Stone in the Sky

by Cecil Castellucci

  “It’s true that you’ll be nothing short of slaves,” Caleb said.

  “But we’ll be safe from that death,” I said. “He’d pay for us. I know he would. Caleb is a Pirate. He’s outside of all of these politics. We’ll go to Quint. We’d only be slaves in name, not in spirit. From there we’ll have time to hatch an attack on him.”

  “It might be a long game,” Caleb said.

  “But at least it’s a game we can play,” I said.

  “He’ll see you, Tula, and he’ll kill you,” Bitty said. “I can’t allow that. I just found you again.”

  After hearing of the dead on Marxuach, no one wanted to head into danger and lose anyone again. But we were in more danger in space. I had to make them see that.

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Bitty. He’d see me if I was one Human alone, but if I dress like a Wanderer? He won’t see me at all. He doesn’t see you as individual people. I’ll be invisible.”

  I put my hands on her shoulders to reassure her that I was right there and not going anywhere without her.

  “Humans working a Human claim,” Caleb said gently, trying to explain the logic behind the plan. “Keep it in the family.”

  Bitty looked away from me and out over to the sea of faces that now depended on her judgement for their lives.

  “Caleb can show him that he can undercut the Imperium. Show him he can grow his profit, and then we’ll snatch it away,” I said.

  I directed it to the Wanderers who were hanging on to our every word.

  “He’ll go for that,” Siddiqui said quietly. “I’ve met him. He thinks that we Humans are superior.”

  Ever since he’d been back from the surface he had barely spoken. It was clear that the truth had shocked him to his core.

  I could tell that some of the crowd were moved by him.

  “We’re just like any other species,” Caleb said. “We’re the center of our own story.”

  Caleb appealed to the Wanderers, pulling on the thread of hope that they were beginning to hold on to. He was doing what he was born to do, lead. I jumped in to bring the point home.

  “Exactly. And right now, Quint is the new center. Let’s use that,” I said.

  “Tip the center and topple the Imperium,” Caleb said pumping his fist in the air in a rallying gesture.

  “Why would he think the Pirates were on his side?” someone shouted.

  “It’s not a part I want to play,” Caleb said, walking into the crowd so that he could address the dissenter personally. “But Pirates can be very persuasive.”

  “Can we even live on Quint?” Traynor asked.

  This was the moment where they would tip to join us or where we would lose them all. I had to tell the truth or we’d be lost.

  “It would be hard,” I said, remembering all that I’d heard about Quint. “And cold. The air is thinner than you are used to, but with the nanites, it would be easier.”

  “We don’t have nanites,” Ednette said.

  “We can try to trade for doses,” I said.

  “No, that’s where I come in. If he goes for it, I’ll convince Brother Blue to pay for them,” Caleb said, calming the crowd. “It will be worth it for him if you can work on the planet without air masks. I’ll make him see that.”

  I could see his mind working through scenario after scenario. Everything that he’d been trained to do as an Imperium Youth Cadet was coming up.

  “I know how Brother Blue thinks,” I said. “He will take the bait.”

  I looked toward Bitty. She was the one who had to decide our fate. Her dark eyes flicked to each one of us, trying to gauge all the information coming at her.

  “We have always said that we wanted to go home,” Bitty said.

  “I can get my group to agree,” Traynor said nodding.

  “I think some will settle. But some will always want to wander,” Ednette said, but I could tell by the way she said it that she thought that settling would be good for the old and the very young.

  “It is tiring to be rootless,” I said, going off of my own experience of traveling these last few months.

  “It’s true,” Traynor said, scratching his beard. “Even when a ship or a station becomes a home, we are never welcome anywhere for long. We are always asked to leave especially when our numbers grow. Then we hitch and are hurried along.”

  “A planet is a kind of ship,” Bitty said, raising her voice and opening her arms as though to embrace the crowd. “We’ll go. If we follow her, I know we’ll live.”

  The crowd shouted out their agreement.

  As they dispersed, the feeling of the group, which had been so low, began to feel hopeful.

  Siddiqui joined me and Caleb.

  “What is it?” I asked. I felt sorry for all that he had gone through.

  “I can’t be invisible in this crowd,” he said. “I’ve met Brother Blue too many times. Worked with him closely.”

  Caleb put his hand on Siddiqui’s shoulder.

  “You’ll be a Pirate with me. You’ll be covered up, and you’ll stay on our ship. We won’t let him get anywhere near you.”

  “Thank you,” Siddiqui said.

  I turned to Caleb.

  “Do you think Brother Blue will recognize you?” I asked.

  “I never met the guy,” he said.

  “But he looked at your body in the cryocrate,” I said.

  “He looked at a dead body in a cryocrate,” he said. “I’m not that dead boy.”

  He grabbed a protein pak from the bowl on a counter and ripped it open.

  It was true. There was very little chance that Brother Blue would make the connection between them. But there was someone who would recognize Caleb. Myfanwy.

  “There is something you should know,” I said.

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “Myfanwy is on the Yertina Feray,” I said. “She’s Brother Blue’s assistant.”

  Caleb put the protein pak down and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

  “She won’t recognize me,” he said with a bitter edge to his voice.

  It was true that she barely seemed interested when I told her that we were friends.

  “Are you sure?” I asked. “Everything is on the line.”

  “She remembers a soft pushover who was moony-eyed for her,” he said. “I know now that I imagined a lot of things that weren’t there. I always loved her from afar even when she was standing right next to me. I was invisible.”

  I could tell by the way that he crumpled the foil packet and kicked the table that he was telling the truth.

  “I don’t want your heart to distract you when you have such a big part to play. She’s with him now. She can’t be saved.”

  “You forget, Tula, that Pirates don’t have hearts,” he said.

  Then he excused himself and left.

  I could tell though, from the way he walked, that his heart was breaking.

  34

  A plan, even when well worked out, is not always simple. To work, it must be elegant.

  When the clamps from the Yertina Feray clicked onto the Hort ship and we were finally docked, my heart lifted. I was home.

  The doors slid open. Caleb, along with his crew and Siddiqui, now disguised as a Pirate, led the Humans out onto the docking bay in single file until we were arranged in rows, standing in the hangar. We were told to look down, as though we were defeated. But I stole a glance at the space station party that met us, hoping to catch a glimpse of Tournour. At first I didn’t see him, but then, a crowd of station officers moved and there he was, mingling with a small team of his officers.

  My pulse quickened. I began to tingle as though every cell in my body was coming alive. I couldn’t help but smile because his face was the one thing I had been longing to see for months, and now there he was. It was terrible to not be able to run to him.

  I stole another glance. His long limbs were bent toward some other officers who were laughing at something he said. They did not seem disturbed that there wer
e slaves about to be sold, and I wondered if this had become commonplace since I left, that workers were needed in the rush.

  I had sent him a coded invoice message saying that he would see me soon. He’d messaged back that I shouldn’t come, but of course he did not know what the plan was. Now that we were hundreds of Humans led by Pirates, I could only hope that he had an inkling of an idea of what I was doing.

  I wanted him to turn so that I could see all of his face, but of course he didn’t. I couldn’t wave at him or smile. I was to be a Wanderer like the others with no known connection to anyone here.

  My eyes shot to the floor again as I sobered up to the situation. This was not a homecoming. I had a role to play. We all did.

  There was no room for personal feelings when there was so much at stake, but I couldn’t help but worry that all of this time apart had changed him. I worried that he wouldn’t care for me in the same way. That he’d found someone else. That he wouldn’t be the Tournour I’d learned to care for so deeply. I felt that he was a part of me and thinking that he could be different made me surprisingly anxious.

  I pushed those thoughts aside. I couldn’t know what he was feeling. But I knew what I was. I had missed him. I had missed the station. That’s all that I could know.

  It was in this moment that I realized faith was such a hard thing to hold on to. Faith that my plan would work. Faith that Tournour was on my side. Faith that Caleb could act the Pirate enough to fool Brother Blue. Faith that Reza would help me if we made it down to Quint. Faith that we wouldn’t be herded onto a ship and sent straight to a colony to die.

  “Welcome to the Yertina Feray,” Tournour announced. I looked up again at the sound of his voice. Warm to my ears. Commanding to everyone else’s.

  Tournour motioned for half his team to pat down all the Pirates. If he recognized Caleb, he didn’t give it away.

  “Clear,” Tournour said.

  The door opened, and Brother Blue entered with Myfanwy at his side. When he saw her, Caleb pulled his coverings to shadow his face. But despite the fact that I had told him she was here, I knew he was flummoxed. I watched as he composed himself, throwing back his shoulders to give him an air of confidence.

  “Brother Blue,” Caleb came forward, arm extended. The two men shook hands, and I shuddered.

  I could see Caleb stealing glances at Myfanwy. Her face betrayed nothing, not even a hint that she knew him. If Caleb could still be hurt, I’m sure that hurt him. At least it confirmed what he had confessed to me. His love affair with her had been unrequited.

  The acoustics in the cargo bay made it so that we could hear most of their conversation.

  “I don’t know why you would be so bold as to think I need these Humans,” Brother Blue said to Caleb. “They should be sent to the Earth colonies to populate them. That’s what I pay for. Transport there. Not to me.”

  “I understand you have managed to secure a small tract on Quint,” Caleb said.

  “I did claim a parcel from a deceased species for Earth,” he said.

  “Humans working a Human claim,” Caleb said. “We both know that’s good business. Your claim is only as good as the area you can work.”

  He had been so concerned about keeping the colony ruse alive that he’d ignored the potential orbiting right below him.

  “You can add settlement to your roster,” Caleb said, hooking him and reeling him in.

  Brother Blue was silent for a moment as he considered the proposal. I knew that he was no dummy. The Humans would give him a legitimacy that he didn’t currently have, and his claim area could grow.

  “It’s possible that could work,” he said trying to sound casual. “What are the terms?”

  “You take my Humans then you split the alin profits that they reap fifty-fifty with me.”

  “That’s a bad deal for me,” Brother Blue said. “I can get non-Humans to work for cheaper and keep it all. Why should I do that when I could make you go away?”

  “You know that claims change easily, and only claims that are worked by the same species stick. You don’t have Humans here.”

  He took a long hard look at Caleb.

  “I have some Imperium officers who are working my land,” he said. “I don’t need these.”

  “I think you do,” Caleb said. “Let’s just say, I caught them in the cargo hold of a Hort ship en route to Marxuach.”

  “A jewel of a colony,” Brother Blue said.

  “If you like dead ends,” Caleb said.

  “Seventy-thirty,” Brother Blue offered.

  Caleb nodded. He should have held out for more, but Brother Blue was pleased.

  His whole demeanor changed. He went from hard negotiator to best friend. He laughed and slapped Caleb on the back.

  “I’ve never seen a Human Pirate before,” he said. “How did you escape wandering or Earth?”

  “Well now, that is a story,” Caleb said. “But one I like to tell over a good drink. Business first.”

  “Of course.”

  They continued to talk details. Prices. Workload. Nanites. Coded conversation about how much Caleb knew about Brother Blue’s deception.

  “I’d like to inspect them for weapons,” Tournour said.

  “They seem harmless,” Brother Blue said.

  “It’s my job to keep the Yertina Feray safe,” he said. “The Imperium charges me with that task.”

  “You don’t trust Humans,” Brother Blue said.

  “I don’t trust anyone,” Tournour said.

  “Go ahead,” Brother Blue said waving him away with his hands. “I don’t want to get in the way of Imperium policy.”

  Tournour stepped forward to help his team, taking the middle row where I was. I was frozen, hoping that he would reach me before one of his officers would. Our eyes locked. If I didn’t know him so well, I’d have thought that he was being cold, but his antennae folded toward me in a way that was tender.

  After what seemed an eternity, he was there in front of me. His hands moved over my body, checking me for weapons, but every part of him was saying hello. It was torture not to speak. To stare straight ahead. To be submissive.

  I did not know what had been going on here while I had been away. I had to trust that Tournour would let me know in his own way in his own time. I had to trust that his messages to me were proof that our bond was still strong.

  “Clear,” he said it directly to me. That was the only way he could say hello. I nodded slightly to acknowledge him somehow.

  Tournour moved on to Bitty and then over again down the row until he was far away from me.

  When the inspection was done, Tournour and his team fell back and gave Brother Blue a nod that all was right.

  Brother Blue snapped his fingers, and Myfanwy stepped forward.

  “This is my assistant, Myfanwy Yu,” he addressed us Humans. “She’ll be here inspecting you for health and fortitude and administrating the nanites you’ll need to survive on Quint and placing bands on your arms.”

  Myfanwy went down the lines, taking inventory on us one by one. I was covered in Wanderer garb, and we had hand painted more tattoos on my body and face so I could blend in more. My nerves were making me sweat. I wondered if the paint would smudge, revealing me. I had met Myfanwy before. I was standing next to Bitty, and she could sense that I was nervous. She slipped her hand into mine, and I immediately felt better.

  Myfanwy stepped up to us. But it wasn’t me who caught her attention. It was Bitty.

  “You’re damaged,” she said to Bitty, pointing to her scars.

  “I’m strong and I’m healthy,” she said. “I’m just not pretty.”

  Myfanwy laughed.

  I saw Bitty smile back at Myfanwy as she moved on to me. I kept my eyes down.

  “You’re not as hard as the others,” she said. “You’re soft.”

  I nodded, staring at her shoes.

  I wondered if she was struggling to place me. We’d only met once, but sometimes one meeting is enough to bu
rn a face in the mind’s eye. I wondered if I should say something or keep quiet.

  “She’s just had a child,” Bitty interjected. It echoed throughout the hangar. I knew that Tournour had heard the lie, but he wouldn’t know if it was true or not. He might not even know how long a Human child took to gestate.

  “Where’s the child?” Myfanwy asked.

  “Dead,” I said, this time looking straight at her. Of course there was no child. Bitty’s bravery enabled me to look up without fear. If there had been any flicker of recognition in Myfanwy’s face, I would have seen it. There wasn’t. Whatever flicker there could have been had been extinguished, and Myfanwy was now embarrassed for having pressed the issue. That was one thing that Humans were steady in. It was best to get out of uncomfortable situations as quickly as possible.

  “Ah,” Myfanwy said injecting and banding our arms and moving on.

  Once again I reached for Bitty’s hand. I squeezed it in thanks.

  “They’re fit for work on Quint,” Myfanwy said, returning to Brother Blue.

  “Good.” Brother Blue said to Caleb, “I’ll send you the money once they’re down on Quint and have done a harvest. They have to prove their worth. They’ve been traveling for so long that they might not take to planet living.”

  “You’ll give me an advance now,” Caleb said.

  “I don’t have that kind of currency,” he said.

  “Then find it,” Caleb said. “Or when I get to the entertainment deck, I just might tell a whole lot of stories. I’ve been on the ground at Marxuach. I’ve seen what you’ve plowed the fields with.”

  Brother Blue’s smile froze. He took the datapad from Myfanwy and pressed his thumb to it.

  “I can give you half now. Half on harvest.”

  He was going down.

  35

  The makeshift spaceport near the landing pad on Quint was bustling. There was only one town on the planet, nestled at the center of the Dren Line. It was made up of a few buildings: a general store, a place to eat, a place to imbibe, and a place for pleasure. There was also a law office that housed a few of Tournour’s team. There were no embassies or representatives here. Most speculating on the planet were free and wild, as long as you paid your tithe to Brother Blue and the Imperium.