by Rinelle Grey
Their looks were openly disapproving. Their voices in return were firm.
Kugah understood only snippets of their conversation, but he knew the word alien. He’d heard it whispered and hissed all over the spaceship. They were referring to him, and not in a positive light.
He also heard Amelie’s bitten back sigh. But she didn’t give up. She still spoke back.
She, at least used his name, even if she couldn’t pronounce it correctly.
The guards gave up arguing. They actually shrugged and walked off
They walked through the hallways, and Kugah barely noticed the people pulling back when they saw him coming. Oh, it still rankled, but he was able to push it away, to ignore it.
He hadn’t felt the least bit angry in days. The realisation made him feel almost hopeful.
Except he knew it was an illusion. He knew it was still there, under the surface. It always would be. There was no escaping it.
But right now, he could pretend. For a little longer at least. Time enough to face the truth when he was alone again. Right now, he would soak up all of this, to dream about when he no longer had it.
He followed Amelie into the empty observation deck and stared out the window at the dark expanse of space, dotted with stars.
For a few moments, she stared too. He wondered what she thought when she looked at the galaxy, spread out before him. Was it wondrous to her? Or was she just trying to work out where his people were? He was pretty sure that was why she had brought him here.
But when she turned her face away from the stars to look at him, asking a question, he didn’t think that’s what it was.
He felt like he should understand the question. It was only a few sounds, and most of them almost sounded familiar. But they had no more meaning to him strung together than they did individually.
He gave a low growl of frustration at his lack of understanding. How could he even begin to figure out what was going on in her mind when the most basic of communications were so impossible?
The expression on her face reflected his frustration.
Did it matter? He didn’t intend to be among the humans for very long, and so long as they understood enough to help him find a new home, that was all that mattered, wasn’t it?
But his mind ached for the communication, for the connection with another living being. And as much as he knew he should, he couldn’t hold back from it. He wanted to understand her. He wanted her to understand him.
They had to start somewhere. He stepped towards the window and waved his hand out at the galaxy. “Coolka,” he said.
Her face registered as much understanding as his had when she had talked.
“Coolka,” he repeated, but her expression didn’t change.
How to make her understand?
Kugah pointed to himself. “Kugah.” Then to her. “KaGeeGee.” Then to the galaxy. “Coolka.”
For a moment, her face hung in the balance between confusion and understanding. Then it lit up. “Goolga?” She followed the word with several others, her excitement telling him she understood, even if he didn’t understand her words.
Her pronunciation was mangled, but he was too excited about the possibility of understanding to care. “Coolka,” he said again. Then he pointed to her and pointed out the window. “KaGeeGee?”
Her nose wrinkled. She spoke a whole string of words.
He stared at her. Which word was it?
She bit her lip, then smiled. She walked to the table in the middle of the room, and swiped a button on the edge of it. Immediately it lit up with the same map she’d been looking at in the room.
Kugah stared at it with her, waiting.
“These are the stars,” she said, pointing to the solar systems that dotted the map. “Stars,” she repeated.
She was getting it. “Gahs,” Kugah repeated, and pointed to another dot.
“Yes.” She nodded emphatically. “Stars. And this is the galaxy.” She swiped her fingers across the map, and it zoomed out until the arms of the spinning spiral galaxy could been seen. She pointed to it. “Galaxy.”
“Coolka. Gagahgy.” He knew his attempt to repeat her word was completely lacking, but he didn’t care. He was too excited about the connection they’d just made.
Her face lit up too. “Goolga means galaxy?”
Once he’d made one connection, he wanted more. He needed more. “Gahs neenk Paga.”
She stared at him for a moment, and he damned his mouth, that just wouldn’t make the same sounds hers would. Then her face cleared. “Paga means stars? Is that what you’re saying?”
Kugah nodded. He wanted to go over every object in the room, every object in the computer, to learn them all. Then, maybe, they could begin to understand each other.
Something buzzed, interrupting him.
Amelie frowned, and pulled an electronic device out of her pocket. She stared at it for a few moments, still frowning, then she looked over at him, her face wrinkled in thought. Then she shrugged, and beckoned to him. “I don’t have time to take you back to your room. You’ll have to come with me.”
Kugah was more than willing to follow, even if he didn’t know what was going on.
Chapter 6
Amelie hurried to the briefing room, hoping Tyris wouldn’t have a problem with her bringing Kugah along. He hadn’t caused any issues since that first time, and either way, she hadn’t had time to take him all the way back to his rooms.
Tyris’s message had sounded urgent. Hopefully no one was injured.
When he stepped through the doorway into a crowded room, she frowned. The whole crew was here, even Marlee with her baby. Had Tyris called a meeting and she’d missed the memo?
Tyris’s eyes fell on Kugah, and he frowned, but didn’t comment.
Kerit spoke up. “Right, everyone’s here. Are you going to tell us what’s going on?” he demanded.
Tyris held up his hands, his face serious, and waited for the door to hiss closed behind Amelie and Kugah. Then he said. “Sorry for the unplanned meeting, I know all of you were probably in the middle of things, but this is important.”
“What happened?” Yasmyn, Marlee’s mother, demanded. She had been a member of the council on Zerris, so it wasn’t surprising she wasn’t going to wait for Tyris to explain his vague statement.
The planet Marlee had grown up on was nearly as barren as Semala. Life had been hard there, and the occupants had needed to be determined, or they wouldn’t have survived. Yet despite the harsh conditions, many of them hadn’t wanted to return to the strict rules of the Colonies.
Amelie couldn’t blame them.
She slipped into a seat, motioning Kugah to stand behind her.
“A ship from the Colonies has arrived.”
“So what?” Kerit asked. “We’re right next to Zerris. We knew they were going to start mining there. It’s not like they can afford to wait. Why is that a reason to call everyone in here?”
Amelie wasn’t sure either. Yes, she had to admit the fact that a Colonial ship was here made her slightly nervous. The refugees from Zerris had traded their planet, rich in fuel resources, for the next door, less desirable Semala. A trade they could no longer make after they discovered that the planet wasn’t uninhabited as they had believed. Yes, it might have been handy if they hadn’t still been orbiting Semala when the Colonies discovered that, but that fact wasn’t serious enough to explain the frown on Tyris’s face.
“Because this isn’t a mining ship. And General Harrington is in charge.”
Amelie’s heart rate sped up and her teeth clenched. What was that fat, lazy bastard doing all the way out here? “What does he want?”
Tyris’s look was sympathetic. Almost all the people in the room, those that had come from Urslat with them and those who had been evacuated from Zerris, had a reason to hate General Harrington, but only she and Tyris had worked under him.
“I don’t know,” he said. “He hailed us briefly and asked what the ship was still doing i
n Colonial space. I explained that we discovered that Semala is still inhabited, and the occupants wished to remain part of the Colonies. Now he’s gone down to the surface.”
Imyne, Tyris’s mother, paled. “We weren’t supposed to use the terraforming on a Colonial planet. General Harrington is going to make an issue of that, even if it was the right thing to do.”
Amelie frowned. The whole situation with Semala and the terraforming had been so charged with emotion that no one had been thinking about the legalities of the situation. What they had done had been the right thing, and the planet and the people living there would benefit from it, but they couldn’t count on General Harrington seeing it that way.
“I know,” Tyris said quietly. “And he’s already started dropping threats that now that we can’t settle on Semala, we have nowhere to go. We promised we wouldn’t demand a new planet if Semala didn’t work out, and though this wasn’t exactly what we meant, I suppose it classifies. They have no idea that we can go far out of Colonial space for our new planet, and I really don’t want to let them know that. It’s just a pity we hadn’t fixed the AWP and left before they arrived.”
This was not good. There were far too many crimes that General Harrington could pull out to use against them. Tyris had managed to secure permission for all the inhabitants of Zerris and all those on Urslat who had illegal babies to settle on Semala with them. But if they had nowhere to go, then everyone here would be facing having their pregnancies terminated. And who knew whether the parents of babies already born would be allowed to keep custody.
Even those who had only joined them in solidarity, Tyris’s parents, Folly and her family and friends from Semala, they would be guilty by association.
Though she had no illegal baby, Amelie had refused to follow orders given to her by a Space Force officer, General Harrington, to be exact, and terminate Marlee’s pregnancy. Instead, she had helped her to escape. Then she’d delivered several illegal babies in the tunnels under Urslat.
She was in just as much hot water as everyone else.
Tyris knew all that too. They were all in the same boat. “That’s why I called you all here,” he said. “I need to know what our options are.”
“Leave immediately,” Kerit said quickly. “Before he gets back.”
“His ship will be monitoring us and know exactly where we’re going,” Nerris said quietly. “Running won’t do any good.”
“There’s nowhere in the known galaxy we can hide anyway,” Glesin added. Marlee’s father should know. As an astronomer, he’d worked for the Colonies too, until they’d blacklisted him after he tried to tell them of General Harrington’s actions when the asteroid was about to hit Semala. “There are scanners on every inhabited planet, and a few that aren’t.”
Even his excuses were hinting at the obvious solution.
Folly said what they were all thinking. “We can use the AWP. It will take us so far away, they’ll never find us.”
“We can’t just use it as is. Nerris has to make extensive changes to make sure the wormhole is big enough for the Resolution,” Tyris reminded her. “It’s not ready.” He looked to Nerris for confirmation.
The old man shook his head, but his expression was thoughtful. “There are only a few final connections to make, but more importantly, it hasn’t been tested on a ship this size. I can’t be sure that the wormhole we form is going to be big enough for us.”
“We don’t have time for testing,” Folly said impatiently.
She had less reason than any of them to be afraid. Amelie glanced over at Kerit, and revised. Kerit’s support of his brother would get him in just as much trouble as Tyris was in. Folly loved Kerit. Her motivation was strong as everyone else’s.
Just as strong as Amelie’s motivation was. Even so, the idea of taking everyone on board this ship through an untested wormhole gave her chills. Here, up against General Harrington, they had a chance of talking their way out. Or at least buying time.
“If the wormhole won’t work for a ship this size, we could all die,” Amelie said flatly.
Marlee was pale. “But if they catch us, what happens to everyone on this ship? We’ve all broken the law, and now that we don’t have a planet, we have nowhere to go.” Her arms tightened around baby Isala.
Amelie wanted to reassure her that the Colonies wouldn’t kill an innocent baby, but they could very well take the baby away from Marlee. Especially if she and Tyris were jailed.
Which they probably would be.
That outcome wasn’t much better, but it was better than dying.
Wasn’t it?
“But we do have somewhere to go,” Folly insisted.
“General Harrington doesn’t know that,” Marlee said. “And we can’t tell him, because then he’ll want the technology for himself.”
Tyris held up his hands. “I know this is an emotional subject for everyone. But we need to stay calm so we can make the best decision under the circumstances. Nerris, how long would it take for you to make the AWP operational enough to form a wormhole?”
Nerris shrugged. “Half an hour, give or take.”
“You’d better get on that. Have it ready to go. I’d rather not jump without testing, but I’d also like to have the engine ready in case we have no other choice.”
Nerris rose immediately, nodding to Folly, and both of them left the room.
It was all happening too quickly. Amelie could barely catch her breath. She wished she could believe that the preparations were unnecessary, they did have a pardon from the president after all, but since their pardon had been granted based on the fact that they were no longer part of the Colonies, she wasn’t sure it would hold now they didn’t have a planet. And since General Harrington was here, when he was supposed to be facing an inquiry into his crimes, she wasn’t convinced.
Tyris had said the president planned to dishonourably discharge the general. So why send him here, after all he had done? What was the president thinking?
Whatever it was, it probably wouldn’t be good for any of them.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” she asked. Sitting around waiting was never fun. Much better to be doing something, it kept the mind from catastrophizing.
“See that everyone is as settled as possible. Kerit, what was your trip like? Do we need people to be belted in, or just safely in their rooms?” Tyris asked.
“It’s fine, bro,” Kerit said, in his usual casual fashion. “Just like flying normally. I don’t think there’s any need to prepare at all.”
Tyris nodded. “Good. That means we don’t have to say anything to anyone yet. Hopefully there will be no issues, and General Harrington will move on to the mining planet as soon as he’s finished his inspection on Semala.”
Amelie didn’t believe it for a second, but with no other options, what else could they do?
There wasn’t anything. So Amelie sat around the briefing room with the others, waiting—trying to pretend this might work out somehow. It was, as she had expected, maddening, and to distract herself, she found her mind wandering back to her earlier conversations with Kugah. She glanced behind her, watching him. He had no idea what was going on, yet he just waited patiently.
Even though it seemed like a tiny victory, considering what they were facing now, it felt a little like they’d made a breakthrough. He’d seemed to grasp what she was asking, and had been willing to respond. If they hadn’t been interrupted, maybe she could have even found out more about his people, and where he had come from.
The language barrier was so huge. Their attempts at communication so primitive. Even if he was very keen, it would take months for him to learn their language well enough for a real conversation, and they didn’t have months. Even if this ruckus with General Harrington was sorted out, and they didn’t have to jump immediately, they would be gone within a week at most.
Once they found their own home, Kugah would be off to his.
That thought made her feel a little sad. She was fast b
ecoming fascinated by the contrast between his war like appearance, and the gentle nature she caught glimpses of.
At least she had some idea of where his home was now. Not that she planned on going that way any time soon. Kugah seemed nice enough, but if all the aliens on his planet looked like he did, she didn’t think it would be a very friendly place.
It was possible that their armour was a natural defence to a hostile world, but somehow, she found it hard to believe.
And yet, the more she got to know him, the more certain she was that he wasn’t a threat. She should probably tell Tyris that, then she wouldn’t have any real reason to continue studying him.
That fact made her almost as sad as the thought of Kugah leaving did.
The radio crackled, and Amelia almost jumped out of her skin.
Tyris jumped up just as quickly, and reached across to hit the button to answer it. “This is the Resolution.”
“Resolution, open your shuttle bay and prepare to be boarded.” General Harington’s voice was short and clipped.
Tyris stared around the room. Everyone’s face was as shocked as Amelie felt. “I beg your pardon?” Tyris said to the general. “You have no right to board us. We’re not part of the Colonies.”
“You’re in Colonial space, and since your planet is occupied, and no longer yours, you’re out of options. You can’t leave the Colonies if you have nowhere to go.”
Tyris stared at the radio for a moment, then without touching the PTT button, he said to the room. “Tell Nerris we need that engine. Now.”
Kerit jumped up and ducked out the door.
Everyone else sat watching Tyris as he said to General Harrington, “I find it hard to believe the president authorised this.”
“The president is no longer in command,” General Harington said harshly. “He was overthrown by his own cabinet. The new president is far more interested in getting things done than in wasting time debating everything.”
Tyris frowned. “What reason do you have for boarding our ship?”
“I don’t need a reason, but if you want one, you’ve all broken the law.”