Stone in the Sky

by Cecil Castellucci

  I couldn’t help it. A part of me was resentful. It wasn’t his fault. He was doing what I’d asked him to do, but when I thought of him sharing meals, sharing entertainments, and sitting in the Sunspa with Brother Blue as they both got richer, my heart began to freeze. I began to hate my old friend.

  “If you’re ever in trouble and you need to go, talk to Thado and find out when the next export of Hern is,” I said to Bitty. “They always fly under the radar, and you can likely get off the station easily with them and then you can find some Human Wanderers.”

  She turned to go prepare her things for leaving.

  “Wait,” I said, and then unclasped my gold Earth bracelet and put it on her wrist. “To keep me with you.”

  We hugged one more time, and then I let her go.

  When she left, I stayed until the ship blasted off. I watched it get smaller in the sky. I watched until there was nothing but clouds to see.

  40

  “There is a person from the Department of Extraplanetary Excavation coming to visit Quint,” Reza said as he watered his garden. Reza planted other things on his land. He planted Earth corn. He planted Earth wheat. He planted any seed he could get his hands on to make his land bloom. I could see how delighted he was by the small Earth garden we’d started.

  “Is she a Loor?” I asked.

  “I think so,” Reza said.

  If it was Hendala then that meant something was shifting at Bessen.

  “I have to go meet them,” Reza said. “Do business. Tournour is coming.”

  My heart leapt. I used to wonder how Caleb could talk about Myfanwy who was so far away and still love her. I wondered about that old Earth saying, that absence made the heart grow fonder. It was both true and untrue. I had not had a moment alone with Tournour for nearly a year, but he occupied my thoughts. It was as though no other conversation mattered.

  “Can you get Tournour a message for me?” I said, a bit too eagerly.

  I saw a cloud of jealousy pass over Reza’s face. We had never talked about Tournour, but I knew that my face could not disguise my feelings for him. Sometimes being with Reza only made me feel worse about the fact that I had this place inside of me that held tender feelings for an alien.

  “I can’t really,” he said. “I have to keep it strictly business.”

  I nodded, biting my tongue. He took a shovel to work out a rock in the ground.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he said when it finally loosened.

  “When are they coming?” I asked.

  “Tomorrow,” he said.

  I went into town, covered up as a Wanderer and hidden in the Nurlok’s kitchen, to watch the team from Bessen arrive.

  I leaned my head against the glass to watch Reza welcome the group that included Brother Blue, Caleb, Tournour, Hendala, and a group of aliens from each of the Five Major Species. I watched as they all greeted each other, and I saw that Tournour was wearing the cuff that I had given him. That made me smile. I watched as Reza said something to Tournour, and Tournour’s face changed. For the rest of the walk he seemed distracted. He was looking around. Looking for me.

  “I’m here,” I wanted to say. “I’m right here.”

  When the meeting was over, Reza rejoined me at the Nurlok eatery. After we got some food, we walked back to his place.

  I helped him to water the alin, and then we settled in for the night. He reached into his coat and put a data disc down on the table.

  “He’s gutted,” Reza said.

  I snatched the data plug, put it into Reza’s console, and let it play.

  “Hello. This place is cold and, though full, it feels empty without you. I have to keep my tongue in check. I have to say yes to everyone but the one person in the universe I want to say yes to. Forgive this awful galaxy. And know that while I say no with every action, my heart beats Tula, Tula, Tula. Don’t respond. Too dangerous. I can only hope that you are thinking of me, too.”

  “He’s not Human you know,” Reza said coming up behind me and slipping his arms around my waist.

  “I know,” I said turning and burying my face into his chest. “I know.”

  I vowed that when this was over, I would spend a month only talking to Tournour. I was determined to save up conversations for him.

  I would tell him about the sky.

  I would tell him about the plants.

  I would tell him about the birds.

  I would tell him about my heart.

  41

  “What’s it like up there?” I asked. I longed for news of the Yertina Feray, and Bitty was my only way of getting it.

  “It’s strange,” Bitty said. “There’s a lot of species pride. A lot of separation. But there are more Imperium people coming. Brother Blue is getting very agitated.”

  “That’s good,” I said.

  “Myfanwy has me pulling records and deleting them,” she said. “The Imperium come and try to get data that we’ve purged.”

  “Something is going on,” I said.

  Hendala and her group had been back a few more times. She never spoke to me, but when I did see her, she folded her antennae toward me in acknowledgment.

  “Myfanwy is worried about Earth,” Bitty said. “And Caleb says that Brother Blue is stepping up the search for Humans. Caleb is going to go back out and try to find them first.”

  It was good to know that Caleb was going out to help. But I doubted that he would have any more luck in warning them then I did.

  “They won’t trust him,” I said.

  “I made him and Siddiqui this,” she said holding up her wrist and shaking the gold Earth bracelet at me.

  It was brilliant. The Wanderers would trust someone whom they thought was a Gome.

  “He’ll lead them here, to you,” she said. “They’ll be safe here.”

  “To Quint, not to me,” I said.

  “The Imperium is auditing Brother Blue,” she said. “He’s getting desperate.”

  Things were about to change. After carefully trying to control things, it was time for the chaos to start.

  It made me anxious to think of her on her own, but then it made me glad to have a family to worry about. For so long I had only worried about myself.

  42

  Perhaps the time had finally come for me to be caught.

  In order to escape the Imperium scrutiny he was getting, Brother Blue had decided to move down to Quint.

  I hid away at Reza’s at first, but it was a chore to evade Brother Blue. I saw him in town and on the road and every smile that he flashed made me miserable. He seemed to enjoy the growing town and the newly arrived Humans. He relished it. Looking in on people. Caring for them. As though he were actually the person that he always said he was—not the person who had lied to Earth, to the Imperium, to the Wanderers, and to the countless dead colonists of Children of Earth.

  “Why does he stay down here?” I asked. “Why doesn’t he just disappear?”

  “Things are strange up there,” Bitty said. “I don’t think he’s safe.”

  The only thing that comforted me about that was it meant soon I would be able to take him down for good.

  As more Humans started to trickle down to Quint, at some point we’d outgrow the small tract that could sustain us. We needed to go elsewhere, and I knew just where. The other planets.

  Killick, Kuhn, Marxuach, Andra, Beta Granade. They were sitting there, empty, false towns full of dead people. I had begun to dream that we could get people to live there.

  “We’re going to run out of resources,” Reza said. “Our population is growing too fast.” He meant aliens and Humans.

  “The new Humans could be trained on how to settle. They could be given supplies and other necessities to cultivate their own land. Then, finally, they can settle in and stop wandering.”

  “You’ve really thought this out,” Reza said.

  “It’s possible. It’s really possible.”

  I had seen this dream before. When I heard myself talking
about it, I could feel myself come alive.

  Brother Blue and I were almost the same.

  There was a knock at the door.

  “You have to meet with him,” Ednette said. “I cannot answer all the questions that he has.”

  “I can give you a script,” I said. “He can’t know that I’m here. It’s not the right time.”

  “He knows that there is someone else in charge,” Ednette says. “He knows by my markings. And he won’t listen to me. He’s asking questions about the mold.”

  We had allowed moisture into our pollen holding bin so that mold would grow and reduce its worth.

  “It’s time,” Reza said.

  I finally agreed to meet with him. We’d edged into summer, and so it was hot in Ednette’s hut. Or perhaps it was just that I was nervous. I refused to take off my protective gear, as though it would insulate me against the evil that I was about to greet. Reza and Ednette stood behind me, close enough to catch me if I fell. Close enough to hold me back if I lunged.

  The door opened, and at first, all I saw was light and shadow. Then the shadow separated into three beings—all Human. First came Myfanwy and Caleb. The tallest one was Brother Blue. He looked larger then I remembered. It was as if every time I saw him, it was through a different lens.

  He took off his coverings and looked just as smooth and collected as he usually did. I wondered how someone so awful could have eyes that smiled. But there they were, looking right at me. Looking merry.

  He removed his gloves and stuck out his hand to shake mine.

  I nearly stumbled back, but Reza put his hand on my shoulder to steady me.

  Everyone in the hut knowing my prejudice against him was staring at me. I shook his hand, and then slowly removed the scarf over my mouth, my hood, and my goggles and met his stare.

  At first he started, and his eyes lost their arrogant joy. His face hardened, but then recovered quickly. Even though I could see hate in his face, I knew he would not show any weakness in front of other Humans. He had to play it off as though it being me was part of his plan.

  “It’s you,” he said and then he began to laugh. “Of course it is.”

  “There is nothing funny about this meeting,” I said.

  “Oh, but there is,” he said. “It’s a good thing you were so hard to kill, or else I’d be in a real pickle.”

  “We’re only here because we have mutual interests,” I said. “We’re only here because it’s best if we work together.”

  The very words tasted bitter in my mouth. I could hardly believe I was saying them, and yet I knew them to be true.

  “Tula, you have the gift.” Brother Blue said. “We’re doing good work here.”

  “I’ve done good work here. I am on the ground.”

  “Yes,” he said. “You’ve done a remarkable job at filling in the gaps that I can’t. I always knew you had something in you, Tula Bane. I saw it when you were a child. You should thank me for encouraging you.”

  I balked. There was no way I was going to thank this man.

  He was talking to me as though I was still his assistant, and part of me almost wanted to fall into that role because it was still familiar. I remembered how to get things done his way, but I hated the way people’s attention shifted from me to him. He was more charismatic. He was brighter. I was sullen, withdrawn, and inhuman. Alien. I seemed cold even though my heart was bursting.

  He stood there, staring at me. Waiting for me to speak.

  “I won’t thank you,” I said. “I’ll never thank you for what you’ve done to me.”

  “We have too much work to do.” Myfanwy stepped in, doing her best to refocus the discussion. “All eyes are on us. There’s to be an audit.”

  “The Imperium has demanded to see an Earth colony. I need you to perform for me,” he said.

  “No,” I said. “Send them to one of the other colonies.”

  Killick. Kuhn. Marxuach. Andra. Beta Granade.

  “I can’t do that,” Brother Blue said. “There are issues there.”

  “What issues?” I asked.

  “Pandemic on Andra. Power problems on Marxuach. Terraforming mishap on Beta Granade. Lack of proper receiving buildings on Killick. Light skip block to Kuhn…” Myfanwy rattled off the familiar excuses.

  I laughed.

  “You can drop the act,” I said. “Why should we help you?”

  “They can’t know that this batch of alin has been ruined.”

  He put his hand on my shoulder as though he were being sincere with me. I shuddered, remembering the last time he’d touched me. Remembering his fists on my body and the cold hard floor of Docking Bay 12.

  “You have us marked as your property.”

  “I’ll free you,” he said. Then he made a motion to Myfanwy who produced a key from her pocket and started undoing the armbands that had marked us as slaves.

  “We work the land, we get the profits,” I said.

  “A quarter of the profits,” he said.

  “Earth Gov needs funding,” Reza spoke up. “Some profits should go there.”

  I was glad that Reza had remembered to take care of that Earth was represented in this negotiation.

  “Impossible,” Brother Blue said. It was so easy for him to wave off billions of people. “If I’m going to get the Imperium to stop breathing down my neck, then we need funding.”

  “You mean you need funding,” I said.

  “Helping me keep the Imperium from sticking its nose into our affairs is helping Earth Gov,” he said.

  I nodded. I hated that he was right, but he was.

  “We are the true pioneers here. We’re full of hope and possibility. We’re doing great things for Humanity. We are coexisting peacefully with our alien neighbors,” I said.

  I laid out my terms and told him my plans and vision for our colony, and made him agree to housing, medical support, schooling, grains. He agreed to it all.

  I realized that I’d heard these words before, the speeches. They were what Brother Blue had said to us on Earth and on the Prairie Rose. I was saying the same thing, and I believed what I was saying.

  Was it the same with Brother Blue? Had his intentions started as purely as mine?

  No. We were nothing alike. Or were we?

  I shook my head in assent to indicate my agreement.

  “Now that we’re partners in this venture, you’ll see that I always had Humanity’s best interests at heart,” he said.

  “What happened?” I asked. “Why is there no one living at the colonies?”

  Brother Blue closed his eyes for a moment and then spoke.

  “Killick, the first colony, went fine for five seasons,” he said. “And then the weather, the insects, the floods, the soil turned toxic, everything changed. But by then I’d already started a movement. And I liked being the Human mover and shaker in space. I still like it. I liked adding planets to my collection. The other four planets I just sent skeleton crews to, as placeholders. I had every intention to do what I was saying. Things just got complicated.”

  The only thing I could think of as he told his story was that he did not look like a monster. He looked like an ordinary man.

  “It wasn’t until Beta Granade that I thought I would start again in earnest with a real colony. But then the League of Worlds fell, and I didn’t have time to put actual people on it. I had to get rid of those colonists for the good of all Humans. But now we have a real chance to make it right.”

  Everyone in the room was looking at me expectantly. I felt as though I was holding all of our fates in my hands. Suddenly I understood about the hard choices that one had to make for the sake of the bigger picture.

  “I think I see,” I said, taking his hand and shaking it.

  I now knew what it was like to sleep with a devil.

  43

  When the inspectors of the Imperium came, Brother Blue and I were of one mind. Make them believe that Humans were the kind of species they said they were.

  B
rother Blue stepped forward to welcome the delegation. I cringed at how he turned on the charm, greeting the aliens each in their traditional ways. I saw that he had interacted with them in the same way that I did with aliens when I bartered. Mimicking them in order to get what I wanted.

  I looked at the alien speculators who tried to stand with their own kind to put on the appearance of species separation. But it was clear they were mingling with each other as they watched the arrival. A Per was laughing with a Moldav at some joke. Two Nurlock, a Freng, and a Kao were sharing food with the crowd. Two groups of younger Brahar and Hort were kicking a ball around.

  It surprised me how much a part of life on Quint mixing had become.

  We had grown together through helping each other. We didn’t know how to separate. We were a community.

  “Why are you mixed together?” the Brahar inspector asked.

  “Stand with your own kind!” the Per yelled.

  All the aliens looked at each other, confused, and I realized it was because they thought that they were apart. They couldn’t see that we were all starting to bleed into each other, even when we were trying to look separated.

  A Kao inspector stepped out and examined the aliens in the crowd. His red round face looked over the crowd with disgust. Perhaps fear. It was not difficult to see that we had all adapted to each other’s styles.

  We were stronger that way, which is why the Imperium wanted us to all go back to our corners. The galaxy was easier to control when aliens were separated and fighting one another for planets, resources, and the ability to expand.

  “Let me show you my jewel of a settlement, Brother Blue said sensing the disapproval of the inspectors. He spread his arm to point out various landmarks to distract their attention as the aliens in the crowd reorganized themselves to be more separated.

  He did it so smoothly that even I had made sure to step away from the two aliens next to me, and fell into place next to the other Humans.