pretty but not likely to be missed, such as a bottle of perfume or some bauble.
It became a contest, and it was most exciting.
I bet. And then you were caught?
Not very quickly. We simply were carried away by our own poor ignorance. We
wandered in one time to a security zone which was computer-monitored and tripped
alarms. We were sealed in and trapped. At first they could not believe that we
were who and what we seemed, but after long sessions with drugs and doctors and
machines, they decided we were just what we seemed to be. So they tied us to a
wall, whipped us, then gave us to the security guards. Then, suddenly, we were
pulled back, bathed, cleaned up and tended to, placed in chains, and sent to the
flying machine.
Pardon me for mentioning it, but your wounds are from the beating?
No. I have more scars all up and down my back. When they first threw me to the
guards, I fought. We both did. I scratched the face of one of them very badly.
They held us down while he carved this in my face and similar gashes in my
sister’s face. He—he said that we might as well enjoy what was coming, because
no man would wish to do anything with us again. I wished only to kill myself in
my shame, but they made very sure I could not do that. Only by finally
convincing them that I would do nothing rash right now did I gain any freedom of
movement, even to being here like this. I could see in every eye how hideous I
have become.
I—knew—a ,woman once. A girl. She was of highborn stock, and her beauty was
perfection, yet inside she was the personification of all that is foul, evil,
and monstrous in people. Those attracted to her beauty will be as flies in a
spider’s web. I, too, might have been a fly in her web, but even in this place I
learn and improve myself. My Buddhist teacher would understand, although it took
his pupil this long to see his meaning. The body is but a shell. One must look
beyond to the soul and see only it if it shines pure. Impulsively, although he
had never done it before, he drew her to him and kissed her. When their lips
parted, the look on her face was a mixture of shock, surprise, and almost
childlike wonder.
I think, she whispered, that I may yet live a little while.
I did not do this out of pity, you must believe that, but I feel your pain
within me, he said softly. You have suffered far more than I have.
No. I did not lose my family and all my people, and what I did I did myself,
knowing it was criminal. You had no choice in it. We threw away comfortable
lives out of boredom, and now we pay for that, but you are without guilt or
blame, and you have lost everything. Now we both go to our fate, whatever and
wherever it is. I heard them say that the great spire out there is a ship that
goes into the heavens, beyond the world. Is that true? Is that even possible?
Yes. It can go from this plant to another.
What is a planet? she asked him, genuinely curious.
Huh? Other worlds than this, like the moon, only farther off.
You mean they are sacrificing us by sending us to the moon goddess? I have
often prayed to her. She may be merciful.
He was startled. Ignorance was one thing, but how could he reconcile someone who
had figured out in a brief lesson how to pick some of the most elaborate
computer-controlled security locks in a high-tech place like Center with someone
who clearly had no idea that there was any place beyond China, who thought the
moon was a goddess and probably also believed that the world was flat?
We are not being sacrificed, he assured her. Not that we might not be better
off at that. We are being sent to another place like the one we have just left,
only suspended in the heavens so that there is no way for us to ever leave. I do
not know what happens to the people sent there, except that it strikes fear even
in the hearts of the guards of Center security.
She accepted that. That fills me with fear as well. A place in the heavens
could not ever be escaped from. You might go through the locks, but you would
fall endlessly in the heavens.
No, you would be dead before that. There is no air to breathe in space. The
only air we will have will be in the place they keep us. It is better than any
locks to keep someone imprisoned.
Yet you are not afraid. I can tell.
In fact he was afraid, particularly now that he’d heard about her own treatment,
seen the scars on the outside and sensed the others on her soul. If what both of
them had experienced was not the worst punishment, then they were being taken to
a horror he could not imagine. The fact that it was an unknown of such
dimensions was terrifying, yet he could not admit that to her or let it dominate
him.
I fear only what I face that is worthy of that fear, he responded bravely.
Then I will face death bravely and spit at him. For now, I still yearn to
fight.
As they talked, he began examining the room for hidden cameras and microphones.
A plan was beginning to take shape in his mind, and if he could somehow
communicate it to her and she could do her part, it was just possible. His
people were gone, save for himself and Deng, but he still had their dream, and
he had the knowledge to carry it out, as well.
He found surveillance devices—not many but sufficient to block any real secrets.
He settled back on the mat next to her. You know, my people found how to fly
one of those spaceships, he said casually but in a low tone. It is a pity we
will be chained and probably guarded in a locked room all the way to wherever we
go.
She lay down comfortably beside him and squeezed his hand. Yes, it is, she
agreed.
They had talked almost nonstop throughout the day, without reservation or
hesitancy in even the most personal and intimate things. It was as if they had
known each other all their lives and were catching up on the time spent apart.
Too, there was both a direct and a subtle exchange of vital information as he
tried to give her a cram course in the basics of astronomy while also conveying
what he needed from her in the practical sense.
A meal was finally delivered, and it proved to be a pleasant surprise. The
recipe was Mongolian, with chunks of lamb, fried wonton in a spicy garlic-laced
sauce, and rice, and the vegetables tasted fresh. Even the tea was hot. Chu Li
wasn’t sure if this was the last meal of a condemned prisoner or, more likely,
the same thing being served to the staff in this cobbled-together prison
section.
Chow Dai wondered why they had bothered to split up the two pairs, since with
human guards and cameras in unfamiliar territory she was unlikely to be able to
do anything. Chu Li had responded that it was probably just another tactic to
disorient them, but he didn’t really believe that. Their captors had analyzed
his mind, and Deng’s, and the minds of the Chow sisters and knew them probably
better than anyone did. They were being sent to this distant place, at great
trouble and expense, because someone there, for some unspeakable reason, had a
use for two boys and two girls in their middle teens. He suspected they knew
that both Deng and he were the kind whose hearts would go out to such kindred
spirits in distress and that mere attentions by a male might well guarantee that
the pair would not commit suicide or try something so desperate it would mean
their death.
The spaceship they had seen was an OG-47 resupply ship. It had to have landed
for repairs of some sort that were not available at the moment in space; usually
such ships did not land at all but were serviced by ground-to-orbit cargo ships.
The OG-47 had a pressurized passenger compartment holding up to sixteen for one
to three days, fewer for longer journeys. The pilot’s cabin as usual was in a
vacuum state in space but could be entered by airlock in a space suit. There was
no guarantee that such suits would be aboard, but if they were, they would be
Type 61s and stored in a computer-locked compartment to the rear of the
passenger cabin, to be opened automatically in case of emergency.
It startled him just to know that. Where had he learned it? Not with his own
people, certainly. Not from those strange memories of the girl, either. He
became more and more convinced that someone had played some nasty tricks on his
mind, and he didn’t like it. Were they being toyed with? Had someone who knew
his people’s project given him this much just to see if he could really do it?
Steal a spaceship?
It had to be something like that. Dai and Mai were part of it, too. It was too
impossible to believe that he, with his knowledge, would find himself teamed
with two accomplished thieves and locksmiths. He did not for one minute believe
that the girls were anything other than what they appeared to be, but someone or
something had assigned them to be going just where he was going at the same time
and on the same ship.
He disliked the feeling of being a wind-up doll in someone else’s toy game. Who?
This Song Ching? It would be in character, but what profit would she get by it?
She wouldn’t know if her plan succeeded or failed or get the data to use in any
attempt of her own. To test the security system? Four teenagers with no real
experience when there were almost certainly so many others they could use who
would be better suited?
He could not know, but he would simply have to watch out. The fact was, no
matter what the reason, they had to try to escape.
Certainly Dai was bright; she had understood immediately the implications of his
comments and had been giving and getting information through the day’s
conversations as well.
That evening, the guards came for each prisoner individually and took them down
the hall to a different room, which proved to be a small water shower with a
little dressing area complete with built-in mirror. After bathing, they were
provided with fresh clothing of the same design as their prison garb, but dyed
yellow with security stamped front and back in Chinese and two other languages.
Chu Li felt a reluctance to actually take the shower, although it appeared that
there were no visual monitors in there and therefore that there was some measure