Chapter 11: Adventures in NK, part 1


I paced the floor of Aldaris' observatory, excited. This was really unexpected, honestly. We're going to get Cheonha's omma! I can't wait! I went over the things that Cheonha bought in Seoul, digging through one bag while Cheonha did a last minute check of the other. She didn't have time to get much. It turns out that we didn't wait that long. Apparently all Cheonha needed to do was bring some food along. That's why she was digging through two shopping bags as I appeared on the ship. Taking the opportunity to be nosy, I peered over. Oh good, it was just rice, fish, and fresh veggies, as far as I could see. I don't know nearly enough korean to explain to her that starving people can't have rich foods. ...Huh, Cheonha probably already knows that. I hope not by personal experience. Anyway, all that food might be a gift or a bribe, so there's no reason to suspect Cheonha wouldn't know what to get.

I'm surprised that she still had her old outfit. There she was, in her old, drab blouse and modest skirt that she had been wearing on the day she got abducted by an alien. North Korea, to judge by its media, was very much stuck in the 70s or 80s in terms of fashion, but somehow this outfit seemed even more bland than you see in those propaganda pieces the North puts out every so often. Well, the blander, the better, I guess. She's the one that has to blend in with North Korea. She must have been thinking about clothes, too; Cheonha glanced at my bright green, flower print blouse with some trepidation.

"Choah." Cheonha smiled and tucked the food back into the grocery bag. When she saw me, her smile faded. She approached and grabbed my sleeve. "Bethany...no. Not good. Not...mot ipo."

Huh, Cheonha was getting good at pronouncing my name. Anyway, I looked down at my shirt to see what she was complaining about. I was wearing a bright green flower blouse. It took me a second to figure out what she meant, and when I did I internally deflated. Dang it, I thought she would understand.

"Mianeh..." I said sadly. "Na-nun mot kada. It's too dangerous."

Technically I should have remembered the word for dangerous because it was just in the lesson that I had learned in my korean book, but the word dropped out of my head. Before I could go searching through my mind in the faint hope it might reappear, the doors to the observatory opened. In walked our resident Protoss, with a purpose. He went straight over to me, no greeting or anything.

"What were you saying?" Aldaris insisted. "Why do you say that you will not go?"

Somehow it doesn't seem likely that Aldaris would have learned korean in his spare time (I dunno, maybe he had nothing else to do), but since I'm not fluent, probably I thought out my words really loudly before saying them in korean. Even now I'm still not entirely sure what Aldaris means by loud thoughts.

"Sorry, Charlie, but I can't. Besides the trouble it would cause Cheonha, if I go down there I'm going to get my entire nation in trouble. Relations between America and North Korea are so bad that if we want to talk to them, we have to go through...uh, I think it's the Swedish Embassy. Anyway, they're liable to think I'm part of some conspiracy to mess with their country." I tapped my nose. "If I didn't look exactly like every big-nosed American cliche, I might pass as a European, but even as a regular foreigner, that would make North Korea completely panic."

"You needn't be concerned. I do not intend to allow North Korea to capture either of you."

"I appreciate it, but that doesn't so much matter if North Korea starts thinking there's some kind of American conspiracy going on. So long as it's just Cheonha, they can't assume that foreigners are messing with their country." Horror crept up in me as I let my mind wander. "Ugh, and if Cheonha doesn't live near the coast, North Korea would utterly panic because they would think America has both the will and the means to mess with their country."

I stood there, wrapped up in my anxiety about all the things that could go wrong. Aldaris seemed to consider what I was saying, considerably annoyed that apparently whatever he'd planned won't work. Cheonha had been looking from one of us to the other during this conversation, and now that it seemed to be over, she touched my arm for my attention.

"Bethany...mwo hal koni?"

"Mollagettah." I shrugged, helplessly. "Ama Cheonha honja kal kota..."

"I do not intend that Cheonha should go alone," Aldaris suddenly interrupted, again seeming to have perfect understanding of my non-english. "Bethany, you fear for your nation, but Toby is not American. Is he then a better choice?"

Here we go. Everything was depending on my calculations. Fabulous. I thought hard about things. How bad would it be if a British person was caught by the NKs? Actually, they might think Toby's a native African, if we're lucky. People insulated from the outside world would have no reason to know where he's from by looks alone. Who even knows if most North Koreans can even identify a British accent? Granted, it's a problem if someone were to actually interrogate Toby successfully, but since we have an alien with a teleporter on our side...

Obviously the psychic heard all that, and Aldaris' eyes flitted a bit of yellow optimistically. I guess he was expecting me to confirm his expectations.

"It depends on what you're going for," I said, finally. "In the short term, it could work. If he's spotted, they'll know a foreigner was involved, but they won't necessarily be able to pick out where he's from and thus won't be able to hassle any specific foriegn government. At the same time, him being a foreigner is enough trouble. North Koreans are absolutely xenophobic. Cheonha going by herself could go in, do whatever she has to do, and leave without drawing too much attention. Cheonha going with an obvious foreigner will make everyone pay attention to her. They will try to stop her."

Aldaris glared down at me as though I was giving him advice he didn't want to hear specifically to annoy him. I was not. Toby looks like a guy who works out a lot, and I would genuinely love to have him around Cheonha for this, but the only way that would work is if he stood at the side of wherever they were going and distracted people from noticing Cheonha. Huh, I wonder if that would work. Then again, Toby would first have to be willing to risk imprisonment to do it.

"No," Aldaris said. "That is not preferable. I cannot allow Cheonha to go without protection of some sort."

"It's up to you, then. Either she goes with the protection of Toby, or the protection of the alibi that she was making money in China."

"It seems, then, that I must arbitrate between one doubtful choice and another." Aldaris' gaze left me and went toward the other human. "In such cases, it is best to take counsel from the one most familiar with the risk."

Here Aldaris approached Cheonha, and he crouched down to better speak with her. Cheonha had been looking from one of us to another during our entire conversation, and who knows how much of that she understood? I wasn't able to hear what Aldaris told her, but his eyes glowed like they normally do when he talks, so they were communicating without me. For a little while, at least.

"Kurojiman..." Cheonha said. "Kurojiman...blue. Blue...light. Omma-ni, blue light..." Frustrated, Cheonha swung her hands as though around an orb, and made whooshing sounds. "Blue light to ship."

"Ah!" I said. "Teleporter? Teleport Omma-ni?"

"Ne!" Cheonha pointed at me with a flat hand. "Teleporter Omma-ni!"

Aldaris shook his head. "No, I cannot travel so closely to the planet. To do so risks detection. While I can recall those whose..." It was Aldaris' turn to struggle with english for a bit, but he didn't resort to gestures. He sighed a second before trying again. "The configurations of the four of you are recorded in the computers. I cannot recall someone unknown at so great a distance."

Well, I understood all that, but Cheonha still stood there expectantly. Thankfully for him, the Protoss can psychically transmit images and feelings as well as words, and for a minute or two they again talked things out silently. After a bit, Aldaris' face softened, and he said a few more things that I couldn't hear. They were nice things, I think.

Cheonha answered whatever he was saying with a nod, and a new expression replaced the fear in her eyes. It was a visage I hadn't seen in a long time, not since that first day I saw her and she accused me of being an American. It was the face that hid many a secret, and many a secret pain. Pretty much typical for the type of tyranny she emerged from. I call it "the communist look." If you see the book Wild Swans, the second woman on the cover has that specific expression on her face.

Aldaris stood back to his full height. "Bethany, you will remain on board this vessel. It may arise that I require your counsel. You will also help Cheonha's mother when she is brought to Seoul."

I did a sideways V for victory sign. Being goofy deflects nervousness. "Yo."

Surprisingly, Aldaris let me follow him to the bridge. I hadn't seen that room since the very first day Aldaris had appeared at our planet, and it was bigger than I remembered. The couch-looking seating in the back was still there, so I went to go sit so that Aldaris couldn't accuse me of messing with anything.

"So we're going to monitor her from here, right? We'll be able to see her on the screen?"

"You shall not." Aldaris started messing with some control or another. "I shall monitor her with all the instruments at my disposal at this distance."

In other words, the explanation for not pulling Cheonha up on the big screen overlooking his controls was something that I the human was not allowed to know. Oh well. I guess he just wanted me to sit here and keep quiet until I was needed.

"That is precisely the truth. Occupy yourself with silence."

I really wish he would stop doing that. It's bad enough to have to sit and do nothing while a friend of mine is in great peril. And counsel? I've read some books on North Korea, but books can only tell you so much. I suddenly regretted being the most knowledgeable person available. If something goes wrong, I'll likely get a nice heaping helping of blame. And that'll be the happiest part of the whole experience.

Well, no panic attacks in front of the Protoss, I suppose. Time to sit back and think of...I dunno, pretty dresses? No, my will. Definitely my last will and testament. How have I not written that out before? I began to regret not bringing my purse; there's at least a one-dollar notebook in there.

"Bethany."

"Yes?"

"What happens if Cheonha is caught?"

"Assuming you don't immediately rescue her..." I thought a second. "Because they don't know for sure she went out of the country, she might be okay for a little while. Even if people see her, they might not bother to confront her. They'd probably just sell her out to an authority at most, for their own benefit. That buys us time."

All that was assuming the people Cheonha might see wouldn't be too starved to say anything, but I didn't mention that at the time.

"And if she is arrested?"

"Then she'll be interrogated, and if she can lie convincingly enough about having gone to China, she might be let go. The North Korean government knows how poor they are." I blinked. "Uh, exactly how close is she to the Chinese border?"

"It is distant by human standards. By foot the journey would likely take days."

"Oh...huh." Well, there goes that option. "Anyway, she'll either be sent to a prison camp to work, or killed. I estimate she'll have a week before they make a decision, and I think she's more likely to be sent to a prison camp, but I also don't know very much. It may be that I'm too optimistic because I've read more about foreigners being captured than about native Koreans. By the by, don't let word of mouth stop you from teleporting her out. Two people disappearing in a flash of blue light isn't the kind of thing you can say to a boss in America, much less a tyranny. People'd get punished for saying something 'stupid' like that."

"I have already considered the matter." he said. "A small risk is of no concern."

I paused. Somehow the way he said that didn't seem very like him. Was he sad or something? He didn't look sad. At the same time, something was off. Aldaris had never explained why he was saving Cheonha's mother. He had plenty of reasons not to. As happy as I am about it, helping others when you know virtually nothing about them means you're more likely to do damage than good. You don't get to be Charlie's age without knowing that, I'd imagine. Especially if you have Charlie's job, all "impartial observer" and whatnot. That's not even referencing Aldaris wanting to stay hidden. I'm not a psychic, but clearly you didn't have to be one to see the darkness billowing around our resident Protoss.

Aldaris could probably hear what I was thinking, and I wasn't trying to hide my thoughts anyway. He turned to me my doubtful frown, and I looked up expectantly. He rolled his eyes and went back to the computer.

"No." he said simply. "You are not entitled to an explanation. Return to thinking of your will. Strange you have not finished it long before now. I could kill you at any time."

I stretched out a bit. "Yeah, but you won't."

"You still doubt my willingness to do so?"

"It's not like you have anything to gain from my death. Besides, since you won't explain why you're helping Cheonha," I grinned. "Then I have no choice but to assume that you're a nice person."

Aldaris shook his head. "You too greatly enjoy reckless assumptions."

"Reckless assumptions are the best kind."

I gave an enthusiastic double thumbs up. Aldaris completely ignored me, but that's fine. It's better he pays attention to Cheonha anyway.

Cheonha flinched the instant the blue arms of the recall unit let her go. Once the energy dissipated, all light vanished, and darkness overwhelmed her senses. All but smell, that is, which found itself greeted by a strange and altogether unpleasant scent. It was the farmlands, of course, which were all the more pungent for their absense the past few months. Pushing aside memories she very much wanted to forget, Cheonha walked forward, keeping a tight grip on her bags of food.

They'd gone over all the plans, already, her and Aldaris. The Protoss told her he was going to put her down several yards away from the village, down a small incline that would, at that distance, obscure the initial recall. And so he'd done; Cheonha was now on a dirt path between two cornfields. In the darkness of the night a stranger wouldn't know where they stood. Cheonha, on the other hand, walked with confidence in her direction, if in nothing else.

She approached the low lying stone wall that bordered the part of the village closer to the cornfields. Most of the workers lived closer to the field, and so the first couple of huts were useless to her. It had been months since she had seen her mother, but Cheonha could guess where she was...if she was still alive.

Either way, old "Aunt" Minhi would be the one to ask. Minhi was a crusty woman, a survivor, and not because she was a generous soul. However, she had enough of a hidden soft spot to at least let Cheonha's mother have a place to stay, even if she didn't share any of her rats. Assuring herself that Lee Suha would be there, Cheonha scanned the village for Aunt Minhi's hut. If her hopes were optimistic, her memory was stronger still. Minhi did live near the back of the village, but not along the wall. It was too much to hope that the entire village was asleep, but Cheonha could still manage most of the way there with only a small chance of being noticed.

What if Omma isn't there anymore? What if...what if...?

She didn't allow her thoughts to go that direction. Aldaris had said that this was her one chance to look for Omma, so all the doubts she felt would have to return back to the recesses of her mind. Only a hike in the dark wasn't so interesting, and Cheonha had to forcefully focus on her surroundings to stop worrying about the worst. It was then she noticed the pale purple growing on the horizon; soon it would be morning, and with it the workers would be up. Cheonha tightened her grip on her face; not a muscle could be out of order, to reveal an emotion or secret. She could get away with seeing some of the old faces for a little while, perhaps. Let them tell the authorities, if they wished. They would not be able to stop Aldaris! All she had to do was find her mother and then allow Aldaris to teleport her out. As long as her mother was alive and present, everything would be fine. Cheonha forced herself not to walk faster.

It was time. Cheonha moved away from the little wall and entered the village with her head down, staring resolutely at the dirt at her feet. Strange it was how everything so quickly came back to her. The self-control, the unassuming pace, and the automatic path she took to the house without even looking up. Cheonha suddenly felt better.

Despite having her head down, Cheonha could still see when people were in the way. Much to her despair, three pairs of feet blocked half of the dirt path. Cheonha carefully veered right, only to find that one of the sets of feet stepping right in her way again.

"Hey, is that Cheonha?" the owner of the male voice grabbed her arm. "Cheonha, where have you been?"

Cheonha gritted her teeth with only the slightest movement of her jaw. There was no mistaking Taeho's voice. She didn't guess what Taeho and his friends were doing up so early, and she kept her eyes still on the path.

"Cheonha-shee, don't be shy." She didn't need to look at Taeho to see his spreading grin. "What were you doing, being gone for so long?"

"Working."

She shoved away his arm, but Taeho grabbed it again. "Without telling your mother? It was so sad having to hear her, 'oh, my Cheonha, where is my Cheonha?' It's not filial to leave your mother alone."

"I'm going to see her now." Cheonha got her arm free, but by now the other two guys were standing in her way as well. She looked up with a dull, unmoving gaze at the three, then swung one of the bags around her shoulder and handed it out to them. "Here. Now please get out of my way."

Taeho took the bag, but he didn't move. He inspected its contents, and the other two guys looked over his shoulders. Sensing a pause, Cheonha shuffled to the side to get past them. One of the cronies immediately put out an arm in front of her.

"Hey, how did you get this stuff?" the crony asked.

"With money."

"What money?"

"From work."

"Work, huh?" Taeho grinned. "Which man were you working for? A rich one, right? You're making me feel jealous."

"If you're so concerned about how filial I am," she said without emotion. "Then take the bag and let me see my mother."

"Your mother's nearly dead, anyway," a crony chirped, his arm gesturing wildly as he spoke. "It's no good to waste food on her."

Cheonha tensed, and her control started to slip. "Please...just let me see her. Here, take this other bag and let me by."

"That's the trouble." Taeho's grin was as limp as a fish. "This stuff you have is all foreign."

"...It's Korean."

"It's South Korean." a crony spat. "And they're the running dogs of foreigners."

"It's food," Cheonha retorted. "Better we eat it than them. If you report me, they'll only take the food away."

"Tell you what," Taeho reached for the second bag, and Cheonha didn't stop him from taking it. "Let's not argue. You look so beautiful these days! You have been eating well, haven't you? Come back to my place for now, and we'll call it even."

Cheonha firmly shook her head. If only she could delay him! "Your friend said my mother was sick. I'll come to your place after work. Right now I have to see her."

"No, there's still a little night left. It won't take long. You can see her when the sun comes up."

He tugged at her arm. Cheonha panicked. If she ran, they would only come after her and it would attract attention. Begging wouldn't work, but going with this idiot was less preferable than death. Aldaris would surely rescue her, right? But if he did, there wasn't going to be a second chance to get her mother.

Shaking, but firm, Cheonha stood her ground and spoke louder. "No, there isn't enough time. Look, the sun's coming up already. You have to go to work. I'll see you later."

Taeho's pincer-like grip refused to let her go. "Sangmin can say I'm sick. Now let's go."

"I...I don't want to."

Despite the variance in their living conditions, Taeho was stronger, and his grip like a pincer. He pulled Cheonha close. "Don't you want to see your mother? I'm trying to help you. If the chief sees you with these foreign goods and looking so fat he's going to have you arrested. You need to hide. Don't you know they've put a ban on travelling these days? No matter where you've been they'll be suspicious, and I can help you think of a good excuse."

Cheonha only tugged at her imprisoned arm. Taeho probably wasn't lying about the ban on travelling, but who were the bosses to stop a Protoss? If only she could get away!

-t-

I didn't think about writing my will for long. Aldaris had some way of keeping track of Cheonha, and all of a sudden, he stiffened. Immediately alert, I tried my hardest not to say anything. I kinda hoped he'd mentally project what he was seeing into my mind, but I didn't dare distract him.

He turned back, looking at me with a strange, almost suspicious expression.

"What's wrong?" I exclaimed, jumping up from my seat. "What do I need to do?"

Aldaris didn't answer, but studied me a second, looking doubtful. He quickly turned back to the controls. For some reason, he stopped, not doing anything. Then he glared at me again (what did I do?) and turned right on back. If he'd kept it up he'd be spinning in circles. But he didn't. And then the teleporter's light flashed around us. That's right, "us."

Son of a bleep, Charlie!

We appeared right in the middle of a small cluster of old shacks that served as homes. The still-waking morning light illuminated the figures of four people: Cheonha and three dudes. One of the dudes had Cheonha by the arm. Between that and suddenly finding myself with Aldaris in a place neither of us should be, I was stunned out of action. So too was everybody else, including the suspicious faces that started to peep out from various places. Hush whispers surrounded us, and a startled cry was the only other sound.

That moment, frozen in time, is etched deep in my memory. Despite the fact I'd been with Aldaris for several minutes beforehand, he looked completely different among the ramshackle houses. What with him in his fancy, elaborate clothes, the last thing you'd imagine him surrounded by was squalor. His deeply embroidered purple robes couldn't have been more obvious if they were neon and shone like lanterns.

And slowly, my face fell into my hands.

Why oh why must the stupids attack all people, of all ages and races?

Aldaris heard my thoughts, but said nothing.

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Author's Notes:

- Sorry about the gap. Life. *sigh* I'm going to stop making promises about when I update. I think it goes faster when I don't. I have been working a little on this, but I've also been working on other things. Signs of what happened will probably appear in later chapters. For right now, all I can say is "life."

- "Omma" (mama) in korean is short for "Omani", which is only spelled with one "m" character. However, I write it with two because I want to distinguish it from the german "oma", which means grandmother. In the shorter form, it is spelled with two "m" characters. It's super weird that korean would have a world so similar to german.

That's not even the only one. In Korea, they also have this word "arubaituh" which is the korean way to say the word "arbeit" (In hangul, words with two consonants together nost often have another vowel placed between them). "Arbeit" means "work" in german, and in Korea this word is used to denote part time work done by students.

- In the Far East they don't point with one finger. It's considered rude.

Author's Notes New:

- I wrote a version of this chapter where Toby actually was included, but I couldn't go with it, because as much as Toby going down to North Korea would be more logical than me going, any foreigner going with Cheonha would put her in far more danger than she would be alone, as it would attract unwelcome attention to her. At the same time, Aldaris isn't always very objective, so it's entirely possible he would choose to bring Toby over my objections. I have an alternate chapter where that is the case, but at the end of the day, it just shook out better not to bring Toby.