Colony Administrator’s Office, New Prometheus

Lumiara, Survivor’s Refuge

4454.2.3 Interstellar

The first time he’d met Nikandros, Cult architect and leader of the exceptionalist faction, Janus had been angry. That wasn’t a huge surprise; like his uncle and sister, and his mother before she died, Janus had the Invarian temper, ready to flare up at the slightest provocation.

The provocation in Prime Dome had not been slight.

Now, seeing the architect in his charcoal-colored mask and Ryler, his childhood friend but also a Cult devotee, Janus took it in stride. “You’re early,” he said.

“The Survivor favors the prepared,” Nikandros said.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Janus said. Nikandros was convinced the Survivor himself was waiting for them in the Core. Ryler swallowed that hook, line, and sinker, of course, but Janus wasn’t sure what to believe.

“I think I’m going to skip this one,” Syn said, pointing over her shoulder.

“Yeah, mate. Hard pass,” Mick said. “Hey, Ryler!”

“Hey, Mick,” Ryler said awkwardly.

“Let’s go grab a beer,” Mick said to Syn, putting an arm around her shoulder and turning around.

Janus never took his eyes off Nikandros as the door to the office slid shut.

“If you’re done staring at each other,” Lira said, “The overwhelmed colony administrator favors those who don’t waste her time. All of you sit.”

Fury settled in a corner where she could watch everyone, and Janus took the nearest chair, turning it at an angle and shifting Xander into his lap before sitting down. “Don’t you usually skip the mask on Lumiara?”

Nikandros reached up and popped the mask off its brackets one-handed, setting it on Lira’s desk and revealing a deceptively friendly face. “Some don’t consider New Prometheus part of Lumiara, but rather the beachhead of an invasion.”

“I like to think of it as an embassy to a better world,” Janus said, unconsciously bouncing Xander up and down while Nikandros and Ryler sat.

Xander reached toward Lira’s desk, and the colony administrator mock-scowled at him, making him giggle.

Janus smirked. Lira had an enormous soft spot for her godson.

“How are preparations coming?” Ryler asked Lira.

“Fine,” Lira said, glancing from Ryler to Janus before pulling up a holographic display. “We have around fifty trained aspirants, ten trained submariners, and ten Cult freelancers who agreed to help.”

“From which factions?” Ryler asked.

“They’re ronin,” Janus said, referring to Cult members who were deliberately apart from the faction system, voting according to their whims and conscience at each of the Consensus’s referendums. “We checked their voting records. They’re generally centralists with progressive leanings and less than ten-percent alignment with purgationist choices in the past two years.”

“That doesn’t mean they don’t have private reasons to sabotage this trip,” Ryler said.

Lira scoffed. “I can’t guarantee that with the aspirants, either. Life is change.”

Ryler dipped his head in acknowledgment.

Xander got his hands on a stylus that had been lying on Lira’s desk. Before Janus could take it from him, Lira said, “It’s fine. He can have it.

“How many passengers are you bringing?” Janus asked Nikandros.

“Ten, including Ryler and myself.”

“That’s over ten percent of the crew. Let’s make that five,” Janus said.

“Let’s make it ten,” Nikandros said with a wink. “You’ll need us for the journey. We’re all skilled mariners, engineers, and fighters.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“It’s the fighter part I’m worried about,” Janus said, looking at Lira for confirmation. He would be the leader of the expedition, but until it left port, Lira was in charge.

“Let’s look at capabilities and redundancies before making any decisions,” Lira said. “Janus will have the final say in this, however. I’m not the one stuck in a metal tube with people I don’t trust.”

Janus grinned at the architect. “In case that wasn’t direct enough, I don’t trust you.”

“You made that abundantly clear when you started your own faction instead of joining the exceptionalists,” Nikandros said.

Fury, almost forgotten in a corner, let out a low bark and scraped her claws on the deck plates.

Xander threw his stylus at the Cult architect.

Faster than Janus’s eye could track, Nikandros plucked the flying object out of the air and set it on Lira’s desk with a sharp click.

Xander clapped and squealed with glee.

“Sorry,” Janus said, instantly transformed from domineering emissary to guilty dad.

“You have nothing to apologize for, Janus,” Nikandros said. “Your boy is healthy, his hand-eye coordination is above average for his age, and you’re right not to trust me.” The Cult architect retrieved his mask and pushed it against his face until it clicked. “You shouldn’t trust anyone this close to an endeavor like ours. Make no mistake, though: it would please me to make this trip with you. There is a symmetry to it. But I have thousands of qualified expedition members in my faction who would jump at the chance if we had to go alone.”

Janus glanced at Ryler. His old friend nodded.

Janus sat back, hugging Xander to his chest, and nodded. “Let’s talk about the details of the trip, then.”

***

A little less than two hours later, they finished the discussion, and the two cultists left.

After several bouts of demanding to be set down, tottering around the office, and demanding to be picked up, Xander had fallen asleep in Janus’s arms.

“Welcome home,” Lira said tiredly.

“Yeah,” Janus said, looking down at his son. Xander had Janus’s straight black hair and straight nose and his mother’s bright blue eyes. It was a fifty-fifty thing, with Janus’s eyes being dark brown, but as he understood it, Hunters could give that sort of thing a small nudge in the desired direction.

He looked up at Lira, his former enemy turned travel companion and now colony administrator. “You look tired.”

“Thanks.”

“How can I help?”

Lira sat back and looked around her office. “Want to administer a colony while I go on an adventure?”

“You wouldn’t trust me with the job.”

“I wouldn’t,” Lira agreed. “You’re better at destroying governments than you are running them.”

“People keep saying that. I just don’t see it.”

“Mmm hmm,” Lira said, giving him an indulgent smile.

The two of them had known each other long enough and under the worst of conditions that there was fondness between them without the need for pretense. Janus knew that Lira knew he thought that people should just treat each other better and follow the maintenance schedule. He was pretty sure she knew that the real reason she’d taken the job was because she’d gotten tired and scared during the Trials and that they, therefore, didn’t need to talk about it.

“How did the talks with the egalitarians go?” Lira asked.

“I captured a yeti for them.”

“What’s that?”

“Like a big hairy human with claws.”

“What are they going to do with it? Dissect it?”

“Set it free,” Janus said, and Lira gave him an incredulous look. “I know. The egalitarians are a good bunch. Still won’t trade with us, though.”

“Damn,” Lira said, biting her lower lip. “We really needed that synth oil.”

“I got that much,” Janus said, looking at the bag the egalitarians had forgotten in the snow. “They just won’t openly trade with us while the feud with the compartmentalists and the purgationists goes on.”

“Don’t forget the catalysts, the isolationists, and the conservationists.”

“What do the conservationists have against us?” Janus asked.

“They don’t like that we’re changing things, and the catalysts don’t like that we’re not changing them enough.”

“At least the isolationists leave us alone,” Janus said with a grin.

Lira sighed. “We really need people to trade with us.”

“I know.”

Most of the outposts on Lumiara were self-sufficient. Even the Luddites had found a way to create sustainable ecosystems in which they could practice their techno-aversion, but Janus’s people were new to the ice planet. They still had a long way to go before they could stand on their own. “I’m sorry I haven’t been able to help more.”

Lira gave him a sideways frown and raised an eyebrow at him. “Janus, you haven’t been around. And don’t get me wrong, we need you out there. You’re probably the reason the isolationists and purgationists haven’t been able to get us kicked off the planet, but I could have used your support, and you ran.”

Janus looked at her in surprise. “Damn. I guess we’re going there, then.”

“Going where?”

Janus shrugged. “Why aren’t you coming with me to the Core?”

Lira stared at him.

“What? You’re supposed to be my second, Lira. If the job is stressing you out this much—”

“Have you talked to Lee?” Lira shot back.

Xander started to fuss, and Janus cradled him in his arms. “I should take him home.”

“You should,” Lira agreed, standing up. “And I’m sorry. I don’t want to go to the Core. I know someone has to do it, but as much as I’m tired of this job, I don’t have your self-sacrificial streak.”

The words hit Janus hard. He knew a straight run to the Core was incredibly dangerous, just like he knew his presence was needed to make it possible, if not likely. “We only almost died during the first Trials.”

“You tried to get between Koni and Donnika,” Lira said. “I should have and didn’t. Didn’t want to die. I’m not an aspirant, Janus. As soon as I stopped trying to live up to my mother’s legacy—”

“I know,” Janus said gently. “And I’m not blaming you. You’ve saved my life enough times.”

“You’re damned right I have!” Lira said, a little of the hardnosed Primer surfacing.

The two of them looked at each other, embarrassed and not sure what to say.

“You’ll watch out for Xander, won’t you? If Lee doesn’t and I can’t?”

“Of course, I will,” Lira said huffily, her eyes glistening. “I’m his godmother.”

Janus nodded, mostly to himself. He managed to get his sleeping boy slung onto his hip, grabbed his pack and his jungle dragon, and made his way home.

***

The apartment was warm and smelled like cooking. Fury bounded inside, and Janus saw a familiar blonde head stooped in concentration over a frying pan.

Callie looked at him and at the sleeping toddler on his hip and smirked. “Hey, big brother. Welcome home.”