Chapter Twenty
For the next week, my life consisted of waking up to train with Rel and my team in the mornings. Nightmares continued to haunt me, though thankfully neither Rel nor Zafir had barged in on such an event.
Most of my time was spent reading or watching whatever I could get my hands on. With some difficulty, I’d found out how to use my chip to access the Syldrari’s equivalent to internet. I’d spent the last day or so using it to bypass the restrictions on what we could watch in the lounge.
I wasn’t sure if it was an oversight on Zafir’s part, or if he was hoping I’d use my chip to watch Creshian documentaries. Whichever it was, it was too late to stop me.
I’d learned that the Creshe Empire was young. While Clan V’shir had allied with the empire around 300 years ago, the empire had only landed on Creshe 100 before that. They gloated that their stolen and integrated alien tech allowed them to reconstruct their infrastructure in less than a decade, but I wasn’t buying that story.
Who was on Creshe first? How did the humans find it, and where did they travel from? I tilted my head faintly. If Rel arrived only a century later, then there was a chance he knew…
I double-checked my schedule. Rel was ‘off’ from training us today, but he was almost certainly awake and working at the cafe already. Chewing on my lip, I paced while trying to think of how to word the question.
[Hey, Rel, where did the humans come from?]
There was a minute or two before I got his sassy response, [Well, you see, many millions of years ago or perhaps even longer…]
I snorted and shook my head. Right. Better wording was needed. [No, no. I’m not asking for their evolutionary history. I want to know where the ones living on Creshe came from, how they named this planet, etcetera.]
This time, the wait was so drawn out that I went and grabbed a drink, made a snack, and returned to my room before he answered me.
[From what I recall… The Creshe came to this planet because they believed it to be the ‘Cradle of Life.’] Rel’s answer made me frown. That seemed like something that should’ve persisted in Creshian culture or teaching. [There’s this old human planet called ‘Earth’ that the Creshe salvaged documentation and research from—I believe your codename is from one of these documents? Rumors say that some long-forgotten deity destroyed all intelligent life on the planet and quarantined it.
[The quarantine was already lifted by the time Syldran ships reached it, but we salvaged data from it as well. It is presently marked as a planet that needs a long time left alone to return to nature.
[Anyway, the humans got the word Creshe from the data they salvaged. It means ‘cradle’ in one of the dead Earth languages, though they took some liberties with the spelling.]
Just when I was going to call Earth a stupid name, he goes and tells me this planet is literally named Cradle. I plopped down with my drink and my plate. [Okay. So, humans name their planets stupid things. Was their old planet that awful for them to think this one is a ‘Cradle of Life?’]
[I couldn’t say. Despite my early alliance with them, I don’t know where they came from.] Rel’s answer made me frown. I didn’t think he was lying, but it seemed odd. [They have always behaved like they originated from this planet. It wasn’t until becoming involved with you and the Resonance Project that their lies became clearer.]
[Mmm… So, if there’s anyone behind them pulling the strings…] I suggested, feeling my chest clench, my fingers tingling.
[Correct. We don’t know.] There was a long pause before he asked, [Can you come over?]
[No… I’m supposed to stay here and keep up appearances.]
[Shame… I don’t like that the humans are the ones keeping you on a leash.] Rel’s statement made me raise an eyebrow, but he wasn’t done. [I was thinking we might find you some fun and pretty things to play with when you’re able to come visit again.]
[You want to find more things to take off me?] I asked, half-interested, half-confused by the change of subject.
[That is a good idea too,] Rel answered. [In this case, it’s more that I want to help you accept and love yourself through the stages of your return to a Syldrari. It’s…rare, to find an iri who could benefit from and appreciate empowerment.
[A safe, empowering environment is something I… I’m sorry, I’m rambling, aren’t I?]
He wants to…? Baffled, I took a moment to sort his comments. [Mmm… I’m not sure how to feel about that, since I’d been hoping to empower you. Lun’iri just…aren’t treated well.]
[Elara… It isn’t a contest to see who is deserving,] Rel chastised. [This isn’t a, ‘pick one outcome.’ We can all win. And…you are more trapped than me. Consider us even, if that’s what it takes.
[I have to get back to work—message me if you find a way to visit after all.]
Again, he ended his messages with a nonverbal graphic mark. I scratched my jaw, trying to work out for myself what it meant, before sighing and bringing up the Syldran network. With a little experimentation, I figured out how to copy the mark and plug it into a search engine to figure out what Rel kept sending me.
Signatures? Emotes? Something else?
The corner of my eye twitched. For the first page of search results, the names, links and blurbs were blacked out. When I tried them anyway, a warning overlaid in my vision—an apology from Zafir. ‘Database’ and encyclopedic websites were off limits. Right.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
On the next set of results, I found something more useful—a site that listed them all out in a way that could be copied, for people who weren’t using Syldran chips. Problem was…there were a lot. Instead of searching precisely for the ones that Rel trended toward, I ended up studying each one on the list to satisfy my curiosity.
They ranged from simple expressions to more complicated ones that required over a paragraph of description because the Creshe language didn’t have a word for many of the Syldrari’s complex feelings and concepts. For example, they had a term and a mark for, ‘disentangling oneself from an uncomfortable situation with art and grace.’
Before I knew it, hours had passed, and it was time for me to go get lunch. I let out a groan and rolled off the bed, then walked over to the bathroom to check myself in the mirror. After fussing with my hair briefly, I pulled on some casual clothes, a pair of gloves, and left my room in search of food.
“Elara, hey!” Aisu perked up when she spotted me. Grinning, she trotted over and fell into step with me. “I was just about to come get you. Didn’t think you’d wanna miss Zafir—
“YOU COMPLETE IMBECILE!” Zafir’s enraged voice rippled through the common area. Blinking, I looked in that direction, then at the snickering Aisu. “What part of constructing teams of Incident survivors did you not understand?!”
A sleazy, unfamiliar voice spoke up, “How dare you raise your voice to your superiors! Guards—”
“Don’t give me that nonsense! You couldn’t lord over a tin can!”
Aisu and I wandered over in their direction, and I peeked around the corner to see Zafir fuming at the fat, bald, short man in front of him. The unknown man wore a sharp suit, and had several generals following after him—Crowe, and two men I vaguely recognized.
Crowe cleared his throat, placing a hand on the rotund man’s shoulder. “You are under arrest for directly interfering with the Resonance Project, disturbing the Project’s head researcher, and attempting to abuse your power.”
“Ooo,” Aisu remarked, peering over my shoulder. We watched Crowe wrestle the man into restraints, then Aisu added, “This guy came in to demand we all be separated ‘better.’ Apparently, he’s why we barely ever work together as a team. Been keepin’ us spread out.”
“Trying to kill us?” I asked quietly.
“Maybe.” Aisu tilted her head, her eyes shifting down to my gloves. “I look like this, but they’re still makin’ you hide?”
“Yeah… I’m guessing looking ‘mixed’ makes people uncomfortable and doesn’t work with their agenda,” I muttered bitterly. Once the generals were gone, I stepped around the corner. “Zafir! It’s time for lunch. What would you like?”
Zafir shoved his hands in his pockets and stalked over. “Styorszek. I’m cooking.”
“Uh…?” I blinked at him as he passed me.
“Go sit with the others. I’m reconfiguring everyone’s schedule while we eat.” Zafir made a dismissive motion, then disappeared through the kitchen doors.
“Fantastic! We finally get a chance to know each other!” Aisu perked up, putting her hands on my shoulders. “Let’s go. The rest of the team should be settling in for the afternoon already.”
I wasn’t sure why, but the idea of sitting down and getting to know my team made my palms tingle and my chest constrict. That reaction didn’t seem logical, so I didn’t fight Aisu as she led me away, but damn I was nervous.
Come on, Elara. You happily chat and flirt with Syldrari all the time. You can do this. I chewed on the inside of my cheek briefly. When we rounded the corner into the plush little ‘nook’ they’d all gathered in, I quickly smoothed my expression over.
My team, Sarah, and Amara were all present…and each one of them had portions of their skin turning very inhuman colors. I blinked at them for a moment, then scratched at my gloves. Why was I being forced to cover up and my team wasn’t? Was there something wrong with my color…or me?
“Hey, Elara,” Nikolai called with a tired smile. Half his jaw, and part of the adjacent cheek and neck were a rich, iridescent orange. His eyes had more pupils visible than mine, too. “What’s with the gloves?”
“Uh…” I faltered.
“Bosses are making her cover up for some damned reason.” Aisu crossed her arms. “Guess if our changes were in easier to hide places, they’d be doing the same to us.”
Aisu nudged me to take the corner chair furthest from the entrance to the nook, and with some hesitation I obliged. Suddenly, I felt like the odd one out. I was the most visually human one in the room.
“If everyone is changed this much… Is this why none of the higher ups seem bothered that you’re fully Syldrari now, Aisu?” I looked to her questioningly.
“The empire doesn’t mind the idea of having a squad of Syldrari soldiers at their beck and call,” Calder answered, drawing my attention to him. “Zafir’s had a hell of a time dealing with the bosses, but Imperator Julien and enough people in his circle like what we do. They wanna keep us around.”
Diana leaned forward in her seat with a small smile. “I hear they want to start posting propaganda all over Lucdra with us on it. Something about improving citizen morale by showing them we’re a team.”
With me in the reserves, you’re just five people though… I kept the thought to myself, then looked to Sarah and Amara. “What about you two, Ms. Receptionist-Secretary and Ms. Loves Surveillance?”
“Business as usual.” Amara shrugged, frowning. “For the amount of chatter I’ve caught about the ‘chaos in the empire,’ things have been real quiet. Last important bit I heard was that all the queens have been ‘stolen’ and returned to Jalan-ki Citomy.”
All of them…? I decided to send Rel a quick message. [Are Jysel and Casair alright? I just heard that the rest of the queens have been evacuated.]
“Too bad we don’t fall in that category…” Maelor slumped in his seat. “I envy you guy’s assigned sectors. I’ve been in the human ones for a while now…and… Man, I don’t know what I expected. Looking at everyone’s reports, I think I got the most violent sector.”
“It’s that bad?” I asked, watching him nod sullenly. “Because of the criminals Citomy unleashed, or…”
“I haven’t had to deal with those. The rogue R’selkti and the cult have been getting all them.” Maelor shook his head. “The people in the human sectors are self-destructive, aggressive, abusive assholes. Man, woman, other, doesn’t matter. I’ve seen enough rapes and murders this past week alone to last a lifetime.
“Always human-on-human violence, too. I get why I hear visiting aliens sayin’ Lucdra is a damn zoo. A ton of the humans behave like animals.”
“Yeah, it seems like none of the ‘aliens’ are here because they want a relationship with the Creshe Empire. They’re looking for something else.” Nikolai nodded, stroking his chin. Then, he glanced over at me. “What about the Syldrari Sector? You spend a lot of time there, right?”
“I’d bet that’s where she wants to be right now,” Aisu commented, winking and nudging me. “You know, I see what you like in Rel. Can’t believe I went feral and attacked him that one time. He’s a real nice guy.”
“See literally, hmm?” I mused, giving her a small smile. “The Syldrari Sector is mostly peaceful—the mercantile areas, at least. I’ve never been deeper than that. Never had those areas on my patrol paths. I’m honestly not sure if I’m allowed deeper in.”
[They’re both fine,] Rel’s response caught me off-guard, forcing me to double check what I’d asked him. Right. Jysel and Casair. [I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to know you were worried about them. Well, if they believe me. Are you sure you can’t come over?]
Something must be wrong… I thought on it a moment, then answered, [I’ll see if I can get leave to come visit.]
I quickly explained to Rel how I’d seen one of the inner circle be arrested, then told him I was currently attempting to get to know my team. Something about the tone of his message still struck me as odd.
When Zafir walked into the room, I promptly caught his attention. Sighing, he asked, “What is it, Elara?”
“I’d like permission to go check on the Syldrari Sector,” I answered, causing him to frown at me. “Something might be wrong. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but…”
“Take Aisu with you,” Zafir stated, shaking his head. “And let me draft a report for you to deliver… Rel will want to know about the man we arrested. As should you.”