by Mark Wandrey
Minu almost returned to the apartment in Tranquility. “I’m being too literal,” she thought as she dressed. “Dad wouldn’t have known I’d find it in storage after they declared him dead.” She’d stopped by earlier that night and spoke to Pip for a few minutes, telling him she loved him and kissing his cheek. Cynthia was there, her head on his bed, snoring lightly. She promised herself she’d go and see him as often as she could.
As she was climbing into her aerocar, an overnight bag in the passenger seat, when she heard a deep voice nearby. “Not running away, are you?”
“No, Dram, I’m not running away.” ‘I’m quitting’ were the words in the back of her mind. Just as something had kept her from destroying Pip’s life support, something kept her from speaking the words out loud now.
He walked over to her, stood by the car’s open door, and looked past her at the bag. “Sure looks like it.”
“I’ll be back,” she said without much conviction, “I need some time.”
“Okay, when? We must make plans, and you’ve set some changes in motion, albeit accidentally, that I’d like you to follow through to the end. Or at least help us stay on course, once it’s set.”
“I’m in no position to lead anyone.”
“I know you’re torn up inside.”
“Do you really? I lost my entire team, except for one civilian; the only one with enough common sense to run before the fighting started.”
“You think you’re the only one who lost someone?” he suddenly yelled. “Over two hundred Chosen are dead, and I knew the names of each and every one of them. Every…god…damned…one…of…them.” He smacked a huge fist into the palm of his other hand, emphasizing each word. “Forty were from my Trials group. They were people I’ve called friend for longer than you’ve been alive! Should you feel bad? Sure. Maybe you think you should feel like shit, but I don’t know why you would. Without your invention, the ingenuity to carry it through, and your on-the-spot decision to implement it in the face of insurmountable obstacles, we’d have lost this world to the Rasa. The fighting is over; that was the easy part. The hard part is surviving. We heal the wounded, bury and mourn the dead, then go on.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“I never said it was easy, but it is necessary. The whole of humanity is depending on us, and you.” She heaved a great sigh and fell into the car’s seat. “So, tell me when you’ll be back.”
“It isn’t that easy.”
“Sure it is. Take a week, take a month, take two; just set a date, so I can tell the council.”
“The Chosen council cares that much about a young four-star?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. I’ll be back in two weeks,” she said, not knowing where the number came from.
“We’ll be expecting you, Chosen Alma.”
* * *
She circled the cabin twice until she found a place to set the aerocar down. The land around the cabin only extended a few dozen meters in each direction before precipitously sloping down toward the water. The forest surrounded the small lake where the tiny island lay for many kilometers in all directions. Thick undergrowth covered the uncertain ground surrounding the cabin, and the few trees that had managed to gain a foothold on the island further complicated her landing. Flipping the aerocar while trying to land would strand her a good five hundred kilometers from the nearest sizable settlement. Finally, deciding to land on a pile of lumber that had once been a barn, she set down in the center of the debris. She crossed her fingers there was no basement as she disengaged the gravitic impellers. Several boards snapped with resounding pops, and the car settled slightly, but the landing spot held.
Minu got out and looked around. Everything seemed the same, if a little overgrown, in the ten years that had gone by between then and now. There was the cabin, the collapsed barn, a shed, and another strange, round building about four meters across and three tall. She thought about her first trip to the cabin, and remembered something about her father telling her to stay away from the rickety outbuildings. She headed for the cabin.
The building was nearly five hundred years old and constructed using a combination of modern and ancient techniques imported from their homeworld. Her Dad lectured her from across the years, as she remembered him saying, “Billy Harper, Mindy Harper’s husband, built this house for them to raise their family before things went horribly wrong. Billy died shortly after he finished it. When Mindy retired as mayor of Tranquility, she came here to live out her days.” Minu hadn’t set foot on the island for a decade, but the building still looked fine. “I got the land when my father died,” he’d explained. “I restored it and preserved the wood with Concordian technology. It should stand for another five hundred years, unless there’s a fire or some other disaster.”
Minu stepped onto the front porch and took in the view, which was much like Bellatrix would have looked when humans first arrived. The forest was composed almost entirely of the huge fern trees native to this world. Across the lake, she could see a few of the hardier evergreen trees from Earth beginning to encroach on the smaller native plants. Another century and they would supplant the native fern trees entirely, killing them with an impenetrable fifty-meter-tall canopy of pine needles.
Down by the lake was the dock where he’d given her the necklace. Unlike the cabin, he hadn’t built it with native materials. Her father used dualloy pilings, supporting translucent moliplas planks. It would still exist half a million years from now, though it would likely have a covering of mold and slime. She walked down to the dock, twice sinking to her ankles in the soupy ground. Landing on the remnants of the barn had turned out to be a smart move. She didn’t want to think about how deep her three thousand kilo car would have sunk in the gunk. She walked onto the dock and sat at the end in the same place she’d sat when her father gave her the necklace. There was a piling on either side, one capped with a steel cover, the other moliplas.
“Never would have thought of this,” she said and tried to pry up the moliplas cap. After some work it popped free. There was a water tight space inside, a few centimeters deep, and it held another chip wrapped in a water tight moliplas bag. She took it and replaced the cap. Might be a good place to stash something someday. She returned to her car and inserted the chip into her tablet. The chip held only a single cypher key. She found the file marked ‘two’ and opened it.
“Now I know it’s you, Sapphire,” it read. “As I said before, don’t assume I’m dead. You must ask yourself how you got this packet of files. There were three possible ways for you to get them. From me, on my death bed. Handed to you by a Chosen I delegated. Or finally, delivered by a computer via a very unusual circular route.” Minu nodded, recognizing the third option. The writing continued. “If you received the files via the last method, I may still be alive.”
Minu’s heart raced as she read on. “I gave copies of this data packet to selected Chosen along with instructions to give them to you should my death be confirmed. I could have given it to you myself, but if that was the case, you’d probably already know everything in these files.
“When I created these files and planned how to get them to you, I had to come up with contingency plans for various situations. One was that you would never become a Chosen. As your father, I’m going to discount that option immediately.” Minu smiled as she read. “Other issues I had to consider were your level of technical expertise, the branch of the Chosen you’d find yourself in, and the stage you had reached in your career when you received them. I can only hope you are at least a three-star Chosen, in service more than a decade, at the time of this reading.”
I’m sorry to disappoint you on both accounts, dad, she said silently before reading on.
“You have to play the hand fate deals you, so here you go. The chip is divided into five sections containing my logs, mission files, ideas, musings, and general mental masturbations.” She blushed slightly at her father’s candor. Never once in his life did he ever speak
to her like that. She deeply wished this was a real conversation, not some grumblings from the grave. “You’ve no doubt noticed these five files, and you will soon be frustrated to realize that three of them are still locked. There are three more cyphers hidden in secret locations. Scattered throughout these data files are the clues you need to find those cyphers. Don’t be angry; I need to make sure you are ready to see the contents of the final three files. Since I have no way of knowing how old you are or what you’re doing, this is a control to keep you from knowing too much, too quickly. I have to make sure, somehow, that you’re ready for the burden.”
“Shit,” she said and checked. Sure enough, the other three files were still encrypted. Why would he give her all this information but hide three small text files from her? What could they contain that was so ground shaking that he wanted to be sure she was ‘old enough’ and ‘ready for the burden,’ as he’d said?
“I’m hoping you can use these files to help the Chosen move away from being professional scavengers to become the soldiers we’re destined to be. Our very survival, maybe the survival of the galaxy, depends on what we do and how we act, and no small amount of luck. I can’t go into this any further; you’ll find out more when you unlock the other files.”
“What the fuck?” she said out loud, then finished reading the file.
“Read, learn, and explore. You’ll find the clues as you go. The one thing you must promise, do not come looking for me. If I’ve disappeared, it’s for a reason. Promise me, Sapphire.”
“I promise, you, dad, for now.”
“I love you honey. I’m sorry I wasn’t there with you when your mother died. Goodbye.”
Minu closed the tablet and took out the chip, turning it over and over in her hand. She’d come here thinking she might retire from the Chosen and maybe go into science or teaching. Now, she didn’t know. What the Chosen did might be vital to the survival of the galaxy? The little chip glittered in the afternoon sun. Outside, a howler barked in the distance and others joined in, while high in the sky an eagle screamed. With a deep sigh she made her decision.
* * * * *
Chapter 13
Julast 25th, 518 AE
Sanctuary Island, Plateau Territory
Minu spent the night in the musty old cabin, sleeping in the big bed her mother and father had slept in when she was a little girl. She cried, first remembering the pain of her mother dying, then with relief at having talked to the ghost of her father and the thought he might still be alive.
The following morning, she explored the cabin and found some still-edible food stored in the cupboards. Breakfast was ancient rice, pancake mix, and freeze-dried eggs. A nearly full EPC powered the Concordian-manufactured stove, so cooking wasn’t an issue. It also provided hot water, heating, and cooling. After eating, she explored further. It looked like no one had been there in years, and that didn’t surprise her. It was almost impossible to reach the island without a boat, and the cabin was nearly invisible from the shore. Besides, it was in a scarcely-settled region of the continent.
It was hard to imagine that Mindy Harper had once lived there, in the very same building, during the last years of her spectacular life. Curiosity led Minu to explore the spaces in detail. She wondered if there were any interesting artifacts from Mindy’s day. Just about every place Mindy had lived throughout her life was a monument of one sort or another except this one. This was a private place, a sanctuary of sorts. A monument in Founders’ Park led people to believe Mindy was buried there. In truth, she and her husband Billy rested in unmarked graves on the island. About twenty generations lay between them, but Minu had never felt closer to the enigmatic woman than that morning.
They’d furnished the entire building with handmade furniture, including a magnificent dresser in the bedroom, which was hand made by Billy as a gift to his beloved wife. Minu ran her hand along the smooth carvings, imagining her ancestors working the wood, keeping their clothes in it, and making it part of their lives.
Sometime when she needed a break, she’d come here and search more thoroughly. What interesting secrets had Mindy left behind? The story of the exodus was supposed to be complete in their history. Looking around the old, time worn surroundings, she wondered. The more she learned, and the deeper she delved into the Chosen and Concordian culture, the more she discovered things were not as they seemed.
She spent one more night in the cabin before returning to Steven’s Pass. On the flight back, she prowled through the thousands of files her father left her. As he’d said, many were detailed accounts of Concordian worlds and what he’d found there, others were impressions of alien species and his musings about how humanity could make its own way without the Tog protecting them. Three files remained locked, and despite so many others to explore, they made her burn with curiosity.
No sooner had Minu dropped her overnight bag in her billet than Dram appeared. “I knew you wouldn’t be gone for long.”
“I didn’t.”
“What made you come back?”
“An old friend set me straight.”
“Anyone I know? I owe that person a debt of thanks.”
“Yes, you do. Maybe someday you’ll have a chance to thank him in person.”
Dram gave her a lopsided, curious grin. “Okay, then. The Council meeting is set for tomorrow. They’d like to speak with you. They’re preparing a new assignment.”
“I expected as much.” He turned to go, and she grabbed his arm. “I’m going to have some demands of my own.”
“Demands?” he asked, his dark eyes flashing.
“Call them requests, if you must, but I think I’ve earned some leeway.”
“So you have.”
Dram left her alone to unpack. She’d scarcely opened her bag before she had more visitors. Gregg, Aaron, and Cherise tapped on her open door. The boys looked downcast, and Cherise was crying. For a second, Minu feared that Pip was dead, but it wasn’t that. It was the first real chance the friends had had to be alone together. Gregg held up a bottle of mead, Pip’s favorite brand. “Absolutely,” she said and invited them in. In a way, they all needed to say goodbye. Many bottles of mead gave their lives that night as the friends reminisced, laughed, cried, and said their farewells.
* * * * *
Chapter 14
Julast 27th, 518 AE
Chosen Headquarters, Steven’s Pass
Minu didn’t remember much of the previous night after the first bottle of mead. There were many hundreds of beekeepers in the highlands around Steven’s Pass, and more than a dozen meaderies. By some accident, grapes didn’t grow well on Bellatrix, and that had led to mead being the favored drink. Minu had no taste for wine anyway. In the morning she took a long, cold shower, which gave her time to put her thoughts in order. Afterward, she put them on a tablet for presentation. She had a pretty good idea of what they would demand of her, and she wanted to be ready for it.
Minu once again sat at the small table with the Chosen council seated in a semicircle opposite her, along with a group of three Tog. Unlike the previous times she’d sat in the hot seat, this time she felt no fear. They were here to get something from her, not to threaten or interrogate her, but of course, the formalities came first.
“Chosen Alma,” First Jacob said, rising to his feet. “It is the determination of this council and our Tog masters that your actions, leading up to and through the vendetta against the Rasa, were in accord with the highest tradition of the Chosen.” Minu remained seated and nodded.
“We express our thanks for defending our interests,” the lead Tog said through hser translator.
“You have rewarded our confidence well,” another said. “Your choice to allow the disowned Rasa soldiers sanctuary is unorthodox, but not illegal. We have discussed this development in detail with our First, and plans are underway to make them legal residents on your leasehold.”
“We would like to discuss your future career.” Dram picked up the thread, standing with a tablet i
n his hand. “We have reviewed your recommendations and your notes that we were insufficiently prepared for the attack, and we acknowledge this is a deficit. Your new shock rifles are both innovative and suitable for our purposes and, possibly, very valuable commodities.”
He glanced at his notes, and she prepared for the other shoe to drop. “We want you to spearhead the specialized training of five scout teams as dedicated combat units. Planning is already underway for another Trial, which we will conduct as soon as possible. We lost too many Chosen to replace through reserves. We also want to reconstruct your research team with top flight people, headed by you and Dr. Hurt, to continue your ground-breaking research. What do you think?”
“Are you really asking my opinion?”
Jacob was standing, as well. He looked at the Chosen council and their aides, then gestured to them and the Tog. “Do you think we’d be here if we didn’t want your opinion?”
“Possibly.” Jacob’s lips thinned, and she instantly felt better about her position. When she’d seen the Tog in attendance, she’d reevaluated the strength of her hand, but Jacob’s pained expression pushed her forward. “Okay, I’ll tell you what I think.”
Minu picked up her computer and stood. Jacob and Dram looked at each other and sat. Dram looked very attentive, while Jacob looked apprehensive. “First off, your suggestion of five specialist scout teams is like applying a bandage to a severed head.”
“If all you’re going to do is insult this council…” Jacob began.
