by Kate Rauner
Tanaka's smiling image flickered around the edges, like a holo zoomed in too far. The image was a tool and she controlled it. She could turn him off. Whenever she wanted to.
"I was given your father as a nemesis," he said. "I gift you with a nemesis in turn. Your brother Fynn. He is your father's incarnation."
"But I love Fynn. Remember the adventures we had as kids? Remember when we snuck into the kitchen after hours and stole a batch of cookies. He was shaking, but we ran into the woods and laughed. Ate the whole batch and were sick the next day. He never snitched on me, never. Remember?"
"Look at him now," Tanaka said. "His cold black eyes, his scornful smile. Just like your father."
"I miss Dad. Working with him in spaceport was fun. I loved creating fake videos to hide the Herschel from the mongrels." Tears spread across Maliah's face. "I'm not having fun anymore."
Tanaka's eyes narrowed and his face solidified. "Are you a child, playing with the colony like a toy? Perhaps you regret the time you spent with me. Perhaps you're ashamed?"
Maliah wiped her face with both hands. She was never ashamed. Not of anything she did. Not ever.
She'd been proud when Tanaka invited her to meals in the tower. Proud when he chose her to join his adjuncts. "I never question your orders."
She'd changed the cybernet's messaging at his request. Turned dome cameras off and on without asking any questions. That's why there was no cybernet record of her father's accident. Maybe his death was her fault.
No. That couldn't be true. "I don't regret the sacrifices I made."
Tanaka sneered. "You don't know what sacrifice means."
Maliah's muscles stiffen. "I gave up Earth. Blue skies. Freshly baked cookies. Gave up my computer classes and my friends there."
"Your friends were mongrels clawing at you. Dragging you down to their level. Were you wrong to follow me? Are you not my golden girl after all?" His voice mocked her now. "Will you wither on Titan? Did you make a mistake coming here?"
Her guts knotted. "Not a mistake. I didn't give up everything for a mistake."
Tanaka leaned back in his chair. "Then throw away memories that sap your strength. Renounce people who make you weak. I dealt with your father. Now you must deal with your brother."
"But I love Fynn."
Tanaka's eyes softened. "My poor dear. Go back to tending your cybernet if you choose. Perhaps the weight of destiny is too great. Perhaps it's too much for you to bear."
Maliah trembled. "No. I'm strong."
"Then choose your brother or me."
The soothing numbness returned, flowed through her and cooled her face. "I choose you."
Nodding and smiling, he faded away. Her father had betrayed Tanaka, and the tears she'd cried over him were wasted. Now Fynn was a rival who led Kin away from Tanaka's teachings. Maybe his crew was lost to her, beyond rehabilitation.
Maliah tapped out messages on her sleeve. She knew what she had to do.
***
A soft ding woke Fynn. At the end of the row of beds, he heard Lukas fumble for coveralls on a wall peg, and the sound of a pad sliding from a pocket. A faint light glazed Lukas' face, and the bed creaked as he got up.
"Fynn? Something's happening."
Lukas spoke softly but pairs of feet hit the floor. Everyone was awake.
Lukas handed his pad to Fynn. Unit leaders had embraced the return of private messaging. Several in the Village reported that trustees had roused selected Kin and were assembling in the mess hall. Fynn switched to a dome camera. It was hard to see in the dim red light of midnight, but a few dozen people huddled together near the greenhouse tunnel. The camera's directional mics recorded nothing but a whir of fans.
Fully awake, Fynn pushed the hair out of his face. This could be one of Maliah's odd rallies. Or maybe something else.
Comms. Whatever was going on, it was important to protect communications. Maliah could probably hack in from anywhere, after all, Tyra had completed a restore from the Herschel. But he could keep others from causing damage.
Brigit, this is Fynn, he texted. Something's happening. You've got to keep comms open. Get people you trust into the tower's ground floor. Don't let anyone mess with the racks.
Will do. Birgit must be looking at the dome camera feed too, because she added, we'll slip out past the purple units so no one sees us.
Lukas texted the other Mechanics while Fynn dressed and switched their dome lights to daytime levels. They met at their mess hall, each hunkered over a pad, watching shadowy figures move in the dim Village. And something else, bigger, reflecting planes of light and rounded edges. Cargo bins,
"They're opening up the tunnel," Lukas said.
That tightened Fynn's guts. He texted Max, Blue Kin are digging into your tunnel.
Max replied immediately. I see it. Rousing my crew. Won't let them in.
Need help? Mechanics can join you.
No, absolutely not. Only confuse. My crew will think they're attacked on two fronts.
That was ridiculous, but there was no time to argue. "Max is watching now. He plans to keep Blue Kin out of the greenhouse."
"The greenhouse shared their produce with the Village," Lukas said, "What more do they want?"
Behind them, another voice trembled. "Maybe, to get through to us?"
Fynn's stomach twisted tighter. "Maliah has a couple surface suits and fliers in the tower. She could send someone outside, around to our airlock. I'm going to secure our hatches."
Rica stepped closer, as if his pad might show details hers missed. Her mane of curls was bedraggled, but her eyes were clear and sharp. "What could a couple trustees do if they did sneak in that way?"
"I don't know and that worries me."
When the colony domes were designed, no one thought locks were necessary, but there were options. From a neat pile of discarded pallet boards, Fynn chose three of medium length, carried them to the airlock, and, with Rica's help, soon had the outer door's handle jammed.
He tapped his pad to voice. "Orpheus, move one of the decapods to the furnace dome's airlock and let me know if anyone approaches on the surface."
"Why not order the bot to defend the door?" Rica asked.
"Safety protocols prevent a bot from interfering with people, and, no, I don't want you to try to hack into them to turn them into soldiers. We're all Kin, aren't we? I don't want to make things worse."
Rica scowled and didn't answer. That was answer enough.
"There's so few of us," Fynn said. "I'm sure the newly awakened Kin want to manage the colony through barracks leaders and the Cohort Council, like we did on Earth."
"Yeah? Then why are we barricaded in our dome?"
"The newcomers haven't realized that they're never going home, that this isn't an exercise, and they need to take control of their future."
"They're cowards, hovering on the sidelines, afraid to play the game."
"They're in shock." My father wouldn't abandon them, Fynn thought, but he didn't say it out loud. His father was gone. He was on his own. "Pull the cyber links out of our stevedores, will you? So only the remote control box works, and then position them against the tunnel bins so no one can push through suddenly."
Rica's eyes were on fire. "I'll do it, but we're ready to fight. No one on this crew is a coward."
She was right. A deep breath drew him up taller. "Of course not, but it makes sense to put us in the best position to win, doesn't it?"
A fierce grin spread over Rica's face, and she headed for the closest stevedore.
If the newcomers didn't know who to follow, Fynn's crew would show them who was honorable. Who was true Kin.
Fynn swiped through the greenhouse cameras until he found one with a decent view of the Village tunnel. Around him, Mechanics gathered close together, doing the same on their own pads.
Max had left the dome lights on nighttime red, so his crew moved as black shadows to surround the opening. Slick plastic bins reflected threads of light that began to shi
ft.
Fynn's khakis flashed to bright yellow and he gasped. Rica flinched and others yelped. Their coveralls were entirely yellow. His pad showed bright daylight in the greenhouse.
Also clothed in yellow, Max's crew stumbled back, hands over their eyes. Bins toppled, booming like drums over the sound of ventilation. A half dozen of Max's crew were close enough to catch the brunt of the avalanche.
Galloping on the floor, clambering along the walls, and leaping through the center of the tunnel, Blue Kin poured into the greenhouse, lashing out with pallet boards and sections of pipe, trampling people underfoot.
A second wave of Kin flowed in from the Village, trussing up yellow-clad men and women with plastic straps.
***
In the moment of silence as his crew stared at their pads, Fynn called out. "Blue coveralls. Change to blue." They had to shed the yellow mark and he tapped his own sleeve. Blue Kin would be confused but that wouldn't last long.
Mechanics snatched up pallet boards from a nearby pile as Fynn yelled over the clatter. "Form up on either side of the stevedores. Let them wear themselves out clearing the tunnel." He bounded across the dome, watching his pad as he ran.
Blue figures dragged yellows into the Village tunnel and Fynn swiped through camera feeds to follow them.
Almost three hundred Kin were in the Village, but the dome, now at bright daylight levels, was deserted.
No, not entirely deserted. As he switched views, Fynn saw knots of people hovering at barracks doors and white-clad medics with gear bags running from the clinic. There was his mother, her long platinum hair flowing loose behind her.
"Why doesn't someone do something?" Rica had dumped her own pad into a pocket so she pulled his arm for a better view of Fynn's. Some of the attackers dragged yellow Kin by looped plastic ropes. While a few figures in solid blue sidestepped near them, the trustees and their allies had added a wide orange band around their chests. Fynn zoomed in and recognized lines, loops, and narrow vees. Symbols of the Indus Archetypes.
With their captives, they disappeared into the Village airlock, re-emerged, and closed the hatch door. Village Kin hanging around their barracks had retreated inside by the time they crossed the dome. But the trustees didn't head back to the greenhouse. In a noisy chatter, they veered off to the mess hall.
Fynn raised his pad. "Max? Max can you hear me?"
Fynn stood frozen as he waited.
The big farming cohort sounded winded. "I'm here. Had to get everyone untied."
"Where are you?"
"In the airlock."
"Anyone hurt?"
"Bruised and bloodied, but I think we're okay."
"The medics are trying to get to you." Fynn didn't mention that half the medics were in the mess hall, treating bruised and bloodied trustees.
"She's not going to try to open the outer door, is she?" Rica asked. "Maliah, you know I mean Maliah. She wants to kill them."
"I don't think she can," Fynn said. "We control the furnace airlock and the decapods have safety protocols."
Rica face paled. "I've got to pull their cybernet links." She streaked off toward the airlock.
"Max, jam the airlock doors. Use whatever you can find. Disable the airlock cameras." He turned to Lukas. "What's going on in the greenhouse?"
"Maybe half of Max's crew is still there. I catch glimpses of them up in the hydroponic frames. But it's hard to see."
Dome lights flickered for a moment, and Ben dashed off toward the furnaces, followed by two others.
With a board hefted in his hands, Olsen stepped out of the crowd. "That's the answer. We cut power to the other domes. With fliers, we could barrel through the tunnels and release Max's crew."
A man in red challenged the idea. "Everyone in the Village has hand lights. They'd spot us. And we don't know how many newcomers might join the trustees."
"Or might join us," Olsen said. "I bet most newcomers would."
Angry faces turned toward Fynn for guidance. Mechanics gripped their weapons and growled a need for action.
"I can't assume we'd get much help," Fynn said. "We need a definite advantage before we act."
Olsen smiled. "Carbon dioxide. We increase the flow rate and knock everyone out."
Fynn shook his head. "There's no way we have enough control. CO2 can be fatal."
"If we don surface suits, we can go in as soon as Blue Kin start passing out."
Olsen searched for support in the faces around him, and a lot of people were nodding.
Mika, who liked yellow but had shifted the shade of her coveralls, was wide-eyed. "I have friends in the Village."
Olsen scowled. "If they were really friends, they'd be here with us. I say, they deserve what they get."
"You can't mean that. We'd be worse than trustees."
Fynn barely had time to draw in his breath during the exchange. Now the Mechanics were pulling into two groups, one around Olsen and the other around Mika.
Fynn couldn't let the Mechanics become murders. They'd hate themselves eventually. And hate each other. The colony would never recover.
Fynn went cold inside. He had to find a better way and spread his arms to embrace them all. "What's happening is crazy, right? Let's turn crazy to our advantage. Drag the benches over, somebody. We'll sit right here, guarding the tunnel while we plan."
Chapter 25
F ynn scrolled through camera feeds. "I don't see any movement in the greenhouse at all." He opened a message link. "Mom, if there's no one around you, we're going to open the tunnel."
She squeezed through, dragging two medical bags behind her as Fynn had requested. Her silvery hair was bound in a ponytail now, her eyes red-rimmed.
"Are you okay?" Fynn asked.
"Just tired. Is someone hurt?"
"No, and I need your help to keep it that way." Fynn faced his crew. "It's time to stop the violence. I already contacted the Herschel and Evan is bringing his shuttle down to the Village dock to rescue Max's crew."
Cheers erupted. Olsen called out over the celebration. "Now you're talking." Mika and some of the others looked wary, wondering what else Fynn had in mind.
"I think Olsen's right, that we'll find plenty of Kin who want the Council and barracks leaders to organize our colony, just like they did on Earth," Fynn said. "But to find them, to encourage them, we need to be on the inside.
"I want volunteers to handle the Gravitron as a team under Greta. A second team to handle the furnaces and fuel depot. You'll be protected as part of her medical crew. Everyone else, your job is to infiltrate. Go back to your Village barracks if you can. Before you can recruit anyone, you need to rekindle your old friendships. Kin listen to their friends in work crews and barracks. Become those friends."
"Why would they take us back?" Rica asked.
"Most of you left in protest, right? So you can go back anytime. As for the rest of us... let the trustees think they've won." Fynn took a light, easy breath. "If you're not confident that you can weasel back into the Village, I want you to evacuate to the space station too."
A wave of disagreement flowed through the Mechanics, and Fynn raised his voice. "You won't be running away. A station team is important. You can get the manufacturing lab running and print the parts we need for our furnace controls. The domes will finally be secure."
"What about you?" Rica asked.
"I'll provide cover for the operation. Maliah seems focused on me, so I'll use that and become the Judas goat. If Maliah banishes me, she can claim victory. I'll volunteer to carry our sins out to the wilderness, out on Titan's surface, cleansing all of you."
Rica crossed her arms. "I never knew you were so poetic. What makes you think Maliah will go for this?"
Fynn held up his flat pad. "For one thing, it lets her return to the schedule. Kin will shuttle by turns up to the station for gravity convalescence. Hobbies and recreation too. That's all part of Tanaka's schedule. The pilots are ready to elect Erik as station commander, which means once onboard, ev
eryone is under medical supervision."
Rica chewed her lip, thinking. "Okay, that might be the excuse people need to drop this Blue Kin stuff. But what about you when your suit batteries die as you wander in the wilderness?"
Fynn grinned. "I'm not just poetic. Practical too. I'll ask the pilots to send a shuttle down to me. Then I'll stay onboard the station and lay low."
"Let's say this is gonna work. How do you get through the domes to Maliah?"
"I'll hide in plain sight." Fynn swiped his pad to the programmed coverall patterns. With a tap, his clothes flipped to white with a red snake coiled around each arm.
Greta raised one hand to her chin, touching curled fingers to her lips. She spoke softly under cover of the surrounding conversations. "Fynn, I must be neutral, must keep the medics neutral. That's the only way I can move freely from dome to dome."
"Now's the time to use your freedom. Kin can't survive divided. You know we can't. Dad was willing to make changes, to do what it took so this colony would succeed. Now it's your turn."
Greta closed her eyes for a long moment. She stood tall as tension drained from her shoulders and her arms dropped to her sides. When she looked into his face again, her pale blue eyes glistened with tears, but she smiled. "Your father would be proud."
Rica wasn't convinced. "You think medical white will make you look like Kumar? You're skinnier and darker too."
Fynn hefted one of the medical bags. "Who's gonna look close enough? Especially if I'm following Greta?"
Rica tightened her crossed arms. "I have to stay here to lead my barracks unit."
Ben jumped up from a bench and stood next to her. "And me. That power plant's my baby now. I can't leave."
Crewmates stood, talked in whispers, and sorted themselves into teams.
Rica handled the bots better than Fynn ever could, and she was his match on furnace operations. Ben too. The power plant really was his baby. The technologies Fynn's father had tasked him to manage would be fine in other hands.
