The Fist Bump

Soffy was right—It was a long train ride, but Ashtin didn’t dare watch the anime she had given him. He didn’t want to risk disobeying the council. For the first half of the trip, he knocked out his history homework, a reading of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. In the back half, he spent his time reviewing information on cat and human anatomy, hoping to learn something that could help him grow a tail.

Oh, how wonderful his tail would be. Black and lustrous, with soft, thick fur. He would cut a hole in the back of his robes for it and swing it lazily back and forth as he walked down the street. All who witnessed its beauty would recognize him as a true catboy, not as just a freak mage with strange ears. At least, they would if they knew what a catboy was. Maybe for his reward, he’d ask for the council to declassify that bit of historical knowledge.

So enamored was Ashtin with fantasies of his tail that he spent as much time daydreaming as he did studying. As they neared Settlement 266, he heard a knock on his cabin door, and a gynoid stuck her head in.

“Small change of plans. Dr. Flay Shreburn has submitted a formal request to study your staff. Since it will not leave your side, the council has agreed to lend her your assistance.”

“Dr. Shreburn? Author of the magic textbooks?”

“The very same. She has been informed of the true nature of your mission and ordered to cooperate. The council trusts her about as much as a historian mage candidate, but try not to divulge classified information if you can avoid it.”

“What’s she doing in Settlement 266? If she’s so important, shouldn’t she have been evacuated?”

“Indeed, but she has insisted on staying behind to help, and extracting her by force has been a low priority.”

Something about that explanation didn’t sit right with Ashtin. Sure, the council only exercised violence as a last resort, but you’d be surprised how quickly a group of gynoids can exhaust every other option. If they really wanted Dr. Shreburn out of Settlement 266, they’d have captured her days ago. Perhaps the council couldn’t operate freely within the city. Soffy had said the council didn’t have things under control, but he never imagined she meant the council had no control.

For the first time, Ashtin was getting an inkling of how scary this situation truly was, but he put on a brave face. “Got it. I’ll see if I can convince her to leave.”

Satisfied, the gynoid left Ashtin to think about cat tails until the train reached Settlement 266. When he disembarked, the platform was empty, save for a few guards clutching their rifles close to their chests and glancing around for any kind of threat. Ashtin could feel their eyes on him and his staff as he made his way toward the customs building.

Inside, he was surprised to find a full waiting area and no special treatment. As a mage, Ashtin’s experiences with bureaucracy were shorter and more pleasant than those of the civilian population. Ashtin felt guilty about this, but he was always short on time, so he took advantage of his status to make things go faster. He briefly considered reneging on the promise he had made to the Soffy to enter the city through the proper channels, but he figured if he did that, he’d never get his dakimakura back. The gynoids weren’t capable of anger, but they could be vindictive all the same, so he took a number and looked for a place to wait.

He eventually settled for leaning against a wall next to a particularly burly man. He did this hoping he'd stand out. The man was tall, balding, and wore a permanent scowl on his face, while Ashtin was short, scrawny, and had messy hair growing around his cat ears.

“Been waiting long?” Ashtin asked the man, doing his best to sound casual.

The man glanced at him, seemingly dismissing Ashtin as no threat, and continued scanning the waiting room. “A few minutes, but things seem to be moving quickly.”

“I’d imagine. I heard there’s a moratorium on leaving the settlement. Doesn’t take long to reject an application.”

“Sure, but it doesn’t look to me like anyone’s trying to leave.”

Ashtin took another look at the people in the waiting area. Without exception, it was filled with gruff-looking men and women. He couldn’t imagine they were all criminals. The council wouldn’t pour fuel on the fire by letting more criminals into the settlement. Perhaps they were mercenaries. It would certainly be odd for the council to employ civilians in this manner, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

“Including you?” Ashtin asked the man, who nodded in response. “In it for the money?”

“I came to help. I couldn’t just stand by.”

Before Ashtin could reply, a manager emerged from the back of the office and shouted Ashtin’s name.

“Looks like I’ve been recognized. Good luck out there. We’re in the same boat.” He held out his hand, curling his fingers into a loose fist. It was something he often did when he met someone he thought was cool—another one of his eccentricities—but the gesture had never been reciprocated. To his surprise, the man bumped fists with him without hesitation, and Ashtin turned away quickly to hide the stupid grin on his face.

“I’m sorry for the delay, Mr. Blackford,” the manager apologized once Ashtin had made his way to the back of the office. “Things have been busy today, and—”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sorry for dropping in on such short notice. You can dispense with the pleasantries. I don’t want to take up more of your time than I have to.”

“Very well.” The manager gestured to a chair. “What can I do for you today?”

“I’ll be transferring to this settlement, and I will need housing.” Ashtin placed a sheet of paper on the desk. “My time will be split working at the guild and assisting Dr. Flay Shreburn with her research, so I would prefer somewhere close to both locations. Also, I require a pass to enter and leave the settlement as I please.”

“I… see.” The manager furiously typed into his computer. “I will, of course, do what I can, Mr. Blackford, but housing is extremely tight right now.”

There was something off about his reaction. Bureaucrats were often displeased, worried, and fearful when dealing with mages, but they did their best to hide it. Although this man’s words were restrained, his facial expression was one of unbridled anger.

“That’s very understandable. I will inform the council of the situation and advise them that it may take longer to acquire housing. In the meantime, the pass, if you please.”

“Of course.” The manager opened a drawer and handed a pass to Ashtin. “Forgive my demeanor, Mr. Blackford. I wasn’t angry at you. Rather, I just found that someone has been messing with the immigration priority list again. My staff tell me it’s just a computer malfunction, but I find that difficult to believe.”

“As do I. Are you responsible for prioritization?”

“In general, nobody is. Prioritization is handled by an algorithm, but given the current situation, I’ve been authorized to make manual adjustments. I’m supposed to be in charge here! Forgive me again. I’ve wasted too much of your time with my apology. Did you need anything else?”

“No, that will be all.” Ashtin pocketed the pass and stood up. “Thank you for your time.”

Finding his way from the train station to the central plaza turned out to be simple. All settlements were laid out identically, as much as geography allowed. This was to reduce the difficulty in emigrating from one settlement to another.

By encouraging people to move around, the council hoped to prevent the formation of isolationist in-groups in any of the settlements. Despite knowing this, Ashtin had never visited another settlement in his life, and he marveled at how familiar everything looked.

By this point, it had become natural to Ashtin that, wherever he went, his staff floated close behind. Given the situation in Settlement 266, Ashtin expected to be stopped by City Guard officers warning him not to openly carry something so valuable, but he saw no trace of the guard. He did eventually attract the kind of attention they would have warned him about, however. He heard heavy footsteps approaching well before his would-be assailants reached him, but he waited until they drew close before whipping around to catch them in the act. One of the men was reaching for the staff, and the other was about to club Ashtin in the head, but before they could accomplish their goals, magical chains materialized around them, holding them in place.

“Rogue mage!” the man closest to him shouted. “Rogue mage! Call the guard!”

This perplexed Ashtin. The last thing a criminal should want was for the guard to get involved, but a moment later, he had his answer. Upon hearing the man’s cries, the few people nearby scrambled to distance themselves from the scene, but amongst the noise, Ashtin could discern two sets of footsteps approaching him from behind. The guards whose attention he had hoped to attract had been nearby for some time now.

It was a trap.

“Halt, mage,” an officer commanded as Ashtin turned to face them. “Release those people.”

Putting his hands up, Ashtin turned slowly to face the voice. At the end of the block, two City Guard officers were drawing their pistols. From their uniforms, Ashtin could tell that one was a lieutenant, and the other a fresh recruit. The recruit was young and muscular, but obviously green, while the lieutenant was his opposite—older and out of shape—but carried himself like an experienced soldier.

The other thing that stood out to Ashtin about their uniforms was their olive drab color. The City Guard in his home settlement wore khaki uniforms. In fact, the City Guard in each settlement had their own uniforms, because they were not part of one large military-policing organization, but thousands of smaller ones.

Each settlement was its own government with its own administration. Laws were enacted by popular vote, so if it wished to, a settlement could have different laws, but none had opted to do so. the Council of Humankind proposed the laws, and the people trusted them to work in their benefit. Their trust had not been misplaced. The council’s laws had allowed the settlements to prosper, and their uniformity had made trade, travel, and migration between the settlements as frictionless as if they had all been a unified nation.

This system was established as a way to keep the peace on the planet. Because the council assured that everyone’s basic needs were provided for, there was little reason for war, save ideology or personal ambition. If any of the 2,000 City Guard organizations attempted to wage war or oppress the populace of their settlement, the others would gang up on it. Because settlements voted for their laws separately, dangerous political movements would be slow to spread across the planet and could be similarly put down. Since its establishment when the first biological humans were born on the planet, there had been no major conflicts.

“Lieutenant.” Ashtin tried to sound as calm as possible. “They tried to mug me. I am not a rogue mage.”

“Then let’s see your papers.” The moment Ashtin reached for his pocket, however, the guard leveled his service pistol at Ashtin. “Freeze! Release those people, now.”

“A—are you sure we should be doing this?” the officer next to him asked. “He doesn’t seem violent.”

“Listen,” the lieutenant said, not taking his eyes off Ashtin, “any mage that doesn’t obey orders is a rogue mage. No one will make a fuss if we take them out.”

Straining his cat ears, Ashtin could hear reinforcements approaching from all directions. Although his magic was ill-suited to combat, if it came down to a fight, he had no doubt he could pin down the two guards in front of him, but he had no chance against a larger group. Pulling his staff close, Ashtin erected magical shields around himself.

The shields were semitransparent, made of pure magical energy, and circular. They were strong enough to block even high-energy weaponry, though nearly all weapons on Fobo 2 used conventional munitions. As a recently terraformed planet, geologically speaking, there were no fossil fuels. All electricity was provided by solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear plants, and a large percentage of it went to the gynoids. There wasn’t the energy to spare for weapons when bullets worked almost as well.

“I’m here on official business from the Council of Humankind,” Ashtin tried to explain. He extended a shield toward the officers, hoping to keep them at a safe distance. “Do you know Dr. Shreburn, the magic researcher? I was told to assist—”

“Drop the shields,” the lieutenant bellowed. “If you cast any more spells, I’ll—”

Just then, a woman appeared from behind the officers and pushed past them. This caught Ashtin by surprise, as he hadn’t heard her footsteps at all. As she approached Ashtin, he had just enough time to notice the regimented way she ran. Although she wasn’t wearing the uniform, she was obviously with the guard.

“Watch out,” he warned, expecting her to run headfirst into his shield, but she passed through it as if it weren’t there, shattering it in the process. She was a spellbreaker, Ashtin realized, and if he let her get too close, she would prevent him from defending himself or escaping. In a panic, he pulled the chains off his captives and attempted to fling them at the spellbreaker. Even if she broke the spell guiding them, they would crash into her and their momentum would knock her to the ground. It ought to give him enough time to teleport to safety.

To his dismay, the chains flowed around her like a stream around a large rock. She hadn’t broken his spell, she had altered it. Luckily, the chains continued past her, ensnaring the officers, but Ashtin was far from safe. He gripped his staff like a weapon and attempted to use it to cudgel the woman, but he was too slow, and she grabbed it with one hand just below the wings. He tried to twist it so that he could hit her legs with the bottom of the staff, but her other hand grabbed it further down.

“Nice instinct,” she smirked, pulling the staff from his hands. As she took it from him, he could also feel her taking his ability to use magic.