by Bodicea
“I guess my mother was wrong, then. Congratulations, I guess.”
“Not an immensity. So, where you going?”
“I was going to the Air Hockey match.”
“So was I. Are you going to meet up with friends or what?” Trajan shook his head and looked away.
“Why don’t you join me and my buds, then. We’ve got great seats. After the game, we’re going out with Achilles Tenderloin and some of the team.” Trajan’s face got bright and curious. “Achilles Tenderloin? The captain of the Sapphirean Suicide Squad?”
“Za, he was in my training group. I helped him out on Transitional Quantum Mechanics.
He’s pretty cool, just don’t talk about his sister. He’s very touchy about that.”
“Will he mind that I’m a Republicker?”
“Only if Republic wins the match, and I have it on good authority that won’t happen. So, do you want to grab some food?”
Trajan Lear had eaten already, but was at that fantastic age where it didn’t matter. “Sure, where we going?”
“There’s a place just outside the arena that serves incredible chili beasts. Let’s go, if you don’t like Sapphirean food, they do have a mild version.”
“Nay, I like Sapphirean food.” They set off walking side by side. The Second Watch was transitioning to Third, and the mall was crowding with hundreds of personnel going to or coming from duty stations, along with families and groups on their way ways to recreational events, or back to their quarters. They made their way through the closest thing the big empty ship could muster to a throng and took a booth that overlooked two of the lower levels of ‘The Mall.’ A food-service mechanoid took their order and went to the food kiosk.
Alkema looked across the table at the Executive Commander’s son and thought quite deliberately about air hockey statistics. Most of the ship thought of Trajan Lear as a spoiled brat. He had few, if any friends, but Alkema thought he could find something to like about the kid. “So, what’s going on in your life?” he asked.
Trajan shrugged. “Ask my mother, she has it all planned out for me.”
“Don’t you have plans of your own?”
Trajan gave him a despairing look. “I want to join Flight Core. The first training group is being assembled next quarter. I need my mom to sign off on my application. She won’t do it.”
“Why not?”
“She says it’s too dangerous, but I think the truth is, it’s not what she wanted for me. Is there any way I can get around it?”
“What about your dad?”
Trajan shook his head. “Father would never contradict mother. They have to agree on everything. What about Commander Keeler, or Flight Commander Collins? Do you think they could get me in?”
“They might, but family always rules first. How old are you?”
“Fourteen… almost fourteen.”
“If you wait until you’re sixteen, you won’t need their permission. Isn’t that the law on Republic?”
“That’s two years,” he said, very sadly. Two years at fourteen were a lifetime. “If I were on Republic, technically, I’d be almost forty. Thirty years have gone by on Republic since we left.
Something like that.
Alkema shook his head in the midst of taking a big bite of chili beast, smearing juice on his cheek. “That won’t work.” If it worked that way, your mom would be pushing out the commander on mandatory retirement grounds. “I don’t think even Executive Commander Lear could last two years if you brought it up every day and stuck to your guns. You just can’t let it drop.
Maybe we can think of a way to persuade her.”
We? Trajan looked at Alkema curiously. Why was he just dropping down and offering to help like that? No one had ever offered to help him out in this way before. Was this a Sapphirean thing, or was the lieutenant attempting to ingratiate himself with Trajan’s mother by proxy. “Why do you want to help me?”
Alkema shrugged. “Something to do, I guess. Why do you want to be in Flight Core, anyway?”
Trajan’s young face looked into him, searching. Alkema couldn’t read his expression. He was either about to reveal something he didn’t want to admit, or he was trying to come up with a plausible lie.
Finally, the boy sighed. “Why do you think? It’s to get away from my mom.”
“Executive Commander Lear?” For a Mom? He had not thought about it that way. A chill went down Alkema’s spine that could have flash frozen a thousand kilogram milkbeast into cryo-stasis. “That… that would be pretty tough.”
“She gave me her name. I’m Trajan Lear, my brother is Marcus Rebbeck. He took Dad’s name. So, she never really expected much from him, but me, I was supposed to take the name.
I was a Lear. I was supposed to make her proud.” He shook his head. “Every Generation of Lears has produced a Minister, a President, a Senator. If you only made it as far as the Diet or Assembly, you were a disappointment.”
“When I was a little kid, she was always at the Ministry. I had my school, my friends, a whole life of my own she never knew about. It was great. Then, we left This ship, there is no place to get away from her.”
“Except on an Aves.”
Trajan nodded, a little smiling curling his lips. “That’s it. That’s exactly it.”
“What would have happened if you had stayed on Republic?”
“If had stayed on Republic,” Trajan said, managing almost to sound wistful. “I don’t know. My life was so planned out for me. I think I would have escaped somehow, gone to Sapphire or one of the outer stations.” For a moment, a sharp grin split his lips, and his eyes glinted with dark mischief. “I was going to be a spectacular disappointment.” The look evaporated as quickly as it had come; disciplined lad, Trajan Lear.
Alkema reached over and clapped his shoulder. “Trajan Lear, against all odds in the universe, you’re all right.”
Far below the ship, a thick and woolly front of clouds had moved over Fond Glacine. They scraped against the shoreline and spat cold gobs of rain onto the outpost there, the first harbinger of the coming winter, when the rain would become snow, the lake would freeze, and the forest would gradually disappear into a featureless sea of white.
Heavy drops of rain plopped against the tall, narrow windows of Ciel’s office suite, spreading and merging like liquid mercury. The far wall was a face of heavy rocks surrounding a single pair of window slits. Strange lavender tapestries bordered her tall, narrow windows. The other walls of the chambers were paneled in dark polished timber, but hung with pastel portraits of native bird-life, which were apparently four-footed creatures with dual sets of scaly, dragon-fly like wings and large insect-like compound eyes. Fresh flowers in elaborate arrangements filled colorful, oddly-shaped vases by the windows, their petals shot through with shades of lavender that complemented the tapestries. The contrast between the architecture of the structure and its contents put Commander Keeler in mind of a fortress garrison hosting an army with serious gender identification issues.
Exec. Commander Lear and her assistant, Bridget Armatrading had presented Lt. Cmdr.
Miller’s report to the three senior members of the Inner Circle – after first editing out Miller’s too-vivid description of the debris field that would result from an impact against the planet.
Ciel, Solay, and De La Tesse, the heavy-set woman with dark skin and wild black hair that sported skunk stripes on either side. De La Tesse was the oldest member of the Circle, and her job was to mediate between contrary opinions.
Commander Keeler sat in the back of the room, and observed.
Lear had done the talking, providing a framework for the mission of Recce One, beginning with the sensor readings Pegasus had picked up outside the system, and proceeding through the mission and sensor logs brought back by Prudence. A holographic projection display had the ominous alien ships lingering in the space of the room; an effect that seemed to make the women uncomfortable. She showed images of the alien creatures Miller and Ng had found
in stasis on the inside of the ship, and compared it to the creature they had discovered on Medea.
Upon finishing the presentation, Lear zoomed in until the scale was 1:1, and showed how each alien vessel was larger than the structure they stood in. She briefly revisited the devastation of Medea and concluded with an offer of assistance in assessing the threat against Bodicéa.
When Armatrading deactivated the projector, the room was silent but for the rain. Ciel and De La Tess waited, collected their thoughts knowing Solay would speak first. Solay had watched attentively through the presentation, but her expression had only wavered between skepticism and contempt. She took a drink of water from the glass in front of her and then stood. “Is this supposed to frighten us?” Solay said finally, striking a tone of voice that managed to sound amused and contemptuous all at the same time. “Is this supposed to make us think that unless we submit to cultural annihilation, big, scary monsters from outer space are going to devour us. Is that what this little light show is supposed to mean to us? Submit to the patriarchy or pay the consequences?”
“It is only meant to inform you of the situation you may be in,” Lear answered. “We have provided you with all of our reports and sensor readings on both the alien ships and what we learned on the planet Medea. We are very concerned about your planet’s ability to defend itself.”
Solay stared at Lear with an incredulous expression. “You expect us to believe that the very day we denounce your warmed-over patriarchies, you suddenly learn of a terrible, terrible threat to our world. Suddenly, you… you … our brave heroines, our saviors, are the only ones who can protect us from the evil alien invaders. Isn’t that all terribly convenient?”
“I have to concede, I would be suspicious in your place as well,” said Lear. Keeler was unable to suppress a groan, but no one was paying attention to him.
“Aye, we would all be suspicious,” Armatrading echoed. Lear shot her a look, and her subordinate remembered her place.
“We have been completely open with you from the beginning,” Lear reminded them. “We have hidden nothing, not even information that should have embarrassed us. You must conclude from this that we … ”
Solay had no intention of letting her finish. “That Medea story is a load of shit, too.
Complete man-shit. Why destroy all life on a planet? Even by the standards of a male-dominated culture, it would be excessive. The planet would have been useless for inhabitation or exploitation. I never really believed in Medea, and now I doubt it even more. I think you engineered this threat to coerce us into an alliance that we do not want. Perhaps, this was your plan from the very beginning.”
“Why would we want to do that?” Lear asked, clearly not realizing how defensive that sounded.
Solay stared her down. “Because it’s what male-dominated cultures do. You have to control everything in your path, you have to subjugate everything to your will. You can’t buy us with your technology, so you seek to frighten us with pictures of monsters, and hope we will cling to you like damsels in distress. Well, we are not children. We are a planet of women, strong, independent women and we don’t need you. I am sure the Inner Circle will see right through this idiocy and send you back where you came from.” The strain was beginning to show in Lear’s voice, she leapt in as soon as Solay paused for breath. “We are telling the truth, and without us, you have no hope of defending yourself against what’s out there.” Lear turned to Ciel. “Can you take that risk, First Advocate, with the whole survival of your world at stake?”
“Don’t let her lie to you!” Solay interjected. “Don’t listen to them. It’s a deception, a clumsy deception at that. Send them off our planet now. Don’t let their warship darken our sky for even one hour longer. Tell them to leave and take their belligerent phalluses with them!” De La Tess held up a hand and shook her head slowly.
“I swear to you, by the Goddess, there is no deception,” said Lear, an edge of pleading in her voice. “You have talked with us. You have dined with us. You know us. We have hidden nothing from you, even things that do not reflect well on us. We walk together with Vesta.
Even if you oppose our ways, you must know by now that we are good people.” Solay snorted contemptuously. Ciel spoke, her voice quivering with uncertainty. “Many will share Solay’s view. It isn’t that we don’t trust you, necessarily. It is more that… this a great deal of information to process. We are a culture of consensus. We can not move forward until all voices have been heard and a solution put forth that satisfies as many as can be accommodated. Why, even the simplest decision as to whether to designate additional cropland, or determine the proper length of hemlines, requires many weeks of debate.”
“The last thing we would want you to do is to act harshly,” Lear countered. “But, surely, you must see that denying the existence of these creatures is also rash and short-sighted. For the sake of your people, you must consider that we are telling the truth…” All this time, Commander Keeler was thinking, if we had wanted to, we could have conquered your world without even breathing hard. You think we would have to concoct this ridiculous plot if we really wanted to conquer you with our ‘belligerent phalluses.’ He was keeping his counsel to himself, for now, knowing that this observation would not be received as convincing logic by these people. He chose to let Lear do the talking while he tried to picture Solay naked; not so much because he necessarily wanted to see her naked, but he thought it would be the kind of thing that would irritate her. He also thought “Belligerent Phalluses” would make a great name for a college football team.
As he kept quiet, the women ignored him. They did not expect him to have anything to say worth listening to. After all, he was just a man. Lear, of course was loving it. She lorded, or ladied, over every meeting with the Bodicéans. To them, she was the commander, she was the one in charge. She was full of importance and he was a trivial bystander. Furthermore, she got to make parliamentary speeches and diplomatic intrigues in the time-honored tradition of Republic. It was as though she were living out every fantasy she had had since she was old enough to stand behind a podium.
“…danger.” Lear was saying. “At least until we can determine what kind of threat, if any, these creatures represent.”
“Have you attempted to make peaceful contact with the creatures,” said De La Tess, seeking for an avenue of compromise.
“We have been sending peaceful messages since Recce One returned.” Lear answered.
“We are sending messages of peace and friendship on every channel, continuously.”
“Even though they attacked and destroyed one of your ships? I doubt that!” Solay interjected.
“You can intercept our signals. You have that capacity,” Lear told her, knowing full well, the Bodicéans already had been doing so.
“Perhaps, it was a misunderstanding,” Lear argued. “We have to … maintain the possibility that the aliens have no hostile intent.”
Tell that to Medea, Keeler thought.
“They could be on a peaceful voyage of exploration as we are, but traveling in different numbers by different means. Everyone hopes we can resolve this peacefully.” Lear paused, and added importantly. “However, we can not put all our hope in their peaceful intentions.
We must be prepared in the event that their intentions are not peaceful.”
“If you look for war, war is what you shall find,” De La Tess put in, sounding like she was quoting some ancient nugget of knowledge.
“You both are willing to presume that they are telling us the truth, with no more evidence than what they are telling us.” Solay said in exasperation. “I haven’t seen any ships! I haven’t seen any aliens! All I’ve seen are some clever tricks of the light and some imaginatively written reports!”
“Why don’t you take a look for yourself?” Keeler asked, provoking a kind of gasp from Solay, and surprised, annoyed looks from Ciel and De La Tess.
“What did you say commander?” Lear asked, as though she had not heard
him.
“Let’s get into an Aves and fly out to the alien fleet and see for ourselves. You don’t trust us. I don’t blame you. The only way to convince you is to show you the threat first-hand. So be it. I am ready, Let’s go.”
“Fly into the dangerous alien fleet?” Solay said skeptically. “How reckless. How ill-advised.
How like a man.”
“Solay,” De La Tess rebuked her. “I know you are the leader of the Progressive Purists, but I will choose someone else from your Coalition to represent your viewpoints in these discussions.”
Solay persisted as if she had not heard a word of it. “One moment they are telling us aliens are about to conquer our world. The next, he proposes going out and meeting with them.
Which is the truth? Which is the truth?”
Then, blessedly, Solay shut up, and Lear, still stinging and steaming from Keeler’s imprudent suggestion, was unable to find words to fill the space. For a few seconds, everyone could hear the rain again.
“We do not know,” Ciel said quietly. She was staring at the top of her desk, at nothing, but avoiding them all, specifically. She sounded very tired, as though all the events since Pegasus’s arrival had drained her life energy. “To know, we will have to find out for ourselves. If that means going into space and meeting the creatures, than that is what we must do.”
“You can not move on this without consensus,” De La Tesse warned. “Consensus is the heart of our democracy. The Inner Circle most argue this, must consider every viewpoint, and frame a response that respects everyone’s point of view.”
“We both know that would take months,” said Ciel wearily. “If they are telling the truth, we don’t have months. You are right, we can not order the Inner Circle to go without consensus, but I can decide to go on my own, and anyone in the Inner Circle can choose on her own to go, or not to.”
Solay seethed. “No, you will not get rid of me that easily.” Ciel nodded. “I suppose this means you may prepare your ship, commander. We shall depart at the hour of sunrise at Concordia.”