Stone in the Sky

by Cecil Castellucci

  “They’ve suspended Brother Blue from duty,” Myfanwy said.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “The Imperium are blaming him for all kinds of abnormalities, from skimming currency from claims to undeclared export of a precious substance. To falsifying colonial paperwork,” Myfanwy said.

  “All true,” I said.

  “There’s more,” she said. That was when I realized that her face was pale and she was shaking. “They know that there’s a meeting. They thought Brother Blue was organizing a coup against them.”

  She looked like she was at the end of her rope.

  “They’ve razed Earth,” she said.

  They razed Earth as they had Quint.

  The aliens all erupted. Fear was everywhere. If they came for Earth, then they could come for any of us.

  But instead of turning against each other, all the aliens started to make plans to protect our little world aboard the Yertina Feray by making agreements with each other.

  I sank into a chair. I’d done it. I’d gotten the aliens to work together here. And clearly the Imperium was scared. It was a start.

  But the price had been Earth.

  48

  It would be a very long time before anyone could go back to Earth.

  The planet was devastated, but not destroyed. And while word had gotten to us that the casualties had been high, people had escaped.

  But there is nothing more dangerous than a man who’s lost everything. And Brother Blue had lost everything. I knew he wouldn’t just simply fade away.

  Announcements were posted everywhere. The day had come at long last. I would face him in the ring. I stepped onto the lift and felt as though I were going into the light of a bright sun after being in a black hole. The stands were up, and there was a crowd as I had never seen before.

  There were Humans here. There were Humans, Human Wanderers, and refugees from Earth strolling around in the market. They were eating cakes and looking at objects and trading for what they could. And none of the aliens were flinching. They were here just like any other species. And they were a part of the Hocht. I had never seen that before.

  I began to realize that I had really started something. They were bartering for supplies at the makeshift market. They were getting pots and pans and rugs and tools. They were trading for the things that you needed for life on a ship for the things that you needed for the life on a planet. My heart swelled.

  Killick, Kuhn, Marxuach, Andra, Beta Granade,… Quint.

  I felt eerily calm, like I had been waiting for this moment my whole life. This time I was not afraid. This time I was ready to fight my enemy.

  But before I could get to the ring, Tournour grabbed me and pushed me up into the stands.

  “Let me go,” I said.

  “I won’t let you fight,” he said.

  “Why not?” I said. “I want to fight the Hocht. You can’t stop me.”

  “Sit,” he said. “I’m not stopping the Hocht. I’m stopping you.”

  The announcer called the Hocht. He called the names.

  “Bane and Blue!”

  I tried to stand up, but Tournour held me down.

  “Let go of me!”

  “No,” he said.

  The bell rang, signaling the start of the fight.

  To my surprise, there were two people in the ring. Brother Blue, in a terry cloth sweat pants suit, an overgrown beard, and a crazed look in his eyes. And Bitty. Bitty in black, looking like a sleek weapon of hurt. I could see on her wrist the glint of gold from my bracelet. When she stepped into position, she looked like a wild cat, and the crowd cheered.

  She had just as much a right to fight the Hocht as I did. Brother Blue had cost her much, too.

  “No!” I yelled.

  I didn’t want her to fight my fight. I escaped from Tournour’s hold and ran down to the ring. Tournour was on my heels.

  Brother Blue began yelling that this was not the Hocht he signed up for. He yelled at Myfanwy to get things right. He yelled at the announcer. He yelled at the crowd.

  “Are you here to fight a Bane?” Bitty asked Brother Blue.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Am I a Bane?” Bitty asked.

  “How would I know?” Brother Blue asked.

  “I met you on the Prairie Rose when I was ten. You took my sister away, and you killed my mother. You took my life away. I have every right to fight you here.”

  Brother Blue blanched. I saw as he took in her scars, knowing that she must be who she said she was. She was a Bane, and Bane he would fight.

  Bitty and Brother Blue circled each other and began to fight and with every blow that Bitty landed, the crowd erupted. They cheered loudly and they clapped and hollered. They booed when Brother Blue escaped a blow or landed one.

  I got to the side of the ring, and he saw me. And then he smiled a wicked smile and spat.

  “You’re like a tick, sticking to this place,” he said.

  Then he pushed Bitty away with such force that she fell backward. Then he stuck his hand in and pulled something out from his waistband. Hochts were only to be fought with the body, no weapons were allowed, but I saw the knife flash as he lunged for me.

  Suddenly, the impossible happened. Bitty was all at once in front of me and then crumpled to the floor. There was blood everywhere, and the blood was not mine.

  “He stabbed her!” I shouted.

  Bitty was clutching her side, holding the stab wound to staunch the blood. Brother Blue cursed and then dodged the arms that were trying to hold him and made a beeline for the Northmost wing.

  “After him!” Tournour shouted to his officers, but he could not hold me back.

  I bared my teeth like an animal and dove after Brother Blue. Tournour was close on my heels.

  “You monster!” I shouted. I had my sister’s blood on me. For all I knew, he’d killed her when he’d meant to kill me.

  “Which way did he go?” Tournour shouted. Other officers had joined us now. He gave out quick instructions to do a search and sweep.

  But I knew what hallway we were in. I knew where he was going. The docking bays.

  “Let’s split up,” I said. Tournour nodded and turned off to the left. I stopped at a public data console and sent a message to the Tin Star Café and had Kelmao send Trevor to the docking bay. Then I went forward and up.

  49

  I met Trevor as it exited the lift. And then I commanded it to follow me as I pushed forward down the docking bays to see where Brother Blue could be.

  The next ship leaving was on Docking Bay 5, but I knew he wouldn’t actually leave; he was just looking to hide out until he finished me.

  There was only one docking bay that was empty. Docking Bay 12.

  I entered.

  It was dark.

  “Come and get me,” I said to the empty hangar.

  A second later he emerged from the anteroom.

  * * *

  He was sick. Wild.

  But I had always been wilder.

  Wild with grief.

  Wild with revenge.

  Wild with a desire for all of it to be over.

  “I’m here for you,” I said.

  “I’m going to get you this time,” he said. “There’s no escaping.”

  “You can’t have me.”

  I saw him as he approached. He had a knife in one hand and a two-shot pistol in the other. I stayed as still and calm as I could. I had one chance at this. He raised his two-shot gun.

  “Trevor, go!” I shouted.

  Trevor’s security protocol came on and his knives began to whir.

  Brother Blue laughed as he watched Trevor roll up to him.

  In my rush to do something, I’d mistimed my plan. Trevor was too far away to do any harm. It was as though I’d wound up a toy. I cursed myself.

  “This is your weapon?” he said, lifting up his gun, firing one shot, immediately disabling Trevor.

  “You should have stayed with your friends, in y
our café, where you had protection,” he said. “Then again, they’d be no help for you this time.”

  He shot again, this time aiming for me. I ducked behind Trevor just as the phase went by. He was out of phases, but he still had his knife. I had no other weapon except my fists.

  “It’s over,” I said, willing him to give up because that was now my only option for survival. “Your time is done.”

  He laughed even harder, the sound echoing in the docking bay.

  “I’ll get off this station and I will reinvent myself,” he said. “That’s what I do. But you will not survive another day.”

  I heard as he knocked things over on his approach to where I crouched. The space between us narrowed. Twelve feet. Eight feet. Six Feet. I looked over at the door to see if I could make a sprint for it. He was experienced and I was not. But if I could make it out of the room, I might be able to lock him in and vent him out to space.

  But I could tell it was too far.

  Brother Blue was right. This time I would die in Docking Bay 12.

  His steps were coming closer. He was taking his time because he knew he had me. He was relishing this. I cursed myself for not letting Tournour know where I was going.

  I slid my arms around Trevor, preparing myself for my last breaths, when my hand caught on one of his panels. Then I remembered that even disabled, Trevor had one more trick up its sleeve. I could signal for self-destruct overload. I would have less than a minute to get away before I would be killed in a burst of electricity and metal.

  “You almost had it right, Brother Blue,” I said, trying to distract him as I reached up and slid the panel open, pressing my thumb on the button for the few seconds to activate the sequence. The button glowed orange. Brother Blue, now close enough to use his knife, jabbed hard at my face. I ducked to the left to avoid the blow. The orange light began to flash as the countdown started.

  “I accomplished what no one else would have,” Brother Blue shouted as he slashed the knife at me again. I dodged to the right. “I gave us the stars!”

  I glanced at the door like someone had just walked in. As he followed my stare, I dove for the far side of the room, scrambling behind a crate. Trevor emitted a high piercing warning alarm, and I watched as Brother Blue tried to step back. But he was not quick enough. Sparks shot out of Trevor arcing toward anything that could conduct electricity, including Brother Blue who crackled and lit as he was surrounded by light.

  He convulsed and his skin turned from pink to gray. His eyes bulged. His lips burst. His body swelled. Although where I hid was safe from the charge, I could feel the hairs rise on my body.

  Brother Blue fell in a heap to the floor, a mess of charred, melted skin.

  He was dead.

  Smoke began pouring out of Trevor and its front panels fell off. Then it ran out of power and went dark. Trevor was gone. And losing Trevor felt like losing Caleb all over again.

  It was over. It was over. I was done.

  The door burst open, and Tournour was there.

  “Tula!” he yelled rushing to me. His arms were around me. He released the scent, and while it calmed me, I could not stop crying. He whispered to me, his voice cooing. His arms were lifting me. I was safe.

  50

  There were things to be done.

  A new station order began to rise. Aliens started to fill the halls again on the Yertina Feray. It was a place where there was a fresh start for all species. A place for everyone to be equal.

  My other dream had also come true. Human colonies were being formed.

  The Wanderers would settle the planets and prepare them for the arrival of any more Earth refugees.

  In a way, it was everything that Brother Blue had envisioned. It was the sum of the reason why I’d ventured out into space in the first place.

  When anyone asked about Brother Blue, Tournour and I said that we saw him board a ship. We knew he was dead, but to the Imperium, he was still out there, with his secrets.

  After being stitched up, Bitty and Myfanwy were closer than ever, and I knew by the way that Myfanwy gently rubbed Bitty’s back, or the way that they would whisper to each other, that something was growing between them. One day they would be more than friends. It made me feel better that the reason why Myfanwy had never cared for Caleb was a matter of attraction and not the fact that she had never seen what a good-hearted person he was.

  They had a task that I knew was essential but wasn’t my calling either. They left soon after Bitty was healed from her stab wound. Along with Siddiqui, they took Caleb’s ship and crew and set about gathering any Humans they could find to bring them to the five colonies that I was hoping to convince Reza to help set up. We needed a representative in this new way, and Reza was the best equipped to lead.

  “Don’t you want to come with us?” Bitty asked me before she left with Myfanwy. It was hard to let her go. She was my family, and after all that had happened, I wanted to be with her. But we had different paths now, different dreams.

  “I want to go down to Quint and try to make it bloom again,” I said.

  The truth was that I wanted to bloom again myself. I had seen and done so much, and now I just wanted to go somewhere and be young. I’d had enough of fighting for what was right.

  I hugged her for longer than I meant to, releasing her only when I reminded myself that she was still alive and that she would come back one day to visit me.

  “I’m sorry about your friend Caleb,” Myfanwy said. “He was always kind to me.”

  “You did know him,” I said. “He really cared about you.”

  “I learned early on working for Brother Blue meant to forget what you knew,” she said.

  I understood what she meant all too well. It was something I had never learned.

  * * *

  I was finally ready to claim my future.

  Tournour caught up to me as I headed for the docking bay to catch a shuttle down to Quint to talk to Reza.

  “You’re leaving,” he said, pointing to the bags that held all of my personal items. It must have looked to him as though I were going away forever.

  “Yes,” I said. Since Brother Blue’s death and the aliens on the station coming together, he’d been busy coordinating how we would resist and survive while the Imperium took its time to collapse in on itself.

  “Reza…” I started, but Tournour put his hand up to stop me.

  “He’s a lucky man.”

  How was it that Tournour could be so intelligent and so thick at the same time? Here he was, not one hint of jealousy in him, completely ready to accept the fact that I was going to Quint to be with Reza. It never occurred to him that it was the furthest thing from the truth.

  “He’s the person that can best represent Earth. I can count on him.”

  He knew that we were going to help settle the refugees from Earth and the Wanderers on all of the Human colony planets.

  “Will you go to Beta Granade after? That was your original destination, wasn’t it? I know you will do right by all the Human refugees there.”

  He looked different as he said this. Disappointed almost. As though he were betraying an almost Human feeling when trying to think about where I would go and how that would affect him and his heart. With Tournour, duty always came first. He would expect that from me and never stand in my way, just as I had always understood that about him.

  “No. That isn’t my home,” I said, teasing him with my eyes. I was trying to tell him that there were so many different ways to stay true to one’s path.

  “Isn’t it?” he asked.

  “No.”

  He took my hand and curled his long fingers around mine, and there could be no denying that both of our hearts jumped.

  “My exile is done,” he said. “I’ve been pardoned, and I can go anywhere I’d like.”

  “That’s good news,” I said. “I’m happy for you. Do you have any idea where you’ll go?”

  I paused.

  “Tallara is beautiful,”
I said.

  He pointed to my three alin plants. They were something to start with down on Quint. The shuttle down to Quint was called, and I let go of his hand.

  “Will you be back?” he asked. “Is this goodbye?”

  His antennae were flopped in a way I’d never seen before, and his eyes were even deeper and darker than I’d ever remembered.

  “You have a terrible time reading me,” I said as the shuttle began boarding and I left him staring at me, confused.

  * * *

  “I’m surprised you put my name forth,” Reza said as I sat there and watched him pack his things.

  “You’re perfect for it,” I said. “It’s what you were meant to do.”

  The remnants of Earth Gov had wanted me to help lead the resettlement of refugees, but I had refused. It was Reza who had the real skills they needed.

  “I’d like you to come with me,” he said.

  “My place is here,” I said.

  I could see that he was nervous, as though having to let go of his plan when he crashed on Quint made him doubt his ability. But I had seen the way he’d worked with the Wanderers and the aliens to make their homes. He didn’t need me.

  “I’m sure they’d like to meet you,” Reza said. “Think of it, because of you we have colonies.”

  “Me and Brother Blue,” I said. That was the bitter truth. History would mix our names together, and the story would be muddled.

  Reza sat down next to me on the bed and put his arm around my shoulder.

  I could go with him. I could tell the real story. I knew I would be celebrated and revered. I would have wealth, power, and prestige. But what good was that? I had never sought it. What I wanted was a quiet life on Quint.

  As much as Reza had played the part of being a farmer, that wasn’t who he was. His time on Quint was a cocoon, getting him ready for this next part of his big life.

  “It’s Humans with a place in the galaxy. I want to share that with you,” he said.

  This was what he was meant to do. Not me. I changed the subject back to the last orders of business.

  “When the alin blooms, we’ll have currency,” I said. “To supplement yours.”

  He squeezed my hand.