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Authors: Alex Stewart
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felt a stab of panic as I lost sight of her; but a second or two later I felt the surge in my inner ear as I stepped through the intersecting gravity fields, and found myself once again trotting along a subjectively level surface. After a moment of frantic scanning I spotted her again, just disappearing down the mouth of an alleyway half-hidden by the stall of a street vendor, who waved a skewer-full of something greasy resembling meat hopefully in my general direction as I dived down the narrow slot between a tavern and a lingerie emporium.
This was a part of Skyhaven I’d never even suspected of existing before, and I must confess I felt a growing sense of unease. The alley was beginning to feel less like a thoroughfare, and more like a utility conduit into which the population had flowed under pressure from the more affluent regions. There was metal mesh underfoot now, while piping and ductwork had become visible on walls and ceiling, lending the whole place a cramped and furtive air, despite the illumination, which remained as bright as the streets I’d just left. Or would have done, anyway, if all of it was still working.
The people I passed seemed more shabbily dressed than those on the main thoroughfares, or at least in utilitarian garb, with little ornamentation; and a higher proportion of them were transgeners, with whom I was reluctant to make eye contact, for fear of being thought impolite. (Believe me, good manners are important when some of the folk you’re mingling with have visible claws or tusks.) Every now and then I could still catch a glimpse of Aunt Jenny in the distance, and tried to pick up my pace, but most of the traffic was moving in the opposite direction. If it hadn’t been for my pride, and the fear of marking myself out as someone who didn’t belong here, I might have called out to her, but I held my tongue, and bounced a message instead.
Is it far now? If I’m honest, I half hoped that the reminder of my presence would slow her down, but it had no discernable effect that I could see across the distance that now separated us.
No , she sent back, and promptly vanished from sight.
All right, I told myself, that was clearly impossible, so she must have gone somewhere. I had no idea why she seemed to want to turn going out for a drink into a game of hide and seek, but I wasn’t so far from childhood, and the wariness I’d learned from Tinkie’s habit of changing the rules to hide and ambush, that I’d forgotten how to play.
So, start from the last place I’d seen her. Not difficult: several of the ubiquitous cables converged into a junction box there, emitting a distinctive electromagnetic signature. Not to mention the garish yellow panel warning danger of death, which was kind of hard to miss.
This time there was no obvious alley mouth into which my aunt could have disappeared, but there had to be something—my view further down the tunnel had only been blocked for a moment, and if she’d carried on along it I would have been sure to see her. I glanced up at the tangle of pipework depending from the ceiling—which, as I’d expected, had no room above it to conceal anyone, even if she’d been able to scramble up without attracting the attention of the passersby.
I examined my immediate short-term memories. No one had reacted as though anything out of the ordinary was going on, and in a place this confined, that pretty much guaranteed that nothing had. It would simply have been too noticeable. Which ruled out any trapdoors in the floor, too, although I took a glance at it anyway, just to be sure.
That only left the wall, which clearly concealed a door of some kind. The only question was where.
Adopting as nonchalant an air as I could, though none of the passers-by seemed particularly interested in me, I examined the blank metal carefully. Sure enough, one of the inspection panels seemed a little loose, held in place by only one corner. Before I could reach out a hand to confirm
This was a part of Skyhaven I’d never even suspected of existing before, and I must confess I felt a growing sense of unease. The alley was beginning to feel less like a thoroughfare, and more like a utility conduit into which the population had flowed under pressure from the more affluent regions. There was metal mesh underfoot now, while piping and ductwork had become visible on walls and ceiling, lending the whole place a cramped and furtive air, despite the illumination, which remained as bright as the streets I’d just left. Or would have done, anyway, if all of it was still working.
The people I passed seemed more shabbily dressed than those on the main thoroughfares, or at least in utilitarian garb, with little ornamentation; and a higher proportion of them were transgeners, with whom I was reluctant to make eye contact, for fear of being thought impolite. (Believe me, good manners are important when some of the folk you’re mingling with have visible claws or tusks.) Every now and then I could still catch a glimpse of Aunt Jenny in the distance, and tried to pick up my pace, but most of the traffic was moving in the opposite direction. If it hadn’t been for my pride, and the fear of marking myself out as someone who didn’t belong here, I might have called out to her, but I held my tongue, and bounced a message instead.
Is it far now? If I’m honest, I half hoped that the reminder of my presence would slow her down, but it had no discernable effect that I could see across the distance that now separated us.
No , she sent back, and promptly vanished from sight.
All right, I told myself, that was clearly impossible, so she must have gone somewhere. I had no idea why she seemed to want to turn going out for a drink into a game of hide and seek, but I wasn’t so far from childhood, and the wariness I’d learned from Tinkie’s habit of changing the rules to hide and ambush, that I’d forgotten how to play.
So, start from the last place I’d seen her. Not difficult: several of the ubiquitous cables converged into a junction box there, emitting a distinctive electromagnetic signature. Not to mention the garish yellow panel warning danger of death, which was kind of hard to miss.
This time there was no obvious alley mouth into which my aunt could have disappeared, but there had to be something—my view further down the tunnel had only been blocked for a moment, and if she’d carried on along it I would have been sure to see her. I glanced up at the tangle of pipework depending from the ceiling—which, as I’d expected, had no room above it to conceal anyone, even if she’d been able to scramble up without attracting the attention of the passersby.
I examined my immediate short-term memories. No one had reacted as though anything out of the ordinary was going on, and in a place this confined, that pretty much guaranteed that nothing had. It would simply have been too noticeable. Which ruled out any trapdoors in the floor, too, although I took a glance at it anyway, just to be sure.
That only left the wall, which clearly concealed a door of some kind. The only question was where.
Adopting as nonchalant an air as I could, though none of the passers-by seemed particularly interested in me, I examined the blank metal carefully. Sure enough, one of the inspection panels seemed a little loose, held in place by only one corner. Before I could reach out a hand to confirm
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