Patricia Johnson has generously sent me another of her wonderful stories for the blog. It was first published in dotdotdash.
The
Red Pagoda
by Nabu
Stain waits, ready to
merge as soon as his colours are ready. Long and lean, dark and dirty, Stain
exists on the fringe of space. Many would like to know how he finds the
slipstream so easily every time he wants to travel. They are unaware of his
skill with colours, learnt during a protracted and intense apprenticeship to
his Uncle Whitsun, Master of Tints, Shades and Meaning. In his appearance to others, Stain is an
aberration, a centipede and a person no one wants to know. And that is how he
likes it.
Crimson, topaz and
emerald are the pures Stain works with; but this time he adds a drop of shale grey
for tonight Stain is going to visit the Red Pagoda. Also, carefully hidden, are
the other colours he plans to use.
On another plane of the
galaxy on the Planet Jhazu the beautiful Yah wi waits by a gilt doorway, her
skin like the cool morning mist, her hair like a waterfall, her smile as warm
as Jupiter. Her eyes are large and lustrous, full of the syrupy indigo glow of
her kind. Her flesh is the clean white
of the Northern Star, her hair a black that is almost blue. She is as irresistible
as morning.
Jhazu is a cold planet;
it is full of high spacious white houses built very close to each other and to
the road. The houses are deserted in winter. The only place above ground in
Jhazu that is warm in winter is the Red Pagoda. It’s fires burn larger than a
stag, its washa drinks are like fireballs and the people crowd into its rich
oriental rooms whenever they can. Looking out of the glass door frosted with
fine icicles, Yah wi can see a farmer driving his cattle over the frozen ruts
of ground. Their bodies are sheathed in thin layers of ice, but their heads and
bony legs constantly break free, as the snow blows around them.
Yah wi watches but she is
bored because she is not rational; she is just a collection of skin, bone,
blood and feelings. She lives in a perpetual hell state, because she has no
regulator, no thermostat. She is a Bonwin. As well as being known for their
huge dark fringed eyes, Bonwins are also famous for having no logic and little self-control;
they feel, but do not think. Their lack of control makes them easily controlled
by others, giving them great value. For a brothel this is very handy, and the
harsh and petulant Fajuli who run this frontier town are glad to buy the rare Bonwin
whenever one comes on the market. Despite the blue sky-price, the Fajuli make
their money back in six months. The Bonwin are the perfect prostitutes, male
and female, because they love their work. Work sets their feelings on fire and
they are pure feeling. The more they can work, the more content they are.
Obviously this is a great advantage for a money-making venture such as the Red
Pagoda.
Stain surrenders
himself to the journey. As he slides through the night he has no idea what this
visit will bring. For although the Fajuli can recognise a profit when they see
one, they are small beer who cannot compete with the larger powers. Usually the
Fajuli are left alone as too unimportant to be noticed, but one of them has
been engaging in extracurricular activities lately. Fellanon, a loose built man
with a clenched fist of a face, has been dabbling outside the recognised Fajuli
area; his attempts at espionage have been noted by a rival faction. Fellanon
knows a secret.
Yah wi still waits
bored by the door of the Red Pagoda. Fellanon stands nearby ready to take the
cash and keep order in the house. As a glorified bouncer, he thinks his secret
identity is unknown. Stain slides along the slipstream, letting himself enjoy
the sensation and anticipate his pleasure. It has taken him a while to get the
money together for this evening but he is feeling more than just the usual physical longing. Stain is in love and he plans
to get Yah wi out of captivity tonight.
On his private planet,
orbiting the fabulous Capo dicha, Lord Calophone sits at his meteorite desk,
many times larger than himself; he has to perch on a cushion on a chair with
extra long legs. He is the size of a fire hydrant with an ugly blue face. He is
so small that he likes everything around him to be big. He likes to win; he has
to dominate. Lord Calophone is a hereditary Lord of the Waspen Dynasty. He is
not at the top of the Dynasty, far from it, but even the lowliest Lord of the
Waspens is a power.
Lord Calophone is angry. He thumps his desk.
He bangs his drawers. He yells and threatens and commands. Lord Calophone has
Bonwin blood in him – he is not all feeling, but he is more feeling than
rationality. His retainers live in a never-ending state of anxiety as a result
of the intensity of his emotions. And Lord Calophone is sick of it, he shouts,
sick of it all. This little creep from Planet Jhazu has interfered is his plans
for the Great Dynasty War with his pathetic spying game. Fellanon is on Calophone’s
hit list. Not only that but the whole moiety of the Fajulis has been filching
all the best Bonwins. It’s about time they were taught a lesson. YES! It’s
about time they found out who was boss. He commands his NJL Squad to prepare for a raid tonight on the Red Pagoda.
Fellanon has been
spying for a long time. Although his home is on Jhazu, he works as a special
agent for the Aphistas, and for the head of Aphista Intelligence, Morgana. The Aphistas are known far and wide as the
chief scientists of the galaxy, ingenious industrial designers, and makers of the
best clocks. One of their top researchers has discovered that if you heat up
and treat dark matter with a disburser catalyser system, you create a substance
(temporarily christened dM2) with many valuable uses. One of these is making
unbreakable china; another is curing the space disease known as pagilomorphia,
a disease which affects the outer nervous system.
But the most exciting and
secret use so far discovered is that dM2 acts as a sort of antidote to the
feeling state. dM2 given in small doses
activates dormant coldly rational, logical brain cells, but only temporarily.
There is a sea of endless possibilities for the use of dM2 on Bonwins. While
this information is confidential at the moment, the fear of it being leaked to
a competing planet is huge. dM2 could make all the difference to the Aphistas,
making them a real power in their own right, rather than a most valuable
partner.
Fellanon is not really a
very good spy. He just always seems to be in the right place at the right time.
A brothel seems to be a good place to pick up information; he can always get
the Bonwins to talk about their clients with a little extra money and a few threats.
The Aphistas know all about Fellanon’s
work at the brothel and his access to plenty of Bonwins. They want Bonwins to
test their dM2 on and Fellanon has them. Fellanon must deliver half a dozen
Bonwins to Morgana by the night of the Double Full Moon or face losing his
extra and very profitable employment with the Aphistas. He has been reluctant to part with his Bonwin
stock, even for a short time, but with the advent of dM2 he has begun to feel in
danger and decides that at the waning of the Double Full Moon tonight or
tomorrow morning he will make the trip to Aphista with his chosen six,
including Yah wi.
Night
of the Double Full Moon
Evening customers are
drinking, dancing and engaging in other pleasurable activities with beautiful
Bonwin girls and boys at the Red Pagoda. Yah wi’s indigo eyes are sparkling
bright. Fellanon and his barbarian Fajuli mates are celebrating the Double Full
Moon with everyone else while keeping a weather eye open for any trouble. In the
club part of the facilities the band Meteor
Assault is belting out their trademark sonic reggae beat, but out the back
is a windless waste of snow and debris as the NJL Squad materialise in quiet
menace amongst the bins. All in snowstorm khaki, equipped with bulletproof
uniforms and the latest Waspen Destruction Dimms, they look like Sumo Ninjas
with poor muscle control. They can’t help bumping into each other as their
vision is obscured by their huge helmets (chosen by Lord Calophone) so heavy
that they cause the squad to lurch widely in an off balance salsa.
‘snicker snack, snicker
snack’ chant the Sumo Ninjas.
Their Lord is with
them, geared up for action in his own specially made child sized uniform and
walking on stilts at the head of their formation. NJL Squad spreads out to
guard each exit waiting for the word to move. Above them their spaceship
circles, transmitting pictures onto Lord Calophone’s Hand Hooley. Everything is
ready to go.
Stain has arrived on
Jhazu. His colours are well hidden, sewn into the back of his jacket. Fellanon
knows him and has already had him up against the wall warning him to behave
himself and checking him for weapons. When Fellanon lets him go, Stain heads
straight for Yah wi; she hums to herself thinking that now she will be able to
switch on her feelings to the full. Yah wi’s love for Stain is half-hearted
until he arrives. She has no way to love him or even think of him at all when
he is absent; her whole being turns off and her abstract ideas are almost
non-existent. But now that he is here she is wholly violently without any
question in love, all atremble for his touch. Taking him to her room, Yah wi
smiles widely and holds him close so that Stain is transported to the place he
longs for, the place where he is loved. He explains his plan; they will wait
for the long night of the Double Full Moon to end when everyone will be exhausted
and ready to sleep. When the guards check the rooms Stain will hide with the
help of his colours until it is quiet and then they will walk to the place of
the slipstream and glide away. Not knowing if it is not a particularly clever
plan or even likely to work (though of course, she is used to this) Yah wi
agrees and they are united as Stain mixes the colours they need.
On Aphista, pressure
has come down hard Morgana. Higher powers cannot wait any longer and she
understands the position and the urgency. Deciding that rather than trust the
idiot Fellanon to deliver her Bonwins, she will go to pick them up herself.
Donning her black mantis uniform, Morgana gathers her team.
‘move along,’ yells
Fellanon, shaking his whip and making the Bonwins cower. When they are afraid
they are very afraid, at the whim of every other being. Three boys and two
girls are crowded into the corner of one of the inner chambers. As the most
valuable of the girl Bonwins, Yah wi has been sent for, but she has disappeared
from her room. The guards do not realise the use of the colours to conceal;
they have no idea of Stain’s powers with them. When they report her absence to Fellanon,
he leaves the guards in charge and runs up to check Yah wi’s room for clues. He
must leave for Aphista immediately to get there on time; Aphistas get ugly when
they have been stood up. Their access to chemical knowledge makes them
dangerous and he dares not welsh out on their deal.
As Fellanon stands in
the room looking at the long mirror and narwhal comb, Stain and Yah wi crouch
invisibly against the wall hardly breathing; they hear the sound of guns.
Looking from the bedroom window, Fellanon sees Morgana and her fellow Aphistas
draw their light weaponry and fire toward the brothel. He thinks the Red Pagoda
is being attacked, that the Aphistas have decided not to pay, but to steal. They
must have decided not to wait for him to bring the Bonwins to them but to come
and get them themselves. He leans out the window, keeping in the shadows and
catches sight of the Waspens in their ridiculous uniforms. What are the Waspens
doing here? Why are they firing their Destruction Dimms? Destruction Dimms
against the Aphistas. What fools they are. Aphistas command the most sophisticated
weapons in the galaxy. All around the snow glitters with green blood pouring
from Waspen bodies. Lord Calophone is screaming ‘snicker-snack! snicker-snack!’
to his bloodless soldiers, his Hand Hooley dangling loose from his jacket with
its gold braid and splendid red stars. From the upstairs window Fellanon cannot
work out what has happened. He bolts down the stairs into the main salon.
Customers are flat on the floor and the Fajuli are with them.
Confusion. Fear. Smoke.
Suddenly the noise stops. Silence drips through the air. Lord Calophone has
been lifted to his spaceship and already the Waspens are darting through the
sky, disappearing, deserting their stricken soldiers. Morgana, in her mantis black
and with a monster weapon over her shoulder strides through the door,
scattering bullets into the wall.
‘what kind of a double
cross is this?’ she yells at Fellanon.
The five Bonwins,
terrified by the noise and the fighting come running into the room, straight
into the arms of the Aphistas. Fellanon falters.
‘no double cross,’ he
says, ‘ I don’t know who they are.’
‘liar’ Morgana snarls.
She gives some orders to her men. They disappear with the Bonwins out into the
snow; the Aphista have come prepared with dM2 to administer to the Bonwins and
it is not long before they have all been dosed. Morgana sits on a stool and
orders a double washa, staring at Fellanon from her kohl-rimmed bloodshot eyes.
Upstairs Stain and Yah
wi are holding tightly to each other. During the fighting outside they slip out
the window and keeping to the shadows, disappear into the snow-laden trees. Yah
wi is shining with joy, she has never been so happy. Stain rescues his colours
and begins to mix crimson, topaz and emerald and a little shale grey and soon
they are on their way, wrapped in each other’s arms. Soon, very soon, he will
tell Yah wi what has happened and the significance of his name.
Behind them the Bonwins
have had their doses and have begun to change into hard cold logical selfish beings.
Their brains have begun to work and their long dormant capacity for communicating
telepathically kicks in. Without a word being spoken for their captors to hear,
they come to a united decision. Turning on the Aphistas they grab them by the
ankles and begin to slowly beat them into the ground. It doesn’t take long for
more green blood to colour the snow.
The Bonwins turn and
walk slowly toward the Red Pagoda.
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