Ascending

fired their unconsciousness ray again; then I realized I had just seen Starbiter’s death as she bravely struck our enemies.

Whatever she had hit, it made a fine explosion.

Grief And New Burdens

The stick-ship was not obliterated, but it did not come any closer — it simply remained hanging in space, an image no bigger than my thumbnail.[6] From this range, there was no way to guess the extent of the damage… but I had faith Starbiter would have aimed for the most vulnerable spot she could find.

[6] — For examining distant objects, it is very convenient to be able to see through your thumb, nail and all. The curve of my nail gives a slight magnification; if I line up my thumbs at the right distance in front of my eye, I can get a telescope effect.

She was an excellent Zarett.

Beside me, Uclod snuffled into his hands. Lajoolie did not weep; but she rested her fingers on her husband’s shoulder and stared at him with sympathy. At last, the little man took a shuddering breath. 'She died alone.'

'She did it for us,' Lajoolie told him. 'She did it gladly.'

'But she died alone!' He pounded one hand on his chair, then turned around sharply to glare at Nimbus. 'She was your mate, for God’s sake. Why didn’t you go with her?'

A ripple passed through the cloud man’s body. 'I offered to,' Nimbus replied, 'but she wouldn’t permit it. She said I had a higher responsibility.'

All this time, the cloud man had been clotted around the chair beside me. Now he oozed away from it, revealing what he had shielded with his body during our bouncing passage through Starbiter’s guts.

Nestled on the seat was a tiny ball half the size of my fist. Its exterior had the same stringy gray texture as Starbiter herself… but very delicate, the strings as thin as hairs and the gray more fragile than frost.

'She’s very young to be separated from her mother,' Nimbus said. 'But Starbiter insisted; and I swear I will take good care of our daughter.'

The fog of his body billowed back around the chair, swaddling the baby Zarett like a protective blanket.

11: WHEREIN I MAKE FIRST CONTACT WTTH THE HUMAN RACE

Snared

One second, there was only darkness in front of us; then there was the slim white baton of aTechnocracy vessel stretched across the stars, its FTL field wagged oat behind it in a long milky tail, like a well-fed eel drifting lazily in a starry river’s currents.

'We should speak greetings to the humans, I said, 'we should assure them we are sentient citizens.'

'Can’t,' Uclod answered, wiping his nose with his bare wrist.

'Without Starbiter,' Lajoolie told me, 'we have no communication system. We can transmit or receive.'

Uclod gave a snort that threatened to degenerate once again into weeping… so I said nothing more.

Slowly, the navy ship came about — the knobby ball on its nose swung away from us, until all we could see was the round cross-section of the ship’s hind end. The FTL field swished its tail in our faces like an ill-mannered cat. Then a bright red beam shot toward us, shining pinkish light through the clear membranes that served as our windows.'

'That’s it then,' Uclod said in a hoarse voice. 'They’ve grabbed us.'

'Better them than the Shaddill,' I told him — hoping my words were true.

'Yeah, well… I won’t be the first Unorr sent to a prison planet.'

'We can survive it,' Lajoolie said. 'And thanks to Admiral York, your family knows all the places the High Council hides political prisoners. Your cousins will rescue as eventually.'

Uclod’s tips tilted up in the ghost of a smile. 'There is that.' Then he turned his gaze back to the ship outside.

Coming Aboard

The red beam worked like a rope, reeling us toward the navy ship. I wondered if we would feel anything as we passed through the edge of the milky FTL field… but there was only the softest jerk forward, and a tiny bit of dizziness wherein my toes felt momentarily tingly.

Ahead of us, a great round door opened in the rear of the ship — almost big enough to have swallowed Starbiter whole, so our single section of lung slipped inside easily. The instant we crossed the threshold, gravity returned; we slammed down hard onto a metal floor, bounced once, and juddered forward until we jolted to a stop against the far wall. Hmmph, I thought, these navy humans are clumsy. Either that, or they are intentionally treating us coarsely because they are great arrogant bullies.

Uclod let out his breath. 'Okay… okay… okay…' He was talking to himself more than the rest of us. 'Okay, we’re here.' He glanced at me. 'And we’re going to mind our P’s and Q’s, right, missy?'

'I am always most courteous. Except to fools and crazed people.'

'Damn it, toots, you aren’t filling me with confidence.'

He reached behind himself and did something to the back of his chair. The straps holding him went slack, but did not withdraw into the chair as they had done before; I suppose the retraction mechanisms would not work now that we had been disconnected from Starbiter. With straps sagging around him, Uclod leaned toward my seat and loosened my bonds too. He said, 'You’re on your own, sweet-knees,' then turned to untie Lajoolie.

While I worked to free myself, the navy ship closed its hatch behind us, sealing us in completely. My view through the membrane walls was smudged with pinkish Zarett blood; but I could see we had been deposited in a large chamber with multicolored trees painted on the walls. The walls themselves appeared to be white plastic with a glossy sheen… all except a section high up on the back, which was rose-tinted glass. I assumed there were important navy people on the other side of that window, staring down and discussing our fates. From my current angle, however, I could see nothing up there but a bank of metal machines.

Lights on the navy ship’s ceiling suddenly grew brighter, and the membrane walls around us made ominous crinkling sounds. 'Our hosts are pressurizing the transport bay,' Uclod said. 'Any second now, the place’ll be swarming with Security mooks.'

Apparently, a mook was a humorless person wearing olive body armor and brandishing a truncheon or stun-pistol with great officiousness. A troop of such persons clattered into the chamber with bustling self-importance, racing to take up positions around our little chunk of Starbiter and training their weapons upon us in a most aggressive manner.

Their leader (of a gender I could not identify, thanks to the armor and a voice more howl than human) shouted something that did not sound like words. One of the others jumped forward, pistol at me ready; the mook fired directly at our outer wall, and a splooge of noxious green splatted from the gun barrel. The substance must have been some Chemical — the instant it struck our chamber’s membrane, the tissue began hissing and spitting, bubbling up clouds of vile smoke. In less than ten seconds, a ragged hole had burned itself open, letting air from the human ship gust into our little chamber. The air smelted most foul indeed, tainted with a piercing coppery odor that must have been vaporized Zarett flesh.

'Harout!' cried the mookish leader. 'How, how, how!'

'What language is that person speaking?' I whispered to Uclod.

'Soldierese,' he replied. 'Start with English, then skip any consonants that sound too effeminate.'

'Hout!' shouted the mook. 'How!'

'Yeah, yeah,' Uclod said. 'We’re coming.'

He took a step toward the gash in the wall. I put my hand on his shoulder to stop him. 'Wait — we must do this correctly.'

I glanced around the room and saw what I wanted, lying against one wall: the black Explorer jacket I had brought from Melaquin. Snatching it up, I pushed my arms into it, discovering the fit was very fine indeed. The coat was not so heavy, and not at all tight; it also hung down to the middle of my thighs, quite long enough to cover my digestive bits if and when I finally forced myself to eat opaque foods. I took another moment to straighten the garment and fasten the snip down the front, just as I had seen Explorers do. Then I stepped out through the hole and historically made First Contact.

'Greetings,' I said in a loud clear voice. 'I am a sentient citizen of the League of Peoples. I beg yourHospitality.'

For a long moment, nobody spoke. I could see the mooks’ faces through their clear visors; several appeared disconcerted to be confronted by someone dressed as one of their own Explorers. 'I come in peace,' I said. 'My name is Oar. An oar is an implement used to propel boats.'

Someone gasped at the far end of the room. I turned and saw an unarmored person standing in the doorway.

'Oar? Oar?'

Festina Ramos hurled herself across the floor and wrapped her arms around me.

A Fervent Reunion

I myself am not given to spontaneous displays of emotion (at least not the happy hugging emotions), but I embraced her gladly with all my strength. When you think you have been captured by dire navy villains, then are unexpectedly reunited wife your very best friend… well, of course, you are filled with boundless joy. You want to enfold her and squeeze her and say foolish things, thinking all the white what a mistake it was to don a jacket that is now just a stuffy barrier between the two of you.

But it is odd how quickly boundless joy acquires bounds again: suddenly you remember you are being watched by little orange criminals and large-muscled women, by hard-eyed mooks and a cloud shaped like a man. In a single heartbeat, you become most clumsy and feigned — you find yourself wondering how you look in the spectators’ eyes, and you worry it is not quite proper to be all happy and hugging and open, for fear they will think you are an ignorant simple-head. Your body stance feels all wrong: your friend is so short and you are so tall that perhaps you look ungainly bending over her, like a great oafish giant stooping over a delicate flower. You tell yourself, No, I will not push away my friend just because I have grown self-conscious… but you are self-conscious, and whether you choose to back off mumbling or to continue clinging with stubborn determination, it has now become a show for other people.