A Lonely World Where the People Are Blue Read online

  Te’rnu shrugged, eyes vacant. ‘Sure.’

  Oh yeah, never used a computer before. Note to self: dial back the tech-talk around Te’rnu.

  ‘It sounds like… we have a plan, then?’

  ‘Yes,’ Te’rnu replied, a slight smile on his face. ‘I think we do. At this time tomorrow…’

  ‘You could know the truth about the Mutation,’ I finished for him. ‘And I could save a young woman’s life, save my job, and maybe work out where my sister is. Wouldn’t be bad for a day’s work, would it?’

  Te’rnu grinned - fully this time, his brilliantly white teeth catching the sun.

  ‘It would not be bad at all,’ he said.

  We watched the villagers of Nu’r’ka in silence for a while. They went about their usual business, some cleaning up the feast of the night before, others simply going off to work. I let the sun wash over me, and mentally prepared myself for the day that was about to come.

  We firmed up the details of the plan over the next few hours - and then waited until nightfall. Te’rnu had told me that we wouldn’t stand a chance of getting into the guard barracks undetected if we went during the day. What’s more, at night, the number of guards on duty would be minimal - most would be at home at this time, he had previously discovered.

  Even at night, however, Te’rnu had often been caught. We could only hope that this wasn’t one of those times - an Arellian sneaking through the streets was one thing, but being caught breaking into the barracks would be so much worse.

  We said our goodbyes to the town of Nu’r’ka and told them we would be back to visit soon. It seemed as though they had enjoyed our company - any excuse for a party, right? - even though both Te’rnu and I had potentially made fools of ourselves in our drunken states.

  We headed off into the night, Te’rnu’s arms gripping me tightly as we took the shuttle-bike back towards the stronghold. When we were close, I slowed to allow him to jump off, and I continued on to return the rented bike. I definitely wasn’t going to risk the overtime fees out here, not after all my previous encounters with the abrasive Iyr.

  I was pleased to see that there was nobody at the stall at this time of night, and so I would be able to avoid any irritating conversations with the local merchant. Having parked and locked my shuttle-bike up with the rest, and leaving a hastily scribbled note on it, I walked back into the wastelands to meet up with Te’rnu.

  ‘How did it go?’ Te’rnu asked me.

  ‘Nobody around. I just left it there.’

  ‘Will they know it is yours?’

  ‘That’s why I left a note.’

  Te’rnu nodded, small talk complete, and led us towards the stronghold’s walls.

  ‘The gate’s that way, Te’rnu,’ I reminded him.

  Te’rnu shook his head. ‘We are not going in through the gate. They would catch us that way. I have another way in.’

  I said nothing, putting my faith in Te’rnu’s knowledge of the capital, and continued to follow him through the darkness.

  We weaved through the gaps in the floodlights, taking our time so as not to be spotted - until we came to a small, rusty, grated entrance to some kind of tunnel.

  ‘What is it?’ I asked as Te’rnu pulled the grate away from it, allowing us entry.

  ‘The sewers,’ Te’rnu replied.

  I nodded. ‘Of course it is.’

  I cursed myself for not wearing thicker shoes when I had left the hotel a few nights earlier. That said, who could have known that a trip to a bar would have ended up like this?

  We squeezed into the tunnel and crept down it. I was conscious of the water level increasing with every step.

  Yes, ‘water level’. Let’s pretend this foul brown liquid is water. Lovely refreshing water. Yum.

  Thankfully, before long, we reached an access point. Te’rnu, giving me a nod, began to climb up.

  ‘I told you it was no great distance,’ Te’rnu said.

  ‘No you didn’t,’ I replied.

  ‘Oh. I meant to.’

  He signalled for me to be quiet, and then, slowly, as quietly as possible, he opened the hatch. Through the minutest of gaps, Te’rnu watched, waiting for the path to clear. It took some time, but eventually, sure enough, he was able to open the door, and we climbed out into a quiet backstreet.

  ‘So this is how you always get in, huh?’ I asked.

  Te’rnu responded by shh-ing me. ‘No time to speak.’

  He waved me over to the cover of a large waste bin, and we crouched until the road was clear.

  ‘This way,’ Te’rnu whispered, before rushing quietly to a gap between the buildings.

  We continued like this for a while - me struggling to keep my trap shut, and Te’rnu masterfully navigating us through the winding alleys of the Iyr stronghold. Finally, we came to the back entrance of a building bearing some of the Iyr’s symbols, and Te’rnu turned to face me.

  ‘This is it. This is the guard barracks.’

  ‘Lovely,’ I replied, ‘Last chance, then - want to back out?’

  Te’rnu took a moment to consider and then shook his head.

  ‘You sure? If they catch us…’ I trailed off - and left the result to his imagination.

  ‘I am sure,’ he replied. ‘This is it. This is what my life has been heading towards.’

  ‘Good answer.’

  When the coast was clear, we crept up to the back door, and Te’rnu pulled on it.

  It didn’t budge.

  ‘It is locked,’ he told me.

  ‘Yeah, I assumed.’

  Te’rnu stared down at the ground, a look of deep concentration on his face. Then, he looked around at the exterior wall.

  ‘Ah,’ he said.

  Next to the door, down by the ground, was a small metal grate. I could see exactly where this was headed.

  Te’rnu pulled on the grate, and it fell to the floor with a clang. Terrified that we had alerted an Iyr to our presence, we both looked around, terrified.

  But there was nobody in sight.

  Te’rnu crouched to get into the now-open ventilation shaft.

  ‘First creeping through sewers, and now crawling through air vents. You do know how to have a good time, don’t you?’

  My friend ignored this throwaway comment and gestured for me to quickly enter the ventilation behind him.

  If Z’h’ar as a planet was hot, then it was nothing compared to this particular building’s ventilation shaft.

  Oh, boy. And I haven’t even put deodorant on in three days.

  Hot, humid air blasted us in the face as we crawled, as quietly as we could, through the enclosed space. Te’rnu began to steam ahead, as he was less affected by the heat than me. I was disappointed when Te’rnu rushed straight past the first possible exit.

  ‘Te’rnu!’ I whispered after him.

  He peered over his shoulder as best he could in this limited space, and eyes widened when he saw me.

  ‘It is too hot?’

  ‘Yeah…,’ I barely managed to croak.

  He nodded - and then crawled backwards to get a look through the first grate.

  ‘I do not see anyone…,’ he mumbled.

  ‘Think you can get this grate off without it crashing to the floor?’ I asked.

  Te’rnu shrugged.

  ‘That doesn’t fill me with confidence.’

  With his delicate fingers, the Arellian pried the edge of the grate away from the shaft… and promptly lost his grip on it.

  A clanging sound echoed around the hallway as it crashed to the floor.

  ‘I dropped it,’ Te’rnu clarified.

  I pursed my lips. ‘Yes.’

  Quickly realising that being crammed into a small confined ventilation shaft didn’t give us the best chances in a fight, I instructed Te’rnu to jump out.

  Apparently adept in the art of covert operations all of a sudden, he dropped silently to the ground and took cover in the nearest room.

  I took a quick look at the drop. It wasn’t far,
maybe two and a half metres, and would put me in the middle of the barracks’ central hallway. It was a long, narrow room with many doorways at its perimeter

  I dropped, slightly more clumsily than my partner in crime, and grabbed the wall to catch my balance.

  Behind me, I heard the familiar whooom of a phase weapon being started up.

  Uh-oh.

  ‘Stop!’ an Iyr’s voice shouted at me.

  I slowly raised my hands and turned to face the Iyr whose trigger finger would determine if I lived or died.

  13

  Mechsuits: The Top Trend From Z’h’ar Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2337

  Standing in front of me, phase rifle armed and ready to fire, was the Head of Guard. The red stripe on their helmet glistened under the neon lights.

  ‘I know you!’ the Iyr declared.

  ‘Yeah? I know me too, so what?’ I replied.

  The Iyr paused. I couldn’t see under their helmet, of course, but they almost seemed taken aback. After all, taking people aback was a speciality of mine.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see an alarmed Te’rnu sneaking away. I did my best not to glance at him, so I wouldn’t give his position away.

  ‘What are you doing in here?’ the Iyr demanded.

  ‘I came to report a crime,’ I replied.

  ‘What?’

  ‘A crime. I’ve come to report one.’

  ‘You came… here for this?’

  I feigned confusion. ‘Well, you are the city’s guards are you not?’

  Another pause; longer, this time.

  ‘Do you take pleasure in irritating me?’ the Head of Guard asked. ‘You disturb on our first meeting, and then you break into my place of work? Is it me that you are after?’

  I forced a giggle, flashed the Iyr a smile, and did my best to gaze longingly at them. ‘Do you want it to be?’

  ‘No! Stop this!’ the Iyr demanded, getting increasingly frustrated. ‘I demand that you tell me why you are here.’

  ‘You’re all business, aren’t you? I quite like that in a-’

  ‘Tell me why you are here!’ The Iyr aimed down the scope of their phaser.

  ‘OK!’ I replied, putting my hands up in the air to express my defeat. ‘OK. I’ll tell you.’

  I took a breath.

  ‘Do I need to have my hands up in the air? It’s just I get pins and needles if I leave them up too long, and that’s uncomfortable, and-’

  The Iyr guard bashed me in the face with the butt of their rifle.

  I fell to the floor - and tried to catch myself. My right hand slipped on the fresh patch of blood that my now-broken nose had so recently created. In a daze, I tried to blink my vision back into focus.

  ‘What the…’

  ‘I will not take any more of this from you. Tell me why you are here!’ the Iyr screamed.

  ‘I’m here to cast more of them aspersions, I guess,’ I muttered, blood splattering from my mouth.

  Now that my arms were no longer held in the air to signal my innocence, I - as subtly as I could - pulled back my right sleeve and prepared to activate my EMP.

  ‘You think you are going to convince me that we, the Iyr, are in the wrong, here?’

  ‘Wait, what? What are you talking about? What might you be in the-’ I began, only to be interrupted by a roar erupting from the next room.

  Te’rnu jumped out at the Head of Guard, swinging a long, metal pipe above his head.

  Te’rnu brought his weapon crashing down with a crack into the Head of Guard’s head. Sparks flew from the damaged helmet, causing the Iyr to cry with pain, before dropping to the floor. He looked up at me with wide, terrified eyes.

  ‘Thanks, Te’rnu.’

  He remained frozen, looking down at the Iyr and then at the pipe in his hands.

  ‘It’s OK, Te’rnu, it’s OK,’ I reassured him, holding my hand to my bleeding nose. ‘You just did what you had to.’

  He gulped, looking up at me, and realised I was injured. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘Yeah,’ I told him, trying to sound convincing, ‘Just a broken nose. Nothing a med-sonar can’t fix in two minutes.’

  Te’rnu looked on at me as I held my jacket against my nose, trying to stop the bleeding.

  ‘You are sure?’ he asked.

  I nodded, and Te’rnu instead turned his attention to the guard, nudging them. ‘Do you think they are alive?’

  ‘I don’t know if we should stick around to find out.’

  Te’rnu nodded, and we hurried up the hallway in search of the armoury - and the prized mechsuits.

  ‘You can be very annoying when you want to be,’ Te’rnu commented as we searched.

  ‘Thanks,’ I replied, voice muffled by the cloth across my face, ‘I pride myself on it.’

  We soon came across a room that housed three of the suits. It didn’t feel like an armoury. In fact - between the desk and chair - it actually felt more like an office. I noticed an electronic frame on the desk and picked it up.

  In the display was a family photo; two Iyr with their arms around one another, gazing at the camera. The couple each wore a mechsuit, so it was hard to tell exactly what was going on in the pictures, but it felt to me like a tender moment. The Iyr on the left, I noticed, had that same red stripe on their helmet - it was the Head of Guard.

  I prayed that we hadn’t killed them, that we hadn’t deprived someone of their partner. I couldn’t handle that kind of guilt.

  Putting the frame back down on the desk, I turned to face Te’rnu. He had wasted no time in getting into one of the suits. Each mechanical limb hung loosely around his body, like a kid in their father’s top.

  ‘Doesn’t look like it’s fitting you very well, huh?’

  Te’rnu frowned, looked down at the suit, and tried to move his legs. He had no such luck.

  ‘I believe it is switched off,’ he clarified, before pressing the very obvious red rectangular button on the chest area - one that I had been itching to press since the moment I had noticed it, all of half a second ago.

  The suit jumped into life, adapting in size to fit Te’rnu’s form with all the wondrous whizzes and whooshes that you would expect from a powered mechsuit. Once the helmet attached itself to Te’rnu’s head, I could see that same red stripe marking this suit too. Either this was one of the Head of Guard’s spares, or that decoration wasn’t so rare as I had initially thought.

  ‘How is it?’ I asked Te’rnu.

  He wiggled his limbs about, trying to get a better feel for the suit.

  ‘Surprisingly comfortable,’ he replied.

  ‘Can it do anything fun?’ I asked, remembering that the guidebook had told me that these suits were often upgraded with interesting features.

  ‘There is a button on the viewscreen called “instant kill”. Should I activate it?’

  ‘No!’ I replied instantly. ‘At least… definitely not while I’m standing in front of you, thank you very much.’

  ‘What about “incapacitate”?’

  ‘Are you serious?’ I asked. ‘Are you trying to hurt me, Te’rnu?’

  I heard a snickering from inside the suit. ‘I am joking, Syl. I have noticed you like jokes. Was I wrong?’

  I smiled, shook my head. ‘No… you’re not wrong. But maybe we need to work on your sense of humour. Is there a button for that in there?’

  A pause.

  ‘No, I don’t think so.’

  A longer pause.

  ‘Oh,’ Te’rnu murmured when he realised that I was not being entirely serious.

  I flashed him a grin, nodded, and then tried to get into one of the mechsuits myself.

  Instant kill? Incapacitate? This was going to be bloody amazing.

  I slipped into the suit as Te’rnu had, and keenly pressed at the button.

  Nothing happened.

  ‘What is going on?’ Te’rnu asked. ‘Is it broken?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  I pressed the button again.

  A voice from insi
de the suit announced, ‘Incompatible biology detected.’

  Damn.

  ‘I guess it doesn’t take Terrans,’ I said, after a deep sigh.

  ‘What are we going to do? Our plan was dependent on us having disguises. If you still look Terran…’

  I flattened my lips. ‘I know. Erm…’

  I paused for a moment. My now-suited Arellian friend stared silently at me, mechanical red eyes glowing at me in the dim light.

  ‘I could be your prisoner?’ I suggested.

  ‘How would that work?’

  ‘You grab a phaser - must be one around here somewhere - and-’

  ‘I could take the one from the Iyr we knocked unconscious.’

  ‘Perfect. And then you lead me back to Central Command?’

  After a moment of contemplation for the Arellian, he nodded. ‘And if anyone asks… I have been ordered to bring you in.’

  I bit my lip. ‘I mean… it’s a classic ploy, and that must be for a reason. Think it’ll work?’

  ‘I think it is the only plan we have,’ he grumbled.

  ‘Fair point.’

  With the possibility that more guards could return to the barracks at any moment, we wasted little more time; stopping only to stuff the Head of Guard’s body in the corner of a storeroom.

  ‘Do you think we should…,’ Te’rnu began to ask, gesturing at the Iyr’s helmet.

  I shook my head. ‘The more time we spend here, the greater our chances of being caught. If everything goes to plan, then…’

  ‘…Then we shall know everything anyway,’ Te’rnu finished for me. ‘OK. Let us continue.’

  We slipped out the back door of the guard barracks and made our way towards our final destination: Central Command.

  The impressive cubic building soon loomed over us - as, indeed, it did most things in the Iyr capital. Te’rnu stopped for a moment, stunned, when he first noticed it.

  ‘You can’t be stopping to admire the view now that you’re an Iyr,’ I told him. ‘They see this every day.’

  ‘It is bigger than it looks from the Wastelands.’

  ‘Yep, that’s generally how perspective works. Come on - we should hurry.’