Leona shook her head sadly. "You don't have to live like a slave." She looked at them all, and she spoke louder. "You can have pride again! Humanity can be proud again! Look at me. I am human and I am proud. I am strong. I fight instead of serve. I am a warrior, not a pest. I am an Inheritor, and I believe that we can see Earth again."
"Earth?" said a woman. She laughed bitterly. "Earth doesn't exist. It's only a Ra damn myth."
"Earth is real," Leona said. "I've seen it in the Earthstone."
"Then show us!" said a man.
"I can't," Leona said. "The Earthstone was stolen."
The traitor stole it, she thought. She clenched her fists. David Emery, the man descended from the legendary Marco Emery, the Poet of Earth. He betrayed us. He stole it from us. The scorpions killed him, and the stone is forever lost. I wish the scorpions could kill him a thousand times.
"If you lost even the Earthstone, how can we trust you to keep us safe?" said a woman.
Leona looked back at them. She spoke softly. "I cannot guarantee your safety. The galaxy is dangerous. It's filled with aliens who wish us dead. And across the border, in Hierarchy space, the scorpions gather their troops, and they hate us humans more than anyone. Which is why we must find Earth! We must rebuild our homeworld, restore our culture, our heritage, our civilization, and our strength. We must nevermore cower and wash the streets like wretches. We must raise guns, armies, fleets. We must tell the galaxy that we can fight, that we are proud, that we are humans and Earth is ours!" Her chest heaved. She stared at them, breathing heavily. "Join me. I have a starship docked outside the city. I can take you with me, give you a home among the Heirs of Earth. Give you hope. Instead of cowering, you can fight. Instead of kneeling, you can stand tall. " Tears filled her eyes. "Come with me. We've been lost for so long. For thousands of years, we wandered the darkness. Earth still calls us home."
Leona finished her speech, tears on her cheeks. The humans stared back at her, and she saw the same sadness in their eyes.
"Earth calls us home," whispered a woman. "We have not forgotten."
"Green hills and blue skies," said Coral, the mysterious weaver with silver tattoos. Her lavender eyes shone. "We'll never forget our blue marble. The aether shines a silver path before us. It leads us home."
Even the balding old man, the one who had scoffed at Leona, softened. He patted her shoulder. "You speak beautifully. You've melted this bitter old heart. But I'm old. Too old to fight. And this is a war that will last many years." He shook his head. "I'll return to my hovel. My grandchildren await. But tonight I'll pray for you. May Ra, the god of our lost star, bless you on your journey home to his light."
A woman approached next, head lowered. "I too must return home. My mother is sick and too old to travel. And I have children I must tend to. I can't go with you, Leona Ben-Ari, but I too will pray."
Another woman stepped forward, gray-haired and stooped over, but her eyes shone. "I'm old too, and I'm frail, but I'll join you, Leona. And I'll fight. I'm slow and bent, and my joints are stiff, but I can still fire a gun, and my eyes are still sharp. I've lived a long life. Let me die under the blue sky of Earth, or let me die in battle, fighting for our homeworld. What have I got to lose?"
Coral approached next. The weaver was the youngest in the group. She had probably never fought in a battle before today. But her shoulders were squared, her eyes strong, and her tattoos glowed.
"I will go with you, Leona, daughter of lions," Coral said. "It is the will of the ancients."
Leona nodded. "Someday you must tell me how this weaver magic works. It saved my life."
Coral smiled thinly. Her eyes shone with wisdom beyond her years. "I do not deal with magic, Leona, daughter of lions. Only with the holy light of the cosmos. That light shines inside you, and it burns bright."
One by one, the others spoke. Many chose to return to their homes, too fearful of the battles ahead. Most had never been to space, had spent their lives hiding in their hovels, cruel aliens living around them. They had become like mice, too timid to leave their hole.
But some joined Leona. Some would become warriors, dreamers, and maybe Earthlings again.
She looked at them. Eighteen recruits, that was all. Eighteen new mouths to feed. Eighteen soldiers for humanity, most already old and bent but still ready to fight. Eighteen lights in the shadow.
"The Heirs of Earth have only a handful of starships," Leona said. "And not much money. It will be crowded. It will be a hard life. Sometimes you'll be hungry and go for days with barely any food. You'll all have to work—cleaning, fixing what you can, tending to the young and old. Every man, woman, and child does their part. Yes, a hard life, but a noble one. And someday, we'll walk under Earth's blue skies."
And someday you'll be with us again, Bay, she thought. Someday you'll return to me, my lost little brother.
A buzzing sounded above, tearing her away from her thoughts. She looked up to see a Peacekeeper drone.
A machine gun unfurled from its underbelly, aiming at her.
Leona opened fire, peppering the drone with bullets. It crashed down and burned, but already she heard more buzzing in the distance.
"They found us," Leona said. "Again—run!"
They raced down alleyways, through an archway, and out into the open desert. Rocky mountains soared ahead, rising toward the stars. The rings that surrounded Til Shiran arched across the sky, silver in the night. The humans ran, sand swirling around them.
More drones appeared above. The machines opened fire, and bullets slammed into the sand. One bullet hit a human, and the man fell, dead before he hit the ground. Leona raised Arondight and fired the railgun. She took out one drone, but more kept flying in. Peacekeeper tanks rumbled out from the city, remarkably fast for their size, raising clouds of sand.
"Faster!" Leona shouted. "We're almost there!"
They raced across the sand, dodging bullets. A tank fired, and a shell exploded overhead, raining shrapnel. In the firelight Leona saw it: The ISS Nantucket, her starship.
She was a small starship, about the size of a yacht from old Earth's seas. She was old, rusty, barely more than scrap metal. But Leona loved the Nantucket with all her heart. She reached the small ship, knelt, and fired Arondight at the Peacekeepers.
"Into the ship!" she shouted. "Get in, fast!"
The other humans leaped inside, even the elders. Leona and Coral entered last.
A shell slammed into the hull.
The ship tilted. The hull's shields dented.
"Muck!" Leona cried.
She raced through the cluttered starship, leaped onto the bridge, and took her seat at the helm.
With roaring fire, rumbling engines, and clouds of sand, the Nantucket rose from the desert. Drones buzzed around the starship, peppering the shields with bullets.
"Is it like this at every world you Inheritors visit?" Coral said.
"This one was easy!" Leona said. "Want to be helpful? Man the cannon! Fire on anything that moves!"
The weaver took position at the gunnery station. Her white tattoos began to glow again, and her eyes shone.
Leona kept tugging the yoke, raising the ship through the sky. In a previous lifetime, the Nantucket had been a starwhaler, used for hunting the giant beasts who flew in space. The Inheritors had bought her third-hand, cheap and rundown, and refitted her, installing shields, battle-class engines, and heavy artillery. Tonight the rusty ship rumbled, lighting the sky with fire. The city of Turmaresh sprawled below, a hive of sandstone and flesh and misery.
One of the tanks below aimed its cannon skyward.