Elysium (27 page)

“Jolly, shut it.”

Jolly frowned, but did what he was told. Antoine laughed and rubbed his nose. Adrianne tapped his stomach to make him stop.

“Feeling better I see,” Adrianne said to the krestge. It made a small grunt and held out its bowl. Adrianne couldn’t tell if it was a friendly wave or a brush off. It received its portion of stew and retreated slowly to its rock on the other side of the yard.

“Whaddaya suppose is the deal with him?” Steven said. “I mean, what’s he doing here?”

“Good question,” Adrianne said. A portion of the slop was poured into her bowl, and she tugged at Antoine’s arm to tell him to follow. They walked toward the alien and sat on the ground before it. The krestge stared at them and gently nodded as Adrianne scooped some of the food into her mouth with her fingers.

“Hu-man~~,” the krestge said.

Adrianne looked up.

“You speak, and English at that.”

“I speak~~ma-ny lan-gua-ges~~,” It said. “How~~ma-ny you~~ speak?”

Antoine laughed.

“You got me there. I usually have a translator in my ear,” Adrianne said, looking around, “but around here, no such luxuries.”

“Yes~~~lux-ur-ies here~~are rare.~~”

She studied it, looking for where the sound was coming from. All she could see were moving shadows flowing around it. Her eyes could not fix on its shifts through four dimensions.

“So what the hell are you doing in this piss-hole?”

The krestge moved its shoulders up and down as if it had the shivers. It took a moment for Adrianne to realize that it was laughing. She smiled, and Antoine laughed.

“Hu-man~~, you have a way~~with your lan-guage!” it said. “And you~~~are quite~~ how do you say?~~a-stute.~~”

It shook for a few more moments then answered, “I make~~mis-take.~~You make mis-take. You pay~~for mis-take. So~~I am here.~~”

“What kind of mistake, if I may ask?” Adrianne said.

“I am~~an aca-demic — a research-er. I ask~~~uncomfor-table ques-tions~~on treat-ment of hu-mans.”

“You consider that a mistake?”

“Perhaps~~I should ask~~~ques-tions with~~more delicacy.~~”

Adrianne considered the krestge before her for a moment. The more she stared at it, the more its planar shifts moved. She could see the thing for what it was behind the shadows of shifting form. It was a creature trying to survive, just as she and her people were.

The krestge stopped eating and said, “Per-haps, I should~~be ask-ing that~~~of you.” He pointed its long finger. “Why~~are you~~~here?~~”

“Why do you think?” Adrianne said and shoved more food into her mouth. Some of the stew escaped onto her chin. She used her arm to wipe it away.

“This is not~~an an-swer to~~~the ques-tion.~~”

“We’re flyers,” Adrianne used her hand to show the swooping and sailing of flight, opening her fingers wide like feathers. “And I killed a lot of your people.”

“Of this~~you are~proud?~~~”

Adrianne put down her bowl.

“Yeah, quite proud. If you hadn’t attacked us in the first place …”

The krestge held up his four-fingered hand. “You say~~attack. Our history~~~says at-tempt at~~con-tact. We~~de-fend our-selves.~~”

“That’s bull! You’re a bunch of butchers and liars. You find a nice blue planet. Only one problem, there are already people living on it. So you decide to dust us out like vermin. That’s what you call us, right? Vermin.”

“I am~~aware of a parti-cular~~~name for us~~you call.”

“Roaches. And that’s what you are, roaches crawling into places where you don’t belong.”

Adrianne stood up. Antoine began to cry. She tapped to make him stop.

“Did you expect us to just let you move in? To leave our home without a fight? Yeah, I fought you. And I’ll continue to fight you with everything I got.”

Antoine’s face was scrunched up like he had eaten a lemon. He held back his tears. Adrianne took his hand and walked back to the others. She turned around to see that the krestge was quietly continuing its meal as if it was already thinking about other things.

At night, the air was still. Nothing moved. The only sound was the heavy breathing of the sleeping krestge. Adrianne turned over on her bunk to where it was cool and touched her harsh pillow. She thought of Helen and the smell of her hair and the lotion she put on her face at night that smelled of too-sweet flowers. Sometimes Adrianne liked to touch her when she slept just to feel her warmth and the rhythm of her pulse. Adrianne wanted to get back to her. If only Adrianne knew that she was all right — that Earth was all right — she could bear this place.

“Adrianne, you awake?” Antoine whispered.

“Yeah, I’m awake,” Adrianne whispered back. “How can anyone sleep over that racket?”

The snores of the krestge rose and fell like a rolling sea.

“I’ve been thinking about home,” Antoine said.

“Yeah, me too.”

“You suppose they’re okay?”

“I dunno.” Her voice trailed away.

Helen had never liked Antoine, and now that he was injured Adrianne supposed that she would like him even less. It was something irreconcilable between them. It was why Adrianne left with Antoine to go fight, leaving Helen behind. Truth be told, even without the war there was probably not a home to go back to. It didn’t matter, though. Adrianne still dreamed of Helen.

“Try to get some sleep, ’Twone,” she said.

Steven stumbled to Adrianne’s bunk and shook her urgently whispering, “They caught the guys.”

“What? Are you sure?”

“They’re bringing them in now.”

Adrianne and eight others rushed to the window. The four who had escaped were being marched into the yard. One of the four was Kim. Adrianne considered him a good friend, and he was only a kid. For a moment their gazes met. Adrianne imperceptibly lifted her chin so that watching eyes wouldn’t notice. Kim understood the gesture’s meaning and nodded in return. They were led to one of the empty barracks to await judgment.

“What are they going to do to them?” Antoine whispered, his voice shaking.

“I don’t know,” Adrianne said.

“I think they kill prisoners who try to escape,” Steven said.

“They won’t,” said a-prisoner-who-didn’t-talk-too-much. “They can’t … Can they?”

“I don’t know if they would do that, Steve,” Adrianne said.

“It’s still possible,” Steven said. “We don’t know their rules of war.”

The simple truth was finally stated. Their position finally uttered. They had no freedom. Their lives were completely at the mercy of these people who weren’t people. Their prison, their rules. Any sense that they had any control over their situation was an illusion. They belonged to the krestge, and their lives were subject to their whims. Someone had tried to escape. Someone had to pay. Someone had to be sacrificed.

Antoine cried.

Two days later, in the middle of the night, Adrianne and the others were led into the yard. Nine prisoners stood at attention to watch. Two were more than friends. One had curly-red-hair-that-was-slowly-turning-auburn. One was Steven the brave. One was the krestge. One had gray-eyes-who-didn’t-speak-too-much. One was a direct descendant of Dionne Maiter. The last were Adrianne and Antoine. They were a vigil in rags. The drizzle steadily soaked through what was left of their clothing, the rain commingling with the wetness already on their faces.

In the darkness lit only with powered torches, the prisoners were made to form a semicircle around four posts set in the middle of the yard. The wood looked new, as if cut recently.

No one spoke. Adrianne couldn’t swallow as they watched the guys who had escaped hauled into the muddy open yard, handcuffed, wearing nothing but filthy underwear, exposing all their shame. They shivered from the cold and the fear. Antoine clasped Adrianne’s hand. It was a high offense to try to escape. There was only one other thing a prisoner could do that was worse, and that was to kill a krestge guard.

Adrianne did her best not to seem scared for the sake of Antoine. Though if it were possible to run, she would. In her mind she was already running and running and running so fast no one could catch her. She was running and soaring up into the air far toward the horizon. She was the wind. She could take flight.

Human prisoners were ordered to lug the escapees out to the posts. Tommy was one of those who was forced to pull and pull at the struggling prisoners. He looked up at Adrianne with fear in his eyes as he helped tie the struggling prisoners to the posts. The sounds of them whimpering tore at Adrianne’s insides.
I’ll fly away, O Lord. I’ll fly away
…

“No, please, don’t …” someone on the pole shouted. There was no one to help. Everyone knew it. He knew it.

The forced human guards had to cover their mouths. This only made the four shout more, even as their mouths were gagged.

One great morning when the world is over, I’ll fly away
…
away, away, so far away I’d fly, and no one would ever catch me.

The krestge prisoner walked into the yard. It addressed the guards in their language. Adrianne couldn’t understand but it seemed that it was pleading with them on the humans’ behalf. The guards listened to it for a while then pushed it down and kicked it a few times. It limped away looking very hurt. Antoine began to cry. Adrianne tapped him in the stomach to tell him to stop.

The air was charged with static that pricked the skin. Adrianne had no idea what was going to happen next. Each guard stooped into the corner to pick up something. They reentered the circle and stood about six feet away from the posts. Adrianne squinted her eyes tight to make out the objects in their hands. They were leather whips. The whites of Kim’s eyes glistened as a guard ripped off his rags, then the clothes of the guy next to him, then the next, and the next.

Adrianne began to sing —
My homeworld, ’tis of thee
…

The rest of the prisoners joined in singing in shaking voices —
Sweet land of Liberty
…

The first lash sent red rippling. The splatter of it stained the ground. A scream, even through the cloth tied around their mouths, pierced the ears. Adrianne sang louder to cover the echo —
Of thee I sing
…

The second lash —
Land where my fathers died

The third —
Land of the Terrans’ pride

The fourth —
From every mountain side

Lash after lash after lash after lash —
Let freedom ring
…

19.

Adrianne tore off a piece of a blanket to make a square of about a foot and a half on each side. She melted the boot heel from the discarded shoes of a dead prisoner and carefully traced out a nine-by-nine square checkerboard on her piece of cloth. Antoine watched quietly and wondered what she was doing. She spent all afternoon on her project, receiving only glances from her fellow prisoners and the guards.

After she was done, Adrianne went out into the yard and looked for rocks. There were plenty of small ones lying around. She showed Antoine the size rocks she was looking for — no bigger than her thumb tip. Together they searched for them, gathered them up, then sorted them: eighteen cream-colored rocks in one pile and twelve blackish ones in the other.

In the overcast sky, a few stars shined through. It took some time to find, but Adrianne’s eyes spied the green dot. It was so small it was barely visible. Satisfied, she went inside the barracks with Antoine lumbering behind. She found the krestge lying on its bunk staring up at the ceiling and stood over it until it turned toward her. Its planar shift moved as it slowly sat up. It was eerie to look upon a creature that existed in multiple dimensions, shifting and changing, half in shadow even in full light.

“You ever play checkers?” she said.

“What is~~check-ers?”

“It’s a game. I’ll show you.”

Adrianne laid her makeshift checkerboard on the bunk and sat down. Antoine sat down cross-legged on the floor, and together they poured their rocks on the bed and neatly placed the checker pieces in their beginning squares. Antoine seemed so pleased to be helping and laughed when he was done. The krestge looked on as Adrianne explained the game and made her first move.