Tabitha Chirrick - Overshadowed

“All you did was prove that it could happen,” Dr. Savenus said. “Going to Igador was not a Sacrifice as you say. It was a pointless gamble.”

“There is good reason we have forbidden going back to Igador,” one Exalted said.

Another nodded her agreement. “It’s not worth risking another war with the empire. We barely escaped them. They believe us to be extinct, and that is to our benefit. You have gained us nothing, and so there has been no Sacrifice. Your risk was simply too high.”

“Too high?” Ruxbane tightened his fingers around the armrests of his chair. “Our species could go extinct in less than two generations if we don’t act! The homeland was and is our best option for answers!”

“How dare you call it the homeland,” Savenus hissed.

“I may not have been born there,” Ruxbane countered, “but I still weep for it as my father did.”

“Your father ?”

“Savenus.” The Speaker’s glare halted the exchange.

Ruxbane breathed deep. The heat in the front of his skull hinted an upcoming headache. “Explaining the why is evidently pointless,” he said. “But I have brought back more than theories and excuses. Guardsman, open file M-O-D-K-0-0-1.”

The Speaker nodded, and a video appeared on the wall. The Exalted leaned forward in their seats. The mutation Ruxbane had been trying to prove existed sat right there before them.

“Exalted members of the court,” he said, “not only did I find what we need to fix our birth rate, but I have found a treasure trove of genetic mutation. Cognitive, physical — even communicative influence. All the answers we’ve been searching for. You may remember a species on planet Modnik we called wolves.”

The bipedal creature onscreen rose its head, silhouetted against the glow of the moon, its tail brushing elegantly across the windswept snow.

“May I present to you: the Varg.”

“Sir?”

Ruxbane turned from his reflection. That court case had been the start of everything, the first move in half a century of ladder climbing. Revolution, abolished traditions, new hierarchies, all set in place by his sacrifice — his discovery of the Varg.

He met eyes with the woman across from him, the scientist in charge of the operations here on Modnik. “Dr. Anso,” Ruxbane greeted.

“I’m happy to see you here, sir. When our bridge-hand told us, I had to come see for myself. I assume you’ve seen my messages, then?”

Ruxbane thought of the day before — all his planning to capture the girl, the pacing about the labs. “I’m sorry, I must have overlooked them.”

“I understand, sir. You are busy. We’re reaching max capacity on storage for the Varg. Our engineers are beginning to calibrate the dark aether discs for transportation, but we need coordinates for the Floating Isle. Would hate to lose Varg in the walls,” she chided, smiling.

Ruxbane said nothing.

“There are also a number of reports in need of your approval before wiring to Aloma. Not to mention your signature on some requisitions for more Aloman cave stone. We’re doing the best we can with current supplies, understanding of course that you can’t be so many places at once, but the Exalted refuse to part with Aloman resources unless you deem it important. I have filled out the requests fully.”

Ruxbane sighed. He could hear the accusation in the woman’s words. Ruxbane wasn’t good enough. He wasn’t trying hard enough. He’d spent his time chasing after this cure and he’d gotten nothing. He had to focus on the big picture.

“I do understand you are here on other business,” Dr. Anso continued. “The boy said you’d come here tracing a ship. It hasn’t appeared on our scanner yet, which means it’s likely in slipstream space. We will update you as soon as it makes contact.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Ruxbane said. “Let’s address the requisitions while I wait.”

“Absolutely, sir, come this way.”

Rumbling walls shook Tayel awake. Her heart raced as she scanned the hold, eyes darting from one empty corner to the next. Shy’s ship. She was on Shy’s ship. Her breathing steadied. The white light outside the viewport peeled away to reveal the inky blackness of space, and she spread her fingers along the floor to steady herself while the shaking subsided. The normal, quiet hum of the engines resumed.

Shy’s voice crackled through the speakers, “We’re here. You all better come up front.”

Tayel rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms. She couldn’t have been asleep long. Despite the adrenaline rush on waking, her muscles lagged in movement as she pushed to a stand. Her feet seemed to move one second past when she meant them to. Her thoughts were a swirl of fog. She blinked at the forward corridor to the cockpit, an empty ache at the front of her mind like she’d forgotten something.

Right. Jace. She had to get Jace.

She trudged down the short hall to the bedrooms, and stopped at his door. She knocked lightly. “Jace?”

“Come in,” he called, his voice muffled by the steel.

Tayel pressed her hand to the green pad beside the doorway and the metal slid aside.

“Hey,” he grumbled. He swung his legs over the cot, his head feathers pressed flat to one side.

The unkempt feathers and tired look in his eyes reminded her of sleepovers on school nights, the ones that, after a while, Mom had stopped fighting them over. She’d said they could stay up as late as they want, if they got their buns up the next morning to go to class. Tayel smiled. Jace had always resented how late she could stay up watching Xander and Zero flicks.

“I can’t believe we’re already here,” Jace said.

“I thought of all people, you’d be the one to know how long the trip would take. Well, you and Shy, I guess.”

He scratched his eye ridge with his free talon. “Sure didn’t feel like four hours. Felt like four minutes.”

“Heh. I’m tired, too. There’s got to be somewhere to sleep where we’re going, though.”

Or so she hoped. She didn’t know anything about what they would face on Modnik, or if there would even be time to sleep. All she knew was that Jace’s family could be there, wherever the Delta shuttle landed. She nodded to herself. She was so close.

The door to the other room opened behind her. Fehn gripped the doorway, stretching his chest outward. He sighed as something popped.

“Morning,” he grumbled.

“Or evening,” Jace said, stepping into the hall. “Depending on where we land.”

“Ah, of course.” Fehn shook his head. “It is good to have you back, Feathers. I missed our resident know-it-all.”

“And I missed watching you brood.”

Tayel grinned at Jace’s happy clucking and Fehn’s sigh. For everything that had happened the night before, they weren’t falling apart yet. The miracles even four hours of sleep could do.

“Come on, guys,” she said. “We should probably go to the cockpit. Else Shy is going to think we’re still sleeping.”

Fehn motioned for her to lead the way. “What? Think she’d go on without us?”

“She’d probably be faster without us.”

He rubbed the back of his head. “Let’s not let her know we know that.”

Tayel walked across the hold and into the front corridor, winding one short bend before coming into view of the cockpit. The enormous viewport at the front of the piloting console showed a view of the planet below. Almost entirely white save for some swirls of blue, the small ice planet looked a lot like a marble Tayel might have found in Otto’s shop. Her jaw fell open, but her heart fluttered with pride. The Rokkir may have chased her from home, but fighting to get to Modnik had been her choice.