Dressed in grey ceremonial uniforms, the four youths of the Freiheitssuchender Squad and their instructor waited patiently for the smooth, glossy horizontal linked obelisks gliding across a narrow strip that ran parallel to the platform they stood on. As Gerlachus had explained to Joakim, the vehicle was called a train.
The three soldiers with Titanian blood wore grey berets on their heads, while Joakim and Malin had to wear breathing masks with clear visors that covered the front and top of their heads, their biology unsuited for the moon’s environment.
The Solich Castle loomed in the near distance. Joakim found it strange how quickly he had been made to move around in recent months. As much as he hated to admit it, he was getting used to living there.
The journey by train took a short time of around 25 minutes, even though the journey was a harrowing 20-leagues in distance. It took them to the Xanadu region of the moon, where they passed by mighty cryovolcanoes, and lakes of ammonia, water and methane both deep and shallow. Every so often, small encampments could be seen on the edges of a massive impact crater that was parallel with the track for a significant duration of the journey. With Joakim’s limited view of Titanian life, he guessed that they did not belong to the aliens, who lived a technologically and socially superior way of life in comparison to Terrans.
“Slaves.” someone whispered as he gazed out the large windows of his cabin.
“Huh?” Joakim said, slightly startled. He turned to see Malin peering at the same sight as him with no concern on her face.
“I came from those encampments,” she said, pointing outwards. “The only reason I’m here is because it’s better than being out there.”
“Earth is a better place, though. There aren’t only two options.” he said.
“If Earth was an option, my parents would’ve fought harder when they were getting shipped off that rock in space," she unexpectedly snarled. "They didn’t care enough to fight, so here I am now.”
“Hey, hey… I didn’t mean it like that. Your parents were slaves? I’m sorry--
“You would’ve been one too if the General didn’t take such a liking to you. Why does it matter to you. anyway?” Malin said nonchalantly before walking away from the window, ignoring Joakim’s comments.
“Malin, wait!” he cried, before a hand put itself on his shoulder.
“Don’t mind her, Joakim,” the Frei Squad’s usual voice of reason, Lucia, said. She took a seat beside Joakim. “She’s always been like that.”
“Oh, it’s you. Yeah, I think I get it,” Joakim said, speaking monotonously in an attempt to lose interest from the girl who always tried to make sure everyone else’s business was hers as well. “Thanks.”
“No, I don’t think you get it. You wanted to know where about her background, who she is, yeah? That’s why you tried to keep your conversation going?”
“I was just… curious.” Joakim shrugged.
“Is it really that, though? I saw that look in your eyes before. You wanted to know if there was a connection between you two.”
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about, Lucia.” Joakim sighed.
“Maybe it’s because… she’s a full-blooded Terran like you. You miss talking to people who look like you. I know that because before you came here, there were two other Terrans who trained with us, but they left on a mission. They had that look in their eyes too.”
Joakim’s heart beat faster as he heard those words. Were they really true? Was what Lucia said resonating with him?
“If that’s what you think, then I don’t see why it wouldn’t be true. Now could you leave me alone, please?”
“Fine. But let me tell you before you talk to her again -- she’s not like you. She’s never been on Earth; she was born in those mines. You only relate to her on the outside. If you do want to know her better, look inside of her.” Lucia said, before parting ways with Joakim, even though she’d only be going to the next cabin over.
--
After departing the station that connected to Xanadu Spaceport via tunnel, the Frei Squad entered a terminal that was specifically allocated for military use. The terminal housed hundreds of gates, where soldiers leaving for and coming from facilities across Titan and even as far as Mars and Terra went in and out of. The main military installation, Fort Ninon, was about a half-hour drive from the headquarters, so this mixed-use spaceport was something of a secondary hub. The likes of the Frei Squad were not permitted to use the empire’s most prestigious military transport kernel, where all authorized Light Pillars departed from.
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As they approached the gate that would take them to the Craft traveling to Earth, Instructor Gerlachus made an announcement.
“You will all have 10 minutes to have whatever words you to have with your kin.” she said with her dominant yet calm voice.
A guard opened the door to the gates where seven people were waiting for the squad. They were surrounded by a dozen Titanian soldiers wielding weapons with live ammo.
Sindri, who had been quiet for nearly the entire journey rushed to his parents, embracing them tightly in a hug.
“Don’t push yourself too hard, son,” Mr. Fabricius, a fairly uncommon example of a pure-Titanian Martian said. “They’re only Terrans.”
“Oh, I wish,” Sindri jokingly sighed. “But we’re not going to fight.”
“You still won’t change your mind?” Sindri’s mother, who was full-Titanian in blood just like her husband and son said. “War isn’t a Martian thing. This all still troubles me, you joining the military. And a specialised squad, no less.”
“Don’t worry, Mother,” he said. “I won’t be just another Martian when I come back. Remember that.”
“Our son will be why our planet will no longer be the laughing stock of the Empire,” Mr. Fabricius said, putting his hand on top of his wife’s. “Trust in him.”
Meanwhile, Malin ambled towards the only person seeing her off, her mother. The woman quickly went in to squeeze her daughter, but it took a few moments for Malin to return the action.
“Be happy, sweetie. You’re going back to our home world. You’ll get to see where your father and I grew up. That’s great, isn’t it?”
“Earth has nothing to do with me, Mum. That’s your home… the one you and Dad left. All I’m doing is fulfilling my part of the contract that got me out of those mines.”
“Don’t say that, Malin! It’s… so much more complicated than that. You know that. You can’t just be reducing your—our lives to contract terms. You and I are so much more than that. And so was Dad.”
“But… I got you out of the mines. Isn’t that what you always wanted? Mum, it is you who should be happy.”
“How can I be happy… when my little girl is about to leave me again for the millionth time?”
“You get to live another day outside of those trash heaps. That was what Dad wanted. That’s what you want, too.”
“You don’t understand, Malin,” Mrs. Schenk said as she slowly pulled away from her daughter, proceeding to caress her cheek. “You still don’t understand.”
Lucia was being embraced by her father and younger brother. Despite being about a foot taller than her Terran father, she was like a little girl in his presence as they sat on one of the benches side-by-side, resting her head on his shoulder. Her 12-year-old brother, who was going through a reverse process of aging compared to his sister where he gained more Titanian features, sat on her other side. He rested his chin on his fists, admiring the experiences being recounted by his sister.
“…and the pillars of the great hall nearly crumbled!” she exclaimed, but in a hushed tone.
The grey-bearded, thin man chuckled.
“So how did you end up saving yourselves?” he asked.
“Oh, Malin just patched them up herself,” Lucia said, her gaze briefly shifting towards the girl whose mother was having a difficult time dealing with her sheer indifference. “Her specialty’s reshaping and building stuff using just her Reserve.”
“Ah, I believe you did tell me about that the last time I saw you.” Mr. Ruders reminded.
“It’s been almost a year, Father. I thought you’d forget.”
Her father was an older man, approaching his 70s. Time wasn’t on his side, and his decades on Titan didn’t help him. He’d lived through multiple reigns of Titanian Emperors, yet only in the most recent did he have any semblance of freedom from the harsh mines.
“Father makes me remember everything you tell him, you know,” Lucia’s brother said. “I’m like his living journal.”
“That’s so sweet of you, Launo.” Lucia smiled, rubbing her hand through his medium-length hair, where streaks of blonde were laced through his reddish-brown scalp.
“Lucia,” Mr. Ruders said, his awareness still very impressive despite his age. “Who is that child over there? I don’t think I’ve seen him before.”
His eyes were locked onto Joakim, who sat alone at a bench, staring at the floor in front of him with his head in hands. He was all alone. No one had come to see him off.
“That’s Joakim. Would you like to meet him? He’s Terran, from Earth. I think you’d be fond of him.”
“Of course,” Mr. Ruders grinned. “Wave him over.”
Without hesitation Joakim approached the Ruders family at Lucia’s request. Mr. Ruders insisted on standing up to shake Joakim’s hand, so Launo offered himself as a support so his father could get to his feet.
“It’s good to see a new face here, son,” he said, extending his hand. “I’m Lucia’s father.”
“Hi.” Joakim responded simply, lightly shaking Mr. Ruders’ hand.
“Say, you’re a Terran from Earth, aren’t you? You grew up there.”
“Yeah, I am.”
The elder man’s hand trembled as he pulled it gently from Joakim’s hand. The truth was, he wished to hold on to Joakim for as long as he could. He had not met a young Earth-born Terran in decades, but a look from one of the guards told him that the Terran gesture was not welcomed within the gates.
“Oh… your accent says it all. I haven’t encountered a Terran from Earth your age in so long. I… feel something that I haven’t felt in years.”
“Father, you should sit down.” Launo kindly reminded, aware that his father’s years of hard labour left his body worse than it used to be.
“No, I’m okay… Joakim, I get the feeling that you don’t want to have a prolonged conversation, and that’s fine. But… I’ve had a question that’s been bothering me for a very long time.”
“Ask away.” Joakim consented.
“Do they remember us?”
“S-Sorry? Does who remember who?”
“The ones that the Titanians left behind. Do they remember us, the ones they so cruelly snatched away?”
The slaves. Mr. Ruders wanted to know if anyone talked about the slaves taken from Earth, if they mattered to the people still there. But the truth was, Joakim hadn’t known that slaves existed until only months prior, due to the protection of his parents. So, naturally, he only had one answer.
“No,” he said. “They don’t.”