Shattered Light

by Fredrick Niles

  The group laid back against the edge of the shore while they listened. The night was dark around them and the sounds of children playing began to die off as their parents either took them home or called them inside from their porches.

  “Back before the Tesla Arc was invented and people were able to travel the Void Gates, humanity awoke one morning to find themselves on planets scattered all across the universe. Most of them died as they were dropped into environments with inhospitable atmospheres or gravities, but some of them landed on habitable planets like Desia. When people arrived here however, they found that other than having a breathable atmosphere and a gravitational pull similar to Earth’s, Desia was far from the home planet they had grown accustomed to. Prone to harsh storms and violent meteor showers, the jungle-planet was also home to a number of dangerous species of wildlife, the likes of which most people had never even dreamed of.”

  “It is estimated that no less than 200,000 people landed on Desia during the Dislocation but by the time the first solar cycle had been completed, there were less than 15,000 survivors.

  “One of them was a woman named Rita Donne. Born into a family of lawyers, she had been a legal professional until she was dropped through the dark and humid canopies of Desia. Separated from her husband in the Dislocation, she still had a young daughter to take care of. Desia lacked any sort of legal structure at the time and Rita was eventually forced to cast off her entire life’s work from back on Earth and become a fisherman.

  “The lake was rough and temperamental, accommodating only the hardiest of souls on its surface. Still, she would brave the choppy waves and bring home her meager income every day, barely able to keep her daughter’s belly full.

  “One day, Rita arrived home to find her daughter all wound up. ‘Mommy, mommy, she cried. I saw daddy.’ Rita was disturbed at this of course, seeing as her daughter had been little more than a toddler when she had last seen her father. She was able to calm her down though and eventually forgot about the whole thing. Then, it happened again. This time she came home and her daughter cried ‘mommy, mommy, I saw daddy. For real. I went swimming with Gracie and when I went underwater I saw him at the bottom of the lake.’ Now, by this point Rita was properly disturbed. Thinking her daughter had seen her late husband was one thing, but imagining that she had seen him at the bottom of the lake? It seemed too bizarre to be made up. But, children have thought of stranger things, and once again, they moved on and forgot about it.

  “Then, one day, a massive storm rolled in while Rita was out on the water. She raced with the other boats to shore and got lucky. Most of the others didn’t make it. The storm ripped down the shoreline, uprooting houses and tearing whole wooden oar boats down to pieces no larger than a woodchip. Rita survived by taking shelter beneath the stone ledges on the south side but when she emerged hours later, she could not find her daughter anywhere. She searched and searched for the little one, but alas, the family that was supposed to be watching her had been scattered in the commotion, and the last person to have seen her was an old woman named Ygrette that saw her running to take shelter with a number of other young ones, none of whom had been found either.

  “After many weeks, Rita finally gave up the search, accepting that her daughter was gone. She stopped fishing. She stopped eating. She stopped everything. Thankfully, the people of Desia were a supportive people who often made in their mission to rally around others in times of hardship. Rita was taken care of, given food and shelter, and cared for by the rest of Desia, as if she was their child and they were thankful for her survival.

  “This is not where the story ends however,” 49 said, holding up a finger. “For one day, many years later, she found the courage to return to the middle of the lake where the largest fish dwelled. She threw out her nets and raised her mast to drag the bottom, but suddenly she hooked into something. Now it is important to know that there is a large underground network of caves in this region and it is suspected that it runs underneath the forest floor and into the giant lake. No one has ever explored them fully, and therefore, no one knows exactly how far they go or what they may contain in their deepest corners. So when Rita’s draglines went tight and the ship began to tilt and get pulled down, there was a very real possibility that she had accidentally snagged something much larger than she had intended on catching. Throwing herself to the back of the boat, she hastily cut the ties before the ship could be dragged down. She was fast but not fast enough, for as soon as she made it to the last tie, the weight finally tipped and she was plunged beneath the surface of the water.

  “Sinking down, she began to thrash and kick, making her way back toward the surface. But then, she saw it: the light beneath her suddenly seemed brighter than the light above her. Looking down, she halted her ascent as she stared into the lost faces of her husband and daughter. There they were, treading water lightly beneath her feet. Un-breathing but smiling just the same. She would have stayed there forever, drinking in their faces if they hadn’t have swum past her and up to the surface. But when she followed them and broke the surface herself, she found that they had disappeared.

  “Refusing to believe that she had hallucinated them, Rita returned to that spot day-after-day, hoping to see their faces. She threw out her nets, just as she had, and what was more: she brought in massive bounties every time. Suddenly, she was catching more fish than anyone in the village but this fact did not matter to her. She gave most of her haul to those who could not afford any and donated her profits to the houses of men and women who had supported her in her time of hardship. She did this, and never stopped until the day she died.

  “That is why the lake is named Lorna, or lovelorn. For on Desia, the way to honor the dead is to support the living, and it is in this task that you may see the faces of your loved ones yet again.”

  The waves washed slowly against the sandy beach as 49 finished his story. Raquel wanted to ask him if he knew it because he had heard it somewhere, had pulled it from the database onboard the Mary, or if he had simply made it up for their sake. She didn’t though, choosing to dwell in the mystery of its origin. And as she looked over at the android, whose golden eyes shone dully beneath his hood, Raquel thought they looked less like that of a predator whose gaze had been revealed in the woods by a flashing light, and more like that of the cook fires and porch lights from down the beach where families were preparing for bed, possibly telling stories to their children like the one she had just heard.

  4

  Byzantine Jackson

  “Byzzie!” yelled six children as Byzzie walked through the door, Ritz trailing close behind. They all rushed forward to crowd around her.

  “Hey there, why don’t you let me get inside so I can set my bags down,” Byzzie said as she tried wading through the little bodies, all ranging from the ages of about four to eleven. Five older children stood in back out of the way.

  She stood and greeted her siblings, answering their questions as delicately and playfully as she could, which was something that was becoming increasingly difficult as they grew older and more inquisitive and her “job” became more and more secretive. She hoped she would never have to get to the point where she would have to outright lie to them.

  Byzzie’s mother walked in from the other room and gave her an assessing glance, which was then turned toward Ritz who was running a finger along the countertop.

  “Hey guys, why don’t you go play in the other room,” she said, not unkindly. “I need to finish supper.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll catch up with you all later,” Byzzie assured them as they walked dejectedly from the room in a chorus of groans. Only a handful of them were related by blood, but with the help of friends and family that lived nearby, Byzzie’s mother had been able to adopt a number of children as the needs in the community had arisen.

  Once they were all cleared out she turned to her mother. A moment of awkward silence passed until the older woman finally raised her arms and gestured for her to come forward.
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  Byzzie leaned into the hug, embracing the warm scent of sweat and tropical flowers. The old house seemed to creak around them as it accepted her back into its loving walls.

  “What have you been doing,” her mother said, worry plain on her face.

  “I’ll tell you everything, mom.”

  They ate dinner, which was always a loud affair in the Jackson household. Byzzie’s aunts and uncles and grandparents joined them, each bringing an array of side dishes and after setting up a few extra tables, there were no less than twenty-five people eating in the comparatively small five-bedroom household. There was the clinking of plates and other dishes as everyone scrambled for food and when they were done they all sat around talking, Ritz joining in and regaling everyone with a number of harrowing tales—some of which were true.

  A few hours later when people began to head off back home, Byzzie went and hung out with her younger siblings while Ritz helped her mother do the dishes. Soon though, it was time for the children to start heading off to bed and Byzzie read each age group a chapter from one of the family’s storybooks, a long-standing Jackson tradition. When she finally came out, she found Ritz and her mother speaking at the kitchen table, each with an open beer in their hands.

  Byzzie sat down and told her mother the entire story, with Ritz jumping in from time-to-time. From their robbery-turned-assault on Kilo Base to their botched gate-jump, and then she continued on into the horrifying sequence of events that had led her here.

  “Never in the whole universe have I thought that something like that could happen…” her mother said after she finished. “The things you describe…” She rubbed her temples. “I’m just thankful we have you back.”

  “We couldn’t have done it without her,” Ritz said. “Truly. Without her expertise with the Light Core, we’d—”

  “We’d still be stuck in the Trident System,” Byzzie interrupted. The Trident System was the network of planets they had been stuck in before getting a hold of the Light Core. “We’d still be there and Hector would still be alive and those people on Kilo Base and in those corvettes we smashed out of the sky would still be alive.”

  “And 49 would still be out there,” Ritz said, reaching out to touch her hand. “Lost and mad and ready to kill anyone that came across him and his ship.”

  She pulled away. “Yeah, and instead I brought him here. I brought him home.”

  “Look,” her mother said. “What you do, Byzzie…you’re not responsible for the bad things that happen because of them, so long as you’re acting on good faith.”

  “Aren’t I?” she said. “I feel like—the more I meddle in people’s affairs…the more innocent people end up dying.”

  “Honey, it’s not—”

  “It’s not what?” Byzzie snapped. “It’s not logical? Because it is. If something keeps happening with the same effects over and over again, continuing to do them doesn’t make sense.”

  “Byzantine,” Ritz said, a hard edge in his voice. Byzzie and her mother looked at him. “You’re gonna fuck up. Individual people fuck up. Whole villages fuck up. Hell, the government that’s supposed to protect us fucks up; you know that. It’s what we do. It’s what we are as a species.” He shook his head. “But if you stop doing things. If the species ceases to exist. Then what?”

  She looked at him blankly, waiting for him to answer.

  “Seriously,” he prodded. “What would the world be without us?”

  She shrugged. “Better, probably.”

  “Would it? Creatures would still die off. Planets would still enter their late stages and die. Whole solar systems will eventually fly apart and cease to exist one day. So what makes you so special that you don’t have to be a part of that? That you don’t have to carry your burden like the rest of us? Like the rest of every living species in this universe?”

  “I don’t know,” she finally said, relenting. “It’s just…it’s just so hard not to get wrapped up in all of the negative things—all the bad things that happen because of the things we do, you know?”

  “I do,” Ritz said. “But there are good things too.” He raised his arms. “We’re alive. Kit and King and Nadia and Raquel and I are all alive and even that android that you claim to hate so much is alive because you gave him a second chance.”

  “But I voted to put him down,” Byzzie said. “When it came down to it, I took the safe road.”

  “So did I,” Ritz responded. “You and I both know that you could have shut him down at any time since then. You didn’t though, and I suspect that’s because you respect your crewmates enough to let their choices carry weight. And because maybe—just maybe—you’re willing to give 49 a chance to prove himself.”

  “Do you know that he claimed to be Christian or some fuckn’ thing today,” she said incredulously. “Just…out of nowhere?”

  Ritz barked a laugh. “Really? I guess that figures. He did come off a Catholic ship, after all.” And then: “He’s just exploring his human side.” He picked up his beer and tilted it back, taking a sip. “I think he still feels lost and confused after everything he's been through. He’s just trying to work it out like the rest of us.”

  “I guess…” she said, still not convinced.

  “Byzzie,” her mother said, speaking up. “Your friends seem convinced of this synthetic person’s change of heart. Why aren’t you?”

  “Because he tried to kill us,” she said, shaking her beer. It suddenly foamed up and spilled over the rim and her mother hopped up to grab a towel. “Sorry, I just…I feel like I’m the only sane person on this ship sometimes. I feel like we accepted him in so fast.”

  “We accepted him in because we needed him,” Ritz said. “Other than Kit who spoke up for him, I think that we were all just glad to be alive after that ordeal. But in reality, things change on the battlefield-” he reached up and snapped his fingers, “-like that. 49 may have had a change of heart and maybe I will too, eventually. It’s still hard for me to forgive him for killing one of my best friends, but most of that is just learning to untangle your anger from your grief. And if you can do that successfully, I think you’ll find grief outweighs anger every time.”

  Ritz leaned back, the legs of the kitchen chair creaking. “For now though, I’ll accept him aboard my ship merely as an adaptation to circumstances. Remember how I was just talking about how we’re all fuck-ups? Well, the things that separate the good fuck-ups from the bad fuck-ups is the willingness to learn.”

  “And what did you learn?” Byzzie said. She had accepted a towel from her mother while Ritz had been talking and she finished wiping up her spill.

  “Me?” Ritz took another swig of his beer. “I learned that watching someone come to terms with everything they’ve done in real-time right before my eyes is all the justice I’ll ever need.”

  Byzzie turned and looked at her mother, and without words, her expression said everything that Ritz had said and more.

  Vanessa Jackson, Head of Desia’s Defense Fleet, stared across the kitchen table at her oldest daughter with aching eyes, radiating warmth and tenderness. She didn’t need to speak; Ritz had accomplished enough in that department. She simply reached out and grabbed Byzantine Jackson’s hand and clasped it tight, conveying everything that couldn’t be spoken.

  Finally, she let go, and their conversation steered toward idle chit-chat. Her mother caught her up on all of the happenings around the household: who was doing what in school and which way some of the older children had begun to lean in terms of post-graduation plans.

  And as she sat there listening, Byzzie was struck by a sudden ache for her father.

  Trent Jackson had died twelve years ago when Byzzie was just a child. Out on an excursion to rescue a rare species of primate from an erupting volcano on the distant planet of Orepanza, his ship’s navigation had been thrown off after trying to fly through a cloud of molten ash and he careened back to the planet’s surface, which had already begun to burn.

  She thought of her moth
er taking care of the family after that and everything she had done for her. And in that moment, Byzzie felt that soft underbelly of uncertainty inside of her harden into resolve once again.

  She would continue her adventures with Ritz, wherever they happened to take her. She would continue to do what she could as best as she could. And just maybe—she would take it a little easier on 49.

  5

  Invasion

  Raquel and the others had just woken up beneath the overhanging deck on Byzzie’s porch when the first assault frigates appeared in the sky over Desia. The bulky shapes, accompanied by a number of their sleeker and faster corvette counterparts, hit the gate just before sunrise. And by the time Vanessa was pounding out the door to drive her motorbike to the station five blocks down the street, the frigates were already fully engaged with the Orbital Defense Platforms that were installed on the vast number of asteroids orbiting the planet. Blue and orange blossoms of light could be seen as the battle took place in the predawn Desian sky.

  “Everyone up,” hollered Ritz, right on Vanessa’s tail. Byzzie was right behind him and they broke off from Vanessa as they turned to jog down the side of the hill that the house was built into.

  Raquel rose to her feet, her head swimming and her stomach flipping. She placed her hands on her knees to steady herself.

  “What’s going on?” asked Nadia. The two Marauders were on their feet, looking as if they’d already been up for hours.

  “A PUC fleet just entered through the Void Gate,” Ritz said. “They’re already engaged with the stationary guns but they can’t stand up to a whole fleet. I’d say we’ve got ten minutes before we start seeing drop ships break atmo'.”

  “Kit and I will get the ship,” Nadia said. “We can reach it and bring it to you before we’d all be able to make it there together.”