Flinx Transcendent (11 page)

Not entirely alone, he reminded himself as an attentive Pip pushed up against him. And not entirely hostile, either. Overhead, something native that sported a long tail and membranous wings passed between him and a waning moon. Young Kiijeem was not hostile. Aggressively curious, perhaps, but not hostile. Still, he was a nye, he was AAnn, and the youth of any sentient species could be fickle in its own idiosyncratic way. What if one afternoon his host decided that he had learned as much as he could from his secretive human visitor? What if fear of discovery
made him decide to turn Flinx over to the authorities? Would he not gain considerable status from doing so? How far, and for how long, could Flinx continue to trust him?

Among his own species there were those comparable in age to Kiijeem who would happily turn him in for monetary reward. Flinx had recently met several examples of them on Visaria. Could he reasonably expect the youthful representative of an entirely different species, an antagonistic one at that, to exhibit a greater degree of altruism?

There was no avoiding the reality: his present situation was terribly fragile. So be it: he would have to find a way to strengthen it. If the one young nye with whom he had established a relationship was tentative, then he must somehow find a way to engage with others made of sterner stuff. But how to make contact with other AAnn, preferably adults, who would not reflexively turn him over to Krrassin Security? How could he tell whom to trust? Even assuming that his Talent remained functional, reading their emotions could only reveal how a sentient was feeling at a particular moment. He had no way of predicting how a prospective friend might feel about him the next day, or even the next hour.

He had filled the eager Kiijeem with knowledge, and the young nye had appeared to thrive on the flow of information. Dare he entrust similar knowledge and his true identity to some adult? The
Teacher
could not help him now. He needed local allies. AAnn with access to greater resources than Kiijeem could command. To acquire such while simultaneously avoiding incarceration and accompanying unpleasant interrogation presented him with by far the most difficult undertaking he had contemplated since setting down on Blasusarr.

Among the several constants that transcended species there was one he knew from his study of and time spent among the AAnn that he could count on. Power invariably attracts additional power. To acquire the kind of freedom of movement he sought, he needed clout of a kind the admirably candid Kiijeem self-admittedly could not muster.

Perhaps, Flinx told himself, his young friend knew someone who could.

It had rained earlier in the evening. For an industrialized capital city the air of Krrassin was unusually clean. No doubt extra effort was made to
ensure that the atmosphere of the Imperial capital reflected its importance. Even so, a certain amount of pollution was unavoidable. The rain had cleared that away, so that the alien atmosphere smelled fresh and clean.

Sucking down positive ions, Flinx felt physically buoyant but mentally hesitant. The food Kiijeem had smuggled out that afternoon for his guest's late-night meal was not only edible but delicious, further adding to Flinx's sense of well-being. As carnivorous at heart as the AAnn, Pip had gorged herself on one particular sausage-like victual. Now her usually aerodynamic shape flaunted an unmistakable bulge in the region of her lower-middle, just behind her last wing-rib.

The attentive Kiijeem had settled into his customary listening crouch nearby. He always chose the same spot between Flinx and the distant residence so that if anyone approached unexpectedly from the buildings the young AAnn would block their view of the softskin.

“Tell me ssomething exciting tonight, Flinx-friend. Enlighten me with ssomething new.”

Kiijeem made virtually the same request every evening, and Flinx had been happy to respond accordingly. He would do so again on this night—though on this occasion to a degree his youthful host could not possibly imagine. But first…

“I have to ask you a question, Kiijeem AVMd.” At Flinx's uncommon use of the AAnn's full family name, Kiijeem tensed slightly. Ceasing its usual flicking back and forth, his tail stiffened into a balancing rod held straight out behind him. Both nictating membranes retracted, allowing the single moon overhead to shine more brightly than ever in his reptilian eyes.

“Ssomething iss wrong?” The young AAnn's tone reflected his uncertainty.

“The question first.” Flinx exhaled slowly as he stared hard at the scaly biped. “Have you given any thought to terminating our contact and turning me over to the authorities in expectation of the status it would gain you?”

Kiijeem paused. His four-fingered right hand swayed slowly back and forth, a clear indication of distress. Confused, he could not decide on the proper gesture to employ to express his feelings. He did not need to. Flinx perceived them as clearly as if the youth was writing them
down. Taken by surprise and feeling cornered by Flinx's unexpected question, the youngster was struggling to formulate a suitable reply. Finally he looked over at the silent, waiting human.

“Of coursse I have. But I have, demonsstrably, not acted on it.”

An honest answer. It was what Flinx had hoped for. For Kiijeem to have declared that he had never experienced such thoughts would have been for him to deny his very self. The assertion of one lie would have led Flinx to suspect the existence of others. If not completely reassured, he felt that he could at least proceed with a certain degree of confidence that he was hearing the truth. He continued the penetrating line of questioning.

“Have you thought of killing me?”

“Truly.” Kiijeem's tone remained muted, but his emotions were boiling. “How could I not wonder what you would tasste like?”

“I am told by other AAnn with whom I've spoken that the flavor lies somewhere between fresh
ilathk
and salted
cuurconn.”

Finally gaining control of his troubled fingers, Kiijeem hastened to gesture second-degree bewilderment accentuated by third-degree curiosity. “I do not undersstand why you purssue thiss jarring line of quesstioning.”

“I need to be sure of your mind-set regarding me before I tell you what I have to say next.” Glancing out of the corner of his left eye he saw that the seriously overfed Pip was in no condition to come to his aid if the conversation should take an unpleasant turn. He had already lost the support of the
Teacher
for the time being. Now it appeared that the same was true of his childhood companion as well. However proceedings developed, he was going to have to deal with them on his own.

Well, it wouldn't be the first time.

“I'm going to have to remain here on Blasusarr and in Krrassin for longer than I anticipated.”

Kiijeem relaxed visibly. Sinking lower into his crouch, his tail resumed its normal healthy side-to-side switching. “I feared you were going to ssay that you had to depart. I cannot tell you how deeply I have come to value thesse nocturnal exchangess. I feel that I learn more in a night here than in a teverravak'ss worth of formal daytime sstudiess.”

Flinx was flattered, but that did not alter what he had to tell his enthusiastic and impressionable young host. “I'm glad I've been able to
further your education.” With a start he realized, not for the first time, the uncannily perceptive rationale that lay behind the name the Ulru-Ujurrians had given to the ship they had constructed for him.

“But I don't feel that I can stay in this spot much longer. I was almost discovered yesterday.”

“Yess, you sspoke to me of the near encounter.” With hand and tail Kiijeem gestured back through the night in the direction of the residence. “The incident wass atypical. Thiss iss not a favored part of the family compound for freeloping. It liess too far from the main buildingss.”

“Nevertheless,” Flinx went on, “I feel that I have to move. As I said and for reasons you don't need to know, I can't leave Blasusarr yet. Maybe not for a number of days. It's looking more and more like I might have more trouble than I originally anticipated in departing without being detected.” Rising from where he had been sitting, he walked over to his host and squatted before him. This lowered him to eye level with the crouching youth.

“You've been a good friend, Kiijeem. Twice-truly. But if I'm going to be certain of leaving your world without being captured or shot down in the attempt, I feel—I fear—that I'm going to need the assistance of someone with more status than yourself.”

The young AAnn digested the softskin's words. A comparable, characteristically brash human youth might have taken offense at the implication underlying Flinx's words. An analytical young thranx would have readily agreed with the conclusion. A Largessian would not have cared one way or the other. Flinx was taking a risk describing his situation so candidly to his host. But if Kiijeem had not revealed the human's presence to the authorities by now, there was a good chance he would continue to keep it a secret despite his guest's just-confessed vulnerability.

Flinx ardently hoped he was reading the young nye's emotions correctly.

He was, but Kiijeem was not so ready to agree to the roundabout request that he give up exclusive access to his remarkable visitor.

“You have been forthright with me, Flinx-friend. Sso you will not take exception or raisse a challenge if I am likewisse with you.”

Flinx sat back, stretching out his legs as he relaxed from the squat. “Go ahead. It's to be expected you'd have questions.”

No less bold and direct for their youth, slitted pupils eyed him piercingly. “If you are going to leave, why sshould I not reveal your exisstence to the authoritiess and garner the sstatuss to be gained from ssuch a revelation?”

At this Pip raised her head and upper body to stare at the suddenly cool AAnn. At the moment, given her heavy burden of undigested food, it was all that she could do.

“I have become your friend.” Flinx stared unblinkingly back. “You have said so on more than one occasion.”

“There iss an old ssaying among my kind that you may know. ‘Where sstatuss sstandss tall, friendsship fallss.’”

Flinx tensed. He still felt that, if necessary, he could kill this intelligent young predator with his bare hands. “Do you adhere to that saying?”

“Truly I do,” Kiijeem replied candidly, “except—in thiss particular insstance. You are my friend. I have declared it to be sso. I will help you—but I would like to know
why
I sshould do sso. I need to know thiss not for mysself. Friendsship iss reasson enough to jusstify it on my part. But if I am to help you in ssecuring the assisstance of one greater than mysself, before doing sso that individual will demand a rationale ssuperior to jusst knowing that you are my friend.”

Though he was less than pleased with the AAnn's rejoinder, Flinx certainly understood it. He responded with a first-degree gesture of comprehension. “I appreciate the need you express, and I will provide such a rationale—to whomever you place me in contact with.”

Kiijeem persisted. “I would sshare it.”

His guest looked away. “With the best will in the world, Kiijeem, I say that such knowledge as I would share should not be for you.”

The AAnn's tail tip arced straight up behind his back. “You think me lacking the capacity to comprehend?”

Unexpectedly, Flinx found himself torn. Why should he care whether he spared his youthful host the revelation he intended to reserve for an older, wiser AAnn mind? Ideally a Class-A mind—except that he knew of only one such intellect. Himself. Was it just that he believed from experience that a more mature nye would be better able to deal with the revelations? No, there was no reason to spare the vulnerable, unworldly Kiijeem from the kernel of furtive knowledge that was
so much a part of Flinx. No reason whatsoever—except that he was a friend and Flinx did not want to risk damaging him.

“It's not a matter of comprehension,” he tried to explain. “It's a question of—maturity isn't the right term. All I can tell you is that in order to wholly persuade one of your kind with sufficiently high status to maintain my anonymity while helping me, they have to
experience
what I know.”

The explanation caught Kiijeem off guard. “How can they do that?”

“The experiencing is part of the explanation.” Uncomfortable at what he found himself confessing, Flinx found himself shifting his position edgily on the warm rock.

“I inssisst on knowing thiss rationale for mysself,” a frustrated Kiijeem persisted. “I
demand
to know it!” Straightening out of his crouch, he raised both clawed hands defensively in front of him and took a step backward. “Tell me or otherwisse I will divulge your pressence here.”

Flinx sighed heavily. Over the course of the past several years it was debatable whether he had become a greater danger to his enemies or to his friends.

“Let's do this,” he ventured hopefully. “I'll tell you the facts behind the rationale. If you still insist on the actual experience then—we'll see.”

He was offering a compromise. Recognizing it, Kiijeem considered before replying. His tail tip relaxed and slumped groundward. “I am alwayss willing to lissten to the prologue that precedess the play.”

“Good.” In the hope that words alone would be enough to convince his youthful host, Flinx settled down to explain the looming peril that had become the driving force behind not only his life but that of his closest acquaintances. He knew all too well what sharing the full experience could do to a delicate mind. If Clarity Held had been with him, he suspected she could have explained the quandary far more effectively to the uncompromisingly curious young AAnn, and in such a way that he might drop his insistence on sharing it as hurriedly as he would a drop of Pip's poison. Because for better or worse, to both her enlightenment and detriment, Clarity had been obliged to share that experience.

Flinx settled himself a little closer to his alert, bright-eyed young host.

“You may very well not believe much of what I'm about to tell you….”