Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent

where, and what,
is home?
     
    Two women walked into Hama’s office: one short, squat, her face a
hard mask, and the other apparently younger, taller, willowy. They
both wore bland, rather scuffed Occupation-era robes - as he did -
and their heads were shaven bare.
    The older woman met his gaze steadily. ’My name is Gemo Cana. This
is my daughter. She is called Sarfi.’
    Hama eyed them with brief curiosity. The daughter, Sarfi, averted
her eyes. She looked very young, and her face was thin, her skin
sallow.
    This was a routine appointment. Gemo Cana was, supposedly, a
representative of a citizens’ group concerned about details of the
testimony being heard by the preliminary hearings of the Truth
Commission. The archaic words of family - daughter, mother - were
still strange to Hama, but they were becoming increasingly more
common, as the era of the Qax cadres faded from memory.
    He welcomed them with his standard opening remarks. ’My name is
Hama Druz. I am an adviser to the Interim Coalition and specifically
to the Commission for Historical Truth. I will listen to whatever you
wish to tell me and will help you any way I can; but you must
understand that my role here is not formal, and - ’
    ’You’re tired,’ Gemo Cana said.
    ’What?’
    She stepped forward and studied him, her gaze direct,
disconcerting. ’It’s harder than you thought, isn’t it? Running an
office, a city - a world. Especially as you must work by persuasion,
consent.’ She walked around the room, ran a finger over the data
slates fixed on the walls, and paused before the window, gazing out
at the glistening rooftops of the Conurbation, the muddy blue-green
of the canals. Hama could see the Spline ship rolling in the sky, a
wrinkled moon. She said, ’It was difficult enough in the era of the
Qax, whose authority, backed by Spline gunships, was
unquestionable.’
    ’And,’ asked Hama, ’how exactly do you know that?’
    ’This used to be one of my offices.’
    Hama reached immediately for his desktop.
    ’Please.’ The girl, Sarfi, reached out towards him, then seemed to
think better of it. ’Don’t call your guards. Hear us out.’
    He stood. ’You’re a jasoft. Aren’t you, Gemo Cana?’
    ’Oh, worse than that,’ Gemo murmured. ’I’m a pharaoh… You know,
I have missed this view. The Qax knew what they were doing when they
gave us jasofts the sunlight.’
    She was the first pharaoh Hama had encountered face to face.
Before her easy authority, her sense of dusty age, Hama felt young,
foolish, his precious philosophies half-formed. And he found himself
staring at the girl; he hadn’t even known pharaohs could have
children.
    Deliberately he looked away, seeking a way to regain control of
the situation. ’You’ve been in hiding.’
    Gemo inclined her head. ’I spent a long time working in offices
like this one, Hama Druz. Longer than you can imagine. I always knew
the day would come when the Qax would leave us exposed, us
pharaohs.’
    ’So you prepared.’
    ’Wouldn’t you? I was doing my duty. I didn’t want to die for
it.’
    ’Your duty to Qax occupiers?’
    ’No,’ she said, a note of weariness in her voice. ’You seem more
intelligent than the rest; I had hoped you might understand that
much. It was a duty to mankind, of course. It always was.’
    He tapped a data slate on his desk. ’Gemo Cana. I should have
recognised the name. You are one of the most hunted jasofts. Your
testimony before the Commission - ’
    She snapped, ’I’m not here to surrender, Hama Druz, but to ask for
your help.’
    ’I don’t understand.’
    ’I know about your mission to Callisto. To the enclave there. Reth
has been running a science station since before the Occupation. Now
you are going out there to close him down.’
    He said grimly, ’These last few years have not been a time for
science.’
    She nodded. ’So you believe science is a luxury, a plaything for
easier times. But science is a thread in the tapestry of our humanity
- a thread Reth has maintained. Do you even know what he is doing out
there?’
    ’Something to do with life forms in the ice - ’
    ’Oh, much more than that. Reth has been exploring the nature of
reality - seeking a way to abolish time itself.’ She smiled coolly.
’I don’t expect you to understand. But it has been a fitting goal, in
an era when the Qax have sought to obliterate human history - to
abolish the passage of time from human consciousness…’
    He frowned. Abolishing