“Seer, I demand you look into this!”

Oreus the Seer sighed, and rolled up the scroll he was looking at. “Hari, I have told you, the idea that a visitor from Earth is a sign of doom is simply not borne out by the sacred scrolls. There is but one line in a commentary text that is credited to Walgin the Seer, but….”

“I know what I was taught,” Hari said. “We have already seen strife in the Tribe!”

“Kumn shooting her mouth off enough that Quendra challenged her isn’t the result of Luke visiting. It’s the result of Kumn being Kumn. And unlike you, Kumn has had the good sense to recognize her defeat and accept her role. Indeed, I understand that Quendra has already told Kumn she will honor her experience by asking her advice; that sounds very much like two people trying to reduce division. And they just beat on each other a sunset ago.”

“Still, I know that it was Luke of Earth who goaded Quendra into defending him. If he was not here….”

“…then eventually, Quendra would have gotten tired of the insults and challenged Kumn anyhow. Hari, the fact that Quendra had her eye on the title of Elder Huntress was only known by every man, woman, and child in the tribe. The fact that Kumn liked to needle Quendra was probably known by the Guardians themselves.”

“I should have known better than to come to Quendra’s uncle with this,” Hari said.

“We share a grandfather, Hari, and Kumn and I share a grandmother. We are all family here. I am not telling you that nothing exists to support your contention because Quendra is my niece; I tell you it because it is the truth. The Great Spirit has never revealed what you think it has. Perhaps you will prove right, Hari, but nothing that has happened yet shows that.”

Hari sighed. “All I ask,” she said, “is that you acknowledge that the presence of Luke of Earth has changed the fabric of the Tribe.”

“It has,” Oreus said. “He has saved the life of Quendra and Thurfrit, helped others in the Tribe with questions, shared his knowledge freely. He has made us better though his presence. I venerate his assistance.”

Hari made a dismissive cluck, and turned to go, with a barely-mumbled, “Good day, Seer.”

“Good day to you, Hari the Defender. Great Spirit guide you.” Oreus chuckled, and turned back to his scrolls.

* * *

“So there are ten hours until he’s supposed to be executed.”

“I know, Gae,” Lesis said into his pad. He was growing tired of Gae’s calls; she had done stellar work since arriving in Rutger, but as the clock ticked closer to the execution of the human, she had become more and more quarrelsome. She was clearly angry at this point, and Lesis had bigger things to deal with.

“Look, if you’d tell me what the plan is – I’m game. I have a couple dozen people here at the Justice Center who are willing to form Titan chains, blockade entrances – basically, any bit of civil disobedience you guys want, I have people to engage in it, but you have to tell me what the plan is!”

“Gae – I can’t get into that right now. Dophet needs my help with registration at Orion Provincial….”

“Frak registration! Lesis, Emperor’s Taint, a man is going to die before the end of the day, what are we going to do about it?”

Lesis blew the air out slowly; he reminded himself that Gae was good at what she did, and that she was angry because she cared about humans. She was right to be angry. And he could use that anger in the coming weeks. “All right,” he said, “let me get to Orion Provincial. It will take me two hours. Then I’ll meet you for lunch at t’Jous – it’s right across the square from the Justice Center. I was already meeting Leny there – I’ll let her know you’re coming.”

Gae smiled tightly. “Thanks, Lesis. I’m – I know I’m bothering you, but….”

“Not at all,” Lesis said, though she most certainly was. “Gae, if this didn’t outrage you, make you want to take action right now…well, you wouldn’t belong in TETH, would you?”

Gae chuckled. “Thanks for understanding.”

“No problem. Now, I have to hop an intercity shuttle, you keep working, I’ll see you at t’Jous.”

“See you there,” Gae said. She put her pad back into her purse, and pulled out Yamma gently, giving him a kiss. “I told you there had to be a plan,” she said.

“Gae, I hope so,” Yamma said. “Because Darren is gonna die if there isn’t one.”

Gae was about to say more, when her pad chirruped. “Yamma, I have to take this,” she said. “Lezah! Thank Gods. How are you holding up?”

The woman on the other end of the line looked bedraggled and exhausted and emotionally spent. “Oh, Gae…about as well as you’d expect. I still can’t…I can’t believe it.”

“Can I do anything?” Gae asked. “Anything at all?”

“Are you here? In Rutger, with TETH?”

“Yeah,” Gae said. “I don’t know if it will do anything, but….”

“Keep fighting for them. All of them. Okay?” Lezah said, tearfully. “That’s what you can do.”

“I will. I promise.”

“Thanks. I have to go…Eyrn’s a wreck. Bedra’s a wreck. Everyone….”

“Lezah, if you need me to be there for you….”

Lezah shook her head. “Gae, there’s less than ten hours. If you can do anything…anything at all….”

“I will, Lezah,” Gae said. “I’ll do whatever I have to do.”

* * *

The small restaurant off Justice Square was full to overflowing, but Gae found her way to the table in the back, where her boss was sitting with Leny. Gae slid into a chair orthogonal to the two of them, and set her handbag on the table. “Hi,” she said. “Thanks for seeing me.”

“Not at all, Gae. You’ve done great work with registration, you know,” Leny said. “Nobody’s brought in more new members than you have this week, and you haven’t been at the most heavily-trafficked events.”

“I have to do something,” Gae said. “A man’s life hangs in the balance. If one new member gets someone’s attention…gets someone to stop and think….”

“Exactly right,” Lesis said. “You care about humans deeply, don’t you?”

“As much as I care about Titans,” Gae said. “They’re people. They deserve to be treated like it.”

Leny smiled. “I couldn’t have said it better. Gae, I know we had you organizing eastern rural Korafia, but I think you’ve shown yourself capable of more. I’ve been talking with Lesis; we’d like you to consider moving to Debga, and taking over Korafia and Sobdu from Lesis.”

Gae didn’t even know what to say to that.

“It would pay significantly more – that is to say, it would pay something more than a pittance. You give us the kind of effort you’ve given us here in Rutger, and there’s no telling how far you could go.”

“Gae, you’re the type of activist we need,” Lesis said. “We want you to be a part of TETH for the long haul.”

Gae looked between her two superiors. This was everything she could have hoped for; head of Korafia and Sobdu? She’d have no problem bringing people in from that position. It would put her equal to Lesis, and have her working with the head office on a regular basis. If she wanted to build a career as an activist…here it was.

“I…wow, I did not expect that,” she said with a nervous chuckle. “I…that’s…I can hardly say no to that, can I?”

“I wouldn’t think so,” Lesis said with a grin.

“You’ve earned it, Gae,” Leny said, gripping her wrist with her hand. “Now, we should probably order – this place is crazy today.”

Gae looked down at her menu for a moment, and began searching for a reasonable celebratory dish. “So what’s the plan to free Darren?” she asked.

There was no response for a moment, and that drew her eyes upward, where Leny and Lesis were sharing a glance.

“Seriously, if we have to go somewhere else to discuss it….” she said, looking around.

“No, no,” Leny said, dropping her voice a bit. “Gae…we’re not going to rescue Darren.”

Gae looked back down at her menu for a second, and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she fixed Leny Dagaramonto with a formulated stare. “Why not?”

“This is too high-profile, Gae,” Lesis said. “If we try to take direct action we’re gonna end up with legal headaches we can’t afford.”

“Legal – you realize a man’s life is at stake? He’s got a legal hearing in just a few hours. He’s going to be executed if someone doesn’t do something.”

“That is true, and tragic,” Leny said. “But Gae, you have to look at the big picture.”

“And what’s that?”

Leny sighed. “Gae, this one human’s death will be a tragedy, especially on top of 120 others. It will live in infamy for generations to come. What they’re about to do to this human is a travesty, and he will never be forgotten. But that’s the point.”

“Huh?” Gae asked, though she had a sinking feeling she knew exactly what Leny would say next.

“If we save his life, this moment will be forgotten, Gae. People will go back home, feel like they accomplished something…and I suppose they will have. But what does it do to actually advance the cause of human rights? Not much. It might even make them more vulnerable in the short term. But if he dies…his name becomes a rallying cry. Something for us to use to gain support, until the legislature has to listen to us. Until they have to start recognizing the basic rights of humans. Gae, I’m not minimizing the tragedy of his death, but he can do more for his fellow humans dead than he ever could alive.”

Gae looked at her purse, just for a moment. “Leny, what do humans think of this plan?”

It was Leny’s turn to say, “Huh?”

“The humans you’ve talked to, explained this to – they agree with you? They think that it’s worth it to sacrifice this one man for their future?”

“I don’t…what humans?”

“Humans,” Gae said. “Any humans. The humans we’re supposed to be helping. Has anyone asked them what they want? Has anyone asked them what they think about what we’re supposed to do?”

Leny was nonplussed; Lesis asked, genuinely surprised, “Why…where…how would we ask humans?”

Gae opened her purse, and stared down into it; she gave it a slight smile and a rueful shake of her head, and she reached in, and plucked out a human male who was dressed in a simple shirt and breeches. “Lesis, Leny, I’d like to introduce you to my best friend, Yamanu.”

Leny looked up at her, aghast. “You’re a pet owner?”

“No,” Yamma said, angrily. “She told you – she’s my best friend. She has offered to set me free any time I want to go, but I enjoy her company, so I stay with her. She listens to me, she asks me what I think, she cares what I think.”

“You have a human, here,” Gae said, looking at her friend, her lover, her Yamma. “Ask him what he thinks of your plan. If he agrees with you, then I will be happy to admit I am wrong in doubting it. I trust his judgment.”

Leny looked at the human, confused. “I…you want me to ask him…why?”

“Possibly because you’re supposed to be representing my interests. Because you’re supposed to believe that I am a person, like you, or Lesis, or Gae. You do believe that, don’t you, Ms. Dagaramonto?”

“I…I don’t see what the point….”

“The point is, Ms. Dagaramonto, that you could care less about the actual people you’re supposed to represent. Oh, you care about humans in the abstract – I think you do, really – but you don’t see us as your equal, not really. If you did, you wouldn’t be stunned by one of us talking to you as if he was a Titan. If you did, you would address me directly, and look at me – ”

Leny’s gaze dropped from Gae back to the human, who was staring up at her with rage. “Humans, Ms. Dagaramonto, don’t sacrifice other humans casually. Our lives are brief enough as it is. If you’d talked to any of us, you’d know that. But you didn’t care to. Gae was talking to a woman from the HOS earlier, she said that Lyroo Gorram Prenn has been working non-stop to try to find an answer to this. Lyroo Prenn.”

“And you’d trust Lyroo Prenn to look after you, would you?” Lesis said, finally goaded into saying something.

“Not on your gigantic behind, Lesis! But at least she sees the value in keeping my fellow humans alive! At least she understands that our deaths are not just opportunities to be exploited! No, she and HOS will never go far enough. They will never get it right. We will have to overcome them if we ever hope to be equal. But I’ll tell you guys a secret – if you ask me who will do more to make my fellow humans safe? Happy? Healthy? Keep us alive? I’ll take the HOS over TETH any day.”

“Like I said, I trust his judgment.” Gae flipped her menu casually onto the table, and offered Yamma her hand. “Consider this my resignation, effective immediately.”

She turned on her heel and walked out of the restaurant, and down the street, around the corner to a small bench, cradling Yamanu all the way.

It wasn’t until she reached the bench that the tears began.

* * *

“Luke, I’ve got a question.”

Luke looked up from his dinner with a bit of a surprise. “Bernd the Pipemaker, how can I help?”

Bernd sat down. “I’m trying to figure out how big a pipe to run for our waste water. You know we’ve had that problem with the system backing up in the morning – nobody likes that.”

“Okay,” Luke said, completely unsure about what he was being asked.

“Well, I’m trying to figure out how much water can flow through a pipe, but I don’t want to waste time putting together a bunch of different pipes. And I don’t want to waste bronze, either….”

“…so you don’t want to make the pipe too big. Okay, I understand.”

“All right. Well, the current pipe is about the width of my hand. I think we need it to carry about twice what it’s carrying, so do I go with two hands-width?”

Luke frowned for a second. “Oh, I wish you’d given me English. But…actually, I might know this one. At least a bit. You need to carry twice as much liquid?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, no, you wouldn’t have to make it that much bigger. I don’t know how to figure flow rate, but I think it would be determined by the cross-section of the pipe, and that’s…let’s see, we’ll call it a hands-width, so, one-half handswidth…okay, you’d need to make it about one-and-a-half handswidths wide.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Well, the area of a circle is pi-r-squared…..”

“Pi…arrr…huh?”

Luke chuckled. “Do you know how to multiply numbers together, Bernd?”

“I know how to up to ten times ten.”

“That’s not bad,” Luke said. “You can actually use that. R stands for radius – it’s half the width of the pipe. And pi – pi is a special number, you use it for figuring out how big a circle is.”

“What is pi equal to?”

“Um…I’m going to have to teach you decimals. We’ll start with pi being equal to three – it’s not exact, but it’s close. Actually….”

Luke looked around the room. There were other folks in here who probably didn’t know this. “Hey,” Luke said, “is anyone else interested in learning about how to figure out something’s size?”

A few people wandered over, including a couple of kids. “Okay,” Luke said, when they had sat down by them. “Now, first, how many of you know how to multiply two numbers together?”