Tangled Planet

by Kate Blair

  A woman first, shoulders back, head twitching around at high attention. It’s Protector Leda. Behind her there’s a skinny male figure, slouching and breaking twigs as he stomps into sight: Protector Sirius, still new at this. They see Sabik first, and Leda’s pulse gun is out in an instant, pointed at him.

  “What’s this hut? Where’s Ursa?” she demands. “Astra said she was here.”

  I exhale and lower my gun. They’re my rescuers. Thank Beta. Astra’s smart. I should have known she’d put people she trusted on the planet. They probably came down on the same shuttle as I did, cradled in the bucket seats, while I was thrown around in a landclearer shell in cargo.

  “I’m in here,” I yell. “Yuri built this camp. And he was hiding this.”

  “Cover him,” Leda says to Sirius, pointing at Sabik, still lying on the ground. Then she strides over, stepping around him. She peers through the door and shines her linkcom’s light on the arsenal.

  I nod at Sabik. “He claims he didn’t know about the weapons. They were buried.”

  “I didn’t know,” Sabik says. “I swear.”

  She breathes in through her teeth. “Do you think he’s telling the truth?”

  Sabik looks at me, face smeared with dirt.

  “Maybe,” I say. “It would be out of character for him to hide weapons. But I’m not sure I know him anymore.”

  Sabik lets his gaze drop to the ground again.

  “We need to hide Sabik while we interview him. We can’t risk Sabik letting Yuri know that we’re on to him.”

  “Aren’t we going to arrest Yuri?”

  “Not now. There aren’t enough of us,” Leda says. “We’ll get you two somewhere safe. There are some empty cabins in the shuttle camp. We can hide you there, if Sabik cooperates.”

  “I’ll cooperate,” Sabik says, his voice quiet.

  “We’ll gag him to be sure,” Leda says, “since we have to get back through the camp without attracting attention. We’ll bring down reinforcements on the next shuttle.”

  Sirius pulls some fabric from his pocket and holds it out. Sabik opens his mouth obediently. Lets Sirius silence him.

  “Switch your pulse gun to lethal,” I say. “There may be a creature in the forest.”

  Sirius hesitates, but they both pull out their guns, and the but-tons change from green to red as they adjust them.

  We’re quiet as we trek back through the wood, Leda in the lead, Sabik ahead of me, my gun trained on his back. Sirius brings up the rear. For a long time, I hear nothing but our panting and our feet crunching on the forest floor.

  I’m dizzy with exhaustion and the stress of all this. But I’m glad to be walking in the middle of the group. The trek feels shorter with company, and my fears about monsters, ghosts, and wolves seem stupid now. We pause as we get close to the fields, turn off our linkcom lights, and proceed in darkness. We tread carefully, skirting the edge of the fields, keeping to the shadows.

  We’re passing the first of the habitation huts when I see it.

  A shadow behind the building, twitching movements in the darkness. Just above waist height. Too low to be a person. And it doesn’t move like one.

  I grab Sabik, wave desperately at where I saw the shadow move. He glances behind the huts and shakes his head.

  “I saw something,” I whisper, as quietly as I can.

  Leda stops, looks back over her shoulder. She raises a finger to her lips.

  I stare into the darkness. What if it’s the creature, here in the forest camp? It could kill us, or get into a hut and rip apart a family as they sleep.

  I point my gun at the gap. The red button glows.

  Another movement in the dark.

  “Look!” I whisper. “It’s there!”

  Sabik tilts his head urgently in the direction we were moving. His eyes are wide. Leda is waving me on. But if the creature is there, it’ll attack us from behind.

  A screech from the darkness behind the hut.

  A cry bursts from my throat before I can stop it. I press the button. The scene lights up for a second, bright as if I’d used my arc welder. I see a flash of a cage, with perches in it, plump shapes on each. One of them falls, thumps against the ground.

  Chickens. Oh no. I’m an idiot.

  The birds cluck and squawk. A light goes on in the hut, illuminating the cage properly. The other chickens are awake now, screeching and flapping, madness in their beady eyes as they twitch their heads from side to side to look at me and at the chicken I killed.

  “Who’s out there?” Phoebe’s voice calls from inside, then a child starts wailing behind her. “You’re scaring the chickens and Aquila. What was that flash?”

  “Come on!” Leda hisses, and we’re off, running as silently as we can, heading for the path through the forest to the shuttle camp.

  I peer back over my shoulder. The door of the hut opens.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” Phoebe says. “Leda, Sirius, what are you doing? Sabik? What’s going on?” She peers at the cage. “Did you kill one of the chickens? Why on Beta?”

  I duck behind Sirius, but it’s too late.

  “Ursa!” Phoebe yells. “What are you doing down here?”

  Lights come on in other huts. Shouting.

  We’re in trouble.

  There’s no point in running now. People come out of their huts. Voices are raised in alarm and anger when they spot me with Sabik, cuffed and gagged.

  Yeah. This doesn’t look good.

  “What do we do?” I ask Leda.

  “We tell the truth.” She’s backing up, hand clutching her gun. “We’re following the law. We have to hope that still holds some sway down here.”

  Sabik makes a “mmmf” noise. Points his eyes down at his gag. People are coming nearer. We’re at the edge of the forest camp, our backs to the path toward the shuttle. We’d have made it if I hadn’t been an idiot.

  “What’s going on? Why is she down here?” a man shouts. I can’t tell who. He’s in the shadow of a hut, just a dark shape.

  “They killed one of our chickens!” Phoebe yells.

  “I’m sorry, that was an accident.”

  But other voices join the hubbub, drowning me out. I take a step back and keep my gun low. Not pointed at anyone.

  “What are you doing with Sabik?” A big man is running toward us through the darkness, with a second, smaller man right behind him. Leda raises her gun. It takes me a second to recognize them in the low light.

  Tabit and Rigel. Sabik’s dads.

  “Stay back!” Leda shouts.

  Tabit is getting closer, eyes wide as he runs. Rigel’s arm is reaching out toward his son. There are others behind them, agricologists and builders.

  “Mmmm!” says Sabik, straining on the gag.

  “Tabit and Rigel won’t hurt us,” I say to Leda. I reach out and push her gun down.

  “Ursa?” says Tabit, slowing down, taking in our weapons. “Why is he gagged?”

  I pull the gag out of Sabik’s mouth. “I’m okay, Dad,” he says.

  Rigel catches up, rests his hands on his thighs. Pants. “What’s going on? Where are you taking him?”

  “To the shuttle camp,” Leda says. “He’s under arrest.”

  “Why?” asks Tabit.

  “Suspicion of involvement in treason,” Sirius says.

  There’s a gasp from the growing crowd. Tabit takes his hus-band’s hand. More people are gathering. No sign of Yuri. But this lot is threatening enough.

  I look around, trying to orient myself, figure out where Yuri’s hut is. There. The cabin with the chickens. Phoebe’s in the crowd, clutching Aquila, but Yuri isn’t. There’s a light on in their hut, but the door is closed.

  “You can’t be serious,” Rigel says.

  “They found weapons at the hut in the woods, Pa,”
Sabik says. “I didn’t know they were there.”

  I scan the faces before us. Sabik’s dads seem surprised, as does most of the crowd.

  “You can’t take him,” says Almach, who nominated Yuri for captain. “There’s no justice on board. Ursa’s family runs the ship. Nashira just made Astra Acting Head of Protection.”

  Murmurs of agreement. Hands clenched in fists.

  “We’ll defend Yuri,” someone shouts from the back of the crowd.

  “With what?” Sabik asks. “They’re armed.”

  “There’s more of us,” Tabit says, straightening up.

  “Please, Dad. It’s okay. I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

  There must be a hundred people here in the darkness. Too many for us to take on. And I feel unsteady in this mud. I peer down at my gun and notice it’s red. Time to switch it to stun.

  But a door slams from the direction of the lit hut. No one comes out. That must mean someone went in when I wasn’t looking. Who? What if there’s an arsenal in there, like in the forest?

  “I saw the weapons myself,” Sabik says. “Yuri lied to us.”

  A few people pause. Phoebe bites her lip, arm around her daughter Aquila in front of her.

  A flicker in the window of Yuri’s hut, as someone moves in front of the light source.

  “Sabik’s lying! He probably planted the weapons, and planted the fur near Cassius’s body!” shouts Almach. “He’s working for his girlfriend!”

  “She’s not my —” Sabik starts, but people are moving closer. The hiss of outraged whispers mixes with the sound of the trees and the breeze, crowding me. I look away from the hut. Next to me, Leda and Sirius raise their guns.

  “Stop! Stay back, please!” Sabik says.

  “Don’t come any nearer!” Leda shouts.

  But they’re not stopping. I swallow. Point my gun at the nearest person. It’s Chara, a builder. She’s only three years older than me. We were in the same cohort in basic training. Got yelled at for whispering to each other during Pisces’s dull, droning lectures.

  I can barely keep the gun straight. Then I realize the button is still red.

  “Please! It’s set to full power!” I say.

  She doesn’t break her stride. Our eyes are locked. Cassiopeia, her older sister, emerges behind her, running toward us, shouting and shoving her way through the crowd. Her arm is stretched out to Chara, but she’s too far away to grab hold of her.

  “I don’t want to shoot!” I say. My hands are shaking. I fumble to find the button, wishing it were green. Soon she’ll be close enough to snatch it from me. I can’t let that happen.

  But I can’t kill her, either.

  “Stop!” A commanding female voice from the back of the crowd.

  Chara freezes, then looks back over her shoulder.

  There, in front of his hut, is Yuri. His hands are cuffed behind him. Vega is holding his elbow in one hand and pressing a pulse gun to his head with the other. The button is red.

  “Step back,” Yuri says. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

  “If any of you move, I’ll shoot,” Vega says. “I heard everything. Yuri is under arrest.”

  Leda exhales next to me. “Thank Beta.”

  No one is moving any closer. But they’re not backing up, either. Cassiopeia has reached Chara’s side and puts a gentle hand on her shoulder. Chara still doesn’t move.

  The hissing of the trees gets louder, as if they’re discussing us.

  “This is a misunderstanding,” Yuri says. “I’m happy to clear it up.” His head is over to one side slightly. Vega is obviously shoving the gun hard against it.

  “Smart decision,” she says. “We’ll clear it up on the ship. And unless you lot want to see me zap this guy, I suggest you back up.”

  There’s a long pause, then Chara takes two steps back. Cassiopeia wraps her arms around her younger sister and clutches her tight. I breathe, grateful for the space she leaves. The rest of the crowd shifts too, creating a corridor between them for Vega to pass through. She strides forward, pulling Yuri by his elbow, not moving the gun from his skull.

  “Can we trust her?” I ask Leda, quietly.

  “She’s a good protector. And I think this is proof that we can. Don’t you?”

  I don’t answer. Vega isn’t looking at me as she joins us.

  “Get me a landbike and a trailer,” she barks at an agricologist.

  “Why are you siding with Ursa?” Chara asks.

  “I’m not.” Vega glances at me, and there’s anger in her eyes. “Ursa has to face justice. But this is about us, not her. We need to know if Yuri lied to us.”

  Everyone around us is still. Vega pushes the pulse gun harder against Yuri’s head.

  “Ow!”

  “Landbike and trailer, now!” she orders.

  At the back of the crowd, Almach heads toward the parked landbikes.

  If everyone stays calm, we might all survive this. I keep my pulse gun pointed at the crowd. The landbike pulls up beside us with a hum, and Almach gets off. Vega shoves Yuri onto the trailer at the back.

  “I’ll drive,” Leda says. I nod toward the trailer, and Sabik gets in beside Yuri. I follow him, clambering my way to a seat. Sirius brings up the rear, pulse gun still pointed at the crowd.

  “They won’t give him a fair trial!” someone shouts from the shadow of a hut.

  For a moment, I think it’s going to turn ugly, but Vega fires a pulse into the air. The zap lights the scene for a second. A freeze-frame of familiar faces warped by shock and anger, the village dark behind them.

  “I’ll make sure he gets a fair trial,” Vega shouts. “I won’t let them cover anything up.”

  There are some murmurings in the crowd, but this seems to reassure them.

  Vega climbs into the trailer. “Let’s go,” she says quietly. “They could turn on us any minute.”

  Leda revs the engine, and we jolt in our seats as the bike lurches forward, through the darkness, toward the shuttle camp. The launch isn’t scheduled until the morning, but Sirius pings Mom back on the Venture, and she authorizes the early takeoff. I guess Astra told her everything.

  She is going to be so mad at me.

  We bump along the path. Sirius sits and stares back toward the forest camp. “No one’s following.”

  I try not to look at the trees as we whip past them. Try to ignore the glowferns and focus on keeping an eye on Yuri, Sabik, and Vega.

  Yuri leans forward, addresses Sabik. “Why were you snooping around at the peace camp? Didn’t you trust me?”

  “I trusted you.” There’s hurt in Sabik’s eyes. “I was following Ursa.”

  My mouth drops open. “You saw me?”

  “Heard you. Your sneeze, from the engineering shed. I hid out of sight and waited until you came out.”

  Yuri laughs. “You recognized her sneeze? You’re still hung up on her.”

  Sabik doesn’t respond. My cheeks are warm against the cold breeze.

  “I bet you never told her about Maia.” Vega’s speaking too loud. Smiling too wide.

  Sabik’s head snaps up. “Don’t.”

  “What about Maia?” I ask, not sure I want the answer.

  The landbike jolts over a rut in the path and we all bounce in our seats.

  “Leave it,” Sabik says.

  “She was after Sabik,” Vega says. “Always putting moves on him. Whenever your back was turned. Everyone knew.” There’s triumph in her voice.

  My blood has frozen. “Sabik, Vega’s lying. Right? Maia never tried to steal you.”

  “She wasn’t trying to break us up.”

  Then I understand what Sabik is not saying. “She wanted us to share you. Wanted to be your secunda.”

  Another laugh from Vega. She tilts her head back, closes her eyes as
the wind blows her dark brown hair around her face. It’s loose, twisting like snakes behind her, not tied up in her usual neat ponytail. I guess she’s not on the sedatives anymore.

  “Please, don’t be angry at Maia,” Sabik says. “It wasn’t about me. She saw how you and your sister drifted apart when Celeste got married. She thought it was the best way to stay close.”

  My hands curl into fists on the bench. Sabik’s trying to be kind. Trying to protect my memory of her. But Maia knew how I felt about being one of two wives. Couldn’t she let me have one thing to myself?

  That’s why Sabik never liked Maia. And on some level, I knew. I tried to keep her away from him, hung out with them separately. I saw how she smiled at him. But since she died I’ve made her into my perfect imaginary friend. Forgotten what she was really like. She always had to have the same marks I did in exams, even if that meant looking at my answers. She wanted the exact same food at lunch, and would whine and make me share if she didn’t get it. She always tried to muscle in on the times when I hung out with Sabik.

  Sabik looks up, floppy hair blown back off his face by our speed. He turns his glare onto Yuri. “And what about you? Lying to me, all this time? You said it was a refuge.”

  “We had to be prepared,” Yuri says, deep voice calm. “Someone has to look out for the people on the planet.”

  Sabik’s jaw clenches. “Why didn’t I get to know about the weapons?”

  “Because you’re too trusting. There’s a conspiracy to scare everyone back on the ship. We need the tech to survive. What if they retreat to the Venture and take the medical equipment Perseus needs?”

  I glance at Vega. Yuri’s clearly trying to win her over. Her jaw clenches. I’m not sure if she gives a little nod or if it’s just the bumping of the landbike.

  “You’re the one who’s scaremongering,” I say. “We’re not taking Perseus’s equipment. Some of us just want to take more time with the colonization.”

  Yuri turns his glare onto me. “We can’t split the crew. Can’t keep up the flights. A decision must be made.”

  I think about the bomb. Yuri decided to make that decision for us.