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Not something that served them well since signing on for the colony ship where they lacked the space to outrun those who were inconvenienced or angered by them. Geminos’s military-run colony ships were not only confining but also filled with some of the most stiff-quilled individuals he had ever met.
“Calm down, Brydis,” Agor hissed. “I just want to see what is happening. The ship went into docking sequence, but there were no announcements made for entering the planetary atmosphere of our new home world. There shouldn’t be anything to dock with at all. We were told that the fault opened to a part of space that was already open.”
Brydis’s wings puffed out in a shrug. “Maybe they were wrong.”
His twin stared, taken aback. “Wrong? They sent exploratory drones out before we prepared to enter the space bridge. How could they bethatwrong?” Agor’s wings fluttered with a sudden burst of excitement as he whirled around, dragging a groan from Brydis. “I have to see this!”
“No!” Brydis objected, the word going unheard as the male suddenly hurried into the corridor. “Agor, stop before we get in even more trouble. We are not supposed to leave our assigned level!”
Naturally, Agor completely ignored him. His wings stretched out just enough to rapidly flap in a way that increased his speed. Agor barreled down the hall, leaving Brydis behind, gaping after him. He groaned. They would end up in confinement for sure over this. Their hated assignment in the rookery would look like a vacation in comparison by the time command was through with them.
With a hissed curse, Brydis sprinted down the hall, hurrying after his twin, a sick feeling settling into his gut as it became apparent that he was failing to close the distance between them. He wasn’t going to catch him. Agor not only had a head start, but the boarding latch was just a short distance away on the other side of the central transitionary sphere that dominated the core of the ship.
Rushing to the end of the corridor, he vaulted off the edge into the massive round space to which all halls were connected in a stacked series of levels. Brydis’s wings immediately caught the current that circulated through the core, pumping air into the vast networks of the ship. His wings flapping rapidly, he hurried across the distance toward Agor’s silver and blue form streaking ahead of him before dropping onto the hall platform at the other end.
Even though Agor’s coloring was a cooler hue to Brydis’s bold golds and reds, it was still distinct enough to pick him out easily among the crowd collecting before the boarding hatch. Brydis’s lips thinned but, circling to break his speed, he likewise descended and dropped to the platform. The moment his feet touched the floor of the corridor, Brydis pushed his way forward, making his way after his avrhast twin. The male didn’t seem to look at his surroundings and instead appeared to be entirely focused on whatever was going on up ahead, a smile stretching across his face.
Snarling, Brydis slipped behind him, his hand clasping the other male’s shoulder with the idea to yank him back out of sight but his wings instinctively dropped, and he came to an immediate stop as the aerhal who led their unit stepped forward and cleared his throat to address those gathered.
“Thank you all for your immediate response to the summons. As you may be aware, we’ve entered the Eight Fangs solar system in the sector of space that we’ve come to call The Gammaeal. And you may have noted that we have stopped and docked.” His lips thinned as he looked around at all of them, his brow-feather flattening further to a miserably tight collection of feathers pressed inward against each other. “It seems that our data analysis was incorrect regarding higher lifeforms inhabiting this sector. Upon entering through the fault, we encountered a vessel and have presently docked with it to learn more about the possibilities for habitation here for our people.”
A male stepped forward, his lavender and black feathers fluffing in agitation. “What if we cannot? Will we have to return? Most of us on this ship have no home to return to.”
Brydis noted the way Agor’s mouth tightened with pain at the observation, and his heart squeezed. Although Brydis had fewer attachments to their home planet, the natural devastations that had wrecked Geminos’s colony world and twin planet Gawallen, tearing down their avrhastal, had affected Agor deeply. The male hadn’t quite been the same as they boarded the colony ship with the rest of the surviving population of the world forced to take to the vastness of space in search for a new home. Since becoming aware of the fault, he’d seen hope once more in his twin’s eyes. It was a chance for all of them, so the male’s concerns were something that spoke for nearly everyone there who was not merely assigned to the ship to aid with their evacuation and colonization of a new world.
The Geminos government had certainly seen to it that they would have what they needed. And why wouldn’t they? Settling on Geminos was certainly out of the question. Its large population was controlled by necessity so as not to overwhelm resources and airspaces that their species depended on. The discovery of a small habitable moon on the other side of the fault had seemed like a gift from the gods, and now it appeared as if it were about to be snatched away from them once more.
The aerhal’s wings pressed closer to his body as he stiffened, his amber eyes boring into the male. “It does little good to make speculations at this point. For now, we are sending this team over with a specially chosen delegation to gain control of the situation and begin negotiations for settlement.”
Brydis didn’t like the sound of that. Tightening his hand on Agor’s shoulder, he attempted to draw him back, but the male stubbornly shrugged his hand away and glared over at him.
“We have to go,” he hissed quietly. “Those in charge don’t care about anything other than offloading us somewhere. It isn’t going to matter to them how this will look so long as they can dump us on the moon and return home before the fault closes. We are the ones that will have to deal with the repercussions of how they handle things.”
“We can’t just join in,” Brydis objected quietly. “We weren’t selected to be part of the team. And what exactly do you think we are able to do?”
Agor shrugged, only half listening now as the aerhal explained the updates to their language lexicon implants downloaded from the other ship that would make them capable of communicating with the native species. “I don’t know. All I do know is that a hostile takeover of their ship will do little to soften the native species of this system to our plight.”
Brydis groaned. There was no arguing with his twin. They were definitely going into confinement when they were caught. “Fine,” he hissed, “just don’t do anything that will get us killed.”
Chapter3
When Jill finally arrived on the main passenger deck, she was tired and her feet ached from spending so much time standing in one place, shuffling forward only mere steps as she waited for her turn. She hoped whatever emergency made it necessary to bring everyone to the main deck was worth it. If not, she hoped that one of the upper-level guests would give someone in charge an ear full since she knew someone like herself flying on the cheapest economy tickets would go ignored. Because really, the longer she waited, the more ridiculous she realized the whole situation was.
What emergency could possibly require everyone on one deck? Each level had its own emergency area and even its own escape pods, should they be necessary. If whatever came out of that fault was a threat, why have them all slowly gather in one spot? It didn’t make sense.
She craned her neck, glancing around for someone in charge as she was jostled forward within the crowd. Everywhere around her, people murmured to each other uncertainly and the buzz of conversation was interrupted every so often by a baby’s cry or the impatient squeal of a toddler. There was more than one harried mother among them, and Jill’s heart went out to them. Most of the women on the ship with their small children were, like her, waiting to arrive at Mercurium port. After weeks in space, most of them were anxious for the reprieve of open spaces for their children.. Many of them were likely even awarded farmlands, as families tended to qualify for them.
As a single adult without any prospects of settling down anytime soon, Jill didn’t qualify, of course. Not that she even knew what she’d do with a farm, anyway. No doubt she’d end up sitting out there rotting away alone if she had been. Waiting tables at the small port city was perfectly fine with her. At least she was guaranteed some social contact from those bringing in crops and those who dropped off supplies and were passing through.
Ganymede was definitely not a vacation spot, after all. Although significant terraforming over the lifetimes of four generations had freed up the ice, provided atmosphere, and provided plenty of tillable soil and the start of hardy hybrid plants suitable for the temperature and atmospheric quirks of Ganymede, it didn’t possess entertainment. At least none beyond a few seedy ones rumored to exist at port. The vacationers would have remained onboard, taking in the scenery while they sipped champagne or wine and waited patiently for the ship to disembark once the workers were unloaded.
But now… it was a different story. There was an angry bluster toward the fore of the crowd as several well-dressed people appeared to press around several nervous crew members gathered at the front. Jill squinted. No, not just crew members. Those uniforms were different from the general crew hired to assist passengers. There were quite a few people from security there, but the majority of their uniforms appeared to be those worn by the flight deck crew.
She blinked. Was that the captain?
The man in a pressed high-ranking uniform and possessing a steel gray beard and mustache scowled, his eyes sliding anxiously over to a distant, out of sight spot. She didn’t know what he saw, but his eye twitched and grew more rigid before snapping his gaze toward several crew members at the furthest edge of the crowds. She recognized the head of the lower deck among them and each of them bobbed their heads briefly, to which the captain responded with a faint nod. Facing forward again, he cleared his throat and stared out over the crowd.
“Thank you, everyone, for coming as requested.”
