seen it in Loma’s book. “Was it cold there?”
Yulia nodded. “Colder than here, anyway. There wasn’t just a little frost on Dimsday. Sometimes there was real snow.”
Snow was another word that Denny knew from the book Loma had given him. He thought that maybe he should tell Yulia about the book with the dog people, but first...“You said you know where to get a maton.”
She hesitated, and then nodded. The green light shining down left shadows across her cheeks and around her eyes. “Like I said, Halitt Plex was different. It was a lot smaller. It was a new city, not like Jukal. There were no big sleeping stadiums. No real units at all. And no human quarter.”
“No quarter?” Denny sat down across from her. The floor was cold through the thin fabric of his pants. “Where did you live?”
“With the cithians.”
Denny would have been less surprised if Yulia had told him she had lived on the blue sun. “They let you stay with them?”
“Well, not exactly.” Yulia rocked back, looking off into the shadowy corners of the room.
15
Yulia’s story
Halitt Plex was the end of the world. Or at least, the end of the land.
There were no real oceans on Rask, but there were many large lakes and swamps and marshes that stretched on to the horizon in every direction. Halitt was perched on a long sliver of low ground, flanked on one side by dull gray water and on the other side by dull gray swamp. It was bitter cold on Dimsday, barely above freezing on Whetsday, and raked by sharp winds on every day. It was one of the few places on crowded old Rask that cithians had never lived. For good reason.
But then a survey team found minerals beneath the little swamp island, minerals that were valuable across the planet and off the planet. So cithians came to build a new settlement at Halitt, and they brought humans with them.
At first there were so few cithians in Halitt that it was more an outpost than a village. When Yulia was born, there were actually more humans in Halitt than there were cithians. Humans were everywhere. Humans worked in the mines. Humans drained away the swamps and built long dikes that made the island bigger. Humans built the new city where everyone would live.
Of course, humans didn’t do this by themselves. Humans didn’t have the skills or knowledge to build the mines, or plan the dikes or design the buildings. Cithians did all that. Humans just did the work.
All the humans in Halitt Plex had jobs. Even Yulia was given a job when she was still very small. There had been a big, flat belt that came out of the mine carrying rocks to a building where they were crushed. Some of the rocks were the right kind of rocks, the valuable kind. These were blue. Some of the rocks were not the right kind. They were brown or black or gray or sometimes blue—only the wrong kind of blue. It was Yulia’s job to reach onto the moving belt, pull off the rocks that were the wrong kind, and throw them onto a pile. There were other children, and sometimes old people, who also did this job. They would stand in a line, grabbing out the not-right rocks, and tossing them away. Every day Yulia’s hands were wet and cold and bruised from the rocks, but she did a good job. She worked hard.
Other people had the job of coming for the not-right rocks with little carts and carrying them to the edge of the island, where these rocks were used in making the dikes. They were not right for making whatever it was that was made from the blue rocks, but they were fine for making the low walls that kept out the water. Nothing went to waste in Halitt.
There were many other sorts of jobs. Few of the cithian crops would grow at Halitt, so Yulia’s mother worked in a building where bright yellow cathik and bright green wheat were grown under banks of lights. Yulia’s mother, whose name was Nata, tended the plants, and cut the plants, and ground the plants to flour. Nata’s job
Yulia nodded. “Colder than here, anyway. There wasn’t just a little frost on Dimsday. Sometimes there was real snow.”
Snow was another word that Denny knew from the book Loma had given him. He thought that maybe he should tell Yulia about the book with the dog people, but first...“You said you know where to get a maton.”
She hesitated, and then nodded. The green light shining down left shadows across her cheeks and around her eyes. “Like I said, Halitt Plex was different. It was a lot smaller. It was a new city, not like Jukal. There were no big sleeping stadiums. No real units at all. And no human quarter.”
“No quarter?” Denny sat down across from her. The floor was cold through the thin fabric of his pants. “Where did you live?”
“With the cithians.”
Denny would have been less surprised if Yulia had told him she had lived on the blue sun. “They let you stay with them?”
“Well, not exactly.” Yulia rocked back, looking off into the shadowy corners of the room.
15
Yulia’s story
Halitt Plex was the end of the world. Or at least, the end of the land.
There were no real oceans on Rask, but there were many large lakes and swamps and marshes that stretched on to the horizon in every direction. Halitt was perched on a long sliver of low ground, flanked on one side by dull gray water and on the other side by dull gray swamp. It was bitter cold on Dimsday, barely above freezing on Whetsday, and raked by sharp winds on every day. It was one of the few places on crowded old Rask that cithians had never lived. For good reason.
But then a survey team found minerals beneath the little swamp island, minerals that were valuable across the planet and off the planet. So cithians came to build a new settlement at Halitt, and they brought humans with them.
At first there were so few cithians in Halitt that it was more an outpost than a village. When Yulia was born, there were actually more humans in Halitt than there were cithians. Humans were everywhere. Humans worked in the mines. Humans drained away the swamps and built long dikes that made the island bigger. Humans built the new city where everyone would live.
Of course, humans didn’t do this by themselves. Humans didn’t have the skills or knowledge to build the mines, or plan the dikes or design the buildings. Cithians did all that. Humans just did the work.
All the humans in Halitt Plex had jobs. Even Yulia was given a job when she was still very small. There had been a big, flat belt that came out of the mine carrying rocks to a building where they were crushed. Some of the rocks were the right kind of rocks, the valuable kind. These were blue. Some of the rocks were not the right kind. They were brown or black or gray or sometimes blue—only the wrong kind of blue. It was Yulia’s job to reach onto the moving belt, pull off the rocks that were the wrong kind, and throw them onto a pile. There were other children, and sometimes old people, who also did this job. They would stand in a line, grabbing out the not-right rocks, and tossing them away. Every day Yulia’s hands were wet and cold and bruised from the rocks, but she did a good job. She worked hard.
Other people had the job of coming for the not-right rocks with little carts and carrying them to the edge of the island, where these rocks were used in making the dikes. They were not right for making whatever it was that was made from the blue rocks, but they were fine for making the low walls that kept out the water. Nothing went to waste in Halitt.
There were many other sorts of jobs. Few of the cithian crops would grow at Halitt, so Yulia’s mother worked in a building where bright yellow cathik and bright green wheat were grown under banks of lights. Yulia’s mother, whose name was Nata, tended the plants, and cut the plants, and ground the plants to flour. Nata’s job
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