Dadr'Ba (20 page)

Lu’Gs played along, “yes, indeed,” nodding agreement. Chn’Gi continued, this was more than negotiating a payment method, it was trust building between the two of them, passing a mutual test, “I can pay with, spices, tea, or liquor,” not seeing or sensing a response, and not really expecting one, pausing for suspense Chn’Gi added. “I’ve even got a little paper,” to which she noticed a flash of recognition that Lu’Gs immediately hid, he was hooked.

The mention of one of the rarest black market commodities on Dadr’Ba and the unchallenged king of barter items, valuable, easy to conceal and relatively easy to valuate, using a system of weight, size, finish and cleanliness that gives room to barter into an equivalent number of credits.

The suggestion of a paper transaction immediately put their deal into the realm of a Capital Punishment Black Market Crime, orders of magnitude more severe than spice, tea or liquor barter. Lu’Gs, his voice now hushed “clean or dirty.” To which she coughed, then responded in an equally hushed voice, “clean,” clean being the rarest and most valuable.

They had now cemented their commitments; both were now openly and mutually dealing in a Capital Black Market punishable transaction, which would wind them both in confinement and retraining, or worse, if discovered by the CASS.

Showing a marked change in tone and as if the earlier conversation never occurred, cocking his head and leaning forward Lu’Gs asked: “What specifically are you looking for?” Chn’Gi taking Lu’Gs’ lead came closer, leaning forward and in an almost whisper, took the plunge and moved the whole transaction from years of hard labor or retraining to the distinct possibility of forced retirement. “I’m looking for pre-ToG historical information on the development of technology on Or’Gn.”

Lu’Gs, martial arts enthusiast, (itself a capital offense), was unable to dodge the impact of her statement, he staggered back almost as if struck hard in the face. Then taking a deep breath, and shaking his head slowly recovered and stepping forward again said after a long pause, “Okay, that’s something that doesn’t get asked for a lot.”

After a pause Lu’Gs continued, as if thinking out loud “If available, it’ll probably be on nonstandard media. So you’ll have to have a data retrieval device.” Pause, “Standalone, it wouldn’t do to have any of the stuff on the net.” Pause again, “And the data may be buried or erased or overwritten and possibly or probably encrypted, so finding what you’re looking for could be extremely time-consuming unless we get lucky, or can find a compatible search engine or someone that can program one for you to scan the media. I think I know where I can find some discarded pre-ToG media, but we’re talking about tens, probably hundreds of petabytes that would have to be scanned or recovered and scanned. If you try to scan all that yourself, it could take thousands of years. I’ll have to find someone that can help automate the process that won’t ask questions. I know a place where we could set up the system, but all this is going to be expensive.”

Chn’Gi, “How expensive?” After a long pause, “You say you’ve got clean, give me a square of clean heavy ultra-white, and we can get started. Give me a week and I’ll give you a personal data retrieval system with some sample media that just ‘might’ have what you’re looking for.”

“You might get lucky and find it on the first media I give you. After you’ve had a chance to use it and look at it, let me know if you want me to set up an automated search system. It will search for exactly what you want, but it’ll cost extra and increases the risk of detection by the CASS.”

Chn’Gi’s mind raced, that much paper, a square meter, clean, just to start. Her grandparents had secretly left a package of clean paper given to her in a sealed box by her parents when she graduated. She hated to tap into that treasure, as much for sentimental reasons as any, but almost as if her grandparents spoke to her from within; something told her to go for it.

“I don’t carry a kind of paper with me, and I preferred to pay on delivery. How about I give you a decimeter clean and three deci’s of dirty now, that’s all I got on me. The rest clean when I get the reader and the media.”

Lu’Gs paused only for a moment then responded with a double chest thump and a slight nod. Chn’Gi had seen this gesture before among Kr’s
[79]
and not quite knowing the proper response, replied with a weak imitation, which by the expression on Lu’Gs’ face sealed the deal.

Now, Lu’Gs just stood there waiting; Chn’Gi suddenly realized that she needed to produce the paper that she had carefully stashed under her clothes, more concerned about protecting it from the thugs, thieves and outcasts rumored to prowl Ol’Tn than to have it handy for a transaction.

Chn’Gi looked around for a restroom, uttering a subtle “Uhm.” Lu’Gs seeing her instant discomfort smiled slightly and motioned Chn’Gi towards a door past the end of the counter, the need for occasional privacy appeared to be a not infrequent need for his customers.

Moments later Chn’Gi handed over the carefully folded paper. Lu’Gs still not asking Chn’Gi’s name requested that she return in a week, on her next shopping trip, for her “merchandise.” Lu’Gs suggested that they shouldn’t try to contact each other, that she should just stop by, it’s safer that way, no changes in personal behavior. If the merchandise is not ready, they would just have to wait another week and most importantly, if when she comes back, she thinks or feels she’s being followed or monitored, just to walk away and come back when it feels right, but don’t change her routine.

Chn’Gi left with a tumult of the feelings, satisfied that she made the deal, apprehension and excitement about what she would find out, and a terrible fear of what would happen if they were discovered by the CASS. She began composing in her mind what she might say to the Central Council in self-defense, about how she needed to do it to help satisfy their demand for information about the capabilities of the alien IL on O’M and what their reaction might be when Dadr’Ba arrives.

If she were able to convince the Council of her innocence, it would do nothing for Lu’Gs; Lu’Gs would be as good as dead. If she got caught, she’d have to try to warn Lu’Gs as quickly as possible. The thought crossed her mind that she may have to kill herself, but as soon as the thought entered her mind, she forced it out, vowing to stay positive and not to think about it again.

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Lu’Gs tapped out a veiled message to P’Ko’s unregistered TaC-B letting him know that he had a job for him. Lu’Gs was sure that the CASS knew P’Ko was working part time for him, there’s nothing wrong with an apprentice mechanic like P’Ko doing this kind of work. Lu’Gs added a couple of non-display characters that would indicate to P’Ko that this was a “unique” job.

P’Ko had just arrived home from Graduation and the ToG Ceremony when he got the message from Lu’Gs on his unregistered TaC-B. He immediately wanted to go down to the D’Po to find out what the “unique” job was, but he resisted the impulse. A strong feeling that he was watched had come over him on his way home, and there was still no closure from what happened at the ToG Ceremony.

During the rest of the ceremony after being commanded to sit away from the rest, nothing happened. As the remainder of the initiates slowly recovered, and more intense questioning by Gi’Ya, followed by a long break where she ignored him, Gi’Ya began to act as if nothing was wrong. He was sure the incident had been reported but never saw her communicating with anyone about it. There’s no denying, based on her questioning, tone, and emotion he felt from her that the incident was significant and that there must be some fallout as a result, but so far, nothing. A couple of days passed all the while P’Ko had a strong feeling that he was being watched.

He was notified to participate in a short notice job interview with the sector Maintenance Su’Pr
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‘s, hosted at the virtual meeting suite at his old school. They only gave him one days’ notice and with the fear of surveillance, P’Ko didn’t attempt to contact Su’Zi.

The ‘Su’Pr’s sat across from him at a virtual table; P’Ko sat facing them a couple of meters away. He was very nervous, they identified themselves, but all P’Ko could recall afterward was that Su’Zi’s Su’Pr was one of the two friendly ones, two others were ambivalent acting like they had much better things to be doing at the time.

The last Su’Pr was openly hostile, making cutting and snide remarks about P’Ko’s looks, knowledge, and intelligence. Openly stating at the end that P’Ko was totally, unqualified, physically and mentally incapable of doing the job. P’Ko was able to dismiss the hostile one, what he said made little sense, since he was applying for an apprenticeship and didn’t have his bio-mods yet. In the end, he was hopeful that he would land a position on Su’Zi’s crew.

A few more days passed with no outward indications, he was being watched, yet the feeling that he was being watched remained. He still had no word on his bio-mods, he had been staying close to home feeling claustrophobic and yearning to get out and about.

P’Ko missed Su’Zi, and wanted to talk to her about the job interview, but he wanted to wait until after his bio-mods to see her so that he could show off. However, he knew that as skittish as Su’Zi was about the CA that it would be catastrophic if he were under CASS surveillance and brought that spotlight onto her.

He needed to tell Su’Zi about the ToG Ceremony incident and wasn’t sure how she would react, but it would be really, really bad if he led the CASS to her. He needed to play it safe; and didn’t know how understanding Su’Zi would be.

He was sure she wouldn’t want him to bring the CASS down on her; she would understand why he’s delaying contact, but on the other hand, he wasn’t sure, considering her tremendously strong feelings toward the CASS and the threat of surveillance how she would react to him? Would she turn on him? Would she lose trust in him?

Has what they felt toward each other been a fleeting thing? And is it now passing?

P’Ko stopped himself… he was over thinking, running around in mental circles, stepping on his own thoughts again. What he needed to do is stop thinking.

In an act of near desperation, P’Ko took a long moment and focused all of his attention on sending Su’Zi a psychic message of care, concern, and reassurance. After a moment he thought he heard Su’Zi speaking in his head, meaning without words, of love and reassurance. With that, he felt some of the tension drain away accompanied by a wave of warmth and relaxation.

P’Ko thought about what happened at the ToG Ceremony in detail and upon analysis began to doubt that CASS was watching him. The real watchers had to be, and he had never thought before they would do such a thing, must be the Church.

The Church is watching him because of what happened at the ToG ceremony. When it happened, Gi’Ya questioned him how he knew what to do, how to find the way out of the abyss. Gi’Ya didn’t believe him, when he told her that he’d experienced it before, but had no memory or explanation for it. Which he had to admit was impossible. The Church if they think he’s lying must suspect him of cheating. If they believe he’s telling the truth, which they should with their psychic abilities and religious bent, think he’s either a miracle or an abomination. They have him under surveillance while they decide what, if anything, to do.

The CASS if they found out would think that he’s a freak of nature that needs to be investigated, tested and probably dissected in the process. If it were the CASS, he wouldn’t be under surveillance he would be in custody.

P’Ko ran over the event in his mind, during the ToG ceremony, he had only reacted the way that felt natural, like muscle memory. The shock put him out of his wits; he had no memory of the past, there was only the present, and he just did what his impulses told him to do.

He wondered what the possible consequences were; he had never heard of the Church apprehending people, but that didn’t mean it hasn’t happened, it has had to have happened. After everyone had recovered, Gi’Ya told all the initiates about the prohibition against sharing knowledge of the ToG Ceremony, with the clear implication of severe consequences for violation.

So there must have been violations, some of the unexplained disappearances of people that everyone attributed to the CASS may have been church apprehensions. What with the CASS refusing to say one way or another and not seeming to care, the Church certainly could apprehend people and let them think it was the CASS’ dirty work. He saw firsthand at the ToG Ceremony that the Church has actual soldiers at their disposal, and there’s no telling what sharing arrangements the Church has with the CASS regarding surveillance systems and video or what methods of surveillance they have on their own.

After a few more anxious days all the while thinking about his new job, Su’Zi, his bio-mods, Z’Shi, the Church, the ToG Ceremony, the mysterious job Lu’Gs has for him, in other words, not being able to focus.

P’Ko managed to get out to help Ba on a few jobs and finally the feeling of being watched started to subside.

He longed for all this to be over, to be settled in his new job in the mines, in a T’Bm or mining camp far away from all this, he felt in his gut that he could find there a certain kind of solitude, of peace there. P’Ko could feel the high energy this close to Dadr’Ba’s engine and hustle bustle press of the people that lived all around him and his family in capsule flats, and he wanted to get away from the sense of the watchers, and from the fear of the CASS.

P’Ko, feeling overwhelmed by everything he faced, decided to take each thought and feeling that was plaguing him and compartmentalize it, file it away, then process it bit by bit, a kind of meditation. He had done this, at first not even realizing he was doing it when he was a Ko’Ka dealing with the nightmares of his birth. Then again, as a To’Ta being picked on in school, his mental processing helped deal with his fears and foes.

He hadn’t been meditating very long when he paused and sent Su’Zi a psychic message of reassurance and received an immediate reassuring response. Then he thought through and concluded that the Church isn’t as pure as he grew up believing. Knowing this about the Church and not knowing what to do about it, made it difficult to set aside. He had to consciously force himself to set this problem, manhandle it into a memory location to work on later.

Now he focused on Z’Shi and his mentoring. Judging from his class ranking, he was probably a week or so away from getting his bio-mods and begin mentoring.

P’Ko was happy and a little apprehensive that Z’Shi, rather than stretching her mentoring out over the course of six to eight weeks, which would have been virtually impossible and incredibly awkward around his work on the T’Bm. To come up from the T’Bm or mining camp once or twice a week for mentoring for however many weeks would be extremely difficult at the very least.

Z’Shi arranged for ten days straight of one-on-one instruction in isolation. P’Ko’s experience during his interview with Z’Shi was powerful and rewarding, but at the end he remembered the feeling of being overwhelmed and exhausted, having collapsed on the floor after what must have been maybe a couple of hours. He couldn’t get his mind around the thought of ten days straight of such a powerful experience.

A fleeting thought of quitting crossed his mind, but he immediately eliminated it, refusing to even consider it. He found that he couldn’t process his thoughts about his mentoring without ending up with the same anxious feeling that he might not be able to handle it or that he would somehow fail. Finally, he forced himself to file it away, to forget about it, as best he could, to wait for the actual moment to come and deal with it at the moment.    

Next on his mental list to deal with was the job down at the D’Po. P’Ko was anxious to find out what the job was, he’d been itching to do something technical, that involved his hands. He always felt a sense of pride when he did something that produced tangible results. A D’Po side job would keep him occupied during this down time while he waited for his bio-mods.

The start of his “real” life, his “adult” life, his life as a “full-fledged” productive member of the crew depended on his bio-mods. This down time in which he was not progressing, not learning, not working, not earning distance credits, but being cargo made him feel lazy and guilty.

His parents were going off to work every day earning their way, supporting him. While this downtime was authorized, even directed by the CA, P’Ko couldn’t get it out of his mind that, were he a “Full Adult” he could be charged with failure to progress and fined or arrested for wasting resources. He wasn’t contributing to the ship’s progress while at the same time consuming the ship’s resources keeping himself alive.

P’Ko had avoided Ol’Tn since his graduation because of the fear he had of CA surveillance or being followed. But now enough time had passed, that his intuition or, so he told himself, his sleuthing determined that the Church, most likely, was beginning to lose interest in him. P’Ko psyched himself up to take a more clandestine than usual trip to Ol’Tn and while he was there he would pass a message to Su’Zi through, Mi’Ka, letting her know that he was okay and about his fear that he was being surveilled, and he’d contact her when he could.

P’Ko thinking through his visit to Mi’Ka decided that though she might sense it, he wouldn’t mention his suspicion that the Church had him under surveillance. P’Ko sensed that Mi’Ka had some “relationship” with the Church. Mi’Ka didn’t appear outwardly religious, she frequently offered, or seemed to offer, mystical rather than religious explanations for psychic events, the fact that they worked seemingly opposing sides of psychic phenomena to the same goal exhibited some cooperation, collusion, or at least mutual respect and restraint.

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P’Ko entered Mi’Ka’s shop as quietly as possible. Mi’Ka was in the back, as usual, tinkering with some brew or concoction in an attempt to discover, or create something new, an effect, capability or taste. Though she doesn’t brag about it, Mi’Ka has many recipes to her credit and a few drug patents.

P’Ko had visited the CA’s food and drug research labs while helping his Ba on maintenance and repair jobs, the contrast between those labs and Mi’Ka’s “kitchen” is momentous. But P’Ko felt Mi’Ka, has had as much or more success than the CA’s Labs.

Mi’Ka called out from the back. “P’Ko, when you are going to learn that to sneak up on anyone other than a D’En you are going to have to quiet your psyche! You barged in here like a soldier bot army wrecking crew!” P’Ko shouted back with his best psychic effort, “Sorry, I do better, next time!” To which Mi’Ka replied, this time physically, “You’d better!”

As soon as Mi’Ka broke the silence with her “You’d better!” shout towards the door where P’Ko was standing, Mi’Ka’s robo-pet came scurrying towards him on the ceiling suspended by its retractable clawed magnetic feet. He looked up to see Mi’Ka’s robo-pet “Ku’Ma.”

Ku’Ma crouched, just out of P’Ko’s reach and looked down at him, her one green eye and one yellow eye narrowed down to intense pin pricks.

Ku’Ma studied him, a low growling sound emanated from her. As the ancient robo-pet’s complex mechanism of gyros and dynamo’s spun up, building energy for action. Then, hissed as Ku’Ma, seemed to recognize him, and performed some kind of venting action, bleeding off energy she had built up for an attack.

Ku’Ma then moved down the side of the wall to eye level and stared at P’Ko, eye to eye, her lidless unblinking eyes returning to their normal soft wide glow, then seemed to flutter for an instant. Ku’Ma jumped down to the ground and rubbed up against P’Ko’s leg. He’d, at least, had got the drop on Ku’Ma.

Mi’Ka came walking out of her kitchen. Naturally a little strange looking, but now even stranger looking. She was wearing a heavy apron and a respirator, taking off the respirator, she said, “I know you’re in a hurry. A job waiting. You want to meet Su’Zi, same place, same time. I think she already knows. You’ll come back again when you have more time.”

Then, without pausing. “I’ve got some new tea I want to try out on you, I mean, ‘see how you like it.’” Wearing thick gloves that covered her arms up past her elbows, she pushed a steaming cup of a surprisingly fragrant brew into his hands and stepped back to watch.