Tally Road Original Story- Chapter 9

"It's a good rendezvous point- it's on the border of several different territories, both formal and informal."

Rairate blinked. "I think I know what formal territories you mean, but what is an informal territory?"

"That would be us."

The airplane split the air with a curiously rough roar that came from sharp edges disrupting the airflow. They'd have heard that if they weren't going at top speed themselves, but they'd never have seen it on the motion sensors, even if those aimed up into the air, for the plane featured radar countermeasures and consequently resembled some huge crystal, painted flat black.

The bikes were in a cramped cargo section- including the one that'd blown out. That suited Boodins- he felt guilty about breaking it, though Rairate was very nice and didn't blame him for that. Rai and Dene were, more than anything, relieved that he'd not killed himself losing control of the bike at speed. Rai's comments were mostly apology for placing Boodins in a dangerous situation, and Dene was still buzzed from leading them to the rendezvous. Once they met the pilots, representatives of Ungovernment, Rairate took control again with polite firmness and 'vraonse' in all directions. He was, however, having difficulty with his negotiations.

"Yes, I'd noticed a certain informality. When will I meet someone in a position of authority?"

"When you leave." The Runge pilot laughed. "Don't you know about us?"

"I would be pleased to learn- vraonse."

The other pilot grinned a wolfish grin. "That's a request, Dieb. Not only that, the way they handle things, he's asking to be Archie himself. I guess he won't find any trouble that way, he's so polite and all..."

Boodins couldn't let it pass. "Archie? He's asking to be Archie?"

"In a nice way." said Dieb. His companion relented, and explained. "That's what we call it- it's sort of mockery. Archie. Archy. Like monarchy, such as the Tompar use, or olgiarchy such as we have on our own damn planets, or just plain hierarchy such as our kitty friend's culture is all about. Archy."

"Archie is the specter of authority." said Dieb, as he flew the plane unwaveringly.

"But," said Rairate with baffled politeness, "your world is rich in authority. Compare it to the Estrai, for instance. You're not as well behaved as we are, but..."

The other pilot abruptly barked with laughter. "Well behaved!"

"Shut up, Fred." said Dieb indulgently. "That doesn't count."

Boodins, Dene and Rairate all stared, and finally Dene asked, astonished, "Fred?"

"He even got his official recorded name changed to Fred before he disappeared. Used to be Erzhof, like a normal person. Silly bugger. Got to watch out for Fred. And Fred, you know she doesn't count."

"Guess not." said Fred.

"What our Fred isn't telling you," said Dieb, "is that we're a reaction to that sort of authority. Ungovernment is a large scale experiment in un-Archie. Anarchy. We won't be delivering you to an authority. We're bringing you to some friends of ours who might be able to learn something from you."

"How can that possibly be true?" asked Rairate. "Everyone knows Anarchy cannot be scaled up beyond very small social groupings."

"Easy." said Fred. "We do it anyway, and when it breaks we play with the pieces. It beats being slaves."

"In other words, we tolerate problems- sometimes major problems. This isn't a life for cowards or perfectionists. If you're obeying someone you can pretend your problems are their fault. If you deny Archie, the responsibility lands in your lap, you're free, and things will still go wrong. Some people never do learn to accept that."

Rairate looked very puzzled, and his expression was mirrored by Boodins. Between them, Dene's ears were perked up.

"I think I like that." she said, quietly. "So you decide to be like this, and then from that point on... what? You never obey anyone again?"

"No, of course not..."

"Speak for yourself!" quipped Fred.

"Come on, Fred, it's a serious question. You know we're always answering that one. No, it's not like that- some of us think our brains are hardwired to establish hierarchy. We still do a lot of that- we just question it, and the higher the 'rank' the more the guy questions himself- or he ends up with a consensus to cut him down a few notches. Sometimes gets tired of it and goes off to boss somebody who won't challenge. It's pretty exhausting at times." said Dieb.

Dene was fascinated. "So if you have a lot to do, you actually..."

"I'm going to have to land this plane soon, and the runway isn't very long so I'm afraid I'll need to stop talking and concentrate in a moment." said Dieb.

"They let the people with the most power bear the most responsibility?"

"When we're lucky!" said the pilot- and concentrated, aiming for the runway that could be seen in the distance. As they approached, lights went on around it, and Rairate's eye picked out some hints that nearby buildings weren't as abandoned as they looked. The plane whined and bucked as it put out variable-geometry wings and flaps to deal with the short landing, and everyone remained quiet as Dieb drove the plane down onto seemingly the front edge of the runway, and immediately slammed on full brakes and thrust reversers with a screech and rumble.

"Shouldn't show off like that," said Fred. "You know we could lose landing gear if you came down a bit early. What if there was a gust of tailwind?"

Dieb earflattened, but you could see him thinking, and he said "Yeah, all right." He grinned at Dene. "This is what I warned you about. He has a point, but you'll notice we're still here and nothing bad happened. But I can't shut the bugger up, and anyway he could have been right. Welcome to Ungovernment's un-capital un-city."

It looked like a dump, but closer inspection revealed the truth: it looked like a fake dump, a movie-set wasteland. The plane taxied along a runway which was perfectly smooth but made of different colors of asphalt to appear as if the surface was scarred and broken, past buildings with apparently blasted-out windows which were, on closer inspection, no more than paintings. Rai commented on this.

Dieb replied, "Yeah, it gets a little cave-like at times. We don't permit light or heat radiation to get out of the buildings, so we don't have windows. It's not like there's a view, anyway."

"Permit?" asked Dene, who'd been following the discussion about authority with interest, and seized on the incongruity.

"It's a consensus. None of us want to be killed. The government isn't real happy to have us operating at all, you know. If we dumped a lot of heat and light into the environment, we'd be easy to trace. About half the facility is underground."

There was a sort of freight elevator- the plane took up a surprisingly small area of its floor space, as if it was designed to handle even the largest Runge aircraft. Possibly not the very largest Runge aircraft, for the wolves had not only demonstrated their expertise with such craft but also ran regular flights of unthinkably huge cargo planes to supply the vast cities. Nerre specialized in low-speed airbody cargo vehicles, like a cross between blimps and flying wings, that floated patiently over the gardens of Ause carrying tons of cargo. Runge preferred higher speeds, and had the demand to justify shockingly large planes and keep them in the air most of the time.

The elevator lowered their plane into a huge hangar, well underground. Massive concrete pillars supported the roof, and immediately around the elevator was an open area free of pillars, apparently to house the largest craft. It was occupied by- Rai did a double-take- a spaceship of Nerre lines, unknown provenance, taking up much of the space. Behind it, a wildly varied array of smaller aircraft, some black or bare-metal, some painted in outlandish colors and patterns. The scale ranged all the way from light shuttle size, similar to the plane they were in, to tiny personal craft like turbine-powered stretched bullets sporting diminutive wings.

"We can find you some accomodations for now, tomorrow you can talk to Hals about your offer." said Fred.

Boodins blinked, and said "What offer?" before Rairate was able to shush him, but the Runge didn't seem to mind.

"Trading information, of course. That's what your friend Voustrets was setting up. The pup here doesn't seem to be up to speed- all the better, his reactions will be fresher."

Boodin's reaction to this was a look so affronted and perplexed that Dene giggled to see it. This didn't really help matters.

There was a loading area that demanded the name 'concourse' as if it were a real airport- to call it a loading dock would clearly be an insult. Dene wondered who cleaned it, as Dieb began leading the party down increasingly humble and cramped corridors. However, her wondering was cut short by an unexpected and abrupt event.

From a side corridor, a little Nerre shot out, white with grey muzzle, paws, ears and tail, in such a determined hurry that she collided bodily with Dieb. "Oof! Whyn't ya turn around a bit and at least I could enjoy i..."

She'd seen Rairate, and Rai had seen her. He froze, as did she. Boodins, entranced, noticed she was nude apart from her short fur- Dene noticed that she was acting like a busy person with places to go and things to do- until now. The little Nerre immediately got a strange gleam in her eye, ignoring the newcomer, her attention solely on Rairate, her expression indecipherable but horribly intense- her tail lashing, but her ears forward in full attentiveness. Another Runge, bigger than Dieb or even Fred, emerged from the side corridor, looking worried.

"Ooooh! Isn't he pretty? Hey, honey, are you truuuuue? Wanna... ow, hey, Benjen! Stop!"

The big Runge had been sidling up, and the instant he got the gist of the conversation, he snatched up the diminutive creature, turned to interpose his body, and began physically carrying her away. The dainty kitten shrieked, and then unleashed a withering blast of the foulest language Boodins had ever heard- and then burst into heartbroken weeping, which continued as the Runge carried her away and out of sight and hearing.

Boodins stared after her, as did the others, so it came as a shock when Rairate, who'd been making a faint keening sound, suddenly dashed back the way he'd come. There was a drink machine, a water fountain, some way down the corridor, and Rai dashed up to it and dented it quite badly with a vicious kick, and smashed it to and fro with forepaws showing fully extended claws. Shortly he settled down, stared at the machine, and laid it on its side with a final savage kick that rang all along the corridor in the astonished silence.

"Vranorche."

"Is it safe to go near him?" said Fred.

"Yeah, that word he said means he's done." replied Dieb, to which Rai added, "You will permit me to replace the unit and take full responsibility for the damage, 'aonse." Dieb nodded.

"But what was that about?" said Dene, and then her eyes widened. "You mean... it couldn't... that wasn't!"

"Oh, yes it was!" said Fred. "Trust me on that one. I even, ahem, entertained her one night."

Boodins looked back and forth between them. "So... who was it?"

Dieb glanced warily at Rai, but the feline seemed calm again. "That was Magarce Kinstrsse Tentrsery, that's who. Nice move by her man there. I wondered if she was about to finally get herself killed. She's supposed to be off-planet, you know."

Rairate said quietly, "Would that I had." He didn't seem inclined to elaborate on that.

Boodins shook his head in wonder. "I can't believe it. She's so cute! And lively!" Fred coughed.

Dene consoled Boodins. "I know, but you have to remember she's crazy, she's not safe to be around. That guy has a lot to answer for, but I guess he can't stand to lose her. That was Benseln Jens, of course. Did you see how fast he reacted when he saw Rai?"

Boodins was still trying to grasp the situation. "But... wow! The swear words she used... and then when she burst out crying so hard... I can't imagine hurting as badly as that, and all he was doing was carrying her away."

"All her reactions are as wild as that." said Fred. "Even, well, you know. It's amazing, but you can't stand it for more than an hour or so. He gets it anytime he wants, but he has to deal with the dark side too. She's been completely impossible to deal with. I don't envy that Benseln at all." As Fred said this, Rairate earflattened dreadfully with the effort of not hearing it.

"That's incredible," said the awed Boodins. "I guess I envy you, huh? You got to... but it's a funny thing, if it's like that I think I kinda feel sorry for her."

There was a brief silence.

"I'm sure the thousands of people she's killed feel sorry too." said Rairate.

There was a long silence, as the group walked thoughtfully to their temporary lodging.