Jeef cocked his head to one side. "Why would the Barakaaks bring them all the way out here?"
Marsil shook her head. "That we don't know yet. More information is needed. We are at the limits of our intelligence ability. I suggest a surface mission to get closer. We could—"
"No surface missions." Jeef cut her off.
"Why?" Marsil beseeched. "There hasn't been a single surface mission since I became general. Are you trying to keep me out of the field?"
Jeef blanched. "Why would I do that?" Marsil didn't know why he bothered denying it; the answer was written across his face.
"Because you're my father," Marsil shouted. The words came out before she could think about what she was saying. She'd agonized over whether or not to confront him for so long. She wanted to approach this calmly, to make a logical argument for why he should acknowledge her. But all that was gone now. She'd dug herself a hole and the only way to get out was to dig deeper.
"You abandoned me and hid the fact. You left me to a life of hardship and solitude. And maybe there is some small part of you that is a decent person and you're trying to protect me."
Jeef's pale face darkened. "You have no clue what you are getting yourself into." He pounded his fist against the desk. He stood, pushing his heavy chair backward with a force knocking it over.
They stared at each other as the seconds ticked off. All of Marsil's fears and uncertainties transformed into rage. She couldn't deny the years of hurt and anger any longer.
"I saw the footage of you leaving me at the orphanage. You tried to disguise yourself, but I recognized you. I was a helpless infant and you threw me away like trash. You disgust me, father."
"I am not your father," Jeef screamed at her. Veins bulged at his neck. He lowered his voice. "The queen bore me no child. Don't you dare try to repeat that treasonous lie again. Get out of here."
Marsil didn't move.
"Out. Now."
Marsil held her ground. Jeef walked around the desk and to the door. He opened it. "Leave with your position, or be escorted without it. Your choice."
Marsil dropped her head. Jeef wouldn't back down. She slumped her shoulders and shuffled out the door.
The door slammed behind her. Marsil jumped at the sound. Rilin crossed the room and said in a soft voice, "That's a pretty heavy claim. Do you have evidence?"
Marsil nodded.
"Destroy it," Rilin recommended.
Marsil wandered the tunnels for hours. She didn't realize where she was heading until she found herself outside Graaf's door. She hesitated. Marsil wasn't sure she was ready to deal with what happened between them. She wanted to talk to someone about her confrontation with the king, but she couldn't burden him with that either.
She sighed. No, she was alone and would deal with her emotions as she always had, by herself.
She took a step in the direction of the tunnels leading to her neighborhood. She heard the door open behind her. Marsil looked over her shoulder.
"I thought I heard somebody outside," Graaf said.
Marsil faced him. "I shouldn't bother you. I'll go."
He reached out to her. "Nonsense. It's late. Come in."
She flinched at his touch. He looked hurt but said nothing. "We will cause a scene. Your nook-mate will say something."
Graaf shook his head. "Koorgin completed his mating ceremony and moved out this morning. I'm alone. Frankly, I'm a little nervous. I've never spent a night alone before."
Despite herself, Marsil laughed. She'd spent years wishing for the chance to have her own space. Graaf took that as a sign and reached out to her again, putting his hand on her shoulder. He pulled her towards the door. "Come on. Stand out here and people will talk."
She allowed Graaf to pull her inside. He gently closed the door behind her.
Marsil looked about the room. She knew where he lived but had never been inside. The bare space showed only one decoration, a hologram on the wall. Marsil gasped. It was her graduation.
Graaf followed her gaze. "I fell in love with you the moment I met you. You were so serious back then, so afraid to feel anything. You wrapped yourself in your status like an armor to protect you from having to deal with your emotions. But I knew from that moment that everyone else would pale in comparison."
Marsil studied the picture. "I didn't even know you were there. You're right, I was full of myself. I knew I needed to make a name for myself. Nobody cared about me. I was just one more piece of laser fodder."
Graaf pulled her close and kissed her forehead. "I cared about you. I was afraid myself. I remember the Lun riots. I spoke against them. Said it was against nature. And then I went fell for a Lun myself."
Marsil looked up at him. "I'm not a Lun," she whispered.
Graaf pulled away from her and looked her in the eye. "What do you mean?"
"The cameras we restored. I found my father. I confronted him, but he denies it." She choked back a sob.
He stroked her back. "Have you told anyone? I'm sure Jeef wouldn't allow the coward to get away with that."
She wiped a tear away as she shook her head. "He knows. No one else does. Just you and the king."
Graaf looked puzzled. "Plus your father, right? Why wouldn't Jeef right that?" Marsil opened her mouth but then he sucked in his breath. "Jeef is your father."
"He told me that my mother bore him no children. But he was at the orphanage that night." Marsil grit her teeth.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"You are the first person I've spoken to since it happened."
He pulled her closer. "No wonder you are so upset."
"My world is falling apart. After this morning, I can't deny my feelings for you any longer. My only chance for happiness was Jeef recognizing me. But now I'm stuck."
He kissed her. "I know you aren't a Lun. I don't care what anyone else thinks they know. I want you, Marsil. If you will have me."
She kissed him back. "If you can live like this, there is no one else I'd rather have in my life."
Marsil woke slowly the next morning. The room looked unfamiliar until she remembered the night before. Graaf stirred beside her. He smiled when he opened his eyes.
Graaf sat up. "I could get used to this. If it weren't for Kis, we could wake up together every morning."
"Kis," Marsil gasped. "I forgot all about her."
"Relax," Graaf responded. "You can tell her you were on patrol. Besides, who would people believe, the general protecting us from the Barakaaks, or a kid with nothing more than the fact her nook-mate didn't return last night?"
Marsil started at him. "Jeef. Jeef will listen to her. They are sleeping together."
Marsil
"I still don't like this plan, Graaf." Marsil peeked her head outside his door. The coast was clear. She opened the door and hurried down the hall.
Graaf shouldered a bag and closed the door behind him. "I'm open to suggestions. Things are going to get pretty hostile for the both of us here before too long. The Barakaaks aren't an option. We warn the humans about the plot against them and seek asylum."
"But we don't actually know what the plot against them is. Their primitive technology will be no match for what Vaamick throws at them. They probably don't have anywhere to put us either," she complained.
"As I said, we don't have a lot of options here. Do you really want to leave the humans to their fate?" Graaf shifted the bag to his other side.
"Here," she said impatiently. "Let me take that. We need to hurry. I don't know how much longer my access code will get us into the storeroom." She took his pack put it over top of her own. She had rushed to her nook that morning to find it empty of Kis. She didn't wait to find out where her nook-mate was. She'd packed her few precious belongings and reported back to Graaf. They'd formulated their plan and wasted no time in implementing it.
Despite her protestations, they had no problem breaking into the storeroom and helping themselves to the surface gear they needed to make the trek to the human camp.
Inside, they debated just how much they needed to take.
"I don't want a lot of gear," Marsil argued. "We don't have a vehicle and all this stuff will weigh us down."
"Exactly," Graaf responded. "We don't have a vehicle. This isn't going to be a fast or easy trip. We should have spares of everything."
"Okay, we will pack an extra respirator and more rations. But I draw the line at the inflatable boat. If the Barakaaks spot us on the lake, we will have nowhere to hide."
Graaf started packing the equipment in their bags. Marsil wandered off to another part of the storeroom. She returned with her arms full.
"Now look who wants to pack extra stuff." Graaf laughed.
Marsil set the stunner batons on the workbench. "We both know you're garbage with a laser rifle. You need something to protect yourself."
"I'm not sure I can handle seven batons at once."
"Oh." Marsil looked down at her bounty as if seeing them for the first time. "Maybe I went overboard. But I couldn't bear if something happened to you out there."
"We'll be fine. But I'm not sure how warmly we will be received if we show ourselves to the humans armed to the teeth."
"Okay, we'll take three. One for each of us and a spare." Marsil put the discarded equipment away as Graaf finished packing. As they fastened the bags to their backs, Marsil grabbed the heavier one. They headed to the door but she stopped them. She turned to face Graaf.
"I don't know what the future is going to bring us. Bara may bless us or she may smite us for breaking the old laws. But either way, I wouldn't trade the chance to spend my life with you for all peace and security I could have had without falling for you." She leaned forward and kissed him.
He held her in his arms as the kiss lasted longer than they really had time for. They broke apart but still he held her. "I wouldn't either. I love you."
"I never thought I would hear somebody say those words to me." She pulled herself from his arms. "Now let's go so we can make sure we can tell each other those words many more times."
They took their time to reach the surface. Even if the king wasn't actively looking for them yet, they were conspicuous with their packs. They skipped the major tunnels of the city for the quieter alleys and back paths. Whenever they heard voices, they would quickly turn down the next path.
Marsil, a lifetime of avoiding crowds coming to good use, led them through abandoned buildings. The orphanage of her childhood had long been abandoned but a balcony on the third floor led directly to a slumped rock face.
They were at the far end of Saar now. After another turn, they met a dead end.
"What are we doing over here," Graaf asked. "The entrance to the city is on the other side of the government house."
"There is another exit over here. It leads almost directly to the surface," Marsil said. She started running her hands over the rock face.
"If there was, it doesn't exist anymore," Graaf responded. "It must have collapsed in one of the bombings."
"No, it's hidden." She pulled a loose rock from a crevice. The entire wall seemed to shake. A section of the wall shifted leaving a small gap. Marsil smirked at the open-mouthed Graaf.
"It used to be open to the air. I had it covered because multiple exits create more opportunities for the enemy to sneak in. But I still wanted it accessible because, otherwise the Barakaaks could block us in." She removed her pack and threw it through the opening. She pulled Graaf's pack off his back and put it through as well.
"The opening is a little tight. Go first in case I need to give you a push." Marsil watched as Graaf climbed through the hole. He got half way through before he stopped. "Are you okay," she called out.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I just have to move my shoulder." His muffled voice came through. Marsil watched as his body rocked in the opening. She heard a grunt and he pulled himself the rest of the way through the secret entrance. "I'm okay," he called out.
"Alright. I'm heading through now," she called back. Marsil pulled herself up to the opening and shimmied through. Her smaller frame had little trouble squeezing through the small gap. Once through, she pulled the rock back into place, plunging the cave into darkness.
Graaf was already fishing through the bags for a light. "I've never seen a tunnel that wasn't lit before. How did the lichens die off?"
"One of the Barakaak bombs went off in here. It didn't shake the structure, but it was coated in the plague and killed off everything alive that was nearby. Luckily, this section of the city had already been evacuated by that point. Hey, watch where you're pointing that thing." She put her arm over her face to block the beam. He quickly lowered it to the floor and muttered an apology.
"Let's go. The easy part of this trip is over. It gets harder from here." She waved her hand at a set of steep, stone stairs winding up the cliff face.
They climbed the stairs in silence. Marsil contemplated their future and all of Graaf's focus on the climb. At the top, they rested. A sluggish stream ran through one side and into an opening in the wall.
"Let's fill our canteens. We probably won't see liquid water again," Marsil explained. This chore done, Marsil led them through the maze of tunnels. As they climbed upward, the air began to chill. Soon, they were watching their breath escape them.
Another bend and they saw a dull orange glow at the end of the tunnel. They paused again to don their surface gear. Soon, the tunnel opened up to the dim daylight.
Graaf stopped. "The sky. It's so high."
"Yeah," Marsil said. "It's a little disconcerting at first. You'll get used to it."
Graaf sighed. "If we are going to live with the humans, I guess we will get used to it. They live like this all the time, don't they?"
"I've never really bothered with Earth studies. Never seemed relevant before. But I guess they do."
They stood in silence for a moment as the weight of what they were planning finally began to sink in. "Well, come on," Marsil said. "The humans are on the other side of the Barakaaks and I don't plan on taking a direct trip."
They trekked across the surface, talking about what their life would be like on Earth, punctuated by long bouts of silence. When Marsil had judged they had made appropriate progress, they made camp.
"At this rate, it should take us about three rest periods to get the human camp," she said as she began setting up their tent.
"That's not too bad. Don't worry about the humans. Vaamick hasn't sprung whatever trap he has set yet. It's unlikely that he will in the next few days," Graaf offered. He took one end of the thermal tarp and brought it over the top. He fastened the hooks around the circumference.
"True. And the Festival of Peace is coming up. It's unlikely that he could rally believers to fight so close to it." The tent finished, she stowed their bags inside. She stood.
"Well, I guess we should eat and get to bed," he said.
"True, we should get some sleep. I want to get an early start tomorrow," Marsil agreed.
"Oh, I wasn't planning on sleeping any time soon." He grinned and winked at her. Marsil laughed and entered the tent.
Marsil was up before Graaf and had breakfast ready when he woke. "Breakfast in bed, I could get used to this," he joked.
"Don't. Tomorrow, I'm pushing you out of the tent when the alarm goes off and then sleep for another hour." She smiled. The banter stayed light through the meal and as they packed up their camp.
Marsil enjoyed herself. The journey reminded her of missions with her unit in her younger days before she began climbing the ranks and the other soldiers becoming distrustful and censoring themselves around their commanding officer. What she enjoyed even more was the lack of sexual tension. There was the fear of exposure and sadness of leaving their old lives behind forever, but otherwise Marsil was content to let their trip last forever.
Marsil should have kept better track of their progress. She intended to go several miles around the entrance of the Barakaak's home. She realized her mistake when she saw the entrance to one of t
he tunnels. That tunnel had long since been collapsed, but it showed her that she had allowed herself to get complacent and let them wander within the possibility of being spotted by a patrol.
"We have to turn around. We're too close," Marsil whispered.
Graaf saw the tunnel and understood what it meant. He scanned the horizon. A confused look flashed across his face. "Um, which way do we need to go? Every direction looks the same to me."
"We need to go…" Marsil's ears perked at a sound carried by the thin winds.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Shh," she hissed. "Get down now." She dropped to her knees and pulled on his arm. Graaf continued to stand, looking around for the threat Marsil had heard. She pulled again, harder. He got the message and got down.
"What do we do now? We're still pretty exposed," he said.
"We need to get to the mouth of that tunnel," Marsil explained. "Very carefully and very slowly. We will creep as low to the ground as we can stay and stop every few seconds to listen."
Seconds felt like eons as they crawled across the surface to their hiding spot.
Once they reached the tunnel, Marsil whispered, "Stay towards the back. If it's not a patrol, they will never notice us here. If it is, we'll have cover to shoot from."
She watched him head towards a boulder several feet away and turned her attention towards the opening. Two men carrying a body passed by without glancing in her direction. It was just a funeral detail. They'd be gone before too long and would never think to check for anyone in here. She relaxed and watched them pass by.
"Saarkaaks," shouted one of the men. He dropped his end of the young woman they were carrying. Marsil looked to where he was pointing. She cursed herself. There, by the dune where they had originally detected the Barakaak party, was Marsil's pack emblazoned with the Saturn rings of the Saarkaak military.
She cursed again. That was such a new recruit kind of mistake. She'd let her concern for Graaf's safety distract her from actually keeping him safe.
Once Upon a Saturn Moon Page 7