When Arucken had asked what would follow for Kalinaw they had seen the same blank response she’d encountered on the landing bay. It was not their concern. They were not a part of it.
Escorted out with speed, and not allowed to witness more, they had spent the time since waiting. Even Oleysha had been keen to see the back of them. The warmth of her earlier greeting had faded from her tone, and she’d been just one in a line of grim faces. Now they waited, along with the adult colonists in the large hallway before the closed chamber door.
Earlier that morning had seen the captured soldiers escorted past them. Without weapons and exoskeleton armour they could have walked beside the colonists with little comment. Some of the colonists had raised an ugly chant, until Veerender had told them to hush.
After that time passed in silence, but it couldn’t have been easy to pass the array of accusing eyes from the colonists. The soldiers had kept their eyes downcast, all but their leader, secure behind a pair of augmented glasses. He took the escort as if it were an honour guard, and he’d even smiled at Arucken as he passed.
Arucken had hissed, low between his teeth but kept the gaze. It was easier once they were out of sight. No trial would bring back Ryla, or mend the broken trust they had tried to build with the other species.
Nia had been outraged at the lack of punishment, and Kerris agreed. It could not pay for what they had taken. Yet with Malik as he was and his conspirators dead, the soldiers were just seen as hired help. That was not what Arucken believed and the sick feeling in her stomach agreed with him. The Concordat was just making more enemies, and she did not know how she could stop that.
“It could have worked.” Morgan muttered, sadly as she rejoined them outside the council chambers an hour later. She closed the heavy wooden door behind her with a sigh. “If they’d only listened.” She looked around at the other adult representatives.
Trin, Jiang, Eland, Veerender and even Nia, the woman who still showed daggers in her eyes when she looked across at them. Kerris wasn’t sure if Nia could ever forgive her for surviving what the woman’s partner had not.
“So what is agreed?” Veerender asked, his dark eyes intent on Morgan. His face was absent of its normal friendly smile, and he looked like he had a great deal of thinking to do.
“Humans can stay on the mainland.” Morgan said. “The sea dwellers have allowed us to keep Arroyo. No islands. No Kalinaw. We colonists can stay on the mainland if we will integrate.” The word was bitter.
“The sea dwellers will be here for around twenty rotations.” Morgan said after a moment, and she was no longer able to meet anyone’s eyes. Kerris did the quick maths, that worked out to be about thirty years of a human life. “Mining, apparently. They insist that no harm will come to the land - not that they care if it did - and they will discuss if humans can resettle the smaller islands after that. Too late for us.”
Veerender nodded, his face solemn. “So we pick up the pieces again, and move on.”
“The caves?” Eland asked, desperately. He stood to one side, unable to stand still as he shifted his considerable weight from one foot to another. “There was so much knowledge there, so much more to do!”
“Are they on the mainland?” Morgan asked, her voice weary.
Eland strode off, like a petulant child, into the chamber. He struggled to open the large door and then left it half ajar as he rushed in. Kerris doubted he’d get a polite reception. They heard the beginnings of angry words before Arahvinth came and closed it. He gave them a sombre nod as he did so, his previous joviality absent.
Morgan laughed then. “As if he’ll do better! No-one here wants a war with those things.”
“People.” Arucken said. Quietly, but firm. He did not blink his alien eyes as he met Morgan’s gaze and she dropped hers.
“People.” she admitted, turning away. She spoke to the other colonists in a low voice, whilst Kerris and Arucken allowed them some privacy.
Kerris couldn’t blame her bitterness. Seeing Malik in the council chamber, stripped of all his feelings and just a human radio - mouthing words put inside of him by the sea dweller to one side. It was hard not to see herself in that place, stripped of all humanity.
She felt Arucken’s displeasure and hurt beside her and felt ashamed. She knew it had been the madness, the mad plot that had broken of his morality. His own people, turning against him to then pick him up again like a discarded tool. Why he’d agreed to help them again, she couldn’t imagine. Arucken had been quiet afterwards, and she could sense an odd grudging respect for the maddened human.
But Malik’s two companions had not returned, and she could only guess that the process had failed with them. Or they had been too far gone to revive.
The sea dwellers needed a single voice.
Morgan turned back to them. “We’ll be needing an escort. They say there is another prospect, a young planet, three weeks travel from here. We can keep our initial seedlings, and start again. They will lend us a ship.”
Kerris nodded. “All of you?”
“Most.” Morgan said, her eyes flickered to Nia. “Some want to stay here, as they’ve had enough of travelling. Good luck to them. Most will be coming with us - with others from Arroyo who want to leave. Enough for another beginning.”
Her eyes were tired, and so were her partners. Jiang wrapped his arms around her.
“We’ve done it before.” He said quietly, and Kerris didn’t know if he was talking to them, or the other colonists.
Then a cascade of young feet came racing around the corner led by a small girl and an older boy that brought the smile rising back to their faces. Lyndon flung himself at them, smiling up at both his parents.
Lily raced up towards them, halting by the large painting to one side. Curious for a moment and reaching out. When Veerender told her gently not to touch it she shrugged him off, darting back into her previous manic motion as if she had never stopped.
“Bug family!” She yelled, and wrapped her arms around Kerris’ legs. She crouched by the small girl, and looked up at Morgan.
“We’ll be taking Lily with us.” Morgan added, to the unspoken question. “We wouldn’t be free without her.”
“No!” Lily said. “I’m going with my bug family!”
Arucken said. “But your little family is here.”
Lily’s eyes filled with tears, but she made no noise. She stepped away from Kerris, staring back at them both with betrayed eyes. The feelings that washed through Kerris shocked her, a powerful affection and love. It was not just her own.
Arucken had the truth of it she saw, as Morgan came up to stand by the small, angry girl. Her mouth pinched tight, her small fists in hands by her side as she looked as if she wanted them both to implode on the spot. So much emotion, contained in such a small package.
Morgan rested a hand on the girl’s shoulder and it was not shaken off.
Jiang and Lyndon came to stand by them both, and after a moment Lily turned round and flung her arms round Morgan’s legs. Morgan knelt to untangle the child and wrapped her arms around her. The dark haired girl sank into them, sobbing. It was like a dam finally breaking. Jiang rested one hand on Morgan’s shoulder and his other arm around their son.
The door slammed and Eland came striding out. He refused to look at any of them, although his disdain grew as he strode past Kerris. She couldn’t hold back the grin that rose on her face. Eland had not been amused to find himself trapped, and wouldn’t accept that she’d forgotten he was there.
She thought Octavia had behaved impeccably. Her ship did not like to be called names and it was not like Kerris had told anyone the details of how she’d found him.
“Will you be staying then?” Morgan asked loudly after Eland, as she raised her face from where she still had Lily enveloped in a hug.
“Yes!” he called back, but his face was thunderous.
“He’ll be waiting a long time for permission.” Jiang said.
“His choice.” Morgan answer
ed shrugging. She smiled down at Lily, then nodded across at the pair.
“So will you take the job? Can you escort us?”
Arucken nodded, his large eyes soft with amusement. “Try and stop us!”
They followed the colonists to a larger building, where a group of Arroyo natives stood already packed. Morgan laughed as she saw the hopeful piles of large luggage beside many of the families, some of whom had clearly never been off-planet before. “We may need to babysit again!” She said, and her tone was rueful.
The colonist’s children paused for a moment, staring at the large group in front of them. Trin gathered them up, and the group of children began swapping stories of space and travel with the ones already gathered.
“Colony shifting.” Arucken acknowledged, as they stood alone. “It’s incredible. Building from nothing, just to leave it behind again.”
“Not usually like this.” Kerris said. She felt admiration sneaking up on her as she watched the colonists moving through the group, explaining things and organising the rather scattered group.
But not so trapped. Arucken said. Always the option to move forward.
She sensed his disbelief then and a struggle to imagine a life so different to his indoctrination. She caught echoes of his childhood, spilling into his thoughts.
Talibeth featured then, but despite her curiosity she knew it was not a memory he freely offered.
So she withdrew, with a light touch to his mind but staying close to him. After a moment he reached out, and caught her hand in his. They stood there, forgotten, as they watched people planning a new life together.
Transfer
It was a subdued group of colonists that climbed into the transporter ship, the Manchu. Rebuilding they could understand.
Abandonment, not so much.
Morgan admitted her own main reason for moving, if she had been in any doubt about the fact. She spoke of how Malik had moved forward, an automaton voicing his own destruction as he tonelessly made arrangements with the councillors for his replacement, in those passing years when he ‘wore out’.
Morgan said the councillors had agreed to the conduit with zero hesitation. Her own eyes had been full of grief at that, a strong confused rejection of the idea. She knew it made sense on a rational level.
“But how could I stay, not knowing how they would choose the one to replace him? What if -” And she hadn’t voiced the thought, but Kerris had guessed at the direction. What if one of the children taken, would then be used? The pathways were already partially mapped out.
The what-ifs were too powerful, and it was no surprise no-one with children chose to remain.
Nia had been one of those to stay behind. Many of the older adults had done the same. Arroyo was an interesting place, well setup and thriving. The infrastructure was different to Kalinaw, yet perhaps that contrast was appealing to some of them.
Yet it wasn’t what many of them had signed up for, and there would be no chance of them owning any of it.
That’s the difference? From his couch to the side, Arucken glanced over at her at the helm. The idea of ownership?
How can you not understand that wish? Kerris asked him. Your people own us!
She’d never voiced that thought before, and her partner was silent. He considered for a while and they flew in silence.
I’m sorry if you regret that. He said finally.
Of course I don’t! Kerris answered, although her insides twisted at his response. Sometimes it was easier to not have your fears confirmed.
She sensed a flood of relief from Arucken, before he lay back on the couch and closed his large eyes. His breathing soon changed, slowed and grew to a soft hiss. As he slept, Kerris sat at the helm, watching the views out of the screen and making the course changes as needed.
Octavia was handling herself well, and the councillors at Arroyo had lent them a technician to help go over the security. They hadn’t had the skills to recognise her, Kerris had been relieved to find out. The discussions had been useful to help her go through the protocols behind Octavia’s exterior. If Talibeth could still get in, it wasn’t for lack of trying to keep her out.
Arucken had pointed out Talibeth's report to his species, a vitriolic document complaining they were holding on to unique discoveries. Since it had been widely mocked, Arucken believed the danger was over. Kerris was not so certain.
It’s a shame we’ve been submitting reports so regularly then isn’t it? Arucken had said to her. We’ve never missed a single deadline, or test.
And if they question how Octavia landed herself? That wasn’t on any projection I ever saw!
They won’t. Arucken had said to her, and his inward voice was full of certainty. What we have extra in this partnership, is only for us. Though I guess we should start calling it a trio.
A buzz of assent from Octavia, the floor vibrating under their feet. In the past year, Octavia had grown in thought and feeling. She had been created a hybrid, but no-one had ever explained what that meant. Yet she was leased. Any hint of this, and she would be taken from them, Kerris was certain.
You think her unique?
For now. He’d said, his humour breaking through in waves. Much as I know you like to think yourself so, and our ship!
Like you don’t do the same!
Now I do. He said, and the humour vanished. There was a wealth of gratitude there she did not understand, and she could tell he knew it. A tinge of shame followed after.
And now he lay sleeping, and she wondered what thoughts were running through his head. His wounds were healing a little slower than they should, but he’d insisted a better diet would speed that back up. He’d been pleased to be entrusted with the seedlings again, although Morgan had mentioned how much she’d had to fight to get those moved with them.
The system they passed through was a quiet one, littered with planets of small worth for habitation. The red giant to the centre, at the nadir of a 30-year cycle, was emitting so much energy and radiation that all the neighbours were worthless. Although one or two held small scientific bases in orbit, the remainder was filled with broken and empty planets.
The Manchu, lumbered to one side as Octavia led the way. The shadow of it often blocked out the glow of the red giant, although it kept a careful distance between them. Octavia had already proven her worth, as they’d had to identify a floating wreck of a spaceship and scan for any life.
It had proven empty; save for some odd tablets of a writing they could not recognise. Eland might have had a fit at seeing them, but Kerris was not sorry that the acerbic scientist had stayed behind.
As they pushed past the giant and its glow faded, Kerris spotted a ship to one side. It was larger than Octavia, but made in the same mould. She recognised it, and her heart sank to the pit of her stomach. How long had that been following them?
Octavia chimed then, warning of an incoming message across the public channel. As Arucken still lay sleeping, Kerris patched it through to her private channel. A familiar, mocking voice filled her ears.
“More help for the humans then, and none for your own species my first-sibling?”
Kerris tensed in her chair. She took a deep breath before responding. “You mistake me, Talibeth.”
“Oh the human.” Talibeth sounded disappointed, even childish. “Did you get my report?”
“Of course. “Kerris said. She couldn’t keep the scorn out of her voice. Although couched in professional language, the message Arucken had shown her had struck her as overwhelmingly petty. “The Concordat forwards us these things, irrational or not.”
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