Goddess of the Moon (Young Ancients: Tiera) (36 page)

When
that ended, another came, and then another.

Finally
another group of eleven people in brown came, and a replacement for the woman,
who just sighed and walked away. Tiera almost ran after her, but didn't. It was
horrible, but there was nothing she could do to make it even a little better,
was there? All her family had died, drowning in front of her. Her friends and
neighbors were mainly gone. Her home and everything she'd ever known, vanished
in a few hours time.
This
, working here, was all she could do to fight
back against the people that had done it. In her own way she was striking back,
making sure that someday people would exist off the planet, so that if this
happened again, someone would live.

It
was, literally, all that was holding her mind together. A few hugs weren't
going to change that. Not that they'd hurt.

Tiera
felt small then, even with her new growth. She'd selfishly thought her pain was
the same as other people's, and she'd been
wrong
. Oh, so very incorrect.
Not that the comparison made her pain less, but she realized finally, what all
the adults around her probably already knew. Certainly the Ancients did. Loss
was a part of life and had to be gotten through. Giving up wasn't what Regina
would have wanted for her at all. Just like she didn't want that Austran Tech
to give up, even though she wasn't in love with her. She didn't even know her
and she wanted the woman to keep fighting, even if things hurt as much as they
did.

That
applied to her as well, didn't it?

She
wanted to keep working, but went to get Maris and Sheri instead. Both girls
were still helping in the dining room, and probably would have kept doing that,
if she hadn't shown back up.

"Hey,
bedtime! We can work more after we sleep." That got Maris to stop what she
was doing and walk away instantly, though Sheri finished helping the tiny Afrak
man with his meal. Tiera didn't stare, but that was a very rare thing.

The
men from that land had all been changed a lot. They were all very tiny, even by
commoner standards in Noram. So mild and retiring that most wouldn't have left
their land at all, she'd have thought. They were also
totally
incapable
of violence. For this deeply dark tiny man to come this far from his home
probably meant he was far braver than she was. Sure, she'd faced down magical
seemings of dragons, but this man had to face down
her
. Or in this case,
Sheri.

"There
you go, sir." She made her voice polite and the man looked at the ground,
took the plate and smiled a bit as he backed away.

Tiera
didn't comment on it at all. She needed some sleep.

They
all were on the same rough schedule, so when she got in the Prince, Smythe and
Karina were all in bed, their lights turned off. She gestured, so as to not
make any noise, and set the rest to doing the same thing.

Sleep
came remarkably easily for her, she noticed, but she just didn't need as much
as the others, so she sat up on her bed and started making the gravity devices
they'd need. Then, since it was only copy work and she'd brought the supplies,
she produced more of her little communications devices, making it so that
they'd only work with their own batch. That way all her people could have one
and not bother the crew at all, chattering all the time.

That
put her up and around about the same time that everyone else was doing it, so
they all headed down the hall together to clean up. The facilities were shared,
but segregated by sex.

That
meant, while it wasn't a huge space or filled with people, she was able to meet
up with Karen and Ali.

Her
sister in-law hugged her, ignoring the fact that she was naked and damp at the
time. Or, Tiera understood, seeing how the rather busty blonde girl's nipples
reacted, she might not have really been missing that point at all. When Ali saw
Sheri and Maris they got drawn into hugs too.

"What
are the plans for the day?"

That
wasn't something Tiera knew really, but everyone looked at her hard, anyway.
Like she was in charge? How had that idea come about anyway?

Oh,
right, she was a bossy little witch. She grinned, and decided to go with her
strengths.

"We're
supposed to set up cleaning crews for the dining areas, as well as someone to
help teach how to best use the food units for the crew here. There might be
more ships coming too. I think the rest of the crew is coming? New people
trading out, I think, so that won't be too bad, numbers wise. Other than that I
don't know. I think we have classes too. If we can find the space for them.
Fighting, building, and meditation?"

Since
they had people for that.

They
moved quickly, and she lured them all back to her alcove, with promises of
treats. They were tolerably enthused about getting to pass the communications
devices out at least, and all headed out to find people. Which meant, naturally
that they all ended up in the dining room at the same time, more or less. It
was kind of funny. They just didn't know where enough stuff was though,
otherwise.

The
morning was spent doing that. They set up cleaning crews and helpers for the
food units, a few teams for the last of the goods coming in, and then she
walked around handing things out to her friends and schoolmates. Around noon
she found her parents, who had Taman with them, but not the rest of the kids,
who were going from one area to another, making certain everyone was behaving.

Taman
looked horribly bored. She was being good, since she was, in general, but she'd
clearly been pouting a little.

That
got Tiera to cross her eyes and make a funny noise. It didn't get a laugh, but the
girl, six or not, understood what she meant.

"I
know, I should find something to do, but what? At home I could work in the
bakery or build something, but here... I didn't even bring anything to read,
except my school primer."

"So,
do that? For a few hours at least. Then get with the Lairdgren Group and see
what building needs to be done. Sheri needs to learn how to make copies, so you
can help with that, can't you? We have meditation practice too, and fighting.
You might be too little for that, but why not get with Kolb and see about
setting up shield and magical weapons practice somehow? There's lots to do.
True, it isn't
all
chasing boys, but Guide is here..." She was
teasing on that point, but the girl nodded, as if it really seemed like a plan.

"Do
you think he remembers me? I haven't seen him in a long time. Months." For
some reason that seemed like a real concern to the little girl at the moment.

"I
know he does. Go slow with him though. After all, you can't get married until
you're fourteen. It wouldn't serve to make him feel trapped until then."
She just said the words, as if it were normal to talk to a little girl like
that. Her mother nodded though and Douglas, back to looking young, did too.

He
sounded thoughtful about the whole thing even.

"Still,
keeping in contact can't hurt anything. First you should find Sheri and make
certain she doesn't need you to do anything. I think she said she was in charge
of you?"

Tiera
made that simpler, by handing a speaking device over to the girl then each of her
parents, with a few extra. It didn't take long for them to get the idea.

"You
just hold it to your throat. These can be turned on and off too, since it might
get to be a bit much otherwise, with a hundred people talking. You can listen
to everyone though, and if we all keep things to a minimum, it might be all
right." Most of the kids that had come were fighters after all, and
practicing for either leadership or military careers. They got the idea of
discipline, more or less. When she flicked hers on, there was speaking, but it
wasn't all the time or anything.

With
a bit of coaching, Taman had Sheri speaking to her in moments, which meant the
little girl was off to the dining room that Tiera's group used. It was nearly
luncheon, at least for the people on school schedules, so she headed that way
herself, the slightly orange and white hallways oppressive already.

After
that...

Well,
she kind of ran out of things to do herself. She meditated, but didn't actually
need a class for that. Kolb was planning practice for his people, but had to
wait for the hangar bays to be open, so they'd have the space. They wouldn't be
heading out until later that day, so there was a time when she was just kind of
walking around, looking at things. The crew was all busy and her people were
either helping out, or had their own friends to be with. Even her family was
busy. Her parents looking after everyone, since they were adults, and her
brothers and sisters playing miniature guards for them all. No one was doing
anything wrong, so that mainly turned out to be walking around and making
certain everyone had a talking thing.

It
was peaceful, really. No one here seemed to care much about rank or anything
either. Even the people from Noram just smiled at her, even if they were common
folk. The ship was huge though. A quarter mile across and nearly half that
high. Not having anything else to do, she walked, covering a lot of it, over
the course of hours. She didn't go onto the bridge, since the people there were
actually busy, and while she glanced in to a few places, to watch people manage
the space, heat and air quality, she didn't really stop to chat. Not until she
got to the waste management section. The man working that area was old, and
angry
.

As
far as she could tell he was from Vagus, and if he was impressed by her being
tall at all, that didn't show. On the good side, he spoke passable Noram
Standard.

"Too
much shit. We don't have storage for it. Orders are not to dump it on the main
paths." He gestured to the vast tanks which had clear sections to show
they were nearly full. "Captain hasn't responded to my note either."
It was hard to get past the accent, but only a little.

Tiera
looked at it, and then left, running to her room. When she came back she had
six of her new devices, which meant one for each tank.

"These
can be used to take the... waste and make it into other things. It works, but
isn't that fast. We'll have to store whatever we make too, but that can be stone,
or sand, so pretty dense. Metal too." The man might not have a good idea
what that was though, since his people were forbidden the use of it. On Earth
at least.

His
name, it turned out, was Ong. Which was simple enough to remember. He also
cared not at all who she was, as long as her new magic worked. He got a unit
set up, noticed the configuration and made a pipe from one of the water tanks,
being careful to make it air tight. Then they made a heavy stone slab and
stacked it to the side. He did the work that way, but the stone was a nice
heavy one that didn't break easily.

"This
good." He let her move the things, one at a time, which took a while. They
had a lot of them to make, and Ong was still running out of space. It wasn't
going to back up the waste disposal system though, so he was happy enough and
got her to make a line of the heavy things out in the hall.

Eventually,
near six or so, she thought, the next man came to watch the system. He was from
Noram, and got the idea almost instantly. The devices she'd made were a nice
deep gold color, and shone like polished metal, but made one of the heavy stone
blocks per minute with no real problem.

The
man looked to be of merchant stock, but low rank. When he pointed at the new
set up he looked worried.

"That's
a lot of work for one man. I think I can keep up, but Merta, on the third
shift, is tiny. We need some way for her to keep up. Plus, we need to get with
storage. It makes sense, but what can we use this for?" Being bright
enough for space work he grimaced. "Oh. Food. Well, that works, but we
can't let anyone know."

Tiera
went wide eyed as if the very idea was a new one.

"Or,
well, if we put them back in one of these we can make pretty much anything. Not
just materials, but whatever you can work out. Finished goods and all that. If
it's too complex you have to know how it works, but other than that, anything.
Nearly." She might have missed some things, after all. She wasn't perfect.
"It can be used to make air, water, jewelry, cloth or even wooden
furniture. As long as it can fit in a four by four section. So no beds
really."

They
had magic ones anyway.

The
man nodded and Ong walked away, barely noting that she'd been there at all, it
seemed. She'd worked up a good sweat, moving the heavy blocks for hours, so
went to shower again, and then to get something to eat. While working moving
rocks might not be fun, it was useful and had been slightly better than being
alone.

Instead
of remembering Regina, she thought of that poor Austran woman and decided to
try and visit with her, if she could. They had a week after all, and if the
woman worked in storage at all, which seemed likely, then Tiera and Ong had
made a lot of work for her that day.

At
first she didn't think she'd really be able to. The lady wasn't in their dining
section as far as that went, and just walking around looking for someone she
didn't have a name for wouldn't work either. Still, Tiera knew what hangar
she'd worked the day before and could ask around there.