I was floatingly tired from the full-on training Mara put me through and declined the opportunity to have my ability to step back and forward corrected. We played the spelling game again, and all the kids are continuing to improve in leaps and bounds, but when we asked them what treat they would like they couldn’t (or wouldn’t) settle on anything. When it was time for me to read the next chapter of our story I had Ys and Rye each read a couple of paragraphs to start out with, helping them spell out the more complex words, and then finished off the rest myself.
I had to laugh at Kaoren, since I next went and read to him. His response was to have me write him out the English alphabet and start teaching him English as I read. We’re reading through more of my period of being Zan’s trainee, revisiting my struggles to understand the concept of the Ena and what the hell was going on. And just desperately wanting Zan to like me, since she was the only person I knew. It immediately made me email Zan and ask her if she was interested in going swimming together some time (possibly with the kids).
Today I have medical appointments again, while First and Fourth are on Ena assignment and I’m trying not to worry about Mara’s first day back on serious active duty. I finished off reviewing the little history of me which is going to be made public. It’s pretty dry, so there wasn’t anything to object to.
Monday, September 22
Day Trip
Score! The bluesuits decided that some kind of public display of me was going to be necessary to quash the conspiracy theories, and so agreed to me going shopping. Probably the oddest assignment I’ll ever have – a mall visit to foster public calm.
Maze, Kaoren and I had a sit-down after First and Fourth were back from mission yesterday and talked through the technicalities. It’s one thing, after all, to take the kids shopping, but another thing altogether to expose them to the kind of crowds which turned up at Rana Junction. And a large, obvious number of guards would draw attention like a magnet, whether or not they were in uniform.
Eventually they decided on an escort of ten Setari, including Kaoren. We would take a roundabout way getting out of the KOTIS facility, dropping down to the basement levels to a freight shuttle and then coming up straight into the middle of the prime shopping district on the island. Kaoren, Zee and Nils would stay with me and the kids, and the rest of the escort would shadow us in two groups while we shopped, joining up only when travelling between floors and then stopping for lunch. We rather suspected that after lunch too many people would have recognised me for the excursion to continue. The police would be given an hour or so’s warning, but not too much because that would lessen the amount of time for word to leak.
I was all for wearing a blonde wig and dark glasses, except of course that would defeat the purpose and sunglasses are not exactly common on Tare. I settled for plaiting my hair in Sen’s favourite twin-braid style, since it was a way I don’t usually wear it. Mine isn’t long enough to be half so impressive as hers, and I skipped the ribbons, but I still quite liked it and Nils said it was different enough that people would need to take a closer look to be sure.
Nils was part of my near escort because he’s such a good Illusion caster, and Zee because she’s managed to be one of the least-photographed of First Squad. I longed to tease them about it, but since Nils seems to be pretending that he’s never been one to flirt with Zee, or indeed with anyone much, I figured it was best to leave it alone. They’re driving me batty showing no sign of particular interest in each other – I so want to pry and don’t quite dare.
Sen was tremendously excited, of course, and I think Ys and Rye were at least curious. I’d prepared them with a few select kids' shows featuring Taren daily life so they had some idea what it was like. They’re used to Taren-style buildings by now, but one of the big multi-level atriums is something else altogether.
I’d told them we were going to pick out some quilt covers for their beds (they all had standard-issue plain blue), and Kaoren had laid out the rules they had to follow in his usual clear and concise way. He offered up a few rules for me as well, and tweaked one of my braids when I suggested a couple for him in return.
With Nils and Zee taking lead, our trip up from the train was uneventful, with no-one spotting me at all – The Nils Effect means that most people don’t at first glance notice anyone but Nils, and then they’re often busy walking into light poles or rubbish bins. All the double-takes I saw were focused conveniently on him and Zee as we made our way to our first stop, an overwhelming multi-level toy store which stunned even Sen into silence.
"Since you couldn’t think of a treat yesterday," I said, "I figured this would give you some idea. Pick something you like." Ys developed a stubborn look, and I gave her a stern one in return. "We can’t leave till you do, so best get started."
I’m not entirely certain I would have won the battle of wills, but Sen gave Ys no chance of victory, grabbing her hand and almost catapulting her down an escalator to an endless display of dolls. It was a great store. I found a few toys for myself, and wasn’t the least surprised when Sen collected a thousand choices. I made her pick just two, but would buy them the entire store if I had somewhere to put it. She spent a lot of time with these horribly lifelike dolls (and androids!) taller than herself, but abruptly settled on a simple cloth one with a cheerful drawn-on face, and a poseable rainbow coloured thing with long arms and legs and googly eyes.
Rye found a kind of meccano construction kit, which Nils offered to carry (and then sneakily swapped to this humungous ultra-deluxe everything but the kitchen sink version). Ys was very reluctant, fingering a few things when prodded, but still without a choice by the time Sen had finally settled on her two. Kaoren solved this by picking something for her, this ultra-cool crystal statue – about two feet tall – which is made of nanobots and can take on any form you like – either a pre-programmed shape or one you make by treating it as modelling clay. There are hundreds of pre-programmed shapes, some of which sneakily change position when you’re not quite paying attention. Ys adores it. And Ghost spent half the evening stalking it.
We made it through the toy store without attracting attention, at least until we actually purchased the treats and found this girl who was on packaging and delivery service (they don’t really have checkouts at most stores since you can purchase through the interface at any point in the shop). Nils took them up for delivery, and The Nils Effect thoroughly distracted the girl wrapping the items, but when she saw the address he wanted her to deliver the packages to, she went all extra-awed and looked interestedly at the rest of us – and then stared at me and burst into tears.
It is severely embarrassing to have people cry at the sight of you. Sen didn’t like it at all, and attached herself to my leg, and I said some awkward words to the girl, who was apparently just glad I really wasn’t dead. Word spread after that, as we headed to a bed-ware store and successfully had even Ys select a quilt cover that she liked. You could see people gathering in little groups to stare at us and, since we’d deliberately left the image-shield inactive on everyone except the kids, our shopping trip was soon a live-streaming event.