Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity (20 page)

Her initial gut reaction was towards compromise, despite the ludicrousness of the position. "What's their proposal?"

"They want to segment the ship. A Chinese side and an American side."

Liao glared at a bulkhead, squeezing the talk key firmly between two fingers. "Firstly, this ship is the property of the organisation known as the People's Republic of China, even if the physical People's Republic of China doesn't exist anymore. There is
no
American side. No Chinese side. And there won't be, now or ever." She took a breath. "Can you put Shepherd on for me?"

"Evening, Captain," said Shepherd's voice.

"Evening, Mr. Shepherd. I'm curious as to your opinion on this matter."

"Well, Captain, I believe there's enough room on this ship and surrounding territory for everyone to have a bit of room. I'm not a big fan of splitting the ship in half."

"Me either. I believe, Mr. Shepherd, that this is our chance to do things better. To finally move away from the nationalistic jingoism that's defined Human existence ever since civilisation rose out of the Dark Ages. I don't plan on wasting it. No American side, no Chinese side. Everyone's going to have to learn to live together. End of discussion."
 

With a sigh, the tension evaporated out of his voice. "I'm glad you said that, Captain. Telling your countrymen will be difficult though."

"Not really. Who's their ringleader?"

"A woman with a name I can't possibly pronounce."

"Fair enough. Put her on."

Another pause. Then a woman introduced herself as Zhengdao Gui.

Liao wasted no time, telling Lin exactly the same thing she told Shepherd. The woman at the other end protested, complained, but then fell silent when Liao would not compromise on her position.

She hung up and handed the communication headset back to Kamal.

"Diplomatic," said Iraj.

"Hardly. I told them how it was going to be and accepted no argument."

"That's the essence of diplomacy. Telling someone exactly what they're going to give you, nicely."

"Apparently so." She put her hands on her hips. "I should try it more often."

Rowe moved up to her. "Hey, Captain?"

"Yes, Miss Rowe?"

"I had a question. The Lucifer's Gas stockpile. What did you want done with it? That shit's dangerous. We can't just leave it lying around."

"Have it moved somewhere away from the ship for now. I'll deal with that later." She thought for a moment. "Actually, have it moved to Engineering Bay Three. I want it ready to move on my order."

"You have a plan, Captain?" asked Iraj.

"I'm preparing for contingencies. I'd like to have it as an option."

Rowe put her hands on her hips and sighed. "Righteo, Captain. Really wish we had a forklift. I miss that lifting capacity."

"I miss a lot of things," said Liao.

"You know what I'm going to miss most?" Rowe's grin was almost as wide as her face. "Bert."

"Bert?"

"A galah that used to hang outside the Art Gallery in Canberra. He wasn't like the other birds, who squawked. He would just tilt his head back and give out this long, monotonous noise. Galahs are excellent imitators, and we reckoned he had listened to the leaf blower man for too long. He'd forgotten how to be an animal and could only sing the song of the machine." She shrugged. "We were engineering students; we came up with all manner of weird explanations for things."

"Huh. Well, that's great for you, I guess." Liao smiled. "Anything else you need my help with, Summer, or can I go get tea?"

"Since you asked so nicely," Rowe said, bowing with a flourish. "I permit it."

She stifled a laugh and, with an energy in her step that she found rejuvenating, left Operations.

The energy remained with her until she arrived at her quarters. She was surprised to see that the door was open; no marines guarded it. Cautiously, Liao pushed open the door.

Saara stood in the centre of her quarters, casually leaning up against her desk and stooping slightly as she usually did inside Human rooms. As Liao entered, Saara's yellow eyes fixed on her, as dark a glare as she had ever seen. ["Is this what Melissa Liao is reduced to?"]

"Pardon?" She narrowed her eyes. "Where are my marines?"

["There were none when I arrived."]

There hadn't been any for some time. It took her a moment for her mind to catch up with this fact. "Right. What's wrong, Saara?"

["I do not know, Captain."] Saara folded her large arms. ["Why don't you tell me of how you have, apparently, turned your weapons on yourself?"]

Liao fumbled for a lie. "Saara, I…"

["You aimed to end your life. Any fool could see that. You appear with inexplicable injuries, all your hair removed? You are deceiving nobody."]

Guilt ran through her. She shook her head, stepping into her quarters properly and closing the door. "No, I was just—"

["Do not lie to me, Captain. Nor should you make the assumption that I will stop you. If you truly wish to die, I will help you in any way I can."]

She had mentally prepared to continue defending herself, to spin a false tale of what had happened, so Saara's blunt acceptance surprised her. "That's… unusual."

["Why should it be? Humans, like Toralii, value life but also liberty. We enjoy life and all its pleasures, but all things must end at some point. We have
fata'h.
"]

"
Fata'h
? I hadn't heard that word before."

["It is more a concept than a word, but a rough translation might be…
Life without pain is impossible
. It is part of the warrior's creed."]

Was that her life? Full of insurmountable pain? Without Allison, it had seemed so. Her life had been half-empty, as though some important piece had been carved out of it. The big things seemed little, and the little things no longer mattered. Now, though...

"Yeah." Liao did not know what else to say. "I'm sorry, Saara. I should have told you."

["Do not apologise.
I
apologise for intruding. I would not normally do so, but word of your injuries has spread quickly. I was... concerned."]

Liao suspected it had, but could do very little about it. "It's quite all right." She avoided looking at her desk, covered in papers, and her handgun conspicuously resting on it. "So," she asked, trying to keep her voice steady. "What else brings you here?"

["I wanted to tell you a story."]

"You're more than welcome," said Liao. The Toralii valued stories. "I'm surprised you felt as though you had to ask."

["The weight of our current situation had not escaped me. I saw the pain at the funeral. For the crew of the
Sydney
. For those we lost on Earth."]

We. That word comforted her. Solidarity between the Telvan and the Humans.

"Funerals are important. How we remember our dead is part of who we are."

["It is, isn't it? Not just a funeral for brave women and men, for a lump of steel and a name; it's a funeral for your species. Such an important thing… history, as your species are going to make it, will remember this period of time forever."] She grimaced. ["Until you are all dead and gone."]

"That's a little premature," said Liao. "Humanity survives. We're hanging on by a thread, I'll admit, but we're here. We're still kicking. We're not dead yet."

["Yes you are."] The tone, the abruptness in her voice gave weight to her certainty. ["Your world is ashes. Your numbers too few to survive. Winter on Velsharn will not be kind to you, nor will the future when your military aged population ages and withers all at once. How many children can you produce in thirty years? Enough to not only train and replace those who are too old or injured to work, but to grow themselves?"]

Saara made good points, but Liao shook her head. "You sound so pessimistic. Individually we may not be much, but our species has endured before. You're speaking from an outsider's perspective…"

["No, I speak from
experience
. The time after Evarel, our homeworld, was consumed... dark times fell upon us. It was called The Great Decline. Our numbers dwindled. Our race teetered on the edge of extinction. We almost perished."]

"And these are dark times for us, but we will endure."

["How?"] It was a simple question.

"I don't know," Liao said, meaning every word. "How did the Toralii survive?"

Saara's eyes conveyed a profound sadness. ["We did… regrettable things. Commander, do you believe that in order for your species to survive, any measures should be taken to ensure the genetic preservation of your kind?"]

"I admit these are desperate times. We have a saying: 'Desperate times call for desperate measures.'"

["Agreed. Would you consent to bearing four more children, each with a different father to maximise genetic diversity?"]

She bristled instinctively at the idea. "No, but—"

["With the numbers you have, in order to prevent inbreeding, you will be forced to do this. An appreciable portion of your survivors of reproductive age is military personnel, and your military is approximately three-quarters male. This is an unfortunate ratio. Women with reproductive function are extremely valuable."]

"It won't come to that."

["And so we told ourselves, once, too."]

"If that's what it takes," said Liao, a bitter taste in her mouth, "I'll do it. I'll talk to James, though, first… and we'll look into our options… but we have to survive."

The irony of her words, spoken with her handgun resting just beside her hand, hidden beneath a stack of paper, was not lost on her.

["And what if your soldiers do not make the same choice? Will you compel them to?"]

Liao gritted her teeth. "I'll not allow the female soldiers under my command to be raped."

["I commend your dedication, Commander Liao, and I expected as much from you. I am glad you would stick to your principles instead of taking the unpalatable but pragmatic approach."] Saara swayed her tail. ["At least, for now."]

"If you think a little hardship will cause me to change that policy, you are sadly mistaken." She squared her shoulders. "Here's what I believe, down to my bones: existence is not enough. Mere survival is unacceptable. What we are as Human beings is more than genetic code, more than chemicals. We have a culture, a system of ethics that we adhere to. This is as much
us
as our DNA. If we kill that part of us, we lose something more than our biological distinctiveness. We lose our souls."

Saara's ears pinned back against her head, and she cast her eyes downward. ["I cannot disagree on any specific point. I know this is a painful crossroads for your species, and this is but the first of many hard decisions you will have to make in the coming years. I hope your ability to hold to your values translates into material successes."]

"What did your people choose?" Liao bit her lip. "When Evarel was destroyed, how did the Toralii survive?"

Saara did not immediately answer. When she did, her tone was distant and bitter. ["I am here, am I not? We did what we had to. Our females did as the elders commanded, and those who did not had their choices made for them. We grew, we healed, and we recovered."]

National education in China told every student of the Japanese "comfort women", taken from territories occupied by Imperial Japan during the Second World War and used as sex slaves. History reviled the men who did this. Would this be Liao's legacy too? A failed captain and a rapist by proxy?

Large swathes of China and the surrounding countries could trace their lineage back to one man: Genghis Khan. Human history had not been kind to females. Neither had, it seemed, Toralii history. They had more in common than they thought.

"But things are better now, aren't they? There are females in the Toralii armed forces, as there are in ours. I assume that once numbers stabilised—"

["Do the wounds of abuse fade so quickly? The Toralii have not forgotten these dark times. Of the hospitals. The registers."] Saara shrugged, a gesture she had adopted from her Human hosts, and one Liao had seen more and more frequently the more time Saara spent with them. ["Yet, had we not, none would be alive to remember them."]

"I know." Liao inhaled. "Look. I don't think we're that far gone, but you're certainly saying what everyone's thinking. We need to get out there and have our two point five kids. We need to start looking at a permanent settlement—be that here or somewhere else. We're going to need some kind of way of getting our numbers up before age and misadventure take their toll. I'll seek volunteers, and if I have to, I'll do it myself—our IVF treatment is advanced. There'll be no actual sex involved, it's more of a surrogacy… but mark my words in this, I swear with everything I have,
nobody
will be compelled to do anything against their wishes."

["I am pleased to hear this. I wish you the best of luck with your endeavours."]

The words helped. "Thank you," she said, and then Saara—hesitating slightly, as though unsure her work was done—closed the door.

C
HAPTER
VIII

Si Vis Pacem…

*****

L
IAO
ORIGINALLY
INTENDED
TO
EAT
, rest, and enjoy one of the few non-horrible days she'd had since arriving on Eden, but something drew her out to the hangar bay, to the night sky stretching out above them. The insects were out, of course, but a stiff breeze kept them largely at bay, and the atmosphere was otherwise fresh and clean. Refreshing to breathe real air after the stale, artificial atmosphere found deep in the
Beijing
's heart.