by TJ Berry
“We’re not here to fight,” said a dryad on her left. She spoke more deliberately than a human, but nowhere near as excruciatingly slow as most dryads.
“Probably not,” mumbled the centaur, hedging her bets.
“Kaila,” said Gary, coming down to embrace the dryad. She was Jenny Perata’s wife, who he had intended to go find in the forest. The days had just gotten away from him.
Kaila looked so much better than the last time he had seen her. The areas where her bark had been stripped away by the Reason had healed over. And her fronds sprouted shiny green leaves that had recently unfurled. She hugged him tightly, then stepped back to rejoin her group.
“We’ve come to ask for your help,” she said. Kaila had lived among humans for so long that she was able to pattern her speech more closely to theirs. Gary appreciated how much effort it took for her to have her words ready so quickly for their benefit.
“I will give whatever assistance I can,” he said, remaining standing. It felt wrong to sit like a king on a throne in the presence of those he considered his peers.
“You didn’t say that yesterday,” sneered Horm. Kaila held a frond to the centaur’s chest to silence her.
“Let me speak,” said the dryad. “Gary, a group of us would like a stoneship and horn in order to return to the Reason. Our homes, our lives, and our loved ones are there. We understand the risks and we accept them.” She took a long breath, as if the effort of the small speech had exhausted her.
Gary’s heart sank. The thing they asked for could never be granted.
“You can’t accept the risks on behalf of every Bala on this planet,” he said. “Going back puts every one of them in danger.”
“No one is going to reveal your stupid location,” growled Horm. “We just want to go home.”
Gary shook his head in wonder as much as dismay. “Do you imagine they’ll allow you to simply move back into your apartment as if nothing has changed? You saw the state of the Reason in the hour before we left. Violence and destruction everywhere in a matter of moments. I’d imagine it has only gotten worse since then.” The image of Jenny’s light going out appeared in his head. His eyes flicked up at Kaila unintentionally. He hoped she hadn’t seen the momentary apprehension cross his face. “If you return, you will be the most valuable commodity in the Reason. You’ll be bred and stripped for parts and tortured for information. I know it’s difficult to lose the lives you once had, but you need to mourn them and move on.”
Horm stepped up to him with her chest puffed out.
“Easy for you to say, unicorn. Your family is right here with you,” she flicked her head toward Findae, who had quietly entered through the back door to watch. “The rest of us gave up everything.”
“You speak as if my wife did not die in service to the Bala,” said Findae, coming around to stand next to Gary. “As if I did not abandon my son to the humans for decades in service to the greater good.”
It was the first time Gary had heard him frame his time in stasis that way. It hurt, but it also strangely relieved him to know that his father also considered his departure a type of neglect.
“All of us are strong enough to withstand torture,” snorted the centaur, tossing her chestnut hair behind her. “Most of us have done it before.”
A murmur of assent went through the group.
“We can’t take the chance,” said Gary.
“Then we’ll find our own damn horn and call one of the stoneships out of orbit,” said Horm.
“Finding horn?” asked Gary, acutely aware of what that meant.
“All of the unicorns who survived human rule have been instructed not to give horn to any Bala without our permission,” said Findae.
“We don’t need anyone’s permission,” said Horm, raising a fist. “We can take what we need from the sick ones.”
Kaila looked horrified, understanding what the centaur meant to do.
“No,” she breathed, then words failed her and her branches whipped around in a panic. “No.”
“Then you would be incarcerated,” said Gary. “We grant everyone here the right to bodily autonomy–”
“Except us,” spat Horm, jerking away from Kaila’s fronds. “Whether you put us in jail or not, we’re your captives here on this planet. Have I got that right?”
“We’re all attempting to make a better–” started Gary.
“Save it,” said Horm. “I get what you’re saying. As far as you’re concerned, all of us are trapped here. Just under unicorn dictators instead of human ones. Well I, for one, am not going to die in a dank cave on some pink-ass world in the middle of nowhere. What you saw today is just a fraction of the Bala who are on my side. When I get the rest of them, we’ll see who’s really in charge.”
She reared up, exposing her soft underbelly, which was tattooed with the names of the fighters she had beaten throughout her career. The Bala around her jumped out of the way as she left the room at a full gallop. Her shoulder clipped the open door, knocking a log out of the frame. It clattered to the stone floor like a gong, heralding a somber future.
The other members of the group followed Horm at a slower pace. All of them were upset, and a few of them were in tears. Gary called after them.
“We can revisit this issue in the future, once we’re settled. The priority is to get everyone fed and housed first…”
A branch draped over his shoulder and stopped him.
“Don’t,” said Kaila. She was the only one who’d stayed.
Findae blew a long breath out of his nose and turned to leave. Gary wished he’d say something. Any little morsel of praise for how he’d handed the difficult situation. But his father merely trotted out the door.
Gary sat down in his chair and rubbed his forehead. He knew leadership meant that someone would always be displeased with your decisions, but it felt as if everyone thought he was doing a terrible job.
“What?” he asked Kaila, who was still standing there.
“Don’t snap at me,” she chided. “I am not your enemy.”
“None of them are my enemy, but they don’t act like it,” he said, disgusted by the childish tone of his own voice. “I’m trying to do what’s right for everyone.”
“Admirable, but impossible,” said Kaila. “You will never please them all.”
“Could I please just one of them, one time?” he asked, looking up at the ceiling.
Kaila laughed at his exasperation and the heaviness in his chest started to dissipate.
“It isn’t funny,” he said, giving her a half-smile. “These are serious problems.”
“Yes, very serious,” she agreed with a grin. “If they do take horn, it’s not as if they can steal a stoneship.”
True. Findae and Boges had the stoneships under tight control. And even when they roamed on their own, they tended to congregate around the third moon in the system and not near the inhabited planet.
“I just want them to understand,” he said.
“You want them to agree with you,” replied Kaila. “And they won’t.”
“No, they won’t,” he said after a moment. “I wish the trees hadn’t left us. We could use your wisdom.”
“Wisdom says it’s best for us to be far away from a group of angry colonists who are cutting down trees at an alarming rate,” she said.
“Good call,” said Gary.
Kaila stepped forward until he could smell the perfume of her tiny yellow flowers.
“When you talked about the violence on Jaisalmer, there was a moment,” she hesitated. “You looked at me in a certain way. I am not wonderful at interpreting human expressions, but this one said you know something that you are afraid to tell me.”
She was only partially right. He wasn’t afraid to tell her, he was anguished at the thought of saying the words out loud. What he’d seen was only the vaguest impression, snatched out of nullspace momentarily from trillions of miles away. It was the barest hint and it would be irresponsible to share such unr
eliable information.
“If I had solid information, I would gladly share it with you,” said Gary. “But I don’t have anything useful.”
“Liar,” said Kaila. Gary was startled by the edge in her voice. Dryads were usually slow to anger. “Tell me what you know about my Jenny.”
“Kaila, I’m not sure what’s going on with her.”
“But you can see her, in the null.”
“I can see bits and pieces. Nothing definite.”
“And what pieces have you seen?”
He didn’t know how to phrase it without alarming her. But he also didn’t want to understate the gravity of what he’d seen.
“She was… in distress when I saw her.”
“How is she now?” asked Kaila urgently.
There was no dodging such a direct question.
“I couldn’t see her after that,” he replied.
Kaila’s branches sagged.
“And that means…” she began.
“That means one of many things. Maybe she hid herself somehow – which is exactly what Jenny would do if she were in trouble. Dropping into bugspace or another dimension is second nature to her,” he said.
Kaila appeared unconvinced. Even Gary had to admit it was a shoddy theory.
“Or she’s gone,” said Kaila with a hard finality that had no trace of sentimentality.
“It’s possible,” admitted Gary. “But I’d like to think that if anyone has a chance, it’s Jenny.”
“Look again,” said Kaila. “Right now. See if you can find her.”
“All right,” said Gary. He shifted to get settled in his chair. His mind raced. He hoped beyond reason that he would actually find her. At the same time, he dreaded finding nothing and needing to tell Kaila that. He closed his eyes and began.
An explosion outside of the fortress rocked the room. The logs seemed to flex inward, then bow out again. Gary leapt out of his seat and toward of the door. The evening sky was illuminated by streaks of white-hot power, far out over the ocean.
“What is it?” asked Kaila, coming to his side with great effort.
“I don’t know,” he said, scanning the skies for any flying being who might be able to ferry him toward the event.
The beams of light faded, leaving purple streaks in his vision. He heard Bala approaching from below, but couldn’t see who.
“What was that?” demanded Horm, galloping back up the hill.
“I’m not sure,” said Gary.
“Well you sure as hell better find out,” she replied. He heard her hooves hit the ground hard. Horm was circling in a panic.
“Nothing appears to be coming this way,” said Gary as his vision returned to normal. “I’m going to find someone to take me over there to investigate.”
“That won’t be necessary,” said his father’s voice from behind. “It’s a scheduled test.”
“Test of what?” asked Gary.
“Our new defense system,” replied Findae. “And it appears to be working.”
“Who authorized a defense system?” asked Gary.
“I did,” said Findae. “We need to be able to protect ourselves.”
“We don’t make decisions unilaterally,” said Gary. “Everyone gets to contribute to the discussion.”
“See how it feels?” snapped Horm. “You unicorns do whatever you want. I heard that you want to call this planet New Bala. What a crock of shit. That would be like humans naming a planet New People. Can we at least get a popular vote on something as basic as the freaking planet name?”
“And then you’ll vote to call it Pink-ass Planet, or some such nonsense,” said Findae.
“It’s better than New Bala,” said Horm.
“Can we table the planet name discussion and come back to the weapon of mass destruction that was just tested off our shores?” asked Gary.
“No,” said Findae.
Horm cocked her head for a moment, as if she was listening to a different conversation that no one else could hear.
“A weapon is a waste of resources,” she said. “We need ships and communication systems.”
“Communications systems that will bring any beings in this area of space right to our doorstep,” said Findae. “We need to stay hidden for as long as possible.”
Kaila looked between all of them as if she could barely process the quick parley, let along form a response in enough time to join in.
“If you want to change the subject, let’s talk for a moment about the creepy forest shadows,” said Horm. “Bala are disappearing. Last night, another two were taken from their beds. Bala said they’ve seen red shadows sneaking around the village at night.”
“Kaila lives in the forest. Have you seen anything, Kay?” asked Gary.
Kaila looked stunned for a moment. Horm began to speak, but Gary held up a hand, giving Kaila time to compose her thoughts.
“I have heard about the red shadows. The trees inside are red, orange, and pink. Perhaps they are dryads from this world?” she ventured.
“Not very helpful,” said Horm. “You’d think, standing there all day and night, you could at least keep watch.”
“I need to sleep as well,” said Kaila, her fronds shaking. “There are terrible noises at night from between the trees, but where else can we go? To the village where you’ll chop us down to make an outhouse? We’re safe nowhere.” She turned and headed back toward the west. Gary ran after her and grabbed a large branch.
“Kaila, wait.”
“No. This place was supposed to be better than the Reason. But the dryads still live in fear. At least the evil we knew was better than the unknown terrors here. You can try to strand us here, but we are going back.”
She shook off his hand and kept walking. Horm joined her, walking backward to address Gary and Findae.
“Unicorns suck.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Cold Storage
“Follow this wall then head right, down that access corridor. The one that’s open. They took the doors off because I locked them,” said the Well Actually, sounding just a little satisfied.
“Did the number of bodies in cold storage change six weeks ago?” asked Jenny.
“No,” said Actually.
“So only live Bala were transported to the new planet. The dead ones stayed here,” said Jenny.
“That makes sense,” said Mary in her earpiece. “Showing up on a new planet with a million half-rotted corpses of your dead relatives wouldn’t exactly set a utopian atmosphere.”
“Actually, can you tell how many of the beings in cold storage are Bala?” asked Jenny. She turned right down a poorly lit hallway that was noticeably colder than the atrium.
“I don’t have access to an inventory of the cold storage, but I have inferred that there are nineteen bodies overall. Calculating who died where and when, I estimate that there are four Bala bodies.”
She reached the door at the end of the hall and looked up at the nearest speaker.
“What’s the code?” asked Jenny, her hand hovering over the keypad.
“Oh. I don’t know,” said the Well Actually. “What do you mean, you don’t know?” asked Jenny. “You told me to come here.”
“They took this door off the main system. I can’t open or close it. Sorry, I forgot,” said Actually.
Govvie and another man – a stranger – floated into the hallway. Jenny backed up against the door.
“Mary?” she called.
“I told you to leave,” said Mary, not without a hint of petulance. “I can’t help you from way out here.”
Jenny had one more trick up her sleeve, or rather, down her pants. She pulled her gran’s wooden patu out of a wide pocket in her flight suit. The men stopped, never having seen a short, flat club like this. It had been broken and mended, but it still hit as true as ever.
The men came forward, reaching for her. Jenny swiped right to left with her patu, bringing it swiftly across the stranger’s wrist. A satisfying crack reverberated up
the handle and the man yelped. This was a tool created for smacking down cannibals and colonizers.
Govvie skidded his hands down the walls to slow his approach. The other man curled in on himself, groaning.
“Just wait now. Repay no one for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all,” said Govvie, floating up the wall.
“Is eating your people honorable?” Jenny asked, swinging out with the sharp edge of the patu. “Kidnapping spacers and murdering them?”
“You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised,” said Govvie, leaning away from her.
“Uh oh,” said the Well Actually.
Govvie’s handheld radio came to life with a burst of static.
“Coming back online now, sir,” said a voice at the other end. Govvie pushed off toward the floor. Jenny did the same as the gravity came back on. At some point, flipping it off and on like this was going to take a toll on the ship’s structural soundness.
He stepped over to her, Jenny swung out at his legs one last time. He jumped back, avoiding her reach. He put his foot down to pin her arm and pulled the patu out of her grasp.
“I’ll take this,” he said, resting all the weight of both God and his boot on her forearm. It took all her will not to make a sound. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. He dropped her patu on the floor and kicked it far away.
The other man tested his wrist tentatively; flexing his fingers and rolling his hand. It wasn’t broken, unfortunately.
Govvie slipped his hand under Jenny’s arm.
“Get the other side,” he said to his companion.
They dragged her down the hallway toward the locked rooms on the outer ring of the ship. As she passed her patu, she rolled to slide it back into her wide open pocket. No way she was leaving that behind.
As the bolt slid home on the door of her new prison, Jenny pulled herself up and onto the mattress. It was sparse in here. Anything that could have been used for a weapon was gone. It was just a place to sleep, a sink, and a toilet. More than she’d left for Gary all those years ago when he’d been kept in a room no larger than this.
