by Kate Rauner
Maliah grabbed his wrist. "One sugar each. That's the rule."
He blinked at her. "You're the woman from the cyber team, aren't you? What business is it of yours?"
Nearby conversations fell silent and Maliah's eyes narrowed. A younger man hopped up to nod apologetically to Maliah, take the bald man's elbow, and steer him away. "He just woke up and doesn't know any better."
Baldy looked confused but didn't resist. "What? Why should a programmer be telling me what to do?" The other man shushed him. Maliah's expression relaxed and conversations resumed.
Fynn carried his sweet tea to the back of the crowd where he was buffered from the turmoil and took a sip. One of the main ventilation fans hung above the mess hall, its impeller housed in a shiny plastic cylinder as thick as his waist, its rush of air blending with the more distant hum of recycling pumps behind the barracks on either side of the kitchen. The sky-blue dome swallowed voices, but the mix of joyful reunions and sorrow didn't require words to be understood.
Rica returned, carrying her own cup. "It's wonderful to greet old friends who survived stasis and depressing to tell them not everyone did."
Fynn leaned closer. "They're also learning that no one on Earth has any antennas pointed our way. That we're on our own out here."
"We stole the Herschel. Who'd expect the consortium to pay for communications with us? If they're doing anything at all, they're suing each other and any of our vendors they can identify." Rica chuckled. "Stupid mongrels."
***
Seated at Tanaka's desk, Maliah stared across the tower's top floor. Four adjuncts flopped in the lounge, idly scrolling through whatever each had on their pad. They'd been useful on Earth, setting up Tanaka's meetings with financial backers, arranging secret trips to vendors who made this or that piece of equipment but never knew the true mission. Only the stasis lab might have guessed Tanaka's plans, because why would anyone visit a pariah research station on a renegade island nation and order hundreds of pods, if they weren't going into space?
But now, it was just creepy to have four Kin hanging around with nothing to do but occasionally debrief trustees. Especially Magnus.
Maliah wrinkled her nose. Tanaka left the Kin alone, without his daily guidance, for too long while he arranged their escape to Titan. They fell into bad habits, and he'd set Magnus the task of returning them to the proper path. Maliah didn't have to like the gaunt man to use him in the same way.
Maliah tented her fingers against her lips and stared down at her pad. She'd hacked her way into Tanaka's personal journal, and a solid wall of words filled her screen. There wasn't even punctuation. Of course, he hadn't prepared these notes for others to read. Not for anyone less inspired than himself. But directions for the Kin's future were here, and Maliah had to figure out his plan.
She forced herself to read each word by moving a straightedge down the pad, but despite several tries, it didn't make sense.
...Titan resonates with morphogenetic fields and Kin will be ennobled when all individuals join the vibrations simultaneously...
... hunger creates an invocation of fulfillment the likes of which was never realized on Earth...
... a nexus of inseparability requires conversion...
Maliah sighed and rubbed her face. It was too deep. The newly awakened bald man was right. She was a cyber tech and didn't have Tanaka's vision.
She tipped her head upward to lock eyes on the ceiling, shutting out distractions. Cyber tech. That was her expertise and her work had been vital to keeping Tanaka's secrets. She'd generated hundreds of hours of fake video to cover what really went on onboard the Herschel in Earth's spaceport. She might not have Tanaka's intellect, but she had dozens of his speeches stored in the cybernet. They could be transmogrified into holograms. Images of their leader speaking his own words should satisfy the newly awakened.
Maliah tapped her pad off, rose, and exited to the balcony, avoiding the vertical ladder in the lounge corner that was barricaded behind the adjuncts. She could work more comfortably in the lower level cyber room.
Chap ter 4
F ynn watched for any sign of a wobble as the steady whoosh of rotation faded and the Gravitron run ended. He climbed onto the huge machine's rim to unlatch a treatment slot and help the dizzy occupant fumble out and drop to the floor.
Medics escorted shaky Kin to a row of makeshift benches, stopping when necessary at a shiny plastic trash bin to deposit barf bags. Greta waved to him before bending to apply a palm-sized monitor to a man's chest. The treatments seemed to satisfy her even if it was too soon to notice dramatic improvements in anyone's health.
Armed with torque wrenches, crewmates inched their way along every arm of the machine. At the console, Fynn compared sensor readings to the design specs. A smile widened his broad mouth. All within tolerance.
His khaki coveralls snapped to blue and Fynn jumped. Maliah could control everything that was linked to the cybernet, and he hated it when she did that. Glancing over the operating position's shield, he saw his crew was now dressed in blue. A synthesized voice spoke in his ear, serene and androgynous. "Kin, assemble on the Village playing field."
Clenching his jaws, Fynn waved to his crew to leave and hopped toward the tunnel. He easily outpaced the treatment group rising from their benches. In the furnace dome, he met Ben dodging between cargo bins.
Ben tipped his chin up. "I'm on duty at the furnaces. What should I do?" It didn't sound like a question. Fynn knew what Ben wanted to hear, and he agreed.
Someone had to babysit the furnaces if the Sterling converters were to keep the lights on. "Stay with them. I'll explain where you are."
Maliah was certain to look for Fynn's crew and punish any apparent disobedience. Ben would be missed and it was Fynn's duty as crew leader to protect him. He'd have to talk to Maliah immediately, and perhaps he could placate her. He'd take some power packs with him.
As a precaution against catastrophic dome failures, Maliah kept surface suits and fliers in the tower for herself and the adjuncts. The colony only had three dozen surface suits, which was terrifying to anyone who worried about leaks. Most colonists would be doomed. Apparently, the designers had more faith in the domes than Maliah did. But, since the only charging stations for the life support packs was in the furnace dome, Fynn periodically swapped fresh ones for those in the tower.
The detour to collect two packs meant Fynn trailed behind his crewmates. In the greenhouse, Max's farming crew, which was the largest in the domes, dropped down from the hydroponics frames and ignored Fynn as they swarmed toward the Village.
A hundred Kin gathered on the playing field, assembled into rows with their barracks mates. They faced the deep blue tower that rose four stories to the dome's flattened ceiling. Strings of wide orange banners swayed in the ventilation currents, bright with the winged U and T symbols of the ancient Indus Valley.
His crew clustered at the edge of the men's barracks near the tunnel's exit. Fynn waved them on, but a few asked questions about the assembly. He shrugged. "I don't know anything more than you do."
Spontaneously, his sleeve pad opened to a camera focused closely on Maliah as she gripped the top balcony railing. She was impressive, a younger version of their mother, carved from amber and gold instead of alabaster and silver.
Fynn couldn't see her directly, not from the red barracks, but movement on the playing field caught his eye. Two figures on fliers drifted away from the tower, and many Kin below them cringed in the downwash.
"I have given you the most difficult task there is." The voice coming through Fynn's ear gel was Tanaka's. Fynn trotted along the red unit, past the orange and yellow, to see for himself. At the green wall, he had a good view of the balcony.
Maliah stood at the rail, and Tanaka towered over her. From the slight sparkle in his figure and the translucent shadow at his shoulders, the hologram was obvious.
"Your task is to transform Titan into a paradise. I know you will succeed and I love you for that. We
welcome our newly awakened with love. And you, who just set foot in the colony, must extend your love throughout these domes. Love that will restore someone who turns an angry eye on her fellows."
Fear tightened Fynn's chest. The happy talk of love was something he recognized. Maliah could have pulled that from a dozen speeches. But not the ominous bit about angry eyes. What did that even mean?
The hologram flickered. Tanaka's arm swung out, his finger pointing. "Oda Neel."
The adjuncts sprang off their hovering fliers, leaving the machines to drift down into the crowd. They dragged Oda to the front, and one struck her in the face. The other spun her around as she recoiled and hit her again. She dropped to the floor, and they bounded toward the tower.
For a moment, everyone froze in shock.
The image of Tanaka spread his arms wide. "Welcome her back with love." He faded away, replaced by Maliah's voice.
"As Doctor Tanaka taught, there are no coincidences in our history. It's no coincidence that this moon is named Titan. It was created for us, for we are the original humans. We are Titans." Maliah lifted a fist overhead. "Kin, Kin, Kin."
The crowd below joined her. "Kin, Kin, Kin."
Several woman hurried to Oda's side, helped her to her feet, and back into the front row. A wave of movement flowed through the assembly, the beginning of an endurance rally, a demonstration of Kin solidarity.
Fynn twisted a hand through his thick, black hair. He'd like to run back to the furnace dome, but he knew a crew leader's duties. He hoisted the backpacks higher on his shoulders, avoided the rally by walking past the kitchen, and started up the tower stairs.
***
Maliah leaned against Tanaka's desk - her desk - with arms folded loosely. She was aiming for a patient, bemused expression to counter her mother's professional neutrality, which didn't fool Maliah. Deepening her voice was Greta's way of hiding anger.
"This is not a good time for an all-night rally. We should be focused on recovery for the newly awakened." Greta's shoulders were tense, and she'd widened her stance to balance like a fighter. Yes, her mother was angry.
"Don't worry, Mom. Kin are strong."
"I want to tap out anyone who looks distressed."
Maliah glanced at the adjuncts seated across the room in the lounge but obviously paying attention. The younger pair, Shun and Trina, were waiting for Maliah to ask for anything, anything at all, from them. She didn't doubt their loyalty. Or Maj. The older Viking may have grey streaks in her braid, but she was the equal of any Kin, and devoted.
Magnus was a different story. At Earth's spaceport, managing security for the entire project, he was a professional paranoid. Now his only staff were trustees recruited to monitor the barracks for loyalty. With his slender frame draped over his chair's slick plastic arm, he seemed relaxed. It was his trustees who'd reported that Oda Neel was questioning the wisdom of Tanaka.
"Maliah."
Maliah yanked her attention back to Greta. "Of course, Mom. You're our senior medic, so that's up to you."
The door rattled with a single knock and Max strode in. He'd been a favorite with students, including with Maliah, in the Kin's earthly compound. She deliberately suppressed the urge to call him Mister Bauer. "Max. What can I do for you?"
"Oda's on my crew. She's a good woman." He glared at the adjuncts. "You struck her. I won't tolerate this sort of thing."
Magnus' voice was cold. "You run a crew, Max, so you should know. Discipline is about maintaining control. About keeping grievances from turning into rebellions."
"But angry eyes? That's a crazy accusation."
"The crazier the better." Magnus' thin lips ticked up at one corner. "Power demands absolute obedience. No one may question an order. I ensured obedience for Doctor Tanaka and now I do the same for Maliah."
Max's brows furrowed, but before he could reply, the door opened again, without a polite knock, and Fynn walked in. Her brother's gaze jumped quickly to a corner of the lounge where surface suits were piled against fliers and power packs.
He slung a pair of packs off his shoulders and leaned them against the wall. "I've got fully charged packs to swap out for you."
Maliah nodded without comment.
"Also, I want to let you know that I left some of my crew with the furnaces. Those units are vital equipment that can't be left untended for long." Fynn's wide lips pressed into a thin line as if he was challenging her to disagree.
Maliah stretched her neck, hoping to relieve cramped muscles. "Will those furnaces be your excuse forever? You were sent to university for a purpose. To learn power plant operations. So do your job."
"I am. The job requires continuous monitoring until I can fabricate new controllers."
"Our cargo included spare parts."
"... which all have the same problem. Your secrecy on Earth almost killed us. Vendors didn't know what conditions to design for or how to interface different systems."
Her pulse throbbed in her ears. "You always have an excuse, don't you? Always telling me to wait. I've had enough of your stalling. What you need is a kick in the butt."
Maliah swiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "Get Fynn out of my sight. Toss him off the balcony."
A fog seemed to close in, narrowing Maliah's vision. Max disappeared from sight as the adjuncts grappled with Fynn.
Greta shouted over the commotion. "Maliah! No."
"Oh, mother." She stomped a foot, rebounding off the floor. "It's no worse than a skydiver landing on Earth." Landing hard and Fynn deserved it.
"Not like Earth. He's lost twelve percent of his bone density."
She hadn't thought of that, but the adjuncts had already hauled Fynn out the door.
Maliah rushed to the balcony as they threw him over. He spread his arms and legs wide, adding air resistance to the slow motion, low gravity fall. Kin below scrambled, some raised their arms as if to catch him, and some bounded out of the way.
"Roll it off, you idiot!" Maliah called.
Fynn aimed his feet at the floor, but he never was very graceful. His shoulders over-balanced as he hit and he toppled into the crowd. Maliah held her breath.
Fynn's mop of black hair emerged. His skinny arm flopped over the shoulder of a curly-haired woman who hauled him to his feet. He was okay.
Magnus leaned close. "That woman helping him - she's on his Mechanics crew."
"Who are the others around him?" Maliah couldn't be sure from so far above.
"More of his expanded crew."
"Well, what did you expect?" Maliah's pulse raced. Was Magnus going to argue too? "There had to be people assigned to assemble that Gravitron thing."
"Assigned through the schedule created back on Earth, certainly. But Vanja tells me those assigned didn't necessarily go. Vanja's the one over there, laughing. She's our most productive trustee. She says different Kin volunteered. She calls them the Mechanics."
Below on the playing field, arms waved and pointed. People must be arguing, but their words were lost in the rushing ventilation currents. Space opened around Fynn as groups shifted.
"What's going on?" Maliah muttered to herself but Magnus heard.
"People are taking sides, but most are joining your trustees, so you seem to be winning."
Maliah nibbled on her upper lip. Half the Kin clumped at the back of the crowd didn't appear to see what was happening up front, but someone wriggled through a space behind Vanja. Someone else pushed and another person stumbled. More pushing. A two-handed shove.
Greta crossed the playing field, her movements graceful, her platinum braid swaying down her back. People separated with fists clenched, but they moved apart.
"Your mother has a way with people." Magnus sounded amused.
Maliah stiffened at the implied mockery. "Medics are respected by everyone."
Greta gestured and the small group surrounding Fynn walked to the tunnel, one woman still supporting him.
"I don't like that," Magnus said. "Look how many Kin are goi
ng with him. Two or three times the number in his original furnace crew. Your brother is building a following." He tilted his head down, a bow of sorts, as if apologizing for the observation.
"Nonsense. We're all Kin." Maliah tightened her jaws. The adjuncts stood nearby, waiting for more orders. "Shun, Trina. Go down and send everyone to their barracks. They have work to do in the morning." She stomped back to her room, annoyed that the plastic door was too lightweight for a satisfying slam.
***
Fynn coughed to clear his throat. He was glad his dark coloring hid flushed skin, because his face was impossibly hot. He wiped a sleeve across his forehead, but it didn't help. Ever-Clean fabric wasn't absorbent.
He sat amid tumbled cargo in the furnace dome surrounded by his Mechanics. They'd half-carried him from the Village to the circle of makeshift benches. Even Ben temporarily abandoned the furnace consoles to one of his crewmates.
Greta knelt at his injured foot and slid the soft shoe off. His ankle looked as if someone had shoved a potato under the skin on one side. "Probably a sprain." Her doctor voice was calming. "I called Kumar to bring the portable ultrasound to confirm nothing's broken."
"They threw him off the tower..." Someone was updating Ben, sounding more excited than frightened.
Rica slipped through the group. "Does it hurt?"
"Not while I'm sitting still." Fynn slapped his sleeve pad, and his coveralls flipped to khaki.
A shout went up and colors flashed along everyone's sleeves and legs, through torsos and up to their collars. Greta didn't need to change. Her white coveralls with a red snake spiraling around each arm marked her as a medic. As neutral.
Fynn hopped up on one foot to glare at his mother with a challenge. "You're on my side, aren't you?"
Greta bit her lip, then answered with more of her doctor-voice. "There can't be sides for medics. There can't be sides for the colony."
