Raven's Children

by Sabrina Chase

  Ennis looked skeptical. “What’s he protecting?”

  “Maybe other survivors. He knows we aren’t leaving right away, that will give him a chance to check us out and make sure we’re legit. I’m told there are slavers around.”

  “Perhaps.” He didn’t look convinced, and she couldn’t blame him. Something was definitely going on with Perwaty. He’d acted normal until they wanted to go to his ship. Ennis looked at Perwaty, then back at her. “I don’t think he’s frightened of us, though. If I were you, I’d keep my weapon ready.”

  “I intend to. Let’s find out what he’s hiding, hmm?”

  Ennis nodded, his eyes narrowing intently. “I’ll ask him about the door. In three years he must have noticed something.”

  They followed Gren and Perwaty back out of the airlock and over the clutter of debris between the ships. Moire shook her head. Now that she knew what to look for, there were signs the beams and cables had been deliberately arranged. Had Perwaty done all this himself? Some of the beams were rather large.

  Inside Helios, Perwaty opened his helmet. Hesitating a moment, Moire did the same, then nodded to Alan when he looked at her questioningly. The air smelled more than a little of unwashed human, but that was to be expected after three years.

  “I was wondering if you could explain something to me,” Ennis said in a deceptively calm voice. Moire wandered casually to the other side of the corridor, where she wouldn’t block anybody’s line of fire.

  “Eh? What’s that?” With his helmet off, Perwaty’s stiff brown hair made him look like a bottle brush.

  Ennis pointed. “This, on the door. What is it?”

  Perwaty moistened his lips. “I dunno. Always like that. Um, I mean I found it like that. Original one broke so I found some parts on another ship. I forget which one.”

  “You’ve never seen anything else like this?”

  “No, never.” Perwaty was emphatic. “So, what did you want to see here?”

  “Engines and gravitics,” Gren said. Perwaty led them down the corridor and down two levels. He didn’t seem happy. Moire kept a close eye on their surroundings, letting the others talk and distract Perwaty. Everything seemed normal, if a bit worn and dirty. No other crab additions that she could see.

  “Engineering,” Perwaty said, and stopped. He was standing so he blocked the corridor heading toward the stern.

  Moire turned, looking over his shoulder. “What’s down there?”

  He shrugged, a quick twitch. “Storage, smaller cargo area. It got damaged. Nothing there now.”

  Now she saw something different. The deck was worn and scratched along the corridor behind Perwaty. One gouge was recent, judging from the fresh surface of the metal, and deep. Something heavy had been moved to the supposedly empty, unused space. Moire caught Ennis’s eye, and nodded briefly at the floor.

  “Let’s check it out. May as well know what we need to fix, right?” she said brightly, dodging around him and heading down the forbidden corridor. Perwaty started sputtering protests; fragments of incredible reasons why she shouldn’t go there. When she stopped at the door to a cargo area, he became even more frantic.

  “And…‌and there’s radiation! One of the cargoes was….‌”

  Moire punched the door controls and blinked in puzzlement. It was the smallest cargo area she’d ever seen—‌and where was the outer hatch?

  “If it’s radioactive, why do you bunk here?” Ennis asked dryly, pointing to the bedding in one corner of the room. Against one wall was a workbench with several gutted pieces of equipment and a pile of salvaged components. Tools were ranged neatly in a rack. An output panel displayed a page from an equipment manual.

  Moire moved to the wall next to the workbench. It looked like a section of outer hull with a square–‌meter viewport and an airlock door. It couldn’t have ever been a part of the original ship. The actual hull was at least ten meters from the wall, so what was the airlock for? She peered through the viewport. The space behind it was dim, but she could tell it was not empty.

  “No! Don’t…‌get away!” Perwaty grabbed her arm and yanked. “It’s dangerou—‌” Moire twisted away, and saw that Alan and Ennis had their weapons pointed directly at him.

  “Hands off the captain,” Ennis said in a gentle, dangerous tone.

  Perwaty let go and stumbled away. “You don’t understand. This ship has—‌has a lot of problems. I had to fix them my own way, all right? There…‌there was a leak. Needed a hull section.” He turned to the workbench. “I guess since I’m here, I’ll take some of my things.” He snatched something that looked like a large datapad with wires and components attached to it. One of the cables ran along the wall with the viewport and seemed to go through to the other side. He yanked the datapad loose and stuffed it in a ripped duffel.

  “Let’s go. Please. All this ship has is bad memories of dead friends. I want to go away and never come back.” His voice cracked. “Now.” He pulled a few more things off the bench, apparently at random, and put them in the bag, too.

  Maybe there was just something wrong with Perwaty. Had he really moved all the pieces of the hull section by himself? He’d had three years to do it, if he’d been telling the truth.

  “All right. Let’s take a look at Engineering, then we’ll leave,” Moire said, taking another look around the room. He probably was a little off edge after being stuck here for so long. Gren was already out in the corridor, and Perwaty was waiting impatiently at the doorway for them to follow. Moire turned to go. A sudden loud bang made her start.

  Perwaty had gone as pale as his tan skin would allow. “We gotta go now,” he said hoarsely. “I heard this before. Ship’s breaking up.” He made no attempt to put on his helmet.

  Two more heavy knocks. Gren ran back in the room. Tears were falling down Perwaty’s face now. Three knocks. Perwaty suddenly ran to the wall, pushing against it with his hands as if he could mask the sound that way.

  “Stop it! They have guns! They have guns! Do you want to die?”

  A deep moaning voice came from behind the viewport, and a barrage of pounding.

  “Something’s moving in there,” Gren said tensely, pointing at the viewport. He picked up a heavy wrench from the workbench and moved back toward the entrance.

  “What the hell is it?” snarled Ennis, moving back with Gren and waving at Moire to do the same while aiming his weapon at the wall.

  She stared at the viewport. The banging had stopped, but the deep voice continued. Gren was right, something was moving. Something with a strange shape, emerging from the shadows. Something that seemed to be looking at Perwaty’s sobbing face, but without human eyes. Something that was touching the surface of the viewport, but without hands.

  So I was right. There was another survivor.

  Perwaty turned and stood straight, a certain desperate courage in his eyes. His arms spread protectively across the viewport.

  “Don’t shoot. He’s my friend.”

  ¤ ¤ ¤

  Ennis kept his weapon trained on the creature. It had to be a crab. Realizing that he actually was looking at one of the enemy made a chill shudder through his body. His fingers tightened on his weapon, and he fought to relax them. Killing one more crab wasn’t going to make a difference in the war. It would be more valuable alive.

  How strange it looked…‌it was bigger than he was expecting. Only the upper part was visible through the viewport; a long, narrow head with curving ridges along the length of it. The skin had a subtle pattern in shades of grey, with occasional black marks that didn’t seem to match the pattern. Long tendrils sprang from the area between the head and what seemed to be the neck. They were pressed up against the surface of the viewport behind where Perwaty was standing, writhing as if the crab was trying to grab him. The eerie noise seemed to be coming from the crab, too.

  “Are you sure he’s your friend?” Ennis asked, suspicious.

  Perwaty swallowed. “He saved my life. We help each other.”

&
nbsp; “You do know there’s a war on, right?”

  “We ain’t fighting!” Perwaty snapped. “Coulda killed me any number of times if he wanted. I coulda killed him. Sure, I know there’s a war. But here it’s him an’ me against the Universe.”

  “If he’s your friend, why did you try to leave him here?” Moire asked. Ennis risked a glance her way. Her face had a grim, dangerous look he’d never seen before. Alan, beside her, had his weapon aimed like the rest of them but was gaping at the crab in astonishment.

  “You shot at me.” Perwaty snapped. “I’m human. Think I’d just tell ya he’s here an’ hope for the best? I’d never do that to him.” His face twisted. “He’d be stuck here, but…‌at least he’d still be alive,” he said in a small voice. He turned his head, looking back at the crab. He put his hand against the viewport. “I’m sorry…‌I didn’t know what ta do.”

  The crab shifted. His tendrils moved, still pressed against the viewport but now opposite Perwaty’s hand.

  The ship. Moire had said she’d only seen one, and that one was huge. “Where are the others?”

  Perwaty shook his head. “He’s the only one. I didn’t even see any bodies.”

  Moire snorted. “Oh, come on. He didn’t get here by himself. Did you look in his ship?”

  “Been out with him a couple times, get supplies and such. Nobody there. Besides, why would he want to move in with me if any of his own kind was still around?”

  “Why would he want to share quarters with an enemy?” Ennis wondered. Something strange was going on, because all the indications were that the crab did. He was starting to think Perwaty was telling the truth about the crab being alone.

  “I keep tellin’ ya, we don’t fight. 'Sides, he says there’s something wrong with the war.”

  “What?” Moire asked.

  “I dunno, that’s where it gets confusing. He keeps saying we aren’t the right ones, or something.”

  “Wait a minute. You can communicate?” Ennis said, incredulous.

  “Not much else to do around here. We worked something out, but it ain’t up to anything fancy. I’ll show you.”

  Perwaty scrambled through his bag and brought out one of the items he’d tossed in from the bench. It looked like some kind of scanner. He plugged it into a cable that ran along the bench and into the bulkhead between them and the crab. Perwaty held up the scanner so the crab could see it. The crab’s long, narrow head lifted up, and the tendrils along his neck slowly uncurled. The noise stopped.

  Moire drifted closer. “What do you think?” she said in a barely audible voice.

  Ennis gave a quick shake of his head. “The crab? I’m not sure. I do know we have to get him to Fleet. This is more important than the ship.”

  She scowled. “We’re already late. Why are they called crabs? He doesn’t look anything like one.”

  “They got the name from the ships. The hulls looked like crab shells,” Ennis said. “All the spines.”

  “How do you talk with a scanner?” Alan asked Perwaty, peering around Moire.

  Perwaty started, dropping the device and cursing. “Don’t sneak up on me like that. You a mercenary?” Alan stared at him, then shook his head uncertainly. “You wear that thing on your arm, like they do,” he said, pointing to the red metalmesh scarf Alan had tied on his suit.

  “He got it from a mercenary,” Moire said, the corner of her mouth twitching. “So how does it work?”

  “Me an’ him, we have something we want to talk about. Like this,” Perwaty nudged a loose pinlight on the workbench. “I point to it, he calls it something and puts that in his device. So I get his signal pattern from his device, scanner reads it, and I set it in memory and call it ‘pinlight.’ I send him that pattern, he gets his word for it.”

  Ennis glanced over at the viewport. The crab was gone. No, he had moved back to a treelike structure he could barely make out in the gloom. He could see more of it now. Two thick, powerful–‌looking hind legs, two thinner, articulated limbs springing from a common point in what would be a human’s chest, and an overall body structure that was pyramidal and bottom–‌heavy. Crabs didn’t seem to need much light to see with. He was manipulating something with his tendrils on the tree–‌thing.

  The scanner display flashed text. Perwaty looked at it and scratched his head. “I think he doesn’t want me to leave,” he said finally.

  Ennis got closer, so he could see what Perwaty was doing. He was tapping out something that showed as JIM GO TO HUMANS. Well, he’d said it was a simple system.

  After a moment the display blinked and displayed JIM GO TO HUMANS. RADERSENT NO ALONE. (JIM, RADERSENT) GO TO HUMANS.

  “He wants to come with me,” Perwaty said slowly. “What the hell?”

  “We want him to come with us too,” Ennis said, feeling numb with shock. Communication. He’d seen it himself. Communication with a crab.

  Moire grimaced. “You want him. How are we going to do this? Looks like he doesn’t breathe our kind of air, and I’m damn sure he can’t eat our food. Not much use dead, is he?” she asked dryly. “Crew might not like it either. Ulrike lost a brother in the Zamaia raid, and I’m sure there are others. Why can’t you come back and talk to him here?”

  Before Perwaty could answer, Alan spoke. “He doesn’t want to be alone.” He pointed at the scanner. “He says so.”

  Yes, that made sense. If the crab was terrified of being alone, he would be willing to risk being a prisoner. Which would make him more likely to cooperate, if he was afraid they’d leave him here. “He wants to go with Perwaty, and I’m sure Perwaty doesn’t want to stay here. The crab comes with us.”

  Moire held up a hand. “Now wait a minute. This crab doesn’t have all the facts. You.” She pointed at Perwaty. “Tell him we’ve personally fought and killed his people.” She indicated herself and Ennis. “Tell him if he comes with us, chances are good he’ll never go home again.”

  Perwaty sighed. “I’ll try. How about some names, so I can keep you straight?”

  A silence, then Moire said, “Call me Ren Roberts. That’s my son, Alan, and Gren,” she said, jerking her thumb back toward the doorway. Then she looked him with an amused expression.

  Ennis hesitated, finally saying, “Byron.” He’d always tried to avoid giving his first name if he could. He felt it was the only thing truly his. On Fimbul, you didn’t show things you valued. Even though he knew his name could not be taken away, old habits died hard.

  They were introduced to the crab, which involved a great deal of waving and pointing from Perwaty. The crab seemed to take this in without comment until Alan was introduced.

  [QUERY]ROBERTS SHE read the crab’s message.

  Perwaty tapped out. MORE SEND.

  “What does that mean?” Ennis asked.

  “Oh, that’s a general ‘huh?’ Means I need more info,” Perwaty said.

  The response came almost immediately. ALAN CHILD ROBERTS. [QUERY]ROBERTS SHE.

  Perwaty rubbed his chin. “Hmm. Now that I think about it, we had a real long talk when I showed him the vid of my wife and daughter. Damn persistent he was. Took a long time before I figured out what he wanted to know. Seems they got females too, and it’s real important to know about 'em. Still don’t know why it’s so important,” he said, shrugging, and typed in his reply.

  The crab suddenly pulled his head down and pulled his tendrils in until they were no longer visible.

  “What’s he doing?” Alan asked.

  “He’s not happy,” Perwaty said slowly.

  “I thought he’d have second thoughts,” Moire said, nodding.

  Perwaty snorted. “I haven’t told him anything yet, 'cept your names. He asked if you were female, and I said yes, and that’s what set him off.”

  “He’s afraid of females?”

  The crab moved very slowly back to his communication device. His tendrils extended only as far as necessary to manipulate it.

  RADERSENT GO WITH JIM. RADERSENT GO WITH ROBERTS.
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  Perwaty tapped out a rapid sequence, then peered at the response. “I told him you’ve killed crabs. He wants to know if you’re going to kill him.”

  Moire shook her head. “Not unless he tries to kill us.”

  RADERSENT NOT DEAD HUMANS –‌> HUMANS NOT DEAD RADERSENT was the message Perwaty sent. Ennis was starting to see how the communications worked. It was crude but effective.

  The tendrils went out a little more. RADERSENT GO WITH ROBERTS, the crab sent.

  So. The crab was willing. He just had to convince Moire.

  ¤ ¤ ¤

  Moire stumbled in the doorway of the scout. Damn, she was tired. Too much excitement.

  “You were in Helios a long time,” commented Ulrike from the pilot’s seat.

  “There was a lot to see,” Moire said eventually. “It’s an…‌interesting ship.”

  You could sense the intelligence in the crab, that was the disturbing thing. Alien, and intelligent. She hoped they could ask it the one question she’d wanted an answer for since she’d found out they were fighting the crabs—‌what was this war about?

  She couldn’t make sense of how it moved. Sometimes it just used its stubby legs, but now and then it used the set of limbs that seemed to function as rudimentary arms and secondary legs as needed. She frowned, remembering. Maybe the forelimbs didn’t grow symmetrically, but she suspected this crab had been injured. One forelimb was bent and awkward, and the crab never moved it much.

  Alan twisted in his seat, and Moire cracked an eye open watchfully. He was facing Ennis. She tensed, but when he spoke his tone was not angry or confrontational, but resentfully curious.

  “How did you know?”

  Ennis glanced at Ulrike, piloting the scout, and made a slight gesture for him to lower his voice. They hadn’t told the rest of the crew about their discovery yet.

  “I guessed. From something I saw.”

  “What?” Alan persisted. Moire blinked in amazement. This was the most civil conversation they’d ever had. “I want to know, so I can guess too. If there is another…‌another Secret, maybe it is dangerous.”