Stray (37 page)

The couches were the firm, solid sort.  Maze and Ruuel stood behind my couch, Tarmian had a smaller chair to my right and the Nuran sat in the centre of the couch opposite.

"How did a child of Gaia reach this world?"  he asked.  And then there was a tickly feeling in my head and I could hear his voice add: ~Are you able to reply this way?~

~Yes?~ I tried thinking, all too conscious of Maze and Ruuel standing behind me, neither of whom were likely to have missed me suddenly sitting up much straighter.  I've no idea what Ruuel's Sights would have shown him, and I stumbled on into answering the verbal question to buy myself time.  "Walked through a gate from my planet to Muina.  Was there until people from Tare found me, brought me back here."

~My name is Inisar.~  His eyes, long and dark, were watching me very steadily.  "Can you tell me what knowledge Gaia retains of Muina?"  ~I have been sent to offer you Nuri's aid.~

~Aid?~  "None.  I had never heard name Muina before Tarens told me it.  There are no stories, no recognisable stories, about people my planet going to other planets.  Were Muinans first from my planet?"

"I do not know."  ~Aid in the form of haven.~  "That Gaia and Muina shared a bond is remembered.  It is an ancient one, stretching far beyond any record."  ~I see that the distortions the people of this world inflict on themselves have been passed to you.~

~The interface?~

"The path to Gaia had long been lost, however, even before we departed Muina.  Had there been any unusual events in Gaia's Ena preceding your arrival on Muina?"  ~I am sorry that I am unable to undo their distortion, but I can offer an escape from this place.  First to Nuri.  And then to your own world.~

Both Tarmian and Ganaran said something over the interface at this point, but I didn't pay any attention to their suggestions, just giving Tarmian a blankly distracted look.

"The...my planet, psychic talents are considered fiction.  We have forgotten everything, if ever knew.  Don't know Ena, don't access it."  I felt unreasonably angry.  Holding two conversations at once while someone else talked at me was beyond stressful, especially when my home was dangled under my nose as some sort of bait.  I could feel Maze shift behind me, and didn't know whether to feel comforted or threatened by his presence.  ~Nuri able locate natural gate my world?~

"How greatly are the children of Gaia troubled by Ionoth?"  ~With a link of both birth and heart to Gaia, a path can be found.  Natural gates are not constantly open, but if you were able to travel to Muina, it will be possible to find that gate and return you.~

"Ionoth not able reach real-space on my world.  Their existence, existence of spaces, none of that is known.  Are spaces memories of worlds, or nightmares of worlds?"  ~Nuri wants something in exchange?~

"Both."  ~You have opened Muina to Tare.  That cannot be undone, although we would ask you to balance the act.~  "Memories, nightmares, dreams.  They are the expression of the living, imprinted on the Ena."  ~Beyond that, we prefer not to see a touchstone in such misguided hands.  Returning you to Gaia will remove the risks you pose.~

~Touchstone is me?~  I paused, because it was getting really hard to keep track of the conversation, and the person called Ganaran was saying something excitedly about some theory being validated.  "Do you know if all people my planet have this enhancement talent?"  ~Why does Nuri think Tare people so bad?~

~They repeat the arrogance of the past, seeking to reach beyond what is born to them.  Without balance, without wisdom, they are twisting themselves outside nature.~  "You are something which appears perhaps once in ten generations.  Not unique to Gaia."  ~Will you allow me to remove you from this place?  You need only take my hand.~

~Are you Nuri equivalent of Setari?  Protect Nuri from Ionoth?~  I was struggling to decide how I wanted to react, the idea of perhaps being able to go home shrieking at me, along with a great deal of resentment that they couldn't just offer to do it openly.  But I at least realised that he probably wasn't going to be able to do what he planned.  "Do you know why it is some talents I enhance strength, and other talents I make different?"

He hadn't expected it.  He was Ruuel-level in terms of difficulty to read, but when he heard that he drew back his hands from where they had rested unmoving on his knees.

"I first found out was enhancement talent when someone tried teleport me," I went on helpfully, glad to be sticking to just out-loud talking for a minute.  For one thing the in-my-head talking itched.  "We ended up in totally wrong place.  Fell down.  Most talents, stronger, but some go very strange."

"The distortion inflicted on you by these," he said, lifting his eyes past my shoulder.  "Calling themselves Setari with no understanding of what that title means."

~Even if could go with you,~ I told him silently while he gave either Ruuel or Maze a long survey, ~I do not think could accept offer.  I miss my home, but it would be selfish of me to place homesickness above helping stop people be eaten by nightmares.  Although I know Tare not place my interests above theirs, they mostly treat me as civilised people should.  Also, I think Nuri not helping fix problem by acting as if Tare people too stupid to learn.  If child is about to walk off cliff, what point saying they lack wisdom and watch them fall?  And interface is a tool.  No less unnatural than those two blades you wear.~

~Well said.~

To my surprise he was looking at me with something approaching approval.  Then he stood up.

"I will communicate your answers to the elders.  Thank you for speaking with me."

And he vanished.  Teleported.  I guess he had no reason to stick around once he knew he had little chance of getting me out of there.  I would love to know whether my refusal would have counted if teleporting me away had been an option.

"Nurans even weirder than Tarens," I said, wishing I could scratch somewhere just behind my frontal lobe.  I accessed my own log, but wasn't really surprised to see that, unlike the Ddura, the Nuran hadn't been 'audible'.

"That was a shorter conversation than I expected," Tarmian said, blankly.

"You couldn't hear rest," I said, with an internal sigh.  "I make transcript, give me minute write."

"He was speaking using a similar method to the Ddura," Ruuel said, as expected.

"That would explain why your heart rate kept spiking."  Maze leaned forward to examine my expression.

"What was his true purpose?" Selkie asked, the first time he'd spoken.

"Came rescue me from misguided and corrupt Tarens," I said, risking a glance up at Ruuel, but he was more expressionless than ever.  "Let me concentrate now or will forget bits."  I dropped out of the channel and shut my eyes, relieved when they obediently moved away.  I was actually really upset and stressed and didn't want to talk to them or even see them while I thought about turning down going home.

Ever since my jaunt to Earth's near-space, I've had this plan to work out what I'd done, and find a way to do it properly.  As I'd told the Nuran, I know that the Tarens won't put my interests above theirs.  Going home isn't just about homesickness, it's about choosing the best option for me.

I blame
Doctor Who
.  Mr Spock.  The Scooby Gang: both the ones in the Mystery Machine and the ones with the stakes.  I've spent my life with stories of people who don't walk away, who go back for their friends, who make that last stand.  I've been brainwashed by Samwise Gamgee.

Even though I'm no longer critical to unlocking Muina, I still made a difference to First Squad's encounter with those roamers, and the way things are going, it won't be the last time my enhancement could save lives.  There's just no way I can cut and run simply because I'm an assignment, and a test subject, and I can't absolutely trust the entire hierarchy of KOTIS.  Even second level monitoring isn't a big enough reason to abandon First Squad.  They matter to me, so much.  I can't go back to being me if I have to spend the rest of my life ashamed of myself.

So when I wrote down everything the Nuran said, I didn't leave anything out, and by the time I was done and had re-read it a few times I'd calmed down and accepted that I was choosing to do this, that I wasn't trapped, hadn't lost my only chance.  Good or bad idea, I mean to see this out.

Something cold touched the back of my hand at the end of all this decision-making, which nearly had me leaping out my skin, but it was only a glass.  Ruuel ignored my expression, and made me take it, saying: "You haven't eaten since before the rotation."

Ever the captain.  Drinking did make me realise I was really starving, though, and I was glad to see a tray of food at one of the corner clusters of table and seats.  Giving in to the inevitable, I forwarded Ruuel and Maze the transcript in return and went and picked over the food while they, and probably every bluesuit in KOTIS, read it through.

Ruuel went out of the room, leaving me alone, but he and Maze came back while I was still eating, and joined me sitting around the little table of food.

"Feeling better?"  Maze picked up one of the chewy sticks of bread.

"Just tired.  Are people from Kolar likely turn up and want talk to me as well?  Can I pretend not speak language if they do?"

"They haven't focused on you, and will not if that can be avoided."

"Distracted by our failure to communicate any of these developments to them," Ruuel added.  "Kolar heard that Muina was unlocked from the news services."

"Same Nuri, maybe?  Think interface bad, but big coincidence if didn't hear about me through it."

Maze shrugged, and the faintest wince crossed his face: his shoulder was still hurting him.  "Very likely they've cultivated local informants.  We vastly underestimated the Nurans, had no idea they had the ability to travel through the Rift without vehicles.  No wonder they were so disinterested when Tare announced that we'd located Muina."

"Will Tare unlock Muina for Kolar and Nuri?"

"Kolar, very likely.  I've no idea how it will be handled.  I don't like the idea of divvying Muina up into territories, but the trade agreements we've established are far too important to try and deny access to the Kolarens.  I wouldn't care to guess what's going to happen with Nuri.  They did just try to...rescue you."

"Can you estimate how much of what he told you was true?"  Ruuel asked.

"No.  Or, he seemed all 'my honour not permit lies' but then act pleased when I told him I thought Nurans stupid hypocrites.  He didn't act like he lied, but guess he didn't necessarily agree with what ordered to do.  Think he meant it about Setari."

Ruuel gave me a dry look – quite the most reaction I've ever had from him – then said: "Did you believe he would be able to return you to your home?"

"Believe he thought he could."  Remembered anger made me frown.  "Semantics, really.  He said he here to offer me Nuri's aid.  Was here to remove inconveniently located thing called touchstone from hands of people Nuri not want to have.  Would still count as rescue, of sorts, but was for their benefit, not mine.  Don't see that they'd think me any less corrupt and misguided than Tarens.  Is Setari some sort historic title?"

"Not so far as I was aware," Maze said.  "The word wasn't created for us, and has a long-standing meaning of 'specialist' with an overtone of 'special guard'."

"And touchstone?"  Dalenset – dalen for touch and set for stone.  I think touchstone is a word on Earth, too, but don't think it refers to people.

"Not even in the dictionaries.  Though I can see how the name might come about for a talent like yours."

I sighed.  One in ten generations was not something I'd been happy to hear.  "Will I more restrictions because this?"

"I don't know.  We made a mistake, letting the Nuran meet with you.  He knows your face now."  Maze wasn't happy about it.

"Think he try rescue me again?  Risk teleporting?"

"It comes down to a question of what is more important to them."  Ruuel had reverted to being super-shuttered, but opened his eyes properly as if I was a symbol he was trying to decipher.  "Did they want to use you for some purpose we don't understand?  Or simply ensure that we could not?"

Since I was falling asleep, Maze took me back to my rooms after that.  He didn't give me any speeches about staying or going, just told me that if anything even slightly unusual happened I was to send an alert immediately.  An alert is a personal panic button, sending a broadcast message to whoever is on security detail.  I don't count Ghost as anything unusual any more, and was very glad she showed up after my nap, sitting on my desk shamelessly begging for attention while I've filled up the last of my diary writing this down.

So today I met a psychic space samurai called Inisar, who did me no favours by making it clear to the Tarens that I'm even more interesting than they suspected, and who may or may not be sent back to kill me.  As a result I decided to not be 'just Cass' any more, and I know there'll be times I'm going to regret that so hard, just as I know that the people who are important to me here will have spent some of today discussing strategies for making sure I don't have reason or opportunity to leave, and finding a balance between me wanting some privacy and their wanting to keep watch on me at all times.

And after ninja and samurai, I'm wondering if next up will be psychic space pirates.