“He will serve on whichever vessel the gods lead him toward,” Regi said, his voice sharp.
She narrowed her eyes. “As I said to Bekdi during the debate, the gods do not always speak.”
Regi stiffened and pressed his lips together until the fur at the corners of his mouth stood on end.
“Come, let the three of us speak. You and your huuman can return shortly.” She left the room, stumbling when she stepped through the door. The odd angles caused by the ship being tilted did make walking difficult.
Regi turned to the captain. “There are many security concerns I should see to.”
“You have trained Vk. If she is not capable of taking lead, perhaps she is not as ready for a promotion as you implied in your last review of her work.” Captain Cota said.
After a few seconds, Regi huffed. “Do not allow Ter to terrorize anyone into retaliating,” he said before he turned to follow his mother. Dante fell in next to him.
“What do you think your mother wants?” Dante whispered.
“I cannot predict the actions of Minait a’Otutha any more than I can read the mind of Divashi.” Regi marched down the corridor like a soldier going to his death in the climax of some dramatic war movie.
When they exited the ship, the yard was eerie with the long, looming shadows of the enormous Gavd ships cutting the hard ground into odd shapes, and the planetary ring glowing red with the setting sun. Even the bird cries had shifted to something more haunting as the day drew to an end. Minait stood in the shadow of the next ship in the yard, two Kowri at her side. Even before they were close enough to recognize them, Dante guessed these were her husbands—Regi’s two fathers.
Minait’s husbands stood close, each with a hand on her back. Dante knew Regi’s family had problems, but he still felt a frisson of jealousy at the overt affection. His own parents had been cold to each other, and after his mother’s death, the rare touch on the shoulder was all his father offered.
“Minait, did the temple reach an agreement?” Pertin asked.
“Gimi convinced them that espionage was highly unlikely given the outsider’s arrogance, and impossible to prove given Bekdi’s bad behavior, so he was entered into the rolls of the guilty only as one who would cause bodily harm to another. It was a compromise given that those allied with Bekdi would not allow the outsider to escape all punishment.”
“You convicted him to politically soothe Bekdi?” demanded Regi. They glared at each other.
Dante’s stomach soured. Family drama had never been his forte. In fact, he tended to put family drama right next to trigonometry on his list of things he would like to never do again.
Minait broke the silence. “His sentence is lenient enough to count as ineffectual. I know you plan to argue that he is currently serving on a ship parked on a Kowri world with two exalted in residence, making it a Kowri ship.” Her tone was disapproving.
Regi didn’t deny it. As plans went, that was brilliant, assuming they stayed. If the gods decided to let them fix their ship, there would be a problem. Captain Cota would want to go back to the Coalition, and Dante had a feeling that Bekdi and his ilk would object. Worse, Dante had a feeling they would prefer to shoot Coalition ships down first and ask questions about what the gods wanted in some distant future.
Minait squared off against Regi, her ears pushed forward as she stared at him. “I assume you can use the threat of a transfer to teach your crewmember some manners. The doctor may be convinced that this rude engineer is biologically prone to fits of excitability because of his endocrine system, but we are more than our species, are we not? When you left Kowri space, I seem to recall you saying as much.”
Regi’s laugh was low and unhappy. “I recall you telling me that I was hopelessly naïve for that belief. If I recall correctly, you informed me that no matter how far or fast I ran that I would always be Kowri and that leaving the sanctuary of the gods would not change that.”
“It appears your mother was not wrong,” said Rel. Pertin put his hands on his husband’s... co-husband’s... brother husband’s... arm.
“Rel,” Pertin whispered.
Regi sighed and ran a six-fingered hand over his face before scratching the back of his head. “I do not wish to continuereliving the conflicts of my past. Did you need to speak with me about some temple issue?”
Pertin stepped forward. “Can't we speak as family? Does the temple always have to be in the middle?”
“My mother chose the temple when she decided that her goddess was more important than the people in her life.”
Rel’s ears went flat to his head and Pertin winced. But it was Minait who stepped forward. “I have always tried to protect you, to raise you to be a strong Kowri. I respect that you are honoring your vows to the outsiders by protecting this crew, but if you do not teach that engineer some patience, he will not survive on a world where all of us are subject to the whims of the gods. Patience is survival.”
“Perhaps that is why I chose to leave the Empire. Perhaps I do not value patience as much as you do,” Regi snapped. That seemed a strong reaction when his mother was right—Ter had anger management issues.
“Enough,” Rel said. Minait had been about to turn away, but he caught her by the elbow and forced her to turn back towards Regi. “You two are both so stubborn that you require more patience than the gods could dream of demanding. She has never put her goddess before you, Regi. But you see only what you wish to see and discount all other evidence.”
Regi bristled, growing fuzzier by the second. “I remember how every trip we ever took was interrupted by a midwife emergency. I remember our lives being planned around a midwife schedule. I remember days leading into weeks where she would not appear at all. I remember how you and Pertin would distract me with pretty toys and trips, just the three of us. I remember how during my Mother's Years she would forget to take me, leaving you to care for me. I remember how others stared at me with pity because I was far too young for my Father's Years and yet my mother did not wish to have mearound. I remember enough. I certainly have sufficient evidence that she chose her goddess over us.” Regi spat the words out, and Dante took a step back, wary of his fury.
“Don’t say that,” Pertin snapped.
Rel moved toward Regi and now they were nose to nose, both furious. “Your mother was called to the temple as a surrogate, not a midwife. She bore child after child only to hand them into other Kowri arms. But when you were born looking so much like us, like your family, that she refused to hand you over.”
