"Have you ever heard such shit?” Vaxel muttered as the president prepared to speak.
"Friends," the president said. "The Closure of Akilia will go ahead as planned. We will not have the media of the universe picking over our corpses, we will not have the IPF medical staff descending on us for more experiments on our tired bodies, we will not provide entertainment to those who would see us die in public!"
There was a cheer from the crowd, and she held up her hands.
"But behind our closed doors... all of you are free to make your own efforts. Our time has almost come to an end. There will be no more
judgment
."
"That's it?" Kris said. "Some endorsement that was."
The cheer died back to a muttering, and the camera switched to a view of a space port where a large group of
ku-tah
were gathered, watching the broadcast with sneers on their faces. A close up of one, a banner in Aldorian underneath, announcing the speaker.
"I recognize that guy," Flack said, turning to Prez. "Chet. Wasn't he in the labs with us?"
Prez was stunned. "I think so," he managed to say. It was so long ago, and he'd tried so hard to forget. But there Chet was, talking into the microphone in his mangled Akilian, so like Prez's own. Dark hair like Prez's, brown eyes, slim build. People often said they might have been brothers.
"That baby is an abomination," he was saying. "And that talk of love and friendship is self-deluding
garbage
. Our
friend
forgets that the Akilians are our abductors, our oppressors, our torturers. This traitor has slept with the enemy and he will find no home among us! Let Akilia pay the price for its backward ways and its crimes and
rot
! We are free!"
A huge cheer rose from the people gathered behind, and the view switched back to the Aldorian newscaster who was apparently explaining the background to the story. There was a brief shot of a small blue planet, then the Aldorian turned to a guest speaker and began to talk. Prez heard little of it. There was a buzzing in his ears, a nauseous wrench in his stomach. "Have to go outside," he muttered and stumbled over the cushions in the direction of the door and out.
"Prez?" Flack called after him, but he didn't listen. He didn't want to look upon the faces of his friends because maybe they would look back and see the secret he'd tried so hard to bury for so many years, shining out of his Akilian eyes.
The truth that he too, was a traitor.
Chapter Fourteen
Deral and Falgon watched Prez's departure with a mystified blur in their minds, then turned to Lan.
What has occurred?
I do not know.
Lan's skin prickled with cold and he rubbed his arms, thinking of the sudden chill he'd felt in Prez's mind. Worse than usual, and deeply disturbing. He considered following him outside, but he was still too weak to manage the stairs on his own. And it seemed as if Prez wanted to be by himself. The bowl of soup was almost empty, but he'd lost his appetite for the rest.
"Leave him," Flack said eventually. "He'll be okay when he gets some air. Stuff about Akilia always upsets him."
"Yeah," Vaxel said. "We've all got our stories."
Glitch started awake and rubbed at her eyes. "What did I miss?"
"Nothing," Flack said. The news was over, and it was back to the bottom of the sea. He took another smoke and lit it. "Man," he said. "I wish..." But he didn't finish his sentence.
***
A week later, all goodbyes were said and the crew of the
Outcast II
was finally ready to go back into space, this time with an extra member. Lan smiled to himself as he got into Deral's hover-vehicle for the trip back to the shuttle station.
Research and Translation Coordinator
. Prez had finally thought up a new job title for him and presented him with his new contract, an indefinite one this time, only for the purpose of fulfilling Andran bureaucratic requirements.
Prez had spoken little since the news from Akilia, but he seemed to be in a reasonable mood. The darkness was still there, but pushed away into a corner. Lan sat beside him in the vehicle as the wind whipped through their hair, leaving a thin film of yellow dust on their skin. The twin suns were setting behind the mountains, and the air was balmy and raucous with the shrieking of
muk-muk
insects in full mating glory. When Prez's hand crept into his, Lan felt like singing.
He was happy to be leaving, despite the copious tears of his mother that were still drying on the shoulder of his robes. His father had not yet calmed down, and Lan wondered if he ever would. The whole situation was especially embarrassing for his father, since people had often thought of Lan as just a small slice from the cake. He'd felt an intense disgust in his father's mind and was glad to get away from it.
The vehicle slowed to a halt, and there was a sigh as its charge died. They got out, and Deral and Falgon stood together and lifted their palms in the gesture of farewell. Lan chuckled at the confusion in Deral's mind when Glitch tackled him in a big squeeze around his middle and then did the same to Falgon.
When the crew had done all their hugging, Deral looked Lan in the eye.
I will be sad without you, brother.
I will be sad also.
I am pleased that you have found someone to love. I knew your mind before you did. You will never disgust me.
Lan felt a lump forming in his throat as he stared at his brother. "We wish you a safe onward trip," Deral said to the others. "The jump gate we have paid for will deliver you back to Andra. Where will you go from there?"
Prez looked to the west, toward the mountains, his skin glowing gold in the dying sunlight. "I have an idea where we'll go," he said. "But we're stopping somewhere on the way."
"Where?" The crew crowded around, interested.
There was a singsong tone from the station behind; the shuttle was boarding. Vaxel groaned and looked at the pile of boxes in the rear storage compartment of the vehicle. "Damn you and your shoes," he said to Glitch, and lifted a stack in his arms.
"Tell you when we board," Prez said and turned to Deral and Falgon. "Thank you for your hospitality. Your planet is wonderful."
"It was our pleasure," Falgon said, and took a handful of blue flowers from her pouch. She scattered them in Prez's hair and bowed. "
Te miashque mina
. We will not forget you."
Less than an hour later, they were back in space on the
Outcast II
, which smelled of berries and detergent. The cleaning android had been busy, and was still buffing the surfaces of the navigational consoles when -- after a quick, guided tour -- Prez showed Lan onto the bridge, followed by the others. "So here we are," he said. "Flack's seat, and mine." He smoothed his palm over the gentle curve of the seat and looked out into space.
"It is an impressive model," Lan said. "And the AutoNav is, I believe, version 4.5e, utilizing a four-dimensional coordination matrix, which, coupled with the AI interface and Logical Determinator technology, means that pilot input can be minimal. In effect, the ship almost flies itself."
"Great, isn't it?" Flack said. "More time to raid the entertainment database."
Lan looked at Prez. "What is it you wish me to do?"
Prez sat in his chair and programmed the exit procedure into the computer, followed by a set of coordinates. Then, as the ship began to separate itself from the dock, he turned and looked around the crew. "Everyone," he said. "Our shore leave has not quite finished. There's somewhere I've been meaning to visit for a long time, and I wondered if you'd like to come."
He tapped the RealView off and up came a picture of an unremarkable solar system, nine planets orbiting a single star. "These are recent pictures from the Belaari
Falaariha
Telescope," he explained, tapping the console again. The view zoomed in on the blue planet that traveled in the third orbit, a small planet with only one moon, and white clouds swirling over the continents. Almost half of it was one ocean.
"The blue planet?" Flack said. "Are you
crazy
? That whole sector of space is barely charted. There's not one race there who've managed to unify under a planetary government, never mind pilot a vessel beyond their own system. And not to mention the fact that getting a permit to pass through Daliz space is virtually impossible."
Prez smiled, staring at the planet as it revolved on the screen. "You forget, we don't need to pass through Daliz space. This ship has jump capability. With the right coordinates, we'll just zip through it without them even knowing."
"Madness," Flack's eyes were bulging. "What if we pop up in the wrong place? They'll shoot us into pieces."
"Well, we
could
go around it. It's only an extra... hmm, three years onto the journey. Or, you can trust me. I know exactly how to program the jump so we won't pop up in the wrong place."
"How?" Flack scoffed.
"Because I knew someone who went there."
There was a silence as all eyes focused on Prez, then on the blue planet.
"But..." Flack started, then closed his mouth again.
"Look. It's perfectly simple. We go as close to Daliz space as possible, I program the jump, we arrive here..." he pointed to a spot beyond the last planet of the system, "and move forward until we're in orbit. Then we land a shuttle and... go on holiday!"
"
Land a shuttle
?" Flack was incredulous. "
Go on holiday
? They'll see us, blue brains!"
Prez sighed. "No, they won't. This ship and its shuttles have a SigScram feature, built in by the Andrans for when they have to pass by the non-interstellar Salora system. What it does is effectively cloak the ship from particle scans, radar and any other primitive technologies. The ship doesn't actually disappear, of course. If you're standing looking at it, you'll see it. But we can use the planet's moon to hide the
Outcast II
from their telescopes. As for the shuttle, there are massive areas of this planet that are uninhabited, or completely lacking in technology. And don't forget, the shuttle is equipped for marine landing. And what do you see? Half of the planet is an ocean!" His eyes were sparkling with excitement. "We can do it! Are you in? Or do you want to turn tail to Andra and pick up some other tedious diplomat? That's not why we got this ship, my friends."
"I'm in," Vaxel broke the silence and grinned.
"Me too!" Glitch and Kris said at the same time.
A smile tugged at the corner of Flack's mouth. "Okay, you crazy bastard," he said. "I'm in. But I get first refusal on all the ladies."
Prez turned to Lan. "I'd like you... as the new
Research and Translation Coordinator
on board the
Outcast II
... to pull up everything you can find about the blue planet and the inhabitants, their culture, images, the lot. If there's
any reason
at all that you can find, why we shouldn't be able to visit, you must tell me. Right? You can use Glitch's station here on the bridge, when she doesn't need it."
Lan smiled. "I will find out everything there is to know about the planet."
"We're not going straight away?" Glitch made a face. "I was getting excited."
"No," Prez said. "We're making a brief stop first. But it's on the way."
"Where?"
There was a silence.
"Akilia," Prez said eventually. "There's a personal matter I have to... take care of. You can remain in the ship while I'm gone; you don't have to come down to the surface. It won't take long."
Lan noticed the crew glancing at each other, strangely knowing looks that he couldn't understand, but there were no protests.
"If there are no other questions... then let's get ready for the jump gate to Andra. And..." Prez turned to Lan and smiled. "Welcome aboard. I hope I don't have to say that to you again."
***
Akilia.
Even looking at it made Prez feel a wrench in his stomach. It was the only planet orbiting a tiny star, not a day's travel from Belaar where everything was big and bright and developed, where races from far and wide congregated to do business, the hub of life in the sector. Akilia was outcast, largely by choice, even though it had maintained nominal diplomatic relations with its neighbors. Spurned for its ethically dubious approach to its problems, the Akilian government had told the IPF in no uncertain terms to butt out and had gone its own way.
Most people assumed that Prez had been the one to name the ship because of what he was, but the ship had always been the
Outcast
. Garlo had named it long before, when he was still young and healthy and full of dreams. The only place he'd ever been, beyond Akilia, was the blue planet on the last ever test subject acquisition mission, and the trip had given him an appetite for travel. He'd loved his bolshie little planet with a fierce pride that Prez had never really understood, and was prepared to do anything to save it. The ship was Akilia, and Garlo wanted to take it to the stars.
Prez set the
Outcast II
in orbit and signaled the Space Flight Controllers of his intention to land a shuttle. There was no immediate response. He checked the date. The Closure was not far off. He thought of the baby he'd seen on the news and felt a lump form in his throat as he remembered the words the proud father had said.
The time for hate and retribution is over
. Chet, on the space station at Andra.
This traitor has slept with the enemy
: words that had made him shrivel inside. He didn't know how to feel about the whole situation, but he hoped there would be other couples like that, other babies born. Despite his ambivalence toward Akilia, he didn't want to imagine that little girl growing up alone.
"Are you okay?" Flack's voice shook him out of his thoughts.
"Sure."
They looked at the planet, each lost in their own memories.
Then a signal bleeped on the console; the Akilians had given permission to land.
"Okay," Prez said, and stood up. "I won't be long. Are you sure you don't want to come?"
Flack pulled a bag of Skits from the storage unit under the console. "Nah. I'm gonna watch some porn and think what beach wear I'm gonna get for our holiday. Thinking of a pair of
Ballhancer
shorts, what do you think?"
With a glance at Flack's fat belly, Prez smiled. "You'll be the hottest thing since Slush Packs."
"Hi
lar
ious."
Prez grinned and looked over at Lan, who was flicking though two different sources on the blue planet, one eye on the Tablet and another on the ship's computer archives. He didn't seem to mind being left out of the conversation when Prez and Flack switched to their compound language -- it had the best vocabulary they knew for swearing -- and he'd worked hard to compile the information Prez had asked for. There was so much now that Prez wondered if he'd ever live long enough to read it.
Lan's hair had grown quite long, falling down his back in thick curls, with some thin braids knotted at the bottom with colored beads. With the near constant eating he'd been doing since his brush with death, he'd quickly filled out more than ever, and his once-scrawny arms were now muscular and firm.
"Well?" Prez said, gesturing to the planet. "Are you coming?"
"Me?" Lan looked at him with both eyes.
"Yes, you."
"Do you not have... personal business?"
"I do. But... maybe you'd like to see Akilia before it closes. And I wouldn't mind some company."
"I will come."
"Okay."