by Letts,Jason
Just then, Kid and Erina appeared around the side of a tent, making Loris concerned that he’d been overheard.
“We’re looking for Gallow. Have any of you seen him around today?” Kid asked. She had dreadlocked hair and a necklace adorned with colorful stones and shells.
While everyone shook their heads, Loris sensed from the two Novans that they were already intent on finding him before they did anything else.
“Can I ask you something?” Panic said. Loris’s eyes widened, wondering if she was about to ask to leave the planet before he’d had a chance to talk to her about it.
“What is it?”
“We were talking about how nice it’d be to have an aqueduct people could use to wash their hands without having to walk into the forest. We could dig a trench and line it with stone. It wouldn’t require any technology at all, just some basic engineering. What do you think?”
Kid cast a skeptical glance at her companion, Erina, who also seemed perfectly content with what they’d been doing for years.
“We’ll bring it up at the next Planning Council meeting,” Kid said, but this wasn’t nearly enough for Panic.
“When will that be?”
“After we find Gallow.”
The two Novans left and the newcomers returned to idle chatter. Loris didn’t have the heart to tell her that if an aqueduct depended on Gallow, then it wasn’t ever going to happen.
Word spread quickly around the camp that Gallow was missing, and Loris tried to keep tabs on the chatter by hanging out around the well. Apparently, Gallow had a spot he visited occasionally along an inland sea that took about twelve hours to walk to, though all agreed that with the recent arrival of the Magellan it was an unlikely time for him to take an unannounced vacation.
But with the village turned inside out and no sign of him anywhere, Kid and Erina packed up to make the journey. That was enough to settle the issue for the day, but that reprieve proved short lived as the pair returned the following afternoon in a frantic, angry state. All unoccupied hands were commanded to immediately take to the woods in search parties, leaving Loris in the unfortunate position of wandering around in the forest looking for someone he didn’t want anyone to find. All the while he and a few Novans traversed the brush to the south of the village, he wondered how long it would take for someone to reach that stream toward the northeast and spot the man’s body face down in the water beside the mouth of a cave.
That specific length of time was four hours and thirty-three minutes from when Loris left with his search party to when he heard calls echoing through the trees that Gallow had been found and that everyone should return. Soon after, Loris stood in a deep crowd circling around the village leader, trying to sort out what people were saying as they analyzed the body. There were many voices, but Kid and Erina were conspicuously silent.
“We should search the cave!” someone shouted. “Something in there got him!”
Sounds of agreement echoed around the rabble. Loris nudged closer, trying to catch a glimpse of the state of the body from behind the others gathered. In quick glimpses, he saw the man did look much worse after being exposed for a few days. His wounds weren’t visible, but stone cuts couldn’t be that much different than what the creatures on the planet could inflict. He held out hope.
As best he could tell, they’d been in such a hurry to bring the body back that no one had found the hatch.
“Was it suicide?” another proposed. “A lot of times people act happy when they’re really depressed.”
Loris was now close enough to see Kid’s lean, tanned face and the scowl on it. Her eyes radiated rage.
“No, brothers and sisters. Garrison Rollow, the man who believed in us and who in turn we believed in, has been murdered!”
The roar from the crowd quickly rose so loud that it hurt Loris’s ears. Kid was raising her hands high in the air.
“I will not rest until his killer is brought before the council and given a punishment fitting the crime!”
While Loris was just one of many in the now raucous crowd, and Kid was turning often to address everyone, he swore she looked at him for a moment. A thought struck him that the death of Gallow was what she’d been waiting for, her chance to step into the spotlight and take control. Perhaps it wasn’t even that different than what Iotache had managed to do after the explosion made them all itinerates.
The difference was that Iotache was a hands-off schemer, while Kid had the fiery eyes of a killer without a hint of mercy and the total support of the Novans.
If Gallow was worried about being burned alive for using technology, the Novan leaders had something far different in mind as punishment for his killing. Those rules against technology seemed to be bending near to the point of breaking as a huge structure took shape in the center of the Crossroads. It had pulleys, ropes, and platforms supporting four tree trunks in each quadrant.
The color drained out of Loris’s face when he realized what it was. They were building a rack. He would be brought up and placed in the center, tied in, and the tree trunks would drop with enough force to tear off his arms and legs.
Within days this monument to death towered over everything else around them, a constant reminder that they were hunting Gallow’s killer. To put it mildly, the others from the Magellan found it disconcerting, even though they shouldn’t have had anything to worry about. It went without question that none of the Novans would’ve killed Gallow, even though apparently one had a history of stealing the man’s walking sticks, and that put all of the newcomers under suspicion.
One by one, Armand Iotache came to take someone away for interrogation. It was hard not to think that those called first were the most likely suspects. Loris wasn’t even fifth on the list.
He saw Iotache coming for his tent while he was picking seeds out of a plant. Stayed was nearby, attempting to pulp wood chips in order to make paper. Waiting wasn’t of any use, so Loris exchanged a look with Stayed before getting up to meet Iotache.
They went to Iotache’s tent to speak. The old man’s accommodations on Nova appeared to be even more comfortable than those on the Magellan. The Novans gave him a large tent, impeccably constructed, with a feather bed, plenty of furniture, and even a fan of leaves that operated by pulling a string. It made a stark contrast with the pathetic hovels the rest of them had built for themselves.
“Have a seat,” Iotache said. The thatched-reed chair was the most comfortable thing Loris had sat down on since stepping out of the Hudson. “Tell me what you know about Gallow’s killing.”
Iotache’s bluntness might’ve been an attempt to make Loris hesitate as he conjured up a story, but he’d had plenty of time to prepare and showed no signs of awkwardness.
“He was found in water with wounds in his chest and stomach three days ago now,” he said.
Iotache leaned closer and donned a thin smile.
“Loris Roderick, I need your help. I’m still the commander of the Magellan, and I’m in the awkward position of rooting out one of my own men who made a terrible mistake. Maybe it was an accident, maybe it was something else. We don’t know. But until we find out who it was, there’s nothing I can do to help them.
“Do you think I’m running this investigation? Not even close. Kid and Erina are talking to every single native to find out who might’ve gone off after Gallow in the forest. If they find out who it was before I do, it’ll be out of my hands. But if I find them first, I can get them back up to the Magellan while I try to defuse the anger here. That way no one gets torn apart in that awful contraption.
“Someone needs to tell me what happened, and it needs to be done now. Can you tell me?”
Iotache gazed forward, revealing faded green eyes that searched for the truth. It was a convincing argument, that Iotache meant to save the person who did it, and Loris might’ve been tempted by it if not for all of those messages he’d read in the Space Mole. There was no doubt that Iotache’s allegiance remained with the Virgin World movement
and that all of his words were lies.
Loris wanted to tell him as much, shove it right in his face how he’d betrayed his home and his crew, but the only way he could’ve gotten that information was over Gallow’s dead body.
“I wish I had something for you. I do. But I went to bed one night and woke up the next day to find that he’d gone missing. I’ve talked to some of the other guys, and they don’t have a clue either. I just can’t imagine anyone actually doing this.”
Iotache’s smile faded, but his eyes continued to search. There were more questions, but Loris answered them in the weary but relaxed manner that seemed most akin to what an innocent man would say after being dragged in for questioning. Eventually he was allowed to leave, but getting out of that tent didn’t provide any relief.
There were only three possible conclusions to the investigation. Either they’d apprehend him, someone else, or they’d fail to find anyone. Loris had a good hunch that someone would be thrown in the rack regardless of any evidence being found. And someone else getting punished for what he’d done was unacceptable as well. As the day passed and the next began, Loris considered turning himself in and making his case. But with no real law here, a self-defense argument wasn’t likely to excuse his actions. Killing Gallow was going to cost him his life in the eyes of anyone whose opinion mattered.
And Brina was supposed to land in just a couple of days.
Loris wandered around the well and the trading market when he heard something that got his attention. The current theory was that the killer was one of the newcomers who’d been involved in the fight against the beetles, and someone had seen a man heading into the woods after that in the direction of where Gallow had been found.
That was enough to strike fear into Loris’s heart. He slipped away and returned to his tent, riddled with anxiety that they were going to come for him any minute. It was a while before he even noticed that Stayed had gone out, which was for the better. He didn’t want anyone to see him writhing and whimpering before the axe fell. Somehow the exhaustion and the heat got to him, and he passed out for a time. When he woke up in the early evening with the orange sky set against the tree tops, he heard chatter outside.
He assumed they’d gathered to take him away, but instead a number of officers were milling about, including Panic and Lopez. Redhook was there as well, and he broke from the group to approach Loris.
“Did you hear it was Stayed? That guy just can’t stop himself from killing people,” Redhook said.
“Wait, what?” Loris said, astonished. Maybe it was because he was just waking up, but he felt his eyes start to water. He was stunned.
“Turned himself in a little while ago. Thank goodness, because I was starting to wonder if I’d done it. But it looks like you lucked out with a double tent to yourself. Maybe you’ll be able to get your lady friend in there. Too bad for the rest of us there’s no sound-proofing these tents. Know what I mean?”
Loris turned away toward the center of the village.
“Hey, where are you going?” Redhook called.
“I’ve got to talk to him,” Loris said.
“I know he’s the former commander and all, but I just don’t see any way of him avoiding the punishment in store for him. Besides, I sure as hell wouldn’t go over there now. There’s quite a scene going on.”
Loris didn’t listen and went anyway but soon found that Redhook was right. They had Stayed bound inside of a cage of wood and rope in the shadow of the giant rack. Scores of people were around, throwing spoiled food, vulgar insults, and the occasional rock. It was difficult to see Stayed, but he seemed to be passively enduring it.
He returned late that night when things were much different in the square. The people had all cleared out without even leaving behind anyone to guard their prisoner, perhaps because the leadership was so disorganized that no one thought it was their responsibility to do it. A torch still burned nearby, and there were residences not too far away, but for Loris it was simply a matter of walking up to the cage and rousing the man sleeping in the corner.
“Stayed, what are you doing?”
“Loris,” the older man said when he came around. It surprised Loris that he seemed relieved by his visit. He had bruises and welts that were barely visible in the firelight.
“You didn’t kill Gallow.”
“That’s not the issue here.”
Loris paused at the difficulty he was having with this conversation.
“When did you figure out it was me?”
“I’m not a fool, Loris. You were leaving every night and it wasn’t to take a piss,” he said. He had some hope in his eyes, even though he was back in a cell again.
“You were right, you know. Gallow had a ship buried out in the forest that he was using as his personal man cave. There were so many messages in the archives. Iotache started planning to take control of the Magellan and bring it here as soon as they announced it would be built.”
Bringing up Iotache tempered the ex-commander’s expression.
“I never had a clue about any of this,” he said, gesturing around him. “I wasn’t smart enough to figure it out.”
“You were right about something else too. I became a killer, something I never thought I could do.”
Stayed scoffed.
“Don’t listen to me. You’ve killed plenty of Silica. You did what you had to do.”
Loris looked around at the ties binding the cage’s poles together.
“I brought a cutting stone. We can get you out of here,” he said, producing the weapon, but Stayed merely shrugged.
“And be a fugitive? No, thank you. Worse, they’d figure out it was you helping me and give you the punishment they intend to give me or figure out it was you all along. That would make everything I’ve done pointless. No, even if this entire cage was turned to dust I wouldn’t move an inch from this spot.”
Loris couldn’t understand why he was so adamant about resisting.
“There’s something else you said that I remember. You’d always take being alive. This is your chance to live and we can figure out the rest later. Now, come on!” he said, starting to cut at the rope anyway.
Stayed reached through the gap in the cage and stilled his hand.
“Someone has to be punished for this or it will always be a threat to you.”
“But why, why won’t you leave?” Loris said, struggling with Stayed’s hands over his. Stayed pursed his lips and looked long at Loris, who wanted to ask what he was so reluctant to spit out. They continued to struggle until Stayed’s resistance failed and it came out suddenly.
“I will not let them kill my son.”
Loris stopped fighting. His eyes widened. There could be no doubt that William Stayed was speaking the truth, the conviction in his voice coming from his very core.
“What? But…”
Stayed sighed and let his head droop.
“I’m so sorry about everything, Loris. I’m sorry you had to learn it this way. I’m sorry I couldn’t have been there for you before. I wasn’t a family man and Corinna had obligations because of her position. Revealing a secret affair with the test pilot and trying to make it legitimate wasn’t going to work.”
Loris’s head was spinning.
“But my dad…the guy who I thought was my dad. He still might’ve…”
“He could barely tie his shoes, much less fly a ship. You’re my son and we both knew it. I know I was never there, but I’ve always been looking out for you. Certainly, your mother was a part of it, but I had been working on getting you aboard the Magellan. I just didn’t know you’d be taking my job and have to contend with that Chief Liaison sack of bones.”
A lot ran through Loris’s mind, but at the bottom of it something clear emerged. Letting Stayed die in his place was not going to happen.
“We’re going to find a way out of this,” Loris said.
“I beg you not to try. My time is long past. Your chances at greatness are still before you.
”
Loris shook his head at his father, who should’ve known that letting him go through with this was something Loris couldn’t do. But time was short, and the way forward was not easy.
“This isn’t over.”
CHAPTER 12
Word circulated the next morning that the sentencing and execution were scheduled to take place at the end of that day, both of them being announced at once as if there was no other possible outcome. It would be shortly after the next group arrived aboard the Hudson. It gave Loris even less time than he’d thought, and he hurried to the Space Mole to get a message back to the Magellan.
The question remained if any of them would listen. At least they would know what they had to look forward to on the ground. Fortunately, Panic and Lopez didn’t take too much convincing.
After that Loris departed with Kid and Erina and a few other Novans for the trek to the landing space. Iotache didn’t even bother to come, and the Novans didn’t want Loris with them either, but there wasn’t much they could do to stop him from following along with them. It surprised Loris when at one point in the journey Kid waited up and approached him.
“You must understand that we can’t simply turn our backs on one of our founders. It’s our rules, our beliefs, our shared vision that sustain us. The people of Earth became slaves to technology, and that’s why they’re all dead and we’re not. We need to keep faith with Gallow’s memory in the simple way that we’ve established. A life for a life.”
It seemed she expected him to provide some form of agreement, and Loris was wary about starting an argument out in the forest where no one could come to his defense. But Loris couldn’t offer any kind of tacit approval.
“I know Stayed was your predecessor and I understand you must sympathize with him. But I’m sure you also respect the rule of law here,” she said, which Loris found to be the height of irony. It was too much and he couldn’t hold back.
“You didn’t care much for rules when Iotache was on the Magellan breaking ours.”