by Joe Vasicek
“How?” he asked.
“By airlock,” she answered, clearly shaken by what she’d seen. “Gulchina spaced him in front of everyone. It was terrible.”
He put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Though he yearned for more physical contact than that, he was careful to keep it contained.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I—”
“How soon we can escape?” she asked.
Isaac frowned. “I don’t know. Do you know where we are?”
“In the ship Temujin, with—”
“Yes, but what’s our location? What’s the closest system?”
She sighed. “I don’t know. I am sorry.”
“It’s okay,” he told her. “If we can charge the jump drive on one of the outrider shuttles, we can jump in some random direction and triangulate from there.” The tricky part would be making sure they had enough food and provisions to make it back to civilization. The outriders weren’t equipped with food synthesizers, so if they tried to make it out that way, there was a very real chance they would starve to death before they made it to safety.
“Shh! Someone is coming!”
Without warning, Reva pulled him back into a passionate embrace. His hands migrated to her hips of their own accord, and as she lifted her chin, he buried his face against her neck.
The feminine curves of her body reminded him of how he’d found her: lying naked in a cryochamber, her dark olive skin covered in intricate henna tattoos. He and Aaron had pulled her out of a derelict space station on the fringes of settled space, the sole survivor of her people. But the Gaian Imperials had confiscated the cryotank, and he hadn’t seen her again until a chance encounter behind enemy lines, when he’d rescued her from an escape pod. He’d learned very quickly that she had no taboo against nudity. Even in the darkness of the maintenance closet, her total lack of self-consciousness made his legs go weak.
Footsteps sounded outside the door, but they gradually faded away. Once again, Reva released him.
“We need to charge outrider?” she asked.
Isaac panted heavily as his whole body throbbed with arousal. “Yes,” he answered between gasps. “It will take at least… at least three or four hours, and we have to make it… so that they won’t find out.”
“That was what the dead man tried to do. Is there no other way?”
“Not unless we can hijack the ship,” Isaac said, recovering somewhat. “But there are ways to hide the reactor’s energy signature. The harder part is obtaining supplies.”
“Supplies?”
“Yes. Food and water. It could be weeks before we make it to the nearest colony. Outriders are designed to be short-range, interplanetary shuttles. They’re not made for long-range, interstellar voyages.”
“I will take care of supplies,” she said. “How soon can we go?”
Isaac thought a moment, his heart still pounding. “Not soon. I need to get remote access to the outriders somehow, without them catching us.”
“What do you need? Can I get it for you?”
“I’m not sure,” he muttered. “If I had a wrist console, I could probably sneak off long enough to sync it with one of the outriders.” But that still left the problem of how to hide the energy signature while the jump drive charged. If the pirates detected it, they would fire almost immediately after launch.
“Good,” said Reva. “I will find and bring for you in three dayshifts.”
“And the supplies?”
“Don’t worry, I will get them. Here, three dayshifts.”
She opened the door just a crack to make sure no one was outside, making the dim green light for the closet turn on. Her black hair glistened, and then she was out, the door shutting quietly behind her.
As the darkness returned and her footsteps faded away, Isaac leaned against the wall and sank to his ankles. Did these clandestine meetings mean anything to her? While the affair was just a ruse, meant to give them both an alibi in case they were discovered, he couldn’t help but wonder if it had turned into something more.
His breathing slowed, and his heartbeat gradually returned to normal. Even so, he couldn’t tell which was worse: the way the pirates treated him, or the way Reva was screwing with his mind.
Death and Dishonor
Reva held her breath and lay perfectly still as Gulchina drew the tip of the application cone across the skin of her upper chest. The wet henna felt like the blade of a cold knife, sending chills running down her arm. She closed her eyes as Gulchina retraced the intricate tattoos.
“Thy skin is but a shade lighter than the henna,” Gulchina remarked in Reva’s native language—now as dead as the people who once had spoken it. “In places, I fear it has faded beyond mine ability to see.”
“Take your time,” Reva said softly. She sighed and stared at the featureless ceiling, doing her best not to move.
She lay face-up on a wooden table in Gulchina’s personal quarters, completely unclothed. In the presence of anyone else, even a total stranger, Reva would have felt relieved not to have her body covered. No one had worn clothes back home—they were considered obscene, since they created a sense of shame that denied the sacred nature of the human body. But beneath Gulchina’s iron gaze, she couldn’t help but wish for a way to shield herself from view.
“Thy tattoos are truly a masterpiece,” Gulchina remarked. The dialect she spoke was outdated and obscure, but Reva understood her well enough.
“It was my sister-in-law’s final creation,” Reva answered. “She put all that she had into it.”
“It wouldst truly be a tragedy should they fade. I shall endeavor to preserve them.”
“Thank you.”
“Dost thou miss her?”
Reva swallowed. “Yes,” she whispered.
Gulchina came to a stopping point and sat up. “‘Tis a harsh life we lead in the farthest reaches of space. But thou art counted amongst the strong, for where others have perished, thou hast survived.”
Only because of my father, Reva thought silently. A lump rose in her throat as she remembered the cryotank he’d secretly prepared for her—the only thing that had kept her from dying in the famine that had devastated her home. For untold ages she had slept in that cryotank, her life preserved in ice. Did that make her any stronger than those who had perished? Or did it just make her lucky?
“What thinkest thou of the execution?”
A chill ran down Reva’s back as she remembered watching the corporal get sucked out the airlock. “It was… unpleasant,” she said, understating her own horror.
“Indeed, but ‘twas also necessary,” Gulchina told her. “Mutiny is a disease which must be purged. Every soul which doth not fulfill his duty is as a scourge, for the ship must operate as a body—the many must unite as a single whole.”
“Why are you keeping me, then?” Reva asked softly.
“Because I have a use for thee, which thou shalt learn of hereafter.”
What sort of use? she thought. Fear froze her tongue, though, and she decided it would be best not to ask too many questions.
“And what did you think of my speech?” Gulchina asked, switching abruptly to her own language.
“What speech?”
“Don’t be coy with me, Reva. The speech about our celestial birthright. The speech that made the crew cry out for vengeance against the corporal’s betrayal.”
Reva’s skin tingled as Gulchina traced the designs on her neck. She tensed as the henna chilled her, gripping the edge of the table as goosebumps shot across her arms. Lifting her chin, she did her best to hide her vulnerability.
I think it makes you absolutely insane.
“I don’t think I understood it,” she said, figuring that Gulchina was really just looking for a way to lecture her on it. Better to open the door and move the discussion as far away from herself as possible.
Gulchina’s lip curled up into a sneer. “What about it don’t you understand?”
Crap, Reva thought to herself, her
mind racing.
“It’s just—why this talk of a birthright among the unknown stars? What use are those stars if no one lives there?”
“Ah,” said Gulchina, her expression softening somewhat. “Reva, you must learn to expand your vision. What were greatest empires in the legendary history of Earth?”
So it’s a test now, not a lecture, Reva realized with some dismay. Gulchina was always testing her, and she never felt that she quite measured up.
“There were many great empires: the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks, Mongols, British, Americans—”
“And how many of these empires survived?”
Reva frowned. “What do you mean?”
“How many of those empires last to this day?”
The question was nonsensical, considering that the Earth of Legend had long since passed into the realm of myth. Ever since the ancient colonization of Gaia Nova, the location of Earth had been lost, and none had been able to rediscover it. The only evidence that it had even existed was the legendary database the colonists had carried with them, the sum of human knowledge. The histories from that database had been handed down from generation to generation, and Gulchina had collected many of them. It was from those histories that she selected passages for Reva to study.
“We don’t know,” Reva answered. “Earth has been lost to us for thousands of years.”
“Then how many empires survived long enough to reasonably still exist today?”
Is this a trick question? Reva wondered, cold sweat beginning to collect on the back of her neck. She shivered, and not just from the henna drying on her skin.
“None of them.”
“Indeed,” said Gulchina. “It is the first rule of history that every empire must fall. The Earth of Legend was littered with their bones.”
“But what does that have to do with our birthright?”
Gulchina paused in her work to look Reva in the eye. “Do you know what we are?”
“Pirates?” Reva guessed.
“No, Reva, not merely pirates. The ancient Muslims divided the world into two parts: Dar Al-Islam, the lands of submission, and Dar Al-Harb, the lands of war. They inherited this concept from the ancient Romans, who divided the world between civilization and the barbarians. We are the barbarians, Reva—or as the Muslims later called them, the “Hameji.” We are the ones who reject civilization and refuse to submit to their control. And just as the barbarians overthrew Rome and Baghdad in turn, so too shall we tear down the Gaian Empire and lay waste the Coreward Stars.
“But first,” Gulchina continued, her cold eyes aflame, “we must journey into the wilderness, build our strength, and become a mighty people. That is where the birthright comes in.”
She’s crazy, Reva thought to herself. She’s absolutely mad.
Gulchina drew the tip of the brush across Reva’s face, finishing the last details. “If you think that the stars are empty, my dear Reva, you are gravely mistaken. The near ancients realized this when they built their magnificent observatories and telescopes. As they gazed into the vastness of space, they recognized that it was the height of folly to believe that man is alone in the universe.”
“What do you mean?” Reva asked, her voice barely louder than a whisper.
“The human race is not the only intelligent race in the universe. Somewhere out among the unknown stars, there are sentient alien beings possessing intelligence like us. We do not know when or where we will find them, but if we are to claim our birthright, we cannot avoid making contact.”
Chills ran down the back of Reva’s neck. As Gulchina finished the last of the henna tattoos, Reva blinked and took a deep breath. “So our birthright is the stars?”
“Yes, Reva. But not just the stars of settled space—the unknown stars of the Outer Reaches, as well. To inherit the former, we must first conquer the latter. And we cannot conquer the Outer Reaches unless we are united as one. That is why it was necessary to make an example of the corporal.”
The door to her quarters chimed, interrupting the discussion. A scowl crossed Gulchina’s face.
“Who is it?”
“Commander Wolf, sir,” came the voice through the speaker.
“Enter.”
The door hissed open, and Commander Wolf stepped inside. The moment his eyes fell on Reva, he froze where he stood. Reva wondered why he was staring at her, until she remembered that she was unclothed.
“I trust there is a good reason for your interruption, Commander,” Gulchina said, wiping her hands nonchalantly as she rose to her feet.
“Yes, Captain. Ensign Matsuda has returned.”
“Very well. Have him report to the bridge, where I will debrief him at my leisure. Dismissed.”
Commander Wolf saluted and stepped out, though not before indulging himself in another gratuitous glance in Reva’s direction. Reva’s skin prickled.
“I apologize for the interruption,” Gulchina said nonchalantly. “The nature of the commander’s message required… discretion.”
What is she talking about? Reva wondered, though she knew better than to ask.
“I can finish curing the henna on my own,” she offered.
“Very well. I am needed elsewhere.”
With that, Gulchina walked out. Even after she was alone, however, Reva couldn’t help but feel that Gulchina’s cold eyes still followed her.
* * * * *
Isaac leaned against the wall of the maintenance closet, fidgeting nervously as he shifted from one bone-weary foot to the other. Reva hadn’t been here when his shift had ended, and he couldn’t stay much longer without his absence being noted.
The claustrophobic darkness only heightened his anxiety. Had she been caught? Were they both as good as dead? He knew there was no sense worrying about things that were outside his control, but he couldn’t help himself. In some strange way, it gave him comfort to have something to worry about—or someone, for that matter.
Thinking about her was one of the only things keeping him sane. The pirates were sucking the life out of him, and everything from before his capture seemed to have happened in another lifetime. Reva was the bridge between the past and the present, between Isaac and—
The door abruptly opened, activating the closet light. Isaac squinted just in time to catch a glimpse of Reva, her face covered in fresh henna tattoos. Then the door quickly shut, plunging them both into darkness.
Reva wasted no time. She wrapped her arms around Isaac’s waist and pressed her body against his. Her lips were soft and warm, and his legs turn to water as she kissed him.
Does she really mean it? he couldn’t help but wonder as he ran his fingers through her hair. How much of this is real, and how much is just a ruse?
He stopped to take a much-needed breath, but she pulled him right back in. He felt his self-control beginning to slip. The soft and sensuous curves of her body, pressed against his—
“All right,” she said, pulling back abruptly. “We don’t have much time. Here is what you asked for.”
Her hand slipped into his back pocket, placing something there. He felt for it in the darkness, and after fumbling for a few moments, recognized it as a wrist console.
“Where did you get it?” he asked.
“It is mine,” Reva answered. “I told them I lost it, so they gave me another one.”
“Is it clean?” Isaac asked, trying not to think about how intoxicating her scent was. His efforts were largely in vain.
“I think so,” Reva whispered. “I cleared the memory twice and reformatted it.”
Isaac nodded. “That will do.”
“I have to go now. Meet here again in three days.”
Isaac’s heart leaped in his throat as he realized she was about to leave him. He couldn’t let that happen—couldn’t let the emotional whiplash leave him yearning for something more. The hellish cycle of captivity threatened to swallow him up, and he had to break it, had to—
“Someone’s coming,”
he heard himself say.
Instantly, Reva was with him again. She threw her arms around his neck and pressed her lips firmly against his.
Something inside him snapped. His hands migrated to her waist almost of their own accord. The blouse of her uniform was untucked—it was a simple matter to hike it up. He splayed his fingers across her smooth, perfect skin, reveling in the contact.
“Isaac?” Reva asked.
He buried his face against her neck and groped downward, slipping his fingers inside her pants. A warm vitality grew within him as he realized that she wasn’t wearing anything underneath. His whole body seemed to throb with anticipation, and in his eagerness he pressed her up against the wall.
“Isaac? Ow!”
This is wrong, he realized. You should stop. But a deep and primal force had taken over, and he was long past the point of reason. There was a hunger within him that demanded to be satisfied, and he could no more deny it than—
“Isaac, stop! STOP!”
Shame flooded over him as he realized what he was doing. He released her at once.
“I’m sorry, Reva, I—”
“I have to go,” she said, groping for the door handle. “Three dayshifts. See you then.”
The door swung open and the light flashed on. In the brief moment before she slipped out, he tried again to apologize, but she was gone before the words escaped his mouth.
Stars of Earth, what have I become?
* * * * *
Reva walked quickly down the empty corridor toward her private quarters, clumsily adjusting her clothes as she did so. She didn’t know what had come over Isaac, but she had no time to think about it now. Gulchina had requested her presence in the cargo hold at 2100 hours sharp, and she was in danger of being late.
Once inside her quarters, she washed her face with cold water and checked her reflection in the mirror. The fresh henna stood out as a yellowish brown against her already dark skin. In time, it would fade and blend into her normal skin tone, but for now, the lines were sharp and distinct.
