The Space Between (12 page)

And, sitting next to an 'elf', she took a
deep breath.

"The earth is being attacked by aliens," she
said softly. Like everyone else, she was going about her business
as if the world hadn't recently gone though the greatest moment in
recorded history. Admittedly, it was unusual business, but she was
sitting on a train chatting amiably as if she would wake up
tomorrow, or next week, and everything would be the same as it had
always been.

"What's your world like, Meledrin?"

"Pardon."

"Your world, what's it like?"

"Very much like this one. There are trees
and rocks," she waved her hands towards the window, "mountains and
streams."

"Obviously," Kim said. "It has to be a lot
like Earth or you'd be dead. Carbon based life, oxygen,
photosynthesis, minerals, gases. You could probably drop me
somewhere on Sherindel, and I wouldn't be able to tell for sure I
wasn't on Earth."

Meledrin nodded. "I could inform you that
there are mountains that touch white tipped fingers to the sky,
lakes that so perfectly mirror the sky that you can shoot birds
just by watching the reflections. There are trees that sing the
breeze in perfect choruses and fields of crowded sun worshipping
flowers in a thousand colors. I could tell you these things, Kim,
but the things of simple beauty in this carriage would have more
meaning."

"The things of beauty in this carriage?" Kim
looked around, not sure what things the elf was talking about.

"You do see not the beauty here?" Meledrin
asked, with one perfect eyebrow raised. "How terrible your life
must be."

"Terrible?" Kim looked around again in the
flickering fluorescent light. "Point this beauty out for me
then."

Meledrin looked around the carriage. "The
face of the child." She gestured towards a little girl sitting on
the other side of the aisle a few rows back. "Her smile, the
concentration so apparent in her eyes, the line of her jaw, the way
her hair outlines the delicate curve of her ear." Meledrin looked
around again.

"And the old lady over there. Her shawl. The
colors are perfect -- slashes and swirls against the plain,
straight lines of the seat. That young couple over there. Their
clothes could not be more different, their features could not be
more different, but look at the expressions they wear. That is
beauty, Kim: a smile, a look, a simple, unexpected pleasure."

Kim knew what the elf was
saying but couldn't truly see it. When she turned to Meledrin to
say so, she wondered if the elf really
could
see it. Meledrin knew that
beauty was there, perhaps, but she looked with the eyes of an art
critic, not an art lover or an artist. She was so emotionless that
she could not possibly see it any other way.

Kim closed her eyes. She wondered where
Keeble was. The dwarf didn't like Meledrin, and she was starting to
agree with him. Meledrin had seen her people slaughtered and
crossed between worlds. She left a man, a good friend at the very
least, in critical condition, in the company of strangers, and was
separated from another companion. She had generally been thrown in
over her head and hadn't shown one visible human emotion, or even
an elfish one for that matter. She'd kept a couple of emotions
hidden, but that was not the same.

The trees continued to stream past the
window. Farmhouses were stars in the darkness of space. Towns were
galaxies.

"Why do you think they're here, Mel?"

"Who?"

Kim sighed. "Who do you think?"

"I do not know. I do not believe that 'why'
is important. It does not change what is."

"'Why?' is very important. They travelled a
gazillion or so kilometers to attack Earth. All the space between
here and there means they have a very good reason for doing it."
She remembered the alien that had spared the witch and her
granddaughter at Sherwood Forest. It had seen them, aimed, then
changed its mind. "We need to talk to them, Mel," she said. "We
need to find out what the hell is going on, because they aren't
monsters. I know they aren't."

"Perhaps not, but I still do not see how
that changes what is."

"Of course you don't. But maybe we can sort
all this out peacefully. Maybe we don't have to kill them."

"Why should we not kill them? They come and
attack our worlds, and you wish to make friends with them?"

"Of course I do. I left the army,
remember?"

"People are dying. People are dead. I do not
feel the need to make friends with the killers."

"Well, then maybe
everyone
will end up
dead."

"No. You humans on Earth will survive."

Kim turned to look at the Meledrin, to see
if she was at all bitter. But as usual, the elf showed nothing.
"Just because the aliens aren't having any success at the moment,
doesn't mean they won't in the future."

"They are obviously no match for your flying
warriors. Their bombs are pitiful, they damage hardly anything, and
the damage is quickly controlled."

Kim didn't agree with the elf's definition
of 'hardly anything', but she let that slide. "You're talking about
something you know absolutely nothing about. All the aliens need to
do is find one half-decent sized rock to throw at us."

"A rock? You are worried that they might
start throwing stones?"

"A big rock, the size of a office block,
thrown from space."

It was obvious Meledrin still didn't
understand but Kim didn't care. She turned to look out the window.
The English countryside continued to flash by. London couldn't
arrive soon enough.

* * *

"Is the other side of the river really so
important that all these bridges are truly required?" Meledrin
asked.

Such questions convinced Kim that Meledrin
was for real. No human, even acting as some weird alien, would ever
think of asking the point of television soap operas. They may ask
what they were, but never why. They'd never ask about the spiritual
importance of pop music, especially English pop music, with a
straight face. And they'd never ask if the other side of the river
was really that important.

"Yes, it's important," Kim replied. "For
humans, the other side of the river is about the most important
thing there is." She wasn't sure if the elf was aware of symbolism
or metaphor, but she wasn't about to explain them in the back of a
cab travelling to Parliament House.

"Where is this place to which we go?"

"Not far. So what, exactly, do we do when we
get there?" Kim asked, leaning across to close Meledrin's window
against the heavy rain.

"What is it that you mean? We go and tell
them what is happening on my world, of course."

"They already know what's happening, Mel.
Their army is fighting a war on Sherindel."

"There must be understanding between our
peoples. We must forge an alliance against these attackers."

"Well, we won't get close enough to anyone
to say a damn thing. We won't even get in the door."

Meledrin began to say something, but Kim
continued, cutting her off.

"I
wasn't
guarding the tree. I was just
standing there. Nobody was guarding the tree."

Meledrin looked out the window, lost in
thought. "Are the Lords meeting today?"

Kim leaned forward and tapped on the
partition that divided them from the driver.

The man opened a flap. "Yes, Ma'am."

"Is parliament sitting today?" She probably
should have checked that earlier.

"I don't think so, Ma'am."

"Thank you."

"That's fine. Probably be another five
minutes."

"Do they have offices in there?"

"Some do, Ma'am, but I don't know if they'll
be there."

"Why's that?"

"Big target like that?"

"Obviously. Thanks."

The flap thudded closed again.

"They're not meeting."

"Yes, I heard."

"Good."

"Then we will just go and see what happens.
Some may be there in any case; surely they have duties they must
attend to."

"Fine. There are worse ways to waste a day,
I suppose." Though she'd already visited all the famous London
tourist attractions.

Kim turned away. She was glad Meledrin
didn't speak for the rest of the journey.

8: Absent Lords

Meledrin wondered how the Lords could be so
negligent to their duties. There was a war, how could they not be
meeting? She listened as Kim got the information, again, out of a
recalcitrant guard at the main gate.

"So, are there
any
Lords in there?" Kim
asked. "Are they Lording, or whatever it is that they
do?"

"Maybe, Miss."

"What about MP's?"

The man shrugged.

Meledrin could not remain silent. The guard
could not be trusted, saveigni that he was. "Would we be allowed to
go and converse with one of them?"

"Sorry, Ma'am. State of emergency and all.
No unauthorized people in or out."

Kim smiled at the man as if she had found
the solution to their dilemma. "Well, if you say we're allowed,
surely we'd be authorized."

"Sorry."

"We have information about the aliens."

"Doesn't everyone?"

Meledrin wished to help but did not
interrupt.

"Not like this. We know what's happening in
Nottinghamshire."

"Well, try going to your local member."

"From my accent, would you think my local
member might be somewhere nearby?"

"Sorry, Miss."

"Okay. Just checking."

Meledrin finally opened her mouth to speak
but Kim took her by the arm and drew her away before she had the
opportunity.

Meledrin whispered a
Lesser Changing
.

Kim led the way back towards the river, and
Meledrin followed as quickly as dignity would allow. Vehicles moved
along the streets, throwing out arcs of spray, but the roads seemed
to be carrying far less than their full capacity. Pedestrians
either hurried by with their heads down or stared up at the sky.
There were small stalls near the end of a long, stone bridge, but
they were closed.

Kim soon dashed across the street and took
shelter under the arched concrete portico opposite. She sat at a
small table and stared at a huge, motionless wheel with gondolas
suspended from it. When a servant came, she ordered a drink, not
speaking until she had taken her first sip several minutes
later.

"What do you want to try now?"

Was that not obvious? "We find these Lords
of yours and make them help."

"They aren't
my
Lords."

"What is it that you mean?"

"I'm not English. I'm Australian, mainly. I
don't have any right to ask anything of a British politician. And
neither do you."

Meledrin suppressed a sigh.
"Then let us go and ask for assistance from one of
your
politicians."

"Huh. That'd be like asking a school yard
bully to fight Asian crime gangs."

"Pardon?" Meledrin said. Even if she
understood every word of English, she doubted she would always
understand.

"If we got to talk to an Australian
politician, they'd talk big and say 'yes, of course we'll do
something'. But as soon as you turn your back they'll go back to
doing what they do best."

"Then who is likely to listen?"

"Americans." Then she shook her head, as if
arguing with herself. "Maybe."

"And why will they listen when others will
not?"

"Three reasons. One,
they're the most powerful nation on Earth and didn't get there by
sitting on their hands. Two, like everyone they like to be popular
and the good thing about this war is that
everyone
on Earth will be on their
side, for once. And three, according to the reports, they're
copping more from the aliens than anyone else."

"Then let us go to America." Meledrin rose
to her feet and waited for Kim to lead the way.

Kim stood and made her way to the edge of
the street. "We can't go to America —"

"Why not?"

She sighed. "You don't have a passport. You
don't have anything. You don't exist. But if you hadn't interrupted
me, I would have said, we can't go to America, but we don't have
to."

"I apologize for interrupting."

"That's okay. But now we have to find a
cab."

"To go to which location?"

"The American Embassy. But just remember,
like I said before, they may not listen."

"Why would they not listen? We have
important information."

Kim gave a grunt of laughter. "The world is
being attacked by aliens. I know it might be a bit hard to tell,
standing here, chatting as we are, but pilots are flying around
above us risking their lives, possibly, and shooting big, black
space-bats." Kim shook her head and muttered, "Ed Wood's about to
rush onto the set and yell 'cut'."

"Who is this Ed Wood? Is he
an American Lord?"
And what is he wishing
to cut?

"The point is, the people in charge don't
have time to listen to every crackpot that comes knocking on their
door with conspiracy theories and tales of magical gateways."

"But it is the truth."

"The truth doesn't always matter,
unfortunately."

"Many people are dying. Surely they want
every piece of information that might help."

Kim laughed again. "You obviously don't know
humans all that well. Sometimes not knowing is preferable. The
existence of aliens has already upset a large proportion of the
world, but at the moment it's still just a war. One that we seem to
be winning. Mention magical gateways and you'll open up a whole new
can of extremely smelly worms." Kim paused, chewed on her lip.
"You'd think the aliens would learn, wouldn't you?"