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Errant Fate
Like a coin spinning in immensity is Bons.
Coin of silver and gold and precious enamel. Marbled coin of blue and green-of
ochre and curdled water clouds.
Fourth planet of it's Sun: the Star of Heaven.
Three moons and sixteen smaller satellites has Bons; too small to matter, just pebbles in space, really- no larger than a small mountain. The rest of it's satellites are artificial; industrial plants thrown into orbit to avoid the pollution of soil and wind and water.
Bons is inhabited by the Human race-has been for time immemorial. It is the one planet in the Galaxy that is certain of it's Human aborignes; for there are no other Systems, no other planets anywhere else, where the original Human inhabitants should all be genetically dark-skinned.
On the Northern Continent there live the Brown. Tall and powerful, with rippling ,mightly muscled bodies. Their lands are grasslands; with forests of evergreens on the mountains; and the people are like their trees.
In the West, the People are a clearer brown-almost yellow- and that may be because they have been living underwater for such a long time, shunning the sun. Living on the sea floor, under their magnificent domes. Living off the bounty of the Ocean. The Cobalt Ocean; that region of wonder and delight, for the inhabitant as for the visitor, where the shores are as magical as the waves-as the deeps.
But on the Southern Continent humans are Black. Black like the brilliant
obsidian quarried from the slopes of it's volcano's, the silky
wood of the Undulu trees. Slim and smooth and hairless of body, with tightly
curled hair on their heads, they are very tall.
No human is short on Bons.
The Southern Continent is a place of jungles; of immense trees tangled in
vegetation, of rain forests peopled by a million animal and vegetable species,
of a climate of heat and water sired by the Airstream-that river in the sky
still poplularly called the 'Weather Serpent'. It encircles South and no other
continent on Bons and brings to it
its heat and water, the rains.
Humans on Bons have been civilized for a long time. Long enough to have come
out the other side of technology. While they know how to use the tools
of Matter, they also rediscovered-some millenia ago- the Spirit of the Universe.
But then, in quite recent times, came the Empire.
Ever since she could remember herself, Ayo had known that someday she'd be an
Officer.
Not a soldier. Not a pilot. An Officer in the Navy.
Commanding, first, a Station on one of the Large Ships; later, her own command.
Cutting through the vastness of Space. Spanning the
Galgxy. Walking the Stars.
That's what she played as a child. That's what she studied for as she was
growing up and starting to choose the
computer programs for her education.
Her mother was proud of her. Her father just shook his head. Her brother made
fun of her. Her cousins were in love with her.
Tamar, the youngest, followed her everywhere and wanted to be an Officer too.
Erol just wanted to hold her and make love to her and marry her; and that was
when
they were both eleven.
When they were both sixteen they were paired. The cousins, Erol and Ayo.
She was already well versed in mathematics ,magentics and molecular technics
and in droid repair - which she did for fun.
Erol was already a farmer. A molecular farmer. As skilled in biological
engineering as she in mechanics; but a poet of the Land. He was a singer too.
He had the wonderful, dark voice of the Dark People, the Proud People of Bons.
Hemade up his own songs.
His songs were about the Land,and about long, slim Ayo; his love, his lover,
his hoped-for lifemate.
Ayo loved him, and stayed with him; and when it was time , sent in her
application to the Academy.
" They won't accept you anyway." Said Tamar who, by that time, had decided she
wanted to be a dancer. " The Empire despises women."
" This isn't the Empire, it's the Academy. They accept all who have the
qualifications, and I have."
" You'll be in constant danger, my daughter. " Said Axos, her mother. "Even
before you graduate you'll have to serve on the Large Ships."
" That's what I'm hoping for."
Erol said nothing, suffering; but her older brother, Ballis, faced her in cold
anger.
" Don't give us that. You'll serve the Empire and you know it! The Academies
are the breeding-ground for those murderers shoe are enslaving the Galaxy!"
There was a shocked silence.
"Ballis!" That was their father. " I forbid you to speak to your sister in this
manner!"
" Then you should forbid her this madness!" He got up from the table ,at which
the family was eating, and stormed out.
But parents did not control their children on Bons; even though they did impart
manners. And Lomn had known long since
that his daughter Ayo had a special destiny.
Maybe a wrong destiny-but her's alone.So he pitied her, but did not try to stop
her.
When Ayo was eighteen she was accepted by the Academy on Onbedran, on the basis
of her qualifications. Ready for departure,
she now spent most of her time with Erol and the rest of her family and
friends-her loved ones.
" I dreamed of a man with blue eyes last night."
They were lying on the lush grass, under the transparent weather-bell. Outside,
the tropical rain was falling
in such amounts it clouded the bell and they could see nothing of the forest.
Tamar hooted with laughter.
 . " There are no men with blue eyes!"
" No, not on Bons." Said Erol quietly. " It was the future you saw."
" Future?" Ayo was shocked. She crept into his arms. " How do you know?"
" I saw him too. " He bent over her, covered her body with his arms, as if to
protect her physically. "He's in your destiny, my love."
She buried her face in his chest, not wanting to know. Erol had more of the
Senses than she had; she could Feel-he could also See.
" Will this be a bad man?" Asked Tamar.
" No, I don't think so; but far away-far from us."
At that moment, Ayo was tempted. To stay. To retreat to her heart's home, her
people's heart, never to leave.
But the moment passed.
In the galactic year 8020, the Emperor-after seeking the advice of his
Counsellors-decided he wanted an outpost in the Fairview Sector.
New outposts are not exactly a necessity to a military dictatorship that
possesses hyper-drive which connects it's highest commanders to any System in
the galaxy in from four hours to four days. The reasons were more psychological.
Mindful of the vastness of the space the Empire occupied-and was still occupying- the Emperor knew that there was too much that slipped through his mesh; from solar system to individual Rebels. He had no intention of leaving in doubt who it was who owned the Galaxy.
His solution was the Regional Governors.
These were not wht history had known as Viceroys or Regents; those deputies
sent by a ruler to a colony too far
for him to command in person. With the hyper-drive, distance had ceased to be a
factor. A ruler or his trusted deputy could arrive anywhere in hours;
could be, practically, anywhere.
A Regional Governoe was a delegate who could physically have his station on
even a Center World, and still keep an eye on ten or twenty
Systems; on a whole slice of the Galaxy. The 'Regions' were new Galactic units,
drawn up on the new Imperial Charts by the Empire. They were
not parallel to those onthe old star-charts: the Spiral Arms, the Quadrants of
the Outer Worlds or the Center Worlds.
Of course, everybody still used the old charts, their coordinates were still in
every 'puter; but the Empire was quietly dividing the
Galaxy into wedges, like the flat pieces of cake eaten on Family Day on the
Southern Continent of Bons. Wedges of domininion.
And each Region was anchored by between seven and ten Outpostss; on which were
garrisoned between a thousand and ten thousand
troops. Protected by one of the Mile-Long ships-a stardestroyer-with everything
else this fact implied.
The Systems inside the perimeters of these Outposts-they bore the brunt of the
Empire's Occupation.
In what had been the Fairview Sector an Oupost was planned and right in the
middle of the Sector sat the Star of Heaven- Bons' Sun. From having been
at the outer edges of the Empire, quietly minding it's own business, Bons
became an Occupied Syster; and it's de-facto self-rule collapsed.
Upon learning of the Empire's landing, the first thing the Proud did was comm
their Councillors from all the points of the System.
The Councillors, one hundred and forty for the entire System, were all
self-appointed. They were drawn from among the citizens who had volunteered for
lawmaking whenever it became necessary. Not many people entered their names for
Councillor, as lawmaking was a painstaking business that took too
much time away from private occupations.
They were in no way a cadre of leadership-the law on Bons having been, for a
long time now, a matter of pacts and arbitration not enforcement.
And it all changed in the time it takes a shuttle to land.
For convenience, the Imperial Command chose the Northern Continent; the only peopled region that also had a climate permitting the free use of the outdoors all year round. They landed at Tabaleantis, the sprawling twon on North which anchored the 150,000 farmers and ranchers of the region.
Baldash came in with two hundred stormtroopers and twenty officers; but he had left two stardestroyers in orbit. Every comm, every holocaster was broadcasting the landing; a ceremonial affair in which the Regional Governor was greeted by the forty Councillors from North who represented the remaining one hundred.
On the Southern Continent, Lomn Silesbadian was watching the holocast in the
company of his family.
" Now this is your opportunity to get out of the Council." He told his wife. "
The Councillors who don't convene tomorrow with the Envoy are
going to be thrown out. You know that our days of making laws may be over; the
Empire has it's own laws that it forces on everyone."
" Then I'll have to preside over the dissolution of the Council, together with
the rest of the Councillors. ' Axos said very quietly. " To run out in times
of adversity is not a trait of us Proud; but I hope that we'll go on ruling
ourselves-many Occupied Systems have."
Lomn smiled bitterly.
" Now I see where our daughter got her resolve." But, as before, he didn't try
to interfere.
In Tabaleantis there was more than one family that was
suddenly very afraid. Those were the families of the ones-mostly young people-
who, during the
years, had made their way out of Bons and into the Rebellion against the Empire.
The trickle was small, but consistent; idealists bent on a crusade, adventurers
itching to get out of their agrarian peace. It was noteworthy that North
had the most defectors. It was rare to hear of a Westerner leaving, even rarer
of a Southerner doing so. Perhaps because the challenges of the sea
and the jungle were enough to engage all it's inhabitants attention; but North
was a rural paradise, and Humans are notoriously bored by paradises.
The Calrissian family was one of legendary riders and herders whose fame as
biological engineers of plant and animal went back
a thousand years on Bons.
Orro Clarissian and his friend Nar Baldarian were coming back from a tenday at
Summer Gathering; an annual event of animal marking, camping and outdoor
carousing. They had made some new friends, met some very eligible girls, and
were in the best of spirits-if tired out.
The time was evening; the spectacular sunset turning to blue shadows as they
rode their aggers in. Relaxing in the saddle, both silent. They rode past the
vast
expanses of tall, silky cereal ripe for harvesting then blue-green fields of
perigrass, then bolo trees and the beginning of the sleepy streets on the
outskirts of town on their
way to their adjoining estates.
The streets were deserted, a somewhat strange fact which finally registered.
" Listen!" Said Orro.
" To what? There's no noise at all!" Nar looked at his friend, dawning suspicion in his eyes."br>" Yesh, I wonder too." Orro gestured. " Nobody's in the street. No sound from
the domes. I wonder what's going on?"
They soon found out.
Arkara Baldarian, Head of the Baldarian Family, and Nar's widowed aunt, was
sitting motionless with her two daughters
and one remaining son in the gathering dusk when Nar and Orro walked into the
Baldarian family dome.
" I hope they won't find out about Hori." The eldest sister got up and walked
over to them, her dark eyes darker with fear. " They may
have everything in their 'puters. The Spirit knows what they may do to us all!"
Hori, the absent brother, was one of those who had left to
join the Rebels about two years before.
" They can't find anything that's not in our 'puters! And, let me tell you, Hori never existed!" Said Hori's brother,
drawing
a terrible look from their mother.
Nar and Orro looked at the holocast, running the Envoy's landing over and over,
and at each other, and knew this- they had to get out. The sooner
the better. Before the Imperials found out about Defector's families. Before
Conscription started.
Conscription! That deceptively named Imperial practice of rounding up for
manpower a minimum-but not maximum- of 1% of all the able-bodied more than
eighteen and less
than fifty in the population of every System they Occupied.
For the Empire always needed manpower.
When Nar went to his rooms to pack a small grav-baf, Orro rode over to the
Calrissian family estate.
It was a bitter moment, having to say goodbye in his heart only. His sister and
brother, welcoming him casually, were all excited about the
Empire's landing. They were both underage and in no danger of Conscription.
Neither was his father, whose leg below the knee was mechanical, nor his mother
who was pregnant, nor his uncle and two aunts or his four grandparents-all
average. But Orro himself was twenty, able-bodied and strong.
A crack shot and excellent pilot, techincally knowledgeable like his friend and
neighbor Nar, who also had a member of his family missing; which made them both
prime candidates for slavery.
They took Nar's space-racer and quietly started to circle the planet; searching
for a 'hole' in the Empire's electronic security web.
In 8020, Ensign Ayo Silesbadian was not yet twenty-one. She was serving on her
first Stardestroyer, the Imperial 1-Class Conqueror. Hers was
a junior post; even more junior than that of other Ensigns-even though her age
and training was right- for she was female.
Interior Communications was reserved for women ensigns. She sat all day before
her screen and monitored the comings and goings on the mile-long ship.
As with the cadets at the Academy, female Petty Officers and Officers were
strictly segregated from the males. Not only were they barred from combat duty,
but they even had their own leisure lounges and mess-halls; fraternization was
definitely not encouraged.
Ayo had discovered long since that in the Empire a woman inher position had to work twice as hard, and be four times as good as any man, to get even the passing grades and menial posts granted to women. At first, while still at the Academy, she had rebelled; going so far as to complain to the superiors and to the Cadets' Ombusdman. She soon discovered that it was either swallow her indignation and be allowed to stay on, or 'make trouble' and leave. She chose to stay.
On the Large Ship she took it as a challenge and worked so hard and so well
that she even received a commendation-something unheard of. She was very happy
and proud until she saw the smirks on the male Ensigns' faces. They conceived
of a woman as incapabable of reaching a goal otherwise than by sleeping
her way up. This so incensed and wounded her that she spent the following six
weeks trying to make herself invisible.
But she still saw her future in the Navy; even though the difficulties of
making Comander seemed to have increased expotentially. She loved space;
the immense distance traveled in hours was still grounds for awe and planetfall
was every bit as exotic and exciting as she'd dreamed.
Also, she couldn't bear the thought of going home defeated.
Lately she had come to spend more of her free time in the female Ensigns'
lounge;in desultory conversation with outher girls or watching the holocasts.
These were very boring; being made up in equal parts of Empire propaganda,
Galactic news (edited for minimum information and maximum
effect), and lectures on subjects she already knew. Just once a week they
played an entertainment disk of a drama or comedy holo; usually no less than
ten years old
and produced by some Empire hack. The kind of fare that only a captive
audience, out of their minds with boredom, could pay any attention to.
Once, at shifts end, she sat before the holo's news, but saw nothing of what it
was showing. She was thinking about what her grand dreams
had brought-her universe-spanning plans.
From Officer material to menial in less than two years and a half. From the
whole Galaxy as her playground to one, dingy, sex-segregated lounge inside a
maze of clanging steel. From Cyrioin Mathematics to corridor monitoring , in
one easy slide. One easy slide downwards.
Everybody had told her so. Everybody would doubtless tell her so again, eith
varying degrees of righteousness, when she returned. IF she ever returned.
Her life had changed irrevocably. She had changed.
She would be out of place on her Home now. Not only i her own feelings, but for
everyone else. Nobody would want her anymore.
She felt a wave of sorrow wash over her at the thought; a wave of homesickness,
hot and searing and stinging her eyes. At that point it was that something
caught her eye in the holo.
The wind in the grass-the immense sweep of fields under the sin- as a
background to a landing Imperial Shuttle.
But that's North- that's Bons! She almost cried out. No, it must be a chance of
resemblance of one landscape to another. She'd wanted to see Bons, so she had.
She paid
attention to the holo now; but it was already showing a parade on Capitol
Central.
After the broadcast, she punched for the summary. Bons had been occupied all
right.
She left the lounge, she head in a whirl. Bons occupied! Occupation meant a
change in the laws. It meant a controlled economy. It meant
conscription.
Icy currents ran down her back. Tamar was seventeen, Ballis twenty-four. And
Erol-Erol was her age, twenty and a half.
She thought of his farm, of his experimental plants and animals of brilliant
engineering design. Not only were the
profits from his sales now in danger of being taxed to extinction; but he
himself faced the worst. Brilliant engineers were much in demand in the Empire.
She felt it then. A shifting, at turning of her life around itself. A
crossroads.
She must decide. Stay with her career and try to help them from here or- or
what? Could she give up her lifelong
ambition and leave? Leaving wouldn't be simply quitting. Could she do such a
thing, emotionally-or even practically- without facing a court martial?
On the other hand, was it even possible for her to help; to make her influence
felt as an Imperial Officer, even a junior one? Did she even have influence?
She tossed and turned all night; drawing curses from her outspoken Nomish bunkmate below. She paid no attention.
All the next day she felt it-she was needed at Home. Her talents, her command, her level head; were she there she could help organize things, organize thoughts and options. Her father, the non-interference humanist, and her mother the jurist were no good at such things. And hot-headed Ballis-he was most likely to get into trouble.
She couldn't eat. At lunch break she sat with the girl officers in the huge
mess-hall, contemplating the soup. Her chaotic thoughts
were turning over and over.
My fault. It's all my fault. If I hadn't left I'd be there now, weighing the
options, finding a way to escape or
to go underground. There is a way for that; which , of course, my parents haven the faintest idea of. If I
hadn't left I wouldn't be an Ensign . Educated. On the first
rung of my career as an Officer; with the polish of the Academy, with the
trained mind of a modern member of the Galactic Civilization.
A member of the Empire." The murderers who are enslaving the Galaxy." She could hear Ballis in her
head, over and over.
She was one of them now.
It was unbearable-but it was also a fact.
There was no 'hole' in the electronic web the Empire had spread over Bons when
the Envoy landed.
The web of surveillance that would, from now on, prevent unauthorized landings
and departures. There was no hole, as Nara and Orro discovered
after the third circling of their world.
'Blast it!" Orro calibrated the finder again, very carefully. " There should be
holes all over the Eastern Continent- nobody lives there!
There's just the wilderness parks of free-growths and the experimental orchards
supervised by droids! Why the Purple Hell..." He ran down as he saw the
fallacy in his reasoning.
" Yeah. Everybody would have just the same idea. So, no holes over here
either." Nar thought for awhile. " You know, if we can't go up we'll
have to go down."
" Down where?"
" Remember my bio-project last year, on Whathasan?"
' Whathasan's in orbit. We can't reach orbit."
" That's not what I mean. We were fifteen people there, from all over the
system, for two months.
I made some good friends-and one very good one."
" Let me guess, he lives in...
" Panat Dome, under the Cobalt Sea, And it's a she, not a he."
" When you say a 'very good friend'...?"
"Exactly." Nar nodded. " Andra's not only a great administrator, but she's the
most wonderful thirty-five year old I ever met. She and I...anyway, she told me
to
look her up."
" Lucky you!" Orro grinned from ear to ear.
" Lucky both of us. We're off to Panat."
Even flying almost over the terrain to avoid the detector-rays, it didn't take them long to reach the ocean. But they couldn't just immerse on the beach; beaches were surveyed. They had to overfly the blue, breathtakingly beautiful summer waves, and set down on them The trick was in not spending more time over the water than was necessary to take an electronic sight and dive.
Dusk was falling and, before the night-net was deployed, they dove. Down, down
a thousand meters in
five minutes, wearing space suits which prevented pressure sickness.
" There-Panat at 3 kilometers, Don't signal them-we'll swim the rest of the
way."
" You were very lucky to come in unobserved!"
Andra Serkinian was, indeed, a spectacular woman; tall and broad-shouldered,
her manner commanding. Her beauty was that
of a statue; the heroic statues depicting the Elements and the Passions, once
in fashion on North, thought Orro. He didn't wonder at her attraction for
Nar; in spite of the age difference she was magnificent.
And, hopefully, she kept enough of a tender memory for Nar that she would help
them stay
out of the Empire's sight.
She was pacing from one side of the transparent habitat to the other and the
two young men, sitting
on the padded bench that circled it, were following her movements with their
heads. Left. Right. Left.
Over their heads, gluing their enormous mouths to the crystal-steel, the fauna
of the ocean's bottom were
watching them with huge round eyes; attracted by the lights.
She was listening as they told her about Nar Baldarian's cousin, Hori, who had
presumably defected to the Rebellion
against the Empire and Orro Calrissian's uncle Lando, who had disappeared from
the System five years before.
" He went when I was fifteen. Nobody thought he was going to join the
Rebellion; not Lando. He's an adventurer,
a born gambler. He just went away to make his fortune; but try telling that to
the Empire! We must find a way to camouflage you two as members of Panat Dome.
Luckily, the Empire has shown no interest in us as yet-probably because we're
not going anywhere anyway."
" It's only been three days- they'll crack down soon snough." Said Orro
gloomily.
" I agree." Andra reflected. " Because of your color you can't pose as
underworkers but must go as surface-tenders. Our surfacers are
mostly as brown as you are. And you're lucky again! I head the Project for
Grandfish Raising. So, now you're Technicians Third Class at the Cannery (B
Station).
Where's your ship?
" At three kilometers from here."
" We'll have to find it before Imperial surveillance does. I'll get our patrols
to retrieve it." Andra went to the holocom in the
middle of her habitat and spoke to a woman and a man in uniform, with flippers
on feet and wrists. They answered in monosyllables-got into motion.
Everybody seems to understand instantaneously, thought Orro. Were they all
telepathic down here?
Before the night was over they had new statistics, entered into the Dome's
Central 'Puter, and wore the comlinks implanted in
the flesh of their forearms that distinguished Oceanians from their land-lubber
cousins. They also had the distinctive haircuts of the people from
Panat and had each been issued a 'puter credit for expenses.
" You can pay me back when you get your wages. Nobody in Panat will talk-
Proud's solidarity."
" Andra, I'm eternally grateful. You really have gone beyond the call of
friendship."
" When I told you to look me up this was not quite what I had in mind." She
smiled wryly at Nar. " But I can't just hite you two in
and underwater tunnel. This way, you're going to fit in naturally until there's
an opportunity for you to leave te System. Hopefully,
the Empire will never notice."
" You're amazing!" Said Nar, and meant it.
But he swore when he was awakened before midday to go work.
During Ayo's sleep-period the Conqueror had shifted-jumped into hyperspace and out again. Where it came out was not
immediately
apparent to the crew, who were only told to stand by.
Ayo soon discovered that this was no special place to be; no Systems near, not
even a rogue sun. They were just doing deep-space
interception of a pirate.
Or what the Empire called a pirate.
It seemed absurd that one of the Mile-Long's should have been dispatched to
deal with a smuggler; which was all such
'pirates' usually were. Ayo well knew that the Empire was never interested in
illegal deals, leaving all the Systems that were not
Center Worlds to police themselves.
That was why this business was, at least, intriguing; distracting her-for the
moment-
from her own dilemma.
Soon there were flashes in space, clearly visible from the ports. The flashes
came nearer as the
ship moved closer to the battle and became explosions; the peculiar burnout of
fuel without an atmosphere.
There were-had been- three ships. Three clear trails of orbiting debris were
all that was left. The debris
moved right past the port Ayo and her colleagues were looking out of. There
were some pretty gruesome sights among them.
Suddenly, with the instantaneousness of a hyperspace jump, there were some ten
or twelve fighter ships
zooming around shooting at the Conqueror and blanking out the ports.
The Red Alert siren sounded then, and the Ensigns hurried back to their posts,
not to be caught in derelection of duty.
Dull booms resonated as explosives went off against the hull. For a moment the
lights went out before backup systems cut in.
Even the ports came back on-but there were no fighters to be seen any more.
Scuttlebutt had it, on the next shift, that a squadron of Rebel X and Y Wings
had taken advantage of the destruction
of the space-pirates to mount a surprise attack and had hijacked something in
the wreckage that was the original reaon for the Empire
attacking the pirates.
It was a pity, Ayo and her colleagues agreed, that they'd never know , exactly,
what had been going on. The mere fact of a brush with Rebels gave Ayo pause:
Rebels against the Empire.
Everybody spoke of them, had been speaking of them for the last ten years, even
as Ayo was still a child. People had
disappeared from Bons to join this mythical Alliance; and now it was real. It
had happened in front of her eyes there were Rebels. It was no myth.
Ayo had been on shore leave six months-subjective- before when she and other
female ensigns descended in a mass to stay for
a week on Paiot; one of the smaller leisure systems the Empire favored for its
crews.
Most of the girls had been in search of sex. She was faithful to Erol. So, when
the others went into town for a tour of the
amusement centers, she joined a guide , and his group of ten,up the three-mile
high grav-shaft at the hollow center of 'Big Nasty', the highest mountain
on Wimset-the continent she was on.
The ride took all of ten minutes and was rather terrifying. Terifying but fun.
Ayo thoroughly enjoyed the sensation of rushing up,
enclosed only in a magnetic bubble, with no solid walls around; no solid floor
between her and the long-lost ground. Other in the group went
pale; one man even used his emergency baf to throw up, but she and several
others had a great time.
They emerged into a gale. Snow and hail. A blizzard circled the top of Big
Nasty; lashing at them and blinding them. Their guide hurried
them to the one place of refuge; an inn sunk into the rock, holding all the
amenities of civilized comfort. Looking around it's cozy interior, Ayo
understood
why the tour had been so costly.
She was sorry not to have brought a change of civilian clothes;even though
uniforms were the rule on Paiot rather than the exception, Sshe
consoled herself wiht the very good lunch she enjoyed then.
A man approached her and sat down at her table. He was of the ones call
themselves
the 'white' race; tall as she was, wiry and with a hard look. His glance at
her, while armiring, was not of one trying to pick up a strange female.
Ayo had that faculty her people called the Gift of Feeling, and the psych
testers in the Navy 'empathy'. She had tapped into the Network
of Life-the Force - and could tell about emotions and moods in others. She'd
felt something different about this man. This
man-who bought her an expensive dessert and talked as if trying for a sex
acquaintance. This man whose eyes
roved not only over the slim length of her, her magnificent eyes; but also over
the dark green cloth of her uniform, the black boots-the
pip on her collar that spoke her rank.
It was nothing he'd said, but she'd had the feeling of being offered some
extraordinary adventure. And, suddenly, she'd been afraid;not
of him, but of herself. Of going off in this unknown direction, reckless and
uncaring, leaving everything behind.
She'd left him instead and walked into the snow to rent a pair of grav-skis. He
didn't follow; and today,
looking back, she understood. That man had been a Rebel.
She never knew how she knew, it just all fell into place. She'd been approached
by a member of the Alliance and almost
offered to join the Rebellion.
Defying custom and even orders, she went back into the observation bay-deserted
between shifts- and sat in the darkness
looking out at space. She used to do this often, before her spirits had sunk so
low. Todya, she felt like herself again-interested, fired up, seeking
her future in the stars.
To leave everything behind-to join the Rebellion-what madness! How could she
fight-kill-her own comrades?
It was then that it happened, that she'd felt it. Her mother, crying out in her
head. Her mother screaming. Her father
gagging; and a confused milling of emotions of everyone else. Bad, very bad
emotions such as shock, terror, incredulity-tremendous sorrow.
Something terrible was happening on Bons.
She got up from her seat, plastered herself against the port, straining for her
Home, her loves. In danger, in pain, in grief,
Mother,Father,Tamar,Ballis and little Botu
Erol. Erol...what's going on, what's happening to you?
The Empire, that's what. The Empire's happening, The Occupation.
I must go home. I must go to them. But how?
She stormed out of the observation bay to look up at her secret friend, Cal,
who worked in Personnel.
On the fifth of the Occupation tragedy entered the Silesbadian family for
Ballis was, indeed,
a hot-head. Unfortunately, as it turned out, he wasn't the only one in that
family.
They were all present when the Imperials came, the Family Members who lived in
the large,
half-transparent Family Dome: Axos, the Head of the Family and her husband,
Lomn with their remaining child Ballis. Ballis' recent wife,
Neri, and their small son, Botu. Lomn's brother, Ward, with his wife Beta and
their children,Erol and Tamar.
All, but not all. Nobody mentioned the missing daughter-the missing sister-the
missing lover. All thought of her. If
thoughts can call across the Galactic Reaches, those thoughts did.
They came to the Family Dome; two officers and ten stormtroopers. They carried
portable data-links to their 'puters.
They spoke quite politely to the Family head, councillor Axos Silesbadian, to
tell her that two members of her family had been
Conscripted. Genetic Engineer Erol Silesbadian-to the Botanical Gardens on
Capitol Central, and Structural Engineer Ballis Silesbadian-to Base U23XA
in the Vaantim Sector. Both for a period of two years, renewable upon mutual
agreement; and no one in the room doubted that the
term 'mutual' was a thin fiction.
There was a shocked silence after the officers announcement, then Ballis sprang
up.
"Wait a minute! I'm a married man. I have a baby! You only take the unattached!"
"That regulation was changed last year." The Senior Officer was still polite. "
Service to the Empire now takes
precedence over personal considerations where qualifications are high; and
yours are. But, may I comment, that both of you
are slated for very favorable posts, with full payment, according to the
highest professional scale."
" You can stuff your payment up the same hole you stuff yourself!" Ballis was
flying into a rage. He threw off his father's
cautioning hand from his shoulder . " My family needs me more than your
precious Bases!"
The officer just nodded to the troopers and Ballis was held by two of them, one
to each arm.
Then she flew at them, like an attacking bird, like colored lightning. The
dancer, the beautiful seventeen-year-old
sprang up against the cold, cold white carapaces.
Tamar Silesbadian struck the left trooper at the wrist and, for a second, he
let go. Ballis knocked off his helmet
and managed to gouge his eyes with his freed hand before more troops came into
the fray; and so did Erol, who was trying to pry his sister loose.
Lomn, standing so close, was punched in the throat. He writhed on the floor,
gasping for breath, and his wife cried out; a loud cry of anguish and despair
echoed by that of Neri, rushing to the fallen Ballis.
Stormtroopers used their blasters then. Coldly and needlessly. Screams and the
sounds of blows and the whanging hiss of the weapons, it was-after all, very
quickly over.
And when it was Tamar and Neri lay knocked unconscious. Lomn had lost his
voice, Ballis was missing a foot - vaporized by the blasters, and Erol...
Erol was dead.
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