New Fish landed in theyellow grassy field where I’d had my first Oomza Uni class—Treeing 101. The large field was between the Math, Weapons, and Organics Cities, and it was typically vacant. This day, there were a couple Meduse-like people with nets, probably catching ntu ntu bugs to study. The moment we landed, one of them roared and floated off, while the other puffed out gas and watched as a university shuttle glided up and waited for us to come out.
I said nothing as Mwinyi and Okwu moved down New Fish’s walkway. In Okwu’s excitement and Mwinyi’s hesitation, they’d both forgotten. I was fine with this; I preferred to deal with the anxiety on my own. Well, as on my own as I could be now.
“ Walk slowly, ” New Fish said as I paused at the exit.
“I can’t do anything else,” I said, trying not to think about how naked I was. I had no otjize on my skin. The hot entrance into the atmosphere had been different this time because my connection to New Fish made me feel the discomfort of the heat. And the shift from New Fish’s internally balanced gravity to that of Oomza Uni’s still left me a bit weak and dizzy. The grass was so yellow that it practically glowed in the shine of Oomza Uni’s two suns. I could smell the scent of the soil, grass, and the ntu ntu bugs who lived in the grass.
I heard Okwu speaking to someone further out and Mwinyi had taken his shoes off and bent down to touch the ground. His eyes were shut. I began to walk down the walkway. New Fish had said that I wouldn’t be able to go far from her because I was technically a part of her now. However, she didn’t know what “far” meant. Did this mean I couldn’t leave the ship? That I couldn’t go more than a few yards? We were about to find out. And what would happen if I went too far?
My feet touched the grass and I exhaled, looking back at the ship. I paused as I gazed upon her for the first time. She was bigger than the Root, but had the same natural grace. I smiled to myself. This was because both New Fish and the Root were alive. She wasn’t shaped as much like a shrimp as her mother. She looked more like a water creature I couldn’t name; she was bulbous in body that reminded me of the translucent Meduse ships. And here in the atmosphere and sunshine, her purple-pink flesh was detailed with thick lines of gold that rimmed the openings of fins and ran around both her sides. And she had eyes! How had I not known that she had enormous bright golden eyes? When I thought about looking through her eyes at Saturn, I could have sworn that I saw colors I couldn’t name. So this made sense. Those glorious eyes looked at me now as I moved away from her, walking backward toward the Oomza shuttle and representatives who’d come to meet us.
“ You are alright? ” New Fish asked.
I nodded, grinning.
Slowly, I walked to the Oomza representatives, two crablike people, one with a rose-colored exoskeleton and the other green. Both of their bodies were wrapped in blue Oomza Uni cloth. Both had their astrolabes hanging from golden chains at the base of their left fore-claws and from their astrolabes came their cheerful voices.
“Welcome back, Binti,” both proclaimed.
“Thank you,” I said. “I hope our landing here wasn’t too much of an issue. We didn’t want everyone to make a big fuss at the launch port.”
“It is what it is and we know you do what you do,” the rose one said. “And your ship is small and living, so it’s good for the grasses.”
“President Haras says she can stay here for now,” the green one said. “It would like to meet with you, Okwu, and the Mwinyi immediately.”
“Just ‘Mwinyi’ is fine,” he said, looking up from where he squatted with his hands to the soil.
“Mwinyi,” the green one said. “We will drive you all. Your ship can rest, graze… does she need something else?”
I looked at New Fish. “Should I? Can I?” I asked.
“ I can fly with you. ”
And that’s how we did it. With New Fish flying directly above. It was Oomza Uni, such a thing may not have been a common sight, but it probably wasn’t bizarre here. Few things were.
CHAPTER 12
President Haras
The Oomza University president’s namewas something that sounded like the sound of the wind blowing over the desert sand dunes back home. To me, it sounded like “haaaaraaaaaaaasssssss,” so I called it Haras. It didn’t mind, as long as I prefaced it with the title of “President.” I’d first met President Haras at the meeting directly upon leaving the Third Fish, when I pled the case of the Meduse and their violent killing of all but one of the Khoush people on board.
My first impression was that it looked like one of the gods of the Enyi Zinariya (well, back then I’d thought, “Desert People”). President Haras was a spiderlike person who was about the width of Okwu and as tall as me. And like its name, it seemed to be made of wind, gray and undulating here and not quite there. I’d met with it several times over my year at Oomza Uni and I loved its office.
Positioned in the administrative building in Central City, President Haras’s office sat at the top of the hivelike sandstone building. Nothing but a great bubble of blue-tinted crystal, the floor was a soft red grass that warmed with the sun. Embedded in the wall opposite the triangular door was President Haras’s astrolabe, which liked to buzz whenever anyone walked up to the entrance.
“Take your sandals off,” I said to Mwinyi.
He quickly did so, looking around with awe at the blue dome. He was grinning again, something he’d been doing since we’d landed on Oomza Uni. He laughed to himself with glee when he set foot on the soft grass of President Haras’s office. “I can hear them here, too,” he said. He giggled.
“What is wrong with Mwinyi?” Okwu asked me in Meduse, as we walked toward President Haras.
“He can talk to living things,” I said. “And do something called ‘deep grounding.’ Plus, he’s never been on a different planet.”
“Will his happiness kill him?” Okwu asked.
“President Haras,” I said, ignoring both Okwu and Mwinyi, who was still giggling, and looked at the grass.
“Welcome back, Binti and Okwu,” it said in Otjihimba. It stood in the center of the dome and for a moment, it completely disappeared and then it was back. I was used to this, but Mwinyi was not and behind me, I heard him gasp. “Just in time for some rest and then the start of the next academic cycle. You will be staying for that?”
“Yes,” Okwu and I said.
“Good,” it said. “And my greatest welcome is to you, Mwinyi Njem of the Enyi Zinariya.”
“I am so happy to be here, President Haras,” Mwinyi said.
“You are also the first of your people to be here,” President Haras said. “The Zinariya have written research papers about your ancestors and speculated about your people in current times. From what I understand, a group of Zinariya students wants to reconnect with your people. It’s been a long time.”
When Mwinyi only stared at President Haras with his mouth hanging open, President Haras chuckled. “You are a harmonizer?”
“Yes, Mma,” he said. Then he frowned. “I’m sorry. I don’t know if… do I call you Oga? President? In my village, we have only men and women and some who are both, neither, or more, but all human. At least, since the Zinariya left us long ago.”
“What do you call Okwu?”
“I just go with what Binti says,” he said. “But in my head, I often call it ‘he.’”
Beside me, Okwu puffed out a burst of gas and I looked at my feet smiling.
Mwinyi looked at me and then Okwu, then shrugged.
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