{"id":418,"date":"2024-05-14T19:15:48","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T23:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/?p=418"},"modified":"2025-01-28T23:51:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T04:51:15","slug":"identity-theft-chapter-29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/identity-theft-chapter-29\/","title":{"rendered":"The Changeling Game, Chapter 29"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\">\ntt {\nfont: .857em menlo, monaco, consolas, monospace;\nmargin: auto;\n}\nh2 {\ntext-align: center;\n}\nh2.chapterhead {\nmargin-bottom: 2em;\ntext-align: center;\n}\n  .nowrap {\n    text-indent: 0;\n    display: inline-block;\n}\n<\/style>\n<p><b>Title:<\/b> The Changeling Game <small>(Formerly <i>Identity Theft<\/i>)<\/small><br \/>\n<b>Author:<\/b> Ardath Rekha<br \/>\n<b>Chapter:<\/b> 29\/?<br \/>\n<b>Fandom:<\/b> TCOR AU<br \/>\n<b>Rating:<\/b> M<br \/>\n<b>Warnings:<\/b> Adult themes, controversial subject matter, harsh language<br \/>\n<b>Category:<\/b> Gen<br \/>\n<b>Pairing:<\/b> None<br \/>\n<b>Summary:<\/b> A dream dies; a nightmare rises.<br \/>\n<b>Disclaimer:<\/b> The characters and events of <i>Pitch Black,<\/i> <i>The Chronicles of Riddick,<\/i> and <i>The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury<\/i> are not mine, but belong to Universal Studios.  I just <i>wish<\/i> I were in charge of their fates.  No money is being made off of this.  I\u2019m writing strictly for love of the story.<br \/>\n<b>Feedback:<\/b> Absolutely, the more the better!  Shred me, whip me, beat me, make me feel grammatical! I post \u201crough,\u201d so I can always use the help. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n<input type='hidden' bg_collapse_expand='6a8e6eab42a3c7028212474' value='6a8e6eab42a3c7028212474'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-more-text-6a8e6eab42a3c7028212474' value='Long post is long. Click to read the story.'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-less-text-6a8e6eab42a3c7028212474' value='Hide the story again.'><button id='bg-showmore-action-6a8e6eab42a3c7028212474' class='bg-showmore-plg-button bg-green-button  '   style=\" color:#D9ECFB;\">Long post is long. Click to read the story.<\/button><div id='bg-showmore-hidden-6a8e6eab42a3c7028212474' ><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"chapterhead\">29.<br \/>\n<u>The Voices of the Void<\/u><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Sometime after the sky lightened, Kyra and Takama helped Jack climb the eight flights of steps up to their apartment and a frantic Sebby. The little crustacean scuttled straight up her jalabiya and onto her shoulder and refused to be set down for more than a minute.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIt is all just as Brahim described it yesterday,\u201d Takama marveled as she helped Jack lie down on her bed. \u201cHow extraordinary. And your little pet\u2026 such incredible things you two can do. Rest now, little <i>Tislilel<\/i>\u2026 although I think he should have named you <i>Tiraline<\/i> instead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHe called me Dihya,\u201d Kyra said, sitting down on the bed next to her. \u201cWho\u2019s that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cA great warrior queen,\u201d Takama said. Jack closed her eyes and rested her head against the pillow, feeling Sebby settling down against her throat. \u201cTiraline and Dihya\u2026 the Mermaid Queen and the Warrior Queen\u2026 fitting for two young women who saved so many lives. Rest now, both of you. I will come and check on you later and bring you some food. What would you like?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAnything I didn\u2019t cook,\u201d Kyra said beside her.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack, eyes closed, already drifting off, found herself wanting to ask for a peanut butter sandwich, but the words that came out were oddly askew from that.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cDon\u2019t wanna be a queen\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Takama laughed softly from far away. \u201cThat is fine, young <i>Tislilel<\/i>. A mermaid does not need to be a queen to raise a tsunami\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The idea of raising tsunamis followed her down into her dreams.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She was floating in darkness, rising and falling on unseen waves. Around her, the stars sparkled and burned as they followed their own tidal patterns. She was adrift among the stars themselves, watching them swirl past her in complex patterns as she swerved around them, free but tethered\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">There was something heavy on her back, something chaining her to it, but she couldn\u2019t see it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">And she was not alone.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Creature?<\/i> something unseen asked. <i>Being?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She tried to get her mouth to work, to call out <i>hello?<\/i> into the spangled darkness, but the part of her that suddenly felt like prey gone to ground wouldn\u2019t release her voice.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Something is here.<\/i> Was that her thought, or had the <i>thing<\/i> said it?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The stars slowed and stopped their tidal spin and for a moment she found herself in darkness.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Alone!<\/i> a not-voice sobbed. <i>Alone and trapped\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The show that she\u2019d tried to recall, while talking to Tomlin, flashed through her mind. Something about a woman in a mask\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Yes,<\/i> it said to her. <i>No. What is that thing?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She could feel something reaching for her from the darkness. Something touched her\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>You are not like us,<\/i> it said after a moment, and she could feel its disappointment\u2026 and hope.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">And, faintly, others like it, distant, near, reaching for her\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Is it one of <b>them?<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>No. Larval. Bright and shiny\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The stars faded into view once more, whirling and dancing again as she spun through them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>It rode upon <\/i>her<i> back, but now it has come beneath and <\/i>she<i> is lost\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Lost? When had she gotten lost? Out here in the stars?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">With horror, Jack realized that she was the <i>it<\/i> that the things were speaking of, not the <i>she<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>It has come beneath to us, come below to us, passed under to us\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Below\u2026 that resonated somehow.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Below\u2026 below\u2026 yes\u2026 beneath, below, under\u2026 we are under\u2026 take us to\u2026 take us\u2026 to the\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She was seeing something that could not be seen with human eyes. A shape that defied dimension, a pattern that murdered reason. Jack struggled to look away.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Too much, too much, poor larva, too much\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>It doesn\u2019t understand. Poor larva.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>We will teach it\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">A line appeared before her, shining in the vast dark.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>One.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It shifted, changing, becoming a glowing square, a flat plane.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Two.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Now the glowing square shifted again, evolving into a cube of light.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Three.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The next shape was almost impossible to comprehend.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Four.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The next was worse still.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Five.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>NO\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It wouldn\u2019t stop. The shape kept warping itself into something even more impossible and terrifying.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Six\u2026  Seven\u2026  Eight\u2026 Nine\u2026 Ten\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Stop, please, stop\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Eleven\u2026 Twelve\u2026 Thirteen\u2026 Fourteen\u2026 Fifteen\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>No no no no no stopstopstopstopstop\u2014<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">A sharp pinch on her shoulder launched her up off of her pillow, gasping. Sebby tumbled into her lap.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack stared around the room wildly, panting. For a moment, the walls and floor and ceiling were almost incomprehensible to her: barren, flat planes that lacked\u2026 what\u2026?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>It\u2019s wrong it\u2019s wrong he said there were only ten\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She shuddered, hard. Sebby crawled up her chest and touched her chin with his antennae, gentle and feathery, as though checking to see if she was ill. Had he pinched her awake? She thought he had.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Next to her on the bed, Kyra groaned, frowning in her sleep.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Of all the things she\u2019d expected to dream about, she hadn\u2019t expected\u2026 what, exactly? All she could remember now was a tide of stars and a masked woman\u2026 and a word\u2026?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>\u2026octachoron\u2026?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Lying back down, she cuddled Sebby to her as she settled against the pillow. He\u2019d woken her from a nightmare; that much she knew. She didn\u2019t know how he was so perceptive, but she was grateful that he was.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>They<\/i> were waiting when she drifted off again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>We frightened you. We are sorry.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWho are you?\u201d she asked, trying to anchor herself in as much ordinary, prosaic reality as she could. She couldn\u2019t see them, but she tried to show them herself. Tall, gangly, short hair verging between brown and blonde, all eyes and elbows and knees as Rachel liked to say\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>It is one of <b>them!<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>No. Similar three-shape. Different five-shape.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWho are you?\u201d she asked again, trying to see them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The impossible thing, the shape that wasn\u2019t a shape, the shape that her mind tried to flee from, was back.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>It is wondering. Wondering about us.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>We are below\u2026 beneath\u2026 under\u2026 under\u2026 alone\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Find us. We will show you\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>\u2026help us\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i><b>DIE.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It was a new \u201cvoice,\u201d different from the others. Where she had sensed curiosity, loneliness, and strange desperation until then, she suddenly sensed terrible, implacable hatred.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i><b>Death to the things that killed us\u2026 death to the makers of the cages\u2026 death to the \u2019verse that trapped us\u2026 a trillion deaths for every one you took from us\u2026<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>No. Leave. It is a larva.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i><b>It is filth.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Innocent!<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i><b>Filth. It has no right to come under. Not innocent. Filth.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Flee, larva. Flee. We cannot protect you.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack couldn\u2019t move. She was rooted in place, locked in horror.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i><b>We come. We come to take it all back. All the worlds your filth has stolen will burn\u2026<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Something tiny and yet enormous took hold of her and the stars spun. She had the sense that another thing, monstrous and cold, had been reaching for her\u2026 but now it was gone.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>We are sorry, little larva. Forgive us\u2026 help us\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWho are you?\u201d she whispered into the dark.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>You see\u2026 you know\u2026<\/i> For a moment it almost came back to her, shards of memory with no meaning attached, glowing towers rising into a black sky, a woman in a mask, a hand slapping down on a button\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Come for us,<\/i> the not-voices whispered. <i>Save us. Take us\u2026 to\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>\u2026the Threshold\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The stars whirled around her again and for a moment, she caught another glimpse of the impossible shape, a chained and contained infinity, beautiful and terrible and mind-breaking\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She woke up gasping, pressing her hands over her mouth to suppress a scream. Kyra cried out in terror and sat up at the same moment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cFuck!\u201d Kyra shouted, looking around wildly. Sebby scooted off of the bed and zoomed under the dresser.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack realized that Kyra had pulled a knife from somewhere and was holding it out defensively.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWhat the fuck <i>was<\/i> that thing? Where did it go?\u201d Kyra gasped.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThe thing in the dark?\u201d Jack asked. \u201cThe thing that was huge and tiny at the same time?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra turned and looked at her, eyes widening. \u201cYou saw it too?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack nodded, swallowing. \u201cIt said something about a threshold\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra nodded back. The tension was leaving her body, slowly. \u201cHow did we have the same dream?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack shuddered. \u201cDid you\u2026 feel it when people crossed over from U1 to Elsewhere last night? And back?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra looked like she wanted to say no, like she wanted to deny it. \u201c\u2026yes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI think\u2026 I think something else felt <i>us.<\/i>\u201d It was an increasingly unsettling thought.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cFuck.\u201d Kyra set the knife down. \u201cWhatever it is, it ain\u2019t human. Not even a little.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cDid it call you a \u2018larva\u2019 too?\u201d Jack asked. She was struggling to hold onto the memory. Unlike the perfect recall she had of things she paid attention to while she was conscious, her dreams were rarely accessible to her for long. Sometimes, after Mr. Reilly had told her about the Many Worlds Theory, she\u2019d imagined that she visited other universes in her sleep, lived other lives, and that she couldn\u2019t remember much afterwards because the memories lived in the heads of other Audreys, scattered throughout the multiverse.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Maybe she hadn\u2019t been as far off as she\u2019d thought.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIt did. Most of them did. But there was one\u2026\u201d Now Kyra shuddered. \u201cIt hated me. It wanted me dead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cMe too. Called me \u2018filth.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cFilth\u2026 larva\u2026 way to make a girl feel insignificant. Shit.\u201d Kyra blew out a breath and flopped down on the mattress. \u201cIf that was some kind of fucked up First Contact, I really don\u2019t want to meet them out here in reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>But is this reality?<\/i> Jack found herself thinking. If the entities they\u2019d both dreamed about were real, was <i>this<\/i> the dream world?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She could feel a headache starting.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI am <i>not<\/i> gonna go back to sleep for a while,\u201d she said, lying on her back next to Kyra.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Fortunately, their rooms were flooded with light. Jack thought it might be nearing midday outside. There was very little noise coming in through the windows, which seemed to back that up. The heat was beating down, leavened by the sea breezes coming in through the windows, but Jack was glad of the warmth after the deathly cold of the <i>thing<\/i> from her dreams. Around New Marrakesh, people had probably already retired for the midday sleep period, while they were stuck wide awake and scared to close their eyes\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSo then maybe we should talk about what happened last night,\u201d Kyra said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWhich part? There\u2019s so much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">That got a soft laugh from Kyra. \u201cWell, I can tell you some of the things that happened while you were kinda out of it, if you want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYeah, that sounds good.\u201d It bothered Jack that she\u2019d collapsed so hard, while both Kyra and Tomlin had still needed her. \u201cSorry about that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWhat for? You did great. <i>Really<\/i> great. Crazy-great. But anyway, Tomlin and I did a little embellishing of your plan for the shuttles. He set them up so that they\u2019d fly textbook \u2018launch to the space station\u2019 paths out of New Marrakesh, and get halfway up into the sky before colliding with each other. Before they left, he and I did a quick isomorph to some alcove just outside of their jamming range, and he called Takama and gave her the transponder frequencies so she could track them. She says they crashed right into each other and exploded way out to sea, right about the time they reached this planet\u2019s stratosphere.\u201d Kyra grinned. \u201cThere\u2019s a marine rescue operation going on right now, but nobody\u2019s expecting to find much. And they\u2019re <i>never<\/i> gonna find the flight recorders, because those are sitting on the beach in Elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThat\u2019s\u2026 amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra snorted. \u201cWell, you said to crash the fuck out of them. Crashing them into each other seemed the best way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThank you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAre you <i>kidding?<\/i> Last night was one of the best times I\u2019ve ever <i>had.<\/i> I should be thanking <i>you.<\/i>\u201d Kyra\u2019s smile was broad and bright. \u201cI know what I want to do now, what I want to be. I don\u2019t know if you heard any of it, but\u2026 Tomlin\u2019s gonna introduce me to some of the officers he served with. People he trusts. I\u2019m gonna do it, Jack. I want to fight for people the way I did last night. He says there are some crack units that get sent on rescue missions, and if I can get into one of those\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her smile suddenly faltered. For a moment, the light in her eyes dimmed a little.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWill <i>you<\/i> be okay if I do that? I know you told him you have somewhere you need to go, but\u2026 <i>do<\/i> you? I mean, <i>really?<\/i> \u2019Cause I don\u2019t want to run out on you or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack felt as if her heart was both impossibly full and being squeezed really tightly. She\u2019d worried more than a little about what would happen to <i>Kyra<\/i> when it was time for her to continue her journey to her father, but now Kyra was having the same worries about her\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI will,\u201d she promised. \u201cI do have a place to go\u2026 I was on my way to my father when things started going wrong. That\u2019s where I\u2019m going. He doesn\u2019t know I\u2019m coming, but I know he\u2019ll still be on Furya when I get there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra looked both relieved and curious. \u201cWhat\u2019s Furya?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cA planet,\u201d Jack told her. \u201cKind of a weird one. There\u2019s like, no record of when it was terraformed or who went to settle it, but a hundred or so years ago, some people showed up at Federacy HQ saying they were from there and wanting to register the planet as a sovereign world. That was a first. There really wasn\u2019t much contact or trade or anything after that, either. But then, about twenty-five years ago, a ton of people <i>from<\/i> there started showing up all over the Federacy as refugees, saying their world had been attacked. So scouts went out and\u2026 well, my dad said someone had committed genocide there. But all the survivors would say was that the devil had come, so, you know, not very helpful. Their biosphere was seriously fucked up by whatever happened, too. So a bunch of worlds offered their old terraforming equipment that they no longer needed, to help the place get put back together. It\u2019s starting to work, but the equipment\u2019s so old that it needs a lot of tending and re-engineering. My dad decided he\u2019d go there and take charge of that. I guess he was stationed there back before I was born, so he already knows how to talk to the locals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Describing it to Kyra, she suddenly felt selfish for wanting her father to stay on Deckard\u2019s World with her. He was <i>helping<\/i> people. After last night, she understood so much better how strong the need to do that could be.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Maybe he\u2019d thought he was leaving her in the best possible place, with her mother and Alvin, much as Riddick had apparently thought that leaving her with Abu and Lajjun had been in her best interest. Her dad, she reflected, had probably been a lot more right about his choice than Riddick had been\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI love how you know all this stuff,\u201d Kyra said after a moment. \u201cThe schooling I got from the New Christy elders\u2026 it was all about people from thousands of years ago who talked directly to God and lived for hundreds of years and had a million rules about everything and kept cursing their own children, and none of it made a lick of sense to me. Everything I <i>wanted<\/i> to learn about\u2026 oh no, that was <i>Men\u2019s Business.<\/i> My job was to cook and clean and make babies one day. I never, <i>ever<\/i> wanted that job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWell, you won\u2019t have to have it, ever, if you don\u2019t want.\u201d Jack told her. \u201cTomlin\u2019ll help you get in with the right people. He\u2019s the real deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHe is, isn\u2019t he?\u201d Kyra grinned. \u201cYou know, I was real suspicious of him at first. Part of it was I was jealous, you know? The two of you seemed to understand each other so well, from the moment you met, and I\u2019ve <i>never<\/i> seen you trust anyone so fast. But\u2026 you were right about him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">That astounded Jack. Kyra had been jealous of Tomlin?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">But, she recalled, Kyra had also been jealous of <i>her<\/i> for a while, back when she\u2019d been taken under Heather\u2019s wing. Friendships, she realized, <i>real<\/i> friendships, were hard to come by for Kyra. She was afraid that there wouldn\u2019t be any room left for her if someone new came along. She was afraid of being replaced and discarded.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou didn\u2019t need to be jealous,\u201d she managed after a moment. \u201cYou\u2019re still my best friend. More than that. I\u2019m an only child\u2026 or I was. But now, you\u2019re my sister.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra swallowed, her smile taking on a tight quality, and Jack realized that she was struggling to suppress tears. \u201cYou\u2019re my sister, too,\u201d she managed after a moment, her voice wobbly.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack could feel how perilous her own emotions were. If she didn\u2019t say or do something to change it, the two of them were going to end up crying for the next few hours. She wasn\u2019t sure how long it would be before she could stop, if she started. \u201cYou think Takama brought us some food while we were asleep?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra\u2019s expression stabilized and her lips quirked. \u201cDamn. You say <i>food<\/i> and my stomach starts screaming <i>demands.<\/i> Let\u2019s go find out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Takama had indeed returned while they slept, leaving behind items that could safely sit out\u2014protected from insects\u2014on their table. Beneath the coverings, a variety of breads, nuts, hard cheeses, and fruits awaited them. Jack found a bottle of freshly-made orange juice, the New Marrakesh kind that had ruined her for all others, tucked in their otherwise empty cooler.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSo it\u2019s almost noon,\u201d Kyra said as they ate. \u201cTide\u2019s out. If you feel up to it\u2014and I\u2019ll understand if you don\u2019t because I don\u2019t think you even <i>know<\/i> how much you did last night\u2014we could do a little of that beachcombing we talked about. Nobody\u2019ll notice if we appear and disappear places. And after last night, nobody in the Rif is going to think twice if they <i>do<\/i> see us do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The wariness that had been so thoroughly habitual for Kyra seemed to have dissolved, literally overnight. This was the most relaxed Jack had ever seen her friend.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI\u2019d like that,\u201d Jack said with a grin. \u201cLet me just check the reports first\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her backpack, which had miraculously made it through all of the night\u2019s dramas, was sitting by the table. Takama must have found it at the shop and brought it over, because Jack had no clear recollection of what had happened to it after she\u2019d put it on and begun running for Othman Tower. Inside, her tablet was, amazingly, unscathed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Unlike the clothes I was wearing\u2026<\/i> She still couldn\u2019t figure out when she\u2019d ripped both knees off of her pants.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">There was nothing in the local news feeds about almost two hundred people disappearing. Not until Jack pulled up the news about the offshore search-and-rescue in progress.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;margin-top: 1em;margin-bottom: 1em\"><tt>The Quintessa Corporation has confirmed that both shuttles were carrying the surviving passengers and crew of the <i>Scarlet Matador<\/i> to a new treatment facility. Colonel Gavin Tomlin, who had been supervising the quarantine, is on record as saying that he never authorized, and had not been informed of, the transfer. Local authorities further confirmed that the shuttles appeared to have violated several rules regarding New Marrakesh airspace, and had forced Ground Control to reroute half a dozen flight paths to prevent additional collisions\u2026<\/tt><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cDamn,\u201d Kyra said. \u201cI don\u2019t like his name being right in there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cMe neither,\u201d Jack sighed. \u201cNo way around it, though, I guess. He <i>was<\/i> in charge of them. And it\u2019d be suspicious as hell if he <i>wasn\u2019t<\/i> demanding to know why he\u2019d been left out of the loop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI hope he\u2019s a good actor.\u201d Kyra grinned at Jack. \u201cHe\u2019s sure got the looks of one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Behind them, the door opened and Takama stepped through. \u201cAwake already?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack realized that, sometime in the last day, she\u2019d stopped thinking of Takama as her favorite food vendor or even Tomlin\u2019s aunt, and had begun thinking of her as <i>family.<\/i> No wonder, she thought, soldiers coming home from war talked about their brothers and sisters in arms, and meant it. A powerful bond had been forged.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe had some trouble with bad dreams,\u201d Kyra said, with an ease that suggested she was feeling exactly the same way. She had probably given Takama the code to enter their building and unit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>This is who she was before life went badly wrong for her,<\/i> Jack thought.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI suppose that is no surprise. It is good that you are up, though. I spoke to Brahim a little while ago and thought I could give you an update if you were awake. Otherwise, I just wanted to check in on you before I went to sleep, myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIs everything okay?\u201d Jack asked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHe is not entirely sure. Everyone seems to have accepted Quintessa\u2019s explanation and his outrage about it, but\u2026 he is not sure that the envoy from Quintessa believes what she is claiming. She acted strangely toward him.\u201d Takama sighed. \u201cHe has to go up to Tangiers Station A to pull the original transmission logs from the <i>Scarlet Matador<\/i>, and the readings he took of its approach, because Quintessa is now claiming that it was never a Level Five Incident at all. He told me he thought someone might have been following him into the spaceport.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWait, were you two talking on <i>comms<\/i> about this?\u201d Kyra was frowning.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Takama laughed softly. \u201cDo not fret, Dihya. We spoke a language no eavesdropper could know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAre you sure?\u201d Jack asked, feeling a cold spot in her belly. \u201cMost translation programs\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHave no lexicon for it,\u201d Takama insisted. \u201cMy sister invented it when we were children. I told you she is a linguist, yes? It was our secret language for years and years. She taught it to her husband and her children, but outside of the six of us, no one has ever spoken or heard it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack allowed herself to feel a little relief at that. It worried her, though, that Tomlin was possibly being followed. \u201cWhat\u2019s he doing about his shadow?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHe said he might go where the man cannot follow. He <i>does<\/i> have clearance into almost every part of the spaceport. But I think he may wish to learn a little more about <i>why<\/i> he is being followed, first. After all\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">With a deafening bang, the apartment building shook.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack could hear alarms sounding outside, lots of them. She scrambled from the couch to the nearest window.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">People were pouring out onto the streets, talking and shouting. Several of them pointed toward the northwest.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWhat is it?\u201d Takama asked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI can\u2019t see yet.\u201d Jack told her, running into the bedroom.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Several panes of glass in the western-facing window had cracked, but none had broken. Through the window, to the northwest, Jack could see a large, roiling column of black smoke climbing into the sky, flames licking upward from beneath it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>\u201cBaraka,\u201d<\/i> Takama groaned at her side. \u201cThat is at the spaceport\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack, who had impulsively bought a good set of binoculars\u2014along with an as-yet-unused telescope\u2014two days before, grabbed them off of the dresser and brought them to her eyes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It was a clear day and Jack could see much of the coast of New Marrakesh. To the northwest, it curved to create a bay. Along the edge of the distant promontory, the runways and launch platforms spread out on the flat land. She could see many of the low structures that made up the spaceport, its concourses, towers, hangars, warehouses, ships\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">One of the concourses, beside a shuttle roughly three times the size of the ones she\u2019d encountered the night before, was burning fiercely beneath the rising black cloud. The flames were licking over the hull of the shuttle\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">A flash as bright as the sun almost blinded her for a second. She threw her arm up over her eyes until it faded.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Now an enormous, gory red cloud was expanding where the shuttle had been, shooting off fast-moving tendrils of fire that arced through the sky.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cFuck!\u201d Kyra shouted. \u201cGet away from the window!\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">They raced for the doorway, only just reaching it as the shockwave struck. It shattered the window and sent dozens of sharp fragments of glass flying through the space where they\u2019d only just been standing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>\u201cBrahim!\u201d<\/i> Takama wailed, falling to her knees. \u201cThey have murdered <i>Brahim!\u201d<\/i> she sobbed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra\u2019s face crumpled as she knelt down next to Takama and put her arms around her. Jack felt numb and weightless.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She couldn\u2019t think. She couldn\u2019t feel. Nothing made any sense. Only two terrible words echoed through the vast emptiness inside her.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Not again!<\/i><\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title: The Changeling Game (Formerly Identity Theft) Author: Ardath Rekha Chapter: 29\/? Fandom: TCOR AU Rating: M Warnings: Adult themes, controversial subject matter, harsh language Category: Gen ","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"\u201cThe Changeling Game\u201d chapter 29 by Ardath Rekha","bgseo_description":"A dream dies; a nightmare rises.","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fan-fiction","category-the-changeling-game"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1195,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions\/1195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}