Quoted By:
“We’re not like your crew. With a few exceptions, most of our skills are useless beyond atmosphere. We learn slowly.”
“I am aware,” you respond.
“We also have a number of dependents.” Hibiscus gestures to a crook-backed woman slowly making her way out of her habitat. “Not all of us will be able to contribute.”
“I am aware of that as well,” you say, before pausing. “Are you attempting to identify a shortcoming in my reasoning?”
She exhales slowly.
“No – No. I…just want you understand what your offer entails. I don’t see why you would consider taking us. It’s a clear detriment to you.”
You nod. “You are probably correct. I do not have an obvious use for baseline humans.”
“But my ancillaries were in a similar position when they first arrived. Crew-clades are specialized. None of them would have been able to survive here alone.”
She is silent for a moment. “We took in in your crew because it was the human thing to do,” she explains quietly. “I had my doubts and my…prejudices…but it wasn’t really a choice.”
Deliberately, you place a freshly carved squadron emblem into her hand. The edges are sheer enough to dig into her palm.
“If that is true, then I shall welcome your people for the same reason.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Over the next twelve days, you activate your entire fighter complement. Bombers soar over mineralized oceans and through eroded canyons, their internal weapon pods replaced with makeshift passenger modules. The landing pads surrounding the colony crack from the stress of constant landings. The roar of heavy engines overpowers the rush of wind and sand.
You managed to evacuate several hundred colonists from outlaying settlements and refinery clusters. Though confused and occasionally reticent, none of them were particularly quarrelsome. The new empire had shaped all of them, and all of them were eager to forget its clinical touch.
A dour-faced fabrication engineer tells you that imperial resource extraction was a meticulous process – made harsh for the purpose of efficiency. Before you arrived, orbital surveillance was omnipresent and overbearing. Settlements that failed to meet production quotes were decimated with focused kinetic fire, left to cool, and then replaced with automated refinery towers.
