Star of Sound

Chapter 5

DURING THE SHORT flight to Sudak's apartment, I am, as usual, glued to the window. Gaalan-Gol was south of the Assembly, the cemetery to the north. Now we fly east, and I learned that Gaia is to the west. All buildings are normally sandstone beige, thus my surprise as we approach a neon orange building that sticks out by a mile.

"What's that orange building?" I ask Nari.

"Our goal. The Heelith hate bright orange, it's the color of danger, fire and envy. They force the manipulators to wear orange, and their building is orange. It's a prison of sorts. Many manipulators are locked up in their rooms, always guarded by deaf units like these." She waves at the two Heelith with us. "Only a few, like Sudak, have permission to leave the building."

"I can't wait to meet the guy," I say eagerly.

We land in a garage port on a high floor, and Nari punches something into her tablet. I follow her to a door where two Heelith stand guard. Nari shows them the tablet screen, displaying a few symbols. They nod and open the door for us. We enter a long corridor that has only three doors to either side. Nari knocks at the closest door and moments later an orange-clad Heelith opens it.

"Ah, Jaiah, Nari, so nice of you to come, please enter."

I hold my breath. That's not the same voice as the one on Gaalan-Gol or from Nari's tablet conversation. The real voice behind the mechanical translation sounds female, compelling, and warm, with hidden power.

"Hi, Sudak," Nari says.

"Um, hi..." I mutter.

Sudak ignores the two mute Rels behind us and gestures us in. A living room opens up, populated with lots of plants, but not the jungle that Hriff had in her house on Shuslam. I haven't yet seen another such foliage-entangled house. Maybe she had that because it was so cold in Cleves, or was she homesick? I'd like to ask her, but she's gone.　　

Four Rels are sitting on chairs. They all wear the same screaming orange gown as the unit that bade us to enter. There are two guest chairs, but no human furniture. Once the two bodyguards, Nari, and I file in, the room is full.

"May I introduce you to the entirety of Sudak's swarm?" the female speaker unit says and waves at her four colleagues.

"Nice to meet you," I say. "Only five units? That's rather rare, isn't it?"

"It's artificial. We're all speaker units. Nowadays manipulator swarms aren't allowed to produce common units."

"Oh."

"It's not very comfortable for you, but please sit down." Sudak's female speaker unit indicates the two remaining free chairs. Our mute bodyguards remain standing at the entrance to the room.

"Thank you," I say and sit down onto the edge of one of the Heelith seats, Nari doing the same.

"Have you tried ublat yet?" Sudak asks.

"U-what?"

"Not yet," Nari affirms.

"Ah, you should. Most humans find it very pleasing."

One of the units gets up and leaves, possibly to fetch ublat.

Nari turns to me. "Ublat is a fruit juice, like your apple juice. It's good. Quite sweet."

"Okay, I'm glad to try it." I point at Sudak's neck. "Is that the translator from Hriff?"

"It is. We'd like to keep it if you don't mind."

"Oh sure. How many of you are female?"

"Two. Every manipulator swarm has at least one female speaker unit, since only the female units can generate certain sounds."