Outcast by Alex Douglas Page B

everyone else's up in the process. "Telepaths, the Aldorians. Pretty interesting race, actually. Did you know, for instance, that the males..." He looked around and even though no one was listening, he dropped his voice down low. "The males have no penis ."
    "Oh my God!" Kris exclaimed. "How do they fuck?"
    Vaxel shrugged. "Didn't get that far. But the article did say that they're usually seen in pairs. I wonder why Lan's on his own."
    "If he's got no cock, then..." Kris said and laughed.
    Prez felt a prickle of annoyance. "We should be the last to laugh at other races' physical differences."
    "For God's sake, Prez," Glitch said, chuckling. "Stop being so red-brained. We're just having a laugh."
    " Mukkesh !" Vaxel cried and downed the last of his drink.
    There was soon another jug, but then their meals arrived and that put an end to all speculation about the existence -- or not -- of Lan's penis. Prez shoveled the food into his mouth, thinking about what it would be like to live without one. The meat was melt-in-the-mouth soft and the sauce spicy and nutty and he sighed with contentment. Then the fashion show cut off with a red warning flashing on the screen, and a switch to the newscaster. He set down his cutlery as a recording began to play, a dim gray landscape that could only be one place. "Look, it's Akilia." He squinted at the screen, and then his eyes widened with shock. The breaking news banner across the bottom of the screen was flashing the same headline, repeated over and over again.
    Breaking News -- Unrest in Ku-tah Compounds -- many dead.
    A hot feeling spread in his chest as he sat open-mouthed, watching the grainy footage -- which looked as if it was filmed on the run -- of smoke rising from the buildings, broken trees, scorched grass and the white smoke of the Akilian army's chemical anti-riot gas. People screaming and running around in panic, diving behind boulders, writhing in agony on the hard dirt roads. Children hiding in hastily-dug trenches, clutching each other and crying.
    But...the gates were barricaded from the inside . Then the camera flashed at the ground, at the feet of whoever was recording, and jostled for a second before focusing on a group of ku-tah with shoulder launchers, bracing themselves and firing over the fence. With no sound, it seemed unreal.
    "What are they doing?" Kris whispered. "And where did they get the weapons?"
    The camera flashed to a group of women carrying a torn sheet, on which words were painted in the language of the compounds -- and Akilian -- No to forced removal! They waved the sheet and shook their fists, chanting and shouting while people all around joined in and surged forward toward the gate. It was a second before Prez was able to recognize the words from their lip movements, and what he saw he could barely believe. They were shouting over and over again, " We are Akilian! We will not leave our homes! Akilia is our home! "
    The film ended with a black screen, and then started over again as if it was on a loop. They watched again, frozen, disbelieving. Prez felt sick and reached for a drink, barely tasting it. It was the first time he'd seen a compound for years, and he was shocked to the core. They had changed a lot since he was young. The buildings looked more solid, almost pretty with their different colored bricks arranged in mosaic patterns, the shine of polished windows. The people looked healthy and well-fed. Not so many sick, tortured or mutated, as there had been in the beginning. Beyond the smoke of the bombs and the gunfire, there was evidence of tended gardens and crops, even pet animals.
    He felt a sudden sense of detachment as if the universe had shifted and cast him out of his place in it. Who were these people on the screen calling themselves Akilians ? He stood up, swaying slightly.
    "I'm out of here," he said and gulped the last of the mukkesh . For a brief, painful moment, he longed for Flack. Only Flack knew what it had really been like, and