forward. “It's me, um, Eyf?” she said, as though unsure of her own name. Her voice was trembling.

Azusu squinted at her. “But you're not an Oru.”

“I—I know I never spoke up before, but I just wanted to say that, um, these aliens can't fly like we can, Raefec.”

“Yes, we all know that, genius,” snapped Azusu, getting a big, mean laugh from the crowd. “With insights like this, no wonder nobody listens to you!”

“Right, um, well, what I mean is that if they leave the village, they'll have to walk. Across the ground.”

“So?” said Azusu.

“But on the ground,” squeaked Eyf, “there are crells and stalking yost-leopards and even great rahks hungry for flesh. There is the cursed Glass Desert, where nothing lives. And the sickly marshes full of creeping sleem. On the ground, they will be easy targets for the Uji, Esu, Abi, and all the other clans we haven't even heard of. Praefec, to walk across Kyral—that's almost a death sentence.”

“Almost. But not quite,” said Azusu with a shrug.

“But Raefec, the Xotonian”—Eyf pointed to me—“is just looking for others of its kind who might be in trouble.” So she had been eavesdropping. “Without help from one who knows Kyral's dangers, then there is no hope of ever finding them.”

“Aye, and who's to help them?” asked Azusu.

“Um . . . I could?” said Eyf.

“You're making me repeat myself, you ignorant hatchling,” snapped Azusu in a dangerous tone. “As I said before: None of the Oru will help these aliens!”

Eyf took a deep breath. “Well . . . I'm not an Oru.”

The crowd gasped. Azusu considered Eyf's words for a moment. “You're right,” she said at last, “you're not. You've lived in the village. You've eaten our food. But you're not an Oru. Never were. You may do as you wish.”

Eyf looked taken aback. It was as though this was the first time in her life that she'd actually gotten what she wanted.

“But,” continued Azusu, “if you leave here with these aliens, don't you ever expect to come back.”

Eyf's beak fell open. Azusu had already turned to hobble back into her long hut. The crowd dispersed, and before long we were alone. Only, Hisuda, Ikuna, and Aloro remained. Since they had found us, it was the three hunters' responsibility to watch us until we left the village. Eyf too remained. She seemed to be in a daze. The humans and I approached her.

“Eyf,” I said to her, “thanks for the offer. But you don't have to help us if it means losing your home. What's wrong with your Raefec, anyway? She's as hard as an usk-tusk.”

“Azusu's not that bad. Kyral is a dangerous place, so she has to be dangerous too,” said Eyf. “I want to help you. I'm not sure why, but I want to.”

“You don't even know us,” said Nicki. “We could all be serial killers.”

“We're not though,” said Becky. “Except Hollins.”

Hollins, hearing his name, spoke up. “Because saying hello. Of hello, tiny bird-face!” He extended his hand in a friendly greeting.

Eyf cringed, though, and buried her face in her wing. She looked mortified.

“Don't mind him,” I said. “‘Tiny bird-face' is, uh, a great compliment where we come from. If we really like something, we might say it's, uh, very ‘tiny bird-face.' Right, everyone?” The humans nodded.

“No . . . I'm not upset,” whispered Eyf from behind her white feathers. “It's just . . . I'm . . . not used to so much
conversation
.”

“The fact is,” I said, “we do talk all the time. Sometimes we even argue.”

“Do not,” said Little Gus.

“But if that makes you uncomfortable, Eyf, all the more reason not to leave Oru,” I said.

“No, no, no,” said Eyf, still hiding her face. “I like it. I think—I think I might have a lot to say. . . .” After this statement, though, she was quiet for the rest of the night.

No one offered us lodging in a garbage hut, so we slept under Kyral's stars beside the dying firepit—the humans, Eyf, and myself on one side; Taius on the other. I didn't ask where Eyf normally slept, but it was presumably no more comfortable than the hard ground. Hisuda, Ikuna, and Aloro roosted nearby, blasters at their sides.

While the others drifted to sleep, I laid awake, head on my pack, thinking of Kalac. Somewhere, it might be looking up at the same glittering sky. Or not, I suddenly realized. My originator might have already passed to the Nebula Beyond. I felt a pang of terror. I almost wanted to leap to my fel'grazes and leave Oru that instant.

Instead, I shifted and saw two red eyes glittering at me from across the embers. Taius Ridian was awake and staring at me. I rolled over to face the other way.

In my dreams, I saw Taius looming over me, holding something in his clawed hand. It was the Q-sik, glowing with fearsome power. He leveled it at me and—

I awoke suddenly in the night. The fire was totally dead. Someone was standing over me. Not Taius, but Ikuna the hunter. She quickly hushed me before I could say anything.

“Don't believe the Raefec or her coward servants,” whispered Ikuna. “We Oru hate the Vorem.”

I nodded.

“We have been forbidden from giving this one what he truly deserves”—she threw a wing in Taius's direction—“but that doesn't mean that you can't.”

In explanation, she handed me something. It was cold and heavy, made of metal: Eromu's blaster.