Sang the Stray (Completed)

30. Feathers and Tails

Ista Green insisted I spend the next few days resting, while Fourth Squad completed Setari business. That meant I spent most of the time stuck in Medbay completing third grade on the Interface and occasionally getting prodded by purple-suits who still insisted I must have some other latent illusion projection talent. I really looked forward to the hour-long workouts Nathan retrieved me for. We practiced a lot of dodging and falling correctly.

"We don't want you trying to fight Ionoth and getting hurt. This is to help you get away or out of the way. Mostly, we want to build up your stamina, so you won't tire as easily from enhancing the rest of us as we deal with the Ionoth," Nathan emphasized.

For that purpose, we went to a room of horrors. Stairs, stairs and more stairs. We first just walked through the course. Well, I walked and Nathan ran through three times before I finished my first lap. I was so out of breath, and he hadn't broken a sweat. He was optimistic though, "You'll be able to run the entire course within a week."

Yeah, right.

I just kept chugging the water and made a beeline for the nearest place to sit down and stretch.

On one of the occasions that Sean was in MedBay assisting Ista Phillips, I asked him, "What be...are Spaces?"

"Well, we don't have a proper answer, actually," he said. "My favorite theory is that the spaces are the discarded memories of other living worlds, which crystallized and decayed...like fragments of the past tumbling and interconnecting."

No wonder I was so confused, even the Tarens had no real idea. Of course, that led to my next question, "Ionoth are memories of living things?" He just shrugged, but also gave me more information on what happened to Muina.

"The first few decades on Tare, the people were essentially living in caves, struggling to survive....actually, here, I just sent you a  summary and some links to books on the topic.  You can read it whenever, I don't want to bore you  with a history lesson," He winked.  I could swear he mumbled something like "not when there are so many other fun things to teach you" as he walked off to test some blood work. 

When he came back, we talked a bit about the wildlife I had seen on Muina.

"I found food watching birds," I explained to him.

"What about the animals near the abandoned village?" He prompted.

I told him about the creature with the skunk-like markings. He said some Taren word. I tried to repeat it, "Pookie?"

"Ha!" he chuckled, "Not quite how you say it, but I like it. I think that's what I'm going to call you from now on."

 From the summary and links Sean gave me, I estimate that the evacuation from Muina occurred about 1500 Earth years ago. Kolar and Nuri are the other two planets that Muinians fled to, but Nuri is very closed off, and Kolar's records are no better than Tare's. The Lantar were the ruling class on Muina, those with psychic talents who could travel in the Ena. They initiated a world-wide program to make travelling easier by permanently aligning the network of portals with Pillars. However, the system began pulling and ripping from the Pillars, allowing things from the Ena access to Muina. The system soon became flooded with Ionoth.  When the Lantar could not kill enough of the Ionoth themselves, they decided to create the Dhura to hunt out and kill Ionoth.  However, they lost control and the Dhura turned on the people. Whole villages and cities just inexplicably dropped dead.  Most of the Lantarens actually died too. The Lantarens who were left gathered any remaining Muinians  and fled to other worlds. Supposedly, some stayed behind, but no trace has ever been found of them. Historians assume they were all eventually killed.  After arriving on Tare the Lantarens as a distinct caste of people die out, all the bloodlines mixing, though  psychics talent genes are passed on.  100 Earth years pass and the Tarens are starting to increase in population and even  have a rudimentary nanotechnology.  The white buildings are all grown from a vat of white goop fed with raw material and instructed by building models, even the plumbing.  The planning stage is intricate and time consuming, but the actual construction is quite fast.  Another 700 years later and the Tarens are trying to breed stronger psychic talent users.  The computer age starts another 100 years later with advanced nanotechnology and the bio-powered Interface.  Soon after Tarens build space-ships and start looking for Muina and other worlds settled by Muinian-descendants.  They find Channa around 90 years ago, Nuri 80 years ago, Dyess and Kolar about 50 years ago.  Then Muina is discovered 30 years ago and KOTIS is formed  with a great ambition to one day return to their home world.  The early Muina expeditions are all sad stories.  Space-ships blowing up, research teams disappearing or being found dead, with few successes.  Eventually, only drones are left to monitor the Home World and occasional excursions are set when the drones send back new or interesting readings, like the dhura that came near Camp Sang and prompted Fourth Squad's visit.  

I was very thankful that Fourth Squad had found me when they did.

Gabriel and Luke bounded in soon after I finished reading all this.

"Oy, Trouble, we're taking you to Konna for shopping. Your clothes are shit and you can't stay in uniform forever," Gabriel insisted.

"Here, change into this," Luke said handing me one of the changes of clothes from my bag.

The island and civilian city are both called Konna. It was nice to see the atrium and shops with advertisements and music. The inside of KOTIS is just so institutional and sterile. Here in the mall section there were even fake skies and an internal park. After several rounds of trying on and purchasing clothes that all had long sleeves and such to help reduce skin contact, we finished the shopping by purchasing an almost transparent set of gloves. They were very thin and fine. I tried explaining silk and how it is made by silkworms. Luke was intrigued, Gabriel not so much.

"Food, Gabriel! I'm starving...and Sang has to eat too. Kota will kill us if she doesn't eat something. And then Tsee Blackbourne will kill us again," Luke demanded to put an end to the shopping.

"Okay! Okay! Fine. No one appreciates my..." Gabriel drifted off, mumbling.

Luke led us to a café where we sat 'outdoors' on the patio. The boys sat on either side of me. All during this excursion they were careful to keep me between them, bracketed to make sure no one bumped into me.

"And who is this lovely lady with my nephew?" a man in cooking apron asked as he came out of the café.

"Uncle, this is Sang Sorenson," Luke said.

"Huh, they graduate a new batch of Kalrani?" Uncle asked. He looked at me doubtfully. I didn't think I looked much like Setari material either. Though I understood his assumption, since the guys don't get much time to meet people outside of KOTIS.

"No, she...," Luke started to say.

"Ahem!" Gabriel coughed to interrupt, "Classified for now, Uncle. You know how it is."

"Ah, that I do," Uncle replied. "Well, Little Mystery Ave, enjoy your meal and come by with Luke again when you are less classified."

I nodded, not quite sure how to respond. Uncle chatted for a few joden more with the boys then returned to the kitchen inside.

"Why I called 'ave'?" First, Raven had referred to me that way, and now Uncle.

"Oh, females are called Aves in the Academy. Males are referred to as Canids," answered Luke.

Eventually, we made our way to an amphitheater with a Kanza court. This was a very strange game like some cross between putt-putt golf, hockey and Pac-man. The pucks hovered and skimmed and ricocheted over the surface of three intersecting circles. We had to hit the pucks over balls of light before getting them in the hole. It was fast-paced and silly. We had a lot of fun. Luke is either exceptional at this game or he was cheating.

Though our names could not be seen over the Interface, it was clear that some people recognized the boys as Setari. Mostly, they were respectful and kept their distance, but pretty much every girl around us was practically drooling over my handsome escorts. They just ignored me outright. Several took and posted pictures, even though the faces would be blurred by Interface restrictions. As we walked back to KOTIS, Gabriel showed me a few on some Setari Watch site. One picture had another girl's face photoshopped over my blurred out image. Sheesh.

The boys apologized that they had to drop me off at MedBay to spend the night.

"We are training Twelfth Squad tonight on a new Rotation that they are taking over for us. The grey-suits want us to train with you for Ena missions, and other squads are taking over our regular schedule. We should get our turn for a sleepover tomorrow, Trouble," Gabriel commented.

I sighed and went back the Box that I'd been assigned to previously. I didn't fall asleep for a long time, but when I did, it was all one nightmare.