Aynsefian

“Nikse?”

“Yes, Axin?”

“Why did you – why did she – come back for us?”

“She didn’t want you or the Purlinians to die. Especially the Purlinians. She said that was the whole reason she took you out of Melcheisa. For them. I think she likes you too and I think I know why. She talked about her brother a lot. You look a lot like him, she said. Apparently they were really close.”

“Were?”

“He died a few years ago, she said. His death was ruled an accidental overdose of a recreational drug, but she says he would never take drugs. She knows that absolutely. She suspects he found out some things and the MGC silenced him.”

“What things?”

“Spiritual things. That’s all she would tell me.”

“Hmmm. There’s a lot more to this than it appears.”

“Indeed.” Nikse’s tone signals the end of the conversation, for now.

I need to talk to Zarasena directly. If I can summon the courage. I’m fully dressed now and quite hungry. As I think of food, my stomach actually rumbles. I’m now really looking forward to one of Nikse’s meals. I have literally dreamed of them in the past week.

“Nikse, can you…”

“…make you a morning meal? I most certainly can, my dear.”

There it is. However the tone is subtly different. It’s spoken in a friendly way, rather than a familiar, romantic one. That said, I still feel like I want to deal with this issue too.

“I cried for you, Nikse. For two whole days.”

“I know.”

“You were… How?”

“I just know you. It would have been painful for you, losing me.”

“It was. But you and I both know we must move on.” It‘s amazing to me that it was so easy to say those words.

She hums. It’s a short hum, and more of an assent to what I just said, rather than something done to calm me.

With that, our conversation stops for now and I find my way to the eating quarters. It’s larger than her old ship and the Purlinians are already there and eating. There is no sign of anyone else. We are being left in peace for now. Nikse has already prepared my meal. It’s vegetarian, it’s steaming and it is perfectly arranged. Just how I remember it.

Arlyss and Cindlyss greet me with warm looks, their eyes shining. Their meals are halfway consumed and they have clean clothes on too. They look like their old selves again. So much so that I never realised how much the ordeal of the past week had affected them. Their skin appears brighter, almost a deep aqua, and radiates more life. It must have gradually dulled with the exhaustion and lack of regular food and water, and I never noticed the change. It gladdens my heart to see them well again.

After our meals are consumed, Nikse conducts a medical examination on all three of us. It’s the first time she’s really had to examine me when I’ve been unhealthy. She apologises for not working as well with her new instruments as with the old ones. It takes longer. She tells me she is also working with the Purlinians at the same time, in the other medical bay on the lower deck. They are mostly fine, she says. They have lost weight and are undernourished.

The same applies for me. I tell her about my fall. She examines my shoulder and says that there is evidence of a tear, but it looks like it was fixed years ago. I told her what actually happened. She’s astonished. She never knew Arlyss and Cindlyss had that in them.

After my medical examination, Nikse gives me the all clear, and I am walking back into the communal area in the centre of the ship. Zarasena and her crew are waiting for me as I walk in. They silently regard me, as I do them. Zarasena is clearly waiting for the Purlinians before she speaks to us.

All thoughts of killing her and escaping are now long gone. Now I want her to talk. The Purlinians enter the room and take a seat. I turn towards the red-haired, quite attractive woman sitting opposite me. I’m feeling better and better about her, but still needing and wanting answers.

Instead of Zarasena, Jinekali speaks instead, surprising me.

“Mr. Fernea,” he says. “Tell me about your galaxy.”

His voice is cultured and educated, and he enunciates his words perfectly. His voice is quite pleasant to listen to, and I’m immediately struck by his quiet decency. I feel as if I want to match his intelligent tone, just to show him that I can.

“Hynetherine? It’s quite small and only has a few hundred million stars. It’s also very young and therefore there are not many habitable planets.”

“Oh yes, I know this already. Thank you for the confirmation. What I really want to know is, what is it like.”

I think I get his question now. I feel a bit foolish. Not for the first time today.

“We don’t have a galactic council, if that’s what you mean.”

“You’ve been chatting to Nikse, haven’t you, Fernea?” I wish Zarasena wouldn’t call me that. Then again, I’m enjoying hearing her voice again. Even if I don’t want to admit it.

“Did you expect me not to, Captain Fen?” Ha. I’ve gotten one up on her there.

“Walked into that, didn’t I? No, of course not. But maybe now you can understand our actions.”

“Yes, to some degree, but what I don’t get is why you are able to be here now, talking to us, and the MGC isn’t taking any action.”

“Ah, yes. You see, the life of an IR crew is pretty lax, most of the time. When there’s no incidents, they leave us alone and we just bide our time, waiting for reprobates to do dumb shit, and then we pounce on them and have some fun.”

I literally recoil in my chair at this. She can’t be serious.

“Joking! I’m just joking! Come on, Axin, lighten up a bit, yeah?”

“There’s another reason, Mr. Fernea.” I kind of like Jinekali’s formality. I’ve really only just met him and I’m warming to him already. “This cave offers protection from any outside detection capabilities that the MGC has. Something in the mineral composition of the rock disables all attempts to detect life or movement within it.”

“You’re worried about them checking on you?”

“For sure. As you might have guessed,” answers Anathusa, “none of us here are big fans of our employer.”

I glance at Lanemu. He hasn’t uttered a word so far. I wonder if he’s like my companions and doesn’t speak much. It seems so.

Anathusa picks up on my unspoken question. “No, not him. He’s along for the ride. He doesn’t count. It’s just the three of us.” She glances over at Zarasena.

“So how did you know we were in here?” I ask, looking at the Purlinians. They are listening intently and, as always, looking like they are following everything without any trouble. No puzzled expressions, just total understanding. Cindlyss in particular is following quite intently, their brow furrowing a little in concentration. I love that their skin is back to its beautiful bluey-green colour. They look healthy again, as does Arlyss.

“It was logical, Mr. Fernea. We went to where we dropped your ship, found no evidence of life, and then 84U tracked you to the mouth of this cave. The rest was easy.”

“So Jinekali – you’ll forgive my lack of formality, I hope, as I don’t know your last name – “

“Suen.”

“So, Mr. Suen, why didn’t … 84U bring you in here? Why did… Nikse do it?”

“84U has to stay out there, where the MGC can track it, so that they don’t think anything is awry. Nikse wanted to greet you anyway.”

“Jinekali is actually my engineer if you haven’t figured that out yet. He is a significant part of the plan.”

“Plan? Now we’re getting somewhere. I hope our banishment and near-death struggle justifies this plan. We nearly died!”

“Yes I know… well, I can imagine, and I’m sorry about that.” Now it’s just Zarasena and I again. Everyone else fades from my awareness when I’m talking with her. “84U calculated that you had a 97% chance of survival if we left you for a week.”

“97%? How? It was far more difficult than that!”

Jinekali responds. “84U never anticipated you would leave the ship. You had water reserves on board, and emergency food supplies, or so he thought. Turns out he got that wrong. He’s an excellent ship, but he’s not perfect.”

Zarasena continues. ”We were gravely worried when we didn’t find you inside of the old Nikse. There was no way we meant you harm. We’ve been responsible for enough deaths already and our collective consciences are at their limit. You were the ones we wanted to save.”

There it is. If Nikse hadn’t warned me, I’d be shocked.

“But … why?”

Zarasena looks over at Arlyss and Cindlyss while she’s answering me. “You’re a nice guy, Axin, I knew that right away. It hurt to banish you and not tell you why. But these two…”

She looks back at me and I nod slowly. I get it. They’re too special. I’ve already seen that. There’s more, I think. Perhaps the IR84U crew know about Aynsefian too. I suspect Zarasena knows how to communicate with them, but she’s not letting on. Not yet.

“Bottom line, Mr. Fernea, is that we did not expect your level of resourcefulness and courage in facing the planetary surface conditions,” says Jinekali. “That was a metaphorical spanner in the works. I’m impressed. If you can survive out there in those conditions, you’re capable of just about anything.”

“Thank you. I just did what I thought was best at each turn. I feel foolish for getting myself into this situation in the first place.”

“We are glad you did, actually.” Anathusa smiles for the first time, but only a faint smile. She strikes me as a quite serious person, so it’s nice to see she can be pleasant. The smile lights up her face and her eyes sparkle. She actually seems like a lovely person. She’s caught up in a quite serious situation. I get that.

“This is all starting to make sense now. Thank you all for your openness. One thing troubles me, though. You said you were responsible for…” I trail off and can’t finish the sentence. I can’t bring myself to imagine that these three seemingly nice people have actually killed and banished people, like they pretended to do with me.

Zarasena looks over at Anathusa, who sighs. “We tow the MGC line, more or less. Or we used to until a week ago. Mostly we disposed of galactic pirates and species that we’d never seen before. We’ve seen a few humans, but not many. Usually they’re desperate types. Criminals and such. You were the first scout ship we’d seen. Hence the reason Zarasena saved your ship’s AI. She wanted to find out what you were up to.”

Now Zarasena looks grave. “You see, Fernea, you kicked off our plan, without us really being ready for it. We had to take the chance now, and our lives are in danger, but enough is enough.”

“In danger? How?”