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Corina warned me a few minutes before we arrived at the station where I had to get off. I waited until we had come to a stop before I opened my eyes, and I was the only person to leave the train. As though she guessed I wanted to turn and watch the curious shuttle leave, Corina nagged me to get off the platform quickly.
‘Nobody stands around. They get off and leave the platform. Nobody stares. It’s just a train. Don’t draw attention to yourself.’
She made sense. I started walking, following her directions. The platform opened out onto a smaller plaza. There were stalls here, some selling garish cloth, another selling aromatic triangles that made my stomach rumble with hunger even though it didn’t smell like anything I would identify as food. Like the first, this plaza was curiously quiet. There was a soft murmur of voices, but it sounded eerie. A work queue at home would have been full of people calling back and forth to each other.
Each stall was staffed by one or more Aides, always with a Dag sitting behind them. Then, over in the corner, I saw a bench. Five kids sat on it, more average-looking than most of the others I’d seen. Each had their eyes closed and they sat very still. A Dag lounged on a cushioned couch near the bench, and instantly reminded me of Fat Stan. Its skin was not so smooth as most, and the clothes were less glaring and creased. Like Stan, it looked like the Dag’s trade was exploitation.
‘Don’t,’ said Corina.
‘What?’
‘Don’t get side-tracked. She’s nothing to do with you, and you don’t understand.’
‘Explain it, then.’
‘I can’t, not now. There’s no time. Just follow the map. Please?’
I hesitated too long, staring at the scruffy Dag. My eyes flicked away just as her head turned, and our gazes missed each other by a heartbeat. I walked away, even though my throat was tight and my heart was pounding. I’d come here to help Corina, but how many more needed rescuing?
Corina took me to another elevator, away from the plaza, through a sliding door. As soon as I was on the other side the décor became more utilitarian and this time I noticed the elevator had a white plaque over the top. Thinking back I was sure I had seen two other lifts, one on either side of the plaza. They had been smaller, and the blue had been more subtly worked around them into the décor, but it had still been there.
This time we went down. If I understood the numbering, and I don’t claim that I really did, we were roughly at the level we had started from, but in a different part of the ship. Instead of a quick trip with sole occupancy, the elevator stopped at least a half dozen times. Aides stepped in and out, mainly boys. Some carried boxes or bags, two pushed trolleys. Nobody met my eyes, and nobody spoke.
‘I should have thought of that,’ muttered Corina. ‘You would have been less noticeable if you were carrying something.’
‘Maybe next time,’ I replied, but I don’t think she got the sarcasm.
There were some twists and turns, and a half-dozen Dags to walk past. I kept my eyes on the floor, but inside I was raging. Who were these people to treat us as less than them? And worse, I felt so helpless because I knew I couldn’t help any of them, at least not until I got outside.
‘We’re here.’
I almost said where? but stopped myself just in time. Then I remembered she probably heard me anyway even though I didn’t say it, and suddenly I was feeling scared as well as angry. I was angry because I was afraid of what was behind that door. Angry because I was afraid of meeting Corina, and her father, and wondering if I could keep my mouth shut about Aides. It wasn’t supposed to be like that, not the first time we saw each other. It was supposed to be different. Special. I pushed the anger down.
‘You have to press the thumb pad,’ she said.
‘Does your dad know I’m here?’
‘No.’
‘But he knows I’m coming, right?’
A two beat pause. ‘Actually, no.’
I was really proud of myself. I didn’t swear, or shout. ‘Do you not think he might raise an alarm when I come knocking on the door?’
‘He isn’t here.’
I remembered stories I’d heard in the commons about fathers chasing boys who were too keen on their daughters. ‘How is that better?’
‘Will you come in? Then I can call him here and we can talk.’
I pressed my thumb to the pad and the door slid open. I took two steps inside and the door closed behind me. There was another door in the wall to my left. The rest of the room I didn’t understand. I guessed it might be Tech, but nothing like I had seen elsewhere. Two cubes with padded tops looked like stools, and right in front of me was a window. On the other side was Corina, in her lounge. Except it wasn’t a window. It was like the picture she had played in my eyes, but on a wall and slightly larger than life.
‘Corina? Is that you?’
‘Yes.’ There was a lie in her voice, and her image wouldn’t look me in the eye.
‘I thought you would be here.’
‘It’s complicated.’
‘Simplify it.’
‘Wait here. I’ll get my father and explain things to him. He’ll understand. But don’t touch anything.’ And the image of her ran across the lounge on the wall and she disappeared out of view.
If I had not been stuck inside the Dagashi ship, I might have run for it; through the door and as far away from the situation as I could. A cynical voice deep in my head told me that I’d been played for an idiot by a pretty girl, and that there was no real measurement for the depth of the trouble I was about to be in with an angry father.
But the only way out was to either hand myself in — which didn’t thrill me — or to play the game for a while longer. I wandered around the room, looking more closely at the tech-covered walls. The only thing that really stood out was a thin tube, buried in some mystical gadgetry under the false window. It was about as wide as my thumb and as long as the span of my hand. The first inch of either end shone like gold, but the bit in between you could see clear through — except it was full of sparkles like stars in the night sky; tiny pinpricks of light, infinitely small yet infinitely bright. It didn’t shine, like a torch, but if you looked for too long it made your eyes ache.
My hand reached out on its own. I wasn’t going to take the thing, but I was drawn to it, to explore the texture of something that didn’t look as though it was quite there. My fingers were still a couple of inches away when I heard a door swish open and a strangled shriek. At the same instant, Corina screamed into my mind.
‘Freeze, Jax. Don’t move a muscle, or my father will kill you.’