“That sums up the quandary nicely,” Exton murmured.
She ignored him, but gave him a prudent look. “We recognize that you have provided a voice for the rebels and dissenters, just as you have provided the Ecclesia a home on your starship, as well as accommodations here at Petra.”
“We suffer no illusions. We know we are the greater beneficiary of our relationship,” Reverend Thorne said. “And we know that we do not influence your decisions in a great way.”
Patty stepped forward. “We welcome the opportunity to serve Silas’ cause. We are also grateful for the help we have received from the Ecclesia.”
Exton was momentarily distracted at hearing his father’s name. For a moment, he longed for the days of his childhood, where life seemed easier and his father’s friends seemed more like his family.
But the moment passed, and Exton knew there was no room for heady nostalgia when it came to repairing the world.
“We do not wish to strain our partnership,” another leader, Brother Amos, said, his voice gravelly and grim. “We see great opportunity in providing service to those who have found their way to Petra, even if they are not members of the Ecclesia. It is our way of strengthening ourselves as well as honoring our commitment to the Creator.”
“But?” Exton asked.
“But nothing,” Reverend Thorne told him. “Individually, we stand with you. The URS has silenced us and outlawed us, and we are welcome to support you as much as we see fit, individually.”
“So this is not a group endorsement,” Exton said, as he realized what was going on.
“We wish to maintain a strong presence, particularly serving as medics and caretakers. We will continue to help supervise the harvest and Petra’s protection,” Don said. “But the Ecclesia is not a military force, and we ask that you recognize we may differ from person to person on how to support you, even if we withhold support.”
“I can grant you that,” Exton said. “That’s how it has always been on the Perdition.”
“We know,” Reverend Thorne said. “But war is not just a strain on the body and mind. We ask that you continue to honor our request, to keep this in mind as the war continues on.” He held his palms out. “There will be times when you cannot order us to act. You may ask, of course, but we may say no. And you might get a different answer, depending on who you ask.”
Exton nodded. “I understand.”
“The Ecclesia is like a body,” Sister Katalina said. “We are connected by physical means, but no matter how much you want it to, an ear will not see and a hand will not hear. But there will likely be instances where you will ask of the hand to reach out and take something, and you will only get silence.”
“I understand,” Exton repeated, starting to get frustrated. They were treating him like a child. “Thank you for your—”
“We understand,” Merra said, stepping in front of him. “We respect the rule of individual conscience. We do ask for the right to change your mind when we disagree. Often in life, and especially in wartime, we must make difficult choices.”
Reverend Thorne considered her words. “I suppose there are instances that are unique and deserve deeper reflection.” He looked to the other members, most of whom nodded in return.
Exton noticed that among the curt nods, there were several that held wary glances as they looked at Merra.
Merra held a unique reputation among the Ecclesia; she’d been at one of their bigger settlements for several years, helping out and quietly assembling a fighter squad. She was respected, but Exton began to wonder if she was more feared than admired.
He could understand their hesitancy when it came to working with someone as shrewd as Merra. They didn’t want to be taken advantage of.
It was after several more rounds of the usual objections that the meeting was finally adjourned, and Exton walked out of the room to find Emery pacing the hallway.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing.” She narrowed her gaze as she watched the others, including Merra and Reverend Thorne, head out of the small council room. “I wanted to see how the meeting turned out.”
“Business as usual,” he assured her. “I got my way, and it took twice as long as it needed to.”
“But half the time it usually takes.”
“The only bright side to this, I realize.”
“Look,” Emery said, “I know you want to fight St. Cloud. I know the war has escalated. But do you know you’re doing the right thing, Exton?”
“Not entirely,” he admitted quietly. “But I will never be a hundred percent sure about something like this. There are too many factors involved for it to go as planned.”
“This reminds me of how things were during the first year on Perdition,” Emery said. “I know you had a plan, but you didn’t follow through.”
Exton nodded. After finding out the Perdition was carrying MENACE fighters, Exton had proof that the URS was using their old enemy as a way to justify taking over other countries and their resources. He had initially wanted to bomb New Hope in revenge for his father’s death. After seeing the full scale of the treachery of the URS, he paused.
At least he paused long enough to find a way to salvage what little good was left in the world.
Now, he thought, it was time to go after what was bad.
“I’m glad I didn’t follow through in that case,” Exton said. “Everything turned out for the better that we didn’t use the nukes to bomb the URS then.”
“The Ark is still on the ship,” Emery reminded him. “But I hope you’ll think long and hard before you get to that point.”
“I hope so, too.”
“I was almost hoping the Ecclesia would say something to change your mind.”
“That’s never managed stop me before.”
She crossed her arms. “I figured they wouldn’t be able to do that,” she huffed. “I’m familiar with their positions and yours enough to know it was a foolish gamble.”
“If you’re familiar with their stances,” Merra said as she came between them, “then you know we’ve been given a great gift, even if we’re going to have to treat it with kid gloves.”
Emery narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“I was fully expecting the Ecclesia to rebuke our stance, frankly,” Merra said. “They’ve never been keen on war, especially given their history with it.”
“The fact that they didn’t makes you happy?”
“Of course.” She met Emery’s gaze without a qualm. “They’ll be more than happy to help where they can, but they can’t fully endorse it. That’s good. It’ll keep their influence down, for one thing, and it’ll give us an advantage, with all their medical resources and their information channels.”
“From the sound of it, you’ve had this experience before,” Exton said. “Is that how you managed to fake your death and escape St. Cloud?”
Merra shot him an angry look for the first time. But she blinked, and it disappeared instantly. Despite her quickness, Exton knew he’d scored a point against her.
“Well,” she said with a forced smile, “I guess you could say that. But I was thinking more along the lines of how I established my fighter squadron at Chaya, and at several of the other resistance-led city-states I’ve been to.”
“I guess that means you have a target in mind already?” Emery asked. “Since you have some experience with this.”
“Of course.”
“What?” Exton rounded on her. “You have a plan?”
“I always have a plan,” Merra told him. “And contingency ones, too, so shut your mouth and stop looking so surprised. It’s not an attractive look, especially since you’re now officially on the offensive. Now, we have to get ready for our first strike. We’ll be ready to leave by the end of the week.”
“We just got started!”
She arched a brow. “So? We can handle a small strike together, Exton. Consider it a training exercise in teamwork.”
“
We just got the approval from the Ecclesia,” Exton said. “We’ll have to do some scouting for volunteers and fighters and—”
“Your aunt and I have a list of suggestions for leadership,” Merra replied. “We’ve already regulated who needs to stay at Petra to keep its level of production steady and lend support in case of a retaliatory strike—”
“You’ve started recruiting people already?” Exton was bewildered. He’d only just agreed to this a day ago, and already he had forces being mobilized. Without his supervision, no less.
His distrust of Merra deepened as her smile widened.
“No,” Merra said. “We’ve been scouting. We don’t recruit until the people in question agree to come with us. Which they are free to refuse,” she added, seeing Emery’s angry expression.
“If you’re scouting, you have a plan. And a target.”
“I already told you I did.”
“Where, then?” Exton asked.
Merra shifted her weight and put her hands on her hips determinedly. “We strike at Chaya first.”
“Chaya?” Exton repeated. “Why? I thought you had a force there.”
“I do,” Merra said. “But we’ve been attacked, recently, and our water was poisoned with a new bacterium. Several were too weak to take on the URS without aid.”
“What happened?” Emery asked. “We didn’t hear about this.”
Patty came up behind them. “The URS has been using new technology to communicate,” she said. “Kamalo, one of our newer refugees, says they have perfected something called NETech, and they’re using it in more of their flight programs now.”
“Aerie told me about NETech,” Exton recalled. “She saw it in the MENACE ships we have on the Perdition.”
“It’s been around for a while. It was largely experimental.” Merra frowned. “If that’s the case, I can see why we didn’t pick it up on our frequencies.”
“What is it?” Emery asked.
“NETech is the shorthand name of Neuro-Enzyme Transmission. It’s a special kind of technology that’s supposed to work similar to plant synapses,” Merra said.
“Aerie told me that, too. It’s a way to translate electrical impulses, or frequencies, into enzyme catalysts. The pilot of a ship would receive it, his mind would interpret the message instantly, and he would know what to do.”
“No more verbal orders, then,” Emery said. “Nothing would be needed to communicate over the airwaves.”
“Exactly,” Merra said. “So you can understand, how in a water shortage, we were too distracted to realize the extent of what was going on when Chaya was retaken.”
Patty nodded. “I’ll have Kamalo come and brief you on their new tech, Exton,” she said. “He’ll be able to tell you all about it.”
“Good.” Exton sighed silently to himself. War was a consuming path.
He turned to Merra. “How small of a strike force will you need?”
“Not too many. Ten, at the most. We have to free my forces at Chaya before we can get the aid to the prisoners there,” Merra said. “There were a lot of children there.”
“Children?” Emery glanced at Exton, more worry on her face.
He watched as her hand moved down to her belly, where her own child was growing inside of her.
“War is not easy on anyone,” Merra said grimly. “Especially children. We will need to hurry.”
“Agreed,” Exton said, stepping in front of Emery. He didn’t like the way Merra was looking at Emery. It was one thing to trample all over his authority and influence his decisions; it was another to try to manipulate Emery’s.
Merra’s eyes gleamed. “This is already turning out better than I could’ve hoped,” she said, her voice clearly anticipating the upcoming clash.
Exton glared at her. “There’s no need to be excited about it,” he told her, his tone harder than he expected it to be.
“You’re a new player in this game, Exton. But I’m not. I know what I want, and I am not afraid to take it, especially now that I have the resources to do so,” Merra replied.
“I can understand vengeance, Merra.”
“It’s not vengeance we have in common, believe it or not.” She gave him a cryptic smile and then said, “I am more concerned with what makes us different anyway.”
“What would that be?”
“You don’t know how far you’re willing to go get what you want. I know that perfectly.” She smiled, her bright eyes making her seem younger and more bubbly than before. “Now, go and get your task force assembled. I’ll pass along the plan of attack. When it comes time, I’ll contact my forces and get them ready to strike once you give the signal.”
Exton watched as she left, struggling to hold his temper. He wouldn’t miss her, he decided.
“Between Merra and St. Cloud, you’d almost think Aerie was adopted,” Emery said.
Despite everything, Exton was surprised to hear himself laugh. “That’s true.”
“We still have to hurry though. Merra’s right about that, especially if there are children in danger,” Emery said. She turned to Patty. “Take me to the hangar where our ships are. I’ll start an inspection so we can leave ASAP. Maybe Patty and some of her people here can get care packages together for the kids.”
“Call up Greer for me, too,” Exton called after them as Patty led Emery down the hall. “She’s one of the best analysts we have. She’ll be able to get the MENACE fighters ready. Those are our best bet for attacking.”
Exton rubbed at the back of his head as he stood in the hallway, watching his friends and allies hurry off. The bump, where St. Cloud had bludgeoned him, was finally vanishing. Only a little lump remained.
“Did the meeting go as you expected?” Reverend Thorne’s voice was soft and unexpected as he sauntered up beside him, but it still managed to make Exton feel guilty.
“About,” he said instead, hoping his demeanor would show the reverend that he was capable of standing up to him.
“Good.” Reverend Thorne nodded. “I will leave you to it and attend to my own duties.”
“What’re your duties?” Exton asked. “I didn’t ask anything of you yet.”
“I have to go and pray,” Reverend Thorne said. “There is a great deal to pray about here.”
After disagreeing with his father’s old friend and mentor for so long, Exton felt a strange mix of emotions as he watched him walk away. It was never easy finding common ground with people when they insisted on making his life more difficult.
♦7♦
“But Director Anand,” Aerie said, clasping her hands together and putting on her best humble beggar face, “I really have an appointment today. I was mistaken before, but today I really do have to go to the med center—”
“We have to finish up the NETech training today, Comrade—”
“I already know about it,” Aerie insisted. “I finished my training with it.”
“You finished your training with it, but it was far from perfect.”
“I did better than anyone else.”
“You need to work on the basics still,” Anand argued, his tan face beginning to flush over with an angry red. “It is inconceivable you did as well as you did on the NETech training when your comms are regularly reported for failures or your incompetency.”
Aerie blushed, but she pushed it back. She knew that she did any number of things to slow down the system. She just didn’t care enough to try anymore.
“But, sir, I have to leave. I have my physical—”
“Stop.” Anand frowned at her, his tan face wrinkled in displeasure. “You have been lying to get out of working late all week, Comrade St. Cloud.”
“I’m not lying now,” Aerie insisted, even though she knew he had a point. She had lied to him. At this point, she could only hope to avoid that particularly grueling conversation.
The good news, Aerie thought, was she had plenty of practice this week avoiding conversations. She had managed to sidestep Brock more than once, and, while s
he had never been particularly chatty with Serena or her brothers, she had taken on a new project to divert their attentions.
They thought she was going down to the rec center to swim so she could work on her injured shoulder. It was a nice cover, and they all believed her.
And why wouldn’t they? From what Aerie could tell, all of them believed the story that she’d fallen from the ropes course. No one knew she’d gotten shot, and no one suspected she thought otherwise.
“Comrade St. Cloud,” Anand said, “you cannot expect me to believe you after all the—”
“You can’t expect me to work my hardest if I’m not feeling my best,” Aerie interrupted. “I’ve been trying to work with my physical therapist all week, getting in extra hours, just so I can do a better job.”
“I also find that hard to believe.”
“I need to go,” Aerie insisted. “I can bring in a note from my doctor tomorrow, if you’d like, but I absolutely need to go.”
Anand hesitated, and Aerie glanced worriedly at the clock.
She rejoiced a second later when he sighed. She knew that sigh, even though she’d only been working for two weeks now.
“Fine. But this is the last time, do you hear me?”
“Oh, thank you!” Aerie bowed, saluting him formally as she grabbed her jacket off the back of her chair.
“Wait,” Anand called. “I’m not finished. You will have to come early tomorrow to make up for today. The whole department has to have full mastery of the NETech by the end of next month.”
“Why?” Aerie asked. “Why is it suddenly being pushed?”
She recalled some of the lectures she’d attended on it with Master Harrick and her classmates only a few months ago. It seemed strange that the URS was determined to roll it out so quickly. They usually took years to develop and test new equipment.
“That is not any of your business,” Anand told her in his usual, disappointed tone. “You need to be here tomorrow at 400 hours, Comrade.”
Aerie faltered as the excitement rushed out of her. Great. Just great.
Anand continued, “You owe a debt to the state for all the things that it has given you over the years. It is only fair.”
The Breadth of Creation Page 6