by Ryan Kirk
The door to his room opened, and for a second, Tev expected Kindra to walk through the door. If he had been on the Vigilance, it would have been her. But she was still down on his planet with Alston and Eleta, working with the clans to prepare for the arrival of more humans.
Tev’s thoughts were interrupted by the nurse, who asked him several questions about his health. Fortunately, he felt fine. Outside of the initial barrage of missiles, he hadn’t really been involved in the battle, so his leg was the only wound he had taken. She offered to give him medicine to put him back to sleep, but Tev wasn’t interested. He asked instead what he was capable of.
The nurse shook her head and laughed.
“What’s so funny?” Tev asked.
“All of you are the same,” she replied. “The idea of resting and healing isn’t very popular. If we don’t give you the medicine, you all leave within a few minutes of waking up.”
She ran a device up and down his leg and continued. “Fortunately for you, you are good to go. You will need to be in the cast for a few days to allow your leg to heal completely, but so long as you don’t jump around or get in an exosuit, you can do whatever you want.”
Tev thanked the nurse. Once she left he changed into his traditional garb. As he did, Derreck spoke through Tev’s earpiece. “Hey Tev, glad to see you’re up and moving around again. Absalon left orders to meet him on the bridge once you were up.”
Tev acknowledged Derreck’s order and went towards the bridge, pausing in sick bay for a few minutes to catch up with the injured. The ones still there were in worse shape than he had been, but it sounded as though the Destiny’s healing tools and staff would be able to heal all of them within the next day or two. Not for the first time, Tev was incredibly grateful for the new technology.
He thought about that idea while he walked towards the bridge. He still felt that Derreck and Kindra and their kind relied too heavily on technology. It had become more than a tool for them, it was an integral part of their lives. Such reliance wasn’t healthy or safe, but it was still powerful. There needed to be a better way, a way for skills and technology to come together to improve life.
The exosuits were just such a technology, Tev realized. Take a hunter out of the suit, and the hunter was still dangerous. The hunter’s skills were what guaranteed survival, not the suit. But give a hunter a suit, and their abilities increased several times over. With such power, a clan would never have to go hungry again. Tev held the thought in his mind and wondered if this thinking was what had led Kindra and her people to where they were today, utterly dependent on their tools.
Tev ended his wondering once he entered the bridge. Derreck was already there, as was Absalon. Together they gathered around the main table on the bridge, capable of projecting whatever the captain needed. Absalon pulled up a map of the solar system with dots indicating Destiny, Hellbringer, and an unknown ship all placed around the home of Tev’s people.
Absalon, brisk as usual, got Tev up to speed. The attack they had repelled had been the whole thrust. The arrow-class had returned to the rebellion ship and not come out again, no more missiles had been exchanged, and Hellbringer had never fired her main weapon, a large laser capable of destroying Destiny with only a few shots.
“After this last attack, I’m fairly certain that I understand Nicks now. Mind you, I don’t have any evidence of this, but I’ve tried story after story, and this is the only one that fits. When Nicks realized he wasn’t going to outrace us, he tried to destroy us. I’m still amazed he’d go so far, but I believe he’s a desperate man, and he doesn’t have many options,” Absalon said.
The jumpship captain continued, “Something changed when they visited the other planet. His priorities shifted, and he decided to make another attempt at capturing Destiny.”
Derreck interrupted. “Why only four heavies, if that was his goal? If he has the forces you say, he could have taken us over easily.”
“Good question, but I’m coming around to your own idea, Derreck. I think Nicks is aware that he has the only remaining rebellion troops. If he fails, the entire rebellion is over for good. Because of that, he’s too cautious. He’s trying to get huge rewards with small risk, and it just isn’t working. I also think Destiny isn’t his primary objective. I think it’s a bonus for him. Now that his latest attempt failed spectacularly, I’m not sure what he’s going to try next. I’m worried he might try simply destroying us. Tev and his people still have to be his ultimate goal.”
Tev studied both men, but Derreck seemed to agree with Absalon, and Tev trusted their judgment. He was still a novice in regard to the galaxy and what drove most of its people.
“So the big question then is what to do,” Derreck said.
Absalon nodded. “I believe we need to get Vigilance and Explorer off the jumpship.”
Derreck saw Tev’s question and answered it. “Explorer is Mala’s dropship. It’s similar to Vigilance.” Turning to Absalon he asked, “You think it’s that bad?”
Absalon looked displeased but stern. “I do. I have a hard time believing Nicks would try to take over Destiny again after failing twice. If he attacks again, it will be to destroy us. I have a few tricks left, but most likely, Hellbringer will win the fight. We’ll keep Destiny manned with a skeleton crew, hopefully volunteers. We’ll do everything we can to keep the planet safe, but should the worst come to pass, we can minimize casualties.”
Tev grasped what Absalon was saying and was surprised. Were his people worth such a sacrifice? Tev understood how important jumpships were to the alien humans.
“You could leave.” Derreck’s voice was soft and hesitant. Tev had never considered the possibility that Fleet would simply abandon them. For the past several months all he had heard was how important his people were. It made sense, though, that at some point Fleet might cut their losses and run.
Tev studied Absalon. He hadn’t spent much time with the jumpship captain. Tev had always found the man to be aloof. He expected Absalon to jump at Derreck’s suggestion, but he was wrong.
Absalon wouldn’t hear it. “No. I appreciate the suggestion, but what is happening here is far too important. If we can figure out a way to bring Nicks down, the rebellion is over for good. He’s the last head of the hydra. But if he succeeds here, the story is a very different one. Between the technology they probably acquired from the other planet and Tev’s people as pilots, they could potentially wreak havoc back in central space. No, this is where we need to make our stand. We decide the future here.”
Tev looked at Absalon with newfound respect. The man had always run a good ship, and he was well-liked by the people who served him, but Tev had never thought of him as a warrior. Today he was proven wrong. Tev respected the courage it would take to sacrifice one’s life for a greater purpose. Hunters who shared the same qualities had songs written about them. Tev was no bard, but should the worst come to pass, he would make sure Absalon wouldn’t be forgotten.
The captain of the jumpship continued laying out his plan. “All of Tev’s hunters should be healed within the next day or two. Once they are cleared for transport, I’m sending everyone back down. We’re going to load up the dropships with everything they can carry. My plan is to drop you when we have the planet between us and Nicks. Once you land I want you to go as dark as possible. I’ll set up some tightbeam communications, but I want you all to be hard to find.”
Derreck asked a few clarifying questions, but he and his captain were on the same page. They ended the discussion with a long list of tasks between them. As soon as the door closed behind them, Tev asked the question that had been bothering him since he had gotten out of sick bay.
“How many hunters died?”
Derreck met his gaze. “Three. Two were caught without cover when the first barrage hit, and a third was the victim of a lucky hit from one of the heavies. I’m sorry, Tev.”
Tev stared at the floor as they walked. Three of his people had gone to the endless hunt with Lys. He woul
d grieve for them later, properly, when he had the time. But he couldn’t allow himself that luxury now. He had to prepare so that after he fought Nicks and his rebellion soldiers, they could never threaten his people again.
Six
It was dusk when the dropships made their final approach. From her perspective, Kindra thought they were coming in far too fast. When she had last spoken with Derreck, he told her they were going to try to come in as dark as possible. Apparently, that meant they saved their burn until the last possible moment. Vigilance was a fairly aerodynamic ship, and could glide a little, but Explorer simply dropped like a rock. Fortunately, both pilots knew what they were doing, and their side-by-side landings were gentle.
The past few days had caused Kindra to practically declare war on her emotions. Derreck had only given them the outlines of Absalon’s thoughts, but the one fact that came through loud and clear was the knowledge that they might not have a way out of this system. That knowledge was hard to swallow, and each of the crew was dealing with it in a different way. Eleta went on an overnight camping trip, which was so out of character for her Kindra worried briefly about her sanity. Kindra had offered to join her, but her support had been firmly turned away.
Alston was, as always, completely unreadable. He went about his day-to-day tasks as though the news was of no more importance than the weather report. Kindra had just about given up on ever understanding him.
Kindra, for her part, threw herself into work, trying to think about anything and everything but the situation they were in. When they left for this mission, Kindra had told herself she would do whatever she could to protect Tev, his planet, and his people. She felt that she owed them that much. But the guilt that had once driven her had faded, replaced instead by very confused feelings for Tev.
She had been grateful when Derreck ordered the three of them to remain behind for what had started as a training run. She needed time and space to think. She dove deeply into her work, some of it necessary and some unnecessary. Anything to focus her mind elsewhere. Then Hellbringer entered the picture, and her heart sank considerably when she found out Tev had been injured.
The truth was, making a promise to do anything necessary was cute when one was safe at home. To realize that promise might mean her life, or force her to remain in one place for the rest of her life, was an entirely different dilemma. What did it say about her that she was willing to kill to protect Tev, but wasn’t sure if she could stand living on his planet until she died? Such questions were troubling, and she did everything she could to avoid them.
The return of the dropships meant she wouldn’t have much longer to do so. A decision would soon be required of her, and she didn’t know what it would be. Until then, she figured she would simply take life one moment at a time.
If there was one quality that recommended humans, Kindra decided, it was their endless adaptability. Thanks to technology and willpower, there weren’t many places that they hadn’t called home. They had lived in the depths of the oceans, in extreme climates of all types, and in the void of space.
She expected more complaints from the influx of people, but there were few. As soon as Derreck and Mala landed, they had ordered the sites to go dark. Almost all their electronics were turned off, and those that were deemed essential were moved far from the landing sites and concealed, both visibly and electromagnetically, as well as they were able.
In effect, they had removed a fair amount of the technology from their lives, down almost to the level of Tev and his people. Kindra thought she would hear grumbling and discontent in the voices of Destiny’s crew, but she heard little. Instead, a new spirit seemed to seize the camp. People smiled as they walked past one another, and at night the huge bonfires became the center of everyone’s attention.
Kindra was reminded, almost, of her days as a child before the rebellion reached her planet. Her dad had often taken her to a local park in the habitat. The park hadn’t been much, especially compared to the world she found herself on now. Her memory wasn’t perfect, but she didn’t think the grass and trees covered more than a city block. In the confines of the habitat, even that was a wasteful use of space.
But Kindra had loved those trips, and more than once she and her father had spent the night there, sleeping on the grass as the lights dimmed in the evening. Now the memories were tangled up with the destruction of her family and her habitat by the rebellion, but she remembered how those nights felt, with what passed for open sky above her head. She imagined the feeling wasn’t much different than what the rest of the crew was experiencing now.
She supposed part of the new spirit of the camp was a rejection of their situation. Anyone who spent time thinking about the dilemma they found themselves in would be dejected. If Absalon was correct, there wasn’t much chance of any of them getting home, and there was no better way of ignoring that than focusing on day-to-day life on Tev’s planet.
Sometimes Kindra forgot just how unusual Tev’s planet was in the galaxy. After months of being on the surface, it became easy to take life on the planet for granted. A few crew members of Destiny had grown up on lightly terraformed agrarian planets, but not many. Even for them, the diversity of life and environments on Tev’s planet was beyond what most had ever experienced. Planets like Tev’s, with mountains, trees, animals, and open sky, were incredibly rare. A large part of the value of Tev’s planet was that it would require no terraforming.
Kindra’s thoughts vanished when she saw Tev sitting at the fire. He still wore the cast on his leg. Kindra had checked on him earlier that day, and for complete healing he had another two days in it. She was well aware the cast drove him to madness. That was almost all he talked about when she was examining his leg. Fortunately, he understood the importance of letting the leg heal all the way, so he didn’t try anything terribly foolish. She knew he was looking forward to getting back into his suit and piloting again. It had been repaired faster than he had recovered.
The bonfire was enormous tonight. Kindra sat down on a log next to Tev, and he explained that some of Mala’s crew had taken the task of building the bonfire a little too seriously. She smiled as the heat from the fire blasted her face. The logs used as chairs had been moved back, but not quite far enough, she thought.
There was something about a fire, Kindra thought, that bordered on magical. As she watched the flames lick the sky, she fell into a slight trance, her entire body relaxing. She startled a little when food was offered, but she accepted gladly. Although she couldn’t put the feeling into words, she felt as though there was something so natural, so right, about sitting around a fire. Thousands of years had passed since humanity had needed campfires, but they still drew attention like a magnet.
Unfortunately, there was still a language barrier between Tev and his people and Kindra and hers. There had only been so many translators to go around, and so while there was some intermingling of the two groups, they mostly sat on opposite sides of the fire from one another. The separation didn’t feel harsh to Kindra. The clans weren’t acting malicious. But it served as a reminder that there was still a bridge that hadn’t been crossed.
Tev, however, was in a fine mood. Kindra had only seen him briefly since they landed, mostly to look at his injuries. His duties called him away. Of the three hunters who had lost their lives in the attack on the Destiny, two suits had been determined to be salvageable, while the third was stripped for parts. When they started training they had selected a few alternates, but those hunters hadn’t gotten much suit time. Tev had been supervising their crash course, while Xan led the training. Tev had also been spending an enormous amount of time with Derreck, often missing the fires while they made defensive preparations.
Tonight, Tev seemed relaxed, more so than she had seen him in quite some time. Tev shouted something in his own language, and another hunter stood up, while the rest of the circle quieted.
“What’s happening?” Kindra asked.
Tev glanced at her as he stood up and mo
ved closer to the fire. Kindra wasn’t sure how he wasn’t burning up. “We should exchange stories. This is a common tradition when two clans meet each other around a fire.”
The hunter who had responded to Tev’s call stood up and began reciting a story, one that, judging by the reactions of the other hunters, was a very popular one.
Tev began translating to those who didn’t speak the language.
“Lys was the greatest hunter who ever lived. She never missed a shot, and could track anything from a bird to a boar. One day she was out in the forest, checking her snares, and she found a rabbit caught in one. Now, this rabbit, like most rabbits, thought himself very clever. As Lys approached, he said, ‘Oh, greatest of hunters. I never thought one of your reputation would stoop so low as to use traps to catch your food.’
“Lys, knowing the mind of the rabbit, released him. The rabbit knew running wouldn’t save him, so he relied on his wits. He spoke again, saying, ‘Now, if only you had hunted me fairly, with a spear, I never would have been caught, and your honor would be intact. Give me one hour and then you may chase me. If you can catch me then with your spear, I will gladly give you the meat on my bones.’
“Now, Lys knew that the forest was filled with rabbit holes, and the ground was hard and dry, making it more challenging to track the rabbit. Letting him go would mean losing her prey, which was unacceptable. But when she spoke, her offer was more than generous. She said, ‘You are right, of course. I have brought shame to myself by falling so low. But I can’t agree to your offer, for you are injured from my trap, and I would have an unfair advantage. Let us make camp here for two days, and I will feed you and let you rest. Then, on the third day, I will give you an hour and then hunt you with my spear, as you wish.’
