Devotion (12 page)

This carried on throughout the day, until Tikki came home. When the man came again to knock on the door, this time he got an answer. Tikki opened the door and he went in, the door standing ajar. Okil watched them talking and then the man, who he now knew was Harri, came back towards the door. He was surprised, but proud of Tikki, when she pushed him out of her apartment, slamming the door shut in his face.

From further down the corridor another man appeared, shouting at Harri. After a few minutes, Harri left. The corridor was empty for a few minutes and then Tikki appeared with Charlie, only her purse and a small bag in her hands. She shut the door and left. Now he watched.

Tikki hadn’t been gone long before two men came, one of them Harri, and another bigger man, who knocked on the door. When there was no answer, he used something to open it. Okil stared, looking closer at the screen; it looked similar to the technology Karal had. But he couldn’t be sure. No, it wasn’t sophisticated. It looked like a lock pick he had seen in old movies. Okil felt relief: if Karalian technology had found its way into the hands of humans, they were in more danger than he thought.

The two men entered the apartment, shutting the door behind them. He asked the sim to fast-forward the video feed until the men came out. The time stamp told him they were inside her apartment for around half an hour. As the two men came out, he froze the screen on Harri and took a face print of him. The sim was instructed to pull all feeds of him. A light flashed up. Classified.

Several files were accessible, but there were others he didn’t have clearance for. Okil knew that the Hier Commander must have pulled up the same files and stored them. What were they?

Going over the dates of the files, he realised some were from the day Elissa had won the lottery, the day that she had gone to the hospital. Something nagged his memory. He tried to access the data another way. Configuring the data stream, he pulled up an image of himself outside the hospital room where he had stood guard over Elissa. Sure enough, the man who went in to her room was Harri.

So the Hierarchy already knew about Harri.

He switched back to real time and asked the sim to find Harri now. The sim did not respond. He asked again.
No face recognition
. Okil checked the files. No data feed containing Harri had been logged since the day Tikki had left Earth.

Going back to the feeds, he pulled up the one with the latest time stamp. It showed Harri and the man who had entered Tikki’s apartment going into a bar. It was one of the more upmarket areas of the city, where the pents liked to go. He noted the name, and was about to shut off the feed when he saw a figure he recognised walking in, two men flanking him.

“Well, hello, Mr. President.”

“Okil.” His communicator flashed and Darl’s voice came to him. “I would like to speak to you, please. If you could come to my office at your earliest convenience.”

“Darl, I’m in the middle of something,” he replied. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes. I just have some paperwork for you.” He could tell there was an edge to Darl’s usual light tone. Shutting the sim down, he replied, “I’ll be right there.”

Checking that the last results couldn’t be pulled up, he shut the sim down and made his way up to the doctor’s lab, trying not to draw attention to himself as he hurried along.

“Well, there you are,” Elissa’s voice called out as he went up the stairs. She was walking down with a happy-looking Marin.

“Elissa. You look so well. How is the baby?” Okil asked, unable to ignore Elissa and Marin without it appearing rude and out of character.

“The baby is fine, very healthy, Darl said. Although I must admit the doctor looks a little frazzled. I think he has had a bit of an
education
at the hands of Reja overnight.”

“Elissa,” Marin said, sounding shocked.

“Sorry. I’m just so excited to have my friend and my sister on Karal. You certainly kept that quiet, Okil.” She beamed happily at him and he wished it were all so easy.

“I didn’t want to tell you in case it didn’t happen, Elissa. Tikki only agreed to come with me at the last minute,” he said, knowing he had to stick to that story and hoping she wouldn’t ask any further questions.

“Well, I am glad she is here and safe,” Elissa said, placing her hand on his bare arm and letting her emotions flow through her hands. It always seemed strange to him that the skin on her arms had taken on this part of the Karalian physiology. When Elissa had been chosen for the lottery, she had spilt hot coffee on her hands and Marin had programmed the decon’ computer to heal it. She had ended up with some Karal DNA in her system, predominantly in the new skin on her hands and forearms. Right now, through her hands, he could feel her overwhelming gratitude towards him.

“It was for purely selfish reasons. I love your sister more than you could ever know,” he said honestly.

“Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure about that. I love Marin more than I thought ever possible.” She turned to put her arm around Marin, who hugged her close.

“And with the birth of our child, our family will be complete,” Marin said, his hand over her stomach protectively.

“And you will give new hope to Karal.” Okil smiled, longing for Tikki to have his child in her womb, to know his son was growing inside her.

“Ahh, Okil.” Darl appeared behind them, coming out of his office and looking agitated.

“I’m sorry, I’m coming now, Darl.” He kissed Elissa lightly on the cheek. “I will look after Tikki. No matter what the cost.”

Her eyes met his and then looked down to where her hands touched his skin. She could feel his concerns, and although he didn’t want to worry her too much, he wanted her to be forewarned of the trouble ahead.

But she already knew some of it, the sensations along her hands turning to agitation. “I spoke to Tikki briefly this morning. I trust you with her life, Okil. As I would trust all of Earth in your hands.”

“Okil,” Darl called, and Okil went away from Elissa, who was now deep in conversation with Marin.

“What is so urgent, Darl? Have you any news about Charlie? I have found out little from the sim.”

“In my office.” He led Okil into the lab and then straight into the small room Darl used as an office. “Sit here.”

Okil sat down in a chair by Darl’s desk. He still wasn’t sure what was going on with the normally calm doctor. “What happened, Darl? Did someone come and talk to you about Tikki? Or is it Reja?”

Darl looked at Okil, frowning as if trying to think what he was talking about. Okil grew even more concerned; nothing flustered Darl. “No. No. This has nothing to do with that problem.”

“Then what?” Okil asked, unable to stand the tension in Darl. He thought the doctor was going to explode, or implode.

The doctor sat down heavily, his mouth firmly shut. Then he tried to speak before falling silent again. Okil placed his hand on the doctor’s arm. “Take your time. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I don’t know that it is wrong.” He frowned. His brow deep grooves as he fought to try to put things into words. “But I also don’t know that it can be right.”

“You aren’t making sense. You need to be clearer, Darl.”

“Very well. To put it simply, Elissa is going to have a baby girl.”

Once Elissa had gone, they had explored the small house, Tikki admiring the light and airy rooms, and the simple natural furnishings. Then they were hungry again, so they had eaten some fruit and drank the cool, pure water from a bottle in Okil’s cold box, which must work like a refrigerator. Now, Tikki sat out in the warm sunshine. It was just after midday, and the weather was beautiful.

It had taken hours to summon up the courage to venture outside; she felt too exposed. However, once they had taken the first step outside into the garden with its wooden fence, high enough to keep most animals out, there had been no going back. Now Charlie, with teddy firmly in tow, was working his way around the garden, talking to himself and flying his toy plane, one hand holding it high in the air as he ran. He looked like any other young child; the only startling difference between him and a child playing on Earth was the abundance of flora and fauna in the garden.

The sound of a cruiser door made her jump; she had been dozing off, feeling happy and content. But the sound of someone else in the near vicinity made her call quietly to Charlie. He came quickly, the hunted look returning to his eyes and when she ushered him inside, he didn’t object.

Only when the door opened and Okil walked in, did she relax. However, when she saw his face, she was immediately on her guard.

“What’s happened?” she asked.

“Nothing,” he said shaking his head.

“Then why do you look as though the world has ended?”
Had they found about Charlie? Or simply rejected Tikki coming here?

“Because in some ways it has.” He avoided her gaze, which scared her even more. Okil had always been open with her about everything.

Tikki went to Okil and held him close, not wanting to lose him, but knowing she had to allow him an escape clause. “If it’s to do with us, with me and Charlie, then just say I blackmailed you into it.”

“It isn’t.” He pulled back from her. “Listen, why don’t we go on a trip? I would love to show you the ocean. I thought we could take a picnic and go to a secluded cove I know. No one will be there. Charlie can play in the ocean and we can talk.”

“OK,” she nodded. “Charlie, we are going on a road trip. How does that sound?”

“Great,” he said clapping his hands together in excitement. “Can we see the elephants again?”

“Elephants?” Okil asked.

“Yes, we saw them when we came here yesterday,” Charlie said and began to walk around stretching his neck out really long. “They walked like this. And they are grey.”

“The
arunda
. Yes. We can fly that way and see if we can spot them.” Okil went to the kitchen and began to fetch foods from the cupboards. He seemed a little happier but his skin looked grey, as if he had received a shock.

“Okil,” she said, touching his face with her fingertips.

He looked down at her and smiled. “Don’t worry. It’s not bad news and it has nothing to do with you and Charlie. Not directly, anyway.” He opened a satchel and began placing food into it. “I’ll tell you when we reach the ocean. I just need to clear my head first.”

“OK,” she said and helped Charlie put on one of Okil’s big sweaters and then she lifted him up and carried him, trying to disguise the small boy as nothing more than a bundle of clothes. They might fool anyone from a distance, but close up you could still make out the form of a small child. She hoped no one was suspicious enough of her coming to Karal to be watching closely.

Okil went first, opening the ramp so Tikki could go straight into the cruiser. “Why don’t you both sit up front,” he said to them.

Charlie ran, or waddled, with the sweater around his ankles up to the front of the cruiser, and Tikki laughed as she watched him. Okil lifted him into one of the seats and managed to secure the seat belt around him, while Tikki settled down into another seat, staring at the vast array of controls.

“This cruiser is like magic. It can fly anywhere, drive anywhere, and I’m not even sure if it couldn’t go underwater if it needed to.” Whether Okil was joking on that last point she wasn’t sure, but then he added, “But usually over water, we hover. Shall we try that when we get to the ocean?”

“Let’s go,” said Charlie, putting his teddy down next to him on the seat.

Okil checked they were all secure and then pressed the button for the ramp to close. The engines hardly made any noise as they pulled forward out onto the road. Leaving his house behind left Tikki nervous; out here they were exposed. What if they were stopped, would they have enough time to hide Charlie? And above all else, she worried what news Okil had to share, because even though the colour had returned to his face, he still looked concerned.

“There,” Charlie pointed, and sure enough off to the left were a herd of the massive animals they had spotted from the air. Okil looked too, and then eased back on a lever whilst increasing their speed. Slowly they rose into the air, keeping low over the grass as they sped towards the arunda.

“Look at their long necks!” Charlie cried, and despite everything, Tikki found his enthusiasm contagious. This was the most excited and animated she had ever seen him.

“There are so many different animals on Karal, Charlie. We will try to see as many as we can. If you want me to, I can bring some books home from the great library in the tower. They are like encyclopaedias, filled with every animal on our planet. Would you like that?”

“Yes, please, Okil Daddy,” Charlie said.

Okil paled at the words but didn’t correct him. “Then I will bring some home with me tomorrow. Shall we go to the ocean now?” he asked after they had swung around and passed over the grazing arunda twice. “There are other animals we can look out for. Some fish in the ocean can jump high and try to reach the cruiser as we fly over them.”

“That sounds like fun.” Charlie settled back down but kept a close eye on everything below them as they flew over the ground. Tikki sat back and enjoyed the ride, seeing the world below in a myriad of colours, but not able to fully appreciate it yet. For her, there was too much at stake, so many problems to overcome. Would she ever be free to enjoy Karal?

The most exciting thing about the trip, for Charlie at least, was when they climbed the side of the mountain and then skimmed over the top. Okil played with them and for a moment, she truly thought they were going to scrape the bottom of the cruiser on the highest peak, but then they crested it and slid down the other side.

Charlie whooped loudly and raised his hand in the air, his teddy tucked securely under his arm so that he didn’t fall off the seat. Then Charlie opened his eyes in wonder as he saw the vast ocean laid out in front of them.

“Wow, that is the most amazing sight I have ever seen,” Tikki said.

“Me too,” breathed Charlie. “Can we see the fish?”

“Sure. Let’s see if we can get them to jump, shall we?” Okil headed out across the ocean, the cruiser about two feet above the swell. At first, there was nothing to see, and then there were occasional flashes of spray rising up around the windows of the cruisers. “Take your seat belts off and look down.”