The Search For WondLa (16 page)

“Behind this door is a feral carnivore that has escaped,” Zin explained as he fluttered around the guard. “I need you to enter and immobilize it immediately. Use any means necessary, understand?”

The pillar guard blatted in response as Zin opened the door. A flying crab creature chirped as it soared out of the lab and down the hall. The door closed behind the pillar guard after it entered.

“This is overkill, don’t you think?” the taxidermist asked as he listened to the chaos on the other side of the door. “Those things are supposed to be used only if we are under attack. We probably could have just had a few royal guards handle this.”

“Perhaps, but if that large subterranean arthropod is as deadly as Besteel says, then let us not risk any casualties. The pillar guard will handle it efficiently,” Zin chirruped.

While their attention was focused on the battle within the laboratory, Eva slipped down the hall.

CHAPTER 28: ARTIFACTS

Eva Nine
discovered that the bending corridor was simply a big loop with mysterious rooms radiating off it. With a sigh of relief she found her way out, undetected. As the exit door retracted open, Eva stepped out onto the topmost floor of an enormous multilevel open hall.

The Great Hall’s ceiling was similar to the one she’d seen in the laboratory, but executed on a much grander scale. A network of aged support beams was woven into a mesmerizing geometric lattice, supporting the transparent arched roof. Outside, Eva saw colorful banners fluttering in the afternoon breeze—all of them adorned with the symbol of a single eye with a horizontal iris.

Here and there, pedestrians of every shape, size, and color ogled at the rows of exhibit cases that lined the ribbed walls. The architecture was so organic, so magnificent, so otherworldly, that Eva momentarily forgot the peril she was in and strolled about, taking in the grandness of it all.

She gazed down from the balcony to the floor of the museum. Perfectly preserved trees from the Wandering Forest were displayed down the center of the hall, their topmost boughs just short of the floor she was on. Suspended from the ceiling beams were a variety of flying creatures, frozen in midflight. Eva moved down the aisle of displays, looking for a face in the crowd—any face—that was similar to hers in appearance. All that she saw staring back was a myriad of horns, tusks, beaks, and snouts.

She made her way down the impressive grand ramp, pausing at each of the other three floors before she was on the ground level. Weaving in and out of the busy foot traffic, Eva continued her search for another human in the mass. She passed the towering pillar guards standing rigidly as they lined the Great Hall like gigantic supports for the building.

“Please tend to fractured fingers immediately. Thank you,” Eva’s tunic reminded her.

As she approached an impressive display of Orbonian plant life, Eva slipped between the densely placed trunks of forest trees. Slumping down behind a mounted specimen of a wandering tree, she checked to see if she was well concealed from all passersby. With her unharmed hand she activated the Omnipod.

“This is Eva Nine. Initiate Individual Medical Assistance, please,” she whispered. “This is an emergency.”

“IMA initiated. What is the nature of your emergency?”

It hurt Eva to admit it. “I’ve broken my fingers on my right hand.” She recalled Rovender’s warnings about sand-snipers.

“Please place Omnipod over injury,” the device responded.

Eva held the Omnipod over her hand. The central eye became an X-ray, allowing her to look inside her body as she moved the Omnipod around. She could see that the thin bones above the knuckle of her ring finger and pinky were split across the middle.

“Digitus annularis and digitus minimus manus have sustained simple fractures in the proximal region. Accessing HRP utilitunic for splint preparation. Please wait,” the Omnipod said.

Eva poked her head out from behind the mounted tree and realized that in the bustle of the Royal Museum no one seemed to be paying any attention to the human girl hiding in a display.

“Remove reinforced rubberized toe cap from within right sneakboot,” the Omnipod said as it projected a diagram showing how to remove a U-shaped form nestled in the toe of her shoes.

Eva set down the Omnipod and yanked off her right sneakboot, keeping her wounded hand as still as possible. She pulled out the U-shaped toe cap.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ve got it.”

“Place fractured fingers inside toe cap as shown.” The Omnipod illustrated its instructions. Eva followed them.

“Remove cuff from left sleeve of utilitunic,” the Omnipod said. The climatefiber on the left cuff unwove, leaving the cuff free. “Now wrap tightly around toecap as shown.”

Eva did as she was instructed. She winced, gritting her teeth, as she tightened the wrap around the toe cap, which now acted as a splint for her fingers.

“Splinting complete,” the Omnipod finished. “Avoid activity that may aggravate injury, and keep dressing clean and dry. Have IMA recheck injury in twenty-four-hour increments. Thank you.”

Eva slid her foot back into her sneakboot and tucked the Omnipod back into her pocket. She snuck out of her hiding place and back into the throng of museum visitors.

As she walked the floor of the Great Hall, she discovered that there was an entrance on either end. Eva trotted toward the closest, the back entrance, passing a preserved herd of grazing water bears. She was almost at the back entrance when she spotted Besteel.

While his back was to her, Eva slipped behind an enormous tank full of spiderfish and spied on him. The huntsman turned his head as he talked to another museum patron, and Eva realized that it wasn’t Besteel at all but simply another Dorcean. She let out a sigh of relief and headed off in the opposite direction—toward the front entrance—just to be safe.

She hurried as she neared the door. She felt the warmth of the late-day sun beaming in from the decorated high-arch windows over the wide half-circle doorways. She was just about through the entrance when something caught her eye.

Something in one of the exhibits.

The exhibit that attracted her attention was down a corridor to her left. Eva paused at the front door as throngs of pedestrians slipped past her. Mesmerized, she walked slowly toward the exhibit corridor. Hanging at the corridor’s entrance was a gold-speckled flying contraption, but it was the illuminated display below it, welcoming visitors into the exhibit, that caught her eye.

A dingy yellow jackvest, with long sleeves covered in worn emblems, was mounted under thick glass. Below it were a soiled, crumpled pair of wooly socks and a single sneakboot. A display full of tarnished clunky versions of the Omnipod stood nearby. All around, glass bubbles floated with captions projected onto their round surfaces. Eva could not read the symbols that they projected, but she remembered something Rovender had said about her WondLa.

I have seen similar objects in the Royal Museum in Solas.

She entered the exhibit, staring at the encrusted items arranged in the glass displays: a collection of corroded spoons, stacks of chipped bowls, sheets of nonworking electra-paper, a cracked holo-bulb, and the unmistakable head of a robot, its silicone facial skin long eroded away.

Eva slumped forward, leaning her forehead on the display’s glass.

Well, this proves it for sure,
she thought.
Muthr and I weren’t alone on this planet.

“But it looks like we are now,” Eva whispered, gazing at the lifeless eyes of the robot head. Its braincase was shattered, the top of it missing.

She felt the hairs on her neck stand on end. Without moving Eva saw the familiar face of the taxidermist reflected in the glass next to her. With a gasp she spun around. The squat creature sneered at Eva. In his nasally voice he said, “No use running. You cannot escape.” Behind him a tall helmeted royal guardsman stood on either side. Each held a polished decorated sonic boomrod.

The hard muzzle of a boomrod shoved Eva in the back as she stumbled into the taxidermist’s lab. “Ow, that hurts!” she whined, struggling against her tight arm binds.

“Ah, it speaks!” the taxidermist said, thrilled. “You must have a v-coder on you, I suppose?” He nodded to the guards. “Search her.”

A tall guardsman frisked Eva, placing the found items on a white table: the vocal transcoder, several stolen remotes, a half-eaten SustiBar, and the Omnipod.

This is not good,
Eva thought.

“Very good!” The taxidermist examined the Omnipod closely through his thick goggles as he turned it over in his tiny hands. “Guards, I thank you for your assistance. Please inform Curator Zin that we’ve found the fugitive. I’ll have it prepared for the queen shortly.”

Thankfully I am still in range of the transcoder and can understand what he is saying.

The royal guardsmen left the room through the shutter door. A still-loose flying crab chortled from its perch on top of an empty cell.

Nice work. The place is pretty trashed,
Eva thought.

“You’ve caused quite a mess in here,” the taxidermist said as he pressed a button on his remote. An empty cell floated to the center of the floor. “It will take some time to clean all of it up.” The taxidermist retrieved one of his stolen remotes.

Eva looked around; green-yellow goo was spattered all about the previously sterile white laboratory. The sand-sniper was nowhere to be found.

I have to get out of here.

“I can see why Besteel wanted to renegotiate his task after your capture,” said the taxidermist. Another button was pressed and the glass walls of the cell rippled like a watery membrane. “You must have given him quite a hunt. And Besteel loves a good hunt, that he does.”

Eva glared at the taxidermist’s many eyes. “He destroyed my home. He nearly killed me. You have no reason to do this. Please let me go,” she said.

“For a dirt-burrower, you sure do chatter a lot.” The taxidermist snickered as he shoved Eva into the cell. She slipped right through the membrane, tripping onto the cell floor. She scrambled up to hop out, but the membranous wall solidified, holding Eva inside. A thin rod rose up in the middle of her cell floor.

“Please, don’t do this! I’ve done nothing to you!” Eva pleaded, her vision blurred as tears streamed out. Her body was numb from the pain medication, but she trembled in fear nonetheless.

“You are going to be a fantastic addition to our collection.” The taxidermist hooked the hose to the base of Eva’s cell and aimed his remote at her.

CHAPTER 29: MARKINGS

What have
we here?” Zin floated through the shutter doors to the laboratory. Behind him several royal guardsmen entered, followed by a tall creature draped in resplendent finery.

“Curator Zin, Your Majesty,” said the taxidermist as he approached the queen and kissed one of several pendants hanging from her frilled neck. He glanced around the messy lab, nervous, like one of his own captives. “I wasn’t expecting your presence. I am … honored.”

The queen nodded and glided into the room past her guardsmen.

Though she had yet to be frozen by the deadly mist, Eva was paralyzed with dread as she awaited her fate.

A pair of iridescent eyes, each with a dark horizontal iris, regarded the girl. The translucent, pearly face was decorated with painted scroll-like markings. The angular head was wrapped in a dual frilly collar and adorned with a wreath made of colorful fungi and lichens. A large vocal transcoder hovered over her, following the queen’s every move.

“This is the creature I apprised you of, Your Majesty,” said Zin, hovering alongside her. “It was delivered to us by Besteel, as part of his mandatory task. I believe it may be related to the artifacts we’ve exhumed from that remote site south of here.” Both of them looked fixedly at Eva. Next to the towering Queen Ojo, Zin appeared small, like a tiny bird flitting around.

“If I may add,” said the taxidermist, clearing his throat, “this little bug slipped out of here momentarily. It was captured in the Hall of Artifacts near the artifacts you speak of, Curator Zin.”

Overcoming her nerves, Eva stood to face the queen. “Are … are you Queen Ozo?”

“It is pronounced Oh-ho,” the taxidermist scoffed.

Queen Ojo looked at Zin.

“Its dialect is strange, Your Majesty,” Zin said, intrigued. “Unlike any I have heard before.”

“Can … can you help me?” Eva swallowed down the iciness that chilled her very core. Her arms, bound in front, were shaking right up to her shoulders.

“Shouldn’t she kiss our sacred earth before speaking to Her Majesty?” the taxidermist asked, looking at Zin for affirmation.

The mouth of the queen opened slowly, like the holograms Eva had seen of fish breathing underwater. The voice that burbled out was throaty and erratic, like a pot of thick stew about to boil over. “What are you?” she asked.

Eva glanced quickly at Zin before answering, “I … I am Eva. Eva Nine.”

“An Eva Nine, Queen Ojo,” Zin repeated. “Fascinating.”

The queen circled around the captive girl, studying her. “It had others with it?” she asked.

“Not that Besteel mentioned,” answered the taxidermist, following the queen.

“Your Majesty,” Eva begged. “I’m not sure why I am here on your planet. I grew up peacefully in my underground home that your huntsman, Besteel, destroyed. Since then I have been trying to find my people.” Eva addressed the other onlookers in the laboratory, who watched and listened. “Rovee and Muthr … oh, and Otto, and me. We were coming here to Solas, hoping to find some clues. So if you just let me go, I’ll continue my search. I’ll leave right away. I promise.”

Eva could see the queen’s dark-lined eyes change color as she considered the girl. Ojo turned to the table where Eva’s few belongings were arranged. “So there
are
more like you? You are not alone?”

Eva wasn’t sure how to answer the question. She shifted, nervous. “Like me?” she said, slumping back in her cell. “No. Not
exactly
like me.”

“So you are the only one?” The queen faced her.

“I … I don’t know.” Eva’s throat went dry. “I hope not.”

Ojo studied her reaction. As her bright eyes pierced Eva, the queen commanded, “Send for our resourceful hunter Besteel. I’d like to have a word with him.”

“It appears, for all intents and purposes, that the fool’s errand you’ve sent him on has metamorphosed to be quite a productive undertaking,” Zin mused.

“Yes, indeed.” Ojo held her eyes on Eva for one more beat and then turned to leave. “Prepare this living fossil, and all of its relics, for display. It will be a highlighted addition to my museum collection.”

Eva’s heart stopped. Her body shook as she beat on the glass. “No! NO! Please! Just let me go! Please don’t do this! PLEASE!”

Queen Ojo swept out of the room, followed by her royal guards. Zin floated close to the cell. “Let us immobilize the specimen first. I wish to thoroughly examine it prior to display preparation.”

“As you wish,” the taxidermist complied in a cheerful tone.

“No! Please!” Eva sobbed as she slapped her hands against the glass. She slid down to the bottom of the cell next to the rod.

She thought of the first time she’d heard Otto’s song …

… of Rovender handing her voxfruit …

… of Muthr singing lullabies while giving a her a bath when she was three …

… of a crumbling picture of a robot holding a little girl with an adult, smiling. Happy. Moving forward out into the beautiful, wonderful world.

“Halt!” Zin’s voice piped, as loud and clear as crickets.

He hovered close to the cell wall, examining Eva’s left arm.

Her wrist.

The mark on her wrist.

A circle within a circle.

“At what location did you receive this glyph?” Zin asked, his tiny eyes blinking.

Eva withdrew her arm from the cell’s wall. “Someone gave it to me. But why should I tell you?”

As Eva wiped away the tears, she could see that Zin was flustered. He buzzed about the lab, talking to himself. The taxidermist also noted this peculiar change in behavior. “Do you want me to continue, Curator?” he asked.

“No!” Zin fluttered back up to the cell. “No. I require a live study of this species Eva Nine. Yes. Please have it delivered promptly to my study… . No. Never mind. Release the specimen now, and I shall personally escort it to my study immediately.”

“Begging your pardon, sir,” the taxidermist said, his remote aimed at the cell. “But the queen just ordered—”

“Yes, yes,” Zin snapped. “I shall take personal responsibility and inform Her Majesty of my amendment to her commands regarding the future of this individual.”

“Whatever you say.” The taxidermist hit another button on another control. The rod in Eva’s cell sank back into the floor, and the walls returned to a jellylike membrane. Eva hopped out.

With red-splotched eyes and a runny nose, she faced Zin and asked, “Now what?”

He grabbed her effects, including the Omnipod. “Now you shall accompany me, Eva Nine.”