The Colonists (The Movement Trilogy) (5 page)

Go away, she moans into the quilt.
 

Tap, tap.
 

She lifts her face out of the blankets. Go the hell away, she says loudly.

Silence.

Tap, tap.

Goddammit, she says, and pushes off of the bed.
 

Exhaustion shows on her face, in the dark circles below her brown eyes, in the way she carries herself. She has been awake for nearly two days.

What the hell do you want? she asks, putting all of her remaining strength into pulling open the iron door.

Standing in the corridor is a very tall boy with carefully-combed blonde hair. Despite his size -- he has to hunch over in the hallway -- he looks petrified.

Tasneem stares up at him.
 

Finally, he opens his mouth. I -- I'm Varien. I -- Catrine brought me aboard?

Tasneem narrows her eyes. And you're interrupting my private time. Why?
 

Varien looks horrified. I'm so -- I'm sorry. I'll go. I didn't mean -- I'm sorry. Please, forgive me.
 

Tasneem,
David says.
Give him a break. He's a kid.
 

Varien turns and hurries up the hallway.
 

Tasneem leans out. Kid, she says.

Varien stops and looks back, sheepish.
 

She jerks her head at him. I didn't dismiss you. Get your ass back here.
 

The young man shambles back up the corridor. I'm sorry, ma'am.
 

Don't call me ma'am. Nobody on the
Maasi
calls me ma'am. You'll call me Tasneem, like everyone else. Not captain, not sir, not Miss Kyoh. Tasneem. Understand?

He nods.
 

Come in, then.
 

She stands back to allow him entry. The boy has to bow to avoid hitting his head on the door, and step high to avoid tripping on the lower rail. He's a giant aboard the smallest ship in the system.
 

Catrine handpicked you, then, Tasneem says.

Yes, m -- Tasneem. Yes. She did.
 

Why?
 

Oh, don't be mean to the boy.
 

Leave me alone, Tasneem thinks.
 

He's so green, Tasneem. Don't take that away from him so fast.

Tasneem ignores David's voice in her ear.
 

Varien looks as if his brain has gone blank.
 

Come on, come on, Tasneem says to the boy. There's got to be a reason she chose you. Yes? Get on with it. Or don't you think I'm busy?
 

Varien works his jaw. I -- yes, ma'am -- Tasneem.
 

Come on, then.
 

She -- I think it's because I can write, ma'am -- Tasneem.
 

You. You write.

Varien nods emphatically.
 

How would she know that, do you think?
 

She asked me, Varien says.

Okay. Write something for me, then.
 

Now?

Yes. Now. There's a tablet on my desk, there. Write something. Stir my soul, boy.
 

You're such a hardass,
David says.
Stop terrorizing him.
 

What should I write? Varien asks.
 

You heard the last broadcast? Tasneem asks.

Yes, m -- Tasneem. Yes. I did.

Say it better than that. You've got twenty minutes. When I'm back, I want to hear it in your words.
 

Varien swallows visibly. Yes, Tasneem.
 

Tasneem starts to pull the door shut behind her, then stops.
 

Varien, she says.
 

Yes, ma'am.
 

She narrows her eyes at him. If it doesn't move me, you're going back.

Varien opens his mouth to speak, and then his fearful face disappears behind the iron door.

•
 
•
 
•

Tasneem steps back into the hallway and waits for a moment.
 

You're getting mean in your old age,
David says.
 

Well, nobody told me I would live this long, Tasneem thinks. So back off.
 

David is quiet.
 

Tasneem leans forward and presses her ear to the door.
 

I think I hear him writing, she thinks.

I have a good feeling about him, too, for what it's worth
.

Good. I hope he lives up to it.

Tasneem climbs the ladder to the second level, and almost runs into Catrine's boots.
 

Hey, she says. You.
 

Catrine stops, looks around, then down. Oh. Tasneem. Hello.

You, Tasneem repeats. I need to talk to you.
 

Tasneem climbs up onto the catwalk, breathing a little heavily.

Catrine says, You met Varien, didn't you.
 

Yeah. And who told you to pick up a writer?
 

Nobody, Catrine says. She pulls her hair back and knots it. I just figured you could use the help.
 

Tasneem takes Catrine by the arm and pulls her into the engine alcove. You shouldn't have done that, she says. We're strapped enough. That kid, he looks like he could eat three times what you and I do, and still go to bed with a grumbly tummy. We don't have that luxury.

He writes, Catrine says.

So what? I write.

Yes, Catrine says, but you're busy, and you might not have noticed, but you're getting sloppy.
 

Fuck you, sloppy. Busy -- okay, I'll take that one.
 

You are sloppy. You're getting trite, Tasneem. You want to rouse up the commoners, get the Machiners cheering, you have to do better. You can't --

Whoa, hold on right there.

No, Catrine says. You're getting sappy. You're lamenting the sun. You're writing about the mountains. You're writing about flowers and deer and pure-water streams.
 

Those things are important to me, Tasneem says. They're important to mankind. If we can't get them back, we're --
 

Tasneem, Catrine says.
Nobody has ever seen them before.

Tasneem takes a step back as Catrine steps forward.
 

You forget sometimes, Catrine continues, that you're the only human who remembers the homeworld.
 

Tasneem is quiet.
 

Not to mention you're writing about something that doesn't even exist anymore. Even if we coax the Machiners into revolution, and even if we win, we can't fucking take Earth back. Earth is a shit heap, Tasneem. You said it yourself -- it won't self-correct for another twenty thousand years. We fucked it up. We win this war, and what do we get? To go back to our metal cans in space, Tasneem. So fuck you and your flowers and rainbows and lighthouses, Tasneem. Fuck them, and fuck you. You need help.

Tasneem stands silent for a long moment.
 

Catrine steps back and turns around, rubbing her eyes. Jesus, she says. I'm sorry. I'm just --

You're just... right, Tasneem says softly.

Catrine looks over her shoulder.
 

You are, Tasneem says. She shrugs. You're right. Hell, maybe I'm the wrong person to fire up a rebellion. Maybe I'm old.
 

Well, Catrine says, you are. You're very, very old.

Five hundred forty two years,
David supplies.

Yeah. I know.
 

But, Catrine says, you're also brilliant. Alright? You are. You just need help with things. Nobody expects you to do it on your own.

Tasneem leans against the wall. This kid, she says. He's good?
 

Catrine shakes her head. Well, no. Not yet. He's promising. You'll have to help him.
 

I don't know, Tasneem says. Kid looks really green.

Everybody was, once. Give him some time. You don't like him after a few months, I'll take him back myself.
 

Tasneem looks up. Yeah?
 

Yeah, Catrine says.
 

Catrine turns to leave, and Tasneem says, Where've you been?
 

Catrine stops. Saffron, she says.
 

Is that where you found the kid?
 

Yeah. He was --

I don't care what he was, Tasneem says. You were gone a long time.

This time, yeah. I was.
 

Longer than the last few times.

It's getting harder to find supplies in the belt, Catrine says. I don't know if the Citadel is stripping stations or cutting off the freighters, but everybody's starting to feel it.
 

I don't like it when you're gone so long.
 

Catrine's face softens. Tasneem, she says.
 

I know, Tasneem says. I know.
 

It's just -- we talked about it, you know? We decided --

I know, Tasneem says.
 

We decided.

Yeah.
 

Alright, I -- I should keep --

Yeah, Tasneem says. Keep doing whatever you were doing.

Catrine starts to leave, then stops again. You'll be easy on the kid?
 

I'll be easy, she says.
 

Okay.
 

Okay.

When Catrine leaves, Tasneem puts her face in her hands and says, Goddammit.

David says,
That's always a little weird for me.

Tasneem pulls her wristband off and slips it into her pocket, and David goes silent.

•
 
•
 
•

Varien is in the corridor outside of Tasneem's quarters when she climbs down the ladder. He holds up a piece of paper, and gives her a half-smile.
 

Come with me, she says.

She walks past him, and he scrambles to his feet.
 

Should I read this? he asks, but Tasneem doesn't answer.

The metal catwalks clatter beneath their feet as he follows. The ceilings are low, and Varien has to walk hunched over. Tasneem steps through a doorway, and Varien ducks, but trips over the metal collar below the door. He tries to catch his balance, but thumps his head into a metal pipe fastened to the wall.
 

Tasneem doesn't turn around as Varien rights himself.
 

His head is throbbing, but he follows, clutching the sheet of paper.

•
 
•
 
•

This ship is a piece of shit, Tasneem says.

They step through another narrow doorway, and Varien is relieved to discover that the next room has a much higher ceiling. He straightens up, rubbing his neck, and almost doesn't notice the enormous viewport that covers the far wall.
 

Tasneem walks up to the glass, leans on a rail.
 

What do you see? she asks.
 

Varien squints at the view through the glass. It looks like a -- is that an asteroid?
 

Tasneem nods. It is.
 

It's huge, he says. How are we so close?

That asteroid is large enough to sustain a small orbit, Tasneem explains. We're strapped into that orbit, along with a few smaller rocks. You'll probably hear them hit the hull from time to time. Sounds like a small bomb going off. Do you know why we're in the belt?
 

Catrine said that you're hiding out.
 

Catrine is right, Tasneem says. And we are. Before Catrine came along, had you heard of us? Heard our broadcasts?
 

Varien shakes his head.
 

Right. Well, that's what we're trying to fix, Tasneem says. Too few people hear us. Did Catrine explain anything else to you? What we're hiding from? Who we are?
 

Only a little, Varien says. She said you're kind of a legend, and that I'd never get another opportunity like this in my whole life.
 

But she didn't tell you what we're doing.

No, not really. Just that it could be dangerous.

What did you do back on Saffron? Tasneem asks.
 

I sorted.
 

Sorted. You sorted what?
 

I sorted the rocks the miners brought back.
 

Tasneem says, And did you like that? Sorting rocks?

I didn't like it at all, Varien answers. Nobody did.

I'm curious, then. How did Catrine know that you were a writer? Tasneem asks. If you were busy on the sorting lines, I mean.

Varien blushes. I -- well, we -- we didn't meet on the sorting lines.

Tasneem sets her jaw. I see.

Calm, Tasneem
, David says.
He's not responsible for whatever you're thinking.

And you just happened to mention that you were a writer, Tasneem says.

Something like that, Varien says.
 

Right.
 

Breathe. Catrine's the one you're angry at right now. Not the boy.

Tasneem exhales slowly.
 

Alright. Okay, she says. Look out the window.
 

Varien does.

Tilt your head, now. Look at the ship itself. You can see some of it. Do you?
 

I see -- huh. I see more rock.
 

That's right, Tasneem says.
 

It's on the ship? On the hull?

The ship is a piece of shit, like I said before, Tasneem says, but I called in a few favors, and had a few things fixed up. The ship may look like a rustbucket on the inside -- and it is, don't get me wrong -- but the exterior is signal-shielded and masked with actual rock. Not the entire ship, but a good portion of it. Enough of it to fool a passing ship.

You really are hiding out, the boy says.
 

Yes, Tasneem says. You could call us outlaws, even.

Varien shakes his head. This is unbelievable. Who are you hiding from?