THE HUMAN THE EMPEROR COULDN’T KEEP

Chapter 1 | Awakening

Nora Bennett woke feeling as though she might die of thirst.

Her throat was painfully dry, and a strange metallic taste lingered on her tongue. She tried to turn over without thinking, only to knock her shoulder against something hard and cold. She winced. She opened her eyes, still groggy.

A cloudy, transparent lid sat inches above her. Gray-white stains covered its surface, and several thin cracks ran from the edges toward the center. Beyond it, in the dim yellowish light, she could make out a few dangling metal pipes. Nora stared for a while, then reached above her head.

Hard.

She felt around beside her.

Also hard.

“...What the hell?”

She tried to sit up and nearly cracked her forehead against the cover. She was lying inside a narrow metal container, with barely enough room to move.

Her stomach dropped.

“Hello? Is anybody there?”

Her voice was so hoarse she hardly recognized it.

Nora knocked on the cover. The dull thuds echoed around the cramped enclosure. She stopped and listened, but no one answered.

Where on earth was she?

She tried to remember the last thing she’d done. Her apartment, work, the milk she’d forgotten at the supermarket, the phone call with a friend the night before—she remembered all of that clearly. But when she tried to recall how she’d ended up here, there was a gaping hole in her memory.

Had she been in an accident?

She looked down at herself.

She was wearing a close-fitting gray-white outfit made of unusually soft fabric, with unfamiliar seams at the cuffs and along the waist. She felt around for pockets and found none. There was nothing on her wrists, either.

Where was her phone?

She was sure she’d had it with her.

Nora pushed at the cover again, harder this time. The metal frame didn’t budge, and the effort left her dizzy.

“Oh, come on...”

She closed her eyes and rested for a moment before feeling along the inside of the container again. Her fingers found what felt like a recess to her right.

She reached into it and found a cold metal lever. Several tiny symbols were engraved beside it. They looked like writing, but not in any language she knew.

Nora hesitated.

If this was some kind of medical equipment, could she make things worse by messing with it?

Then again, she had no other way out.

She gripped the lever and pulled it down.

Nothing.

The second time, she threw nearly all her strength into it.

A dull clunk came from deep inside the container, followed by the whir of machinery. An old mechanism had finally stirred to life. The transparent lid rose slowly, then stopped halfway.

Nora waited a few seconds. When it became clear it wasn’t moving any farther, she planted both hands against it and pushed. Rusted metal scraped with an ear-splitting squeal.

“Come on...”

Gritting her teeth, she finally forced the lid open. Air rushed in, thick with dust and the smell of machine oil.

Nora coughed and struggled upright. As she climbed out, her legs gave way and she dropped to her knees on the cold metal floor.

“Shit!”

Her knees hurt like hell.

She sat against the container until the awful dizziness began to pass, then slowly got to her feet. She was in an enormous room.

The ceiling rose far above her. Several aging lights hung overhead, one of them flickering constantly. Cracks ran across the walls, and some of the metal panels had fallen away, exposing complicated wiring beneath.

Behind her stood several containers much like the one she’d climbed out of. Two had their lids open and were completely empty. The one nearest the wall was badly damaged: half its transparent shell had shattered, and thick cables hung from its interior to the floor. Nora went over for a quick look, then lost interest.

She just wanted to get out.

There was a metal door at the far end of the room.

Beside it sat a dead control panel. After pressing it several times without success, she grabbed the handle protruding from the door’s edge and hauled sideways.

The door screeched along its tracks, inching open just enough to leave a gap.

Nora squeezed through. Beyond it was a dim corridor.

The air smelled strongly of rust, and little metal parts littered the floor. Doors lined both sides of the passage. Some stood open, revealing piles of equipment she couldn’t begin to identify. As she walked, she called out again.

“Hello? Anyone here?”

Only her own voice came back to her from the empty corridor. Halfway along, metal clanged somewhere overhead.

Nora stopped short.

Looking up, she spotted a loose pipe swinging gently with a vibration coming from farther away. It struck its support again, shaking down a shower of dust. She hurried a few steps to the side.

“When was the last time anyone maintained this place?”

As soon as she said it, another small piece of metal fell from beside the pipe. Nora decided it was time to leave. Quickly.

At the end of the corridor, she entered a vast industrial hall filled with machinery. One machine was even bigger than any freight truck she’d ever seen.

It had no wheels underneath, but several circular structures were attached to its sides.

She walked halfway around it without getting the slightest idea what it was supposed to do. A faint patch of natural light showed in the distance. Following it, she found a staircase leading upward.

The stairs were in terrible condition. Several steps had collapsed altogether, and the rest were streaked with rust. Keeping one hand against the wall, she climbed carefully. Halfway up, a step suddenly sank beneath her foot. Nora cried out and grabbed the handrail.

Fortunately, it held.

She stood there catching her breath before cautiously stepping over the loose metal plate. At last, she pushed open the door at the top.

The light outside made her squint. A breeze swept toward her, carrying the faint scent of plants she didn’t recognize. She raised her head. An expanse of abandoned buildings stretched out before her.

Tall metal supports spanned the gaps between structures. Many elevated walkways had broken apart. In the distance, several cylindrical towers leaned at odd angles, their outer walls mottled with dark brown patches.

The roads were cracked, and in some places slender, silvery-white plants had pushed through the gaps. Their leaves glimmered faintly in the wind. They were actually rather pretty.

Nora stared, fascinated. She’d never seen plants like them before.

Farther away, the sky was a pale bluish violet, with thin clouds drifting slowly across it.

Strangest of all was an enormous silver-white arc hanging near the horizon. It stretched across a huge swath of sky, with tiny points of light moving along its surface, as though it belonged to some colossal structure.

She narrowed her eyes and tried to find its other end, but her gaze followed it all the way into the clouds.

“...What is that supposed to be?”

She looked down at her gray-white clothes, then back at the desolate buildings. Unease crept over her.

Just how long had she been asleep?

Nora walked along the road for what felt like ages.

She had no idea how large the place was, or even which direction she was heading. All she could do was follow the stretches of road that remained relatively intact, occasionally stopping to look for a way out in the distance.

She passed abandoned factories and warehouses. Some still bore enormous signs, with lines of unfamiliar characters arranged neatly across their walls. She stood in front of one and studied it for a long time without managing to read a single word.

Her stomach growled.

Nora rubbed it and sighed. Right now, she’d give anything for a glass of water and something—anything—to eat.

After another stretch of walking, she finally began to notice signs of activity.

There was much less dust on the road. Several buildings had clearly been repaired. Neat rows of lights stood beside certain streets, and a low mechanical rumble drifted from somewhere ahead.

She even saw a small disc-shaped machine cleaning up litter by the roadside.

It hovered about half a meter above the ground. Several slender mechanical arms extended from underneath, deftly picking up scraps from the pavement. Nora stopped to watch.

The machine seemed to notice her. It turned, pointing two blue lights directly at her. She gave it a tentative wave.

“Hi?”

It emitted a brief electronic chirp, went around her, and carried on working. Nora watched it drift away and smiled.

“Well, at least you’re dedicated.”

She kept walking.

The roads gradually widened, and the buildings ahead rose higher and higher. When she rounded another corner, she finally saw something entirely different.

An immense cluster of buildings stood in the distance, their surfaces gleaming in the light. Countless tiny aircraft threaded between the towers. Some rested on platforms suspended in midair; others sped away along fixed routes.

Nora stood motionless.

She’d seen things like that in science-fiction movies.

But those aircraft were right there in front of her.

One even passed through a channel between two skyscrapers before disappearing behind the buildings. Her mouth slowly fell open.

“Holy shit...”

A long while passed before she glanced down at her shoes.

It still looked like a long walk. She took a deep breath and dragged her exhausted legs onward.

By the time Nora reached the busy district, she was almost too tired to speak. The city was bustling with life.

All kinds of shops lined the broad streets. Huge three-dimensional projections floated overhead, displaying constantly shifting characters and images she couldn’t understand. High above, transparent traffic lanes crisscrossed the sky, carrying oddly shaped aircraft at different altitudes. The streets were crowded.

Nora had been afraid she’d stumbled into a place where no one lived, so the bustling scene came as a relief.

So many of the faces looked familiar.

Men and women, old people and children. Some carried shopping bags; others chatted at outdoor tables. A few young people stood outside a store, animatedly discussing something on display. Nora was ready to breathe a sigh of relief.

At least there were people here.

She was about to ask someone for directions when a tall man walked past her.

He wore a sharply tailored dark coat, his hair neatly styled. His profile was quite handsome, and Nora glanced at him automatically.

Then she noticed the two furry ears on top of his head.

They were golden brown with dark markings, almost identical to the fur visible at his neck.

Nora froze.

As if he sensed her staring, the man turned toward her. His ears twitched. She couldn’t help staring harder.

He frowned slightly, looked away, and went on walking. Nora watched him disappear into the crowd.

Had cosplay really gotten that sophisticated?

While she was still wondering about it, a beautiful silver-haired woman passed by.

She wore an elegant pale-blue dress, and a translucent display floated above her wrist. She consulted it as she walked.

Her face was almost impossibly lovely.

Except...

Nora’s eyes widened.

The woman had four eyes.

In addition to the usual pair, she had two smaller eyes above her brow bones. All four were moving independently. One of them suddenly turned toward Nora.

She looked away at once, startled. A few seconds later, she couldn’t resist sneaking another glance.

All four eyes were still moving.

Nora began to wonder whether she’d actually woken up at all. She turned and took a closer look at the other pedestrians.

A thin, tall man in a white shirt walked past. His upper body looked perfectly ordinary, but below the waist he had a great many long, slender legs.

By the time Nora counted his ninth leg, he was already past her. Those nine legs moved in seamless alternation, carrying him along at an astonishing speed.

Even more absurdly, he was strolling along while casually operating an electronic device in his hand. Nora could only stare.

“...What?”

Not far away, a young mother was out shopping with her child. The little girl had a round face with fine blue scales along both cheeks. Behind her mother trailed a long tail, which was currently carrying several shopping bags for her. Nora slowly looked around.

On her left stood a man with six hands. To her right, an elderly woman’s hair resembled thin feelers that swayed gently as she walked. In the distance, she even spotted someone with translucent skin, through which a soft blue light flowed slowly.

Looking at these extraordinary residents, Nora began to question everything she thought she knew about the world.

Most had faces much like those of humans, with features arranged in familiar ways. Their bodies, though...

She didn’t know how to describe them.

She walked slowly down the street, trying to look as though she belonged there. But the more she watched, the harder that became.

A six-armed woman was arguing with a shop assistant outside a store, gesturing emphatically with all six hands. At a nearby outdoor table, two young people were chatting, one person’s ears quivering whenever they laughed. A father holding a squirming child was rummaging through his shopping bags; finally, he used his tail to pat the little one’s back. Nora couldn’t help smiling at the father and child.

Now that was familiar. A loud crash rang out ahead.

She looked up.

A large hovering freight truck had stopped beside the road. Several workers in uniform were unloading it, but an enormous metal crate had become wedged at the edge of the cargo compartment. Two workers tried repeatedly to shift it, without success.

A slender woman walked over. She exchanged a few words with her colleagues, then approached the truck.

Nora had been watching idly, but now her eyes widened. The woman’s shoulders spread outward.

Her clothing separated automatically along seams in the back, exposing a dark carapace. Her slim arms lengthened, and several jointed limbs emerged from either side of her body. Her torso changed too, her waist and abdomen extending backward into a series of hard-shelled segments.

Within moments, the woman who had looked almost entirely human was a huge, bizarre creature.

Nora gasped.

The creature reached forward with several powerful limbs, easily lifted the stuck crate, and set it carefully on the ground.

One of her colleagues said something. She answered with a string of low sounds, and her enormous body began to contract again.

The carapace and limbs folded inward and withdrew until she was once more the woman in the work uniform. She straightened her collar, accepted something from a colleague, and returned to work. Nora stood where she was, unable to move for a long moment.

Nobody else seemed to find the transformation remarkable. A child sitting on a nearby bench was so absorbed in eating some kind of snack that they hadn’t even looked up. Nora reached for the railing beside her. She needed to sit down.

And preferably have some water.

She glanced at her own hands, then at the people in the street. A ridiculous possibility occurred to her.

Aliens?

Of course she’d watched science-fiction films before. She knew scientists were searching for extraterrestrial life. But this...

She swallowed.

If she really was on an alien world, she was in far more trouble than she’d imagined. Nora eventually stopped outside a small restaurant.

It wasn’t a big place. A few oddly shaped tables and chairs stood outside, and behind the counter several transparent containers displayed foods in different colors.

One golden item looked remarkably like bread. She found herself staring at it. Her stomach growled again.

Nora patted her empty pockets and sighed. She couldn’t even afford a glass of water.

There was a patch of shade beside the restaurant entrance. She leaned against the wall, planning to rest until she had enough strength to figure out what to do next.

Then a little head poked out beside her. It belonged to a boy who looked seven or eight years old.

He had a round, human-looking face, except for the third eye in the middle of his forehead, the fine pale-blue scales covering his cheeks, and the pair of short, translucent antennae standing on his head. The boy regarded her curiously.

Nora looked back.

He blinked.

All three eyes blinked together.

Nora couldn’t help blinking too. Apparently delighted, the boy called something into the restaurant in a language she couldn’t understand.

A middle-aged woman soon emerged from behind the counter. She was slightly plump and wore a dark-green apron. Delicate gold markings covered her cheeks, and several translucent membranes behind her ears trembled faintly as she walked.

She seemed to be about to call the boy back inside, but stopped when she saw Nora.

The woman looked her up and down.

Nora straightened awkwardly.

“Hi...”

The woman frowned and spoke in a language Nora didn’t recognize.

Nora could only offer an embarrassed smile.

“Sorry, I don’t understand.”

The woman tried a few more sentences. When Nora continued looking blank, she turned to the child.

The boy pointed at Nora’s forehead, touched his own antennae, and chattered away. His mother lightly slapped his hand aside, apparently scolding him for being rude.

Still, even she couldn’t keep her eyes off Nora.

The girl’s appearance was truly peculiar.

She had a perfectly ordinary humanoid outline and regular facial features, but her skin was so smooth it showed almost no identifying traits of any species. Her forehead was bare. She had only one pair of eyes. Her small ears had no fins, horns, or other appendages. Her arms and legs were terribly thin.

The woman glanced at Nora’s hands.

Five fingers on each, without so much as the simplest protective plates.

What species could she possibly belong to?

Perhaps she came from some frail species that had evolved in a low-risk environment. Or was she a juvenile that hadn’t finished developing?

The woman couldn’t tell.

She’d met plenty of travelers from remote planets, including members of some very unusual species. But this girl was exceptionally slight, and she didn’t even seem to have a personal terminal.

Her gaze dropped to Nora’s gray-white clothing. The fabric was filthy, several seams were worn, and dust covered her shoes. Then she noticed Nora’s pale face and the slight trembling of the hand braced against the wall.

Her frown softened. Uncomfortable under the scrutiny, Nora tugged at her clothes.

“Um... is there a problem?”

Naturally, the woman didn’t understand.

She noticed Nora’s cracked lips and the way she kept swallowing. After a moment’s thought, she pointed to her mouth and mimed drinking.

“Water?” Nora watched her repeat the gesture and nodded eagerly. “Yes! Please!”

At last Nora had responded. The woman went back inside. The boy remained where he was, watching Nora with three wide, round eyes.

She looked down at him.

Suddenly, he reached out and carefully touched the back of her hand.

Nora blinked in surprise. The boy seemed even more astonished after touching her. He turned his own hand over, compared his finely scaled skin to hers, then looked up again.

Nora laughed.

“Yeah, I know. Weird, right?”

He couldn’t understand her, but he laughed along.

The woman returned carrying a glass of clear liquid. She pointed first at the glass and then at Nora, apparently checking whether she could drink it.

Nora hesitated.

She’d just watched someone turn into an enormous armored creature. Who knew whether the water here was safe for a person from Earth?

The woman seemed to understand her concern. She fetched another glass, poured herself a little of the same liquid, and took a sip. Then she handed the original glass to Nora.

After a moment, Nora accepted it.

“Thank you.”

She took a careful sip. The taste was mild, with a faintly cool sensation, not so different from ordinary water. Finding nothing strange about it, she drank several more generous mouthfuls.

The woman watched her drink so desperately and sighed softly. She said something to the boy, who promptly ran inside.

A little later, he came back with a small plate holding several pieces of golden pastry.

Nora looked at them in surprise.

“For me?”

The boy grinned and pushed the plate toward her.

The woman said something, then picked up one of the pastries and took a bite herself.

Nora watched her before looking down at the plate. She still had no idea what these things were, but they smelled wonderful.

She picked one up and took a cautious bite.

It was soft like bread, with a delicate sweetness.

Her eyes lit up. It was delicious.

Seeing some life return to Nora’s face, the woman smiled too. She pointed to an empty chair inside the restaurant and beckoned her over.

Nora thought she understood.

“Can I sit there?”

She pointed at the chair.

The woman nodded.

Nora thanked her at once and carried the plate inside.

The chair was built differently from chairs on Earth. Strange recesses flanked the backrest, and the seat was much wider than usual. She tried sitting down and found it surprisingly comfortable.

The boy dragged over a little stool and sat beside her, continuing to study her with great interest.

His scrutiny made Nora smile.

“Never seen anyone like me before?”

The boy tilted his head. He clearly hadn’t understood a word.

Nora gave up trying to explain. She finished the pastries, leaned back comfortably, and finally began to feel human again.

The owner had returned to work behind the counter. Whenever a customer came in, she chatted with them, took their order, and fetched food from the equipment behind her.

One customer had six arms. When she accepted three shopping bags, all six hands reached out at once.

Nora felt a little envious. Imagine how handy that would be at the supermarket.

She sat and took in the little restaurant. Several illuminated menus lined the walls, their lettering constantly changing. Behind the counter, automatic cooking machines occasionally released faint wisps of white steam.

The street outside was still busy. Residents of every imaginable kind passed the windows. Many had faces strikingly similar to humans’, but their bodies bore all sorts of unusual features.

As she watched, Nora gradually relaxed. This place might be bizarre, but at least the people she’d met so far had been kind.

Her glass was nearly empty, and the owner was still serving customers. Nora held it in both hands without asking for more.

She ought to leave. But she couldn’t read a word of the signs outside, and she had no money. She certainly couldn’t spend the night back in a building where bits of metal kept falling from the ceiling.

She waited for the customer at the counter to leave. Then she’d ask the most urgent question of all: where could she sleep tonight?