December

by Karen Lofgren

The train sped into the capital late at night. Trell parted with them at the station, saying he needed to report in with his superiors at the Kolean Space Society, and he wanted to check in on his team’s diagnosis of the December.

  “Aren’t you tired?” Ted asked after Trell announced his intentions. Alana said nothing, but Ted’s same concerns were etched across her face.

  “I’ll be fine,” Trell said. “I stay up all night working every once in a while.” Seeing both Alana and Ted not buying it, he added, “I’ll try and get sleep tomorrow, all right? But this is important.”

  Alana finally caved. “We’ll be in Mother’s apartment. You have a key card, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right. See you tomorrow.”

  Trell smiled and gave her a romantic nuzzle before disappearing down a side street.

  Ted had never been deep in a Kolean city before, and he found it to be vastly different from the country homes he had already seen. Huge skyscrapers, most of them even taller than the tallest ones on Earth, dominated the skyline. Some of them looked sleek, like business buildings and headquarters. Others were a little shorter and were clearly apartment complexes. They had the same dome-like structures he had seen on private homes sticking out all over the sides of the building. At first glance they looked rather silly, but then Ted reminded himself that these people were still very bird-like, and surely loved the higher buildings and openness of the domed apartments.

  “Follow me,” was all Alana said, and Ted did so.

  They must have walked for at least fifteen minutes, but Ted didn’t notice. He was too busy staring at the brightly-lit city, including food stands that were open late, selling something that smelled like grilled vegetables. In fact, he barely noticed when Alana left his side to enter a building; she had to call out to him to catch his attention.

  Ted glanced up at the building before entering. It looked much like every other apartment building he’d seen. The doors were rotating, and automatic when someone stepped in front of them. In fact, it seemed like every building he’d seen had the same kind of doors. Perhaps it was standard on Kolea.

  As Ted followed Alana inside, he noticed there was no front desk, and therefore no one on duty. Ted wondered why that might be. Were Koleans just that trustworthy, which was unlikely, or was there some kind of automated security system?

  They climbed the stairs—apparently Koleans, for all their technological advancement, hadn’t figured out elevators yet—and finally reached Millika’s rented suite, which was on the seventh story. It was rather spacious, with a nice view of downtown. The only real furniture to speak of was a medium-sized bed in the same style as the ones back at the house and a wall computer console. Everything, from the bed cushion to the ceiling and walls to the carpet, was a light cream color. The room actually stuck out into one of the clear bubbles, and Ted could see there was a kind of large sunroof on the top of the bubble that could be opened in case of nice weather. Fortunately the carpet covered up the clear floor—Ted wasn’t wild about being able to see seven stories down under his feet.

  “Um...” Alana said, sounding embarrassed. “You take the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

  Ted immediately refused. “No, Alana, I couldn’t. It’s okay, really.” He’d rather be on the floor anyway.

  But Alana had already gone over to a closet and started to pull out a futon-like bed. Ted rushed to help.

  “I insist,” she said as it thumped onto the floor. “Mother could be back during the night and I don’t want her to disturb you. Or she could just stay at her office all night. She does that sometimes.”

  At her irritated tone, Ted couldn’t help but laugh, and upon watching him laugh, Alana started laughing too. “Why is that so funny?” she said, trying to breathe.

  “I don’t know,” Ted said, in much the same state. “It’s been a long day.”

  It took both of them nearly five full minutes to calm down, and once they did, Alana was all serious again. “Get some rest,” she advised him.

  Ted didn’t need advising. He guessed it had to be around one in the morning or so, and given the day he’d had, he was flat-out exhausted. He removed his suit and decided to sleep in his underwear and undershirt, before drifting off to sleep the moment his head hit the soft mattress.

  The next morning, Ted awoke woozily to find Millika had indeed come in the middle of the night. The middle-aged Kolean was huddled up on the floor beside her daughter on the futon-esque bed, which made Ted feel even worse about taking the bed, because he was sure he would be more comfortable on a more human-like futon instead of a circular, nest of a bed Koleans used. If he didn’t get a good night’s sleep soon, he was going to get cranky, and that would be bad news for everyone involved.

  Not wanting to get out of bed and disturb them, but particularly Millika whom he knew had been out late, Ted just lay there, thinking. Yesterday, Fjala said that my star was bright. I’m assuming that means there’s something in me she somehow sensed... But how can she be right? I’m an analogue information archivist, for Heaven’s sakes! Why did all of this have to fall on my shoulders? I’m not a diplomat, I’m not a soldier. Things are going okay so far but the worst is right in front of me. What am I going to do?

  Ted found himself fighting back tears of fear and despair when Alana finally woke.

  “Let’s leave her here,” Alana said quietly, standing up and stretching stiffly. “She can use the rest. The clothes we got you are in the closet. For now, take care of your business and let’s be ready to leave in five minutes.”

  Ted stepped into the bathroom, used the toilet, and slipped his new clothes on. They were soft, softer than cotton, and a rather nice blue violet color. Simple, effective, and matching. Being the master of getting ready quickly, a side effect of living as a Drevi specimen/assistant for almost half a year, he stepped out of the bathroom in just under four minutes.

  Alana had changed in the room. She was now wearing a red and black top that looked like the exact same style as Ted’s new clothes, leaving him to assume they had been purchased from the same tailor. Millika was still sound asleep on the floor, air wheezing softly through the nostril holes in her beak.

  Without saying a word, Alana motioned for them to leave, and Ted was more than happy to oblige. Once the door was closed, he asked, “So, where are we going?”

  “We’re going to the space center to meet up with Trell, since he clearly didn’t come back,” she mumbled. “And that Drevi we brought back is there too.”

  “Is there any chance I can speak to him?” Ted asked, a little confused why Vandoraa was there instead of in a prison.

  Alana crinkled her nose. “I don’t see why you would want to, but I also don’t see why you can’t. We’ll let them know when we get there.”

  They started walking down the narrow hallways and descended the stairs in silence. It was warm outside, and Ted discovered his new clothes breathed exceptionally well. That made sense for a planet that was warmer than Earth.

  “When did she come in?” Ted finally asked as they made their way back to the train station.

  “At almost four in the morning,” Alana said with a sigh. Her irritation was more than obvious.

  “You worry about her.”

  “She’s my mother and she works too damn hard. Of course I worry about her.”

  “Has she always been like this, or is it because of more... recent developments?”

  “She’s been at the office a lot ever since they learned of your people. This was before the Drevi army even made it to Earth—we discovered we had interstellar neighbors who were right in the path of the people who had invaded our planet and we wanted to learn more about them. But Mother... She’s always been very involved in her work, but she dove in even further once the task fell to her. Even when she’d come home, she spent most of her time wandering around the house—she likes to pace—practicing her English. She chose English to study, because almost all the materials we had obtained wer
e in English, but she was always fretting. ‘What if I picked the wrong language to learn?’ ‘This doesn’t make any sense.’ ‘Is this way of saying that still in use?’ The materials were old, too, so some of her worries weren’t exactly unfounded.”

  Ted couldn’t help but wonder what those materials were, and what impression they’d given of his people before any Kolean had even met a human. Had they received old broadcasts of Gilligan’s Island? Gotten hold of digital copies of The Canterbury Tales?

  Alana had fallen silent, so Ted did as well. Internally, though, he praised Millika’s efforts. In all likelihood, she was the catalyst that had started all of this, and who knew where it would end. The outcome of this... war? operation? could become something greater than he’d ever imagined.

  They took the smaller urban train line to the edge of the city, where a huge building stood. This one didn’t have any sort of dome in it, which Ted found unusual, since every Kolean building he’d seen so far had domes somewhere in their architecture. Instead, it looked like one giant rock, with sharp points sticking out everywhere and jutting up into the sky. It was made of a dark gray metal of some kind.

  “This is the headquarters of the Kolean Space Society, built in the years after the Drevi invasion,” Alana said. “The Drevi destroyed the one that existed before it.”

  “Oh,” Ted said. He vaguely wondered how much information and technology had been lost in that invasion. He hoped to any God that might exist that most of Earth’s historical documents, art, and cultural heritage would survive. He then asked, “You said Trell’s team was running an analysis on the December? Did they move the ship?”

  She nodded. “Probably, yes. Someone might have flown it out here or they may have transported it the old fashioned way to save its fuel. I don’t know.”

  At the gated entrance a guard stopped them, a skeptical look on his face. “I need to see some identification,” he said, glancing at Ted quizzically out of the corner of his eye. There was another guard on the other side in another gatehouse, but he was paying them no heed.

  “I’m Alana Teinn, KIS,” she said, flashing her ID card. “We’re here to see Trell Sirrin.”

  Recognizing the name, the guard smiled at Alana. “His To-Be, right? He talks about you every morning.” From his tone it sounded like Trell bragged a little too much. He then looked at Ted, trying to hide how excited he was to see the human.

  “He’s with me,” Alana said, as if she were tired of saying so.

  “Go on through. Here are a pair of visitor badges,” he said, handing Alana two cards that looked vaguely like the keys Millika and Alana had used to get into their house and suite before. Ted guessed Kolea was just about as obsessed with ID cards as humans were, though these were much smaller than any on Earth had ever been.

  “Thanks,” Alana said, not sounding particularly grateful, as the automated rotating doors started up. She walked through, Ted following her closely.

  The interior of the building was roomy—the halls were wide enough for ten Koleans to pass each other comfortably and there were glass sunroofs at regular intervals in the ceiling. The section they went to, after going through some kind of weird full-body sensor, was mostly offices. Alana seemed to know where she was going, so Ted just said nothing and followed her.

  She stopped in front of an open door that had a nameplate Ted couldn’t read, but he instantly recognized the male Kolean huddled behind the desk as Trell... who was fast asleep. Alana released a sigh that sounded like something the size of a hot air balloon deflating and nudged his shoulder. “Trell. Hey, Trell, wake up.”

  Trell moaned and slowly sat up. “What, Kural? The report isn’t due for two weeks... Oh, Alana. And Ted. Hi.” He sighed and reached for a cup on the edge of his desk, quickly taking a swig of whatever was in it.

  “You didn’t come back last night, so we figured you’d still be here,” Alana informed him.

  “Yeah, sorry about that,” he said, massaging the side of his face. “I must have fallen asleep.” He stood and stretched, letting out a cooing sound as he yawned. “So, why are you here?”

  “To come check on you, but also to check on the December,” Alana said. “And Ted wants to see the Drevi.”

  Trell glanced at Ted, possibly thinking he’d heard incorrectly. “You want to see him?”

  Ted sighed. How many more times was he going to have to explain this? “I just want to talk to him.”

  Alana ruffled her feathers and glanced at Trell. “Can he?”

  Shrugging, Trell said, “I don’t see why not. I have enough clearance to get you into the holding cells. But the hanger where the December’s parked is on the way, so do you want to stop there first?”

  Ted nodded. “Fine with me.”

  They left the office and traveled down more identical corridors until they emerged onto a balcony overlooking the December. There were several Koleans tapping away at computers on desks that faced the hanger. A couple of them glanced at Ted while all of them watched him out of the corner of their eyes. Ted ignored it, starting to get used to being gaped at like a circus sideshow.

  Upon hearing their footsteps, a man near the middle turned to face them, grinning widely. “Trell. I assume this is the guest you were talking about?”

  Trell nodded. “How many other humans have you seen wandering around lately?”

  The scientist laughed. “Not too many.” He glanced at Ted. “Is this your ship?” He was speaking in Kolean, and quickly realized Ted couldn’t understand him.

  “I’ll translate for him, Utair,” Trell said, “so don’t worry about it.” He then repeated Utair’s question to Ted, as well as introduced him as the Chief of Starship Construction at the KSS.

  Ted nodded and addressed Utair with a warm smile. “I suppose so,” he answered.

  Utair looked Ted over in embarrassment, trying to contain his excitement. “An alien life form, who’s not trying to kill me.”

  At that, Ted laughed. “I know the feeling.” He paused, looking out over the December, which he hadn’t seen in two days now. So much had happened since then... But the ship was still there, ready and waiting for its intended purpose: to shoot through space. “Utair?” Ted said. The man looked up at his name—something Trell didn’t have to bother translating. “Could you tell me more about her? I’m not very well-versed in starship physics.”

  Utair seemed more than happy to oblige. “Well, she runs on ollerium, which I’m assuming humans discovered they could create at relatively the same time we did. It’s a kind of fuel that allows for faster than light travel,” he elaborated upon seeing Ted’s confused face. “Do you want me to continue?”

  “Of course.” This time, Utair didn’t stop.

  “She has a massive engine in the center that gets fuel from the two huge ollerium tanks on either side. Limited weapons capabilities—there are four rocket launchers located throughout the ship, two in the front and two in the back, but there are no rockets on board at this time. But she does have grappling hooks, designed to latch onto other ships and drag them in so a party can board and then either capture or kill an enemy crew, depending. And the hooks themselves have been reinforced multiple times in order to hold onto the opposing ship. You have a nice ship here. She’s fast and strong.”

  Well, she is the best model they made, Ted thought proudly. But then Utair’s last comment hit him full-on like a freight train. “Utair, this isn’t really my ship.”

  Trell glanced at him oddly before repeating the statement, apparently wondering why Ted would bother to say something like that. This only served to confuse Ted further. What were they talking about?

  “I don’t know anything about the laws on your world, but under Kolean law it’s essentially yours,” Utair said.

  Ted’s thoughts were sent reeling. The ship was his? No, no, not yet. He wasn’t sure if the original owners were still alive or not. Until he knew for sure, he’d just operate under the assumption that he’d borrowed it. “It’s just weird
thinking about it that way, is all.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Utair said, staying upbeat. “Everything’s weird.”

  Utair’s words lifted Ted’s spirits tremendously. Everything’s weird. Yeah, that’s certainly true. With that, he knew what he had to do.

  “Let’s go meet Vandoraa,” he said to Trell and Alana.

  “All right,” Alana said with a shrug, “though I still think you’re making a mistake.”

  Trell turned to Utair. “We’re going to need the ship ready in two weeks. Can you handle that?”

  A proud smile crossed the Kolean’s face. “Of course I can.”

  “It was nice meeting you, Utair,” Ted said with a little wave as he stepped out of the room. Utair looked confused, and Ted realized waving probably wasn’t in the book of Kolean gestures. Embarrassed, he picked up his pace.

  The detention cells were in the very back of the building, so it took nearly ten minutes to get back there on foot. Ted was aghast at how big the building was from the inside—he didn’t think he’d ever been in a building this size.

  “Mr. Sirrin,” one of two guards standing on either side of a locked automatic door acknowledged Trell.

  “What are you doing down here?” asked the other.

  “Ted Anderson here wants to speak to the Drevi,” Trell said, the tone of his voice making it clear that the human’s request made as much sense to him as it did to the guards. They glanced at each other briefly before one said something in Kolean through a communicator on her wrist, and the locked door opened.

  Inside was a long hallway, with doors lining either side. Ted wasn’t sure why any prisoners were kept here at all—there had to be a real prison of some sort elsewhere.

  “This prison is specifically for Drevi prisoners of war,” Trell said softly. “The powers that be decided it wasn’t a good idea to keep them in the same prisons as Koleans, so we sort of ended up with them.”

  As they walked down the hallway, Ted glanced through the small windows in the doors. Most of them were empty, but there were a couple with Drevi in them. The war had been over for years, he thought, so why...? “Haven’t any of these people been bargained for by the Drevi government?”

  Alana’s gaze fell. “No. It’s the fault of their government, though, not the people. The Queen didn’t want to appear ‘weak’ by negotiating, so they let us keep the few prisoners we took.”

  “Most of them were rescued from an exploding ship by a Kolean crew during the war,” Trell explained. “But the Drevi have never made any move to get them back, and our politicians are still squabbling over what to do with them.”

  “That’s awful,” Ted said, feeling sorry for the prisoners and especially for their families. Did they even know their loved ones were still alive?

  “Yes it is.” Trell stopped at a seemingly random door and turned to Ted. “Vandoraa’s in here.”

  Ted looked through the window and confirmed Trell’s words. The Drevi who had snuck onboard the December sat in the cell on a Drevi-style bed, his eyes dull and fixated on the wall in front of him.

  “I’ll go in first,” Trell said, flashing his ID badge for the scanner. “You two follow me.” The door opened.

  The Drevi briefly glanced up as they entered his cell, but quickly averted his eyes again. Alana and Trell didn’t go very far in, though, and stood on either side of the door. Ted realized this was up to him now, and stepped into the room.

  “Vandoraa,” Ted said, pulling up a stool and sitting down in front of the alien. Vandoraa avoided eye contact, something Drevi did when they were ashamed or in the presence of someone of higher status. “May I speak with you?”

  Vandoraa looked up, again surprised how well the human spoke his native tongue. “You are very strange. You are a human, yet you speak Drevi.”

  “I’m Ted Anderson,” Ted said, introducing himself. “These are my friends and companions, Alana and Trell.”

  “What do you want?” Vandoraa asked wearily, as if he was already sure of his condemnation to live out the rest of his days in that cell.

  “I’m not sure what I want yet,” Ted confessed, an image of his wife flashing through his mind. “Your people forced my wife to commit suicide and stole my daughter away.”

  Vandoraa’s head flinched lower, as if each of Ted’s heartbreaking words was a physical blow. “I am... sorry.” His words were in English.

  In spite of his resolve to remain civil, Ted nearly exploded at Vandoraa’s words. “You’re sorry? And what were you going to do to fix it, huh? Vandoraa, sentient beings are being hurt and killed because of what your people are doing, and you’re no different for not trying to stop it!”

  If Vandoraa could have looked any more small or guilty at Ted’s outburst, he did. Even Trell and Alana flinched at the human’s harsh words, but Ted would never know because they weren’t in his line of sight.

  Ted took deep breaths, trying to calm himself. “Vandoraa,” he finally said, “I shouldn’t take it out on you. I’m sorry. I know you’re only following orders from your superiors and your Queen. But that doesn’t make it right.”

  Vandoraa’s eyes didn’t move from the floor. “I know.”

  “So help me. Help us,” Ted said, his voice growing bolder and more empowered. The rush of excitement was getting to his head again. In that moment, he could have taken on the universe, Drevi army and all. He was going to change things, even if it was to be the death of him. “Come back to Earth with us. Act as our Drevi consultant and guide.”

  “And betray my own people?” Vandoraa hissed. “Never!”

  “Look,” Ted said, leaning forward and lacing his fingers together. “When the invasion first happened, I hated all Drevi. How couldn’t I? They were capturing my friends and family and experimenting on my people, for God’s sake. But I was luckier than others. Dr. Hio took me in, and...”

  Vandoraa cut him off, his voice filled with shock. “Dr. Hio? Dr. Hio of the House of Feyvok?”

  “You know him?” Ted questioned.

  “Of course I do. He’s a world renowned scientist and one of the best. His entire House is known for producing some of the best scientists in our history,” Vandoraa gasped. “Of course. That explains why you can speak our language...”

  “Are you from a House?” Ted asked, the admittedly limited knowledge he had obtained in Dr. Hio’s lab coming back to him.

  Vandoraa looked uncomfortable. Ted didn’t know much about the Houses. He just knew the Drevi had them, but he had no idea how they worked or which House was which.

  “The House of Neryx,” Vandoraa finally said, his voice low and hushed. Doubtlessly, telling the enemy anything about himself was something he’d been explicitly told not to do by his superiors in the military. Then again, no matter how rich his family was, the government hadn’t been negotiating for prisoners of war. It probably didn’t matter one way or the other if the Kolean authorities knew who Vandoraa was.

  “That means nothing,” Alana said. “Any Drevi who officially lives on Neryx land has the right to claim they are of the House of Neryx.”

  This was news to Ted. “Wait, what?” he asked, turning to Alana.

  She looked surprised. “You didn’t know that?”

  “You’ll just have to take my word for it then,” Vandoraa said sharply.

  “None of this is very relevant to the situation at hand,” Alana said, sounding rather irritated. “Your future is in jeopardy, Drevi. I suggest you think long and hard about Ted’s generous offer.”

  “How do I know any of you will keep up your end of any deal we iron out?” Vandoraa spat.

  “I don’t know how happy my mother would be,” Alana said, “but Trell has power here and I have power in the KIS. Ted himself has all diplomatic rights for Earth in the eyes of Kolean law for the time being, and technically you’re his prisoner, not ours. We will honor any agreement the two of you make. You have our word.” Trell nodded to confirm her statements.

  Vandoraa took a deep br
eath. “What exactly do you want me to do?”

  “Come with us, and help us.”

  “You couldn’t trust me.”

  “Maybe not,” Ted said with a shrug. “But I’m not stupid. You would still be our prisoner. Your role would be information-based only. You know the Drevi better than we do, and being a solider you also know what their military armaments on Earth are and where they’re kept.”

  “In exchange for your assistance, we’d release you and the other Drevi held here once the war is over,” Trell said. Ted kept his face expressionless, but he was truly grateful to Trell for those words. Ted had hoped that would be the case, but he knew he would be drastically overstepping his bounds for offering such a deal to Vandoraa. But it was a near-perfect solution, and it would give Vandoraa less reason to betray them.

  Vandoraa lifted his gaze and looked Ted in the eyes. “I’d want reassurance from a higher Kolean governing body.”

  Alana nodded. “You’ll have it, direct from the Parliament.”

  “All right then, I’ll do it,” Vandoraa said, making a gentle clicking noise and reaching out to shake Ted’s hand in a very human gesture.

  Of course, Ted couldn’t have known the noise Vandoraa made was one Drevi children used when they weren’t telling the truth.

  VII