Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [80]
“I did not!”
Tawna stared down at them both. “What’s the rule?”
Lenandro and Brelkel each exchanged a guilty glance. Together they said, “Everything is everyone’s.”
“That’s right. So share it, or I’ll take it away and give it to someone who understands the value of sharing. Now I need to talk to my friend here, so go upstairs and play, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Sure.”
The two kids ran out of the kitchen, Brelkel gripping the toy, Lenandro hot on her heels.
Opening a cabinet, Tawna took out a ration pack and tore it open. The smell made Ozla wince, even though the rations didn’t really smell like much of anything. Maybe that’s the problem-food is supposed to have an odor, but this just smells like pure nothingness.
“I’ve been trying to get some real food here, but it’s tough. Luckily, these kids have duranium stomachs. They can eat wheat paste and they’ll be happy, so the rations are doing the trick for now.”
Ozla refrained from pointing out that wheat paste would be an improvement on the rations. Instead, she threw Tawna’s phrase back at her. ” ‘Everything is everyone’s’?”
Tawna smiled as she chewed her food. “Over the past six months, I’ve taken in three dozen orphans. So many children in such an enclosed space, it’s easy for resentments over possessions to build up. So I try to foster a sharing environment and make it clear that everything in this house belongs to everyone in this house.”
Ozla nodded. “Mind if I record this?”
“Not at all.”
Setting her padd to record, Ozla asked, “I guess the best question is why?”
Tawna chuckled. “Not how?”
“Well, how is obvious. You have this house.”
“After a fashion.” Tawna hesitated. “The house was a gift. I don’t feel like it really belongs to me. And then, after the attacks and Kinchawn’s trial, I started noticing the number of children who’d been left without parents. Nobody seemed to be in any hurry to take them in-and, to be fair, most didn’t really have the capacity to do so. So I opened this house’s doors.”
“Who was it a gift from?”
Again, the hesitation. Ozla had been a reporter for all her adult life, so she knew that the real story wasn’t in Tawna’s kindness to the orphan community of Alkam-Zar. That was a story, of course, and she would report it, but the story was how she’d gotten this house. Every instinct she’d honed told her that the house had been a gift from some kind of illicit source. Of course, it could have been something simple, like an affair with a rich man, but Ozla had a feeling it might have been more than that.
“I’d really rather not- ” Another hesitation, and then she said, “Oh, what does it matter? He’s dead, anyhow, so what harm can it do?”
“Who’s dead?”
“For the last few years, I was having an affair.”
Okay, so maybe that’s all it is. Trying not to sound deflated, Ozla remarked, “I didn’t realize you were married.”
“Well, I guess it’s not fair to say that I was having the affair-he was. He was a military man and served as one of General Minza’s adjutants.” Yet another hesitation. “Major Olorun Meboras. That was his name. He has-he had a wife and three children, but he said he didn’t love the wife and only stayed married for the sake of the children. He gave me the house a few months ago, and then the thing with the Klingons started, and Kinchawn was ousted, and then- ” Tears started to roll down Tawna’s feathered cheek. “Then he was killed during the trials. Executed.” Wiping the tear away, she continued, “He was a good man, just doing his duty.”
“I’m sorry.” Ozla tried to sound sincere, but she couldn’t bring herself to mean the words. She’d seen the damage done by Kinchawn’s people-which was considerably more specific, and with much greater long-term damage, than the more random Klingon orbital assaults-and couldn’t find it in her heart to be sorry that one of the people responsible for the devastation that she’d seen was dead.
I can’t believe I just thought that. I have got to get off this planet. Just have to finish this one interview.
She then asked how Tawna’s little halfway house got started.
“I