“Soooooo Kuna is a cybernetic…plant?”
Doctor Adley giggled. “No. No. No. It’s much more complicated than that. Though he does have some qualities we would consider plant-like.” The doctor flicked through a few more screens. “I still have some studying to do, but the Chroin are definitely interesting creatures. Give me a week or so more to go over the data I have—then would you mind coming back for more testing?”
“You promise not to try to kill me?”
Doctor Adley glanced over at me before smiling sheepishly. “May the heat of a thousand suns scorch my bones if I am lying.” She held up the three middle fingers on her right hand as she made the oath.
CHAPTER 5
“Laure!”
I spun as someone down the hall called my name.
Aldone walked briskly toward me. Somehow, when others looked dirty and worn, the senior commander looked as pristine as ever.
“Commander.” I inclined my head in acknowledgment.
“How convenient that you are here!” He clapped me on the shoulder, a broad smile spreading across his face. “I am on my way to a meeting with the other commanders, and I had hoped to see you.”
“What can I do for you, sir?” While many of the other commanders had been openly disdainful of the Chroin, Aldone had embraced them. He had been kind to me and the others.
“Come with me. The meeting is important, and I think you should be there.”
“B-b-but I am not a commander. I wasn’t even a squad leader.” Being squad leader had been Cern’s job.
Bastard, Kuna whispered into my mind. The word brought a smile to my lips.
“Laure.” Commander Aldone stopped, placing a friendly hand on my shoulder. “You may not have trained to be a commander, but you are quickly becoming one. The Chroin and the bonded will need a leader—one of their own who will fight on their behalf. Who better to do that than you?”
“I’m honored by your confidence in me, sir.” Inside I was screaming I wasn’t a leader. I desperately wanted someone else to step up and take the job.
“Don’t let other people’s opinions of you define who you are. Hold your own opinions no matter what others think. Now come on. We are going to be late.”
I hurried after him.
Aldone opened a door and gestured for me to go ahead of him. With a deep breath, I held my head high and strode into the room like I deserved to be there. I did deserve to be there. There had been some measure of truth in Aldone’s words.
The room immediately fell silent as I stepped to the side, allowing Aldone to enter.
“My apologies for the delay,” Aldone said, oblivious to the stares. “Folks, I would like to introduce Laure Higgins, formerly of the tenth cycle. She will be the commander of the Chroin bonded.”
“You can’t just name someone a commander!” Commander Parsons jumped up from his chair. His exclamation was met with murmured agreements from other commanders.
“All right.” Aldone nodded in agreement. “Fair enough. Who would like to take charge of the Chroin?” He looked out over the other commanders. Many averted their gaze. “Well, come on,” he prompted. “Someone has to do it.”
“Aldone has a point.” One of the commanders spoke up reluctantly. “Someone needs to lead the Chroin. Ensure they are all kept in line.” The man wiggled his jaw from side to side as he thought. “Who better to do that than one of the Chroin?”
“This is absurd!” Another commander leaped up. “She is not trained. She is not a leader. How will she know what to do to keep her people safe? To keep the rest of us safe?”
“I kept them safe when we went out to make more.” Though the commander had not addressed me, I answered his question anyway.
“You lost three of the people under your care,” Parsons muttered.
“We lost three,” I corrected him. “On the expedition that you were in charge of, we lost three. On my own expedition, I lost none.”
Parsons clenched his fists but did not offer a retort.
“I know what the Chroin and Chroin bonded need because they are my own needs.” I addressed the rest of the commanders. “We need universal translators, so the Chroin may speak for themselves. We need protection from those who fear us, and we need you to stand behind us.” Most of the commanders’ faces were blank slates of impassivity. “We are not popular among the colonists. At the very least, we need to know we are safe amongst our own people.”
“Very well put.” Aldone nodded approvingly. “Well, are there any more objections?”
None of the other commanders said a word, though none of them looked particularly happy either.
As I took my seat at the table, Parsons snorted, his face contorted in disgust. I leaned back and got comfortable. This was my seat, and I wanted him to see how good it felt to be here.
Aldone clapped his hands together. “First, let’s start with statistics. Commander Parsons, what do our population numbers look like?”
Parsons blew out a breath, his face falling as he glanced at the display of his comms band. “The good news is we have found seven thousand, two hundred and sixty-five survivors. That is roughly seventy-two percent of the Endurance’s population. However, we have two thousand and twelve confirmed dead. That means that seven hundred and twenty-three souls are still unaccounted for.”
All the commanders bowed their heads. I joined them, observing the silence for the dead and missing. Every person counted. Humanity’s population had plummeted too low already. We needed every soul, and the loss of so many was devastating, even if all the missing were found alive.
“Commander Feras.” Aldone’s voice was more subdued. “How are we looking on rations?”
“The hydroponics sections were all but destroyed in the crash.”
Around him, other commanders sighed and lowered their heads again.
“However, the dehydrated food stores are still mostly intact. We were lucky. It should be enough to feed everyone for weeks. We do need to get seeds in the ground and start growing something, though. We’ll be cutting it close.”
“Get the botanists on it.” Aldone nodded. “And what about weapons? How do we stand on defenses?”
The commander rubbed her face in exasperation. “Not good.” She scrolled through notes on her comms band. “We have dishearteningly few weapons to defend ourselves, and we’re running low on rail slugs. We ran through a lot on those first two nights. Honestly, we really needed the aft weapons locker. There are others, but they will be harder to get to, and chances are they won’t be intact.”
“What happened with the removal of the forward weapons locker?” Aldone leaned forward, splaying his hands across the table.
The commander shifted uncomfortably. “We are still investigating the matter, but it seems the cables were…tampered with.”
The words struck me like a blow. Doctor Adley had already said someone wanted me dead, but to have corroborating evidence was another matter entirely.
I glanced at Parsons out of the corner of my eye. At least in front of the other commanders, he looked as shocked and distraught as everyone else.
“Who would do that?” someone said.
“Is there a wyrd among us?”
A few eyes cast toward me, and my lip curled up in a sneer. The wyrd, as they called themselves, were traitors to humankind. They sided with the Biphaits, taking them to be gods, and worked against their own species.
“Why would someone weaken the colony?” The murmurs were rising into a thrum of panic.
“People!” Aldone’s voice cut through the din. “Please, remain calm. We have all survived much worse than this. One person cannot bring this colony down. We must remain strong. Together, we will build a thriving civilization here on Iotova. Someplace we can truly call home.”
As a hush fell over the crowd, a woman stepped through the door.
“Ah, right on time. Let me introduce our guest of honor today.”
Once again, the other commanders perked up
. I was not the only one who had been out of the loop that time.
“This is Edna of cycle fifty-nine. She is an engineer by trade and has been working closely with the doctors since our Chroin friends so kindly submitted to some exploratory testing.”
“And human. There were a lot of us that underwent testing, including me,” I interrupted, though I omitted the part where the testing had almost killed us.
Say it, Kuna hissed. They need to know, he persisted when I ignored him.
They won’t care.
Say it!
“Those of us who participated did so at great personal risk.” I sat up a little straighter. “Not all of the tests were conducted with our safety in mind.”
Most of the commanders didn’t even look at me.
A deep frown creased Aldone’s face. “Is that so? Well, I’ll have to look into that.” The dismissive words were all he had on the topic.
See? My blood was boiling. How could they easily dismiss such things? We were colonists. They had worked us nearly to death. How could they ignore us? I knew the answer, but I didn’t want to acknowledge it.
You must make them care. Make our problems their problems.
I folded my hands in my lap and stared down at them. I couldn’t look up. If I did, I might lunge across the table at the commanders who so easily brushed us aside.
“Edna has made some amazing progress regarding our problem with the wild Chroin, but I’ll let her talk more about that.” Aldone gestured for the woman to continue.
She stepped forward, flicking her wrist to turn on a holoprojector in the middle of the table. “The medical testing revealed a lot about the Chroin.”
Kuna’s image slowly rotated above the holoprojector. I leaned forward in my chair. As much as I despised the tests and whoever had authorized them, I was curious to learn more about Kuna and his biology.
“There were a lot of recognizable structures. A heart. A circulatory system. Muscles and bones. Finding a stomach was a bit surprising. However, there was also a lot missing that we would have expected to see in an entirely organic creature.”
“Do you mean to say the Chroin are not organic?” A commander interrupted the engineer.
“They are only partially organic.”
All of the commanders sat up straighter.
“What does that mean?” The room buzzed as the commanders all tried to talk over one another.
“Silence!” Aldone’s voice boomed through the room.
A hush fell.
“Please”—his voice was once again calm and quiet—“continue.”
The engineer nodded, glancing at the notes on her wrist comm. “The Chroin are only partially organic. They are cybernetic.”
“So they are not naturally occurring? Something created them?”
Aldone held up his hand to silence the other commanders’ questions.
“They were created.” Edna shifted back and forth as she said that. “This actually works to our benefit, though.” She hurried to continue. “Like us, the Chroin need energy to power their cells, and it has to be transported some way.”
“But the Chroin don’t eat.”
I ground my teeth as another commander interrupted to state the obvious. They had all noticed that the Chroin did not eat when none of the Chroin ever became hungry.
“No. They use photosynthesis to obtain their energy. Or a form of it, at least.”
The entire room fell quiet as everyone stared at the engineer.
“Photosynthesis?” Aldone was the first to break the silence. “Like what plants use?”
“Correct.” The doctor gestured to the hologram. “Kuna specifically has retinol chlorophyll embedded in his skin. His coloration is actually due to the retinol. Not all of the Chroin use the same type of chlorophyll, but they all have a form of it.”
“So the Chroin are vicious cybernetic…plants?” Parsons asks.
“That’s only partially correct—”
Aldone waved his hands. “We’re getting off-track. Colonist Edna is not a doctor or a biologist. She is an engineer. The biology of the Chroin is not her specialty.”
The woman almost looked relieved to be moving on. “However, it was an aspect of their biology that was very interesting to me. The Chroins contain trillions upon trillions of nanobots. These nanobots function much the same way that our blood does. So”—Edna’s eyes lit up as the holo changed to a projection of the Endurance—“we have been working on restoring power to the ship’s various power sources. These generators emit an electromagnetic field—”
“Can you get to the point?” Parsons snarled impatiently.
The engineer’s face fell. “Of course, Commander. The point is, if we tweak the generators’ output just right, we can use them to create an electromagnetic shield large enough to encompass the entire Endurance and then some.”
“And how will that solve our Chroin problem?”
I felt terrible for the woman. She could hardly explain her discovery for all the interruptions.
Edna’s jaw tensed, and she breathed out slowly before she responded. “The electromagnetic field will disrupt the nanobots in the Chroin and incapacitate them.”
I went rigid. “What does incapacitate mean?” Every muscle in my body was tense as I leaned forward.
The engineer nibbled on her lip. “Kill. It will kill them instantly.”
The commanders murmured among themselves, whispering excitedly to their neighbors.
“And what about humans? How will this barrier affect the colonists?” one of the commanders asked.
“It won’t. The electromagnetic field will only interfere with electronics that pass in or out of the barrier. And only those that are unshielded.”
“What about the Chroin?” I asked. “The ones bonded with the colonists. What will happen to them?”
Edna dug around in a bag at her feet and produced a small disk. “They will have to wear these. It will counteract the barrier’s magnetism and prevent it from frying their nanobots, but they are only necessary when the Chroin enter and exit the barrier. Once inside, there is no risk to them.” Edna chewed on her lip before continuing. “However, you will have to wear one as well.”
My brows knit together in a frown. “What do you mean?”
“All of the colonists bonded to the Chroin will have to wear them.” Edna wouldn’t look at me. “The doctors found nanobots present in the blood of all the colonists who are bonded to the Chroin.”
My breath caught in my throat.
“They also found human blood present in all of the bonded Chroin,” Edna continued hurriedly. “But the nanobots are the problem. The concentration is significant enough that there could be negative side effects.”
The thrumming of my own heart drowned out the engineer’s words.
The results mean nothing, Kuna purred.
I had been so wrapped up in the conversation that his sudden inclusion was startling.
Of course, they mean something. I have alien blood inside me. It has changed me. How do I really know the changes are good?
You are still you. The nanobots don’t alter your mind. Kuna’s voice was soothing, but it wasn’t enough to quell the rising panic inside me.
How do I know that? How do I know I haven’t been subverted? Are my actions even my own anymore? I was starting to hyperventilate. I needed to get out of that room. I needed air. I needed space. I was suffocating.
“How can we let them just walk among us?” Parsons’s words cut through my own panic. His face was red and twisted in anger.
I froze, every muscle in my body tense.
“He does have a point,” another commander chimed in less vehemently. “Until we know more about the Chroin and the bond, it seems unwise to let them roam freely.”
“The bonded colonists have wandered freely and posed no threat thus far.” Aldone held up his hands placatingly.
“How do we know they didn’t sabotage the weapons locker?” Parsons shot back.
“Maybe it was to take suspicion off yourself.”
“Enough!” Aldone roared.
I closed my mouth, the angry retort dying in my throat.
“This…bickering does no good for any of us. We are all stuck here. We are all fighting to survive. We are all in the same boat whether we like it or not.”
“Are you just going to ignore the fact that this…bond is creating hybrids?” Parsons jumped up, his chair toppling behind him.
“I will admit, so far, the research has a few points of concern. However, the Chroin and the colonists bonded with them have shown no signs of any ulterior motives. We can keep an eye on them for now, but we cannot let a fear of the unknown prevent us from moving forward.”
“You are willing to place your lives in the hands of aliens?” Parsons sneered.
“Yes.” The simple word was sharp as Aldone stared down Parsons. “I am willing to place my life and the life of every other colonist in the hands of the bonded colonists and their Chroin counterparts.”
Parsons’s nostrils flared. “Are the rest of you all right with this? The aliens walking in our midst.” He looked to the other commanders for support.
My heart sank as many shook their heads, agreeing with Parsons. Many sat back and watched, waiting to see how the argument would play out, without picking a side.
“The Chroin have made themselves invaluable while we rebuild.” A commander stood up. “Without them, we would be far worse off. Why would they help us now if their end goal was to destroy us?”
“I have no idea what might be behind their motivations—”
“No, you don’t.” Parsons’s face reddened as I interrupted. “You have no idea what goes through our minds. Our desire to protect our people and the human race. To create a new home. To live again. You have no idea of our motivations because clearly they are not the same as yours.”
“How dare you—”
The Strength of Endurance Page 4