~~~

It turned out Ya Ying wasn’t as on their way as they said they were.

Just as Miho and his two supposed guides stepped out of the elevator pod, onto a deserted viewing platform that came across as the spiritual twin of one of those old pagan worship points in Echigo Province, Mon Uhk’s wrist made a beeping sound.

‘Called back on urgent business,' said Ya Ying, voice unusually curt. 'You three start the tour.’

‘No, no, no, no…’

‘I’ll join when I can.’

‘Sir, can’t we-…’

‘Shouldn’t be long.’

After whining in protest for a few more minutes, Mon Uhk finally acquiesced and turned to Joooon. ‘You’re back in charge.’

She jabbed the bandage cloth in quick response, then jabbed a second time at the air near her Huxx comrade.

‘Fine. But I’m not explaining anything.’

~~~

The viewing platform they were on had a large sign, flashing out Good View Station in green light. Neon light, as Joooon described it…or showed it on the screen of her phone, after Mon Uhk had just grunted. Once again.

‘It’s a very quiet station,’ replied Miho, following the female Vohyangah over to the railings that seemed way too small and fragile considering the three-hundred feet drop on the other side.

‘Work day,’ she typed out, pointing at the refinery in the distance.

‘That’s where everyone’s working?’

Joooon went back to her phone…and paused…muttered something under her breath…looked at Mon Uhk, who was busy with his own phone again, apparently dying a lot in a game he wasn’t very good at…then typed out something short and held up the screen close to Miho’s face.

‘I am not a tour guide, sorry,’ he read out loud, the meaning sinking in a little while after. ‘Sorry…I didn’t mean to ask so much. Or you directly. But…’ He bit his tongue fast, killing the insult that he wanted to say in case the Huxx caught it and decided to throw him over the side. If they were strong enough to do that. Or he was weak enough to let it happen.

Gods, if he had those kids books with him, he could check. And it would kill some of this tour silence too.

Huxx physiology…strong or not?

‘Seventy-five minutes,’ cut in the monotone voice of Mon Uhk, eyes still glued to the screen of his phone.

Miho blinked, leaking out of his daydream. ‘To look at the refinery?’

‘Obviously.’

‘Can you-…is there any book or paper that can tell me about it?’

Mon Uhk lifted up his left hand as if it were weighted with a hundred layers of iron cloth and pointed at an oval screen dug into the railing nearby.

‘That’s got the information on it?’

‘Try.’

‘Sorry…is that a yes?’

An elbow in the side forced Miho to crunch inwards and then say, ‘hey, wait a second,’ as Joooon led him by the yukata sleeve to the oval screen.

‘I don’t know how to use it…’ he said, staring at the little circles that looked like larger version of the ones on Joooon’s phone.

The female Vohyangah leaned across and did a lot of pressing, then stepped back and flashed a showman’s hand at the lit-up screen with MENU written on it. And other flashing text that promoted things like Refinery Process and Applications of Modified Helium and FAQs.

‘Okay. I can read it. Kind of. What do I do now?’

There was no answer.

‘Joooon?’

Miho turned round and instead of a vaguely-irritated Japanese-looking woman with bandage cloth strapped over her mouth, he saw his worst nightmare walking out of the station entrance, heading directly towards him, arms pulled in tight to their chest, hands crossed awkwardly in something that may have been a friendly greeting, or, alternatively, a warm-up move for an attack disguised as a friendly greeting.

‘Having trouble with the screen, Sir?’ asked the tall figure with blue eyes, arriving close to Miho’s side and putting a hand out to grab his yukata as the rest of him almost toppled over the railing.

‘Wah…stop…’ Miho yelled, shrugging off the Jjanna’s paw and backing up even deeper, seemingly oblivious to the death drop behind.

Luckily, the railings weren’t the only safety measure, as blue flecks appeared, and a cushion of soft but tensile air repelled him away from the platform edge and forward into the arms of the blue-eyed demon.

‘What the jun are you doing, Voy?’ asked Mon Uhk, looking up from his screen with a face that looked like it had just had a whole sack of salt thrown at it.

‘Blue eyes…killer…’

‘Excuse me?’

Miho ignored the Jjanna’s exclamation and stumbled over to his comrades, pulling on Mon Uhk’s yukata, telling him to call the guards, the robot, anything remotely skilled at fighting.

‘This is the auxiliary tour guide, you mop.’

‘No…the eyes…’

‘And thanks to your ditzy tourist impression, you’ve just attracted him here. Nice job.’

‘You don’t understand. They eat people…I’ve seen it…’

Mon Uhk put a hand on Miho’s wrist and yanked it off his yukata. ‘Stop embarrassing yourself, Voy. One more hour and we’re gone. The three of us.’

‘But…’

‘Here’s a soft reminder for you.’

Getting a turquoise glint in their eye, the Huxx tightened their grip on Miho’s wrist and tried to twist a little more, but this time there was resistance. A surge of energy through Miho’s arm, the feeling that he could shrug this yellow claw off, could rip it off if he really wanted to.

What…

The spell broke, and Miho pulled back, in charge of his own limb again. Opposite, Mon Uhk moved to rub at his own wrist then stopped when he saw both Joooon and the Jjanna tour guide watching him. Instead, he straightened up, muttered fucking Voy and went back to his phone.

From the other side, another phone appeared, with Joooon back from her little vanishing act and gesturing with her eyeballs for him to read the screen.

‘The Jjanna is really a tour guide. Ask him anything. But don’t bond.’

‘Bond?’

Joooon took away the phone fast and made some kind of hand signal at the Jjanna, then scurried off to a quieter part of the railings.

‘Bond…’ mumbled Miho again, his head swaying in disbelief, the picture of the poor boy from Suwa Castle pulsating inside.

Bond…with that?

The drained corpse rolled off the trolley and slid up vertical, matching itself to the smiling figure with blue eyes and wisps of blue mist seeping from his neck standing opposite. Then faded cell by cell into one of the helium refinery towers propped upright in the background.

‘I assume you’ve had a bad experience with one of my kind before,’ the Jjanna tour guide started, holding out a pale grey hand out towards Miho. ‘Or seen one of those occult horror films you Vohyangah like to make about us.’

‘Horror films?’

‘All based on ancient historical practices, of course, things that all of our species took part in…to some degree. In fact, if it’s truly abject horror you’re after, then you should look no further than the Western Gos Usso tribes…or Huxx Directorate…or those of your own kind who once thought this moon we’re on was a wine god…’

Miho opened his mouth to ask what is a horror film, then put it on pause as Joooon popped up next to the Jjanna and showed him something fresh on her phone screen. Then patted the demon on his misty shoulder and retreated back to the other side of the railings.

There was a long stretch of silence, of scanning and head tilting from the blue-eyed demon, and some defensive arm folding in return from Miho. Then downward stares at the platform floor as his brain started functioning normally again, telling him that he’d handled the Gos Usso well enough, back in the sky canteen, so what the hell happened with this one?

Then guilt, regret, a dollop of shame.

Then an abrupt shout of junna ek from Mon Uhk in the background.

‘It seems that you have some questions about the refinery…Sir,’ said the Jjanna, straightening his neck, and then coughing as some of the mist sneaked in round the side.

‘Err…before. Some.’

‘Then…why don’t we forget the little drama that…didn’t happen…and focus on that. Tell me, what is your first question?’

~~~

It took a while…around forty-five minutes…to get used to hearing detailed information from a demon who was the spitting image of the lunatic who eviscerated the boy on the trolley, not to mention the fact that said information contained words like helium fusion, plasma injectors and input-to-output ratio, but, after a lot of meditation and calmly channelled breaths, Miho finally got comfortable enough to drop his shoulders and call the Jjanna by its first name, which, oddly enough, was Jjan.

‘A little joke from my progenitor.’

‘Pro jenny…’

‘What others refer to as parent. They believed that Jjanna was such a stupid name for a species that they decided to call me Jjan as an ironic tribute.’

‘I know how you feel. My dad called me Miho.’

‘That does not sound like a Vohyangah name.’

‘It’s not. It’s human. And for girls usually.’

‘Human…’ muttered Jjan, brushing off some mist from its neck as an excuse to glance over at Joooon for further explanation. Unfortunately, she was sat on the ground by the station entrance, tracing an outline of the bandage cloth over her mouth.

‘It’s a long…confusing story,’ said Miho, looking into the demon’s blue eyes a little too long and blinking. ‘Don’t completely understand it myself. But I’m Vohyangah now. Or I always was. Actually, I’m not sure about that either. They’re doing some kind of test on it now. PNA…’

‘DNA test.’

‘Yeah, that one. It should tell me who my family is here. If there is any.’

Jjan stared at Miho’s arms, one at a time, running his blue eyes up and down as if the answer to all this was stamped somewhere on the sleeves of his yukata. Then, with yet another abstruse hand signal, he walked over to the next part of the railings.

‘It’s not the best place to view it, but…if you look over there, on the far right…you can see the last section of the Tavva Curve.’

‘I think I see it.’

‘It has slightly darkish green tint…from a natural deposit of tholins.’

‘Yeah, got it.’

‘The curve itself is half organic, half artificial, the latter being quite a spectacular feat of engineering. See, the rock type in that section is very hard to break through, but with some creative engineering from your kind…and a few Huxx…a path was established that connected this main district to the import Patch.’

‘Import Patch. Is that also part of the Huxx colony?’

‘In name, yes. In practice…I would say it is its own thing. A lot of different types living there, working…’

‘The Tavva Curve part looks magical…like it’s glowing.’

‘Also the tholins.’

‘It’s beautiful.’

Jjan made a noise that sounded like groaning and put both hands on the railing. Then proceeded to look out at the moon landscape for a long time without saying a word. As if he’d just quit his job as tour guide and turned into a herb-soaked naturalist.

‘Are you okay?’ Miho asked, after the silence started to get awkward.

‘Reflecting. On the solar system. Life. Struggle.’

‘I used to do the same thing back home…on the hill overlooking my village.’

‘Oh?’

‘Not with a view this amazing though. Nowhere near. But it was pretty nice. Especially when Yuki was there…’

‘Yuki?’

Miho closed his eyes and saw the pale white figure drifting towards him through the black. Yuki’s hair, Yuki’s shape, Yuki’s white and pale blue yukata…Aya’s face. He gripped the railing with his right hand. Squeezed it. Tried to open his eyes but couldn’t. Squeezed harder.

‘It’s fine, Sir, you don’t have to divulge anything from that part of you brain. I understand. How about we move on with the tour? I assume your two comrades would have no objection to that, if that’s what you desired.’

‘Sorry…’ said Miho, phasing back in. ‘Haven’t we seen everything now?’

‘Refinery-related, yes. But the beauty of being an auxiliary tour guide is the freedom of movement. I can go anywhere, with anyone. For any length of time.’

‘Err…I don’t have any money with me.’

‘Money? Ah, the human thing. No, you do not need to worry about that here. Everything is Huxx regulated. As long as you’re not an illegal import…which, by the company you keep…I suppose you are not.’

‘I don’t think I am…’

‘Good. Very good.’ Another Jjanna hand signal, this one like an inverted triangle. ‘Then would you like to continue the tour?’

‘You know about all the things…all the areas on this colony?’

‘Down to the tiniest muon. Come, let’s inform the others. I’m thinking the space elevator might be a good choice for our next stop.’

‘Ah, I read about that…’

‘Good, good. Then I can test you.’

‘…in a kids book.’

‘Oh. Never mind then.’

‘I know it goes up and down.’

‘Well…that’s a start.’ Jjan smiled and swished more mist away from their neck as the two of them arrived at the feet of a sleepy-looking Joooon. ‘Comrade, wake up. We’re moving on to the next stop.’

The Vohyangah pulled a creepily still face, possibly concealing a yawn beneath the bandage, and then pulled out her phone, typing lethargically. ‘With you?’

‘No better guide than an auxiliary.’

She typed more - you bonded with him?? - this time holding up the screen to Miho.

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to. We just started talking and-…’

‘Hey…’ cut in a shout from behind, Mon Uhk advancing towards them with his phone gone. ‘What are you up to?’

‘Transferring to the next spot.’

‘We didn’t hire you for the whole day.’

‘He did,’ replied Jjan, pointing at Miho, who just shrugged.

‘What, a junna amnesiac Voy hiring a junna import Jan…?’

‘That’s right. And a junna Huxx too. Unless you’d prefer to stay here and play on your little phone game?’

Miho stifled a laugh, and looked at Joooon, who was probably doing the same thing under that bandage cloth.

‘You’re not coming…’ protested Mon Uhk to viewing platform air as Jjan walked back into the station area and, with a flick of his hand, signalled a very willing Miho and Joooon to follow him in.

‘Up to you…Sir,’ the Jjanna shouted back over his shoulder, the soundwaves from his voice disrupting the blue mist enough to make it dance a little.

Mon Uhk hung back another minute, squeezing the phone in his yukata pocket, then spat on the platform grating and sulked in after them.

‘Junna ek Jan Voy sex cat the whole lot of them…’