Chapter 35

ARAZIS

They decided to make this tea thing anyway, as the recounting took quite some time. Mostly it was Lise doing the talking, Janet simply sat across from her and glared.

“What about you, what’s your story?” Lise asked.

Arazis replied: “It doesn’t matter a whole lot, and it honestly isn’t all that exciting anyway.”

“Well you’re right about it not mattering,” Janet added. The dig at her hurt. Perhaps it was just the final straw, but she couldn’t hold it in.

“Oh, shut it already!” Lise said.

“Why should I?” She shot back. “A crimson-haired demon trying to tell me what to do in my home, rich!”

She stood up from the table as did Janet. “I’m so sick of hearing it! Why are all of you like this? Is Mark, the most broken among you, the only one of you with any sense of compassion? We’re not demons! We’re not monsters. We’re not drones, or whatever the hell a zombie is! A quarter of all any of you say I don’t understand the meaning of to begin with! You think I want to be here? All I want is to go home!” And with that she marched for the door and slammed it closed as hard as she could.

The hydroponics were all in rows upon rows, plenty of hiding space for her. And so, she found a corner far from sight to just sit down and cry in. She wanted Saiin, just then. More than anything, which simply made her cry harder into her knees.

“Hey.”

She lifted her head to see Isabella standing not too far away. “Oh, you. What? You come to barrage me even more with quips?”

“Jeez, I haven’t even said anything yet.”

“You don’t have to, I already see through you, all of you.”

“Like an open book, eh?”

“As transparent as a window,” she said. She came and sat next to her. “Just leave me alone. All I want to do is throw myself out an airlock, but I promised my best friend I would survive even though I have no idea if he did.”

“Don’t be like that,” she said. “Look, I was probably too hard on you at first. I get that, and yes I will fully admit I’m mostly a giant bitch to most people. It’s on purpose. I don’t care, nor want anyone to like me. I want them to respect me and that’s it. I have never cared even a little what another person thinks of me, because my opinion of people generally speaking is that they’re all bad. Mark’s father was apparently good to him, mine was the opposite.”

“So what, my dad beat me til I bled regularly. You think that gives you an excuse?”

“At least you and Mark both have someone like that. The Manaan-Sa had dozens of children, none of them worth all that much to him. Nobody showed me love growing up, ever. Love was a luxury when Kharak’s wilds could kill you at any moment. Sure, I guess I have his DNA, but that doesn’t mean much really, just another worker and therefore mouth to feed to him.”

TRISTEN

She left Eric to his writing and went on a bit of exploring around the carrier. Her day had mostly been a good one, until she came upon a group of Kushan who spit on the ground as she was passing them by. She stopped, and heard their steps halt as well.

“What’re you planning now, trying to blow up the ship?”

“Who, innocent little me?” She said putting on the widest grin she could.

“Innocent, right. Evil gold-haired traitor,”

“How evil could this pretty little face honestly be?” She said sizing up the one in front. He was a head taller than her, and his arms looked like they saw heavy use. “Traitor is accurate though. To the Empire, anyway.”

“You’re not fooling anyone. None of us trust you,” he said. She looked around, and more gathered.

“Real lady charmer, you are.” Her smile vanished and was replaced with her actual feelings towards him. “Just gonna go about my actually important business I guess, you’re all so damn welcome I saved you from a bunch of warheads that would’ve obliterated the lot of you once this carrier entered your flagship’s hangar bay.” As she was walking away, the man lunged for her. She thought he might.

She dodged his fist effortlessly, and slinked up behind him, tripped him to the ground and dug her knees into his arms tight so they couldn’t move. He looked stunned.

“That any way to treat a woman?”

“You’re no woman, you’re a monster.”

“Monster, eh?”

“Yes!” Someone from the crowd shouted.

“A monster? Look at me, idiots!” She said standing up. The man rushed back to his friends. “We are almost exactly the same! Five fingers, two hands, two legs, two eyes, one nose, two ears, lungs, heart, even a fucking soul, believe it or not. And hell! There’s Taiidan with both brown and red hair too, you know? It doesn’t matter at all where you come from. My kind who live near Hiigara’s deserts have a lot darker skin than I do too, we just call those who care about how light or dark you are by a quite heinous word.”

“But you come from our home!” The crowd was getting angrier now.

“It’s my home too! I was born on Hiigara from uncountable generations of people also born on Hiigara. You lot? You make me laugh! You come from Kharak, not Hiigara.” This set them off and they took a few steps forward. She reached for her blade holster strapped to her leg. “I’ve extensive combat training and now you’re forcing me to draw my dagger? Not a smart plan, no matter how many of you there are.” They backed away at that. “Sorry for all your many losses and all that, but I was forced to watch it happen up close. Do you really think the entire Taiidan race absolutely loves the psychopathic decisions of our Emperor? We have literally no say in what he decides and if we don’t like it and cross him, we die as well as every member of our bloodline sometimes. You want to meet a real demon, then hurry the hell up and take me home because that man isn’t Taiidan, Turanic, Kushan, Kadeshi, no. He’s some obscenely heinous life form from the void of oblivion itself who craves nothing but death and destruction. Besides, it’s not like Kharak was some lost paradise world of plenty.”

“We don’t care,” was the reply. “It was our home. For millennia. We don’t care about your people. Military, civilian, it matters not. You’re all the enemy and we will reclaim our ancestral home from your grasp and eliminate all who remain, letting Sajuuk sort them out.”

“Don’t make me laugh you hypocritical fools, do you even know why you people were forced off Hiigara to cross an entire galaxy only to end up on the worst possible planet to support life? Well, do you?” None answered, but several were now pointing cameras at her. “Okay then, didn’t think so. But I do, so let me tell you why your kind were exiled in the first place. Those atmospheric deprivation warheads are not our invention, by the way. That shit was used on Kharak as a divinely ironic fitting end to your species in the eyes of Riesstiu, because your people did the exact same thing mine did to Kharak to Old Taiidan. The difference being, there were billions more living there when your kind murdered most of mine using the power of your   Mothership’s hyperspace core to do it, before anyone could physically respond to the attack. Consider the very act of allowing your kind the courtesy of exile as opposed to extinction a  mercy.”

“Liar!”

“Check this ship’s record banks, you’ll find the truth eventually,” she said beginning to walk away, but stopped to finish the thought. “Oh, and you know what the difference between most Taiidan and clearly you Kushan is? We forgave your kind for what you’ve done to us. Hell, we even mostly forgot your kind existed entirely over time. But Riesstiu? No. He would never forget something like that. Nobody on this carrier prior to that travesty even knew where Kharak was or if life was on it. Just some random Long March calendar designation for your ancient F-class star, LM-27. Not like we expected to find people there when we were sent without knowing why, definitely not the last of the old Hiigarans who I’ve only really heard stories of as a child intended to terrify. But no, clearly I see for myself you’re not cannibalistic death worshipers. So if you want a boogeyman, that’s who you’re really after, the immortal emperor Riesstiu the fourth’s botched clone. Not my family.”

None stopped her departure, or even spoke a word in response.

MARK

He made his way upward. The opening of the doors when reaching his floor made the contrast of how old everything looked night and day. It was like going from the luggage compartment straight to first class. He had to keep his guard up in case he was still considered under arrest, but he’d only seen three guards so far. They must have been quite busy quelling the uproar his broadcast caused.

If spotted, there was nowhere he could hide up in the bridge section anyway. The walls were painted a pure glossy white, almost looked like plastic, and the lighting was more than adequate compared to lower decks. That and the air was cooler than down below. He found out the reason everything felt so much hotter than normal was cause the kamikaze run tactic at the end of their recent battle damaged the cooling systems, but teams were already hard at work fixing most of the serious damage.

“And what of prisoner KS-443?” He heard coming from a nearby room. He got close enough to the door to listen.

“Mark Soban? I mean, let him go I guess? He’s a Sajuuk damned hero, pretty much.”

“Yeah I know, but…”

“Forget it, you saw what he said. He’s not out of line on it. These Kadeshi, they’re obviously also our blood. We all saw the Khar-Toba ship.”

“I know, I know. And I agree with him. But we can’t just let him off the hook. What should we do about this?”

“I honestly haven’t a clue. If only we had him here to guide us again,” he said.

“Markus, you mean?”

“Yeah.” And so he entered the room.

“Don’t we all?” Mark said.

“M-Mark? What the—

He took a seat at the table with them. “Don’t ask. Captain, you say you want someone to lead us,” He recognized one of them as being head of security, who looked not even a little shocked to see him.

“You know kid, I technically can’t let you leave this room now, you know that right?” He said. “That is, if you weren’t so damned important.”

“Well, don’t ask me how it happened, couple speeches here, doing some idiotic moves to save some friends there, and here we are. Odd luck, don’t you think, Soban?” Mark said to the captain of the security force.

“Indeed, my Sa,” he said cracking a laugh. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I think last I saw you was before you entered the Academy.”

“About that long yeah,” he confirmed.

“I still remember the day you broke into your father’s home all covered in sand and smelling of shit while we were having a few drinks,”

“Oh yeah, most fun day of my life that one,” he joked.

“I—sorry, I’m at a loss of understanding here,” the other man said.

“That’s fine, Mark here and I have a little history together from way back when, not a whole lot mind you, but some for sure.”

“Remember the first time you brought me up on a crop duster?”

“You bet, my only regret was letting you take the controls at all,” he said. They shared a laugh, he almost crashed them both.

Mark continued. “So now then, the Kadeshi dilemma. Let’s get into it, shall we?”

“Indeed.”

Their conversation lasted only a few minutes. The second left them to their business, so it was only the two Sobani remaining.

“What are you asking me, kid?”

“I’m saying I can’t have any Kadeshi working on Mothership’s engine repairs. You know how hard and deadly that work can be. I understand the concerns you have keeping them as prisoners, but they don’t deserve even that. If we can’t afford them that courtesy, are we really any better than these Taiidan we aim to destroy?” That last point hit home for him, as his gaze fell to the desk. He took a second to mull it over.

“You’re really his son, you know that?”

“So I’ve been told.”

“You’re a natural. But there’s only so much even I can do about this you know that, right?”

“I know, I know. You know who could give the order though and I doubt anyone would challenge her on it?”

“You can’t mean—

“I do.”

“I see.”

“Captain,” her voice came. “I can hear all that occurs within this ship too, you know that right?”

“Miss Karan S’Jet-Sa, hello.” He said.

“Not the Sa, I have bigger priorities than just my kiith. His point is accurate. The faces of these captives, I see the same eyes I’ve seen in all of us for so long after the Burning. It pains me to see.”

“I as well, I as well.” He said.

“Besides, we need all those willing to fight we can find, even if they’re captives not of Kharak,” Mark continued.

“You can’t possibly mean add them to the fleet!”

“I do,” he said.

“It’ll never be allowed!” He shouted, shocked Mark would even suggest something like that.

“Calm yourself captain,” Karan said.

“No, you’re right. It’s not me you’ll have to convince, though.”

“I know,” she replied. “I will summon the temporary Daiamid and put it for a vote.”

“Possibly the only way anyone would accept it, no offence Karan.”

“I think you’re right on that. None taken,” she said.

“Shall we convene, then?” He said.

“What, now?”

He continued. “Well yes, we already have two Sa’s present, regardless if Karan wants to be or not. And you proclaimed yourself so, after all.”

“I will call a meeting, you two should begin to make way for the council chambers. And one last thing. Mark, do be careful. I know how closely many aboard follow your every word, especially with the youth among us. But not everyone sees you the way the other pilots do,” she reminded.

“I will try, Karan.”

“Including from yourself. Do not let pride cloud your focus. We have one goal and only the one.”

“Hiigara, I know.”