The First Nation

Jin drifted in and out of consciousness with no way to tell how much time had passed. She had been moving, someone had carried her. People had been talking. There had been bright lights shone into her eyes. A calm, male voice had been saying something.

When she finally woke, Jin lay on a soft bed in a cold, off-white room. She was connected by wires to machines that beeped and whirred. There was a man standing nearby with his back to her. His white shirt was rolled up to his elbows and the back of his vest looked shiny. His short hair was white and he was holding something up to his face that Jin couldn't see.

Her coat and sword were hanging by the door.

There was a pain in her right forearm. Jin looked down at herself.

There was something wrong with her pendant.

Wires led to little pads on her chest, a couple going through the armpit of her dress to what felt like more pads on her sternum. There was a cuff around her right arm and a tube full of something yellowish and opaque leading to a needle in her right wrist.

'Ah.' Jin moved to grab the needle.

The man spun around. 'Stop.'

Jin stopped, but not because he'd told her to.

The man wore narrow, rectangular-frame glasses over a sharp nose and thick, white mustache. He was frowning at her. Jin didn't appreciate that.

'What… where am I?' Jin demanded.

'In my care,' the man said, putting whatever he'd been looking at down on the table and striding over. 'I am Doctor Li Minghao. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.'

Jin opened her mouth to introduce herself, as would be only polite. 'Jin,' she said, instead. 'Where am I?'

Doctor Li Minghao frowned at her for a moment. 'You are in my clinic,' he said. 'Near the eastern edge of town.'

'Where's your clinic?' Jin demanded. 'What town? What's this thing in my arm?' She reached to grab it again.

Doctor Li Minghao reached out as if to stop her, but didn't actually touch her. 'That thing in your arm is intravenous nutrients. You were quite badly dehydrated when you were found.'

'Who found me? Where am I?'

'I believe…' Doctor Li Minghao picked up a clipboard from the end of Jin's bed and squinted at it. 'It was Yuan Lei and Jian. Two soldiers who happened to be checking the third floor.'

Jin sagged back into the bed, all her energy fleeing her. 'The third floor? I made it down so far?'

Doctor Li Minghao pushed his glasses up his nose, his wrinkled brow holding them in place as he frowned down at Jin. 'You're from above the third floor, then? I suppose that would make sense.'

'I'm from Feng, on the seventy-ninth floor,' Jin said. 'I was looking for people to come back with me to help. We were attacked by the biggest Ruqin I've ever seen and I was supposed to get help but I didn't find anyone and I kept going down and down and I didn't find anyone so I kept going down and now I'm on the third floor?'

'I'm sorry to inform you, Miss Feng, that you're on the very first floor,' Doctor Li said, his face smoothing out and his expression turning more sympathetic. He wrote something on his clipboard.

'What happened?' Jin asked again, much less energetically. 'How did I get here?'

Doctor Li looked at his clipboard. 'According to Yuan Lei and Jian, they were alerted to the sounds of fighting and went to investigate. They saw you defeat a mech and… according to them, it started to glow and you appeared to absorb it. When they reached you, you were unconscious, so they brought you to me.'

'How long have I been out?' Jin asked, tensing with dread at the answer.

'Approximately twelve hours,' Doctor Li said. 'With intermittent near wakefulness.' He flipped a page on the clipboard. 'Aside from the dehydration, your vital signs have been normal and there's no evidence of brain injury despite that lovely bruise on your forehead.'

Jin touched her forehead, it hurt. 'Then I've failed.' Jin sighed her way deeper into the bed. 'I might as well stay down here and do nothing like everyone else.'

Doctor Li's brow wrinkled again, just a little. 'For the moment, you should rest,' he said. 'I'll find you some solid food and we can remove the line from your arm.'

Jin didn't say anything, just stared up at the off-white ceiling. Surely her mother had worried too much. Surely everyone would be fine. Even if some people had been hurt or even killed, the village would be fine. They could rebuild, especially with all the Cubes from a Ruqin that big. It would be fine. Jin could just climb back up when she felt better and explain her terrible luck. No one would be mad.

It would be fine.

Jin was snapped out of her funk by the smell of food, good food. It smelled rich and spicy. Much better than the food they usually got at home. Doctor Li had come back and was holding a steaming bowl in one hand and a glass of bright orange liquid in the other.

'Drink this, slowly, and then you can eat and I'll take the line out,' Doctor Li proffered the glass.

'What is it?' Jin asked, without enthusiasm. She took the glass and sipped it. It was a little sweet, a little salty, and a little chalky. It wasn't good, but it was fine.

'Electrolytes,' Doctor Li said. 'It will help rehydrate you. It's best to drink it before you eat so that the salt isn't too overpowering.'

Jin sipped the chalky drink until she'd emptied the glass and held out a hand for the bowl. She was starving. Doctor Li handed it over with a pair of chopsticks. The bowl was full of rice sliced meat and vegetables and sauce. It smelled delicious. Jin tried to start eating, but the needle in her right arm tugged at her and hurt.

'I'll take that out now, I suppose,' Doctor Li said.

The food was better than anything Jin had eaten in weeks, she shoveled it into her mouth rather than actually using the chopsticks properly. In her head, Granny told her off about table manners, but Jin would have replied that she wasn't sitting at a table anyway so it didn't matter.

'Careful,' Doctor Li said. 'You're going to choke if you eat that fast.'

Jin glared at him over the rim of the bowl and didn't slow down.

There was a chime somewhere in the building and Doctor Li stopped frowning at Jin. He checked a panel on the wall that Jin couldn't quite make out, then pressed a button. There was a buzz somewhere.

'I'm in the in-patient room,' Doctor Li told the panel.

Jin took the opportunity of being unobserved to shovel the rest of the meal into her mouth. And so it was that, as a gorgeous woman in a white, thigh-length dress, black midriff jacket and knee-high boots swished gracefully into the room, Jin from the little town of Feng started choking on her breakfast.

The woman covered a lovely smile with her hand.

Doctor Li looked over. 'I said you'd choke,' he said.

Jin coughed a chunk back up into her mouth and actually chewed it this time.

'I'm happy to see you awake,' the woman smiled. She had a pleasant, quiet voice and a gorgeous smile. 'And you've got quite a bruise there.'

Jin touched her forehead again. It hurt again.

'Oh, Miss Feng,' Doctor Li said. 'This is Yuan Lei. She's one of the people who brought you here.'

'Nice to meet you,' Jin said, hoarse from choking on her rice. 'I'm Jin.'

Yuan tucked a strand of her shoulder-length, purple hair behind her ear. 'Nice to meet you too, Jin,' she said, like she meant it.

Jin blushed.

'Yuan, what do you need?' Doctor Li cut in.

'Something up with the…' Yuan trailed off with a glance at Jin, then leaned in and whispered something to Doctor Li.

'I can keep secrets,' Jin objected. 'And I know about things. You can totally tell me.' She sat up in bed and her head swam for a moment.

Yuan and the Doctor looked at each other, then at Jin. 'Alright, Jin,' Yuan said. 'I'll trust you.'

Jin blushed.

'Those symbols that are all over the tower,' Yuan said. 'There are some around the old exit of the tower. They've started to glow and move.'

Jin swung her legs out of bed. Her boots were right there, thankfully. 'Oh, I have to see that,' she said. 'Our village used to be a research outpost trying to decipher them, you know?'

Doctor Li and Yuan Lei frowned in unison and made eye contact as Jin pulled on her boots. 'You don't think?' Yuan asked.

'It would make some sense,' Doctor Li said.

'Don't talk about me like I'm not here,' Jin said, tightening the straps on her boots.

'It's…' Yuan said.

'We'll explain on the way,' Doctor Li said. He took a step toward Jin, then stopped and whispered something to Yuan.

Yuan frowned at him. 'You're a doctor, it's fine.'

He frowned at her.

Jin stood up and the wires almost tipped the beeping machines over.

Yuan hurried over. 'I'll just…' she said. 'I can…'

Jin blushed. Not a chance. 'I can do it,' she said. She peeled off the two electrodes on her chest, then reached down her top to peel off the two on her sternum. They were stuck on quite thoroughly. It hurt. But Jin was fine.

Yuan looked at Jin and covered another smile.

Jin looked down at herself and saw two big, red marks on her chest where the wires had been stuck. It was the least of her problems.

Feeling less hazy for the meal, Jin could see what was wrong with her pendant. It wasn't a pendant anymore. The chain was gone and the gem itself had sunken into Jin's chest, over her breastbone.

Jin frowned down at herself. Her hand came up, unbidden, and prodded the large, yellow, diamond-shaped gem. It didn't hurt. But she could feel it just over her breastbone. She touched the ridge of flesh around the gem. It felt normal. That was worse.

'Jin, are you…' Doctor Li looked back at her from the door and his frown turned to interest. 'It's not supposed to be like that?'

Jin looked up at him with a frown somewhere very close to panic. 'No, it's not supposed to look like that!' she almost shouted. 'What do… do you have a mirror?'

Dr Li picked up a mirror from the table he'd been at when Jin woke and handed it over. Jin grabbed it and examined the gem embedded in her chest from every angle she could.

That was not right at all.

At least it didn't look like a wound.

'What happened to me?' Jin asked, quietly, almost just talking to herself.

Doctor Li and Yuan shrugged in unison.

'That's how it was when we found you,' Yuan said. 'I assumed it was supposed to be like that.'

'I…' Jin trailed off, trying to keep in mind that there were all sorts of people in the tower and it wasn't so unreasonable to think that some of them might have gems embedded in them. 'It doesn't matter, I guess. Let's go.'

Doctor Li handed over her sword and then coat and Jin only barely remembered to thank him for it.

Outside the in-patient room was a short, wood-paneled corridor leading to a heavy, wooden door with a frosted, stained glass window at about head height. Or forehead height for Jin and eye height for Doctor Li.

Yuan led the way outside, where it was bright and loud. It took Jin a moment to adjust to the lustrous sunlight, and then she stopped. This place was massive and packed, and weird, and loud, and crowded.

Jin didn't realize she'd been expecting another village like Fang, or like the slightly bigger towns she'd visited, and raided. But this was nothing like any of those. Instead of a cluster of buildings huddled together against the snow or jungle or whatever, Jin was faced with long, tall buildings in rows. Concrete and stucco painted with bright colors and illuminated signs hanging everywhere.

The actual residences must have been tall and narrow, based on the frequency of doors and windows that Jin passed as she blearily followed Yuan and Doctor Li. A lot of them didn't seem to be residences at all, more like glass-fronted showrooms for various products like food and drinks. And they all had neon and painted signs proclaiming things like 'now open' and 'convenience store'.

There was a general, pervasive whirring and humming and clanking coming from beyond the opposing row building. And there were people everywhere, more people on this smooth concrete street than lived in Jin's village. And they were all smiling and talking and wearing whatever they wanted as if there were no Ruqin that might hear them and descend at any moment.

Jin had heard about the first floor, and the First Nation that was based there, but she'd never have thought anyone could live like this in the tower. No one looked worried. It was very strange.

'This way.' Yuan's voice broke through Jin's wonder as they turned left between two of the row buildings.

Jin looked back and forth. Going the other way, Jin could see the far wall of the first level through a couple of these row buildings and then a few rows of big, long sheet metal and brick buildings, which seemed to be where the noise was coming from.

'There are no farms,' Jin commented, no one seemed to hear her.

Following Yuan, the street widened even further and the crowd diverged around a raised platform with a glass cover and some metal benches. Jin followed up onto the platform, beside which was a set of metal tracks set into the ground.

Yuan looked at her watch, then at a sign on one of the glass walls. 'Next tram should only be a minute, it'll be faster,' she said.

Doctor Li nodded and sat down on one of the metal benches.

'What's a tram?' Jin asked.

'Oh, I guess you wouldn't have them up there,' Yuan said. 'They're…'

A rattling came from up the street, in the direction the metal tracks headed, and Jin leaned over the edge of the platform to look. Along the tracks rattled a huge, segmented, metal snake; a tram, Jin supposed. It was colorfully painted in stark lines, with nearly black glass for windows.

'That's a tram,' Doctor Li said. 'They're for getting around quicker.'

Just as the tram was arriving, a woman's pleasant voice sounded from somewhere. 'Tram now approaching, please stand clear.'

Jin stood well back and the metal snake, or tram, stopped. Doors that had been invisible until they moved, slid open on its sides. People stepped out and after a moment, Yuan and Doctor Li led the way into a brightly lit, off-white interior with oddly patterned, cushioned seats and loops hanging from the ceiling for people to hold onto.

That same, pleasant woman's voice sounded throughout the tram. 'Doors closing, please stand clear.'

'Who's that?' Jin asked, sitting by the window across from Dr Li and Yuan.

'That's Claudia,' Dr Li said. 'She does all the announcements.'

'She's also basically in charge around here,' Yuan said.

'You don't just walk?' Jin asked grip white-knuckled on the seat as the tram jerked into motion. She watched people and buildings go by out the window. It seemed lazy.

'Depends how far you're going,' Yuan said. 'It's much bigger than your village, I expect. And we're going clear across to the other side of town.'

Jin nodded, gaze fixed out the window, because when she looked away her stomach started to churn and she felt like she might be sick. She had to admit that it was clearly much faster than walking.

'You said you'd explain things,' Jin said. 'We're on the way, aren't we?'

Yuan and Doctor Li looked at each other.

'There are some records here, from when people first arrived in the tower,' Doctor Li said. 'And since then, of course. But not too long after humans got stuck here, a research mission decided to try to get to the top. Research Mission Feng, it was called.'

Jin nodded along. 'I already knew that. They climbed up, unlike all the cowards who stayed down here.'

Yuan snorted. 'Cowards?'

'Maybe a little harsh, but it's not even dangerous down here, is it? No one seems worried. No one's armed, even.' Jin had been noticing a few people glancing at her sword as she walked through the crowd.

'It's much safer here than anywhere else in the tower,' Doctor Li said. 'But wanting to be safe isn't cowardice.'

Jin shrugged. 'Sure thing.'

They kept on in silence as the tram stopped every three rows to let people on and off. But Jin was too curious to let the silence last.

'Ok, how about food? There are no farms here, are they on the next floor up? Where it's more dangerous?'

Yuan chuckled.

'Those factories, toward the east wall, a lot of them are vertical farms and meat synthesis plants. That's where all the food comes from,' Doctor Li said.

'We are a bit like farmers, up on the second and third floor,' Yuan said. 'Part of the job is to collect those Cubes the Ruqin drop, so the factories can make them into food in the first place.'

Jin nodded along. It seemed overcomplicated, but it made sense in a way.

'And how about the front door you mentioned? No one comes in or goes out, right?' Jin asked.

Yuan shook her head. 'It can't be opened,' she said. 'Not since people got here in the first place. Never once been opened since the first time it closed, apparently.'

Jin could have walked from one side of Feng to the other, if she'd wanted to, in maybe five minutes. The tram went much faster than a walking person, and it had to be half an hour before they reached the final stop and the three of them disembarked.

Claudia's pleasant voice told them to stand clear of the closing doors.

From the tram stop, Jin could see the huge, wooden door that must have once been the entrance to the tower. The door itself and the stone arch in which it was set were crawling with the symbols that Feng had been studying since they settled on the 79th floor.

Jin had never seen the symbols crawl before, or glow the bright blue that they were glowing now. It was mesmerizing to watch the symbols rearrange themselves into different configurations. Some even changed their form as they moved.

For some reason Jin couldn't understand, seeing the changes made her happy. It was like she had succeeded at something. Like this was some culmination of efforts. It was a good sign. The gem in her chest felt comfortingly warm.

'Why are you smiling?' Yuan asked.

'I don't know,' Jin admitted. 'It's just… nice, I guess.'

'I would have called it deeply worrying, myself,' Doctor Li said.

He and Yuan were both frowning severely at the crawling, glowing symbols on the door. But it wasn't enough to dampen Jin's inexplicably good mood. Something wonderful was coming, some part of Jin was sure of it.

What was enough to dampen Jin's inexplicably good mood was the door cracking open with a creak and a hiss of air. A sudden stab of anxiety lanced into Jin's chest. Something was coming. Something scary.

Before the door had cracked wide enough for anything to come through, Jin had drawn her sword.

'Jin, what are you…' Yuan's question was cut off when the door cracked further, huge metal claws pushing at the heavy wood.

The first of the robots squeezed through and Jin slashed it down.

A spear materialized in Yuan's hands as more robots pushed through the slowly widening gap in the ancient entrance to the tower. Jin slashed more down and Yuan stabbed, but there were so many of them. Bigger Ruqin pushed through as that huge mech heaved itself against the door.

Doctor Li fired a gun into the air and with a blast, the scene was illuminated in a harsh red glare. People were shouting. More guns were firing.

'Jin, Yuan, get back,' Doctor Li shouted.

A cannon blast hit the huge mech, tearing off one of its arms. Another joined it, pushing against the door as the Ruqin piled into the first floor in a whirring, clanking, shrieking flurry.