Understandingnow what the gesture meant, I followed the direction his finger was pointing.
Igasped.
Thetrees were connected with a dense net of hanging wooden bridges. The largertrees harbored broad platforms, and some of the smaller ones had tiny woodenbases that connected two bridges together.
Peterstopped next to one tree that had regularly interspaced protruding sticks,starting from the bottom of the tree and spiraling all the way to the top. Theywere made out of wood but were definitely not the natural part of the trunk.
“Come,Dora. Let me show you our village,” he said and motioned me to follow him tothe tree. He started climbing, setting his feet on the wooden protrusions, carrying Stevanion as if he was no burden at all. Simon andPatrick didn’t follow, obviously waiting for me to go first.
Iswallowed heavily, but my face stayed calm, my distress hidden beneath awell-trained mask.
Iplaced my foot on the first protrusion and slowly put my weight on it. Logicdictated that if the protrusions could hold Peter’s weight together withStevanion’s, they could certainly hold the weight of someone who, coming from alower G-field planet, was a lot lighter than any of the inhabitants of this OldEarth. Still, I needed several steps to gain confidence in these stairs thatled up the tree.
WhenI reached the small wooden base, I was gasping for air. My muscles hurt and mywindpipes burned with the fast airflow I was now forcing into my lungs.
So much for the E-showers…
Theywere made to strengthen muscles for routine movement on other Descendant worlds.They were not, apparently, made for climbing.
“Areyou all right?” Peter asked. He made a motion as if he was about to touch myshoulder, but thinking better of it, he let his hand drop down again.
“Yes,Peter. I. Appreciate. Your. Concern,” I said, onebreath between each spoken word.
“Allright,” he said, not looking very convinced.
Aftera few moments, I looked around. The large platforms I saw from below were notmerely platforms. They each supported a wooden cottage. Through the windows, Icould see orange-gold flickering light.
Patricknow came to our platform. With four people on this small space, I startedfeeling uncomfortable. We were well within one IP from one another.
“Dora,could you come with me, please?” Peter said, still holding Stevanion, andmotioned with his head to follow him over the wooden bridge. I stepped onto itand felt the swaying movement that Peter made with his walking. It made me feelnauseous.
“Youcan hold onto the rails,” said Patrick behind me.
Iswallowed and grabbed the rope rails on both sides.
“Perhapsyou should wait a few seconds until Peter gets across. Then it won’t sway somuch,” he added.
Inodded and waited.
OncePeter stepped onto the cottage platform, I stepped forward.
Havingthe ground move below my feet was something I had never experienced before. Itwas thrilling and scary, but with every step I took, the more comfortable Ifelt. Once I reached the other platform, I heard Peter talking to someone else.
“…should definitely go to the infirmary. He needs medicalcare.”
Stevanionwas now conscious but clearly scared to protest the body-to-body contact withPeter. The person Peter was talking to was a woman.She turned around and came closer to me, thankfully stopping one IP away. Herskin was suntanned bronze, and she had dark eyes and a strong build. Her thickdark hair was tied at the back of her neck, and she wore a loose beige dresswith straps, her arms free of fabric.
“I’llcome back in a moment,” Peter said and turned to walk over another bridge. Thewoman didn’t turn to Peter but kept looking at me, her eyes filled withcuriosity and interest.
“Hi,Dora. I am Tania,” the woman said, her voice strangely familiar, as she put herhand out toward me.
Ilooked at her hand, then at her.
“Whereis he taking Stevanion?” I asked.
Taniapulled her hand back. “He needs to go to the infirmary. The hospitalhouse. He seems to be dehydrated, and he will need a day or two torecover. You teleported two days ago, isn’t that right?”
“Thatis correct.”
“Hmm,”said Tania, lowering her gaze. “He seems surprisingly weak after only two dayswithout water. Did you drink anything, Dora?”
“Yes.I drank the water from the water-shower above us, which collected in the leafof a tree. Stevanion refused.”
Taniaraised her eyebrows. “The water-shower? Ah, you mean the rain. Okay. Well, howabout I show you to your cottage, and then you can have something to eat anddrink?”
“Mycottage?” I was confused. Why would Iwant a cottage, and why would they have one for me at all?
“Well,we have a few more cottages that just became available. People gettingtogether, moving in and stuff, you know.”
Mygaze was as blank as my thoughts. I did not understand any of what she wassaying.
“Nevermind. There is a cottage that is free for you, and you are welcome to live there.”
“Live?Here?” I was dumbstruck. Then I took a deep breath to center myself. Even if Iwanted to stay here, hiding from the Zlathars, Stevanion didn’t need to. Heneeded to go back to Senthia. “Stevanion… we need access to your computers. Iam fairly confident that I can correct the mistake in the port,” I said, keepingmy tone flat and matter-of-fact.
Sheturned around to look at me.
“Iwould love to give you access to acomputer. In fact, I would love to have access to a computer myself. But Dora, thereare no working computers here. We are back in the Middle Ages.”
“Ido not understand. The Earth had computers before the Evacuation. Where arethey now?”
“Well,the computers are still here, sort of, it’s just that we can’t use them. Theydon’t work. After the Evacuation, something happened that destroyed all theelectronic devices on Earth.”
Itook a moment to connect to my nanoprobes, searching for information about theescape from Old Earth.
“EMP.”
“Pardonme?”
“Electromagneticpulse. I do not have the full information, unfortunately, because the data onOld Earth is very scarce, but the computers are not working because of theEMP.”
Taniawrinkled her nose. “Let’s talk about it later. I’m sure lots of others wouldlike to hear what you have to say. Until then,” she said, “shall I show youwhere you can sleep?”
Inodded. “Yes,
