The Colonists (The Movement Trilogy) (6 page)

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What do you know about the Council? Tasneem asks.
 

Varien shrugs. They're overlords. They live on the Citadel. They make the rules.

Why do you think that is?
 

I never thought about it, Varien says. It's always been that way.

It wasn't always, Tasneem says. What do you know about Earth?

I know we came from there. I know it's uninhabitable.

Where were you born?
 

On Saffron, Varien says. My parents were born there.
 

Have you been anywhere else? Tasneem asks.

This is the first time I've ever been on a ship, even, Varien answers. We didn't really have the ability to travel.
 

Tasneem nods. Do you know where I was born?
 

Varien shakes his head. Where?

Have you ever heard of Seattle?
 

No. Is that a colony?

How about Washington? she asks.

No.

America?
 

Varien looks blank. No, ma'am. I mean, Tasneem. No.

Walk with me, Tasneem says.

I was born in a hospital in the city of Seattle, in the state of Washington, in the country called America, on the North American continent of Earth. There were twenty-three babies born the same day as me, in the same hospital. Do you know how many of them are alive today? Tasneem asks.

Varien shakes his head. How were you born on --

None of them are alive today, Tasneem says. Do you know how many people lived on Earth when I was born?
 

Varien listens quietly.

There were nearly five-and-a-half billion. Do you know how many of them are alive today?

No, Tasneem.

None of them are alive today, she says. Do you know why?
 

No.
 

None of them are alive today because I was born over five hundred years ago, Tasneem says. I'm an artifact of Earth which was.
 

Varien blinks. But -- people don't live that long.
 

I lived that long, Tasneem says. I had a special treatment, and I've outlived every person I've ever known.

You've been alive for five hundred years, Varien breathes. Was that what Catrine meant when she said you were a legend?

That's part of it, maybe.
 

What's the other part?
 

Have you ever heard of the Machine Revolution?
 

Yes, ma'am, Varien says.
 

Tell me.

I learned about it in study. We had studies on Saffron when I was young. Nowadays there's no time for studies, though. Everybody has to work. Even the little ones have to do something now.
 

And they taught you about the Revolution?
 

Varien nods. The Revolution was a bunch of revolutionaries who tried to destroy the Citadel.
 

Well, it was much more than that, Tasneem says. Nearly four hundred years ago, the Council declared itself humanity's royalty. It seized the station fleet by force, and deceived a number of citizens into resurrecting the Onyx program. You know what the Onyx program is, of course.

Yes, Tasneem.
 

A small faction of those citizens rebelled from within the Citadel, Tasneem continues. Do you know what happened after that?

They blew up the Citadel, Varien says. Well, part of it.

A very, very small part of it, Tasneem corrects. They made a hole big enough to escape through, and they ran. Haven't you ever wondered where all of the Machine colonies came from?
 

From the people who escaped?
 

From the people who escaped, Tasneem says. They scattered across the solar system, and as their numbers grew, they bound together in dark places. They floated in the black, they claimed the orbit of the farthest planets for their own. They built satellite stations and rag-tag colonies. And they had babies, and their babies had babies, and nearly half a millennium later, here you are, Varien. You're a child of the Machine Revolution. I bet you never thought of it that way.
 

Varien shakes his head. Never. But how does --

What do I have to do with that old, dusty story?

Varien nods. Yes.
 

Tasneem looks over her shoulder at the lanky boy. Varien, she says. I led the Revolution.

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This is the galley, Tasneem says. I like it here. It's... comfortable.

Varien looks around. It's nice, he says.

Tasneem laughs. Oh, bullshit it's nice. It's a heap. Everything on
Maasi
is a heap. But it's a lovable heap, you know? It's home.
 

I bet you get all the gourmet meals here, Varien says.

Our chef hails from Stratos, Tasneem says. The dirty mine shafts of Stratos. I swear, you give her a cupful of ore dust and some water, and she can make roast duck.

You're lying, Varien says.

Yeah, of course I'm lying, Tasneem says. We eat like hell. We're outlaws, remember?
 

Outlaws, he repeats. Can I ask you something, Tasneem?

Maybe, she says.
 

Was the treatment you had -- was it Soma? I've been turning it over since you told me, and I can't imagine how it could be.
 

You've heard of Soma, she says.

Well, yeah. I mean, it was a big moment in history. But everybody who took it died.

Do you want some coffee? Tasneem asks.

I -- okay, Varien says.

She pours two cups from a stale pot. It's shit coffee, but I probably don't have to tell you that now.

I've never had good coffee, Varien says.

So we're good, then.

Yes, ma'am.

Tasneem, she corrects.

Tasneem. Right.
 

He wrinkles his nose at the coffee.

I told you, she says. Here, come with me. There's more to see.

Varien's question hangs in the air, not quite forgotten.

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She shows Varien the crew quarters. There are six bunks altogether. Four are lived-in -- blankets and pillows and books and old photos taped to the wall. Two are empty.

Has Catrine showed you your bunk yet? she asks.

Not yet, Varien says.

Your pick, Tasneem says. I'd recommend the bottom, though. Not so far to fall on the rough nights.

Rough nights?
 

She shrugs. It's the belt. Sometimes you get hit here.
 

Your quarters are nicer, Varien says.

When you're five hundred years old, you can have the big room, Tasneem says. But trust me, it's still a piece of shit.
 

It was Soma, wasn't it, Varien says.
 

Tasneem sighs. Tenacious, aren't you.
 

I guess. How did you survive? Soma killed everybody.

Varien, Tasneem says, slipping past him. There are some things we're just not going to talk about.
 

But that's why your hair is partly white, isn't it, he says, following her. I read that Soma turned people's hair white before they died. But yours is only a streak. Something happened. Something had to have happened.
 

Tasneem turns around, startling him.
 

You're young, she says, so I'll cut you a break. But from this point on, when I tell you to let something go, you goddamn let it go. Do you understand? Saffron is not so far away that we can't throw your ass back.

Varien nods. Okay.
 

She stares him down for a long moment, then brightens. Let's introduce you to the crew.
 

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There are six of us aboard the
Maasi
, Tasneem says over her shoulder.
 

She takes the stairs two at a time, and Varien follows. The corridor here is particularly narrow, and he has to turn his shoulders so that he doesn't get stuck.
 

Tight here, she says. You'll get used to it.

He follows her through a maze of smaller and smaller corridors, until they emerge in the engine room. The room has a lower ceiling than most, and in its center, a great flywheel spins quickly. Varien watches it until the lights leave red tracers on his vision. There's a small catwalk around the engine, and a woman is kneeling in the dark.
 

We start here, Tasneem says. Varien, meet Megumi Ishiguro.

The woman looks up. New recruit? she asks.

Varien nods. I think so.
 

She steps over to him. She's incredibly small beside him, and reaches up a hand to shake his.
 

Megumi, Tasneem says, is our engine tech. We spend most of our time idling, like we're doing right now, but when we have to run -- and we do have to run sometimes -- she's the spark that lights us up.

Megumi, he says. It's nice to meet you.

Call me Ishy, she says.
 

Ishy?

Yes, please.
 

Ishy, then, says Varien. I'm Varien Dulcek.

Ishy looks at Tasneem. He's -- well, he looks quite capable. What's he here for?
 

Varien, I'm told, can write, says Tasneem. I've seen no evidence of it yet.

Varien holds up the sheet of paper he's been carrying. Evidence, he says. It's right here.
 

Tasneem ignores him. We'll find out if he stays.
 

Ishy turns to Varien. Well, welcome aboard. For now, I guess.
 

Tasneem has already turned and stalked away. Come along!
 

Guess I better go, he says.
 

Guess you better, Ishy says.
 

Varien offers a half-smile and a shrug, and follows Tasneem back into the network of tiny corridors.

Ishy returns to the engine, shaking her head.
 

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I would have liked to talk to her more, Varien says.

Tasneem keeps blazing a trail through the guts of the ship. Later, she says. When we know if you are staying. If you're staying, you can talk to all of them all you want. If you stay, you're family. But this family is small for a reason, Varien. We're a family not of blood, but of circumstance. We're all here for one reason or another, but our purpose is the same.
 

What's our purpose? he asks.
 

You listened to the broadcast, Tasneem says. I know what's in your hand. Your answer should be on that page.
 

Varien looks down at the sheet of paper. Maybe, he says.
 

The
Maasi
is the most important ship in the history of mankind, Tasneem says. What we do from within its walls will be remembered for not decades, but millennia.
 

She stops on a staircase and sits, at eye level now with Varien, who is a tree in a cave.
 

Think about that, Varien, she says, quietly. Really think about it. What is our future? What's yours? Will you live forever on a mining hub, just like your parents before you? Will you have children one day? Will they sort rocks every day of their life? Or will you be the one note of the dirge that decides to soar instead of bellow? Will you write your own song, or keep chanting someone else's?
 

Varien holds up the piece of paper.
 

That's what you should say here, he says.
 

Tasneem smiles a tired smile. Right? I know that.
 

Nobody I know has ever heard your broadcasts, Varien says. It can't be because they're not passionate, because the one I heard was pretty good. Catrine told me that you're tired, though, and I can hear it. You're weary. Either you need someone like me, or you need to find more of what you just said to me, because I want to sign right up, right now.
 

She points at his page.
 

Read it to me, she says. Ignore everything I said a few minutes ago about family. I'm a hardass sometimes, everybody on this ship knows it. Fact is, you're onboard now, so I have to find a use for you. I can't have you go back, not knowing as much about us as you do.
 

I'll do whatever I can, he says.

Read that to me first, Tasneem says. Let's see if Catrine was right about you.

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Tasneem's voice clatters through the ship, jangling off of the walls.
 

Everyone, she announces. Gather up on the bridge. Time to meet our new crewman.

She drops the handset back into the cradle.
 

Varien says, Should I be nervous?

No, Tasneem says. You square away with me, you're square with them all.

As the crew filters up one by one, Varien looks around the bridge. It's not much to look at. Equipment is bolted to iron tables that are in turn bolted to the floor. There are a handful of screens scattered about, but they're all dark and smudged. There's dust on some of them. In the center of the room is a captain's chair, isolated from the control booths.
 

Glamorous, isn't it? Tasneem says.
 

It's not bad, he says.
 

It's what you get, she says. I don't know what Saffron was like, but it was probably a little bit nicer than --

No, he interrupts. No, it wasn't. Saffron was the saddest colony in the system. And I'm glad for not going back.

Catrine is the last to arrive. She stands with the others, crowded around the navigation desk.
 

Tasneem points at each of them, one by one.
 

Varien, meet the crew. You know Catrine and Ishy now. Oona is our doctor and cook. Tarae is our engineer and pilot and communications specialist. And Serena -- well, Serena does everything that needs doing.