Janus’s Apartment, New Prometheus
Lumiara, Survivor’s Refuge
4454.2.5 Interstellar
The word mutiny had a special connotation for Irkallans, as it did for ancient mariners or starship crews of yore. Any population that was surrounded by an inhospitable environment such as the sea, the void, or the cold of Lumiara knew that their survival depended on the health of their habitat, and violent unrest had a way of ruining that for all sides.
Janus pulled Xander from the no-waste tub, already dry and clean like his clothes. He started getting the cloth diaper on.
“Get your go-bag,” Lee said, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“You think it’s that bad?”
“I don’t know what to think,” she said. “But we’re better off on the move than sitting still.”
It was a Hunter bias, not the way a dome-born and raised dweller like Janus would think, but under the circumstances, he tended to agree.
Janus rushed to his bedroom, pulled on his coveralls and boots, and grabbed the pack he usually took out onto the ice. It was already cleaned and re-packed, even though he’d expected to stay until the Alignment, force of habit. Fury kept cycling back and forth between the living room and the bedroom, feeling the tension.
“It will be all right, girl,” Janus said.
Fury answered with a small, dissatisfied bark.
He followed her back to the living room.
Lee had Xander strapped to her back and a stun rod in her hand. “You ready?”
Janus nodded grimly. He wanted to tell her to put the shock weapon away, not to escalate things, but if someone came near his kid, it would be Lee pulling him back.
The front door chimed, and Janus swallowed. “Who is it?”
“Security, sir!” one of Ivan’s aspirants said. “We’re here to get you to the armory.”
Janus let out the breath he’d been holding. He opened the front door and found four members of colony security waiting for them, with stun rods out and pistols holstered. Their aspirant suits were unmarked, and their helmets were hung over their shoulders. It hasn’t gotten too bad yet.
“Where are the protesters?” Lee asked.
“Admin locked all the doors down, so they haven’t converged yet, ma’am, but we’re going to have to pass through a group of them on the way to the armory.”
“How many?” Janus asked.
“In the group or on the way, sir?”
“Both.”
The aspirant’s eyes glowed blue as she accessed the security update. “There should only be a dozen in our way, sir, but there are over a hundred who are trying to join them.”
That’s more than half the colony, Janus thought. They wouldn’t all be militant, but for things to get that bad, that quickly, so close to the trip to the Core… “Damn it.”
“What?” Lee asked. “Aside from the obvious.”
“Nikandros told me I shouldn’t trust anyone this close to the Alignment. He probably knew this was coming.”
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“Let’s worry about that once we’re safe,” Lee said.
The four aspirants were waiting for his go-ahead. “Let’s go,” Janus said, and the seven of them, plus one jungle dragon, headed for security.
The hallways were empty, doors locked down. Anyone who wasn’t part of the mutiny would be staying put. Anyone who was part of it would have congregated in harder-to-contain areas if this thing had been organized by someone competent. Fury moved with stocky purpose, her gills extended and her head swiveling down hallways.
“Should you have her on a harness?” Lee asked. “She’s going to go berserk if anyone attacks us.”
“She won’t if we aren’t harmed,” Janus said. Besides, with how big and muscular she’d gotten, he couldn’t hold her back if he tried.
They passed through two more compartments without incident, but then the security aspirant stopped by the next bulkhead door, which led to a small, open space called the forum that was used for town halls and entertainment. It had more sensors than any other room in the colony and was mirrored by a virtual space in the noosphere so that the whole population and even outsiders could attend the events. “This is where the protesters are, sir.”
Janus nodded. His chem-pistol was strapped to his pack, but he didn’t want to use it unless he had to. He wished he was suited up, like the aspirants. It would have given him more options if the crowd got too close. “Do it.”
The door opened, and the seven of them moved in, walking steadily but not running.
The forum had been trashed, cushions torn open and tossed into a corner. No fires, thank goodness. Several terminals had been smashed, and the walls had been defaced by graffiti in thick, homemade paint. A quick glance told Janus there were more than the dozen protesters they’d expected—almost twenty—and more were ducking under a door that had been jacked open with a hydraulic lift.
“It’s Invarian!” one of the protesters said, pointing at their group with a prybar.
The protester was wearing a rebreather mask and a long jacket. It was a good way to counter security stunners or stay conscious if colony admin sucked the air out of a compartment.
A thrown bottle smashed into a wall.
“Sir?” the security aspirant said, hesitating.
“Keep moving,” Janus said. They were almost to the other side.
Three protesters moved to block their way, but Fury lowered her head and growled. It was a deep, echoing sound that vibrated in Janus’s bones. The protesters parted, and Janus’s group moved through.
“Your time is coming, Invarian!” the lead protester said as more people squeezed under the door.
Twenty-five, now? Janus thought. There were too many, that was for sure. If this turned into a fight, people were going to get hurt, and Janus would lose no matter the outcome.
The door on the far side opened, and Mick was there waiting for them.
“Come on!” he said, waving at them to speed up.
The crowd started to come together and close in on them, and there was a sense, to Janus, that there were enough of them that even Fury might get overwhelmed. They had to leave the room at a run, and Mick sealed the door behind them.
***
The aspirant training center, which doubled as the security office and armory, was crowded with people who presumably aligned with Janus and colony admin. Janus spotted Ivan and Lira, and he broke free of his little group and headed toward them.
“Janus,” Ivan said.
Janus nodded in acknowledgment, then asked Lira, “How did this happen?”
“The way it always happens,” Lira said. “Enough people who disagreed with our policies got together and decided to do something about it.”
“What’s to disagree about?” Janus asked. “We’ve kept them safe, clothed, fed, and employed when the alternative was getting killed by the compartmentalists.”
“Some people would argue that a barely acceptable minimum,” Lee said, with her stun rod stowed and Xander transferred to her hip. “Lira.”
“Lee,” Lira answered. “Xander okay?”
“He’s fine,” Lee said, rubbing the toddler’s chest as he wriggled in the strap. “This will make a good story someday.”
Janus sighed. He could have done without good stories in his life. And how did Lee use the strap to move the kid around so easily? He looked around as the last people on their side reached the training center, not counting those who were locked down on the wrong side of the mob, and asked, “Where’s Callie? Is she all right?”
“She’s safe,” Ivan said.
“She might not be if I get my hands on her,” Lira said, and Janus frowned. What’s that supposed to mean?
Lira’s eyes glowed blue as colony security messaged her. “The leaders of the mutiny want to meet with us. They’re at the borehole-side door.”
“Let’s go meet, then,” Janus said. He looked at Lee. “Can you wait here with Xander?”
“Actually, we need her,” Lira said tiredly. “She’s a Hunter and the mother of the last Promethean. Ivan, I need you, too. Try not to speak.”
Ivan grunted.
“Hold on,” Janus said. “I’m not exposing Xander to mutineers again. And what does being Promethean have to do with this?”
“That’s who’s behind this, Janus,” Lira said. “The old Prometheans who weren’t at Prometheus Base when the Cult killed everyone. They’re using their origin as justification that they should have an equal say in how the colony is run. I wouldn’t worry about Xander, though.”
Janus was seriously starting to doubt the choice he and Lee had made to make Lira Xander’s godmother. “Give me one reason they wouldn’t try to grab Xander and use him as leverage if they had the chance.”
Lira looked at him with sympathy bordering on pity. “Because no matter how much she disagrees with us, Callie would never let them harm her nephew.”