We're Not from Here

Lan wakes in a Zhuri jail. A guard arrives and interrogates Lan about the video and music. He demands to know whom Lan conspired with, but Lan didn’t conspire with anyone. Under the Zhuri’s anger smell, Lan notices something that smells like a cross between menthol and rubbing alcohol. The Zhuri is not responsible for the smell but goes to search for its source and passes out. Lan pounds on the room’s door, and Marf opens it. She’s there to bust Lan and Ila out as part of a plan to overthrow the government. She personally doesn’t want to overthrow the government, as her business depends on selling illegal videos that wouldn’t be illegal under different leadership, but she’s gotten into trouble she can’t get out of otherwise.

They find Ila in a holding cell, and Marf contacts Ezger to ask which exit they should use. Ezger tells them the fence around the building is down, which means there’s a swarm of angry Zhuri outside.

Marf, Lan, and Ila steal a Zhuri transport, but they don’t get far before the swarm descends, pinning the craft to the ground. Ezger lands Marf’s craft nearby and puts up an electrified fence that gives Marf, Lan, and Ila just enough time to sprint from their transport to Marf’s, taking a few hits of Zhuri venom in the process. In Marf’s transport, Marf prints Lan and Ila new clothes and gives them anti-venom cream. They’re all exhausted, but they don’t have time to rest because they have “a government to overthrow” (222).

Marf lands the pod in the area outside the city. The television shows footage of the swarm on the jail, which was much bigger than Lan thought. Lan, Ila, Marf, and Ezger are now wanted criminals, and the footage cuts to a government official who announces that “the human animals are a threat that must be destroyed” (224). The broadcast switches to show the spaceport, where another swarm is attacking Lan and Ila’s parents.

There are no soldiers trying to beat down the swarm, which thrills Marf because it means the government isn’t even trying to control the situation. She predicts the progressives will soon take over and allow the humans in orbit to land. The only downside is that Lan and Ila’s parents will likely be killed before then, which is unacceptable to Lan and Ila. Lan proposes they get close enough to play music to try and calm the swarm. Marf doesn’t think it will work but agrees to try; she gives Ila a backup guitar she made. Minus Ezger, they head toward the spaceport and the swarm that’s the “nightmare version of the dreamy, shimmering crowd that had danced to Ila’s music in the lunchroom” (227).