Becoming Chosen
Chapter Twenty-Two

How will the Chosen take the news of the true nature of their existence? The Elders should be able to help, but I can’t imagine that it will be a smooth time. What if we have done our work too well and not enough of them accept it? This is the problem with trying to control a human culture so tightly, for so long. It has never been done, so we can only hope it works.

-Marta Jager, Excerpt from file marked “Musings”, Sealed Archive.

It’s like being in a dream, Ronan thought. Habmo2 was one of a pair of wooded environments. When the hatch they had climbed through hinged back, it looked just like the rest of the forest floor.

The trees, Miri called them oaks, towered above them five, six times the height of any corridor. Above that there was just open air until you got to the light tube. Beyond the light-tube, the ceiling was a vast curve of treetops. Here and there rivers cut through the arboreal landscape, the water impossibly clinging to the arch, instead of dropping down on them.

It was insane, he knew, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was going to fall up into all that space. When he told Miri, she laughed, of course.

“I can’t see how that can worry you. You’ve been outside the ship, out there in the Great Void. And a couple of miles of open space makes you nervous?”

“It’s not the same. On the Surface, the Void is always under your feet. As long as you stay on the rails, it can’t get you. Here? Here there is nothing between you and all that space.”

She just shook her head. Why had he expected her to understand? She had grown up with this spooky environment, so how could it be strange to her? And the sky was not the only strange thing.

Everything smelled. Not necessarily bad, but a lot. He had laughed off Miri’s insistence that the Tech air was ‘dead’, but now that he could smell what she grew up with, he was a little less sure that it was all in her head.

A movement in the corner of his vision made Ronan turn. Something had slid around the bark of one of the trees. Ronan was sure it was a Skitter or at least the Chosen version of the little machines. When a small gray head peeked around the curve of the tree and looked at him with living eyes, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Rust and Ruin! What’s that?”

Miri swung around to look where he was pointing, but the creature was gone.

“What was what?”

“Some kind of beast! It looked right at me!” Ronan exclaimed, slowly backing away from the tree.

“What did it look like?” Miri asked, concern coloring her voice as she also scanned the nearby foliage.

“Um, small. Pointed face, black eyes, and covered with hair.”

A smile crept onto Miri’s face. It looked like she was fighting it, and losing.

“You mean a squirrel? About so big?” she asked, holding her hands about a foot apart.

Before he could answer, the creature scurried around the bark, head down, and started to make noise. The tone was like a scolding from one of the crèche monitors when Ronan had been a toddler.

He pointed and nodded at the beast. Miri started to make her own sputtering sounds, then stopped holding back the laughter. It was suddenly too much. Something broke within Ronan. The next thing he knew he was running full out through the trees, with Miri shouting at him to stop.

All the control, all the rigid pushing away of emotion inside Ronan had shattered. The enormity of it all came crashing down on him. The Captain had been murdered, Ami was in Nesbit’s hands, every Tech had been told he was the killer. Who knew how many of them believed it? Now he was in a habmo and there were creatures other than humans everywhere, and his only companion was laughing at him.

Around and around the thoughts went, one after the other, hammering him with each repetition. Tears were running down his face, blurring his vision. There was a crashing impact, and Ronan bounced off a tree then fell to the ground. All he could do was curl up and weep.

Sometime later he realized Miri was there, she was pulling him up and into her arms. He could hear her voice, but not really make out the words as she rocked him back and forth. It didn’t matter. It was enough that she was there, comforting him, even if she didn’t understand why.

The warm feeling of safety and comfort destroyed any vestige of control Ronan might have had. He gave himself over to the pain and fear, and let it all pour out of him in great wracking sobs.

When he finally could think again, he found himself in Miri’s arms, the two of them leaning up against the wide curve of a huge tree. Miri was stroking his hair and singing softly, almost under her breath.

“Lull the cows, and house the chickens, the light tube fades and night is nigh/ Dream of the Gods of Earth, little one, sleep with a smile and sigh

Tomorrow you wake, to the call of the rooster and bark of the hound/

Chosen you are, now and forever, safe in the spinnin’ World Around.”

Ronan shifted a little, moving his head from where it was resting on Miri’s chest. Her arms slipped away as he pushed himself up. Blood ran hot to his face as he thought of how stupid he must have looked. It was almost enough to make him start crying again. But that time was past, so he knuckled the tears from his eyes, and rubbed his face vigorously.

Taking a deep breath, readying himself to endure his friend’s laughter again, Ronan looked over to Miri. Her blue eyes were wide and concerned, there was no hint of humor or judgement in them.

“Are you alright?” she asked before he could speak.

Ronan nodded. “I think so. What was that song?”

Miri smiled a very gentle smile. Ronan liked the way it looked on her face. “Oh, just a lullaby we sing. When Da and Mum died, my gran sang it to me, over and over. I think it in my head when I am upset or sad.”

“It’s nice,” Ronan said, sitting up a little straighter.

Miri put one arm over his shoulders, pulling him a little closer to her. They sat that way in silence for a while.

“So, can you tell me what happened?” she finally asked.

Ronan had just begun to dread the inevitable question, but there was no getting away from it. Maybe he would destroy Miri’s opinion of him, but he had to answer.

“I,” he began, then stopped. Miri’s arm tightened around his shoulders, offering him strength without a word. It helped. “Everything just got to me. The last three days I’ve been holding myself together because you needed help. I didn’t think about my Uncle or the trouble we’re in or anything but getting you home. I’ve been so scared, so many times I can’t count them. When we were on the surface, I was so worried you would die. But I didn’t have any time to worry, I had to do the next step, and the next and the next.”

Ronan stopped, and took a deep breath. His voice had started to get high and he could feel tears brimming in his eyes. That was not what he wanted.

After a long sigh, he continued. “Then we got here, and there isn’t anything more for me to do. I don’t know anything. Everything is strange. Then that little creature came along, and it was laughing at me. Then you were laughing at me. After that I was running. You must think I’m a total non-con fool,” he finished miserably. He hung his head. He couldn’t even look at her.

“Damn me for bein’ Unrighteous,” Miri murmured. “I don’t think you are a fool, Ronan, never that. I shouldn’t have laughed at you. But it was funny the way you reacted to the squirrel.”

“I suppose they are every Chosen’s best friends, yes? You probably had six as pets when you were a little girl,” Ronan said, hoping the self-deprecating humor didn’t sound as morose to Miri as it did to him.

“No, they aren’t domesticated. And they will bite if you corner one, but mostly they run away and scold you.”

“Promise you won’t tell anyone? Especially Ami, she’d never let me live it down.”

“Oh, aye, that’s true. But I do promise. Besides, I’m sure you’ll do somethin’ she can mock you for without my help.”

Miri’s tone made him look back up. She was smiling, and there was a twinkle in her eye. “But make no mistake Ronan Candemir, I could not have got here without you. And aye, the habmos are a strange place for you, but you have me. Just like you wouldn’t let me fall among the Tech, I’ll be your solid post with the Chosen.”

Ronan looked at her. The suit liner she wore was smudged with brown and green stains. Her hair was wet and limp from the shower, and there were dark circles under her eyes. And in that moment, she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. He wanted to kiss her, but was afraid he was reading the moment wrong.

Before he could make up his mind, Miri leaned in and pressed her lips against his. The kiss was tentative, at first, but quickly grew in passion. Ronan wrapped his arms around Miri, and she pressed the whole of her body against his.

Her hands went around his back. She ran them over his shoulders and down to the small of his back, pressing hard enough to leave a trail of sensation. Ronan moved one hand around to her hip. Not believing his own confidence, slid it up until he was cupping her breast. Miri moaned into his mouth.

They kissed like that for some unknown time, then Miri pulled back. Ronan was sure he’d gone too far and she was about to tell him so, then he noticed her smile. Just a half-smirk, really, but combined with the glitter in her eyes, it was the most wicked and happy expression he’d ever seen.

Reaching up to the collar of her suit liner, Miri pulled the release tab and then split the front seal down to her navel. It didn’t expose anything, but it would give him access. Afraid to speak, Ronan asked permission with raised eyebrows. Miri nodded and flowed back into a kiss.

Snaking his hand past the fasteners of the liner, Ronan felt Miri’s hot, and slightly sweaty skin. He moved his hand until he was cupping her breast. It had a weight and heft he wasn’t expecting. Slowly he moved his hand up, sliding over the smooth curve, until his fingers felt the roughness of her areola and the surprising hardness of her nipple.

With the flat of his palm over her nipple, Ronan gently moved Miri’s whole breast in a small circle. She moaned again. Her tongue slipped between his lips and began to explore his mouth.

Ronan had made-out with a couple of girls, back before he had been forced to change Ways. Afterward, no girl was willing to risk being seen with him. What was happening now was better than anything he had fantasied on sleepless nights.

Miri ran her hand up his thigh, stopping just before the bulge of his penis. After a seconds hesitation, she cupped her fingers around it and gently squeezed. Now it was Ronan who moaned into their kiss.

The voice came out of nowhere. “Ahem,” it said.

Ronan and Miri sprang apart as if there was a high-tension spring between them. Both of them looked up to see a woman dressed in green pants and a brown shirt grinning down at them.

“And exactly why would a couple of Town folks be pairin’ in my patch of forest?” she asked.

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