Michael Siemsen - Exigency

“Not to contradict a physician,” Qin said as he rose to his feet. “But she should keep it closed.” He stuffed the medkit into Angela’s pack before sealing it shut. “Nothing more we can do here. Ang, just hold someone’s arm and use your fone for now, okay?”

Everyone helped Angela to her feet despite her protests. “I got it, I got it, I’m fine…” She slowly opened her fone eye, the other side of her face squinched up tight. “Do I look like I had a stroke? Or some old troll?”

“You look,” Aether began, biting her lip. “There may be… opportunities for appearance tuning.”

“Oh, that’s good,” Tom said. “I’m using that.”

“Don’t forget your helmets,” Aether said as she lowered her own over her head.

Tom grabbed Angela’s after sealing his own. “Want me to carry it?”

Angela scowled at him. “Oh, don’t think everything’s all hunky-dory here, mister. You can carry that, but it won’t decrease the severity of your forthcoming ruin. Holding me down…”

“We walk, Skinny,” Aether announced as they proceeded forward. “No more running for now.”

“We fast walk,” Skinny countered. “Run if hear Threck coming. Silence now.”

Moments later, Aether received a group M from Tom, sent to all of them.

TOM: We should probably debrief. Maybe one of you could start with who this “Skinny” is, where we’re going, and what that mess was all about. Angela and I made contact with the Threck council, toured the city, and were just being shown this rite of passage ceremony. I assume that attack was not on our Threck hosts’ agenda, and the survivors back there probably think we’re aligned with these other Threck.

ANGELA: Let’s not forget the imprisoning part.

TOM: Thank you so much for the reminder, my love. There was a misunderstanding, a brief detention, and relations returned to normal.

ANGELA: Or the institutional child abuse.

Aether cut in.

AETHER: Okay, you two. We’re a little more than 30 mins from the Seekapock camp (do not call them Threck). Let’s stick to the essential facts as we sync up.

Upon exiting the partially starlit jungle into the dark, wide-open, wect-columned sanctuary, Skinny stepped beside one of two Threck torches—the area’s only light sources.

She raised both arms in the air and shouted to the muddy masses of Seekapock.

“Victory!”

The crowd fell silent.

One of the others with them stepped into the light with a bundle fashioned from a cloak. She shifted her grip, clutching a single edge, and held it high, the front side falling away and a load of decimated worms dropped into the mud.

Cheers roared from the mob. Tentacles splashed and scrambled as they charged forward, fighting over the worms.

“No!” A shout from the far side of the space, near the only other torch.

Aether zoomed in and saw a small party of Seekapock, one of whom was missing most of an arm, the stump tied off with rope and coated in a muddy paste.

Eeahso tramped through the swarm, swatting obstructive heads and stomping on any limbs in her path. Her posse followed close behind.

“Eskinnee, you are the leader of all fools!” Eeahso said as she stepped close.

“I think not,” Skinny said, laughing as she gestured to the dead worms. “No more Threck.” Others briefly laughed, too, but Eeahso ended it with a look.

“Imick not for killing Threck,” Eeahso said. “Imick for survival, for punishing Threck, for making Seekapock stronger, smarter. You have doomed all Seekapock back to the water.”

“We punished Threck,” Skinny said with pride and menace modifiers. “For real for first time. And we rescue two more Orange People before Threck make them Threck.”

Eeahso looked over the group. “Which Orange People saved me from Threck?”

Skinny turned around and studied the human faces, comparing Aether and Qin, then Qin and Angela, settling on Angela. “This one! Qin! One of my first Orange People.” Skinny thrust Angela forward from the group. Eeahso eyed her.

“I’m not…” Angela protested, her bio eye still squinty as she glanced back for help.

“Orange People have mighty throw weapons,” Skinny said. “Good for Seekapock when angry Threck come looking for revenge.”

“Precisely what comes to us,” Eeahso said mournfully. “Even with Orange People weapons, we will not survive attack on land. Tell me, Skinny… tell all… when no more Threck, where do Seekapock get food? Where do Seekapock get trained afvrik and minnit ? Will you keep fish bay filled? Will you train afvrik, grow food, sew garb?”

Skinny was still for a beat, then spoke quietly, with restrained gestures close to the body—a message not intended for the rest of the onlookers. “You say Seekapock need Threck for living?”

Eeahso said nothing. She reached across her and lightly probed the stump where her other arm used to be. Her eyes popped in and out, then she made a gesture normally delivered with two arms: “You and me talk later.”

Aether finally grasped it all—the Seekapock, Threck, imick, all of it. This was supposed to be the base of some great revolution. Leaders like Eeahso rallied the masses with inflammatory anti-Threck speeches, us against them, fighting the good fight, etset. The Skinnys of the population sucked it up and ate it whole, driven to harass the Threck with raids, stealing fish and produce from the Threck farms, taking clothes and work animals. But Eeahso had created a monster she could no longer control, and with the worms, Skinny had delivered a devastating and irreparable blow to the Threck.

“Skinny,” Aether said, and Skinny twisted halfway round to look at her. “What are the worms to the Threck?”

Skinny blinked and fidgeted—the same sort of confused motions from when they’d first met, underwater in the EV. “Worms to Threck…”

Aether rephrased, “Why do Threck care about worms?”

This, evidently, was clearer. Skinny’s head remained still as her legs untwisted beneath her to fully face Aether. Skinny knelt down and plucked from the mud a squished worm carcass, holding it up before her.

“ This is Threck. Worm is Threck. Inside. Understand?”

Tom stepped forward, stunned. “The worms go inside and stay in?”

Skinny turned to him. “Yes. Make Threck. You see Threck nursery—Sootskee and younger—Threck care nothing for these. These are not Threck. These are animals. Nothing important. These are things Threck keep alive until old enough to make more Threck.”

Tom faced Angela, still standing beside Skinny. “That’s what Unhkte was trying to explain to us. She was showing us the final step to become an actual Threck, not some rite of passage like a freaky bar mitzvah.”

“Unhkte?” Skinny said. “You know Unhkte?”

Tom looked surprised, shocked that Skinny had understood something he’d said.

“We met,” Tom replied through the PA once more.

“You meet Towtzaw? At nursery?”

“Yes,” Tom said. “You know them?”

“Towtzaw, yes.” Skinny said. “From nursery.”

“Did you come from the nursery?” Aether asked Skinny.

“Yes. As most Seekapock.”

Now, Aether thought, this connection between the two groups began untangling. Minnie had always said that the City Threck looked down on Sea Threck as primitives, as those people from the city who had decided to heed the primal call of ocean life.

“And you escaped?” Tom asked.

Skinny regarded him. “Some we save outside gate, before get to circle. Some are cast into river if never learn how is good Sootskee.”