“In this bright future you can’t forget your past.”
–Bob Marley
Tigoni Belfsec breathed in heavily as she stood over the woman who had been tormenting Maj. Nejem.
To be fair, she hadn’t seen the woman torment Maj. Nejem, but the human was being held captive by giant aliens; near as Tig could figure, torment was just a part of the fabric.
“Major Nejem?” she called, cautiously. She saw that the table had been moved, and she saw it was close enough to a heating and cooling vent that Nejem could have jumped; she looked around carefully but saw no evidence of the human.
Well, she’d been successful enough. She didn’t need to take the prisoner, just to free her.
She walked out of the room, noting that the guards had not yet activated the alert system. She helpfully turned it on – the people in the room needed medical attention, and this was the fastest way for them to get it – and then shoved a stun-prod into the console, shorting it out just as the klaxons sounded. She grabbed the other stun-prod and double-timed it to the service accessway, pulling herself inside and beginning the short-but-awkward crawl to the corridor she was aiming for.
She thought back on what she had done. She might get away with it, but she knew the odds were low; the station was too-well surveilled, they’d figure out it was her eventually. But while she knew she was almost certainly bound for Rura Penthe or somewhere similar, her heart sang. Because she’d done it. And Emperor willing, some day, somehow, he’d know she’d done it. And he’d know she’d given her freedom to save his friend. And maybe, just maybe, he’d forgive her for her sins.
She had awoken that morning to find Ted Martínez gone. His helmet remained behind; after she was done searching for him and crying she had put it in the pocket of her flight suit.
She couldn’t forget the hurt in his eyes when she told him that her people kept his as pets. She didn’t blame him for it, not at all – he was right to hate her, right to flee. She had talked a good game about believing in the rights of humans, but what had she done in all these years? When had she stood up to someone who owned a human pet? Sure, she’d challenged it in the abstract, but what tangible thing had she done to change the system?
She knew Ted hoped to rescue his crewmate. If he could get her free, and reunite with their crew, they could go back to Earth and warn them. When they ventured out again, they would be ready to meet the Titans as the enemies they were. They would not have to cower in fear. They could take back their solar system and then go on to liberate their brothers and sisters held in bondage by the Empire.
That this would mean Tig’s people would be attacked, would suffer, meant nothing to her. Had her people not earned that attack? Earned that suffering? Were the humans not owed their requital?
So she came up with a plan. It was quick, slapdash, had maybe a 15 percent chance of success, but she wasn’t willing to wait longer. Who knew when they would send the prisoner to Archavia to become a pet, or worse? And so she sat ready, until Ulala returned from her errand.
“Ted’s gone,” she said, as her roommate entered the room.
“Ted?”
“The human.”
“Oh. Well, that’s a relief. If we’d been caught with him….”
“It’s my fault,” Tig said, tearing up. “I told him we keep humans as pets. He hates me. He hates us.”
“Tig,” Ulala had said, adopting the tone of an exasperated mother, “why do you care what he thinks? I mean, I like humans, but….”
“That’s just it!” Tig exploded. “’But.’ Humans sure seem smart, but. Humans can write books! But. A human halved the time of space travel – but. At what point do we stop with the ‘but?’ They’re people. They’re no less people than you or me, and I’m done arguing it.”
“They are people,” Ulala conceded. “But they aren’t us. And….”
“No,” Tig said, “they aren’t. They don’t keep us as pets.”
“Okay, Tig. Okay. But you have to let this go. He left. Maybe he figured out a way to save his friend. Let him do it.”
“If I knew he would make it there safely, I could,” Tig said. “But he could be dead. And it’s my fault, Ula. I didn’t explain it well enough. I didn’t make it clear…he hates me.”
That weighed on her more than anything. She knew she could bear being hated by Titans. She thought she could bear being hated by a human.
But she could not bear being hated by Ted.
“I have to make this right. He left because I’d done nothing to earn his trust. Whatever the cost, I have to make this right.”
Ulala groaned; Tig wasn’t sure why and didn’t care. “I need your keycard.”
“What? No! Tig, whatever you’re planning, forget it. You’re going to end up a convict. You’ll be in the brig, or dead.”
“Fine,” Tig said. “Well, then there’s just one thing to do….”
She caught Ulala unawares with a backhand, and grabbed the carbon-fiber rope, looping it around her legs and securing her. She held her wriggling friend down and finished tying her up, pausing only to retrieve the keycard from her jumpsuit.
“I’m sorry, Ulala,” she said, as she gagged her. “I really am. I know you probably hate me too. But I have to do this. I have to make this right.”
So she’d left her dorm with Ulala’s keycard, hoping against hope that the guards would be as incompetent as they were. If not for the woman in the room, she might have gotten away clean. Might have at least been able to introduce herself to Hala Nejem, so that when she found Ted, she could explain that Tig Belfsec had given everything to help her. To help humans. To help him.
She exited the service accessway; distance-wise, it wasn’t far, but she’d moved from the newer part of the base to the older part. Some of the oldest civilian quarters were here, available by the day for next to nothing. Cleaners and shop staff lived here. Aside from a view of a methane lake, there was nothing to recommend it.
She came up to the doorway of the unit she’d rented via the network that morning; she keyed in the code they’d sent her and entered the room. She’d used her sister’s name and ID – it would never hold up to close scrutiny, but maybe she’d be able to get a few hours’ sleep before they caught up to her.
She turned on the old sink in the corner; she was disappointed to see the hot water was out, but it would do. There were a few old linens in the room, including a bath towel; she soaked it, and held it to her eye, which was already swelling from one of the blows the woman had landed.
She sighed, and sat down on the bed, staring out at the lake. She hugged her knees. It was done. Soon enough they’d find her. Soon enough. Whatever came next, it was worth it.
After sitting there for what felt like forever, she got up. She was hungry; she would grab a gok’ma bar from the vending machine down the hall. Just something to take the edge off her hunger. Hells, they’d probably catch her in the hallway on the way back, but she could live with that.
She just hoped that Ted would be okay.
* * *
Ted was not okay. Ted was about as far from okay as a person could be.
He wondered, in his stupor, if he would have been better off just letting Ulala turn him in. He could have visited Hala. Been fed. Hell, maybe someday he would have become a pet.
It would be better than this.
“Aw, little Ted’s getting tired,” she said, mirthlessly.
He got it, a little bit, via his translator. She was gloating. Why shouldn’t she be?
“Okay, my turn!” said the other one. And leaping just a bit, the other one landed her behind with her weight full on the bed, left cheek dead-center on Ted.
They hadn’t looked evil when they’d caught him in the corridor. One was a tall, thin redhead with brown eyes, the other a slightly plump brunette with eyes of heliotrope. The redhead had grabbed him, picking him up without regard for whether it hurt.
No – that wasn’t true. The squeeze she’d given him was designed to hurt.
She waved him in the other one’s face, and her friend had laughed; the conversation was too fast for an accurate translation, but what Ted was able to gather was alarming. He tried to talk to them, but they’d just ignored him, except to ask him his name; the other one repeated “Ted” mockingly and she laughed at the absurdity of it.
Soon, they headed back to a dank room.
He was their entertainment. Something to do to pass the time. Like pulling wings off a fly.
They ordered him to remove his flight suit – something about how animals shouldn’t wear clothes. He tried to resist, tried to talk his way out of it, but the other one’s hand came up very high, and she laughed, and said, “Do it!”
He stripped.
She picked him up, and regarded him, chuckling at the size of his tiny penis; she looked at the other one and laughed, and as if he were a strawberry, she popped him in the other one’s mouth.
He was panicked. He flailed about, trying to find a handle on a slippery muscle that weighed far more than he did. The other one’s tongue suddenly held him against the mouth’s roof, firmly.
The other one swallowed.
He felt his ears pop as the saliva around him was sucked down her gullet. The other one was trying to scare him, he thought.
It was working.
The other one pulled him out, and tossed him lazily through the air; she caught him, and flipped him back. They were playing catch with him, like he was a rubber ball.
Needless to say, they weren’t worried about his well-being. And while he did his best to cushion each landing, it hurt like hell – and it was quickly wearing him out.
That was the beginning of his torment. It was by no means the end. They had very much enjoyed their little games with him over the past…well, it seemed as if it had been forever. They had spat on him; the other one had held him in her armpit for a good while.
When both left, he thought he might have a chance to escape – though they’d left him under a cup, it didn’t weigh much on Titan – but they were back before he had much of a chance to do anything, save enrage them with the attempt. They had gone to get candy bars, or something similar – he was aware that he was hungry, but he had little time to dwell on it
The other one sat back down on him, and she did not appear to have any intention of getting up. Maybe they’d tired of their toy – or maybe they just hoped to break him badly. He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t care. He was exhausted, and bruised, and he just wanted to rest. If they wanted to break him, they could get on with it already.
There was a soft chime, one he barely could hear through his cobwebbed mind.
She walked across the room as it rang a third time. Clearly, whoever it was would not go away. She opened the door, started to swear, and took a stun-prod right to the temple.
The other one leaped up, and Ted breathed fresh air at last, just in time to see the other one topple into a heap at the end of a stick.
His guardian angel knelt down by him, tears of rage in her eyes. She had heard the conversation of the two as she was leaving the vending machine. Heard the name Ted.
Heard the word kill.
She’d followed them back, and then quickly went to grab her purloined stun-prod – and it was fortunate for the two unconscious women that Tig was not armed with anything more lethal, for she would gladly have used it.
She looked down at the battered human, and he looked up at her, and her heart caught in her throat. She had failed him so badly.
He looked at her blearily, amazed that she could exist. She had saved him. Even if he died now, he could die happy. She had come for him. She cared about him. No matter why, or what she thought of him, whether she saw him as man or pet, he had earned at least a shred of her love. That was something he would cherish forever.
“Thank you, Tig,” he murmured, and he slipped into slumber.
You guys saying Ulala will be mad at Tigoni are missing the point… Tig provided her friend with an alibi, she won’t be held responsible for the contretemps. She should be grateful. That was something Tig did with some foresight and cleverness. And Ted can help her stay on the reality track once they emerge into reality. Exciting chapter. A great relief after the vignette yesterday. This had action and romance and sci-fi intrigue all wrapped up in one package. Very nice work, as we have come to expect. Thank you, sir.
Was about to deride Tig as a bit too militant then came the scene with Ted and i’m right there with her.
Been awhile since we’ve seen casual cruelty from Titans, agree with Sketch one of them might have been the one mentioned earlier. Getting stunned was too good for them.
Tig’s heart is in the right place and she’s probably otherwise a good pilot but she’s flying by the seat of her pants. Hopeful Ted can talk her into not doing anything too rash. Given her thinking so far I expect she will want to steal a ship to break the blockade and return Ted to earth. That would make for interesting karma for Lauryna if she ends up chasing after them.
I sympathize with Tigoni, but I don’t think that it is quite correct to say that her heart is in the right place. Tigoni was driven by despair at the thought that Ted hated her and it poisoned all her reasoning:
– That woman with Hala must have been tormenting her; that’s what titans do.
– Everything will be all right as long as Ted and Hala manage to reunite with the rest of their crew. They’ll all fly back to Earth, the Earthlings will assemble a mighty army, humanity will drive the Empire out of its solar system, and finally they’ll conquer the Empire and liberate all their fellows. Justice will prevail! (disclaimer: reality check not included)
“That woman with Hala must have been tormenting her; that’s what titans do.”
Given the scene she interrupted at the end of this chapter, she’s gonna stick to that point of view I think.
“– That woman with Hala must have been tormenting her; that’s what titans do.”
In an amazing twist of Irony, the woman with Hala WAS Rixie after all, meaning the idea that she’d be abusing said human is actually entirely plausible. The very first thing Rixie ever did upon meeting Alex was drop him to the ground, lord over him to assert dominance, and then terrify the little human by batting him around with her bare feet and pretending to stomp at him in games almost identical to what was happening to Ted here. It’s just a human, she’s wasn’t killing him, and where’s the harm in having a little bit of fun playing with the helpless little toy. Not like he can do anything back.
…
True, Rixie was likewise unreasonably quick in turning around and felt guilty after she’d had some time to think about her actions as the abuser in the context of being an Earth human’s first impression on Titan culture, but I suspect the only reason her relationship with Alex worked out so well is because he happened to enjoy the abuse (after all he gets stuffed in panties, smothered into Rixie’s armpits, stepped on, left on the floor to walk, and drowned in the bath on a regular basis, all things he’s quite happy to tease back with having just as much fun as Rixie) and because he had nothing left back home to actually care about, being perfectly willing to abandon his entire family and every friend who’d ever known him, without so much as an attempt to let everyone know he was still alive.
Not entirely sure what Rixie would have done if she’d met someone who didn’t forgive so handily or whom was more legitimately terrified of her, but just because she’s had her eyes opened … well, admittedly she opened them herself without needing to be pushed, and after not very long to think it over, so heavy props to her, doesn’t negate her history as exactly the kind of person whom Tig would have tazed if she’d caught a younger Rixie threatening to kill Alex way back in those early chapters.
_______________
In regards to her ultimate delusions of grandure regarding a human resistance force coming back with vengeance in mind, I think humans would need to be a lot more angry and offended than they are at current, the UN seems more confused, frantic, and defensive just trying to figure out what’s going on. Any hostile actions, especially at this stage, would likely have to require the Titans doing something that forces an escalation of aggression. Admittedly Titans are doing quite a wonderful job of that given repeated abductions and lack of communication. Not even offering the most basic of assurances, such as their refusal to let Hala speak for herself in telling the Lem crew that she’s alive.
I’d think Tig here is a bit frantic and running on adrenaline, or whatever chemical equivalent Titan’s might have instead. Not insane so much as being pushed to the limits by grief, having her eyes opened much too forcefully and much too fast with the fact people she thought she could trust have such muted reactions to the impossible, and she comes to question why she was so forgiving of it before.
Perhaps you need to reread Titan.
Rixie didn’t drop Alex, she placed his capsule on the ground before he had fully woken up. She never “batted him around with her bare feet”, she just placed her booted feet down in front of where he was running. Then she picked him up, put him in her pocket, and ignored him for the rest of the night.
Alex and Rixie work so well together because he knows her actions aren’t malicious in nature, and knows she will immediately stop if he asks her to. He trusts her completely.
Nothing at home to care about? His family, including his younger sister, don’t count? The reason Alex didn’t get all whiny about getting home was because he trusted Rixie when she told him it wasn’t possible.
Sadistic personality disorder in Titans will continue to be fatal to humans long after the empire recognizes human rights and the vast majority of Titans accept the idea of humans as persons. I think these two are basically Trell sans the video camera and no other character we’ve seen falls to that level. Even Vasha, who would gladly torture for profit required a little prodding from Alex and Kiri was driven by jealousy. The competitive, hard playing Rixie was in Tupp & Shaar mode from the beginning with Alex but if he had acted differently it is doubtful she would have continued to torment him or any other human.
Of all the people that Ted could have gotten caught by, it had to be these two. Looks like all that good luck he had earlier had to be paid for with an equal amount of bad luck.
I was going to say more, but sketch an Soatari beat me to it.
Tig’s rant at Ula was rather poignant. Would Ula have said “I mean, I like dunnermacs/avartle/ler, but…”? I somehow doubt it.
I’m hoping Ulala will get to see Ted in his current condition, perhaps if Tigoni goes back to Ulala’s quarters to get a medkit. Tigoni doesn’t know it, but showing Ulala what happened to Ted would be an excellent clincher for their argument, because it’d show Ulala the result of making Ted fend for himself.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
Yeah, if only she didn’t assault her and hog tie her then you know she would be up for new ideas….Right now she consider Tig a lunatic..
If I were to guess Ulalalala la is a representative opinion on humans in the empire..
I think she is a representative of younger titans, older titans are still in the ‘meh just a pet’ stage.
Ulala will not have appreciated what Tigoni did, but I’d be very surprised if she actually considers Tigoni a lunatic. In chapter 11 Ulala told Ted this about Tigoni:
“She’s…a very passionate person. She’ll destroy her career to get Hala out; I could see it last night. She gets it into her head that there’s a right and a wrong and if she’s not actively trying to do right, she’s making things wrong. If you’re around, she’ll strap on two stun-prods and go charging in to free Major Nejem, and probably get herself killed in the process.”
So Ulala knew her friend well enough to almost anticipate what Tigoni was going to do. The only miscalculation Ulala made was that she thought that without Ted around she could talk Tigoni into letting things go.
Anyway, I think that if Ulala gets to see Ted in his current condition, any anger she has will quickly evaporate.
***
As for what Empire citizens think of humans, I wouldn’t call Ulala’s opinion representative (there is a wide variety of opinions when it comes to humans), but I do expect hers to be one of the more common ones.
Keep a low profile Ulala is probably less upset about being hog-tied than she is about having to explain her part in this story to the navarchos. Tig might not be a full scale lunatic but she certainly qualified for the TETH humanitarian of the month award.
Don’t forget Ulala also pulled a TETH by dropping Ted off in the middle of a busy causeway..Thats either indifference, ignorance or…. (at a loss for words)… she is at least partially responsible to what happened to him..
So a significant percentage of the Titan population are deranged animal abusers……co-existence… ..yeah… sure
Good, good…the desire for conflict is rising amongst the readers.
Man Ted and Tig must have a red string of destiny tied to their fingers or something to keep finding thier way to each other.
Tig has fully gone off the deep end, and yet the alternative is so terrible I can’t really blame her. I did not expect Ted to run into a pair of Trells. (Guessing one them tried to buy Moze earlier.) Between the pet owners and those with evil schemes, I’d almost forgotten about this kind of titan.
And darkness descends onto this part of the verse…
Co-existence……….Hmmmmm (donuts) …. Doh
Extrapolation: Say for example Ted manages to get back to the Sally Ride along with a couple of his cohorts and somehow they made it back to earth and relate their tale….
Earth makes preparations for war..with parallels to the 19th century Japanese rapid industrialization and militarization, along with consideration of using banned weaponry..Most likely lose but the empire would be crippled..
I’m not going to kill Tig here, given how she feels and what she knows.. She may even get off relatively lightly…..maybe..
Just for fun (I know weird eh?) Imagine if Ted was Alex and Tig was Rixie … [Insert your favorite Mr T quote here]
________
Interesting to note.. Most of the perpetrators of the verse’s ugliness are female…
In the Titanverse, the idea of co-existence is absurd any way you look at it. I don’t even buy it as a GTS fan, I sure don’t if I take the series as a pure sci-fi series.
It will be interesting to see how the authors resolve co-existence in the Titanverse but it could mostly be a mater of technology. They are already part way down the path with Freeman’s hard light holos. Make it smaller, hook it to one of his hypothetical fist sized reactors to be portable and humans on titan worlds can ride around in their own pocket, to all practical purposes indifferent to scale. Another route for both humans in the empire and titans visiting high gravity worlds would be to develop the tech of Avatar. Then again, with a serious effort by most everyone to try and interact as equals the tech aids will be a matter of convenience instead of necessity. Most of our protagonists seem to be doing a good job of getting by even with the system arrayed against them. They’ll work it out.
Its not a matter of technology. Its a matter of culture and attitude..If after all this time after all the evidence and the first contact, Titans still view humans as animals or commodities…..then nothing will help..
“So fraking what? That’s all people 50 years old and up. It’s 80 percent with them. Voters under 50? They’re split down the middle, 41 for, 42 against. The voters under thirty are 61 percent in favor of humans being given full citizenship immediately. Those kids grew up reading books by Nonah Armac and flying through gates that Niall Freeman helped develop, they think old folks are nuts for having ever thought humans weren’t as smart as us. We don’t even poll first contact, but I guarantee you it would’ve been close yesterday, and I guarantee it’s a majority for it now. — The change in culture is already in progress. The events on Titan are just the catalyst to speed the inevitable. We only see a slice of the action in the novels. The authors might do well to add a few new chapters to Background Chatter to give an updated snapshot views of how change is viewed in the minds of the typical empire citizens.
I agree with that. We need more Background Chatter.
Ahh… Ok so an opinion poll can change the culture and attitude that has been developed over the last 1000 (Titan) years?
“Oh look at that cute Pet Astronaut!, I’ll think I’ll get one for my niece for her birthday..” Could even become a thing you know…Humans in spaceships in their adorable spacesuits oooh 🙂
Aaaaand (switching to evil mode) how many of those human rights people (you know the ones that think they are as smart as Los Titans) ever;
– Owned a human
– Bought a human as a pet
– Pet a human (ok maybe this one does not count 🙂
– Knew someone who has bought a human
– Passed by a Hos shelter looked at the humans inside and did nothing
– Knew someone who has abused a human and did nothing
– Knew someone who has eaten a human and did nothing
And the beat goes on……
And the equating technological achievement with sentience, sapient ….well that topic was beaten to death a while back
It’s not that opinion polls can change culture, it’s that the opinion poll shows that attitudes have indeed been shifting slowly but surely over the last few decades as a result of the introduction into the Empire of the 2013 abductees and the effects they had on those around them.
More importantly, the veil of secrecy surrounding Earth is about to fall, and the resulting contact will be a MAJOR game changer. Right now the average Joe and Jane in the Empire know nothing about Earth except that it is a human preserve that’s off-limits to most everyone. As such it’s easy to dismiss humans like Niall and Nonah as a few outliers in what’s otherwise a pet species (and they actually are outliers; not everyone can be a top physicist or author). Plus, should they find out that those humans underwent DNA resequencing to make them more titan-like, dismissing them becomes even easier. That’ll change once it becomes clear that the Stanislaw Lem was indeed designed, built and operated by humans who acted independent of the Empire, and real contact between Earth and the Empire starts taking place. Assuming that Ziah Solis’s attempt at a cover-up fails, his actions will put human civilization on the news even more than it would have been on its own. Imperial citizens, many of whom won’t ever have spent a second thought on humans before (thus going with the default “they’re pets” assumption), will be confronted with a human civilization that’s already built spaceships and is on the verge of inventing warp drive. It’s going to be a shock.
Of course, how much this news will sway opinion in the Empire remains to be seen; many people will be too closed-minded to ever change their opinion. Still, there is a good chance that what’s going on right now will be the rock that starts the avalanche.
@faeriehunter : “Of course, how much this news will sway opinion in the Empire remains to be seen; many people will be too closed-minded to ever change their opinion.”
Over 300 TITAN years later (about 2000 Earth years), many Titans still don’t see Lers, Dunnermacs and Avartles as fully equal citizens. Of course, it’s socially and politically suicidal to say so out loud, but it’s pretty clear that’s the case (I assume it’s the authors’ way to mirror the current treatment of minorities in the US).
Remember what the Floor Leader thought to himself in chapter 11 :
“Ah, the Dunnermacs wanted to ask a question. […] And he’d look good, answering their questions like they were full, equal citizens of the Empire – which, of course, they were.”
The way that thought is constructed in his mind is very telling. How many Titans, even those who think of themselves as open-minded, still secretly think that way about their “fellow citizens” ? So if it’s like that for species that have been members of the Empire for (Earth) millenia, how will that be for Humans ? A species most Titans think of as animals ? How many thousands of years would it even take for Humans to get the same “full” recognition that Ler & co “enjoy” ?
Opinion and culture are two different things. Culture is deeply embedded in the psyche (and psychology) of a people. Its a part of the people’s history and is their filter on how they view the world. It doesn’t easily change or even yield to pressure. Morality is also part of a society’s culture….but that is a really different rabbit hole to head down…. DISCLAIMER: I speak from a human perspective, the exact culture of this alien race has not really been explored.
Opinion could be a momentary thing where presented with evidence one could say “Hell Yeah!” and then go right back to doing what they were doing. People could have an opinion on the ‘right’ side of an issue so as not to look ‘bad’ in front of their fellows…
If you really want to see how they authentically feel just wait until humans get the right to work and actually earn money, competing with Los Titans…successfully…Thats when the you-know-what will hit the fan..
The amount of resistance to integrating a different social group into a broader society is driven at the most basic level by fear. Many of the fears titans had of integrating the Ler, Dunnermac and Avartle don’t apply to the humans precisely because they are not seen as serious competition. There are two ways in which the humans do present a threat: voting power and the fact that humans and titans are similar enough to crossbreed. As the floor leader noted the voting power is a numbers game and because of the titans slowly subsiding reluctance to treat the others as equal they drive the others to more strongly unite with the humans. It’s the deeper implications of the hybrids that is going to be the real long term barrier to true equality and acceptance and the issue most likely to divide the titans themselves. That will be a focus of the next novel.
wow tig is hardliner pro human right activist ! Tez saw a bad trailer of how badly he can be treated on titan. I have a gut feeling a couple is forming.
Intermission? In the twilight zone maybe. Why is it I expect the next time we see Tig & Ted they’ll be on a stolen shuttle with Gyfjon in pursuit.