Salvation

The fifteen boys and three girls of Dellian’s yeargroup filed into chamber three. It contained plump sprawling chairs of faux-leather that they could flop into, the cushions undulating to take the weight like sluggish liquid. Up above them, the crystal roof was etched with monochrome images of the Saints themselves, while softboards around the walls had dozens of pictures pinned to them, drawn by the younger clan kids, the phosphorescent parchments glowing gently. This wasn’t a classroom in the usual sense. They didn’t make notes, there would never be an exam. The tutors wanted them relaxed, eager to take in the stories of the Five Saints. This was to be something they wanted to know, to learn.

Marok, the estate’s Sol historian, came in and smiled. Sie was in female cycle, so sie’d grown hir chestnut hair down to hir waist. Hir face was composed of long, thin bones, giving hir a very attractive if somewhat delicate appearance. Dellian always thought if he’d been lucky enough to have a parental group like the people who’d left on the generation ships had, he’d want Marok to be part of it.

“Settle down,” sie told the kids. “So then, has everyone recovered from the arena?”

There was some giggling and plenty of glances thrown in Dellian’s direction. He bore it stoically.

“I ask because violence isn’t something we’ve really talked about concerning the Saints,” sie continued. “Up until now we’ve only dealt in generalities. Today, I’m going to start filling in formative events. To put the Five Saints in context, and appreciate what they did, we need to examine their activities in greater detail. Just what motivated them? How did they come together? Did they really get on so perfectly as the tales you’ve heard said? And most importantly, what was going on around them? All these things need to be looked at properly.”

Xante stuck his hand up. “Weren’t they friends, then?”

“Not necessarily, no. Certainly not at the start. Remember how Callum and Yuri had parted a hundred years earlier? It wasn’t on the best of terms, was it? So who can tell me the two reasons they were brought back together?”

“Politics and treachery,” everyone chorused.

“Well done.” Sie smiled softly. “And where did that happen?”

“New York!”

“Quite right. Now, New York in 2204 was a very different city from anything you know, even from Afrata. And Nkya was even stranger…”

THE ASSESSMENT TEAM

FERITON KAYNE, NKYA, JUNE 23, 2204

When the Trail Ranger was an hour out from Nkya’s base camp, the stewards started serving dinner. The gourmet food packets were microwaved, but they still tasted pretty good to me. I chose seared scallops on mint-pea risotto for a starter, followed by minute steak and fries with red wine sauce. The wine was a three-year-old Chablis. Not bad. I finished with lemon crème brûlée drizzled in raspberry sauce. I ate mostly in silence; everyone else was running through the files, consuming every piece of data we had on the derelict ship. It wasn’t enough to draw any definitive conclusions. I know. I’d been trying to work out what had happened for ten days.

“Have you identified any of the humans on board?” Callum finally asked as he finished off his salted almond truffle tart.

“No,” Yuri told him tersely. “We can’t do that.”

“Can’t, or won’t? An identity check is one of the easiest search requests to load into solnet. Nobody can hide in our society, right, Alik?”

The FBI agent gave him a soft smile. “It’s difficult,” he conceded. “Government keeps an eye on people.”

“For their own good,” Callum sneered.

“How many terrorist attacks have there been in the last fifty years? The last seventy-five, even?”

“Not many,” Callum agreed grudgingly.

“Your infamous preemptive rendition,” Eldlund said sharply. “Arrest people because a G8Turing thinks they might do something based on behavior and interests. What sort of justice is that?”

Alik shrugged. “What can I say? Pattern recognition works. And FYI, every National Security removal warrant has to be signed off by three independent judges. Nobody gets exiled without a fair hearing.”

“That must make your citizens feel so much safer. What is it every authoritarian government says? If you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.”

“Hey, you want them to be free to immigrate to Akitha or one of the Delta Pavonis habitats, pal?”

“That’s not a justification, that’s a threat.”

Alik’s stiff mouth managed to crank out a self-righteous smile, and he poured himself a shot from the vintage bourbon bottle he’d brought in his luggage.

“Why haven’t you tried to identify them?” Callum asked. His gaze had never left Yuri.

“The same reason there is no solnet out here, and that Alpha Defense insisted we keep a very secure separation distance between portal and ship. Security.”

“Man! You’re still fucking doing it, aren’t you? Still claiming everything you do is the right way, the only way. Anyone who says or thinks different isn’t just wrong, they’re evil with it.”