Rook Winters - Weight of Ashes

Britt patted his arm. “Ursula is the one who’s been providing us with our intel on shipment schedules and crew rosters the last few years.”

“I can program a ping locator with the Willow Wisp codes,” Ursula said.

“We’ll need to acquire a transponder,” Britt said. “Also, can you make a copy of the data vault? If something goes wrong, we don’t want to lose our only copy.”

Ursula nodded affirmatively. “I’ll put it on an open source device with stronger encryption. I’ll use a Reclamation public key and my personal private key so leadership will know it’s legit. We can send the copy to the Wisp and secure the original here.”

“Perfect. You better start that now. As soon as it’s ready, we need to move.”

Governor Torkanuux vibrated with rage, its upper body moving side to side. Kane knew he had to be careful. His suit was set to translate his physiological reactions into Qyntarak-style temperature changes. He needed to demonstrate an appropriate level of remorse and shame so that the five Qyntarak gathered in the governor’s private council pit would see that he understood the severity of his failures. At the same time, he had to project a minimal amount of confidence so they would not judge him to be incompetent. It was a lot of nuance for the suit to get right and Kane worried that he wouldn’t have sufficient control of his physical reactions from which the suit took its cues.

Kantarka-Ta was letting its frond antennae waggle, not making any secret of its delight in seeing Kane knocked down a few pegs.

Bastard , Kane thought and then regretted it in case his irritation showed up on the suit.

“Honorable Torkanuux,” Kantarka-Ta’s translated voice said in Kane’s helmet, “if it aligns with your preference, the staff of my office would be able to complete the mission after the failure of your human staff.”

Kantarka-Ta didn’t say his name. Kane understood the implied slight—Kantarka-Ta was dishonoring him by not referring to him by name. He didn’t have an emotional reaction to it the way a Qyntarak would, but intellectually he recognized the insult and knew it would not go unnoticed by the other Qyntarak, including the governor.

Governor Torkanuux clacked its mandibles, a Qyntarak reaction that would best be translated as an irritated sigh from a human but his helmet didn’t attempt to translate it.

“For the staff of your office to complete the mission aligns with my preference. My preference is also for the staff of your office to bring the human Kane and instruct it in the methods of completing the mission with full success.”

Kane focused on his breathing. Kantarka-Ta’s team taking over the retrieval of L37 was humiliating enough. But accompanying the smug Qyntarak while they did it? That would be torturous.

The governor’s upper body moved back and its antennae folded down. Irritation.

“Human Kane, your suit proclaims your inner feelings. You are angry and humiliated by my preference. That is the desired response. Your failure is without justification. Your failure brings shame to me.”

“Honorable one of many,” Kane said, “I am full of shame and my failure is without excuse. I beg your pardon for how this suit conveys my physical reactions. I am not angry and I mean no disrespect.”

Taxranar, the governor’s chief advisor on legal concerns, made a snapping noise while its frond antennae swayed side to side, the Qyntarak version of a hearty laugh. “The human Kane is dishonored by having to accompany Kantarka-Ta when it does its work.”

All the Qyntarak, except the governor and Kantarka-Ta, joined Taxranar in its “laughter.”

Kantarka-Ta swatted Taxranar with the side of one of its long stabbing appendages.

Taxranar continued to laugh and said, “Even the human thinks you smell too much like human to be in proximity to you.”

Kantarka-Ta hit Taxranar much harder and made a sound similar to a hand slapping water. Taxranar slid from its resting position into an aggressive standing posture and clapped its grasping pincers together. Kane had never seen this behavior in person but he knew it was an assertion of dominance. Taxranar was reminding Kantarka-Ta of their relative positions in the social and political hierarchies. As a Qyntarak with close affiliation with humans, Kantarka-Ta was looked down upon by most Qyntarak in the leadership circles despite its close relationship with the governor and the governor’s fondness for humans.

Kane wasn’t an expert on primitive Qyntarak behaviors. He knew them in a work environment where they held their baser instincts at bay. From his rudimentary understanding, the next move would be for Kantarka-Ta to lower its equivalent to a head, the area where its antennae and thermal-optical organs were located, and to recline further in its seat.

Instead, Kantarka-Ta stood and returned Kartar-Kar’s hand-slapping-water sound and clapped its own pincers.

A standoff.

Kane held his breath, part of him hoping that Taxranar would strike Kantarka-Ta down. But anything short of a mortally wounded Kantarka-Ta would be bad for Kane. An embarrassed and humiliated Kantarka-Ta would be merciless in its dealings with Kane and his team while it sought to redeem itself.

“Enough,” Torkanuux said. The meek translation in Kane’s helmet did not do justice to its menacing body language and the volume of the governor’s command. “We are not unkanturanka that have crawled out from the underside of a boulder. The preference of our kind is to conduct our business with the decorum of great beings. Your clanging of fists brings shame to all of the group gathered in this pit. Recoil and recline unless you wish to lose your fists forever.”

The translation surprised Kane. “Fist” was not a very accurate way to describe their blunt grasping pincers, but in the context of an altercation, it made sense.

Kantarka-Ta and Taxranar held their positions long enough that it would have been disrespectful to a human leader but they did eventually slink back to their places. Kane’s helmet seemed to have trouble keeping up with the flurry of temperature changes surging through the upper bodies of the five Qyntarak around him and he had to dismiss the overlay on his heads up display.

“Kantarka-Ta,” the governor said, “you will complete the reacquisition of the human L37 with Kane in attendance for observing. You may delegate tasks to him at your discretion. The success of the mission is now your responsibility. Let us now consider the business of the next topic.”

Kane sat silently through the rest of the governor’s council meeting and attempted not to brood. He wasn’t involved in any of the other matters and the Qyntarak had no desire for his input on their other affairs.

The meeting was over and he was removing his suit when his wrist computer buzzed. The message was from Kantarka-Ta.

We have a solid lead on human L37. We leave in 7 minutes.

Court tried to follow two conversations while they waited for the data vault to finish copying. Ursula was telling Bear about the Reclamation movement, and Britt was asking Elle about growing up with Clint Donovan and the research experiments she had been part of.

“The takeover of the Willow Wisp was a carefully orchestrated campaign,” Ursula said. “The senior leadership of the Reclamation believed they needed an off-world headquarters that the Others couldn’t raid or eavesdrop on. It took two years of planning to get a critical mass of Claimers and sympathizers on the roster for that ship. Even the two Qyntarak custodians were sympathizers. Or are sympathizers, I suppose. As far as I know, they’re still up there.”