me give everyone a summary of everything I experienced on the system. I wasn’t expecting this for some reason, and I find myself unsure of how much detail I should give. What do I tell them about Krakon? Do they really want to hear a love story with a tragic ending? Will they take me less seriously if I say that I was sleeping with him? Of course they will. I choose to omit that detail. I tell things mostly as they happened, but I downplay how they treated me on Summer’s Breeze, and I completely leave out the nature of the relationship between Krakon and me. When I talk about my time on Cygnus, I go into great detail about how similar it feels to home--once you get used to it.
“I see,” Yakuri says. “And what would be your recommendation as to our next steps?”
“Well,” I swallow. My throat is dry, and everyone is leaning forward. “I would try to negotiate with the aristocrats. Get them to publicly promise to allow us to land on Cygnus, and allow each human to choose for themselves where they will live.”
Yakuri has a big grey moustache, and it masks his facial expression, just wiggling like a thick caterpillar. “Otherwise we’ll all end up as slaves on some plantation?”
“The public doesn’t like the aristocracy,” I say. “Make the entire exchange public, and they will likely have to accept the terms.”
Yakuri nods. “Thank you, Catherine. I will make sure this outcome is polled to the sleepers.”
“Could I possibly see the other outcomes?” I ask.
He frowns. I can see that through the moustache. “That won’t be necessary. Your vote will be counted toward the outcome you just drafted for us. This is much more direct input than any other sleeper was able to give us. We thank you again.”
I’m escorted off the bridge by Sanchez.
On the bridge, I catch something on one of the screens. It’s an abstracted image of the colony ship, and there’s a line animating directly into Cygnus. The ship then follows along the line. Before I can see what happens, Sanchez sees me looking at the screen. She flicks a hand and all the screens shut off.
Everyone looks up in confusion, but seeing me, the confusion falls away.
Why did that arrow go all the way into the planet? Even Thraxa’s small ship docked in orbit and we took a shuttle down. A ship thousands of times larger than Thraxa’s couldn’t possibly reach the surface of Cygnus. Unless...
I think of saying something to Sanchez, but decide they will likely just lock me in a room if they think I’m suspecting what I suspect.
I need to figure out more. I won’t act suspicious.
I smile. “It’s so great that he heard me out. And all the other officers, too.”
Sanchez nods. “Let me show you to your quarters.”
My quarters are a small room with a bed and a desk. There’s no private toilet or shower. Even though the ship is huge, the “command core” that we are inside of is rotating to simulate gravity. The core itself isn’t very big, and even this small skeleton crew feels crowded within the core.
I wait until everyone is sleeping, and then I leave my room to use the restroom. I risk a trip further back, toward where the sleepers were.
I try the door and it opens.
I exit out of the command core and into the weightless spine of the ship. I float through zero-G until I find the rows of sleepers. I thank the pirates, even Krakon, that I had so much practice in zero-G, that I can move so gracefully now compared to when I first woke up.
It takes me over an hour to find my old cryo chamber, but it’s still there. Still open.
Thraxa showed me how to operate modern cryo chambers, but this one is much older. I fumble around with the controls. I find a timer. I decide to put myself under for five hours. This is all risky. They might already be looking for me. Plugging myself back into a cryo chamber could also alert them. I have to hope that they are all too busy, and that there are no automated alert systems that I trigger by going back under.
I lay in the chamber and the lid closes.
I’m thinking of Krakon. What if I was wrong about him? Why does everything that’s happened since I left him feel so wrong?
Something pricks my wrist and I go out cold.
36
Krakon
The swarm parties hard. Thraxa