Page 24 of Defiance (The Intersolar Union #7)

“Ms Halloway! Ms Halloway! Give us a statement!”

The cacophony disoriented me, making it difficult to tell up from down, right from left. Did paparazzi usually have this dizzying effect? Flashing lights, bright spots that dug into my retinas, and the buzzing of drones overhead was panic-inducing. I tripped on the stones in between plush carpets more than once, unable to orient myself or even pick out a path as we fought our way to the palace gates.

Novak knew exactly what to do. He took my hand and Sath followed suit. Hjarna and advenans were both tall species, so even if I wasn’t a shrimp, they used their shoulders and crest to shade me from the snap drones and vid feeds.

“Carpet in two paces… That’s it. A few hands ahead. They’ll touch your arms and clothes. Just kids, they’re all clear. Good girl, careful of the step...”

He murmured in my ear while his eyes dilated and his colear? swelled, taking in the entire scene with all of his senses. One of his eyes glowed blue with information that streamed through his optical bionics, screening the crowd for weapons.

Something sharp caught on my clothes and I gasped, spinning. There was a venandi woman holding a curious whelp past a roped-off queue. She withdrew the child with an angry chitter, staring at my torn sleeve with worry.

“It’s okay,”

I told her, my voice trembling from the adrenaline. I waved but Novak swept me up again, his tail cutting a path through the mingling crowds by snapping the ground like a bull-whip to tell people we were coming through.

“What’s with the paparazzi?!”

I shouted.

“No one’s come up to us at all until now!”

“Hja Qiyua is open by invitation only!”

Sath yelled over me.

“It wasn’t this bad because none of these people were allowed on the surface until today.”

We spilled into the courtyard past the gates and I stumbled to a stop. Novak pulled me sideways behind some ferns where the drones couldn’t capture footage and examined my torn sleeve. He breathed it in with a critical glint to his stare, craning his neck to look back at the mother and whelp in anger.

“It was the wee one,”

I sighed, regaining my composure.

“I’m fine.”

“We should have been told,”

he hissed. Sath’s frown tightened.

“Yes, we should have,”

he agreed.

“I will address the matter, hm, with Director Caher.”

The palace’s central courtyard oozed music and lights, and when we came upon it, the scene was decadent. Banners draped the archways above, swinging in the late evening breeze. They represented planets and moons where HIXBS had a presence. I recognized the banners for Yaspur and Dharatee right away.

There were also a disconcerting number of human statues made of blue marbled sandstone with fulgurite jewelry and eyes. The lightning glass from the desert was a dark and stormy purple that made their human eyes look a bit more like their hjarna hosts. Most of the sculptures were classical, but I recognized Olivia Atarian among them. There was also one of a man in fitted shorts with shaggy hair and a mustache that screamed seventies. Sath told me proudly that it was a recovered snap from the golden disc of data Earth had ejected more than fifty years prior.

“You mean the Voyager I?”

I asked in disbelief.

“Yes! You’ve heard of it?”

Had I heard of it…

We laughed as I critiqued the party. To everyone else, it must have felt exotic and sophisticated. I could imagine that the little biscuits covered with something like cheese and pepperoni would be a delicacy of advanced culinary engineering, but to me they were American bagel bites. Artifacts were displayed on pedestals interspersed with cocktail tables where people socialized and ate. Some of them were objects from Earth, like the cracked cell phone with a single ear bud. Others were research projects or reconstructions. My favorite was a collection of “land vehicles”

that looked like Hot Wheels toys but were actually the real deal in miniature.

I was in the middle of showing the engineer where the button was to pop the gas cap when Chairwoman Guei strode in to scattered applause. Her crest gleamed as she swept through the crowd and straight for me.

“Charlotte, so good to see you. I heard about the crowds outside. Oh my, yes, I see it must have been true.”

The hair stood on my neck and arms as Guei approached, fussing with my torn sleeve before I’d even been able to greet her. She was dressed in mint green, a fringe of champagne silver cascading from the top of her crest to lay elegantly along the curve of her forehead. A statement necklace hung from her neck in the shape of a peak lapel, the kind you’d see tailored on a custom suit.

I hadn’t realized how disturbing it was to see human things outside of context, but my eyes fixed on that necklace and my throat went tight. Like we were entertainment for the wealthy. Who we were didn’t matter nearly so much as the power that human access represented.

“Good evening, Chairwoman Guei. It’s good to see you again,”

I said in a wooden tone.

“Terrible, awful business, all those crowds,”

she said with a distinct frown. Her eyes landed on my face for the first time and paused, looking at the powder on my forehead. She breathed a laugh, smiling at Sath.

“You work quickly, my boy. La?we, wasn’t it?”

Sath bowed his crest.

“Yes, sir.”

Then Guei waved a hand at Novak without looking at him. In a single flutter of her elegant hand, he was dismissed. Trivial. Of no further use. She took me by the arm as I opened my mouth to protest, but Novak bowed his head and retreated to the wall.

“Don’t worry, yes?”

she cooed, seeing how I craned my neck to look back at him.

“We are very secure here. Only approved feed drones are permitted. Ferulis’s pet needn’t bother us.”

She motioned up to several quiet drones hovering discreetly above the arches. We were being broadcast live, I realized. I forced my balled fists to relax and focused on my breathing, letting her treatment of Novak slide off my shoulders just like the buttery silk of my sleeves.

It was easy to forget the rest of the galaxy in our insulated little colony. Renata was a safe haven, and I hadn’t realized until just then how vulnerable we were as a community. We owed our sense of security to Ferulis, Vindilus, the Lost Souls that made up our security team, the delegates from Samridve… How easy would it be to take advantage of us and pick us apart if they didn’t protect the home we were building?

How much would the galaxy froth at the mouth when they found out about Ezra and Mel’s hukaari babes?

“You must tell me how this fortuitous proposal came about,”

Guei said, directing us to walk around the room. I counted my breaths to keep calm, feeling like Sath and I were wearing targets on our foreheads.

“As they do between most friends,”

Sath said graciously. He was playing the part of an excellent liaison, keeping the conversation flowing even if my attention was divided.

“Ms Halloway and I have great, yes, admiration for each other.”

Guei brought us to a halt near a raised platform. The feed drones hummed closer as a hjarna with her crest painted in a thick blue line crouched down to politely interrupt our conversation.

“Well, I hope our Charlotte will mention you in her remarks. Just think, you’d usher in the first diversified offspring in the Union,”

she sighed wistfully, though there was a glint of greed in her eyes.

“Have you given thought to the name? Hjarman, or Humna? Hjurna! Oh, I do like that one, yes?”

Sath glanced at me uneasily.

“We have not, hm, discussed it yet.”

“We’re ready for you, sir,”

the hjarna woman on the platform said. Guei patted her forearm.

“Thank you. Charlotte, you’ll accompany me. Oh, I know it’s petrifying, but just a few words to thank HIXBS and Director Caher, hm? The whole galaxy will be riveted no matter what.”

Great.

The woman did a sound check, placing a plas sticker on the side of my neck to interface with my transitor bionic directly. It grew warm and buzzed against my skin, drawing away some of my sudden-onset stage fright. I followed Guei up onto the dais and found Novak and Pioden flanking the main entrance. He gave me an encouraging nod and tapped my medallion with his claw.

“Friends!”

Guei’s voice boomed, echoing over the city like the sports anchor in a football stadium. Conversation and music quieted down until we could hear the murmur of crowds outside.

“Gracious friends…”

She put her hands on her chest, golden crest catching the warm, intimate lighting.

“I am so honored to stand here in your presence! The good work of the Huajile Institute for Xeno-Biological Studies is only possible through your passion and dedication to our inter-species health, innovation, and happiness. Director Caher Bi?dou…”

She bowed her crest to him in the front of the crowd, mouthing what was probably a thank you in Hja Erle. Polite hisses, vibrations, and rumbles filled the courtyard like a humming hive of bees from the diverse crowd.

Then Guei looked at me and beamed, holding my forearm in both her hands with a gentle grip. My cheeks went up in predictable flames, and I gave my best go at looking vapid and happy instead of desperate to rip my arm out of her claws.

“We are privileged tonight to keep the company of Ms Charlotte Halloway. She is one of twelve hundred sixteen humans liberated from the Paramour one and a half orbits ago. The first of the refugees to make a public appearance. I hope the first of many in the coming months and years, to exercise your voice and will as equal partners in the Intersolar Union. Charlotte, would you like to say anything?”

I cleared my throat, the lights now too bright to see Novak or even Sath just meters away.

“Yes, I—”

My voice trembled, so I took a deep breath and started again. Slower this time.

“Yes. This is nerve-wracking,”

I admitted with an anxious chuckle. Soft laughter met mine, supporting me while people waited patiently for me to speak.

The whole galaxy will be riveted no matter what.

I cleared my throat again, a crease in my brow.

“This has been a life changing experience for me. Thank you to HIXBS for your important work and hospitality. The friends I’ve made here will be with me my entire life.”

I smiled down at where I thought Sath was, threading my fingers together to keep myself moored. That was all I needed to say, but I wanted to say more.

“I, ah… I remember my abduction,”

I started without knowing that’s what I would say.

“It was an early autumn day, crisp and with a mist of rain. I remember slipping on the deck of the ferry on my way to work all bundled up in my coat. Only I didn’t slip. A pale hand with extra long fingers was pulling me overboard. I should have landed in the ocean, but instead, I crashed on an invisible something next to a monster. A needle transport, I’ve learned. He used an aero-syringe to knock me out. Things were blurry for a long time after that.”

No one breathed as I paused, collecting myself.

“I don’t think all hjarna are monsters,”

I assured them with a sad smile.

“Humans can be monsters too. It makes me even more grateful for the people that have kept us safe while we build our lives back up. Our security, the delegates from Samridve, Ambassador Zufi… Novak Gaul has been with me for weeks serving as my bodyguard even though he’s the kral of his own guild that does important work on Huajile. And Chairman Ferulis… Though I wish he could have accepted his invitation for tonight’s event, I forgive him for going on the mitch while he cares for the Union’s protected colonies. Renatans love you and thank you—all of you—for the sacrifices we know you’ve made, and the ones we don’t.”

I took another deep breath as the courtyard hummed with approval like applause. It died down quickly, hanging off my remarks with eagerness. I wanted so badly to reveal Guei’s hidden ugliness. They should know what I knew about the woman standing beside me. I could do it. No one would stop me. I could change the galaxy in a few sentences…

All I’d get out of it was a smug moment of satisfaction and a few months of tabloid headlines.

And we’d stand to lose so much in return.

So I swallowed my pride, smiled, and said thank you again with a little bow and wave. The crowd got the hint and Director Caher was welcomed up as I stepped down. He made a show of shaking my hand before the sound woman helped me down and removed the disc stuck to my throat.

The hard part was over. It felt like it had lasted both eons and milliseconds. Regret instantly rose up in me. I didn’t have to tell them about my abduction or wax on with thank-yous like I was on some awards show. And Novak! Feck’s sake, I should have checked with him. But he’d used his real name when asked, and Guei knew who he was. It’s not like I could lie and still give him the praise he deserved…

“It was perfect, yes?”

Sath said, crowding over me as we moved away from the dais. He shielded me from the drones with his crest and smoothed out all my ruffled feathers with a warm smile.

The speeches were over before we’d even made it to the spreads of food and drink near the front entrance. I immediately picked up a flute of furza and tossed back the bubbly drink in two gulps.

“I’m never bloody doing that again,”

I coughed, unsure if I was talking about the speech or chugging alien champagne.

“Is there anything you want to try?”

Novak asked, joining us at the table. When our eyes met, he smiled, the anchor above his head glinting when he twitched his ear. I sighed with relief. I hadn’t gotten us in a mire by saying his name out loud to the whole galaxy on a live feed after all.

“Don’t make me choose,”

I begged, immediately picking up another flute.

“You know what I like, so just—”

I felt it in my skin and hair before I heard it.

Music.

Human music, but not quite. The sound of an orchestra warming up if it were filtered through autotune. There were violins, but their song was metallic. Cellos, but as if someone were singing the part without words rather than playing it on a stringed instrument. I searched for musicians in the courtyard, but there was nothing.

“Do you like it, Ms Halloway?”

My head snapped to Director Caher. He approached with his hands behind his back and a fatherly look in his eyes.

“I—What is it?” I asked.

“A surprise for you,”

he said, pointing out a shilpakaari woman studiously moving scales on her holotab near the dais.

“Dr Dureyaman there has been working to analyse human music as part of her dissertation. HIXBS funds her efforts.”

I was having trouble finding a way around the wrongness. Another imitation in a room full of them. It wasn’t bad, but it was hollow. An algorithm mimicking art that humans had poured their souls into for centuries.

“It was certainly a shock.”

“I had hoped you could show us how humans dance.”

He met Sath’s eye.

“Perhaps with your prospective spawning partner? It would mean so much to Dr Dureyaman in particular.”

I glanced uneasily between them.

“I’ve two left feet, I’m afraid.”

“Oh, there’s no expectation, of course. The simplest possible moves, yes? Others are sure to join in, and then there will be no telling whose feet belong to whom!”

He was angling for a sensational camera opp. I mentally rolled my eyes, feeling the edges of my patience for all the elbow rubbing begin to fade..

“Alright,”

I mused, a plan forming in my mind.

“Something slow and charming.”

He rushed off to tell Dr Dureyaman with a bounce in his step. Sath set down his plate, rotating the rings on his fingers as he brushed the crumbs off his palms. The music picked up a rhythm, soft and slow, just like I’d asked.

“Sorry Sath, but…”

I turned to Novak and held out my hand.

“I owe someone else the first dance.”

He stiffened.

“What are you doing?”

“How much of your life is illegal, Novak?”

I asked.

“You can’t dance? You’ve got a whole galaxy up there watching. Young advenans too, I’d bet. If I have to dance, I’m going to dance for them. With you. Not for Guei and her friends.”

Time stood still as Novak studied my determined eyes. His lungs pumped in shallow breaths, tail rigid behind him.

“Dance with me,” I urged.

An eternity passed between us.

Then he took my hand.