The Left Hand of Darkness

"Oh brother, where have you gone? The days I've waited, the days so long. Oh brother, what have you done? For my inheritance, you killed your father's son."

-from "My Brother's Sin", traditional spacer song

The days of waiting for the people Kino had formerly worked with to show up were long, and not particularly exciting. It was probably the least stressful time that Yan had had in approximately a year, since she was in no imminent danger, she was able to relax with Sylva, there wasn't a hive of tens of other people sharing her head, and, well, it was good.

Unfortunately for Yan, she was the type of person who liked to have a purpose, and as the days ticked by and the repairs around the First Star dwindled to nothing, she began to feel anxious about the future. This enforced period of waiting did at least let her know that hiding for the rest of her life would have never been an option. The anxiety of not having anything to do would have burned her up, and she would have yearned to return to civilization and meaning.

It was true, what the theology said. People needed to be engaging with one another in order to be real. And no matter how much time Yan spent with Sylva, or Iri, or even Kino, that wasn't a substitute for all of the people out in the rest of the world.

Still, this was far better than solitary confinement. It was self imposed, group confinement, with no threat of torture. It was just a waiting game.

She was in the greenhouse when the other ship jumped in. Sylva was with her, and they were working together to get the aquaponics tanks all set up. It was annoying work, which was why it had been put off for so long. Sylva was inside one of the big tanks, empty of water at the moment, hooking up the intake and outtake hoses to the pump and filter system. Yan was outside, consulting the aquaponics system manual and yelling directions in to Sylva.

"But it looks like it fits here," Sylva said, holding up one end of the hose and pointing to an area along the side of the tank where it did indeed look like the hose should fit. She wedged it in and it sat snugly.

"The diagram is completely different," Yan said. She scratched her head and pressed the diagram up to the side of the tank so that Sylva could read it. Sylva walked over, her footsteps echoing comically in the giant tank, and examined it.

"I'm not going to do that," Sylva said. "That's dumb."

"But what if it needs to be up there for the pressure diff--" Yan felt the wave of power wash over her, and she jumped, dropping the manual.

"You okay?" Sylva asked.

"Ship just jumped in," Yan said.

"Oh, fuck," Sylva said. "Help me out of here, will you?"

They only had one ladder, and it was on the inside of the giant tank currently. Sylva climbed it up to the top, then scrambled clumsily over the top edge of the tank, dangling down. Yan grabbed Sylva around the waist, and while she didn't have the strength to actually hold Sylva up, she at least slowed her fall as she dropped to the ground.

"Thanks," Sylva said, then stood on her tiptoes to give Yan a peck on the cheek. "You ready to meet our future collaborators?"

"I think I should let Kino do the talking at first," Yan said.

Sylva rolled her eyes. "Sure."

Yan walked over to the wall where the intercom was and punched the button for whole ship communications. "Iri, Kino, a ship just jumped in," she said. "Meet us on the bridge." She didn't wait for a response and headed out the door.

The pair of them jogged down the hallways towards the bridge. As usual, Sylva was slightly faster, despite Yan's longer legs. When they arrived, they found Iri and Kino already there. Iri was eating a sandwich, and Kino looked like she had been in the gym-- she was very sweaty.

"When did they jump in?" Iri asked as soon as Yan came in the door. "Do they have eyes on us?"

"We've been running cold and dark," Yan said. "Doubt they can see us. Do we have eyes on them?"

"I'm working on it," Iri said. She put her sandwich down on the navigation console (which made Yan cringe) and pulled up the nearby view of space. "No. We don't."

Yan sat down heavily in the captain's chair. "What's your thoughts on stance?" she asked, looking at Kino.

"I don't know," Kino said. "I don't know anyone on that ship. The only person I know is Mahmoud."

Yan ran her hand over the top of her head. "It might be good to take some power in this situation. We know they're here. They probably don't know that we are."

"And how do you propose to do that?" Iri asked, sounding mostly curious.

"Omnidirectional radio broadcast," Yan said. "Say that we know they've arrived, that we're ready to talk to them."

"That will give away our position," Iri said.

"I know. But we're not here for a fight."

"If this goes badly, will we be alright?" Sylva asked.

"Of course. We have a jump ready. They don't," Yan explained. "That's probably why it's better to talk to them now. If we let them sit around for eight hours, as they definitely want to do without being seen, we'll be on equal footing. We should push this now."

"It might leave a bad taste in their mouth," Iri said.

Yan rubbed the back of her neck. "These people are dangerous," Yan said. "I'd rather negotiate from a position of strength, or at least not one of weakness."

"I understand," Iri said.

"Are you still going to have Kino do the talking?" Sylva asked.

Yan glanced at Kino, who looked rather unhappy with that prospect, or at least not thrilled about it. "Kino?"

"I'll do it," Kino said. "Radio?"

"Yeah."

Kino made her way over to the communications console and sat down. Her fingers hovered over the button for broadcast. "What are we calling ourselves?"

Yan glanced at the rest of her little crew. "Uh."

"Probably shouldn't identify us as the Imperial ship First Star," Iri said jokingly.

"Just say your name," Yan said finally. "Don't need to mention the ship right away."

"And if they ask?"

"Say it's the First Star, and stolen." Yan hesitated for a second. "You know Old Imperial, right? That's probably what they'll want to speak in."

"Well enough," Kino said. Old Imperial was, for the most part, mutually intelligible with New, so it would probably be fine, even if Kino was overestimating her agility with the language. "Ready?"

Yan nodded. Kino pushed the talk button.

"Unidentified ship," Kino said, her voice cold and calm. "This is Kino Mejia speaking. We are glad to see that you have come, and we are eager to discuss cooperation with you. Please respond." Kino stopped broadcasting, and looked at Yan for approval. Yan shrugged. They would see if there was any response. Yan somewhat doubted that there would be. If Yan was the captain of that other ship, she would definitely try to stay silent until the eight hour jump timer wound back down, leaving an easy escape path.

There were a long few minutes of silence, and Yan debated if she should try to light up the other ship by doing a sweep search with radar. It might be worth it, just to apply pressure, but that pressure also might make things ugly for them.

The choice was made for her when the radio hissed to life, and the location of the other ship lit up on the navigation chart. "Imperial ship," the radio said. "Recall your shuttles."

Kino looked at Yan, confused. Yan waved her hand dismissively. "Tell them we don't have any."

"We have no shuttles out at this time," Kino said. It was the truth, though this other ship wasn't likely to believe it. "And we are not an Imperial ship."

"We will verify. Standby." the voice over the radio said. Yan couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, but it didn't matter. She waited as the other ship pulsed its radar to light up any objects in the area of space around it. It was a time consuming process, and the further away any shuttles were from the ship, the more likely they were to be missed, but since there were no shuttles, it didn't matter. The two ships were about half a light second away from each other, Yan could see on the screen. That wasn't far at all.

In fact, given the ease of working with the power in space, Yan might just be able to... She stretched out her power in one long line, searching across the vast distance for the other ship. She could half feel it, its stardrive, but she didn't quite have the reach and concentration necessary to reach inside of that other ship and identify how many crew it had.

They waited a while for the other ship to finish its radar sweep. "Are you satisfied that we have no shuttles?" Kino asked.

"Yes," the other ship said. "We are satisfied."

"Then we would like to discuss working together," Kino said. "On what terms are you willing to do this?"

"You are a sensitive, Ms. Mejia."

"Yes."

"We have a sensitive in our employ. If it is agreeable to you, he will meet with you and your crew."

"Aboard our ship or yours?"

"Your ship. He will come alone. Is that acceptable to you?"

Yan gestured for Kino to kill the mic. She did. "He's either expendable or very powerful," Yan said. "I wouldn't send someone alone into enemy territory."

"We're not enemies," Kino said.

"It could be a trick," Iri warned.

"We don't have much of a choice," Sylva said. "But if it's three against one, we could probably beat him, if it came down to it."

"I don't think all of us could beat someone like Halen," Yan warned. "If he's that strong..."

"Well, we just have to hope he's not looking for a fight. What's the worst that can happen?" Sylva asked.

"He kills us all and steals our ship," Yan said flatly.

"Maybe we should have Kino meet him in a shuttle," Sylva said, glancing at Kino.

"They said he wants to meet with the whole crew," Iri said.

"Tough shit," Sylva said.

"We want to work with them," Kino said. "I think we should do what they say."

Yan frowned, drumming her fingers on the arm of her chair. "Raise your hand if you're okay with letting this person onto the ship."

"You're the captain," Iri said. "And you have the most to lose from these people. It's your decision. We don't need to vote on it."

Yan hated having that turned around on her. "Fine." Her fingers kept drumming. "We have to answer. Tell them yes."

"That is acceptable. When are you sending him?" Kino asked.

"Half an hour," the other ship said. "Please be prepared to receive our shuttle."

"We will provide a bay space for docking," Kino said, and the radio transmissions ended.

It was a tense half hour of waiting. Yan stood up from her chair and paced, and the four of them hashed out their strategy for how this was going to go. It was decided that Yan, Kino, and Iri would meet the envoy, with Sylva remaining on the bridge. Since Sylva (after much practice and coaching under Yan during their waiting period) could jump the ship, for the most part, and Yan had preprogrammed in coordinates for an easy escape, that would be the safest choice, in case they had to get out quickly. Sylva, for all that she was great, would be pretty useless in a fight, should it come down to it.

Yan desperately hoped that it would not come down to a fight. They watched on the screen as the other ship let out a shuttle. Iri sent docking information to it, and they all went down to the bay to wait.

Waiting in zero gravity was annoying, since one couldn't pace, or tap a foot, or anything that one would normally do to fidget. It all ended up looking like nervous wiggling. Iri compulsively checked her gun to make sure it was loaded, and seeing her example, Yan and Kino did the same. Yan wasn't sure how safe it was to give Kino a gun, especially remembering that first lesson they had had with Halen, but... They were trusting each other. This was trust.

"He's landing now," Sylva said over the intercom. "Good luck. I'll be watching. If it goes wrong, I'm jumping us."

Yan looked down the hallway, where a little camera was built stealthily into one of the walls. She smiled at it and gave it an encouraging little wave. Resting her fingers on the wall, she could feel the vibration of the air systems kicking in, flooding the bay again with air. The warning vacuum light on the door switched off, and Yan opened it, letting the three of them into the bay.

The shuttle that was sitting there was nondescript, looking basically like any spacer shuttle in existence, but it was still out of place compared to the couple Imperial marked dogfighters next to it. Yan reached out with the power, and determined that yes, there was only one occupant of the shuttle. That was a relief. The shuttle's door opened with a mechanical hiss. Yan tried to relax, couldn't, and resigned herself to just watching as the figure pushed his way out.

She almost, almost cried out when she saw who emerged. She knew that man. She would have known him anywhere. Iri tensed up beside her. Yan had almost forgotten that the two had met, when she was on the Mother's planet.

The Green King.

He didn't seem to recognize her at first, but as their eyes met across the distance, he stiffened and put his hand on his own holster. "You," he said.

"And you," Yan said. She deliberately kept her hand away from her gun, crossing her arms over her chest, and Iri followed her lead. They were here to have a peaceful meeting, after all. It wouldn't do anyone any good to go to violence. She kept her breathing steady, her voice calm. How easy it was to detach herself from the situation once again. Just like she had back when she was imprisoned. She could step outside her own self, look at this objectively.

Kino looked between the two of them. "You know each other?"

"Yes," Yan said.

"I was under the mistaken impression that I would only be dealing with Kino Mejia," the Green King said. "I enjoy this trap that you have set for me."

"If I wanted to get revenge on you," Yan said stiffly, "it would have been far easier for me to track you down, rather than waiting for you to come to me. I didn't expect to see you, either."

"I suppose there was no point in me questioning you about which apprentice had been our betrayer," the Green King said. "Since the answer would come to light eventually."

"I didn't betray you," Kino said. "It was an accident."

"Yes, just like it's an accident that I'm here now. Now, if you will excuse me," the Green King said.

Yan felt the grip of his power on her, its slimy, familiar touch, holding her in place. She was better than this now, though, and she broke his hold.

"Sylva! Jump!" Yan screamed, hoping that Sylva was listening. She felt the wash of power as the First Star jumped, which was an immediate relief. Now there was just him to deal with.

"Oh, you little--" the Green King said, and pushed off the side of his shuttle, lunging for her in the zero gravity bay. He continued to try to grab her with the power, but she was better at breaking his hold than he was at keeping it, so every time that his force closed around her, she broke it. It left her mostly floating still in the bay, but at least she could move. He crashed into her, and Yan kicked at him, sending them both spinning backwards. Kino and Iri were trapped in his power and couldn't move, but out of the corner of her eye, as the world tumbled around her, she half felt and half saw Kino use the power to take her own gun out of her holster and aim it squarely at the Green King.

"Kino, don't!" Yan used her own power to knock Kino's gun aside, and Kino didn't fire it.

Yan crashed into one of the walls, and the breath knocked out of her, but at least she was stabilized and could get her bearings. Iri and Kino were both still froze, and the Green King was holding on with one hand to one of the shuttles in the bay, holding his own gun in his hand, swinging it back and forth between Yan and Kino.

Yan used the power and ripped the gun out of his hand. He fought her, and during the struggle, both of their powers grappling, wrenching, nauseating, the Green King hit the trigger, and a shot fired, louder than God's voice, echoing in the bay. It didn't go anywhere near any of the people in the bay, but it struck the outer bay door and a containment alarm began to blare.

"Stop! Just stop!" Yan screamed over the noise and flashing lights. They weren't in any danger; the breach was small enough that the rate of airflow out into space was negligible compared to the volume of the bay, but it was a problem. Yan did not want this to get any more out of hand than it already was.

The Green King was surprised enough at the alarm that he momentarily dropped his control over the gun. Yan took that opportunity to pinch the barrel of it shut, completely destroying it.

"Let them go!" she yelled at the Green King, trying to be heard over the alarms and the hiss of escaping air.

"She tried to kill me!" the Green King yelled back. He snatched his gun out of the air. Seeing what Yan had done to it, he used the power to send it sailing directly at Yan's head. She batted it away with her own power and it clattered harmlessly into the wall.

"You fucking idiot," Yan yelled again. "You started it."

"Let me leave," he called back. "I just want out."

"We jumped. There’s nowhere for you to go," Yan said. "Let them go, and we can discuss this rationally."

"You think we can discuss things rationally when I'm your prisoner?"

"I'm not going to hurt you," Yan said.

"You got me shot!"

"That wasn't my fault!" Shooting the Green King had been entirely Etta's decision, so long ago.

"Fuck you!"

The Green King shoved her with the power and she hit the wall again. Yan, choking on her own revulsion, shoved him back. It was the first time she had used the power offensively in a real situation, and she had gotten, not great, but okay at it since practicing on Kino. She must have shoved him harder than she thought she was, because he slammed into the side of the shuttle he was bracing himself against audibly, even over the still blaring alarm. He looked momentarily shocked.

"You should just kill me now," he said. "I don't know what kind of game you're playing."

"I'm not playing a game," Yan said. Her voice shook. "I don't want to hurt you."

"Like I believe that."

"Let them go," Yan said. "I swear that we won't hurt you. On my word as captain of this ship."

The Green King laughed. "Words are words."

"You're not in a position of power here," Yan said. "Just let them go."

"You seem to be begging an awful lot for someone who claims to hold the upper hand."

"Because I don't want to kill you!" Yan said again. "How hard is this for you to understand?"

"I think you and I are evenly matched, Yan," the Green King said. "I think if you tried to kill me, we'd both go down."

"Kino can still use the power, you fucking idiot! And I have another sensitive on the bridge, watching all this go down, and if she think she needs to, she'll open the bay doors."

That was half of a bluff. Yan knew for a fact that Sylva would not flush the bay with her in it. Maybe if it had just been Kino here, she would have already, but Yan didn't think that Sylva would go so far as to perform a maneuver that would put Yan (and Iri) in real danger.

"What do you want?" the Green King asked, sounding slightly cagey and defeated, though it was hard to tell over the alarms that were still going off.

"I just want to talk to you. Let them go," Yan grit her teeth and said again.

"Then talk."

"We want to work with you," Yan said. "We're on the same side."

The Green King laughed again. "And I'm the Governor of Emerri."

"If we didn't, don't you think I would have killed you?" Yan said.

"I think that you're trying to play the long game, and you're trying to get close to us to wipe us out."

"You came here to figure out if that's true," Yan said. "How were you going to do that before?"

"I was going to look into your head," the Green King said. "Or at least her head." He nodded towards the still immobilized Kino.

Yan's heart was in her throat as she realized what she would have to do in order to make this work. Her vision was swimming around the edges, but she steadied herself. "Then look into my head. You'll know the truth."

The Green King considered her for a long moment. "Come here," he said.

Yan felt the touch of Kino's power, as she reached out to Yan across the distance between them, but Yan ignored it. She knew that she had to do this. Gently, she kicked off the wall and drifted towards the Green King. She came to a halt against the same shuttle that he was holding himself against, and she scooted close enough that they could touch.

His eyes were so green, like an animal's. She didn't know if she should stare at him or close her eyes.

He reached out. God, she hated him.

His hand brushed her face, stroking from her cheekbone down her jaw towards her neck, and her breath seized up, her skin absolutely crawling. How could she let him touch her again? How could she do this? She wanted to pull herself away. She wanted to scream.

"Let me in," the Green King said. His power reached out toward her, mentally, rather than physically.

She stared into his eyes. He stared into hers. The alarm blared in both their ears, a rhythmic ringing. Yan focused on that and that alone.

She reached back with the power.

It was so easy to be there in the power. Far too easy. They had left the bay and its screaming alarm behind, and they were in a mental world where none of that mattered. Yan could feel their collective power, humming just underneath the skin.

"Don't let them go," the Green King thought, mental voice loud. "They'll only interrupt us."

In this shared state, Yan had as much control over the Green King's power as he had of hers-- they were both vulnerable to each other, but they both had to trust that neither would take advantage.

"Show me how you came to be here," the Green King said. "No lies."

"You don't want to see," Yan thought back. "I get lost in it."

"You show me, or this is over."

"You look for what you want to know." Yan laid her memory open, and the Green King plunged inside.

His hand was on her face. Yan was laying on her bed, in that prison cell. She was so weak, she couldn't move. And she was standing above herself, looking down, her hand on her own face. No, that wasn't right. This wasn't right. She closed her eyes.

They were still in that dark room, with only the flashlight between them. Yan had her phone in her hand, and she was looking across at the Green King. He stared across at her steadily.

"Is this the place you return to?" he asked.

"No," Yan said. "No."

"What are you going to do to me?" the Green King asked.

She looked down at the phone in her hand, she looked at the chain that wrapped around the Green King's ankle.

"I don't want to die in here," Yan said.

"You're in control. What would you do if you were in control?" the Green King asked.

"You're testing me."

"All I want is information," the Green King said. Yan blinked.

Their positions reversed, and Yan was on the bed, the chain around her ankle. The Green King took her hand in his.

"I think I've been a little too kind to you," he said.

"No. No," Yan said again. She pulled her hand back, but he held it tightly.

"What are you going to do to me, Yan?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Don't, please don't!"

She pulled her hand as hard as she could, but the panic and the Green King's mental power had trapped her in place. She was frozen still as he twisted her pinky finger up, up--

Yan closed her eyes and screamed.

Their positions were reversed again, and she held the Green King's hand in hers. "What are you going to do to me, Yan?" he asked again.

"Please don't do this to me," she whispered.

Her hand moved as if of its own volition, nails digging into his skin.

"Please stop," Yan begged. "I don't want to. I don't want to!"

Something spoke in her head, a buried whisper. "Drop it! Drop it now!"

She released his hand and stood up, knocking her chair over in her haste. She ran the ever so familiar few steps to the door, and pulled it open. It came open easily. Outside, there was a dark corridor, very unlike the one that she had escaped down before, but she ran down it anyway, twisting through the shared labyrinth of their minds.

Yan felt like she was running forever, towards a tiny, pinprick of light far off in the distance. She could half feel that the Green King was tumbling through her memories as she ran-- snatches of words and phrases were coming back to her out of the gloom, and he was keeping her trapped here as a distraction, but she couldn't stop herself from running towards that light.

She shouldn't have allowed this to happen. She shouldn't have gone in here with him, but she had, and now she was trapped by their shared experiences, and the way that he was trawling through her thoughts. He held her there.

Even if they were evenly matched outside, he had unsettled her enough that he had control here. It was an unequal battle of wills.

She ran.

She ran blindly.

Yan burst out into the light, onto a rocky, familiar hillside. The salty smell of ocean air was fresh in her nose, and the stars up above gleamed unnaturally bright. Wind whipped past her face.

She was whole and sound, here.

There was the Green King, holding a gun to his own head.

"What are you going to do to me, Yan?" he asked. "You did this to me before."

"That wasn't me," Yan pleaded.

"You got me shot once before," the Green King said.

"Why do you need to keep torturing me?" Yan asked, hands splayed out at her sides. "Why do you have to do this to me?"

"Because you're my enemy."

"I'm not! I swear!"

"But you hate me."

"That doesn't make me your enemy."

"You worked for the Empire."

"I don't anymore."

"But you would again, if you could."

"I can't go back to the past! I made my choices! Let me live with them!"

"But we're in the past right now."

The Green King slowly lowered the gun from his temple, checked it over, and leveled it at Yan.

"Please," Yan begged. "Please."

His finger inched towards the trigger. Yan squeezed her eyes shut.

Then she was the one holding the gun.

"Shoot me, then," the Green King said.

Yan dropped the gun on the ground, just as she had before, just as she would do again a hundred times, a thousand times. Only this time, there was no Etta to pick it up.

There was no Etta to save her.

Yan ran down the hillside, bare feet scraping on the stones, sliding down where the rocks were loose. The Green King laughed and laughed, following her.

"Why would I want to work with someone spineless?" he asked. "You wouldn't have the guts to do what it takes, even if you weren't my enemy."

So, the game had changed.

Yan had known that this was a test, and aside from her personal panic, she had thought that the way to pass was to resist any temptation to take revenge on the Green King. Maybe it was a test in multiple layers. He had looked through her memory. He had tested her hatred of him. Now he needed to figure out if she was worth keeping around in general, even if she wasn't a danger.

Yan could work with that.

She kept running, giving herself a period to reset her brain, change her thinking around.

The Green King kept warping the landscape around them. The hillside seemed to be infinite, as though no matter how far she ran, Yan wasn't getting any closer to the treeline and the ocean.

But Yan was just as much in charge of this mental space as the Green King was, now that she was slightly calmer, at least. She switched directions, and instead of running down, she ran up, where the Green King hadn't been carefully constructing the landscape in front of them. Now it was hers to build. There was the cliff she had sat on, watching the shuttles rush down through the atmosphere, watching the Mother pick them off one by one. They crashed through the sky like shooting stars. She ran headlong towards that cliff, and when she reached it, she dived down, down, down into the water.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

Bathtub. Ice water.

She lifted her head up out of it triumphantly. She allowed the Green King to exist in this space, her apartment on Emerri, standing there, watching her. In the real memory, Sylva and Iri had been there. In this dream, it was just her and the Green King.

"You think I can't do what it takes?" Yan asked.

She stood up out of the water. Her clothes were dry. This was a dream.

Sylva's voice floated between them. "You look so sexy when you're dangerous and crazy," she had said.

Yan laughed. She reached over and grabbed the Green King's chin. "What should we do?" she asked. "Should we steal a spaceship? Should we break into Stonecourt? You tell me. You can watch me do it."

"I already saw," he said, grabbing her hand and yanking it off his face. "I'm not interested in that."

"What do you want to see, then?" Yan asked. "I can show it to you."

"You think you turned on them," he said. "But you didn't. Not really."

"I did."

"In order for you to work with me, you need to know that the whole Empire needs to be destroyed. If you want to avoid killing people, you're worse than useless."

"I haven't seen you kill anybody," Yan said.

The Green King stared at her. She was taller than he was, so he looked slightly up at her. "What do you think I was going to do to you?" he asked.

"But you didn't."

"It was only a matter of time," the Green King said. He didn't sound guilty, or upset, or anything of the sort. It was as if he was just listing the groceries that he needed to buy. "And if you work with us, it will only be a matter of time before we make moves on the Empire."

"Why haven't you yet?"

"The time hasn't been right." There, Yan could sense that there was more to his words than what they said, but she didn't have the ability to pry. She wasn't as good at fishing through people's memories as he clearly was, and he definitely would have stopped her if she had tried. "Yes, I would have," he said, catching her thoughts. "Glad you know I'm not stupid."

"Have I satisfied you?"

"I don't think I can be satisfied," he said. "Not until I see you do something for me."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Let's discuss this after I've talked with your other little friends," the Green King said. He reached up and patted her cheek. Yan cringed in disgust, squeezing her eyes shut.

The dream broke, and she was fully back in her own real skin, floating in the bay. She slapped the Green King's hand off of her face.

"Naughty," he said. "Mind your manners."

"Let them go now," Yan said. Kino and Iri were still frozen, and the alarms were still blaring.

"Of course." The Green King smiled, and Yan felt his power relax. Iri and Kino shook themselves, gaining control of their bodies again.

"Yan, get over here," Iri said immediately.

"It's fine," Yan said. "Let's get out of here and talk where there isn't all this." She waved her hand at the shrilling of the alarms and the bright flashing lights.

"Yan. Come here," Iri said.

Yan saw that she was deadly serious, and pushed off the side of the shuttle and went over to her. The Green King watched her but didn't stop her. Iri grabbed her arm and pulled her down so that Yan's ear was level with her mouth. "What did he do to you?" Iri asked.

"Nothing," Yan said. "He didn't do anything."

"You were screaming," Iri said.

"What?"

"You looked like you were going to die," Iri said. "It was so bad that I hoped Sylva would flush the bay."

"Nothing happened," Yan said. "It was just bad memories." She pulled back away from Iri, not really wanting to think about it. "He was just testing me. I passed. Let's go, come on."

She tugged on Iri's arm, and Iri looked at her. "I don't trust him."

"We have to," Yan said.

"No, we don't," Iri whispered. "Look, Yan. I don't know what happened between you and him, you never told me what that time with the Mother was about, but you don't need to destroy yourself over this."

"I'm not destroying myself," Yan said. "I'm fine."

She wasn't entirely fine; her heart was still beating way too fast, and the sound of the Green King's laughter was still in her ears, but that wasn't going to stop her from accomplishing whatever she needed to do.

"I don't believe you," Iri said.

"I'm in charge," Yan retorted. She regretted it immediately, as the words came out far harsher than she was expecting, but Iri's face smoothed over into a blank mask.

"Yes, captain," Iri said.

It was too late, and whatever damage Yan’s words had caused was already done. Yan looked at Kino, who was picking at her sleeve, and then at the Green King, who was watching this all transpire.

"Let's go. We can talk in the meeting room," Yan said. "These alarms are giving me a headache."

She pushed off the wall and drifted to the door, catching herself on the frame. The Green King followed her, and Iri and Kino looked at each other and then followed him.

Yan opened the door and escorted everyone out. "Sylva," she said, punching the intercom. "Seal off the bay and vacuum it, will you? I don't want to keep bleeding our air."

She didn't wait for a response, and escorted the rest of the group down the hall and into the rotating rings. She felt much more stable while under real gravity, even though that was an illusion of stability only. Still, she led them into the captain's meeting room with as much confidence as she could muster, and sat down at the head of the table.

Everyone else followed suit. Iri kept staring at her, as though there was some sort of information she could glean by boring her eyes deep into Yan's heart. Yan pressed the intercom button on the table. "Sylva, if you would like to join us, you can."

"Be there in a second," Sylva said back. Her voice sounded tense and strained over the intercom, and there was a prolonged silence as everyone waited for Sylva to arrive. She came in a moment later, looking around the room with varying degrees of unhappiness. She slid into the seat next to Yan, and glared daggers at the Green King. For once, her enmity was not focused on Kino. That was a definite improvement. She squeezed Yan's arm, and Yan was surprised to feel Sylva trying to send her a message in the power. It was garbled, probably due to Sylva's poor control, but Yan sent back as much of a feeling of surety as she could muster. Sylva frowned and squeezed her arm harder. She and Iri were in the same frustrating boat, then.

Whatever. Yan was in charge.

"So," Yan said. "Do we trust each other?"

"I trust you to not kill me," the Green King said slowly. "Though not much more than that. And I don't trust any of you." He pointed around the room at Iri, Kino, and Sylva. "And I certainly will have a difficult time explaining to my superiors why you kidnapped me."

"We'll bring you back before your ship can even jump again," Yan said. "No harm, no foul."

"It certainly looks like harm from their end," the Green King said. "But that's not relevant. They sent me here to look into the mind of Kino Mejia and decide if she is a traitor or not. I haven't yet managed to do that, so that's next on my order of business."

"No," Yan said.

"No?"

"It's fine," Kino said. "If it was fine for you, it's fine for me."

Yan looked at her sharply. "I want to know what your plans for us would be, if you do decide that we're trustworthy."

"Why would I tell you our plans before I can trust you?"

Yan was getting frustrated. This was going nowhere. "Are you going to demand to interrogate Sylva and Iri as well?"

"She's a sensitive, correct?"

Sylva laughed bitterly. "Half of one."

"Then yes," the Green King said.

"Are you even going to tell us your name?" Iri demanded.

The Green King laughed. "She didn't ever tell you?"

"I don't like to talk about it," Yan said.

"My name is Jeepak. I am, for the most part, a gun for hire."

"And who do you work for?" Iri asked. "I want information."

"I know what you want," he said. "I work for an organization that is based off of various planets that will someday be targets of your Empire. Most of our planets are nice and well hidden, but some of us decided that hiding is not the way that we want to spend our lives. So those among us who were not cowards, we formed a kind of mutual defense pact. Our goal is to prevent any of our planets from being destroyed by your Empire."

"Does your group have a name?" Iri asked. "Just out of curiosity?"

"Wondering if you've heard of us before?" he asked.

"No, I just want something to refer to you in my head," Iri said.

"I suppose in your language, we'd call ourselves the Dark Hands. It's a bit of a joke, but it doesn't translate well." Sylva actually looked interested at that, but the Green King did not seem intent on elaborating.

"God's hand moved over the light, and split the light from the light, and in between was the darkness," Kino said.

Jeepak laughed. "You believe in that shit, right?"

Kino nodded, perhaps not catching the mocking tone in Jeepak's voice.

"Whatever. It's not relevant." He stared across the table at Yan.

"What would you have us do?" Yan asked.

"You have the power to destabilize the Empire," he said. "Far more than we do."

"In what way?"

"You know it in and out," he said. "You could easily pick out the weaknesses: who to kill, what planets to go after, what the easiest way to bring the whole system to its knees would be."

"Perhaps," Yan said. "But it would depend on what methods you wanted to use. I don't want to slaughter people."

"You may be surprised to learn that neither do we."

"Really," Yan said, voice flat.

"How simple it would be to make stardrives malfunction in the heart of a star," Jeepak said, drumming his fingers on his chin. "We could pick a planet that is not so easily defended at first."

"Why don't you?"

"Because that would make us just as evil as you are, don't you think?"

"You're saying that at any second, you have the ability to defeat the Empire, but you won't?" Iri asked. "It doesn't add up." She crossed her arms over her chest, staring him down.

"I'm not saying we have never taken offensive action," he said. "Simply that such an action on a grand scale was what prompted this war in the first place, a thousand years ago."

Iri didn't change her posture. "And where have you taken offensive action?"

"Many places. Wherever we can destroy Fleet ships, we do. Any time we can aid planets that are under attack, we do. We have had one major victory, within our lifetime," he said.

"Where?"

"She knows," the Green King said, pointing at Kino. "Don't you?"

Kino looked down at the table.

"You were responsible for Falmar?" Iri asked. "That was you?"

Yan felt ill. The plague on Falmar-- that had killed thousands of people. She had assumed it was natural. She had assumed... She looked at Kino. "You knew that was them?"

"I suspected," Kino said, very, very quiet.

"Everything that we did on Falmar, you did far worse," Jeepak said, leaning back in his chair. "After all, we spared the children."

"And you still worked for them?" Iri asked.

"Yes," Kino whispered.

"Fuck," Sylva said.

Yan felt sick. There was no justice here. The people who had died on Falmar were innocent-- settlers had no idea that the land that they were on had been stolen. They thought it was empty, terraformed plains that had been selected by the Fleet out of thousands of unoccupied planets. They had no idea that they were standing in the place where a whole people had been wiped out before. to have them then be killed, it was...

"With that knowledge," the Green King said. "Can I still trust you?"

Yan looked at Kino, whose head was bowed over the table. Her hair, bleached blonde, cut short, fell across her face so that Yan couldn't see it.

"I need to know if you're willing to do what it takes. The Empire is evil. It's irredeemably evil," the Green King continued. "If you want to work with me--"

"Yes," Kino said. "Yes."

The Green King looked across at Yan.

"Tell us what you want us to do," Yan said, keeping her voice as firm as she could manage it.

"First, I think we need another test," the Green King said.

"What?"

"We're going to free Olkye. We want the ship that's guarding it. You come with us, you help us board the ship. With all of us together, plus the forces already waiting at the planet, we should be more than a match for it. We can get at least that early victory before the Empire comes in force."

The Gatekeeper. Sid was on that ship.

"What do you say?"

Yan looked around, feeling miserable, but like she had no choice. "Yes," she said. "I'll do it. We'll do it."

"Excellent." The Green King smiled, and Yan hated him more every second.