The founders of this colony chose an excellent site to conceal their Utopia. Partly hidden by dust nebulae, orbiting a strange multiple-star system where most explorers would not bother looking for habitable worlds . . . Stratos must have seemed ideal to isolate their descendants from the strife and ferment raging elsewhere in the galaxy.
Yet, the Enemy eventually found them. And now, so have I. …
It is a testament to their fierce independence that they never tried calling for help when the foe-ship came. The people of Stratos simply fought the Enemy, and won. The colonists have reason to be proud. Without direct aid from the Human Phylum, they countered a surprise attack and annihilated the invaders. Their victory has become the stuff of legends, altering their social structure even while seeming to validate it.
They claim this ratifies their secession, obviating any need for alliance with distant cousins.
So far, in conversations from ship to ground, I've refrained from citing our records, which mention that very same foe-ship, describing it as a broken ruin, fleeing the Battle of Taranis to lick its wounds or die. Stratos has never sampled the full terror stalking the stars. Even in ignorance, it has benefited from protection by the Phylum. No part lives but in reliance on the others.
This will not be an easy concept to impart, I fear. Some of these Herlandist radicals seem to find my arrival more traumatic than that of the Enemy, so long ago. An affront to be ignored if possible.
What do their leaders fear from renewed contact with distant kin?
Negotiations for my long-delayed landing are done at last. They assure me of facilities adequate to launch my aeroshell back into orbit when the visit is completed, so there's no need to go auto-mine an asteroid and build an ungainly, all-purpose craft. Tomorrow I descend to start discussions in person.
I have never been so nervous before a mission. This sub-species has much to offer. Their bold experiment may enrich humanity. Too bad, as chance had it, they were rediscovered by a male peripatetic.
The omens might have been better were I a woman.
Maia was soon disoriented in the stealthy dash through dark corridors and down unlit stairs. Kiel, who led the way, kept rushing ahead and then causing a bump and jostle each time she stopped abruptly to use a small penlight, consulting a hand-drawn map.
"Where did you get that?" Maia whispered at one point, pointing at the vellum diagram.
"A friend worked on the digging crew. Now be quiet."
Maia took no offense. A few gruff words were nothing compared to what else Kiel and Thalia had done. Maia's heart was full to bursting that her friends had come all this way, at untold risks, to rescue her.
And Renna, she reminded herself. As they hurried through the gloomy halls, she tried not to look at the person she had just seen for the first time, whom she had beforehand thought she knew so well. A creature from outer space. Perhaps sensing her discomfort, Renna hung a few paces behind. Maia felt irritated with him, and with herself, that her feelings were so obvious. "Is he telling the truth?" she whispered to Thalia, as Kiel consulted her map again near a meeting of two vast, unlit dormitory chambers. "About being . . . you know?"
Thalia shrugged. "Never know with males. Always goin' on about their travels. Maybe this one's been farther than most."
Maia wanted to believe Thalia's nonchalance. "You must have suspected something when you picked up the radio message."
"What radio message?" Thalia asked. As Kiel motioned them forward again, Maia found her confusion redoubling. She pursued whispered questions as they walked.
"If you didn't get a message, how did you find us?".
"Wasn't easy, virgie. Day after they took you, we tried following the trail. Seemed to be takin' you east, but then a big gang of sisters from Keally Clan rode up and drove us off. By the time we circled round, the tracks were cold. Turns out they pulled a switch over by Flake Rock, so it wasn't east, after all."
Maia shook her head. She had been unconscious or delirious during most of the ride out from Lerner Hold, so she had no idea how long it had taken.
Thalia grinned. The tall woman's pale face was barely visible in the reflection of Kiel's swaying beam off stone walls. "Finally, we got wind o' this Beller creature, comin' upland with an escort. Kiel had a hunch they might be headin' for this abandoned site. We got some friends together an' managed to tag along out o' sight. An' here we are."
Thalia made it sound so simple. In fact, it must have involved a lot of sacrifice, not to mention risk. "Then you didn't come just for … him?" Maia jerked her head backward, toward the one taking up the rear. Thalia grimaced.
"Ain't a man a man? It'll drive the Perkies crazy he's gone, though. Reason enough to take him, at least till the coast. There he can join his own kind."
