ARC10

Chapter 19.3

The charred ceiling tiles have caved in, exposing the drab concrete foundation of the level above. My tentative steps into the room maneuver  around the debris and burnt pieces of my family's past. A majority of the bar still stands. I walk behind it and lean against the wall, just like I used to when it was so clean that the steel top reflected my face back to me every single night. I keep trying to say goodbye to it, but it's difficult when pieces of it are still here in front of me.

"It's interesting that we keep running into each other here." Hayomo appears from behind the opened entrance doors and steps around sheets of burnt metal.

I burst to attention. "Yes, General."

She sighs. "Calm down, Lorn. You don't have to put up the pretenses with me here."

I slowly fold my arms across my chest and resume my previous lean against the wall.

"I came to level with you." She stands ramrod straight and crosses her hands behind her back. "We need to learn to work together if we are to be commanding the same vessel for five years."

I don't have a response. Every piece of my body shrinks in insignificance while standing in the presence of this woman.

"Once we leave Earth," she says, looking me dead in the eye, "the only position that will hold any value is that of the President of the URE." She walks closer to the bar until we're in the exact same positions we were when we first met. It feels like eons ago. "His compliance is critical. The alien races—each and every one of them—follow a system of hierarchy. They need to know who is in charge and who is not. Which is why he has now been briefed on our operation."

She pauses to allow me a second to let that sink in.

"We need him. There is only one in charge of everything. For us, that will continue to be the President."

I clutch my arms tighter over my chest. The President. The one who was once deemed enlightened, the beacon of hope for our failing race who promised to deliver us from the smear of our existence to one that is greater and far more plentiful.

The poster hangs just beyond the entrance to the Sink, the bolts pinning it down add to the menacing permanency of the little-drawn representative of our President. This is the closest I've ever come to knowing him—this squared and shadowed figure and his silhouetted minions around him. Safety and Equality for Unity, he says.

It was this shadow person who created the Human Hope Project. This was the man who took us out of the air and stuffed us into the ground.

But he's just a shape in the darkness. Maybe he has been many men.

How would we be able to tell? We only get his voice like second-hand smoke.

"How will we know what he wants?"

Hayomo smiles at me. "We have the general orders outlined in the OPLAN. Because we've found no viable way to communicate between ships that are out of range of our network, we will be independent. From there, you and I are in charge. This is why our partnership is crucial—especially in regard to the Xani. They see us as the leaders of our refugees. We need to be systematically united."

Her sentences are to the point, but I can tell she's trying to be casual with me. Her attempt puts me slightly at ease. "So what do we do first to get on equal footing? Because honestly, you scare the shit out of me."

"Follow me."

She strides out of the rubble. I remain against the wall for a brief second because no matter how equal we may be on-file, I feel that I'm going to need to get used to being ordered around.