red button next to the pad, and the main gate opened a few feet, trailing what looked like a length of toilet paper in the breeze.
“ Here ’ s a temporary pass, ” he said, holding the ticket out along with my ID. “ Go to the center, drop it off, then come right back. ”
“ Thanks. ”
He blocked me with one arm when I tried to pass. “ Backpack stays here. ”
“ But I — ”
“ No buts. ”
I didn ’ t want to leave it with them, but I didn ’ t have much of a choice, it looked like. I dropped it just inside the guard station doorway, and he lowered his arm.
“ Thank Dragan next time you see him. You got thirty minutes, but leave time to get home before curfew. ”
“ What happens after thirty minutes? ”
“ Then your temporary pass expires, ” Sun said. “ You ’ re officially in violation of border security. ”
“ Then what? ”
“ They eat you, I think. ”
I snatched the ID and ticket back and slipped through before they changed their minds. The two chuckled, and one of the protesters yelled something unintelligible after me in a hoarse voice.
Racist assholes.
The gate clanged shut, leaving me alone inside.
~ * ~
Chapter Three
29:07:22 BC
I ’ d seen three of the settlements from the outside, small chunks of the city given to the haan when they began to outgrow the ship, but I ’ d never actually been inside any of them. The other ten were outside Tùzi-wō , but Shangzho, while not the first, had over time become the largest and the most well known in Hangfei.
People come here all the time, I told myself. It ’ s no big deal.
They came during the day, though. As I made my way across the empty, stone-paved plaza, the whole place looked and felt abandoned. Part of it was the darkness— haan almost never used visible light, so the only real light to see by came from whatever bled over from the surrounding city, the moon, and the pale glow of Fangwenzhe. Shangzho sat like a dark hole in a sparkling sea, but at ground level it was downright eerie.
Up ahead I could make out the ornate entryway of what used to be a school, with a deserted playground carved out in front of it where the occasional scalefly flitted from shadow to shadow. A lopsided carousel and a rusting swing set cast shadows across the stones, and when I looked closer I could make out the names of children etched on their surfaces. A tourist sign hung from a metal arch in front of the whole thing, where calligraphy characters spelled out Peace Bricks.
It marked the spot where, back before I was even born, the first haan to die on Earth lost his life. Five construction workers beat him with lengths of rebar while he ’ d clung to those carousel bars, and onlookers cheered. They shattered his bones like glass until his corpse disappeared, gated back to the ship. He never even lifted a finger to fight back. Maybe he couldn ’ t. He might have been unconscious after the first couple of blows. At least, I hoped he had been.
The names on the peace bricks, put there by the schoolkids who had sat by helplessly, were old and worn now. My footsteps echoed softly as I crossed over them, the only sound except for the street noises back on the other side of the wall. Particles of grit rose lazily from up from between the pavers here and there, floating up through the ambient l ight like rain in reverse as a graviton eddy coursed through.
“ Look, ” I whispered to Tānchi . “ Look where we are. ” His eyes were fully lit now, looking curiously into the darkness up ahead. I heard a low note twang overhead and looked up to see a little haan construct, its purpose unknown, creep along a taut power fine. Tānchi ’ s gaze followed it until it disappeared down an alleyway.
The buildings that loomed around the square were human built, but without any trace of smog stain or biocide residue anywhere. No trash
“ Here ’ s a temporary pass, ” he said, holding the ticket out along with my ID. “ Go to the center, drop it off, then come right back. ”
“ Thanks. ”
He blocked me with one arm when I tried to pass. “ Backpack stays here. ”
“ But I — ”
“ No buts. ”
I didn ’ t want to leave it with them, but I didn ’ t have much of a choice, it looked like. I dropped it just inside the guard station doorway, and he lowered his arm.
“ Thank Dragan next time you see him. You got thirty minutes, but leave time to get home before curfew. ”
“ What happens after thirty minutes? ”
“ Then your temporary pass expires, ” Sun said. “ You ’ re officially in violation of border security. ”
“ Then what? ”
“ They eat you, I think. ”
I snatched the ID and ticket back and slipped through before they changed their minds. The two chuckled, and one of the protesters yelled something unintelligible after me in a hoarse voice.
Racist assholes.
The gate clanged shut, leaving me alone inside.
~ * ~
Chapter Three
29:07:22 BC
I ’ d seen three of the settlements from the outside, small chunks of the city given to the haan when they began to outgrow the ship, but I ’ d never actually been inside any of them. The other ten were outside Tùzi-wō , but Shangzho, while not the first, had over time become the largest and the most well known in Hangfei.
People come here all the time, I told myself. It ’ s no big deal.
They came during the day, though. As I made my way across the empty, stone-paved plaza, the whole place looked and felt abandoned. Part of it was the darkness— haan almost never used visible light, so the only real light to see by came from whatever bled over from the surrounding city, the moon, and the pale glow of Fangwenzhe. Shangzho sat like a dark hole in a sparkling sea, but at ground level it was downright eerie.
Up ahead I could make out the ornate entryway of what used to be a school, with a deserted playground carved out in front of it where the occasional scalefly flitted from shadow to shadow. A lopsided carousel and a rusting swing set cast shadows across the stones, and when I looked closer I could make out the names of children etched on their surfaces. A tourist sign hung from a metal arch in front of the whole thing, where calligraphy characters spelled out Peace Bricks.
It marked the spot where, back before I was even born, the first haan to die on Earth lost his life. Five construction workers beat him with lengths of rebar while he ’ d clung to those carousel bars, and onlookers cheered. They shattered his bones like glass until his corpse disappeared, gated back to the ship. He never even lifted a finger to fight back. Maybe he couldn ’ t. He might have been unconscious after the first couple of blows. At least, I hoped he had been.
The names on the peace bricks, put there by the schoolkids who had sat by helplessly, were old and worn now. My footsteps echoed softly as I crossed over them, the only sound except for the street noises back on the other side of the wall. Particles of grit rose lazily from up from between the pavers here and there, floating up through the ambient l ight like rain in reverse as a graviton eddy coursed through.
“ Look, ” I whispered to Tānchi . “ Look where we are. ” His eyes were fully lit now, looking curiously into the darkness up ahead. I heard a low note twang overhead and looked up to see a little haan construct, its purpose unknown, creep along a taut power fine. Tānchi ’ s gaze followed it until it disappeared down an alleyway.
The buildings that loomed around the square were human built, but without any trace of smog stain or biocide residue anywhere. No trash
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