Keshona Far Freedom Part 1

jump where there is more separation from the other discs and the walkways don't block us."

  Fidelity didn't understand the logic of the details but she understood the need to escape. The encounter with the soldiers, as unprofessional as they were, was still an attack on their authority and they would unfairly demand punishment.

  Percival leaned forward and bent his legs as if to jump outward. He watched as the others attempted to copy him. "This isn't going to be very... graceful," he said, "but it isn't as dangerous as it looks."

  "I don't want to do this!" Samson complained, clutching at Fidelity's arm.

  "Neither do I," Daidaunkh grumbled in Standard.

  They slowly pivoted at the edge of the disc until the meniscus of the artificial gravity faded away under their feet.

  "That way," Percival said, pointing. "Not too fast." He pushed away, the cord pulling Daidaunkh after him.

  Rafael took Samson's hand and pushed off, keeping the tether from going too taut. Fidelity followed, holding Samson's other hand.

  "Don't hold your breath," Fidelity told Samson. "Breathe. Look at me or close your eyes. We won't let you be hurt."

  "There is a wind that goes around the mall," Percival said as they floated away. "We should be carried toward the southeast."

  "Which way is that?" Rafael asked.

  "You call that place a mall?" Fidelity asked.

  "The mall," Percival answered. "There are other malls but none as big. You guys did very well, coming off the disc. Perhaps you have freefall experience."

  "Where are we going, besides south?" Fidelity asked.

  "Into the forest," Percival replied.

  "What forest?" Rafael asked.

  "I want to go back to the walkway where you don't have to walk!" Samson demanded.

  "Why does he speak Twenglish so well?" Percival asked. "Even we don't speak it that well. I always have trouble with the Twentieth Century plays."

  They floated far across an open expanse then through a group of large spheres resembling planets or moons. The surface features were so realistically crafted that it was easy to slip into the perspective of becoming giant observers from space. At a certain distance the air around the collection of planet models darkened and an unseen source of light cast the planet models into an even more realistic visual effect.

  "I didn't know this Planet Show still worked!" Percival remarked.

  "Do these represent real planets?" Fidelity asked.

  "No one knows," Percival answered. "We suspect they do. If you get very close you can see cities and transportation systems on some of the planets. "

  "You imply there are other such displays?" Fidelity queried.

  "Yes. I don't know how many."

  "What is the size of the Big Ball?" she asked. "What is the population?"

  "If you stand still on the fastest lane of a highway you can cross the diameter of the Big Ball in about six hours. Walking cuts that in half. Running is a bit dangerous. I don't know if there has ever been a census."

  "You were born here?" Fidelity asked.

  "We all were."

  "And your ancestors came from Earth, from North America, probably several hundred years ago. Through a gate. You have no recorded history?"

  "We are ignorant savages," Percival replied. "As you must already know."

  "And you must receive information or data or entertainment from Union space," she said. "I can hear the mutation in your Twenglish caused by Standard. Everyone is bilingual here."

  "I suppose we are. Yes, entertainment from the Union is helpful to us, or things would be even worse."

  "Is life so bad here?" she asked.

  "What do you think?" Percival asked.

  Fidelity could only infer the worst from Percival's response. She decided not to ask certain kinds of questions. "Do you have a particular destination for us?"

  "Not at all. Just away from the mall, fly as far as we can, until the air currents take us to where we can land, and then fly in some other direction. We need to get lost for a while."

  = = =

  The shining concourse of paired walkways flowed past as they drifted through a gap between green island pastures, carried by the gentle flow of a river of air. A vast building of curved flanks and a bowl-shaped depression on one side loomed in their path. Percival guided them away from hitting the building by throwing an object from his bag into the bowl of the building. The mass of his body shifted away, pulled the cord holding them together, and the small adjustment to their course let them narrowly miss the building. The great bowl slid past, yawning before them, echoing Samson's questions in the vast stillness. With a hundred parallel tiers arrayed in a rectangular oval and a flat field at its center, it was a stadium. The debris from the crowd of some long-past sports event still clung to its seats and aisles, held in place by its artificial gravity. Multiple ribbons of thick walkways connected the structure to a nearby concourse.

  They soon flew into a swarm of small tree-islands, pushing and kicking against leafy branches until forced to land on a facet of a transparent structure deep in the floating forest. The glass house appeared long-deserted, the purpose of its vast and complex interior obscured by grime on the windows. Many of the nearby trees were dead, apparently starved for moisture.

  "I hope you know where we are," Fidelity said to Percival, "if that is a necessary thing to know."

  "I don't know that it is," Percival replied. "I've failed to get food for you, unless you would like to try the fruit on some of these trees. They say none of it is poisonous." Then he seemed to get an idea. "We could look for a hospital. The Rhyan needs care."

  "Do you have any good hospitals?" Fidelity asked doubtfully.

  "Not like the Union has," he said, "but the doctors and nurses are good people and try their best. I needed their help once and they fixed me."

  "What happened to you?" she asked.

  "A gang beat me up, and broke my fingers with a hammer."

  "Ouch!" Rafael said in sympathy.

  "But I had to spend a year working at the hospital to pay for their services," Percival added.

  Thousands of questions swirled in Fidelity's mind concerning Percival's world but she had restrained herself from unleashing their bombardment upon him. Samson's curiosity and questions about the place had been enough to keep Percival supplying interesting answers about the Big Ball.

  "Can you take us to a hospital?" she asked.

  "Let's jump over that way and look for a highway with a green section in it," Percival said.

  "What is it?" Rafael asked.

  "Hospitals are fed by green sections of a highway. I don't think there is a hospital close to us, so we need to find a green section."

  "I see something green on a highway," Fidelity said. She pointed.

  "Through more trees," Rafael said unhappily. "It is a strange forest."

  "I need to ask an obvious question," Fidelity said. "The young men in black uniforms, the organization they belong to, why do they endanger us?"

  "That are the Fleet. They maintain order in the Big Ball," There was an apprehension coloring his voice and changing his facial expression that spoke to Fidelity better than his words. He could have been talking about the Union Navy. "Junior officers do most of the police work and they're brutal. They don't tolerate anyone questioning or refusing their authority. I think you humiliated those men and there is nothing to stop them from killing you if they want to. And I'm sure they want to. In fact, if senior officers hear what happened, they will also need to take action."

  "What kind of action?" Fidelity asked.

  "I'm not sure. People disappear, even including junior officers. Such encounters happen all the time. I'm afraid Fleet senior officers will be very interested in you. I just don't know how soon it will happen."

  They jumped away from the glass building and into a slight breeze.

  "We overcompensated for the headwind," Fidelity warned, watching numbers in her ocular terminals describe velocity with respect to an
island of sand and rock they sailed directly toward.

  "It has a wind-shadow," Percival said. "Start throwing things from your bags." He threw a beverage container from his own bag of items taken from the diner. Fidelity and Rafael followed Percival's example, trying to keep their bodies from spinning by shoving the objects from their stomachs. "We are going to hit," Percival warned needlessly.

  They hit the ground, using their limbs to lessen the impact. Daidaunkh had only one arm and one leg to extend but he managed to keep from shouting at his pain. They missed the rocks, and the sand helped lessen the shock of impact. They untangled the cord that connected them and sat in the sand side by side, recovering for a few moments. Fidelity checked Samson and the others, not for injuries but for their states of mind. Samson clung to her a little tightly but still seemed intent on staring at the fascinating world of the Big Ball. Rafael, although tired, also still seemed interested in the adventure. Daidaunkh appeared resigned to his pain and to the strange surroundings. Percival was clearly upset and reluctant to resume his leadership.

  "Collect our reaction mass," Fidelity ordered, standing up and helping Samson and Rafael get up. They retrieved what items they could find, adding some of the local rocks to their bags.

  "Is that beer?" Daidaunkh asked Rafael who was putting a clear bottle into his bag.

  "Looks like it," Rafael replied, offering it to the Rhyan.

  "Never thought I would refuse a beer," Daidaunkh said, waving it off.

  "Less push this time," Fidelity suggested, pointing to the green of the highway in the distance, glimpsed between more islands of trees, rocks, and sand.

  They struggled