Epilogue - Black Stripes

Black Stripes stood before the spear thrust into the stone, waiting patiently for the connection as her commandos waited behind her. She was a little uncertain how she had gathered such a following, but those who had found her, who had identified her as the first to sing the song of forty percent, would not leave her alone.

They were a rag-tag band, holding their spears and whatever weaponry they had managed to pluck from the grips of dead and dying Horthians. Only one in ten held blasters, and they held them carefully, for the things seemed to have a mind of their own and often went off without warning. There were few other weapons that were actually worth carrying. Although they had killed dozens, if not hundreds, of their hereditary foes in the days since Atlas moved the world and changed the rules, few had fought back, and those that had had used little more than their natural weapons of tooth and claw.

Some of the commandos wore knives and tools on belts that had been stolen from their foes, but even those who had sourced one of the deadly ranged weapons still carried their human-crafted spears. That they were weapon and communication tools both was part of it, but the young Aurealians also simply felt reassurance at the comfortable weight of the well crafted spears in their hands.

Dozens had gathered in the clearing in the heart of the old hunting ground to hear the words of their Chorus Leader. Such they were calling her, now; the title used elsewhere in worlds where Aurealians were not raised in farms as prized prey by Jurassian overlords. Athena had been busy trying to educate the freed Aurealians on the state of the war, of interstellar politics and their place in the galaxy. Few cared for more than revenge.

But Black Stripes had listened. She had listened, and she had thought. And she realized that she was out of her depth. So she had asked Athena to speak with Stargazer, and Athena had arranged this meeting. That it had turned into such an affair was unintentional on her part, but Athena’s last words reassured her that Stargazer remained committed to speaking at the given time.

The humans still would not allow the Elder to return to the planet of her birth. For her own safety, they said, because the world itself was being torn apart as the aftershocks of the Atlas Protocol rippled through the deep parts of the earth and the planet adjusted to the lack of tidal forces from the moons. The humans, with their miraculous and titanic prowess, could not undo that damage, and were limited even in their attempts to heal it. Even for the humans, somethings only time could mend, and the storm that Atlas had wrought would not calm within this century.

"Black Stripes?" Athena’s voice came from the spear. "Stargazer is ready to speak. Sing, I mean. She is actually a little nervous, to be singing directly to the leader of another hunting ground and her confidants for the first time. Her election was near unanimous, and she is just beginning to realize the extent of sway she holds over those still trapped upon your planet. Many are clamoring to speak with her, but I judged your plea to be the most urgent."

"Urgent? I am lost. Why is my lack of direction urgent to the messenger of the humans?" she asked the disembodied voice.

"Because you called for Four in Ten," Athena answered. She sounded rueful. "Had I realized what you meant, perhaps I would not have relayed your message. That there would be reprisals for the way your people were treated was always within our expectations, however. Putting a limit on it has perhaps saved more lives than it has cost."

Black Stripes shifted uncomfortably. "I forget, sometimes, that you and the humans insist that you are not actually our allies. That you must treat us and our enemies the same for reasons beyond my ken. The numbers you use to justify such neutrality are so mind-boggling that I would not believe you had you not stolen the moons from the sky."

Athena made a very human sound of amusement. "The moons are still right where we left them. Well, not exactly. Without the planet’s gravity to hold them in place, they’ve entered an unstable orbit around the star. It won’t cause any problems in the short term, but it’s too late to stick them in the Lagrange point, so we’re not exactly certain what to do with them in the long term. If this system does come into a formal alliance with the UEOSC, then it’s possible that the humans and their allies will send you one of their Titan class worldmovers and help you reclaim them. Such a thing would be the work of decades, of course, but when you’re only using Atlas Protocol to nudge a celestial object’s trajectory a bit it’s not so expensive and I’m sure that--"

"Athena, this is not lesson-time," Black Stripes interjected. "I am worried about the next ten days, not the next ten years."

"I apologize, Black Stripes," Athena sang. "I will connect you to Stargazer in a moment, she is nearly ready."

The moment passed, and from Black Stripes’ spear, thrust in the ground as it was, came a hologram of a battle-worn Aurealian. Young to the eyes of any not from a Hrustian world. The scars and markings that covered the young Elder generated instant respect among the gathered audience, although Stargazer was not much older than Black Stripes herself. Indeed, Black Stripes had not been too far from being Elder herself before the lines in the dirt which made such distinctions irrelevant had been wiped away.

"I am Stargazer, Chorus Leader of the Hrustian world of our birth, which was once named Loriantialioa before the Others stole it from us. The chorus must decide as a whole whether to call it that once more, or whether to name it something else, but now is not the time for such discussions. I use the title ‘Chorus Leader’ even though it is the title used by the cowards who would go into the light blindly rather than fight for their lives because it still represents what I wish to be. One voice that directs the many. I have answered your call today, Black Stripes, to ask you a very simple question. Do you wish to sing harmony with me, or disharmony? You will have a place in this world in either case, for I will not squash those who sing dissent as I am told other leaders have."

Black Stripes was a little surprised to be addressed directly by the voice which she had heard so often through her spear over the last few months. She had given Athena her consent to be led by this sister she had never known without much thought, as had so many others, but it was Stargazer who had the ear of the humans.

"I admit that I do not know. You know that I was the one who sent out the call for four in ten, but you have not sung consent or dissent with such a measure," Black Stripes answered.

"Because I cannot," Stargazer answered. "Such a measure cannot be an official part of my government if we wish to enlist the aid of the humans. Sooner or later I will have to address it officially, because the humans have a saying. ‘Silence indicates consent.’"

Stagazer paused meaningfully, but spoke again before Black Stripes could bring forth a response.

"Unfortunately the humans would view such actions as extrajudicial executions at best, and murders at worst. It is only the fact that my sisters on the planet below still live in fear of their lives from the Others which allows me to be silent on the matter. The planet itself has been ceded to us, sisters, although the rest of the system still belongs to the same overlord who would have seen us all hunted, and our sisters hunted for generations untold had the humans not intervened. He is not silent on these matters, but he is--"

"You speak with him?" Black Stripes demanded suddenly.

Stargazer recoiled from the interruption, then her posture became contemplative. "I wish I could plunge a spear into his eye every time I see him," she admitted. "Which is why the humans do not ever put us in the same room. He has left the Hrustian world for the world which was called Horthus II, and is now simply called ‘Planet Horthus.’ When we speak, which we must if this armistice is to continue, we are separated by distances measured in light-seconds. The human leaders Nathan and Jon have both counseled me extensively that I must work with him if my sisters are to survive. I put aside my hatred for him for those meetings, but it burns as brightly as yours, sister."

There was no traces of deception in the young Chorus Leader’s voice, and they both sang to the same accent closely enough that Black Stripes would have heard it had it been present. "You spoke of singing harmony or disharmony. I do not truly understand what you ask of me."

"We are not so different, sister," Stargazer sang. "Do you know how I came to be in my position? A human made a mistake. That is it. That was the deciding factor. He was forced to bring me upon the human ship Theseus and, because of the laws that bind him, he cannot now release me to any place which is not safe, and I will not consent to go anywhere but the planet on which I was born. Had the human Nathan chose your hunting ground to visit instead, it might have been your voice which was elected Chorus Leader instead of mine."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"I am no elder," Black Stripes insisted. "There are half a dozen in line before me, and I would pass if--"

"I thought so too, before the mantle fell upon me," Stargazer interrupted. "I am not much older than you. Our people, we live so much longer when the Others do not kill us young. Even by the standards of the generals and soldiers who now swear allegiance to me, you and I are but juveniles. You are a venerable veteran and I am an Elder, but were it not for the circumstances of our births, neither of our voices would be judged worthy of listening to in other Aurealian cultures simply due to our age. It is strange to have those twice my age singing the praise due to one three times theirs."

Black Stripes was silent a moment, as was Stargazer. "I still do not understand what it is you have asked of me. I do not know your plans, and thus I cannot say if I would sing harmony with them or not."

"My plans have not changed from the days before the lights in the firmament became bizarre. From before the lights of false promises which were in fact our brothers coming to bring us a peace which they had no right to give, and the bright auroras which signaled the arrival of the humans and the changing of everything. I simply intend to do everything I can to ensure that as many of my sisters survive for as long as possible. I count you as a sister, Black Stripes, though you were not of my litter nor the facility in which I was born, nor the Hunting Ground where my mettle was tested. Even if you cannot put aside your hatred of the Others, even if you insist upon the rule of four in ten, I will not strike at you beyond to say that you sing disharmony with my government. The humans, they would classify you and those who follow you as outlaws, and your killings of the Nameless Jurassians as crimes."

"So you would forgive them after all?" Black Stripes challenged.

"The Nameless – Sister, not all of the Others were our enemies. Did your Hunting Ground not have Others Who Did Not Kill? Who simply walked the grounds? Ones who, perhaps, you and your sisters would even test a Kip against, to see if the instincts you were drilling into them about when it was time to run and when it was time to fight were correct?"

Stargazer’s questions were troublesome, for there had indeed been such things. "What of them?" Black Stripes asked. "They did nothing more than--"

"They fed us, sister. And if they did not, then the Others who Kill would have murdered them, the same that they murdered us in the hunts. More, the Others Who Kill, called the Named Ones by their people, would have murdered their offspring and possibly their mates. It is the Others Who Do Not Kill who are falling to your spears, sister Black Stripes. They are the Nameless. And they are as much in thrall to the Named Ones as we ever were," Stargazer explained. "They simply had a method of survival beyond fighting to the death, and even that was often not sufficient, for the Named Ones could murder them without justification or retribution."

Black Stripes had not known this. Most of Athena’s education had focused on Aurealians. "They complied. You say they lived in fear of death, but still they allowed us to be slaughtered by the thousands because they--"

"Yes. I understand your outrage and feel it myself, sister. But still we must ask ourselves, do we repay those who fed us with death? Or do we focus our rage upon those who directed the slaughter?"

Black Stripes did not know how to answer. "You would have me put aside the call for four in ten?"

"I believe, given time, that you would do so yourself, Black Stripes," Stargazer said sadly. "Do you know how many Nameless are currently struggling to survive on our world? Billions. You would have to kill a billion or more Jurassians to satisfy your current target. Are you so bloodthirsty? I know that I am not."

Again, she could not think of how to answer. She and her commandos had killed many Jurassians, revenging the not-so-distant memories of the lesson of two-in-ten upon a foe which hardly ever even fought back.

"Athena. Have you been counting? Do you know how many I have--"

"You, personally, have killed sixteen Jurassians since you picked up my spear," Athena’s voice answered. "I will not tell you how many have been killed by others, although if they ask I will tell them how many they have killed themselves."

There was a nervous shifting in her commandos as they realize that the human weapons had been keeping such a count.

"Will I be called to count for those killings?" She inquired.

"Not by me," Stargazer said. "And not by Horthus. By the humans? Nathan said that the disaster unleashed upon the world by the Atlas Protocol means that all laws have been suspended, and that you and your sisters can make valid claims of self defense against any Jurassian killed within any territory which you can reasonably claim as your own. However, your call for four in ten undermines the claim of self-defense and makes it a retaliatory action. It is … it is all very human, the way he talks in circles about whether or not what you and your sisters are doing is wrong or whether it will cause problems in the long term."

"And so you ask me to put aside the call for four in ten?" Black Stripes summarized.

"No. But if you do not, then I will be forced to tell the humans that you are singing disharmony with me, and that your actions do not reflect my government," Stargazer said sadly. "And, I fear, that will likely be the end of Athena’s cooperation with you. You will remain in possession of your spears, but they will be spears only, and they will continue to log your activities. Should the humans ever demand you be held accountable for your actions, I am not certain I can shield you if you persist on your current path."

Again, a nervous shifting from the guerrilla Aurealians behind her.

"And to sing harmony with you? What must I do? Aside from putting aside the call I have put out," She asked.

"That depends on how large of a role you wish to play in the new government," Stargazer answered. "Believe it or not, you have valuable information, as do all of our sisters who have survived to be veterans. You know how to fight! That is information which must be passed on. It is information which must be spread! If you are willing, I would have you lead the efforts to teach the soldiers in space how to fight back when an Other has their scent. Later, I would have you and your sisters teach the galaxy how to stay alive, how to keep to the Song of Defiance, in the face of invasion."

Black Stripes considered the offer in silence. Behind her, her sisters did the same. It was, in fact, a very tempting offer. To be trusted with a fresh Kip was one of the first signs that you had become respected as a veteran in the hunting grounds, as you were responsible for keeping the foolish young thing alive. To be trusted with soldiers older than her? With entire worlds, potentially? That was even more attractive to Black Stripes than her understanding of Stargazer’s own responsibilities.

But it came back to one problem. "I was the one who put out the call for Four in ten," she said. "I cannot pull it back without looking disingenuous. Who among our sisters will listen to one who calls for retribution but changes her song so readily when she is offered power and prestige?"

"Yes, I have thought the same," Stargazer admitted. "And I have an answer. When you call back the rule of four in ten, you must put out a new call for retribution. One which I will back, as will the allies of our fledgling government."

"And what will this call be?" Black Stripes inquired.

"Death to the Deathsworn."

‎

This story started on Royal Road . Come read thousands of other novels today!