Date Point: 15y15y8m2w1d AV
Planet Akyawentuo, Ten’Gewek Protectorate, Near 3Kpc Arm
Julian Etsicitty
“Woah! …Yeah. There’s that gravity I remember.” Xiù bounced on her toes for a second to get the feel for it again, then stood up straight and sniffed the air. A slow smile spread across her face. “…And the smell.”
Julian nodded. Ketta trees had a pleasant smell, reminiscent of pine needles and sandalwood and petrichor rolled into one. It was powerful, like pretty much everything on Akyawentuo, but never cloying. “Yeah. I tell ya, the Ten’Gewek could make good money just exporting the essential oil… Speaking of which, brace yourself.”
Xiù followed his gaze and finally noticed Vemik hovering outside the safety stripes on the ground. At least he respected hazard signs. “Huh? Oh. This is gonna hurt…”
“Yyyup.”
They stepped off the Array platform and were both immediately hoisted off the ground in a huge double-armed monkeyhug that made Julian’s spine creak. Xiù managed to choke out a laugh and eventually succeeded in reminding Vemik that she was a good deal frailer than Julian and needed air, at which point he reluctantly put them down again.
“Didn’t know you would come!” he told Xiù.
“It would have been all three of us, but Allison couldn’t come. She sends her love, though.”
“Couldn’t come? Why?”
Julian grinned. “We’re gonna have a baby girl!”
Vemik blinked at him. “…Is good news, but how do you know?”
“Sky-magic. Same way the scanner on the ship worked, remember? Also, she’s started with morning sickness.”
“Morning sickness?”
“I think that one’s a human thing,” Xiù said. “We… our stomachs get very sensitive. To protect the baby if we accidentally eat something poisonous. So, she’s throwing up a lot.”
Vemik hooted mournfully. “I hope she gets better…”
“She will. It doesn’t last forever. Anyway! We have other news, too…”
Vemik suddenly remembered his manners, and beckoned them toward the village. “Come, eat! We have smoked moose roasting. Is good!”
“You still have some?” Julian asked.
“We saved it! Like, special treat, I think is the word. What’s the other news?”
“Don’t give it away!” Julian warned Xiù. “I wanna see him figure it out for himself.”
“Figure it out?” Vemik twitched his tail at them. “…Something is different?”
“Yeah, bro.”
“Something I can see?”
“Right now, yeah.” Julian’s grin got wider, and Xiù covered her smile.
Vemik stopped in his tracks and looked them both up and down.
“…You have less face hair. But that’s not news. Shaving, yes?”
“Yeah, I do that. C’mon buddy, you can do this.”
Vemik’s tail lashed furiously as his pinched his jaw and frowned first at Xiù, who beamed at him, then at Julian. He looked them both up, then he looked them both down, then up… and then did the most classic double-take Julian had ever seen.
“Wh–? Your foot! How?!”
Xiù giggled, and Julian couldn’t help but laugh himself. “New sky-magi–woah!”
Vemik had belly flopped into the dirt to inspect Nofl’s handiwork, and unceremoniously lifted Julian’s foot off the ground to study it. He poked it a few times and exclaimed, “…It’s real!”
Julian flung out his arms to stay balanced, grateful that Xiù put a hand on his back to help. “Yeah, uh… yeah.”
“How?” Vemik asked again.
“I don’t know exactly. We’ve got a little grey fella who grew it for me and then stuck it on. He knows how it works. To me, it’s sky-magic.”
“Why are you wearing strange shoes?”
“My new foot isn’t toughened up yet. I’m working on that, probably gonna do a bunch of tree climbing to speed it up some. But for now…it kinda hurts to walk on metal grates, heh.”
Vemik was, of course, far too excited at this point to contain himself. He flung himself upright and bounced high above Julian’s head a few times, hooting and generally making a scene. “Come! We show everyone!” He grabbed Julian by the arm, half-dragged him over to the treeline and flung him up into the branches, then charged off swinging as fast as he could manage. Xiù’s scandalized “Hey!!” actually doppler-shifted.
Julian chuckled and waited patiently for Xiù to catch up. He rubbed his forearm where Vemik had grabbed him, too; not even six months ago Vemik’s grip would have given him a hell of a bruise, but these days it was probably just going to be an abrasion from the rough skin of his palms.
Probably.
Julian rolled his fingers to work out some of the pain, and chuckled again. It was good to be back, even if they were only here for a week until the next scheduled Array jump.
“So are you staying up there or are you gonna walk, Tarzan?” Xiù called from down below.
“I think I’ll Tarzan. All that time with Adam on the rings and bars is one thing, but I need practice. Also, here.” Julian reached down and pulled off his sandals. “May as well get to work on this, too…might take me a bit longer to get to the village.”
She caught them. “I’ll be there. Don’t fall.”
Julian allowed a slightly cocky grin to spread across his face. “I won’t.”
“Good boy. See you in the village.” She took off at a jog in the direction Vemik had gone and quickly vanished among the brush. She might just get there first, too: over-excited Vemik moments aside, a human at a steady jog could usually cover ground faster than a Ten’Gewek in the trees, and much faster than a human in the trees.
Well. A human not named Hoeff, anyway. He was practically a monkey himself.
True to Julian’s prediction, his progress was slow and his foot did not feel happy by the time he finally arrived. His entire upper body was throbbing from exertion, even his chest. His legs felt like he’d just sprinted a few miles…God, even his calves were on fire. He was plenty strong enough to swing along, thanks to Adam’s evil training, it was just…more like he was way out of practice. He was happy he made it without returning to the ground, though, and for once didn’t feel clumsy or weak at all. That month in Adam’s rehab had made a startling difference in his functional strength, even despite having slabbed on a bunch more weight.
That was a good feeling, too. Julian could tell that extra kick in the pants was exactly what he’d needed to really get comfortable up in the canopy, which meant he’d finally be able to keep up with the People. He’d get back into the swing of it pretty quick…which actually was a pretty awful pun once he’d thought about it. Definitely one to annoy Allison with later!
Xiù was doing her space elf thing when he arrived. He jumped down from the trees with a heavy thump and stretched himself out some with an unaccountably goofy grin on his face; exercise always made him happy. She arched an eyebrow at him as if to ask ‘well?’ and nodded when he grinned back at her.
“Hey, Playboy.” Hoeff was hanging around the village perimeter, and gave Julian a nod. “Congrats.”
“Thanks!”
“A girl, huh? They can tell this early now?”
“And a lot more, apparently!”
“Whatcha gonna call her?”
“Not decided yet.”
“Fair.”
A thought struck Julian and he felt he had to voice it. “Not Amanda, though. Definitely not Amanda.”
Hoeff snorted. “Also fair. No luck with Xiù yet?”
“These things take time.”
“Cool.”
Julian couldn’t help himself and waggled his eyebrows. “Don’t worry. We’ll take all the time we need…”
“Yeah, yeah, rub it in. I ain’t got laid in like a couple’a months.” Hoeff grumbled. “There’s exactly one woman on this planet, and she’s uh…”
“Young? Attractive? Smart? Into you?”
“She ain’t given me that impression.”
“Please, yes she is. Big bad dangerous SEAL and all that. We can all see it!”
“Hey, I’d take a tumble with Claire in a heartbeat. But she needs a better man.”
“Oh, go fuck yourself with that, man! Like, back in Folctha? I never once heard you say anything…Oh. Oh, hell. It’s more than just gettin’ lucky this time, isn’t it?”
“Like you said. She’s real smart.”
Well, damn. Julian put an arm around Hoeff and dragged him off for a bit of privacy. “Okay. Like, I’m not the best guy with relationships or whatever, this happened by accident—”
“You’re fuckin’ kidding me!”
“By accident, man. When I first met Allison, I wasn’t exactly experienced at any of this. I’m still not. These two are the first serious thing I’ve ever had. Before that it was all just…high school, and like almost something with a fellow ranger. And I was always more of a loner.”
“…No way.”
“Yeah. But anyway,” Julian pulled things back on track. “I ain’t ever known you to be anything but the most confident dude ever. So what gives?”
“I’m confident ‘cuz I know myself, man. I know what I am, what I do, what I’m good at.”
“Okay. That don’t really answer my question, though.”
“…Look, maybe I don’t wanna get into it, okay? I like you, Playboy. You’re a good guy. Just… Don’t push where you’re not welcome.”
“Okay. No pressure. I just…I dunno. You deserve–”
Hoeff clapped Julian on the shoulder to interrupt him, shook his head, and walked away.
Well… shit.
Date Point: 15y15y8m2w1d
High Mountain Fortress, The Northern Plains, Gao
Champion Thurrsto of Whitecrest
The report from Rvzrk was exactly as grim as Thurrsto had feared it might be.
In his state of fallen grace it was no longer Regaari’s job to be read to and make decisions on such reports: rather, he was the one doing the reading. Briefing his Champion. It was obvious that the demotion hurt him, but also that he clearly didn’t resent it or feel it was unfair.
In any case, his voice had his usual professional cadence in place as he delivered the briefing: Strong, clear and precise. It echoed off the walls as they hustled through the fortress’ innards toward the grand chamber.
“The Humans are having a hard time establishing any hard facts about the situation groundside. They know that the Hunters landed most of their ships and that they’re using Jump Arrays to bring in ground forces, which are spreading out from, uh, Site One at a faster rate than the Domain ground troops can evacuate the area.”
Site One. The Humans had taken to calling it that, on the basis that the actual Domain name for that city was a kind of prolonged guttural rattle like a bucket full of bricks being tipped down a stairwell.
Apparently by Domain standards it was a beautiful, poetic, mellifluous sort of name.
“What’s the Domain reaction been?”
“For once, they’re happy to see us. They seem to think the deathworlders can handle this so they’re just going to sit this one out as much as they can. Which, being honest, is probably the most sensible thing they could do.”
“Can we handle it?” Thurrsto asked.
“That…depends very much on what we mean by ‘handle,’ unfortunately. It will be costly.”
“Right. We could flatten the city, I take it?”
“And write off the millions of Domain citizens who live there in the process,” Regaari duck-nodded.
“Could we invade?”
“Yes, but it would be a lamentable victory at best.”
Thurrsto considered that for a moment. “I need the politics on this.”
Regaari duck-nodded and called up the file with a gesture of his cybernetic paw.
“The Dominion has actually showed up to the fight this time,” he said. “The Fleetmaster is a Chehnash by the name of Dreem. You may recognize the name.”
“…Wasn’t he a pirate?”
“He was given amnesty. Officially.” Regaari’s ear flicked a little. Even when reporting on such grim subjects, and even in the depth of his own low mood, he could still find a little amusement in xenopolitical corruption. “Of course, what actually happened was that he owns the loyalty of some of the most powerful figures in the Chehnash global senate.”
“Right, yes. And now he’s a senior fleetmaster? Impressive. And competent, I imagine.”
Regaari duck-nodded. “Very competent. And not interested in letting politics get in the way of the mission. I think there’s a principled man somewhere under the pirate.”
“Still. What could get in the way?”
“The usual. The Kwmbwrw are making noises about deathworlder ships standing ready to bombard a Dominion world, as though we’re not Dominion members ourselves… They’re being shouted down by the Rauwryhr though, and the Corti have given us their full backing. I believe they’re sending one of their top warships too.”
“The Corti are sending a warship?”
“The Empirical Razor. I’m as surprised as you: I thought their warfleet was mostly for show but this one’s allegedly a real killer, not some home system ceremonial picket.”
“I suppose stranger things have happened. I wonder what their ground forces are like…” These were interesting times indeed. “So in short, we actually have Dominion backing, by and large.”
“For a change,” Regaari agreed. “I think the rest of the Security Council is getting just as sick of the Kwmwbwrw’s bullshit as we are.”
They paused outside the door the grand chamber. The sound of raised voices penetrated the thick ancient wood just enough that Thurrsto had to raise his own voice to ask his last question.
“What’s your take on the Great Father’s reaction to this?”
Regaari looked nervously at the door, probably imagining the furry brute beyond it. “…If a bloody land invasion is what it’ll take to stop the Hunters, he’ll do it. He won’t like it at all, but that won’t stop him.”
“So our duty is to find an alternative,” Thurrsto mused. “…Very well. Let’s not keep him waiting.”
Daar looked over at them as they entered the hall. He gave Thurrsto a nod but didn’t extend the same courtesy to Regaari, whom Thurrsto knew well enough to spot the microscopic way he wilted. They took their spot at the table, Thurrsto standing with his paws resting on the venerable woode n surface, Regaari a pace behind him and slightly to his left.
Champion Fiin welcomed Thurrsto to the table with pleasure. “Any news?” he asked.
“Nothing worth mentioning,” Thurrsto told him. “Father Garaaf hasn’t been able to expand on the intelligence the Humans sent us, and there’s nobody more expert on Hunters.” Several years surviving as a slave aboard their orbital had made him the undisputed authority.
“So we’re still blind. And every moment we’re blind, more civilians die.”
“We’ll always be blind so long as we’re stuck in orbit,” One-Fang’s Champion Hiyel said. “We need eyes on the ground. Thurrsto, your Clan must be able to put somebody on the ground.”
Thurrsto duck-nodded reluctantly. “The insertion itself would be relatively straightforward. But it’s a one-way trip. Our scouts would be dropping onto a Hunter-infested planet with no way to exfiltrate.”
“So it’s a suicide mission,” Hiyel said.
“…The next best thing, anyway. I’d certainly give the scouts low odds of survival.”
“If that’s what we have to do, that’s what we have to do.”
“For the Domain, though?” Champion Loomi asked. “An ally like the Humans would be worth the sacrifice, but I don’t remember any Domain ships coming to defend us when the Hunters attacked here.”
That earned an outraged bristling from Champion Kuri of Clan Openpaw. “Life must come first, Champion,” he said sharply, quoting his Clan’s motto. “I can’t countenance letting people die over our own sense of resentment.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, Kuri, but I must agree with Loomi,” Champion Sheeyo said. “Our first duty is to the Gao and our allies. The kind of scout who’d be capable of that insertion is hardly the kind of resource we want to squander.”
“And how do you propose we earn new allies, Sheeyo?” Thurrsto asked. “We earned the Humans as an ally by taking a risk, as I recall. When the Females took in Sister Shoo, they did so in the face of objections that she was dangerous.”
Kuri duck-nodded fervently. “My objections,” he said. “If not for her Frontline implant—which at the time was an unfamiliar and untested technology—she might have unleashed a devastating plague on our people. There was a real danger that millions might die.”
“And yet Giymuy chose to adopt her as a Sister, and thus we earned our most important military ally,” Thurrsto finished.
“…He has a point,” Sheeyo conceded to Loomi.
“Here’s another one,” Fiin interjected. “The Grand Army.”
“What about them?” Sheeyo asked.
“An army that size with nothing to do but sit idle is a problem waiting to happen. They’re loyal, they’re motivated, and they want to fight. For a lot of them, the fight is the only thing they have left. Deny them, and morale is going to suffer.”
Daar grumbled to himself and Looked at everyone around the table, in that penetrating way only he seemed to have mastered.
“I ain’t interested in commitin’ the Army just ‘cuz it’ll avoid hurt feelings. I need more if Imma send maybe millions to their doom.”
“…Yes, My Father. I was only pointing out one branch of the consequences.”
“…These ain’t good options. I’m inclined t’agree wit’ all of you, actually.”
“Which means we need more intelligence.”
“Ayup.” Daar looked at Thurrsto. “…Brother, I’m gonna need to ask ‘yer Clan to do somethin’ awful.”
Regaari’s voice cut into the conversation like a sword stroke. “I volunteer.”
The table fell silent instantly. Daar waited for a long moment, then padded slowly over towards Regaari, and sat on his haunches a middling distance away.
“…Say again?”
Regaari looked him square in the eye. “You need eyes on the ground, and I’m one of the best you have. I’m no longer attached to HEAT, I’m no longer your aide de camp… So, I volunteer to infiltrate the planet and return intel.”
Daar gave him a long, slow stare. He very obviously didn’t like the idea one bit.
“…That’s a suicide mission,” he said. “Thurrsto said so himself.”
“Maybe,” Regaari conceded. “But though I may have blundered in not trusting your judgement, My Father, I daresay my skills are still sharp. I can get down there. I can return intelligence that the Grand Army needs. And if it does turn out to be a suicide mission… Well. I’m willing.”
The room was silent for several seconds as the Champions glanced between themselves while watching the tableau playing out between the two old friends.
Finally, Daar turned his head slightly. “…Ev’ryone who ain’t a Whitecrest, go wait outside.”
The Champions and their retinues dutifully filed out. The old hall felt large and cold with only three in the middle of it, once they were gone.
The second the doors closed, Daar stood up on two-paw and glowered down his muzzle at Regaari. Balls, he was intimidating. “…Regaari, I ain’t lookin’ for you to fall on your sword.”
“I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a little bit of that,” Regaari conceded. “But with all due respect to my Champion, just because he says it’s a suicide mission doesn’t mean it is. I reckon I’m better than him.”
Thurrsto felt both his ears flick like Regaari had just clawed him in the snout. In any other context and coming from anybody else, that would be a direct challenge.
It was worse, because Thurrsto knew it was true. And apparently so did the Great Father.
“An’ you propose we spend one o’ our very best on this mission, if you be.”
“No, My Father. You proposed that. I simply volunteered for the mission.”
“…Oh, Gods damnit Regaari! You were always the smartest between us, but now?! Of all the fuckin’ moments, you choose this to get a dig in?!”
“If that’s what it takes!” Regaari actually squared up to Daar like he planned on fighting him. “Daar… Cousin! I can’t let you forget your duty just because of our history!”
That was a deep cut. Daar didn’t look enraged, or murderous, or in any way like he’d just been challenged by a vastly inferior combatant. Instead, he looked like he’d been mortally wounded.
Regaari’s ears slowly went sorrowfully flat. “I love you,” he said. “You’re my Brother in every way. I don’t want to hurt you again. But this needs to happen. Thurrsto’s right, we can’t stand back and let the Hunters feast. And if I need to go into the fire to stop them, I’ll do it. I’ll do it gladly.”
“…I know.” Daar couldn’t muster anything beyond that. Painfully slowly, he returned to his seat at the end of the table, sat down like a very old man.
“…Champion Thurrsto.”
“…Yes, My Father?”
“The order is given.”
“Yes, My Father.”
They were halfway to the door when Daar found his voice again.
“…Regaari?”
Regaari turned back to look at him. “Yes, My Father?”
“…Come back. Please.”
“I’ll do my best.” Regaari flicked his slightly shortened ear and a little of his old cocksure demeanor returned. “…My best is pretty damn good.”
They left the Great Father in the chamber and closed the doors behind them. The last thing they heard was a keening, tortured howl.
Date Point: 15y8m2w2d
Irbzrk System, Dominion Borderlands
The Builder Alpha-of-Alphas
<Vague interest> +I remember this system. I was here the last time we raided it.+
This time was different, of course. On that occasion, the former Alpha-of-Alphas had been fixated on its pursuit of every Human it could get at. They’d torn into the station and decimated its population, but left the infrastructure intact. The Prey reliably returned to the same facilities rather than build new ones.
Strange, that they’d return to a place that had been so conclusively proven unsafe. But the Prey by and large did not think, as far as the Alpha-of-Alphas could tell. Not on the large scale. Individuals might be quite clever, but the herd as a whole was a creature of instinct that soon forgot about danger if they weren’t regularly reminded of it.
This time, there wouldn’t be anything for them to return to. The Swarm needed more than just meat—it needed material. Metal. Parts. Systems. So while most of the Swarm gorged themselves on a planet at the far end of Domain space, the Alpha-of-Alphas had led this smaller but much more dangerous force here.
The meat inside the station would just be a fortunate bonus. The real prey was a station full of nanofactory parts, raw shipbuilding material and extensive industrial resources. To the Alpha-of-Alphas’ eyes, it may as well have been a bloody chunk of raw meat, waiting for the maw.
One of the subordinate Betas got its attention.
<Eager report> +The station is lightly defended. Their defense ships all departed for the distraction world several days ago.+
+Tactical assessment?+
+We can expect negligible losses from the defences here.+
+Human and Gaoian forces?+
<relish> +All known Human ships are accounted for at the distraction world. The Gaoians are in support.+
<pleased; command> +Raise the wormhole suppressor and deploy gravity spikes. All ships: decloak and assault the station. Meat to the Maw.+
The gleeful hunting cry was taken up across the entire network. Irbzrk station responded with commendable swiftness… but they were never a match. Their sentry guns and point defence weapons were blinded by ECM, their communications were jammed, and their sensors burned out in the opening assault.
The swarm descended, cut into the hull… and fed.
Date Point: 15y8m2w2d
Planet Akyawentuo, Ten’Gewek Protectorate, Near 3Kpc Arm
Julian Etsicitty
Dan Hurt had come back on a specially arranged off-schedule jump a few days ago, brimming with ideas, if not necessarily Vemik-like cheer. He was definitely more sober than usual.
He greeted Julian with a handshake and swapped air-kisses near the cheek with Xiù. Julian wasn’t sure why, but he always found that greeting a little weird, but whatever. It was good to see him again.
“How was the service?”
“Oh, the service sucked,” Dan grumbled. “If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a funeral where the deceased is an afterthought. They could have just entered his name into the gaps on a form and let a computer follow the script, it was… soulless.”
“Ew,” Xiù agreed, pulling a face.
“The wake on the other hand, was a genuine celebration of his life, and it was a privilege to be there.” Dan managed a smile. “…It was a privilege to know him, too.”
“The Ten’Gewek owe him a huge debt,” Julian said.
“They know. Anyway… I’ve spent this whole time dwelling on Steven’s death. I’d like to move forward. Shall we? I notice you got a new foot. It’s impressively realistic this time!” the waggle in his eyebrows said he knew perfectly well it wasn’t a prosthetic.
“Good craftsmanship! They’re too big, though,” Xiù noted.
“Hey!” Julian laughed, “What’s wrong with ‘em?”
“Oh, nothing. You know what they say about men with big feet.”
“Mm.” Dan nodded. “Big… shoes.”
Julian laughed. “Yeah, I suppose that’s true too…” He gave Xiù a meaningful look.
“Anyway. It suits you, Julian,” Dan said. “You’re already walking with a lot more bounce in your step. Before you were always careful. Now…”
“Some of Vemik’s energy is rubbing off on him, I think.”
“Yes! Exactly that.”
“Guys, I’m right here you know.”
“Hush, you.” Xiù swatted him lightly in the chest with her knuckles. “You ‘dress’ like a cavemonkey nowadays, so you don’t get to talk. Anyway.” she gestured toward the research camp. “This is going well!”
Dan nodded and they headed for it while he enthused about the projects he was looking forward to catching up with.
Sure enough, the researchers dropped what they were doing and emerged from their prefabs and cataloging stations to welcome Dan back. The cataloging in particular was a massive job: the archaeological trenches down on the coastline where the cities had once stood were rich sources of artefacts, every last one of which was carefully recorded before it left the ground, then returned to the base camp for inspection and classification.
They’d begun “hiring” the local Ten’Gewek as porters. It was a three-day trip in either direction, and it had proven to be a great trust-building exercise. The archaeologists did the delicate, careful work while the Ten’Gewek looked on, fascinated. They also helped with a lot of the grunt work, since they were burly monkeys and the staff were definitely more on the wiry-yet-thin side.
Then there was one of the Ten’Gewek children, a girl who was Vemik’s equal in curiosity and had apparently picked up the endearing tactic of holding a magnifying lens with her tail while she helped go through the less sensitive artefacts. She’d apparently already decided that she wanted to be an archaeologist, even if she couldn’t pronounce the word and it came out more like ‘Akyojiss.’
In short, it worked. And little by little, youths and children and the occasional adult from the surrounding villages were paying visits here and there to talk with the Humans and learn a little bit about sky-magic and sky-thinking.
“We won’t have long before they hear you’re back and come running to ask about the vaccines…” Julian mused, noticing a boy who’d been loitering near the camp vanish into the trees and disappear in a rustle of displaced foliage.
“On that score, it’s mixed news,” Dan said. “There are companies who are willing to give it a try, but the setup costs for vaccination are, uh… impressive. And it will take time, and involve a pretty substantial human presence. And, frankly, those companies are going to want something in return. It’ll be a crash course in money-based trade…”
“I think they can handle it.”
“They can handle the concept. Scraping together the value they’ll need, though…” Dan shrugged.
“They’ve got a lot they can sell, actually. Like, hell! That ketta smell for a change. Maybe just the right to access? I dunno. I’m definitely not gonna sell ‘em down the river, I’m rich as fuck these days. I don’t need the money.”
“Why not a sovereign fund?” Xiù suggested. “The First Nations never had the benefit of anything like that.”
“Whew. That’s big sky-magic right there…” Dan muttered, but he rubbed his jaw as he thought about it. “I mean, the basics of currency as an exchange medium sure, but investment? Stocks, bonds, real estate? How do you explain equity and hedge funds to an iron-age civilization? You don’t.”
“…Well, okay, that’s fair. Anyway, that’s things we can work out over time. First you gotta say hello, ‘cuz I can hear Yan comin’ up the trail.”
They stepped aside to give Yan and Daniel some room, and rejoined the researchers, who were doing the usual thing of breaking out some food to welcome a guest per Ten’Gewek etiquette. Besides, they all looked like they were about ready for a break anyway.
Hoeff had come along with Yan, and Julian only needed a glimpse of the way Claire looked at him to confirm everything he’d said a day or two before down at the village. Dammit.
When he glanced down at Xiù, she shrugged as though to say there wasn’t much they could do about it, besides be a good friend. She was right— either it’d work out, or it wouldn’t.
Still, they could be a good friend to both sides, and joined Claire as she cleared space on a table that usually held crates full of archeological finds to make room for the food.
“Hey!” She treated them both to a smile. “I heard you’re gonna have a family soon?”
“Yup!” Xiù beamed.
“Congratulations!”
“Don’t jinx it. She’s only a few weeks in.”
“Yeah, but I hear modern medical scanners are ridiculous.”
“I guess you’re probably more career-focused right now, huh?” Julian guessed.
“I guess.” Claire slotted a tray of artefacts into one of the boxes. “I mean, my mom always told me to never turn down opportunity when it comes knocking, but I guess that relies on the opportunity actually, uh… knocking.”
“Struck out, huh?” Xiù asked, kindly.
Claire blinked, flushed a little pink, and hastily tucked the box under the table to recover herself. “…Never showed up for the game,” she said. “Gosh, is it that obvious?”
Julian shrugged. “Maybe a little.”
“…Oh well. Opportunity didn’t knock.”
“That sucks,” Xiù sympathized.
Claire shrugged it off. “There are worse things in life than making a friend. Anyway! I’d better go grab the drinks…” she gave them a smile full of optimism, and vanished.
After a few seconds, Julian sighed and shook his head.
“…D’you get the impression we’re kinda bad at this?” he asked.
“I think you’re the only boyfriend I’ve ever had and everything I know about romance comes from movies. So… maybe?” Xiù shrugged. “I guess the difference is, we talk. We work our stuff out. Those two aren’t talking.”
Julian nodded. He glanced over at Hoeff, who was looking in their direction. All it took was eye contact and a subtle but unarguable headshake on Hoeff’s part to tell him everything he needed to know.
“…Nothing we can do about it,” he decided.
“Tā mā de…”
“Yeah, you said it.”
Any further thoughts of matchmaking were put on hold by Yan, who sat on his tail opposite them and grinned toothily. Apparently Dan’s news about what would be involved in bringing vaccination to the Ten’Gewek hadn’t been so bad.
“I don’t understand this fie-nance,” he said, doing the usual Ten’Gewek thing of dropping straight back into a conversation without preamble.
“It’s a magic my grandfather’s people could have put to good use, way back when,” Julian said.
“We have things to ‘sell’ to your people, Professor Daniel says. That they will want to ‘pay’ us for, and so we balance out giving and taking. Is clever idea. The Gods will approve, I think.”
Well, I guess that makes the People natural born capitalists then…” Xiù muttered. Yan tilted his head curiously. “…Uh… that joke would take a long time to explain.”
“Other time, then,” Yan agreed. “Still… Humans will ‘buy’ the… taste of trees?”
“Oh yeah!” Julian nodded fervently. “If they can’t come to the forest to smell it, they’ll pay to bring the smell to themselves in their homes. You’ve smelled…uh, tasted the wind on Earth. We plant flowers and all that stuff just ‘cuz they’re nice, so…”
“There’s other stuff you could sell too,” Xiù said, “but you have to be careful. Big money is a powerful magic. This isn’t just Vemik’s burgers we’re talking about.”
“Mhmm. It’s like the sharpest knife. If you use it wisely it can cut anything. If you aren’t careful…it can still cut anything. Including you.”
“So…what do we do?”
“Start small? I dunno. I’m honestly a little wary of doing this, big fella. Finance is something I’ve had to learn a lot about since exploring made me rich, and it’s hard to get your head around. I pay a man to do nothing but take care of my money. It’s a strange thing to say, huh?”
“We have a lot of rules about it,” Xiù explained. “A lot of rules, powerfully enforced. Because the people who break those rules can make life worse for everyone.”
“And us.”
“Not as bad since there’s only one way in or out of here, but yeah. Like, our whole everything is built on money. If you start using it, then there’s a lot of protection between you and us that can go away in a flash. But on the other hand…”
“It may buy vack-seens.”
“And a lot more, yeah.” Julian agreed. “Think of this as the real essence of everything we ever tried to warn you about. Money is power, Yan. Power you can hold in your hand and pass to another man as easily as I might pass you a tool.”
“It’s the most powerful tool,” Xiù elaborated. “Anything you don’t have, anything you can’t do…if someone else has it or can do it, and you have enough money, then you have it too. And the same the other way. Givings and Takings with money can be too big to even imagine. Misfit cost literally tens of billions of dollars. That’s about a thousand times more money than Julian and I have, and we’re very rich apparently.”
Yan nodded solemnly “…This is the Sky-Magic that makes your villages.”
“It’s the blood in the veins of human civilization, Yan. Everything comes back to it.”
Yan grunted, and looked back over his shoulder at Dan, who was listening to the conversation without interfering.
“…Then we be very careful, and learn. And we take only what we need: enough to change for better, not enough to hurt.”
“That’s a fine line.”
“We walk fine lines every day. Life is a fine line, yes?”
“True enough,” Xiù agreed. Yan reached out and touched a finger to her chest, just above her sternum.
“When we met, Vemik stopped us killing each other. You talked to us. You brought the sky down to touch the world, and saved us. We’ve known since then that the sky is full of things we don’t understand and that might kill us… but it’s also full of our good friends, and things that will help us.”
He sat back and smiled. “The People are strong,” he said. “We are not afraid of the sky, and we can’t run from it even if we were. We will be careful, but never cowards. And one day, we will make our Misfit. Not the same as yours: Ours.”
“Spacemonkeys,” Julian muttered with a grin.
Yan hooted, “I still break you over knee, Jooyun!”
“You do, and you’ll have to answer to my women.”
That got an uproarious trill from Yan, who rocked back on his tail and nodded appreciatively. “Only a crazy man would be so brave!” He hooted again, then calmed and gave them both a fond look. “You have been good friends to me, to us, to all the People. The Gods smiled on us, I think. I think in coming years, as you have babies, as they grow, maybe you won’t visit so much. I wanted you to hear those words now. And when I see Awisun, I say them to her, too.”
That was a hard compliment to take. All Julian could do was scoot forward and put his hand on Yan’s enormous, teak-hard shoulder. Xiù meanwhile looked deeply touched, and she rounded the table to hug him.
“…You’ve been good friends to us as well, you know,” she said.
That seemed to be all the sentimental stuff Yan had room for. He dragged them both in for a lung-squeezer of a hug, then let them go and gestured toward the food.
“Come. We eat, we talk of the future… Have a good time.”
Julian had to admit to a certain hollowness in his gut that needed filling. “That,” he agreed, “sounds like an excellent idea.”
Date Point: 15y8m3w
Ceres Base, Asteroid Belt, Sol
Drew Cavendish
Speeches.
Drew hated speeches. He especially hated standing around on stage while they were given. Double especially when there were film cameras in front of him and he was flanked on either side by men and women in shiny uniforms with medals and a whole fruit salad of colours on their chests.
Or, y’know. The bloody King of England.
His Nibs had mastered the art of giving a speech, at least. Advancing age hadn’t taken away his patient, aristocratic air and to be fair to him it was a good speech… but Drew wanted to be back at work.
Fine, sure. Today was the day Caledonia finally got out of drydock and back into active service. It was a big moment, both for reflecting on the hundreds of crew who’d given their lives over Gao, and for anticipating the great things she’d achieve in the future. But there were still a thousand small things that needed Drew’s attention. The rededication ceremony wouldn’t have been on that list if he could avoid it.
But Adele had put her foot down. So Drew, choking in his best suit and tie, was sweating under the lights while a very old man said nice things.
Receiving a light tap on the shoulder during the speech therefore was… worrying. This was a big and important moment for the Consortium, he wouldn’t be interrupted for this unless something very big was up.
The whisper in his ear was urgent. “Emergency meeting in the boardroom.”
Drew eyed the front of the stage, where the King was maybe two-thirds of the way through recounting the ship’s heroism during the Battle of Gao. “Now?”
The luckless executive assistant sent to retrieve him, Ed, sounded like he didn’t want to be there any more than Drew did. “Adele said to pull you off the stage immediately. No matter what.”
…Jesus Christ.
He got given several shades of stink-eye as he nodded and backed off the stage before slipping away down the stairs. That was future damage control, no doubt.
“What the bloody hell is so important that she’s asking me to snub the bloody king?” he asked.
“Way above my pay-grade, Drew.” Ed shrugged apologetically as they stepped into an elevator. The ceremonial room overlooking the drydock was right on Ceres’ surface, looking out over bare grey landscape of regolith and ice with a disturbingly close horizon. Paradoxically for a facility with so many windows, it felt claustrophobic.
The Ceres facility’s innards, on the other hand, were carefully calculated to feel as open and airy as possible. Folks lived out here for months at a time in what was, after all, effectively a bunker. They stepped off the elevator in a carefully cultivated bit of artificial parkland that looked much bigger than it really was, and bustled across it through the revolving doors in the front of the executive building. Up another elevator, and that was where Ed left him because the board room was sealed up as tight as Drew had ever seen it. He even got brain-scanned before they let him in, and when he did so he had to endure stepping through the skin-tingling fuzz of a privacy forcefield.
The mood inside was funereal. Haggard, stressed faces looked up at him as he entered, even as one of their moments of triumph still played out silently on the wall TV.
At any other time, Drew might have made an ice-breaker joke along the lines of ‘who died?’ or something. It died before he’d even properly conceived of it. Instead he shut the door carefully behind him and moved to sit next to Drew Martin.
“…What happened?” he asked.
Adele indicated a holographic slide. It was an inventory of their mining equipment. One of the lines was bright red, and an icicle ran down Drew’s spine as he realized which one.
“…Oh no.”
“Yeah,” Drew Martin said grimly. “One of our nukes is missing.”