Chapter 7
The Needs of the Many
District C-1, Central Sector, Dominion of Nylos
Gally's eyes opened slowly. Between the dim light and the fact that she did not have her glasses, she could not really see much of anything. She was back in one of the dens, exactly which one she was not so sure. When she started to get up, she saw a vaguely humanoid shape move.
"Are you ready to calm down?" Giger asked.
That was right. Giger knocked her out. This was the second time he had done that to her. The first time was when they found the broken statue that was all that remained of her boyfriend from back in her previous life. It had awakened her old memories and the flood of anger, confusion and grief overwhelmed her. This time it was when she looked in the control room of the Star Seed's chamber and saw the bodies of the people who were statues themselves until the Star Seed awakened and merged with Mordekai.
First it was just the thought of these people like her, people from her own time, lying there naked and vulnerable. Then she thought of all the statues they passed in the Hollow Sea, like that mother and her baby... Then she thought of Shu and what Giger said would happen if the curse was broken. And then the thought of her family possibly being alive somewhere out there... It was too much. Could anyone blame her for losing it?
She paused. If she was being honest with herself, could anyone blame Giger for not wanting to deal with her hysterics?
It felt like it would only take the slightest push to get herself worked into a tizzy again, but she was still pretty exhausted from the last time. That and an unwillingness to be put out by Giger again helped keep her emotions in check.
"You're really not going to do anything for those people?" she asked.
"I'd like to know exactly what you think we can do," Giger replied.
He got closer to Gally and put her glasses on her face. Even though she could see him better, his expression was inscrutable. He did not seem angry or ashamed. She could not tell what he was thinking.
"This is their territory," he continued. 'They' of course being the Cerberus Guild. "It's their decision. We're only alive at their sufferance and I'd appreciate it very much if you wouldn't do anything that'd make them reconsider."
"There's got to be something we can do," Gally insisted. "Every second we waste, people could die."
"Like I said, this is their territory," Giger said, unmoved. "If they decide to let them die, there's not much we can do about it. If we try, we'll just end up joining them."
"Maybe that'd be better than having all that blood on my hands," Gally muttered.
Giger took hold of her by the shoulders and told her, "Look, Gally, I need you to be smart about this. You won't do anyone any good if you start making an enemy out of these people. Don't you think Mordekai's doing what he can?"
Gally looked around and not seeing him (or 'her' now, was it?), she asked, "Where is Mordekai?"
"He's speaking with the council."
"Is it okay for him to be alone?"
"Somebody had to keep an eye on you."
Now Gally was starting to feel guilty. It may not have made much difference, but Giger probably wanted to have Mordekai's back. It was not like she could control what happened and she would likely get wound up again once she shook off the effects of the sleep spell Giger cast on her.
"Do you know how many there are?" Gally asked. "The statues... Didn't you say you counted like 500 or something just in Vigau?"
"Four hundred thirty-seven," Giger said. "The Ministry of Antiquities would have the closest thing to an accurate count, but don't expect proper numbers coming out of places like Nylos or Jangsu. And that's just talking about civilization. Anything out in the Wastes would be unaccounted for, but if there's anyone out there, they're dead already. The only ones who have a chance are the ones in cities and towns. They'll probably get locked up as vagrants or lunatics. It'll all depend on how charitable the locals are feeling. Won't be too many enchantments like the ones you've got to help them communicate. And if they manage to awaken their memories..."
Gally was trying to remember what the population was before the Cataclysm. How many of them had been turned into statues? The problem seemed so huge. Giger was right that there was not much they could do, especially her. Even so, she could not find it in her to use her powerlessness as an excuse.
Her hands balled into fists, clutching at her skirt.
"I can't just leave those people out there," she said.
"What are you going to do?" Giger demanded. "You have a way to feed them, clothe them, give them shelter? Resources are spread thin enough as it is. Even if Nylians wanted to help, there's not much they can do."
"And you're okay with this?" Gally asked sharply.
"Acknowledging your own powerlessness isn't the same thing as being okay with it," Giger said.
"But you're not powerless, Giger. You're a wizard. You're the star pupil of Mordekai Grummond. You've been running circles around the Witch-hunters for years. If anyone can figure something out, it's you."
"Flattery'll get you nowhere," Giger replied with a grim smile. "Don't forget that there are over three hundred other wizards with different ideas about how things ought to be done. Not much I can do against that."
"I called you timid before," a woman's voice said, "but right now I'm thankful for your prudence, Giger."
It was Mordekai. Gally still was not used to his new form. He was now wearing the same sort of ragged robes as the Cerberus mages, presumably because they fit his new body better than his old clothes. Gally self-consciously glanced down at herself. There were no words to describe the absurd jealousy of an old man in a child's body taking on a more voluptuous figure than her own.
"I'd like to get out of this in one piece," Giger replied. He pointed to Gally. "This wannabe martyr isn't making that easy."
"I'm glad to see you've settled down, Galatea," Mordekai said. "I know this isn't easy for you, but I want you to know that we are doing what we can."
"And what is it that you can do?" Gally asked. "What's going to happen to the people we found underground?"
"The council has deemed them worthy of further study and the same goes for all the ones out in the Hollow Sea. They'll save as many as they can, insofar as they have food and clothing to spare for them. Some hard decisions will have to be made."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that they will decide which specimens have the best chance of survival."
Gally felt a chill.
"Specimens..." she muttered to herself.
"Come on, Mordekai," Giger said annoyedly. "Pick your words a little better."
Mordekai adjusted his glasses.
"You're right. Forgive me, Galatea. That was insensitive of me." He chuckled. "The hells must have frozen over if I'm being told to be more attentive to the feelings of others by you, Giger."
Giger grumbled something and looked away.
"It is the sad truth of the matter, however," Mordekai said. "The Nylians struggle to support the numbers they have. It will be difficult with all these additional mouths to feed. There can be no waste."
"What will happen to the others?" Gally asked, though she was sure she did not want to know the answer.
"You shouldn't have to ask, Galatea," Mordekai said. "The Cerberus Guild is well-practiced with this sort of thing."
Gally thought about what it would be like if she was one of the people out in the Hollow Sea, if it were family or friends of hers. Cursed for three hundred years only to be killed off the moment the curse was broken, all based on the calculations of a pack of dog-faced brutes...
"Why didn't you just kill us back then?" Gally asked. "If this is all that was going to happen, why didn't you just kill us?"
It took Mordekai a moment to realize Gally was not talking to him directly but rather to the Star Seed.
"Galatea, you must understand that she is as much of a victim as you," he said. "Her whole existence was within a glass tube. She never had the chance to develop reason or feel compassion. She does not have the capacity to understand. She simply reacted and the Cataclysm was the result."
"Reacted to what?" Giger asked.
"Remember that she has no capacity to reason, Giger," Mordekai said. "She has no way of knowing. There is only a feeling. If I had to call it anything, I would call it 'Mother'."
"Mother?"
"The Star Seed has a source and her instinctual memory connects her to that source. Something awakened the connection, a call to come home, to be one again. The Star Seed couldn't do that, though. She was bound to this planet and being unable to answer the call, it was like the pressure building in a volcano."
"And the Cataclysm was the eruption."
Mordekai nodded.
Gally did not know what to do with her feelings. If Mordekai was telling her the truth, she could not really blame the Star Seed for what happened, nor could she blame the Cerberus Guild for making the hard decisions to optimize the revived Ancients' chances of survival. She wanted to be angry at someone, but who? The government? It had been three hundred years. Even if the Empire survived, the people responsible were long since dead and gone. All this anger and frustration and nowhere productive for it to go.
Unbidden, she got a fragment of a memory of one of her colleagues from work, something of a queen bee among the office ladies. She liked to tease Gally for being uptight. And then there were the suggestions she made for Gally to relieve herself of her stress...
Gally blushed a little at the thought and when she looked at Giger, she turned a shade or two redder.
Even in the low light, even someone as dense as Giger could scarcely not notice.
"What?" he asked. "Are you getting a fever or something?"
Mordekai approached Gally and crouched down, then touched his forehead to hers. Even with him now having a woman's body, or maybe because of it, Gally felt a further flush of embarrassment.
"I don't think it's a fever," Mordekai said. "But all the stresses of our current situation can have a negative effect on the body. You need to take care, Galatea."
"Uh, right..."
Mordekai backed away. Gally noticed that Giger looked annoyed, maybe even a little more than usual.
"We are going to be here a while," Mordekai said. "I have agreed to help the Cerberus Guild with its research and I have volunteered you two as well. You will be most valuable to them, Galatea, as a sample who has already undergone this process and, Giger, your experience with her will provide the basis for how we proceed. I will, of course, be a subject of study myself, but that is to be expected."
Mordekai wrapped his arms around himself self-consciously. It seemed like a strange expression of vulnerability coming from him, but maybe it was the Star Seed expressing herself instead.
"You gonna be alright, old man?" Giger asked.
Mordekai then seemed to realize what he was doing and folded his arms to present a more assertive posture.
"This is an important opportunity to understand the Star Seed better, what she was, what we are, and what we might become."
Giger did not seem to be convinced in the slightest by the show of confidence and said, "If you tell me you don't have any misgivings about all this, I'll call you a liar."
Mordekai frowned at this.
"Our survival is contingent on our cooperation, Giger," he said, "on demonstrating enough value to justify the resources expended on us. The council is not of one mind. There are those who would kill us all before we can pose a threat to them.
"Fortunately for us, the Star Seed's power is too great. They fear it and desire it in equal measures. This fear and greed blind them to more utilitarian options. They won't stand against me because they fear they can't, and also because they want to monopolize on the gains they imagine us bringing them."
"You think you can keep stringing them along?"
"Until I can devise another plan, yes. I just need you to play your parts for the time being."
"What will we have to do?" Gally asked.
"That will depend on what they deem is necessary," Mordekai said. "We will probably start with simple interactions, try to gauge what their capacity is."
"Nothing she doesn't agree to," Giger said harshly.
This surprised Gally, firstly because she did not know what he might be thinking of and secondly because it actually sounded like he was sticking up for her.
"I will counsel restraint," Mordekai said. "I am sure they are eager to restore the Ancients' memories, but we will try to keep things within reason."
"What do you mean?" Gally asked.
"Your memories were restored by a traumatic experience," Giger told her. "I haven't let them know that, but they might guess at it on their own. I'm not going to let them force you into anything."
There was no confusing Giger's intentions. She would die before admitting it, but Gally rather liked the idea of Giger being protective of her.
"Big talk that you're expecting me to back up," Mordekai said. He sighed. "You don't need to worry, Giger. Between the two of us, we'll keep her safe. Now, if you would, Giger, I could use your help. You do want to secure as many of the Ancients as possible, right?"
Gally looked to Giger, who looked away.
"I'd hate to lose any valuable source of information because one of those dogs deemed it unfit."
He was putting up a front, but Gally realized he probably wanted to save the awakened Ancients as much as she did. Maybe more.
"You too, Galatea," Mordekai said. "Many hands make light work."