“So…what exactly is an ‘Espatier’?” Rence asked jokingly as they walked through the auxiliary parking lot beside her. “A big, glorified Space Marine?”
Jahenna gave her brother a look that could peel paint at twenty meters, laden with enough weaponized sibling hate and malice that the promise of death was the only conceivable escape.
“How can I put this in ‘simple’ terms for you to understand?” She mused, walking in the hot sun just behind him. “An Espatier is a Space Marine in the same way…a business loan is to an insurance policy.”
“That…doesn’t make any sense,” Rence said.
“Neither does your comparison,” Jahenna quipped. “Marines, for example, don’t work in space; they work on the ground, and dominate the air, land, and sea of the planet they’re stationed on.”
“That’s what I said,” Rence argued.
“That is not what you said,” she quipped again. “Espatiers, on the other hand, don’t just work in space, they live in space; they own the stars, orbits, and everything beneath.”
“…what’s the difference?”
“Marines chew crayons,” she said. “Espatiers chew vacuum. Brother, I love you, but you’re venturing down a path that will not end very well for you if you keep going.”
“Really?” He asked not-so-innocently. “How so?”
“…do you really want to find out?” She asked. “Bear in mind, I know how to kill people with my finger.”
It dawned on him then that, although he’d been joking…perhaps she wasn’t.
“…maybe not.”
Jahenna shook her head as she smiled.
“You…erm…sure you don’t need any help with that?” He asked her again, after watching her haul the canvas duffel over her shoulder past another car.
“I got it,” she said. “Why, you think I can’t?”
“I didn’t say that,” he countered. “I just…I hope you’re not thinking I couldn’t in this gravity,” he protested.
“Why would I think that?” Jahenna asked.
“Gravity was…always a bit much for me here.”
“Well of course it would be a bit much on you,” she said. “You grew up on Kasper, in a third of the gravity of this place.”
“Oh yeah,” he quipped, his own voice suddenly becoming cheery. “Sorry, I forgot.”
“Rence, do you ever stop with the bad jokes?” She asked. “Because in the past fifteen minutes I’ve only wanted to choke you out three times. How is it that nobody has murdered you yet?”
“Armed security officers in my apartment complex,” he stated matter-of-factly. “When you’re a bank manager like I am, you tend to get perks like that.”
“I bet,” she mumbled, silently cursing out her Dad’s nepotism for her brother.
After walking a few more rows, Rence approached a large, six-seated blue monstrosity that promised a fully automated driving experience, complete with luxury comforts only found in the latest of land-based autonomous vehicles.
“Nice rental,” Jahenna said as Rence opened one of the doors for her. She tossed the canvas bag inside, leaping in behind it.
“Thanks,” he said, climbing up into the chair closest to the door with a labored grunt. He sat for a moment, breathing deeply, before dialing in commands to the vehicle’s interface.
“You alright?” She asked him nervously, reaching into the duffel and for her tablet.
“Fine,” he said, still panting a little. “Just…did some extra gravity therapy earlier today, before I caught your graduation parade and met up with you. Between all that and the walk back out to the car…I’m just beat.”
He tapped the ‘engage’ icon on the interface, and the rental began rolling itself out of the parking space to the exit. It accelerated once it cleared the parking lot, moving quickly along various connecting roads to the the onramp, before merging into traffic on the highway.
“Not to pry,” Jahenna asked nervously, “but you…haven’t talked to Dad still, right?”
There was the briefest note of hesitation in Rence’s eyes.
“No,” he said, uneasy about the subject. “No, I haven’t talked to him.”
“Sorry to bring it up,” she said. “He…ended up doing the same thing to me that he did to you when you went back to Kasper. When I joined the Espatiers, I mean.”
“When’s the last time you spoke to him?” Her brother asked.
“Enlistment processing.” She said. “Had to tell him I ‘arrived safely’ to the Recruit Depot. We couldn’t say much. All he said was ‘good’ and hung up.”
Rence closed his eyes and rolled his head back against the headrest.
“Not to keep bringing it up, but…when I wrote to you two, I didn’t expect any letters back from him, not after what he said before or during that forced phone call…but I just…I hoped I could just convince him that I wasn’t…choosing to hurt him; I just wanted to earn my own way. I wanted to make him understand that, and I guess I let that hope get to me.”
“I hear you,” he said. “I hear you loud and clear…but these days I think he’s just incapable of hearing anything that contradicts him. I haven’t been keeping a close eye, but I heard he’s fallen ‘out of favor’ at the university as of late.”
“Yeah,” Jahenna said with a knowing grin and sigh, “yeah he’s…had some interesting ideas about the ancient alien life here. Things that didn’t really sit well with the rest of the faculty.”
“‘Sit well’?” Rence asked. “He practically called them all frauds.”
She cracked a smile, remembering the fallout from only a year ago.
It had been the beginning of the end of their relationship; the first few cracks in the dam.
She felt sad about it.
“For what it’s worth,” her brother added solemnly, “I’m sorry he did that to you. I’m sorry you had to go through that, then go through Basic. Being on my own and finishing my BA on Kasper was one thing, but I had you to fall back on; you didn’t have anyone…”
He trailed off as the rental continued speeding down the highway.
“I’m really sorry I left you out to dry like that,” he said. “I didn’t know about you and Dad.”
“We already talked about it,” Jahenna said. “It’s alright.”
Rence wiped at his face with his hand, then leaned back into his chair.
“Thank you,” he said.
As the silent moment turned into another, Jahenna turned away to look out the window. The landscape outside had shifted from the quiet but well lived-in urban environment near the Recruitment Depot to a semi-flat desert landscape that stretched for miles. Proxima Prime wasn’t necessarily a uniform biome, but its principal one was a desert. Even bugs were sparse.
“So,” Rence asked, sitting up and eager to start a new subject, ”’two standard weeks’ you say?”
“Three hundred, thirty-six hours,” she said, clarifying the exact conditions of her liberty. “After that, I’m to report to Bar-Hassan for the next stage of my training. And after that, I get to find out what I’ll be doing for the next six years.”
“Wait,” Rence asked suddenly. “Six? I thought you’d be in for four.”
“They tack on two years for travel and light lag,” she explained. “Not much I can do about it. If I happen to see stuff on the way it’s not so bad, I guess. Learn new skills and see weird things.”
“Assuming Tau Ceti plays ball,” Rence said.
“Pfffff,” Jahenna scoffed. “Tau Ceti can suck my dick,” she said in an angry, dismissive groan. “We’d wipe the floor with them the moment they tried anything.”
Rence looked at her with a wily expression of surprise at her reaction.
“Wh—” he stopped himself, trying not to suddenly start laughing. “What did you say?”
“You heard me,” she said. “They can kiss my ass; they can pound sand. They’ve been posturing for years; we don’t have anything to worry about from them. Not one iota.”
“They’ve managed an information blackout for the past three months,” he said. “That’s not exactly easy.”
“It’s not exactly hard either,” Jahenna said, adjusting her seat to face her brother more directly. “All you need to do is stop sending messenger drones.”
“Yeah but…ships that travel through Consortium space haven’t been seen coming out,” he continued. “They’re like a black hole; nothing comes out, I mean.”
“If Tau Ceti wants to play isolationist again, let them,” Jahenna said, her voice growing more irate.
“Still, the information blackout has a lot of people…well, worried,” Rence added hesitantly. “Myself included.”
“So we’ve stopped hearing them boast, moan and threaten us—what’s not to like?”
“That…they might attack?”
“And what are they going to hit us with?!” She asked, suddenly cutting him off at the knees.
She’d had enough.
“They’re over a century behind us in ship design, engine efficiency, and weapons,” Jahenna said angrily. “They still use antimatter! They don’t even have subliminal warp!”
“They figured out how to pull off a Null-Jump,” Rence said. “They’re not stupid.”
Jahenna sighed. “No, but they only figured it out after salvaging enough of our messenger drones to figure out the basics,” she countered.
“It took us almost two hundred years to figure out how to jump across the stars—they did it in just forty. That has to count for something.”
“It took us that long because we weren’t even sure it could be done at all!” Jahenna said sharply. “They did it in forty because they saw us doing it, they just didn’t know how until they figured it out! You’re convinced they’re going to attack, and I’m trying to tell you there’s no way—no way in hell—that they would do that.” She reiterated. “It doesn’t make any sense. What would they gain from it? We’d decimate them the moment we saw their engine blooms or mass wake from a jump.”
“But—“
“—Their ships are literally tin cans, Rence! You could sneeze at them and they’d explode! They know this!”
“Alright, alright,” he said, throwing his hands up. “Sorry to argue. I just…I guess I’m just worried over nothing, then.”
Silence filled the cabin again as the two siblings stood down from their respective sides.
The rental continued on, and Jahenna went back to looking out the window.
“You know what,” Jahenna announced suddenly, “I don’t want to think about Dad or Tau Ceti or even the Espatiers for the next two weeks; is that possible? Can we do that?”
Rence snapped his fingers. “Done,” he said, his smile filling his face.
An idea crossed Jahenna’s mind.
“…what if we meet up with Greveen or Vijer?” She asked, turning around again to face her brother. “Maybe they could come camping with us?”
Rence paused for a moment, a hesitant look hanging on his face.
“What?” Jahenna asked.
“I…thought they would have written you or something,” he said. “Greveen went off-world to Kasper for University four months ago. Vijer is…I haven’t heard from them since you left. I think they said something about going to Undjunjar, but that’s all I know.”
Jahenna’s face became sullen. “Oh,” she said, defeated.
“…sorry to break the bad news,” Rence said.
“It’s alright,” she said. “Had to find out anyhow. What about you and Gillory? I haven’t seen her in a long time, and you two were…you know…”
Rence smiled. “We…um…decided to take some time apart.“
“Oh,” she said again. “I’m sorry. Didn’t know that.”
“How could you?” Rence laughed. “It’s alright. We’re not fighting or anything; she just said she needed some space and I was getting beat up under pressure from the bank anyhow. We still talk—it’s just a distance thing for now. She’s actually nearby on Faria right now working on one of the new crystal lattice arrays for one of the lasers.”
“Huh,” Jahenna said. “Well…um, okay then.”
Rence chuckled a little, though a tint of moroseness hid in his voice. “She’s…bucking for a new contract with the power company over that array. Supposed to get twenty percent more efficiency with less focal burn out.”
“Hope it works out for her,” Jahenna said.
Silence again.
The sound of kevlar tires rolling down the highway wasn’t exactly deafening in the luxury cabin, but it was audible enough to fill the empty void between them.
Jahenna went back to staring out the window, where bleached rocks were already staring back at her as they passed by.
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