by C. W Tickner
Marlin smiled.
‘And so we arrive back at the beginning. No trust on either side and no way of judging the proper path.’
‘We’ll do like we always do,’ Turpin said. ‘We’ll form a committee and talk about it. Blah, blah, blah; lots of waffle and precious few solutions.’
‘Like you’ve ever had the mental capacity to join in with your own “waffle”,’ Tess said.
Turpin let out a little growl from the back of his throat.
Marlin shook his head in disgust.
‘Whatever council you choose,’ Harl said, hoping to cover the man’s embarrassment, ‘it should be adjusted so that the members are equally weighted between both Orbital denizens and the people who have just arrived.’
‘Really?’ Tess said, raising a perfectly plucked eyebrow. ‘You expect an equal share of power when you’ve only just arrived?’
‘We expect to be treated as equals, yes,’ Harl said, ‘unless you believe we are not?’
Tess nodded in acceptance. ‘And we take it on faith as well, that you can handle the ship’s problems?’
‘I know very little about the ship,’ Harl said, ‘that would be Kane’s domain. But together we can do it.’
‘And next you’ll be swearing you can repair our ship as well,’ Turpin said and then spat on the floor. ‘He’s all promises and fancy words, but when you boil it all down he’s just a con man. Vent the lot of them.’ He snorted and plucked a small pin from a grease-streaked pocket.
‘No one will be vented,’ Marlin said.
‘Is it just me that you have doubts about?’ Harl said. ‘There’s nothing I can really say to change that in the here and now. I can only hope that you will learn to see me as a friend. But if it is solely me, then I advise you look to Kane and Gorman. They are honest men of great intellect. My own wife, Sonora, would also be a vital voice. She is honest, strong, and caring; she would see to it that no side was given preference over the other.’
‘And if you all go about causing trouble, what then?’ Turpin asked holding the small pin close to his nose, inspecting it.
‘If a crime is committed then the culprit has to be punished,’ Harl said, ‘no matter the person, no matter which group the perpetrator belongs to. The rule of law has to be equal.’
Turpin laughed and then glared at Harl. ‘And who’d enforce that law? You? Us? How would you feel if I turned up and pointed a gun in your face, eh? Would you be willing to surrender when you’d committed a crime?’
Harl sighed and shook his head. ‘That’s why sharing the responsibility is so important. If representatives of both sides handle every action then fairness wins. If I had committed a crime, as you say, then having one of my own people standing with you would demonstrate that fairness to all the witnesses.’
Harl turned back to face Marlin and Tess. They looked interested in what he was saying and Tess waved for him to go on.
‘This is all just a matter of security,’ he said, ignoring Turpin’s mumbles from the background. ‘You would choose your own representative, of course, but of my own people I would suggest Damen. You can have no greater ally than Damen. He is volatile, as you have noticed, but his willingness to sacrifice himself for the good of others is second to none.’
Turpin sneered at the suggestion, but Marlin and Tess nodded at the proposal, so he pushed on.
‘We face a test of leadership. Do we strive for peace or are you so unbending that you will keep us under lock and key until we die, or until the resources run out for us all? Your only other options are to free us to return to the planet or cast us out into space to die.’ He paused to let the ideas sink in. ‘But we should chart a course forward. We’re all human and descend from the same people who originally inhabited Orbital. Shouldn’t we unite to bring our brotherhood full circle to that time so long ago? I don’t see us as separate. I see us as a family. Do you?’
Turpin gave a bark of cold laughter from where he was picking his teeth with the tiny metal pin.
‘Family?’ he said pointing the pin at Harl. ‘Only if family spout lies and sucks the life out of others. You don’t bring anything here except hungry mouths and thugs who like to kill. We should vent the lot of them’
Marlin raised a hand and Turpin went back to cleaning his teeth.
‘That’s not an option. They’ve as much right to live as we do,’ Marlin said, ‘but it cannot come at the cost of other’s lives.’
Turpin snorted.
‘Rights? What rights? They’ve just latched on to us as freeloaders. We’re the ones with rights. We’re the ones with all of the resources.’
‘Enough,’ Marlin said.
‘No!’ Turpin slapped his hand against the wall and glared at Marlin before turning back to Harl. A slimy grin appeared on his face. ‘Mr High-And-Mighty Leader promises us his cooperation if we’ll take his people in, but what will he give us? How will he prove his dedication to protect them? Marlin, you know what the others said.’
‘Others?’ Harl asked.
‘The rest of your lot,’ Turpin said.
‘Conflicting reports, I’m afraid,’ Marlin said. ‘We’ve spoken to a few of your people while you were with Sonora. They all speak very highly of you and yet there are so many reports of you killing. There is no killing here, Harl. Our last murder occurred nearly twenty years ago.’
‘That we know of,’ Turpin muttered.
Tess picked up a sheet of paper from the desk, scanned it for a moment then sighed and put it back down. Her bright green nails looked immaculate against her pale skin as she leant forward on the creaking desk.
‘I’ve seen it for myself, Harl. When Kane needed the injection, your initial thought was towards violence. Yes, you were trying to save your friend, but we had to drag you out of there and knock you unconscious just to calm you down. And the reports keep highlighting the same issues time and again. How many leaders have you overthrown? We’ve been told they were corrupt, but it seems too much of a coincidence that so many people have grasped power and used it for selfish reasons. Violence is always your answer. Why should we trust you when this is your proven behaviour? How can we look at you and know you’ll accept our judgement in matters?’
Harl got up out of his chair and walked over to the window. Marlin signalled to the guards and they held their stations by the door.
The vastness of space spread out before Harl. Kane had told him that space was cold, bitterly cold, and he could feel a sense of it now. It made him shiver. He was looking out another window, just like back in the tanks, and there was darkness and void before him. In a way he expected one of the gods to go strolling past. He had come so far and yet he felt trapped. There had been so many horrors to live with when he had been inside the tank, but he had been free of responsibilities. He would never turn his back on his people, but the weight of their lives and hopes was crushing sometimes.
‘You keep asking how you can trust me,’ he said at last. ‘I don’t know how I can prove that to you. Trust is something that is earned. I can’t fashion it in the forge or whittle it from a piece of wood. It’s like footsteps through life that measure the worth of a man. If that path is straight and true then the man can be trusted.’ He glanced at Turpin then back to Marlin. ‘Or if he walks through darkness, bearing the weight of other’s pain and burdens, performing the tasks that they turn away from, then is he not also someone who can be trusted? Isn’t that willingness to shoulder pain a measure of nobility? I don’t claim to be a great man. I don’t claim to be noble. My only claim is that I follow a path that hopes to protect the people I love. I have done dark deeds to further that aim, but I bear the weight of those decisions and I suffer the nightmares that follow. Killing is never easy. Even the destruction of a beast is a waste of life, but sometimes there is no other choice and you just have to live with the consequences.’
He turned around and retook his seat. He turned to each person in turn and held their eyes before focusing on Marlin in the centre.
<
br /> ‘In all honesty I’m tired. I just want a safe place I can call home. That’s why we came here and that’s why I sit here now and ask you to judge fairly. We’re a good people and we beg for a chance to live.’
Harl looked at them all one final time hoping that his words had swayed them. Tess’ hands were trembling and there was a hint of tears in her eyes. She turned away from him, but he reached a hand out to her. She glanced at it and hesitated before placing her own hand in his.
‘I can see that you bear the weight of something dark, Tess,’ he said. ‘Can I offer some advice? Don’t struggle along alone. Tell someone. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that a burden shared is never as heavy as carrying it alone.’He squeezed her hand gently and then released it and sat back.
‘You speak as a leader, Harl,’ Marlin said. ‘In a sense I am grateful to have another to share the burden with, but you will still have to prove yourselves. Remember, Harl, that you are responsible for all your people’s actions. But I understand you better now.’
‘Of course,’ Harl said, ‘The same for the people of this ship.’
Chapter 3
We have been stuck in this room for hours and I despair of our chances of ever leaving. The others have been opening access panels, but without a functioning reactor their efforts are wasted.
Harl hurried down the corridor and stepped into what Marlin called the command deck. It was a narrow, windowless room intended as a meeting place. It had been a day since his interrogation and now a meeting had been called between the leaders of both people. He had stepped out for a moment to check on Sonora and the baby, but from the sound of the arguments he’d heard while approaching, it seemed things weren’t going too well.
Tess was waiting by door when he entered. She frowned.
‘Your friend is still stable,’ she said.
He hadn’t seen her again until the meeting was called, but the expression on her face suggested that she still hadn’t forgiven his actions in the hospital.
‘I know, I know. I’m sorry,’ Harl said, ‘I didn’t know what you were doing.’
‘Of course not,’ she said, ‘you’re not a doctor.’
‘I saw you stab him and thought you were-’
‘Stab?’ Tess said pulling out a sealed box containing one of the syringes from her pocket and waving the tiny implement. ‘It’s not a dagger, Harl.’
He shrugged and offered yet another apology.
‘My own people are unused to such things,’ he said. ‘I come from a place where we were forced to lead a primitive life. I had not seen the sun until a few months ago. I didn’t even know that there was a planet beyond the tank I was held in.’
Tess’ eyes grew wide at his words and she slid a notebook from her pocket and began scribbling. The action reminded him of Kane.
‘Intriguing,’ she murmured. She paused, pencil suspended above the page. ‘Would you consent to a series of psychological evaluations? Your case history would give a unique insight into isolated communities. I believe I could even write an archival paper on it.’
Harl had no idea what she meant, so he just agreed and stepped away from her as quickly as he could.
The room looked like the rest of the ship. Worn. Torn seat covers and scrapes around the edges of the metal walls told of innumerable gatherings. Fruit, water, fish, salad and potatoes had been served to everyone around the battered table and empty plates now peppered the scratched surface. Even the plates had hundreds of scores along them, carved by countless knives. Some of the lighting panels in the ceiling were broken, showing the strip lights inside. He couldn’t understand how they lived like this without trying to repair things. Were they lazy?
Gorman and Damen had joined Harl at the meeting, while on the other side of the table were Marlin and Tess. Turpin, the angry man who’d been outraged at having to give water to the newcomers, was sat beside Marlin eyeing them each in turn.
Marlin stood, raising a knobbly hand for silence. ‘This will not be the first time we clash over a small misunderstanding,’ he said. ‘I have called this meeting so we, as leaders of our people, can figure out what to do about your arrival, how we can benefit one another and work together to fix our problems.’
‘What problems are there?’ Damen asked.
‘What problems!’ Turpin had jumped up from his seat, indignant at the simple question. ‘Can't you see that doubling our numbers might put just a little bit of stress on how things work around here?’
Damen gripped the armrests and began to rise from his seat, face reddening under his beard at the man’s impudence, but Gorman stood instead, facing Turpin.
‘As you will have noticed, ’ the old man said, ‘I can't see, and so you must explain how things work on this ship before we can sympathise with your point of view.’
‘Turpin, sit down,’ Tess said. He shot her an annoyed look, but slumped back into the crinkled leather chair. He hunched over the table, steepling his fingers as Tess went on.
‘Perhaps the first thing you must understand is that we’ve never been re-supplied,’ she said. ‘Our entire way of life depends on everything working in harmony. We cannot afford to waste anything.’
‘You recycle everything?’ Gorman asked skipping over the potential insult.
‘Everything,’ Marlin interjected. ‘Turpin’s our quartermaster. He and Screw know better than anyone how fragile the system is.’
‘Screw?’ Harl asked.
‘He’s not here at the moment.’ Marlin said. ‘I may not know as much about our supply situation as them, but I will give a brief run down. Water is our primary need. Without it we cannot survive. It leaves us unable to grow or manufacture anything. We have three decks at the lowest part of the ship, each full of water. Tess?’
She seemed to understand the question, pausing a fraction from inspecting her nails to think. ‘Twelve million six hundred thousand litres of water,’ she said and looked over at Turpin.
‘Around that, yeah,’ Turpin said, leaning back in his seat, leather creaking on leather.
‘So,’ Marlin went on, ‘our system is as follows. Water is rationed to each person on board at five litres every standard day. Your people will be no exception. This is recycled in two ways: waste and moisture collection. The canvas lining of the tunnels collects the moisture breathed out into the atmosphere and feeds it to the farm decks. Human waste is collected from each room and divided automatically into liquid and solids. Solids go to the farms as fertilizer and liquids go to the water purification deck above the water storage levels and then the cycle repeats.’
‘An amazing system,’ Gorman said. ‘I understand now that it is not just water replenishment our arrival interrupts, but I presume your farms grow crops for clothes as well as food and we have compromised that system.’
‘It’s been the way for almost two thousand years,’ Marlin said.
Harl now saw how the ship had been in a state of balance for an immense amount of time and their arrival had endangered all of them. Maybe not in a few days, but in the long run it would disrupt everything.
‘That is why we can’t go dishing out food and water to anyone who comes demanding it,’ Turpin said. ‘I ain’t quartermaster for no reason. We can't keep it up.’
‘Wouldn’t be the first time,’ Tess said, gaining another hateful look from the short fat man.
‘Stop bickering,’ Marlin said. ‘Turpin, if for some reason we refused these people aid, and they match our numbers exactly, how do you think they will take it when you tell them to leave?’
‘Me tell ‘em?’ Turpin said.
‘Yes you,’ Marlin said, jabbing a finger at Turpin’s bulbous chest, ‘because I won’t turn innocent people away simply because it might affect our way of life. This is first outside contact we’ve had in thousands of years and you want to ask them to leave? Stop being foolish and engage your brain, man. We can work the problem out together.’
Turpin looked put out at the rebuke, but said n
othing.
‘There is no question of you leaving,’ Marlin said. ‘Your ship needs repair and you must stay with us so we can learn from each other. But first we need an explanation as to how you came to be here, where you got the ship from, and how come you have only managed to get to us now?’
Harl understood the resentment in the last question. Marlin assumed they’d had the ability to come up any time they wanted, choosing to leave him and his people in solitude.
All eyes turned to him and he sighed inside. How many times was he going to have to tell this story? He told of the giant Aylens and how they had captured humanity and imprisoned them, while a few remained free in the city of Delta. Mention of the Aylen had little affect on the audience. Then he recounted their quest to free the slaves and of the battle in the city of Delta, before using the ship to fly up from the planet’s surface.
‘Tell us about this Aylien,’ Marlin said. ‘How did you communicate?’
‘Aylen,’ Damen said.
‘We didn’t communicate,’ Harl said. ‘It just gave us resources and kept many of us prisoner. When it came to destroy Delta, we killed it, losing friends in the process.’
‘So Delta did survive,’ Tess said, ‘at least after the giant took most of the humans. There was no way to tell which of the drops had survived with a ship still intact.’
‘You knew about us?’ Damen demanded. ‘And yet you sent no help?’
Harl raised a hand for silence.
‘What drops?’ he asked.
‘You didn’t know?’ Tess said. ‘I guess record keeping down there wasn’t easy. Orbital has some records which we uncovered in the computer system when it was working properly. When humanity first arrived, a plan was implemented to transfer humans down to the planet. I was known as the Drop. A series of ships – yours being one of nine – left Orbital and descended to land in separate locations on the planet’s surface. Each was an attempt to colonise using different techniques. We know next to nothing about each drop except that they all failed eventually due to the Aylien.’ She had trouble with the new word.
