Chương 87: Silk City

Avataran Shahar, Zurah V Imperium Stellarum August 10 2848 Arcturus Sandhurst ran through shafts of sunlight all the colors of a Zuran dawn, filtered through the green leaves of Mulberry trees. After nine imperial standard months beneath K'in and Neto, the binary orange and red stars of the Vidako system, being back home beneath a nearly yellow sun still struck his eyes like an explosion of color.

There was something deeply correct about foliage being green instead of black or brown, and even the air just felt right with every breath. Though it was mid-August by the imperial calendar under which the academy operated, on his home world it was actually still only early spring, and the mulberries were just beginning to come into season.

Every breath felt sappy and woody and sweet with jasmine and the burgeoning ripeness of the berries, the sensation was so heady that he sometimes felt like he was swimming in the scents. The Katari Silk Corporation security guards who had, at the beginning of Arc's break from the academy, followed his morning run with watchful gazes now paid him no more attention than the waxwings that fluttered from branch to branch overhead.

He wouldn't have minded if they did stop him to check his pass; they were the only reason, after all, that he wasn't trailed by a flock of drones. When he finished his loop, Arc stopped short of the security gate through which silk workers like his father would shortly be arriving, rested his hands on his knees, and took a moment to let his breathing slow. When he finally stretched back upright, he popped the cap of his water canteen, put the nozzle to his mouth, and sucked in a long draught.

It was no longer cold, precisely, and tasted faintly of metal, but a lifetime living in the heat of Avataran Shahar had taught him how important it was to stay hydrated - a lesson that had only been reinforced by Hard Burn, when he'd got to the academy. The moment he stepped off KSC property, he knew the vultures would be waiting. So, he delayed.

"Show me an updated cognitive and physical assessment," he murmured to Iceni. It wasn't really necessary to speak out loud, and doing so in public got him a lot of strange looks, but it felt more comfortable to talk to his AI as if she were another person in the room with him. With the understanding that these numbers are estimates, given my current lack of access to academy physical testing facilities...

"Yeah, best you can do," Arc told her. A moment later, lines of softly glowing blue text overlaid his vision, as the neural lace which the academy had interwoven with the organic matter of his brain went to work under the AI's expert touch. Cognitive and Physical Assessment: Arcturus Sandhurst Age: 19 Rank: Cadet 4th Class Cardiac Health 55th percentile (Estimate) Cognitive Processing Speed 99.

9th percentile* Hand Eye Coordination 67th percentile Reflexes 50th percentile Spatial Intelligence 92nd percentile Strength 51st percentile (Estimate) G-Force Tolerance (Head to Toe) 5. 4 Genetic Modifications: NA Qualifications: T-3 Tyro This is based on tracking your heartrate, the time it takes you to complete the run, observed shifts in muscle mass compared to bodyfat, weight change, and the fact that your mother had to purchase you new shirts. Arc couldn't help but laugh at the last.

"I'm sure Doctor Seung will want to get more accurate numbers once we're back at the academy," he told Iceni.

"You can have firm numbers then." And I can actually talk to Lyra again, the AI pointed out. Rather than just exchange messages every few weeks.

"Yeah, Zurah's pretty far out from the core worlds," Arc agreed. He almost felt as if he was apologizing for where he'd been born. It isn't even worth measuring in light years, Iceni grumbled. Three hundred and one parsecs, Arc. The only imperium world further out is Senja.

"That means things are quiet here," Arc said, and then corrected himself.

"Usually. How many drones have we got today?" Half a dozen, Iceni answered. They're all being careful not to cross the property line, since Duke Ishaan threatened to press charges for industrial espionage. But there are two electric cars waiting up the street, and Dumb and Dumber are sitting at their usual table outside Samar's, across the street. Arc grimaced and pulled up the hood of his lightweight running shirt to cover his face.

Buying the things had made him feel almost dirty, or disloyal, because they were made entirely of synthetic fibers. Still, they did the job they were designed to do - keep the sun from burning his skin while he exercised, first of all; wick away the dampness of his sweat and dry, secondly - and, probably an afterthought to every other customer but most important to him, conceal his face from cameras.

Once he was in stealth mode, as Teo had jokingly named the tactic, Arc scanned his pass at the security gate, ducked out onto the early morning street, and headed directly for KSC's dedicated metro station. Dumb and Dumber had been waiting - they always were. Both of them were up out of their seats, presumably having already paid for their morning coffee or tea so as to keep Samar happy, and striding across the street on a direct intercept course.

The drones, in the meanwhile, swooped down from above to trail him about two stories up, from a height that he could do nothing about while they snapped their pictures. The doors of the parked cars opened, spilling out slightly less enthusiastic cameramen.

"Hey Sandhurst, you seen the shots from the Imperial Gala?" Dumb shouted to Arc, while her partner got footage. She would have been an attractive woman, objectively, with tan skin that wouldn't burn under Zuhra's light nearly so much as Arc's did, and warm dark hair. He couldn't be objective about someone who seemed to have dedicated her entire life to stalking not only him, but his family and friends, as well.

"She went with Célestin Sabran. Quite the nice-looking couple, if you ask me." He could have turned around, pulled down his hood, and reminded Dumb and Dumber that Célestin Sabran was Cassie's first cousin.

Arc could have gone on to tell them, in fact, that she'd warned him in advance who she was bringing to the gala as her 'date,' and that she'd chosen Célestin not only for the fact that they were so closely related anyone with half a brain cell would know nothing was happening, but also that the heir to Teegarden's Star and La Cité des Étoiles had less romantic interest in women than he would have had in a Vidakan Spiked Terror. Arc didn't do any of those things, because he knew that it was a trap.

What they wanted from him was a reaction - any reaction at all. Angry would be good. Jealous would be better. Either would be recorded, and then become the next headline blasted across Interstellar Media Corporation's gossip sites. The usual cast of vapid talking heads would spend the next few days dissecting everything from what he was wearing to the tone of his voice and speculating about his relationship with Cassie.

That would go on until the vultures had found some fresh, new chunk of bloody meat to occupy themselves with, and Arc was determined not to feed them. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. So, he kept his head down, hurried down the steps into the metro station - where the drones, at least, couldn't follow - and met one of the early morning electric trains bringing the silk workers to their shifts. Dumb and Dumber backed off, at that.

These were the men and women that Arc had grown up around, that his father had worked with since before he was born. He didn't know every name or even every face, but he knew enough of them, and they knew him - from dozens of corporate picnics, mill tours, and the annual silk festivals. The men spent their lives in the sun, climbing and carrying ladders from tree to tree, stripping the leaves to feed the silkworms that fueled Zurah's economy.

They were tanned, with calloused hands and lean muscles, and they had no qualms about shoving a few off-world media nuisances out of the way. Dumb and Dumber had learned that lesson early. A few short greetings, backslaps, handshakes and promises to say hello to his mother later, Arc was safe on the train.

The vultures would have cars waiting, of course, and they'd ambush him again when he left the metro to walk to his family's apartment building - but for a few moments, heading the opposite direction of all the morning shift workers, he had the entire metro car to himself, and it was blessedly silent. 𝝮"I can't get over how much weight you've put on," Arc's mother said for what felt like the hundredth time.

"You were skinny as a branch when you left, and now you look like you could lift a ladder in each hand." Audrey Sandhurst set a bowl of steaming rice with an egg cracked over the top down on the table in front of him. She'd made him breakfast every morning that he'd been home from the academy, just like she'd done for him and Phoebe when they were little.

The one time he'd made plans to meet Teo and Rashmi at a new Torean place downtown, she'd looked so disappointed that he'd quietly resolved never to miss a morning plate of rice again, not until it was time for him to leave. Arc snorted and shook his head.

"I haven't put on that much muscle," he protested.

"I'll have to introduce you to my friend Pika. The guy's over a hundred and fifty kilograms, easy. I can't tell you how many times he's just reached down and picked Cassie and I up at the same time like it's nothing."

"You have changed, though," his mother said, sliding into her own seat at the table.

"I can see it in your face. Your jaw." Arc shrugged.

"I had to," he told her.

"If I didn't put on some muscle and get into shape by the end of the year, Doctor Seung was pretty clear she wouldn't let me into the zero-g track."

"And that's still what you want?" Something in his mother's tone made Arc pause for a moment, a forkful of rice and half-cooked, still gooey egg-yolk halfway between the bowl and his face.

"To qualify for a Kestrel? Yeah, that's the goal," Arc lied. It wasn't the goal, of course. It was only a step, one step of many, on the way to the goal. But that didn't change what he had to do in order to keep moving forward.

"I just thought that having that duel up on Chel might have changed your mind," his mother said.

"You know, everyone is so proud of you. Only three people from this entire system go to the academy each year - sometimes not even that. And you didn't beg for a recommendation from Duke Ishaan, you won your own way in. There's no one else within a hundred light years that can say that, Arc. But -""But what?" he asked.

"But you did all that right after Phoebe died," Audrey Sandhurst said. Arc put his spoonful of rice and egg into his mouth and looked down at his bowl while he chewed.

"It's been a year and a half now," his mother went on.

"I don't think anyone would blame you if you changed your mind about a choice you made while you were feeling -""The way I feel hasn't changed," Arc blurted out, before he could think better of it. He made the mistake of looking up and saw that his mother's eyes were wide.

"I didn't stop missing her. I didn't stop being angry that the people who killed her are still out there, and no one's caught them. Like they got away with it. It isn't right, and -" He cut himself off before he could keep going. How long had it been since the anger had come up, like this? Every time he thought that maybe it was fading away, that he'd gone for a week or a month without thinking about it, the feeling came back and surprised him. And it was worse without Cassie around.

He knew himself well enough to admit that. Arc pushed what was left of his breakfast away and stood up from the table.

"I'm meeting Teo and Rashmi downtown. Thanks for breakfast, Mom." He took the back way out of the apartment building, the one that Dumb and Dumber hadn't staked out yet - probably because it led past three dumpsters that stank of rotting garbage, where city rats as big as a cat scurried away from Arc when he walked past.

With the hood of a fresh sun-shirt up, he walked two and a half blocks out of his way to get to the second closest metro station, and by the time he slumped anonymously into one of the last two seats remaining on the crowded car, he finally felt safe. He'd lost them. Teo Xie and Rashmi Nayar were waiting for Arc at the corner of Nutmeg Street, which was the main thoroughfare leading through the Garment District of Avataran Shahar.

The sign, like all of those in silk city, was written in Imperial Standard on top, and Hindi beneath.

"Arc!" Rashmi waved. She was perched on one of the stools set up next to Bonda truck which parked, without fail, next to the sidewalk every day, where it catered to the street traffic. Next to her, Teo reached into a crumpled brown paper back to withdraw one golden-orange fried ball after the next and pop them into his mouth. Each was filled with a spicy mix of potato, ginger, green peppers, coriander, fennel, turmeric, curry leaves, onions, cumin, and garam masala.

Arc looked left, then right, ducked his head, and hurried forward.

"I wish you wouldn't call my name out like that," he grumbled.

"It's not exactly common, and they're always looking for me." Teo, chewing with his mouth open, motioned widely up and down the street with one empty hand, and one clutching a brown bag.

"Come on. No one's looking for you around here. They figure you're either at home, or at the barracks running sims with the duke's guard. No one's paying attention." Rashmi frowned.

"We can do our best not to give them any help, though," she reminded Teo.

"Anyway. You said you were looking for presents? How many?"

"All the girls, at least," Arc said, turning to start down Nutmeg Street. Teo and Rashmi got down off their stools and fell in around him.

"So that's four from Cassie's room, plus Natalie and Jessica. I'd kind of like to bring something back for Professor Devault's wife, since she had us to dinner. I'd bring something for Commandant Marlowe, but I'm worried that would be weird."

"Not the boys?" Teo asked, after swallowing another piece of Bonda.

"I've been trying to think of something made of silk that Pika and Cal would actually like or use," Arc admitted.

"And I'm having a hard time.

"Underwear," Teo suggested, patting the bottom of his own pants with one hand. Arc winced.

"I'm not buying my roommates underwear," he objected.

"Anyway, they issue us standard shorts for beneath the uniforms."

"Pillowcase," Rashmi suggested.

"It's good for their hair, it feels nice, and it isn't too weird."

"Huh." Arc considered the suggestion for a moment.

"Pika doesn't actually have hair, but I guess that just means that it'll feel even better. And the pillowcases they give us are kind of scratchy. Thanks, Rashmi. That's a really good idea." They ducked into and out of stores, looking at everything from scarves, to shirts, to robes and even bolts of raw silk ready to be made into whatever a customer might want. Arc found pillowcases easily enough, even getting two extra for Natalie and Jessica, and settled on scarves of different colors for Vee, Rain, and C'rise.

He wanted something more for Cassie, though, and ducked into a shop with a variety of robes and kimonos draped over the mannequins in their window.

"You know her size?" Rashmi asked, trailing along behind him. Teo, in the meanwhile, had crossed the street to throw out the crumpled bag which his food had been sold in.

"Mmm-hmmm," Arc confirmed, as he ran his fingers over a robe colored an almost identical shade to the dark blue dress that Cassie had worn when they'd first visited the Montalbans. There was beautiful white lace at the sleeves, which crept up the arms past the elbow.

"I spent a whole day shopping with her, and Iceni kept a record so I couldn't forget."

"Oh." Rashmi nodded.

"I guess that would be useful. That, um - that's rather short. Above the knee."

"Well, I figure she'd be wearing it at night, when she's getting ready for bed," Arc said, lifting the hangar off the rack.

"Not out around campus." There was a long moment of silence - long enough that Arc looked away from the dress, and saw that Rashmi was facing away from him, toward the window.

"Rashmi? Everything alright?"

"Yes. It's just - " Her shoulders rose, and then fell, as she took a deep breath.

"You know, I always thought that sooner or later you and I would get together. Maybe after school - once you had a job at the mills. I figured that we had plenty of time." Rashmi laughed out loud and then turned to look at him.

"And then one day I saw a picture of you plastered across the planetary net, arm in arm with an imperial princess," Rashmi went on.

"I guess I missed my shot." Arc opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

"I'm sorry," he said, eventually.

"I'm not really sure what to say." Rashmi smiled, but Arc could tell that it was forced.

"You don't have to say anything," she said.

"I just had to get that out. I'll wait with Teo outside." Before he could stop her, she walked across the shop and out the door, leaving Arc with an armful of silk.