The Tiger Flu

Chapter 38 is set at the New Origins Archive and is told from Kiri’s perspective on Day 9 of the node “Autumn Equinox.”

Elzbieta greets the group when they arrive at New Origins Archive, but Kiri thinks there is something off about her: “Elzbieta’s small teeth are too white, too sharp” (266). Elzbieta recognizes Myra but not Kora. Kiri tells a white lie that Kora is her sister, the last of Glorybind Groundsel’s daughter doubles. Kiri does not admit that Kora is part of the Ko family and that they only met at the Saltwater Flats.

Elzbieta beckons the group deeper into the New Origins Archive, and Kiri is increasingly nervous. Myra and Kora sit down. Kora eats six dumplings, takes a few sips of tea, and begins to doze off. One of the servants wakes her up gently and guides her to the back of the archive where the guest sleeping quarters are.

With Kora gone, Elzbieta asks where Kiri found Kora. Elzbieta knows Kora is a descendant of the Jemini escapee and Grist queen Chan Ling, not a daughter double of Glorybind. Elzbieta can also tell that Kora is not pure Grist, that she has some non-Grist blood in her too. Elzbieta orders dish after dish for them to feast on. Kiri grows increasingly uneasy and tells Elzbieta that they want to leave for New Grist Village as soon as possible, but Elzbieta insists that Kiri and Kora stay with them to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival before they depart.

Chapter 39 is set at the New Origins Archive and is told from Kora’s perspective on Day 9 of the node “Autumn Equinox.”

Kora, drugged and tired from her journey, dreams that she is foraging for cans. She wakes when there is a knock on the door of her chamber, but when she goes to answer, whoever was knocking has left.

A feverish, dreamlike sequence of events follows. Kora believes that the knock at the door was her mother Charlotte and her goat Delphine. Kora follows the sound of Charlotte’s footsteps and Delphine’s bleating down a hallway and deeper into the New Origins Archive. Before passing a blue door at the top of a dark staircase, Kora smells the odor of N-lite.

Kora feels herself being stabbed in the eye and chest. She screams as she sees a vision that encapsulates the history of modern society in reverse: “She becomes the scream, the howl of a lost dog in the night, the scream of a decade past and the decade prior to that, the trail of tiger flu in reverse” (274). She sees all the way back to the fall of the Ming dynasty. Kora stops screaming when she hears the voice of her mother telling her that it is okay, that she made it. Charlotte says she is alive but changed; she now resides on Eng. Charlotte gives Kora her catcoat, to Kora’s great pleasure. Together, they continue down the stairway; they encounter alien women who live beneath the New Origins Archive deep within the earth.

Charlotte guides Kora to a place called “the Dark Baths,” a glowing blue pool. Kora disrobes from her catcoat and floats in the Dark Bath, wondering why the Dark Bath’s waters seem to hold such power. As she floats, she hears a voice say, “You’ve arrived at Quay D’Espoir” (280). Kora mouths the word “download” and wakes up. She tries to return up the staircase and out of the Dark Baths, but the staircase has been replaced with an elevator filled with root vegetables. Women (“a clutch of burly sisters”) come out and begin gathering the vegetables in wheelbarrows (281). The women take the wheelbarrows and lead Kora to a place called the Dark Kitchen, where they are hurrying to cook various dishes for a meal. Kora eats some of the food and soon becomes sleepy again. The women help Kora to a cushion on the floor of the Dark Kitchen to rest.

Chapter 40 is set at the New Origins Archive and is told from Kiri’s perspective on Day 9 of the node “Autumn Equinox.”

Chapter 40 features another sequence of feverish, dreamlike events. Like Kora, Kiri awakes from a deep sleep at the New Origins Archive. She runs to the door, and Myra is standing there “looking ridiculously unlike herself” (283). Myra tells Kiri that Kora has been kidnapped and so they must go look for her. They head to Kora’s room, but Myra suddenly vanishes. Kiri sees a blue door that mysteriously beckons to her.

Kiri smells the familiar smell of N-lite as she descends the staircase. From darkness, Kiri feels her mother double, Glorybind, touch her arm. They descend until they reach the Dark Baths, where Peristrophe Halliana is waiting for Kiri. Overjoyed to see her, Kiri joins Peristrophe in the waters of the Dark Baths. Glorybind calls out that Auntie Radix needs Peristrophe’s heart, and they must go to the cutting table right away. Peristrophe begs Kiri not to cut her, but Kiri does so anyway. Kiri heads into the Dark Baths again after the surgery, stricken with horror and grief; she falls into a “sick sleep” there.

When she wakes, Kiri asks Glorybind if that vision was real (thinking it could not be, since Peristrophe is dead). Glorybind explains that it was real in a manner of speaking. The Dark Baths are a “place of interface,” which means the pool drains your being and transfers it to Eng. Eng takes the download, and then Isabelle takes a bit of code, a scrap of DNA, and their being expands through those who loved them. Their mind is free to live on, even when their body dies. Kiri is suddenly extremely fearful of the Dark Baths. She runs to ascend the stairs, even though Glorybind and Peristrophe, magically alive again, beckon her to stay. Kiri hears Kora’s voice distantly saying not to listen to them, that they cannot be trusted. Kiri reaches the top of the door and tumbles into the light.

Chapter 41 is set in the New Origins Archive and is told from Kora’s perspective on Day 10 of the node “Autumn Equinox.” It is the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Kora wakes in the Dark Kitchen. She realizes that she must find Kiri. She wanders out of the kitchen, down a long and dimly lit hallway, where she finds an elevator. She takes the elevator, which reeks of N-Lite. Suddenly, she is back in the area just outside her bedroom at the New Origins Archive.

Crowds of New Origins sisters rush along, carrying food and bottles filled with amber liquid. They are preparing for the Feast of Abundance at the Mid-Autumn Festival. One of the New Origins women brings Kora to meet the high priestess.

In a biodome full of lush foliage, Elzbieta emerges from a statue of Our Mother of a Thousand Hands. Kora can feel the N-lite distorting her mind and perception. Elzbieta asks Kora if she might one day want to inherit the New Origins Archive rather than going with “that dirty Gristie Kirilow Groundsel” to New Grist Village (301). Elzbieta knows that Kora has discovered the portal to Eng; she reminds Kora that this is a war. Elzbieta tells Kora that her father (Uncle Wai) didn’t make the transfer to Eng, but the upload to Chang is superior; she promises that she can reunite Kora with Uncle Wai. Before they can head to the LïFT sanctuary, a net entraps both Kora and Elzbieta. They are gassed with more N-Lite.

Chapter 42 is set in the New Origins Archive and is told from Kiri’s perspective on Day 10 of the node “Autumn Equinox.” It is the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Kiri’s mind reels with N-Lite fog. She wakes to find two attendants from the New Origins Archive by her side. When Kiri says she needs to find Kora, they rush her to the Blossoming Baths, another biodome with lush green plants. Rather than taking her to find Kora, the attendants say that Kiri will soon meet the “great inventor.” Isabelle Chow emerges from a waterfall in the Blossoming Baths and steps across stones that bridge the rushing stream toward Kiri.

Kiri asks Isabelle what she wants from her. Isabelle tells Kiri that all her sisters have been downloaded to Eng and that they are safe. Isabelle also points out that Kiri just saw Glorybind, which she would think would make Kiri happy. Kiri says that the Grist sisters she saw down in the Dark Baths—Peristrophe and Glorybind—were “spooky and mutated” (307). Isabelle ignores her and says she needs healthy volunteers to go to Eng; the Grist sisters are the natural choice, especially since they no longer have a starfish to keep their community healthy. Against her better judgment, Kiri admits that she found a new starfish in Kora. Isabelle says she can help Kiri find her, that Kora will certainly be at the Feast of Abundance that night. Kiri is suspicious of Isabelle, but she goes along with her.

The Feast of Abundance is being held in a main hall. Everyone is dosed with N-lite as they pass through; Isabelle forces Kiri to take some, saying that she will not survive the night without it. The New Origins Archive sisters begin to chant and eat; they scream, “long live Isabelle Chow!” (315). Kiri does not understand what is going on, and she is fearful of the entire scene. She spots Bombyx and Corydalis in the crowd; she does not know if they have come as guests or as visitors, unaware of the danger. Elzbieta has been transformed into the food they eat. Kiri calls Isabelle a murderer under her breath.

A low rumble from deep underneath the New Origins Archive begins to emerge; a nuclear missile comes straight up from the ground. The warhead was launched by Isabelle, who laughs hysterically as it veers toward Chang. As the main hall and all the New Origins Archive begins to collapse, Kiri, Bombyx, and Corydalis make their escape, looking for Kora as they go. They find Kora in the melee, but a chunk of debris falls upon Kora and smashes her torso.

Kiri gathers up her body, and Bombyx has an idea to save her: They use flesh from a batterkite to mend Kora’s wounds as best they can. They then put Kora into a LïFT, where she is transformed into a half batterkite, half fish. They pass Myra on their way out, who gives Kiri a scale with the knowledge of how to fly a batterkite. The Grist sisters watch the death of Chang as they fly away in their batterkite.