Templum Veneris

by Jeremy L. Jones

  The woman looked at Althea blankly. That would be why she never asked, Althea thought to herself. She removed the casing from the door control mechanism while she tried to remember the Cytherean word for ‘name.’

  “Er…nome?” said Althea slowly. “Meu…nome… e… Althea.”

  The woman watched, and with a heavy accent repeated, “Althea.”

  “Yes. Good. Althea.” She disconnected a power coupling. “Meu nome e Althea and… er… voce nome?”

  “Luciana.”

  Althea connected the power coupling directly to the door control. There were a few sparks, and the door slid open. Althea turned and smiled. “Very nice to meet you, Luciana.”

  Althea replaced the components inside the panel, closed it, then took the woman by the hand and led her into the shuttle. Aside from the whir of fans and the low electric hum of hundreds of computers, the shuttle was silent. Althea paused for a few moments to watch and listen for any signs that someone was on board and awake. Nothing moved or made any noise.

  Althea looked back at the woman who held onto her hand as if it were her only tether to life itself. Luciana looked at the enormity of the ship as one would stare into the eyes of a mad god. She felt the woman’s grip tighten as she examined every inch.

  Althea petted her hand. “Luciana. You’ll be safe here. Seguro. Seguro.”

  Luciana gave Althea a meek little smile as if to say that she understood. Together, they crept through the cargo bay, up the stairs, around the corner and into the crew quarters.

  Each cabin was built for two people. They were a little more than a meter wide and two or three meters long. There were two bunks mounted to the wall, one over the other, with personal effects stored underneath the bottom bunk. Althea invited Luciana to sit down, slid the door closed, and locked it. The team hadn’t put these cabins to much use during this trip in favor of the rooms the Rainha provided at the Sala. At that moment, with the pregnant woman locked in the room with her, she felt a growing sense of claustrophobia.

  Althea sat down and put her finger up to her lip. “You must be quiet here. Quiet. Uh, calma… understand?”

  Luciana nodded. Althea sat back and let the full gravity of what she was doing crash into her psyche. This was insane. Beyond insane. A hundred questions and scenarios played out in her head, each one coming to the same inevitable conclusion. None of them ended with anything short of disaster.

  Still, at this point, what else could she do? Kick the woman out? Give her back to a system that would turn her unborn child into a soulless, cold-hearted killer? Would the child even survive that long? It was a hopeless idea, but the other options were unthinkable.

  “Guess we’re going to be bunkmates for a while,” said Althea, more to break the unbearable silence than anything else. “Don’t quite know how to get you past Isra for the next three months. Actually less than that. Once we’re in orbit, it’s too late. We don’t have the fuel to go back. She will have no choice but to bring you to Earth with us.” She glanced at the woman’s belly. “Can’t put you in hibernation either. No telling what those drugs would do to an unborn baby. At least not until it’s born. Looks like you and me will be in for a long ride together. When we get home, Isra will probably go after me with everything she has. She’ll kick me off the team. Destroy any chance of practicing medicine on Earth again. Probably try and have me locked up.”

  Luciana looked at her with incomprehension. Althea took her hand. “Whatever happens, you’re safe now. I’ll see to that. Seguro. Sim?”

  Luciana nodded. “Sim. Obrigado.”

  As fast as the panic had set in, a rush of calm went through Althea’s mind. She was throwing everything away at this moment, and she felt strangely good about it. She didn’t have much to lose. In a way, everything she had was a small price to pay.

  “Cansado?” said Althea. “Are you tired?”

  The woman stretched her arms. “Sim.”

  Althea got up and let the woman lie down, but just as Luciana closed her eyes, they both heard some commotion from elsewhere in the ship. The Cytherean woman started to sit upright in a panic, but Althea held her down and put her finger over her lips.

  “Calma,” whispered Althea. “Stay here. I’ll go see who it is. Okay? Calma, calma.”

  Althea slid the metal door open just wide enough for her to slip through and quickly closed it behind her. She started to walk toward the back of the shuttle when a voice nearly made her hit her head on the low ceiling.

  “Uh...Miss Fallon? What are you doing here?”

  Althea spun around. She saw who it was and relaxed to a certain degree. “Oh, Captain Colton. You startled me. I figured you would be asleep.”

  Colton brushed back his long hair. As much as it was possible for Colton to look worse with his patchwork beard and wrinkled clothing, he did. “I was, but the door alarm went off, friend. How did you get in? I could have sworn I locked it.”

  “Oh really,” said Althea innocently. “It was open when I tried it.”

  Colton rubbed his temples. “Figures. I think I’m losing it over here. I’ll forget to cycle the air next. You all will come back to find my suffocated corpse on the bridge. How’s it going out there anyway, friend? We leaving this rock anytime soon?”

  Althea glanced back at the crew cabin where Luciana was hiding. “Oh, it’s going rather swimmingly, I think. Isra should be finished with her work quite shortly. Is there anything to eat here?”

  The Captain shrugged. “Mess is in the back of the ship with the rest of the supplies, friend. Nothing fancy, though. Freeze-dried protein packs mostly. There might be some powdered eggs and dried fruit.”

  A sharp pounding on the metal cargo door beneath them made both of them jump. It was the kind of persistent hammering that comes from someone very insistent about getting in. The Captain looked back toward the stairs heading down into the hold. “Everyone else coming back tonight?”

  “Not to my knowledge,” said Althea, fighting to keep her voice neutral.

  “Huh. Well, I’ll see who it is then.”

  The Captain turned to walk down to the cargo bay. Once he was out of sight, Althea went to her cabin, threw the door open and beckoned Luciana. “Come with… oh, bloody hell… er… Venha comigo. Venha comigo. You need to hide.”

  The woman clutched her belly as she rose into a sitting position. There was fear in her face and hesitation in her movements, but she got to her feet. Althea gently, but firmly, grabbed her arm and pulled her into the hallway. She needed a plan. Althea wasn’t familiar enough with the ship to know any good hiding places. There were probably escape hatches or airlocks on this level, but she wasn’t sure where they were or if they were safe to use when landed. Pick the wrong hatch and Luciana could fall off the side of the ship, kill her baby and break every bone she had in her.

  She heard the cargo door open, followed by the Captain’s voice echoing through the ship. “Whoa, whoa, hold on there! This is an official shuttle of the Ministry. You can’t just…”

  Isra’s voice interrupted. “Stand down, Captain. These soldiers are operating under my command. Have you seen Althea?”

  Althea remembered the supply room in the back that Colton mentioned. It probably wasn’t a great place to hide, but it was the best she had. Althea pulled Luciana down the hallway toward the back of the ship until she got to three doors; one led to the engine room, the others led to equipment and supply storage. She picked a door at random, the one on the right, and opened it. It was the supply storage room, and it was absolutely packed with white plastic crates, strapped and netted to the walls. Still, thought Althea, if she could help Luciana over some of the boxes, there might be a place to hide.

  Althea turned. “Please, Por Favor. Calma. Calma?”

  Luciana’s face was the very definition of fear and confusion, but she swallowed hard and repeated, “Calma.”

  Althea stepped onto a crate and held out her hand to help Luciana up. There was a small space where someone, eve
n someone as big as the pregnant woman currently was, could crouch and remain out of sight. Althea helped the woman back off the box and motioned for her to sit down in that space.

  Then she heard Isra’s voice coming up the stairs. “Are you sure you did not see anyone else with her, Captain?”

  “No, friend. Nobody else,” said Colton. He sounded like he was struggling to keep up with her.

  Althea put her finger to her lips again, and the woman nodded. The medic scrambled back over the box and headed out to the hallway.

  “She’s just down here,” Colton’s voice replied. “Who are those guys? They look like something out of a military history textbook…”

  Althea slid the door shut as quietly as she could and hustled back to her bunk. She got to the door just as Isra crested the stairs. The mission leader’s eyes narrowed when she saw her. “Where is the woman, Althea?”

  Althea opened the door to her cabin, avoiding eye contact. “Whatever do you mean, Isra?”

  “You know what I mean,” said Isra approaching. “I saw you just a little while ago. You met with a woman by the fountain outside the Sala and you took her here.”

  Questions ran through Althea’s head at a blistering pace. How had she seen that? Was she following her? Did she have Isabel’s men tailing her? She channeled the flash of anger into her voice. “I came right back to the ship like you ordered.”

  Isra stopped just a couple meters away and spoke to her softly. “Althea, you have to trust me…”

  Althea reeled back. “Trust you? You’ve thrown in your lot with the Rainha and the rest of the murderous bastards of that city. I can’t stop it, but I don’t have to endure it either.”

  “Althea,” said Isra, closing the distance again. “Please. If I can’t produce what the Rainha wants… well… just tell me where the woman is. I can convince the Rainha to be lenient.”

  Althea clenched her jaw. She was caught, and she knew it. The only thing to do now was stall. Her eyes met Isra’s, looking for any indication that she was really the same leader Althea knew. “What will happen to her?”

  Isra’s face didn’t twitch. “I do not know.”

  “They will probably murder her. And her child.”

  “That is a possibility.”

  “And you still intend to turn her over?”

  “I have no choice.”

  Althea opened the door to her quarters. “Of course you do. Tell the Captain we are ready to go. Send word to Viekko and Cronus to drop what they are doing and make their way here immediately. We scrap this entire thing and run.”

  Isra took a deep breath as if to keep from thinking about something unpleasant. “Althea, if I return to Earth without some sort of agreement from the Cythereans…”

  Althea threw up her hands. “Oh bugger what the Ministry wants! You really think that there can be any agreement with these people? Any sort of treaty? Nothing good can come of us staying here.”

  Isra’s face remained cold and impassive. Her voice was vacant and hollow. “Althea, I cannot return to Earth without some agreement. My career within the Ministry will be over.”

  Althea shook her head. “It’s all about you, isn’t it? It’s always all about you. It doesn’t matter who has to die just so long as you get to claim victory. You and the Rainha are exactly alike.” Althea took a deep breath. “There is nobody here, Isra. You may tear this ship apart, but you’ll not find anything.”

  Isra nodded solemnly and went down the stairs.

  Heavy steps on the metal stairway a few moments later signaled her return with two Cytherean soldiers gripping their swords with a murderous gleam in their eyes.

  “Procure a mulher,” ordered Isra. “Verifique os quartos na parte de tras.”

  The soldiers pushed by Althea, nearly knocking her down in the process. She wanted to grab them by their red cloaks and hold on until they were forced to beat her away. She wanted to stand in front of them and block their path, so they had to use their swords. She wanted to scream, punch, kick, bite; whatever she could do to keep them from finding the woman.

  All of which, she knew, would be futile. These trained soldiers would shake her off like a burr they found clinging to their cloak. They would stab her and leave her bleeding out without a moment’s hesitation or consideration. Neither they nor even Isra would feel the slightest remorse for any harm that came to her.

  She stood facing Isra, letting the woman’s blue-grey eyes pry apart every piece of her soul, just like the soldiers were doing to the rear of the ship. Isra knew everything, and yet it didn’t matter somehow. Althea would never give in until there was nothing left to do.

  It didn’t take long. A door opened, and the woman screamed, giving herself away. Althea didn’t look behind her. She couldn’t bear to watch the scuffle as both soldiers charged into the room and pulled Luciana out, crying and screaming for her child. They bound her hands with metal shackles and proceed to drag her away. Luciana’s eyes met Althea’s one last time before she disappeared for good. There was no fear or anger in her face, just the deep, resigned sadness of the condemned.

  Althea didn’t fight when the other soldier pulled her hands back to bind them. She was as condemned as the woman, and in some small way, that provided a sense of relief. Luciana wouldn’t have to face her crimes alone. Althea would be with her. Another martyr among who knows how many hundreds or thousands that had died in this hell.

  “Pare. Deixe ela aqui,” snapped Isra.

  The soldier behind Althea stopped what he was doing. “A Rainha ordenou…”

  “Vou explicar para a Rainha. Esta e minha Terra.”

  Althea felt the soldier release her hands. He stared a kind of warning in Althea’s eyes as he walked by before heading down the tight corridor to help his partner deal with the crying woman.

  “Captain Colton,” Isra called, without her eyes leaving Althea.

  The ship’s Captain ran up the spiral staircase. He paused at the top and looked in shock at the two soldiers leading Luciana past him and down the stairs. “Isra…. What… what is goin’ on here? This ain’t…”

  Isra cut him off. “Captain, make sure Althea’s quarters are stocked with a forty-eight hour supply of food and water. Once that is completed, I want you to electronically rig her doors so they only open from the outside.”

  Captain Colton stammered. “Er, I don’t know ma’am. I’ll need to…”

  Isra snapped her head around to glare at Colton. “Is there a problem, Captain?”

  Colton gulped. “No, ma’am. None at all.” With that, he slinked off to carry out his duties.

  Isra turned back. “I am sorry, Althea.”

  Althea lifted her head. “Not at all, Ms. Jicarrio. Sacrifices must be made to ensure the Ministry accomplishes its goal of guaranteeing civil liberties and human freedom on every world. It is an honorable goal, even if people must continue to be murdered and enslaved to make sure it happens.”

  Althea touched her forehead, chest and stomach; head, heart and guts, the official salute of the Ministry. Then she turned on her heels, went back into her cabin, and shut the door behind her.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  A theme of the Lady of Fire’s speeches during this time was that the United States was an old, overweight boxer:

  “Our enemy is a heavyweight champ from back in the days when they used wire to communicate. He is tired now. He moves slowly and has to rest often. He eats greasy food and watches his belly grow. He doesn’t fight for himself but for promoters, businessmen and sharks who understand that they can make just a little more money from him. He will fight hard at first, but he cannot sustain it. We are the young, strong fighter who has nothing left if he loses but everything if he wins.”

  Adriana’s metaphor proved to be both inspiring and apocryphal as the United States settled into a three-year stalemate on the Brazilian coast.

  -From The Fall: The Decline and Failure of 21st Century Civilization by Martin Raffe

  It was morning.
Viekko slept alone in the Sala last night and the entire time wished that he hadn’t.

  After Isra left to go after Althea, he went directly to a room the oculto prepared and tried to get some sleep. It was difficult with the noise from the main hall of the Sala. Every drunken yell from the tables, and giggly girl outside his door invited him to get up and join. This did nothing for his mood. He could have used the distraction. Anything to mask that terrible feeling of betrayal and impotence.