Sarah Zettel - Reclamation

Aria swallowed hard. Horror and fear took her over as a wretched thought reminded her how the Vitae came to find this place. Anger came fast on their heels.

You don’t do this to the children. If your quarrel is with the parents, you bring it to the parents. You do not claim the lives of the children. The Nameless forbid it. Expressly, firmly, with every breath.

You are not in the Realm of the Nameless. The Skymen may do what they please.

But not this! There is no power that can excuse them for this!

She steeled herself and climbed around Kiv’s cold body.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered to the little corpses as she stepped around them. “Nameless Powers preserve me, I truly am.”

Her foot kicked something and it screamed. She jumped backward, missed her footing, and fell against Kiv’s clammy hide. With a screech of disgust, she scrabbled across the tacky floor. The thing on the floor screamed and whistled and buzzed, but didn’t move. Aria peered at it. It was about the size of her torso and it…writhed.

The capsule. It was the capsule that had dangled from the overhead cables and carried Kiv’s children between the rooms. Inside huddled one…no, two of the children.

They screamed at her. She rumbled with the disk in her ear. “Come on, you fool thing, work!” She tapped it impatiently.

“Murderer!” she heard abruptly. “You killed them! You killed them!”

The little one clawed at the sides of the capsule, its snout opening and closing maniacally as if it would bite its way through to get to her. The other grabbed at it with all four hands and twined their long bodies together until her sister was smothered into silence and could only lie still, with her sides trembling.

“Help us,” she pleaded. “I know it’s not your fault, but she’s going crazy. Please help us.”

“Oh, little ones,” Aria laid her hands on the capsule. “We’re trapped together unless you can you show me how to open the doors.”

“I can.”

“Then we’re gone.” Aria hefted the capsule. It weighed less than she thought it would. She balanced it on one shoulder. “Close your eyes,” she told them, and hoped they obeyed as she stepped over the remains of their family. Her stomach roiled and heaved and she forced her gorge back down. She had to get out of here. She had to get them out of here. She could hear one of them keening in a sound that she couldn’t imagine meant anything but pain.

Under the child’s instructions, she punched in the override code for the door lock. Aria had them all out in the hallway before the door had opened all the way. She avoided the elevators. Machines were the enemy now. Any or all of them might be in the hands of the Vitae. But the doors to the stairs were open and the stairway was clear.

“What are your names?” Aria asked as she negotiated the doorway with her cargo.

“I’m…I will be Kiv when we get back home, but until then, I’m named Ere,” said the one who was trying to calm her sister. “And Ri is my…my…” Whatever it was, Ere didn’t seem able to finish her sentence.

“Ere.” The stairs turned a corner and Aria had to juggle the capsule to keep from standing the children on their heads. “Is there a safe place I can take you?”

“The Embassy,” Ere said immediately. “They can…take care of us and…”

“Good.” Aria cut her off before she had to try to finish that sentence. “How far is it?”

“Across the city. I know the address. We all knew, in case of emergencies and…”

“And this is one, yes. I tell you what we’ll do. We’ll go to a public terminal and put in a call, let them know we’re coming…” She stopped. The Vitae might be listening to the lines and a call from her to the Shessel would let them know where she was going.

After another three flights of stairs, they came to a door labeled EXIT. Aria backed against the door to open it. The portal led straight out onto the main street, which was good, because it also led straight into a pair of Vitae. A young one and a tall one stood frozen in mid-stride, heading for the door.

Aria froze too, but her heart pounded. Backing up was no good, they’d hunt her like a rat. There was no way she could hide with the children in her arms. Running was already no good; they’d spread apart in front of her, ready to spring.

The weird scene was attracting attention. Passersby, probably on their way to warehouses or ship docks, turned their heads to see what was going to happen next. A few of them actually stopped dead.

The children also got a look at who blocked their way.

“Murderers!” screeched Ri. The capsule shuddered in Aria’s arms as Ri threw herself against the side. This time her sister made no move to stop her. “Murderers!”

Some people in the gathering crowd must have had translator disks, judging from their expressions.

“These children seem to have a grievance against you,” remarked Aria slowly.

“Your body is Vitae property,” said Young One. “You have no legal recourse to grievance committee or to council.”

Aria shook her head. “I am not making a grievance. These two of the Shessel race are.”

It was an old trick. Hide behind a superior rank whenever you could.

“You killed our parent!” Ri’s voice rose so high Aria’s eardrums responded with pain. “You slashed the membrane, shut the power, you left our sisters for dead, you suffocated our family, you…”

“Ere, calm her!” ordered Aria. Ri was going to hurt herself if she kept up her pounding. Worse, her shuddering would make Aria drop the capsule.

Ere wound herself around her sister again, but with less success. The capsule shook in Aria’s arms and she began to feel the strain of holding it.

“I am going to take these children to the Shessel Embassy.” She shifted her grip on the capsule. “You are welcome to come along and make whatever claim you have in there. If I don’t get them there, there will be two more deaths, this time in front of witnesses, because I can’t hold them much longer and if I drop them, and if this casing cracks, they’ll smother.”

The Vitae said nothing.

“Or we can just start shouting for a security patrol and I can tell my story to them and then you can tell yours and the Shessel can add whatever they feel necessary.” I am not a Notouch here, you bald, blind children, however hard you try to make me one. Then, a strange thought struck her. But you run this world, why isn’t security here already, by your orders ? A tart, satisfied feeling warmed her stomach. You’re doing something illegal, aren’t you? You CAN’T call security, can you?

Whatever it was the Vitae said to each other, the translator did not make any sense out of it. Aria watched the crowd behind the Vitae, and it was a real crowd now. They stood and stared. They said nothing. They didn’t move. They waited. These were the ones who ran their world and the crowd waited to see what they’d do.

Aria decided not to wait until the Vitae called her bluff. “Somebody get security!” she shouted to the crowd. “It’s a diplomatic incident and a murder call against the Vitae! Somebody get security!”

“Got it!” shouted a voice from the back of the gathering. “On the way! Five minutes!”

Aria smiled grimly. Some of these silent watchers wanted to rebel, all right, whether it meant the end of the world or not. Some of them were just waiting for the chance. Let the bald ones remember that!

“The Shessel will be taken to their Embassy,” said Tall One, “but you are our property. You will be taken by us.”

“Tell the patrol that. Tell them all about why these two are scared stiff of you.”

“They are children. They cannot give witness.”