“Which species?” Tenac asks.
She glares at him. “If you do anything but accept this child like any other, you will only train them to believe they are an outcast. How do we unite two different species?”
“Show them what they have in common,” I offer.
Zariah squeezes my hand, then sits cross-legged on the ground. She picks up a rock and taps it on the floor in a pattern I don’t understand.
After a moment, a set of glinting silver eyes peers out. They slink back when they see all of us.
She tilts her head and clicks and pops her tongue.
“Gyama?” the boy says.
She nods. “Gyama. Safe.”
The boy hesitantly crawls out and stands. He’s half Zariah’s size, dark charcoal in color, and barely distinguishable against the cave rock. She slowly takes his hand and kisses his palm. He sniffs her face and then points up at me. “Ukoto?”
She nods again and gets up, taking his hand in hers. “Ukoto, dia. Mate, yes.”
The boy reaches a hand toward me. I kneel while the others watch. His fingers find the amulet beneath my shirt.
The pale green stone glows at his touch.
“How is he doing that?” Tenac slides back half a step.
“My mother gave me this as a boy,” I say. “It reacts to specific energy levels, something I still don’t quite understand. But she said it symbolizes hope.”
“Hard to believe a Neb child could bring hope,” Tenac remarks.
“That’s ezarsnthine,” Viriden remarks. “It’s found on my homeworld, common in a lot of our technologies. It’s customary to gift a piece to someone who has saved the life of one of our own.”
“Perhaps my people were not so distant from other species as we once thought,” I say, doing my best to smile at the small face that looks up at me.
Viriden rests a hand on my shoulder. “Anyone who protects the future is welcome on our ship. We will share what we know.”
When Tenac reaches for the boy, Zariah picks him up and holds him against her like he is her child. “He does not trust you. Remember what I said.”
Tenac nods. “I will see what I can do.”
My core heats as I study her holding the boy. I imagine he is ours, and I suddenly cannot wait to meet our children. The light from my body and that of Viriden’s guides the others out of the tunnel.
“Turned on?” Zariah quietly asks me.
“I think my core ignites when I find my purpose,” I offer. “That is you, that is fighting for us, and that is protecting others, including children.”
“Of the enemy?” Tenac studies us but walks beside me without fear.
Zariah gives us a warning look as we leave the cave and descend the trail toward the ships. “He is no enemy to us. He is a child. After war, there are many orphans and broken families on both sides. He will only learn to hate if he is taught to hate, like Cazir.
“I learned a lot of languages during my time in a refugee camp. But more than that, I learned that kindness can be more powerful than words or gold or food. What would our future look like if we could focus on that?”
35: Zariah
After the feds have my brother in custody, we’re surrounded by a fleet of other vessels that escort us back to patrolled territory. They interrogate me like I’m some sort of threat to Sol Federation security. I give them every piece of information I can, from my first memories to my last, including the badge I found on my brother’s ship.
Turns out, Cazir’s tech guy was interfering with the ABR cameradrones, which allowed journalists to hack them. He was the head of a secret department within the Ominous Artifacts’ main organization.
“Kursh has been picked up,” Tenac says, sitting down at the table between us. “The children will be processed and sent to the most appropriate families available. And the Nebulous child will be moved to protective custody with a new family.”
