Read Online North Wind by Gwyneth Jones - Free Book Online
Authors: Gwyneth Jones
Tags: Science-Fiction, SF, SciFi, reincarnation fiction, Human-Alien Encounters—Fiction, Feminist Science Fiction, Gender War--Fiction
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breath…
He went back to the underground cistern, where Goodlooking was crouched in the dimmest of lamplight. “They’ve gone,” he said. He dumped the bundle he was carrying and dropped down beside her on the stones. “No sign of any survivors.”
No need to tell her that. Their eyes met, lingering: as if they were friends trying to recognize each other in a dark crowd. Last night they had been Maitri’s librarian and the Trading Post mascot. Who were they now?
“Thank you for keeping me from killing myself,” she said aloud. “The last thing I want out of this is a criminal record.”
Suicide was a crime the aliens took seriously. It had to be. Or who would stick around to pick up the pieces after a cock-up like this one?
“I couldn’t find your medicine. Not a chance.”
Her shoulders lifted.
From her expression, she’d be glad when they were over.
“You’d better take me to the Government of the World.”
Sid shook his head. “I don’t think so, kid. They were always your sponsors. If aliens can be massacred, the Government of the World is looking to save its own multiple neck. I don’t think they’ll protect you.”
“Then take me to the ICI.”
“Who?”
“The ICI. Clavel joined that Household, in a great corporation, after Johnny died, so he could serve the human religious vision of WorldSelf as Trade. They’re surely not involved in the Gender War. They won’t have forgotten Clavel. They’ll shelter me.”
Sid laughed. He didn’t mean to, but her idea of life on Earth was too much for his shattered nerves. “Sorry,” he told her. “I’m sorry, but the days of corporate power and neutrality are long gone. It’s no good. We’re on our own.”
He pushed the bundle between them, but didn’t open it yet.
“I’d better explain some things. The soldiers we saw last night came from both sides of the war. The stocky bloke with the turban was an officer of some Allied force, I’m not sure which. The Allies, that’s a blanket term for the Traditionalist side in Europe. You’d better get to know some of these names, because everyone knows them. The woman was from Ochiba, which is a Reformer army, Swiss based. It means fallen leaf, in the, er, the Japanese dialect. They were founded by Reformist Japanese who settled in Switzerland after the Japan Sea cataclysm. You know about that, don’t you? You know Japan disappeared in an earthquake, not long before you people arrived?”
She nodded—a tiny duck of the chin that was their nearest gesture to a human yes, though it meant something more neutral: I see. You had to watch out, because it could easily be I see what you mean, but I disagree.
“Ochiba is the “army of the rejected wife.” I don’t know why a fallen leaf means a rejected wife. But to Ochiba “the rejected wife” means Mother Earth. They’re Mother Earth’s most ferocious defenders, they’re complete fanatics. If they’re with the Allies, we’re up against a Gender War truce. It won’t last but they’ve banded together, these whole armies of crazies, to drive you people out. It’s what I was most afraid of. I warned Maitri—”
And Maitri told me a shuttle was coming, he thought. So much for their damned mental-model telepathy. But he understood that Maitri had known the truth. When he declared Yudi will not let me down Lord Maitri was lying, and it was such a human lie. They were unarmed. Their own people could not or would not save them. What could they do but put a good face on things and pretend their disaster was all in a day’s work? He wondered if they’d known exactly what would happen to them. Maybe so. They’d tried everything. He wondered what it was like to be locked in the madhouse with no hope of escape: not heaven nor hell nor oblivion.
He hated himself. He had been betrayed, not by the aliens but by his own residual, idiot faith in the fairytale. He’d believed nothing
He went back to the underground cistern, where Goodlooking was crouched in the dimmest of lamplight. “They’ve gone,” he said. He dumped the bundle he was carrying and dropped down beside her on the stones. “No sign of any survivors.”
No need to tell her that. Their eyes met, lingering: as if they were friends trying to recognize each other in a dark crowd. Last night they had been Maitri’s librarian and the Trading Post mascot. Who were they now?
“Thank you for keeping me from killing myself,” she said aloud. “The last thing I want out of this is a criminal record.”
Suicide was a crime the aliens took seriously. It had to be. Or who would stick around to pick up the pieces after a cock-up like this one?
“I couldn’t find your medicine. Not a chance.”
Her shoulders lifted.
From her expression, she’d be glad when they were over.
“You’d better take me to the Government of the World.”
Sid shook his head. “I don’t think so, kid. They were always your sponsors. If aliens can be massacred, the Government of the World is looking to save its own multiple neck. I don’t think they’ll protect you.”
“Then take me to the ICI.”
“Who?”
“The ICI. Clavel joined that Household, in a great corporation, after Johnny died, so he could serve the human religious vision of WorldSelf as Trade. They’re surely not involved in the Gender War. They won’t have forgotten Clavel. They’ll shelter me.”
Sid laughed. He didn’t mean to, but her idea of life on Earth was too much for his shattered nerves. “Sorry,” he told her. “I’m sorry, but the days of corporate power and neutrality are long gone. It’s no good. We’re on our own.”
He pushed the bundle between them, but didn’t open it yet.
“I’d better explain some things. The soldiers we saw last night came from both sides of the war. The stocky bloke with the turban was an officer of some Allied force, I’m not sure which. The Allies, that’s a blanket term for the Traditionalist side in Europe. You’d better get to know some of these names, because everyone knows them. The woman was from Ochiba, which is a Reformer army, Swiss based. It means fallen leaf, in the, er, the Japanese dialect. They were founded by Reformist Japanese who settled in Switzerland after the Japan Sea cataclysm. You know about that, don’t you? You know Japan disappeared in an earthquake, not long before you people arrived?”
She nodded—a tiny duck of the chin that was their nearest gesture to a human yes, though it meant something more neutral: I see. You had to watch out, because it could easily be I see what you mean, but I disagree.
“Ochiba is the “army of the rejected wife.” I don’t know why a fallen leaf means a rejected wife. But to Ochiba “the rejected wife” means Mother Earth. They’re Mother Earth’s most ferocious defenders, they’re complete fanatics. If they’re with the Allies, we’re up against a Gender War truce. It won’t last but they’ve banded together, these whole armies of crazies, to drive you people out. It’s what I was most afraid of. I warned Maitri—”
And Maitri told me a shuttle was coming, he thought. So much for their damned mental-model telepathy. But he understood that Maitri had known the truth. When he declared Yudi will not let me down Lord Maitri was lying, and it was such a human lie. They were unarmed. Their own people could not or would not save them. What could they do but put a good face on things and pretend their disaster was all in a day’s work? He wondered if they’d known exactly what would happen to them. Maybe so. They’d tried everything. He wondered what it was like to be locked in the madhouse with no hope of escape: not heaven nor hell nor oblivion.
He hated himself. He had been betrayed, not by the aliens but by his own residual, idiot faith in the fairytale. He’d believed nothing
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