Page 72 of Claimed By the Condemned Alien

Lina’s fingers closed around Kesta’s hand.

Dreven moved the cot into position and stepped away without being asked. He did not join the front of the gathering, although nobody would have challenged his right to stand there. Instead he went to the outer edge, near enough to be present and far enough that the dead woman’s ceremony did not become another thing belonging to the commander.

Kesta noticed that too.

Sera placed the bowl in Lina’s lap.

“Speak what should not be forgotten.”

Lina stared at her sister.

For several seconds Kesta thought she would be unable to speak.

Then Lina drew a shaking breath.

“She hated silence.”

A few people smiled through their grief.

“She sang when engines failed because she said machines worked better when insulted musically.” Lina’s mouth crumpled, but she continued. “She cheated at cards. Badly. Everyone knew, but she thought she was brilliant at it. She saved the sweet part of ration bars and pretended she didn’t like sweets so she could give them to Dav when she went home.”

Her voice broke.

Kesta tightened her hand around Lina’s.

The other human survivors began to cry.

Kesta had known Mira only during the worst hours of her life. She could not give childhood stories, favorite songs or private jokes. She could give the truth she had witnessed.

“She chose her sister.”

Lina made a small broken sound.

Kesta looked at Mira’s wrapped body.

“She was sick. She was frightened. The guards had already decided her life was finished before her heart stopped. She still spent the time she had making sure somebody knew Lina existed.”

Warm air rose from the fissure and stirred Kesta’s hair.

“The empire called her cargo. It called all of us dead. Mira died as herself.”

Sera scattered the first handful of ash.

Lina followed.

Then the others.

When the gray mineral touched the rising heat, it lifted through the gathering in a thin shimmering veil.

Nobody spoke until it disappeared.

Dreven remained at the edge of the crowd long after most people had gone.

Kesta helped Sera take Lina back to the infirmary, then found herself returning to the fissure instead of going to her room.

Dreven stood with his back to her, looking into the red glow below.

His tail lay quiet against the stone.