“No one is starting anything right away,” Yan interjected. “We have more important things to do than to recite poems over a dead guy. No offense.” He nodded to the remaining security guard.
“I respectfully disagree,” Iris said in the most disrespectful tone he could muster. “Given the humidity and the ambient temperature of the ship, tending to the passed in a timely manner will be of utmost importance. Will I need to explain why, engineer Yan?”
Yan grimaced. “No.”
Iris bowed deep. “Thank you.”
“If it’s all right with the Vessel, I would like to accompany him,” Ishtan said. “At the risk of sounding utterly insensitive, while I have extensively read up on the matter, I have never seen a Vessel perform burial rites before, and I may never get another chance.”
Here’s hoping.
“It may be safer to go in pairs as well,” Iris added.
Yan ran his hand through his hair again, smearing some of the old blood along his temple. For a moment, he looked to be on the verge of tears. Falling back against the chair with the grace of a discarded rag doll, he sent them all off with a wave of a hand. “Why are you asking me?Go, do whatever it is you do. Don’t come back complaining if something kills you.” There was no doubt this was Yan’s first time observing a freshly dead body, and for all his false bravado, Iris had to admit he was handling it much better than most.
Before he left, Iris went up to Tev and Jesi, huddled together by the kettle. When he drew near, Jesi flinched away, a look of blatant disgust plastered across her face.Children.They were both newly minted second degree-holders by Iris’s assessment, both in their early twenties. They were green to the ways of the institute and the rest of the world around them, and most of all, they were frightened. They would both need to grow up fast if they were to be of any help. All Iris could do was apologise again for the distress he had caused.
“I know you’re both scared,” he said. He’d given this speech before, butactualchildren were always easier. Actual children could be distracted with sweets and toys, and mostly didn’t understand what was happening around them. Tev and Jesi were young enough to be witnessing death for the first time, old enough to comprehend the full weight of it. “I have the sense that your supervisor is frightened too.” He nodded to Yan. “I think he would appreciate it if you stayed close. Maybe even provide him a little distraction, if you can. Can you do that?”
Tev nodded without saying a word.
“It’s bad, isn’t it?” Jesi asked softly.
Iris gave her a small smile. He wouldn’t outright lie. “I think your supervisor is a little shaken up, but he’ll be OK. We’ll all be OK, as long as we are there for one another.”
You can’t say that, VIFAI reminded him.You should never say that.
What else can I say? Should I tell them instead that the dark will eat them alive, no matter how hard they fight?Iris couldn’t even admit the truth to himself.Isn’t it my sole responsibility to provide a peace of mind during the worst of times?
VIFAI said nothing.
With Ishtan by his side, Iris ventured back down the long corridor towards the airlock that had become Ordan’s final resting place. They walked in solemn silence, interrupted only by the squishing of feet against the water-laden moss. Unconsciously, Iris untangled the mala from his wrist and passed the beads between his fingers, the smell of sandalwood rising until its scent flooded his mind entirely.
Yan had moved Ordan’s body around to retrieve the radio, but he’d put it back almost exactly as he had found it the first time. The gaping wound was no longer bleeding. The ground below was visible through the hole in Ordan’s chest, dark against the grey of what remained of the security uniform. Despite the guard’s violent demise, Iris couldn’t bring himself to feel anything of substance. It was effortless to slip into the refined and practiced sequences he had mastered years before his very first assignment as a Vessel. Death was the most natural end for everyone, regardless of how unnatural the cause.
Ishtan didn’t have such teachings to rely on. At his first sight of the bloodied body, he gasped and slapped his hand across his mouth in an attempt to stop himself from being sick. Having failed, he stumbled around the corner and retched loudly.
“There’s no need for you to watch, Ishtan,” Iris suggested gently, “if it causes you such distress.”
Why the archaeologist had accompanied Iris in his work was beyond his understanding. Surely he was aware of what suchwork entailed even if he had only read about it. Theoretical study of death never compared to witnessing it firsthand. Once, Iris too had found himself faint and sick in the presence of those passed. He was fifteen, but so were the others around him, and they had fared much better.
After the bout passed, Ishtan emerged from behind the corner, swaying, wiping bile from his lips. “No, no, I promise it’s all done with. I’ll be good. I’ll be good. Please, continue.”
Pushing the archaeologist from his mind, Iris lowered to his knees and took Ordan’s limp hand in his. The tan skin was waxy and cool to the touch, but Iris held the hand firmly in his, the way it was intended. It was the broad and muscular hand of a man who had earned his living through manual labour, with a distinctive callus at the edge of his index finger. Manual labour and firearms, then.
Iris closed his eyes and said, “I’m sorry you had to pass in such a violent way, that your time had been cut short before the Light intended it. We know that in your last moments you tried to help us, help all of us, and for that we are eternally grateful. I’m sorry I did not know your name until you passed, but I will take care that your body rejoins your family just as you have been rejoined with the cosmos.
“The Light is still your flesh even as you no longer are, my friend. The Light persists in the blood no longer running in your veins. In your last moments, you gave your life to others, and thus in your last moments, you knew the touch of the Divine. In your last breath, you learned what it is to be the cosmos. You are returned to the One Beginning, to eternal life, and to eternal rest, my friend.” Iris placed Ordan’s hand back across his broad chest. “Ishtan, would you be so kind as to find a clean cloth for me?”
“Of course.” Ishtan had barely finished speaking before he turned and ran up the corridor.
There were several ways to delay a body’s progression through the stages of decomposition. Most of them relied on tools and chemical compounds Iris did not readily have in his possession, but he could drain the body of its blood easily enough before it started to decay. The reduction in fluid would also keep the bloating at bay, keeping Ordan’s appearance easier on the eyes. Iris reached into his right sleeve. “I’m sorry, Ordan,” he said. “I’m going to have to hurt your body a little more.” Iris pressed his thumb against the indentation on the pulsar blade. Nothing happened.
Performance anxiety?VIFAI asked.
“This is not the time nor the place,” Iris grumbled. He pressed his thumb against the indentation again, this time with force, but the blade remained dormant.
I can help.
