Expendable - James Alan Gardner [130]
I sometimes think Oar might have lived if she hadn’t been so broken already. But she was half-dead before she fell, and now she’d finished the job. She did not breathe; her heart was silent.
Oar was such a thing as could die. According to her beliefs, that made her holy…sacred.
Sure. Why not.
I carried her into the tower and laid out her body again, axe by her side. Maybe the light could bring her back, even from this; but I didn’t wait to see.
Jelca I left in the street.
Barren
The central square was empty, except for the eagle-plane off to one side. I shouted, “Phylar!” several times, but the only answers I got were echoes. He must have made it to the ship in time.
The city was silent. Barren. I couldn’t face it. Suddenly I found myself in the eagle, shouting, “Take off, now, up!”…a fierce panic to get out. The plane rose in a whine of engines, through roof doors that were still open from the whale’s launch. With no one in the city to close them, the doors might stay open forever.
The sky outside brooded in gray melancholy, but the open air was not as oppressive as the abandoned city below. My panic ebbed; and I realized it was foolish to leave so hastily. There was still a wealth of Explorer equipment down in the city—things I would need if I was going to live on this planet the rest of my life.
And I was.
But I didn’t need to go back down right away. I could stay outside…watch the birds…see if I could find any eggs to start a new collection….
I told the eagle to land beside the remains of the lark; it seemed like appropriate symbolism. For a while after touching down, I just sat inside the plane, listening to the engines cool and watching the overcast clouds wisp around the distant peaks. Getting out of the cockpit required more energy than I possessed. Eventually though, I forced myself to move: down to the ground where I took off Tobit’s helmet and breathed the still air.
Behind me, a bootstep scraped across stone.
I turned slowly, too burnt out to bother with defensive reflexes. If there was someone here, it could only be another Explorer…perhaps one of the old ones, stranded on Melaquin for decades and turned coward at the last moment, too fearful to return to an outside world that had surely changed.
The newcomer was a woman, wearing the gray uniform of an admiral. “Festina Ramos?” she blurted in surprise.
I saluted. “Admiral Seele,” I said. “Welcome back to Melaquin.”
Chee’s Partner
Seele didn’t answer. For a moment, I thought she was staring at my cheek; then I wondered if she was seeing anything at all, even though her gaze was on my face.
“You left me your egg collection,” she said at last.
“Yes.”
“It was my first hint you’d been sent to Melaquin.”
“And that’s why you’re here?”
“I suppose so,” she nodded. “I got to thinking….” Her voice trailed off.
“You remembered you were once an Explorer,” I said. “That you once looked like me and were marooned here too. So you came to rescue me?”
“I don’t know what I came to do,” she answered. “I came…I came to see. The city. I didn’t know anyone was here. Our sensors picked up the starship launch; I thought everyone would be gone.” She paused. “The High Council would have a collective attack of apoplexy if they knew I was here.”
“And you wouldn’t dare risk their displeasure,” I said, “or they’d send you back here. Like they sent Chee. Did you know about that?”
“I heard what happened to Chee after the fact. Exiling you here with Chee…possibly the council thought that would send me a message.”
“That’s all we were? A message for you?”
She shook her head. “Chee was always a thorn in their side. That spy network of his—rubbing their nose in the incompetence of the bureaucracy. The smart councillors knew they needed him, but the ones who just liked wielding power…. Some people hate interference, even when it saves their asses. Eventually, they caught Chee with his guard down, and away he went.”
“Away he went,” I repeated. “I watched him die.”
Admiral Seele bowed her head.
Understanding
After a while, Seele murmured, “We