For the Love of Gelo! (24 page)

Now he boarded the ship as the humans stared at him. Pizza gave a low growl.

“Would you be more comfortable hiding in the cargo hold?” asked Little Gus.

Taius said nothing as he took his seat.

The
Phryxus II
's thrusters rumbled as we climbed into the sky. Below us, the green world of Kyral shrank away as we flew back toward Gelo.

“E
xit the starship with your thol'grazes up!”

The hatch of the
Phryxus II
slid open with a hiss. I stepped out into the hangar, reaching toward the ceiling. Ornim and Chayl followed behind me, looking defiant.

“Um, we don't have thol'grazes,” said Becky, shrugging as she stepped out, followed by Nicki, Hollins, and Little Gus.

“Quiet, hoo-min!” yelled Sheln. The Chief of Council stood before us. Beside it was Zenyk, in full “Commissioner of the Guards” getup. The other three members of the Xotonian Council were there too, looking distraught. So were Eromu and a dozen other city guards who seemed embarrassed by our cold welcome. I sensed that things had somehow gotten even worse in Core-of-Rock since we left. Sheln pointed an energy blaster right at my head.

“Nice to see you too, Sheln,” I said.

“I'll thank you to refer to me by my proper title,” cried Sheln, “you insolent little—yaaaaargh!” Sheln shrieked and jumped backward—now involuntarily camouflaged—as Pizza disembarked from the ship. A few of the guards snickered.

“Apologies,” I said, scratching the thyss-cat behind the ears. “Nice to see you,
imperator
.” And I bowed, which prompted another chuckle from the guards.

“Everybody shut your gul'orps,” snapped Sheln. “I'm not imperator, I'm Chief of Council! And you, Chorkle, you don't even know how much trouble you're in. You stole a starfighter for some personal lark down on Kyral.”

“It was a rescue mission,” I said.

“No, it was treason! You disobeyed my orders in a time of war—during a
state of emergency
! I'll have you locked away for the rest of your life for it.”

“Oh, right. About that war,” I said. “Taius?”

The assembled Xotonians gasped as Taius stepped out of the ship, hands on his head. Several of the guards raised their weapons. He was indifferent though. He stared at the ground and repeated the lines I'd asked him to.

“Greetings,” he said in a flat monotone. “I am Taius Sovyrius Ridian, the legate who led the invasion of Gelo. As a representative of the Vorem Dominion, I'm here to declare that our war against you is officially over. We surrender.”

A hush fell over the assembled Xotonians, and they looked at one another, confused.

“Now does somebody want to arrest me or something?” said Taius. He sounded like he didn't particularly care either way. At last Eromu stepped forward and took him by the arm.

“You heard him,” I said to Sheln. “The war is over.”

“Wait just a minute!” cried Sheln, slowly grasping the implications. “He can't just—”

“And since it's no longer a time of war,” I continued, “I believe your state of emergency has ended too.”

“Guano!” sputtered Sheln. “Just because you trot out some Vorem to say there's no more war doesn't make it true!” It looked to the guards for support. They offered nothing.

“This legate has surrendered,” said Loghoz, shrugging. “Unless there is another Dominion representative who outranks him, we must accept his word.”

“No!” bellowed Sheln. “No, no, no, no! This is ridiculous. That's just one Vorem. The war's not over. Ask anyone. They'll tell you! The whole Dominion is still out there, waiting to attack us for the Q-sik. And speaking of which, Chorkle, I
command
you to give me the code to the Vault! I know you know it you—”

The rest of the Xotonians stared at Sheln.

“But, uh, let's not get sidetracked,” it said, perhaps conscious of how it was coming across. Sheln calmed its voice and continued. “Point is: Nobody needs to worry, the war is still going strong, folks.”

“Nope. We surrender,” repeated Taius.

“Who asked you?” snapped Sheln.

“Sorry, Sheln,” I said. “You too, Zenyk. I think your state-of-emergency appointment to Commissioner of the Guards just expired.”

“What?” said Zenyk, crestfallen. It wistfully regarded its medals and badges.

“Time to put away the Christmas decorations for another year,” said Little Gus.

“Nobody listen to Chorkle or the Vorem!” cried Sheln. “This is madness! The people will have something to say about this! They know the truth!” It waved back in the general direction of Core-of-Rock.

“How do you mean?” I said, feigning confusion.

“The rest of the Xotonians on Gelo! I'll gather them all together, and—and I'll call a Grand Conclave, and we'll see if
they
think the war's over!”

I smiled. Sheln realized too late that it had taken my bait.

“You're calling a Grand Conclave?” I said. “Fantastic.”

“No, I mean, uh,” Sheln stammered, “I didn't actually intend to say that, because I was actually—”

“Let the record show that the Chief of Council called a Grand Conclave!” said Glyac.

“Wait, hold on. You're putting words in my gul'orp. I said I
will
call one, not that I
am
calling one. And it was a figure of speech anyway. I'm sorry if it caused any confusion,” said Sheln.

“Loghoz,” said Dyves, interrupting it. “Tell us: Under the law, may the Chief of Council
un-call
a Grand Conclave once it has been called?”

“Most certainly not,” said Loghoz primly.

“Guano,” sighed Sheln.

• • • •

Three hours later, the Xotonian populace stood gathered in Ryzz Plaza at the center of the dark city of Core-of-Rock. Sheln cowered behind the other three members of the Council for safety. The crowd was angry. They called out complaints and curses and outright threats against the Chief of the Council. None of the guards even pretended to protect Sheln this time. Loghoz was having a difficult time quieting everyone down.

“Hey, Chork-a-zoid!” cried Linod, shoving its way through the crowd toward the humans and me.

“Linod-tron!” I said. “Any important news while we were away?”

“Absolutely!” cried Linod. “I found two new yeasts and this truffle that kind of looks like Gatas. My new fascinating fungi collection is really coming—whoa, check it out!”

Linod was pointing to Zenyk, who was standing nearby in the crowd. It was already dressed as a civilian again, as though it had never been elevated to a fictional rank within the city guard. Even Zenyk had abandoned Sheln. When it noticed we were staring, it muttered something and slunk off.

At last Loghoz quieted the crowd enough to begin. “By Great Jalasu Jhuk of the Stars,” it cried in a piercing voice, “let this, the eight hundred twentieth Grand Conclave of the Xotonian people, commence! The first to speak shall be Chorkle. . . .”

I greeted the crowd and recounted the events on Kyral—with a few key omissions, of course. The humans stepped in at points to help tell the tale. Little Gus was particularly excited to describe the contribution of Pizza, who had apparently defeated a hundred Vorem legionaries all by himself. The crowd gasped and many wept as they heard what happened to Kalac. I found it hard not to cry myself. But when they learned that we had recovered the nyrine quantum inducer, a huge cheer went up over the plaza.

Four resolutions were proposed that day. The first was to hold a new election for the position of Chief of Council in three weeks' time. In the interim, Loghoz, the Custodian of the Council, would assume the duties of the Chief. This passed almost unanimously. Loghoz cried a little and tried to give a speech but somehow got sidetracked and descended into an extended rant about the importance of proper hygiene. At some point, Glyac nodded off.

The second resolution was for the immediate release of Hudka and the dismissal of the charge of sedition that had been leveled against it. This too passed easily, though not with as many votes as the first one. Hudka had irritated enough Xotonians in its day that more than a few were happy to see it rot in jail for a while longer.

The third resolution proposed was for the immediate and permanent imprisonment of Sheln. Loghoz would not allow it to come to a vote, though, since Sheln had technically violated no law. I have no doubt it would have passed. I can't say for sure how I would have voted.

The fourth and final resolution was to hold a complete performance of the Jalasad the following day. At this, the crowd gave another wild cheer.

After the Conclave broke up, we proceeded to the Hall of Wonok for Hudka's release.

“I missed you,” I said.

“Eh, it's not the first time I've been arrested, and it won't be the last,” said Hudka as it gave me a big hug.

“Yo, Hudka!” said Little Gus. “You get any cool tattoos while you were on the inside?”

“Yup, I got one of me kicking your butt at Xenostryfe III.”

“That sounds like a very complicated tattoo,” said Nicki.

When we were alone, the humans and I told Hudka everything that had happened. This time we held nothing back. And this time I did cry when I spoke of Kalac's capture. Hudka cried too. It was the only time I'd ever seen it do so.

“Don't worry,” said my grand-originator, drying its eyes. “Kalac will be all right.”

“How can you be sure?” I asked.

Hudka stared at me. “Because it's got an offspring like you looking out for it.”

Just then, Eromu walked past us toward the hall. The guard captain was leading Taius Ridian by the arm. Taius turned, and for a second his red eyes met mine. I wanted to say something to him, but I didn't know what. He turned away, though, and the heavy doors closed behind him.

W
e looked out from the Observatory on a sea of lights twinkling in the darkness. We weren't looking through some telescope at the stars though. We were staring out a window, down upon Core-of-Rock. The nyrine quantum inducer had been successfully reinstalled, and the ancient reactor had hummed back to life. Again, the Stealth Shield concealed us from outsiders. The city glowed once more.

“It's kind of beautiful, isn't it?” said Becky.

“Yep,” I said.

“Are you guys talking about my hair again?” said Little Gus, sidling up to us.

“Nope,” said Becky, “I've never actually looked directly at your hair. I'm worried about retina damage.”

“Witty repartee!” said Little Gus. “We're having fun! I love it!”

Becky cocked her head and squinted at him. “Dude, you're a special case, you know that?” And she left to join the others.

Little Gus beamed. “You hear that, Chorkle?” he whispered, nudging me with his elbow. “She said I'm special to her.”

“Well, that's not exactly what she—”

“She. Said. I'm. Special. To. Her,” he repeated.

“She sure did,” I said, clapping him on the back. Gus smiled and nodded.

“Are you two ready?” asked Hollins.

We joined him and the twins in the center of the Observatory. Nicki was fiddling with the tachyonic ansible we'd recovered from Kyral, adjusting various nobs and sliders. Hudka stood beside her, “supervising” (acting as if it knew what was going on). So did Ydar, the High Observer, who was a nervous wreck.

The Observers had spent weeks studying the device's manual and connecting it to various power sources, intakes, and outputs within the Observatory. In fact, there was every indication that the chamber had held its own ansible once, but it had been deliberately removed. Still, the High Observer feared that activating the device would cause some irreparable damage to the other systems.

“I just need to make sure that the synchronistic convergence is set to zero,” Nicki muttered to herself.

“If possible, please set it
below
zero,” offered Ydar.

“Aw, lighten up, Ydar. It's all just stuff,” said Hudka, waving at the priceless technology that filled Observatory. “You can't take it with you to the Nebula Beyond.” Ydar was not comforted.

Nicki and the Observers had calculated Gelo's approximate distance and direction from Earth and calibrated the device accordingly. If the ansible functioned properly, it would transmit a message instantaneously, where it could be received as radio waves. Likewise, it could detect a reply along the same radio frequency. The humans' anticipation was palpable.

Becky took a deep breath. “So . . . shall we phone home?”

“Absolutely,” said Nicki. “I just hope this thing doesn't blow up.”

“Wait, what?” said Ydar. But she'd already activated the ansible. It made an oscillating whine as the screen lit up with red static.

“My dad is never going to believe it,” said Little Gus quietly. “I made soup on another planet.”

Nicki made one small adjustment to a particular dial, then nodded to Hollins. He began his familiar message: “Hello. This is Daniel Hollins, Nicole García, Rebecca García, and Augustus Zaleski of the Nolan-Amaral mining vessel
Phryxus
. We are safe on the asteroid Gelo, orbiting a habitable planet called Kyral, approximately forty-two light-years from earth. Is anyone out there? Over.”

There was silence.

Hollins began again. “Hello, this is Daniel Hollins, Nicole—”

“Did you say . . . forty-two light-years?” crackled the ansible.

The static on the screen resolved itself into a face. It was a human face, kind and female and somewhat more lined than the faces of the children. Tears shone in the woman's eyes.

“Hi, Mom,” said Hollins.

“Danny, you're alive,” she said. “I can't believe it. You're all alive.”

“Yes. And we're coming home.”

“No. No, Danny. Listen to me. You can't come home,” said Commander Hollins. “Not yet.”

The human children looked at one another.

“Why?” asked Hollins.

“Because,” she said, “Earth has been conquered.”