"Back Into The Darkness, Part 4"
6th Ykrett, 6 (2183)
Rivkah Of Unity
When we Xenaya eat, we are carnivores. Personally, I've pretty much never eaten anything that either me, Dad, Aunt Vaki or Mum didn't kill. Certainly not meat; I tolerate some of the vegetables Mum gets for herself out of curiosity, but I wouldn't even touch a Human butcher's work. At a push, we'd scatter wild animals from a fresh kill. But we have to be starving to death before we'll consider carrion. Humans have a misconception that predators take the weak and the sick. It's not true at all, not unless you're desperate; if it's ill, you don't want to catch whatever it had. And if it is already dead and you just find it, you don't know what killed it. Or what is hiding beneath the skin.
Mum walks with me through the ship.
It stinks of stale, rotten flesh.
Five years, these bodies have been here. Some have been reduced to skeletons. But as we get deeper into the ship, many are unrecognisable puddles pooling around skeletons with uniforms still on; between lack of insects, the UV disinfection system MSI vessels run, lower temperature, and lack of oxygen, a large number of ones in the Minamar living quarters look terrifying.
I'm used to death being warm, because that's what things are when you kill them.
But this?
Cold.
So cold.
The dead still look. Their desiccated remains look like some horror that makes me want to run away.
These people weren't killed in the fighting.
They died in their quarters from impacts in the crash landing, they died of dehydration and starvation. They couldn't get out.
Mum's walking through this area like she remembers it.
I stop her. "Where are we going?"
Mum looks at me. She's on the verge of tears. I don't press the issue, and she keeps walking. We're coming to a room. It looks bigger than the others. Mum plugs a battery into the door. I stop.
Her eyes close. Something is wrong.
At her hips she draws a card, runs it through the door. It opens.
Its almost palatial in here.
And just one body. He isn't like the others; he was cornered, there's a bloodstain on the floor where he backed himself to a wall. He holds his neck, which has been sliced open, and his groin. His face looked like he died quickly, but in agony.
Mum stands in front of him, weeping. I keep a distance.
She killed him.
"Mum, are you ok?"
She jerks back to the present. "Honestly, no. No I'm not." I go to her. "Rivkah, this the Captain of the slave ship. He was my leaseholder. He raped me, on essentially a daily basis. And I killed him with my bare hands, took his weapons, and led the revolution."
I look at her; could it be she's forgiven him?
She tears herself away, and heads to the computer console. I interrupt. "Mum, Shendredie came to me a few days ago."
"I know, it's part of why we have come here. He wanted you to talk me into ensuring the system had no record of his people being spies."
"How do you..."
"Why else would he come to you as soon as it becomes public Daas has gotten into the ship?"
She runs the access card again. The system comes to life; even the room lights come on. She starts looking through the Captain's system.
"Are you going to delete the information?"
"Yes."
"What exactly did Shendredie's people do?"
"They did what they had to do. But if your father finds out why your grandfather died, it will mean civil war."
"My grandfather?"
"He was planning a rebellion, even at his old age. Shendredie found out, and his wife was dying. Buri didn't know, Ruki B'Than never told him so that they wouldn't kill him too if it was discovered."
"That's why Shendredie wanted to know if Xenaya can forgive then."
Mum nods. She stops. I peek at the screen, she has found a list. I work out the date. It's an old list. It was deleted, but not truly deleted. Mum unfolds a scrap of paper, and compares the two. I stand beside her.
"Are you sure you want to delete this?"
Her eyes close again. "Rivkah, one of the hardships of being High Queen, is that sometimes you must put the good of your people above even family. I don't want to delete it. But if I don't, and Buri finds out, it will be a disaster."
Her finger hovers over the delete key. "Mum, what if Dad finds out you did this?" As soon as I say it, I realise that is what holds her back. I have an idea. "Wait!"
She looks at me questioningly.
"You should edit the file instead, put the identifier as some Minamar."
Mum smiles, then brings up a crew manifest, picks out someone who was on monitoring the Asset Concentration Areas, and puts their name as the informant, then deletes the dating information. "Rivkah?"
"Yes Mum?"
"Please keep this secret."
"I will. But I don't like it..."
"Neither do I. But I can't let the colony fall into civil war." She steps back, drawing the Captain's pistol, pointing it at the console.
"Mum, having the master-level computer access point working could be more valuable."
"And dangerous."
"Are you really sure though? It could make the-" The reflection in the screen... How long was he stood there? What has he heard? "Hello Dad."
