"What does Armand do if Philippe isn't around?"
"You will never see Armand without Philippe, or Philippe without Armand."
"Must make it hard to meet women. Or are they just interested in guys?"
"Like I said, Ultras are open about sex. In fact, I think my parents are one of the few monogamous pairings. The guys meet plenty of men and women. They might not be scientist material, but their bodies are perfect. And like everything else in their lives, they share. Fights break out over who gets to be with them."
"Get out." Six gave the twins a long, appraising look. "Weird."
"That doesn't even crack the door on weird. Wait till you--"
Dessy broke away and came toward him.
Pietas mimed closing his mouth and placed himself in front of Six.
"Um... Tas? Brother dear?" Dessy's words oozed such artificial sweetness even the twins, who idolized her, glanced at each other with disbelief. "Sweetheart? Can I see you alone for a minute?"
"You may not, sweetheart. Anything you say to me, you can say in front of Six."
"Here's how it is. We need to talk privately and you will come with me. Now."
Armand and Philippe folded their arms. Cold stares implied force if necessary.
Joss took a few steps back, her gaze flitting from the twins, to Dessy, to Pietas and back. Hands up, she distanced herself from whatever the others were doing.
He knew Joss would not betray him, and he could take the twins. Or he would have, until now. Would have thrashed them on principle, for even looking like they opposed him. They were warriors under his command, and as such, owed him allegiance. But could he take them now? His sister had almost knocked him flat. Well, he would always defeat them when it came to brains. As for Dessy...
"Sister, dear, it's been so long since you were in my presence, I'll forgive your disrespect. Do not tell me what to do or where to go."
She gave a small bow. "I need to talk to you privately."
"You'll have to wait." Pietas took the ghost's arm and steered him toward the campfire. Its embers still glowed. "Sit down, please." He opened the pack and pulled out the leaf-wrapped fish. "Here. No argument. Eat."
"I don't think I could eat any--"
"Six!" Pietas whispered. He held the man's gaze. "Fill your mouth and be quiet."
Six bit into the fish.
"Wait here. Try not to talk yourself into being killed. I won't be out of sight." Pietas clapped a hand on Six's shoulder and then stood. He motioned to the twins. "Get some kindling on this fire and get it going."
"Yes, sir," they chorused and set about doing as he asked.
"Joss, you're on guard duty. Stay with him."
"Yes, sir!" With an eager smile, she stared at Six, who shrank under her gaze. The ghost was six Terran feet, Joss a few inches shorter than Pietas.
He motioned to Dessy to accompany him and walked backward. He pointed two fingers at his own eyes and then at the twins. They gathered kindling faster, which was not what he'd intended to convey. Definitely brains over brawn.
A stone's throw away, Pietas turned to his sister. "If you have a problem with Six, get over it. He saved my life and I owe him."
"Saved your life? How can a ghost save an Ultra?"
"I'll get to that. For now, know he was completing his duty when he threatened Mother. He didn't know who she was. He's off limits. You'll treat him with respect and that's all there is to it."
"You think I'll forgive him for threatening to immolate our mother?"
"You think I didn't consider that every single day aboard that ship?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I was never in stasis, Dessy." He briefed her on his imprisonment, leaving out details, but including the way Six had brought him back from the brink of perma-death. "So you see why I say Six is my friend. I owe him my life."
Dessy had listened without reaction, but now she threw her arms around Pietas and held onto him.
"Are you-- Dess?" He pulled away enough to cup his hands around her face. She was crying! Had he ever seen her cry, other than when they were children? Her eyes shone with tears. "What is it?"
"I'm sorry, Tas. I didn't know. I'm sorry you went through that!"
"Shh." Pietas kissed her brow and pulled her back into his arms. "It's all right. It's all over."
"I was afraid I'd never see you again." She leaned against his chest, holding him so tight it hurt, but he didn't have the heart to move her away. "I had a premonition about those talks. You were right about me keeping your hair." She stepped back and looked up at him. "I did want your DNA. I had a horrible fear of losing you. You were right about everything with the humans. I should have voted with you." The brooch with his hair inside still sat on her upper chest.
He ran one fingertip along the pin.
She wiped her eyes, gave him a tremulous smile and threw herself back into his arms.
He kissed the top of her head. "Dess, in Six's shoes, you'd have done the same. He's a soldier. It was his duty."
"What did you promise him if he took care of you?"
Pietas took two steps back. "What are you asking?"
"I'm asking what you told him you'd do."
"I promised to protect him from you."
Her murmur of agreement carried a hefty dose of sarcasm.
"That's not how it is, Dessy. You don't understand. I've spent months with this man. He's my friend."
"Is he? You've changed."
He considered that. "I suppose I have. Dying a thousand times will do that to you. I was nothing but bones when the shuttle dropped me from the sky. I was broken and damaged beyond what even an Ultra should have survived. If Six hadn't gotten me out of that pod and taken care of me, I'd be gone. I owe him everything. Did he threaten Mother? Yes. But he didn't do it out of hate. He did it because he was told she was important to me. And get this. An Ultra working with the humans told him. I said we were betrayed by our own kind. I meant it."
Dessy let out a sob and covered her mouth. Her eyes filled with tears.
"It's all right. Come here." Pietas drew her back into his arms. "It doesn't matter what happened in the past. We're together. One day we're going to find out who did this to us and we're going to make him pay for every minute of it."
Pietas held her for a time, neither speaking. To help her re-center and calm her emotions, he stepped back.
"Report our situation."
Dessy wiped away her tears. "The humans unloaded the council's pods and then a few others. They did the first delivery units properly, but it looks like they decided it was too much work. But Tas..." She covered her mouth, and seemed to choke back a sob. She motioned to him that she needed a moment, and took a step away. She drew deep breaths, her shoulders shaking. She'd shielded her emotions and even their bond didn't allow him close. She gulped air and composed herself. She turned back, her head erect. A sob escaped. "Sorry."
The pain she evinced almost made Pietas retch. He fought not to react. There were people close. If he hurt them because he couldn't control his emotions, he'd never forgive himself. They'd off-loaded him that way, but he hadn't been frozen.
"Dess. I need you to say it. Stop holding back and give me the facts."
"Their bodies were frozen, Pietas. They shattered. Their tubes are their tombs. Because those humans were too lazy to do their jobs, over three thousand Ultras are beyond saving."
The world went white. Pietas clamped down his immediate rage, but not before the embers in the campfire flared to a roaring fire.
Six fell backward and scrambled away from the flames.
Joss threw her hands up before her face.
Armand and Philippe looked at the fire, through it to Pietas, and in unison, dropped the now unneeded kindling.
Resolve to avenge his people hardened to diamond within Pietas. Humans would pay for every day of suffering.
At a touch on his arm, he spun toward whoever had dared to interrupt his thoughts.
"Here
." Six held up their steel cup, full of water. "I couldn't help overhearing. I'm sorry for your loss. I thought you could use this."
No one had ever said those words to him. Sorry for your loss. Humans said that to each other. Ultras didn't comfort one another in the loss of friend or family. Ultras took vengeance.
Clasping both hands around the cup, Pietas drained it and held it out.
The ghost went to take it, but when Pietas didn't let go, Six looked up.
Like an apology, he had never said this to a human either. "Thank you for your kindness." He released it.
With a grim smile, Six nodded and returned the cup to their pack.
Dessy watched him go and then sidled up to Pietas. "What an odd person."
"Explain what you mean by that."
"Nothing, Tas." She took his arm as she leaned against him. "Look, I'm sorry, but it's been centuries since I've gotten this close to a human without trying to kill him."
"Not all humans deserve death."
Dessy drew back and studied him. "How hard did you hit your head when you landed?"
"Not funny."
"Not meant to be. You've changed. You're not the brother I grew up with. He'd be first to remind me that we're warriors. Killing humans is what warriors do. We learned that at our mother's knee. Our father drilled it into us every day. We recited it at the table the way some children say grace. 'Tell us a way to kill humans,' Father would say, and put a napkin in his lap as if it were what every family talked about at dinner."
It made his father's change to being a human-lover even harder to swallow.
"I hate to agree with Father about anything, but he's right about one thing. Not all humans deserve to die. But those who do are going to face our vengeance." Pietas withdrew from her and clapped his hands for attention. "Gather around, everyone. Let's talk. I want a full report."
Chapter Twenty-six
They sat around the campfire, which Armand and Philippe took turns feeding with the wood and kindling they'd gathered. It was far from the strangest place to hold an impromptu council meeting. They'd met on battlefields in the Terran Crescent and the Colonies of Man, sometimes atop the bodies of the fallen.
"I want to know one thing up front." Pietas signaled to Dessy. "How many are out of stasis?"
"The council. That's it. The humans rigged it so everyone's pod is connected and on a timer. They'll all open at the same time."
"Which is when?"
"A year from our arrival."
"How long till then?"
"The countdown timer shows about two hundred solar days from now."
"Hmm." Pietas considered that. "All right, how many of us are here?"
"Almost five hundred and twenty-eight thousand."
Six gave a whistle of amazement.
"We think there are more, Pietas." Joss moved to sit beside him. "There were over a million of us and they said they'd let one of us live for every hundred thousand who surrendered. So we were worried when-- Um..."
"When you didn't see me, you mean? I understand. There are more than half a million of us. Can you tell who? What classes?" Humans had created them all for specific tasks, but many had cross-trained and could do anything.
"Sixty percent warrior. Thirty-four percent labor. Three percent scientist."
That's ninety-seven percent. What are the rest?"
"A few of each type. We have about two thousand artists, around fifteen hundred in commerce, eight hundred in medicine. A sprinkle in law and nature. Less than a hundred in politics. Most of the ones we lost are from science and labor."
That made it even more tragic when you were trying to build a world from scratch. The headache that had been creeping up on him took over in full force. He squeezed the back of his neck.
"Everyone is at the same release site?"
"A few hours north." Joss gestured in the general direction. "It's a vast, sloping savanna. The valley's sheltered on all sides by mountains. In the afternoons, clouds gather on the rim. It's an amazing sight. On the north is the tallest waterfall any of us have ever seen. It goes into a river, which leads to a mammoth lake at the center of the valley. Beautiful place."
"Yes, it is." Dessy leaned back on her arms and crossed her ankles. "But there's no way half a million people can survive in that spot."
Pietas drew up his knees and rested his arms atop them. "How did you get here if the valley's surrounded by mountains?"
"There's a gorge on the south side." His sister dusted off her hands. "We've been using it to explore the forests here, looking for land where we could begin planting. I'd hoped to find horses or cows. Deer, elk, that kind of thing. Pack animals. Even dogs or wolves. No rabbits or squirrels. No small game of any kind. No bears, either, but all those animals are supposed to be included in standard terraforms. We saw those big cats like you ran into, but they've stayed away. I'm starting to think they never introduced the standard set of animals to this world."
"Meaning?"
"Mother's the expert on terraforming. She said it's possible when they realized Sempervia was too far out of the space-lanes to be an easy jump, they quit. Didn't complete loading the animals. They're the last to be sent, before humans. First the small game, then the big game. Prey, then predator. We're the natural prey for those cats."
"No. They won't attack us."
His sister frowned. "What makes you think that?"
"We're two of a kind. Mighty hunters. Powerful allies."
"Pietas, that's-- Honestly, do you know anything about animals? Mother said--"
"I know about these cats." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "The cat told me they wouldn't attack."
Six perked up. "Wait, are you saying you talked to one of those things?"
Dessy's concern came to Pietas like a wave in the ocean, deep and strong. "Tas, are you sure you didn't hit your head?"
"Still not funny, Dess. No, I didn't talk to one. It didn't have words, but I got the message. The cats don't belong here any more than we do." He described the meeting in the forest. "They arrived when we did and like us, they were created to be weapons. Like us, they outsmarted their creators, but have also been exiled here. They think they were intended to wipe us out, but they aren't interested in carrying out the commands of their creators, who abused them. The cats have been eating birds, rabbits, squirrels and rodents. We haven't seen them, but the cats have."
Joss scooted even closer. "Are the cats dangerous?"
Pietas considered that. "I'm not sure. I can tell you they wish us no harm, and they're intelligent. Far beyond what a cat would be. They communicate at great distances among themselves. By the cat's existence, I know its chief creator. He copied my research on the Rroglyn, but I think he paired different human DNA with the cat's. From what I saw, he was successful, but the obvious fact of the cats' exile says he considers it a failure."
Six scooted closer to the fire, glancing around as if expecting a cat to pounce any second. "Why are they a failure?"
"A better question is to consider in what way they are a failure. What might they do later? What aspects do we not yet understand that might prove difficult once we do? There is more to these animals than we can see at first glance. However, I believe they will prove to be allies."
Six squinted one eye. "Cats?"
"They are good hunters, and we will need help finding food. This particular cat's been tracking us since we arrived, but today was the first time I was alone. It wouldn't approach until I was. It doesn't trust humans. No offense, Six."
"None taken."
Pietas brought them back on target. "Finish your report, Dessy. What is everyone eating?"
"Fish and birds are plentiful." She dragged a stick through the dirt, but then tossed it aside and brushed off her hands. "There are plenty of bugs and insects. Oh, and we found beehives and honey. The twins trapped lizards and snakes. There are fruit trees and berries on this side of the mountains, but none in the valley."
"Don't forget that plant your
mother discovered." Joss shivered and rubbed her arms. "According to Helia, it's nothing she's ever seen before. She thinks it's native to Sempervia. No use for it." She stretched her hands toward the fire. "It's a thorny, flowering bush."
"Good. Planting supplies?" He listened as his sister detailed it.
The humans had left them a few barrels of seeds, including wheat, rye, barley, amaranth and various kinds of melons. They had the holy triumvirate of corn, beans and squash that made up most primitive diets. Crates of gardening equipment like shovels, rakes and hoes. Containers for transporting water and a few wheeled carts. They had axes, saws and hand tools like hammers and nails. Better fishing equipment than the simple line and hooks that Pietas and Six had, but just one crate of a hundred hunting knives.
"A hundred? For half a million people?" Pietas rubbed the tight spot between his eyes. "Then they'll be awards and symbols of status."
"How are knives--" Armand began.
"--awards and status?" Philippe finished.
"Anything rare tends to be desired more. We'll let people use them to hunt and those who are proficient will keep them. Any other food?"
"Military rations. Enough for thirty days for ten humans. Ultras burn three times the calories. We used one day apiece, the first day we came out of stasis. We've been hunting and fishing ever since."
"Any plantings started?"
"Not yet."
Of course not. Planting was menial labor and his father would not dirty his hands with that. But his mother, who was the terraformer, should have known its importance. There would be no harvest and it was late in the year to begin now. Perhaps some crops could be started.
"All right. We'll deal with that later. How about cookware? Camp stoves, any kind of portable ovens?"
"Nothing."
"Blankets? Tents? Clothing?"
Bringer of Chaos- The Origin of Pietas Page 16
