Out Past the Stars

by K. B. Wagers

  “Filtered through Thyra and the others’ fear that the Hiervet, excuse me, the Selan were coming for them?” Inana finished. “Oddly enough, that makes perfect sense.”

  Gita pushed away from the wall as Mia turned and waved a hand at us, and Inana and I followed, crossing the room. Emmory stayed just behind me like a shadow.

  “Are you all right?” I asked Dirah. The Istrevitel captain was still slightly glassy-eyed with shock, and I reached a hand out to steady her.

  “This is a lot to take in, Your Majesty.” She smiled sheepishly. “None of you seem the least bit fazed by it.”

  “To be fair, this has happened to us a lot in the last year.” I smiled and squeezed her shoulder, then let her go. “And you are coming off a pretty big worldview shift. You’re entitled to feel a little off-balance, Captain.” I looked at the Selan, who were watching us closely. “I think some formal introductions are in order; we have chairs but I wasn’t sure if they would be comfortable for you.”

  “We can sit.” The taller Selan nodded.

  There was a moment of silence, filled only with the shuffling of people and chairs as we took our places around the oval-shaped table in the corner of the room.

  “I suspect,” I said, resting my forearms on the tabletop, “that given the circumstances Standard is the best language to proceed in; is everyone agreed?”

  Heads nodded around the table. The Selan had been provided with an updated download of a number of languages courtesy of my Ekam and they, in turn, had given us a download of Selan.

  “Your Majesty.” Biea began the formal introduction. “I am Biea of the Selan; it is my heart’s joy to greet you.”

  “Your Majesty, I am Tolm of the Selan, it is my heart’s joy to greet you.”

  I touched my folded hands to my heart, lips, and forehead. “I greet you in the name of the Empire of Indrana.”

  The introductions went around the table. The pair of Selan shared a look and then Biea rested their limbs on the tabletop.

  “Empress Hailimi has told me that you each have different versions of the story of our people, and she requested that we tell you the truth.” An expression I recognized as amusement crossed their face. “Or our version of the events, as it were.”

  That was met with chuckles from the table and I relaxed a fraction, leaning back in my chair as Biea launched into the story of the Selan.

  “We were created as soldiers. Your languages are agreed that clones is the correct translation. We were developed by the Infrastructure as their latest model—a fully integrated force complete with all the tools one would need for intergalactic warfare.”

  “Not going to lie, the idea that there’s a lot more out there willing to start a fight with us doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies,” Inana said.

  “You are in a unique position here, Admiral. This area around your galaxy is mostly vacant and those who do live here don’t wish to be disturbed.” Biea nodded. “I understand the concern and you are not wrong. The universe outside your galaxy is dangerous, especially for those as young as you.”

  “Let’s focus on the issue at hand,” I said.

  “We were created for war,” Biea repeated. “And we were very good at it. However, our creators had not just made us warriors. As I said, we were a fully integrated force, with no need for outside support. There were technicians and mechanics, and intelligence forces, and those who created things of their own. We had our own cloning facilities so we could make more of us as the situation required. We were taught how to fix and grow ourselves. We were designed to be self-sufficient, with the one exception of the proprietary genetic material used for our clones.” They lifted a bony shoulder and looked at their companion. “I do not think our creators understood the ramifications of allowing us that kind of self-determination.”

  “Some of us liked the violence.” Tolm picked up the narrative when Biea fell silent. “They revolted against their owners and laid waste to friend and enemy alike. A decision was made by the Infrastructure to destroy their product—even those of us who had not joined in the rebellion.”

  “They were going to commit genocide?” Captain Zov’s question was filled with a surprising amount of outrage, and I exchanged a quick look with Mia.

  “In their minds we were not a race, but property to be disposed of, Captain,” Tolm replied. “Property that had some kind of fatal flaw. It was a better investment to dispose of us all and go back to the drawing board to fix the mistake.”

  “Obviously that’s not the end of the story,” Aiz said. “What happened?”

  “A smaller force of us, a little under half a million, correct?” They looked to Biea for confirmation, and the taller Selan nodded. “Were sold to a mining consortium on the outer rim. They were involved in a property dispute over several planets and an asteroid belt, and we had been working for them for several generations. When the recall notice came, the miners helped us disable our return protocols and the Infrastructure’s destruction program and told us to run.”

  Tolm lapsed into silence and I tapped my fingers against my lip as I watched them. However long ago this had been, it was clear the Selan still had deep feelings about the people who’d helped them escape their deaths.

  “We ran,” Biea said, laying the end of their limb over Tolm’s. “We did not know where we would go or how we would survive. We only knew we didn’t want to die.”

  “So you fled,” I said. “By my understanding this all happened very long ago, Biea. How have you survived for all this time?”

  “Oh.” Biea’s large eyelids snapped closed and then open again in surprise. “We are not. We were not the ones who ran, Your Majesty.”

  “We are their descendants,” Tolm said.

  37

  You know, every time I say to myself that things can’t get stranger around here, someone has to prove me wrong.”

  I choked back my laugh at Hao’s muttered comment. We were taking a short break while Dirah called for food and the Selan composed themselves from their emotional recounting of their escape.

  “I have a feeling we’re in for a few more before this is over, gege, so I wouldn’t say anything else just yet.”

  “My life was really quiet before I met you.”

  “Liar. Gy told me you got shot twice as much before I came on board.”

  Hao smirked at the memory. “Maybe.” His smile faded. “Do you believe them?”

  I glanced across the room where Biea and Tolm stood with their heads pressed together. “I don’t know. My gut isn’t screaming at me, if that’s what you’re really asking. But we can’t exactly verify this story, can we?”

  “Not without going outside the galaxy.” Hao shrugged. “Which, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t sort of intrigued by the idea of it, but if it’s so bad out there that a whole race of genetically engineered super soldiers went Fuck this, we’re out, how long do you think we’d last?”

  I only just managed to muffle my laugh into something that wouldn’t draw attention to us and bumped into Hao’s shoulder with my own. “It would be kind of fun, though, wouldn’t it?”

  He smiled. “It would. Except I might be getting too old for that kind of fun.”

  “I hope not.” I leaned into him, tangling my fingers with his and squeezing for just a moment before I pulled away.

  “Your Majesty, do you mind if we stand for a while?” Biea asked as they approached. “Your chairs are more uncomfortable than I imagined.” They glanced past me to where several Shen were bringing food into the room. “It may also be less awkward for you to eat without Tolm and me sitting and watching?”

  “You don’t eat?”

  “We were not designed to ingest food the way you all do.” They dipped their head. “It was one of the things our ancestors decided to keep due to its efficiency.”

  “I confess I can’t imagine a life without eating.”

  Biea answered with a laugh. “I cannot imagine the tediousness of having to do it, Your Majesty, so I su
ppose we are even.”

  “Fair enough. Would you like to continue?” I leaned against the other side of the table, taking the bowl Emmory handed me with a smile of thanks. The others took their clues from me and found spots around the room to listen.

  “The question I am sure you are all asking is who Thyra and her companions are,” Biea said, tapping their limbs together as they looked around the room. “I would love to lay that blame on the backs of my fellow Selan who lost themselves to violence, but to the best of our knowledge they were all killed. Thyra and the others were part of our group. They fled with us. But, as we discovered later, they did sympathize with the others.

  “The one you call Thyra was a battlefield doctor. She was obsessed with finding a way for the Selan not only to survive, but to continue the work our creators had started, to make a perfect warrior. One that would live forever. We did not realize it at the time but she had been in contact with the leaders of the rebellion to try to find a way to re-create the genetic material necessary to make the clones.”

  “Hold up a second,” Hao said, raising his hand. “Are you saying Thyra is one of the original Selan?”

  “Yes, she was an original clone. All the criminals are,” Tolm replied. “Our ancestors were aware of the Svatir but were trying to avoid them. They were dangerous. You—sorry, Captain, I mean your ancestors—were not to be messed with.”

  “It’s all right,” Dirah replied. “I know that part of our history well enough.”

  “Thyra had been pressing our ancestors for an attack on the Svatir. She was insistent there was something about them that was necessary to our survival and that we could subjugate them easily with our technical advantage. Our leadership refused, so Thyra and her followers left.” Tolm rubbed their limbs together in that same embarrassed gesture I’d seen from Thyra back on Faria. “Our ancestors did not realize at the time they would go to the Svatir, and that they would attempt to set themselves up as these gods.” They blinked. “I confess I don’t quite understand the concept, though I have read much on it.”

  “The concept of gods?” I smiled. “Don’t worry about it. You could spend your whole life on that one and still not understand it.”

  “A scouting mission told our leaders of Thyra’s crimes and the ensuing war. They came to help, but it was almost too late and the Svatir were not able to realize we were not the enemy. So we retreated.”

  “I saw far more than ten Selan in the recordings of the war, Biea.”

  “Yes. She had many followers. Most were killed in the war. We hunted down the scattered ones; they could not survive without her support. Thyra and her squad—the ten you speak of—were all that were left. We have been hunting them all these years.”

  I shared a look with Captain Zov. The story aligned too closely with what we’d learned from Timur to not be the truth, and I thought of the memory from the Istrevitel I’d seen with the captured Selan.

  “We apologize for our failure to capture the last of these criminals,” Biea said. “It appears that after their attempt to subjugate the Svatir they fled and landed on Faria. We were not able to follow because of the conflict with the Svatir, and by the time we extricated ourselves and started looking again they had managed to hide themselves from our eyes. We would not have even known they were there if not for you.”

  “That architecture on Faria makes sense now,” I murmured. “Biea, forgive me, but it has been thousands of our years, possibly more, since the Svatir war. Where have you been?”

  “Hiding,” they replied. “Trying to survive. Thyra was our best scientist and doctor. She stole so much from us when she fled. Documents, research, a chunk of the genetic material we had saved. Between that and the war with the Svatir, we nearly did not survive.”

  “We have reason to believe that Thyra has created an army of Farians. We’re not entirely sure what that means or what they could be capable of, but we were hoping you could give us an idea?”

  “An army?” Biea shared a worried look with Tolm. “Your Majesty, do you have any confirmation?”

  “We saw soldiers,” Aiz replied. “Not for a long enough period to give you any detail, only that they didn’t move like Farians. They were wrong.”

  Before I could say that we did have detailed descriptions from Johar, Tolm vanished.

  “My apologies, Your Majesty,” Biea said when several people jerked in surprise. “Tolm has gone to tell the others. This is beyond worrisome. We must move. Thyra cannot be allowed to do this. They are dedicated to this path of destruction, and if they have an army to command we must destroy them. We will have to destroy the whole planet.”

  Images of the Farian ships firing on planets filled my head and I was struck with the dreadful certainty that those weapons were Selan tech. Biea was serious about wiping out Faria just to stop Thyra.

  “What? Wait, no,” I said, putting my hands up. “There are innocent people on Faria. My people are on the planet.”

  “Your Majesty, it is the only way to be sure that they are stopped. That army cannot be allowed to escape.”

  “The fuck it is!” I slammed both hands onto the table, and this time Biea jumped. “You tell your people right now if they so much as look in the direction of that planet without my approval I will burn what’s left of your fleet to the ground.”

  Biea blinked at me in stunned surprise. “It is my understanding that you have a single ship, Your Majesty.”

  “No, she doesn’t.” Aiz and Dirah spoke at the same time, and the Selan’s expressions shifted as they realized they were surrounded by impassive faces.

  “I don’t understand. We have no quarrel with any of you. Our mission is to bring these criminals to justice. We thought you were in agreement.”

  “I agree with that part,” I replied. “Just not your methods.”

  “Thyra is dangerous. This army she’s created will be even more so. This is the safest way.”

  “You are talking about genocide,” I said, all too aware of how the others in the room had shifted, preparing for a fight. “I would think that you of all beings would appreciate how utterly wrong your solution is.”

  Dark Mother, please let my words get through. I don’t want to have to fight them.

  Biea stared at me, their face clean of expression. “I will go speak with the others.”

  “Take me with you.” I grabbed for their limb, heard Emmory’s shouted protest and then nothing.

  “Your Majesty, that was incredibly dangerous.”

  I blinked up at Biea until my vision resolved. “I do that occasionally.”

  “We should go back, your people—”

  “They’re going to yell regardless.” I got to my feet; the floor was a strange textured gray substance that was slightly spongy when I moved. “This is important. I need to speak to your leaders directly. Though, can I send a message?”

  Biea reached out their other limb and touched my head. “That should allow for your coms to work.”

  I knew I should message Emmory, but I also knew the reaction I would get, so I went for what I thought was a safer option. “Hao, are you there?”

  “Hail, where the fuck are you?”

  Okay, maybe not safer. I winced at the volume of his response. “I’m assuming a Selan ship. Tell Emmory I’m fine. I’ll be right back. My coms will be off after this.”

  “Coward.”

  “I love you, too.” I disconnected the com. I knew Emmory would be on it the moment Hao passed the message on.

  “He doesn’t speak to you the way the others do. Why is that?”

  I looked up at Biea with a smile. “It’s a very long story and I’m not sure it would make any sense.”

  “We do understand what love is,” they replied, and I imagined that if the Selan had a human face I’d see a raised eyebrow.

  “I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.” A door opened in the wall and the silence of the room was suddenly filled with noise. “Just that Hao and I are complicated.” I rubbed a hand ov
er my upper chest. “He is my brother, not of my blood but of my heart.”

  “I understand better than you may think. Tolm and I are much the same. Stay close, Your Majesty.” Biea put a limb around my shoulders as we headed down the corridor. Selan stopped to stare at us as we passed, but the noise that came from Biea encouraged them to move on.

  The walls were the same spongy gray as the floor and they were curved into a wide circle. I reached a hand out to touch the surface, surprised by how warm it was.

  “We grow the materials for our newer ships, Your Majesty.” Biea answered the question before I could ask it. “It’s the most efficient way to do repairs.”

  “It’s fascinating, is it alive?”

  “No, Your Majesty. It’s—”

  A high-pitched trilling cut through the air and Biea grabbed for me as a mass of Selan barely taller than my shoulder came down the corridor at a run. The first one to catch sight of me skidded to a halt, resulting in several others crashing into a pile behind them.

  Questions, helpfully translated by my smati, peppered the air.

  “What is that?”

  “It’s a human.”

  “Is not.”

  “It’s got plants on its head. Humans don’t have plants on their heads.”

  “Don’t touch it, Zel!”

  I looked down just in time to see one of the smallest yanking their limb back before it touched my hand. They were children, I realized. Selan children.

  “Hello, I’m Hail. I am a human and my hair isn’t plants, it’s just green,” I said in Selan with a smile.

  The Selan child’s mouth opened in awe and the others laughed.

  “You sound funny!”

  A larger Selan ran up. “Children! What are you doing?” They gaped at me for a moment before turning those dark eyes to Biea and tapping their limbs to their chest. “Commander-General, I am so sorry.”

  “It’s no worry, Pani. You have quite the handful to deal with. They mean no harm. Though we are in a hurry.”