Silent Flyght – Chapter 2

From the Amagi to the hired shuttle, Tomu does everything he can to get away from us. He thrashes, screams, and throws himself at the tiny window in the airlock. I’m sure people a thousand kilometers away can hear him crying.

Ugh. Shut up.

Jinzo deposits him in a wall chair and straps him in. The rest of us stream right past him.

“You know you can’t just keep ignoring me and wishing I was gone, right?”

My jaw is clenched so tight, I’m getting a headache. “I can gag you, though. Don’t tempt me.”

Jinzo, Gus, Ken, Skylar, and I pack the shuttle and make our way to Sakata City for the next few days. We have contracts to sign and a party to attend, and I put both events far above the comfort of my brother any day of the week. Maybe I’m selfish, but I don’t care anymore. He doesn’t care, so why should I?

“Oh, sure. Go ahead and gag me. What else are you going to do?”

I ignore him.

As soon as we’re done in Sakata City, we need to be on our way back to Mayashu to pick up the Amagi and head for Sonoma. I have a week, tops, with this asshole before I have to figure out what to do with him. I can’t keep him around forever. Someone is bound to notice him if I delay. We’ve probably already been found out.

Because he’s right. What else am I going to do? Should I hand him off to the military? Or should I give him over to Athens Industries? India Dellis’s words come back to me as I close my eyes and rest my head against the headrest on my seat. They won’t interfere with my repurchase of the farm if I give them everything — my brother, the plants, and the seeds. Can I trust them?

Maybe if I agree to their terms, they’ll leave me alone about working for Athens Industries too. I know why they keep asking. They want to keep an eye on me since I’m aware of their secret business now. But I will not cave. I have a new message from Renata or India Dellis every other day, imploring me to join her ranks. She can keep asking, and I’ll keep denying.

At least I’ve put Gai Reis and his human trafficking in my past. That’s one less thing to worry about for the time being. I’ll be happy if I never see another cryocontainer again.

Gus looks sideways at Tomu. “You know, Vivian has sacrificed a lot to get her farm back, and you’re the one who put her in this situation. You could gain a better position for yourself here if you’d just shut up and play nice.”

“Fuck you, you cuck. Shut up and find your dick. It’s missing.”

My body heats to a million degrees as I reach over, grab Ken’s pant leg, and squeeze. I tighten my fist, drawing the fabric between my fingers and trying my hardest to not lash out.

Gus’s stare is withering. “Vivi, I might beat you to shoving him out the airlock.”

“Please do,” Skylar says from the pilot’s chair. She’s not doing much but watching the AI navigate the skyways. “He was always an idiot. Now, he’s an asshole idiot.”

The rage burns fast and bright, and I let it all out with a long breath. I let go of Ken’s pant leg, and he smooths out the fabric with his palm.

“Hear that, Tomu? Pretty much everyone wants you dead. We do. Our parents are done with you. The military would be happy to lock you up and execute you. Renata Dellis told me herself she’s looking forward to seeing you again, and she implied she has a way to wring the information she wants out of you.”

Tomu’s lips thin.

“There’s no one left for you to run to.”

His face regains some color. “How little you know,” he says and directs this eyes to the window.

The shuttle jostles as we settle into our berth at Sakata City. Thank the heavens we’re here because I can’t spend one more minute with this guy. I have spent the last two months searching for him, and now that I’ve found him, I want nothing to do with him.

Skylar powers down the shuttle, and Tomu’s eyes widen as he realizes we’re about to leave him here. Yep, we’re leaving him.

“Wait,” he says, trying to raise his hands. They jerk to a stop as they come to the end of their rope. “You can’t just leave me here.”

“I can, and I will.” I grab my bag. “We’re going to let you use the bathroom. You already ate this morning. Ai, will keep you company. Isn’t that right, Ai?”

I glance over at the datapad hooked up to the shuttle.

“I sure will, Captain. And no amount of begging or faking of death or illness will convince me to give Tomu access to the duonet or call the authorities. But I have access to music and movies. He can ask for porn as well, but I doubt he’ll be able to do anything about the urgings that would bring about.”

Tomu’s face falls.

Even Ai doesn’t give a shit about him. I’ve been nothing but scowls since I woke up this morning, but now, a genuine smile floats to the surface. It’s a smile of triumph, and it’s evil, and I know it. Once again, I don’t care.

“You see, she’s kind of an illegal AI, and she has no concern for your well-being. She will let you die if you hurt yourself. And anything you say or do in here, I’ll know about.”

He opens his mouth to talk, but I hold up my hand. “Feel free to scream yourself hoarse and bang around. Jinzo rented me the soundproof shuttle at extra expense.”

He deflates back into his chair. I have thought of everything this time. I may not get so lucky again. I have to take advantage of this time while I have it.

I wait for everyone to disembark from the shuttle, wave to Tomu, and then shut the door on his face. If he’s cursing me out from behind the closed door, I can’t tell. As I walk away from the shuttle, layers of stress slough off my body, and I feel lighter the further I get from him.

Through the spaceport and into Sakata City, we drop everything off at our hotel and travel by train to the center of town. My family has always signed contracts at the Sakata Town Hall. Town halls have been the places of marriages, birth and death certificates, licenses, and many other things, a standard set all the way back to Old Earth. The Sakata Town Hall has a whole wing of individual rooms for rent dedicated to relationship networks. It’s the cornerstone of our society, and we have treated it as such for hundreds of years.

For our trip into the city center, I sit with Ken on one side, and Gus on the other, while Jinzo stands over us and watches out the window. For Gus and Ken, Sakata City is nothing new. Jinzo, though, has never spent much time planetside, so he keeps his eyes trained on the world out the window.

I reach forward and tug on his shirt. “What do you think? This will be a part of your home someday.”

He pulls his eyes from the view and connects with me. “I like it. It’s different from Palo Alto and Rio. Has a… an Old World feel to it.”

Gus nods, agreeing with Jinzo’s assessment.

“It’s a great city. Cosmopolitan without being too full of itself. I sometimes find Concord City too high and mighty,” Ken says, turning to look out the window. His eyebrows draw together. “It’s usually not this crowded, though.”

“Isn’t this our stop?” Jinzo asks.

“Yeah. It is.” I stand up with the guys and realize how crowded the train is too. The eyes of dozens of men follow my every movement as we try to exit the car with a hundred other people.

My skin crawls, and a prickle of dread creeps along the back of my head as we’re swept into the melee with everyone else.

“Stick together,” Ken calls out, wrapping his arm around my waist. Jinzo and Gus are right next to me too. “Something is going on.”

Something is definitely going on. Men pull signs from bags as we get closer to the town center square. They raise their voices and placards reading, ‘Bring Back Manpower!’ and ‘Stop the Cuckolding of the Duo Systems!’ and ‘End the Reign of Women!’

Panic builds as many of these men leer at me. Their gazes clearly communicate that I’m meat, a tasty meal, something to be possessed and ruled over. My heart pumps like a racing ship, and I can’t breathe. I try to seek out the faces of other women in the crowd, and there are none.

“Jin,” I squeak. He angles me so we walk out of the mass of people and towards an open convenience store.

This is the first time ever in my life I’ve been afraid of a crowd of men. The laws in the Duo Systems are strict. Violence against women hasn’t been tolerated for a hundred years or more. And men are tried for fewer crimes now that the relationship network system takes care of so many. I always figured I had the protection of society and the government.

But it appears not.

“Fucking Reformers.” Ken’s voice is thick with anger as he pulls me to him. All the guys have gathered in close now. “I had no idea they were so numerous.”

“So many men are forced to go without women because the Vir gene just can’t be stopped.” Gus steps up and moves us along the storefronts towards the Town Hall. “There are rumors that the Vir gene has surged again. Some recessive genes are mutating or something… I admit I only barely understood the white paper.”

A surge in the Vir population is suspicious if you ask me. There are easy ways to declare men Vir free even if they’re not. The only provided gene screening is a product of Athens Industries.

We round the last corner, and a bullhorn is blowing over a crowd of thousands. A man in his early forties, his hair streaked with gray, raises his fist. He looks familiar, but I can’t place him.

“… We’re tired of being second-class citizens! Women are weaker than men. They have been and always will be the weaker sex. Why are we letting them run our governments? Own all the land?”

A cheer rises from the crowd, and a cascade of shivers runs across my shoulders and arms.

“The Vir gene has kept us down, cowed, for centuries! This inequality must end!”

He raises both fists in the air, and the crowd cheers him on. Gus and Jinzo pull me away, while Ken stares in horror. The men raise their voices, and a chant of ‘No More Women!’ grows among the participants.

We skitter along the street to the Town Hall and make it inside before anyone else can spot us.

“Can you believe that?” Gus asks, his voice filled with wonder.

“That’s suicide. No more women? We’d all die out in a generation.” Ken is just as shocked as I am.

“They know they can’t get by without women,” Jinzo says, urging us away from the door. “That’s the whole point. I’ve heard rumors of underground tech that will turn women into gestating machines. Horrific stuff.”

I wet my dry lips and stare out the window at the crowd of men chanting and raising their fists in the air. Something tells me that beautiful women would get a pass, and plain women like me would be the first to be converted into baby-making machines. No wonder Tomu believed in this business so thoroughly.

And while Athens Industries is turning Vir boys into some kind of monsters, the rest of society is looking to revert to the Dark Ages.

I’m watching history repeat itself.

And there’s not a damned thing I can do to stop it.