Restoration of Honor

Dragging Aric out of the terminal, Miles headed to a small ramp located in front of the shuttle port.

As they climbed the stairs to the platform, Aric took a deep breath, inhaling the hot, dry air. He released it slowly, swearing he could see it shimmering in the heat from the sun reflected as visible waves rippling upward from the polyconcrete.

The streets were a composite mixture of aggregate sand and gravel, water, something called Portland cement in powder form, and polyeuride, a type of plastic. Mixing polyeuride with the other ingredients allowed walkways and highways to expand or contract under the extreme temperature changes of winter and summer, causing fewer cracks and breaks needing less repair.

During one of the mini-lectures he’d given Aric about his home planet, Miles explained that fact. Aric hadn’t bothered telling him Arcanis had been using similar material on their roadways for centuries, nor did he ask why Terra took so long discovering the procedure enabling the Federation Department of Transportation to save itself a great deal of credits in road repair. He simply put it down to that seeming Terran inability to see the obvious until a great deal of time passed.

While Miles slapped a hand against the dome of the bollard at the top of the ramp, transmitting a signal that there were passengers requiring immediate transportation, Aric set down his kit. Thrusting his hands into the pockets of his jeans, he looked around expectantly.

This terminal was no different from any other he’d ever seen. It was a small building, constructed completely of glassine acrylic, tinted dark gray with an ultraviolet protectorant repelling the more harmful sunbeams. A narrow pedestrian walkway fronted the building while across an equally narrow traffic street, stood a multi-tiered aircar park where various vehicles were being backed out of their stalls, stabilized, then flown away at cruising level.

Overhead, an escalating walkway connected the terminal to the parking facility. Some of the disembarking passengers were being carried across, while others waited at the other end for the lift taking them to various floors and their own vehicles.

There were several ramps like the one they had mounted. Non-aircar owners waited in line before those. Some adjusted their sunshields while others busily applied a spritz of sunscreen from nonaerosol pump tubes.

As for the surrounding scenery…

Aric wasn’t very impressed. As far as he could tell, there was nothing around for miles. After the green forests and grassy meadows on Pyras, the shuttle port appeared to be in the middle of a desert vaster than Assamede on Arcanis. Its most common feature was sand, and plenty of it, the expanse broken here and there by rocky outcroppings and tall thorny examples of flora he’d have called cacti if he’d been back home.

I’ll be there soon enough but I doubt I’ll have a chance to compare Terra’s desert plants to any of Assamede’s.

In the distance was a line of something pale blue and jagged, barely visible through the trembling heat-waves.

Mountains?

The appearance of a hovercab interrupted Aric’s observations.

“Cab, gents?” The driver’s question came through a small speaker attached to the outside of the nearest door.

The cab was a Federation-listed member, as its all-red exterior and the little stars-and-bars decal in the corner of the windscreen declared. Aric noted some of the other cabs picking up passengers were independents, their red and black checkerboard doors surprisingly blatant in announcing to everyone their owners were non-Union.

“You bet,” Miles answered.

“Where to?” came the query.

“A couple of places. First, I want you to take us to Gran Sur, then to Kansas City,” Miles replied.

“That’ll cost you a bit.” Through the window, the cabbie stared at him. “Can you pay?”

To a stranger like Aric, the question sounded rude, but Miles had already explained that cab fare skips were one of the most common crimes on Terra. It was the rule now for cabbies to demand payment up front because early on so many passengers asked for rides and then hopped out and ran away without paying. Some still tried it, using false credits cards or stolen bank debit IDs, however.

“Of course.” Miles held up his TerraFormation ID card.

“He got one, too?” The driver nodded at Aric.

Without answering, Aric produced his own card from his pocket. The man studied the two cards. He picked up a grid and entered a text, flipped a switch on the dashboard and began to punch the information into the minute GPS terminal.

Verifying images, names, and numbers…that was also standard procedure now. It was getting more and more difficult for anyone to cheat a cab driver.

After a moment, he said, “Both trips will be a thousand and fifty credits for two passengers. Want that split?”

“No,” Miles answered.

“Yes,” Aric said.

“This is my treat.” Miles was ready to argue.

“Treats go only so far.” Aric looked back at the driver, saying in a tone making Miles not argue, “Split fare.”

“You got it.” The cabbie tapped a pad and the back door flew upward. Always get a destination and name of credits card owner before allowing passenger into the vehicle, as per standard Federation guidelines against cab-jacking.

Miles threw his kit inside and climbed in, motioning for Aric to follow.

He obeyed and settled himself, dropping his kit to the floor between his feet while he dodged being slapped by the safety harness as it automatically dropped over his shoulders.

On the card payment terminal attached to the back of the driver’s seat, behind the laser-proof partition separating driver from passengers, a red light glowed.

This is a split fare, to be paid through TerraFormation employee cards, a humanoid but slightly metallic voice issued from its speaker. Please each insert your credits card into the slot provided.

Miles complied. There was a quiet hum, the announcement, Thank you, Mr. Sheffield, and now your companion’s card, please?

Aric supplied his card and was thanked as cordially if mechanically. Thank you, Mr. kan Ingan. Please enjoy your trip to Gran Sur and Kansas City.

“Gods,” he muttered as he retrieved his card and tucked it away. “I just remembered why Arcanis has such a dislike of androids and automatons. They’re so damned impersonal but polite.”

“Yeah,” Miles agreed cheerfully. “You suppose that backward li’l ol’ planet you’re from will ever catch up with the rest of the universe?” He laughed as Aric grimaced.

“Are you two settled?” the driver interrupted.

“Rarin’ to go,” Miles leaned back.

The cab pulled away from the ramp. In a few seconds, they were flying levelly at take-off height. As soon as the port was left behind, the cab climbed to cruising height, then settled at eighty feet, permissible for such a long trip.

Aric looked out the window. The shuttle port was no longer visible, but he was surprised to see tiny buildings, a great number of them, neatly arranged and very modern.

“What’s—”

“Greater Phoenix,” Miles supplied. He barely glanced out the window, keeping his gaze straight ahead and away from either side window.

Aric stifled a smile. He didn’t mind air travel. He’d piloted gunships during some of Arcanis’ military engagements, and had flown a darter on Pyras. Miles, however…

His friend hated any kind of aerial transportation. His delicate Terran stomach never adjusted well to flying in a hovercraft, darter, or any type of small craft. Apparently, it didn’t intend to do so today, either. It was odd how he didn’t mind interplanetary travel, however.

Susan had been the same way to a certain extent. She’d always been uneasy while in the darter taking her to and from her patients at the mining colonies, but for a different reason. She’s lost her former pilot, the man she was going to marry, to a jalbeay attack when he had to set down because of reactor problems. When Aric was assigned as his replacement, he managed to convince her no jalbeay would dare attack a darter he was piloting.

Stop thinking about her. That isn’t going to help.

Aric forced himself to blank out his thoughts, concentrating on the landscape so far below, thinking of what Miles had told the cabbie.

“I’m a little hazy on Terran geography.” Aric hoped to get Miles’ mind off incipient air-sickness and his own from anything to do with Susan.

A little? I don’t know the first thing about Terra’s physical features and atmospheric processes.

He’d never had any desire to learn until he met Miles’ sister…that beautiful conniving bitch.

That was Aric’s automatic reaction whenever he thought of Elizabeth. Even now, his feelings were so ambivalent merely thinking about her brought that vehement response. He certainly hadn’t wanted to know about Terra when he learned his uncle was marrying a Terran. As far as Aric was concerned, there was nothing he was interested in knowing about the planet that was the birthplace of the woman usurping his position as his uncle’s heir.

It was only after meeting her parents that he’d researched her home planet, and that only long enough to answer a couple of questions that came up during his conversations with them.

“What did you call this place we’re going to?”

“Gran Sur,” Miles answered, adding, “Specifically the California Peninsula.”

“California Peninsula,” Aric repeated, and waited for an explanation.

“You see…” Miles slipped into what Aric called his teacher mode.

He had such a fondness for explaining things, Aric once accused him of being in love with his own voice.

“California once stretched along the entire west coast of NorAmerica. I understand it was a beautiful place. Some people actually called it Paradise. Only trouble was, it had faults…”

“Don’t we all?” Aric murmured.

“…the geophysical kind, I mean,” Miles retorted. “A couple of centuries ago, the fault on which most of the land rested—I think it was called Saint Andreas—broke off and dumped two-thirds of the state into the ocean. All that’s left now are three islands, Alcatraz, Cataline, and Angel Island, and the Peninsula, where Angel City and Coast City are located. That’s where we’re headed.”

“How long will it take?”

“About twenty more minutes,” the driver spoke up. Apparently, he had the intercom between the driver and passenger section on so he could listen in.

“In that case, wake me when we get there.” Much to Miles’ envy, Aric relaxed and promptly fell asleep.

* * *

Miles may have thought Aric was asleep but he wasn’t. Not really. Leaning back with his eyes closed simply prevented him from seeing his friend and feeling again that overpowering sadness as he thought how the younger man was going to suffer once their journey reached its inevitable conclusion.

Keeping his eyes closed didn’t stop him from thinking, however. If Miles could’ve heard Aric’s thoughts, he would’ve been disturbed by their pessimism.

What the hell am I doing? Why did I let Miles talk me into this? Is it so he can have a brief moment of happiness before the grief he’ll experience when he realizes he can’t prevent my death? Am I trying to distract myself from what’s coming? If so, it’s not working. He’s barely recovered from Becky’s death and now he’ll have another bout of grief to contend with. I care too much about Miles, I admit it. Never thought I’d say that about a Terran. So here I am…on an alien world, about to intrude into an alien family simply to make my friend happy. Why didn’t I stay on Pyras, marry Susan, and take my chances with the Peace Guard? Shortly after I set foot on Arcanis, I’ll be dead. My uncle will see to that.

His thoughts veered away from Miles and onto a more personal tangent.

Will he let me see my mother before it happens? Do I want to…and reopen the pain she’s already suffered? Why did I really come back? Is it to see Elizabeth? Why would I want to, after the way she betrayed me? Was it to see Arcanis once more…the planet-lover coming home? I had it all back on Pyras and now I’m going to throw it away. I’m ten times a fool.

He might’ve kept that kind of reasoning going all the way to Gran Sur, if the rhythmic, monotonous rumble of the cab’s reactors hadn’t actually lulled him into a real sleep.

* * *

Aric kan Ingan was a member of the Arcanian nobility, former tanist to the present margrave, in fact, raised in luxury and splendor, pampered and spoiled because of his status as heir apparent to the Arcanian throne. Bereft of his succession to the crown by his uncle’s unexpected union with a Terran woman, Aric swore to hate his new aunt-by-marriage on sight.

What happened instead was ironic.

After a long and virulent feud on both sides, Aric and Elizabeth Sheffield fell in love, beginning a decades-long affair carried out in his uncle’s unsuspecting presence. It was only after a threat by the populace in rebellious protest over the birth of Deroës kan Ingan’s half-alien daughter that Elizabeth convinced her husband he should marry his nephew to the little princess in an effort to please his people, thereby restoring a full-blood to the throne. Aric refused, and found himself accused of being the rebel leader. Subsequently, he was exiled from the planet, his uncle loving him too much to order his execution.

Aric didn’t consider his uncle’s leniency any kindness. To most Arcanians, the thought of being forced to leave the Mother planet was as close to a death sentence as one could get and still live, and he was no different.

Bereft of his citizenship, ordered never to return to Arcanis under pain of death, he’d taken the vows of an Exile in a desperate hope that the gods and his uncle would allow him to someday come back home. Aric wandered the Emeraunt Galaxy for a decade as a Non-Citizen, with no Rights to protect him. Addicted and penniless, he finally fell as low as he thought he could…by signing on to work for a Terran company interested in mining a small planetoid called Pyras. There he met Miles Sheffield, Elizabeth’s younger brother who became Aric’s instant enemy and eventually his best friend.

Aric also fell in love with Susan Moran, doctor for the settlement, for whom he eventually forsook his vows of chastity and physical deprivation, becoming her lover. That had been his place in life until a few months before when Susan stated she wanted a home and children. Aric tried to explain an Exile wasn’t allowed those luxuries, because his wife and offspring would inherit the same sentence pronounced upon him. Susan refused to understand, and her stubbornness caused their break-up.

It was then Aric knew he had to return home, to find the man who could prove his innocence and help restore his citizenship so he could return to Pyras, marry Susan and be assured of her safety as well as their future children’s.

That was what he told Susan, but he’d explained it more fully to Miles. Aric told him the truth of why he was exiled. His friend knew there was little chance of his being pardoned but still clung to the futile hope that being Elizabeth’s brother might give him some influence with his brother-in-law, Aric’s uncle.

Six weeks ago, he invited Aric to come to Terra with him.

Now Aric was on his way…

…to his death…

…after a brief stopover on planet Earth.