Teq let out a deeper rumble of his own. “Our apex has spoken.” Though his tone was unyielding, as was the way of crushers, somehow it softened when he added, “And it’s no longer just a solitary ship and crew at stake; we have made promises to others—vows we cannot break.”
He meant Adeline and her hatchling, and the other Earther females who’d signed their IDA contracts in good faith.
Not Kinsley, though, since she’d sneaked aboard.
As Sil shut down the lighted map, his own hope winked out. “But this could be my contribution to the crew. I could finally earn a glyph and claim my place.” The empty spot on his torso ached, even though he’d never felt the scald of the insignia iron.
Mag growled. “Your place has always been here and will always be, brother. Who has made you believe otherwise?”
Sil shot him an exasperated look. “Mag, if you hadn’t been marked apex, I likely would’ve been slagged lightyears ago.” In a decidedly un-orcish pitch, he squeaked, “‘Not worth his weight in hydrogen—not that he weighs anything.’ ‘Eyes like slymusk guts.’ ‘Stone singer? More like mud hummer.’”
He fell silent as Teq put a hand on his carapace, and he realized he’d again been about to flash his wings. That would’ve made this botched moment even worse.
“The glyph of the stone singers may have been forgotten,” Teq said quietly. “But you are valued here, Sil. More than any hold-ful of ore.”
That was a nice sentiment—and not very orcorcrusher. The i’lva had marked Teq deeper than any insignia iron.
“The only orc who will pay the price of ruin is me,” Mag said, not just unyielding but harder than diamond. “That is my place as apex.”
When he left—because his word as apex was indeed last—Sil stayed behind in the gather-hall, not trusting himself not to fight with his brother. Except, being smaller and weaker, he would lose. Which left him what options? To beg, to break down and…
And what? He’d been forbidden.
He heard the chirping sound of the little Earther hatchling before Ollie raced into the gather-hall, his mother right behind him. “Teq!” Ollie called. “You’re it!”
Sil glanced at the other male. “You are what?”
“I’m it,” Teq said, as if that explained everything. “I promised to play ghost in the graveyard with Oliver if he aced his safety drills. It is a game where a ghost attempts to capture a victim.” A deep rumble echoed through his thorax. “I always try to catch Adeline first.”
Sil slicked back his antennae. “Why do I suspect she doesn’t try very hard to escape?”
“She likes that I have extra arms to hold her.”
With a decidedly uncrusher-like grin, Teq strode toward the Earther female. He reached only one hand to touch her cheek, but when she angled her face into the curve of his six fingers, smiling up at him, Sil swore he could see the i’lva—the light in the darkness—shimmering between them. That ineffable force seemed to bend the energy of the universe around them, pooling stillness and deep joy into a singular moment, not a black hole where a star had died and existence ended, but a point of contact where infinite belonging began.
Sil slipped away before he had to say anything to Adeline and Ollie. The Earthers had come so far to make new lives for themselves. Yet somehow he—the spacefaring alien—was stuck right where he’d always been.
***
In the quietest part of the next uroondu rest cycle, when even the slymusks had gone to sleep and their illuminated traceries through the halls had faded, Sil made his way to the Earthers’ quarters. He stood outside Kinsley’s door.
He was probably making a mistake.
The door opened.
“Hey.” She leaned in the doorway, a satchel slung over her shoulder. In a dark tunic and tight black leggings, she was a shadowed silhouette against the low light behind her. “Was wondering when you’d come.”
“I…” He swallowed. “Come for…”
“Me?” She tilted her head. She’d piled her two-toned hair high with a colorful elastic binding the mass, making her even taller, but a few soft coils dangled past her rounded ears and rippled over her shoulders. “To go after the rock dust? I’m ready.” When he stood there, hesitating, she crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh, did you suddenly change your mind? If you decided you don’t need me—”
“No!” He modulated his tone. “I need you. Let’s go.”
Side by side—he didn’t have to slow his steps as much as Teq did with Adeline—they went to the shuttle bay. The shuttle was bigger than the life pods that had been part of the safety drills for Ollie and the other Earthers, but it looked very small when he thought of the Zarnox Zone.
And it looked even smaller inside with Roxy crammed into the cargo bay.
Kinsley paused. “We’re taking it with us? I thought you figured out the location.”
