Linda Nagata - Memory

I shrugged into my jacket and ran after him out the door, while Liam abandoned his breakfast to follow.

Rain fell in a soft mist as we galloped down through the orchard, all the way to the closed gate. My eight-year-old sister Tezoé had climbed to the top, where she balanced on elbows and belly, her sodden hair lying against her back, glistening with rain. Jacio boosted himself up beside her and I climbed up on her other side. “It’s there,” Tezoé said softly, pointing down at the forest that covered the western side of the hill.

“I don’t see it.”

“It’s on mimic,” Jacio explained. “Here. I’ll show you.” He swung over the gate and dropped to the other side. I jumped after him, rainwater splashing up around my feet. Behind me I heard Liam warning Tezoé to stay inside the wall, and then a heavy thump as he dropped to the ground.

Jacio had found a path through the brambles. He ran silently, half bent over as if he were stalking bush deer. I raced to catch up with him, but Moki was faster. He must have taken his favorite path over the wall, along the branch of a large lychee tree that lay atop the stone. He darted past me, his jackal shape a blur of red as he chased Jacio.

I ran hard in pursuit. The rain pelted my eyes and raspberry thorns raked at my legs, but Jacio still reached the woods ahead of me. He knelt to scoop up a handful of leaves and rain-soaked humus and then, before I could cry out, he flung it into a cluster of low branches.

The dirt wrapped around a quadrangle of reality, a separate world of sharp edges hanging seven feet above the ground. I stared at it, breathing hard, trying to make sense of this vision; and then the shape dipped as the weight of the soil unbalanced it, and suddenly I could see it for what it was: the delta wing of a camouflaged savant. “Do you see it?” Jacio shouted.

“Yes.”

It was only a few feet away. One jump and I could have grabbed it, but that’s not what I wanted—and in that moment of hesitation it slipped away. I sprang after it, and Moki followed. “Go back!” I shouted over my shoulder at Jacio. “Tell Liam to bring the bikes!”

Jacio didn’t listen. I could hear him a few paces behind me, running hard, and Liam behind him, shouting, “Jubilee! What’s going on?”

I had no time to answer.

Liam didn’t know about Kaphiri. He could not guess what was at stake.

Moki kept pace with me, but after a few minutes Jacio fell behind. I think he waylaid Liam and finally delivered my message because after that there was only silence behind me.

I ran on, ducking beneath branches and weaving between trees, with Moki sometimes ahead of me, sometimes behind. I was determined to keep the savant in sight. I had no doubt of its purpose: it was here to spy on my family. And I knew as well who had sent it.

I plunged across a deer-chewed lawn while the savant retreated, its delta wing flickering in shades of dappled green as it glided beneath the branches. The rain was already yielding to bright sunshine, and in that unforgiving light the savant’s mimic skin could not change fast enough to hide it. I trailed it through a stand of bracken, then across a tiny stream and up the farther slope. The ground began to steam around me, and I shed my jacket, tying it around my waist.

How far?I wondered. How far to the master of this machine?

I wanted to find him. Now. This very morning. Early on a day that promised abundant sun. On such a day it would not matter if he summoned the silver. The sun would burn it away before it could harm me; but there would be time for my anger.

I rounded the side of the hill, clambering over a spine of glittering white crystals that thrust out of the ground like the bones of a glass beast. On the other side there lay a swale, filled with the feathery gray foliage of wormwood. The savant became a gray shadow as it glided above the shrubs.

Savants are not known for their speed. Still, they can glide as fast as I can run, so I was surprised to find this one still in sight. Maybe Jacio had damaged it when he’d hit it with the dirt. As I watched, it slipped again under the shelter of trees.

Moki had figured out that I followed the savant. He plunged into the wormwood, but I went around.

My world grew small and tightly focused. I strove to keep the savant in sight, at the same time gauging the ground ahead and dodging the branches that tried to slap me. I’d hunted deer on foot since I was twelve and I was a strong runner, but deer grow tired, while machines do not. Three times I lost my quarry as the savant floated over short cliffs where I could not easily follow. Twice I found a way down the rock face, though I had to make a pack out of my jacket to carry Moki. The third time we blazed a path several hundred feet to the west. Moki scrambled ahead, pursuing the savant on his own, but it took me fifteen minutes just to clear the ravine. When I finally climbed out on the other side my legs were shaking and my lungs were on fire, and I despaired of finding the savant again.

Still, I knew it had been heading generally north, so I kept on that way, and after a few minutes I heard Moki barking in the distance. I hurried on, and half an hour later I broke out into a grassy vale, and there it was: a tiny chip of green, flitting out of sight as it passed over a saddle into the next vale. I could hear Moki’s bark, but I couldn’t see him in the shoulder-high grass.

Again I ran, using my arms to thrust the tall stalks aside, but I had little energy left, and my pace soon slowed. All around me steam rose wherever the sun touched, filling the air with such a density of moisture I could hardly breathe.

That’s when Liam found me. He came over a hilltop to the east, riding his bike fast between the trees. Rizal followed, and Jacio came behind him. They intercepted me before I reached the end of the vale. I waved Liam on after the savant, relieved to see that he had brought his rifle, tucked in its sheath. “Go! Keep it in sight.”

“You want to tell me why we’re chasing this thing?”

“Later. Just catch up with it. Watch where it goes.”

Rizal stopped beside me. He was riding my bike, and he’d remembered to bring my rifle along too. “Get on,” he said.

“No. You get off. Take Jacio home.”

“No way! We want to—”

“Rizal! This is not a game. Take Jacio home. I don’t want him hurt.”

My words frightened him. His freckles stood out against the sudden pallor of his skin. “It’s just a savant,” he said.

My hands were bleeding from the brambles. They were an ugly sight as I grasped the handlebar. “Get off,” I repeated.

This time, he did. Jacio came up then. I seized the handlebar of his bike too, so he couldn’t take it into his head to set off after Liam. I glared at Rizal until he nodded. He told Jacio, “Slide back. We’re going home.”

Jacio fussed of course, but Rizal was four years older, and outweighed him by fifty pounds. There wasn’t much he could do. “I’ll explain later,” I shouted as I took off after Liam. “Just go home!”

I stopped on the rise, long enough to make sure they were heading in the right direction. Then I pushed the bike as hard as I dared all the way across the next vale.

Liam was waiting for me at the top of the next rise. He spun his bike out, blocking my way, forcing me to stop. Behind his sunglasses, his face was hard. “Why are we out here?”

I could see the savant, still half a mile ahead, gliding away across nodding plumes of grass. Moki sat nearby, his tongue lolling happily, looking at us as if he couldn’t understand why we didn’t push on. “To find the owner of that machine!” I shouted, trying to force a way around Liam.

He moved his bike to block me again. “Tell me why we care.”