The Faarian Chronicles: Exile (8 page)

Chapter 9: Thalestris

“Crap!” I swore. “Crap! Crap! Crap!”

“Hey, is someone out there?” a voice came from behind me. I
turned to see nothing but empty hallway and a padlocked door. Thump! Thump!
Thump! The padlocked door vibrated as someone pounded on it from the other
side. “Come on! I’ve been stuck in here for an hour! Let me out!” a boy’s voice
shouted. The door whacked against the frame as he shook it for all he was
worth. He sounded a little panicked.

“Okay, okay! Calm down and tell me where the key is,” I
answered.

“Who’s that? Oh, who cares? Ethem’s got it of course. Link
him and get someone to bring it, will you?”

Link? That must be like calling someone? “Uh, I don’t have a
phone that works here. And actually, I’m kind of lost in this place.
Where
are the
stairs?
” There was a pause as he digested that.

“Veridian?” he asked.

“How’d you guess?” I asked, rolling my eyes. “I mean, yeah,
but I go by Sunny.”

“Who else would be lost? So, how’d you end up over here
anyway?”

“Ugh!” I snorted. “These two big girls were supposed to be
giving me a tour, but I swear they just ran me around in circles, tossed my
stuff in a room, and took off.”

“Lyta and Otrere?”

“Yeah, I think those were their names.”

“Yeah, that sounds like something my sisters would think was
funny. They locked me in here too,” he said. “So, do you think you can get me
out of here? I’ll give you directions if you promise to come back.”

“Yeah, hang on. I’ve got an idea.” I’d been studying the
door while we talked. I whipped out my Leatherman, a gift from Dad that I
tended to carry cause it came in handy. A little work with the pliers, a lot of
prying and…
Clink.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“You’ll see. Can you hold the door please?”
Clink.

“Hold the door? Why?”

“So it doesn’t fall in on you.”
Clink.
“Now push.”

Together we opened the door the wrong way. The only thing
holding it to the frame now was the padlock. He started to laugh. “That’s
great!”

The wiry boy who emerged was probably a little younger than
me, and surprisingly short. Judging by his huge sisters, he probably hadn’t hit
his growth spurt yet. As he stepped out of the dark supplies closet, I got a
closer look and realized that he looked nothing like the twins. If you ignored
his sage green hair and eyes, he could have passed for someone in my Pakistani
friend Chandra’s family. Maybe he was adopted.

“Hey, thanks,” he said grinning and casting curious glances
at my hair and eyes. “Glad you showed up when you did.”

“No problem,” I grinned back. “They wouldn’t have left you
in there forever, would they?”

“No, probably not. Lyta and Otrere are pretty good at
knowing how much they can get away with before someone notices you’re missing.
Hey, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, shoot.”

He tipped his head to the side quizzically. “Why would I
want to shoot you?” He gave a little shake of his head as if to say,
well anyways,
and continued with his original
train of thought. “What’s going on with your hair? Are you sick or something?”

“Sick? No, why?”

“I’ve just never seen hair so dark. It doesn’t even look
green.” He gave a little shrug and looked down at the silvery hinge pins on the
tile floor. “Can you put it back together?”

“Sure, just swing it back in place,” I answered. “It’s dyed
black,” I said as we worked on the door. “People on Earth don’t have green
hair.”

“No one?” he gasped while replacing a pin for me to whack
back in place with the Leatherman.

“Not unless they dye it green.”

“Well, how do they get energy from the suns then? Sun,” he
corrected quickly. “I know there’s only one.”

“They don’t,” I replied, jiggling the door into the right
position.

“Oh,” he looked confused, but didn’t ask any more questions.
It took a few more minutes and the door was good as new.

“See? Easy.”

He clapped his hands together and laughed a peal of pure
delight. “Now they won’t know how I got out when they come check! Come on.
Let’s go to dinner before the food’s all gone.”

He remembered something and looked around. “So, what made
that noise before? Do you know?”

I grimaced and sheepishly pointed over at the empty spot on
the railing. “That was me,” I replied. “I didn’t mean to,” I said, at his look.

“Oh, well. If anyone gives you a hard time, we’ll say you
just bumped the rail. It happens.” He led the way to a gap in the railing and
stepped onto a ladder I hadn’t noticed before.

“They decided not to waste space with stairs when they built
the additions onto the main building,” he explained as he descended to the
little plant-filled patio below. “You know, more space for apartments.” I
followed him down the ladder even though I was sure I hadn’t used a ladder on
the way here. I didn’t think he was going to take me on another wild goose
chase.

“So…Veridian,” he looked at me appraisingly as we walked to
dinner.

“Call me Sunny,” I said automatically, paying careful
attention this time to where we were going.

That brought him up short. “Suh-nee,” he repeated,
surprised. “What does that mean?” I pointed at the sun streaming through the
skylight that made up most of the ceiling and said the Faarian word for sun. He
laughed.

“I’m Thal. Well, it’s Thalestris really, but don’t ever call
me that,” he warned with a scowl. I laughed, remembering Thalestris from the
list of traditional Faarian names the Robot had made me memorize. Traditional
female
names. He pronounced his chosen nickname Tal.

“How’d that happen?” I asked grinning.

“My mom was expecting a girl,” he shrugged, but I guessed
there was more to the story.

“So Thal. Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, what?” he asked warily.

I gestured to the one room I recognized as we passed. The
bathroom. “Can you tell me how to make the water work?”

He burst out laughing again. “No one gave you a link, did
they? That’s typical. Ethem needs to delegate more, just not to me. Anyway,
we’ll get you a code after dinner and a real tour too. You probably have lots
of questions.”

“Yeah.” I gave a sigh of relief.

The long tables in the great hall were set for dinner now
and they were full of people, most of them dusty in light colored fatigues and
tall combat boots. Hundreds of people lined the benches of scarred wooden tables
that stretched the length of the huge hall.

The wall on either side of the monstrous, arched door I’d
seen from outside was lined with built-in fish tanks filled with more of the
silver fish with red and yellow bellies. I really hoped this wasn’t like one of
those seafood restaurants that showed you your meal alive before they served it
up on a plate.

Thal snuck off as soon as we entered so his sisters wouldn’t
see him. “I’ll find you after dinner,” he whispered and went to go sit at an
empty seat far away from them.

Ethem spotted me and walked over, looking relieved. “There
you are! I was beginning to get worried, you were taking so long. Did you get
all your things unpacked?” He flashed me his dyed smile and started to take my
arm to lead me to a nearby table.

I spotted the girls, Lyta and Otrere, waving at me from
across the room and laughing uproariously at their joke. I suddenly had an urge
to go over and smash their big, fat heads together.

I glared at them as I replied. “No. I got lost trying to
find my way back. Thankfully, Thal found me.”

“Oh?” His eyebrows shot up in surprise and he looked in the
direction of my glare. “Oh.” He cleared his throat in embarrassment. “Well, you
just need to learn your way around a little better,” he said encouragingly,
then looked up at my face and gasped, taking an involuntary step back. Oops.
Should have brought the sunglasses.

“I didn’t notice before,” he said slowly, “you have the most
unusual eye color. Is that normal for Earth?” he asked.

“No,” I said stiffly. “I always thought it must be normal
here.”

“No, I only know one other person with eyes like that,” he
said. He was staring now, shifting and weaving to look at my eyes from
different angles. I turned away, not wanting to draw any more attention.
Keeping my lids as low as possible, I scanned for Sensei and thankfully found
her at a table close by, with an empty seat left next to her.

I slid onto the bench and kept my eyes on the dark, scarred
wood. Sensei took one look at me, looked at the still laughing twins, and
guessed what was happening.

“Everything okay?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah, I just had trouble finding my way back.”

“Ah.” She nodded her understanding.

“Better?” I asked, looking up and showing her my eyes.

She shrugged. “Remember not to hide who you really are,
Sunny, no matter what other people may think,” she said. Yeah, I’d heard that
one before.

Ethem sat down on my other side and started introductions.
“Everyone, this is Veridian,” he said to the people at the table. It was then I
noticed with mild alarm that we were sitting at what had to be the head table.
Great.

Chapter 10: General Mom and the Ahatu

“Sunny,” I corrected quickly, pasting a smile on my face and
directing it at the curious faces around me.

“Right, right. Sunny. This is your Great-Aunt Nico Katje,
your grandmother’s sister,” he motioned to a jowly old woman diagonally across
the table from me. I smiled politely at her and she nodded back, clearly sizing
me up.

“You’re too skinny,” were the first words out of her
wrinkled mouth. “We’re going to have to put some meat on your bones. Can’t have
you passing out if you miss a meal while out on patrol, now can we?”

I felt the smile drop from my face and I glared down at the
worn wooden table in front of me. Why did everyone always think I needed to
hear their opinions on my weight? Being a gymnast somehow made people think
they had a right to judge my body composition.

A few years ago it had been a constant argument between Dad
and my gymnastics coaches, especially the hated one who called me ‘Fatty Fat
Cakes’ during my ever-increasing weigh-ins. Dad and Sensei threw out their
diets, saying I was going to go through puberty whether they liked it or not.
Judith watched what I ate and checked to make sure I didn’t throw it up like
some of the girls I knew. I wasn’t sure whether to thank her for that or not as
my height and weight zoomed past my fellow gymnasts. At 5’9” and 120 lbs, sure
I was thin but in the world of women’s gymnastics, I was a giant.

Andi was the only one I could count on not to criticize one
way or the other. She said they were nuts. I was perfect the way I was, tall
and thin like an athletic model. I loved her for that.

Ethem, oblivious to my reaction, continued his
introductions, one after another, after another. There were so many people
continually stopping by to chat and welcome Sensei and me that they all went by
in a haze. I didn’t think I could have recalled a single name if my life
depended on it.

I had only gotten a few moments to look around when my
mother strode through the door. At least I had to assume it was her, the one at
the head of a flying V of military-looking people. They all walked with an
identical, loose-limbed gait, not looking left or right. Warriors. That’s what
they called them here.
She
was scanning the room, apparently looking for
the new face in the crowd.

She didn’t look much like the few pictures I had from
fifteen years ago. Then she’d been young and striking, with the strong look of
a professional athlete. Now, she seemed older than I expected, hard and lined.
Did she look like me? I couldn’t tell.

The hair that Dad had said was like mine was actually a
strong, true green, salted with silvery sage now. She was tanned as dark as the
Mexican ranch hands back home and her eyes were surrounded by crow’s feet from
squinting into the suns. Weathered. She wasn’t even forty yet.

But what made me stare with my mouth hanging open was the
giant spotted monster walking calmly by her side. A Cat. With a capital C.
Not
a fuzzy little lap-cat like Meowman. Big. Bigger than any I’d ever seen - even
at the zoo or on TV. She -somehow I knew it was a she- turned her mile-wide
head at my gasp and made a raspy sound as she came closer. I could swear it was
a chuckle.

My God she was huge! My eyes locked on the paws, which were
at least as big as my head. I closed my mouth and gulped.

My eyes flickered to the rest of the group. There was a
giant cat walking with each of the warriors. Did they have some sort of
Siegfried and Roy complex here? Didn’t they know what
happened
to Roy?

I recognized the two women who’d picked me up, Myrihn with a
mountain lion that seemed to echo her look of disdain, and Teague with a large
cheetah, its bottle brush tail held high. The others were an assortment: a
black jaguar that resembled a bear, a couple of leopards, and an enormous male
and female lion pair.

My mother stopped across the table from me with her team
coming to attention behind her, still in perfect formation. I stood and took a
wary step away from the bench in case I had to run from those monsters. The
warriors behind her were mostly younger than her, and taller, but all with the
same hard, muscular look about them.

After a count of three, the squad members clicked their boot
heels together and gave a dignified nod as one toward their leader, pivoted -
with their cats - and silently walked away to other tables around the room.
Sheesh, were they brainwashed or something? I focused on my mother and found
her watching me shrewdly, not missing one flicker of my reaction. At the same
time I kept the giant tiger in sight in case she made any sudden moves.

Suddenly it was all real. This was my
mother
, the
woman who’d given birth to me and then left before I had a chance to remember
her. What was I going to say? What
could
I say? And everyone was
watching. What did they expect, some teary-eyed reunion?

“You must be Veridian.” I nodded and waited, but she didn’t
continue. She was looking at me as if she too was trying to find something
familiar in my face.

Really? That was all she was going to say?

“Sunny,” I croaked and cleared my dry throat. “People call
me Sunny.”
Which you would know if you’d ever
been there,
the little voice in my head added.

Leaning away from the tiger as much as possible, I reached
over the table to shake her hand because I had to do
some
thing. There
was no way I was going to hug her.

She surprised me by grasping my forearm instead of my hand.
Oh, right. They didn’t do it the same way here. We awkwardly shook like in some
movie set in medieval times. She gestured for me to sit, as if graciously
giving permission.

“Veridian, this is Micha. Micha, Veridian,” my mother
announced as if it were completely normal to be introducing her daughter to a
thousand-pound killing machine. What was I supposed to do now, shake her paw?

“Uh, hi,” I managed to choke out, fighting the instinct to
bolt. She nodded at me regally and purred.

“Is she… Is she a liger?” I asked, curiosity running my
tongue. They were rare on Earth, born to a lion father and tigress mother. I’d
only ever seen them on the Internet and, okay, on that dumb movie with that
skinny, curly-haired guy.

She growled at me, obviously unhappy. I froze as the people
around me gasped or tsked.

“It’s alright Micha. Veridian, I would think
you’d
know how rude it is to call someone a half-breed. And she can understand you
perfectly well. With time, you’ll be able to understand her too. If you have a
question for her, ask her, not me.” She looked pointedly at my still-empty
seat.

“Well, don’t stand there petrified,” she said. “You must
have learned about the Ahatu,” (literally, sisters) “from the holo-professor I
sent you.”

I cautiously sat back down, straddling the bench this time
so I could see them across the table and also make a quick getaway if
necessary. I shook my head at my mother’s question, bewildered. I was sure I
would have remembered a lesson about giant cats with wide, intelligent eyes
that seemed to peer straight into my brain.

“Sunny!” Sensei reproached. “We talked several times about
the Ahatu warriors being incredible trackers and hunters.”

“Yes, but I thought we were talking about people!” I
replied. “Er, humans,” I corrected myself while eyeing the tiger – Micha –
warily.

“The Professor assured me he’d taught you about the Ahatu,”
Sensei said.

“He taught me about big cats on Earth, not here! And that
stupid holo-professor was boring! Always talking about planting depths and
minimum necessary water allowances and the fall of the Greek Empire. He never
taught me anything cool like this.” I waved at Micha and another growl of
displeasure rumbled from her chest.

“Sorry! I mean, cool like you… Micha.” Was I really talking
to a giant tiger? To my astonishment, she gave a little “humph” and a nod of
forgiveness before settling on the floor with her head in my mother’s lap so
that I – almost – couldn’t see her.

My mother sighed and petted Micha’s head. “I’m not terribly
surprised. The National Council is very strict on what information can be
divulged off planet. It sounds like customs disabled the, shall we say,
‘alternate’ parameter allowances I installed in his programming before sending
him to you.

“No Sensei, it’s not your fault,” she continued when Sensei
started apologizing. “I didn’t want you breaking the law for us; that’s why I
sent the hologram. Besides, I know you were monitored. Well,” she said, turning
back to me, “the government ought to be happy that you were kept properly in
the dark.” She shook her head. “At least he taught you the language. His
reports assure me you can read and write in Faarian, correct?”

I grimaced and nodded. While I could do it, I wasn’t much of
a reader. I had to concentrate on the words so much that whatever I read didn’t
seem to stick in my brain.

“Good. It’s all right if you need practice at it. I’ll send
you several books about Macawi, and Afaar in particular, that I expect you to
read in your spare time to get you caught up.”

Great, just great. She hadn’t even said welcome and I
already had homework. This was going real well.

The tiger – Micha – stood and stretched. Geez, she reached
almost up to my elbow at her withers. Shoulder. Whatever. She reminded me of a
horse. A man-eating horse.

She sauntered around the table to stand in front of me as I
stared at her, pressing back into the table edge. What was she doing now?
Without warning, she knocked me off my bench to the ground and pinned me with
her paws on my shoulders. I couldn’t even wiggle, she was so heavy.

Holy crap! I started to panic. This was it. I was gonna be
eaten alive by a giant cat, in front of everyone, in the middle of dinner, on
an alien planet, and Dad would never even know what happened to me….

“Micha!” my mother said dryly. “Knock it off.” Unfortunately,
the big cat ignored her command. Micha looked into my scared face, grinned, and
licked me from chin to hairline with one wide, sloppy swipe of sandpaper.

“Ugh!” I exclaimed as she laughed that husky, rasping laugh
and ambled away, presumably to go terrorize someone else. I think I was going
to need to go change my shorts.

Three loud words, accompanied by Micha’s raspy laugh, popped
into my head for no apparent reason, making my ears ring as I lay on the cold,
stone floor:
Welcome, girl-child.