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“Patri,” Apollonia said.
“What?” Jaya asked.
“Patri was one of them. She was an older gal . . . Nicer than most. She came over from Vitriol like I had. We had that in common, but we hadn’t known each other before.”
“Why did she go to New Vitriol?” Jaya asked. “It does not seem a desirable move.”
“Some people thought they could do better there. ‘I’ll get a claim and strike a rich phosphorous vein and be set for life’ kinda thing. But not Patri, she came over to escape like me. I think she had a husband who beat her and she thought one day he’d just beat her to death.”
Apollonia’s drink was empty, and she signalled the bartender for another. The man put one down and she continued.
“But Patri would wrap stuff up and leave it for me. Actual meals sometimes, I knew she couldn’t spare them, but she did it anyway. I guess she believed some of the religious stuff about being kind to the hungry.”
“She sounds like a good soul,” Jaya said.
“I don’t think I ever even said thank you,” Apollonia said. “We barely spoke. She wouldn’t meet my eye – or anyone’s, really. She’d just come near me, set it down, and walk away.”
“Shy, perhaps?”
“She was shy,” Apollonia agreed. “But I thought of it more like . . . tribute. I was considered weird, ya know? People thought I had spooky powers. Sometimes people asked me to read their fortunes or try to take some curse off them. But most of the time they just blamed me for bad luck.”
Apollonia twisted, touching her back above her shoulder blade. “I have a scar there from a rock someone threw at me when I came into a restaurant.”
“Stars! It’s . . .” Jaya paused, as if trying to find the words. “I’m glad you were not more seriously hurt.”
Apollonia went quiet a moment. Then; “I guess they thought it’d be worse luck to hurt me. But anyway – Patri. She just seemed to want to keep on my good side by giving me food. I didn’t question it.”
Jaya pursed her lips. “Or maybe she just didn’t want to see you die.”
“I suppose,” Apollonia drawled. “I wonder how she’s doing. You think she’s getting medical attention now?”
“Certainly,” Jaya said. “On the last report they’d driven the cancer rate down to . . . not quite zero, but near it. We’ll hit zero soon. And the rad shielding . . . it’s something like . . . eighty-four percent . . . oh bother, I can’t remember a damn thing right now.”
Apollonia could not push her thoughts past how she was feeling about all of it, though. None of this sat well with her, and yet – she’d thought often about how much she wished the whole of New Vitriol would just fall into a star. Even if she’d been on it, she’d thought it for some time.
But the guilty thought always came up, as if her thoughts actually mattered in the survival of the place, of people like Patri.
She took another drink. She needed a lot more before she could really cope with all this.
Jaya seemed at a loss for something to say, and one of those long-standing questions that Apollonia had thought of at other times popped up.
“Why did you join the Voidfleet?” she asked.
For a moment, Jaya’s face was open with surprise, but she caught herself and looked down, trying to compose.
“My brother and I always talked about it,” she said.
The mention of her brother caused alarm to rise in Apollonia, and it took her tipsy mind a few moments to place why;
Jaya’s brother, who had been sent to his death in the line of duty. Who had done so gladly, because he alone had been able to save the thousands of others on his ship.
An ache was growing in her chest, but the question had already been asked, and Jaya continued.
“He was the oldest of us,” she said. “I was the youngest by ten years. But we were very close – I followed his lead, and he always respected and listened to me, he saw my talent, I suppose.”
She paused, and Apollonia opened her mouth to change the topic, but Jaya pushed on. “He joined first and wrote to me a lot. Told me all about his adventures – I knew he embellished them, but I loved him for it. Exploring planets and meeting aliens. He even came here to Gohhi often – I don’t think this bar, but I don’t know for sure.”
She emptied her drink, but this time did not ask for another. “I was in my first year when he died under Brooks, and-“
“Wait!” Apollonia said. “He died under Brooks?!”
“Yes,” Jaya replied sharply. “And I hated him for it – for years. But I eventually realized that Brooks was right in his order, and my brother was right to obey. But he’s gone either way, and we’re never going to-“
Jaya cut herself off, hissing a curse. She took a few moments, visibly putting herself together before meeting Apollonia’s eyes again.
“It’s not pointless, though. Even though it was not supposed to be this way, I am here. I do my duty, and one day – I don’t know. Perhaps there will be true closure.”
Apollonia didn’t really know what to say to that for several long moments.
“We always come back to serious shit, don’t we?” she finally said.
Jaya almost smiled. “The universe is serious. Now, I don’t mean to alarm you, but I believe trouble is about to break out.”
Other Terrestrial 
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