Chapter 5:
The Spine of the World
A-KA AND HEISHI had spent six days walking in the snow. Their surroundings were devoid of human habitation. They passed through a small grove of trees before coming out of it and entering a huge mountain range.
A-Ka’s satchel was now being carried by Heishi, but even with his help, A-Ka was still a little short of breath, and their daily travels wore him down. When they came to a fissure in the mountain range, he was almost tempted to lie upon Heishi’s back and have Heishi carry him as they clambered over the mountains.
“This is the ridgeline of the Astrolabe,” A-Ka said. “Jingchuan.”
As usual, Heishi listened with a chilly expression. As they sat before the fire, A-Ka finished eating the wild fox that they had caught. The meat was foul and smelly, and there was no salt, so he had to fight to keep it down.
“The Astrolabe is our world,” A-Ka explained to Heishi. “It’s a huge instrument, with seventeen smaller astrolabes revolving around it. Every landmass is its own separate island. They’re like gears in a machine, all nestled together.”
Heishi grunted absentmindedly, before asking, “Are you done resting?”
“No,” A-Ka said, sounding a little helpless. “I know I’ve slowed you down. Very sorry for that.”
This sentiment of A-Ka’s was sincere. Heishi was almost too sturdy: He didn’t dread the cold, his strength was extraordinary, and he could walk a whole day without resting. Of course, to make up for that, he also ate a lot. After all, he was a human from three thousand years ago, and back then human genetics had been at its peak; hence, it was known as the Golden Age. He was unlike A-Ka and the rest of the humans of the Black Iron Age, struggling under the control of the machines with their fragile constitutions.
During their time together, A-Ka had been observing Heishi, trying to figure out exactly what he was. Finally, one direct piece of evidence convinced A-Ka that Heishi was indeed human: excretion. Heishi sweated and sometimes wanted to bathe. The way he bathed was to take off his clothes, stand naked in the snow, and use it to cleanse his body.
Besides that, any human would need to eat, and they would produce excreta then. He’d been convinced Heishi must do that too, although he avoided A-Ka when doing so for a while. That kind of shame seemed to be innate.
Eventually, A-Ka got his proof. He’d been watching Heishi from afar. Heishi had just finished wiping down his body, and after his bath, he knelt in the snow, unmoving. Under the shining sunlight, his bronzed skin made him look like a perfect statue of an ancient male god. A-Ka had only seen people squatting or sitting to urinate; this was the first time he had seen someone kneel to do the deed.
After he left, A-Ka went over to go take a look, but Heishi caught A-Ka by the collar and tossed him into the snow. Even A-Ka realized he was being a pervert at that point, so he had to admit defeat and flee.
Aside from Heishi’s not-so-great temper and his frequent tendency toward violence, he’s a good companion overall, A-Ka thought.
“Have you seen humans from the Bronze Age?” A-Ka asked.
Heishi raised an eyebrow. A-Ka realized that he might have made Heishi mad, so he stuttered out an explanation. “I-I didn’t want to pry about your past. I was just curious.”
“No,” Heishi responded. “I don’t know what that is.”
“The Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages. I’m a human from the fourth one. It was said that before the Golden Age, there was an even more ancient, original mankind.”
Heishi listened silently. Over these past few days, A-Ka would tell him about some things every now and then, and though Heishi had looked as if he wasn’t paying attention, A-Ka knew that he had probably taken it all in.
“The original humans created everything on this mainland,” A-Ka said, “including the cloning techniques, computers, and artificial intelligence. Over fourteen thousand years, their bodies evolved to become stronger and stronger.”
“And the generations afterward called them the Golden Age of humankind?” Heishi asked.
A-Ka nodded. “That was the most splendid age of man. I don’t know if there are any more humans from the Golden Age like you. Maybe there are more in the mythical land or the Curran People’s Confederation.”
“If there are, so what?”
“Don’t you think they could figure out something about your mission?” He picked up a tree branch and drew a map on the ground. “After we pass through Jingchuan, we’ll cross the mountain range from this patch of highland here and arrive at the Aijia Strait. From there, we might be able to wait for a ship that’s going toward Curran.”
“Or we might be captured by the robots and shot full of as many holes as a wasp nest. This is the sixth time you’ve told me about your plans.”
A-Ka shrugged, defeated.
Suddenly, Heishi’s expression changed a fraction, as if he had heard something. “Stay here,” Heishi commanded before he picked up his makeshift greatsword and slid down the slope, sending up a flurry of snow in his wake.
The sounds grew clearer, until even A-Ka could hear them. That was the roar of airship engines and the sound of machine guns firing, along with the shrill screams of women and the lower, confused cries of men.
The robots had chased them down! A-Ka fell into a panic. He followed the small path until, within the snow-covered valley, he saw a group of humans sprinting for their lives and trying to hide as two robotic patrols hovering in midair pursued them, bullets flying as they chased their quarry.
Up on the cliffs, a human figure leaped from ridge to ridge. It was Heishi. He spread his arms, his oversized sword in one hand, before he jumped down headfirst from on high.
“Be careful!” A-Ka roared.
Heishi didn’t say a single word in response as he landed on one of the robotic patrols. The hovering killing machine turned, and the bullet hail changed targets. A-Ka decisively flipped his bag over, dumping out its contents with a thump, and even while he lifted his head, his hands never stopped moving as he assembled the magnetic field generator.
The fleeing humans rushed up the slope of the mountain. Heishi pressed down on one of the robotic patrollers, as if he was controlling a particularly wild bird of prey, and the machine collided with the mountain. The second robotic patroller turned and flew toward Heishi, opening its gunports, taking aim at him, and preparing to fire.
With a click, A-Ka put the last screw of the magnetic field generator’s external cover in place. After knotting a rope around it, he quickly picked up the other end of the rope and began to spin it in rapid circles—then let it fly up and away.
With a whoosh, the electronic box flashing with the gray-gold of metal flew up high before it detected a metallic object nearby and was pulled toward the other robotic patroller. Clinking quietly, it stuck to the body of the robot. A humming sound started as the blue light of the magnetic field shone. Heishi turned and pushed off the patroller, hopping toward the steep slope, as the second robotic patroller’s antigravity engine was neutralized and it slammed into the cliff with an earth-shaking boom. One part of the mountain range collapsed—the impact had caused an avalanche.
“Run, quick!” A-Ka shouted.
Collapsing snow swept Heishi down the mountain. The humans rushed toward the high ground, and the two robotic patrollers sizzled with electricity before exploding, which started another chain reaction. Under the snow that covered the ground, the mountains stood tall, reflecting the bright sunlight.
Eventually, the sky-splitting booms faded away, and the world regained its stillness.
“Ack, ack, bleh!”
A-Ka struggled halfway out of the snow with great difficulty. Heishi hurried over to him, used one hand to lift him the rest of his way by the shirt, and dragged him out of the snow field.
One by one, the other humans clambered out of the snow. They had barely survived, and each of them was still in a state of shock. A-Ka nodded at them. He counted seven of them: two women, four men, and one small girl. Everyone sat under the sunlight in the snow field, all of them exhausted beyond belief.
“When did you guys escape?” a woman asked A-Ka.
“Seven days ago,” A-Ka said. “I’m called A-Ka. He’s Heishi.”
“Thank you,” one man said. “Those two chased us the entire way here.”
Heishi replied coldly, “I was only protecting myself.”
A-Ka smiled awkwardly at Heishi’s behavior. “Don’t put it like that. Everyone here is human, and since we’re all humans, we should help each other out.”
The gathered people began to smile as well, but Heishi walked away. In the distance, a few more men were digging in the snow.
“Friend! Come help us!” one of them shouted. “There’s still a guy here. Let’s get him out!”
A-Ka went over and bent to look, but after helping them pull the person out, he froze—it was a clone, his face covered with chips of ice. As he staggered to his feet, the human standing next to him punched him square in the face.
“You lied to us!” that man said angrily.