House of Reeds

Susan Kosho stared at him, the corners of her mouth tight with anger, eyes fierce. 'What are you doing? Have you lost all sense of self-preservation?'

'They betrayed us,' Hadeishi whispered, feeling his last vestige of strength drain away, leaking from arms, legs, and chest like a spilled jar, leaving him hollow and spent. 'We were chosen to die – as soon as we arrived, they saw our service jacket – they knew we could be cast aside without cost…'

Kosho leaned close, trying to catch the last of his words, but the Chu-sa fell silent. The lieutenant commander looked around the bridge, saw the two midshipmen were staring back at her with ashen faces and gave them both a steady, fulminating glare.

'I am taking the Chu-sa to Medical. Remain at your posts. If anyone calls from the Tehuia, inform them we're heavily damaged, the captain is wounded and I will call them back as soon as the situation has stabilized.'

Two-Dog nodded weakly and hunched over her station, concentrating fixedly on the display.

Kosho levered back the arms of the shockchair and gently eased her captain up. He seemed very small and frail. In z-g, she could carry him under one arm, kicking from stanchion to stanchion. The corridor outside was blackened with fire damage and nothing seemed to be working, but after years of service aboard she could find her way through the ship by touch if need be.

Instinctively, she moved up-ship, heading for the Chu-sa's cabin, but just past bulkhead sixteen, she found the passageway blocked by a temporary pressure seal. Everything beyond the damage control barrier seemed to be in ruins. Guiding his limp body ahead of hers with one hand, Susan turned aside, descended the gangway to the portside hallway and found herself, fifteen minutes later, at the door to her own cabin.

The pressure door had lost power, but she managed to force the panel aside and drifted in, head-lamp glowing on the walls and glancing across her personal effects. For a wonder, everything seemed to be intact. The tiny pair of rooms had not lost pressure or suffered fire damage. Her collection of hand-sized paintings of Imperial Court ladies was crooked on the wall, but still intact.

Kosho bundled the Chu-sa onto her bed and tucked a cotton quilt around him, strapping the edges down to hold him in place. Hadeishi's eyes were still open and staring into the darkness, but he said nothing. Worried, she tacked the lamp to one wall, letting the beam shine up on a section of patterned silk covering the overhead. White-winged herons and cranes interlocked in a delicate geometric pattern. The reflected beam suffused the room with a soft, greenish light.

Her helmet came undone with a soft click and Kosho wrinkled her nose at the smell of burned plastic and electrical insulation tainting the air. Her medband said the atmosphere was breathable, though chill. Turning off her comm, she unlatched the captain's helmet as well, letting his frayed gray-black hair float loose on her pillow. The bed was very narrow, but just wide enough to sit by his side, one booted foot braced against the desk to hold her in place.

'What happened to you?' Susan brushed greasy hair out of his eyes, her fingertips gentle on the patches of gel covering burns on his face. 'What happened to our ship?'

Slowly, Hadeishi's eyes turned towards her. They seemed empty, as if his soul had fled already, leaving only a pale, drained husk behind. Weary, he swallowed to clear his throat. 'I made a terrible mistake, Susan. I thought we would be safe once the ship was home – once we were in Imperial space.'

'A mistake?' Kosho's forehead wrinkled with a single sharp crease. 'A saboteur rigged the satellites in orbit as mines – Helsdon and Felix found the power plants had been replaced. No one could have -'

'Months ago.' Hadeishi said. 'Months ago. Do you…do you remember the day the malfunctioning message drone reached us?'

'In the dead G-4 system beyond Kahlinkiat? Yes, radiation had damaged the -'

'I wiped the drone message store,' Hadeishi said, so softly she could barely make out the words. 'Or most of it, anyway. The common news, the things the men look forward to, those I left intact…but not the personnel and fleet orders. I erased them all.'

'That is impossible.' Susan pressed the back of her hand to his forehead. He was icily cold. 'Only the ship's political officer has…' Her eyes widened and horror crept into her expression. 'Hummingbird gave you the control codes when he left us at Mimixcoa?'

Hadeishi nodded, making the thin, worn linen on the pillow rustle.

'I wanted…the orders…' He stopped speaking for a moment, gathering his strength. 'We were ordered home, Susan, to report to Toroson as soon as possible.'

'Mitsuharu!' Kosho cupped his pale, worn face with her hands. 'That was nine months ago! We've been living on dregs and scraping from system to system…' She drew back, comprehension slowly dawning in her face. Her expression softened minutely. 'What did the orders say?'

'We had a good ship,' Hadeishi said, eyes distant, staring through her at the overhead. 'A good crew. All these years of training and learning how to act as one…moving so smoothly, so effortlessly, without the slightest hesitation…the best crew I've ever had. A fine ship.'

'Mitsuharu,' Susan tried to catch his eye. 'What did the orders say?'

'They were…we were recalled to Toroson to deco mmission the Cornuelle, Susan. They were going to break her up, use her for maintenance parts for other Astronomer- class cruisers. They're…the whole class is being retired from service, or sold, or parted out.'

'Oh.' Kosho sat back, nostrils flaring, her face perfectly still. 'The ship.'

'You…' Hadeishi's face twisted and his eyes filmed with tears. 'You're a captain now, Susan. A Chu-sa yourself. You deserve the honor, I must say, more than any officer I've ever served with. And Hayes – he…he…made lieutenant commander. And Smith…ifthey're still alive. If any ofthem are. You're bound for the Naniwa – and she's a fine, fine ship – fresh from the yards. You'll…' Tears began to leak up from his eyes in tiny silver droplets and Susan had to turn away.

Imperial officers did not cry. Susan herself did not remember Hadeishi ever showing such raw emotion before – oh, he was fond of laughing and making sly hints and poking fun at her when he thought no one was looking – and he treated the junior officers very gently, by Fleet standards, but this…this was too much for her. She held herself very still, hands white at the knuckles as they clenched on the edge of the fold-out bed.

'You were all being taken away from me,' he rasped, barely able to speak. 'I was left with nothing. No ship, no crew, no purpose. You see…' He stopped, racked by a gasping heave. 'There was nothing for me. No promotion. No new ship. Only orders to proceed to Jupiter to wait on The List. Hayes…Hayes is for the Taiko, Smith for advanced school…Huйmac and the Marines for a training cycle at Syria Planum on Mars. You will all do so well.'

Susan closed her eyes, forcing herself to ignore the dreadful sound of his voice. His exhaustion was creeping into her as well, filling her heart with a cold emptiness.

'I just wanted a few more months of your company, Susan. A few more days to have a purpose.'

Kosho turned, pressing her hand across his mouth. Her eyes were very bright. 'Don't say anything. Nothing. No more.' She shook her head slowly, appalled and anguished in turn. 'We were out too long, Chu- sa! Worn down to nothing, spent, exhausted…did you think we were ronin in some old tale? Wandering from town to town, helping the peasants, fighting bandits…'

She stopped, her skin turning the color of fresh ash. 'You should have told me. We are Imperial officers, Mitsuharu. We have an honorable duty to attend. We can't just ignore orders…even if…even if they're painful to consider. And the ship…' Kosho looked up at the dead lights on the overhead. 'She is dying despite all you've done…we're badly damaged, kyo, they won't even bother to haul her back to Toroson.'

Hadeishi closed his eyes, turning his head away.

'Oh,' Susan said, the brief flare of anger dying, falling away into darkness. She put her hand on the quilt over his heart. 'I don't know what will happen to you…'

The room remained cold and quiet, even after he had succumbed to a fitful, weary sleep.

Kosho watched him for a long time, checking his medband now and again. At last, she stirred and forced herself to stand up. The little washroom lacked water pressure or lighting, but she managed to repair her makeup, now badly streaked and smeared, and make herself look presentable.

Then Chu-sa Kosho let herself out and headed for the secondary control bridge.