Tobias Buckell - Ragamuffin

They sailed far out past several reefs, to a private sandy beach, where John shouted in surprise as Nashara let herself fall backward and hit the cold, turquoise-clear water.

The Toucan Too was parked several miles away, near a massive clearing outside this small town that perched on the rocks near a natural harbor. Her brain sat inside it, she knew that. It broadcast itself through the mobile unit, and her sensations were sent back to the ship’s lamina by her body, with its Chimson-manufactured implants. It was all an illusion.

And yet, unless she actually chose to sever it, it felt real enough to hold her breath and fall away from the mirrorlike surface of the water until her back hit the sand.

Yes, this felt good, she thought. Felt right.

She was going to stay on Nanagada. Stop moving.

This was home.

Someone shook Kara awake. A large man, with a top hat, and dreadlocks, and a coat that seemed to swirl on its own.

She blinked. “Pepper?”

“Come on,” he said. “I have someone for you to meet.”

Kara followed him out of the medieval-feeling stone house, but before she got to the front door, Pepper grabbed her shoulder. “Do you like it here?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“John, and Nashara, they’re going to let you stay. Do you want to stay?”

She looked around. “I just want to find out whether Jared is alive. I don’t have anywhere else to stay, so it’s a stupid question.”

“Okay.”

Pepper opened the door, and Jared stood there with his stupid, dirty Raggedy Andy doll.

She almost knocked him over with her hug. “Thank you, Pepper, thank you. Are you okay, Jared?”

Her brother nodded. “I was scared you were gone too.”

“I know. Me too.”

“Where’s John?” Pepper asked her. “I need to talk to him.”

Pepper stood on the pier, waiting as they pulled in. His coat flapped in the wind.

“The Lucita ,” he said, nodding at John’s boat.

“Where were you for his funeral?” John asked.

“Not here. And that’s all we’ll say about that.” Pepper leaned over and helped Nashara push the mobile unit out, then gave her a hand.

He lifted her up completely, then deposited her gently on the pier.

John tied the boat up, then jumped up himself. “I hoped you’d be there.” They’d seen so much together, and Jerome had looked up to Pepper like an uncle.

Pepper ignored it. He walked ahead. “I have something for you, John. A present.”

He led them to a small warehouse at the edge of town. Rows of doors ran along the palm-tree shade.

“Stay outside, Nashara.” With a boot he nudged the door open and walked in.

John followed him into the murk as the door closed behind them. Pepper clicked on a gaslight in the corner of the room.

A large crate sat on a bed of straw in the corner.

Pepper grabbed a corner and ripped it off with his bare hands and a grunt, then grabbed the top and tore it off, tossing it aside.

The crate fell apart, revealing the Teotl Metztli, sitting in its own filth and blinking at them. It mewled and scuffled back, pushing itself until it was up against the corner of the wall.

A fetid, rotten smell hit John.

Pepper slapped a gun in John’s hand. “I told you there would be a reckoning later. You insinuated just now that I didn’t care for Jerome, but don’t you ever make that mistake.” He gripped his hands over John’s on the gun and squeezed. “I forget nothing. This is my gift.”

John squeezed back, fighting back tears again. “You loved him too?”

Pepper brushed the arm away and looked away. “Wouldn’t go that warm and mushy, John.”

“You felt something .”

“I protected him. I protected him for you when I first met him. Kept an eye on him later. And here I failed. I don’t like to fail. We should have left him in the bush outside Capitol City.”

“I know.” But then there he might have died too, attacked by Azteca, or by an accident, or by something else. There were no guarantees.

“Then there it is. That’s done. You have this, and I’ve done this for you.”

John shook his head, not sure what to say.

“There’s something else.” Pepper pressed something into John’s other palm. A broken vial.

John looked up. “Pepper. That’s genocide.”

“Maybe.” There was an expression on Pepper’s face. Anger? Or hurt. “You and I disagree about the League. So I’ll give you a question with that piece of glass. Do we choose to try and live with these aliens, or any aliens? Do we learn to adapt and grow with them, because more powerful creatures will come to us one day? Or do we go it alone, fighting to the brink and never pulling back? The Ragamuffin ships are creating a cordon near Chilo that they’re not allowing the League to pass through, because the League wants all the Teotl and their technology as well as whatever remains of the nest. They already have the Gulong , Raga won’t be giving them anything more. But that’s a big issue we need to solve.”

“Pepper… the vial.” John was more worried about that.

“Some of them will figure it out and quarantine themselves from other Teotl. It’ll just be a lonely existence for them.”

“I can’t…”

“Anyway.” Pepper walked to the door. “I did what I did. If you feel merciful, let the Teotl all know what I released, it’ll take a few weeks to make its way across the various ships and population centers, and if you tell them now, they can prevent the spread and live. But you can think about that later. First…”

He tossed a hacksaw and set of pliers on the ground in front of John.

“Good-bye.”

They shook hands firmly, then Pepper shut the door on John.

In the corner of the room Metztli shivered, looking with its one good eye at John.

“I saved your lives,” it mewled again.

“Yes.” John nodded. “But you didn’t save his , did you?”

He squatted in front of the alien, gun in his left hand.

Pepper walked out and smiled at Nashara. She cocked her head.

“You look comfortable here,” Pepper said with a smile.

“I don’t think so,” Nashara said. “But, yes, I’m staying.”

“I should be unnerved that my cloned self wants to sell its feminist militant side out and try and have babies.”

“Fuck you. I have no womb.” She considered sucker punching him, but it was Pepper. It would have as much effect on him as it would on her. “I’m not settling down. This is just going to be my home. John is going to be my friend. This place needs protecting, it needs people like me and you. You know that.”

“Yes, but you should tell him you like him.”

“He’ll find out soon enough.”

“He’s broken goods, he might take some gentle hints.” Pepper folded his arms and regarded her.

“I know.”

“You’re going to settle down, help with the kids, hang out around town?” He smirked. “Cook dinners?”

“Not my style, Grandpops. There are governments to reform, military strength to create if we don’t want the League running us over. And then, I want the Teotl to help us figure out how to get Chimson back into the fold. My real home.”

Her stance was just as aggressive.

Pepper nodded, he’d just been pushing her a bit. “There are wolves out there, like the League. Even humans can be dangerous to humanity, right? The League is near xenophobic, we can’t have that built in, the backlash will be too great. I’m planning on heading out with a couple of your virtual selves and Etsudo to scout out what is really going on among the forty-eight planets. See, these people, they need protection from the wolves. They need domesticated wolves, like you and me, right, Granddaughter?”