Now, that I had dealt with Steven Jamison, a Human drug dealer, and made friends with the alien Vinki named Silence, there remained but one more verser for me to meet in the universe which held The City.  Far above me, towers of lacy steel feathered the sky, and held up mountainous spires of cermacrete, and plastisteel.  And up there was my target verser, and up there was someone who had been providing political cover for little Stevie as he sold addictive subtances to the Vinki.  And I suspected that the verser and the cover were one and the same person.

So, I searched for an on-ramp to the ribbon steel bridges.  The base of the one I chose went through a truly nasty neighbourhood full of thugs, freebooters, and knives-for-hire of at least nine differing species.  I thought the yellow blob, and the green blob next to it were the same species, but its rude to ask "What species are you?"  Especially when the Blob-In-Question is juggling a couple tachyon grenades with its tentacles.

Since, one of those beauties, the grenades that is, would turn me into a dissasociated mass of protons and electrons and neutrons, I moved very quickly past the two beings in their corner of the alleyway leading up to the ramp.  I had already been reborn as a baby once; there was no urgent need to repeat the experience.

Still, no one bothered me as I mounted the walkway, and rose above the muck and scum into cleaner air.  The bridge wound over The City, gaining altitude at a gentle pace.  Frequrent mobie tracks set in the bridge left me plenty of time to rest. 

And then it started to descend, and I backtracked to the nearest exit.  Happily, this one transferred me to another bridge that climbed higher into low-hanging clouds as it spiralled and turned.  And then I was forced to make another exit unless I wished to go back down to the ground.

But this ramp had a guard with a booth, and he looked down, and then up with an expression of alarm.  Perhaps, us poor joes were not supposed to visit their betters. I smiled, and spoke.

"Sleep." He fell over, and I lowered him into his chair. And here, I made my first mistake.  I did not check out the contents of the booth before heading onward.

So I walked up the ramp, and up another bridge, and then onto a ramp which led me straight to the front door of a building mounted on thousand foot high arching stilts made of stabilized cerametal.  To my right and left, the air fell away from me down to clouds that swam below me like huge fish in a sea of air.

At the front door, the doorman bowed, and stepped out of my way.  I entered, and the doors slammed behind me with jarring force.  Instinctively I snap-rolled to the left, and flung out a bubble of compulsion all about me in a broad-band field that would hit most humanoids hard.

The lights came up, and I heard clapping.  A young woman with short, dark hair, and a coltish figure, and a smile that should be demure, but was marred by open triumph, stood at the top of ten stairs that spanned the ninety foot wide room.  I was in the pit, fifty feet from the base of the stairs.

Worse, a gun was mounted on the wall behind and above her head.  It was a mini-gun, and it tracked me with jerks and hisses.

"Any state change in my mind that the computer judges wrong, the plasma auto-striker lets loose.  Any movement of your feet, and the same thing happens.  Draw a weapon, and the same thing happens."

She snapped her fingers, and the gun snapped to the right, and slicing beams of pure green light, so green that the greenest grass looks pale next to it, slashed out, and a twenty foot wide and tall chunk of the wall disintegrated.  The gun was back on me in a trice.

"So surrender, Tadeusz.  I had a bug in Stevie’s office, so it alerted me when you kidnapped him.  I’ve been waiting for you to drop by.

"I don’t believe I know you."  I said cautiously. "We don’t have to be enemies."

"You don’t know me." She enjoyed her power over me a bit more, and then relented.  "Jackyln Demetrios-Yorigitzu, Swordlady, High Queen of Temestros, and currently chief consultant for The City on the Raise Project.  And yes, you could work for me."

"Ah, then perhaps we can discuss what damage is being done to The City."  I ventured as I kept my feet completely still.  I might, just might be able to beat the robo-cannon and knife her, but if I did, I’d surely be toast myself.

"Well, congrats.  You live up to your reputation.  Never a hair turned, and so very determined.  I find that really cute." She flipped her shoulder-length hair sideways, and I found myself a bit dry-mouthed.  It was times like these that it was hard to remember that I was already married.  But I stilled my face, and waited.

She pouted with a deliberate over-the-top quality to it.

"You know, what they said, they said Tadeusz is dangerous, serious, has a thousand tricks up his sleeve, and never bluffs.  Getting in his way is like getting in the way of a freight train.  Thats what O’Malley said as he visited my court at Temestros."

I shrugged.  Her face tightened.

"He also said you were arrogant."

I looked up, and nodded.

"Yep, thats me.  If I hadn’t been so sure of myself, I might not have walked in through the front door.  But usually, it works."

She shook her head.

"Well, I never.  An honest man.  Diogenes would have loved you.  Of course, I didn’t love him.  He kept saying those mean things, and I had him executed."

She tossed me an outsized pair of handcuffs with a casual toss that bespoke cybernetics or something.  Now, I have cybernetics, but like an idiot, I hadn’t made time to recharge them since they had run out of power.

Perhaps I could hit the robo-cannon with a pulse of telekinetic power?  Or invade its circuits, and rewrite its code?  I paused as I studied the gleam in her bright eyes.  She was waiting for me to make a play, and I had the feeling she had a cure for my disease.  If I forced her, she would turn over the last card, and I could see if she was bluffing.  But already, I felt sure she had something hidden in reserve.

It could be that TK did not work in this universe, or that she had a scanner aimed at my head to see if I tried to esper.  But whatever it was, I didn’t feel like calling her bluff right then because I was pretty sure it was not a bluff.

"And if I say no?"

"Ask yourself this, Tadeusz.  Do you think you can escape later, and improve the situation, or do you want to die right here, right now?"

She had me there.  I examined the handcuffs, and with some dismay saw that they were psionic dampers as well as simple cuffs.  With a prayer that I was not being dumb, I slipped them on.  And like a spike of pain through my temples, my psi power potential got wrapped in heavy chains as well.  It took effort to force myself to think clearly now.

I hated it.

And she loved it.

I staggered, and nearly fell, and she rushed down the stairs in a blur of graceful motion, like she was dancing, and took my arm in hers.  And then without visible strain, she held me up.  I managed the concentration to look at her smooth biceps, and I did not see any sign of cyberpunkery.

The next few minutes were an exhausted blur as she took me upstairs and cross halls, and past views that would have enchanted if my heart had not been dry as a bone, and one had a more congenial hostess.  And then we rode an escalator up as she freshened herself with a discreet makeup kit.

At the top of the stairs a large ballroom of about two acres in floor area spread out before my numb eyes with buffet tables along the right wall waiting to fill a stomach that rebelled at the thought of food.  I struggled to find my center, to pray, and my concentration kept slipping.

The door announcer was looking at me oddly as I stood there in extremely casual clothes with my hands manacled.  All across the room, people were dressed in attempts at their native dress.  Kimonos, togas, and kilts predominated among the Human men while sarongs were very popular with the Human ladies.  The other thirty percent of the room was not even faintly Human with a Blikten sub-group, an instinctive level hive mind, formed whenever ten Blikten get together being the closest thing to Human.

"Announce us." The girl hissed, and he hurried to do it.

"The Lady Jacklyn and the Lord Tadeusz, who is confined due to interests of justice."

He threw that last in, and it got everyone’s attention for a few seconds as they all gawked at my manacle handcuff with chains.  And then a loud clearing of someone’s throat, and a beating of an innocent wine glass with a fork by a balding man got everyone’s attention.

"I think everyone here knows me.  I’m the Head of the Alien Trade Commission.  I hope you are all having a good time…."  He went on to a genial hostess type speech for the next few minutes, and mentioned hopes that the Raise the City Project would soon be ready.

"…..Especial thanks are due to our good friends, the Reki High Traders."  He raised his glass toward the far corner of the filled room where an insectile humanoid-ish (if you stretched the term) bipedal was talking to a wide assortment of races and differing types of Human.  Somehow, he had gotten a waiter, who looked politely uncomfortable at talking in front of his betters, involved despite the waiter trying to politely escape.

I laughed, and felt much better.  The psi pressure eased off after it took the first smash at me.  Besides, now I was used to it.  Jacklyn gave me a questioning look, and I pointed out the waiter against my will.

She nodded.

"Yes.  The Reki are rather odd."  She gave the alien an inscrutable look.  At one point, I might have been able to decipher it, but my mind was so low on energy that I couldn’t.

The Reki nodded.

"Our/We made glad/joy in friends/loyal/caretakers/fellow gardeners. Ship That Which Sows the Sky will soon be back here/locale/conjunction of worldlines but thirty hours after Ship Which Breaks Up the Sky is gone.  Then glorious/joyous/really happy great goal/wonder of the age The City will rise/float/dance, and all/many/those who can see/ those that hear of this in future years will be joy.  All will be glad/Universe will be light/good gardening."

The translator device was having difficulty with the Reki speech which is not surprising.  The Reki speech is difficult, and they have some unusual concepts worked into their writings.  But it got the gist of the speech, although I thought the Reki had sounded a bit more enthused and universalistic than even that speech had shown.  They were really behind whatever this Rise The City project was.

By this time, Jacklyn had abandoned me to escort the waiter out of the Reki’s path.  It seemed to object, but then she said something to it, and it subsided.  She looked at me, and I thought that her speech to the alien probably was because she had explained that the alien was making the waiter nervous.  She actually did not seem to be that bad of a person, all in all.

So, it was with a slightly silly smile I enjoyed seeing her lithesome form walk across the dance floor, and I could tell by her walk that she was aware of my look.  And then someone spoke to me in a harsh voice.

"Look, Milo, a criminal."  An elderly grande dame looked at me in her tribal garments of Saks 7th Avenue with the tags prominently displayed.  I really wondered if she had gotten the 5th avenue wrong from historical accounts, or if in this universe, Saks had been on 7th avenue.  There was no way to be sure.  And I was very tired, so I glared at the lady who was staring at me like one would do to a lion at a zoo.

"Quite droll."  Her rather bored looking husband agreed in his pink leather "Native American" traditional costume.  He looked like he said that a dozen times a day, and with less thought than most people said ‘pass the salt’.

"You do know that if you had not engaged in bad behaviour, young man, you would not be in trouble now."  She lectured me.

I raised an eyebrow.

"You sort, if you just applied yourself, could be useful to society."

I leaned back.

"But since we don’t, we need you lot to look after us, right?"

"Well, its not a burden we like, but we do bear it.  And after the Raising of the City, it won’t be a problem anymore."

She nodded firmly, having satisfied her desire to poke a stick through the bars of the lion’s cage. 

"What’s that?" I asked, seeking more information.

"Its a project to put the upper City, the true City you might say, into orbit where it can more properly service the Reki and other Great Starships.  We’ll be fabulous."

What she meant was, we’ll be fabulously wealthy my inner cynic noted even as my romantic side noted her perfume.  I felt hot, and my ring pulsed painfully on my finger, and I made to take it off.  That is, until I saw the eager light in Jacklyn’s eyes, and my natural judiciousness saved me for a moment.  I wanted more information on what was going on.

"So you’ll be wealthy. Or wealthier."

"Nothing wrong with that, young man." The fellow harumphed.

"Not really, but does this help the ones below."

"Of course, it does, we’ll be in a position to…." I looked awasy as Jacklyn talked, and instead I heard rocks grinding into each other.

"But the lady here said they would be in a position to not care about the down below anymore.  Let me ask you a question…." I felt strength return to me, and I kept my eyes instinctively away from Jacklyn’s light, charming ones even as she almost frantically stood on her heels in front of me.  But she was much shorter than me.

And I had promises to keep, and miles to go, and the walls of universes to break down with my bare fists if I must to find my way home.  To find my lady, and my real home.  I clenched my fists as I felt a pounding headache rise.

Worse, if I had taken my ring off, there were over a dozen demons locked up in various pits all about the Multiverse who would be freed.  I had almost let them go.  I had believed I would keep my vows, and thus, it was a good anchor for long-term spells, but here and now, I had almost failed.

I wanted desperately to ask who she was, but that might reveal too much.  I did not want her to know that I knew, although in truth, I knew very little indeed.

Panting lightly, I stepped back, no forward, and pointed to the waiter with both my chained hands.

"No doubt you think he should apply himself, but I wonder, what would happen if he did?  Would he then have to wade through months and years of licenses, enviromental impact studies, and other rigamarole in order to start a business?"

They looked back at me with closed faces.  I advanced on the man, thinking him the most honest.  Besides, I was just a tiny bit frightened of Jacklyn.

"So, how long would it take if he did that?"

"I don’t know, I …" I leaned into his space. He shrugged in defeat. "A minimum of three and a half years if he was very driven.  Five to seven most likely."

I turned back to the grande dame, still avoiding Jacklyn.

"But starting an illegal drug dealing factory with a patron who is undoubtedly in this room would probably take a week or two."

"Thats, thats…different."

My eyebrows rose, and I felt the heavy hand of Fate on my neck.

"Certainly it is." I purred. "After all, maintaining a nice house, taking vacations, and such is all very expensive.  So, its okay for a upper towner to deal drugs….because they need too."

She nodded miserably.

Jacklyn yanked my arm, and dragged me away even as the dismayed man accosted his wife with tones of shock.

"You’re determined to mess things up. Tadeusz. It could be good." Her arm was like a steel vise on mine.  "Let it be."

"No." I said flatly, and she glared into my face, and then spun the dial on the handcuffs.  Mental force slammed into me, and I fell to the ground.  I could hardly see, and my body felt like cold, stiff dough, as I struggled to rise to my feet.

"Once I start, I don’t stop." I growled even as doubts oppressed me, weakened me.  After all, it was not entirely true.  But, one could, in complete honesty, call me hard-headed.  And so with rage flaming in my stomach, and tightening my fingers, I rose to my feet, and growled at her like a wolf.

She blanched.

"Fine. Fine."  She darted forward, and turned down the dial on the pressure.  I felt lightheaded with relief.  "He wanted to uh, talk to…"

"The waiter."

"Yes, the waiter."  She gave me a bewildered look wondering why I would want to talk to such an inconsequential.  In part, it was because I was curious what Jacklyn had said to the Reki, and I though he had heard it.

So, I staggered, feeling ten feet tall and full of helium, about to bounce off the ceiling high overhead, as the rush of the release from the worst of the psi pressure filled me with relief.  The waiter, one among many, stood behind his table, and looked profound uncomfortable to see a criminal who had just growled at a powerful lady head his way.  He really looked like he wanted to dive under the table, or better yet, flee to the kitchens.

Around me, nearly everyone in the ballroom was looking at us, or discussing me with mostly barbed speculation.  Although I did hear the Blikten hive mind say that I was ‘not bad looking for a Human.’

"Tell me, sir…"

"Its Jake."

"Sir, Jake, what was your plan you talked to the Reki about?"  I wanted to lead him sideways into talking about what Jacklyn had said or done.

"I, well, its silly, sir."

"No/negatory/untrue" The Reki said from my elbow. It had joined us without my notice, but then I was really out of it.  "You honored elder/many-centuried one/quasi-immortal are ill/unbalanced?"  He directed that last to me, and I nodded briefly, not able to afford more than a quick head nod.

There was a buzz that filled the crowd at the Reki’s comments.  It was of excitement, and anticipation.  I felt Fate heavy on me which is a strange feeling for me.

"Worldlines congeal/twist. Chaos/opportunity coexist/antagonize/fight."

"What Jake, and what did the Jacklyn here say to the Reki to get him to leave you be?"

I panted, feeling blood rising up in my stomach.  I was hemmorraging internally.  I looked over my right shoulder into Jacklyn’s face, and she licked her lips like she was hungry for food.  I shivered, not knowing what she was.

"I thought that I could sell some artwork on glass bottles that is made in my cousin’s factory, it took him nine long years to get it, but he got it.  Artwork that showed the Reki’s Great Ships overhead, and maybe some aliens would like to hang it in their windows as a reminder of The City."

Mocking laughter, not all that gentle spread across the room.

"You see what we have to deal with?"  Jacklyn asked me loudly enough that everyone in the ballroom could hear her.  "Stupid, stupid people."

"I’m just trying to make things prettier.  I thought people would like to have a reminder…."

"A reminder of this ball of trash?" Jacklyn shrilled out her laughter as the waiter visibly crumpled with his shoulders bending in and down in his humiliation.  The rest joined her. I wanted to slug her at that point, and I’m not a guy who hits women.  This anger was not a fury, but a cold, considered rage in my heart. 

"You/Lords of the Upper/Great Traders find/see/know this to be foolishness? What is the point of trade? What is ‘The City’?" I raised my head as the Reki asked the question.  The translator had no doubts about what the football shaped head of something like chitin was asking.  Neither did I.

Jacklyn raised her hand to still the crowd, and they did smoothly at her direction.  I suspected psi powers in play.

"It certainly is."

"But then how are we to get ahead?" The waiter burst out in dismay.

"I could tell you a story about how if you work really hard, you’ll succeed, but in truth, you’re dumb, naive.  We’ve loaded the deck.  We made it impossible to succeed.  And we complain when you lash out, and we laugh at you when you try hard…"  She threw her hands to her mouth in horror as the waiter snarled out.  He threw his cap into the caviar, with malice aforethought.

"I knew it. I knew it."

"Speak/Honest/Truth" The Reki said staring at Jacklyn.

"Ugggh…"

"Now/Present/Truth."  And I could feel the air thrum with power as will clashed upon will.

"Regulations to make you not able to get a job without a license; dozens of licenses to start a business; we let criminals loose so that you live in fear, and can’t work freely; and we send you stories and tales that make your heroes out to be fools so you don’t learn to stand against us.  Its a whole package."

And then she looked into the Reki’s eyes.

"But what is this to you? We offer you low priced goods produced by the immigrants we lure here who work for little.  Isn’t that all anyone needs?"

There was a sigh of relief from around the room.  They felt that she had redeemed herself, and them.

The Reki did not say anything for a full minute.

"We/Reki/Friends/Gardeners will/certain/already accomplished give/discard/wash hands clear of the insulting/disgusting/contemptible/material.  The ugliness/sin/poisoned fields will be yours/Uppers/Lords of the City."

They gasped.  The Reki were going to return everything they had ever bought from The City because it was ‘poisonous’.

"Without love/fellow-feeling/desire to create beauty in a union/trade/garden of comity there is no good."

"We’ll sell it to someone else."  A shout was heard, and I laughed for even I knew the answer.  What the Reki rejected, no one would buy.

The Reki started to walk toward the door leaving behind him shattered lives and broken dreams.  No, in truth, that was always there.  He merely ripped aside the painted tent called ’success’ and showed the exploiters who counted themselves clever that wisdom remained.

"Reki, sir, can I trade with you? My wind charms will bring beauty to yours and mine."

The Reki turned to him.

"Yes."

And that was too much for Jacklyn.  She dropped her mask, and lunged at the Reki with her canine teeth popped out to drink his blood.  But, one leg placed at a sixty degree angle in front of her left her skidding on her chin.  And then I jumped on top of her, and put the psi damper cuffs on her head.  And with my nose, I pushed the damper up to maximum.

It took us both out of that reality.  She went first even though I felt most of the damage.

And all the while I wondered why I felt Fate here, in this world, in these actions.  Perhaps it was not Fate, but a Dusquephodlian twisting the worldlines.  That little vendor might not run The City, but I wondered if he ran the galaxy.  And I felt sure I’d see Jacklyn the Vampire Queen of Temestros again.