March 17, 2363 AIA

  Xeno Home World

  While Vas and Tennama finished getting ready to go out onto the planet, Reyer relayed instructions to Ciro and Jane in a rapid, level murmur. Ciro didn’t question them. Jane started to, but she was cut off by the coldest glare she’d ever seen. Jane had never known Alix when she was a soldier, but at that moment, Jane could see it—decades of orders given and obeyed were concentrated in that one glare. The words Jane had been rearing to say withered up and crawled back down her throat.

  When she left to sulk, Ciro stepped closer.

  “Alix, Adan didn’t give these orders, did he?”

  Reyer paused. Every once in a while, she was reminded that Ciro wasn’t the innocent one.

  “Please keep Jane out of it, Ciro.”

  The boy nodded. “I will.”

  Alix finished putting her wrap over her nose and mouth. Now swathed and armed, she turned to Adan and Tennama. Vas carried his sword and had an e-rifle. His face was partly hidden by his wrap. Anthony had refused a blade but decided to take a pistol. His face was uncovered. Both men were waiting for her by the hatch.

  As Alix approached, Vas asked in a slightly muffled voice, “Dr. Jane’s not coming?”

  “Not this time.”

  “The planet’s a dangerous place.” Vas eyed Reyer. It was more effective considering almost all you could see was his eyes. “You don’t have to come.”

  “He’s my friend, Adan. Maybe we should say you don’t have to come.”

  Before the captain could answer, Tennama said from behind him, “I would like him there.”

  “Why?” Reyer asked.

  “He’s my friend.”

  “Liar.”

  “He’s my friend and he’ll help protect you. This is, after all, a dangerous planet.”

  “Tennama—”

  Vas said, “You heard the man, Alix.” You couldn’t see his smile, but there were crinkles at the edges of his eyes. “This is his planet, so we do it his way.”

  “Adan—”

  “And how dare you call my bestie a liar!”

  Reyer rolled her eyes. She’d gotten used to arguing with one of them at a time, but if they were ganging up on her, all she could do was acquiesce.

  Vas opened the hatch and went down first so he could help Reyer descend. While she was taking her time with each treacherous step, Ciro walked up to Tennama.

  The xeno turned to him and held out a hand. Bemused, Ciro took it. They shook.

  “Ciro, I’m glad to know you. You’re an amazing man.”

  Ciro, who was routinely referred to as a boy, despite his age, was so touched by this simple statement, all he could do was nod to acknowledge it.

  Tennama went on, “Take this as you will, but I think we would’ve been a luckier group if we’d been able to steal a mind like yours.”

  Ciro laughed. “You know that is…oddly flattering.” He put a hand to his chest. “I feel both pleased and slightly unnerved.”

  The xeno smiled, made a gesture that was part casual salute and part wave goodbye. Then he jumped down the three steps to the spongy ground below.

  Ciro watched through the open hatch until the three figures disappeared into the blue-tinted swamp.

  A voice came from behind him. “Aren’t you going to shut it? It smells.”

  Ciro looked up at Jane. She was standing at the entrance to the passageway. Her arms were folded across her chest.

  “I don’t usually shut the hatch,” he said. “Seconds count when Adan says we have to leave the planet in a hurry.”

  “At least post Lynx as a lookout so none of the wildlife comes wandering in.”

  Ciro sat down on the bench next to the door. “Nah. I think I’ll stay here and wait for them to come back.”

  Jane pulled one of the chairs over from the table and sat with her feet up on the bench next to him. Ciro put his hand under her pant leg so he could feel her skin.

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  “Marry me, Jane.”

  “Something’s happening isn’t it?”

  He saw his own gloomy mood mirrored in her expression and looked away. “I don’t know.”

  Vas, Tennama, and Reyer worked out a route that would take them through the driest parts of the swamp. This still meant they were occasionally up to their calves in murky water, but it was the most comfortable excursion Alix and Vas had ever taken on the planet.

  Halfway to their destination, they ran into one of the planet’s large predators. It was a quilled beast with a long face, and it was already crouched to pounce on Vas before they saw it tucked among the trees.

  All Tennama did was stand between the predator and the captain. A second passed, then the beast lowered its gaze and snuck away.

  Seeing a man stare down an animal three times his size without any fear left Reyer feeling awed and humble.

  “Have you ever seen it?”

  She finally understood what Jun Fenn had meant.

  “Come on,” Tennama said. “He won’t bother us.”

  The next beast they ran into was sleeker, longer, and had a mouth with three rows of sharp teeth.

  “Tennama?” Vas asked, his voice rising with his stress.

  “Not one of mine” was the curt reply.

  Three e-weapons were enough to drive it away.

  They approached the pool from the side where the ground was relatively flat. The trees, which were sometimes so thick they seemed to stand on top of each other’s roots, thinned as they drew near. Then they entered the clearing, and the pool glimmered in front of them.

  Across the pool, Reyer could see the steep hill cradling the xenos, as if to protect them. She and Vas had stood there—when was it? Two and a half years ago?

  A sense of nostalgia settled over her. Everything in her life seemed tied to this place. Everything was so wildly different because of it. But the pearl and silver pool looked exactly like she remembered, unchanged by the years and completely indifferent to her presence.

  She stepped up to Anthony’s side. “Do you think there are any other pools on the planet?”

  “I don’t know,” the xeno admitted.

  “Should we take a queen? We could still move it to a different world.”

  “No. I think I was wrong.” Tennama sat on the ground. “Finding a queen without offering up my mind would be difficult and dangerous, and even then, the humans would know where she was. Besides”—he looked around the vine-hung forest—“we belong here. It’d be best if we were left alone. I’ve decided to trust you, Miss Reyer. Please don’t let me down.”

  Adan touched Reyer’s arm. “You should rest. You must be tired.”

  “I am,” she admitted.

  “You don’t have to be proud, Alix.” Vas pressed the toe of his boot into the ground. Bubbles and water floated around it. “You’ll probably soak up a little mud, but you can’t expect to look your best if you’re hanging out on a swamp planet.”

  “You’ll keep guard?”

  Vas’s e-rifle made a clack noise when it dropped from his shoulder to his hand. “That’s what I’m here for.”

  Reyes sat down close to Tennama. They stayed there for hours. The xeno was content to be absorbed by whatever unrelatable sensations he was experiencing, and five lonely years as a homesteader had taught Reyer how to sit in silence, but eventually, her sore back demanded she move. After a brief struggle with the last of her pride, she lay down with her hands under her head and stared up at the sky.

  She had never looked up before. You didn’t when you were visiting a planet where you weren’t guaranteed to be the top of the food chain. Wispy clouds floated over the fading daylight.

  “Sunset.”

  She’d said it without thinking, as a kind of automatic reaction, and regretted it the moment she did. She shouldn’t have broken the silence. Sunsets mattered to her, but other people wouldn’t have the same reaction.

  Her nervous anticipation turned into dread when she heard Tennama say, “It’ll be getting dark soon.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said.

  “Liar.”

  Vas, hearing their exchange, wandered back toward them.

  Tennama stood up, then reached down to offer Alix his hand. She didn’t take it.

  “We can stay, Tennama. We have lights.”

  “Come on, Miss Reyer. You can’t stay forever.”

  This time, she took his hand. He helped her to her feet. The slight breeze chilled her wet back.

  “Are you ready, Miss Reyer?” he said.

  Alix shook her head.

  “I think you know what I’m going to ask.”

  “You don’t have to do this, Tennama.”

  Tension crept through Vas’s body. His fingers tightened around his rifle. “What’s going on?”

  Anthony continued watching Reyer. “You’ll apologize to Dr. Jane for me, won’t you?”

  “What’s going on?” Vas repeated.

  Tennama turned his head toward the captain, but he kept his eyes lowered. “Let’s get rid of the last human-xeno, Captain. Then this will all be over.”

  “No.”

  “There was a reason I didn’t ask you, Vas. Once I think you would’ve been happy to shoot me.” The edge of Tennama’s lips twitched in a fleeting smirk. “But now that we’re friends…? No.”

  Vas stepped forward. “That isn’t funny, Anthony.”

  “Do you know what my life is like, Captain? Every night I dream about a young girl freezing to death alone on a ship with two dead bodies. Every day I wake up knowing how many of my own people I’ve helped kill. Every day, Vas. How can you ask me to live with that?”

  “You did it to protect your species! And how many human lives did you save?”

  “That doesn’t make it hurt less. Please, Captain, don’t make this worse.”

  “You can’t ask Alix to do something like this.”

  “You think I want to? I never would’ve asked her, but I can’t do it myself!” There was a short silence, then: “Suicide is beyond us, but not all xenos want to live.” Tennama nodded to the figure behind Vas. “I think Miss Reyer understands.”

  Adan looked around. “Alix?”

  Her pistol was already drawn.

  “Thank you, Tennama,” she said.

  Vas’s insides twisted when he heard the blast.

  There was a stunned moment, barely long enough for the specks of blood on his cheek to cool, then he rounded on Reyer. A furious shout leapt up his throat, but when he saw her face, it died without ever leaving his mouth.

  Seconds went by. Reyer lowered her gun. Vas saw her body shift as if she meant to walk away, but her feet seemed locked to the ground. She tried to move again with no more success than the first time. Adan took her arm and drew her away from the corpse.

  “It’s getting dark.”

  She said it. Not him. It sounded like she was trying to put some sense and stability under her feet.

  “The scavengers will smell the blood.”

  Considering how it tumbled from her lips in a mumble, maybe she didn’t know she was saying it.

  She stopped. When not even a gentle tug on her arm could get her to move, Vas looked back. Her head was lowered, and her shoulders were shaking.

  He put his arm around her and pulled her to his chest.

  “Fuck my back!” she cried. “Adan, why does it always hurt? Why am I always in pain?” He felt her take a heaving breath. “I’m so tired.”

  Vas closed his eyes. “I know, Alix. I’ve got you.”