Dyllys
Chapter Nine

Dyllysfound Parris and Faran down in the hold of the ship. She caught sight of Esperas she weaved among the cargo that was to be unloaded.

“Whereare we anyway?” Dyllys asked as she joined Parris and Faran near the cargo baydoors.

“Thisis a refugee colony that Parris helped establish. It’s mostly just cobbledtogether ships. The main body was an abandoned space center. Abandoned becauseit was too close to a black hole. We had an interesting time of rescuing it,”Esper explained.

“Ithought you said that you were selling this stolen cargo,” Faran retorted, “Areyou seriously going to charge refugees for supplies.”

“Ijust said that so you didn’t get the wrong impression of me, Boy,” Parrisreplied.

“Whatimpression would that be, that you are actually a humanitarian and not a pirateat all?” Dyllys interjected.

“See,now my reputation has been tarnished,” Parris replied, “Well then let us be onour way.” Parris opened the cargo bay door and the hold was immediately filledwith an array of noises and smells. Faran had never been to a place thatsounded so alive or smelled so inviting. “Welcome to Rinascita.”

Faranwatched from the side lines as Parris handed over his cargo to an older man. Hecould hear them talking about the stock. Parris had gleaned a lot from Interdire.He didn’t have just AS-24 androids, but medical supplies and food as well. Theold man seemed so grateful to Parris, but Parris looked as if what he wasgiving wasn’t enough. He looked like a man trying to pay back a debt that couldnever be repaid. It crossed Faran’s mind that he had no idea at all aboutParris’s past. He didn’t even know his full name, let alone his planet or origin.Faran felt ashamed of that. He had never given Parris a second thought, henever stopped and asked. He had never wanted to know. What kind of person didthat make him?

Faranfelt something hit his leg and roll away. He looked down and picked up a ratty oldball from off the floor. When he looked up there was a little girl standingthere with a smile on her face. Faran suddenly had the image of Maya flashbefore his eyes.

“Isthis your ball?” The girl looked to be about ten years old. She had rattyclothes on but looked well cared for. She smiled and nodded her head.

“Doyou wanna play with us?” the little girl asked.

Faranglanced at the ball then at Parris who had stopped what he was doing and waslooking at Faran’s exchange with the little girl. Faran looked back at thelittle girl and smiled, “I think I would like that.”

“Okay,”the girl said as she grabbed the ball. She seemed extremely pleased withFaran’s response like she hadn’t expected him to say yes, “My name is Torin.What’s yours?”

“I’mFaran,” he said and then let himself be led deeper into Rinascita.

Dyllyscame and stood next to Parris and watched Faran with the little girl. The girlwas talking to Faran like she had known him all her life. Dyllys had to smileat that. The girl’s innocence and acceptance was almost akin to an android's.It suddenly seemed to Dyllys that what Parris wanted to accomplish with theandroids, their gaining the ability to feel, was achievable. After all, anandroid was just like a child in that respect, full of potential and naivety.Parris finished talking with the old man and then stepped aside and sat on acrate while he watched a few young men unload the cargo. Dyllys joined him.

“Whydo you do all of this?” Dyllys asked. She was looking past Parris into the depthsof Rinascita, watching all the people happily going about theirbusiness. Dyllys couldn’t remember the last time she had seen so many smilingfaces.

Parrissighed, “That is a very complicated question. I guess I do this to try to atonefor my sins. The day I found out the truth about the Ordalis wasn’t verydifferent from Faran’s own awakening. I saw some horrible things and when Irealized that I had contributed to those atrocities, I wanted to do all I couldto fix my mistake.”

“Butyou didn’t know what you were doing, why blame yourself for things you didn’tknow about.”

“Ignoranceis never an excuse. I should have asked more questions. When one believes thelies that they are fed, they are as guilty as those that lied to begin with. Iknew something wasn’t right. I chose to ignore it. That is my sin.”

“You’rea good person Parris. You remind me a lot of my Faran.”

Parrislooked at Dyllys quizzically, “What do you mean?”

Dyllyssmiled, “He always wanted to fix the world. He said that to fix the world allyou had to do was set in motion what you felt it should be, and to do that allyou had to do was inspire one person in the direction you thought the worldshould go. Then they in turn would inspire another. ‘Soon,’ he would say, ‘thewhole world would be exactly as you envisioned it should be.’ He was such apacifist. He would have like you. You have the same ideals. You never know, hemight have been right, maybe my Faran knew someone in your past and they madeyou who you are. It’s a nice thought. It makes me feel like he is still alive,even if it is just his ideals.”

“Ithink you are right.”

Dyllyslooked at Parris, “About what?”

“Hedoes live on. In his dreams he never imagined he would see the end of theOrdalis. His was a generational dream, something to be passed on. So you’reright, he does live on. In me, in you, and in all these people here on Rinascitawho have never even heard his name. He gave birth to the start of a mightynation.”

“Thankyou,” Dyllys said and watched Faran playing with the children. Here, she couldalmost believe that what Parris said was true. Her Faran did live on in all ofthem. It was a nice thought, a good dream.

* * * *

Theyspent the night amongst the inhabitants of Rinascita at the behest ofmost everyone that they encountered. They had a feast as a celebration for thereturn of old friends. Parris couldn’t refuse. Late that night, a small groupgathered around a holographic fire. Parris explained to Faran that a real fireout here with such a limited supply was foolish. Faran had asked why they wouldhave a pretend one, then.

“Haveyou ever sat around the warm glow of a fire before?” Parris asked Faran.

“No,”Faran replied.

“Ihave,” Dyllys said and she was smiling as she stared into the fire. Evenwithout the warmth of it, the coals were a captivating sight. “Faran and Iwould go out into the forest late at night in the fall when everything wasfrosted and chilled, and we would light a fire. Something about its sounds andwarm glow always made us think of the most intense things. Most of my favoriteconversations were said around a fire. I always thought it inspired a change ina person’s thoughts because of the change from one substance to another that wewere witnessing.”

Parrisgestured at Dyllys as if to say ‘there you have it,’ and Faran just laughed.There was intimate conversation going on all around them and then suddenly theycould hear soft music coming from across the glowing fire. A few of theresidents had come across worn instruments and were serenading those few thatwere still awake to hear it.

Dyllysclosed her eyes and leaned her head back onto Parris’ chest, “Sounds like theRoma that used to come through my parents villa on Tossu, before it wasoccupied by the Ordalis.” Parris smiled and started playing with Dyllys’ssilver hair. He imagined it the rich black it had been before, and thenimagined her skin its brilliant olive tone. It seemed wrong for this woman tobe in this form. Then he frowned.

“Whathappened to your hair?” he asked suddenly holding the ends of it in his hands.“Didn’t it used to be longer?”

Dyllyspulled away slowly from Parris. Faran was looking at her hair now, noticingthat the length of it was indeed shorter.

“It’snothing at all.” Parris wanted to argue with her, but he could tell she didn’twant to talk about it. He already knew what the answer was. She was dying, alot quicker than before.

Parriscould hear running footsteps coming up behind them and suddenly the musicstopped. When he looked up, Esper was standing over him.

“Whatis it, Esper?” Parris asked.

“It’sthe Interdire. They’ve found us.” A murmur began through thoseassembled, and then a moment of panic descended as those who were sleeping werewoken.

Parrisgot to his feet and looked at the old man he had been talking with earlier thatday. “Giuseppe, get everyone prepared to move. You have to leave this area asfast as you can.”

“Whatare you going to do?” Giuseppe asked.

“We’regoing to give you time to get away. It’s not you that they are looking for.”

Dyllysgrabbed Faran’s hand and pulled him to his feet, “Come on Faran.”

Faranlooked back at the group of people at the fire, most of them running in variousdirections shouting to those fast asleep in their homes. Then he looked atDyllys. She met his gaze and then let go of his hand.

“Youhave a choice to make. Fight or flee. I won’t make you come with us. This isyour choice Faran. This is where you choose who you want to be. I’ll supportwhatever you choose.”

Faranlooked back at the fire. He could see Torin on the other side--she too seemedto be waiting for what he would decide--and then he ran. Away from the fire andback to the ship, Dyllys close behind him.