Other Trails Chapter 6

[random_xtras]

"I see something!" Shade lifted her head excitedly at the same time as her sister signed and pointed. Then she paused uncertainly and frowned at what she was seeing. "What is it? It's just a big flat square thing floating in space."

[With some lights on it,] added Mist, then absently pulled her mane back as it fell forward over one eye.

"That's part of the promise that no other space faring sentient is ever going to try and eat you guys," said Starfighter, a soft tremor going through the floor of his cabin as he twitched his wings emphatically. "It's the control base of a sector lock that puts the solar system behind it a few degrees out of alignment with the rest of reality. Which means that the dirty salvage lickers who live there can't touch anything outside the system."

[What does that mean?] asked Mist, then reached forward to point at the words "few degrees out of alignment" with her thumb.

"Text fail," grumbled Starfighter, then caused an image of his avatar to appear, misty and translucent, on the screen. The image signed as he continued to speak aloud. "It's got something to do with spatial dimensions or something like that. But what it basically means is that they can see us, but they can't touch us or anything outside their solar system. And most people outside the lock can't see them. They're in jail and exile and all that. The space cops thought it would be more merciful than turning the Warlady loose on these losers."

"Could she hurt a whole planet full of people?" Shade's eyes went wide, and she hopped out of her stanchion as she shied backward at the thought.

"Whoa. Don't go getting freaky on me again. The Warlady only hurts people if there's no other way to stop them from hurting other people. Though she does have fun doing it once that stage happens. That's just the Armourclad base programming."

"So she's done it." Shade couldn't stop herself from trembling slightly as she came back and leaned against her chest rest.

"According to local legend. I wasn't around when it happened. It's been so long that all traces of the cyborg race that she pwned are gone from the planet, and a new bunch of guys is living there."

"Someone brought them?"

"Maybe the Starsinger. Nobody else did."

"How do you know?" Shade leaned her elbows on the stanchion and frowned slightly.

"I don't know. But the stories say that they were just there one day. And they're not like anybody else in that area." The floor trembled a little more as Starfighter shrugged. "But it was supposed to have been a few thousand years before anyone noticed them there, despite the IGP monitoring the planet."

"I keep forgetting how long you guys live." Shade shook her head, then looked back at the sector lock control base. "Who..." She hunched her upper shoulders and smoothed down fur that had suddenly stood on end. "Who did these people eat?"

"Chill." Starfighter twitched her stanchion so that it felt like he'd touched her on the chest in reassurance. "It was a bunch of unicorns. The jerks bred them and treated them like basic animals for so long that when the space cops came and got all the unicorns out of there they needed to make a special place for them to live."

"What are the jerks like?" Shade took a deep breath, still frowning. "Do they look like predators, like that big cat man that we saw at the Warlady's station? Or like those scaly guys who were fighting in the hanger?"

"Fff, no." Starfighter started to turn away from the lock, his movements leisurely as he soaked up the light of the nearest suns and ran through the light defragging and systems checks that served his people as refreshing rest. "They're some bunch of humans that were supposed to have come from Earth centuries ago on a generation ship because they didn't like the laws that everyone was passing back there."

"Humans?" Shade shared an expression of face scrunched wonder with her sister, then turned back to the view screen. "What kind of laws?"

"Well, scuttlebutt says it was the laws that said that women had to be treated just like men, and that non-humans were people too. They said that the Protectorate had defiled the planet with their presence." Starfighter snorted. "So they wound up here. And they don't believe that there are any kind of people but humans, and they believe that the only humans who can go live with the Creator of everything after they die are the men." He paused and studied the blank expressions on both his crew members' faces. "Hey?"

"That... doesn't make any sense. Even my people know that women are as valuable as the men in the Forest Weaver's herd. Ugh. It's making my brain hurt to try and think about it!" Shade put her hands to her head and stamped a hoof, warning the thought away with vehemence.

[Because they believe only human people be, they eat unicorns?] asked Mist, frowning.

"Yeah. See, they're picky about their food, too. The only meat they eat is from things with cloven hoofs and that chew their food again a few times after they eat it."

[Like us.] She trembled.

"They're stuck in there. And even if they weren't I wouldn't let the slimes near you." Starfighter's voice and signing was firm, and there was a set look on the face of the image of his avatar. "Come on, let's blow this joint."

"Wait." Shade perked as a blinking light on the view screen was accompanied by a beep. "Someone from the sector lock base is hailing us. Accept the call?"

"You got it, Cap." Starfighter opened the channel and sent his identifiers over.

//Protectorate shuttle Starfighter, let me speak to your captain,// said a female voice as the image of a tall, uniformed shifter woman appeared on the screen.

"I'm the captain." Shade made the sign that she'd learned was the universal greeting. "My name is Shade."

The woman blinked at her, skin changing to a pale shade of surprised yellow but then quickly going back to peaceful blue with only hints of angry black. //Major Bathilda Hanson Secrayis, ninth planetary division enforcement corps. Do you have room for a short term passenger, Captain Shade? We can pay the usual berth fee.//

"Err." Shade glanced quickly at words that appeared at the bottom of the screen which urged her to ask how big this person was, then looked back up at the image of the Major. "How big is this person? And the only rations we have are for browsers who need a lot of fiber in their diets."

//She's human, and it's no problem. We can send enough rations with her to last a month or two.// Major Hanson Secrayis nodded, her black bob swaying softly. //She's quiet and keeps to herself, but around your people she might relax a little.//

"Human?" Shade reacted to a hunch. "Is she one of the people who ate unicorns?"

//She's of that race.// The Major's angry colouration increased. //But she was practically raised by a unicorn woman, and she comes from a poorer family, so she's never eaten anyone.// A deep breath, and the blue managed to prevail again. //The girl was born with a physical attribute that supposedly made her destined for life in a brothel. Her parents decided to keep her so that they could sell her when she came of age, but they didn't waste much attention on her.//

"But they made the unicorns be like animals?" asked Shade uncertainly.

//Yeah. They did. But even an animal loves and cares for its young. And Freedom's the sort of person who taught herself to read when she was five years old. She saw the removal of the unicorns, and she read the data files that the Protectorate forces left behind. Now she's finally managed to escape.//

"Where does she want to go?" Shade absently smoothed her cheeks, then poked at one of the buttons on her vest.

//To Freedom XIV.//

"Whoa, wait a minute!" Starfighter spoke up suddenly. "You want to let a Zealot go to the safe haven for the people that Zealots nearly destroyed? How do you know this isn't some kind of trick?"

//I'm Psy corps,// said Major Hanson Secrayis simply.

"Oh. Yeah. That'd do it. Heh."

Shade patted the console gently, then looked back to the Major's image. "She wants to go and be with her mother."

//Yeah.// Hanson Secrayis nodded. //And frankly, we need her over there, since the little guys are scared fuzzy by people my size.//

[Ohhh,] said Mist, her sign small and her hands close to her body as she unconsciously whispered the thought.

"I wonder if the Warlady would let Meena come and help too." Shade glanced toward the image of Starfighter's avatar.

He lifted his brow ridges. "She just might. And the old lady would probably get a kick out of having that many people to make stuff for."

//Wait,// said the Major. //Who's Meena? The Warlady's people would probably scare the unicorns even more than my people do.//

"No. Meena won't scare them." Shade's eyes sparkled as she covered her smile with one hand. "She's a unicorn. She made my vest."

Major Hanson Secrayis went grey-white with shock, then swiftly changed to a bright yellow of surprise before toning her colouring down to a quizzical pink. //She's unengineered stock?//

"I don't know what that means. Are you asking me if Meena knows she's a person?" asked Shade, her smile fading to uncertainty.

//Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm asking. Does Meena know she's a person?// Hanson Secrayis put a hand to her mouth as her pink deepened toward the orange of fear.

"Yes. Her daughter's part of the Warlady's army, and patrols in a star fighter to look out for danger."

//In a star fighter!// The shifter woman bloomed yellow again. //There's still a star fighter in existence!//

"Yes..." Starfighter's avatar frowned at hers, plainly wondering, as his crew was, why the Major was so excited about this.

Hanson Secrayis shook her head as she changed to a deep and mirthful blue. //I wonder what else the Warlady is hiding out there that the rest of the galaxy thinks is extinct.//

[Mammoths?] offered Mist, her brow ridges raised in the way she'd picked up from the crew of the Nothing Yet.

//...What kind?//

"Narudian." Starfighter's avatar smirked in a way that its apparent species didn't do.

//Rusted scrap,// swore the Major softly. //How many of those has she got?//

"With her on the station, or elsewhere?" The smirk became a grin behind his hand.

//She's got an entire bloody breeding population of the meteor pitted things, doesn't she?// Hanson Secraya turned blackish blue.

"Yup. And you know about the people cats, right?"

//The human crossgenics from Hell?// The shifter woman flailed slightly, and then gave the image of Starfighter's avatar a fierce Look when he started laughing.

"Is the Warlady going to get in trouble?" asked Shade, her chin trembling slightly.

//Oh rust no. She probably just decided that since she didn't need the funding that the Protectorate government sends to anyone who helps an endangered race or species that she had nothing to tell anyone.// The Major sighed and ran a hand through her hair, then shook her head and chuckled softly. //Well, I'd better get Freedom on her way. Are you teleportal equipped, Starfighter?//

"Ffft! How'm I going to afford one of those things?" His avatar image looked at hers incredulously.

She again blackened slightly with irritation. //What about enough space to receive a non-portal teleport?//

"Only if you guarantee she's not going to void her tank on any part of me after she does it." Translucent blue arms folded over a translucent silver chest.

Hanson Secrayis gave him a Look, then turned to Shade. //Captain, will you move your vessel near enough to accept a boarding tube?//

"Sure." Shade pat patted Starfighter's console as he looked rebellious. "But Starfighter's the navigator."

"Think I offended her by talking about emptying tanks," said the convertor laconically.

[Offended each other,] said Mist. [Stop that!]

"Meep!" said Starfighter. "Uh. Sorry, Major."

//I'm sorry as well.// Hanson Secrayis blinked at the white girl with surprise, then frowned at the image of the blue and silver avatar.

"Boarding tube. No prob." Starfighter grinned behind one hand and started to move his main body.


* * *


The girl named Freedom had long black hair in a thick braid, a plump pale face with a bit of gold in her skin, a black mask that covered her from the bridge of her nose to her chin, and a shapeless black bag of a dress that went right to her feet. She also had large brown eyes that mostly hid beneath the shadow of their long black lashes. She came aboard carefully, and then peeked at Shade before touching a hand to her forehead and bowing. "Thank you for your hospitality, Captain. I will try to stay out of the way till we reach my destination."

"Why is your face covered?" Shade stooped to try and see her better.

Freedom blinked and put a hand to the mask. "Oh. I was grinning so much that I was giving the Major and her people fits. But I needed my hands for things other than covering my mouth."

"We're not worried about teeth," Shade assured her, then gave Starfighter a Look. "Unless they're being used to bite somebody."

"You were tickling my avatar!" He pressed his arms to his sides and looked reprovingly back. "And I couldn't get away."

"You could have rezzed out." Shade shook her head, eyes dancing with amusement. "And if you hadn't been teasing me with my lunch ration I wouldn't have tickled you."

Freedom blinked again uncertainly as she watched the exchange, but then brightened when Shade turned back to her.

"We've made you a little space of your own," said the black-furred girl kindly. "The Major thought it might be best. And Starfighter won't talk to you if you want him to stay away."

"I am not going to be living as a Zealot any longer," said Freedom quietly. "Talking to men as equals is something that non-Zealot women do. So I will too." Then she frowned and tugged at the rope of her hair. "And I think I will cut this."

The sudden dead silence in the cabin made her look up quizzically. Seeing the wide-eyed look of shock on the Captain's face, and the rapid flurry of sign that the black-furred girl was making to the white one, she frowned with bewilderment. "What is wrong? Did I do something?"

"Uh. You maybe better wait to cut your hair till you get where you're going," said Starfighter kindly. "Cutting hair... has meaning for the Cap's people."

"Oh. I am sorry!" said Freedom softly, trembling and automatically stooping into a bow. "I did not mean any offense. Please... meep?"

Shade lifted her gently, and then put a hand on her chest in reassurance. "Don't bow. And you don't need to be afraid. You just surprised us. We know that cutting your hair has a different meaning for you."

"I do not want to make you uncomfortable." Freedom watched Shade's hands move as she spoke and was once more blinking confusion and wonder. "What... what is this, Captain? What are you doing with your hands?"

"Talking," said Shade. "This is Galactic sign, which is my sister's language because her ears don't work."

"Was she born unable to hear?" Freedom looked wonderingly toward the white-furred girl, who gave her a little wave and a smile.

"Yes. She's never heard anything." Shade absently tugged on her mane, then tossed it back over her right upper shoulder. "But she sees things better than I do."

"Do your people always let little girls live, even when they are born damaged?" asked Freedom slowly, as though pondering something amazing and wonderful.

"Ffft! She's not damaged. She's as strong and healthy as I am." Shade folded her arms over her vest covered chest, but tried not to frown because she could see how uncertain and fearful that the human girl was despite her determination. Then she gently put a hand on Freedom's chest again. "Don't be afraid. Among my people women are treasure that men try to collect, and nobody ever throws babies away."

Freedom's eyes widened over her mask. "Treasures? The Major says that among the population that she grew up in women and men have no difference except in their genetic composition and what parts of child bearing and rearing that they do."

"Yes. Treasures. Women are gentle enough to take care of the little antelope so that they give a lot of milk for a man to drink. And a man with many women in his herd can have lots of babies to love and teach and play with." She grinned. "That's all the men I grew up around wanted. Lots of milk, some cuddling, and babies."

"The men can't get the milk?" asked Freedom after a long and thinking silence.

"No. Their hands are too big to get it."

"Ohhh." Freedom's eyes widened again as a shocking thought occurred to her. "So the women actually bring wealth to the men."

"Well, yeah." Shade wondered why Freedom seemed so surprised.

"That is not how things are seen where I come from." The human girl unconsciously hugged her small suitcase to her chest. "I grew up hearing how women were a drain on the resources. We were not people. We were only a baking oven for a man's sons to be formed in."

"Ffft!" said Shade and Starfighter at the same time, then frowned at each other for a moment.

Shade snorted softly and turned back to Freedom. "It's a good thing you aren't a Zealot anymore, huh?"

"Yes," said the human girl softly. Then she wistfully reached out to touch Mist's vest. "I would like a dress with colours. The Major told me that women can wear whatever colour they like in the outside world, but I did not believe her."

Shade translated for Mist, who patted Freedom on the chest, then turned and walked away toward the back of the cabin and the sleeping quarters.

"Going to see what she has left of her textile stuff?" asked Starfighter, his avatar looking toward the view screen instead of following Mist's progress.

"Yes," said Shade absently, thinking over her own inventory. Then she turned her attention back to Freedom. "Please follow me, and I'll bring you to your sleeping room."

"As you wish, Captain." The human girl unhooked the ties on her mask, and then looked up and offered a shy smile.

Shade smiled back, and then turned and lead Freedom to the little section of hold that was now partitioned off into a small snug room complete with a narrow but well-padded bed. This done, she turned toward her own and Mist's room to go poke around in her pocket.

[I have no coloured wool,] said Mist as she came in, then held up a spare knitted blanket before setting it down and continuing. [And the dress making is a trail I not yet walked.]

[Me either.] Shade contemplated a little crochet rose, then perked. [But we can give her things to give colour to the dress that she has!]

[Yes!] Mist brightened, then danced a bit. [Flowers and wire things will make her dress coloured!]

[What colours would make her fur and eyes stand out the best?] wondered Shade, tipping the pocket out on the bed. [Not roses. Orange would make her skin look odd.]

[Fire skies.] Mist reached for a crochet cluster of the bright turquoise flower that was a favourite food along their old trails.

[Yes. Oh!] Shade snagged up a belt she'd made from spiral medallions of gleaming metallic turquoise wire. [Perfect!]

[Red.] Mist held up a wire necklace of that colour, then grabbed some crochet sword leaves of the same.

[Some green.] Shade pointed to a fringed trim of that colour that was accented with little golden bits of honey wood.

[Yes.] Mist smiled and collected that, then gave her handful to her sister. [You give.]

[Alright.] Shade arranged the things neatly, her own smile wide with excitement and happiness at the thought of giving Freedom a dress with colour just by giving her some of their things. [Let's give her some thin wool, too. She maybe can use even the plain kind.]

[Yes. Is useful.] Mist selected a neat twist of the undyed cotton thread and handed it to her sister, then grinned and shoved Shade toward the door.

Unable to sign because of her hands being full of gifts, Shade instead flailed slightly and laughed, but then gave a little hop and walked over to Freedom's door. Her elbow failed to bring a sound from the door chime, so she gently headbutted the wall. "Starfighter, ring Freedom's door chime, please. My hands are full."

The soft alert brought a quizzical Freedom to the door, and then the girl's eyes were going wide again as Shade held out the ornaments and thread. "These are for adding colour to your dress."

Freedom's mouth fell open as she touched one of the swirls of the belt, and then she gently lifted one of the crochet sword leaves. "You are giving these to me?"

"Yup. They're gifts." Shade grinned and moved her hands slightly, urging Freedom to take them.

"And here is some thread to put the flowers on with." Freedom took everything into the crook of her arm and then lifted the twist of cotton. "Ah, what is this?" She poked gently at the trimming.

"Some people sew this on the edges of their clothes, to make them look something like this." Shade pointed to the lacy bottom hem of her vest. "The woman who showed us how to make it said that it can go on the ends of sleeves, and on collars, too. But I've never seen that done yet."

"It is beautiful! And it smells so wonderful, too." Freedom gently touched one of the honey wood bits and then exclaimed softly as she saw the faint, iridescent sheen that painted the grain of the wood in shining white. "It is like a pearl!"

"I don't know what a pearl is yet," said Shade. "But I'm glad you like that. Oh, and we're going to stop at a space station on the way to your destination. You might be able to get a coloured dress there, or Meena might make you one while she's aboard with us."

"Who is Meena?" asked Freedom uncertainly, her large eyes searching Shade's face for reassurance to combat her sudden shy fear.

"She's a unicorn woman who lives on the station we're stopping at. She knows she's a person, and she loves to make clothes for people. She made my vest and Mist's, and Starfighter says that she makes most of the clothes for the people cats that live on the station, too."

"What? She does needle work and makes clothing?" Freedom's expression showed her confusion.

"Yes. Meena knows she's a person," repeated Shade as Mist came up behind her. "She and her daughter and all their ancestors have always been free."

"Is she coming to the home of the unicorns?" asked Freedom, unconsciously gripping her gifts with the force of her surprise.

"Yup. The Major thinks that she'll be able to help them, and Meena will have new people to dress." Shade grinned.

Freedom blinked, then smiled hesitantly in return. "This is good. I think that having someone who has not been hurt as Meme's people have will help them. Meme likes to care for people too, though she cannot speak, and she reacts to being spoken to only like a pet lamb will."

"Hurt? They were hurt?" Shade's expression shifted to concern, and she stamped softly as her ears twitched.

"Yes." Freedom looked down, her cheeks darkening with shame as she thought of what her birth people had done to her heart mother's. "The Major says that they have been selectively bred for low intelligence for centuries. And every one that was kept to produce the next generation had part of their brain removed to make sure that they stayed dumb animals all their days." She turned and set the gifts down on a shelf next to the door, then hugged herself without looking up. "The parents were kept in small rooms alone. As soon as a child was weaned another was started, till the mother could not have any more. Then they were slaughtered for the poor. My father was given Meme as a gift from his employer, but he was too proud to eat old meat. So she was tossed into the back room where I lived. When they saw that she cared for me they left her there so that my grandmother would no longer have to be tainted by touching me."

"Tainted by touching you?" repeated Shade slowly, both her voice and the signs that she made for Mist heavy with incomprehension and anger.

"Yes. They said that I had been born destined to be... a..." Freedom cringed from the word.

"I don't even know what that means, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to," said Shade, thinking of what the Major had told them. "But what can a little baby have that makes them destined to find a bad trail before they've ever done anything but cry?"

"I do not know what my grandmother found amiss with me when I was born. But when I started to become a woman I got these to further her conviction." Freedom gestured to her chest.

"Uh. We don't understand," said Shade. Mist nodded.

"My bosom. It is supposed to be too large to belong to a decent woman." Freedom hid her face with her hands as she blushed with embarrassment at the subject.

Shade looked at her sister, then down at her own chest, flat beneath its vest. "Ffft! I'm pretty sure that the size of your milk pockets doesn't mean any such thing."

"Milk pockets?" Freedom gave a startled little laugh at the term as her translator gave it to her literally instead of turning it to familiar terminology.

"Well that's what they are. Pockets for holding the milk that didi babies like.

"Fuel tanks for sharing." Starfighter piped up suddenly.

Freedom gave a little scream of surprise, then threw up her hands and ran to her bed. "Ahh! A man heard me talking about that!"

Shade and Mist exchanged a startled glance as the human girl threw herself face down on her bed and pulled a blanket over her head.

"Um," said Shade. "Freedom, the woman of his people don't even have milk pockets. And you don't have any metal plating or ability to give a charge when you kiss somebody, so I don't think he's interested in your milk pockets or what you say about them."

Freedom just squeaked helplessly and burrowed further under the blanket.

[Embarrassed. Come, and let her breathe.] Mist took Shade's elbow and steered her away from the door, then nodded thanks to Starfighter as the door slid shut behind them.

"Oops," he said as they came back onto the bridge, his voice full of chagrin. "Let me guess. That was girl talk."

Shade blinked. "What's girl talk?"

"Uh. ...Never mind." Starfighter's avatar rubbed the back of his head, then dropped his arm and brightened. "So how about fiber cakes for supper?"