by Clara Woods
He looked at her, curious. “I’m not sure if that’s true. Sure, I’ll be able to best almost anyone in a fight. Not just best them, I could easily do much more than that. But that’s also all that people ever see…” he trailed off, staring down at his arm.
Lenah put her spoon down, feeling guilty. A cyborg was all she had seen in him a few weeks ago. Though that had also been because he happened to kidnap her and the others and not given his name.
“I see more than a cyborg,” she whispered, looking away from his implants and into his green eyes. Did he know that she had fallen under exactly the prejudice he’d described for probably more than half of their relationship? Was he going to think less of her now?
“So, it seems,” he grinned, and it was obvious that he was again thinking back to the image of her sparsely dressed figure entering his cabin.
“Dating has been tough. Usually, women are not interested in a cyborg.” Cassius continued more somberly. “It’s been a thing in the past.”
“A thing?”
Cassius squared his jaw. He seemed very serious about it, so Lenah decided to be too. Besides, she could identify with the other women. She didn’t think anyone liked snuggling up to metal bits. She didn’t particularly like them either, but the rest of him more than made up for it. There was even some beauty in how the strings of almost black c-nano fibers connected to his skin at the shoulder. It made for quite a contrast to his much brighter skin, almost like an intricate tattoo.
She reached out toward his metal arm that was still sitting on the table and grasped his hand. She had seen him do almost everything with that hand, be it mundane tasks like lifting a cup of tea to ripping things apart in a display of superhuman strength. Now she decided that she would not be scared of its power and how it could crush her. There was a big difference between could and would.
At her gesture, Cassius’s face brightened, and his eyes flickered to her face. His gaze dropped onto her lips.
“They’re here!” Uz’s urgent voice burst through the ship-wide speakers.
Lenah jumped up, dread filling her, even though she wasn’t sure who Uz meant. UPL? Corinna? The Cava Dara? Had they already left the warp bubble? Had she been so distracted by Cassius that she hadn’t even noticed? That was the only way Uz would know.
Lenah ran the short distance to the cockpit in only a few seconds with Cassius right on her heels. Behind, Persia was coming out of her cabin.
“What did she see?” she asked, sprinting up the corridor.
“Not sure,” Lenah answered before reaching the cockpit’s hatch and pulling it open. Uz was sitting on the floor, a few panels from the cockpit’s wall lying on the pilot’s chair and Zyrakath hovering over it all, wearing his usual look of disagreement. Low voices were talking rapidly over a speaker, but almost too low for Lenah to understand.
“Who’s coming, Uz?” Lenah asked as she squeezed into the tight interior and came to a sudden halt because there was nowhere to go.
Uz looked at her, wide-eyed. “The Cava Dara; they’ve been sighted.”
“Most of their numbers will be Muha Dara,” Zyrakath said with an impatient voice.
Lenah ignored him. “Where?” she asked Uz.
“I’ve managed to dial into the frequency and pass the security clearance of the Cheung army comm system. They’re stationed in orbit around Astur, waiting for the arrival of thousands of small flying objects. They are only six hours away from the planet.”
“Objects?”
“That’s what they were saying. They’ve never actually seen the Cava Dara. Or Muha Dara,” Uz said, throwing a look at Zyrakath.
“And they will be here in six hours?” Persia asked from behind.
“Stars, will we even have time to execute or plan?” Lenah’s stomach plummeted; the urash rice she’d eaten threatening to come up.
They might be too late.
“We’ve left the warp bubble and are a couple of hours out. We’re actually behind the Cheung fleet in orbit. Closer to the planet,” Uz said, pointing at the scanner.
“At least that’s one good thing,” Lenah commented. They couldn’t deal with Corinna’s army and the mage farm at the same time.
“If they want us, they’ll have to catch us first.” She slid in next to the pilot’s seat, skimming her eyes over the proximity scanner. There were a few ships on the radar toward the planet, but it was very little traffic for a populous planet like Astur. Probably, everyone who could, was hunkering down at home to wait out the coming battle. Behind them, large dots on the radar represented dozens of warships guarding the planet.
“We came out quite far from Asturis I. A little under two hours from the Crescent Hills. And then we’ll need to hike there,” Lenah said, thinking out loud.
“You still think your father wouldn’t understand?” Uz asked.
“Oh, I’m sure of it,” Lenah answered. “He won’t give up his most profitable business for an event that hasn’t even started. It would never be his fault even until the very last moment. When it’s too late.”
Uz didn’t acknowledge, instead she cranked up the volume of the comm transmission.
“…High Commander will arrive. Unit 12 and Unit 13, accompany the High Commander down to the planet.”
“Unit 13, acknowledged.”
“Unit 12, acknowledged.”
Lenah concentrated her attention on the far scanners behind them. Two big dots were pulling out of the defensive position the fleet had taken around the planet and moving closer to Astur. A small dot had appeared there. A shuttle coming in via a warp bubble.
“The High Commander,” Persia mused from the corridor. “Does that mean Corinna is here?”
Lenah nodded. “That’s the CEO of a corporation with army status in a scenario of war.”
“What’s she up to? Do you think she knows about our plan?”
Lenah rubbed her chin. “It’s possible she has very strong suspicions. But as High Commander, she’s supposed to direct the attack. I’m not surprised she’s here.”
“That doesn’t change anything for our plans,” Cassius said grimly. “We still need to go and blow up that farm.”
24 Home, Not Sweet
Lenah powered down the Rambler after landing it next to a large Vicco tree on the land around Callo mansion. She’d liked this specific clearing as a child, mostly for its remoteness. It had been her favorite place after her mother’s death, and the afternoons spent here were some of the few memories she still had of the time. Lenah didn’t recall much of the days before and following her mother’s sudden passing. She didn’t even remember the last time she’d seen her. She’d been young, only seven years old, and the guilt of simply forgetting never fully went away. Coming here automatically triggered that feeling.
Lenah pushed the sad thoughts away as she got up and made her way through the Rambler, running her fingers along the walls of her ship as she walked to the cargo hold. Her ship. Her new home.
“There you are. That’s your pack. Hope it’s not too heavy for your highness,” Cassius said as Lenah reached the cargo hold. He had distributed the load of the explosives between them, though he himself carried a huge backpack that stuck out tall over his head.
“I’m no richer than any of you,” Lenah grumbled but accepted the fairly light backpack he’d assigned to her. “That’s your idea of redistributing? I thought we were making sure each of us had some explosives in case we lose someone’s backpack.”
“Everyone has some explosives. I’m also bringing a bunch of Uz’s tools. In case we don’t get the key card and have to break our way in. And lots of explosives,” Cassius answered, patting the pack over his head.
“You better not get lost. I want those tools back,” Uz said, walking into the room and accepting her own pack from Cassius. Doctor Lund came in behind her in what Lenah thought must be his best shirt. He was the only one here that had a change of clothes. The rest of them, like Lenah, were wearing the same thing day in and day out.
In Lenah’s case, that was still the UPL suit, now ripped in the back where the shards from the explosion had cut her. Lenah had to admit that she was looking forward to going to her rooms and wearing her own clothes again. And not just for the sake of having adequate attire to walk into the mage farm without looking severely misplaced.
“Are you sure we can’t have tea and talk to your father, Lenah?” Doctor Lund asked, patting an invisible wrinkle out of his sleeve.
“Tea?”
“Doctor Lund wants to dine with the rich and famous,” Uz said, patting the doctor on the arm.
“I see,” Lenah said. She shook her head. “No, I don’t think we could go and ask him. Not if we actually plan to accomplish our mission.”
“Especially, in under four hours,” Cassius added.
“Right, let’s do it.”
One after the other, they filed out of the open hatch and stepped into the late afternoon sunlight. Lenah took a deep breath and looked up to the blue sky.
Everything was so familiar: the Vicco trees provided partial shade, their large hand-shaped leaves having started to shed for the winter season. The ground was covered in brown leaves that crunched under Lenah’s boots. She remembered spending time here, barefoot, jumping around in piles of leaves. As always, blue parrots cackled overhead, probably complaining they’d already eaten up the last of the Vicco berries, a white and juicy fruit that was their favorite. It smelled warm and dry, and of home. It was good to have earth under her feet again.
“Alright, the mansion is less than a thirty-minute hike that way,” Lenah said, forcing herself back into reality. “I’m not expecting anyone in these woods, not until we’re very close to the house.”
“All this land belongs to your house? I saw it was a big house last time I was here but didn’t realize you own half the planet around it too,” Persia said, looking at the surrounding forest.
“Not my house really. But my family’s. This has been the home of the Callos for over 300 years.”
“That’s crazy. The crappy container unit my mum was living in when she got me is probably already rusted to pieces. Though I really liked it. You’ll have your first home forever,” Persia said.
Lenah shook her head. “Let’s see how today goes. I might never be able to come back.” While she said it, despite thinking about it regularly over the past days, the words seemed more real now that they were spoken out loud. Her throat clogged up, and she fell silent.
Uz joined her at the front of the group, giving her a worried glance but didn’t say anything. Lenah was glad for both: the company and the silence. She wasn’t worried about losing her old life or her father’s approval. She was worried if her friends would still see her the same once they realized where she came from. Lenah figured that actually seeing was different from knowing. Persia might have accepted it, but what about the others? Would Lenah turn into a faceless corporate class member to them? She knew that none of them had grown up with the luxuries Lenah had. And family members categorically had a bad rep with commoners. Something that she couldn’t blame them for thinking.
Lenah shoved the thought away. It felt petty to worry about it when thousands of Muha Dara were approaching the planet. Her crew already knew, at least theoretically, and had forgiven her for not being open from the start. She couldn’t avoid it, anyway. Cassius had stopped calling her ‘rich girl’ weeks ago. Now, he kissed her instead. With the exception of ‘your highness’ from earlier.
After a hike that Lenah remembered to be much longer, maybe because she’d still been a child when she used to make it, the house came into view. Their path would bring them close to a side entrance just a short distance from her room. She’d had great success sneaking in unnoticed all her life and hoped that today would be no exception.
“That whole house is yours?” Uz asked, staring at Lenah.
“Yes,” Lenah answered, feeling again the same worry from before.
“Not even our High Priests have cones that big. I don’t’ think you could actually hang a cone this size from trees. Not even in the oldest section of the purple woods where the trees are really tall.”
“Er, cones in trees?” Lenah looked at her with curiosity. “Like those things that fir trees have?”
“Of course not. Like the things we live in.”
“That’s what your houses are like? They hang?”
“Yes, I guess you wouldn’t know.” Uz looked away. “Never mind.”
Lenah looked her up and down but didn’t ask further. She’d never actually seen the houses Cassidians lived in on their home planet. The only video footage from Cassidia was taken outdoors in the public areas. She tucked her interest to the back of her mind.
“This house is amazing. The architecture flawlessly blends several Old Earth styles together but uses local materials,” Doctor Lund’s excited voice sounded from behind. “I see Renaissance as well as Gothic, and even Fifth War. But then a high use of the green schists from Astur. What do you know about the history of the house, Lenah?” He caught up to her, closely followed by Zyrakath.
“The building seems adequate to withstand eternity. If you don’t have elders, who came up with this?” the drone asked, hoving how over Lenah’s head.
“I don’t know. I actually never thought too much about that,” Lenah admitted. She’d always been too interested in space and flying to pay attention to the architecture of the house. “I know the Callos didn’t build this house; they bought it from an older family that went bankrupt, supposedly because of the Callo’s scheming.”
“So typical for humans,” Uz muttered.
“I agree with the Cassidian. Displaying such behavior is in any case—” Zyrakath started saying.
“—Anyway,” Lenah interrupted, ignoring both him and Uz, though not disagreeing. “There’s the door that leads right into my rooms, between those two windows with the red planters.”
“You’re sure there won’t be anyone watching us?” Cassius asked, peeking through the last of the foliage and across the lawn surrounding the house.
“I’ve done this many times and never been caught.”
“Mmh,” Cassius said thoughtfully but didn’t further object. He shifted his backpack. “I go first, in case we encounter any…obstacles.”
Lenah let him pass, and together they made it across the soft grass. So familiar. This part of the lawn was where Lenah did remember her mother. Viola had loved to picnic here with her daughter. Preferably, without a blanket, sitting together on the grass. Her mother had loved to sing, and Lenah could still hear her rhythmic chanting in her memory. Hocus-pocus, her father had called it, and Viola had laughed. Sometimes, Timothy joined them for the picnics, though he’d always bring a blanket.
After a short while, they reached the back door, and Lenah ducked under a curtain of ivy where she kept a keychip hidden under a stone. It was still there.
“How much time do we have left?” she whispered to Cassius as she came back with the chip in hand.
“Three hours and twenty-three minutes,” he replied.
Stars, the time had gone by fast. She nodded and swiped the key.
The corridor beyond was cool, much cooler than the outside. Thick stone walls would do that. Lenah walked in first, followed by Cassius who hesitated before giving up his post at their front.
There was no one here, as per usual. Lenah was the only one living in this specific part of the house, her father preferring the stuffier rooms in the northern wing. This wing, however, was converted to assistant quarters, dating from a time when the Head of a corporation had hosted their most senior staff and their families in their house. It was much simpler—the walls mostly white and undecorated—but there were apartments with several rooms meant for whole families, and Lenah had repurposed one for herself. She walked up the stairs and made a turn at the first door in the upstairs corridor.
Lenah’s heart beat fast as she held her finger in front of the door reader. Her father hadn’t revoked her access
or changed anything already, had he? But with a little chime, the door swung open. She stepped through and ushered the others in, then closed the door.
It felt strange having them all stand there, in her rooms. A place where she’d spent most of her free time in the past decade. When Lenah had started earning money, she’d invested her first few salaries in decorating the apartment in accordance with her personal taste. Such as the desk chair that looked like a pilot’s seat. She had balanced it out with some cozier elements. A fluffy gray couch and a dark wooden media table. That’s where she’d played her flight simulations, sitting in the pilot’s chair and using the media table’s holoscreen.
Lenah turned toward her closet, and as she approached, the door slid open automatically. “Persia, Uz, feel free to grab stuff for yourselves to wear while I get dressed. I think almost everything in here should make you look less suspicious and more like a guest or an investor.”
Persia shuffled in after Lenah, an eager look on her face, followed by Uz. The Cassidian cocked an eyebrow at Lenah, who had pulled up the holodisplay of her work outfits and was choosing one of the most comfortable ones: stretchy brown pants, a matching blazer, and a white blouse. And thick-heeled, brown boots.
“You’re not one for following shoe conventions, are you?” Persia asked, peeking at the display.
Lenah shook her head. “I hate those thin heels. Can’t walk in them all day.”
Persia sighed. “I understand. I always loved that a gladiator could wear her sandals even for official events. No heels for me either.”
“Do you have a pair of shoes for each of these outfits?” Uz asked, having turned to Lenah’s selection of casual clothes. “Really, Lenah, that’s just decadent,” she said before Lenah could answer.
Lenah turned away. “That’s what the designers always give you, what can I say?”
“Uz is just jealous.” Persia smirked, stepping in to help Uz pack the casual clothes into her backpack. The Cassidian was almost two heads taller than Lenah, and Lenah’s selection of big, comfy sweaters for relaxed winter evenings was the only thing Uz might fit into.
