Tir Andol's Ashes

by Stephanie E Kusiak

  Aly!

  I turn back to see someone pulling her from me. He has her by her hair, her hands grabbing for him.

  “Marianna!”

  I rush toward them, stopped by the flash of metal against Marianna’s temple in the firelight.

  “Give me your suit!” the man screams, pressing hard enough with the muzzle of his gun for Marianna to wince. She stares at me, her body still.

  I’ll elbow him in the nose.

  Yes. Now.

  I don’t even think. I move forward. He points the gun at me and her elbow comes up. I hear the crack over the sound of the rumble beneath me. My hands grab the weapon and spin it out of his grip. Pushing Marianna aside, I move into the space between them, leveling my weapon at his face.

  I think about letting him live. I imagine taking her hand and running away, but the image of Marianna roughly held by her hair stamps out my more passive whim. All I can see is her pained expression and her reaching toward me.

  And no one—nothing—will ever touch her again.

  I pull the trigger.

  A spatter of blood and matter hits the street before his body collapses with a thud. My heart hammers so hard I can’t hear anything after that. Dazed, I stumble back, the weapon attaching to my suit at the hip.

  I’ve never killed anyone before.

  You shot him?

  I blink, unsure what her words mean. I stare at her, trying to process. She rises to her feet. She’s unharmed, and that’s all that matters.

  It’s what I’m trained to do.

  I would have done the same for you.

  She takes my hand and I don’t look back as we keep moving. The hazy towers of the spaceport come into view. Turning down another alley we emerge into a rush of people. They’re running the wrong way.

  “What’s happening?”

  I call out, but no one answers. A few faces are covered in blood. People slam into me in their urgency to escape. Marianna is behind me, and when the first belch of flames explodes from where the shuttles are up ahead of us, I stumble backward into her. I’m washed away in the escaping tide by the realization that my one hope is gone.

  There’s a cacophony of screams as people scatter and duck. I don’t move. I watch the fire rise. It moves higher and higher until the smoke of it mingles with morning’s first light.

  It’s overrun.

  I push us back into the alley we came from, and everything spins for a second as I try to digest what happened. The spaceport is destroyed, useless. I press my hand to the wall to hold me upright as I struggle to find my breath. I try not to listen to the terrified thoughts I can hear Marianna looping.

  As I struggle to think of something else, anything else, I do take comfort in one thing: the Sun rose this morning. There was a part of me that thought that it might not, that The Phalanx had already taken her away. I’m not sure if her light gives comfort to me as all the dark soot and blood is colored enough for me to see now.

  “We can go to the Academy.” I turn to Marianna and use the clouded dawn to make out her form, crouched down with her back to the building’s wall.

  “Why would we go to the Academy?” She asks, panic edging her voice.

  I stumble over, taking up a position beside her as I scramble to get air in my lungs. “There has to be at least one decommissioned ship there. Maybe we can use it. It would be more useful than a shuttle anyway.” When she looks at me I shrug. “The shuttles wouldn’t have survived leaving the planet with all this debris.”

  She nods in silence.

  “How’s your shoulder?”

  “Better.”

  “Good. Let’s go.”

  ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

  It takes too long to get to the Academy, and as we’re crossing the open area that surrounds it, I see a flash of light to my left. I turn to it, shading my eyes. From beyond the buildings on the far side of the grounds, two Phalanx foot soldiers articulate into view.

  Stalkkers.

  I’ve watched all the holodocs about them, what they look like, how they move and fight, but nothing prepares me for seeing them in reality. There’s nothing I can do, no tatter of resolve I can find in the face of them. I can hardly get the word out my throat with how choked tight my panic makes me.

  “Run.”

  Marianna doesn’t ask for more. We bolt for the steps of the Academy, as if the very nature of the building will save us. The Stalkkers don’t see us immediately, or maybe they do, but we have a decent head start on them when they eventually give chase. My boots slam the ground. I grab for air, pulling myself forward with every pump of my arms. I can feel them gaining on me. The ground vibrates harder. It puts ice up my spine. We aren’t going to be able to outrun them.

  I realize it in the same moment that Marianna stops.

  I turn back, still running, unsure what has happened.

  “Marianna!”

  A look comes over her face, it’s a look I will never forget for the rest of my life. It’s the peace of resolve. I grind to a halt, boots sliding in the dirt as I change directions and run for her. Beyond Marianna’s shoulder, beyond the wave of smoke that silhouettes the brightness of her, a Stalkker lunges. I don’t know which of us will get to her first.

  I draw my gun as I grab for her.

  It all happens in a slow bend of time, like just before light-speed travel. The Stalkker reaches for her with some type of distended mandibles, and Marianna severs her connection to my thoughts. I wrap my arm around her waist and wrench her off her feet at the last possible moment. The creature flies past us, shoring a line into the ground as it turns. I aim and fire every charge the weapon has in it, until my hands are numb with recoil. It doesn’t do anything, reflecting right off its articulated hide.

  I push Marianna behind me and force her to run, but she doesn’t. Her hand on my arm, she reaches out toward them.

  “What are you doing?” I scream it until there is no air left in my lungs.

  My weapon is steaming and I pull the trigger uselessly. She doesn’t look at me, her eyes bounding back and forth between the two Stalkkers. It takes a moment for me to realize they haven’t attacked, that for some reason they have stopped.

  It only lasts for a moment before the open courtyard is filled with more. They are being called here. They are coming for us.

  I tighten my hand around her arm and pull her with me. Marianna’s still staring at them, still holding her hand out and keeping them at bay. Another dives toward us, but Marianna focuses on it, her other hand coming out to hold it in place. I yank her up the steps.

  “Aly.” My name is ground out between her gritted teeth. “You have to run.”

  “Never.”

  She grunts, pushing an invisible force, and the Stalkkers shudder in their steps. It clears us a little room as we continue up the Academy steps.

  Then all at once, something happens. Marianna hand goes to her head as she stumbles. Free of her control, the Stalkkers rush us in the next instant. I can feel the scream wind up in my throat and in a last defiant act of chivalry I shove her through the Academy’s doors.

  I don’t even feel it when I’m impaled by the Stalkkers talons. All I can see is Marianna’s rage, her scream of pure white hate. And even though we’re no longer connected, I feel the prickle of her thoughts sending death in a wave.

  The last thing I see is Marianna’s clenched fist and the body of Stalkker above me falling into lifeless heap before darkness comes.

  Chapter 4

  I awaken to Marianna’s sleeping face beside me. She’s curled up in a chair, her skin still covered in tiny cuts and dirt. My eyes continue to focus, taking in the bed I’m lying in and the terrible smell of burnt flesh. I’m not sure if the smell is from the med machine that fixed my injuries, or if it’s coming from somewhere else. I’m too afraid to look.

  “Marianna?”

  She opens her eyes slowly, and blinks them a few times before smiling weakly.

  “Hey, you.”

  “What happene
d?”

  She has a contemplative look, but when she leans toward me it’s gone. “Nothing, just rest.”

  “Where are we?”

  “Antilles Four.” The name isn’t familiar to me for several seconds, until it finally registers. It’s an outpost moon, far from Tir Andol.

  “How?”

  “Headmaster Pike. He launched a ship from the Academy, just like you said we could do. He picked us up and brought us here.” Her hand finds mine and squeezes. “I’m so sorry you were hurt.”

  I keep replaying the last nebulous things I remember, trying to pull it all together. I remember the Stalkkers and Marianna. I must have been lying down on the stairs. When I see her standing over me in my memory, she has blood dripping from her nose and the Stalkkers have collapsed. Looking at her now, there’s no sign of the blood I saw before.

  “What did you do?”

  She opens her mouth to answer, but then closes it firmly. “I didn’t do anything. I’m lucky I lived.” She has a look, an expression that warns me to tread carefully. I sit up straighter, looking around and realize for the first time I’m in a military installation. The face of a medical officer is focused on us from the other side of the room, his eyes darting back and forth between Marianna and me.

  Her fingers squeeze mine again before slowly leaking away. She looks around briefly, leaning forward to kiss my forehead. She lingers there, her breath swirling my hair. I’m expecting her to kiss me more, but instead her lips whisper words over my skin.

  I don’t want them to know about my ability.

  When she pulls back, her smile is soft. It becomes more substantial as she takes my hand in hers and peppers kisses over the back of it. “I didn’t think we would make it.”

  “I know. The shipyard is to the right.”

  She catches on immediately, that I want to leave. Marianna nods, glancing over her shoulder at the door I indicated. “Sometimes I think you have too much energy.” Her cheeky grin falls when her eyes focus to my side where I must have been injured on Tir Andol. “How are you feeling?”

  “Good enough. Let’s go.”

  I use my free hand to gather the blankets, and Marianna sees the motion, standing. When she pulls me up to my feet, I don’t know what I’m expecting. I feel like people should rush us, but no one even looks our way. I don’t bother getting dressed in my combat gear, I just gather it up and slip my boots back on. I hit the catch on the back to make sure the boots stay fastened tight.

  Marianna and I start for the doorway only to have a man turn the corner and lean on the wall. His movement is benign and not totally out of place, but his presence sends a chill up my spine. Marianna stops short, her hand touching her temple.

  I don’t understand what’s happening, but frankly, I don’t really care. I tighten my hand in hers. We’re leaving. We can take a ship and escape to the furthest outpost in the universe. We can work as traders, or technicians. Marianna can be a freelance terraformer, and I can travel the universe as her security. I keep us walking, driven by my singular goal. When we pass by the man, he smiles at me.

  Before I can get to a ship, Marianna stops and this time I can’t pull her along. In her gaze is a pain etched so deep I don’t think I’ll be able to survive the result of what she’s about to say to me.

  “What?”

  “We can’t go.”

  I swallow raggedly. “Yes, we can. Come on.”

  “No. Not yet.”

  I glance behind her, but the man isn’t there anymore.

  “Why?”

  “Because it isn’t safe.” She narrows her eyes, like she’s listening to something. “We’ll leave in the morning.”

  “What did he say to you?”

  She frowns at me. “It’s not that. I think I can still feel The Phalanx, and I think they’re nearby.” She shakes her head. “Besides, we need rest. I’d love to spend another night sleeping beside you.”

  ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

  I sleep through the whole night, tucked into Marianna’s arms. With her beside me, my dreams are filled with the excitement of new adventures, of new worlds. I think I see Tir Andol, too, but it’s far away. I’m flying by it in a starship, and it spins like a top as magma shoots out of one end. I even dream about the planet that Marianna and I promised we’d make one day.

  Except instead of a house, there is a prison. As the dream goes on, the lush grass gives way to dark earth and there are guards who drag me screaming toward the big main door. I struggle to get away, held tightly.

  I awake with a start, cold.

  I don’t feel Marianna beside me.

  For a moment, I’m not sure if this is reality. She’d never leave me, not willfully, so this can’t be real. If she had been taken against her will, I would have known. She would have reached out to me. I listen for anything, any sound. Nothing comes, and I slip from the bed. There is no medical officer on duty now, so I pad barefoot and silent over to the doorway we’d passed through before. As I edge through it, I can see Marianna talking to someone where the hangar door stands open and spills sharp white ship light into the dark shadows.

  She nods her head, gathering her hair over her shoulder with a nervous hand. When the man turns away, I expect her to turn and come back to me. I expect her to stay with me. However, when she begins walking, it’s toward the bright ship I can see in the middle of the open area beyond the hangar.

  She isn’t turning around, and my breath catches in my throat when I realize she’s leaving.

  She’s leaving without me.

  I run to her as fast as I can. My tears start before I’m near enough for her to hear me, but I scream her name anyway. I scream for her like everything in my life is about to end, because it feels like it may. I could keep going because she was with me, but I can’t anymore—not without her. I can’t fool myself into surviving the loss of my family, my home, and now this.

  The hangar must make my voice impossibly loud, because Marianna stops halfway across the field. In a haze of dew and halogens burning she turns to me, a shadow backlit with a thousand points of light.

  And even though she’s stopped, I already know she’s gone.

  “Don’t leave me!” I scream it until my throat goes hoarse, until my heart is incised by the shattering of my will. I collapse to my knees in the rain, unable to go any further. Somehow I find a way, drag myself to my feet, and keep going.

  When I get to the fence that separates the landing pad from the field, I cling to the steel to keep myself upright. She hasn’t moved, her shadowed face regarding me. My fingers are chilled and white against the metal as I call out to her again, my tears mixing with the rain.

  For what could be the last time, I feel her then. It’s only a whisper, only a small touch of her love for me. It’s because of what I feel that I walk toward her in the field.

  “Then stay! Stay with—!”

  The engines warm, rumbling over my words.

  If you love me, stay and fight for our future.

  I’m close enough that I can see her eyes, the bluest blue I’ve ever known. Her lip trembles.

  You said you loved me. If you meant it, then stay. Please, love me enough to stay!

  I take one more step, and it is that last one that breaks the stillness between us. Because with a final look, she turns and boards the ship. I stand completely gutted as the ship rises and the engines blow heat over me, and drained of everything, I let the rain cover me again. I keep reaching for her, reaching for what it felt like to be loved by her until I can’t feel anything anymore.

  And I can’t imagine ever feeling anything again.

 

 

 
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