“Easy now. That’s it. Careful.”

Luke grimaced as he stood up, leaning on Thurfrit for support. He hopped on his good leg over to the chair by the bed, and sat down.

“Good. Excellent. You’re healing up well, Luke.”

“Thanks, Wolan,” Luke said, breathing heavily. “Though I have to admit, I miss not needing help to use the bathroom.”

“You should be strong enough for crutches by tomorrow or the day after, and in eight to ten sunsets, you should be able to walk using a cane. No long walks, though, until I check off. You may only have broken the small bone in your leg, but it will be perhaps fifteen or twenty sunsets before it is healed completely.”

“Yeah, I had a friend who fractured her tibia snowboarding. Took her five, six months to recover. Lucky gravity’s lower here, I suppose.”

“I…am not sure what you just said, Luke,” Wolan said with a genial smile. “But it sounds like you are unsurprised.”

“Yeah,” Luke said, stretching. His side still hurt like hell, and he knew that the gash that the creature had left in him was going to make a hellacious scar. Wolan hadn’t stitched it together – it was held together with glowberry pulp. It could be worse – glowberries had antibiotic properties, and the pulp would give the skin something to hold on to as it grew together.

He was lucky. The shaar had gotten into his muscles, but had not actually broken through to his abdominal cavity. Had it…well, he wouldn’t be alive, he suspected.

“I’m hopeful that some porridge will sit with you later today,” Wolan said. “Anyhow, I will leave you to sit for a moment; Thurfrit, if he needs to lie down….”

“Whatever Luke needs, I’m here,” Thurfrit said, looking down.

“You okay?” Luke asked, after Wolan left. Thurfrit let out a mirthless laugh.

“I don’t deserve you wondering if I’m okay. You and Quendra should have let the shaar take me. It’s what I deserved.”

Luke shook his head. “Thurfrit, that’s ridiculous. I got hurt, but that’s a small price to pay for you and Quendra being alive. I mean, as long as infection doesn’t take hold – and I know what that looks like, at least in theory, so….”

“How can you be so understanding? So kind? Luke, my stupidity almost got you killed! You should hate me!”

Luke smiled. “Yeah, well…sometimes you’ve gotta save people who are being stupid. If you hadn’t followed along….”

Thurfrit looked ashen. “That’s just it, Luke. I wasn’t following. I was coming back.”

“Back from where?”

Thurfrit looked around quickly. “Luke…please, promise me you won’t tell…no, actually, don’t, you don’t….”

“Thurfrit,” Luke said, “you’ve got a secret of mine I’d like you to keep, remember? I’ll keep yours. We’ll be even.”

Thurfrit gave the slightest of smiles. “Well…it was your secret…I went to the house.”

“What?” Luke exclaimed.

“I went to the house. I had to see for myself, and…you may be right, Luke. They did not seem like monsters.”

Luke leaned back in his chair. He wasn’t sure whether he was furious that Thurfrit had been to the house without him, or thrilled that at last, someone might see things his way.

“I saw all of the guardians – Hair Like Fire, Eyes Like Ice…Tall as Tree.”

“Aezhay finally showed up, did she? Funny, I haven’t seen her yet,” Luke said, quietly. “How was Aisell? Eyes Like Ice?”

“I heard…she had a conversation with someone I could not see…the other person said it was good to see her smiling, I think.”

Luke nodded, and sighed. “She was smiling?”

“Yes, she was.”

He smiled, wistfully. “Good,” he said. “Good. I…I’m glad she isn’t too upset. I’m not getting back there for a while. Not with this leg.”

“I’ll carry you,” Thurfrit said. “It’s my fault.”

“No,” Luke said. “Thurfrit…this really isn’t. You were curious, wanted to see them, and you made it there safe. And if the shaar hadn’t been there….”

“But it was.”

“Yeah, it was. But who knows? Maybe it catches Quendra and I by surprise if it doesn’t find you. Maybe we can’t react fast enough. I’m not making you carry me to the house. And…seriously, Thurfrit,” Luke said, resting his hand on the chronicler’s shoulder. “I’m not mad.”

He wasn’t mad. It surprised the hell out of him, but he wasn’t. It was Thurfrit’s bad luck he was cornered by the shaar, but then, it was his bad luck he’d been cornered by the scilith. True, Aisell had just given up some time on Titan Station, rather than a hole in her side, but she hadn’t hesitated to save him.

He’d recover. And Thurfrit was alive. That seemed fair.

“What can I do to make it up to you?” Thurfrit asked.

“If you can bring me some things to read,” Luke said, “I’d appreciate it. It hurts less when I distract myself.”

“That’s it?”

Luke smiled. “Well, there may be something else. But we’ll get to that later.”

—

“So are you still seeing Lylil?” Lezah asked, taking a sip of techou; it was nice to take an afternoon off for a change, make Aisell and Aezhay do the work.

Gae picked at a sweet roll, and smiled. “No, no. I think…I think she kind of got tired of following me to events. Plus…well, I think she wants someone who will get a real job someday. Activist doesn’t pay that well.”

“Farming doesn’t either,” Leah chuckled.

“Can’t be worse than working for TETH. If I didn’t believe in the cause…but we’ve been through that. What’s wrong with the farm?”

“We’re going under,” Lezah sighed. “Slowly but surely. Not sure how we’re going to keep it together, unless this becomes a much better year.”

“You guys have been through worse, haven’t you?”

“Well, yeah…but there were bright spots in the middle. Bad year isn’t so bad if it isn’t on top of other bad years. I swear, we haven’t had a really good year since my aunt and uncle ran the farm. And that was decades ago.”

“My mom always said she never understood why your Aunt Niki and Uncle Oresak sold the farm to your folks.”

“Well, it’s not a story we tell a lot,” Lezah said, studying her drink. “Frankly, if I was superstitious, I’d say it’s why the farm hasn’t prospered since.” It was funny; she knew this story, of course, backward and forward. But she’d never felt the stab in the gut she felt right now.

“I…I don’t understand.” Gae asked.

“Well, according to my Aunt, it was a beautiful summer afternoon,” Lezah began….

—

Luke was, if nothing else, getting a lot of reading in.

Thurfrit had bought him volume upon volume, scroll upon scroll, and he was plowing through it, slowly but surely getting faster at translating from Tribe alphabet to Archavian to English.

He put aside a book of poetry from several decades ago; it wasn’t bad, all things considered. The next volume he came to, Thurfrit tried to pull back.

“Oh, Great Spirit, I didn’t mean to bring that one.”

“What one is that?” Quendra asked, as she sharpened her knife.

“It’s about the Great Disaster,” Luke said.

“The most comprehensive history of it. It’s not fun reading,” Thurfrit said. “Here, I….”

“No, that’s okay,” Luke said. “I didn’t ask for fun books. I kind of want to read this,” he said. “I saw the Cliff’s Notes version, but it’s nice to get context.”

“Cliff’s Notes?” Thurfrit asked.

“Never mind,” Luke said with a half-smile, opening the book up and dusting it a bit.

It was an afternoon in late summer, the book began, and a glorious one to behold.

The Tribe numbered ninety and two hundred, and most of us were outside that day. It was a perfect day for the hunters to track their pray, and for the gatherers to prepare for the long winter ahead. Even many of the children were out, playing in the warm summer air, unaware of what was to come.

—

“They were trying out a new pesticide,” Lezah said. “Supposed to be easier to use – spray on application. They had a wivdu infestation, were trying to get rid of it.”

“Okay,” Gae said, not at all sure where this was going.

“Well, they hadn’t had much experience, and they ended up setting up the applicator droid wrong – it was spraying the pesticide up too high…and the wind caught it.”

“Oh, gods – it killed animals?”

Lezah looked down. “Worse,” she said. “Much, much worse.”

An ill wind blew toward the Tribe; it seemed to be fog, but a fog that burned the throat and skin. Mothers and fathers ran to their children, who collapsed, gasping for air, each breath making it worse. The mothers and fathers collapsed soon after, choking to death on the deadly fog.

“They didn’t know it, but there were wild humans living in the trees on the edge of the property. Oh, they’d seen one or two before, but that’s nothing unusual in the country. But they had no idea…none.”

“How many were hurt? Twenty? Thirty?”

Lezah swallowed, and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to say the number her Aunt had told her. Didn’t want it to be true.

“Two hundred and forty-five,” she said.

When the air finally cleared, and the few survivors could survey the damage, they were met by a horror beyond horror. Hundreds of Tribesmembers lay dead, killed by the poisoned fog. And then, they were forced to hide again, as the Tall Man and the Angry Woman came running for them, looking to finish what they had started. From their hiding place, they heard the laughter of the Angry Woman, so strong she could barely speak.

The Tall Man then gathered our brothers and sisters up, and carted them off, for whatever nefarious purpose he had in mind.

“My Aunt ran over as fast as she could – she was worried it might kill a kipp’s nest or something. But what she found…she couldn’t tell this part, my Uncle had to, because she was crying so hard. It was nothing, he said, compared to how she’d been when she saw them. Men and women and children…I can’t even imagine. He said she collapsed on the ground, sobbing hysterically. I can’t blame her. I would. She went back to the house, and my Uncle…he gathered up the dead.”

Gae looked at Lezah, ashen. “Did…did none of them survive?”

Lezah shook her head. “My Uncle said he kept hoping, but every human he found…he brought them back and buried them, at least. He didn’t want kipps taking them. My Aunt kept homing someone managed to survive. She looked for survivors for days, but…well, if any made it, I can’t blame them for hiding.”

The Angry Woman taunted us for days. She would come into the forest, tell us to come out. She claimed she would not hurt us. But we knew better. We survivors knew that if we came out to see her, we would meet the fate of our friends and family.

When at last she left, we returned to the Great Tree, and began the task of rebuilding. It would not be easy….

Lezah found she was crying. She’d always felt awful about this, but never until today had she realized how grave her family’s sin was. They’d killed, not 245 animals, but 245 people. People like Luke, who were just trying to survive on the edge of Titan society…and they’d died in an instant, thanks to a poorly-programmed droid.

“So…like I said, if that’s why our fortunes turned…well, we kind of deserve it. I just wish some of them had survived…that we’d been able to…well, something. Nothing could make it up, I suppose, but at least we could have tried.”

“See, this is why we need to liberate them all,” Gae said. “They aren’t safe around us. Even our mistakes are deadly, and the ones who live as slaves to their Titan masters…sorry,” she said, with a half-smile. “I was getting off on a rant.”

“It’s okay. I don’t like it either,” Lezah said. “If it was up to me, we’d free ‘em all today.”

Gae paused mid-bite, and stared at Lezah much as she’d just stared at her. When she managed to swallow, she said, “I’m sorry, not sure we’ve met…Gae Neutha, I’m an organizer for TETH?”

“Ha.”

“What sparked this change of heart? Last time we talked, you said it was stupid to try to free people, and TETH was run by a bunch of idiots.”

Lezah shook her head. “Gae, I still think TETH is run by a bunch of idiots. Those folks up in Tuaut doing the protests with naked Titans and naked humans? What’s that supposed to accomplish?”

“Well, we have to get attention….”

“Yeah, you do – you look like fools,” Lezah said. “And humans…they don’t need fools helping them. They’ve got it bad enough as it is.”

“Well, it’s us or the HOS – who do you trust?”

Lezah sighed. “Doesn’t matter who I trust. It’s who the humans trust. And nobody’s asking them.”

“We want to set up a place for them to live free, where they can build their own society.”

“Yeah, I know, I remember when we were 14 and you told me that, and…well, I don’t think it’s silly anymore. I think the humans would do just fine by themselves. Like the ones by the farm were doing – I mean, there were hundreds there, right? It’s just…you’ve been saying that for a decade, and yet all I see TETH do is set humans free in a park somewhere and hope they survive. That’s a death sentence!”

Gae sighed. “I don’t blame you for being mad about that. A bunch of us have complained to the Aement chapter about that.” She thought about saying something more, but held off; it hurt too much.

“Well, good. Don’t get me wrong, Gae – if your organization can stop being a bunch of self-promoting incompetents, I will be the first to sign up. Well, second, after Aisell.”

“Aisell…Aisell is pro-human rights too?” Gae said. She leaned back in her chair; she understood all Lezah’s complaints about Titans for the Ethical Treatment of Humans, and shared at least some of them. She wanted humans to be freed from being pets; she was rather amazed to hear Lezah and her little sister felt the same way, after years of disagreement.

“Yeah…Aisell found a human on Titan Station,” Lezah said, and she launched into the saga of Luke Palmer of Earth.

—

Luke closed the book, and rubbed his temples. It was not a fun read, Thurfrit had been right about that. He couldn’t believe the Titans had gassed the humans intentionally – that seemed beyond evil. But the book was very clear about it, and about the hardships the Tribe had gone through in the subsequent years. He hoped, when some day he got a chance to see Aisell, to ask her what the hell had happened.

“You see why I don’t trust them, don’t you?” Quendra asked. Thurfrit had gone to bed some time ago, but she’d stayed with him. She had been restringing bows – keeping busy while he read – but she hadn’t left.

“I always have understood why you don’t trust them,” Luke said. “I dodged traps when I was on Titan Station. I got one human free…and he disappeared one day, and never came back. Not that he had the survival instincts of a lemming, but that’s beside the point. Aisell…Lezah…I trust them. Trust every Titan? No way. Not a chance.”

—

“It was good to see you,” Gae said, hugging goodbye.

“Yeah, I just hope you don’t think I come from a line of serial murderers now,” Lezah murmured.

“No,” Gae said. “If a kipp got Luke…well, there’s not much anyone can do about that. But it sounds like you and Aisell were trying to give him as much space as you could. Short of them ending that ridiculous embargo on Earth, there’s not much better you could do.”

“Thanks. I really appreciate that,” Lezah said, looking down at her chirping pad. “Well, I’ll be,” she added.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, nothing – Aisell found a deal on a hotel room in Rutger this weekend. We’re going up to visit Bedra Tae, remember her?”

“She was from Melpomene Reef, right?”

“Yeah. Bit sooner than we were planning, but that’s a great price…anyhow, give me a call next week! You have to stop out by the farm one of these days.”

Gae chuckled. “I will. And I’m serious, Lezah – think about joining. We need people with some common sense in TETH, I’ll be the first one to admit it.”

Lezah nodded. “Gae…I’ll think about it, okay? And don’t give me that look, I said I’ll think about it!”

Gae laughed. “Just remembering you saying you would never even consider it,” she said, as the autoshuttle landed to pick up Lezah. “You have fun in Rutger!” she called, as Lezah boarded it.

She headed back toward her spartan apartment in town. She sighed. Those poor humans. As tough as being an activist was…they needed her and TETH to speak for them. She’d come to Medzina to organize for TETH, not particularly hopeful about her chances. If she could somehow, some way get Lezah and Aisell to join, well…she felt just a little better about things as she walked home than she had this morning. That was all she could ask.