The Backworlds (4 page)

“There’s no plague,” the conductor
said, placing her pointy thin arms on sharp hips. Her high cheeks and piercing
eyes combined with her limbs hinted at aviarman genes in her family’s history.
Craze had no idea which race the purple tint of her skin came from.

She flicked a limp curl off of
Craze’s nose. “He had a bit too much fun. Bachelor party his uncles said.”

The aviarmen laughed, slapping
their knees. They pushed at each other, joking, carrying on as if no one else
had boarded the transport.

The blue one stopped abruptly,
backing away from Craze. “Well, he could still vomit on us.”

“Your seat,” Lepsi said.

“The universe hates me.” Moaning,
the blue aviarman sat down and strapped in.

His friend stowed their well-used
duffels, similar to Craze’s, in an open locker at the wall separating the
passengers from the crew. The reflective paint on the divider was worn and
chipped, mirroring the travelers’ faces in irregular patches.

“Hope you sober up before we get to
Elstwhere, mate,” the blue aviarman said. “Your bride over there?”

Craze groaned.

“You don’t seem real happy about
it.” He shared the laugh with his buddy when the red-haired one returned and
buckled in. “I’ve heard some about you Verkinn. Marriage has to be approved by
the council of elders, right? So, maybe she’s hideous? Loves someone else?”

Craze grunted, drool dribbling down
his chin.

“Wow, you had a fantastic time.
When you can, you’ll have to tell me all about it. Seems Lepsi ‘n I missed
out.”

“Did we?” Lepsi said. “Your nose
often leads us into nasty alleys, Talos. Ones I can’t ping to my brother in
gloating triumph.” He thrust out his tab with the image of another red-crested
aviarman on it. “I want him to eat my dust. Eat it,
Federoy
,”
he said with a growl, before sliding the tab back into his shirt pocket.

“My nose led us to a ship.” The
blue aviarman, Talos, beamed at Craze. “I’m promoting myself to captain if it
works out. No more spending a fortune going about on germ-infested transports.
You’d better not have a plague, mate.” His elbow jabbed at Lepsi. “Lots of
bragging to send to your kiss-ass brother soon.”

Lepsi danced in his seat singing,
“Eat it,
Federoy
. Stupidest
aviar
boy. Damn to you, too,
Kemmer
.”

“His father,” Talos whispered to Craze.
“Don’t ever ask. Lepsi will go on ‘n on about his nutty family for days.”

The spacecraft rumbled, hissing. It
jetted off the landing platform, drifting up and out. When it was far enough
from the docks, the boosters engaged and the vessel lurched away from Siegna.
Craze stared out the tiny slit of a window at the lights of the city growing
smaller. They diminished into a clump, then a spot, then a spec, reducing Craze
to a man from nowhere.

Siegna became the past, a former
life which would forget him quicker than liftoff. A tear trickled down his
cheek. The stun wore off enough to allow him to brush it dry. He straightened
in his chair and stretched his jaw attempting to ask the aviarman about the
ship and the places he’d been, but only, “
Bwa
wo
bwa
,” came out. Craze’s lips
and tongue wouldn’t cooperate, not fully free from the prodders’ effects.

“Seems you excited him with your
ship talk, Talos,” Lepsi said, stretching his legs out into the aisle. “My
family isn’t that loony.”

“Says you.” Talos fingered a pin on
the lapel of his coat, orange words with wings on a deep blue background. It
said, “Carry on.” From the twitchy corner of his eye, he studied Craze
pointedly, on guard for plague probably. “His bride must really be atrocious.
Perhaps he seeks escape.”

Craze nodded.

“Well, I didn’t buy the vessel
yet,” Talos said. “It may be a real clunker. But we can talk about it later.
When I get it. You got a tab on you? I can ping you with where we’ll be on
Elstwhere when we know.” He showed Craze his code.

Craze fumbled to get into his
pocket and pulled out the slim rectangular tab, tapping a button to send his
code to the aviarman’s device. Talos saved it, filing it away in his contacts.

“You
fwom
Thiegna
?” Craze asked.

Talos blinked rapidly, sweeping a
hand through his shock of blue. “You asking me where I’m from? I couldn’t make
all that out, mate.”

“
Yeth
.”

“I’m from nowhere really. The
aviars tried to settle on
Doka
, but we weren’t
welcome. Ended up scattering, everyone out for themselves. Lepsi ‘n I teamed up
looking for a new home. Elstwhere isn’t it.”

“Neither is Siegna,” Lepsi said.

Talos tugged down the sleeves of
his shirt, the cuffs stained and unraveling. He fingered the pin on his lapel.
“Carry on. The ship will help us find one.”

Judging from the clothing, the
spacecraft would probably come apart as soon as anybody sneezed. Still, it was
an advantage to exploit. If Craze charmed the aviarmen enough, maybe they’d let
him tag along. He needed a new home, too, but he didn’t say it. He couldn’t
speak about things he hadn’t reconciled in his heart and mind.

Why had his father turned on him?
The council obviously bought every line Bast had fed them. That explained them,
but not his pa. Craze didn’t think it could all be about one gal. Yerness
glowed with dewy beauty, irresistible, but she didn’t inspire traitorous
devotion. Did she? Craze shook his head, watching reality in front of him
change from a world he knew to one he didn’t.

Siegna, lush and green, zoomed
away. Elstwhere loomed ahead.
Lusher
and greener,
dotted with great spans of blue, it was promising, as if a Verkinn could thrive
as well there. The speculation drove Craze mad. There was no knowing for
certain, not until he arrived. To ease his nerves and to forget about his
ruined past, he mentally arranged bottles of booze by flavor, size, shape, and
color. Orange with orange. Round with round. At first he rearranged
Bast’s
shelves, then he moved onto imaginary shelves in a
new bar, the one he dreamed to someday own.

CHAPTER 5

The landing on Elstwhere went
smoothly, just a small bump to mark docking with the berths in the main city.
The conductor hurried Craze and the others off the transport, handing each
passenger their bags at the exit. In thirty minutes the ship would take off for
a more central planet.

Down the gangplank and through
large arching doors, the travel port buzzed, thrumming with Backworlders Craze
had never seen before—tall, squat, multi-limbed, no-limbed,
invisible-skinned—the array made his head tilt. He had to catch himself on the
nearest wall, chilled from the cold tumbling through the vents. Craze wished
he’d taken another two minutes on Siegna with the
Croakman
to buy a coat.

“It’s something, isn’t it?” Talos
said from behind Craze. “Elstwhere is always jumping. Ships coming in ‘n taking
off for everywhere. This is one of the best ports to come to when voyaging
through the Lepper System, a main link between the inner and outer Backworlds.
It’d take ten lifetimes to visit all the planets served by the Lepper. Then
fifty more to visit those outside the system.”

“I can’t even imagine,” Craze said.

“Come, I’ll show you.”

They proceeded down the corridor.
The walls, floors, and ceiling of the docking station gleamed in gun metal. The
aromas of grease and machine were overpowered by the stench of millions, an
odor as wretched as the four-armed wench vomiting in the corner. Craze covered
his wide nose with a hand, breathing in the reprieve of the
ganya
tree scent still on his skin.

The chatter of thousands of
conversations didn’t drown out the signals of incoming and outgoing vessels.
Announcements blared at hurtful levels. To dull the commotion, Craze closed up
his ear holes half way.

His adjustments to life off Siegna
weren’t through. The lack of thick organics in the air made him lightheaded.
The new coveralls helped, but he needed time to acclimate to the garment’s
artificially produced organics. They tasted as though something was missing.

Shit. His whole life had suddenly
gone missing. He couldn’t lose the aviarmen and the possibility of passage on
their ship. They might be his only shot at making a decent new life. Transports
would drain his funds faster than the shopkeeper with the very fine wares on
Siegna. He needed to plan his next move carefully.

He followed Lepsi and Talos to a
wall with a map of the portal system, the Lepper. Massive with thousands of
dots highlighted in the Orion arm of the Milky Way, the chart caused Craze’s
wide-set eyes to cross. He had no idea where to begin, so he opted to exploit
the
aviarmen’s
greater knowledge. “Where you
goin
’ next?”

Lepsi’s head bobbed as he thought.
“The planets closer to the Foreworlds is very populated. Not many opportunities
left for those of us trying to make our way.”

“Unless you have a mountain of
chips. Real estate and positions cost a premium,” Talos said.

Craze’s shoulders sagged. “No.”

“Elstwhere sits here on the border
of the Edge, which is why it’s such a popular port. The Edge,” Lepsi said, his
hand sweeping over the outermost portals, “is our best bet.”

“Cheaper to go there?” Craze asked.

“No. Since there’s not much out
there, the risk is higher,” Talos said. “That’s the biggest drawback.”

Craze took his hand away from his
nose, adapting to the new smells and fewer organics buoying his equilibrium.
“And the smaller drawbacks?”

“Not very hospitable describes a
good number of the Backworlds on the Edge,” Lepsi said. “Only a few kinds of
Backworlders thrive in the extreme environments.”

Craze didn’t like the sound of
that. He didn’t want to know, but he had to ask. “Extreme?”

Talos jabbed Lepsi in the ribs with
his pointy elbow. The gesture came off like a spasm. “You only speculating from
stories we’ve heard. We don’t really know, Lepsi. We don’t really know, Craze.”

Craze nodded, trying to take in the
name of each port at the edges of the Backworld system. His finger brushed over
a definitive and authoritative line at the leftmost boundary.

“Dividing line between the
Backworlds ‘n the Foreworlds,” Talos said. “You don’t want to go there, mate.
Certain death.”

“Certain?” Craze asked.

“The Fo’wo’s claim we have no right
to live. Kill us on sight.”

“A truce has been called,” Craze
said.

“They don’t care.”

“
Hmmph
.”
Craze didn’t give much credence to all the noise about the Foreworlders. They
were just bogey stories to keep the division between the territories, so Craze
believed. He knew the history.

In the voids between the worlds,
the Foreworlds and Backworlds warred. Before all was lost for good, the
Foreworlds declared a truce and named themselves the victors. The plans for
their new fleet had leaked out, revealing the Backworlders had no chance. So
the Backworlds accepted the treaty and the fact they had lost, scattering on
the remaining Backworlds the Foreworlders hadn’t seized. Making do. Adapting.
Regrouping.

Craze traced the line, curious
about where all Backworlders originated from, but he wasn’t brave enough to
face down the rumors. He’d leave that to somebody else.

Talos held out a hand. “Well, we
off, mate. Carry on.” He tugged at the lapel with the pin to emphasize the
catch phrase.

Craze didn’t want them to go,
didn’t want to be cut loose to flounder for the second time today. “What’s that
mean? The pin?”

The aviarmen stopped and faced
Craze as if to shoo him away, but ended up staying put. Shifting their weight,
wetting their lips, the hurry they’d been in dissipated.

“My mom gave it to me before she
died. Complications from the war.” Talos’s lower lip quivered.

Talos didn’t seem much older than
Craze. Maybe
aviar
women were fertile well into life.
“She was a veteran?” Craze asked.

Talos plucked the prized button off
of his lapel, stroking its edges, caressing the words. “No, she lived on a
borderworld
as a child. The Fo’wo’s let loose some plague.
Made her weak the rest of her life. Not in mind though.”

“Of course not.” Complimenting the
mother was obviously a way for Craze to charm his way into the aviarman’s
esteem. It was a lesson from his father Craze had often used. It stated that in
order to get what’s wanted, tell folks what they want to hear. Most of
Bast’s
teachings wouldn’t hurt Craze’s prospects, but he
wouldn’t give the man any credit. It was Craze’s ability to create the skills
from the lectures that would serve him, and his many experiences in doing so.

Craze wanted the aviarmen to see
him as a friend, to see evidence of it before they separated. Otherwise, he had
no one and nothing. He couldn’t stand the thought.

He wasn’t above a little lying to
manipulate the
aviarmen’s
feelings and sway their
sentiments. “I’m sorry to hear that.” An untruth, because he had a hard time
relating to affection for a parent at the moment.

“She was a great trader. As great
as the members of the central guild until the recurring sickness forced her to
give it up. I was still too young to be of use to her ‘n the business. She gave
me this ‘n made me promise I’d get the trade route back, or a better one, when
I was old enough.” He held up the button. “Carry on.”

“She sounds like quite a lady. What
world were—”

“I’ve got to go see that ship,
mate. For her. For the promise.” Talos jammed the pin into his coat pocket,
clutching it as if the fate of the universe depended on it. “When I get my
trade route, I’ll name the business for her.” He turned to go, inching away.