by M. G. Herron
A low fireplace had been dug into the middle of the dirt floor and lined with large stones. Red-hot embers burned in it, illuminating several people and a few servant bots moving among them. One of the bots swept the dirt floor in front of a tent. Another was stationed on a battery-powered charging station, arms akimbo, supporting wet laundry hung on him to dry while he recharged.
The priest exchanged warm greetings with several of the men and women who came out of their tents upon his arrival. The people were all older, ranging from their early thirties to mid-sixties. They were dressed simply, not in robes like the priest, but in brown, black or tan homespun pants and white cotton shirts, with sandals or sturdy work boots on their feet. Typical dress for faithful adherents of Animus, at least the more conservative kind. Elya couldn’t help but think that his mother would feel quite at home here. She always had simple tastes; Elya wondered how much of that came from her religious upbringing, and how much came from her own fashion preferences.
Despite the dirt, the people’s faces were clean, their eyes sharp and suspicious as they studied Heidi and Elya and the boy in his arms.
While the priest and a couple of the people exchanged words in a low tone that he couldn’t make out, his bot circled the cave, searching and pulsing blue light as it greeted each of the servant bots. Hedgebot moved past the tents and explored the shadows at the back of the cave, its blue light warming with pink overtones. However, it didn’t seem to find anything it considered dangerous, and faded back to blue as it completed its circuit and returned to Elya’s side.
The priest finally broke away from the men and came to stand in front of them.
“My name is Father Pohl,” he said. The old priest clasped his hands behind his back. In the light of the cave, Elya could finally see the kind, lined face of the priest clearly. Deep wrinkles formed near his eyes when he smiled. He was either bald or shaved his hair close to the scalp. His prominent nose, which hooked at the end, had the crooked look that comes from being broken many times.
The group of men and women the priest had been speaking to remained stern and stood apart, their faces guarded and suspicious. The priest seemed the gracious host by comparison.
“Charlie has agreed to give up his tent for the night.” Father Pohl pointed to one of the tents that was square and tall and white. “He’ll sleep in mine so the three of you can have some privacy.”
Heidi sighed deeply. Elya could almost hear the tension leak out of her.
“Thank you,” she said. “Oh, thank you, Father.” She threw her arms around the priest.
The boy squirmed in Elya’s arms so he set Hedrick down. The tears on his face had dried, and though his mother obviously felt warmly toward the priest, the boy gazed around cautiously at the unfamiliar surroundings and strange people. There was no one else his age here.
“What is this place?” Elya asked. “And why are you all hiding out here? The Kryl are coming to invade Robichar. Didn’t you get the Imperial order to evacuate?” As soon as he said it, he regretted the words. It was the wrong thing to say. He’d already promised the priest he wouldn’t cause trouble, yet the first thing he said openly questioned their decisions.
Father Pohl stood up a little straighter. Behind him, the broad-shouldered, sandy-haired man he’d identified as Charlie lifted his chin in Elya’s direction. Several others crossed their arms and looked down their noses at him as if he was a simpleton.
“We are followers of the one true God,” Father Pohl said. “Animus, the Spirit of Old Earth, who will keep us from harm.”
Elya took a deep breath and blew it out. This language was familiar to him, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t delusional. Elya had seen how the Kryl could ravage a planet. People’s beliefs played no part in it. You could believe what you wanted to believe and the Kryl would still rip your throat out. Elya had relearned this hard truth today in Heidi’s village.
Then Elya thought back to what he’d seen in the ravine, how the groundlings had spotted the priest and the flashlight in his hands and beat a hasty retreat, leaving the travelers unmolested.
As if they could follow his thoughts, the man that the priest had referred to as Charlie and one of his comrades walked over to the mouth of the cave and rolled the giant stone that had been blocking the entrance back across it, sealing them inside.
Elya couldn’t help himself. He tried to keep any animosity out of his voice when he said, “If Animus will protect you, why take these kinds of precautions?”
The priest didn’t even hesitate. “Animus protects those who protect themselves. Just because we believe in God doesn’t mean that we are fools.”
Somehow, this reassured him. “I can see that.”
Father Pohl gave him an icy smile. “Please, make yourselves comfortable. Warm your hands by the fire. There’s water to wash with in your tent. We’ll have supper ready soon.”
With that, the priest turned his back and walked among his people. He started by going over near the fire where a middle-aged, redheaded woman lifted stew out of a pot with a wooden spoon and allowed him to taste it. He made a happy sound, rubbed his stomach and gripped her shoulder genially. She glowed and sat up a little straighter in response. Father Pohl moved on, as if he was a doctor of the soul making rounds among his ailing patients.
Heidi grabbed Hedrick’s hand and led the boy to the tent the priest had indicated. She was pulling the flap of white cloth aside when a faint roaring resounded in the cavern, penetrating even through the thick stone walls.
Hedrick reacted, flinging himself to his knees and covering his head. Charlie and several of the younger men and women leaped for heaps of blankets behind a tent, which, when cast aside, revealed a pile of arms—rifles, blasters, extra magazines, boxes of ammunition, and a handful of remote-operated charges.
The roaring noise faded as fast as it had come, passing in the space of a breath except for a faint echo and leaving a taut silence in its wake. The speed with which it passed, and the pitch, triggered a memory from pilot training in Elya’s mind.
The whole squadron had been dropped into a remote jungle with nothing but their sidearms and backpacks. A pair of Sabres had streaked overhead, letting them know that the exercise was about to begin—it was that sound which Elya recognized.
He raised two empty hands and took a few steps toward the men and women, who were now lifting up their rifles and checking the power levels of their blasters.
“It’s okay,” Elya said. “I think those were Imperial starfighters.”
Suspicion drew down their faces. Half hidden in shadows at the back of the cavern, Elya felt the priest’s eyes light upon him.
“They’re looking for you,” Father Pohl said.
He didn't want to admit it, but Elya didn’t see another option. The men still held their weapons and he didn’t think it would be wise to lie to them. “They are,” Elya said. “My tightbeam hasn’t been able to connect, so I expect they’re flying a search pattern.”
Charle slammed the butt of a rifle to his shoulder and aimed it at Elya, finger on the trigger.
“You led them right to us!” he shouted.
“N-No! That wasn’t my intention! I didn’t even know they were out there.” He hadn’t known, but he’d hoped, and was happy to learn they were looking for him. Elya needed to figure out how to signal them before one of these paranoid, trigger-happy maniacs accidentally gave him a new breathing hole.
As the man marched forward, it took all of Elya’s willpower not to draw his own sidearm. De-escalate. Stay calm!
“We’re not leaving this place.” The man forced the words through gritted teeth.
“Charlie!” the priest barked. “Lower your weapon. You will not threaten our guests in this holy place.”
Sheepishly, Charlie lowered the rifle until its barrel pointed at the ground. Elya sighed. The priest approached him from across the cavern and lowered his voice, immediately defusing the situation with his presence.
“It’s oka
y, son,” Father Pohl said when he turned back to Elya. “I know it was not your intent. But understand that we have made up our minds to stay here.”
Elya’s blood pounded in his ears. He found that he had one hand on his SB-44 blaster in spite of his own intentions. He relaxed his arms.
Charlie grumbled something under his breath, then turned and stashed the rifle back under the pile of blankets.
Elya felt his body sag, the adrenaline rush making his hands shake. He thrust them into his pockets to hide the tremors, and then was nearly knocked over as the boy, Hedrick, tackled Elya with a bear hug around his waist.
Elya found his balance and gently disengaged the boy’s arms. He knelt down so he could look into his eyes. “It’s okay. Everything’s going to be fine.”
“I don’t want you to get hurt.” The boy’s eyes shimmered with tears.
“It’s not going to happen. He didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Come on, you two,” Heidi said. She lifted Elya to his feet, both hands under one arm. “Let's go get cleaned up.” Her eyes darted around and Elya realized that everybody in the cave was staring at them. Elya had barely noticed. Or maybe he had gotten used to living under the watchful eye of his fellow soldiers, senior officers, and ever-present ship security cameras on the Paladin. It seemed like he hardly had a chance to be alone since he joined the Fleet. Though he hadn’t said so to Osprey when she brought it up, that was certainly one of the reasons he liked spending the little recreational time he was given alone. It wasn’t just to get extra training hours. It was also to get a breather from being around other people all the time.
Nonetheless, Heidi made a compelling case. The looks from these people weren’t the same as the healthy appraisals of his comrades in arms. They were the suspicious looks people give to outsiders who don’t belong. He was glad to follow Heidi into the tent.
Elya brought his pack with him and when they were inside, he quickly located the cube from his Sabre. The metal was cool to his touch as he drew it out of the bag. The indicator light continued to blink. Elya sighed.
“Still nothing?”
“I thought it would connect by now…” He glanced up, as if he could see the search and rescue jets criss-crossing the air in a grid pattern above him. But they were long gone by now. They couldn’t see anything in the dark, and they were mostly looking for an active tightbeam broadcast. If he couldn’t get the cube to connect or send up a visible signal, there was a good chance they wouldn't find him at all.
“One thing at a time,” Heidi said, her voice soft in his ear. She gripped his shoulders from behind and pressed her thumbs into his neck.
Elya groaned. “Oh, that feels good.”
“Clean up. Get some rest. You can tackle it again in the morning.”
Heidi smiled at him then took Hedrick over to a wash basin in the corner. She poured water from a jug into the basin, found a clean cloth and gave it to the boy. “Scrub up,” she said. “Use the soap.” The boy put up a bit of a fight, probably out of habit, but quickly relented.
Heidi returned to Elya’s side when she was done. He’d settled onto the floor while she gave instructions to the boy. He didn’t feel right sitting on Charlie’s bed, so he laid down with his feet flat on the ground and his knees up.
Heidi came to sit beside him. She put her back to the bed, pulled her legs to her chest and wrapped her arms around her knees.
“How are you so calm?” Elya asked.
She gave him a lopsided smile. He could see now that she may have been calm, but she wasn’t really okay. Maybe she was still processing what had happened to her friends in the village earlier. Bruising had begun to show on her upper arms and around her eyes. This woman had put up the fight of her life today.
“I don’t feel calm,” she said. “I feel like I’m living a nightmare. There were Kryl attacks when I was a kid. Not in my city, but in a nearby town. Scared the piss out of me as a teenager, but then the war ended and I thought, well, thank Animus that’s over.” She snorted.
“I’m so sorry,” Elya said.
“What do you have to be sorry for?”
“That I didn’t get there faster. That you and your son aren’t safe here.” Elya shook his head.
Heidi rolled her eyes. “Who do you think you are? You can’t control everything.”
“The Fleet could have gotten here sooner.”
“But they didn’t. And that wasn’t your call.”
Elya rolled his head to the side and gazed at the white tent wall. She was right. “I still feel responsible.”
“You saved our lives today,” she said. “I want you to know how much we appreciate that.”
She glanced over at the boy, who was scrubbing dirt off his arms with a grimace on his face that made Elya smile. He’d hated washing as a boy, too, but not as much as his brother Rojer. Rojer would go weeks without taking a shower, and Elya realized with some surprise that this was a fond memory—though Rojer had always irritated him as a kid. He wondered how his family was doing. How his mother, and his eldest brother, Arn, were holding up. He wondered if Rojer had finally landed a job. If Arn and his girlfriend had gotten engaged yet.
He wondered if he’d ever seen any of them again.
“The Kryl invaded my homeworld,” Elya said, “when I was about Hedrick’s age. We barely got out in time. Fled our home in the middle of the night with what we could carry on our backs. The idea of going up in the shuttle terrified me, but we made it and transferred to a Mammoth longhauler, like the ones waiting in orbit for the evacuation right now. And then the Kryl horde was spotted in the region, so we were forced to hide. Floated in space without power for three weeks until the Fleet found us.”
“Thank the stars they did.” Heidi’s face was flushed, her voice thin and breathless. He could see how much the idea terrified her. “That’s unbelievable.”
“It was a miracle the Kryl didn’t find us first.”
“What happened then?”
“They worked us into the system. We transferred to a space station for a little while and, from there, made our way to a new colony.”
“Is that where your parents are now?”
“Just my mom and my two brothers. My dad died when I was very little.”
“Your brothers didn’t want to join the Empire’s finest?”
Elya snorted. “Arn’s made a life for himself there, and Rojer… well, he’s always struggled but he’ll figure things out eventually. He’s a smart guy and a talented programmer. He’ll find something.”
“Your mom must be very proud of you,” Heidi said.
His mother had cried when he first told her that he had signed on to join the Fleet. Sobbed, actually. He’d never seen anything like it. He should have worked her up to the big news, rather than dropping it on her all at once like a bombshell. Elya regretted that. He’d thought he had all the answers, but there were things he would have done differently had he been given a second chance.
A sing-song pattern of electronic tones heralded the entrance of Hedgebot, who had finished his exploration of the cave and returned by nudging aside a corner of the cloth curtain that served as the tent’s doorway. The bot climbed onto Elya’s chest and bleeped down at him, bringing a smile to his face.
Elya had always been good with machines. He’d first acquired Hedgebot on the flight from Yuzosix. A bot machinist named Core had given it to him, an enormous gift of kindness to a terrified refugee child.
Elya’s heart ached. He wished he had something valuable he could give to Hedrick, some way to let the boy know that there was a future for him—when they made it through this incident, when Heidi and Hedrick were safe aboard their own Mammoth. Elya supposed he could give the boy the hatchet from his Sabre, but that didn’t seem very meaningful.
He pushed the thought to the back of his mind, stashed away for later. He could probably find something. He’d get Heidi and her son rescued by making contact with the Paladin. Then he could give the boy a gift.
Maybe something from his bunk—one of his old computers, a spare part of his own…
Elya took a deep breath as a renewed determination infused his will. He picked up the cube, tossed it into the air and caught it. “I’m going to see if someone has the tools I need to fix this thing. Thanks for the chat.”
Elya stifled a yawn as he stood and pushed through the tent flap. The fire had been built up higher. It cast a soft yellow glow over the robes of the priest, the plain homespun of the others, and the dented and scratched metal shells of servant bots waiting or charging around the edge of the irregular cavern.
Anywhere there were bots, there were tools with which to fix them. Hedgebot had some tools, but he wasn’t big enough to carry the hardware for sophisticated tightbeam diagnostics. Since these people had obviously been wealthy enough to afford servant bots in their previous lives, he hoped one of them had the right equipment. You couldn’t expect the bots to last more than a couple years around this much dirt and dust without maintaining them.
The priest’s followers gave Elya guarded looks and tight smiles that weren’t smiles at all as he walked among them, peering surreptitiously into their tents. Toward the back of the cavern, in the light of an electric lamp, he found a wiry man cleaning out the base of a gyroscope with a brush.
“Mind if I borrow some of your tools?” Elya asked.
The man glanced stiffly up, his eyes skipping over the black cube in Elya’s hands, and then to Hedgebot, who dogged Elya’s heels and was now inspecting the man’s open toolbox, climbing over wrenches, drills, screwdrivers, a rubber mallet.
“No harm, I suppose,” the man said. He held out a hand. After a cursory sniff, Hedgebot crawled into his palm.
“Hmm,” he said, “I don’t think I have an extra foot for your little fella.”
Oh, right, Elya thought. He’d intended to fix Hedgebot with the spare parts in his medkit before the groundling had attacked them near the crash site. In the chaos that ensued, it had slipped his mind completely. “That’s okay. He can get around fine on three for now.”
