Wolf Boy, Chapter 11, Part I

Allec wanted to institute ancient dueling practices and challenge Todd to single combat

“He won’t be allowed back on Mars,” Quin said. “For Todd, that’s plenty punishment.”

“He’ll ping-pong between new victims: two churches, two statelets, two Moon companies.”

“The last could put him in greater hot water. But maybe he’ll behave better if he isn’t faced with a provocative game of charades three months into a nine-month voyage.”

Allec was too busy fuming to hear Quin’s implicit rebuke. “Todd never behaved well on Mars. He looks for ways to get offended.”

“As opposed to having those ways shoved in his face,” Quin said and gave Pan a steady frown.

So Quin guessed that Pan and Kaiden had deliberately baited Todd. For all his outspokenness, Allec was far more innocent than his husband. Pan wondered if that innocence was the result of Allec’s short life. As Trading Master, Quin had greater experience handling people with agendas.

Allec’s preferred approach to political bullshit was to snipe. Quin took a longer view.

Political know-how 101: Flexibility is the goal. All approaches have their gains.

Quin gave Pan one more glare, then shrugged.

He said, “I’m more concerned with Todd’s friends showing up on the Earth Space Station.”

“They won’t be the only group,” Allec said.

“The captain is discussing possible disembarkation scenarios with Rhys.”

“Earth Station shuttles don’t fly directly to Reforested Greenland,” Allec said and turned to Pan, who sat on the cabin’s couch. “Are you planning to head there immediately?” 

“I don’t want to go without you,” Pan said.

He didn’t want to arrive at Queen Artia’s court without his—

Entourage?

—family and Kaiden, his—

Knight?

—friend. And he wanted to wait for Rhys and Lider to complete their investigation. He wanted to have answers, to approach the queen—

From a position of strength?

—without looking like an idiot.

“Of course, we’ll go with you,” Allec said. 

Quin frowned, arms folded, hooded eyes on the cabin floor. Pan could guess why. Lider’s first life extension took place on the HG Wells during his voyage to Mars. He was in a coma for several months.

The latest procedure would hopefully extend Allec’s life at least another ten years. Researchers and doctors speculated Allec would be under for about a week.  

Quin wanted to remove Allec to the facility as soon as the ship docked. The procedure was being funded by a pro-clone society run by an acquaintance of Allec’s, a loud reformer type who had supported Allec undergoing the first procedure. (Reformers like Todd thought Allec should have been “allowed to die naturally”). But loud opinions didn’t equal good science. Dr. Tomas was in contact with the society. Quin still wanted to check it out.

“We can wait. Return to Mars on the Lovecraft,” Allec said when Quin mentioned the time frame.

Digory
“Digory wants to return on the HG Wells.”

Now that the Space Program ran two ships, each spent more time at each station for repairs and to allow travelers to return within the month rather than wait for the next ship. Digory wanted to get home, to die on Mars and be buried there.

Allec grunted acknowledgment. Digory was his mentor, one of the first Mars’s citizens to fully accept him. He met Digory on the same voyage he met Quin. Pan become Allec’s ward four years later. Pan figured Digory came first.

“There’s never enough time,” he heard Allec say ruefully to Quin as Pan left the cabin.

Kaiden was waiting, back against the corridor wall, ankles crossed. He straightened when he saw Pan and cocked his head.

He said, “You hear about Todd being banned from space travel?”

“Yeah.”

“Bet Allec is thrilled. You know Todd assaulted him that first voyage.”

Pan had heard the stories. “Bet Allec said something to piss him off.”

Like father-figure, like son.  

Kaiden said, “Where are we going?” as Pan loped to the right.

“To find Rhys. Any ideas where he might be?”

“Lider is collecting complaints.”

All passengers accepted jobs during the nine-month voyage. Lider was assigned to talk to crew and colonists about cabin conditions, laundry malfunctions, toiletry needs. He could do it alone, so long as he kept to general areas, such as the mess hall and the observation deck. Wherever Lider was, Rhys eventually showed up. Pan chose the observation deck.

Wolf Boy, Chapter 10, Part II

Allec snarled, “You can’t stop yourself from attacking those who don’t agree with you, can you, Todd?”

Todd hollered, “Do you even care what your ward was doing?”

A man and a woman stood behind Todd. Rhys recognized them as guests at the recent station symposium—the type that attended lectures on “The Distinctive Religious Purpose of Interspecies Interactionals Against Hegemonic Outcomes.” They nodded at Todd’s declamations and looked truculent.

Kylie, Nathan’s partner, a visible Cubus, stood in the space between the parties, her back to the window. She looked irritated, her mouth a tight line.

“What did Panfilo and Kaiden actually do?” she said as Nathan, Rhys, and Lider entered. “I want behaviors, Todd, not a bunch of exhortations.”

Todd always looked offended. If possible, he looked more offended at having his philosophical outrage reduced to proselytizing.

The woman behind Todd began, “When a human pretends to be an Anthros, that sends a demeaning message—”

Todd said quickly—he’d learned on prior voyages to answer the actual questions posed to him by officers—“Panfilo’s fundamentalist goon was wearing a jackal head.”

Rhys noted that a wooden head of Anubis—dark and sleek with gold-tipped ears—sat under Kaiden’s chair.

“He was chasing a child in a leopard costume. A human child.”

“Miles was having fun,” Panfilo said mildly.

“That isn’t the point. Animal against animal is offensive—as if Anthros are savages.”

Rhys joined Kyrie and Nathan while Lider lingered beside Allec. Rhys could see Panfilo now—the violet eyes, half shut; the tail wrapped over his and Kaiden’s shoulders. Panfilo could look blank yet alert.

He said, still in that mild tone, “Kaiden scared off the leopard, then protected me.”

The man behind Todd scoffed, and Todd said, “You’re reveling in your status on this ship, aren’t you, Panfilo? As if you’re the offended party.”

“He is,” Quin said in his deep voice.

Allec snapped, “Posing as an arbiter of righteousness, Todd, doesn’t give you good taste.”

“Good taste? You know what was happening here? Appropriation. Not to mention, Panfilo re-enacting the encounter on the station, his adopted role as a—ah—ah—”

Todd couldn’t bring himself to say “assassination target,” to admit that Panfilo had been aggressed against.

He was forestalled in any case. Jack, a canid-like Anthros on the HG Wells crew, entered the mess hall trailed by curious co-workers. Nathan opened his mouth—perhaps to order the onlookers out—then shrugged. A few headed to the counter to help Digory. Jack strode to join the group followed by another crewmember, Leo.

“Oh, Todd,” Leo said. “What’s pissing you off now?”

“A disgusting performance of animals attacking animals. I’m sure Jack resents such tackiness.” Todd smirked at Allec.

Lider muttered something in Allec’s ear. Allec grimaced but kept silent.

“Animals in the wild kill animals,” Jack said. “Are you denying animal nature, Todd? Anthros nature? Or conflating non-sentience with sentience?”

The man behind Todd reddened. The woman looked mulish.

Todd bristled. “When Anthros practice these rituals, such behavior is acceptable. When humans take on personas outside their culture—”

“Yeah, what were you guys doing?” Leo said to Kaiden and Panfilo.

Kaiden said, “We were re-enacting Anubis defending Osiris against Set who took the form of a leopard. My religious beliefs, which Todd is mocking.”

Todd stuttered. The woman looked uneasy.

Kaiden continued blithely, “Todd tried to stop us by catching hold of Panfilo’s tail.”

Jack growled. Leo shook his head. Panfilo continued to look blank. Todd blustered until Nathan held up a hand.

He said, “Enough. You’ve been warned, Todd, that violence against sentient beings is not allowed on this ship, however offended you feel about something. You are, once again, confined to your cabin.”

So Rhys didn’t need to be there. He spoke to various people anyway. He provided context for Nathan’s decision to Todd’s supporters, Sidney and Brook. They were entirely undesirous of following Todd’s example and muttered apologies.

Rhys then diverted crewmembers’ attention to Digory’s meal (Allec had gone into the galley to help, still hyped but grinning). He conferred with Nathan about adding his witness statement to Nathan’s report while Lider spoke to Kylie.

“The HG Wells is going to ban Todd from further travel,” Lider told Rhys in the corridor. “The Lovecraft will likely follow suit. Which means Mars won’t have to put up with him again. Or the Mars Space Station.”

“What did you say to Allec?”

“Told him to let Todd contradict himself. He always does.”

“Yeah.”

“Leo says you look sexy in your unofficial clothes.”

Rhys laughed. He and Lider’s hands brushed. Rhys felt the sensation, could almost repeat it, almost clasp Lider’s hand.

He said nothing though he saw Lider flushed, despite the overhead lights. Lider also said nothing.

He said instead, “I think Todd was harassing Panfilo before the incident today—you know the way he corners people with his need to express himself.”

“Another pastor searching for a Congregation.”

“Without the hard work and sacrifice.”

“I never felt particularly beleaguered by my choice.”

“But you worked for it. And were acknowledged. And agreed to go to Mars,” Lider said. “Besides, you don’t hide your intent.”

“No.” Rhys considered, aware of Lider’s hand, that near-touch.

He said instead, “Kaiden and Panfilo planned what happened here.”

“Oh, yeah,” Lider said. “They did.”

Wolf Boy, Chapter 10, Part I

“I think Dr. Toma knew Pan was an Anthros,” Rhys told Lider. “The bloodwork she did back then was cursory—a check for the standard infections—but it would still have contained telltale markers.”

Lider nodded without looking round.

“She’s going to run a full battery of tests, including ones that can sometimes spot a clone. She pointed out that the Moon usually injected markers as a way to track clones but that part of the procedure could be bypassed.”

“And Pan was probably born, not grown like Allec.”

“Yeah. Anthros don’t usually allow geographic or ancestry DNA testing, and Dr. Toma has agreed not to share whatever information she discovers—except with Pan and with us, of course.”

Silence. Rhys crossed the cabin to hang up his cassock at the end of the bed. On the station, he wore dungarees when he worked in the infirmary. His religious role was as much about location—the chapel on the main tier, the confessional—as his vestments. On-board ship, he carried his role with him and wore what Lider called “full priest regalia”

Lider said, “I spoke to Kylie. She remembers Panfilo and the Alands from that first voyage but not more than about anyone else. The paperwork was in order. She doublechecked her records when the news story about Panfilo came out. The Alands were planning to bring a child with them, but the adoption fell through. Panfilo took that child’s place. Samantha Aland renamed him when they reached Mars.”

“She was trying to be a good mom to an Anthros.”

“She was a decent person. So is Gregory in his way.” Lider paused. “Kylie opened the door to the cabin for me.”

The last line was bitter. Rhys settled beside Lider on the small couch. Lider’s hands were clasped between his knees, his head bent forward.

There had been a moment the night before when their hands touched, actually touched, skin to skin. They stared at each other, smiles readying. Lider reached for Rhys as he had a thousand times in dreams.

And then, nothing.

No, not exactly nothing. A shiver across the spine like crossing a low forcefield, one built to keep out dust but not humans.

Not enough. Not what they wanted. Lider had wept in frustration, which shouldn’t have been possible, and Rhys couldn’t comfort him, could only ache.

He hadn’t known he could hurt so much for another’s disappointment. His own disappointment, his own endurance, he could manage. Lider’s pain and outrage broke his heart.

Lider said shakily, “I’m so not good at this patience stuff.”

“Don’t do that. Don’t apologize. Stan told you it would be difficult.”

“I was cocky, absolutely sure that all my years watching humans, the extra years with you, would make this process easy. Difficult enough that I could give others advice—I know what you’re going through. I went through it too—not so difficult I want to punch walls.”

“You are handling it, Lider. You’re here. You’re talking to me. We’re both handling it.”

Lider sighed and leaned back. Solid surfaces held him, more than before, which Rhys didn’t point out. Small steps did matter, but neither he nor Lider were particularly enamored with the minutiae of “three steps forward-two steps back.” Both of them preferred all or nothing.

If only fate didn’t tease us—

They played a game of chess with Rhys moving Lider’s pieces (pawn e4 to e5) while Lider wandered about the cabin. It was how they had played before so it didn’t feel like a concession.

Played chess. Organized case notes. Discussed Father Malcolm’s assignments. Father Malcolm was tentatively in charge on the station while Rhys was away, but he was under strict instructions to trade off Mass with Father Hadaka, who would come to the station if needed.

They went to bed, Lider stretching out beside Rhys. Rhys woke several times, sure that he felt Lider’s length against his side. He drifted off.

He woke fully to pounding at the door. Nathan, Captain Maxwell’s second in command, stood on the other side.

“Allec’s kid is in trouble,” he said.

Rhys didn’t pull on his cassock. He padded after Nathan in dungarees and a knit sweater, Lider at his side.

Nathan didn’t head to the captain’s office but to the mess hall. They could hear shouting before they crossed the threshold, and Nathan grimaced.

Beyond the counter between the galley and the mess hall, Digory was prepping for next meal, but his eyes were focused on the group near the eating area’s long window, more people than would fit in the captain’s office. Arms folded, face set, Quin stood over the seated Kaiden and Panfilo. Allec stood beside him, quivering with fury as he shouted at—

Rhys sighed.

—Todd Avide, who was waving his hands and shouting in return.

Wolf Boy, Chapter 9, Part II

Pan and Kaiden reached the counter. Allec was wearing a tall chef’s hat, mostly to get people chatting and laughing.

“Hey, Juniper, we’ve got lava cakes today,” he said to the woman in front of Pan and Kaiden. “Still your favorites?”

“You bet. You know I expect a real chef to use authentic chocolate sauce.”

“Only for you.”

Allec grinned at Pan and Kaiden. He dished out plates of mac & cheese and added extra hotdog slices.

“You two scrub down the infirmary?”

“Yeah,” Kaiden said, and Pan said, “Dr. Toma told us we weren’t total losers.”

Dr. Toma
Actually, Dr. Toma said, Looks fine, which from Dr. Toma was praise of the highest order.

“Monseigneur Rhys was there,” Pan added. “He double-checks medications but I think he was also checking my medical records from the trip to Mars. But my parents, the Alands, they didn’t send me in for a full examination, just the regular blood draws to test for infections.”

Allec gave him a skeptical look. Dr. Toma likely guessed from the blood that Pan wasn’t human. And she hadn’t said anything. The ship lived by its own rules. It carried out specific mandates but nothing more, nothing that adhered to a particular political objective. The ship didn’t care who lived on Mars. It carried folks there.

Allec might be outspoken. He protected his friends, the people he determined as being on his side. And he adored Dr. Toma, who helped him with his first life-extension procedure. He wouldn’t question Pan in public about Dr. Toma’s knowledge.

“Don’t forget to hydrate,” he told Pan and Kaiden and turned to the next diner.

Pan and Kaiden collected drinks and carried their meal to a table near the long outside window. A few diners flicked glances at Pan. They knew who he was and what had happened to him on the station. They knew Rhys and Lider were the ship. But the captain didn’t want fuss and most people respected her decisions.

People like Todd rated their outrage above everything else, including getting through a nine-month voyage without cabin fever or brawls.

“Maybe we should do something about Todd,” Pan said as they sat.

Kaiden peered at him from under longish bleached bangs. “Punish-him like?”

“Do you honestly believe in all that Amunite stuff?”

Kaiden lowered his eyes, dug into his mac & cheese. “Some of it. The ancient Egyptian community stuff, ceremonies for the dead. And the animal stuff too. Gods with jackal and cat heads. Judges with owl beaks.”

“Gods in the image of Anthros?”

“I think Anthros visited Earth long before they returned for good. I guess it’s not my place to give an opinion—”

“Why not?”

“Okay. But I know that nobody really knows when Anthros arrived on Earth. I know that. I believe Anthros came to Earth to share their natures with humans. Protection. Comfort. Devotion. Lessons on the harshness of nature. Not the philosophical crap Todd doles out.”

He stopped, head still lowered. His eyes rose, fastened on Pan’s face.

He said, “On the ship to Mars—I don’t know if you remember—I was twelve, almost thirteen. You were four. Monseigneur Rhys solved a case for our group. Canon Lider was with him, only he was invisible back then. Our foundress referred to Lider as an akh, one who has successfully completed the journey to the afterlife.”

Pan vaguely remembered the unsettled feeling on the ship, and he was told later that Rhys and Lider investigated. Lider never mentioned the akh business. Of course, Lider refuted any attempt to turn him into an angel or some such spiritual whatever.

He said, “Lider is nearly corporeal.”

“I know. His journey went in the other direction—or she was right, and his journey brought him back around to the mortal world, a type of resurrection.”

“Lider wouldn’t agree.”

“I know. I know. It’s all faith, right? No proof. No empirical evidence. A story that makes sense to a person. Myth.”

“People want to be more than myth,” Pan said without heat. He wouldn’t mind being myth.

Kaiden smiled then, easily, cheerfully, the wide parted lips lifting the cheeks to set the eyes glimmering.

“I’m not thinking about what’s good for you,” he admitted. “I’m thinking about what I need to believe in, what I should follow.”

“You want to follow me?”

“Yes,” Kaiden said.

Wolf Boy, Chapter 9, Part I

Nobody tried to assassinate Pan on the ship.

Not directly.

Todd Avide was returning to Earth. Again. He was what Allec called “a revolving door citizen.” He came to Mars, stayed awhile, upset life in various bubbles, spread rumors and dissension, announced he couldn’t bear the “deadness” of Mars, and left. Within less than a year, he was on another ship.

Todd, it turned out, was pro-Junad, whatever that meant. He thought that people were treating Junad unfairly when they locked him up (so he wouldn’t try to kill Pan again). He thought that people didn’t respect Junad’s beliefs. He thought that humans were forcing Anthros to assimilate to something or other against their will.

He would have set up a vigil outside Junad’s cabin but Captain Maxwell didn’t allow “acting out” on her ship, which was “not a democracy but an autocracy.” Her words.

Political know-how 101: never apologize for your authority.

Todd resorted to badgering Pan. “If you didn’t offend Anthros standards by rejecting your kind, you wouldn’t have been attacked.” 

They were two weeks into the voyage. Pan was on his way to eat second meal. He noted that Todd confronted him outside the mess hall. Digory was resting this meal, so Allec was in charge of the galley. Allec loathed Todd, and Allec publicly verbally eviscerated people he loathed. (Most people didn’t appreciate that most of the time, Allec was restrained.)

Allec and Quin probably scared Todd, which explained the “rejecting your kind” remark. Todd likely wouldn’t mind if Pan was cared for by humans like Todd.

Todd scolded, "You act like that Cubus who appropriated Anthros identity." 

Kaiden leaned over Pan’s shoulder and gave Todd a candid smile.  

“You’re going to hell,” he said, and Todd reared back, his face contorted in shock.

He stammered, “You’re one of those fundamentalist types,” which was ironic or hypocritical or just stupid since Todd was the one accusing Pan of violating a set of fundamental “standards.”

Kaiden didn’t attack Todd’s lack of logic. He said, “I believe in gods that protect the innocent and punish the guilty.”

“Panfilo has denied his true nature—”

“I’m an Amunite,” Kaiden said. “Lapsed. But our religious beliefs say Panfilo’s true mission right here right now is an Anthros among humans. Which makes you the blasphemer. And you’re damned.”

He smiled cheerfully at Todd, who appeared out of his depth in a religious conversation that actually involved belief  rather a bunch of terms Todd could manipulate.

Todd muttered, “Close-minded freaks” and edged away. Pan gave Kaiden an appreciative nod.

Kaiden had become a companion. They shared a cabin since space on the ship was limited. The ship was carrying not only workers and colonists returning to Earth but attendees and speakers from the latest conference, the ones that stayed past the other ship’s departure.

Kaiden took his bodyguard duties seriously. Possibly the most cheerful guy on the ship, he had a way of hunching when people entered Pan’s space. And he was willing to call out anyone he thought might be disrespecting Pan. My bulldog.  

“The guy is an asshole,” Kaiden said as they entered the mess hall and got in line at the counter.

“This was his third time on Mars, right?”

“Yeah. The first time, he really messed up Baqil’s life, got him spouting off all this garbage about Mars forcing religion on people and taking advantage of their work and secretly planning to expatriate the Amunites. Baqil’s family had converted to Norse Christianity by then—a lot of hubs took us in when the sect disbanded. But that Todd guy really scared him. Not for any good reason. I think Todd likes making people miserable, dragging them down to his level, I guess.”

Pan nodded. He remembered hearing that Baqil had sent hate mail to people—not digital messages but actual physical letters. Rhys and Lider investigated, removed Todd from the picture, and resolved the family crisis. Baqil was married now and managed one of the algae farms. Baqil turned out okay.  

Wolf Boy, Chapter 8, Part II

Pan drove one of the depot’s buggies back to the central hub. He took the elevator to the alcove outside the changing rooms, shucked his suit, and ducked into the area's individual courtyard to take a swim. Due to the Siphons who now lived in the hub, quarters and general areas offered more indoor pools. They weren’t huge but they were enough to paddle around in. Maybe Panfilo was part dog.

He dried off and dressed and sauntered, barefoot, back to Father Malcom’s apartment.

Someone stood outside the door, a human a little taller than Panfilo, so about 1.8 meters. The figure stood hunched with his hands in his pockets, shaggy blond hair brushing naturally light-brown skin. He turned his head and gave Panfilo a nod. Kaiden Lee.

Kaiden and Pan knew each other. They arrived on the same ship. Back then, Kaiden was part of a religious group that had since disbanded after a massive scandal. Even after Pan was sent to live on the station, Kaiden had lingered to chat when he visited the station to work. There was a eight-year difference. But Mars was still a fairly small community, small enough that Kaiden and Pan knew each other and about each other.

Kaiden said, “I hear you’re going to Earth.”

“Yeah,” Pan said and entered the apartment, currently empty since Sandy was holding mass with Father Hadaka. He motioned Kaiden to follow him in.

“My parents went back three years ago.”

Kaiden
Pan nodded absently. A lot of Mars’ immigrants returned to Earth. Allec said they were searching for impossible utopias when they came to Mars. They got disappointed when those utopias didn’t materialize. Lider said they wanted to better themselves. Rhys pointed out that many of them left and returned.

Kaiden said, “My parents want me to visit.”

“So you’ll be on the ship.”

“I wasn’t going to go. But then I heard about you—”

Kaiden was pacing the front room while Pan sat on a stool in the kitchenette. Pan studied him as shrugged and waved his arms.

Pan and Kaiden weren’t friends, not really. And as far as he knew, Kaiden didn’t have  romantic interest in male Anthros. Actually, he wasn’t sure Kaiden had any interest in anybody.

Pan waited.

“I thought maybe you could use a bodyguard. It was wrong, what happened to you. That Anthros trying to kill you. I know you have plenty of protectors,” Kaiden added and shrugged self-consciously.  

“Sure,” Pan said. “But those protectors will have responsibilities on the ship other than me.”

Rhys and Lider were coming to continue the investigation, possibly to continuing interrogate Junad, who would be on the same ship, confined to a cabin, between holding mass and taking confession.

They would also spend shifts in various departments. Mars and station residents accepted duties during a voyage. Quin would work as quartermaster while Allec would manage the kitchen alongside Digory.

Pan would have duties too. He was sixteen, which was an adult in some city-states. The ship would expect him to scrub toilets or launder uniforms or help with clean-up in the galley. He and Kaiden might get assigned the same duties, and it might be useful and non-monotonous to have someone to talk to, someone without an agenda.

Except Kaiden obviously also had an agenda. Not assassination. Not romance. Pan was betting on something more fundamental, something tied into Kaiden’s reasons for staying on Mars, for visiting him on the station.

Political know-how 101: give people time to reveal themselves.

He said, “Sounds good. I could use a bodyguard.”

Wolf Boy, Chapter 8, Part I

Panfilo responded to Queen Artia’s summons—was there really another word for it?—with an official document of his own. Allec helped him design a digital seal to place on the document. “And something to hint at your uniqueness, Pan.”

Allec saw everyone in terms of singularity. “Each of us is born in our own head and dies in our own head,” he stated emphatically.

But Anthros argued for community before the individual, so Pan’s seal portrayed a reddish horizon filled with figures of standing sentient beings. He used his tail, longer than a spider monkey’s, as the circling frame, like an Ouroboros worm, which Allec also approved.

Panfilo of the Alands and the Tates, within the protection of Raine and Ruella, returns greetings to Queen Artia of the Confederated kin groups in Reforested Greenland. He will present his physical self in her court on the date of…

“Queen Artia will expect you on your schedule,” Sandy said when Pan gave him the letter to review. “Within two lunar years, not on a specific day.”

Anthros Earth time. Not like the station and planet which relied on hours and minutes and--on the station-- manufactured “days” and “nights” in rough correspondence to the planet.

“She won’t meet me at the Earth Space Station, then?” Panfilo said as he amended his reply.

“No. That would benefit neither you nor her.”

True. Quin and Allec, Pan knew, were debating how to smuggle him off the ship when it reached the Earth Space Station. They wanted to avoid what Allec called “hoopla,” not to mention more threatening possibilities. Panfilo’s presence on the ship would be known before the ninth month of the voyage.

Rhys and Lider believed that Junad had acted alone; he wasn’t a member of a nest of assassins. He probably belonged to a group that met and griped over all the loathsome products of the modern world. Maybe that group pushed Junad to act. Or pressured him. Or never saw Junad’s actions coming. Pan could imagine all possibilities.

Marcos Rodriguez Pantoga
Something else troubled Rhys and Lider, something connected to the Moon, to Panfilo being abandoned on Earth when he was four or so. They questioned Pan about his memories. He mostly remembered eating out of restaurant bins. Everything before that was hazy.

“Do they think I was grown on the Moon?” he asked Allec.

Allec, who never hedged, hedged. “Junad talks a lot of shit.”

Was I cloned? From whom?

Pan didn’t ask. He wasn’t particularly religious but Lider had a good line from the Christian text: Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

“Don’t go looking for trouble,” Rhys interpreted.

“Cause it comes and finds you,” Lider muttered.

Pan had nine months on the ship, two years until he went before Queen Artia, to figure out his pedigree.

He got ready to leave. People came and went from Father Malcolm’s quarters on Mars that Pan shared with Sandy. Each visitor had questions, lists of things to pack, final goodbyes.

Pan spent a couple of nights with his father. Gregory Aland had gotten criticized for his part in taking Pan from Earth. He had also, Pan knew, gotten criticized by Mars citizens who thought Gregory hadn’t looked after Panfilo well enough, that he should have moved to the station when Panfilo got ejected from Mars.

Pan didn’t agree. He was on the same wavelength as Gregory Aland, who wanted to live on Mars and experiment with robotics. Pan was somewhere on the list of Gregory’s priorities. Pan didn’t mind.

They ate in Gregory’s suite in a bubble he shared with other single and widowed men. The meal was supplemented by Mars’s staple algae. Pan used his extended claws to pick apart the strands and feed them into his mouth. Some humans winced at the sight. Gregory didn’t notice as he tapped away at a plastic sheet.

He said suddenly, “Your mother believed you were destined for great things.”

“I know. She told me stories of exiled princes regaining their thrones.”

“It wasn’t only fairy tales. She had a picture.”

Pan lowered his claws.

“Not of you. One of those medieval illustrations on the side of a manuscript: a wolf with a long tail and purple eyes. A picture she bought at auction. I think that’s one reason she insisted we take you on. It was the right decision,” Gregory said, as if he was worried Pan would assume that only Samantha had cared what happened to him.

“Do you have it?” Pan said. “The picture?”

“She destroyed it soon after we arrived. She didn’t want anyone to make the connection between you and wild animals, to take you from us.”

“Thank you,” Pan said. No one else might say it, but he should. 

“You stick close to Quin and Allec,” Gregory told him. “And come back,” he added, which was a shout of affection right there, if one knew how to read it.