Toc238718019” class=“calibre9” id=“Toc238718019”>

How many times over the past years had he been forced to relive the multiple terrifying encounters? The memories themselves were foul and fetid, the sour taste of something spoiled lingering on the brain. The information he was about to share with the young nye was infinitely more troubling. How should he proceed? How safely and reassuringly to convey the certain information that extinction on a galactic scale was coming this way—without actually showing it to him?

“I have the ability to—sense certain things, Kiijeem. And what I can’t sense, others have shown me.” There, he thought. Even Maybeso could approve of wording that simple and straightforward. “Over the years I’ve been made aware of an impending threat. A threat that includes not only you and I, but both of our respective civilizations and, in fact, the entire galaxy. Not just cultures and species, but the planets they live on and the stars they circle.”

Kiijeem looked properly staggered, started to fashion a gesture of fourth-degree incredulity, thought better of it, and kept still. His continued silence, Flinx decided, commended him.

“I said that there was much you wouldn’t believe.”

The young AAnn’s tail was barely moving. “Continue, pssakk. If nothing elsse, you ssurely have my attention. Your verity I can pass judgment on later.”

Flinx nodded, then shifted his attention deliberately skyward. “You don’t need to know how I was made aware of this threat. It was first crystallized for me some ten Commonwealth years ago. I’ve had to live with the knowledge of what it is, and of what I am, ever since.”

Kiijeem pondered the human’s words. “What could be a threat to an entire galaxy, except perhapss a colliding galaxy? Unless my ssimple asstronomical sstudiess have been sseverely remiss, that iss ssomething not in the offing.”

“There is something else,” Flinx informed him gravely. “Something more, much more. A something of which very, very few humans and thranx are aware. Though the effort seems futile they—we—are fumbling about trying to find some way, any way, that this threat might be confronted.” He lowered his gaze back to his youthful host.

“I cannot describe it any other way other than to say that this menacing phenomenon is composed of pure evil. I realize such a depiction smacks more of philosophy than physics, but having tried on repeated occasions to describe it to others, that is the impression I am always left with subsequent to encountering it. It is coming this way, toward our galaxy, in the wake of a region human astronomers have for centuries called the Great Emptiness, and their thranx counterparts the Great Void. The object, the phenomenon, the deformation of standard physics—whatever you want to call it—is about three hundred million light-years wide and occupies a total volume of space some hundred million megaparsecs in extent.”

Kiijeem had ceased moving as his gifted but adolescent mind struggled to grasp such impossible dimensions. Having been forced to deal with the inconceivable for so many years, Flinx could only sympathize with him. Trying to comprehend such scale was enough to give any sentient a headache.

“In place of this phenomenon, nothing else exists. Where it passes, everything except a few streamers of free hydrogen disappears. I’m told it may violate the law of the conservation of energy. If it keeps coming this way, continues on its present path, it could conceivably obliterate the entire galaxy. Commonwealth, Empire—everything vanishes.”

“What—jezzantt—what doess it look like?” Kiijeem’s voice had grown even softer than usual. “You ssaid you are aware of it, that you have knowledge of what it iss.”

“I don’t know what it looks like. I can only describe the feeling I get when I am mentally in its vicinity.” Flinx found himself remembering, and did not want to. “Its actual physical appearance, insofar as it has one, is blocked from our view by an immense gravitational lens of dark matter. Or maybe the lens is part of the phenomenon. The scientists with whom I have been sharing my knowledge are among the most accomplished to be found anywhere in the Commonwealth, but this is something beyond their ken. Beyond anyone’s, they feel.”

Kiijeem struggled to grasp the incomprehensible. “If they cannot undersstand it or desscribe thiss menace, how can they, or you, or anyone, envissage a meanss for combating it?”

“There are other sciences involved besides those of the Commonwealth.” Leaning forward, Flinx traced the outline of a familiar alien pyramid in the dust that covered the sandstone. “Nontraditional physics and the discoveries of prehumanx species. An ancient but still functioning potential weapon.” He sat back. “All of them little more than negligible hopes, to my way of thinking. But my friends are more optimistic, and they’re more knowledgeable and more experienced than I am. And I’ve given my word that I’ll try and help.”

“You?” Though still undecided whether to believe any or all of the incredible story the softskin had just told him, Kiijeem found himself eyeing his guest in a new light. “You are but one human. An exceptionally bold and interessting example, truly, but one only. If I were to give credence to your tale, which iss more fantasstical even than the ssemiliterate ravingss of the great talltale twirler Vuusskandd L himsself, the lasst thing I would imagine iss that a ssingle individual could have any influence at all on a threat of ssuch magnitude.”

Flinx gazed back into the penetrating, forward-facing alien eyes. “Then we are in complete agreement. Because I think exactly the same thing. But there are those who believe otherwise. My friends and”—he dropped his gaze—“others. Some others I can identify, some who still remain a mystery to me. They come to me in dreams. Unbidden, and sometimes when I’m awake.”

Kiijeem considered. “Iss it permitted to me to ssimultaneoussly believe your sstory and doubt your ssanity?”

“Once again, we are in agreement. Believe me, there are many times when I’ve doubted it myself. Even so, I find myself doing my best to honor the trust that those I know and respect have placed in me. It’s about all I have left. That, and the knowledge, the surety, that this extragalactic threat to all of us is very real and not just a figment of a pained imagination. Of my imagination.”

“Granting for the moment and for the purpossess of disscussion the reality of what you sspeak—what can you do, Flinx? What could anyone do?”

“I am not anyone,” Flinx replied more sharply than he intended. “I would give everything I have and everything I own to be just ‘anyone.’ For the chance to live nothing more complex and burdensome than a normal softskin life. But I’m not. I’m different. Forces I don’t understand and can’t even identify agree with minds that sometimes make no sense that I am some kind of fulcrum, nexus, key, on which the sole slim chance of stopping this peril rests. It’s not a responsibility I want. I didn’t seek it and I’d do anything to be rid of it.”

A throbbing had begun at the back of his head, an all-too-familiar pounding: one of his headaches starting up. He had to bring this discussion to an end before it incapacitated him. Or worse, caused him to perhaps project involuntarily and dangerously onto his young AAnn friend.

“That’s it,” he finished tersely. “That’s why I have to be assured of safe passage off Blasusarr before I can risk trying to leave. That’s why you have to help me make contact with someone powerful enough to ensure my safety. Because if I’m killed trying to depart, forces neither you nor I can comprehend believe that it will be the end of any chance or opportunity to save the galaxy in which we live. The catastrophe probably won’t strike until long after we’re both dead, but strike it will.”

“You assk me to accept a great deal, Flinx-friend.” Kiijeem made a gesture of first-degree uncertainty. “Thingss very highly educated adult nye would dissmiss as madness and delirium.”

“You haven’t acquired their prejudices,” Flinx countered.

The youth contemplated his choices. “What if I sstill inssisst on ssharing thiss ‘experience’ of which you sspeak?”

Flinx closed his eyes, then opened them more slowly. “I told you that if you insisted, then we’d see. I can do what you request. I’m not sure you’d survive. Your mind is not fully developed and, more importantly, not like mine.” Nobody’s mind is like mine, he knew, but there was nothing to be gained from further pursuing that line of reasoning with Kiijeem. “Your mind is—I don’t want to say ‘immature.’ It’s fragile. Susceptible. Your experience of this existence is limited, your knowledge of worlds beyond confined to academics. Though we’re not so very dissimilar in chronological age, I’ve spent most of my life doing nothing but having experiences. Intellectually, emotionally, and in many other ways I’ve become calloused.” Leaning forward suddenly, he reached out and took Kiijeem’s right hand in his own. The swiftness of the softskin’s act took the young AAnn by surprise.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Kiijeem. I need your help. I would sacrifice my tail to gain it, if I had one. But I don’t want to see you broken. I’ve seen it happen to others who got—who got too close to me and to what I know.”

How would the youth respond to such a plea? Flinx wondered anxiously. Among his own kind such language could easily be interpreted as a sign of weakness, of a lack of resolve and determination. The appeal was a very human thing to do. At the same time Flinx was being coolly calculating. If he shared all that he could with the youngster and the experience left the young AAnn comatose or dead, he would also be of no further use.

Kiijeem remained dubious. On the other hand, the softskin had been, insofar as Kiijeem had been able to tell, truthful and forthright in all that they had discussed between them. If the human was lying, in the end it would be worse for him than it would be for Kiijeem himself. The human must know that. Therefore, everything he had just chronicled was either an elaborate suicidal lie or …

Or he was telling the truth, preposterous as it seemed.

Kiijeem felt a tightening in his throat. The entire galaxy under threat of destruction. Perhaps not in time to imperil himself, but possibly his descendants, his extended family. The Imperial realm at risk. Or—nothing at all. Quite likely what he was hearing was little more than the imaginative ravings of a demented softskin.

There was one thing he could not bring himself to dispute. In the course of his life it was apparent that this Flinx had been compelled to make some difficult decisions. The human was brave or foolhardy or both. Which begged the question.

What then was Kiijeem AVMd?

One more time he allowed his eyes to meet the unnaturally round ones of his visitor. He thought he saw something there. Or perhaps his imagination was also far-reaching.

“I think I know jusst the nye who can help.”

Kiijeem was not permitted to travel outside the family compound after a certain hour lest he find himself challenged by an older youth—or worse, an adult urgently in search of status. That meant they would have to cross part of the city in the daytime. The dense crowds among which they would find themselves would help to shield Flinx from the attention of security monitors, but the same concerns that had prevented him from trying to reach his desert touchdown site on his own still applied. Before they could go anywhere, they somehow had to change his appearance.

“The simsuit that allows me to pass as one of your kind is not malleable,” Flinx explained the following day. He held up the sophisticated skin so that his young host could marvel at the detail. “It allows me to do many things: simulate tail movement, flex claws, even operate both eye membranes. But I can’t alter its appearance.”

“Truly, you have ssaid sso before.” Turning, Kiijeem reached back and dug around in the depths of the container that he used for hiding the rations that he had been smuggling out to his guest. “That iss why I have brought thiss.”

Kiijeem unfolded a square of plain brown, gauzy material. The lower edge was hemmed with a strip of heavier, darker brown that was almost bronze in color. Eyeing it dubiously, Flinx was not impressed.

“What am I supposed to do with that?” he wondered aloud. “Put it over my head?”

“Exactly.” Kiijeem held it out to the human. “It iss transslucent enough to ssee through, breathess well, and will completely massk your featuress from patrolling ssecurity perssonnel as well as automatic sscannerss.”

Taking the synthetic material, Flinx eyed it suspiciously. It weighed very little. “Won’t I look silly walking around with this over my head?”

“Not ssilly.” Kiijeem corrected him somberly. “Pathetic.”

“Pathe …?” Flinx set the material aside. Pip immediately commenced an investigation of the intriguing soft folds. “Why? What does the wearing of this signify? Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing it on any other nye.”

“Not all who are allowed to wear the ijkk choosse to do sso,” Kiijeem explained. “You ssee the metallic hem? The ijkk itsself ssignifiess a dessire for privacy. The color of the metal band indicatess that the wearer iss impotent.”

Flinx nearly smiled. “I mean no offense, Kiijeem, but I didn’t know you were mature enough to be familiar with the concept.”

“Mature enough, ssoftsskin, to kill you if you continue to mock me.”

“Truly.” Flinx readily conceded the point even as he repressed a diffident smile. “Please accept my groveling contrition.” For good measure he added a second-degree gesture of apology.

Kiijeem was appropriately mollified. “No one will challenge the wearer of an ijkk that iss thussly hemmed. Indeed, painss will be taken to avoid you. Obsscured within, you may draw more attention than you are accusstomed to receiving from my sspeciess, but it will only be of the sstaring kind. Unless we happen to encounter a physsician who happenss to sspecialize in the treatment of ssuch biological dissorderss, no one iss likely to sspeak to you. Nor will you be challenged. The sstatuss of anyone who dared to do sso would immediately be diminisshed, not enlarged.”

On a human world a widow could obtain privacy by wearing a full head covering in black, Flinx knew. Here, the wearing of the brown, bronze-trimmed, veiling fabric signified a death of a different kind. No wonder Kiijeem had confidence in the simple disguise. To the ever-aggressive AAnn the loss of reproductive capability would be second only to death itself. Seeing one of their own so publicly garbed they would feel only pity and would go out of their way to respect the wretched nye’s lamentable condition.

Turning away from where Pip was slinking through the depths of the lightweight accessory, Flinx leaned slightly to his right for a better view of the distant, sunken main residence. “How will you get free to escort me? I doubt I could find your friends on my own.”

“Truly alsso, Flinx-friend. Additionally, a more perssonal introduction iss necessary if your appearance iss not to sspread panic and confussion. It iss important, I think, that I perssonally explain your pressence here lesst fright and alarm enssue. To address your concern: desspite my resstrictive sstudiess, I am permitted ssome sself-time. I have not in quite ssome time vissited in persson the friendss of whom I sspeak. We communicate electronically. Iss it not the ssame with my age counterpartss among your kind?”

“Depends on the individual. I never did much electronic communicating myself.” Or communicating of any kind, he added silently. “I’m more the listening than the talking type. I like to know how individuals—feel.”

“You will feel confident, I think, once we are outsside my ressidence compound and back among ssmall packss of my people.” Reaching down, he picked up the ijkk. As she slithered to one side, Pip raised her iridescent emerald-hued head and hissed at him. Kiijeem had no idea how fortunate he was that she did not perceive him as an enemy.

The young AAnn looked on in absorbed fascination as Flinx began the slow process of donning the simsuit. The interior lining was essentially one large spray-woven sensor. Picking up the slightest twitches of his muscles, ligaments, and tendons as well as the movements of his bones, millions of minuscule sensor points instantly transferred that information to the artificial counterparts that lined the interior of the suit. While Flinx moved like a human, the suit’s interwoven computational system logics automatically transcribed the actions into the correspondingly appropriate movements for an adult nye. Fed to the suit’s silent servos and other integrated systems, it allowed the wearer to simulate the physicality of an AAnn to a degree no actor could equal.

Slipping into her built-in internal pouch, Pip folded her wings tightly against her sides, curled up, and went to sleep against her master. While there was room for her to move around inside the simsuit without sacrificing its believability, unless something roiled Flinx’s emotions she was quite content to rest and do as little as possible.

Only after the suit’s ventral self-seal melded itself invisibly into its scaly milieu and the ocular pickups activated was the illusion complete. Turning to face his young host, Flinx spread his arms, at ease as the suit’s sensors and servos were instructed by the integral woven computer to force his limbs into the AAnn gesture that best approximated his physical intent. The artifice was uncanny. Kiijeem’s unmitigated astonishment at the comprehensiveness of the consequent masquerade did not surprise Flinx. He had been fooling far more perceptive and mature nye for many days now.

“Truly I ssee,” the youth hissed softly, “and yet it iss sstill hard to accept. I know you are within. I ssaw you don the array mysself. Yet the russe iss sso complete that I think if I ssaw you on a city path I would not be able to ssingle you out from among the horde.”

“I should hope not,” Flinx told him. “If anyone does, then you won’t have to worry about how your friends will react to me.” Crouching down by the side of the pool, he settled into the conventional AAnn posture for drinking from an open body of water and proceeded to sip lightly. He was not particularly thirsty: his suit provided for such needs. But he was especially proud of the way the suit’s faux tongue worked and wanted to show off, just a bit, for his young friend.

“Crssagg—amazing,” Kiijeem murmured as he looked on. When Flinx finally straightened, the youth was holding his visitor’s AAnn garb out to him—along with the ijkk. “Dress yoursself. Do not put on the ijkk until we are well outsside the ressidence. We do not want to attract attention from the housse.”

Flinx indicated his understanding as he slipped back into the unprepossessing AAnn vest, kilt, and sandals he had worn since he had first donned the simsuit. Deftly manipulating the suit’s clawed fingers, he secured the ubiquitous AAnn travel pouch around his waist. Clutching the lightweight head covering in one taloned hand, he followed Kiijeem as his host led the way out of the desert landscaping that had served as Flinx’s sanctuary for the last several days.

Off to their left the main residence lay baking under the glare of Blasusarr’s relentless star. As they made progress Flinx could see the rooflines of other expensive sunken residences; dull, natural, or gleaming according to their owners’ tastes. Avoiding the main gate through which non-aircar vehicles entered, Kiijeem led him to a small, older side portal in the artificial stone barrier. The youth activated an interrupt in the photonic alarm system, the two of them stepped through, and for the first time in many days Flinx found himself once more striding along a pedestrian pathway.

Hardly any nye were out in the middle of the morning in the exclusive quarter, but crowds increased as they loped easily toward the nearest commercial area. From there Kiijeem led the way onto a public transport and proceeded to enter the necessary individualized programming. A private vehicle, they both knew, might draw personal attention. Public transport was slower, but it was safer to take the extra time in a vehicle filled with other passengers and thereby limit the opportunities for detection.

While the ijkk Flinx wore loosely over his head drew the occasional curious, even kindhearted glance, the only real danger arose from Kiijeem’s irrepressible nervousness. While Flinx had no difficulty relaxing in his resting crouch near the rear of the transport, Kiijeem exhibited the air of one who at any moment was expecting a formal challenge from one of Krrassin’s grand champion fighters. Only after the back of the vehicle had emptied out a little did Flinx lean toward his young companion.

“No one suspects us, no one senses me.” The simsuit’s voice box added an appropriate artificial rasp to his otherwise fluent command of the language. “Will you relax? You’re attracting far more attention than I am.” Coiled in her pouch against his left side, Pip squirmed slightly as she sensed her master’s tension. “Do I have to pin your tail against a wall to keep it from snapping?”

“Truly, you are right.” Kiijeem made an effort to calm down. His tail tip stopped banging against the transport’s inner wall, though it did not stop twitching entirely. “I ssupposse we could even sspeak loud enough to be overheard without raissing any undue alarm.”

“Of coursse we can.” Flinx was at his reassuring best. “I conversed with many nye before I met you. None ever suspected my identity. You can even call me by my real name.”

Kiijeem considered. “Yess—Fflinxx could be an AAnn name. An unussual one, but it hass the right ssoundingss.”

“Anybody asks, just tell ‘em I’m from the sticks.” Flinx was enjoying the view out the sweeping transparent wall of the transport as it soared eastward several meters above the manicured sands below.

“The what?” Kiijeem was confused by a term that did not translate well.

Flinx elaborated. “I’m from offworld. Some small, out-of-the-way Imperial planet with a reputation for backwardness.”

“Ahpessx,” his friend responded understandingly, adding a third-degree gesture indicative of quiet glee. “I know jusst the world. We will identify you as a vissiting agriculturalisst from Quepht-nuum. That fact by itsself will be enough to excusse any errorss you may make, verbal or otherwisse.” Kiijeem seemed pleased with the label he had assigned to his companion, while Flinx saw neither reason nor need to dispute it. He was not in the least ashamed to find himself designated the AAnn equivalent of an Imperial hick.

They were on the transport for what seemed an eternity. The interior was sealed and, of course, not air-conditioned. If not for his simsuit’s ability to evaporate his mammalian sweat, recycle it as drinking water, and otherwise keep him cool and his body temperature stable, Flinx knew he would have fainted from heatstroke hours ago.

As the transport hummed eastward, picking up and disgorging passengers along the way, it occurred to Flinx that he could make an excuse for them to disembark. Once out of sight, he could kill Kiijeem easily. That would lose him the potentially useful contacts he sought, but would also allow him to find another hiding place in a completely different part of the city. Perhaps a location where he could safely hide out long enough to await the return of the reconfigured Teacher. That would mean he would not need the help of Kiijeem’s more powerful friends.

Of course if he did such a thing, carried out such a disgraceful act, it would only prove that he was no more worth saving from the menace that lay behind the Great Emptiness than the other humans and assorted sentients he had been quick to disparage on previous occasions. Besides, he liked Kiijeem, even though he was quite aware that should the right opportunity present itself the young nye would swallow his dismay at the loss of his offworld acquaintance and happily sample the softskin’s flesh. While such instinctive behavior might repel the average human or thranx, in Flinx’s wide-ranging experience it did not disqualify Kiijeem’s entire species from the prospect of salvation.

Anyhow, the entire galaxy was at stake. In order to save the benign species, he had to save them all.

Only two other passengers remained by the time the transport entered a part of the capital city’s western residential zone. Marked by steep-sided hills and lengthy escarpments, so perfectly rendered were these geological features that he needed Kiijeem to confirm the artificiality of their nature.

So this was how the upper levels of AAnn society managed to enjoy sweeping views from their dwellings while still remaining largely underground, he reflected as the transport turned silently down a winding accessway. If the ground where you choose to live is flat, construct your residence and then build an obligatory mountain around it. Even to his undiscerning human eye, the amount of effort and expense that had to have gone into each individual dwelling in order to make it look as though it had been excavated from natural rock must have been considerable. There was even one estate that was “buried” entirely in a row of artfully sculpted barchan dunes. Characteristic longitudinal windows gleamed from the slip faces of sand that never shifted no matter how strong were the winds that blew against them. Clearly, the AAnn who could afford to live in this district must hold positions of considerable importance within the Imperial hierarchy. In response to his query, Kiijeem confirmed as much.

“Truly only the mosst important nye dwell here, outsside of the Imperial family itsself.” He motioned second-degree self-importance. The verbal equivalent in a human would have been called boasting.

“Like my friendss.”

Flinx regarded his guide from behind imitation AAnn eyes. “Your friends hold positions of such importance? Within the government?”

Kiijeem looked away and his tail drooped slightly. “Fssabb, not exactly. It would be more correct to ssay they are the offsspring of thosse who actually hold ssuch possitionss.”

Great, Flinx thought as he studied the extensive, expensive surroundings. Additional juveniles to deal with. Not that it mattered, if they could provide the safeguarding he needed.

The transport slowed to a halt outside a picture-perfect replica of a small sand-swept butte that was complete down to fossils of extinct Blasusarrian life-forms that were embedded prominently in one layer of sedimentary “rock.” The complete structure was a good three stories high and gave no indication of how far the dwelling continued belowground. As the vehicle touched ground Flinx hopped off behind his escort, his simsuit’s simulated leg muscles handling the shock of the short jump in faithful imitation of an adult AAnn.

Unlike at the AVM residence of Kiijeem’s family, here there was no fence. No visible fence, anyway. Pausing atop what looked like a vacant patch of desert soil, Kiijeem waited for the sensors beneath his feet to respond to his presence. While not expecting the kind of sophisticated internal scanning devices that might be present at an official checkpoint, Flinx nonetheless took care to stand just to the right of the dedicated clearing.

“We are being made known,” Kiijeem informed him helpfully. “I will sspeak to my friendss. When lasst I contacted them they were home alone, engrossed in their daily sstudiess.”

“Will they make time for us?” Flinx continued to marvel at the beauty and perfection of the multiple layers of artificial stone.

Kiijeem made a gesture of second-degree assurance. “They are among my oldesst group-companionss. I have told them to expect mysself and a friend.” His tail slapped reflexively at the ground. “I think I am going to enjoy thiss.”

Why wouldn’t you? Flinx mused. It’s not your skin at stake if they lose control, panic, and decide to turn me in.

Popping out of a camouflaged burrow, a diminutive automaton in the shape of a local jarlt approached them, stood up on its hind legs, and trilled musically before disappearing back into its hole.

“We are announced.” Kiijeem started toward the high, slightly overhung sandstone wall in which windows that had been treated to match the color of their surroundings were clearly visible. “Dwelling ssecurity hass been muted accordingly. Pleasse accompany me. And remain at my sside. For an adult to trail behind ssomeone of my age would look ssusspiciouss. My friendss are ssuppossed to be alone, the adultss in ressidence away at work—but we sshould sstill take care.”

“Don’t worry.” Flinx lengthened his stride until he was walking parallel to his guide. “I’ve spent my whole life taking care.”

The hall they entered bespoke the wealth of the residence’s extended family. Two stories high, opposing walls of simulated sandstone flaunted patterns composed of embedded synthetic gems. Water flowed down one wall; a singing, soulful reminder of a time when such scarce fluid meant life itself to the primitive ancestors of the modern AAnn.

“Try it,” Kiijeem urged him, seeing his visitor staring at the cascade.

Flinx did not hesitate. Nothing in the emotions emanating from the young nye suggested treachery. Utilizing his simsuit’s mouth and servo-driven tongue, he sipped at the edge of the artificial cataract. Mildly acidic, the cool flow agitated his taste buds with overtones of meat and mango. The liquid that formed the decorative waterfall came flavored.

Sunshine poured in from overhead via a lengthy polarized skylight. In the absence of freestanding furniture, here and there the fake sandstone had been warped to form places to sit or to crouch in comfort. A shallow sand pit provided ample room for relaxing or fighting.

His attention was drawn away from the decor by movement near the rear of the entry hall. Not one but two young nye were bounding toward them. Healthy, active, and well attired, they appeared to be of about the same age as Kiijeem, though both were slightly larger. The female wore a selection of metal bands around her tail that extended from its base to its end. Neither was as big as the simsuited Flinx.

“Your friend iss tall,” declared the male as he halted before them. As he spoke, his sister was exchanging the traditional throat grab with Kiijeem. “A sshame he musst wear the ijkk.”

So used had he become to the head covering that Flinx had forgotten its presence—and its meaning. Without waiting for approval from Kiijeem, he doffed it and shoved the crumpled fabric into his waist pouch. His new hosts regarded him with interest.

“Where are you from?” the female asked as the male exchanged greetings with Flinx’s escort. “Kiijeem ssayss you are from offworld. Truly, I do not recognize your pouch dessign and the remainder of your apparel iss nondesscript.” For an AAnn her voice was unusually liquid, Flinx decided. No doubt an occasion for sympathy among the more normal raspy-voiced members of her social group.

“I will reveal all truths in good time,” Flinx informed her.

The two youths exchanged gestures and a glance. “You certainly sspeak like an offworlder,” the male acknowledged. “But I forget my mannerss. I am Eiipul IXb and this is my ssisster, Eiipul IXc.” He gestured pridefully but without condescension. “We are the sscionss of Lord Eiipul IX.”

Eiipul. It was a name Flinx thought he recognized from his manifold studies. Something to do with the history of Amalgamation times, though he could not place the precise reference. The partial recollection only served to further confirm Kiijeem’s assurance that his friends did indeed have access to the kind of clout Flinx would need to ensure his safe departure from Blasusarr.

“I am Flinx,” he replied simply.

The female gestured confusion. “No family name?” She eyed her brother uncertainly.

“Perhapss all the resst of hiss entire family iss dead,” Eiipul IXb opined clumsily. “Or possibly the name hass been withdrawn, or iss being reconssidered.” He looked up at Flinx. “Doess your name lacking have anything to do with your wearing of the ijkk?”

“Inssenssitive, inssenssitive,” Kiijeem chided his friend. “But you will undersstand ssoon. Have I not promissed you the ssurprisse of all ssurprissess?”

“Truly yess,” responded the female eagerly. “It musst be a great ssecret for you to assk that it not be revealed to a parent.” Turning, she gestured simultaneously with hand and tail. “Come to the commonss and tell all—I cannot wait!”

The commons was the central room of the extended dwelling; a large circular chamber from which hallways radiated outward to other parts of the residential compound like spokes from a wheel. Like the entryway it was also an impressive two stories high, capped by a dome of spun multihued quartz that added another half story to the overall height. The enclosing curving walls were fashioned of synthesized copper minerals, mostly turquoise and azurite flecked with splotches of less-familiar cupric ores. The lighting was appropriately subdued, while the fine-grained pink sand that filled the central depression had been imported from a famous quarry in the center of the southern continent. Ten percent of the carefully coiffured sand was composed of natural colored carbon crystals, Kiijeem informed him. Truly, Flinx realized, the extended family of Lord Eiipul IX was a wealthy one indeed.

Settling themselves into comfortable crouches on the sand at an equitable distance from their guests, the two youngsters let their forearms dangle down between their bent front legs and regarded their guests expectantly. Taking care to remain well out of informal striking range, Kiijeem explained their purpose in coming and the need for continuing secrecy.

“My friend Flinx hass been hiding with me for a number of dayss now, but my family ressidence iss not conducive to maintain hiss anonymity among uss. He requiress a place where none will ssearch for him, and alsso requiress assisstance in departing Krrassin unobsserved.”

“How sstimulating!” Eiipul IXc made a gesture indicative of second-degree excitement as she contemplated the tall visitor in this new light. “You are a criminal.”

“Not exactly,” Flinx replied honestly.

Her brother tilted his head slightly to one side as he considered Kiijeem’s companion. “Then why the need for all thiss continuing ssecrecy? Why musst you leave Blasussarr unobsserved?”

Flinx turned to Kiijeem, not wanting to do anything that might upset his young friend. Kiijeem gestured third-degree indifference coupled with overtones suggesting he would not be responsible for whatever happened from now on. Deciding there was nothing to be gained from postponing the unavoidable, Flinx reached up and began fingering the hidden seals of his simsuit. When he was finished he reached up and pushed under his protruding reptilian chin.

It was a good thing there was no one else in the residence. Both young Eiipuls began to shriek like steam engines as their well-mannered visitor’s head started to come off.