{"id":454,"date":"2024-06-04T18:05:33","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T22:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/?p=454"},"modified":"2025-01-28T23:46:50","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T04:46:50","slug":"identity-theft-chapter-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/identity-theft-chapter-35\/","title":{"rendered":"The Changeling Game, Chapter 35"},"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> 35\/?<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> The beings in the darkness are unusually interested in Jack\u2019s past, even as a new hurdle threatens her plans for her future.<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='6a8e78b4164775042256704' value='6a8e78b4164775042256704'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-more-text-6a8e78b4164775042256704' value='Long post is long. Click to read the story.'><input type='hidden' id='bg-show-less-text-6a8e78b4164775042256704' value='Hide the story again.'><button id='bg-showmore-action-6a8e78b4164775042256704' 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-6a8e78b4164775042256704' ><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"chapterhead\">35.<br \/>\n<u>A Box with Infinite Chambers<\/u><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra didn\u2019t manage to fall back asleep until after Jack had narrated up to Ali\u2019s death and funeral, shortly before Fry had told everyone about the coming eclipse. Jack lay beside her, watching her sleep, until she was sure that her dreams weren\u2019t being disturbed. Then she closed her eyes and let sleep reclaim her.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Little larva? May we speak to you now?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYes,\u201d she told them, unsurprised to find herself floating in the night sky once more. This seemed to be where they centered themselves: in the darkness, surrounded by stars.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>The story you told. Is it true?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIt is, yeah.\u201d Most of it, anyway. She had changed a few things as she went, trying to make it sound like she had met Paris Ogilvie well before the crash, in keeping with her prior claims to Kyra that <i>he<\/i> was the one who had mentored her in breaking security systems rather than her father unknowingly doing so. She\u2019d worked in all of the things he\u2019d told her about himself after the crash as if they were things she\u2019d learned while traveling with him before boarding the <i>Hunter-Gratzner.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI\u2019ve been to Earth eleven times now,\u201d he\u2019d told her as he dug through his stash and pocketed tins of caviar, reluctantly offering her one for her own pocket. \u201cMostly, I\u2019ve stayed in the Western hemisphere. That\u2019s the safest side. But it\u2019s still risky. There are radiation storms even there. And all the best museums and estates have security systems that are still protecting their collections, even now. I almost got fried by a positron screen doing the Smithsonian job\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">At the time, Jack had the sense that he wanted to recruit her, to have her \u201crun with\u201d him for real. He\u2019d been planning his biggest heist yet and was eager to talk about it: taking a crack at the Louvre and the Mona Lisa.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cNobody\u2019s survived that yet. They say it\u2019s impenetrable. But I found some old documents about the security system, things nobody else has ever seen. I think I can get to her. And if not\u2026\u201d He\u2019d raised a bottle of <i>Domaine de la Roman\u00e9e-Conte<\/i> in a toast, taking a long pull and offering the bottle to her. \u201cDying in the City of Light, that I was named after? It can\u2019t get more poetic than that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack had taken a small sip of the wine. It wasn\u2019t terrible, but it just tasted halfway between spoiled grape juice and vinegar to her. She had yet to understand why so many people fussed over it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">No one else in the group seemed to take Paris all that seriously, especially when it became clear that he fancied himself a twenty-sixth century Indiana Jones.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cA male Lara Croft, thank you <i>very<\/i> much,\u201d he\u2019d said when she made the comparison, \u201cnot that crass American\u2026\u201d Jack had ended up wondering if he realized that both adventurers had been fictional.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">But she had been to some of the holo-museums that reproduced long-lost Earth artifacts, and she had <i>recognized<\/i> many of the items in Paris\u2019s storage bay. As improbable as it seemed, that gawky, snobbish man really had been, more or less, the wayfaring tomb raider he claimed he was. With a pang of regret, she found herself wishing she had hung onto the boomerang she\u2019d carried for a while. From the British Museum on Earth, it had traveled to an unknown world and had been lost forever. She knew exactly where she\u2019d dropped it after the eclipse, but it might as well have been left in another universe.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>They<\/i>, she suddenly realized, were observing her memories, which she\u2019d conjured into their night sky as she thought of them.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>He could break into locked places?<\/i> they asked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSome, yeah,\u201d she told them. \u201cDepending on the kind of lock.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>And you know how to do this, too?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYeah. Again, just some of the time. Some locks are harder than others. I\u2019m still learning.\u201d She really wasn\u2019t supposed to be learning anything of the kind, but somehow her life kept taking a turn toward the criminal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It had been an act of desperation that had led Jack to try to pick Sharon Montgomery\u2019s pocket while waiting for the <i>Hunter-Gratzner<\/i> to arrive on Vasenji Station. She\u2019d run out of money, none of her father\u2019s security systems were used on the station\u2019s commercial levels, and she was starting to get a little crazy with hunger. She\u2019d done a terrible job of it and, even before her target had turned to look at her, John Ezekiel had her in a headlock.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cZeke,\u201d Shazza had said, \u201clet the poor kid go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAre you <i>barmy?<\/i> This little shit tried to steal your wallet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI know, but look at \u2019im. Skin and bones, he is. When\u2019s the last time you ate, yeah?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It had been the beginning of a strange few days. Shazza had immediately figured out that she was a girl but had kept that a secret even from Zeke. But if Jack was going to tramp the space lanes, Shazza had announced, \u201che\u201d was going to do it <i>right.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Starting with how to pick pockets <i>properly.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The hapless and still annoyed Zeke had found himself volunteered to be Jack\u2019s \u201cmark,\u201d as she practiced identifying where people kept their valuables and lifting them undetected. Shazza had played \u201cmark\u201d as well, and had periodically made Jack play the role too, so she could \u201csee how it\u2019s done\u201d and learn how to spot other thieves in a crowd and avoid their light fingers. By the time the <i>Hunter-Gratzner<\/i> had arrived, the couple had amusedly turned her loose on a few crowds and critiqued her successes and failures until she was, in Shazza\u2019s words, \u201ca certified pro\u201d and it was time to part ways.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She hadn\u2019t actually told them that she was <i>joining<\/i> them on the ship. They\u2019d only discovered that when they broke open her cryo-tube and freed her in the aftermath of the crash.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cCripes, kid,\u201d Shazza had said, helping her up off of the floor. \u201cIf you\u2019d told me you were planning on stowing away on this beast, I\u2019d\u2019ve bought you a ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou need ID to board the normal way,\u201d she\u2019d answered, startling a rare guffaw out of Zeke.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">They had also taught her how to pick locks.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>These locks\u2026 they are mechanical in nature. Do you know how to open other kinds?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cLike what?\u201d she asked, instantly regretting it. <i>She<\/i> had been thinking about her father\u2019s security systems. <i>They<\/i> were thinking of something else altogether.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It was, at first glance, a cube, with no breaks in any of its surfaces. But it had far too many surfaces, more and more the longer she looked at it, infinite iterations of itself, dropping deeper and deeper down into\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cStop, stop I can\u2019t\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>We are sorry, little larva. We forgot how small you still are.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI\u2019m sorry too,\u201d Jack found herself saying. \u201cI just\u2026 I can\u2019t see that far into\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>We understand. You must grow more first. When you hatch into your six-shape, we will show you.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Well, <i>that<\/i> wasn\u2019t creepy or anything\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">They let her sleep for <i>real<\/i> after that, eavesdropping on her dreams but letting them flow wherever her unconscious mind would take them. Later, she dreamt about being Audrey, sneaking downstairs with her cousins in the middle of the night to watch an antique vid they had been forbidden to see, a gory and disturbing story about a puzzle box that opened doors to other worlds\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She woke up gasping, feeling like she was on the brink of understanding something important.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u2026something about an old Earth vid called <i>Hellraiser?<\/i>\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It was gone.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Night, on Tangiers Prime, was long even at the height of summer; most people rose in the dark to begin their mornings. Jack climbed out of bed and picked up her tablet, which she vaguely remembered setting on the guest room\u2019s elegant dresser the night before. Its chrono said that it was a little after six a.m. The sun would rise in another hour or so, which almost felt normal for a moment until she remembered that it had set almost thirteen hours earlier and would remain in the sky for nearly thirty hours once it rose. That was summer in New Marrakesh; most people had wakened two or more hours earlier still and were accustomed to the first few hours of their morning-day being spent in darkness. Mid-winter, Takama had told her when they first met, meant thirty hours of darkness at a time for an entire week, with the sun only rising a few hours before the noon sleep period began and setting just a few hours after everyone woke for the evening-day.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She wasn\u2019t sure how long she had slept, though. She still felt tired, but far too alert and agitated to try to sleep again yet. There was a word tickling at the back of her mind, probably from her spelling bee days, that felt like it had something to do with her dreams. <i>Apeirochoron?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She looked it up on the tablet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 1em;margin-bottom: 1em;margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em\"><u><b>Apeirochoron<\/b> <i>noun, sing.<\/i> [mathematics] \/\u0259\u02c8p\u026ar.\u0251\u02c8k\u0254\u02d0r.\u0251\u02d0n\/<\/u><br \/>\nAn n-polytope cube of infinite dimensions.<br \/>\nFrom \u03ac\u03c0\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 (\u00e1peiros &#8211; \u201cinfinite\u201d) + \u03c7\u03ce\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 (ch\u00f3ros &#8211; \u201cspace, room\u201d)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Was that what <i>they<\/i> had been trying to show her in her dream? It felt like it was.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">But <i>why?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She switched off the tablet and set it down when she heard a soft knock on the door, grabbing up the robe that had been set out for her and slipping it on in a hurry. She wasn\u2019t entirely sure what the Meziane family\u2019s views on bed attire were, but it was something her parents had argued about during family gatherings. She wouldn\u2019t take any chances.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra was still asleep, so she walked over to the door and opened it rather than calling out a <i>come in.<\/i> Tafrara and Ewan were waiting outside.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The first thing Tafrara did was give her a hug. \u201cI\u2019m so glad you\u2019re safe. I\u2019m sorry I didn\u2019t stay to see you when you arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThat\u2019s okay. Thank you,\u201d Jack said, hugging her back. Ewan, she noticed, was carrying his field kit. \u201cK\u2014Dihya\u2019s not awake yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cReally? I didn\u2019t think the sedative would last so long.\u201d Concern appeared on his face.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWe, uh\u2026 had a problem with the entities. They kept trying to talk to her instead of letting her sleep.\u201d Jack really needed to find a better name for those creatures.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThe\u2026 \u2018entities?\u2019\u201d Tafrara asked, her expression a little dubious.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIt appears,\u201d Ewan explained, \u201cthat Dihya and Tislilel\u2019s comings and goings across universes have attracted the attention of other beings who can do something similar. And who try to communicate with them when they sleep. Is Dihya all right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI managed to get them to shut up and leave her alone,\u201d Jack said with a nod. \u201cBut she wasn\u2019t ready to try sleeping again for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThey must\u2019ve really upset her to break through that sedative so early on. Do you mind if I take a look at her?\u201d He hadn\u2019t tried to brush past her, waiting instead to be invited in.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cPlease,\u201d she said, moving aside for him. He flashed her a knee-quaking smile on his way past. Something about the room, she suddenly realized, felt off. \u201cWhere\u2019s Sebby?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYour little pet?\u201d Tafrara smiled. \u201cHe\u2019s downstairs. He started scrabbling at the door a few hours ago. We think he was trying to find something to hunt. So Izil went to the night market and brought back a tub of feeder crickets, and he has been having the best time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHe\u2019s been absolutely hilarious,\u201d Ewan added softly, moving aside the covers to check Kyra\u2019s bandages. Kyra\u2019s hand flashed out, catching his wrist, and then relaxed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cG\u2019morning,\u201d she said, still half-asleep.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cGood morning, Dihya,\u201d he replied, struggling to hide a grin. \u201cI think you just passed your reflex test. How are you feeling?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cSore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI have something that\u2019ll help with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAnd hungry,\u201d Kyra added.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThat\u2019s a very good sign indeed. We\u2019ll have something brought up to you right away. Tafrara, could you\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cOf course, Zdan. Come on,\u201d Tafrara said, tugging at the sleeve of Jack\u2019s robe. \u201cLet\u2019s get <i>you<\/i> something to eat, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Tafrara led her down two flights of steps to the ground level, and out into the courtyard she\u2019d passed through the previous day. The tide in Elsewhere had receded, Jack noticed; on that side, wan moonlight was sparkling over a barren garden of gleaming stone, wet sand, and seaweed, casting long shadows toward the west. In both worlds, above her, the sky had shifted from black to a dark, intense royal blue as the sun approached the eastern horizon. The air was cool and perfumed with the scent of hundreds of blossoms in the courtyard garden.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIt\u2019s so beautiful,\u201d Jack whispered.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThank you,\u201d Tafrara said with a smile. \u201cIt\u2019s been a project of mine for many years now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou did all this?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cWell, not <i>all<\/i>, but I designed a good deal of the garden layouts.\u201d Tafrara led her across the courtyard and into a brightly-lit room on the other side.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Reeeeeeeeeee!<\/i> It sounded different from the night before, not at all distressed. Jack followed the sound and spotted a large, high-sided storage tub, its lid set aside.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHere she is now,\u201d Cedric said, grinning. \u201cYou\u2019re gonna love what your little fella\u2019s been up to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack leaned over the tub and looked in on\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Total destruction. A cricket\u2019s version of a summer disaster vid.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Not a single cricket was chirping. The surviving few were apparently trying to stay as quiet as they could while Sebby, pincers clattering enthusiastically, chased after them and stuffed them into his little mandibles. He wasn\u2019t bothering to be especially tidy, and bits of cricket were everywhere in the tub.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cOh wow,\u201d she found herself laughing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIt\u2019s cricket Armageddon in there,\u201d Cedric chuckled. \u201cHe\u2019s finished off almost the whole lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cNow I wonder if we\u2019ve been underfeeding him,\u201d Jack said, feeling a little rueful.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cIf you have,\u201d Cedric said, rising from the dining table she\u2019d barely registered and pulling a seat out for her, \u201cwe\u2019ll set that right soon enough.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cYou should have seen him pouncing them,\u201d Safiyya said, entering the room with a large tray. \u201cHe\u2019s like a <i>kitten<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Safiyya\u2019s tray had a variety of traditional Moroccan breakfast foods on it; Jack suspected that Takama had told her which ones were her favorites. Soon she was settled at the table, dipping baghrir pancakes into amlou and scooping up cumin-seasoned fried eggs and khlii with a slice of khobz. Nearby, she could hear Sebby\u2019s enthusiastic, almost ultrasonic mini-shrieks as he stalked his prey.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>I could get used to this\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">There were very rare moments\u2014and this, Jack realized, was one of them\u2014when the urge to stop her madcap voyage across the stars became intense. If she said she wanted to stay here, she knew, the Tomlin-Meziane family would welcome her into their fold, accepting her exactly as she was. She would become Tislilel Meziane, adopted daughter of Cedric and Safiyya, or maybe of Takama, youngest sister\u2014or cousin\u2014of Tafrara, Ewan Zdan, and Dihya\u2026 and the late Gavin Brahim. She would never be Jack B. Badd <i>or<\/i> Audrey MacNamera again\u2026 and she would never need to use the false ID she had created for her journey onward. She would learn to live by the unique rhythms of a world with 44 hours in its day and an alternate version with three moons and enormous high tides, and she could explore two sets of landscapes wherever she went. And although she could probably never have the man she longed for most of all right now, one day she could find someone almost or just as wonderful in the tribe, or at an engagement Moussem, and make a new family of her own\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Could she really do that? <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her parents, she thought with a pang of guilt, would believe she had died somewhere. Maybe they\u2019d even suspect she\u2019d died in the <i>Hunter-Gratzner<\/i> crash, but they would never know the truth of what had happened to her. Audrey MacNamera would stay in the \u201cmissing\u201d category for a few more years and then be declared dead. Her memorial would have no coffin or urn, just a picture of a na\u00efve young girl with long blonde hair who had vanished one day without a trace. Memories of who she had been and what she had done in her brief life on Deckard\u2019s World would already have faded by then. There would be hardly any stories for anyone to tell about the quiet, studious girl who had lived too far away from her school friends and other children her age and had made do with books and cats for companions, who never got into any trouble unless she was with her cousins\u2014and those stories would really be about <i>them<\/i>, not her\u2014and whose adventures had almost all been vicarious until then\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Could she really do that to <i>them?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her heart twisted as she realized that there was no way she could. As alluring as life with the Tomlin-Meziane family might be, and as much as she wanted to have any excuse to catch the light of Ewan\u2019s smile\u2026 she could never do that to her family. Especially not after seeing just how torn up Tomlin\u2019s death had left <i>his.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cAre you all right in there?\u201d Cedric asked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack glanced up, trying too late to cover up the look of sadness that had crept over her face. \u201cUm\u2026 yeah. Just\u2026 got a lot to think about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>If I didn\u2019t already have a father, I\u2019d want you to be mine\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cRight,\u201d Ewan said at that moment, entering the room. \u201cThat\u2019s Dihya settled for the next few hours. She should sleep comfortably for a while. What do we want to do about the officers\u2019 reception?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cBloody hell,\u201d Cedric muttered. \u201cI don\u2019t think we dare postpone it. Certain people would want to know why, if we did. Well, we\u2019ll see how she\u2019s faring tomorrow evening. It\u2019s still some sixty-odd hours away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHow <i>Dihya\u2019s<\/i> faring?\u201d Jack asked, momentarily confused.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThe plan was to introduce her to Gavin\u2019s associates in the Service during the reception we scheduled just for them,\u201d Cedric explained. \u201cWith that Quintessa bitch looking over our shoulders at the memorial, I couldn\u2019t find a way to extend an invitation for a meet-an\u2019-greet that she wouldn\u2019t invite herself to, other than that. I <i>do<\/i> plan to keep Gavin\u2019s promise to Dihya.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Oh! Of course. Now it all made sense. \u201cBut now you\u2019re worried she won\u2019t be recovered in time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cThat\u2019s the worry,\u201d Ewan agreed. \u201cWell, we can work around it if we need to. I know some of them fairly well and can invite them over for dinner, or something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHow long is your leave?\u201d Cedric asked.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cI have another week,\u201d Ewan said, popping an olive into his mouth.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Just four more of Tangiers Prime\u2019s long days, Jack realized, and Ewan would be back at the flight academy on Qamar. It was a struggle to keep her dismay off of her face. After the week ended\u2026<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She might never see him again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">It would only be another week from then until the transport to Furya arrived and, one way or another, she boarded it and left to reunite with her father. That was a rendezvous she <i>had<\/i> to keep. More than a year had gone by since she\u2019d disappeared from Deckard\u2019s World, and by now word had reached him that she was missing. She\u2019d planned to <i>beat<\/i> the news of her disappearance to him, or at least arrive soon after. She couldn\u2019t dally anymore. Which meant that, although she intended to spend the next two weeks immersing herself in this wonderful family, she would have to say goodbye to them all too soon. And goodbye to Ewan, possibly forever, even sooner.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Why did all of these things have to hurt so much?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">A gentle hand on the back of her head drew her back to herself. Ewan was leaning forward, studying her face with concern. \u201cAre you all right, Tislilel?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She tried to manage a reassuring smile, but what appeared was probably pathetic and not reassuring at all. \u201cIt\u2019s just\u2026 been a rough few weeks. I think maybe I\u2019ll lie down for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She couldn\u2019t tell them what she was feeling, not now\u2026 and could tell <i>him<\/i> least of all.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cDo you know the way back?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Jack nodded, able to see it in her mind quite clearly. She only ever got lost in places she\u2019d never been before, and only then if she hadn\u2019t had a chance to map them out in advance or had been given faulty and outdated directions. But she could see every turn she and Tafrara had taken.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The sun hadn\u2019t yet risen as she crossed the courtyard, but the sky had turned a vivid, deep turquoise blue and birds were muttering sleepily in the trees. Jack stopped for a moment to inhale the intoxicating scent of the space. She wanted to remember it forever, this magical garden that might, if only things had been different, have become her home.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She wondered if there were any flowers yet on Furya.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Kyra was sleeping again when Jack returned to their room. Ewan\u2014or possibly his cousin Usadden\u2014had set up an IV drip after she\u2019d left. She looked up the contents of the bags on her tablet. Hydration fluids, mostly, but one small bag, on a timed drip feeding its contents into the other fluids, was a powerful healing accelerant. The tablet told her that it was rarely used because it was prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She was about to set the tablet back down when she noticed that she had a message. Or, more specifically, that her newest alias had a message.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">Her pulse racing with sudden excitement, she opened it up.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 1em;margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;margin-bottom: 0px\"><tt>Dear Ms. Tepper,<\/tt><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 1em;margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em\"><tt>We are pleased to inform you that you are one of the top candidates to join the crew of the <i>Major Barbara<\/i> on its upcoming voyage to the Catalan System\u2026<\/tt><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Wait, what?<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She had applied to go to <i>Furya.<\/i> The <i>Major Barbara<\/i> was supposed to be going to <i>Furya.<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">She scanned the rest of the letter in growing confusion. The departure date was the same, although the ship was now scheduled to launch from New Fes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">But the destination had changed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">A terrible, cold, empty feeling was filling her as she used one of her Ghost Codes to infiltrate the shipping company\u2019s comms system and snoop on the chatter of the last few days.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\"><i>Oh. Of course. Of fucking <b>course.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 1em;margin-bottom: 1em;margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em\"><tt>Due to the current difficult circumstances facing Tangiers Prime and particularly New Marrakesh, the planetary government has requested that all humanitarian aid supplies located within the system be reserved for the rescue and recovery efforts currently underway\u2026<\/tt><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The aid packages originally marked for shipment to Furya had been reallocated for local use. The <i>Major Barbara<\/i> would instead carry construction equipment to Catalonia Seven. And the shipping company was in the middle of arranging a new supply mission to Furya, originating from\u2014<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">\u201cHelion Prime. Helion <i>fucking<\/i> Prime\u2026\u201d Jack didn\u2019t know whether to laugh or cry.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent:1em;margin-bottom: 0\">The tears won.<\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Title: The Changeling Game (Formerly Identity Theft) Author: Ardath Rekha Chapter: 35\/? 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 35: \u201cA Box with Infinite Chambers\u201d","bgseo_description":"The beings in the darkness are unusually interested in Jack\u2019s past, even as a new hurdle threatens her plans for her future.","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","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\/454","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=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1189,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions\/1189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ardath-rekha.com\/wips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}