* * * *
It was late in the day when the cloud skimmer scraped up against the flat rock of the pier—the place where Lina and Arabel’s journey had started so long ago. The sun cast long shadows of the few diploids who wandered here and there. It was obvious from their style of dress that they were part of the security force, but their usual crisp order and attention to discipline was severely lacking. Some looked as if they could barely stand.
“We’re home,” Lina said.
Arabel sat up and rubbed her eyes. “What are they doing here?”
“I don’t know,” said Lina. “Guarding the pier, I suppose.”
“From us?”
“I don’t know.”
Unnerved by the presence of the security force and the recent memories of what had transpired between them and Mentor in this very place, Lina began scenting sorrow. She even wondered if one of the diploids here might have been the one to deliver the final, crushing blow. But she could not help but pity them now, in their ragged uniforms, eyes wide and cheeks hollow, truncheons discarded or dragging on the ground as they wandered.
A few of the guards flared their nostrils and looked in Lina’s direction as her scenting passed by on the air.
“Arabel? Could you pass me a lychee?”
“I thought you were sick of them. ‘If I never see another lychee in my life, it’ll be too soon,’ you said. Why—?”
“Not for me. For them.” Lina dismounted the skimmer.
“Oh.” Arabel reached into the basket, pulled out as many lychees as she could fit in her hands, and passed them up to Lina.
Lina distributed a lychee fruit to each member of the security forces wandering about on the pier. As the fruit was passed, Lina held onto their hands for a little longer than was necessary, and at the same time, scented a bit of familial love. “Go home. Rest. You’ve done well,” she said. “Go home.”
Lina turned to the skimmer and held out her hand. “Come on Arabel,” she said, “let’s find the others.”
Basket in hand, Arabel exited the craft.
* * * *
The situation was very much the same as Lina and Arabel continued on through the tunnels of the colony. The grand open space of the colony’s main commerce area looked like the Island of the Missing and smelled even worse. Lina paused to shake up a bio-globe she found lying on the ground. In its dim light she could see that things were left were they lay, including foodstuffs that were now moldy and rotten.
“Where is everyone?” Arabel asked.
“I don’t know.”
The two continued on through dingy, poorly lit tunnels, with moisture clinging to the walls and the smell of rot all around. In some areas there were piles of rubble that looked as if they were the result of a partial tunnel collapse or perhaps an explosion. But strangely, no one was around. Lina tried to use her recent gift of seeing possibilities, but it seemed that it only worked when she didn’t want it, and not now when she did.
“Do you hear that?” Lina said.
Arabel stopped and looked around. She shook her head.
“This way.” Lina strode with purpose now. There was a vibration in the floor of the tunnel. It was very faint and not continuous, but Lina was sure she had felt something like it before.
“Where are we going?”
“To the palace, I think.”
* * * *
Lina found the people, and the source of the vibrations throughout the tunnels of the colony. It was a strange mixture of Lina’s dark visions of the abyss—her discussions with the Great Tree about the fate of the ancient cities below the clouds—combined with the happiness of Queen An Ming’s rave.
The vibrations were supplied by the people all gathered around the colony’s Great Tree, hands and heads raised to the giant hole that had been blown in the roof from a rebel bombing during the last gala. The orange light of the late day sun was clearing the top of the palace walls that lay in rubble, to cast shadows of the Great Tree’s branches. The people were humming and singing. At their feet lay the brittle, dry leaves of the Great Tree. The colony’s Tree was no more.
Lina flared her nostrils. All around, mixed in with the scent of decay, were the pheromone mixtures of sorrow and regret. She felt a tear streaking down her right cheek. It was hot and slow in its journey.
Lina felt Arabel pressing against her, reaching up to wipe the tear away with her outstretched finger. That’s when Lina noticed Arabel still carried the basket with her, the basket that had been filled to overflowing with lychee when they set out from Queen An Ming’s island. Arabel held the basket forth and nodded at Lina.
There wasn’t enough fruit to feed the entire colony, but she did her best. Lina peeled each fruit apart and broke it into its two halves and the broke it apart again. She scented familial love as she brought a piece of fruit to the mouth of each person standing under the Great Tree. When her task was complete, her hands were sticky, but her heart was light. The songs and scents filling the air both had a happier note to them.
“Where are the children?” Lina had asked. No one knew.
It was not until fatigue set in, and Arabel guided Lina back to her apartment that the truth was discovered.
* * * *
Lina stood slack jawed at the entrance to Arabel’s apartment, as Arabel pushed the unlatched door open. The air was warm and humid, and half of the plants that had decorated Arabel’s walls were stripped bare—all of them edible varieties. In the middle of the apartment, on the mossy living carpet, sat the children. They were huddled in a circle on the floor three rows deep, humming softly. In the center was Arabel’s tiny tree flower. Upon seeing Lina and Arabel, the children sitting around the tiny tree began to sing out—a song
