HMS Valediction

Chapter 13.3

Knuckles pulls up from his spot at the micro-holo-scope and swipes the images over to a larger monitor. He's right. An identical criss-cross fabric fills both panels of the screen. They look like a sloppy copy-paste job. "It's the same. You were correct. I have absolutely no way to distinguish between the two."

"Does that mean what I think it means?"

"They're consuming the Xani?" He eyes me skeptically. "Your mind is a labyrinth of unimaginable morbidity. I don't know how you came to that particular conclusion, but it's on a list of plausible hypotheses."

"That's all I need to hear. I'm correct."

He struggles with the corners of his cheeks that strain to remain frowning. "I'm still outraged at your behavior. Regardless of your stupid comments, I am finding it difficult to forgive you."

"People usually forgive me. Eventually."

He eyes me wearily. "How are you feeling?"

"I don't know yet." My fingers find the hem of my dress and pull the stitches apart.

"Stop that. No wonder no one has ever given you one of these things." He slaps my hand away. "So what do you mean?"

"Hayomo said there's going to be a restructuring."

"You're to be sacked, then?"

"Most likely."

Knuckles harrumphs quietly under the glow of the monitor. "Can't say I'm sorry to hear that. This entire journey, you have been on a mission to find the most creative method to perform your own destruction. If they wrapped you in silicon and stuck you in a secluded chamber with a marshmallow-lined membrane, I'd applaud their righteous logic."

John blinks blue lights from below his mechanical lobster belly.

"Your secret admirer thinks you're hilarious. I, however, wonder why I came down here in the first place. I don't need to be insulted. I have two thousand other people to go to for that."

"Ah, yes. I heard about that. Already. In the two hours I've been awake on this riveting day as we careen through space, I've heard rumors of the crooked commander who's sold us out the Xani for spare body parts in exchange for her omnipotence. She and her Xani master are out on the hunt for more innocent humans to maim and murder. I predict they will be projecting Commander Hayomo's face on the walls as a beacon for aid any day now."

I want to bang my head against the wall. All this after two hours?

We go our separate ways. John disappears into the angles of the ship and I head to the Nest sometime around Earth's noon.

After staring at the stars, I realize how futile and arbitrary it is to continue calculating the hours and minutes of Earth. Why not fully integrate into the solar systems' pre-designed numerics? It makes sense. For a second, I think about bringing this to Hayomo. Then I think better of it. Way better.

When I see her on the deck looking into the marketplace below, in perfect uniform, her hands behind her back and her chin in the air, I remember her words from before. Coodi stands behind her thinking all the things Coodi thinks while being as motionless as concrete.

"Good afternoon, Pama."

She acknowledges me with a slight movement of her eyes, checking me out in her peripherals.

We're equals, I remind myself. For now. "I think I may have the report of the century for you—" I push down the urge to bite my thumbnail out of nervousness. I know this intel is good, but I can see in her lock-kneed position that she's waiting for me to fail again.

I give her a chance to respond, but she doesn't even squeeze her jaw like I know she likes doing when she's irritated with me.

"First—I found out there's more than one Xani on the ship. I don't know specifically how many, but I know there's more than one."

"How do you know that?" She shifts, spreading her feet apart a little further.

"I heard them. It sounds like there are a few."

"And what would you like for me to do with this discovery, Lorn?"

"When we first embarked, you said it was just this single Xani and the ship. I want you to know in case whoever you're replacing me with has no idea how to handle the one we interact with let alone all of the ones hiding in the bulkhead."

"You aren't being replaced."

My hands drop. "Excuse me?"

"How is it that you have so many difficulties hearing me sometimes? Your health evaluations never mentioned you being deaf."

"I'm sorry—I thought you said there was going to be a restructuring. I thought you were going to demote me after my court-martialing."

"Although you broke Heedeem law, you did not break ours. There is nothing to court-martial you for."

"Then why the reorganization?"

"Because I have been informed my assistance is needed on another ARC."

Coodi inches closer behind us.

I step to Hayomo's side. "How did you get the intel?"

"While you were incarcerated on Heedeem, the ports connected me with an incoming message from an ARC that is close on our tail. They need my assistance with an alliance agreement. Apparently, there have been some issues with the arrangements. The hosts are not happy, and I must go to sort it out. I will be switched with another Commander from that ARC and you will continue the journey from there."

My hopes, dreams, aspirations and all other worldly mind-flips I can accomplish bombard me with the ringing of a thousand joyful bells. This is going to be amazing. I don't care who it is. Anyone is better than this torture with Hayomo. Anything will be favorable to this caution shirking from passageway to passageway. Maybe now there will be real partnerships, real planning, and real communication.

But I frown harder—for her sake. "ARC10 won't be the same without you."

She scoffs. "I can read you better than an OPLAN."

Behind us, Coodi steps away again.

"I have been informed that we will meet the ARC commanders at next planet port. There, we will make the exchange."

I don't know what to say. I don't know if she's thrilled or mad. This is great news for me until the ramifications hit me like a boulder to the collarbone.

"What are we going to tell the people? They love you."

"I will address them before disembarking. They are not losing me, they are gaining another. I will support from afar."

That sounds sweet, but it's not a possibility. We can't have inter-ARC communication unless within radio distance.

Hayomo never seemed to be a woman who got exactly what she wanted. As I watch her now, I see her as a stoic figure who accepts the punches as they come swinging at her head. She might dodge and weave to avoid impact, but I don't ever see her flinch. She's a machine. It feels weird to want to be like someone so heroic, but I do. Instead, I'm the pregnant witch with the crankshaft crab-dog.

She clicks away in that rapid gait of hers with her heeled boots on the metal floor. She ascends the ladder that hides her office and she shuts the door behind her, never signaling that she was on the move.

Coodi sidles up to me again and we wonder about the woman and the door together in our own ways. It's been a quiet day in ARC10, so we're left to our own thoughts for a heavy minute until we sputter to a cataclysmic halt.

"Xani!" One of the SCOPE techs shouts over the hum from the other soft-spoken operators. "Commander Lorn, we have a situation with a loose Xani encounter with a civilian."

We stride over to the console where I see who is distinctly John on the ceiling, poking at an elderly man who is waving a lead pipe at him, trying to shoo him away like a gooey rat. Someone must have spotted John and tried to take him out himself.

There's no one who can handle this but me. I roll my eyes, but sprint in the direction of the lift.