Stone in the Sky

by Cecil Castellucci

  As I stepped onto Quint, I allowed for a tiny moment of joy after months of running and uncertainty. I had spent so many hours staring at Quint, and now I was finally here.

  Technically, Brother Blue owned us. To ensure that everyone knew that, we were each fitted with a metal armband to make sure it was known that we could not leave the planet freely. They were easily removed but would tear up the skin if not taken off with a key. The scar would never go away and would always mark a runaway.

  Somehow, despite that yoke, it felt free here. Like anything could happen.

  We were marched out of town and down a dirt road to the fields that we were going to care for.

  I wondered when I would run into Reza. Did he know that we were coming? Had Tournour warned him? Was he curious about our group? Was he on his field working hard? Only time would bring answers.

  For most of the Humans, it was hard going. The walk was painful and slow. It was the first planet that they’d ever set foot on and despite living in different gravities all their lives, planet gravity felt different. Bitty had not been on one since Earth. Almost everyone had planet sickness, but not me. Somehow Quint felt just right. Perhaps it was the cold air or the rocks or the pinkish clouds. I felt sturdy walking on this ground.

  “The whole place looks scarred, like it’s been through a war,” Bitty said.

  The landscape beyond the buildings was pocked with deep crevices as though it had been bombed. There were craters and crevices in long gashes along the rocks. Everything was gray, brown or black. It was only far away on the horizon that there was any burst of yellow.

  “When the ore started to run out, they did everything they could to get every last bit of it out of the planet. They bound nitrogen to lift it up out of the dirt,” I said.

  “It seems strange that we’re allowed to ruin planets like that,” Bitty said. “I mean, we caused so much damage on our planet that we nearly killed ourselves.”

  “We were bound to do that to Beta Granade when we landed. We were going to change it to suit us,” I said. “And look, Quint has rebounded in a way.”

  I pointed to the lush fields that surrounded us.

  “But going to change Beta Granade wasn’t my choice or yours. It was our mother’s choice. I was a child, and now I am not,” she said. “I don’t know that I would have agreed with that choice now.”

  “No,” I said. “I wouldn’t have left Earth either, but there is a difference between razing a planet for resources, which is what the Imperium wants to do, and cultivating it into hosting life.”

  “Is there?” Bitty asked.

  I wasn’t sure in my mind, but I was sure in my heart. When I looked at Quint, left alone for centuries, sprung back and thriving, it made my heart swell. It was something that I wanted to protect. Like this planet was a part of me, and I was its caretaker.

  It was strange to think that we were sitting on another planet having a conversation about where we wanted to be. Places that seemed impossible. It was hard to be both sad and angry with our mother for dragging us into this predicament. She was just doing the best that she could by hoping for something better for us.

  Along with a few Imperium guards, Myfanwy was with us to settle us into the tract of land that we were going to work. When we arrived at the place, the guards started to set up tents. The Humans could not help. They were laying down, planet sick, and gasping for air, not quite used to the nanites they’d been injected with.

  Even though it was cold, I chose to sleep outside and stare up at the stars.

  36

  I was the first one up.

  Sunrise on Quint was beautiful. Orange and pink crept up, peeking over the gray mountains and then lighting up the yellow fields that stretched behind where we had slept.

  I sat watching the sun get higher in the sky. The day never got as bright as I remember Earth being, or Tallara, but it was a sun I had grown to love in the last years, and to see it from Quint was breathtaking.

  “I need some volunteers to get supplies,” Myfanwy said. “You two. You. And you.”

  Bitty and I, as well as a few others, including Traynor, who was not so planet sick, headed down the road toward town with her. When we got there, Myfanwy gave us each a list and a currency chit to buy some supplies.

  “Don’t tarry. Meet back here in an hour. You’re with me,” she pointed to Bitty.

  I was not going to buy tools the old fashioned way. I wanted to keep the currency chit for later use. I looked at my list and quickly calculated the trades that I would have to do to get the tools that I’d been assigned. Four.

  I felt pulled toward the eatery and longed for something that was home-cooked and not space food. I was not disappointed. A Nurlok was grilling some local hard-shelled insect on a grill, and it smelled delicious.

  “One please,” I said.

  I gave the Nurlok a currency chit but the Nurlok waved it away and nodded at me. I didn’t recognize this Nurlok, but I made a mental note of the favor given to me and knew that this was someone I could trade with.

  “I owe you a favor,” I said showing the Nurlok my list. “I’m looking to trade. I need tools,” I said.

  He looked me up and down and pointed to the metal armband I wore. I shook my head. As much as I wanted to get rid of it, it would scar me and likely get me in trouble just when I needed to be invisible the most.

  “I’m new. But I’m here to stay,” I needed something to start trading with, and he probably had something that he wanted to get rid of. I scanned the area behind the counter and noticed the fly-like insects buzzing around the cage holding the insects that he was cooking up on the grill. The cage was filthy with frass overflowing in the bottom of the cage and in a wastebin.

  “I can take anything you don’t want off your hands. Maybe your frass.”

  He considered me a moment. Then he let me come through. I filled two bags full of the horrible-smelling substance.

  I had something to start with. Sure, it was insect poop, but Thado had always said that any kind of feces was helpful when he wanted to enrich the soil in the arboretum. I had traded many times with ships for their animal feces for him. If I did it right, someone would want this frass, and I would have the currency chit for later.

  “Thank you,” I said. “What do you want for it?”

  “Spices,” he said, flipping the ingredients on his grill. The large hard-shelled insect was placed on four long noodles. It was some kind of pill bug, and it was laid on its back with the moist soft meaty substance cut into quarters and stuffed with a mix of a pepper-like vegetables.

  I could get spices for frass.

  “Then you’ll get me tools?” I asked.

  He grunted and served me a plate, and I took my bags of frass and went to a corner table and looked out the window as I crunched on the spicy food. I allowed myself to relax. It was dry here, as if the dirt did not want to stick to the ground. It was dusty, and the air was cold. The sun was small in the sky, as though it were just stretching itself a little too far to give Quint any real warmth. Everyone was wrapped in rags to protect against the dust. Aliens crowded the streets, going either toward entertainment, the launchpad with loaded up bags to trade up at the Yertina Feray, or to get themselves some drink or fun. Others were heading out with supplies on the way to their claims.

  This time, Quint was brimming with life forms.

  As I understood it, Quint was not the same now as when it was mined for ores. Then, when the planet had been surveyed and found to have highly coveted ores, it was marked by the League of Worlds to be mined rather than settled. Planets made bids for tracts of land, and mining robots like Trevor came to work. They were overseen by the aliens who came down to live on Quint to protect their claims. But most aliens back then lived on the Yertina Feray. This rush had aliens down on the ground, working the land in order to keep their claims. A claim only stood if the area was being actively worked. The alin pollen was too delicate a task to leave to robots.

 
There was one thing that was different about the way that aliens interacted from the Yertina Feray. As I watched them move about the town, I noticed that they kept as separate as possible. Everyone seemed to stick to their own kind.

  When I was done eating, I hit the entertainments tent because I knew that was the place where the most aliens would mix and mingle regardless of species. Someone there would want the frass and give me something in return and a line on where the best spices were. I also wanted to know where the best land was and who the best cultivators were. Knowledge was power.

  I scanned the bar, marveling at how much more life and vigor there was in the residents that were on this planet than on the Yertina Feray. There was a real difference to the way that life thrived on a planet. Even on a cold, almost inhospitable one like Quint, there was something about air and sun and weather that made all souls uncurl from the limitations imposed by a ship or station.

  While trying to figure out which game table I should infiltrate to start up a conversation, there was a silky low voice that I recognized in my ear.

  “You smell like you have what I need,” it said.

  “Reza,” I turned to face him. Every part of me leapt.

  “Hello, Tula.”

  He moved back and leaned one shoulder casually against the wall.

  I soaked in his face. His warm smile. His dark eyes. The tight dreads in his hair. My insides quivered as I watched him take me in.

  “I hear you’re the new game in town,” Reza said. He was chewing on a kind of grass. “I hear you work for the Imperium.”

  “More like workhorses,” I said. I was trying to keep calm, but there was a rising heat between us, the one that had always been there. I was excited, but my body reacting the way it did made me feel both good and guilty at the same time.

  He fingered the metal band on my arm.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “Still, it’s good to see you.”

  The skin on my arm had goose bumps that I tried to ignore. I couldn’t help but wish that it was Tournour making me react this way.

  “You’re looking for some frass?” I said, playing it slow. Playing it cool. But still, I couldn’t help but step closer to him.

  “Always,” he said. “What do you want for it?”

  He flashed me that smile that made my insides melt.

  “Spices,” I said.

  “What’s your end game?” he asked. He knew there was something else I needed.

  “Tools,” I said. “For the tract of land we have to work. But I want to keep the currency chit they gave me for myself. You never know when that could come in handy.”

  Reza spit out the piece of grass he was chewing into a plate.

  He took out a datapad and made a calculation.

  “Tell that Nurlok that I can give him what he wants, but he’ll have to come to my place.”

  “I need something now,” I said.

  He laughed.

  “Well, you’re not going to get it now, Human,” he said.

  I looked over his shoulder and noticed that the aliens in the place had taken an interest in us. He was playing it up for them, and I was grateful that he could improvise so well.

  “Why don’t we step outside before we smell up the joint,” Reza said.

  I followed him outside where we had a chance to talk more freely. I had so much to tell him.

  “Reza, I don’t know where to begin,” I said.

  “How about thank you for the currency you’re going to keep?” he said. “And all the currency I’ve sent you.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “Bitty’s alive,” I said.

  “Your sister?” he said, genuinely surprised and happy for me. “That’s great news!” And then he pulled me in for a happy hug. His arms felt so good around me.

  “Yes,” I said breaking away. “She survived the explosion and had been wandering with a tribe.”

  “Your mother?”

  “No,” I said.

  His face clouded over, and he looked at me with sympathy in his dark brown eyes.

  “What are you doing back here?” Reza said. “How can you belong to Brother Blue and not be dead?”

  I quickly summed up what was going on and as I told him what Brother Blue was doing and the dead I’d seen on Marxuach, I watched his face fall.

  “My God,” he said. “I knew he was evil, but not that evil.”

  He had to stop walking as he processed it all.

  “You actually went there?”

  I nodded.

  He shook his head in disbelief, and I could tell that he was trying not to cry.

  “I have a half a mind to kill him myself,” he spat out.

  “One more thing. Caleb’s here,” I said.

  “So you found him,” Reza said slowly. “I figured he’d have something to do with this. How did you find him?”

  “I sent out messages until he found me,” I said as we started to walk again.

  “How is he?”

  “He’s different,” I said. We were nearly at the eatery, which was filling with aliens for midday meal.

  “I told you,” he said. “How could he sell you?”

  “No. That was my plan. He’s here to help,” I said.

  “Help?” Reza asked. “Help with what?”

  “With…” I said as he looked at me in a way that went all the way down to my bones. That I was attracted to Reza was very clear, but I did not feel for him the way that I had come to feel for Tournour. “Destroying Brother Blue’s source of income so that he starts to lose power in the Imperium.”

  “But he still skims from the tithe that everyone gives him,” Reza said as we got to the eatery. “There are fees upon fees. Everyone stays separate so as not to get more fees.”

  “We have to start somewhere.”

  I held the door open for him as we went into the food shop. The Nurlock and Reza haggled over the frass. Then the Nurlock gave me a plate of food to bring to the tools shop.

  Reza joined me, and we continued our conversation.

  “Where is Caleb now?” he asked. There was no gentleness to the voice. It was bitter. “What’s he doing?”

  “He’s up on the Yertina Feray. Working with Brother Blue.”

  “Pirating?”

  “In a way. Yes,” I said. “He’s keeping Brother Blue’s eyes off of me. Off of us down here.”

  “I don’t deal with Pirates,” he said. “That is why I left.”

  “Reza, you need to get over it. You, Caleb, and Tournour will have to work together now. I can’t do it alone.”

  He took my hand.

  “Do you need me?” he asked.

  “I need you,” I said. It was true. I did. But I needed all of them.

  As always he wore his feelings right on the surface.

  “I have to go,” I said, pulling my hand away from his. My heartbeat had quickened at his touch.

  The hour was up, and I could see Myfanwy, Bitty, Traynor, and the other Humans I’d come to town with gathering in the town square.

  “Come to the Human camp tonight, I’ll meet you on the road and we’ll talk,” I said.

  I remembered what it was like to be with Reza and I allowed myself a small smile.

  * * *

  Reza showed up at sunset.

  “You came,” I said.

  “I did,” he said.

  We walked away from the camp down the road a little bit until we were alone by a group of large rocks. It was the first time since I’d left him on the Yertina Feray that we’d been alone. I wasn’t sure how to be around him. My body felt strange. I wondered if I should kiss him hello the way I’d kissed him goodbye, but sometimes there is a difference between the tender moment of potentially never seeing someone again and the moment where you realize that you must sort through all of your feelings.

  “It’s okay,” he said taking my hand and kissing my knuckles. “I’m here now.”

  I hesitated. I wasn’t sure what I wanted from him, and I w
anted to be clear headed as I talked to him about what I was trying to do here on Quint.

  “I’ve been thinking,” he said. “It’s hard to help Earth fight the hold of the Imperium from here.”

  We looked out down the road at the alien planet we were on. We could hear the Human camp as they sang.

  “We’re going to do what you want,” I said. “We’re going to fight.”

  “You don’t know what I want anymore,” he said, leaning his head back against the large rock we were sitting on.

  “I know that sending you to the Outer Rim was hard. A mistake even. But that was the best solution in that moment. This is a new moment. We either rise now,” I waved at the huge night sky, “or we are snuffed out and we lose.”

  “Fine,” he said. “I’ll do it because it’s you.”

  He pushed a lock of hair behind my ear.

  “I don’t really know what I can do to help,” he said. “I’m a farmer now, not a fighter. Maybe things would be different if I had gone back to Earth. But I’m here now and I don’t have any intel on what’s going on. I’m just a guy who trades some spices for insect poop and has a crush on a great girl.”

  I slapped his broad chest playfully.

  “Tell me about Quint,” I said. “That will be helpful.”

  “The fertile spot on Quint is small,” he said. “Some people staked claims on the Dren Line. Others are trying to cultivate alin in less hospitable parts just outside that line, but hacking ore out of the ground is different than growing and cultivating. Some of these speculators don’t have the touch, and they’ve lost a great deal of wealth because they don’t know how to tease out the pollen or let the plant thrive. The Imperium doesn’t want us working together because it doesn’t want us to share what we know. It keeps them in charge of the currency flow.”

  “That’s why you needed the frass. It helps the soil.”

  “Yes,” he said. “I experiment. Thado’s been teaching me.”

  He laced his fingers with mine.

  “So you’re saving the Humans,” Reza said. He smiled his big wide smile. The one I loved. I knew we had him. He was on my side. He leaned in close, and I could feel his breath on my cheek.