Ice Phoenix (8 page)

"Guys, what's happening?" called out Mikin nervously.

"Sssh! Don't move!" hissed Lorn.

"Is it true? Is the ice-phoenix staring at us?"

"Yes, Mikin. That view outside the window, it's not the In-Between. You're looking into its eye."

"Ai,
ai, eye? The entire window?"

"They have no size," said Lorn. "They are pure energy, born from Dartkala. They are the only known entity to exist solely in the In-Between with both form and intelligence."

"B-but they've never been in this part of Dartkala before," said Mikin fretfully.

"All the more reason to keep quiet and not move," muttered Lorn. "Something must have brought them here. They haven't been sighted in over two hundred years."

The cabin suddenly flooded with green light, casting eerie shadows that rippled like waves on the sea. With the light came a bone-shattering cold and the cabin turned frosty, with ice forming on the walls, floor, and window. Had it not been for the pods' automatic heat sensor and adjuster controls, the three of them would have suffered freeze burns.

The gentle sound of flapping filled the room. Terrana leaned forwards, pushing past Lorn to peer around the
edge of the pod.

"What are you doing?" he hissed. "Now would be a good time to hide!" But Terrana ignored him, her eyes drawn instead to the white bird flying around inside the room, leaving a ribbon of light behind it.

"Lorn, you've got to see this! It's beautiful," she whispered, shaking his arm. "It's in the cabin!" Lorn groaned and sat up reluctantly.

It was twice the size of a dove, with delicate frosted feathers and a long, wispy tail. It circled the cabin once more and as the three of them held
their breaths, it flew into the pod, perching on one of Terrana's outstretched legs.

The sheet that covered them hardened instantly. She dug her fingers into Lorn's arm, wincing from the sudden cold that shot up both her legs
.

The ice-phoenix was neither solid nor insubstantial. They could see tiny ribbons of energy undulating throughout its entire body, and they felt they were looking at the flow of life itself. It hopped farther up along her thigh and Terrana found herself staring into burning, green eyes.

A strange but familiar feeling flooded her. A connection that she had thought lost forever returned, beginning as a little spark in her head that spread throughout her entire body. It was a connection that had been severed when Puddy had abandoned her, leaving her to a complete stranger. The ice-phoenix's presence appeared to have repaired that broken wire. It did not occur to her that perhaps the wire had been repaired a little too well. Her head was filled with the humming of a thousand bees.

You are one of us.
Terrana flinched. This was beyond the level of communication between her and Puddy. This creature was sentient, powerful, and ancient. The humming had been a thousand thoughts, millions even, contained by an invisible net. Through it, the ice-phoenix had touched her mind with a single thought. Without the net, Terrana knew she would have died.

Do you return to the void?

Terrana blinked; the question made no sense. The ice-phoenix seemed to realise her confusion.

No, you are not ready. You do not know. Perhaps, this is best for you.

In what could be considered a display of affection, the ice-phoenix nuzzled its head against her chin, like a mother hen fussing over its chick.

Two young ones in the void.
We will meet again.
It stretched it wings, a sight of magnificence, as it rose into the air. Light gathered around it, becoming a whirlpool of brightness.

Shut your eyes.

Terrana shouted, "Shut your eyes!" She and Lorn buried their faces into the pod, squeezing their eyes shut. There was a blinding light and then the ice-phoenix was gone.

They remained like that for about a full minute
, their heads buried under their pillows before daring to get up again. Mikin was the first to cry out, falling out of his pod and scrambling to the window.

"Look!" he shouted, pointing outside. Terrana and Lorn rushed to join him, and together they stared into the In-Between, their faces lit up with wonder.

Terrana watched in awe as ten ice-phoenixes flew side by side, white ribbons of light trailing behind them as they sped through the In-Between. They looked like brilliant rockets in the night. Terrana had never seen anything like it before. Instead of becoming smaller the farther out they flew, the opposite happened. The ice-phoenixes grew larger until the ship was nothing more than an insignificant speck against their feathers. Then in one final, magnificent display, they turned onto their backs, becoming one giant phoenix. Like fireworks in the night, they burst into a myriad of brilliant energy pulses and gradually faded from sight.

The ship rocked violently from the sudden release of energy in the In-Between, causing Terrana and the boys to fall over. It swayed back and forth like a lost ship on a violent sea until the raging waters finally subsided. After it had steadied itself, the ship was cloaked in absolute silence and darkness for a whole minute. And then the lights came on.

Screams. Jubilant shouts. The ship was flooded with the sound of being alive. Students and crew members fell to the floor crying. Some were jumping in excitement, while others were motionless, unable to say a word. Chanting filled the ship.

"Ice-phoenix!
Ice-phoenix!"

It was an historic
moment. Never before had the elusive ice-phoenix made an appearance to anyone travelling in the In-Between. It was the reason why no one knew what it looked like until now and it certainly did not resemble a chicken-pineapple hybrid. And this wasn't just one ice-phoenix, but ten of them! Everyone felt blessed to have survived their encounter, and honoured to have seen the ice-phoenixes. The captain's voice rang out.

"
And that boys, girls, haemophrodites — is how we roll! Not a single person injured!"

The chanting got louder.

The captain continued in a quieter voice, "And we
survived
it!
We
are the first ones the ice-phoenixes have ever approached!
We
will go down in history as the ones to have seen Dartkala's most elusive and powerful creation! With our incredible footage of the greatest event in history we wil
l
— " Someone interrupted him. Everyone in the ship heard the mumblings of several other people in the background.

"What do you mean none of the ship's monitors were working?
What do you mean we don't have any evidence? Not even motion captures?" The captain sounded close to crying. "But, but it was an historic moment!
Bring me every single recording device on this ship right now! Confiscate them if you have to!
"

Terrana fell back on the
floor, and Mikin and Lorn joined her. Their hearts were still beating hard from the close encounter with the ice-phoenix. Laugh or cry, they could not decide which emotion to display.

"It came only to us," said
Mikin softly. "No one else knows."

"No," said Lorn, gazing at the ceiling. "It came only to Terrana." He turned over, raising himself on his elbows so he could look at her. He said the words softly. "Just who are you, girl from Sector Thirteen?"

Terrana could not answer that.

Both boys looked towards Terrana for answers, but she didn
't have any. The ice-phoenix had come to her, but she didn't know why. Whatever it said, or she thought she had heard, was gibberish anyway.
Two young ones? You are one of us?
Maybe she had picked up one of the broadcasting signals in the ship. She had heard it was possible; even people on Earth had reported it happening.

"Seriously,
I don't know why it came to me! Maybe it was just curious. Animals are like that sometimes!"

"Not the ice-phoenixes, Terrana," said Lorn. "They never approach people.
Never.
"

"Maybe they were bored. Maybe they just wanted to see what we were like!"

Lorn was not convinced. However, he could think of no other reason why the ice-phoenix would have specifically chosen to land on Terrana. But he had been right next to her; he had watched as the phoenix ignored him and started to rub heads with Terrana — like it had been glad to see her.

"Fine," he said. "I
'll let it go. But we won't speak of this to the others.  Understand? That includes you, too, Mikin. Not a word about the ice-phoenix coming into this room."

Terrana and Mikin nodded. "No one would believe us anyway," said Mikin.

Lorn sighed. "I'd be more worried if they did. Let's check on how the others are doing, shall we?"

That sounded like a plan. After the euphoria of being in contact with the ice-phoenix, Terrana needed something to calm her nerves; meeting the other students seemed like the right pill for it.

They strode out of the dome in single file with Lorn leading the way, marching across the deck. When they reached the great revolving door that led down, they stepped in, and descended into the hub of the ship.

It was alive. Students filled every corner, aisle, nook and cranny as they chattered, shouted, and screamed excitedly about the ice-phoenixes. Some of them were even crying and shaking, while others were on their knees, praying. Terrana looked at the praying students in surprise — it had never occurred to her that aliens from other worlds had religions. She made a mental note to ask Baneyon about it later.

They hopped over a few Sneleks, snail-like creatures from Sector Eleven who communicated via telepathy and left a trail of slime wherever they went, and met a wiry, Lizonian boy who was selling pictures. Lizonians were reptilian in appearance and hailed from Sector Five from a planet called, funnily enough, Lizonia.

"
Ithe phoenikth pikths - I haf them! Thee hundedth kedits o yo entia yia's poketh mani! Kum and get them!"

Lorn halted in front of him, nearly causing Mikin and Terrana to collide with each other. "Bit pricey, Mawuk!" he said.

Mawuk had the largest eyes that Terrana had ever seen. They were like dark glass set in a scaled head. He was tall, and dark brown scales tinged with white covered his entire body.

"
Histowi has no pice," replied Mawuk, haughtily. "And I am thee only one with pikths." His eyes changed. A white circle appeared in the centre of each eye and, as Terrana watched, the circles widened, like a camera lens trying to focus.

"Let's see them then," said Lorn.

Mawuk nodded and became very still. From his eyes, images appeared. He muttered something and the images were projected along the wall, flashing by as he flipped through them. Lorn whistled.

"Very clear, as if they were taken from the kitchen's storage area. You know — the area which is supposed to be
off limits
to students?"

Mawuk waivered and the images vanished from the wall. He suddenly looked nervous.

"You do realise that students caught in the kitchen face expulsion from Minda Yerra because there's a high chance you've contaminated our food source?"

"I ... I wasn't
thea!" wailed Mawuk. "I swea — I tuk them fom the thed dek!"

"Don't believe you, Mawuk," said Lorn lightly. The corner of his mouth lifted slightly. "Sorry, but I'll have to report you to the captain ... unless you print the fifth, tenth, and eleventh pictures for me,
and
, you tell me who sent you to the kitchen."

Mawuk's
face fell.

"I'll
haf them fo you at skool. And ith was Bogath who sent me ... he wanted goot stuf."

"
Ahhh, Bogath huh?" Lorn's face turned dark. "He never learns. Looks like I'm going to have to pay him a visit."

He turned and walked away, leaving the other two to follow after him. "What did you mean by, he never learns?" said Terrana, as she hopped, spun, and ducked under the other students rushing by. She could barely keep up with Lorn as he pressed on through the crowd.

"A student nearly died last year because Bogath sent a Snelek to steal some food from the kitchen," said Lorn abruptly. "Its slime came into contact with prepared food and the students who ate them fell ill. Sneleks' slime is extremely poisonous to Lipporians, and a Lipporian girl almost paid the price with her life."

As they passed the other students, Terrana began to notice more of their traits and abilities, and as a human being from Earth, she suddenly felt small and insignificant. For instance, Donkinongans were bug-eyed, solemn little people who could fly, the
Magarkans were cat-like and could jump really high, the Lipperians could sprout tentacles from their backs, and she had already seen what the Lizonian boy could do.

Even though they were so different, Terrana referred to
everyone as people. As it turned out, it was an acceptable word in this part of the universe, but with a slight difference in meaning. People didn't just mean humans or humanoids; it meant living inhabitants of the UWIB.

Now and again, Lorn stopped to chat with a group of students. He slipped in a seemingly innocent question — always the same question. "Did any of the ice-phoenixes enter your cabin?" Each time he was answered with peals of
laughter. "Always the joker, you are!" they replied.

It didn't take much for Terrana to realise that everyone on the ship associated the ice-phoenix with death, and the notion that one had come aboard was just ridiculous. Eventually, they came to a door displaying the message, 'By invitation only.'

Lorn rapped three times. A couple of seconds later, they heard a soft, feminine voice call out, "Who is it?"

"It
's Lorn."

The door slid open immediately and out stepped the most beautiful girl Terrana had ever seen. She was tall and slim, with pointed ears and glistening white hair. Her sunny blue eyes were long and slanted and
she had full pink lips. When she smiled, Terrana saw perfectly straight teeth. Next to her, Terrana felt she had been living in a dumpster all her life, with her short hair and scarred face. The girl was around Lorn's age and seemed happy to see him.

"Lorn! Why didn't you come earlier? I missed you!" She pulled him into a tight embrace before kissing him on both cheeks. When she finally pulled away, she spotted Terrana and Mikin, and her forehead crinkled. "Who are they?"

Lorn glanced at them quickly before making the introductions. "Kalindra, this is Terrana and Mikin. We are sharing a cabin."

"Oh," said Kalindra, unable to hide her surprise. She stared pointedly at Terrana. "Where are you from?"

"Pophusia," replied Terrana.

"Oh. You are rather sunburned, so I thought you might be from
Migos. Are you an immigrant?"

Terrana nodded. That much was true.

"I'm from Nipponia," said Mikin, putting out a hopeful hand.

Kalindra smiled at him. "I didn
't ask you."

Mikin's face fell and he looked down at the floor in embarrassment. Kalindra returned her attention to Lorn.

"Weren't the ice-phoenixes the most amazing thing ever?" she gushed. Her hand was on his shoulder, no doubt pressuring him to walk into her cabin and abandon the other two. "Imagine, we'll go down in history as the only people to have seen them so close and survived to tell the tale!"

Her hand must have been pretty convincing because Lorn took two steps and was in her cabin. The door shut immediately, leaving a baffled Terrana and Mikin standing in the corridor.

Terrana glanced at Mikin. "You think she locked us out deliberately?"

Mikin nodded miserably. "She didn't look too happy to see us."

"Yes, but Lorn wouldn't have left us, would he?" Her left eye twitched. It did that sometimes when she was annoyed. When Mikin didn't say anything, she asked again. "Would he?" No answer. She turned towards the door and started banging it.

"
Oi, Lorn! Let us in! Oi!"

She kept banging for the next half minute until the door opened and an older, taller girl stepped out. She wasn't Kalindra, and she wasn't from Daiphus either. She was Pophusian, with silver hair like Baneyon. And pretty, too, had it not been for the angry scowl on her face.

"What do you want?" she snapped.

"We came with Lorn but got locked out
accidentally
," answered Terrana, with a bright smile. "Thanks for opening it." She moved to step in, but the girl pushed her back so violently that Terrana ended up colliding into the wall behind her. She winced as her shoulder took the brunt of the impact.

The girl's face suddenly loomed in front of hers. "Kalindra told me there was a dirty immigrant outside. She must have meant you. Why don't you crawl back to your hole and stay there?"

"Terrana! Leave her alone!" cried Mikin, rushing over to help.

The girl looked down at him as he tried to pull Terrana away.
"Awww, how cute! A little elephant trying to save a smelly immigrant. No wonder they're so dumb — they try to save anything these days!"

The other students were starting to take notice and a few had gathered at each end of the corridor, eager to see what would follow. The girl pressed her face close to Terrana's. "My name is Misa and you best remember it,
Migos immigrant. I don't want to see your dirty face around this part of the ship ever again!"

Terrana's eyes hardened, but the rest of her face remained placid. "
Nipponians
are just adorable," she said in the sweetest voice she could muster. "Their tolerance for testosterone-pumped girls with lousy brains for geography is admirable. I, personally, can't stand stupid people."

Misa hissed and stepped back, her expression livid. Terrana breathed an inner sigh of relief. Her adversary's face had been too close.

"You just called me stupid!" Misa snarled. "You, a Migos immigrant!"

"See? There you go again being stupid," said Terrana, drawing herself to her full height. "I'm not a
Migos immigrant. I'm a
Fijian
immigrant — big difference."

"Fijian?
What's that? Some kind of chocolate?"

"No, stupid.
Try Sector Thirteen." She knew she was asking for trouble, and yet she couldn't help herself. Some part of her wanted to know just how far she could push other people's buttons in this new world, and what reactions to expect. She soon found out.

"Fijian?
Sector Thirteen? You dare mock me?" Misa shoved Terrana against the wall and drove her fist into the younger girl's stomach. Terrana grunted in pain and doubled over.

"Terrana!" cried Mikin. He tried to push Misa out of the way but she sent him flying across the floor. The Pophusian was really strong. Not yet done
with Terrana, Misa pushed her against the wall again, ready to strike. This time, her fist came towards Terrana's face. Terrana moved quickly, and the fist struck the hard wall.

"
Urgh!" cried Misa, clutching her right hand in pain.

"You got that right,
lewa
," said Terrana, from behind.
Lewa
simply meant girl in Fijian. Misa spun around, kicking out reflexively. But this time Terrana was ready and she blocked Misa's right leg with a sweep of her left hand. She then grabbed Misa's injured hand, pulling her forwards. As Misa stumbled towards her, Terrana ducked and then straightened at the right moment. Her shoulder sank into Misa's stomach and Terrana pushed up with her legs. The girl flipped right over Terrana's shoulder and landed on the floor.

Silence.
A pin could have dropped and everyone would have heard it. All eyes were on the young, feral-like girl standing over her fallen opponent, unable to believe she had just defeated a much stronger, taller person.

Even Terrana was surprised at how easy it had been to throw the girl, but years of swimming, climbing trees, lugging coconuts, and digging for cassava back home had given her incredible strength and endurance.

"You should have just let us in," she said, looking down at the girl. "Then we could have avoided all this —"

The door slid open suddenly and something
came flying out. It landed heavily on Misa, and Terrana stared open-mouthed as Lorn walked out of the cabin, leaving the door open. His expression was unreadable.