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"What is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" Kendra asked, as she talked beside the much Captain of the colony ship. She had been so impressed with his abilities. Very few of the SubHybrids seemed to be able to function without their technology, but Captain Leonard McKnight seemed to be a natural, completely in charge regardless of having no access to the Song to issue commands. He had saved her life, matched the strength of the Gtar. She doubted that they could have won the battle without his presence on the field.
"I wanted to see how you are doing?" the captain responded. "We lost contact with you months ago, as you entered this area. That, and we had our own problems that were dealing with. I know I asked a lot of you to come out here on your own, especially at your young age. I didn't fully explain to you why I did."
Kendra pondered what she was being told. They were outside the borders of the Maletis camp, even beyond the ring of guards that they had set. The Maletis had yelled at her for coming out beyond their camp before, informing her that it was not safe. And yet here she was, several kilometers out beyond the furthest sentries. It showed the great respect and trust that McKnight had earned in the fight.
They were in the high hills now, above and to the northwest of the camp. Kendra wrapped herself tightly in the heavy-browns furs that were now dressing her. Her lower legs were still bear, in the Maletis fashion. Her leather shoes, also Maletis-made, crunched on the thin layer of snow that still clung to the earth. Kendra was told that this was NAME, or early spring on this planet. But it did not feel that way to her. She was shivering inside of her furs, and longed for the fires back at the Maletis camp. But out of respect for the captain, she walked patiently, suffered quietly.
"I was scared to come out here, Captain. But also relieved. I don't really fit in among my own people, and yet the Maletis, or most of them at least, took me right into their homes. They seemed primitive, backwards, but they are really not, sir. I think they might be more advanced in who they are, and who they understand themselves to be, than we are. It seems like we are lost. No offense, sir."
She had been looking up at the captain's eyes, but now looked down, shyly, feeling as though she had reprimanded the head of the fleet.
But he did not take it that way.
"Quite right," Captain Leonard McKnight said soberly. "We think, with all of our technology, we are superior to other races. Yet the Gtar have given us quite a fight, and I still don't understand that race. That do not have computers, but are able to control ours at a much more fundamental level. It is like they can see the flows of the electrons within our systems. They are going to continue to be a fierce opponent as we try to live on the world."
"Are we really aiming to live in peace with the Gtar and the Maletis and the others? Or is our aim to take over the world, to dominate it?" Kendra asked, anger in her voice. For she already knew the answer, and it wasn't the one she would like.
Captain McKnight didn't answer, didn't even look at the young girl. They continued to walk, until they crested the hill and started down the other side. From this vantage point Kendra could no longer see the forest with the Maletis camp. She was truly alone with this large, capable man.
The next words stunned the young girl.
"I knew your mother, Kendra. I knew Jacinta."
A shot of emotion pain ran through her then. She had given up the search for figure out the mystery of who she was, and now, from the captain of the fleet, she found out that people, at least the captain, did know about her after all. Kendra stopped walking, but the captain continued for several paces until he was about fifteen feet away. He then turned.
"I knew your father too. His name was Carlos. And I know about your gift, that you hear, and likely see, spirits. Your mother called them Shadows."
"What was Mom like, Captain?" Kendra found herself asking. "I remember so little. When did you know her?"
"We are not aboard ship now, or at the colony, Kendra," Captain McKnight said kindly. "Just call me Leo, or Lee. That is what your mother called me. I met her when I was very young. We were both not much older than you. She was sweet, quiet until you got to know her. Then she was very friendly, and playful. But she was also scared. Our world was dying, and I don't mean the super-nova. There was something wrong with it, something I couldn't see, but she could. No one else understood it as she did. I'm not sure anyone else could. Except for maybe you."
Kendra felt tears gathering in her eyes. Her face contorted in a strange way, as though it would break. She fought the urge to cry, but it was a fight that she was quickly losing. Captain McKnight... Lee... looked at her with compassion. He walked slowly over to her, and wrapped his arms around her. Kendra buried herself into his chest. This man, Lee, he was... what was he? She didn't know, but he ceased being a distant command figure, and now was someone from her past, someone who knew her mother. She gripped his jacket, and started to cry freely.
Through her tears, she asked, "Who am I? I've never known why I am the way I am. Why am I so different? Where is Mom? Where did she go? I cannot even remember her!"
So many questions. McKnight held her, let her cry, let her take everything in. When her breathing slowed down, he spoke softly.
"I could not save your mother, Kendra. The ship, the colony, the crew, the colonists, everything was about maintaining order, creating an advanced civilization for the future, to create a world different than the one we left behind. Your mother, I knew the truth about her. I had gotten her onto the ship, to save her from the nova, through defeating their computer security and putting the right orders through. But eventually they found the truth, closed the security whole. And they were always on the lookout, purging those who did not meet up to their standards. It was really bad before you were born, and for a while after. I eventually changed it as I rose through the ranks of the military, and as I was able to more and more manipulate the Song, and the Grid. I eventually changed it, for the better I hope. It was too late for Jacinta. But it was not too late for you."
Kendra crying slowed as the words sunk in. The Initial Novum, the starship, the crew, they had killed her mother?
"Why?" she said, a dangerous edge entering her voice. "You mean they killed Mom, don’t you? Because, why? Because she could see spirits? Or because she could not use the tech?"
"She kept quiet about the spirits. But there was no hiding in the end that she could not use the tech. We progressed to the point where we didn't need to speak to each other, we just communicated through thought. And your mother, Jacinta, she... she just couldn't do it."
Kendra felt a rage building within her. How could they? How could the people of the colony ship kill her mother, just because she didn't measure up to their standards? She could feel the same superiority of the Hybrids all through her life. They despised people like her, felt that she was a waste. But, evidently, it used to be worse. They used to kill SubHybrids and NonHybrids. Now they just used them as a type of slave labor.
Kendra pushed away from Captain McKnight, backing up quickly. He tried to walk toward her, but she held up both her hands, a pained, angry, sorrowful, confused state taking hold of her. All of that reflected on her face, and the captain stopped advancing.
"Just stay away from me," she said coldly. "I don't want your help. I don't want your pity. You, you took my parents away from me!"
"No, and no again," Captain McKnight said softly. "I tried to save your mother. I... I loved her. Your father had some skills as a Hybrid. But he died, a little before you were born. He was on a dangerous mission."
Kendra didn't hear anymore. She turned, and ran. She wasn't running for the colony, but instead turned in a northward, away from everything, away from the Maletis, and away from this representative, of this symbol, of the people who had killed her mother. She heard the captain call out after her, but she didn't stop, didn't listen. She kept going, running.
She ran for the better part of an hour, her breathing now ragged, sweat pouring down her body, soaking her clothes, even with the cold weather all around her.