Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity (21 page)

"Wonderful night," said Shepherd.

"Quite." She smiled his way then looked back up. She studied the stars, what glimpses she could find through the cloud cover. "Say what you like about this planet, but its nights are beautiful."

"Rural Texas was beautiful, too. My father used to take me to Purtis Creek State Park when he was on leave from Fort Worth." Alistair's voice carried a genuine sadness but a joy, too, as he spoke. "We had this big, old telescope, an ancient thing really, and he would set it up on nights just like this, when the sky was filled with stars and everything was all quiet and dark. He taught me about the constellations, the movements of the heavens, everything. Even after I was done with school, even after I had kids of my own, we still did it. Every year until he died. So I started to take my son."

That was nice. "Well, now we have a whole new set of constellations to learn. But I tell you what; you should check the
Beijing
's computers. See if you can record as much of that knowledge for the future. We'll need it."

"Surely your ship has all the information about the stars that anyone could ever ask for."

Seeing something on the ship's computers was different than seeing it for herself. "You might be surprised what the holes in our knowledge are. Even if what you contribute isn't scientifically accurate, it's folklore. That's more valuable. We can trade with the Iilan for technology, but culture is the soul of our society. Without it, we're nothing."

"A fine sentiment."

Liao folded her hands in front of her. "So, how's the civilian population holding up?"

"Well enough," said Shepherd. "Things aren't easy, but we're Americans. For all our faults, and there are many, we come together as a community in a crisis. That's what makes us strong."

"I apologise for the earlier incident," Liao said. "Fear can drive people to do strange things."

"Had the circumstances been reversed, I have no doubt the same events would have played themselves out, with the Americans petitioning to divide the ship and an American captain also standing her ground, telling the two factions that they must remain united. Human beings are not so different the world over, Captain. For better or for worse."

"I agree, and it's something we should keep in mind. We have Iranians from the
Tehran
, Brazilians from the
Madrid
, Americans from the
Beijing
, and Chinese from the
Washington
… and a scattering of other nationalities reflected in the military forces dedicated to Belthas IV. And we all have to share the same resources. We've gone from hundreds of nationalities to a dozen, and that's going to take some adjustment. We might have seen the first time we try to segment ourselves again based on national lines, but we haven't seen the last."

"Agreed."

Silence pervaded for a moment.

"So," said Shepherd, mirroring her earlier tone, "how goes the war?"

She didn't know how to answer that. "Poorly. But Rowe has a little thing she's working on. I don't know how we're going to use it, but it certainly seems interesting."

"Let me guess," said Shepherd. "You'd love to tell me, but it's classified?"

"Actually, I'm not sure I see the logic in keeping this secret, especially not from you. We have a weapon we can't find a use for. It's called Lucifer's Gas."

Alistair shook his head disapprovingly. "Sounds ominous. We shouldn't use the name of the devil to aid us."

"It's fiendish stuff, from what my engineers tell me. It truly deserves the title. Honestly, a part of me just wants to dump it in the sea and forget about it, but it could be useful."

"Why don't you rename it?" asked Shepherd. "It might help inspire you if you think about it in a different light."

"Freedom Gas?" Liao grinned.

"Something like that."

"I don't know. I think it's just so awful that it should remain Lucifer's Gas. When the Toralii attacked us, some people considered them to be demons. Divine beings come to smite us for all our wrongdoings. Well, Sun Tzu said, 'To know your enemy you must become your enemy.'" Liao affixed a stare on Shepherd, one she hoped would communicate her meaning. "I want the Toralii to think that
we
are the demons."

Shepherd looked back up to the sky. "I was hoping we could prepare for peace, instead of more war. War hasn't brought us much luck so far."

Liao followed Shepherd's gaze upwards.

"Not so far."

Liao and Shepherd talked for a time about various petty things regarding the organisation of the civilian and military personnel, and then Shepherd was called away. Liao was impressed with how well he had taken to the role of community organiser. She had expected some friction between the civilian and military aspects of their government, but so far the system worked well.

So far.

She walked away from the ship towards the sprawling camp set up outside the
Beijing
. A metal sign on two massive struts proudly proclaimed the settlement to be Eden and listed some statistics for population. The most recent addition, the Toralii and the survivors from Belthas IV, had a handwritten note beside them.

Welcome
.

She went further out, to the tree line, and a crunching noise startled her. Two mechanical beasts, the constructs the Iilan had given her, dug out of the ground near her. They were smooth, articulated beetles with eight legs. As she watched, they both extruded a thin square of unrefined brown metal, then a similar, much thicker square of slag.

"Halt," she said. The machines obeyed, turning to her as one.

"Input directive," the nearest one said, its voice thin and synthetic. They stared at her with empty blue optics.

"State your purpose."

"Minerals. Gathering. Mining. Processing. Refining. Construction. Fabrication. Testing. Input directive."

The creatures made her skin crawl. Visually, they reminded her of Ben, but their mannerisms were so different. Ben was articulate. He moved like a living creature, swinging his claws this way and that, skittering around like a hyperactive child. These were inanimate husks.

Their hindquarters glowed like insects. She had seen that kind of glow before, in the datacores of the Toralii. These Iilan ones were much more advanced. Independent. The Toralii constructs were just drones, but the Iilan ones were not. They had their own minds.

This made them dangerous.

"You." She pointed to the leftmost construct, then to the rightmost. "Destroy that drone."

It went to work without hesitation, its wide mouth opening, a thousand tiny fangs gripping its brother. The doomed construct did not resist, did not struggle as its shell cracked, broke, then spilt its infinitely complicated circuitry on the ground.

The construct crunched its brother into broken hunks of metal then turned back to her. "Input directive."

Could she trust them? She didn't know. She knew, in her heart, that she had just destroyed a valuable asset. "Melt down the parts of this drone and create another."

"Processing." It sat there, thinking for a moment, then spoke. "Clarify intent."

"Create another copy of yourself from the local resources, including the destroyed drone parts."

"Processing."

Liao stared at the creature, almost willing it to say something, anything, that would betray a thinking mind. A living soul, plotting against them, teeming with emotions and anger just as Ben had been.

She would not permit another massacre to happen on the surface of Velsharn.

"Request acknowledged. Process will take fourteen standard Human hours. Confirm request."

"Proceed," said Liao. "Once the construction is complete, report to Summer Rowe with the new drone."

"Directive confirmed." The construct immediately turned and began to work. It impassively collected the damaged parts of its brother, funnelling them into its furnace and super-heating them, separating the glowing metals in a spinning centrifuge.

It was an impressive display of loyalty, but Liao doubted she could ever accept the presence of constructs as anything more than an emergency measure.

Ruminating on what she had seen, Liao wandered back through the camp, finding herself back in the
Beijing
's hangar bay. While crossing the dirt-smeared metal deck towards the inner bowels of the ship, a familiar face smiled at her through the crowd. Olivia. The girl's face was dirty, streaked with the grime of the outside, but she seemed happy when she saw Liao.

"Captain Liao," she said. "Hello!"

"Hello, Olivia." Liao was impressed with the child's resilience; the adults all around her were despondent, helpless even, but Olivia didn't seem to be affected by it.

That was how she had wanted her own child to be. Stronger than adversity.

"Did you take the book to Miss Rowe?" Liao asked.

"Yes, miss," Olivia said. "I took it there after Mr. Jul'aran's class."

"The Toralii language class? I'm glad to see you're attending. How is that coming along?"

"It's hard, but I'm starting to understand some words. They're going really slow, so we all have time to learn."

"That's good." Liao reached out and touched her hair. "Study hard, okay?" Her hand came away grimy. "And get a shower. You're all dirty."

"I can't. The showers are too busy most days, and there are too many people there."

"Why don't you go when it's not busy?"

"It's always busy."

Liao ran her finger through the girl's hair. It came away covered in grease and dirt. "How long has it been since you had a bath?"

Her scrunched up, confused face told her everything she needed to know.

"Here," said Liao, "come with me."

One of the privileges of rank was private amenities, which included a shower-bath. Liao lead Olivia back to her quarters, then stripped her down and ran the bath.

Olivia reacted to the billowing clouds of steam that rose from the porcelain bath with a fascination Liao found disturbing. It was wrong for a child to be deprived of sanitation as she had been. As soon as the water was an appropriate temperature, she helped Olivia inside.

Dirt pooled in the water, turning it brown, a seemingly endless trickle constantly running off her. Every time Liao thought Olivia was clean, some other part of her was exposed and found dirty.

"Are you actually made of dirt?" Liao asked, rubbing shampoo through Olivia's long hair, stubbornly trying to work the foam as deeply as she could.

"Maybe. There aren't many places to sleep, and the big kids and grownups take all the best ones."

"Do they now?"

"Yeah. Mr. Shepherd said that he'd look into it, but he's been super busy."

"But you're getting enough to eat?" asked Liao. "Fresh water?"

"Oh, yeah. There's usually fish and stuff, but I don't like rice, and it seems to be dinner every night."

Children could be picky eaters. Adults, too, but accommodating individual taste was currently impossible. "It's a common staple, and our ship has it in ample supply. It stores well and is high in energy."

"Yeah. My dad says that kind of thing a lot. We couldn't afford a lot of rich food back in Texas, but there was a job there, and so we had to move."

Liao's fingers worked across her scalp. "Where are you originally from?"

"All over the place. Mostly. My dad came to Texas looking for work. He kept me in school, even though I knew nobody. Said it was important."

"It was important. It still is important."

"But all we learn is Toralii. We don't learn math or anything. It's too short."

Olivia's hair was finally getting clean. Liao worked her fingers through it then began rinsing. "I'll talk to Mr. Shepherd," she said, Saara's words echoing in her ears. "And I'll see if we can get a proper school established. We're going to need educated people in the days ahead, especially when the current population gets old."

"But you're already old," said Olivia.

"Thanks, kid." Liao laughed and splashed her. "I meant, when I'm too old to run this ship and all the people in it."

"Yeah." Olivia's damp hair clung to her body as she looked up at Liao. "You're, like, old enough to be a mum."