Chapter 3

She had to make a few attempts gaining entrance into Western Forest Channel Station, for some reason the gate wouldn't register with her Notepad. An attendant had to come out so she could plug it in. She realised she hadn't placed it in a recharging zone in a while, so she stood by the attendant's booth at the platform. She was up early so the platform was fairly empty, no members of the Fold, thank the Rolling Dunes.

“What're you doing?” The attendant asked her with suspicion. It was not normal for someone to stand so close to the wall when there was so much space available on the platform.

“Waiting for the ferry,” she replied, her irritation coming through strongly in her voice.

The attendant grunted, and headed back into the booth.

Cursing quietly beneath her breath, she moved away from the charging zone. Her notepad playing up, her annoyance, and her abnormal behaviour was enough to cause suspicion. He would no doubt register a mark against her; she would be watched for the day, targeted on every camera. This was one reason people disliked standing near the attendants; they had this one hammer and liked to bang it whenever they could. She'd have to tread carefully for the rest of the week, otherwise she'd stay on the list for longer. She could recharge her Notepad on the ferry, and there would be no-one to look at her sideways on that. Sure cameras, but what could they do? She would use the vantage point to look out the back – that was not unusual.

When the ferry presented itself, she boarded the final segment. This segment of the ferry only had two people on it. A dark-haired lady sat towards the rear of the ferry, wearing a green polysilicate Bendit shawl, designed to recall the appearance of leaves. She had a bored expression on her face and was clearly not looking forward to her day. The other side of the ferry held another lady, this specimen slim with her hair in a bun, and wearing a blue long-sleeved tea-length dress, also polysilicate, which was much cheaper than organic material – sand was abundant after all. Rain did not recognise the brand of this piece of clothing, but the woman's Notepad was an old model Cherryseed Loper.

A man followed her on, his wide-brimmed woven-reed hat bumping the side of the ferry portal. It looked as if he had made it himself, and his eyes had the green tinge of a long-term orangeweed user – the copper in the weeds having seeped into and stained his eyes. A quick glance at his fingernails confirmed it – they had a grey-green tinge to them. She was surprised he could afford to ride the ferry at all as any person who had been using that drug for so long would usually be so addicted that it would consume their life. That was what the informatives said, anyway.

He moved towards the back of the segment. Rain certainly did not want to sit anywhere near him so she moved forwards a couple of rows. This was annoying as there was no recharging zone here, and she couldn't really watch the ferry's wake. I turned out not to matter anyway, as he fell promptly asleep once sitting.

This was turning out to be quite an eventful morning, all things considered. She had a long trip to the doctor. There were others closer to home, even in the same complex as her, but she liked her current one and didn't want to risk trying a new one. Your health was not something to be gambled away – once you had found something good, you stuck with it.

Suitably arranged so as to keep an eye on the other passengers, mainly just the orangeweed man, she set a location alarm on her Notepad, which would notify her with a short vibration when she approached her stop. She downloaded the previous night's data and took a look at it. There wasn't much she could do with it right now because Notepads just didn't have that sort of grunt power. She eyeballed the data for anything unexpected but didn't see anything. She sent a message to Hammer detailing a few analyses she would like carried out on the data, in descending order. She was taking a sick day so she stopped working and read the day's informatives: a tidal wave at the Eastern edge of the archipelago; a new channel being proposed through Tammin, one of the larger islands; other items interesting to people in their regions but completely irrelevant to her. She really should set up some filters so she only saw useful material, but then, what if she missed something?

Rain turned her attention to her surroundings. This was an older-type ferry, it had doorways but no doors. Like all ferries it had no back wall, so people could look out, and had a railing to stop people falling off. Although it was bright outside, they were heading towards the sun, so not much light entered the cabin and the incandescent bulbs had come on, flickering weakly as their solar- and piezo- powered batteries had not yet recharged from the previous day. They did not brighten the room noticeably, but the flickering was enough to add to her edginess. One light was out completely – the bulb must have blown. This ferry was badly in need of repairs. One seat was missing, a jagged glassy stump where it should be. That could be dangerous if someone fell on it. They were easy to fix; just bring a new one in and melt it on, she had seen things fused together a bunch of times.

The ferry lurched, breaking her concentration. She looked up, her Notepad falling to the floor. As she bent down to retrieve it, the ferry lurched again, sending it sliding across the rough polysilicate floor. She stood, about to fetch it and froze. A huge shorttail salamander had climbed aboard the ferry. Hunger had driven it and it hunted the easiest target.

Powerful legs propelled it towards her. Rain stumbled, fell backwards. A numbness shot up her arm. She had hit the floor. A wet sound told her it was closer. She reached for a hold, tried to stand. She fell again as a wave hit the boat. The salamander rounded her row of chairs. She panicked. The lights in in the cabin brightened, searing holes in her vision. A roar filled her ears. Knives shredded her skin. Before the shorttail something had appeared. Four-legged and huge. Bright, bright white, it scuttled towards the carnivore. The salamander bit a leg off the insect. Legs. Rain thought. Weapons. The burning in her skin intensified, claws dug into her eyes, tearing up her forehead and scalp. A leg shot out of the creature's side, replacing the missing one. Two more emerged. The leg in the animal's mouth melted, liquid light pouring onto the floor. Limbs flew up and out of the insect-thing. Curved at the end, and tapered into scything blades. The knives in Rain's eyes stabbed deeper. She screamed in agony. The giant salamander lunged. Another leg dissolving in its mouth, it dodged a swipe from a glowing blade. The other blade swung down in a graceful curve, embedding itself in the monster's back. A furious shriek. The first claw swung again, slicing neatly through the salamander's skull, shearing through bone and muscle effortlessly.

Rain realised she had stopped breathing. She gasped for breath, panting in shock. The strange creature dimmed and shrunk. It lost its shape. The pain had gone and the lights had returned to their regular paucity, but Rain felt nauseous, a tingling sensation tickled at the corners of her jaw.

Standing, feeling dazed she surveyed the area for her Notepad. It lay on the floor, unharmed. Only seconds had passed, and the dark-haired lady with the Bendit shawl began screaming and gibbering.

“Did you... What was...”

The other lady was gaping slightly, a look of disbelief in her eyes.

Rain practically yelled at her, “Was that real? Did you see that?” She realised she was near hysterical as well.

The woman nodded slowly. Still coming to grips with what she had seen.

Not in the mood for talking, Rain moved forward one segment on the ferry to an empty room. The ferry would be at a station in a few minutes, this one a rarely-used, being in a backwater region, which explained by the shorttail was around. Rain's nausea had subsided, but she still needed to get off. She needed to think.

She disembarked at the worn-down station – Old Sangi – and headed inland on the island. She wanted to get as far away from water as she could.

Later that night a sickly man would tell other sickly men about the unreal trip he had aboard a ferry he snuck onto. Then he would chew orangeweed until the morning and forget all about it.