The Path of the Four

Down on the planet, Ariana walked toward the Old City, approaching the South/West Wedge first. Blue shadows lengthened on the ground. The North Land, and all of Zah-Gre, seemed slow, small, and quiet.

The collection of native buildings and native tents (the wedge-shaped “po-zahs”) had grown up, over the centuries before Corridor One, in the circular patterns that made up the Old City. Since Corridor One, the Human buildings looked like glossy magazine images, hacked out and taped with grand awkwardness on the ancient entity that was the planet Zah-Gre.

In the center of the Old City, in the North Land, down the curving streets, the Daily Market was in the center.

As Ariana continued to walk, there was almost nobody, Human or native, out on the streets this far from the Daily Market. Beside the po-zahs that were everywhere, the only buildings in the South/West Wedge, the area passed Ariana through, were the box-like Old City Post Office and the gigantic, green column that was the Den.

Everything she saw, heard, and smelled was familiar to her from the briefings on Earth. Between the Old City Post Office and the Den were three old Zah-Gre houses: a big column, sphere, and another big sphere. All the old Zah-Gre houses were columns or spheres. The Upper Clan and the Side Clan used these buildings, but all Zah-Gre lived in the tents, in the po-zahs, so many buildings stood unoccupied.

As the Humans measured time, in the year 1818, more than a century before Corridor One, before contact with Humans, Zah-Gre had “the Time of the Excitement of the Great Water.” A comet had passed very close to the planet, causing massive tidal waves all over the world. The four-member Inner Clan had interpreted the comet and tidal waves as a sign from the Zah-Gre god that the inhabitants of the Old City were to move out of the buildings and into the po-zahs, living their lives in a fashion more similar to the inhabitants of the South, East, and West Lands, and even the Center Land.

As Ariana continued to walk toward the center of the City, far off to her right was the big and grim and gray building that was Human Security Headquarters. She could see the rounded top of the Side Clan Building peeping over the H.S. Structure.

After a few more minutes of walking, Ariana finally began to approach the Daily Market where she started to see some Zah-Gre, and some fellow Humans. She tried not to stare at every one of these turquoise-colored, flat-headed beings.

As she went up and down the circling streets, she noticed the gwyrs. Both Humans and Zah-Gre rode the beasts, and mixed easily with the thickening crowds on the streets. Resembling Earth’s leopards, the creatures all had the coloring and marking of Earth’s house cats. Ariana passed one, for example, with a black rear section and tail, a white belly and paws, and a black and white face.

Ariana bought the latest USA Intergalactic from an Outer Clan Zah-Gre and his Human partner. The Zah-Gre wore a robe (all of the Zah-Gre seemed to wear robes) and a ring on one of his four-digit hands with the sign of the Outer Clan: a black dot with ten lines radiating from it, a sun-like figure, Ariana thought.

As she went on down the curving street, Ariana said, “Page One,” to the large sheet of paper that was blank, except the red, white, blue, and green USA Intergalactic logo. Newspaper stories faded onto the sheet.

Ariana didn’t know why she bothered. Thanks to the good works of Earth’s Better World Foundation, conditions on Earth had become, gradually, over the years sunnier and happier, since the creation of the Foundation in the aftermath of the Pan-Asian War. With a steady decline in crime, illiteracy, pollution, poverty, disease, and so on, what was left was the spectacle of one wonder right after another, which could get numbing. Here was an item about a high school chemistry student who had found a way to take the artificial skin created by Dr. Akira Yamato (everything interesting on Earth had been) to make a form of fertilizer for forests most people previously thought helpless because of catastrophic fires.

Ariana gave away her newspaper to a white-bearded tourist with a little silver camera.

She passed a phalanx of Human Security officers and Side Clan members going in the opposite direction. The H.S. officers wore blue and green uniforms with their logo sewn in gold thread on the shoulder patches: a generic, naked male and female couple behind a sword and a dove. Small silver badges shaped in an identical manner were pinned to their chests.

The Side Clan Zah-Gre wore robes, of course, and scarves around their waists decorated with the sign of their clan: a black dot in a square of four lines, the four lines not quite connected.

A mass of sundry members from two planets a universe apart, the crowd on the streets grew thicker and louder. Humans and Zah-Gre mixed easily with each other, as did the sound of different Zah-Gre and Human languages. Then the crowd thickened further, and the swirl of sounds and smells and movement deepened.

In the middle of all this, a Zah-Gre stepped out of the milling and passing crowd. He had a slender, narrow face, the cheekbones, even beneath the turquoise fur, as sharp as the jutting tabletop of the flat head. The Zah-Gre eyes, which always looked like black glass, seemed ready to bulge right out of the constricted face.

On the forehead, in a grotesque scarring that Ariana understood right away as a piece of self-mutilation, was a dot inside a circle: the sign of the Lower Clan.

The Zah-Gre used both four-fingered hands to grab Ariana’s face in a firm hold, and seemed determined not to let go.

The eyes wouldn’t let her go, even more than the grip on her face. They penetrated, those eyes, black, glassy, held her with the force of interest and consideration. The eyes, perhaps, were the reason Ariana didn’t throw her hands up and try to break the Lower Clan Zah-Gre’s grip on her face.

The native tilted his head to one side, smiled, then let go of her face and slipped back into the crowd.

Ariana felt a shortness of breath. It took her one moment to realize that the whole encounter had barely lasted five seconds, and only seemed longer. She looked around at the crowd on the streets, and couldn’t pick out the Lower Clan Zah-Gre.

What was she to do now? Find a Human Security officer to report to? Report what, exactly? A mirror wasn’t available, but Ariana felt certain, now, the Lower Clan Zah-Gre hadn’t even bruised her cheeks.

Her emotions were a different story; her breathing regained its normal rhythm, her hands, she realized, had been shaking and now they stopped.

Therefore, she just walked on, but the experience lingered in the back of her mind.

Ariana went around another curve on another street. She saw a chubby Zah-Gre, maybe a little over six feet, unusual for them, standing between the stalls of two Outer Clan merchants. The Zah-Gre was thicker around the nose and neck than the other members of his species Ariana had seen so far. She knew, from one of her briefings back on Earth, this was supposed to be an indication of ability to negotiate a true bargain in the Daily Market, luck in gambling, or great fertility.

The Zah-Gre had five sexual genders, but they all looked masculine to Human eyes: eta, mu, nu, zee-i, and fee-i. Zah-Gre who shared four to five of the same sets of parents belonged to the same Morg-Zah, the closet thing the natives had to the Human idea of family. They seemed to have no traditional social roles like husband, wife, sibling, stepchild, grandparent, and a native could pick a mating partner from any of his fellow Zah-Gre.

The chubby Zah-Gre’s dark and glassy eyes didn’t seem as spooky to Ariana as, so far, all the other native eyes. The lines around this Zah-Gre’s eyes seemed to soften them. His fur looked silky. He had a fishy and sandy smell about him, like someone who spent much time in the Rim Villages--as well, perhaps, other places. He juggled three baseballs, telling jokes in English to a small, but supportive audience of both Humans and Zah-Gre. Humans and natives translated for each other, and Ariana heard polite fluttering of French, German, Spanish and four of the five Zah-Gre languages.

Despite the eclectic crowds, Ariana had yet to hear Center Land Zah-Gre spoken, even with the brief encounter with that so-called “savage.”

During her yearlong series of briefings on Earth, a linguistics professor came to the training center every two weeks. He tried to teach the crew the five Zah-Gre tongues. Ariana only got the point where she could recognize the five languages, tell them apart, but not speak them.

“Knock knock,” the chubby Zah-Gre said. “Who’s there? Wanna. Wanna who? Wanna go the Center Land or do you just wanna be eaten here? Human comes out of the Terra Hotel bar, drunk. Falls on the street. Human from Human Security, a Side Clan Zah-Gre, and a Zah-Gre from the Outer Clan come by. The Human Security guy says, ‘Quick, this man is drunk and disorderly! Let’s arrest him!’ The Side Clan Zah-Gre says, ‘This Human is disturbing the peace! Let’s ask the Friendship Bureau to deport him!’ The Zah-Gre from the Outer Clan say, ’This Human is unconscious! Let’s steal his pants and sell them!”

His small audience laughed. Then the performing Zah-Gre caught the three baseballs one at a time, bowed, and slipped the balls into his robe.

“Thank you very much! If I have time, I’ll come by tomorrow.”

The Humans and the natives wandered off.

Ariana felt rooted to the spot for a moment.

She decided to take a chance.

She took Speak North Zah-Gre the E-Z Way out her pocket. Holding the thin, plastic rectangle with its yellow title tag, she thumbed the “contents” button, then pressed a pinkie on the “COMMON GREETINGS” item when the menu came up. The screen of the book shifted again, and she studied the resulting text for a few seconds.

“Kree-lah-dah-mow-koo-bree-glar-zum-zre,” she said.

The chubby Zah-Gre turned to her and smiled, the tall native looking down on this short, maybe presumptuous, human female. “You just asked me if I were engaged to be married to my breakfast.”

She turned off the book, and looked at it, too embarrassed to put it away, or say anything else.

The native looked at the book in Ariana’s hands.

“Oh that thing? It’s full of errors.”

Ariana put the book back in her pockets.

“Funny thing about the friendly Humans from Carne-Tischler Publications,” the chubby Zah-Gre went on. “With that thing, what you Humans call a ‘book,’ they managed to invent a sixth Zah-Gre language that’s made up of bits and pieces of the other five.”

“I was trying to say, ‘You’re very entertaining.’”

“Thank you.”

Ariana walked over to the Zah-Gre. She stuck out her hand. “Good Turning to you. My name is Ariana Orlando. I’m the new chief engineer and assistant station manager up on Vertex.”

The Zah-Gre shook her hand. “And Good Turning to you, Ariana Orlando. I am Ab-Druh, of the Ard-Lo Ev-Kul Mar-Bru Morg-Zah. This is your first time on Zah-Gre?”

“Yes. I must look like I’m doing more than my share of staring.”

“Hmmmm. Probably just your share.”

“So -- What do you do? Are you some sort of professional entertainer?”

“Not officially. Let’s see -- What do I do? That’s a hard question. You know, I haven’t been able to figure out what I do for one hundred and forty Earth years. I do, however, have a pretty good idea about what I am.”

He reached into the front of his robe and pulled up a medallion he was wearing. On the medallion was the simple image of a big, dark dot.

This was the sign of the Inner Clan.

Ariana realized she stood in front of one of the planet’s four spiritual leaders.

What, Ariana thought, do you do when you meet the extraterrestrial version of the Pope, especially when the corporation that employs you is anxious about getting along well with the natives? None of the briefings said anything about the proper etiquette for this situation.

“Should I bow or something?”

Ab-Druh laughed.

“Only if you want to. My position requires much more from me than it does from others.”

“Like what?”

“Do you want the short answer or the long answer?”

“The short answer.”

“Like assisting in the achievement of the Greater Turning. That’s what I want.”

And I want to know if that dream with my brother in it really means something, Ariana thought.

“Maybe I meant the long answer,” she said aloud.

“Would you help me with something?”

Ariana bit her lower lip and looked down.

“I don’t know what I could do for someone like you.”

Ab-Druh raised a four-fingered hand toward the cross and pentagram Ariana wore around her neck, then one finger moved closer to the cross.

“A symbol of the Earth religion Christianity. Called a ‘cross.’ Am I right?”

“Yes.”

“The Rosicrucians combine it with the image of the rose, an Earth plant. The Gnostics believe a more appropriate way to think of the cross is that it stands for the separation between what you Humans call ‘the Universe’ and what you Humans call ‘Heaven.’ How am I doing?”

“Great.”

“Now the other symbol comes from the Earth faith Wicca, sometimes called ‘Witchcraft.’ Humans call this image a ‘pentagram,’ or ‘pentalpha,’ or an ‘endless knot.’ The points in the image represent Earth, Fire, Water, Air, and Spirit.” For a moment, he held up all four digits of one of his furry hands. “Although the Witches don’t mean actual dirt, fire, and so on. More like force, energy -- We Zah-Gre have a phrase. ‘Everything, and then something else.’ The points of this second image, perhaps, point to this ‘something else.’ How did I do?”

“Ab-Druh, that’s amazing. Most Human Christians and Wiccans I know don’t know that much.”

“Why do you wear those different images? That’s a little unusual for a Human, isn’t it?”

“They’re parts of my past.”

“You have been a Christian and Wiccan?”

“Yes. And a Jew, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist.”

“Interesting.”

“I’ve also been a Bahai’i, Hindu, Jainist, Shintoist, Sikh, Voodoo bocor, and Scientologist.”

“Is that all?”

“No, but do you want me to go on?”

Ab-Druh smiled and shrugged. Ariana thought about the rumors and legends connected to the Zah-Gre, and decided to explore one of them.

“How much can you tell about me without me telling you anything?”

“Excuse me?”

“There’s a rumor that the Inner Clan has some psychic ability.”

“Yes,” Ab-Druh said. “I’ve heard that.”

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Is it true?”

“‘Psychic’ is a Human word. For the Zah-Gre, we know what it is necessary for us to know. If a da-gon in the South Land lands on a rug just made by someone of the Outer Clan, if we need to know about it here in the Old City, then we will know.”

“‘We’ meaning the Inner Clan? And important why? According to what?”

“You ask a lot of questions,” Ab-Druh said.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s not that, it’s just—Ariana -- May I call you ‘Ariana’?”

“Yes.”

“Ariana, I’m happy to answer those questions, but I can’t. Humans always want simple, direct answers from us, but we have no simple, direct answers about anything. I would like to keep talking a little while longer, Ariana. Unless you had something else planned?”

“Well, no.”

“My home is just a short distance from here. I need to rest up before I walk to the Rim Villages.”

“That’s going to be a long walk.”

“It would be harder for me not to go. Well?”

Ariana nodded.

She and Ab-Druh started to make their way through the crowds, walking toward the North/East Wedge, first passing the Upper Clan Building. A woody smell of a Zah-Gre ritual fire drifted out of the building.

“Is this your first time off your planet?”

“No,” Ariana said. “I’ve worked for years on Earth’s moon, Mars, and in the space communities and factories circling Earth. Why have the Upper Clan forbidden any Zah-Gre travel to Earth?”

“Here on this world, we are still in a period where we are concerned about stability, about losing what makes Zah-Gre the place it is. I suspect that the Upper Clan believes that, still, even after all this time since Corridor One, we cannot sustain what makes our world what it is if Zah-Gre travel back and forth from Earth.”

They came to a po-zah, a tent that had a surprising amount of unoccupied space around it. Ab-Druh stopped and turned to Ariana.

“I live here.”

“Here? A tent like everybody else?”

In that part of the Old City, the crowds and the Outer Clan and Human commercial establishments thinned out. However, out of one of these establishments, a stand-alone building with several words in several languages painted on it, including TAVERN, erupted two men.

Muscular, in ripped T-shirts, and shaved heads, they had each other locked in a kind of combative dance, neither wanting to let go of the other, but both looking to land a blow on the other, to add to the considerable amount of blood and bruises his companion already wore.

Ariana, a small woman, accustomed to getting out of the way in a hurry, scrambled yards away, because the combative duo headed toward her and Ab-Druh.

The Inner Clan Zah-Gre, however, didn’t move, looking annoyed and surprised more than anything, and the two violent Humans fought and danced in the direction where Ab-Druh stood.

Force and speed--those were Ariana Orlando’s impressions of the Zah-Gre that stepped out of the crowds and in front of Ab-Druh.

On this new Zah-Gre’s robe was the sign of the Side Clan: a large, black dot in a square of four lines, the lines not quite connected.

That was all Ariana could see of the Side Clan Zah-Gre, because the native got to work.

He got the combating Human pair away from Ab-Druh with a quick shove. The two Humans separated from the force of the attack, and went staggering toward a group of teenage girls whose progress showed no sign of halting, even after the two thug-like Humans landed against them. The hair of the teenagers went from yellow to green to red as Ariana watched them disappear down the next curve in the street.

Before the two troublesome Humans could react, the Side Clan Zah-Gre kicked one of the shaved head pair, the one with a broken nose, the fighting Zah-Gre delivering the kick right to the Human’s chest.

The Side Clan Zah-Gre spun on one foot, took two quick steps forward, and punched the other Human (and this one also had his eyebrows shaved as well as his head) right in the stomach.