by M. D. Cooper
Tanis sent a message to Joe with her intentions. The distance to Carthage was too far for a real-time conversation, but if he strongly opposed it, he would have time to send her a response before she got to their cabin. Worst case scenario, she knew a dozen families in Landfall that would love to take little Saanvi into their homes.
Tanis smiled.
Jim, the Andromeda’s chief engineer, and Corisa were one of the rare human and AI parings in the colony. After their first child, Ylonda, a very capable AI was born, they ended up having several more. Two human and one more AI.
She wondered what it would be like to have an AI for a mother, to grow up inside your mother’s body. Tanis chuckled at the thought that Jim also lived inside his children’s mother, what with his chief job was to keep her running in peak condition.
Angela commented.
Tanis laughed. “That we did.”
She reached the door to Dr. Patty’s office and took a deep breath. No matter how hard this was for her, that was nothing compared to what that little girl inside was going through. She would never be the same again.
Tanis touched the door control and it slid aside. She held back tears as she looked on at Patty holding Saanvi in her arms, rocking her gently while the girl quietly sobbed.
“Saanvi,” Patty whispered. “Tanis is back for you.”
Saanvi’s head turned and her eyes locked on Tanis. “Tanis,” she said and stretched out her arms.
The small, tear-streaked face implored her, and Tanis was next to Patty in an instant, scooping Saanvi into her arms.
“There, there,” she whispered. “I’m bringing you to my house now. My daughter, Cary, is excited to meet you.”
Saanvi let out a louder sob, and Tanis realized that using the word excited was a mistake. Saanvi didn’t want to think about excitement at a time like this.
“Don’t worry, though, you’ll have time to be alone. There’s no pressure. You can sleep on the pinnace, too.”
“What’s a pinnace?” Saanvi asked with worry in her eyes.
“It’s a shuttle of sorts,” Tanis replied. “It will take us down to the surface.”
“Does it go into the dark layer?” Saanvi asked, and Tanis realized where the girl’s concern came from.
“No,” she shook her head with a smile. “We’ll be in normal space the whole time.”
Tanis carried Saanvi the whole way to the dock where the pinnace waited and was stepping through the airlock when a voice called out from behind her.
“Tanis!”
She turned to see Commander Usef dashing through the corridor, holding a blanket and a stuffed animal.
Saanvi saw them, too, and cried out with joy, a small smile touching her lips. “Shelly! Blanky!”
She stretched her arms out for them, and Usef passed them over.
“There you go, Saanvi, have a good flight.”
Tanis gave Usef an appreciative look.
Tanis replied.
She looked down at Saanvi, who had wrapped her turtle and blanket in a fierce embrace. She hoped that they could find this girl’s family, but after so long—even if they were still alive—they would be strangers to her, they may barely even remember her.
Would that be any way for Saanvi to grow up?
THE PORCH
STELLAR DATE: 01.03.8938 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Outskirts of Landfall
REGION: Carthage, 3rd Planet in the New Canaan System
Tanis stood at the back door of her house and smiled.
Joe was reclining in a chair on their deck, and down the grassy slope, across the sandy beach, Cary and Saanvi splashed in the lake’s gentle waves. On the far side of the lake, low hills gave rise to mountains, which ran along the western edge of the island.
If she had looked out from the far side of the house, she would have seen the space elevator and the buildings of Landfall in the distance. They weren’t yet towering structures, mostly a smudge low on the horizon with a few larger buildings in the government district.
Beyond them, the blue of the ocean would have been visible, eventually giving way to the clouds from the eastern volcanoes, which would continue to erupt for another decade while massive antigravity generators the FGT left behind pushed the smoke and ash into space.
Tanis would miss the nebula, which always streamed out from the anti-starward side of Carthage. Some of it circled back and wrapped around the world; it was beginning to settle into a planetary ring, which glowed beautifully at dawn and dusk.
There had been talk about capturing more of the escaping gasses to make the ring permanent. Tanis had endorsed that idea and hoped that it would pass consensus in the planetary parliament.
Above, a cruiser, the Dresden by her reckoning, punched through a part of the nebula, sending the space borne cloud swirling chaotically in its wake.
In that moment, as she reflected on where they were, it finally hit her. They were really here, they had really done it. It wasn’t a dream. This life, living on Carthage with Joe and her small family, was her reward for all those years of struggle and strife.
They seemed so far away, memories like the tunnels of Toro, or fighting the Sirians above Victoria, or crawling through vents above attacking mercenaries on the Intrepid. She could almost believe they were from a full immersion sim, like they had happened to someone else.
Yet, memories of her childhood on Mars, of growing up next to the Melas Chasma seemed bolder and stronger than they had in centuries.
“A chit for your thoughts?” Joe asked, and Tanis looked down at him, realizing that she had been staring up at the sky for several minutes.
She smiled and set the tray of drinks she had been holding on a table before settling beside him on a chair.
“Just soaking it all in,” she replied.
Joe nodded. “There’s a lot to soak, though the kids are doing most of the soaking right now.”
“Wow,” Tanis groaned. “Having Saanvi with us has doubled the amount of dad humor you generate.”
“What can I say?” Joe shrugged. “Dad humor is one of the seven natural states of matter. Without it, the universe would not exist as we know it.”
“You can say that again,” Tanis chuckled.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes as they watched the girls play in the water.
Saanvi had slowly opened up in the months since Tanis had brought her home. She suspected the girl had always been on the serious side, but there seemed to be balance in her now.
Even so, Tanis still heard Saanvi crying to herself many nights, talking to Shelley about her father and Karen, whom Tanis had discerned was her father’s lover—though she wasn’t certain Saanvi had ever realized that.
Through conversations with Saanvi, Tanis learned that the girl’s parents separated not long after her birth, and Saanvi had lived with her mother. Her brothers and sisters had also stay
ed with their mother, and the young girl missed them all fiercely.
At times it was heartbreaking to think about, and she still didn’t know which would be better for the girl. To find her family or not.
They looked at each other, and Tanis let out a long sigh. The message had come in an hour earlier, but the day was so perfect and Tanis didn’t want to disrupt it, yet the look in Joe’s eyes told her that not knowing was eating him up.
“Play it,” she said aloud.
To her credit, Isyra’s visage was somber and there was sadness in her eyes.
Tanis felt her throat tighten. Saanvi had gone through so much, and now to know that her family had been killed—it would send her back into the depths of despair again.
“Stars…do we have to tell her?” Joe shook his head.
“Of course we do!” Tanis exclaimed. “We can’t build our relationship with Saanvi on lies.”
“Sorry,” Joe said with a wan smile. “That was a rhetorical question, I know the answer is yes. I just wish we could spare her this somehow.”
Tanis nodded. “Sorry I lashed out. I know what you mean…just when she was finally settling in.”
* * * * *
The next morning, after breakfast, Joe took Cary on a walk where he would explain some of what they had learned to their daughter, while Tanis would tell Saanvi.
They had considered telling the girls together, but Joe was concerned that this was going to be hard for Saanvi, and a room full of people giving her looks of pity would not help her process. Dr. Samantha, the therapist who had been seeing Saanvi, agreed that separate conversations would be best, and so, Tanis steeled herself for what she had to tell this poor girl who had already gone through so much.
Saanvi was sitting on a chair in front of the fireplace reading a paper book—something that had been common on her world. Tanis sat on one of the sofas, patted the cushion next to her, and spoke softly.
“Saanvi, come sit beside me. We have to talk about something.”
Saanvi looked up from her book and her face paled. “You heard back from the Transcend ships, haven’t you?”
Tanis nodded slowly and patted the cushion beside her again. Though Saanvi had not spoken of her family in weeks, it did not surprise Tanis that she had been anxiously awaiting news.
Saanvi rose from her chair and tentatively walked toward Tanis her eyes wide with fear. Tanis changed her mind and leaned forward, gathering Saanvi into her arms, pulling her onto her lap. The small girl buried her face into Tanis’s shoulder and began to cry.
Tanis stroked her hair and whispered comforting words. Eventually, Saanvi’s sobs ceased, though her breathing was still ragged. She pulled herself back from Tanis and looked into her eyes.
“Tell me,” was all she said.
“This may be hard for you to hear,” Tanis said, wiping away the tears in her own eyes. “If you want, I can tell you later, when you’re ready for it.”
The information processed quickly. Saanvi was a smart girl and she knew that if Tanis was offering to tell her later, then there was no one to go back to, no one else to tell what happened.
“All of them?” she asked. “They’re all gone? Mommy? All of my brothers and sisters?”
Tanis nodded slowly, fresh tears spilling down her face.
“Don’t tell me!” Saanvi cried and collapsed in Tanis’s lap, sobs of anguish wracking her entire body. Tanis lost track of time as she held and rocked Saanvi. As she did, she let Joe know, who extended his walk with Cary, telling her no more than Saanvi had learned.
The day progressed slowly from there. Saanvi retreated to her room for much of the day, but Tanis managed to get her to join them for a somber meal with the family.
When they were finished, Joe rose from his chair and crouched beside Saanvi. “My dear little one, would you like to come on a walk with me under the stars and the nebula? I would like to tell you about my family, and where I grew up.”
Saanvi’s expressive eyes peered into Joes, and she asked, “Did you have many brothers and sisters?”
Joe smiled. “I did, almost a hundred when I left. Like you, Tanis and I left our families a long time ago. My family is gone now, too, so I know a little bit about how you feel.”
Tanis wondered if Saanvi would accept Joe’s offer to talk. She looked at Cary who appeared anguished over Saanvi’s distress. Tanis felt guilty that their daughter should have to see such pain. That Cary now knew someone her age could lose their parents had never been Tanis’s plan when she brought Saanvi home, but it was the way of the universe—this crisis would make them all stronger, better able to handle the future.
Tanis’s thoughts echoed hollowly in her mind, and she wished she could just snap her fingers and make these two girls happy and carefree, like the day before when they were playing in the lake. It would be some time before the girls would engage in such antics again.
To her credit, Saanvi nodded and reached up for Joe, who lifted her and began telling a story of his younger sister Trin and some of the things she got up to when he was just a boy. He carried her out onto the back deck and down toward the lake.
“Come here for a hug, Cary,” Tanis said, and her daughter crashed into her an instant later, wrapping her small arms around her neck.
“What will happen to Saanvi now?” Cary asked. “Is she going to go away?”
“I hope not,” Tanis replied. “Part of that is up to her—it’s what Daddy is going to ask her about on their walk, whether or not she’d like to stay and be a part of our family.”
“Really?” Cary pulled back and her eyes lit up. “I’ve always wanted to a sister!”
Tanis chuckled. She knew that all too well. Cary had frequently asked for one. She had also heard Cary and Saanvi calling each other sisters from time to time.
“Come,” Tanis said as she stood Cary on the floor. “Help Mommy do the dishes and start a fire. Maybe we can all snuggle on the sofa tonight while Daddy tells stories.”
“Yes!” Cary exclaimed and began to gather dishes in her arms.
“Carefully!” Tanis called out with a smile. Cary had dropped an armful of plates more than once in her drive to hold as many as she could.
As she watched her daughter help, she, too, hoped that Saanvi would stay. Tanis had grown accustomed to their larger family and knew the house would feel too empty with just one child.
CLOSING IN
STELLAR DATE: 02.28.8938 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Sabrina
REGION: Edge of the Ikoden System, Mika Alliance Space
Ten years after Sabrina departed from the Intrepid in search of Finaeus.
Jessica watched Cheeky leave the bridge and listened for the sounds of the pilot descending the ladder. She turned to Cargo and fixed him with a level stare.
“Look, I know I’m just the interloper here, but Thompson has to go. He’s treating things like we’ve just gone back to trading—like we’re not hunting for Finaeus at all.”
Cargo leaned back in his chair and rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes. She couldn’t tell if he was tired of her, tired of Thompson, or just plain tired.
Sabrina was
decelerating into the Ikoden system, their sixth stop since Aldebaran. Six systems, each with only the thinnest thread connecting them—one that Jessica herself was beginning to doubt. If they didn’t find anything concrete in this, the seventh, even she would begin to doubt her investigatory abilities.
Having Thompson second-guessing her every decision, from what station to stop at, to what she should order for lunch wasn’t helping. Cheeky was constantly torn as to who she should side with, and Nance was for or against Thompson depending on the current state of their on-again, off-again relationship.
Cargo did his best not to play favorites, and Trevor stayed as far away from any controversy as he could—though she could tell that keeping his mouth shut all the time was wearing on his nerves.
“We’re almost ten years into this little adventure,” Cargo replied while rubbing his eyes. “I think you’re elevated beyond interloper now.”
“To what, major pain in the ass?” Jessica said with a self-deprecating laugh. “I’m sure Thompson has worse things to say about me.”
“He may—but he says worse things about pretty much everyone, I tend to forget the specifics,” Cargo grunted.
“So, what are we going to do about him?” Jessica asked. “Sera sent us on this mission for a reason—and I buy her rationale—but if you guys aren’t invested, then I’m out. I missed landfall on New Canaan for this, remember?”
“I remember,” Cargo replied. “I also remember that you’re supposed to be some sort of great investigator.”
“Fuck, Cargo. Great investigators don’t get results by just pointing at one of ten thousand stars and saying our guy is at that one! It’s tenacity that solves the riddles, not dumb, blind luck.” Jessica folded her arms and scowled. “Did you actually think we were going to find him on the first system we hit?”
Cargo closed his eyes and sighed. “No, no I didn’t. I knew it could take this long…Look, I don’t know about the rest of the crew, but I’m worried about Sera. When that agent found us back at Loki Station, he said she was the Director of The Hand now. That means she’s back in her father’s clutches.”