"You!" Chiana spits the word through clenched teeth and heaves against her bonds. The cords bite into her wrists, but the desire to free her hands leaves no room in her mind for pain. She wants to feel Kaeldryn's skin against her palms again, like she did the day she left Nebari Prime, but this time, she wants to wrap her fingers around Kaeldryn's neck and squeeze.
"Don't make this more difficult than it has to be. For either of us." The Nebari woman in the Tranquility Guard uniform offers a soulless, dead-eyed smile and raises her hand so that her fingers hover near the button on her temple.
Kaeldryn wears her hair long now but pulls it back so tightly that she might as well be bald. Her face is all angles and planes, as if her impish half-smile has been chiseled away with a crude tool. Through the bars of the holding cell, she stares at Chiana with eyes as black and cold as void.
"You, a frelling tig." Chiana shakes her head and forces a high-pitched laugh that echoes down the metallic corridors of the host vessel. "I always thought they let you off the hook, made me out to be the tinked one, because you were special. But you're nothing-- just a chained hazmot doing the Establishment's dirty work."
"To the contrary, Chiana. I am atoning for the indiscretions of my youth by helping the Establishment cleanse the Sanctuary."
"By chasing me halfway across the Uncharted Territories? Do you even know what you're doing? Why they want me?" She searches the half-familiar face for any hint of Kaeldryn's vaunted intellect, any spark of reason that she can appeal to, but finds only the sterile conviction painted on the features of every Tranquility Guard. That look of utter, mindless stupidity-- it must be part of the uniform. "Do you even remember how to ask, 'why'?"
***
"Why?" Chiana tilted her head and regarded Kaeldryn with genuine puzzlement.
The girls were in their sanctuary, a small room inside an empty warehouse, and as usual Kaeldryn had brought her books and portable console. Chiana was used to that; she had long ago learned to amuse herself while her friend obsessed over words and numbers and scads of other boring dren. Today, she had found a discarded pipe and a couple of crates and made an impromptu balance beam. While she waited for Kaeldryn's answer, she challenged herself to a game that involved bending over as far as she could without falling off the pipe.
"Because they're testing us tomorrow! Don't you care where they're going to put you? If you don't study for once in your life, you could end up a laborer."
"Threats don't work on me, Kael. You know that!" Chiana bent backwards until her head began to spin and her knees started to buckle. Soaring on a surge of fear-induced chemicals, she reeled her arms to regain her balance. Once she was sure of her footing again, she heaved a dramatic sigh and grinned.
"Stop it before you fall on your head, Chi!" Kaeldryn dropped her book-- "Treatise on the Necessity of a Singular Purpose"-- and stood up. Two steps brought her close enough to seize Chiana's forearms and pull her down from the pipe.
Instead of stepping down, Chiana made her body rigid so that when Kaeldryn pulled, she fell like a toy soldier, bringing her friend with her to the ground. Side-by-side on the filthy floor, they giggled for a tenth arn without knowing exactly what was funny. When Kaeldryn laughed, Chiana swore she could see the stars in her eyes. Ever since they were little kids, she had assumed those stars were what made Kaeldryn so smart and special, the reason her father made her study all the time. Chiana's parents couldn't care less what she did, so most of the time she was just as glad she didn't have didn't have Kaeldryn's brain.
"So..." Kaeldryn raised her eybrows and flashed a half-smile that put a dimple in one plump cheek. Their faces were only a hand's width apart, and Chiana could feel her warm breath when she spoke.
"So... what?" Chiana replied, shrugging in genuine incomprehension.
Kaeldryn propped herself up on her elbow, leaning her head on her hand. Her wild silver curls cascaded through her fingers and into the dust, and Chiana made a mental note to tease her about being a mop. "So, what does work on you if threats don't?"
***
The Tranquility Guard nods slowly. "Indeed. I wonder why you struggle when you have nothing to fear from cooperating and nothing to gain by resisting."
"What? You think they'll just-- I don't know-- sprinkle a little magic dust on me, and poof, I'm another happy little doll in the Establishment's toy box? You think I'm broken and they're going to frelling fix me?" Chiana moves close to the bars and meets her jailer's eyes.
"I think the Establishment owes you the same chance it gave me, Chiana. I think they want to give you that chance-- to be something more. They owe you that. I owe you that."
"Frell that! They gave me a chance to be a bigger player in the Nebari domination game than you'll ever be, and they even let my brother Nerri come along. Me and Nerri-- we could've taken out half the Uncharted Territories, left nothing but dead bodies for the host vessels to clean up. We would've died, but it would have been for the greater frelling good, right?"
Kaeldryn takes a step back. "I must warn you that if you continue exhibiting signs of delusional thinking, I will have to take you for assessment."
Chiana shrugs and chuckles, somehow managing to find genuine humor in the situation. "Like I told you before, threats don't work on me."
***
"It's simple. You want me to do something, you have to make it fun or make it worth my while," Chiana explained. "Studying-- not fun. Being a laborer-- not fun. Being a tech, teacher, farmer, cook, you-name-it, whatever-- not fun. So I figure why do something not-fun just so I can do something else not-fun, later? Right?"
"And not worth your while." Kaeldryn's smile faded. "Chi, I'm not going to be a laborer. If you don't test into the scholar class, we'll be apart. And that will be magra-not-fun."
"Yeah. I know. So we make the most of what time we've got. That's what I always tried to tell you, but you'd rather bury your nose in some krastic dead guy's book--"
Whatever she had planned to say, it fled her mind when Kaeldryn kissed her. Her friend's lips felt as soft as an orliandis petal and as scary as leaning backwards on the balance beam. Without breaking contact, Kaeldryn moved her mouth down to Chiana's neck. This was like reeling, about to fall, except she knew she couldn't get hurt, which made it more like flying. She ran a hand through Kaeldryn's hair, thinking "mop" but not wanting to ruin the moment by teasing.
Chiana gasped as Kaeldryn's cold hand wriggled under her shirt. Fingers like icicles traced playful circles on her stomach, making her shiver and wince and giggle all at once. She reached down, wrapped her hand around Kaeldryn's, and pulled it out from under her shirt. It still felt cold, so she brought it to her chest and wedged it between their two bodies for warmth.
Probably taking that as some kind of hint-- after all, she was the kind of person who had to look for hidden meanings all the time-- Kaeldryn moved her mouth back up to Chiana's and used her trapped hand to undo buttons as she found them, not seeming to care whose buttons they were. At least by the time she got Chiana's shirt undone her hand had warmed up.
"Kaeldryn?" The sound of a man's familiar voice ripped the two girls apart.
"Father?" Kaeldryn sat up, pulling her shirt closed and holding it that way with both hands. "I-- we were just--"
Chiana leaned back on her elbows, not bothering with her buttons. He'd seen what he saw, so why worry about it? "Hi, Jarren."
As Jarren swept his eyes over Chiana, his lips pursed and his eyes narrowed. He shook his head, bent to grab Kaeldryn by the arm, and jerked her to her feet. "Is this what you've been doing here with this... girl?"
"I--" Kaeldryn began.
"No!" Jarren raised a hand in front of Kaeldryn's face and for a microt, Chiana thought he was about hit her. He clenched the hand into a fist and let it fall. "I do not want to know. Mark my words, Kaeldryn. Become involved with the likes of her again, and you will end up in a nonconformist camp. I will see to it myself."
"It's not her fault!" Kaeldryn blurted.
"You're right." Jarren's eyes fixed on Chiana in a flat, emotionless stare that scared her in a way that wasn't fun-scary, like almost falling off the balance beam, just frelling-terrifying-scary, like falling into a lake without knowing how to swim. He nodded slowly. "It's my fault for allowing you to associate with someone who is not only laborer-born, but deviant as well. Get your books. You have exams tomorrow."
***
"The fact that you feel threatened by the Establishment shows a deficiency in your character, Chiana, a deficiency that was clear even when we were young. You view any kind of work as a hardship, any kind of restriction as imprisonment. And yet what has your rebellion cost you? How many cycles have you spent starving, cold, lonely--"
"Whatever it takes, that's what I'll pay. No price is too much for the right to own myself." Chiana falls back against the wall and slides down until she is sitting against it. "What price are you paying, Kael? How much is it tearing you up inside not to let me out of here, not to let me go? I wouldn't even steal that ugly-as-eema tig uniform and you're selling your soul for it."
"Doing my duty has no cost." Kaeldryn mouth stretches into what might be a forced smile or a sad grimace.
"I think you mean that," Chiana laughs, knowing it's cruel and not caring. "Yeah, I think you really do. Because you don't have anything left to lose, do you? You lost it all the day they pumped us full of contagion and sent me and Nerri out to conquer the world one frell at a time."
***
"Chi?" Kaeldryn's tentative call followed a knock on the door of the examination room where Chiana sat rubbing her sore arm and waiting for the nurse to come back and tell her she could leave.
"Kael!" Chiana stood, flung open the door, and pulled Kaeldryn inside. "I didn't think I'd get to say goodbye." She felt her eyes start to sting with tears, which she hid by throwing her arms around Kaeldryn's neck and burying her face in a mop of silver curls.
Kaeldryn ran a hand up and down Chiana's back. "I was so scared-- I thought I'd gotten you in so much trouble they'd sent you to the camps."
"What? You? Get me in trouble? I don't think so." Chiana sniffled and hoped it sounded like a laugh, or even a snort. "You did me a favor! Your dad's so afraid of me turning you kinkoid or something that he helped arrange the paperwork for me and Nerri to leave."
"So... you're glad then?" Kaeldryn put her hands on Chiana's shoulders and pushed her out to arm's length.
"Yeah! I get to see what's out there, go where I want, do what I want. Why wouldn't I be glad?" She flashed her best smile and wished the stupid tears would get the message and stop ruining it.
"Oh." Kaeldryn let her hands fall to her sides and nodded, staring at the ground.
"Hey, come with us!" Chiana knew it was a bad idea as soon as it came out of her mouth, but she let it hang in the air, waiting for Kaeldryn to shoot it down with her usual no-fun logic and at the same time hoping that just this once, she wouldn't see the problem.
"I can't. I want to, but my test scores... I have to take my place in the Establishment. I'm sorry. Chi, I--" Her eyes widened at the sound of footsteps coming down the hall and then she darted out the door.
***
"That day-- They said they were giving you vaccinations to protect you, you and the rest of the exodus. But there are stories on so many planets about an epidemic tracing back to Nebari Prime... Your story fits." The Tranquility Guard closes her eyes and raises a hand to her head. When she lets that hand fall, several locks of hair stick to her palm and come loose from the tyrannical up do.
"Mop," Chiana mutters under her breath, not sure if she wants the other woman to hear her or not.
"What?"
"I remember your hair falling in the dust. It made me think of a mop. It still would if you didn't have it tied up in a knot just like your brain." All these cycles later, and Chiana still hasn't learned how to stop the frelling tears.
"Oh, Chi! What did I do to you?" Kaeldryn whispers, shaking her head.
"Nothing. I forgive you. Or you almost killed me, so you owe me. Whatever it takes to get you to help me here!" She turns her back and shakes her bound hands for emphasis. "Look, it doesn't matter! Just get us to a transport and I'll take you back to Moya. My friends-- they're gonna be worried sick about me, just like you were."
"I can't." Kaeldryn removes a knife from her pocket and tucks it into the top of her pants, near her dangling key card. She moves close to the bars of Chiana's cell and presses her body against them.
"Sure you can. Not like you'd use up an extra room, right?" Chiana backs up against the bars, positioning her hands so she can take the key card and the knife.
Once she has the items, she turns around and leans forward for a kiss. The metal bars are like icy fingers against her cheeks. Kaeldryn's lips feel as soft as an orliandis petal and as sad as "goodbye".