by J. S. Morin
“It’ll be chaos if we let them all loose,” Esper said in a whisper, meant only for herself but overheard by keener ears than humans had.
“So we have chaos,” said Mriy with a yawn. “We’ve killed or chased off their caretakers. Even if they were kept prisoner, they were kept alive. We’d starve them if we left. Or maybe we just allow them to be re-slaved?” The azrin cocked her head at Esper. This was a challenge. Would Esper stand up for principle or flee?
Tanny had her EV helmet off; they all did. She fished a headset comm from a pouch on her combat gear and donned it. “Carl. Carl, come in.” Esper couldn’t overhear Carl’s side of the conversation. “Yeah, we’re getting a crowd estimate on the slaved xenos … No, we’re talking estimates, unless we find records … Yeah, that many … No, I was hoping you’d have some thoughts, smart guy … You what? … Is Mort back there yet? … Good, send him our way, then take the ship, go around blasting all the entrances but the one we came in by.”
“What was that all about?” Esper asked.
“Carl bluffed the station personnel into surrendering. They think the place is getting leveled by naval fire in the next few minutes. That’s why we stopped meeting resistance.”
“Explains that kooky shit Gologlex was spouting, too,” said Roddy. Tanny gave him a puzzled frown. “He had me and Esper pegged for Omicron Squad.”
Tanny and Mriy both laughed. “Their standards must be slipping,” said Tanny. “Nothing personal, you two, but the holovids don’t do those brutes justice.”
“Did Carl have any ideas about the refugee problem?” Esper asked.
“No, but he’s sending Mort.”
“What, is Mort going to shrink them all to the size of mice?” Esper asked.
Roddy smirked. “Like Cinderella, in reverse. Turning coachmen into mice.”
“No,” Tanny said. “We need a translator, or we’re going to get overrun when we open all these cages and enclosures.”
“Hmm,” said Roddy. “Not a bad idea. Maybe he can whip up a shipload of charmed earrings and pass ‘em out. Still doesn’t find us a place to put them.”
“Gologlex was planning to leave,” said Esper. “There must be at least one ship on-world.”
“If not, there’s at least going to be supply ships coming,” Tanny added. “We can wait and ambush one.”
“Roddy, come help me find it while Mort plays peacemaker,” Esper said. “I have an idea, even if it’s not big enough for everyone.”
# # #
There was a shuttle hangar with its own concealed exit, tucked up a series of ventilation shafts and hidden corridors that didn’t appear on Esper’s map. They had, however, shown up on Gologlex’s personal datapad. The ship was a one person courier vessel with its own star-drive. There was room for cargo or a couple passengers, but probably not both. It was one man’s last resort, and had Esper and Roddy not stumbled across Gologlex when they did, he might have gotten away in it.
“Well, kid, if plan A was stuffing this thing full of xenos, it’s time for plan B,” said Roddy.
“Don’t you feel strange calling them that? I thought most non-humans considered it offensive?” Esper asked.
Roddy shrugged. “Far as I’m concerned, you humans are just tall, bald-faced laaku with clumsy feet. Up to when you and us met, your species’ best friend was the dog. When I think xeno, I think non-laaku, and I don’t include you guys.”
“Thanks?” Esper ventured. “Anyway, plan B involves getting on board. Hop in.” She climbed into Gologlex’s ship and slid into the pilot’s seat.
“Whoa there,” said Roddy. “You know how to fly this thing?”
“It’s a personal craft,” Esper replied. “I’ve got my pilot’s cert.” Roddy traced the sign of the cross in the air in front of him and climbed in behind her. “I saw that. You’ll be fine.”
The ship handled like the hover shuttle, with the added ability to go upward. Esper had no trouble navigating the narrow shaft that led them out of the mountain. The view was nothing spectacular. The claustrophobic forward windows barely afforded any field of vision. It was a vessel meant to be flown mainly on instruments, and as they rose through the atmosphere, all they could see was a sky filled with clouds, then a clear blue sky above, then the darkness of the Black Ocean, pinpricked with stars.
“So what are we doing up here?” Roddy asked.
Esper scanned the comm controls, selecting her way through sub-menus and inputting a recipient ID. She hit the switch to engage the astral antenna for long-range communication. “Keep quiet and you’ll see.”
“This is Sister Agatha of the Nineveh, vessel of the Lord,” said a voice on the comm. The signal was clear and crisp, conveying a dignified, middle-aged speaker with African-Earth accent.
“Sister Agatha, I bring word of a horrible crisis,” said Esper. “My ship and crew have stumbled upon an unregulated colony where humans have taken our cousins as zoo animals. They have kept animals and children of our Lord alike in cages and exhibits. My comrades have secured their release, but we have no means of rescuing them or returning them to their homes.”
“My child, this is troubling news. I don’t mean to disbelieve you, but can you provide proof of these claims?”
“Yes, Sister,” Esper replied. “I’m transmitting the contents of a datapad confiscated in the raid. It belonged to the founder of the facility. He was a geneticist and entrepreneur, looking to profit on xenophobe tourists and illegal gene splicing. Would it be possible for me to speak to the Bishop?” The Nineveh was a missionary mother-ship and had to have at least a bishop aboard, if not an archbishop.
“I’m sorry, but the Bishop is a very busy man. I will pass your data along, and get back to you.”
“Thank you, Sister Agatha,” Esper replied. “We’ll be waiting for your reply.” She keyed off the comm.
“So what now?” Roddy asked. “We just sit here? This thing doesn’t even have a holo-viewer.”
Esper yawned. “I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. My soul finally feels clean enough to sleep without nightmares, and my shoulders ache from carrying that awful gun all day. I’m taking a nap.”
# # #
Mort’s words carried a strange echo. Neither the initial sound, nor the aftereffect made any sense, but Tanny was left with a keen understanding of what he had said. It was as if the wizard were sitting down and painstakingly explaining each word, each sentence, and how they combined together to create meaning. The creatures from the menagerie understood him just as well. The growing throng in the warehouse filed out toward the jungle, many muttering thanks or offering blessings upon their rescuers. Tanny and Mriy moved along the walls of cages, breaking the occupants free one by one or in small groups, however they had been confined.
“We are working our way through,” Mort’s shouted words conveyed. “Everyone will get released. You owe us your lives and freedom. All we ask in return is your patience.”
One particularly sturdy cage required a quick burst from Tanny’s disintegrator. Inside were a mated pair of stuunji, two-and-half meter tall creatures, descendant from rhino-like ancestors. Either of them could have crushed Mriy in one fist, but they folded their meaty hands and bowed. “Blessings upon your home and children, small saviors,” they spoke in unison with grumbling bass voices. Stuunji were native to Garrelon II, an Earth-like world and ARGO protectorate.
Mriy was working the opposite side of the aisle and was having trouble with one crate that was fully enclosed aside from a series of tiny air holes. “Need me to blast that one?” Tanny asked.
“No, look,” Mriy replied. She extended one claw and pointed. The cage was protected with glyphs.
“Mort,” Tanny called out over the buzz of conversations and requests from the captives and newly released sentients alike. “We got a magicked-shut box over here.”
“Keep calm,” Mort imparted. “We just have a magic cage to pry open. I am fully qualified. Nothing to worry about.”
M
ort wove his way against the tide, which parted respectfully, but could only do so much in the cramped aisles. “What have we got?” the wizard asked in plain English.
“Binding charms on the enclosure,” came a sibilant voice from within. Whoever was inside had understood him.
“Merciful Merlin,” Mort breathed. “Hold on. I’ll have you out of there in a jiffy.” He dragged a fingernail through a glyph, and it left a ragged gouge in the steel. A shudder emanated from the other glyphs, almost as if they knew their existence was measured in minutes, if not seconds. Several scratches, he gave a tug and the door to the crate fell away. Two cobra-like sentients emerged. Their heads were as large as Roddy’s, if not a human’s head, and were at least four meters long, perhaps five. Mort pressed his palms together and bowed low. “I am deeply sorry for this incident. The Convocation had no part in this.” He lowered his voice and glanced around to see who else might be listening. “Even if we have to take you personally, I will see that you are delivered home.”
The two snake creatures departed, slipping easily through the crowd, both due to favorable anatomy and the fact that many of the other sentients seemed wary of them. “What were those?” Mriy asked.
“Ssentuadi,” Mort replied. “Not on the best terms with ARGO, but the Convocation does business with them. The non-wizardly ones are considered invalids. Bygone days they used to let them starve. Whole race of them with magic, pretty much. Now, unless you’ve got more glyphed boxes for me, I’ve got refugees to shepherd.”
Tanny’s next crate was a sorry sight. A single dog-like creature lay inside, four feet up, displaying its belly. It had an over-sized cranium and large green eyes, but otherwise reminded her of a Rottweiler. The door unlatched with no trouble, and the creature twisted and sprang to its feet in an instant.
“Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you-thank-you-thank-you,” it garbled at her, nearly bowling her over as it plowed its head into her and rubbed against her side. “Hungry-hungry-hungry-hungry-hungry.”
Tanny smiled and scratched the creature behind the ears. It flopped to its side and rolled over, its heft pinning her feet to the floor. “Good boy,” she told it, continuing to scratch. Its gender was made abundantly clear by its pose.
Those too-large green eyes looked up at her. “Kubu loves! Mommy?”
Tanny stopped scratching and shook her head. “Sorry Kubu. I’m not your mommy. I’ll see about getting you something to eat though.” There was no sign the dog-like creature understood her, but his ears perked up at the mention of its name. Her tone seemed to reassure him though. Tanny broke off the rescue momentarily to get Kubu something to eat. In sharp counterpoint to the English-comprehending ssentuadi, Kubu didn’t seem too bright.
# # #
Esper set the courier vessel down not far from the Mobius. There was a crowd gathered outside, with non-human sentients spreading out into the jungle, erecting makeshift shelters. It seemed counterintuitive, given that the mountain had been designed as a shelter for them and many more, but she could see the emotional reason for them to want to distance themselves from it.
Roddy was already scampering down the steps even as they descended toward the jungle floor. The laaku had not been keen on the wait, and was even less keen to hang around while she delivered their news to Carl. That was fine. Esper was at peace with the decision, and it was just going to have to do. If he wanted to strand her on Hadrian IV, she could always hitch a ride on the Nineveh or just take Gologlex’s courier shuttle. It was strange how casually the thought of theft fit in among her options, but she could muster no guilt over this particular crime—even if its theoretical commission still lay in her future.
“Hey!” Carl shouted, waving from the near edge of the throng of sentients. “Welcome back!”
Esper trod down the underbrush, glancing back over her shoulder in vague dread of some off-world creature following her in from the jungle’s edge. “It’s all covered. We can leave as soon as everyone’s settled.”
“How’s that?” Carl asked. “You place a comm to the navy while you were up there? We’ll have to do a little purge work to make sure no one traces this back to us.”
Esper shook her head. “Not the navy. The church.”
A light of amusement shone in Carl’s eyes and one side of his mouth curled in a half-smile. “You don’t say …”
“They’re sending a ship,” she continued. “I uplinked Gologlex’s personal datapad to them. They know who came from where, so they can return them home. I think we should find that egg, though, and return it ourselves.”
“I’ll cut you short right there,” Carl replied. “We’ve got no business going back to Vi Tik Naa. The One Church wants to be neighborly and bring back a hundred sentients, give or take, they can make it a hundred one. Mriy found it safe in an incubator back in there, and it can stay there until the Sisters of Zoological Repatriation show up.”
“I figured as much,” said Esper with a sigh. “But it was worth trying.” Small steps. She had won her victory, and the bad news was yet to come. Best not to stretch her luck to its breaking point ahead of time.
“Well, Mriy and Tanny are cutting the last of these folks loose,” said Carl. “We can get going in probably an hour.”
“There’s one last thing.”
“What’s that?”
Esper cleared her throat and made an effort to look Carl in the eye.
“What?” he repeated.
“The care and feeding of so many sentients isn’t cheap,” Esper said.
Carl rolled his eyes. “I see where this is going. They’re hitting us up for a donation, right?”
“… and it was fairly ill-gotten,” Esper said. She noticed Roddy sneaking up behind Carl, a datapad in hand. He had the built-in camera aimed in Carl’s direction.
Carl’s jaw hung slack and his eyes gaped at her. “You didn’t!”
“No one felt good taking that money,” Esper countered. “Including you. The One Church can use that to pay for food and fuel as they crisscross the galaxy taking these poor lost souls home.”
Carl set his jaw and stared at her, chest rising and falling in great heaves. Esper held her ground, staring right back at him. After minutes of this, Carl closed his eyes, let out a long breath, and turned away. “Fine. Just … don’t let me see you doing it. It’d break my heart.”
# # #
There were two refugee camps on Hadrian IV, one populated by a xenobiological potpourri of races with a makeshift tent city and access to all the supplies in the menagerie, the other a huddled and frightened collection of humans who found themselves trapped between the feral creatures who might eat them and the angry former prisoners who might do just about anything in vengeance. Opinions seemed mixed among the refugees, but eating them was still counted among the options for a few of the more predatory species.
There would be tense days ahead for both groups, and there was every possibility that by the time the Nineveh arrived, the two populations might have decreased. But the crew of the Mobius would not be there to see how it played out. They were preparing to depart.
Mort stood by the ramp to Gologlex’s shuttle with Irindi, who had runes scrawled on her forehead in black marker. They would wear off in time, but until then, she was no more a threat than any of the humans in the refugee camp. Beside them slithered the two ssentuadi, heads drawn up to human height for conversation. “This one will pilot you home. She’s an idiot when it comes to scientific powers, but Esper assures me that this bucket is idiot-proof. All I ask is that you remand her to the custody of the Convocation, and keep her safe on your homeworld until she can be handed over.”
“Wizard Mordecai The Brown, we thank you,” one of the ssentuadi said. “We shall respect your wishes, and make sure that the Synod of Justice speaks honorable words to the Convocation on your behalf.”
Mort pressed his palms together. “I ask no more. Have a safe trip, and try not to run into any naval patrols. You’re better off riding with this pipe sm
oker than getting processed through official channels.” He hooked a thumb in Irindi’s direction. She seemed too dazed to care, and tromped up the steps into the ship.
Across the camp site, Carl and Mriy were packing the last of the supplies they had commandeered from the menagerie. The refugees had insisted the crew supply themselves, even though they might be in greater need. Carl humored them and took some of the less healthy (but better tasting) foods, most of the alcohol, and made the bulk of their supply trips in and out of the facility dragging luxuries. None of the artwork was particularly valuable, but it would add up. They also took a number of lab gizmos that looked expensive, a multi-game flat-vid table from the rec room, and one of the hover shuttles.
The refugees were crowded around the base of the cargo ramp to bid them farewell. Kubu, who had been following Tanny around from a meter away since his release, jumped up onto the ramp.
“Sorry, boy,” Tanny told him. “You can’t come with us.” He didn’t understand a word, and she had to lean down and push him by the shoulders to evict him from the ship.
He jumped right back on. “Mommy! No leave!” Tanny winced, but pushed him out again. She gestured to one of the hefty stuunji to hold him back, and Kubu was unable to re-enter the ship as the cargo bay door raised.
“Mommy! Mommy! No Mommy! Don’t leave Kubu! Kubu be good! Kubu love Mommy!”
Tanny fumbled with the translator earring as she unclasped it and threw it across the cargo hold. There were tears in her eyes as she took the stairs two at a time up to the common room. Carl was at the fridge, trying to find room for some of the newly acquired beverages. He was starting by removing beers and tossing them to Mort and Roddy. “You ready to take us out of here?” Carl asked.
“You fly us!” Tanny snapped. The door to her quarters slammed shut behind her.
“What was that all about?” Carl asked as Esper emerged from the cargo bay.
Esper gave a sad smile. “I think I grew a conscience in someone. Careful. They might be contagious.”