/News/Astronomy/25.06.98: Two days ago we reported on the appearance of what seems to be a false star, centered over London and visible throughout most of Europe. Dubbed "UB-001" by the Royal Astronomical Society, due to its location above the zip code of that name, it has thus far been joined by dozens of others across the world; the most recent to appear was first spotted last night over the city of Xi'an, China, the first to be seen in Asia.
Astronomers have yet to agree on a universal naming system; however, one thing that they do agree on, is that these objects are not true stars. In addition to their extreme closeness to the earth, the false stars do not emit the atomic spectra that real stars do. For all their brightness, these stars are dark and quiet./
"There you are!"
The words startled Tian awake. He blinked blearily in the pale morning light.
His heart skipped a beat when a shadow suddenly loomed over him - but at the sight of sunlight glinting off of a familiar pair of round lenses, he relaxed.
"Tian, what are you doing out here?" Father asked, frustration and relief evident in his voice.
Out here where? Tian's back was stiff, and it felt like he'd been sitting on gravel all night. And wait - was he outside?
"Roof?" he mumbled, confused, and looked around. He was sitting against the back of the concrete blocks that enclosed the stairwell on top of the apartment building. The events of last night suddenly came back to him, snapping him into wakefulness.
"Dad, there was a star!" He scrambled to his feet, hardly pausing to take a breath. "I saw it from my window, so I came up here to get a better look - I must have fallen asleep, I'm sorry."
Father rubbed the back of his head. "In the middle of the night? Alone? I thought your mother told you that you weren't to go stargazing last night - especially not alone!"
"Sorry, I didn't think. But Dad - a star! They're not gone!"
"Yes, I heard you." Father led the way around the wall to the door. "But you weren't in bed when Mom went to wake you two up this morning - we've been going frantic trying to find you."
"Oh." He hadn't thought about that last night.
Father opened the door to the stairs, but paused before going down. "I came up to the roof twice - because the first time, this door was locked, so I didn't think you could be up here."
"Why…oh." The door would have been open if he'd come up the stairs properly. All of his previous excitement at the memory of the new star drained right out of him at the stern expression on Father's face. "Uh…" he tried, then faltered.
His father sighed. "We'll tell your mother that you accidentally locked it behind you. But I don't want you taking serious risks like that for no good reason - you could have hurt yourself. Do you understand?"
Tian nodded sheepishly, but Father still didn't move.
"I don't want to have to have this conversation again - are you sure you understand?"
"Yes, I understand."
He wilted slightly under that serious gaze - he was used to getting that look from Shifu-Grandfather, but not from Father. But then Father's expression softened a little, and he nodded.
"Good. I don't know what's gotten into you lately - starting fights, now this. You need to be more responsible. Start thinking about the consequences of your actions, before you make rash decisions like climbing up walls in the middle of the night. Set a good example for your little sister."
"I know. I mean, I will."
Father ushered Tian downstairs to their apartment. When they walked in, Mother was on the phone in the kitchen, the cord twisted all around her hand.
"…yes, everywhere. Maybe; I could -" She looked up at the sound of Father shutting the door behind them, relief flooding her face at the sight of Tian. "Oh thank god, Xinkun just brought him in. I don't know; no, he's okay. I'll call you later, Mom."
Mother hung up the phone and pulled Tian into a fierce hug before he'd gotten two steps into the kitchen. "Where were you, we were so worried!"
"Just on the roof," he said, his voice muffled by her shoulder. She was squeezing him so tightly that he could hardly breathe. What was the big fuss? It was just the roof. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry."
She pushed him out at arms' length and looked him over. "Are you alright? What were you doing on the roof?"
Father interrupted to grab his lunch and satchel from the counter. "I have to go, I'm late; I'll see you all tonight."
"Of course, dear." Mother relinquished her grip on Tian long enough to give Father a quick peck on the cheek. "Sorry to keep you - have a good day."
"Bye," Tian said, shame twisting his stomach. Father wouldn't be so late if it hadn't been for him.
"You found him. Can I eat now?" Xing asked quietly.
Tian hadn't noticed his sister earlier. She sat at the kitchen table, her hair neatly combed and her school uniform unusually tidy. Her gaze seemed to pass right through him.
Father paused to kiss the top of her head. Xing didn't react at all to the touch, just continued watching them all with a bored expression. Father frowned slightly, then sighed and headed for the door. But before opening it, he turned back and smiled at Tian.
"I'll be home early tonight - how about we set up the scope and look for that new star of yours?"
Tian grinned back. "Okay."
"What new star?" Mother asked as Father left, frowning. "Never mind, you can tell me later. You need to go get dressed, or you'll be late for school."
"I'm hungry," Xing said.
"Yes, sweetie, I heard you - hang on, I'll fix some eggs. Tian - dressed. Now."
He hustled into his bedroom and changed into his school clothes, already anxious for the day to be over so he could stargaze. That new star had been so bright - as bright as Jupiter was out in the country. Here in the city, the planets were all pitifully faint. What had Mother said yesterday, that the experts weren't sure that the star over Europe was really a star? Well, what else would it be? He wondered how it would look through the eyepiece of the telescope.
When Tian returned to the kitchen, Xing was slowly working her way through a bowl of noodles and poached egg. Mother placed a similar bowl in front of him, and he attacked it hungrily.
"You have five minutes," Mother told him. He nodded his understanding in mid-gulp.
She folded her arms and leaned up against the counter. "Were you up on the roof all night?"
He shrugged. "Yeah. I saw the star before I fell asleep, and went up to get a closer look. I didn't mean to fall asleep though."
"Did you get enough rest for school?"
Tian nodded again, and tipped his bowl to scrape up the last of the noodles. Actually, he'd sleep better than he had all week, despite the gravel digging into his back.
Mother sighed. "Well, I hope so. Your sister seems a little out of sorts this morning; but she says she slept fine." She reached out and ruffled Xing's hair; Xing took no notice, but continued eating methodically. "Did she have any nightmares again last night?"
"Uh…I think she started to have one, but then she stopped." Except, that had been early on in the night; if she'd had more later, he hadn't been there to wake her. That stupid knot of guilt returned to the pit of his stomach. Xing didn't speak up to contradict him, though.
"That's good, at least. Come on, time to go."
Tian deposited his empty bowl in the sink and went to the door to fetch his bag. "Xing, let's go."
But his sister remained at the table, still focused on her breakfast.
"Xing, come on!"
"I'm not finished," she responded in a bland monotone.
Tian gave her a blank look; Mother frowned. "Sweetie, I'm sorry you don't have time to finish, but you'll be late for school - you need to leave now."
"Why does it matter if I'm late?"
"We'll get in trouble if we're late - come on."
Tian grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of her seat. At first she resisted; then she asked, "Trouble?"
He nodded. "We don't want to get into trouble. Get your things and let's go."
Xing appeared to ponder this for a moment; then she walked calmly to the door, picked up her bag, and walked out without looking back. Tian hurried after her, pausing long enough to turn and wave goodbye to Mother. She wore a slight frown, but waved back.
Tian hurried Xing along the road to the Xu residence to meet their cousins. His sister, far from her usual chatty self, didn't say a word.
"Are you feeling alright?" he asked her at last, unable to bear the silence.
"Yes," was the only reply that he received.
A block later, he asked, "Did you have any bad dreams?"
"Dreams? No."
"That's good. What's bothering you, then? Is it your bracelet still? I'll buy you a new one."
Instead of the expected pout at the remembrance of the loss of her trinket, or a smile at the promise of a replacement, his words were met with indifference. "I don't need a new one."
"Are you sure? But it was your good luck charm…"
"How can a plastic bracelet bring good luck? That doesn't make sense."
Tian rubbed the back of his head in confusion. "I know that. But, you thought it did, and you liked it."
"I don't now." Her voice had remained without inflection throughout their entire exchange. It was unnatural to the point of making his spine crawl.
"Okay," was all he could think to say in reply, and it was with great relief that he spied Jiang and Jiao-tu waiting for them at the corner up ahead.
"Jeez, what took you guys so long?" Jiang said as soon as Tian and Xing reached them. "Song was going to walk with us, but she was afraid she was going to be late and left." He tossed Tian an irritated frown as the little party started off towards the school.
Tian shrugged. "Sorry. I overslept, and Xing took too long eating."
"Mother should have made my food sooner," Xing said, still in that unsettling monotone.
"Well, she didn't. It doesn't matter now, does it?" Tian replied testily.
Jiao-tu peered at him through her glasses, before taking them off and tucking them into her school bag, now that they were out of sight of the house.
"Hey, your mom called earlier to ask if you were here - why did she think you would be here?"
"Yeah," Jiang added, "weren't you at home? If you took off to go do something fun, why didn't you come get me?" He aimed a punch at Tian's shoulder, which Tian dodged easily.
"I didn't go anywhere; I just went up to the roof to look at the new star and fell asleep before I remembered to come back downstairs."
"The roof? In the middle of the night?" Jiao-tu squeaked. "Weren't you scared?"
"Scared of what?"
"Yeah, 'Tu, there's nothing to be scared of on roofs - except alien abductions."
"Shut up, there's no such thing as aliens, Mom said so!"
"It's your fault I didn't get to finish my breakfast. Mother had to wait until Father found you."
They all fell silent at Xing's words. Her voice was flat and uncaring. She didn't even sound mad; rather as if she'd worked out a stubborn math problem.
"What?" Tian said, nonplussed. "It's not my fault; Mom could have made it earlier, she just decided to wait." Why was Xing so bothered by breakfast? She must have had some particularly bad nightmares last night, and just didn't want to admit it. "Look, Xing, I'm sorry that I wasn't there to wake you up last night, but you need to forget about that stupid bracelet. For real, don't just pretend you don't care anymore!"
"Don't shout at her, what's wrong with you?" Jiao-tu scowled at him.
"Nothing. It's Xing, she's been weird all morning."
"Xing, why are you being weird?" Jiang tugged playfully at her hair; as with Mother and Father earlier that morning, Xing hardly seemed to notice.
"I'm not."
Her cousins both frowned at her.
"Is she sick?" Jiao-tu asked,
Tian shrugged. "I don't think so."
Jiang waved a hand in front of Xing's face. She blinked, startled, but otherwise didn't react, not even to push his hand away. "You know what? I don't think it's really her."
"What do you mean, not really her?"
"It's like that movie we saw a while ago, where fake people grew up in pods, who looked exactly like the real people, and replaced them - she's a pod person!"
Tian snorted, and Jiao-tu placed a hand on her hip. "Don't be stupid," she said. "There's no such thing as pod people!"
"Of course there are! What do you think caused the stars to disappear - it was their space ship, landing in Tokyo!"
"But the stars are coming back now," Tian interjected. "I saw one last night; that's why I went up to the roof."
"Exactly! The star Tian saw last night was Xing's pod person beaming down. They're spreading out all over the world now, taking over people's bodies. There's one who looks just like you, only she doesn't need to wear glasses."
Jiao-tu slugged her brother hard in the shoulder. "Shut up, that's not true!"
Jiang was grinning widely now. "It is true, why do you think the government hasn't told us anything? They've all been replaced, and want to keep it quiet. You know, I think I'd rather have the fake you - you'd be much less annoying. See how nice and quiet Xing is?"
His sister scowled, and looked ready to hit him again, when Tian interrupted. "Don't worry 'Tu, you can come live with Xing and me. Let Jiang have your pod person."
"Thank you," she said primly. "That sounds much nicer than having to live with a stupid ox for a brother." She shot a glare at Jiang.
"Who are you calling 'ox', Little Rabbit?"
"You, you big dummy!"
Tian grinned at their bickering, and turned to say something to Xing - only to find her staring straight ahead, a calculating look on her face. She was ignoring them completely.
She must really think it's my fault I didn't wake her from her nightmares, and she missed her breakfast.
They reached the school yard just as the ball rang, and had to run to their respective classes.
"See you at home!" Tian called to Xing, who barely deigned to notice. "Have fun in dance class!"
Dance class always cheered her up; she'd be back to her old self by tonight, he assured himself.
~~~~o~~~~
"Stop, stop!" Miss Fa clapped her hands loudly, and the class paused in mid-step. Jiao-tu wobbled precariously on one foot, screwing her face up in concentration.
Their teacher waved a hand. "Relax," she said, and Jiao-tu lowered her other foot in relief. It was a rule in Miss Fa's class that you had to freeze on the beat whenever she paused the rehearsal. Xing always did it perfectly, poised as if caught in a photograph; while the others, especially Jiao-tu, usually stumbled. She was quite proud of herself for managing it this time, even though she was sure she must have looked horribly inelegant.
"You almost ran into me that time," Chan Mai hissed at her. "Be more careful!"
"Sorry," Jiao-tu mumbled, then glanced over at Miss Fa. To her surprise, she saw that their teacher hadn't stopped them because of her clumsiness. Instead, her attention was on the other side of the room. Jiao-tu squinted down the line to the far end; the other girls were gawking too. Xing was standing a little way off on her own, regarding the rest of the class with vague disinterest.
"Xing, that was the third time you missed your cues - where is your focus tonight? It's like you're not even trying!"
Xing didn't answer, but shifted her gaze to their teacher. Jiao-tu was too far away to see the expression on her face.
"Do you even want to be here?" Miss Fa asked sternly.
"No."
Jiao-tu gaped. Dance class was Xing's favorite thing in the world! True, she hadn't been her usual happy self today, but dancing always put her in a good mood when she wasn't feeling well.
Miss Fa folder her arms. "I've about had it with this attitude; this isn't like you at all, and you're distracting the rest of the class. If you're not going to try, then maybe you should call your mother to come pick you up."
Xing said nothing in response. Miss Fa began tapping her foot - a bad sign.
"Um," Jiao-tu said in a tiny rabbit squeak. No one appeared to hear her, so she took a deep breath and tried again. "Miss Fa? It's my mom taking us home today; I can go call her."
The teacher turned to her, frowning. "I had wanted you to spend some more time practicing the three-step combination - you're far behind the rest of the class."
Jiao-tu felt her face heat; Miss Fa glanced towards Xing again and sighed. "But there's no point in keeping Xing here if she isn't going to work. Why don't you take her into the front office and call your mother."
Grateful to get out of the center of attention, Jiao-tu started for the door. Xing didn't follow. "Xing, come on!" Her cousin seemed to snap out of whatever daze she had been in, and walked calmly out of the rehearsal room ahead of her.
Miss Fa clapped her hands again. "Back to your starting set, come on!" she called to the rest of the class. As the students rearranged themselves, their teacher caught up with Jiao-tu.
"Is everything alright with Xing?" she asked quietly, placing a hand on Jiao-tu's shoulder. "Any problems at home?"
Jiao-tu shrugged. "She's been like this all day…I don't know. I was sick over the weekend, maybe she's caught it?"
Miss Fa pursed her lips. "Well, I hope she starts feeling better. Look after her."
Jiao-tu nodded, and her teacher gave her shoulder a squeeze. "And make sure you practice those steps at home, you've been doing much better lately; I'm sure you'll get it if you just try."
Jiao-tu nodded again, and Miss Fa returned her attention to the rehearsal room, admonishing her students to get into their proper places. Jiao-tu entered the front office, only to see Xing about to walk out the main door.
"Xing, wait! Where are you going?"
Her cousin looked at her blankly. "Home."
"You're just going to walk? It's too far! And it's almost dark, there's the curfew - you'll get in trouble!"
"It isn't very far." Xing frowned a little. "Why does the curfew matter?"
She's still a little kid, Jiao-tu reminded herself. Only nine. You were clueless when you were nine too.
"It's not safe," she explained patiently. "Bad things could happen, because the stars are gone now. I have to call mom to pick us up."
"That doesn't make sense," Xing said, but Jiao-tu was relieved to see that she had let go of the door handle. She didn't know what she would have done if Xing had gone out; she had no idea what kind of trouble they would get into if they were caught outside without an adult after sundown.
But even more than that, she was afraid of being out of doors once it got dark. She'd seen the news reports about Tokyo, the ones that her parents watched after she and Jiang were supposed to be in bed; anything that could do that to such a big city - anything that could make billions of stars disappear - well, it wasn't a nice thing. Even if it wasn't aliens.
She was secretly glad that she'd been sick when the Li family had gone up to the mountains. Tian had told her on Monday about watching the night sky vanishing; it sounded horrible.
Jiao-tu used the receptionist's phone to call home; her mother promised to be there in fifteen minutes to pick them up. Then she collected her and Xing's school bags from their cubbies and sat down on the floor next to her cousin. Rummaging around in her bag, she found her glasses and put them on; the room came into a smudgy focus.
"If you can't see without your glasses, why don't you wear them more?" Xing asked, sounding bored.
"I don't need them all the time," Jiao-tu protested. "I can see fine; it's just Mom gets mad when she sees me without them. You know that." It was easy for Xing - she didn't have to wear anything dorky like glasses. And even if she did, they'd just make her look cuter. It wasn't fair.
Digging deeper in her bag, Jiao-tu found the length of pink yarn buried at the bottom and pulled it out. "Come on, let's play while we wait." She wound the yarn around her fingers, then held it out to Xing expectantly. Xing just stared at it.
"Nothing happens in that game."
"What?" Jiao-tu looked down at her hands. "Well, no…but it's fun, right?" They always played cat's cradle when there was nothing else to do. One of Jiao-tu's earliest memories was of herself and Xing giggling over the funny shapes that their grandmother made for them. But right now, her cousin was staring at the yarn as if it was a completely alien object.
"What's with you today?" she muttered, drawing her hands closer to herself and working through a few forms on her own.
Xing turned her gaze to the wall across from them. "People keep asking me that," she responded in a voice that said she couldn't care less.
"Because you're being weird! Why don't you want to dance? Are you getting sick?"
Xing's voice still had that unsettling flat tone to it. "I don't see the point."
"The point of what?"
"Dancing."
Jiao-tu looked up, confused. "But…you love dancing. It's your favorite thing to do! And you're so good at it. Better than me," she added glumly.
"Is being good at something a reason to do it?" Xing asked.
"I don't know? I mean, I guess so?" She fiddled with the dragon charm wound around her wrist, and remembered what Tian had told her at the festival last month. Before that, she hadn't thought much about how good she was in her classes; but lately, knowing that she always did better on her math homework than Chan Mai made the other girl's teasing hurt a little less. "If you're good at something, you should try and be your best."
"Then why do you do it? You aren't any good."
"I - " Jiao-tu began, searching for words. "I know. I never said I was!" She blinked back the tears forming in her eyes. She did know that she wasn't any good; but it stung to hear Xing say it. No matter what anyone else said, Xing would always take her side. "I only take the class because Mom makes me, you know that."
"Why do you let her make you do something you don't want to do?"
"I have to listen to her, she's my mom! You have to listen to your mom too, don't you?"
Xing just frowned slightly, and continued staring at the wall. Jiao-tu wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees, yarn dangling from her fingers.
"I hope Mom gets here soon."