Chapter 2:
Talon strode angrily around the room, his fist smacking into the palm of his hand, and Marik watched him quietly. The four brothers had all adjourned to this one hut where they could speak in semi-privacy.
Talon said, “It’s a disaster down there. The Federation promised aid to Old Earth, but they haven’t given any yet beyond the scant amount of food and drinkable water that ran out way too fast and is long gone now. There are so many people dying from simple illnesses and injuries from the rebellion and the fight against the enemies. We’ve done all that we can. We need more healers.”
Renall shook his head. “We can’t spare them from here, and you know that, Talon.”
Jeval interjected, “And why would we even want to? Do not say that it is because your mate and Renall’s mate are from there. That’s not reason enough to jeopardize the health of the people here.”
Talon slumped into a chair. His hand found a small pitcher. He lifted it then poured a tall glass of water. He set the pitcher aside and drank the water in long and greedy gulps, his throat working as he swallowed it down. When he set the glass aside, his face wore a solemn and pinched expression.
He said, “I would never offer that up as reason enough. The humans have never been our major concern. They aren’t now either, to be honest. What is my concern is that the Federation has lied once again. That planet is not the only one suffering the weight of the Federation’s lies.”
Jeval said, “All of us know what it is to suffer under the Federation. We can’t extend to them what we do not have.”
Marik looked down at his hands. He was a natural healer, one who could heal by touch. His gift was always needed, but he had to be careful how he dispensed that part of his healing abilities because using it too much could kill him. Other than his natural healing powers, he also possessed a wide and vast knowledge of healing thanks to having been raised by a mother who was also a natural healer, as well as a skilled and taught healer. He had also trained with the science makers when he had been very young, and he had deliberately spent a century studying medicine after his escape from the mines.
His voice was soft. “If we turn our back on those who are suffering, does that not make us just as guilty as the Federation?”
Renall said, “No. It makes us smart. We are too few, and if we want our population to grow, we already have to mix our blood with the blood of others. If we want to keep any part of our race alive, we have to maintain this planet. It’s our last sanctuary. It is the only place left for us. We cannot afford to send those who are needed here to Old Earth.”
That was true. Marik knew it was true. He also knew that he was not willing to leave people to suffer and die if he could help it. Every part of his being rebelled at that. “Some may volunteer.”
Talon faced him. “Would you?”
Marik shifted in the chair he had taken. “I would. I don’t necessarily want to, don’t get me wrong, but there are two other natural healers here on the planet. True, they are young and still untested, but they have the ability. I have taught many. Some are very skilled already. Then there are the old ones who escaped the destruction of our home planet and who were already master healers then.”
Renall threw his long hands up in the air. His silver eyes glinted with anger. “We have given enough to the Federation. Now you would have us do their job?”
Talon spoke. “It’s still a battle zone down there. Humans—I don’t even know what to say. There are still those who would try to re-institute the caste systems all over that planet. Right before we left, we found a band of former Capos destroying the belongings of the ones who came up from below the ground. It’s a disaster. It’s a recipe for an even worse disaster.”
Jeval asked, “How will sending healers do any good at all? If they can’t even stop fighting amongst themselves, what makes you think that they’ll start attending to their own?”
Talon said, “There are plenty of good people down there. They want what’s theirs by birth, and I don’t blame them for that. They are doing their best to care for the wounded and the sick and elderly and the very young. They’re running out of ideas and ways to do it.”
Renall snapped, “And you expect us to teach them?”
Talon stood so fast that the chair shot across the room. His fists balled up and his face went red with anger. “I expect you to be better than the Federation! I expect you to have some speck of kindness and compassion! I expect you to understand that if you have a child with your mate, then your child will have a history that goes back to that planet. How are you going to look at your children and tell them that you let others of their race, because that will be their race as well, die because you were unwilling to do something?”
Marik stood. The air simmered with tension. He knew where it stemmed from. Renall had suffered more than any of them. He had been the one to take all of the punishments in the mines, usually pushing his younger siblings aside and standing there stoic and white-faced as the whips came down on his back and belly. He had often made use of cunning tricks in order to give them his rations of food, if what they had been given to eat and drink in the mines could be considered food at all.
He had taken the most risks. It did not seem that way, as it was all of them on the ships doing the wrecking in the taking down of the ships that had given them the credits necessary to purchase the planet. But it had not all come from just the wrecking of the ships. It had been Renall who had handled all the rest of their businesses, making himself the front man so that if the Federation decided to execute any of them for the shady things that they had done, it would be him who took all of the blame.
This planet had been his dream ever since they had stood on the shores of their home planet and watched it being destroyed by the Federation’s greed. For him, the thought of sending away his people to Old Earth was a betrayal of all that he had done.
All that he had suffered and lost and sworn to avenge.
He was afraid that there were too few of them left and too few on the planet to make it work, to have a decent life there.
Marik understood those things, but he also understood exactly what Talon was saying. His older brother may not have wanted to admit it, but now that his mate was pregnant, one day he would have to face down those children and explain to them what happened to the rest of their race.
Marik said, “I shall make this easy for you. I want to go. I am a healer. If I do not go, that thing inside me that demands that I heal might shrivel up and die.”
Jeval shook his head in disgust. “You’re a fool then.”
Renall’s words were even harsher. “What if you die there? Will it be worth it to you?”
Marik said, “I believe the question would be is it worth it to them.”
