P: Memory of Darkness

Brendan sat with his arms crossed and a frown creasing his brow as he stared at the screen in front of him. He jumped several centimeters into the air with nothing but his glutes propelling him, when Adrian leaned over the side of the open cabin and chided, "You look a lot more like your father when you frown. Which is funny, because my impression of the king is that he's a mildly cheerful paper pusher."

Brendan rolled his eyes and snorted, while he watched Adrian shamelessly reading the screen that he'd been staring at. "Paper pusher?"

"It's a phrase from back when forms were printed on paper, and were physically moved from one side of a desk to the other as they were processed," Adrian explained without a trace of condescension, as though it were a particularly interesting alloy.

"I know," Brendan replied mildly.

Adrian straightened and gazed at him suspiciously. "Why'd you ask then?" he taunted.

"Most people don't seem to think that the King of Eks Corp does much of anything other than attend a series of parties," Brendan pointed out neutrally.

"Hah," Adrian replied with a flat laugh. "I'm sure nobody who knows you thinks that. And I bet most people think he spends all his time plotting Eks Corp's next acquisition."

Brendan shrugged. "Where'd you hear people talking about paper pushers anyway?"

Adrian waved a hand dismissively and said, "One of the many mothers of my descendants was describing her ancestors in a depreciating manner and I looked it up. How long are we not going to talk about that?" He pointed at the screen.

Brendan grinned up at him, and instead of answering directly, he asked, "What do you think it means?"

Adrian sat on the edge of the open ship and looked down at him. "That I should be glad that I'm on your side?" he suggested.

Brendan just blinked at Adrian. He looked at the screen again. An illustration out of a historical article filled one side with a warlike version of a colony ship. The lines of text that he'd been frowning at were highlighted on the other side.

'Despite all evidence to the contrary, most colony ships are still being constructed according to the belief that we are not alone in our galaxy.'

Brendan leaned back in his seat and raised an eyebrow at his friend.

Adrian shrugged and pointed at the picture of the ship. "You'll have to crawl home, but dumping mass like one of those old weapons does might prevent you from exploding, if it came to that. But those things were notoriously bad ideas, because they stay hot until the containment breaks and the explosion dissipates. You hear stories about colonies that blasted themselves back to the stone age while dismantling their own ships, and if you insist on keeping this thing barely shuttle sized, you won't have a very long containment window."

Brendan's lips quivered. "Most of those stories are fictional," he pointed out as seriously as he could manage.

"Most fiction is based on truth," Adrian countered.

"Then all those stories about aliens?" Brendan countered.

"Those are based on possibilities," Adrian answered cheerfully. He pointed at the illustration again and argued, "Even Eks Corp put weapons on their colony ships because your ancestors understood that it's a real possibility!"

Brendan shook his head and looked at his friend. "No. My ancestors believed that other humans could get there first."

Adrian laughed, but his laughter trailed off as he looked at Brendan's expression. "Could you not say that so seriously?" he asked uncomfortably. "It's in your bloody inherited memory library isn't it?"

Adrian's curse hovered in the air between them as Brendan nodded. A moment later Adrian's hand slapped onto Brendan's shoulder hard enough to hurt, and Brendan grabbed his wrist with an almost instinctive defensive reaction, but his fingers loosened as Adrian's tightened, because Adrian bent toward him and said, "I don't know how you remained sane knowing things like that from birth, but I believe in you. We can design better colony ships for our own descendants, ones that will let them travel as far as they need to."

The suspicion that had been poisoning the corners of Brendan's mind curled up and died a silent death like an insect caught behind the air wall in a ventilation pipe. "Of course," he agreed as he pushed Adrian's hand off his shoulder and gave him a wry smile. "But that has nothing to do with this."

Adrian frowned at him, and looked at the screen again. "You don't seriously believe that we have aliens in our solar system do you?" he asked uncertainly.

Brendan lifted himself out of the small cabin's seat and perched on the edge of his little ship. He grinned at his best friend and teased, "Weren't you just insisting that it's a real possibility?"

Adrian's mouth opened and closed like a decorative goldfish.

Brendan glanced back at the screen and instructed the ship's core to clear it before assuring Adrian rather grimly, "Aliens is what the system came up with to explain the patterns I gave it, but I don't believe it. I'd bet Eks Corp itself that all of the intelligent beings at work in this system have completely human DNA."

"Says the alien," Adrian replied mockingly after a moment too long. When Brendan frowned at him, he grinned a little too brightly and explained, "You have two fake human genes in you, I'm one of the dwindling minority of original humans left."

When Brendan didn't laugh, Adrian's smile wavered and fell. Brendan stared at Adrian and whispered the same curse word that his friend had used earlier. Adrian's eyes widened.

After a moment Brendan closed his eyes. "It fits. It fits everything. SkyWater's Donatella married a beyonder. This race is likely to decide who I marry. The Queen…" he didn't want to finish that thought. His laughing, light hearted, free spirited and exceedingly deadly mother was both utterly loyal and headstrong. She would probably do anything to protect her King and her children.

"I was joking," Adrian protested weakly.

Brendan straightened his spine and reached out to pat Adrian's shoulder. "I know," he agreed. "And it's just another wild theory to add to the list. It's just…"

Adrian lifted his chin and insisted more firmly, "Our system doesn't even have enough originals to start a purge from our side, and I have a waiting list of silly corporate royals from your lot who want to add my perfect original DNA to their bloodlines!"

A chill ran down Brendan's spine as his memory library suggested patterns of hoarding that people who knew when something was going to become impossible to find often displayed. He had stopped being afraid that Adrian was hiding something from him, but now he forced himself to smile reassuringly, and agree, "True. It's a horrible theory anyway."

"Right?" Adrian agreed hopefully. "We have one of the most peaceful systems on record. All of our wars have been financial."

The heir to the most powerful corporation in the solar system nodded, even as he began mentally composing messages to his family members in his head.