29.
 Jory spent many hours staring from the narrow slits on all sides of the old chimney, which had provided energy centuries ago before Kusi-O had received the benefit of nuclear lighting. He had to keep from sneezing half the time, and often brushed cobwebs from his head. He had to keep an eye out for the silently crawling red and black striped spiders whose sting was venomous; the others were merely annoying. From his vantage point, Jory saw in all directions.
He saw the looming drum wall, its surfaces soiled with long stains of dampness and moss. Several times a day, the great gate closest to him would open on the Obayyo. Sometimes, in the gloom of the inner wall, he could see the gleam of the Imperial police armor and swords while near-naked Fril cops with spidery looking black vap guns stood on this side. Pallet upon pallet of urns and trunks of various sizes arrived from points all over Oba, to be shipped to the worlds serviced by the Raum Transport League.
Toward the center of Kusi-O, Jory made out the dimly glowing milky-glass dome of the light generator. Around that on all sides were the landing pads for antigrav shuttles. The gray, boxy shuttles looked beat-up, and were streaked with chemical and burn marks. Their experienced, bored pilots snapped them through fast take-offs and landings.
Around the ring of pads was a ring of warehouses. Through the warehouses moved tons of material, mostly the thousands of varieties of fungal extracts, but also some fine swords and other cultural oddities.
In a ring around the inside of the Wall, and inside a wide circumferential dirt road, were the houses of Kusi-O's permanent residents. There must be as many as 5,000, Jory thought, and they not only lived in homes but sent their children to schools, and went to parks, and frequented libraries and public-houses like the one where Jory hid.
As Jory's eyes became used to the light, he was amazed that he'd ever tolerated the gloom that seemed to pour in when the gate was open. Once he saw a captured human—a wild man with long hair, dirty skin, and tattered clothes—dragged to the gate in chains by Fril police and handed over to the Imperial police, who immediately placed wooden blocks around the unfortunate's neck. Jory might be next.
Jory saw all sorts of beings from the far reaches of space. He saw things stranger than the Fril—floating orbs that bore sentient life; tall yellow things with dangling appendages, that he'd swear could only live in the sea; four legged and even eight-limbed mammals covered with fur or feathers; a slug-like thing that took all day to move its glistening brown sausage shape along the road from one warehouse to another.
Girex and Giru's behavior became stranger and stranger, and Jory became alarmed. At times the house remained shuttered, with drunken customers pounding on the front door in the middle of the night demanding food and liquor. At other times, the pub seemed to be open long past the customary hour, and carousing customers kept Jory awake all night.
Jory, locked in his chimney around the clock, became jumpy. He'd cling to the door for hours at a time, listening for a certain type of footfall. Even when it was only Giru with his meals, he ran up the ladder like a frantic animal, though he had no hope of fighting a group of Fril police if they came for him.
|
Thank you for reading. If you love it, tell your friends. Please post a favorable review at Amazon, Good Reads, and other online resources. If you want to thank the author, you may also buy a copy for the low price of a cup of coffee. It's called Read-a-Latte: similar (or lower) price as a latte at your favorite coffeeshop, but the book lasts forever while the beverage is quickly gone. Thank you (JTC).
|
TOP
|
MAIN
Copyright © 2018 by Jean-Thomas Cullen, Clocktower Books. All Rights Reserved.
|
