by Elin Wyn
“Home,” I shrugged. “You’re getting everyone riled up, and I’m tired. I’m not in the mood for rants, rebellion, or whatever it is you’re up to nowadays. I just want to get into bed and forget that I exist.” I started walking again, not even waiting for his reply, when I started hearing his hurried footsteps echoing through the street.
“Stasia, wait!” he insisted, grabbing my arm when he caught up to me. “Look, I know I’ve been acting like an asshole,” he said, taking me by surprise. “And I know I haven’t been there for you. It’s just...it’s been hard, Stasia, and I don’t know how to deal with things. I miss mom, and I miss dad. Without them around, I simply can’t stand the city anymore.”
“And do you really think leaving this place would solve all our problems?” I asked him, not even knowing what kind of reply I wanted to hear.
“Everyone wants to give it a shot,” he replied, a smile on his lips that reminded me of the kid he used to be. “Besides, it’s not like we have anything to lose. War, aliens, hunger...let’s just leave all that behind, Stasia. Let’s have a fresh start.”
“A fresh start…” I repeated, enjoying the way these three words sounded. Maybe Roddik was right. Maybe a fresh start was exactly what we needed. And who knew? Maybe once we got away from the aliens, Roddik would become the brother I used to have.
“Yes,” he nodded. “I’m going to do it, sis. I’m going to leave this place behind. But I want you to be a part of it...I want you to be there with me, every step of the way. I want us to stay a family.”
“So, we’re going out in the woods?” I asked.
Roddik nodded.
“Is the forest safe, Roddik?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I don’t want to go out with you and watch you create this ‘alien-free utopia’ only to have us all eaten by a Kodanos or strangled to death by a tree!”
“Please,” he guffawed. “The forest has gotten a lot safer since those alien bugs were driven off. We’ll be fine. The wildlife is probably not as riled up. If anything, they see the aliens and get even more riled up.”
“Oh, really? The wildlife get riled up because they’re aliens?”
“Well, they probably sense that they’re, you know...not from here.”
I rubbed my forehead. Humans weren’t exactly native here, either.
I thought of telling him ‘no’ and that there was no way any of us would survive out there in the wild.
Setting up a settlement from scratch would be insanely tough to do, let alone when we didn’t have any experienced people and resources were scarce. I thought of all that, and then some more.
But, in the end, Roddik would go ahead with it, no matter what I said. This time, I wouldn’t be able to stop him.
And so, I decided I would have to trust him.
There wasn’t any choice. And if, for a moment, I thought of the electric thrill that ran through me at Iq’her’s touch, well, that memory would be all I’d have of him.
“A fresh start,” I whispered, and his smile widened. “Let’s do it.”
Iq’her
I could survive the lumpy bed.
And the flat, too-soft pillow.
Even the scratchy blanket.
But I was tired of the nonsense, tired of the bad nights’ sleeping, tired of being the only one on Strike Team Two that didn’t have his own place to sleep.
I still shared a room at the bunk house simply because I had been too preoccupied to get my own place.
To be honest, I had never cared about having my own place. I didn’t see the need to have one if I was rarely going to be there.
But, after the raucousness of the ground crews celebrating hitting a construction goal last night, and the horrific, twitch-inducing cooking from the man that claimed to be a cook... I needed my own place to eat and sleep.
One of the women that Vidia knew had been pushing a private domicile at me. I had grudgingly seen it a few weeks ago. It was nice. A bit big for my tastes, but it was a nice place.
The owners had been an older couple, and while they and their apartment building had survived the war intact, their son-in-law hadn’t. So they’d moved, to help their daughter raise her children, leaving just days before the vines had encircled Nyheim.
In the morning, I told her I would purchase the place. She was so happy, I swore she was crying as she sent me the electronic signature sheets. An hour later, I was the proud owner of my own home.
I spent the next hour before my shift started at the warehouse where furnishings had been stored. The pickings were slim. Industry as it stood on Ankau was just beginning to ramp back up. Which meant that most stores had a mixture of pre-war goods and some shoddily manufactured cottage industry products.
But it would do for now.
I would have peace and quiet, far more important than furniture.
Because surely the only thing that had kept me awake all night was the commotion from the others.
Not thoughts of a stunning pair of eyes, sparking with temper.
Not lush, full lips, curved up slightly at the corners, tempting me.
It wasn’t at all that I thought how much Stasia might like the house, where another family had lived for decades, their bonds strong and tight despite everything that had happened to them.
Not at all.
When I’d finished, Tobias greeted me with a particularly strong cup of coffee, something that I had acquired an affinity for since arriving on this planet.
“How are things in your part of the universe?” I asked.
He told me he was interested in a young lady that was one of Vidia’s assistants but wasn’t sure how to approach her.
“Just be honest with her,” I suggested. “You are a remarkable young man with a lot of optimistic energy, and I’ve seen you when you get angry, so I know that you’re also very capable of protecting her if needed. Just walk up to her and say ‘hi’. Then go from there.”
“Thank you, Iq’her. I just,” he hesitated as he looked up and down the halls. “I just don’t know if I can talk to her. She’s so beautiful and I’m... well, I’m me.”
“Seriously?” I was incredulous with disbelief. He was a handsome man, even by K’veri standards. His only real flaw was his lack of confidence. “You need to... what’s the phrase... man up and talk to her. Just go to her, strike up a conversation, and be who you are. Don’t lie to her, don’t play games with her, and don’t try to impress her by doing things you don’t normally do. If she doesn’t share your feelings, that means you were destined for another and she’s simply scenery.”
He nodded, thanked me, and returned to his work. I headed to my tiny little office to do mine. I set down my coffee on my desk and pulled up the audio files from Stasia’s evening.
Don’t lie to her, I’d told Tobias.
Wasn’t what I was doing even worse?
I held my finger over the button that would destroy the tape, deactivate the bug and instruct it to go dormant, falling off her skin like any other fleck of fluff.
But still… Not only did I want to be sure she was safe, if her brother was involved with more serious attempts to disrupt the food supply, we needed to know about it.
I hit the play button instead.
The voices of other men filled my earpiece, and I gritted my teeth.
It would serve me right if I had to listen to Stasia spending time, personal time, with another man.
It was irrational.
It was insane.
It was unreasonable.
But it was a fact.
I wanted her for myself. And I needed to do something about it.
Soon.
For now, I would watch. Listen. And be ready to protect her if need be.
What I did end up hearing was both what I had hoped to hear and hoped not to hear. I had hoped that her brother would pull his head out of his collective stupidity, but in case he hadn’t, I hoped I would hear something that would give us a head start against t
heir insanity.
I was right on the second count, to a point. There was a sizeable crowd of hateful humans, larger than I had anticipated, looking to leave and start up their own settlement.
While I normally wouldn’t have cared and simply said “kout it” at the idea of them leaving, right now this was a bad idea.
The Puppet Master... terrible name in my opinion... had already shown a penchant for being a bit apoplectic when it came to man-made structures. General Rouhr had put a temporary halt to construction in new areas, in order to test one of Leena and Tella’s theories. These people were looking at trying to create a brand-new settlement of man-made structures off in some previously untouched part of the forest.
This was possibly the worst plan I had heard since the Xathi were finally destroyed here.
So, of course, I was unsurprised to hear that Roddik had been one of the primary proponents of the idea. It rated just a few steps below his asinine attempt to blame his sister for why the others were still locked up.
How could Stasia possibly stay so loyal to someone so undeserving? I understood that he was her brother, but there was a certain point when family just didn’t count as family anymore.
How much more would he have to say or do to get her to that point?
I took a copy of the audio file to the general’s office.
“Come in,” he announced after I knocked on his door. I entered and he looked up from a stack of tablets on his desk. “Iq’her. Come in. What have you got for me today?” he asked almost gratefully.
I ventured to guess that the papers he was rifling through were either more reports he didn’t want to read, or his speech for today’s address to the populace, explaining the food crisis in detail.
“My apologies, sir. I didn’t realize what time it was. I can come back after your conference,” I said.
“No,” he said, almost too quickly. “No, come in. I need a few minutes’ break from it anyway. Sit, talk.”
I handed over the copy of the audio file and he put it into his computer as I spoke. I explained to him what had happened yesterday after the arrests, telling him everything except how fantastic Stasia was.
I didn’t believe it would be terribly professional of me to editorialize like that.
He looked at me through narrowed eyes. “You’re monitoring people without permission now.”
“Well,” I started. “You see, sir, I… well, I, uh… based on the fact that the group of humans attacked one of our food delivery trucks and then proceeded to attack us and insult us even after arrest, I felt that it might be necessary to get some intel on the group in order to determine their threat level,” I said quickly, adding on a “sir,” at the last moment.
“Uh-huh,” he grunted as he looked at me. He didn’t bother to suppress his grin as he opened the audio file. His grin didn’t last long. When the file stopped playing, he seemed to age another decade right before my eyes. He put his head in his hands and groaned in frustration.
As he lifted his head, he ran his hands across his head and stared at me. I could see the muscles in his arms ripple as he subconsciously flexed them before he brought his arms down. “This is…I honestly don't know how to describe it,” he said. “This is about as asinine an idea as there is. They believe that we’re stealing their food, now they want to move away and start over thinking it’s better out there somewhere. On a planet where trees try to eat you.”
I nodded. What was I supposed to say?
He stared at me, and even though I knew the anger and disappointment weren’t meant for me, I could feel them emanating from him. “This could turn into a problem,” he finally said.
“Yes, sir,” I nodded.
He looked at me, then down to his notes, back up at me, then at the time that was displayed on a giant clock that took up a good portion of his west wall. “I don’t have time to deal with this,” he started.
“But we can’t just let them do whatever they want, sir!” I cut in. “What if they get even more dangerous?”
“Well, if you had allowed me to finished talking,” he said sternly, “I was going to say that perhaps the speech will help alleviate, or at least ease, some of their feelings and maybe calm this whole thing down.”
“What if it doesn’t, sir?”
“We’ll figure that out when the time comes,” he answered. “For now, let’s answer some questions and hope that helps.”
“Aye, sir. Wait,” I said, stopping halfway out of my chair. “I had thought originally you were planning to discuss this with the city leaders tomorrow.”
“True, but with the accidental pre-emptive announcement,” he glared at his desk comm, “Vidia convinced me that the longer I wait, the worse the situation will end up being.”
I followed him out of his office and joined his security detail as we headed to the public square. It was packed.
I don’t think I had ever seen so many humans in one place at the same time before.
All of them concerned, anxious about the food shortage.
It wouldn’t take much to spark those worries, turn it into a mob.
I could only hope Stasia was nowhere near.
Stasia
The streets had come alive.
The atmosphere was electric with anticipation, the loud chatter of the people walking down the streets was punctuated with more questions than I imagined anyone could answer.
Still, I joined the sea of people all the same, feeling more than just a little hopeful. It was the first time the aliens and the human leadership were going to address us in person, offer explanations.
I hoped good things would come out of it.
I knew most people still had questions about the vines that had imprisoned us, or even about the now-vanquished Xathi, but the food rationing system was definitely the main subject of the whispers and rumors. If the aliens could provide the people with real answers, maybe disaster would be avoided.
The people of Nyheim weren’t that prone to violence, but in some districts, tensions were already running high. The nightly gatherings at Ventil were proof of that. People were tired of being bossed around without an explanation. And empty stomachs usually made things worse...
Hopefully, all that would come to an end soon.
Roddik walked beside me with a few of his friends, and I was happy he had decided to come. Maybe an event like this would be enough to make him change his mind. It wasn’t very likely, but I thought it was at least worth a shot.
“Come on, I want to watch everything up close,” he said as we arrived in the main square. The place was completely packed, thousands of people gathered there, but Roddik somehow managed to cut his way through the crowd. We made it to the front after a few minutes of bumping shoulders and stepping on the feet of onlookers, and we eyed the City Hall balcony expectantly.
One of the oldest surviving buildings in the city, the City Hall overlooked the vast main square; there was a balcony on the first floor of the building, one that was traditionally used by the mayors for their inaugural speech.
Now, though, it would serve an entirely different purpose.
We had only been there for ten minutes when the balcony doors swung open. Aliens of different races strolled out from the building, and they were accompanied by a few human women. I immediately recognized Vidia, the mayor. One of the women was pregnant - rumor had it that the father was one of the aliens.
That was another topic of much debate, but I couldn’t see how it was anyone’s business but hers.
For a moment, my thoughts flashed to Iq’her. The thrill that had run through me at his touch.
Stop it, Stasia. You’ll probably never see him again, I chided myself.
Vidia stood at the front of the retinue, her face now plastered on the multiple screens spread all over the square. I looked at the giant alien next to her - General Rouhr. He was an alien, sure, but he certainly had the gravitas of a commander. He looked exactly like the kind of man you needed on your side if you we
re waging a war.
But we weren’t waging one anymore, were we?
So why did he have a say on how things were being run?
“People of Nyheim,” Vidia started, speaking into the hovering microphone in front of her, small rotating blades keeping it up in the air. “We’re facing a severe crisis - one that harkens back to the dark days of the Xathi war. And it’s from that position that I address you today.” She made a slight pause for effect, and only then did she continue. “As you’re all too aware, food has been growing scarce. The vine dome cut us off from other cities, and during that time, we went through far more of our reserves than anyone would have hoped. Now that the dome is gone, though, we face yet another problem.”
A murmur went through the crowd as she said it, but Vidia’s voice drowned out the chatter as it boomed through the speakers.
“We have found out that plant life across the continent is dying at an alarming rate. In the forests, in the farms - everywhere. Concerned for our already precarious food supplies, I proposed a rationing system after consultation with General Rouhr and the other city leaders on this continent. I know the situation isn’t ideal, but we’re doing our best to handle it. It is our belief that all this is connected to the vines that surrounded the city, but we still haven’t managed to find a concrete link. The four ladies behind me—Leena, Annie, Jeneva, and Tella—have been working around the clock to find a solution. They’re our foremost experts and—”
“WE DON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ANY OF THAT!” Roddik suddenly bellowed.
I jumped in place as his voice exploded into the air. I turned to him, shocked, and grabbed his arm. My fingernails dug deep into his flesh, but he didn’t let that stop him. “WHAT WE CARE ABOUT IS THAT THE ALIENS HAVE BEEN STEALING OUR FOOD!”
In a fraction of a second, others joined Roddik and voiced similar opinions. Vidia did her best to continue talking, but the crowd’s chatter was now turning into the angry sound of a swarm of wasps.
If no one did anything, the situation would spiral out of control… fast.
