“So…” Mr. Glynn said on the side of a long table, which in truth was three rectangular tables pushed up against one another. He was a large man, although not as physically imposing as his son, with a thick brown-blonde beard. “Why don’t you tell us about what happened there?”
“Well, that’s a broad question, isn’t it, Pa?” Meinrad chuckled. He was seated at the head of the table, with the rest of the chairs occupied by Launo and his father Cormac, Klaudia’s parents and her sister Eveline, and Malin’s mother. The other two residents of the building, Sindri’s parents, were not present at the dinner welcoming one of the two youths who had signed away their lives to free them from their servitude—although for them, it was more about prestige rather than social status. They were seldom present for any event held by their neighbours, a consequence of the abhorrence of Terrans they’d harboured for their entire lives.
“Well…” Meinrad’s mother, who shared his raven-black hair and hazel eyes, said in thought. “Why don’t you start with the people. How are they like?”
“The people…? Oh, they’re all a little different from each other. But that massive, icy area that takes up the upper part of the northern area, the people there are… crude, to say the least. They are very proud of their homeland. When we landed there… I swear all they could talk about was how they’d managed to live there for millennia and thrive in the everlasting tundra. If only they knew where Klaudia and I lived… they wouldn’t dare have that pride in their voices.”
Daniel Glynn glanced at his wife, who had a frown of her own. The land they had been plucked from two decades earlier was still the same, but none of the people they loved remained. They had all been taken to Mars and Titan and slowly died over the years. Only a few original Glacial Landers, but mostly migrants from north Yeupis proper and their descendants, still lived there after Emperor Henrik’s brutal massacres and displacements.
“How did… how did you two find living there?” Phoebe Glynn asked.
“We were only there for a couple of months to acclimate to Terra,” Meinrad answered. “We were also required to observe the people. The Instructor was worried that what you all taught us wasn’t adequate. Anyways… all I wanted to do was leave. Ma and Pa, I know you were born there, but I did not want to stay a second longer than I had to.”
“I—I see.” Phoebe said, a slight quiver to her voice. Daniel noticed it immediately and rubbed her arm in comfort.
“What about further south, in the northern mainland?” Launo asked. “Father, that’s where you’re from right?”
“Yes,” Cormac Ruders answered. “I am. How were those people like, Meinrad?”
“Those ones… they aren’t quite as community oriented. I noticed that people move between towns more frequently. But they too were quite boastful. They never stopped talking about how their new resistance was finally going to beat the Titanians. They thought that this would be the last one they’d have to form, because after that, the Titanians would finally be gone forever. Well, that’s what they believe. But… lucky for us, because of them it was quite easy for us to locate the resistance.”
“What did you do next?” Launo asked in awe. “Did you beat them all up and send them running away?”
Meinrad laughed, noting the boy’s innocence. He reminded him of another half-Titanian young man he knew.
“Oh, I wish it was that easy,” he answered. “But no. Klaudia and I had to infiltrate their army. We had to stay quiet for a year. We were good at it, I guess, but Klaudia was definitely better than me. We wore the same clothes as them, we ate the same food as them, we slept alongside them. Yet, I never let myself feel as though I were one of them. We had orders. The only one I didn’t follow through with was reporting the resistance leader’s location back to the instructor as soon as we located them. Truth be told, I… wanted to toy with them a bit.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“It’s a shame Klaudia isn’t here,” Malin’s mother sighed as she took a bite of a piece of carrot on her fork. The instructor had gone out of her way to request produce in its original form be shipped so that the Terrans in the Frei Squad’s ‘home’ could celebrate the arrival of their loved ones fully. “This is about her, too.”
“Oh, don’t worry about her, Esfir,” Gemma Nordskov smiled. “She doesn’t take to travelling through space too well.”
“All she needs is a couple days of rest, and she’ll be good as new.” her husband Ignaas added with an amused grin.
“Meinrad,” Eveline, a normally timid young girl who would normally keep quiet at gatherings said. “Did Klaudia make any friends there?”
“Did she make any friends?” Meinrad muttered. He was stumped. He knew Eveline was aware of her sister’s aggressive demeanor, but if he told her about her relationships with Anwen and Detlef—especially the latter—questions would’ve been raised. If it was found that either he or Klaudia compromised their mission, they all would’ve been sent back to the mines, perhaps even worse.
“Yeah. You said you guys were there for a long while. I wonder how she spent that time.”
“Eveline, sweetie, Meinrad just got back,” Gemma reminded her younger daughter. “And what if he doesn’t talk want to talk about? Who knows what the boy’s seen.”
“We apologise, Meinrad,” Ignaas sighed. “This is probably a lot for you all at once, is it?”
“No, Auntie Gemma and Uncle Ignaas. It’s fine, really. I think… this is something I need to get off my chest,”
He sighed. The Nordskov couple had looks of pity on their faces, but they trusted Meinrad’s self-judgment, deeming himself capable of detailing the experiences he faced.
“Ev, you know your sister’s patience and temperament. And on Terra, there was practically no difference. She accosted everyone at first. She cursed and pushed everyone away. But then I remembered that not acting like a part of their… team would look out of place and our covers would be blown. As her superior, I had to convince her to at least act as though she had friends. At least one or two. So, I watched her do a few acts of kindness, warmth, and whatnot. Basic camaraderie, right? Yeah. And you know what?”
Phoebe Glynn sensed the agitation in her son’s voice and so did her husband. Daniel whispered into her ear, and she quickly turned to their son.
“It’s alright, Meinrad. That’s enough for now. Why don’t you clean up your plate?” she said in a soothing voice.
“Ma… I will finish what I started. I… I hated it. Those false words of friendliness she spoke and the cooperation she showed. Acting like I was always on their side. Pretending to fight for the same cause as them. Knowingly taking part in a farce and not being able to do anything until we got a chance to go home, I absolutely hated it!”
Meinrad smashed a fist down on the solid mineral table, creating a shallow dent in it. His strength, even for an Initiated human, was unmatched. He could easily best many if not most Titanian soldiers. Everyone knew that, particularly his parents. But it was his intelligence and leadership that resulted in him being appointed as a double agent on Terra. He saw that Eveline and Launo had flinched, and the adults nearly getting out of their seats to calm him. But that wasn’t going to be necessary.
“But… do you know what the worst part was? It wasn’t their foolish ideals or their pride and naivety. It was how easily they forgot. About us. In the 15 months I was on Terra, not one of them spoke a word about the countless people who were taken from their homelands and shipped off far, far away. We’re not even worth mentioning to them. It’s like the Titanians did them all a favour when they took them away. ‘Oh, a few less mouths to feed.’ ‘Maybe I can expand my farms on their old land.’ I can only imagine those words coming out through their horrid lips. At the conference as soon as the Baron declared his war, they didn’t think twice to fire at Joakim or Malin who look just like them. So… when it was safe for me to break my cover, I didn’t hesitate. I couldn’t wait to get my hands dirty with their blood. And when we inevitably get sent back on the front lines, they’ll know I’m ready to send them back to Pizna or whoever those freaks believe in.”
Everyone was speechless. No one thought to comment on what the young man had just said. The manner in which he spoke was as if he’d lived a hundred lifetimes of strife and survived a hundred wars. Yet the face on his body had not existed for exactly 18 years. Besides dropped jaws and dilated pupils, no ones’ reaction was distinct, except for two.
On one side of the table, Mr. Ruders had a subtle smile on his face. Almost as if he had expected Meinrad to drop the bombshell that he did. The response on the other side was more obvious. It was the weeping stifled behind the hands of Esfir Schenk.
“I can’t stay here any longer, I’m sorry.” she quickly rose to her feet, heading straight for the door.
“Esfir, wait!”
Phoebe followed her immediately, escorting the hurt woman back to her apartment. Before leaving through the door, she took a moment to glance at her son. He couldn’t tell whether it was an expression of disappointment or of commiseration.