MIRATHATON The Last Colony Chapter V

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I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X V | Negotiations   Iniu and Canon had not spoken a single word on their way down to the medical section, despite having walked the entire way together. They entered through the sliding door with no expectation of what they may find as was often the case in this place, where rooms could transform within seconds.   This office was specifically generated for the purpose of their meeting. Da’ud had ordered a triangular table to be placed in the centre of it. That told the newly arrived from the start how many of the crew would be attending. The room was square but had rounded edges and corners, which Da’ud always preferred as it benefited the free flow of energies. In his professional opinion, right angles were equally obstructive as solid walls. Iniu approved, as his people had always lived in round homes for diplomatic reasons, so Da’ud’s claims did not sound at all strange to him. Canon did not know this yet, but Iniu was preparing himself for negotiations during this meeting.   There was a large rectangular window on the right hand wall, its shutter being closed, and three small square cut-out windows on the far side that allowed a view into the vast space surrounding the ship. Da’ud stood upright at the middle window as they entered, his arms folded on the sill in a ruminative pose. He looked as comfortable as if he had referenced his height in the calculation of the level and measure of the windows, as they fit his stature perfectly. He was very tall, strong shouldered, with skin as black as the night sky and a single braid of gold threaded hair arranged into a loop on the left side of his polished bald head. He turned, as the door slid open, and nodded to the visitors silently.   They sat and Da’ud pulled up a digital form from the surface of the table, turned it into a position that made it easier for Iniu to 50

read and pushed it over towards him. It was a standard witness letter to the Wegaian House of Justice. Iniu pretended to read, but his eyes betrayed his lack of focus, so Da’ud interrupted him.   »We have time.« he said. »You can sign it later.«   Iniu nodded gratefully, tapping the letter and saving it in his mobile storage.   Da’ud turned to Canon.   »Are you alright?« he asked. He had already determined from a visual inspection, that the young man was more confused than sorrowful.   »Yeah.« Canon said in a weak voice.   »Feeling a bit out of touch?«   »Like working without a safety net.« Canon replied in a way, as if uncertain such feelings might be seen as an impiety. He had not known Asári as long as the others and while they had to confront their feelings first and then consider their career, for him it must have felt the other way around. It seemed appropriate that he should feel insecure, so Da’ud decided it would be best to keep the young man busy.   »I could use your help with a special task.« he said without much ado, signalling his willingness to become the one to fall back on. »Did you ever perform an autopsy?«   As Da’ud sprang the question on him, Canon stared back in disbelief. It was likely the most uncomfortable question he could think of and the answer was not coming out of him spontaneously. He stalled to avoid it.   Canon had one of those faces. Some thought it was the result of constant hostilities aimed at him, others, that it was a contributing factor in the emergence of such tendencies. Either way, he did not make friends easily, but often attracted the bullying kind. When he grew older, he could with the strengthening of his personality, develop a trustworthy appearance. Now, in his early twenties, he seemed to be composed of nothing but huge watery eyes, too large a nose and an unsteady nervous mouth. While he spoke, he held his head like a bird 51

pecking for food, so he did not have to look Da’ud in the eyes, a mannerism that a peaceful fellow might have taken as an insult to their good character.   »No… and I don’t wish to partake in one?« His voice sounded like an out-of-tune lyre.   »I will need some assistance.« Da’ud said matter-of-factly. »At least with the technical part of it.«   »Well, I’m afraid you will have to find someone else to assist you?« the boy said, his head still ducked down in this irritating fashion. Da’ud had not expected him to be all enthusiastic about the task, but neither had he imagined his request to be cut down at the first proposal. Apparently Canon was not afraid enough to undermine his stubbornness. The way he turned his statements into questions spoke of his insecurity, and it irked all of them more than he realized.   Da’ud stretched his back only a little, a well calculated motion. He, who in a different lifetime and a different place had learned how to drive fear into peoples’ hearts, pressed his lips together defiantly and fixed his eyes on Canon with the cold stare of an irritable crocodile. He was not allowing Canon to strain his temper though, so he joined his palms and breathed deeply. In reflection the proposal was rather sudden, considering the fact that Canon was the only one not present, when they found the body. He had not been so shy only a few days earlier, when Shikyo had been torn out of their midst. It was not death that spooked him.   »I’m asking this as a personal favour, Canon.« Da’ud said slowly. The crocodile vanished. »What would make you reconsider your answer?«   »Please, don’t ask me!« Canon begged, finally brave enough to look right into Da’ud’s black eyes. »Please, ask someone else?«   »I can’t ask Ethaï to do it, you know that. And Nevehet doesn’t know how to do it.«   »Iniu does?«   »He is not allowed to.« Da’ud refused patiently. 52

»Is that some kind of religious rule?« Canon urged. »Can I convert?« If anyone else had said such an outrageous thing, it would have sounded like a bad joke. When Canon said it, it sounded crazy.   Iniu sat silently between them, while they were sparring with each other, looking pensive. He was in his late twenties, a slim young man, almost as tall as Da’ud, with light skin, dark hair, a youthful face and striking blue eyes, who tended to draw attention thanks to his looks and air of sobriety. He had put on a neutral face and had retreated after the gruesome discovery which they had made the day earlier. He had only just emerged with exactly the same expression of indifference. Nobody but him knew, what he had done in the meantime. Now he just sat there with his unfazed attitude like an ancient statue.   »It is more of a cultural principle than a religious rule.« he said slowly. His voice had a deep and gravelly quality that was very uncharacteristic considering his age and optics. It was an old man’s voice.   »Why can’t you just use Ark?« Canon pushed on. »He knows more about this than any of us.«  »Of course, Ark is already on the team. I couldn’t do it without him.« Da’ud said. »But if we combine my semi-professional medical knowledge with your half-decent technical skills, we might actually achieve something. There is a quality to this case that goes beyond what Ark can provide. I need someone with instinct.«   »Half-decent?« Canon said indignantly, completely ignoring the attached compliment.   »Stop pretending you know everything!« Iniu barked in an unusually sharp tone. »How did you ever learn anything being such a mollycoddle?«   Da’ud seemed to have developed an unbearable headache all of a sudden. He began massaging the root of his nose with two fingers and put his other hand down on Iniu’s clenched fist in what was supposed to be a calming gesture, but Iniu broke away with a 53

snarl. Neither of them had ever seen him so emotional.   »You will not force this decision from me.« Canon said in a surprisingly firm voice even though he had dropped his gaze the moment Iniu started shouting. »This is about his dignity.«   »Dignity!« Iniu scoffed. »He has done away with it, obviously, for all of us to see. That thing, that body is not the man you used to know. There is not one spark of him left inside, no more than a fingerprint inside the last space suit he wore. He cast it off and moved on.«   Canon was stunned for a long moment, while Da’ud looked at Iniu from the corner of his eyes, unable to consume the full force of this man’s grief, who would never shed a tear in front of others. He had an angry attitude towards suicide, a form of death, that did affect everything he had thought Asári epitomised. But Canon could not fathom the deeper meaning of the cosmic game plan, the native Eduan was subjected to. He did not feel the unfairness of the reprimand, he just felt like pushing back.   »Well, if that is so…« he said predictably. »…then you might as well do the autopsy.«   »Oh, I will if I must!« snapped Iniu. »I shall do it in a hateful manner…«   »How very mature!«   »Silence! Please!« Da’ud exclaimed, rubbing his eyes. The air in the office seemed to thin merely by this huge man filling his lungs to speak up. »I don’t need any squabblers in the morgue.«   Both the young man fell silent as it was confirmed what they had only suspected. Behind the shuttered window lay the body of their friend on a slab, waiting for them to come to an agreement on what was to be its fate. All they had achieved so far was to insult each other.   »This is not the best of times for neither of us.« Da’ud said after a moment of calm. »And the longer we fight over this matter the longer this time will last. There are tasks to be performed, before we can give him his last farewell. His home was Wegaios and if I have to begin to explain to you, what this means 54

in addition to your half-arsed bickering, we will never get done with it.«   But apparently he had a lot to explain. It was hardly a week since they had said goodbye to one of their own, a young woman, whose body had to be returned to her parents through a purpose-generated hyper tunnel. They were not granted the honour to deliver her casket personally nor witness the rites as they were no longer welcome in her home town. The measures it took to put her to rest had been obscured to a point that sometimes they might forget, if they had no conscience to remind them.   Asári would not go so conveniently. Wegaian culture did not only have unbendable rules when it came to religious rites. They were also very proud maintainers of an overdrawn bureaucracy that was dreaded in every colonized sector.   Da’ud moved on to explain in a calm voice, how achievements must be documented and preserved to bear witness of the positive influence that a person had on their fellow humans. Reports had to be filed, devices had to be catalogued, DNA samples had to be conserved. Every discovery this person had ever made, every invention and every breakthrough had to be permanently secured for eternity or something that would seem like an eternity through the eyes of human beings. It had to be good or Wegaios might send one of their fixers, someone to either straighten the record or destroy an entire legacy. Only a perfect documentation was good enough for the Halls of Eternity.   People would go to great length to fix their own records while they were still alive. They would write their own hymns and epitaphs because they did not trust anyone to do it right or simply because they never did enough good to be thanked for. Asári had achieved so much in his lifetime, yet he was not known as someone who would sing his own praise. That task he had reserved for his friends.   It was a voluntary matter, but not serving the demands of these customs was probably the worst insult one could hand to a person who no longer could speak on their own behalf or defend 55

themselves. For Da’ud, the thought of not fulfilling this final duty for his friend was not an option.   »Now comes the hard part.« Da’ud said and he sounded exhausted even though he had not even begun any procedures. »One of you has to dig through all the innovations and improvements. Hire Nevehet as a patent consultant and sweep the entire ship. Yes, you heard me, the entire ship. You may have forgotten, but he built this place from scratch, this will give you an idea of how big a job you volunteer for. Forget volunteer, one of you is going to do that. The other one I need for an analysis of all the implants. There are records of those we own, but we have no clue, when it comes to those he has put in himself. He has been his own favourite test subject even before any of us knew him. Be prepared for surprises. We could uncover completely unknown and undocumented technology.«   The polarity of the room seemed to revert within seconds. Iniu and Canon exchanged a look charged with intent and a spark seemed to light up between them. Iniu slowly opened his mouth to speak, but Canon beat him to the race.   »I do implants!« he called with his hand raised.   Da’ud nodded gratefully but also giving Iniu an appreciative look as he felt the pilot smiling to himself inwardly. Everything seemed to be a race or a contest to Canon, and it was sad to see how Iniu would sometimes play him like a fiddle. Iniu had never even been a competitor in this game, but he had made sure Canon saw him as exactly that. Iniu was surprisingly adept, when it came to subtle manipulations.   »Alright.« Da’ud said. »This should not take too much of your time. You can join the other team once this is done. I can perform the medical examination with Ark’s support. I’d rather not place that burden on anyone else, to be honest. I will prepare him so he can go forth in his natural form, as is the custom.«   »How will we do it?« Iniu asked.   »The protostar Fuori is only about 3 days away through the tunnel.« Da’ud answered. »It is where most of them go. We will 56

send him to his ancestors.«   »Sounds appropriate.« Iniu judged.   They sat in silence for a while.   »I want to be clear on something.« Da’ud said finally. »What has happened has no explanation. We can not speculate on his reasons.«   The others listened quietly.   »And that is exactly why we must find out what really happened.« he continued. »A man like him does not simply lock the door and end it all.«   »Can we be absolutely sure, that he did it himself?« Iniu asked with a straight face. »Is there no doubt in your mind that it might have been foul play?«   Da’ud leaned back on his chair and looked at the other man sharply. Only for a moment he felt angered by this insinuation. They were only a handful of people and they had to trust each other with their lives. If Canon had expressed such concerns Da’ud might have been offended, but it was not him who suggested this. In a way, Da’ud was grateful Iniu put the question, silly as it may have sounded, up for debate. They would be asked eventually by people who knew nothing about them. They might as well take it seriously and consider any possible suspicions.   »Do you have doubts?« he asked back firmly.   Iniu held his stare.   »No.« he said soberly. Iniu’s judgement, especially when it concerned Canon, was good enough for Da’ud to put this issue to rest.   »It is hard not to get to the conclusion that he could not live with what happened to Shikyo.« Da’ud said. »It would be presumptuous for me to insist that such thoughts had not been on his mind.«   It seemed to bother him that he was unable to tell.   »You didn’t notice anything?« Canon asked. Da’ud shook his head.   »I am not a mind-reader.« he said, making it sound like he 57

had to remind them of that fact more often than he liked. »These days have been a draining experience and I might have fenced myself off.«   »We all do are own surviving, mate.« Iniu said.   »Still, the obvious just does not make any sense to me.« Da’ud pointed out. »If you think it was the first time he was responsible for the death of a friend, think again. These things happen in space. He knew how to keep going.«   »It may not have been the first time, but it may have been the last straw.« Iniu suggested.   »Let’s be thorough and make sure of the reasons before we announce to the community, what he has done. There can be no rumours. The act of suicide in itself does not disqualify from entering the Halls of Eternity, but the reasons will be questioned.«   »Aye.« Iniu said. Canon nodded his head.   »We should check his correspondence.« Iniu proposed. »Maybe he received bad news, something that drove him over the edge.«   »I already put Nevehet to that task.« Da’ud said. »She won’t know anything before tomorrow though.«   They sat in silence, each of them wrapped up in their own thoughts and worries.   »What will happen to us now?« Canon sounded like a child whose parents had just decided to go their separate ways.   »Ethaï will know, as soon as she gets back in the ring.« Da’ud said.   »How is she doing?« Iniu asked.   »She still isn’t talking.« Da’ud answered. »I gave her as much strength as I could spare, but she has to choose to use it.«   »Would it help, if I kept her company?« Iniu asked.   »You know, what would help her best…« Da’ud spoke thoughtfully. »…was if Tawani spend some time with her.«   »You think?«   Da’ud nodded confidently. Canon did not look convinced. 58

»He was lurking in the moto-room last time I checked. He tucks himself into some dark corner and waits for me to show up, just to jump out and scare the living daylights out of me.«   Iniu slowly raised his brows while he was listening to Canon’s complaint.   »He laughs like a hyena every time I get a little closer to an actual heart attack. A true devil, I tell you. Maybe you should get yourself a less peevish pet, Iniu.«   Iniu took his time leaning forward and solemnly folding his hands on the table’s surface. He did not sound angry, but Da’ud looked alarmed for a split second.   »Maybe…« the young man began carefully. »… if you had spend some time reading up on the race of the ‘Ani, you would know by now that Tawani is not a pet and more importantly that he understands every single insult you have been throwing into his direction since you met him.«   This new information seemed to shake Canon. He looked to Da’ud for confirmation.   »S’at true?« he gulped. Da’ud gave him a smirk of pity.   »I find it more than likely that he chose you as his special kind of target, because he could no longer stomach those cur jokes and threats of castration you are so fond of.« Iniu continued with a little more heat in his voice for effect.   »Oh good god!« Canon snapped and he put his hand to his mouth. »I am sorry.«   »Tell him, not me!« Iniu said. »And do it soon, because they like to eat their enemies at night, while they are sleeping.«  Canon was out of the room even before his curses had come to a close.   »I don’t know.« Da’ud said reprobatively but not without amusement. »Can’t say I like your methods sometimes.«   »He’d do good to take my advice and do some reading.« Iniu answered. »Then he’d learn that the ‘Ani are strict herbivores.«   »He won’t sleep anymore until he does.« Da’ud sighed.   Iniu sat chin in hand and looked thoughtful. 59

»Poor fool.« he mumbled. »He’s so unfinished.«   »You’d do fine, if you chose to.« Da’ud said. »He has come a long way already. He is like a sponge desperate for rain.«   »He makes me angry a lot.« Iniu said. »I know I don’t show it, but I have no patience to be a mentor.«   »You’d be a great one, if you found the proper motivation.«   »I don’t know.« Iniu said. »I don’t feel like this is what I am about.«   »Maybe it is just timing.« Da’ud considered. He would never make a teacher out of Iniu, he knew that.   »I doubt it.« Iniu confirmed. »I am not Asári.«   »No one is.« Da’ud admitted. »I keep thinking about the task at hand and without fail I always get to the point where I want to ask him for advice on how to perform some procedure.«   He sounded weary, trying not to let slip into his voice, what was visible in his face. So many times he had seen to his duties with Asári by his side and he had almost started to take him for granted. His teacher had become a lab partner, a colleague. But now it was like his apprenticeship had never ended. Iniu seemed to guess his thoughts.   »There was never final exams with him, were there?« he said. »If you got something right, there was the pat on the back with one hand and the other would dish up a new lesson.«   »He did try to make an engineer out of you too, didn’t he?« Da’ud remarked knowingly.   »Oh yes, he did.« Iniu said. »It took him a while to accept that I may not be smart enough for this line of work.«   Da’ud narrowed his eyes at him.   »You don’t really believe that.«   The urge to smile came over Iniu for only one split second, before he seemed to feel it was inappropriate to mock the fact, that he had successfully played the fool in front of his late friend.   »He knew how smart he was.« he said. »He never wondered whether I was kidding him or whether he really asked too much of me.« 60

»Damn it, Iniu.« Da’ud sounded disappointed.   »I’d just rather operate things.« Iniu deflected calmly, lost in thoughts and Da’ud remembered how excited Iniu became, when they watched the military parade at Laika for the first time.   »And I just realized how frustrated he must have felt with us sometimes.« Da’ud said. »He did train with pretty big names in various trades. I never heard him say that he found some topic dull and uninteresting. Neither did he accept a No for an answer, when it came to us.«   »Remember when he was trying to learn how to hunt giant lobsters at the Grand River Delta?« Iniu said. »What a mess.«   »Oh!« Da’ud exclaimed and he chuckled to himself. »They roughed him up so badly, he couldn’t even hold the patches to stick on himself. He hated those accursed lobsters.«   »He tried to persuade Ethaï to join him.« Iniu said. »She had no pity for him afterwards. But he certainly had more respect for the hunters.«   »Crazy man.« Da’ud shook his head. »Maybe we were not good enough for him after all.«   »He had no boundaries.« Iniu said with a sudden coldness in his voice. He did not have to elaborate on this claim, because they all knew it to be true, at least those who had had the luck to travel with him for a couple of years.   »I don’t want to sound like Canon, but I fear what will become of us now.« Da’ud said in a rare admission of doubt.   »Things will change.« Iniu said in his stoic, almost resigned way. »We lost an arm, a leg, what have you. We won’t be dancing any time soon.«   That was an interesting and pretty depressing comparison, Da’ud thought. It was true, that without the leader, the mission did not seem to make sense anymore, but then he remembered that at least in the past few years they may have had jobs, but no greater purpose to speak of. Asári had turned them into galactic janitors and until now Da’ud had not let this sink in. Did Asári really think they were not good for anything else? The thought 61

made him angrier than he had expected. He rubbed the wrinkles on his forehead again.   »If you want me to, I will assist you.« Iniu offered. »Canon does not have to know.«   »No.« Da’ud said. »I understand your reasons.«   »Nobody here to judge me for breaking the customs.« Iniu said. »I am a lost soul to them anyway.«   »I know you don’t care what happens to your soul right now.« Da’ud said, knowing that what the Eduans considered the soul could in fact take damage. »You will think differently in the future and it has nothing to do with how other see you. I shouldn’t even have asked Canon. Too bad I forgot what he had in his pocket, when we first met him. He has a nag for a little suffering though.«   »You’ll hear no disagreement from me when it comes to this.« Iniu said. 62