by Elin Wyn
Unique. Fascinating.
“What’s the purpose of these camps?” Tu’ver asked. I snapped my attention back where it belonged. The mission. The war. “Why would the Xathi bother keeping the hybrids separate?”
“I have some thoughts on that.” I laced my fingers together, sweeping my gaze over the teams. Now that a decision had been made, a clear target presented, they were unified in their attitudes once again.
“The largest camps are placed near cities that still have a big enough population to infiltrate and turn into hybrids. One is near Glymna, the only major city that the Xathi haven’t attacked head-on. That should be our first mark. As for why the Xathi are living separately from the hybrids,” I shook my head. “It’s my guess that the Xathi are using the hybrids as cannon fodder. Usually, Xathi can signal the others in the hive-mind and call in virtually unlimited reinforcements. That’s not the case here. They’re cut off from the rest of their armada. We’ve already speculated that their mental connection can’t cross the rift. Even if there are other Xathi on their way, they won’t be arriving any time soon.”
“Could others come here?” Vidia’s face was a shade paler than it had been before. “Other Xathi could attack Ankau?”
I assured her that there were no signs of them on any of the Urai scanners. “Believe me, if there were more coming, we’d know.”
She nodded, but I could still see some worry on her brow. I pulled out a palm-sized projector from my pocket and placed it on the table, so it could project a map of the hybrid camps on the wall.
“So, the camp near Glymna first.” Vrehx stood up to examine the projection. “The camp near Duvest seems like a good next step. There’s still a decent-sized civilian population there. The one near the Vengeance can be hit last. There shouldn’t be too many people out there.”
“Why would they be near the Vengeance?” Rokul asked.
“I bet they’re waiting on us to come back,” Dax replied.
Sour mutters rounded the room. None of us liked the idea of our ship, our home, being used to bait us.
“Hybrids routinely go on patrols,” Sakev commented. “If we do this right, we can lure some of the patrols to the camps and lump them in with the others when we drop the cure.”
“Does the cure have any effect on the Xathi themselves?” Sk’lar asked.
“As far as I understand, no,” Vidia answered. “It works by altering brain chemistry, so the brain in question has to be a human one underneath the modifications that have been done by the queen.”
“At what point do the hybrids’ brains stop resembling a human’s?” Tu’ver asked. “At what point is the cure not effectivea because the human has been too modified?”
“That’s something we’re going to find out for ourselves.” Vidia bit her lip, knowing that the probable answer wasn’t going to end well. “Evie doesn’t have many brain scans of infected humans, especially ones that have been changed so far. She can only extrapolate.”
“Once the cure is deployed into the hybrid population, what happens next?” Vrehx wondered.
“It won’t take much airpower to deploy the cure, therefore the majority of you will be with ground units ready to deal with the Xathi guards,” I explained. “The cure should start to work immediately, but if it doesn’t, do your best not to harm any of the hybrids.”
“What if the cure doesn’t take hold right away or doesn’t work at all?” Karzin said.
“Then I trust each of you to act with your best judgment,” I replied. “But remember, this is officially considered a rescue mission, so only kill the hybrids if it’s absolutely necessary. If the cure works as we hope it will, there will be a lot of confused and scared people. We will be using holo-disguises for these missions, so we don’t cause further panic. I urge you to see things from their point of view and act accordingly. Understood?” There was a collective nod.
Despite their concerns, they were good men. They’d do the right thing.
“What happens after that?” Axtin leaned back in his chair, a distant look on his face.
“There will be a re-acclimatization process for those who were successfully rescued,” I explained. “Though that won’t be your responsibility. That will fall to Vidia and her people.”
“No, I mean after that,” Axtin corrected. “After we’ve completed the rescue mission and saved the humans?”
Not exactly a conversation I wanted to have right now, but I’d picked the best and brightest. Which meant there’d never be a shortage of questions, I supposed.
“There are more hybrids than there are Xathi,” I began slowly. “With the hybrid population thinned and our fighting population bolstered, it’s possible that we will be able to take the Xathi in battle.”
“You want the rescued humans to fight the Xathi?” Vidia looked at me with alarm, though she tried to hide it.
“Only if they’re willing and able,” I clarified. “If you had your mind taken away from you and managed to get it back, wouldn’t you want to stop the one responsible for taking it in the first place?”
“I suppose I would,” Vidia considered, her words hesitant as she considered it.
“Once the Xathi are defeated, will we be able to leave?” Karzin asked.
Of course he did.
“If this planet has been saved from the Xathi, and the if Aurora is deemed safe for long-term space travel, I see no reason why we couldn’t return to our homeworlds,” I answered.
Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Vidia’s small shoulder sag a little bit.
“Will we be ordered to return?” Vrehx asked.
“If you wish to resign from this crew to stay behind, I will not stop you,” I responded.
Every strike team member looked more pleased than they had when they entered the room. There was a way forward, both for those who wished to remain, and those who wished to return home.
If everything worked according to plan.
And I’d seen too many battles to bet on that. However, it was the best I could offer them. The best I could offer any of us.
“If there are no further questions, you’re dismissed. I’ll send an alert when it’s time for the first strike to take place.”
“Did that go well?” Vidia asked once only she and I remained in the room.
“You know it did.” I gave her a wry smile. “It would appear that we’re all on the same team once more.”
“It would seem so.” She smiled up at me for a moment before looking away. “I need to go check on Evie and Leena. They’ll be pleased with the results of this meeting.”
I wanted to say something more to her, but I didn’t know what. I let her leave the conference room.
This had turned out better than I could’ve hoped for just a few days ago.
Once the planet was saved, my crew and I could go home, neat and tidy.
Everyone wins.
I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’d grown fond of this planet. The people residing on it?
Yes, I’d grown fond of many of them.
The creatures that lived on this planet were a different story entirely. I enjoyed a good fight as much as the next Skotan, but it was quite another thing to need to bring a full arsenal for a walk amongst the trees.
I loved my home planet.
I missed the soaring peaks of the red mountains and the cities hidden under the planet’s crust.
Yet somehow the idea of leaving this place and going home didn’t bring a smile to my face.
And a certain violet gaze had nothing to do with that.
Of course not.
6
Vidia
“Do you think there’s such a thing as too much of this cure?” I wondered aloud.
Evie had given me a list of very specific, impossible-to-fuck-up instructions as to how to make the cure in its concentrated liquid form.
She was beside me doing the same, our mini assembly line working as quickly and carefully as possible to be ready for the fir
st strike.
“It restores brain chemistry,” Evie said. “I don’t think it can make a brain too human.”
“Superhuman!” Leena exclaimed from where she was adding a chemical compound that strengthened the effects of the base mixture Evie and I were making.
“What?” I laughed.
“You don’t know what the Superhumans are?” Leena gasped. She looked at Jeneva, who was flipping through her field guides, searching for any natural substances that could improve the cure.
“Don’t look at me! I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she shrugged, and went back to her files.
“Are Mariella and I the only ones who had a proper childhood?” Leena exclaimed. She twisted around to speak to her sister, who sat with Amira on the other side of the lab. “Mariella, they don’t know about the Superhumans.”
Mariella looked up from the map projection she was studying. “You’re not serious!” She looked at each of us, waiting to be let in on the joke.
“We’re serious,” Evie replied without looking up from her work.
“Are you going to tell us, or are you just going to keep gaping at us for not knowing?” I poured all of my concentration into releasing the exact right amount of one of the chemical components from the pipette in my hand.
“It was a TV series back on Earth,” Mariella explained. “Our great-grandmother brought some of the videos here. We used to watch them over and over again when we were kids.”
“It was about a group of seemingly regular people, but they all had these crazy powers,” Leena added. “Like one of them was even stronger than Axtin and another one could turn invisible if she wanted to.”
“My favorite Superhuman could stop time, but she would still be able to move,” Mariella recalled. “She would freeze time if someone was about to fall or die and move them somewhere safe.”
“I’d like that power,” I remarked. “Imagine how much work I could get done.” Evie chuckled beside me.
“Did they just walk around, randomly helping people?” Amira asked.
“They were part of a secret team,” Mariella explained. “They worked together to stop evil Superhumans from taking over cities or destroying the planet.”
“Now that sounds a little too familiar.” Evie laughed. “Do you still have the videos? Maybe we could take notes.”
“We kept them down in the basement of our old house,” Leena recalled. “I bet they’re still there.”
“We’ll have to go dig them out once we take care of the bug problem,” I commented.
“Speaking of the bug problem,” Amira interjected, “Vrehx suggested attacking the camp near Glymna first, right?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “Why?”
“First, I think we should use the Gateway for the strikes so none of the Xathi surrounding the Aurora can spot our direction in the air and warn the others. Second, if they’d come at the camp from the East, I doubt the Xathi guards would see it coming,” she said. “They wouldn’t be expecting anything to come at them from the direction of the city.”
“That’s a good idea, but look what I found.” Mariella pushed a datapad in Amira’s direction. “Hardly any of the crew knows how to take proper notes. It’s infuriating.”
Amira agreed. “I’m not even sure what they’re talking about.” She flipped the data-pad over as if she thought she was reading it upside down.
“They’re patrol notes,” Mariella explained. “Those messy scrawls are coordinates that, I think, correspond with where our patrols crossed the paths of hybrid patrols.”
“Sakev had the idea of using the air units to lure any patrols closer to the camps so we won’t have to hunt them down later,” I added.
“It’s a good idea,” Mariella agreed. Evie seemed pleased. “Though we’d lose the element of surprise.”
“I think dropping pressurized canisters of exploding pink mist after appearing through a rift is going to be surprising enough.” Amira laughed, then straightened up, head tilted to the side. “I have to ask, why are we doing this? Shouldn’t this sort of strategizing be left to the professionals?”
I realized the question was directed at me.
“Not all of the crew members were happy that the Aurora’s departure is going to take the backseat to our rescue mission,” I answered.
“You don’t think anyone will give us any trouble, do you?” Jeneva asked.
Honestly, I didn’t think so. “Rouhr gave them a good reason not to disobey his orders on this one.”
“And we have a lot of muscle on our side,” Leena added.
I noticed that talking about the Aurora’s departure didn’t bother the others the way it bothered me.
I assumed their mates already told them they weren’t going to leave Ankau, leave them behind.
Even though I’d gotten what I wanted in the end, the idea of the Aurora departing after the Xathi were handled made me feel unhappy.
Rouhr had said time and time again that there was the possibility that the Aurora would never be able to travel through space again.
Secretly, I felt guilty for hoping that would be the case, especially when I didn’t want to think too much about the reasons why.
So many of the crew missed their homeworlds. They wanted to return, to find their families, and to do what they could to win the war that would rage long after they left our world. I couldn’t blame them for that.
It was selfish of me to want something like that for myself if it meant heartache for so many others.
“I expect Thribb will try to block our mission.” I pulled myself away from my current train of thought.
“Really?” Mariella’s brow furrowed.
Leena recalled how irritated Thribb had been when they told General Rouhr about the cure. “He didn’t like that Vidia challenged the accuracy of his calculations.”
“I didn’t like that he challenged the accuracy of Glint’s,” I replied.
I looked over to Glint, who worked quietly in the back of the room. She was taking the final mixtures and putting them through a machine that converted the small amount of liquid and turned it into a medical vapor stored in a pressurized canister. She didn’t have her speech pad, so she couldn’t speak to us, but I was sure she was listening to every word.
“I’m sure he’s under a lot of pressure,” Mariella offered. She always tried to see the best in people.
Mariella was probably right. Probably.
“But I still want to have as many bases covered as possible, so no one has the option of poking holes in this mission. Between all of us, we know as much about the terrain, the Xathi, and the cure as anyone else on this ship. More.”
A round of nods answered me.
“Besides, the more work we do now, the less Rouhr will have to scramble to get everything together. He has enough on his plate as it is.”
“That’s sweet.” Evie smiled.
“What’s sweet?” I asked.
“You’re concerned about the general,” she replied.
“I’m not being sweet,” I countered. “I’m being a decent human being. Anyone can see that he’s overworking himself. I’ve never seen him out of his office for more than a few hours at a time. Do Skotans need less sleep than humans?”
“Sakev sleeps more than I do.” Evie laughed.
“Vrehx is really, terrifyingly consistent with his sleep schedule,” Jeneva added. “He prefers to go to bed and wake up at the exact same time every day, and he’s grumpy as hell if he doesn’t. He still needs at least six hours, though.”
“Exactly,” I said. “I don’t think Rouhr gets anywhere near that much.”
“Neither do you,” Evie averred.
“Yeah, but I’m not a general,” I replied.
“You care!” Evie teased. “Just admit it! There’s nothing wrong with caring. It’s what you’re known for, anyway.”
“Really? I thought I was known for never letting things be,” I joked, an uncomfortable feeling spreading in my chest.
“Oh, you’re known for that, too,” Evie laughed.
“Speaking of not letting things be, there’s one thing I can’t work out,” I added, ready for a new topic.
“What’s that?”
“How many people are we going to have to shelter?” I inquired.
“I’ve been thinking about that, too.” Evie nodded. “It’s impossible for us to know exactly how many people were affected by the hybridism, and we have no way to know how many of the affected still have a somewhat-human brain.”
“Wouldn’t it be the ones who were infected first that have the least-human minds?” Mariella queried.
“That seems logical, doesn’t it?” Evie replied. “But when I was studying the virus in Einhiv, I encountered strains that could take over a person in less than a day, as well as strains that were so slow-acting that the person infected had no idea they were a carrier.”
“Do you think the Xathi queen has some sort of direct influence over how the hybridism spreads?” Amira speculated.
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Evie shrugged. “Though if she could, that wouldn’t explain why she didn’t try her hardest to steal my mind.”
“Maybe she tried her hardest, and you’re just stronger than you think.” I rubbed Evie’s shoulder.
“Thanks, Mom,” Evie stuck out her tongue.
“You’re welcome,” I teased. “Unfortunately, I still don’t have a clue as to how many more people we’re going to get.”
“If this cure works like I hope it will, it’s going to be a lot,” Evie said.
“I’m going to go talk to Rouhr,” I remarked. “He can tell me how many more people we can take on. It’ll be better than trying to ask Thribb.” I pushed away from the lab table and slipped out of the white coat I’d borrowed from Evie.
“Don’t forget to tell him how much you care,” Evie teased.
“I’m not going to do that.” I rolled my eyes.
“Aha! You admit it!” Leena exclaimed.
“I didn’t admit anything.” I busied myself putting away the lab coat, trying to ignore the heat rising in my cheeks.
“You admitted that there’s something to admit!” Evie replied.