ODYSSEUS MAD
The Quasi-Police courier-ship Far-Darting Apollo approached the High Company Colony of High Africa at Luna L-1 and slowed to mate with the station. In his darkened cell, Karil could only tell by the change in gravity that the ship had reached its destination. He did not even know where in the Solar System he was, until the cell-door opened and Captain Armand Solla stepped in, laser drawn. Karil was still in cuffs and leg-irons, as he had been the entire voyage. Solla gestured with the weapon, silently, his eyes never leaving Karil’s.
Walking down the corridor, Karil felt the spin of the station and knew they were not in orbit but docked at a space colony. It felt like Earth-normal artificial gravity and thus it must be one of the High Continents. He guessed High Africa and figured he was being taken to his father again.
“Is Loris here?” he asked.
Solla was silent. Evidently, the Captain had decided that the merest hint of information provided to Karil could be dangerous.
Despite the fact that he would no doubt be dead soon, Karil was thrilled to see his childhood home—not because he still thought of it as home, the way he thought of Atalanta, but because of its astonishing beauty.
A pair of 20-kilometre-long cylinders, holding three long landscapes each, revolved slowly in opposite directions to create artificial gravity while allowing the enormous mass to stay pointed at the sun for solar collection, surrounded by a vast framework of mirrors and panels like some kind of art-nouveau cathedral in the sky. To help maintain the enclosed ecology, this cylinder, like the other, contained an ecological balance of forest, plains, and desert.
In the sky above was a reproduction of the Kongo River Basin, choked with lush rain forest—the calls of birds and monkeys drifted across the space--and in the other direction was a small Saharan Desert—vast dune-fields and dry valleys dotted with lovely oases. The other cylinder was similar in design. Both were the private property of the richest families from the continent of Africa, just as High Europe, High Asia, and High America, all revolving around the L-1 point of the Earth-Moon system, were owned by the richest families of those continents. All this extravagance came from Solar System Trade based on virtually unlimited solar power, virtually free solar-sail shipping, and a full monopoly on all the resources of Earth, Luna, and Mars.
Karil climbed into the shuttle, and it dropped toward the vast grasslands reproducing East Africa. Herds of wildebeest and zebra, giraffe and antelope, buffalo and elephant, patrolled by lion, wild dog, and hyena, milled below. On Earth, most of these species were extinct. Some, like the few cheetahs and rhinos, had been re-created in laboratories from preserved DNA. It was beautiful and heart-breaking at once. But then, Karil thought, that was Earth for you.
The pilot and the guard were as silent as Solla. The vessel landed before the great palace where Karil had been born, artificially, from the dead body of his mother, the Sultan’s favourite. Karil had turned out to be the Sultan’s greatest disappointment in life—more so, perhaps than the concubine’s death. He could almost feel sorry for the man, except that he had tried to kill Karil twice and was responsible for the murders of a number of his friends.
The palace was even larger than before, with several wings and towers added to house the huge and growing family. Karil, Solla, and the armed guards entered the great doorway and walked down the cool, echoing marble corridor to the Sultan’s inner sanctum.
Karil’s father was visibly older and seemed bowed down by the crushing weight of hatred and distrust. For long moments, the man’s eyes bored into his, Solla and the guards ignored. Inger lay on the divan behind him, grown to womanhood now, and perhaps even more beautiful and alluring in her brief attire. Her eyes darted to Karil’s and Solla’s and back again with studied unconcern.
“Ali Karil,” his father said. “Once again, Solla brings you before me, as so many tutors and guards have done all your life. The last time…” He glanced at Inger, who dropped her gaze. “…this one talked me out of killing you, arguing that to kill a family member would set a dangerous precedent. So, I ordered this incompetent bureaucrat to take care of the problem.” Solla remained stoic under his gaze. “How did you enjoy Venus, Solla?”
“It was Hell, Your Majesty.”
“I have half a mind to kill you too,” the Sultan went on,” but my colleagues on High Europe, Asia, and America would not be pleased. I was the only one who did not vote to bring you back. I don’t know why you have such a storied reputation. You couldn’t hold onto Progeny Brown or this stubborn child. If it was up to me, Mars and the Belt would be utterly pacified by now, but never mind. This is a family matter and only I can deal with it. Inger, bring me my gun. You know the one.”
She bowed her blonde head, rolled off the divan, and padded, nearly naked, across the room to the rear wall, where handguns, lasers, and hunting rifles were displayed amid the heads of wild animals.
“This is the gun I use for family discipline,” the Sultan said. “It is a fine antique, used by my Barbary ancestors long ago, but still in perfect condition.” It was made of teak and Damascus steel and plated with gold. Inger spun the cylinder to check the bullets and came forward. She came up beside the Sultan and raised the weapon. There came two loud reports and the guards dropped to the floor. The Sultan whirled to face her, his eyes wide, and she put a third bullet between them. Solla’s hand clawed at his belt and then he realized that his weapon had been taken from him when he arrived in High Africa. He slowly raised his hands over his head.
“Uncuff him,” Inger said. Solla took out his keys and unlocked Karil’s restraints. Karil rubbed his wrists for a few seconds, then dropped Solla unconscious to the floor with a single blow. He and Inger secured him with the cuffs and leg-irons and tossed the keys into the pool.
“We’ll be sorry to lose this listening post,” Inger said as they gathered weapons from the wall. “But it’s better than losing you, by a long shot.”
“Galilean Security?”
“Yes. Did you know?”
“Loris hinted there was someone. I had an idea it might be you.”
She smiled, her blue eyes twinkling as if she’d never had a violent thought in her life. “Loris is being held at a prison camp in the Mississippi Rain Forest, where Solla sent her. I can get you to Earth, but I can’t help you free her. I must get back to Ganymede for debriefing as soon as possible.”
“If you can drop me off in the Kansas Desert, that would be great. I have friends in low places.”
“Well, I have other news for you. Chi-Chi Li, Aaron Ben David, and Terry have all been arrested. The Quasi-Police have obviously decided to cut the head off the Rebellion. Typical authoritarian thinking. You’ll need Loris.”
“And we’ll need Atty, but I don’t know where she is. Somewhere in the Galilean. Maybe you can get word to her on the QT.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Both Karil and Inger were armed now, with high-powered laser-rifles and handguns in holsters. She turned to Solla, lying unconscious and bound on the marble floor. “Do you want to kill him?” she asked.
Karil seriously thought about it for a moment. “Number One: I don’t think I could kill an unconscious and bound man…”
“Well, I could, but I think it’s your call.”
“Number Two: This is going to throw the High Companies and the Quasi-Police into chaos. They’ll waste a lot of time waking him up, transporting him, and interrogating him before they do anything else. We could use that time. It’s pretty certain they’ll send him back to Venus and if he doesn’t die there, he’ll come back as an old man.”
“All right. That’s fitting. The shuttle is still outside, I take it.”
“Yes.” He looked around. “Where is everybody?”
“They’re hiding. They heard gunshots and they’re waiting to see what happens. I spread the word myself among the servants long ago in casual conversation: ‘What would you do? Myself, I’d just keep my head down.’ After a while, everybody came around to my way of thinking. As for the heirs, they’ll be busy planning how to deal with each other.”
The Sultan’s rooms had their own kitchen. As no-one was there, they gathered up some provisions and more weapons at Karil’s insistence and loaded up the shuttle. In a few moments, it was cycling through the lock in the endcap, and they were dropping into the wild Earth below. Karil was at the helm and Inger was listening on the comm. The Sultan’s shuttle credentials passed them through Security with ease and they were soon speeding over sub-Saharan Africa.
They came down on a vector that the Sultan’s buyers commonly used to obtain artifacts from Africa, then took a sharp turn and crossed the Atlantic. They roared over the line of abandoned luxury hotels rising from the sea where Florida used to be, then sped over the vast Mississippi Rain Forest.
“The prison-camp is over that way,” Inger said. “I’ll give you the co-ordinates. We can’t get to it in this vehicle, not even on the Sultan’s code. Nothing from space gets near it without raising alarm. Your Atalanta would be detected and blown out of the sky. No doubt that’s why Solla sent Loris there. I’m afraid you and your friends will have to sail down the Mississippi and cross overland through the jungle.”
Near the ruins of the abandoned and burned Saint Louis, a thriving trade encampment when Karil was there last, they crossed into the Midwest Desert, once the breadbasket of North America. The ship settled to the dunes beside a stockade built of scrap metal and junk. The barbwire-topped doors of the enclave swung open and a motley group of motorcycle riders, covered in leather and weapons, roared out and surrounded them.
Karil popped the hatch and climbed down off the wing to stand in the hot sun. Inger, inside the ship, tapped her fingers on the trigger-assembly nervously. Out of the stockade strode a small young woman dressed in brief scraps of leather, her wiry body entirely covered in tattoos of serpents, including her bald head.
She walked up to Karil, slapped his face, and planted a passionate kiss on his mouth. “I’m here to ask for your help,” Karil said, grinning. He turned to the warriors. “We have food and weapons.”
A cheer went up. Shaking her head in amazement, Inger climbed out and opened the cargo hatch. Laughing, the warriors unpacked the weapons and food-packs and carried them into the compound.
“This is Baby Snakes,” Karil said. “An old friend of mine. This is Inger. She has to get to Ganymede as soon as possible, but she gave me a lift.”
Inger stepped back warily as Baby Snakes approached her.
“Any friend of Karil’s is a friend of mine,” Snakes said, and kissed Inger just as passionately. “Eat before you go,” she demanded. “We’ll have a feast, and your ship needs attention.”
As they entered the compound, already turning raucous, Inger leaned close to Karil. “Loris always said you were fucking amazing,” she whispered.
Inger left right after the feast, before the real drinking began. She would be able to sleep when the ship was on autopilot. To her surprise, the tanks had been filled with hydrogen. The enclave, which seemed no more than a junkyard in the desert, had access to some pretty sophisticated technology. Karil and Baby Snakes embraced her warmly, she climbed into the ship with a promise to contact Atalanta if she could—she already had a plan—as soon as she had checked in with Galilean Security. The ship rose on a cloud of plasma exhaust, yawed about, and shot over the horizon. Karil and Snakes retired to her quarters, where they rekindled their old friendship.
***
In the morning, Snakes’ motorcycle was ready—not the favourite covered with snake paintings, but one they called Big Mother, put together with parts of half a dozen bikes. Karil had driven motorcycles in High Africa as a child, and if they spelled each other, they could drive for days. The saddlebags were packed with food-rations, and spare fuel-tanks were attached.
They turned South on the cracked surface of what had been I-55—strewn with the stripped remains of abandoned vehicles. The bike’s huge tires easily coped with shattered pavement and drifting sand. Gradually, the forest crept up and surrounded them and the road broke up into a half-overgrown dirt trail. Still the machine pushed on until they came to a harbour town, clinging to the Mississippi bank, called Rhode’s End.
There, a steamer named Rhodes Choler sat puffing in the water. A tall and powerfully muscled man came down the gangplank, snatched Baby Snakes off her feet and spun her around as if she weighed nothing. He put her down on her feet and grabbed Karil’s fine hand in his huge paw.
“This is Ali Karil,” said Snakes.
“Ah, Snakie’s handsome spaceman,” he boomed. “Pleasure to meet you, lad.”
"And I’m pleased to meet you,” Karil laughed. “Am I to assume that this whole town belongs to you?”
“To me and my kids, who’ll take over someday. A courier came through and said you would want to be taken down river. Would that be all the way to Rhodes Harbour on the New Coast?”
“I’d prefer to talk about it on board, with fewer ears about,” Karil said.
“I understand that,” said Rhodes. “We’ll be casting off soon. I assume one cabin will be sufficient.” And his face split in a big grin.
***
The rain forest came right down to the water’s edge. Sometimes the remains of towns and cities could be seen as they passed, overgrown with liana and creeper. Birds wheeled noisily over the river and strange sounds drifted toward them out of the green gloom. Once, Karil thought, the Amazon had been like this. The Rhodes Choler puffed and clattered down the river as Captain Rhodes, over cold beers, listened to what Karil felt he could reveal of Loris’ dilemma.
Rhodes sighed. “Can’t say I care much for High Companies, myself,” he said. “And the Martians, hard-working people hard done by, have my sympathy. I know you can’t do other than what your doin’, with your partner locked up in a place like that. I wouldn’t think of tryin’ to talk you out of it, but I do have to warn you.
“Headin’ cross country is gonna be difficult. There are trails, but they’re game trails and watched by predators for that reason. When the continent warmed up and the people moved north, the wildlife bred like crazy. The Everglades were already home to critters of all sorts, and more escaped or were released from zoos and animal farms, and they all moved north when the waters came. There are tigers and feral dogs, alligators and snakes and raccoon hunting packs. Then there’s the murder hornets and fire ants.”
“I can’t say I’m worried about snakes,” said Baby Snakes.
“Well, there have always been cottonmouths, and now there’s the new restrictors.”
“Python Bivittatus Floridensis,” Karil said. “They escaped from private homes and reptile farms and found the Everglades to their liking, grew bigger and stronger than their ancestors in Burma. They eat alligators."
Baby Snakes snorted in amusement, and then her face fell when she realized Karil was not joking.
“The camp you’re lookin’ for is considered accessible only from above. Everything and everyone comes in or out by spaceship. It’s surrounded by guns aimed high, but there are no fences around it except electronics to keep the animals out. There’s no need to keep the prisoners from escaping because the jungle does that. Those shipsuits you have in your luggage might keep the bugs off you, and protect you from the heat, but you can’t sleep on the ground. You’ll have to climb a tree to spend the night and there are critters in the trees too. Your lasers will kill an animal if you hear it comin’, but to get through the undergrowth you’ll need machetes. They don’t run out of power unless your arms fall off. After a while, they’ll feel like they have.”
***
Loris was mucking out a drainage ditch with several other prisoners. There had been a flood during the last rains and the camp was inundated. Three guards stood around with laser-rifles in the crook of their arms, bored except for watching Loris work, her muscles rippling in her washboard stomach and long legs barely covered by her brief filthy rags, as she piled rocks along the edge of the ditch. Suddenly there was a scream and she looked up to see another prisoner—a young man barely older than a boy—struggling in the coils of a python. The guards jerked to attention and lifted their weapons but stood in confusion as the victim clutched at the serpent, its huge head swinging back and forth as it seemed poised to bite, its body contracting about him. His screams echoed in the jungle and the guards seemed ready to flee, rather than use their weapons. Loris did not want them to use their weapons anyway, because one of them would surely kill the boy rather than the snake.
She acted in a split second, reaching the nearest guard in two steps, yanking the laser rifle from his grasp while kicking him aside with a foot to the chest. She raised the rifle to her shoulder and neatly sliced off the python’s head. The young man gasped for breath, coughing and wheezing as the coils unwrapped about him, and he fell into the water. As the other prisoners rushed to his side, Loris handed the laser-rifle back to the guard and placed her hands on the top of her head.
The guards, now faced with a routine they knew, marched her into the camp and in a moment, she was in Warden’s hut, standing silently before him. He looked her long dark body up and down for several minutes.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t execute you right now,” he said.
“For what?” she asked quietly.
“Attempted escape.”
She snorted. “I could have escaped any time in the last month. What makes you think I was trying now?”
“You took a weapon from a guard.”
“I gave it back, didn’t I? He was confused and frightened and becoming dangerous to the prisoners and possibly the other guards. I’ve watched their so-called training since day one. None of them are good enough to take a shot like that. I could have killed all three of them in two seconds, with or without the gun. And what then? Run into the jungle? It’s suicide, and that’s why you have no fences. I did the only thing I could.”
“You still broke the rules. I can’t have prisoners taking guns away from the guards. I have to punish you.”
She shrugged. “If you must. Why don’t you punish the guards too? Or train them properly. If you want, I could do that, and fewer people would die around here.”
The Warden chuckled. He seemed to be thinking about it. She could practically see the thoughts flitting through his limited mind. In the end, she guessed, he decided he could not afford to have her standing with a laser-rifle in her hands and all the guards in a row in front of her. “I’ll take that under advisement, shall I? In the meantime, do you want flogging or a day in the box?”
“I suspect you’d enjoy my flogging too much. I’ll take the box.”
He did seem disappointed and probably wished he hadn’t asked the question. “All right, but next time I’ll find something more entertaining. Put her in the box.”
The guard gestured toward the door with his weapon, which he was holding onto tightly. She walked out into the hot sun and drenched air. The rains would be starting again soon, and then everything would get worse. “You okay, Kid?” she asked as the young man passed her, helped by two prisoners toward the med tent.
“I am,” he said. “Thank you.”
She nodded, walked to the box and stood while it was opened. She chuckled. “Could I have a baseball?”
“What?”
“Never mind.” She ducked inside and it was latched behind her. Already it was stifling hot inside. She lay down, relaxed, listened down into her body, calmed her heartbeat and breathing, and slipped into meditation. Her last thought before cutting herself off from the world was to wonder where Karil was.
***
Exhausted from slashing through the undergrowth on the riverside with their machetes, Karil and Snakes took the game trail that would lead them to the camp, despite the danger and because they had already spent too much time. As they passed a clearing, Karil stopped and silently pointed. A magnificent stag was grazing beside a stream.
“Hello, Beautiful,” he whispered.
The stag lifted its glorious, crowned head and looked about warily, then bent to crop the grass once more. Suddenly, it snapped up its head and glanced into a thicket. A huge tiger leaped from cover, bounded into the clearing, and bore the stag to the ground before it could cover a meter’s distance. The predator broke its neck with a twist of its powerful jaws. Karil and Snakes took a step back in shock and rustled the undergrowth. The tiger raised its head and its golden eyes fell upon them.
Karil picked up Snakes and thrust her up to an overhanging branch, then she reached down and pulled Karil up beside her. The tiger crouched over its kill for a moment, snarling at them, then realized they were not competing predators but more prey. It raced toward them as they scurried up the tree. It leaped onto the trunk and began to climb toward them, moving quickly at first, then slowed down as its great weight proved too much for its claws.
At the sound of snarls and yapping from the meadow, it dropped heavily to the ground, pelted into the open, and came down on the pack of dogs that were worrying its kill. It tossed them, whimpering, into the grass, and they attacked the great cat from all sides, growling and snarling.
Karil and Snakes climbed down the tree and ran down the trail, putting as many meters between them and the battle as they could.
“What kind of dogs are they?’
“Every kind of dog,” Karil panted. “After a few generations, the breeds blend back into the original dog that man domesticated thousands of years ago. They’ve been breeding like that on the streets of India for centuries.”
“Their ancestors were pets?”
“They were indeed. All kinds, all colours, and now they’re just dog.”
***
They stopped at dusk to seek shelter for the night. Karil found a suitable tree and climbed it swiftly. Baby Snakes found it took her a bit longer, as where she came from there were practically no trees, but she was lithe and strong and soon caught up to him. She found him breaking branches and laying them out in a weaving pattern.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a chimpanzee nest. Much more comfortable and safer because it’s harder to fall out of in your sleep.”
She watched with pleasure as she realized that one could much more easily be intimate in such a bower than clinging to branches. When he was finished, he opened his arms and she snuggled into his embrace.
But they were interrupted by a snuffling and a growling and looked down to see a big black bear peering up at them from the base of the tree. It looked as if it was about to climb the trunk.
“We’ll have to go higher,” Karil said. “Up to where the branches will support our weight but not hers. We’re in for an uncomfortable night.” He boosted her up to the higher branches and watched as she climbed.
“Wait,” she said. “Don’t move.”
Something tumbled past him and landed on top of the bear, which growled in shock and made a hasty retreat. Karil peered down in the failing light, saw a huge snake coiling in attack pose. As the bear vanished into the gloom, it uncoiled and slithered away. Baby Snakes climbed down to him, laughing.
“It’s a Harlequin Coral snake. You have to grab them just behind the head and not mind them coiling all over you. And you have to be really fast and accurate with your hands.”
“I’ll bet you’re good with your hands.”
She laughed. “Come here, Monkey Man, and I’ll show you how good I am with my hands.”
***
Called into the female prisoner’s quarters, Warden found a guard unconscious on the floor with his pants around his ankles. Loris stood over him, breast heaving, with a naked girl clutching her long legs.
“Your soldiers have no discipline, Warden,” Loris snapped. “Is rape a policy here? A perk, perhaps, for underpaid, too idle guards?”
“It’s not the policy,” Warden growled. “But neither is allowing prisoners to beat up the guards, however justified they feel. That too is a discipline problem.” He sighed. “My God, I’m sorry you were ever sent here!”
“We agree on that, at least.”
In short order, Loris was hanging from the ceiling in Warden’s office, while the guard, now fully recovered, cracked his whip with a grin. Warden sat behind his desk.
The whip cracked like a gunshot and wrapped itself around Loris’s hips. She made no sound. Again, and again, it fell, and her body jerked in reaction, but she did not cry out and her dark eyes bored into Warden’s. In the beginning, he had been barely able to hide his pleasure, but soon his smile faded. This was supposed to be exciting, but it was disturbing. He began to realize, under Loris’s glare, that he was the one being humiliated, and he waved his hand. The flogging ceased.
“Cut her down and let the nurse tend her wounds,” he said. “She will be in charge of the female prisoners. And as for you, see that they work hard.”
“I don’t want them sitting around thinking about their situation either,” Loris said.
***
They knew they were close to the camp when they came upon a human corpse, its rotting remains still partially clad in numbered prison clothing. Karil put his hand out to stop Baby Snakes from coming too close. The sight of a human corpse was nothing particularly new to her, but this was something else entirely.
A hive of Murder Hornets had set up housekeeping inside the corpse. They were even now returning at dusk to its eyes and mouth. Carefully skirting around the sight, Karil and Snakes made their way down the trail, looking for a good solid tree to sleep in for the night, but then they noticed light coming through the forest and realized that they had found the camp.
They picked a tree that allowed them to look over the flickering electronic barrier into the compound. Karil examined the guards’ barracks, the Warden’s office and quarters, the med tent, male and female barracks, and some disturbing structures in the compound—a couple of lockboxes and a whipping frame. Not far away was a landing-field big enough for small spaceships.
As they watched, Loris stepped out of the door of the women’s’ quarters and stood on the steps. Karil almost cried out with joy. Loris peered into the darkening forest, her eyes moving back and forth as if searching for something. Karil made a series of sounds, almost lost in the sundown chorus of birds. To Baby Snakes, it sounded like “Krik, Krik,” followed by a crow’s caw and a whistle. Loris looked directly at their treetop bower and smiled. Her hand at her right side made an OK sign, then she turned and went in through the door. In a moment, the interior lights went out.
“What was that?” Snakes asked.
“The call of the Loris,” Karil said, “a little primate from South Asia. Extinct now. But if you don’t know that, it sounds like any call you might hear in the forest.” He smiled. “Loris took that as her name because that’s what they called her as a child. She was a dark little creature with long legs and big eyes.”
***
In the middle of the night, the perimeter alarm began to sound. Bodies were pushing in through the electronic field, lots of them, one after the other in rapid succession, and there were horrid screeching sounds. The sentries began to fire into the darkness, and the reports of rifles and the sizzle of laser were added to the din, followed by the screams of wild animals. Guards poured out of the barracks and began to fire into the darkness, then added their own screams. Warden rushed out half-dressed, took one look and ducked back into his quarters, slamming and locking the door.
Loris came out on the front steps and shouted at the prisoners to stay inside. A guard ran past her in terror, and she snatched away his rifle. A pack of raccoons was pouring like a flood across the compound, but they were raccoons such as she had never seen—big as rottweilers, with fangs like baboons. Behind them came Karil and Baby Snakes firing lasers into the ground at the creatures’ heels.
The terrified animals poured through the compound and out the other side into the forest. Loris embraced Karil and held him tight for just a moment, grabbed Baby Snakes and kissed her. Several guards lay wounded on the ground. Their weapons were taken and given to the prisoners who poured out of the barracks, and the injured were brought to the med-tent. Loris pounded on Warden’s door, standing to one side. A bullet came through the door, easily missing her.
“Warden,” she said, “put down your weapon and come out. You won’t be harmed. The camp is mine now. We could destroy the building around you.”
“Okay, Loris,” he stammered.
He pushed open the door and came out with his hands on his head. Both Karil and Baby Snakes had him in their sights. Loris pushed past him into the office and came out with more weapons and handcuffs. Warden and all the guards were cuffed.
Suddenly, the compound was bathed in brilliant light A ship descended onto the landing pad. Rocket launchers popped out of the hull and a loudspeaker ordered, “Put down your weapons or we will destroy the entire camp and kill all of you. Do it now!”
Loris and Karil exchanged shocked glances, slowly put down their weapons and raised their hands. The prisoners did the same. A hatch opened, a ramp slid out, and Armand Solla stepped out of the Far-darting Apollo, followed by a phalanx of trotting Quasi-Police with weapons and body armour.
In a matter of minutes, all the prisoners were kneeling in the dust with their hands on their heads, surrounded by Quasi-Police. Solla stood looking down at Karil, Loris, and Snakes. On his face was the closest thing to a smile that Karil had ever seen there.
“Did you think you had agents in your ancestral home, and we didn’t?” he asked Karil. “I was awake minutes after you’d left and telling them that you had killed your father. Did you think I wouldn’t realize the first thing you’d do was to come after Loris? Why do you think we let it slip that she was here? We thought you’d be here with your ship, and we’d have to shoot her out of the sky, but this is almost as good. You’re wanted for regicide and parricide now, as well as rebellion and smuggling. You really should have killed me when you had the chance.”
“Forewarned is forearmed,” Karil mumbled.
Behind him, four men carried a box out of the ship and put it on the ground next to the hotbox. They opened it and Loris saw that it was a sensory-deprivation chamber.
“Solla,” she said. “Don’t put him in there, I beg you. He’s been in them before and barely survived. It took ages to cure him of recurring SDT and it almost ended his career as a spacer. You could destroy his mind.”
“His mind? My dear Loris, Karil’s mind is what my superiors fear the most. This man is as wily as Odysseus, as slippery as Houdini, as hard to hold as Progeny himself. Now that Progeny is only a memory, he’s the bane of my career. Put him in there!”
Loris started to rise, but a glowing laser was laid along her throat. Karil was yanked to his feet, marched to the chamber, and fastened inside. The lid was closed, and the controls set. Inside, it would be absolutely dark and absolutely silent. He would float in body-temperature water until it was opened. Solla returned and yanked Baby Snakes to her feet. “I know you too, Miss Famous Outlaw. I guess you like snakes.”
A trap door was raised in the ground and Loris heard the sound of hissing. The pit was filled with a roiling mass of serpents. Baby Snakes was tossed in, and the lid fastened down. In a moment, she began to scream.
“Well, Loris,” Solla said, “I imagine you expect to go back in the box. But what’s the point? I know you have amazing control over your autonomic responses and the heat won’t bother you that much.”
She was brought into the barracks and chained to her bunk. Outside, the floggings began for all the prisoners. Their screaming filled the camp. Baby snake’s screaming stopped after a few minutes. Karil did not begin to scream until the next day. A day later, he was babbling incoherently. The sound was piped into the barracks. Loris lay there, the tears rolling down her cheeks.
***
Baby Snakes was brought, barely conscious, into the barracks. She crawled into the bunk with Loris, who put her arms around her.
“How are you doing?” Loris whispered in her ear.
“I’m all right,” Snakes murmured. “I knew there wouldn’t be anything deadly in there. That’s not the point. It’s supposed to be terrifying, so I screamed. I knew that if I didn’t do anything to hurt the snakes, they wouldn’t bite me. The fact is, I grew up with snakes. They were part of my family’s religion. But I figure I’d better pretend to be traumatized for a while. Do you think Karil will be okay?”
“I hope so. Sensory deprivation is used to treat PTSD, but not when the trauma is sensory deprivation in the first place. Karil hasn’t shown symptoms for a while, and he’s flown small shuttles and spacewalked since, but this is a lot to cope with.”
The next morning, they were set to work. As they passed Karil’s capsule, they could hear him banging around inside, and he seemed to be having an argument with someone. Clearing weeds from the ditch, Snakes suddenly reached down into the water and looked at Loris. They checked the guards to see if they were paying attention, but they were conversing and only occasionally glancing at them. Snakes held up a Water Moccasin that she was holding tightly just behind the head. It hissed and thrashed in her grip. She tossed it into the woods.
The following day, Karil was silent. Solla waited one more day and then had the capsule opened. Karil lay inside without moving except to close his eyes to the light. They took him out and sat him down and he sat quite still, but his eyes were unfocused. He sat all day, occasionally chuckling to himself or mumbling snatches of poetry. Finally, Solla was satisfied.
“I have things to attend to,” he told Warden. “Keep him here. I’ll be back when the families decide what to do with him. If we can get inside that mind, we might get something useful, but I’ll need better facilities than this. I’m leaving some men with you. They don’t work for you; they work for me. Be glad you’ve still got your job.”
“Yes, Sir.”
The ship lifted and streaked away across the sky. Karil was put to bed in the infirmary. Loris and Snakes continued to sleep together, because Warden had a camera in the women’s quarters and liked to watch them in each other’s arms. Sometimes they made little noises to keep his attention.
***
Loris and Snakes brought Karil his breakfast in the med-tent as usual. They barely acknowledged the Quasi-Police guard by the entrance and sat Karil up against some pillows, then they sat on either side of him. He was taking food regularly now and they chatted with him as they spoon-fed him the gruel which was the only breakfast available.
“I know you,” Karil said to Loris.
“I’m Loris.”
He nodded and took a mouthful. “Loris,” he repeated, and turned to Snakes. “Do I know you too?”
“I’m Baby Snakes.”
“I like your designs.”
“Thank you.” Another spoonful.
“How are you today?” Loris asked.
“Okay. I had a visitor last night.” The guard looked up.
“A visitor?” Snakes asked.
“She didn’t come in,” Karil said. “But I heard her voice through the tent fabric.”
“Does she have a name?”
He seemed to ponder for a moment. “Arachne.”
“Arachne?”
“Yes. She’s a spider.” The guard rolled his eyes and turned away again.
“She’s invited you to a party,” Karil went on.
“Really?”
“Yes. At noon today. It’s a surprise party. Do you have a surprise?”
“Me? I’m supposed to bring a surprise?’
Karil thought a moment while he swallowed his food. “You wouldn’t go to a birthday party without a birthday gift, would you?”
“Of course not.”
“You wouldn’t go to a costume party without a costume, would you?”
“No, I guess not.”
“Then you shouldn’t go to a surprise party without a surprise. Do you have one?”
“I have a surprise,” Baby Snakes told him.
“Is it a good one?”
“Oh, it’s a beauty.”
“Good. Noon today. On the dot. Over there.” He nodded toward the guard barracks across the compound, where a wooden trestle table and benches sat outside, in the shade. It was where the guards had their lunch when the dining hall inside was sweltering, which was most of the time.
“I’m a little tired,” Karil said.
“Well, we have to go to work.”
“Noon today.”
“We’ll be there.” They kissed him and left. Baby snakes asked, “What was that about?”
Loris smiled. “Somehow, Atty contacted him. I don’t know how. But if she wants a distraction, we’ll give it to her.”
***
Loris and Snakes stood by proudly as the guards sat down to their usual bland meal. In the centre of the table was a big, covered tray.
“What’s this?”
“A surprise. Something very special.”
One of the Quasi-Police guards took the cover off the tray and a Water Moccasin sank its fangs into his hand. He screamed and then they all screamed as a dozen snakes raced across the table in all directions. Benches were overturned and the guards fell over each other. Several were bitten. Loris and Baby Snakes snatched up the weapons as they fell from the guards’ hands and began firing.
The guard in the tent with Karil drew his sidearm and started out the door. He heard a sound behind him and turned. Karil smacked him in the forehead with a bedpan, took the gun as he fell, strapped on the holster, and ran out into the compound. Some of the guards were coming in his direction, drawing their weapons, and he shot them down with gruesome efficiency and lightning speed, seized with what Loris referred to as the Dark Lord’s Wrath. When the battle was finished, he would be his usual ribald self once again.
Other guards ran in the other direction, toward the landing-field, and discovered a giant spider scrabbling toward them across the compound. A few bullets were fired into it with no result whatsoever, and the guards turned and ran. They stopped when they were confronted with a grim Loris, a strong and healthy Karil, and a laughing Baby Snakes, all with weapons trained on them. A gleaming ship—a flying-wing spaceplane—descended onto the landing pad.
“Halt!” said Atalanta. “Drop your weapons! Down on your knees! Now!” Machine-guns popped out along her wings. The voice was not her usual one. It was loud and military and brooked no nonsense.
Warden gazed in open-mouthed wonder from his front porch, then ducked back inside. Atty put a line of bullet-holes across the front of the building just above his head.
“Come out of there, Warden,” Loris shouted. “Atty, don’t kill him.” As if the ship was capable of such a thing. Then she turned to the prisoners’ quarters.
“You can come out now. Take whatever you can and get aboard the ship. Quickly!” They followed directions, open-mouthed, giving the spider-bot a wide berth. Loris smiled. Galileans tended to forget that outsiders almost never saw that particular robotic design, toiling away in the forbidden atmosphere of Jupiter.
“Thank you for your help,” Loris said to Arachne.
“My pleasure, Loris. Atty has told me so much about you.” The spider bowed, almost comically, with its front four legs.
The prisoners were trussed up in the yard, with Warden in the front. “We’re going to die,” someone wailed. “We’ve been bitten.”
“I milked those snakes myself,” Baby Snakes said. “Very little venom left. You’ll be sick as a dog for a while maybe, but you’ll live.”
Karil and Loris looked about the camp. “Atty,” said Loris, “take out this and this and this.” Atty’s wing-guns spun into position. The guards flinched as the bullets buzzed over their heads. The whipping-frame, the hotbox, and the sensory deprivation capsule were shattered into splinters and junk.
Baby Snakes and Atalanta’s crew swung up into the ship. Snakes found a seat on the bridge and snapped in. “I don’t know if you remember me, Atty,” she said.
“Of course, I do, Baby Snakes. Thank you for taking care of Loris and Karil.
“My pleasure, I assure you.”
Loris checked one hold and Karil the other. “I’m afraid we’re not set up for passengers,” Loris said. “You’ll have to tie yourselves to the cargo netting. It could get bumpy. We’ll drop you off at a safe place—Montreal. That’s in North Vermont, in the Canadas. They’ve always taken in refugees. We can’t take you to your scattered homes, if they’re still there. We have to get off this planet in a hurry. But they might be able to get you information about your families.”
“We’re grateful for your rescue,” said an older man.
“Hold on tight. There may be some serious acceleration.” Loris climbed into the pilot’s couch and strapped in as Karil dropped down into the Astrogator’s well before her. Through the port, they could see Arachne climbing up on the wing and attaching herself to the top of the ship. “How did you find us, Atty?” Loris flipped switches and the drivers roared.
“Agent Inger put something on the Galilean Security site: three simple pictures in such rapid succession that only I could see them. A golden apple, a Sunda Slow Loris, and snakes being born. When I landed at Baby Snake’s compound in the desert, they told me where to go. We must leave now, Loris. I’ve dealt with the anti-aircraft system, but my arrival will have raised an alarm.”
With a thunderous roar, the ship rose into the air on a cloud of plasma, yawed about, and sped off over the forest.
The figures in the compound lowered their heads in the roiling dust of takeoff, and then the dust settled on top of them. Rain began and turned it to mud. Through the open door of Warden’s office, they heard the voice of Armand Solla on the comm:
“Warden! Answer me! I’m coming to pick up my prisoners.”