Skye Object 3270a by Linda Nagata

of her hand. “This is all that’s left of my mother and father. I don’t want to change it. Not now. Not like this.”
    She looked up, as muttered obscenities and the sound of approaching footsteps arrived from the forest trail. A moment later she heard the low buzz of a hunting camera bee . . . and for the first time realized that Zia and Buyu were missing. She smiled. Then she leaned back against the invisible wall, and it was as if she were leaning against the Universe itself.
    From somewhere nearby Zia called, “ Sky-eye! Where are you? ”
    Softly Skye said, “City authority would never let me out of the monkey house if I was a carrier. No matter what. Would they? And they would not pick up the other children, if they could not be cured.”
    â€œSo that leaves only one option,” Devi said as the camera bee buzzed into sight, a faint gold spark emerging from the darkness under the trees. Devi waved at it. “Hey Buyu, we’re here.” Then he turned to Skye. “We have to see to it you’re cured.”
    Skye laughed softly. “Sooth. I’ll go for that.”
    Zia burst into the clearing, her hair a mess, and her eyes looking wide and wild in the upwelling light. “Say that again, ado.”
    â€œSay what?” Skye asked, as the bee buzzed between them. It bumped against the transparent wall, sputtered a high note, then tumbled to the ground. Jem leaped on it instantly, and picked it up in his teeth.
    â€œWhat you just said to him. Say it again, only say it louder.”
    â€œI’ll go for that?”
    â€œLouder, ado. Like you mean it.”
    â€œI’ll go for that!”
    â€œSlick.” She dropped cross-legged to the center of the little gleaming pavilion. Her gaze went to Devi. “Has she stopped being crazy?”
    â€œDo you want her to?”
    Zia grinned. “Never.”
    â€œI have to go to the monkey house,” Skye said.
    â€œBuyu!” Zia shouted. “Where are you?”
    â€œComing! I’m almost there. I crashed the bee again, didn’t I?”
    â€œYou did a great job,” Zia called. “You found them. Jem’s eating the bee, though.”
    â€œGutter-dogs!”
    But Devi was already wrestling the device out of the dokey’s mouth.
    Buyu clattered into the pavilion, still clutching the bee’s guidance screen in one hand. “Hey Skye. You okay?”
    â€œBetter,” she admitted.
    â€œUh-uh,” Zia said. “Too tentative. I want you to say ‘I’ll-Go-For-That.’ I want you to say it loud and clear, when Buyu shares with you the most beautifully elegant, yet simple plan you will ever have the pleasure of hearing. Remember now, ‘I’ll-Go-For-That.’ And if you ever call him Buyu-the-brainless again, I will cut off all your hair the next time I catch you asleep. Buyu?”
    â€œShe called me brainless?”
    â€œIn jest, dear. Tell her now.”
    Awkwardly, he lowered his bulk to the pavilion floor, sitting between Skye and Zia. The faint light dimmed noticeably, blocked by his large body. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “Ord said seven to ten days, right? So there’s time to experiment. Nobody’s going to get hurt if you don’t go to the monkey house right away.”
    â€œIf Ord is right,” Devi interjected.
    â€œOh sooth, but personal DIs like Ord, they just don’t get chemistry wrong.”
    â€œGo ahead with it,” Zia said. Her eyes looked as sharp as Jem’s had, a moment before he leaped on the camera bee.
    â€œRight. Well. We’re living above one of the strangest planets listed in the library, aren’t we?” Buyu asked. “Deception Well. Where nothing is quite what it seems. It’s a wilderness, but it’s watched over by some of the slickest tech anyone’s ever encountered. Remember the governors?”
    Devi slapped his thigh. “ Of course! ”