Somewhere Interesting

I sit in my rack, boots sitting beside me, one standing straight, the other with the calf lolling over. Feet clad in a layer of artificial cotton flex slightly as I look at them. It's warm with the curtain closed, and quiet.

I skim through the pages of the ships network, network caches from a dozen worlds. I'm going to be mad at myself later for just sitting like this rather than going to a bar, watching media or anything else I might be doing. I'm not even looking at anything in particular, just scrolling through random websites, my brain turned to low.

Docking complete. You may debark. The message across my vision on the ship's AR network engages. I didn't even notice we were docking until now. It saves me from guilt though. Instead I can pull my boots on over my thigh highs and drop out of the rack to the deck. The ship has gradually been turning its gravity up to Surface's slightly higher normal. Part of me worries that I'll end up shattering the boots heels or driving them up into my heels like punji stakes but somehow this fails to come about. A quick hand gesture summons my duffle and I begin to walk down towards the off load ramp.

There's not many people getting off here. The kind of people who take the racks on an old tramp freighter are not often those who stop at Surface. I get a few looks as I pass. I haven't exactly made many friends here. I haven't exactly spoken to many people here. I ignore them and walk out into the ships main section, gravity dropping off to nothing as I leave the spin section and grab a handle, heading down towards the star port. Out the airlock gravity returns and I'm pulling myself up through the hatch, grabbing my case as it meets the gravity zone and yanking it thorugh. The station smells funny. Something has been put in the ventilation systems to scrub the usual stink space stations have. Probably something imported from nearby Oceania.

Natives and locals scurry around and its suddenly full of noise and bustle. Heja move through the crowd like giants through the ocean in some ancient monster movie. . . if those monsters had been supermodel hot. I look around once, then keep walking, concentrating on not bumping into anyone. Glowing lines of AR lead me to the down station, where a tiny young woman is supervising a drone as it lets people through the turnstile. She smiles at me, then looks crestfallen my eyes pass over her.

Say something. Say something. "Uh, hello." I stop, then step to one side so not to block the people behind.

"Uh, hi." She smiles. "Welcome uh, to Surface? Are you um... are you okay?"

"I'm fine. When I get to the bottom can I get a taxi to my hostel right away?"

"Uh, sure." She looks at me worried. "You're Tempesti though right? Is it safe for you to sleep in a posthuman structure."

"Probably?" I feel an intense need to leave suddenly "I'm going now." Turn and walk away.

It started with an advert. Some friends of mine had taken me out to the Londenium Cinema on Landing, taken me out to get me away from my flat where I showed heavy signs of just sitting. There'd been an advert for Surface. Tourism, finding yourself, posthuman structures. My friends girlfriend had said "You should do that." And then I'd said "Okay." Maybe she was joking.

And so I am here. I step onto a train down, sit on a seat and don't look out, eventually playing a game on my implant to pass the time. The train clicks down and we're out into the sunlight. Then I'm in a small aircraft flying South at high speed. Then I'm landing amid gleaming spires of glowing not diamond, their polished exteriors dusted with snow turned to icy slush by the heat of the sun. I vaguely look at the massive flow of waterfall ahead, the floating towers. The floating tower I'm on. For a moment I consider walking to the edge, climbing up on the rail and diving off to see what's down below, blocked by the carbon.

I don't though. Instead I go to the hostel, passing groups of tourists and locals who give me odd looks all the way, press my palm against the scanner and walk inside, into my room. Boots off, one calf flopping over, the other more or less straight. Sit down on the bed. Think of eating. Don't. Eyes Closed. Sleep.

I ran the numbers and I think we can do it. We just need sufficient heat to melt the snow. There's enough liquid there to flood the subway system definitely. I raise a hand to gesture to the AR display next to me, spun with crystals and angles that defy geometry as I know it.

An unreal haze hangs around everything, my commanders face looking up is outlined in spinning complexities I can't quite read but draw my eyes in. Okay, but where are we going to get the heat from?

Easy. Crack open the fusion reactor up here, and you'll get an absolute mass of ionized gas, superheated coolant and transfer medium. That goes down onto the snow. That goes down into the subway. It kind of sucks for the locals but it'll suck much more for us if we have to storm...

Flickering tunnels, EU soldiers and drones, weapons pointed. So clear in my imagination. Villains from the cartoons I used to draw.

Alright. Get the fire battalion on the phone. No point in waiting around.

I key my phone icon, now a thing of infinite complexity that's pulling me in. . . and then the complexity grows, and grows, and grows and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

II

I wake up. My head aches. A migraine array of alerts and warnings scrolls across my vision. Beyond them are several concerned faces and one of the big, bulky all wired drones they use to do battle field surgery in combat archaeology operations. I command my implants to go off but they don't. "Nngh."

The tallest of them speaks, handsome face coming down near mine. "Oh my, she's awake. Ms. Syed. Please don't be alarmed. Your implants have been affected by the posthuman network but it's not serious, and there's only been very limited bleed into your biological brain. We're going to switch your implants off and purge them.

"Raa..." I can't seem to get the words out properly. An arm descends and I feel a slight sting as the needle goes through to my lace's access point and hits the switch. Then blessed relief as the implant turns off. I sigh and lie back, then realize one of the ones looking down at me is the woman from the terminal gate. "You came down to look for me?"

"Well..." She smiles "You seemed like you were in a bit of trouble. I couldn't just leave you." "Thank you." I realize to my extreme surprise I actually mean that. Shakily I extend a hand. "Maya Syed."

She shakes, grip small but strong. " Csilla, Csilla Varga Szabo." She smiles at me in a way that I think I could get used to. "When you're done here perhaps you could come home with me? You need to stay away from Xanadu a bit I'm afraid, if you go back before the cache clears then it'll update your implants too when you get close." She speaks with the seriousness of someone repeating what they've been told.

The doctor looks up from the bot. "Yes. You should know better than to sleep inside a posthuman structure with implants like that." He frowns at me, reproving. "Whatever possessed you to do that anyway?" The words "Are you a rapture fucker and am I doing this for nothing?" float unsaid between us.

"I don't know. I just... didn't care at the time." The arm retracts and the doctor hands me a pressure dressing. I apply it and then get up. "So are there any pills I'll need to take?" The Implants begin to come back up and I reload the settings as I like them.

"No, you should be fine without medication. However if you experience any additional symptoms you should see a doctor immediately." He shakes his head then to Csilla "Make sure she gets some rest too."

"Yes Doctor." Csilla is dutiful.

I get up, sway, then stand. "I'm fine really. This is nothing." Its night outside the window. The aurora painting the sky a beautiful abstract of red and green and blue, the great blue ball of the gas giant glowing above it. "This is. . . nothing. Thank you doctor." I smile, shake the doctor's hand and walk free into the cool night and the lights.

III

Csilla pulls a slim pad from off her belt as we go. All the natives carry them, apparently as an alternative to having a neural lace. "I'll just call my car. It's parked a bit of a distance away, shouldn't take too long though." She smiles at me. "Home's about half an hour's flight."

She continues to natter and I become aware that she's trying to fill the silence between us. I smile. "Thanks for well, helping. You're pretty dutiful. I like that."

Csilla looks up at me then blushes and averts her eyes. "T-thanks. I... well I'm just doing my job as a customs official and so on." She coughs. "I guess I like helping those in need. I mean. . ." She's saved from flustering further by the arrival of the air car, which settles down onto the paved area in front of the doctor's surgery with a hum of lift fans. It's a bulbous, rugged machine like a mechanical bumblebee. We used craft very like it during the war. I feel a sudden chill and mount hastily as the gull wing doors wish open at the side.

"So uh..." If I was her I'd ask something like "why don't you care if you live or die?" Instead she says: "what's Tempest like?"

"Hot. . . windy a lot. It's kind of a surprise how cool and dry your planet is." I shrug. "The ocean goes on forever, but you often can't see it because of the fog."

"There's fog alot on tempest?" She asks. The car seems to be driving itself.

"Only when it's not raining." I stretch and realize I just made a joke. I didn't really think I still had it in me.

There's a question I wonder if she'll ask. The one that looms unsaid in any conversation with off worlders. Csilla natters on some more before she gets to it. "So uh, what ca-" She catches herself "colour are you?"

"I'm blue." I smile. "The artist caste."

"Ah, but I thought you were uh... a soldier." So, rather than just ask me what's up with my not quite suicide attempt she's trying to reason it out. If I was at home I'd be in a psychological hospital right now. . . which is why you're not home isn't it?

I shake my head. "People from all castes serve in the Defence Force." a small smile. "Half the violence takes place behind someone's eyes." I frown and something inside me gives me a push. "I have, well I suppose I have a problem. Are you sure you and your. . ." What is even the term for this? "Your housemates are prepared for this? I don't want to put you out."

Csilla gives me a suddenly serious look. "Well I can't leave them like that. Maybe you should go see a psychologist though. I can find one if you like."

"I don't really want to see a shrink. . ." Her face glitters in the aurora. She's beautiful in a cute way. I remember a broken heart on Kannon. . .

More to the point I can't turn her down after I named the problem. "Alright, I will. Uh... does stuff like the cost?"

She shakes her head. "Not to Tempesti, your government has a fund set up to pay for any medical work you might need." She smiles "I wouldn't worry about it though. Just get some rest." The flier drops into its final approach to a large cluster of buildings. "In the morning you can meet everyone else and make an appointment right?"

"Sure." I smile, wondering what I will dream of tonight.

IV

I dream a war dream. Masked knights and adventuresses storming a great ice castle to rescue the princess within. I am one of the latter, a cleric with her hood pulled low. Both within the dream and observing it. We fight against great ogres. There are so many but we are so skilled.

Finally we smash through the last room and break the princess from the throne she's chained too. There are meddles and celebration. Then someone asks. "What do we do now?"

When I wake up cold dawn light is filtering through the blinds. The morning is crisp and to me chilly, I pull my top clothes back over what I was sleeping in and slope off to the outside toilet, wincing slightly as my bare feet touch the grass. I take a shower while I'm out there, and spend the way back wincing even more as the water in my hair evaporates, chilling me slightly.

When I get back I find Csilla waiting. She looks nervous. "If you're dressed I can take you to breakfast." She suggests. "I want to introduce you to everyone."

"Sure, just give me a minute to dry my hair and get dressed." I smile at her then firmly shut the door and get dressed. I'm starting to feel a little embarrassed about my quiet little suicide attempt. I've done some stupid things but whatever possessed me to do that. On the other hand another part of me recognizes I've felt this up before. It too may pass into another down.

I walk out and smile down at Csilla. "Okay, already." She nods and leads off down the hall. I find myself watching her back, where her outfit shows off the top of her shoulder blades. Despite a tan from having been out doors so long her skin is so light compared to mine. She seems not to notice my regard. "Uh, two of my uh... housemates are male, just so you know." She fidgets.

"I've met men before you know." I smile at her and resist the urge to run a finger across that delicious patch of skin to see what she does.

We come into a large dining room. Around the table are four other Emberek, a smiling female Heja at the head of the table and three other Kolibri, in various states of nervousness sat around it. It takes me a while to reason out who are the two guys but I get their eventually. Csilla (I assumed) had got me a short stool which got me up to the right level of the table and was, I found out, the most devastatingly uncomfortable device I'd ever sat on. The table itself was packed with food.

"Hi." the Heja was the only one without a chair. She smiled at me whitely. "I'm Zsuzanna. This is Gizella," she indicated the other woman then the guys, "Adorjan and Gabriel. Csille told us about your troubles and we're all here to welcome you to our house."

"Thank you." I sit down, trying not to be nervous. "It uh... well it's good to be here." I smile a bit.

"I hear you're an artist. I like to paint. . . maybe we could talk shop later on?" Zsuzanna smiles. "Oh and please help yourself."

"Sure. I'd like to. You have wonderful vistas around here." There's a ridiculous amount of food here. I eat bacon, eggs, breakfast pastries, toast, fruit.

Eventually the others start to come out of their shells a bit. Adorjan asks if I like the food and I tell him I do. He's proud as he cooked it. Meantime Gabriel is interested in why I'm here. "To find myself or something... or find out how to live."

"A lot of people come here for that." Zsuzanna seems happy to dominate the conversations and the others seem happy to defer. "Perhaps after breakfast you can come on a Ground Survey. We're checking the estate for poachers, squatters, damage, stuff like that."

"Ah." The idea that this land is owned is pretty alien too me still, but I don't voice that one. I can't help but ask "Do drones get adversely affected by the posthuman structures?"

The Heja laughs. "No no, we just like walking around. It's a beautiful land we gained. It's a shame not to experience it. After breakfast, I'll show you."

"Right." This is going to be an experience.

V

I run a hand down the bark of a tree. The bark is strange. It's not shiny like the bark on Tempesti trees, nor is it rough like the bark on earth trees. Instead it feels smooth, like worked wood under my fingers.

The woods are thick and wet. The forest, unusually, doesn't remind me of any of the other worlds I've been too. New Mercia's jungle was either iced over or much hotter than this. The terraforming pine areas were just colder. Kannon woods simply don't look like these, and again the temperature's not right.

There's really no way you could mistake Surface for Tempest at all. I let out my breath and look around, then pull my water bottle and take a drink as Zsuzanna slides up beside me. The others keep their distance, except Csille. "Look over there." the Heja points. I follow her finger and see something moving through the gloom. A huge armoured beast strides into view, its great antlers moving back and forth as it looks around, quartering the ground as it goes.

"It's a Elkasaur." Zsuzanna whispers. "They rarely come this far north. She's probably coming to build a nest."

I watch, spell bound as the great beast comes up towards us. "Don't touch." Zsuzanna whispers.

I look at the beasts huge sharp tail, held up perpendicular like a cats. "I wouldn't think too." The Elkasaur regards us with a herbivores haughty contempt and goes on its way.

"Amazing." I breath as it goes on its way.

"Much better than a drone view huh?" Zsuzanna smirks.

Sure I think, but how often do you do this? I'm such a city brat. Part of me expected her to shoot the thing with giant gun that she carries over her shoulder and cook it for dinner. I'm not one of those Tempesti who's super superior about being autovegan and I've eaten real meat a time or two but the concept is still pretty disgusting.

We continue on down the path. There's twittering on all sides, like the hum of tree lizards. "What creature makes that sound?" I ask.

"It's like earth," Zsuzanna looks up "birds."

"I went to earth once." I follow her gaze, watching as small, colourful creatures dart between the branches. "Your birds don't sound the same."

"That's why we left. For different birdsong and different animals and trees and stars." the heja looks down at me. "I think we got what we wanted." I nod and she goes on. "Do you hunt?"

"Sure, there aren't many Tempesti who haven't hunted at least once." I test the weight of the gun on my shoulder. "You'd need to show me how in this environment though."

Zsuzanna frowns a bit. "You hunt? I thought Tempesti didn't eat meat?"

"Well only a violet can eat anything from Tempesti, even then, most people don't really like eating actual meat, but we still hunt. It practices field craft and uh..." I break off, realizing I'm scandalizing her slightly. "You should eat anything you hunt you know. Otherwise it's just a waste of life."

"Well uh, often the animal gets used in industrial processes cause we can't eat them." I try.

"Hmph! I'll have to show you how to hunt properly." She pulls out a small scanner, checks the reading then goes off again. "Come on, there are dear this way. We'll have venison for lunch."

Eeek.

VII

Running. Deep breaths of cold air. Eyes flickering around to try to spot obstacles on the ground and the Elk running ahead. Arms pumping, heat rising internally, fighting the frost in my lungs. I wonder how Csille can keep the pace up. We're moving around the Elk in a pattern, boxing it in.

This is so not me. . . my muscles are screaming at me. Somehow I keep going on. Zsuzsanna is running easily ahead, and I'm barely keeping pace with the Kolibri despite my longer legs.

Zsuzsanna puts on a burst of speed, and leaps and takes the Elk down. She grapples, then breaks its neck with a quick motion. We come to rest, panting. Zsuzsanna pulls a knife and begins to cut the kill up, reaching in she pulls out its heart and holds it out to me. "Try some."

I reach out, mouth opening hesitantly, and then take a bite. . .

. . .

During the walk back Csille keeps giggling.

"You fainted. I didn't think Tempesti could faint."

"I'm... well I'm not used to eating stuff like that." I glare down at the ground.

"It was pretty funny. The look on your face, and Zsuzsanna worrying about grabbing you because she had blood all over her hand."

I give her a look and the Kolibri bursts out laughing again. "Hey, would you like to see something on the way home?"

"Uh, sure." I wonder at this sudden subject change. "What sort of something though?"

"Something." she leads me off down an animal track and deeper into the bush. After "I think this might suit you better than hunting."