the fruity drink in front of her without prompting, and Tomika could smell the alcohol. She understood his unspoken message. His shift would be done soon, and he would like her company tonight.
She weighed the pros and cons of his offer as she sipped from the straw of possibly her last alcoholic drink in the Ring, not overlooking the irony of the moment. She was back in the first bar she visited when she came to the Ring two years before. Her fountain, as she thought of it, was still running out front like it did when it first captured her attention.
Tomika thought about how much she changed in two years, between her Technician apprenticeship to abandoning her oath to falling out of love while traveling across much of the Ring. While she would save and cherish these memories, she wasn’t done making new ones.
Besides, the drink was not only her goodbye to life in the Ring. It was a celebration. Tomika’s academic advisor notified her that she completed her leadership module with honors, the highest honors, in fact. The teacher was effusive in his compliments, stating that the quality of her papers was the best he’d ever seen. She politely thanked him without reminding him that she was taught by the best.
I’ve been learning about this ship from my mother forever. I better ace that class.
Taking a long sip, she felt her shoulder muscles finally relax from the alcohol, recognizing the cause of her anxiety attack. She never heard of a wayward Technician returning to the fold. The Back held a prison of sorts for maladjusted Burners that was housed in the ship’s extensive sewer-and-reclamation plant, but outside of those miscreants, people were generally too busy to get into trouble. Some even worked double shifts because there was much to do to keep Salvation functioning as it had for thousands of years.
Tomika was sure there wouldn’t be too much fuss as long as she accepted responsibility for her actions, but like it or not, being the Engineer’s daughter would complicate her homecoming. She could only hope her mother would forgive her sometime in the next twenty years.
She also decided that she was sipping a very good fruit drink. Yes, the waiter would have company after his shift. Tomika needed some human comfort, and she wasn’t in much of a hurry to get home.
Two people stood at her fountain with their backs to her, and from their posture, she could tell they were Burners. Aside from their mixed heritage, Passengers generally stood more upright while Burners walked hunched over due to the tighter passageways in many places throughout the Back. The two seemed fascinated by the fountain, with the taller male pointing at the flowing water. The shorter woman shrugged and said something in a voice too quiet for Tomika to hear.
When they turned and showed their profiles, she almost dropped her glass.
“Mother! Paolo!”
She clapped her hands over her mouth, but the words were gone as the two of them turned toward her in amazement.
My little brother is tall!
Tomika watched what must have been a dozen emotions cross the Engineer’s face until she settled on one, and the daughter was stunned to see tears running down her mother’s face.
They met in the middle, hugging and crying, with Paolo embracing them both.
After a few moments, it finally dawned on Tomika why they were there. “Paolo. You’re a Ring-side Technician.”
“Yes,” he said, “like my sister and mother before me.”
Your voice is so deep. And tall. Oh, they will love you in the Ring. “I can’t believe this. You’re going out, and I’m coming back.”
“You’re coming home?” Joro said on a gasp.
“Yes, Mother.”
“Finally. Hallelujah.” Paolo smiled as he squeezed her arm. “I must go. My mentor is waiting.”
“Who did you draw?”
“Allon.”
“Oh my. Well, he’ll know all about you already.”
“That’s why I asked him. I was also hoping that he might know where I could find his worst student, squirt.” He arched his eyebrow.
Tomika laughed at the jab and old nickname. “I am sorry, Paolo. I would try to explain, but you’ll find out why for yourself.”
“I understand.” He bent and kissed her cheek. “Call me when you get hooked up with a cell phone.” He turned to Joro. “Mother, be kind. To her and yourself.” He kissed Joro’s cheek as well and walked away without looking back, fading into the crowd in seconds.
Tomika took a moment to realize that she and Joro were standing with identical postures, watching Paolo walk away with their arms crossed and tears in their eyes. She wiped her face with one hand. “Mother.”
“Daughter, give me time, please.”
“Of course.” Burner children were by nature obedient, though she knew she tested her mother’s patience years before in her own way. Tomika hadn’t seen a physical temper tantrum until she was posted to the Ring, and that toddler’s screaming and kicking spectacle in the town square stunned her, to say the least.
After a moment, Joro spoke again. “Tomika, is that your table? Your drink?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Can we sit? Can I get one?”
“It’s not a fruit drink, Mother.”
“That’s what I was hoping for. Can you get me one? And quickly? I have to go to a meeting, and I don’t have a lot of time.”
Bewildered, Tomika sat her mother at the table before tracking down the waiter, and he gladly gave them two larger mugs of the same beverage. As they took their first sips, she examined her mother out of the corner of her eye and was pleased that Joro looked much the same as she did when Tomika left. The older woman was wearing a full kaftan that revealed only her face, but her eyes were as yet unlined.
Joro set her drink down. “Congratulations are in order, I hear.”
“Excuse me?”
“I received the list of leadership school graduates this morning. Top of your class.”
Tomika blushed. “I was surprised the work wasn’t more difficult.”
“It used to be,” Joro said with a laugh, “back when I was your age.”
“Really?”
“No, but we old people like to think things were harder back in the day. Is that why you’re coming back?”
The shift in topics caught Tomika off guard. “No. I just… just…”
Joro smiled as her daughter’s voice trailed off. “Life is different in the Ring, isn’t it?”
“So much different.” Tomika lowered her tone. “How are the Passengers going to survive on a planet?”
“They’ll have help. They won’t be alone. None of us will be.”
Joro took her hand, and Tomika almost jumped out of her skin. “Is something wrong, Mother?”
“No, the opposite. Tomika. Oh, Tomika, I missed you. I almost forgot how much until I read your name this morning.”
“Mother, I’m sorry I worried you.”
“I was never worried about you.” Joro smiled. “Salvation could open to space under your feet, and you would apply a hull patch without spilling your drink. No, I missed you. And I should have those regrets, not you. I’m sorry you feel as you do.”
“I don’t understand.” Tomika never heard her mother apologize for anything.
“Your grandmother and I talked.”
“Uh-oh.”
“Yes.”
“How is she?” Tomika looked forward to seeing Grama, whom Joro often said was like Tomika’s older twin. Tomika loved the implied compliment, knowing her mother thought it wasn’t one.
“Unchanged. Stubborn as always, and she has opinions. One of them was that I don’t trust anyone. Not Padmus or Enrique. Certainly not any of my staff.” Joro’s expression turned sad. “And not my children, I’ve come to realize. I let no one into my inner thoughts, and I’ve been pushing people away for as long as I remember. I should at least let my children know that I love them, I trust them, and I need them. Tomika, I’m afraid you disappeared because you didn’t know I needed you. That I loved you.”
Joro squeezed her hand. “I need you, Tomika. I need to know that I can trust you and that you can trust me. Not as a Technician and Engineer, but as a mother and daughter of our race.”
Tomika sat back in her chair. “Who are you?”
Joro laughed. “Exactly that. Even when I am honest and true, you are suspicious of me.”
“That’s some serious shit, Mother.”
Joro laughed. “Yes, serious but true shit.” She drummed the side of her glass for a second. “Seeing you now reminds me how inwardly focused I’ve been since my career. I don’t share easily, child. I’ve always believed my problems are my problems.”
“But Mother…” Tomika paused, unsure of the words she wanted to say despite having thought them over since she first heard that Joro was the Engineer.
“You have an opinion.”
“Yes.”
“Say it.” Joro smiled. “It’s not like I can fire you as my daughter. It’s a lifetime appointment for both of us.”
“I don’t know if I’m talking to my mother or the Engineer.”
“How about you let me decide?”
Tomika heard the edge in Joro’s voice. I’m talking to the Engineer. She plunged ahead. “You’re not an island. You’re a human being, as fallible as anyone. And breakable. We’re making Landfall in three years. Three years. No Engineer has ever gone through that. Everything that can possibly happen will happen. You can’t solve everything by yourself. You need help, now. But I don’t know if it’s possible for you to let people help you.”
Joro stared at her, and Tomika forced herself to look back without squirming.
It startled her when her mother spoke again.
“You are still your grandmother’s clone.” She smiled as she picked up her drink. “Very well. You stated the problem. What’s the solution? Not a general ‘you need help’ statement, but a practical solution.”
She’s testing me like she did in the old days. “Establish an inner council of advisors. People who are brave enough to get in your face and tell you when you’re wrong. Someday you will be wrong. You need to hear that before it happens, not after.”
“Good answer. Spot on. I accept your application. Welcome aboard.”
“Excuse me?”
“Everything you said is right, Tomika. The next three years will be hell. The next twenty years after that will be more of the same, and I need help from people I trust. That list will include my intelligent, perceptive daughter who is at the top of her advanced leadership class and has already told me more than once when I’m doing something wrong. Those are unique qualifications that no other Burner possesses.
“With that in mind, I am about to let you into my professional life, one hundred percent. No more secrets between us. You’re going to see everything when it comes to being the Engineer. But I have a condition. You will give me your word that you will never repeat things you’re about to see and hear. Ever.” Joro held up a finger. “I’m serious. Unless I say otherwise, say nothing. Not to a lover. Not to a partner. Not to Paolo. Nobody.”
Tomika was bewildered. “What about Padmus and Enrique?”
“I care for them, but I can’t ask them what I’m asking you because I am saying, here and now, that I don’t trust them like I trust you. That is hard for me to admit.” Joro puffed her cheeks on an exhale. “This is real, Tomika. If you can’t give me that commitment, go through the door in the back of the building, go up the spoke to the Back, and head to our old cabin. We haven’t moved. I’ll be home for dinner.”
“You’re going too fast for me, Mother. I need to think this through.”
Joro reached across the table and took Tomika’s hand. “This is a two-way street, daughter. I’m asking you to trust me as much as I trust you. I want you to take a leap of faith too.”
Ten minutes ago, I was trying to decide if I wanted to spend another night in the Ring or go home. Now I must decide if I can keep important secrets.
Tomika considered emptying her mug in one pull, but she didn’t want to blame the drink for her decision. “I agree, Mother. I’ll keep your secrets and will tell no one.”
“Ever?”
“Ever.”
“Do you hear me, Technician Tomika?”
The formal tone in her mother’s voice froze Tomika for a second before she could respond. “I hear the Engineer.”
“Before, we spoke as a family. Now I ask for your professional commitment to silence and to obedience. Stay by my side until I order you away. And you will keep silent. Always. Do you hear me, Technician Tomika?”
“I hear the Engineer.” Tomika touched her forehead and heart with her right forefinger, completing the ritual. She almost laughed when she realized that she obeyed the Engineer and tapped her head and heart without a second thought.
I really didn’t understand it until now, but it’s true. My mom is The Bad Ass Engineer.
Joro smiled, as if she understood the emotions on her daughter’s face. “Where are your things?”
“My bags are around back, beside the door.”
“Good. They’ll be safe there. We have to leave now if we’re going to make our meeting. Come on.”
Joro stepped away from the table and walked out before Tomika pushed her chair back. She jogged to catch up so not to lose Joro in the crowd. “Mother, what meeting?”
“Oh, sorry, rude of me.” She put her hand in a pocket and pulled out a shiny piece of gold jewelry, dropping it in her daughter’s hand. “Ever seen that before?”
Tomika gasped when she realized she was holding the Engineer’s symbol of office, the three overlapping circles with the gold star in the left circle. “I don’t know if I’m ever going to get used to this. You being the Engineer, I mean.”
“Took me a while, to be honest. Hang on.” Tomika almost ran over her when she suddenly stopped. “Pin it over my heart, would you? I can never get it straight.”
It took a couple of tries because her hands were shaking again, but Tomika was finally satisfied with the results. “There you go.”
“Thank you. That’s the first time someone from my family did that.” Joro peeked. “Good job.”
“Really?”
“They hand you a jacket with the pin already on it at the investiture ceremony.”
“Oh. Congratulations, uh, Mother?” Giving into impulse, Tomika kissed her cheek.
“‘Mother’ is fine. You’ll know when you’ll have to be more formal.”
“You still haven’t answered my question. Who are we meeting?”
Joro smiled and tapped the other two circles on the golden Venn diagram.
Tomika felt her jaw drop almost to the ground.
Holy shit. The Pope and the Captain!