Omnipresence

[Bree Fletcher]

I get uncomfortable with them around, is all, Zanai said.

Oh, stop being such a baby! Elisai scolded. The fitters are no more harmful than a flock of pigeons. She didn’t like to have the civilians around, either, but Elisai knew that they were there to fix the Omnipotent, and therefore must be put up with.

And yet those pigeons are still chased off of the ship whenever they show up.

Zanai, you complain far too much. Put up with them for a time; just because they will not speak to us does not mean they are not something necessary.

They have no Advisor. They do not belong here in the slightest. I get itchy just looking at them, realizing that there is no one I can go to in order to discover more about them and where their place is.

They feel like boarders, Davai said. They feel like someone hostile, invading the ship. They are not our own! Get them off! Get them off! Where’s Maggie! Maggie!

“Maggie!” Davai said aloud. One of the fitters, suspended on a swaying platform on the side of the Omnipotent, shot an annoyed look over his shoulder. Seeing nobody but his two friends anywhere near him, he grumbled something unkind and continued his work.

Private Glythe is your charge? Elisai asked.

Uh, yes. Oh, he is not here, is he…

No, he is not, Elisai said gently. He is visiting family, is he?

No, no, he has… he has other business to attend to. Why are the—sorry, I am still overreacting to the civilians… they are crawling they are not of us, they should be expulsed. I. I…

Davai, I hope you are not like this on a regular basis, Zanai said. I do not think you should be able to continue serving if you are.

What business? Melissai asked.

Well, the, there’s a… apparently the University has a student there, someone who’s been on trips to the AncientMountains before, Davai replied. She is regarded as something of a knowledgeable source on the devices found there. Such as… such as… the Omnipotent. Rosai thought that there might be something to know about the recent… Vandlandian attacks we have been—

“Ah! What are you doing?” Davai yelled at the fitters. “Don’t touch that line! The pipe’s fine, can’t you see! It’s supposed to swivel like that! Get off, get off, get off!”

The fitter that had been subjected to Davai’s panicked screaming slowly moved his wrench away from the nut he was about to turn. He muttered something again, and started turning the handle that lowered himself from the grand ship.

They do not understand us… Zanai said. They hear the sounds, they comprehend our words, but they do not truly understand any of this. This is why we select and train who we do. They are better people than the rest, are they not? They are only who deserves their post.

That… that I must agree with you, Elisai said. The quality of the masses is not what is necessary to make it up here. We must be very careful with whom we allow.

The university student? Melissai prompted.

Oh! Well, she’s… her name is Francis Benjin, Davai said, but the school does not seem to like to… it discourages our charges from, from visiting. Says they cause too much of a disturbance, and so there is a particular… animosity—a violent one—against them, from students and faculty alike.

I was wondering why Captain Urbane did not wish to visit himself! Melissai laughed. He is afraid of a few thrown insults, is he? He does not want his reputation tarnished by an altercation?

I… I do not know? Davai said. I just, I just guard the vessel. I do not try to get myself into anything more.



“So what’s this ‘official military business’ about, anyway?” Kip asked, his words crystallizing in front of his face as condensation.

Maggred shifted the rifle and chain on his back into a more comfortable position as he walked down the dingy streets lit by the intermittent light of the oil lamps. There was no one on the street but the two; clearly, nobody wanted to be out at night in the middle of a Celestian winter. “Nothing too drastic. I just need to sneak into the University without being seen. Now hold on.” The marine held up a finger as Kip opened his mouth. “We don’t need to steal anything or do anything else illegal. We just need to talk to someone.”

“I don’t like where this is going,” Kip said. “Why can’t we just walk in?”

“Never been up there, have you?” Maggred asked, as if that answered anything. “Those people are the, ahem, wonderful blokes that mix themselves up in science and other philosophies until they don’t even know what’s good for them anymore. But it’s not like they ever do anything useful. All this time and our Omnipotent is still in the air, as much as they’ve tried to take her down.”

“I thought they were trying to, to…” Kip gestured ineffectually with his hands. “…make new technology, or figure out our world, or something.”

“Naw, every time I talk to one of them, they always tell me about how much the Omnipotent is a ‘relic of an obsolete age,’ and that they’re going to replace her with something better. I’m yet to see it, huh?”

“Why would they want to take out life away from us? What would we do after this, huh? What would happen to the Advisors?” Kip asked.

“I don’t think they care, frankly. I think they’re just—Hey, what’s that?”

Down the street some few hundred feet, underneath a flickering lamp, a figure stood still. A strip of cloth fluttered from around neck height. Maggred saw, and pulled Kip off the street and into an alley. “Did they see us?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Kip replied. “Is it one of the University people?”

“I don’t know!”

“Well can you get closer?”

“You can.” Maggred shoved Kip back out and the engineer tried to hide in the shadows near a wall. He stared at the figure ahead. It was slowly panning its head back and forth, and Kip caught a glance at a pair of grotesquely large, bug eyes when the lamplight shone directly on them. They seemed to cover almost its entire face.

Kip slid up when it looked away, thankful that the snow would hide the sound of his feet. He felt the cool roughness of the building’s bricks behind him. The scarf fluttered yet again into view, and Kip realized who it was. He stepped back into the open, saying, but not too loudly, “Fetime! Fetime, why are you out this late?”

Fetime jumped about an inch. She peered at Kip through frosted goggles. “Oh, it’s you. I’m waiting for someone.” She looked back the other way again.

Kip’s heart skipped a beat. “Who?”

“No, it’s not-”