Terra's World (10 page)

2.10

-
So what EXACTLY happened?
asked the Gfjk-Hhh.

The Guard Captain barked,
- Answer His Luminescence!

Two custodians knelt in front of the Gfjk-Hhh as he sat on what had become his throne, the old Chancellor’s seat in the Forum. To one side of the Gfjk-Hhh stood his loyal Guard Captain; to the other stood Wffk, taking notes. On the benches, the usual collection of courtiers and hangers-on paid varying levels of attention to the impromptu disciplinary hearing which was unfolding in front of them.

- We were checking apartments in Upper Blue District,
murmured one of the custodians.

-Speak up!
said the Gfjk-Hhh impatiently. The custodian knelt up a little straighter and began again in a clearer voice.

- We were checking apartments in Upper Blue District, Luminescence, as per the Captain’s orders.

- Your orders, Captain?
interrupted the Gfjk-Hhh.
You assigned these idiots, then?

- Yes, Luminescence,
said the Captain.
Simple and clear tasks which they couldn’t carry out without—

- Yes, all right, Captain, I get the idea. You
. He pointed to the custodian.
Continue.

The custodian avoided the Gfjk-Hhh’s gaze and went on.
- We found an apartment with a broken-down door. We investigated and found the Ymn fugitives—

- You did? How exciting!
The Gfjk-Hhh clapped his hands delightedly.

-Yes, Luminescence, but—

-
BUT
? Hmm. I don’t like buts
. The Gfjk-Hhh frowned.

- But the Ymns escaped using stolen gravity pods, Luminescence.

- Gravity pods? Like the ones I declared illegal and ordered rounded up? Dear me. I must find out who was in charge of getting that done. Wffk, make a note of it,
said the Gfjk-Hhh. Wffk duly made a note on his scroll.
Right, you two, stand up.

The two custodians scrambled to their feet, keeping their eyes fixed on the ground.

- Pulse-orb, please, Captain,
said the Gfjk-Hhh. The Captain unholstered his weapon, handed it over and turned back to glower at his two disgraced inferiors.

- The Captain’s right you know. You are idiots. Utter idiots. Buffoons. Abject g’fbbts, the pair of you.

The two custodians trembled.

-
BUT
,
the Gfjk-Hhh said with a broad grin,
I can’t very well start punishing people for being idiots, can I? The nation’s full of them! I wouldn’t have time to do anything else! All day, every day, punishing idiots! Imagine! No, no, my friends, it’s no crime to be an idiot.

The Gfjk-Hhh laughed. The custodians laughed nervously. The Guard Captain guffawed. Even Wffk allowed himself a discreet chuckle. Still hooting with mirth, the Gfjk-Hhh examined the Captain’s pulse-orb. It was already on its maximum setting. Of course it was.

The Gfjk-Hhh raised the pulse-orb and shot the Guard Captain square in the back. His shattered body flew across the chamber and slid to a halt between the Forum benches. All laughter ceased, followed by a few horrified gasps, then silence. The Gfjk-Hhh got to his feet.

-
EMPLOYING
idiots, now that’s another matter.
The Gfjk-Hhh peered at the Captain’s body with distaste.
Wffk, get that cleaned up, will you?

The Gfjk-Hhh turned to the two trembling custodians.
- Right, my foolish friends, you’re free to go! Go on, be off with you
. He smiled.

The two custodians managed nervous smiles of terror and gratitude, then turned to go.

- Ahem . . .

They paused at the sound of the Gfjk-Hhh’s voice.

- You’ll have to leave the weapons, obviously.

The custodians unfastened their holster belts and placed them on the floor. They walked on. The Gfjk-Hhh spoke again.
- And the boots.

The custodians exchanged confused glances, then dutifully removed their boots.

- And the clothes. All of them.

As the two custodians struggled out of their garments, the Gfjk-Hhh rose to his full height and announced,
- If anyone in the city offers either of these two food, shelter or clothing, they will find themselves in the Gshkth Pit tomorrow.
He turned to the two nude Fnrrns.
Get out.

They scampered, grey and naked, out of the Forum.

The Gfjk-Hhh slumped back into his chair. For a moment he seemed lost in thought. Then he addressed the assembled courtiers.

- Who’s hungry?
he asked.
I’m hungry.

2.11

We could just go home, thought Billy.

We’re in a little space-dinghy, high above this loony planet where Terra used to live. But at the end of the day, it’s not
OUR
planet, and just a short ride away, there’s an enormous comfy starship full of food and sofas which could whisk us away back to Earth in luxury within a couple of days. We could just go home.

But looking at Terra’s face, he knew he didn’t dare suggest this.

She
WAS
home, he thought. That was her home back there and somehow, while she’s been away, it’s become a nightmare, and now there’s no way she’s going back to Earth until she finds a way to fix it, or gets herself killed trying.

And all I can do is help or stay out of her way, he concluded.

Terra had decided to take the dinghy straight upwards into orbit, make one circle of the planet (if nothing else this gave them a few hours to collect themselves after the terrifying day they’d spent on Mlml), then redescend to Dskt. That way, if anyone had been tracking their escape from Hrrng, they might assume they’d left the planet. The dinghy was perfectly capable of flying to Dskt aeroplane-style, but Terra was afraid they’d be followed, maybe even shot down.

They’d deactivated their gravity bubbles and landed in a heap in the park where they’d left the dinghy. No one saw them arrive except a little Fnrrn playing with a bdkt. She’d made an excited squeak when Terra and Billy crashed onto the purple lawn and another when Terra, having opened the invisible ship’s hatch, shot her a friendly wink and then disappeared. The little Fnrrn called excitedly to her mother, who was on the other side of a patch of nx-nx bushes, and had missed everything.

‘So where are we going?’ Billy asked.

‘Dskt,’ said Terra. ‘Just across the sea from Mlml. Specifically, the ancient walled city of Lsh-Lff.’

‘Right . . . Lsh-Lff.’

‘One of the oldest cities on Fnrr. It’s right by the coast. I went there on a Lyceum trip once.’

‘Okay . . .’

‘Dskt was invaded just before Mlml. The G’grk overran the place and used it as a base to attack us from. That was a couple of orbits – I mean years – ago. Should have had time to rebuild itself by now.’

‘Uh huh. Terra, can I ask you a question?’ said Billy tentatively.

‘Go ahead.’ Terra’s attention was focused on the dinghy’s navigational readouts.

‘
WHY
are we going there?’

‘Because that’s where my friends are. They told me in a dream.’

‘Of course they did.’ It made about as much sense as anything else Billy had heard in the last few days. He decided not to query it.

The dinghy had begun its descent, bumping through Fnrr’s atmosphere. Lsh-Lff made sense as a hiding place, thought Terra. The eras-old city walls (Lsh-Lff had been founded before Dskt was unified as a nation; its walls were a souvenir from the days when it had consisted of many individual city-states) would make for a good defence if the Gfjk-Hhh were foolish enough to attack. As mad and evil as her brief experience of him led her to believe he was, Terra didn’t imagine the Gfjk-Hhh would be so crazed as to try to invade Dsktn territory. Would he?

The dinghy’s retro-gravs kicked in and it slowed into its final approach. Terra noticed that there was a lot of low cloud over Lsh-Lff; she wasn’t sure if the city even had artificial climate control like Hrrng, but if so, it didn’t appear to be working today. Maybe it had been damaged during the G’grk invasion?

The dinghy bumped downwards through grey cloud. Billy looked for some means of strapping himself in but saw none; he clung to the edges of his seat and smiled nervously at Terra. Terra returned the smile, then turned back to the ship’s readouts.

Her face fell. She went pale. ‘No!
NO
!’ she wailed. Billy let go of his seat and rushed to her side.

The readout had switched to a front visual display; it showed Lsh-Lff ahead of them. Or rather, it showed what was left of Lsh-Lff.

The walls still stood, but that was about it.

As the dinghy circled the city, Terra rushed to the large side porthole and gazed out desperately. She saw blackened, burned-out buildings, shattered towers, fallen spires, deserted streets, ash, dust, debris. No signs of life anywhere.

‘We’re too late,’ she said quietly. ‘We’re too late.’ She clutched Billy and wept into his shoulder. He stared at the devastation. There was nothing he could do but hold her.

The dinghy completed its automatic descent and set down in front of Lsh-Lff ’s coastward gates.

‘Come on,’ said Billy.

‘No,’ said Terra quietly.

‘They might be hiding in there,’ said Billy. ‘There might be a message, or—’

‘They’re dead,’ said Terra, her voice emptied of emotion. ‘There’s nothing here.’

‘Wait, wait,’ said Billy. ‘This message, the one you dreamed – it was last night, wasn’t it? Look at those ruins. No smoke, no embers – everything’s cold. Whatever happened here, it happened
WEEKS
ago at least.’

‘So?’ asked Terra tearfully.

‘If your friends were alive last night, then they’re still alive today! They didn’t die when the city was destroyed because it was destroyed ages ago! Either they’re hiding out in there somewhere, or they’re somewhere else entirely, or . . .’ Billy decided against finishing the thought.

‘Or what. . . ?’ probed Terra.

‘Or . . . it really was a dream.’ Billy shrugged.

Terra leapt to her feet. ‘Right,’ she said. ‘Come on,’ and she stomped towards the hatch.

That’s more like it, thought Billy, and followed her.

By the time Billy descended the ladder, Terra was standing in front of the coastward gates. They were shattered and scorched, hanging off their huge metal hinges. There was no sound but the lapping of waves against the shore, a few hundred metres behind them.

Billy stood beside Terra and took her hand. ‘Shall we?’ he said. She looked at him with friendship, gratitude and the last traces of tearfulness. They marched through the gates.

And everything changed.

2.12

Terra and Billy stood, amazed, on a busy city street.

Fnrrns, dressed in typical Dsktn smock-like garments, walked to and fro. Above them, others went about their business borne aloft by gravity bubbles. In front of them, a line of stores and kiosks.

They exchanged astonished glances, and then Terra’s face lit up with understanding.

‘They hid it. They hid the whole thing. Incredible.’

‘Who hid what?’ asked Billy.

‘They hid the whole city,’ said Terra. ‘The people of Lsh-Lff, they threw up a massive camouflage field around
THE WHOLE CITY
. I’ve never heard of anything like it.’

Billy didn’t think it was worth pointing out that he hadn’t either. So he confined himself to asking, ‘Why?’

Terra shrugged. ‘I don’t know, to fool the G’grk, maybe? The country was being invaded – if you convince a marauding army that your city’s already a burned-out ruin, they might just assume they’d been beaten to it and keep moving.’

Billy whistled. ‘Ingenious.’

By now, their presence had been remarked upon. Some passers-by had spotted them and exchanged concerned mutterings, and soon they were approached by a uniformed officer.

- Who are you? What are you doing here?

Terra was about to respond, but Billy put his hand on her arm. ‘Wait, I’ve got this.’ He touched the translation cube in his pocket, and said to the officer:

- We come in peace. Take us to your leader.

Terra rolled her eyes.

2.13

-
You’re wrong, you know. About why I keep you here.

The Gfjk-Hhh was visiting Lbbp in his cell. He was sitting on one side of the crystal barrier, Lbbp on the other. Lbbp did not look at his captor or answer him. The Gfjk-Hhh went on regardless.

- You think you’re here because I’m afraid you can expose me. ‘That’s not the Gfjk-Hhh,’ you’d say, ‘he’s a cleaner, that’s all. A cleaner I once told a pointless lie to because I couldn’t be bothered to show a moment’s civility to a stranger, and that’s why you’re all suffering now.’ Wouldn’t you love everyone to hear that?

Lbbp did not react.

- Well, you’re wrong, Deceiver. That’s not why you’re here. You’re here because I enjoy reminding you of the fact that this is all your fault. Do you understand?

No reaction.

- I have so many toys these days, Deceiver. All the toys I could ever want. And you’re still my favourite. Does that make you feel good?

Still nothing. The Gfjk-Hhh leapt to his feet.

- Perhaps I’ll let you tell them. Take you out onto the roof of the Forum, and let you scream it to the whole city. ‘He’s not the Gfjk-Hhh! He made it all up! He’s nobody!’ Because you know what would happen?
NOTHING
. They didn’t believe me because I had them at the point of a weapon. They
CHOSE
to believe me. They
WANT
me to be the Gfjk-Hhh. They
LOVE ME
.

The Gfjk-Hhh still addressed the back of Lbbp’s head. He paused a moment, then went on.

- If I decide you’re no fun any more, you die, you realise that? Think about it.

The Gfjk-Hhh swept out, slamming the cell door.

What the Gfjk-Hhh hadn’t been able to see was that Lbbp had been smiling throughout their encounter.

Not a word about Terra. Not a gloat, not a boast, not so much as a mention.

Which meant she’d got away.

Alone in his dungeon, Lbbp’s face was one radiant smile.