Sorcha carefully turned the crane’s beam as one of her colleagues guided the large residential unit on top of the ever growing tower. These towers were much bigger than the original units and couldn’t be done individually. The units were too big for a Titan to carry and needed to be rolled out, sideways down the city streets and carefully hooked up and lifted into place by a small (to a Titan) crane.

Two streets over Manka and Joseph were performing the same task. Sorcha glanced over, feeling some twangs of jealousy that another woman was getting to spend time with her man but Sorcha had to dip in and out. Joseph and Manka were the two fastest builders they had. Sorcha was stuck with Joran, a nice fellow in his mid-thirties who had some construction experience and was also a fully signed up member of the Aenur Foundation.

“You with me boss?” Joran said “Another centi unit to the right.”

“Sure.” Sorcha said doing her best to cover for the fact that her attention was elsewhere.

There were four teams at work along the parallel streets of the maiden city. Each working as fast as they could to put up as many units as they could. Sorcha had promised a bottle of Royal Berry Whiskey that she’d managed to wangle from Tribe Maris Farms, to the team that hit its quota first. She knew her team didn’t stand a chance of winning but it didn’t bother her too much. It would be bad form if she were to win her own prize. And Joran didn’t drink.

Though currently she was in a quandary. Joseph and Manka were far ahead of any other team. She didn’t want to be accused of nepotism by handing the bottle over to a guy she was sleeping with. Or have Joseph and Manka spend time together behind closed doors with a strong bottle of booze, for that matter, though she’d never admit it.

“Do you want to be somewhere else?” Joran asked once again sensing his partner drifting away.

“No, sorry.” She said “I’m just trying to decide if we should start a new settlement or keep expanding this one.”

She kept her tone deadpan, hoping it would effectively hide her actual train of though.

“Probably best to keep your mind here for now if you want to have people into this building by tomorrow.” He replied.

“You’re right of course, sorry”

As the sun traced a lazy arc along the sky the residential buildings slowly crept upwards. Despite their best efforts and some more focus from Sorcha, Manka and Joseph continued to race ahead of the rest of the teams. Conversation amonst the Titan crews had long since ceased as they went through the monotonous tasks of unloading units from the trolleys, mounting them and lifting them into place. The Avalonian crews made more noise as they joked, laughed and hammered away.

That was until a rumbling noise erupted a few dozen units away.

Every one of the crew members, Titan and Human alike, quickly turned trying to identify the source of the ruckus. Some noises the mind just know instinctually are the sounds of something catastrophic occurring nearby and it reacts accordingly, releasing adrenaline into the blood stream in preparation to run away or start fighting to survive.

Sorcha didn’t remember dumping the unit she was working with. Or bounding the half kilometre down the street to the pile of rubble that was now piled up between buildings. She didn’t remember lifting chunks of debris and throwing them over her shoulder as she desperately searched for survivors. The first thing she recalled was being dragged back by Joseph as Avalonian crews swarmed around her feet.

“Keep back Sorcha! You’ll could collapse the rubble on to anyone trapped in there!” He shouted as he struggled to keep a hold of her.

“We have to help them!” Sorcha screamed as she struggled.

“It’ll kill them!” Joseph said. “Joran, Manka, do what you can.” He said, though they were already kneeling beside the debris pile carefully following instructions from the Humans on the ground who were assessing the rubble and instructing the Titans to remove the debris without causing cave-ins.

Sorcha stared on in disbelief, still struggling more out of instinct than anything else. She watched as Manka and Joran carefully peeled back broken pieces of building under the direction of the Avalonian ground crews. Occasionally a person would hobble free or be carried out, either on a palm or by colleagues, into an awaiting ambulance.

“This is my fault…” Sorcha muttered, unable to tear her gaze away.

“It’s not your fault…” Joseph said.

“Yes it is!” An angry member of the ground crew shouted. “We’ve been rushing and going way faster than we should be! Corners have been cut. Regulations ignored! This is what happens!”

“You’re out of line!” A supervisor shouted to his crewman.

“No…no…he’s right. We pushed you all to work faster than was safe. I’m responsible.” She swallowed and wiped tears away. “This is my fault…”

“It’s all of your fault! Titans think they know better and Humans suffer for it!” Another shouted.

“I…I I don’t see Freddie…I think Freddie might have been in there…” Manka stammered suddenly realising that the man she had been casually dating meant a lot more to her than she thought.

“I can help…”

“I swear, if he’s hurt!” Manka shouted staring down Sorcha.

“That’s enough!” Joseph shouted and stepped between Sorcha and Manka. “Sorcha, go back to the compound. You need to report this to the Interior Minster.” He order and then turned to Manka. “Manka, you need to keep calm. If Freddie is in there we’ll get him out. We’ll get all of them out. We just need to work with the Humans to carefully remove the rubble.”

“I can help…” Sorcha repeated again not quite believing it.

“No.” Joseph said flatly. “You can’t. Go home. Report this in. This is going to stop construction for days at least.”

He was right. This was going to put a halt on production. They would need to check every unit to ensure it was put up correctly. It’d take weeks. The Deputy Floor Leader needed to be informed of the accident. This was going to look bad on Loona and even worse for Sorcha. She got to her feet.

“Ok…if you need me…”

“I’ll check in with you later Sorcha.” Joseph said and turned away to comfort Manka.

****

Shatad Praxa sighed as she finished tapping on her pad. This was the worst part of her job. She knew it was necessary, knew it was important that it be done, but that didn’t make her hate it any less. And it was happening more and more.

She’d do her job, of course. As always. But….

“Dr. Praxa?” a younger woman said, poking her head into the room.

“Yes, Rabo?”

“We have some humans in from an altercation, peacekeepers have asked us to check them over and hold them until their owners are freed from detention.”

Shatad sighed. “We’re out of room.”

“Evidently nobody’s going to be charged, they’re just letting all the parties cool down. But the humans got injured in the fracas, so….”

“All right, sure. It’s better than this duty,” she said, looking back at the humans in the small plexiglass box on her table. “Let’s take a look. How many?”

“Two dozen total. Most just bumps and bruises, it looks like.”

“Take them to Exam Two, you and Ziba do the initial exams. I’ll be there in a minute or two.”

“Yes, doctor.”

Shatad looked back at the humans in the cage. She thought about just getting this over with – they were frightened. They had to suspect. But she would have to stay to monitor, and…well, give them just a bit longer. No harm in that.

“I’ll be back in a minute, kids,” she said soothingly, and headed out of the room.

The humans in the cage did not reply; a few poked around the edges again, looking for the weak point that they could use to escape, but it wasn’t to be found. Not that they were surprised. They all knew.

They all knew.

****

“You okay, sucre?”

“Yeah, more or less,” Gae said, as Peacekeeper Faroto used biogel to glue the cut on her forehead shut.

“Y’all are either brave or stupid. Just lucky I got word before some of the others,” she said, dropping her voice. “Sure I don’t have to tell you that not everyone would be working through getting charges dropped.”

“Because people trying to eat lunch at a restaurant is a criminal offense, right?”

Faroto smirked. “Now dearie, y’all have been rabble-rousin’ here long enough to know that what the law says and what’s allowed here are a mite different. Not sayin’ it’s right, but…well, like I said, y’all got lucky.”

“I know,” Gae sighed.

“And if y’all keep at this, someone is gonna get hurt worse than that human fella with the brain injury.”

“Jako.”

“Right. I respect what you’re trying to do, honest, but If’n you don’t watch out….”

“We have to fight this fight,” Gae shrugged. “If we don’t, it never gets better.”

Faroto paused. “Don’t you worry about your human?”

“My husband.”

“Sure, your husband. But don’t you worry about him? Kristolo Dicy wasn’t tryin’ to kill him and the others, but he sure coulda. Just with a swipe of the hand. If someone could do that to my husband, I don’t imagine I’d let him out of the house.”

“It’s not easy,” Gae said. “Not at all. I’m still worried. I’ll be worried as long as we’re here, and when we finally get to go home, I’ll still be worried. It’s a dangerous road he walks. But he’s doing it so that those who follow him…so that it won’t be as bad for them. So that the humans already here in the Federation can just go out and grab lunch without being tossed away like garbage.”

“That had to be embarrassing,” Faroto said. Gae smiled.

“No. No, it wasn’t. It was meant to be, but Yamanu stood up to people bigger than a starship, knowing they could kill him…and he took a blow that might well have done it. I’m scared to death for him, but what he and the others have done – no Titan has ever been that brave.”

Faroto nodded. “All right, finished. I’ll go check on the paperwork, I’ll have Peacekeeper Batara take you back to the holding area. Hopefully not too much longer.”

Gae nodded, and got up, heading for the door. Faroto reached for a buzzer, but paused short of it.

“For what it’s worth,” the Peacekeeper said, “the video of the attack is on the news. The reporters have been tryin’ to say it was embarrassing, trying to laugh off the garbage. But they know what you know, and what I know.”

“What’s that?”

Faroto smiled. “That there ain’t nothin’ embarrassing about being beat up by a bully. The embarrassing thing is beating on someone who isn’t even trying to fight you. The jokes are fallin’ flat. Even with the folks who aren’t necessarily on your side. When you see your husband, and the others…you tell ‘em that. They may be getting beat up…but they ain’t going unnoticed.”

Gae nodded. “I will,” she said. “Thank you.”

“Thank me in a few hours when y’all are out of here,” Faroto said, and pressed the button.

****

Shatad Praxa heard laughter coming from the exam room. That was a good sign. The techs here were here because they loved humans; they wouldn’t be laughing if anyone was seriously hurt. She listened, not for the voices of her staffers, but the softer voices of the humans. Titan hearing being as keen as it is, she picked them out easily.

“…so a broken rib really isn’t that bad, compared to that.”

“Stop bragging, Thurfrit.”

“Bragging? I’m not bragging. I nearly died. Quendra and Luke bailed me out. As a fighter, I made a very good chronicl…oof!”

“Hold still,” Ziba said. “This will just take a second.”

“Yamanu, good news, the wrist is just jammed. No ligament damage.”

“That is good news. Damn, we got lucky. One broken rib, some bruises…not bad for getting thrown in a trash can.”

“We need to do a more thorough examination,” Dr. Praxa said, coolly. “All of you will need to disrobe.”

“They’re human citizens, Doctor,” Rabo said. “I mean…I know, there’s an argument, but most of them are from the Empire. Archavia, Avalon….”

“Are you the vet, or am I, Rabo?” Praxa said. “Disrobe.”

Yamanu shot a look left and right to his compatriots. The vet techs had been relatively decent; it was a shame that the vet herself had to be a bigot. But they’d been through this before. He knew better than to argue. “You’re the doctor. Though it’s a bit silly. According to your techs, nobody’s in that bad a shape.”

“Rabo, Ziba, leave us alone for a bit,” Praxa said.

“Doctor?”

“I want to talk to these humans alone. Go check the adoption group.”

Rabo and Ziba looked at each other, but both said, “Yes, doctor,” and departed.

Yamanu smirked as the door closed. “So,” he said, “I’m guessing you know who we are.”

“You’re the reason,” Praxa said, “that humans in the Federation are suffering. Taken from their owners, dumped here. Outside agitators who can’t let us be.”

“The humans here should be allowed to be free,” Thurfrit said. “You shouldn’t have to take them. They aren’t pets anymore.”

“That sounds so lovely,” Praxa said, frowning down at the humans on the exam table. “But it isn’t the truth. The truth is that you’re too small and too fragile to live on your own, and so we built a society that cared for you. But you couldn’t accept that. And you put ideas into the heads of humans and clueless Titans, and now….”

Praxa blinked back tears of anger. “People are bringing in humans every day, in threes and fours. We can’t handle them. It’s too much. We just wanted to keep you safe. Why can’t you let us do that?”

“Because we aren’t children,” Yamanu said. “I know, you see us that way, but we aren’t. We’re adults, and we deserve….”

“If you were the adults you claim to be, you would have known not to change this,” Praxa barked. “You would have known to leave well enough alone! And now…you’ve pushed us into a corner. We’re doing things we never wanted to. But we don’t have a choice, gorram it!”

“You do,” said Amelia. “Let us be people. We don’t have to be your responsibility. Let us be free, and….”

“Shut up,” Praxa growled. “You don’t get it, do you? What you’ve done? What your agitation has led to? Here,” she said, grabbing a large carrying bin. “In here. I’m going to show you exactly what your interference is doing to the humans in the Federation.”

Yamanu looked at Thurfrit, and shook his head. Going in the bin seemed like a bad idea. Then again, this doctor seemed upset enough that she just might sweep them all in, and he didn’t think it was a good idea to chance that twice today.

“Sure,” Yamanu said, finally. “Sure.”

****

“So with that,” Gae said, “we’re going to collect our friends and family. Thank you.”

The impromptu press conference on the steps of the detention center wound up quickly; Gae had wanted to skip it, but she knew that Yamma would want her to give a statement if the media showed up, and she thought she’d done a decent job, all things considered.

“We’ll pack up, and meet you at the port. Masra, you have the address of the HOS?”

“I do,” Masra said, getting into the small autocab that had stopped to pick them up. “Who’s coming with?”

“Aezhay, me, and Leny and Tylum will go,” Gae said. “Terta, I know you’re worried, we’ll get everyone back as soon as possible.”

“I’m not that worried,” Terta lied.

“You’re a bad liar. We’ll call once we’ve got ‘em,” Aezhay said, sliding into a seat in the cab. “Promise.”

“Frankly,” Gae said, as she slid in across from Aezhay, “we got really lucky.”

“Gorram right,” Tylum said. “That could have been a disaster.”

“As it was, I know my husband’s going to be thrilled with the coverage. This was a win, all in all.”

“Well, it will be once we get everyone back safe. But yeah,” Gae said, “I think Yamma is gonna be very pleased.”

The doors to the autocab slid shut, and it lifted off for the HOS.

****

It took the humans in the plexiglass bin a moment to figure out what they were looking at.

It was another bin, identical to theirs, though it was sealed shut on top. Thirty naked humans sat, some alone, some holding each other and crying. Yamanu stared for a good long moment before he said, “Gorram…no. No! You can’t!”

Praxa scoffed. “I ‘can’t?’ Oh really? And what am I supposed to feed them? Where am I supposed to hold them? We’re at two hundred and twenty five percent capacity. We have no money. The Imperial HOS froze our accounts. We’re getting by on loans. I’ve got three loans on my house, and we’ve almost exhausted that. I’m not taking a salary. And I have no money to buy food for next month, so tell me, what am I supposed to do?”

“Not this,” Yamanu said. “This is murder.”

“It’s a legal euthanization under Federation law. I’m authorized for one hundred and eighty humans per month. Before this year, I never put more than two or three down in a year, and none of them were healthy. But I have four hundred and forty two humans in holding, and I adopted out sixteen last month. These thirty are the least likely….”

“They’re Class One Sentients under Imperial Law!” Yamanu shouted. “Gorram it, my wife will be coming soon. We’ll take all four hundred forty two!”

“And you’ll do what, ‘free’ them? Hmmm? And I’ll be full up again in two months. And meanwhile, you’ll still be shouting about how wrong our traditions are. How we’re all evil, here in the Federation. And we’ll be here, dealing with the fallout. And then we’ll be told how we need more Dunnermac and Avartle and Ler running things. And how the Federation shouldn’t be the Federation anymore. And if you win, more humans will suffer, and our province will suffer.”

The Doctor wasn’t really talking to Yamanu anymore, but he was determined to keep her talking. If he could just keep her from moving on, he might be able to save these people.

“We can help you, you know,” Yamanu said. “We have friends…they can help support this shelter. They can help you.”

“You’re a human. You’re a pet! Gorram it, you don’t know your place! That’s the problem! You’re pets! Avartle climb trees! Ler fight! Dunnermac swim! And we Titans protect you all, we make sure you’re okay, ‘cause you sure can’t do it yourself! But you can’t be happy with that, and now….”

Yamma was shocked as she grabbed him, and tossed him roughly on the table, next to the container of condemned humans. She turned her pad toward him, and pressed a button.

“Look at them! Look what’s happening, because of you! Because you can’t be happy with the way things are, naturally! You’ve upset the balance, and these humans are dying because of it!”
Yamanu stared into the box. There was a mix of people – young and old, male and female, all shades of skin. He didn’t know what criteria had been used to select them, it frankly appeared random. But it didn’t much matter. They were going to die.

And it would be easy to feel guilt over it, because Yamanu knew that as wrong as the doctor was about everything, there was an element of truth in it. His actions had led, ultimately, all of them here. His decision to fight for human freedom had meant some humans would die – and very possibly, these specific humans would die.

He swallowed, and turned around. And he recentered his emotions, and stared up at the furious, building-sized woman. “You are allowed your beliefs, doctor. And I am allowed mine. I don’t want these people to die. And I’m willing to do what must be done to preserve their lives.”

“Are you?” Praxa said. “Are you really?”

“Yes,” Yamanu said. “I am.”

Praxa stared at Yamanu a long, long moment. She nodded. “Well. Let’s see.”

She unsealed the container, and lifted the lid off. She removed one human – a young woman, not much older in maturity terms than Yamma’s daughter Malala, and she gently set her in the plexiglass bin with Thurfrit and the others.

Yamanu let out a long sigh. “You’re making the right decision.”

“Oh, yes, I am,” Shatad Praxa said, grabbing the lid from the container, and flipping it up. Quickly, before anyone realized what she was doing, she dropped it on top of the container containing the foundation’s humans, and sealed it.

Yamanu was too stunned to react; he didn’t even resist as she grasped him roughly, and tossed him into the bin with the condemned humans. She then grabbed another lid, and before Yamma could right himself, sealed the container shut again.

“There,” Praxa said. “You’ve done what you could. You’ve saved one of them. I’m euthanizing thirty humans today. But only twenty nine will be from this shelter. It can be less, if you’re willing to trade more for your friends.”

Yamanu stared up, listening to the distorted voice. He could hear, distantly, the shouts of his friends and colleagues, screaming for her to release him, shouting at her to stop.

He knew Gae was on her way. Maybe she’d get here in time. Maybe not. But he knew now that there was no reasoning with this woman. She would kill them all, kill them one box after the other.

He was terrified. He’d been terrified before, and he feared he would never be terrified again. But somehow, he fought through his terror, and looked over at Thurfrit, and Tom and Amelia, and Enzi and Pesa, and the young woman, and all his other allies, and he held up a hand.

“You still have a choice,” he said.

“I’ve made my choice. Now,” she said, a wretched grin on her face, “you can make yours. I’ll trade you for her, trade you back. ’Doctor’ Yamanu Neutha. I’m willing to bet you’ll gladly trade the life of some human pet for your own. You know and I know that the life of a pet isn’t worth the life of a person, and you know and I know that you sure think you’re a person. But humans aren’t, and you know that. You know that her life doesn’t mean as much as a person’s, right?”

Yamanu looked across at the young woman, who was leaning up against the glass of the bin, crying.

“A long time ago, on Earth, a human once wrote, ‘It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done before. It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.’”

He looked at the girl, then to Thurfrit, who was simply staring now. Yamma smiled at him, and nodded, and then looked back up at the Titan veterinarian.

“Humans are not pets, and all of our lives are precious. If you are intent on murdering thirty humans, then it is my honour to save one by taking her place.”

“Well then,” Shatad said, “you will have that honour.” She hit a couple keys on her pad, and said, “I think my friends in the True Titan Party will enjoy watching you be honoured. So shall we get on with it?”

Yamanu looked back at his friends, one last time. He wished with all his heart that he would get to do the same with Gae, and Mal, and Malala. And perhaps he would, but if not….

“I made my choice to save a life,” Yamanu said. “You have made your choice of whether to take ours.”

“I have,” the doctor said, and she lifted the container, and slid it into the gas chamber.

The lights immediately dimmed, and Yamanu rose. One man walked up to him.

“You saved my sister,” he said, tearfully. “You didn’t have to…I know about you. You’ve done so much. We’re just…we’re pets. You’re a great person.”

Yamanu looked at the man, and smiled. “You’re a person too. All of us here, all of us are people. You know that?” he said, looking around the chamber. “Whatever she says, whatever the Federation says, whatever anyone says, we’re all people.”

“She’s going to kill us,” an older woman said.

“Yes,” Yamanu said, evenly. “She is. And I don’t want to die. I want to be with my wife and children again. I love them so much that the thought of losing them aches.”

“So why not trade yourself for Bheloro?” another man asked.

“Because she can have a future,” Yamanu said. “Because she can live a life, too. Because some day, she might have a spouse and children, and because she is no less a person than I am.”

“But you’ll die!”

“Yes,” Yamanu said. “But if she’s going to kill me, I’m going to die on my feet, like the person I am. She can take my life, but she can’t take that.”

An old man, who’d been watching carefully, stood up. “Do you think we’re people? Really?”

“I know it,” Yamanu said. “And there are many others who do.”

The man smiled. “I always knew I was smarter than they said I was. Always knew it.”

They approached Yamanu cautiously, forming a semicircle around him, of twenty nine other people, standing together with him.

He wiped away a tear, and said, “There was a man, a great man, far better than me, on Earth, who was fighting for his people’s freedom. He was shot for that. Died before the final battles were won, before his people were truly seen as equal. But he knew, even the night before he was killed, that it wasn’t important whether he lived to see it. What was important was that it would come, some day.

“He said he wanted to live a long life, but that wasn’t important. What was important was that he did the right thing, and he’d seen what could be, seen the promise of the future. And he might not live to see it, but his people would see the promised future. Well, I am not the man Dr King was. Few humans have ever lived up to his standard. But I have seen the future of our people. Whatever happens to me, whatever happens to us, whatever they do to any human, anywhere, they cannot stop it now. Humans are people. That is the truth, and no matter what they do to us here today, that truth will win out.”

There was a slight hiss as the gas turned on.

****

Author’s note: Once again a big thanks to D.X for his sizable contribution here.