Midnight Hollow, Motragi Rangers Command Center
Krandermore, Survivor’s Refuge
4453.2.11 Interstellar
They made their way back to the team’s staging area by cutting through one of the Pugarian areas. Unlike the Motragi or the Verazlan, the Pugarians didn’t cluster quarters but rather spread out among the clanless areas, mainly so they could sell them things. The Pugarians were by far the most numerous of the three clans. If they didn’t spend so much time competing and chasing after half-baked get-rich-quick schemes, they’d probably be in charge instead of the Verazlan.
Stalls and booths lined the sidewalks, showcasing a kaleidoscope of goods and treats. Hawkers clamored for their attention. What impressed Janus most was that, after repeated refusals, the salespeople kept trying different offers, as if the word “no” was somehow foreign to them. The slightest glance or interest in their wares brought on the onslaught regardless of Janus’s environmental suit or Ryler’s wayfinder robes.
It wasn’t all junk. Most of it was, but Janus was pretty sure if he spent time digging through some of the scrap, he’d find a few treasures. He just didn’t have time. The aromas of freshly cooked food waft through the air, beckoning them to sample the diverse culinary delights. There was an abundance of foods that Janus wasn’t familiar with hanging from hooks and overflowing from barrels around the carts. It made his mouth water, but Janus knew better than to try new foods the night before the Trials. He almost put his helmet on, even though his risk indicators were yellow-green-green, indicating just a slight chance of bacterial infection.
Farther along the street, the better artisans showcased their craftsmanship, stalls adorned with intricate handmade jewelry, vibrant textiles, and well-crafted pottery. The air was filled with the scent of incense and the aroma of natural soaps and oils, inviting them to come and spend their credits. Other carts held bulk commodities, mostly metals that were hard to mine out in the jungle or fabricated components looted from old colonization-era ruins.
A couple of real coldsiders were browsing through the archeo-tech. Their brown and white suits were boxy, and the screens on their oversized helmets looked opaque, making it difficult to determine anything about the people underneath.
“Know anything about them?” Janus asked.
“Merkar,” Ryler answered. “They try to recover lost technology to make life better on coldside. They sell it to the other conglomerates, always at a steep markup to fund their expeditions.”
Janus nodded. Where the sun-siders formed family ties, the coldsiders were organized into commercial organizations, hiring and poaching talent from each other in a way that also refreshed their habitats’ gene pools. They competed for resources and territory as well. Compact firearms hung from the two coldsiders’ hips.
Unlike Irkallans, sometimes they went to war. The idea of fighting and killing in the near-vacuum repulsed Janus. It was something he hated about all Krandermorans, sun-side or coldside. Their environment was just forgiving enough they’d decided to do the killing themselves, as if the Void wasn’t enough.
“Let’s go,” he said.
The two of them turned onto Main Street and hurried back to the staging tents.
***
Janus pushed the tent flap open, but instead of finding the team there, Koni and Mick were gone, and Lira was sitting at their small coffee table with a guest. The stranger was a young Verazlan man, by the color of his clothing, although his outfit looked far more practical than the one the bully Janus had faced down had been wearing.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
As soon as Janus and Ryler walked in, the Verazlan did three things Janus would never have expected: he stood, he smiled, and he gave a slight bow, interlinked fingers held over his heart in a greeting between friends, or teammates.
Lira stood, looking pleased with herself. “Janus, I’d like you to meet Copeki Atl-Verazlan. He has agreed to meet with us.”
Janus offered Copecki his hand, and the Verazlan shook it without hesitation. Janus smiled. “It’s great to meet you, Copecki. Are you from the same family as Koni?” Lira winced, and Copecki’s expression slipped for just long enough for Janus to know he’d screwed up. “I apologize. Did I say something wrong?”
Copecki waved his hand. “It’s nothing. Koni is Atl-Verazlan-teuctli. She comes from the main branch of the clan’s leading family. My father and her mother are siblings, but while Aunt Tialli inherited her father’s title and became an elder in Veraz, my father was married off to a lesser family, making us Atl-Verazlan-hueyi. We’re second to none, except for my dear cousin and the heads of a few other prominent families.”
“It is my honor to meet you, Copeki Atl-Verazlan,” Janus said, omitting the suffix and grateful for the explanation. “Shall we sit? I’m guessing Lira already explained our situation?” He sat down next to Copecki, across from Lira.
“She has,” Copeki said, sitting with a warm, genuine grin that dimpled the scar on his upper lip. “I wasn’t exactly surprised.”
“I told him we had nothing against her,” Lira hurried to add as she sat. “Just a lack of mutual connection.”
Copeki chuckled. “No need to be polite about it. I apprenticed with the Verazlan rangers. Koni captained a riverboat her family bought for her. We’ve had different ideas about teamwork for a long time.”
“You’ll get on well with Mick, then,” Janus said, glancing at Lira, who smiled encouragingly.
“I hope so,” Copecki said, sitting back. “The Motragi have always been sneakier than us Verazlan knuckle-draggers. Maybe he can teach me how to be as quiet as your friend back there.”
Ryler stepped out of the shadows and joined them at the coffee table, sitting across from Copecki. “What’s in it for you?”
“Ryler!” Lira said.
“It’s a fair question,” Ryler said. “The Verazlan clan elders assigned Koni to the team as punishment.”
“Are you that bad?” Copecki asked with a smirk. “Most people would consider working with Koni the punishment.”
Janus snorted, but Lira wasn’t as amused. “I’m actually going to side with Ryler on this one,” she said. “We can’t afford to anger the Verazlan elders, no matter how difficult working with Koni is. And Copecki, I’m surprised you’re so openly critical about a family member.”
“That is odd, isn’t it?” Copecki said, looking at her. He paused to think, and in that moment, Janus got the impression that the Verazlan was someone who generally reserved his judgment until he’d thought things through. Copecki looked at Lira, then Ryler, and then Janus. “Do you know why Koni is the way she is?”
Janus crossed his arms and shook his head. “She hasn’t exactly gone out of her way to share.”
Copecki nodded. He took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts, then said, “Like I said, Koni was a riverboat captain right out of school. Her family owns over a third of the boats run out of Verazlan settlements, and some people think she didn’t earn it, but she studied hard, and she worked hard, and she was good at it, you know?” He wiped his face with his hand. “This was a couple of years back, when I was still with the rangers. Koni did well for herself, got married, got pregnant, and came back to Veraz. We were fighting with some of the coldsiders outfits at the time.”
Janus frowned. “I’m sorry, I’m sure she experienced her share of tragedy—”
“They murdered her husband and son,” Copecki said, real grief showing on his face. “Koni’s family was pushing for war, and the coldsiders retaliated by killing her husband and son. They tried to kill her, too, but she was at her parents’ house that night. I can’t imagine what that felt like.”
Janus felt hollow, like Copecki’s words had scooped him out. He could imagine what that felt like. His parents had been murdered. His entire people, except for his uncle and sister and anyone who’d been out traveling far from the dome, had been wiped out. “I had no idea,” he said, eyes flicking to Ryler’s cultist robes.
“Yeah,” Copecki said. He sighed. “She went a bit crazy after that. Wanted the whole clan to go to war when everyone else was of a mind that we’d pushed things a bit too far. It didn’t win her any friends.”
Ryler wasn’t impressed. “That’s a good story. The galaxy is full of hurt. Lira and Janus have stories just like that one. What’s in it for you?”
“She’s suffered enough,” Copecki said, anger pressing his lips into a line. “I’m hoping—"
Mick ducked into the tent, followed by Koni. “Copecki?”