For One Nen Page 4

  This recent change in appearance was the source of much intense teasing between these almost men. As their bodies changed, their devotion to their friendship grew. Their quick laughter continued in these exchanges, but it had begun to fade abruptly as both young men remembered their fate.

  As children, they were allowed to work and play side by side. But as men, their class defined their social interaction.

  Every day Atenilek fully expected his parents to forbid him from working any longer with Tinnen. After all, Tinnen was a Nen and Nen were no better than the quiet Tsila, or the Hoth of the rebellion.

  The giant Het were of the elite class like the royal Antip. They were the leaders of the Empire and had faithfully taught their sons and daughters to regard other tribes as inferior.

  However, Atenilek seemed to have grown up in a bubble of grace, for he dared to love a Nen. He dared to hold beliefs unlike those of his parents, his tribe, and his class. He dared to believe his path was different than those he came from.

  Soon, Tinnen was to stand on the sparsing line. He would fight and in the silent part of their hearts, each boy knew Tinnen would breathe his last. Atenilek’s thoughts rested on this truth, and in fact, on Tinnen. When he dreamed, when he woke, when he went about his work, when he was with Tennin, or when he was alone, his heart found a home in thoughts of his playful friend.

  Atenilek ached as if the loss had already come. He knew, as sure as the sparsing, his loss would soon follow.

  “No! No! I won’t let him go.” His words woke him most nights. But these thoughts never escaped from his lips when he was in the company of others. He never dared to breathe his thoughts to anyone, not even Tinnen; the one he loved.

  Atenilek woke every morning, left for his job, and never revealed his crescendo of excitement for the day with Tinnen.

  Lately though, seeing his friend was breaking his heart. Tinnen was to be sparsed and he had tried so hard to wrap his mind around that brutal truth. The very thought of losing Tennin was hollowing out his very soul.

  He wanted to ‘Cha’ long and hard to rid his emotions of the terrible, full-body ache, but he knew this would only quake the empire. A bellow from a Het always brought inquiry from the Het guards and the royal Antip. All Het knew that they had to gain special permission from the Empire to do their Cha ritual, which consisted of battle movements and screaming. Since screaming for a Het meant almost quaking the entire empire they were only allowed to do it in the far reaches of the empire in a room large enough for such a practice.

  Atenilek was worried for his tiny companion. No doubt he worried for himself. Who would dive with him near the light of Ot to gather the smaller stones of light? They had been given this job because they could still breathe through their gills at the base of their necks just above their clavicles. The Nen had always been given the job of diving. But their numbers had dwindled vastly in the last two killing generations.

  The Het, strong and proud, were the protectors of the kingdom. Emperor Kent had four Het guards continuously by his side. There were two more that guarded his family and seven more were placed around the perimeter of his palace.

  Many Het were on lake duty, fortifying the Empire by maintaining strict surveillance at the water’s edge.

  Their underground lake was vast and had many places where rocks and thick vines compromised simple visual observation. This is how the last attack had succeeded during the time of the Hoth Rebellion.

  The entire Hoth tribe who had rebelled was still able to use their gills. They were fiercely against the sparsing that Emperor Tapsin had set in place almost a thousand years before Emperor Kent. The Hoth had killed no one during the attack. They came soundlessly from the water while the Empire slept and carried away all of the children. They believed children should not be given to the sparsing line so they didn’t see any harm in stealing them away from their families.

  Kent, the current Emperor, wouldn’t allow his empire to be vulnerable under his leadership. He believed his forefather, Tapsin, had been weak when the children were taken. But he was determined to keep the Empire strong and intact. Kent had always attended the killings but his family and his guards had never been sent to the sparsing line.

  “I dare you this time to touch it, Atenilek,” Tinnen laughingly taunted with his gills flailing wide for air as he breathed in through his mouth as well.

  “I’ll do it today,” Atenilek said. After he caught up to his friend, but before his clothes were dry from the swim, he asked with concern, “What do you really think will happen?”

  Tinnen shook his body, as if his forefathers were canines, and then faced the light of Ot. He closed his eyes from the brightness and stretched out his arms as the warm breeze flowed over him, drying his clothes and his thick hair like an enormous hair dryer. No one knew why the wind blew but Tinnen did this every time they neared Ot. “They say Ot will grab you into himself and you’ll be burned up forever,” he answered his friend.

  They had no reason to doubt the tellers of these ancient beliefs but Tinnen did question. He ventured closer and closer every chance he got. He told his friend Atenilek, “It makes me strong like you. See I’ve grown a whole gill width since last year at this time. I will be strong for sparsing.”

  Atenilek turned his back to Ot. “But why do you want me to touch it?” Atenilek couldn’t bring himself to think about his friend participating in the killings and he couldn’t bring himself to speak of Ot with such blasphemy. He rarely even used the name of Ot. “Touching The Living Ot?” That was unheard of – unspeakable – almost sacrilege.

  Tinnen answered, “Atenilek of the Het strong and proud. I’ve never seen one of you humbled. And that would be nice.”

  Atenilek’s thoughts raced wildly, “Am I hearing my friend correctly? Does Tinnen want harm to befall me, his lifelong friend? Haven’t I proven my friendship to Tinnen? I can’t believe he will be sparsed. I can’t let him be sparsed. I won’t.”

  The Het, Atenilek’s tribe, were giants that lived in the inner empire where the ceilings were the tallest in the entire empire. The Het were strong and they protected the Royal Antip well.

  Because they were the Het, strong and proud they had always been exempt from the sparsing since its inception. So the Het grew in number, in stature and in devotion with each generation. Atenilek’s mother had taught her sons and daughters to work in earnest for the Empire. “By doing so,” she directed, “you will secure the life of your tribe.” Atenilek had taken this teaching to mean life was to be valued. But his face fell to stone when Tinnen had said those hurtful daring words.

  “Is Tinnen jealous that my people have never been killed because the dynasty deems us too valuable?” Atenilek wondered.

  Not even for the thousands of years that the Het had been protecting the kingdom had any one of them lost their life from another’s hand. Some people believed they could never be killed and were secretly afraid of them.

  Yet Atenilek was prideful and wanted to show his friend that he couldn’t be humbled. He started for Ot.

  “I was just kidding, Atenilek,” Tinnen cried out when he realized what his friend was doing. After taking about twenty quick paces Atenilek began to run with full speed.

  He ran till he couldn’t hear Tinnen begging him to stop. He ran till he was almost blinded by Ot’s brightness. He put up his arm to shield his eyes and gazed down toward his feet as now he took one step at a time slowly toward his fear. When he could bare the heat no more he put out his arm, his long outstretched arm, and gave a loud cry. Besides his stature being enormous, his bellow was as well. His cry could be heard across the lake and throughout Empire. The cry was so rumbling that it knocked Tinnen to the ground.

  When Tinnen climbed back to his feet Atenilek raced past him and took a leap straight into the lake. The waves that he created took Tinnen by surprise as an enormous tidal wave crushed over him sending him high upon the bank. The water receded quickly and Tinnen held tight to a bare tree root. When Tinnen
looked over his shoulder Atenilek was nowhere to be seen.

  “Atenilek!” Tinnen cried as he clamored to his feet. He raced toward the water’s edge.

  Atenilek emerged from the deep water like a quickly forming island. He moved slowly toward the shore. There was a grimace on his face that made Tinnen’s heart sink with guilt but nothing prepared his heart for what he saw next.

  As Atenilek slowly came from the water with his gills so red they were almost purple it was then that Tinnen saw it.

  Atenilek came into full view with only one arm. His eyes were so burned that he shed blood-tinged tears. His skin was a funny shade of red not quite describable, and just above his right elbow – nothing.

  Tinnen didn’t see any blood on his arm but he did smell the stench of charred flesh. Atenilek approached Tinnen with a face of vacancy and only a few paces away he collapsed in a crumpled heap on the shore. Tinnen stood in the light of Ot and cast a small shadow over Atenilek’s face. Taking his own shirt he wiped the tears and sweat from Atenilek's brow and face.

  They began coming, Het from all over the empire. The bellow had been heard by Atenilek’s cousin, Lakis who was on guard at the entrance to the sparsings as many made ready the grounds for the event. He called upward toward his younger brother. “Bring the others to the water.”

  Atenilek’s family came in droves. The Het were a massive people and rarely all together because of their constant service to the Empire. But they all came. The Het from deep inside the tunnels and tall rooms of the empire, the Het that guarded the tunnels that led to the surface, the Het that were carving out the lower basin, and the Het that were on lake duty across the water from Atenilek all came running.

  Yet when they came close, they found Tinnen curled up next to his giant friend weeping great sobs of sorrow.

  When Lakis arrived, Atenilek’s parents were already there. His father picked up his son like any Dad would easily pick up his boy, and carried him away. Tinnen didn’t know if his friend was alive or dead.

  Tinnen paced to and fro in front of the entrance to Kent’s palace where Atenilek had been taken. No one came in or out all through the evening. But by nightfall Ish, the gatherer of the dead, had been summoned by Kent. When Tinnen saw Ish coming he curled up by the corner pillar of the palace, and there he stayed all through the night. He only moved to place a tiny morsel of food in his mouth every few hours. Otherwise, he barely moved his lips. No one gave attention to his whispers.

  “Giver of Life, my friend needs you. I’ve wanted to be great instead of being so small but if you let my friend keep his breath I will attend to him all of his days. He will be my master and I will be his servant. Never will he be without me for I will be his right arm that you took away. I give my life for this purpose.”

  By morning, Lakis came from the Palace to attend his guard duties and behind him were more cousins, and then Tinnen saw him; Ish, and he walked alone. The gatherer of the dead was empty-handed. “Do I dare hope,” Tinnen thought.

  Through the giant doorway Atenilek came with his parents beside him, Atenilek, strong and proud. Tinnen ran to his new master and bowed low.

  “Master I give you my life to do with it what you will.” Atenilek patted Tinnen on top of his furry head the way one would affectionately stroke a pet.

  Atenilek was about to speak but his father interrupted coarsely, “Go home, Nen. You have a sparsing to prepare for.” Atenilek’s face was down-cast and he said nothing.

  Tinnen followed far behind and stayed next to the opening of Atenilek’s home, curled up on a rock. The Het came and went from Atenilek’s home but no one gave any thought to Tinnen. And why would they? Tinnen’s own family had even given him up for dead. They weren’t going to give their rations to this tiny pip of a thing; the one everyone was whispering about throughout the entire empire. Tinnen was the one that had taken the arm of a Het, the first thing taken from a Het for as long as any of their tellings could recall.

  Tinnen placed only one bite of food in his mouth every few hours to make his food last. However after two days he was at the brink of death.

  For two days, deep inside the home of Atenilek, his parents spoke softly of the ancient tellings; how those of the past rebellion now roaming the surface of hell, waited to welcome a small number of newcomers from the underground.

  297 AE

  Aboard the EGRESS

  Tala paused from her story when she saw Mathis coming from his class and walking past the dining hall.

  Deni saw Tala gazing over her shoulder and turned to see.

  “It must be awful to be a Hoth,” Deni said.

  “Worse to be alone,” Tala said as she continued to look at Mathis walking past. As Deni turned her back to the Hoth, Tala gave Mathis a caring smile.

  No one but the Most Holy Maven had smiled at Mathis since the tragedy that left him the sole orphan of his tribe.

  Mathis stopped a moment, smiled at the beautiful Tala, then continued to walk. Those moments of tenderness breathed a little life back into his broken heart and sustained his soul a little longer.

  He walked down the long corridor to the shuttle that sent him upward to the observatory deck where Tala had faithfully danced. There he sat with his legs folded under him and his head leaned against the glass.

  He looked down below at the ruins that used to be his home. It looked as though a giant wrecking ball had smashed the entire sector. He pointed to the area that was once his room.

  “And over there,” he spoke softly to himself. “That’s where Mom and Dad slept. And that was Grandfather’s room.” He pointed to a place where a wall was completely gone.

  “And that’s all the divisions where they all slept. There was Anton the oldest. Over there was Qasm, he was my great, great grandfather’s best friend. I wonder what that’s like; having a best friend. Over there was Mother’s great grandmother. She was a lovely Hoth. Most don’t think Hoth are lovely but we are. She was. Sometimes she would stir in her sleep and I would sit by her division, and one time I even saw her open her eyes. I think she was still asleep but she opened her bright blue eyes. So lovely.”

  “Over there,” he pointed but stopped suddenly as he saw two men in space suits loading a large pallet with parts and equipment from the smashed sector.

  He leaned his head and hands on the glass and softly wept.

  “All gone,” he said. He watched the men for almost an hour when suddenly one of the men waved at him.

  “What’d you do that for?” Turk said into his space helmet’s radio.

  “Do what?” Henry said as his dark brown face looked even darker in the shadows of the dimly lit Hoth sector.

  “Why you wanna go wavin’ at the boy?” Turk said.

  “He just looks so sad,” Henry exclaimed.

  “Let’s go. I think we’ve salvaged all we can from this heap of nothin’,” Turk scoffed.

  “Just a little more. I think I may find some things over there,” Henry said pushing off from some tethered debris and gliding away.

  “Do what you want,” Turk said with a wave of his hand. “I’ll be floating right here when you get back.”

  Henry pushed his way past the loaded pallet and floated to the side of the wall where the divisions were. This is where the Hoth were once in stasis. He pushed his way along and down to where he saw the small living quarters. He opened several drawers and gathered some things as he looked back up to the wet face of Mathis.

  Reaching up his hand again, Henry gave a quick wave as his dark face gave a smile that showed his white teeth. He made his way back to the pallet where Turk paid no attention to his findings.

  Henry reached his hand into one of the compartments on the floating pallet and placed the things he had found. He laid a piece of metal over the top before closing the lid.

  “That’s about it,” Henry said into his helmet’s radio. “Let’s float on out of here.”

  “It’s about time,” Turk said grumpily.

  Mathis watched the m
en make their way inside a docking bay where he lost sight of them. He hadn’t realized how stiffly he’d craned his neck to watch the men until, when they were out of view, he noticed that his neck was stiff and sore. He rubbed the back of his neck and slumped against the glass.

  Henry maneuvered a grappling arm by manipulating the wall levers inside the docking bay. He always thought space walks were the path toward nothingness because of how deathly quiet it was in space. Even with the radio inside his helmet that pumped strangely clear voices straight into his ears, he found that other sounds were missing. His large glove taking hold of the floating pallet made no sound. Pushing a piece of debris out of the way made no sound when he touched it or even when it floated away and crashed into the door to one of the stasis compartments. He always looked forward to returning to the comfort of sound on board the Egress.

  He secured the large pallet in the airlock over an awaiting wheeled dolly. The glass doors shut and the pallet dropped to the dolly beneath.

  Moments later a dinging sound, signaling the elevator opening, made Mathis jump nervously to his feet.

  Henry exited the elevator and saw the wide-eyed boy looking up at him.

  “Have you eaten anything today, son?”

  Mathis slightly shook his head without a word.

  Henry ruffled the small teenager’s hair and added, “I have to finish unloading all that stuff, then I’m headed over to the dining hall. Retrieval makes me mighty hungry.” Again he ruffled Mathis’ hair, and as the elevator door gave another ding, he turned to leave.

  “I’m famished. So I’ll see you soon?” Henry said as he moved to board the elevator. “Oh, Greetings Maven,” Henry said abruptly as Maven Sharla stepped off of the elevator.

  Mathis thought as he walked away, “I wonder if he did find something?” He almost smiled as Henry disappeared with the elevator’s closing doors.