Flinx Transcendent_ A Pip & Flinx Adventure - Alan Dean Foster [43]
They were on the transport for what seemed an eternity. The interior was sealed and, of course, not air-conditioned. If not for his simsuit's ability to evaporate his mammalian sweat, recycle it as drinking water, and otherwise keep him cool and his body temperature stable, Flinx knew he would have fainted from heatstroke hours ago.
As the transport hummed eastward, picking up and disgorging passengers along the way, it occurred to Flinx that he could make an excuse for them to disembark. Once out of sight, he could kill Kiijeem easily. That would lose him the potentially useful contacts he sought, but would also allow him to find another hiding place in a completely different part of the city. Perhaps a location where he could safely hide out long enough to await the return of the reconfigured Teacher. That would mean he would not need the help of Kiijeem's more powerful friends.
Of course if he did such a thing, carried out such a disgraceful act, it would only prove that he was no more worth saving from the menace that lay behind the Great Emptiness than the other humans and assorted sentients he had been quick to disparage on previous occasions. Besides, he liked Kiijeem, even though he was quite aware that should the right opportunity present itself the young nye would swallow his dismay at the loss of his offworld acquaintance and happily sample the softskin's flesh. While such instinctive behavior might repel the average human or thranx, in Flinx's wide-ranging experience it did not disqualify Kiijeem's entire species from the prospect of salvation.
Anyhow, the entire galaxy was at stake. In order to save the benign species, he had to save them all.
Only two other passengers remained by the time the transport entered a part of the capital city's western residential zone. Marked by steep-sided hills and lengthy escarpments, so perfectly rendered were these geological features that he needed Kiijeem to confirm the artificiality of their nature.
So this was how the upper levels of AAnn society managed to enjoy sweeping views from their dwellings while still remaining largely underground, he reflected as the transport turned silently down a winding accessway. If the ground where you choose to live is flat, construct your residence and then build an obligatory mountain around it. Even to his undiscerning human eye, the amount of effort and expense that had to have gone into each individual dwelling in order to make it look as though it had been excavated from natural rock must have been considerable. There was even one estate that was “buried” entirely in a row of artfully sculpted barchan dunes. Characteristic longitudinal windows gleamed from the slip faces of sand that never shifted no matter how strong were the winds that blew against them. Clearly, the AAnn who could afford to live in this district must hold positions of considerable importance within the Imperial hierarchy. In response to his query, Kiijeem confirmed as much.
“Truly only the mosst important nye dwell here, outsside of the Imperial family itsself.” He motioned second-degree self-importance. The verbal equivalent in a human would have been called boasting.
“Like my friendss.”
Flinx regarded his guide from behind imitation AAnn eyes. “Your friends hold positions of such importance? Within the government?”
Kiijeem looked away and his tail drooped slightly. “Fssabb, not exactly. It would be more correct to ssay they are the offsspring of thosse who actually hold ssuch possitionss.”
Great, Flinx thought as he studied the extensive, expensive surroundings. Additional