Saving Grace

by Merry Farmer

  “Being a leader means that your people come first, their needs come first. Not yours. Do you understand that?”

  He sat up with his back against the wall and watched her with wide, sullen eyes. She had a tentative means of negotiation now.

  Her gaze slipped down across his massive torso to stare at his half-engorged weapon of masculinity. Her face flushed. If she failed this time, that was her future.

  She turned away, crawling across the floor to her boots near the fire.

  “I….” He started to speak but stopped when she let out a breath over his words. Instead he stretched to retrieve his own clothes.

  “You’re right,” he conceded as he pulled his pants on. “You’re right. You’re always right. I just thought, you know, you might want a break from all that.”

  “A break?” She stood, stomping into her boots and bending over to tie them.

  “Yeah.” He shrugged into his vest, reaching for his own boots. “You know, something nice to give yourself a rest from all that taking care of people that you do. Something, I don’t know, good. Fun.”

  She straightened and gaped at him.

  She pushed her hair out of her face and rested her weight on one hip. “You had to bribe me into your bed.”

  “You wouldn’t have come otherwise.” He stood, towering over her.

  “Of course I wouldn’t have come.”

  “See? You never would have taken a break to enjoy something relaxing if I hadn’t tricked you into it.” He tried to move toward her and embrace her.

  She pushed him away, mind reeling. “You threatened to rape a child if I didn’t have sex with you. That’s blackmail, Kinn.”

  “Joe.”

  “Go to hell!”

  She spun on her heel and lunged for the door, pulling hard on the handle. The latch was still in place and all she managed to do was bruise her knuckles with the force of her yank. She swore and shook out her hand as Kinn stepped around her and lifted the latch. He opened the door. With a bitter glare at him she shot out into the afternoon sunshine.

  It was only when she was twenty feet down the path that she realized she didn’t know where she was. Kinn’s camp was new to her and she had no sense of direction. They’d gone from the well to the oven to the storage cave amidst two dozen identical cabins and she hadn’t bothered to keep track of where everything was.

  Worse still, a scattering of men and women at work around the cabins stopped what they were doing and stared at her as she skittered to a stop in the middle of the well-tended path that led to Kinn’s door. She was sure they all knew what she and Kinn had been doing and was mortified.

  “Come on.” Kinn caught up to her. He wore a scowl and touched the small of her back to get her to move down the path. “We’ll find Heather and you can go home.”

  “Caitlyn,” she corrected him, her blood going cold.

  “Uh, yeah. Right. Caitlyn.”

  Alarm pulsed through her. Kinn led her through the maze of cabins to the center of the camp. She leaned against the edge of the well to catch her breath and get her bearings as Kinn strolled on to the table where Julia worked. Julia was now assisted by two other women who looked like they had brought a freshly killed animal of some sort. One of them looked pregnant.

  “Hey, any of you seen Heather?” Kinn called to them as he approached.

  “Yes,” one of the women said, rolling her eyes. “She’s out by the lean-to, probably trying to liberate bear cubs from their mothers.”

  “Great. Would you mind running out there and getting her for me?”

  “All right, Lieutenant,” the woman said as though he would regret the decision. She wiped her bloodied hands on a chamois then turned and jogged off through the cabins and down a stone-lined path.

  Kinn strode back to the well, sitting by Grace’s side and folding his arms across his broad chest. She stared, unmoving, at her boots against the ground.

  “Okay, before she gets here, I’m sorry.”

  Grace glanced up to find genuine worry in Kinn’s eyes.

  “Sorry about what?” Her heart pounded against her ribs.

  He pushed out a breath. “I had to get you over here somehow. You wouldn’t have come otherwise.”

  “What did you do?” Her voice was a dangerous wisp.

  “You know the governor had more than one daughter, don’t you?”

  Grace’s jaw dropped but she couldn’t form words harsh enough for the aching suspicion that flooded her.

  Kinn saw her fury and raised his hands in defense. “I’m just tryin’ to look out for you, Grace. That’s all I’m doing. I just want you to be happy.”

  “You want me to be happy?” She jumped up and spun to face him.

  “Yeah.”

  “Fine. Make me happy. I want cabins. I want you to teach my people how to build cabins like these.”

  “Sure.” He shrugged, infinitely calmer than her.

  She stopped and blinked. She’d made her demand out of anger. She hadn’t thought her way through the details, just like everything else she’d done since crashing. But if they could have cabins on her side of the river, then maybe it wouldn’t be necessary for her to sacrifice her freedom for the greater good.

  She let out a breath. “Just like that.”

  “Yeah.” A grin lightened his face. “In fact, I’ll send my men over to build them for you.”

  “You will?” Her guard stayed up.

  “Why not?” He unfolded his arms and gestured for her to sit down. “Next time you’re over here we’ll get together with the engineers and—”

  “What do you mean next time?”

  “Next time you visit we’ll work out all the details.” He stared at her with a combination of smug satisfaction and grim command.

  “I did not agree to a next time,” she told him, cold as winter.

  “And I didn’t agree to cabins.” He shrugged. “Not yet.”

  A flash of livid anger pulsed through Grace, but as it reached its peak, exhaustion took over. She couldn’t escape from her own foolishness. She’d trusted Kinn to play fair in a game of deception. She’d mistaken his bait for the true trap. The village surrounding her was proof that she could save everyone who had crashed on this moon, but she couldn’t save herself. She would never be able to save herself.

  A commotion at the other end of the camp was the only thing that kept her from bursting into tears. She glanced up in time to see the woman Kinn had sent off into the forest marching toward them, a teenager in front of her. The teen was dressed in clothes made out of animal skins, like most of the people in Kinn’s camp, and her long brown hair fell around her shoulders and down her back in waves. She had large, almond-shaped eyes with a wild gleam in them and carried a bow in her hand, conjuring up an image of the Roman goddess Diana. She was not twelve. Not even close.

  “What do you want?” the teen demanded as she marched straight up to Kinn and stood in front of him, crossing her arms over her well-developed chest.

  “Heather, I want you to meet Grace,” Kinn began.

  Heather swept Grace with a dismissive look and said, “So?”

  “Jesus, Heather. When are you going to learn a little discipline?” Kinn barked.

  “Never,” Heather answered.

  “How old are you?” Grace asked the question without emotion, standing to face the young woman.

  “Fifteen. Why do you care?”

  “Now Grace….” Kinn jumped up from his seat beside her and held out his hands in supplication as she rounded on him with enough ferocity to ignite the well. “What I told you was true, mostly.”

  “Mostly?” She was too angry to do more than whisper. She should have asked to see the girl before going to Kinn’s bed. She was a first-rate fool.

  “What’d he tell you?” Heather blinked at the confrontation.

  “She’s still the governor’s daughter, even if she isn’t Caitlyn.”

  “What about Caitlyn?” Heather’s toughness faltered. “Is she
here? Is she with you?”

  “No,” Grace said, too furious to be nice.

  “And she’s too much of a distraction in a camp full of horny guys for her own good.”

  “I am not,” Heather shouted. “He won’t let me have a boyfriend,” she told Grace.

  “You’re too young.”

  “She’s fifteen,” Grace seethed.

  “Fifteen’s not much older than twelve.” Kinn took another half step back.

  “You told her I was twelve? Why the hell would you do that?”

  “To blackmail me into his bed,” Grace said, not caring who knew now.

  Heather snorted and raked Grace with a dismissive glance. “You? Really?”

  Grace widened her eyes in indignation.

  “Everybody’s getting laid except for me. It’s not fair.” Heather sulked.

  “You’re too young.” Kinn’s voice returned to its deep, gravely norm.

  “He thinks he’s my dad or something,” Heather complained. “He’s not even an off—”

  “Hey!” Kinn cut her off, face going red.

  “You were going to sleep with her if I didn’t come.” Grace balled her fists at her sides.

  “You were?” Heather’s eyes popped. She studied Kinn with an overtly lusty gaze then turned back to Grace with a scowl. “Thanks a lot, bitch.” She sniffed and crossed her arms.

  Grace sat back on the edge of the well, burying her face in her hands. “I’m such a fool,” she muttered in exhaustion. Her body ached in defeat.

  “Yeah, well, it don’t matter now anyhow.” Kinn turned to face Heather, putting a possessive hand on Grace’s shoulder. “You’re going home with Grace to live in her camp.”

  “What?” Heather shouted in protest. “You’re getting rid of me?”

  “It’s safer for you there.” Kinn’s tone brooked no arguments.

  “Safer from what?”

  “You know.”

  “You just don’t want me around, do you? You don’t want me to tell anyone what I know about you.”

  “Hey! You don’t know anything.”

  “You think I’m gonna get you in trouble. It’s not fair.” Just like that, the teen whined as though she might burst into tears.

  “Everything I do is a mistake,” Grace sighed, ignoring the argument buzzing around her.

  “You do what I say, Heather, and I say you go to live with Grace.”

  “And what if I don’t?” Heather threw her nose in the air with a sniff.

  “You’re going. That’s final.” Kinn’s command was forceful enough to make even Heather back down. “Go get your things. Now! That’s an order. Grace wants to leave.”

  Heather looked like she might still balk. She swayed on the spot before dropping her arms with an aggravated sigh and turning to jog off to one of the cabins.

  Grace watched her for a moment before rubbing her eyes with the butts of her hands. She’d betrayed her principles for an arrogant teenager.

  “See what I mean.” Kinn smoothed her hair away from her face.

  “Don’t touch me.” She scooted away, barely audible.

  He either didn’t hear her or ignored her. “She’ll be better off with you guys. I don’t know what to do with her and neither does anyone else. She’s bad for discipline. I got a good bunch of people making something here and I don’t want anyone, not Heather, not assholes like Sean from your camp, or half of the men Kutrosky’s got with him, messing it up. So you got the right idea. We’ll set you up with cabins over there and we’ll make two settlements instead of one. And as soon as you think it’s right, you come live with me.”

  For a moment Kinn fell silent, waiting. She refused to answer.

  “When are you coming back?” he asked.

  “I’m not,” she told him in a dull voice.

  “Yeah, you are.” He grinned. He was so completely certain of his control of the situation that her argument was no more than a swarm of gnats around his head. “You want those cabins, don’t you?”

  “And you’re not going to build them unless I continue to have sex with you.”

  “See Grace, you’re the smart one.”

  She would have slapped him if she had any will to fight left. “Let me deal with Brian first.”

  “Sure. Whatever you want, Grace.”

  She glared at him, pushing away from the well to storm off on the path leading back to the river without another word.

  “And Grace,” he called after her, “I’ll be waiting by the bridge tomorrow. You come and tell me how things went when you’re done and then we’ll get to know each other a little better.” He winked.

  She squeezed her eyes shut, swallowing her resentment, and walked on.

  Brian Kutrosky’s sentencing hearing had been the most anticipated event of the Argo’s journey. The ship’s largest meeting room had been converted into a court. Every chair was taken and then some, and every eye was on the front of the room where Governor King and his jury of counselors had sat.

  “A society is defined by its commitment to the whole, to a certain set of rules and customs.” Sean made his closing arguments. “The Project we are undertaking is no different from the very first societies to form in Earth’s infancy. Its government can only function if each individual agrees to put aside his or her personal ambitions and dedicate themselves to the principles of our foundation. And part of those principles include facing punishment for acts of clear subversion of the Project as a whole.”

  Grace leaned forward in her chair, watching Sean with rapt attention. Brian Kutrosky sat in a chair at the front of the room, two large soldiers stationed on either side of him. Governor King and his counselors spread out behind a long desk between where Kutrosky sat and where Sean stood delivering his speech to the packed room.

  She was lucky to have a seat in the front row. The entire Leadership Team had been invited to participate in the sentencing, but few of them had been permitted to sit in the front or to have the option to speak. Danny was probably green with envy as he stood at the back of the room.

  “What Kutrosky has done has hurt us all,” Sean went on. “Not just because, if successful, it would have led to the breakdown of Base One and future settlements on Terra. His subversion may not have been successful at all. The conspiracy would have been uncovered and the virus may or may not have had a permanent effect. Either way, Base One would have recovered and The Terra Project would have gone on.

  “No, Brian Kutrosky’s actions reflect weakness that we simply cannot afford in the face of so many other obstacles. And that weakness is dissent. It is deviation from the purpose that ties us together. It is the errant belief that the governors of this Project, this grand endeavor, do not have the best interest of us all at heart.

  “So it is not his actions that we punish, it is his intent. We must stand united if we are to conquer the challenges before us. Our job as the Leadership Team is to set the example, to reassure the thousands of lives in our care that there is a future, there is a beautiful purpose ahead of us. And that purpose is life, family, civilization. That is why we must act swiftly and definitively to demonstrate that we are serious about what we do. This man needs to be kept in confinement, away from any temptation or ability to manipulate the people around him into thinking that there is a better way to achieve future prosperity than complete unity and sacrifice to the whole.”

  He nodded to indicate the end of his speech. A roar of applause swelled from the observers in the room. Grace clapped along with them. Sean looked to her and smiled. She returned his smile, but his words didn’t sit right with her. He was so close without hitting the mark.

  She pivoted in her seat to glance several rows behind her. Carrie applauded along with the others, but for a change Grace couldn’t read what she was thinking. Carrie watched Sean with sharp eyes. Then her wary gaze shifted to Kutrosky at the front. Carrie’s eyes narrowed for a moment, then traveled on to meet Grace’s.

  Grace smiled at her friend in an attempt to comfo
rt whatever was worrying her. Carrie’s expression warmed and she winked.

  “Thank you, Mr. Murphy, for your insightful observations,” Governor King spoke over top of the applause. He was an imposing man, both regal and tough. He commanded attention, if not trust. “Now, would anyone else care to speak before the council makes its decision?”

  A hush swept through the room. Grace glanced from side to side, the urge to say what she believed building in her. Sean grinned to himself as he took his seat at the opposite end of the row. She had to say something.

  She raised her hand and stood.

  “Miss Grace Hargrove.” The governor recognized her. Seated behind a desk, he gave her the impression that he was looking down his nose at her. He gave the same impression when he presided at banquets and special events. His entire family did, from his wife down to his young daughters. “You may speak.”

  “Thank you, sir.” She nodded in deference to him then glanced to Kutrosky. Kutrosky seemed startled that anyone would speak on his behalf.

  She cleared her throat and stepped forward, turning to face the packed room.

  “I agree with what my friend Sean has to say.” She chose her words with care. “We are indeed at the dawn of a new era. What we are about to attempt is monumental to the history of the human race. It redefines what it means to be human entirely, and at the same time it affirms what our ancestors have known since the dawn of time. Humanity is destined to reach for the stars, humanity is destined to dream and to follow those dreams. We haven’t yet come across another sentient species in this vast universe and I wonder if that is because we are indeed the first to embody the pioneering spirit that sees a possibility and refuses to rest until it becomes a reality.”

  She received a few murmurs of agreement from the crowd. Carrie smiled at her from her seat in the middle of the pack. Grace’s eyes traveled on to the back of the room where Danny stood near the far corner. He watched her with a distant smile, dreaming along with her words. She drew in a breath and went on.

  “But what does it truly mean to be human? Do we call ourselves ‘humanity’ simply because it is the species, the set of genes we were born into? Or does the term ‘humanity’ mean something more?”