Soldier's Duty

by Patty Jansen

  There was a shuttle for Barresh later that day, so she went to Commander Blue asking to be released her from her shift.

  Commander Blue eyed her over the top of her veil, looking from the screen to Izramith.

  "Barresh. That's an unusual choice." Her voice sounded hesitant.

  Izramith's suspicion went up a notch. She knew there had to be a catch somewhere. "Is there anything I need to know about Barresh that's not widely-known? I had a look at the contract yesterday, but apart from tension between Barresh and Miran—which is unrelated to the contract—I can't see any problems."

  "No, Miran has been fairly quiet recently. They practically own Ceren, and make a point of demonstrating that they're not afraid of Barresh. There is only one thing you need to know about Barresh: it's Daya Ezmi. You know who he is, right?"

  "Barresh's Chief Councillor? Edyamor's nephew? Thania Lingui's son? Zhadya-born. Anything else?"

  "That's the main gist of it. You've worked for Internal Security. You know what the zhadya-born are capable of. You would have seen it many times."

  "I know." But the man had sat on the Mines Board recently. He was Barresh's Chief Councillor, for crying out loud. Seriously, this stuff against zhadya-born was getting old. Like, stinky kind of old. Fine, if the person in question actually displayed signs of instability, but why lock them up before that time? And while she was at it, why had no one looked for something that might cure these people?

  Commander Blue folded her purple-gloved hands on the desk. "Daya is a very special case, and I don't mean that in a good way. He was born on Asto, and wasn't supposed to live until adulthood, but did anyway, and then he started a life of drifting. Fell out with his father, came here to work for the board, but had serious disagreements with several board members. Went to a few other places, and now it looks like he's using his inheritance share of the Mines to prop up Barresh. He can deny it however many times he wants, but I don't believe for one moment that his father has nothing to do with this new project of his. Barresh is a tiny enclave surrounded on all sides by Miran. Asto wants an inroad into Miran, and Barresh is the way to do it. So there it is: Daya Ezmi, trouble spelled out in a name. Don't trust him. It's a pity that you have already accepted. If you'd have asked me before you applied, I would have said don't go."

  "The job is to provide security for a parade, a street festival, and doing checks of the route and looking at security." She respected Commander Blue, but this sounded all kinds of wrong to her. It sounded like Commander Blue had a personal vendetta against him.

  "Hmm, let's hope you'll be all right. Try to stay out of the games of politics, though. As with Indrahui, you'll be on loan, privately, and not through the guards officially."

  "I have no intention to become involved in anything that's none of my professional concern."

  "Good."

  Izramith nodded and rose. She had her hand on the door handle when Commander Blue said, "Just one more thing."

  Izramith turned back to the desk, and leaned on the back rest of the chair. This was it. The real problem was about to come out.

  Commander Blue folded her gloved hands on the table. "Nobody knows much about this, and it's all been hushed up in a we-don't-talk-about-this way, but I think you should know. When I was younger and working as junior guard in the Blue shift, Daya came to Hedron as angry adolescent. The bust-ups between him and his family were legendary. Sometimes we'd have to go in and rescue Edyamor's children from the terror he'd inflict on their family. We'd take him to the Respite Illness Centre and help the family clean up his room. The floor would be littered in countless empty bottles of zixas. Sometimes, the furniture would be smashed. Even at that age, Daya was a legendary drinker.

  "He'd always escape from the hospital, always by talking someone into letting him go. As far as we know, he never offered anyone money for his freedom, but talked them around with sheer manipulative power."

  And Edyamor let him sit on the Mines Board?

  "Yeah, I know what you're thinking. It gets better. Daya had been here a while, when my commander at the time asked me to check out what it was that Daya was doing in the hills on the other side of the airport, where, apparently, he went every couple of days. The comm tech at the Exchange had noticed interference with their transmissions whenever he was there.

  "I noticed him one day, coming out of the settlement entrance at the time a shuttle arrived. Passengers were going down the ramp and he was going up. I was giving a floating position just so that I could check him out. He went across to the far corner of the airport, climbed over the fence and disappeared in the darkness up the hill. I followed a bit later, using only my infrared visor because it was too dark to see otherwise. He wasn't wearing one."

  Izramith gave a small shudder, hoping Commander Blue didn't see it. Those hills were treacherous, littered with sharps columns of the fossilised remains of ancient vegetation, interspersed with hidden sink holes and hot vents which were hard enough to spot with an infrared visor and impossible to see without.

  "He went up the hill and down on the other side, where there is a valley with a large open steam vent at its lowest point."

  Izramith nodded. Sometimes if you were in position at that side of the airport, you could hear the vent thump like a giant beast that lived in the ground. Mostly, the vent leaked clouds of steam, but when it thumped, it would release great jets of it and spray the surrounding area with boiling water.

  "He descended all the way to the vent and disappeared into the steam. I couldn't see him from the top of the ridge, so I went down the hill, and found that he'd jumped into the vent. There is a tongue-like protrusion in the opening. He was standing on it, with steam coming up all around him. I ran down, ready to yank him out if that thing started blowing steam, but then it did that very same thing. I was too close, and I had to retreat." Her eyes met Izramith's over the top of her veil. Izramith knew her as a middle-aged woman named Desani, a committed and dedicated guard, whom she respected greatly. "Rest assured, there was a great amount of swearing involved from my part. I scrambled away on my butt, wet and singed all over, and groping for my comm—which didn't work. The backup didn't work either. And meanwhile this thing was spewing steam and our big boss' nephew, the one he seemed to have made a personal project to turn into a functional person, the one we'd busted our backsides keeping alive, was in there being cooked."

  Except, obviously he hadn't been cooked, because he had just signed Izramith's application to come to Barresh.

  "And then the thumping stopped and the vent calmed. And Daya stood on that rocky protrusion like nothing had happened. Except he showed up bright white on my visor. So hot, he should have been dead. He jumped out onto the edge of the vent and…" She shuddered visibly. Izramith stared at her. Guards never showed any emotions.

  Commander Blue continued in a softer voice. "I don't know where it came from, but there was a huge explosion like thunder—I presume having been at Indrahui, you're familiar with thunder?"

  Izramith nodded.

  "I have no idea where it came from, but Daya was standing at the edge of that vent, with crackles of lightning all over him. I'm pretty sure that he didn't know I was there. And I was punching my comm, but it wouldn't work, and you know I've never told anyone, but I was too scared to move, while hell was unleashed over my head. I've been in fights, seen people murdered. I've executed prisoners when we still had the death penalty. I've never been as scared as I was then. I had no idea what he was doing, but I'm sure that he was doing it."

  She wiped her veil with a gloved hand.

  "Anyway, eventually the thunder and flashes stopped, and it got quiet. He must have been long gone when I finally dared to come out. I reported it to my commander, but she didn't believe me until I managed to record another session, well-hidden behind a rock this time. The recording was filed in a classified area. I've just sent you the code to get in. I recommend that you watch it and know what you're letting yourself in for. Daya has taken himself off
the Hedron Mines board and gone to Barresh where he can do whatever he pleases by throwing money at it. He may buy our services, but you should never forget what he is."

  "What did you think the flashes and thunder were?"

  Commander Blue shrugged.

  "Did he have a weapon with him?"

  "No." The look in her eyes was intense. "I asked my superior at the time, but was told to file a report. My reports went all the way to the board and Edyamor put a gag order on the information. We were never told what happened. Edyamor visited the base personally, and said that whatever went on in that valley was better off happening outside than in his house. He was angry, as if we'd been wrong to investigate—don't tell anyone else that I said this, because he'll kill me if he finds out."

  Izramith nodded. You did not criticise the Board. You had avenues of appeal and could bring decisions before a tribunal, but once the authorities had dealt with it and handed in their findings, you did not keep talking about it.

  Commander Blue continued. "We were never called to his house again, and Daya was instated as member of the Board not much later. He still came to the valley, but the guards' upper command instated an exclusion zone. He even started to pick times when the Exchange was quiet. No one ever asked him what he did there, and no one ever asked Edyamor the question what he would do when his nephew had one of the explosions of anger that are so common in zhadya-born. What he would do when Daya killed someone."

  "Did he ever have a fit of anger in the Board meetings?"

  Commander Blue shook her head. "Not that I've heard. But the man can do some really weird shit. Highly dangerous weird shit. With that, and his zhadya-born temper, he should never have been on the Board."

  Izramith nodded to acknowledge the warning, but inside, she drew a different conclusion. Daya had not suffered any fits because whatever he did helped control his inner demons. He might still be dangerous, but, this far into adulthood, he could never have sat on the board if he didn't know how to keep the madness at bay. In fact, judging from the story Commander Blue told, it seemed that he'd been sliding into madness, but had recovered enough to sit on the board.

  That was worth going to Barresh for.

  "I will be careful."

  "And take it easy at first. Your adaptation will knock you around a lot."

  "Hey, I've been to Indrahui. I know about adaptation." She hadn't suffered too badly from those few days that her body temperature adjusted to a new level.

  Some people had a lot of trouble. Not her.

  * * *

  Izramith booked a spot on the shuttle and went home to pack up, but, having barely unpacked since arriving from Indrahui, there was not much packing to do. The apartment looked abandoned, and the doors to Mother's and Thimayu's rooms were shut. Mother was probably at work in the uniform factory and Thimayu might have gone to see one of her frivolous friends.

  Izramith had no great desire to personally say goodbye to either of them.

  Just the thought of the empty room opposite hers made her angry. She played with the thought of just leaving and not letting either of them know where she had gone, but relented. That wasn't her kind of behaviour. The fact that Mother and Thimayu behaved like pricks didn't mean she was justified to do the same.

  So she wrote a note to Mother on the internal system, trying to explain where she went and why, but each time, she saw what Mother's face would look like when reading it. And she almost heard Mother's voice.

  Thank the stars, she is gone.

  Or why didn't she say where she was going, I could have asked her to bring… and then mention some kind of frivolous item.

  Or some other thing to show that they truly didn't care.

  Because they didn't.

  It made her angry just thinking about it, so kept the note short without mentioning where she had gone, because she certainly didn't want any stupid messages while she was away.

  She shouldered her bag and left her room.

  What seemed like ages ago, she had shut that same door behind her to go to Indrahui. She had been excited and keen to help solve an old conflict, not knowing that the conflict couldn't be solved, and certainly not by her or any others of the Hedron guard. If anything, their presence made things worse.

  She'd come back wiser and more disillusioned.

  This time, she might not come back at all.

  She walked through the underground maze of passages, courtyards and meeting areas to the special wing of the hospital that was the Respite Illness Centre.

  It was tucked away in the furthest corner of the top floor, where the influence of cold air sneaking in from outside was strongest, and where any foul air accumulated if there was a problem with the ventilation. The walls were scuffed, a number of lights were out, the floor was worn and in one place there had been a fire judging by the black marks and molten plastic on the floor.

  She found a kind of reception desk at the end of the corridor. It was empty, and behind it was a set of double doors that did not open at her approach. She had to ring a bell, and a woman came to ask who she was here to see. She seemed surprised when Izramith said she was here for a baby, but told Izramith that the children's room was at the very end.

  At the door to the room, a nurse would not allow her inside, because we discourage family to get close to the children. It only causes harm. Izramith made a show of leaving, only to hide in an alcove that held mops and brooms. When the nurse passed, she ran into the children's room.

  The ward held at least twenty beds and on the side closest to the door, they were occupied by young patients who were genuinely sick. The rest were zhadya-born of ages varying from babies to toddlers.

  Her little nephew was asleep and didn't wake up when she came to the cot. It was a simple metal structure with a bare mattress and plain sheets. None of the soft comfort and cute toys that people normally placed in their baby's cots. No scented pillows, no fan to keep the air fresh.

  She stroked his hair, trying not to see the faded stains in the sheets and the dent in the side of the cot.

  The slate at the end of his cot merely said "Male" and his date of birth.

  He needed a name. A strong name that would be his light in dark days, a name that was honest and good. Like Shana. She checked the population register on her comm reader to see if the name was taken. It was, but Shada was not. Shada, Shada, Shada. She repeated it a few times to get used to the sound of it. Yes, that was a good name.

  She used the end of her sleeve to wipe male from slate. There was a pen on a shelf against the side wall. She used it to write Shada above his birth date.

  There. That was better already.

  There were a few other young boys in the room. These would be his peers, enemies and friends when he grew older. He would spend the rest of his life in this place.

  Unless…

  Unless she could find him a safe place, a place where he could be free.

  She bent down and kissed the top of his head.

  "Shada," she whispered.

  He twitched and his mouth curved into a smile before relaxing again.

  Yes, she would do her best.

  Chapter 8

  Izramith went from the hospital to the airport.

  The shuttle wouldn't come for quite some time, but there was nothing more for her. She'd wait in the departure hall and might even catch some sleep. Or watch that recording that Commander Blue had given her access to.

  It was still quiet in the settlement's entry hall, although the shuttle to Barresh was listed, and the single employee at the counter could already accept her confirmation. With the formalities done, she sat down in the waiting area.

  She pulled her comm reader out of her bag and finally watched the recordings made by Commander Blue.

  Daya looked quite handsome as a young man. He was very tall, as zhadya-born usually were, lacked the chunky and muscled shoulders of the Coldi, and the typical associated heavy build. As a male fighter at Indrahui had told her once, there was
nothing dainty and elegant about a Coldi woman and nowhere was this more true than at Hedron.

  The recording showed Daya walking up the ramp from the entry hall—the walls painted in a disgusting light yellow in those days—across the bare field of the airport. It shifted to infrared view, showing him as a light grey figure scaling the fence and climbing the hill. It showed the valley on the other side, with a bright white spot where the thumping vent was.

  Daya walked right up to the vent, jumped onto the protruding rock in the opening and waited. The geyser went off and turned the section of the screen bright white with its heat. After the burst, a white figure climbed out of the vent and positioned himself on the edge.

  Then the screen flashed white.

  At first, Izramith thought that something had gone wrong with her reader's screen, but it slowly turned light grey and vague shapes materialised out of the murk. Daya stood in the middle of the valley for a bit longer before walking back up the hill. By that time, the surrounding valley had faded to a mid-tone grey.

  Izramith stopped the recording and replayed the last section. Daya coming out of the vent—flash—slow fade.

  What the hell did he do?

  The hall had filled up with passengers for Barresh. The screen behind the check-in desk flashed that the shuttle was about to arrive.

  She put her reader in her bag and rose. They weren't calling departing passengers yet, but a few people already stood at the gate. She joined them, impatient to be out of this place. After the surge of arriving passengers, they were allowed up the ramp.

  The guards stood at their usual and familiar positions, most in Pose 1, with their arms by their sides. They were women of the Blue shift, which had been hers for quite a long time. They wore full gear, so she had no idea of their identities. They would see her, of course, and would recognise her. Some might like to say goodbye in their own, distant way, but they were not allowed to move a finger.