hand-woven cable toward her.
In fact, Maia was relieved. She paused to consider going back inside her cell to get … what? There were only four books and the Game of Life set, none of which she cared much about. Except for the sextant, strapped to her wrist, she was free of the tyranny of possessions.
After tying the new rope under her shoulders, Maia inched outward until most of her weight hung from the taut cable. At that point it occurred to her that this could be a trap. Tizbe might be toying with her, while arranging for her death-fall to appear part of an escape attempt.
The thought passed as Maia realized,
She braced her feet against the wall, legs straight, and prepared to start climbing, stepping upward while pulling hand over hand. Then, to her surprise, the rope tautened rapidly and she found herself being hauled straight up, directly and swiftly.
As the balcony drew near, she composed her face so as not to show the slightest chagrin if it turned out to be Tizbe and the guards, after all.
Arms reached down to haul her over the side… and Maia’s composure broke when she saw who had helped her.
“Kiel! Thalla!”
Her former cottage-mates at Lerner Hold beamed while freeing her of the rope. Kiel’s dark features split with a broad, white grin. “Surprised?” she said in a whisper. “You didn’t think we’d leave you to rot in this Perkinite hole, did you?”
Maia shook her head, overwhelmed that she had been remembered after all. “How did you know where I —”
She cut off, upon seeing that they weren’t alone. Standing behind the two var women, coiling rope over one shoulder, stood … a man! Beardless and slim for one of his kind, he smiled at her with an intimacy she found rather forward and disconcerting.
A man’s participation helped explain how just three of them could lift her so quickly, while it raised other questions even more perplexing… like what one of his race was doing so far upland, involving himself in disputes among women.
Thalla chuckled lowly, patting Maia’s shoulder. “Let’s just say we’ve been searching some time. We’ll explain later. Now it’s time to scoot.” She turned to lead the way. But Maia shook her head, planting her feet and pointing the other direction.
“Not yet! There’s someone else we’ve got to rescue. Another prisoner!”
Thalla and Kiel looked at each other, then at the man. “I thought there were just two,” Thalla said.
“There were,” the man answered. “Maia—”
“No! Come on, I know where she is. Renna—”
“Maia. I’m here.”
She had turned and already taken several steps down the dark corridor when the words cut her short. Maia swiveled, peering past Thalla and Kiel, who stood grinning in amusement. The man moved toward her, on his face a gentle look of irony. He lifted his gaze and shrugged in a gesture and expression she abruptly recognized. Her jaw dropped.
“I should have said something,” he told her in a voice that came across queerly accented. “It slipped my mind that men are the gendered class, here. That you’d naturally assume I was female unless told otherwise. Sorry to have shocked you. …”
Maia blinked. In her astonishment, she could barely speak. “You’re … a man.”
Renna nodded. “That’s how I’ve always seen myself. Though here on—”
Kiel hissed. “Come on! Explain later!”
Maia would not move. “What are you talking about?” She demanded. “How could you have-—”
Renna reached out and took one of Maia’s hands. “Truth is, by your standards I’m probably not even human at all. You may have heard of me. In Caria City they call me the Visitor. Or the Outsider.”
A cloud moved out of the way—or a moon chose that moment to suddenly cast pale light upon his face, showing its odd proportions. Not so extreme you would have stopped and stared, on seeing him at a dockside cafe. Still, when you looked for it, the effect was striking, a lengthiness of jaw and a breadth of brow that seemed somehow unworldly. Nostrils shaped to take in different air. A stance learned walking on a different world. Maia shivered.
“Now or never!” Thalla urged, taking both of them in tow while Kiel skulked ahead, scouting for danger in the shadows. Maia stumbled at first, but soon they picked up the pace and were running past ghostly, empty halls, united by a need to leave this place of stillborn silences.
Later. Later would be soon enough to worry this puzzle—that her first adult love had turned out to be an alien from the stars.
PART 2
The founders of this colony chose an excellent site to conceal their Utopia. Partly hidden by dust nebulae, orbiting a strange multiple-star system where most explorers would not bother looking for habitable worlds… Stratos must have seemed ideal to isolate their descendants from the strife and ferment raging elsewhere in the galaxy.
Yet, the Enemy eventually found them. And now, so have I…
It is a testament to their fierce independence that they never tried calling for help when the foe-ship came. The people of Stratos simply fought the Enemy, and won. The colonists have reason to be proud. Without direct aid from the Human Phylum, they countered a surprise attack and annihilated the invaders. Their victory has become the stuff of legends, altering their social structure even while seeming to validate it.
They claim this ratifies their secession, obviating any need for alliance with distant cousins.
So far, in conversations from ship to ground, I’ve refrained from citing our records, which mention that very same foe-ship, describing it as a broken ruin, fleeing the Battle of Taranis to lick its wounds or die. Stratos has never sampled the full terror stalking the stars. Even in ignorance, it has benefited from protection by the Phylum. No part lives but in reliance on the others.
This will not be an easy concept to impart, I fear. Some of these Herlandist radicals seem to find my arrival more traumatic than that of the Enemy, so long ago. An affront to be ignored if possible.
What do their leaders fear from renewed contact with distant kin?
Negotiations for my long-delayed landing are done at last. They assure me of facilities adequate to launch my aeroshell back into orbit when the visit is completed, so there’s no need to go auto-mine an asteroid and build an ungainly, all-purpose craft. Tomorrow I descend to start discussions in person.
