by J. J. Green
“I’m not comfortable sitting here in orbit above our infested home planet. If these Shadows’ reach stretches as far as you tell me, and as it sounds like they’re especially keen to find you, they might figure out who I have on board soon enough. The Bricoleur isn’t a combat ship. We won’t be winning any space battles. So we need to move, and soon. But where to go? The Council’s spread across the galaxy. We don’t know where my parents sent their message, so until we figure out who we should be talking to, we can’t go to the Council yet. It seems to me the logical thing to do is to sit tight while we try to find out what’s happening.”
“But if it isn’t safe to stay in orbit above Earth...” said Jas.
“I didn’t mean to stay right here, like a duck waiting to be shot. We only need to stay in the vicinity. Somewhere close by. Somewhere hopefully not infested with Shadows yet.”
“I get it,” Makey exclaimed. “We’re going to Mars, aren’t we?”
Chapter Three
Phelan’s plan was to cancel the contracts of anyone in the crew who wanted out and shuttle them to Earth or Mars as they desired. Everyone had been mulling about the problem for days, and it didn’t take them long to state their wishes. The pilot said she wanted to return to Earth and check on her family, and she hoped that would be okay now that Carl was there to fly the ship. Carl was happy to take over the position. He only asked that he could first make a quick trip to his family home to pick up his alien friend, Flux.
The miners were disgruntled about Phelan’s decision to halt his mining operations. They didn’t want to go to Earth or Mars, nor have their contracts canceled early. Phelan listened to their protests, throwing and catching his baseball the entire time.
Finally, he offered to pay early termination bonuses and to provide them with their tickets from Mars to their home planet. After putting their hairy heads together and talking in their strange, buzzing language, they reluctantly agreed. They filed out, muttering among themselves like a crowd of angry wasps. The pilot followed.
Flahive said he wanted to stay on, providing that Sayen and Erielle could sort out their differences. It turned out that the point was moot because, avoiding Sayen’s teary gaze, Erielle asked to be set down in the Shadow-infested state capital that had long been her home. At Erielle’s words Sayen said nothing, but stalked from the room, her head bowed and her lips set.
Erielle rested her chin on her hand and sighed. The older woman’s hair had grown out from the buzz cut she’d worn when Jas had first met her. The effect softened her hardened features a little, though the suffering and pain she’d endured ever since she’d been dragged into the battle with the Shadows was still evident in her face.
“I know what you’re all thinking,” the underworlder said. “If I go back to Earth, it’ll be a suicide mission. But they’re my people down there. All their lives they’ve been shunned and despised for not being modded, or for not conforming to the system. Ignored. Rejected. When the Shadows make their move, and it comes to a fight, who’s going to be looking out for them? No one. They might not be pretty, and they might not be smart, and most of them sure as hell aren’t trustworthy or responsible, but I spent all my life trying to help them. I’m not going to abandon them just because that’s the easy thing to do.”
“I can see why Sis likes you so much,” Phelan said. “You’re a brave woman.”
Erielle smiled grimly. “Not brave. Just resigned.”
“It’s going to be hard on Sayen,” said Jas.
“I know. I must seem like a callous bitch. Believe me, I don’t want to put her through any more pain so close to her parents dying. I don’t mean to hurt her. I know it might not look like it sometimes, but she means a lot to me. I’ll go talk to her.”
“I’m coming with you,” Makey said.
“You’re coming with me to talk to Sayen?”
“No, I’m returning to Earth too.”
“What?” exclaimed Jas. “No. No way.”
“Yes, I am. You can’t tell me what to do with my life. I’m not a kid anymore. I can do what I like.”
“You can’t go, Makey,” Jas said. “It’s insane. You’ll get killed.”
“It’s like Erielle says. People on Earth need our help. We can’t just forget about them.”
“We aren’t forgetting about them. We’re doing everything we can to help them. Sacrificing yourself isn’t going to help anyone.”
“I won’t be sacrificing myself. I’ll be with Erielle, and we’ll help keep each other safe. She always wanted me to join the underworlders, and she’s right. Everyone on Dawn was an underworlder. I owe it to my mam and sister to help them.”
He sighed. “It’s funny. All my life I dreamed of escaping my home planet and traveling the galaxy. And maybe I’ll do that one day. But I couldn’t look at myself in a mirror without shame if I ran away from the Shadows again like I did on Dawn. Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful that you helped me, Jas and Carl, but if I’m honest, a day hasn’t passed that I didn’t regret leaving. Everything I’ve done has been to try to make amends for what I did. It’s not enough. I have to go back to Earth and continue the fight against the Shadows there. I’m sorry, but it’s just the right thing for me to do.”
With a tiny metallic hiss from her leg supports, Erielle got up and went out. Makey went with her. Only Phelan, Carl, Jas, the android, and Flahive remained.
“I’ll program a jump to Mars,” the android said and turned her slim, shapely back to them as she bent over her screen.
“I’m hoping the Shadows haven’t arrived there yet,” Phelan said. “We need to restock on supplies, so we have to go planetside. What do you think, Jas? Is it likely to be safe? Have you been back recently?”
Jas rubbed her eyes, trying to get the image of Makey being dragged into a Shadow trap out of her mind. “I haven’t been back since I was twelve years old. I made it as far as orbit once, but that’s it.”
Phelan whistled. “Not been back since you were twelve years old, huh?” Thunk.
A muscle in Jas’ jaw twitched.
“I sense that you’re extremely worried about Makey, Jas, and very conflicted about returning to the place of your birth,” said Flahive. “Perhaps it might help you to go to Mars as a way of examining your feelings and achieving a resolution to them.”
“I’m sorry?” Jas said. “You sense I’m...what?”
“Flahive.” Phelan gave the engineer a little shake of his head.
“Ah, that was inappropriate of me,” Flahive said. “I apologize, Jas. I’m very sorry. I was just trying to help.”
A look of puzzlement passed between Carl and Jas. The engineer’s opaque face plate was enigmatic.
Phelan sighed. “I guess now that we’re all going to be shipmates for the duration, I should tell you about Flahive. Or do you want to tell them yourself?” he asked the engineer.
“I find it best if I do the explaining, Captain, if you don’t mind. It’s certainly not the first time, and I doubt it’ll be the last that I have to reassure other species about my ability.”
Why would they need reassurance? Jas wondered. She didn’t think she was going to like what the alien had to say.
“Firstly,” Flahive said, “I want to make it very clear that I cannot read human minds.”
Jas had been right. She didn’t like the sound of where Flahive seemed to be heading with his explanation.
He went on, “However, I do pick up on strong emotions. Not everyday, minor feelings of contentment, annoyance, dissatisfaction, that kind of thing. But joy, elation, despair, hatred, love, passion, fury, those I can sense. I sense a kind of echo of them. At times, the effect is quite uncomfortable.”
The alien’s objections when Sayen and Erielle had fought began to make sense. He was an empath.
“I know this can make some humans feel self-conscious or embarrassed, but I’ve never truly comprehended why. Strong emotions can be an opportunity to initiate much-needed change. They aren’t something to
be avoided or hidden away. Sometimes emotions bring people together, or advance the individual to enlightenment of some kind. When I sense powerful feelings, I try to encourage an exploration of those feelings if I think it might help that person.”
Oh, brother.
“Okay, I think you’ve explained enough,” Phelan said. “Don’t worry,” he said to Jas and Carl. “You’ll get used to him being around. You won’t even think about it after a while. I don’t.” Thunk.
“I’ll get used to him knowing exactly how I feel?” Jas spluttered. “All the time? He’ll be picking up on our emotions all the time we’re aboard the ship? Or are you limited by distance?” she asked Flahive.
“My ability is limited by distance,” Flahive replied.
Jas made a mental note to stay as far away from the alien as she could.
“But it stretches as far as the confines of this ship.”
“Great,” Jas said.
Phelan gave a short laugh. “Calm down. It isn’t a big deal.”
“Yes, you should probably calm down,” Flahive repeated.
“Don’t tell me how I should feel,” exclaimed Jas. But Carl was laughing at her now.
“Besides,” continued Phelan. “We need Flahive. If something goes wrong with the engine, he’s the only one who can talk to it.”
Carl’s laughter died. “He can what?”
Chapter Four
They were in Mars orbit. The Bricoleur was quieter with Erielle, Makey, the pilot, and the miners gone. Four days had passed since the last of them had left. Flux’s addition to the crew had caused a temporary lifting of the spirits, but the atmosphere had quickly returned to a subdued and pensive state.
Carl was the only person aboard who had been planetside, but he hadn’t stuck around. He’d remained at Valles Marineris Spaceport just long enough for the miners to disembark the shuttle before flying back.
He was worried about Sayen. After Erielle had left them, her mood had sunk even lower. She was rarely seen outside her cabin, and she ate very little at meals—when she turned up to them at all. She’d grown worryingly thin, and her eyes were shadowed in their sockets. Her depression was bringing her brother down too. Phelan spent most of his time with her, though when the two were seen together he would be the one doing the talking. He would reason with her, or go over stories of their childhood, or just generally try to cheer her up. His naturally buoyant temperament was less and less evident as time wore on.
Carl decided to pay her a visit and take Flux with him in the hopes that the quirky alien’s presence might lighten her mood. He rang her door chime twice before she answered, and when she opened her door it was evident she’d been crying. “I’m sorry, Carl. This isn’t a good—”
Flux took off from Carl’s shoulder and flew into her cabin, alighting on the corner of her bunk.
“Got anything to eat?” the creature asked, his Australian-accented voice high-pitched.
“No, Flux. I don’t have anything. Maybe you should try the dining room?”
“Nah, nothing good in there. How about I scout around for some cockroaches?” He flew down from her bunk and crawled underneath it, pulling himself forward with the hooks on his wings.
“There are no roaches in my cabin,” Sayen exclaimed. Her cabin was extremely neat and tidy—almost too neat and tidy, as if no one were living there. The surfaces were completely bare and there wasn’t a smudge or speck of dust in the place.
“I bet there are,” came Flux’s voice from under the bunk. “Y’ can always find one if you look hard enough.”
“Sorry about him,” Carl said. “Is it okay if I come in, just for a minute?”
Sighing, Sayen stepped back to let Carl in. She told the door to close.
“Can I get you a drink?” she asked as she went to the dispenser on her wall.
“No, that’s okay,” Carl replied. As Sayen filled a beaker with water, he noticed that her hands were red and raw, as if she’d been washing them excessively.
Carl took the only chair in the cramped room, and Sayen sat on her bunk, her elbows on her knees and her head bowed. Scratching sounds were coming from beneath her bunk where Flux was searching.
Now that he was there, Carl wasn’t sure what to say. How are you doing seemed trite.
Sayen broke the awkward silence. “Carl, I know why you’re here, and I appreciate it and all, but there isn’t anything you can say or do that’s going to make me feel better. Phelan’s tried his best, but he can’t bring Mama or Daddy back, and now that Erielle’s gone too...” She paused and swallowed. “It’s like the light’s gone out of my life, and there’s nothing I or anyone else can do about it.”
“Nothing under here,” Flux said, crawling out from beneath Sayen’s bunk. He climbed up the side and onto her mattress, gripping her blanket with his feet and wing hooks. “I’ll try up there,” he squeaked, launching himself into the air. He flew across the cabin to the top of a cupboard on the opposite wall and disappeared into the gap between it and the ceiling.
“There’s no roaches there either,” said Sayen.
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that if I were you,” came Flux’s voice.
Carl rolled his eyes at Sayen and was pleased to see the corners of her lips twitch into a half smile, but the moment was soon over.
“Your brother seems to be coping pretty well, at least,” he said.
Sayen shook her head. “He’s hurting. He just won’t show it. We aren’t much alike in that way. He doesn’t easily show how he feels. Mama and Daddy’s choice of modding for him was a little too far on the tough and adventurous side, they always said. I think they overcompensated with me. Made me too emotional and timid.”
“Maybe you were a little like that, at one time,” Carl replied, remembering her as he’d first known her when she was navigator aboard, the Galathea. “But that doesn’t sound like the Sayen I know now. The Sayen who broke into the secret files the Government was keeping on Shadows wasn’t emotional and timid. And neither was the Sayen who saved me and Makey after the truck crashed and we were surrounded.” He would never forget that lasting image he had of her appearing on top of the flaming truck, herself in flames.
“Seems like a long time ago,” said Sayen. “I was a different person then.”
“It just shows, though, doesn’t it? We aren’t set in stone. People can change. Modding’s only one part of who we are. We can still choose how we act and how we react when we hit hard times. We don’t have to accept that’s how we’ll be forever.”
Sayen frowned. “I guess so.”
Flux flew down and landed on Carl’s shoulder. “No luck,” he said disappointedly. “You keep your cabin too clean,” he said to Sayen.
“Er...sorry about that.”
The creature began to pick through Carl’s hair.
“You’re not going to find anything in there either, mate,” Carl said, brushing away a curl that had flopped over one eye.
“You never know,” Flux replied, leaning in to peer at Carl’s scalp.
This brought a small chuckle from Sayen. Carl thought he would take advantage of the momentary break in her mood with a change of subject. “Hey, did you know about the Bricoleur’s engine?” he asked.
“The Oootoon drive? Yeah, I know about it. Phelan had to argue long and hard with our parents about buying the ship when they were loaning him the money to start up his business. They didn’t think the greater efficiency of an Oootoon engine was worth the necessity of always having an empath aboard.”
“So it’s true that the engine’s alive and can communicate?”
“Oh yes. You could talk to it too, if you wanted to. You have to open the engine casing and touch it. I did it once, when the ship was delivered.” She grimaced. “What’s inside doesn’t look like much. It’s just a thick yellow liquid, but I wouldn’t recommend touching it. You immediately hear all its thoughts, and it’s like being inside the head of someone with multiple personality disorder. Confusing and creepy
.” She gave a slight shudder. “Took me a little while to get over it.”
“Right...why does the engine need an empath?”
“An Oootoon drive will take you wherever you tell it, in hops like a starjump engine, only it’s a fraction of the size and it doesn’t need any fuel. The last I heard, no one’s figured out how it does it. But if the engine’s damaged or something upsets it, you have to have a way of talking to it, or it might stop working. Like I said, talking to it isn’t easy, but empaths like Flahive can do it. Flahive doesn’t need to touch the Oootoon to communicate with it. And he doesn’t just feel its emotions like with us; he can hear what it’s saying if he 'tunes in’, as he puts it.”
“Wow,” Carl said. “I’ve never heard of anything like it.”
“Humans are still on the fringes of galactic society. We’ve only had interstellar travel for a couple of hundred years, whereas some alien species have been exploring the galaxy for eons. We’ve barely touched the surface of what’s out there. You should hear some of the stories Phelan has to tell about what he’s seen and done.”
“Sounds like I should. Ow.” Carl frowned and looked up from beneath his brows at Flux, who had just pulled his hair.
“Sorry, mate,” the creature said. “Thought I saw something.”
Carl gently removed the animal from his shoulder. “Maybe you should give it a rest for a minute,” he said, sitting Flux on his knee.
“Yeah. A rest sounds like a good idea.” Flux climbed over Carl’s lap and pulled open the top of Carl’s shirt before climbing in, saying, “You two carry on. Don’t mind about me.”
Flux made himself comfortable inside Carl’s shirt. Carl winced as his friend’s claws tugged at his chest hairs. Holding open the top of his shirt, he peered inside. Flux had curled into a ball and wrapped himself in his transparent wings. In a moment, his eyes began to close and his mouth opened, revealing two rows of tiny, sharp teeth. The creature’s breathing became deeper and more regular.
“It’s good to have him back,” he said to Sayen quietly, “but I’d forgotten how much of a pain in the arse he can be.”
