Chapter 4: Sibling Rivalry | page 4

“This Sisterhood is considerably more than a street-roving gang. They are spread over many worlds,” Maeve said. “Their tenets state that women, as the creators of life, are natural superiors to men. For many members of the Sisterhood, their doctrine may be expressed simply by never marrying or by becoming a dominant partner when they do. For others…”

She trailed off with a shrug. The tale of her staged rape of Coldhand, told less than an hour earlier, was enough to finish the explanation.

“Are there a lot of them?” asked Gripper nervously.

“By all I have seen and heard, their influence stretches across the core. Thinly, perhaps, but considerably further than our own. Logan Coldhand could tell you more about them, I suspect. His actions on Axis suggest insight into their ways.”

“I’ll talk to him later,” Tiberius growled. “I’ve got some other questions to get answered first.”

“Such as what we’re doing out here,” said Xia. She hurried on. “Not that I would ever object giving sanctuary to one who needed it. But we did lose the only work I found. Flying some samples out to Denron, I think.”

“Work? What? You did?” Duaal asked, surprised. He thought he had watched the Ixthian’s every move on Axis while they were buying supplies. Focus, Duaal! he chided himself. Xia nodded. The mage turned a surly gaze back onto Maeve. Another job lost and it was entirely her fault!

Tiberius was frowning and rubbing his jaw again. It was already dark with a day’s stubble. Duaal could practically hear the gears turning in the old Prian’s head.

“You don’t really seem the type to join a street gang, Kessa,” Tiberius said at last. “You’re way too fragile and weepy. What’s going on?”

The Dailon girl burst into fresh tears at Tiberius’ question. Xia rounded the table to squeeze Kessa’s shoulder comfortingly. Maeve raised a black eyebrow at the captain’s tactlessness. As if she was any better! Duaal rolled his eyes. This was going to take ages if Kessa couldn’t get a hold of herself. Tiberius was right. She was hardly the Sister’s type.

“I know, I know!” Kessa wept into her hands. Everyone in the room had to lean close to catch the words. Her words were frequently interrupted by hiccupping sobs and honking into fistfuls of towels from the dispenser over the sink.

“I know I’m not very brave or strong like the other Sisters! Dad left us… Herra and me. She was my sister, my older one. God, she was so mad at him when he went! She took us both to the Sisterhood. She always looked out for me when things got bad with the Sisters. She always told me to just wait it out, that everything would get better soon.

“So I did. I stayed back and waited one day while Herra and some of the others went out getting men. They went up against one of the other gangs. It was bad. Herra didn’t come back. But they brought back another Dailon. They cuffed him up and kept him in the back so… so the other girls could use him. He used to cry at night after they hit him. His name was Vyron. Fethru, I think his line name was. That was about a year ago.

“I felt sorry for him, so I would bring him part of my dinner if no one was looking. Sometimes we got to talking, when no one was around. Vyron was a nice man, and very smart. I liked him and he seemed to like me pretty well. After a while, I even did things with him that the other women did. But between us, it was better. He said he really liked it when it was with me, instead of the other girls.”

Here, Kessa blushed a deep violet and touched her fingers to her rounded stomach. So this prisoner, Vyron, was the baby’s father. Where is he now? Duaal wondered. Kessa was calming as she told her story.

“I wanted to let Vyron go. I told him that, but I didn’t say it to anyone else. I was scared of what the other women would do if they thought I was soft on a male. Even if they didn’t just kill me for that or for letting one go, they would throw me back out on the street. And that was as good as execution! Vyron said he understood, that he loved me and didn’t want me to get hurt for him. I didn’t like it, but there was nothing I could do that wouldn’t get us both killed.

“Vyron was around for about four months, I think, when some other men came for him. They were his gang, the ones the Sisters attacked when they first caught Vyron. They killed four Sisters during the fighting and lost three of their own. But they got Vyron away. I was out using some of the money the other girls stole to buy food for everyone. They told me about the whole thing later, when I got back.

“I guess I wasn’t as upset as they thought I should have been. I missed Vyron, but I was happy that he was safe. I think that’s when they started getting suspicious. I was pregnant… I didn’t realize it until Vyron was already gone. We’re not allowed to get shots to stop that in the Sisterhood. Mothering is really, really important to them. So all of the girls started getting excited because they might have a new Sister.

“So I got scared all over again. What if it’s a boy? They’d kill him! And if it’s girl, she’d just grow up hating her father and all men…” Kessa began to sob again at the prospect. It was a minute or two before she could finish her story.

“So I ran away. It didn’t take them long to find out I was gone and start chasing me. I was trying to get away when I ran into her,” she said, pointing at Maeve. “And the man with the old metal hand, the cybernetic stuff. I guess you know everything else.”

Duaal looked at Tiberius.

“I see,” he grunted and scratched his stubbled cheek.

Everyone waited.