The old tramp freighter wheezed from the relief of completing the long voyage over turbulent seas. I was more than glad to get off. While I splurged my last funds on a private cabin, it had been a cramped fit.

The moist air lingered still like sweat. I wouldn't have minded more breeze from the sea. Even though the port town of Heva was close to the polar circle, the summer sun kept me uncomfortably warm under my gown.

"Do you need help with that luggage, miss?"

I startled out of my thoughts. The man had spoken in posh and unaccented Conglang, but wore upper-class Roluan attire, which was rather dandy relative to his heavy tan. The sharp lines of his face weren't of the local type, and his tall and wiry build lacked in the stockiness I had observed in the native Roluan mariners.

"Associate Bemariq?" I asked. My pleasingly feminine voice came without effort.

"Yes. You must be miss haz-Merin."

I wasn't, but I nodded and handed my suitcase to him.

"You are travelling light", he said. "I would have assumed a young woman needed to bring more spare clothes."

"Oh, Heva should have some shops. No need to carry overmuch." In truth, the gown I wore was my only one. Men rarely needed many of those.

The tonics I had purloined and ingested had been worth the fever, tooth ache and cramps. Nobody had looked at me askance in my feminine dress during the voyage. Beforehand I had been forced to rely on heavy makeup and avoiding well-lighted establishments and more thorough evaluation.

I had kept the changes minimal, in order to make return less cumbersome. It helped that my appearance had never lost its boyish frailty, and my build had always been lithe. Now, after the tonic regimen, my jaw was slightly smaller, my nose decidedly daintier and my lips fuller. For my thin body, only the slight widening of my hips had been necessary. Long term waist training now paid off as a sylphlike frame.

My second-hand living corset, with its self-tightening embrace, was a delight to wear. Its hydroskeleton supported me like an old friend, and the robust musculature even massaged my back should it detect stiffness.

However, at first I hadn't been aware of the substances the beast secreted through my skin. The additional chemical treatment had encouraged the moulding of my torso, it seemed permanently. That was no matter. Without the corset, my waist wasn't narrow enough to look overtly strange on a thin man. Inside my middle was wonderfully slender.

Bemariq stopped at a carriage, which was gobbling up fish offal and other organic waste. Its carapace had lost its lustre, and the skin peeking in between the hard surfaces was unsightly blotched.

"Your carriage is sickly, associate."

"It's just getting old, miss haz-Merin. Roluans don't grow these, so acquiring even this one was a bother." He tickled the carriage between its shiny exterior. The creature chortled and opened an elytron to reveal the compartment inside.

The peculiar buildings of Heva had uncovered whalebone-like supporting structures. The houses were uniformly vivid, unlike the clothes of the locals. While Roluans dressed rather snappily, the ubiquitous greys and blacks were dreary. At least some women had some colour in their gowns.

"Is the dig far away?" I asked.

"No." Bemariq smiled. "We'll be there well before evening."

"Strange that a foreigner like you would head the excavation so close to a large city like this."

"The Roluans don't care about the remains. At least not enough to pay anyone to dig them up."

"Why is that? Weren't they made by their ancestors?"

He shook his head. "They do not think so, and neither do I. The idea that the site was built by them, before they 'degenerated' on their own, is frankly preposterous. As you can very well see now that you are here, Roluans don't differ from us in terms of general sophistication."

"Yes, you wrote a monograph about the subject. It was rather panned."

He chuckled without mirth. "An understatement, if I ever heard one! We almost lost our funding." Bemariq gritted his teeth. "Those dolts, who write about things they have never seen, have little understanding of anything not in their immediate vicinity. Luckily a few of the scholars back home have a little more sense than none. By pulling all strings I could, I managed to keep this enterprise afloat."

"So, who do you think built the complex at Karimma site? You didn't mention that in the monograph."

His smile retuned. "You read it? Good. And yes, I didn't mention anything of my hypothesis. That was lucky. Even the hard facts were too much for the academia. Miss haz-Merin, how old do you think the Karimma site is?"

"I can't claim to know. But I'd guess: about five hundred years, perhaps? A thousand at most."

Bemariq shook his head. "We haven't been able to analyse the swampy soil yet, but I'm positive the buildings have stood for at least three thousand years."

I gasped. "But that means..."

He nodded. "We are breaking new ground on pre-Collapse studies."

I kept my expression amazed, even though I had well known about the suspicions that the Karimma site predated the Collapse. That was why I had got myself hired as Bemariq Usinilim's assistant.

The wording of the job offer had made quite clear that only youthful female candidates would be considered. Such limitation was convenient for me: I didn't have to fake a diploma, as no woman would get certified in the academies, yet my own education had given me an edge in the interview.

The ride was bumpy due to the carriage limping one of its legs, but we reached our destination before I grew bothered by the rough treatment. The Karimma site was in middle of a series of hills, overlooking a river valley. A large rectangular hole had been dug into the soft soil. From there peaked a series of greenish roofs and pillars of a style completely unfamiliar to me.

Bemariq smiled. "Impressive, isn't it?"

"There's not much to see, but the good state of the remains is surprising."

"Yes, it indeed is. Most of the buildings are structurally sound, even after all this time. A clear sign of pre-Collapse technology, don't you think?"

Roluans were all burly men with either bland expressions or smiles, which seemed to be amused by jokes that only existed in their own heads. Bemariq addressed them mostly in Jaanish, though a few knew simple but clear Conglang. To the ones, who spoke neither oceanic language, Bemariq spoke in stumbling Roluish, which I didn't understand.

The main tents had rooted well. Their bark had grown thick, and the lush foliage domed them fully.

"You can have the tent of the late associate zef-Wared." Bemariq pointed at the second largest one.

"What happened to him?"

"He was beyond old and fell ill last winter." Bemariq dismissed the thought with a wave of his hand. "These things happen."

My tent had almost had the time grow into a proper house. The smooth walls were sturdy, and the floor was completely covered by a wood-like surface. The inside was divided into several compartments. The foyer was also an office, but the tent had a separate bedroom and a tiny combined kitchen and storage room. The bathroom was the biggest surprise. Not only had it a sizeable tub, but a shower with warm water. The grime of the sea voyage irritated my skin, so I undressed and washed myself.

After drying, I wrapped a towel around my waist and walked to the bedroom.

"Miss haz-Merin. I brought you som--" Bemariq stared at me.

The tonic regimen had softened the flesh on my chest and widened the areola, but I lacked an actual bosom. Still, a girl would be self-conscious about her chest. I understood to yelp and turn around. Luckily my towel had hid my crotch.

"I'm sorry", Bemariq said from behind the door curtain. "I didn't realize you'd be so swift to take a bath. Anyhow, I brought you some work clothes. Do you want to go see the dig, before the sun sets?"

After swallowing, I said: "Yes I would, associate Bemariq."

The clothes were men's, and oversized for me. Yet my reflection was not a long-haired wimpy boy's, but that of a boyish girl. That should alleviate any untoward ideas, which the seeing of me fresh from the shower, might have elicited.

Bemariq waited outside tent. He had changed into an outfit fitting a labourer. I blushed under his gaze.

While the workers had removed tons of earth, wide dig site had very little to look at. Yet, the poking roofs promised immediate progress. All of the structures were made from grey material with a blue-green tint that shifted with the eye. It was as hard as stone, but warm to touch, even though nothing indicated that the material was alive.

"You can really appreciate the site up from that pillar", Bemariq said.

"Oh." Perhaps he could have jumped high enough to climb up, but certainly couldn't.

"I can lift you up."

"Very well." I turned face the pillar. Firm hands grabbed my waist, and I yelped. Even without my corset, his fingers came noticeably close to touching. Perhaps I had overdone the waist training, but it was hard to imagine a man like Bemariq to have disapproved.

Bemariq lifted me up like I had the density of dry wood. My fingers reached the top of the pillar, but even before the tonic regimen, I wouldn't have been strong enough to pull myself up.

The man moved his hand down. His fingers sunk deep into my buttocks, as he pushed me up. After I got my elbows on top, Bemariq lifted me from my feet, and I managed to clamber on the pillar.

I certainly could see the site now. On the ground the structures had seemed to be in mere disarray, but from high up the asymmetric geometry was visible.

"What do you think this place was?" Bemariq asked.

"I have no idea. Doesn't seem like a fortress, or a residential area."

"We'll figure it out. Let me help you down."

When my feet were safely on the soft soil, his hands still lingered on my body. I had long since stopped pretending men --at least the strapping ones with potentially loaded pockets-- didn't excite my inner self. The presence of a strong man, able and willing to casually lift me around, whipped my heart into a frantic beat. Bemariq could do anything he wanted to me, and I wouldn't be able to stop him. And he clearly wanted to do something with me.

That was convenient.

And so also was the fact that my trousers were baggy, because otherwise the strain against my underwear would have blown my cover.

"Would you like to join me at dinner, miss haz-Merin?" the man asked.